Chapter 15: The Beacon
The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.
— Niccolò Machiavelli
Valorin City. Dawn.
The docks were already alive.
Caw. Caw.
Sea birds circled the masts of docked ships, indifferent to the men moving cargo beneath them.
Lira stood at the edge of the pier, twelve people behind her.
Twelve.
She and Aryan had found them in a holding pen three hours ago — a converted warehouse on the south dock, padlocked from outside, no windows. They weren't miners, they were slaves yet to be assigned.
Aryan had removed the padlock by touching it.
That was all.
"Where do we go?" One of them asked. A boy, maybe sixteen.
Lira looked at him.
"Somewhere safe." She said. "Follow me."
The rented room above the textile warehouse was cramped with fifteen people in it.
Aryan sat against the wall, his legs were crossed, watching the ceiling. The twelve sat wherever they could find floor. Nobody spoke for a while.
Then Adrian walked in, Lira had already briefed him, Aryan on the other hand had remained exceptionally quiet since he created that abomination.
He looked at the twelve. They looked back at him.
He sat on the floor.
He could tell by the way they looked at her versus the way they looked at him. She was already something to them. He was still a question.
"Tell me why you were held." He said. "Everything."
_ _ _
They talked.
Initially, they spoke to Lira, but eventually, they eased up.
An hour passed.
By the end of it Adrian had gotten what he wanted — guard rotations, blind spots, supply schedules, noble house names with financial stakes in the network.
"Our kin were members of the syndicate… we don't know what they did, but they angered Mister Kojou." The 16 year old boy said.
Adrian turned to Aryan who hadn't moved from the wall the entire time. Hadn't asked a single question. Just put food down when it arrived and stayed.
Adrian knew however, that Aryan wondered whether they were related to the invaders, because 5 of them had been made slaves recently, only 6 of them were slaves bought from Aurelia.
"We need your assistance with one thing… after that, you will go to a very beautiful place." Adrian said.
"How long do we have to prepare?" Aryan rose from the wall, looking as the slaves fed.
"One hour." Adrian rose one finger.
"Milly, Cain, you'll go with me when the times up." Lira said to the 16 year old elf and his sister.
Even before 30 minutes, 3 of the slaves had already fallen asleep, but some were still wary of them.
That night, in a processing house on Kellar Street.
Aryan took the eastern wall.
"Loud." Adrian had said.
"How loud." Aryan asked.
"Four minutes worth."
Aryan nodded.
_Phase_
Adrian was gone.
Lira went in through the lower level entrance. Two of the twelve came with her — they knew the building. Not this building specifically. Most of the Hidden Eye buildings in Valorin had the same or similar layout.
The lower level was organized.
That was the worst thing about it.
"It's just a library." Lira spat, a bit of anger in her voice. The contrast between Haven world's library and this – she had suffered enough under the hand of the Hidden Eye to know they didn't deserve such elegance.
She shook her head, they were the true devils – not people like Adrian who had to bite their teeth and take the tough decisions just to make the world a better place.
She moved through the shelves quickly.
Then she stopped.
A shelf of ledgers. She pulled the relevant one, flipped to the most recent entries.
Her eyes caught a notation three pages in.
{Subject: Lira.
High-blood. Do not sell. Hold for extraction.
Authorised — Ino Kojou Cross-reference: Project Sovereign Seed.}
She read it twice.
Folded the page, put it in her coat and kept moving.
Boom.
The eastern wall moved forward
Toppling onto the ground.
The guards on the eastern side scattered before the dust settled.
Forty-one out. Eleven minutes.
Lira counted twice at the extraction point.
An older woman touched her arm without a word.
Lira didn't say anything either.
Meanwhile. Two streets away, in an abandoned building.
A man named Ferris sat across from Adrian- who had taken the persona of the Beacon. Adrian was dressed in an only white suit, with a white mask across his face showing only two blue eyes and a golden halo above his head.
Ferris passed a notebook to Adrian.
"By the way, you still haven't told me your name." Ferris said, receiving a bag of gold from him.
"I always made it known to you, I am the light that stands up for the oppressed – I am The Beacon of The Eminence."
"Hmm, that's nice and all." Ferris nodded, tossing the bag up and down. "As long as it doesn't mess with my income, I'm game."
He always agreed to everything.
Adrian noted this – He was the type of man Adrian liked to use, the greedy type.
Ino's ship. Three days later.
Lang's report was on the desk when he returned from his morning bout.
Processing house — compromised. Forty-one units — lost. Records — missing. Guard casualties — none fatal.
He read that line twice.
Then the secondary note. Appearing to come from Ferris. Containing information Ferris shouldn't have been able to provide.
Ino set the report down.
Picked up the letter beside it.
[Two.
You have nine mage veins secured.
I have one processing house and forty-one of your inventory.
I also have your records. All of them.
Your move.]
He read it once.
Set it beside his cup. Finished eating.
"Where is Xue?" He asked the guard.
"Here" Xue replied, already in the doorway.
"Find out who Ferris spoke with."
The faint red circles appeared at the edges of her eyes.
"When I do?" She asked.
Ino considered this for exactly one second.
"Do as you wish."
She smiled, a hungry glint somehow managing to sneak into her formal appearance.
Haven. That night.
Adrian opened his journal.
[24/9/3 Era Haven]
Beacon identity functional. Processing house — clean. Forty-one recovered. Records secured. Ferris useful for approximately three more weeks.Ino acknowledged the letter within twelve hours. He is handling this personally.Lira found something in the records. Hasn't said what.Aryan moved a wall with one hand.Ferris is becoming exceptionally useful.Three moves. Ino hasn't made his second. He will.