“Ma’am!” Analyst Vit97455 called out. “It’s happening.”
Her supervisor immediately came over and looked at the blue screen hovering in front of her as numbers flashed by at a mind boggling pace. She frowned, but nodded. “You watched what he saw?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“And he knows it was from Apophis?”
“There was a threat made in the name of Apophis. Is that close enough?”
“Enough that he would make the connection, yes. Oh shit, this won’t end well! Time freeze.” The supervisor called out the name of a skill, and a localized portion of time was frozen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sean’s POV
“IDIOT!” A voice thundered through my ears as I felt a steel claw grasp my neck and wrench me out of the vision. Suddenly my view was filled with a very enraged woman with silver skin and blue eyes. “Do you have any idea of the trouble you just caused me? Of course you don’t! You weren’t ever supposed to have that power! So now I have to fix what the moron who thought that changing the weave of fate with a sledgehammer was a good idea just fucked up! Why do you think there are so few people with fate powers, hmmmm? It’s because accidents with fate tend to leave tiny little craters!” Rant apparently finished, she slammed me backwards into a wall hard enough that I felt several bones break. “Divine restoration.” She snarled as she held a hand in my direction. “Can’t have you dying on me after all this.” Her spell started in my head and slowly seeped downward, moving bones into the proper positions before fusing them.
“Huh? Where am I?” I asked, looking around. Everything felt muted. Instead of all-encompassing rage, I found myself in a strange cubicle farm. As I sat there trying to gather my wits, a clone of the angry woman snuck up next to me.
“Sorry it can’t be the warmest of welcomes Sean.” She said with a sad smile. “Though your little stunt did take several divine spells to fix.”
“I’m calling code Omega! I’m sick of these gods and their champions skirting rules!” The original lady shouted to the room, causing the one next to me to widen her eyes.
“Well, that tears it.” She said. “I wish we could do this better, but we all now have time sensitive obligations to meet. Come with me.” Pulling me up with a strength that couldn’t be resisted, I numbly followed her down a hallway to a random room. “Step inside. Oh, and we are all the system, though I am the one tasked with keeping an eye on you. The others will be summoned shortly, and as I’m here you won’t be needing the popup. This should-“
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“DADDY!!!” Her explanation was cut off by a voice I never thought to hear again. “Catch meeeeeee!!!” I turned to see Isabelle rocketing toward me, but instead of slamming into my chest she sort of slowly moved through me, like I was water.
“Isabelle? What’s going on?” I asked confused, spinning in place to try and keep an eye on both her and Danielle, who I saw slowly walking my way with another system lady standing behind her.
“Isabelle, didn’t you remember what the nice lady said?”
“Hmmm? Oh yeah, we are in-, in-, incorpsicles? Yeah, we are incorpsicles for now!” She said, so confident in her new word like only young kids can be.
“Incorporeal dear.” Danielle said with a smile.
“Incorpsicles sounds close enough.” I said with a smile as I tried to pull her in for a hug, only to frown as she slightly pulled back.
She explained at my hurt look, “The system ladies have been filling us in on what you have been up to, age appropriate of course.”
“Daddy’s playing hero!” Isabelle chimed in, placing her hand literally inside my own. “Can heroes save more than one princess Daddy? The stories you tell only have the one, but momma isn’t in that other place for you to save.”
“Isabelle dear, would you let Daddy and I talk for a bit? I’m sure he would love to see you make a drawing of his best adventure.” Danielle asked.
“Ok momma!” She said, oblivious to the undertones of the conversation.
Once she had skipped away, Danielle held a hand up as I immediately had moved to embrace her. “Sean, stop.” I froze, heart breaking at the tear in her eye. “The system ladies have been helping me, showing me a bit. I know it’s been so long for you, but for me it has only been hours. I can’t say I approve of what has happened, but with their help and having lived through some of the rougher times you had to go through I can say that I understand.”
“Baby, I.” I started, only to be interrupted again.
“I know.” She said with a sad smile. “I know. It had to be so hard to be torn away from us, thrown into a place where you were all alone. They let me relive a few of those days as a slave, and I felt everything you felt dear. So trust me when I say I do understand, I just need some time to process it.”
“Are we going to be ok?” I asked, not succeeding at all at hiding the tremor in my voice.
“Maybe? Probably?” She shrugged. “Who knows? I can’t say at this moment, but I can say this.” She was suddenly right in my face. “If, and that’s a very big if at the moment, I do accept this Elendria, she is the only one. And right now she is only being considered because of how she helped you through things. Capiche?”
“Loud and clear dear.” I immediately answered, subconsciously straightening my spine.
“Good. Wouldn’t want you to think you were the hero of one of those trashy harem books you used to read.”
“Trashy harem?” I asked, sweating.
“Dear, our accounts are linked. I can see what’s in your reading library.”
“Sorry to interrupt Mr. O’Carrol, but they need you in the other conference room.” A system lady said as she poked her head in.
“Go dear. I have a lot to discuss with the system ladies. We can catch up after your meeting.” Danielle said, giving me a kiss on the forehead. Confident that while not all was right, I at least had a chance at being in the doghouse instead of a hotel three towns over, I followed my guide down the hallway to another room. Time to see what this conference was all about.