In the middle of the night, I awoke, my injuries making it hard for me to sleep. The pain of breathing had determined that sleep was a fleeting gift for me to partake of when possible. But that wasn’t what had disturbed me from my slumber in this instance. It was the words of Alain and Javier while they kept watch. I couldn’t hear all of them, just pieces here and there, my mind far too gone to focus meaningfully.

“…scouting… sense of the area… contact…”

“Mia… under trained…cocky jump…lucky…”

The more I tried to listen, the more the words faded away, my fixation on their noise becoming a distraction from the pain ebbing through my body, letting sleep temporarily claim me once more.

The next morning we set off again, less than half a day away from the city. I could tell that Javier was working the horses harder than they should be, all over his fear for Mia’s wellbeing. She didn’t look great in the back of the wagon. We changed the dressing for her wounds, ever vigilant about her status. If my beast soul hadn’t give me a defensive technique, I could have ended up just as badly as injured as her. I was lucky to get away with whatever it was that ailed me.

The rest of the ride back was a blur to my mind, hovering in the realm of unconsciousness from my poor sleep the prior night, only really rousing when we had returned. A horde of people escorted Mia and I to the medics, where she was hidden behind a screen and operated upon.

They looked at me and determined that my ribs were bruised. I was advised to avoid any extensively strenuous activities, which was a laugh considering how Javier wanted us to train. They thought I’d be right as rain in a few weeks, but I knew that Javier needed us ready before that. Of course, rest wasn’t really an option once the riot broke out.

It had been a few days of recuperation, with a focus on book learning rather than physical exertion when screams echoed around the city. “What was that?” I asked, looking up from my learning materials.

“I’ll take a look. Don’t you move too much, Perry,” Vera said. She had practically nominated herself to look after Mia and I, given our injuries. Sure, Mia was in a worse state than me, but given she was far ahead of me in training and education, she was managing with Vera feeding her, helping her bathe and propping up books for her.

In the other hand, our education campaign was progressing smoothly. At least, I thought it was. I was feeling smarter the more I learned how to read. It was probably mostly in my head, but the sensation of being able to access something that was so relatively prevalent in the city made me feel emboldened.

In the village, we hadn’t needed much reading barring our record keepers, but in the city, reading helped determine prices, locations, employment and more. Things were a bit more contingent on one looking out for themselves rather than the more aggregately collective that was the village. Even if the city guard was protecting everyone, the same couldn’t be said about feeding or other necessities. Those had to be fended for, in the city.

“Alright, I won’t. I’ll keep practicing my letters,” I said. I barely even winced at that. I was already feeling quite better. Perhaps my injury wasn’t as bad as I had thought it was.

Vera had gotten up from her seat, moving over to the window. “I don’t like the sight of that one bit,” she muttered, biting her nails. “I’m going to get more info. Watch over Mia, alright?”

First don’t move, then watch over Mia. A bit of a contradiction but I wasn’t going to argue, given I agreed with her. Mia wasn’t allowed to get hurt again.

Vera ran out the door of our room, leaving just Mia and I to sit in relative silence. “What do you think it is?” I asked.

“Hmm? You said something?” Mia replied, fixated on her book. In her bed-bound state, she was living a lot more within the worlds of words than in the physical realm.

“Yeah. Vera saw something weird and is checking it out.”

“Oh, don’t you mind that. Perhaps it’s a fire and the fire fighting brigade is on duty. It might be exciting to her, given she’s a village girl, but that’s… well, it’s not a good sign to have a fire, but our fire brigade is quite well trained. Let me think of something else that would be a big surprise… hunting down a criminal? I don’t know, Perry. I’ve barely left this room. Don’t ask me about the outdoors.”

She was in good spirits, which bore well for her recovery. Javier had gotten her some high quality medicine, which raised her recovery time to a window comparable to mine, as long as she basically only rested until healed.

But we didn’t have to speculate any further, with Vera’s return. “Perry, Mia, you won’t believe it. There’s a riot in town?”

“There’s what?” Mia said, chucking her book to the floor. It landed with a heavy thud, making me jump in response, nerves already shot. Her eyes widened in shock.

“A riot, Mia. There’s a collection of prey souls causing a ruckus around town. Well, from what I can tell, there’s in fact two collections of prey souls. One is protesting peacefully near the merchant district, while the other one is more spread throughout the city, causing harm.”

“That’s a succinct summary of it, Vera,” Alain said, popping through the doorway. “I’d say we’ve been summoned to act on this, but given half of our team isn’t the most mobile at the moment, we’re going to be briefed here. Javier will join us shortly.”

“Briefed on what?” I asked. Alain walked over, patting me lightly on the shoulder, trying to batter down my impatience with a reassuring touch.

The door flung open once more, and Javier coasted into the room, looking harried. His normally kept hair was a mess, and his facial hair looked as though it hadn’t been properly groomed to his usual standards. “We’ve been assigned work. The whole city guard has been tasked with protecting the protesters and dealing with the rioters. Mia, you’re still not in a good state to do anything. Perry, your electroreception could help a great deal in tracking things… you’ve been practicing while on bed rest, haven’t you?”

I nodded, proud of my success. I’d managed to increase my proficiency to 110%, which was no easy feat. Now I could block out some of the ‘noise’, and focus on a smaller area without getting overwhelmed.

“Great. We won’t have you do any fighting lest you hurt yourself further, but we will have you out there… if you think you can handle it? Do you think you’re up to it? If you don’t think you’re recovered enough to assist, we’ll just make due with Vera and Alain.”

“No, no. I can assist, Javier. I’ve been feeling much better. Not at full speed, but nearing it.”

“I want to help too. Why does the other victim get a turn?” Mia said, pout written over her face.

“You get to help by resting. I’m glad to see you have this much energy in you, but if you open up all your wounds again with extra effort, the medicine will have gone to waste. Just a bit longer. You’re looking much better already, Mia,” Javier said.

“Well, what should Vera and I do then?” asked Alain. He was filling his nails fastidiously, treating them with more care than he did with Mia.

“Did I not make it clear the first time? Has being off duty corroded your minds? We’re protecting the protesters and stopping any rioters we see. While the people have a right to lawful aggregation in the pursuit of perceived progression, they do not have the right to unlawfully harass other citizens.”

“I didn’t expect such a visceral response,” Alain crooned, “but let’s get down to business then. Are we ready to leave?”

“That we are. I’ve arranged for someone to watch after Mia in our absence. A precaution, Mia. Just to ensure no one is so bold to take advantage of our absence.” There was a pained look on his face, eyes avoiding looking at Mia, the reflection of his failure as a leader painted upon his face.

Mia sighed, shuffling around in her bed. “Oh hush, Javier. That’s fine. Let me know what happens so that I can prepare accordingly for any follow-up activity. Until then I’ll just continue reading and recovering. Now go. Don’t linger. I’ll manage until your watcher arrives… if one of you could be so kind as to return my book to me.”

Vera quickly picked up Mia’s book and returned it, avoiding staring at Mia’s blushing face. We left the room, taking her words at face value. It would be rude to do otherwise. Our exit out of the barracks was quick, leaving us on the roads of the city, ambling towards the marketplace. We were recognizable as members of the city guard— an item that I thought I would never be able to achieve. But that recognition made it all the easier for us to be harassed on the street.

“Fuck off, guards.”

“All guards are bastards.”

“What, going out of your way to harass some prey beast souls?”

The chorus of calls echoed from each alleyway. Vera looked as though she wanted to act on it, but Javier patted her lightly on the shoulder. “Don’t respond to their instigation, Vera. That goes for the rest of you too. They’re perfectly within their right to comment on us, as we are public servants. We don’t harm people for their opinions, even if they’re harmful. They’re allowed to feel heated about the situation.”

Vera nodded, gritting her teeth, swallowing whatever words she had to share. I didn’t know how she was feeling, but the words were sinking like an oily concoction, deep within my stomach. Was I becoming like the village guard back home? We were able to provide a valuable service and yet still be wrong. I wanted to know what Alain thought, but we were on the clock. This wasn’t a time for doubts.

Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the marketplace, where the protesters had aggregated. Our passage over had only seen the aftermath of rioting— small patches of chaos, already abandoned prior to our appearance. I suspected the rioters faded into the crowd having seen our arrival, but given one was only a rioter while actively rioting, I couldn’t say I was unhappy that they had stopped attacking the city, even if it was only in our presence.

Javier had me sit down on an empty crate and focus on my electroreception to get a sense of the area, while Vera and Alain circled the protesters. “No more prejudice,” the crowd shouted. “Equal rights for all beast souls.”

There were men and women, young and old, some holding signs, others wearing masks to cover their faces. While they were united in their cause, there was no other sole unifying feature that could be found in them. I could guess that they were all had prey beast souls, but I could also envision Levin with them, protesting on my behalf. He had gone to talk to the head of the village guard, for what little good that would have ended up doing. Who was to say there weren’t other friends and family lending their voices to a noble cause.

My sense evaluated that there was around two hundred people just protesting in this crowd, with various other bodies lining the streets in observation. “If anyone makes any violent overtures, obstruct them. Prevent the protesters from getting hurt,” Javier reminded us.

“Yeah yeah,” Alain said, looking all over the place “Nothing will get past me, except for peaceful people. Violence will be met with violence.” We were supposed to rely on only our senses to start, and manifest our second tiers features if necessary. It was best to lead with a sense of non-violence. We didn’t want to prompt the rioters to cause a scuffle in front of the peaceful protesters.

I felt entirely out of place in my sitting position. The city guard was meant to actively defend people, not just sit around and wait for an opportunity to contribute. It was easy to get lost in my thoughts as I waited for people to act irregularly and draw our attention, too fixated on what should be instead of what was.

Yet for all we waited, no one attacked. The crowd eventually dispersed, leaving us bereft of any further action. Evidently the rioters had stopped their campaign just as suddenly as they had started, although there statements from witnesses that they threatened to return if the things weren’t changed to demonstrate a more fair society. We started back for the barracks, given there was no more job to do at the marketplace.

“Are we an evil institution, Alain?” I asked on the walk back in hushed tones.

He raised an eyebrow at me, lightly punching my shoulder. “What kind of silly question is that, Perry?”

“Well, you and Mia always get into political spats. I feel like my question falls into that territory of materials that you have preexisting answers for.”

“Look, just because I have opinions on lots of things doesn’t mean that I think the city guard is evil. There’s certainly room for improvement, but being flawed does not make one evil. You’re part of a test program, right? It shows that they’re already working towards making change, even if that change isn’t recognizable to the rest of society yet. One could argue— that argument would be fair to make, mind you— that the changes aren’t coming fast enough, that whatever effort our team reflects is too small. But whether that justifies rioting? I can’t say.”

I wasn’t sure if I entirely bought that answer. It was a fair assessment, but I took umbrage at the claim that Alain didn’t have a position on the rioters. I didn’t need to push him though. If he didn’t want to share, that was fine. He was entitled to his position, given it didn’t seem to affect his job performance.

“I just wonder if the rioters were meant as stick compared to the protester’s carrot, you know?” I said, thinking over the demands made that day.

“What?”

“You know. There was the easy group. The ones that followed the law like good citizens, peacefully congregating to approach their goal. Then there was the other group, openly causing harm, but with the same cause. Did the rioters see the protesters and act upon the moment? Or was this a reflection of a greater plan, the easy way and the hard way laid out for those in power to notice?”

Alain cocked his head, lips pursed. “Good question.” He didn’t comment any further.