System Break

We lounged in the smoke filled room and sipped on a thick sludge that was supposed to be coffee. 

"Do you like it?"

"It's shit," I said.

Leonell chuckled. "But you drink it still."

I sniffed the glasses rim and while it smelled like coffee it tasted like it was mixed with acidic chicken dung. "I can drink shit coffee." It had caffeine after all. I peered at him. "How am I supposed to find the artifact."

Leonell leaned forward and whispered. "If I had a map it would not help you."

I wondered if discussing a heist in a thieves guild abode, which I assumed the black cloaks were to some degree, was a wise idea.

I scanned the room checking for healthy cores or signs of someone using a technique. It was quiet. Maybe the deal with the expensive coffee lounge was a place of anonymity where you discussed your next crime. The only person using a technique was Leonell himself.

"Do not worry. No one can hear or lip read us. I have come too far now to fail at the last gasp."

"What do you mean come too far?"

He was hunched over but he looked up at me with bright eyes. "I had planned this over a dozen years ago when Fredrich moved against me and mine. But I was unable to make it past the traps and then the sewer creatures kept me out. But I have what you need to find it. It will be both your friend and nemesis."

He reached into a small jet black box and pulled out a bright blue crystal. It was small the size of his thumb. The box itself was interesting although it was pitch black it glistened like glass.

"The box is obsidian, and I will give you a larger one for the task. The blue crystal is a spirit stone and when you are close it will point to the artifact for you." He dangled it using his qi and it spun. It was like a compass except for finding the artifact.

"How?"

"This crystal was made by the artifact twenty years ago and it still knows its home. It's the only one I know of other than the ones Fredrich will have hidden."

"How does the sewer come into it?"

He put the spirit stone away. "I will take you to the entrance and we can discuss the details there."

"Wait. I'm going tonight?"

He nodded. "If you want it you need to strike fast. When Fredrich finds out I have an apprentice he will prepare for the worst. He is a brilliant planner and is as paranoid as they come. His estate is covered with traps designed to drain the most adept qi users."

"I want to learn about these traps. How to make them, how they work."

He nodded. "In time, in time."

"If your friend will come after me using one of those stones, why don't I just kill him to eliminate the threat. Him and anyone he's trained or confided in."

Leonell shook his head. "No. I am sorry, but a condition of my help is he must survive." His eyes shone and filled with moisture. "Young man, he has caused me immeasurable pain. My wife, my children are all gone because of him. He cherishes this thing and when it's taken from him I want him to suffer, even though it will be nothing compared to how I suffered. I do not want him dead. I want to crush him."

He reached into his cloak and pulled out a larger box. "It is obsidian, and it will hide the artifact from the spirit stones."

I realised that when the spirit stone was placed back inside the obsidian box I could no longer see it with qi sight. This substance hid qi from me.

I took the obsidian chest - it was the size of a shoe box. "It's too big for me to carry."

He unstrapped a bag which hung under his cloak, from his shoulder and down his side. "Here, use this."

He stood. "Let's go."

Once the bag was attached I stood and let it hang. I felt rushed. I wanted to plan this properly if I was going to do it at all. I decided to take a look at the mansion and sewer first. I would be able to investigate with qi sight what Leonell could not.

We walked up the street and he checked for a tail. "I am being cautious," he said. "They should not be interested in me."

There was no sight of anyone tailing us after three blocks. Nothing visible but I could see them. Their core bounced across a couple of roofs before landing in the street. They were shrouded in darkness, but their core shone like a beacon.

When we made a turn I pulled Leonell against a wall and into a doorway alcove. I said nothing and pointed. He nodded and we waited.

When they turned the corner they were only ten feet from us, but my normal eyes still could not see them.

I stepped out from the alcove and looked directly at them. "Hey," I said.

It was like I dispelled their technique because dark smoke lifted from the woman and rose into the sky. She was draped in a black cloak and she glared at me.

"Go back to the café. I don't like being followed."

She frowned and said, "You are more than what you seem." Her accent was different to Leonell and the money changer. She was not a noble, she was from the streets because her accent reminded me of the poor markets in the north of the city.

"No harm done," I said and waved my hand in dismissal. "But if you keep following us I will get angry." She activated a technique; her body became encased in a web of qi. It was her shroud because she disappeared again. But she did as I asked and left the way she came.

"How did you …"

"Don't ask and I won't lie to you."

He peered at me and slowly nodded. "Very well."

He led me through the winding streets, and I kept an eye out for any more tails. We moved quickly and quietly through the noble and upper noble district. The Janissare estate was on the eastern side at the boundary where elite met the lower nobles.

We were closer than I'd been during the day and I could see a land core in the depths under the Janissare mansion. It was strange, different to what I'd seen before. It was smaller but it was connected to another core, and another. I could not see far but it looked like a web or a shape of interconnected cores.

"Do they have a land core in each mansion?"

Leonell peered at me. "I won't ask how you know. I'll pretend it's a curious question from a naïve young man. Yes. This is the ancient pentagram with five points and five intersections. It predates our settlement, and we have no idea who built it. The nobles families built their homes over core, ten in total."

"This island was occupied by someone before you moved here. It's no new – who was here before?"

He shook his head. "We have no idea but Loctris was built on the top of something ancient. It was in ruins when we arrived."

"What do they do?"

"They are land cores. It is why Fredrich rarely uses the artifact, he has no need. The land core is what powers his traps and protects his domain."

"Does he have mystical beasts guarding it?"

"Yes it is why we need to strike now. There is hell hound on the grounds and a snake inside the mansion. You will easily pass the hound because you're going in through the sewers. But you'll have to be wary of the snake."

I swore and kicked a cobblestone which protruded slightly above the others. "You're kidding me. When were you going to tell me this?"

"When we run through the mission. First I will lead you to the sewer entrance and then I will tell you everything I know."

I peered at him. Part of me wanted to tell him to fuck off but the old man had come back to life since we met. Even Lafe noticed a dramatic change in him. And I wanted the artifact. I really did. 

He waited patiently for me to process, said nothing and looked at the ground. 

"I want to tell you to jump in the lake," I said. "You'll need to answer every fucking question I have if I do this."

He spoke slowly and I could hear the determination in his voice. "If you help me get revenge on him I will be at your service until I die."

I looked at the land core, but I could not see the hell hound. I turned back. "I will try, but if I see something impossible I'm getting out of there. Artifact or no artifact."