“It’s big...” Julio muttered. “Dangerous. Bigger than us.”
“Yes!” I agreed emphatically. “Let me be very clear with something, you guys.” I got all their eyes on me as I turned around. “A Citybound Pact is a Local Pact. You are caretakers, fix-it guys, troubleshooters, janitors, and exterminators, and sometimes, you will need to be defenders.
“But you’re not like Heavenbound. Heavenbound are warriors. Master Fred is a consummately lethal individual. His job is to fight on behalf of Heaven. One of the reasons he puts up with the side tasks Baltimore has him do is that Heaven generally doesn’t have him pulling light duties like that.
“A Heavenbound Pact is a Warrior’s Pact. It is made for sniffing out Evil and killing it dead.
“It is not made for caring for a city and its people.”
The cool sea breeze rustled past as they looked at me, out at the waves past them, and the danger lurking in it, somewhere.
“So, you’re going to have to learn to fight. Your Wrath can help you a little with that... but not all that much. The disciplines you have access to are not designed for combat. You exist to support the city.
“If you want to defend her, you are going to have to learn how to fight on your own.” I held up the book I had not finished scribing in. “I am writing guidelines for you in here. But you are going to need to learn how to fight, and that means finding someone who can show you what you need to know.
“Let’s go. Just follow the edge of Baltimore’s Domain, and mark it into your memories. You need to know exactly where you are strong, and where you lose the power of the city.”
------
“So, what does the city tell you when you see it?” I asked them, as they looked at the temple to Aru.
“They protect the city.”
“They heal up the people, and make things to fix them.”
“They bring a lot of light.”
“So, Baltimore likes what they do and wants to keep them around,” I framed it, and they all nodded slowly, odd looks on their faces. “Didn’t think they deserved their rep, did you?”
They all flinched a bit at my reading them so well. I smirked. They were street kids. Of course they envied and dissed the shiny people...
“The guy who can teach you guys to be rock-hard bastards who can take care of themselves works out of here. I’m going to put his number in the back of this book. When you are done reading it, and done talking over between yourselves what you want to do, you can go see him.
“There are only two reasons he will bother to talk to you. The first is because I’ll ask him, and the second is because you’re Citybound in the city he’s living in.”
“Who, who is it?” Julio had to ask at the grim note to my voice.
“Commander Briggs.”
As expected, they all instantly froze up. “C-Commander Briggs? You know Commander Briggs?” Damian squeaked.
“All seven feet two inches of him, yes.” My voice dropped again. “Remember how I was telling you that you need to know people, to get stuff done? This is a very, very good person to know, and you better fucking treasure knowing him.
“He will turn you into complete badasses that can help defend this town... or he can crush you all like bugs. You will treat him with great respect, and since you are Citybound here, he will treat you with respect. You act like a punk with him, and you’ll be damn lucky if all you get is broken bones out of it. He has no patience for attitude whatsoever.”
I totally and firmly believed that there was no possible damn way these guys wouldn’t be wet noodles in front of a Source like Briggs, but at least they could know to expect it.
“G-got it! Holy shit, you know Commander Briggs...”
“Man, I want an autograph...”
“He’ll lose all respect for you if you ask. So, don’t,” I said firmly.
“Right, right...”
“Now, drive. Stay right at the border of Baltimore’s influence, and just drive. When you’re done, you’ll know where you are weak, where you are strong... and where the people who might want to kill you will try to lure you.”
That got their mind back on business. Julio pulled out of the parking lot of the Temple, completely unaware that Briggs was watching from off to the side. He had a tracker on my phone, and Fred told him what I was doing. I wanted to wave to him, but he couldn’t see me anyways.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
----------------
I formally handed the Citybound Guide to Ubah Powah over to them when they dropped me off at home. Chulvat snatched it up before the other two could, grabbing and hugging it. He looked like the nerdiest of the three, so I wasn’t surprised.
“Now, you three go home, get some sleep. When you’re done, you read. When all three of you are done reading, you talk. You get out some pen and paper, and you plan a little bit.
“Then you call that number there, and get prepared to become somebody.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the three of them said very respectfully, their attitudes changed after that long night’s ride.
We had ridden all along the edge of Baltimore’s power, feeling the different influences changing, the sensation of being surrounded by powers that, if they weren’t exactly hostile, weren’t exactly friendly, either, especially when it came to someplace brooding, like Aberdeen’s open area...
Baltimore was their home, and it was gonna make them something. All they had to do was stand by the city, and the city would stand by them.
Oh, and they had to get a lot stronger, too...
---
Master Fred was waiting in the shadows, and Sleipner glided up as the three young Warlocks drove off. They would have been shocked to realize he was there, but Sleipner couldn’t be tracked on Baltimore’s streets any more than a unicorn in the wild could be.
STRAIGHTEN THEM OUT A BIT?, he asked in burning letters.
“Shocked them a bit. The drive around the territory, feeling the surrounding loci out there, was probably the biggest thing to make them realize they were small, and Baltimore has its limits, too.” I dusted off my hands. “Gave them a guide to Level up, things to think about, and I’ll send them to Briggs for some brute force training. They need to learn that they don’t know squat, and he’s quite the guy to teach them.”
HAH! MONSTROUS BRUISER THAT HE IS, Master Fred agreed. HOW DID YOUR RENEWAL GO?
I smiled slightly. “It gave me a Level in Bard, which gave me nothing except the alternate Heartsong use style, which caters to more extended play than Minstrelry. Then it gave me Words of Creation for my Feat, English for my bonus language, and spent all my skill points on a Rank each of Song, Dance, Piano, Violin, Guitar, and Whistling.”
He frowned. THAT SEEMS RATHER STUPID?, he asked hesitantly.
“It’s definitely not optimal, but since it’s out of my hands...” I just shrugged. “At least I can read the local signs now.” And with just one Feat, Versatile Performer, I would be a Polymath at those skills, as I could then use my highest Perform skill modifier for up to my Intellect bonus in other instruments.
Bards also got Druidic spells... but it was already established by Blighter that I couldn’t gain Druidic spells through the Land, and the Heartsong didn’t seem to do the job for me, either.
I had ticked over Basic Metamagic/2, picking Silent Spell... as an amusing counterpoint to what was happening here.
WHAT DOES WORDS OF CREATION DO?, he inquired.
“TRUTH.”
The air seemed to freeze, and the syllable sounded like a gentle trumpet blast, that nevertheless broke over the soul like a hurricane wind, exposing the darkness in the soul, opening it up for all to see, lighting up the good and glorious to see and revealing it for all, while exposing wickedness that wanted to stay hidden.
His Heavenbound Pact flared through his skin like a thousand golden Runes, and his eyes blazed solid silver for a full second as all his other Pacts were repressed in response. Sleipner audibly neighed in shock, and for a moment, the image of a great unicorn, hide black as night and mane, fetlocks, tail, and horn shining silver, was clearly visible there.
And a second later, it was all gone with the Word.
He stared at me in the closest thing I’d seen to astonishment on his face. D A M N, slowly spelled out on his shoulder.
“Has multiple uses, although it is draining to use,” I agreed. “Boosting spells with vocal components by a Caster Level, enhancing Bardsong, helping with exorcisms... it is quite powerful.”
THAT IS THE PURE SOUND AND VOICE OF HEAVEN. IT TAKES A SPECIAL PERSON TO BE ABLE TO SPEAK THAT, he replied, his eyes now back to normal.
“It does. If you’re a right bastard, it’ll kill you to speak it.” Just showing its power didn’t really do anything, but it wasn’t something you just bandied around, and I only got the same three Words Aelryinth had known.
Those three were more than enough. The more you understood them, the stronger they were!
Master Fred shook his head in some regret, but admiration, too. ALL THAT, AND YOU’RE STILL A ONE?
“Life is weird.”
THAT IT IS. He looked at the brightening sky in the east. AND YET ANOTHER DAY BECKONS US.
“Should I ask what you’ve been doing all night?” I half-laughed, waving him inside for a couple hours. He still needed to rest some, although he’d told me he could easily fall asleep riding Sleipner without worrying about anything.
He sighed quietly, no voice to it. BURNING ABANDONED HOUSES DOWN, MOSTLY. THERE WERE SOME DRUG DEALERS IN TWO OF THEM.
“Baltimore doesn’t like drugs either, eh?” I wasn’t surprised.
THEY MAKE PEOPLE UNPRODUCTIVE, CARELESS, AND CHANNEL MONEY OUT OF THE CITY, INSTEAD OF INTO IT. THEY ARE ALSO SMUGGLED IN, WHICH MEANS NO TAX REVENUE, EITHER.
I considered that viewpoint. Yep, from the point of the city, that was all the important stuff. Happy people were productive people, and money was the blood of the city. Cities were incredibly sensitive to the flow of money through them in some ways. It was basically treated like their food. Threaten their money supply, and cities got ornery quick.
Without money, it was hard to maintain and improve themselves. Money going into the pockets of a few people meant it sat there and did nothing to help the city. Cities were almost always on the side of their working class, who brought money and labor into the city, and spent both there. While they didn’t mind having ultra-rich around who brought in money and spent it on lavish vanity projects or whatever, if their fortune was elsewhere and spent elsewhere, cities simply didn’t consider them important... which meant disposable, in absolute terms. That might horrify a billionaire, were he to hear of it...
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Author Special Note for all the dang work it takes to post six chapters for one day:
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