Published at 22nd of October 2023 9:40 am

Book 2: Chapter 1

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Placing his feather pen to the side, careful not to drip black ink on the account books spread out on the desk, Garrett reflected on the tightly packed numbers that filled them. In many ways, they served as a history of the last two months, a snapshot of all the work that the Family had done to try and stabilize their situation after the defeat of the Swamp Shark gang. Using the stump of his right arm, Garrett clicked the brake on his wheelchair, using his left hand to push himself away from the desk. With a bang, the door opened up and a grinning young woman ran into the room.

“Garrett! Garret!”

Used to Ryn’s exuberance, Garrett didn’t react, but as he looked up at her he was suddenly struck by how different she looked from when he had first met her half a year earlier. The first time he had seen her, she had been dressed in worn clothing picked to avoid standing out. Far from trying to do herself up, she had gone the opposite way, her hair chopped in a functional bob, and she had clearly made an effort to highlight the burn scar on her face. Now, however, her well-worn clothing had been replaced with sturdy clothing that, while not as fine as what a noble might wear, suited her new status as a merchant. A single silver pin with a five colored flower was attached to the collar of her white linen shirt, and the leather vest she wore showed a subtle stitching that matched the calf high boots on her feet. Compared to her, Garrett looked almost shabby in his brocade vest, but he didn’t mind. He wasn’t trying to impress anyone.

“Did you see that the adventurers brought in a maragoth corpse? It’s huge! The size of a house. And it’s got so many spikes!”

Raising his eyebrows, Garrett shook his head and wheeled his way around the desk as Ryn strode over, grabbing the handles on his wheelchair.

“Come on, you have to see this thing. It’s crazy.”

Before she could push him out into the hallway of the Dreamer’s Inn, Obe stepped into the doorway, an amused expression on his broad face. There was a certain ease about the man, and though it had only been two months since the brutal fight against the Swamp Shark gang and the destruction of the Ghoul’s Tooth guild, he seemed to be doing well. Garrett had been paying careful attention to how the only other awakened in the gang was doing, and from what he could tell, Obe had adapted completely. Of course, the four ethereal flowers that hovered above his head helped put Garrett at ease as well.

It had not been Garrett’s intent to implant a flower into Obe, as he wanted to leave at least one person free of the flower’s influence to act as a sounding board for his ideas, but after a bit more thought, he simply hadn’t felt safe without the ability to directly communicate with the only other awakened in the gang. Additionally, if he was going to plant the dream seed, it made more sense to use Obe to the fullest advantage, which meant pushing the flower’s growth to four petals.

The sight reminded him that he wanted to check on Ryn who he had planted a single flower into shortly after they had first met. Unlike most of the other flowers he had planted, he had been allowing her flowers to grow without any influence, interested in the effect. With Obe who carried a four flower bloom, Garrett felt a tight link, and knew that it wouldn’t be hard to push his awakened lieutenant into acting as he wished. Ryn, however, was different. Her seed had bloomed into three flowers, but the relationship she had with Garrett didn’t feel any different than it had originally been, though now he could feel her emotions and presence more clearly.

“Garrett, did you— oh, looks like Ryn told you,” Obe said, smiling when he saw Ryn pushing Garrett.

“She did. I hear it’s an impressive monster. What did you call it?”

“Maragoth. Big, spiked beast. A shaper monster at least. If it weren’t for the fact that the adventurers that dragged it back lost nearly half of their team, I would have called them liars for saying they killed it. The thing is huge.”

“Do I actually have to go see it?” Garrett asked, knowing full well what the answer would be as he looked back at Ryn. “Can’t we make do with you describing it?”

“No, absolutely not. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. There has never been a maragoth brought into the city like this. Besides, you just spend all your time sitting behind your desk or sleeping. You need to get out more. Get some fresh air. See the city.”

“I’m busy,” Garrett said, a bit too defensively.

“Garrett, you haven’t stopped working since you took over the gang. You can take an afternoon off,” Obe said, holding the door open and then following Garrett and Ryn into the hall.

Grumbling to himself, Garrett lifted his good hand to wave to Francis, the gang’s wiry cook, as they passed by the kitchen and entered the inn’s great room. Business was booming, but by the way people were hurrying to finish their meals, it was obvious that Ryn and Obe were not the only two excited about going to see the monster that the adventurers had recovered. Pushing Garrett around the tables, they left the inn, picking up an escort of a couple of the large, well-fed members of the gang who ran security for the inn. Seeing Garrett’s skeptical look, Ryn poked his cheek, forcing his head forward.

“They’re here for me, not you. No one even knows who you are, Garrett. But thanks to you insisting that we use my face on the soap, it's been really annoying to go out.”

“We should swing by one of the stalls to see how things are going,” Garrett said, his voice soft as his gaze swept the busy streets.

He had not been out for two months, but his memory of the area surrounding the inn was quite different from what he now saw. Before, the streets had been little more than dirty, broken cobblestones and refuse piled in the gutters. The buildings had been ramshackle at best, and the people in the streets had fallen into two categories, those who were loitering around, looking for the opportunity to make a quick coin, and those who hurried about their business, trying not to look like that opportunity. Now, the sight he saw was completely different.

Though the street still had many broken cobblestones, it had been cleaned and the refuse and trash had been removed. An effort was being made to repair the buildings, and as they carefully navigated some holes in the road, Garrett saw two groups working on different buildings. Even more impressively, there was a thriving trade happening, with dozens of small stalls set up along the road hawking various wares. Garrett was sure he had never seen the street so busy, and the people moving through it were not doing so in that hurried, hunched-shoulders way that was so common throughout the city.

Catching sight of a man and a woman in blue coats who were standing in the middle of the street, Garrett watched them curiously until they turned and he caught sight of the five petaled flower pins they wore. It looked like a less ornate version of the one that both Ryn and Obe wore, and when he saw it Garrett knew exactly who they were.

“Obe, how is the recruitment of new talent going?”

Noticing the direction that Garrett was looking, Obe smiled.

“Want me to call them over?”

“No need. They’re working, so let's not bother them.”

“Sure. It's going well. We’ve expanded to almost a hundred. None of them are awakened, but I was going to ask you if we can start with that. I think things are running smoothly enough that we could handle it.”

“A hundred? Isn’t that a bit fast? There were two dozen of us a couple months ago.”

Waving his hand, Obe shook his head.

“Nah, it’s still pretty small actually. There are a lot of people in this area who like the idea of belonging to a gan— I mean, the Family. We’ve shown that we can be stable, and we’ve got money too. Those are the two most attractive things in this city for those of us who suck the mud at the bottom of the barrel. You’d be surprised at how many people are unattached for one reason or another, and our work doesn’t require specialized skills, or being able to stomach handing out crimson neckties.”

Garrett was going to ask Obe what he meant, but his lieutenant illustrated the saying by drawing his thumb across his neck in a universal gesture. A fierce look bloomed in his eyes and Garrett felt the flowers in Obe’s mind swaying in agitation, as Obe continued.

“Doesn’t mean that we’re pushovers, of course. We proved that by burying the Swamp Sharks. But I do worry a bit that we don’t have the muscle that we need. That’s the only reason that I’m suggesting that we start looking for more awakened. Of course, only those who are okay following your lead.”

Smiling slightly, Garrett nodded.

“You can leave that to me to worry about. Stability is the most important thing for us right now, so go ahead and put out the word. We’ll consider anyone, but I want to remind you what I said when we started recruiting before.”

“Character is most important. Yeah, I got it,” Obe said, relaxing.

As they continued on their way, Garrett began to notice that most of the buildings had small wooden plaques hanging on the doorposts. Each plaque showed the symbol of the Family, a five petaled flower that shimmered with rainbow colors, and when Ryn saw Garrett’s curious look, she let out a delighted laugh.

“How do you like them? That was my idea. I saw someone making their own, and thought we could use an official version.”

“It's pretty clever,” Garrett said, glancing back at her. “Where’d you get the idea?”

“Would you believe me if I told you it was in my dreams?” Ryn asked, navigating a tricky pothole.

“I would,” Garrett said, nodding. “Dreams are pretty magical.”

The further they got from the inn, the more the streets began to resemble what Garrett remembered them to be like, and pretty soon they passed two more blue coated members of the Family who waved to Ryn and greeted Obe and Garrett. This marked the edge of the Family’s territory, and once they were through it, the city returned to its grungy feeling. The difference was stark, and it was only after another hour of walking that they started to get out of the slums. At the northern edge of the city stood the large adventurer’s guild building, and even before they got close, they could hear the hubbub.

Pushing through the crowd, they managed to find a spot that could see into the wide yard in front of the building where the maragoth had been dragged. Massive hooks had been pounded into the monster’s flesh, and the chains that were attached to them had been fastened to a team of horses that now stood off to the sides, sweating heavily. Armed with axes and saws, a group of awakened were trying to chop the monster up, though they were having little luck getting through its scales.

To Garrett, it looked like a mutated Tyrannosaurus Rex from his memories of Earth, with longer front limbs and bony spikes poking out of nearly every part of its body. As tall as a small house laying down, and nearly half a block in length, Garrett could only imagine just how big it would be if it was still living. Letting out a low whistle, he felt a faint wisp of mental energy still floating around the corpse, a testament to just how powerful the creature had been when it lived. Typically, when a monster died, its mental energy would slowly slip away, returning to the world, but this monster had been dead for at least a week, so the fact that he could still detect its impressive mental strength was honestly terrifying.

A good reminder that I need to be careful. There are a lot of monsters in this world that are way beyond me, no matter how strong I feel. My powers might be okay for dealing with low level awakened, but if that thing came rampaging through the inn, I’d be dead in an instant.

There was a group of high ranked adventurers standing near the head of the maragoth, armed to the teeth and covered with blood and dust from their expedition. They were talking with a man who Garrett recognized as the master of the adventurer’s guild, Aurther Tellson. As one of the few recognized Shapers in the city, he had a commanding presence, and Garrett could feel the subtle aura of intimidation that rolled off of him even though a hundred feet separated them.

Garrett was in the shaper stage as well, so he wasn’t particularly bothered by the feeling, but he could tell that Obe was uncomfortable from the way that his lieutenant kept glancing toward Guild Master Tellson. It didn’t help, of course, that the Ghoul’s Tooth gang had not had a friendly relationship with the adventurer’s guild. Tapping on Obe’s arm, Garrett gestured for him to lean down and then pointed at the adventurer’s guild.

“Can we go in? I’d like to see it, and it would be good to check the board. To find out what sort of missions are being issued these days.”

Nodding, Obe began to move through the crowd, Ryn pushing Garrett right behind him. There were some complaints, but when people saw Obe and the three large men, they quickly made way, allowing Garrett’s wheelchair to pass. Mercifully, the guild hall didn’t have stairs, so they were able to push Garrett’s wheelchair straight into the building, and over to the wide board that took up most of one wall. Here, there were dozens of papers pinned up to the board, detailing the many requests that the city had for the adventurers.

On the other side the room were close to sixty tables, each occupied by a specific adventuring team who were waiting for a request or planning their next mission. Looking around curiously, Garrett took in the rough and scarred adventurers, impressed by the collection of strength that the guild held. He knew that this was just a fraction of it, as well, as most of the adventuring teams were actually out on missions. Turning his attention to the board, he was reading some of the mission requests when the scrape of a boot behind him alerted him to someone’s presence. With his good hand, he rotated his chair and saw that the master of the adventurer’s guild had stopped in the doorway and was looking in his direction.

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