As simple of a plan as we'd managed to cobble together, it still had a lot of moving parts. The biggest problem was our absolute lack of information. Just because we knew where the Aberrant was didn't mean we knew how much power it was able to leverage. That wasn't even accounting for its personal power, but rather the goons it had to throw at us. It was possible that the horde of hogs it had sent against the Ock Outpost was its attempt to take us out directly and it was no longer an option. However, considering the fact that I hadn't seen the Q7 Water Appendage Clayton Poole or the demon Jefferson that Daniela had fought in the underground club... my bet was that bigger threats were lurking below the surface.
So, with that massive concern, I sent Dai back to the Outpost right away. I would have liked to give the man a chance to rest considering he'd just rushed over and it required traveling during the more dangerous night time, but we needed to have a better idea of what we were facing off against. Even if it was just monitoring their movements, that was invaluable information. As it was, we could only operate under the worst of assumptions. Which meant flexing every iota of power we'd accumulated.
As Ponzio and Teion entered the range of vibrosense the following morning, I thought through the many aspects we needed to implement.
Joe would remain in the Embassy to guard the Tendril siblings. The draconian hadn't been happy about the confinement, but when I'd praised him as the strongest fighter outside of our own group he'd blushed furiously enough that it was visible on his scales. Sam and Daniela pounced on the two Faction heirs the moment we left the building, figuring out which was the best way to recruit some fighters under the guise of being threatened by the roaming Boar Boss. In reality, they hoped to see how much the Cloth Muscles and the Mage Circles could afford to contribute.
Additionally, they were equipped with one of our winnings from the Hog Parade: the Merc Tassel. While we weren't exactly sure how to go about redeeming the thing, Daniela was confident she could bully Filomena into helping, if not with our assault then with contacts amidst the Clansmen. If that turned into a dead end, then Sam would reach out to Huck and hopefully cash in on what we'd given him for trade. The target was the thing that had almost cost us Wildwood when purging the Death Aberrant: energy. Specifically, the opposing energy to the Fire Aberrant. Considering the situation I was more than a little miffed that I'd given the Breakers the most powerful Water Attuned Infusion we'd yet to encounter, but I would have made that trade for Dai any day of the week. In the absence of that, the argument turned to quantity over quality. That, along with the request for every Water Infusion that wasn't nailed down in the Outpost that I'd sent along with Dai, we could only hope it would be enough.
Before long, we were approaching the portcullis into the Tuscawilla fortress. Sam and Daniela met my gaze before splitting off from the group. The Faction heirs were hit with conversational whiplash, but there wasn't much to be done about that. Ponzio gave me a squinted look, but didn't comment on the behavior. Depending on the conference's developments, I hoped to roll the Zebelos and the Nash into my plans.
The quartet of guards at the door didn't make us do the song and dance of announcing who we were, but I did notice the Breaker representative was absent. Scratching my chin at that imbalance, we arrived at the conference hall. Unlike the day prior, we were the last to arrive despite just how early we'd come. Sargon, Radolfo and Horace's voices carried up the hallway that led to the audience room. That's not a good sign.
"--expect us to fold. You aren't in charge of this city!" Horace shouted.
"It is a known fact that my investigators are head and shoulders above your own. Both in impartiality and competency," Radolfo shot back evenly.
"A height joke? At this juncture? And you were the one calling me infantile," Sargon huffed, curls of fire mana rippling off his shoulders as the Blessing of Magic took note of his subconscious use of magic. Considering he was made of magic, I was surprised at the level of restraint.
"Just because that expression existed before you were born doesn't mean you need to shoot it down," Sharon interjected.
"Yes, you are dinosaurs that know better. Reserve the comments, Sharon. You won't be at this table for long anyways," Horace shot back.
"Why you little--"
"Are we interrupting something?" I asked, practically stomping into the room. Billy and Jolene flanked me while the heirs went to their respective leaders. I could see Dyonte sweating bullets, and Nova's usually composed expression looked positively shaky. Or maybe it's the twinkling shiver of her hair while she bounces her foot like that. Taylor was openly glaring at me and my whole group, which was at least a consistent element from the prior day.
Sargon only has Partials with him today. I squinted at that change in personnel, but that train left the station unannounced when I was met with a wall of words instead of the orderly discussion I'd been expecting. Mana prickled along my skin, and the muddling effect of an Entity that I could detect with vibrosense gave me only the slightest of heads up. I turned to meet the eyes of Hec's face avatar, shaking my head slightly. The eyes shifted back to the table, and the neutralizing burst of mana that had been building returned to the Entity.
If I wanted to lose money, I would bet against the Aberrant having some perverse mirror of this ability.
When I focused back on the tirade, I opted to instead stamp my foot and released a burst of mana into the ground of the conference hall. It wasn't guided, and there wasn't a spell chain to form it into an actual magical effect, but the weight of my mana was enough to shake the ground. Only Sharon, who'd remained in her wheelchair, was unaffected by the localized quake. Man, that's an awesome flex. I was hoping to just make a loud sound, but I'll go for taking their footing.
"Considering all that this city had accomplished, I thought you'd all be more composed when the unknown is presented to you," I said, walking the rest of the way to take my spot at the round table.
Radolfo cleared his throat, immediately using his experience to take the reins of the session with the opening I'd given him. "We are quite flexible. I will admit, while I understood the scope of your mission I didn't anticipate how deeply it would drill. Nor how soon."
"What's that expression my teacher used to use," I said, rubbing my jaw as if considering. "Ah, yes. 'Time waits for no man'. The fact that we are talking about Fallen and extraplanar entities doesn't mean that applies any less."
"How could any sensible person expect a giant rock to be alive?" Horace countered.
"True," I said, conceding. "That very fact is the reason why Hec hasn't turned everyone within range of its fragments into mincemeat at the cost of its many bodies."
Everyone in the room paled, or dimmed, accordingly. Even Jolene and Billy looked uncomfortable with the admission, even if they were some of the ones the most familiar with how much motion even Category 2 Entity Clusters could make. It was a direct size-energy conversion, but if Hec was even remotely vengeful I was sure they would have gone on a murder spree. I only saw a glimpse of the Entity's restoring mind for seconds and I wanted to put the hurting on the Ocalans.
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"We have agreed on a complete halt of expansion for the city until we receive the cooperation and approval of Hec," Radolfo announced diplomatically. "We've enjoyed their protection in silence for years and our hope is that such can continue now that the contribution of the Entities has been brought to light."
There was a loud clack as Hec's avatar closed its mouth. The tension in the room rose... until the avatar smiled softly. It was blocky and alien, but the gesture spoke volumes as to the Entity's disposition towards humanity. There was a wave of palpable relief as the proposal was presented and seemingly accepted.
"The 'Implants' you discussed, however, are simply unacceptable," Sargon added, ruining the positive moment.
"That's not speaking for everyone, Sargon," Radolfo countered.
"You are the only one okay with getting a yoke put on your neck, old man," Horace shot back. "While I will even go so far as to apologize for what we've put the Entity-- what we've put Hec through... my freedom is my own. My path forward has been unaided until now and I don't intend to change that."
Somewhat annoyed that Horace had made a concise and reasonable rebuttal, I glanced at Sharon. My raised eyebrow was question enough.
"Don't look at me. My suggestion is probably going to be the same as yours. To each their own. I don't have time to micromanage every person in this city and neither do any of those present. Choices and consequences," the Shaman said, resting her staff on her shoulder.
Waiting a moment to see if anyone else would go forward with any comments, I asked the question that I dreaded getting an answer to. "Very well. I suppose we'll see what our audience thinks about the propositions. Have you all come to an accord on how we are going to deal with the rats in your midst?"
"As I have already clarified," Sargon said, just a hair short of shouting. "My Breakers are not involved with any sort of conspiracy."
"Those in my territory aren't harboring anyone, as we were so boldly accused," Horace added, crossing his arms.
"You two seem mighty defensive," I asked, mirroring my fellow giant's posture.
"Had we been informed about the threat, instead of committing an unsanctioned raid within our territory, we would have dealt with the threat ourselves. Our mercenary corps are the deadliest fighters of this city!" Horace argued.
"I wouldn't prop your merc's quite so high, Horace. Plus, that bar was solidly in the grey zone," Radolfo countered.
"There wouldn't be grey zones if you could stand to concede more than words, Zebelos!" Horace growled.
"Don't presume to talk about concessions. You don't know what we've sacrificed to even be able to argue--"
"This is exactly what our enemies would want," Sharon said, thwacking her staff onto the table. "This disunity is exactly what benefits the Aberrants. Whole lot of good a whole room of strong people does if they are all at each other's throats."
Sargon jumped to his feet, pointing an accusatory finger in my direction. "Don't speak of disunity here. Even if you plan to leave your seat of power, it was one you earned. The only disunity is what was brought to our fine city by this man. Him and his group of upstarts."
"Rich coming from you," Sharon grumbled just barely loud enough for me to hear.
"How are we to know you aren't working with this threat you so warn us about? How could we be sure of your integrity? By Radolfo and the Breaker's own account you just... showed up! You guard your precious bridge so tightly, what do we know about what is on the other side," Horace goaded.
"Do you even realize how stupid that sounds?" I asked, flabbergasted at how quickly the slightest modicum of respect I'd been building for the Clansmen leader crumbled before his biases. "I came here to help this city. The Allied Towns sacrificed too much just to earn our freedom, and we elected to share that gift just for you to try to turn this around on me? I could have stayed my ass back. I didn't need to wake up this morning just to come here and get lambasted by a giant baby and a glorified matchstick."
"Listen here you entitled--"
Horace's words were cut off by the snap of an Arcane Sink that roiled like an angry ocean. A whispered voice was carried along with the domain, a spell chain under Sharon's control. "We don't live forever. Each year makes that more clear to me than ever. Now, change is inevitable. If it hadn't been Ronan and his Bunker Busters, it would have been the encroachment of the battlefronts to the north or the beasts beyond the borders of our city. The most important thing, the thing that determines if we get to get up in the morning to deal with ungrateful individuals, is that we adapt. Even if our war for the world hasn't changed, our perspective on it has to change or we risk being swallowed by the conflict."
"Easy for you to say when--" Sargon was cut off when Radolfo raised his hand up. A grey spell chain hovered around his earlobe and the man nodded at the appropriate times to be holding a one-sided conversation with someone. When the old Zebelos finally spoke, it drew the arguing to a sharp close.
"The representatives are here. It seems we will need to seek comment from those in attendance in the first place. There is a time and place for vulnerability, and I think this might be the best one for getting a positive response from our peoples."
As if they'd been waiting to be announced by Radolfo, people started to slowly trickle into the conference hall. They looked to be from all walks of life and from every Fallen type I'd yet to see. Finely dressed people that seemed to look at everyone down the length of their noses, farmers in hardy clothes that had visible marks of soil stains or animal hooves, more than one fighter that was easily identified by the balanced movements as they circumvented the crowds to whatever spot they desired. It was chaotic, and the gentle roar of humanity filled my ears. Many of the arrivals were looking at me with confused looks, some had deep curiosity and another yet... looked resigned.
Why would resignation be their expression? I tried to spot the person that my Traits had called out as resigned but there were just too many new additions. I was almost entirely reliant on my eyes as the micro shuffling of hundreds of people muddled the earth almost as bad as rain did. In both, the details got washed out.
"Welcome, fine people of Ocala," Radolfo called out. His voice brought a quick hush to the still sitting crowd, and they cut their own sidebars to pay attention to the 'big table' they'd come to see. "The news that will be discussed on this day are good, if deeply interlaced by a grim reality we've been ignorant of for a long time."
The whole audience seemed to hold their breath as Radolfo spun out the story I'd repeated multiple times by then regarding the Entities, what they meant and how they fit into the plight of humanity. The response, despite the sub-10 minute speech, was filled with measured whispers. There wasn't chaos, because the old Zebelos had reassured them that I had experience. There hadn't been claims for control when my status as a holder of living weapons came up. None of the qualifiers had anything to do with saving lives, but I understood the conference leader had to set the stage, so to speak, because eventually he started talking about the negatives of the Aberrants and what corruption laid that direction.
With that portion of his delivery, the discontent was much higher. Several shouted about their own innocence regarding the crackdown on breweries. A few seemed intrigued by the prospect of changing, which was concerning in its own right. Yet, the majority just carried an undercurrent of confusion and fear that filled the room like a cloying stench. I gave up entirely on trying to pick out individual dispositions even with the vibrations toned down because the rest was such a dark unifying emotion.
I rose, which cut the crowd's muted chatter. It wasn't lost on Radolfo, and the man turned to look in my direction. With a slight nod, I tried to request his permission to speak. The old man seemed to run through all the information he'd yet to reveal, like the Implants and our mission to combat the Dreg, before sighing. I could understand his hesitance, but if the discussions were to continue I needed to wipe away some of the fear, if not to clear up the audience's judgement then for my own psyche. The Zebelos leader swept a hand out, even as I read the pained look on his face.
All I got time to do was open my mouth. The earth shook and the Blessing of Magic in the room winked out, throwing everything in the unilateral shade of Hec's light. A rapidly dimming light. I turned just in time to watch Hec's avatar open its mouth wide before its entire surface rippled as a foghorn wail shook the ground once again. The world went white.