"You can confirm this report? We cannot act until we can rule out any possibility of a feint."

"Admiral, multiple witnesses attested to Commander Rosescale leaving Aurus two hours ago, along with several others," the Torch Cleric with Lagori Talongleam said deferentially. They were only level 1 and relatively low in the hierarchy. Compared to the leader of apex flight and, if everything went to plan, Regent of Threst, she was small feathers. The fact that all of this was being done without divine guidance was also cause for concern, especially because of the plot's objectives. "Alone, she could have reached Pinion's Point by now, but they took a soarer. We have until midday tomorrow to act while she is traveling."

"It would have been better to do this with Zolyra's assistance," Lagori darkly mused, "But the worst that could be said of her is remaining too neutral. Hopefully, she will remain as reasonable when the time comes to rebuff Zozar." Glancing at the Regent's manor from above like a bird of prey, waiting for the time to strike, Lagori committed himself and his house to this treason. For his home, for his honor, and for the world, every corruptive influence attempting to take root in Threst had to die. "Signal my sons. They are to strike with me. Now."

…

"Your father prepares his strike," the Torch Cleric beside the Sonorous Gale reported, before turning to the only representative of the other church to be involved in the conspiracy. "Cleric Rikoor, charge the Time Field. We will begin our preparations when you are ready."

Kahvin watched numbly as, above the compound owned by an Artificer, the two churches did their work. Everything was numb. He had, after hours of unbearable pressure, no, torture under his father's eye and by his hand, given in. Heroic Sacrifice was not a power to be used lightly, because of its permanence. He'd willfully given that power… everything. Everything about who he'd been before, to help him become a better Hero. Now it felt like he was always under that random woman's power from so long ago. There was no pleasure, no joy, only the mission, and that small buried part of himself that was always screaming under the surface.

His thoughts on what they were doing ultimately didn't matter. He had his orders. His father's authority was superior to his own will, and while there could have been an interesting contest of legalities should Soraso have countermanded Lagori at any point, what they'd planned had been kept from the sight of any. Even Cloak's Proxy, who hadn't noticed when Torch's church had begun profiling them. They were just level 1.

He listened to the others speak, more as a machine waiting for its input to be given than a man. His brother, Toralaw, was tense but dutiful, the son Lagori had always wanted first. "What about the other people spotted when they returned? Only the Knight isn't present, but five unknowns are bringing the total count in that space to 14. One matches the description of Lograve Forlon, level 4 Arcanist and distant relation of the fallen King."

Some in the group looked at each other nervously. When the plan had been set in motion by Lagori, two strike teams had needed to be formed. One to dethrone Soraso before the gestalt's mad plan to become a King himself gained any traction, and another to destroy their allies in Pinion's Point. They had the support of two churches, but only those within that could keep the secret. Lagori's long relationship with Torch while defending the family name from Kahvin's actions had left him with some room to work with, and it seemed like the entire Hourglass church was behind them, but that left them with some limits.

You did not take a shot against a would-be King and miss. Resources had to be allocated appropriately, and the only Blessed they had over level 4 themselves was Rikoor, also the only time Cleric here. They'd needed everyone else to ensure Soraso stayed trapped despite his Spoke. This entire scenario had been predicated on the absence of strong allies aiding the Proxy's group.

"We can't confirm their presence," another Torch Cleric protested. "Whatever power it is blocking our divination on specific individuals is too strong, and we had to pull back when Captain Marrow was there or lose our cover."

"It doesn't matter," Rikoor stated, squashing the dissent. "Remember the objectives. Kill the Proxy and the aberration. Capture the Artificer known as Daniel Brant, he must not die." Kahvin had yet to hear exactly why that was, only that Hourglass' church had been insistent on it. "Everyone else in there is to be killed or taken prisoner if they do not resist, but they aren't our primary concern. My power will handle the Proxy alone with your guidance, which leaves only two matters to attend to before we flee. Level 4 or not, there is nothing down there we can't handle." The Cleric stopped beating their wings to maintain altitude and almost seemed dragged up by them as they froze in the air over the compound. "I'm ready. Cast your spells, and then I'll activate the Time Field."

Cleric as a class provided the ability to focus on one domain. While it wasn't complete, certain key features of the class and most of their powers would be taken from which god they chose to follow. Before the Collapse, it was the class that allowed Blessed the most control over their future. Lagori had only been able to recruit time and knowledge to his side, but those two proved a potent combination.

First, the Torch Clerics combined their efforts to mark everyone in the space and gather as much information as they could. The timing had been practiced, and all powers fired off after only a second, which allowed Rikoor to seal his Time Field afterward. A sphere of paused time encircled the compound, the result of a strong level 4 power that had required some setup to accomplish. Fortunately, there had been no interference. No one was expecting mortals to come into conflict at this stage, and the church of Hourglass rarely revealed its powers. Much about them was unknown, and thus it was harder to defend against them.

"You have five minutes before we can enter," Rikoor reported, his voice somewhat strained. "Remember, it is impossible to influence anything within an altered time stream."

"Thirteen total, one less than we thought!" one shouted like he was being charged for every second he spoke. "Six in the main house, three on the left, four on the right. Power's triggering for the abomination in the courtyard, too." That he was able to determine this should have been impossible due to Daniel's Divination Aegis, but it had a flaw his Encyclopedia didn't spell out. It prevented targeted powers from detecting his location or those he'd designated, but those that either didn't care about location, or powers that targeted indiscriminately and provided no information such as Mass Reveal, still worked. Having covertly tracked Daniel and his team for some time, the assembled Clerics knew which powers they could and couldn't use.

"All female avianoids in the left house, no solid targets."

"Assuming we can trust our eyes," a lower leveled Cleric complained. "If they knew we were watching, this could all be a huge game of shuffle cups, you saw the trick they were pulling in the courtyard earlier."

"Quiet! Dusker in the right, recognize the size of that aura anywhere. I'd say male avianoid too, someone confirm?"

"Muscular, yeah. Doesn't match the build of a human. There are two, but both look female."

"Got a level 6 item, bottom floor, middle house. Proxy?" Rikoor's head turned at that callout.

"No, that's a human female, too."

"Has to be a disguise, man, you heard the report." Another bit of odd knowledge to come from Hourglass' church instead of Torch's, but the Proxy of Cloak carried some form of high level item they were unable to use while directly manifesting the god. They hadn't expected to detect it as any bag of holding would shield it from the power they were using, and said power was seeing an absurd amount over the entire compound.

"How sure are you?" Rikoor asked. "I will have only one shot."

"Rest of the unknowns are in the middle house. One beast, one female avianoid, and two male humans both in one room. Either could fit descriptions of the second primary target. Can't distinguish them."

The Cleric of Time cursed. "So I must gamble on which one it is?"

"No, the Proxy has to be the one with the item," the one who'd spotted it protested. "The height of either male human doesn't match Lograve, but one's sitting on the bed, that could be him. Who else would have a level 6 item anyway? They can block our powers, but there's no one down there that can fool them."

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"That still leaves someone unaccounted for. Based on species, if we say Lograve's in that room, it leaves either the Proxy or the Artificer missing."

"Proxy would make sense."

"He's merely level 1, my powers far surpass any defense he could make."

"Then whose hiding?"

"Two minutes!" Rikoor cut over the bickering. "I must prepare Time's Arrow. Is there nothing you can use to guide me better than guesswork?"

In contrast to the storm of words that had been flowing over the past few minutes, a silence fell. Eventually, one of the two level 3's among the group came to a decision. "The best bet is the one with that level 6 item. I can't account for where else they would have gotten something that powerful, other than the ruins, but it wouldn't make sense for one other than a Proxy channeling divine power to use. We've only observed the Proxy while they were inhabited by Cloak. It is known to our church that this class allows its bearer to alter their form when channeling a divine, so their true identity could be of a different gender."

"Understood."

Rikoor stopped listening at that point, and Kahvin saw him manipulating the bubble of frozen time at a point nearest to him. The Hero had heard about this part of the plan, too, but it wasn't his. He looked from the Torch Clerics who had just rapidly drained their mana, to his brother and retainers of the family who would charge into the compound. Still none above level 3, but they had both him and the numbers.

"Orders, Hero?" one asked, and Kahvin's mind, forced to be both dutiful and present, impassionately digested the rest of the information he'd been fed.

"The abomination in the courtyard is your main focus. It's exposed," he felt his mouth say, the words feeling like they were being said by someone else. "After that, we need to ensure the Proxy's death. Recovering that item should be enough, but I want most of you to focus on capturing the Artificer. The Admiral has ordered that any else who resists be slain, but those who do not may be spared. If Captain Marrow is spotted and all objectives have been completed, we retreat toward the ground limit. Understood?"

"Yes, Hero," the general response was. Toralaw added a few words to the end.

"Brother, I know you are… conflicted about what our Father had to do despite how bravely you bear the cost," he said, in complete ignorance of the reality of the matter. Toralaw had been too obedient a son to ever see the dark side of Lagori's office. "But you will see the righteousness in what we do. Today, we remove a stain from Threst, and the Octyrrum as a whole. Our cause is truly blessed!"

"Indeed," Rikoor said with a hint of snideness only the true Kahvin caught. "I'm ready. Whatever you're going to do, do it as soon as my arrow flies. They'll know we're here after that."

…

The Incarnate inside of Daniel was doing great, thanks for asking. Oh, that wasn't why you were here? That's fine, that's cool. Let's just ignore how it had completely solved the issue of people affecting its cognition by shouting at it. Sleep mode! You see, the Incarnate still had all those automatic processes that tried to do something stupid like award a brilliant performance only 1.15 advancement potential, and those could run without conscious thought. It was literally how most of the world worked.

So, the Incarnate could put itself to sleep and ignore everything while letting whatever rule set the hub was broadcasting run without interference. It was far better this way because didn't everyone need a good nap? Daniel wasn't the only one who'd had a busy day. Let's see how he liked calculating over a trillion different actions in one go. And that figure was factoring in that the Incarnate was now sharing the load with Threst's dumb Spoke after returning from the Arcadian.

Now, the Incarnate knew the potential problems with this. If it went to 'sleep' forever, then it'd either revert to a dumb Spoke itself, or a new Incarnate would pop up eventually that didn't know how Special Alex was or how to deal with that fact. There were definitely things that could wake it up, such as the very promising advancement she'd made earlier today. Plus this wasn't the only safety mechanism it had added in case an Artificer got uppity again at an inopportune time.

As Daniel settled into his rest, the Incarnate had already beaten him there. Nice, relaxing algorithm chains to completely melt its artificial mind solving, each one leading to another in a satisfactory way that it could just chase into oblivion until the next… uh…

Alex was just affected by a level 4 power. That was fine, it was wide-reaching and nonlethal. Time domain, which was somewhat rare after Hourglass had sequestered himself in the hub and limited its spread so Balance didn't get too huffy about not having the Astral domain to counter it, but fine. It's not like it could do too much to protect her either. She was Special, but there were, like, rules. Alabaster and blood. The Incarnate was sure it'd gone over this.

A lot of people Daniel's identification power would mark as hostile gathering nearby, though. Not that it was nosy like certain Clerics, here or elsewhere, but it didn't like how this conversation was going. Or the fact that a similar sphere had just been dropped in Aurus. More of the Incarnate grumpily roused itself as it metaphorically turned on the light and grabbed a baseball bat. Fuckery was afoot.

Now, to make something absolutely clear, the Incarnate did not care in the slightest about most people. That was called being unbiased. It didn't even care who ended up with Threst's Spoke after this, Creature: Soraso or Creature: Lagori Talongleam. It didn't care so much, it used their system tags when thinking about them. Nothing could change the fact that Daniel 'owned' the Incarnate, which was part of the reason why Creature: Ashier's Tyrant class had gone a bit wonky. Never bound to a Spoke despite there being one that had severely needed a Tyrant to defend it.

Oh well, that gestalt was a different region's problem. For now. What grinded the logic gears of the Incarnate was the very aggressive power now sailing for Alex Brant's head. Time's Arrow, a level 4 time domain attack spell awakened only in Clerics, took an active time domain's stored dilational effect and applied it to the target. Randomly.

All five of the minutes that had been paused while people body shamed duskers outside the bubble could, for example, put Alex's entire head five minutes into the future. The time domain was scary when it wanted to be. And….

It was going to hit her.

No, recalculate, the effect of [Attribute: Luck] could-

Threst, what are you doing?

No, don't! She's Special, I'm overriding-

If you weren't just a fancier version of a pocket calculator, you would understand that-

DON'T-

…so. Threst's Spoke was a dick. Complete and utter non-Incarnate. It'd grabbed the relevant calculations for that casting of Time's Arrow before the Incarnate could intervene on its own, and while no rule had been written to account for multiple Spokes sharing a region, there was also nothing that said a Spoke could re-assess decisions another had made. For very obvious reasons the Incarnate didn't want to make a precedent for doing so. Time's Arrow would have full effect on Alex when it hit her.

It could be sure to grab those calculations off the in basket as soon as they arrived, now that it was fully present and out of sleep mode, but it'd be too late then. Balance was watching. Balance was always watching. This kind of level 4 ability would always kill someone like Alex. 100.0% chance of fatality, no wiggle room, and she was already asleep.

Time's Arrow continued through the air as the Incarnate thought as fast as it could. It underwrote reality, but its hands were tied. It wanted, paradoxically to its main purpose or not, to keep Alex Brant alive. There had to be a way, but its hands were, ah hell, it didn't even have hands. Its only power was in the complete arbitration of every interaction in the region, and if it colored too far outside the lines, the walls of existence would get runny.

Wasn't there anything it could do with [Attribute: Luck]? That was practically a fundamental law by itself as an expression of Chaos. Balance only tolerated the inclusion of something that could shift clean probabilities because Chaos was one of the counters to Balance, and even Balance had to be Balanced. At least, it did here.

Luck could make a hit strike harder, or weaker, or glance off when it should have hit. Usually, its effects were minimal, but some classes like Fates could change that. Luck powers were still rare and costly because of how they could affect the system, but there were a few in the region with them. Could Creature: Silora Thelonas… no, she was moving and there wasn't enough time. Damn it!

Luck could also cause things to misfire! Load a crossbow wrong and you were asking for it. Magic items all had a very low failure rate too, based on the skill of the enchanter, so… so…

The Incarnate grabbed the next calculation for the persistence of the force shield once enchanted by the Tyrant Armafus of Aughal as Time's Arrow pierced Alex's window. The chance of it ever doing something other than function as intended was so low that the probability wasn't worth writing down without expressing it in scientific notation, but it wasn't 0.00% like Alex's current survival rate. It hesitated, as it always did, because alabaster and blood, but this was important enough to risk. This wasn't… too unbalanced, right? This was fine. Accidents like magical items misfiring happened all the time, when generalizing to a worldwide average. So what if the Incarnate took the dice meant to generate the item's next luck check and scribbled on them a bit?

Balance must be maintained. Alex Brant is Special. The two core directives of the Incarnate fought for supremacy as it vacillated, forced to auto-resolve the misfire chance of Alex's shield to unfavorable effect each time before it could work up the courage. The arrow grew closer. The need grew greater. Eventually, the Incarnate settled on one fact. Dead wasn't Special, dead was just Dead.

Force shield rolled to remain inactive. Oh no, critical failure!

…

In her sleep, Alex rolled onto her side as Time's Arrow passed through her window, using some of its energy to randomly scatter the glass it hit across the local time stream. Some spontaneously reappeared while others would take five minutes to do so. Most of the attack would do that to her head with obviously fatal effect.

Before it could strike, the shield on her arm flared to life completely on its own, and Time's Arrow was completely blocked by the stronger magic.

At the heart of existence, Balance took notice. Not in any conscious way, it had no mind, it could not be reasoned with but only adjusted by the variables it encountered. Like this one. What had occurred was not… Balanced. But neither was it egregious enough to be worthy of reprisal. Still, the scales of Balance had just lost some of the rust that would prevent them from tilting.

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