Silas wheezed as Mr. Crew Cut dragged him into the bar with one arm and tossed him into a chair., the other Wayfinders streaming in behind them. He resisted the urge to vomit as he landed, the quick movements disorientating him beyond belief. Even with a Mature Nightmare Seed, he was not recovering from this quickly.
Several tables had been moved towards the centre of the room to make one big ‘table’ for the group to sit around. Silas had been rather rudely tossed into one of the seats already, so someone had to grab another one. He could do without the dark looks being shot at him from all over the room but alas, he understood.
He was just thinking about how exposing such an ability would be an absolutely terrible idea and now he was proven right.
Not a single one of these people trusted him even when he was visibly struggling not to puke out his organs. The Archer specifically sat as far away as possible from him, their eyes darting over every few moments as if to make sure he hadn’t moved.
Even Lady Brightshade looked at him oddly, though Silas believed it was because he could sense her when she was hidden. Admittedly, he’d have no idea she was there without fear energy. The enhanced senses that caught hold and kept track of a Green Eyed Mutant for over an hour failed to catch even a glimpse of her.
Brightshade and the Knight talked briefly before they both sat down at the table, marking the start of the discussion. Whilst everything was hazy in his mind, Silas still tried to listen in as much as he could. They talked for nearly half an hour about different movements, supply situations, and logistics.
“Hector’s group needs to be moved now.” Silas hacked out, lazily attempting to straighten himself out in his seat. “That mutant was following me since I left their safehouse.”
The Knight looked at two different Wayfinders, both of which had various signs of wounds. Bandages and stitches on the rare sight of skin, most of their bodies covered in a thick leather armour. With just a nod from the former, the latter both stood up and took a piece of paper from Brightshade before leaving the building.
With only a short glance at Silas, the Knight resumed their prior conversation with the others. He seemed to be the closest thing to a leader these people had, likely the one who brought them all together. Silas didn’t have a direct method of detecting strength, but his instincts did scream out at him that Mr. Crew Cut couldn’t be messed with.
Unbothered by the conversation, Silas rested his head on the table with a sudden thud and ignored the small pause it created in the discussion. This wasn’t his time to talk, he could wait for that. In the meantime he would sleep. Awake or not, they could kill him instantly anyways.
When he woke up, day had already turned to night and the bar was empty. Three figures remained and a corpse laid on the table. The Knight sat still in his seat, staring him down as Silas slowly lifted his head up. The headache, miraculously, was gone. Checking his pocket watch, he had slept for a full..
Six hours.
And he was still tired. He likely wouldn’t be back to a hundred percent until tomorrow. With a groan, Silas levelled his gaze with the three people and looked inward. His Gates were fine and his Nightmare Seed had mostly recovered, although devoid of energy. His items remained on him, nothing of note taken.
Looking at the other two people still at the table, Silas saw Brightshade and The Archer silently looking at him. A strange sense of fear flashed through the Bowman’s eyes as they made eye contact but he remained steady. The other two seemed as uncaring as normal.
Brightshade’s tired gaze fell on him and he weakly looked at her. This was the time for honesty. As honest as he could be at least. There were few things he wouldn’t or couldn’t tell them. The specific details of his first mission, for example. Brightshade was the first to speak up.
“Who are you?”
“Nightweaver.”
“Why are you here?”
“To relocate.”
“Where?”
“Refinery.”
“Were you aware of the mutant following you?”
“Yes. I couldn’t kill it myself. Not strong enough.”
“Yet you could force Valmor to kill it?”
Silas looked over at the Archer and raised a brow. The man was entirely wrapped up in a cloak of some kind. Only his orange eyes were visible. He could only assume based on his rather slim and flat frame that he was a man. Valmor, then?
“Yes, but it nearly exhausted me.”
“You turned on the Location system to warn us?”
“And to lure in one of you to help me kill it. Luckily it was a ranged Wayfinder. If he was melee, the mutant likely would have gotten away. I suppose I could tell you either way, but proving I’m on your side would have been difficult.”
“You think you already have?”
“I got the location through normal means. I exposed my strengths to keep the meeting hidden and left myself weak in front of you. So.. yes.”
Brightshade turned briefly towards the Knight and then to Valmor. Seeing them both nod, she turned back to Silas and shrugged. “I suppose you’re right.”
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Without a sound several Wayfinders reappeared around the room. Some had been hidden beneath tables, behind the bar or just outside doors. Silas looked at Brightshade who suddenly appeared a lot more energetic. If Silas was hiding his strength or tried to escape, he’d likely already be dead.
His smile turned wry as Silas saw the various figures appear in the room, not too offended that they didn’t trust him at all. With an intelligent mutant running around, it was completely fair. Silas was just happy he wasn’t unlucky enough to have green eyes right now.
Looking up at the mutant corpse on the table, Silas was confused. What purpose did it serve here? Bringing the corpse in? Brightshade raised a brow at him as she caught his gaze, then moved to rip something out from the corpse’s chest.
Black and red, she pulled an object out from its flesh and tossed it down in front of him on the table. A hexagonal red crystal hit the surface with a metallic thud, emitting a soft glow in front of him. This was what Glass pulled out from a Voiceless nearly a week ago, the first day of the Darktide. He just assumed it was something like a heart.
As if noticing his confusion and bearing with the few moments of awkward silence, Lady Brightshade finally spoke up. “It’s a Bloodstone. Condensed blood energy from the variant mutants. Never seen one before?”
“No, I have, but I just assumed it’s useless.”
“Mostly. Vital Source Pathways can use them to speed up their cultivation. Just purify it before consuming the blood energy inside.” Brightshade picked up the corpse, hooking it by the cavity she made in its chest and tossing it to the side of the room. “Technically, you killed this. Keep it.”
Hesitantly, Silas slowly laid a hand on the crystal in front of him.. Instantly he felt the blood energy amassed within his Three Gates churn. While it couldn’t be used to open a Gate, it could be used to shorten the time between opening Gates. His expression faltered as he thought about it. Assuming the mutants grew off of consuming people, and Empyreans could grow by consuming these Bloodstones..
He sighed, tossing the gem into his overcoat pocket. His blood energy settled down the moment he left contact with it and his fear energy hadn’t stirred once, what little he currently had anyway.
“So uh, you all believe me?”
The Knight nodded and after that, so did the rest of them. It was the kinda scene that bothered him in a way he didn’t get. Like a bunch of dolls staring at you all at once. “So you’re Brightshade, who’s metal man over there?”
“The Dawnseeker, Amus.”
“And he’s the uh, Leader?”
“The one who united us, yes. He also leads the Refinery you wish to relocate to. As such, he will be your leader in the future. Unless..?”
“No, no!” Silas shook his head, waving his hands around with a laugh. “I”m unbothered, I just want to find the safest place I can to cultivate. I just have one more question.”
Amus looked at Brightshade and then back to Silas, giving the Nightweaver a curt nod. Silas breathed a sigh of relief and then leaned back a little more into his chair. “I’m just curious, has anyone done a second mission yet?”
“No one has to do a mission for another six months.”
“Well, yes, but you can also volunteer to do one at any time. More rewards, more points, more access to resources. It’s just risking your life, no different than it’s been around here, no?”
When a few moments passed by and no one responded, as well as a few odd looks, Silas realised that no one really entertained the idea of doing so. For most of these people, the last mission had them stuck learning for a month. They didn’t know what might happen in the second. Why risk it?
But Silas didn’t have the luxury of a month to gather potential resources and information. He was there for barely a couple hours for fucks sake. The lack of ambition disturbed him slightly, but he still understood their choice. Why wait six months, though? To get stronger? The Lotus will only challenge your current strength.
Not to mention they definitely did not have a choice. As if feeling challenged by his words, more than a few of the Wayfinders seemed offended at his words. This didn’t bother Silas one bit, he just hoped they didn’t take it personally.
Tens of fear energy sources appeared within Silas’ range, slowly coming closer to their location. The sudden influx quickly began restoring his mental strength and the shrivelled up Nightmare Seed recovered within moments. His eyes flashed in a blue light as his innate talent quickly cleansed as much of it as he could.
Silas could see Amus’ eyes narrow but Silas didn’t mind too much, assuming he could sense the fluctuations like the Mayor did. With a grin, Silas looked towards the street through a window, ignoring the fact that the fog obscured his vision when he didn’t power his eyes. “I do believe the Chimekeeper is here, everyone.”
Slowly and with more effort than he’d like to admit, Silas stood up and went to wait outside for Hector and the civilians. The fear sources weren’t moving fast, so he wasn’t too worried about any bait tactics or what not.
He looked at Lady Brightshade as he adjusted his belt and glasses, genuinely wondering how they hadn’t broken yet. “I am allowed to go to the Refinery with the Dawnseeker, yes?”
The taciturn Messenger slowly nodded for the umpteenth time. She was one of the few who seemed challenged by his words and Silas could still see the strange look in her eye as he spoke. With a slight shiver, he resisted the urge to command her to turn away, knowing he’d overuse his fear energy again.
Hector stepped out of the fog with careful steps, loosing a turbid breath when he first saw Brightshade, then Silas, and then the various other Wayfinders. After briefly acknowledging Silas, Hector moved over to Amus and started talking about god knows what.
As they did, the other Wayfinders all disappeared into the fog themselves, heading off to their own safehouses and survivor groups, leaving only Amus, Hector, Silas and the two injured Wayfinders. Even Brightshade, who Silas felt was attached to Amus by the hip, left in the small time Silas stopped paying attention.
Minutes passed by and after the survivors all got settled, mainly just being told where to go in the case they got split up, the Wayfinders started to move towards the Deium Refinery further into Ironside’s underground depths.