A Practical Guide to Sorcery
Chapter 252: Red Guard Pressure

Siobhan

Month 9, Day 20, Monday 10:40 p.m.

‘Is that even Liza with the light on in her apartment, or was it one of them, waiting for me?’ Siobhan wondered. She closed her eyes and listened to the crashing noise of the rain for a moment. It was exhausting to be so wary all the time, and there were so many dangers to juggle. Too many. ‘If I make it past tonight, something has to change. I cannot go on like this.’

Siobhan didn’t run. She had tried that last time and knew it wouldn’t work. She kept walking until she found a nice, well-lit street corner, and then she waited.

It didn’t take long. Three people stepped through the surrounding rain barrier and into the light: Captain Aisling, the androgynous agent that had fought with her the last time they trapped her with this spell, and an old, hunch-backed man with a cane. Thaddeus was not there. He could have been watching along with whoever was casting the spell, or even casting it himself, but the stupid lizard part of her brain that couldn’t make calculations like that still found his absence immensely relieving.

Siobhan lifted her jaw, raising the umbrella higher so that she could glare out from under its rim. “Why the ambush? Special Agent Thaddeus Lacer was to be our intermediary. Is it betrayal, then?”

Captain Aisling shook his head and waved a hand in denial. “No, definitely not betrayal!” he assured her.

She was tentatively relieved that he made no mention of nor gave any signs that they had known she was Sebastien only half an hour before. Surely, the fact that she had been disguising herself as Thaddeus Lacer’s apprentice would have been noteworthy enough to comment on, even if they hadn’t immediately jumped to the conclusion that they were the same person.

Captain Aisling stepped to the side to make way for the old man to pass, a hint of wariness slipping through his disciplined, placid expression.

As the old man stepped closer, Siobhan saw that one of his eyes was an artifact, slightly larger than the other and bulging out of the socket. One of his hands was made of intricately carved wood covered with crystalline glyphs so tiny they looked like little sparkles rather than symbols. They were high-end prostheses, which gave new meaning to the hunched curve of his back and his limp. When Siobhan was younger and more immature, she might have found the evidence of so much flesh replaced by artifice off-putting, but now it only spoke to her of a man who had experienced hardship and found his own way to overcome it.

He looked her up and down, once with his eye of flesh, and then several times with the eye of metal and glass. “There is no convenient, immediate way to get a message to you through Agent Lacer, and I simply couldn’t wait to meet you. Writing letters and waiting for a response as if you were halfway across the world is criminally inefficient.” He had a faint accent that she couldn’t place.

Captain Aisling gave a single nod. “We hope you will forgive the intrusion, Queen of Ravens. We just want to have a friendly discussion. Analyst Hite is a researcher with a particular interest in the project you have been tasked with.” Hite was pronounced “Hee-tay,” and she tentatively placed him as being from the East.

“Well met,” Siobhan said, nodding to the old man. Something about the way Captain Aisling’s manner was so perfectly neutral and unoffensive put her on edge.

Hite took another step closer to her, peering even closer still, as if he could see inside her. And maybe, with his artifact eye, he could. “I’ve heard you have the ability to cast two spells at the same time. The reports say you call it ‘splitting your Will.’ How does it work? Are there two people in there? Did the two halves of your brain develop separately? Have you always been able to do this, or did the ability develop at some point?” With every question, his words came faster, and he inched a little closer, until she could smell him.

He didn’t stink, but the skin of Siobhan’s back still prickled with unease and a sense of danger. Hite’s eyes, both of them, held a look that creeped her out in a way that had nothing to do with his physical form.

She tried to keep that from her expression and tone as she replied. “I do not know how this ability came about. I at first believed it to be a natural skill that I merely developed with a bit of effort, as you might learn to raise both of your eyebrows separately. It feels natural, still.”

She couldn’t remember if she had ever split her Will before Grandfather died. It was unlikely. She’d just been a fledgling thaumaturge at that point, and after all the horror stories Grandfather had told her about magic gone wrong, she’d had at least a moderately developed sense of self-preservation. Had Grandfather or her mother ever cast multiple spells at once? She was pretty sure the first time she had done it knowingly was when she had needed to block a scrying attempt from Eagle Tower while simultaneously casting the reverse-scrying spell she’d come up with to find her blood.

Hite pursed his thin lips into a pout. “Really? But all of the subjects that attempted it died.”

Aisling winced and weakly muttered something about “criminals.”

“You have been tasked to help us find actionable information on the ways that a consciousness may be encapsulated, stored, and transferred properly, without causing unfeasible degradation. Possibly the secret of Carnagore, possibly the secret of yourself.” Hite lightly reached forward and touched her arm. “What have you learned?”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Please do not touch me. I treasure my personal space,” Siobhan said.

Something soured in Hite, but Captain Aisling immediately apologized. The other agent, whose name Siobhan still didn’t know, shuffled uncomfortably, glancing at Siobhan’s shadow.

Siobhan wished she still had her black sapphire Conduit. Being ready to cast at any moment without seeming ready was a great advantage. “The Carnagore we are learning about in Myrddin’s journals right now is a wondrous artifact, but nothing more. It is not the answer you are looking for. That may yet change, however. We are still going through the journals. I am also not the answer you are looking for,” she added, hoping it sounded believable.

“You still have nothing new? It has been a month since we assigned you this task!”

‘Has it only been that long?’ she wondered. ‘It feels like half a year, or more.’

Hite turned to Captain Aisling. “Why are you letting her run around so ineffectually? If we just brought her in for study, I could peel open her head for something actually new and interesting.”

The muscles along Siobhan’s spine tightened with a sudden, cool dread.

“We have an agreement,” Aisling said, his hands still carefully loose and unthreatening at his sides. “And no reason to bring in people for study who remain cooperative.”

“Is she actually being cooperative?” Hite argued.

The unnamed agent’s eyes kept flicking from Siobhan’s shadow to Hite and back again. They were both afraid of the old man. And if they were, then Siobhan should be absolutely terrified.

“I am making progress,” she offered, taking a cue from Aisling and keeping all signs of threat from her tone and body language. “Though I am not certain whether it will lead to an answer.”

Hite jumped on the offering like a starved lizard snapping up prey. “Oh, wonderful! Tell me, does it have anything to do with creating an artificial brain using a crystalline matrix? I’ve long thought the answer could lie there, but there are so many roadblocks and unexpected difficulties.” He didn’t wait for her response at all, waving one arm about as he continued excitedly. “I think the crystalline matrix may still require partitioning, but how to do so? And do you think it’s better to create a duplicate in the target body, or try to transfer the original consciousness? There has been some argument, seeing as the first option could be considered a form of death, and many people feel uncomfortable. You know, that whole idea that the copy of them is no longer them once it diverges for even a second. It seems like an issue that might create problems with proper assimilation and settling…” He continued on like that for a while longer, growing increasingly incomprehensible, and then stopped abruptly, looking expectantly at Siobhan.

“I do think the answer could involve solving those problems,” she lied. She had no idea what he was talking about. “However, I suspect the process has met a failure point from the very beginning, and the answer lies in a more…undefined craft, like shamanry. Transmutation and transmogrification should support and build from each other in a more integrated way.” She very much doubted that she would come to the answer through natural science faster than the Red Guard could do so. If she found a solution, it would be through the privilege of access to better resources, along with taking full advantage of shortcuts and approximations—such as transmogrification.

Unfortunately, Hite’s expression twisted further. “Are you trying to put me off with empty assurances? Have you discovered nothing, or is it that you wish to keep your knowledge to yourself? Perhaps you should come to one of the research centers. They have better resources there. We could have one of the other subjects pray to you, if that is necessary for the shadow to possess them. If there are secrets left inside you, I will be sure to extract them.” He stepped closer and patted her arm again. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you die. You are too valuable for that, if you are what we suspect.”

Captain Aisling stepped forward, one hand going to the wand on his belt, though he did not draw it. “Analyst Hite, allow me to remind you that I am the ranking officer in charge of this region, as well as this case. I have authority here, including making decisions about allied assets.”

Hite continued staring up at Siobhan for a moment, then spun to face Aisling. “I will remind you in turn that you may have authority, but I have higher clearance. The directors are interested in my research.” He turned back to Siobhan and eyed her speculatively.

The unnamed agent had put a hand on their battle wand, too, and was starting to breathe noticeably faster, their gaze continually flicking to Siobhan’s shadow.

‘He’s considering trying to capture me right now,’ Siobhan realized. ‘Are the others going to fight him, or help him?’ She remembered what Thaddeus had said to the High Crown about the Red Guard not being willing to punish him further, even for placing a curse on this nation’s most powerful ruler.

Maybe Hite really could get away with it. If she were captured successfully, there would be no downside for them. And after all, Hite had not directly bound himself to the oath she and Aisling agreed to. He might not technically have the authority to go against it, but the only thing stopping him was bureaucracy—questions of hierarchy, authority, and punishment.

‘What do I do? The dazzler is probably my best option for an effective surprise attack—if their standard equipment wards aren’t set to handle it—but I’m not good enough to do it without the chant and a good bit of lead-up time. If I were carrying Thaddeus’s tracking device, I might even be desperate enough to try to signal him right now.’ She wished she had another disintegration mine, though if she had, she probably would have used it against Thaddeus in the tunnels.

The androgynous agent was looking at Siobhan’s eyes, now, and shook their head subtly.

‘A signal not to attack?’

They cleared their throat, and though their voice quavered slightly, they spoke clearly. “The Raven Queen has always dealt in good faith. This project is the kind of problem that cannot be solved in a day, or even a month. Sometimes it is more efficient to collaborate than to use force, especially when novel ideas are required.”

Hite stiffened, straightening slightly.

“Perhaps an outside perspective is what we really need, since obviously this problem has stumped our own researchers until now.”

As Hite slowly turned around, Captain Aisling moved to stand in front of the other agent like a human shield. “Agent Holland may speak roughly, but it is true that when new research avenues are available, they should be taken advantage of. All that we have to lose is a little time.”

Hite was silent for a long time, but eventually snorted and swung back around to Siobhan on one leg in a move that no human knee could have allowed. “How long could you possibly need?”

“Another year for preliminary leads, perhaps,” she suggested, somehow knowing that this reasonable request was useless.

“You have three months to prove your worth as an independent researcher,” he snapped back. “I will not allow the Red Guard to waste such a potential resource.” He turned to look over his shoulder at Aisling. “Time is precious, too.”