The Simulacrum - Chapter 78~ Part 1

“Morning!”

Angie’s greeting practically exploded into my face the moment I opened my front door. It wasn’t just her though; the rest of the gang was also behind her, including my girlfriends, and yet curiously missing the class rep. Also my sister, but considering that she was still in the process of putting her shoes on behind me, that was a given. In the meantime, the guys all said their morning greetings as well, though theirs were slightly less over-the-top.

“I’ve heard you’re ditching school again,” the neighborhood Celestial sidled up to me and elbowed me in the side with an impish grin. “You delinquent, you!”

She was in high spirits. More so than usual, I mean. I wondered if something nice happened to her while I wasn’t looking, a guess that was further supported by the way Josh was shuffling his feet in the back. I didn’t dwell on it for long though and simply pushed her away (and back outside) instead.

“It can’t be helped. You guys, on the other hand, should get going or you’ll be late and Armband Guy will glare at you.”

Nobody argued with that, and they also parted to let Snowy outside. Once they were all in front of me, I firmly tapped my foot to get everyone’s attention and addressed them one by one.

“Angie, please tell the teacher that I had a family emergency to attend to. I’ll write a note later in my parents’ name.”

“You mean you’ll fake one,” she tried to tease me, but I summarily ignored her and moved on.

“Josh, I need to talk with you. I’d appreciate it if you could come over after school.”

“Sure. I’ll bring snacks,” my friend responded with a grin of his own, though it was just a little more strained than his childhood friend’s. Suspicious, but not important at the moment.

“Snowy, if the Knight girl picks a fight with you, ignore her and stick to Judy.” She nodded so I moved on. “Dormouse, please look after Snowy. Also, make sure the princess doesn’t pick a fight either.”

“I won’t,” my other girlfriend objected before my dear assistant could get a word in.

“Of course you won’t, since Judy’s going to be looking after you.”

Despite using my most diplomatic tone, Elly was getting dangerously close to a full-blown pout, so I quickly stepped up to her and planted a quick peck onto her forehead. It immediately erased the thunderclouds forming over her head, and once I was sure she was under control, I did the same to Judy, because fairness was important.

“Awwww… You guys are so cute so early in the morning!” Angie, still sounding as mischievous as ever, commented in a voice one would use to talk to a baby. “I’m kinda jealous.”

“Jealous or not, you’re not getting a kiss from me,” I teased her back, and her face immediately scrunched up like she just smelled something nasty.

“Ew! Gross! I don’t want a kiss from you!”

“Then from whom do you want it?” Judy cut in before I could ask more or less the same question, and for the first time today, the energetic Celestial’s smile faltered.

“I-It’s not like I have anyone in mind! That wasn’t what I meant at all!” It was at this point that our eyes met again. Honestly speaking, I thought I had a laidback smile on my face, yet based on the rate Angie’s face paled the moment we made eye contact, I might’ve been wrong. If I had to guess, she most likely thought I was going to tease her more, or question her, or even just point out that Josh was suspiciously silent in the back, so she quickly fished her phone out from her bag and exclaimed, “Oh, look at the time! Leo’s right, we should get going or we’re going to be late! Come on guys, don’t tarry!”

Angie didn’t even give the others an opportunity to object; she turned on her heels and began marching away from my front porch without any further ado, and she even grabbed hold of Snowy with one hand and pulled my unsuspecting sister along. Since they were going, Josh also followed suit, and since I didn’t want my girlfriends to lag behind, I quickly doled out the standard morning kisses and cuddles before bidding them goodbye.

Closing the door, I let out a pent-up breath and walked into the lonely living room. I already ate breakfast and made my preparations, so the only remaining agenda for the morning was the deal with the Celestial operative. A short Far Glance told me he was already on his way, and after observing him for a while, I concluded that I had more than enough time to brew a cup of tea while I waited. I was getting a little chilled by standing in the doorway while only wearing a shirt and sweatpants, so I was craving a warm drink anyway.

On my way to the kitchen, I cranked up the thermostat a little and went through the background story of Bel one more time in my head. Together with the girls, we came up with a couple of variations, so I had to make sure I was one hundred percent clear on the details we all agreed upon. It was one of the more straightforward ideas, but Judy repeatedly insisted that I shouldn’t make it more complicated than necessary, so I already made my peace with it. It’s not like I could change my mind at this point; we’ve already laid out quite a bit of groundwork in preparation after all. Well, okay, I could technically still tweak some small parts, and she’d never even know. Just some inconsequential bits. Nothing big, I swear.

Anyhow, my tea was ready, the room was balmy, and I had no choice but to wait a little longer, so after sitting down I quickly slipped into the usual routine. Once I was comfortable, I took a sip from my mug and closed my eyes. First things first, I had to check the usual suspects. The gang was still on their way to school. Angie was still energetic and Josh was still a little awkward, and my drama-senses told me there was definitely something going on with those two, so I made a mental note to keep an eye on them. Aside from that, there was nothing interesting going on there, so I moved on to my next targets.

Fred was… still sleeping. Another mental note: don’t forget to threaten the guy to cut his funding if he doesn’t keep up his schedule. On the other hand, Galatea was already up and running. I mean, literally. She was currently jogging in circles around the perimeter of the main hall in the company of the Fauns. Did androids even need morning exercise? Also, I didn’t remember ever getting her a neon-bright skin-tight exercise outfit right out of the 80s, but she was wearing one, so… Third mental note: pay more attention to the requisition forms coming from Fred and don’t just leave it up to Rinne and Ichiko to buy the household necessities.

Speaking of which, Mountain Girl was already in the faculty office at school, while Ichiko was floating in a void between spaces that looked kind of like a monochrome kaleidoscope. It was how I perceived the ‘shadow dimension’ or what have you where she was currently hiding, and the first time I saw it, it gave me straight-up vertigo. By this point I was already somewhat used to it, but that didn’t mean it was particularly pleasant to look at, so I moved on.

Nothing on the Dracis couple, the aloof chambermaid was in the mansion kitchen, the old butler was… doing morning calisthenics. Huh. Now I’ve seen everything.

Next, the ‘baddies.’ First, Crowey. To my infinite satisfaction, the man had huge bags under his eyes thanks to a certain recent incident that I may or may not have been involved with. It comprised of breaking into the most closely guarded sanctum of the Inanna house, a bunch of missing contracts and artifacts, and someone writing a message onto the floor using ketchup. It’s what I had on hand at the moment, please don’t judge. Anyways, more on that later.

I checked on Lord Grandpa after that, and he was… huh? Well, I’ll be damned. He was in the process of instructing a couple of subordinates to remove his liqueur cabinet from his office. Maybe he was planning to practice abstinence for a while? Good for him.

There wasn’t much to see though, so I glanced at the knights next. Miss Unicorn was already at school and studying at her desk, even though she had no reason to do so. I mean, according to the Knights’ original dastardly designs, she would only be staying on the island for maybe a month longer, so it wasn’t like she needed to worry about grades at all. Yet, there she was, rote memorizing physics terminology. She was so single-mindedly diligent about the silliest of things, but I guess that’s what made her cute.

“… Huh. Where did that come from?” I muttered as I took a second look. Cute? Her? I suppose being my alleged sister was starting to skew my perception of her. I quickly chased all such silly thoughts out of my mind by reminding myself that Snowy was ten times cuter than her. Well, closer to nine. Eight-and-a-half at worst.

I quickly moved on before I would start questioning my metrics for cuteness, this time focusing on my other Knight mark, and I found Sir Eagle and his merry band on renaissance-fair cosplayers holed up in their backup base, which was a warehouse in the outskirts of the city. I hoped I could catch them red-handed discussing some nefarious plans, but to my immense disappointment, they were just chilling around a table and playing cards. Sir Griffon was winning, by the way. Not that it mattered, as I quickly got bored of watching them and moved on to the last person on my list, and just in time to catch him entering my neighborhood in a familiar cab.

That was my cue to get ready, so I quickly drank the last of my (by this point lukewarm) tea, sent a pre-written message on my phone, and straightened my clothes as I made my way over to the entrance. A minute or so later I could already hear a car stopping in front of my house, and not long after it was followed up by a series of hard footsteps. That meant there were no issues with the wards this time around. When the doorbell rang, I almost automatically opened the door but held myself back. I didn’t want to appear too eager, so I waited until the man on the other side pressed the button again before I reached for the doorknob.

“Good morning,” the gaunt man on the other side greeted me in his usual, phlegmatic tone, and I forced a pleasantly surprised expression onto my face in return.

“Oh, good morning. I didn’t expect you would be here so early.”

Saying so, I stepped aside and gestured for Jaacobah to come in.

“Time is short, so let’s get down to business.”

With that, he entered without any reservations and I closed the door behind him. On closer look, he was dressed in a different suit than the one he wore the last time, coupled with a different, wide-brimmed hat, but the overcoat was the same. Furthermore, he now had a familiar suitcase in his right hand, which I presumed was where he kept the catalyst. So far, so good.

Following my lead, we entered the living room and he immediately put the suitcase onto the table before I could even offer him a seat. He didn’t even bother to take off his shoes or his coat, which was a little rude, but nothing I couldn’t put up with considering the situation. The way he wordlessly gestured for me to sit down like he owned the place was a little harder to swallow, but I did so anyway and took a seat on my usual chair.

In the meantime, he opened his case and took out a wooden box. It was small enough to snugly fit into his palm and had a simple latch on its side that he undid at once. Raising the lid revealed a pair of brightly glowing coins vertically embedded into black packaging foam. No, on closer look, they were too thin to be coins, and they had something that looked like a piece of leather on one side, so… finger cymbals? Seriously?

My guess was proven right practically immediately when the Celestial healer stuck his fingers through the leather strips and made a clear, high-pitched sound by snapping them together. The process also resulted in a wave of magical light spreading out in the room that made my skin tingle, and the man in front of me was apparently satisfied with… whatever that just did as he turned to me.

“I have to calibrate the catalyst. Please don’t move.”

“Can I talk?” I asked back, and he nodded right away.

“I expect you to. If my memory serves me right, you agreed upon the condition to share everything you know about this ‘Bel of the Abyss’ I encountered yesterday.”

“I don’t remember saying ‘everything I know’, but to be fair, I don’t know much about him either,” I told him a touch flatly, but he remained unflappable as ever, and he simply snapped his fingers with the magical cymbals again, resulting in another wave of magical light that stung my eyes.

“Calibrations will only take a few minutes. Stay still and speak.”

I really didn’t like his tone, and I was just about to voice my opinion when my phone let out a series of jingles. The timing couldn’t be more perfect if I tried, so I quickly hit the iron while it was hot and took it out of my pants pocket, and after a purposefully long beat, I adopted an exasperated grimace.

“Before anything else, did you give him my phone number when the two of you met yesterday?”

The unexpected question made the Celestial pause and even his brows rose a little.

“No, I haven’t.”

“Really? Then where the hell did he get it?” I griped in a low whisper just loud enough for him to hear me. I pretended that I just noticed the interest on his face, and another beat later I reluctantly showed him the screen. “He’s been sending me text messages since last night.”

I waited for the operative to read the messages on the screen. They were, naturally, written by Judy using Snowy’s old phone. Or rather, her old SIM card in a cheap backup phone I bought after my last meeting with this guy. I didn’t expect I would put it to use so soon, but it came really handy.

While the Celestial was reading, there were two more incoming messages, announced by the phone vibrating in my hand, and I took the opportunity to take a look myself.

“‘These mortal toys are so amusing, lololol. Tell me who invented them so I can make him my subordinate, lol.’ ‘Why aren’t you answering? Are you shy, lol?’” I read the texts out loud as flatly as possible and capped the performance with a tired groan. “He said he got the idea to try ‘mortal technology’ from a guy named… give me a second…” I pretended to scroll up quite a bit and after I ‘found’ what I was looking for, I let out a thoughtful hum and asked, “Bob. Doesn’t sound like an Abyssal name. Does it ring any bells?”

“I’ve no idea.”

I had to give credit to the guy, he was maintaining his poker face remarkably well, but even then, the small twitch at the corner of his left eye didn’t escape my notice. Meanwhile, my phone buzzed again, so I told the man, “Give me a second. I have to write something. The last thing we need right now is for him to show up to see why I’m not answering.”

“You do that.”

Since we were in agreement, I proceeded to sneakily tell Judy that she didn’t need to write any more messages before putting my phone aside and saying, “I muted it. Sorry for the interruption. Please proceed.”

“I will.” Dry and professional as ever, the Celestial operative gave me a solemn nod, and then immediately ruined his own image by using his magical finger cymbals again. Sorry, I just couldn’t get over that. I knew that Celestial magic was focused on harmonics and music, but why tiny little cymbals of all things? It was a question I never got the chance to ask as the stern man in front of me spoke up again. “Let’s return to the initial question: what can you tell me about Bel of the Abyss?”

“Not much,” I responded with a shrug. “He showed up on the island one day. I don’t know where he came from or his affiliations, but I think calling himself ‘of the Abyss’ is quite telling. He wanted to make a deal with me and offered intelligence on the Knights in return.”

“What exactly did he ask for?”

“Nothing major. The current state of the island, notable people, recent events, those kinds of things.”

“Why did he look for you?”

“I guess because he needed a reputable information broker not affiliated with anyone.” I tried to sound humble, and since the guy remained somber, I pretended to sigh in resignation and reluctantly added, “It was probably because of the whole Chimera Slayer thing and the incident at the local School. I presume you already know the story, and as far as I can tell, Bel wasn’t on friendly terms with the Lord of House Inanna, so maybe he looked for me because we share an opinion on the guy. Oh, also, I don’t know if that counts, but I apparently passed some kind of test on our first meeting.”

“Test?”

“Yeah. During our first meeting, he moved behind me and broke my neck the moment I looked him in the eye.”

“Broke your neck,” he repeated after me, and I nodded in the affirmative. “If you’re not joking, then how come we are talking right now?”

“Oh, that’s because I wasn’t in the room at the time,” I told him a touch flippantly, and purposefully waited for the confusion to set in before I clarified, “I dabble in illusions a little, and made some precautionary measures before I met with an unknown client.”

“So I’ve heard,” the Celestial stated dryly, and I nodded along. Of course he did. I don’t exactly know where or how it got out, but Lord Grandpa’s misunderstanding… or was it Labcoat Guy’s first? Either way, it got into the ears of the Celestial Intelligence Network and was already added to my profile in the Hub’s database, so there was no harm in playing into the misinformation. In the meantime, I could almost see the gears turning behind the agent’s eyes, so I decided to leave it to him to draw whatever conclusions he wanted and continued my previous description of the events that really, one hundred percent certainly happened. Scout’s honor.

“Apparently not dying after getting killed constituted as passing a test, and he’s been considerably more civil since then. Or at least he hasn’t tried the same trick again.”

“He seems to hold you in high regard.”

“Does he? Personally, I’d prefer if he forgot about me.”

“I can understand the sentiment. Do you know why he’s on the island?”

“Something about a heist of some kind. I don’t know anything about the details and don’t really want to get involved, to be honest.”

“Heist,” Jaacobah echoed the word, accentuated by another cymbal snap. At this point I was starting to feel that he was doing it on purpose. “Is he related to the recent break-in in the local Magi headquarters?”

“Nah, that was me.” That strategically placed stray comment earned me another curiously raised brow that broke his stoic façade, so I rewarded him with some technical truths. “It’s a long story involving a Research Society member, brightly colored robots, and a grievous lack of security. It’s already resolved though, and the Arch-mage and I both agreed to pretend it never happened and stay out of each other’s way. I’d tell you more, but it’s not strictly related to Bel of the Abyss, so you have to buy the intel like everyone else.” I waited for a beat here to let that sink in, and right after that I stretched my lips into a friendly smile. “At a discount, of course. As a fellow sufferer of Bel, that’s the least I could do.”

“I appreciate the sentiment. I’m going to inform my superiors of the opportunity.” He said that, but I already knew they were aware of my involvement in that kerfuffle as well. Telling him about it here didn’t give him anything new to work with, but it certainly made the rest of my claims more believable. More importantly, I made my smile even more amicable to signal my agreement, and another cymbal-strike later the Celestial healer’s brows slowly descended into a small frown. “The calibrations are done, but I still have a few questions. Do you mind if I ask them?”

“So long as you make it short. I really want to have a working right hand, you see.”

My guest acknowledged my comment with a solemn nod.

“In that case, I’ll limit my inquiries to two items. First, do you have any information on his abilities? I’m particularly interested in the way he disappeared and reappeared at will.”

Once again, I deliberately remained silent for several seconds even going as far as to lean forward and adopt a troubled expression as I pretended to think long and deep about the question. Deeming the scarred man sufficiently primed, I looked him in the eye and took a dramatic breath.

“Take this with a pinch of salt, but I think he can manipulate time.”

“Time?” he repeated after me with overflowing skepticism.

“Yes, at least I think so. One thing I’m sure of is that he’s not using illusions to mask his position. I’d notice, you see. He can’t be teleporting either; I had an expert look into it, but there were no spatial distortions left in the room. No mana traces either. However, he did physically move from one place to another. I think he does so by stopping time.”

“It’s… an unexpected conjecture.”

“Maybe, but to be fair, Lords of the Abyss are known to have some really outlandish abilities,” I noted as I linked my fingers as best as I could in my lap. “Oh, don’t give me that look! Who else could casually ignore the laws of magic other than an Abyssal Lord?”

“There is no Lord called ‘Bel’ at the moment,” the Celestial stated a tad dryly, and I responded with a shrug.

“I know that, but that’s my best guess. Maybe he was hiding, or exiled, or sealed away, or something. I mean, when we first met, he wasn’t only looking for intel, but mundane information as well. Geopolitics, technology, cultural norms, recent history… he even went as far as to steal my history textbook! As far as I can tell, he could be the long-forgotten twin brother of the Abyssal Emperor lost in a time-warp or something, but being a secret Lord of the Abyss coming outside for the first time makes more sense.”

“When you put it like that, it certainly does,” Jacobaah agreed with me, if only tentatively, and with that, I considered my job of sowing the seeds of this particular deception more or less complete. I let the man ponder for a while, after which he said, “It’s certainly a possibility worth considering. Let me ask just one last question: you mentioned a heist of some kind. Do you have any idea what he meant by that?”

“Not really, but…” Yet again, I paused here and made a show of thinking really hard about the question. I thought my guest would be annoyed by this, but he was still mostly stoic, and even a little expectant. At last, I exhaled hard and told him, “Listen, take this with a chunk of salt. As in, the kind of chunk that people strap the sides of donkeys in the salt mines. So, correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s nothing particularly valuable on this island that would warrant a ‘heist’, let alone something that would make a presumed Lord of the Abyss move.”

Of course, there was always the Grimoire Key, or the Dragon Slaying Spear, just to name two items, but as far as the Celestials were concerned, neither of those things was on their radar. For the former, while the information network knew that each of the keys was in the custody of senior Arch-mages, they couldn’t infiltrate deep enough into the hierarchy of the Magi to learn who those seniors were, while the latter was destroyed ages ago as far as they knew. As such, Jaacobah soon nodded along, as expected.

“So, here’s my theory: I already mentioned this, but Bel really seems to hate the Abyssal Houses in general and the Inannas in particular, and he showed up on the island right after their power base was cracked by a botched incursion into the local Magi headquarters. Are you following me so far?” Jaacobah nodded again, so I pretended to collect my thoughts for a while and told him, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Abyss is right under this island. Metaphysically speaking, of course. Considering that, I can’t help but think that maybe Bel came here to capitalize on the chaos caused by the incident at the School to try and steal something from the Abyss.”

“And what would that be?”

“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” I ‘admitted’ with a self-deprecating smile. “Considering it’s a ‘heist’, it implies it’s something closely guarded, but I don’t know anything more than that, and I wasn’t suicidal enough to probe Bel about it, so I’m just theorizing based on the snippets he dropped during the few times we conversed. I just tried to connect the dots as best as I could. There’s a reason why I wasn’t asking for compensation in return.”

“Which I once again appreciate,” the agent stated, his voice drier than the winds of the Sahara, and he stepped right next to me. “I have many lesser questions, but you’ve upheld your end of the bargain, so I believe it’s time I did so as well.”

Even while he was speaking, the man’s appearance slowly began to change. Over his head, I could make out the outlines of a semi-transparent halo with either ‘spokes’, while on his back he unfurled a pair of similarly translucent wings. Moreover, it was followed by the appearance of another pair of wings, and he spread all four of them. They were completely immaterial, and they clipped into the furniture, but it did little to diminish his unexpectedly majestic appearance.

“You might feel numb for a while. It is a completely natural reaction and part of the process of reconstructing your Astral Body. Please don’t be alarmed.”

I nodded, but to be perfectly honest, I was still a little guarded, so I already had Brang primed for a quick Phasing target in case the guy did something suspicious. Speaking of him, Jaacobah grabbed hold of my injured arm with his free hand and used his tiny cymbals one more time. Compared to before, the sound itself was much quieter, yet at the same time my whole body felt like it was resonating along with the waves it was sending out. That was slightly alarming, but not enough to make me call the whole thing off.

Since I remained unfazed, the Celestial healer began to work in earnest by letting out a deep, guttural hum, followed by the rhythmic beating of his ‘catalyst’. I’m not going to lie, the combination of the two reminded me of a clip of a tribal exorcism I saw on the net, which wasn’t exactly promising, but I gave the benefit of the doubt for now and remained still.

The beat of the cymbals was about to build up to a crescendo, and the man’s humming rose in volume as well, and I was silently anticipating some kind of climax, when…

“Are you perchance affiliated with the Oathbreakers?”

The question came out of the blue, interrupting the beat and turning my brain blank for a moment. I had no idea where that came from, but since the agent looked a little perplexed, I told him, “I used to be. Why?”

“I’m detecting some scars on your Astral Body,” he told me matter of factly, and after a long beat, I attempted to shrug it off without moving too much.

“Just ignore them. It’s another long story that doesn’t come free.”

“I understand.” Saying so, the clear sound of the catalyst filled the room again, but instead of resuming his humming, Jaacobah whispered, “Your astral body is very strange. It’s as if there’s…”

All of a sudden, the man’s eyes opened wide, a reaction that sent seven different kinds of chills down my spine. This was pretty much the supernatural equivalent of a brain surgeon asking ‘Wait, is that supposed to be there?’ in the middle of an operation, and I doubted it meant anything good.

“It’s as if there’s what?” I prompted him, but he remained silent for several torturously long seconds, ultimately culminating in an ambivalent grunt.

“It’s just slightly unusual. There’s nothing for you to worry about.”

That didn’t make me worry any less, but I lost my chance to ask anything else once he began humming again. He didn’t start from the beginning either, but right where he left off, and in a matter of seconds, we reached some kind of crescendo. Then, with one last strike, the tiny cymbals let out one last, impossibly clear sound, followed by a blinding light that made me involuntarily close my eyes. By the time I forced them open again, the Celestial already let go of my hand and took a step back.

His breathing was audibly heavier than when we started, and based on the beads of sweat covering his face, this might have taken more out of him than I expected. More surprisingly, the cymbals were nowhere to be seen, leaving only a pair of loose leather straps on his fingers. Does this mean they were single-use items? Who would’ve thought?

“Are we done?” I inquired, and this time I didn’t have to pretend to be nervous. The man still in the process of catching his breath gave me a curt nod, so I raised my injured hands and wiggled my fingers a little. “Oh? It was rather effective.”

I balled my hand into a fist, then opened it as wide as I could, and I even interlinked my fingers with my other hand’s and forcefully stretched them until they made some oddly satisfying popping noises. Maybe because I subconsciously got used to the weakness and lack of sense, but my right hand almost felt too vivid and sensitive to my brain. I was about to thank my healer for services rendered, as courtesy dictates, only to realize that I focused so much on my newly renewed extremity that I didn’t even register that he already packed up his suitcase and was raring to go.

“With this, my contract is complete. Please don’t get up, I’ll let myself out. It may take a few minutes for your senses to readjust, so I recommend staying still for the time being. Rest as much as possible, take plenty of fluids, and don’t overexert your hand for the next couple of days. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go. I don’t want to miss the extraction window.”

“Well, okay then. Take care of yourself.”

Jaacobah gave me an unusually deep nod that almost felt like a shallow bow and, without any further ado, turned on his heels and left the house, leaving me all alone. That guy really moved at his own pace, didn’t he? More importantly, what was this nagging feeling about potentially tripping an annoying flag just now?

“One thing at a time,” I whispered as I stood up and looked at my newly repaired hand. “First, let’s go and see if you’re playing nice with my armor now…”