Chapter 1533 (1/2)

As it turned out, Randidly didn’t have much to say on their walk to the chapel; he had just come because he hadn’t wanted to linger with the constantly fearful Superintendent Xeruth as the two of them waited for the funeral to start. Plus, some of the surrounding individuals had been staring at Randidly and whispering; apparently, his reputation preceded him. Therefore, he had come looking for Lady Iellaya.

The small chapel where the funeral would be held was a rustic building that could only barely claim to be a chapel based on the height of its ceilings. Thick, uncarved stone pillars held the roof about five meters above the heads of a normal humanoid. Which did seem to add a… reflective mood to the attendees. But even with that height, the hundred Commander rank military personnel and above, the family, and the various security guards meant that the entire thing would be filled to bursting with bodies.

Lady Iellaya was not looking forward to squeezing into a seat.

Even worse, the entirety of the chapel was shaped in the same hewn stone look of those grand pillars. The benches were squat grey pews. The altar was a stone table. The windows looked positively feeble between the heavy rectangles of stone that formed the walls. Everything was rough and weighty.

It spoke to a Commandant who valued austerity and solemnity over all else. It felt like the building itself was all the gravestone the deceased could ever desire.

No one was happy with the arrangements, and despite the fact that she had no control over the situation, Lady Iellaya had been receiving a steady stream of criticisms for the past week over the venue. Basically, she now hated this Outer Realm and its chapel more than anything else in the Nexus.

Aside, of course, from the Commandants who refused to promote her. But that was a work in progress.

So as they walked, Lady Iellaya didn’t try to hold back her feelings of frustration while speaking. Of the individuals that she knew, Randidly Ghosthound was one of the few which she trusted implicitly. Their conspiracy to overthrow the established order of the Nexus generated bound them together, even ignoring the fact that Randidly had remade her Class for her. So Lady Iellaya ranted wildly, talking about her fury toward the various attendees, before moving on to how difficult it had been, trying to protect Outer Realm Umt from being the target of any giant terrorist attack.

With the Nexus' situation being what it was, Lady Iellaya was inundated with threats of action from various dissatisfied groups. It was impossible to keep track of who could take advantage of the gathering of important individuals to send some meaningless message that would probably be misinterpreted anyway.

The sense of sympathy powerlessness Lady Iellaya felt as she studied these groups did not leave her particularly optimistic about Edraine’s plan at all. But at this point, she wasn’t going to back down.

This conversation carried them through most of the walk. They had headed outside of the downtown area along a dirt lane, now blessedly devoid of other soldiers, to ascend a small hill and arrive at the chapel. Along the lane were bare imitations of trees done in copper and brass, their sharp and angular branches ending in points sharp enough to impale flesh. Lady Iellaya finally ran out of steam as she considered these queer decorations on the way to the chapel.

Fucking creepy as hell. Lady Iellaya’s feathers twitched. I wonder how many birds have killed themselves on these branches...

Right when they were about to arrive at the chapel, Randidly Ghosthound spoke. “Well… we don’t think the resistance is very powerful right? At least, not powerful enough to seriously threaten all the Commandants and political figures here, right?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be blamed if those in power are inconvenienced, even the slightest bit,” Lady Iellaya said with a scowl. Just imagining the shitstorm she would need to endure if something happened…

“I just mean… it doesn’t seem likely to me that the funeral would be the target. You talk about wanting to send a message… but what’s stressing you out is that stolen Aether, right? Well, they didn’t try and send a message with that collection,” Randidly pointed out. He scratched the back of his neck like he felt slightly awkward speaking out. “They just stole a bunch of Aether. And now you’ve very obviously tightened security here. Fighting from a position of weakness… only a dumbass would attack the funeral right now. There are probably dozens of easier targets in the Nexus with so many elites concentrated here.”

Lady Iellaya shrugged. “Not my patrol, not my problem. Now let’s just get through this, shall we?”

******

Octavius Shrike woke up with the knowledge that something was very wrong with his situation. Reaching for his image netted him nothing. In addition, his body was entirely frozen. He couldn’t manage even the slightest movement.

His bedroom, as it usually was when he lay down for some restful meditation, was completely dark. The door and windows were sealed. But he could sense that he was not alone in the room. Two presences shifted lightly around his desk at the far end of the room, perusing through the copious amounts of scrolls and personal effects that Octavius maintained there.

For a second, Octavius felt a flash of panic. But then he quickly calmed himself. His initial fear was that this was the Nexus itself moving against him; perhaps someone had informed those in power about the alliance between himself, Edraine, Lady Iellaya, and Randidly Ghosthound to overthrow current Nexus leadership. But that feeling quickly passed as he realized that, despite his proclivity to record every portion of his life, he had forcefully restrained himself from noting anything incriminating down.

If they were looking for evidence, they would not find it here.

Especially here, in his home office. Only documents relating to the Seventh Cohort were present. Mostly, it was his personal observations about common elements present in the worlds that were passing through the Calamities and a second, hard copy of Aether harvests statistics in the Seventh Cohort. The former was the seed of a paper Octavius intended to eventually submit before the Eighth Cohort was formed and the latter was just a precaution.

However, that lack of panic quickly erupted back into panic as he blanked on what other forces would have the capability and the motivation to break into his room and restrain him. Confusion and darkness quickly whispered to those fears, helping them rapidly swell and overtake him. His image once more strained against the strange sense of isolation, but Octavius could manage to do exactly nothing.

I’m at their mercy. That chilling thought helped calm Octavius down.

The two presences noticed Octavius’ wakefulness as well, stopping in their examination and glancing at each other. They might very well be completely imperceivable with Octavius being sealed as he was, if not for some recent points about emotion Octavius had learned from Randidly Ghosthound. The two figures blended perfectly into the darkness and their images were perfectly controlled, but they allowed their emotions to flow rather freely.

Octavius managed to latch onto two distinct flavors of emotion in the darkness.

Cruelty seemed to grin as he looked over at Octavius. “He’s awake.”