Chương 79: (B2.15)

15) Whisper Ellen Ellen shut the door behind her, leaving Anroll and Kaluk to discuss the situation, and then let out a long, slow exhale. Her negotiations with the Theocracy spy had gone well only because her various Perks had let her put up that confident front, but even with her Class tailor-made for espionage she was feeling the pressure. At her Level, she was still an amateur, and this was a high-pressure, high-stakes situation for her.

It was also incredibly thrilling every time she managed to get what she wanted. Her heart still pounded from the encounter, and Ellen breathed in again to try to calm. Even, slow breaths, not gulping for air to feed the desperate rush. Her dramatic little displays were fun and exciting, but after each one she always felt the terror come down upon her for a few moments. She just had to steady herself.

She'd gotten a lot of experience from doing all those bluffs and sneaking around, and she had to process her Level 12 boost. Quietly, Ellen looked over her options, eyebrows lifting at the unusual options. She'd only heard of two of these! Choose an Ability Read Person (Upgradable) City Meld (Upgradable) Murmur Clarity Contact Trace (Upgradable) She'd expected City Meld to be an option.

The various Meld types were tuned to their usage, and added an active, mana-fueled cloak of camouflage over the body in order to hide it. Since it stacked with any passive stealth-related Perks or Skill Enhancers, it could be incredibly powerful at staying hidden. Useful, but not the most interesting. It was Murmur Clarity she'd really been looking forward to. It was a very rare Ability, but the Grey matched the type perfectly.

She could focus on a location nearby—even if it was out of sight—and hear everything as if she were standing there. A few Abilities or spells could counter this, but most didn't have the skill or time to ward against it. This Ability made information-gathering specialists terrifying… even if Village Ellen got it for free. Lucky her. Ellen almost selected that right away… but she knew she should check on her other options before choosing. If they were unknown they could be even more useful. Her eyes widened.

ABILITY: Read Person I Cost: 25 Mana (Base, adjusted by local mana) Effect: View a target's status to a limited degree. Requires several seconds of uninterrupted observation. Upon successful use, this reveals the target's Class, approximate Level range, and a rough estimate of their mental and emotional state. Further ranks shorten the required observation time, refine the Level range, and refine the state estimation. Further ranks may also show more types of information.

She'd been able to infer that Abilities like this existed because of her weird Perk, but seeing what it could do was different. The power to read emotional states could make detecting lies easier… though she was surprised there was no lie detector power yet. Maybe a Perk later? This was still very good, and an easy pick over even the Murmur Clarity Ability. Knowing this sort of information would be an incredible boon. Ellen smiled to herself. This was perfect.

Though she should probably at least see what the next one detailed… ABILITY: Contact Trace I Cost: 8 Mana (Base, adjusted by local mana) activation + 4 Mana/minute active. Effect: The user may commit 5 Mana to tag any target in sight, up to a maximum of Perception / 3 targets. Once the Ability is activated, the user perceives a colored aura around any individuals that have recently interacted with a tagged individual.

The color of each aura is associated with each tag, the brightness indicates the level of interaction. Furthermore, individuals that have indirectly interacted are also shown in a lower saturation. The user may define the maximum length of time that the auras are visible, up to a limit of Willpower x 3 hours. This multiplier, and the maximum degrees of separation for indirect action identification, increases with each rank.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. This one made Ellen blink a few times. She reread it twice more, trying to put together the exact mechanism and what it meant… and realized this might be even more powerful, selectively, than all three of the others. The only problem was the ambiguity… what did it mean by "interaction" in the text?

If it meant just bumping into someone was a serious interaction that would be less useful than if it referred to a lengthy discussion. She couldn't hear what Kaluk and Anroll were talking about. She also wasn't sure she wanted to hear what they'd do to the man that was doubtless about to be interrogated. Maybe Murmur Clarity was a bad idea in that case.

"Ew," she mumbled. Ellen didn't feel any guilt for nearly killing Cale, because that had been a life or death situation. She was also pretty sure the Original Ellen would have been more skittish about it. That didn't bother her, because she didn't really have any doubts about her identity. She was an Ellen, but she was also Whisper. She didn't need to bother thinking about who she was.

But she wasn't a murderer, so she'd need to be careful that this Class that was clearly geared toward spying and assassination wouldn't guide her that way. That was her real worry. That this path would lead her to become casual about death. For all the fantasies she'd had as a child of being something like this, she'd discarded them once she'd thought about the grim reality of being an intelligence agent. But someone needed to handle this stuff, if they were getting this kind of attention.

Ellen took a breath and realized her heart had stopped hammering inside her chest. One more scan of her options later, and she selected the last one. It wasn't the most immediately useful one, but in the long term it would be the best for keeping track of any weird conspiracies in a way that simple investigation could not. She turned, opened the door, and stepped back into the inn room she'd been using with her sister self to track down the problem.

Anroll was sprawled in a chair, looking up at the scratchboard she'd been using. He was watching Kaluk make some notations on it, though Ellen herself couldn't decode what the little numbers and symbols meant. She'd made some progress in theorizing who could be behind the assassination attempt, but every one of her ideas had major problems.

"Any progress?" she asked as she pulled up a chair. The way Kaluk's dark eyes looked over her, Ellen knew that another part of their secret was out. Anroll didn't look much like her, but an observant spy like Kaluk could now clearly see the resemblance, with her uncle sitting next to her. The Theocracy would at least have a guess about her real identity, and from there they'd figure it out pretty quickly. Not the worst people to find out first, she admitted to herself.

"It's difficult to tell," Kaluk admitted.

"The priest that the culprits claim to have hired them, if they were telling the truth, is not high enough in the hierarchy to have any real information about you or the dungeon. It is rare that one of our people is blackmailed or bribed somehow, but not so rare that I would dismiss it, especially now. I see why you wanted my help." Anroll twirled a knife in his fingers to alleviate boredom.

"Yeah, we got that far already. To answer your question, Whisper… we've figured out that it's someone who is fully aware that they have no chance of taking control of the dungeon. There are too many conveniences, and the priest will be found out very soon… which makes things complicated." Ellen frowned, since they hadn't said anything she and Anroll hadn't already figured out so far. Kaluk scowled and tapped the board.

"I doubt this will lead to war, but it will cause unrest in both our populations. Which means that while it is not an official act of my country, someone who is a citizen may still be the true culprit…"

"Or it could be someone here who wants turmoil in Thallis," Anroll finished.

"The goal was obviously to cause a mess, and even though no harm was done, it was still clearly an assassination. The only positive we have is that you caught them much earlier than they likely expected. They probably only needed suspicion, but covered their tracks in case the actual killers were caught." Letting out a loud groan, Ellen dropped her head into her hands.

"Why do people have to be so complicated? I never have this much trouble figuring out my sisters!" Anroll snorted at the half-joke, but before he could comment, the door opened and Stage Ellen swept in with a twirl. The Performer thumped her heel on the door to shut it, then flashed a brilliant smile to Kaluk before clapping her hands.

"Oh it's the spy from the Theocracy! Looks like Whisper recruited you!" Stage laughed, dragging a stool over toward the table since the chairs were filled.

"Just tell me where to stand when you figure things out." Both Anroll and Kaluk looked at the newcomer oddly, so Ellen sighed and explained.

"She's just as smart as me, she just doesn't care. We may be sisters, but we just decided to do different things with our lives." She could tell that the Theocracy spy had some questions about that, but he was smart enough to not ask them. Ellen had recruited him, and giving away all her secrets would be silly… even if she'd already revealed quite a bit just by recruiting him. Most likely by the time he took that information back to his priesthood it wouldn't matter.

She'd seen the volume of adventurers on the way to Onroc, and their little community wouldn't stay hidden for long. Kaluk's stare finally pulled away with the man letting out a resigned sigh.

"Sisters. Yes." The dubious tone wasn't even hidden a little.

"While I have questions about your own motives, you are for the moment trying to avoid placing the blame on my people. So let us answer your question." Chuckling quietly, Anroll sheathed the knife he'd been toying with.

"It's pretty simple, actually. With Kaluk here, we have a bit of an advantage because the local Temple of the System knows about him. So, we've come up with a plan to use your unique… talents." Ellen lifted an eyebrow. She'd seen Kaluk discussing possible perpetrators, not making plans. When had her uncle made any sort of plans with the other man? They'd only been alone without her for half an hour, at most! Stage Ellen clapped her hands together with an excited laugh.

"Great! It sounds like you need me to do what I do best… make a big mess of things! When do we start? Who am I dazzling? How many knives should I bring?" Anroll just laughed at her.

"Don't worry, don't worry. I'm sure it'll be something you'll enjoy. Just don't get anyone hurt, all right? We're here to catch the bad guys, not harass our neighbors." Kaluk forced a smile, though the spy's normally calm facade was completely absent. It was remarkably easy to see the worry in his eyes. Slowly dropping her head into her hands, Ellen let out a quiet sigh. She really needed to learn enough to make the plans.