CH 290 – Delete, Escape, Undo (Part 2)

“I didn’t release them,” I told Augustus for the third time now.

“I know,” he replied, yet again.

“Then why do you look like that?” I asked.

We were walking through the tented camp. Escorted, really, given the uniformed guards in front and behind us. Their boots struck the broken stone in a steady rhythm, though the sound was lost among the rest of the noise around us.

To my relief, no one had put the Black Mana Cuffs back on me. However, Augustus’s expression did not give me much confidence that the cuffs would not reappear on me shortly.

The camp was louder now than when I had first arrived. The alarm had stopped screaming overhead, but unfortunately that was not a sign that the two criminals had been caught. Quite the opposite. The camp was filled with orders being shouted over one another, portals snapping open and closed, and of course the explosions—missing criminals or not, we were still on the front line of an active battlefield that had fully awakened.

Augustus sighed and paused walking. He held up one hand to the guards.

“Give us a moment.”

The four guards glanced at one another. The eldest of them, a broad-shouldered woman with a nose that had been broken at least twice, glanced toward the large command tent in the distance, then looked at me.

I smiled politely, but she averted her gaze to Augustus.

“Fine, there’s time for a ‘moment,’ but nothing more than that.”

She then motioned to the rest of the guards to move a few steps away from us, providing us with some privacy. They remained close enough to observe, but far enough to at least pretend they were not listening. Not that it would have mattered. Augustus put up a sound barrier around us.

Augustus pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.

“The issue is that it might not matter,” he said. “No, rather, it does not matter.”

I blinked.

“The truth doesn’t matter?” I asked.

“No.” Augustus shook his head. “It does not.”

His index finger swept over my attire. The light taupe jacket. The black silk shirt. The white pants that had managed to remain as pristine as when I first put them on, despite my fall off the red-clay ridge.

“I had the foresight to protect you against physical attacks,” Augustus said. “But I missed the mark entirely and allowed you to walk straight into Eclipse’s trap.”

“Well, I was pushed into it…” I muttered.

Then the rest of his words registered.

“And Eclipse? This is them??”

Augustus nodded. “The two criminals that disappeared, they are involved with that organization.”

Damn it.

A stretcher team hurried past us, and one of the healers shouted for someone to move a crate of Hilt Potions out of the way. Whoever the command had been directed at did not move quickly enough. The healer flicked two fingers, and the crate went skidding across the wet mud with a loud scrape. The bottles rattled inside, but none broke.

I clenched my fists.

I had realized I was in hot water immediately. What I had not realized was that I was already being boiled alive by the second. I had thought I still had time to fix this. If I kept the cuffs on, contacted Augustus, and maintained the status quo, surely the situation would resolve itself.

However, I was horribly wrong.

Every moment I had remained there had apparently been another moment of Eclipse’s plan unfolding.

“It doesn’t matter,” Augustus said. “Perception is all that really matters, and it is currently working hard against you.”

“Augustus,” I said, forcing each word out carefully. “But I did not release them. That is the truth.”

“Their cuffs disappeared,” Augustus replied.

“They probably found the key they claimed to have forgotten.”

I had told Augustus the entirety of the events once already in the limited time before we returned to camp. Being pushed through the portal. Evelia’s theatrics. Peter’s threat. The attack from the enemy camp and my fall off the ridge. Void acting to protect me.

All of it.

Augustus gave me a look and sighed.

“General Alessia holds the keys to all Glimver Dungeon restraints currently deployed on the southern front,” he said. “The keys to Evelia Maren’s and Peter Malvek’s restraints were not misplaced. I checked with her myself. She still had them in her possession.”

I opened and closed my mouth like a fish.

“I’m… being framed.”

“Obviously.” His lips curved up, but whatever amusement existed there did not reach his eyes.

Augustus glanced toward the guards. The woman made a small twirling motion with her fingers.

Wrap it up.

He nodded to her, and we continued our slow walk toward the large tent in the distance.

“From a procedural standpoint,” Augustus continued, “the facts currently on record are rather poor. You were last seen entering Aegus Matrinovo’s tent. You then vanished with him. Two high-risk Glimver detainees from the lower floors were subsequently declared rogue. You appeared on an unauthorized ridge with said prisoners. An enemy engagement followed. When reinforcements arrived, the prisoners were gone, their restraints were gone, and your elemental had further demonstrated its capability to suppress the unimaginable.”

I felt a headache forming.

"Void didn't remove them," I stated. "And I sent a message. That had to have counted for something.”

Augustus clicked his tongue. “Maybe. But you also confirmed that they had their cuffs on at the time and that they were requesting you to take them off. Moreover, there's precedence of Void acting in ways you did not intend.”

"Void didn't release them," I stated more firmly.

The shadow beneath me was still, with Void fast asleep. He had told me he did not release the cuffs. And I believed him. Void was many things, but he did not lie to me.

Augustus sighed.

"It's not that simple..." he said. "The list of potential charges is long."

~Hah, way to put yourself into a corner. Apophis hissed from my shoulder, evidently entirely unperturbed by the direness of my situation.

I could only hope it was because he had some nugget of wisdom as to how to get out of this forsaken situation rather than simply being an evil and coldhearted snake.

“Unauthorized departure from assigned supervisory custody. Suspected collusion with high-risk detainees. Material interference with military restraint devices. Obstruction of prisoner recovery protocol. Reckless endangerment during an active Level Four emergency. Aiding and abetting unlawful flight under wartime authority. Failure to preserve evidence. Refusal or inability to account for detainee disappearance.” Augustus listed out the charges, full of legalese speech.

I swallowed.

“All of that? Really?”

“Yes,” Augustus said. “Unfortunately, that is your reality. I have enough foresight to know that’s what you’re dealing with.”

Another group of mages hurried past us, though this group was younger than the others, and they spared us a look and a wave. Whether it was toward Augustus or me, I wasn’t sure.

“To be clear,” Augustus said, “I do not believe you did it. Hira likely does not believe you did it. General Alessia, once she has time to think beyond the immediate security breach, may also come to the same conclusion. Unless of course…” He left the sentence hanging, but I understood.

It was General Alessia’s word against mine.

Since I knew Void had not deleted the cuffs, that meant one of several things had occurred: someone had bypassed her authority, there existed another previously unknown method of removing Glimver restraints, she had been negligent with the keys, or she had helped the criminals escape.

None of those possibilities were favorable to me.

The first two implied a failure in security. The third implied incompetence. And the fourth implied treason.

Given the severity of those options, it was likely far more convenient for General Alessia if the explanation was simply that I had removed the cuffs.

“In any case, the reality is that nothing prevents you from being questioned, detained, or administratively restricted while they determine whether you are a witness, a negligent participant, an accessory, or a threat.”

“I definitely prefer the first option,” I replied.

“You should prefer silence.”

I frowned.

Augustus’s expression sharpened.

“Luca, listen carefully. Where you are going—it is not an academy disciplinary hearing. This is not a faculty vote about whether you should attend classes in cuffs. We are on an active battlefield under emergency military jurisdiction. Normal procedures have been loosened and commanders have broader discretion and authority. Mistakes are made, but forgiven if it was in the name of security—and currently you pose a security risk.”

A nearby portal snapped open, spilling in two soot-covered mages and the smell of wet clay. One collapsed immediately upon arrival, their body half melted off the bones. The other dragged their grotesque figure upright and shouted for a healer.

I had to avert my eyes, lest my memory erode any further.

Augustus waited until we passed them before continuing to speak.

“If someone higher up here decides you are dangerous, they do not need to prove the entire story before limiting your movement. That must have been Eclipse’s true goal.”

I swore.

“Luca,” Augustus said, “to get you out of this mess, I’m getting you proper representation. Someone who knows the technicalities of the law better than anyone else and is creative enough to make the correct interpretation the most convenient one. As luck would have it, she owes me a favor.”

“I appreciate that…” I began.

However, I could tell there was something else unpleasant that Augustus had not yet divulged. I could tell by his expression.

Augustus pursed his lips. “However, she notoriously distrusts any form of communication that is not face-to-face.”

The large tent was close now. It wouldn’t take much longer to reach it. Beside it, I could even hear a short man who was arguing with a guard that he had already given his statement twice.

“Luca, I’m going to have to leave you on your own,” Augustus said. “Not that they would have allowed me to be with you in the interrogation room in the first place.”

Ah.

That was the issue.

For a brief moment, the camp felt louder. The shouts, the distant booms from the valley, and portals cracking open and shut all felt closer, ringing in my ears.

Augustus met my eyes again.

“Luca, remember this: whatever you do, do not answer their questions.”

I frowned. “Not even the basic ones?”

“Especially not the basic ones. Basic questions are how they build timelines, leading to the building of narratives. And narratives are how you’ll get the full brunt of what’s to come.”

“What about Aegus?” I asked.

Augustus laughed. “He’ll be fine. I wouldn’t worry about him. He wasn’t Eclipse’s target. You were. Besides…”

He nodded ahead of me.

Aegus was entering the large tent with two men in tow. The one on his right was a white-haired man whose expression looked like he was walking knee-deep in horse shit. Not that the campground smelled like peonies and jasmine. But his disgust was impossible to misconstrue.

The man was no doubt Aegus’s legal representative, and if appearances were to be trusted, he seemed capable. Or at least he was evidently extremely well paid for his services.

To Aegus’s left was a man who was likely of the medical profession, given that his attire was similar to that of the healers.

The view of the two men made Aegus’s argument clear. He had initially been labeled unsuitable for the battlefield, after all.

Because of me, no less.

“Aegus is backed by House Matrinovo, a medical defense, and the plausible judgment of a traumatized teenager,” Augustus said. “You have a Grade A shadow elemental prone to deleting what is otherwise considered impossible, and an already concerning record.”

I grimaced as the trio disappeared inside the tent.

“And Professor Brennan?” I asked.

I hoped the red-haired mage was on my side, even if she had been a large reason as to why I had been sent to the front lines in the first place.

“Hira should have given her statement already,” Augustus replied. “But do not assume it’ll necessarily help you.”

“What about yours?” I asked.

“I already gave mine as well,” he continued. “And now they will be expecting you to give yours.”

“But you just told me not to speak,” I said.

“Yes,” Augustus replied. “And that remains my advice.”

The guards accompanying me stopped before the large grey command tent that Aegus had gone into. A pair of additional soldiers stood outside, both watching me without a hint of emotion.

Augustus lowered his voice, despite the noise-canceling barrier around us.

“At every step, state that you require the presence of your legal representative. If they ask where you went, require representation. If they ask whether you knew Evelia Maren, require representation. If they ask whether Void can remove restraints—”

“Require representation,” I completed his sentence.

Augustus nodded and lifted a finger.

““No explanations or helpful clarifications. Don’t correct them, either. Got it? In your case, talking will not help one bit. And whatever you could say that might help has already been provided by me and the others.”

I nodded.

There were people in my realm who specialized in contracts, legal revisions, and the comprehension of rules only a few even pretended to respect. However, given the circles I had moved through, almost all disputes were resolved through bribes, threats, or death. It was perhaps not ideal, but it certainly involved less mental gymnastics.

Thus this—what Augustus was describing—was all new to me. I soaked in every word.

“What should I say then?” I asked. “I don’t know if I can just stay quiet.”

“Say only this,” Augustus continued. “‘I am willing to cooperate fully once my legal representative is present.’ Then stop speaking.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

“That’s it,” he replied.

“And if they threaten me?” I asked.

Hadn’t my original purpose in coming to the southern front been to help out with these interrogations? Admittedly, that work was to be done against those considered the kingdom’s enemy. But I had no idea where I fell on the scale of consideration right now.

“They likely won’t,” Augustus said. “Well…”

His tone and words were hardly comforting.

“If they imply noncooperation will reflect poorly on you, repeat that phrase. If they say cooperation would clear up the misunderstanding, repeat it. If they claim they merely need your informal account before the official statement—”

“Repeat it,” I said.

Augustus smiled and continued speaking.

“If they say they are not questioning you and are only conducting a preliminary battlefield incident review—”

“Repeat it.”

“And if they ask you to sign anything, touch anything, identify anything, demonstrate anything, or permit Void to reproduce anything for evidentiary purposes, refuse until your representative is present.”

We were standing in front of the main tent now. There was nowhere else to walk, other than inside.

Just then, the tent flap lifted out from within. A stern-faced officer glanced out.

“Luca Frey, I presume?” a higher-pitched voice than I would have expected came out from his mouth.

I didn’t need to reply. The guards that escorted me affirmed as such.

Augustus placed one hand lightly on my shoulder.

“What should you say?” he asked. “What is the only thing you should keep repeating?”

I looked at the command tent, and then at the guards.

“I require the presence of my legal representative,” I whispered.

Augustus nodded and patted my shoulder.

“Good. Just keep repeating it until I return with your legal representative. I won't be long.”

He retracted the sound-proofing magic around us.

The officer held the tent flap open wider. “Luca Frey, come inside. We don’t have much time to waste. We’re in a Level Four emergency state. Lives are at stake.”

I stepped inside and turned one last time toward Augustus. But to both my dismay and relief, he was gone.

I was on my own.

Or rather, seemingly on my own.

Apophis hissed from my left shoulder, and Void continued to sleep beneath my feet.

I pulled up the Game Store screen just in case, prepared to buy my way out of trouble at a moment’s notice if it came to that.

Though, given my current luck, any solution I purchased would probably create enough impossible evidence to add another charge to the list that Augustus has recounted to me.

Still, if my life truly was in danger, I had options.

I had even managed to avoid using up my Hindsight Reflex skill. And A Fool’s Escape remained untouched as well.