Nowhere was free from crime, not even Akumu’s paradise of Yume. It was just a bit harder to get away with it. That is, unless you knew the right secrets. It was those secrets that brought Zeter to an empty barn on the western side of Autay Wa in the predawn light of morning. The barn itself was dark and musty but it shone like midday to Zeter’s eyes. The dark had never been as much of an issue for him as it did for most other people. Whether he was touched by magic or had some strange ancestry he didn’t know. It didn’t really matter. He could see in the dark and that was the least of his abilities that made him valuable to the people he was coming to meet.

“You’re early,” a grating voice said from behind Zeter.

He spun around and came face to face with a smiling fiend. She wore the garb of a Yomichi guard, except the insignia was ever so slightly wrong. It was just a few markings out of place but it meant the city bindings wouldn’t effect her. How she got away with impersonating a city guard was just one secret Zeter was here to learn.

“And you smell clean,” she said after giving him a sniff.

Zeter didn’t know what to say to that, and being this close to an unbound fiend was an unsettling experience to say the least. She stalked around him, looking him up and down with her cat-like eyes. He felt as though she could see every misdeed he’d ever committed, which wasn’t too unlikely given her heritage. She waited, expectant, and finally Zeter’s mind caught back up with him and he withdrew a small fruit from his pocket and held it out.

“I grabbed this on my way here,” he said, “as a token of my worth.”

That was what he’d been told to say and he hoped this wasn’t an elaborate hoax, or worse, a trap. The fiend accepted the fruit and took a bite without breaking eye contact with him. It was a fresh peach, juicy from the looks of it, but as the fiend bit into it blood seeped out around the corners of her mouth. She smiled toothily at him in a horrible grin as the blood dribbled down her chin.

“Mmmm, it tastes like sin,” she moaned with relish, making Zeter all the more uncomfortable. “Oh come now,” she said while wiping her mouth and licking the remnants off her hand with her forked tongue, “this isn’t your first time. I would know. So tell me, what trick did you use?”

Zeter pulled down the collar of his shirt to reveal the symbol of the Tower of Light.

“I prayed for forgiveness right as I took it,” he explained.

“Oh, clever boy,” the fiend brightened. “I love it when people use the Tower of Fools that way. It’s the most delicious hypocrisy.”

“It only works for small stuff, though. Cheap things, where no one gets hurt I should say. I’ve known people who tried to pray away a mugging or burglary and it didn’t turn out so well for them.”

“I should think not,” the fiend replied. “For those you need something a bit more powerful. More real.”

She fiddled with a clay disk in her hands and caught Zeter’s attention with it.

“You’ve gotten our attention, young thief,” she said, “and want to offer you a job. In exchange we’ll let you in on a little secret to help you avoid notice for even bigger game.”

She flicked the disk over to him and he caught it easily. It was about the size of his palm and was carved with runes.

“Ab-sol-ution,” he read out slowly.

“Oh-ho, someone’s learned their runes,” her eyes flashed with fire momentarily.

“I try to know a bit about a lot of things,” Zeter shrugged, “Never know when it’ll be useful.”

“Well, my little scholar, if you know enough to read it, do you also know enough to scribe it?”

“It might take me a few tries,” he admitted, “but yeah, I could scribe them.”

She ran a long nail down the side of his cheek and it was all he could do not to jerk away from her.

“All you need is one of these, or a few of them to be safe, really,” she told him. “Since you can scribe them, you won’t need to come to me for them. As your crimes add up, the disks will absolve you of them until they’re overloaded and break. That’s why it’s a good idea to carry a few on you at a time, just don’t get caught with them or Akumu can read the crimes they’ve absolved you of.”

“And what’s their limit?” Zeter asked.

“Don’t kill anyone, since no amount of absolution will clear you of that. And don’t steal so much that you’ll ruin someone. Best to keep it to small amounts, spread out among a number of marks.”

“So what’s the job, then?” he asked as he pocketed the disk.

“There’s a brick,” she explained as her eyes lit up once again, “on the east side of Autay Way. It’s inscribed with a rune you won’t recognize but is quite full of power. I need you to steal it and bring it back here before midday today.”

Zeter immediately ran through the items he thought he would most likely need to do the job. It was certainly an odd one, but not too difficult on the surface. He’d need a pick and a hammer to break up the masonry surrounding the brick, as well as something to mask the magical aura of the brick while he transported it. His satchel should be good enough for that unless the brick was so powerful it glowed in visible light. He doubted it was since he would have heard of such a thing. Glowing bricks weren’t exactly common.

“Alright,” he took a step back from the fiend, “I believe I have the tools for that sort of job. I’ll be back with the brick soon.”

He turned and walked out of the barn, resisting the urge to turn and look back even though he could feel her gaze following him. Only when he was well away from the barn and his neck had stopped tingling did he allow himself to question whether or not this was the sort of thing he wanted to get tangled up in.

What’s the brick do?

That was the first question he wanted to have answered. It was a poorly kept secret that there were bricks, cobble stones, and other such things throughout Yomichi that bore runes but no one had ever deciphered them and none of them ever registered as being all that powerful. A lot of people who knew about them suspected they were old pest deterrents or something like that that Akumu had once used but no longer maintained.

He would never ask the fiend that question. He knew better than that. Besides, he had his other contact for those sorts of questions. As he walked along the main road towards the eastern side of Autay Wa, he pulled a scroll from out of his satchel. The wax seal on the scroll melted away and the scroll flashed before imbuing him with its stored power.

A man, semitransparent, appeared walking beside Zeter. It took the man a moment to notice Zeter and he gave him a subtle nod before itching his left elbow; the signal to wait before speaking. Zeter touched his nose in acknowledgment and kept on walking. Eventually, the man sat down, although he stayed beside Zeter regardless of his continuing pace.

“Alright, Zeter, what have you got for me?”

The man’s mouth never moved and only Zeter could see or hear him.

“I met with a fiend,” Zeter said, his mouth also remaining still as his thoughts were projected through the magic. “She gave me a disk of absolution and then sent me to steal a brick from Autay Wa with a rune on it. Know anything about a rune brick on the east side?”

The man poured himself a drink and thought while he sipped.

“Have you used the disks before?” he seemed to be making small talk while he thought of the bigger question at hand.

“No, but I should be able to make them for myself now that I know about them.”

“Good, good,” he sounded distracted as though his mind was far away before he refocused and spoke more directly. “I’ll send you the location of a rune brick I know of. There aren’t many in the city walls as a whole. Most of them are cobble stones or part of a building. I expect you to get me a full rubbing of the brick before you hand it over to the fiend.”

“Of course,” Zeter replied.

“Good, good, then come meet me after you’re done. I’d like to examine your disk of absolution. They’re not all made the same, you know and some makers have a recognizable style. I might also have something for you as well..”

The image faded and Zeter picked up the pace as his mind expanded and he knew the spot where the brick could be found. Was it possible the fiend knew he was also working with the Sages of the Mercurial Robe? Zeter thought it was likely. In fact, this might all be a round about way for the two parties to be introduced with Zeter as their go between. Not a bad spot to be in as long as things went smoothly and no one tried to kill the other side. If Zeter played his cards right, he could end up with some very powerful allies.

So far, the most Zeter had been able to do for the Sages was run deliveries and such. He knew where a handful of their dead drops were and that was about it. This was the first real step forward he’d had in months and it was exciting to be moving up again.

It was late morning by the time Zeter found the brick. It was behind a large field of grain and only took him a few minutes to chisel out of the wall. Once it was free, he made a rubbing of the rune and stowed both away in his satchel. Then he searched around for any loose chips of brick. It didn’t take long before he found one big enough for his needs and he began etching onto it with a thin, steel pick he carried for just such a purpose. As soon as the rune was completed, the brick fragment began expanding. He slid into the now empty slot and it filled the spot fully.

“That should hold for a year or so,” he muttered to himself and then began retracing his steps back towards the barn.

It was just before midday when he arrived. He’d needed to jog a good deal of the distance in order to make it on time and he was wiping sweat from his brow when he entered the barn.

“I was beginning to wonder if you’d be late,” the fiend half laughed.

She was sitting on a pile of hay, reclined slightly an drinking some unfamiliar wine that glowed faintly green.

“Here’s your brick, as requested,” Zeter wanted to get this part of the transaction over with as quickly as possible. As exciting as it was to be moving up and making new connections, dealing with a fiend was still a bit more than he was comfortable with. Perhaps with enough exposure he’d get used to it but for now his skin crawled and he was glad he had the excuse of his jogging to explain away the sweat that was trickling down his back.

The fiend accepted the brick and made it vanish with a flick of her wrist.

“Thank you, dear one,” she grinned with all her teeth. “Now about your payment.”

She held out a small pouch of coins that Zeter gladly accepted.

“Since you were even early,” the fiend went on, lying back even further into the hay, “how about a little bonus for you?”

It only took Zeter a single glance at her tempting eyes to know what she meant and he took several steps back immediately.

“Sorry, but I’m…uh, no thank you, this will be sufficient,” Zeter stammered as he indicated the pouch of coins. She was quite beautiful, in a way, but he knew the stories of people being bound by fiends and he had no desire to give this one any leverage over his soul.

“Oh you’re no fun,” the fiend sulked but she rose and held out a scroll instead. “This is for your other mercurial friend. We’d love to have a little chat and see about a potential alliance. New days are coming and it would be a good idea to have strong friends.”

Zeter accepted the scroll and tucked it away in his satchel, wondering at the strange comment she’d made about new days.

“I’ll deliver this right away,” Zeter said as he backed out of the barn.

“Better hurry,” the fiend replied as she looked at something only she could see, hovering in the air, “the new days are coming fast.”

Zeter didn’t get the impression that she was being facetious so he did as she suggested and jogged his way around towards the gate into Ichiba Wa. It was a far few miles, all told, and although Zeter prided himself in his endurance, he was no great athlete. So it was that as he entered Ichiba Wa and began hurrying through the various markets towards Chikara Wa, the alarms began to blare within the city.

As one, the living guards of the city turned and announced that Yomichi was under attack.

“Stay where you are while the threat is dealt with,” they said but Zeter ducked into the alleys and kept making his way towards Chikara Wa so he could finish his job. It had been centuries since the last invasion attempt and Zeter knew this one would be quashed just as quickly as the previous ones had been.

He was, of course, wrong. The sounds of battle began to reach his ears as he passed through the gate into Chikara Wa and he could see smoke rising above the walls from the fires that had been set in Autay Wa. That really got him to hurry his pace and sprint the last mile or so to the Sages of the Mercurial Robe’s tower. The tower itself was both a place of learning as well as a home for the most powerful arcane spellweavers in all of Yume. The Sages had other such towers throughout the world but this one was the premiere tower where the governing council of archmages ruled. It was here that Zeter hoped to one day study, but for now he was a lowly grunt, self taught in a smattering of the arcane arts.

Standing outside of the tower was his contact. Names were never used in Zeter’s line of work so he only knew the man by his face and a few hand signs to confirm his identity.

“The rubbing,” Zeter panted as he arrived, “and an invitation, I believe, from a friend.”

He handed over both the rubbing and the scroll.

“Very good, very good, now get out of here if you can!”

The concern in his voice was even more worrying to Zeter.

“You have a way out of the city, I presume?”

Zeter shook his head.

“I had to use my last emergency scroll last week,” he explained when his contact gasped in shock and concern. “I haven’t had the time to scribe a new one.”

“Then take this along with your payment,” his contact said and handed over both a tome and a scroll. “The tome is your payment and should help you in your studies. This scroll should get you just outside the city on the east side where I’m told the folk from Autay Wa are gathering. Now go! I’ll contact you once this is all over.”

His eyes fixed on something behind Zeter, and when Zeter turned to look he was terrified to see the approaching army, blurring with speed as they charged towards Chikara Wa’s defenders. Undead were rising to assist Chikara Wa’s gate guardian, a gold dragon. Arcane and holy magic met and flashed and people began to die, both in the army and the bystanders as bursts of power fractured and splintered into every direction.

Zeter didn’t hesitate any longer and he activated the scroll. The last thing he saw before he landed outside the city was his contact rushing back towards the Sages of the Mercurial Robe’s tower, casting defensive magic to shield those closest to him.