Chương 63: Non-Emnity In Good Faith

Scarlet looked at the bottle in the Historian's hands, then at the corpse that had been a thorn in her side, likely since before his attempted betrayal. Giving in now meant allowing an active, malicious threat to go free. Besides, it's not as though she needed the potion anymore. Still, she was curious.

"You would withhold it?" She prodded.

"There are other ways to increase the Mana Stat. They're not nearly as pleasant. This is simply a mercy," he said, gesturing to the potion. At that, Scarlet actually smiled. Such an expression on a face that had, over the weeks become increasingly opaque genuinely startled the Historian.

"I'll thank you to keep your 'less pleasant' methods to yourself," she told him. He frowned, then paused for a fraction of a second. Scarlet barely caught it, but with her attunement to the info-layer she'd briefly seen that he was using some kind of examination Skill, or something similar, on her. Her thought was validated by the ripple in his aura and his next question.

"How?" He asked. Scarlet slowly shook her head. She had no intention of telling him it was one of her rewards for being the first sapient from her homeworld to clear a Portal Trial. The Historian's expression darkened both at her silence, and at the realisation that he'd lost significant leverage. His aura receded, his expression went blank, and he returned the swirling potion to his storage space.

"I still hold the key to your original Trial from your original Portal World." It was a blatant threat. Just not as big of one as he might have thought. Scarlet remembered finally opening the labyrinth box and expecting to find the Trial key, or maybe the Potion of Tempering (Mana). Instead, there'd been an improved version of Maus's training orb. That was the moment Scarlet had realised she couldn't afford to be held hostage by fear of 'what-if'.

She looked at the Historian and bolstered herself with the memory of a conversation she'd had with one of the Umbral Spectre Faction's representatives. They'd spoken so casually about the Portal Worlds – how to tell one type from another, or how to determine its likely Tier or scope before you entered, and more – as though it was common knowledge, declaring the Vixen's Vice Portal World was most likely…

"An instanced world." Her words landed like well placed bombs in the conversation. Her meaning was clear: If he didn't give her the key, she could simply go back to her homeworld and reset the Trial by re-entering the portal. That would allow her to enter a different instance of the Portal world. One where the Historian hadn't stolen the key before Scarlet had even reached the tower. No key? No problem. Here's another! It was a gamble.

They both knew it was a gamble, but it was one that Scarlet could afford to take since she'd already secured the first Portal World clear, and first Tier 1 Portal World clear for her homeland when she'd completed the Sunken Land Trial. Of course, she still intended to clear it the Vixen's Vice, and there was not real guarantee it was instanced – just a lot of well supported conjecture by a friendly faction. On the off chance it wasn't instanced.

Well, it was a loss she was willing to take, to ensure he didn't have leverage over her. Much like there were other ways to reach full Stat saturation in Mana, there were other ways to obtain administrative access over a Portal World. Neither were pleasant. The tension in the room was dense, and cloying. However, Scarlet had no intention of breaking her deal with the silent shadow still stuck dagger-deep into a person whose soul they were extracting.

A person who had wished not just for her death, but for the complete subjugation of her entire world. The tension climbed higher. The waves of emotion now more like a hurricane until eventually, the storm broke. The Historian smiled and shook his head.

"Well played," he said, knowing that if he stopped the assassin and revived Tareth without either side yielding, he would be in breach of the contract because technically Tareth would have never died. It was his own damn fault, he supposed for only having time-based restoration abilities, the same abilities Scarlet had subsumed all that time ago. The same abilities that gave her the confidence to execute this plan today. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

With that, the hideously complex spell that had been holding Tareth together unraveled, allowing the assassin to jerk his blade back and tuck it away, souls of his enemies and all. Then the dark phantom spoke for the first time.

"Service is rendered. Payment received." The voice was sibilant and soft, yet grating. They flashed a glint of jagged, bone-white teeth in a gesture that was mostly obscured by darkness, illusion, and terrible clothing.

"Before I leave," they said, and pulled out what looked like a piece of bone the size and shape of a business card. Scarlet Investigated it, discovering it to be something called a 'Contact Slip' It allowed cross Interface communication with other Factions. She queried the Guide, because what was this about a communication function? She'd never seen that tab. [Tier insufficient. Advancement required for additional information] Typical.

She tucked the magic contact card away, promising herself she'd study the enchantments later.

"The Umbral Specters eagerly await your ascension. Benefactor," they finished. Then the assassin bowed to her in a surprisingly elegant manner considering the lack of general body shape. They bowed to Maus next, and instead of rising from their bow, they just kept going. Folding into themselves as their form collapsed into a shadow and vanished. With the departure of the extra party, Tareth's corpse was finally released to flop to the ground.

Despite having witnessed and even documented cadavers before, this was the first time she'd played a firsthand part in the death of a sapient being. It was her words, her actions that brought an end Tareth's life. She didn't feel the way she'd thought she would. She didn't think she'd be remorseful, but she did think she'd feel something. Something that recognised the 'sanctity' of sapient life. Something that told her what she'd done was necessary, but wrong.

Yet all she saw when she looked at the body slowly oozing unpleasant fluids at her feet was a pile of meat. A body without a person was like a puppet without a puppeteer: just another lifeless thing. Maybe because she hadn't struck the killing blow? She didn't know, and she supposed she wouldn't until she took that final step for herself. Unfortunately, it was something she doubted she'd be able to avoid for much longer. The energy in the room was suffocating.

The tension alone was enough that Maus decided to hide in his favourite position beneath her shirt.

'Warm, buddy?' she asked sending along a hint of mirth as he snuggled down.

'Warm. Tired.' The absolute flood of faith and trust sent along with those few words and actions worked both to sober her from the mounting hysteria of just what it meant to win that battle and ratchet her instincts up another notch. It wasn't over yet. Not until she stepped back through that portal into the forest of her homeworld. Free from the constant surveillance and brutal training regimens that had ruled her life. She looked at the Historian. He'd been looking at her the whole time.

"A question before we leave," the Historian said, and continued at her nod.

"Would you tell me how?"

"How what?" He made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a scoff, looked at the corpse of his disciple, then back at Scarlet. His aura was once more open for her to read. While there was an overwhelming amount of curiosity, disappointment, and avarice there, she couldn't sense anything like grief.

"You shouldn't have lasted that long," he said bluntly. She pressed her lips together and nodded once. He wasn't wrong. She shouldn't have lasted that long. But she had.

"How'd you do it?" She just looked at him, her silence its own answer. He tsked.

"What would it take you to tell me? What could I offer you?"

"Many things, I'm sure," she replied.

"What would you want?" She stared at him. There was a lot she wanted, but what she truly needed was time. Time to set up her faction. Time to coordinate, to grow, to climb the Tiers and actually have the leeway to acclimatise to, it. From all she'd understood, the 1 st and 4 th Tiers were the most dramatic transformations; subtle boundary markers between different progressions of a species.

It would have been much easier for a Stat-saturated Tier 1 to beat a hollow Tier 3 than it was for a Tier 0 to defeat a mediocre Tier 2. And that was also why the Historian was so curious. She shouldn't have lasted nearly as long as she had. She supposed this was a secret she could barter, as he was obligated to hold hers. Still, technically she hadn't reached full Stat saturation yet. VIT had caught up but WIL was still teetering on the edge.

She had a feeling the conviction required for this decision would nudge her over.

"It will be kept under out current confidentiality clause?" She stated.

"Of course." He agreed, then tilted his head down.

"Unless…" She shook her head and stared down at her hands where they rested on her now reassembled cane. She could feel the steady beat of her heart where her palm met the pommel. So his scan had told him something, but not her exact Stats. Good. That was good. Meeting his gaze, she offered him a smile for the second time that day. This one was weary, but genuine.

"I'm still lacking some Willpower," she said. At that, the Historian threw back his head and barked a laugh. It was loud and harsh and honest. It was perhaps the first and last time the two of them had been completely honest with each other.

"So, what will it be? What's the price for this secret?"

"No enmity," she said. The room was silent for a beat, before the Historian spoke.

"No enmity?"

"No enmity." She nodded again.

"In good faith."

"You're a clever one, aren't you," The Historian said. With his status, a System bound promise of 'non-enmity' in 'good faith' was the same as a non-aggression pact with a majority of the FelisCanis faction. However, when he considered his already substantial gains, the Historian didn't hesitate to agree.

"Well, there are better places to hear a story," he said nudging his toe against his disciple with a look of disgust. Scarlet watched Tareth's body vanish just as a notification flashed into her vision. [You have completed the Trial: Endless Horde of the Sunken Land] [Would you like to exit this Portal World?] [Yes | No] It was a message she'd seen dozens of times before at this point, though why she was seeing it now was clear. It was an administrator prompt.

"Shall we then?" Asked the administrator. [Yes]