To say that Whisper is angry is an understatent. I can see the color of her anger turning her Firmant with a dark, stained crimson. It's so strong it's impacting the nature of her skills, even without having to use sothing like Hueshift; I can feel her anger like it's heat against my skin, and I shift back out of Phaseslip to avoid it.
"I forgot how arrogant you Trialgoers can get," she sneers at .
I cock my head. "Aren't you a Trialgoer too?"
The sound she makes is unintelligible, either because she isn't saying anything in particular or because it's too warped for the Interface to make sense of it. She has enough self-restraint, thankfully, to not imdiately fire a beam of Firmant at — out here in the slums of Isthanok, an attack like that would cause devastating casualties.
It occurs to , perhaps a little late, that provoking her in the midst of a civilian-populated area is probably not the best of ideas.
But it's also the only thing giving an advantage. For all of Whisper's faults, she seems hesitant to damage her beloved city. Her perfectionism seems to extend even to this more run-down part of Isthanok. I can see the way her eyes dart between the buildings next to and behind , as if trying to figure out if she can launch an attack without destroying a part of her city.
The answer, apparently, is that she cannot. And that tells quite a bit about her capabilities all on its own.
"Why are you even lettingthe Integrators do this?" I ask. "Hestia isn't growing. It's held more than three hundred Trials without any Trialgoer succeeding. Your entire planet is just going through the motions. What's the point?"
"Isthanok isn't perfect yet," Whisper says coldly. "If the ti cos, I will free Hestia myself. But not before I fix everything."
"That's a better answer than I expected," I say. "It's still a bad answer, though."
It takes a second, but I realize why Whisper isn't doing anything. The Firmant around and behind her is slightly distorted, the distortion just barely visible because it doesn't follow the sa gradient of density the rest of the Firmant in the area carries; I rember abruptly the frog-like creature that tried to assassinate in one of the past loops.
If I'm not missing any of them, there are three of them gathered behind her, each of them aiming a Firmant weapon at and ready to fire. I keep myself tensed — they're Firmant-based attacks, so it's not sothing I can just Phaseslip through. A Warpstep will get out of the way if they're too fast to dodge conventionally.
But I'm realizing I don't like what I'm doing here.
I'm reacting. Whisper is making the first moves — right now, she has the advantage. She knows I'm a Trialgoer, and she knows enough to go after Miktik, even if she apparently doesn't know what I look like or who I am. She should have sent a ssage back to herself as soon as she sees , but I haven't seen her look for or interact with the Interface, nor sensed the telltale Firmant associated with it.
I rember an idea I had a few loops back.
I need to make sure I have the information advantage.
The thought settles quickly into a plan.
Hey, Ahkelios. I send the thought through our bond, and I feel the little mantis reacting, stiffening on my shoulder. Whisper hasn't reacted or taken notice of him yet — it's sothing she's been pretty consistent about. She just doesn't take notice of him. I need you to be ready to kill .
You what? Ahkelios's startled response rings through our bond. Ethan, I don't know if it's a good idea for you to—
—Doesn't matter for now, I interrupt. Look, I need the information advantage on Whisper. I need to make sure she has the wrong idea of what I want and what I'm doing. There's only one way to do that, and it's to make sure she sends back the information I want her to send back.
You know you can't let yourself get used to doing this, right? Ahkelios sounds worried, and if I'm being honest, I appreciate it. Maybe that's what all the other Trialgoers were missing — soone to ground them.
I know, I respond. But I've got you to warn if I'm going off the deep end, don't I?
I can feel Ahkelios being simultaneously flattered and worried through our bond, and I have to bite back my amusent lest Whisper suspect sothing. I guess you do, Ahkelios says. But you better listen to if I tell you to stop!
I will, I promise. I'll give you the signal. Let's hope this works.
"I can tell you're planning sothing, dear," Whisper says. She seems to have used the silence to calm down — her Firmant has settled down a little, the crimson tinge in the air fading away to sothing no longer visible. I'm sure I'd still see traces of it if I turned on Firmant Sight, but I don't want to give away anything more about what I can do right now. "Why don't you tell what you're planning?"
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Another Whisper. I Phaseslip once more, and almost imdiately take note of the trap she's prepared — she was waiting for it. The extra solidity I get against Firmant in this form makes particularly vulnerable to the assassins standing behind her, I'm guessing. Three darts of Firmant whip toward at the sa ti the Whisper tries to connect to .
I am, thankfully, prepared.
Warpstep.
What I'm a little less prepared for is the interaction between Warpstep and Phaseslip. Warpstep is feels significantly different when I'm phased, and not in a good way; instead of an instantaneous transition taking from one point to another, I feel my entire self stretching through space. There's a mont of nausea, a mont where I feel like I'm in two places at once, a mont where I feel like I'm being forced at rapid speed through an immovable object.
Then it's over. I don't have the ti to reorient myself. Teleportation doesn't stop Whisper's skill from trying to take effect, and even if I've dodged the assassins for the ti being, it's only going to take a second for them to find again. Ti for an old trick.
I use an Inspired Quicken Mind, applying Accelerator to it to speed up my perception. Once again, it drains my Firmant of almost everything I can muster — as much as I've improved, the Inspiration appears to have improved along with , and so it's draining a proportionally greater amount of my strength to fuel itself.
The world, too, slows to a near stop. The accelerated perception I'm experiencing now is an entire magnitude greater than before...
Which is a bad thing. I grimace. My mind is too accelerated. At the rate I'm moving, it's going to drain nearly all my Firmant before I can close my fist around the hostile skill.
Nothing to it but to adjust my trajectory and hope for the best. I let my perception snap back to normal; my hand closes around the Whisper, Crystallized Strength already fueling with the power to snap the foreign Firmant in half.
Except Whisper's adjusted, because of course she has. Her Firmant splits smoothly in half in my grip, coiling around as two separate attacks instead of one. I grit my teeth and readjust, bringing up my Amplification Gauntlet so I can crush one into the ground. The other I'm too out of position to stop, and so I just apply a quick Hueshift as it attaches itself to .
If nothing else, it's halved in power, and the Hueshift will weaken it even more. Combined with the Firmant sink Miktik lent , I think I can make this work with my plans.
Whisper smirks at . "Good try," she praises, though her voice drips with condescending superiority. I fake a grimace. It's not even entirely fake — I can feel her Firmant coursing through with each mont I refuse to answer her question, turning into a blistering heat that burns beneath my skin.
But the Hueshift weakens the effect, and Miktik's Firmant sink is collecting every bit of stray heat it can. It's heating up in turn, of course. This version of it is far from perfect. But in combination with my own skills, with my durability, with the weakened version of the Whisper that hit ...
It's enough.
"You want to know what I'm planning?" I ask. I wince a bit as I speak, feeling the burn of Whisper's Firmant grow; to lessen the strain, I mix in a bit of the truth. "I want to go to the Craven Arena and win so points. You know, considering you upgraded the rewards so much."
I pause for a mont to consider how much convincing Whisper will need. I've been to the Craven Arena a few tis now, although I've only t the Ringmaster once. I've got so idea of who is fighting when. I have a rough idea of the combat styles of most of my opponents—
"I see," Whisper says. "And why are you visiting my engineer?"
I almost blink in surprise, but manage to cover up my reaction with another grimace as the Whisper compels to answer. She really just... believed . She-Who-Whispers doesn't doubt for a second that her skill might fail her, or that others might find a way around it. That's a weakness if I've ever seen one. "It's kind of hard to fight the people in the Arena," I say, which isn't technically a lie. The Firmant sink heats up in my pocket. "I t her in a previous loop. I'm pretty sure she can make a weapon for ."
Whisper snorts. "And you needed to seal her workshop to do this?"
She thinks I sealed the workshop? For an all-knowing leader of Isthanok, she's surprisingly ignorant to what's actually happening in it. "I didn't want you to listen in and find out I was the Trialgoer," I say, which is also technically the truth.
I can feel Ahkelios trembling as he tries to withhold his giggles. You better not give this away, I mutter to him.
I won't, he says. It's just — I can't believe she's this easy to fool.
I don't think she's ever considered that she's anything less than perfect, I mutter dryly. At least not after her Trial.
"I'm afraid Miktik isn't available for hire," Whisper says coldly. "What did you do to Guard?"
"Having a guard in the city is kind of inconvenient," I say, feigning a bored, careless tone that makes her Firmant simr with anger once again. "And since you've technically only got one person guarding the whole city, it's an easy point of vulnerability."
"Answer the question." There's no room for argunt in her voice. The assassins next to her shift uneasily, moving away from her even while under camouflage; I can't imagine it's comfortable to be so close to that density of Firmant.
"I just tore away so of his Firmant," I lie. That burns. It's enough of a direct lie that her Firmant flares up within — not nearly as strong as it had been in our last fight, but I also don't have the sa imbuent stone I had back then.
Whisper stares at . "Foolish," she tells . I feel her opening her Interface and risk activating Firmant Sight. The assassins bleed into my vision, splotches of green-brown Firmant against the background, but more importantly, I can see the square window that functions as her Interface.
I can't see what's on it, of course. It's just a mass of Firmant. But I can tell she's writing down a ssage, and I can tell when a small pulse of Firmant runs through it, which I assu is the ssage being saved.
Now, Ahkelios.
I don't know for sure that she's sent back the ssage that I want her to send back... but there's only one way to find out.
[ You have died. 5 Strength credits. 30 Durability credits. 12 Reflex credits. 6 Speed credits. 20 Firmant credits. ]
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