Elder Cultivator

It was entirely possible that Velvet was overthinking things and her suspicions would all come to nothing. On the other hand, it was possible that the whole of Alliance security was in danger. It wasn’t too ridiculous to believe that even though Vlasta was just one person. Velvet knew what she herself could do, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if Vlasta was similarly capable. Perhaps even better- she couldn’t assume anything.

Obviously, the ambassador was being very closely watched… but the information she was trying to learn might not even be secret. Vlasta might also be looking for people like Durff to find lapses in their security to learn more than she should.

Assuming the woman would walk away with no secrets wasn’t something that had even been considered by the Scarlet Alliance. They just intended to keep the things they considered important out of her hands.

Velvet wanted to look into the woman herself… but she simply didn’t have time to run off into the Trigold Cluster and infiltrate the Distant Shadow Sect. Besides, they might be expecting her if she did. Vlasta might notice a prolonged absence from Velvet.

She was extremely observant. And far too often, Vlasta managed to spot Velvet using her best techniques- even within her home territory. The only way she knew to be less visible was to have Catarina activate certain formations, though the formations themselves would be far more obvious than she ever was.

Velvet was using her presence as something like a training exercise, though it was difficult to give proper feedback. When she thought she was unnoticed, she couldn’t be quite certain. There were techniques to tell when one was being observed, but they weren’t perfect. Relying only on the woman’s eyes was certainly insufficient to know if she’d been spotted.

There was one thing Velvet was considering that likely overstepped even her bounds as spymaster. That was to directly infiltrate Vlasta’s room while she was away. While most likely any secrets would be kept in a storage bag, she had some hope. But potentially ruining their relationship with the first actual ambassador was a risky proposition. That was a line that should not be crossed without good reason, not just because of her status but the connection to Koronis and the Creeping Fire Sect. They really didn’t need a Domination cultivator angry at them for an actual reason. Zaur was bad enough, even though their first conflicts had probably been the fault of Everheart.

Was Vlasta working with Everheart? There wasn’t really any reason to believe that, but it was an angle that had to be considered. That was the problem. Vlasta could be up to anything.

Though if Velvet was being honest, there was only one area she’d spotted so far that might actually be worth risking everything. It all came back to Durff. If somehow she was aware of the connection between Durff and Ratna- a Domination cultivator- there was all sorts of trouble Vlasta could get up to. The Trigold Cluster wasn’t exactly harmonious, and if the Creeping Fire Sect intended to make a move once Koronis fully reached Domination, they might try something involving Durff.

Capturing him to make Ratna hesitate, killing him to destabilize her emotions, or interrogating him to learn some sort of weakness… all of that could be worth whatever the Scarlet Alliance might do. Maybe they weren’t being considered at all.

-----

“You need to sleep,” Catarina said to Velvet.

“You need to sleep!” Velvet countered ungracefully. “No, wait. You need to tell me what sort of formations the ambassador has on her room.”

“There are quite a number. She is well protected, of course. Ah, but…” Catarina looked over Velvet. “You mean anything she might have added herself.”

“It would be a shame if they were interfering with the local formations somehow and made things unsafe.”

Catarina shook her head. “Nice try. If you can give me a good reason, I’d think about it. But even for you… it’s too risky.”

What could Velvet say? That she had a hunch? No, even if it was a proper insight she had to admit herself that finding anything in Vlasta’s private quarters was fairly unlikely. There was no way she would try to delve into the woman’s storage bags while she carried them on her, and finding a moment where that wasn’t the case would be pretty much impossible.

-----

Durff stared at Velvet. Velvet looked straight back. He tilted his head. “... Have you been practicing some sort of vision technique?”

“I get it! I need to sleep!”

“Oh,” Durff nodded. “Then you should do that. Why have you not been sleeping?”

“Because of the ambassador.”

“Why? She seems nice.”

Velvet’s eye twitched. “She’s always snooping around, asking about… things.”

Durff shrugged. “You do that too, and you’re nice.”

Velvet let out a sigh. “How reliable is your insight regarding people? Do you often get tricked?”

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“Not when I keep good friends around,” Durff said. “It usually only happened with new people I don’t know.”

While Durff had his flaws, his self assessments were usually quite accurate. He knew where he struggled and wasn’t ashamed to admit that. Whereas Velvet… didn’t even know she was on the right track at all.

-----

Despite Velvet’s greatest wishes, time continued to pass. That meant in order to stick to the schedule- which they had good reason to do, given the rarity of the inter-realm ships- she had to leave soon. Which meant the mystery of Vlasta would go unsolved. And then she would disappear- along with the twins. And Vlasta might learn something dangerous.

They could cancel, of course. It would only take a few years or a decade at most to find another good opportunity. Runa would be somewhat disappointed, but she would understand. A simple message could inform her without posing any risk of security breach.

But Velvet didn’t want to cancel. But she also couldn’t stop thinking about the potential risks Vlasta posed every moment she was awake. Since she couldn’t really sleep, that was pretty much all the time.

Until she forced herself. She wanted to be rested for the upcoming journey. It was better to let sleep come naturally, but since that wasn’t happening she gave in and had a doctor prescribe her sleep medication. Then all she had to do was not filter them out of her body, and she was asleep.

Her dreams were chaotic, and while it seemed like they might cause her to be restless… she woke up at the intended time a few days later. Her mind was clear for a brief moment.

Then she immediately went back to thinking about things she couldn’t do anything about. But a few moments of peace was nice. And her thoughts weren’t quite as jumbled.

She resolved to organize her various suspicions into a form that others could either attempt to verify or disprove while she was gone. What did Vlasta actually want? Velvet didn’t know. Why did she devote so much attention to Durff? Perhaps it was merely a random outlier, but ignoring the only pattern she’d noticed would be a shame. Though it could have been a diversion.

Velvet barely even knew that Vlasta was part of the Distant Shadow Sect. Sure, they had records but little more. Then again, her energy signature checked out. Though something about that pulled Velvet into another hole.

-----

So she was supposed to be leaving things to others. Velvet knew that. She had prepared her report. But she was still here, so she might as well put in the time. And she had certain suspicions.

Vlasta should have been scanned upon entry to Scarlet Alliance territory. Records indicated that all standard scans had returned proper results. But honestly, Velvet wasn’t sure if some of them were even being performed every time. Records didn’t mean anything… and they didn’t have the storage space required to store the information she wanted. Aura scans were not too burdensome one at a time… but literally every person every time they crossed in and out of an area would be a bit much for them to keep track of.

So Velvet planned to do it herself. Though she did get Zazil on board for one of the more obvious ones. They had to check. Because while great disaster had come upon them, if the Twin Soul Sect was here? The Scarlet Alliance had to do something. And Velvet’s insight told her there was something wrong with Vlasta’s aura.

The woman’s reaction to being scanned was… underwhelming. She must have noticed Zazil, but completely brushed it off. Still, that gave Velvet an opportunity to find… nothing. Which meant that if Vlasta was part of the Twin Soul Sect, they’d figured out all of their simple revelation options.

She almost wanted to grab her and throw her in a formation… but that was probably too far. Even so, Velvet found what opportunity she could to get closer and take a deeper look.

Darkness… but not an oppressive darkness. Instead, it was an unknown sort of darkness. Distant may indeed have been the best word for it. But Velvet pushed deeper. Without a proper technique, she was risking much. There were limits to how much one should probe the cultivation of another. However, Vlasta should have been distracted at the moment. This was her best opportunity.

She pushed deeper, finding only more darkness. Further and further, and Velvet was beginning to wonder if her insight had failed her. Then she saw it- not the twisting sort of spectral energy that the Twin Soul Sect favored… but a spark of light. That single thing informed Velvet she had been exactly right to be suspicious. Vlasta was not who she claimed to be. She was ten, no, a hundred times as dangerous as a mere Augmentation cultivator from the Distant Shadow Sect.

Yet even so… Velvet found herself relieved as she withdrew her energy. Everything made so much more sense. How she always seemed to notice Velvet. Why she was so interested in Durff.

Velvet smiled to herself even as piercing eyes turned towards her. She knew Velvet noticed. And she rolled her eyes. But that merely made Velvet more smug. This time, she won.

Or at least she didn’t get fooled again.

That also explained why ‘Vlasta’ was going to have to move on in a relatively short time, instead of taking the position long term. After all, they couldn’t afford to have a Domination cultivator just sitting around so far from home.

Looking at things from the perspective of devotion, Velvet actually wouldn’t have guessed it was Ratna. Only a reasonable amount seemed to be making its way to her, but of course… that made perfect sense. Because whatever her anchor was should be able to absorb it just as much.

Even if there had been something, devotion was much more difficult to track than energy- except for what was coming to or from the cultivator themself. Sensing devotion between others was merely a neat trick.

Velvet was relieved. Sure, she would be leaving the Scarlet Alliance with a Domination cultivator in their midst, and she had to wonder what sort of influence Ratna had over the Creeping Fire Sect and the Distant Shadow Sect. That was actually a serious concern.

But at least nobody was going to try to hurt Durff. And it was quite unlikely that Ratna was going to do anything directly harmful to the Scarlet Alliance.

Velvet should probably still tell someone though. Especially since Ratna almost certainly knew that she knew. If circumstances were different she might ask for training in detection and awareness avoidance from the woman. She would be among the best, after all. But that wasn’t going to work out this time.

She did think about telling Durff. But unless Ratna revealed it herself, that was probably a bad idea. It was unclear if he could keep it a secret, and she probably wanted it secret from the general public. And maybe even her own staff, since they were probably truly convinced she was Vlasta.

Actually, that last part might be true. It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to set up an alternate identity in another sect to make use of when convenient. Or Vlasta could still be far aware, unaware of what was happening. Or she was murdered in her sleep and replaced, and honestly Velvet didn’t care which option it was.

At least she would be able to sleep properly now. Unknown threats were somehow that much worse than merely the third or fourth most troubling situation she could think of.

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