Ryan and Kara ambled back to the Guild manor, chatting about the city and different gear they had seen. They reached the front door of the manor just as the day started transitioning into early evening.

“I’ll meet you here in the morning and we can go check out the Administrator mission boards,” Ryan said.

Kara nodded and waved as she strode off to take care of her own business. Ryan walked through the front entrance in search of Destin. It didn’t take long to find him; his office was a giant monstrosity found on the second floor. Stacks of odd materials filled every available corner and storage space. Ryan imagined they were for building constructs, but he couldn’t even identify most of it, let alone figure out what he used them for.

“Do you have any news about what’s happening with the smugglers, or the Shadowmen that are running around out there?” Ryan leaned against the door frame, willing to interrupt, but not to intrude.

Destin put down the elaborate quill pen he’d been using to fill out paperwork and rubbed his eyes. He stretched and yawned, before finally bringing his attention to Ryan and gesturing at the vacant seat in front of his desk. Ryan took the seat, having trouble adjusting to his new gear that poked out in places he was unaccustomed to. Settled, he turned his full attention to Destin.

“We’ve got someone tracking the gang. We think we have an idea where they’re gathered, but nothing concrete yet. It shouldn’t be long, though. As for the Shadowmen, that’s a bigger issue. They’re swarming over the countryside. I had a report from Rild that one of their Guilders found the Breach that they’re coming through, and it’s a problem.”

“What’s the problem? I thought Breaches were common all over the place.”

“I’m surprised you don’t know, or at least that the person you’ve been living with didn’t tell you. Maybe she didn’t know herself.” Destin steepled his fingers and went quiet for a second. “When dimensional layers of different realities or planes come in contact and are also infused with magical energy, it forms a Breach. There could be many of these contact points at any location, but only ones that have energy on both sides feeding it will produce Breaches.”

“I think I get it. I doubt I’ll understand the mechanics, but why is this Breach such a problem?”

“There are basically two types of Breach. The first is the one I described; they occur naturally and they’re semi-permanent. They last for hundreds to thousands of years and are fed by unfathomable amounts of energy. The second type, which applies to the Breach through which the shadow people and their familiars are coming, is artificial. People create them, almost always an Ascender.” Destin stopped talking and stared over his steepled fingers at Ryan.

Ryan let that tidbit tumble around in his mind for a few seconds, the implications coming into focus. The clear connection between the two Breaches he knew about firsthand was obvious in retrospect, but he’d been missing a vital piece of information.

“Flicker,” Ryan said. “That son of a bitch. There’s more, though, isn’t there. The Breach I came through wasn’t permanent. Except for when I came through it, I never saw it again and neither did anybody else. They’re both in the same area.”

Destin nodded slowly. “That is also what I’m thinking. I don’t have any evidence for your own personal Breach, but it is all a little too convenient for Flicker. His first attempt, I am assuming to your original world, probably caused a great backlash that put him out of commission for a while. I am guessing he came back to try again. Since he walked away just fine, I assume he was close to success.”

“I’m not sure what this means for me. I can’t do anything to the guy, if I could even find him. If I tried, he’d just smear me across the nearest tree.”

“Right now, it means nothing. Flicker is beyond you and me but rest assured that the people that need to know have been informed.” Destin paused and leaned back in his chair.

“Between us and the Guild in Rild, we are going to organize a few parties of Awakened to go out and clean up the shadow people. We will also send a Silver ranker skilled in Rune Script and rituals to drain the excess energy keeping the Breach open. This will take a few days, though, and there is nothing for you to do in the meantime. I assume you will want to go with them, so I suggest you practice your abilities, run some missions, or otherwise familiarize yourself with your new self. I’ll let you know when we send out our parties.”

Ryan nodded and said, “I’ve got a lot to think about. Thanks for letting me know.” He clapped his hands on his legs to help leverage himself up with his gear, nodded to Destin, and left the office.

Flicker. Conflicting emotions tore through Ryan. Before, there was no direct evidence, other than Flicker being present, to connect him to the attack or destruction of the village. Now that he had more information, the connection was obvious. Flicker had still saved his life, but at the cost of putting his life in danger in the first place, not to mention all the other death and displacement of the villagers.

Ryan didn’t think Flicker was evil. He wasn’t any more evil than a tornado was evil, yet the tornado still tore a destructive path through whatever it encountered. Ryan wanted to rage, wanted to get revenge, but instead just felt deflated. How do you punish a tornado?

His thoughts continued in this vein as he descended to the barracks where the victims of the vitality thieves rested. He hadn’t seen Casey all day, and he worried that she’d sunk even further into herself.

When he arrived at Casey’s parent’s bunks, he didn’t immediately find her. Her parents appeared to rest easy, so he wasn’t concerned about that. He looked around at the bustle of city employees and Guilders doing the necessary work to keep the impromptu medical bay in working order.

He needn’t have worried. As it turned out, Casey was among them, helping them complete their work and maintain order in the busy place.

He corralled her into a less busy corner and checked in on her.

“I’m doing better. The work is keeping me busy, and now that I know they’re getting better, I’m not as stressed out, you know? Plus, they’ve offered me a job here, so I can do that until they fix stuff out there.”

“Have you heard what they’re going to do with everybody here? They can’t stay here forever, at least I don’t think they can,” Ryan said.

“If they don’t start waking up by tomorrow, the city is going to move them to a more permanent spot in the city with better stuff to care for everyone. The city is paying for it all, and I think the Guild chipped in a little, so that’s all worked out.”

Ryan kept the conversation going, glad that she was better, and that she had some way to support herself. It reassured him to know that the refugees would not get the boot back to the street, at least not while they were in such a fragile state. He was also happy Casey was back on her feet. If she wasn’t her normal feisty, chipper self, then at last she walked the path to it.

He left Casey to her work, gathered his things from his bunk, and found an out of the way spot where the noise wasn’t too bad. It had been an exhausting two days. Despite the early hour, he dropped his gear and flopped down onto the bed. It didn’t take long for the world to fade away to sleep.

###

Ryan’s eyes snapped open, but he rolled over and buried his face in the pillow, unwilling to get out of bed. Based on the lack of bustling noises from the barracks, it was still early. Going back to sleep didn’t work, so he rolled out of bed. He went to put on his boots but realized he hadn’t even bothered taking them off the night before.

He debated leaving his new weapons behind but decided on taking them to meet up with Kara, as he didn’t know what was going to happen. If he left on a mission, he didn’t want to come back to fetch his stuff. With that, he picked up his pack as well, just in case.

There were only a few people up and about in the manor as he made his way to the courtyard, and while he recognized a few of them just from having seen them around, he didn’t know anybody. He’d have to try to introduce himself around.

Kara wasn’t in the courtyard, so he set his pack aside and took out his short sword and buckler. The knowledge of their use was just… there, in his mind, as if it had always been there. It was an odd feeling, to suddenly have new knowledge living in your brain that wasn’t before and be aware of the difference.

He started working through warmup exercises and gradually worked his way into basic stances and forms. When he felt up to it, he moved on to actual fighting maneuvers against mock opponents.

Despite the knowledge living in his mind feeling natural, there was still a disconnect between what he knew and what his body knew. Kara had said something about needing to build up muscle memory. He guessed that is what she meant, closing the gap between the knowledge and his body’s capability in carrying it out.

Incorporating his abilities into his workout turned out to be easier than he thought. There were some hiccups with timing, but the buckler acting as a focus already felt natural. Dashing with [Warp Step], using his increased strength and agility to vault around, and combining the predictive ability that came with [Spatial Cognition] renewed Ryan’s confidence in his choice to switch weapons. It was just so satisfying to feel his body move in sync with his abilities and weapons.

Kara emerged through the front gate a short time later, her spiky hair in place and dressed in her utilitarian leather and fabric outfit. Ryan didn’t know if it was armor, but after seeing that fantastic set of leather armor the day before, he was willing to bet that Kara’s getup provided a fair amount of protection and had hidden runes. So maybe it was armor after all. He thought back to the other Guild members he’d seen or met and couldn’t remember any of them wearing steel armor, or much metal at all.

“Kara, why aren’t any of the Awakened I’ve seen wearing metal armor?”

“It’s not worth the weight or mobility penalty until, like, Silver rank. That’s when those that wear the various types of steel start stacking the Rune Script etchings and resistance materials and the benefits far outweigh the downsides. Until then, the various leathers from magical beasts and other exotic materials do much better with no downsides other than durability.”

“I’m guessing that I won’t ever be the type that should use plate armor then, based on the role I’m trying to fill.”

“No, it’s still possible. If you get a Key that grants an ability that gives extra augmentation to strength, it might be worth it. You won’t know until you’ve filled out your abilities, though.”

“I’ll keep it in mind. Ok, so what are we doing. We’re going to check out the mission boards, right? Destin said I should take a few missions, so let’s go take a look,” Ryan said.

Ryan gathered his pack and followed Kara as she led the way out the front gate and across the city center plaza. The Administrator building was plain, but functional, built from the same stone as the rest of the city, but carried a more established and worn aura. At three stories, it was larger than the Guild manor, but the manor had all that enclosed land.

Despite the early hour, a fair number of people bustled around the entrance, coming and going. Most of them looked like the adventuring type, with a few more professional looking administrator types scattered around.

Once inside, Kara led the way through a large entry hall surrounded by counters manned by employees for various city government function offices. People already lined up to get the jump on the other early arrivals. They came to a wide entryway into another large hall, but instead of counters, this one was filled with well-organized rows of wooden boards with parchment documents pinned to them.

Kara stopped in front of one of the first boards and pointed to the top.

“You can tell what rank the missions are for by looking at the top, where you’ll see a plaque. This one is white, so it means these are unranked and anyone can do them, not just Guilders or other affiliated Awakened. They don’t pay much, relative to your strength, but they’ll be easy for you. Let’s go look at some Iron boards.”

As they walked by, Ryan read some titles of the missions on the unranked board. It looked like common tasks around the city. Everything from common laborer work to random odd jobs. Ryan spotted a familiar name, the city of Rild, and stopped to look. It looked to be a courier job to take something to Rild.

As far as he knew, Mags was still in Rild. It had only been a couple days since everything changed, although it felt like ages. He’d neglected seriously thinking about reuniting with Mags since he learned she was safe in Rild. No more delays. After today he’d make a serious effort to make the trip to Rild, since no doubt Mags worried about him and hadn’t had any news about his wellbeing.

His decision made, he steered his thoughts back to the present and realized Kara had turned the corner ahead. He caught up just as she planted herself in front of a new set of boards, all carrying an Iron colored plaque at the top.

“We want to find a few missions for you to do. A couple easy ones and something that will challenge you a little. This one will do.” She pulled a page from the board and continued browsing, nodded to herself, and plucked another and added it to the first. She handed them to Ryan and pursued more listings.

The first had a header with ‘Arrow Frogs’ in big bold letters. The second parchment carried the heading ‘Spiked Browsers’. He’d never heard of either. Below the headings, a crude map had been included with a general location marked, the accompanying directions a bit worrying in their sparseness. Before he could read the details, Kara returned with a third parchment in hand.

“What are Arrow Frogs and Spiked Browsers?” Ryan asked.

“Arrow Frogs are nasty buggers that come through one of the local Breaches now and then as they migrate. They nest along the river and ruin the plant life in a swath in every direction. They attack by launching themselves at you like an arrow, and they’ll wreck you with a sharp bone in their snout. The browsers are a type of oxen that come from the same Breach, with the same results; flora devastation. They have nasty spikes, but they’re big and slow, so it should be fine.” She handed him the last parchment with a sinister grin on her face.

He examined the title, unsure what had turned her into a cartoon villain.

“Collecting tree seeds?”

“That’s right. Tree seeds.” Her grin widened.

Kara dragged Ryan out of the mission board hall into the main hall up to a series of counters with a sword and shield symbol etched into a wooden plaque above. There was already a line, but they didn’t have to wait long until they were summoned up to the counter by a bored looking man with dead eyes. Looked like bureaucratic work didn’t change no matter where you did it.

Ryan placed the mission parchments on the counter in front of him and waited. And waited. The man stared back at him, half-lidded eyes judging, until Ryan started to get uncomfortable.

“Is there-”

“Guild plate, please,” the man finally said, his tone showing what he thought of Ryan’s intelligence.

With a start, Ryan remembered he was still wearing the plate. He dragged it up out of his shirt by the chain and placed it on the counter in front of him. The man took it and placed it on an arcane looking contraption with various runes etched into it, while simultaneously taking the parchments and processing them into a logbook with what looked like lists of dates and names.

He checked the Guild plate, noted some mysterious change, and quickly handed it back, along with the parchments. The man carried out the entire process with brutal bureaucratic efficiency, and never once after the initial statement did he acknowledge Ryan’s presence. Ryan was impressed.

Back outside in the plaza, Ryan settled everything back in its place and turned to Kara.

“Thanks for your help. I’d have fumbled about and embarrassed myself without you. I have one last favor to ask, though. I don’t know my way around very well. Is it possible that you’d come with me?”

“You need me to babysit you? You’re a big boy, you don’t need me to hold your hand.” Her small smile softened her words.

“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. It’s mostly so I don’t get lost, but I could use the company. I haven’t been out in the world much here, as you can tell.”

Kara, still smirking, looked thoughtful for a few seconds, then shrugged and said, “Yeah, why not. I’ll tell you what though, I’m not going to help you at all. I’m there just to point out mistakes and laugh. You’re going to get yourself out of whatever trouble you get yourself into.”

“Fine, fine. Works for me.”

“Let’s go stock up on some extra food and stuff and then find ourselves a river boat. I was going to let you walk, but since I’m going, I’d rather hire a boat.”

Ryan rolled his eyes, unsurprised, and led the way back to the shopping district to find some rations.