Despoticania

===

Impressions of a large structure - the Grand Cathedral of Primal Hatred - with black impossibly tall towers piercing the clouds like swords, challenging the gods by wounding their domain... Inside, the smell of incense and machine oil. In the distance, a chorus of voices singing the Chants of Hate to a group of flagellants dancing before the altar, whipping their flesh to show their contempt for the mortal prisons the gods trapped them in at birth. Effigies meant to symbolize the gods in alcoves, on fire, hungry flames licking their bodies, writhing as if in agony.

Everything is as it should be.

"You are a High Zealot now, Thaos. Congratulations", a large figure clad in black and red robes says - the revered figure of High Priest Zeke Norkevendacious, the leader of the Church. You bow your head in awe. He continues, "It is time for you to learn the Deep Meaning of the Sixth Truth. Follow me."

[DISCONTINUITY]

A flight of stairs, descending. Deep underground, below the Cathedral. You follow the High Priest, not sure what to expect.

===

---Ata's spell had lost most of its effect now; Thaos' implants had almost restored the chemical balance of his body. It had taken only a few seconds, but he was already becoming aware of what was going on. His rage was resurfacing, and Ata could sense that the High Zealot was preparing a devastating psionic counter-invasion of HIS mind---

===

A large chamber. Pedestals with things on them. Old things, important things. Not of all of them of human origin. Some clearly Eldian.

===

---The memory was fading, and Ata could feel the High Zealot's presence in his own thoughts, frantically searching for the spell to deactivate the cell's wards---

===

And there, on a large pedestal, between a set of Eldian stone tablets with unknown writing on them and a glowing metal rod, a copper-colored half-helmet, covered in runes and crystals. A memory device. Fully intact. "The Eldians of Blacklight are gone, but their memories are not", the High Priest says. "To fully understand the Sixth Truth, you must experience their memories, know what they knew. Only then will you learn the Deep Meaning of the Sixth Truth..."

===

High Zealot Thaos pushed Ata out of his mind with incredible force, fueled by his fully resurfaced hatred. "Infidel! Unbeliever!" he screamed. "You will not have the chance to benefit from the secrets you stole from my mind! You will die!" Using the link between them, he invaded Ata's thoughts like a psionic hurricane, attacking everything in sight with the obvious intent to do as much damage as possible.

The lich began by working to sever the direct connection. First carving a healing rune into the back of the zealots head, then he allowed his body to initiate defense protocol 52, defense against mental attacks of this magnitude. Meant to completely destroy the concentration of the attacker by inducing a stroke, it was utilized only against human targets via administration of a small nitrogen bubble as directly as possible into the brain's circulatory system, inducing a brain hemorrhage which in turn, caused a stroke. Typically the target area was the ocular lobe, as such a. stroke would severely impair sensory abilities while leaving the valuable temporal lobe relatively unharmed. Various patterns existed for various circumstances, but none of them targeted the Temporal Lobe, as it was to most valuable in nearly all circumstances.

And so the stroke was induced, dooming the priest to impair vision and motor skills as well as introducing him to blind spots in vision, specifically blind spots on the right side. If it worked, the Lich would be able to successfully disengaged and activate the rune, which would stabilize the priest's condition and prevent him from dying from protocol 52 for use in later sessions. Ata would leave the cell to converse with Rongoteus about his findings. If it failed, Ata would take more drastic measures to ensure his survival.

During his venture into Ata's mind, the Zealot picked up some information as well, a collection of memories with no sense of continuity.

========

Fear, regret, despair. Laws of physics breaking down, reality torn asunder. Horrible monster swarming out of spacial rift. Lone warrior battling the creatures not of this world, not of this universe. Lightning zips through their ranks as golems and reanimated corpses shield form walls around the lich.

[Discontinuity]

Helicopters present, chain guns roaring, corpses piling. Government troops, more liches, chanting, runes, rift slamming shut, smell of burning bodies. Discipline, more regret, restriction.

====

An armored mage in black wearing a horrifying helmet and wielding a mace was fighting winged creatures seemingly by itself. Batting the powerful mages of the enemy aside with the power of an entity that could slay lesser gods. Corpses flying, living bodies decaying, all occurring in a subtropical region.

====

Army of black marching on, lead by a figure addressed as the 'Witch-King'. Demiliches and wraiths in the ranks with mages, liches, and necromancers of all areas, united. Itching to fight, itching to destroy something. Feelings of pain, loss, suffering, hints of crusade, vengeance.

====

Word from Blacklight, good harvest, bountiful trade. Crate of relatively large memory crystals on boat, set to be traded. Necromancer present, making final adjustments and preparations on his creation before it departed. Much to trade, much to gain. Runes in place, crystal loaded with other precious cargo, ship sailing. Necromancer leaving dock, back to laboratory with more crystals. Make more, always more, demand increasing.

[End memory sequence]

Despoticania

Through the link came also a realization of what had just happened: Thaos had activated the most advanced combat implants integrated into his brain and body - all of them at once. With each passing second, more and more of his body was being taken over by combat programs that used every sensory input still available to them to make their host the most efficient killing machine possible. Where vision failed, the implants used touch, hearing and smell to determine the enemy's position and the otimal angle and moment to strike. Thaos had also overridden all safety protocols - he was now damaging his own body and mind, but he seemed determined to take Ata with him.

It seemed like Ata's only remaining option was to kill Thaos.

Then Ata sensed another presence - a friendly presence. Master Rongoteus had entered the cell and was assisting him in the psychic battle. While Thaos had been fully focused on Ata, Rongoteus had used the opportunity to breach into the High Zealot's mind. Now it was pulling him out of Ata's thoughts, assisting the Veradacian lich. Thaos's presence was starting to recede, but he kept resisting with the last of his strength.

"It looked like you might need a little help keeping this self-destructive madman alive", Rongoteus' telepathic voice said. "He probably doesn't deserve it, but he might still be of some use. Let's flush him out together. When he's gone from your mind, activate the healing rune and exit the cell immediately. I'll be right behind you. Ready... NOW!"

Despoticania

"That got uglier than I thought it would", Master Rongoteus said. "But an interesting fight, nonetheless. I hope he doesn't damage himself too much - there may still be something we can learn from him. If nothing else, he'll be an interesting study in the power of pure insanity." He turned to Ata. "Did you get the information you wanted from him?"

Despoticania

===

Back in the animancy laboratory, the initiates had already returned from their lunch break.

====

Back at the animancy laboratory, Lin continued with the lessons on soul manipulation. It was a lesson on defensive techniques, particularly focused on keeping the soul in the body when someone is trying to force it out. It followed a similar format, but when it came time for the initiates to try, Dulruni made a hard light wall in between Maydra and the other initiates.

Despoticania

The largest museums containing Eldian artifacts were in Despoticania Prime and Blacklight. Most of the items were mundane and uninteresting: a helmet or a spearhead, a ring or an amulet (tested negatively for enchantments) and so on. Among the more interesting nonmagical artifacts were two incomplete sets of stone tablets, both held in the Museum of Nonhuman Relics in Blacklight.

The first set of tablets had been translated and told the story of someone called "The Fearless Fearsome Fearful Brother of His Only Beloved Twin Sister". In the story, the otherwise nameless hero tried to resurrect his sister, who had apparently been killed (the literal translation was "silenced") by evil east-dwelling beings called the "Sightless" (most historians believed that the Sightless were actually the early human settlers of Despoticania). The hero journeyed far to the north to ask for the guidance of a mysterious, powerful being who dwelled there. His journey was bizarre and nonsensical, sometimes to the point of comedic, but there was always an undercurrent of dread and hopelessness, and a certainty that the hero would eventually fail or die. The story ended just as the hero reached a lonely mountain in the north and discovered some kind of mostrous creature blocking his way. No other tablets had been found, and the rest of the story was believed to be lost forever.

The other set of tablets was written in an unknown writing system that didn't seem to be of Eldian origin (although the style of the tablets certainly was). Despite the best efforts of countless cryptographers, codebreakers and even linguistic quantical AIs, the text remained undeciphered. Most studies suggested that the tablets had been created over a century after the fall of Blacklight, and according to a popular theory, might have been an attempt of Eldian slaves or resistance fighters to mislead their human oppressors.

Finally, it was relatively easy to find the names of private collectors of Eldian artifacts. Two of the largest collections belonged to Eder Kane, CEO of a state-owned mining corporation based in the city of Lookitthat, and Mirabelle Askolein, a reclusive billionaire investor with holdings in several augmentation companies.

Returning to passive form, Ata went over to his personal storage locker and retrieved a few enchanted items and some extra material for his body. Once this was over he sat down in the ship's interface. It was a fusion of magic and technology that allowed him to directly interface with the ship, so far he had only been able to make it work for liches of his type. The Lich set in a course and set off to Blacklight. At first the thrust was very inconsistent, coming in pulses, but when it got up to speed the the thrust smoothed out and became regular.

The trip was not too long, a few hours at most. Xier arrived at Blacklight by walking out of the ocean in his 'passive' form. His ship would create much more attention than he wanted if the Despoticanians saw it. He knew his first destination, he would visit the museum. Those tablets intrigued him, wondering if he could find out more, he pressed on. The lich still paid attention to his surroundings, looking to see where ruins were, were the tourist hotspots were, and anything that could be relevant to his search. There was also the issue of people, they would certainly get in his way at some point or another, they would be a tricky problem to deal with.

Despoticania

Like most large Despoticanian settlements, Blacklight itself was a walled city with a few immense pseudoarcology blocks that formed its center. Most other buildings were massive and sturdy, built to withstand the harsh climate and large temperature variations over the seasons. Actual skyscrapers were relatively rare - few buildings outside the city center had more than ten stories. The dominant architectural style was somewhere between Art Deco and Neo-Gothicism - glass walls and open terraces were rare, probably because of the cold temperatures and freezing winter gales that plagued the city for more than six months every year. The protective walls surrounding Blacklight did not extend to the coastal parts of the city. Their main purpose was to keep the infamous Despoticanian mutants away, and those always approached from the inland. Ata could see a numer of heavy gun emplacements atop a nearby section of the wall.

Public transport was easily the most common form of traffic. Large buses and tube trains were everywhere, although Ata could also spot a number of massive mopads, automated mobile homes that drove endlessly around the city's road system. Civilian cars were large and fit for long-distance travel, both in the above-ground highways and in the subterranean tunnels that connected the most important settlements. Most vehicles were electric - fossil fuels had been long since banned from civilian use in Despoticania.

Despite the teeming nature of modern-day Blacklight, the ancient Eldians ruins and archaeological sites were well-maintained and separated from the more modern sections of the city by walls. The Museum of Nonhuman Relics was located near one of the walled sections (which contained the Royal Palace and the Wizard's Tower), not too far from the beach. As Ata walked the streets of Blacklight, his appearance raised more than a few eyebrows, but no one approached him or tried to stop him - Despoticanians were used to extreme forms of body modification, and even highly unusual beings were a relatively common sight.

Despoticania

Despoticanians were a cultured people. The ticket counter behind the entrance saw a steady stream of visitors. Hushed conversations ceased and people turned to look as Ata entered the Museum. Even by Despoticanian standards, the lich was an unsual sight. Most people assumed he was a full-body cyborg with a penchant for creepiness, but quite a few recognized him as a genuine undead being and assumed he was from the Necrotechnomancers Union. The latter generally gave him a wide berth when he walked past.

But not even the Archmanipulator could escape the rules and regulations of the Despoticanian educational system. "The tickets are 15 Despollars for adults and 10 Despollars for students and children", said the clerk behind the counter.

Despoticania

The untranslatable script consisted of six tablets, with the last tablet being a fragment with more tha half of its text missing. The writing system was completely unfamiliar, and while some recurring words had been recognized as verbs or nouns, the actual meaning of the words was unknown - and without any frame of reference, impossible to decipher. The writing system had significantly more individual runes than any classic Eldian languages, and almost all of them were unfamiliar. Two had been recognized, however - they were used in some very old summoning spells involving dangerous outer dimensions.

The tablets themselves were not exactly enchanted, but Ata could sense something curious: the tablets seemed to be actively resistant to magic, and they existed in decelerated time, probably explaining how they had survived in readable condition for nearly 9,000 years. The info text next to the display cases noted these characteristics and also mentioned that no satisfactory explanation had been discovered for them - although the Necrotechnomancers were supposedly capable of creating building materials supernaturally resistant to the effects of time.

The other Eldian artifacts on display in the Museum were mainly mundane utensils, weapons and armor. Most enchanted items had long ago been hogged by various research organizations and private collectors. Despite this, there were a few enchanted items as well - the most famous was the "Mace of the Black Dawn", a weapon that sapped the life force of its target. The enchantment had once been fairly powerful, but it was weakened by the millennia, and it was not particularly impressive when compared to what the Necrotechnomancers Union or even the Dragonspire Institute of today could create.

Failing that, he would take note of the various symbols that he recognized and see if they made anything coherent or aided in translating parts of it. He also took note of the location the epic was found in, as many epics were based on events in the world. This place to the north might exist. With enough time, he would check the Mace of the Black Dawn for writing of any kind or subtle magical effects.

Despoticania

The Mace of the Black Dawn was held nearby. Archaeological findings and some historical texts suggested that the weapon had belonged to a great hero and warlord who had led the final preemptive attack against the human armies, only to die in battle. According to ancient reports, the mace had been "blessed" by something called the "Black Sun". There were ancient runes in the shaft of the weapon, spelling what was thought to be the name of the hero: Er-Galanth

Despoticania

The few surviving written sources suggested that the remaining Eldians of Blacklight had been enslaved and moved to the East Coast following the destruction of their capital. It had taken another two or three centuries before Despoticanians, now the sole inhabitants of their northern island, had established their first settlements on the West Coast, starting from the ruins of Blacklight. Archaeological evidence suggested otherwise, however. Apparently, some humans had settled around Blacklight in the immediate aftermath of the war, and there was substantial evidence of peaceful coexistence between humans and Eldians in the fishing and farming villages surrounding the former Eldian capital. A recent theory proposed that at least some of the legendary, extremely long-lived advisors of Despoticanian rulers during the First Kingdom era had been pureblooded Eldian mages who had switched allegiance. All mentions of these advisors disappeared after the reign of Queen Hestra the Insane, however.

Despoticania

The palace was an impressive stone structure with three intact towers (and two collapsed ones), called the "Ruler's Tower", the "Guard Tower" and the "Children's Tower". It was by far the largest remaining example of Blacklight Eldian architecture, having over two hundred rooms, including a huge chamber commonly thought of as the "Throne Room". The Palace had been scoured of all major artifacts millennia ago, but all remaining rooms had been painstakingly restored and preserved by later generations of archaeologists. The most interesting aspect of the Palace were countless detailed mosaic murals that depicted life in the court, grand battles and varius gods and spirits worshipped by the ancient Eldians. The Throne Room contained an enormous stone throne, seemingly part of the floor itself rather than a separate piece of furniture - in fact, several archaeologists had noted that the throne had a flowing, orcanic shape that made it look like it was grown rather than built. The back rest of the throne was cracked and partially missing. Most archaeologists believed that it had been broken in a violent confrontation, possibly during the last stand of the last Eldian ruler of Blacklight. Strangely, the invaders had left the Royal Palace mostly intact, despite many surviving reports suggesting that King Anganol the Bloody had ordered the complete destruction of the city.

Ata could detect no enchantments anywhere in the Palace, but he did notice a small Black Sun symbol carved on the throne. It was relatively small and not very obvious, definitely not on display like a proud ruler might have shown his or her coat of arms or some other personal symbol. A label next to the throne mentioned that similar symbols had been found elsewhere in the city, but never in public places - the "Black Sun" was obviously somehow connected to the name of the ancient kingdom, "Blacklight", and the concept had held some esoteric importance to the Eldians who had lived here.

Despoticania

However, archaeologists had unearthed several large underground chambers, and it appeared that most of the magical research had actually been conducted in them rather than in the tower itself. The exact nature of that research was lost to time - perhaps mercifully, since more than one chamber housed what appeared to be sacrificial altars and slave pens, and several torture implements had been discovered in and around the Wizard's Tower.

Most of the chambers were closed to public due to concerns over structural instability. Only the two most stable and secure ones, accessible from the mostly intact ground floor of the Tower, were open to visitors. The large chamber with the murals Ata had read about was deeper inside, and only sanctioned researchers would be granted access to it and the other closed-off sections. Permissions to enter them were granted by the University of Blacklight on a case-by-case basis, and while they were reasonably efficient in reviewing requests, it could still be weeks before they made their decision.

Approaching the Wizard's Tower, the Archmanipulator could spot a small Black Sun symbol near the entrance, carved into the stone. Barely perceptible wisps of magic lingered in the air around the Tower - there was something down here.

Despoticania

A door on the far side of the chamber led to another corridor, longer and more spacious than the first one. The corridor ended in a cave-in, but two large doors - directly opposite each other - were accessible about forty meters in.

The door on the left led to an immense round chamber lined with mostly collapsed stone pillars. In the center was an empty half-spherical pit, about twenty meters in diameter. In front of the pit was what looked like an altar of some sort. This room was magically dead - in fact, the feeling was eerily similar to the spiritual vacuum felt around Towen; it was as if something had consumed every last sliver of magical and spiritual energy in the area so thoroughly that nothing remained even now, thousands of years later.

The door on the right led to the large room with mural-covered walls Ata had seen in several Datasphere articles. The familiar could instantly detect a number of very long-lasting enchantments here. Sensing the presence of a magical object, some of the enchantments activated and briefly probed the familiar, directing wordless inquiries at it. Ata could sense that the enchantments were searching for something - a particular type of soul, perhaps.

After a few seconds, the familiar was rejected and the enchantments went back into dormant state.

It took some time, but he made to the door. Slipping under almost as easily as the familiar had, he took the form of a serpent in order to distribute his weight more evenly. A cave in won't kill him, but it would be very inconvenient. After banishing the familiar back to where ever it had appeared from, he slithered over to the room with the mural covered room. He made sure that his soul was the only one present.

Despoticania

The murals themselves came alive.

As Ata waited and watched, one of the robed figures depicted in the central mural slowly turned its head. Hundreds of tiny mosaic pieces rearranged themselves like ants running on the wall, resulting in a crude animation. Behind the main figure, smaller mosaic figures moved in looped patterns, creating an illusion of a busy day in what looked like a large temple courtyard. Above the scene, next to a stylized sun, a large black orb sat in the sky, unmoving. The soul-shard upholding the enchantment was very weak; it had bled out over the millennia, damaged and diminished along with the physical decay of the chamber. But there was still enough of it left to recognize another Eldian.

A telepathic voice spoke to Ata, "You are one of the People. It has been such a long time." To be honest, it was more like an impression of a voice, using the words already present in Ata's mind rather than speaking on its own power; even for someone with no magical gift at all, it would be extremely easy to block out the voice.

Despoticania

"...a betrayal that led to our defeat. Have you... have you found it yet? It left us before the Enemy knocked down our walls and invaded these sacred halls we built in its name. It must be found before it can do more harm."

"I am from the land of Eldisis, your partner in trade until the Red Death hit us. I am here to find out what happened to it, the Black Sun. I am following the trail left by you and other great mages of Blacklight. I must ask though, who was sent after it?" The repetition was intentional. The lich made more words, phrases, and ideas available to the soul-shard.

Despoticania

The mural froze. Ata could sense the soul-shard fading away to nothingness. Suddenly, all the thousands of mosaic pieces came off at once, raining on the floor like colorful hailstones. They left behind a pile utterly drained of all magical energy.

And something else.

It was a tiny shard of black crystal, embedded in the wall behind the now-destroyed mural. Ata had seen a similar crystal before, in the underground cavern below Towen, growing from the lake of Living Metal Master Raynil had shown the Veradacian visitors.

Despoticania

Suddenly, there was the sound of approaching footsteps coming from the corridor outside the mural chamber. It sounded like the security guard Ata had passed while invisible. The chamber was far enough in the restricted section of the ruin that a baseline human could not have heard the collapse of the mural, but the guard had looked heavily enhanced - probably a rejected Hammer-branch soldier or some other failed military experiment. His enhanced hearing had apparently been keen enough to detect the commotion.

Despoticania

"Intruder. Come out. Now", he said in a cold, high-pitched voice. He didn't sound uncertain or fearful in the slightest, but he clearly wasn't looking in Ata's direction.

The guards perspective was less exciting, after his demand there was silence for a few seconds. Then a silvery dart shot out of nothingness and stuck in the neck of the guard. Almost immediately after, he was blindsided by a spectral figure, nothing more than a black blur that seemed to have materialized next to him. Suddenly finding himself immobile, his body had no choice but to fall to the ground. Strangely, the sound was muffled. Unable to move much, see, or speak, the tranquilizer started to kick in.

Xier stood over the bag of flesh that was the guard, now bound by black contructs. Poor soul never stood a chance against the lich. The flashlight had hit the ground and rolled off to the side, illuminating part of the outer rune circle. Ata had done away with the illusion at this time, it had served it's purpose. Now the spectral-looking lich was working on an incapacitation spell so that he could get back to the crystal and rune circles and deal with this annoyance afterwards. But now there was a time limit, other security personnel would get suspicious if their friend was down here for too long. Perhaps it was best to deal with the guard now? Deprive him of some memories, plant a few ones, and send him on his way thinking that he'd found nothing? Ata had one of his familiars monitor and jam outgoing communications within a few meters of its position, as a way to prevent the guard from alerting everyone of Ata's presence while he worked. Despoticanian law enforcement wouldn't take Kindly to a foreign lich trespassing on state property, even if that property had once belonged to his cousins.

Despoticania

Removing or planting new memories in his mind would be easy, but there was one major problem: integrated into the guard's mind were a hundreds of optoelectronic memory cells and tiny cellular computers that remained unaffected by the tranquilizer. They were unable to access any of the guard's sensory modalities for now, but they remained otherwise active and kept analyzing the situation based on the last received stimuli. At least some of them were actively trying to send out alarm signal, but it was being blocked by Ata's familiar. Without a central consciousness to guide the cellular computers, they were also attempting to assume control of the guard's body under some kind of emergency combat protocol; similar incidents had been observed during the Church of Transcendental Hatred's attempted conquest of Veradax, when many Hammer-branch clone soldiers had kept fighting even after seemingly fatal injuries, including losing large chunks of their skull. Thanks to Ata's familiars and paralyzing spell, though, the implants were unable to control the guard's body.

Despoticania

With Ata's own advanced technology and magic, overwriting the memory files in a single cellular computer was over in an instant, but there were hundreds of such computers, and each of them had stored slightly different memory files or sensory information. Ata had to ensure that the information was coherent and matched perfectly across each and every implant. Precious seconds were ticking away...

At last the last memory file had been overwritten. Examining his work, Ata could find no inconsistences between any of the fabricated memories: the guard would believe that he had found nothing suspicious. However, even from Ata, it had taken 36.285 seconds to overwrite all memory cells. There was no telling if the guard was already being missed and if someone was on their way to look for him.

Xier had a few spells at the ready, incase they were needed. If the guard did as expected, then he could focus on the crystal. If the guard did not act as expected and the passageway had to be collapsed, then he could focus on the crystal. As the veradacian lich did not need an overly large gap in order to escape, it was an option. All he could do now was hold his breath, the next few seconds would determine how much suspicion was drawn to this place.

Despoticania

"What took you so long, D-762? Did you find something?" asked a human voice, most likely belonging to the chief of the guards.

"Thought I heard something, sir. Went to investigate. Checked all the chambers but could find nothing", the guard replied.

The first voice sounded concerned. "Hrmmh. It could have come from the ruins themselves", it said. "Maybe this area is in even worse condition than the archaeologists believed. First thing tomorrow, we'll have a team inspect the entire area. Now, let's get back to our posts for the rest of the day."

The guards left the hallway, and Ata and his familiars were alone once more.

The observation familiar had finished analyzing the crystal shard embedded in the runic circle. The crystal still held some small fragments of an Eldian soul, but it was clear that there wasn't a full person in there - and never had been: just the barest minimum required to act as a semi-sentient guide in the off-chance that another Eldian entered the chamber. The crystal itself was approximately fifteen centimeters across, slightly irregular and organic-looking. There were no special enchantments holding it in place; if Ata could cut through the porous stone of the chamber wall, he could easily remove the crystal. The runic circle surrounding the crystal was less interesting. Ata could tell just by looking at the runes that the enchantment had been a very complex one, but also single-use. There was no magic remaining in the circle, although the traces of Living Metal applied to the runes were intriguing. Strangely, the familiar could not determine the components of the metal, as if it wasn't made of baryonic matter at all.

After he finished plotting the destruction of national landmarks, The lich cloaked himself once more and slipped out the way he had come, giving the guard a wide berth this time. Once out, he morphed into a ball and rolled off to a different secluded spot in order to morph back to his passive form and lift the cloaking spell. It was then a relatively brief hike through the city before he reached the beach once more. He paid any beach goers there were little mind, giving the seals that lounged lazily about more attention as he marched back into the sea.

His ship was waiting for him, although it was getting a bit impatient by now. With a puff of black particles, the soul stone materialized in his hand. The lich placed it in a protective case, he would need to see if there was any way to re-activate it later. The segments with living metal were hidden away in a locked and sealed container for later study, the properties of the living metal intrigued him. After that Ata sat down in his command chair, but didn't link with the ship. Displays flickered to life around him, most no more than hard light suspended in the air. The runes had surely gone off by now, and he was looking around the Despoticanian Intraweb in order to find out what was being reported on it. He would need to spread some mis-information if they were too close to the truth, it would also be interesting to see the extent of the damage caused, be useful in calibration his familiars. While this was happening, Ata was booking passage on a Vac Train to the nearest stop to Mount Dragonspire. It would pass through Lookitthat as well, so if he felt any connections to that location, he could get off and investigate. But his objective remained Mount Dragonspire, he had suspicions that certain things would reveal themselves to him once there. If not, well, there were always the scientists that lived there. And his past experience with that type of person told him that they were always eager for new knowledge, hell, even he qualified as one of those people.

Despoticania

Sure enough, the posting history of ScaraBKing revealed several posts endorsing the Church and its policies. The topic started by ScaraBKing called for a complete Kant counter scan of the collapsed section and a thorough investigation of surveillance records for the presence of any Eldian individuals or their known acquaintances in the Wizard's tower around the time of the collapse. Most users of ds.AncientMysteries.des dismissed the demands, and a few even called ScaraBKing a hate-mongering racist, but a couple of like-minded individuals agreed with him and kept the topic hot.

Despoticania

It was early in the morning on the fourth day of the Veradacians' visit, and as Enu had been told by Master of the Hunt Fawthali, the hunting party was about to depart Towen to intercept the Snow Runner herd that was expected to threaten the town of Wail. Satellite images suggested that the herd was even larger than expected, a gathering of several Snow Runner "tribes" led by a particularly intelligent and bloodthirsty alpha. The hunting party consisted of Fawthali itself as well as four lower-ranked hunters, each of them unique in form: Spellwrights Tharstan, Thoke and Cosgatt were first stage cyberliches with undead bodies enhanced by Living Metal, while Oathman Robayday was still mortal, though heavily enhanced with both cybernetics and enchantments. In addition, the hunting party included five Forge Knights.

Fawthali and the hunting party were waiting for Enu and the initiates outside their lodge. The sun would not rise in several more hours, but the intense aurora of northern Despoticania made the sky glow in shades of red and orange. The endless snow fields and icy mountains surrounding the monastery reflected the colors of the sky, making everything seem unreal and dreamlike. The metallic forms of the cyberliches and the Forge Knights in particular looked almost surreal, standing like abstract statues in the ethereal light. Three futuristic-looking snow mobiles had been prepared for the initiates so that they could keep up with the hunting party.

Eventually the mural project demanded more of his processing capacity, so he put the sh!tposting project on a subroutine in order to direct more of his attention at the mural project.

BearKnight23: "Why would Eldians destroy bits of their own history as retribution? If this was retribution, they would've gone for something important to the church, like the Caves in Starfall where Hater prophet St. Marukh died."

Ata would proceed to continue on the forums under the name BearKnight23 for several hours as he worked.

Back at Towen
Enu arrived as promised, dressed in a form of light armor with what looked like biological components. His footfalls were light and he didn't sink into the snow much either. What was the most striking though, was his weapon. Attached to his back by means of specialized scabbard was a longsword of ancient eldian origins, minimalist design meant for function over form. It's handle was made of smooth stone with leather wrapping, the pommel was a hunk of metal that looked like a miniature flange mace, and the cross guard was essentially just a slightly stylized bar of metal. Looking at it in the scabbard would hint that the blade was rather thick for a sword, meant for someone stronger than a human. If one felt the arcane presence of the sword, they would know that it was far from ordinary. The heavy enchantments it held were based around necrotic magics, apparently able to toggle between enchantments based on the situation. It also had characteristics disturbingly similar with sentient magical artifacts.

Klec followed up behind the younger lich, clad in heavier armor adorned with various runes and other such enchantments. With the battle rifle he carried, he looked a bit like an edgy hammer branch soldier. Beside him was a biomechanical monstrosity roughly shaped like a horse. Strangely, it looked like it had been folded, as if it came to Towen in a really big suitcase. It clearly wasn't his regular mount. The initiates were behind Klec, in snow gear with their chosen weapons.

Enu glanced over his shoulder before speaking to the leader of the hunt. "Apologies for the hold up, our Greater Necromancer - Lin Wuro - needed a few moments more to prepare." he said. A few moments later, Lin appeared, beside her was what looked like a large bear. Upon closer inspection, one could tell that it was made out of the compacted blueish-white ice of the surrounding lands with a collar of runes around the neck region. A small stone was inlaid in the back of its head, allowing it to be independent from Wuro's magic supply. Lin herself was garbed in a suit of mostly biological composition. The black fibers of artificial muscles were wrapped around her augmented body in a natural looking way. Dark green plates were present in vital areas as well as on the shoulders, thighs, and shins. Small runes were barely visible on the plates. Her weapons were quite simple, just two reinforced collapsible baton, denoting her specialization in construct and support based magic. The biomechanical falcon was perched on her shoulder while familiars in various geometric shapes floated around her. "Sorry for the hold up, needed time to prepare a mount." she apologized telepathically. The necromancer then looked over to Klec and his portable horse, "I'm surprised that Ata let you bring that."

Lin then jumped up on top of the ice bear. "Klec and I will stay with the initiates, Enu, you may go stay with the hunting party." Enu only nodded, it was clear that Wuro was in charge whenever Ata wasn't around. She then addressed the initiates "Do you all know which animal is to be your familiar?" Before the class sessions had ended last time, she had told them to do research on the native animals of Despoticania, one would stick out more than others as a compatible candidate. For Ata it had been an octopus, for Klec it had been a pangolin, for Enu it had been a Cassowary. Lin's first familiar was actually an owl, but an accident in the Laboratories of the Monastery had destroyed it. Hopefully the initiates knew what animal suited them, even though it depended more on what was felt in the field, it was a very helpful guideline.

Despoticania

ScaraBKing and his most fervent supporters were quick to react to Ata's - or rather, his familiar's - posts. They started explaining their theories on how the Veradacian Eldians were extremely proud, bitter and intensely jealous of their culture and relics and would not want mongrel half-breeds like Despoticanians to have them. "Besides", ScaraBKing finished a lengthy, rambling post, "They could never hope to damage any locations under the Church's protection. Those are too well-guarded for even their best agents. So, like cowards, they strike at easier targets." Many other posters agreed with "BearKnight23", however, and interest in the topic began to dwindle.

Suddenly, Ata was alerted to sphere crawlers investigating BearKnight23's posts and profile. They were apparently security subroutines of the AncientMysteries site, and something in the newly-created profile or its posting patterns had caught their attention. The Datasphere was an immensely complex web of private and public servers, databases, nodes and zettabytes of traffic; attempted scams were very common, and there were even rumors of spontaneous AI formation in the dark reaches of the Despoticanian intranet. With this in mind, most larger sites had very sophisticated security programs - sometimes near-sapient themselves - monitoring their content. It was impossible to tell what exactly had caught their attention this time, but something in Ata's fake profile had flagged it as a potential anomaly. No action or deep-tracking attempts had been initiated so far.

The security crawlers had BearKnight23 under their scrutiny for a few more microseconds, but eventually they seemed to decide that it was not a threat and left the familiar-controlled profile alone.

Back at Towen
"I want a pet bear!" Myrdem said happily, eyeing Lin's snow construct with apparent fascination. "Or a pet familiar, in this case. Something big and strong yet soft and fluffy."

"A bird", Kilander said. "Something relatively small and nimble. A sea hawk, perhaps, or an owl."

"Hah, you're all thinking too small!" Madyra said. "When I've killed the alpha Snow Runner, I'll use its soul to create my first familiar!"

"Is the lad always like that?" Fawthali asked telepathically, directing its words to the Veradacians alone. "I don't usually deal with initiates this young... I had almost forgotten how delusional baseline humans can be of their own abilities... although I do sense great power in him." The giant wolf made of Living Metal paced back and forth as the initiates mounted the snow mobiles and Enu joined the other Hunters. When the hunting party was ready to depart, Fawthali spoke out loud in a soft feminine voice, "First, we'll head north, following the coastline. Watch out for Snow Bears and do not disturb them if you see them... When we see the vac-train tube connecting Wail to Koriantura, we'll turn northeast and start looking for the Snow Runner herd. The latest satellite images suggest there are over four thousand of them by now. While we could probably kill them all without too much trouble, we're not going to do that; we're only going to thin the herd a bit and kill the Alpha. Trapping its soul is optional... Be on your guard when we reach the polar deserts outside Wail - we have reports of unusually strong winds coming from the direction of Mt. Dragonspire. Chances are that the local Hume values are exceptionally low for the next couple of days. Strange things may occur."

Fawthali raised its great head to the sky. Beyond the ethereal curtains of Aurora Borealis, countless silent explosions erupted between the stars like celestial fireworks: a space battle being fought in the outer system. "Strange things may occur indeed", Fawthali repeated quietly and turned to face the snow-covered road leading north from Towen.

After the short rest was over, Ata departed for the Blacklight Vac-Train Station. The trip back in was not an issue, placating his agitated craft was a bit more difficult. He would allow it to roam the ocean around blacklight, but it would have to return in two days. The lich had no concerns that it would be discovered, it was an intelligent vessel and knew how to avoid military vessels and trawlers. Of course in the city he garnered a bit more attention than he was comfortable with, but he managed to get to the station a few minutes early without much trouble.

Back at Towen
"Unfortunately Madyra is usually like this, with some training, he has gotten better about it though. But I still fear that his arrogance will cause him great grief in the future." Lin told Fawthali telepathically. She directed her gaze to Madyra as she addressed the initiates. "We will bee departing from the rest of the hunting group later in on the trek, it is sounding like a coastal plain is what we are looking for. We will not be engaging the snow runner pack, as your training in combative magic is still quite limited. Rest assured though, one day you will be able to do such things. For now our objective remains to discover and learn, not to cull. Do not harm or disturb endangered or protected species, we don't need to bring any additional hardships to their communities." She then turned to face Klec, who was mounted and was looking trough some mapping software on a interface familiar. "Have you found a suitable location, Master Dulruni?" She asked. He responded quickly "Yeah, it's southwest of Wail, so we'll be breaking off near the end of the trek in the polar wastes." Lin didn't seem to like that much, but she would do what she must. She said a command in the eldian tongue and her falcon took to the skies, to those that could understand, it roughly translated to "Watch from above." She addressed the hunting party with everyone ready to go. "Lead the way, Master of the Hunt." The lich then sank into her construct, which became slightly bigger as a result. "We are ready." said the snow bear, now apparently directly controlled by Lin.