Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty-Six — The Devil's in the Account Details
Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty-Six — The Devil's in the Account Details Celiga took a moment to 'be a better host' as he put it. That meant puttering around in the kitchen and refusing any help. While he did that, I tried to do a bit of subtle cleaning. That mostly meant allowing my Cleaning magic to snake along the floor, scooping up and burning away the dust in the crevices of the floor and disappearing small piles of grime from the corners where they would've escaped the reach of a broom, if these floors had felt the sweet caress of a broom within the past couple of months.Clean was one thing, though, and organized was another. I wanted to start putting Celiga's books back into their places on the bookshelves lining the room, but that wouldn't be very polite. Some people found themselves better when they were surrounded by a bit of organized chaos.Eventually, Celiga returned. He had a tray with a steaming kettle on it that released a strangely bitter smell. "Ah, here, let me put this down... hmm."It was interesting that Celiga didn't have the usual grenoil accent when he talked. Then again, he was supposed to be pretty well-travelled, so maybe he'd lost it along the way?There weren't any cleared spaces large enough for a tray, but Calamity picked up a stack of books and carefully set them on the floor. Fortunately, the floor had coincidentally been cleaned up just moments before."Thank you, my boy," Celiga said. He set the tray down, then looked about. "Tea?" he asked."Sure," I said. "But just a small cup for me."A few others replied with affirmatives, and Celiga started to pour. "You know, I may be a historian and professor, for the moment, but that doesn't mean I spend my day locked up in the stacks burning my eyes out on old tomes. I've done a lot of fieldwork in my day. I've visited many places on the continent-Mattergrove, the Snowlands, Walker's Path-I was once shipwrecked in the Moonstruck Sea, you know? Back before everyone had airships.""We're pretty well-travelled too," I said with a grin."I can see that," he said. "What's a Paladin of Sylphfree doing in Deepmarsh?"Bastion straightened very slightly, which must have been hard seeing how straight he was by default. "I'm on duty," was all he said.Celiga's eyes flicked over to Caprica, who was still wearing her well-pressed Sylphfree Army uniform. "Hmph. Well then. In my time as historian I have had a few people come and seek me out, most with questions that I never had an answer to, but I've never..." He paused as he settled back down into his big armchair. "Never had a group so diverse pay me a visit.""We don't want to impose," I said. "We only just found out where you were. If you want, we can come back another time?" I very pointedly didn't look at all of the wine bottles stacked up on the floor. At least my Cleaning magic had whisked away some of the stains on the floor and the smell of old wine was clearing out.Celiga waved a webbed hand dismissively. "It's fine. What else am I going to do? Keep wallowing? So, where did you first hear of the Black Avatars?""When I first heard of them?" I asked. "Or when each of us did? I think it was at different times.""The latter," he said. "I want to know what brought you to my door, but there's an order to this kind of thing. Sometimes when you start from the start, you have a better idea of why someone wants to know something."I glanced at my friends, then shrugged. "I only heard about the Black avatars recently. Like, in-the-last-few-days recent.""And I've known them as childhood stories," Amaryllis said. "I vaguely recall some mentions of them as I grew up as well, mostly in old wive's tales.""Ah, um, the same," Awen said."Barely heard a thing," Calamity said with a shrug. "Don't do much reading myself, ny'a know? I remember the tales of Black Cat the Black Avatar though!""That one's a myth," Celiga said. "Made up entirely from scratch some ninety years back.""What?!" Calamity yelped."We're here because a really, really mean guy sent us a book about the Black Avatars. It was called, um, Tales of the Black Avatars?""I've read that one," Celiga said. "It's... surprisingly not the worst recounting of the Black Avatars, though it obviously couches everything as myth and legend.""But they're not, right?" I asked.Celiga eyed me, and I saw his froggy pupils focus a little strangely. Had he just inspected me?Before I could think too hard about it, he gave a slow nod. "No ... from all I have seen, all I have deduced and correlated ... all my investigations point to the idea that the Black Avatars were more than mere myths. They walked this earth as surely as you or I." He stared off into space, somewhere over my head. "I started researching the Black Avatars entirely by mistake. I was perusing some old documentation from one of the defunct banks that worked in the Harpy Mountains. Ancient financial records from two, three hundred years ago. Nothing of any great interest to most people, even the noble families that still exist from that time."If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation."I can imagine some being cross with you nonetheless," Amaryllis said.He chuckled. "Too bad. The records were pristine. Old magic keeping the pages dry and the ink fresh. There's a lot you can learn about history just from seeing who has the most gold and what they're using it for. I'm not even talking about anything nefarious. Just your ancestors spending gold on clothes and property and festivals, and earning it back from merchant dealings and other revenue.""What's all that got to do with the Black Avatars?" Calamity asked."I suspect that the good historian is coming to that," Desiree said."Right, sorry.""I was," Celiga confirmed. "In those records, I discovered an account that was peculiar. The records indicated it was practically overflowing with gold. But it wasn't associated with any nobles, or merchants, or even the government. I got curious. I started tracing deposits and withdrawals to see if it might've been secretly associated with the crown or a noble house or something. I turned up nothing.That's not the truly bizarre thing, however. The accounts were created in such a way that anyone could demonstrate proof of membership in the group simply by presenting a certain artifact as visual proof. That specific group, in the very earliest record of the account's opening, identified itself as the Black Avatars.""Is a bank account enough to prove that someone exists?" Amaryllis asked. "I could open one with a false identity.""Sure," Celiga said. "But would you deposit two hundred kilos of gold ingots in that account?"Amaryllis blinked in surprise."Is that a lot?" I asked."It's what my family will make in a decade," she said. "Maybe more than that. The value of gold... hmm, it's not entirely stable, but over so many years... It's enough to buy a small fleet of ships. The largest merchantman airship we have and a pair of escorts, along with crews and... yes Broccoli, it's a lot.""The accounts twigged me onto something," Celiga said. "So I did some searching elsewhere and found similar accounts in other banks. Only the old banks, though, which started to feel a little suspicious. Even banks here in Deepmarsh, that are still active, and some elsewhere as well. Then I started digging deeper into the history of the Black Avatars. It wasn't proof that any of the myths were real, but it was proof that there were people claiming to be the Black Avatars who had a lot of gold to toss around.""Circumstantial," Amaryllis said.Ceglia sniffed. "If you want to debate that, then I certainly can. I was panned by the academic community for 'believing in myths' but I've yet to find someone able to disprove or discredit all of my sources. Now, if the Black Avatars are really what they say they are, that's up to debate still. But that there was a group that claimed the name some time ago? That's less so. There's too much evidence. For all we know, it's nothing more than a group of pranksters with far, far too much wealth, but that doesn't mean that they never existed.""Hmph," Amaryllis huffed lightly. "Forgive me. We did come here to seek out your expertise after all.""That's right. So, you stumbled on an old fairy-tale book, wherever you were, then came all the way here?" he asked. His eyes narrowed. "Tell me, honestly. Are you Black Avatars?""Huh?" I asked."A group of powerful, rich individuals, across a broad spectrum of species," he said with a gesture over us. "Get some black cloaks on and you fit the bill... though I imagined the Black Avatars would be more serious.""We're pretty serious," I said.No one seemed to have heard me, though?"We're not Black Avatars," Caprica said. "We're looking for information on them because we have a... lead of sorts, for an ongoing ... investigation.""I see," Celiga said. He leaned back in his seat and nursed his tea. "I see. Well then, what are you willing to pay?""Pay?" I asked."Money. I had a nice stipend as a professor, and now I find myself a little... underwhelmed by my savings."Caprica rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'm sure we can arrange for something. as you mentioned, we're... for all intents and purposes, rich enough.""Good, I do like that about people," Celiga said with a devious smile. "In that case, the Black Avatars... I have a suspicion, something that I never wrote about because it would be far too controversial.""What is it?" Awen asked."Do you know anything about riftwalkers?"
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Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty-Seven — Unpublishable
Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty-Seven — Unpublishable "Why would it ruin your reputation for the Black Avatars to be Riftwalkers?"It was a great question, and one that I was happy to not be the one to ask. I nodded to Calamity, trying to non-verbally thank him for asking in the first place.The mention of Riftwalkers had taken me aback a little. They'd come up here and there as I wandered around Dirt. Rainnewt was one of them, of course, and there had been a few others... that Commodore Megumi lady, for one, and that strange man I'd met not so long ago in that mine.Actually, now that I was thinking about it, most of the Riftwalkers I met were a little... well, not ideal citizens.But maybe those were just the Riftwalkers that stood out? Maybe there was a bunch of them who found a nice farm somewhere and lived out a quiet, idyllic life, or who lived in some city somewhere, paying taxes and... doing whatever normal adults did. Like getting a job and stuff. It was just the louder, more obvious Riftwalkers that stood out."That's... hmm," Celiga started, then paused with a hum. "Your lack of knowledge of the historical community is showing.""How could nya tell?" Calamity asked, then flushed. He cleared his throat and adopted a more serious tone. "Um. That is. What do you mean?"Celiga leaned back in his armchair, then reached over to the side. There was a sort of pouch built into it, and he pulled out a small lacquered box from within. I leaned forward, curious, but when he opened it there was just a pipe in a small inset made for it, next to a small baggy. He started to fill the pipe with some sort of stinky herb. "In the broader community of historians, not just in Deepmarsh, but across the world, there is a... let's call it a fallacy.""What sort?" Caprica asked."Oh, not one of those argumentative ones. It's more of a mistake that a lot of young, inexperienced historians fall into. It's said that if an archaeologist finds something they don't understand, then they'll say it must be ceremonial. Well, if we historians find something we don't understand, we have a tendency to say it must be the fault of a riftwalker.""Really?" I asked."Oh yes. From political assassinations, to peace negotiations, to the discovery of important dungeons. Did you know that Deepmarsh, the city we're in now, is settled atop not one, but three dungeons? It's one of the locations on Dirt with the densest dungeon placement. Three of them, all so close to each other that you could have seen their entrances from one to the next. It's a Riftwalker that discovered them.""Whoa," I said."Indeed. In any case, that leads to a lot of young historians looking for Riftwalkers. They start seeing them in every shadow."Amaryllis huffed a 'I know better' huff. "And I imagine that they don't always find them?""Oh, World no. For every important historical event with a Riftwalker somehow involved, there are three without. But the presence of a Riftwalker is notable and interesting so it stands out.""I believe that I understand," Desiree said. "Your discovery of the veracity of the Black Avatars' existence was already controversial and had stricken you with ridicule. If you then tied your discovery to the presence of Riftwalkers, your delicate reputation would be stomped into the mud, on the grounds that you had sold your soul to a sensationalist history cliche in the hopes of drumming up popular interest."Celiga pointed at her with the stem of his pipe. "Got it in one, strange fox girl," he said. "And besides, I can't exactly go out and publish what's basically an opinion held together by circumstantial evidence at best.""What evidence do you have?" Caprica asked. I'd noticed that she was very much not looking my way. When Celiga first mentioned Riftwalkers, Awen and Calamity both turned to give me a glance, but some of my other friends were a smidge more subtle.Celiga snapped his fingers and created an ember with a little spell. He lit his pipe, slowly puffing out a cloud of... actually, it smelled kind of nice? "So, this is one of those things that I had to leave out of my book, and trust me, I'm not the sort to leave out much. But I did manage to identify at least half a dozen of the Black Avatars. Early on, they weren't making as much effort to disguise their identities.""Oh?" Amaryllis asked."So, there's a man that appeared one day in the eastern reaches of the Trenten flats, next to a very powerful, very dangerous dungeon, one that had been spilling out monsters into the region. One thing led to another, and the early Cervid government wasn't able to take care of that dungeon. This man, however, did.""Was he strong?" I asked."Maybe," Celiga said with a shrug. "I don't often care much for levels and that sort of strength. Plenty of the strongest people on Dirt are carefully minding their own business somewhere quiet, and that's fine enough. I care for those who leave a mark on history. This man's name was Adam Romanov. He had a peculiar class that had to do with dentistry. The dungeon he conquered was known to produce these large, alligator-like lizards that walked on two feet."The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident."Details strange enough to survive a retelling or two," Caprica observed."So, a few years later, Romanov disappeared. But there's a Black Avatar in a group of them who has strange abilities. Would you care to guess?" Celiga asked."He had teeth magic and... lizard bits?" I asked.Celiga nodded. "Just so! There's a half-dozen stories not too dissimilar to that. Strange coincidences that stretch the definition of coincidence. Now, keep in mind that these are records that date back a century, sometimes two or three. They're prone to error, sometimes written in archaic forms, and often there aren't second and third sources to corroborate things, but that Adam fellow is one of six Riftwalkers that I can place as a member of the Black Avatars.""How many Black Avatars are there, overall?" Calamity asked.Celiga shrugged. "We tried to track that. But the fact is, there might have been as many as three groups of them travelling across Dirt at one time, and their membership numbers seemed to change. And some were more... subtle than others. I can't say. Over the course of three hundred years? I'd say as few as twenty, as many as two hundred.""That's a wide range," Amaryllis said."It is what it is," Celiga said. "My most reasonable estimate suggests that there have been at least fifty members active at one time. That being about two hundred and fifty years ago, when they were at their busiest. That's when we have decent records showing at least three groups claiming to be Black Avatars in different places at more or less the same time, with different group compositions. These ranged from three to seven members.""That doesn't add up to fifty," Calamity said.Celiga sniffed. "That's a guess based on another historical precedent. There have been knights and paladins of some power in the past, wandering heroes, and Explorers more recently. They rarely travel on their own. For every powerful member of one of these groups, there's always one or two other members that are with them. Lower-levelled people, there to help and assist."So... if I was comparing the Black Avatars to my friend's group-not that we were particularly powerful or anything-then my friends would be the Avatars, and the Scallywags and the Beaver's crew would be these other members?"They didn't travel alone, then?" I asked.He shook his head. "Sometimes, maybe. But often they'd come in as part of a caravan, or aboard a ship in coastal regions. One of those ships is actually the easiest Black Avatar entity to track. The Black Sail of the Lost Orient.""Ships, even archaic sailing ones, should leave quite the paper trail," Amaryllis said with a nod. "Creatively adjusting so many of our port records has been an expensive endeavor."I blinked. "Wait, what?""What?" Amaryllis asked. "We have people that aren't fond of us, Broccoli. Do you think I'd leave such an obvious trail behind? The Beaver is already a strange and somewhat memorable ship. We don't need to leave hints on top of that. Besides, the documentation is technically legally valid."I stared at her, mouth open. We were committing crimes?!"Have... we been committing fraud this entire time?" Caprica asked."Not fraud... creative accounting," Amaryllis said."Awa, isn't that just another word for fraud?" Awen asked.Celiga chuckled. "You're an interesting bunch, I'll give you that. So, is there anything else I can tell you about the Black Avatars? Based on what little real knowledge I have, I mean.""Where are they now?" I asked."Wait, what?" Calamity asked. "Nya think they're still around?"Not going to ask if they're even real, first?" Amaryllis asked.I shrugged. "It feels like they're something we could be, so I don't see why they can't be real. And a hundred plus years isn't that long ago, right? People live long if they have higher levels, right? And there's like... elves and stuff that live longer too. They could still be around."Celiga snorted. "Well, to answer your question ... I think I do know," he said, which honestly surprised me. "But it's hardly somewhere a normal person can reach without a few challenges along the way. Else I'd have visited the space myself.""Where, then?" Caprica asked. She was still giving Amaryllis a look, but seemed just as curious as I was."No, first, I ought to tell you what I know. And why I never went there myself."
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