Chapter 10

Small world after all

My brothers and I regrouped. Shade landed on my shoulder. Doran and his crew walked up to us. Doran extends a hand.

"We haven't been properly introduced I am Doran. These are my students and closest friends, Jasper." he motions at the blonde-haired man. "and Paige." Paige bows slightly. "We are the resistance against section 9." Doran continued as Paige's eyes narrow. "We have lost several good friends to these monsters. You know about them, too don’t you?"

Shyft nods "Yes I have been inside one of their camps. I heard the screams. We know what they are doing."

Doran looks us over "And who might you all be?" His calculating eyes looking for any tells

I step forward "Sorry where are our manners? I am Wingless, the dumb pretty one is Shyft, and the ugly one is Baker." I jest at my brothers' expense. Baker and Shyft both land solid punches on my arm.

Shyft then looks at Baker and says jokingly "He thinks I am pretty." Baker shakes his head trying not to laugh "He also called you dumb too."

Ignoring their comments "We are brothers and oddly enough, we are the resistance against the demon." I add. Doran looks genuinely looks impressed

"Ok then, well it’s good to see people that are more developed getting into this fight. Who trained you in energy? You three have impressive auras and your energy is so pure." Both of my brothers and I lowered our eyes at the thought of our master. I was the first to recover and reply.

"Our master, Roland, ran a survival camp that was centered around finding people with potential. Our adopted parents knew him and let us go there for a graduation trip."

Doran's eyes grew narrow. "What do you mean ran? Does he not run the camp anymore?"

I shook my head "He was killed by the leader of the demons, the one we have started calling "Him". Roland had to use some type of blood magic that he never taught us."

Doran looked down, his eyes growing red and wet. "I knew Roland he was my master years ago. He was like a father to me. How did you all send him off?" I looked up at Doran surprised that he knew Roland.

"We built a funeral pyre and sent him off with the Viking funeral chant. He was a warrior and a loved friend we wouldn’t let him off any other way." Shtft answered solemnly

Doran smiled as he looked back up tears still in his eyes and he reached out to shake my hand. He used a technique that Roland had taught us for knowing if someone was from the sanctuary camp. It was a mixture of a Viking handshake with a small exchange of energy that is benign in nature. Roland always said it was meant to show that we share everything and for those that were sensitive enough could read the exacts of what the other person was capable of.

"Thank you, brothers, I am glad my master died in an honorable way. I'm also glad that friends were with him when he died." he took in a deep breath to steady himself. "So, what is that plan to fight the demons? What can you guys do?"

Over the next few hours my brothers and I let Doran in on what we were planning. He asked several questions about the keys of Solomon and Shade. We also explained each of our personal abilities. He seemed excited that we were so advanced and varied in usage. He was really interested in Bakers metal energy. He did seem perplexed by the fact that I had ice energy. He had never met someone with ice energy that wasn’t cold and heartless. We learned that he was a full-blooded dwarf whose family had come to this plane millennia ago and taken up the art of blacksmithing. Since he had been raised in our plane he only had a small amount of his potential unlocked, but once he had gone to Roland's camp he learned how to distill small amounts of raw energy that helped him unlock his full potential. He could "talk" to metal as he was smithing to allow the raw metal to be brought to life. He can create living weapons that could create their own energy making them more powerful than an enchanted weapon and they could change their use based on the growth of the user. Doran explained that it was a long process that required the potential user to give some condensed energy to be used for the smelting and forging process.

He then went on to explain how he had met Jasper and Paige whom were college students at the time the portals opened. They had been coming to a weapon class of Doran's since he started teaching. He used some of the same techniques that Roland used to find potential users and helped them "awaken". He then took them into his tutelage and began helping bring the two awake. Jasper is a wind user having some elf lineage. His weapons of choice are a dagger and a short sword created by Doran.

Further questions revealed that Jaspers weapons could be turned incorporeal and could circumvent most conventional armor. Paige is a light user and half human half angel or a nephilim. Doran assured us that, Angels like dwarves, were real. She could purify ones body of disease or poison and use light as a weapon in different ways. Her weapon of choice was a beautifully crafted and ornate spear. It could blind the enemy and if thrown she could turn it into a light beam making it almost impossible to block and it could fly at the speed of light.

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During the conversation, I had Shade doing recon in the immediate area to make sure we weren’t found. I also intermittently sent out pings to sense our surroundings. All of us decided to head back to our hide out to continue our conversation. Doran and his group had to go retrieve their belonging from the store they had been hiding in. I sent Shade with Doran to lead them back to the mechanic’s shop. On the trip, back to the shop my brothers and I discussed Doran and his group. We decided to offer them the chance to be part of Sanctuary. To help us start it.

An hour or so later Shade came through the door using the fact that he can travel through shadows to get past our defenses. He let us know the others were waiting for us to let them in. Baker went to the front door and let a small section of his wards down to open the door and allow them to pass unharmed. When the three were coming in through the opening a small fox came bolting in almost invisible to the eye but I could sense its presence.

"What the hell?" I said as I gathered my energy to attack the potential threat.

"Wait. He's mine." Jasper held up his hand and got between me and the shimmering fox. "He is my spirit animal; His name is Swift. That’s why we weren’t surprised by your shadow phoenix." I slowly let my energy fade in a green vapor.

"I am sorry Swift and to you Jasper it’s hard to be too trusting these days." Swift walked up to me fully visible now as a silver fox with green highlights in its fur and said

"I understand Wingless, Shade and I talked extensively about you in the last hour. I am very impressed you saw me coming in. Shade was correct in his assessment of your ability especially with sensory." The fox made a laughing sound and bounced away to sit on Jaspers lap. Doran was walking through the place looking at the glyphs we had laid and the wards that Baker had erected.

"Impressive this is masterful warding and glyph making." Doran sounded almost in awe. "How long were you at the camp for Roland to teach you this much?"

Shyft was the first to answer "4 months."

Doran whistled "Damn guys 4 months is barely enough time to cover all of the basics."

Baker chimed in "Roland did say something about us being able to create our own energy and not needing to collect it from the surroundings. He also did only focus on the teachings we would be best at. Shyft is offensive, Wingless is sensory and glyphs, and I’m defensive. Everything else we have learned through experience and trial and error." Doran stayed quiet for a few minutes apparently thinking.

He looked up at us and asked "You said you all were adopted correct? And your parents knew Roland?" We affirmed both questions. "Could I ask what the names of your adopted parents are?" I looked at my brothers sending them a linked question of if I should answer. Then both agreed but advised caution.

"Virginia Sarah Nasato and Stephen Michael Nasato." As I said those names he gasped

"You were adopted by the Nasato's? They are prominent demonologists. Anyone in the spiritual field knows them. That would explain how they knew Roland."

I looked at my brothers in confusion. "Your saying our parents knew about this stuff before we went to the camp?" Doran nodded

"Yes very well versed and suspected of being very practiced in energy use. Your mother was allegedly a telepath and your father had access to all 4 base elements. They both were so advanced that they reached levels that no other human has reached." I raised my eyebrow

"Why do you keep saying suspected and allegedly?" I asked Doran catching the subtle difference in wording.

"Yes well no one is that area of study could ever prove anything. Stories mostly. Hell, I don’t think many people knew what they even looked like. They published books and findings under pseudonyms."

I looked at my brothers. "How did we not know any of this about our parents?" my brothers looked pale almost as pale as I felt.

"Nothing we know is what we know anymore." Shyft said holding his head. Baker was oddly quiet. Doran looked distraught "I’m sorry I didn't know they never told you."

"Its fine what is done is done" I said patting his shoulder. I pushed this new set of information to the back of my mind. "Let’s get to the current situation. The three of us have it in our heads to create a new Sanctuary. It is going to be available for human and Awakened, both no one is left out. We can outfit humans with enchanted items and help awaken any potentials.

We are going to have three sections of it to keep the direction of it from turning into a monarchy. Baker with have the Ironhides a defensive group in combat situations and the builders, crafters, and security force of sanctuary. Shyft is going to run the Skyteam a support group in combat situations that are going to use nonconventional means of travel and traversing to give aid in battle. Outside of battle they will be our medical, technology, and mechanics. My group is going to be the Spectres the hidden ranged combat faction of the Sanctuary and the intel. Outside of battle we are the farmers, ranchers, hunters, and gatherers. We were thinking that if you all are interested we would be happy to bring you into Sanctuary. Run it the same way Roland did the camp. Teach survival, self-reliance, self-defense, and spirituality." Doran looked at his companions "We would have to think about it. It sounds like a noble endeavor. Could you give us a while to discuss?"

"Of course, there are more rooms in the back that you can use to store your stuff and rest. We will go out to try to secure us a nice meal for later." I said grabbing my bow and quiver. Baker grabbed his spear and headed to the door. Shyft laid down on a small couch.

"I’m here bruh, going to keep them company, and make sure we aren’t found."

"Cool" I said as I met Baker at the door and we left. Baker and I spent the next few hours in the wood that bordered the west side of town. Luckily there was no alteration from the demon insurrection so we knew the animals and vegetation would still be edible. We happened on a group of deer. Two of which fell to my arrows, one to Baker's spear. We took the time to correctly dress and pay homage to the felled animals. We carried our prey back to the shop. We spent the next hour making a feast using some scavenged foods and cooking the deer meat. I also set aside the tendons of the deer to use for making bowstrings once they were dry. Roland always taught us to use all usable parts of an honorable hunt. We also set the bones aside to use for different purposes. Paige also offered up some spices she had found and Doran pulled out an old bottle of whiskey he said he had been keeping for a rainy day.

We all sat down at a makeshift dining table we had thrown together and shared a great feast with our new friends. The stress and exhaustion from the day fell away. It almost felt like a normal day laughing and sharing a meal with friends. Slowly either from over drinking or tiredness we each left the table to retire to bed. I asked Shade and Swift to keep up surveillance of the surrounding area to keep us safe while we slept.