Chapter 210: The Farside Pact

  Xavi sat on a wooden bar stool, sipping some alcohol. Surprisingly delicious, for the outskirts of civilization. She had watched as Azure knocked his secret code, easily remembering it and replicating it (she was feeling feminine today). She had brushed her fingers past the bell, pulling a new temporary copy for herself. It was a nice surprise that it had been so easy to copy—just an iron rank, common craft. How cute.

  She had avoided all the initial chaos of Dylan, and now appreciated what a lovely chandelier he made. It was simple for her to slip the notice of someone like Dylan—he really thought, that for hunting a ‘most wanted’, that looking at the faces of everyone around would have been enough? Even he did get a little lucky. How unfortunate to lack the ability to utilize the gifts that Fortune provides. Such a cruel mistress, proving fortune to those who least benefit.

  She integrated herself after the chaos, when the locals were moving here and there and everywhere to exchange rumors and tall tales. The Raven Ranger—a world traveling bounty hunter, known for her ‘pro-bono’ bounty work, stepping in for 4 silvers a day—“she always gets all the luck”—“you can’t hold a candle up to her, dimwit.”—to defend an unknown woman, escorted by the famous Martial Hero of the Four Seasons Sect, Azure Blade.

  Her sort-of-employer, without name nor moniker, was shadowed by the presence of two Farside celebrities (relatively, speaking). Monikers, Xavi noted, were a curious quirk of this culture Xavi appreciated—without a moniker, a person was hard to remember, falling out to the wayside of public consciousness. With a moniker, fame lasted, appearance and name sticking in mind like a mnemonic. Already, the foundation of fact warping into hearsay, the unknown washed away and the brightly known emphasized.

  “Eh~” Xavi said, sitting with a certain angle so the assets she’d decided to transform for the infiltration dipped a bit out of her loose shirt. A perfume she had chosen, sweet and spicy, wafted tantalizingly to those around her. Abilities could make infiltration easy, but additional tools eased it further. Tools and magic, to create a greater sum of its parts. “Is that so? Is that why Dylan and Raven had such a spat?”

  The man she was speaking to glanced downwards, quick and furtive, attempting a semblance of polite eye contact. “Um, y-yeah. Dylan’s a bit…he’s not criminal, exactly. But Raven doesn’t like the reputation he brings to the hunters. He takes whatever bounty posted, don’t care nothing about its source.”

  “Even if he was criminal,” his bar friend interjected. “Who’d bring him in?”

  “Ha! What authority?”

  “I don’t know,” Xavi said, leaning in just a bit and batting her eyes sweetly. “Ya’ll handsome gents look like quite the authority.”

  “Heh, miss…?”

  “Call me Moth,” she said. Full monikers were rare, and single word names suited the small population of the Farside, if they didn’t just use names instead. Only a problem, Xavi had quickly gleaned, for those who also lived ‘up top’. “I’ve always thought I was a little too human to be a butterfly, do you know what I mean?”

  She tracked his eyes as they darted downwards, then back up, breaking eye contact for just a moment. He roughly cleared his throat. “I, uh, see what you mean. No delicate lady could make it Farside.”

  “Everyone’s got to have a bit of a backbone in the Farside.” Her smile was a touch sultry, a touch approachable. “So, my hardworking gent, tell me a story. Where’d you get your backbone?”

  Xavi found that many just wanted to have someone’s full attention. She gave that to them, and in return, they spilled their secrets to her willingly.

  ***

  It was around half a day later that Xavi was contacted by her…employer? Coworker? She wasn’t entirely sure what she was classified as, but it never really mattered to Xavi. Labels, although convenient, were restrictive.

  Nara, or Shine, as she was going around in the Farside, had been accused of being a ‘pact breaker’ by some anonymous bounty poster. Her mission so far had been undefined, so Xavi was glad to finally have a direction through the fog, although she’d go and collect every little secret she found along the way. One could never ever know when it came in handy. They were like glittering baubles to Xavi, for her to admire and turn over in her mind. Even the dirt and ugly secrets were interesting, nothing was worthless. Everything deserved to be unearthed and known, like shards of pottery in an excavation, treasure of the mind. They all told a story.

  Shine—since it was fun to Xavi to use these adorable monikers—marked a location on the map she had conjured for Xavi, circling the location of Acorn Alcove and explaining the way to find it, not that it would’ve been a challenge for Xavi~ although the concealment magic on the bell was interesting.

  The silent bell had an enchantment of ‘normalcy’ upon it—anything within a small radius around it would seem ordinary and humdrum, unworthy of note. It was an application of magic mixed with aura, and Xavi was most intrigued. A corresponding bell lifted its effects in an area around itself, preventing the need for multiple bells (or hiding the true effect of the bell from outsiders).

  ‘Silent’ was the moniker of the bell, but Xavi heard it all the same. She sensed its gentle, soothing waves of magic, the way it exuded its own false aura to direct others away. But Xavi often heard more than others expected her to hear.

  An astral space of impossibility.

  A ticking clock of volatility.

  A bounty of hidden origin.

  The manipulation of a hidden society.

  An accusation of pact breaking.

  Xavi wondered what unexpected truths and falsehoods she’d hear.

  *****

  “I’ll have to retract my earlier statement, although I still mean it in the figurative sense,” Raven said, resting against the couch and tilted her head back. “What an impossible trip! If I weren’t so enamored with modern comforts I’d want to give it a try myself!”

  “Oh, don’t I know,” Nara said dryly. “Thank god for cleansing magic. If it weren’t for that, I’d imagine I’d see far more rotting teeth and gangrenous toes. But apparently, ah, nothing a trip to the local church won’t fix! How annoyingly convenient.”

  Perhaps she was being overly judgmental. Oral hygiene may not be the best, but it wasn’t as if Erras was medieval, throwing shit in the streets for the people to prance in. They did have a working sewage system.

  “So that is your true purpose.” Azure said, not distracted by gross tangents of hygiene. “You wish to investigate what caused your soul severance—”

  “Soul-knapping—”

  “—I will not call it that, no matter your insistence.”

  She crossed her arms and grumbled. “I like the levity,” she sighed. “I don’t have many leads yet, but according to the people of three different worlds that I’ve interacted with, the standard for astral spaces are individual pockets. They can be massive, with multiple apertures, but they have never encompassed the entirety of a reality.”

  “Your suspicions lie here, in this supposed abnormality,” he said, not entirely convinced.

  “Maybe, maybe not. But when you showed up, it was the only lead I had.”

  “The souls of people are being separated and experimented on, the magic realm is quaking and volatile…” Azure said, pensive. He frowned, a shadow crossing his face, lips tightening straight.

  “What is it, Azure?” Raven prodded.

  He was hesitant to begin, but his sense of justice won out. “If the condition of the magic realm—astral space—that encompasses the Farside is abnormal and unstable, it calls into question the foundational principle of the Farside Pact.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I’ll retract another earlier statement,” Raven let out an incredulous whistle. “That’s dangerous talk. You think the Farside Pact is another conspiracy? Haven’t we got enough of those?”

  It seemed every world had their abundance of conspiracies. Another universal constant.

  “The origins of the Farside Pact had always been murky,” Azure began. “There are many factions within the Farside, but this Pact we all agree on? Yet we cannot agree on its origins? The Alliance believes that it is our elders which pioneered the pact, gathering the people in a heroic movement to secure the safety and future of the Farside forevermore.”

  “Huh.” Raven spun her gun thoughtlessly. “Hunter rumors say it was a famously charismatic bounty hunter. The Kennedy of Hunters!” she proclaimed. “He worried for the freedom of the people, and preached unity and strength to unite the forces of the Farside. But, well, Hunter rumors? There’s many, and none trustworthy.”

  “So, someone made the Farside Pact to preserve the status quo?”

  “If we are to continue our hypothesizing—And to divide Farside and Originside,” Azure ruminated. “Divide the world more than it is already.”

  “If we go a step further—who wants to bet no one knows the true origin of the Agency either?” said Nara. She knew she was right to distrust authority!

  Raven and Azure exchanged looks.

  “Ahhhhh-aaahh~” Raven let out a huge groan and flung herself back onto the couch, breaking the tension. “I’m no dense brick house, but I’ve learnt far too much today. I need a siesta for my brain.”

  “Your brain lacks discipline,” Azure said, sounding for a moment like Sen.

  Nara would say that she missed him, but she could just visit him whenever. Although his steady presence and reliable battle skill would have been valued. There was John, and he did have the thoroughness to catch what Nara missed. It was best for Sen to continue to be the rock for the team left behind.

  “But other worlds…it is intriguing,” Azure continued.

  “Oh, not just a slut for justice?”

  Even with one eye open, his look was scathing. “The purpose of our sects is to pursue the path of power, to enlighten ourselves, body and mind, to reach the human pinnacle. There are many paths to the pinnacle…if what you say is true, the pinnacle of this world is blocked, and we have been frogs within the well, seeing but a window of truth. My teachers had warned me, and yet I am surprised to find myself within the well.”

  Nara tried to figure out what Azure was referring to, that she hadn’t picked up from the recordings she’d shown him. “What are you talking about?”

  “In one of your recordings, there was that man… with the green eyes.”

  “Encio?”

  “No, the older man. His ‘grandfather’, though he does not look it.”

  “Ah.” Nara realized what this was about. “His grandfather.”

  “The diamond ‘ranker’,” Azure confirmed unnecessarily.

  “And you know what that means?”

  Another glare. “I have deduced as much from our conversations. We of the Farside refer to the first four realms much the same: Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, corresponding to the magic coins. Therefore, unless there is a higher pinnacle than the Diamond you’ve mentioned, it is the only threshold we are unaware of.”

  “You use the same metals?”

  Azure shrugged. “I have been told the choices were based off of the Olympic medals. I am unaware if that is truth.”

  Nara blinked; it was a bit jarring to hear cyber-wuxia-swordman Azure mention The Olympics.

  “The sects have an EQ 4?” Raven said, surprised. “I’ve heard rumors of some failed dark EIs…”

  “Failed?”

  Raven grimaced, and conflict flitted across her face. “…I may as well share, it’d be uncharitable of me otherwise, with all this free exchange. There have been attempts to raise an EQ 3 to EQ 4—not Agency side, at least, not the ‘light’ side.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, as if anybody could listen in on a cloud ship in the sky. “This is all below the table. I’ve heard that whenever an EQ 3 is cored up to EQ 4…they die. Etheric starvation, I’ve heard, but I’ve not seen it for myself.” Raven held her hands up. “But as I’ve said…rumors. Not to be trusted.”

  “Not to be dismissed,” Nara countered.

  “I’ve heard such rumors,” Azure corroborated. “However, no elder has broken through to the golden realm. I do not know whether it is an incapability, or if the elders know of this inevitable etheric degradation and have restrained their breakthrough.”

  “Well,” Nara crossed her arms, “other than the logical conclusion of progressing your own power, why do you care so much?”

  Azure frowned. “We all seek to reach the pinnacle, the cultivation of our true self, the evolution of our soul. But—and I should not offer such an advantage to you—” he jabbed a finger rudely at her, “—this information if of more importance to you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I am unsure of the connection, but it is clear that the current status of Far- and Origin-side are abnormal. Those within the gold and diamond realms are clear evidence of such an assertion.”

  “And thus, there’s issue with the Farside Pact,” Nara concluded.

  “If you cannot convince the Alliance that you are not a pact breaker, you may persuade them that the Farside Pact is a measure of sabotage.”

  “Sabotage? To what end? Other than dividing Far- and Origin-side.”

  Raven shook her head. “It doesn’t really matter, Shine. They’ll draw their own conclusions. Bottom line is, honey, that it limits the power of the Farside. There’s no clearer enemy than that, especially since the Alliance is convinced their brilliance is all that stands between order and anarchy.”

  “It is a good strategy. I escalate the issue and distract them from myself…but I wasn’t going to submit myself to their ‘judgement’ anyway.”

  Raven shook her head. “It’s better to clear your name with these sort of folks. And if someone attacks you after that, you’re in the clear to defend yourself, no repercussions.”

  Nara smiled at them both. “I appreciate the advice, both of you.”

  “I am being paid,” said Raven brightly. “Happy to serve. Leave a good review for the Raven Ranger.” She tipped her hat in jest, flashing a beaming grin.

  Azure crossed his arms. “I pursue justice. I know what lies at the surface is not what it seems. True justice requires deeper understanding.”

  “And challenging me to a duel?” she raised an eyebrow.

  “For your own protection,” he asserted. “The Alliance may not be unified, but my sect would shelter you until your guilt or innocence was brought to light, and your deserving punishment.”

  “Thank you! My hero!” Nara crooned. “Protecting me from the ignorant, unknowing people who would see me harmed!”

  “Ugh.” He wrinkled his nose. “As someone who has defeated me, please refrain from such an unsightly falsity. It is insulting.”

  “I wish I could’ve seen Azure get pounded,” said Raven, evidently not beneath innuendo.

  “Must you say it like that.”

  “But, you’re no actress, Shine. Won’t fool anyone one whit.”

  Her smile was enigmatic. “Don’t be so sure about that.”

  *****

  “There may be something below of interest to you, benefactor,” a body of Sage said, who was piloting the ship. After Nara had mass purchased some technology quintessence, the cloud ship had been upgraded with some much-needed technological comforts, such as TVs and charging outlets, and also some actually useful upgrades, such as ship sensors. It was not as if magic did not provide their own sensors, but technology excelled at niches, and magic and technology used in tandem increased effectiveness. Even in this, Nara was assured that they were intended to be used together.

  Nara tipped the upper half of her body off the side of the ship to peek at the landscape below. It was an unusual forest, with stringy white trees with multitudes of thread like leaves, looking like a plush carpet from above. From below, it was a strangulation hazard.

  At the edge of the forest, a battle was in full color and power, blasts of magic sizzling across the landscape and gouging holes. She was too far to sense anything with her perception any aura, relying on physical senses to see anything at all.

  Raven swung off her recliner, pushed her sunglasses off, and peeked off the side with her. Both were unworried about falling over the edge.

  “Ahh…” Raven groaned, bitter. “That’s The Agency.”

  “The Agency? And what are the others doing?”

  Nara glanced back down at the engagement: A squad of Agency operatives were chasing a group of probable Farside essence users, who were outnumbered and on the run.

  “Those are Farside Hunters,” Raven explained. “Likely hunting for magic-stuff. Essences, Awakening Stones, quintessence. You know the drill. Venture out, hunt monsters, capture criminals, find treasure. The life of a hunter.”

  A portal opened in front of the fleeing hunters, but a half-second later, the earth around the portal folded up, smashing the portal between hard slabs of earth. Even if the portal wasn’t physical, it was now inaccessible. Even from her position up high, Nara could tell that elicited a round of fervent cursing.

  “The Agency claims all the space of the Farside as their own,” Raven said, observing, “so they’ll hunt down anyone who collects where they patrol, claiming they’re poachers.”

  “Is the Farside their land?”

  Raven sent her a glance. “Oh hon, is anything? What’s your land is the land you can control, legal means or otherwise. That’s true of Farside and Originside. The Agency can’t control all of this space, but claim its all theirs anyway.”

  “But you mentioned—The Agency still deals with volatile zones everywhere.”

  “And that complicates matters. I don’t really want to, but if I’m being faaaaair, The Agency does have some greater claim for clearing out monsters and volatile zones. There’s been some push from the younger generation like our ace here to clear out zones to establish legitimacy and occupation, but,” Raven tsked, disproving of the Farside’s state of disorganization, “we’re disorganized outlaws. Very few of us have managed any sort of organization, aside from the sects. To further muddy it all up though, hon, I hate to make this so difficult, The Agency has also broken up our attempts to organize. It’s a huge, interconnected tangle of blame and responsibility.”

  “Yeesh. That is difficult. So, few want the responsibility, they just want the rewards. But The Agency is making it difficult for anybody that does want to take responsibility.”

  “More or less, Shine.”

  “So, should I help?” Nara asked, pointing back down at the fleeing group.

  “If I have to be fair for the second time this conversation, The Agency is unlikely to kill any of those hunters. But accidents happen. Essences are valuable, and tempers get high. Sometimes, ain’t nobody wants to surrender. Eat that loss and a blow to the pride. But if you don’t want to sour your relationship with The Agency, Shine, I recommend staying out of it.”

  Ugh. Nara felt like a National Geographic photographer trying not to interfere with the cycle of life, however brutal it may be to the especially cute and fluffy sort, not that the agents or the hunters were particularly cute or fluffy. Nara could admit her pre-disposed American individualism made her antagonistic to authority organizations as a whole, but she tried not to let that bias interfere with her decision. She couldn’t really pinpoint who was in the wrong or right here, and didn’t feel like she had enough information to decide.

  “Sage,” she said with a sigh, “make sure no one dies. I’ll intervene if it seems like someone will.”

  “I shall, benefactor.”

  That would be for the best. If anyone was in danger of dying, she’d interfere. For now, The Agency was and their wide-scale organization was her best hope of figuring out what was up with Earth, and how to fix it.