Dad turned out to be correct about the enforcers.

The house was lit up with the steady lights of police cruisers, and not just the normal kind. A hovercar waited in the front lawn, its sleek silver exterior looking positively Xerkonan in sterility. It didn’t have any visible exterior windows, but it did have a rotating hologram on the top that read ‘POLICE’ over and over again in a ring, in bright white glows.

Mom and Dad were there, waiting on the front porch.

Mark got out of the autocar and tried to rush across the lawn, into his parents arms. The police nearby let it happen. And then Mom and Dad were asking if he was okay and Mark told them he was worried about them more, and then Mom said something about it was the parents’ duty to worry about their kids, not the other way around. Mom had gotten home first, according to her. Dad had gotten home a minute before Mark.

A detective in a brown coat and a paladin wearing bright white armor waited till Mark had had a moment with his parents to descend upon that meeting. They came in with measured words and requests to speak that weren’t actually requests at all.

The Paladin of Freyala introduced himself as David Turner. With Freyala’s human last name as his own that marked him as a member of the elite in Freyala’s church. The detective was just a guy, high up in the ranks of Orange City, who called himself John Smith. It might have been a fake name, but he had a business card, so Mark assumed he was legit. Paladin David was eyeing John Smith a whole lot, though, along with Mom and Dad, so John was probably very high up. Maybe even a hero for the city.

There were a lot of those that Mark simply didn’t know about.

Mom cut through the meet-and-greet, “What’s wrong with Addashield?”

Paladin David and Detective John weren’t quite sure how to answer that.

David said, “I’d like to talk to your son separately.”

Mom was about to object—

John said, “Mister and Misses Careed? Can we speak in a different room?”

Mom and Dad looked at each other. Acceptance came a moment later.

And that was how Mark found himself in a relatively unused room on the first floor, on his side of the house, away from Mom and Dad.

Paladin David got right into it, saying, “Sloane Addashield killed Red Thunder and Mistress Storm today. The news has already broken across the world. Do you know why he could have done this?”

Mark understood that he wasn’t really asking for Mark’s knowledge of why; they had to know why Addashield had done this. They probably talked to a lot of people already…

Because this had to have started 60-ish days ago, or something like that.

Addashield had failed his Contract.

Mark hadn’t even known. But that’s what had to have happened, right?

Mark said, “He failed his apprentice Contract thing, and you think he’s Falling… or he’s already Fallen?”

Mark hoped he hadn’t Fallen, but… It was a foolish sort of hope.

“He’s Falling right now,” David said, standing upright, like he had confirmed many different things all at once. Mark could only guess at what could have been going through the man’s mind. David continued, “We’re not sure what he is after, but he is responsible for about 9,100 deaths as of 61 days ago. Most everyone who had an important connection to him was warned off 70 days ago. Most of those went into hiding. Addashield has found some of them already, and killed them most gruesomely. You’re far, far down on the list of contacts Addashield had ever touched, but because this whole thing started with a failure of a stipulation in a Contract that you were slated to help him fulfill, you are near the top of Orange City’s concerns right now. Addashield hasn’t fully Fallen. It is possible he might come after you to do a Tutorial-accompaniment. That was the original plan, wasn’t it?”

Mark had to sit down, so he sat down.

David waited.

Mark said, “It was the plan, yes. I don’t know how he would have done it. I’ve never heard of anyone slipping into someone else’s Tutorial, but Addashield could have done it… I assume? He had this history of doing this with apprentices, he said. He said he was one of the people who helped Malaqua tame the Demon City, and so he had leeway with the System in weird ways.”

David was sitting in a chair in front of Mark, as he said, “Addashield is a Hero of Humanity. He has done a lot of good. Many of the systems we use to safeguard this world were built by him. He’s a metalmage. You know those big pillars that guard the entrance of the bay? He made them. Decades ago. He made them. Your family’s fish tanks are modeled after them. He removed four of those bay pillars after he killed the two heroes.”

Mark’s heart thumped hard. He knew about the Hero of Humanity, but he hadn’t known about the bay pillars, either that Addashield had made them, or that he had removed them.

David continued, “He ripped out our automated defense systems all across the entire south wall, slicing turrets off of the walls. He killed our main mass-killing heroes. We’ll get the turrets fixed in under 20 days. We won’t be able to fix the pillars within four years. We put up stopgap measures, and they’ll hold, but we can already tell the shape of what is to come. The bay is going to flood with real monsters, and Orange City might have to be completely evacuated.”

Mark went beyond panic, circling back into a comfortable battle-flow that he usually entered when he was fighting for his life, or sparring deeply.

With a calm voice, Mark asked, “Why are you telling me this?”

“I’m giving you information on the full problem. I hope you give me some information back. If Addashield should show, we don’t want him to be able to lie to you to get you to do whatever he wants.”

Mark said, “He was a good man. A Hero of Humanity. I went into this apprentice thing full-knowing that it would injure me, though the extent of it was unknown at the time.”

David quirked an eyebrow. “… You still defend him?”

Mark faltered. “… I suppose I shouldn’t. But… None of this feels real? Addashield…” Mark tried, “People don’t kill each other. It’s unthinkable. It’s all us against the monsters so why would…” Mark wasn’t sure what he was saying. He went back to normal territory, asking, “You said he hasn’t Fallen? His demon hasn’t replaced his soul?”

“Demon-replaced people act differently than Addashield is acting right now. Do you know about that psychological theory? Id, ego, superego?”

Mark’s brain felt like spinning mush. He recalled, “Id is the feeling/acting part of a person, with no regard for conscious thought at all. Superego is the moral center; the part that guides us, like the words of a god or teachers or whatever. Ego is the self; the mediator between the pleasure-seeking, pain-avoidance Id, and the guiding-principles Superego.”

David was a little impressed. “You just remembered that?”

“It’s on the ‘understanding demons’ part of the Tutorial prep, under the prep they give you for understanding things beyond the Tutorial… Which isn’t all that much, really.” Mark added, “And I read up about it after this whole Addashield-thing started. He has a demon. He wanted me to meet with demons and deny them. It was important to study.”

Mark had studied for the GED, too, and he had passed that a while ago.

David nodded, though he regarded Mark a bit more critically. He said, “Demons are Id personified.”

Mark said, “They do everything possible to get what they want, and what they want is pleasure in all forms, including stuff that humans don’t consider pleasure at all, like pain.”

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“Slightly incorrect.” David said, “Demons want experience. Living experience. Addashield’s demon wants experience. If you see Addashield and you have to deal with him, you can play along in some ways, and Addashield might even try to help you in those ways, but his demon will only care about experience-feeling, and if Addashield doesn’t do as his demon wants, we think he will be slapped with Infractions. If he gets too many of those then Addashield will either fall… or we’ll reach a worse outcome. He and his demon will become one person, and that Dragon Alert that went out today will be a real Dragon Alert.”

“… Okay?” Mark said, half desperate, half wondering why the fuck David was telling him this. He tried to think of what to do next. “What do I do next? What happens now? Since Addashield tore out parts of the Bay Wall and that other stuff, that means that he’s planning on coming back, or letting a kaiju get Orange City?”

“You don’t have to worry about the kaiju.” David said, “You do need to worry that we fully expect him to come after you when you’re healthy enough to undergo the Tutorial, as you had planned.”

Clarity came in an instant.

They knew a lot and Mark barely knew anything at all.

Which was pretty normal.

They had plans.

Mark said, “You want me to… to go through with that?”

Mark had a lot of sudden concerns, from being completely unprepared for Tutorial, to… to a lot, really.

“We do want you to go through with that,” David said, “Addashield has given us some hints as to what we can do to help him, to prevent this mess, and to allow him to take up his Old Contract. They might be false hints; ploys of the demon. But we see a way out of this with a good outcome on the other side, and we want to take it.

“To that end, we’re going to give you the same body treatments that Daihoon nobility gives their children before the Tutorial. It’s intense magic and it should fix you right up. We’re also shipping your parents to the other side of the country to put them out of harm’s way as much as we can.” David said, “That’s what John is telling your mother and father right now, but they are not being told any of these specifics. Share what you want with them, but know that information can be a curse sometimes. Do they have any place they’d like to go in particular?”

Wait.

Mark ignored the specifics of what David had just said.

David was talking like Mark’s participation was implicit. Expected.

Mark made some quick decisions, then asked, “To make sure… I get no say in this?”

“You could say no. And then you would be dooming the world to a Fallen Archmage, at least.”

“Okay.”

So no real option at all.

And they would be giving him some sort of body treatment… Okay.

Okay.

Mark thought for a second longer. He wanted to help Addashield regain himself, didn’t he? Yes. He did.

And then, when Addashield wasn’t under the influence of a demon anymore, then…

Then what?

Then it was out of Mark’s hands. Not his problem.

But his problem right now was the choice between helping a Hero of Humanity come back to humanity, or to let him Fall to the demons.

Mark made a decision.

“Okay. I’ll do it.”

David studied Mark for a moment, before saying, “Our hope is that if we pump you full of enough perfect-grade cultivation herbs that you can fully recover in under a week and still be eligible for the Tutorial. Addashield will find out in whatever ways he finds these things, and he will make plans to fulfill his Contract with his demon. To be clear, this is just one possible scenario for how we deal with him, most of our efforts are located elsewhere, and this is not safe at all. You are being put in danger for the greater good. We are sorry about this.”

“Okay.” Mark said, “So you’re going to clear out the neighborhood, right? I’m not too sure on how any of this works, but I know what kaiju can do, and dragons are smart kaiju, right?”

“… We’re clearing out the neighborhood,” David said, wary about Mark. Probably with how fast Mark had agreed. David stood. “I imagine you’re going to need to convince your parents to evacuate.”

Mark rose on wobbly feet and then steadied himself. He looked up at David. “I imagine I will.”

David regarded Mark a little. “You’re rather easygoing for a baseline in the middle of trauma recovery. I expected a lot more yelling.”

Mark said, “You came in here, told me that you’re going to pump me full of ‘perfect grade cultivation’ herbs that will heal me in a week, and I might get to help rescue a Hero of Humanity from their demon. Of course I’m on board with this.” Mark added, “I barely know what I want to do with my life and talking to people worries me more than it probably should, but here’s a clear goal in front of me? Yes! Give me all the clear goals. Clear goals are fantastic.”

Paladin David regarded Mark in what seemed an easier, better manner. It reminded Mark of what happened when his Tutorial instructor, Gravel, saw the depths of Mark’s conviction for the first time. Or, to a lesser extent, like when Mark had asked Kevin to go harder on him, and Kevin ordered all those new supplement supplies.

David said, “It’ll be hard.”

“Of course it’ll be hard.”

David smirked a little. “Let’s go see your parents.”

Mark walked down the hallway toward the kitchen, lightly gripping the railing that they had installed for grandpa years ago, and simply never removed. David walked behind him. Mark listened to Mom yelling at Detective John.

There was a confrontation that went back and forth with small words and loud words and Mark was there, and Mom slapped Paladin David, and then stormed away. Mark barely understood what had happened, but he said some things to Dad and everything seemed easier. Dad gave Mark a quick hug, telling him this wasn’t over, which could have meant many different things, and then he followed Mom out into the night, where police lights illuminated the swampy air, and moths crowded the globe-lights of the porch.

Mark stood with Detective John and Paladin David in the kitchen, and asked them both, “So we never did introductions, for real? Is this some big East Coast Union operation? Or something smaller? I can’t imagine that Addashield doesn’t have better things to do than worry about me… Or rather, bigger enemies for his demon to kill.”

Detective John easily said, “Listen up, Mark. I’m going to tell you this once:

“If you’re on board with this, then there will be no more information given to you about anything at all. A House AI will be installed in this location to monitor and assist you with your special medicines. You’ll get drop shipments, and you’ll be expected to do most of the prep on those medications yourself.” John stressed, “Anyone we leave here with you will be in danger of being murdered by Addashield in order to get you to do what he wants, even if you’re already on board with this whole crazy idea. You might be here for a week, which is the minimum timeframe for complete rehabilitation, or you might be here for 25 days, at which point the medications you’ll be taking will push you past the point where you can take the Tutorial.

“The first part of this plan was getting you on board. We passed that. Thanks for agreeing.

“The second part is making sure that Addashield is aware that we’re making this offer open to him. Since he’s been angling for us to do this, in small words caught here and there on camera, then we expect him to agree.

“When we know that Addashield is going to take this offer, then you’ll get your first drop shipment.

“Maybe Addashield will show up and stay here for a week to try and influence you to do what his demons wants, which is to make more demon mages. That is the best possible outcome for all of this, and we will simply leave you all alone if that happens. Justice can come in whatever form it needs to come after the real danger is over.

“Are you on board?”

Mark instantly saw some holes in the plan, but the biggest one was there at the end. ‘Influence you to make more demon mages’. If Mark became a demon mage in any capacity then some Paladins would murder him, for sure, and they’d be right to do it. A demon couldn’t force Mark to do anything under duress though, right? Mark was pretty sure he had read that part right in the demon studies he had done while getting his GED done.

But other than that, Mark was pretty sure he was good with this plan.

Heroes did weird plans to save the world all the time, right?

But there was so much left unsaid. From ‘Detective John Smith’s’ real name, to the level of organization behind this action, to the exact nature of the threat, to Mark’s personal worry about being alone with a near-Fallen, almost-dragon. And Addashield was still an archmage. He had killed a lot of people already.

But before that, for the last 340-odd years of Addashield’s life, he was a hero. He deserved to be brought back from this edge.

Mark decided it was better that he didn’t ask questions; that he didn’t know all of the evil that Addashield had done while Falling.

Mark repeated what he had already said before, “Let’s do this.”

He saw the moment when both David and John —if those were their real names— considered Mark already dead. David was first, his smile remaining, but his eyes going blank, staring out past Mark.

John managed to keep up appearances more than David, his eyes smiling right alongside his mouth, as he said, “Orange City thanks you for your effort! And hey! Let me be the first to congratulate you on your full recovery. It’s a week early, but you’ll get there faster than you realize. And then you have your whole life ahead of you!”

Mark was pretty sure he disliked ‘Detective John’.

The paladin was okay, though.