Adamant Blood

"Mage Society was fucking amazing," Mark said, over breakfast with the guys. "You really should think about an Agreement, Eliot. And you, Sally! Are you done with Walter's Executioner stuff? Because you should come today, too! Isoko is gonna be there."

Isoko was thrilled. She was dressed her best, too, because today she'd be going to Mage Society with Mark. She giggled over her omelette.

Sally grumbled. "I have been inside there and I don't care for it. Buncha demon things happening everywhere, just under the surface."

"Yeah, probably!" Mark said, smiling as he blew Sally's argument apart. "But how are you gonna police anything if you're not aware of your neighbors?"

Sally looked like Mark had turned on the lights in a room. She kinda went, "Ah… well… You see— Eliot doesn't want to join! I'll be out here with him. Away from the demons."

Isoko grinned as she teased, "Cop out."

Sally scoffed as she stabbed her bacon. "Mage Society is for people who can't stomach having a god looking over them, which automatically makes them suspect, so why would you want to be around those kinda people at all?"

"Because they know things," Eliot said, joining the conversation and sounding defeated about it.

"They know how to fuck people over," Sally countered.

Eliot simply said, "Anyone can do that, but I need to know more about magic and the best ways to defend against shit like goblins." Eliot didn't just sound defeated. He was defeated. Everyone could tell, especially Sally, who looked really concerned about that. And then Eliot told her, "I was offered Mage Society contracts through Citadel Hearthswell, and they told me I would need to do it eventually, and now, here we are. 'Eventually' has arrived."

Mark was stunned for a moment. Why didn't Eliot ever talk about Mage Society contracts through Citadel Hearthswell before now? He had spent a month abroad there, and then High Paladin Azocar Sanchez, of Hearthswell, had come with him back to Memphi, and then here to the settlement, to help him continue his training. But then again, Mark had barely ever met Azocar. He had only met Aurora a handful of times before he boarded the Grey Whale with everyone else, too, though.

This reminded Mark of the time that Eliot hadn't talked about doing anything against Tartu, until that one time in that meeting room of Blackthorn's, in Memphi, during the Attack the Gate, where Eliot had spilled that he was going to aim for Tartu and Rekaro's exile. Mark had spoken out against that too-drastic of an action. It hadn't happened, but Mark still remembered that serious conversation with Eliot.

Eliot liked to play things close to the chest, a lot. Despite his easy-going and charismatic way of talking and getting things done, and his Bard-like mannerisms at every party, Eliot hid some pretty deep parts of himself, all the time. Just like Sally, Mark supposed.

Sally was just as surprised by Eliot as everyone, though.

Sally asked, "You're serious, Eliot?"

"I'm not building shit for any 'master'," Eliot said, "The Hearthswell Mage Society Agreement precludes that."

Isoko scoffed and asked, "Does Freyala have a Mage Society I don't know about, either? Because Sally has a hidden society and now Hearthswell does, too?"

Sally said, "Drakarok is not a Mage Society."

"Not what I heard," Eliot countered.

"Okay! Well!" Sally said, "They're better about it, at least."

Mark asked, "I don't think Freyala has one? They never approached me?"

"I asked!" Isoko said, "And they said no. COFR did, at least."

Eliot said, "Freyala does not have a Mage Society, no. But they do have a lot of people who are in Mage Societies. The guys I talked to in Mexico told me that Hearthswell doesn't like her people Agreeing to work for free for masters in Mage Society, so she made her own group when she was still a mortal. And that's about all I know of that. Freyala probably wanted her people to go out and bring together people from all walks of life, and not segregate here or there. So Freyala's paladins join other Mage Societies; she doesn't have one of her own."

Isoko said, "Ahhh… Yeah. I'd believe that."

"Drakarok thinks all mages are traitors-in-waiting. Just waiting for the right opportunity and power to fuck over others," Sally said. "And the Inquisitors agree."

"Ah, shit. That's right," Eliot said. "I need to join those guys too, huh? Otherwise I'm left out of every other conversation."

Mark said, "Okay, well. Here's the thing: I'm learning languages, and doing Unions of Understanding everywhere I go, as per Walaria's requirements, and last night was amazing for learning a language. I am not proficient at it at all, but I'm getting there, and fast. So you should join now so I don't have to backtrack and help you out later, and so we can all learn together."

"Yes!" Isoko said, clapping her hands once. "Absolutely!"

Sally groaned, "Oh my Drakarok, you guys— Fine."

Eliot said, "I'll file the paperwork in a minute and we can see what happens after that."

A half hour later, Mark was putting away dishes because Isoko and Sally had cooked and now the girls were watching a show on the screen, but neither of them were looking at it at all. They were talking about things that they had learned as Inquisitors, and Mage Society things, and they weren't being too quiet about it. It was a combative whisper.

Mark tried not to listen.

Eliot came back upstairs, holding a little card with some holograms on it, saying, "So I got my badge for Mage Society now."

Isoko turned with a gasp, and said, "It took me 6 fucking days!"

Sally said, "See! They're assholes, all of them! Whatever Mark and Eliot's experience is won't be ours!"

Mark said, "So I told Isoko that I'm making her a Sword of Empire last night because it's a task Walaria has of me, and also because I want to make those and they seem awesome, and so you're getting one too, Sally. Eventually. Soon as I can figure out how it all works. You too, Eliot, but I have no idea what to make for you. Toss me an idea."

Sally was stunned.

Eliot said, "I can't think of anything I want, but that's neat. Congrats?"

Sally called out, "Size-changing sword!"

Mark smiled. "So we're all in Mage Society now, right?!" Mark raised adamantium hands around the room, saying, "High 5!"

Eliot happily slapped the hand.

Isoko giggled and high-5'd Mark back.

Sally scoffed, and then high-5'd the hand, saying, "You know the hand means something special. It's like this whole hand language they have."

Mark's eyes went wide. "It's called Sigaldry! And that's what I spent yesterday learning! It's awesome and it's, like, the entire basis for all magic— No. Wait. That's simplistic—"

"That's okay," Eliot said, "I don't need to know. I just need to have my projects overseen by Azocar now, so you'll be seeing a lot more of him. I will be going to crafting class with you, though, and hey! This way I can know what Derek is doing for House Sacredcut, with all of that."

Mark smiled wide. "You'll need to learn Sigaldry and probably ten other languages first. There's one called Goobersmith that's the language of smiths! I'm sure learning that one will make building a flying castle a whole lot easier!"

"I suppose this was always going to happen eventually," Eliot said, his voice down in the dumps, but his vector telling a whole different story.

Mark tackled Eliot a little, saying, "Stop lying! You're happy!"

Eliot laughed and pushed Mark off of him, saying, "Okay okay! Yeah I am! Wooo!"

"Woooo!!!" Mark said.

Isoko giggled as she stepped off of the couch, saying, "Let's go learn magery!"

Eliot told everyone, "I'm going to slack with everything about this. I'm busy as heck! So you all tell me what comes up that you think I should learn, and then I'll learn it."

Mark instantly said, "Sigaldry, for sure. Also soul stretching and other stuff— There's a whole intro class that you need to take, and I'll take it, too. It's a week-long thing that is an intro to magery, hitting the highlights of what is hidden by Mage Society and what is not." Mark looked at everyone, saying, "That's one I think we should all take. It's recommended before you get too deep into everything."

Sally said, "That'll make you anti-mage, too. So yeah! Let's all go to that one."

Mark scoffed.

"That class has to be just... like..." Isoko searched for some words, "The Binding can be influenced and changed, and it's made of shapes and mana, and those shapes are a language, and the demons made the language, and… and the demons know everything but if you Contract with them they murder you and everyone you love, and not always in that order? So stick with Mage Society and narc on everyone doing anything bad, all the time… Right?"

Sally grinned. "So you have seen the 10 part series!"

Eliot asked, "It's a series?"

"I thought it was a class?" Mark asked.

Eliot spun something up throughout the house, his vector touching off somewhere distant, and then coming through underground—

Quark spoke to everyone, "The house is now connected to the Mage Society network. This is actually a gross violation of the law… Wait. Eliot just filed paperwork. Okay. Uh. Some lawyer AIs are talking, sirs and madams."

Eliot waved a hand, saying, "I already paid the fee. Let's watch the videos here."

Isoko stepped in front of the screen, saying, "No! We're going into the Mage Society compound! Past the big wall! We're seeing everything! My gods! I'm wearing my best around-town dress! We're going to see and be seen! Now, Sally..." Isoko stared at Sally, and restarted their argument. "You need to wear clothes. Not your armor. Mark needs to dress better, too! Eliot is okay."

Eliot smirked as he pulled on his collar a little. "Of course I'm okay."

Mark said, "I like my jeans and teeshirt…"

"I'm wearing my full fucking armor, like I am right now! That place is a battlezone," Sally said, "And I'm going to battle! Lola would agree! You need a breastplate right now, too, Isoko, at the very least."

"Ugh, no! I'm an Inquisitor in-training. And fine! Let's just go!" Isoko started walking. "Come on! Everyone follow! Come come come!"

Eliot was a bit excited and trying not to be, as he followed, saying something about keeping the house designated as a mage house, while Mark followed Eliot, wanting to get back to making hand signs and maybe actual manual magic. Sally took up the rear, practically rumbling with displeasure.

When they got on the street, Mark realized something big. "Oh! You should turn off the Mage Society space in the house, Eliot."

Eliot paused, looked at the house, and said. "… Yeah. Probably. The AI lawyers are getting pretty antsy."

Quark announced, "Mage Society access is now rescinded in the area."

Eliot said, "It was only for Quark, really. You're the one that needs it more than us, Mark."

Mark smiled. "Thanks anyway, Eliot."

"Anytime."

- - - -

Mark, Isoko, Eliot, and Sally all boarded the same small tram, all of them crammed in together, as the thing moved through the walls and people in the walls scanned them.

Sally's foot was almost on top of Eliot's. Mark's backpack was squished against the tram and damaging it, for sure. Isoko was actually attached to the wall, TT'ing so she could take up less space. Eliot was a bit mad.

There had been a conversation before getting into the tram, but they had decided to just cram in there, and that was proving to have been a poor decision.

Eliot said, "I'll be fixing this up."

"They do it this way on purpose," Isoko said. "Something about making sure the people coming through are the people they say they are."

"We can take separate rides next time," Mark said.

"Nope," Sally said. "This place is fucking dangerous. We're sticking together."

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Mark smiled. "Like a proper team!"

Sally Looked at Mark, and then said, "You know that 'make the sure people are who they are' is about changelings and shapeshifter monsters, right. It's still preliminary, but the shit that Walaria called down on House Exatech has been a revelation of changelings, and they fucking love Magic and blending in and pretending to be people who they are not. It's like… not even pretending for them."

Mark and Isoko both had instinctive reactions of disbelief.

Eliot just hummed, nodding.

And so Mark and Isoko looked at Eliot, and Eliot nodded, and then the concern started.

The tram stopped, the doors opened, and Sally stepped out first, into the sun, glaring ahead and seeing monsters everywhere.

Sally continued, "House Exatech was their current node in the settlement, but they're going to be looking for a new one, and soon, and they're going to pick mages who can easily pretend to know more than they should, and who always fall back on 'oh, it's Mage Secrecy, sorry if you don't understand'."

Mark felt a little cold in the sunshine, as he recalled Lola talking about those sorts of monsters once or twice before. "You can look up everyone on Mage Society lists, though, so… shouldn't their masters or whatever have known who they were?"

"I'm more concerned about why Lola didn't tell us this stuff?" Isoko asked.

Eliot said, "Changelings are way overblown. There are lots of ways to find them out, and we have all of that stuff here in the settlement, and House Exatech being changelings was just one possible explanation."

"It's the current best theory," Sally said, looking around, eyes scanning the people up ahead and everywhere else. "Mages are easily infiltrated for a variety of reasons. Their whole 'everyone is checking up on everyone' methodology is flawed as fuck, because it relies on individuals to check up on individuals that they care about so they never check as deeply as they should." Sally was worried, but there was a deep undercurrent of relief flowing through her right now. She saw her team was actually believing her now, and that made her feel a lot better, in a lot of ways. Sally continued, "Anyone who goes through the Chosen System is cleared, because we have gods looking out for us. There used to be old gods that did the same for the people of Daihoon, but then those gods were systematically hunted and killed by the demons and demonic forces, and it's a miracle the Daihoon humans made it to the time of the Reveal at all. But they did." She looked at them. "The Reveal revealed a lot more than just the Two Worlds. The secret reasoning of the Reveal is that which remains secret, known only to Mage Society and Inquisitors and Executioners, because to talk openly about it is to invite mass hysteria, and people murdering neighbors, because it's almost never a changeling, or a cultist, or any of the other infiltrators to humanity.

"But sometimes it is."

Mark looked up at Sally, and said, "You've been holding in a lot of worries, huh."

Sally snorted. "A bit. So let's stick together in here, okay, like everyone else is doing."

Mark hadn't really thought about it yesterday, or the few other times he had been in here, but as he looked out there… Yeah. People walked in 2s and 3s. "They're still in the buddy system?" He asked, "But Aurora said it wasn't necessary?"

"It's not necessary for most people," Eliot said, "All of the settlement has really, really good scanners, but there are holes in every system, and shifters like to get into Mage Society specifically, because they love studying magic and this place is full of magic. Changelings have this thing where they need to strip the entire Binding from someone in order to properly impersonate them, which means… A lot. There's a process to it, and mages are the most vulnerable for some reason— I don't know why. So they're still on the buddy system in here. We are still in the wilds, after all. It's not that odd."

The four of them stood on the platform for a little bit, all of them having different thoughts.

Mark had a few deep thoughts about security and killing 'people' that went nowhere, so he stepped forward and said, "Quark. Can you find us the intro class again?"

Quark brought up a hologram in Mark's sight, speaking to all of them, "It appears to be a screening showing daily inside the arcanaeum itself, for anyone who wants to see. It is the same one that Eliot tried to bring up inside the house."

Eliot teased, "Ah! So we could have had snacks and comfy couches back home!"

Isoko scoffed and walked forward, taking Eliot's arm into her own, saying, "It's time to see people and be seen!"

Eliot grinned and held Isoko's arm with his. "Time to see and be seen~"

While those two walked ahead—

Sally walked beside Mark, saying, "Mages are more vulnerable to changelings due to how the Binding needs to be visible to the person before it can be stolen by the changeling, or something like that. I don't know how it works, exactly, but it's something like that."

Mark said, "There are monsters out in the Wilds that mimic people and eat them and become them, but they're not dangerous if you know they're there. Are those changelings?"

"Nah. You never see a changeling, even in death. They look like people, all the way to the end. Only gods can really tell them apart, though, and then only if they submit to the Chosen System. Changelings can't assume the identities of people on Earth, though. Not enough ambient mana to let them become the clouds that they need to become in order to soak into people and then copy them."

"How do you find them out? Eliot talked of scanners, but… They don't work, huh?"

"They work sometimes. Individually, no. But scans over time? Yes. That's how they catch them, but only if you go through a scanner all the time. Routinely."

"Are there easier ways? Memories, I assume?"

"They copy most surface memories, but they can't do numbers or deep memories well, so they usually keep the people prisoner somewhere for a week, constantly interrogating them about those things, and then they kill them..." Sally said, "And that's the extent of my knowledge on them."

All of this was an entirely new issue that… didn't seem to be bothering most people?

No one had talked to Mark about it, anyway.

Walking on the grass, down the main road, Mark asked Sally, "You think goblins might have been working with changelings in House Exatech?"

"Who knows," Sally said. "7 of the 9 people of House Exatech are simply missing, though, and that's a big flag for a changeling hive. They usually leave the leader and one point man untouched and take over everyone else… And yet, Eliot was right that the changeling theory is currently just a theory, but it's a big one. The other big theory is that they're all goblin sympathizers."

Mark frowned at that. "I don't know about the changelings, but I was there when Walaria interrogated the patriarch, whatever his name was—"

"Vincenzo Exatech, Skill: Shepard."

"Him. Yes. He seemed honest when he said that they kill goblins."

"That ain't nothing to base anything on. Goblins kill goblins pretty routinely."

Sally was right, and Mark didn't know what to say to calm her down, to make her happy to be here... He wanted to say that things weren't that bad, and that maybe the Exatechs were simply goblin collaborators. That was a lot easier to understand than changelings… Even though that wasn't easy to understand at all, actually.

"I'm almost scared to ask…" Mark took a breath, then asked, "Is there any, uh, evidence that the Exatechs were goblin collaborators? Like… I'm not even sure what it would look like? Data transfers? Uh… I don't know."

"Some dead drops found in the woods might have links from both changelings and goblins, so it's kinda complicated right now. I've been told to watch out for certain things, and that's about it, and Mage Society is one of those things, but…" Sally frowned. "I've also been told to be less paranoid."

Mark snorted.

Sally's face turned a little red.

Mark grabbed her hand, and squeezed, and Sally sighed and grabbed his hand back, and then let go.

"Don't hold my hand in public, weirdo," Sally said, being all spiky.

Mark laughed.

Eliot and Isoko were walking up the staircase of the arcanaeum up ahead, and Mark and Sally were lagging. Sally was lagging on purpose, though.

Mark led the way, saying, "Being paranoid and watching videos on the horrors of magic is my idea of a great time."

Sally said, "Just make the Bad go away for a bit and I'll be fine, Mark."

Mark breathed a Union of Bad away from the group, and Sally's eyes got softer. Less worried. Mark asked, "Better?"

"Yeah. Better… I'm overreacting, for sure. They all told me I was, too… It's just…" Sally got quiet and furious.

Mark told her, "I get it, Sally. I really do."

Sally softened a bit more. "I know you do."

Up ahead Isoko proudly displayed her ID badge, saying, "Here for lessons!"

The guard on duty looked kinda worried as he saw Sally in her armor, Mark was Mark, and Eliot was Eliot. Dealing with the 'cute girl in the dress' was the easiest part of this whole thing, as he said, "Just flash it under the scanner there, ma'am, and have a good day."

Soon, they were in the hallways, and people were watching them here, just as they had watched them there.

Isoko commented on the signs, saying, "Look at the shapes! They're like the ones in the Binding!"

"That's Sigaldry," Eliot said, "But I don't know more than that."

"Is it, like… cooperative casting? Or whatever— Rituals!" Isoko said, "That's the word for them holding hands and pointing the big fuck-off lightbeam, right?"

Sally said, "It's worse than I imagined; they venerate this stuff."

Mark snorted and pointed down the hallway they needed to go, leading the way.

And then Mark turned a corner, and Tartu was there, standing with Lenny, both of them stunned as they watched Isoko, Eliot, Sally, and Mark, walk down the hallway, toward him.

Mark smiled. "Hey, Tartu! We're gonna do the intro class! Wanna come?"

Tartu instantly said, "Yes. And I want to coordinate language learning, too, and whatever other classes or subjects you'll be Understanding with a group of whoever."

Lenny said, "We want in."

Mark said, "Sure, as long as you can tell me why mages are more vulnerable to changelings than normal people."

Tartu and Lenny both froze.

Tartu got quiet, looking around. It was just them in the hallway now. Tartu quietly said, "Don't start a changeling scare. But to answer your question, it's a matter of growth. People suddenly gaining new powers or skills is the biggest mark of a changeling, and mages jump around in power a lot, so it's easy for a changeling to use more of their natural power that they've accumulated over their lifetime when they target mages. Otherwise they just live normal, small lives, hiding themselves forever. Those ones are much, much harder to find…" Tartu added, "But since you're asking about that, I take it that you know that your Understandings are meant to draw the changelings out. People who suddenly start advancing will be looked at closely. I am glad that you are aware. Based on yesterday, father assumed you were being kept in the dark on purpose."

Lenny nodded; he was not in the dark at all.

Eliot and Isoko were both quiet, vectors focused.

Sally rumbled with displeasure.

"… Ah," Mark said, as he thought about Walaria having plans within plans. Or maybe that was giving her too much credit… or not enough? Mark had no idea. He could probably talk to Aurora about it, though. But Mark was here with his team and with Tartu and Lenny, so he said, "We can use the intro class to talk about it— After the video, of course. We all need to watch those videos... I assume no one shows up for those?"

Tartu said, "We'll come by in 2 hours."

- - - -

Mark sat in a semi-comfortable seat in a classroom auditorium with a big screen up front, as Eliot touched some stuff on the wall and a video began to play. It was just the four of them, in a rather small-ish room. It was still plenty of space for Sally to sit, though, after Eliot made her a better chair.

Isoko offered, "I'm glad that they know what's going on… or what may be going on."

"Tartu didn't seem convinced about changelings at all, did he," Sally said.

Isoko nodded.

Sally huffed, and then breathed deep, shrugged, and sat back in her chair, to watch the video play, as she said, "His track record is pretty shit, so I wouldn't count on his opinion regarding where danger is coming from."

"He was fucked up with Lucky, though," Mark said.

Sally rolled her eyes.

And the video played on the screen, showing some cartoon characters in mage robes walking down hallways and reading from books. They looked happy, as the narrator spoke

"Welcome to Mage Society!

"So you have decided to enter into the wonderful world of magery! Congrats! This was a big decision, and you will be glad you have made it, even though magery comes with a bunch of rules and oversight. There are reasons for those rules and oversight, and they're called 'Magefalls'."

The cartoon arcanaeum exploded. Cartoon guts got everywhere, and then monsters arose from those guts, dancing on strings pulled by demons in the clouds.

"Ah, shit," Isoko said, "Gonna be like that, huh."

"See!" Sally said, "Told you! This is the exact one I saw already. It's all like this!"

"Shhhh," Mark said, just to get Sally's goat.

Sally made a very surprised and angry face, and then she saw Mark smirking, and she scoffed.

As the cartoon fire expanded away from the destroyed arcanaeum, the fire devoured a map from the inside outward, eventually encompassing the globe, and the narrator continued, "Magefalls come from the idea of mages Contracting with demons to gain more power, and then those mages fail their Contract, the demon takes over, and the world burns…"

The video was not specific. It was generalized the whole way through. Mark knew 75% of it already, but this was only day 1 of the 7 day remedial 'learn the basics and pitfalls of magic' course. Most of it was history, and that didn't qualify as 'that important', to Mark, especially when he had already heard of specific disasters from Lola's Inquisitor introduction. She did a better job of actually warning about specific dangers, too. This stuff was all generalized. Mark, Isoko, and Sally (and maybe even Eliot, but probably not) would be taking Lola's course, too.

Eliot knew none of any of this, and he was enthralled and scared.

Tartu would probably show up soon, and then they could talk about changelings.

Mark really wanted to try Sigaldry with someone, too. Someone besides Quark, who was way, way above Mark's skill level. Tartu and Lenny could probably 'speak it', right? Sure they could.

This was fucking awesome.

This was how superheroes worked!