Supreme Magus

3087 Illusionary Wall (Part 1)

"Anything for you, Your Magusness. The meal is on the house." Vonam said while bowing his head.

'Jackpot!' Lith inwardly grinned.

Solus could read him like a book and she had a hard time stifling laughter. Ryka and Strider, instead, were amazed by Lith's manipulation tactics and his ability to lie through his teeth without showing any telltale signs of deception.

They too would have believed him, if they didn't know better. The Titania and the Zouwu exchanged a quick look, wondering if Lith had done the same with them and if so, how many times.

After a delicious, abundant, and free-of-charge lunch, Vonam brought them to the fourth of the four floors of the hotel.

"Wait, isn't this…" Lith said in horror, incapable of finishing the phrase.

"Our Royal Suite, yes." Vonam nodded with pride. "Mage Phanil had excellent taste."

His pitch was excellent, but everyone could hear the implied "she had a deep purse" subtext echoing in the background.

The concierge opened the door with what looked like a crystal keychain and let them in. The room, or rather, the rooms, were large and spacious. The suite was bigger than Kamila's apartment in Belius and much better furnished.

'I want to go back to Belius and dine there with Kami, sometimes.' Lith sighed with nostalgia and activated the Eyes of Menadion.

There were several recent energy signatures belonging to the cleaning staff, but they were all so weak that Lith had no doubt they were irrelevant. There was a single powerful latent energy signature and even after a full day it still carried violet streaks.

Lith had the Eyes disregard every other energy signature and focus on the bright violet core until its data were recorded in the Eyes' database. He stood on the door, making small talk with Vonam about the room while the others pretended to perform a routine search.

"They won't find anything, sir. Our staff is highly competent and if one of our guests leaves something behind, the concierge on duty is notified and the items are left in our lost and found safe." Vonam said.

"It's a great suite, for someone single. Do you have a Royal Honeymoon Suite or something like that?" Lith asked.

"Of course, but your Constable friends wanted to see this one, so…" The concierge bowed apologetically.

"Oh, right. I forgot. My bad." Lith seemed to care so little about the investigation that it was infuriating.

A few minutes and a quick visit to the Honeymoon Suite later, they were out and Lith was back to his Constable persona.

"What's our next move?" Strider asked. "Did you pick her trace?"

"I did, but wherever she is, Adria is outside my perception range." Lith replied.

"No problem." The Zouwu nodded. "We could use your ability to follow her to the black market, but it would be pointless. No one of us has the authority or the connections necessary to force the merchants to tell us the truth.

"We would just waste time and throw your acting performance in the gutter. We'll worry about what she bought in Xaanx when we find her."

They returned to the Association branch, delivered Urza her meal, and moved to Zalth. From there, they reached the city walls and asked the guards about Mage Phanil.

To keep her façade on, Adria had to leave behind a paper trail like a fake mage would. She couldn't just Spirit Warp outside the dimensional sealing arrays and burn her alias.

The captain of the guards informed the Constables that Mage Phanil had left Zalth from the west gate and had taken flight from there. Lith confirmed his words with the Eyes that picked up her trace until it disappeared into what was likely to be a Warp Steps.

"What about now?" Ryka asked.

"Still nothing, but we know when she left and the direction she moved." Lith replied. "As Xenagrosh taught us last time, there's no such thing as a random Steps."

They flew in a straight line from the last trace of the energy signature until the Eyes picked up a faint signal on the horizon.

"That way." Lith pointed somewhere south-southwest and the group changed their course accordingly.

The closer they got, the stronger the signal became and the more information the Eyes could collect.

"Adria is still far, but I can already tell you that she's somewhere below the ground. Somewhere deep." Lith said.

"Not another Garden!" Solus groaned.

"Unlikely." Strider said. "Also, damn. Xenagrosh was right. I have to seriously improve my misdirection skills. If I were on the run, I would have acted no differently from Adria and you would have found me with the same unsettling ease."

"I agree with Strider." Ryka said. "Also, I expected it to be underground. Only a noble could have a house so big that it can host over twenty Forgemasters and be equipped with one lab for each one of them.

"Yet if our mysterious contractor took so much care to go unnoticed, it would be stupid of them to ruin everything by using their official residence as their base of operations."

"True, but why has it always to be underground?" Solus said in frustration.

"Because building stuff in the sky is hard and easily noticeable." Strider chuckled. "By the way, here you go."

He handed her an extra slice of Hell cake he had taken to go.

"Thank you!" Solus said with a dazzling smile.

"What about me?" Ryka pouted.

"I thought you didn't care about sweets." The Zouwu shrugged but handed her a slice as well, making the Titania squeal with joy.

She didn't care one bit for the cake, only for the thought behind it.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any for you." Strider said to Lith.

"And I neither care nor want a slice. Kami would ask me where I took it and spoil her the surprise. Same if I bring a slice to my mother. She would share it with my sister and again, Kami would know.

"I'll have a whole Hell cake ready for takeout for when I get back there."

"Wait, wasn't it just a lie?" The Zouwu asked.

"No." Lith shook his head. "Vonam is a jerk but the food is nice, the place is nice, and my wife deserves nice things."

Ryka awwwed and frowned in quick succession as Strider willingly didn't pick the hint again.

A few hours later, the Eyes brought them to the entrance of what looked like a bear's den, with a live-in bear included.

The poor creature rolled on his back and exposed his belly in terror as soon as his survival instinct told him begging for mercy was his only survival option.

<"Don't be scared. We are just passing by. We won't hurt you unless you force us to."> Strider said while patting the brown bear. [AN: translated from beast speak.]

The bear sighed in relief but remained still until the Zouwu gave him plenty of freshly cut meat. With a serene heart and a rumbling stomach, the animal gobbled everything while rubbing his massive body against the Awakened.

"What was that?" Lith asked.

"Beast speak. You don't know it even though you are a Divine Beast?" Strider asked, received a no in reply. "If you want, I can teach you."

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