Chapter 10: The First True Test
The message on his desk had been chillingly clear: someone else knew. Someone else was manipulating the Ledger, and they knew Elias was doing the same. The paranoia Elias usually kept carefully tucked away now thrummed beneath his skin, a constant, unsettling vibration. He spent the next few days in a heightened state of alert, subtly observing his colleagues, watching for any sign of a kindred spirit in the shadows. He found nothing. The Bureau remained a labyrinth of diligent clerks and humming machines.
The calm was shattered by the arrival of a priority dispatch: Commander Valerius, the same Rank 4 Legion officer whose Earth Core theft Elias had anonymously exposed, was back. Not just back, but aggressively so. He hadn't just been reassigned; he was now heading a special internal investigation unit, and his first target was the recent string of "unexplained karmic anomalies" within the Bureau itself. Elias felt a cold knot tighten in his stomach. This wasn't a coincidence. Valerius was connected, and he was coming for him.
His Karma Lens, now a constant presence in his pocket, felt heavy. He could almost see the distorted karmic threads emanating from Valerius, twisted by the corruption Elias had exposed, now retaliating. This was a true test. His earlier manipulations had been subtle, indirect. This required a direct countermove, one that leveraged his growing network and knowledge without exposing himself.
Elias thought of Mei Lin. Naive, idealistic Mei Lin, whose family held sway in the powerful Alchemists' Guild. He knew the Guild, with its vested interest in the Ledger's infallibility, would react strongly to any insinuation of its imperfection. They were also fiercely protective of their reputation and influence, especially regarding military contracts.
He approached Mei Lin during a lunch break, feigning a casual conversation about the recent Sutra AI glitches. "It's quite concerning, isn't it?" he mused, stirring his tea. "This Valerius, this new Commander leading the investigation... he seems rather, ah, aggressive. Unusually so for a standard internal review. Almost as if he has a personal agenda."
Mei Lin, still struggling with the concept of Ledger imperfections, frowned. "But the Ledger wouldn't select someone with a personal agenda for such an important task, would it, Analyst Thorne? It prioritizes impartiality."
Elias offered a faint, almost imperceptible smile. "Perhaps. Or perhaps the Ledger, in its wisdom, knows that sometimes the most 'impartial' tool is a very sharp one. Tell me, Mei Lin, how closely does your family's Guild work with the Legion on their cultivation drug supplies? I recall hearing something about a new batch of Prana Amplifiers having... minor stability issues, coincidentally around the same time Commander Valerius was implicated in that minor 'resource allocation' discrepancy."
Mei Lin's eyes widened. "Stability issues? I haven't heard anything! My uncle, he manages many of the Legion contracts for the Guild. Any instability would be a massive concern, a direct threat to our reputation!"
Elias leaned back, feigning innocence. "Just a rumor, of course. But rumors, when they touch upon vital supplies and the integrity of high-ranking officers, can be very... persuasive." He let the words hang in the air, allowing Mei Lin's idealism and her family loyalty to do the work for him.
Mei Lin, ever diligent, quickly excused herself. Elias knew what she would do. She would report the "rumor" to her family. The Alchemists' Guild, fearing damage to their lucrative Legion contracts and eager to protect their own standing, would launch their own discreet investigation into Valerius, looking for any way to discredit a potential threat to their reputation. They wouldn't care about karmic truth; they'd care about strategic advantage.
Within days, the gossip network within the Legion and the Guild hummed. Whispers of Commander Valerius's "reckless disregard for Guild protocols" and "potential security risks to Legion supplies" began to circulate. The Grand Council, always sensitive to major Guild interests and the stability of the Aegis Legions, quietly intervened. Valerius, already under suspicion, was not disgraced, but he was effectively neutralized. His "special investigation unit" was dissolved, and he was reassigned to a permanent, non-combat advisory role far from the core territories.
Elias felt a surge of triumph, quickly tempered by a grim realization. This was too direct. He had used a blunt instrument – Meilin's connections – and though it had worked, it had created too much noise. He had exposed a crack in the system, but in doing so, he had drawn attention to the very method of his influence. He needed to be subtler, more like the mysterious individual who had left him the note.
That thought brought him back to the message, and to the Tea House. He decided to revisit the area, just to observe. As he passed a narrow alleyway near 'The Harmonious Brew,' a foul smell hit him. Two city guards were cordoning off the area. A body bag was being zipped closed.
"What happened here?" Elias asked, his voice rough.
"Just a vagrant, Analyst," one of the guards said dismissively. "Looks like a bad fall. Drunk, probably."
But Elias knew better. He glanced down. A single, intricately carved wooden bead lay on the grimy cobblestones, half-hidden beneath a discarded fruit peel. It was a Naga charm, the kind often worn by those involved in espionage. He knew that charm. He had seen it on the Naga informant from the tea house, the one who had been watching him and Scholar Yan.
A shiver ran down his spine. The Naga hadn't fallen. And as Elias discreetly pulled up the Bureau's real-time karmic updates on the location, a terrifying realization dawned on him. The individual's karmic signature, usually persistent even in death, was gone. Completely. The Ledger showed no record, no trace of his existence beyond the immediate physical remnants. His karma, his very essence, had been manually erased from the Ledger.
Someone else wasn't just manipulating the Ledger's flaws. Someone else had the power, and the ruthlessness, to rewrite reality itself within its vast, supposedly infallible database. And they had just sent Elias a very clear, very final message.