Ais barely reacted to Lucas Beckett's thanks, just gave a small nod, and moved to what she actually wanted to ask:
"By the way, Mr. Beckett — I've had a rough overview of the various cults from the Watchers, and none of them was described as being capable of directing shadow creatures. Where did this new one come from?"
Beckett explained:
"It's that same organization suspected of venerating truth and exploiting shadows. It's a new cult that only emerged after the war, so the church doesn't know much about them yet.
We can't even confirm that this shadow-creature-directing ability is actually theirs — because in the limited encounters the church has had with them, there have also been cases of shadow creatures fleeing on their own, abandoning their handlers. So when briefing people like yourself, we just didn't mention something we couldn't confirm."
Them again. Ais found that mildly odd:
"I see. That is a coincidence — if this time was also their doing, then this would be the fourth time I've indirectly crossed paths with them."
The church had noted when introducing the Truth Faction that the creature with legs broken by Ais in the outskirts of Burkef City, and the two gangs whose violent conflict Ais had provoked in Avignon, both had connections to the Truth Faction. The Witch from Moen who Ais had reported had also conducted transactions with the Truth Faction.
Beckett also gave her a reminder:
"Then you should be careful. That group seems to be devoted to transporting some kind of important cargo. The church still hasn't confirmed what it is or where it's going — only that whatever it is, it's extremely dangerous."
Ais nodded, and Beckett concluded:
"That said, Miss Fal — this kind of intelligence isn't significant enough to count as a contribution on your end. Unless what follows proves this was the opening sign of something much larger."
That's not why I told you. Ais gave a perfectly unbothered nod:
"I know that, Mr. Beckett. I came to tell you because I was a little concerned — I wasn't expecting credit for something this simple. That's all I had, so if there's nothing else, I'll take my leave."
Seeing Beckett give no indication of having anything further, Ais stood, passed her hand over the billiard table's mirror — and about three seconds later, vanished just as abruptly as she'd appeared.
"A teleportation requiring contact with a mirror surface?"
Beckett, having watched every motion, was thoughtful. Then he picked up the mirror from the billiard table and muttered:
"Quite a difficult informant to work with. I never expected, as a man, to find myself carrying a mirror around every day."
Because Ais was simply too conspicuous, the two had agreed on this method of meeting. Being exposed as a church informant wasn't particularly dangerous, but it would make gathering intelligence harder. So the church and informants tended to take modest precautions about how they met.
Back in the other room, Ais pocketed the compact mirror and took a moment to think through her plans.
The Femi situation seemed safe now. She'd made contact with the Extraordinary community and could source the materials she needed — she could begin practicing the Witch's role. The Moen events were only a month behind her, but low-key forms of role-playing should be within reach.
For a Witch — a figure who played the villain in legends and stories, master of many dark arts — studying dark magic was likely one valid way to embody the role.
Of course, Ais had absolutely no intention of using human subjects in the brutal, bloody way conventional dark magic experimentation demanded. And having refused the Witch Cult, many of the ritual magic arts built into the Witch potion were inaccessible — she couldn't petition the "Primordial Witch" evil god to answer her rituals. So how effective this kind of role-playing would be was uncertain.
Then there was the more immediate problem for someone without a stable income: money. Creating an animated dead was among the simplest of the Witch's dark arts, requiring only common materials, but three wild-rage herbs had still cost her 5 pounds. Her six months' rent could buy exactly 18 of them.
Ais was now a Sequence 7 Extraordinary — and if she kept running into cases involving supernatural power like the Femi family's, she wouldn't need to worry about money. The problem was that in a world where Extraordinaries were rare and the church was cracking down on cults, opportunities like that couldn't come every day. Getting one was already a stroke of luck.
"Why does every mage in every world end up poor?"
Ais sighed at the thought. Strictly speaking, Witches weren't pure casters — even without spells, a Witch still had impressive combat capability. And the most useful spells available were mirror spells, which required only a mirror as a material.
"If I want to earn faster, I really need to get into some kind of supernatural-adjacent business."
Going over the options, Ais couldn't help feeling that detective work didn't offer much financial future. For one thing, she had the Sequence 9 Hunter formula and the Sequence 8 Provocateur formula in her hands right now. If she could sell them, she could bring in at least 600 pounds immediately. Building that kind of sum through detective work would take a very long time.
Of course, whether selling formulas or supernatural materials, the prerequisite was finding buyers willing to pay — not every Extraordinary had access to divination to verify a formula's authenticity. That was also why potion formulas rarely circulated widely in unaffiliated Extraordinary circles.
"Fine. I'll take it slowly. Clearing the potion's influence and making money are both things that aren't urgent for me right now. But I should still push in that direction — not lie completely flat."
With her thinking sorted out, Ais didn't linger. She left the bar and stopped on the way home for writing paper and stamps.
Back at the house, she drafted a quick letter in a few minutes and shared what she'd learned from the church with Leel — attributing it to a friend's information rather than the church directly.
She also took the opportunity to ask Leel to mention her services to his parents' acquaintances if any of them ran into trouble. And in keeping with her principles, she reminded Leel — citing a desire to avoid drawing unnecessary complications — not to mention her to anyone in the upper classes.
With the letter stamped and sent, Ais — having been largely cooped up for two days — decided to head to the Bridgeway District in the southeast part of Beklund to explore and expand her range of operation.
The Bridgeway District bordered the East District, the Southbridge District, and the Docklands, making it a crossroads of several areas — with the security problems that implied. It would be a good place to pick up a new revolver to improve her presence even without using supernatural abilities, and possibly to locate another Extraordinary community. Maybe even indulge in the fantasy of some criminal or evil Extraordinary stumbling directly into her path.
It wasn't late enough yet to head out immediately, though. So Ais decided to use the afternoon first to turn that forest sprite branch she'd paid 10 pounds for into a proper Witch's wand.
A Witch's wand was simple in function: it allowed the Witch to skip two of the minimum three steps required to cast a spell, speeding up the process.
Normally, concentrating spiritual energy, mentally tracing the corresponding symbolic glyph, and either vocalizing the Ancient Hermes incantation or using the appropriate casting material to release the spell each took time. Combat therefore made spells harder to use than innate abilities. The reason you couldn't skip all three steps was that having all three simultaneously present caused the spell to release automatically — so a wand could pre-prepare at most two of them, but could not produce instantaneous casting.
Author's Note (this chapter):Of course, Ais had absolutely no intention of using human subjects in the brutal, bloody way conventional dark magic experimentation demanded. And having refused the Witch Cult, many of the ritual magic arts built into the Witch potion were inaccessible.
The Hunter is a war pathway — seems like the adjacent pathway Witch going into the military might also be effective. ·