“First, I’ll just say that I have no idea what is normal for Users, or Defects for that matter. I’ve also just started getting to know my Daemon partner, so I have no idea what our true capabilities are. Almost everything I’ll tell you now is what I’ve been told by either the Guildmasters or the Daemon that helped me with the final User assessment. Mostly Mae, though.”

Val looked at each of them in turn. Zavis gave her a nod to continue when she got to him. She looked down at her clasped hands on the table, composing her thoughts.

“I’ve never been the strongest candidate at direct combat. If anything, my greatest aptitude was with the Technicians – tweaking subroutines, understanding how nanosystems and neural links work, that sort of thing. But I don't want to just be stuck in a lab for the rest of my life. There are certain things I need to see for myself. Out there.”

“So I took my understanding and specialized in nano disruption. It’s an uncommon technique for humans to use, but there are plenty of beasts out there that cripple their prey like that. Combining that with whatever combat skills I could pick up, I made it through to the final User selection.”

Val’s hands tightened and she took another deep breath. Bri reached out to lightly touch her arm, causing Val to look up at her. “Sorry. Frankly, I’m still coming to terms with everything.”

“Don’t apologize, you’re doing great. We appreciate you opening up like this.” Bri gave her an encouraging nod and then sat back again. Mustering her courage, Val powered on through her explanation.

“Things went well for me through initial contact and constructing the neural link. I had double digit synchronization from the start.” She noticed several raised eyebrows around the table. “Unfortunately, power transfer did not go nearly as well. Apparently, the large draw of my neural link overwhelmed my relatively weak core.”

Val forced herself to spit out the words before she lost her nerve. “There’s a crack in my core now. While things are stable for now, we have no idea when or how it’ll get worse. We think that straining my core is probably a bad idea, though.”

Wallon whistled. “Damn, that’s pretty rough. Critical flaw in your nanosystem from day one, huh?”

Val nodded. “As you can imagine, the Guildmasters didn’t want to let me be a User.”

“Indeed, who did you have? Mae certainly. Maybe Celedon. Who was your third?” Wallon sat back thinking, fingers drumming on the table.

“Actually, it was all seven.” Val cleared her throat as Wallon stared at her again. “With my rotations, it was to be only Mae, Celedon, and Mylar. But Hav and Zyra were present during my core fracture. And as Lucas put it, he and Vivian didn’t want to ‘be left out’ after that.”

Val pushed through the awkward silence. “Anyways, the short version is that they gave me a choice. Give up on being a User, or join the Defects with a Daemon of their choice. The collective had already identified a Daemon that would be a good match with my skill set, and could potentially help me understand and maybe fix my cracked core. I chose the future with the highest possible potential.”

Zavis leaned forward now, the table creaking under the weight of his arms. Val noticed now that he still wore a sleeve of nano on his left arm, starting from mid-bicep down to his fingertips.

“I take it that the Daemon you’ve been assigned is the reason for your high anti-User rating, then?”

Val nodded unhappily. “The Daemon’s codename is Noir. They –”

Val was interrupted by the clattering of a chair. Her head whipped up to see Kaya standing suddenly, her chair on the ground behind her. The typically stoic woman’s face was twisted in anger as she stared down at Val. For her part, Val could only stare back in horror as her mind made the necessary leaps of logic to understand Kaya’s intense reaction.

Noir was assigned to take down rogue Users. Users that are seen as a threat to society. Sure, probably some Users in the Guilds fit that description, but it’s more likely that Noir’s typical targets were exiles. And Defects.

“I’m so sorry, Kaya. I didn’t kn–”

Val flinched as Kaya slammed her fist into the table, chips of wood flying up into the air. She turned on her heel and strode away. Zavis looked at Wallon and nodded his head in the direction of the retreated woman.

“Wallon, would you mind checking on her?” The portly man nodded. Standing up, he took off his apron and hung it in the kitchen before following Kaya. Zavis watched the two of them leave, running his nano-covered left hand through his hair. Val glanced at Bri, but the woman wore a confused frown on her face.

Zavis turned back to Val. “I’m sorry, you had no idea that we would have such… negative associations with Noir. Still, I must say that I’m incredibly surprised the entire Council would sign off on assigning you such a dangerous Daemon.”

Val hesitated, but she needed to know. “Did Noir… Was it one of you?”

Zavis fixed her with another one of his stares. “So they told you something after all, then. I’m surprised you agreed, although I guess you are young and naive. Yes, it was one of us. One who was particularly close to Kaya. I think we rationally agree that they had gone rogue and needed to be terminated, but… there is a lot of bitterness and anger still remaining.”

Val nodded sadly, fighting back tears. Zavis’s words cut deep because they were true. She was young and naive. She had been cavalier with Rez when they had described what Noir had done in the past. She ignored all the bad for that slim selfish possibility that her core could be fixed.

But for Kaya and the other Defects, this wasn’t ancient history. Not just another name in a mission log. Noir was her partner, but they were also responsible for causing much grief and anger. Val felt a crushing weight come over her. She couldn’t just ignore what Noir had done in the past anymore, not after seeing its effects like this. It was her burden to bear now as well.

She tuned back into the conversation to catch the tail end of Zavis explaining the significance of Noir to Bri.

“Noir is essentially an assassin Daemon. They specialize in cutting off the connection between a User and a Daemon, as well as suppressing the User’s nanosystem. Doesn’t matter how strong the User is, Noir can limit them to F grade power levels.”

Bri glanced at Val again, her expression serious. But Val could see just the barest hint of concern in Bri’s face. No, not you too. Fear and hate lead to isolation, right Zavis? Val bit her lip and tore her gaze away from Bri, unable to stand looking at the woman who had given her hope that she could find a new friend among the Defects.

“Val, this explains your unusually high anti-User rating. Even untrained, Noir’s presence alone makes you a significant threat. But what Gaia-forsaken reason could they have to pair a green User with a Daemon like that?”

“The reason the Council gave me was that Noir’s skills were uniquely qualified to study and maybe reverse the damage to my core.” Val paused before continuing, a pleading tone entering her voice. “I swear, I have no intention to… do the things Noir used to do. And frankly, I think it weighs on Noir too. They’ve refused to speak about anything combat-related with me. I just… I wanted a chance to fix my core.”

Zavis appraised her for several long seconds before standing suddenly.

“You are either telling the truth, or you are the best liar I’ve ever seen.” Val opened her mouth but Zavis raised her hand to forestall her. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say that this was not the way we expected today to go. We all need to cool off so that we can tackle this with rational minds tomorrow. Do you still have a place you were planning to sleep tonight?”

Val nodded mutely.

“Then stay there tonight, and report back here tomorrow morning at 8 AM. I’m not sending you away Val, but I hope you understand that we need some time to process this as well. I promise we’ll continue this discussion tomorrow.”

Val simply nodded again, feeling hollow inside. She heard his words, but couldn’t quiet that paranoid, anxious voice inside her mind. My one chance, the one group of people that could have understood me. And I ruined it. Turning sharply on her heel, Val avoided eye contact with Bri and walked quickly away. She didn’t look back as she stepped into the staging room and climbed up the ladder.

The evening passed by in a blur for Val. She retreated back to her apartment, switching out of her under-armor outfit into a more comfortable set of street clothes. Part of her wanted to just curl up in her bed and put an end to the miserable day, but stewing in her negative emotions would probably be a bad idea.

Instead, she just left her apartment and walked aimlessly around town. She tried calling Fynn, but he didn’t answer. Maybe he was out on a Guardian patrol or some other Guild business. She was close to the rest of Fynn’s family too but she didn’t feel like explaining the whole User selection story again.

Celedon and Mae might have been good candidates for her to vent to, especially considering they could have provided her with critical information about Noir’s previous targets that could have significantly improved her interactions with the Defects. But asking them for advice so early seemed a little bit like admitting defeat to Val, so she resisted the urge to call them.

She occasionally tried reaching out to Noir, alternating between trying to coax them back out of their isolation and pleading for some support and affirmation. Despite her best efforts, the Daemon remained silent. She could feel them lurking in the back of her mind, but they ignored all of her attempts at interaction.

And so she simply walked. And thought. It had been years since she had felt this sort of isolation. Not since her parents had been reported as going rogue and then terminated, and her subsequent ostracization by the Messenger Guild.

Eventually, she ran out of energy to stay worked up about the day. For the past thirty-six hours now, she had been emotionally battered. Her final selection, the ups and downs of the assessment, her decision to become a Defect, the initial meeting, the mission, the catastrophic debrief. It was just too much for her to hold in her mind all at once.

By the time she made it back to her apartment, she wasn’t upset anymore. She was just exhausted. She hadn’t made a decision on whether to show up at the Defect compound the next morning, but set an alarm for 7:30. Let future Val deal with that decision. Falling back on the bed, she drifted off into sleep.

The wolf slunk between buildings, intelligence gleaming in its eyes. It had watched all evening as the young User walked aimlessly between broken buildings. The lower population density made it easy for the creature to avoid any encounters. And so it simply tracked and observed, learning about its prey. Dangerous prey to be sure, but prey nonetheless. As the User entered her abode for the night, the wolf slipped back out into the forest.

With an effort of will, he ripped his consciousness from that of the Enhanced wolf. The beast had been specifically modified to be dominated by his mind, allowing him to direct the wolf remotely. But despite his best efforts, it was impossible to stop some of the beast’s feral thoughts from passing back into his mind. It had been disconcerting at first, but he didn’t mind anymore. He broke out in a wide grin. The dim light in the cave reflecting off his pointed teeth, filed down to be more predatory.

“Oh, you little Guildmasters, what have you done? Leaving such a promising toy out for the taking?” He cackled to himself as he disconnected the cables tethering him to the chair. Over such long distances, he needed a power boost to maintain a steady connection with his wolf.

“Finally decided to leave your pet and join usss, have you?” A voice hissed out at him from the darkness. He growled in response, feeling his hackles rise – no, this was the wrong body for that. The growl trailed off into a barking laugh before he responded.

“Mmm yes, I think I’ve found quite the development out in Peakpoint. A brand-new User, so young and impressionable. A Daemon we thought out of reach just sitting there for the taking.” Blood trailed down his chin as his jagged smile cut into his lip. “I think it is time we activated some of our assets in the city.”

“You know you don’t have the power to make those sssorts of decisions by yourself, Wolf.” The voice snapped angrily.

“Calm yourself, Snake. Once you hear the other details, I’m sure you’ll authorize the use of more assets yourself. Our target damaged her core during final User assessment, got assigned to the Defects day one. They took her out on a mission. She’s weak but shows promise.”

“You and your Defectsss… Stop playing around with those freaks and follow your orders!”

“Well, what can I say… I do love them broken.” A wheezy chuckle escaped his throat before continuing. “But you’ll love this next bit. The Daemon they assigned her… Noir! She’s weak, can hardly defend herself, and she feels isolated right now. Can you imagine the glory we would bring to the Unshackled if we could capture such a powerful Daemon?”

Silence blanketed the darkness. Wolf licked his lips and briefly reveled in the rusty taste of his own blood. He couldn’t wait to join his mind back up with his beast to go out and hunt. But first, he needed to convince Snake. It wouldn’t be long now. The allure of glory was already too strong for Snake, the scheming bastard that he was. But Wolf had one more card to play up his sleeve.

“Oh, one last thing. Nearly slipped my mind. This new target of mine… she’s a Peakcour.”

An angry hiss rang out in the cave, and Wolf’s grin broadened even further. As easy as separating out a young deer from the herd. When Snake spoke next, every trace of annoyance was gone from their voice. Instead, it was filled with cold fury and focus.

“Tell me more.”