Oath of the Survivor

Kyle met Porter’s eyes without a word, the only sound to be heard the gentle crackling of electric mana coursing around Porter’s hand.  Kyle was confident he could survive whatever the other man could throw at him, but also knew that if things got out of hand here there was no coming back.  He considered putting his hands up and trying to say something to diffuse the situation, but the readiness with which Porter had prepared his skill made Kyle second guess that decision.  It was as likely as not that the other man was waiting for an excuse to flex his power, and Kyle didn’t want to give him a reason.  So they stood motionless, squared off against one another until Garth walked between them, breaking the tension. 

“There’s no need for this to escalate, I’m sure there’s a misunderstanding.  Stand down Rathman, let’s figure this out peacefully.” 

With clear reluctance, Porter lowered his hand, the concentrated mana being reabsorbed into his body with a series of cracks and sparks. 

“Mr. Boltsbury, this is a highly unusual case.  I respect your station enough to keep things peaceful, but this will need to be elevated.  If anything goes wrong I need you to understand that you and all those you came with will be held accountable as well.  If you aren’t comfortable with that, I suggest you encourage your friend here to stand still.” 

With that, he turned his back to Garth and Kyle, calling up to the other E grade guards on the wall. 

“Pass everything along to the Councilman’s staff, we have an awakened claiming to be from Newton that doesn’t match the records.  Further, it arrived alongside a delegation from Duilleag, with assurances given by one Garth Boltsbury.  Situation is currently contained but could escalate quickly.” 

One of the men atop the wall disappeared, ostensibly passing the message along.  It didn’t pass Kyle’s notice that the others still had weapons trained on him, despite Porter’s appearance of calm.  With nothing else to do, Kyle turned to Garth. 

“Gotta be honest here, this isn’t exactly what I expected would happen.”  Garth looked at him, and Kyle saw an incredible weariness in the man’s expression. 

“You don’t match the records, Kyle.  That makes this a whole hell of a lot harder.” 

“Garth, it’s been months since we left.  I’ve gained levels and skills since the last time my credentials were upgraded.  I’m sure there’s a contingency for circumstances like these.  It’ll work out fine.” 

Garth’s lips pressed into a line as he visibly collected himself, frustration threating to boil over. 

“It’s not fine, Kyle.  You aren’t the only one who’s been out in this crazy mana.  My credentials were fine.  Thomas, Dalen; hell, even Gwen’s credentials were all fine.  Whatever’s going on here, I’m not going to let my people be put in danger because of your secrets.” 

With that, Garth settled against the far wall, one hand resting casually on his sword as he turned to face Kyle, the weariness in his eyes only growing deeper.

Victor DeRosa was having a bad day.  There was an endless stream of important work to get done, but for some reason today it felt like nobody could so much as blow their nose without getting Victor’s approval.  He had hoped to spend his day sipping wine and working on ways to further integrate his mana into the budding Mana Network he’d repaired, but instead he found himself drowning in administrative tasks.   

Addison from Central Communication had grown to be an increasing bother over the past weeks, consistently submitting requests for additional resources and audits of his work, clearly looking for Victor’s approval.  While there was a time and a place for this type of politicking, Victor found himself getting increasingly frustrated with the man.  He’d been consistently unable to solve the Mana Network problem on his own, had been a leech for resources, and now was committing the worse transgression of all, taking up Victor’s time. 

If it wasn’t for Addison’s division being so enamored with the man, he would have had him removed months ago.  But as much as that idea tempted him, he knew he didn’t yet have the manpower available to manage the day-to-day of Central Communication.  That was growing more critical than ever as the Mana Network continued to expand from the hub, and already the amount of raw data available to them through the connected drones was incredible.  At this very moment Victor had Reynolds and the force he led in Central Defense reviewing logs indicating a number of bandit presences and developing military threat assessments, and he couldn’t afford to have them neglect that work at this point. 

As if that wasn’t enough, he’d received word his old confection team had returned largely unharmed from Albaum.  Their presumed demise was one of the few highlights to the apocalypse, but now they were back to darken his doorstep once more.  While they could at least trim a sandwich appropriately, they failed to grasp many of the nuances of fine cuisine for the awakened palate. 

His awakening brought heightened senses, and these so-called chefs just couldn’t execute the way he needed them to.  He was considering where these resources would be best deployed when once again the Communication Array in his private quarters pinged an incoming call.  As he went over to the small cylinder, he frowned when he saw it was from the Central Defense team he had stationed at the southern entrance to the city. 

“Whatever is important enough that you feel the need to interrupt my day, spit it out.” 

“Yes sir.  We had a large group of survivors enter the city, led by an awakened frontier commander from Central Defense, confirmed to be Garth Boltsbury out of the Duilleag branch.  He had another awakened with him claiming to be one Kyle Mayhew from Central Health in Newton, but he didn’t match the scans.” 

Mayhew, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while, Victor mused, considering the information.  He accessed his command console, and sure enough there was a Kyle Mayhew stationed in Newton, the grandson of the last living D grade human on the planet, at least as far as they knew. 

“And other than Boltsbury, this is the only awakened in the group?” 

“Yes, sir.  None of the others traveling with the group had a mana signature consistent with an E grade.”  From the surveillance they were able to do on the Guard Array left in Duilleag it appeared a group of raiders had taken control, which would have indicated that most, if not all of the awakened survivors there would have been with the group traveling. 

Because of that, Victor wasn’t too surprised that a small group from Duilleag had made it – he’d been tracking the movement of their Guard Array after all – but it did strike him as more than a little curious that they’d made the time they did with only two awakened individuals.  Even further, for this Kyle Mayhew to have joined them from Newton he would have had to have made the journey on foot. 

Newton was well into the zone they’d declared completely destroyed, and if their admittedly incomplete data held true the ambient mana alone should have been fatal to most early stage awakened, to say nothing of the mutated creatures that had been reported in areas with high chaotic mana density.  Something here was clearly off. 

“Did this Kyle Mayhew arrive with any travel companions from Newton who can corroborate his story, or did he come alone?”  There was a brief pause on the other end of the line as they relayed his message, but the response was prompt enough that it didn’t earn any more of Victor’s ire. 

“He came with a C.H.A.D.D. that he says is from Newton, but it's pretty beaten up.  It also says it’s having errors with connecting to the Mana Network so it can’t be verified.” 

Victor’s frowned deepened at that revelation.  Clark Mayhew had long been a vocal critic of the Central Authority’s methods, and if Victor’s intel was good more than a couple of extremist groups had been founded in the wake of his ideologies.  How convenient that his grandson arrives ‘alone’ after a journey that should have killed him, and with a clearly compromised drone in tow. 

No, Victor didn’t like this one bit.  On the other side, he also didn’t want to tip his hand too soon.  If Clark Mayhew or other radicals were using this opportunity to infiltrate his city, he had to maintain an appearance that he was unaware of the possibilities.  Fortunately, he had the perfect piece on the board to navigate these delicate waters. 

“Bring the Communication Array to them.  I want to be able to speak directly to Garth Boltsbury.”

Kyle and Garth stood in uneasy silence as they waited for Porter to return, and Kyle was uncomfortably reminded of the small hospital in Newton where he’d seen his patients.  I wonder if this is how they felt, sitting and waiting in anticipation of whatever comes next, knowing whatever you hear isn’t likely to be good news.  Kyle saw C.H.A.D.D. out of the corner of his eye, the drone floating absolutely still in the presence of the other equipment.  Porter reemerged from some nearby stairs, a Communication Array in tow.  He approached Garth, his body language formal. 

“Captain Boltsbury, Councilman DeRosa would like to have a word.”  With that, he presented the array to Garth and stepped back – still more than close enough to hear, but with enough space to seem polite.  “Mr. Boltsbury, it’s my understanding that you’ve been traveling with the subject of interest for some time.  I’ve reviewed your record, and it’s impressive.  You’ve served admirably under a variety of Central Defense leadership.  I’d be interested to know your assessment of the individual in question.” 

There was a pause as Garth processed the stream of information that poured out of the array, not entirely sure what to expect.  Garth composed himself quickly, however, and shared a brief overview of the events that had brought them here.  After he finished his retelling there was a pause, and the voice on the other end picked up again, the tone dispassionate, almost seeming bored. 

“So to ensure I’m not missing anything, a low-level doctor from Newton appears out of nowhere hundreds of kilometers east, conveniently as your group is being besieged by local fauna.  Then he somehow manages to provide effective combat support to a seasoned soldier multiple times, proving himself to be a valuable asset worth keeping along.  He has with him a functional C.H.A.D.D., but one that conveniently can’t connect to the mana network for verification, and he’d like access to the city as a result of his actions.  Does that sum things up?” 

“Um, I don’t know if I’d put it all that way, sir.” 

“Frankly, Boltsbury I don’t care how you’d put it.  I’m here to look after the greatest good for the people under my protection, and there’s a lot here that’s unknown.  Let’s cut to the chase.  From your experience traveling with him, is Kyle Mayhew deviant?” 

The silence lasted only a moment, but seemed to stretch into eternity as the weariness finished settling in behind Garth’s eyes. 

“Yes, sir.”

~~~

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