Stealth

It had been roughly a week since Albatross had her curse removed. Since then, there had been a certain nervousness in each and every one of her steps. In a sense, the curse had protected her from the mages by making her something that was no threat to them. With its removal, Albatross was beginning to feel the full weight of this city bearing down on her.

Previously, she was but an observer of the deceptions and betrayals. Now, she must partake in it if she wished to survive.

As per usual, Albatross arrived at the rear entrance of Kalman's personal workshop. On this day, other than writing the reports on what she knew of the city for Kalman and Theodore, she also had a special package for Theodore, an order he had made a couple of days prior.

"Ah, Albatross, good morning."

The one who came to greet her at the door was Fiana, welcoming her with a smile.

"Good morning, Master Fiana," Albatross replied politely, not forgetting that she was still in public and could be seen by others. Not to mention that Fiana had been pleasant so far and gave Albatross no reason to be rude towards her, unlike the other two.

"Please, come in, my father and Theodore have been waiting for you."

"Of course, I'll go see them immediately."

As she entered, Albatross could not help but notice that Fiana seemed a little haggard, though, perhaps it was just her imagination. Still, it couldn't have been easy to be around people like Theodore and Kalman, constantly scheming and coming up with ploys that might get them all killed. Were her circumstances any different, Albatross herself would definitely want to avoid all involvement with those two.

Walking into the living room, Albatross found Kalman, seated on the old couch drinking tea, Aetherglow, of course. Across from him, there was Theodore, slumped over lazily, his eyes sleepy. There was a smell of dirt about him, likely from having just crawled back up from that hole he dug.

"Albatross!" Theodore called out when he saw her enter. Though he appeared tired, he was rather excited to see her. "Do you have my order?"

"Yes, it arrived on time. Here."

Placing her large satchel onto the tea table, Albatross pulled out a set of neatly folded sheets and placed them before Theodore. The sheets were thick and long, dyed in a hue of dark blue, matching the night sky.

"Are those curtains?" asked Fiana as she looked over.

"The curtains in the bedroom are worn and drab, so I thought that I ought to get some new ones. That's the official reason, at least."

"Oh? You're going to do something with them? You should have told me," said Kalman.

"It's not that important. I just needed a new set of robes. The one given to me by Annaliese was nice, but I can't trust it. It could be used to track me. As such, I'll be making my own. Also, I *did* actually want a new set of curtains, so this is two birds with one stone."

The curtains ordered came in two sets, one for hanging up and the other to be used as fabric.

"A robe crafted by the Demon Lord himself. I look forward to seeing it," commented Kalman.

"Don't get your hopes up. It'll just be something simple. I'm not going for anything grandiose."

After the exchange, the three went back to compiling the information within Albatross's head. Though documentation was hardly a courier's job and the lack of actual deliveries might bring what she was doing while she was there into suspicion, when an elder was involved, questions were rarely asked openly. Certainly, the workhouses weren't going to complain when an elder valued their services so, regardless of how he was using them.

If only they knew that their curse, their greatest insurance, had been made impotent. Though, even if they did know, what were they going to do? Reveal it? Let all in the city know how unreliable their curse had become? To risk losing their prestige as the supplier of workers that could never betray?

It was likely that there had been many apprentices-in-name that had their curse removed through unofficial means. The truth just never came out because it was better for all parties involved to keep it quiet. With the workhouses keeping quiet about the flaws of their curse for the sake of their prestige and with those who knew how to break it keeping quiet to maintain their advantage, the illusion that the curse had never been broken was created.

Too busy being paranoid even around their own apprentices, the masters who desperately needed additional hands to do their bidding fell all too easily for the illusory security. In this age of industrialization, no one could afford to fall behind, least of all the power hungry mages, seeking to step over one another should the opportunity presents itself.

***

Deep into the night, Theodore was working on his new robe. By the window, his new curtains had already been hung up, giving the room a sense of freshness that it did not have before.

Seeing the curtains hung there put a slight bit of elation in Theodore's heart. He never did get a chance to decorate his own room when he was living in the temple. He shared it with three others, after all, and new curtains were a luxury they couldn't quite afford.

Feeling rather good, Theodore worked quickly on cutting the extra set of curtains and sewing them together. Were his Aether-form not threads, he would have had to do this by hand and make this so much harder. However, due to the shape and control of this Aether-form, Theodore was easily able to put the robe together in one night. Though it wasn't anything fancy, it was serviceable. With a hood over his head and inner pockets hidden where he might need them, it was good enough to provide camouflage in the dark and obscure his identity should he be seen, all the while providing some utility.

Of course, a regular mage's robe goes further than that. Usually, the fabric would be enchanted for further protection, but as unenhanced cloth was much harder to detect than enchanted ones, Theodore decided to forgo the enchantment, wanting to focus on stealth. Furthermore, Theodore saw no urgent need for it, being confident enough in his abilities to protect himself, unlike the new apprentices who likely needed the additional protection.

Most importantly, and this he hid from Kalman, was the creation of a behavioral matrix that served to hide him from the Aether-senses of those more attuned. To mages, camouflage was not enough. Some could even 'see' without eyesight, sensing their surroundings with the use of Aether. Against that, Theodore had come up with a countermeasure as well.

Normally, a behavioral matrix could only use the Aether-form of the mage that enchanted them, it was due to said mage not knowing any Aether-form other than his own. A mage tends to only have one Aether-form throughout his lifetime, after all. However, Theodore, being a Demon Lord reincarnate, knew of many Aether-forms. Using the memory inherited from the Demon Lord, he could enchant a behavioral matrix with just about any Aether-form he pleased.

For this particular behavioral matrix, he chose the diffusive type Aether-form, the same as what Kalman has. Not only could the diffusive type avoid detection, but it could also intercept information sent by another's Aether, potentially disrupting another mage's Aether-senses. With this, Theodore was confident in hiding from all but the most attuned of mages.

Additionally, by attaching this to his robe, he hoped to trick Kalman into thinking that he was merely enchanting the robe and not creating something that could counter the information-gathering abilities of his diffusive type Aether-form.

***

End of Chapter 87

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