[D Rank Surveyor Alex, Gatekeeper]
[Ascension Level: 6]
[Role: Porter (Role Skills: None]
[Role Level: 1]
[Experience: 700/2800]
[Attributes: Strength -> 6, Speed -> 10, Life -> 2, Devotion -> 0, Control -> 0]
[Current Skills: Combat Balance(21), Motion Trance(22), Melee–Axe(25), Melee—Shield(22)]
[Permanent Skills: Battle Maneuvers(26)]
[Current Titles: Empress of War (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Combined Arms, Weapon Mastery, and Battle Maneuvers by five.),
Aggression (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, Combined Arms, and Combat Balance Skills by five.),
Fated Hero (Increases Skill grade of Dodging, Anticipate, Battle Maneuvers, and Inspect by five),
Endless Motion (Increases Skill grade of Recovery, Running, Marathoning, and Motion Trance by three.)
Tireless (Increases Skill grade of Recovery Skills by three.)
True Sentinel (Increases Skill grade of Deflect, Dodging, Blocking, Resist, Zeal, and Combat Balance by five.)
Calming Flow (Increases Skill grade of Meditation, Focus, Recovery, Arcane, Sense, and Motion Trance by two.)]
Alex stared at the words, knowing that despite the high Skills on display, she was in for a rough time. Her only real chance was going to be to keep the new Surveyors moving, and prevent them from getting hurt. Unlike before, there wouldn’t be any old friends helping her. She needed to do it on her own, with unknown allies to rely on if things went wrong.
She shook off the feeling of foreboding and pushed forward.
[Please select your intent]
[Exploration]
[Vengeance]
[Patrol]
[War]
[Salvage]
Once again, she had to select Patrol, only this time she tried to look back and remember what the missions had been like for her at level three. They would only have six patrols to kill, not eight, so she’d actually end up destroying twelve patrols per Survey. All while doing the majority of the work in killing the Brutes and stopping the lower ranked Surveyors from being overwhelmed.
[Your intent is to Patrol]
[Quest Issued! Clear at least eight Grue patrols.]
[Hidden Quest Issued!]
[Hidden Quest Issued!]
She nodded and stepped forward into the light…
Alex stepped out into the other world just ahead of her first team of the day.
They didn’t seem all that bad. There was a Squire named Ryan, an Adept named Sean, and two Pages named Sally and Natasha. The Pages were set up for ranged combat, while the other two were frontline fighters. None of them were very excited about what they were about to do.
Alex didn’t care. She had two hours to get them through six patrols, and then back to the portal. Her body seemed to hum with energy; she already wanted to be out and fighting. It was literal agony to stay still long enough for all four to emerge from the swirling vortex.
“Okay, listen up. We’re going to be hitting six patrols. That means if each of you works hard enough, you’ll probably be able to finish at least two of your Hidden Quests as well as your Main ones.” Ryan opened his mouth to say something, and Alex paused just long enough to glare him into being quiet. “We aren’t going to have time to do an all-clear, especially not since you’d be fighting Brutes. The big scary ones. I can’t do that and get through all six teams. Sorry.”
She paused long enough to take a breath. “For each patrol, I’m going to go in first and hopefully draw their attention. You guys hit the pack after that. Each of you needs to kill four Soldiers, one Knight, and one Archer per fight. I’ll do my best to handle the rest. Can you all do that?”
They all nodded, except for Ryan, who stubbornly opened his mouth again. “Why are we getting packed in with five other teams? The others all get to have their own Vanguard, like we did for the first mission.”
Alex debated giving a soft answer. Instead, she settled on bluntness. “Wells is trying to make it so you can’t get any more experience. So that you aren’t ready. Has anyone told you about crunch?” They all shook their heads. “Fine. I’ll tell you about it myself, but we have to get moving. Come on.”
She led the way out of the portal area, deliberately keeping her pace down as she described the situation at the compound. Alex left out all mention of smuggling, kidnapping, and murder; crunch on its own was bad enough for the moment. By the time they reached the first patrol, the other Surveyors were looking a little less offended and a little more uncertain.
When she caught sight of the Grue, however, Alex cut off. She pointed. “Remember, hit them as hard as you can while they are focused on me. Let’s go!”
[Hidden Quest Discovered! Destroy eight Grue Brutes]
[Hidden Quest Discovered! Destroy twelve Grue Knights and twelve Grue Archers]
With that, she hurled herself forward, sprinting out in front of the others in a burst of speed they couldn’t possibly hope to match. The Grue saw her coming; their eyes widened as she sped towards the heart of their pack. She saw the Brute beginning to crouch, its hammers held wide.
Alex hit them like a freight train, smashing through the initial ranks without even slowing down. They collapsed in around her, trying to surround and overwhelm her. She dodged spears and swords, arrows and hammers, her axe lashing out to cut down one of the Knights. Her shield snapped another Knight’s sword, and she ducked below the Brute’s hammer strike so she could dart in and finish it.
Then the others arrived, and the Grue started to collapse backwards. Alex didn’t let them escape; she chopped her way through the Brute in heartbeats before continuing forward and into the Archers. Two of them she killed; the others she wounded and left for the rest of the team.
When the bodies began to burn, she waved away the notifications as she tried to gather the materials.
[Combat Balance advances to 22!]
[Melee–Shield advances to 23!]
[Main Quest Progress: 1 of 8 targets destroyed]
[Hidden Quest Progress: 1 of 8 targets destroyed]
[Hidden Quest Progress: 4 of 24 targets destroyed]
It wasn’t much, but it was a start.
The next two hours repeated the same pattern. She would charge in, tearing through the first ranks and drawing the enemy’s attacks. Ryan and the others arrived soon after, cutting their way through the distracted Grue and taking their kills where they could find them.
In the times between fights, Alex tried to give them whatever advice she could about their Skills, and what paths they should take with their abilities. Some of those questions were easy—telling the Pages to Chain Aim and Ranged Skills was fairly straightforward, though they needed to be reassured that they’d be able to continue training with the next few days. Others were harder; Sean had questions about magic that she couldn’t really answer, though she promised to ask Joanna and Sam when she got the chance.
It took just under two hours to kill all six patrols and return to the portal. Alex watched the four Surveyors disappear through the portal, obviously tired but somewhat cheered up by their success. Alex took the chance to prowl around the portal, moving so that Motion Trance could help her recover her stamina. As she did, a pair of other teams returned, giving her curious looks as they passed her by.
Finally, the next team came through—two Acolytes, a Porter, and an Adept. She winced at the prospect of such a magic-heavy team and gave them the same speech she’d given the first group.
Then she led them back out into the city. One down, five more to go.
A crackle of lightning snapped over her head, and Alex ducked low. She risked a quick glare in Anthony’s direction, and the Acolyte had the grace to look a little ashamed at the near miss. Alex continued her motion, ducking and weaving to avoid a Knight’s blade. Her axe cut it down, and then Anthony’s next try took out an Archer that was aiming for her.
It had been a bit more complicated to work with a team that was nearly all ranged fighters, but in the end it had still worked. They’d already cut down three patrols, and this fourth one was already being picked apart by lightning and fire, blinding sunlight and the Porter, Miguel, wading in with his own axe and shield. A handful more minutes, and the last of the Grue fell, leaving Alex to nod as the bodies burned.
Her own Quests had been finished a long while ago, and she was ready to pass back through the portal. Once the others had another couple of patrols finished, she’d follow them through so she could pick the next team up—while also adjusting her own Skills.
For the moment, her body still seemed to be doing fine. Motion Trance was already proving to be worth her weight in gold; every stretch of walking or jogging rejuvenated her. She grinned as she pictured Wells’ baffled expression when she came back through the portal in a little while, still mostly refreshed.
She nodded to the others as they gathered the resources left behind by the Grue. “Hey Anthony, nice shots on those Archers, but you may want to either take Aim or Focus if you want to be a bit more… precise. Miguel, you did a great job against that Knight, next time just hold your shield a bit higher. Combined Arms would be great if you chained your Melee for Shield and Axe! Willa, I…”
[Mission Report]
[Successful Return! +20 Experience]
[Main Quest Completed! +120 Experience]
[Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +80 Experience]
[Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +80 Experience]
[All Quests Completed! Glorious Victory! +80 Experience]
She let out a breath as she looked at the text. Even with the help of Motion Trance, she was starting to feel a little bit of an ache in her limbs. Worse, Alex thought she was starting to feel the Shade staring at her. In a way, it was a good thing; she could kill that many more Grue as they piled in at Liliana’s direction. Of course, it would be that much more dangerous for the others, but she couldn’t stop now.
[Battle Maneuvers increased from 25 to 28!]
[Combat Balance increased from 21 to 25!]
[Melee–Shield increased from 22 to 25!]
[Motion Trance increased from 22 to 23!]
[Combat Balance has reached level 25! Skill is at Max Level and can no longer increase.]
[Reset Combat Balance to gain a Title?]
Alex hesitated. In the long term, resetting her Skills as much as possible was the better decision. In the short term, however, she had another four teams to protect. If she was too risky with her Skills, it was possible that she’d end up taking a wound, or being too slow to keep one of the others from being wounded.
Then again, Battle Maneuvers was still nearly at maximum. If she could make it work for at least a handful of fights…
She reset it before she could back out of the decision.
[Title Trained gained (Increases Skill grade of Combat Balance, Battle Maneuvers, Battle Mastery, and Battle Dance by one.)]
Alex blinked. It was an interesting Title, but it didn’t affect any of the lower Skills. At the very least, it hit Battle Maneuvers as well, but she hadn’t expected that kind of result. Still, any increase was a good one.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
She ignored the option to reset either Melee Skill, waiting until her familiar decision presented itself once again.
[Skill Chain available. Do you wish to combine Melee–Axe and Melee–Shield?]
[Warning: Chained Skills lose all previous levels]
Yet again, she took the Skill that formed the basis of half her combat ability. The rush from the combination was almost familiar now, though she felt a hint of confusion as she read the next notification.
[Skill Chain unlocked! Skills Melee–Axe and Melee–Shield removed. Skill Combined Arms–Axe/Shield gained! Skill Chain bonus gained! Title Ferocity gained (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, and Combined Arms Skills by one.)]
She blinked. Apparently, she could regain a Title that had been upgraded to another version. Good to know.
[Skill Choice available. Please select an additional Skill.]
Alex hesitated again. With Combined Arms, Battle Maneuvers, and Combat Balance, she had three fairly strong Skills associated with direct combat. Motion Trance gave her plenty of chance to recover and move quickly. Taking another Melee ability would be fairly sensible, even if she would never have the chance to Chain it with anything. It would get her that much closer to matching the C rank griefer she meant to ruin.
Then again, there was no guarantee that she would ever be able to equal Wells’ combat abilities immediately, at least not until she was a C rank herself. If he had really modeled himself after her mother, then it was very possible that she’d never quite reach the same close combat prowess. If that was the case, taking Melee yet again would be a waste.
Yet if she didn’t take Melee, what would she take?
Alex thought it over for a moment, running through the options available to her. Resist seemed interesting; so did Inspect or Sense. Yet in the end her attention kept drifting back to one particular option, one that she’d been wanting to take for a while now, despite her better judgement.
In the end, it was the irritating nickname they’d given her that decided things. After all, was there any better choice for a Valkyrie than Holy–Storm?
She smiled to herself as the light surrounded her, taking her back home for a brief moment…
The Shade came back during her fourth team’s run.
Up to that point, things had been almost pleasant. She’d been given the chance to visit the restroom—where she texted her father to let him know she was safe—and grab something to eat before she headed out again. Her third team had consisted of nothing but close combat Squires and Porters, something that told her that Wells was definitely organizing the teams to be as lopsided as possible. He had given her a satisfied grin as they headed out once again.
Fortunately, the slower speed of her teammates had given her that much more of a chance to bring her Skills back up to normal. After the first handful of fights, Alex didn’t even feel nervous about charging into the thick of things again, tearing the Grue apart and making sure they weren’t paying attention to the literal shield wall that closed in on them from behind.
She’d also taken the opportunity to start using her newfound magic. It was strange, like suddenly discovering a limb she hadn’t had before. Flexing it was exhausting in a way that she had to be careful about; Motion Trance didn’t apparently have any effect on magical power, and she quickly ran out when she tried to use it. Mostly she just managed to blow a bit of air in the face of Grue that were bothering her, at least for the first few fights.
A little under two hours, again, and she dropped the third team off to pick up a team of three Squires and a single, worried Acolyte. Once again, she’d led them back out into the city, feeling only a little tired from the combat she’d survived so far. She’d led her new team into one patrol, then another.
Then, as they were tearing through the third patrol, she caught sight of the Shade watching her from the street corner. Alex felt a burst of dread and glanced at her teammates. They didn’t seem to have noticed—understandable, given how they were slaughtering the Grue in front of them—and when Alex looked back, Liliana was already gone.
Still, she knew what it meant. The next few teams were going to have a much harder time than the first four.
Alex got team four back to the portal well ahead of time. She’d gone through with them, resetting Battle Maneuvers this time since both Combined Arms and Combat Balance were once again at maximum. Trained had become Experienced, and her power had grown a little more.
Wells had raised his eyebrows at her as if to express his surprise, but Alex had simply ignored him. She rushed to the bathroom to text her father again, grabbed whatever food she could, and then paced restlessly as the fifth team got ready. Alex led a Page, two Adepts, and a Porter through, knowing what she’d find on the other side.
Barely an hour and a half later, Alex dragged team five back to the portal and watched them go through. None of them had been wounded, but they had ambushed twice. Both times she had sensed Liliana smirking at her, something that did not improve her mood as the sixth team took what seemed like forever to come through.
As she waited, she saw a harried-looking Sam come back with his own team. She waved to him, and he gave her a steady look. “You still alive Valkyrie?”
“Alive and kicking.” Both Clara and Sam had taken turns lecturing her about what she was doing, but Alex just smiled. Just another hour or so, and her day would be done. After Sam’s team went through, she practiced a bit of her magic, toying with making the occasional breeze and lightning off a few sparks. Exhausting her magic made her feel a little off balance, but not in a way that her other abilities couldn’t adjust for easily enough.
Then the last team came through, three Porters and a Squire. They all looked a little sullen, but Alex simply motioned for them to join her. She gave her version of the speech on the run; after all, she could already see Liliana watching her from the window.
[Mission Report]
[Successful Return! +20 Experience]
[Main Quest Completed! +120 Experience]
[Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +80 Experience]
[Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +80 Experience]
[All Quests Completed! Glorious Victory! +80 Experience]
It was her third time seeing the text in the day. Alex was feeling tired now, but not oppressively so. She dismissed the text and let the next wave of notifications wash over her.
[Battle Maneuvers increased from 0 to 18!]
[Motion Trance increased from 24 to 25!]
[Holy–Storm increased from 6 to 12!]
Alex grinned at the last notification. Her burgeoning magic power wasn’t exactly inspiring; she had yet to use it especially well in combat, but it still made her grin. After all, her mother had never really bothered with magic. She was treading new ground.
[Combat Balance has reached level 25! Skill is at Max Level and can no longer increase.]
[Reset Combat Balance to gain a Title?]
She took the option. There wouldn’t be fighting the next day, just training, which meant she’d have the chance to get things back in working order fairly quickly.
[Title Experienced upgraded to Title Veteran (Increases Skill grade Combat Balance, Battle Maneuvers, Battle Mastery, and Battle Dance by three.)]
[Motion Trance has reached level 25! Skill is at Max Level and can no longer increase.]
[Reset Motion Trance to gain a Title?]
She hesitated a moment, knowing that it would make the first day a bit of a nightmare. Then she chose it anyway.
[Title Calming Flow upgraded to Title Peaceful Flow (Increases Skill grade of Meditation, Focus, Recovery, Arcane, Sense, and Motion Trance by three.)]
[Combined Arms–Axe/Shield has reached level 25! Skill is at Max Level and can no longer increase.]
[Reset Combined Arms–Axe/Shield to gain a Title?]
Again, the choice was easy to make, but still painful to pay for.
[Title Ferocity upgraded to Title Savagery (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, and Combined Arms Skills by two.)]
Aside from Battle Maneuvers, she was once again left without her best Skills. Alex grimaced, feeling the fatigue suddenly rush in on her now that Motion Trance was gone. Then she let the light carry her back to where she could get some rest…
Wells was waiting for her in the portal room.
Most of the rest of the Surveyors had already gone. She could see the members of her last team walking out of the door. For a moment, she envied them. The last thing she wanted to do was give a report to the griefer in charge.
He waited until she had approached him, his eyebrows raised. “Surveyor Morrison. You seem rather tired.”
Alex gave him a crooked smile. “I suppose I’ve had a busy day, Chief Wells.”
“That you have.” Wells leaned a little closer in. “I must admit, I am impressed with the level of effort you put towards this project of yours. Every team came back on schedule. Some of them were actually ahead of time. Significantly.”
She nodded, not trusting herself to say anything. He continued in an even tone. “The troops were also impressed. A lot of them were complimenting you.”
He paused, waiting expectantly, and Alex simply cleared her throat. “I am glad that I lived up to the company ideals, Chief Wells.”
“I am as well.” The tone of Wells’ words didn’t even come close to matching the content of what he was saying, but Alex didn’t comment on it. “I hope that at the very least, you have learned how much sacrifice it takes to pursue such ideals.”
He paused. “Are you intending on continuing this effort next time?”
His tone was an obvious hint that she shouldn’t. Alex paused, as if thinking it over. In truth, she’d already long since decided.
“I will, Chief Wells.”
Wells nodded, his eyes cold despite his smile. “I thought so. Well, I have always admired your dedication.” He smiled. “Unfortunately, since the Surveyors were all busy with you today, they left some chores undone. I hope you can take the time today and the next few nights to help out. Otherwise, I don’t know that I could let this… experiment continue.”
She blinked. He held her gaze, and Alex began to fume internally as she recognized what he was doing. Wells couldn’t take back the process she’d started, not without creating problems among the rest of the Surveyors. After all, she’d proved it was possible to accomplish it, and he’d been hotheaded enough to allow it to start. The instant he pulled it back, the Surveyors would practically riot, or just as bad, simply refuse to go along with crunch when he asked.
So instead, he was going to try to restrict her. He’d cut into her ability to join the celebrations—hopefully cutting her ties with the other Surveyors too—and if that didn’t work, he’d move on to having her join the support staff instead of training. It was the kind of pressure that might have worked on someone who was doing the work out of ambition or pride, and would probably have convinced any number of people to back off and stay in line.
Unfortunately for Wells, Alex wasn’t motivated by any of those things. So she met his eyes and smiled. “I’d be happy to help out wherever I can, Chief. Have fun at the party tonight.”
He blinked, his face going blank. Then he held out a list of janitorial tasks and watched as she stalked out. Alex felt his eyes on her back as she headed for the restroom to recover her phone. She had more plans to make.
“It sounds like you’re not really being careful, Alex.” Her mother had taken on the chiding tone that Alex had grown far too familiar with. “How much do you think you can irritate a C rank Surveyor like that before he really retaliates?”
“A C rank griefer, Mom. One that’s allied with Greylight Industries.” Alex shook her head, continuing to mop the floor she’d been assigned. “He’s planning on retaliating, anyway. This way, I might actually be ready for it.”
“I don’t think you’re ever going to be ready for a C rank, dear.” Her mom seemed to restraining a laugh. “Trying to be able to take him in a duel might be a bit too ambitious, even for you.”
“Hey, it worked for my last supervisor.”
Muriel snorted. “That was a bit of a special case—and it didn’t exactly take, did it?”
Alex smirked a little, thinking through a few different responses. She reached the end of the hallway and turned back to go recover the wheeled bucket she was using. An idea occurred to her, but she hesitated for a long while before she asked her next question. For a long moment, there was nothing but the squeak of the wheels as she pushed the mop towards the next hallway.
Then her mother laughed. “Well? Are you planning on asking me?”
Alex blinked. “What do you mean?”
“I’m your mother, Alex. I know you don’t stay quiet this long unless you’ve got a question you want to ask, but you think you shouldn’t.” She could almost hear her mother’s grin, and Alex grimaced. “I thought we raised you braver than that.”
“Okay, okay.” She pushed the bucket into the next hallway and paused. The floor already looked spotless, but cleaning wasn’t the point, was it? Alex’s jaw clenched for a moment. “Wells fights like you do. He probably has the same moves, the same Skills, everything.”
Her mother paused. “I suppose he has at least some good taste. Too bad he’s a griefer.” The disgust in her mother’s voice made Alex grin a little, but her smile faded.
“If I’m going to fight him, I need to be able to beat, well, a copy of you.” Alex drew in a breath. “So I need to know how they did it. How did they beat you?”
Silence was her only answer for a long moment. Alex almost started to apologize and stopped herself. Instead, she just started mopping, running the wet strands over the floor in quiet as she waited.
When her mother finally spoke again, she started with a long sigh. “Well. I see why you didn’t want to ask it at first. I never had told you much about that day, had I?”
Alex simply kept mopping and let her mother gather her thoughts. Muriel gave another sigh, and then she started talking.
“We had six on our team at that point. Four of us were B rank, two were C’s. I was the strongest of us, though. A few more Surveys, and I might have reached A rank.”
“The Agency got a tip that Greylight was making some kind of exchange in the Greensboro portal. Some kind of meeting between their Surveyors and some belonging to a rogue group. Our source assured us that we’d be getting evidence that would help us take down half of Greylight’s executive board. It seemed too good to be true, but we couldn’t pass it up. We refused to miss the chance.” The regret in her mother’s voice made Alex’s heart ache, but she just listened as Muriel went on.
“My team arrived, announced a surprise inspection, and went in. The Greylight folks weren’t excited to see us, but they didn’t try to protest a Regulation team investigating.” Muriel paused. “That should have been our first clue. They always protested before. This time they wanted us to go in, though, so they let us walk right on into the trap.”
Muriel paused again, this time for long enough that Alex had to check her phone to make sure it was still on. When she spoke again, her voice was heavy with anger and regret. “We got to the rendezvous site, just an empty dead-end street between two lines of rowhouses. Three men at the end of it, just a bunch of E rankers that happened to be Greylight employees. All three of them froze when they saw us. One even started to babble something about making a deal.”
“When we got halfway to them, Max yelled something about an ambush. Then they were on us.”
The pain in her mother’s voice twisted at Alex’s guts again, but Muriel didn’t pause this time. “There were at least twelve of them. Probably closer to fifteen or sixteen. They hit us from all sides at once; Lany didn’t even get the chance to draw her bow. Dave went down fighting three of them at once, and Shane only lasted long enough to roast the E ranks they’d used as bait.”
“Betty was the only real reason we got out at all. She used every ounce of magic she had to put up a barrier, and Max and I hammered our way past the A rank they had at the front of the street. Max had to carry Betty with us at that point, and we ran for it. They chased us back across the city to where the portal was waiting. We didn’t think about the fact that they gave up on us a few streets from the portal. Betty was hurt bad, and both Max and I were wounded too. We needed medical help and support. So we ran straight for the portal.”
Muriel’s words became that much more bitter at that moment. “It wasn’t unguarded, though. There were three Greylight Surveyors standing in front of it. They attacked as soon as they saw us. Betty died there; Max lived long enough to kill the guy who got her. I was too busy dodging the other one to help either of them after that.”
“Even surprised, I could dodge most of the arrows they shot at me. A couple of them bounced off my armor, and I got to the guy before he could do anything else. Must have been a B rank; he looked surprised when I killed him. I had a clear path to the portal, but when I turned back to look at Max…”
Muriel’s voice faltered, and her word seemed broken when she spoke again. “The last one must have been another A rank. He killed Max. Stabbed him right through the chest. He didn’t seem bothered at all by the mess we’d made of his friends, and when I looked back I saw the rest of the ambushers catching up.”
“I went for the A rank. I knew it was stupid. He was an A rank, and I should have tried to escape. It might not have worked, but even then…” She sighed. “He hit me in the face with some kind of sunlight spell. Blinded me and burned my eye out. I was still staggering when he cut my arm off and kicked me backwards. By sheer dumb luck, I flew back through the portal.”
“I don’t remember a lot of what happened after that. The observers from the Regulation Agency must have saved me and called for an ambulance; Greylight wouldn’t have bothered. They never found any evidence of the ambush in the portal when they went in afterwards. They probably left after the observers followed me to the hospital. The ‘official’ finding was that some kind of Grue must have done it. That my team, my friends, were all killed by Grue.”
“So that’s the story of how we died. We were lured into an ambush by a source we trusted, and then they just surrounded us and tore us apart. We didn’t go quietly; I’m pretty sure four or five of the first group died, and only the A rank survived the second part, but in the end, the suits at Greylight got what they wanted. My team was gone, and so was I.”
Alex tried to picture it. The chaos, watching friends fall, and then the wounds at the end… “I’m sorry, Mom.”
“Don’t be. I knew the risks, and I knew what Greylight was capable of. I should have been more careful, should have watched what was happening more closely.” Muriel’s voice seemed to recover some of her usual charisma a moment later. “So I hope you won’t make the same mistakes, okay? Keep your eyes open. For your sake, and the sake of your friends.”
“I will, Mom.” Alex swallowed, her arms still dragging the mop across the floors. “I will.”