The Simulacrum

~Chapter 138~ Part 4

The sight greeting me upon my arrival was not what I was expecting. I purposefully Phased a bit away from the hideout, hearing that Lord Barnabas was there, and after reaching the warehouse, I was startled to see the destruction on display. One of the walls had a huge hole in it, and part of the roof collapsed, with the bare metal beams sticking out of the rubble.

Luckily, since this industrial part of the dock district was sparsely populated, there were no civilian gawkers to be wary of, so I rushed to the scene. I was baffled about the lack of a Purple Zone in place, but I figured things must've escalated too quickly to erect one.

My priority was my sister, and to my further confusion, I found her on the ground floor instead of the basement and surrounded by a rather eclectic group. At the moment, she was in her Uniformer, meaning there was some fighting (as if the destruction wasn't enough evidence of that), while Agrawain was standing next to her, clad in his Uniformer gear and animatedly arguing with Lord Barnabas. This was the first time I'd seen the dark-skinned Magi in a battle-ready state, and curiously enough, he was covered from head to toe in what looked like semi-transparent, orange-tinted magical armour plates. He was also wielding a fancy staff that looked more high-tech than it had any right to be, but other than that, he had the usual suit plus cape ensemble under it all.

"Lord Archon!"

Even more inexplicably, he was accompanied by Jaakobah and almost all of the Praetorian Guards. The Celestial greeted me with a customary salute, but I didn't pay much attention to him, since my eyes were automatically drawn to the rest, their weapons trained on the large bodies lined up next to an intact wall. Two of them were Gram and Rabom, who were probably on duty here, but there were also three more Fauns I was unfamiliar with. All of them were on their knees, in identical positions, with their hands behind their heads.

Were these guys Tajana's retinue? What were they doing here? Where was the rest of them?

My internal questions remained unanswered for the moment, as when Snowy realized I arrived, she skipped over to my side and grabbed my hand.

"Leo, come quick! You need to talk to Mr. Walker!"

"I would like to have the situation explained to me first," I said as I let myself be led over, where Barnabas gave me a surprised look-over.

"I didn't expect you would be here so soon."

"I was in the neighbourhood for an unrelated business," I explained curtly, the white lie coming to me naturally, and swept my gaze over the faces surrounding me. "Now, would someone please bring me up to speed? What are you doing here?" I glanced away from Barnabas, and to Jaakobah. "What are you doing here?" Finally, I pointed at the unknown Fauns by the wall. "And most importantly, what are those guys doing here?"

"I'll start," Agrawain cut in, sounding about as exasperated by the whole situation as I expected. He used his thumb to point at Snowy. "About half an hour ago, right after she arrived here, those Fauns kicked down the doors of the warehouse. We rushed upstairs and fought them off, but then a second group infiltrated the basement, so your sister here erected a Restricted Space to make sure the prisoner couldn't escape."

"That's what we detected," Lord Barnabas spoke up.

"Yeah, and then these bastards showed up, and did something to turn off the Restricted Space, and then he blew a hole in the wall!"

"Agrawain! Language!" Snowy whispered to him, but the guy was too incensed to care.

"If you would let me add," Barnabas stepped up and cleared his throat. "As per our previous agreement today, I visited our Celestial guests to act in my newfound role as a supervisor. We were just discussing the potential rogue elements hiding on the island when I received a message from the School's monitoring department, warning about a Restricted Space formed inside the city limits." Seeing that I raised a brow at that, he added, "The creation of an unauthorized Restricted Space is a clear sign of unsanctioned operations, and while the monitors can't keep an eye on the whole island, maintaining a twenty-four-seven early warning net over Timaeus is entirely feasible."

"No offence, but I don't really care about the technical details that much," I told him and turned to Jaakobah, and he stood ramrod straight.

"As per your earlier instructions, Lord Archon, we accommodated the arch-mage in our field base. When he informed us of possible enemy operations that could potentially pose a threat to Her Grace, we opted to accompany him to the combat theatre."

"A gesture I appreciate, Sir Prefect," Barnabas spoke cordially, though his expression remained neutral. "If I had to wait for a strike team to be dispatched from the School, we wouldn't have arrived here on time."

"On time for what, exactly?" I growled as I looked at the destroyed wall and roof. Not that it mattered much at this stage; after this incident, everyone would be aware of this place, so it would no longer be suited to remain a black site, let alone a prison… And that thought suddenly jolted me into alarm again. "Snowy? Where's our prisoner?"

"That…" She didn't look me in the eye, and that was answer enough, but then Agrawain groaned and spelt it out anyway.

"He was taken."

"Oh, great," I whispered and clenched my fists so hard they hurt. "I knew something like this would happen…"

"Excuse me, Leonard," Barnabas addressed me with a pair of narrowed eyes. "Who is this 'prisoner' you're referring to?"

"He's…" I began, but I couldn't quite find the right word.

Traitor? Personally, I did feel betrayed by him, and he technically sold out the Brotherhood, but so did I in a sense, so that would've been a bit hypocritical. Celestial mole? Sure, that was also accurate, but trying to explain why that was a big deal when we were openly cooperating with Celestials at this very moment was a bit farcical.

Thankfully, I didn't need to think much longer, as Raven Boy came to the rescue.

"With all due respect, Lord arch-mage, this is an internal affair of the Ordo Draconis. Please respect our jurisdiction."

"Certainly."

Barnabas might've said that, but his expression told me he was still slightly miffed by being stone-walled like that. Meanwhile, I noticed that Snowy was gesturing to me, specifically by tapping her ear, and I belatedly realized what she meant, and activated my Leoformer, donning my Lion Knight armour replica.

"{Chief? Can you hear me now?}"

"Loud and clear," I answered, and when the others in the room looked at me funny, I put two fingers on the helmet, over my ear, to signal that I was using long-distance communications. "Are you up to date?"

"{I've listened to the situation through Neige's ears, so I've got the gist of it.}"

"Good. Please inform Brang about what happened, and tell him to prepare for a manhunt." I gave the whole situation some more thought, and added, "Mountain Girl and Naoren should be on patrol today, so call them and instruct her to come here. She should make subduing the rest of the Fauns considerably easier."

"{Roger. I'll keep you updated.}"

Honestly, as startled as I was by Snowy's call, it turned out to be slightly less of a headache than expected. Nobody was seriously injured, Barnabas and the Praetorian Guards were mostly reasonable, and the only niggling issue was Percival's disappearance.

That said, even that was little more than an annoyance. Essentially, so long as I had him marked, he wasn't going to slip away… and in truth, this might've been a beneficial development. Practically speaking, there wasn't much damage Percival could cause at this stage of the game, so I figured I could let him loose for a bit, and if he was kidnapped by Tajana's Fauns, then I could use his mark to track them back to their hidey-hole and uproot them in one go.

In the worst-case scenario, I'd have to pick him up myself by Phasing over, but for the time being, it felt safe to delegate his recapture to Rinne. Contrary to my initial fears, this seemed to be an isolated incident, so I didn't rush things and focused on uncovering the circumstances that led to it, starting right here. Specifically, the Fauns still lined up by the nearby wall.

Seeing that everyone was waiting for me to finish my call and give my input, I moved my hand to the back of the helmed, unbuckled it, and then took it off. I handed it over to Raven Boy and then addressed Gram and Rabom.

"You two. Are you injured?"

"Slightly," Rabom answered in an almost embarrassed tone. "Got thrown against door. Dented it. My fault man was taken. Apologies."

"Stop that, and get up," I told him, and turned to the confused tunic-man, hammer-lad, and uniform-bloke, still pointing their weapons at them (as much as that applied to stuff like big magitech sledgehammers and whips, anyway). "Let them go. They're with us."

"Us?" Lord Barnabas inquired with an uncharacteristically slack expression.

"They are with me… um… t-teacher?" Snowy interjected meekly, so I flashed an encouraging smile her way before turning back to the arch-mage.

"As you've heard. They are part of my sister's retinue, and they were stationed here."

In the background, the two awkwardly shuffled to their feet, and while the Pretorian Guards present still looked wary of them, at least they no longer tried to menace them with their weapons. Speaking of which, though…

"Jaakobah. Give them a check-up and see if they need healing."

"I… yes, Lord Archon, but I'm not entirely sure healing hymns work on the creatures of the Abyss."

"If Angie could heal them, you can too," I told him curtly before I walked up to the remaining Fauns kneeling on the ground.

The three of them were bruised and battered, yet they glared at me defiantly. I had to wonder; why? Why did they make a move in the open, after remaining so doggedly elusive for so long, and why did they attack this place in particular? Was it the Narrative yanking my chain, or was I missing something? It was something I absolutely had to figure out, even though I wasn't exactly in the mood for an interrogation.

"Lord Archon, don't get too close." The warning came from midriff-woman, and she dramatically levelled her magitech gun at the closest Faun. "They could be dangerous."

I very nearly asked her why they didn't tie them up then, but again, they most likely didn't want to get within arm's reach of these guys. They looked practically identical to our Fauns, meaning they were big, muscle-bound, and to the uninitiated, their ram-like features probably looked alien and disconcerting.

"Care to tell me why you raided this place?" I asked without any pretences.

There was little chance they would just confess everything, but hey, it was worth a try. I hoped they might've been the overly-chatty-mook archetype, the kind that yells 'Hah! You'll never stop our boss's attack on the very important location at this exact time, oh snap, I wasn't supposed to tell you that!', but sadly, it didn't seem to be the case.

"[Do your worst! The honorable Faun Inanna won't bow to you, usurper!]" the one in the middle growled at me, and it made me blink in surprise. Right. Fauns were supposed to be, at least nominally, adhering to the honourable subtype of the 'proud warrior race guy' trope, even if Brang and his company often made me forget about it due to their wholesome antics.

In any case, a declaration like that needed a response, so I told him, "[Your bravado descends with the grace of a pot-bellied pelican.]"

Not expecting a response in their own language, the three ram-men looked at me funny, until Gram chimed in from the side.

"[The Regent always talks like that. He means you're full of shit.]"

"[I show gratitude to your attempt to facilitate communications, but I recommend you focus on the recovery of your earthy coil.]"

"[Sure, sure…]"

While we exchanged words, Lord Barnabas kept glancing between us, and finally blurted out, "What just happened?"

"Don't ask me, I didn't understand a word either," Agrawain commented on the side, with Snowy backing him up.

"There's nothing wrong! They're just talking in Faunish."

Seeing them gave me an idea. While interrogating our captives took priority, I also wanted to put an eye on Percival as soon as possible, so that once Mountain Girl arrived, I could give her some proper directions. However, I didn't have to be the one to do the questioning, especially when I had people for a job like this.

"You two, come here for a moment." Snowy and Raven Boy obediently walked over to my side, and I pointed at them. Then, I waved at the Fauns. "They're all yours. Give them the good-cop-bad-cop treatment."

"Are you…?"

Agrawain probably wanted to ask if I was serious, but Snowy's determined nod cut him short. She was eager to be helpful, as usual, and so I left the captives to them, while I walked over to Barnabas's side. He was currently inspecting our Fauns while they received their health checkup from the humming Celestial agent, and he looked oddly intrigued by them, as if this was the first time he'd seen one of them from up close.

Though again, that might've been the case. While everything in the Simulacrum seemed extremely focused on Critias, probably because the plot revolved around Josh et all, the Celestials operated across the world. In contrast, the Abyssals needed to 'tunnel out' of the Abyss on the island, and while the odd Abyssal could probably sneak abroad on a boat or a plane, huge ram-headed warriors undoubtedly had a much harder time doing that.

"{Chief?}" My musings were interrupted by Judy calling, so I put my fingers on my ear, even though it served no function. "{Ms. Yamako is on the way, along with Naoren Feilong. Do you need me to mobilize anyone else?}"

"For now, that much should be enough. Do you have an ETA?"

"{I don't, and even if I did, I'm not sure her estimates can be relied upon.}"

"That's… a good point."

While I talked, Barnabas came over to my side and scrutinized me, but he waited until I let my hand down to raise his voice.

"I've informed Lord Amadeus about the events, and he requested that I enquire about whether you require any further assistance from the Assembly." I was just about to shake my head, but he raised a hand. "Before you respond, I would like to remind you about the basic principles we talked about just this afternoon. If an associated entity offers their help without any strings attached, and you already wish to establish ties with each other, working together is a simple and effective way to foster positive relations."

"… So, you're telling me to just accept it."

"In simple terms, yes."

"Fine. Tell him I appreciate his goodwill in the name of the Ordo Draconis."

"Noted. Now, with the formalities concluded, would you mind if I directly inquired about the purpose of this…" He looked at the collapsed wall, then at the stairs leading into the basement. "… 'facility'?"

"I think Sir Raven already told you our stance on this," I pointed out, but he shook his head.

"I'm not requesting an answer as an arch-mage of the Assembly, but as an interested individual," he insisted. "You already have numerous properties on the island, including an underground fortress, so why would you go out of your way to establish such a rudimentary hideout at a place like this? Does it have something to do with the identity of this prisoner you've been referring to?"

"Since things turned out this way, there's a good chance you'll get your answer sooner or later."

My answer didn't please him, but realistically speaking, even if we managed to re-capture Percival, along with the Fauns who kidnapped him, there was no way to keep things under the lid anymore. His identity and involvement with the recent events would definitely get revealed to the public. For now, I decided to remain silent on the topic, lest I would give away more of the game than necessary.

Unfortunately, I forgot to send the memo to Snowy, and she quickly skipped over to my side, followed by the grumpy Raven Boy.

"Leo, we found out what happened!"

"That was fast," I muttered as I glanced over to the 'honourable Faun Inanna' who definitely wouldn't squeal.

"She just scolded them, and they folded like a house of cards," Agrawain told me with a conflicted expression. "I didn't even get a chance to play the good cop."

"Listen," Snowy cut between us with, her arms spread. "They were here for Tajana."

"Who?" Lord Barnabas blurted out, but he didn't get an answer.

"They thought she was here?"

Snowy nodded, her expression unusually stern and focused.

"They thought she was held here, and that's why I kept visiting the basement."

"That adds up," I mused and pinched my chin. "What about our missing prisoner?"

"That's…" She nearly responded by reflex, but then her eyes opened wide, and she rose to her tippy-toes and tried to whisper into my ear. "He told them he knew Bel and had information on him."

Sadly, despite her efforts, the arch-mage still overheard her, and he let out a series of contemplative hums.

"So, the prisoner was kept here because he was related to this 'Bel' we've had the misfortune to encounter? Was he isolated here to keep him away from more critical infrastructure? Or maybe to serve as bait in a trap? No, if that was the case, he wouldn't have been taken so easily. But if not so, then…"

While he continued to muse, I patted Snowy on the head for a job well done (and so she wouldn't feel bad about spilling the beans), and I was just about to close my eyes and finally take a proper look at Percival thought Far Sight when I was contacted by Judy again.

"{Chief, we have an emergency.}"

The fact a tinge of panic was audible in her voice made me twitch, and I raised a finger to my ear again.

"What kind of emergency?"

"{Joshua was shot.}"

…

"… Excuse me? With what?"

"{With a rifle, on his way back home. He wasn't seriously injured, but Angeline is going out of control.}"

"How in the world could—?!"

My words staggered to a halt as my mind began to assemble the full picture. The Fauns attacked here. That caused Snowy to make a Restricted Space, which drew Barnabas and the Praetorian Guards over. That gave an opening to the alluded assassins to make a move on Angie, but Josh got in the way, and now…

"Shit!" I whispered, then turned to the confused people surrounding me. "We have a serious situation on our hands! Jaakobah! You head back to your post with the Guards and secure the perimeter! The rest, stay here until Rinne shows up and guard the captives."

"What about me?" the arch-mage asked, and I exhaled a grunt.

"Don't ask me, I'm not your boss! Just don't get in the way!" With that, I picked up my helmet from Raven Boy's hands and started running, looking for an out-of-sight spot from where I could Phase away, while furiously whispering, "Dormouse, alert everyone! This isn't an isolated incident. It's the bloody climax!"