The Simulacrum

The stars looked pretty tonight. Not that I could remember a time they weren't pretty, but standing here, in front of Judy's home, and looking at the sky while caressed by the cool spring air did feel oddly nostalgic. Maybe because it reminded me of the time when I first started accompanying Judy home during the autumn. Or maybe…

"Please focus," my dear assistant told me sternly, even as she was busy tucking the ends of my scarf under my coat. "And remember: No dallying, no frolicking, and absolutely no cavorting. Got it?"

"Yes, yes, I got it," I placated my girlfriend the best I could, but she was still looking at me with unusual intensity. "Come on, Dormouse. Remember what Tajana said? She's like eighty-something years old."

"If anyone in the Simulacrum should know that age in here is just a number, it's you," she scolded me like I was a preschooler who couldn't tell a sheep apart from a goat, but then she finished arranging my outerwear and tugged on my lapels one last time. "Also, since you brought up her apparent age, pay close attention and write it down in a message to me as soon as you're able."

"… Why?"

"Because we have a bet going with Elly," she told me without any reservations. I must've had a stumped expression, as she soon let me go and elaborated. "We talked about vampire tropes earlier today and how their appearance rarely reflects their age. Even if our vampires are weird, it should apply to her, but we disagreed on the degree."

"Okay, now I'm even more curious," I admitted and pocketed my hands. "What did you bet on?"

"Lolibaba," Judy stated, and because I didn't respond right away, she added, "It's when an old, possibly immortal woman looks like a young girl or a child."

"Yes, I know the trope, but… Don't we already have Ichiko for that?"

"She doesn't count, because she also acts like a child," she insisted. "A lolibaba that doesn't act like a mellow, world-weary grandma is not a real lolibaba."

"I'm pretty sure some people would argue you on that point."

"They're welcome to be wrong," she stated bluntly, which made me wonder if she'd been spending too much time on the Hub's message boards and the Celestial netizens' style was rubbing off on her. In any case, she soon continued with, "Elly bet on her being our age in appearance, but since that would potentially require anti-harem countermeasures, I'm still backing my prediction."

"May I point out that, despite anti-harem countermeasures being evoked left, right, and center all the time, I never had the intention or the opportunity to build a harem, regardless of whether there were any pretty girls around me or not?"

"That just means the countermeasures are working," she declared firmly and then rose to her tiptoes to give me a peck on the cheek, concluding our discussion. "Don't stay out for long."

"Not planning to." I returned her gesture, though in my case it was on the top of her head. "Goodnight, Dormouse."

"Bye, Chief."

She turned on her heel and entered the house, and after one last exchange of waves, I also turned around and began strolling down the sidewalk. For once, I decided to walk to my destination. Partially because the weather was nice, but mostly just because I didn't exactly have any convenient marks in the park, so I would've only saved a few minutes by Phasing closer. At that point doing so was pretty much meaningless.

Anyhow, I was about to meet the matriarch of House Shamash, and while we didn't agree on a precise time, I figured it was only polite to show up relatively early. It was already after dark, if my previous musings about the stars didn't make that abundantly clear yet, but it wasn't exactly proper night-time yet, so quite a few placeholders were idling on the street. I liked how much livelier Timaeus felt right now, especially compared to the artificial, almost sterile atmosphere in the beginning.

 My ponderings about placeholder development and the state of the Simulacrum inevitably led my thoughts towards more meta topics, and I was soon reminded of something that had been bugging me for a while: the Free Actor. I had a basic understanding of what the term meant after merging with other-me, but to be honest, it was kind of confusing. If I had to put a definition into words, it would've been something like 'someone with the ability to do otherwise'. That sounded kind of banal, and while I had lots of ideas about what it meant, I would've liked to hear a simple explanation for once.

Alas, The Girl still hasn't contacted me yet, and after her last cryptic warning about the Predator Moon doing something or the other, I didn't try to reach out to her either. That said, considering everything that happened since then, including future-me's shenanigans, I was more tempted to contact her by the day, even against my better judgment.

The outskirts of the park came into view while I was pondering, so I shelved these thoughts for the time being and headed in the direction of the familiar information board. As I passed by, I was once again stumbling upon all kinds of memories. That was the spot where I met Snowy in private for the first time, way before I adopted her. That was the vending machine where I had a long argument with Rinne about drinking too much coffee, back when we were hunting the second Chimera.

Which… now that I thought about it, we never properly figured out whether that was a separate beast or just the reanimated corpse of the one I'd slain during the school incident. Lord Grandpa had a hand in it either way, but he was pretty tight-lipped about the topic, and transplanting Ichiko into it erased all the evidence, so I couldn't properly call him out. I mean, I messed around with him in return, just to piss him off, but that wasn't the same as going through the actual official channels to demand a proper explanation, using evidence and due process against him, and…

…

Wow. Maybe I should stop doing so much official Draconic Federation work. I could practically feel myself turning into a cog in the machine. I should go and steal the arch-mage's cabinet again, just to recapture a spark of my youthful exuberance from the magical olden-times of six months ago.

Jokes aside… Ah, lookie. That tree still had the tattered remains of the poster warning against the wild animal set loose in the park. Looking at it now, the rumour probably started because someone caught a glimpse of one of the Fauns. Oh, and further down that path was where I spoke with Angie and she introduced the Celestial Hub to me.

Seriously, today was just one hit in the nostalgia-bone after the next. I usually wasn't this sentimental. Was I getting old, I wondered as I finally came to a halt in front of the information board, and… there was nobody else around. I looked left and right, then up and down, just for good measure, but this part of the park was completely deserted tonight.

I checked the time and then waited for about five minutes. There were no movements, and standing out in the open like this made me feel a bit awkward, so I honed in on the closest park bench and sat down. In retrospect, that might not have been the best idea. Not because I thought we could miss each other, but because now that I was sitting, I was immediately starting to feel restless and my thoughts were drawn to making Far Sight roll calls. I blame Pavlov.

That said, since there was still no movement, and since I was sure that I would notice if someone approached me in the open, I decided to give into my self-conditioned reflexes and Far Glance around a bit. I wasn't expecting to see anything important happening at this hour, yet the very first scene I peeked at turned out to be mildly intriguing.

"… you mean he already left the island?" Lord Grandpa growled, sitting at the coffee table in his study. Not the fortified office under Blue Cherry High, but the one inside his mini-mansion at home. "He did not notify me about this."

" I only learned about it this evening," Lord Gulliver spoke apologetically, and from this context, I quickly figured out they were talking about Lord Ambrose. "He sent me a text message just before boarding the plane."

The rest of the arch-mages were also present, and Lord Barnabas let out an exasperated groan while massaging his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

"Please tell me he didn't go to Ottawa…"

"I don't know. He didn't write where he's going, and phones have to be turned off on planes, so I can't reach him now," the lanky arch-mage responded softly, still sounding as apologetic as if the other man's actions were somehow his responsibility.

"This is going to be a disaster," Lorg Grandpa sighed with his head thrown back. "I believe it is pertinent that I notify Lord Marzanna about this."

"Why?" Lord Taika blurted out, drawing all eyes to her. "If Ambrose chose to act on his own, it isn't our responsibility. In the best-case scenario, he might even manage to convince Marzanna to hand over the last Grimoire Key, and that would finally resolve the problems your granddaughter's facing at the moment."

"And in the worst-case scenario, he might start a fight with her," the dark-skinned arch-mage pointed out, somehow sounding even more exasperated than before. "Glasgow is already scrutinizing us due to our close ties to the new Celestial hierarchy. An inter-School fight between two arch-mages of the Assembly, nay, two Keyholders, would inevitably turn that into a full-blown investigation."

"I'm sure that Ambrose won't…" Gulliver started, but then he paused for a long beat and slumped his shoulders. "Actually, never mind. I can't guarantee that he won't pick a fight."

"If you're so worried, maybe we should ask Leonard to pick him up?" Taika proposed, and when everyone gave her sideways glances, she quickly continued in a more defensive, "Don't look at me like that. I can't be the only one to consider that."

"No." The local arch-mage sounded extra-deadpan as he patted his beard. "Even if we were to successfully convince him to intervene, it would be akin to detonating a house to stop it from burning down. While I have a hard time imagining Ambrose reaching a diplomatic resolution with Marzanna, I scarcely dare to even fathom what could happen if he was at the scene as well."

A heavy silence settled onto the room for a while, and after glancing between each other to see if anyone had a better idea, the red-headed arch-mage raised his hands.

"I can't argue with that, but… Let's not get too overdramatic just yet. I'll try to contact him first and find out what he's planning to do, and then we can act depending on what he has to say."

"I concur," Lord Barnabas said, and Lord Taika nodded along.

"Very well. In that case, I shall refrain from contacting the School of Ottawa until we are perfectly clear on the motivations of Lord Ambrose. Are we in agreement?"

Everyone nodded along, and then the impromptu meeting quickly dissolved, with Barnabas and Taika discussing making tests papers ahead of time, in case they won't be able to do so later due to any potential emergency, while Gulliver was poking his phone and muttering something about long-distance calls and roaming fees.

Since there was nothing else to see here, I Far Glanced at Ambrose as well, and… yup. He was on a plane all right. It wasn't particularly riveting either, so I quickly moved on, though not before returning to my body and looking around.

…

Nope, still no movement. Okay, next target.

I quickly skimmed through a couple of other marks, but there was nothing interesting to see with the childhood friend couple, Ammy was already in bed, and nothing was happening at the base or with my in-laws either. I caught a glimpse of Rinne and Naoren awkwardly trying to kiss (potentially for the first time, knowing those two), but while that looked funny, it was also an intimate matter, so I didn't linger.

But then…

"… not condone your slander, Dolion!" Savir exclaimed so hard it outright startled me for a moment.

She was talking to Mensah, but Tsephanyah was also in the room. As in, the 'secret' chamber where they used to hold their private meetings in the past. I had no idea why they were still using it after I showed them it wasn't as clandestine as they thought, and they had no reason to hide their collaboration from the rest of the Elysium either, but I guessed it was a force of habit. On other words, that was also Pavlov's fault.

Anyhow, the three of them were sitting around a familiar table, though at least this time the room was well-lit and they weren't wearing those silly cowls, meaning there was some progress. They were also in their usual togas, and while that should've gone without saying, considering that the blonde ex-director spent most of our vacation dressed like a stereotypical angler from a fishing reality show, I figured it was prudent to mention it.

I only caught the tail end of some kind of argument, and seeing how vehement she was about this, Mensah quickly raised his hands and relented.

"I'm only saying that she's, technically, on a biological level, still an Abyssal. You can't argue with that."

"Abyssal or not, I won't stand for this!" Savir's scowl was something to behold, but before the younger ex-director could say anything else, she folded her arms and declared, "As far as I'm concerned, she's an exemplar, and I refuse to hear any words to the contrary!"

"… So after your attempt to get close to Lord Polemos's fiancée failed, you're now aiming for his adopted sister?" Tsephanyah supposed, and for a moment, I could practically see the sparks flying between the two.

"How dare you!?" Savir cried out, but then she put her hands onto the table, took a deep breath, and started again. "No. You're correct about my attempt to befriend someone in Polemos's inner circle resulting in a… less than satisfactory results, but this has nothing to do with that." Her eyes soon returned to Mensah, and she hissed at him in a low voice. "While I agree that we must be vigilant against the movement of the Abyssals under Bel's control, I will not entertain the notion of extending that policy to her, and that's final."

"All right, I understand," the bespectacled ex-director spoke with a sigh and crossed his arms. "It was just something I thought we would all agree upon, but I guess we aren't on the same page. What were we talking about before that?"

"The redistribution of the funds set aside for road infrastructure and maintenance," Tsephanyah said in a detached, nonchalant tone, as if saying that the previous topic had nothing to do with him. "As I was saying, since Lord Polemos lifted the ban on personal flight, we're expecting the roads to lose most of their significance, so we should propose a plan to the Archon to shift that portion of the budget to hire more flight control officers and to establish an education and certification system to reduce the current prevalence of flight-etiquette violations and fall injuries."

"Ah, indeed," Mensah nodded along. "And I said that if we have a surplus of funds, we should allocate that to surveying the Abyssals instead, and—"

"Dolion, stop," the blonde ex-director cut him short, just before Savir could get a word in. "That's what started the previous tangent. We don't have all night for this, so let's stay on topic."

And that's exactly what they did. I listened to them for a bit longer, but they were only talking about air-traffic rules and whatnot, so I tuned out and returned to my body. There was still no movement around me, so I took out my phone and fired up the messaging app, because there was something about the exchange between those three that bothered me.

"God of Grilled Cheese: Hey, sis? Are you awake?"

She apparently was, because I got a reply after just a few short seconds.

"Best Little Sister: Is everything all right?"

"God of Grilled Cheese: Yes. I just wanted to ask you something."

"God of Grilled Cheese: Did you talk with Savir during our vacation?"

I could see her type, then stop, then type again, so she apparently had a hard time deciding how to respond.

"Best Little Sister: Yes. We talked for a while when I set the Camouflage Sigils around her."

"Best Little Sister: I also"

"Best Little Sister: put a parasol over her so she wouldn't get a sunburn."

"Best Little Sister: And I gave her something to drink too."

"Best Little Sister: I shouldn't have?"

"God of Grilled Cheese: No, it's fine. You didn't do anything wrong."

"God of Grilled Cheese: What did you talk about?"

There was another quiet spell, during which I could see her type a lot, yet the resulting response was surprisingly short.

"Best Little Sister: Just about life. Looking on the bright side of things and trying to be happy. Those kinds of things."

"Best Little Sister: Did I cause a problem?"

"God of Grilled Cheese: Don't be so nervous. I told you; you did nothing wrong."

After some thinking, I added another line.

"God of Grilled Cheese: I'll tell you the details tomorrow. Don't stay up late."

"Best Little Sister: Okay. Did you already meet with Lady Fidèle?"

"God of Grilled Cheese: Not yet, but she should better show up soon. My butt is getting cold."

"Best Little Sister: XD"

"Best Little Sister: Penny's calling. Goodnight."

"God of Grilled Cheese: Goodnight."

"God of Grilled Cheese: And tell her not to play her mobile game under the blankets and go to sleep properly, or I'll give her lots of head pats tomorrow."

"Best Little Sister: XD XD XD"

That was the end of our texting, and so I put my phone away, looked around, and…

…

Still nothing.

Seriously, was I that early? Or maybe when our local flavour of vampires said 'after dark', they meant 'waaay after dark'. Like, after midnight, or something. Speaking of 'vamps', I still knew very little about them. According to Judy's refresher course, Abyssal vampires were an exceedingly rare breed. The same applied to most other Abyssal sub-species as well (for example, the entirety of House Inanna had exactly two Seducers, namely Snowy and Tajana), but vampires were especially so. They also had a mixed reputation, both in- and out-of-Abyss, because of the whole body-snatching business, so it was hard to tell the truth apart from the exaggerated rumours.

As far as I knew, it could've been that she literally couldn't come out until after midnight and she just thought I would know about that. I hoped that wasn't the case; I wasn't joking when I said my butt was freezing. We had mild spring weather, sure, but it was still getting late and the temperature wasn't exactly balmy.

Hoping that I wouldn't need to sit here for half the night, I searched for a distraction, and my mind soon reached for my Far Sight again. Once again: it's Pavlov's fault.

Since I was thinking about Abyssal stuff, I figured I might as well give them a peek, and to my surprise, I found Crowy in his study, surrounded by his usual cronies, and… wow. Did I miss the announcement that today was declared 'international impromptu meeting day', or something?

Joking aside, the atmosphere in the room was more tense than usual, and at least part of the reason probably had to do with the bandages covering the left side of Crowy's exposed upper body.

"House Gula reinforced the defensive perimeter around their castle, My Liege," an older man stated gravely. He had a bushy, greying beard, a receding hairline, and a prominent gut that couldn't be fully restrained by the wide belt of his dark army uniform.

I didn't know his name, but I've seen him enough times to recognize him. From what I gathered, he was something of a military advisor and someone directly in charge of the Fauns of House Inanna. His expression was bleak, and he nervously gulped when looking at the injured patriarch.

"I don't think we'll get another opportunity to wrestle control of their Mana Well away from them any time soon," Crowy's right-hand man, the guy wearing a grey navy uniform, stated with a sense of grave finality, and another member of the entourage let out a low huff.

"What happened?" the old woman in the back asked, sounding rather accusatory compared to the tone of the others. She wore a black gothic dress and her hair was done up into a wide, elaborate bun on the back of her head. She was also holding one of those long pipes and she used its stem to point at the man behind the desk. "You said you could do it. What went wrong?"

"Matron…" One of the less significant underlings tried to calm her down, but a single withering glare made him slink back.

As for Crowy, he let out a heavy breath and pulled his coat over his bandaged shoulder.

"Getting to the Gulas' Mana Well was simple. It's simply that taking control of it took much longer than expected, and it allowed Manchot to regroup. He hit me while my guard was down, together with Éclair and her sons."

"And why was your guard down?" the old woman kept drilling him, and the bastard let out an uncomfortable groan.

"Because taking control of another Mana Well, while also keeping my grip on the others firm, was more difficult than expected." He paused and he rubbed the side of his head, as if recalling a painful memory. "As a matter of fact, it was much harder than taking over the Ashurs' Mana Well. I believed my experience would let me dominate it much faster, but it turned out that each additional Mana Well increases the difficulty of the process."

"'More difficult than expected'. 'You believed'. 'It seems'," the woman they called 'the matron' echoed him with a squint. "Meaning you rushed in without being certain."

"I couldn't be sure," he answered impatiently. "No one has done something like this before me."

"Then why didn't you ask the 'Emperor' for advice?" she continued to question him relentlessly, prompting Crowy to groan in exasperation.

"I did. He told me it was something I would have to experience myself."

"So it was a test?" Dimas, the guy in the grey uniform, blurted out seemingly without meaning to, and after a long beat, Crowy shrugged.

"Maybe."

"But if taking the third Mana Well is already so difficult, then how is our liege expected to conquer all of them?" the bearded old man asked the question on everyone's mind, but Crowy silenced him with a gesture.

"I don't know. Not yet." As he said that, both his eyes and his hair lit up with an eery purple light, and as he raised his hand, a ball of crackling purple ball of light manifested over his palm. "There has to be something, some way, to control them other than brute force. Something with more finesse. I just have to figure out how, or what I'm missing to achieve it."

"Well, you'll have plenty of time to think about it while you recuperate," the old matron stated dryly. "We can't push our luck while you're injured, so I propose we halt our offensive for the time being and focus on reinforcing the front lines."

Everyone went along with what she said without resistance, including Crowy, which made me wonder just who she truly was. 'Matrons' were distinguished older women in high social positions, often widows of men of high esteem who still had lots of influence in a family, so… maybe she was Crowy's grandmother? No, that would've made her Snowy's grandma too, and she would've told me about her.

I returned to my body and was just about to send one more message to my sister to ask, but then I noticed a lone figure on a nearby footpath, so I stood up and quickly walked over to the information board. As expected, the newcomer was heading this way, and once she got closer, I could finally make out her features.

She was a pale woman in her mid-to-late thirties, with long, flowing silver hair and piercing red eyes that seemed to softly glow whenever she wasn't under the direct light of one of the lampposts. She was wearing an elaborately laced black gown with matching elbow gloves, and if that wasn't enough, she was also holding a similarly coloured parasol in her hands. Even more peculiarly, she had a kind of incorporeal, hazy black mist following in her wake, as if she was gliding on top of it.

"Good evening, Lord Dunning," she greeted me without much change in her expression. Her voice was deep and melodious, and it was worth pointing out that she had no audible accent to speak of. "Or should I call you Lord Polemos? Lord Archon? Which one of your titles do you prefer?"

"Neither. Just Leonard will do," I responded laconically and her lips bent into a mildly amused smile, which was… wow.

Okay, so, I didn't want to overstate this or anything, but even ignoring the fact that her appearance was suspiciously similar to an older Snowy's, she was also damn pretty. As in, I was used to people in the Simulacrum being unreasonably attractive, but she in particular was straight up main character level beautiful, and if she showed up earlier (and was a little younger), I would've instantly pegged her as an eleventh-hour addition to Josh's harem. However, since that boat had already sailed, it only made me feel all the more confused.

Thankfully it must not have shown on my face, because she gracefully nodded and told me, "In that case, you may address me by my given name as well."

"Fair enough."

"Come, Lord Leonard. Walk with me. We have much to discuss."

"Indeed, just… Give me a second."

While saying that, I was busy typing on my phone, and she gave me a curious look in reaction.

"May I ask what you're doing?"

"Nothing major," I reassured her and I pocketed my phone with a smile. "I just informed my fiancées that they both lost a bet."

And also reassured them that the anti-harem countermeasures were firmly in place, as always, but she didn't need to know that.