Dangerous People

Basttias briefly scrutinized the seal stamped on the bottom corner of the death warrant before folding it back up and tucking it away in his robe.

“Why?” he sighed.

“He attempted, and failed, a complicated spell last night. Afterward, he sought permission to study his magic further, and although he was denied—”

“No,” Basttias interrupted, “that much I can surmise. Why me?”

“You know him better than anyone. You know what he’s capable of, and we suspect you have given some thought as to how you would overcome his healing magic if needed.”

“You guess correctly.” Basttias grimaced. He had always found executing mages to be unpleasant, but his experiences had ingrained in him the habit of sizing up every mage he met. This would be his first time killing someone he knew personally, however, and the thought of it made him sick. “Fine, I’ll do it. I’m the only one who can make it painless. Where is he now?”

“Somewhere within Settlement 266. We lost contact with him earlier in the day.”

⁂

A few hours prior, after leaving the council building, Ashtin had teleported directly to Dr. Shreburn’s laboratory. The large area that had been converted into a temporary dojo was empty, but he found the doctor bent over a computer in the back room.

“Hey, you’re back!” she exclaimed, standing quickly from her chair. “You won’t believe what I discovered when I examined the data. That staff of yours has… No, it’ll be better to show you.” She reached past him for the staff, but it evaded her grasp.

“Doctor, we have more urgent business,” Ashtin said, stepping out of the way as she lunged unsuccessfully for the staff. “We were able to confirm that remote hypnosis is being used on at least one of the criminals.”

“You learned that all from the guy who attacked you? And I thought you said you didn’t have any special talents.”

“I don’t. It was a very unusual sequence of events. General Winmore shot a counselor and fled.”

“Huh? What possessed him to do that?”

“I don’t know. I was helping interrogate the suspect, and the general was watching from the next room. We were about to get information when he fired his pistol.”

“He was alone in a room with a counselor? That doesn’t sound like him. He’s not the trusting sort.”

Ashtin shrugged. “He really wanted that information, but he didn’t go in without a plan. There was a cherry-picker waiting for him outside the window, and he used it to escape. It’s possible that he was hypnotized himself. We think the culprit or culprits are hiding in the guild building, but it’s been inexplicably sealed off. The counselor indicated that it’s possible that gynoids have been hypnotized. If that’s true, spellbreakers like you are the only people truly immune.”

“What are we waiting for, then? Let’s go nab them before they have a chance to send their hypnotized minions after us.”

Ashtin placed his hands on her shoulders to prevent her from running off immediately. “It would take an army of spellbreakers to assault the mages’ guild, and the culprits would probably slip away if they saw us coming. We need to know who our targets are before we make our move.”

“I’ve got files on all the local mages. We can probably eliminate the mages who aren’t capable of remote hypnosis. Even if they have collaborators, if we can neutralize the hypnosis, the council and the guard should be able to take care of the rest.”

“Regardless of whether or not it generates any leads, it’s something we should do for our own protection,” Ashtin said. “Having discovered the hypnosis, we now may be targets.”

“There are five thousand local mages registered with the guild. It will take days to review them all. Perhaps we should leave the city, at least until we have a plan.”

“No. We’ll go into hiding. I don’t want to let any other settlements get caught up in this. I… know a place not even the council will find us, but I need you to trust me unconditionally. Can you promise to do that?”

Ashtin nodded. “The council trusts you. Therefore, so do I.”

⁂

“We’re hiding in the basement?” Ashtin scoffed. “If they don’t find us in your office, won’t they think to search the building?”

“It’s likely,” Dr. Shreburn admitted, “assuming they come after us, but they won’t find us down here.”

As was the norm across the planet, the basement housed only utility rooms. There was a main electrical room, a large water boiler, and a few storage rooms. Buildings were tall enough that there was no need for humans to inhabit spaces in the basement, although there were a couple emergency recharge stations for gynoids, just as there were on every floor.

It was into one of the storage rooms that Dr. Shreburn led Ashtin. Walking behind an equipment shelf, she knelt down and pressed her hand to the floor. As Ashtin watched, a trap door shimmered into existence. At first, Ashtin thought it to be magic, but then he realized that Dr. Shreburn was disrupting the spell concealing the door. As she slid it open, Ashtin peered down into it. There was a tunnel with a ladder built into it. The ladder was about six meters tall, and there was light coming from a passageway at the bottom of the tunnel.

“What if they trap us down there? I can teleport out, but I can’t bring you with me.”

“There’s more than one exit, and they’re well hidden. But I should warn you, there are things down here you won’t like. Just know I’m not responsible for any of it, and remember your promise.”

This intrigued Ashtin, and he quickly descended the ladder. His staff floated down after him, as if it too were climbing rung by rung. Dr. Shreburn followed close behind. When he reached the bottom, he turned around and was surprised by just how clean and well-lit the passageway was. Floor, wall, and ceiling were made of polished stone, and lights ran along the walls on each side. Examining them closely, he noticed that each bulb contained enough mana to shine for a hundred years, if not longer.

“This whole place was dug out by magic,” Ashtin realized aloud, “but it’s so large. There must have been an entire team of mages working on it, or…”

“Every time Wincent captured a rogue mage, he would force them to work on it before he…”

Dr. Shreburn fell into silence, and Ashtin looked away. The notion made him uncomfortable, but he was unsure why. Rogue mages needed to die, for everyone's protection. Why did it bother them that they were granted a temporary reprieve in exchange for labor?. Probably because he was keeping it secret from the council, he thought. “I take it we’ll find him down here then?”

“Possibly, but it’s a labyrinth, and it spans most of the city. It’s more likely that our paths won’t cross.”

“We have a duty to catch—”

“No,” Dr. Shreburn interrupted, “our duty is to review this list. You can leave him to the council. I know you’ll probably report this place to them. I haven’t been down here in years, but even so, I was hesitant to tell them about it. If the situation weren’t so dire, I never would have brought you down here.”

“There’s more to this than just underground passages, isn’t there?”

Dr. Shreburn nodded, and then, without another word, led him down a set of twisting hallways until they reached a door. “Only one of many,” she said before opening it.

Inside, there was a large room with chairs and tables, and the walls were lined with plastic bins. Ashtin opened one of them and pulled out a paperback book. From the cover, he instantly recognized it as a 20th century science-fiction novel, though he was unfamiliar with it. There were more inside. He quickly ruffled through them before opening another bin and finding much of the same. On his fifth bin, he pulled out a copy of Brave New World.

“Have you read these?” Ashtin’s voice was louder than he intended. He stood and turned to face Dr. Shreburn.

“Some of them. I know now how dangerous they are, but I was young and—”

“It’s not the books that are dangerous!” Ashtin roared, causing Dr. Shreburn to flinch. “It’s—” He threw the book into the bin in anger and gesticulated wildly with his hands, unsure of how much he should say or where he should start. “It’s the people,” he finally sighed, dropping his arms. “It’s the people who are dangerous. Most of these books were just entertainment. Some of them were political commentary, but they were written in a different context. Some of their concerns still apply to our world, but most do not. People see a speck of truth in them and extrapolate, convincing themselves that AI is a threat, or that we live in a dystopia.”

Dr. Shreburn hung her head. “I know. I saw it happen. When I was first invited down here, I was around your age. It felt like a secret club for those smart enough to responsibly read things the council didn’t want us to read. We hung out, we discussed things, but nobody took it too seriously. I mean, how could we? It’s mostly mediocre fiction. I thought nobody would be interested in it if it weren’t forbidden.

“But after a while, I noticed that a few people took it more seriously, and they were trying to convince everyone else to see things their way. They wanted to secretly distribute these, and over time, build support for a rebellion. Even though they lived comfortable lives, they were unhappy with the world. I asked them many times exactly what they wished were different, how they would run the world after their rebellion, but they were convinced that every problem was the council’s fault, and overthrowing them would fix everything.

“Eventually, one of them destroyed—murdered—three counselors. They thought it would inspire others to follow their example. When we learned of it, a few others and I became disillusioned and left. After a while, I was able to see that it wasn't a group of smart people, just people Wincent wanted influence over, but I was only able to gain that perspective by leaving.”

“That’s quite a confession,” Ashtin was barely able to contain his rage. He had half a mind to report her immediately, but he needed her help, and he had no means to overpower her, so he swallowed his emotions, but not before adding, “Perhaps you should have given it years ago, to the council.”

“You’re right, of course, but I couldn’t. I would be betraying some people I still cared about, and I feared I wouldn’t be spared. My academic career was just starting to take off, and I didn’t want to risk it. I convinced myself I’d tell the council someday, once my friends had left, once I was indispensable, but I… was ashamed. Besides, Wincent had exerted more control over those who remained, and nothing bad happened after that. I figured it would be OK to just forget about it and move on.”

“The settlement is caught up in an inexplicable violent crime spree, and you never considered they might be operating from this network of tunnels hidden under the city?!”

“I… Wincent would never allow that. Even if someone found one of the entrances, there’s a powerful barrier that keeps out anyone who he hasn’t invited.”

“He didn’t invite me,” Ashtin pointed out. “You were able to bypass that barrier. It’s not impossible that others would find a way in. You’re smart. You know that.”

“You’re right again. I should have considered it. I just… don’t like to remember this place, so I didn’t think it through.”

“And I don’t like to think that you’re not worthy of the trust the council has put in you, and by extension, the trust I put in you. If the intelligence bureau knew you were hiding this, they never would have partnered me with you.”

“That’s not true. I’ve done more than enough since then to gain their trust. You have no idea the work I’ve put in to rectify my mistakes. We have a mission, and I’ve already risked everything to bring you here so we can accomplish it. If you want to leave and tell the council about this, or get hypnotized in the attempt, feel free, but I’ll be here doing what I can to save this settlement.” With that, she placed her backpack on the ground, sat down in one of the chairs, retrieved a tablet, and started reviewing the dossiers on the local mages.

“Give me half,” Ashtin grunted, taking a seat opposite her. For several hours, the two of them worked in silence, searching the records of every known mage in the city for any who might be capable of remote hypnosis. Dr. Shreburn’s documents even included information on individuals with great magical potential, but who, for whatever reason, could not cast spells. One such record stood out to Ashtin. A woman who generated an immense amount of magical energy was unable to use it, seemingly due to some kind of psychological block. When he passed the tablet over to Dr. Shreburn, however, she took a quick look and shook her head.

“Her magic particles aren’t the right shape. Even if she could control it, she would be unable to form hypnosis lattices.”

Ashtin’s cat ears twitched at the sound of her voice. How could she seem so normal, so unaffected, after admitting to her betrayal? He glanced at her out of the corners of his eyes. “Tell me, why did you bring me here? Surely, there were other places we could hide, and you know the council will punish you.”

“Would you believe me if I told you that I couldn’t take the guilt anymore?”

“Honestly, I don’t know you well enough to say for sure, but I doubt it. You come off as confident and full of life, not the kind of person who would risk execution at the hands of the council. More likely, you think the council will find this place anyway, now that the city has their attention, and you’re hoping for a lighter sentence by turning yourself in.”

“Ah, you caught me. I also figured it might help if I had a historian mage speak on my behalf, but I guess that’s off the table now that you figured it out. You’re sharper than I took you for.”

“Flattery won’t get you anywhere, and if that’s what you really think, you have no idea how the council works.”

Sitting up straight, Dr. Shreburn turned to face Ashtin. He immediately averted his eyes and flipped to the next document. “That wasn’t a compliment, and I think I have a better idea of how the council works than you do. I’ve been dealing with them since before you were born. You probably think they’re going to execute me, but you couldn’t be more wrong. They rely on my research, and more importantly, no one else understands magic like I do. I’m unique and that makes me important. They’ll imprison me, but through my actions, I’m negotiating for better treatment.”

“No one’s irreplaceable to the council. Not you, not me, and not…” Ashtin sorted the documents by trustworthiness score, pulling up the record of the local mage the council had the most faith in. “Rorthi Axseer. Hold on, she’s packing some serious magical power. You think she could be one of our culprits?”

Dr. Shreburn took the tablet from Ashtin and looked it over. “She should be capable of casting remote hypnosis spells, but I’ve interviewed her a few times, and she doesn’t strike me as the type.”

“That’s what makes her the perfect suspect. It’s always the one nobody suspects.”

“Is that what they teach you in your history books, or have you been reading too many bad mystery novels?”

“Don’t presume you know as much about history as I do just because you participated in a treasonous book club for a few years. You only have drips and drops. I have the full picture. But yes, I suppose I may have gotten too excited. It could be anyone on this list.”

“You're a good kid, Ashtin. Lots of mages have trouble admitting when they’re wrong. Your heart’s in the right place at least, even if it takes your head a little while to catch up. I can see why the council picked you to be a historian mage.”

“I already told you that flattery is pointless. Let’s get back to work. We’re wasting time.”

Dr. Shreburn took a moment more to observe him. His cat ears turned so that they were facing forward. His shoulders relaxed, and he appeared to be wiggling his butt slightly. That last one was weird, but Dr. Shreburn decided to interpret it as a positive sign. Shortly after returning to her work, she found another candidate. “Tussev Itermata. Not the most adept hypnotist in the world, but with enough practice he could pull something like this off. Says here he’s tall and strong, but introverted and meek. Funny combination. Makes it hard to tell what he’s thinking.”

“That’s gotta be our guy. It’s always the quiet one.”

⁂

It took them more than four days to complete the work. They slept in shifts, each spending as much of their waking hours as possible sorting through the list of mages. In the end, they were able to narrow it down to three suspects: Tussev Itermata, Rorthi Axseer, and Darmy Longmaz.

Darmy was an older man. Balding and calm, he had been quite a troublemaker in his youth. The council had come close to assassinating him on three different occasions, but he always reformed his behavior before things went too far. Notably, he was the least powerful of the three. Ashtin had almost blurted out, “It’s always the guy with an inferiority complex,” but he had held his tongue, much to Dr. Shreburn’s amusement.

“We’ll have to recruit an additional person,” Ashtin said, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion. “We can’t risk nabbing two of them only for the third to escape.”

“Sneaking just the two of us into the guild is going to be difficult enough,” Dr. Shreburn pointed out. “Maybe another mage capable of teleportation…”

“That’s a tough ask.” The teleportation spell was difficult. Usually, only the most powerful of mages could pull it off. Ashtin was an exception in this regard, but because teleportation was so dangerous, only trusted mages were taught how to cast the spell. It would likely require risking another historian mage.

“Given the importance, the council will probably agree to send someone. Maybe even two or three.”

“We can’t make the request from here. Which of these tunnels gets us closest to—” Ashtin stopped talking as he could feel magical energy press down on him. A moment later, a loud boom sounded from the direction of the ladder they had used to access the passageway. “We have to run,” he said, jumping up from the table.

It took Dr. Shreburn a second to react, but she was close behind Ashtin when he reached the door. He threw it open and stopped in his tracks. There was a mage waiting for him on the other side. An extremely powerful one.

“Basttias.” Ashtin sighed in relief. “What, did the council send you to check on me?”

“They did. What exactly is this place?”

“You’d better come in and see for yourself. I was just on my way to report it—”

As soon as Ashtin turned his back, Basttias struck. Gathering a dark purple spell around his hand, he thrust his palm at the back of Ashtin’s head, aiming to destroy the young mage’s brain. Ashtin’s staff, sensing the danger, slammed itself into Basttias’s forearm, but was unable to save Ashtin from injury. Basttias’s palm slammed into Ashtin’s left shoulder and continued as if pushing through liquid.

Ashtin’s shoulder disintegrated upon contact with the spell, causing his left arm to fall to the floor with a dull plop.