Magum Imperatoria, Part Twenty-Four

After we separated from the other two, Akshainie, Michael, and I made our way back to the farmhouse where we had captured the cultists. The goal today was to track any connection we could find to other cultists. Michael had materials for a tracking spell to see if he could find where the cultists had come from before the farmhouse in the hopes he would find a hub of some sort; Akshainie and I were asked to slip into the spiritual realm and follow the ley lines connected to the site, splitting up if needed, to seek out any other ritual locations on the network. We entered the house, did a cursory investigation to make notes of anything particular to this branch of the cult that should stand out to us at other sites, and then stepped aside out of the physical realm. Both of us took our more spiritual forms once we crossed over, since they were able to cover ground more quickly than our human forms. We stood for a moment and watched Michael continue to take notes on the site, then turned our attention to the ley line and followed it away from the town.

“I think Alice has some legitimate concerns about our employer,” Akshainie finally said, after we were well out of earshot of the house. We didn’t know how much Michael’s spell would allow him to see or hear, and it seems we both felt it prudent to assume he could hear us while we were close.

“Are you saying that because you think something is off, or because you consistently haven’t trusted him?” I asked. She sighed, slithering slightly slower.

“Both, I suppose.”

“There is little we can do about the latter at this point. I doubt anything there will change until he actually has his audience with your queen.”

“If he seeks an audience.”

“If he seeks an audience,” I repeated. She gained pace and resumed her place at my side. “But about the former.”

“Yes,” she said. “I didn’t want to consider that Alice might be right about the capture of the cultists. I haven’t really thought of them as people we have reason to consider for some time now.”

“They have chosen a path of darkness.”

“So it suits our purposes to just wipe them out?” I stopped and rested my hands on my hips, looking at the sky. She turned back and rested in coils in front of me, holding her head just high enough that she could look me in the face.

“They have chosen a path of darkness,” I said again, slowly, trying to wrap my head around how to say the rest. “But it was a choice, and given reason, they may be willing to make a different one.”

“So we have to give them a chance.”

“I don’t know. But I think I need to. It’s pretty important to my religion, you know, getting another chance.”

“Important like your oaths? Or important like transparency with your supervisors?”

“Like my oaths.”

“So the death of the cultists during Michael’s interrogation, then, does not sit right with you?”

“I gather it doesn’t sit right with you, either.” I lowered my gaze to meet hers, and she frowned at me for a moment before turning and continuing along the line.

“I want the cult to be destroyed. I’m willing to kill every member if I need to.”

“But what if we don’t need to?” I asked. She paused.

“You have something better in mind?”

“I…I don’t know yet.”

“Then we can talk about it when you do.” With that, she continued, and I jogged to meet her. We walked in silence for a few more minutes. We were approaching another little town by this point, and I could see a nexus point just on the edge of it. As we approached, a sudden shudder rippled through the ley line, giving the air a faint metallic taste. Akshainie’s eyes grew wide. “Get off the line!” she yelled, diving to the side. I jumped the other way, and suddenly the line exploded with energy and then crumpled into a dark, frozen shard.

“What was that?” I demanded.

​“Matteson,” she said, staring at the line. “What the hell did he have Matteson do?”

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