Many things were said about the Shimmering Circle back in the awakened world. Sometimes the group was a monolithic whole, at other times the only thing that united them was their bitterness towards each other.
From what Dallion remembered, Alien was said to be a coder or a gamer, or sometimes both. That didn’t say much other than that he had to be from the same time period.
As it turned out, Centennial was the perfect place for someone like that. Comcast, United Launch Alliance, and Arrow Electronics were just three of the potentials that fulfilled Dallion’s initial requirements. Any of them could well be Alien’s employer. Checking would be tricky even for someone with Atol’s skills, provided that Dallion couldn’t be sure about the mage’s real name. Alien was edgy as a gamer tag, though hardly a real name. Just for the sake of it, he did make a few calls to check the local registry.
At first Dallion decided to rely on the various item guardians to get a clue. It would have been a lot simpler if he could ask the road itself where the bikers had gone to, or even if it had noticed any other awakened. Shop windows, lampposts, and other large items were the only option. Sadly, it soon turned out that they were less useful than one might suspect.
Thanks, anyway. Dallion took out his phone as he moved away from the traffic light. He was about to phone Atol when he found that he had several messages. A few were from his mother, wanting to check how he was doing. One was from the administration regarding some trivial matter. And the final two were from his roommate. It appeared that Jenna had returned and had passed by his room to check on Dallion. That was sort of a relief, though it would certainly lead to a few headaches once he returned. Putting the worries aside for the moment, Dallion made his call.
“Why the fuck did I listen to you?” the woman said instantly after picking up.
“Problems?”
“Oh, no problems. I spent over an hour going through the building. A bit more and HR was about to kill me.”
“Found anything?”
“If it were anyone else, I’d say he definitely isn’t here.”
“No luck here, either. None of the guardians know a thing.”
“How’s that even possible?”
“This isn’t the awakened world. Most guardians don’t see further than a few feet.”
“Don’t give me that shit.”
There was no blaming her comment. While strictly speaking Dallion was correct, awakened were a lot more noticeable than normal people. The closest comparison would be seeing a lantern in the fog. The fact that none had seen anything was alarming.
“Got you something about the bikers,” Atol said, to Dallion’s surprise. “You were right—they’re a regular occurrence here. Everyone knows they’re trouble, including the cops, it seems.”
“But no one does anything about it,” Dallion continued her train of thought. “Thanks. I’ll follow up on that. You keep up with things on your end.”
“Yay me…” The sarcasm in her voice dripped over the call.
“You’re safer there. He won’t dare do anything with people around. Just don’t get stuck alone.”
“Who do you take me for? I’ve convinced a few people to be nearby at all times. Let’s hope none of them are married.”
“Call me if you find anything else.” Dallion ended the call. He had noticed something unsettling. And just to make sure, he combat split into three instances and looked around.
Of the dozens of people walking about the city, close to a quarter were watching him. Attempts were made for it to be subtle, though awakened senses could easily spot the tell-tell signs.
Are you making your move? Dallion kept walking.
One of his instances grabbed a nearby person by the collar.
“Where’s the mage?” he asked, using his music skills.
Instead of an answer, though, the man promptly fainted, forcing Dallion to pick another instance to become reality. Brute strength wasn’t going to help him here.
“Nox,” Dallion whispered. “I’ll need you soon. Get ready.”
A minuscule crack appeared on a tile beneath Dallion’s foot. Back in the awakened world, Dallion wouldn’t have hesitated making the first move. Things were different here. Getting into a public fight with an entire town wasn’t something that would go unnoticed and even music skills wouldn’t make it go away, not when a mage was pulling the strings.
Pretending not to notice, Dallion went to the first pub he saw and immediately went to the toilet.
“If you’re here, I could use some help, Gleam,” he said, looking into the mirror. “I need a bit of illusion, just enough to look like someone else.”
Dallion closed his eyes, then counted to five. When he opened them again, his usual reflection stared back. Some things were too much to ask. He’d have to do it the hard way.
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There were two ways of finding a mage: use any means to track him down, or provoke him into revealing himself. The second was out of the question—Alien wasn’t the sort of person that would charge in. The first was also questionable. Given he had gone through the trouble to hire at least one biker gang to patrol the road to town, he undoubtedly had set up other countermeasures.
“You never make it easy, do you?” Dallion asked. It was like the Academy all over again. If that was the case, though, there was one thing that no mage could escape from.
Rushing out, Dallion went to the bar counter.
“A soda,” he said, taking a seat.
The bartender gave him a disgusted look, then took a random can from a small fridge and slammed it in front of Dallion.
“There’s no need for that,” Dallion said, using his music skill to add some joy and understanding into the man. “Tough day?”
“Family stuff,” the other said, his attitude changing in real time. “New here?”
“Yep. Here for a job interview.” Dallion took the can, but didn’t open it. “I think I flunked. You need any help?”
“Sorry, kid. Last one I hired was crap, and he looked more skilled than you.”
You might be surprised, Dallion thought. “I had to try. I bet it takes a lot of bureaucracy to start running a place like this.”
“You’ve no idea. There’s—”
“Electric,” Dallion interrupted. “I bet they’re always breathing down your neck.”
The push was a bit more forceful than he would have liked, but he didn’t have the luxury of taking chances.
“Do you have an emergency contact number?”
“Number?” The bartender laughed. “Where’s you been? Haven’t used that in years. It’s all—”
“I need the number.” Dallion combat split. He had noticed more and more people coming in. They weren’t regulars, or even customers, for that matter. None of them approached the bar or even asked for a drink. All they would do was slowly gather, filling up the space a few people at a time.
“Hold on. I’ll get it for you.” The bartender took out his phone and started scrolling on it.
Meanwhile, one of Dallion’s instances turned around. Over twenty people had gathered in the pub, filling all the tables and even more. None of them seemed to have any weapons, though Dallion couldn’t discount that.
“Here.” The bartender showed Dallion his phone. “Good luck getting a human to talk to you.”
No doubt the man would have said more, if several of the new arrivals hadn’t drawn a gun on Dallion.
Dallion’s combat skills instantly triggered. Combining acrobatics and guard skills, he leaped out of the firing area and to the side. While doing so, he also used attack and athletics to grab a barstool and throw it at one of his attackers.
Gunfire erupted. For a split second, Dallion thought back to the time he’d fought the Star. Those were the only instances in which he’d faced firearms. Alien was clearly set on killing him.
Dashing to the nearest table, Dallion used a series of kicks to knock the people there out, then turned the table. His combat splitting allowed him to be a bit more daring, immediately going on the offensive. After all, attack was the best defense, not to mention that if he turned this into a brawl, it would discourage people from using weapons.
People from outside continued pouring in. Now that everyone knew the fight had started, there was no stopping them.
The fight itself didn’t present too much of a threat. The goal seemed to be to overwhelm Dallion, but that had no chance of working. Their actions were so slow that it was as if reality had gone into slow motion. It was child’s play for Dallion to move between the people, dealing a few strikes as he did. If anything, his greatest concern was not to harm the attackers too much. It was obvious by the emanations coming from them that they were affected by external factors. Not one emanated hatred, anger, or fear. One could say that they were just going about their business, which in this case happened to be attempting to kill Dallion.
Engaging enemies, Dallion took out his phone with his left hand and dialed Atol again. If he was in trouble, there was a chance that he was. Annoyingly, she didn’t pick up right away.
Come on, Dallion cursed internally. Just pick it up.
A large man in a business suit attempted to punch Dallion in the face, hitting a woman beside him instead. With minimal effort, Dallion evaded, then grabbed the man’s hand, pulling him off balance. With a loud slam, the man fell on the floor. It was at this point that Atol finally responded.
“What?” she almost shouted. “I’m trying to—”
“Get out of there!” Dallion interrupted. “Go somewhere safe and call me.”
“What the fuck?!”
“He’s onto me, which means he’s onto you too.”
“Shit.” Atol hung up.
That was one person out of danger. All that was left was for Dallion to get out of the mess as well. Sadly, that was becoming more and more difficult. So far, he had rendered probably a dozen people unconscious, but that didn’t even slow down the rest, not to mention that more people were still coming from outside. The way this was going, he could well find himself physically trapped in a crush of bodies, despite not getting hit.
The room was small, with one single exit. All the windows were in the direction of the street and well out of reach. In several instances Dallion attempted making a run for it, or even jumping out. Each time, someone in the crowd would manage to grab him by the leg and stop him. For all intents and purposes, it was like trying to run through a sea of quicksand.
“Nox!” Dallion ordered.
Two large spiderweb cracks appeared on the floor beneath him. Quickly they intensified, until it gave through, causing him and several more people to fall into the basement below.
Taking advantage of the moment of confusion, Dallion rushed towards the nearest window in sight and leapt through it. The opening was small, barely enough for a person to squeeze through. Having the physical and mental ability to jump at the precise angle and with the necessary strength made going through it easily.
The window burst as Nox affected it upon contact, leaving Dallion flying out into the side street. At first glance, there didn’t seem to be many people around. That allowed Dallion to rush up the side of a building onto the roof. Given the wideness of the city and how sparse the buildings were in the area, that didn’t provide much of an advantage, but enough to strongly diminish the threat.
Quickly evaluating the situation, Dallion started running. Right now, two things were of utmost importance. One was to get somewhere safe where to wait for Atol’s call. The other—make a phone call.
Using the number the bartender had given him, Dallion phoned the local electric company. After a few seconds of choosing options, he finally managed to get a human on the line.
“How may I be of assistance?” the woman on the other end of the line said.
“Statistics,” Dallion said, using his music skills to make the person more trusting. “I’m making a survey on the effect of electromagnetic fields on the environment and would like to know the spots where the greatest activity are.”