Arcblade: Silverspear, are you busy?
Silverspear is online.
Silverspear: Yeah, mate, I’m online. What’s up?
Arcblade: Any news from that Truthtalker?
Silverspear: You mean Forgedtruth?
Silverspear: Uh…
Arcblade: I take it things are bad.
Silverspear: Poor thing has completely shut down.
Silverspear: We’re certain she was mind-controlled into attacking me.
Silverspear: Mindskimmer though has no idea who controlled her though. At least, not specifically.
Arcblade: You think it was Voidborns or something?
Silverspear: Why… why do you always jump to Voidborns?
Arcblade: Forgive me, I’m a Beh’en, it’s what I was made to kill.
Arcblade: But also, some Voidborns do that sort of thing. The Ancient Collector left telepathic messages in those he harmed but did not kill, informing them to kill others in his name at a later time.
Arcblade: Perhaps something similar happened here?
Silverspear: Nu-uh.
Silverspear: Like, that’s what I thought at first. Was the first thing Mindskimmer checked, because his initial first scans were Voidborn-like. We did a complete lockdown and quarantine of our main ship because of it.
Silverspear: We came up with fucking nothing.
Arcblade: So… definitely not Voidborns?
Silverspear: Yep. No Voidborns. No Corruption either. One of my lower Psions suggested maybe it is a Life Goddess thing, but we don’t have anything like that here.
Arcblade: A reasonable thought.
Arcblade: Life Goddesses are very rare on the Justarian borders.
Arcblade: They seem… rare in general.
Silverspear: As far as I can tell, they’re all in the south because there’s more protection and less Voidborns and shit there.
Silverspear: Corruption too.
Arcblade: We are very lucky that the Justarian Circle has buffers against the Corruption on all sides.
Silverspear: Those Pentathax guys help too.
Arcblade: Very true.
Arcblade: So… no Corruption?
Silverspear: Was the second thing we checked after Voidborn manipulations.
Silverspear: But like…
Silverspear: I need to take this higher up. Something that can mind-control a Truthtalker so easily is dangerous as fuck.
Silverspear: I sent it higher up.
Arcblade: And no one got back to you?
Silverspear: Yeah. Inconclusive results, apparently. Just said it was a thing with the one single Truthtalker in my sub-sect.
Arcblade: Did you… not say that your Master Psion sensed something in your other Truthtalkers too?
Silverspear: Exactly!
Silverspear: But no one higher up wants to listen!
Arcblade: Have you considered asking outside the Justar?
Silverspear: I… I guess… I don’t know who I’d ask though.
Silverspear: I suppose maybe the Phantai?
Silverspear: They’re all Beh’ens though, they don’t know how to deal with Truthtalkers.
Arcblade: That does make things rather tricky. I admittedly don’t really know anyone outside of the Justar…
Arcblade: Surely someone within the Justar will help?
Arcblade: We have a whole sub-sect that’s made up of Psions, surely your Master Psion will have a connection with them?
Silverspear: I can ask Mindskimmer, but outside of our sub-sect, we don’t have much contact. To be honest, all the border sub-sects just get told to do their own thing and fuck off otherwise.
Arcblade: I… cannot help but agree.
Arcblade: I suppose, I do have some Phantai contacts, I can ask them.
Silverspear: Who?
Arcblade: A higher-up by the name of Moonblade. Let me just check his profile, get a link and…
Arcblade: Huh. He’s not a member of the Phantai any more?
Silverspear: I dunno what you’re talking about.
Arcblade: Few folks leave the Phantai. But it seems…
Arcblade: Huh. He joined the Thantir.
Silverspear: Oh for fuck’s sake.
Silverspear: Why the fuck didn’t I think of asking them? They’re purifiers and I know a guy from there!
Arcblade: Who do you know?
Silverspear: Little Arkay is like, one of their leaders or something.
Arcblade: Arkay?
Silverspear: Deathbringer.
Silverspear: We were mortals together.
Arcblade: I thought Deathbringer was one of those… bad things.
Silverspear: What the fuck do you mean by that?
Arcblade: The things that the Overlord hates!
Silverspear: Oh. Yeah. One of those.
Silverspear: Well, I’ll pop Arkay a message. He knows his stuff. I’m sure he can help me out.
Silverspear: If I wasn’t busy running a sub-sect, I’d go and visit.
Arcblade: Alright. Hopefully Deathbringer can assist you.
Arcblade: Anyway, I have two more questions, the first being, uh, what was your real name again?
Silverspear: Why are you asking?
Arcblade: Just… curious.
Arcblade: You look like a Beh’en but are not a Beh’en.
Silverspear: You hitting on me?
Arcblade: You are attractive. I just…
Arcblade: Never mind. Sorry for asking.
Silverspear: You’re acting weird.
Arcblade: Sorry.
Silverspear: Eh, it’s fine. Knew you always had thoughts because I look like a Beh’en.
Silverspear: Anyway, what else did you want to ask?
Arcblade: Um.
Arcblade: Have you heard from Goldclaw?
Silverspear: What do you mean?
Silverblade: I heard from him in our last Boundary Guardian check-in.
Arcblade: That was yesterday.
Arcblade: You heard from him since?
Silverblade: No?
Silverblade: What are you implying?
Arcblade: Goldclaw was supposed to message me regarding some patrols that needed doing.
Arcblade: Goldclaw never got in touch, and he NEVER misses communications.
Arcblade: I messaged his sub-sect in general, no response.
Arcblade: Problem is, I am very concerned and I am far too far away to be able to do an in-person check.
Silverspear: Well, uh, I’m concerned too now.
Silverspear: But also, I’m way too far away to do an in-person check too.
Arcblade: Who is closest?
Silverspear: Uh…
Silverspear: Um…
Silverspear: Bloodstealer is.
Arcblade: Ugh.
Arcblade: Bloodstealer is sweet but not the person I trust with this sort of thing.
Arcblade: Eh. I will speak to Bloodstealer, see if she can do a check-in. She’s close enough to Goldclaw’s main hub that she can just have a peek.
Silverspear: I mean, Goldclaw might just be busy.
Arcblade: He’s never busy.
Arcblade: He’s Goldclaw.
Silverspear: Well, I’ll go post in our group chat and also message Goldclaw myself. We all ought to check in or something. For all Justar, yes?
Arcblade: Of course, for all Justar.
Arcblade: I will try calling Goldclaw, see if he picks up.
Arcblade: In the mean time, keep tabs on your broken Truthtalker and get that info you need, either from your Master Psion or from the other sects you were going to speak to.
Arcblade: You’re young and fast, and your Truthtalker was of low rank. You defended yourself no problem. Goldclaw has multiple Truthtalkers as his left-hand men, and is overly trusting of them.
Silverspear: Alright, no worries.
Silverspear: I’ll message the group now and keep an eye out.
Arcblade: Thank you. Stay safe.
Silverspear: Thanks, you too.
Silverspear is now busy.
Arcblade is now offline.