Hi again, this is a special chapter. I decided to make it in a different way to change the pace a little. But If you don't like it please tell me. Either way, the next chapter will be as always.

Hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading! 

 

Silver Creek Asylum Incident Report.

Classification: Grade 3 (Minor leak of sensitive information).

The following report is an attempt on my part to reconstruct the events that took place the night of the incident in question. Followed by an analysis of the repercussions and my advice on how to handle the aftermath.

First, as the grade of the incident suggests, this is not an issue I dim worthy of bothering his majesty. But the complexity of this disturbance grants it enough importance to reach your capable hands, Red Moon Minister.

I arrived at the place on the 7th Ru of the eleventh day of this month, two days after the incident in question. The closest army station received an immediate support message coming from the warden in charge of the asylum. The message spoke of a mutiny and a high risk of escape. It also mentioned the man leading the scape, a well-known figure of the younger generation, Fedrin Levian. Whose situation we already know.

By the time the reinforcements arrived the situation had devolved into complete chaos. The warden had been killed and the rest of the guards were either fighting for their own survival or running away.

Fedrin Levian had previously gathered all the prisoners in the middle of the hall and destroyed their collars. Transforming them in simple scraps of metal. This, coupled with the warden's accurate decision ( according to his capabilities) of waiting for them outside, gave them the time to gather some qi.  When reinforcements made it to the region the prisoners had spread everywhere. With some of them having reached the nearby Silver Creek village, sowing chaos and destruction in their wake.

With good judgment, the captain in charge of the reinforcements gave the order to kill on sight. And specifically ordered his soldiers to preserve the inside of the asylum as much as they could. This was done to avoid losing any important evidence.

According to the captains' report, the next day was spent killing and apprehending all prisoners that came in sight. Also, the forces made the effort to protect the nearby village and reorganize the scattered forces. At the moment of my arrival, they were still entangled in the search of more than 50 prisoners.

After a day of investigation at the scene, the picture of the whole incident started to become more clear.  At first sight, there are two possible causes for this episode. With both causes having the common detonating factor of Fedrin Levian's escape. The first and less probable is a misplacement or an error on one of the restraints put on him. Be it for the guard's incompetence or another structural malfunction. This was what the guards believed had happened. Only that the lack of a sign of force being used on the door of his cell makes this theory flawed.

That leaves us with another more plausible theory. Fedrin Levian was aided by external forces. We all know that in recent years, the asylum and its “abnormalities” had grabbed the attention of neighboring countries. Making it a target of constant attempts of espionage.

This theory seems to be backed up by the testimony of some of the guards. They claimed that Fedrin Levian only helped to break out the prisoners of the first pavilion. While the rest of the prisoners escaped in a second wave much after Fedrin Levian left the building. Furthermore, some of the prisoners of the other pavilions that were captured alive and interrogated said to be freed by a guard. Or at least a man wearing the guard's uniform.

When questioned how the man looked, the prisoners till now had given different descriptions. We are still trying to figure out if it is a special technique used by the perpetrator to remain hidden or just the confusion of the prisoners. Be it as it may, the descriptions are unreliable and, for now, the identity of the man remains a mystery.

But is this man that gives credibility to the second theory. Although his identity is unknown, his intention of collecting information is undeniable. Some of the prisoners said they saw the man going first towards the fourth pavilion before freeing them.

The scene in the fourth pavilion is one of the most conspicuous. Some of the research specimens and prisoners there were killed by this man, with two of the dead showing clear signs of torture.

Looking further, the next thing that stands out is the hidden repository of the pavilion. The intruder took special care in destroying everything inside. And although we couldn't confirm it, I strongly believe the existence of the rainbow pill has been discovered.

The destruction of the repository made it impossible for us to know what he took and if he noticed some other sensitive documentation. Given the short time frame, it is unlikely the man could look after every subject thoroughly. But either way, we have to prepare for the possibility of him seeing through most of them and finding some of the research topics.

Normally, I would conclude this part of the report. But there was something that escaped my sight the first time. And thanks to this detail, I was able to find some other oddities. It was a small but important detail that stood out in a subtle way.

It was one of the common cells in the first pavilion, where everything began. To be precise it was not the cell per se that took my attention at first, but the door.

In its impatience, Fedrin Levian had freed the prisoners using brute force leaving all the cells without doors. All but one single cell. This one had its door opened just like Fedrin Levian's door was, without signs of force being used.

After a quick search, it was found out who lived in this cell. They were two people. The first was a nameless old man found in the Silver Creek village and thrown into the asylum for disturbing the public order. ( This was done by the guards and it is a clear violation of the protocol. But the documentation shows the old man was put through all the tests needed to asses his danger level. He was also handled correctly after assessing his threat as low and restricted accordingly. For these reasons the punishment will be postponed). The second inmate was Aleran Vistrage. He is the eldest son of Darim Vistrage and recently had suffered from a cultivation deviation. Thus he was sent here by his family, like many others. During his stay, he had recovered some of his mental faculties.

The strange thing is that neither of them should warrant the attention of the exterior force that freed them. Only one option comes to mind. The old man who didn't have a name was actually a spy in disguise. With that, it could make sense that he was released by some comrade. No matter what, in this case, the variable is the identity of this elder man. The Vistrage heir had his spirit veins crippled, making him of no value whatsoever. Only leaving the old man as the target of this favor.

Even so, I recommend keeping a watch over the Vistrage family. Although it doesn't make much sense to expose their child like this just to gather information. But the possibility of a connection with enemy intelligence agents, though low, is real.

The inside of that same cell only begs for more questions. Everything looks normal until another subtle detail shows itself. The standard waste bucket, that every cell has, its bent in a weird shape. As if someone had hit it with considerable force. The waste buckets are made of dense and heavy materials. This is to prevent the prisoners from destroying them or using them as weapons.

There are some reasons that come to mind as the why of this bucket. The most likely one is that it got used as a weapon during the chaos by one of the escapees who had regained his cultivation. But the fact that was found in the cell with the only remaining door standing, is strange.

We later discovered the dead body of a guard with a wound in the head, consistent with that same bucket, lying in the hallway. But the trauma in the head is not what killed the guard. Instead, he was killed by a necrophilic prisoner, who cut his throat with a piece of broken glass and then did unspeakable things to the corpse. When he was found, the prisoner was indulging in a sexual act dragging the corpse all over the hallway while occasionally stabbing it.

He was killed early by the reinforcements in a fit of righteous anger from the soldiers, so he could not be questioned. But the unusual thing was that the soldiers confirmed the prisoner did not have any cultivation whatsoever.  Making it impossible for him to kill the guard.

Who struck the guard with the bucket? Was it the old man?  Or the one who helped him escape was discovered and used the bucket as the last resource? That last one doesn't make much sense, to break in undetected one needs at least to be at the qi circulation, third phase. What use would be a metal bucket for someone at that level? To be honest we have no good theory besides that it was a real coincidence. The guard was hit in the head during the chaos with the bucket by someone else. And just so happened to be in that cell. But again it is too much of a coincidence

Then, did the old man figure a way to take off the collar and the struck with the bucket? This is extremely unlikely, the suppression of the collar was absolute. Only someone on the higher levels of cultivation could achieve that. But if he has that power then he would not have any need of creating that much chaos to escape or even showing himself. He could destroy anything on the surface totally unnoticed.

Another thing that contradicts this last theory is that there are no remains of any collar inside the cell. Suggesting that the old man's collar is lying in the pile of broken scrap metal were Fedrin Levian threw the rest of the broken collars.

Is my thinking wrong? Was an entirely different situation that took place?

Any more speculation will leave us running in circles and with baseless theories. But what is sure is that this old man and Aleran Vistrage have yet to be found and have now transformed into a priority of this investigation.

The last weird detail is the appearance of three carbonized corpses. They were found east from the asylum, in the middle of the grasslands.  Together with the bodies was one of a sound seeker pierced by a sword. In this occasion, we count with the rare luxury of having two eyewitnesses.

They were originally five guards that were ordered by their warden to bring two of the domesticated sound seekers from the village to help him against Fedrin. A good plan, all things considered.

But midway, these guards came across two figures in the distance. The only thing these two witnesses could account for is the prisoners clothing these two figures were wearing. Being the weakest of the group their sight was also the worst.

In a clear sign of disobedience, the leader of their group decided to chase after them. The two eyewitnesses, being at the heaven opening second phase, were too slow to keep up with the speed of the escapees and the rest of the group. Thus, they missed the real action, something that ended up saving their lives.

But they kept running with the hopes of eventually reaching their team. As they were closing in, they saw a bright, blue light appearing in the horizon for an instant. And a few moments later, one of the sound seekers appeared before them, scared and trembling.

They first attributed the estate of the beast to the lack of proper training. If not trained well the beasts can get scared of the sounds of battle. But as they reached their comrades they found the three carbonized corpses.

We cannot confirm but is highly possible one of the two men that killed the guards, was the old man. With the other being his accomplice. And the light the witnesses saw was some kind of fire image.

The estimated power of the attacker is at the qi circulation mid or advanced phase.  The three victims could not put up any kind of fight. The exact image used in this attack is still unknown. Although we believe it to be some kind of fire image we could not match the patterns with other known images. This could be because at the time we found the bodies a day had already passed. This wasted time made some evidence to be lost. But the way they died seems almost instantaneous as if they didn't know they had died till the very end. Something tells me there's more to this attack than meets the eye.

But this also brings more questions. If one of them was the old man  How did he deceive us to make us believe he was in the second phase when he was clearly at a higher level? Even if he did not make the attack he had run at a speed clearly impossible by someone at the heaven opening, second phase.

Or was it not the old man one of the two figures? Also, who was his accomplice?

Another good question is if these people were working together with the man that entered the fourth pavilion?

And, where was Aleran? The other figure could not possibly be him if he was running at such high speed.  Did the old man or his accomplice kill him in order to silence him? But Why would they take the trouble to hide the body?

Again I hit a wall with this line of thought. Every time one theory starts making sense I find something that contradicts or put some doubt on it.  For now, we had deployed some forces in the vicinity of the Forest Of Eternal Nightmares. That is the only good hiding place going east. Of course, even at the qi circulation advance phase, the chances of surviving there, are slim. So as a hiding place is a double edge blade. Unless they have some sort of support waiting for them inside the forest. If so, it’s possible the Sidrin Empire has some involvement in this incident.

But in these situations, nothing is as it seems and is better not to make any rash assumptions. In the end, to follow the suspects into the forest and give a real chase will need more specialized troops.

The reconstruction of this incident leaves us with many unanswered questions that will require further investigation. It is clear there's a key factor we are missing and will take time to figure out what it is. But this fact must not stop us from taking appropriate measures.

The first measure is to reinforce the security of the asylum. This is needed to keep the appearances, making it look like we take this incident seriously. This whole event could end up in our favor if we make the enemy spies believe we suffered a major loss.

Luckily, the underground facilities were not compromised. The Moonless special unit stationed underground were ordered to ignore everything that happened outside the facilities to keep maximum secrecy. During the whole incident, they stood on high alert in case something or someone could put in evidence the existence of the facilities.

But the credit in keeping the underground research grounds hidden goes to the deputy-head of the counterintelligence department. It was his idea to make the fourth pavilion a place similar to the underground pavilion but more exposed. Of course, most of the research material in the fourth pavilion were not truly classified material.

But to make it real enough we had to make some serious classified research in it. The deputy-head in person decided to transfer the development and test of the rainbow pill from the underground pavilion.  He decided this was the less harmful secret we could give away. And in exchange, the enemy would be more likely to take the bait and stop looking for more research facilities.

This measure came in hand with the intentional leak of rumors about the fourth pavilion. All kind of real information mixed with some false stories was leaked. The stories were often exaggerations or simply lies about the fate of some prisoners. Then, the same guards would take these rumors and spread them to the general population inside and outside the Asylum.

This diversion tactic, with its costs and the leak of the rainbow pill, had finally paid off. We can now take advantage of the situation if we mount a convincing act.

The second measure, which is of less importance, is to compensate the families of the dead prisoners. The value can be calculated using the amount of blood essence they could have gotten if the prisoner was still alive and give them something of equal value. Then comes the compensation to the guard's families that should be done in gold.

Lastly, I recommend the use of the Night Eagle special unit to track down the escaped prisoners. With a special focus on those I will mention next as high priority targets:

Athias Hul: Former intelligence operative. Due to an unknown incident in his last mission he had his spirit veins partially destroyed, losing his mind in the prosses. He has important information about the legendary pill king and his death. In a twist of fate, he lost his mind before he could share the complete information. Now he only sings in an endless loop a song we believed to be some kind of hidden code but could not crack yet. Although the blood essence talisman given to him in his time as an intelligence operative has broken in the past days, informing us of his death, we still haven't retrieved his body. It is imperative to confirm beyond all doubt his death.

Rasid Erket: Personal servant of the Sidrin empress. About him and his circumstances, I know the Red Moon minister surely knows more about it than me so I won't waste time with explanations. After he became a prisoner here and under our special techniques, we managed to receive valuable information from him. But the constant torture had broken his mind. One interesting thing is that after he lost his mind some of his most repressed memories had come afloat. But sadly the memories come and go in pieces and his state of mind does not help. Either way, he has to be taken back at all cost. The Sidrin empire must not know we have him.

Luckily his cultivation was crippled long ago and he is like a mortal now. By my estimations, he should be found by the regular troops in the course of this day but if not the Night Eagles will be needed.

Aleran Vistrage: I already explained the necessity of finding the Vistrage former heir. He could be a potential key witness to clarify the whole situation. We either need to find his dead body or capture him alive if he's still breathing.

Unknown elder man: Again I had already explained his high priority in this business. Perhaps the most difficult person to find as we know nothing about him or his personality since he was possibly a spy all the time.

The man in disguise: Another one I already explained. He will also be hard to find, but with more persuasive methods of interrogation, we may be able to get something from the prisoners that saw him.

Fedrin Levian: Another potential key witness, but unlike the other kid,  we are sure Fedrin has worked with the enemy. He also has to be captured alive even if it proves to be difficult. His knowledge of the kingdom underground organizations makes him a resourceful person. I also recommend to keep tabs on the enemy spies we know off. Fedrin Levian knows their existence and is a prime target for these organizations to recruit. The counterintelligence division should be useful for this. Lastly, I would like to recommend someone under my command to supervise the search for him. I will later contact you about this last issue.

There are also a few other special prisoners but not as important as the ones listed before. For the others, it is best to let the night eagles decide by themselves who to put the priority.

In conclusion, the main reason why this report is in your hands is to take advantage of this chance. To clear all doubt our enemies have on the asylum, allowing us to use the underground Silver Creek research grounds freely. Any decision that affects these research grounds has to be made by you, sir.

 

Always at your service.

Minister of internal affairs, Uldrav Levian.

---

After sealing the letter Uldrav stood up to look out the window. He was looking down at the small village with cold indifference. The whole place was mourning the loss of more than 20 men, sons, husbands, and fathers. But Uldrav didn't really care about that, even without this incident he will outlive these people. He may even outlive the whole village.

“Krag.” He said softly and waited, but no one answered. “ Take the letter and personally give it to The Red Moon minister. And while you are there tell my daughter I have a job for her and explain the situation. If she doesn't want to, is okay. Don't insist, you are not her match and she will make you regret to ever bother her. Just tell her to go to the right minister for instructions if she accepts. Let's hope she listens ” Again, there was no answer, but the envelope on top of the desk suddenly disappeared.

Thinking about his daughter Uldrav sighed. He was proud of being her father but she had a strong personality. “She is getting stronger by the day, I will not outlive her.” Then he looked at the empty desk in thought. ‘ I hope the right minister accepts the presence of my daughter in the search.'  Her presence was not part of the protocol. The right minister, as the people called the Red Moon minister informally, was a flexible man. Nevertheless, every little concession he made came with a price.

Uldrav softly shook his head leaving the rest to his subordinate. He got closer to the window, and in an instant the room was empty.