Chapter 4 — The Council of the Awakened

Alden had a million questions.

"You've got a million questions," Rika echoed his thoughts nonchalantly. "Thanks, Dan," she added, as Dan finally slid a basket of fries onto their table. "Sorry about these. I'll pay you back somehow," she said, pointing at the couple of blackened spots on the wall.

"You do that," muttered Dan. He obviously didn't expect much.

"What do you mean, magic is real?" asked Alden.

Rika started wolfing down fries. "Look," she answered between mouthfuls. Not much in the way of table manners. "I can spend all day explaining, or you can follow me to the meeting." Alden winced as she stuffed another handful of fries into her mouth. She noticed and stopped gorging herself so much. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Alden looked away before he felt sick. The restaurant proprietor was staring at the charred circles on the wall of his establishment with glazed eyes. Alden felt too nervous to ask Rika anything else. That show of power would scare anyone, he reasoned. Doesn't mean you're a coward. She's still the best bet you've found in town so far.

Rika finished off the last few fries with a satisfied gulp. "All right, let's go."

It wasn't a very long walk from Dan's restaurant to the college campus, but Alden felt like every step of the way was a step further into the dark underbelly of an otherwise unassuming village. It was intimidating, but Alden felt a thrill with every step. He was compelled forward inch by inch to follow Rika. They passed a bookstore and an overnight diner, a grocery store and a tiny gas station. It could have been the center of any small town in the Northwest. In fact, the only thing that seemed out of place was his companion walking briskly at his side.

He kept a strict distance between them as they walked. If Alden stepped any closer, he could feel the electricity in the air—a faint hum and crackle that wasn't truly audible, but danced along the hairs on his skin and sent his mind spinning. He kept shooting Rika sidelong glances whenever he thought she wasn't looking, hoping (and maybe fearing) he'd see those arcs of lightning crackling along the streak in her hair once more. He still couldn't decide whether he was afraid of her or mesmerized by her.

"'Sup?" Rika asked finally, with an air of frustration. Alden had just tried (unsuccessfully) to sneak another glimpse of his new companion.

"Nothing," he replied, quickly looking the other way. To his surprise, he was greeted with a husk of a building at the end of the street they were crossing, caved in rafters and piles of ash. He stopped walking, fascinated.

The place was mostly destroyed, but he could make out the broken remains of a gargoyle statue at one corner, cracked in pieces and shoved into the dirt as if it had fallen from a great height. From the way the walls began to arch upward, he guessed it had originally sat atop the third or maybe even a fourth floor, though there was only bits and pieces of the second floor remaining, mostly charred wood and timber.

Stone gateways lined the bottom floor, with spiked fences leading away giving the entire place a very gothic feel. It was completely at odds with the architecture of the rest of the town, even with most of it burned away. As if to accentuate the bleak atmosphere of the place, it began to rain while he stared, drops tapping on his head one by one.

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that place too," Rika spoke up from behind him. Alden jumped. He hadn't realized she'd stopped walking along with him. "It apparently burned down not too long ago. Was supposed to be demolished anyway," she added, nodding toward a torn wooden board nailed over one shattered window, with the word CONDEMNED scrawled across in orange paint, though half of the word had been chopped away. "Can't sightsee any more though, we've gotta hurry up if we want to make the meeting," she added, turning away.

He hesitated, still staring at the caved in sides and piles of rubble.

There was no way a fire could cause that much damage on its own, Alden decided. Some of that damage had to be deliberate and targeted. It looked like the structure had been besieged, explosive impacts knocking through the stone walls and collapse them in strategic locations. Who would be assaulting a library in this day and age?

Alden's excitement grew along with his curiosity. He'd stumbled onto a real adventure, one beyond the mystery teased by the envelope still sequestered in his jacket.

Rika got impatient and grabbed his hand. A tiny shock of electricity spiked through his arm, and Alden instinctively tried to recoil, but she just rolled her eyes and began pulling him down the street. After one last craned look at the desiccated structure, he followed her through the gates to the campus a block away.

"This is it?" Alden asked.

"What were you expecting?" Rika asked, amused.

He felt very underwhelmed. It was a pretty normal meeting room at the university, with a table set on the side with a bowl of punch and a single sad-looking plate of cookies. Alden took one gingerly and nibbled on it, but thankfully it tasted much better than it looked.

He turned away from the snack table to the rest of the room, where a few people were still setting out cheap plastic and metal chairs in rows facing the front. A lectern sat off to the side, with a very tired looking middle-aged man seated behind it playing a game on his phone. In the center below the blackboard, a table with three chairs—clearly intended for the leadership of this thing, whatever it was. In fact, the only thing that stood out as unusual in the room at all were the gently flickering candles, spread out evenly through the room in spite of the fluorescents humming away in the ceiling.

"What do we do?" he asked. Rika stood idly at the rear of the room near one door, carefully watching people file in through the other.

"Well, I'm here to find someone. I don't know about you though. Why are you here?" she asked pointedly.

"I'm here to…" He hesitated. Rika munched on a cookie, glancing at him with only a passing interest. "Find someone too, I guess."

"Who?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly.

"Good luck with that."

A few more people filed in as they spoke. Most ended up taking spots around the edges of the chairs. The people setting up had set out some sixty-four chairs, in eight rows of eight, but only six or so were actually filled. The three chairs at the front were still empty, and most of the newcomers hadn't sat down at all, but remained at the edges of the room as Rika and Alden did. The majority of the room must have been in their twenties, though a few were clearly younger or much older. More than a few furtive looks came their way, although Alden couldn't be sure if they were looking at him or the exit he stood by. He decided to ignore the people on the fringes and focus on those who actually sat down.

The man behind the lectern was dressed in a dark blue suit and tie, which stood out compared to the hooded sweatshirts and plain jackets most in attendance wore. He had a very clean and professional look to him, with short well-trimmed hair and a clean-shaven face. He'd since put his phone away, though his nervous expression remained. Every few seconds he'd glance at his watch, clearly wanting desperately to just get on with it.

Of the people in the chairs, Alden could only clearly make out a few of them from behind, since most were either unremarkable from his angle, or wore hoods up over their heads. Concealment and secrecy seemed paramount amongst this group.

In the front row, a very impatient young girl fidgeted, her head snapping around the room constantly as she rocked back and forth in her chair. From her height and the pigtails, Alden would have guessed her to be middle school aged, if not younger. She wore a set of denim overalls, and had brought a thick pink jacket emblazoned with a cartoon unicorn she'd draped over her chair, rainwater sluicing onto the floor from the downpour outside.

She chewed anxiously on one fingernail, but her expression was anything but worried or nervous. If anything, the girl seemed angry and impatient—dangerous, even. Alden decided to look away.

The second person he spotted was a gaunt looking man seated in the fourth row, with a thick black cast on his left arm, held in a sling in front of him. He was dressed in a heavyset military-style jacket and combat boots, with long stringy black hair masking the edges of harsh-looking tattoos on his neck just above the cuff of his jacket. The man's demeanour shouted military, even more so than one might typically expect. He was grizzled and rough as sandpaper, and as Alden watched he took a healthy swig from a hip flask, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

The next notable was a collective half dozen people sitting in one corner, where they had dragged chairs away from the main group. Instead of the usual plain hooded jackets and sweaters, this group wore a set of matching light gray cloaks—in varying degrees of quality—draped around their shoulders and held by silver clasps in the front in the shape of an eight-pointed star. As Alden glanced by, the leader of the group looked him back directly in the eyes with a twinkle in her own. She had silver-grey hair, barely past her ears, and her elfin face flashed him a mischievous one-sided smile before he quickly turned away to focus on another, less aware individual.

The final person to stand out was a stunningly beautiful woman with long flowing red hair seated in the back row. She wore a necklace with an ID badge which looked like it belonged to the university. A pair of sunglasses hung from the neckline of her shirt, accentuating a… particular region of her body. Her expression made it clear she felt she had better things to do than attend this meeting.

At her waist, Alden spotted a bag very similar in design and style to the one Rika wore, down to the same gold buckle. He glanced around at the rest of the attendees and saw that many of them too wore some sort of pouch or container at their waist where they could easily access it. A few had brought backpacks or cinch sacks instead, and the little girl in the front row had a shiny yellow purse shaped like a banana, in addition to a bright pink backpack matching her jacket.

Alden went back to watching the redheaded woman just as she made some sort of hand gesture to the man seated behind the lectern. He stood up and walked out the door behind him, which closed with a sharp click. It briefly halted the murmur of conversation, before it bubbled up again.

"Her," Alden muttered, nodding at the redhead.

"Hmm?" Rika asked. She'd been staring out the frosted glass window at the raindrops pattering against the building.

"She's someone important. Probably worth talking to."

"Who?" Rika looked around the room.

"Back row."

"Mmmm, the smoking hot redhead?"

"Yeah— wait, what?

"What? Don't tell me you didn't notice she's sexy as fuck. I'd hit that."

"But, back at the restaurant… Ryan."

"Eh, I don't discriminate." Alden's face lit up like an oven. Rika laughed. "You okay there?"

Alden cleared his throat and glanced away, his cheeks still burning red. "Sorry, I'm not used to talking about this stuff," he stammered.

"Aww," Rika cooed. Alden continued to look determinedly at the crowd and away from his teasing companion. "Well anyway, I think you're right. That's Kendra, teaches Economics here at the college. I don't even normally go for older girls, but fu-u-uck, I wouldn't mind talking to her. Bet you wouldn't either." Alden felt the warmth in his cheeks double up. Rika snickered. "Here's a bonus for you: that body is all natural."

"Huh?"

"Well, unlike certain Ryans of the world, Kendra's not using any magic to spruce up her looks. If she was, my allergies would be kicking up."

"Your… allergies?" Alden asked with interest.

"Yeah, I'm allergic to that shit. It's—"

Rika cut off. Alden looked back at the front of the room, which had become utterly silent.

It was time for the meeting.