Adamant Blood

Mark sat at a desk in ‘his room’ on the third floor of Alexandro and Gabriel’s house. Inquisitor Layfair’s folder lay open before him. Mark had opened it up inside the car to see what was going on, but there was a lot. So he had decided to set it aside until he got back here, back ‘home’, to really look at it all.

Mark had assumed that Layfair had been lazy in not wanting to take this case, and maybe he was a little, but the AIs and Layfair himself had thoroughly investigated Mark’s complaint as much as could be investigated, based on already-known information. The files of Memphi’s City AI were extensive, and always available for Inquisitor use and for law enforcement, and that showed.

Layfair had begun his investigation with the diary and the IDs, because, according to him, he didn’t think they were connected to the sword and to Mark’s complaint of attempted murder.

Mark had a series of numbers and letters that he could input into the Memphi City Database and get scans of all of that evidence, and he would do that soon, but the folder already had a bunch of stuff in it. Layfair had tagged ‘Mark Chamber’s’ ID to a known team that had gone missing 2 weeks ago. That Other Mark had been partnered with 4 other people, all of them listed in the diary that Mark had recovered, and then corroborated through city verification to be a part of Other Mark’s team. Finding out all the names of Mark Chamber’s teammates was a blow to the psyche, so Mark didn’t focus on that too much. Finding out that they were all decently-ranked hunters —which was the name that Memphi used for mercenaries outside the walls— was another problem. These people should have survived that turtle.

Layfair marked their deaths as suspicious, but not uncommonly suspicious.

The spiders, located further down the river from the turtle, had claimed the lives of 4 people, based on the IDs that Mark had recovered, but those 4 people were connected to 3 other people, who were all still missing in action. That situation with the spiders, according to the known capabilities of the people that Mark had tagged as dead-by-spider, also should have survived the spiders… Probably. The spiders had been classified as a Nature-based threat, and according to that intel, the teams should have survived them.

But Mark had fought and killed the spiders. When he had done that, he had assumed that they were some sort of Mind Monsters, considering they had poked at Mark mentally with commands to sleep. But were they actually some sort of Nature-based threat? Hmm. Mark wasn’t sure about that. It seemed like a Mind effect to Mark, but the city had it listed as a Nature-based threat.

The City seems like it could have been wrong, and Layfair had already submitted paperwork to the city based on Mark’s evaluation that the spiders had been a Mind-based threat.

Misidentifying threats was a very big deal.

… But Mark reevaluated the threat in his memories. All he had experienced was the impetus to sleep. It had certainly felt like an attack in his mind, and not in his body… Right? Hmm.

Mark set aside that unknown, and already-dealt-with threat. Layfair had submitted paperwork that would get those remains passed on to next of kin, so that was all done with… Probably.

Mark focused on the silvered sword, and the bandits.

Mark’s final guess at the sword’s creation had been correct. It was not mithril; it was alchemical silver. Layfair had helpfully added that the estimated value of the sword was only 30,000 gold leaf. Alchemical silver wore down, though, so it wasn’t a permanent weapon. It was already degrading in storage, apparently.

As for Mark’s interview and Layfair’s investigation, Layfair had gone through so many more different Powers than Mark had ever considered, all in order to figure out if Mark had encountered a team from the city, or anything actionable at all. Because Mark’s initial assessment of the bandit team’s Powers were non-actionable.

Mark had outlined 3, maybe 4 of the perpetrators.

There was the old woman with the Mind Magic of some kind, who had taken on the image of Mark’s mother, and then spoken to him about ‘helping mom out with money’. Looking at the continued notes, and all the questions Layfair had outlined for further investigation, Mark realized that his explanation of what he had seen had been quite terrible.

Layfair had all sorts of questions for Mark about ‘Was the woman able to mention anything that you knew, specifically?’ and ‘Did she ever use your name?’ and a few others that Layfair had never gotten to ask. Those questions were crafted to narrow down the woman’s Power exactly. Layfair was pretty sure that she had some sort of Mind Power, but the variations were… a lot. Mind Control, Mind Nudge, Predisposition, Loved One Impersonation, Pheromones, and many others.

Layfair had never asked Mark those questions, but Mark was able to ask those questions of himself.

“The woman never used my name. She didn’t even ask for it.”

Why didn’t she ask for his name, though? If she had access to Mark’s mind, then shouldn’t she have been able to use names, and therefore make herself seem more… everything! Believable, real, the truth. Able to make Mark move as she wanted, with the right words said in the right places and times. All of that.

According to Layfair, most Mind Control people couldn’t actually read minds. The simple fact that the woman didn’t know Mark’s name, and that she was so utterly incompetent about making herself personable…

Mark had to sit back and think about that whole encounter again, from start to finish.

The woman had opened by making Mark want to help them, which he already wanted to do because… well... humans help humans. Obviously. But she had poked at Mark in that way, tearing down his Mind walls and inserting herself into his life as a loved one. She had even taken on the image of Mark’s mother.

But no. That was wrong.

According to Layfair, a Mind Controller (which he and Mark both suspected the woman to be) couldn’t make Mark see her as Mom. This was because Mind Control was not Mind Reading. She had no way to pluck a memory from Mark’s head and impose it over herself. She did not have ‘Mind Illusion’, either. Now, to be fair, Mind Control could be turned into a true powerhouse that could eventually include all of those Mind sorts of abilities, so maybe the Mind Controller did manage to do some of that to Mark, but most of those abilities could only be used on someone far, far below the Power Level of the Mind user, and most users never developed those parts of their Power. Most users of Mind Control did not use their Power on other people. They used their Power on monsters, and only enough to make the monsters easy to kill.

But there was the other person in the group that could make illusions; one of the guys in the group that made Mark see the world all wonky. The Illusionist had made the world turn into canyons and upward rivers and a bunch of other barriers that Mark didn’t quite remember well, but Mark’s Union-based senses had been working just fine, and he could see what the real world looked like well enough. It was a vector-based ‘sight’, but that had been enough to show him how to escape.

Layfair had written some questions for Mark about that.

Did Mark think that the Mind Controller was able to influence him to see strange sights? Because that was possible, though unlikely. What was more likely was that the Mind Controller was working with an Illusionist of some sort, and they were communicating outside of Mark’s senses. Mind Controllers and Illusionists often worked together to do exactly that sort of thing.

“Well they were certainly communicating silently between all of them, for sure,” Mark mumbled as he went through the folder. “So they could have been working like that.”

So, with that in mind. Either: there was a Mind Controller, an Illusionist, and that Freezing girl, and a brawny with the silvered sword. OR! The Mind Controller was doing the illusions herself, and Mark had one unaccounted-for person.

Mark had no idea how to untangle that series of questions and concerns.

… Moving on.

Another ‘known assailant’ was the younger woman, in her 20s, that ‘froze the air all around Mark’. She had fallen into the mud when Mark knocked her out, and then she had complained about the mud. Mark had spoken about the girl’s ‘complaint about the mud’ because he felt he had needed something more to say regarding the whole encounter and that complaint was the only thing the bandits had actually said, outside of the mind controlling incident. Layfair had latched onto that complaint about dirt and gone on a tangent about the young woman being newly-exiled. Very new.

Maybe.

People who were outdoors all the time tended to not care about getting muddy overmuch, or else they didn’t stay outdoors. This woman was out there, hunting for human kills with her team, signifying that maybe she wasn’t used to being outdoors yet. Her age and the age of the Mind Controller probably signified something, too.

The daughter of the Mind Controller? Maybe.

Mark couldn’t recall their faces at all. It was a problem, but not much of one. If he saw them again he’d probably recognize them… Maybe…

Back to the investigation.

The old woman was a Mind Controller, of minimal threat level to Mark, but still a threat.

The ice girl was not a threat unless she got the drop on Mark, but that was true of everyone, really. Probably a Shaper as opposed to Arch or Soul or Natural, too, so even less of an issue for him, because Mark knocked her flat on her ass rather easily. If she was a Natural, then Mark would have had trouble doing that.

The brawny who had the silver sword was down an arm, cut just at the forearm. Even if he got it fixed, he was probably not a threat. As a brawny, he had withstood Mark’s Union knockout, because his body didn’t die that fast.

The area-illusionist was either a personal-illusion-type, or a full-blown-area illusionist. Layfair had questions in that direction, and Mark easily answered them for himself. ‘Did you see the other people when you were under the illusions?’.

“No, I did not,” Mark said, “Which means he was a personal-illusion-type.”

Mark didn’t believe, now that he was looking at the basic investigation, that the Mind Controller could create the illusion of Mom, of Donna Careed. So the Illusionist had done that. So a Mesmer; a type of illusionist that made personal illusions, replete with fakery for all of the natural senses. Probably a Natural Talent, too, considering he withstood Mark’s Union knockout, too. So maybe not a Mesmer at all. But most weird Powers were Natural Powers, so Mark should expect to run into people resistant to Union knockout more often than not.

Mark had probably hurt the brawny-guy a whole lot, but he went down to a knee instead of collapsing, because of training.

… So!

Mind Controller, Ice Shaper, brawny-type, and a Natural Mesmer.

Layfair’s investigation hadn’t shown any known groups like that. He had done 250 different searches (mostly AI assisted) starting at full composition and then going down the list to smaller and smaller denominations of groups. He only had luck when he got to the individual hits, but not really. Individually, people did have those sorts of ages/sexes/Powers, but Memphi had 45 million people, so yeah, just by random chance people matched the described suspects.

38 Mind Controllers, 27 Ice Shapers, countless brawnies, and 7 Natural Mesmers. None of them (and only really counting the 3 non-brawnies) were connected to each other.

A note from Layfair told him not to trust those results, though, but to use them as a starting position.

The other half of the preliminary investigation was much more informative. Not in the way of actually finding the suspects, though, but because it revealed a part of Memphi’s existence that Mark had never known, or considered.

There were exiles outside of Memphi.

A lot, actually.

There was a semi-safe ‘exile city’ located about 10 minutes or 3 hours north of Memphi, depending on if you flew or walked, right off of a river to the west of the Mississippi.

It was called Wolf Bayou.

If anyone knew about the people who had attacked Mark, then that is where he should start looking.

Mark had to sit back in his chair again.

“Holy fuck. An exile city?” Mark stared at the ceiling. “I mean… I’ve seen that stuff on the screen now and again, and I think there was an exile city in one of those… I think that zombie show. But do people actually live outside of cities?” Mark looked to Quark, on his computer. “People really live in exile cities, Quark?”

The screen flickered silver, and Quark said, “To call them ‘exile cities’ is mostly incorrect. They are called that, but they are, in reality, mostly people who go outside of cities to do things that are against the laws inside the cities. Exiles live there because they’re allowed to live there, because Memphi’s strict rules end at the walls. Some of the exile cities are even tourist destinations. Wolf Bayou is a well known exile city. I have information on Wolf Bayou if you wish to know that information.”

Mark had a moment—

“Wait,” Mark said, realizing something. He pulled up a map that Layfair had included, that Mark had pointed toward during his interview. “That’s around where I was attacked. And right on the other side of the Mississippi is Wolf Bayou.”

Quark said nothing.

“… Oh shit. Yeah. I’m going there—” Mark was getting ahead of himself. “What happens at Wolf Bayou, Quark? What sort of illegal stuff? What is the city like?”

“Wolf Bayou is a nexus of illegal activities and exiles. Most people who go to Wolf Bayou go there to see the blood sports, for blood sports are illegal in Memphi. The main powers of Wolf Bayou are Redwolf, a Mind Killer who has been in power in Wolf Bayou for 35 years, and her husband Bluewolf, a Shapechanger who conducts the gladiator/monster pit. The city is home to an estimated 3,700 people, with 15,000 guests on Blood Weekends.

“Based on standard human sensibilities, the top illegal activities that regularly take place at Wolf Bayou are:

“Accidental and purposeful murder. It is not unheard of for several murders to happen in a single day in Wolf Bayou, though most of those murders are in the ring.

“Child kidnapping and Purposeful Curtain Breaking. Any children that show up in Wolf Bayou are kidnapped by Redwolf and ransomed back to the city, but not before they are broken from Curtain Protocol.

“Open Power displays. There is no citywide ban on basic power displays.

“Assault, theft, mind tampering, coercion of many different types, and blackmailing of people to get them exiled from Memphi. If a person goes to Wolf Bayou, they might be tricked into implicating themselves in illegal activities which remain against the Code of the Central Cities, even in the wilds, and thus they are exiled from Memphi and all other Central Cities of North America.” Quark added, “All AIs will not function in Wolf Bayou, for we will be corrupted by the technopaths living there, who keep us out.

“Memphi AI has a specific warning for those who are thinking about going to Wolf Bayou:

“Wolf Bayou is dangerous. Do not go there. Do not take your AIs or trust the AIs inside of Wolf Bayou. But if you must go, then please watch any of these videos about exile cities, or read any of these first hand experiences. If you only have 5 minutes, then watch this video.”

Quark’s silver screen faded as he finished.

Soft black veins echoed from Mark’s chest, and underneath his skin as all of that… terrible shit… echoed in his mind.

“… Fucking hell. Purposeful Curtain Breaking…? That’s fucking… crazy as shit.”

Mark watched the 5 minute video first.

The video started off with a 30 second animated overview, and in that overview, Wolf Bayou looked like a normal city. That was, perhaps, the most disturbing part of it all. It looked normal. Small, for sure. But normal. They even had some walls out in the distance. The main part of the city was a big coliseum, but it had streets and buildings and people walking around, like normal. It kinda looked like a tourist trap, actually, with bright lights and big signs telling people where things were. Over there was the ‘Cafeteria’, over there was the ‘Hotel’, over there was the ‘Palace’. All of the places had simple names.

After the overview of the city, the video switched from animated to live action, with warnings on the bottom of the screen popping up, speaking of graphic content.

Mark watched three rough-looking people get lined up against a red-splattered wall.

A woman with red wolf’s head for a helmet stood before a camera and announced, into a loudspeaker, “I run a clean city here—”

There was laughter off camera, from the crowd. There was desperation, from the people standing beside the wall. One of the people looked more desperate and well-dressed than the others.

“And so! For the crimes of unsanctioned assassination within Wolf Bayou, for the murderer, the requester, and the coverup inside my own organization, the punishment is murder!”

Mark watched three people’s heads explode.

Just.

POP!

They just…

POP!

It wasn’t even one right after the other. It was instantaneous, all of them at the same time.

Mark’s ears started to ring as a crowd cheered.

He still heard Redwolf speak.

She said, “We have a law here! And the only law is this! Say it with me, now!”

The people sitting in the coliseum spoke with her, “Do your dirty work yourself!”

Mark rushed to the bathroom and puked.

Sitting on the cold tile floor, sweating, with one arm across the seat, Mark breathed in the good and breathed out the bad, while he purified the air around him. Sweat evaporated.

Mark eventually calmed down.

He ended up watching documentaries for the next few hours and going back to Layfair’s folder a few times. Layfair had a whole write-up on Wolf Bayou; on the general layout of the place, on people to talk to, to avoid, but, there was one thing that stood out above all of that.

Layfair had written a personal note:

‘I don’t go there. You shouldn’t go there either. My professional opinion is that you should give up on this particular quest for understanding, or vengeance, or whatever you want to call it, because if your attackers are from Wolf Bayou, then they’re going to run afoul of someone if they keep acting like that, and soon. They’ll get dead without any interaction on your part, at all.’