“Mikey!” Eik shouted as he slammed his fist continuously against the door, the wood complaining under the power of his hits. “Mikey, are you in there? Miriam, can you hear me? Hey! Can you hear me? Alright, I’m coming i—”

Eik almost kicked Michael fatally in the chest as the young healer ripped the door open, his face a mask of wild panic. “What, what? What’s going on!”

Eik stood frozen with his leg raised for a moment. “Oh! If you’re fine then why didn’t you answer? You scared the shit out of me!”

“I scared the shit out of you?” Michael yelled indignantly. “You scared the shit out of me, bro! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“Then why the hell didn’t you answer your door? And I don’t think E-rankers can get scared into a heart attack.”

“I did! I’m standing right here!”

“But faster!”

“I was sleeping, you moron! Why are you here anyway?”

“My house has been broken into! The lock was destroyed when I came home!”

“What! Who was it?” Michael exclaimed, already putting his coat on.

“I have no idea who did it. They went through my new store as well. Everything’s broken and my potions were gone.”

“Is that what they were after, you think? Your potions, I mean,” Michael asked as his mom came to the door, barely awake yet. He explained the situation to her quickly.

“Maybe. I just don’t know, dude. There are still people who don’t like me much, but with Bart gone I didn’t think something like this would happen anymore, to be honest. Boulder Fist Gary doesn’t think I’m worth the trouble, which is probably true at the moment. I guess I was naïve to feel secure. I was just hoping that it had gotten a little better.”

“Could it have been the cult? Looking to score some kind of revenge for Bart and the mind skulk while getting their hands on some resources maybe?”

“But they shouldn’t have known that we found the mind skulk.”

“But we can’t be sure that they didn’t find out. We don’t know who’s a part of it.”

“Yeah…”

“Did you check on Heath and Sonja yet?”

“Not yet. When did you last see them?” Eik asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe a couple of hours ago or something like that.”

“I’ll go to their house and take a look, just to be safe. You should take your mom and go to my shop instead of staying here where they might show up. There’s a chance they might come back to my house to find me, but I doubt they’ll go to the shop again after already trashing it.”

“I should come with you…”

“I’ll be fine. You saw me today, didn’t you?” Eik grinned and clapped his own bicep. “You just take care of Miriam, alright?”

Without waiting for an answer, Eik ran dashed off toward Heath and Sonja’s house. Like Michael’s door, theirs also seemed to be intact still. Sonja came to the door within two knocks and Eik reported what had happened.

They went to wake up Olivia and loop her in as well. Eik had been trying to talk her into moving into his house with him but with all the memories of her mother in their shared home, she couldn’t bring herself to let go. At least not quite yet.

Together they went to Michael’s house and stayed the night there. More than anything Eik wanted to talk to Travis about the night’s events but the man wouldn’t be in his office at this time of night and Eik didn’t know where he lived.

In the morning Eik went to Travis’ office and found the man in the backyard again, training.

“Eik. What can I do for you?” He grabbed a cloth to wipe his brow.

“Someone broke into my house yesterday,” Eik said. “My shop too. They destroyed everything there. And the supply of potion I was keeping there was taken as well.”

“And what do you want me to do?”

Eik threw his hands up in frustration. “I don’t know, man! We’re kind of working together here. Some of the stolen goods were reserved for you, you know, so you might want to try to at least pretend to care a little bit about this! And for your information, I’m working on a potion that is especially effective on D-rank Awakened.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Travis stared for a second before sighing. “You’re right. I apologize. I’ve been so busy with all this crap with the Moon Shall Swallow cult recently that it has been consuming my every thought. I can only relax when I’m out here.”

“Fair, fair,” Eik said, “But I’ve got a damned problem or two myself, so what can you tell me about who might have done it?”

“Not much to be honest. It’s concerning that they took your potions but it could be for any reason. Perhaps you should have a talk with Elaine Haness about this. I’m the head of Mission Central, sure, but she has a better grip on the happenings among the civilians.”

“Shit!” Eik swore and walked back out without another word, leaving Travis standing there in the yard to watch him leave.

He had thought the hours he had managed to sleep since yesterday might have relieved some of the anger, but seeing his home invaded and his belongings destroyed and stolen had touched a nerve. And his nerves had become frayed and sensitive recently. Eik was pissed beyond belief.

The door to Elaine Haness’ office was once more opened by her brother. Did the Haness family have some Nordic genes in them? Eik could swear that there had been a boy who looked exactly like this guy in his class in elementary school.

“Sis, it’s Eik again,” he called with a hand cupped to his mouth. “Should I let him in?”

“Yes, please!” came the answer.

The office was a quaint space with a mess of papers strewn across a work desk and in several boxes pushed up against the wall. It resembled Warden Harfol’s office. And the distance between their personalities and the states of their offices were also the same.

“Eik, you came at the perfect time. I was actually just about to contact you myself.”

That made him pause. “Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”

“Someone broke into my storage property last night. Left the lock broken and the place trashed. All of the potions I bought off you were taken along with a bunch of other stuff.”

“Wait, you had a break-in?” Eik asked.

“Unfortunately, yes. I was hoping I could buy a few more potions from you to make up for some of the loss. I have colleague who are expecting shipments within the next couple of days.”

He took a seat in a chair. “Sure, I’ll sell you more but I can’t part with too many. I had an uninvited guest of my own last night. That’s why I came to talk to you. I was hoping you could help me.”

“Someone broke into yours as well?” she asked with surprise.

Eik nodded, his knee hopping incessantly. “Not only into my store but my home as well. Do you have a suspect?”

“I didn’t but now there’s a bit more to go on.”

“What do you mean?”

“It wasn’t just the two of us who were victims yesterday. Several of my colleagues had their products taken and places ravaged. One even caught the thief red-handed in his store when he came back to retrieve a ledger he had forgotten.”

“You have the thief in custody?” Eik asked and sat up hopefully.

“No, my friend earned himself a concussion for his troubles and the guy got away. The thief was definitely above F-rank.”

“So who’s your suspect?”

“No one specifically yet but since they went after you as well, I’m tempted to believe that you were the intended target. You’ve barely begun to do business yet compared to the rest of us. They didn’t go after anybody else’s homes either. Not even mine. What did they take from your house?”

Eik frowned as he thought. “They didn’t take anything…”

“So maybe they were looking for something that they didn’t find,” she reasoned. “Can you think of anything?”

Eik chewed on the question for a while. “Not really. I mean, besides the potions I don’t really own much of value that I don’t always have on my person.”

“Alright, well, we’re already looking actively into the matter. If and when we find something to point us in the right direction, I’ll make sure you hear about it, alright?”

“Yeah, sure, I appreciate that. By the way, did the thief use an ability to fend off your colleague last night? Something that we might be able to use to identify him?” Eik asked.

“Unfortunately, no. He just used a simple punch to knock him out.”

“Well, crap,” Eik muttered as he unslung his backpack and fished out two dozen Potions of Mighty Strength class 1. “Here’s a few more. You can just send the payment along later. I know you’re good for it.”

He sat back in the chair, frowning. “It’s going to be one of the civil leaders of Forest, isn’t it?” he groaned tiredly.

She bit her lower lip as if reluctant to admit the obvious but eventually sighed. “Yeah, you’re probably right. But you can’t just go at them. We have no evidence that it was any of them.”

“I know, I know,” Eik said and stood back up to leave. Before he could get to the door Elaine’s brother stepped in front of him which immediately set off alarm bells in Eik. He froze as his hand moved inconspicuously to the handle of Viper Fang at his belt.

The blonde man narrowed his eyes before speaking. “The alliance is hosting some sort of tournament soon, right?”

Taken aback, Eik’s posture relaxed. “Uuh, yes? It’s right around the corner.”

Elaine’s brother nodded to himself and Eik heard his sister groan resignedly. “I will join,” he stated.

“I— Sure, that’s fine. You can come to the selection. Anybody interested in going can try out. What rank are you?”

“I’m C-rank.”

“There are still open spots in C-rank. We get to bring two combatants per rank from Earth.”

“I know there’s a selection test but do I have to do all that? Can’t you pull some strings? I promise I’m qualified,” the guy asked.

Eik chuckled. “I don’t even know your name, and I’m also not the one in charge of picking out our representatives. If you want to skip the line, then it’s Travis Lockwood you have to convince.”

“I don’t think that guy likes me much,” Elaine’s brother sighed. “Right, and my name is Carl Haness,” he added when his sister reminded him of his manners in a stern voice that gave Eik the impression that such reminders were a daily occurrence with the siblings.

Well, Carl,” Eik said. “If you’re that qualified, then you won’t have a problem getting through the selection process.”

Carl didn’t look satisfied with the outcome of the conversation but he couldn’t say anything else. “Alright, fine. I can take a hint if nothing else,” he said and immediately glared sourly at his sister who hadn’t been able to hold back a snort of pure amusement. “Anyway, when and where do I show up for the selection test?”

“We gather in two days in front of the Mission Central main building. If you show up thirty minutes to noon or earlier you’ll be fine.”

“You’re D-rank right?” Carl asked. “Are you trying out as well?”

“Nope, I get special treatment,” Eik said.

“What? Then why are you even going?”

“I have a fun role,” Eik grinned. “I get to test the other D-ranker!”