Dark Fate, Chapter 53 (Patreon)

Chapter 53 – Briefing

When we pulled up to the Visitor’s Center for the Kennessaw Mountain State Park, there were three cars waiting for us. Two were official vehicles, one each from the Marietta Police Department and the other belonging to the National Park Service. The other was an old, beat-up Honda Civic.

That tracked with the three people waiting for us. Two were men of average height and athletic builds. That wasn’t exactly uncommon after the Apocalypse, of course, but it did suggest a focus towards in their physical attributes. At first glance, they looked relaxed, but I could see that they were really on edge. Whatever had been causing problems out here had them worried.

Dale Mathews

Human   Male

Level   4 Fighter / Investigator

Titles:

Market   Value: $4000

Matthews was dressed in his police uniform, but there were some clear modifications. His bulletproof vest was the most obvious one, but he also had a sword and shield. Not entirely original, and the items were definitely not exactly high level, but they showed he was at least trying to adapt to the new world.

Patrick Stevens

Wood   Elf Male

Level   6 Ranger / Woodsman

Titles:   Survivor

Market   Value: $6700

The other guy was not in any kind of standard uniform, save for the hat he wore on his head, and the patches on the shirt under his leather armor. The Elf’s loadout was interesting. A short sword was strapped on his left hip, and a quiver of arrows was bound to his right, while a bow was in his right hand. I also counted at least three knives on his person. Between his weapons and his title, it was clear that Ranger Stevens was ready for things to turn violent.

Aura Moonchild

Feytouched   Human Female

Level 4   Wiccan / Diviner

Titles:   Seer

Market   Value: $8000

The third person was a woman. Even without [Appraise Value], I could tell that she had some kind of Fey heritage going for her. Her ears were a little too pointed to be human, but not enough to be an elf. Could mean a half-elf, but her eyes were larger than a normal person’s, by at least fifty percent. Between that, and her anime-esque waist-length blue hair, it was clear that she wasn’t simply a normal human.

Her class was an interesting one, too. Wiccans, under the System, were essentially a version of witches. But while witches used arcane magic, like warlocks and wizards did, a wiccan used divine magic. They were something like a blend between priests and druids, in that way.

The class’s weakness was that it was low on attack power, aside from spells. However, they more than made up for it with their abilities at ritual magics of all sorts. That wasn’t exactly useful in a fight, but it made them the best supporters when you had time to let them properly use their abilities. Their non-combat abilities actually made them highly sought after in the old timeline, as every warlord wanted a high-level wiccan or coven of wiccans at their beck and call.

A wiccan like Aura, though, would be especially prized, seeing as how she had the Diviner profession, and the Seer title. See, any magic-user could do divinations. But that kind of divination was essentially getting information on the universe as it currently was, or about information from the past. Any information a normal divination could get about the future was highly subjective, and not really any more reliable than pre-Apocalypse horoscopes.

To explain it as it was explained to me in the old timeline, trying to pierce the veil into the future was essentially like trying to look along a path. The more specific an outcome you looked for, the more you missed in the viewing, like someone paying too much attention to a sign in the distance, and missing the fire hydrant they bruised their knee on. But the act of hitting the hydrant you didn’t notice changed things from the outcome you were looking for, because the you of that timeline would have seen the hydrant, and stepped around it. The further ahead you looked, the more you missed, and the more potential for change in what was seen.

A Diviner profession, however, changed things up. Their predictions were more accurate, as a whole. Think about it like a normal divination being able to predict the winner of a football game, but a diviner being able to predict the final score. And while all of a Diviner’s divinations benefited from their increased clarity in their visions, the predictions of the future became less likely to change based on their actions, or who they told.

The Seer title, though, took things to a whole new level. They were not limited to the simple predictions that even Diviners saw. No, that title meant that the System gave the Seer access to information that was like the Oracles of myth.

I didn’t have the Seer title, in this timeline or the last, but I’d known one. He was part of the army that helped us free Atlanta after the invasion. According to him, his foresight came in the form of visions. Visions tied to multiverse theory.

The multiverse theory is simple enough. Say you are at a crossroads. You can choose to go left, right, forward, back, or stay where you are. Under multiverse theory, five universes branch off from that point, each with you actually making that choice.

So, a Seer looking at the outcome of that choice would ‘see’ all five choices, and their immediate outcomes. It wasn’t clear whether they actually saw the events happened, or magic rendering the possible choices based on probability. Either way, they could ‘see’ the future, to some degree.

Of course, they weren’t infallible. The further ahead they looked, the more different futures they saw, as more and more choices were made. So, they tried to focus on the most prominent ‘streams’, where most of the choices led. It was brain melting stuff, really.

The police officer stepped forward. “You’re the adventurers from the Guild right? I’m Sergeant Dale Mathews. This here’s Ranger Patrick Stevens, from the Park Service, and the little thing cowering behind us is Aura. Despite the way she looks, she’s really the best we have at the mystic stuff.”

At this, the mousey-looking woman stepped out from behind Sgt. Mathews. She was dressed in hiking gear, but had a long, dark colored cloak and a pointed witch’s hat, along with an actual broom. She took a deep breath to center herself, and said, “Um, hi. I’m Aura, and I’m a witch specializing in divinations and abjurations. That means I can scry for things and I can place protections on people. I’m not really very good with fighting though, but I know a couple offensive spells, so I’m not completely helpless.”

I smiled at her, and said, “I’m sure. But you don’t need to worry about it, scrumptious. My girls and I will take care of most of the fighting.” She flinched at the smile, and tried to hide behind Ranger Stevens.

That wasn’t a good sign. Looking back at the Sergeant and the Ranger, “Can I leave you two in charge of protecting her? We’ll try and keep most of the attention of whatever we find on us, but always assume something will go wrong. Especially with a damsel in distress.”

The poor girl stammered, and said, “Hey! J-just because I’m not good with people, doesn’t mean I’m a damsel in distress! I’m a researcher and provide buffs for the police before they go into dangerous situations! I don’t do field work!”

The officer took pity on the wiccan, and said, “Aura has been clinically diagnosed with several phobias from before the Apocalypse, and everything that has happened since hasn’t helped. Took her a while to be comfortable with either of us, see.”

I nodded slowly. It wasn’t uncommon for Seers to be jumpy, since they sometimes had trouble separating visions from reality, but if it was from before, then her new ability would only make it worse. “Well, that makes this a bit difficult, but I can deal.”

Turning slowly to look at Aura, I said, in as soothing a tone as I could manage, “So, what can you tell me about what’s going on here? The request from the guild we were given only said that we were dealing with several disappearances since the Apocalypse happened, and that when you did your divinations, all you could say was that there were ‘monsters’ involved, so they called us in.”

Aura nodded, and said, “Yes, when the detectives brought me objects of the missing people’s clothing or other things that were associated with them, I tried to scry for them, but it kept being blocked, and so the best that I could get are some blurry images of monsters of some kind, and teeth, big teeth.”

I frowned at that. If something was capable of blocking a Seer’s divinations, even if just partially, then whatever was involved was either very powerful, or really knew what they were doing. Either one was bad news.

Mathews spoke up again. “Which brings us to why we called you in again. The fifth victim disappeared sometime during the day yesterday, but wasn’t presumed missing until the car was discovered still sitting here this morning.”

Ranger Stevens sighed. “Because we’re a national park, people often go hiking, and don’t always return promptly. But the woman checked in before heading on her hike, and she didn’t have any kind of supplies for an overnight stay. She’s a regular who hikes the nature trails three times a week, and she’s never left her car overnight before.”

Mathews nodded. “Ranger Stevens called us, letting us know we had a possible fifth victim. We checked with her family, and she definitely took protection with her. There’s some magically enhanced creatures out in the woods, but none of the real monsters, like you see in town.”

That set off red flags. It should be the reverse. The further from civilization you went, the more powerful the monsters should be, initially. That wasn’t good at all.

Still, I kept my face even, and nodded. No need to worry them just yet. With any luck, I was just overreacting, and the worst we would have to face would be an overachieving cougar. Not the fun kind.

“All right, do we have a specific area of the forest to search? Or are we going to have to do the whole thing? And Ms. Aura, are you able to at least get us a direction-finding spell?”

Ranger Stevens nodded, saving the wiccan from having to speak. “Yes, thanks to the plans the victims filed and Ms. Aura’s magic, we’ve been able to pin down the area the people disappeared from the Pigeon Hill Trail. Unfortunately, that trail runs from here halfway down the park, including going up and down the mountain. Most only take one end or the other until they get to the summit, and then turn around. So, we’re thinking that whatever this is, it is on the mountain somewhere.”

The mountain. Made sense. Anything big and bad could lair there, and choose who saw it and when, especially if the lair was in some inconvenient spot, or was warded. “Right, that narrows it down a little, at least.”

I took a breath, and looked at the three. “All right. My girls and I can handle most threats that we know of. But this isn’t going to be a friendly hike. Whether there are people or actual monsters behind this, they’re going to be looking to take us down.”

I paused, to make eye contact with each of them in turn. “So, if anything starts looking like it is going to attack you, forget anything about ‘standard procedure’, or ‘verbal warnings’. You go for the kill. Especially if it is a person. Otherwise, you’re dead, and the person next to you is probably dead, too.”

Mathews grimaced. “That goes against the grain, but I have a buddy in the APD. Checked up on you, once the Guild said they’d be asking you to come out here. He said you knew what you were talking about, helped take down some big bads. I’ll trust you on this.”

Aura blinked, and then said, “I-is that why I see so much blood and death when I look at you?”

I nodded once. “I’ve killed a lot of people. Some were trying to kill me. Others were trying to get those around me. Some were just guys who happened to be on the other side of the battlefield from me. Poor schmucks who were at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

I took another breath, and looked to the others. “So, how are we doing this? My girls and I can handle most of the fighting, but if any of you are going to get squeamish on killing, I need to know now, so we can leave you behind.”

Aura straightened up a bit, screwing herself up to try and be brave. “I have a shield spell, that I can cover the three of us with. I won’t be able to do much, offensively, while maintaining those three spells, though.”

“Right, cast your spells, and we’ll be off. Sergeant, Ranger, we don’t know what we’ll be coming across. If we’re really, really lucky, it will be just a single creature. If we’re less lucky, there will be minions that will try and distract us from the main fight by going after the weaker members of the group. If that happens, I need you two to keep them off Aura here while she casts spells. Focus on defense. My girls and I will get to you as quickly as we can.”

The three nodded and I grinned. “All right, then. Let’s move out.”