Chapter 414

Wolfram Manor’s gates closed behind Nick with a heavy thud, shutting him off from the city’s oppressive atmosphere, and despite the confidence he had in his abilities, he couldn’t help but sigh in relief. He leaned against the wrought iron for a moment, letting the invisible layers of the Manor’s wards wash over him and ignoring the guards’ curiosity.

The gardens were a peaceful oasis, so much calmer than the intense emotions he’d been bombarded with while walking around Alluria. Yet even now, he could still feel something bothering him.

The Hounds of the Deep, which had been kept out of sight and confined to the sewers and nightly patrols, were now unleashed and prowling all over the city, searching for any sign of their target's hiding place.

Nick straightened his shoulders and pushed off the gates, telling himself to get over it. The lay dormant in his soul, so there was nothing for the hounds to track.

Yet, he knew that deep inside the Manor, Sonya was wearing a cloak woven from that same magic, and although Xander’s protection would be enough to shield her, it wouldn’t be long before the priests expanded their search.

Ignoring the curiosity he could sense from the patrolling guards, he hurried to the manor, heading straight to the basement, where he could feel his brother’s presence.

Walking down the staircase, he began to feel the occasional pulse of divination magic finally fade away, while Xander’s unwavering aura strengthened, transforming the area into an impenetrable fortress.

When he pushed the heavy oak door open, he found Devon unbuckling his chest plate while the Grandmaster sat at a low wooden table, carefully working on a whetstone.

Sonya was also there, quietly standing by the wall with a tray of hot tea, pristine in her maid’s uniform.

“The gates are being watched heavily," Devon said, dropping a gauntlet onto a bench with a loud clatter. “But Father’s supplies are out of the city, and we even saw the signal flare from the ridge, so they managed to join up with the rest of the group.”

"Good," Xander rumbled, and there was an intensity to him that Nick could only remember seeing when he’d faced the corrupt being at Sashara’s temple. Still, the old man didn't look up from his whetstone. "My men report that your other... package... is secure in the undercity. The boy is stable, though his pride and his mana channels will take time to heal.”

"Thank you, Grandmaster," Nick said, taking a seat at the table. He accepted a cup of tea from Sonya and gave her a tight nod. "I couldn't risk bringing him back to the Tower, and leaving him in the alleys to be found by the priests would have been a death sentence.”

"We all must do our part to protect the city," Xander replied simply, setting the stone aside. The old swordmaster possessed an aura so perfectly controlled that to a lesser mage, he would appear as a mundane mortal. But to Nick, sitting across from an Ascended-tier warrior, it felt like sitting across from a dormant volcano. Honorable and bound by the King's laws he might have been, the old man was capable of waging war against the entire might the priests had brought to Alluria on his own if necessary.

Hopefully, that wouldn’t become necessary.

"The sabotage was more successful than even I expected," Nick continued, glancing between Xander and Devon. He knew they were aware of the broad strokes of his plan, but the specifics had escalated. “It gave the Tidemaster a chance to claim demonic interference, and I expect he’ll be pushing hard to find any evidence. That it isn’t even close to the truth doesn’t really matter much.”

“It is a clever attempt,” Xander admitted. He didn’t seem to think much of the man behind it, but that didn’t mean he could be taken lightly. “It gave them a bit more time. Do you have any idea what they might be looking for, specifically?”

The way he’d worded his request made Nick think he already knew, but he didn’t call him out.

He sighed. ”They are following the unique spiritual signature of the magic I used to sabotage the ritual, so yes, I know it is the they are after."

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Devon stopped unbuckling his armor, his expression darkening. "The cloak you made for Sonya.”

Exactly, Nick said grimly. "If a Hound comes near enough to the Manor’s wards, it might catch a scent of it. But if I remove the cloak, she’ll become visible to regular divination again, and if I keep the cloak on, she’ll smell like the 'demon' the temple is hunting.”

Silence settled over the room as everyone thought about the issue. Devon seemed about to punch a hole in the wall, while Xander just set his teacup down.

"We will not yield," he said softly, gently patting Sonya’s pale face. "If the Inquisition knocks on my gates, they will find them locked. If they try to break them, they will learn why I am considered a faction of my own.”

"We can't start a war between us and the temples over this," Nick argued. "That’s exactly what the traitor in the Tower wants. We need to misdirect them. I just need to figure out a way to alter the cloak's signature without—“

"Excuse me, Nicholas.”

Nick blinked and looked up. Sonya stood in front of him, but unlike the frightened girl he had seen in the past weeks or the silent reflection she showed when he entered the room, there was something almost settled about her. She had reached an important decision, and if the determination in her eyes was any sign, she wouldn’t be swayed from it.

“There is no need for you to worry about the cloak,” she said softly. “We just need to give them something more important to worry about.”

Nick frowned and shook his head. "Sonya, you don't understand. The Hounds don't track physical scents but the metaphysical stain of the magic. It’s like a fingerprint on the ether, and while its very nature makes it almost impossible to detect under normal circumstances, which is how you were able to stay hidden until now, they got quite the sample after the blessing failed. The Tidemaster himself worked on this, and while I am confident in my abilities, I’m not arrogant enough to believe a man of his skill couldn’t break through my magic.”

Perhaps Politod’s lesson hadn’t been dealt with this in mind, but Nick now knew exactly how far he was from those old monsters. While he had managed to deal the High Priest of Ulter a blow, it was only because Tholm had intervened on his behalf that he had been successful.

“I understand perfectly," Sonya replied. A small, confident smile touched her lips. She looked at Xander, who gave her an encouraging nod.

“These past weeks have brought up many memories I’d buried. It’s not something I enjoyed doing, but under the Grandmaster’s tutelage," Sonya explained as she approached the table, "I have been practicing. A maid’s duty is not just to sweep dust from the floor. It is to uphold the household's purity, and a household is more than just physical space.”

She held out her hand and looked him in the eyes with confidence. "Show me the stain, Nick. Just a drop.”

Nick hesitated, glancing at Devon, who looked just as confused, then at Xander. The Grandmaster simply sipped his tea and watched silently.

It was difficult to tell what the old man was thinking, but Nick thought he could sense a flicker of pride. Trusting that, he raised a finger and carefully bypassed his elemental affinities, casting the smallest amount of the he could gather. A bead of oily, black mana formed on his fingertip, radiating a cold, heavy sense of greed.

Sonya reached into her apron and pulled out a pristine white handkerchief. flared as her mana activated, and although it wasn’t explosive or bright, it was structured, meticulous, and surprisingly dense.

".” Draping the handkerchief over Nick’s finger, she gently wiped away the bead of mana, her own mana serving as an impermeable barrier.

It was not an attempt to dispel the magic. That would have forced her into a clash of wills she couldn’t have hoped to win, but somehow, the mere fact that the Mire was considered a taint seemed to be enough for her class’s skills to work.

When she pulled the cloth away, the bead was gone from Nick’s finger. It was now in the center of the handkerchief, but it wasn't a liquid anymore.

Under the influence of Sonya’s class, the conceptual magic had been forcibly compressed, now resembling a hard ball of grey lint.

“What the hell?” Nick muttered. This was unlike any magic he’d ever seen before. It had nothing on the power wielded by an Archmage, or the subtlety he himself could weave in his mana. No, this was a unique skill born of dedication to one’s class.

"A stain is just matter out of place," Sonya said reasonably. She picked up the grey bead, which felt entirely inert to the touch, but to Nick’s spiritual senses, it was screaming the exact resonance of his .

It was a perfect, isolated replica of his magical fingerprint, yet entirely disconnected from his soul.

With a small smile, Sonya then turned to Devon and said, "If I may suggest, what would happen if we put this... 'dust bunny’ in various places around the city?”

Devon’s eyes widened as the realization hit him. "They would swarm, thinking they found the source of the demonic incursion.”

The look he gave her next was so warm that Nick didn’t need his empathy to know what his brother was thinking, but luckily, even he wasn’t brazen enough to act on it before Xander.

"And if we made fifty of them?" Nick asked, his mind racing as the tactical possibilities exploded in his head. "And scattered them across Alluria?”

“It would cause total sensory overload," Xander rumbled approvingly, setting his teacup down. "The Inquisition would be chasing shadows and exhausting their manpower digging up alleyways and breaking into empty warehouses, while the true scent remains lost in the noise. Given the strict timeline they are working on, it would essentially nullify the Hounds’ utility.”

Nick looked at Sonya, a genuine grin spreading across his face. "Sonya, you are a genius. This is a game-changer.”

Sonya bowed her head slightly, a blush rising to her cheeks. “We all have to contribute somehow, don’t we?”

"How many can you make and sustain?" Nick asked, looking at the grey bead.

"As many as you can provide the raw material for," Sonya said. "Though my mana pool isn’t as deep as yours, the skill is highly efficient. I am only manipulating what’s already there, not really creating anything.”

"Do it," Xander commanded.

For the next hour, the basement of Wolfram Manor turned into a strange assembly line. Nick carefully bled small bursts of, and Sonya collected the conceptual stains, rolling them into inert, highly resonant beads.

By the time they finished, a small wooden box on the table held over four dozen grey beads.

"Where do we put them?" Devon asked. “We’ll have to be careful about not getting caught.”

"We need to place them strategically," Nick said, his mind turning back to the political map of the city. “We'll position some near the docks to keep the Tidemaster's forces busy in their own territory. Others will go in the lower-class districts where the City Guard has authority, forcing the priests to argue with the Duke’s men over access.”

He looked up with a strange glint in his eye. “And finally, we’ll drop a few right on the doorstep of the Temple of Sashara.”