The Fusionist Book 5 -- Epilogue

(The Epilogue is fairly short -- I may end up adding some more to it during revisions)

Epilogue

“Impossible!  How could this have happened?!”

Barkus was confused.  “What do you mean?  I thought this was great news—”

“Fool!  We were supposed to be the first to close one of the Calamities, therefore establishing ourselves as the preeminent force once again in the Kingdom.  Now the SIC is going to look like idiots when we assemble the tens of thousands of Mages and Martials that are needed to close the northwestern Calamity – when the northeastern one was reportedly closed by less than two hundred!”

“Uh, I believe they had less than a hundred—”

General Maxwell pointed at Barkus and he shut his mouth.  “See!  That’s exactly what I’m talking about!  Rumors are flying faster than any real information, but the fact remains that the Calamity has been closed.  There’s no way to deny that when everyone can sense it… but there might be a way to turn this to our advantage.”

“How, sir?  More importantly, why?” the senior Corpsman couldn’t help but ask, though he immediately shrank back, wondering if he had overstepped himself.  Thankfully, it seemed as though the General was in an unusual mood.

“Why?  Because we need public opinion on our side, Barkus.  Without their support, we won’t be able to gather the forces needed to close any other Calamity; and without those forces, which we will use to close all of the others, we won’t be able to spread our influence throughout the common people.  They need someone to protect them, and the current structure isn’t cutting it.  The SIC held command before, and it’s about time we held it again.  Once they see that it was the SIC that ended the major threats against their overall survival, they’ll come flocking to our banner for further protection.  The resources that we’ll be able to acquire at that point should be enough to set us up into the future as we consolidate our hold over everything.

“As for how we’re going to take advantage of this situation, what better way is there than turning public opinion against those who closed it?”

“How would that work, sir?”

General Maxwell held up his finger as if making a point.  “They had no backing behind them, and therefore no support.  What do you think is going to happen to all of those Apertures that were just released from the Calamity?  That’s right, they are now free to grow and populate their territories, because there is no plan or structure to dealing with the aftermath.  The so-called Defense Factions were caught flat-footed after the Calamity’s closure, and it will likely be months or years before they can fully gain control over everything that was within that territory.  Such an endeavor is likely to claim many lives, as well, and without the Calamity keeping them in check, many of the Apertures will expand and become major threats on their own. 

“Unlike what we’ve been doing since we started planning for the northeastern Calamity’s closure.  We already have a strategy in place to quickly establish outposts to begin culling the newly freed Apertures, thereby limiting the danger to the people and those we’re using to contain them all. 

“In short, they produce chaos, while we apply order to the region – just like we’ll do to the Kingdom once we’re done.  If we manipulate the flow of information in our favor, then those who closed the Calamity will ultimately seem like anarchists instead of saviors, and we can sweep in and project our own competence once we have everything under control.”

Barkus couldn’t help but shake his head.  “But sir, if we can discover how they did it with so few people—”

“No, it doesn’t matter.  They got lucky, is all.  It’s more important to bring as many Mages and Martials under our command as possible; we don’t need to consider a small team, because a large group will work better for our plans in the long run.  Is that understood?”

He swallowed whatever protests were bubbling up in his throat.  “Sir, yes, sir.”

“Good.  I’m going to have some messages that need to go out quickly, so return in 30 minutes and make sure they succeed in getting where they’re supposed to.  Dismissed.”

Barkus turned on his heel and left the General’s large office inside Fort Stonekeep.  As he closed the door behind him, he breathed a sigh of relief after leaving the General’s strong presence, which always seemed to press down on him whenever he was near.  Taking a deep breath, he straightened up and glanced around, glad to see that no one was watching, and he began organizing his thoughts for his upcoming assignment.  He knew he could find messengers for most of what was needed, but there was one place that he was likely to be sent to in order to ensure that the messages were delivered to the right people.  That meant he was going to be leaving soon…

…and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it.  After hearing that one of the Calamities had been closed, he had been joyful and had silently congratulated whoever it was who’d done it, but after his conversation with the General, he was confused at what exactly he should be feeling. 

On the one hand, he agreed that the SIC should rise to prominence again, if only because they were the only organization in the Kingdom that could take on the protection of its citizens with any type of success.  On the other hand, he didn’t think it was right to villainize the individuals who had done the impossible. 

It’s not my responsibility.  Those decisions have already been made and there is nothing I can do to change them.  Even though he told himself that, he didn’t believe it.

Therefore, when he was given his assignment later on by General Maxwell, he dispatched most of what he was supposed to, but held on to a few that he was going to take personally to the south.  It might not make much of a difference, but if he could find a way to raise the opinion of the SIC in the public’s eye while helping out those who achieved what was thought at one time to be impossible, then he would do it.

It was time to visit an old friend near the southeastern Calamity.  An old friend who knew him by an entirely different name, one that he’d had while he was still proud to be a Noble in the Kingdom of Androthe.

The End