Central Slums

A short while before, near a stretch of the Divine Capital's slums.

Nysa, Jonam, and the twelve-year-old girl named Asteri walked through endless alleyways, dilapidated streets, and even collapsed buildings.

Nysa was surprised at the inhabitants' creativity despite the prominent overcrowding, making decent dwellings out of spires so crooked they touched the ground, small-scale agricultural gardens in stretches locked by ruins, and even a particularly elaborate plumbing system using minor streams dislodged from the main river by debris.

Most people were already in their homes at this late hour, though there was still the occasional straggler in the streets. A few of them had bands of white fabric attached to their sleeves, similar to some striped buildings they had passed by.

From Nysa's limited knowledge, it was due to a recent sickness spreading mainly from the poorer parts of the city. The bands and stripes served as markings for the ill.

"I never thought I'd be amazed by mere slums. Aesthetic aside, it's more efficiently built than most neighborhoods in Prima Victoria," Nysa said.

"That's the Divine Capital of Sethia, right?" Asteri asked. "They say people there travel naked and do dirty stuff in the streets. I've also heard that shady Profaners openly walk around in your cities and worship strange entities at night. Is it true?"

"True enough," Nysa nodded. "We also shorten the tongue of brats and bathe in their blood. I could introduce you to such practices if you wish."

"No, thank you. Hmpf!" Asteri crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue, pouting.

"Jests aside, we've been moving rather quickly. It's been an hour at most since we left the apothecary, but we're already within the central slums."

Something sparkled in Asteri's eyes. "Well, it's all thanks to my awesome navigational skills!"

"Rather than extraordinary, I must say it's expected," Jonam added.

"Why? Because I'm awesome, and everything I do is amazing?!" She jumped around, fishing for a compliment.

"I believe he meant that a slum rat ought to know his dwelling very well. With those clothes, you'd fit right in," Nysa interjected.

"Sorry if I don't own fancy clothes like you!" Asteri spat back. "Everyone is doing their best to survive here. You shouldn't look down on us."

"I do not wish to look down on you. I gaze at people according to the level of worldliness they display. Yours simply happens to be underneath mine." Nysa's expression was cold, but her tone was devoid of arrogance. "You cannot control how people look at you, but it's in your power to change the image you display."

Asteri clenched her fists, staring angrily at Nysa. She tried to speak several times but, failing to find the right words, chose to remain silent.

"I didn't take you for the caring type, Lady Quinctillia," Jonam said with a faint smile.

Nysa frowned. "What about you? Taking in that girl is nothing short of goodwill. I'd have expected Profaners, and Mysteries in particular, to be much less gracious."

"We aren't. Asteri is a special case, however." Jonam gently patted the girl's head. "She's a 10th-class magus at only twelve years old."

"There's nothing special about that."

Nysa became a 10th-class Nightkin at twelve years old, and she didn't consider herself that gifted a magus.

Some argued that a child's inherent simplicity made them exceptionally resistant to an Insight Ritual's mental risks. Hence, the younger one was when he underwent it, the greater his chances of success.

"I would agree with you if not for the fact that Asteri has no recollection of ever undergoing an Insight Ritual."

"What?" Nysa paused for a moment. "That's impossible. You can't become a magus without an Insight Ritual. Have you considered the possibility that she's lying?"

"I'm not lying!"

"I know that you're not lying," he said. "I do wish, however, that I could consult with my Creator about your case. That'll have to wait, unfortunately."

Jonam abruptly stopped them in the middle of the street, staring from left to right. His expression shifted instantly, and he dragged Nysa and Asteri to a nearby alleyway.

"What happened? Did you sense something?" Nysa asked.

"Multiple traps ahead. We've entered their covered territory."

"Hm?" Bemused, Nysa's eyes flared with a greenish hue as she inspected the street with perception magecraft. "I don't see anything."

"It's because you're looking for the wrong things," Jonam took a detour, urging Asteri and Nysa to follow him this time. "They use highly dense, multi-layered Theurgic Fields the size of a pebble. You can think of them as condensed blasts hidden beneath the soil."

"They'll only interact with objects similarly charged with Mana—magi, Relics, and other occult lifeforms. Since their wavelength harmonizes with the flow of Mana, it's almost impossible to spot them. We learned that the hard way in Juktas."

"I assume that's where most of the Order's forces were wiped out?"

"Indeed. Fortunately, our Creators gifted us with the ability to learn from our mistakes. We now know that traps with such dense Mana will distort the atmospheric flow in a general area, depending on their potency. There may not have been any anomaly where the trap had been buried, but it was tugging at the Mana surrounding it."

As they took a turn, Nysa inspected the area adjacent to the trap they had just skirted around. The grayscale tendrils on the surrounding buildings' surface were abnormally taut, forming stripes akin to a crumpled fabric. She could find no distortion in the middle of the street, but the Mana flow in the adjacent spots clearly behaved oddly.

"Your eyes are sharp," Jonam commented. "You found them with just a little guidance. Magi are specially trained to have tunnel vision when using perception magecraft—a roundabout way to reduce the risk of madness. Small details like this are hard to notice for most."

Jonam halted his walk in front of a collapsed tower, its ruins dividing River Phanias into several smaller streams.

"Our target should be on the other side of the tower."

Asteri's eyes widened. "You're right. How did you know? Are you familiar with the slums too?"

"No. I'm familiar with the Henosis Seekers. They may be mad, but even insanity has patterns."

Jonam slowly approached the crumbled structure, his blue eyes shining in the darkness. "Our enemy strongly dislikes asymmetry. Knowing they prefer their territories to be circular, it's easy to calculate their surface area by considering the first trap and the closest ones on each side. The base lays in the center."

"Surface are-..." Asteri's mind visibly went blank. She grimaced, then climbed the ruins in quick jumps, pointing at the looming building a few hundred meters ahead. "I don't need all that to find the hideout, meaning I'm smarter than you! Hehe."

Nysa sighed, though Jonam smiled in response. "I do agree that the true measure of intelligence is efficiency. Now, there should be a second layer of defensive traps this close to the base. I'll approach first. Wait for my signal with Lady Quinctillia."

"Aight!"