THREE HUNDRED TWO: contracts and Contracts
Edited (minor, epub updated): August 14, 2026
THREE HUNDRED TWO
contracts and Contracts
There was a place Esh-erdi liked, half an hour’s walk from Alden’s birth tree, where a copse of the native trees surrounded nestlike seating circles made of woven grasses. Each circle was big enough for a dozen people to sit with room to spare, with footrests waiting in the center and bulbous carved lanterns that could be turned on with a touch or a word. It was a comfortable spot that looked ready for visitors who hadn’t shown up.
“People were out here all day and night when I first came to Rapport III. But the nearby houses are full of busy adults instead of <<boisterous>> adolescents like they were then, so I suppose it’s natural that it sees less use.”
“Why were there a bunch of adolescents here before?”
“The housing used to be designated for newcomers who hoped to be knights or votaries,” said Esh-erdi. “Then we all grew up, and enough of us wanted to keep our places here for the newcomers to end up elsewhere.”
He tossed a lantern to Alden. It was lightweight and organic-looking except for the silvery blue light shining through a diamond pattern cut into the surface. Alden thought it was made out of something like a gourd. He set it on a spare footrest to the left of the one he was about to prop his own feet on while Esh-erdi took a seat beside him.
Their walk to this place had been chatty, but the chat had been about birth trees, storytelling class, and Esh-erdi’s family rather than the business they needed to take care of now. Alden had learned that the knight’s sister was one of several siblings, and she was the only one who had followed him here and devoted her own life to the Rapports as a votary. The two of them rarely saw their brothers and sisters or their parents.
Esh-erdi settled in, adjusting a cushion behind his back. “Almost everyone who sees inside the structure your people call Matadero is contracted to secrecy.”
“I know.”
“There are people on Earth and elsewhere who wish to harm others or gain profit for themselves by having information about that place and its purpose. It’s very secure, but its security is also so important that not taking such an easy measure to protect it would be careless.”
“I understand that, too,” said Alden. “I’ve only seen what the hospital and the residential section look like. And the halls I have to travel through to get around between those and the teleportation area. It doesn’t seem like dangerous information. But, at the same time, it’s not so fascinating that I’m going to have regrets if I can’t tell other people about the weird stockpile of canned peaches, the number of bathrooms, or the flood traps.”
“One of those is unlike the others.”
“The peaches,” said Alden. “I should have known they were the cure for chaos all along.”
Esh-erdi chuckled. “I haven’t already given you your tattoo because of your age and your history. You deserve to have a proper talk about contracts before you have another one drawn on yourself, and I decided I’d be the one to give you that talk. I’ve kept adding things to it as I learned about you. Now it’s too long, and you have your own questions to lengthen it more. You’re also in a different mood than when we first met. You change very quickly, Alden Thorn.”
“You met me at a really bad point. That point was never supposed to be my normal.”
“I’m glad.”
“And my favorite Artonan drug is the inward path at the House of Healing near Vethedya. That’s a change accelerator.”
“I’ve walked such paths before. I wouldn’t call them a drug.”
“My brain likes them so much that I have to be dragged out of my steeping grotto sometimes.”
“So if I’m rudely blunt during this talk and I hurt your feelings, I can take you to an inward path grotto and put you there for a while to reset you? That’s a technique I haven’t considered. And simple!”
Alden looked at his own boots. Though they were so recently purchased to go with his Triplanets outfits, they were already looking broken-in. He’d been coming and going even more than he’d expected on the day he’d bought them.
They’ve been in desert sand, forest leaves, and river mud. They’ve been pecked at by o’odees. Who could’ve seen that coming when Tuck and Yinuo asked how rough I planned to be on my new clothes?
And who knew what might be coming in the future?
“I’d rather you be blunt,” he said. “I’m not in a position to sacrifice knowledge for the sake of my feelings.”
“I’ll do my best to follow Zakithee-und’h’s example then.”
“Nobody needs to be that blunt!”
“You’re too young to make contracts in private with your summoners,” Esh-erdi said. “You’ll be too young for several years to come. Do not agree to any.”
“Oh. That’s what you wanted to be blunt about.” Alden tried to sigh out the lingering shreds of his embarrassment about the deal with Ro-den. “I know it was a mistake to trust someone I’d just met like that. You don’t have to tell me. I was immature, and I won’t do anything like it again.”
“Let me talk to you about it anyway. I don’t know if you were immature, but even if you are the most mature human of your age ever to have lived, you’re still too young. The dangers come from your ignorance, and your ignorance isn’t a fault of your personality or your efforts. It’s a natural, unavoidable consequence of being young and unfamiliar with the places and people you’re encountering.
“Think of the most mature child you met today at rock class, or the most mature Artonan child around that age you’ve ever met. How difficult would it be to convince them that most humans wear socks on their hands and live at Earth’s poles? If you told them blue rocks were sacred to your people and collecting enough would allow you to buy rare food for your sick uncle’s final meal, wouldn’t they rush to help you gather them? That you could lie to them so easily doesn’t mean that they’re stupid or unusually immature for their age. They’re simply nice people who haven’t lived enough years to encounter better information. It takes time for a young Artonan to learn the combination of facts that would prove you a liar. Likewise, no matter how intelligent you are, it will take you time to understand all the ways a wizard might want to lie to you or gain advantage through an association with you. You have to worry about that more than most Avowed do. Because of your commendation.”
“You mean people might think I’m a way to meet Hn’tyon Alis-art’h? Or get favors from her somehow?”
“Not clever people. But you may meet unclever ones. When you do, be prepared to refuse their offers, no matter how innocent or even necessary they sound.”
I like this advice. Just refuse all tattoo-happy wizards on principle for the next decade or two. Delete risk. “I’ll do that,” said Alden. “But is this a tricky way of telling me to turn down the tattoo for Matadero? Because—”
“Matadero’s completely different because I’m a good wizard who has your best interests held safely in my pockets.”
Alden nodded.
Esh-erdi threw one of the smaller gourd lanterns at him. “Wrong! Don’t trust me when I say that! That’s exactly what a bad wizard might say!”
“But it’s you,” Alden protested, letting the lantern fall between them. “I know you’re not a bad wizard. You saved my life. You’re warning me. And there are so many other things…Grand Senator Servin-ith, Lute, Ploomp.”
“Were those three individuals listed with any particular ranking in mind?” Esh-erdi asked. “Tell me later. The real answer is that the tattoo for Matadero is only a contract for secrecy, not a contract I’m asking you to make with me in secret. It’s also not my own personal idea but an established policy you were familiar with before you met me. You can ask other wizards you trust, or certain Avowed, to listen to me go over the terms with you if that would make you more comfortable. I might insist on it just so that you have the practice. It’s a simple contract, but we could call a professional tattooist to oversee its completion if you like. If you need time to ask questions, you’ll have it. Even if you held much more serious information than you do, and it wasn’t safe to send you back to Anesidora without the protection of a tattoo, I would provide you with a safe place to think without being rushed.”
He paused, then added, “This is no generous offer. It’s how you should be treated by an honest person who wants you to agree to a magical contract. And that’s even more true when you’re in the weaker position. Wizards use contracts so frequently. You’ll meet many who are careless about them and some who hope you will be careless about them while they themselves are careful. Both types will be annoyed if you refuse or insist an agreement be evaluated by trustworthy others. So let them be annoyed and call upon trustworthy people at once.”
“I’ll do it,” Alden said firmly.
“Haoyu’s parents?” Esh-erdi suggested. “If you did want to talk to humans who have already been sworn to secrecy about the cube, they would be an option.”
“I’ll call them if I need to call someone. They’re a good suggestion. But the contract is just going to be, ‘Don’t tell people what you’ve seen at Matadero,’ isn’t it? Basically?”
“Basically that,” said Esh-erdi. “Unless you’d like to know more about why we kill demons there. Then you’d know as much as the Avowed who train there do.”
Eagerness made Alden drop his feet from the rest and lean toward Esh-erdi, ready to say, “Yes, please. What does Matadero do for Earth, and what other things are protecting my planet, and how?”
Only…if he tells me now, I’ll end up with a stricter tattoo about it. And if Stuart tells me or I figure it out myself I won’t have to have a contract unless I want one.
Right now he felt even less inclined to tell the universe why demons were killed at the cube than he did to share details about the place’s bathrooms. But he hadn’t imagined how much he’d want to tell someone about his skill when he was agreeing to everything Ro-den suggested either.
The more important knowledge is, the more likely it is that having a choice about it in the future is going to be something I care about.
“Let me think,” he said.
“Of course,” Esh-erdi said. “You’re already following my advice. I knew I had the makings of an instructor.”
Alden sat back and let his gaze rest on a lantern while he considered his own resources.
Stuart probably knew as much about Matadero as Esh-erdi planned to share. It seemed like the kind of thing he would have a decent general understanding of. And the proper discretion that had kept him from talking about certain subjects and Alden from asking about them had recently gone out the window.
I should give us both more credit than that. Proper discretion didn’t change; my life goals did. And now we both agree that I should know as much about chaos as he does. Can’t walk as brothers on the same path if I’m stumbling around in the dark, can we?
If Stuart didn’t know about Matadero’s purpose, he would be able to find out when he was a knight. And we’re hoping for me to be accepted as one, too.
He looked at Esh-erdi, surprised by a sudden impression that an insurmountable gap between them had narrowed until the knight was only a step away.
Even if Stuart doesn’t know everything, this feels like something we can figure out together just by trying. He knows chaos facts. I know cube facts. I’m learning more about magic every day.
If, once he found out the truth about Matadero, that information needed protecting, wasn’t it better to make the contract with Stuart, who would be more readily available to release him from it during future unforeseen circumstances than Esh-erdi would?
Esh-erdi’s going to be way out of reach a lot in the future. Doing battle. Beside the Primary.
That thought expanded the gap between them a bit for sure.
Brim and Droon’s uncle. Ploomp’s rider. The heart of the pitcherhouse on Wathe’s Ribbon when he visits.
Lind-otta said that they would remember their time in the light and know it was only one layer away when they go to places that are much darker. With what they’ve got looming ahead of them, days like today must feel so important for him to hold onto. To savor.
It’s not generous of him to give me time? Bullshit. Time may be something I deserve, but it didn’t have to come from him. He could call Drusi-otta to talk to me while he goes to visit with his sister.
I’m lucky to know someone like him, really.
“I’d rather have the Matadero hallways tattoo instead of the Matadero demon truths tattoo. Thank you for being willing to tell me. It’s a shame not to hear it from you because I know you’d explain it well. But I’d rather skip that part.”
“Not curious?” Esh-erdi blinked. “It’s fine if you’re not.”
“No, I’m very curious. I told you all those things I want to know about earlier, and ‘chaos on Earth’ was on the list. But the information I want doesn’t have to come right this moment from you.”
“From me? You’re not planning to squeeze the knowledge out of some other, younger wizard you know, are you?”
Alden’s boots seemed safer to look at than Esh-erdi’s face. “No. I won’t be squeezing or pressuring anyone. Don’t worry. Besides, there are other things you could tell me instead. Things I couldn’t learn from someone else, like your personal opinion about whether or not we can beat chaos. Can it be corrected before I’m ancient or dead? Is there any chance at all I could wake up one morning in a universe where none of us have to worry about that?”
“My personal opinion is probably farther than you realize from being one of the best-educated opinions.”
“You’re a powerful hn’tyon.”
“I am. But my opinion on the likelihood of us defeating chaos isn’t rooted in our historical successes or our finest research. I was out here with Lind one day, not that long ago, at a time when I was hunted by doubts, and she slowed the leaves that blew from that limb there during a gust.”
He was nodding in the direction of the limb that shaded the other side of their seating circle. “Those leaves hung in the air as if pinned there. While we talked, I eventually stopped watching them. By the time night came, the sky above us was clear of them. They’d all reached the ground. And Lind said, ‘What seems still may just be moving slowly in the direction it should. Trust that what we <<pit our might against>> moves.’ And I said, ‘What moves at all can be destroyed once a weakness is found. I’ll find it.’”
They both watched a leaf break away from that limb and flutter down to fall on the woven seat across from them. There was only a gentle breeze tonight, and the leaf was green.
Esh-erdi must have made it fall.
“Those two things are what I believe. It’s the answer to your question. It’s not the answer of a chaos researcher or a strategist who has found the route to a logical victory.”
“It’s faith,” said Alden.
“In myself and Lind. In all who fight alongside us. Yes, it is.”
Alden smiled. “I’m glad I asked you.”
“You don’t think the answer is insufficient, coming from someone who’s supposed to be repairing the universe?”
“No, because…I think I’m just happy to hear you say that everyone pushing back against chaos matters. It would be great if you could give me a list of things that have to happen to make it end. Knowing the Primary needed to kill eight hundred demons of a certain danger level by next summer to set everyone else up for success—that would be something I could cheer for from the edges and look forward to hearing about. But I’d still need to have faith that my own tiny pushes were doing something to make chaos move. If faith is enough for you and Lind-otta, then I can go forward with it, too. I should be good at it. My father was…someone who tried to understand God. He taught at a church.”
He had to fall back on English for the word ‘church’. He knew a few Artonan words for religious buildings and groups, but he was wary of what subtle connotations might be packed into them. He didn’t want Esh-erdi to picture the Palace of Unbreaking. Mother would surely do him the favor of selecting a descriptor that didn’t call that to mind for the translation.
A word for God was easier. Alden remembered a couple his dad had liked to use, so he had picked one of those.
“Your parents were taken from you,” Esh-erdi said. “I struggle to imagine the weight of that loss.”
“It was an Avowed,” said Alden. “The person who killed them.”
“I am aware.”
“He got stronger by hurting people. His powers were really…were they just random? The Contract gave something like that to him randomly?”
Boe had described his own abilities as random.
“How do you feel about Avowed like him? Those who fall outside of Earth’s class categorizations?”
“Uniques? I think they have interesting powers. The head of my school program is a famous one. They’re fairly popular on Earth—in our stories and television shows—because of all the special circumstances around them. Considering how few of them there are, a lot seem to become celebrities. I have a close friend who’s an unregistered Unique.”
Esh-erdi began to watch the stars with one eye while he kept the other on Alden. “At some point in your childhood, your planet’s Contract identified you as an unusually high-risk chaos <<matrix>>. Which means that if you were exposed to chaos, you were more likely than others to continue living, for a time, by becoming a problematic entity.”
The way he said it was matter-of-fact.
Alden responded in kind. “I knew that. Not quite in those words, but I figured it out on Thegund. That Avowed might be people who had the potential to become demons before our existences were stabilized by our bindings.”
“I’m relieved that you don’t sound concerned. The people in power on Anesidora seem convinced that humanity will be unable to cope with that information being formally confirmed by the Triplanets. They prefer the present state of things, where truth shares a basket with falsehoods they consider more pleasant. But a fact widely known on other planets can’t remain controversial on Earth forever, surely.”
“They’re probably hoping it goes from a rumor to a fact without ever becoming a serious reputation problem for us,” said Alden. “Today if someone shouts, ‘Avowed were born demon people!’ they sound like they belong to a crazy hate group. But one day, maybe someone will say that and everyone will respond, ‘That’s technically true, but why are you being weird about it? It’s been that way for a century. Old news.’ Anesidora must be worried about the transition between those two points.”
“You were never a ‘demon person’. Only a person whose spot in reality was identified as a potential risk. From the moment the Contract recognized you as such, it devoted additional attention to you that reduced the chances you would be touched by the influence of chaos even further. Before they are selected, the children it plans to choose as Avowed are the best protected people on Earth. In that particular way.”
“Isn’t it dangerous to have all the children on Anesidora so close to the cube?”
Alden had been wondering that ever since the floods.
“In the event of an instantaneous, catastrophic Contract failure, yes,” said Esh-erdi. “But in almost all the more likely scenarios, having so many of the children it needs to keep a close watch over in one location benefits it. A few places like Anesidora spread around your planet, rather than a singular one, might be its ideal, but the present situation does have advantages.”
“So Earth guarded me extra from chaos when I was little.” Alden let his head fall back to join Esh-erdi in stargazing. “That’s kind of nice to imagine if I don’t overthink it.”
“The ones you call Unique types are people who weren’t identified as high-risk until the moment when chaos began to blossom around them,” Esh-erdi said. “Your Contract’s response to such situations is swift, but its options are limited. It attempts to bind the person’s authority, maneuvering against a change that’s already begun. If the individual survives, they are given the Unique classification. Their abilities are a cauldron surprise that results from random ingredients.”
If the individual survives…
“This should be a temporary phase in the growth of your planet’s Contract. There’s usually a period in which a Contract isn’t adept enough to prevent every such occurrence but is adept enough for a few people to be saved with its assistance. Earth has been extraordinarily good at the saving part, so you have significantly more Unique Avowed than anticipated. It may be because the variety of talents designed for humans has given Earth unusual insight and creative potential for a Contract of its age.”
Esh-erdi stopped there to let Alden think for a while. But Alden’s thoughts were so full of Boe—who’d been moments away from becoming some kind of demon before the System managed to customize him into an empath instead—that he almost forgot what had started this explanation of U-types in the first place.
When Esh-erdi finally spoke again and said, “The one who killed your parents had powers resulting from such creativity on Earth’s part,” Alden found himself blinking like Body Drainer had come out of left field.
Right. That’s who we were talking about. Not Boe.
“Are Uniques in danger afterward? The binding makes them as sturdy as regular Avowed, doesn’t it?”
“They’re not at heightened risk of becoming demons afterward. Their new magic can cause them problems beyond the ordinary, though. Your Contract prioritizes saving them during their initial binding. Making their powers function well has to be a secondary consideration. Most come to the Triplanets at some point to have their abilities studied. They can have our Contracts and our skill designers plot a course for their development that will eventually make their powers more harmonious.”
“Your skill designers! Like the same ones who would advise knights?” Alden was fully focused on Esh-erdi’s face once more.
“Some of the same. Learning about unique bindings and their effects on reality is of interest to them.”
But designing harmonious skills for Contract refusers must be way lower on their priority lists than advising people like Principal Saleh and the Primary’s son would be. And the significant help Boe said he could get if he agreed to certain things…it’s probably that. Otherwise, it’ll just be him and Earth figuring it out together.
“I can’t be sworn to secrecy about this,” Alden said urgently. “I need to talk to my friend. The Unique friend. So I can tell him I understand what he wanted to say to me about this once. And then you can swear me to secrecy. I won’t breathe a word about it to anyone else.”
Esh-erdi gave him half a smile. “I would have warned you before telling you something that required another tattoo. Perhaps I should have. But I didn’t.”
Alden looked at that half smile. Maybe it was more of a sad smile. It’s because I led us this way via my parents, isn’t it?
“Thanks,” he said. “I really will be discreet.”
My parents. Body Drainer. I should let him put the Matadero hallway tattoo on me so he can spend more time with the people he loves.
But there was one more thing that Esh-erdi might be able to answer better than someone like Stuart.
“Sometimes, Avowed go missing after they’re summoned,” said Alden. “Not like I did, with the Contract telling everyone I was missing. They’re just gone without any news at all. We have funerals for them without knowing anything for sure. One of the superheroes who was there on the night when I lost my parents went missing like that. Is there a way for me to find out how she died or where she was lost? Even if it’s bad, I think I’d like to know now.”
“You refer to Hannah Elber.”
Alden stiffened. “You already know her name. From researching me…or because you’ve heard of her? Do you know what happened?”
“I heard about her before I met you. From the Avowed who Lind and I trained at Matadero. Some of them knew her well, and others consider themselves friends of her mother. A couple hinted that they would like an explanation for her disappearance. One asked outright that I look into it.”
Alden had known The Gloom would have talked to her important Artonan contacts, but he’d forgotten that many of Hannah’s friends and former classmates were high-ranked Avowed who had access to their own information sources. Of course some of the people in a Matadero battlegroup would have thought to ask the knights. They’d probably had a gym class or twelve with Hannah at Celena North when they were teenagers.
Alden braced himself. “Did you look into it?”
“Only enough to determine whether or not all had been properly handled. It was.”
“It was?”
“Yes. I’m sorry for the pain the lack of information causes, but there’s little I can do to ease it. From my point of view, all Contracts and any summoners who may have been involved with Avowed Hannah Elber have behaved as they should.”
Alden sat there staring.
“Are you angry?” Esh-erdi asked.
Alden shook himself. “No. Surprised. Confused. I believe you, and it’s good her last summoning was handled properly. But I was almost certain you were going to tell me an awful wizard had summoned her to fight a hopeless battle against a solar flare or something and then decided not to bother telling anyone that she was gone. And I hated that imaginary situation and every imaginary person who caused it, but it was very…over. Now I’ve got nothing at all to imagine. Are there a lot of proper reasons to hide what happened to a missing Avowed?
“Several at least.”
“She wouldn’t have run away to live somewhere else on Earth. Not without telling her mother. But her mother was really sad at her funeral, and I don’t think she was acting…”
“No matter how intently you look at me, I will only say what I have said,” Esh-erdi replied.
Alden rubbed his hands over his face. “Sorry. Let’s tattoo me. What’s it going to look like? And can I see the way you’ve arranged yours on your calf again? That band is multiple contracts, isn’t it? But they look so good together. Did you get them all at the same time, or is there a method for choosing designs that are easy to add to others without looking scrambled?”
“You like my leg!” Esh-erdi said, swinging the very leg they were talking about toward Alden. “As you should. Picking what symbols you’ll carry with you is most of the fun. And isn’t it best if they’re lovely to your eyes as well as serving their practical purpose? Look at mine for inspiration. I’m also sending you images of the standard Matadero tattoo and hundreds of others I think are much better.”
“Hundreds?”
“Remember,” said Esh-erdi, “you have time. And I’ll be honored to share a mark with you if it’s well chosen.”
******
Comments (171)
I just realized that Esh may not be able to tell Alden's free authority is actually doing something. Alden's not (yet) the most sensitive, but he's training, and he did not feel Esh cut a leaf with his authority (granted, it wouldn't have taken much). > They both quietly watched a leaf break away from that limb and flutter down to fall on the > woven seat across from them. There was only a gentle breeze tonight, and the leaf was > green. > Esh-erdi must have made it fall.
Patreon keep finding new and inventive ways to fuck up the platform. This time they've made it so I get a push notification every time someone likes my comments. With no way to turn it off.
Here is your like. And a comment.
My guess is that Hannah got actually kidnapped by a Sway from SAL and there was no summoning a all. That's why Esh xan't say anything because that's about a completly earth-internal conflict and Artonans have rules of non-interference for that (and even just telling that there was no summoning would help the anesidoran side against SAL)
I think there still was a summoning but similar thoughts, that there was a Sway which controlled where she returned, so she returned back somewhere else on Earth, brainwashed.
Just picked up this story on Sunday on RR and have binged it and have just joined the Patreon and caught up completely, really looking forward to what’s next in the story!
Welcome, you’ve arrived exactly the day after Approximate Soup Day, which may now be known as Very Approximate Soup Day
I hope the chapter is delayed as long as necessary
Sooooooooup…. So hungweeeee
I'm a little disappointed we didn't get to see his birth tree, but this was still a great chapter! Esh continues to be a great mentor figure.
We'll probably see it at the same time as Stu. Maybe even in this coming chapter
I dunno, I just honestly can't think of a situation where telling Alden and giving this kid some closure about hannah would be like the /right/ /best/ thing to do
I would think that in *most* situations, giving Hannah's next-of-kin and/or humanity at large closure would be the right thing to do, in which case Alden would know by extension. For instance, if she were dead under simple circumstances or even the majority of complicated circumstances, Gemma Elber and by extension Alden should already know. So I disagree, there are plenty of circumstances where Alden should be given closure. Maybe what you mean is that there are no circumstances where Alden should know even though Hannah's family don't? If so, sure, fair enough.
Wall of text incoming! -- How people deal with each other is a recurring theme in Super Supportive. Sleyca is fond of providing good and bad examples of interpersonal relationships. Consider teachers. We have three prominent examples: Morrison, Klein and Ash. Morrison cares about his students, works with them, and is delighted when they have breakthroughs. We see this best with Alden, but he was appreciative of Kon and Søren too: “You definitely can’t apply that to the first choice, though,” Morrison said. “Look at Kon! Look at Søren! Look at Alden givin’ you a little surprise. Great class today, wasn’t it?” – Ch. 198 Klein is a hard-ass who tells it the way he sees it, but given the situation teaches students to the best of his abilities. We see Saleh mention that he is also giving some thought to Alden’s skill. Paraphrasing because I can’t find the actual quote, she remembers Klein thinking the entrustment portion of the skill was really strange and wondering why it was present. Then we have Ash. He knows what he’s doing in terms of power, but he’s utterly clueless (or indifferent, which is worse) about how to teach students. * Neha and Bti-qwol and their organizational abilities. Neha gives Alden a binder full of stuff he can do to get into CNH and leaves him to it. I get the feeling that if Alden had chosen not to go ahead with things, she would have been okay with that. However, he did pursue his application, was pleased that he did, and gave him support and offered counsel when asked. Then we have Bti-qwol. She had a job that had to be done – larger than Neha’s, of course – but didn’t trust her underlings, micromanaged them, and generally was such a bad boss that Manon didn’t have difficulty turning things into a fiasco. I hope Bti-qwol is given some feedback by someone she trusts about how she went about her task was counterproductive. I suspect that she won’t appear on stage again, so we’ll probably never know. * Finally, we have contracting. The Velra tattoo is something that is ill-considered, weak, and as close to non-consensual as possible. It binds people who are not Aulia while being as advantageous to her as it can be. Joe gave Alden some really useful information in return for his assistance with the Moon Thegund evacuation. It is my opinion that Joe wasn’t out to utterly screw Alden over because Joe hoped to work with Alden in the future. However, we know that Joe was prepared to give Alden memory-erase potions or something equally shady. He was planning to put a very unbalanced contract on Alden, and only the gremlin kept Joe in check. Furthermore, Joe very much did not give Alden a full picture of what was going on. Esh is the opposite of Aulia and Joe. He is making sure Alden is getting a full picture of what he’s about to agree to. He’s telling Alden to ask other avowed before accepting a contract, and is telling him to avoid making contracts at all for a while. It is my belief that when the contract with Alden is made, Esh may notice the gremlin, but the gremlin will not grumble at an unbalanced contract. Esh is going to play things straight.
I bet the gremlin will make things difficult and Esh fails to create the contract, since he can't wield that much of free authority as Joe does to supress it, nor is he as skilled and knowledgeable about contracts, nor does he use pre-existing contract by merely adding new conditions and cementing the rest of it. Alden is also many times stronger than in the past. What is he now? 12 effective levels, with 9 of them affixed? Sleyca did not show us the scaling but if it is exponential with 10% steps per level, he would be 3 times stronger than in the Leaf Song. I think that what system calls a level is more than a 10% growth step. Lastly, I smell the smelly artonan lies, which they call proper discretion. The gremlin will never agree easily when the contract does not benefit Alden, which it does not since he is forced to protect lies or halftruths.
I wonder if the individuals/children that the system isn't able to save in time are the demons that they fight at matadero?
That would explain the secrecies. However that would mean 2 of them every year, and honestly are freshly demonified children worth the strength of the whole battlegroup in the first place? Also, whatever Esh says to Alden, he maintains a proper discretion. Alden has a clearance of trusted Avowed, not of a diplomed wizard. Seeing as there is a lot of secrecy about magic itself, and the people are called unique, not random, the Boe's situation is likely different.
I really like the unique locations in the story, like this chapter’s housing with the nestlike sitting spots, or the rock garden where Esh’s nieces were learning. Or the spell court with the stone stars in the old house in Cpt. 285. Still fascinates me.
How could you forget to mention the eatery where headmaster and instuctor Waker had a date?
I was talking to someone looking for book recommendations and when I pointed them at super supportive they were shocked by the word count of super supportive replying that it's 3x the length of war and peace.
Any time I hear stats like that I feel so grateful that the online form of Skeyca's writing allows us to enjoy all of it without some editor slashing it down because they have ideas about what length is acceptable
Just occurred to me that the gremlin might get involved in this contract as well and Esh might be more curious about what is happening than Ro was.
Esh seems a lot less likely to try to force anything into the contract that he hasn't both carefully communicated to Alden, and also given him time to consider. IF that's what the gremlin considers "uneven", then we might be looking at Quiet Gremlin for a while longer. If it does show up, I bet Alden gives the same "not my secret to tell" answer that he gave to Stu, when he mentioned there was another factor that helped him become a wizard. If we know Esh, then we can be sure he won't push Alden on it... but his curiosity will burn as bright as the desert sun, nonetheless! He might wonder whether Alden's tattoo-stubbornness is a gift from a certain young Art'h, given what they both know about his history with Ro-den.
I love how you think this story is going in one direction and you think you know what is going to happen. Then the author does something completely different and it makes it even better. Thank you Sleyca.
so at what age did Boe contract? elementary school? hes unregistered because the contract swore him to secrecy because of his unusual circumstances and preteen affixation.
Fairly sure you're right about the age. He was almost certainly affixed by the time Alden met him on the first day of Middle School. He's unregistered because he feels responsible for his parents and somehow wouldn't be able to have anyone take care of them if he registered. That doesn't fully make sense to me, so I assume I'm missing a big piece of it.
ETA is closer to 24 hours than not, folks who watch this space!
Happy approximation day everybody!
2 big questions. 1.) Will Esh notice the other contract is resolved? 2.) Will Esh make a contract sufficiently perfect on the first try that the gremlin doesn't grumble?
Yes and yes.
I do enjoy that wizards keep saying that they have things in their pockets. The executioner Vill-ma had mercy and esh has best interests, is it just a saying to show they have good morals? And what does it mean that Ro-den always shoved food in his pockets?
Ro-den having food in his pockets means that he is a walking hive of cricket infestation. He is spreading these farm pests everywhere he walks.
I am willing to wait as long as it takes.
9 to 15 hours is my guess.
It’s the 30th! Now for approximately 36 hours of refreshing a web page.
Please do not talk about numbers in 30s. I am already playing christmas carols to trick myself into thinking it is cold weather to overcome the heatwave.
Tattoo should be a cooked turkey in a cube.
You would pass a chance to tattoo a dick on an unsuspecting alien? That he can remove only both tattoos or none makes it even funnier.
As a character, Alden is smart for deferring questions about the Cube. As a reader, I’m miffed I have to wait more for details. 👊🏽
Esh could well be bound by contract to not say anything about Hannah's fate. His total unwillingness to say anything at all seems unusual compared to his normal flexible approach.
I'm not sure its that deep, despite his commendation and unusually likable personality, Alden is still just an Avowed. There's probably the same rules in place for wizards that Earth used when Alden questioned it about Hannah and Boe, "I refuse to answer", and "I’m not allowed to give you information about other Avowed in that fashion". Esh gave a similar non-answer about Hannah and only said that the wizards involved behaved as they should.
Alden is trying to make himself a home to go back to. Alden doesn’t think Chicago is home. Or Anesidora. Or Rapport I. Do you think there is already hints to his future home sprinkled throughout the story? I will be on the lookout from now on. But I think it’s obviously right here where his birth tree is. His birth tree and Ploomp of course.
I had thought it might be the old buildings at Rapport 1 that he and Stu have been using as a base. Near, but separate.
Dumb re-reading thoughts and silly speculation ahead (You have been warned): A comment in an earlier chapter suggested that one of the purposes of this trip might be Esh officially wanting to adopt Alden. To my own surprise, Esh's sudden interest in how Alden feels about his home situation made me think it was at least a little plausible (wouldn't put any amount of money on it though.) And that thought made me think of something else (that's weird). We have had some evidence and hints that Anesidora has at least a couple of 'clans' that take family politics pretty seriously. To the point of some mild eugenics even. So the dumb thought hit me, that it's actually somewhat surprising in-story that Alden hasn't gotten any offers for aranged marriages or adoption or similar yet... He's been VERY publicly hanging out with some very important Artonans. (Even Neha had never met a knight face-to-face before apparently) You'd think that approximately after Thanksgiving some of these people would come out of the woodwork... Or do these clans think that the Velra have already gotten ahold of him and there's no point anymore? Or DOES he actually have offers for arranged marriages in his overstuffed inbox and Alden has simply not thought enough of them to consider them worthy of mention? (Feels like that would be the type of stuff that would squick him out remarkably though.) (I'll admit. Part of me thinks it would be funny if Emilija is rejecting 'join our family!' requests for him.)
Maybe because his B rank is deterring them from any eugenics plans. But I remember previously the Informant has a clip of Alden saying Stu’s name. Once they put two and two together, the other elites at Velra-levels will probably kidnap him again to gain access to information about the Primary.
It sounds like Boe's empathy is a change the demonization made to him, not something the contract did. Then all the patching up included skills to help Boe adapt, or at least mitigate, some of the negative effects. Big question I still have is whether the brain-damage Boe's parents sustained is a result of chaos powers, and the Contract saved their lives, or a result of Boe somehow misusing his skills.
Yeah, a chaos cause would explain why it's constantly on, and the barrier is a repair job add on. And I have the same question. Boe's guilt, and expressions of not allowing himself to live on Anesidora even though he wants to, make me lean toward the him misusing his powers theory.
Is it just me or did Esh-Erdi very discreetly gloss over Hannah Elber's fate. Esh did NOT confirm her death in this chapter.......
Because death would be the better option of the two available, not the correct answer.
"Roy Jones Jr.- Can't be touched" would be a good theme song for Alden. Just the refrain though, not the crime, bitches and other black magic mentioned. Why does that subculture celebrate crime? Can't be touched, can't be stopped, cant be moved, can't be rocked, can't be shook. Assuming Alden finaly realizes he could create shields from thin air, he will be an immovable fortress. It could be his "Bulwark of the Last general" song.
@Franti, I feel stupid, too. "create shields from thin air", and I am 100% blind to the fluid I swim in. Dang.
Like Esh’Erdi, I am honored to share Super Supportive with everyone.
I can't wait for Esh to go through all this contracts aren't safe for you discussion only to try to make a contract win Alden and then meet the Gremlin of fairness built into Alden's authority. Alden has protections that even Esh doesn't have.
The Gremlin didn't keep Alden safe so much as it ensured he got fairly compensated for all the risks (outside of acts of god/contract failure)
Maybe Hannah is currently helping Joe, or one of Joe’s associates, to keep the artificial Demon contained for study since Joe is hiding the artificial Demon from all Wizards, that would also hide anyone helping hide the artificial Demon So many Wizards. So many possibilities 🎬
Pretty sure the artificial demon is one of the thegundese hoppers Joe hauls around with him. He takes them everywhere, and he’s far too precious about their safety. And there’s no reason such a safe long term assignment would preclude Hannah calling home to explain her absence.
Everyone has naturally been theorizing about whether or not the grelim will cause an issue with Alden keeping his authority sense a secret during the tattooing. This is a question he can easily ask Stu before going to get the actual tattoo. And he the answer is yes, Alden is going to have to make up some excuse about why he *can't* get the tattoo with Esh and it has to be Stu and thats going to really hurt and confuse Esh after the lengths he's gone to help Alden :(
Not sure Stu has the proper credentials for that yet - he's not yet a knight, but more importantly he's also not even qualified to talk to Avowed on his own. Presumably, there's some instruction on proper discretion involved. Esh does seem like he's willing to wait, though.
Kinda picturing Esh as a Māori. With the pretty tats and more laid back attitude. Serious when needed.
If this ever goes to live action film, I want Donald Glover playing Esh. He seems like he could do the constant joking layered over a very serious core of kindness and determination.
Back in chapter 84, when Alden first observed Boe talking with the Contract, Boe referred to it as shithead, and Alden’s response was surprise, not because Boe would do that but because it sounded like “chummy cussing”. Now we finally see why. Despite how much Boe dislikes his Swayner powers, the Contract saving him from becoming a demon seems worth some chumminess.
I'm sure the gremlim will have something to say about the contract. Wakt i just reliased he never told Stu about gremlin, I wonder what he knows about it?
When was the last time we heard about the gremlim acting up?
I’m in the ‘Hannah turning into a demon’ camp. She’s living somewhere off world and banned from contact as a result. When Esh says, “From my point of view, all Contracts and any summoners who may have been involved with Avowed Hannah Elber have behaved as they should” who does that leave banning the information? The same people who have banned other information about humans turning into chaos. Earth.
Behaving as you should doea not preclude proper discretion. Esh's answer only means there was no abuse. It did not affect the relative odds of any other reason for her disappearance.
Thanks for the chapter!
Sleyca, thank you so much for this! This aligns so well with Alden and his character. He asked the haunting questions that have been raised over this storyline, and you embedded the mystery of Hannah even further! I’m so happy, I could burst. I love this lore drop so much, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing how much Alden worries about Hannah still. And Boe! And Lute! So many good lore drops in just a few good chapters. ❤️
Do we think Alden will be able to keep his authority completely quiet while under the effects of a tattoo spell that will magically bind him? He didn't have an authority sense when he was last tattooed, and we don't know how painful it might be. Hard not to flinch when being tattooed.
Also, that drug wizards take for tattoos might be designed to quiet their authority and dull the pain. Avowed wouldn't need that, but Alden might. Doubt he'll take it.
I wonder if the demons at matadero are the uniques that the contract couldn't save.
Someone theorized that below. It would be so messed up if Matadero avowed were, without knowing, killing human children who failed to become unique. But it would make total sense. The contract teleports them to the cube to try to save them (or if it fails). And it might explain why a certain knight is so careful to give demons clean deaths, if she's had to do the same to Artonan children.
Esh sharing one of his own treasured places from the Rapports version of intake is so tender-lovely. I wanted to go hang out with a dozen other potential friends in a massive woven nest with footstools and magic gourd lights! To hear how many of them choose to stay, not just to follow through on their ambitions of dedicating their lives to the Rapports and its mission, but also to root right there and make lives entwined together with these early companions - there's something so wonderful in making a welcoming place like that, designed to bring people in and support them building home and community together.
Joe noticed something was weird with Alden when they made their contract. I actually suspect Esh-erdi won't trigger the Gremlin because he's acting in genuine good faith and actively wants their definitions and goals to align before even beginning the process, while Joe very much believed that his definitions would win over Alden's. Also Alden needs to talk to Stu about how to do these tattoos because he needs to do one with Boe. Hopefully it's not too complicated.
I'm wondering about the other low risk-chaos matrix humans who still have enough authority to get an affixiation. I guess you can have a triple s-rank amount of athority and still never become an avowed if you never cross the high risk threshold? It would also make a lot of sense: affixations are probably just expensive enough for the system that affixing low-risk matrix humans is seen a waste of resources and I can see some artonen faction finding it unethical to affix humans if there is no need to no matter how potentially powerful they could be ...Hmm Im wondering if some villain could find his own way to affix ppl skills without the help of the system and just create his own avowed army.
I have a pet theory that Jessica would be a high authority (amount, quality, control, ?) / very low chaos potential human- she had signs of being quite facile with wordchains and good at getting them to land, which seems to be at least partially correlated with authority strength. Lute getting his chaos potential from his dad's side and his authority strength from his mom's side would explain a lot about his particular life arc...
Does the general population of Earth understand that Earth already has a chaos problem? I think no, right? Early in the story, we heard that Earth's demon allotment "landed" at Matadero once or twice a year. I initially took that to mean they were arriving from the Triplanets or somewhere, which at this point I'm pretty sure is not the case (Esh describes the demon's arrival as having "broken through" in his PoV in ch. 131). And despite all the Artonan hate being a thing, we haven't heard any of the Wilbert-and-Polly crowd ask "why did the Artonans and chaos show up at the same time?" which seems like a really obvious question to ask from an anti-Artonan perspective, if you realize that chaos on Earth is a thing. Also, in ch. 27, Alden's narration says that "the Artonans’ mother planet, Artona I, and some of the resource worlds had a demon problem." That doesn't explicitly say Earth doesn't, but it seems like he would have stated this differently if he'd understood at the time that Earth also had a demon problem, or was only prevented from having a demon problem by the ongoing active protection of its Contract. So am I right to read Esh's confirmation that humans would be demonifying all over the place without the Contract's intervention as a pretty big revelation here? Not necessarily to Alden, who knows from Stu that the Artonans' arrival likely exposed Earth to chaos. But this is something that isn't widely known, right? If I'm right, then it's a little surprising to me that Esh is purely concerned with the "this means the Contract was indirectly responsible for your parents' deaths" angle in this conversation, and doesn't seem to address the "Earth is under siege by chaos" thing. Esh doesn't know how much Stu has revealed to Alden, after all.
If you're right, then "Earth is under siege by chaos" would probably be information that's covered by the "Matadero demon truths" tattoo! So it's not surprising that Esh isn't leading with that information; he's listening to Alden's reactions and allowing him to decide how much he wants to know. Esh has really gone out of his way to handle all of this very carefully.
A big answer given. A bigger answer yet withheld… (Hannah? No, Leafsong of course! What was Aurelia’s grift there! We will find out!). I’ll be really sad if it one day turns out the Contracts aren’t as benevolent as they seem and the near omniscient being is just charming people as the route of least resistance, in the road more travelled style of most super-intelligence in fiction.
Ah, autocorrect strikes again with Aurelia instead of Aulia.
Goddamn, now I am *furiously* curious about Hannah.
Yeah, same. An interesting observation about the past few chapters: Alden has learned little to nothing about the topics he brought up directly wanting answers to (for one reason or another), but has learned much more about things he hadn't been thinking as much about asking but just kind of came up through the flow of conversation. Lute, uniques, and most importantly of all, Ploomp. It seems that Esh is very good and wily at handling proper discretion while also being generous with info.
My guess is that Hannah turned into a demon, but not a completely insane one. She's still alive and in contact with some chaos-research wizards or the like. The system doesn't say she's dead or disappeared because that isn't true, and doesn't say she's a demon because they don't want unauthorized humans to even think about trying to contact her.
This is an interesting guess. We know from Stu some demons are intelligent and talk. And early on Gorgon's supervisor got in trouble for consorting with demons, though that might be early installment weirdness.
Due to a skin condition, tattoos are a bad idea for me But Esh really makes me want to get a stylistically similar tattoo with my best friend, and spouse, Gryphonkit I almost wish Super Supportive was a comic, or video series, so we could force Sleyca to provide us with example tattoos (realistically a tattoo expert would be a better choice) 🎬
I look forward to the many fanart takes on Esh's tattoo! Sometimes not having a specific canon illustration for something vividly described is an invitation to the imagination - I almost prefer it that way given how much fun it is to invent possible symbology.
My Council of Mees, is evenly split between Hannah being at a Top Secret job too sensitive to be visiting to Earth to being a bad Power Ranger Villianess 🎬
Oh, a second thought (this one about Hannah’s ability). We already knew that her power can be used to help sense people who are high risk for turning into demons (I.e., if they stay awake when they’re supposed to be in stasis, they’re likely to become Avowed). I wonder if she was summoned to use her ability like that - either identifying demons or people/beings at high risk of becoming one. It’s possible her ability is better at the detection than a new system
Seems unlikely it works better than magic purpose-made for the task. And isn’t Earth the newest Contracted world?
You like my leg!!!
Wow. The reason for Uniques is awesome from a world building point of view Perhaps one factor for so many Uniques on Earth is Humans being so similar to Artonan biologically If Chaos is an accidental Wizard Curse, Humans being most similar to Artonans may make them most susceptible to the most curse triggers while other Avowed races may have less Chaos triggers available due to Curse incompatibile biology, environment, culture, etc. 🎬
I think you're right that we have more Uniques than most, and that it's because we're similar to Artonans. I'd put it down to a different chain of effect, though: it's not that Chaos is out to get us or is any worse when it does, it's that there are more rescue tools available! It's been remarked before that Artonan magic is far easier to adapt for humans than for any other species, because we share so many similarities. I'd assume that relative ease meant that, for the same effort, the wizards who set up the Earth Contract could provide it with a much wider variety of skills than they could usually make for a species they just met. When our Contract needs to do an emergency affixation, it has a lot more options to choose from, so the odds are better that some combination of the choices will be a *survivable* affixation.
Thank you for the chapter! I’m going to have to digest this one for a long time! So much to think about!
Edit suggestions: feel free to ignore. - The more important knowledge is, the more likely it is that having a choice about it in the future is going to be something I care about. -> The more important the knowledge is [The current version is fine, but I had to read it several times because I always initially parsed it as the start of "The more important knowledge is X".] - A few Anesidoras spread around your planet, rather than a singular one, might be its ideal, but the present situation does have advantages.” -> does have its advantages [again, optional edit] - And we have funerals for them, but without knowing anything for sure…. -> for sure… [typo: four-period ellipsis]
Given the capitalisation, that's intended to end the sentence, where an ellipsis does take four periods.
I think Hannah's being used to permanently stop some sort of chaos expansion or something, but she did it willingly, sacrificing herself in the process or something along those lines.
That begs the question why she couldn’t get any word back home, and why Artonans refuse to comment on her situation, and how a mere A-rank could have such a powerful effect.
So that note about researchers making skills more harmonious is probably how there are so many more U types that rank up from A to S
So much lore! And the opening for a conversation with Boe! And Alden will have the knowledge to gather his future tattoos is a pleasing way. This chapter made me so happy!
Esh and, by extension, Lind are probably my favourite characters at this point. They seem so real. They also seem to be exactly the kind of people the immense power needed to fight chaos should rest with. Wouldn't it be nice if we could say the same of our leaders.
I always worry for Boe, I wonder if Alden can get Boe that connection to an Artonan skill researcher without Boe agreeing to the Earth contract. Boe has so many trust issues, for a very valid reason, but he also needs help 🥺
I'm pretty sure he could do that easily if Boe would just agree to take a bloody phone call from Stu.
Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu for the airplane soup.
Gremlin, say hi to Esh. Esh, Gremlin.
Oh right! Esh is going to have to balance things to the gremlin’s satisfaction, isn’t he? That’ll be interesting!
So something that I find interesting about Alden's situation is the way he basically keeps trading up the bits of information he has for more restricted secrets. For instance, here he asks if Uniques are really random, and gets back a spiel about how Uniques are created. He's in contact with so many people that are so well informed, and he comes across as so trustworthy, that he keeps getting unearned tidbits like this one that *maybe* really ought to be under contract. And next time he mentions Uniques to a wizard in private, they'll assume he's already under contract with someone and blab a bit more.
Hahaha, Alden the infobroker rabbit. Uses his quiet rabbit nature to get more info out of people. It kind of all started with Stu keeping him from swearing Privacy of the House. Really though, so far it's only been Ro-Den, Stu, and Esh. Ro-Den only told him stuff under a highly-restrictive secrecy contract, and Stu was very circumspect and careful about proper discretion when he shared info until Alden chose to join him on the path of highest onus (and even then Stu has only been sharing things that are necessary for Alden to know right now for his development). For Esh I think there's a few considerations: 1. Esh likes Alden. We shouldn't overlook this. 2. Esh has judged Alden to have fairly sound judgement, at least in so far as not sharing sensitive info. 3. Esh hasn't shared very much that humans weren't already speculating about. 4. Esh knows that Stu and Alden talk, and that Alden learns things that way, so by being the person to answer these questions he can attempt to somewhat limit what Alden learns since he's not sure what goes on with Stu. 5. There's the fan theory that Esh might know at least some amount of Alden's secrets (TBD), which could influence what he chooses to share. 6. Esh could be talking with Mother with the other half of his mind to determine what is and isn't ok to share.
TFTC! Wow, Esh really closed up when Alden asked about Hanna. He wasn't being unkind but that was a big tone shift to we're definitely not talking about this... I'm still in the camp of suspecting that the human avowed who just disappear and wizards won't talk about them, are human avowed who develop authority sense. The artonans are particularly nervous about humans. Stu has found records of a few Knights emerging from the ranks of avowed on resource worlds, but maybe the rare emerging human knights are being dealt with differently, whisked away and put in a kind of detention due to artonan political complications around the status of earth and humanity. We still don't know exactly why the artonan fear humans so much, but I know there are some strong theories
Ah, I'd forgotten this, thanks. It makes the mystery even more interesting. What is happening with those avowed?
So the Hannah mystery continues. I notice Esh-erdi didn't say she had died on assignment, but it was all handled properly, just that it was handled properly. So she could be alive somewhere ? So I guess is stays in the 'long-term mystery' pile for a while longer...Tattoos next chapter ? I'm hoping for a kitten hanging off a rope, saying "Hang in there !"
I want the tattoo to be "The 😉 of proper discretion"
Today, Alden has a chance to experience how stressful picking a tattoo from a flash sheet can be.
I doubt any of the other Matadero tattoos were done by knights.
I suppose that raises the question: who else would do it? Do we know of any officials, functionaries, bureaucrats, shambassadors or door-tonans who could and would make the tattoo agreements instead?
I'm kind of wondering if the authority sense is going to be super obvious when he gets the tattoo. It has to be involved to some extent since the strength of the parties involved has a direct effect on how the tattoo works, right? It looks like he might not get the tattoo immediately, so that would extend people learning about his magic to a good narrative pace and it would get us past the question about whether it's actually wise to tell Esh-erdi or not. The downside would be that the choice would be taken out of his control which is pretty against the recent thematic arcs, but that's also kind of a growing up thing where even if you take care to choose carefully, not everything important will be controllable. I guess I'm kind of hoping it comes up so we can have more magic discussions before Esh and Lind leave.
That is possible, but Alden also knows explicitly how to keep his authority still like if he didn't have the ability to sense or use it. For example, at the end of the Thegund arc Alis-art'h did a deep examination of his authority then held it together constantly for several days, yet she showed no signs of suspecting anything. Given that, it wouldn't make much sense for Esh to sense something wrong during an interaction that is unlikely to take even an hour. Now, if Alden were getting a contract shortly after affixation then he probably wouldn't be able to prevent /himself/ from reacting, as somewhat implied in ch.63 ("Alden wasn’t sure, but he thought that forming a contract might hurt like hell right now."). Esh will probably sense the effects of the Gremlin, but he's unlikely to know what it is, and he has no reason to link that to authority sense. (Ro-den is probably much more knowledgeable about these sorts of things, and he had no idea what the Gremlin was either.) And Esh won't be able to recognize him from the undirected authority greeting in ch.119, because it was Lind who felt it, not Esh. That said, Esh is connected to Lind, so it's possible that she might feel Alden's authority through Esh and notify him. I don't personally subscribe to the theory that Esh already knows Alden has authority sense, but if he did then it would only be via Lind recognizing Alden's authority.
With all the people feeling smug about their unique guesses, it's time for a much more out-there theory. Hannah is pregnant and the father is either 1. A Sal member 2. An Artonan/Wizard or 3. A demon or 4. All of the Above!
5. Hannah got hit by Truck-kun and is now in a different fictional universe.
Since even Esh was unwilling to talk about Hannah, I’m even more suspicious about the whole thing. It’s possible she wasn’t summoned at all. The only reason we think she was summoned is because of a voice message. We never got confirmation that someone saw her before she disappeared. I think either 1) a sway made her think she got a summoning or 2) someone impersonated her (this seems a lot harder, given that Earth provides identity verification). The reason she got the job in the first place is that she teamed-up with a superhero whose previous partner with similar powers disappeared in identical circumstances. If there is a powerful unregistered sway in that area, maybe they have compromised that hero. Maybe his partners keep noticing. Or maybe there’s a SAL base in the area, and the hero is sympathetic to their cause? In any case, the complete unwillingness from everyone on the artonan side to discuss it makes me suspect the problem might be internal to us humans. It’s exactly the kind of misdirection you’d see in a mystery novel with an impossible murder: something we take as a fact is, in fact, a lie!
She might have been summoned and corrupted by prolonged chaos exposure, becoming a demon. It's the kind of thing that artonans would definitely want to keep under wraps, especially if the demon based on her is still at large.
[all Contracts and any summoners who may have been involved with Avowed Hannah Elber have behaved as they should.] As they should does not mean as they could. If the summoner was in a faction hostile to avowed, he might have not look back in sacricifing Hannah
If there is an expectation that the Contract won't be able to save every about-to-become-a-demon case, one would wonder what exactly becomes of those it couldn't. If it wasn't too grim for the tone of the story so far, I would've figured that maybe this is what Matadero is about, tying the loose ends.
Matadero deals with incursives who break through. I think failed Uniques just die. (It's pretty tragic to imagine some children just dropping dead with no apparent cause tbh...)
Kibby's going to be so jealous if they get matching ink. I just can't decide who she'll be more jealous of, Esh or Alden. He'll have to reserve his first face tattoo for her
HAH! I knew that's what uniques were. Interesting to know why they are so common on earth and no other place, that I hadn't guessed before now.
I don't think its that Earth has more uniques than anyone else but that we have more who are found and saved successfully by the Contract than other worlds Contracts. It sounds like as the years pass the random chaos occurrences that cause uniques also drop because the Contract gets better at picking the children out before they encounter chaos and that results in fewer uniques.
So the people the Earth contract can't save - I'm guessing they're teleported to Matadero, along with animals that meet a similar fate?
The Contract could just teleport demons to 100 km above the Earth's surface. Or the bottom of the Marianas Trench - either would probably kill most demonified beings, given that we know that simple flood traps are able to take out demons.
Ha! Personal headcanon about Uniques confirmed! Time to be irrationally smug about it! :D
It was a popular theory for ages tbf.
I'm so happy Alden finally has an adult like Esh in his life.
Artonans treat humans too differently, it’s not ideal. If Alden could become a knight, then there will be more it’s gonna be a problem. But Alden and Stu are gonna be Romeo and Juliette , but also both live, and also Kivbee. Alden and Stu and Kivbee. The knights trinity
Alden is not evidence that unaltered humans can develop an authority sense, because Alden is not an unaltered human. The gremlin was key to his awakening, and he is the only human with that advantage.
Oh man, I wasn't expecting that in regards to Hannah. My thought process is similar to Alden's, I guess; it didn't *seem* like her mother's relationship with Hannah was so bad that she would have chosen to disappear, but family stuff can be opaque, so who can know for sure?
Nope. Hannah had too much good in her life to disappear on purpose. A loving mother, a close friend, a kid who looked up to her, a meaningful, prestigious, and profitable job. We have pretty solid evidence her relationship with her mom was good, by the way; funeral crying aside, we saw her answer a call she assumed was from her mother without a second thought and give a concerned but casual greeting in chapter four. We can say “you never really know”, and we don’t. But just because something is possible doesn’t mean it’s at all plausible.
"Even if you held much more serious information than you do, and it wasn’t safe to send you back to Anesidora without the protection of a tattoo, I would provide you with a safe place to think without being rushed.” This makes me feel bad for Joe's assistants all over again. Accused of having dangerous knowledge and confined to a chaos field until they died
So much new info but so little info at the same time... It like a had a very good soup to fill me up but found out there was 30 different soup appearing on the menu right after.
With Sleyca help and a little bit of time, you will be able to taste those 30 soups and all the others on the following pages of the menu. So savor this one without regret
So many long standing questions were addressed in this chapter, several answered clearly. It feels like the nature of chaos, affixing, and what happens when an avowed is summoned to combat chaos will soon become relevant again, maybe in regards to the two missing Knights on Goldbush?
This is *such* a satisfying chapter. It's neat to get Esh-erdi's version a summoner safety lecture and contrast it with Ro-den's, isn't it? And telling for how Ro-den's former assistants were being pressured to sign their new contracts; they were not given "a safe place to think without being rushed" for protecting the serious information they held.
I really like the answers Lind and Esh found for their faith in what they do mattering.
Chapter 5 (The Nice One): > “Play last three voicemails,” he muttered. > For a moment, there was nothing but silence, and Alden stared at his own distorted reflection in the metal pole beside his seat. He looked a lot like his father—green eyes, hair hovering between true brown and auburn, average height for his age. His freckles had mostly disappeared for now, but they’d be back in summer. > A familiar, bright voice interrupted his inspection. > “Hey, Alden! It’s Hannah!” > Alden closed his eyes. He could picture the hero’s smile. She was always unyieldingly perky when she spoke to him, whether it was during their few in-person meetups or over the phone. He didn’t know if it was her natural personality or something she made an effort at. > “Listen, I just got a summons a few minutes ago. The real deal. It’s only my fourth one ever. Pretty cool, right? Anyway, I have to go, so I might need to reschedule our annual visit. Wanted you to know so that you don’t freak if the teleport notification doesn’t come through for you in a couple of days like we planned. We’ll hang out when I get back. There’s this awesome new ice park on the island…let’s check it out together. See you soon!” Chapter 23 (Funeral): > But as he started to quietly sneak away, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Hannah’s mother. She really did look a lot like her daughter. > “You’re Alden.” > It wasn’t a question, but Alden nodded anyway. > “Your forgiveness removed a heavy burden from Hannah’s shoulders,” she told him. “I’ll never forget that.” > A few people were surreptitiously watching them. Alden felt his face heating. It was only half embarrassment. The rest was nerves. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing at a moment like this. > “I don’t feel like there was anything to forgive. Hannah was…I look up to her.” > He’d almost said she was the kind of hero he wanted to be, but he didn’t want to out himself here and now. > “I miss her,” said The Gloom. > There was such a simple, aching pain in the words. It made Alden’s breath stop. > “Yeah.” His eyes were stinging. Damn, I can’t. It felt too selfish to cry in front of Hannah’s family, so he tried to rein it in. “I miss her, too.” There's really not much to go on here. If it was as simple as Hannah being on a long term assignment, she would have contacted someone as soon as she understood the length of the summons. She absolutely would have had the money for the connection fee since she had enough to have Alden teleported to Anesidora (especially since that never ended up happening).
I suspect Hannah's authority was corrupted by chaos and she became a demon. Worse, the demon based on her might still be alive and at large.
He may not be able to tell an Avowed, but he'll tell a knight, Alden. While you're trading secrets.
SOUP IS EARLY! ALL HAIL THE SLEYCA
Gremlin time. This should be fun.
Surely the problem of demonification has to have been induced by the discovery of Earth by the Artonans, right? Like, were humans in this version of Earth turning into demons regularly before the Artonans came?
No, you're right. Stu confirmed in an earlier chapter that the magic that was used to find Earth was known to weaken dimensions. Artonans really did light Earth on fire and then offer to help put out the flames in exchange for Earth's servitude
Ohh, this one was really good. Boe updates, Hannah Elber hints, tattoo designs, and a lot of bonding with Esh. I do wonder that Alden isn't nervous about the demon reacting to a new contract - to keep it fair! - at all. Even if it's subtle, Esh will notice.
Demon, what demon? You mean gremlin right? Wait, ar you calling Gorgon a demon!? * offended gasp*
Hannah’s mystery deepens.
That’s so interesting about Hannah.
I saw it coming that Alden won't talk about his knighthood, but still hoped for it. However the part about Hannah is making me extremely curious now!!
Hannah finally brought up disappointing that we're still in the dark about her fate but I'm just glad she's being mentioned. I've been holding on to the hope she's still alive but now I'm predicting that she went demon.
Esh is such a beautifully well-rounded character. I’m happy every time I see he’s going to be in a chapter, and he does not disappoint. He has such great wise-older-brother energy.
That conversation about Uniques was super interesting. Now I'm curious if it's true that wizards brought chaos to Earth or if maybe in this version of reality, some people did just get turned into chaos demons and maybe that's what caused the legends about different types of monsters in history.
Holy lore dumps! Oh I should not have read this when I was meant to be sleeping
Soup > sleep Always
So much lore. Only one Sist-erdi in the Rapport!
You do know that Esh is a guy, right?
Firstn't.
With all the Contract Tattoo talk, I've had a pet theory about Boe. I'm probably not the first to have it but I haven't seen it before. I think the system affixed Boe at a very young age. Before he even met Alden, so likely by age 10 or 11, and it doesn't want anyone to know it experiments on a child that young, or I guess after reading this chapter that children can encounter chaos and become demons on Earth, where people think they're safe. Here's my evidence: First, he's cagey about when he affixed when Alden asks, just telling him it was before Alden. He seems very comfortable with the system in his head like it's been there a while. And Alden can't think of any time when Boe's personality changed or showed evidence of affixation. So maybe he's only known Boe since after he affixed, and they met in 6th grade. Second, when he first meets Boe with his ugly scarf, they have brief exchange and then Alden thinks to himself that he feels sorry for him: "Alden felt pretty sorry for him. Clearly whatever impression he’d been attempting to make had gone awry. Scarf kid whipped back around and glared at him, nostrils flaring. “I don’t want you to pity me,” he spat." So he knew what Alden was feeling toward him at that point without Alden saying anything about it. Third, he sits as far away as he can from everybody and tells Alden he can't have friends. That something a child might do if he's dealing with things like being bombarded by other peoples' feelings without being able to control them, which leads me to the darker.. Fourth: we know he thinks he's done something unforgivable. Maybe in a fit of child rage, he used Skill #2 and damaged his own parents' brains, permanently changing them, making them apathetic and listless. It's why teenage Boe has to take care of them. It's why child Boe has to knit his own scarf. And it's why he can't have friends, both because he doesn't think he deserves them, but more importantly because he's terrified of damaging anyone he gets close to.
Agree. Although the damage to his parents might not have been due to skill#2. He might have done the damage as the demon/chaos he was turning into. The system probably gave him those particular skills so he could mitigate the damage.
Thank you for the soup! It's full of very nutritive answers!
Delicious soup
*wriggles with whole-body anticipation*
The SECOND I check. WOOT!
A day early!!!!
Delicious soup to keep warm!
Soooooup
Holy hell, it’s a small letter word in the title
My Soup!!!