Is… that a confirmation that she already knew who was hosting this thing? Why the hell did she keep that information from us, then? We’re the ones that’re supposed to be protecting her. So there’s got to be a reason why she didn’t tell us.
But it’s a little hard to wonder about something like that with laser pointers drawing patterns on my forehead. I pretend not to notice them and pull Gisela in a little closer, tugging on the shields I prepared beforehand to get them as ready for combat as possible.
“Why the hell… why the hell…” I mutter to myself as we walk through scores of whispering guests. “I can’t believe you kept that shit from us. If you came here to declare goddamn war, we could’ve prepared a little better if we knew.”
Noland sighs and pats me on the shoulder. “This is just how selfish rich people work, Shelby. I should know–I’m one of them.”
“Yeah, but you actively run your mouth before you do something stupid.”
“Guilty as charged.” He laughs and looks around. “Ah, man, I really didn’t miss this kind of atmosphere. It always makes me want to do something drastic to get away from it all.”
“Then why the hell did you volunteer to come instead of Ursula?”
He shrugs. And when it’s obvious that that’s the closest thing to an answer I’m going to get, I let him do his own thing while I focus on keeping Gisela safe from all the hate she just brewed. We pass groups of gossiping rich people that go silent the moment we’re in earshot, and even though Gisela tries to talk to them, they all just back away and glance over at Matt.
She purses her lips and frowns. “I thought I’d have at least a few sympathizers in the crowd. Oh well, others will come forward when they’re not in Matt’s earshot. Let’s go to the roof; I saw some old friends up there earlier, and they must be buzzing with anticipation for the Preservation’s arrival.”
Roof. Yeah. I definitely know how to get up there. My neck twists and swivels as I look for a set of stairs that doesn’t just go to one of the many weird half-floors above, and eventually settle on a more closed-in staircase that goes higher than the others. A nod at Noland gets his attention, and another nod in the direction of the staircase gets my intent across.
“Hopefully there aren’t any proximity mines on the stairs.” He chuckles.
“There won’t be; Matt wouldn’t risk damaging his own house.” Gisela assures us. “We’ll have to be careful the moment we step off the grounds, though; I expect heavy sniper fire and land mines when I try to leave.”
Noland nods as his expression darkens. “I’ll send a warning message. Any special magics we should look out for?”
“No, not that I’m aware of. Matt won’t risk it while the Preservation is closely monitoring him. Unless they don’t show before I leave, in which case, just imagine a worst-case scenario and prepare for that.”
A memory of the sky opening up to reveal a mech plays before my eyes. Ursula’s magical nuke and Noland’s sympathy spell that dismembered the krarig follow right after. I’m pretty sure that’s worse than anything Gisela is thinking of, so we’ll definitely have a good plan for it. Noland still takes the warning extremely seriously, and as we climb the stairs towards the roof, I hear him quietly muttering what sounds like a message to Ursula under his breath.
We stop at the door, where sounds of a normal conversation and the slight whooshing of wind play from the other side. I share a look with Noland as he puts himself between Gisela and the door, then I move to watch the bottom of the stairs as he slowly pulls the door open. A guard in a black suit steps into the stairwell just as I’m about to follow Gisela through.
He aims a glowing hand at me. Magic wells up from his palm in a blistering heat, and I have to stop myself from flicking a projectile directly into his face. Murdering people isn’t the best way to keep a low profile, even if Gisela did her best to make us as high-key as possible.
“Wouldn’t do that if I were you, buddy.” I warn him as I flip a shield through my knuckles. “Your boss wouldn’t like the collateral damage, and he’d hate to have to clean up all your blood and guts.”
My words seem to stun the guard, and his spell falters. He swears and aims his hand at me once again, but for some reason, his spell won’t form properly. I raise an eyebrow and watch him struggle for a few seconds, enraptured by his seeming incompetence. Then I flick the shield into the stairwell, ignite it as a barrier that seals him from us, and back through the door Gisela’s still holding open for me.
“Thanks.” I nod as I take the handle from her and push it closed. “Noland, is it hard to cast spells when you’re scared?”
“Huh?” He turns from watching a pair of people knife fighting with blades made of pure light. “Oh, yeah, anything that makes you lose focus can make it hard to cast spells. I’ve never had it happen to me, but I’ve watched enough people fumble their important spells in the heat of the moment that I can’t deny how it works. What brought up the question?”
Gisela takes my arm and drags me to a group of well-dressed people. “I just watched a guy fumble his spell and then he couldn’t get it back up. Maybe we’re just built different.”
Noland laughs and moves to take an overlook position at the edge of the roof where he can see the ground below and the entire roof without moving his head. I choose to take his amusement as confirmation that I’m right. Or it’s another weird thing about Worth classes and how we cast spells. That’s probably got a fifty percent chance of being right.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Hey, Gisa!” A man in a simple suit smiles and waves as we approach. “Perfect timing; we were just talking about the deal the Preservation’s trying to push through. I think it’s absolute bullshit, and it’ll kill any magical ingenuity from now on just so they can pretend to be the big bad gatekeepers. Tilly’s in camp ‘it doesn’t matter’, and Kendrick is licking their boots like the good boy he is.”
A snort and crossed arms draws the attention to a black man with long, curly hair pulled back by a struggling blue scrunchie. His posture is standoffish, and when his gaze flicks to me and Noland, he doesn’t even register us.
“If you call seriously considering the positives and negatives of what they’re proposing ‘boot licking’, then yes. But your skull seems a little too thick today for higher thought.”
The suited man laughs and gestures at Kendrick. “See? Bootlicker.”
“Shut up, James.” A woman in a very low cut dress and so much body jewelry that she looks like she just crawled out of an ancient tomb. She must be Tilly. “This is one of the few times we actually have to be serious. Gisela, how is the investment going to stand up against these new regulations? Will anything change?”
Gisela raises an eyebrow and lets go of my arm. “You’re talking like it’s already a done deal. Did something happen while I wasn’t looking?”
“Well, no, but–” James starts, but pauses when he sees Gisela’s pinched smile. “You know how the Preservation is, Gisa. Their last obstacle is HuSt, and with Matt backing them, those barbarians won’t be able to say no. The entire United States has already given the Preservation permission, you know–the rest of the world isn’t far behind.”
“Which is all the more reason not to stir the pot.” Kendrick insists. “If we can just get out foot in the door, we’ll be able to secure a steady supply of legal coins for the rest of our lives. No more buying through the resort, no more scrounging through danger, no more hiding! This is exactly what we’re looking for!”
Tilly sighs and shakes her head. “It’s never going to be that easy. Nothing’s going to change. We’ll still deal with everything the same way, except we’ll be dodging the Preservation alone instead of the Preservation and other companies hoping to find the coins before they do.”
“Well, then, we just have to destabilize them! HuSt and the Preservation hate each other, so all we have to do is get them fighting.” James cuts in, looking to Gisela for agreement. “If they fight on Matt’s turf, he’ll lose face. And in a few years–no, a few months–we’ll step in and take his place!”
Suddenly, all the attention is on Gisela. I don’t have to know the history here to see three investors and board members trying to convince the owner of their points of view. Gisela purses her lips and crosses her arms, tapping her foot as she pretends to think over their proposals. Except she’s got her own plan, whatever the hell it is.
“Why are we settling for anything?” She eventually says. “HuSt and the Preservation aren’t the only powerful organizations. All we have to do is get the backing of a third party that can oppose them.”
Kendrick snorts and spread his arms. “Where the hell are we going to find someone like that? All the good orgs are already in bed with foreign powers.”
“Except for the resort.” Tilly’s voice is so quiet, it’s almost a whisper. “But… you know who runs it, Gisela. We can’t get on his bad side. Or any of his inner circle; I heard one of them held off a Preservation attack ship on her own to stop them from killing a krarig just a few weeks ago.”
Oh? The news actually got out? Well, they painted Ursula as the villain, as we expected. Whatever; when Call actually starts digging for real, we’ll rip the rot out of that organization like a beating heart. And, frankly, I don’t give a shit if that makes it collapse.
I take a quick look around and signal at Noland. He shakes his head and makes an ‘X’ with his hands; still no sign of the Preservation or HuSt. Just as he goes to turn around, an echoing crack fills the sky. A single sickly green line trails through the clear sky like a crack in a dam, and two sets of fingers reach out to grip either side.
With a ripping squelch, the crack is ripped open like a wound in existence. Behind it is a mech just like all the others I’ve seen, except its chest is fitted with a heavily armored… thing instead of a beam emitter. I drum my fingers against Pearl’s shell to get her attention, but it isn’t needed. Her entire being is locked on the Preservation’s grand entrance.
“They changed the chest unit from a weapon to transport.” She says with a cold edge in her voice. “We used to do that when we ___________. Oh… right, um, sorry for the censorship. It feels like that hasn’t happened in a little while.”
I hide my grimace and blink the pain behind my eyes away. “Gisela, get close.”
She’s at my arm before the words fully leave my mouth. I glance over my shoulder at her friends, but they’re already so surrounded by their own bodyguard that I can’t make a single one of them out.
“They’re thinking too small.” Gisela whispers just loud enough for me to hear. “As long as the Preservation exists, magic will slowly rot away in the name of ‘safety’. We need innovators, pioneers, risk takers–not pencil pushers looking over a pile of applications to determine who ‘deserves’ a class coin.”
Noland hurries over to us and pats my shoulder. “Well, we agree on that. But as long as people find coins and don’t use them right away, we need someone to look over them. Or else rich assholes with private armies will make a monopoly with blood and suffering.”
Gisela frowns. “We’re not like that.”
“Yeah, right. Tell yourself that a few years down the line when you kill a ten year old because they found a good Class.” Noland laughs bitterly. “We’re going to talk to whoever the Preservation’s bringing down. I’m going to put the fear of god in them, and if that goes well, maybe we’ll actually have some fair discussions where humanity can win.”
“You want HuSt to win?” Gisela asks in disbelief.
I sigh and resist the urge to facepalm. “He means everyone. Like, every living person on the planet. If the Preservation wins, they control way too much. If HuSt wins… well, I don’t know them well enough to say. We need competition or a completely benevolent third party.”
Noland pats himself on the chest. I… yeah, I guess we’re as close to that third part as we’re going to get. Does he want us to be some kind of mediator in the discussion? We didn’t even know what was going on up until a few hours ago. Did he just decide the plan?
“All I want is what’s best for GI.” Gisela says pleasantly. “If you start preaching dangerous childish ideals, HuSt and the Preservation will eat you alive.”
“No, they’d eat us alive if we weren’t strong enough to back up those childish ideals.” Noland puts his foot on the edge of the roof and looks straight into the chest piece of the descending mech. “I have more than enough power now, and the backing of some dangerously competent people. If the Preservation insists on going down the same path as my father, they’ll join him in death.”