Powerful, twisted people became a commonality following the Apocalypse. I’m not sure whether this was because the System rewarded their deviancy, or if power simply caused them to disregard morality. Either way, we all learnt first-hand how even the mildest of men could be monsters inside.

Wilfrid Pember - Historian- The Start of the Apocalypse

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“They’ve been asking about you,” Josh said with worry. He was in Silas’s house with Rolf, Iris, and Silas, sitting around a coffee table holding cups of tea and a platter of biscuits. “Like a lot. And about anyone close to you.”

Silas acknowledged the point passively with a hum but felt dismal inside. He remembered the body sliding off his spear, its condemning eyes, its faint smile. Why did everyone want to be mayor so badly? Would it be easier if he gave the position away?

Seeing his outward lack of concern, Josh tried again. “Mike only has an uncommon class, but have you seen the way Alice follows him? She’s like his pet on a leash, but a very dangerous one that no one wants to mess with. He’s building his faction up, man, and I bet my bottom dollar he’s coming for you.”

Sighing, Silas finally let his emotions seep onto his face. “What can I do though? I can’t exactly go and kick his door down and tell him to fuck off, can I?” His voice was harsher than intended, and he saw Josh flinch. “Sorry. I’m just frustrated. Like I don’t know if there’s any point in me being mayor if I’m already stuck this early on.”

Iris rose from her chair and patted Silas on the head. He turned to look at her, and she smiled awkwardly as if trying to console him but not quite managing. He didn’t care as he felt better anyway; she reminded him of Ethan, his brother.

Chloe had been different, far more confident and adventurous, but Ethan had always been awkward and kind. Foolishly so, in Silas’s view, but it hadn’t mattered as he had loved them both anyway, only to ditch them in the end.

Taking off his glasses, Rolf wiped the fog off their lenses and put them back on. “Oh, sure there is, Silas. You are the strongest here, and I would rather have you leading us than Big Mike,” he said, using finger quotations sardonically. “Besides, you don’t have to do much else other than looking pretty with Elise taking care of matters on the back end. I’ve got to give it to you, picking her was a brilliant idea.”

That was true, Silas supposed, although it had been more Dom’s idea than his own. Elise had been an absolute lifesaver in organising all the building work and the bureaucracy surrounding them. In fact, she had immediately switched her class from Executioner to Minister, stating that the gore was starting to sicken her anyway. Although she had initially told him he had to do some work as well in order to grow into a responsible man, so far she had done all of it for him and then gone on to suggest improvements that could be made.

For one, the monsters they were hunting around the village soon wouldn’t be enough to feed their burgeoning population. She had pointed out rapidly sprouting seeds for sale in the agricultural sub-section of the buildings menu. If they could clear out the land around Riverside and assign plots, she claimed they could pre-emptively solve the issue before it even became one, and so he had shared the relevant mayoral powers with her and told her to do what she thought was best.

She had begun by hiring a dozen people to help her govern Riverside, whilst also setting up a council to decide on the broad strokes they would take in painting Riverside to their image. Rolf was on the council as their wartime strategist, Iris as their head healer, Josh as their resident socialite, Bandana Dom as the chief of the Riverside Constabulary, in addition to a lot of non-fighters who had been here long and held considerable influence over certain fields. In all, they were people Silas liked or accepted, and he had a final say over matters.

“That’s true,” Josh said, agreeing with Rolf, “Elise was a game-changer, no offence to you, Silas.”

Silas shrugged. “None taken. But this still leaves the Mike issue. I don’t want it to end in another bloody affair.” He immediately regretted his words as Iris’s hand stiffened. Fortunately, she seemed to recover quickly.

“Well, I would say it’s only a matter of time before he jostles into the council. He’s got a lot of influence, especially with those thugs of his, and many people from his Den still listen to his every word.” Rolf scratched his brow with a grimace. “I honestly can’t see a way of refusing him without it then leading to a bloodbath.”

Rolf’s words momentarily subdued them into silence until Josh perked back up. “Hear me out. What if, instead of trying to cut him down, we just make our own faction stronger? Think about it, if we convince Natalie and Raven to join us, Mike will think twice before starting a scuffle. Like I don’t even know what a Cryomancer or Voidcaller is, but they’ve got to be powerful, right?”

“I guess that could work,” Silas admitted, his mood lifting. “Just the question of bringing them over to our side, I guess. What can we even offer?”

Moving back to her seat, Iris scribbled on her notepad and showed it to them. Friendship! There were doodles of flowers around the word and even a star shooting over it. Despite this, she soberly gazed at them one by one as if encouraging them to speak up.

Unsure how to react, Silas stared at it blankly until finally she broke into laughter - he could hardly hear it, but he could see her belly shaking and the glee unfurling across her face.

Ignoring the obvious signs this was a joke, Josh continued to stare at it solemnly, rubbing his scruffy chin as if in deep thought. “Wait just a minute, do you happen to know one of them?” he asked, his eyes widening.

She nodded and returned to her notepad to expand on her answer. Natalie came by the apothecary yesterday. She was interested in our development of healing potions and asked if she could help. I had been planning to trek north with a few healers to gather these strong medicinal plants that we had heard rumours of, so I asked if she wanted to join, and she said yes.

“That’s sick! Damn, Iris, you’re one step ahead of us already,” Josh said freely with a chuckle.

She took off her newsboy cap and bowed.

“Wait, can I come with you?” he asked.

Raising an eyebrow, she considered it, then nodded. He jumped from his seat and high-fived her. “Brilliant!”

“Just Raven left then,” Rolf said, nibbling on a biscuit. He seemed to enter deep thought for a moment but came out the next second with a shake of his head. “She’s a peculiar one, that’s for sure.”

“You know something about her?” Silas asked. He had seen the Voidcaller once, and all he could tell then was that she liked open clothes, and that she seemed powerful.

“Well,” Rolf said, cringing slightly. He tipped his head towards Josh, “I haven’t personally talked to her, but I was with Josh when she came to chat with him.”

“Oh yeah,” Josh said, his cheer dimming to a frown. “She was weird, man. Like I should have been happy speaking with such a hottie, you know, but she had this weird vibe to her. Like…”

“Slow? Stilted? Forward?” Rolf offered.

“Yeah, yeah,” Josh agreed. “All three. Although, thinking back, she was pretty much just asking about you, Silas. So maybe you won’t have to do anything to bring her over. Maybe she’ll come over herself instead.”

Suddenly, they heard firm knocking on the front door. Silas thought there was no way, but on his way to see who it was, he stopped mid-step as he made out Raven through the window. Likewise, she caught a glimpse of him and waved slowly. Finding his axe and hooking it to his belt (just in case), he crossed the room and opened the door.

“Hey, Raven,” he said, his eyes drifting from her cleavage to her face to the woman behind her.

____

Raven Cox, the Voidcaller, was originally a university student from England, noted by her peers for an obsessive interest in the occult. This interest bore fruit in the hard tutorial as she murdered a teammate in his sleep and sacrificed him to summon her first voidling. Her new companion saved her from the rest of her team’s wrath as it promptly killed them and feasted on their bodies, sparing only the one subservient to her.

Being cycled from group to group, she took her time in completing the tutorial and came to Idroa later than others. She wandered the new planet for a while, coming upon people and either killing them off or making them docile to her whims, only to eventually kill them anyway when she grew bored of them. After a period of repeating this pattern, she came upon Riverside and took an immediate interest in its leader, Silas Wycliffe, the Duellist…

Stefan Sommer - the Chronicler - Heroes and Villains of the First Age