“Rory!” Viv’s voice was like listening to windchimes tingling in a soft breeze. It instantly put his heart at ease.

He found himself disregarding all his pain, all the aches that pulsed around his head and his weary legs, and starting towards his wife. It didn’t take long. Sigil of Locomotion to the rescue again.

Not that Rory was paying much thought to it. He barely got a single look at Viv’s stunning smile before he was wrapping his arms around her, reveling in the warmth and the contact. She clutched him back tightly.

He placed a hand on the back of her head and another on her back. Her scent filled his senses. There was blood, and the faint tang of old sweat, but through it he smiled at the familiar smell of her lemony perfume. Rory closed his eyes. What he wouldn’t do to simply be enclosed in this comforting warmth for the rest of his days.

Viv pulled back too quickly though, the kiss she allowed almost perfunctory.

“What happened to you?” A heavy frown made the lines on her face look starker than normal. “You’re hurt!”

Her concern struck his heart like she had thrown a pebble at it. He hated making her worry. But he smiled through it, anyway.

Now that she was close enough, he could finally take in her appearance—her long, severe face contrasting sharply with her soft, kind, brown eyes, the lines drawn at the corners that he used to count, the lint grey hair forming a canvas for the sparse dark locks to stand out like painted threads of darkness. He wanted to run a hand across her warm brown skin.

Rory frowned. He hadn’t noticed before, but now he spotted the blood covering her. There were splotches all over her shirt and trousers, tiny, dried drops marking her face as well.

“What happened to you?” he asked. “Are you alright?”

Viv looked down at the ruined state of her work clothes. “Yeah, I’m fine. This… isn’t my blood. But don’t distract me, Rory. What did you do?”

Rory decided to explain his head injury as briefly as possible. He was more interested in hearing what happened to her.

Looking past her, he nodded at the other woman. She was still dressed in the scrubs from work. “It’s good to see you’re alright, Evelyn.”

Her pale face seemed paler than normal. She shook her head, the tips of her short brown hair dancing on her shoulder. “Same here. I’m lucky I was with Viv when all this madness started.”

“We couldn’t leave with the others when I had no idea where you were,” Viv said. “Evelyn’s looking for her family too, and we made our way over here. Unfortunately, our car broke down, so it took us a while to get here on foot the rest of the way. It… wasn’t pretty.”

Rory was afraid to ask what exactly they had gone through. All that blood on Viv didn’t suggest the story would be good, and much of the blood didn’t look human either. He turned to Evelyn again. “Do you know where your family is?”

“Mark took Eric to the bank with him over lunch, while I met with Viv. I have no idea if they’re still there, though.”

“It isn’t likely,” Truck said from behind them.

Viv and Evelyn looked past Rory to stare at the talking donkey. Both of their mouths had fallen open a little.

“Is that…?” Viv seemed at a loss for words, which wasn’t like her. Rory tutted. This apocalypse had messed them all up.

“A talking donkey?” Miles said. “Yep. That’s exactly what it is. Uh, I’m Miles, by the way.”

Evelyn nodded. “Nice to meet you. You look almost as bad as Rory.”

Miles gave an embarrassed laugh. “It’s healed a lot, thanks to my Sigils.”

“I’ll get you two checked up as soon as we have some supplies.”

Rory turned to Truck. “What do you mean?”

“It is all part of the war effort,” the donkey said. “Generally, the system will only recognize two official Settlements as Safe Zones, which are areas where the monsters will not be able to spawn, or even attack easily. One of these Settlements will be taken by the Homeworlders, as in, you humans, and the other will be occupied by the Otherworlders.”

“So all this evacuation and movement, it’s all being directed by this weird system?” Viv asked.

“Correct. The ones who spearheaded this evacuation must know of this, though I am curious where the Homeworlder Settlement has been set.”

Rory looked at Viv curiously. “Wait. That power you used to kill the gargoyle. You have a Sigil too?” He turned to Evelyn. “You too?”

She shook her head, but Viv nodded.

“I’ve got a few Sigils, but poor Evelyn hasn’t gotten one yet,” Viv said.

“Really?” Miles approached with an excited gleam in his eye. He looked almost as bad as Truck. “Which ones did you get?”

Rory forestalled that line of conversation. “We can talk about our Sigils later. Right now, we need to check out the palace and see if there’s a car that works.”

“I don’t think any of the cars anywhere work,” Evelyn said.

“What? Why?”

“The interference thing,” Miles said. “There’s something blocking them.”

Viv looked away, lost in thought for a moment. “Like an EMP went off or something.”

They all looked at the donkey. Truck stared back at them for a long while before he seemed to understand that they were waiting for an answer.

“Oh!” he said. “You seek clarification. That will cost another moment of entertainment. But yes, the introduction of the system often has deleterious effects on the local advanced systems. It is likely you will have great difficulty making many of your usual things work.”

Rory sighed. Yet another thing to work against.

They decided they’d wasted enough time already. Rory led them into the palace grounds proper. The broken gate opened onto a short, tree-lined driveway that led to the front of the palace. Rory would have used his Weaving on the remains of the gargoyle, but they had wasted enough time already.

Besides, Viv had broken it into pieces too tiny for him to bother looking for. Her Sigil was too powerful.

The palace was a powerful juxtaposition. On the one hand, it presented a massive edifice with steep, gothic roofs of dark marble and colonnade supporting the roof over the front courtyard. Two corners sported five-story tall towers, while a large, carefully tended garden greeted them as soon as they exited the driveway. Rory could only imagine just how much richer it was on the inside.

Unfortunately, the rest of the palace exhibited the worst of humanity. Everyone who’d been here to attend the auction had left all their paraphernalia behind in their hasty exit.

White plastic chairs lay upended all over the courtyard, the podium where the auctioneer would have been carrying out announcements and the like lay half assembled, and trash lay here and there to dirty up the entire place. Lengths of cables twisted everywhere like dead snakes, though Rory couldn’t spot any microphones or loudspeakers anywhere.

“The parking area should be somewhere on the left,” Rory said. “If I remember the layout right. We might be able to get a car there.”

Viv started walking towards the location he had indicated. “I’ll see what I can find. The rest of you take stock here.”

A part of Rory was worried at seeing her go off by herself, but that Sigil of hers should keep her safe. It wasn’t that far either. A single shout and they’d all join her in a minute or two.

They started checking if there was anything worth taking from what the auction-goers had left behind. Rory frowned at it all. If he had the time, and the Mana to spare, he would have tried Weaving a lot of the things here to see what sort of Sigils he ended up with.

But Rory’s thoughts were occupied with what came next. Evelyn’s family was in danger, if they hadn’t already left or had been killed with those who couldn’t escape. Mark, her husband, was both Hillhard’s foremost doctor and Evelyn, an accomplished nurse, had been one of Viv’s greatest friends since she and her family had moved here over a decade ago. They owed it to her to try to find them.

Rory just couldn’t help entertaining doubts that they would find anything positive.

“Come on,” Evelyn was saying to Miles. “There’s nothing there. How am I supposed to patch you up if you don’t sit down?”

Rory walked over to them near the palace’s front doors. “What’s going on?”

“He says he heard something.”

“A dog, to be exact,” Miles said. “I’m sure of it.”

Rory looked around, seeing nothing. “A dog?”

Miles didn’t bother replying. Instead, he rummaged through his bag and pulled out a small packet of beef jerky he must have pilfered from the store. He ripped the pack open, then dropped a few dark pieces on the ground a few feet ahead. Rory cringed at that. He doubted they had the luxury to waste food at a time like this.

Nothing happened at first. Rory gave it some time, and Evelyn waited patiently as well. As it started to look like Miles might have been imagining things, and Rory was about to ask him to let Evelyn have a look at his wound, a sudden yip tore through the area.

Rory stared as an honest-to-goodness shih tzu trotted into the area on short legs, its fluffy tail swishing everywhere.

“See!” Miles rounded on them with a childlike grin. He took a careful step towards the dog munching on the jerky, who looked up to see him approach but didn’t run away. “Hey, girl. Easy now, Miles is a friend.”

He reached out a hand, a piece of jerky at the tip. The shih tzu hesitated. Then it started towards him with great care, eyes shifting from the jerky to Miles’s face then back again. The cream-coloured dog took a bite of the jerky in Miles’s hand. It made no move as he started petting its head.

“We’re keeping it, right?” Miles asked.

Rory could have pointed out many reasons why adopting a pet in the middle of an apocalypse wasn’t a great idea. He counted them all lucky that Truck wasn’t an animal they’d have to be responsible for. But then he looked down at Miles and his new friend, and his heart turned to warm butter.

“Sure,” Rory said. “But you’re the one who’s going to have to be responsible for it.”

“Her name’s Jerky.”

“What?”

“She’s Jerky cause she likes jerky.” Miles rubbed two fingers on the dog’s head. “Don’t you, girl?”

Jerky yipped again. Incredible how easy it was for some people to form bonds so easily.

“At least it’s calmed you down,” Evelyn said.

She walked forward, a small first-aid kit in her hand. Rory had used up most of his trying to cover up his head wound. Rory was impressed. She was holding herself together admirably, refusing to give in to worrying about her family.

He was distracted from observing Evelyn’s treatment by a sniffling sound, and he turned to find Truck crying.

“That was…” Truck dragged in a wet breath, then blew his nose. “That was precious. I was not expecting such a heartfelt moment. Consider our deal partially fulfilled.”

There was a flash on the back of Rory’s hand. He jerked a little in surprise, noticing that his Sigil of Mercantilism was acting up.

Minor deal completed! For successful completion, you have earned 20 Credits.

[Credits can only be used for purchase at a Settlement Shop]

New Achievement!

Creditor! You’ve earned your first Credit! Don’t save up too many, they do expire with time.

Rewards

Sigil of Settlement

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Settlement. You can now form your own Settlement at the appropriate location.

[Argent I] allows to form camp-level Settlement.

Stats

Type: System

Rarity: Mythic

Tier: Argent I [0%]

Efficiency: High [65%]

Rory stared at the new Sigil in his hand. It had the picture of a simple house, a drawing of a triangle on top of a square, complete with a door and a window.

“Did something happen?” Truck asked.

“Yes,” Rory said. “Yes, something did.”

He explained what his Sigil of Mercantilism had given him as a reward for completing his deal with Truck. The donkey got excited when Rory told him about the new Sigil and the Credit.

“You are rising at an alarmingly fast speed,” Truck said. For most, it would be nothing unusual. But as a Weaver, your possibilities are far more intriguing. There is a great deal that you can do, if you only understand how and where to apply yourself and your powers.”

Rory had to admit that sounded at least a little exciting. Their little chat had attracted the attention of both Evelyn and Miles, whose shoulder was now bandaged and properly cleaned, though it had necessitated the removal of most of his shirt as well.

Before they could enquire more about the incident, Viv returned. Her face looked stormy, so Rory wasn’t expecting good news.

“I’ve found a car that works,” she said. “Took me way too long. Even all the vehicles that look untouched wouldn’t start up, even when I made sure they had enough fuel. But there’s an older model that can run.”

“We could also hunt down any bicycles we find and use those,” Miles said, still absently patting the back of Jerky’s head. “Instead of hunting for cars everywhere.”

Viv nodded. “That’s a possibility. Don’t think this car is going to last long enough to get us to one of these Safe Zones.”

“Then let’s get going,” Rory said. “We can find Evelyn’s family and get out of here.”

Viv led them to the back of the palace. Rory was breathing a little hard by the time the walk was done. The premises were larger than he had thought, and he was tired after the long walk from the gas station.

She hadn’t broken a sweat, though. Intriguing. Viv had said she had received several Sigils. He’d have to ask her about that when they had some time.

“Voila,” she said when they reached their destination.

“Wow.” Miles whistled in appreciation. Jerky yipped. “It’s sick!”

Rory agreed there was a kind of charm to the old black Cadillac before them. He approached and used his Weaving on the lock, receiving a Sigil with the image of an old padlock.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Locking. No need to force things together if they won’t settle anymore. Just use this simple little Sigil to keep things connected.

[Argent II] allows locking 2 objects for 2 minutes.

Stats

Type: Concept

Rarity: Remarkable

Tier: Argent II [0%]

Efficiency: Low [17%]

“Alright, everyone bundle up,” Rory said, putting the Sigil away. “We’re heading to the bank to get Evelyn’s family.”