/n/jackal-among-snakes-1520/c-499
chapter-498

When Durran returned on wyvernback, bearing seven papers that he gave to Elenore with a casual gesture, she was beset by so many emotions they were uncountable. She wanted to hit something very hard, preferably Dario, and perhaps cry a little while doing so. She didn't do that, but it took so much effort to restrain that instinct all she could do was stand in shocked silence while Durran sat on a chair in her office.

"Really don't know what it is with that guy. He'd rather bleed from his eyes than kill me. Can't say I'd make the same decision if I was in his shoes." Durran removed his pauldron, which had been partially wrecked by something. “But he did. So I’m alive. If only the rest of the world worked like he does…”

Elenore walked up to him with steady steps. The panic she'd felt had been so overwhelming. She had resisted the urge to muster an army to stop Dario only just. Now it ended all like this. She reached out a hand and rested it on his head, gently stroking his hair as the others held the papers she’d received.

"Dario... he escaped?" Her voice was quiet.

"He got in undetected. Got out the same way. I had a harder time of things. A little difficult to explain why some of their automatons came to life in my brief little visit. Fortunately for me, his exit did catch some eyes, so I had a decent enough alibi. It was a lot of trouble… but in the end, all worth it." He smiled at her, golden eyes shining in the dark. "Go on. Read the papers."

Elenore felt that was rather the last thing she cared about at present. But seeing his cat-like eyes proud of the prey that he’d caught made it impossible to say no. She continued to stroke his hair as she lifted them up with one hand and read the first of the documents.

“This is about Sandelabara,” Elenore said after a while, looking at Durran intently. She expected him to have already read it all.

“I would say that we got lucky, but the entirety of the documents seemed to be about the place,” Durran nodded proudly. “Whatever entity is standing behind Dario, I think we can safely say two things. One—it wants us to stop Gerechtigkeit. Two—it wants us to keep the cycle going rather than end it, the key to which lies in Sandelabara.” He rose to his feet, setting his pauldron down on a nearby table. “We’re close, Elenore. Closer than I ever thought we’d get.”

He started to walk away, but Elenore grabbed his forearm and kept him there. She didn’t want him to leave—not yet. He’d need to endure a few hours by her side, at the very least. Not for him—for her. And Durran, ever adroit at understanding the emotions she herself did not grasp, smiled quietly and remained at her side.

“There’s two other names in that paper,” Durran told her after a long time. “Mozzahr’s name. Traugott’s name. They’re listed in the same breath as Argrave. Mozzahr for his independent research… and Traugott for his theft of it. These documents keep track of everything that we’ve been doing. They’re almost… omniscient. He’s somehow been monitoring people that are nearing Sandelabara.”

Elenore refocused. “Do you mean to tell me that Dario—or whoever is behind him—considers Mozzahr and Traugott legitimate contenders to reach Sandelabara?”

“He does indeed,” Durran nodded. “I deduced that he was acting alone—at least among mortals. But we can assume that everything we do, even this conversation right now, is being heard by something.” He waved his hand around. “Given the fact Dario seemed to know that we were speaking through a connection, and severed it personally, I don’t think that’s exempt either. I suspect that our listener is whatever entity was possessing those golems.”

Elenore gripped his wrist a little tighter. She didn’t know what he was talking about when he mentioned possessing golems, but there seemed to be more important matters of contention. “What are we dealing with? There’s no way Argrave could be ignorant of something so powerful if it was within his purview.”

“Nothing on those papers told me what I needed to know,” Durran sighed drearily. “They were just tracking our progress. ‘Our’ meaning everyone who’s nearing the truth of the cycle. And all of it confirms that our progress has been entirely on the right track.”