The Effaced: Chapter Ten

While I charged up Zone’s aura crystals, I considered what, exactly, my next move would be. 

Those private military people had shown up ready for a fight, and armed to the teeth. Given that they’d tracked me here, they would probably be guarding my apartment, watching for my return. That made me regret my choice to only have on the undershirt and take the knife. 

The Arenamaster was back, supposedly, unless that was an illusion being portrayed by someone to re-establish my past for the jurors of my eventual trial. I could shake up some of my old contacts in the undercity for more information, but that felt risky. It could backfire and result in the rumors growing stronger, or worse, the Arenamaster or someone else could have turned one or multiple of them into a trap to catch me. 

And then there was Elucidate Labs. They were at the center of this, or at least close to it, if the… whatever they were doing… was really the reason behind Senator Ermonte’s assassination. 

They were my biggest lead, which was fine, but also a problem. I couldn’t just march into their offices and demand to speak with the head of their labs because I was suspected of murdering someone to stop their mysterious project from going through. 

Even if they weren’t the most advanced lab in the city by a league – which they were – and wouldn’t have a wardscheme that might even be able to overcome my tricks – which they might – and would be willing to let me talk to someone in charge – which they wouldn’t – there was no guarantee that the information would prove my innocence. It might provide the killer’s motivation more clearly, but that didn’t mean anything if I was still made to be the fall guy. 

But at the same time, there had to be something there, something that could crack the mystery open. But how would I get in? 

I could possibly try to provide an aura sample for them, since I knew they did research into the mysteries and origins of aura, but that was only likely to work if they didn’t have me on a list to watch out for. 

I gritted my teeth as I came to the conclusion that I really didn’t want to. I was going to have to reach out to people in the undercity, and see if there was any information on who actually took the hit, and who had put it out.

Then I could provide that information to my lawyer, since the constables either couldn't or wouldn’t do their job. That evidence could then hopefully get me off the hook – no matter how much influence the person had over the judge, if Aiden Smith could look for that influence in potential jurors and weed them out, I should be safe. 

I ran through possible contacts as I continued to charge the crystal, and was left with three: Concrete Crown, The Contractor, and, of course, my brother Fire-Fright. Assuming that he hadn’t been caught, that was.

Unlike with Zone, who had also tried to put that life behind her, and thus I’d had no problems – legal or ethical – with keeping in contact with her, Fire-Fright had immediately fled from his mandatory service and returned to the undercity, then set himself up as some sort of gang leader. 

He was the most likely to know if the Arenamaster was actually back, and if she was, he was the most likely place she’d spring a trap for me. 

But… Even if the Arenamaster was back, did that mean she had to be related to the Senator Ermonte killing? What if she was back and it was unrelated. 

With that in mind, I wrapped the scarf around me and activated it with a flicker of aura, then stepped out into the streets, allowing its magic to keep me blended in. I walked until I spotted the large set of stairs that headed down, under the earth, and into the undercity. 

Lots of people like to say that the city of Elderglass is really three cities, layered on top of one another. 

There’s the city in the sky, where the skyways, sky-lanes, top floors, and airships all hang out. The realm of the elite and powerful, or people who want to be elite and powerful. 

There’s the street city, which is most of the buildings below the thirtieth or fortieth floor or so, though really, as with all things, it’s not a hard and firm limit. The realm of the average person, doing average work, living an average life. From the lower middle class, to the middle class, to the upper-middle class. 

Then, there’s the undercity. Some people claim that it starts out on street level, and the street city starts at the second floor, but I never bought into that. The undercity is a mess. It’s not so much a true city as a collection of sunken parts of the city, from before magecraft was good enough to actually stop them from sinking into the ground, which have been reinforced with magic, adapted, and transformed.

The top few floors of the undercity are actually not all that bad. It’s mostly just people who don’t have the money to live on the street level. There are schools and stores and more, and contrary to what some people seem to believe, most of the people there aren't criminals, just people trying to get by. And most of the ones that are criminals are victims, like those who’ve taken up doing drugs to account for the fact they almost never see natural light. 

But there are parts of the undercity that are much, much worse. 

Unofficial expansions, buildings that were never reinforced, spaces warped by ley lines, and other spaces that are technically cordoned off have become a hive of illegal activity. 

They’re also far more heavily trafficked than people like to think. 

Oh, sure, when a rich man needs to curse a rival, hire a mind mage, or a drug of his choice, he might not set foot in the undercity personally, but you could trace that drug’s maker down there, and someone brought it out and up for him.

And he might head down there personally anyways. Entertainment could be messy, after all, and the sunken arena I’d grown up in had more than one box office reserved for the wealthy, though of course, they’d had guards and alleys reserved for them. 

It was to that part of the city that I was headed now, ducking under the official cordon and stepping over the wardline that hadn’t been powered since before I was born. 

As I walked through the poorly lit streets with a simple light-producing glyph hovering over my palm, I realized that I had made a mistake in my outfit. Unlike with my Mist outfit, I was wearing nice clothes. Not rich for even the street city or the normal parts of the undercity, but rich for this part of the city. 

I realized what exactly I’d done when I heard quiet footfalls behind me, trying to match my own, but inexpertly. I didn’t slow or stop, but as I turned through what had once been an office building and was now mostly abandoned, and someone stepped out in front of me, shrouded in a pulsing red aura with swirls of black running through it, someone else hanging onto their arm. I brightened my light glyph to get a good look at the situation. 

The girl with the aura couldn’t have been more than twenty-two, but she had several scars covering her face, and a skinny, teenage boy hanging onto her arm like an escort. She was wearing a jacket that had the distinct plates of ceramic that suggested armoring, and she held a steel amulet in her hand. 

“Evening, mister,” the girl said, sneering at me. “What brings you to our part of the city?” 

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see two cronies – large, muscular men about my age – circling around, just outside of the ring of light my glyph provided. 

“Just passing through,” I said. “Trust me, you don’t want to pick this fight.” 

“Fight? Who said anything about a fight?” she asked, spinning the amulet around. “This is a toll road, that’s all. Pay and you can pass through with the protection of the Red King.” 

“Is that you?” I asked, glancing at her aura. She flashed a grin. 

“Nah, that’s the boss. I’m just one of his Red Knights. Keeping you safe while you’re on your way to do whatever it is you want.” 

“I don’t have any money,” I said, quite truthfully. 

“Well, your clothes are pretty nice,” she said. “I could take those…” 

I let out a long, sad, rattling sigh. 

“Listen, kid, I ge–” 

“Kid?” she spat. “I’m a demonic contractor. You think I’m some girl playing with dolls?” 

I winced at my choice of words. I should have known that would be inflammatory. 

“Are you going to let me go without a fight?” 

“Not without paying,” she spat. “And the price doubled.”

I sighed again, and split my attention, working out two spells at the same time. The first was a simple metal manipulation spell, one that I could adapt on the fly easily enough, while the second was a more complicated trick to alter the layering, strength, and flexibility of the threads of metal inside my undershirt.

“Guess it’s the hard way, then,” she smirked, and raised her hand. The black aura swirled and twisted, then surged through the amulet, which had to be an amplification enchantment of a sort, before crackling to ground and solidifying into the shape of a demon. 

I had to give the girl props. Her demon was visually intimidating. A cross between a crab, a crocodile, and a bull, with massive, thick pincers, a huge gaping maw, and thick, powerful legs. Its eyes glowed with a smoldering red light, and it snapped its claws menacingly at me. 

In my experience, the less visually intimidating a demon was, the more scared the person should actually be. This beast would be strong, but it would be entirely controlled by instincts and the girl. 

“Last chance,” the girl called, and I released my spellcraft. 

The knife exploded from my pocket and slammed into the eye of the demon, which let out a shrill noise of pain. The girl gasped and thrust her hand out, and a lance of aura shot at me, but I stepped to the side, allowing myself to fall into the long-repressed memories of combat.

The two muscular back-up men would come at me from behind, so I spun and drove a fist into one of their guts as he was bringing a knife down at me. I twisted my metal manipulation spell and called his knife, as well as my own, back to my hands, and used one leg to sweep the musclebound man to the ground. 

The other was stepping back. A coward, running?

My back was to the contractor, and she’d recover in a moment and have her demon snap at me, so I spun and stepped inside the range of the demonic claws, then jabbed one knife into its other eye, then raised the other to kill the girl.

I froze. 

What in the fallen void was I doing? Killing a kid who’d fallen in with the wrong crowd? 

The moment of freezing allowed the backup man who’d run away to complete his spell, and the roar of fire and light filled the tunnel. I whipped around and changed my spells, rewriting them on the fly, sending one knife flying down the tunnel. I could have hit the musclebound idiot’s throat, but I buried it in his arm instead. 

The other knife fell to the ground, as if I’d dropped it, while I was really repositioning it, and I used the threads in my shirt to pull me to the side, not unlike when I was flying. The fireball streaked past and struck the wall, and I glared at the idiot. 

“This is a sealed space with almost no airflow, idiot. Get a force rune or an air rune or a water rune. But for the sake of all the archangels of abundance and the thrones of the void, don’t use fire or earth!” 

Then I flexed my spell, and the knife exploded upwards, ripping through the demon’s underbelly. Much like a crab, this demon’s underside was softer, and as it faded away, the girl let out a truly anguished cry. I spun to face her as an ink-black stone clattered to the floor. 

The one I’d knocked to the ground was standing up, so I turned and glared at him. He launched himself at me in a blind range, and I didn’t even need to use metal magic to slash a long, but shallow, cut along his arm, duck the blow, then elbow him in the small of his back to knock him over again. I turned to the girl, who’s hand was glowing blue with some sort of boon. Water elemental, maybe? It seemed to be condensing some sort of physical substance.

She thrust it at me, and I sidestepped the wave of water, then shot my blade at her throat, stopping it an instant before it would actually touch her. 

“Don’t be an idiot. That stone can be used to re-summon your demon. And have your crony change his rune bond. Fire is going to suffocate all of you. Now, I’ve left the three of you alive. I’m keeping this new knife as my payment, and we’re even. Got it?” 

She nodded, and I called both the knives to my hands, then stuck them in my pockets and walked away, not bothering to look back.