My Servant System

The Sultana was in the same position that we had left her; leaning over the table and studying a myriad of maps as Death Jackals Streamed in and out of her tent, handing over scrolls and murmuring quietly in her ears as they delivered information to their commander.

She moved the pieces around and operated on many identical maps, playing out different types of strategies on the same information to find the best outcome that she could, though as soon as we entered she stood up and cleared some of the table.

"Well it looks like it went rather okay all things considered, hm? You don’t seem too excited or happy, but the result is clear."

Her head was focused on me as I lowered the books and papers onto that cleared spot, and the Jackalkin nodded as she accepted one of the papers, beginning to read it over as Jahi replied "That would be the truth, at least for Anput and I. We ran into a Tza Fiend that knew how to almost instantaneously transport itself to wherever it wanted.

It was impossibly fast, very strong, and most importantly it was reserved and not that conceited. The woman it was contracted too wasn’t all that impressive on this first encounter, but being able to get a contract with a Fiend means you have to be something special, so I’m not counting her out just yet."

"Sounds like a troublesome Fiend then... and you, Katherine? What do you have to inform me of in regards to the party? It certainly seems like it went well, but your expression tells me otherwise; did you need to do something you didn’t like to get this information?"

I wanted to bite my cheek again and reopen the wound, but I controlled myself as I took a deep breath and instead answered in a calm, controlled voice, at least to the best of my abilities as I stared at that blank veil.

"The party was of little issue, and I worked two marks; the first one led to the second mark, who was the one to give up the information you see here. She was also a member of the Fingers, and the most important part was that she is seemingly one of their main researchers for this gambit of theirs to turn the entire desert into an oasis.

Additionally, she has a contract with another Fiend as well, one that Cali deigned important enough to keep alive, so she’s outside waiting for ’interrogation’, though I will say that any attempt to harm and or kill her will be... a bad idea."

The Sultana just nodded and turned back to the paper in her hand, letting the tent fall quiet once more as the four of us shuffled around and shared a glance, not knowing what to do or say just yet.

"The good news is it seems this researcher you picked up was a semi integral part to their theorems, so this puts a wrench in their plans for now, and it also makes the rest of my information all the better.

Two other cities have been cleared completely of their presence, with three Fiends falling to the surprise attacks and five more getting injured during the battles. However four cities have become even more contested, and a fifth hasn’t responded at all...

Hajar - the city northernmost on the border between us and the Wekalian Steppes - hasn’t sent word back to me yet, and if they fail to do so in another hour I need to assume that Hajar is lost, which... is unfortunate. It was a marketplace of relative importance and strategic value, so I do want it back."

Bringing our attention back to the main map on the table, the Sultana tapped the pieces surrounding one of the cluttered borders and said "So I want to send you four up to handle it for me, with six Death Jackals. This is if it is actually fallen. How you reclaim it is up to you; pinpoint strikes, infiltration, or a full blown siege depending on the information provided.

And while you deal with that, I’ll go ahead and take a tour of my country to set it back on track once more. With Kio holding down the capital alongside a large contingent of our best troops, I’ll also go ahead and send this researcher back as well with some handlers."

She issued orders immediately, and we exchanged glances once more before Leone asked "Are we allowed to go over those papers and books as well, Sultana? It might be

Presumptuous, but perhaps we could offer a different perspective on the things we find within this researcher’s notes?"

The Jackalkin nodded and waved her hand at the books, prompting Leone to step forwards and grab one before she turned to raise a brow inquisitively at me, asking me silently if I was going to join her; there was no judgement or other question within her gaze, bringing me some relief as her normal gesture soothed my nerves somewhat.

Taking another of the books, I opened it and began to skim, my eyes flickering between the various spells, graphs, schematics and words that were inked onto the pages, each one slowly allowing me to paint a picture into my mind on what Mariam was hoping to achieve. Needless to say, she was as much of a genius as she made herself out to be as she penned down some incredible spells and Ritual Circles that could just work so long as she was given an insane amount of resources, time and of course, had loose enough morals to take the shortcuts that would save her months, if not years of development for those spells.

It also made my heart leap inside of my chest as I realized I had forgotten about the other researchers she had with her, so I looked back up at the Sultana and hastily asked "Is it possible for me to return to the city to search for the loose ends? In the discovery of that Fiend I forgot about the other members that were within the estate!"

Waving a hand at me, the Sultana sorted through a few of the papers as she said "There’s no need to worry, a Death Jackal was monitoring your progress and is acting accordingly, if their late arrival is proof enough. Try not to forget such important things in the future, though I suppose this is one of the times it’s fine; the reward presented by this researcher you captured is worth more than those other ones by a mile..." nøvel.coɱ

I was still a bit worried, but she just looked up at me and gave me a reassuring nod before returning to her reading, prompting me to do the same as I flipped through some of the pages, forgetting my mistake as I lost myself to the magical theory that Mariam had been slowly perfecting.

The idea of making use of Fiendish Magics to cut corners in the most stable locations of her spells and enchantments was definitely efficient, and like she had said before, the use of people’s Cores as batteries was thoroughly explored within this book.

They were crystalized in order to be preserved and utilized for longer periods of time - the hope was to be used indefinitely, but if not they were easily replaced - thanks to their self sustaining nature of pulling mana from the area around us and converting it inside of the organ itself.

Using some Nua Magic to suspend the crystalized Cores in a sort of stasis before etching an amplification spell on their surface from the Tza Fiends and then using tethers made from raw Fiendish Magic to tie everything together was the current idea Mariam was on. Simple but extremely efficient and unique in its own way, what with the mortal sacrifices and occasional sacrifice to keep everything working smoothly; then there were the individual Ritual Circles that acted as anchor points on the edge of the larger Ritual Circle, which would be the new ’Mana Zone’.

Ritual Circles within one another wasn’t a ’new’ concept by any stretch of the imagination, but they were rare to see, and even Leone had been considered rather gifted to think of using them and trying to perfect them, but like I had repeated to myself a million times over by now we had no time to explore that idea of hers.

Mariam however did, and she had done so rather intimately since she had an entire section of this notebook dedicated on explaining and proving how this concept of embedding Ritual Circles into one another worked, using other theories and concepts to prove it to herself

Again.

All of it was fascinating, but there was a lack of information regarding her comrades, when and where this was going to be taking place, what she had contracted herself to Sla’Oliviana for, and if there was a connection between the Sla Fiend and her work.

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