"Trust." Weston tasted the word, and it was unfamiliar - this new, strange definition, this flavor that came from friendship. Because before it tasted like money. A Trust Fund - it represented a fortune, a legacy, an almost unimaginable amount of wealth his family controlled -

And he was male -

It was a peculiar legal agreement - he was not a lawyer, his father was, but the agreement, the Covanger Trust - it was from an older time, a time that predated the United States, a time when this part of the world was a territory.

Like it was again. Today.

People didn't say that. People didn't understand that - but...today was, in his mind - the day the union broke. The day it shattered - and this was not an uprising, a confederacy, a military presence - it wasn't from a lack of consent from the governed, it was just the natural result -

His Uncle - Mayor Covanger, a man of the Third Kiss, nearly equal to Grandfather himself, who's capacity as the most likely heir apparent - his face would be confused. He wouldn't be ready to accept and he'd blame Weston -

Weston blamed himself - but they wouldn't really know, that was how subtle it was - they wouldn't really know until they looked back and considered it - historically. Read about it - and people would endlessly debate what actually united them in the first place, what was the United States -

Trust. In God We Trust -

A new currency - that was big part, but it wasn't enough. And that had already happened a week ago, so no, it wasn't that. It was the loss of power. Power - on two levels, one obvious and the cause, one concealed and the result -

The United States lost power - Perhaps the whole world had and without electricity? Nothing else worked - nobody was fixing it...

Darkness -

Driving through their town, his headlights, others - the failing moon. The lucky ones with generators. Light was rare -

The Bar did glow. All the structures did with that ambient grey light, in the early morning, it was like it captured the moonlight and sponged it up, spreading it over the architecture like melted butter -

That soft glow, the magic buildings that were illuminated made the newest one instantly obvious - Weston approached it, another stone square - tables waited inside, tables with books on them - it wasn't supposed to be here -

Hickory was putting in a church. It was the only thing he'd talked about since he'd put in the crafting buildings -

Weston approached the first book - opening it, in there was his name. One page. Weston Covanger, and his address - and what he realized was coordinates, a shape - a shape of his property boundaries, a property, according to this book, he now owned - not his families trust...

There were details - three bedrooms, three baths, 2100 square feet, well water, septic, municipal power (Not Functioning), air conditioning...

Territory: Red Hills

Value: Unavailable, Taxes Owed - 0^ Tax Rate - 0%

Community Structures: Font, Town Hall...Fish Hatchery

- Hickory had had built a Town Hall, not a church -

Wonders: Organal Loom of the Maiden's Desire

Population: 1693.

Weston laughed - because this was certainly laughable, certainly - he flipped the page - but, nothing else was listed (Additional Information unavailable without Town Hall upgrades or facilitating Ability)

Ability - It was a dryness in his throat, he hadn't stopped chuckling, and it strained, perhaps - this was answers, but there were so many more questions in his head, he couldn't think, he could hardly breath -

The power was out. This book knew that, knew him - everything about his house, or - no, it wasn't reading his mind, because the population wasn't 1693, that was far too low, but he realized the number was something different - it was the number of people who had drank. He also hadn't known the names of the structures - the Organal Loom of Maiden's Desire? Hickory wouldn't name that...

Weston's hands were shaking as he did something he'd seen Hickory mime before - he grabbed the page and tore it out - it came out cleanly, without so much as a soft whisper, and yet it also remained - he felt - felt a small loss, a deduction and heard a splash - as he did when he ordered a drink from the Bar, or bought something at the Market.

It'd cost him - One^ for this - Deed. It was a Deed, it said that now, on the top - Deed of Ownership, containing all that same information, it folded itself up, it had a marble seal - pressed flat without impression or decor, and Weston felt the authenticity unlike plain paper one would get from a printer - he put it in his pocket. The book still listed the information - nothing had changed - he tried taking another, doing so caused the Deed in his pocket to crumble...He wasn't charged or rather - it was equalized...two opposite splashes.

The full implications - but, no, this wasn't a valid deed. This wasn't even paper, it just looked like it. Just like the marbles, the ^ weren't money, this was incorrect - He moved to the other books, his hands were shaking and - he found it, found a list of property owners, he found his name. His address.

Listed by last name - Covanger, and breathed. Covanger, Trust - Pages and pages of properties, the businesses were all there, commercial properties, the car dealership, his father's law office, the material yards and truck yards, grazing land, oil fields - the houses they rented out were gone, the trailer parks, if they had been occupied -

Nothing outside Red Hills either...

Flipping quickly, searching by address but he already knew the answer, knew what would -

The rentals had the ownership of them changed, listed to the occupant - to whoever lived there. There were no mortgages. This book had erased debts, or just - not recorded them?

One percent? Two percent? Of his families wealth had just been eliminated? Been disbursed? Not just wealth but assets - the backbone of their wealth -

It was - unthinkable. It was laughable. This would of course never hold up in a court, this wasn't legal...

The next book listed laws:

Murder - Punishment: Death.

Weston flipped the page and - nothing. Just one law and - he was still laughing, it was a strangled wheezing, you had to have laws - not a law -

And yet there was a tickling in his head, a nagging -

Murder is killing somebody intentionally, planning to kill them without valid cause. Not in self-defense, not in - this law, it made it - but, no...and yet? What it implied was that you could kill somebody, as long as you had a reason, you could kill them and not be punished? For stealing a candy bar?

You could kill somebody as long as it was not murder - and...it doesn't matter, this isn't real. It's a joke, a terrifying joke -

His hands were shaking, as he sped out to the Family Estate, with communications down - most of the family checked in at least each day, but - they'd be sending out runners for something this big. There was no formality - today, no dinner, they didn't wait and people read the briefing as they came into the Study - Weston had written it out while they arrived to keep from repeating - other's went out to verify, to record the information from the books.

Pages could be ripped from all of them, maps - property boundaries, so much - Weston's oversight had been ignored, he wasn't the only speaker who's voice cracked -

"This is preposterous." Mayor Covanger said, "It's time we put a stop to this - if Weston's theory is correct, we should stop dallying and force the issue - take the fountain in the name of the town and reassert government control."

"The checks aren't going through, government employees have already missed a pay period -"

"Then we pay for it!" Mayor said, "Or what happens next?"

"With what money? Everything is digital! Banks are closed, with our gold? Do we convert it to marbles -"

"This is fucking ridiculous -"

"There's a bigger problem." Grand Uncle stood up - "Think about this, think about the incentive, what determines a governments power? The will of the people, an armed populace..."

The room turned to face the man in charge of their rental properties - the man who should be most against this -

His Grand Uncle continued - "Not only did it take from us but all the banks, every person that had a mortgage, that pays rent - that currently has no way to pay their bills with the banks in crisis - they will support this, and that's almost everybody."

The room was quiet - sickeningly quiet.

"With that said, with my own personal position lost -" He turned to the Mayor, his voice was sad but staunch, "As a family this benefits us greatly. We pay more then what we lost per year in property taxes alone."

Weston's father stood up -

"Even if that's the case, the government is going to expect us to keep paying them. They will come -"

"What government? We already suspect that the technology issues have destroyed advanced weaponry, the intelligence assets - they don't have the manpower anymore to continue operating as before, everything is breaking down, we're three missed meals from chaos - who would work for them?"

"As you say, anybody who wants to eat. They have the largest food stores -"

"That's why we support it." Grand Uncle said - "Don't you see it's a win-win, if the government re-establishes itself we'll get the land back, but if it doesn't?"

There was a pause -

"We own all the food producing land here, and soon people will be trading their cars for cattle - we can buy back the land we lost plus more, but it's possibly even more serious than that. If we make enemies now? If this is the hill we die on?"

Weston thought of thousands of hungry people descending on their properties - butchering their cattle, butchering them -

"Not only do I say we support it, but we support it the loudest. We make it known how much we lost, we offer more if needed- because the Army isn't coming here to give us back our rentals, if anything the Army will come to take - when they can no longer feed themselves, and by that point they will be called bandits - at that point we will need our own army if we hope to have anything."

So the rest of the Covanger Family drank as Weston left to find Hickory, because it was time for answers, because even if this benefitted them...

Did Hickory even know what he was doing? Did he even know how to read?

Because what would be worse? That Hickory knew, was planning - slowly dismantling the Covanger power structure intentionally? Misleading Weston about his choices, that Weston had been supporting him to his family. Trusting him...

Trust.

Weston didn't want to believe it, Hickory was certainly a friend? But...just how much did he know about him? How much power did he have? Just what did he intend to use it for?