“In the meantime,” Randidly said loudly as the crowd began to whisper once more in the wake of his announcement he would not participate. He wouldn’t force the issue of working together with the Order Ducis, not now, but he wanted to make sure that he primed them for what was to come later. “I’d like to encourage everyone to take some time to enjoy the party. We can discuss the details of our preparations later. I’ve hopefully given you much to think about, so-”

“Mr. Ghosthound, why are you playing coy?” President Greyman said loudly as she stepped forward. “Why wait to discuss the details of the Danger Zones until later in the night? If we begin preparing now, some of our teams might be able to get a head start on clearing out the Danger Zones that are threatening the Earth. If we really only have two weeks to secure these benefits… doesn’t every second count?”

“The only team not present tonight that could reliably clear a Danger Zone,” Randidly said slowly as he surveyed the room, “Is the one led by Lucifer from Franksburg. And he is on his way as we speak. Other teams might obtain minor benefits, but the exchange would cost lives.”

Theodora Greyman folded her arms across her chest. “You don’t know that. Each Zone is likely more powerful than you think, Mr. Ghosthound.”

And to that, Randidly didn’t bother to hide his derisive snort of laughter. Believe me. I dearly wish Grim Intuition wasn’t nearly as effective as it was...

“Have the benefits of this unexpected event blinded you to the other implications of the Seventh Zone connecting?” Randidly grinned over at President Greyman. Sometimes, she said the perfect thing to serve as a foil. Unfortunately, her stubbornness and fixation were becoming very dangerous for Earth’s growth. “In two weeks New Earth will become fully a part of the System. I have no doubt that several other bubble cities will be revealed as the Wildlands quickly expand. The process of the First Calamity will begin.

“Every second does count. But take your time to make sure you don’t do something foolish; there is a lot to handle.” Then Randidly looked away from the woman and scanned the crowd. Most of the people present continued to signal each other in their faction but were at least paying attention to him. Good. “I do have one other-”

“I’m afraid I must disagree with you, Mr. Ghosthound,” President Greyman interrupted again. “We are all adults here. Coping with the unusual is a necessary skill for those of us who have spent significant time in the past few years trying to run a government in our new world. Teasing us with the details and then hiding them seems almost… spiteful, to my eye. Is there some reason that you do not wish to share your findings…?”

Randidly looked at Theodora Greyman with a good amount of genuine pity as he blithely let her comment about running a government pass. You do realize that many of the other representatives share your sentiments, and are only too happy for you to attract all the flak from me by being the demanding one, right? Are you so desperate to stay relevant? Or do you truly think this will help you in the future…

...obviously though, you are not completely wrong. Hiding the details serves no real point aside from upsetting most people. But through that prodding, I want to teach you all how weak you are.

“It’s my birthday, President Greyman,” Randidly said with an extremely sharp smile. “And as such, I’m going to be a little spiteful; before I tell you the locations of the Danger Zones, you need to play a game with me. And for that game, I’ve assembled these five tests.”

While Theodora Greyman scowled at him, Randidly removed the tarp off of the first object on the central island. He revealed a rather plain metal stand with a fist-sized ball of ice sitting on top of it. Mist began rolling off of the blue spheroid of ice and descending to the floor. He pointed at the ice, quite pleased with himself. “There are two options before you. If you pass all five of my tests, I’ll tell you the location of the infected Danger Zones immediately. Or, if you all take too long, we will just wait until when I’m good and ready to talk about them.”

Randidly produced the Philosopher’s Key and spun it around his finger. “The rules are simple. Melt the ice without using a Skill, touching the ice, or touching the platform. Tatiana has the rules for the rest of the demonstrations as you proceed through them. She will explain the relevant knowledge for the next test if you pass the prior one. In the meantime… try and enjoy yourselves. It’s a party.”

Then he opened up a portal and disappeared from the ballroom.

*****

Derek Moss felt a vein twitching in his temple. He adjusted his stance and attempted not to scowl. “What do you mean, you don’t know where he is?”

The assistant teacher to which Derek was speaking was clearly nervous. The two were standing in front of the pavilion where all the teachers currently were, allowing the children in the area to operate completely freely. The young man kept pushing his messy hair out of his eyes and laughing in a high pitched tone. “Mr. Moss… we are severely understaffed due to the birthday. So while I can safely say your son is somewhere in the park… I’m not sure exactly where he is. Our normal activities require-”

“Well, have you seen him recently?” Derek said with forced calmness as he looked away from the assistant teacher and attempted to cool his temper. But as he looked away, his gaze wandered down the nearby hill toward the large stretch of land that several enterprising children had used their Skills to heavily modify. Rather than a scenic park, what Derek saw was a haphazard mix of hastily made dirt mounds and warped playground equipment.

It was a child’s dream and hundreds of kids were swarming through the area, playing an extremely physical game of capture the flag filled with tackling and shrieking. As a child, Derek would have loved it. Now, however...

“Ah… well…” The assistant teacher squirmed. “If it makes you feel better, it isn’t just your son that we haven’t-”

“Please don’t try and console me by telling me that you’ve lost quite a few children…” Derek said in a dull voice. Again, the assistant teacher laughed nervously.

Sighing, Derek turned away and strained his senses, looking for any hint of his son in the game below. Of course, the cacophony of joy and irrational anger wafting upward pretty much guaranteed that Tim’s more subdued antics would be buried. Honestly, he assumed that Tim was in one of the many copses of trees in the park, practicing his secret Skill, but the park was quite large. Finding his son would be difficult. He had already tried sending a message, but Tim hadn’t responded.

Still, if he wanted them to have any chance to enjoy some of the festival in Kharon around the Ghosthound’s birthday, the two of them would need to get started now-

“Ah! Mr. Moss. I’m so glad I found you.”

Derek twisted and saw three figures rushing up the hill toward them. The leader was Hydie Mordath, the other applicant to the Order Ducis, who seemed inordinately pleased to have found him. Derek didn’t recognize the other two figures and looked in confusion at Hydie. “...Miss Mordath. After we finished our tasks, you left quite quickly. Did you have some business with me…?”

“It’s embarrassing to admit, but…” Hydie grimaced as she stopped in front of Derek. The assistant teacher gratefully began to tiptoe away, but Derek’s hand shot out and latched onto his shoulder to prevent the man’s escape. After giving the teacher a sharp glance, Derek turned back and listened to Hydie. “After we parted ways, I encountered these two, who asked me for directions to the party. And unfortunately… ah...”

Again, Hydie could only grimace and squirm. Derek’s instincts began to tingle strangely, but the man next to Hydie walked forward and extended his hand. Despite the fact that he had been misled, the man seemed in a remarkably tranquil mood. The two men shared a firm handshake. “Hello. I’m Ed Dugg. Part of the Order Ducis eh? You are a rare bread. Although the fact that your companion got us lost isn’t the greatest first impression.”

“To be fair, you got us lost in the first place, Ed,” The young woman next to Ed Dugg chided gently. Then she extended her hand toward Derek as well. “I’m Mareen, I’m Mr. Dugg’s assistant. We really appreciate the help. It is… getting quite late.”

“Bah! A man should always arrive late to a party.” Ed said with a wave of his hands. “I just hope that wolf Paolo hasn’t devoured all the food…”

His assistant rolled her eyes behind his back, but produced a map and offered it to Derek. “If you could just tell us where we are currently… For whatever reason, your associate kept… ah...”

Hydie threw her hands up in the air like this wasn’t her fault at all.

“Of course,” Derek said with a forced chuckle. The teacher he was gripping squirmed a bit, but Derek didn't let go. He hummed to himself as he looked at the map and then pointed a finger at their current location. “This is where we currently are, so you will need to head South a fair bit in order to get to the party. If you head back down the road you used to get here-”

Then Derek stopped as the words and where his finger was pointing at the paper hit the analytical part of his brain. Because the directions he had just given were incredibly inaccurate. He twisted and looked at Hydie with a frown as something clicked. “I thought that our luck was way too bad today… but that wasn’t a coincidence, was it? This is you?”

Hydie sighed in an exaggerated manner. “Well, yes. Most of my Skills lay in the area of subtle inconvenience… and unfortunately, it’s a passive aura, not something that I can control. So it is a constant companion in my life now…”

To their credit, Ed and Mareen didn’t seem angry at all by this reveal, just puzzled. Derek tried to adjust the position of his finger on the map so it was more accurate, but he realized that the place he put his finger this time was even more incorrect. Even as he was staring at the map, something seemed to be interfering with his ability to put everything in context.

Derek withdrew his finger. “How can you call it a minor inconvenience if you make it impossible to give directions?”

“Ah, well, I have a very specialized Skill that targets giving directions. If it makes you feel better, this whole experience has given me five Skill Levels! Two were from you, just now, so you might have been pretty close.”

Derek shook his head. “Well, alright, I’ll just take you there myself.” Then he turned to the assistant teacher. “And YOU, while I’m gone, will leave the tent and find my son. Am I being clear?”

For good measure, Derek shook the young man lightly. The man’s sleeve ripped off like it was a tearaway prop. Frightened out of his mind, the teacher nodded, twisted around, and rushed away on his hands and knees.

Ed slapped his knee and guffawed.