All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 235: Operation Search and Destroy

Thucydides and I spent several hours searching for clues about the demon Lieutenant's location. We eventually found a few markings that looked like something big had come through this area about a quarter mile away from the cave entrance. How would it have gotten here? I had no idea, but Thucydides was certain. The way he explained it sounded quite interesting as he produced all sorts of equipment from some hidden space and measured magical output.

While he was doing that, I worked under the assumption that this was, in fact, the passing of the demon Lieutenant. In that case, I wanted to figure out the direction he was going and see if I could determine a goal or destination. So far, my mental model of the planet was rather limited, and I wasn't sure of what lay in the direction of this path. I could tell that the trajectory was at least south. Of course, there was a very good chance that the demon could have doubled back. But that seemed unlikely to me. There was no way it would have known something was following it. But it could be paranoid.

Once, Thucydides looked up from his equipment. I indicated the direction and gave him the odds associated with it going that way. Thucydides blinked in surprise. At first, I thought I would have to explain probabilities to him, as I had to do with many of the children. But then I remembered even though Daedalus called him little brother, Thucydides was quite old. Surely, he understood basic math and statistics.

"From what I know," Thucydides said, "I think you might be placing too much assurance on the demon Lieutenants acting rationally. They are agents of chaos, after all."

I frowned, taking that statement into consideration. Had my models overlooked the Lieutenant doing something completely nonsensical, like traveling in a zig-zag pattern just for fun? Maybe. It was pretty unimaginable to me, even after encountering so many mess makers. I updated my calculations with that assumption in mind and flashed up new percentages, slightly lowering the certainty of my prediction. Thucydides cocked his head and nodded. "Yeah, I'd say it's a little bit lower myself, but I think it's still high enough that checking is worthwhile. We'll just have to make sure we scan around each other footprint, too."

We headed off in the direction that I had indicated and fanned out slightly, scanning the ground to see if we could find any other marking of the Lieutenant's passing about another quarter mile away. My sensors were able to pick out the pattern in the ground clear as day despite the wind having obscured it. It wasn't exactly in line, but close enough that it was within the margin of error for my predictions.

Thucydides pulled out fewer experiments this time, and within a much shorter time frame, he confirmed it. "It looks like we're going in the right direction, but I don't trust that the demon will keep going this way. We should do a full sweep around a quarter mile out almost every time to ensure that we're not missing something."

I beeped my agreement, but honestly? My primary processor was focused on understanding what the white dragon was doing with his tools. It all seemed very interesting.

They somehow resonated with the ambient magic in the area. From that, he was able to determine some sort of pattern that was a match for the one back where we had started our search. It wasn't the same as an energy signature like I might pick up, like a soul. Those I could use to recognize things I had already seen rather than matching someone's fingerprints to them. Which I could also do, of course.

But this new technique was interesting. I wanted to see if I could replicate it. I felt like it would take me a while, but with enough time and processing power, it shouldn't be impossible. I'd have to develop much better algorithms to do so efficiently, though. Thucydides's pace, while helpful for me to follow along, was glacially slow. I could clean the entire castle at least twice over by the time he finished fiddling with his equipment.

Still, just because I could interpret what his equipment did was no indicator that I could perform its functions. Perhaps I would need some special materials in order to figure this out. Beatrice might help with that. I could sense energy from these things, but I couldn't really identify exactly where it was coming from.

We continued on through the snow. Each time, we'd have to search a little bit more to find the tracks. Thucydides was right that this was not nearly a straight line. In fact, I calculated that there was a 36.4% loss of efficiency based on the path that this demon lieutenant was taking. Worse, that efficiency loss didn't even help it much to throw off a pursuer. We could tell that some sort of magic was being used that teleported him almost exactly a quarter mile at a time. It was nice to have a precise distance to search at. Still, it made Thucydides's suggestions of making a full circle around each mark even more important. Luckily, we could do it without too much effort, especially once I got particularly good at detecting the energy signatures in the rock.

We went on like this for hours; eventually, day turned into night. Even with my advanced sensors, the lack of ambient light made it difficult to keep track. Thucydides and I found a nearby cave to rest in, and the dragon wormed his way inside and curled up, quickly falling asleep. I just tidied the cave floor so we could have a more comfortable spot to rest. Today had been a long day; I imagined it would be another one tomorrow. Well, technically, the day had been the same length as every other, but the humans were so fond of this saying that I had picked up on using it myself. Regardless, we had months' worth of distance to make up for, but I had no faith that we were moving faster than the Lieutenant.

***

Archibald finally put down the wineskin. His mouth felt less parched than it had before. Next, he started up on the bread; it was slightly stale, but surprisingly not as much as it could have been. How long had they been putting food like this out for him? Judging by how he felt, he must have been asleep for quite a while. That meant someone was watching out for him.

As he chewed on the slightly rubbery bread, he realized exactly how hungry he was. At first, he hadn't noticed because of the thirst. But even as he swallowed, his stomach complained, and he started chewing faster. He would finish everything in this basket, and it still wouldn't be enough. But it would hopefully give him the energy he needed to keep moving.

As he chewed, he returned to the piece of paper, flipped it open, and slowly began to decipher it one word at a time. Several minutes later, he looked up and blinked at the ceiling.

"10,000 years. That's a long time," he muttered to himself. He honestly wasn't sure if he believed it. 10,000 years was far too long for anyone to remember him. In fact, with the demons having ruled for so long, humanity didn't even know what had happened a thousand years before. There were no records and not even any stories that referenced events that long ago, at least not that he was aware of. Maybe some ruins somewhere held stories about older things, but still. D

"Dang." He muttered the word through a mouthful of bread. That was far too long for someone to have been leaving him bread and a note. That just didn't seem very likely.

"How many loaves of bread would that be? Well, if these loaves of bread were two or three days old, maybe someone comes in here every week. That would have sucked, waking up to week-old bread, but still. 52 weeks a year. That's like… that's so much bread." Archibald just shook his head. He could still feel his bond somewhere in the world. Maybe Daedalus had been watching out for him and waiting for his return? Nah, that didn't make sense.

Sure, Daedalus had been a good friend after a while, but the dragon was still pretty arrogant. He couldn't imagine the old lizard just sitting there waiting for him. Much less bringing bread like this. Even if the mental image of the dragon assembling little baskets of treats did give Archibald a chuckle. He'd probably be off having some adventure and claiming a massive hoard somewhere as he sat on top of a dwarven settlement and demanded 90% of the gold. It still would be nice to see his old friend again, though. He was glad that he had survived the Demon War.

If he was still alive, of course. He assumed that the demons were somehow banished. It was hard to say, but he looked back to the letter and continued reading.

"Okay… Maybe they did find a solution?" There wasn't really much more information on the page. It mentioned that the demon Lieutenant had been trapped with him this whole time. Apparently, the demon lieutenant had been released, but they somehow managed to banish it. Something about a lord of cleaning and a god.

Archibald had never put much stock in gods. There were still some humans around that worshiped them even in his time. Most of the talk of gods had come from the elves, but no one had seen a god for a very long time. And from what he understood, the myths said that they were gone before the demons even showed up. Or maybe the demons showing up had been when the gods disappeared? He didn't really care. The gods hadn't done anything for humanity when they had been enslaved for who knows how long by the demons. But this was a new god. He shrugged.

Well, the people living in the area were willing to welcome him. And if they were this polite, perhaps they would be able to tell him more when he found them. He considered picking up the basket and walking as he ate but decided against it for now, reaching over and grabbing the next loaf of bread. The awakened hero continued his snacking. It took him nearly half an hour to finish both the loaves of bread and the preserved foods under the covered dishes. Jerky and cheese were certainly a lot more filling than the bread, but at the same time, he kind of wished there was a warm meal.

The other wineskin had held actual wine, albeit with very low alcohol content compared to the wine he was used to. However, it was still a nice taste and didn't hold the same stale flavor as the water did. Leaving a little bit of food and a little bit of wine in his skin, he decided it was time to move. He slung the skin over his neck by the strap and put it on his side as he picked up the basket.

"Well, no point in waiting." Stretching again. His muscles complained a little bit less than when he sat down. Slowly, he made for the door and began to walk up a slightly curving ramp.