“I’m just saying it’s ridiculously ironic that earlier this morning I was telling Greyfoot that I couldn’t handle the wrecks and now I’m heading there to… something or other” Jorn said, shrugging the pack on his back into a more comfortable position. “Watch you work?”

Jorn looks over at his friend Hector who just smiles, “I wasn’t going to let you stay home in the mood you were in. Complain all you want. You’re already in a better mood than you would be if I left you to wallow”

"So instead you're taking me to your work. It's like you want to prove my point definitively. I’m looking forward to saying I told you so.”

Hector rolled his eyes, “I’m telling you so. The Wrecks would be terrible work for you. Even if you weren’t scrawny and small. Your aura would surely see you buried under a pile of ruble in no time.”

Jorn couldn’t help recoiling at the thought. “Not my aura, I refuse any ownership of it.”

“I refuse ownership of being single but I still don’t have dates lined up.” Hector replied, grimacing.

Keeping a comfortable stream of banter going the two crossed the linen district to the outer residential area at the western edge of Kaelton. After an hour they reached the Kaelton fence. Fence is too unified a term for the barrier that marks the beginning of the inhabited areas. More a collection of stone, wood, and steel piled up in a ring around the edge of the city than an actual barrier.

A post stood where the road led past the fence. Two guards sitting inside looked up as Jorn and Hector approached. An older guard, his skin the tan purple of a shade elf, but lacking the typical white hair spoke “Oh hey Hector, you don’t usually walk to work with someone else.”

Stepping forward Hector shook the guards hand while the other guard. The other guard, slightly older than Hector and John, motioned for Jorn to hand over the pack on his back.

Can’t have any contraband going out to the workers doing heavy labor.

Hector smiled “Yea, I decided to bring my brother along today. Just to show him what it’s like”

“Brother?” the guard failed to keep the confusion out of his voice as he regarded the two. Jorn, a gremlin demi-human, just over five feet with dark green skin and long limbs. And Hector, a human just over 6 feet with brown messy hair and no other discernible heritage. Jorn could only guess what was going through the guard's mind.

“In a sense,” Jorn said, “We’re both from the orphanage.”

“Yea we’ve been friends since before we were house trained” Hector said, giving a hearty laugh. Jorn and the guards didn’t.

The younger guard had the contents of the bag laid out on a table. He looked to the older guard chatting with Hector “Most of the stuff in the bag is fine. Spare shirt, a parcel of food. Bag of tea, plate, utensils, water flask. But these” He gestured toward two rods about the length of Jorns forearm. Both had a metal band at each end holding a cheap agate cap with a mechanism for changing settings a third of the way down the rod “We can’t let you take weapons into the wrecks.” The young guard said, somehow smirking with just his words.

Jorn's jaw tightened. There were no laws preventing anyone from taking protection into the wrecks. There were even laws ensuring that any civilian could have a form of self defense. What possible reason could there be that they couldn’t take weapons into an area that’s known to house various unbalanced creatures. Whatever his reasoning; it was stupid and Jorn opened his mouth to tell the guards that when Hector spoke.

“Oh the tea’s for you two” He said, gesturing to the package. “From Sister Agneu’s latest batch of GreyNettle blend. She added some Tonguebark in there. Really adds that extra depth of flavor.”

“Oh that is awesome, I loved the last bag you brought.” The older guard said, smelling the blend.

The younger guard glared at his partner. “That’s very nice, but we can’t overlook the weapons. It’s bad enough when it’s just one. These aren't just defense rods. They’re modular combat rods. Have you really been trained for these?”

Jorn tried not to glare. “We’re both full members of the militia. We’ve done the training.”

The guard ignored him, “What do you even need these for anyways? I thought you were just going to be doing some work in the Wreck?”

It was Hector's turn to be irritated with this young guard. “We are going to the Wrecks. We need the rods for self defense. You know, from the various tilted that keep appearing. The ones that you’re guarding against.”

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Now the guard actually smirked, “Like you said, we’re here. That means you don’t really need those weapons right?”

Hectors clenched good fists. “In the past month 3 members of our crew have been injured, one lost a limb. So when I say I need defense-” The older guard caught his eye, giving a firm shake of his head. As much as Hector would love to tear into this pompous guard, tact and patience were his best bet. “I mean we need some way to hold off any unbalanced until you guys get there. There’s what? Like six of you covering this area? No way you could be expected to cover the entire Wrecks. I brought the rods just as a way to buy time.”

The older Guard nodded along “It’s a good thing to watch out for yourself kid. Yokie here is simply doing his due diligence. Just remember those are Mana Tools, not weapons. Don’t bet your life on a defense that was designed just to be a stopgap.” Shaking Hector's hand again the guards handed Jorn the pack and waved them on.

Crossing the fence into the wrecks was a somewhat disconcerting experience. Almost like crossing into a distorted version of the neighborhoods they just passed. On the inside of the fence there were multiple residences, some standing three stories tall, housing multiple families in each building. Other neighborhoods were for the more wealthy, with houses sprawled out across a wide area with generous yards.

In the wrecks they can see what used to be multifamily housing as well as various shops, further in they’d even find an old industrial section. All of it broken, crumbling, and overgrown. As if an army had hit three square miles of the city with the goal to do as much damage as possible. Which is exactly what happened. Add on 6 years of neglect and growth supercharged by the various essences that still linger make The Wrecks look like the ruins of some long lost civilization.

Cresting a hill Hector pointed to a section that actually had some organization to it, with an area of several acres cleared. Except for the occasional tent or cart with tools. Around this opening were large piles of materials collected from the area. “We’ll get our job from there. Lately we’ve been working on the edge over there.” He said, pointing to the east where it was more cluttered, but Jorn could see some clear paths even from where they were.

Jorn couldn’t help admitting the scale of it all. “Y'all weren’t kidding about turning The Wrecks into a defense.”

Hector nodded, “Yeah, that open space will be a staging ground for the military. You can even see as we’re starting to build pathways that will eventually lead to a sort of maze. Check out over there.” Hector said, pointing just north of the large clearing, “they’re even putting in obstructions and stuff. It’s almost like an obstacle maze.”

Half an hour later they made it to the clearing where there were supervisors giving out assignments. Jorn stood by as Hector got his assignment. “Just like I thought,” he said, returning to Jorn, we’re working where I showed you earlier.”

Following Hector down a road that had been cleared they wove between teams carting heavy stones or metals piled high above their heads. Others worked down branching pathways clearing vegetation and rubble out of the way.

As they hiked down the road the other teams and workers became less common until they came to the end of the road. There stood a surprisingly intact building, it didn’t have a roof and half of the second story had collapsed. For The Wrecks it was practically a palace. Four large workers stood around the building, working away at the walls with a pick or hammer. A fifth watched them while standing at a stone laid out like a table with various papers laid out in front of him. He looked up from his table at the sound of the approaching pair. “Ah Hector, good to have you, is this a new team member? I didn’t know they were planning on sending anyone else.” he spoke with a deep voice, an almost echoing resonance that was common among those with dwarven heritage.

“Hey boss this is my friend,” Hector said, gesturing to Jorn “He needed a change of pace so I volun-told him to join us for the day.” noting the look in the dwarfs eye he added. “He’ll be alright, he’s tougher than he looks…Just don’t put him too close to any tall buildings.” The supervisor gave Hector a puzzled look for a moment before pointing to a bundle of assorted tools next to his stone table. “Right, Hector, grab something and start helping bring that house down. After that we’ll clear it out of the way. New kid, take a shovel and fill in the potholes and whatnot in the road.” He waved a hand a pile of gravel that had been collected in front of the house “We’ll figure something else out once you’ve finished.”

It wasn’t long before both boys had worked up a sweat. Jorn found a certain enjoyment out of working on a project with his bare hands. He was particularly pleased when his aura built up a lot of momentum in response to an environment that it could affect quite a bit. Only to retreat after spending all of its essence to shift the gravel that Jorn was moving. All that movement and the most it could do was make getting a shovel full of rocks somewhat obnoxious. It was enough to put a smile on Jorns face for the rest of the day.

Eventually they called lunch. Sitting in a circle with the other workers it struck Jorn just how tough all of them were. Two of them were Orcs, possibly related considering that they had the same green splotches across their backs and arms. Not to mention similar facial structure. A dwarf with rust colored hair, and a Demi-human with what Jorn suspected was troll heritage considering his elongated jaw, gangly limbs and frog like eyes. They all made Hector look like a small weak teen in comparison. Jorn could only imagine that he looked like a kid amongst giants.

With a clap the old dwarf in charge ended lunch, walking up to them with an armful of ropes. “Ok everyone stay back” He said, eyeing the building that stood in their way. After the work of the others the second floor had been almost completely removed with a large section of the three standing walls, “I’ve attached these-” he thrust his beard toward the ropes in his arms. “To the remaining sections of the building. It’s time we bring this building down.”

Each team member grabbed a section of rope and started pulling, even Jorn. Before long the building gave in and collapsed on itself. A sound like thunder breaking a tree rang out, throwing up a plume of dust and dirt. Followed quickly by a rotten acidic scent.

Jorn’s senses went into a panic. While he had no way to manipulate essence, he could sense it. Apparently that building had a sealed basement, one that was opened when the building over it came crashing down.

As the dust settled and essence poured out, a handful of small squat forms clambered out. Voices chattering in a high pitched giggle. Imps. Mad and unbalanced imps at that.