The following morning, Blake began his daily routine of patrolling the sewage system. As he trudged through the dark, damp tunnels, he couldn't help but notice the echoing sound of another pair of footsteps nearby.
Initially, Blake didn't assume any malicious intent, but the steps kept on following him. Blake turned a few random corners. Still the steps followed. Someone was shadowing him but was either unaware of the noise they made or simply lacked the skills to remain stealthy.
After using his hooked stick to unclog a particularly nasty drain, Blake paused for a moment, listening intently to the echoing footsteps. Deciding to confront whoever was clearly following him, he turned toward the direction of the sounds, and caught a glimpse of someone hastily ducking out of sight at the end of the corridor.
“Hey, I know you’re there. What are you following me for?” Blake called out.
An audible sigh came from down the end of the corridor as a cloaked figure stepped out from the alcove. A dark hood covered her face.
Blake could tell it was a woman. Her figure was slender and toned, and she was dressed in a sleek black robe that hugged her curves. The robe was made of a rich, silky fabric that shimmered in the low light of the sewers.
Once she’d stepped out of the shadows, her movements were graceful. She had confidence and poise that commanded attention, and she carried herself with an air of mystery.
“Are you Blake Thornwood?” the woman asked. Her voice was inquisitive yet confident.
“That depends on who’s asking,” Blake replied. “You’re not making me feel very at ease here, miss, following me around in the dark. What’s your name?”
“My name isn’t important. All you need to know is that I am here on behalf of our great and magnanimous City Lord, Clay Atlas. It says here that you qualified yesterday to take your Rank 3 exam, but you haven’t yet scheduled this in.”
Blake narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t anticipated that the City Lord or his people would be notified when he became eligible to take the exam to the next rank.
He thought he’d be able to decide when to sit the next rank whenever he wanted, rather than be dragged into it by the City Lord.
“Does the City Lord have some kind of policy that says I need to sit for my Rank 3 exam? What if I’m happy being Rank 1 for now?” Blake asked.
“It’s not the fact that you haven’t sat the exam, yet that Mr. Atlas is concerned about. It’s more so that yesterday you were a Rank 1 challenger, and then it appears as though you and your associate Harry Grenfell headed out into the field and completed a mission which should have killed you.”
She let those words hang in the air between them for a few moments before continuing, “Then, the system identified that both of you were now eligible to sit your Rank 3 exams without even going through Rank 2. That is cause for concern for Mr. Atlas, and he would like to discuss this situation with you both.”
A pang of fear and excitement rolled through Blake. “The City Lord wants to meet me?”
“You and your associate Harry, as well.”
“How do I know that you’re telling the truth? You haven’t even given me your name.”
The woman in the black robe gracefully lifted her hood, revealing stunning features. Her hair was a rich, velvety black that cascaded down her back in soft waves, accentuating the sharp angles of her face. Her eyes were a bright, piercing blue that seemed to cut through everything, and they were framed by long, dark lashes that cast shadows on her high cheekbones.
Her skin was a warm, golden tan, and it was smooth and flawless. Her lips were full and slightly parted, revealing a hint of pearly white teeth.
As Blake took in her appearance, he was struck by her youthfulness. Despite the air of authority that surrounded her, she couldn't have been much older than himself.
“My name is Chelsea. Chelsea Otto. And I’m one of Mr. Atlas’s most trusted advisers. Believe me when I say that he was ready to send his soldiers down to take you and Harry back to him in chains, but I argued that that was not the right call. I said that we didn’t know if there was something nefarious going on, a breaking or exploitation of the system in some way. I told him that none of us really know how this system works here, so we should ask questions and have conversations instead of sending people down to the dungeons.”
Blake's heart raced with excitement and fear at the thought of finally discovering what had happened to his parents. He had been searching for them for what felt like an eternity, and the possibility of finally finding them was both exhilarating and terrifying.
He had heard stories of the dungeons, dark and foreboding places where those who dared to challenge the authority of Clay Atlas and his enforcers were taken to be punished. It was a place that was whispered about in hushed tones, a place of darkness and despair.
Despite the fear, he refused to let it stop him from continuing his search. He was determined to uncover the truth about what had happened to his parents, no matter the cost.
“What do you mean dungeons?” Blake asked. If Chelsea knew about them, she might let something else slip out.
Stolen story; please report.
Chelsea shrugged. “Mr. Atlas is as inflexible as a mountain. Sometimes the only thing that will make him move is the shifting of the earth beneath his feet. In the first few days of New Meridia’s existence, many people treated it as just another settlement. They didn’t realize that this was going to be one of the seven hubs of new humanity, and many treated it as something to be taken advantage of or taken over. So yes, there are dungeons in this city. And there are people in those dungeons, until Mr. Atlas decides what he wants to do with them.”
“You can tell Clay Atlas this: I’ll talk with him, and I’ll tell him whatever he wants to know as long as he guarantees the safe release of my parents. They left a message for me in their home of Cedar Creek and said they were coming here to New Meridia, and I’ve spent my whole time here in the city trying to find them. And yes, it’s true they may have met a terrible fate on the way here, but the more time passes, the more I believe that is not true.”
Chelsea nodded. “That sounds fair and reasonable to me, but Mr. Atlas is not always fair and reasonable. Once you finish your work orders, where will you be?”
“Harry and I had intended to go back out into the field to do another mission for the City Hub today,” Blake opened his interface and saw he had another two and a half hours left on his daily work order. “I’ll be finished by about midday here, but if you want me to come and meet Mr. Atlas before then, I’m sure my foreman will understand.”
“Excellent. Add me as a contact on New Meridia Messenger and let me know if anything changes. I’ll send you a time later to come to Atlas Tower. When you are summoned, make haste. You do not want to keep Mr. Atlas waiting.”
Blake nodded. “I’ll keep going with my work until you let me know otherwise.”
As Chelsea turned and walked away, Blake couldn't help but be captivated by the graceful way she moved. Her black robe flowed behind her like a dark wave, and she seemed to glide across the floor. The way the fabric hugged her curves was both alluring and mysterious, and Blake couldn't help but feel drawn to her.
As she rounded the corner and disappeared from view, Blake felt a pang of disappointment. He had so many questions for her, and now she was gone. But at the same time, he couldn't shake the feeling that he would see her again soon.
There was something about her that felt familiar, as if they were bound by a deeper connection that he couldn't quite understand yet.
Blake opened his messenger application and added her name from the recently interacted with list. He opened up her profile. Her name did appear to be Chelsea Otto, and she was listed as Rank 5 Challenger.
Blake’s eyes widened in shock. Rank 5 was the highest someone could rise to within the Challenger system.
She would have access to an unrivaled level of anima and could have an incredible amount of power cards. Her title labeled her as Chief Operations Officer of New Meridia. Though Blake didn’t really know exactly what that meant, it sounded impressive.
But if Clay Atlas was sending his big guns after him and Harry already, without him revealing the true nature of the cards Blake and Harry held, then they were already in a much more dangerous position then they had realized.
Blake felt a sense of unease settle in his chest as he considered his situation. He had never heard of a Rank 5 Challenger, and the fact that this woman had been sent after him and Harry by Clay Atlas was a concerning development.
Clay Atlas was not someone to be trifled with, and the fact that he was sending a woman of such high standing after them meant he must be paying close attention to Blake. As Blake sat in the dimly lit corridor, he couldn't help but feel a sense of unease wash over him.
He and Harry would need to take extra precautions from now on.
He began typing a message, “Hey man, I just had one of Clay Atlas’s headhunters find me while I was at work. They know that we’re eligible to take the Rank 3 exam, and apparently the City Lord himself wants to have a chat with us. Just giving you a heads up that there’s a woman who might be coming to talk to you very soon. Her name’s Chelsea Otto and–”
The message was abruptly cut off.
“I know man. She’s here already,” Harry typed into the chat window.
Blake’s mind raced as he considered the possibilities. Were there people who had received powers and abilities that were beyond the normal realm of possibility?
He had never encountered someone with such abilities before, but it was just early days. He wondered if Chelsea was one of these people, and if she had used her powers to track him down.
The thought was both exciting and frightening. If Chelsea was indeed one of these people with special abilities, then she was certainly not someone to be trifled with. He would need to be very cautious in what he said and did, as any misstep could have dire consequences.
But at the same time, Blake couldn’t help but feel a sense of intrigue. He had always been fascinated by people with extraordinary abilities, and the chance to encounter someone like Chelsea was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Perhaps it wasn’t Chelsea at all that allowed her to track him down so easily. What if there was some form of tracking system used by the City Lord to keep tabs on all of his citizens?
Blake had played city builder games in the past, and most of them gave metrics and information on the citizenry. What if this system fed location and rank eligibility data back to Clay Atlas and his people?
A worrying thought.
Not long after getting Harry's message, Blake received an unexpected notification stating that his work order for the day had been completed, despite having only worked for a little over an hour.
He was puzzled, but then noticed a new quest appearing in his quest log. It instructed him to head to Atlas Tower as soon as possible. Alongside the quest details was a timer, indicating he had just 30 minutes to reach the tower.
Blake wondered what could be so urgent that his regular duties were abruptly terminated. He couldn't help but feel a mix of excitement and nervousness at the prospect of being summoned to Atlas Tower to meet the City Lord.
With no time to spare, Blake hastily made his way through the remaining sections of the sewers. As he emerged from the underground tunnels, he cleaned himself up in a hurry and changed into his spare clothes before heading straight to the imposing Atlas Tower.
A quick message to Harry along the way confirmed that he’d been given the same quest, and the same time limit. Blake grabbed a bite to eat from a street vendor on the way and strode toward the center of the city.
He reached Atlas Tower and waited for Harry. Some minutes later, Harry wandered toward him with an oversized taco in his hands.
“Do you think we’re actually going to go and meet the big boss?” Harry asked.
Blake shrugged. “I don’t know why they ask us to physically come here if they didn’t intend us to meet him, but who knows?”
Chelsea Otto emerged from the front doors with a big smile on her face. They both couldn't help but look at each other in confusion, wondering how she managed to return to the tower so swiftly and undergo such a drastic change in her attire.
Her earlier figure-hugging black robe was replaced by a smart and professional business casual outfit. She wore a pencil skirt that hugged her curves and a sleeveless blouse with a fashionable cut. Blake was impressed by her style and poise, though he couldn't help but feel a bit intimidated in her presence.
“Thank you both for getting here so quickly,” Chelsea said. “Now please follow me. Mr. Atlas is waiting for you.”