She stared at him for one more second. After that, she opened her folio and started to write on it.
Rick looked at her. "Are you... writing this down right now?"
"I’m writing down the specifications for the ward frawork before I forget them, and it seems like the suppression pattern I used on the breach was new, and I need to write it down."
"You just got through a wave of corruption, and now you’re doing paperwork."
"The paperwork is ti-sensitive."
Rick looked up at the sky for a mont, tried to think of sothing to say, but couldn’t, so he looked back down.
Sebastian ca up to him and stood quietly next to him. "Look at her left hand," he said to Rick only.
Rick took a look. Zephyra’s left hand, the one not holding the stylus, was flat against the cover of her folio. It was barely shaking.
The body is shaking because it has been running on adrenaline for a long ti, and the adrenaline is starting to wear off. The person who owns the body has decided that admitting this would an stopping, which is not on the schedule right now.
’Oh shit... sothing’s clearly wrong with her right now.’
Rick didn’t say a word. He stood next to her while she wrote, close enough to help if she needed it but not so close that he was in her way.
He watched the aftermath of the battle as his partners dealt with the corruption beasts that were still there.
Zephyra said "thank you" after a minute without looking up from her folio.
The two words have a flat tone. The sa register as everything else—she always said that it at least made Rick happy, but less happy knowing he didn’t get any notification of her affinity.
But Zephyra never said things she didn’t an. Rick had checked that fact about her enough tis to trust it.
"Yeah," he said. "Of course!"
...
The corruption was cleared, thanks to Rick and his partners as well.
The node was also closed. The district’s buildings were damaged, but no civilians were hurt, which was the most important thing.
The evacuation went quickly enough to make that happen. Rick’s partners ca together to deal with the aftermath with the sa level of organization as people who had cleaned up after worse things.
Fredrich got there eight minutes after the fight was over. He was rightfully horrified and asked pointed, specific questions about the node, where it had been planted, and how long it had been there.
He also offered the council resources for cleanup without being asked. He acted just like a Grand Magister should have.
Rick saw him and didn’t think anything was wrong with it. He observed the situation and filed it away.
Heinz was sitting on a piece of rubble near the wall, holding a multi-tool that was slightly bent. He was looking at the lead pipe he had wedged into the crack with an expression that showed he understood everything that had happened.
He told the whole story of what he had done, in the order that it happened, without leaving anything out. The account was true, consistent with itself, and really helpful in explaining how the secondary surge had happened.
Nobody raised their voice at him. He clearly already knew.
"What the hell is this guy thinking...?" Rick wondered to himself. "Please don’t tell I have to deal with another issue related to a wife and a husband..."
"Nah... he’s just dumb as fuck," Sebastian responded in his mind.
Zephyra didn’t say anything while she listened to the explanation. She was quiet for a mont after it was over.
"Heinz," she said. "When you see purple light coming through a crack in a wall... don’t put anything that can conduct electricity in the crack."
"Ahhh..." Heinz said, "I get it now."
"Good, I’m glad you understand that."
He was quiet for a second while he looked at the multi-tool. "I was trying to be helpful."
"I know, but next ti, try to find soone reliable like Rick."
Heinz gave this so thought. "Is that quicker than looking for a guard?"
"Yes."
He nodded, put the multi-tool in his pocket, stood up, and went to help the building staff move debris. This was sothing he did after things he had caused, and he did it without being asked and without making it about himself.
Rick saw him leave. ’Yeah... get the fuck away from her.’
"Phe.. would you look at that?" Sebastian remarked. "She asked him to find you, and she didn’t suggest a high guard or a Mage Council official—just you."
"Rick Rolland, the reliable gooner."
Rick put that in the sa folder as everything else and didn’t say anything about it, especially his insult. If he had, it would have beco sothing that needed to be looked at, and he wasn’t ready to do that yet.
...
Natasha picked up the storage crystal from the debris near the ward chamber. The encryption shell from before the coalition had remained intact even during the surge, indicating the high quality of the person who built it.
The node was sealed, which cut off the crystal’s access to the thing that turned it on. Zephyra constructed a new analysis frawork in a space she had preserved near the chamber.
This ti, there were three layers of isolation.
Liora sat nearby, getting her energy back, which took a while because she had used it up so quickly.
And it took two hours to decrypt.
A list ca out of the crystal. The list contained nas, dates, and locations, but it lacked any context or explanation.
The dates lasted for eleven months. All of the places on the list were in Valdris.
Rick recited the nas aloud. At first, most of them didn’t an anything to him, but three did.
The first was a senior mber of the Mage Council who had voted for all three motions to oversee infrastructure. The second was a temple administrator in the faith network who was in charge of the communication channels where Liora found the fake nodes.
The third na was one that Rick had never heard of before. He read it twice to be sure, then turned to Zephyra.
She had stopped moving.
It was not the calm, professional stillness she usually possessed. It was a kind of stillness that cos when soone has read sothing and needs a mont to think about how to hold it.
Rick asked, "You know that na...?"
Three seconds went by, and then she took a deep breath to prepare for an answer.
"Theoretical historian," Zephyra said. "Pre-coalition magical theory."
"About forty years ago, he wrote important papers on how to restore pre-coalition infrastructure. He is an academic, not politically active, and not very well known outside of certain academic circles.
"But?"
"He died thirty-two years ago."
The room got quiet.
Rick asked, "If that’s the case, why is his na on an eleven-month-old archive list with active dates next to it...?"
"That’s a great question."
She stared at the list for a long ti, and Rick allowed her to do so because her prolonged gaze was part of her process: she was working through a complex set of implications that she needed to navigate at her own pace.
"Soone has been using his identity," she finally said.
She spoke slowly and carefully, as if explaining sothing that would greatly affect the structure, but her voice was still flat. "And the one who’s using it has been using it for thirty-two years."
"This duration is sufficient for the identity to develop its own history, establish an institutional presence, create a paper trail, and have coworkers who rember corresponding with him."
"Publications were attributed to him after his death, and nobody questioned them because there was no reason to."
Rick said, "The person who made the pre-coalition oath-bond to Fredrich..."
"Yes... that would be in line with all the evidence we have."
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