[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 122: Poison Pill

Gray nodded. This was not exactly an uncommon response. “I believe introductions are in order. My name is Nathaniel Gray, but most people call me Gray.” He motioned to his own Skyshard. Relagia’s buildings were easy to see from this angle, they gleamed tall and proud. “As you can see, we have homes, clean water, food, and are expanding every day. I have come to ask you to join us. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Yeah, and if we refuse?” said the young man.

Now Gray smiled. “Then you will not hear from us again.”

“Is that a promise?”

This got a laugh from several of those on Gray’s side. It was a good, honest sound, at the ridiculousness of the question.

“I give you my word,” Gray said. “I only ask that I am allowed to speak to each member without interference from the others. I do not ask for utter privacy, only respect.” Now he raised his hand to the linked cube and spoke into it.

Suddenly, Gray’s voice was broadcast over the entire Skyshard. It always sounded like the voice of God to Sila, a little unsettling and strong, but simply everywhere.

However, it was incredibly effective at reaching people hiding in very remote places.

“My name is Nathaniel Gray, the ruler of Relagia. We have clean water, food, beds, and more for anybody who wishes to join. We will gladly meet with anybody who wishes, though we will not tolerate people’s free will being usurped. Every person has the right to join us of their own volition, and should they choose, their choice will be defended.

“If you wish to stay hiding, we will not root you out. We will not chase you, nor force you. The choice, as should always be, is entirely yours to make. However, if you would like to join a like-minded group of people who wish to advance and climb to each and every new Layer above this one, then you would be welcome among us. Thank you.”

“What the hell was that?” the young man asked.

Gray lowered the cube and looked at him. “I believe you have me at a disadvantage.”

“Damn right I do.”

Gray sighed. He was always disappointed with pointless hostility.

His voice drifted out of the past to her, “So many people don’t think, Sila. Why don’t they just take two seconds to think before they speak? We are reasoning creatures, are we not? Why must so many resort to base urges?”

She hadn’t been able to give him a satisfactory answer. She doubted there was one.

“My name is Lisa,” the young woman said, stepping forward. She stopped sharply as the young man flung out an arm to stop her.

“You don’t go anywhere. Stay where you are,” he told her.

Gray took two steps forward, his party moved as one with him.

The way the young man backed up was quite satisfying. As a light intimidation tactic, it worked wonders and suggested—quite heavily—that this group was organized and cohesive.

To fight one was to fight them all. It was one of the tenets of Relagia.

“His name is Albert,” Lisa said, pushing past him. The man didn’t reach out again to stop her. “And my name—”

“Yes, Lisa. I recall,” Gray said, extending his hand out, shaking hers firmly. “A pleasure. What could we help you with?”

The girl looked like many of the new recruits. Malnourished, hunted, with a look that suggested things were not quite as they seemed here.

Sila leaned over to Volsker. “Do a sweep. Something feels… off.”

The heavy-built man nodded. His fingers wriggled as he cast a spell of detection. You would be forgiven for thinking that Volsker was a melee fighter. He looked like a professional bodybuilder, but he was one of their best magic users.

“Are you telling the truth?” Lisa asked sharply.

Too eager, Sila thought. She wants to join but is distrustful. And who could blame her? Humans were never any good separate. We need a village, a home, a purpose to rally behind. How can you get any of that surviving in the wilds?

“I do not lie,” Gray said simply. He did not like being doubted, but it was simply a fact of life that people were suspicious by nature. “You may see for yourself what we have on offer. With an escort, of course. We cannot simply have visitors running amok.”

Lisa looked back at the bronze-skinned girl. “C’mon Leilani, let’s go have a peek.”

The younger girl shook her head and shied away behind the man.

The young girl showed her teeth. “Albert, you dare to stand in her way one second longer and I’ll throw a spell at you that’ll make your hair dance!”

“I ain’t doing anything!” the young man, Albert apparently, said. “Look, she don’t wanna go with you. You said you wouldn’t force anybody, right?”

Gray nodded. “You may come or stay at your leisure, Leilani.” He tilted his head. “A lovely name, by the way. Are you from Hawai’i by any chance?”

How does he do it? Sila marveled.

Leilani was frozen to the spot, but she recovered and came out from behind Albert. More importantly, she seemed to come out of her shell a little more. “Yes, O’ahu.”

“Ah, wonderful place with amazing culture,” Gray said. “I wish I had more opportunities to visit.”

Everybody loved to hear good things about their home, and it seemed Leilani was no exception. She shuffled a little closer. “If we go onto your Skyshard, we won’t be taken?”

“You have my solemn vow that no harm, from my people nor any other source, will befall you while you are in our care.” Gray raised a finger just as Lisa and Leilani were getting closer. “However, I do not like to repeat myself, and I will not make this offer again. You may visit Relagia as our guests, but you must make a decision before we depart.”

The two women nodded their understanding.

Sila motioned to Teak. The young beanpole of an elf inclined his head, motioned expansively toward Relagia and said, “If you will follow me ladies, my name is Teak, and I will be your tour guide this fine afternoon….”

Their voices drifted away as Gray stared down Albert who suddenly felt very outnumbered and very, very alone.

Volsker leaned forward and whispered something to Gray.

“Your man hiding in the bushes over there can come out whenever he feels comfortable,” Gray said. “Or not. This will all go much smoother if we can be upfront with one another. We are not here to harm you or your fellows.”

“Sounds like you’d hurt anybody who didn’t want to join your little cult,” Albert said with a sneer.

“On the contrary,” Gray said, as smooth as polished steel. “Anybody who wishes to stay will eventually be left behind. The offer will not be extended again and you may be free to do as you wish. That is, after all, true freedom, is it not?”

“…yeah?”

“However, if you were to stop somebody who did wish to come, then we would take it upon ourselves to defend them. Should the situation grow violent, I feel compelled to mention that we are over 40 strong. I would prefer if we did not come to blows, however.”

“Nobody cares what you want,” Albert said.

“Clearly.”

They stared at each other a moment longer before the young man, hardly more than a boy, crawled out from the bushes and ran, practically sprinting toward Gray. Albert made a snatch at the boy’s collar.

The younger man choked and was yanked back. Albert hissed something into his ear, but the kid wasn’t listening.

Sila had seen that same hunger before. That yearning for normalcy, to safety. For a time like before.

The apocalypse was too new for many. Some believed it would all be put to rights somehow, others searched for any semblance of normal that they could. While others, like Albert apparently, reveled in the freedom from rules and laws the new order provided.

“Unhand him,” Gray said. “I will not ask again.”

“Make me.”

“Very well.” Fast as lightning, Gray whipped out the cutlass at his hip. The grass rippled and spread apart from the wave of energy as he unleashed [Vacuum Slash].

The blade of inverted Wind mana was sharper than any razor, and far more precise in Gray’s hands. The kid’s collar was severed mere millimeters from Albert’s fingertips.

Freed, the young man bolted for the safety of Gray’s party. He rambled out his name, begging them to take him in, spilling every little dirty secret that the other group had.

Kiron looked down at the young boy, his elvish features made him look like a prince out of a story. Kiron knelt down and fished out some of his own rations. The young man shoved them into his mouth greedily, only remembering to say thank you after his cheeks were bulging.

With a sigh that would have had ladies swooning, Kiron gave a long-suffering smile and wiped the crumbs from his face. “If you wish to look about, I can call another to come give you a tour.”

The boy, Gary, shook his head and sidled next to Kiron. “Can I stay with you?”

“Sure, kid.” Kiron ruffled his dirty, matted hair. “Just stand right there. We’ll be done here soon.”

“Like hell you will!” Albert said, staring at the shred of cloth in his hand. He pulled out a crossbow and aimed it at Gray. “Let’s see if you can dodge this!”

Everything seemed to happen at once. Volsker began casting, Sila tried to pull Gray back, and Kiron was just turning his head in surprise.

But it was Harvey, of all people, who dove in front of the bolt. With his swords crossed, the metal tip of Albert’s bolt sparked off the flat of the blades and pinged off into the air harmlessly.

Gray hadn’t moved a muscle.

“Thank you, Harvey,” he said, placing a hand on the Bladedancer’s shoulder and gently guiding him out of the way. He looked at Albert. The man was staring, dumbfounded at what had just happened. Gray gave a small smile, just a twitch of the lips. “I do believe it is my turn now.”

Harvey looked stunned and a little sick, but Sila could only be impressed by his reaction speed. Even Volsker was slapping him on the back.

Albert only made it two steps before Gray’s cutlass was out of its sheath again. The grass remained parted this time, pressed down in two directions beneath [Vacuum Slash’s] oppressive force.

Gray sheathed the sword with a shake of his head. He did not like resorting to violence, and liked it even less when he had to kill somebody weak who was too stupid to realize they were overmatched.

Everybody saw the notification as Albert fell into two pieces. Sila guessed him to be the leader. A little fiefdom all his own to oppress and be cruel to anybody he wanted.

A big fish in a small pond.

“There is one more,” Volsker said, nodding.

Gray watched solemnly as another man staggered out of the woody brush that stretched toward a series of hills in the distance.

With his hands raised, the pale middle-aged man came out. “Oh, thank the heavens you killed him! He was a sick, sick man. Are the girls safe?”

“Who might you be?” Gray asked.

“My name is Darren, sir. And I’m one of the unfortunates that Albert managed to trick. I took him in, tried to help him, but… well, some people didn’t take the apocalypse too well. He snapped. I’ve done all I can to keep him contained but….” Darren sighed.

His lack of words said enough, although Sila could not shake the feeling that there was something slightly… oily about him. She couldn’t figure out what it was, though.

The look of fearful relief when he glanced at Albert’s body was genuine, that much she knew.

“Are you still accepting people on your Skyshard? This place doesn’t have much, but you’re more than welcome to whatever it has. We didn’t have great luck with the lottery of islands, I guess.”

Gray nodded curtly. “If you wish to join us, you may. Would you like a tour, or would you prefer to—”

“No, sir!” Darren said, bowing and scraping. “I just want to be useful, sir. Kinda tired of leading, if you get my drift.” He indicated Albert with a shrug. “I think I speak for all of us on this Skyshard when I say, let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Very well, welcome to Relagia, Darren.” Gray said. He turned and led them all back aboard the Skyshard. “Virtru, Loskin?”

Two hulking reelers snapped to attention at the top of the bridge.

“Please show our newest members, Darren and Gary around, will you? Sila, a word, if you will.”

The others in the party gave the pair some space as Gray looked at the backs of the reelers talking animatedly with the two newcomers.

“I don’t know why, Commander, but I don’t like that Darren person. Something… feels off.”

“Middle-manager material if I ever saw it,” Gray said. “Keep an eye on him. If we can’t use him, we’ll have to cut him loose.”

Sila took out the tablet and jotted down a few notes. “I’ll put him with Green squad then?”

“No, Red.”

“But Gray—”

“Applying pressure is the best way to see what kind of asset he will be. Put the kid in Green, and the two women in Valkyrie.”

Sila nodded. Gray departed back to the other Skyshard as Sila organized the Green squad—including the newcomer Gary—to attach to Gray’s party.

They would be in charge of salvaging any usable Tiles, gathering materials and resources, and stripping anything of use from the Skyshard now that it had no inhabitants.

Kiron put a comforting hand on the kid’s shoulder. “We’ll show you the ropes, don’t worry. It’s pretty easy, and with us here, you’ll be perfectly safe.”

Sila made a note in the census. Relagia, now 48 souls strong.

She smiled to herself. Just two more members and they’ll hit the next Milestone.