Chapter 496: Seal Inscription Technique

Their destination was the stew stall, it was the same as it has always been. The heavyset woman was the same. The morning ritual was the same.

While a bit boring, Bruce noticed himself finding a small comfort in the sameness of it. Xiltra’s ordinary systems were, at this point, one of his stable frames. He could count on the stew being ready. He could count on the woman’s small nod. He could count on the eight-point price. In a realm where the political layer was rearranging itself around him and the historical pattern of his case was death or exile, the small predictable transactions of ordinary life were a kind of anchor.

He ate slowly.

He watched the square.

There were four watchers this morning. Different faces from yesterday, some of the previous ones had been recalled and replaced by new ones. Bruce noted the changes. Two of the four had the specific still-and-not-quite-looking posture that suggested Sisel Marn’s networks. The other two he could not immediately categorize. One of them, a soul across the square, older, drinking tea at a small counter, was watching him with a thoughtful quality that was not quite the observation-quality of the other three. That was interesting. Bruce filed the face.

Kael, halfway through his stew: "Four today."

"Four."

"Two are probably Sisel’s."

"I think so too."

"The one across the square with the tea."

"You saw."

"I saw. That’s not Sisel. That’s someone thinking about us in a different way."

"I know. I don’t know yet who it is."

"We’ll find out."

They finished breakfast and headed for the north outer district and the Deepwood.

The A-rank guard at the Deepwood portal saw them coming and had a small folded piece of soul-paper ready in her hand.

She held it out as they approached.

"Message from your sponsor. Delivered this morning."

Bruce took it. He unfolded it. The paper was small, dense, and written in a clean careful hand.

Ackerman.

Caelen has told me you visited the Library yesterday. I have not asked him what you read. That is not his to know or mine to inquire about. But I want you to know that the Library was included in the sponsorship for a reason, and I hope what you found there was useful.

I am writing to tell you two things.

First: Ashen Carr’s recruiters have been withdrawn. I received confirmation this morning through my own networks. He has read the seal and moved his attention elsewhere. This is the expected outcome.

Second: someone else has begun asking questions about you. Not Sisel. Not any of the four opposing votes. A different party, someone I have known for a long time but whose interest in you was not something I had anticipated. I am not naming this person in writing. If they approach you directly, please send word to Caelen at the fountain, and we will discuss.

I hope your hunt today is a good one.

Vessa.

Bruce read the letter twice.

He passed it to Kael, who read it and passed it to Theron.

Theron read it and handed it back to Bruce.

"Not Sisel. Not the four opposing votes. Someone else. Someone Elenora knows and has known for a long time." Bruce refolded the letter and put it in his ring. "That is a small pool. It’s one of her allies, or it’s Grave Ondar."

"Grave Ondar," Kael said.

"Grave Ondar," Bruce agreed. "She spent extra time on him in the meeting. She was expecting him to be a factor, but she thought he would move later. If he is already asking questions, he is moving earlier than she predicted."

"Should we be worried?"

Bruce thought about it.

"Not yet. Elenora said Grave is not an enemy but not a friend in the ordinary sense. She said his interests are not the interests of the other Nonagon members. She said if he approaches, we should listen carefully and not agree to anything and not decline either. That guidance still holds. If he shows up, we handle it the way she described. But we do not seek him out. We do our work. And if he comes to us, we listen."

"Understood."

"Alright. Deepwood."

The guard, who had been standing patiently, waved them through.

The Deepwood was slightly more familiar today.

Bruce stepped through the portal and felt the terrain’s now-familiar coolness settle onto his soul-body. The pale trunks, the layered luminous leaves, the dense ambient soul-energy, all of it was as he remembered from yesterday. He was not, yet, at home here the way he was starting to feel at home in the F-rank stone dungeon. But he was oriented. He knew the terrain. He knew what lived in it.

He led them east, toward the game-trails they had followed yesterday.

Today’s hunt began differently. Bruce wanted to test the seal-inscription technique on Kael, an enhancement seal, given with consent, to see whether he could inscribe it at his current rank and what its effect would be. He had thought about it last night. He had not tried it yet.

He explained to Kael what he wanted to do.

"An enhancement seal. Perception. It would sharpen your sensing for a period of time, probably an hour or two at my current rank. Manual says the target has to consent, has to hold still, and has to accept the seal’s placement. I want to try it on you. If it works, we can use it in fights. If it doesn’t, we learn something."

Kael thought for a beat. "I consent. Do it."

Bruce nodded.

They stopped in a small clearing near the edge of the game-trail. Kael held out his forearm. Bruce shaped ink at his fingertip and, slowly, deliberately, wrote the enhancement seal for perception on the back of Kael’s forearm. The seal was one he had memorized last night, a compact character with a small inner mark. The manual had described it as one of the easiest enhancement seals to inscribe because its meaning was clean and its cost was moderate.

The ink flowed onto Kael’s skin.