Chapter 1205 — Pointing

The mausoleum of Mossin Wildere, Duke of the Northern Reach, was nothing more than a cenotaph; no remains of the ancestor were interred within. This was, as Victoria had said, hardly a rigorously guarded secret — but neither was it a matter one aired casually in public.

No one would be bored (and foolish) enough to prattle idly about the ancestral tomb of one of the four Reach Dukes, nor did people pay much attention to matters fated to have so little bearing on ordinary lives. Whether in the old Ansul era or the new Imperial age, the royal house and the great families always kept countless secrets and legends buried deep behind thick curtains — one true, a hundred false.

Amber, however, was plainly not one of those "ordinary people" indifferent to such affairs. After hearing Victoria's reply, she did not immediately answer the other's follow-up question; instead she rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "So it really is a cenotaph..."

Victoria regarded her quietly for a moment. "It seems you've done your research."

"Er... only a little digging," Amber at once waved her hands a touch nervously. "You know how it is — it's my job... There are rumors that Grand Duke Mossin Wildere, six hundred years ago, was ultimately never laid to rest in the family crypt; on the last adventure of his life he departed Ansul and vanished thereafter into the vast depths of the world... But I've only ever heard the rumor. You know how intelligence work is — unconfirmed reports can only serve as reference. His Majesty told me to confirm the matter with you, and confirm it with you I still must..."

Victoria paid no mind to whatever Amber was muttering afterward. With the same cool expression as ever, she waited until the other had finished before speaking slowly: "The rumor is true — our family ancestor Mossin was indeed never laid to rest in the catacombs beneath Winterhold. According to family records, at the age of seventy he set out on the last adventure of his life, and vanished during it. The great adventurer ultimately traveled far along the road of adventure. As a nobleman he was much disputed, but as a member of the Wildere family, the many deeds he accomplished in his adventures are our pride."

"Vanished, was it... In that case, that 'Great Adventurer Mossin' who's turned up in Tar'lond becomes all the more 'highly suspect,'" Amber murmured as though to herself. The occupational habit of one who coordinated intelligence work gradually took hold, at last making her forget Victoria's cold and rather oppressive presence, and she instinctively pressed on: "Then where did he go on that last adventure? Any leads?"

"No clear record — Mossin Wildere planned every one of his adventures himself, and he was a man who never did anything by the book," Victoria shook her head slightly. "Only when he returned from an adventure could people piece together from the notes he brought back where he had gone and what he had done. And his final adventure... he did not return from.

"Of course, after he vanished, the Wildere family and the Ansul royal house put great effort into searching for clues, and met with some success. According to family records, the last sighting of Mossin Wildere on that final adventure was near the border of the Mosswold and old Ansul, where travelers saw him continuing northward."

"North, is it... From the Mosswold further north, there's nothing but the Northern City-States and the frozen coastline... And he could hardly have gone to Tar'lond again back then; the dragon clans have no corresponding record." Amber muttered and mumbled as she thought, her gaze drifting involuntarily to the large map hung on the wall opposite her office. Her eyes had at first swept over the continent of Loren out of sheer habit, but before she drew her gaze back, she suddenly noticed a nation that had rarely appeared in Loren eyes before, yet lately, owing to the focus of her work, had frequently entered her sight.

North of the Mosswold lay not only the Northern City-States and Tar'lond across the sea; there was also the hermit kingdom isolated amid the northern oceans, the mysterious great island ruled by mages — the Violet Kingdom.

"Violet..." Amber murmured unconsciously. "Could there be some connection there as well..."

"It seems something has occurred to you," Victoria's voice came from the other side of the Weave terminal, cutting off Amber's murmuring. "I heard you mention Violet."

"Do you think it's possible... that six hundred years ago Mossin Wildere traveled to the Violet Kingdom?" Amber raised her head and looked at the Northern Duke with a solemn expression — and now that even this Shame of All Things had turned serious, even Victoria felt a flicker of intimidation. "And that something happened to him there, something that gave him his present 'unusual qualities'?"

"Your reasoning," Victoria watched her expressionlessly. "As head of intelligence, you wouldn't make such a guess at random."

"Of course there's reasoning," Amber straightened her back. "First, the Violet Kingdom is the nation of mages; one of the holy places every mage yearns for most is that very place — and Mossin Wildere was a mage. Whatever halos surround him, his identity as a 'mage' is beyond dispute.

"Second, Mossin Wildere was an adventurer, and mysterious, unknown realms held a fatal attraction for him. In this world, apart from Tar'lond, no place holds more secrets than the Violet Kingdom. For Mossin, who had already trodden the known world, that place was practically 'the last piece of the puzzle' in his understanding of the world — as a great adventurer, he had no reason not to go there.

"Third, the Violet Kingdom, to guard its secrets, is adept at memory-erasure techniques beyond imagining — and this may point precisely to the amnesia symptoms displayed by that great adventurer in Tar'lond. He may have tried to resist the 'memory cleansing' imposed upon him, and that in turn left his memories and his mind in utter chaos..."

Here Amber deliberately paused, making her expression even more solemn. "And finally, the most important reason — intuition. My intuition tells me to keep my eyes on the Violet Kingdom. You know I'm the Chosen of the Goddess of Shadow; surely you trust a Chosen's intuition..."

Victoria had said nothing from the moment Amber began listing her reasons; her expression was cold and detached, yet deep in her eyes was the look of one listening earnestly. Only when Amber finished did she speak in a low voice: "Your three reasons all hold up... I am persuaded. And perhaps I can supply a fourth for you."

"I said four reasons..." Amber could not help muttering — but the Duke's grave, earnest manner instantly made her swallow the mutter back down her windpipe. "What's the fourth reason?"

"The Violet Kingdom's system of dispatched traveling scholars and selected apprentices — their attention to and influence upon the magical systems of the Loren continent — all began roughly six hundred years ago," Victoria said in a deep voice, as though a thousand years of the North's unmelted ice congealed in her words. "At almost the same period as Mossin Wildere's disappearance."

Amber froze for a moment, then after a pause opened her mouth: "...Ah. Oh."

"Now it should be your turn to answer my earlier question, Miss Amber," Victoria watched her quietly for a few seconds, then spoke in her cool voice. "I want to know more about that 'adventurer' who has appeared in Tar'lond. It will help me cross-reference further with the materials in our family records."

"Oh, oh, of course," Amber snapped to attention and nodded rapidly. "First, this whole business has to start with that adventurer gentleman — the one suspected of being of your Veinmoor lineage — buying a ticket at Northport..."

...