The first thing I did after leaving the Vellmore estate was find somewhere quiet enough to let Facsimile wear off without attracting attention. I had no intention of standing in the middle of the street while my borrowed face changed back into my own. Haremdale had enough gossip without me giving people another reason to stare.
I settled beneath the awning of a closed shop and watched the passing crowd while the familiar pressure of the ability slowly faded. My reflection in the shop window shifted, the guard’s features giving way to my own. I straightened my coat and checked that I hadn’t left anything behind. The uniform was still where I’d hidden it, and the unconscious guard would hopefully wake up with little more than a headache and a very confusing afternoon.
It had been a productive visit, all things considered. I had managed to get inside the estate, spoken to someone who might prove useful, and arranged to see her again. More importantly, Garret had given me a possible way to learn about the household’s deliveries without having to sneak through restricted rooms every time I wanted information.
Of course, there was the small matter of the identity I’d used to accomplish all that.
Garret knew me as Felix. Not Joseph, and certainly not as someone who had entered the estate under a borrowed face. If I wanted to maintain the connection, I would have to keep that distinction straight. One careless introduction could unravel the whole arrangement, and I had no desire to explain why a guard she’d spoken to that morning had suddenly become a stranger.
I started towards the eastern market, intending to familiarise myself with the place Garret had mentioned. It was better to know the surroundings before meeting her. I could hardly claim to know the little restaurant if I had to ask three different shopkeepers for directions.
The market was busy, with merchants calling out prices and customers arguing over the quality of their purchases. I found the place without much difficulty. It was a modest establishment tucked between a baker and a shop selling household goods. Nothing particularly impressive, but it looked clean, and the food smelled considerably better than the inn’s usual offerings.
I made a note of its location and continued walking.
There was still time before Garret finished her duties, and I had more important things to consider than dinner. The records I’d seen inside Vellmore were suspicious, but they were not enough to establish what I wanted. Payments had been redirected, shipments had gone missing, and there had been a meeting involving someone connected to the Thorn Collective. That was a collection of clues, not a conclusion.
I needed names. Dates. Something that connected the transactions to the people arranging them.
The System appeared in the corner of my vision.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[MAJOR NARRATIVE SHIFT DETECTED]
[STORY DIVERGENCE INCREASED]
Previous Divergence: 20%
Current Divergence: 30%
I stopped walking.
Thirty percent?
I opened the notification again, half expecting the number to change or the System to admit it had made a mistake. It did neither. The increase was real, and ten percentage points was far too much to dismiss as some minor adjustment to the plot.
A second panel appeared beneath it.
[IDENTIFIED NARRATIVE DEVIATIONS]
[1. UNSCRIPTED COMPANION DEVELOPMENT]
The Hero has developed a romantic attachment to Sera Voss, an individual absent from the original companion progression.
[2. UNSCRIPTED FACTION ASSOCIATION]
The Hero’s developing attachment to Sera Voss has created an unforeseen connection between the Hero’s companion progression and the Thorn Collective, a faction not involved in this stage of the original narrative.
[Narrative integrity: Significant deviation detected.]
I stared at the explanation for a few seconds before letting out a slow breath.
Well, that certainly explained the increase.
In the original manuscript, Ren was supposed to pursue Clara. She was the companion whose trust he was meant to earn during his time in Haremdale, and their relationship was supposed to form part of his progression towards the Dragon Kingdom. His journey had a direction. His romantic development had a direction. For a while, events had followed that structure closely enough that I could still recognise the outline of the story.
Then Sera had entered the picture.
Ren developing feelings for her was already a significant departure. She had not been part of his original companion progression, and there was no reason for their relationship to have developed the way it had. The fact that he was still travelling with Clara did not make the change any less important. If anything, it made the situation more complicated.
The second deviation was what concerned me most. Sera’s connection to the Thorn Collective meant Ren’s personal life was beginning to overlap with a political conflict that had nothing to do with his original route through Haremdale. I still didn’t know the full extent of her involvement, and I wasn’t prepared to treat suspicion as proof. But the System clearly considered the connection significant.
I rubbed the bridge of my nose.
Ren had managed to turn a romantic development into a faction problem. That was impressive, in a deeply inconvenient sort of way.
The Archive opened when I called for it.
[AUTHOR’S ARCHIVE]
[Current Divergence: 30%]
[WARNING: Narrative divergence is affecting the reliability of stored manuscript information.]
I read the warning twice. The Archive had always been my greatest advantage. Knowing what was supposed to happen had helped me avoid danger, recognise important characters and make decisions before the consequences became obvious. But if the story continued moving away from its original structure, that knowledge would become less dependable.
I couldn’t build every decision around events that might no longer happen.
That was something I would have to accept sooner rather than later.
A passing merchant bumped my shoulder, muttered an apology and continued on his way. I stepped aside, closing the interface before anyone noticed me standing still in the middle of the street. Thirty percent divergence was a problem, but it wasn’t one I could solve by staring at a notification.
Besides, I had my own work to do.
Garret was an opportunity, provided I didn’t become careless. She had access to inventory sheets and household deliveries, and her position might allow her to notice discrepancies that the guards would never see. I hadn’t expected to find such a convenient contact during my infiltration, but I wasn’t going to waste the chance.
There was also the question of how I would approach her from now on. She knew Felix, not me. If I continued using his face, I needed to be certain that I could maintain the disguise convincingly. Facsimile copied appearance, not memories, voice or mannerisms. I had already learned how dangerous that limitation could be when someone expected me to know details about the person I was impersonating.
Perhaps I should have chosen a less complicated ability.
Then again, it was difficult to complain about a power that let me walk into a noble estate wearing someone else’s face.
I found a table outside a small tea shop and ordered something to drink. While I waited, I considered the next step. I could not ask Garret directly about suspicious shipments without making her wonder why I was interested. The inventory suggestion had given me a natural reason to speak with her again, so I would start there. If she was comfortable discussing her work, I could gradually learn which deliveries were unusual and who had access to the records.
It would take patience.
Unfortunately, patience was one of the few things I couldn’t acquire through a system reward.
By the time I finished my drink, the afternoon had begun to move towards evening. I returned to the restaurant near the eastern market and chose a table where I could see the entrance. Garret had said she sometimes went there after work, though she hadn’t promised to meet me at a particular hour. I didn’t want to appear too eager, but leaving before she arrived would defeat the purpose of asking her in the first place.
I waited, watching people pass the window.
My thoughts returned briefly to Ren and the stranger the servants had been discussing. I still didn’t know exactly what had happened between him and Sera, or how much of their relationship was known outside their immediate circle. The System had confirmed a narrative change, not handed me a complete account of their private lives. I would have to be careful not to assume more than I knew.
That was becoming a recurring problem.
I also needed to decide what to tell her about the guard’s sudden interest in her work. Too much enthusiasm would look suspicious, but too little might make her think the invitation had been a joke. I would keep the conversation light, let her speak about the estate and listen for details she volunteered herself. If nothing useful came of it, at least I would have learned whether the food was worth returning for. There were worse ways to spend an evening, even under an assumed identity. Honestly.
The door opened, and I looked up.
For a moment, I wondered whether Garret would recognise me without the uniform. Then I remembered that I was still supposed to be Felix when she saw me. I would have to make sure the next use of Facsimile was ready before I approached her. There was no point ruining a promising connection because I had grown impatient.
I settled back in my chair.
Thirty percent divergence. A new companion development for Ren, an unexpected connection to the Thorn Collective, and a manuscript that was becoming less reliable by the day. Meanwhile, I was sitting in a restaurant waiting for a servant I’d met while pretending to be someone else.
It was hardly the grand adventure I’d imagined when I first discovered the System.
Still, it was a start.
And if I played this carefully, Garret might become the most useful person I’d met since arriving at Vellmore.