Chapter -21474836327 (What were you hoping to get from this?)
Later on that same day the women had met the distraught [Merchant] in the baths, Ada was seated atop the ranger’s armored wagon, practicing shaping and controlling several small lumps of metal orbiting around one hand. She’d taken to conjuring lumps of tungsten for practice, as they could easily be shaped then stored in various locations throughout her body. They broke down over time, but it did leave her with quite a large number of readily available projectiles with varied shape and mass.
Meanwhile, Ada had some serious thinking to do. The rangers were currently sleeping inside the guard barracks and would start their investigation into the possible illegal slavery ring and governmental corruption. She almost hoped that they wouldn’t turn up any useful evidence, and she’d have to go kill everyone involved in that slave brothel. The idea that this place allowed that level of depraved exploitation made Ada furious. She wanted to burn the entire place to the ground with every person responsible chained up inside. The simple act of imagining what had been done to Livia between the time that she’d been captured by “bandits” and now had Ada seething.
Her thoughts had her distracted enough that she did not notice a man approach, or at least that is what she would claim later was the reason why she did not spot him until he was already standing directly in front of her and spoke, saying simply, “Hello, Ada.”
She jumped, quite startled, and fell off the wagon into the sand on the ground. If anyone had been around to ask, Ada would have sworn that he had not been anywhere close to her just a moment before. Ada was fairly sure that she’d never met the man, as the blonde hair and red eyes seemed like the sort of thing that would stand out as reasonably memorable. “Huhwhat,” she said in response, “who the fuck are you, and did no one ever tell you not to sneak up on a woman in the dark like that?”
“You are as eloquent as always, and yes, as a matter of fact, I have heard that said on multiple occasions, though I maintain that stealth and the element of surprise have served me quite well thus far. As for the first question, I must first confirm that you do not, in fact, have any idea who I am.”
[Warrior]
That was the deepest red that Ada had seen on anyone so far, apart from the sentinel, that is. “Uh, right.” Ada looked the man over, from his feet up to the top of his head. From what Ada could tell, he was taller than average, though not significantly. His face was fine, she supposed, though it was doing nothing for her. His hair was a shade of blonde that could be described as straw, which from what Ada had seen around the two cities she’d been to so far wasn’t common, but also wasn’t completely out of the ordinary. No, the only thing that stood out as odd were his eyes, which had bright red irises. Ada was aware that when people earned a class that had an advanced element, their eyes would change to reflect that, but thinking through the list that Lucius had gone through, she couldn’t remember any that turned the eyes red. Then, she finally noticed his mouth. He had opened his mouth slightly, likely to speak again, and Ada caught a glimpse of his teeth. His four somewhat elongated, pointy teeth.
“Fuck, you’re a vampire,” she blurted.
“That would be a no, then. Good, I can finally be free from the favor I owe to you. As you are completely unaware, I shall endeavor to properly introduce myself. I am Sentinel Night,” he said, reaching into a pouch at his belt. The man, Night, retrieved a badge that was quite similar to a ranger badge, and nearly identical to another badge that Ada had seen recently belonging to Sentinel Gravity. “Also, I would appreciate it if you would keep my status as a non-human protector of humanity to yourself, as I have chosen to keep my status and identity restricted to only a few trusted individuals. I am aware that you are somewhat familiar with vampires as a concept, as I am aware of your own origins, allow me to allay your immediate concerns. Vampires do not prey on humans. While my kind do require blood as part of our dietary needs, we do not hunt other sentients nor do we take any blood without consent or concern for those who choose to donate. No, we have served as protectors of humanity since the very creation of this world, though that protection is now provided more surreptitiously than in previous generations.”
Ada just sat there on the ground for a moment, not quite sure how to respond to the information that had just been presented. “Ok, wow, you really like to hear the sound of your own voice, don’t you,” she said, finally.
Night stood there, unmoving, for a moment before his arm blurred. Ada noticed some pressure in her chest and looked down to discover that there was now the hilt of a dagger attached to the front of her tunic, just to the left of center, positioned right where any normal human’s heart would be.
“Huh,” she said, looking back up to Night. “So, what exactly were you hoping to get from that?”
“Gratification,” was his reply.
“And did you get it?”
"I suspect my gratification would be greater had it rendered you unable to speak, even if temporarily."
“OK, well, I’m keeping this.”
Night grumbled, “Consider it a gift. I have plenty more to provide you as needed. In any case, this does positively identify you as the woman in question, and as such, in order to satisfy the terms of the favor requested of me, I was asked to pass along a message and to provide whatever advice I felt was apt and would be of benefit to you as you are. The message in question was quite simple: ‘River Song’s Library’. Only that and nothing more.
“For the advice, I recommend that you do not join the rangers. Your temperament is poorly suited to the lifestyle, and I can only see you causing more problems than your team would be able to solve. Your durability and skills would make you a true asset to that team, but our previous encounters have shown that you are unable to follow orders when you have any amount of disagreement with them, and you seem to have disdain for the rule of law whenever the law goes against your sensibilities. No, serving the empire as one of its own agents is not ideal for you. I do recommend that once the team of rangers you have attached yourself to has reached the end of their round, that you attend the mage academy. I will leave word that if you choose to do so, that your tuition will be covered by my own accounts as I will not allow you to become a burden on the empire.”
Parsing through all of the man's words took Ada a few moments. Though she understood the reference, the message didn’t make sense as to how it applied to her current situation. As for the advice, she had to agree that being one of the rangers was not appealing. Already she was chafing at having to wait while they investigated financial records and bills of ownership transferal, when all she wanted to do was march into that slave brothel and start removing heads from shoulders.
Putting words to how she felt, Ada replied, “It is the imperative of the strong to protect and uplift the weak, to do otherwise is both immoral and unjust. To ignore the suffering of the weak when one has the power to effect change is not a sign of strength or wisdom, but of indolence.”
“There is a group, here in this town, that is kidnapping free women from caravans and enslaving them,” she continued, “the rangers insist on obtaining documented evidence of collusion between this group and the local government before they will act. I don’t care. I will find this group and I will end every single one of them.”
The vampire looked Ada directly in the eye, seeming to take measure of her resolve. “Very well,” he said, “Do not allow any to remain able to positively identify you. Be complete. If you are able to achieve this, I may have further use of you after all.” At that, Night turned away and left, disappearing into the darkness.
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Three days later, the rangers had not turned up any evidence that pointed to illegal slaves. Each woman identified as working the brothel had bills of sale from their debt owners, documented financial debt for which they had supposedly sold themselves into slavery to cover, and there was no pattern they could determine that suggested a single corrupt magistrate was facilitating the sales.
Ada, of course, was livid. Determined, that very night on the third day, after the rangers had their evening meal, Ada changed into a fancier woman’s tunic, and left the barracks. She wasn’t entirely sure what her plan was, but she headed for the brothel all the same.
It was perhaps the anger she felt that distracted her from paying attention to her surroundings, not to mention that she didn’t have the lifetime of experience that should have taught her to be careful walking down dark streets alone at night. Whatever the reason, she was caught completely by surprise when a cudgel struck the back of her head.
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1024 vitality, -4096 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
Ada heard a masculine voice behind her, “what the fuck? Why aren’t you down already?”
Whack
Before she could act, Ada was struck a second time, from a slightly different angle.
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1300 vitality, -7201 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
“I don’t know, keep hitting her with it.” There was a second voice now. “Bosses want her before morning.”
Whack
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1024 vitality, -4096 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
Ada quickly put together what was happening; she was being taken captive, possibly by two people who normally worked as guardsmen. After quickly checking the live mana regen indicator that she’d set up previously, Ada could see that a few more applications of the stacking curse would start to become a problem. During training over the past couple days, Ada tested what happened if she expended all of her mana, and as she suspected, the result was losing consciousness until her mana had the time to refill. That took around two thirds of an hour due to the depth of her mana pool and rate of regeneration.
This could actually turn out to be exactly what she needed in order to find where the missing women were being taken. Ada decided to play along, at least for now. She started to turn around, but was struck twice more as she did.
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1024 vitality, -4096 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1300 vitality, -7201 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
Seeing this as a decent moment, Ada dropped to the ground and pretended to be thoroughly knocked out.
“Are we good? She seems to be down,” said the first voice.
“Nah, she’s still got positive mana regen, and a mana pool that’s, wow, ok that’s a lot,” said the second voice.
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1300 vitality, -7201 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
“What do you mean a lot?”
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1300 vitality, -7201 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
“Her mana. She’s got a lot of it. You know I don't get a lot of details, just a vague idea of how it compares to me own”
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1024 vitality, -4096 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
“Shit, I recognize her now. She’s that mage who came in with the rangers last week.”
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1300 vitality, -7201 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
“What, the one that made that statue?”
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1024 vitality, -4096 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
“Yeah”
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1300 vitality, -7201 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
“I heard about that, she pulled the metal out of the ground or something, yeah?”
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1024 vitality, -4096 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
“Nah, I was on gate duty when it happened. The bitch conjured the whole thing, right out of thin air in seconds.”
[Notice: You have been affected by Guardsman’s buff. +1300 vitality, -7201 mana regen. This is a persistent stacking curse effect.]
“Wait, seriously? That thing is enormous. Alright, were good. She’s negative on regen now. Get the bag.”
“I thought you had the bag.”
Ada checked her mana pool and regen while continuing to pretend to be unconscious, though eventually she would be actually unconscious until they removed the buffs and allowed her mana to regenerate.
This could be a problem, because who in their right mind would allow a captured mage to have mana if they could deny it.
“No, you were supposed to have the bag.. Oh wait, yeah here it is.”
At least she knew that one of the men was the sour-faced guard that she’d provided with a friendly monument during their entry into Remera. She felt hands roughly lift her head, and a coarsely woven bag was shoved over it. The thought that it was lucky that she didn’t need to breathe passed through her mind as it was cinched tight around her neck.
“Alright, get the sheet out.”
The two men were nearly completely incompetent, she decided. If it wasn’t for the debuff, she’d have been in no danger had she chosen to fight back.
“I don’t have the sheet either. I brought the rope. You were supposed to bring the bag and the sheet.”
Ada rolled her eyes. “Idiots”, she thought.
“Oh wait, I do have the sheet. It’s in here with the rope.”
“Well, hurry up, we’re not the only patrol assigned to this area tonight.”
“Oh well,” Ada continued her thoughts. “Even if I’m left inert, if enough time goes by, Alex will come find me. Probably as soon as she can convince the others to join her in the morning.” She could feel the guards attempting to wrap her up in some kind of cloth, probably a sail, she decided. And yep, there was a rope being wound around as well.
“Fuck, she’s heavy. Does she have those dwarf bones or something?”
“You think I know? She’s a metal mage, probably did it herself.”
“Alright, fine, get her up and let’s get out of here.”
The two hefted her up off the ground, and between two sets of grunts, they were off.
Wherever she was going, she probably wasn’t going to remain alert for the entire trip. With little else to do besides simply wait for the inevitable, Ada made a choice. She triggered the class advancement for her second class.
