Boot Up 1.7

The group that made its way down the main corridor of Merrywood would have been intimidating if it wasn’t entirely made up of teens and young adults. The fact that a select few were basically cosplaying as wizards and warriors didn’t add much to the scene.

Most of them had flashlights in hand or strapped on their bodies to illuminate the way. One wizard-y type had a little ball of light floating next to him, but he was the odd one out.

Fortunately, little groups began to split apart from the main body and soon I found myself alone save for Eleanor who walked by my side with her head on a swivel. There were other group nearby, but less and less of them as we reached the climbed higher and higher up one of the stairwells. Eleanor was trying to take everything in, from the grey walls covered in graffiti to the... well the other grey walls covered in graffiti.

I was never terribly fond of huge mega buildings, especially not these smaller knock-off like Merrywood. One of them looked pretty much like all the rest, and I’d been living in them my entire life. I could have probably navigated the place blindfolded by now. But to a girl like Eleanor, who didn’t seem to have gone out much, it must have been rather intimidating.

She didn’t know that the crudely painted unicorn next to one door meant that there was a pimp nearby, or that the dragon painted in rainbow hues belonged to one of the more prominent asian gangs in the area.

“Are we there yet?” I asked.

Eleanor sighed. “We’re somewhere around E-3. Just a few more minutes,” she said. “Would you rather talk about something instead of asking me if we’re there every minute or so?”

“I don’t know, most conversations I actually enjoy are rather crass. I wouldn’t want to offend your... delicate sensibilities and have you go crying to mommy about it.”

She shuffled her shoulders so that her bag rose a little higher by her side. “I’m hardly a wallflower. I can take a little bit of... crass conversation.”

I looked at her from the corner of one eye and slowly raised an eyebrow. “Sure you can,” I said simply. There some undefinable joy that comes from making people uncomfortable, or just making them want to be anywhere but around you. I had Eleanor pegged as something of a sheltered girl and from what I’d seen I wasn’t too far off the mark. “So, what the in nine hells is a Chronomancer?”

“That’s hardly crass.”

“-and how does a Chronomancer breed?”

Eleanor shot me a dangerous look that only got worse when I started laughing. “A Chronomancer, like all ‘mancer’ classes, is a specialist magical class. In this case, one that specializes in the manipulation of time.”

“I kinda figured on account of the ‘chrono’ part,” I said. “But how far does it go? Can you time travel?”

“Don’t be silly, time travel is impossible,” she replied.

“Yesterday I was teleported halfway across a continent, this morning we drove a van through a portal that brought us to this ass end of nowhere. I’m not sure how silly it is to presume that something is impossible anymore.”

Pushing her glasses up her nose she took something of a lecturer’s pose while keeping pace with me. “While spatial and matter manipulation, as well as the manipulation of the four fundamental forces; gravity, strong and weak radiation and electromagnetism, are all noted and researched side effects of the usage of so-called magical skills, there is little to no evidence that time itself can be altered. The effects of time-based spells can be explained much more simply as a series of highly detailed simulations of probable future events. These abilities are, in all likelyihood, merely a very advanced use of statistical calculations to extrapolate possible future events.”

“Christ, was that a quote from a textbook?” I noticed just a bit of reddening on her cheeks. “Oh god, it was!” I couldn’t suppress a bit of cackling which only had her reddening further. “Okay, okay,” I said once I had myself under control. “So, you read that timey-wimey stuff is a no-go. But does that mean that no one’s done it yet, or is it just that whomever wrote that book things it can’t be done?”

“The person that wrote that book was my mother,” she shot back testily. “She’s a well respected authority in the field of Awakened studies, as you can imagine.” Her eyes wandered down a little. “One day, I hope to be half as successful as she is.”

Oh, that was a landmine right there. Mommy issues weren’t something I was going to poke at until the test was over. “She seemed a little bossy to me,” I muttered. I’m pretty sure she heard but didn’t comment, instead she pointed off to my right.

Turning, I found that there was a door just a little ways ahead of us. “That’s the corridor we’re scouting.” Scuffed titles on the floor, dirty walls covered in off-white paint, steel doors every dozen meters. Looked about right.

We slowed to a stop at the edge of the first doorway, just enough that a group of three other students had to go around us, not that there wasn’t plenty of room to pass now that most of the other testees had already reached their part of the grid.

I followed the group with my eyes for a few seconds, three girls with armour over their uniforms and assault rifles hanging from straps on their backs. A Gladiator, Electro-Fencer and a Soldier. It was like the start of a bad joke. The part that wasn’t funny was just how fit the three were. My eyes wandered down until something pinched my bicep.

“Focus,” Eleanor said. I don’t think she’d really noticed that I was staring at the asses of the three girls, but she shot me a dirty look nonetheless. “Do you know how to do a breach?”

“I wouldn’t mind breaching any one of those three, if that’s what you mean,” I replied with a leer.

She jabbed a finger into my gut, not hard enough that it would have hurt, but she managed to poke at a still-healing bruise. “Get your little sword out, Richard. You’re taking point.” With that, she bent over her duffle bag and rooted around within it. A moment later she was pulling out a handgun which she hooked into her belt, then she took out a long, thin leather sheath with a bit of wood poking out of it. With almost dramatic flair she tore a stick out from within.

“Wait, is that a wand?”

Her knuckles went white around the stick. “It’s a valuable tool for casters.”

“It’s a phallic symbol,” I shot back. “You’re holding a tiny wooden penis.”

“Is everything about sex with you?” She took one look at my shit-eating grin and grumbled. “Just, just shut up and take out your sword!”

“Well, if you’re asking so nicely, who am I to refuse? Just give me a second, then we can compare phallic symbols. I’ll warn you now, mine’s longer.” It was a little awkward to pull my borrowed backsword out of its sheath, but I had it in hand soon enough.

There’s something intrinsically… manly, about holding a sword. I shifted its weight around until I had it in a comfortable one-handed grip, then I wiggled the arm where my shield hung to get it positioned just right. I didn’t know any footwork and any forms I took were based off of video games and hollywood bullshitery, but I still felt safer with them than without. “So, now what, princess?”

“Princess, really?” she shot back.

“Well, you mom’s basically the queen bitch of the Academy, right?”

“Does that make me the princess bitch?” she replied in a deadpan.

I grinned at her. “You’re the one that said it.” I only narrowly avoided getting rapped on the head by her wand.

“Alright, since only one of us seems to be able to act like a grown-up, I’ll take charge. You just follow my lead.” With that, Eleanor loosened her handgun in its hip holster and shifted her fingers over her wand. “We’ll start with the this place. The map indicates that it’s being used for storage instead of housing. It probably doesn’t have as many nooks and crannies.”

I took a second to really look at her as she walked towards the room. Now that she wasn’t hiding behind a book or slapping me across the face, I finally noticed that for all her weird sort of reserved spunk she was actually pretty young, maybe seventeen or eighteen at most. Of all the people in our van earlier she was probably the youngest, but she still carried herself as if she knew what she was doing. Still naive as all hell though.

“So, how’re we getting in there?” I asked. There was a standard door. Cheap steel, but there was a heavy padlock on it.

Eleanor walked up to the door and tried the lock. “When inspecting an Insanity zone like this one, any Awakened has special dispensation for things like breaking and entering and trespassing. It’s actually pretty similar to a police officer arriving on an active crime scene, you don’t need a warrant for every building.”

“We can just, bust the door in, then?” I asked.

Looking around, it was pretty clear that even if we weren’t allowed to just break in, it wasn’t like there was anyone around to stop us. The entire housing block was obviously empty and the neighbourhood had been evacuated.

“Like I said, we can pretty much get away with total property destruction. In fact, in some cases it’s best to burn a building down than to try and clear it. Safer for us that way. But I don’t think this is the case here.” Having said that, she brought her wand around and pressed it against the padlock. After closing her eyes and muttering something under her breath, I saw a splotch of rust appearing on the lock, then the metal loop behind it. The rust grew until it covered the whole thing and the metal padlock started to be worn away. It was like watching a timelapse video of something dipped in acid.

With a heavy clunk, the padlock fell to our feet and Eleanor relaxed. I stared at the lock, then looked around again. There was an eerie silence. No electric humming, no noise from people, and no distant music. It was the exact sort of ominous feeling you’d expect to feel while looking at something supernatural. “So, uh, coud you promise you won’t rust my man bits off if I ever insult you too much?” I asked.

With a dismissive shake of her head, Eleanor pushed the door open and levelled her wand at the entrance. The flashlight she had hooked over the lapel of her coat lit up the room.

A plume of dust filtered out, tinged with the scent of mold and stale air.

“This is probably a bad time to mention it,” she began, “but Chronomancers are a ranged Class. Do you want to go in first?”

I hummed noncommittally. No, I didn’t want to go in first. Still, I had a younger impressionable girl staring up at me and some stupid ape-minded part of my brain made my mouth move. “Yeah. Got another light?”

Eleanor backed up and towards her duffle bag. Her attention never really left the door while she searched through her back. She tossed a flashlight at me with an underhand throw and I flicked it on.

I stepped into the barn, sword held parallel to the ground in what I hoped was a decent guard stance and eyes scanning the dark interior. Loose bits of trash shifted underfoot and I found myself sweating a little. It was far warming in the room than out of it, enough that my breathing came in deeper gulps as I moved in. “Pretty dark in here,” I whispered.

“One sec,” Eleanor said. A moment later a beam of light shone into the room, running from left to right along wooden walls covered in tools and over some old gardening equipment that had been shoved off to one corner in the manner of sheds everywhere. “Above you!” she screamed.

I almost fell on my ass as I tried to bring my puny shield over my head and aim my sword up to stab at whatever was above me.

I blinked up at a bare ceiling for a moment before the sound of giggling from behind me registered.

“Oh, you are so dead,” I muttered.

After a few more seconds, Eleanor calmed down and managed to only smile at me. “That’s for the thing with my phone earlier. Also, it’s a valid lesson. A lot of Awakened get ambushed from above in places like these. Critters tend to be stealthy like that.”

“Well aren’t you just a grade A fucking teacher. Thanks for the lesson, teach, is the next one about changing your pants in the field? Christ, my heart stopped for a second there.”

“Language,” she said. She pointed her light across the room again, searching. “I don’t think there’s anything in here. The air’s too stale.”

I reached into my breast pocket and fished out my own flashlight. “If we’re allowed to break and enter, does that mean we can… confiscate things we find?” I asked.

“I think they draw the line at outright theft,” she deadpanned.

Leaning my sword against a workbench, I bent down and freed a pitchfork from amongst a pile of tools. “Not even a little?”

“I think you might want to stick to your sword, that looks like too much for you to handle.”

“Ohh, more innuendo? The princess is a pervert.”

“Innuen-- oh, grow up.” I heard her shifting something behind me. “Found something,” she said.

Abandoning the pitchfork and taking up the sword again, I returned to her side and looked at where the light was pointing.

“Goddamn.”

“Language.”

There was a pile of meat on the ground, just bits of flesh and bone that looked like week-old roadkill. Bits of matted fur stuck out from the mess at odd angles and, now that I was closer, I caught the sickly-sweet scent of rot. “What the hell happened there?”

“Looks like a raccoon. Probably a half-turned critter that met a fully turned one. They can get pretty territorial.” She looked around again. “I think this place is clear. If there was anything it would have come out by now.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” I said. “But what exactly is insanity?”

She started walking towards the door but paused at the threshold. “We don’t really know, exactly, but we know the symptoms that make it appear and the things that happen once an Insanity zone has started to form.”

I followed her outside and had to blink away the blinding brightness of the sun. “Alright, so what are the things that happen in one of these Insanity zones?”

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She gestured around us, at the powered down lights, at the rust creeping across the steel molding. “Listen, no birds or bugs. Nothing left alive. If there were trees they would be dying off too. But those are side effects. The first thing affected is anything that’s sentient. They get sicker, then any mental issues get worse.”

“Um, not to be the party pooper, but aren’t humans pretty damned sentient?”

She nodded. “We tend to be some of the first affected. Just a few hours in an IZ like this would have some people start showing signs. In a high level one it can be nearly instantaneous.”

“That’s comforting. And we’re safe, right?”

“Awakened are safe, yeah. The higher your Sanity attribute the less you’re affected. Normal people with mental issues will have it worse. Any genetic issue will get worse, hormonal or chemical imbalances will tip off the scale. So, someone that suffers from paranoia will have worse symptoms, regardless of medication. I’m not a psychiatrist, so I don’t know all there is to know about the subject, but it’s pretty bad. Animals, especially the smarter ones are affected next. They go mad, like rabies but more… cunning. And then the physical changes set in. People call it zombification sometimes, but that’s more of a pop-cultural thing and isn’t really accurate.”

“That sounds like jolly good fun,” I muttered. We began to walk towards the next door. “So, trees and plants are last because… they’re not fully sentient?”

“Exactly. Once a core forms and starts to grow, things get a lot worse but not as quickly. The closer to the core, the more the world… warps. Have you ever seen an M.C. Escher painting? For that matter, have you ever read anything by H.P. Lovecraft?”

“That’s the opposite of reassuring. I don’t intend to visit R'lyeh anytime soon.”

“There’s a reason why we’re needed. An IZ that’s left to grow will become progressively worse. But you’ll be learning about that in class. What’s important to know is that it’s dangerous, but not so much that someone like us can’t do something about it.” She was the first to reach the house. With her arms above her head to create a shadow, she peeked through a window set in the door. “Want to breach this one? It’s just a wooden door.”

I moved back from the door and tried to gauge my footing before running up to it and, with the heel of one foot, ramming the door open. The lock clanged apart and splinters from the wooden door frame scattered across a hardwood floor.

Eleanor slipped around the entrance, handgun in one hand and wand in the other. She looked from left to right, then up. “Entrance is clear,” she said over one shoulder.

I stepped in after her, sword at the ready as I inspected the room. There was a couch nearby, facing a television mounted to one wall. Off to our left was a dining room and to the right I could see a stove and counters within another room. A staircase took up one corner of the living room where it ran up to the home’s second floor.

“Seems quiet,” I said. “Fancy place.”

Eleanor started to nod, then she grew tense. I heard her sniffing the air and did the same. It wasn’t stale like the storage room, rather it smelled like sweat and a bit like rotting food. I wondered, for a moment, if someone had left some fruits out and they’d gone to waste. It wouldn’t have surprised me, what with the need to evacuate the town.

“There’s something comi--” Eleanor began.

Two grey shapes scuttled down the staircase, spitting and hissing the entire time. I only had the time to stare wide-eyed before they were almost on us. Eleanor brought her handgun up and fired a trio of shots, each one making me blink.

My ears rang and I regained my senses just in time to see both critters spin away from the girl and towards me.

The first jumped like a raging cat.

I swung my sword down, but all I struck was air. The critter hit me in the chest and suddenly I had to deal with a dozen pounds of scratching, biting, angry beastie.

I spun and was trying to bat away at the thing clawing at my chest when I saw the second one jump for me. “Chrono Caesum!” Eleanor screamed as if the words were being torn out of her chest.

Spinning around, I brought the edge of my shield down on the critter still latched to my chest again and again, only to stare in horror as, despite the bleeding wounds I’d left, two arms moved off its back to grab at my shield with tiny hands.

I dropped my sword and placed my good hand between the thing and my belly. With a heave I flung it to the ground.

I kicked at it and when my foot connected it rolled over towards the couch.

It hissed again, then two beady eyes locked on me and I was backpedaling away.

The back of my foot caught my sword and sent it scrittering across the floor. The critter lopped towards me, claws biting into the wood to send up chips behind it.

Eleanor spun above me and I saw a flash. She shot twice more at the thing. Puckered holes appeared in the wood next to it, but neither shot hit the damned thing.

I tumbled back as it leapt for me. My shield came up and I felt it ram against it. The shield becoming much heavier as the critter tried to go around it.

“Damn it!” Eleanor said. She was staring, gun pointing to the ground next to me. It looked like she wanted to move, to do something, but like me wasn’t sure how to act.

With my free hand I reached over my belly and to the combat knife sheathed at my side. I had to twist around and wiggle the thing trying to bite though my shield to keep it away, but I finally managed to yank the knife out.

With a roar I stabbed over my shield and felt the tip of the knife cut into something.

It screeched. The sound reminded me for a moment of stepping on a cat’s tail, then the thing went wild.

Three barbed tails lashed out at me as it rounded my shield and tried to latch onto my face. It was only my attempt to roll over the saved me from losing an eye. The critter fell to the side and righted itself with the arms growing out of its back.

Before it had time to turn on me again I brought the knife down with the same motion I’d use to chop onions. The serrated edge bit into the critter and I put my weight into the blow.

It scrambled out from under me, leaving a trail of fresh, viscus blood on the ground.

Before it could get far I grabbed at it with my free hand only to get bitten by twin rows of razor-sharp teeth. “Fuck!”

I spun the combat knife around and held it up like an ice-pick. “Just die!” I screamed as I brought the knife down.

The knife glowed a brilliant white in my hand as it swung through the air. The tip sizzled right through the critter’s hide and into the wood under it.

I would have tried to stab it again, but the critter bit into my hand and I hissed, falling back and leaving it pinned to the ground. As soon as I’d let go the knife’s glow faded.

“Back up!” Eleanor said. She stepped closer levelled her gun at the critter and shot twice.

My ears were still ringing from her earlier shots and her continued shooting didn’t help. What did help was seeing the little thing’s head blow open as a bullet tore through it. The second round was lost in the meat of its body, the wound hidden by a layer of bloody fur.

“Jesus, what the fuck?!”

I cradled my hand close, then looked at the mess that my uniform shirt had turned into. There were dozens of little holes, most of them tinged with red where the bastard had clawed at me. I was fortunate that the material was pretty tough and had resisted most of its wild swipes.

“It’s not over, fast,” Eleanor said.

I turned to see that the other thing was floating in mid air, mouth opened wide to reveal wicked mandibles next to its jaw. “What?”

“Three seconds!” she screamed. I saw her handgun’s clip hit the ground and she was fumbling with a fresh one, trying to slot it into the gun with trembling hands.

I rolled over to where my sword had fallen and grabbed it by the hilt. I turned just as the critter started flying up again, as if someone had just pressed ‘play’ over that tiny part of the world.

Eleanor had moved out of its path some time ago, so the little shit landed with a thump on the ground next to its dead sibling. It turned and jumped again, still aiming for the girl.

I swung my sword down, and this time, as I growled in anger and my blade started to glow, I didn’t miss.

The sword sliced cleanly though the critter’s forepaws and took a chunk out of its belly as I tried to correct the swing. It was enough that instead of landing on Eleanor it thudded on the floor and spurted out blood everywhere.

I revered the grip on the sword and, before it had time to regrow it limbs or sprout new ones or learn how to fly or some shit, I brought the sword down and stabbed it through the chest. Again the sword glowed a faint white and it passed right through the critter as if it wasn’t even there, then thunked into the wood underneath.

The critter squirmed and spasmed, little hissing coughs coming out of it until, finally, it went still.

“What. The. Fuck.”

I backed away, then thought better of it and yanked my sword out of the corpse and stared around the living room, looking for another enemy. Other than Eleanor who was panting next to me, it was clear.

“What the hell just happened?” I asked.

Eleanor walked over to the creature I’d stabbed through with my sword and poked at it with the tip of her foot. “These are the so-called critters,” she said. “They’re what happens when something alive stays in an Insanity zone or near a dungeon for too long. They’re mutated…” She paused to look at one of the critters. “Raccoons, I think. Mostly organic mutations, no tech, just meat.”

I walked over to her side and stared down at the thing I’d killed. It had dark grey fur along most of its body, save for bits of tumorous, fleshy growths along its sides. It looked as if there were wings growing out of its back, but they were small, just like the mandibles around its mouth. This one had two tails, one the black and grey of a raccoon the other a pinkish skin colour. Both were barbed.

“Well, he’s not winning any beauty contests any time soon,” I muttered. With a hiss, I brought my bloody hand closer to my chest and cradled it there. The bites still stung, especially now that I wasn’t fighting for my life. In fact, I was starting to feel rather tired. “Hey, uh, could they have poisoned me?” I asked. It wasn’t reassuring that my voice came out almost lethargically.

“Oh no, you were bitten? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, I get bitten all the time. It’s practically kinky at this point.”

Eleanor ignored my failed witticism and pulled me towards the kitchen by my good hand. When we got there she tossed dirty dishes out of the skin and spun the tap. Fresh water began to pour out of it. “Wait here,” she said before running off. A moment later she was back with her duffle bag over one shoulder. “I’ve got a first aid kit.”

I leaned against the counter and let her grab my bitten hand and drag it under the water. It stung, but I managed to suppress a wince. It wouldn’t do to whine and look uncool. “You never did say if it was dangerous, the bitting, I mean.”

“Maybe? Most Awakened are pretty hardy. It comes from our Endurance stat. But we’re both fairly low-leveled. Infections can still happen. We’ll have to visit a priest once the test’s over.”

“Ah, I might look like a young boy, but I’m a little old for a priest, don’t you think?” She started scrubbing at the bite-wounds just then, maybe a little harder than necessary. “Ow, ow, okay, I get it, no pedo-priest jokes.”

“You talk too much,” she muttered. I saw her opening a white, tin box and search within it for a moment before pulling out a package of bandages. “Hold still.”

A minute or so later, after rudding disinfectant over my hand, she was done bandaging it. My off hand looked like a mummy, but the bleeding had slowed down to a trickle and her bandage work looked almost professional. “Thanks,” I said while testing my hand’s flexibility.

“It’s not over. Take off your shirt.”

I just stared at her, one eyebrow raised and a cocky smirk making its way across my face.

Eleanor glared through her blush then jabbed my in the chest. That she managed to poke me right on a sore wound was probably on purpose. “Don’t be a pervert. I won’t have my grade lowered just because you refused medical attention and died half-way through.”

“Holy shit you’ve got some weird priorities.” I took off my jacket and draped it over the back of a stool, then unbuttoned my uniform. Soon it was opened at the chest and Eleanor was ready to assault me with a bottle of disinfectant and a handful of cotton swabs.

“Language. It’s like you were raised in a barn.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that I was raised by wolves, nothing like those fancy barn-living people.” I sniffed haughtily. “I’m an entirely different sort of uncouth.”

My chest was a mess of little pinpricks where sharp claws had gotten through my shirt and a few longer gashes where those same claws raked across me. For all that, though, none of the punctures were too deep, and for the most part they’d already stopped bleeding. “They really made a mess of me, huh?” I said.

“It’s not so bad. In a few hours you’ll be fine. I doubt any infections will have time to set in, and even if they do, the Academy has plenty of healers.” She stood up. “I’ve done what I can. Worse case scenario, I think there’s a Necromancer at the Brazilian Academy. I could call in a favour or two. I think you’d be a dashing zombie.”

I snorted and started buttoning my shirt back up. “I’d bet you’d like that I’d finally be interested in that pretty brain of yours.”

“It’s my best feature,” she shot back. “We still haven’t finished inspecting this building. There could be more critters.”

I grunted and picked up my sword, then stared at the bloodied blade. It looked as if the blood had cooked onto the metal. With a bit of a grimace I trailed the blade under the running water. “Hey, how come this place has running water?”

“Pressure left in the pipes?,” she said.

I wiped the blade clean with a nearby washcloth then dried it off on my pant leg. “So, earlier, that whole freezing thing, that was your magic?”

She nodded. “A time-stop spell. Single target, but a fast incantation. It stops time for one person or object. Basically, anything it hits. It lasts for a good thirty seconds.”

“Stops time. That’s… pretty bullshit.”

She grinned up at me. “Thanks. Your white glowy thing was cool too.”

I paused in the doorway to the living room, feet rooted on the spot. “That… wasn’t you?”

Eleanor bent down and picked up the magazine she’d dropped earlier and stuffed it in her duffle bag. “Is it one of your skills? Most of those require an incantation, but there are ways to silence-cast.”

“Pretty sure that’s not the case.” I was also damned sure I didn’t have any skills whatsoever.

“Then could it be your passive? Try cutting something,” she said, then pointed to the already smashed-up door.

“I never was able to translate my passive into proper English,” I said. I slashed at the door but only managed to get the tip of my sword stuck until I wiggled it out.

“Well, what is it?”

I stared at her and she stared right back. Could I trust her? Was it even something important enough that I should wonder about that same trust? “How about a trade? You show me yours I’ll show you mine?”

Eleanor snorted in a very unladylike way. “Fine.” She coughed and cleared her throat. When she next spoke it was with a lilting accent, as if reciting poetry. “For though Time flows ever onwards, thy Mind shall be freed of the bounds of the finite river, and thee Sight will move freely in the narrow channels.”

It was pretty enough, I supposed, and the way she said it I could almost hear the capitalization on some words. “I have no idea what that means.”

She shrugged one shoulder and moved into the dining room, scanning everything as she went. “Passives are like that. Mine gives me a sort of post-cognition thing. It’s hard to explain. Yours?”

I heaved a breath and repeated my own, “As long as thy Faith in thy own Truth is greater than the Faith of thy opponents, none shall stand in the path of thy Arm, and that of those with whom thee are Bonded.”

“None shall stand in the path of thy arm,” she repeated. “I’ve seen those same words on an enchanted sword once. It was a blade meant to cut through anything. An enchanter about to graduate presented it as his final a few years ago. If your passive is the same, then--”

“Then I can cut through anything,” I finished for her. My grin grew to shit-eating proportions.

“Nope,” she said, shooting down my glee. “It’ll cut anything if ‘thy faith is greater than the faith of thy opponents. Also, ‘none shall stand in the path’ implies a sentient thing. I don’t think you can slice through walls.”

“So you’re saying I don’t get a lightsaber.”

“Of all the people I have ever met, you are the last one I’d give a lightsaber to.”

“Fuck me.”

“Not in a million years. Also, language.” She smiled as she walked by me. “We still need to check out the upstairs.”

Following behind her, I climbed the stairs and made my way to a small corridor on the second floor. There was a large bed in one room, the entire thing torn apart to form a sort of nest. Still, after poking around for a few minutes while constantly expecting that something would jump at my face, I found nothing more dangerous than a few discarded granny panties on a bathroom floor.

“It’s clear,” I called back.

“Hmm,” Eleanor replied.

Curious, I followed her voice nad found her standing in a little office. Two of the four walls were covered in bookshelf where literally thousands of books sat. She stood there, eyes roaming over the spines of old books while her finger ran over each one in turn.

“Ah, you have found the elusive ‘book’ a very ingenious human invention that holds much knowledge. Next we will explain the realm of dirty magazines.”

Her hand dropped to her side. “Just looking at their collection. They’ve got old copies of most of the classics here, and lots of books on animal husbandry. Some of the first books published on the Awakened, and a bunch of pamphlets from the Association for Opened Minds. A shelf like this can tell you a lot about the people in this home.”

I recognized the last, vaguely. A group that was made up mostly of old Christian sorts who didn’t like the idea of Awakened. “And what’s this one saying to you?”

“That the people here were probably bigots and that we should protect them anyway. We should head out soon. We can take a peek into the next room, then head over to the next spot on the grid.”

“Fair enough. Maybe we should take out time though.” I said, then perked up as Eleanor turned around and walked towards the room’s only window. “I don’t feel like running into more of those Critter things.”

“Shut up.”

“No, seriously. I hope your Academy has councilors on duty because if that’s the kind of b-rated, horror-movie shit you have to put up with all the time you’ll have PTSD faster than a Friday night whore gets syphilis.”

“Okay, that was disgusting, also, keep quiet, can’t you hear that?”

I froze up for a moment, then listened. There was nothing for a few beats other than the creaking of an old building, then a scream, faint, feminine and from far away.