“You’re anonymous,” said the guard, who was wearing all black fatigues that reminded Elijah of S.W.A.T. gear he had seen on television. The man even had kneepads, elbow guards, and fingerless gloves, which Elijah thought was a little much. Of course, he was currently wearing a pair of fingerless gloves himself, so he didn’t feel like he had a lot of room to criticize other people’s fashion choices. At least he had the good sense to keep his hidden, though. The man looked at his partner and said, “I don’t know what to do.”

“Uh…me neither,” the other stated.

“Look, guys – I just want to see my friends in the city,” Elijah said with an easy smile that he hoped didn’t come off as disingenuous. Or deranged. “My name is Eli Summerall. I’m level thirty-eight.”

As he spoke, he switched his Ring of Anonymity to the second option, altering his apparent level as well as his name. Apparently, walking around with an anonymous identity was just as much of a red flag as doing so with his real name visible. He also changed his archetype to show that he was a Ranger, which he thought would be more believable than Healer.

“There. Removed the skill that hid my level and stuff,” he said.

“Why were you using that?” one of the guards demanded. The only thing he was missing was an automatic rifle. Instead, he wore a sword at his hip, though it looked like it had been made of some sort of odd composite, rather than steel. “Seems suspicious.”

“You know how it is. You’re walking around out in the wilderness. Bandits see you’re level thirty-eight, and they think they can take you, right?” Elijah lied. “Well, they think twice about that kind of thing if they don’t know your level. Little travel tip, if you ever want to go venturing out into the forest.” Elijah looked back at the barren landscape. “Or desert, I guess. Not the Seattle I remember, I’ll tell you that much.”

“You from here?” asked the first guard. He was young, maybe twenty years old, and built like he knew where to find the nearest gym.

“Originally, yeah. Or Easton, I guess. Doesn’t seem like it ended up here,” Elijah said. It was a lie. He’d grown up a few hours from Seattle, but he figured it was the easiest way to get information out of the guard without asking overt questions about his sister. After all, he was a powerful person, and given what he saw of the city, he didn’t think Seattle was run by the best sort of people. And those types might use his family to try to manipulate him in some way.

“Never heard of it,” the man said. “But I wasn’t here when the apocalypse started. My family wandered in after –”

“He doesn’t need to know that, Tommy.”

“Oh. Right. I guess you can go on through,” the guard said, waving him inside, much to the relief of the other people waiting to get in. There weren’t many, and most of them looked like they’d been living rough out in the wilderness. So had Elijah, but he had a lot of advantages they clearly didn’t, so he looked like he’d been out for a Sunday stroll.

“Thanks. Any suggestions where I might find a room to rent for a few days? And a drink, maybe?”

“Sure. Try the Dirty Cactus for drinks. Best bar in town. Mostly the right sort of people, too, if you know what I mean. As far as a room, there’s a couple of hotels in that area. Best one’s probably the Holiday Inn,” the second guard said. By comparison to his partner, he was tall, with wide shoulders and a bit of a paunch. But he looked like he knew how to handle himself.

After getting directions, Elijah thanked the pair, then moved on. However, he did wonder what the guard meant by the “right sort of people”. He figured he’d find out soon enough.

Regardless, as Elijah walked through the town, he was struck by how many modern conveniences there were. The other cities he’d visited had had access to electricity in some form or another, though it was heavily rationed. However, after only a few steps into Seattle, Elijah knew that it was different.

There were drones flying around everywhere, and when they drew within range of Elijah’s One with Nature, he could tell that they were powered by a mixture of ethera and electricity. The few cars he saw were all electric, and there were quite a lot of electric scooters, bikes, and motorcycles around as well. And there were phones in every hand, just like before Earth experienced the touch of the World Tree.

It made the city seem almost normal, though that illusion was shattered by the ruins he passed as he entered the city. Buildings had fallen, streets had been destroyed, and there was even a fifty-foot-wide sinkhole that he had to cross a rope bridge to bypass. It was clear that Seattle had not recovered from the calamity of the World Tree’s touch.

Elijah didn’t know why, either. The other cities and towns he’d seen had all showed that people had the ability to rapidly repair and build sturdy structures. He’d even seen many of those crafters in action when Argos was being repaired in the wake of the tempest. Surely, with their population, Seattle had plenty of people with that same capability.

As he traversed the city, following the guard’s directions, Elijah saw plenty of other guards, each one wearing what looked like surplus police or military gear. It was such a strange sight, especially given that other cities seemed to have embraced a much more medieval mindset, at least regarding weaponry and armor. Elijah couldn’t help but wonder how Kevlar would stand up to his claws.

Eventually, he passed Lumen Stadium, and he was surprised to find that only half of the massive building had survived. The other half was simply gone. Elijah didn’t know if it had fallen from some structural damage or if it had been sent somewhere else when the world was transformed. Whatever the case, Elijah couldn’t help but stare at the massive monument to humanity’s excesses.

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It was a great example of the lengths to which people had once gone to distract themselves from the world’s ills. And he was no different. He’d attended football games in that very stadium, and he’d screamed for the Seahawks alongside all the other fans. There was nothing wrong with that, but even acknowledging that, Elijah wondered where humanity might’ve turned to replace those distractions.

In any case, he eventually moved on, and after a few more blocks, found his way to the appropriate area, which was populated by a half-dozen hotels, at least twice as many bars and nightclubs, and quite a few general stores. Clearly, it was where most travelers were directed, which gave Elijah leave to relax. He obviously didn’t belong. Anyone who looked at him would know that. But amidst a crowd of other visitors to the city, he didn’t stick out quite as much.

Except for his bare feet, which got more than a few curious glances.

Still, he found his way to the bar mentioned by the guard – it was called the Dirty Cactus – and stepped inside. The interior was much as one might expect of a dive bar, but Elijah was more than a little excited that it had an actual jukebox. So, before he did anything else, he headed over and, to his dismay, saw that it still took actual quarters. With a disappointed sigh, he headed to the bar and sat on one of the stools.

A redheaded bartender wearing pair of jeans and a white tee-shirt that was two sizes too small asked, “What can I get for you?”

Elijah asked, “Have any quarters?”

“For what?” she asked, giving him a crooked smile. She was pretty, though on the edge of middle age. She wore it well, though.

“The jukebox.”

“Ah, sure,” she said, reaching into her pocket. She slid a couple of quarters across the polished wooden surface of the bar, adding, “Pick something good.”

He gave her a wink, then retreated to the jukebox. He’d already seen the song he wanted to hear, so he made his selection. The machine came to life, then blared the song.

“She’s a good girl,” Tom Petty sang. “Loves her mama. Loves Jesus, and her boyfriend, too…”

When Elijah returned to the bar, the woman said, “That’s certainly a choice. You look a bit young for Tom Petty.”

“And the Heartbreakers.”

“And the Heartbreakers,” she agreed. “There a story there?”

“Do I need one to enjoy Free Fallin’?” he asked with a grin. In reality, it had been in a key scene in one of his father’s favorite movies, and Elijah had sort of absorbed the song by osmosis. So, every time he heard it, he experienced a wave of nostalgia, both for the film as well as all the times he’d watched it with his family.

“I suppose not. What can I get you?” she asked.

“Beer?”

“That I can do,” she said, reaching down and grabbing a large, glass mug. She put it under a tap, and as it filled, she remarked, “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Grew up close to here, believe it or not. Easton. You ever heard of it?”

She nodded. “Of course. My first boyfriend’s family lived there,” she said with a wistful sigh. “But it’s gone. Haven’t heard anything about it since the world ended, either.”

“Changed.”

“What?”

“The world changed. It didn’t end. We’re still around, right?” he said.

“Tell that to all the people who didn’t make it,” she said sourly.

Elijah ran his hand through his hair, then took a sip of his beer. It wasn’t good, but it was better than he’d expected. He asked, “Lose people?”

“Haven’t we all.”

“Sorry.”

“Everyone’s sorry. Doesn’t change anything, though,” she stated. “So, what brings you here? Riches? Adventure? Get lost in the desert?”

“Little bit of everything, honestly. What’s the deal with this city, anyway? I’ve noticed a little tension,” Elijah stated.

“Same as ever. Powerful people fighting other powerful people and using all of us as pawns,” she stated. “Even the apocalypse won’t stop them. Noticed you didn’t really answer my question, though. What brings you to Seattle.”

Elijah shrugged. “Looking for family, mostly. But I’m also looking for opportunity,” he said with far more honesty than he’d originally intended.

She leaned forward. “Oh, so you’re one of those, are you?”

“One of whats?”

“Adventurers.”

“I’m not sure what that is.”

“People who go around trying to beat towers and rifts,” she said. “The ones who want to get stronger. The ones who think they can fight their way to immortality.”

Elijah was about to deny it, but then he thought better of it. That really did describe him. Sure, his overarching goal was to find his family, and he wanted power for his own reasons. But he’d have been lying if he said that he wasn’t at least partially driven by the idea of growing stronger.

“I guess that pretty much describes me, then,” he said.

“Well, I hope you have a good team, then. And money. Because the government doesn’t let just anyone run their tower,” she said. Someone else signaled her, and she said, “Let me know if you need anything else.”

Elijah nodded, then finished his beer. After that, he didn’t feel much like drinking, so he laid a couple of copper ethereum on the bar, thanked the woman, then headed back into the city.

He stopped by a few more bars, gathering information all the while. And he learned a few more things about the state of Seattle. The biggest discovery was that it was a city in constant conflict. At present, there was something of a tentative truce, but most of the residents expected the fight to resume at any moment. That explained the lack of development, too.

There were four major factions vying for control. The first were the remnants of the old government, which were headquartered in and around the old capitol. The former Mercer Island – now called Mercer Mesa – was the giant plateau at the center of the city, and most of that island’s former residents had formed a second faction, though they mostly kept to themselves. The third faction were located in Lake City, where the tower had risen. They’d used it to develop the most powerful combatants in the city, and from all accounts, they were the strongest fighters around.

The last faction were mostly headquartered in Ranier, and they were largely hunters and scavengers who ventured out into the wilderness to close Rifts, fight spontaneously manifesting Voxx, and provide the city with meat. Because of that, they were the second strongest fighters, and they controlled most of Seattle’s food supply.

They also played host to a figure known as the Gardener, who operated what sounded like a huge greenhouse where most of the city’s vegetables and fruits were grown. That was interesting enough, and Elijah intended to investigate that situation. However, by the time he finished gathering information, night had fallen, and, after spending so long in the desert, he wanted nothing more than to sleep in an actual bed.

So, he headed to one of the hotels – an old Hilton that was still standing and had electricity – where he rented a room for almost as much as he’d spent in the Imperium. A little while later, Elijah had taken a shower and collapsed into his bed for a good night’s rest.