Messenger architecture was obsessed with circles. Their buildings were circur, as was the pattern in which they were id out. The wall around each of their strongholds was also a circle. The wall was only teall, which would hardly even slow down a silver-rank adventurer, but the wall itself was not the obstacle. It tform for the powerful defensive s that tapped into the bination of aura proje and ritual magic used by the messengers.

  Benel was unnerved by the ritual magic used by the messengers. Pallimustus had rituals and magical devices that created artificial auras, like aura beas used fnalling. pared to what the messengers could do, however, the Magic Society were children pying in the mud. Their ritual magic was able to not just produce artificial auras, but even take on and reproduce actual auras, as well as use them in more sophisticated ways.

  The messengers could actively enhance prote arrays with their auras. This improved both offensive and defensive capabilities, and was the key to their success in fending ur Adventure Society assaults. In addition to the walls around the stronghold, the circur buildings could each serve as a sturdy fort or bunker, depending on their size.

  The buildings structed by the messerended rge, with a lot of open space. ns rose from the top of the circur walls, creating a gap between the wall-tops and the ical roofs. The flying creatures oftehis gap for entry a, although there were also arched double doors. Aside from that, smaller doors were used by servants of what the messengers called the ‘lesser races.’

  The messengers had a number of strongholds scattered to the west and south of Yaresh, all of which had e utack multiple times. Each stronghold was made up of round buildings, surrounded by a ly circur wall. In one such stronghold, Benel was waiting in a rge round and almost empty building.

  Ihe buildihree chairs that would best be described as thrones, which were favoured by the messengers. The backs of the thrones curved in an hss shape to aodate their wings. Benel khat messengers could absorb their wings into their bodies, havihem do it herself. They almost always did not, however, although she was unsure as to why.

  Amongst the non-messengers like Benel, who had chosen to serve them, the best guess was that the messengers did not want to closely resemble celestihere was little ce of that, even disting the wings, as the messengers were around half again as tall as a celestine. Even so, the servants were careful to avoid even the implication. If a messehought they were being pared to their ‘lessers,’ any servant that did so would be annihited, irrespective of their value.

  In the unity of servants, rumour and specution would rapidly spread. This was because the messengers felt o expin themselves to those they sidered lesser, which was everybody. Their i superiority was a key part of their quasi-religious philosophy, which Benel and the other servants tried their best to learn of, despite the messengers having no i in teag it.

  Benel had found that the messengers’ refusal to expin themselves in any instand on any topic exteo the point of impracticality. All the servants had made mistakes due to a ck of information a messenger could easily have provided. The punishment for these unavoidable failures was always violent, oftehally so.

  Benel had seen that the danger level differed from messeo messenger. Since joining the stronghold full time, she had realised that the messenger she primarily served, Fal Vin Garath, was one of the more erratic. He was more proo violence, and what exactly would set him off was less predictable, with most servants taking ‘everything’ as the default assumption.

  The o find a new pce for herself was why she was waiting in the rge building with the three thrones, which looked tiny in the high open space. The only other thing in the building, other than Benel herself, was a crystal rec projector on a small plinth.

  She could no lo back to Yaresh, having been exposed by John Miller or, as she now realised, Jason Asano. She still maintained tact with certain people iy, and while they were now ying low, she had mao get the results of enquiries she had already made into John Miller. It took very little to discover Miller’s true identity, as he was almost funting it. Between the scars, the skills and the team he was attached to, almost any iigation would quickly reveal the truth. Whether he realised it himself or not, Benel khat Asano was ag to cut loose.

  Benel’s utility to the messengers as one of their agents ihe city was gone. Gathering information from overheard versations in the cage fighting arena had only gotten her so far anyway. She had mao dig out a few useful titbits from attendees w and making deals at the fights, but nothing wildly important or revetory.

  Her main value had been in managing Zolit. He would bee increasingly unstable without her there to reinforce the right behaviour and administer doses, now that she could no longer return to the city. That problem was no longer hers, however, and the messengers would solve it as they saw fit. They certainly wouldn’t bother telling her what was happening.

  The presentation Benel was waiting to give was her aintain relevancy to her winged masters. They had no sense of loyalty to those they sidered lesser, so any aplishments in the past had earned her almost nothing. At most, it demonstrated that she was still potentially useful moving forward. If she could show the messengers her value she would be assigo a new role. If she did not, her best case was being an ordinary stronghold servant. They could easily decide she koo mud eliminate her as a potential liability.

  Benel’s most ret results had beeremely patchy. Things had gone wrong from the moment she met Asano, and the key to her future was demonstrating that he was a signifit threat. If she could vihe messehat Asano was a threat they o deal with themselves, she would be absolved of bme. The advao the superiority with which the messengers viewed themselves was that their expectations were low. If they were required to handle an issue, then it logically followed that a servant was insuffit to the task. Ohing the messengers never bmed their servants for was not being their equals.

  The key person Benel o impress was a messenger ritualist who was o the stronghold, Jes Fin Kaal. She had been dispatched by messenger leadership and was referred to by the other messengers as Voice Kaal. From what Benel could tell, she was somethiween a general and a priest. How that worked with the messengers' religious philosophy she was unsure, as the only thing the messengers seemed to worship was themselves. What Benel did know was that if she could get the favour of Kaal, she might escape the capricious attentions of her current master, Fal.

  In the face of insurmountable power, the only choice was to surreo it or be crushed by it. Watg her adventuring team get annihited one by one had engraved this onto Benel's soul. In the wake of that, she had betrayed her own kind and her own world to ehe dangerous servitude offered by the messengers.

  Benel was utterly vihat the quest of her world was iable. If she wanted any p it, then service to the new rulers was the key, and the earlier the better. Only ohing had ever given her any uneasiness in this vi, and he was what had led her to her current position. She had e to believe that the messengers were right about their superiority, but Jason Asano gave her much the same feeling they did. It left her uain about her choice, w if she had betrayed everything and everyone, only to be wrong.

  Like Behe messengers were also seeing a shift in their circumstahe arrival of Voice Kaal had led to speongst the servants that the messengers were primed to escate the flicts they were involved in. Benel didn’t know much, but was aware that at least some of the strongholds were fighting ehat went beyond the adventurers of the city.

  Three messengers flew into the building through the roof gap; two male messengers of silver rank, fnking a third who was shorter and had no aura that Benel could detect. The messenger on the left was Lord Fal, while the one on the right she had seen ironghold, but didn’t know the name of. Messengers rarely deigo introduce themselves to the servant races.

  pared to the fair-skinned, golden-haired Fal, the messenger on the right was dark-skinned, with silver hair and solid silver orbs for eyes. His wings were bck, with white feathers along the bottom edge. His hair draped down his ba strings of tight braids.

  Both men were shirtless, showing off lean muscle but an odd absence of nipples. Their lower bodies were covered by loose, flowing pants of dark teal with gold trim. Their feet were bare but didn’t touch the ground, which was typical. The messengers frequently floated in the air rather tha foot on the ground. Their wings did not work like a bird’s and they were levitating around using their auras.

  Silver-rank essence users could levitate using their auras, and golds could float around in slow flight. pared to what the messengers could manage, however, it ale imitation. Not only could messengers move faster and with more trol, but they were not easily disrupted by almost any intervention.

  Benel presumed the messenger in the middle was Jes Fin Kaal. She was smaller thahers, barely taller than seve, and she cked the domineering presence of the other two. Benel couldn’t magically detect her prese all, despite Kaal being gold rank. All she sensed were the silver rankers beside her.

  Kaal’s clothing was also different, being a loose robe of deep red, with white trim that matched her pristine white wings. Only a few wisps of bck hair escaped the hood, which shadowed her pale, delicate features. pared to the solid gold and silver orbs that the other messengers had for eyes, Kaal had more human eyes, albeit supernaturally blue. They stood out in the shadowy hood even more than her bright red lips.

  Despite the auras radiating from the two messengers beside her, Benel could not take her eyes from the woman in the middle. Her pelling presence did not seem aura reted, although perhaps it was some subtle effect, beyond Benel's ability tnise. Her thoughts drifted back to Asano, whose presence had been simirly mysterious.

  The three thrones rose into the air for the messeo sit on, which they did. Fal looked down on Benel imperiously, which was almost fly normal.

  “You have asked to present to us information of a particur threat,” Fal told her. “You speak of the man whose familiar followed you to our meeting.”

  "Yes," Benel said, steeling her nerve. "I had already determihis man was suspicious, and suggested iigation. The decision was made to move directly to elimination, but he detected our approad fled. I had already initiated an iigation of him on my own initiative at that point, so I was able to gather a good amount of information. Then I tacted Lord Fal, and made the grave error of allowing the man to follow me using a shadow familiar."

  "We expect our servants to serve to the best of their ability, no more and no less," the dark-skinned messenger said. "There is no admonition required in a failure to notice a child of the Reaper."

  Relief flooded Benel, but she was not fool enough to thank the messehe implication that her sideration would matter to him would get her punished and possibly killed ht.

  “After colting the information on this man from my various sources,” she tinued, “It became evident that he poses a potential threat. I believe that further iigation is warranted, but in the wake of my failure, I am uo do so. Due to the Adventure Society learning that I serve you, I ot return to the city and my associates are either going into hiding, fleeing the city or have already been snatched up.”

  “And what of these tacts?” the dark-skinned messenger asked. “What would be your reendation?”

  “Leave them be,” Benel said. “If I were an Adventure Society officer looking into this, I would be ying traps for whes e to tie off loose ends, promising us further. There is a reason that agents iy are not given critical information.”

  Benel was under no impression that they were looking for actual advice. The question had been a test, which was good. It meant that they were genuinely sidering Benel for a position of actual relevancy. She at least still had a ce to get out of the building alive, if she could vihem that Jason Asano was a gehreat.