Chương 53: Arenval Border

'Domrek,' Kaito said.

'The Compact's case file on me. You're in it.'

'I assumed.'

'I mean specifically. By name, level, class designation. They have you listed as my companion.' He kept his voice low. The road had other travelers on it and he didn't need to explain himself to any of them.

'When the observer scans your papers, it's going to flag. That flag will pull up the companion notation and they'll look at me next.' Domrek didn't slow down.

'What does the muffle do under a direct scan.'

'Sable says it makes my sub-notation fuzzy. The standard read will show Wanderer, Level thirty-five, nothing abnormal. The Priority One flag won't be visible at medium-scan range.' He thought about it.

'The observer might push to close-range. If they do—''Does close-range break it.'

'I don't know,' he said.

'We haven't tested it against an intentional close read. We've only been avoiding situations where one would happen.'

'Until now,' Domrek said.

'Until now.' They walked for a moment.

'The story is simple,' Domrek said.

'I'll lead with it. I'm returning from the southern circuit. I hired a low-level Wanderer as a wayfinding assistant. Common enough for long travel — Wanderers have good terrain sense. You've been with me two weeks. You don't know me well. You have your papers.' He paused.

'Keep the answers short. The shorter the answer, the less there is to check.'

'And if they push.'

'They'll push on me more than on you. I have a record they can read. Let them read it. A Level eighty-nine Fortress Sovereign moving through a political border zone is notable but not illegal.' He said it with no particular feeling.

'They know I've been flagged for pit-related activism. They'll want to know what I'm doing in Arenval. I'll tell them I have contacts in Halvard's fight circuit, which is true. I want to settle a private match, which might also be true depending on how things go.' Kaito looked at him.

'That's a lot of true in the cover story.'

'True is easier to keep straight,' Domrek said.

The checkpoint came into view around the hill bend exactly where Sable had said it would be. A stone arch, two-lane, built into the low wall that marked the Arenval territorial boundary. Four regular guards at the processing desks, which was double the standard number. Three more on the perimeter who weren't doing document work — they were watching the line. And one person standing to the left of the nearer desk, not at it, just watching. Clean grey traveling coat, Compact notation visible on a badge at the collar.

The observer. The line was maybe twenty travelers long. Kaito and Domrek joined the back of it.

'Sable,' Kaito said quietly.

'I have the observer's class notation,' she said.

'Compact Inquisitor, Level one-thirty-one. She's running active scans on everyone in the line. Passive range, probably twenty meters. She'll upgrade to direct scan when something flags.' A pause.

'She's already read Domrek.' He kept his face still.

'Did it flag.'

'Yes. His Level eighty-nine notation is in the companion file. She's pulling it up now.' Another pause.

'She knows. She's going to pay close attention to whoever is with him.'

'Okay,' Kaito said.

'Talk me through it when we're at the desk.'

'I will.' The line moved. Kaito stood behind Domrek and kept his posture relaxed and his eyes on the checkpoint rather than the observer. Watching the observer too directly would read as either guilt or professional awareness, and either one was wrong.

'She's reading the companion file,' Sable said.

'Wanderer class, anomalous notation, no confirmed name. The file description says to attempt close-range scan of any Wanderer traveling with Ironhide.' She was quiet for three seconds.

'She's going to try it.'

'When.'

'Once you're at the desk. She'll come over.'

Domrek reached the desk first. He set his papers down without being asked. The guard picked them up — young, professional, did this a hundred times a day — and ran the standard thread confirmation. The papers matched his notation exactly, because his papers were real and his class was what it said and Level eighty-nine was Level eighty-nine. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

'Purpose of travel,' the guard said.

'Arena circuit contacts in Halvard. Exploring a private match arrangement.' Domrek's voice was the voice he used when explaining things that were ordinary and didn't need elaboration.

'I have a reference letter from the Ironmark guild hall if you need it.'

'No.' The guard made a note and handed the papers back.

'Through.' Kaito stepped up. The observer moved. She was at the edge of the desk before he'd set his papers down, not crowding him, just close enough that her scan range covered him directly. He felt it as a slight pressure on his thread — not painful, just present. His Sight read her reading him.

'Wanderer,' the guard said, confirming from the papers.

'Level thirty-five. Registered in—' he read the name on the documents, which was not Kaito's name, 'the Ashfen region. Taren Ash.'

'That's right,' Kaito said. The observer looked at him. Not his papers. Him. He felt her scan adjust. Closer. Looking for the sub-notation.

'Sable,' he thought.

'She can see the fuzz. She's trying to resolve it. The muffle is holding — she's reading it as data corruption rather than active suppression.' A pause that felt long.

'She's running it twice. Stay still.' He stayed still. He looked at the guard, not the observer, because that was what someone with nothing to hide would do — deal with whoever was doing the actual processing, not whoever was watching.

'What's the corruption on your notation,' the observer said. Kaito looked at her as if the question had caught him slightly off-guard — which wasn't entirely a performance.

'My notation has been flagging a data artifact since the blackout this morning,' he said.

'I tried to have it cleared at a waystation post but the post's own systems were running recovery protocols. They said it would resolve within a day.' The observer held the scan for another three seconds.

'She's deciding,' Sable said.

'She doesn't have enough. The fuzz is reading as post-blackout degradation. Half the notations she's scanned today have minor artifacts. She can't pull a Priority One on corrupted data without a confirmation read.' Another pause.

'She's pulling back. She's not satisfied. But she doesn't have enough.' He kept his eyes on the guard and his breathing steady and his hands loose at his sides. Nothing in his posture said anything. Nothing in his posture was allowed to say anything. The observer stepped back to her position beside the desk.

'Through,' the guard said, and made his note. He glanced up when Kaito took back his papers. A quick look, the kind that happened when someone's professional instincts didn't match what their job allowed them to do. The guard had watched the observer spend twice as long on a Level thirty-five Wanderer as on the Level eighty-nine Fortress Sovereign in front of him. He'd seen the observer's scan go to close-range. He'd seen it come back without a result.

And now he was watching a man in his mid-twenties take back a set of papers and walk through a checkpoint that something in the room had flagged as worth checking twice. The guard's expression was not suspicious. It was troubled. Those were different things. Suspicion acted. Troubled watched.

Kaito walked through the arch and kept walking. He didn't look back. He didn't adjust his pace. He didn't reach into his coat for anything or visibly exhale or do any of the things that people did when they'd just gotten through something difficult. He kept walking for a hundred and fifty meters. Then he said, 'Sable.'

'She flagged her notes,' Sable said.

'Companion confirmation, possible class corruption consistent with suppression technique, Ashfen registration pending cross-check. The flag goes to her regional desk before the end of the day.' A pause.

'Her observation notes will be in Veth's case file by tomorrow morning.'

'But she couldn't confirm Priority One.'

'No. The standard Priority One confirmation requires a clean class notation match. The muffle gave her fuzz, not silence. Fuzz reads as system artifact.' She paused again.

'Kaito. This is the last checkpoint where that will work. Veth's team will update the field protocol within forty-eight hours. The next Compact agent who scans you will be specifically looking for suppressed notation, not corrupted notation. There's a difference in how you look for them, and they will learn it.' He processed that.

'So the muffle buys us two more days.'

'Approximately.' Domrek had come up beside him and was reading his expression.

'We're through,' Kaito said.

'I know,' Domrek said.

'And?' Kaito looked at the other side of the checkpoint. The far side of the arch had a stone wall running north a hundred meters before it broke up into the standard boundary posts. The wall had a board mounted on it — standard Arenval Kingdom notice board, official timber, Compact-maintained by the look of it. Wanted notices, travel advisories, regional guild updates. He stopped in front of it. Most of the wanted posters were specific. Names, class notations, faces.

Three of them had been updated recently — fresh paper, still crisp. Two were for named individuals with full descriptions and faces. One wasn't. The third update was a printed template on standard Compact paper. No face. No name. Just the description. He read it.

'WANTED FOR QUESTIONING — PRIORITY ONE. Wanderer class, Mortal tier, male, apparent age mid-to-late twenties, unusual System notation. May travel with high-level companion. Known to operate in Verath region, now reported in Arenval territory. All sightings report immediately to Vanguard Compact regional stations. Do not approach. Do not attempt citizen arrest.' Under the description, a blank rectangle where the face was supposed to go. Printed caption under it: 'Image under compilation.

Update expected within seventy-two hours.' Seventy-two hours.

'Your face is almost on a wanted poster,' Domrek said.

'Almost,' Kaito said. He memorized the post, then turned away from it and kept walking north. The border arch was behind them. The Arenval Kingdom road was ahead, and Velhen was two days away, and whatever was in the Resonance Node beneath the city was waiting, and somewhere in the Compact's operations an image was being compiled from eyewitness descriptions and that image was going to be close enough. Seventy-two hours before it went on every board in the kingdom.

They needed to be done with Velhen before the face went up.