That was a chaotic evening, to say the least.

After the altercation, Albert and Valentina went to the big white tent near the entrance of the base, where they had previously agreed to meet Daphne. However, they didn’t show up alone. Despite their many attempts at loosing them, Max and Rémy followed them to the meeting. And, as it turns out, they were actually invited.

Max sat at the table, along with other big shots as Daphne reported the events of her trip, meanwhile Rémy stood at the wall, whispering quietly to random people who came in and out of the tent.

Albert did not understand half of the discussion, and so he focused on the interactions between the people at the table.

Max’s distaste for Daphne was already obvious, and there seemed to be two or three others who supported him. They nodded at his words, and pressured her with questions. The other two would occasionally defend her and send nasty looks to the other side when they attacked their leader. All in all, a very hectic council.

Meanwhile, the conversation took a turn towards a subject he could understand:

“CEO Duke Rany Miranda has done something to upset the Goddess Cain, to the point where she tried to destroy the city where he was staying.” said Daphne with a worried tone “This is unprecedented. When the Divine Houses were active, things would’ve never gotten this bad. We need to do something, for the sake of balance, and the lives of innocent people.”

Upon hearing that, Max stood up, displeased.

“Excuse me!? So you’re saying we need to protect those morons from their foolish actions again? We just freed ourselves from being humanity’s slave. We’re not about to go out of our way for the people who threw us out like garbage.”

“The government threw us out! Not the people. We can’t forget our duty to be the bridge between Divinity and Men.” she answered

“Who gave us that duty? Huh? A bunch of ancient nation leaders who only thought of themselves, their lands and their riches.” said Max emphatically “No. Our duty is to find and destroy the Horde, and whatever god is behind it.”

Then, looking over his shoulder, he called out to Rémy:

“Mr. Sezille, would you care to present your findings to everyone?”

Rémy shot him a look of disgust, but followed his orders. He took out a device from his pocket and put it in the middle of the table. With a click, it projected a holographic image of a body floating as if suspended by a chord.

“As you know, we took back the body of a Horde member to study it. Through the autopsy we found quite a few unsettling things. The first is: This man, before he attacked us, was previously dead.”

There was a dramatic pause before everybody started shouting at the same time. Even the quiet and serious Daphne let out a soft shriek.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! I’m not done yet, take a chill pill boys. And girls.” he said, slightly bowing to the women present. “We found this man’s identity and according to his death certificate, he’s been dead for a year. Meaning that whoever is behind this, is reviving corpses to attack us.”

“Here’s the second: If you fought them, you might’ve noticed that they sounded pretty wonky, only spoke in simple words and never responded to you. Well, that’s because something messed with their brains. We’re not sure of the exact modifications, but it’s not the same as a human’s anymore.”

The hologram body disappeared and was replaced by a human brain. Or something close to it. It had some flat patches on it, making it look incomplete.

“Finally, whoever this guy was before, one thing we do know. He wasn’t a Descendant. So our theory that they’re being controlled by someone else’s power holds up. And that...” Rémy concluded his explanation with a sigh “… is all we know”

“See? We have bigger problems right now. Who else has the power to do this but the Vitality God?” said Max. There were some agreeing nods on the table, even from Daphne’s side.

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The what!? thought Albert.

He kept his ignorance to himself, though. There was no reason to reveal he was a newbie to everyone. Instead he watched as they debated possible solutions to deal with their mysterious enemies. Rémy advised that it was still to soon to blame everything on the gods. Eventually, Max made a strong proposition:

“We should send an envoy to the Vitality Forest and confront that divinity once and for all! If we just knock some heads we’ll get our answers!”

Despite some strong opposition from Daphne and Rémy, the other councilors supported the initiative. With a deep sigh, she gave up on arguing with them and simply called for the end of the meet.

“We’ll reconvene in a couple of days to plan this out.” Then she jolted her head back up, as she remembered something. “Also, these are our new members that we brought from the Highlands, Albert, human. And Valentina, Descendant of the Sun God.”

Some raised their eyebrows at her last words, someone might have whistled as well. Max and Rémy were full on staring.

“Before we let you go... as we told you back in Taigh, once you join you can choose to adopt a different name. It’s not mandatory, but if you wish to...”

“I’m fine with my own.” said Albert.

Valentina, however, was in deep thought. After a moment she turned to Daphne and said:

“If you’ll allow me… can I be Valentina Heart here?”

Daphne’s, ever so serious expression crumbled in that moment, and she offered the girl a rare smile.

“Of course, my dear.”

After that, the meeting was officially over and Valentina was immediately the center of attention. With such a powerful addition to the army, Albert was, gracefully, ignored. Realizing it would take a while before he could talk to her, he decided to slip out of the tent. And right as he left, Rémy intercepted him.

“Hey man, I came to say thank you again, for jumping in for me.” said the young engineer extending his hand with a laid back smile.

“No worries man. Anyone would do the same.”

Rémy raised an eyebrow at the comment.

“Pff. You’d be surprised.” He got closer and whispered to Albert, as if revealing a great secret. “But we humans, we gotta look out for each other, man. You heard how Max talked about us in there, right? With all these hot-blooded, crazy super-humans around… who knows? If one day they start thinking my jokes are shit they might just snap me in half.”

“R-right.” said Albert with a half-forced smile “Let’s hope that day never comes...”

After a gentle tap on his new colleague's shoulder, Rémy walked back to the computer area.

In that short time they had known each other, Albert decided that he liked Rémy. There was a certain type of honesty in people like him and Jingo, who spoke so freely and happily. Although the idea of the two of them in the same conversation was terrifying. Nobody would even get a word in.

As he ruminated those thoughts, he made it back to his tent and laid on the mattress to wait for Valentina. Once again, questions burned in his mind, and he had no one else to answer them. Luckily he didn’t have to wait alone, as Yoel showed up at the door:

“Yo, are you bored yet?” his menacing face was peeking through the entrance.

“I guess…” answered Albert distracted. “Not really. It’s just that, people are talking about all sorts of things I can’t understand. But there’s only one thing I want to know.”

The huge man squeezed his body through the entrance, the tent was almost too small for him. Albert sat up and gave him room to sit on the bed.

“What is it?” asked Yoel.

“Remember we told you that my family was involved in your world? He was with those kids that tried to escape through the tunnel, back in Taigh.”

“Ok. And what is your question?”

“Nobody said anything about them on the meeting. Is nobody thinking of rescuing them? How am I supposed to find my brother?” asked Albert, raising his voice a little bit.

With a deep sigh, Yoel answered.

“You know. We searched the rubble, as far as it went on the surface. And we couldn’t find anyone, so I see why you’re hopeful. But do you know where that tunnel went?”

Albert shook his head.

“Well, neither do we. Here is another question for you: How many people older than 30 have you seen since you joined our world?”

Albert thought silently for a minute. After racking his brain he raised one finger up.

“Daena.” he said, recalling the old smuggler “Amelia, maybe. I’m not sure.”

Yoel nodded.

“Right. Why do you think that is?”

Albert simply shrugged. Yoel looked at him sternly with his only eye. Yet, when he spoke, his voice was filled with deep sadness.

“Even before we escaped here and became this ‘army’, Descendants had been living as soldiers. Our countries are in a truce only in paper, but they are still spying on each other, fighting in the shadows for resources and power. And we are the warriors they employed for it. Death is a part of the game. Living past 30 is a badge of honor.”

“Even now, we are running and fighting to avoid death. Our own, our colleagues’ and fellow humans. The army can’t worry about 10 kids who disappeared halfway across the world and might even be dead, they don’t have that luxury. They have too many lives to worry about.”

Albert heard him in silence. He wanted to get angry, but it sounded like that pain wasn’t only his. Yoel didn’t give any more details, but his desolated expression gave it away. That cruel reality had taken something from him too.

The big man got up from the mattress and spoke with his back turned to Albert.

“I’ll give you one advice: Don’t wait for permission to do what’s right. It’s not manly.”

Yoel walked back to the exit. But before he left, he peeked his head back in and said:

“Oh, right!” Albert was still processing what he had heard, and he looked up at Yoel, surprised. “I came here to invite you to the training area. It’s about time we see what you got!”