Chương 33: Chapter 283 - My Enemy's Enemies

Thaddeus Month 9, Day 26, Sunday 7: 30 p. m. Thaddeus stood near the entryway of Harrow Hill's administrative hall. All the coppers doing paperwork or running errands kept peeping at him when they thought he would not notice, and except for footsteps, the occasional indistinct murmur, and the rustling of paper, the room was unusually quiet.

As if everyone sensed his agitation, none of them tried to talk to him or ask for an autograph, but Thaddeus doubted that much actual work was getting done past the suppressed tension. As soon as Damien stepped through the door on the other side of the room, the boy noticed him, and his steps hitched. He recovered quickly enough, his lips settling into a determined line and his gaze meeting Thaddeus's firmly. He stopped by Thaddeus's side and asked, "Here for me?" Thaddeus nodded.

It appeared he had come to the right person. Damien's reaction meant that something was going on.

"I will buy you dinner." Without waiting for a response, he turned and left, noting that Damien's footsteps followed him down to the ground floor and out of the looming, intimidating building. Several convenient restaurants with quality food operated near Harrow Hill, taking advantage of the built-in customer base. Thaddeus picked the one that was least crowded—which unfortunately meant it probably also had the worst food—and took over a booth in the back corner.

After giving their orders and sending away the extremely attentive waiter, Thaddeus palmed his Conduit and free-cast a simple sound-muffling spell and turned his attention toward Damien. The young man stiffened, raising his chin in a way that reminded Thaddeus of Sebastien's response to stress.

"Do you know where Sebastien is?" Thaddeus asked.

"So you're not going to ask me about my day, or how I'm getting along in my internship?"

"You know I despise pointless pleasantries. Now quit stalling. Where is Sebastien?"

"I'm not sure. I haven't seen him since he left my house a few days ago." Damien hesitated.

"Is something wrong? Is Sebastien in trouble?"

"That is what I would like to ask you." Damien's expression maintained admirable tranquility, but he was unable to disguise the way his pupils briefly widened and contracted, so minutely Thaddeus would have missed it if he were not paying attention. But Damien merely asked, "What do you mean?"

"I heard from Titus that during his stay at Westbay Manor, Sebastien seemed…traumatized." Damien's lips twitched as if he wanted to sneer.

"Sebastien was just tired. You know how he is. He'll stay up all night researching magic if no one stops him, and after a while he grows so exhausted that he shuffles around like some sort of earth golem."

"You are hiding something," Thaddeus stated plainly. Damien squinted his eyes, twisted his mouth to the side, and raised one eyebrow with distinct disrespect.

"Is this going to become a thing?" He gestured with his fingers between himself and Thaddeus.

"You trying to get me to inform on my friends?" He leaned forward until his chest pressed against the table between them and spoke forcefully.

"I really hate that."

"We both want what's best for Sebastien. Keeping secrets from me is counterproductive. I am not only Sebastien's biggest ally, but the most capable protector he could wish for." Damien leaned back and ran his fingers roughly through his hair, leaving furrows and flyaway strands in the wake of his agitation.

"Sure, I wish Sebastien would learn to ask for help more often, but that has nothing to do with becoming a spy for you. If you want to know anything about Sebastien, ask him yourself." Apparently, old tricks wouldn't continue to work on Damien. Thaddeus was not desperate enough to force the issue and damage their relationship. He was rather fond of the boy, after all. With a huff, Damien crossed his arms.

"I don't know where he is, but surely someone as capable as you can find him." Considering the boon the Raven Queen had bestowed on Sebastien, Thaddeus was unsure that was true. He had already checked everywhere he could think of, even the Silk Door.

Other than a plethora of outlandish rumors, like the ones about Sebastien joining a pirate crew, being the recently discovered son of the High Crown's old lover, or—perhaps most outlandish of them all—being blackmailed by a trio of his own evil twins who had been pretending to be him while committing crimes, Thaddeus had found no leads.

"Let me ask you one thing, at least." Thaddeus hesitated.

"Do you have any reason to think that Sebastien is wary of the Raven Queen? That she might be…dangerous to him?" Damien's expression opened up in genuine surprise before he got control of himself.

"Doesn't she like Sebastien? That's what all the rumors are saying, anyway. Do you think she'd hurt him?"

"I do not think it likely," Thaddeus admitted. Nevertheless, he still felt uneasy about the timing that led both of them to disappear in close succession to each other. Perhaps it was coincidence, but some instinct was telling him to be wary. If Sebastien was with Siobhan, Thaddeus knew that she was most likely using him to access her entry of Myrddin's journals.

Furthermore, whatever happened to cause Sebastien's strange behavior, the boy had spent several days at Westbay Manor afterward, presumably able to call for help, and had sent Thaddeus nothing but a cheerful letter. He hadn't even activated the emergency coin that Thaddeus had given him. Damien leaned forward again, this time conspiratorially.

"Do you know much about the Raven Queen? You probably have insider information, right? What kind of person is she? Do you think she's as villainous as they make her out to be?" Thaddeus narrowed his eyes.

"Do not get involved with her." Damien raised both hands.

"I'm not! I was just curious."

"Siobhan Naught is…complex. Extremely intelligent, extremely curious, and mercurial. She is exceedingly difficult to predict, full of tricks, and powerful enough to kill you in three dozen different, horrible ways if you were to offend her. Do not offend her." Damien nodded, wide-eyed.

"Can you give me details?" The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Thaddeus huffed.

"If you ever run into her, you may mention my name. She might give you leniency."

"Wait. Are you…friends?" Thaddeus raised one eyebrow.

"Why would you suspect that?"

"Because you smiled when you were talking about her. And you think she's intelligent and curious, which are probably your two favorite traits in another person. And either she's scared enough of you to let people go if they mention your name, or she likes you enough." Damien opened his mouth and eyes wide, then closed them both several times, as if this possibility had left him gobsmacked.

"You look like a dying fish. Collect yourself." Damien snapped back to reality.

"But that's even more reason that she wouldn't hurt Sebastien, right?"

"She has protected him before," Thaddeus agreed, ignoring the searing curiosity in Damien's gaze.

"It was just an idle thought, brought on by the insinuations of someone untrustworthy. Do not concern yourself over it." When the food arrived, he dropped the privacy spell, paid, and picked up his meal with another spell to take it with him.

"I will ask Sebastien myself," he said.

"Wait, you're leaving?"

"I have work to do." Thaddeus left without looking back, bringing floating bites of food to his mouth as he walked. Unfortunately, he had no way to immediately contact Siobhan. He had already left her another letter requesting that she either reach out to him or arrive early for their next meeting in the University's restricted archives so that they could talk, but he had no way to control her response.

It was more frustrating than he would have expected, and though he was sure he could make a scene and draw her out, he wasn't yet at the point of making her angry just so that he could meet her. However, this inequality between them needed to be rectified. After all, Siobhan could simply drop by his house whenever she wanted to see him. He had finished his meal by the time he made it to Field Base One and down through the layers of magical and mundane protection.

Though he wasn't an active agent anymore, he had been called in for some special, high-level meeting. Usually, these were to deal with some new, difficult Aberrant. His contract with the University stipulated that, if necessary, the Red Guard could commandeer Thaddeus's time to deal with threats. Technically, he should have made a report about Siobhan's discovery of the Aberrant problem, but he hadn't done so at the time, and he wouldn't be doing it today.

In fact, reporting truthfully was one of the very first sections of the Red Guard's vow that he had attempted to subvert, and by now he had entirely freed himself from that restriction. He only abused that freedom rarely, to avoid being found out by carelessness or coincidence. Thaddeus had been prepared to brush past Mike as he usually did, but the twitchy-eyed man hurried to throw the protective cover off a blackboard standing on a tripod near his desk.

"Here to bet on the Raven Queen, or Hite?" he asked, smiling so wide that his mouth seemed to have a few too many teeth, each polished like a gem. Thaddeus's footsteps paused, and he turned to face the blackboard. It was divided into two sections, one labeled "The Raven Queen," and the other, "Analyst Hite." There were dozens of tally marks and notes written beneath, though significantly more beneath the Raven Queen's side of the board.

"What is this?" Thaddeus asked. If possible, Mike's smile grew even brighter.

"Oh, you haven't heard yet?" he asked with delight. As if he knew the juiciness of whatever gossip he had on hand, he stayed silent, forcing Thaddeus to ask.

"Heard what?"

"Analyst Hite offended the Raven Queen!" Mike sounded so gleeful he might as well have been talking about a distant uncle that had died and left him a fortune.

"We're betting on whether or not she will retaliate, and if so, who will win. You can even specify which method you think she'll use to torture or assassinate him. Or, if you want a higher payout for worse odds, you can place a bet on Hite. Would you like to see what everyone has put coin on so far, in detail?" Mike hurried to his desk, where he pulled out a large binder. Thaddeus pinched the bridge of his nose.

"How did Hite offend the Raven Queen?"

"Oh, no one is totally sure, except that he went out to track someone down with that destined meeting spell that's been causing so much rain recently. The agents who came back with him afterward said that he insulted and threatened the Raven Queen out of desperation to make progress on his research."

"Did they fight?" He had originally assumed her Will-strain was related to her fight with him, but perhaps it was actually Hite, or a combination of both.

"Supposedly they didn't. And Hite is still alive, so…" Thaddeus tilted his head to the side.

"You seem rather biased for someone who is running the books. Are you trying to influence my bet?" Mike threw up his hands, almost dumping the binder.

"No, no! But Hite would definitely report it if he got into a fight with her, wouldn't he?"

"There would be nothing left of him to report," Thaddeus said.

"Also, I hate him," Mike said, still smiling brightly.

"I've been praying that she breaks him into little pieces and gives us all souvenirs. I know all that stuff about her responding to prayers is just rumors, but maybe she'll be listening through the shadows at some opportune moment." He nodded several times like a chicken bobbing its head.

"And I've always been a bit superstitious." Thaddeus stared at Mike, and Mike stared back, his eyes twitching and his smile frozen in place.

"Twenty gold on the Raven Queen," Thaddeus said finally. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a large stack of gold crowns. Mike laughed aloud and took the coins in both hands with a solicitous bow.

"Any particular method of death that you want to specify?" Thaddeus scratched his beard.

"Whatever it is, it will be something that no one else guessed. Not necessarily death, either, but definitely complete, irrecoverable destruction of some sort." Mike scribbled down a note in his binder, then put another tally on the blackboard.

"Everyone will be very excited to know you've joined in on the fun!" He was no doubt ecstatic about the fact that with something like this afoot, people would actually come to talk to him. When Thaddeus finally made it down into the base proper, he did not even make it to the meeting room before a woman sidled up to him, covered her mouth from view with her hand, and asked, "How would you judge the Raven Queen's lethality? Just…for hypothetical reasons."

"I put twenty gold on her," he stated plainly. The agent's eyes sparkled with delight, and she made a triumphant fist.

"I knew it! So she's definitely going to crush that unbearable asshole Hite?" A man nearby muttered, "I'd pay gold to see that happen, even if I didn't stand to earn anything off it." Thaddeus thought back to his own recent antagonistic encounter with Siobhan. The more he thought about it, the more sure he was that she had been holding back as much as he had. Perhaps, if Siobhan had had an easy source of power on hand, like half a dozen beast cores, he would have been the one who succumbed.

He wondered what she would have done in that case. Strangely, he felt fairly certain that she wouldn't have killed him. Another woman pretended to be focused on a binder of paperwork, but as she walked by with her head down, she muttered, "I even heard he's trying to get authorization to forcibly take a citizen for his research project. What a scumbag."

"Oh, I heard that too!" the first woman said, nodding.

"He'll never get authorization for that, since the research subjects who volunteered to escape their original sentences keep dying. I heard Captain Aisling recommended against indulging him. But don't mention that in Analyst Hite's presence!" Thaddeus frowned.

"Hite's project is experimenting with Will-splitting, right?" An uneasy lump began to form in his stomach.

"I can't even believe that's a real thing," the man sitting nearby said. Thaddeus wanted to ask more, but Hite walked into the far side of the expansive cavern, scowled around, and then limped in the direction of the meeting room Thaddeus had been called to. Thaddeus's gaze tracked the man the entire way, and then he followed. Thaddeus's clearance level was no longer high enough to pull files on an analyst's research or conduct reports, and asking questions too directly might lead to suspicion.

Surely, there was no way that Hite knew anything about Sebastien, right? As soon as he entered the meeting room, the old, hunched man's unsettling gaze landed on Thaddeus. He stared back with enough cold promise that Hite looked away first, then noted the other agents filling the table's seats. Most of them he recognized as combat specialists from various paths, along with a few of the most versatile support agents he'd heard of. Whatever was happening, it was big.

For a moment, he wondered if they'd received an order to take down the Raven Queen. If so, that would be a problem. Director Acosta, whom he'd only ever met in passing, walked into the room and activated the highest level of security wards, then pressed her hands flat to the head of the table.

"The Red Sage has dropped one of its two original prophecies for only the second time in our knowledge. This is an opportunity to stop it for good that we cannot miss."