22.

Santi slammed his head into the table and didn’t think he was being dramatic at all. The conversation had dissolved as the other councilors, and whoever else had crammed their way into the room, decided to voice their opinions. The fact that they had come back from the warehouse without food and with a mythological creature hadn’t been well received.

“We need to flee! If what the creature says is true, the creatures are too powerful!” Abraham was busy roaring from a pulpit, spreading his fear like a disease.

“Are you sure you can’t kill him?” Cameron whispered into his ear from behind him. Tank snorted gently, overhearing the question. It was a testament to just how frustrating the man was that Tank hadn’t reprimanded him for speaking of casually murdering someone. Even in jest.

Partial jest.

“Tank says no. Something about not being a dictator or something,” Santi whispered back. Cameron shrugged a shoulder and leaned back into his cheap plastic chair.

“The longer I have to listen to him, the more I think maybe you’re right,” Tank said.

“It only takes dealing with a few fools to see the failures of listening to them in an emergency. And this entire world is an emergency,” Santi whispered. He remembered. He couldn’t tell them, but he remembered. The failed states. Broken walls and fractured people.

“Now is not the time for hysterics. Stand firm!” Helena barked, her voice booming over the noise. For a moment there was silence as the former firefighter stood her ground and dominated the room. Dozens of people looked at her, waiting to hear what was to come.

Santi could feel their desperation, their need for an answer to the problem in front of them. Desperation and hope and terror all mingling together in an electric mix that heightened the world around them. Then the silence went for too long. Helena did not fill that dreadful silence and all their most terrible anxieties did the rest.

The room descended into bedlam as Santi watched. A hundred people, most of them high ranking Intitates, were screaming at each. Santi let it drag on, he needed them to truly feel the fear before they would listen to him.

“You going to say anything? I think our guest is forming a rather poor opinion of us,” Tank said. He looked over to where Grimvr sat munching on stale bread and a can of beans. The poor dwarf still looked like he was a step from death, but he had cleaned himself off and straightened out his beard at least.

“Let it build.”

“Alright. Cam, you haven’t told me any fun stories about Santiago when he was a child. Would you be willing to share?” Tank turned with a mischievous smile to the always happy to embarrass Cameron.

“I have plenty. Did he ever tell you about his Junior prom proposal?”

“Alright, I think they’ve stewed enough!” Santi hopped to his feet, and when that didn’t attract anyone’s attention, he got up on a chair. Manipulating [Air Current] to pitch his voice he yelled out to them.

“ENOUGH!”

Just like when Helena did, it stopped them for a moment. Unlike the firefighter he didn’t let the silence stretch and build out.

“I have a plan. It will work. We will do it.”

His grand speech was met by blank and confused stares as the rest of the room waited for more. He didn’t really have a detailed plan, but the beginnings of an idea.

“We can not afford to panic. This community looks towards us for leadership. For guidance and protection. We are failing them right now! So we will stop this bickering and cowardice! This is our home! We will not flee!” Santi was getting into his speech, feeling the adrenaline of public speaking coursing through his veins.

“Any and everyone who has reached the tier cap will evolve! Any and every weapon will be accounted for. Over the next few days you will get your assignments. You will do them! For this is our home and we will not run!”

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Santi got off of his chair and marched out the room, Tank and Cameron following right behind him. The doors had just closed when the two started heckling him.

“WE WILL NOT RUN! You sounded so inspiring, Santi” Cameron joked, his voice high-pitched and mocking.

“He sounded very inspiring. Half-time coach level speech. Down ten and we need a score!” Tank chortled.

“Did it work?” Santi bit back, his own faint smile impossible to conceal. It felt good to hear this banter.

“Maybe. The dramatic walk out was inspired though,” Cam said.

“Is inspired your favorite word? Tank asked.

“Hey, don’t pick on him. His vocabulary is limited.”

“Tank, what the fuck bro? We were ganging up on Santi and his over-the- top theatrics.”

“You right, you right. My bad. Santi you were cringe as Hell.”

“I agree,” Daniel said as he walked out of the shadows of the hallway. Santi was of the opinion that nobody was discussing how much Daniel seemed to enjoy being an edgy, brooding, prince of darkness. He had felt him the minute they walked in the hall, but seeing Cameron and Tank’s nervous jumping was enjoyable.

“Did you find what you were looking for, Daniel?” Santi asked. Ever since Santi had done his evolution, Daniel had been ready to go. He just needed something to fuel his affinity in the ritual.

“It was an error on my part, I must admit. I’ve been searching for a while, even before the ritual for a treasure like the ones Santiago has been collecting. My affinity is shadow, so I figured I’d find it in the dark at night.”

“Industrious,” Cam said.

“Thank you, anyways. I made an error. There can’t be shadows without light. My affinity isn’t darkness after all. So I went out this morning at the crack of dawn when the shadows were thick and found it. Or rather a clump of them. Something had already grabbed some. Or something.”

“What did you find?” Santi was genuinely curious.

“I don’t know. I can feel the power of them. It’s a cluster of mushrooms. After I picked it, I put it in a bag away from direct light and watched the rest of them when the sun hit it. They faded away like a memory.”

“Does he alway talk like this?” Cam whispered to Tank.

“He normally doesn’t talk.”

“I can see why.”

“Thank you for your input gentleman. It’s greatly appreciated. I believe doing my evolution at dusk would be best.”

“I agree. Let’s go and find Yesi and see if we can get you penciled in. I have plans for you and Hana.”

“This part of your strategy to clear the rift?” Daniel asked.

“Yup. We’re going to go and get the rest of the Grimvr’s clan. We steal their golem makers and the cyclops will come running right after us.”

“Into a trap, I’m assuming?”

“Big ole’ trap,” Santi confirmed.

“I’m off to visit Hana and then I’ll meet you all at the new place?”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Santi said. Daniel melted back into the shadows and Santi felt his presence disappear.

“He likes to jump in and out of conversations like that? Just appearing out of thin air?” Cam asked. He was still trying to figure out the group dynamics.

“He’s always been the quiet type, but he’s been scaling it up to eleven since the system initialization,” Tank said. They’d been rooming together for all of the freshman year, Tank was likely the one who knew him the best.

“Where’s that girl Chloe go off to?”

“She’s hanging out with her friends. None of them aside from Rayleigh are fighters and since she’s capped out she’s just waiting for us to find a type of metal treasure to boost her affinity.”

“What about me and Bianca?”

“Earth and fire shouldn’t be hard to find. We’ll keep an eye out for them and we can use the new rift core to fuel your evolution.”

“You’re not going to put us on the bench for this, are you?”

“No. We’re going to do what we did earlier today. Just bigger. Me and the other Acolytes will be waiting in the wings for the fighting to start and then come in to clean it up when their heavy hitters show up. You and Bianca should get more than enough opportunities to level up to twenty-five.”

“Good. I don’t like being weaker than you. It feels unnatural that someone of your size is stronger than me.”

“Get used to it,” Tank said laughing. The two giants towered over him and Santi looked at them and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, get used to it. Next time we wrestle, it’ll be you calling uncle,” Santi mocked.

“The only one who makes me tap out is your sister,” Cam retorted.

“Who’s making you tap out, Cameron?” Bianca said as they turned a corner. Santi smiled widely as a blush spread across Cameron’s face and he began to churn out bullshit to keep himself from a beating.