“Okay. What do we all actually know about the Second?” Stoney asked.

“Ain’t that something you should be asking, oh glorious Leader? Didn’t you read his file?”

Stoney frowned. He hadn’t wanted to, knowing that Marten was the type of person to seek a reaction to his antics, but to his credit, Marten didn’t seem to care that he had successfully irritated Stoney, wearing an equally dour grimace himself.

“Of course I read his file,” Stoney replied. “But like everything else that concerns the Second, I can’t remember any details.”

“Oh isn’t that fucking convenient,” Marten scoffed. “Going senile already?”

Stoney considered pointing out the fact that Marten couldn’t remember anything about the Second either, but he doubted that Marten didn’t realize that. If he had to guess, Marten was just nervous and lashing out in the worst way he knew possible. Stoney turned to his other two subordinates instead, expecting Marten to take a moment before he reverted to being useful again.

“Tenna. Laush,” he said. “Describe the Second for me.”

The two glanced at him, clearly surprised that he’d ask their opinion.

“Well,” Tenna said. “He was a man.”

The Grunt trailed off, glancing at his sister, as if she had anything else to contribute. She stayed silent.

Marten let out a bitter laugh, but Stoney ignored it and nodded.

“Nothing else?” he asked.

“Nothing, sir.”

Stoney nodded. “Good.”

“Good?” Marten scoffed.

“Good,” Stoney repeated, not bothering to try and quiet Marten down with a glare like he usually did when a subordinate was being too obstinate. Stoney knew Marten well enough to know that it would only encourage him. “It means that all of us already know everything there is to know about our mysterious team member. Which is to say, we know nothing, which is an impossibility. Either our minds or reality itself was tampered with. Something beyond the capabilities of a regular mortal.”

Marten rolled his eyes at the obvious information, but Tenna and Laush both nodded in response.

“Could it be the work of the Otherworlder?” Tenna asked.

Stoney shook his head. “It’s possible, but unlikely,” he said. “Though Jamie is a highly irregular case, where he actively knows about the Mediators and our role in his journey, he was not informed of the specifics of our inner workings as far as I’m aware.” Stoney paused to allow anyone to refute the statement.

When nobody spoke up, he continued.

“Jamie was not informed of our coming arrival, and if his psychological profile is to be believed, he is not the type of person to use his magic to attain omniscience. While it is possible that the Second was a real person, and that Jamie used his magic to modify our memories of him, I highly doubt it. If he would go so far, he would’ve done worse.”

“He does have a pathological aversion to murder, sir,” Laush said.

“I meant that he would’ve gone further with the memory wiping,” Stoney replied. “Why erase every memory about the details on who the Second was when he could’ve just as easily made us forget about the man entirely? I won’t deny the possibility outright, but it doesn’t seem likely.”

Nobody refuted the suggestion, not that he expected them to.

“Anyways,” Stoney said, breaking the momentary silence. “Regardless of what exactly was the cause of this anomaly, we need to report back to HQ.”

Before Stoney could continue, a spike of pain echoed in his head, forcing him to clench his teeth and brace himself against the wave of nausea that washed over him. Ignoring the lingering effects of the concussion as best as he could, he lifted a finger to point around the table.

“Sera, Oren. I know you’re technically Grunts now, but knowing your capabilities, I’m comfortable with letting the five of you do a communications ritual without me. Marten. You’ll take point as the anchor again. I won’t be in the right state to cast any magic until this concussion fades.”

There was a long pause before Tenna spoke.

“Umm, sir,” he said. “Sera and Oren aren’t here.”

Stoney’s eyes widened, before another wave of pain hit, forcing him to close his eyes against it. Even without looking around the room, however, Stoney knew that the young Extra was right.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath.

“Are you alright, sir?” Tenna asked.

Stoney thought about shaking his head, but thought better of it, not wanting to aggravate his headache any more than was necessary.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“No. But nothing that can be done about it,” Stoney said. “Do we know where Sera and Oren are?”

“No, sir.” Stoney wasn’t sure which of the Extras had spoken.

“Go, then,” he said. “The both of you. Find them, assure them that they won’t be charged with treason, and bring them back here. Tell them that they were right about something being fishy with the Second, though I’m not sure if he was a Demon or not.”

“Yes, sir,” the responses came.

Stoney sat there as the sound of quiet footsteps left the room. Sitting there, with his head in his hands, he wasn’t sure how long it took for the pain to finally quiet down.

When he looked back up, he was surprised to see he wasn’t alone.

“Marten,” he said. “Why aren’t you gone?”

Marten gave him a sidelong glance, his expression uncharacteristically blank.

“You never told me to leave,” he said, with a shrug. “Is there something you wanted me to do?”

Stoney glared at Marten, not appreciating the smug attitude. “No,” he said.

Marten raised an eyebrow at that. “Seriously?” he asked. “That concussion must be worse than I thought, then. You know the kid’s not being watched right now.”

Stoney blinked a few times before cursing under his breath.

“Marten,” he said. “You’re right. The concussion’s clearly affecting me more than I thought.”

Marten stared at him for a few seconds before letting out a heavy sigh. “And you want me to take over as Leader. Again.”

“Oh, grow up,” Stoney said, gently massaging his temple. “You’re trained for the role.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Marten said. “Fucking incompetent assholes making me work overtime. I don’t get paid enough for this shit.”

“You get paid the exact amount that is expected for this shit,” Stoney said. “Kings get less income than you do.”

“Then how the hell am I still in debt?” Marten grumbled, though he did move to stand up from the table.

“Maybe because as soon as the money gets into your hands, you toss it away on a dice roll?”

Marten glared at Stoney.

Stoney tried to glare back, but ended up sighing.

“Look, I’m sorry for dumping this back into your lap, but I’m clearly not fit to lead right now, and I can’t trust anyone else here. The Extras are just barely at Grunt level, and even if Sera and Oren aren’t crazy, they’re still…”

“Horny and stupid respectively?”

“Yes,” Stoney said, with a sigh. “That. Once we get those two back though, we’ll be able to do another ritual. Get reinforcements.”

Marten frowned. “About that,” he said. “What do you think about another option?”

“I wasn’t aware we had any,” Stoney said. “But go ahead.”

“What if we asked the brat to help us?”

Stoney raised an eyebrow. “Jamie?” he asked to make sure, just in case Marten was referring to someone else.

“Yes, Jamie.”

“Why do you think that’s a good idea?” Stoney asked, more curious than challenging.

“Because I’m confident he would help in earnest,” Marten said. “I’ve seen enough of his type. Friendly, naive, not uninteresting, but probably some other adjective that starts with a ‘U’ if I were feeling a bit more creative. He likens himself to something of a hero of myth. He’d help if we asked.”

“I see. And you believe in his credibility more than you do of Sera and Oren?”

Marten shrugged. “Not sure. As much as I’d like to rag on them, the idiot duo are still trained Mediators. I’m just presenting the brat as an option.”

Stoney frowned. “Could you refer to Jamie by his name?”

“Why?” Marten asked.

“You refer to everyone younger than you as ‘brat,’” Stoney said. “It’s hard to keep track. At least give him a different moniker if you insist on not saying his name.”

“Moniker?” Marten asked, with an undercurrent of a chuckle in his voice. “It’s not like I was trying to make ‘Brat’ into his official title. Imagine ‘The Brat’ standing alongside names like ‘The Plague King’ or ‘The Breaker.’ I’d never live it down.”

“Then stop or I’m petitioning it officially,” Stoney said. “I’d rather not do any more mental gymnastics to try and figure out which ‘brat’ you’re talking about until my concussion fades.”

“Then I can go back to being an annoying asshole?”

Despite himself, Stoney couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Yeah, do whatever the hell you want. Now get out of here.”

“Hey, I’m the Leader right now. You can’t order me around.”

“Sorry, sir,” Stoney said, making sure to inject as much sarcasm as he could into the words. “Did I offend you by questioning your authority?”

“Gravely,” Marten replied. “But before I go, give me your thoughts. Is there anything that bothers you about Jamie?”

When Stoney looked up at Marten, he was surprised to see the complicated expression that plagued him. Completely contrasting with the light mood that he’d been maintaining up until a few seconds before, Marten’s face was shrouded with uncertainty and anxiety as he waited for Stoney’s response.

“What do you mean?” Stoney asked.

Marten shrugged. “I’m not sure,” he said. “Just something about him. You’ve been a Mediator longer than I have. Surely you feel it too, right?”

“Can’t say I do,” Stoney said. “But I haven’t even met him yet.”

“Yeah, me neither. Or at least not formally, seeing as he isn’t supposed to know I exist. But even just watching him from the shadows gives me this strange feeling in the back of my head, like I’m supposed to be remembering something, but I can’t remember what exactly it is.”

Stoney frowned, not understanding what Marten was talking about in the slightest. Marten seemed to decipher his expression easily, and waved him off before he could respond.

“It’s hard to explain. Didn’t even realize it until recently, myself. You read his file, right?”

“Of course,” Stoney said indignantly.

“You didn’t notice anything weird about it?”

From how insistent Marten was being, it was easy to assume that he was baiting Stoney into a specific answer, but Stoney had no clue what it could be. Though he was having trouble trusting in his memory at the moment, the dossier on Jamie’s case was simple enough to recall.

“No,” he said, a little hesitantly. “Did you notice something? I went through the files pretty thoroughly, but nothing stood out to me at the time.”

“I barely skimmed it, to be honest.”

“And you noticed something I didn’t?”

“Probably not. It just feels… weird.”

Marten let out a groan of frustration before Stoney could say anything.

“You know what? Forget it. We’re not getting anywhere with this shit. Just… be on the lookout, I guess. This case is fucking weird.”

Stoney couldn’t agree more.

“I’ll keep a lookout,” he said, even if he still wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be watching for. “Now get a move on. We still need eyes on Jamie.”

Marten nodded, too preoccupied with his thoughts to even give a half-hearted complaint. Pushing his chair back, he stood up and walked towards the door, but paused before he left.

“Does his name bother you at all?”

“You mean Jamie?” Stoney asked.

“Yeah,” Marten said, not even bothering to point out the stupidity of the question like he usually would. “Jamie.”

Stoney tried to think of anything strange about it. While Jamie’s full name was a bit odd, since Stoney wasn’t aware of any royal families named ‘Campbell’ in the entire history of Materia, it made sense that Earth’s history would be different. Besides, Marten hadn’t mentioned Jamie’s family name at all.

Just Jamie.

“No,” Stoney said. “It’s just a normal name.”