The whole place was buzzing with the active life of people. The police had since cordoned of the entire building but there was only so much they could do. The house was the venue of the incident and they were only allowed to cordon off the house, not disturb other families.

The first responders had been actual everyday police officers, responding to a report about gunshots in the environment. According to one of them, they were met bet a member of the neighborhood watch who’d pointed them in the direction of the house.

The neighbor didn’t know if the house was where the gunshots had come from but he claimed that the beautiful neighbor who was nice and never bothered anybody was new to the neighborhood and he’d seen some kids going into the house.

It hadn’t taken time before protocols were about to be put in place when Alfa’s team had shown up and usurped the entire thing.

One thing Alfa enjoyed about the specifics of her job was that this wasn’t some detective movie where a different branch of law enforcement showed up and there was suddenly some shoving battle and screams about jurisdictions. The very presence of her and her team was all the jurisdictions they needed.

Alfa walked in as her team spread out and began sealing off the entire house and the non-Gifted police officers bowed out as quickly as they could. It was quick and efficient. What it left them with now was a house filled with Gifted police officers in uniform. E-ranks to D-ranks.

Alfa stood with arms folded in front of her. There was a frown on her face that did nothing good for her wrinkles as she stared at the portal in front of her. She was sure to give it a good distance lest any unnecessary things happen by chance.

From where she was standing, the portal stood between her and a perfect sculpture of a young boy made of pepper. It was as if someone had grinded a buck load of pepper, somehow merged them all together to make one solid stone of pepper, then taken their time to make a sculpture.

Alfa had never seen such artistry in her life before. But she’d heard of such level of artistry before.

Non-Gifted really have no place near a portal, she thought solemnly.

Everyone knew the effects of being around a portal for a non-Gifted were varying but severe. The government had done its best to spread the word without alarming the citizens. If you saw a portal as a non-Gifted, you run, then alert the authorities. And, yes, you do it in that order. The government didn’t care if the impossible was happening and dragons immediately started flooding out of the portals.

The rule was undisputed. You run, then you inform the authorities. Safety first.

Rich coming from you, she thought self-deprecatingly.

Sadly, people were people, and while the government had only spread half-truths about portal effects on non-Gifted, the world had the internet, and people loved to video.

The government said the portal will definitely kill you. The videos said you stood a chance of getting skills, maybe even a class, even if temporarily.

So every once in a while, there were people who saw portals and tried to get as close to it as possible, risking the chance of wanting to know what it was like to be an [Enchanter] or a [Crafter]. They wanted to breathe fire or shift the ground beneath their feet or summon lightning from the clouds.

Alfa was of the opinion that the internet did far more bad than good these days. She knew the person that was now a statue of pepper wasn’t at fault here, but the sight still reminded her of all the things she disliked about people who didn’t listen.

You might get powers, she thought. Or you might die.

She couldn’t see how there were options. Hadn’t anyone heard of the man who’d turned into an ice sculpture in Alaska? The man’s body was still right there, unable to be moved. Even non-Gifted of different ranks hadn’t been able to move him.

Portals had bad effects on non-Gifted. It turned them into the impossible most often than not. A tree bearing fruits that melted the eyes when eaten but cured cancer. A talking lectern that repeated anything a child under the age of fourteen said to it like a recording. An ice sculpture.

Now a pillar of pepper.

And still people won’t listen.

Alfa shook her head. This wasn’t who she was. This wasn’t the kind of tired and vindictive person she was. She was kinder than this, nicer than this. She was…

Alfa shook her head. This is who you are.

It was the truth. Sometimes she lacked empathy for certain things. She was, in a simple word, a ‘bitch’. There was nobody from her past life that didn’t know it.

Then her husband slowly made her a good person. He was an asshole but a kind asshole. And according to him, in a relationship, only one person was allowed to be a bad guy, and that was his job. So he’d served as her buffer, reminded her anytime she was being to apathetic. He’d made her good.

Then the Gifted police department had started looking for a face and they’d made her the face. It was stupid. There were other non-Gifted officers fitting for the job, not her. Then they’d started parading her everywhere as a good person, a kind person. The populace had bought into it, looked to her like some kind of superhero.

People met her and expected her to be good and kind and loving and caring. They expected her to be everything she was only with her husband and kids.

What was worse? She had also bought into it. Sometimes, when she caught herself being herself—like right now—she berated herself and told herself that it wasn’t her, that the woman on the televisions and the adverts and the occasional internet tabloid was her.

It was stupid.

Alfa let out a slow sigh and shook herself back to the present. She had bigger worries to deal with than her own personal identity crisis.

She had a five-day old portal in front of her and no solution to it yet. As for the pillar of pepper, they’d identified him on the first day. Jake Nanhall.

He was a high school kid from one of the private schools in Brooklyn. Average grades, average everything really.

His parents had been informed of his unfortunate demise but her and her team continued to feign ignorance of what their beautiful baby boy had been doing in a strange woman’s house on the other side of town.

The police very well couldn’t give them the answer to that. Especially now that they knew what he had been doing.

At this point, even the back deals and the madness of the gangs had been put on the back waters. Yes, she had people still looking into it. Nan and Tony were keeping an eye on Navari but she’d told them not to make a move.

They had found the packages and opened them. The contents had been terrifying. Half a human heart, half a human lung, half a human brain. They were all half a human organ each. And the worst part, they’d confirmed that despite being packaged in simple boxes, they were impossibly still alive.

How the hell does someone keep half a liver and half a stomach alive?

It was disgusting and had all the signs of a Gifted’s touch on them. Naymond was right, whatever was going on, there were deep Gifted hands involved. Although, Naymond always being right did not come as a surprise.

The bastard Sage was always right about everything. It was one of the things she hated about working with the man. He was a walking hazard, a stain on the department even if he was merely a consultant, but God was he useful. Whenever he decided to help, he solved cases too accurately. The man was too efficient and had no business being a felon or a police consultant.

A detective walked up to Alfa and she was forced to look away from the pillar of pepper and the portal in front of her.

“Any update?” she asked.

The man shook his head sadly. “The corporations are still setting up. Damsil wants to take the portal but they claim to be having a tough time gathering the team required.”

“Probably a bunch of trainees,” she said with a frown. “Probably kids straight out of high school or something. Their new recruits.”

Companies did it a lot. C-rank portals were never priorities. Whenever one opened, companies took their time. They gathered their trainees, put a B-rank Delver or two at the head of the team and sent them into the portal to train.

It was madness. And before they even did that, they would bide their time and waste everyone’s. Unlike B-rank to S-rank portals, a C-rank portal and lower could be left active for a very long time before it started becoming a risk of triggering a Chaos Run.

How the hell does Naymond expect me to sort this out, she thought. And who the hell is Melmarc that’s got him all worried?

Worried enough to jump into a portal when his psychological evaluation said he had a seething fear—yes, fear, not dislike—for portals.

What could’ve possibly motivated him that much?

Alfa discarded the question almost immediately. ‘Motivate’ was a sufficient word but it wasn’t the correct one. She’d heard his voice when he’d been talking to her, listened to his words. It wasn’t a matter of motivation that had sent him into the portal.

Alfa, this is no time to be worrying about yourself and what would happen if they find out a mentee fell it. Believe me, it will be worse if you don’t give them that information, his words replayed slowly in her mind.

“What could he possibly have been so scared of that he’d enter a portal,” she muttered.

“What?” the detective asked, leaning in.

Alfa shook her head. “Not you, detective Favi. This whole thing’s got me talking to myself.”

Favi nodded, looking at the portal and all the yellow tape set up around it.

“I know what you mean,” he said. “We’ve got a dead kid and an active portal in the middle of a freaking house. This has got to be a nightmare. When was the last time a portal appeared in a residential area? Aren’t they all meant to show up in safe places like forests or deserts. You know, places where there aren’t people.”

Alfa nodded. That was the general appearance consensus of portals. In fact, there were scientists and Sages who believed the portals appeared away from humans because of something that had to do with their mana. Some Sages theorized that the amount of human form existent in large numbers where humans lived kept the portals away.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Though there had been recent reports on the internet of the occasional portal showing up in residential areas now and again.

“Why can’t they show up in the sky like one of the weird ones,” Favi muttered. “Instead of the PR nightmare.”

PR nightmare, huh. Alfa couldn’t even begin to imagine just how bad a PR nightmare this was going to be. She was one of the two only people outside a portal that knew who exactly was inside the portal.

Eckberth, as Naymond had feared, was dragging his feet even after finding out who was in the portal. Alfa hadn’t expected him to jump up and start running around at the fact that mentee was in the portal. The number of words he’d used in the tone he’d used them hadn’t been unexpected, but she wasn’t surprised that he wasn’t calling in favors and things like that.

But she’d expected more when she’d dropped Naymond’s name. Even now she could still remember his words at finding out that Naymond was in the portal.

Good riddance.

It seemed Naymond had no friends, despite being protected.

“It’s been five days,” Favi said and Alfa nodded.

“Yea, five days since this bulk of bullshit turned up,” she confirmed.

“Shouldn’t the government be sending in their own Delvers by now?”

“Not yet,” she said. “The Gifted department has agreed that a C-rank portal has to be close to a Chaos Run due to no one attending to it before they take matters into their own hands. It’s to give the companies a chance to raise the strengths and experiences of their Delvers.”

“And how long does it normally take?”

“C-rank portals can be active for up to a month before they stand the risk of a Chaos Run.”

Alfa didn’t like this.

She turned and walked out of the room. Just standing and worrying in front of the portal was going to do nothing for her. She wasn’t sanctioned to enter the portal since she fell under the category of a government Delver at best.

She was law enforcement, but also belonged to the government by employment. Every once in a while, she could push her designation and claim Delver.

The entire house was busy. Police officers were dusting for prints, using their skills to do whatever it was they were doing. There was a man at the corner who kept on arranging and rearranging one of the walls quite literally with his skill, whatever it was.

According to him, there was something wrong with the entire craftsmanship of the house. She knew nothing about that so she left him to his job.

She stepped out into the open air. the afternoon sun hit her like a brother who loved you but sometimes forgot his own strength.

She pulled a pair of sun glasses from her breast pocket and put them on, then headed over to her car. She got to the government sanctioned SUV and paused with the door open.

Tipping her sun glasses a bit lower, she glanced at the crowd of onlookers and spotted a face. It was a man, tall with a smattering of stubbles for beards.

He was just an onlooker but Alfa didn’t understand why she couldn’t take her eyes off him. There was something about him that told her that he was different. He wasn’t a spectator or some simple bystander here for the potential neighborhood and town gossip that could come from this. The way he looked at the house was different. He watched it as if he knew it deeply. No. that was wrong. It was as if he had something inside he needed to go and look for.

Like he’d somehow lost someone in there. Alfa would’ve loved to go talk to him but there was a chance that would cause more harm than good. And each time she pointed him out to a police officer so that they could go talk to him, they always came back claiming that they couldn’t find him.

That last part was all the suspicion she needed.

Alfa put her sun glasses back on properly and stepped into the car. She closed the door and turned on the car. If she couldn’t do anything about the portal, she could at least do some detective work. The lovely woman they’d found in the house wasn’t dead yet. She had been rushed to the hospital where Alfa had gotten confirmation an hour ago that she was now conscious and capable of having a conversation.

She turned onto the road and started making her way in the direction of the hospital when her phone beeped with a message.

Alfa picked it up, staring between it and the road as she read the message. The information passed brought a smile to her face.

Finally, some good news.

It wasn’t exactly good news but it was useful news. She’d spoken to Eckberth the moment the police had sealed off the house and had received a useless earful from the man. Then she’d gone over his head and made a request for an appointment with the commissioner. For all the clout that Naymond said she had, it had taken four days to get a response.

Alfa turned her car down a different road and stepped on the gas.

It was time to see the commissioner.

…

The waiting room was an unimportant piece of information as far as Alfa was concerned. What was important was that despite the message she’d received scheduling her in for a timed appointment, she’d been sitting in the waiting room for thirty minutes past her appointment time.

When she’d walked into the office and spoken to the secretary, the young lady had been all gushes over being in front of the famous Detective Alfa. Alfa had seen it as a good sign. She wasn’t one to advocate for an abuse of power, but she would take advantage of her fame when she thought it was necessary.

Unfortunately, taking advantage of her fame had proven impossible. The secretary, Jensen—her husband always said remembering names helped when dealing with people—couldn’t help.

The commissioner was on an important online meeting and couldn’t attend to her until he was done. Personally, Alfa thought it was something else. The powerful had a habit of making those who came looking for them wait, as if it was some kind of a power play. She didn’t understand why they thought that making people wait was somehow an assertion of their dominance.

Alfa had skimmed through two magazines before Jensen finally signaled for her.

“The commissioner will see you now,” the lady said with a beaming yet apologetic smile before returning her attention to her computer.

Alfa nodded and walked into the office as quickly as she could before the secretary decided to stop her over some other excuse the commissioner might decide to come up with to make her wait a little longer.

In her haste, she pushed the door open without knocking and stepped inside.

“Commissioner Bubat,” she greeted, closing the door behind her.

“Detective Alfa,” Bubat replied eyes fixed on his computer screen.

Bubat was an elderly man with over thirty years in the force. He had a full head of greying hair and a properly dressed greying moustache. His entire head was squarish like the generic Generals you watched in movies, and he had the stocky build to go with it.

Currently, he was typing away at his computer with two fingers, frowning as if the thing had personally slighted him somehow.

“You wanted to see me, Detective,” he said without looking up from the computer.

Alfa was hoping to keep it short.

“I did,” she answered.

“Why?”

“There’s a portal that just opened up in a residential building a few days ago, commissioner.”

Bubat paused to look at her. “And you want my help with that? Kind of odd, don’t you think? I get that it’s opened in a residential area but you really have nothing to worry about. It’s a matter for Delvers. I’ve read the news and you’ve already done your job by sealing off the place from civilians so you should be good. You have, right?”

“I have.”

“Then we’re good.” Bubat turned back to his computer. “Any portal casualties?”

“Yes, sir. A boy, Jake Nanahall. Seventeen years old.”

Bubat’s typing paused. He let out a tired breath and rubbed his forehead with thumb and forefinger.

“A damn shame,” he said. “Always a terrible thing losing a child to portal nonsense. What did he become?”

“A sculpture of pepper,” Alfa answered.

Bubat shook his head. “Now it’s mocking God. Pathetic.”

Alfa wouldn’t go that far, but she wasn’t here to exchange words about theology. That was what Naymond liked to do with the religious when he was feeling bored.

When Bubat was done with his solemnity, he returned his attention to her. “Eckberth can handle the press on that one. Please tell me that someone has reached out to the boy’s families.”

Alfa nodded.

“Good. Good.” Bubat rubbed his beard in thought. “Was he an only child?”

“Second of four, sir.”

Bubat winced. “Were you the one that informed them?”

Alfa shook her head and Bubat’s brows furrowed.

“Why?” he asked. “It’s not like you not to.”

Actually, it was very much like her not to. It seemed like the commissioner had also bought into the police propaganda parading her as a good person.

“I was trying to have a conversation with Eckberth at the time,” she said. “My men handled it in my absence.”

“Oh,” Bubat said in realization. “Eckberth told me about that. He said Naymond stepped into the portal. Considering his terrors regarding portals I’m really surprised.”

“Me, too, sir.”

“On the other hand, though,” Bubat mused. “Maybe his fear of portals was just a lie. I don’t know if you noticed but he’s good at those. Did you and him get close? Become friends?”

Alfa shook her head. “No, sir.”

“That’s good to know. In that case, Eckberth couldn’t have said it better. Good riddance. Damned Sage saddled me with more problems than my age is worth. Did you drop by to give me the good news?”

Alfa knew Naymond wasn’t liked but it was terrifying to know that people were happy that he was potentially dead. [Sage] wasn’t a combat class, so hearing that one went into a portal alone was the same as saying that one had died. It scarcely mattered the portal rank in relation to theirs.

You didn’t send a chef with the highest culinary skill into battle and expect them to come back alive.

Why were Eckberth and Bubat happy now that they thought he was dead? Naymond was a nuisance but he wasn’t this bad, was he?

“I’m here for a different reason, sir,” she said.

Bubat typed an entire four letters on his keyboard and grumbled something about the computer out to take his job at this point before looking up at her again.

“I’m sorry, Detective Alfa,” he said suddenly. “I know it’s beneath your position but are you any good with computers? I would have miss Jensen do this for me but almost everything I do here is above her pay grade.”

Alfa nodded but did not leave where she was standing. “Sir, I believe my reason for being here is more important, if I may risk sounding so arrogant.”

Bubat paused. He gave her a long assessing look before leaning back against his seat. “Alright, try me.”

Alfa was more than happy to. She didn’t want to get into a kind of trouble that was capable of terrifying Naymond if she could avoid it.

“Before Mr. Hitchcock stepped into the portal, he called me on my phone.”

“Why?”

“He wanted me to rush the portal closure. He insinuated that it would be for our own good to have it done immediately. He told me to ignore hierarchy if Eckberth didn’t pull his weight and go straight to you.”

Bubat chuckled. “Of course. The guy went in there without a team. He might be all confusing at times but one thing we can say is that he doesn’t want to die.”

Alfa scratched the back of her head awkwardly. Now came the hard part.

Bubat’s chuckles died and his brows furrowed. “He went in there without a team, did he not, Detective Alfa?”

“He did, sir.”

“Then why do you look like you’re about to tell me something that could get the both of us killed.”

“It’s more likely to be a PR nightmare than get us killed,” Alfa said.

“Then spit it out.”

“Mr. Hitchcock went into the portal because he was going after one of ours… a mentee, sir.”

Bubat froze. It wasn’t the pause of some kind of shock or disbelief. He looked like a man who’d just seen the Christian God and found out his name was Lucifer. He was stricken with terror.

When he spoke again, his voice was slow, shaky. “Naymond went after a child.”

Alfa wasn’t sure what was happening. “Yes, sir.”

“And he told you to skip the chain of command and come straight to me if Eckberth did nothing about it.”

“Yes, sir.”

Bubat moved his mouse about, made a few clicks.

“What is… wh—what…” he stammered a bit more, cleared his throat, then loosened his tie. “What’s the boy’s name?”

This was getting more complicated than Alfa had expected it to be. She’d come here fearing some severe punishment at giving the commissioner the news not to terrorize the man.

“NAME, DETECTIVE!” Bubat bellowed in terror. His hand shook and his eyes looked stricken.

“Melmarc Lockwood, sir.”

Bubat moved his mouse, the motion slow, hands still shaky.

“Please God,” he prayed as he clicked. “Please God let it not be so. I’ve still got a lot to live for. Please answer my prayer this one time and I promise to give a hefty tithe this Sunday.”

He made a final click then started typing on his keyboard. Bubat prayed as he typed, begging in a quiet voice, pleading with his God. Alfa watched, his terror growing contagious. She was beginning to think she may be in bigger trouble than she could imagine.

It took a while. It was a long moment of silence riddled with the slow sound of clicking keyboard keys and a middle-aged man praying. Finally, Bubat spoke words.

He leaned back against his chair and groaned like the dying.

Alfa frowned. Wait, is he crying?

“Why the hell did nobody tell me I had a priority one citizen in one of precincts?” Bubat groaned. “What have I done to deserve this?”

“Sorry, sir,” Alfa said, confused.

“That’s the kid in the portal?” Bubat was pointing at his screen. “Melmarc Jay Lockwood. Faker class?”

Alfa nodded.

“Oh, Jesus son of his mother,” Bubat groaned again. “My God, why have you forsaken me?”

“Commissioner Bubat?” Alfa had confirmed that the man wasn’t crying but he was being quite dramatic.

Bubat gathered himself. “Have you informed his family?”

“No, sir.”

“Good, good.”

“But my men are doing their best to reach out to his next of kin,” she said. “His mother and father are not reachable right now so we’re trying to get an alternative, so we’ve gone for his records in his former school. I assure you that we’re doing our best to get a family member.”

Bubat stuttered on his chair. Alfa had never seen the likes.

“Call those damned bastards and tell them to stop this instant!” He pointed a finger that shook violently at her. “I swear by whatever lifespan I have left that if any of those calls go through, the last thing I’ll do in this life is bury all of you with me.”

“Sir?”

“Blood of Edinka! Pick your damned phone, call your team, and tell them to stop making those damned calls!”

Alfa retrieved her phone from her pocket and was already calling Nan. “What’s wrong, sir?”

“What’s wrong?” Bubat scoffed. “You’ve damned us all. You went and lost a priority one citizen. There are only a handful of them.”

“A priority one citizen?”

Nan wasn’t picking.

Bubat looked at her, flabbergasted. “YOU LOST THE SON OF A FUCKING OATH!”

Now everything wasn’t making any sense, and Alfa needed things to make sense. So she asked the one question any reasonable human being would ask.

“What’s an Oath, sir?”