"Shit, I can't see it!"

My panic is near breaking point. After Maus has used her magic to pitch the blood phial out of the window, I stormed out of the apartment and rode the elevator down to ground level as if my life depended on it. I was hoping against hope that the phial had survived the multistory drop from the penthouse intact as unlikely as it may be. Nothing less than my future was riding on what's inside the phial.

The streets are teeming with people, milling by the side of the street and gawking at some kind of commotion going on up ahead. There's are even a long trail of cars, honking away at whatever obstruction is keeping them grid locked in the neighborhood. I don't bother about any of this though. My eyes are too busy scanning the surrounding area for any sign of the blood phial.

"C'mon, it has to be around here somewhere!"

Desperation begins to sink its claws into my heart. There's absolutely no sign of the phial in the area around the penthouse building. An irrefutable fact begins to assert itself in my head. The blood phial had been smashed to smithereens thanks to the drop. Maus had proven her point about how much control and power I really had.

"I'm not going to let that bitch win!"

No way. Even if it takes me all day and night, I will bring that phial back with me. The thought of Maus smugly greeting me returning in defeat is simply too much to bear. I might be carrying on a fool's errand out of spite but I need this tiny victory against that talking rodent. I begin pushing through the crowd, my eyes alert to any sign of the phial's location.

And then I see it. The cause of the massive traffic pileup.

A procession of men and women marching at a steady pace, taking up the entire breadth of the road and completely oblivious to the obstruction they are causing the cars behind them. The marchers are all dressed in grey colored robes, moving in complete silence. The group exudes a deadening aura, an invisible but palpable sense of oppression hovering over the marchers like a cloud. The onlookers sense this as well, growing silent whenever the marchers pass by just a bit too near. Even the cars stay a respectful distance away from the marchers, despite the obvious impatience of the drivers blasting their horns non-stop.

The marchers surround a large carriage, with several members of the group pulling away at it like mules. And riding on the carriage surrounded by plush cushions is a figure in a pure featureless white robe that obscures every single identifying figure the wearer might have. Like a burqa, the only gap in the robe's fabric is a tiny slit for the wearer to look out from.

The Regulators. It has to be them. Some kind of wacky cult that based itself in the outskirts of the city near the industrial area. I've occasionally seen the gray robed guys hanging about and passing pamphlets to anyone who shows the slightest bit of interest in their freaky getup. A good rule of thumb for dealing with this guys is no eye contact and no conversation. Give them any excuse and the gray robes will begin sharing their message, so to speak.

All very interesting but I've got a phial to find and -

Wait a minute.

The phial. Its lying in the middle of those cushions on top of the carriage. My inheritance is safe and sound. I just need to catch up with the marchers!

My legs begin moving at a brisk jog, quickly devouring the distance separating me from the marchers. And as I approach, that ineffable force surrounding the marchers wraps itself around me. Its like an invisible blanket that swaddles and stifles at the same time. My vision begins to blur slightly and sounds grow subtly muted. The crowd of onlookers listlessly part before me, opening a clear path toward the phial.

I'm so close, the sense of anticipation is right on the tip of my tongue. The cultists are too preoccupied doing their own thing, letting me push through them with little resistance. Now its just a matter of me grabbing the phial and returning home.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Would you like to hear our message?" a feminine voice asks as a surprisingly strong hand seizes me by the arm.

"Just need to grab something which dropped on the carriage." I struggle to free myself, but the cultist woman clings to me like a barnacle.

"Fate has ordained our meeting." the cultist mulishly insists.

This time I keep my mouth shut and look forward. Don't talk to them. Keep your eyes on the prize and remember why you're here. Invisible weight presses down on me, forcing my pace to slow to match the leisurely cadence of the march.

"I had never expected to meet a Rutger's student here." the cultist woman says something totally unexpected.

I turn about, examining the cultist woman more closely. The hood of her robes is pulled low, but at this range I can make out who she is fairly easily.

"You're the school nurse." I say in disbelief.

"That I am." the nurse nods serenely, "And you're the student who came to me after getting hurt in a fight."

"So, uh, what're you doing here?" I scratch the back of my head, still trying to regain my composure.

"We are accompanying her High Holiness for a ceremony at the Tree of Eternity." the nurse nods her chin at the figure on the carriage.

"What I actually mean is -" I make another go at phrasing the question but the nurse interrupts me.

"You want to know why I joined a cult?" she sounds amused and not offended at least.

"Yeah. Pretty much." I reluctantly admit.

"I was adrift for a long time." the nurse explains with a wistful expression, "Working at Rutger's seemed so pointless. Sometimes, I even felt that the hours seemed to repeat ad nauseam. Does that make sense to you?"

"Somewhat." I agree with the nurse, remembering how blitzed out of her mind she was during our first meeting.

"I heard about the Regulators and decided to attend one of their free talks." the nurse continues, "It helped. A lot. Things are now more peaceful for me."

"Happy to hear that." I decide to nod along. Either the nurse has managed to get her shit together or the cult has some really good shit. Good for her.

"By regulating yourself, you regulate others. By regulating others, you regulate the world." the nurse intones with both hands clasped in prayer.

"Uh, interesting?" I start trying to edge toward the carriage again.

"Would you like a pamphlet?" the nurse pulls out a colorful piece of paper from her robes, offering it to me.

"No, not really." I shake my head.

"Then why are you here if not to learn about us?" the nurse asks not in the least put out by my refusal. Got to admit, she's really peaced out right now. There might be something to this cult's teachings.

"Its a bit embarrassing actually." I decide to come clean, "Something of mine dropped on to the carriage. I'm just here to get it back."

"I see. Please give me a moment." the nurse assents and begins walking toward the chariot. As I watch with bated breath, the nurse shares a hushed conversation with the person wearing the burqa. After a bit of back and forth, the burqa guy retrieves the phial from among the pillows and hands it to the nurse.

"Is this what you were looking for?" the nurse offers me the phial in her open palm.

"Yes, yes it is." I nearly groan out in relief, realizing the phial is completely undamaged, "Thank you. You don't realize how much this means to me."

As I reach out and grasp the phial, there's a gentle wind, bringing with it the scent of cherry blossoms.

"It is no trouble at all." the nurse bows her head, "Her High Holiness has some advise for you as well, if you care to listen."

"Of course." I nod firmly. At least this High Holiness has the good grace to ask me for my consent first before giving advise, unlike a certain other overbearing bitch.

"Opposition for the sake of opposing has no purpose." the nurse clasps her hands in prayer again, "If you continue fighting the ocean, your only reward will be to drown. Do you understand?"

"Hey," I narrow my eyes in suspicion, a bad feeling crawling up my spine, "Mind if I speak to your High Holiness?"

"Only a member of our order may have such a privilege." the nurse demurs, "And I'm afraid our business is done for the day. We must return to our compound."

"You haven't even begun your ceremony at the Tree of Eternity." I protest but another cult member bumps into me from behind, knocking me out of the group.

"May all your deeds be pleasing before the Trinity Sea." the nurse says as she is swallowed up by the marchers, "Farewell."

"Trinity Sea? What are you talking about?" I ask but the marchers continue their way onward, ignoring me completely. The deadening aura begins to lift and I breathe a sigh of relief as my senses come roaring back.

And then I realize that I'm nowhere near the city center. I'm now standing by the side of the highway that connects to the industrial area. In the course of my conversation with the nurse, we had walked a distance equivalent to an hour long car ride.

"Impossible." I murmur, watching the cultists disappear into the horizon. There's no logical way any of this could have happened. But one thing is clear. I've managed to retrieve the blood phial. The immediate crisis has passed. Maus can kiss my ass with all her talk about logic.

A series of cars zoom past me and I gut clenches in belated understanding.

"Got a long walk home." I sigh in tired resignation, putting one foot in front of the other.