Die. Respawn. Repeat.

Chapter 103: Book 2: Slipping Away

To say that Whisper is angry is an understatement. I can see the color of her anger turning her Firmament with a dark, stained crimson. It's so strong it's impacting the nature of her skills, even without having to use something like Hueshift; I can feel her anger like it's heat against my skin, and I shift back out of Phaseslip to avoid it.

"I forgot how arrogant you Trialgoers can get," she sneers at me.

I cock my head. "Aren't you a Trialgoer too?"

The sound she makes is unintelligible, either because she isn't saying anything in particular or because it's too warped for the Interface to make sense of it. She has enough self-restraint, thankfully, to not immediately fire a beam of Firmament at me — out here in the slums of Isthanok, an attack like that would cause devastating casualties.

It occurs to me, perhaps a little late, that provoking her in the midst of a civilian-populated area is probably not the best of ideas.

But it's also the only thing giving me an advantage. For all of Whisper's faults, she seems hesitant to damage her beloved city. Her perfectionism seems to extend even to this more run-down part of Isthanok. I can see the way her eyes dart between the buildings next to me and behind me, as if trying to figure out if she can launch an attack without destroying a part of her city.

The answer, apparently, is that she cannot. And that tells me quite a bit about her capabilities all on its own.

"Why are you even lettingthe Integrators do this?" I ask. "Hestia isn't growing. It's held more than three hundred Trials without any Trialgoer succeeding. Your entire planet is just going through the motions. What's the point?"

"Isthanok isn't perfect yet," Whisper says coldly. "If the time comes, I will free Hestia myself. But not before I fix everything."

It takes me a second, but I realize why Whisper isn't doing anything. The Firmament around and behind her is slightly distorted, the distortion just barely visible because it doesn't follow the same gradient of density the rest of the Firmament in the area carries; I remember abruptly the frog-like creature that tried to assassinate me in one of the past loops.

If I'm not missing any of them, there are three of them gathered behind her, each of them aiming a Firmament weapon at me and ready to fire. I keep myself tensed — they're Firmament-based attacks, so it's not something I can just Phaseslip through. A Warpstep will get me out of the way if they're too fast to dodge conventionally.

But I'm realizing I don't like what I'm doing here.

I'm reacting. Whisper is making the first moves — right now, she has the advantage. She knows I'm a Trialgoer, and she knows enough to go after Miktik, even if she apparently doesn't know what I look like or who I am. She should have sent a message back to herself as soon as she sees me, but I haven't seen her look for or interact with the Interface, nor sensed the telltale Firmament associated with it.

I remember an idea I had a few loops back.

I need to make sure I have the information advantage.

The thought settles quickly into a plan.

Hey, Ahkelios. I send the thought through our bond, and I feel the little mantis reacting, stiffening on my shoulder. Whisper hasn't reacted or taken notice of him yet — it's something she's been pretty consistent about. She just doesn't take notice of him. I need you to be ready to kill me.

You what? Ahkelios's startled response rings through our bond. Ethan, I don't know if it's a good idea for you to—

—Doesn't matter for now, I interrupt. Look, I need the information advantage on Whisper. I need to make sure she has the wrong idea of what I want and what I'm doing. There's only one way to do that, and it's to make sure she sends back the information I want her to send back.

You know you can't let yourself get used to doing this, right? Ahkelios sounds worried, and if I'm being honest, I appreciate it. Maybe that's what all the other Trialgoers were missing — someone to ground them.

I know, I respond. But I've got you to warn me if I'm going off the deep end, don't I?

I can feel Ahkelios being simultaneously flattered and worried through our bond, and I have to bite back my amusement lest Whisper suspect something. I guess you do, Ahkelios says. But you better listen to me if I tell you to stop!

I will, I promise. I'll give you the signal. Let's hope this works.

"I can tell you're planning something, dear," Whisper says. She seems to have used the silence to calm down — her Firmament has settled down a little, the crimson tinge in the air fading away to something no longer visible. I'm sure I'd still see traces of it if I turned on Firmament Sight, but I don't want to give away anything more about what I can do right now. "Why don't you tell me what you're planning?"

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Another Whisper. I Phaseslip once more, and almost immediately take note of the trap she's prepared — she was waiting for it. The extra solidity I get against Firmament in this form makes me particularly vulnerable to the assassins standing behind her, I'm guessing. Three darts of Firmament whip toward me at the same time the Whisper tries to connect to me.

I am, thankfully, prepared.

Warpstep.

What I'm a little less prepared for is the interaction between Warpstep and Phaseslip. Warpstep is feels significantly different when I'm phased, and not in a good way; instead of an instantaneous transition taking me from one point to another, I feel my entire self stretching through space. There's a moment of nausea, a moment where I feel like I'm in two places at once, a moment where I feel like I'm being forced at rapid speed through an immovable object.

Then it's over. I don't have the time to reorient myself. Teleportation doesn't stop Whisper's skill from trying to take effect, and even if I've dodged the assassins for the time being, it's only going to take a second for them to find me again. Time for an old trick.

I use an Inspired Quicken Mind, applying Accelerator to it to speed up my perception. Once again, it drains my Firmament of almost everything I can muster — as much as I've improved, the Inspiration appears to have improved along with me, and so it's draining a proportionally greater amount of my strength to fuel itself.

The world, too, slows to a near stop. The accelerated perception I'm experiencing now is an entire magnitude greater than before...

Which is a bad thing. I grimace. My mind is too accelerated. At the rate I'm moving, it's going to drain nearly all my Firmament before I can close my fist around the hostile skill.

Nothing to it but to adjust my trajectory and hope for the best. I let my perception snap back to normal; my hand closes around the Whisper, Crystallized Strength already fueling me with the power to snap the foreign Firmament in half.

Except Whisper's adjusted, because of course she has. Her Firmament splits smoothly in half in my grip, coiling around me as two separate attacks instead of one. I grit my teeth and readjust, bringing up my Amplification Gauntlet so I can crush one into the ground. The other I'm too out of position to stop, and so I just apply a quick Hueshift as it attaches itself to me.

If nothing else, it's halved in power, and the Hueshift will weaken it even more. Combined with the Firmament sink Miktik lent me, I think I can make this work with my plans.

Whisper smirks at me. "Good try," she praises, though her voice drips with condescending superiority. I fake a grimace. It's not even entirely fake — I can feel her Firmament coursing through me with each moment I refuse to answer her question, turning into a blistering heat that burns beneath my skin.

But the Hueshift weakens the effect, and Miktik's Firmament sink is collecting every bit of stray heat it can. It's heating up in turn, of course. This version of it is far from perfect. But in combination with my own skills, with my durability, with the weakened version of the Whisper that hit me...

It's enough.

"You want to know what I'm planning?" I ask. I wince a bit as I speak, feeling the burn of Whisper's Firmament grow; to lessen the strain, I mix in a bit of the truth. "I want to go to the Craven Arena and win some points. You know, considering you upgraded the rewards so much."

I pause for a moment to consider how much convincing Whisper will need. I've been to the Craven Arena a few times now, although I've only met the Ringmaster once. I've got some idea of who is fighting when. I have a rough idea of the combat styles of most of my opponents—

"I see," Whisper says. "And why are you visiting my engineer?"

I almost blink in surprise, but manage to cover up my reaction with another grimace as the Whisper compels me to answer. She really just... believed me. She-Who-Whispers doesn't doubt for a second that her skill might fail her, or that others might find a way around it. That's a weakness if I've ever seen one. "It's kind of hard to fight the people in the Arena," I say, which isn't technically a lie. The Firmament sink heats up in my pocket. "I met her in a previous loop. I'm pretty sure she can make a weapon for me."

Whisper snorts. "And you needed to seal her workshop to do this?"

She thinks I sealed the workshop? For an all-knowing leader of Isthanok, she's surprisingly ignorant to what's actually happening in it. "I didn't want you to listen in and find out I was the Trialgoer," I say, which is also technically the truth.

I can feel Ahkelios trembling as he tries to withhold his giggles. You better not give this away, I mutter to him.

I won't, he says. It's just — I can't believe she's this easy to fool.

I don't think she's ever considered that she's anything less than perfect, I mutter dryly. At least not after her Trial.

"I'm afraid Miktik isn't available for hire," Whisper says coldly. "What did you do to Guard?"

"Having a guard in the city is kind of inconvenient," I say, feigning a bored, careless tone that makes her Firmament simmer with anger once again. "And since you've technically only got one person guarding the whole city, it's an easy point of vulnerability."

"Answer the question." There's no room for argument in her voice. The assassins next to her shift uneasily, moving away from her even while under camouflage; I can't imagine it's comfortable to be so close to that density of Firmament.

"I just tore away some of his Firmament," I lie. That burns. It's enough of a direct lie that her Firmament flares up within me — not nearly as strong as it had been in our last fight, but I also don't have the same imbuement stone I had back then.

Whisper stares at me. "Foolish," she tells me. I feel her opening her Interface and risk activating Firmament Sight. The assassins bleed into my vision, splotches of green-brown Firmament against the background, but more importantly, I can see the square window that functions as her Interface.

I can't see what's on it, of course. It's just a mass of Firmament. But I can tell she's writing down a message, and I can tell when a small pulse of Firmament runs through it, which I assume is the message being saved.

Now, Ahkelios.

I don't know for sure that she's sent back the message that I want her to send back... but there's only one way to find out.

[ You have died. +5 Strength credits. +30 Durability credits. +12 Reflex credits. +6 Speed credits. +20 Firmament credits. ]