6 years ago…
Azshara slept restlessly under moonlight and mist.
Rain whispered across the rooftops, shallow pools forming in the gutters and glistening beneath the golden gaslights. At this hour, the alleys were quiet, but not empty.
A cloaked figure darted across a courtyard, boots hitting cobblestone in calculated rhythm. Behind him, something darker moved: a streak of fur, low to the ground, silent save for the occasional clink of metal against the collar.
"Left," said the dog.
Adrien Veil didn't hesitate. He spun into the shadow of an abandoned tailor's shop just as a line of silver-embroidered clergy uniforms passed along the upper walkway. Black robes, brass cuffs, glowing glyph-lanterns.
He ducked lower behind a crate, muttering under his breath, "So much for being discreet."
"You're a dual-path heretic who switched to a forbidden Pathway," Agent D replied in a deadpan. "Frankly, I'm surprised it took them this long."
They moved quickly after that, sticking to walls and arcane dead zones, avoiding detection wards. The safehouse was a few districts away, a repurposed watchmaker's shop built against the cliffside. It took fifteen minutes of silence and two anti-scrying rituals to reach it.
When they finally stepped inside, Adrien collapsed into a nearby armchair, soaked, breath ragged.
Agent D padded to the fireplace and shook out his fur, spraying rainwater across the rug. His fedora flew off in the process.
"Careful," Adrien muttered. "That's the one that makes you look professional."
"You mean distinguished," D replied, nosing the hat upright. "Anyway, you said to call in the favor."
"Your mysterious girlfriend?"
"She's not…" Agent D sighed. "Just... watch."
He trotted to the center of the room and sat still, eyes half-lidded beneath the brim of his tilted hat. Without moving a muscle, he began focusing inward.
A glowing circle formed in his mind's eye, clean, symmetrical, humming with restrained energy. The mental construct spun slowly, stabilizing as Agent D aligned its flow.
With a quiet breath, he activated the spell.
A pulse of rippling air shimmered outward.
Agent D closed his eyes. His body stilled. His breathing slowed.
And then his spirit body peeled free, diving into the vast Sea of Collective Subconscious.
Within moments, something reached out.
A hand, soft and glowing, touched the spirit body..
You're late, came the familiar voice.
Agent D's form stabilized inside the dreamscape, landing on an impossibly green field beneath a twilight sky. Susie stood across from him, her golden fur radiant even in this mind-woven plane.
Beside her stood a hooded figure, half-shadowed. A symbol of balance shimmered faintly beneath her cloak.
"Miss Justice," D said with a nod. Then, to Susie: "You look radiant as always."
Susie took a step forward, eyes narrowed in concern. "Tell me what happened. Are you okay?"
"The Church cornered us," he said simply. "We're in a temporary safehouse now, but they're combing the city. It seems a Saint is leading the hunt, so we got to be quick."
Susie glanced back at Audrey, then back to D. "Where are you exactly?"
D shared the memory, the chase, the streets, the narrow escape. All of it flowed in a flash of imagery.
Audrey nodded. "You're still within the main area of their pursuit. But..." she paused, eyes glinting behind the hood, "I can nudge things."
Susie blinked. "Dream manipulation?"
"Subliminally. Nothing that would leave a trail at first glance. It will be enough to stir the dreams of the clergy and other residents. This way, there might be an opportunity to open a path out of their watch."
D nodded. "We'll take it. We just need a window."
Susie turned back to him. "What about Adrien's family?"
D's voice was quiet. "They're priority. We'll need the exit to cover two locations."
Audrey gave a small nod. "Then I'll open the passage a few blocks away from your location. It's a quiet quarter, lightly guarded at best. Adrien can meet me there. Once we link up, we'll escort his family out."
Susie added, "And D and I will continue monitoring the city's dreamscape from here. We'll adjust misdirection as needed."
"Understood," Audrey said. "I'll begin here." As she vanished into a haze.
D looked at Susie and wagged his tail once. "Still think you're the smarter dog?"
She smirked. "Prove me wrong."
…
Back in the real world, Adrien jolted upright as a pulse touched his mind. D's voice filled his head.
Plan's in motion. The contact will rendezvous with you a few blocks away from here. I'll stay here and maintain the dreamlink with Susie. We'll keep them misdirected.
Adrien stood slowly, rain-damp coat creaking. He slung his satchel over one shoulder and gave the unconscious dog a faint smirk.
Remind me to never doubt your girlfriend again.
From the corner, Agent D, still in trance, snorted faintly.
Adrien exhaled, long and quiet, and slipped through the door.
…
The streets of Azshara were soaked in mist and moonlight. Lanterns cast long, smeared shadows along shuttered homes and deserted alleyways. Adrien moved quickly, his coat clinging to him like a second skin. Black mist curled at his heels with every step, his control over shadows keeping him blurred and fast.
He darted through side streets, over rooftops, slipping beneath elevated stone railings. His Spirituality pulsed with alerted focus, detecting every distant gaze.
But it wasn't enough.
As he passed through a narrow plaza lined with broken statues, a figure stepped into view.
A man in white.
The robe shimmered faintly with divine symbols of the Church of Wisdom, the hem lined with a silver thread. His face was sharp and pristine, carved like stone under pressure, and bore the stillness of long service. His black hair was pulled into a tight braid down his back, not a strand out of place, but it was his eyes that commanded fear.
Icy blue. Burning with the authority of judgment.
Saint Halbrecht, the Judgment of Wills.
Adrien stopped cold.
A breath later, he felt it, the world had constricted. The alleys behind him blurred into nothing, shadows thickened into walls, and the sky above lost its stars. It was a seal, a judgmental silence that denied escape.
Tsk. Damned concealment.
"You took something sacred," Halbrecht said, voice clear and unwavering. "And in return, you became rotten. Foulness wrapped in the shape of a man."
Adrien straightened, though tension coiled through his frame. His fingers drifted toward the lining of his coat, where the stolen artifact pulsed faintly with weightless pressure. Cold and ready.
"I haven't betrayed anything," Adrien said, jaw clenched. "My faith hasn't changed. I still believe in the Lord and "His" teachings. I always did. But the Church, you, cast me out. You called me heretic for searching deeper."
Halbrecht's nostrils flared. "Faith is not curiosity without constraint. It is devotion with sacrifice. You dined with the Aurora Order, knelt beside madness, drank from the cup of the True Creator, and you dare claim we betrayed you?"
Adrien's eyes narrowed. "You were supposed to guide us to knowledge. Instead you locked it away and left us blind."
"And yet," Halbrecht hissed, stepping forward, "you pried it open with bloody hands. You stole from the sealed vault. You defiled our Gates. You made yourself a vessel of filth and dared to call it enlightenment!"
His voice rose, not loud, but cutting.
"You were warned. You were given mercy more than once. And you spat on it."
The saint's hand drifted to the sword at his side, a blade forged from wisdom and oath. His tone dropped, quieter than before, but colder than the wind that howled through the mountains.
"So now we'll bury your blasphemy in silence."
"And your family?" His mouth curved, not into a smile, but a cold verdict. "They'll die the death of cowards. After they learn what you've done."
Adrien's face tightened. His breath caught. The black shadow beneath his feet rippled.
His hand gripped the Grade 0 Artifact. The hum intensified and the silence cracked.
Halbrecht's eyes ignited, holy symbols dancing across his pupils.
Adrien moved first, a blur of black mist and desperate power.
And the street exploded into light and shadow. Steel met corruption. Flesh met conviction.
And the judgment began.
…
Elsewhere, in the ether-thin dreamscape between thought and reality, two dogs shaped dreams like clay.
Agent D's spirit hovered beside Susie's golden silhouette. Both were fully immersed in the shifting tides of the Sea of Collective Subconscious.
"I'm nudging two patrol squads to take an early detour toward the salt district," Susie said.
"I'll mirror their emotions, give them a sense of déjà vu. That'll slow them more," D replied, casting one of his own mimicry-based spells, drawing from her traces.
Susie arched an ethereal brow. "Getting better at that."
"Flattery works wonders, doesn't it?" D said with a low chuckle.
They moved in tandem, navigating shifting constructs of dreams: empty staircases, pulsing doorways, rustling fog. They pushed currents subtly, sowing hesitation among the watchers above.
Then Susie's glow dimmed slightly. Her voice quieted.
"...Are you sure you'll survive this?"
Agent D was silent for a moment, watching the rippling currents of dreamstuff roll past them like waves under moonlight.
"I don't know," he admitted. "But that's never stopped me before."
She turned her head toward him, golden light flickering in her eyes. "Then why? Why keep risking yourself like this?"
He met her gaze, steady, raw.
"Because he never treated me like a tool. Never as a beast to be used. I was his partner… I am his partner. And his children" D's voice caught, just for a second, "They call me uncle."
He looked away.
"If I don't try… what does that make me?"
At that moment, D flinched.
A rippling disturbance cracked across the dreamscape, pulling his gaze to the northeast area.
"No..." he whispered. "That's his home. They found it."
He turned sharply.
"I'm going."
Susie jolted. "D, no. If you move now, you'll be walking into…"
"If it were Miss Justice out there, what would you do?"
She faltered.
"I have to try. You keep the dream misdirection going. I'll buy time, whatever it takes."
He broke the link.
In the waking world, Agent D's eyes snapped open. He sat up, breath sharp.
Without hesitation, he flicked his fedora back onto his head.
Then he ran. Out into the rain. Toward the ones who still needed saving and treated him as an equal.
…
Rain hissed as it hit the shattered stone.
Saint Halbrecht lay still, sprawled across the broken plaza, face pale beneath the shallow pool of his own blood. His pristine robes were torn, scorched, smeared in ash and shadow. His braided hair lay undone, splayed across cracked symbols that no longer held their glow.
A few meters away, Adrien slumped to his knees, gasping.
His coat was in tatters. His arms trembled with every breath. Blood spilled from his mouth and soaked into the torn flesh at his side. Deep lacerations ran across his ribs, his back, his shoulder, a crumpled silhouette trembling beneath the rain.
The fight had been merciless.
A Cognizer of the Church, someone who could read the structure of his body, the intention behind his shadows, the faults in his spells. A being that saw through lies and forms alike.
Without the Grade 0 Artifact, Adrien wouldn't have lasted a minute.
But even with it, the price had been too steep.
He turned his head slightly, eyes searching until they landed on the artifact itself: a twisted, flickering object veiled in chains of shadow and strips of blood-stained cloth, lying where he'd flung it away. It pulsed faintly, still hungry.
It had devoured too much of him already. In a final act of desperation, he had sealed it, using layers of flesh magic and shadows.
His hand twitched. He couldn't even lift his arm.
The concealment around him had dissipated. The sky returned, cold and gray, letting the mountain rain fall onto his face, bitter and sharp.
My family…
The thought struck like a blade.
His breath quickened. Anya… the twins…
He tried to stand, and collapsed. The world spun.
Then he saw it.
A flicker of light, hovering just above Halbrecht's chest.
A shimmering orb the size of a clenched fist, pale, radiant, whispering with power.
A Beyonder Characteristic. The Sequence 3 Cognizer.
His eyes widened.
I could make it.
It was madness. His body was broken, his mind frayed. No preparation, no proper ritual, no buffer against the backlash. He'd studied enough to know that ingesting a higher Sequence raw in this state was death.
But…So was doing nothing. So was watching the light leave their eyes because I hesitated.
Adrien clenched his jaw and crawled.
Every inch tore something open. Every breath tasted of iron.
But he reached it.
And without a second thought, he dragged the Characteristic to his lips and swallowed.
The change was immediate.
His veins screamed. His skull throbbed with unbearable pressure, as though something vast and ancient was being crammed into a space far too small.
His blood boiled. His brain burned.
He tried to focus, tried to activate any spell, divert the stress, compartmentalize the mutation, but for every barrier he raised in his mind, another part of his body failed.
He bled from his eyes.
His spine cracked. His ribs twisted and locked his breath.
Focus, focus, focus…!
The pain in his mind became absolute, a buzzing, shrieking storm of insight and unformed spells, truths he could not parse, rules he could not anchor.
His mouth opened in a silent scream.
Then the sound returned.
A scream tore from his lungs, raw, desperate and defiant.
It echoed through the empty streets.
A call to heaven. A cry for mercy. A final, desperate hail mary.
But no hand reached for him. No light descended.
No answer came.
Adrien Veil died kneeling in the rain, eyes open, staring at the gray sky as the world blurred and cracked apart.
A soul ripped from its roots.