The Archmetamagician: The Weave Collapses Again

'Truly, all things in this world are ever-changing.'

Anser looked at Liam's delighted expression and couldn't help feeling a little emotional.

The Deck of Many Things certainly lived up to its name, but it was also genuinely good at screwing people over. Even when it gave you something good, all it guaranteed was that the result would be right; the process was just as unpredictable as ever.

Not to mention that a full third of its cards were extremely dangerous.

In the ruined corridor, Liam stroked the shield he had finally recovered, feeling somewhat ashamed.

Looking back now, Anser had never actually said he wouldn't return it, and his attitude had been perfectly reasonable at first.

If Liam had controlled his emotions back then and hadn't spoken so aggressively, he might have gotten it back long ago.

Just then, hurried footsteps came from below.

A griffon rider stopped at the stairway and shouted upward, "Vice Captain, Rezo is gone!"

"What?!"

Liam slung the shield onto his back, leapt down, and strode outside.

The griffon rider hurried after him, quickly reporting what had happened. "The manor's steward said nobles should maintain their dignity, so he took Rezo to a bedroom to wash up and change clothes. We had men stationed outside the doors and windows."

"When the clerk went to take his statement just now, no one answered the door. They forced it open and found him gone. The steward and the maid had both been knocked unconscious..."

"Did anyone hear anything unusual?" Liam asked with a frown.

"No. Everyone was at their post. Nobody heard a thing."

As they spoke, the two reached the neighboring building.

Anser quietly followed through the Ethereal Plane. He couldn't hear them, but he could tell that something had definitely happened.

Liam entered the room.

It was a guest room, very clean, with every window open. The lawn outside was neat and level, without a single stray trace.

He turned and stepped back outside, fixing the steward—whose forehead was swollen and bruised—with a cold stare.

"What happened?"

"I don't know!" The steward looked utterly bewildered. Then his eyes shifted, and realization seemed to dawn on him. "It must have been that winged man who took the young lord! You have to rescue the young lord..."

"Do you take me for an idiot?" Liam laughed in exasperation.

For Anser, killing Rezo would be as easy as crushing an ant. He had countless ways to deal with him. He hadn't made a move earlier, so how could he possibly have changed his mind afterward?

Still, Liam understood that the steward probably really knew nothing.

"Send someone to hurry the Watchmen along. Seal off the manor and search—"

"Yes..."

But the four griffon rider squads had only twenty men between them. Their combat strength was considerable, but when it came to finding someone, they were badly undermanned.

At the end of the day, the Griffon Cavalry was a military force. Its primary duty was aerial defense, not law enforcement.

Watching from the side, Anser understood the situation immediately.

He began searching outward at top speed, his Truesight sweeping every corner without exception.

'They shouldn't have gotten far!'

He himself was a master of teleportation magic. Spells of that kind caused obvious disturbances in both magic power and space. Since his Truesight hadn't detected anything, the culprit had most likely used invisibility or a similar ability.

'Who could it be? Are they trying to frame me?'

The idea struck him as rather stupid. How could the magistrate possibly believe it?

Anser's Truesight was far beyond that of ordinary people, with a range exceeding 72 meters. Within a few minutes, he had searched the entire manor, yet found no invisible creatures.

'Either they're hiding underground, or they've already gotten far away.'

After thinking for a moment, he revealed himself in a vineyard outside the manor, pulled out a deck of tarot cards, and handed it to Maeve.

"Divine where Rezo is."

Maeve lazily closed her eyes and rested one small paw on the tarot cards. A faint magical glow rose around her body.

A moment later, she casually shuffled the cards a few times, then began drawing them one after another. She drew ten in total and arranged them neatly.

Anser recognized it as a Celtic Cross spread, a technique used by experienced diviners. It was suited for analyzing a problem from every angle, but both the difficulty of interpretation and the margin for error were considerable.

Maeve merely glanced at the cards, raised one small paw, and pointed south.

"The sea."

Anser didn't hesitate. He entered the Ethereal Plane again and gave chase to the south.

After flying only a few kilometers, he spotted two invisible figures at the intersection of Cliffwatch Way and Southcliff Street. One walked ahead of the other as they made their way south along the road at an unhurried pace.

Since the road had been paved, the two hadn't even left footprints behind. No matter how sharp a griffon's eyesight was, there would be no trace for it to spot from the air.

The dejected figure in the rear was none other than Rezo.

'So he's trying to escape.'

Anser trailed behind them, somewhat puzzled.

He had spoken with Liam about it. Unlawfully restricting another person's freedom wasn't a serious crime. There had been no slave trading and no forcing decent women into prostitution. Combined with the protection afforded by his noble status, even if Rezo were brought before the nobles' court, the punishment would amount to a fine, a flogging, and a few months in prison.

But once his escape was discovered, the charges against him would undoubtedly become more serious.

For a noble like Rezo, leaving Waterdeep was no different from leaving a safe zone. Abandoning so much just to escape punishment for an offense this minor was clearly abnormal.

Anser followed behind them, focusing his attention on the unremarkable middle-aged man in front.

The die spun for quite some time before displaying the target's information:

[Senior member of House Cassalanter's Osprey Society, Human, Level 17 Rogue (Arcane Trickster)]

'What the hell is the Osprey Society? An intelligence agency?'

House Cassalanter had even dispatched a peak-level professional specifically to rescue Rezo. They were certainly taking this seriously.

After giving it some thought, Anser chose not to inform Liam of what he had discovered and instead quietly continued trailing the two.

Before long, a deep-blue coastline appeared ahead, and the two headed straight for the shore.

There was a fishing town there, with more than a dozen vessels docked at its pier, including both fishing boats and merchant ships.

Waterdeep's harbor was busy and its taxes were relatively high, so anchoring outside the city could save a considerable amount of money. The downside was that supplies were less comprehensive and transferring cargo was more troublesome.

Anser immediately spotted House Cassalanter's distinctive cockatrice crest. An idea occurred to him, and he went ahead of them, entered the ship, disguised himself as a crewman currently off duty, and hid outside the window of the largest passenger cabin.

Sure enough, the two boarded the ship shortly afterward.

Rezo entered the cabin first, followed by a man wearing a captain's hat. The Arcane Trickster was nowhere to be seen.

"Uncle, let me off the ship. Tell my mother I went to Daggerstrand. She won't blame you." Rezo looked at the man blocking the doorway, his expression rather grim.

"Rezo, I just came out of the city. The situation is worse than we expected. Pandira Island will be safer." The captain moved to close the door.

Rezo quickly raised a hand to stop him. "What's happening in the city?"

"Your villa has been surrounded by paladins. Even the magistrates can't get inside. There's also been considerable trouble at the family estate. The head of the house has ordered us to suspend all operations and avoid provoking the council." The captain looked helplessly at Rezo.

"How did it... get this serious?"

"If you're arrested, the situation could spiral out of control. The interrogation rooms in the nobles' court are under a Zone of Truth. Once someone goes in, they can't keep any secrets hidden. You should understand what that means."

Rezo immediately fell silent.

Until now, he had still been clinging to the hope that his mother could easily get him released on bail and that he wouldn't have to undergo interrogation at all.

Seeing this, the captain shook his head and sighed, then firmly locked the door.

Outside the window, Anser's heart began pounding. He slipped into the Ethereal Plane and followed the captain.

The die quickly detected his information:

[Captain from a collateral branch of House Cassalanter, Human, Level 3 Sorcerer (Storm Sorcery), Level 4 Warlock (The Fiend)]

'Now that's exactly what I wanted to see!'

Anser made a circuit through the ship and discovered that the cargo hold was packed with grain, along with more than a dozen crates of firearms and ammunition.

However, none of these were controlled goods, so they couldn't prove that House Cassalanter was involved in anything illicit.

He entered the captain's cabin and looked through the shipping records and logs. He discovered that the White Bird had changed hands just over two months ago and sailed routes between the waters around Waterdeep and the Korinn Archipelago. At first, it had primarily transported migrants, but later switched to carrying weapons, equipment, and grain.

It was now the Month of Fading—September. Just over two months ago was precisely when the Weave had begun to grow unstable and disasters had started occurring one after another.

'Well, if there really is something shady going on, then you can't blame me. I'm just the kind of person who can't stand evil.'

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