The administrative district descended further into chaos as the black smoke continued swallowing large sections of the sky above. Alarms echoed from tower to tower while phantom patrols raced through the city searching for a threat they could neither locate nor properly identify. Fortunately for me, confusion was an excellent shield.
Hidden beneath layers of illusion and space distortions, I moved through the district quietly while studying everything I could find.
The first thing that caught my attention was something I had not expected.
The administrators weren't marked.
At first I thought it was simply a difference in rank or authority. The deeper I infiltrated, however, the more obvious it became. Every ordinary resident of the city carried a soul mark.
The administrators carried nothing. That immediately made me suspicious.
I spent the next few minutes observing them from within shadows and folded spaces between buildings. Their duties seemed ordinary enough.
