North Cenoka, a village in the foothills of the high mountains

Fleeing the burning village, Thompson grips the hand of his mother. She’s eight-seven and should have been spared the pits. After the Emperor fell everything changed for the worse. Entire villages were rounded up, anyone of breeding age was forced to march to the capital to server the empire.

Except, now only a handful of people return from that duty. Women under the age of forty generally return, none will talk about it. The men are worse, many end their life afterward, rather than live with what they did.

Thompson is facing the consequences of his family’s decision to hold back anyone over the age of seventy, Him at age sixty-three was tasked with stay back to assist with the eventual evacuation. Had he known retribution would be this swift he would not have waited the two days, thinking he could cache supplies in the surrounding wilderness.

Village set fire, most of the women and the handful of men were rounded up immediately, it was luck that saw him and his mother past the closing ring of soldiers.

He’d have hope of their escape if not for the baying of tracking inu, when those are set lose, there will be no hiding. All they can do is flee and hope someone, something intervenes.

Mother stumbles, Thompson helps her up.

“A little further mom, there are two rivers and a cave system ahead. We can obscure our scent and hide until morning.”

A grunt of acknowledgement is all the answer his mother can muster.

The first river is little more than a stream. Splashing upstream, they risk turning an ankle on the slipper rocks.

The baying is getting louder, it’s time to cross to the other side. Ignoring the muddy prints they are leaving behind they scramble up the shallow bank.

The woods are denser, slowing their progress. The tracking inu are small, less than one hundred pounds and are barely impeded. The next river is less than two hundred yards and is much wider, the trackers will have to swim it, that will slow them.

Reaching the water, it sounds like the inu have found the spot they exited the first stream as they bark excitedly.

Plunging into the warm water, they make can only hope they are not attacked by the crocodiles that call these waters home. Thompson could cross the water easily, his mother is smaller, less buoyant, and hasn’t swum in decades, she makes the trip but in twice the time.

Gasping for a breath between each word, “should … leave … me; slowing … you … down.”

Near breathless himself, “Can’t do that; keep moving.”

The inu crossed the river all to fast, there is nearly a mile between the river and the caves. The two fugitives run, dodging around trees, no longer thinking about their direction. The baying of the tracking inu so loud it sounds like they are right behind them.

Thompson hears the hurried paw padding of the inu and stops. Putting himself between himself and mom, he readies a shot of kinetic.

Tracking inu are fast but not built for fighting, there are five of them, they encircle their prey and start nipping at clothing and limbs equally.

Thompson put out a hand like he’s offering a sniff. The closest inu tries to nip him, a receives a blast of kinetic that tears off its lower jaw.

The others follow their training and back away.

Thompson doesn’t stop, he lunges towards another and blasts it across it’s haunches and tears away a leg.

Tow injured, the animal that lost a leg whines in pain and limps in a cirlce, the other flees, seeking its kennel master.

A grunt of pain is heard from behind, his lunge left hi mother unprotected. Two of the remain inu have attached themselves to her legs and begin dragging her down.

Thompson jumps onto the back of one and fires his remaining kinetic into it, it shivers but doesn’t let go.

The third inu easily bites down on his neck, pinning him to the ground.

Helplessly he watches as the two inu tear away at his struggling mother. Blood drips from their jaws as they shake and pull her limbs in opposite directions. The inu on biting his neck must have caught his jugular, as consciousness fades to black to the dying whimpers of mother.

Thuma Study, Bird Watching Club

Lucy couldn’t be happy to see her daughter and son in-law enter her office. She isn’t especially pleased that they can drop in, literally from the sky with no warning now. Change is a strange bird, there was a time when only a few Defenders and even fewer duelists would fly, now it’s becoming common to see one or two a week, darting through the air, rushing to-and-fro.

The Tuma Study doesn’t have anyone at that skill level yet, but the grad students on loan from other studies are helping them develop at a fair pace.

Leaving the group of kids to continue discussing migratory habits of southern corvids amongst themselves, she greets her unexpected guests.

“Welcome, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

Teum lets his wife take the lead.

“Can we talk in private?”

“Sure, let’s go to my office.”

Her office is directly across the hall; Teum closes the door behind them and ensures their privacy.

“You two can talk freely, nobody can understand a word you say outside this room.”

“That’s a nice trick, what’s so secret that it requires secrecy?”

“I need to talk to Father… not dad… Father.”

Lucy looks glad for a moment then frowns, “I’m sorry, that won’t be easy. He isn’t in Thuma at the moment.”

Luscin looks to Teum nervously, their plan will require his assistance.

“Where can we find him?”

“I’d tell you if I knew, but that’s not something he could share. The most I can tell you is it’s somewhere in Twoya.”

“What’s happening in Twoya?”

Lucy goes to the ice chest and pours three glasses of water. Setting them down on her desk, she sits in her chair and motions towards the chairs at the side table.

Teum takes the hint and grabs one in each hand and swings them around to face the desk.

Seated and hydrated, Luscin asks, “What do you think is happening in Twoya?”

“Revolution, Early is staging a coup.”

Luscin is stunned, she’s only heard mother use Fathers real name one other time, and she was stupid-drunk and screaming obscenities at the time.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“That sounds serious, but who is he overthrowing?”

“They’re called the Shadow Council and operate out of Vorg. Not much is said about them, except at the highest levels of the syndicate.”

“Wait, what? There’s a syndicate? Is that what Sammy told us about?”

Shaking her head, she never wanted her daughter involved in the family business. She knows most of the details, she might as well know the rest.

“Sammy doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Luscin is intrigued, “So the crime families of each city isn’t run by a disciple embedded in the PPoV bureaucracy?”

Lucy shows surprise, “Ok, he’s not far off. I guess I shouldn’t underestimate the rumor mills of the lower ranks.

“I wish I could tell you more, might I ask what you need to speak to him about?”

Teum takes over the discussion, “There’s trouble coming, we have reasons to believe the Empire of Blood is planning a full-on invasion of South Cenoka, the fighting is going to spread to every city, and they don’t have the man power to repel such an attack.

“We’re hoping the Families that run each city can provide resistance forces.”

Lucy’s mannerism change as tone of the meeting shifts from family to Family, “Why would we do something so foolish?”

Teum was ready for that question and is glad he gets to rehearse his answer here before having to answer Father. “This is the Empire of Blood, not the PPoV. When they come to Thuma, it won’t be to occupy the city, it will to be to purge it of all life.”

Unmoved, “That sounds unbelievable, what evidence of this do you have?”

“They’re currently doing this to their own nation. Refugees are flooding our northern border. All telling the same stories, entire towns rounded up and taken to the capital to be slaughtered.”

“Why?”

“We don’t know for sure, but many of the refugees speak of a War Born breeding program.”

Lucy Lael knows exactly what that all means, the Pit of Tears is one of many horrors discovered by their spies over the last few years. Expanding their interests from trade to politics has been eye opening. The governments of the world are surprisingly brutal to their citizenry.

“Not bad, when you make your pitch to Father, you’ll need to state the facts up front. He won’t ask follow-up questions.”

Teum appreciates the advice and shows it with a slight bow of his head, “Thank you Master Lael.”

Lucy seems to take a moment before speaking, “You’ll find Father in Twoya, there will be a meeting of Family heads. I don’t know exactly when, but he said he’d be gone for a month. Allowing a week’s travel in each direction and a week to prepare. I’d say the meetings begin in seven days.

“I’ll loan you Sammy, he seems to know what’s going on and his contacts will know as much as anyone in the area.”

Luscin sighs, “I like Sammy, but bringing him along will slow us down.”

“Not this time. Sammy is already in Twoya, I’ll give you a pass phrase, so he’ll know his conscription is sanctioned.”

Luscin, surprised by the sophistication of their protocols, “Umm, thank you mother. This is more complicated than I expected.”

“Life is complicated, you have no idea how easy you have it with your gift and universal permission to use it as you see fit. The rest of us navigate the world in fear of incurring consequences beyond our ability to survive.”

Luscin sits up stiffly, “About that, the writ. I have it. I wish you had not intervened. There’s no guarantee it will work, and we’ve already defeated the first two hunters that came for us.”

Lucy slaps the desk, “Liar, you two defeated no one. You were bailed out by Master Terius and the other Defender on the list. Don’t minimize what he did either, that was no mere hunter, that was a full-on power lord he defeated. His demise is going to buy us as much as an additional year to prepare.

“As for Selkie, I did what I did, and I have to live with that. I’ll do anything to protect you.

“You should get moving before the older kids that remember you find out you’re on campus and disrupt the whole day.”

Lucy doesn’t stand, so Luscin skips the departing hug she yearned to give and settles for a curt nod of her head.

Teum leans over the desk and clasps Lucy’s dainty hands in his and warmly says, “Thank you again, Master Lael. I’ll protect her, I promise.”

Lucy doesn’t know why but it felt like the thing to say, “I know you will son.”

Turning away, Teum glows inside and feels light as a feather.

Western Vorg, Public Housing

Capitano Fuoco didn’t understand how sparse his world was until he left the Peoples Province of Vorg and traveled up and down the west coast of South Cenoka. It’s no wonder leaving the country is usually a one-way trip, if word got back of how much they are missing there would be revolution.

It’s not just the variety of options, it’s the fact that there are options. In Vorg, there is one type of work boot, one type of comfort shoe, and one type of dress shoe. Out in the rest of the world, the options are limited to your imagination, because if you can imagine it, you can make it yourself. Thinking such a thought never occurred to him in all his years.

Seeing Malo sitting on the sturdy Vorg bed, made to last a hundred years, while providing the minimalist level of comfort reminds him of all the warm hostile rooms with their wobbly wooden frames, and soft down filled mattresses. In the PPoV, things might be free but at the same time they reflect that zero-sum value in every aspect that matters.

“I’m sorry for the bleak accommodations, we don’t have the same kind of economy as the rest of the world.”

Malo looks around as if for the first time, squints his eyes a bit and looks again.

“Oh, I didn’t notice. There’s so much more I can see that I didn’t notice the lack of decorations.

“I don’t mind one bit. Recently I’ve preferred to have less things around me. It’s easier to see my surroundings without all the clutter. I think I can see a hundred yards further in your Vorg cities than other places.”

Taking a seat on his own bed, “What’s it like… seeing through walls and people?”

“It was confusing at first. Now that I have better control, I’ve become better at filtering and narrowing my perceptions.”

Plucking up his notebook, “How does that work?”

“I wish I knew how, I just learned to do it out of necessity.

“If I wanted to see all the surrounding buildings and their layouts, I filter out people and just allow myself to perceive stone walls and foundations or wooden structures. I can go the other way and make the wall disappear and see people.

“People are harder to work with, we’re squishy and full of water and always moving, discerning one from another is difficult. I’m getting better at defining individuals with their clothing items, but I have a long way to go.”

Malo looks up longingly, “What I really yearn to discover is what’s up there.”

“The sky?”

“Yeah, and beyond. Most of what I see and hear from the sky is so immensely far away it would take me several lifetimes to go there. But there are closer bodies that I could visit, in days or weeks. I just don’t know if I can live in that environment.”

“Wait, are you talking about leaving the planet?”

“Yes, wouldn’t you of you could?”

Renzo, having never considered such thoughts, isn’t sure, “That sounds dangerous.”

“I’ve been in a vacuum before and survived and that was before… what do you call them? Two ascensions? I’m so much stronger than before, I think I could survive easily in that environment now.”

Missionary Renzo is both fascinated and terrified of the idea of Malo attempting to leave the safety of Terra to satisfy his curiosity. In an unprecedented moment of original thought, he has an epiphany.

“There’s more to this world you could explore!”

Surprised by the sudden passion, Malo has to wonder what Renzo means, a raised eyebrow and tilt of his head sends the message to continue.

“What’s on the other side of the Cantial and Fuarial oceans?”

Then after a pause, “What’s under them, combined they make up more than four times the mass of North and South Cenoka. Those would be easier and SAFER to explore than traveling off world!”

Surprised by the concept of exploration beyond the oceans, Malo takes a moment and considers that path.

“Wow! I can’t believe I never considered traveling around the world to see if there is more to it than these two continents.

“Wait here!”

Missionary Renzo barely has time to think, “Huh?” and Malo is gone.

The whoosh of air and slammed open door indicating he left in a hurry, but where? Where did he go?

The door creeks as it slowly closes.

Renzo sits for ten minutes, thinking he’ll be back in a moment. The minutes stretch out to hours; finally, after four hours he hears the tell-tale boom of an object reducing speed below the speed of sound.

A minute later Malo returned through the cracked open door.

“Thank you, Renzo! There’s a massive continent, maybe more on the other side of the world! There were cities too! I wonder what those people are like.

The oceans also looked incredible from the air. They are so incredibly deep, and all that water makes it hard to see everything, but what I did see warrants a second look too!

“I’m conflicted, I wanted to go to the moon next, but now the ocean depths and those cities are calling me.”

Missionary Renzo panics, “You should stay here, don’t leave Terra!”

Ruefully shaking his head with an excitement filled voice, “I can’t believe I never thought to cross the oceans. I’ve spent days watching the sun as it passes around the world and never once thought of pulling back my focus to see what’s on the other side of our world.”

Malo calms himself for a moment, “You’re right. I should check out Terra first. I have a feeling this conflict isn’t just happening here. My practicum can wait.”

Fishing in a pocket, Malo pulls out a tiny statue of a dragon and tosses it to the stunned missionary.

“If you need me, tell Maddie to find me.”

Just like four hours before, he disappears through the swinging-creaking door of their sparsely furnished public housing room in western Vorg.

Once again Missionary Renzo sits and waits, the hours pass, the sun rises, the sun sets.

A slow cold feeling swallows Renzo’s heart, “Oh no, no, no, no, what did I do?”