In the sols that little Livia had become friends with the Eigeroy family, Brudt had been making some friends of his own.

He had stayed at his institution of learning another sol or so before parting it without an invitation to return and with a couple of sympathetic travel companions. He had been nagged by the administrators about giving something back one-too-many times, whatever they meant by that. Wasn’t knowledge free for all to share? Also, he had gained as much insight from Noin as he could, and needed to go off in search of implementable applications of Noin’s teachings. In a show of his dedication to Noin’s principals and to his own personal mission to reinvent himself, Brudt had begun to go by the name Brutoin. It was in this new identity as Brutoin that he had attracted many admirers and a couple of travel companions. His admirers were people who also believed that they shouldn’t be reminded so often about paying for things on campus. They also had grievances against the world at large, and they felt that Brutoin was on the right track toward restoration.

Brutoin’s two admirers who became travel companions did so because they shared his world view and because they too felt that it was time for them to leave for greener pastures. The three of them, Brutoin, Yu, and Delilah left the institution of education and headed for the nation of Amalga. Delilah’s well-to-do family owned a beautiful property in that nation, and she thought it would be good for herself and her two friends to crash there for a time. Delilah, who went by Lilah, was a pretty, young aepsis woman (Aepsis were a people who had humanus legs rather than beast legs along with their humanus torso. They tended to be of moderate stature and of not-extraordinary coloring with not-extraordinary features). Her family were attractive, successful, and practical aepsis people. She and her two companions arrived at her family’s large and beautiful home while the family was out.

When the family returned to their home, much of it had been transformed into a sort of head quarters of a revolution in planning. This was a shock to them. They hadn’t expected to see their daughter, let alone the two others, as they had paid for their daughter’s education in full through the end of the sol. Since they had plentiful resources and only one daughter, they weren’t deeply bothered by this misuse of their resources. They let her get on with her activities without questioning or inconveniencing her, which suited her perfectly. The one positive of their daughter excluding them from her life was they they were not obligated to interact with her two companions. Why had their little Lila always insisted on making friends with the strangest characters?

One day, the cook brought food in for Lilah and her friends. The danged looking horse-hu friend asked the cook passionately, “What do you want from life? You know things. You really know. You didn’t grow up in this fake world.”

The contented lady entertained their young passion. “What do I want? I want my kids to go to good schools, and to do something when they grow up. Then... I hope at least one of them lives in this fake world, so I can retire in their big, fancy house.”

“No. But, really,” Brutoin pleaded with her. “You know people are going through horrible things even now. I know you must have a story about how you got here. I bet it wasn’t all easy.”

She looked at him seriously. Of course there had been difficulties involved. Her parents’ efforts to come to this country had not been easy. She though, only remembered these early difficulties in a fuzzy, child memory way. Even so, she’d had difficulties in her life despite her parents’ efforts to make her path easier than theirs. She’d had the necessity, at some points, of working for horrible people who had treated her like garbage. There had been times in her life when she had been unsure if she would eat. Despite this history though, if she could choose to be anywhere right now, she would choose to be where she was. She might not choose to do so much laborious work. She might choose to sit around and pay someone to watch her kids – but still, overall this was what she wanted. She even liked these ridiculous people who she worked for. The family she worked for included her and her family in their own family. In their awkward, rich people way, they tried to be warm and kind. Even these youths talking to her now were entertaining enough. She didn’t want anything for herself really. “For other people,” she began her answer. “For others, I would have them not be afraid of going without meals, of their kids having to do without food. I would prefer that kids weren’t ever beaten or hurt.”

“Exactly!” Brutoin replied. “What do you want for your kids?”

She smiled at them and answered, “You know what I want? I want them to grow up as unaware of suffering as Lila got to.”

“You can’t really want that?” Lilah asked in doubt.

“I don’t know. I’d rather they didn’t have first hand experience with it,” she answered more seriously. They were drawing her into conversation.

“I’m looking for ways to change the world,” Brutoin told her seriously and proudly. “Many people have need of things which they aught to have access to. That needs to be fixed.”

The woman thought about it. “Do you know what my family needed? We needed rivers nearby. You know there are whole parts of the world with little to no water. But, now I live in a place with running water. Even if there was a desert here, it wouldn’t matter, because water would get there. People need clean rivers where there are none,” she answered. Then, she went on, “but it’s not that simple. In many places, there simply are no such rivers, or lakes, or ground water. What would be your plan for fixing that? Steal the neighbors water? Maybe someday we will be able to have wells and rivers everywhere that people live, but in the meantime, I’m glad I was able to come to live here.”

She laughed at them again, and left the room to get back to work.

This did make Brutoin think, but it only made him consider stealing the neighbors water... Especially if the neighbor was rich.

Brutoin and his sympathizers were planning on starting their movement in earnest by attending the upcoming Spring Equinox Festival. They had used some of Lilah’s connections to get a booth at the festival. They had the beginnings of a plan of action for the movement, and they would need to recruit to make it happen. They had tried to think of how to balance out all the various sufferings of people. They referenced any past stories, real or fictional. Stories of successful retributions against tyrants or of happiness to the masses. One common theme that they found was that many of the stories were fantastical. Someone or something powerful had stepped in, had changed reality, to make things right. So, all they needed was to change reality. They would start out by seeking these fantastical people and things in real life, any of them which really existed in a tangible form.

In their booth, at the festival, they wouldn’t be telling people that they were planning on acting as vigilantes and looking for volunteers, but rather they would sell it as a club for those who believe in fantastical things. This way, they could gather more stories of magical items. They could also suss people out, and if anyone seemed a good candidate for the truth, then they’d ask them to join.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Brutoin’s other follower, Yu, had agreed to be a sort of mascot for their booth. He was the ideal candidate, as he looked like a piece of fiction himself. He was an eptill. Eptill were people who had humanus torsos with strong legs which could be said to resemble those of a lizard or similar creature. They tended to have pale skin with a tint of green, blue, or yellow. They didn’t grow any hair on their heads. There were even some eptills who had legs that loosely resembled snake tails. Yu was born to such a father. Yu himself though had two legs which looked uncommonly like snakes’ tails. They even slithered behind him (this was not normal). His people had a legend about a man who moved about on two slithering tails. The mythological man was Alfis the Sea Satyr. He had been a sort of merman, except with an eel’s tale rather than a fish’s. He had been an influential ruler of the sea. The power hadn’t been enough for him though. He demanded to be given two tales, instead of one, so that he could go on land and rule land men as well as sea people. His eel legs had done poorly on land though, and he’d eventually been forced to return to the sea from which he came. His return to the sea was seen as a shameful retreat. His people didn’t want him back. Because he had sought out more power, he ended up having none. – All this is to say that Yu was one of a kind in the non-mythological world, and he very much resembled the mythical figure of Alfis. He might therefore be able to attract festival goers who believed in lost magic and in its artifacts.

When the festival arrived, Brutoin and his people decorated their booth with images of treasure, mythical creatures, and with one large image of Alfis the Sea Satyr. Their banner read “Real Magic and How It Can Help You!” Yu stood out where the crowd would see him. He had been made extra magical looking by Lilah’s efforts of costume and makeup. He made himself available as a photo op for fascinated adults and children. Many people came up and talked to Brutoin’s group. To their surprise and pleasure, people gave them money. Many interpreted the group as a bunch of youngsters who were trying to find lost treasure. One older man sincerely pleaded with them that they might donate whatever artifacts they find to the appropriate museum. There were some perceptive people about who got a vibe of impassioned radicalism off of them though; by the last couple of days of the festival, Brutoin’s people had earned a reputation as extremist, fanatical youths. This was when they began attracting the more useful people. From the previous, less useful citizens, they had collected many stories of magical items. They would research these stories in more detail later. During the last days of the festival though, some people who were suitably radical themselves found Brutoin. Those people could be added to his network in a more substantial way.

The most useful of the people who came to the booth turned out to be a married couple, Tristan and Mara. The husband, Tristan, started up a conversation. “I heard you all were seeking reparations,” he said, exaggerating their own stated claims. He almost hoped it was really true though. He and his wife had been through a series of horrible events over the last couple sols. First, she had lost her job, and then he had lost his. Their vehicle had suddenly needed many expensive repairs if it was going to drive at all. They tried to sell it, but before they could, the vehicle market dropped. It became essentially worthless. Last week, their building had flooded. They had to leave their home and had nowhere to go. It turned out that the renter insurance they had bought was a fraud. All the money they put in it was lost. They had been driven to be desperate enough to go talk to some young would-be-pirates, or at least to vent at them. Tristan grumbled aloud, “It’s retribution against an insurance company I’m looking for, and a few other people, for that matter.”

Brutoin was interested. “The system failed you then?” he asked them.

“You could say that,” Tristan answered. “Maybe I should go somewhere where there is no system. Not every place has all the red tape of these big cities.”

Brutoin could see the desperation of these people. They seemed like just the ones to join him, to leave their lives behind for a higher calling. He tried the subject out. “If you’re up for an adventure, you could leave insurance problems behind. We’re trying to move beyond such things, and soon.”

Tristan interpreted this as a childish interest in becoming famous for finding a lost city under the sea, or something like that. Belittling the strange people at the booth, he said, “Do you think you can enter those story books you love so much and leave insurance behind? Will stories protect you from rain and starvation?”

“Not now, they won’t. But we’re getting there, and in the mean time, we’ll figure something out,” Brutoin told him.

Mara thought this was all nonsense, even so it was fun to be rude to these kids. “I’m sure your dreams warm you, but we have a real need. If you are a friend of the downtrodden, maybe you can give us a place to stay while we wait for the powers that be to let us back in our home.” She said all this as a sort of dare, to put them in their place.

Brutoin was the sort of person who could be made to make crazy promises and to do crazy things because of a dare. He always rose to a dare and often went even further that the darer had push for. He answered, “The universe should restore you. As a temporary measure, I’m sure I can step in the gap for a time. And, see if you don’t end up better off in the long term. Come back with us tonight and see that we are as good as our word. Lilah has room for two more in the great house.”

Lilah sneered unkindly but didn’t correct him. It would be an inconvenience for her parents, but it wouldn’t really affect her.

Tristan and Mara didn’t understand at first, but they came to believe that they could actually use these kids for a place to stay. Curiosity and desperation made it a good option. Therefore, they hung around the booth and became part of the group. At the end of that day, they were in fact brought back to Lilah’s family’s home and given a room. They began accompanying the group back to the festival each day, until it was over.

This little band of rebels attracted many people who wrote their names down for a mailing list. At the beginning of the festival, the booth had primarily attracted people who came for the photo-op with Yu. After Tristan and Mara joined though, more people were attracted toward the booth. The couple had a more approachable energy. They also had many acquaintances who stopped by to chat and ended up staying to hear one of Brutoin’s impassioned speeches and maybe even signing up for the mailing list. The signers believed that they were signing up to be kept up to date on the adventures and discoveries of treasure hunters and story collectors. These people envisioned themselves getting an occasional letter about a legend that had been corroborated by multiple sources, or maybe a letter talking about a new dig site and some ancient wonders. Some of the people’s name on the list had stars marked by their names though. These were people who harbored similar grievances to Brutoin and his group. They were people with bitter miseries, people who understood that Brutoin was looking for more than a bit of treasure or fame. There are many bitter people in the world. There are many such people who would be only too happy to cause some kind of disturbance in society, as long as it came at the cost of someone more successful than themselves. These people generally don’t have the ambition to create real chaos themselves. The most they do is write their names on lists and complain to strangers. They were the perfect connections for Brutoin. He had the drive to utilize their malice. When the time came to do something, these would be the first to be called upon.

By the end of the festival, Brutoin had gained much: two new live-in recruits, a list of passively interested folks, a dozen contacts who could be counted upon to act, and dozens of stories about magical experiences, places, and items. At least one of these magical things would prove to be real, and would get them on the path to bringing fantastical balance into the world.