When in deep cover, it is essential and most effective that you let those you interact with come to their own conclusions. The sign of a good performance isn’t strain or effort, but harmony and adaptation.

Even if you answer every last detail correctly, memorize the entirety of another’s life, there will be a point where you make a choice so drastically unlike them that it will arouse suspicion. This cannot be avoided. This is the nature of our existence—even with magical enhancement. Short of having a Master-Tier Acting Skill, you won’t be able to fully submerge your own ego and melt into another.

But you can sink deep enough that no one notices, so long as you keep yourself subtle. Don’t volunteer details. Don’t shake what someone thinks of you. Let them define who you are and adjust to fit their mold. You can be active to avoid the passivity trap in these confines.

And ultimately, if things get truly desperate, it is not uncommon for one to fall ill or be impaired in a way that makes it easier to hide whatever inaccuracy or oddity of behavior. Understand that this constrains the effective limits of your cover as well.

After all, playing the simpleton can let you go unnoticed, but no one is going to let a simpleton anywhere near a true position of power…

–The Ways of the Unseen: Aviary Training Manual

35 (I)

Infiltrate

Intimidation > 20

“Okay. Do the expression again.” Adam waved his hand in front of Shiv’s face.

Shiv just stared at him for a beat. Then slowly opened his mouth wide and started staring off at nothing.

“Mouth wider—eyes more distant. More distant. More distant.”

“Adam, my eyes can’t get any more distant. I don’t know what you want from me.”

“Just think about a traumatic moment in your life,” Adam said.

“It was kind of shit when you got back from your academy and decided to make everyone notice me,” Shiv said. “That just makes my hand shake a bit from the adrenaline, though. So does remembering how badly the War Priest and the faithful beat me.” His expression turned to snarl.

“No… no… Shell shock, Shiv. Shell shock. Horrified. Mentally spent and lost inside yourself. Not the face of a snarling dog.”

“Then we’re not going to be able to pull this off with my memories, because the worst ones just piss me off?”

“Godsdammit, you’re useless,” Adam muttered. He dropped his head and looked at Uva. “Uva, can you…” He gestured wildly in Shiv’s direction.

The Psychomancer glared. “First. I can’t get to his mind when he’s wearing the mask. Second, are you truly asking me to mentally damage the mind of someone I care for so they can achieve an exaggerated expression of trauma by being actually traumatized?”

Adam considered her question. “Can you do it if he takes the mask off, briefly?”

Uva clenched her jaw tight and took a step closer to Adam. “Of course, Adept Adam. But this will require careful calibration, so he still has a mind left to perform the incredibly complex and delicate task that is infiltration. A task he is not actually trained for—and has no skills for. I must damage him just right, and to do this, I need a testing canvas first. Being the only other surfacer here—and one that shares a culture and history with him—I think you are the only viable candidate. Wouldn’t you agree?”

By this point, Adam was actively backing away from Uva as she practically loomed over him, her agitation clear with every word. Off by the side, Shiv looked on and sighed. “Broken Moon, that drives me wild.” Back when he was growing up, he never expected people caring for him, let alone getting mad on his behalf. Now, with a very attractive Umbral threatening to destroy Adam’s mind, Shiv was feeling his stomach do backflips.

“I—I think this is the most amount of words you’ve said to me at once,” Adam stuttered.

“I can say more to you. Mentally. Shall we begin, Adept Adam? This might take a while. Oh, but then the mercenaries will pass by without being infiltrated, and this whole thing will be pointless.” Uva practically had her nose against Adam’s forehead. “Adam. Do you understand how stupid, rushed, and reckless I think this operation is, yes?”

“Yes,” Adam said, creating more space between them. “You told me. A lot. All day.”

“Well. Let me tell it to you once more, and add something else: Stop overcomplicating. His goal is to get in with the group, confirm the presence of the weapon, and then create an opening for us and Trapdoor to eliminate the enemy, if possible. If they are beyond our capacity to handle—or the situation does not lend itself to an ambush—he is to pin a mana tracker onto the weapon so we have something to offer as evidence, and so you have something to follow after they enter the gate.”

“Yes, yes, fine, okay,” Adam said, holding his hands out so that Uva would stop menacing him. “Shiv. Just… be simple, okay? You can do that, right? It’s not much harder than you are right now…”

“Sure, Adam. Of course, being the simple man I am, your next meal might end up forgotten. Because simple people can’t remember that much stuff at once.”

“Fine, just… do what I showed you, okay?” Adam scoffed. “You two are nightmarish together.”

Shiv and Uva shared a look. They might not be able to communicate via mind magic right now, but their eyes said enough.

“Adept Adam. Is Master Shiv ready?” Still Water’s voice echoed from Adam’s brooch. “I have eyes on the secret convoy. They’ve encountered some of the… decorations you left behind from last night. A few of them are actively arguing about asking for increased pay.”

Shiv grinned. That explained why his Intimidation went up without him doing anything earlier.

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“There are twenty mercenaries in total. At least ten Adepts. Two are Masters. One… One I’m not sure about. They glanced my way a few times. Bloodspawn. Might have some kind of Heroic Awareness. Or they’re just paranoid.”

Adam stared at Shiv. “Let’s hope the latter.”

“I hope the former,” Shiv muttered. “I want to fight another high vampire. It’s been a while.”

Adam gritted his teeth. “Keep your bloodlust in check. You can level any other time.”

“Not without good enemies, I can’t,” Shiv muttered.

“Shiv, System help me,” Adam said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Shiv thought back to when Ikki compared Adam to Uva, and he shivered.

“Fine,” Shiv grunted. I’ll do what I can.”

“Before that,” Uva said. She walked over to Shiv and traced his jaw with an armored finger. The act looked weird against his Perfect Semblance, but Shiv understood. He pulled off his skull helm and lifted the mask for a moment, revealing his true self. He was about to ask her what she wanted. Only for her to pull him in for a taste of her lips.

For a few heartbeats, Shiv didn’t do so much thinking. He was just a happy animal. A simple man. As she pulled away, he grinned at her, and she smiled slightly. “Remember. Careful.”

“Yes, Sister Uva,” he breathed. He put the mask back on and locked his helm back in place using his Biomancy. But the floating feeling of euphoria lingered inside him for a few moments longer. Shiv breathed out, completely relaxed despite the coming mission.

Adam blinked at Shiv before he turned to Uva and laughed. “Well. Looks like you did it anyway!” He grinned at the happy Shiv who managed a perfect, absentminded expression while using the slaver’s face. “That’s the exact expression I want. Now. Let’s get some more blood on him. We really, really need to sell this…”

***

Approximately an hour later, Shiv was staggering out from the woods, clinging to the memory of Uva as he tried to keep his expression consistent. The mercenary transport team was loud enough that even he could hear them from hundreds of meters away—and to make matters more interesting, he felt his mask-hidden mana splash into a much larger Biomancy field almost six minutes before the group actually arrived.

Must be a Master Biomancer among them. If this goes bad, I better kill them first if I can. Meanwhile, just keep doing the face, Shiv…

The mercenary transport team arrived just as his face was about to start cramping up. He counted eight on the road, dragging a large trolley containing what he assumed to be the Animancy Core behind them. If the others weren’t there, Shiv guessed they were spread out in the woods to prevent someone from managing an easy ambush. They were already looking more professional than the outfit Shiv and the others hit last night.

The one pulling the core along was thrice Shiv’s usual height and muscle. The skin he left exposed was a rough and ugly gray lined with scars, while the rest of him was layered in dense chunks of obsidian. A fanged mace hung from the brute’s side, and it was a bit bigger than Shiv’s true body. The big beast stopped dead as other members of his group noticed Shiv. The Deathless watched as the brute regarded him with two beady eyes of piss yellow, slits for a nose, and a jaw filled with rows of jagged teeth.

That must be an orc. Damn, they’re big. Then he had to suppress a sneer as another thought entered his head. Is this how Adam feels when he looks at me?

The orc drew in a breath and declared: “Contact.” His voice rumbled out far and wide as he extracted his fanged mace with a sigh. Rather than hurling threats or responding like a savage, the orc took a measured step forward, leaned down, and placed his massive paw on the shoulder of one of his companions in the vanguard. This one was obscured by a veil of swirling shadows, and Shiv sensed they were at the epicenter of the Master-Tier Biomancy Skill.

And that there should be the high vampire. Shit. If they have Heroic-Tier Awareness too, I might end up having a short night.

Both the orc and the supposed vampire eyed Shiv as they exchanged a few words. They were far enough away that he couldn’t hear them—but Shiv was pretty sure Adam got every word. The Deathless added a brief stumble as he kept the shell shocked look on his face, opening and closing his mouth a few times. It might not be much, but…

Skill Gained: Acting 1 (Common)

It was enough.

The orc patted the vampire on the shoulder twice more before stomping forward. Shiv noted the other members of this ensemble. They were all clad in heavy armor—except for an Umbral. Her armor was, in fact, extremely heavy, seeming more like a small fortress built around her body than anything. Even her open visor looked like a drawbridge leading into an old castle.

The orc walked out alone, his footsteps hammering hard and loud as he approached Shiv. The ebony road was wide enough to accommodate an adult cave biter that made the orc look like a speck. Yet, there was something colossal about the orc—far greater than his obvious size. Shiv felt it in the way the orc’s footsteps made the very ground tremble. It was like the earth below was roused to agitation by the creature’s approach.

The orc came to a stop with five meters between him and Shiv. The brute clicked his teeth together and hummed, looking what he assumed to be a bloodied slaver up and down. “You are a flesh runner?”

Shiv didn’t know the exact nomenclature for slavers, so he just continued doing the look instead of saying yes. That was the recommendation everyone gave him: Keep it simple and sell the trauma.

An uncomfortable silence followed. The orc breathed in deep. And then made a low, clucking noise with his tongue. “Yes, I think. Hmm. Rather traumatized too. Tell me, were those your compatriots a few kilometers away? The flayed ones hanging from some of the mushrooms by the roadside.”

This time, Shiv nodded with a shaky slowness. He hoped that he sold it well enough.

“Ah. Unfortunate. Unfortunate, indeed. But that is the nature of the trade, no? We move things people want, and they pay us much for it. But never more than what the item is worth. So there are always dangers. Dangers hidden in the dark.” The Orc looked into the woods—and Shiv spotted a flash of metal in the distance. “And dangers in our hearts. For greed plucks at us so easily. Would you not agree?”

Shiv opened and closed his mouth. Simple. Traumatized.

Acting > 2

He was going to be a theater star in no time.

The orc let out a heavy breath that washed over Shiv. He was expecting to smell something rancid, but to his surprise, the orc’s billowing breath came with the taste of mint. His teeth are oddly clean, too… Dammit, is the bestiary right about anything but lesser vampires? Why does the Republic lie about practically everything?

“Well. You have nothing to fear from us, little flesh runner. Nothing at all. Because we do not have the time for you.”

“Gate,” Shiv managed, trying to sound as vulnerable as he could. “Take me there… please…”

The orc observed him. “Hmm.” He blinked briefly, turned to stare at the vampire, and—Shiv caught the vampire rollingtheir eyes. When the orc faced Shiv again, he was smiling, and that look was triggering Shiv’s fight or fight harder instinct something severe. That was not the face of a herbivore at all. But so far, the orc seemed oddly pleasant. Even rather affable. “My name is 811. You wish to go to the Compact gate?”

“Gate Theborn?” 811 asked further.

Shiv was about to agree again when he paused. He didn’t actually remember what the gate was called. Ikki mentioned it at some point, but he just let it slip from his mind. “I… I think… I don’t know… There was… so much blood. The attack is… My memory is bad right now.”

811 nodded. “Understandable. Trauma does this to a human mind. Ah. Come along, then. Let us take a walk. You may tell me what happened to you, if you so wish. I understand this makes your race feel better—you are social animals, correct?”

Shiv suddenly felt like he was an animal on exhibition. The orc walked next to Shiv and placed a hand against his back—a hand that covered his entire back. Shit, I was hoping he would take me closer to the transport… Now he’s moving me further away…

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