Chapter 69: A Missed Opportunity

William Oh is The Tower’s greatest detective. He holds everything he has perceived in mind simultaneously, matching facts together unconsciously at an unbelievable speed to puzzle together the past, present and future.

No secret, no hidden motivation or buried desire can remain concealed from him.

The most famous examples are when he used this potent gift to unravel mysteries, topple dictators, or the uncover the nature of The Tower itself.

Usually it’s just used on tarts, though.

-          Jason Salazar

**Stephan Akul**

“Its technology surpasses anything I’ve ever seen, My lord. At first glance it appears to be based on my own research, but I do not know how…half of it works. Asking me to fix it…I could take it apart and learn a thousand thousand things, but I could not fix it in this lifetime.”

Stephan Akul eyed the mummified corpse dressed in decayed silks and loose-fitting gold Relics, like an emperor buried with his wealth from days long forgotten.

His tinkerer was a man with powerful abilities specialized in repair and invention. He had made things that the Baron couldn’t even understand, that drew power from the omnipresent Miasma that flooded every Floor.

The new wave of the future, Allen called it. A power source that will revolutionize…everything.

And yet…a stone coffin gave him trouble.

Stephan reeled in his anger. An outburst solved nothing, and Allen was already plenty afraid of him. the man did not need more motivation. He simply…couldn’t do what Stephan needed him to do.

And giving Allen a glimpse into how badly this affected him would be unwise.

“Why is he still asleep?” Stephan asked. When he’d shoved Pi in there, the creature had been thrashing and screaming. Now he appeared deathly still. “Is he dead?”

“No, he’s still asleep. Due to the manner in which it was broken, parts of the coffin are still operating.” Allen responded, standing up and going over to the broken side of the coffin, where the lid was missing.

“You see these nodes here? They match spots on the broken portion of the lid that we removed. That implies there are other nodes under the lid that are still operational.”

“Does it still do what I need it to do?” Stephan asked.

“I…don’t know what you need it to do?” Allen said with a shrug.

Stephan pulled a knife out of its sheath and leaned down into the coffin, the hairs on his arm standing on end at the nearly imperceptible hum of power that filled the ancient device.

He grabbed Pi’s hand and gave him a tiny cut on his palm.

The wound stayed.

“It’s little more than a paperweight now,” Stephan said with a scowl before glancing at Allen.

“Take it apart. Learn a thousand thousand things, and maybe you can create something that can replicate the coffin’s primary function.

“What is its primary function?” Allen asked.

Stephan glanced over at his tinkerer.

“I wouldn’t want to blind you with expectations. It’s very possible that what I think the coffin’s primary function is, and what the coffin thinks its primary function is, are two different things.”

Allen gave a groan of frustration before he realized he was standing beside The Baron. The tinker froze, straightened up and bowed. “I will uncover it’s secrets, my lord.”

“I’m sure you will,” He said, clapping Allen on the shoulder and turning to leave.

“…My lord?” The tinker asked.

“Hmm?” Stephan asked, turning back.

“What do you want done with the occupant?”

“Have the Relics he wears delivered to the Vault, and the man himself delivered to his own cell. A high security one. We’ll need him at hand if you ever replicate the coffin’s functions.”

Allen bowed, and that was the end of it. Stephen turned away from his Tinker and rounded the corner.

I guess this is wasted space now, Stephan thought, removing the Obsessive Lover’s Ring on his right hand and placing it in his pocket before switching to a shield enhancer that synergized with his build.

Immediately, powerful living shielding appeared around him and began to fold in on itself, wrapping him in a layer of protection that would be the envy of any other Climber.

 It wasn’t as good as perfect immortality, though. But what was?

**William Oh**

“Even if I lived forever, I don’t think anything would be as good as this,” Will said before unhinging his jaw and engulfing an entire meat pie at once.

“Are you even tasting it?” Ria asked, arms crossed.

“MURF,” Will said around the food as he began chewing.

“I’m glad you like them so much!” Anna said, clasping her hands together. “After…all that…I wanted to say ‘thank you’, and my mom always said nothing shows appreciation to a boy like meat pie.”

“I don’t think that’s what she was talking about.” Jean said, scarred arms crossed.

“What do you mean?” Anna asked, glancing over her shoulder at the old woman watching Will eat with a permanent scowl.

“Yeah, what do you mean?” Ria asked, looking at Jean.

“I don’t get it either, but the pies are awesome,” Bee said, joining Will in devouring the flaky self-contained pies.

“Those are for customers!” Ria said, pulling the small Tangled away from her meal. Bee struggled mightily for a minute before giving up like a waterlogged cat.

Shouldn’t Bee be stronger than Ria?

As far as Will knew, Tangled had something like 4-5 Strength growth, which made them extremely strong in melee combat, the ability to split into multiple bodies further enhanced this advantage.

Not to mention how hard it is to pin down the shapeshifter. Is she just play-acting?

While Ria’s back was turned, Anna snuck a pie and took a bite, giving Will a guilty shrug.

He returned a thumb’s-up.

The old woman saw everything, but didn’t bother to tell either of them off.

“Alright, you’ve showed him your ‘appreciation’, now get in the back and start prepping. We open in an hour.” The scarred old woman said, shooing the three of them into the back.

The three rambunctious girls eventually filed away into the back of the shop with varying levels of sass.

“You called them ‘my girls.’ Are they all Tangled?” Will asked as soon as he heard the clattering of work begin. Even Anna?

Jean watched him with her arms crossed, her scar-covered face screwing up at his words.

“You’re too sharp…When we arrived on the fifth Floor, none of them were strong enough to remember what had been done to them, and one by one they splintered off, all of them reacting differently to the hell they’d been put through. Ria’s sense of justice was inflamed beyond rationality. Wants to save the whole world from the forces of evil, but doesn’t understand why. Bee holds a deep-seated hatred she doesn’t know where to direct…and Anna just wants to forget everything and be a young girl in love. I don’t know if it was a curse or a Contract they’d been under, or if just the pain was too great to remember.”

Will processed that.

“Did you see a girl named Brianna?” He asked, guts twisting.

“…She died,” Jean said. “She kept escaping and no one knew how, so they finally decided to –“ Jean’s voice hitched “– put her down. Like a rabid dog. Or a failed experiment.”

Will’s fist clenched as he put together the timeline. They would’ve had a criminally short time to see Brianna on the seventh Floor then make their way down to the fifth Floor before Will arrived. Short enough that they might’ve gotten Acclimation Sickness.

Everyone knew the symptoms were highly variable.

And Tangled had weak Focus compared to the common Climber, so their minds would be the first things to buckle under swiftly changing miasmatic pressure.

Actually it would make sense to deliberately send Tangled up faster specifically for that reason, pre-baking their mental collapse. Brianna might’ve arrived at the 7th Floor within days instead of weeks, like I thought.

That opened the time frame significantly, matching with what Jean said, and what he knew.

Will swallowed the impotent rage and regret. There was plenty of time to do something about that later. There was one last question that Will had.

“Did you actually escape, or were you planted here by the Wyrd family, set to explode some day and tear Akul apart?”

“Hah. That keeps me up at night.” Jean admitted. “No, I don’t think we were. But how would I know!?” She pointed at her head. “I’m just the one that remembers everything! And yet…no idea how much of it might be implanted, and how much is real. My Focus is garbage, so a good Charm user could have me barking like a dog.”

“That’s why I asked you to keep their attention away from my girls. They’ve got controlling Tangled down to rote. If they know what those three are, they will send a Handler after them, and they will become weapons again.”

“I see.”

“Can you do us a favor?” Jean asked. “I know I’m asking a lot, bu-“

“I’m in,” Will interrupted. “I believe that all baker girls are cute and should be protected.”

Jean gave a surprisingly youthful chortle, her wrinkles fading momentarily before returning as she sobered up, her mouth set in a thin line.

Huh.

Acclimation sickness hit you too, huh? Will thought. That was one of the things that’d been bugging him. Tangled were a relatively recent invention, so there was no way an old woman could be one…unless she had convinced herself she was one through a healthy dose of acclimation sickness pressing against a mind with weak Focus under heavy stress.

The way Will saw it, in order to retain her memories, Jean had distanced herself from them…assuming an identity she believed would be tough as nails and capable of handling the stress. An old woman, with a lifetime of experience to dull the sting of traumatic memories.

A humorless crone with an iron will. She’d played the part long enough to believe it, without realizing.

“What do you need?” Will asked.

“If you could continue to…make a spectacle of yourself, that would attract attention away from us.” Jean said. “The Wyrd family does not like you.”

“Matter of fact, I was already planning on making a spectacle of myself at the 25 and under tournament,” Will said. “No sweat.”

“And you need to stop coming around here.” Jean said, her expression severe. “Drawing attention to yourself is pointless if-“

“I lead them right to you.” Will finished, guts twisting.

Will’s heart sank, and his breathing sped up at the prospect of cutting himself off from them. before he could sink any deeper, he took control of himself and sucked in a huge lungful of air before letting it go.

I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life in Akul flirting with Anna anyway. I need to keep Climbing. I can visit sometime in the future, after I’ve killed the Wyrds, or this whole debacle has blown over and I’m strong enough to impose my will as Law.

“Alright,” Will said, despite not feeling all right about it.

“I’m sorry.” Jean said with a glimmer of sadness peeking through her stoic façade.

“I know,” Will said, biting back the anger. She wasn’t the appropriate target for it. “Tell Anna…tell her something that doesn’t make me seem like an asshole.”

“Fair enough,” Jean said with a nod.

Will reached out and shook Jean’s gnarled, calloused hands. Then, before she could react, he brought the veiny, liver-spotted, age-gnarled hand to his lips and kissed the back of her hand, causing Jean’s eyes to go round with shock.

Decades faded away for a few heartbeats, revealing the face underneath the self-imposed disguise before she recovered and yanked her hand out of his with all the strength of a level 30 Tangled.

Hmm… Will tapped his fingers together. A sensation…something was tickling the back of his mind. There was more to this, but he wasn’t sure what it was yet.

Jean had told him most of the truth…but something was off.

I figure it out eventually. Will’s mind was like a dog worrying at a bone. It loved chewing on these sorts of things, and would continue to do so whether he wanted to or not.

“S-Save that nonsense for naïve little girls who don’t know better, y-you c-cad,” Jean stammered, backing away from him, her age returning in an instant as she drew the old woman persona back around herself.

“Will do.” Will tipped his imaginary hat. “Then, until this ugly business blows over, best of luck to all four of you young ladies.”

“Too sharp,” Jean muttered, arms crossed and shaking her head as she watched him leave.

Once Will was outside of the bakery, he shook the bad feelings out.

As much as he hated to admit it, there were more important things right now to turn his mind towards than Baker Girls In Trouble.

Namely, winning the tournament and not getting turned into a puppet or gutted by the Church of Granesh.

He’d considered running away in the dead of night, disappearing from the city and trying his luck at catching a bus up to the sixth floor…but the risk was nearly identical to that of participating in the tournament, while the reward was tepid at best.

Will needed to devote all his energy to developing strategies for the tournament.

But the back of his mind would continue chewing that bone.