Chapter 6-12 Vulnerabilities (I)
How the fuck does a Liminal Frame go missing? It's not like a godsdamned suitcase or... or a fucking sandwich! You need it burned into someone! It's practically more a place than a thing! Souls aren't just fucking picked up! It's not like some can't just steal it!
One billion imps? A bounty? What? Are you simple? Are you fucking simple in the head?
No.
Fuck! No!
You keep this quiet. The moment news of this gets out, every Two Sphere Fallwalker and above will muster whatever godsdamned forces they got and empty entire districts trying to find it. Let's not mention our "esteemed" competition going for it as well.
And should they find it, oh, you best your ass on Jaus' long-dead dream that they'll be looking to forego whatever bounty they're offered for the treasure they found once they realize just what this thing is capable of.
Keep this quiet. Do you hear me? Keep this fucking quiet!
The High Choirs do not need to be looped in yet. We just need to unfuck this mess and find whichever turncoat fucking clown decided to infuse themselves with the single most revolutionary piece of thaumaturgy in the last five centuries. And how.
What if we can't find it? We? I didn't fuck this up! I didn't lose the Frame! This is your godsdamned fuck-up! I am not going down for this shit! Do you hear me! If you can't find the rash-fucked--godsdamned fuckin'--rat-fucking Frame, I pray to Jaus and all our broken gods that you lose your stutter in time to explain just how all this godsdamned ghoul-shit transpired to Veylis herself.
You hear me! You will be explaining to the High Seraph herself! About how her special Frame went missing BECAUSE YOU WERE SO MUCH OF A FUCKING FUCK-UP THAT YOU LET IT SLIP OUT A GODSDAMNED PANOPTICON-PATTERN DEMIPLANE WITHOUT NOTICING!
Maybe if you're lucky, she'll just real-death you instead of looping you between her flames. And trust me, consang, you don't want to live that way.
I suggest you find a way to fix this. Or I suggest you find a way to lose your current Frame and stay dead after.
-Intercepted Highflame Communications between a "High Authority" and the "STUPID FUCKING HALF-STRAND" by Ori-Thaum Incubi
6-12
Vulnerabilities (I)
"Ninth Column," Draus said, a half-amused sigh rasping free from her breath between her words. "Nothin' like shit always gettin' messier and messier all the time, right?"
Within the apartment, each person held a corner. Avo sat, glaring off into the undulating patterns of ghosts circulating through the room's locus. Draus stood across from him, back against a wall with her eyes flicking between the fish swimming above. Kae, meanwhile, found herself content to peer at her companions, the doubt coming from her mind palpable, incremental.
"Feels like someone is plucking at us," Avo said. "Sees what we're doing. Knows too much." He looked up, his gaze following Draus'. "Would know if fish had ghosts in them."
The Regular shrugged. "River might not be using any ghosts to peek at us. Might be just doin' it the No-Dragon way. Digging through the meat. Splicing straight from the brain." She looked up and frowned again. "But so far, I haven't counted any survivin' schools between the batches. I reckon you might just wanna meet this Yosanna. Bring me with you in case things get off the rails."
"Would rather have you in a different room. Monitoring from a distance. I might be compromised. Green River too. You? I'm not sure."
The ghosts before Avo did a twirl. The very action seemed to taunt him. He spent his life wielding fractals of post-mortal cognition as tools but still did they leave more room for the truth to elude. More than Yosanna, he needed to examine his own palace again, his own sequences. He was missing a week of memories, yet beyond that, nothing caught his attention during his modifying dives. Nothing looked out of place.
Or perhaps, he was merely conditioned to think that way. Remodified in terms of memory or belief. Again, though, such hyper-paranoia broke against the wall that was his resurrection and the chaos that followed. If someone could reweave his mind down to the roots, why not alter him further? Why not plant in him preparatory knowledge? Grant him a clear set of objectives from the very beginning.
If his father was a part of this operation, such alterations would be unnecessary as well. It would have taken Walton mere words to bring him to the call of a new banner or fold. Dead or not, his father's words remained the closest thing to scripture that Avo still knew.
And there was another mystery to discover. Dead or not. For someone dead, Walton seemed to have a better grasp on this whole affair than those still living.
"Doesn't make any sense," Avo muttered, speaking more to himself than anyone.
"You reckon someone might be spoofing your father's memories?" Draus asked. "Using him to lead you along?"
Draus' words summoned a coiling surge of violence from the depths of Avo's being. A surge that ground itself against a flood of counter-impulses. The Morality Injector ran its countermeasures. The beast asphyxiated. Avo frowned.
"Would take a master. Someone like Walton. Ninth Column knows too much about me. The fact they know about Walton would mean that they already have us. Can't be a Guild. Would have just taken my Frame. Doesn't make sense to leave it in me."
"Maybe Ninth Column is using Walton's memories against you? Tryin' to... work you without you suspectin'?"
"Still makes no sense," Avo said. For a beat, he just stared at Draus. "Would you leave divine power in the hands of a ghoul? Leave me down the Maw with the Frame? Too much is chaos. Happenstance. Risk. Risk and no obvious direction. No objective until... until..."
"Until you consumed Little Vicious' Sangeist," Draus finished. "Yeah. You're right. It's a real godsdamned mess." She eyed Avo, expression growing curious. "You ever suspect me? As a Ninth Column asset, I mean? I ain't sayin' I am, but... well, since we're tumblin' down the conspiracy shit-pit..."
"No," Avo said. "Little Vicous nearly killed you. Waste of good asset if she did. Again. Risk. No obvious reward. Can't see it. Letting Conflux take you also too dangerous. And Kae can't support spyware. Too damaged as well. She's out."
A bitter smile spread across the Agnos' face. "L-looks like have... uh... having a crippled mind did something f-for me after... after all."
"Well, when you put it like that," Draus said, shaking her head. "No idea what we're stumblin' toward or who the actual players are." She chuckled. "Feels like I'm back being a Reg again. Don't know nothin'. Don't get told nothin'. Sent to die against somethin'. Details are need to know, and so we're always the last to know."
"M-maybe we... uh... we should leave," Kae said, her suggestion coming hesitant. "Draus you-you said the-the new mobile... uh... mobile aerovehicle is ready, right? Soon? We-we can put more distance between us and... and Green River. Try... try a-and make ourselves hard to find?"
Draus inched her head out from around the wall, light painting half her face in a mask of brightness as she stepped out from what amounted to the apartment's living room. "Yeah, sure, we can stay mobile. But I don't think it'll solve our problems. If they got a good bead on River and Avo, chances are, they got mem-lock on one of 'em as well."
Another disquieting possibility. Avo's memories didn't just remove themselves. Someone could have another piece to his long-term memories. Be able to track him from anywhere the Nether stretched. Kill him whenever they pleased, at whatever time they chose.
Of course, that ran into the question of why they allowed him, a potential asset, to languish in the clutches of a Syndicate for that matter. Especially one run by a Mirrorhead: a Godclad of no discernable allegiance.
With what Avo knew, it seemed that the Ninth Column spent much of its effort convincing him of its omniscience, while still lacking the omnipotence needed to allow him an easy path into the upper layers of the Warrens, let alone the Tiers.
With a low chuff, Avo shook the thoughts from his head. His suspicions had abandoned the territory of use and entered just rampant speculation. He would interface with the escapee when Green River prepared her interview.
In the meantime, however, he needed to continue expanding his capabilities. As Walton had taught him, not everything could be predicted, but in times of uncertainty, when you didn't know what you were standing against, it helped to have more than a few surprises in one's own deck as well.
"Should continue with preparations," Avo said, drawing Draus and Kae's focus onto him. "Got our subjects installed with spyware."
"They ready for deployment?" Draus asked.
"Have their Seances set and masked. Mem-cons and other viruses primed. Hid the phantasmics deep in their memories. Laced sequences with traps. Should surprise most Syndicate Necros. Infest their minds as well if they look too deep."
Draus nodded. "Once they go back in, how wide's our window before we need to make a move?"
"Depends on Mirrorhead," Avo said. "Don't think he has the skill to counter me. Didn't figure out my thought-shiv trick from before. He might not be an actual Necro. But if he tries to run..."
"We won't be able to stop him from just disappearing," Draus said. "So. It's a paranoia problem. I'll be honest, it's gonna be mighty easy for him to give us the slip considerin' his Heaven."
Beneath his helmet, Avo bared his fangs in a feral grin. "Only if he can avoid infection. Will infest locus with planted memories from our subjects. Create conditions for artificial mem-lock."
"What are the odds he'll peep that and get away?" Draus asked.
"Low," Avo said. "Failed to figure out you escaped with my shiv. Failed to notice the limits of my skill. Will likely underestimate Chambers as well. Won't be prepared to engage us. Can also alter the minds of our infiltrators using Auto-Seance. Initiative is ours. Just need to make their insertion believable. Shape the conditions of their return to make sense. Pick at his curiosity instead of fear."
Before Draus could speak, Avo initiated a session and cast his thoughts at Draus, their dialogue parting into a circumspect dichotomy. +We should test the waters more too. Turn our sights to find out what Green River knows.+ He flicked a look at Kae. +Might need to use Kae too.+
"Sure, I think I can whip up some conditions that made it look like they escaped from the Scalpers," Draus said. Her voice maintained its cadence, but her eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly. +You got something in mind? Tradecraft ain't my specialty but--+
+Not about tradecraft,+ Avo replied. +Need to find limits of what Ninth Column can see. Green River says she's only a intermediary for them. Can't be sure. Need more eyes on her. You should give Kae a drone. Have her monitor Green River. Her mind is burned. Cant be scryed right. Cant be implanted with spyware. Will be useful to see if Green River finds out anyway. See how far her awareness spreads. Or if theres actually any difference between what she knows versus Ninth Column.+
"There are a few things we might wanna go over before doin' that, though," Draus continued. +No. Kae's not prepared for somethin' like this. Think better'n to use her this way. You and I, we're right for this. Kae? She's got a handle on your Frame and thaumaturgy, maybe, but pullin' her too far down the deep end with us ain't gonna end well.+
+Contrary. She's perfect. Mind's too burned for ghosts to inhabit her. Limits us and Green River as compromise vectors. Might also mean that the Column has other means of surveillance. Coldtech. Voidwatch support maybe.+
Draus' lip twitched as the shadow of a frown passed through her. +Trust me, Avo, if they had Voidwatch behind them, they'd be capable of a hell of a lot more than just leavin' the legwork shit all up to us. So far, we've gotten directions but no support or supply. Real omniscient of them, but I'm not tasting the tang of effectiveness here. Hells. Only thing I might be willing to say about them is they don't seem to be against us. Plenty of chances to sell us out to the Guilds. None of those chances taken.+
Avo grunted a laugh. Ninth Column's deficiency was a most obvious one. "What kind of problems? With using the Scalpers to hide what happened to our infiltrators?"
"Shapin' the situation," Draus said. "Scopin' out where and which Scalpers to leverage and how to make it seem like Chambers and the other two managed to escape. We might need to make an excursion. Our opposition."
+Also want to try something else,+ Avo said. +Grow my Hell. Make it a Second Circle. Back in Burner's Way. We can peek at the Scalpers at the same time. Maybe Kae can help me stabilize the Fallen Heaven. Take this opportunity to create more room between us and River.+
+You want to see if Ninth Column brings anythin' up about that down the line?+ Draus asked.
+Yes. And if Walton left anything else.+ Avo fell silent for a beat. "I suppose we can go out. Take a look."
"Reckon we could," Draus said. Beside, Kae's head inched out from around the corner.
"Are... are we going out again?" The Agnos asked. "Another... run?"
Both Avo and Draus regarded her then with mutual silence.
"I wouldn't call what we might be doin' a run," Draus said. "It's more like... uh... scoutin'. Trying to figure out some vulnerabilities and whatnot." Wordlessly, she extended a link between herself and Kae.
Avo, despite how he loathed to part himself from awareness, ended the session he was running to prevent himself from hearing anything exchanged between the other two. With his mind potentially comprised as it were, seeing silos of knowledge developing between him and Draus, him and Kae, and Kae and Draus might just reveal how deep Ninth Column--or Green River--awareness ran.
Kae beamed with joy and nodded. "Y-yes. I think that can be done... well, m-maybe just theoretically. I-I haven't seen him in action yet. We might... might need him to deconstruct a few of those first. And collect some Rendsinks to... to contain excess."
Avo tilted his head. They were talking about Burner's Way and Nu-Scarrowbur. The Fallen Heaven. A potential Second Circle for him to claim. Options to trigger further hostilities between the Scalpers and Conflux. The details weren't hard for him to assemble in his head. Still, he voiced nothing, letting the conversation between the Regular and the Agnos play on.
You know what, Kae, Draus said, running her tongue across her lips. You might be right. We might wanna take some time away from this place. Get mobile. Her focus turned to Avo. You said you was up for an excursion right?
Wouldnt mind.
The Regular nodded. Hear Nu-Scarrowbur might be nice this time of night. Could do us right to take a closer look? See the sights.
Havent done much of that, Avo said. Might be interesting. Good change to pace. See the Warrens for what it actually is.
Yeah, Draus said. Who knows? We might even get lucky and catch a golem in action.
Someplace inside Avo, a deeper hunger burned.
It had been some time since he watered his canons. Much the same as it had been some time since he properly slipped his ghosts and supplanted a well-warded mind.
Was always interested in seeing how a Galeslither operates, Avo said. Think the local Syndicate there has a few.
Draus smirked. Well. Ill keep that in mind for somethin to be on the lookout for.
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