Under the Lens

Three weeks had passed since the Executor banquet, and my control over light had improved dramatically. What once felt like trying to hold back a flood now responded to my will with precision I'd never imagined possible.

"Hold still," I said, placing my hands over the light crystal embedded in Karin's gauntlets.

Light flowed from my fingers into the crystal, brightening from dim amber to brilliant gold. "There. How does that feel?"

"Like holding fire," Karin said, flexing her fingers. Small flames danced between them in perfect harmony with golden light. "Remember when you almost melted these off my hands?"

"That was three weeks ago. I've improved."

"Marginally," Kaguya said from where she sat sketching with the Sun Quill. She drew three humanoid shapes in the air, and they sprang to life as glowing opponents. "Ready?"

I summoned light into my hands and compressed it, feeling the familiar weight as a crowbar materialized. Solid hard light, real as steel.

Karin launched herself at the nearest construct. It dodged her flame-wreathed fist and countered with surprising speed. "They're getting smarter."

"Or you're getting predictable," I said, blocking my own opponent's grapple attempt.

"Says the man who makes the same tool every time."

Twenty minutes later, we collapsed onto practice mats. Kaguya let her constructs fade.

"Ken's glowing again," she observed.

I looked at my hands. The telltale shimmer meant I was approaching overflow. "Still working on efficiency."

A knock interrupted us. "We're not open yet," Kaguya said.

The man outside looked desperate. Middle-aged, sweating despite the cool morning. "Are you Ken the healer? I need help."

"Come in." I gestured to a chair. "What's wrong?"

"Marcus Holloway. I deal in grain and flour." He wrung his hat. "My customers are getting sick. Fever, rashes, weakness. Started a week ago."

"Tell me about your suppliers."

"Same ones I've used for years. Except..." He hesitated. "My main supplier, Cornelius Blackwater. He's got some new preservation method. Won't say what, but his prices dropped and the grain looks perfect."

The name hit me like a physical blow. "Blackwater?" My voice went cold. "The apothecary?"

"You know him?" Marcus asked.

Know him? The bastard had been selling warfarin-laced tonics to nobles, calling them health elixirs while slowly poisoning his victims so he could buy their properties at rock-bottom prices from desperate heirs. Lady Anastasia had nearly died because of his "miracle cure."

"Yeah," I said grimly, "I know him. And if he's involved, this is worse than you think."

I exchanged glances with the sisters. They could see the fury building in me – the air around my hands was already starting to shimmer with barely contained light.

"Do you have a sample?" I asked through gritted teeth.

Marcus pulled out a cloth pouch. The grain inside looked flawless. Uniform color, completely free of pest damage or mold. Just like his tonics had looked perfect while hiding their deadly secret.

"Kaguya, get the magnifying lens."

Through the glass, I could see something unusual but needed better magnification. An idea formed. I'd been experimenting with light constructs for weeks.

I focused my power, shaping light itself into a lens. Pure concentrated illumination, far superior to glass.

"There," I breathed. "Look at this."

Kaguya peered through my light lens and went pale. "Those aren't natural structures. There are threads. Crystals."

Dark tiny crystalline growths spread through the grain like a web, pulsing with faint light.

"Sephis contamination," I said. "Controlled contamination. He's directing this, just like he controlled those warfarin doses."

I examined another sample. Same contamination pattern, same crystalline growth. "The son of a bitch is using a Sephis to contaminate grain at specific levels. Enough to make people sick and desperate, not enough to kill them outright."

"Why would he do that?" Marcus asked.

"Because sick people buy medicine," I said, my voice hardening. "And when they can't afford treatment, they sell their businesses cheap. It's the same scam he pulled on the nobles, just scaled up for the merchant class."

"We need to see his operation," Kaguya said.

"Tonight," Karin agreed, checking her gauntlets. "And this time, we end it."

"First, we treat the people who've already been exposed." I stood, light crackling around my fingers. "Marcus, contact everyone who bought grain in the last month. Tell them to come here immediately."

"Wait," Kaguya said, looking up from her notes. "Why isn't the Guild handling this? Or the council? This is exactly the kind of Sephis threat they're supposed to manage."

Marcus shifted uncomfortably. "Well... Blackwater has permits. Official documentation from the Guild approving his preservation methods."

"What?" I stared at him. "The Guild approved using a Sephis for food processing?"

"The paperwork calls it 'advanced biological preservation techniques' and 'innovative agricultural enhancement.' Nothing about Sephis. And he's been making significant donations to various Guild officials. For 'research purposes.'"

"Of course he has," I snarled. "The bastard's bribing them, just like he probably bribed officials to look the other way when nobles started dying from his tonics."

"Plus his compound is technically outside city jurisdiction," Marcus continued. "The council can't touch him without filing formal complaints through the outer settlement governance, which takes months."

"So while people are getting sick from contaminated grain, everyone's tied up in red tape and looking the other way because of money," Karin said, flames flickering around her fingers.

"His compound is two hours north," Marcus said. "But he has guards. Armed like soldiers."

"Good," I said, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop. "It's time someone held Cornelius Blackwater accountable for what he's done. No more hiding behind paperwork and bribes."

◇◇◇◇

Word spread fast. By noon, we had a line outside the clinic. Each sample I examined showed identical contamination. Each person I treated responded to focused light therapy, the Sephis burning away under direct illumination.

"Thirty-seven cases," I said after the last patient left. "All the same contamination signature."

"All traceable to Blackwater," Karin said.

"The question is how many other schemes he's running simultaneously," Kaguya added, reviewing her notes. "Lady Anastasia said he'd approached at least six other noble families."

I tested my energy reserves. Drained but functional. "Only one way to find out. And this ends tonight."

◇◇◇◇

We left at dusk, Marcus leading us north on a borrowed wagon. The city's protective dome faded behind us as we entered the outer settlements, where the barriers were weaker and Sephis incursions more common.

"There," Marcus pointed ahead as we crested a hill. "Blackwater's compound."

The place looked more like a fortress than a grain storage facility. High walls, guard towers, and bright torches that cast dancing shadows across the courtyard. I counted at least six armed men patrolling the perimeter.

"Subtle," Karin muttered.

"How do we get in?" Kaguya asked, sketching the layout with her Sun Quill.

"Direct approach won't work," I said, studying the defenses. "Too many guards, too much open ground."

"What about the storage buildings?" Kaguya pointed to several large structures inside the walls. "If the contamination is happening there, we need samples and evidence."

"And if we can find where he's keeping the Sephis..." Karin's flames flickered.

"We don't kill it unless we have to," I said firmly. "A captive creature is still a victim. Blackwater's the real monster here."

We circled the compound, looking for weaknesses. The eastern wall backed up against a small forest, and the guards seemed focused on the main approaches.

"There," I pointed to a section where the wall met an outcropping of rocks. "We can climb up and drop down near the storage buildings."

"What about the guards?"

I shaped light into a thin, focused beam and aimed it at a torch on the far side of the compound. The flame flared suddenly, then died. "Distraction."

"You can control fire now?"

"I can overload it with light. Same principle as burning out those Sephis eyes."

We waited until the guards went to investigate the mysteriously dying torches, then made our move. Karin boosted me up the wall, and I pulled the others after me.

The compound was larger than it had appeared from outside. Multiple storage buildings, a main house, and what looked like a laboratory building with strange glowing windows.

"That way," I whispered, pointing toward the lab. "If he's experimenting with Sephis contamination, that's where we'll find answers."

We crept across the courtyard, staying in the shadows between buildings. The lab's windows revealed glimpses of glass equipment, specimen containers, and something that made my blood run cold.

"Is that...?" Kaguya started.

"A Sephis," I confirmed grimly.

The creature hung suspended in a cylindrical tank, its crystalline growths pulsing with sickly light. Tubes and wires connected it to various machines, and its corrupted tissue wept some kind of ichor into collection vessels.

"He's harvesting it," Karin said, disgusted.

"Keeping it alive while he drains its corruption." I studied the setup through the window. "The thing's conscious through all of this."

"Ken," Kaguya whispered urgently. "Someone's coming."

Footsteps approached from the main house. We pressed against the lab wall as a familiar figure walked past, followed by two guards.

Cornelius Blackwater. Even in the torchlight, I recognized the well-fed apothecary who'd nearly killed Lady Anastasia with his warfarin tonic. The same satisfied smirk, the same expensive clothes paid for with blood money.

"Sir," one guard said, "the grain shipment for tomorrow is ready, but the buyers are asking questions about our methods."

"Let them ask," Blackwater replied with the same oily confidence he'd shown at the Executor banquet. "By the time anyone figures out what we're really doing, we'll have contracts with every settlement within fifty miles. They'll be too dependent on our supplies to complain."

"And if the Guild investigates?"

Blackwater laughed. "The Guild? Half their officials are on my payroll, and the other half are too bureaucratic to move fast enough to matter. By the time they cut through their own red tape, we'll be indispensable."

The same arrogance that had let him poison nobles for months while buying up their properties. The same contempt for human life.

They moved past, heading toward the storage buildings.

"Did you hear that?" Kaguya whispered. "He's planning to expand the operation."

"Fifty settlements," I said grimly, light beginning to crackle around my clenched fists. "Thousands of people. Just like the nobles – poison them slowly, make them desperate, then profit from their misery."

"We have to stop this tonight," Karin said.

I nodded, studying the lab setup. "First, we need evidence. Kaguya, can you document this without alerting the guards?"

She was already sketching with the Sun Quill, creating detailed diagrams of the equipment and the captive Sephis. "What about samples?"

"Leave that to me." I shaped light into a thin probe and carefully extended it toward one of the collection vessels. The ichor glowed with the same crystalline contamination I'd seen in the grain.

"That's our smoking gun," I said, pulling back. "Now we need to—"

An alarm bell began ringing from the guard tower.

"Well," Karin said, flames already wreathing her fists, "so much for stealth."