All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 202: All Seeing Eye

Chapter 202: All Seeing Eye

With a decent amount of confusion, I handed off the prize to Bradley's mother rather than the champion himself. Honestly, I understood that this was a dangerous weapon, and I well remembered the universal desire of kids to injure themselves at every opportunity. But at the same time, had she not watched the same display that I had?

Bradley was perfectly capable of wielding The Holy Sword of Draconic Flame and Justice without hurting himself. I had spent months teaching him to hold pointy sticks just for this reason. Plus, even after a half dozen fights at nearly full power, he hadn't injured any of his opponents in the slightest, let alone himself.

As the glowing sword left my claw, Mrs. Chadwick staggered under its considerable weight as she struggled to hold it in place. I considered asking her if I should just hold on to it for now. At least, until she was okay with Bradley taking possession of it?

Pretty soon, the crowd dispersed, leaving the champion to argue with his mother while everyone else went to get some snacks. The tables were now loaded with lunch food. It was past noon, but everyone was too full to eat more after the pies. It seemed that the issue had been resolved though, as people loaded plates with grilled meat and cooked vegetables.

Taking the sword back, I stuck it in my dustbin for now. Maybe she would be okay with me giving it to her son next week. It would take some time for him to get used to using it, so maybe some supervised training was in his future. Turning off the flames with a mental command, I figured it wouldn't hurt to leave it under Beatrice's bed for a bit longer.

As everyone gorged themselves, I started to set up for the next event. This one had a long sign-up sheet, and I was quite excited about it. I needed to fill Beatrice in, but I didn't have any doubt that she would have a blast.

This was actually Felix's idea. In fact, the children had provided the bulk of the ideas for the party events, even if we didn't end up using most of them. A lot were far too impractical. Could we have even built a massive obstacle course, much less hid it from Beatrice? And what was the point of a “haunted house”, anyway? Besides, they didn't all seem to get that this was a one-day event.

Still, some of their ideas were quite good. This castle-wide game of hide and seek was one of the better ones. I liked that we could put a time limit on it too. So I had two sets of prizes for either outcome. If Beatrice was able to find everyone in an hour, then I had a prize for whoever was found last. If more than one was not found within the time limit, I had multiple comparable prizes for the winners. They weren't nearly as good though, so I hoped Beatrice would do her best.

I found her and pulled her away from the few adults that she was in conversation with. As I explained the plan with a mixture of images and beeps, a wide smile grew on her face. She nodded. "Oh this seems fun." But then her face fell a bit. "Though… there might be an issue. How many skills can I use?"

Internally I frowned. That wasn't something I had considered. Did she have skills that would affect her senses? I supposed it would make sense. I did, and it was one of the most useful mutations I had picked aside from that arm and dustbin. Maybe these Sensory Disruptors, too, now that I thought of it.

“I have a skill that makes me aware of all the faithful people around me, and I'm worried that it would make it too easy." Beatrice explained.

"Can you turn it off?" I projected.

"I- I don't know. I've never tried. It was a bit overwhelming at first and I had to work to ignore it, so I don't think so…" She trailed off with a look of concentration coming over her face. After a few seconds, her eyes refocused on me. She shook her head. "I can mute it quite a bit, but it won't go off all the way."

That was good enough, I supposed. Whoever was most clever might still find a way around it. We kept chatting as she filled me in on what it did. It was interesting to learn that people had varying degrees of faith in me. I thought it was pretty clear that I did exist. Apparently, not everyone was one hundred percent convinced.

After giving everyone some time to eat their fill, Susan got up on her podium and called everyone together. Some brought their food over to listen to the announcement, but most were ready for the next activity. "So, next up on the list of events is hide and seek. Beatrice, did Void inform you what you need to do?"

Beatrice gave Susan a thumbs up, so she continued. "Everyone will have five minutes to find a place within the castle walls to hide before the birthday girl starts looking. Last one found is the winner. After you are found, you may start to help looking as well, so keep that in mind everyone."

Susan gave me a meaningful look, and I put up a barrier of wind and projected light around Beatrice, blocking all sight and sound from reaching her "Alright. Five minutes starting… NOW!"

Everyone dashed off, and I rolled to join Beatrice in her barrier. I was going to have fun watching this.

—

Bee looked around at the completely empty castle that appeared around her as everyone disappeared. It only took her a few seconds to realize that it was Void hiding the surroundings from her, since she still felt people’s presences with her dimmed faith sense. Still, it was jarring.

She did her best to push the sensations away from her mind so as not to give her an unfair advantage. The best that she could manage was a dull nagging itch when she was near someone. It would be fine, she hoped.

A few seconds later, Void joined her in her isolated pocket world, just appearing a few feet away like nothing had happened. Above Void was a set of numbers counting down. "Is that a countdown to when I can start looking?"

Her master indicated that it was. Sitting down, she closed her eyes and waited, enjoying the brief moment of quiet. A few minutes later, Void let out a rhythmic beeping pattern, and she opened her eyes to the world's return. The entire castle courtyard was deserted. Even Susan was missing. Standing up, she started looking right away. Some had hidden far away, but she could tell there were still a few people nearby.

Still, after a few steps, Bee had her first victim. She pointed. "Trent you are out. Vera, out. Phil, out…."

As they were called, several people stood up from behind barrels or tables with sheepish grins as they made a beeline for the food still put out. She was glad they had put in at least a token effort for the children, but it was clear they weren't really interested in playing this game. She didn't really blame them. While Void certainly had a magnificent prize in mind, they weren't likely to win it. Plus, if the theme of activity-relevant prizes was held, then they wouldn't have use for it anyways.

Walking closer to the castle, Bee started looking in more tricky places. While some had put more effort into hiding, not all were very good at it, and she had keen eyes. When Bee found the first of the children, she got her first real helpers. Soon, informants were running all over the castle, bringing her tips as they ratted each other out.

It was a bit embarrassing how often she found a couple people hiding in the same spot just by hearing them giggle. A quick pass around the castle and the grounds let her root out the majority. But by Void's count, there were still a dozen people left hiding.

Bee was impressed. Even with her senses dulled, she couldn't help but tell when she was near someone. Now that more had been found though, all the movement cluttered her faith sense with noise. Still, on her first pass, she hadn't thought that she had missed anything.

Then she had an idea. Jogging back over to the copse of trees that housed their resident wolf pack, she poked her head into their den and called Tanu out. The little boy grumbled as he crawled out of the hole. "That was a good spot… How’d ya find me?"

"Using the cubs to disguise your presence was a good idea, but it was too obvious. Once I realized I hadn't found you yet, there was only one place you would be." Bee answered. It was a bit obvious, but the children still needed to get better at thinking from someone else's perspective. Something even a lot of adults struggled with.

A few minutes later, all the Nighty Knights were ousted from their various nooks and crannies. There were just three more stragglers left behind. By Bee’s count, Susan was one of them. The second was a scout from the army, and the last was Mat, one of the first scouts that Susan had trained. He wasn't someone that Bee had talked to much since he had arrived, but her impression of him was not the best. He always seemed a bit silly and easygoing. It was odd to think of him as competent enough to hide from her this long.

Once there were only five minutes left, Void asked her to start using all her senses. As she let up, the web connecting her to all of Void's followers exploded in her mind. It was chaotic enough that she wasn't able to find anyone instantly. Still, she could tell that someone was far away from everyone else.

Heading over in that direction, she watched for any odd movement but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary; everyone was simply milling about in the center of the gathering. So either the last few didn't have any faith in Void, or they had some other way to hide. She knew that Susan had one of the strongest bonds in the castle, so that wasn't it. Also, she knew the one she was closing in on wasn't Susan by feeling too.

She got to the center of the grass field and still had no idea where the feeling was coming from. At least, no visual clues. As she walked closer, the feeling moved away from her, and she got a better idea of what was going on. In a flash, her figure blurred as she darted a hand out. It met the edge of a cloak that was nearly the same color as the background.

The scout from Captain Major's company groaned as he was revealed. "How many more were left? I thought I had it there."

"You were close. Only two more, and I have no idea where Mat or Susan are. Any ideas?"

The scout shook his head. "Naw, my lips are sealed. I want to see how long their tricks will work."

Bee headed back to the group and watched the castle’s inhabitants as they chatted. Where could they be?