Селеста / Сelesta: Глава 22

Chapter 22

Camrad_RIP 27.06.22 в 12:36

Medea and Hustin's relationship was rife with so many nuances and pitfalls that outsiders tried not to interfere with it. It was not always obvious whether the two Elders were quarreling or cooing nicely. At the moment, however, the sorcerer and the singer seemed to be in a peaceful mood and were in no hurry to quarrel, so Latham preferred to stay and listen.

Camrad_RIP 27.06.22 в 12:39

"No, my dear, the Son of the Sea investigators can't find the killers." Hustin even smiled at the question. "They might be able to calculate, but they have no proof and will not appear. Thank Messen Latham for the ritual."

Camrad_RIP 27.06.22 в 12:40

"It's fair to say," the knight found it necessary to clarify, "that the Old Families are familiar with rituals that allow them to override the lock I've put on. But I doubt they would be willing to intervene."

Camrad_RIP 02.07.22 в 12:22

The warlock nodded affirmatively:

Camrad_RIP 02.07.22 в 12:22

"Most heads of noble houses remember Dinir the Great, some were even born before the Plague. They see the appointment, and more importantly, the behavior of an arrogant upstart to one of the most important positions in the state as an insult to their honor. They will not seek out Laar's killer."

Camrad_RIP 02.07.22 в 12:23

"But they could if they wanted to," Medea clarified quietly to herself.

Camrad_RIP 02.07.22 в 12:24

"Of course. It's quite easy to feel the trail of the rises if you know how."

Camrad_RIP 02.07.22 в 12:24

"You mean temple magic?"

Camrad_RIP 02.07.22 в 12:25

" Not only that. In addition to appealing to the clan egregore, which we just discussed, there are several schools of working with imprinted information. First, a pure hypersensitivity. A strong scanner at the level of Mistress Celesta or a true ascetic who has reached sainthood is able to catch the echoes of memories hidden under the seal. They are few, very few, and their identities are concealed and they try not to be involved in matters without an urgent need. Second, the masters of true light and true darkness possess strange methods of which we know almost nothing. We could not fool Garresh, I suspect. The temples are doing research in this area, but they have had no definite success. Next, we must remember the Academy staff, as secretive as they are experienced. One never knows what the same Maestro Tyran is really capable of. And finally, the Blessed."

Camrad_RIP 02.07.22 в 12:27

"What's the matter with them?" Medea wondered. "They've lost their power over the elements."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 10:36

"Yes, but not the ability to communicate with the incarnations of the elements. Our Son of the Sea, for example, could call to the water and ask who was in a particular place at a particular time, i.e. in Laar's study, and get an answer. Another thing is that he won't do it himself - well, you remember his specific worldview - and he exiled his closest kin to Zonna."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 10:37

"So we're not facing any charges," Medea draws a line under her lover's and rival's reasoning. "Praise the Darkness! I have enough problems right now."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 10:38

The main events related in one way or another to the risens lineage took place in Taleya. The Capital community took the first blow. Here new concepts were being developed, new forms of interaction with mortals and with mortal authorities. Everyone's attention now turned to Medea and her retinue, the spontaneous diplomatic corps and everyone's available "face of the vampires".

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 10:49

Despite the agreement, the covert warfare did not stop for a moment. The most fanatical servants of the Light continued to search the catacombs for risens or their accomplices. The unwieldy machinery of the government investigative apparatus slowly, constantly distracted by outside tasks, began to turn toward the exploration of the networks created by Celesta and her assistants. The repression of the Morvanites was growing. Financial intelligence, previously focused solely on the capitals of large feudal lords and other states, intensified. Hunters of the undead reappeared in the city, but this time they were in no hurry to make contact...

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 10:51

Naturally, there was a response to human actions. Zervan's and Latham's subordinates periodically captured and destroyed squads of temple servants both in the depths of the dungeons and on the surface. The Mistress shuffled the pool of cultists and loyalists available to her, hastily building new layers between the risens and mortal society, effectively creating dozens of independent groups. Few of them would survive, but the rest would be able to work without the supervision of the "spiders". Medea was responsible for the greatest amount of work. She secretly met with influential aristocrats, argued with Tulak and his deputies, seductively flirted with officials from the administration, and intrigued, intrigued, intrigued. The rest of the elders became the community's stick - Medea showed the carrot.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 10:53

There was a rustling sound from the next room, the sound of metal falling from a height. The three Elders instantly dropped their conversation and hurried to the door. Hustin's underground laboratory, where they were now located, was equipped with rooms for a variety of activities, directly or indirectly related to magic. One of them was for mind-control exercises or resting overstretched sensors. Exactly what Celesta needed after a heavy ritual.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 10:55

The Mistress didn't look very well. Even worse than before she watched the stolen memories. It's one thing just to get the information, and another to process it. The second is much more difficult and requires more effort.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 10:56

"Well, what can I say, my dear comrades..." Celesta gratefully accepted the goblet of wine and drank nearly half of it in one fell swoop. The risens, though undead, were in great need of liquid. "We'd underestimated the enemy. Until recently, Ruarchidh had been sitting on the "spiders" hooks and snitching them regularly."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 10:58

"It can't be!"

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 10:58

Unlike Medea, who cried out, the men were silent. Hustin, because he had always stayed aloof and did not take the community's victories and defeats to heart unless they affected his interests. Though his attitude had changed slightly recently, the effect of his much more frequent and intimate interaction with the other risens. The knight was a different matter. This one froze as if petrified, reeking of such concentrated rage and lust for a murder that Celesta shuddered and pulled back.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 11:11

"Calm down, Latham. After all, we expected something like this."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 11:11

"He knows almost all our plans," the aristocrat hissed through tightly clenched fangs.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 11:13

"Not lately. Besides, the state of siege had cut off his communication channel. His immediate supervisor, thanks the purges in the service, has retired, and he may not have had time to pass anything on to the new one. In short, there is a good chance that humans really believe in my demise, rather than playing their own game."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.22 в 11:13

"He must be arrested."

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 18:39

"Right now." the Mistress agreed. "Just don't kill him by accident."

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 18:41

Latham bowed briefly and not walked out as rushed out of the meditation chamber.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 18:42

"I don't believe it." Medea crouched on the edge of the fancifully shaped wide bed on which the weakened telepath lay, leaning forward slightly, lending credibility to her words. "Not Ruarchidh! He's one of the Oldtimers. We've tested him in every way imaginable!"

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 18:44

"It's hard to argue with facts," Celesta shrugged slightly. Medea stood up immediately, adjusting the cushions, sensing her sister's discomfort. "Ruarchidh is mentioned explicitly in two of Laar's memoirs that I have processed, and four more mentioned facts are known to a very limited group. Ruarchidh is one of them. I would like to know what he was caught up in..."

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 18:53

The warlock finally got down to business. He put a batch of vials on the floor, went somewhere for a while, returned with a goblet half-full of pure water, and began pouring the potions, preparing a stimulating mixture. In between, he remarked:

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 18:54

"Logic suggests that words can be interpreted in different ways."

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 18:55

"Not when the conversation is direct. Laar was unfamiliar with operational work and demanded that the real names of the agents be given to him."

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 18:56

Should she consider the information she had received sufficient? After a brief reflection, Celeste decided that it was. The multi-pronged and costly operation had not yielded the expected result. The risens still did not know the plans of the Chancellor and his henchmen. But they got the name of the "mole" who had been leaking information to the side for centuries. Now, in hindsight, some of the failures and unpleasant awareness of the former leaders of the Service in a number of areas of the risens become clear. But the traitor could have remained uncaptured for a long time: no one suspected him.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 18:58

That's a shame. Bitter. Why didn't he ask for help? What was he hooked on?

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 18:59

We'll find out soon.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 18:59

The morning left a tinge of disappointment on the tongue. The Ruarchidh that Latham had delivered (the Elder had brought it in a carefully packed bale. He didn't doubt for a moment that his Mistress was right) was locked up briefly, mostly because Celeste had threatened to chain him in a special "strict" cell and personally gut his memory. Not now, but in five days, when she'd fully recovered her strength and sorted out her business.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:00

The story of betrayal was obscenely banal. First an extra date with relatives, then a framed victim, a beggar, recruitment, the first report, the second, more serious tasks, a rebel who died solely because of the denunciation of a traitor ... The one claw stuck and the whole bird was lost. Although there were personal motives. Ruarchidh, like many of his kind, considered himself unappreciated and counted on his place as an Elder in the Inner Circle. ++Of course, I deserve more. Yes, I'm sure. No, why? It's just that I'm smarter and stronger, and... I swear I didn't mean to! Why didn't I tell you everything, Mistress? Well, I thought I could get out of it sooner or later... Fool.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:02

It is not certain that the "spiders" had only one mole. More cause for worry.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:03

After listening to the loser's confession, Celesta ordered him locked up and went to sleep. She did not have the strength to plan anything. She found out the main thing - Ruarchidh hadn't had time to inform his masters that she was alive. The rest would have to wait until tomorrow.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:04

The time when the risens all slept together, crammed into the lowest levels of the catacombs and covering the only entrance to the filthy hole with a heavy slab of stone is not yet forgotten. The Elders know the value of comfort, unlike the youngsters who have come for everything. Though the depth of burrowing, figuratively speaking, has not changed over the centuries - vampires still chose the least accessible places for humans to hide out for the day. And they defended them with paranoid care, setting elaborate traps at the entrances, solidly camouflaged doors, and allowing the carefully arranged abode of the select few. It was often practiced to create false dwellings, slipped to observers from the "spiders" as the main dwellings. Even Medea, a seemingly ostentatious socialite, used the bedroom of her mansion exclusively for meetings with young men she liked. She rested in a real bunker, in the basement.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:07

To enter a shelter without an invitation was to cause serious offense to the master. The risens jealously defended their territory and reacted nervously even to unexpected visits from elders. There are reception rooms, offices, some prototypes of public halls - and there are private chambers, where the closest and no one else is allowed. It was a rule crystallized over the centuries and was sacrosanctly observed by all. It was rarely violated.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:08

Hustin, who brought an outsider to Celeste's secret hideout, must have had more than good reason for such an action.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:08

Of course, the warlock did not go into the bedroom, but stayed in the large living room, a kind of vestibule for the few visitors. Place where she was at her most vulnerable, Celesta defended herself in every way she could. Both magical and mechanical. So for quite some time the Mistress did not react to the two risens sitting behind a thick layer of stone and three reinforced plates of armor, inadvertently called doors, and she rested well for the first time in a long time. Lying on the wide cushioned bed (the room was furnished by the ubiquitous Medea), she allowed herself a little slumber and no hurry. Thoughts of how things were going in the younger communities, of contacting Gardomann, of giving Zervan orders to lay low in his flock, of unnecessarily high losses, and of killing nearly half his retinue, rolled over lazily in her head. He's competing with Latham, he's got his hands on the "real business.".

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:23

The serenity faded away as if it had never existed, as soon as she heard the loud voices behind the first, outer door. Reality reminded her not to relax. Celesta didn't know what had happened yet, but a keen premonition of trouble made her freeze and listen. At that moment the Mistress, seen by an outsider, looked strikingly like a snake preparing to strike. Cautious. Clenched in a tight ball. Despite her outward stillness and dark eyes, she was feverishly calculating her options, trying to guess what Hustin might have wanted and why it was the sorcerer who had come to her, not Latham, her faithful nursemaid. The other one moved differently and didn't look like a bodyguard.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:25

Hurriedly dressing and - just in case - taking a stimulant, Mistress left the bedroom.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:25

"Hastin? Calderan?" She looked even more alarmed at the sight of the sorcerer's companion. "What are you doing here?"

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:32

She was still ambivalent about the renegade. Calderan turned out to be smart, strong, communicative, and able to keep his mouth shut and speak exactly as much as necessary for the cause. An uncommon personality. At the same time, he did not get too close to anyone and did not say anything specific about himself, each time deftly shifting the conversation to other topics. After the first outburst of frankness caused by his successful escape from the mad priest, Calderan was surprisingly quick to calm down and be quiet, trying hard to understand where he was and what to do now. He did not impose, did not refuse to help anyone, and did not ask unnecessary questions that might arouse suspicion. Very thoughtful and very correct behavior.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:31

Mistress did not consider him an agent of mortals. But she did not dare to approach him either, despite his obvious potential. He was a very murky man.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:32

"Calderan thinks the priests want to destroy the Academy," Hustin blurted out.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:33

Celesta turned her gaze silently to the renegade. He bowed in a Southern manner, holding his right hand to his heart.

Camrad_RIP 04.07.22 в 19:33