Mel was waiting for us in my small study and, judging by the additional chairs, had been preparing for the day’s meetings. The rest of the room looked just like it had before I’d been whisked away to another universe. Several bookshelves were full, with titles ranging from construction guides and textbooks on different engineering principles to some of my favorite fiction. My copies of Lord of the Rings and The Hitchhikers Guide were both well-worn from repeated readings.
Memories of reading them and many other titles to my kids at their bedtime rushed through my mind. Alex had loved a lot of the same things I had, but John had liked more grounded stories. Magical realism was about as far as he had enjoyed the books straying into fantasy. I smiled at the memory of his hatred for Alice in Wonderland, and to be fair to him, the book was pretty nonsensical, but his young brain had found it entirely unacceptable. It offended his sensibilities.
There was a cluttered desk at one side of the room, along with a reclining chair next to it that I used for reading. On the wall above my desk, I had pictures of my family, all from a happier time. The idea that somehow the world had gone to hell was what it had taken for me to finally push through some of my loss wasn’t lost on me. Somehow despite how much I had missed them, I had still been stuck in my own head for far too long.
Mel had his more relaxed shade of green going, so hopefully, that meant he wouldn’t explode too poorly when I brought up what I had to say. I didn’t want a giant fight, but I also needed to make a few things clear, and I hoped Mel would understand that. He wasn’t an unreasonable man, just a bit overly grumpy.
“About damn time,” Mel started before I cut him off.
“Let’s curb the aggression a bit, please, Mel. So, assuming I understand these meetings correctly. We want to assess what everyone can do, wants to do, and why they really are here in the faction correct?” I asked, looking at Pryte, not Mel, for the answer.
“Yes, partially; we need records of our Arena squads on file to avoid any claims of cheating on our part. For example, we can’t just swap out people in a squad at any time; we can have a reserve member list, but that can only hold five names. It takes official paperwork to change true membership. Beyond that, though, we want to know what they can do for us. What their aspirations are within the faction. This is, after all, a brand new faction, and we need people with passions,” He answered quickly, and I was glad to hear he had understood. The explanation of the squad membership was something I hadn’t known and was glad to have learned.
“Good. Then, let’s start with our grumpiest member right here. Mel, why are you here?” I asked, looking into the man’s eyes as he floated above my desk, glaring at me. I refused to let my own gaze drop. I wanted the truth out of the man entirely for once, and I wanted it now.
Mel deflated slightly and looked away before finally answering. “I suppose yer the boss now, so yeah, ya deserve a real answer, and prolly less of me being an ass, but I can’t promise ta completely kill that. I’ll try and tone it down though.” Mel’s color took on a lighter shade of green as he floated closer to us before resuming. “I’ve seen so many kids die in the Arena, so many big factions crush the small ones, time and time again. But that’s only the big picture of what caused this. The real hard truth of why I’m here, willing to give up everything in this desperate fight, is basically the same as yers. My kid’s gone. He decided to write a book critical of the Spiral and the factions and the loss of our own world to all of this.” Mel’s voice cracked as he spoke, and his color shifted to a dark blue.
“I’m sorry, Mel, I didn’t know,” I said; I couldn’t imagine how hard it was to actually lose a child. The fears of my own kid’s potential deaths had been a huge driving force behind my near-crippling anxiety while in the archives.
“How could ya? Not like I was being very open. It’s also why I’m broke. I spent everything trying to get him out of prison; in the end, he was shipped off to one of Crystalline Quasar’s work camps,” He continued, sounding sadder than before.
“Oh,” Pryte said, sounding startled. I understand what the words work camps really meant here. They were work until you died camps. Everything clicked into place. Mel was here not just because he wanted change. It was because he needed it. Something to keep him going from doing something idiotic.
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“I think that covers enough of why you’re here, Mel. I really am sorry to hear about your child,” I said, feeling awkward at having pushed the topic.
“No, it’s okay. I needed to get that out. Yer right to question me. I’m as much a part of this faction as anyone, and ya need to know what I’m here for. Well, my goals are obvious I think. I want to build this faction up to the point that we can change things. Shit has been stagnating for too long. Giant bloated factions clinging onto their power and hurting everyone new that gets in their way. I wanna change that,” he answered, his color shifting subtly back towards green.
“Got it, overthrow everything, nice simple goal for Mel. Can we leave that out of the official record, Pryte?” I asked, trying to defuse some of the tension.
“Leave what out?” Pryte asked with a wink.
“Perfect, I suppose then the next question is you, Pryte. Are you for here any reason beyond the little safety we can supply from Korl?” I asked the small man. I had a feeling there was more to that, especially considering he had been helping me from the start.
“I don’t entirely disagree with Mel’s views on things, but on top of that, I’m bored. I’ve been doing this for a very long time, and meeting you made everything interesting again. My blood was flowing in a way it hadn’t since my youth. I want to do something new and fun, and Dave, you are the only path to that other than chartering an exploration vessel into the depths of chaotic space,” he answered with a smile.
“One day, we can both do that. It should be a fun trip. Assuming I survive that long, I do want to see everything. Which I realize is an impossibility given the concept of infinity. But I still want to try,” I replied with a smile of my own.
“Your turn, Dave. What do you want out of this faction? I think we can skip why you’re here. That one is a bit obvious,” Pryte asked, looking at me intently.
“Someone has to do it, and I’m the only candidate. Similar to both of you, I want to protect those I care about and help those we can, but also, just like Pryte, this has brought a level of excitement back to my life that’d been missing. I want to build things again. I want to invent things. The idea of combining magic with technology has given me so many ideas, and frankly, I’m amazed they don’t already exist,” I answered honestly. The speed of my voice had increased throughout my explanation until I ended the whole spiel nearly breathless.
“That’s a far better answer than you’d get out of the vast majority of faction leaders, I think,” Pryte replied, nodding his head as he did.
“Frankly, it’s the best I ever heard,” Mel agreed, his color now fully back to a dark green.
“Glad to hear it. At least, I think I am. So realistically, what are our chances of not just being wiped out by the bigger factions?” I asked. Considering how worried these two were about them and our complete lack of resources, I wasn’t sure how we’d fight if it came to that.
“For now, we’re fine. They won’t act outside of legal channels. It’s not worth a potential faction war over this planet. Sanquar is just an annoyance that they’d rather be gone again, not a real threat to them anymore. So until we become something much more noticeable, no one is going to be willing to bring their forces to bear against us. But once we start moving beyond splashes in the Arena into full-blown waves, which your magical technology will cause, things may change quickly,” Pryte explained.
“Ah, so once we potentially disrupt the way things currently work, we’ll get a lot of blowback,” I replied, thinking I was getting it now.
“Basically, yes. Don’t think that the idea of technologically advancing magic hasn’t been tried before. Coincidentally, most of those researchers seem to either die or disappear, and the big factions grow stronger each time. I’m sure you can read between the lines of what is happening there,” Pryte said. I could.
“Yep, I get it. Well, I think that covers the three of us. Who do we want to start with?” I asked, not really caring what order we did it in.
“Glorp, mostly because we need to figure out his path much more so than the rest, assuming he even wants to remain an Arena fighter, which is an extremely risky option for him,” Pryte answered.
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The Crystalline Quasar faction is one of the most powerful and, by extension, most ruthless factions in the Spiral. They are thought to heavily support the Triox, and it is strongly believed they have some connections with the forgotten beasts deep within the boundless expanse. This faction was directly involved in the destruction of the Floating Empire.
A History of Power, the Rise and Fall of the Floating Empire by Melhelm VII