“Wait, how do you know about my Truth Compulsion?” Adam asked trying to process what Tob was asking of him.
“I saw the incident in the alley you had. You think I didn’t notice you missing when I was meant to be escorting you?”
Adam thought back to that encounter, he really felt in danger of his life, so intensely in that alley. “But you didn’t try to save me?”
“I had a chance if I surprised them for sure, but it was still risky with those two huge guys and the other guy you were talking to. I was sussing it out before I was about to go and organise a few men to come rescue you, but then you come running back out of that alley yourself , I thought it was easier to pretend like I just lost you. Well, to be fair, I did.”
Adam shook his head, still in some confusion about that whole series of events. “Well, anyway, I’m happy to try. Why don’t you just say it yourself if that’s what you want.”
Adam paused, reflecting on the possible reasons why he would request this. “I understand, let’s do it. Just, try to be open about it, you’ll feel me kinda poking around, I’m not sure how to describe it, I haven’t felt it myself but I know it’s definitely weird and unpleasant.”
The other guards that were gathered around murmured quietly, crowding around Tob and Adam in a circle. Tob stared at Adam and nodded, it was the first time he had felt respected as an equal by him, the bad vibes he had felt for a while from Tob were starting to clear as he thought about all of Tob’s motivations, well, hopefully he was about to find out some more answers.
Tob spoke loudly, projecting his voice through the hall. “This boy can force someone to tell the truth, this is really tough for me, but if we are going to move forward, if we are going to save Oak, you all need to know everything. I’ll let you all question me while Adam here keeps me accountable, I hope you trust me enough to believe that his powers are real. He is a hiker and it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before to mess with people’s minds, but I can vouch for having seen it work myself. I’d just tell you myself but I don’t know where to begin and, I’m scared.”
The room fell silent as the murmuring stopped and the guards listened intently to his words.
“Well, because you asked, if you want me to stop, you’ll still be able to ask me okay?” Adam wanted to be respectful about it, he hadn’t used his ability like this before. He began probing with his mind, searching for Tob’s consciousness, focusing his intentions and attention on Tob’s face as he sent out his will, imagining that he was projecting a wave across to Tob, they both still maintained eye contact throughout the procedure, until Adam felt uncomfortable and looked down at the ground a bit as he focused on the connection point he found on Tob.
Sensing a weak point, he tried to push in to keep the access point jammed open to maintain his control over the situation. That access point into Tob’s mind immediately slammed shut, there was no way Adam had the strength to force Tob as he was right now into it.
“Sorry, that was an automatic reaction. That was you right?” Tob asked him, raising an eyebrow with his question.
Adam nodded. “I can’t push through, you have some strong willpower there. I’ll only get in if you let me.”
“Well, good to know you couldn’t just spring that one me whenever you liked! Okay I’ll do better, try again.” Tob responded.
Adam again found the point and pushed at it gently, hoping to give Tob enough time to recognise it and relax. It instantly shut yet again.
Tob squinted in concentration and frustration as he sighed, looking down at the floor.
Going again Adam called out excitedly. “Okay, I’ve got it. It’s open now, the truth will come out now, let me know if you want me to stop at any point.”
“Weird, I don’t feel any different. If you say so I guess. What do you need to know men?” He called out in his patrol captain duty voice.
The guard from earlier who called out Taj about his remarks on Fargo stepped forward. “You didn’t deny the allegations about Fargo earlier, what is going on? Well, to be more specific with my question, who is Fargo?”
Tears started welling in Tob’s eyes. “I don’t know exactly. But, he isn’t one of us. I don’t know where he came from exactly but, him and his people only showed up here in the past few years, Oak fell sick shortly after as you all know.”
The man roared back in anger “What the hell do you mean he isn’t one of us? He has been serving our city for as long as he lived. How did he show up here in the past few years?”
Tob continued staring down at the floor as he answered. “The Fargo you knew has been gone for a long time now. I’d presume dead, but no one knows for sure.”
Adam watched as the guards whispered among each other, a few more of them stepped forward and more questions started to come in rapidly. Tob got frustrated and ordered them to calm down so he could answer one at a time and explain himself.
“Why didn’t you tell us before? How long have you known?” A different guard asked, a green sash marking him as an out of the ordinary rank.
“I knew something was off from the first time I saw Fargo again, after whatever did happen. But I’ve only known the root of it all for a few months now. I’m really sorry, I was just looking out for my family, I was threatened for knowing too much, I wanted the easy way out. Not for myself, for my child, I swear.”
The man in the green sash stepped forward, placing his hand on Tob’s shoulder.
“It’s okay, we all believe you. Truth is, none of us have been happy in quite a while since Oak got sick, especially in recent months. There were some rumours being spread about you and the Church after all.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Tob looked up grinning. “You think I didn’t know about those Samael? Or the fact that you were behind a lot of them? Thank you for believing me. It’s good to get the truth out, but I’m still stuck with the question of how to act next.”
Samael turned back around, facing the majority of the guards who were still crowded around.
“Well, we can’t give up without a fight can we Tob? Sounds like the church needs some new leadership.” He said proudly, his voice echoing throughout the large hallway.
The men started cheering them on as Samael wrapped his arm around Tob. Tob had a shine in his eyes that Adam had not seen before.
“We aren’t sure if Fargo, the real one, is still alive or if we can save him, but we will do our damn best to find out and try. I know this new force is not one to take lightly, but by Oak we will take them down and get these outsiders away from our Church, away from our city!”
Adam couldn’t help but feel some of the elation emanating from the people in the room. As Tob and Samael walked over towards another group of men and started chatting away, the room began to grow quieter as they were distracted by a noise. A chaotic laugh that quickly brought the men to silence.
Taj cackled hysterically for longer than was comfortable for anyone.
“What’s so funny?” Tob asked him, cutting off the panicked cackling.
“You lot have no idea what you are in for, what you are up against. Give up now, before you all get yourself killed.”
“Shut your mouth!” Came a voice deeper in the crowd.
“Unfortunately, it’s already over for Oak. But be my guest, go get yourselves killed. If you’re lucky, a worse fate than that. If not, I’m not sure.” Taj tilted his head to the side with a wicked grin, he seemed traumatised on some level from what Adam could tell.
The crowd quieted down, Adam spotted a few men looking around sullen and dejected. Tob noticed as well, walking closer to Taj he turned his back to him and announced to the other guards.
“This isn’t going to be easy but don’t worry, we are going to make the best plan we can, men, this isn’t an option anymore, are we saving Oak or are we standing aside and letting it fall to these outsiders.” He announced, Adam was impressed seeing his command over the group of men, the influence he had with the amount of respect they all gave him.
Men started chatting again and patting each other on the backs, another asked Tob “So what exactly are we doing, do we march over to the Church and fight them out?”
Tob laughed “Well, kind of like that, but don’t worry I’m going over the exact plan with my friends here briefly, hold tight for now. They have some powerful allies we need to find.”
Tob continued to greet various guards as he walked around the room, occasionally throwing a glance at Taj, checking that he was still there. Adam fell back to where he saw Matilda and Brian before, wanting to catch up with them and check on them, the last time he saw them before his big chase with Taj through the headquarters, they were fighting a floating sword.
He searched around the spot he last saw them and quickly saw Brian and Matilda also turning their heads in search for someone.
“Hey there, are you guys okay?” Adam asked as he approached his friends.
“Yeah nothing much, it was just a sword.” Brian said drily.
“I thought he could only create the constructs, what was the sword? I was thinking he just made another invisible construct like that other one we saw.” Adam was feeling curious now, Taj was still a bit of a mystery.
“No idea, we fought it off for a bit and then it just clattered to the floor after a while. No construct we could notice or feel. Who knows what that Taj guy can do?” Brian shrugged, looking around the room again, not seeming to care very much about it.
Matilda spoke up “It was nice to not almost die to something for once, there have been way too many close calls so far, this one, for us at least, was an easy one.”
Adam gave both of his friends tight squeezing hugs, he was feeling so happy with the progress they have made with Tob, he wasn’t sure if they understood his excitement or not but regardless, they were definitely all happy to be there together in one piece.
After a couple of moments of chatting about their abilities and possible combinations they could pull off, Tob approached them.
“Okay, we don’t have too long but we need to talk more about your friends from outside the city. To work out our next best course of action. You lot know more than any of us, we need you involved if this has any chance of working.” Tob looked them dead in the eyes.
“Well, you guys have Vincent so that’s easy, you can have him released and we go from there, see if Vincent knows anything on Hammy. Right?” Adam asked, excited to see Vincent again.
“Just one problem there, the church already came and took Vincent from our headquarters well before you got here.” Tob said, looking down at the floor.
Brian started walking away from the group in shock. His hands on the back of his head with fingers interlocked. “That was the whole point of coming here, to free Vincent!” He shouted, loud enough for other people to hear. Matilda watched him causing a scene and frowned.
Tob looked to Adam, his questioning eyes peered through as Adam tried to process how this changed things.
Adam shrugged his shoulders “Well, it doesn’t really change too much, we were going to go to the Church anyway, but it does make the first part a little trickier. Brian!” He shouted out to Brian. Adam watched with his arms folded as Brian dragged his body over to the group apathetically.
“What is it now? Finally giving up?” He asked, his body slumping.
“Remember how you punched a hole through the church prison to get out?” Adam replied back.
“Yeah, what about it? Why are you asking?” Brian looked at Adam puzzled, before his eyes widened in terror. “Oh no! No way! Not happening. Done, locked in, sealed, nope.”
“Well I don’t think it’s going to work to try and just prance through the front door of the place. You got out, you can get us back in.”
“You’re utterly ridiculous, prancing through the front door is no good but somehow going around the back and punching a hole through the wall won’t set off alarm bells?” Brian shook his head in confusion.
“Well, we expect alarm bells certainly, but this way we get just enough time to find help in all the chaos. What else are we going to do, wait for the church to just kill off the whole city or live here until Oak dies?”
Brian looked towards Matilda, pleading for an ally in the argument.
Matilda shrugged her shoulders. “I’m sorry, I’m with them on this one, I don’t want to leave behind Hammy and I just can’t leave behind Vincent, he’s a friend.”
With a nervous laugh that seemed to slip out unintentionally, Brian exclaimed “Fine, I mean I’ll come, I still think it’s completely outrageous, the lot of it, but outrageous times call for outrageous actions I guess. Just tell me which wall you want blown up when we get there I guess.” Brian leaned against the bright, white walls of the headquarters, his lips twitching as he stared into space.
Adam nodded at Tob “It’s getting dark, we have a few hours to try and prepare for the difference scenarios that might play out once we get there.”
Tob listened intently nodding his head as Adam spoke. “I’d say more than a few hours, we should go in the middle of the night, there is still a fair bit of activity there in the early evening. We want as much chaos as possible once we are all in. I have no idea about this Hammy friend of yours but I do suspect they would be keeping Vincent in the same prison area that Brian has spoke of. As soon as we have either of those powerful Hikers on our side, we have the upper hand.”
Adam knew it was as good a plan as they could possibly come up with, but reflecting on every way in which it could go wrong greatly concerned him.