Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Глава 14

Chapter 14

Camrad_RIP 25.07.23 в 22:01

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Camrad_RIP 25.07.23 в 22:01

Eyes Eternal is not only a respected and wealthy organization but also a very practical one, preferring to have resources for a variety of occasions. The inn that was once bought for a departmental meeting will continue to work and bring in some money, at the same time serving as a source of collected rumors. Or just a place of recreation for the rank and file. The same thing happens to a lot of places and individuals that have been connected to the secret service in one way or another.

Camrad_RIP 26.07.23 в 17:34

It is only in the imagination of the common people and shallow philistines the Eyes consist entirely of dishonorable spies, sneaky assassins, charming agents, and two-hearted traitors. In fact, in addition to such indispensable individuals for the secret service, the Eyes consist of many thousands of various specialists, often not related to the spy romance at all. Someone was limited to a few engagements as an expert, and someone worked as the permanent staff, but this does not prevent the spherical in a vacuum floor washer to be a kind of employee of the Eyes. After all, someone has to clean the floors in those rooms where the aforementioned spies and assassins have carelessly stomped with unwashed boots and not let the aforementioned spies walk on the washed floors?
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Camrad_RIP 26.07.23 в 17:38

And the Eyes themselves, despite the rigid vertical of authority, were far from being as homogeneous as one might think. Therefore, it is often difficult to understand where one Eyelid begins and another ends, who owns which training camp for youth, on whom the conspiratorial turnout is registered, and from which financial fund money is taken to hire and bribe agents of influence. It is not so difficult to understand individual issues, especially if you search diligently. After all, there is a limit to the usefulness of information, beyond which there is no point in wasting energy on hiding data if the data itself is worthless.

Camrad_RIP 26.07.23 в 17:47

Of course, it is from the hundreds of poorly defended elements by both enemies and allies of the Empire some sort of picture of events is assembled, but there is nothing to be done about it. In the realities of Alurea, it is simply unrealistic to completely protect such a massive and large organization from the visionaries or quite material spies. It is much easier, more profitable, and cheaper to protect only really important nodes, to use reinsurance, and to leak dozens of different disinformation in time to make life as difficult as possible for colleagues. Absolutely reliable protection, as well as an absolute blade to pierce it, has never been created, although the attempts do not stop.

Camrad_RIP 26.07.23 в 17:55

This inconspicuous establishment on the territory of the administrative district of the Eternal was one of those that did not try too hard to hide its secret. Yes, the guards and barriers were reliable. It was difficult to get in, and there were no loitering people around. Nevertheless, with a little time, a tight purse, and some connections, it is quite easy to find out a couple of details that are useless for someone but can be very important for others.

Camrad_RIP 26.07.23 в 18:03

This place was almost a pure sanatorium, where all sorts of people were so tightly bound up in secrets that it was strictly forbidden for them to loiter around the city. Not too powerful and not too influential because such people could care less about "recommendations" and order to protect their person or get a guard imposed by force, but they had access to certain places, people, knowledge, or events that made Eyes spend time on their protection and guarding. In general, the local contingent was represented by three groups of people.

Camrad_RIP 26.07.23 в 18:05

The largest group are officials, scribes, and clerks who work with unmentionable papers, which is why many people would like their heads. Heads, of course, with intact brains, imprinted bodies, and ideally a captured soul. Not to say that there were a lot of such guys, but it was still easier to get a dozen scribes permanently than to regularly look for new ones to replace the eliminated ones. That is to say, even such people are sometimes eliminated if the secrets known to them become completely unspoken, but rarely. For other mysteries, there are other scribes - stronger, higher level, and with the right skills.

Camrad_RIP 26.07.23 в 18:09

The second most numerous caste of vacationers were scientists, researchers, and mages who worked for the empire. It was not the mages, but their assistants and helpers, not close ones, but at the level of bring-do-write-test-go-away. The best minds, as well as the retinue of these minds, were those individuals who could not be put away, and if they were, then in a much more comfortable cage. But such analogs of laboratory technicians had to rest here.

Camrad_RIP 26.07.23 в 18:11

The last group was, strangely enough, all sorts of appraisers and antique dealers, who were actually assigned to other departments and subdepartments, but they were assigned here. They, by the way, were not even considered to be not outbound, but had a good vacation at the expense of the state and were not against it. And here they had almost luxurious rooms and excellent recovery procedures - who would refuse such a thing?

Camrad_RIP 26.07.23 в 20:11

It would be a lie to say that the secret keepers and other cronies were prisoners who dared not step outside their cages. They were, but they were still far fewer in number than those who actually used the power of the imperial organization to have a good time. And even among those who were forbidden to stay outside the guarded perimeter without an escort, only a few were uncomfortable with such an existence. They were loyal and reliable enough not to keep them literally in prison and useful enough to provide them with better content. That way they wouldn't lose their working spirit, and they wouldn't try to escape. Usefulness and loyalty - without either of those two things, a failure to protect themselves would be a very different environment, but we're not talking about losers now, are we?

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 07:00

A junior member of the third row, thirteenth-level Librarian Ollo Lo was not unhappy with his position. Like anyone of a similar class, he could not have become a Librarian if his passion for knowledge and books had not overshadowed his other desires. For him, who had no right to leave the Eternal Library unsupervised, or better yet, no right to leave it at all, the forced vacation was more punishment than encouragement.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 07:06

Alas, but for the last week, he had been physically feeling how blank stone vaults and corridors of his dream job began to press down on him like a slowly subsiding mountain, gradually crushing a bug in its depths. Ignoring such feelings was bad for both his health and his work. He was not yet at the level or characteristics to overcome the impact. He could increase his stamina, and his concentration was already good, but alas, with his class, he needed perception even more than concentration. And with such a frail physique, which was not supported by characteristics, he had to take a break every three months. Three weeks of wasted time!

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 07:18

With his low level, this upstart orphan from the state orphanage was raising his levels like a quiver. The Eternal Library is, as you can guess without too much brainpower, the perfect training ground for Librarians. That's why they all strive to get here. That's why only the best, most talented, and most persistent get in.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 07:19

The boy of fifteen years old and level four, who had just come out of the orphanage, was immediately taken into circulation. In the orphanage, he had shown himself to the best of his ability, having several skills that had been upgraded to apprentice. Most of the children, lazy and untalented, were taken to be laborers, merchant navy juniors, or private infantry in the army. The Empire considered its pupils obliged to pay their debt to the motherland that raised them, so few could boast of a good life. And the life in the school itself was not sugar-coated.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 07:22

Showing a perfect score on the final Status check is one of the few chances for a normal life. No one will take a stranger into the craft guilds when they have their sons, nephews, or other distant relatives. And if they do, it's on such terms that it's better to be a laborer or even a slave. There is nowhere to get experience for taking levels, and for studying, you get only drops, which will not raise you further than the second or third. He had to twist and turn as much as I could.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 07:25

Ollo did. He read everything available and wrote on pieces of parchment, walls, and wooden boards. He memorized and systematized any information. He trained his memory for days on end. Fourth level and three apprentice-level skills at once - enough to be apprenticed to one of the Librarians. Not the Eternal one, of course! At first, the most ordinary one. One of those at the disposal of the clerk's apparatus. There were very few books, and the archive was based on all sorts of reports and accounting. Strictly speaking, it was an archive, not a library, but for Ollo, it was a gift from the gods.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 07:31

By the time he was eighteen, young Lo had already reached the tenth level, becoming a full-fledged Librarian, and his superiors, showing a nobility and kindness uncommon in such a cruel world, did not keep the useful but uninfluential and unprotected cadre by force, but encouraged his enrollment in the staff of the Eternal Library. The competition there was insane, but Ollo was lucky. Fortunately, not many high-ranking sovereigns or noble aristocrats choose the path of a Scribe or Librarian. And those who do, work for their own families, not for the Library. Yet this place, in addition to the enormous prospects for professional and class development, also imposes terrible restrictions, among which the fact of being a prisoner who cannot control his freedom is by no means the worst.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 07:32

Ollo didn't care because he had found his dream, and he wasn't going to look for other paths.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 07:33

The sanatorium, though only I call it a sanatorium, for the locals it was a recreation center, was self-named Pure Springs because two springs were running from under the ground. Because of these springs, the land was once bought by a disgraced family that had fallen into disgrace a long time ago, and then, after a showdown with a noble house that had survived the disgrace but reduced its property, the estate was rebuilt into a sanatorium for the employees of the Eyes. It would have been gladly pocketed by someone from the important bosses, but no one could not agree on who exactly to give this prize to. And when such individuals are unable to snatch a piece of property for themselves, they try to make sure that others do not get it either.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 07:50

This place really looked like elite and guarded sanatoriums for wealthy citizens. Actually, that's the only reason why my brain analogized it to earthly institutions. The place was calm, quiet, comfortable, and friendly to the guests. Security and protective spells were present, of course, and quite decent. The other thing was that in our company, even Losius could easily cheat such protection and fool the guards, even though he was not a lurker at all.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 07:52

But bragging is bragging, but none of us went there, remaining at the base. Our collective creation, controlled by me through Dream and stuffed with so many details difficult to execute that it made my teeth chatter. I had never before worked with live material so completely, so comprehensively. I had never needed to before, and there were not many people in the world to whom I would have prescribed such procedures without hesitation. But, of course, there is no need to be hypocritical - I did not do such experiments simply out of slight squeamishness, laziness, and unwillingness to dirty my hands too much with such killing and dense planar manipulation.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 07:55

Speaking about our joint creation, I am rather limited by censorious words, as they are quite insufficient to describe the result. Sweet Melanie was high enough to be able to hang a lot of different and absurd things on these levels. No one even thought about preserving the soul and personality of the subject. I wanted to look her in the eye and tell her everything I thought about her, her kingdom, the summon of the Chained, and many other interesting topics. I realized that it would be a kind of moral masturbation, which would be of no use to me or the common cause.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 08:37

It is very pleasant to convince oneself that the lady being brutally destroyed on all levels, from physical to spiritual, is actually a complete scum, and killing her, you are not a murderer, but only a blade of retribution. Pleasant and tempting thoughts because, in his imagination, Konstantin will remain clean and in a white hat! I can't say I don't like to justify my actions in this way.... because I used to do it all the time before I came to Alurei. It's just, at some point when my clairvoyance reached a certain level, it became almost physically painful for me to deceive myself.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 08:53

After all, I know exactly why I do what I do. Not out of a thirst for justice, not out of high motives, not in retaliation, but simply because I wished it and was able to fulfill it. Now I understand why Heroes were so disliked, why they went to such lengths to create Yoke for our kind. And I, in particular, still hold on to some beliefs and moral horizons, even if with a creak. Not out of a desire to be kind, but rather out of a sense of contradiction - this world is so insistently striving to debase me that if I give in to such impulses, I will be forced to admit that Alurei has once again proved to be stronger.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 08:58

However, all of these thoughts are out of place, unlike what we've turned Lady Tannerkal into.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 08:59

The main creators of this project were me and Hestia as the owners of the widest toolkit. Tia played the role of both insurance and stabilizer, calculating and recalculating the necessary rituals on the fly. A great master is something, and centuries of experience allowed her to adjust to our manipulations almost instantly. In fact, Hestia, like myself, was quite capable of controlling and stabilizing the results of her Mist, but we didn't concentrate on it consciously, trying to give ourselves as much room for change as possible, which would have been a little less if we had spent more energy on control.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 09:02

Taria worked as a stabilizer for Melanie's mind. The thing was, if Hestia stuffed someone with as many vices as possible, the puppet would be a puppet, for there would be nothing left of personality. Very ineffective puppet because all thoughts and aspirations of distorted consciousness will be directed only to debauchery. The same can be said about Dream - if you overdo it with modifications, you will end up with a powerful and deadly entity, capable of only the simplest actions if it manages to keep itself in reality and not fall into Dream.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 09:06

So it turned out that I and Hestia were making the changes, and Tia and Taria were keeping the changes in check, each in her way. A very unusual experience, I'll tell you, but there's a first time for everything.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 09:10

The shards of mirrors that I plunged into the body of the future construct, which had become shaky, like dough or jelly, had a variety of purposes. To generalize, the mirrors had several main functions. The first one was the encapsulation of any energy manifestations, their mashing and making them as insignificant as possible. A kind of averting eyes, similar to those already used earlier, but maximally concentrated and effective even on unreasonable charms or means of tracking. It was too easy to notice because it covered only a limited spectrum, leaving others open.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 09:13

The second violin was played by transponders of all kinds and forms, which in the future, would transmit the information I needed by means of a psychic marker that only I could recognize. This multifaceted duplication was due to the uncertainty as to which of the "frequencies" would be able to penetrate the Library's barriers. As stated earlier, there is no Dream inside the institution we need, it is not there as a phenomenon. The mirror structure should provide a point of application of forces, serve as a kind of antenna and a pass, despite all precautions.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 09:15

The third group of mirror mechanisms was the control circuit, through which, surprise surprise, I could control this thing. I didn't get a full-fledged Nightmare like Weaver's critters. I mean, it would be even easier to make one, but a pure planar creature has no chance to penetrate at least the very first defenses. Or rather, such a creature has no chance. And I'm afraid to mess with those representatives who can. One such bogeyman has already opened hunting season on me. One of them is enough, or they'll cooperate.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 09:18

To summarize, I got was not a creature and certainly not a human, but a peculiar mixture of a living artifact, a complex system of charms with a semblance of consciousness, and a golem concept turned inside out. Unique, supercomplex, powerful, and absolutely useless, unlivable. Trying to make it as good as possible, I did not focus on the side effects. Expressing myself in-game slang, I pumped the character only a couple of branches, leaving the rest completely untouched. My creation was too crooked to even hope for a successful attempt to hack the Eternal Library.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 09:20

But I wasn't alone.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 09:20

Hestia took over the aspects of stealth that I couldn't cover personally, and she did a fine job. Creating the most concentrated Vicious Mist possible, she turned Melanie's body into one huge isolation trap. The need to make any changes as depraved as possible limited the ex-servicewoman's enthusiasm, but even with that limit, she managed to work. And her imagination worked very well when necessary - she, even before we met, was quite good at improvising, and during our adventures, she had honed her talents to some frightening levels.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.23 в 09:24

What Melanie had once been could fuck users of any plane, literally pulling planar energy out of them, encapsulating it in herself for later use. To become, for a few minutes, an adept of Heaven, or Darkness, or Storm... or Dream. Weaving together the remnants of the container body, the mechanisms of the pump body, and the base of the mirror body, the result was what it was. Hestia's modification protects from gazes, searches, active charms, and everything else, including specific search methods against adepts of Dream. One container inside another, and in the heart of it, a control panel and a radio tower for the manager.

Camrad_RIP 29.07.23 в 15:07

The second major change Hestia was able to cram into the construct's collapsing energy was a kind of astral form. A rare talent among all sorts of monsters but a very popular feature among class owners or planar creatures. The ability to turn into a cloud of bright pink fog is not bad, but thanks to the previous changes, this cloud remained as invisible to everything and everyone as our creation is invisible in its normal state.

Camrad_RIP 29.07.23 в 15:11

The picture was completed by the talent of obsession, which allowed the aforementioned pink mist to penetrate someone's body, merge with subtle bodies and not attract attention. According to the plan, neither the recipient nor all sorts of scanners should know that there is someone in the hapless individual. Do you understand? A living dangerous artifact that can stick to one "host" and then change it for a new one, and so on as many times as necessary to fulfill the purpose. My purpose.

Camrad_RIP 29.07.23 в 15:40

Of course, Hestia's creation desired debauchery and unbridled orgies. For example, in a state of obsession, it could indoctrinate the host with all sorts of vulgar desires that the host would accept as the absolute norm. Hestia's Mist has fused this mechanism with my developments, so the distraction field will allow the future host to do whatever it wants in front of everyone's eyes - no one will pay attention. The only thing is that I can't make this "symbiotic organism" act not for the purposes of "orgies-ogria-rapture-fucking" but to do exactly what I need it to do. Even direct control wouldn't help - the Library would easily trace such a direct connection if not automatically cut it off.

Camrad_RIP 29.07.23 в 15:47

However, Tia's subjugation rituals, backed up with the bare minimum of essentialism to keep the whole structure from going haywire and exploding like a bomb, as well as Taria's hypnotic settings, will do the trick. The latter is the only reason we decided not to strip Melanie's remains of what made her Melanie. As long as there is a mind, however primitive, crippled by the Dreams and the lust for debauchery, the power of the dancer's tits will work on it, and the strange chimera will follow the orders given to it, rather than following its frenzied instincts.

Camrad_RIP 29.07.23 в 15:58

In theory.

Camrad_RIP 29.07.23 в 15:47

That day, which turned into night, morning, evening, another night, and a new day, when we finished working on our creation, we could all be squeezed out. Well, except for Hans and Losius, who didn't participate in the work due to other specializations. It wasn't even a matter of wasting reserves or strain on the mind - it was all quite tolerable. The reason for the fatigue was the timing of the work, the time of constant concentration, when mistakes were not only unacceptable but also dangerous.

Camrad_RIP 29.07.23 в 16:03

Hestia's ability, though tied to the Mist plane, was still a gift but not a pure planar technique. To be frank, the strongest skill I had ever seen was something very close to a direct distortion of reality. The talents granted by the Mists of Corruption could be infused either from their energy or the characteristics of the one being altered or from the Astral or a very twisted connection to an element. The same allowed, albeit with reservations, to link them to the Dream.

Camrad_RIP 29.07.23 в 16:42

Even so, the work of something that came through Mist without being fully Mist and my beloved Dream couldn't help but lead to something that would result in a nuclear mushroom on the horizon. No matter how much control we have over our powers, some laws of the universe simply cannot be broken by pure force and will. But they can be circumvented, deceived, or bribed merely if you can find the right loophole.

Camrad_RIP 30.07.23 в 07:26

With great surprise and barely concealed panic, Tia began to do as she was told, and she did it well. If Hestia's gifted ability had been even a little stronger than the one associated with Mist, the cataclysm with us at its epicenter would have been a fait accompli - planar powers don't mix. But the line was thin enough, and our talents, on the contrary, were quite outstanding (I should not be modest now, should I?), so the unenviable fate of the victims of our ambitious experiments never came upon us.

Camrad_RIP 30.07.23 в 07:28

Tia's rituals were able to hold and bring together the two poles of our efforts, preventing our creation from disintegrating simply from the jumble of active elements. The price for such a small miracle was the low ultimate durability of the final result - the stronger the activity, the more you use the elements invested in Melanie, and the faster the rituals will wear out. Individual elements would erode, barriers would thin, inhibitions would erode, and then anything could happen. I mean, neither Tia nor I, with all our talents in clairvoyance, can predict the outcome. But the most trivial big bang is definitely in the lead. Another reason not to overload it, but I was prepared for that from the start.

Camrad_RIP 30.07.23 в 07:30

We left Melanie's body in one of the storerooms, motionless and as if turned into a full-length porcelain doll, and went to the common room, where the lazy people, who were not involved in the work, were waiting for us. The mood of everyone was unclear - we were tired, but we had worked well, and the System appreciated our actions highly enough, including even my own, as the instigator of the whole affair.

Camrad_RIP 30.07.23 в 07:23

"Did everyone get the title?" I asked the question, knowing the answer in advance because the signs were so distinctive.

Camrad_RIP 29.07.23 в 18:08

"Uh-huh." Taria glowed with pleasure because she had the least amount of work, and the prize was the same as the others that made the dancer's smile freeze at that thin edge when her face was about to crack.

Camrad_RIP 29.07.23 в 18:09