"Good to know it's not because she's too powerful."
Ais said it as she quietly exhaled in relief.
She'd initially been too focused on the surprise of the Red Glove elites and too wrapped up in her own embarrassment and the strangeness of the dream state to consider the actual threat level of the target. Only after walking alone for a while did she start to wonder how dangerous that woman truly was.
"You don't need to be too concerned about that. She's very likely a Sequence 6 Witch. Sequence 5 Extraordinaries have standing to occupy senior positions in virtually any organization — it would be unlikely for one to be stationed in a city this off the beaten path to recruit new members."
Howard considered for a moment, then added:
"By the way — from what we understand, the most notable ability of a Sequence 6 Witch is the creation and manipulation of invisible threads that impede an opponent's movement."
Threads. I wonder what effect black flame would have on those… Ais nodded. Then, as the church door came into view, she asked a final question:
"Sir, does something given voluntarily by a Witch carry any effect?"
"Unlikely to be significant. Witches are universally cunning — they wouldn't leave an obvious weak point, even if they didn't anticipate you being this…"
Howard paused and produced the last word: "Courageous."
I really was furious to the point of not thinking clearly back then — I didn't even think to bring that book back. It might not have told me anything, but the Nighthawks might have found something in it… Ais had been quietly reproaching herself for this — but hearing Howard's word stopped her short. She immediately bent into a bow:
"I'll be on my way, sir."
As the words landed, Ais slipped into the shadows instantly. Howard activated Aura Vision in the same moment and watched the Witch stride away quickly. He said nothing — only letting himself reflect briefly:
"I hope your choice wasn't made on impulse alone."
On Ais's end, she had the distinct sense that her life ahead was going to be uncomfortable. Even if the Nighthawks , on account of her cooperation, didn't have her imprisoned, she was an unaffiliated Beyonder now. Regular monitoring and strict management were unavoidable.
The thought of periodically facing a Watcher who knew her entire history made her feel preemptively embarrassed. But thinking carefully about the alternative — trying to run, or going along with the cult — social death was not so hard to live with.
However much the situation might sting, Ais would not regret the choice. It would only deepen her contempt for the person who had created this situation. She was clear-eyed about her own reasons for doing what she'd done — ethics, principle, and risk calculation were all secondary factors. The primary one was simple:
She could not accept letting someone who had humiliated her this thoroughly get away without paying for it.
She drew a sharp breath and activated Aura Vision to look at her left wrist. Even knowing something was there — even with the persistent cool sensation against her skin — she could see nothing off about it at all. Even a Witch's heightened inspiration was ignoring the spiritual entity's existence.
Since there was nothing to observe, Ais put it out of her mind and began actively searching from the Kevin bar's vicinity for the remaining five ordinary people connected to the dead cult members. Her only information was a vague impression of their faces — nothing else. Even with divination, finding them wasn't going to be easy.
But for this task, it was the process that mattered, not the outcome. The Nighthawks hadn't explained their reasoning, but Ais could roughly piece it together.
The Nighthawks likely had a way to prevent that woman from using divination to discover that meeting with Ais carried significant danger — but since it was a divination concerning the woman's own safety, they couldn't make the result show no danger at all. So Ais needed to engage in visibly risky behavior — reckless enough that the woman would attribute any divined danger to Ais's own recklessness, not to the Nighthawks waiting for her.
This was cleverly exploiting a limitation of divination: it could return the insight that danger existed, but not its specific source.
As for why divination had that limitation, Ais had a theory:
The spirit realm was essentially the internet. Divination was the search engine. It fetched insights from the spirit realm based on the keywords in the medium and the phrasing of the question, then fed results back to the diviner for interpretation.
Even if you specified the source of danger in your question, divination might simply ignore that specification and return the same result regardless.
Ais kept at her "diligent" search until past midnight before returning to the room she still rented.
She'd caused no trouble and attracted no attention in Moen while clearing the potion's influence — so her lodgings were unchanged.
"What do I do after that woman is dealt with?" Ais lay on the bed and asked herself with a vague uncertainty.
With all the preparations made and nothing left but waiting, the formerly occupied Ais had to face the question she'd been deliberately not thinking about: what came after the revenge?
She'd transmigrated into a different body — a body of a different sex. As an Beyonder, she had more choices than most people. But she no longer knew what kind of life suited the person she'd become, or what direction was even worth working toward.
On the personal front: she couldn't accept being a man's wife, and didn't see the point of a same-sex relationship. On the professional front: beyond surviving any potential retaliation from the Witch cult, continuing to raise her Sequence didn't offer much meaning. She was long past the age of fantasizing about ruling the world. Even if a path back to her previous world existed, for the person she was now, it didn't seem to hold much appeal.
She understood well enough that as time passed and her Sequence rose, these problems might find solutions. But that didn't stop her from feeling disoriented and wanting to give up right now.
If that woman doesn't show up, I won't even have the motivation to get out of bed…
She turned onto her side.
Lying on her back, the sensation at her chest was comparable to a small cat sitting there — but it was still uncomfortable. Turned on her side, there was still no sleep in her.
Left with nothing to do, she played with her now-soft, long hair and occupied herself by imagining that woman getting thoroughly beaten by the Nighthawks , passing the time that way.
What Ais hadn't expected was that when she was drifting toward sleep, a sound interrupted — a small object scraping against the floor.
She sat up sharply, and saw a palm-sized compact mirror slide through the gap under the door. Beside it, the figure of Tina Edith materialized.
Edith was wearing a thin, flowing dress that revealed the curves of her figure entirely. The semi-transparent fabric and the legs faintly visible beneath it were enough of a distraction even now.
"What were you just doing?" Edith asked without ceremony, her voice as melodious as ever — though the question carried a clear note of interrogation.
Ais drew two long, slow breaths before lowering her head to answer:
"I broke into a shop to change into my current clothes. Then I tried to use divination to locate the ordinary people who were hunting me this evening — to get back at them…"
"You were reckless!" Edith cut in without kindness.
You're lecturing me now? Ais felt her anger flare at once and demanded:
"And do you dare tell me you don't know what caused this? Tina Edith!"
"Calling me by name now — you're pretty pleased with yourself after advancing to Sequence 7, aren't you? Think carefully: if I had actually wanted to force you to drink the Witch potion, why would I bother with all this? I could have simply taken you — you were only Sequence 8 at the time."
Edith's tone shifted from hard to soft, apparently recognizing that her earlier approach had been a little too blunt.