The vestibule of the conference building was just as impressive as one would expect. Tall columns of smooth mana-formed stone held up a vaulted ceiling adorned by yet more metal accents of various types. Copper, brass, iron and steel were absolutely everywhere, yet they managed to be somewhat tasteful. A wide window allowed a view towards the perimeter wall to the north and towards Hec's bulk. A fancy mahogany doorway led into the area where Hec's Blessing of Magic overlapped with the building and the Entity themselves made up the wall and ceiling of the conference building.
Ponzio stepped forward when an attendant in the building rushed forward to intercept our group. The attendant confirmed that, yes, in fact, we were the first to arrive and were more than thirty minutes early.
"If we are on time, we are late," Ponzio said, every member of his Faction nodding along with the adage.
"Must be an administrative quirk thing," Jolene commented via the comm-plant.
"The Zebelos seem to be all about effective response. It wouldn't surprise me if it's their dang life motto," I replied, focusing back on the attendant as he wrung his hands. His eyes were shifting nervously between us and a series of tall wooden cubbies set along the wall. Considering the attendant was a young lizardman, the eye motions and extra blinking were all the indications I needed that he was nervous about something.
"We will need you to leave your arms in our possession. They are not allowed within the conference hall," the attendant finally said.
"That is expected," Teion said, removing a trio of pan flutes of various sizes as well as a pair of flute-like instruments from his own satchel.
The Mage Circle behind him started removing similar instruments, in addition to more common, but organic, weapons from their persons. Hatchets made of vines and sharpened bark, whips with wicked thorns and the like made their way to the attendant and a guard that had approached the group at his request. Each person's items went into a cubby. Ponzio and his Cloth Muscles followed the procedure before arriving in front of us.
"Sir, we need to take your weapons," the attendant said, obviously looking at the axe-hammer and shield hanging off my back. I could feel the hesitation in his question, likely no less impacted by the foot and a half I had on his height than by how much more like a walking barbarian I looked.
"You can have my shield," I said, easily passing the chitin tower shield over. "However, this hammer is as much an attendee to the conference as I am."
"I don't --" The attendant swallowed his response when Fievil manifested. I fed the Totem some mana to fuel his physical manifestation, adding the depth to his form that we reserved for combat just to lend it effect. The mole rested his head on mine, his floating claws resting on my shoulders. I couldn't see him, but I could just picture the mole giving the attendant an annoyed eyebrow raise. The next second he popped like a sandy bubble, returning to his Shard with a quiet hiss. I brushed the sand off my shoulders before looking back to the attendant.
"Here's mine," Jolene said, passing the stunned lizardman her gauntlet. He took it and handed it to the guard mechanically, but I could see his eyes drifting to the weapon on my back before turning to the Tendril siblings.
"W-we are unarmed," Tucker said, holding up his hands. Amaya copied the gesture a second after. Indeed the two of them weren't wearing anything more than a simple pair of slacks and plain tunics. Their nature as Tendrils was still obvious, but they mostly looked like normal individuals with concerning skin conditions. Red and grey weren't the healthiest colors, even if they clearly denoted their Attunements.
For whatever reason the attendant didn't look convinced, but seemed hesitant to argue after Fievil had made an appearance. The guard took the last of the equipment and locked it up on several of the cubbies. My shield he'd been forced to set on top of one as it was too wide and too tall to fit into any of the spots. It was comical really; I felt like we'd gone through the TSA, an entity that hadn't existed for decades and I'd only known about from the references in our terminals and confused questions to the other Bunkerites.
"If you'd follow me," the representative said, motioning our group forth. Somewhat surprisingly, the only ones to actually advance were me, Jolene, the siblings, Ponzio and Teion. The others took position on the perimeter of the vestibule even though they'd been relieved of their weapons.
When I asked him what the deal was through the comm-plant, his response was slow but reassuring. Each entourage was only allowed to bring a limited number of members into the conference hall. Usually, the less of those you brought and the more remained in the vestibule the bigger the 'show of power' that those men and women could be spared for a place that was ostensibly safe and neutral territory. Ugh. More posturing. I hate politics.
As soon as we stepped into the conference hall proper, a wash of energy tickled the surface of my body. Fievil and Amelia both recoiled in response, digging deep into their Shards as Hec's influence washed tightly over them. Despite their best efforts, deep curls of caramel and silver oozed out of the two Mana Shards as they stirred up the Blessing of Magic with their mere presence. I wasn't sure that I'd wanted to announce Amelia's existence to the other Factions outside of the Nash and Zebelos, but thanks to the Blessing of Magic that cat was entirely out of the bag. Might be why they choose to have their meetings here. No chance of slipping someone some magic while Hec is laying everything out on the table.
As for the conference hall itself... it was rather plain. A simple round table took a central space in a wide auditorium. Arranged radially around the table were rows and rows of seats like in an old world lecture hall. They reached all the way to a mezzanine that lined the entire room and passed over the entry way we'd used from the front of the building. Several doors led out of sight and into a number of smaller, vacant meeting rooms based on what vibrosense was telling me. Getting a reading while within the Blessing of Magic was harder, but my Corporeal Threshold upgrades were up to the task.
The initial target of our visit was, of course, front and center. Letting in some of the morning sun, as well as providing some fluorescence of their own, Hec made up the entire side of the building opposite the rows of seats. Even from our position at the passageway I could see the jagged edges to the Metier Crystal. A torn and fractured Entity, harvested for the benefit of the city. Likely not the only one. If someone here thought to butcher the crystals for protection, who knows how many other places on the globe have hamstrung themselves for short-term gains.
I gave Jolene a meaningful look before making my way to Hec. Unlike Billy, I hadn't linked up with any fragments of Hec other than the one that had been in the Zebelos laboratory. However, I could almost feel that familiar tingle in the back of my mind that had urged me to dig Bec out and change our fates. Ours, and possibly thousands more. Before I knew it, my hand brushed against the crystalline surface of the Entity Cluster and its true presence filled my mind. It was a brief contact, but that had been all that was needed. A single question appeared in my vision.
"Not yet," I whispered, letting my hand drop.
Jolene had taken the Tendrils and our escorts off to the side to kill some time while we waited for the party to really get under way. Considering Ponzio's mentality, I wasn't surprised in the least that Radolfo was the next person to be escorted into the conference hall by the attendant only five minutes after our own entry. The old man walked with the grace and certainty of someone half his age, yet the folds on his face spoke of the deep contemplations the head of the Zebelos family carried. He greeted everyone with a smile, squeezing Ponzio's arm gently before he walked to stand before me. As much as I was nearly twice the size of the hunched old man, I felt like we were looking eye to eye.
"It looks like the hurricane did you more good than harm!" The old Zebelos commented, folding his hands behind his back and straightening to give me a look over. "I'd even say you grew taller!"
"He did," Jolene said, smiling up at me. "I just hope he's done with his growth spurts. Before long I'll have to climb a tree just to look him in the eye."
"Ah, the joys of youth. My wife used to tell me she was going to climb me like a tree all the time," Radolfo said, eyes wistful.
"Grandpa! Not in public!" Ponzio said, rushing over with a deep blush on his face.
"Nothing to be ashamed of. Why wouldn't I brag about being a catch? If I hadn't been, you wouldn't have your good looks and the Family wouldn't be where it is today. Plus, these are our friends. What's a little embarrassment amongst friends, eh?" The man turned to see me choking on my own spit while Jolene's cheeks rippled through all the shades of blue her blood would allow. The old man had a knowing grin on his face that was just a nudge away from being cheeky if it wasn't so grandfatherly.
"Oy! Embarrassing the youngsters is my job!" a crackly old voice called from the mouth of the tunnel. We all turned in time to watch Sharon enter the conference hall supported by her son Dyonte. His normally composed expression was strained to the max as the man was forced to restrain his mother from leaping out of the wooden wheelchair he was pushing her with.
"Mother, you weren't even supposed to come to this meeting," Dyonte whispered harshly. "At least stay in the chair."
"Ha! When you lot can keep me down will be when you need to bury me," the old woman huffed. She did, however, lean back into her seat. Vibrosense told me all I needed to see about her condition. While her attitude was honest, it was hiding an immense amount of pain and exhaustion. I could see a number of bandages tucked just out of sight around the collar of the dress and knit cardigan she wore.
"You flew away!" Dyonte hissed, shaking his head as he rolled her the rest of the way to join our little huddle.
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"It certainly makes a point," I said, unable to keep my grin from my face.
"Please don't encourage her," Dyonte said, sighing. "Son, please keep an eye on your Nana while I go get a drink. This is going to be a long day."
Teion didn't hesitate, practically stumbling over himself to reach the old woman. He was stopped by a staff radiating thick strands of azure and silver light. The woman turned a serious eye on the satyr. "Deep breaths. Just because you intend to do something doesn't mean you need to rush head first into it, especially when it isn't critical. Mind your public perception, Teion."
The satyr bowed low, before springing to take position behind the Shaman. The woman slumped, rubbing at her temples as she glanced at a still-amused Radolfo. "Whatever shall we do with these youngsters."
"Be, Sharon. All we can do is be here for them. They'll get it," the old Zebelos chuckled.
"We've been managing--" Ponzio's comment was cut off by a poorly concealed growl that seemed to fill the room. Wisps of brown mana overlapped everything for a brief second before being overwhelmed by the other Attunements present and dissipating. Our group turned to watch Horace and a giantess stride into the room. Nova, the crystal haired dwarf we'd met at the Parade, strode two steps behind the large couple. Interestingly, all three were swallowing vibrations to a ridiculous degree, and if I wasn't watching for the absence of a response from a certain slime I would have missed their approach entirely via vibrosense.
"A tyke clinging to the skirt of his parents," Horace rumbled. "That they listened to you enough to invite you to this meeting of your betters is wonder enough."
When I looked at the giant for a moment, then glanced around the room in confusion, I got the distinct pleasure of watching the man grow red in the face. The vines on his neck and brow stood out like worms twisting in the tanned soil of his skin. The woman at his side, thankfully, seemed to have a touch more sense than Horace himself. She entwined an arm with his, pushing him towards the table, ignoring our group entirely just as I'd done to the Clansmen leader. Nova was just shaking her tinkling head the whole while.
"Do we really need to be here?" Amaya said, eyeing the trio of Q6 Earth Attuned with fearful eyes. The room beyond the conference hall was likely fast filling up with guards standing silent vigils over the conference and its members.
"What you have to share is important, Amaya," Jolene said quietly. The merwoman placed a gentle hand on the Death Tendril, leaving it there as Jolly turned to the group. "How much longer before we start?"
"Just three more players and the game can begin," Radolfo said evenly, the joking atmosphere entirely absent from his demeanor in the presence of the Clansmen.
The tension in the room did little other than climb as silence followed the Zebelos' declaration. Ten minutes later, the leader of the Huntington Faction, a demoness by the name of Cindy Myers, arrived alone before attaching herself to Sharon's side. Dyonte returned not long after that, tailed by Hubert Cox, the leader of the Spring Hoppers. The two were engaged in some kind of argument that died on the spot as they entered the oppressive silence of the conference hall.
"That upstart can't be anything but late," Sharon grumbled, glaring holes into the doorway that led into the conference hall.
It was almost another ten minutes before the final member of the conference strode into the room. Sargon of the Breakers shone like a candle as he took measured, unhurried steps to join the space around the table. An Air Partial with swirling arms and a Life Tendril followed in his exact steps with their heads bowed low. The Fire Elemental looked puzzled, glancing between all the groups gathered as if we were the ones in the wrong and not him. "Are we waiting for something?"
I could feel my eyebrow twitching, but I took a deep breath instead. Losing my composure was the fast track to escalating the conference faster than I hoped to. There was a lot to cover and all I could hope was that discussions remained civil enough for long enough that I could introduce the siblings and the true plight of the city.
We didn't even make it to the table.
"You don't expect to sit at this table, do you?" Horace said, glaring at me as he took a seat.
"That is what people normally do at tables, Horace. Please, correct me if I am wrong," I said, hearing the definite pop of my knuckles as I clenched my fists. Not even Jolene's calming hand on my back could do anything for the irritation I felt towards the other giant. Sargon's entire inflammatory existence hadn't helped, but the elemental seemed more than content to lean back in his metal chair and watch the show.
"You self important pebble, I am not even using my chair," Sharon grumbled, flicking her hand dismissively as Dyonte rolled her forward to the space between what I assumed was her usual chair and the Huntington leader's. Radolfo was standing with his hands on the head of his chair, yet to take a seat while observing what was going on with a flat stare. I could feel the tension in his body as he ground his heel into the ground just out of sight.
"It is about the message," Horace said, gesturing to where Nova and the giantess were positioned to take a seat in the lowest ring of audience seats. Sargon's escort, Ponzio, and Teion had also taken the coinciding spots behind their representatives in the ring of seats. The only group that had been forced to stand alienated thanks to Horace's comment was ours. "Adjuncts wait on the word of their lords. You don't control anything here, bunker boy."
Before I knew what had happened, Horace and I were face to face. I could feel his breath on my beard, my eyes piercing right into the iris of his while vibrosense gave me a perfect layout of the room. Radolfo had tightened his grip on his chair. Sharon was leaning forward with her Staff of Storm Ruling in hand, Sargon... was unmoved as far as my senses could tell. The others in the room were all on their feet, shifting nervously but not stepping forward.
"You may have been born on the surface, Horace, but that does not make me belong here any less than it does to you. As a matter of fact, I can guarantee you that I have contributed more to humanity as a whole in the last year than you have in your entire pitiful life. So, if I want to be a part of this meeting as the representative of the Allied Towns and an ally of Ocala, then you will treat me as such. Understood?"
I saw the blow coming from miles away. Vibrosense couldn't pierce even superficially into the giant, but the transfer of force from his feet while he stood right in front of me might as well have screamed his intent. I didn't move, only focusing slightly as Striated Dermis crawled its way up my chest to cover my face moments before the giant's fist made contact. Had I not anticipated the blow, I was sure it would have put out my lights. As it was, they only flickered and I was able to retain my position with a little help from Slurry Ichor freezing my muscles in place.
Some facet of the man's Traits seemed to negate or overcome some of my own body's force mitigation properties. That, however, didn't mean that they didn't work. The opposite in fact. As I gave Horace a calm grin, blood slowly dripping down my unbroken nose and from my gums enough to blacken them, I gave the man two gentle pats on the cheek. The moment my fingers made contact the second time, Tremor Frame and Diffracting Tissue worked in tandem. A sharp crack followed as Horace’s face snapped 90 degrees to the left before he could even react. It took a moment for his brain to catch up with his body and he stumbled to a knee.
The giantess that had come in with him rushed forward, grabbing the giant's arm to help stabilize him as he blinked furiously. Mana curled around her form, taking on a few jagged patterns I recognized from some of the glyphs in
Before her Gift could manifest, a gust of kaleidoscopic magic rippled through the air. Fievil growled in my mind, feeding the Arcane Sink to envelop me and the two giants in a bubble of Earth Mana moments before a thunderous voice rocked the foundations of the conference hall, the military camp outside, the walls of said camp, and likely a large portion of Ocala itself. The sound was so loud it took a second for my brain to parse it from the ringing it had left in its wake.
## ENOUGH ##
I rubbed at my ears, my Traits having protected me from the bulk of the unintended sonic attack. My senses, however, left me blinking my eyes quickly to prevent the rippling mess of sound vibrations assaulting my sixth sense from truly overwhelming me while the rest of the people in the room had panicked slightly. Grimacing at my inability to warn our older Faction leader allies, I watched as Teion rushed to his grandmother. Ponzio had Blipped to his grandfather and I could feel the prickling of electricity radiating from the youth together with a wave of heat enveloping Sargon's entire portion of the table. Where the man's domain and mine met, molten specks of stone dripped into existence only to be erased by gusts of brown pressure or red flames.
After the initial shock, and before everyone could make their displeasures known, the crystal wall behind us started to ripple violently. Like a tossed sea, the translucent Metier Crystal surged and merged as its jagged surface started to smooth with each passing of the crystal waves. A minute ticked by without a single comment from anyone present as we watched Hec reforming themselves. The Entity didn't pull away from the building, even if that was a legitimate option now that I'd helped it restore its mind. Instead, on that once-blank wall Hec formed mounds and mounds of square pillars at the scale of the whole building. Long rectangles and squares formed sharp edges that in aggregated showed a statuesque human visage. Instead of trying to mimic the smooth texture of humans, it had opted to look closer to a low quality rendering of said human face. Only a pair of perfectly spherical crystal eyes the size of my pre-Attunement body rolled around in their sockets before focusing on the table before them with radiant beams of light that sprouted from the iris.
The giant head scanned everyone present for several seconds before its crystal maw yawned open and it spoke once more. Everyone clenched in anticipation, but it wasn't as bad as the first time. Not as bad in the way that someone stomping on your toes with a heavy boot wasn't as bad as being hit in the forearm with a baseball bat. Considering both had happened on accident in the Bunker, I spoke from experience.
## LET RONAN TERRIGAN SPEAK FOR THE ENTITIES OF THIS WORLD ##
That simple statement, once everyone's ears were no longer ringing, carried an immense amount of weight. I didn't wait for further comment and strode towards the side of the round table closest to Hec. It had been intentionally left empty, likely as a marker for the Entity that kept them safe for so many years even if they weren't truly represented. I scanned the faces of everyone present; they were quite sour, to be honest. Of course, Radolfo and Sharon didn't look mad or even truly surprised but they both carried looks of disappointment that forced me to suppress a wince. Old folks that rely on you getting disappointed was not a feeling I particularly enjoyed, my mind flashing back to Mayor Elias back in the Bunker.
"Blobby, if you please," I said evenly, meeting the eyes of the rest of the table.
The slime, which had been lurking under the table the whole time since we'd entered the conference hall, rolled out from beneath it. As if sensing what I wanted, or perhaps communicated through Fievil, Blobby reshaped into a tall backed chair sized perfectly for a giant. When I sat, the slime scooched closer so that I could rest my elbows on the table and continue to lever my eyes at the other Faction leaders. Mainly Horace and Sargon.
The elemental didn't have quite the same expressions as a human, but Diffracting Tissue provided me hints of displeasure, uncertainty, and an ounce of fear. It was the first bit of anything other than absolute confidence that I'd picked up from the man. Good.
"I'm not sure how these things go. First one, and all," I said, nodding towards Il Padre and the Shaman. "I would appreciate one of your more established members lead me through the process."
"Should have called you the cheeky brat," Sharon mumbled under her breath. She glanced at the other old person at the table. "You can take this one, Radolfo."
The old man finally released his death grip on the back of his chair, pausing to give Ponzio a kindly smile, before dropping heavily into his chair as if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders. It wasn't entirely unwarranted, but all it took was one look at his eyes practically blazing with inner fire to know the mental trains were chugging at full steam.
"Please, everyone, let's take a seat. The first Conference of the Central Florida Post-Fall Factions must begin."