{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/black-nerve/eifre-quest/a3",
  "path": "/posts/black-nerve/eifre-quest/a3",
  "publishedAt": "2021-03-15T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: subchapter\nMarka clicks her timepiece closed. The sun is reflecting sharply on the\nmetal as it lowers, and the motion of closing carves a harsh line of\nafterimage across her vision.\n\nWhen she glances up, Wik is walking away, lingering smoke leaving a\ntrail like a wake. The tallowbane looks back, waving a raptorial.\n\"Come. There's no reason to stay on the roof.\"\n\nMarka looks away, her eyes drawn toward the Church of Blue Welkin. From\nmost parts of Wentalel you could see it, and a younger Marka would look\nto it for the double purpose of placing herself in the city, for\ndirection, and placing herself in the order of things, for purpose.\n\nShe'd left it all behind, but it was --- if for today only --- once\nmore salient to her purpose. Amusingly. And she was abandoning it, yet\nagain.\n\n(Marka, my daughter...)\n\nBut she stops thinking about the matters she's neglecting right now.\nInstead, she thinks of Wik, that vesperbane who was white in the way\nghosts were black.\n\nThis situation bore a few correct responses, reactions drilled into her\nby training. (Oh, if only every choice were so amenable to correct,\nlogical solutions as in training.)\n\nFirst of all she should press this 'Wik' harder, firmly establish\ncountenance or lack thereof, and perhaps report this to some wound-faced\nwarden official --- that is, if Wik admits to being a defect, a defect,\ndreamless.\n\nReally, she should be writing an intel report to the wardens, request\nsome warrant for what was turning into a mission --- one that involved\ntermite-tech and sketchy tallowbanes. She'd have to run by her\nsuperiors all of her potential actions going forward. Get the direct\nsupervision of someone of fiend rank or higher. It wasn't...\nproscribed for a lone warden, even one of arch-wretch rank, to act on\ntheir own --- but procedure was a virtue.\n\nBut the bluntness of procedure feels like a piece unfitting here.\n\nWik has stopped walking. \"You don't look like you're following.\"\n\nMarka thinks. And she tells the straightforward truth; it's what she\nprefers.\n\n\"Why should I trust you?\" the warden asks.\n\nWik's pure white head tilts. \"Would I have saved your life were I some\nmanner of villain?\"\n\n\"Bluntly, I don't know what to think.\" That issue of countenance ---\nand why this vesperbane would be so cagey about it --- weighs on her\npalps, but would asking a third time provoke any different a response? A\ndifferent track is taken: \"It's suspicious, right? That you were there\nto save me at that exact moment?\"\n\nWik sighs, a wet sound, and turns around. \"You're falling down a pit\nthat swallows so many vesperbanes. One of caution heightened to\nparanoia, and assuming nothing could possibly be precisely what it is.\"\nWik takes a step forward, pale raptorials lowered, nonthreatening. \"It\nmakes sense, in a world like ours. But indiscriminate suspicion is a\nfool's caution.\"\n\n\"Calling it foolish isn't an explanation, and not a reason to trust\nyou.\"\n\n\"You saw me twice before I leapt in to save you. I did not come from\nnowhere.\" Wik whirls around, abdomen to her, and resumes walking away.\n\"Simply put, I am not in a position to run a blade through your\nabdomen. You risk nothing by taking me at my word --- for now. Pray save\nthe suspicion until you have something to lose from trusting me, at the\nvery least?\"\n\nWik jumps over the edge of the roof.\n\nA moment's thought, for procedure unattended to, and the possiblity of\nsimply walking away.\n\n(Marka, my daughter, if you take one more step...)\n\nMarka follows after.\n\nThe tallowbane did not jump straight down, instead sliding down the\nbuilding's side till the leap was from a height just two mantids tall.\n\nMarka picks a conventional route and climbs down. \"What, exactly, is\nyour plan? 'Infiltrate' is vague.\"\n\n\"I've been researching this city. Access to the sewers is limited to a\nfew guarded maintainence entrances or locked hatches, all in the\ninterests of not having the underground be a haven for mavericks and\ndefects. But Wentalel is old, and there's ---\"\n\n\"Wait, guarded by whom?\"\n\n\"City guards. I might have seen antennae-bands once or twice, but they\nhad to have been freshblood wardens.\"\n\n\"I'm a warden. Why not just walk up and flash my countenance, and\nwe're in?\"\n\nWik's palps cross, and cotton-like antennae work for a second. \"I\nworry for word of us making such an entrance running up the command\nladder --- what will the arch-fiend think? And we could be seen by the\nwrong person. Which, circumstances considered, might translate to\nforewarning or ancipation.\"\n\nMarka senses a sloppiness of reasoning. Her suggestion caught Wik by\nsurprise, and what results is weak justifications thrown up to support a\nconclusion already erected.\n\n\"Alright,\" she says, \"what were you saying before I interrupted?\"\nShe can bring it up later, after the idea had really registered.\nPressing now could just turn into an argument.\n\n\"My research suggests there's an ancient catacomb deep below, and\naccessible from caves beyond the walls. Rumor --- and a few sources ---\ngive me the idea the catacombs connect to the sewer in a few key places.\nFevalel's a decently modernized district, and some digging into city\nplans confirms the gang's base has plumbing.\"\n\n\"And that translates to a secret entrance?\"\n\n\"Not quite. That's where you, or someone like you, comes in. You're a\nblackbane, right? Nerve user? Demolition shouldn't be hard for you.\"\n\nMarka flexes her forelegs, distinctly aware of the nerve-circuits\nrunning through them. Even now, they hum with lethal amounts of\nenervate. \"Sure,\" she says. \"So, we blast up from the sewers and into\ntheir bathroom or kitchen or whatever. And that's any better than just\nkicking down the door? It's not going to solve the problem of getting\nto their stash. Hardly worth the trouble.\"\n\n\"That is where I come in. Believe me, once we're in their base, we\nwill not be blind in navigating it.\"\n\n\"You can just say why, you know, instead of asking me to believe you.\"\n\n\"It's a matter of technique. I'm a vesperbane. It's surely\nunderstandable why I wouldn't share my trade secrets with just\nanyone?\"\n\nMarka sighs. It's not calculated, but it is willed, to a degree. \"So\nyou're asking me to trust you, again.\" She glances away. \"For all I\nknow, this 'secret technique' could be familiarity with your own base,\nand you're navigating me to a cell or chopping block.\"\n\n\"I could swear an oath, if you like. By my vespers.\"\n\n\"I'm not a spellbrand, I wouldn't have much way of knowing you\ndidn't leave an out in the scripting, or if the oath is even\nlegitimate.\"\n\nWik's head leans closer, as if to get a better look, antennae twisting\nconfused. \"They don't teach that much to everyone in the wardens? So\nwhat, you're a pure nerve specialist?\"\n\n\"Pretty much. I have the wretched raptorials, but other than that ---\nall nerve.\"\n\n\"Are you at least a sensor?\"\n\nMarka frowns. \"I... gave it some attempts, but umbradivination is not\nmy school.\"\n\n\"Not a sensor. Damn, you'd be more useful if you were.\"\n\n\"Well,\" she starts, and then twists so that she can unlatch the bag\ntied to her prothorax and access its contents. She produces a clunky\nbox, whose weight is evident in the sag of her forelegs. One face has\ndepressed cutout where the metal gives way to glass. To the sides are\nhandles, and atop are knobs and buttons. \"I have this.\"\n\nIt's the same kind and caliber of construction that lies in her\ntimepiece, but put to a different, more advanced end.\n\n\"You're going to need to explain what 'this' is.\"\n\n\"A Vindicator-issue nerve scanner. It relies on a special class of\npigment which reacts to enervate-emitted radiation in tailored frequency\nbands. This new Mk.II model even has a special upsilon-lifted internal\naperture that allows it to tune to emissions that come from specified\narcs extending anaward or kataward, meaning ---\"\n\nWik was smiling, but they interrupt. \"Look, I'm not a blackbane. If\nyou want me to actually understand, rather than be dazzled, you're\ngoing to have to condense the explanation.\"\n\n\"It's basically a sensor box. It can detect distant enervate, and\nthere's some room for focusing on certain types or processes.\"\n\n\"Never heard of something like that existing. Okay. Yes, that will be\nuseful.\"\n\n\"Useful for what?\"\n\n\"Detecting vesperbanes, as sensor-types do? I don't expect dangerous\nenemy vesperbanes, but a guarantee is better than a guess.\"\n\n\"It's not unheard of for vesperbanes to suppress their emissions,\nhiding their presences from sensors.\"\n\n\"And supposing they have a blackbane that advanced also supposes a need\nfor them, and every technique known translates into a higher commision\nrate --- and the Fevalel gang is a struggling operation. We don't know\nif they have the ability to hire one vesperbane, let alone some\nfiend-level stealth wizard.\"\n\n\"About that,\" Marka starts, tapping her palps together once. \"I think\nwe can guess that there'll be enemy vesperbanes. There was a male I met\n--- it's how I found out about the gang in the first place --- and they\nmentioned an other vesperbane who spoke to them in the same breath as\nher dealings with the gang. It---\"\n\n\"...That was me.\" Wik had been twisting palps a few sentences before,\nand took this long to finally interrupt. \"He was probably talking about\nme. I had seen what was going on once before, and I had approached him\noffering protection.\" The tallowbane looks distant. \"I'm not sure I\nhave grounds to think the reaction could have been any diffferent.\"\n\n\"And you're not affiliated with the gang?\" Marka tried to smile,\nbut it wasn't much of a joke when the intent was sincere.\n\n\"Back to the matter of enemy vesperbanes,\" Wik says, \"I think\nthere's a way to investigate, if you want more certainty.\"\n\nWik stops there, expecting her to ask the necessary: \"How?\"\n\nThat too-flexible smile of theirs. \"I know a guy.\"\n\n\"You never explain anything if you don't have to, do you?\"\n\n\"Everything will either become clear when it needs to, or you didn't\nneed to know it.\" Wik starts walking, and beckons Marka to follow.\n\n\"If taking me to this guy of yours ",
  "title": "Interlude 1c"
}