Chapter 174: Detective Calvin

Calvin leapt off the bed, landing in his pants and tugging them up in a matter of seconds.

What the abyss. What the abyss did you do!? Calvin thought, opening the channel to Nadia as he snagged his shirt off the floor and threw it over his head.

What are you talking about? Wait, where’d the cute rich guy go? Nadia’s voice echoed in the back of his mind. Did it happen again?

“What’s going on?” Kala asked, sitting up and rubbing the sand out of her eyes, pulling her slender body out of Ella’s arms. The Genosian savage, for her part, was still snoring softly.

“It happened again. Something’s wrong with Nadia.”

“Is it something you have to deal with right now?”

“Gotta figure out what happened while there might still be a trace of it.” Calvin said, slipping into his shoes and heading for the door.

“Right, well…I’d offer to help, but…I don’t wanna. Good luck,” Kala said, snuggling back up against Ella and drawing the thin covers over them.

Calvin ducked out of the house and craned his neck, glancing up at the brilliant light of Soscath’s Scowl before he got onto the street, heading for the humming steel palace.

I can’t believe those mines are still on fire. Elliot said appreciatively.

Did you get anything more this time around? Calvin asked as he sprinted through the warm night air, navigating through the dark like a ghost, his enhanced night vision allowing him to run at full speed without worrying about bumping into anyone or anything.

Who the hell do you think I am? Of course I got more this time. I installed a logger on her Continuity so we would be able to check it next time this happens. Normally the error log goes back to the System, but since we’re flying under the radar, it just gets deleted.

Don’t understand what half of that means.

Okay, the point is it tracks Nadia’s thoughts and behavior in fine detail and reports any events of note back to me. I’ll skip telling you about all her self-hate and orgasms and get right to the point. Two minutes and thirty two seconds ago, she experienced minor damage to her head, followed by something attempting to forcibly overwrite her manifestation’s brain. The disconnect between the new identity and hers caused Chained Spirit to suffer a fatal error and reboot.

Someone tried to change who she was?

Yeah, basically.

Like, a mind mage?

Bitch, I don’t know! I was locked in a room for eight hundred years while Iletha was developing. I know System engineering, regular engineering, and bio engineering, and guerilla terrorism, and that’s about it. Mind magic is outside of my purview.

But if I had to guess…probably not. She had minor damage to her skull and brain, remember? That’s indicative of a physical intrusion, so a trepanning or something of that nature.

Gross. And she just sat still for that? Calvin thought with a frown.

According to my log she didn’t really see it coming.

It wasn’t the lure enhancements?

Definitely not.

How do we know this isn’t some weird ploy by Nadia? Calvin thought.

I have it on good authority that she’s enjoying her new life a lot more than her previous one, all protesting aside. It’s not impossible, but it would have to be arranged before I installed the logger, then never acted upon again, which I find unlikely.

How do I know you’re not doing something?

You can’t see it, but I’m giving you my most innocent smile and puppy-dog eyes.

I already told you I don’t know what a dog is.

Calvin focused his mind as he sprinted through the streets, the information organizing itself in his head.

“Somebody’s trying to overwrite her personality, perhaps trying to create a spy?”

Seems like a good assumption.

Somebody like the Diocese? Calvin thought as he ran.

Maybe, but let’s not forget the first time she got poofed. Last time we saw her that day she was out in the middle of the street making a spectacle of herself.

Doesn’t mean the diocese didn’t know about her.

One thing was for sure. It wasn’t a user error with Chimera, and it probably wasn’t Nadia doing it to herself: she didn’t even remember doing anything.

That meant it was most likely an outside force. A person.

The thought was strangely comforting. A person was something Calvin could deal with. If it were the System misbehaving, he didn’t have any real way of fixing the problem, and was at Elliot’s mercy.

Gee, a little trust here.

Not even a little, Calvin thought as he ran.

First thing to check is the diocese. He was the last person we know of that was with her. in the unlikely event that he’s not the culprit, we can trace her steps from there. Chances are good it was someone in the palace. Someone with a motive to spy on me.

Look at you, putting on your deerstalker hat and everything!

That seems like common sense, Calvin thought pondering what kind of monster a deer might be. If they were anything like Breeks, they were fearsome.

You’d be surprised.

Calvin shot past a guardsman patrolling the dark streets with a brightly glowing filament on his bracer.

“Hey!” the man shouted in juntai, but Calvin was already gone.

A minute later, Calvin skidded to a halt in front of the huge humming palace that Elliot claimed was an ‘engine’ to the chariots the gods had used to travel between worlds.

That’s how you interpreted it? You and me are gonna have to have some history lessons, starting tomorrow.

Calvin walked up to the massive gate, flanked by two of what appeared to be Veteran soldiers. The lightness of their stance spoke of superhuman strength capable of defying gravity.

The furrowed brows and ribbing spoke of average intelligence.

Above and behind them were as least four more men on top of the gate looking down at Calvin with their iron clubs – Magnetic Crossbows, Elliot corrected – held easily by their sides.

“Good evening, is the Diocese available to speak to?”

“Which one: Edict, Bounty, Cleansing, Pleasure, Force, Sweat, or Trade?”

Calvin blinked.

“Trade.”

“Hah, look at this fool! Trick question! None of the diocese are available right now. Come back during the day and apply to entreat with one like everyone else.”

“It’s a fairly urgent matter.” Calvin said patiently.

“Come back later,” the man gritted out.

Well, I didn’t honestly think they’d let anyone in this late at night. Calvin wasn’t particularly surprised or upset, but it was always a good idea to do things the nice way first: then you could say you had the best of intentions later.

“Right, I’ll come back when it’s more convenient, but first, have any of you seen a girl –“ Calvin raised his hand, brilliant green smoke pouring out of it.

Chained Spirit

34/46 Bent remaining.

Nadia manifested under his palm, skeleton then flesh and clothes in the blink of an eye, causing the assembled guards to flinch and half-level their iron pipes toward Calvin.

One of them swore to a Juntai god and made a superstitious warding sign.

“She’s about this tall,” Calvin said, dropping his palm on Nadia’s head. “Black hair, buxum, looks exactly like this.”

Nadia posed, tilting her head and spinning in place as Calvin motioned to her.

One thing about the Ilethan princess: She can take things in stride.

That’s not all she took tonight, if you know what I mean, am I right? Up top!

“Did anyone here see her leaving the palace in the last few hours?” Calvin asked, ignoring Elliot entirely.

“Why not just ask her?” the guard asked, pointing at Nadia.

“She doesn’t remember.”

“Probably because she got her brains fucked out, am I right? Up top!” one of the guards on top of the wall shouted in Juntai before high-fiving another.

Ah, high-fives. With how ubiquitous they are in human culture, imagine how surprised I was to hear they were invented so late in human history.

“What did he just say?” Calvin asked, still playing the fool who couldn’t speak Juntai.

“Ah, he said he didn’t see her.” The guard said, being particualarly unhelpful.

The lewd comment meant the men were at least aware of Nadia’s sleepover with the Diocese, but it didn’t guarantee that they’d actually seen her.

“You’re absolutely sure none of you saw her leave the palace?” Calvin asked.

“She could barely walk!” one of them shouted.

“What did he say?” Calvin asked.

“That we are absolutely sure.” The lead guard said while the rest of them chuckled at Calvin’s ignorance.

Calvin put a hand to his temple. Dealing with these idiots was giving him a headache, and he was much more comfortable giving other people headaches, but…trade deal with an entire nation…damnit.

He now knew they were aware of Nadia’s existence, and they had seen her post-rendezvous, but nothing that absolutely guaranteed that they saw her leave.

Hmm… Calvin hooked his thumbs in his belt and stroked the shrunken Stalker organ canister, with its bumps for the catalyst.

I could use the Complacency aura and walk right in, godsdamnit, and none of these assholes could stop me.

The complacency aura was a simple multi-part Dupdomancy spell. By copying the organ, and the catalysts along with a bit of blood from the tip of a finger, he could make a lump of flesh that forced everyone to ignore him (the bearer of the blood) for a good thirty seconds. A lot longer if he used the Gradual Split Ability to keep the ingredients humming through the organ for over an hour.

With that he could probably walk right up to the diocese and question him in person, but something told him that these men had seen her leave, and they were just being enormous dicks.

Is it morally defensible at this point to use mind-magic? Calvin thought.

As long as you’re responsible with it, Elliot responded. But if you wanted to make them thing that they’re streetwalking harlots on a corner instead of guards for the night, I wouldn’t tell anyone.

Calvin rolled his eyes. While that would be tremendously cathartic, it would have reprecussions. He needed an option that was more cathartic.

Calvin was able to augment Baroke’s memory with Kort’s memory of his mother.

You think she’ll poof again if I use Trait Doctoring?

Worth a shot.

Trait Doctoring: Identity

33/46 Bent remaining

Calvin mentally selected the man’s memory of, relationship toward and opinion of Nadia, then copied it over to Nadia.

An invisible thread of Bent shot out of Calvin’s fingers and bounced off the head of the man in front of him before settling into Nadia’s skull.

It’s so weird to be able to feel Bent moving around now. It was still near-instantaneous, but Calvin’s reaction speed was much higher than when he started, allowing him to somewhat perceive the spells in action.

Thankfully, when the spell hit Nadia, she didn’t poof, and those fiendish horns didn’t sound again, perhaps because Calvin was the originator of the spell, or perhaps because it wasn’t a large change, but in any case, it had done its job, now all he had to do was ask.

“Did you see a young woman about yay tall, buxum with black hair leave this gate?” Calvin asked Nadia in Gadveran.

“Heck yeah,” Nadia said, adopting a somewhat masculine pose, her voice unconsciously deepened. “She was all mussed up and sweaty, but those curves! I don’t even care if it was sloppy seconds, I would have –“

“Enough.” Calvin dismissed the spell, leaving Nadia blinking in confusion as he turned back to the gatekeep.

The man’s brows were furrowed, glancing down. “My Stability was…” He glanced back up at Calvin, his expression thunderous. “What did you –“

Mesmerizing Eyes.

Calvin focused on his eyes for a moment, triggering the mutation, causing the man’s expression to go slack. According to the description, Mesmerizing eyes caused memory lapse, and that would be especially handy when people realized you were copying bits and pieces of their memory.

I didn’t realize copying someone’s identity counts as a hostile action to be resisted with Stability. Calvin thought.

It’s subjective. Your friends didn’t have that because they were actively participating. An unwilling subject is always gonna get a saving throw…for lack of a better word.

“Leesuk? Something wrong?” the other guard asked, glancing over at the guard whose gaze was still locked with Calvin’s.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Calvin said.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Leesuk echoed in monotone.

Well, that’s not going to stand up to close inspection. Gods, I hope that was long enough.

“It’s fine,” Calvin said, glancing away and breaking the mutation’s hold on the man. “He probably just felt faint there for a second.”

“N-No, fuck you. I don’t faint. I was just…thinking.” Leesuk said, straightening, glaring at Calvin. He was still mad, but it was more embarrassment than suspicion and righteous anger.

“This is such a lovely country,” Nadia said, leaning up against Calvin. “You would have never gotten away with that in my home.”

“Alright, we’re confident you left the gates,” Calvin said, turning and pointing down the street. “We can talk to the diocese tomorrow to double check, but for now let’s proceed under that assumption.”

Nadia stood there silently as Calvin Calvin stared at her.

“What?”

“Retrace your steps. Show me where you would go after a night of debauchery.”

“Hmm…” Nadia tapped her finger against her lips, pouting a bit for Calvin’s benefit.

“sooner would be better than later.”

“I need to get into the mindset,” She said, wiggling her brows.

“Nope. Move.”

“Well, I probably would have gone home, stopping here and there on the way to check on my investments around the city.”

“You don’t have any money.”

“That you know of,” she said, strutting down the street in front of him.

She stopped here and there, checking apparent dead-drops she’d set up with people around the city. How she’d done it under Calvin’s nose and with very little free time, he had no idea, but it was something he’d have to keep an eye on, even if it risked catching her at an inopportune time.

“And why are you showing me these?” Calvin asked.

“Two reasons.” Nadia said, holding up her fingers. “First, because I’m just as curious as you about why I keep losing my memory, and second, because all of my machinations have served your interest ever since I fell hopelessly in love with your callousness.”

“Guarshit.”

“Mm, there it is,” Nadia said with a smirk and a wiggle.

After several empty stops between the palace and the camp, she pulled a scrap of paper with some kind of code written on it, looking at it with a frown.

“Huh,” She said, flipping the paper back and forth. “You know what this means?” She asked, showing Calvin the paper.

Calvin glanced at the code.

“The Diocese of Cleansing is into guys, and you must have been kidnapped somewhere between the last empty dead drop and here?”

Nadia pouted.

“You’re no fun.”

“I try not to be, for you, anyway.” Calvin said, turning back to face the main road.

“We should check the alleys between here and the last drop and look for signs of a struggle, or anything out of the ordinary.” Calvin said, leading them back out onto the street.

Calvin cast a curious look left, then right, seeing nothing but dark streets in every direction. If there were any eyes nearby, they weren’t on him, either.

Calvinian Summoning.

Heart of the Swarm.

Atom Ant

32/46 Bent remaining.

Calvin burst into a swarm of wasps, raining out of the sky and falling to the ground, sounding like nothing more than a soft patter of rain. He didn’t want to wake anyone up with the sound a swarm of millions of wasps would make.

Once the entire swarm was out of the air, he directed them to crawl, spread out through the alleyways, radiating outward like a wave of hyperfocused perception.

In a matter of minutes, he could see, smell, taste and feel everything in a two block radius, as the swarm spread silently through the city.

It was absolutely vile.

Only the knowledge that the various tastes of the city weren’t actually in his mouth stopped him from losing control of the summon and poofing back into existence right then and there.

It only took a few minutes before he found something out of the usual.

In an alley two blocks off the path, there was the sign of a bit of a scuffle, and an acrid, vinegary scent on the ground. One of his wasps tasted it, and suffered from some kind of writhing death shortly before it poofed.

Whatever it was was dangerous.

There was no sign that Nadia had been in the alley, of course, as anything she left behind, be it blood or scuff marks from her shoes, would vanish along with her, but the knocked over barrel and disturbed trash was suspicious.

Plus, Calvin had never smelled anything quite like that vinegary concoction anywhere in Allast before.

Calvin reformed into his own body in the center of the alley, picking through the remnants of the area with his own eyes and ears, trying to spot anything he might have missed as a collective of wasps. Sometimes things were so much bigger than the wasps that they didn’t translate well. A smear of lipstick would appear to be the size of a king’s bed.

Calvin summoned Nadia to him and began pouring through the alley for anything he could find.

He scoured the alley for a few minutes until he noticed the dent in the knocked over barrel.

Calvin ran his thumb over the dent. There was no sign of what had caused it, and that may be a factor in itself. Any normal object colliding with a piece of wood that hard would leave evidence of itself behind, unless that evidence vanished into thin air.

“Nadia, I need you for an experiment.” Calvin said, motioning for her to come closer. When she was close enough, he grabbed her hand and formed a fist, pressing it up against the dent.

“No, give me your foot.”

He took her booted foot and lined it up with the barrel, making a perfect match.

Calvin stood the barrel up and set it in the ring of filth it had previously been sitting in, before tonight. Calvin took special care to line up the gunk so it matched the place it had just been seamlessly.

“so I just kicked this barrel for no reason?” Nadia asked, tapping it with her foot, leg raised and knee bent. The dent was fairly high, knee height at least.

“I don’t think it was like that,” Calvin said stepping behind her. I’[ll bet the assailant lifted her off the ground.

“What-“

Calvin grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off the ground.

Sure enough, Nadia reflexively kicked out, denting the barrel again as she struggled to escape his grasp.

“What’s going on here!?” A voice demanded as a brilliant light shone on the two of them, Calvin with his hands around a woman’s throat, and the woman struggling to escape.

Wow, this is awkward. Elliot chose that moment speak again.