2 A.L.: IRENE

Irene realized the room was emptying out. She looked around for Sophia and Jake, but didn’t see them. They must have already left. Irene returned to Darien to make her excuses. “It looks like my party has already left. I’d better go catch up with them.” Irene didn’t like that Darien separated her from her party. They needed to find a place to spend the night.

“Jenna tells me you took Charles' advice on fighting with magic,” Darien commented, completely ignoring her stated intention to find her party.

“I told her that as a kind of joke,” Irene said, trying to relieve the tension in the room. “I didn’t know he didn’t make it. I hope she forgives me.” The last group of three leaders headed out the door. Michael stepped into the room, allowing the door to the outer office to close behind him.

“So you can’t throw fireballs?” Darien asked. Irene wondered where this was going to go. If she said she could, would he get rid of her as a threat? Irene didn’t think so. Irene thought of Darien as a user. He never seemed to do anything himself. Even in the stick fighting classes, somehow he always was walking around giving great sounding but useless advice and not actually training himself. Michael on the other hand was a very competent fighter. The fact that he seemed unarmed right now didn’t reassure Irene much. She was fairly certain he could take her stick from her and beat her to death with it.

If Irene proved to Darien that she had worth she thought he was far more likely to want to keep her close so that he could use her. Irene didn’t much like the idea of being a kept henchmen. She thought she needed to show that she had value, but not much.

“No, I can throw fireballs,” Irene said. “I haven’t found it that useful. Mostly I rely on my stick to keep animals away from me until Jake can squash them.”

“Isn’t that one of those broomsticks from the engine compartments that old Dennis claimed came all the way from Earth?” Darien asked after giving her stick a closer look. Irene wanted to tell him that everything on the Speedwell came all the way from Earth, so it wasn’t just a claim. What made the brooms special was that they weren’t recycled into something else along the way, even though they were an item that would wear out.

“Yep,” she said instead. She tapped it on the ground. “Carbon fiber is tough stuff. This stick has brought me luck.”

“How is old Dennis?” Darien said. Irene wondered if Darien actually liked the old man.

“Dead,” Irene countered. Darien seemed taken aback, and Irene felt bad for saying it that way. Maybe she was misreading this situation. “Sorry,” Irene heard herself say before she could stop herself. “He died months ago. I thought you left because he died.”

“I knew he was ill, but I didn’t realize…” Darien said, staring off into the distance. Irene found herself wondering how much of this response was an act. She felt kind of bad about that thought, but she didn’t completely disregard it.

“Can you show us fireball?” Darien asked. “I have been trying to use the scientific method on magic to figure out what everyone who is successful has in common.” This argument should sound good to her coming from a fellow member of the engineering team. Unfortunately at this point Irene wasn’t completely certain Darien even knew what the scientific method was. She was glad she took the time during the trip from Londontown to learn fireball. Fireball was a cast with the five symbol, which was just an open hand thrown. Casting it in front of Darien would not be giving much away about how magic worked. She still didn’t want to do it if it could be avoided.

“I’ve only ever cast it against rats,” she said. “I am not certain it works without a living target.”

“It does,” Darien assured her. He walked over to a small table next to one of the tan sofas and set a tankard on it. His easy confidence on this point made Irene think he made multiple people do this little test. “Go ahead and blast that tankard,” Darien instructed. Irene decided if she was going to do this she better make it look good.

She thought about all the crazy stuff she heard when people discussed doing magic. Fragments of conversations drifted through her head; ‘set your feet’, ‘inhale power’, ‘fix your intent’ or was it ‘gather your intent’? She put all that together as part of her show.

She settled her feet into the rest position and tapped her staff on the ground in front of her. She flexed and shook both her hands, shifting the staff between them. She closed her eyes and took a long deep breath. She opened her eyes again and gave the beer tankard an intense stare, like it was her brother who had just eaten the last donut. She plunged her hand toward the floor, then dragged it up like she was collecting fire from the core of the planet. She held her fingers like there was a ball enclosed in them and threw that invisible ball at the tankard. Nothing happened.

“Crap,” Irene said. “Let me give it another try, I think I didn’t visualize it enough.” She went through her little dance again. Putting even more hand stretches, clenches and shakes into the procedure. She gave the tankard the evil eye and threw. Darien was starting to look annoyed, but Michael was getting more relaxed.

“That one was close, I could almost feel it,” Irene said. She started again, before Darien could say anything. This time when she plunged her hand toward the floor she used her leg to block both men’s view as she rolled her fingers leftwards into a fist. She spread her fingers wide and made a smooth throwing gesture.

A ball of fire formed just past the end of her fingers and flew in the direction of the beer tankard. Feeling particularly vindictive she allowed her focus to shift from the tankard to the tan fabric of the sofa directly behind it. The fireball hit the sofa which burst into flame.

“Oh, shit,” Irene said. “My focus must have slipped. I am so, so sorry.”

“Think nothing of it,” Darien said as Michael stepped forward to beat the fire out. “My fault entirely for picking that target.” Darien smiled at Irene. “How long have you been in the ruins?” he asked.

“About twenty days,” Irene said. “I have only managed to cast fireball the last couple.” Which was the truth, but it left out the other spells she knew entirely.

“That’s impressive,” Darien said to her. “You are a natural. We will have to make sure you get a chance to practice.”

“That’s great,” Irene responded. “I really need to get going. I haven’t got a place to spend the night yet and I will need to hook up with my team if I want someone to watch my back.”

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“Of course,” Darien said. He was all charm and courtesy. He moved forward to walk her to the door. “If you don’t hook back up with them before too late I am sure Michael can find you a place in the barracks. Can’t you, Michael?”

“Yes, sir,” Michael responded. He was busy reducing the sofa fire into a smoldering mess.

Darien opened the door for her, as Irene stepped through it he said. “When you get settled in, come visit me again and we will get something set up for you,” he said.

“Oh,” Irene said, turning to look back at Darien, but being careful to keep her body in the outer room. “The guard at the south gate said you would give me a token.”

“Who was that?” Darien asked.

“Honestly,” Irene said to him, leaning forward and lowering her voice, like she was sharing a secret with a friend, “he recognized me from stick fighting. He seemed vaguely familiar, but I have no idea what his name is.”

Darien laughed at her, before giving the replacement at the desk instructions to give her a token. When he was gone, Irene picked up her pack and secured it to her back. The token was a document written on an octagonal sheet of vellum. Irene wanted very much to head to the nearest gate and just keep going. Unfortunately her bronze vent pins would not be ready until tomorrow. She needed to stay calm and act like everything was normal, even though she felt like a noose was closing around her throat.

Irene did not find her party before the lights began to dim. She thought about walking out of the settlement to the green to the north where she could climb a tree and wait out the night. Instead inspiration struck and she headed out to the outskirts near the south gate. There she volunteered to take a shift at the hospital, if she could stay the whole night. The two overworked women readily agreed. In the morning they thanked her and told her to come back anytime. Irene was glad she’d done it. She found out some very interesting things about healing in the ruins. She also recorded lots of footage of patients moaning in pain, where the only thing she could do for them was give them water.

She was low on water herself, but she wasn’t going to take any from the hospital. She decided to head out into the green and refill her flasks. The stairwell exit was on the other side of the shopping district from the hospital.

“Hey, Irene. I am glad I found you,” Jake called from a cross hall near the central prize altar. Irene smiled at Jake, glad to see him again.

“I looked for you last night,” Irene commented.

“Yeah, sorry about that. We got carried away drinking with Kyle and his party,” Jake explained. “Where are you heading now?”

“I’m on my way to check out the local green. I wasn’t planning on going far by myself, but I wanted to try and refill my flasks,” Irene commented. “I heard mention of a bear yesterday. They way it was talked about I think it is very dangerous.”

“If you can wait a moment I will go fetch Sophia and we can go out together. I wouldn’t mind getting a look around myself,” Jake commented.

Jake headed off in the direction of the gallery exit. Less than five minutes later he returned with Sophia. Irene noticed that both of them didn’t have their heavy packs with them. They were armed and carried water flasks. Irene made no comment and the three of them headed in the direction of the stair exit. Guards were standing in the hallway across from the entrance to the stairs. The stairs led both up and down. The guards made no comment as they took the stairs down.

They got off the stairs on the green entrance level and worked their way north until they found it. The entrance was very similar to the entrance to the first green. The hallway ended at an open wall, the tile flooring replaced by dirt in a sharp line. Irene could hear the splash of water. They oriented themselves and headed directly there.

“Kyle has offered us scavenging positions in his suburb,” Sophia announced. “He plans to head there in a day or two when his custom orders are complete.” Jake remained quiet.

“Is his suburb one of the ones on the map?” Irene asked.

“No,” Sophia replied. “It is about three days farther north. He told us they found a large public sanitary facility, that they are basing themselves around. I got the impression it is like that one we found high on Londontown’s green.”

“I visited Jake’s room with a puddle in the corner last night, so I can understand the draw,” Irene responded. “Darien assured me he would find a place on his crew for me,” Irene said, wanting them to know they didn’t need to worry about her. “I feel like I have a commitment to you two, so if you need me to go north with you I will.”

“That’s a relief,” Sophia said to Irene. “We were worried you wouldn’t understand. I don’t know why, but the offer was contingent on you not going with us.”

“A small community probably only has room for two more,” Irene said casually. She knew why the offer didn’t include her. Darien wanted to keep her close. “Shall we do a little hunting? Maybe we can find a bear.”

Jake and Sophia agreed and they headed out across the green. They got several squirrels and a boar. Jake claimed the physical tusks. Sophia skinned the beast, but was forced to cut it into smaller sections before they could carry it. They were afraid that would decrease its value. Irene received a full skin and a chunk of meat as part of the virtual prizes. Sophia and Jake only mentioned getting coins, so she decided not to mention the items. They left most of the meat behind.

As they came out of the stairwell the guards closed in on them. Irene fished the paper token out of a side pocket of her backpack and showed it to them. They immediately stepped away and let them pass.

“What is that paper?” Jake asked as they headed in the direction of the leather shop Irene was almost robbed in.

“It’s the token Darien gave me yesterday,” Irene explained.

“Can I see it?” Sophia asked.

“Sure,” Irene said. “When we get to the leather shop I will show it to you.”

John was on duty in the front room of the leather shop. Irene gave him a completely blank look like she had never seen him before. She let Sophia do all the talking. Sophia usually did pretty well negotiating with craftsmen. This time she did exceptionally well. Irene took her share of the coins and slipped them into her pack. She pulled the paper token out and handed it to Sophia.

“I found a place that serves meals, do you want to go have lunch?” Irene asked.

JAKE AND SOPHIA

“Are you certain about leaving her behind?” Jake asked Sophia that night. They were in the rooms set aside for visiting suburb leaders. They were in a small side chamber laying on a hard leather pad.

“She is just too well connected,” Sophia responded. “I don’t know how she did it, but I swear everyone knows her. We will always be in her shadow even though she is the one following us around.”

“She still doesn’t care about the loot. She didn’t even ask what we planned to do with the tusks,” Jake commented. “I swear her spells are getting stronger. I barely tapped that boar and it dropped like it was having a heart attack.”

“Did you notice we didn’t get as many coins as we did for the first one? I think since Irene did most of the damage, she got most of the prize money. Maybe she let you have the tusks to try and even it out,” Sophia reflected. “She is painfully truthful.”

“That may be true,” Jake countered, “but I don’t think anyone else is going to have that point of view.”

“Maybe,” Sophia admitted. “I think we left it on good terms with her. Since she is staying on with Darien, we know where to find her if we end up needing a little extra firepower. I can’t see her getting on with Darien in the long term. That man is so smooth he doesn’t know if he’s telling the truth or not.”

“Why do you say ‘I think’?” Jake asked. “We did leave it on good terms.”

“Well,” Sophia said, pulling the paper token from her pocket. “I did take this. If she notices she might not think so highly of us.”

“Why did you do that?” Jake asked.

“She can just get another one,” Sophia explained. “I doubt she will even realize where she lost it. If she comes back looking for it before we head back I will hand it over and tell her ‘sorry I didn’t realize’.”

“I suppose it doesn’t really matter,” Jake said with a sigh. He looked up at the darkened panels on the ceiling, reminding himself that they needed to do whatever it took to end up on top. Irene’s token was just the beginning.