Chapter 59: Soft Reset

Subject: Caim Location: Blightbane Guild - Arla's Forge

Shrouded in darkness, voices pierced the fog.

“Wait,” Gillis The Cartographer called out. “He’s waking up.”

Caim opened his eyes just in time to see Alice’s face before she wrapped her arms around him and, much more gently than was expected of her, pulled him close.

“Alice? Why are you here?”

She pulled back and glared at him, a hint of concern in those eyes.

“What are you talking about? Why are you here?”

Before he could answer, the Hexknight standing behind her answered for him.

“I’ve already told you that, he was showing me his magic because I was curious. Don’t you believe the word of a Hexaline Knight?”

Fear, disbelief, and confusion flashed through the rowdy seeker’s eyes. Alice shook her head.

“I believe you. I only wanted to know if he remembered why he fainted. I still think we should check for injuries.”

Caim was still wearing his armor, sitting on the training ground floor where he’d lost consciousness. He remembered everything. Not just the events of the fight leading up to his conversation with Vera, but much more of his life before this new one.

Seeing Mille and Marian standing patiently beside Alice, Caim silently gestured for Mille to add her thoughts. Alice shouldn’t be here.

“We ran into Alice at the doors of the Guild. The knights are done cleaning up for the day and they’ve let seekers and Guild personnel in. She was going to make a scene if we didn’t take her to you.”

“I understand.”

“We certainly don’t want a scene,” Gillis added, nodded conspiratorially to Caim.

Gillis seemed surprised when Caim didn’t react. He seemed more uncomfortable than Caim was right now.

“What’s that around your neck?” Mille asked.

Caim touched his hands to his neck and was surprised to find a smooth, claspless collar was there. Vera had to be responsible, but his neck didn’t feel any different, despite how snuggly it seemed to be pressed up against his skin.

The Hexknight, who’d also seen that Caim wasn’t wearing anything of the sort before, squinted to see it better.

“It’s nothing, just a gift from an acquaintance. I must have put it on before falling asleep.”

“Falling asleep?!” Gillis almost shouted in utter disbelief at the understatement. “Caim, I thought you were entering a virastarvation coma! How did you avoid it? After those spells...”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” he said, exasperated. “Could I have a brief moment to speak privately with Caim?”

The others looked nervous. None of them could argue with a Hexknight, but his being a Hexknight was the very reason they didn’t want to leave him alone with Caim.

“I’ll catch up with you all in a moment,” he assured them.

Marian was giving him a strange look, but when he focused on her, she averted her gaze.

Once he and Gillis were alone, the Hexknight let out a soft sigh.

“Have you calmed down?”

“Yes. You might not be the kind of person I thought you were.”

“I’m not. You will see in time, but we don’t have time to fix this. You’re going to listen to me and do exactly as I say. When you’re asked about this ‘incident’, you will say I was casually questioning you when the flooring collapsed. You used your magic to help me land us safely, and that impressed me. I then asked you to show me more of your spells and you, being a loyal citizen, obliged. During the practice, you overexerted yourself, and I found you unconscious. Got it?”

“That makes you out to look like the one who pressured me into all of this.”

“Yes. I need to be ‘at fault’ because a person in my position won’t be held accountable for something so trivial. Otherwise you’d be sentenced and I believe you are too valuable an asset to lose to a competitor like death.”

“You want to use me.”

“You no longer have a choice in that matter, but you can relax. The price won’t be steep. All I need you to do is continue learning and stay on the straight and narrow. You must not catch the attention of the Enforcers. People from the city are more accustomed to this way of life, but you need to adapt before it’s too late. Later, I’ll just ask that you smooth things over with my new venture here and there with the locals, and you are always free to refuse.”

He stepped closer, narrowing his eyes, but not intimidatingly.

“None of this happened. In fact, our conversation was just to get a brief eyewitness report, followed by a training session to indulge my curiosity. None of that other stuff took place. I need you three to agree to that order right now. I’ve already gotten the others to comply, but it only works if you do too.”

Caim nodded.

“Good. You will need to ‘wait and see’, Caim. There is no other option but to wait. I’m an ally to the citizens of Shroud. All of them. Everything I do is for them. Even if my actions are misinterpreted.”

“People like that don’t exist,” Caim muttered, a little coldly.

“Sometimes they do, but only because their own interests happen to align with what benefits others. But you can’t go around attacking powerful people, even if you disagree with them. I’ll forgive it today because I don’t think you are a bad person and you’ve all been through something terrible, but you will face serious consequences next time. I won’t be able to protect you from yourself.”

“I understand.”

“It is possible that your savage sensibilities are the very reason you arrive at your unique conclusions. Savage from the perspective of our flourishing society, at least. Shroud is moving to unify the populace, in body and mind. You can expect that even the villagers of the future will undergo rigorous education.”

He seemed sad as he said this, as if he were losing something precious to him but he was helpless and unable to do anything about it.

“Will you tell me more about that business with the factories and the non-human citizens?”

“At a later date, but yes. I have a schedule to keep and… here’s my duty calling now.”

The knight from The Cartographers, the one who was with Gillis before, had now appeared. Caim hadn’t even seen her arrive, and he’d have been more startled if he wasn’t already with someone more intimidating.

Her eyes were stained yellow by magic, but she was energetic and alert.

“My lord, the business upstairs has concluded,” she reported.

After giving the update, she glanced over to Caim, suspicious eyes sizing him up. Then, she looked back in the direction where the others stood. Finally, she looked up at the large hole in the ceiling, her lips tightening.

“Do we have a situation here? Give me a command.”

“Stand down, Jai. I’ll explain later.”

“If that’s the case, you should know the black-haired girl over there is... one of them.”

Jai whispered the last part, but Caim still heard.

“You’re sure?”

They were talking about Alice. There was no one else. But what could this knight be referring to?

“Positive. Should we take her with us?”

Gillis hastily held up a hand and frantically shook his head.

“No. Leave her be. Caim, how well do you know that other seeker?”

“She is my oldest friend in this city.”

“I don’t need magic to tell she’s strong, but virasense analysis reveals that she’s certainly spent a long time honing her muscles. I’m sure you can see what I see, but maybe you can’t read vira as clearly as me. I sometimes forget what civilian mages are capable of.

Gillis opened his palm to add emphasis to his words.

“Is her personality… like yours?”

He was asking if she was going to get herself into trouble. As his friend, Gillis must have been worried for Caim’s sake, after the bizarre interest he’d taken in him. However, it wasn’t worth concerning himself over.

“Alice regularly prays to Arbe. She admires discipline and the resilience to overcome anything. She has a simple dream, to get strong and be closer to Arbe.”

“How admirable,” the Knight Jai complimented. “I would never look down on a plain dream like that.” She looked like she hadn’t meant to say that out loud and glanced down in muted embarrassment. “I can tell I’ve interrupted you, my lord. I will wait upstairs for your orders.”

The Hexknight thanked her for her work and assured her he’d be right with her after finishing up down here. While he spoke to his underling, Caim tried to assess his character based on how he treated Jai. He seemed to care about his people.

“Keep your friend close,” Gillis said to Caim. “I pray we meet again under better circumstances.”

Caim nodded, but he stayed silent. He didn’t want to meet the Hexknight again, but he also knew that this could have ended more disastrously.

“I won’t ask again if you’ll work under me in a more formal capacity. I can see that is out of the question now, but who knows what the far flung future holds. You missed my speech after you left the hall, before our private chat and before… all this... but you will find out anyway. I made the same promises I made to you to the Guild as a whole, and I staked my name on it.”

What is he talking about?

The Hexknight reached into an inner pocket of his vest and rummaged around. Caim heard the faint chime of metal and then a bluish gray coin flashed into view when his hand finally surfaced. Gillis slid it over to Caim.

“Everyone involved in this incident is getting restitution. Hexaline Knights don’t have to pay for much themselves, so I don’t normally carry any of the smaller denominations. Metal dampens magic, you see, and it matters all the more when you reach my level. The purity of Alde coins is highly regulated. I can’t even begin to imagine how you can cast spells in that getup, but I’ve stated my curiosity for the day, maybe even the week. Take these and use them well.”

This was the only coin Mille hadn’t shown him when she was explaining the denominations. An alde coin was worth 150 medows and 3150 huscs.

Caim was paid in dull gray “husc” coins for his contracts. It was enough for food and basic living expenses, depending on what your living arrangements were. Basic clothing was also relatively inexpensive, but still not as cheap as he’d expected it to be. He now realized this was because he’d grown accustomed to the mass production of his old life.

Armor cost green “medow” coins at a minimum, sometimes tens or more. Caim remembered seeing a priceboard at Ashera’s Attires that went over a hundred. Many basic amenities seemed to be priced in medows. Maybe it was because the city had higher prices or maybe it was related to Shroud’s state of technological development.

An alde coin was worth more than he could make in a month at his current pace, if not two months. He didn’t know the exact amount, but the Guild was large enough to make regular transactions in these coins, so maybe they were a little more common among wealthy citizens.

“I’ll pray to Nosk and Rute,” Caim said, making the prayer gesture. “Your knights did save us, and I won’t forget it. Oh, and I’ll give real thought to your instructions.”

It came out awkwardly, but he was trying to make up for what he’d done to the Hexknight for fear of future reprisal.

Gillis had started to turn away but this made him glance back for a moment. He smiled with his eyes and then kept walking to the stairs out of Arla’s forge.

Just when Caim thought he would leave without another word, Gillis spun around and a chill ran down Caim’s spine.

“Gods well chosen. You do that. It may not mean much now, but this Guild branch has a supporter,” he said looking at Marian, who was now within earshot. “Use that support to keep to your mission keeping good people alive, and continue employing citizens of all kinds,” he added, glancing at Mille and Caim.

It wasn’t so much what he’d said, but more whatever he was implying.

“It was chaotic in there at the time, but I do seem to recall a strange object kind of like that conjuration you showed me. Was that what helped us break through the barrier in the end?”

The question confused him. Just what was the knight trying to say? The Hexknight watched Caim’s bewildered face with great interest. Then he let out a sigh, making the shortened prayer gesture.

He must be talking about what Vera used my body to do, Caim remembered, unconsciously sliding his fingers across the collar around his neck.

“No matter. The Guild’s mission has the blessing of my patron deity. That is what I believe.”

With that, the dangerous and mysterious Hexaline Knight left the four of them alone in the large chamber. Marian wobbled over to a toppled obstacle, and Mille caught her hand to help her take a seat before her legs gave out. The faron stared at Caim, expressionless while rubbing Marian’s back supportively, as Caim looked up at the hole in the ceiling.

How am I still alive?

He looked back over to Mille, who still had her gaze locked firmly on him.

“What do we do now?” he asked.

A bright violet sheen coated Mille’s conduits under the blue lantern light. She just shrugged helplessly and without a word.