tushanshu | 006 video;

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[50% encryption to Nilin]

We should talk. Think I may have actually found something useful for once.

[50% encryption to Skulduggery]

Maker I hate this thing. Skul, Akito and I came across something of interest. Did you go into that library?

[End encryptions]

Let's keep this simple so I don't have to play with this thing much longer. Who here visited the library on the island?

[He pauses for a moment.]

And someone tell Evandau to clear his schedule. I need to talk to him.

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[That's more courtesy than people normally show him. More often than not, people just barge into his home in order to talk to him. Wherever Hawke stays next he'll be looking to hire some security.

This time, he just opens the door.]

I'm not sure if that will ever stop being eerie.

I'm told it takes a few years. What was it you found?

I'll bet.

[Hawke steps out of the way to allow Skul inside.]

Just the origin of our dark overlord and possibly a way to kill it.

[He says it so casually it's like he's talking about the weather.]

[He steps inside without saying anything, surveys the area out of habit, and turns back around with his head tilted to one side before responding.]

And what is our dark overlord's origin?

[As Skulduggery surveys the room, Notch enters and immediately approaches. The hound doesn't even wait to begin sniffing him and Hawke does nothing to stop it.]

It's some kind of construct. The Vilii made it to kill, well, everything so it started by killing them.

[Why did they expect anything different Hawke has no idea. This always happens.]

More importantly there's some kind of stone involved in the ritual that made it. If you ask me, finding that sounds like a great step towards killing this thing.

[Skulduggery nods.] Or it could provide him with more power. Or it could create another construct exactly like him. [He nods again.] But you're right. That does sound like our best bet. Do you have any idea where to start looking?

[He holds a skeletal hand out to Notch while he talks, in an absent-minded bid to encourage the sniffing.]

We all but gave him the city already. At this point I saw we have an equal chance of making things better as we do of making them worse.

[Hawke shrugs.]

With the people who think they now what they're doing, particularly the one that's several centuries old.

[When Skulduggery offers his hand to Notch what the dog sees is an offered bone. He stares at it longingly before looking at Hawke who catches the look.]

Don't you even think about it.

I'm flattered. Don't think about -

[ - ah. With an invisible and yet very unsettled look, Skulduggery withdraws his hand.] I'd really rather you didn't. I still need it. Do you know where the ritual took place?

[Notch huffs out a breath and finds his ball to occupy himself.]

Don't be too flattered. I meant Evandau or one of his pets. One of them really knows what's going on here. I'm sure of it.

[Hawke intends to get answers however he can.]

I don't, but like I said I'm sure one of them do.

Not one of his pets. If Evandau was corrupt from the beginning, he wouldn't have any reason to confide in anyone except perhaps the previous Emperor - and we can't exactly ask her. If he was corrupted recently by our dark overlord himself, he has even less reason to tell anyone anything. If we want answers, we'll have to go straight to him.

[Skulduggery's spoken to Evandau only two or three times before, and found him to be cold but efficient each time. He certainly didn't think there was anything more to it than that. His mistake, really.]

Whoever we go to it'll be risky.

[The more he thinks about the other bit of information he received the more it worries him]

That thing sitting in the palace right now has been in the city for as long as people have been here, and it wasn't just sightseeing. It's been studying everyone, speaking to them hell even befriending them. More importantly, since the last Emperor died its position grew and its gone possessing people of power.

So maybe it's a certain healer who started helping Evandau after the last Emperor died. Maybe it's a certain strange mage who's already asked us to do a number of things for her. Could be the knight that decided to start playing king. Or if we want to go with the worst case scenario, maybe it's all of them.

Hope you're not the paranoid sort.

[Skulduggery nods, impressed.] You read the story about the reluctant Knight on the consoles.

[He's certainly glad not to be the only one taking River's words seriously.]

My paranoia, or lack thereof, depends on who you ask. Evandau has too many advantages not to be saving them up for something devastating. Of course, having said that, I'm not suggesting we trust anyone. That would be silly.

[Hawke smirks.]

When she talks I listen. She's got this awful habit of being right.

[He's known her since she arrived in the city. Since then she's told him things about himself that he never admitted to anyone. This includes himself.]

I trust other Foreigners. Well, the ones that don't want to kill me at least.

Being right is an awful burden.

[Skulduggery would know, of course.]

And are there any Foreigners who want to kill you?

[Hawke ponders that question for a moment.]

At least one I can think of. Maybe two.

[He shrugs without much concern.]

Normally there's too many to keep track so this is a nice change of pace.

[He knows the feeling.]

As long as the one, maybe two people who'd like to kill you realise they should want to kill someone else a little more, it shouldn't matter. Thank you for telling me this.

They're mad, but I don't think they're stupid.

[The ones that are never last long anyway.]

If I didn't I'm sure I'd have Quintus yelling at me about keeping secrets.

[He grins. Of course it's because of Quintus that Hawke knows he can trust Skulduggery.]

Quintus does seem to have a very strange idea of what trust should entail.

[By the turtle's definition, Skulduggery doesn't trust anyone from back home. He'd tried to explain that keeping secrets didn't always mean you didn't trust your friends with those secrets, but he'd finally given up after Quintus didn't seem willing to so much as consider the idea.]

I'll speak with you again, I'm sure.

If you don't I'll likely be dead.

[Hawke states it with a casual shrug.]

Or captured. Or something equally bad.

[Not that Hawke expects to lose this. No he'll fight tooth and nail to survive whatever happens, but if he disappears that's the only likely reason why.]

God forbid any of those come to pass.

[Quintus would never let Skulduggery hear the end of it.]

Try not to attack anyone on your own, and you should be fine.

[Hawke just chuckles.]

I'll try to hold myself back.

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