Now, Kansas
“Hey,” Deandre said.
He had a box in his hands
“Relax. You look way too nervous,” Heddy hissed.
She rushed to unlock the door to her shop before ushering the big man in.
Deandre placed the box on the counter. “Sorry… I’m stressing out about the seekers getting on to me— and you. It’s this thing,” he pulled out a sheathed knife from his pants and held it out to her.
She reached out, but stopped herself. “That was next to your junk.”
“Outside the underwear.”
She sighed, but accepted the knife.
The handle felt good in her hand. The wood was textured. Grippy, but comfortable.
“I used a Skill when I made the handle. It should feel like it’s custom-made for your hand,” Deandre eyed her expectantly.
“Yeah, it feels perfect— wait, how did you know what my hand fit is like?”
“I shook your hand once.”
“Just from that?”
“Skills are bullshit,” Deandre shrugged.
“Okay… so, what’d you find about the blade?”
“Well… it’s amazing! But, that’s not even the biggest thing…”
“Get on with it. I have to get back to work.”
“Okay… get this. My class changed…”
“Get the actual fuck out of my shop,” her eyes widened. “Into what?”
“Invested Weaponsmith…”
“That sounds weird. Did you lose your other non-weapon Skills?”
“No. All still there. Just lost a few levels. Gained something though…”
“Mana,” she said flatly.
“Shit! How’d you know?”
“It makes sense. You’re not a mage… or an enchanter.”
Deandre shook his head.
“… so you can’t cast spells. Figure your mana is strictly for the forging of weapons. Have you tried it out yet?”
“I haven’t I’m too scared. If the wrong people find out…”
She took a closer look at Deandre. “I didn’t notice before, but now that I’m focusing… there’s definitely mana in you. It’s not much, so you should be fine unless a mage-type really takes a look.”
“Or someone with Skills specialized at digging out secrets.”
“Stay away from seekers,” she shrugged. “About the knife.” She focused on the blade. It looked just like any other steel blade, but just like with Deandre, when she focused her other sense into it she felt the magical energy suffused into the steel. It resembled a faintly glowing lattice just underneath the surface.
“No showy magic powers from what I could find. It’s just better in every way compared to a plain knife. I mean, I beat the hell out of it. Any other knife would’ve snapped.”
She examined the knife. “It’s straight. The edge is perfect. Looks brand new.”
“That’s the thing. I did managed to chip it by hitting it on my home anvil. Aannddd… it got better.”
She took that in stride. It was an enchanted— no, make that an invested blade. A self-repairing function wasn’t too far out of the realm of magical possibility.
“It’s tougher, cuts better, edge-retention is better… just everything about it is better,” Deandre threw up his hands. “It sorta makes a mockery of my forging.”
“How so?” she frowned.
“That adding some magic to the process results in a product that’s miles ahead of what I can possibly craft with my own skills and experience.”
“Didn’t know you were one of those human skills are better type,” she snorted. “Skills change it up anyways. You’ve just added another tool to your bag.”
“I get that and I’m going to use it… doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“Actually, you probably should embrace it. Classes benefit from our embracing them. That’s part of how we advance. You’ll struggle if you try to fight it.”
“Just cause it’s a class doesn’t mean it’s a good thing that needs to be embraced.”
“Agree to disagree.” She sheathed the knife and handed it back to Deandre.
“It’s yours,” he pushed it back.
“Thanks,” she shrugged and placed it on the counter. “You’ve delivered the…”
“Arrowheads? Same as it has been for the last few weeks. I’ll need a receipt to make it official in case I need to account for my whereabouts.”
“Right.”
She filled out a receipt to maintain the charade.
“Layers on layers. I’m not cut out for this spy shit,” Deandre shook his head. “So, what’s next?”
“Nothing. It’ll draw attention if I go back to your forge or if you come back here. Maybe in a month, but we might not be alive at that point. You’ve got mana now, so why don’t you use it. Make more weapons at home. If anyone asks, you’re just working that much harder.”
“You know something?” Deandre narrowed his eyes.
“The Meat Parade time line is a lot sooner than our leaders are telling us.”
“Fuck! They ain’t telling us shit! I was figuring that the first I’d hear about them reaching us is all the screaming. Damn… what are they going to do about all the people outside the walls?”
“Nothing good.”
Deandre didn’t need to know the details.
He was an ally, but needed to be kept in the dark about certain things. For everyone’s sake.
“Less we all know about everyone else the less we reveal if the seekers get us.”
“Yeah, totally, I get that. Just that… they won’t leave them out there… will they?”
“Why not? They’ve already left them to the monsters and mutant animals. Meat Parade’s just another set of monsters,” she sighed.
“Would more invested weapons help?”
“It’s great, but it’s not like it does more damage or protects the wielder.”
“What if you enchant an invested weapon?”
She blinked. It was a mark of her depression and exhaustion that the thought hadn’t occurred to her. “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”
“I’ll start churning them out. Invested ones and plain ones. Do em at home. Off the books. You enchant them and smuggle them out to your peeps. It can only help, right?”
“Just don’t do anything that’d put you at risk.”
“Fuck that noise. People are going to die. I can’t sit safe behind the walls without doing something.”
“Alright…” she thought hard. “I just put up the rest of my enchanted swords up for sale.” She didn’t mention the message she had sent. “So, I’ve contracted with you for more weapons.” She went behind the counter and scribbled into her receipt book, tearing the copy out and handing it to Deandre. “Open contract. Costs, payments, whatever… all to be negotiated at a later date. Because we are concerned about the Meat Parade and took it upon ourselves to arm our defenders.”
“If we get discovered,” Deandre nodded in understanding.
“Be careful.”
She let him out and locked the door.
The knife beckoned.
She took it into her workshop, unsheathed it and placed it on her main table.
She decided quickly.
The Shock Spell made the most sense to her.
Deft fingers carved her symbol for the spell into the base of the knife blade.
She pushed the spell into the symbol over and over throughout the process.
The passage of time was amorphous as it always was when she was in the throes of enchanting.
She blinked back to reality.
She was sweaty, but she wasn’t completely drained.
She felt the mana still inside of her.
The handle felt perfect in her hand.
“On,” she said.
Blue-white arcs of electricity ran up and down the blade.
She cursed happily. “It worked!”
She examined the enchantment with more than her physical sight.
The spell appeared as another lattice, interwoven with the investment of magic that had already been in there.
“Enchantment… investment… did I just create a thing?” A thought for later. A huge secret that gave her the edge over all the other enchanters out there.
“Think of all the Universal Points… which I can’t use cause the goddamn cannibal freaks are on their way.”
She turned the electric enchantment off and put the knife aside.
There was a bunch of arrowheads that needed her attention.
The following weeks continued the pattern that she had been living under for months.
She spent it isolated in her workshop enchanting weapons for the eternal church. The only difference were the handful of different weapons Deandre had surreptitiously passed along to her.
Those were much more interesting.
She had tested them and found them better in every way to the old enchanted weapons she had been making.
Most of them had already been dispersed to the exiles by way of Knox’s smuggling network, at least that’s what he had told her the last time he had visited.
That was about the only bit of good news.
Word through the city was spreading.
The multiple Meat Parades were closing in by way of several neighboring states.
There had been hope that they could’ve been headed for one of the other large settlements in the north of the state, but that had turned out to be false.
All indications now pointed to Wichita being their target.
It was the church’s fault. Heddy knew this with certainty. She just didn’t know how or why.
On another note, she had received a response to the spire message she had sent to the buyer of most of her older style enchanted weapons.
It had been prompt. The next day.
The response was noncommittal.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
A real non-answer.
Like that email from a co-worker that really didn’t want to commit to getting sucked into helping you out with your job.
Granted, begging for help from some man or woman, just cause they had a lot of Universal Points and you thought they had power or were connected to power was always going to be a long shot.
Honestly, she didn’t know what she had been thinking at the time.
She blamed the desperation.
The doorbell broke her out of her reverie.
She tossed the warm towel on her table and wiped her face with a dry one before heading downstairs.
“Hey, ‘Enchanter’!”
It was Joseph’s big dumb, smiling face.
“Ahem,” he cleared his throat. “I know it’s early, but—”
“Yeah, I know. I got the message,” she pointed to the basket on the countertop near the door. “Obviously, there’s less, but that’s what happens if you want to collect daily. I only have so much mana and it only recharges so fast.”
“Sorry. I just do what I’m told,” Joseph said sheepishly.
“Eh… not blaming you. So, the Meat Parade— Parades are getting here soon then?”
“Um— I’m not supposed to say.”
“Thank you.”
“Uh… what for?”
“You’ve given me the answer I need.”
“But I didn’t say anything,” Joseph gaped and blinked like a fish.
“Exactly. I need to stock up on food and water.”
“Sorry, but there’s limits on what you can buy from the stores.”
“Since when?” she snapped.
“The notice went out, uh, like, last Wednesday.”
“Must’ve missed it.”
“They announced it at the services and had people going around announcing it all over the place and uh…” Joseph opened the door and pulled a sheet of paper from the glass surface, “here it is.”
“Too busy doing the lord’s work to notice,” she said.
“And it is very much appreciated,” Joseph nodded earnestly.
“Say… Joseph… what’re they having you doing when the Meat Parades get here?”
“I’ll be fighting for us all. I’ll be on the wall,” he straightened out of his customary slouch.
Her face twisted despite an effort to keep it neutral.
“Don’t worry,” Joseph smiled. “We’ll have the immortal light on our side against those cannibal monsters.”
“Light’s not going to stop one of them from chomping your face off,” she sighed.
“There are light spells,” Joseph blinked.
“Okay… you’re right. I was wrong, but that’s not what I meant.”
The big, dumb young man blinked at her with such guilelessness that she was compelled to actually explain.
“There are spells, but there isn’t an ‘immortal light’. That’s more of a faith thing.”
“Nooo,” Joseph’s eyes widened. “That’s not true. I’ve seen them do it. The pastors, acolytes, seekers and others holy enough to wield the immortal light. And you shouldn’t say that—” his voice dropped to a whisper, “you might get in trouble.”
“Joseph… those are just regular spells and Skills. I mean, how would you know the difference?” she said.
“Because you feel it. You feel the music in your head and it makes everything feel like it’s going to be okay,” he replied with such sincerity that it made her want to gag.
The poor, brainwashed idiot was going to get eaten.
“Okay… just… be careful. If you find yourself on the wall and don’t see any pastors, acolytes and seekers standing next to you, then consider taking care of yourself first,” she said.
“You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ve been training hard and I’m ready. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you and everyone else in town safe from those evil bastards!”
She barely managed to keep the grimace off her face.
She didn’t trust herself to say another word so she smiled and hurried him out of her shop.
----------------------------------------
Cal pulled the bus over to the side of the highway.
They had just crossed from Oklahoma into Kansas.
Hayden saw the expression on the man’s face and felt relief.
It was time for things to get serious.
Much of the trip had that vacation road trip vibe that brought up uncomfortable memories of her childhood with people, many of which died horribly after the spires had appeared.
Violent combat was a much more comfortable coat to wear for her.
“Team meeting. I wish we could relax for longer, but it’s time for the purpose of this whole Quest,” Cal said.
“But we haven’t found the location of the eternal church,” she said.
“It’s not in Oklahoma.”
“How do you know? We basically just drove around all the settlements. We didn’t get to take a look or ask questions.”
“Not a lot of friendly people in middle America,” Shrewed grunted.
She couldn’t argue with that.
Their welcome, if it could be called that, from the places they got close to had ranged from aimed weapons to being shot at.
“The details aren’t important. Well, except for one thing, I got a weird message via the spires. Wichita, Kansas is about to be attacked by this Meat Parade thing. The Furies are familiar with them. The rest of you ask them questions later, but for now, just know that they basically have a cannibal class,” Cal said.
“Like, Flo!” Jimenez’s eyes widened.
Marci frowned. A question formed on her lips.
“Yes, but again, talk about that amongst yourselves later,” Cal said.
Hayden caught the momentary pang of something like pain flash across his face as he spoke.
“The reason we’re going there is twofold. I have this feeling of responsibility in regards to doing something about these cannibals. And the message. It was from the person I bought all those enchanted weapons. He or she asked for help,” he continued.
“But the church,” she said.
“I believe it is in the very same place… and before you ask, I’m not telling at this time. I’m keeping this close to the vest for a very important reason—”
“Which you obviously can’t or won’t share,” she said.
“Absolutely…”
“Whatever,” she shrugged. “It’s why we’re out here in the first place. So, lead on.”
“Anyways,” he continued, “we’re driving straight on till we get there. I’ll let you know when we’re close so you can all gear up. We might be heading into a dangerous situation so please prepare yourselves properly.”
Hayden was always in most of her armor, so it didn’t take long to put her front and back plates on.
It was a bit uncomfortable, but she managed.
She spent the rest of the drive seated on the couch and staring out at the flat landscape.
Green and yellow fields as far as the eye could see.
So boring.
She only partially listened to the conversation as Dayana and Jayde filled in the rest about the Meat Parade.
Dangerous because of the partial transformation that their cannibal class gave them.
Quicker, stronger, regeneration.
But for her money the most terrifying thing about them was the way they ate chunks of their opponents while in the middle of battle.
Jimenez then relayed the story of a girl, Florence, who seemed to have had a similar class.
There was some kind of history with Cal.
She made a note to ask him about it later.
“That’s some kind of coincidence,” she grunted.
“I know,” Jimenez nodded.
The twitchy woman was paler than usual.
“You should know how to fight them then,” Jayde said.
“One was terrifying enough, but a lot of them. I had no idea that was possible,” Jimenez said.
“How come I didn’t know about this Florence?” Marci said.
“She was our best fighter. Our superstar. No one wanted to talk about it after. I only knew because I was attached to the governor’s security detail at the time,” Jimenez said. “I was at the capitol. I saw what she did. An entire army of that…”
“Damn. She must’ve been like a super cannibal. We’ve fought the Meat Parade once before. Not a lot of them though, like a handful,” Dayana said.
“They were gross and they did kill a bunch of people, but we killed them all,” Jayde said.
“We were lucky that we didn’t face the main group,” Hayden said.
“I get it,” Jayde said defensively, “I saw what that group did. I was cleaning up right next to you.”
“San Antonio is separated into walled settlements. Suburbs basically. They got into one. Breached the defenses before our main fighting force could get there. Less than fifteen minutes and…” Dayana explained.
“It was… a mess,” Jayde finished.
“It’ll be a tough fight. A good opportunity to level,” Shrewed said.
“We shouldn’t look forward to a situation with great potential for carnage. Especially for the innocent and defenseless,” Monsignor said.
“Shades don’t seem as bad in comparison. At least those just killed you dead. They didn’t eat you… unless you count your soul being used to fight for an eternity as part of the fog… and that sounds just as bad,” Trevor said.
“Why is everything so terrible?” Amber said.
“Spires want conflict. Everyone knows this,” Shrewed said. “What better way to generate that than creating a world in which a horrible fate is always circling around you like a landshark sniffing your blood.”
“Those don’t circle. They just attack,” Monsignor said.
“I’ve been circled before,” he grunted.
“My mistake.”
“I’d be more worried about the eternal church. If what Cal suspects is true then we might be in trouble,” Hayden said.
“He’s all being super secret about it,” Jayde rolled her eyes.
“What’s there to know. They might be the front for some kind of golden angel from another world trying to invade our own,” Trevor said. “You see one eldritch invader from outside the world, you’ve seen them all.”
“We should’ve brought Alexa instead of you… or me,” Amber said.
“She’s good with the eldritch stuff, but they need her more back home and we need to finally get over that 30 hump,” Trevor said. “I’m so close. I can feel it. Thought that fight at the rest stop would’ve done it. Maybe if we had stopped to fight more monsters on the way…”
“Don’t worry about it, man,” Dayana said. “You’ll get a few levels if you survive the Meat Parade.”
“Yeah, I’m with you. There’s been a disappointing lack of leveling on this trip,” Jayde said. “How much do you think we’ll get when we help put this Zalthyss thing down?”
“Don’t be so eager to face that one. A being capable of taking fingers from him,” Monsignor nodded toward Cal, “is beyond us.”
“Yeah, but we still get a share if we contribute. Big challenges mean big levels. I’d bet we’d get a lot even if we just do a little damage. It’s like bees. One sting hurts, but a hundred will kill,” Jayde said.
“I just hope that it’s not there. It’s going to be dangerous enough to navigate the church and the cannibals,” Amber said.
Hayden agreed.
It was better to take care of one threat at a time.
That was the smart way to fight.
The ideal outcome was that they’d arrive after the church and the cannibals had hurt each other.
That would’ve been bad for all the innocents, but she knew that you couldn’t save everyone.
Bad things happened in this world.
It didn’t matter whether you deserved it or not.
When it was your time to pay the price of living, you paid it.
The world didn’t care that you were nice or kind or whatever.
----------------------------------------
Wichita was surrounded by a ten-foot-tall wooden fence.
Made from great posts driven into a slightly sloped mound of earth.
The wall was topped with barbed wire.
Cal stopped the bus on the other side of the bridge over the river.
The interstate also had a wall.
“Are we going to be able to drive through?” Nila said.
“Looks like there’s a gate,” he said.
“I guess you’re going to go out there,” she sighed.
“Don’t worry,” he gave her a quick peck on the lips.
“I can worry when there are people pointing guns at you.”
“I’m in no danger whatsoever… pull back if they start shooting, just in case.”
Cal walked down the highway with his hands raised above his head.
It was a long walk.
The sun shined down on him.
A nice day.
He sincerely hoped that the people in the gun tower on the wall didn’t ruin it for themselves.
He had already scanned the city.
A quick, faint, cursory touch.
He didn’t want to risk the chance of alerting Zalthyss or anyone like it to his presence, which was why he kept an especially tight grip around his thoughts. Discretion was important while he didn’t know the exact nature of the threat he faced.
All he knew at this point was that this place was indeed the home of the Eternal Church of Joyous Light.
The exact nature of their connection to Zalthyss and the dominion was unknown.
Best case scenario was that the church was basically a franchise on Earth.
Worst case… the connection was direct and Zalthyss was already on his world.
His three-fingered left hand unconsciously clenched into a fist.
He opened it quickly.
“Hold it!” an aggressive voice shouted down from the top of the wall.
“Peace. We’re just passing through. We can pay for services. Food, shopping, gas. That sort of thing,” he said. He didn’t exert his powers. Better to see if he could get inside the city through the powers of commerce first.
“We’re not taking tourists right now.”
“Not even ones with wealth? We’ve got cash, gold, jewelry, diamonds and other crap to spend.”
A feathery touch on the angry young man’s mind yielded an unfortunate answer.
Cal nudged the young man just a bit.
“Um… how much?”
“Whatever you think is fair for a place to park and time to resupply.”
The other fighters on the wall turned concerned eyes to the young man, but Cal knew that the young man had the authority to let them in and even give them passes to travel through the city.
“How many people do you have in that bus?”
“Captain—” a different young man started.
“We can always use that stuff,” the young captain cut his subordinate off.
“Yeah, but he’s not—”
“Enough!” the young captain regarded Cal with a hostile, but greedy gaze. “Two days. I’ll give you two days. That’s it.”
“Thank you. Very kind of you,” Cal smiled. “Just to be clear, safe passage and the right to purchase supplies and gas in exchange for a small entrance fee.”
“That’s right.”
“And you won’t need to search our bus or our persons because that same fee provides for that privilege?”
The young captain hesitated, but a slight nudge helped him along. “Yeah…”
The other men and women unconsciously nodded along thanks to the same nudge.
“You’ve been so friendly. I hope the rest of your city is the same.”
All that was left was to negotiate the reasonable price.
He had seen their thoughts toward him.
He wouldn’t feel guilty about fleecing them.
Racists and bigots deserved nothing less.
We’re in. Bring the bus up, he thought to Nila while beckoning to her with huge gestures.