PreCursive
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Chapter 186 - The Duelist
🕑 Added 2024-05-27 17:00:13 +0000 UTCSylvia and I were shooed away as Hook and the senior Agents took to seriously interrogating the SED operatives right there on that rooftop. We were instructed not to go too far, though.
We still had to get debriefed ourselves.
It was seriously late by this time, and I was honestly expecting Tarus to start peaking over the horizon anytime in the next couple hours. It was hard to tell time on Vereden sometimes, as public clocks weren’t really a thing. Don’t get me started on watches, either. With how new Clockwork Engineering was, now Mechanical Engineering, only the very rich had access to pocket watches.
You know what? Fuck it. I’ll make my own. I’m sure I could meld up something decent if I put my mind to it.
And…
All that was just distracting thoughts, from the very long night I’d had so far.
I sighed, slumping back on the bench Sylvia and I were waiting on. We weren’t too far from the public garden and plaza the whole confrontation with Rhiannon had gone down in. This area was rapidly becoming a hive of Nocturne activity. News of what had happened with Dusk and SED seemed to have spread across the ranks, and more and more Agents were popping up on what I mentally referred to as my ‘blood radar’.
In other words, Lifeblood Sense. The passive sense of the Class Talent was, generally, kind of useless. Usually, I only had the barest hint of an idea when a new person was entering my radius of detection with the ability. I had to actively focus on the talent in order to get a better feel for the pounding blood in other people’s bodies. But I didn’t have much better to be doing right now, so I was keeping myself busy by keeping an ‘eye’ out for people popping up in around a fifty meter radius, which seemed to be my range limit.
It was either that, or brood about what was happening to Dusk right about now, and I didn’t…I really didn’t want to do that. I couldn’t drift off into my own mind when I had a debrief to look forward to.
I’d noticed that a number of the senior Agents Hook had arrived with had departed in the direction of the plaza, though. My understanding of Nocturne SOP told me they were inspecting the area, hoping for some kind of clue that Rhiannon or the Solstice guys might have left behind.
Something told me they wouldn’t find anything. As mysterious as she seemed, and apparently hostile too, Rhiannon was…oddly powerful. The woman wasn’t much older than I was, but she almost struck me as being on the level of Honoka or Grey. My understanding was that I wasn’t too far off from the right level of strength someone my age should be now, after six months on Vereden, so…
Something was seriously wrong with that woman.
If she even was a woman. It hadn’t escaped my notice that Dusk and Thirty-Two had been implying she wasn’t.
I was knocked out of my introspection by the feeling of one cool, disguised Mithril hand laying itself on my upper arm. Stirring, I focused back on the world and looked over at Sylvia to my right. The Sculpted woman had long since removed her mask and was looking a bit worn down herself, but she still nodded up to the rooftop above us. Following her gaze, I saw Hook standing up there, gazing down at us. I don’t know how, but he’d somehow dodged my blood sense, as I hadn’t noticed him at all. Something about his posture struck me as impossibly tired, in the moments before the dwarf hopped down to join us on street level.
Without a word, he approached our sitting forms and then hopped up onto the bench. Surprisingly, he reached up and removed his own mask as well, letting us see the deep crags on his exhausted features. He let out a slow sigh, leaning forward and resting his forearms on his knees. Prudently, he removed a familiar artifact from a pouch on his waist, a small hand-held statuette of a raven in flight. Setting it down between his legs and activating it, a wave of Mana rolled over our group and I knew we were obscured from prying eyes and ears.
We sat in silence for a moment, before our commander broke it.
“So,” Hook began, before pausing.
“So,” I acknowledged tiredly.
Tentatively, Sylvia reached out and lay a comforting hand on the dwarf’s broad back. He barely reacted to it at all, but he didn’t shrug it off. “I…,” She started uncertainly. “Had no idea Dusk was so important to you. Excuse me. Liora.”
Hook cut a glance at Sylvia, an almost perpetual frown on his face. Still, he nodded. “What did that…woman say to you?”
Sylvia and I exchanged a glance over his back. “She…seemed to know a lot of things,” I began slowly. “For once, she appeared to know both yours and Dusk's identities, and had no problem flaunting them.”
“Is that so?” Hook said irritably, before shaking his head. “Go on, spit it out. Who am I, then?”
“Ah…she just said a first name,” I answered, a bit taken aback. “Baldric.”
Hook snorted. “Baldric. She does know, then. Which is damn odd, considering there’s no way some little slip of a Calonawr girl should know who I am.”
“And who are you,…Baldric?” Sylvia asked lowly.
Hook leaned back then, crossing his arms and gazing up at the night sky silently for a moment. “Baldric, as she said,” He said with a frown, before cutting his eyes my way. “Of House Florens.”
I blinked slowly for a moment, before the implications of his words set in. I sat up straighter. “Wait, the Rhoscaran ruling House? Does that mean you’re related to the Prince? And…Azarus?”
A brief smirk crossed the lips of Hook.
No…Baldric.
It died though, and he nodded at me. “It’s not a terribly close relation, and I…only met the two of them a couple of times when they were young,” Baldric acknowledged. “I’m technically their great-uncle, but I left when they were very young.”
“Why?” I asked curiously.
Baldric sighed. “Well…,” He drew out, before almost reluctantly continuing. “I’m only going to tell you this because you actually have ties to everyone involved, understand? Otherwise, I would have said it’s none of your business. But it’s like this. Morok, my nephew and the previous Prince of Rhoscara, asked me to leave.”
I blinked at that. “Asked you?”
“Politely, of course,” Baldric said dryly. “See, technically, I should have been the Prince over him. I had two elder brothers, and both of them were never very martially inclined. I was interested in growing stronger, as I had no other way to advance my position in those days. This was some, oh, two centuries ago I’d say. I’m not quite Greycton’s age, but I’m not barely out of diapers like you two.”
Hey.
Sylvia never even wore diapers, grandpa.
I kept my mouth shut, though. I didn’t want to get ‘hooked’, so to speak.
“So I did my time in the Army as a Scout, and then came back and started to make a reputation for myself as a duelist,” At my raised eyebrow, Baldric actually cringed a little. “I was an arrogant little shit at the time, and I’ll leave it at that. But it made me popular with certain people, due to my strength. To make a long story short, I calmed down after I met my wife. My eldest brother had died at that point, leaving behind a daughter who would become Azarus’s mother. This forced my second brother to take up the mantle of Prince, who would go on to father Morok.”
I took a deep breath at that point, and gave voice to a suspicion that had been gathering in the back of my rings. “Then Olag is…?”
Baldric deflated then. “My grandson,” He confirmed quietly. He sighed. “I’ve heard he’s been challenging Ely for the throne recently. I…even heard about your little stunt in the court, that he prompted from you. I…well. I never had much to do with the boy. He’s probably making a nuisance of himself because of the old factions that thought I should have been Prince over Morok, when my last brother carked it. By the time Olag was learning to speak, Morok was asking me to make myself scarce. I’d long since publically announced my support for him as Prince, but there were still whispers that I should rule instead. So, I faked my death on a false expedition into the Deadlands, and essentially…vanished into thin air.”
“Then…how did you come to join the Order?” Sylvia prompted him. “Surely you were not a member before this point.”
“You’re right, I wasn’t,” Baldric confirmed, nodding at Sylvia. “Heading the Nocturne Division…it’s a relatively new thing, for me. I’ve only been doing it for a little over twenty years, now. I wasn’t the one to found it, either. See, it used to be run by an old friend of Greycton’s. A powerful old bugger from back in the day that used to run with him as one of his adventuring buddies. He went into core collapse, though, and went out with a bang.” He chuckled morbidly, at some joke neither Sylvia and I were privy to. “This was all around the time I was leaving Rhoscara, so Greycton needed someone to take over the Division for him. My understanding is he approached that old monster in Marrowmist first, Cassandra the Red. She laughed in his face, though, so he sought me out. I never got an answer from him about how he knew I was still alive. I had nothing better to be doing at the time, so I accepted. It was…good for me, I think. I’m suited to work, and it’s not that different from my old Scout days.”
“And then Liora came into the picture,” I picked up then, nodding along.
Baldric raised an eyebrow at me, before glowering into the distance. “She even knew about that? Who the hell is this woman?” He shook his head, before heaving an explosive sigh. “I suppose you can say that. Dusk…Liora, is the last surviving family member of the previous Nocturne Divisions head. She was literally born into this life. She lives and breathes it, probably more than I do. I just kind of…happened to start looking after her, when she wouldn’t go away. I wouldn’t say I raised her but…” For the first time, I saw Baldric become lost for words.
“But she’s important to you,” Sylvia cut in, understanding how he felt better than I did. She smiled at Baldric. “She’s nearly a granddaughter to you.”
Baldric was silent for a moment, before nodding slightly. “I suppose so,” He said quietly.
“And now she’s been taken by Rhiannon,” I said with a frown.
Baldric’s face abruptly hardened. “So she has,” He said, lifting his mask back up to his face. When he raised his head again, he was Hook once more. “And I’m not going to let her stay with that woman.” He stood up then, deactivating the concealing device and slipping it back into his pouch. “Back to base, the both of you. I have a meeting with the rest of the SED remnants shortly. Get ready once you’re back, because we’re going to move fast on this.”
I scrambled to my feet, Sylvia following behind me. “Wait a minute,” I said rapidly, before he could leave. “What about Rhiannon? What is she, and why have SED been hounding her? What the hell is going on with them?”
“I don’t have the full picture yet,” Hook shook his head briskly. “That’s what I’m going to find out. I should hopefully be back soon.” Just before he left, though, he turned to look at us with a grave air. “But…I have a suspicion about what this ‘Rhiannon’ is. And if I’m right…we’re all in deep shit.” Before I could protest any further, he vanished in a blur of speed.
Leaving Sylvia and I to stand around gormlessly in the middle of the deserted side street.
I sighed, before I felt Sylvia’s hand settle on my elbow and draw my gaze. “Let’s go,” She said gently. “Like he said, we need to get ready. Plus, there should be news on Wisp’s condition.”
I took a deep breath and nodded. With that, Sylvia and I finally got the chance to leave, while other Agents were still scouring the site of our battle with SED.
…………………………………..
Wisp wasn’t at our warehouse base, but we did have news on her from the Healer. Crook was staying with her and she’d relayed the news. Wisp was going to pull through, but her injuries meant she was going to be out of commission for some time. Maybe as much as a week.
Which meant she was going to miss whatever major operation was surely being planned to rescue Dusk. Surprisingly, the general chatter at our temporary headquarters was very much in favor of that. It looked like everyone that wasn’t out investigating Rhiannon had been recalled from their missions, and there were more Nocturne Agents in one place here than I’d seen since Helstein. They all seemed completely on board with storming the palace to search for Dusk, making the assumption that she had to be inside.
I had no idea she was so well-liked. Maybe it had something to do with being the granddaughter of the Division’s founder, as I’d discovered.
But…
It turned out, having all of our Agents ready and on hand was a double-edged sword.
Because before Hook could return, the dockside warehouse was attacked.
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