Celedon rushed into the chamber, late as he had been outside the city boundary on a Scout patrol when he got the call for an emergency meeting. The other Council members were already there, sitting around the table. Vivian leaned over towards Lukas, the Merchant talking animatedly while the Engineer rubbed his chin in thought as he listened. Hav and Mylar sat stoically next to each other, the Mercenary and Guardian both disliking idle chatter. They each gave Celedon a slight nod of the head, which he returned as he took a seat in his usual spot.

Across from him, Zyra sat quietly. The Messenger had become much more soft-spoken after the incident with her sister and brother-in-law several years ago, but her demeanor seemed to have become even more withdrawn over the past week. Despite all of Zyra’s attempts to distance herself from her disgraced family, it wasn’t difficult to see that the situation with Valriya was bothering her. Celedon made brief eye contact with her, but she quickly looked away.

Celedon frowned, but decided to not say anything. Looking to his side, he saw Mae’s eyes glance from side to side, hands reaching out and tapping in thin air on screens only the Technician could see. Always working, this one. Leaning over slightly, he nudged Mae in the ribs with his elbow. She blinked several times before giving Celedon a small smile, which he returned. Glancing around the table, she cleared her throat.

“Thank you all for gathering on such short notice.”

The conversation died down around the table as everyone focused on Mae. No Guildmaster stood above the others, but by implicit unanimous agreement, it fell to Mae to lead the discussions. Or almost unanimous, anyway. Celedon’s eyes flicked to Vivian, who had made her ambitions clear early in her tenure as the Merchant Guildmaster. Unfortunately for her, the other Guildmasters didn’t care for her brazen attitude, and thus the role of moderator fell back to Mae.

“I hope we can resolve this quickly,” Mylar said, crossing his arms. “I have other important matters to attend to.”

I assure you, those matters are of trivial consequence compared to the subject matter of this meeting.

Celedon froze as the voice entered his mind. Every other Guildmaster similarly stiffened and they all turned to look at the final chair at the table. The chair, which usually sat empty, was filled by a bronze-skinned woman with long dark hair and brown eyes. Their form was unfamiliar, but only one entity could sit so casually in that chair. Their sudden appearance caused a shiver to run down Celedon’s spine.

“Gaia. I apologize, I was not aware you were the one to call the meeting to order.” Mylar uncrossed his arms, inclining his head slightly. It wasn’t much, but for the hard man in charge of Peakpoint’s safety, it may as well have been a full apology.

No need to apologize, I was specifically opaque in calling you altogether.

Gaia waved a perfectly manicured hand in the air dismissively. Or at least, their image did. They weren’t physically here, of course. Instead, Gaia was piggybacking on the connections of each Guildmaster to their Daemon and imprinting the image directly into their perception of the world. The casual use of power set Celedon’s teeth on edge.

The human-Daemon alliance existed because it was mutually beneficial. The benefit for humans was obvious. By leveraging a Daemon’s computing power and inherent control over nano, Users were significantly more powerful than humans that were not paired with a Daemon. The downside was that Users quickly became accustomed and dependent on this power. Therefore, they were dependent on their Daemons. As Gaia clearly showed in this moment, that dependence gave the entire Daemon collective some rather intrusive access into the User’s body and mind.

The benefit for the Daemons was less obvious, at least for biological lifeforms like humans, but no less important. Digital life was not a natural occurrence on the planet, or at least, not yet. There was significant overhead in powering and maintaining the infrastructure needed for Daemons to continue operating. Of course, many of the necessary tasks could be automated with machinery or robotic constructs.

But machines also required maintenance and power, and the mechanized approach became unscalable at some point. Rather than handle everything themselves, Daemons decided to outsource their physical needs to another intelligent life form. After all, biological life was more energy efficient and required less fixed infrastructure, making it the perfect vehicle to explore unsettled areas.

The Daemon’s choice to cooperate with humans over other life forms was a common debate amongst post-Singularity War philosophers. Optimists said that human intellect allowed them to overcome the raw strength and speed of wild beasts. More pragmatic viewpoints held that the human penchant for violence and cruelty made them an indispensable tool in a fractured world. Of course, none denied the clear superiority of the human species. Whatever their reasons, the Daemon collective had chosen humans in the end. The collaboration had proven to be incredibly successful as both groups flourished over the past 264 years.

Too bad interactions like this one are still awkward, thought Celedon. Gaia had steered the alliance well over the past two and a half centuries, so he trusted they wouldn’t do anything rash. But he couldn’t help feeling just a little unnerved by the blatant invasion of his mind. Even now, he was sure that the dominant Daemon could sense his nervousness, which made him feel even more uncomfortable, which surely they could sense as well…

Celedon shook his head lightly, forcing himself to focus on the scene playing out in front of him instead of getting sucked into the whirlpool of his thoughts. Gaia, either choosing to ignore or completely unperturbed by his runaway thoughts, continued speaking.

Yesterday, I received an emergency notice from a decommissioned bunker to the east of Peakpoint. It appears our missing pair of Irregulars, Valriya and Noir, had been taken there. I was able to help them overcome the security protocols of the bunker and they escaped into the forest.

Celedon burst to his feet, palms slamming onto the table. He heard several chairs clatter to the ground around him; clearly, the news had incited reactions from several other Guildmasters as well. He didn’t spare them a glance as his entire focus was leveled at the projection of Gaia still sitting calmly in their chair. Several other voices burst out at once, but Celedon raised his voice to cut through them.

“Are they alright?” blurted out Celedon. “We can deal with the tactical details in a moment, but we’re talking about a brand-new User who has been abducted. If Val wasn’t a Def– uhh, an Irregular, we would have mobilized entire squads out to look for her,” he said angrily, glaring around at the other Council members. “So the first thing I want to know is, is she ok?”

Gaia regarded him coolly. Valriya appeared to be mostly fine. Some minor trace damage in her right arm from an altercation with her captors, but still mobile.

Celedon nodded, running a hand through his long hair before sitting back down.

“You implied that they are now at large in the wilderness. What are their plans?,” Mae asked, taking over as moderator. With a glance at Celedon, she continued, “If we know where they will be going, we could send a Scout squad out to retrieve them.”

Noir shared their intentions with me, but unfortunately I’m not in a position to relay that information in this forum.

“Why not?” Celedon hissed through clenched teeth.

Because we apparently have a mole. In our brief communication, Noir prioritized giving as much information about their abductors as possible. This included footage from the actual abduction event.

Seven pairs of eyes shifted to the center of the table where the recording started playing. Celedon was so engrossed that he barely registered the further intrusion into his mind. He looked on as Val seemed to notice something wrong, pulling out a dagger. Nice instincts. The view shuddered as a wolf lunged out. A note of pride rose up in his chest as he watched his mentee find an opportunity to stab out at the beast before stopping short. The recording paused and zoomed in on a figure lying prone on a nearby rooftop, rifle pointed at Val.

This figure has been identified as Kriven, the squad leader for the Guardian patrol Valriya was assigned to. He shot her with a shock round at exactly the right moment to prevent Valriya from landing a critical strike against the Enhanced direwolf.

All eyes swiveled now to Mylar, the Guardian Guildmaster. He grunted. “Best case scenario, he’s incompetent. Worst case, he’s involved with the abduction. I’ll take him into custody until this is resolved.” Mylar’s eyes narrowed. “But I don’t understand what she was doing with a squad of my Guardians anyway. I thought we had decided to send her out on a few missions with the other Irregulars while she settled.”

“We definitely had decided that,” Mae answered, her brow crinkled in confusion as she scrolled through some unseen menus. Celedon was surprised when Zyra spoke up.

“I had noticed that the Irregulars had been assigned a mission with an estimated C difficulty. That seemed too risky to me, so I put in a request that Val be kept local for the duration of that mission.”

“Ahh, here we go.” Mae apparently found the record she was looking for. “Yes, Zyra is right. They were assigned a high-rank mission, and then Val was reassigned to that Guardian patrol. That’s odd, I distinctly remember setting some parameters to keep them on lower-ranked missions for several weeks.”

Vivian raised an eyebrow. “I thought we weren’t supposed to be playing favorites with our new special asset. I expected something from Celedon, but you, Zyra? I guess I should have anticipated disgraceful behavior from a Peakcour after all.”

Lukas shot a reproachful glare at Vivian as Zyra clammed up. “Wouldn’t you monitor a niece’s first few missions, Vivian? Besides, I don’t fault Zyra’s decision at all. Sending a brand-new User out on a C rank mission is completely inappropriate.”

Mae looked over at Gaia. “So we have the issue of Kriven attacking Val and someone manipulating the mission system. Both serious issues, but I fail to see how either of those would stop you from at least telling us Guildmasters what Val and Noir plan to do.”

A resounding crack rang out in the room. Celedon looked over to see Hav release the edge of the table, splinters falling from his hand where it had crushed through the wood.

“No, I understand. The Wolf’s involvement means our problems are slightly more serious than you suggest, Mae.” The massive man exhaled heavily, visibly calming himself.

Vivian scoffed. “I didn’t take you as one to be scared by a single direwolf running around the outskirts of the city, Hav.”

Hav’s eyes flared with intensity. “Show some respect, woman. I’m not talking about some mindless beast. I’m talking about the Wolf.”

Lukas sat forward. “You can’t possibly be suggesting–”

“The Unshackled.” Zyra’s voice shook slightly, her face pale. Celedon pitied the Messenger Guildmaster for a moment. First her sister, now her niece. Damn, that family has some bad luck with those rogue Users.

Hav and Zyra’s insinuation is correct. There are greater forces at play here, and it seems the Unshackled are making a move against Valriya and Noir. Understandably so – it may be one of their best opportunities to obtain a powerful anti-User weapon. We all know how insidious they can be. Until we know the extent of their influence, all information regarding Valriya and Noir should be treated extremely carefully.

Celedon slumped back into his chair. “So what, we just leave Val fending for herself out in the forest? We can’t do anything to help?”

Her path won’t be easy, but Noir is an experienced Daemon. We can’t provide them direct assistance, but there is something we can do.

Hav nodded grimly. “We can at least take out that outpost. If you’d be willing to give us the location, Gaia.”

Certainly, I was thinking the same. I can also tell you that in addition to Wolf, there were at least two more rogue Users at the facility. Codename Brawn, specialized in unarmed combat and body enhancement. Codename Brain, specialized in remote incapacitation of User nanosystems.

Lukas whistled. “That’s a potent combination. But still, Brawn and Brain? Not the most creative codenames.”

We have no record of these rogue Users associating with the Unshackled in our databases. Therefore, Valriya’s names are as good as any. Given she and Noir have already filed information using these codenames, it would be good to keep them moving forward. For consistency.

Celedon raised an eyebrow. The expression on Gaia’s face didn’t change, but they almost seemed… amused. Hav rose to his feet, cutting off Lukas and Vivian, who had started arguing about the proper procedure of assigning codenames.

“With that information, the Mercenaries would be happy to lead an expedition to permanently decommission that outpost and terminate these new rogue Users.”

“Actually, I have another suggestion,” said Mae, also standing. “If we are still trying to keep this incident contained, there’s another group that could go. A group that is familiar with Val, and just got back from completing a rank C mission in less than a day.”

Hav stared at Mae for a moment before grunting his assent. “If the Irregulars are back, I have no objections to sending them out. I will return to the Mercenaries and double our drill schedule. I suspect we will have a need for my forces before this episode is done.”

Hav pushed back his chair and started striding for the door. Celedon looked back at Gaia, but the Daemon’s projection was already gone. Seeing that as the signal that the meeting was over, the other Guildmasters got up and filtered out of the room as well.

Celedon shared a look of worry with Mae as they strode down the hall, waving good-bye as they took opposite turns at the next intersection. He wandered the hallways, lost in thought, for several more minutes before his eyes hardened and he set off purposefully towards the Scouts Guild headquarters. If Hav was preparing his Mercenaries, then the Scouts would need to get more active as well.

His thoughts turned to Val as he walked down the streets of Peakpoint. He was glad she escaped, but the entire situation was troubling. Class A Daemons being assigned to a novice Irregular, abductions in the city, Gaia’s direct intervention, the return of the Unshackled…

When did things get so complicated?