The Daily Grind - Chapter 162 (Patreon)

This one was more fun to write than I expected 

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“It's a port of call. Home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanders. Humans and aliens, wrapped in two million five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night.”  - John Sheridan, Babylon 5 -

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It was 2 PM in a rented skyscraper office floor.  Around a smooth oval of a table, a group gathered to discuss important matters of strategy and operations.  The general outline of the conversations was already known, but this was the first time since James had come back that they’d made the time to all be in the same room together.

It wasn’t even everyone who would normally be at meetings like this.  JP was still off, presumably spying on the Guild of Alchemists, but more likely just avoiding awkward contact with James.  And Texture-Of-Barkdust was participating in search and rescue at Townton.

Their seats were still filled, though. Nate taking over as representative of the intelligence branch of the Order, and Priestess-Under-Stone standing in for their usual camraconda liaison, full name chosen at last.

Karen was also there, and, as far as James could prove, had been there for the last four hours carefully tapping her stack of printed notes on the table and waiting.  Momo was present, but she’d been lurking by the elevator so that she could come up with James and not have to face Karen alone.  Apparently, there was still an amount of enmity between the mother and the girl who nearly got her daughter killed.

Harvey and Knife-In-Fangs were there for Response, and Davis filling in for Research on the grounds that he was more interested in the long term than Reed was.  The three of them were having a conversation about basketball when James entered, though it trailed off as he settled into his seat.  Around Davis’ shoulders, the organized ethereal form of Planner waited patiently.

And then, Sarah, as the proxy for the broader base of the Order’s membership.  She was sitting next to a man that James hadn’t actually met before.  Cocoa skin and a smooth wide head, an appraising look on his face that flashed through concern as James entered, still damaged from his time on vacation and showing it plainly.  Maybe in his late thirties.  He had a sharp jacket hung over the back of his chair, and a professional shirt on that James figured looked better on the other man than it ever would on himself.

It was a bit incorrect to say that everyone “represented” their respective parts of the organization.  They weren’t official ranking members or anything, they were just the people with the knowledge and skills to have this conversation, and get the ball rolling on things. Or at least, that was what James liked to tell himself, so he didn’t feel like he was actually responsible for large scale decision making.

“You’re early!”  Sarah said, thumping a loose fist into the tabletop.  “I thought for sure you’d be running in late, having only remembered this was happening at the last second and rushing to get here.  Possibly with toast in your mouth.”

“Do you think my life is an anime?”  James gave her a concerned smile.  “Wait, don’t answer that.  Also, hi.  I’m James, nice to meet you.”  He leaned over and offered a handshake to the man next to Sarah.

“Jake Redding.”  The man’s voice was warm and firm, but clearly all business, and his handshake matched. “Legal counsel and civilian oversight.  Which I guess is something secret societies need now.”

“You’re taking this pretty well.”  James said, nodding at him.

“Well, it’s that or run screaming.  And the elevator ride back down would be awkwardly long.”

James grinned, and was about to keep the banter going, when Karen cleared her throat.  “Mr. Redding is a potential permanent hire for us, and has been cleared for everything but the most threatening knowledge.”  She said, referring specifically to the skulljacks.  “He’ll be working with us on the Townton situation, but I’ve invited him to this meeting to give him time to acclimate.”

“What happened to the other lawyer?”  James asked, shooting a look at Karen.

She cocked her eyebrows.  “The other lawyer?”

James gave a wide-eyed questioning gaze.  “The lawyer that came up here shortly before I did?  The one who was doing legal consultation for us?  This is a different lawyer.  Do you have a thing that transforms people into other people?”  He paused, his eyes shifting downward as he idly ran his thump across his fingertips.  “Actually, do you have a thing that does that?  I wouldn’t mind.”

“No, and also we have hired a small legal staff to work on contacting next of kin, managing estate transition, and other affairs.  Mr. Redding is here specifically to assist *us*, which means knowing slightly more than just the fact that our one floor building has an elevator in it.”

“Gotchya.”  James nodded.  “So. Do we want to start with Townton?”  James asked, looking around.  “Or do we have other problems?”

“Several!”  Knife-In-Fangs sounded all too cheerful about that.

Nate cleared his throat.  “Yeah, we actually have a few things we need decisions on.  But they should be quick, comparatively.”  He folded his arms on the table and leaned forward, and James realized that for the first time, he wasn’t seeing Nate in a chef’s jacket and stained apron, but instead a garishly colored Hawaiian shirt.  He blinked, but shook it off as Nate started talking.  “First off, the issue with Harlan’s Wolfpack.”

“God I hate that name.”  Momo muttered, rolling her eyes from her seat next to James.

“Same.”  He agreed, but then louder asked, “This is the group that stormed the chemical plant, right?  What do we know about them?”

“Pretty much nothing but the name.”  Nate said, shaking his head.  “We have a rogue going over the immediate area, looking for any sign of where they came from or operate out of, but nothing so far.  The refinery workers don’t remember anything about that whole day, and a check against employee rosters show that no one’s missing, except for the woman who was working with the Old Gun, so they didn’t kill anyone.  But that *does* mean they have a way to wipe memories.”

“Super.”  James sighed.  “And aside from that, no idea what they were there for?”

“None.  Though given the nature of the attack, it’s likely they were after access to the dungeon.”  Nate replied with a small shake of his head.  “We’re prepping to test it ourselves, but they held that building for a while, so we’ll need to be careful about any traps or surveillance left behind.”

“Great.  Okay.  So, what’s the decision to be made about there?”  James asked.  “It seems like the smartest thing is to stop prepping to go in, right?  We don’t *need* another dungeon, and the risk of coming up against people like us, but with bigger guns and less ethics, is one we don’t want to run right now.”

“Continue watching.”  Priestess-Under-Stone added.  “See if it is a hunting ground, for them.”

“What she said.”  James nodded.  “It’s possible they’ve been there before, and may go back again.  Keep someone in the area, and we might get lucky.”

Karen raised an eyebrow.  “You don’t want more magic?”  She asked, cynically.  “I don’t believe it.”

James snorted.  “I’ve got enough magic, and several ways to get more.  Having another resource like that would be valuable to us, but it isn’t worth risking lives over.  We’re explorers first, and the rescue squad second.  We aren’t conquerors.”

“Could be excellent conquerors.”  Knife-In-Fangs added.  There was a pause around the table as everyone looked at the camraconda.  Sarah leaned forward a bit, tilting her head and raising her eyebrows expectantly, until Knife-In-Fangs added, “And that would be bad.”

“Okay, that aside.”  James smothered a laugh.  “Does anyone have any other thoughts on that approach?  Observe, gather intelligence if possible, but don’t get into a proxy war over a dungeon entrance?”

“I’m fine with it, but I think at some point we’re gonna find out that these guys are the kinds of people you’ll probably want to get in a fight with.”  Nate answered.

Sarah propped her elbow on the table and stuck her chin in the palm of her hand, asking, “Why do you think that?”

“Probably because he’s met James before.”  Harvey suggested, speaking up for the first time.  He’d been a bit distracted, reading a constantly updating list of in progress operations on his phone.

“Just a bad feeling.”  Nate admitted, drawing another quiet pause before they moved on.

“Alright, what’s next?”  James asked.

“JP’s girlfriend is planning to sell us out!”  Sarah offered.

James paused, made eye contact with his friend who was sporting a toothy grin, and then turned to Karen.  “Alright, what’s next?”  He asked her.

“Well, we could discuss hiring practices, we could get Davis and Planner to give us the update on the dungeontech construction methods Research has been working on, we could talk about the Mountain, Harvey has a general outline he wants to run by you and has been waiting very patiently, or perhaps you’d be interested in knowing that JP’s girlfriend is planning to sell us out?”

“God dammit.”  James grumbled.  “I was afraid you’d say that.”

“May I ask a question?”  Redding raised a hand, tentatively.

“Shoot.”  James nodded at him.

“So, I’m up to speed on the fact that magic is real, and we are not alone in the universe.”  He waved a hand, palm up, toward one of the two camracondas at the table.  “But what I don’t understand is why you’re worried about being revealed.  Who do you think anyone could go to about you, that it would be a real problem?”

“JP’s girlfriend is Agent Tiffany DeKay, and she works for the FBI.”  Nate said flatly.  “She also isn’t his girlfriend, they just think they’re being funny.”

“Ah.”  Jake said, lowering his hand.  “No further questions at this time.”

Momo crossed her arms.  “I still don’t get why we ever agreed to let them in in the first place.”  She said.  “It was *fine* when it was just Nate and he was pretending he *wasn’t* a spy!  But now it’s all… controlling and stuff.”

Redding tried to move his chair slightly, discretely shifting away from Nate’s spot at the table.  “I’m not with them anymore.”  The larger man dryly commented.

“The reason at the time was that the feds thought we would be a useful asset for responding to terrorist attacks, because we’d just done the battle at the high school.”  Karen answered.

“Should name these battles.”  Knife-In-Fangs suggested.  “I have ideas.”  He offered, just in case.

“We’ll talk later.”  Sarah smiled, and the camraconda nodded back.

James waved their conversation down.  “Point is, it seemed like it might be a useful point of contact.  And in a lot of ways, it has been.  Because they know about us, we’ve been able to take jobs from the FBI at our discretion, that gives us more exposure to the weird stuff, and also lets us… um… Nate, how would you phrase our billing plan?”

“Extortionate.”  He answered.

“Cool.  That.”  James said.  “That, but to the government.”  He sighed.  “But now they’ve assigned us a liaison that’s… um… a little more conservative than I’m comfortable with?  Is that how I should phrase this?”

Karen met his gaze again, a hint of annoyance in her eyes.  “She believes us to be incompatible with ‘American values’, doesn’t have a solid internal definition for that term, has recommended to her bosses that our operations be disrupted and our membership pressured into leaving, and is, in fact, literally spying on us.”

“She did help us find a magical lighthouse, to be fair.”  Sarah pointed out.  “Randall never did that.”

“Randall died before he got to the part where he learned that I’m an anarchist.”  James reminded her.

Jake raised his hand again, the man looking well out of his depth.  “Sorry, died?”

“Uh… yes.”  James said.  “Not because of us though.  We… you know what?  There’s a lot of history on that one.  We’ll talk after.”

“No problem.”  He lowered his hand again, hiding his obvious concern.

James sighed, trying not to seem frustrated.  “Look, I don’t know what to do about this.  Do we just tell the FBI we’re disbanding, kick DeKay out, and then… do nothing?  It’s not like they can find the building.”

“We do a lot of operations outside of this building.”  Harvey reminded him.  “If they really want to, they can hurt us.”

“Okay.  Suggestions?”

“Go public with Response.”  Harvey instantly spoke up.  “Make it something they can’t fight, without being the bad guys.  Which they will anyway, but then… well… you can do your thing.”

Momo threw herself onto the table.  “Noooooooo no no no!”  She protested.  “James’ thing involves a *lot* of collateral damage!  We will all end up in jail or shot!”

“Or worse, for us.”  Knife-In-Fangs added.

“Yes, exactly.  No, we should settle this quietly.”  Momo nodded.  “Look, I can basically rip secrets out of the air, and El can do something similar.  Let us teleport into DeKay’s boss’s house, and just blackmail the shit out of him.  It’ll be so much cleaner, until we can get a better solution.”

Nate gave the girl an appraising look, realizing he may not have appreciated her ruthless streak enough.  Redding, meanwhile, raised his hand again.  “Should I leave the room?  If we’re discussing illegal activities?”

“Technically?  In a lot of states, it’s mostly legal to teleport into someone’s bedroom and magically determine if they’re having an affair, as long as you don’t touch anything.”  James said with a shrug.  Everyone’s heads slowly pivoted to look at him.  “What?  I looked it up.  It’s the ‘breaking’ part of breaking and entering that’s an issue!  And if you don’t touch anything, it’s trespassing at most, which is only a misdemeanor.  Wiretapping and survailence laws often only apply to specific technologies or actions, and I promise you, they do *not* cover magic.”

“We are not having this conversation.”  Karen told him, turning to Momo.  “How do you know you’ll be able to blackmail anyone effectively?”

“They work for the FBI.”  Momo replied.

“As hilarious and probably accurate as that response is, Karen’s right.”  Nate interjected.  “We’ll need a little more to go on than that.  But I’ll look into it.  Talk to JP, get you a real, hopefully legal, plan within a week.  What is the *actual* end goal?”  He asked, looking around the table.

“Cut contact.”  Sarah said.  “No more doing jobs for them.  No more taking their money.”

Harvey nodded in agreement.  “Non-interference would be preferable, but we’re already starting to work with rights groups that they actively interfere with.  Or at least, want to.  Like them.”  He pointed a scarred finger over at the new guy.  “Though we’re probably going to be drawing more attention as time goes on.  And they have no actual reason to keep their promises.  It’s historically been an issue.  So I dunno what to add, or where I was going with this.”

“Okay.  Cut contact, make ourselves into a non-issue.  I’ll get on it.”  Nate stated, like it would just be that easy.

“Good enough for me.”  James said.  “Who’s next? Davis?”

The older man jolted upright.  “Yes!  Um… we have some good news, and some bad news.”

“Did you hit my car with a spatial blender again?”  James asked.

“No?”

“What?”  The new guy’s eyebrows were getting a workout today.

Sarah patted him on the shoulder.  “I’ll fill you in later.”

“Carry on.”  James waved a hand.

Davis cleared his throat, reading something out of the corner of his eye that Planner showed to him.  “Yes.  Okay, so, good news, we’ve got three fairly basic orange totem patterns down *solid*.  We can do Penrose hallways, folded doors, and best of all, a standard ‘bigger on the inside’ space. Uh… folded doors are the thing where we can make the same door lead to different iterations of the room past it, depending on certain conditions, in case anyone didn’t read the frankly irresponsibly long write up on this.  Also, after a few false starts and nearly killing… after a few false starts, we’ve gotten positioning and connections down to the point that we can link them together to rapidly assemble large scale structures, if we’ve got the right patterns to work with.”

“...this is the happiest day of my year.”  James closed his eyes and let out a long breath.  “Okay.  I assume there’s bad news?  Because you said so?”

“Yes.  Plumbing and wiring are proving to be *major* challenges.  Also, each totem has a finite amount of matter.”

“...As in…it can’t go beyond a certain amount at once?”  Harvey asked.  “Because that’s not an issue.  Delvers bring back new orbs every week.”

Davis sucked in a nervous breath.  “As in, there’s a finite amount it can copy, period.  When we shut down an orb, it drags most of it back in, but removed samples stay real, and deduct from the limit.  And they won’t go back later.  Basically, we can’t use them as factories.  Though we *can* get, say, a few thousand chairs out of one, and then just discard it.  If we wanted to.”

“I’m sorry, chairs?”  Redding and Sarah said at the same time, the young woman giving him a friendly grinning offer of a high five that went unnoticed for long enough that she awkwardly high fived herself and lowered her hand.

“Furniture in general.  Chairs, lamps, whatever.  Only works with commonly used materials, though.  So far!  Can’t copy a silver chair.”  Davis shrugged.  “Anyway.  We expect that we’ll be able to begin laying the foundation for the trial arcology by the end of the year.  Though Bill has asked that I ask you to hire more people for the initial construction, so it can be as polished as possible, and-“

“Done.”  James thunked a flat palm onto the table.  “Anything else you need? More money?  More magic? Government officials strategically removed? I’ll fuckin’ do it!”

“Please stop saying things like that in front of me.”  Jake pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Also please stop promising money in front of *me*.”  Karen added.  “We don’t have that many resources, no matter how much you wish we did.”

James threw his arms up.  “I’ll figure it out somehow!”  He declared.  “We’ve got five dungeons open to us now!  An endless font of value!  We’ll figure it out!”

“Speaking of.”  Karen directed a rather cold look toward Momo.  “If that’s an affirmative decision on continuing the arcology work, I think we can move on to the Australian mountain, and the near death of my daughter?”

Momo withered under the older woman’s icy gaze.  “I said I was sorry!”  She exclaimed in a voice that was suddenly a lot meeker than her normal belligerent tone.

“Oh yeah, that makes it all better.”  James rolled his eyes.

To be clear, he was on Momo’s side here.  Karen was being both needlessly hostile, and dramatically overprotective of her daughter.  Elizebeth had gone with Momo’s team to Australia because she had wanted to, both to interact with the few friends she’d started to develop, and also just to have her own small adventure.  The fact that she’d ended up on a much more dangerous adventure had not been Momo’s fault, and was, in fact, largely a product of Liz’s own strange immunity to antimemetics.  They *could* have been safer, could have been better prepared.  But they hadn’t expected the dungeon to actively *strike out*, and in the end, they had been prepared enough to get out without anyone dying.

Which was often good enough, in this business.

“Apologies are important.”  Priestess-Under-Stone agreed.  “How goes recovery?”

Momo looked up from the surface of the table she had become fascinated with.  “Chevoy is going to be alright.  She’s only been here for a month or two, and she’s already racking up as many concussions as James.  Liz and Morgan both got out scraped up, but no serious injuries.  Color-Of-Dawn… well, you’d know better than I would, actually.  Do you guys ever regenerate lost ‘flesh’?”  Momo asked.

Priestess-Under-Stone looped her security camera head around in a camraconda version of a shrug.  Unlike Knife-In-Fangs, she wasn’t wearing the mechanical arms many camracondas had taken to, so she couldn’t shrug directly. “It depends, often.  Starvation makes the process slow.  Often lethal.  But we do not starve here.  Rest, time, will help heal.  May never be fully the same, though.”

“Well, his damage wasn’t to a vital organ, so he’ll get away alright then.”  Momo sighed.  “I managed to get to them in time to help, so everyone’s going to be alright in time.”

“Okay.”  James said.  “I haven’t actually had time to talk to you since getting back, except for when you were being a chaos goblin earlier.  So, can you fill me in on what the dungeon *is*? And I apologize if this is a repeat for anyone here.”

“I’m curious, personally.”  Jake said.  “Dungeons are what you call holes in reality, right?  As a game reference?”

“More or less, yeah.”  James answered him.  “This one is a mountain?”

“Yeah.”  Momo nodded.  “And a fuckin’ angry mountain, at that.”  She took a deep breath.  “So, the problem is, we went in just hoping to *find* the place.  And weren’t really ready to actually *go in*, right?  But the breach for this one *moves*, you guys!  Chevoy said it was like ball lightning.  Caught them totally off guard, and dropped them into the dungeon without warning.  We bailed out of there afterward, so we haven’t started tracking it yet, but it’s possible that it can roam out up to about fifty miles from the base of the mountain.  And also, it’s possible the mountain isn’t real.”

“Run that last one by me real quick?”  James blinked in abrupt confusion.

“The mountain.  I think it’s a mirage.  There’s just no *mountain* there.  Weird weather patterns, alarming missing persons rates, a whole lot of signs of a dungeon.  But you can’t just hide an entire fuckin’ mountain like that.  I’ve had Liz check out some satallite photos, and she can see what’s obviously a mountain.  *But*, the place where it supposedly is?  *People have been there*.  And I don’t mean, like, they *think* they were there but were actually somewhere nearby.  There are vacation photos online that are geotagged to the middle of where that mountain supposedly is.  I think it’s one big mirage.”

“Okay, maybe I’m just too old to grasp this, but why?”  Davis asked the question no one else was willing to.  “Every other dungeon *hides*.  Why’s this one so… not hiding?”

“Maybe some kind of side effect of its breach being mobile?”  Sarah suggested.

Karen hummed, momentarially setting aside her persistent cold angry at Momo.  “It’s possible that this isn’t intended at all.  James, can dungeons become ill?”

“Do not ask me that like I have *any* way of knowing the answer.”  James flatly shook his head.  “Maybe?”

“Can I…” The new guy cleared his throat, looking around for approval to contribute.

James idly tapped the table.  “First thing you should know working with us, and may already have noticed, is that we welcome ideas and discussion.  Please, go ahead, and don’t worry in the future.  Just dive in.  Like, don’t interrupt, but… yeah.  Go for it.”

“Okay.  So, this mountain, it’s in the middle of a part of Australia that’s specifically a tourist town?”

“Not exactly.”  Momo uttered a long ‘uh’, as she put her thoughts together.  “It’s… a functioning city? But also, yeah, it’s the kind of place that seems like it gets a lot of business from tourists.  Campers, hikers, that sorta thing.  Has a big art-town vibe to it, too.”

“Right, right.  Can these dungeons think?”  All at once, James, Sarah, Harvey, and Knife-In-Fangs echoed a single “Yes.”  Jake jolted a little at the varying levels of vehemence and venom in the different voices, and then leaned back in his chair with a nod.  “Okay, then it’s a trap.”

“How do you figure?”  Harvey asked, curious.  “It’s so *obvious*.  I mean, aside from the fact that we needed to have Planner in the room to even talk about it without forgetting about the whole thing.  It’s just a bad trap.  Like putting a big warning sign over a bear trap.”

James, though, tilted his head back to the ceiling and groaned.  “Oooooooh!  I get it!”  He ran his good hand through his hair.  “The kind of people out there would be *super curious* about the mountain that isn’t on any map!  They’d probably love to check it out, at least a little.  And the sporadic memory effect is gonna make it so they don’t realize how long they’ve spent walking toward it!  And then, they get *too* close, and bam.  In range of the breach.”

“So you think this one is actively hunting?”  Momo asked.  “I mean, it was clearly going for injury or death right off.  So I buy that.  What do we do about it, though?”

“Or, more accurately, do we try to kill it?”  Sarah put forth.

There was a quiet pause as everyone thought about that.

They hadn’t, after all, tried to kill or seal off the Office, or even the Sewer.  And both of those had proven to be very, *very* dangerous.  But this was something with a much wider geographical range, that seemed to be actively luring in and killing more people than either of the other two put together.

“We need to know more, first.”  James decided.  “Also, on that note, give us a picture of the inside.  Or at least, what you saw.”

Momo nodded, took a steadying breath, and started to explain.

As soon as she’d been dropped into the dungeon, it had been a struggle to stay alive.  The entrance, which appeared to be at least a little consistent, was a waist deep bank of soft snow that almost instantly infiltrated every crack in Momo’s outfit.  Her outfit, which was neither armor, nor designed for weather worse than a mildly chilly afternoon.  The closest thing she had to cold weather gear was a Status Quo glove.

She walked everyone through the process of locating the trails of the others, moving away from the entrance.  They’d headed up the slope, because, as Momo bitterly stated, there was no *down* the slope.  Behind her at the entrance point was a sheer cliff.  A howling wall of white blocking any longer visibility past that line, though she occasionally caught glimpses of distant snowcaps and harsh peaks.

There were a few trees in the area, which all had dozens of branches that were gnarled in ninety degree angles, and were completely bare of any greenery.  Momo had avoided those, partially because the trails of the people she was after had too, but also because it was insanely suspicious.  There were also a few rocky outcrops, one of which had a small area of snow cleared around one side where the group’s path led.  Momo told the assembled group that the reason would become obvious to her later, when she got caught out in a blast of frozen wind that had nearly taken her arm off with a spinning chunk of razor sharp ice.  The outcrops weren’t that secure, but they made great cover from spontaneous weather.

The trail continued, and by this point, Momo had been able to see a flickering yellow-orange light a quarter mile up the slope.  She’d had to pass through a copse of trees, and here encountered signs of a fight.  Blood, and splintered wood, and one tree that was missing half its branches.  She’d tried to hurry, but she’d been trying to hurry this whole time, and the cold was, Momo reminded everyone, both instantly painful and very difficult to move through.

When she made it up to where the other three had camped, she’d found them in a fight with a patch of snow that looked like it had just lifted itself off the ground and made use of rocks and ice chunks for eyes and teeth.  Color-Of-Dawn was down for the count at that point, and the younger kids were hiding behind Chevoy who had been trying to scare the thing away from their cave and fire with a burning branch.  The engineer was *not* doing okay, and was bleeding from both arms as she tried to fend off the snow beast.

Momo had punched it in the stone eye with her Status Quo glove, shattering the rock and killing the creature nearly instantly.

Then she’d joined the others around the burning corpse of some kind of sticking looking creature, applying what first aid she could, and desperately hoping her telepad dried out enough to actually write on before they all died of exposure.  Or the three or four other snow beasts that were slowly circling their camp.

Before that could happen, the other four had been offered the option to leave.  They hadn’t explained how at the time, but Momo urged them to take it.  Later, she filled the conference room in, they’d put together from the offered intrusive thought that it was a function of the dungeon.  You just had to be at a fire or other camp when the timer ticked over, as near as they could tell.  They had just gotten absurdly lucky.

Momo had entered later than them, though, and her timer was separate.  But she’d sent them off, promised she’d be fine, and then got really really lucky with drying out the telepad and blipping out before the pack of snow beasts closed in.

As a reward for her unorthodox survival, she’d gotten a message that was similar to what the others had, though a little angrier.

[Cowardice.  Deception.

Ascension : 122 ft.

Bestowal : +3 Breath Storage]

The others hadn’t gotten the “deception” editorializing, though the rest of the statement was all the same.  None of them had gotten anything to actually use Breath on, and Momo was quick to inform everyone that it *wasn’t* just the ability to need less air for a while.  It was as she was describing the texture of the feeling of having it that James made a realization.

“That sounds like Velocity.”  He said suddenly, interrupting for the first time since she’d started her story.  “Yeah.  Yeah!  You’re describing a mana pool.”

“So… what am I supposed to do with it?”  Momo asked.  “Because I don’t know if I wanna go back to the death mountain just to find out.”

“I mean, nothing.  Though that said, we should get Anesh in there and see how it works with him.”  James’ brain was already whirring with possibilities.  “Maybe that’ll be our next vacation.  Assuming I can get some high quality cold weather gear.  And a lot of thermite.”

“You know we super can.”  Sarah rolled her eyes.

“I’ve met Anesh.”  Jake muttered to her, not wanting to interrupt.  “Why him?”

“Anesh doesn’t have to breathe.”  Sarah whispered back.

Redding nodded. “Of course.”  He said, as if this was normal.  “So, vampire? Or…?”

“What?”  Sarah blinked.  “Oh!  No, just… doesn’t have to breathe, but normally.”

Davis and Harvey sighed in unison.  Nate just snorted at the exchange, adding “You’ll get used to this, eventually.  Then we’ll need to hire a new consultant for real world sanity checks.”

“Oof.  No job security around here?”

James shrugged.  “I mean, by that point, you’ll probably be indispensable to at least one project.  That’s how it goes around here.  Though *speaking of*, Harvey had some stuff about hiring, if we’re ready to move on?”

“Wait, wait.  What are we doing about the mountain?”  Karen stopped him.  “Stay focused here.”

“I mean… we fence it off, right?”  James leaned back and thought for a second.  “Is that practical? We obviously want to explore it more, or at least *I* do.  But we need to keep it from eating people.  How much fence do you think we could drop down into the Australian wilderness without being noticed?”

“Twenty feet.”  Nate said instantly.  “Maybe.  I think you’re seriously underestimating how much you won’t get away with this.  Small stuff is hard to spot on flyovers or from satellite, but as soon as you draw a circular line around an invisible mountain? You’re painting a bullseye on it, and people will see it.”

“There was that weird grim monolith that showed up in the Utah desert that no one found for years.  Maybe it would be like that? Also, wouldn’t the presence of the mountain make it harder to do anything about?”  Davis pointed out.

Knife-In-Fangs hummed, a low vibrating tone from his natural voice. “Did we investigate the grim monolith?”

“Nah, the grim monolith was a human thing.”  Harvey gave a small frown.  “We assume.  It was too recognizable as weird art to be a weird dungeon thing, I think.”

“Can we *please* stop saying ‘grim monolith’?” James asked, and was ignored.

Nate rapped his knuckles on the table. “Look, the point is, miles of fence is *too obvious*.  You’re not gonna keep people out, you’re gonna get government officials and wildlife preservations showing up and asking you what the fuck you’re doing.  And then they’ll get eaten by a mountain, and I hate that you’ve turned me into someone that says shit like this.”

“How bout keeping someone in the area as a lookout?  Warning people away?”  Harvey suggested.  “We’ve got more and more trained drone scouts available these days.”

“Requested hours exceed available hours.”  Planner softly murmured into the air.

Harvey gave the infomorph’s manifestation a betrayed look, before turning back to James.  “We’ve got drone scouts that can train more drone scouts to be available.”

“Alright, that seems like it can be a good plan going forward, until we can explore more.”  James said tentatively.  “Any objections?”

“Yes.”  Karen stated flatly.

“Any objections that aren’t just based on protective anger?”

“No.”  She replied.  “But I am still angry.  This one broke all the rules we were aware of.  And it will continue to actively hunt people.  Why shouldn’t we try to starve it out?”  The demand was harsh, but given that her daughter had nearly died in the dungeon, it wasn’t completely unfair.

“We just might, eventually.”  James told her.  “But we do need to explore first, to verify.  And also, if it broke all the rules we knew about, then we *didn’t know all the rules*, and this could be an opportunity to learn.  Which is the only way we’ll last for long if stuff like this is more common than we think.”  He met her eyes, and after a moment, Karen gave him a single nod, before making a mark on the page she had in front of her.  And just like that, the ball got rolling on rendering the dungeon safe.  Well, safer.  For people that didn’t go in on purpose.  James shook his head slightly, shaking off the temptation to go on a mental tangent.  “Okay.  Harvey, hiring plan?”

“Yeah.”  The other man passed James a rather thick blue file folder, which James took and started flipping through, seeing resumes, notes, and personal profiles.  “So.  Currently, we’re operating with two bottlenecks to Response.  One is the number of teams we can safely deploy, and one is the number of telepads available.”

“Is that seriously a problem already?”  James raised an eyebrow.

“No, but it will be within a couple years.”  Harvey told him.  And suddenly, James realized just how long term the de facto leader of Response was thinking ahead.  The grey in his hair started to make sense.  “So, to alleviate both problems early, we’ve started identifying candidates that would make both good mundane Response team members, and potential delvers, to increase our access to more telepads.”  Harvey stated.  “These are people, some of whom have applied previously, some of whom we’ve scouted in a few ways.  Social media trawling, personal recommendations, and dungeontech info gathering.  A lot of them aren’t going to be perfect fits for us.  But that’s never been a problem previously.  *I* wasn’t a perfect fit, neither were half our members.  We have an established culture now, that can effectively absorb a large influx of members, without losing its identity, and we should take advantage of that.”

“This is a *lot* of people.”  James muttered, flipping through the profiles.

“How many is ‘a lot’?” Sarah asked.

“I’d like to start with twenty.”  Harvey replied, drawing apprehensive breaths from a few others at the table.  “Moving up to eighty before the year is over.”

“I… hm.”  James suddenly felt a nervous tug in his chest.  “Okay, I… see where you’re coming from with this.  But… eighty people?  I already feel bad that I don’t know everyone in the building anymore.  Can we even pay eighty people?”

Priestess-Under-Stone hissed out loud, and drew James’ attention before she started speaking.  “You do not know all of my species.  But you helped us, regardless.  Want to be helping all of your species.  Do you expect to know them all?”

“And *don’t* give an answer that hinges on immortality.”  Sarah preemptively chastised him with a waving finger.

James’ frown softened a little.  “That is fair.  This just seems like a big step.  Can we even *afford* this?”  He alternated looking between Karen and Planner.

“No.”  Karen said simply. “Not immediently.  We are operating at a deficit, and that’s only gotten worse this month with the influx of refugees to take care of.  Now, a lot of those people are going to be on the path to recovery within the next month, so that cost will be going down.  But we still don’t have access to enough resources to have the financial power to hire that many people.”

“But.”  Planner added, an angular limb shifting around Davis’ shoulders to interject.  “Ourselves can account for increased operations.  A number of ideas float toward the surface, projects near ready states.  Money is acquirable.  Especially when Relevant Space operations are expanded.  There are materials to make use of, if we simply make use of them.”

Karen nodded.  “Yes.  Exactly.  Precious metals alone are enough to balance our books, if we had perhaps one or two more experienced teams exploring Officium Mundi.  But there’s also opportunities to begin applying powers for civil engineering, which can be a very lucrative field with the proper access to contracts.”

“Do we… have that access?”  James asked.

“Yes.  I’ve been securing it, since it was made clear that we can do road work at an inhumanly rapid rate.”

“That’s such a goddamn ominous sentence.”  James shook his head.  “Okay.  Okay!  Twenty people, you think that’ll be okay?”  Karen nodded.  Harvey shrugged, as if to indicate it would be an okay *start*.  “Part of me wants to be one of the ones contacting potential hires, but that might just be me panicking and hoping to hold on to control of something I don’t need to.”  He sighed.  “Alright.  Do it.”

“To be fair, I could use the help.”  Harvey told him.  “I’m busy, a lot.  I was gonna get Knife and Ann to do most of the work, since they’re both off rotation for a week or so.

“Unneeded.”  Knife-In-Fangs grumbled.

“Downtime is *critical* to long term mental health.”  Harvey sniped back without missing a beat.  He turned back to James.  “So, yeah, they’d probably like the help.”

James chuckled.  “Alright.  We’ll start that process after the weekend.”  He looked down at the notes Karen had given him at the start of the meeting.  “Next small thing is the Authorities?  Okay.  Anyone have a problem with these?”

“I have another question.”  Jake propped his elbow up on the table to hold up a hand.  “Which authorities? Police?”

James winced apologetically. “Oh.  Sorry, this gets unclear sometimes.  Um… when words are capitalized like that, it’s usually a secondary use of the term to refer to a dungeon thing.  Authorities are-”

“How in the hell do you keep speaking the capital letters? That’s not… I have never heard anyone do that.”

“-Okay, rude.”  James recovered from being interrupted.  “It’s a trick.  Anyone can learn it.  So.  The Authorities are a form of infomorph like Planner here.  Except instead of being based on a compulsive assignment, they’re based on structured organizational authority.  *As far as we know*.  Nikhail recently bonded to one, and they’re getting along fine.”

“I have a mild problem with them.”  Momo chimed in.  “Because aren’t we supposed to be an organization that doesn’t have the kind of power structures an Authority would want to feed on?  This seems like using them too much would warp how we act?”

James nodded at her in acknowledgement.  “I actually had a conversation… wait, weren’t you *there* for this conversation?  Oh, whatever.  The point is, we don’t know a lot, but we *do* know we can fight back if they try to take over.  Though I don’t think they actually could?  And I, for one, am interested in how they’d grow when planted in an organization like ours, where power is more fluid, and responsibility is more personal.”

“That kind of covers my main concern, too.”  Davis shrugged.  “We’ve been keeping an eye on their ‘hive’ in a safe containment spot.  It looks like there’s six or seven new Authority… larva?... that might be ready to be taken up.”

“Members of my people, curious, wanting more active roles.”  Priestess-Under-Stone tilted her head toward Davis.  “Perhaps a chance, here?”

“It should work, yeah.”  Davis agreed quickly.  “There’s no real inherent conflict, since they don’t come from the dungeon that might subvert camracondas.  I can make sure a couple of your people are on the list of volunteers.”  Around him, Planner shifted as the informorph adjusted itself into an ethereal copy of that mentioned list.

Karen made a displeased noise and frowned down at her notes.  “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to rig that list just to satisfy the desire to be a multi-species Order.”  She said.  “We should do real testing, to see where the Authorities work best.”

The words brought an unexpected wince out of James.  He forgot, sometimes, that while Karen had adapted to them more than expected, she still maybe held some unexamined biases that came out of nowhere on occasion.  “Think of it like reparations.”  He told her, and instantly regretted the word choice as Karen looked like she was going to argue.  “*We* didn’t artificially create a species of puppet soldiers.  We aren’t the ones who should be fixing the problem.  But we’re here now, and we can do something, and the more camracondas are put in positions to interact with the world, and secure their own agency going forward, the healthier a society we can build.”

She didn’t look exactly convinced, but Karen was nothing if not aware of the fact that when James used that tone, he had a personal conviction that she probably wasn’t going to change.

Their new legal counsel chimed in as well.  “This isn’t actually the same catagorical thing as reparations, just so you know.”  He told James.  “But you’re not wrong on the fundamentals.  Correcting a power imbalance isn’t easy, but the sooner its done, historically speaking, the smoother it goes.”

“Also it’s the right thing to do?”  Momo still didn’t actually *look* in Karen’s direction, but she did speak up.

“Also!  I actually *like* most of the camracondas!”  Sarah added.  “I’d trust them with that power.”

“You like everyone.”  James reminded her, to which she just stuck her tongue out at him.  The epitome of a professional.  “Alright.  So.  Authorities, go for it.  Make sure there’s at least some form of trust verification first, and *tell Reed not to do anything stupid with it*, but go ahead.  Actually, do that this weekend, and let’s move hiring to next week.  Stabilize any problems that come out of this before we drop even more people into the chaos.”  He sighed as a few people made notes and noises of acknowledgement.  “Alright.  So.  One last thing then.  Who wants to go first?”

The one last thing was that there was, perhaps, just a *small* amount of fallout from the events in Townton, Tennessee.

Momo started them off.  “Okay.  One big thing that’s been worrying is if this is going to get us… you know, shut down or anything.  Like if any random government might take offense to the whole *thing*.”  The young woman pursed her lips and ducked her head as a few people around the table gave her incredulous looks at the way she made it sound a lot less horrifying than it actually was.  “Right.  Well.  I’ve been keeping tabs on things.  Nameless is watching news feeds for anything, and I’m checking in with Planner and Pathfinder fairly often.  It looks like the geographic memeplex around the dungeon was still operational in the claimed areas when you killed the guy.”  She shot a nod toward James.  “The dungeon pulled back, but from what I can tell of how things like maps and Wikipedia have been edited over the last couple days, the general consensus is that the city is just way smaller than it always was written down as.”  Momo shrugged.  “We’re in the clear, as far as anyone noticing.  I think even DeKay didn’t actually know anything happened, beyond James and Anesh going on vacation.  Large scale forgetfulness, basically.”

“Oof.”  James shook his head.  “That’s gonna make it hard for the survivors to rebuild, assuming they want to.”

“Most of them do not.”  Karen spoke in an informative tone, rattling off statistics like an automatic weapon.  “We brought back three hundred and fifty one survivors, not counting the people who are here in the Lair.  Of those, roughly half owned property in Townton, and most of the rest are underage.  Recovery has already begun contacting family where possible, and transporting the children affected when it makes sense to do so.  We may need to either interface with state social services for at least twenty of the children who have no known family, or else make Order-esque arrangements.”  James snorted a laugh at the sentence, and he noticed he wasn’t the only one.  Karen just rolled on though.  “Of the adults that owned property in the city, many of them are struggling against the antimemetic effect, and are treating this as a singular traumatic event that lost them their homes, and sometimes families.  We have made counseling and therapy available, but despite the violent nature of the event, it would appear the memory loss is actually helping many of them move on quickly.  As before, Recovery is assisting in finding family, and providing ‘insurance payouts’ where needed.”

“How’s the money situation?”  James asked.  “Can we afford that?”

“It is cutting into our savings.  But it will not bankrupt us”  Karen said honestly. “I have secured us very affordable accommodations at a number of hotels, but I have also learned that you cannot get a bulk discount on therapists.”  She paused, and it took James a minute to realize she’d just made a *joke*.  Undeterred by the lack of laughs, Karen continued on.  “The ones who want to go back to the city are being pressured against it by those who consider the whole place lost.  And in my opinion, as well as that of our resident mental health experts, we should simply tell them that their homes are gone.  Recover mementos for them, if possible, provide them the funds to move on, and not let them go back.”

“Homes made unsafe.”  Knife-In-Fangs commented.  “Practical measure, to keep them away.”

“Exactly, thank you.”  Karen tipped her head toward the camraconda.  “Fortunately, the fact that they’re treating this a single traumatic event means that we’ve seen a far, *far* lower rate of suicide than we did among…” The words caught in her throat, and she looked away for a second before turning back and continuing.  “Among survivors of long term imprisonment from Officium Mundi.”

“Sarah, you’ve been talking to Lua lately, right?”  Momo asked, awkwardly trying to slightly redirect the topic.

Sarah gave an energetic nod.  “Yeah.  Though she’s still at the school, mostly.  Connie is the one who’s been our weird-things mental health expert for this.  And Karen’s right, sending people back is just going to lead to those people living somewhere they subconsciously associate with a *lot* of death.”

Knife-In-Fangs chimed in again, adding, “And very real threat of present death.”

“Sorry, what?”  James blinked.

Nate looked up from the laptop he was placing a kitchen shipment order on. “Because of the bone things.”  He said simply.  “Anesh said you called them road warriors, and I’m okay with that.  Good movie.  Second best in the series.”

“We’ll talk about Mad Max later.”  James said, making a quick promise.  “First, though, those things are still there?  I thought we killed them all.”

“We killed all the ones around where the Mechanic was.”  Nate corrected.  “But he’d made more, and they were actively making *more* out of the bodies of the civilians he killed.  By the way, Karen, whoever in Recovery is managing burial services, put them in touch with me or Harvey, so we can streamline escorts.”  He jerked a thumb toward the man sitting next to him, that nodded.

“Wait wait wait!”  James whipped his arms up in a gesture of denial.  “You’re telling me they’re self replicating?!  This is… this is literally a potential end of the world!”

“Did no one tell you this?”  Momo asked.  “It’s bad, but it’s mostly okay.  They can only use bones that were from people killed on dungeon territory.  It was in the Mechanic’s notes.  The problem is just that they’re all active now, and roaming around.  Technically, they’re dungeon life.  But even the ones that got near the entrance to the Road didn’t leave.  I don’t think it wants them?”  She shrugged.  “It’s kind of fuzzy.  Either way, it’s a big problem for us.”

“As they aren’t leaving the city, we’re taking a break from operations to let our combat teams recover, before we start…” Harvey looked for the word he was trying to express.  “I guess extermination efforts.  We really can’t just let them all roam around trying to stab people.”

“Oh, yeah, obviously.”  James agreed.  “Davis? Can you get me a copy of the Mechanic’s notes on this?”

“Absolutely-“

“Thank you.”

“-not.”  Davis finished, giving James a disapproving look.  “We have information security for a reason.  If you want to read it, get approval, schedule a time, and come to the secure vault.”

“Approval from *whom*?!”  James demanded.  “I am in charge here!”

“Despite protesting that fact constantly.”  Sarah spoke to Jake out of the corner of her mouth.

Priestess-Under-Stone gave him a quizzical look.  “Assumed Sarah was in charge.”  She said, causing Sarah to sputter and make equally vehement denials.

Davis ignored them, and instead answered James.  “Normally, yeah, approval from yourself.  Though since you’re one of the people who’re on the list to grant approval, you need to get it from someone else on the list.”

“This seems pointlessly complex.”  James told him.

“One man used the information in these papers to create self-replicating necromantic constructs, dungeon anchors, and a machine that steals bodies.”  He reminded James.

“I will… get permission from Reed.”  James conceded.  “When you put it in context like that.. yeah, sorry.  I’ll get permission.”

“Now, there’s two questions left to answer.”  Karen brought them back to the topic at hand.  “The first is, what do we do with the prisoners from the cult?”

“Some of them, I wouldn’t exactly rank as evil people.”  James started with.  “A few of them thought they were really just helping the dungeon and not hurting anyone.  *Though*, I concede that they *did* try to kidnap a twelve year old girl to do it, so they obviously aren’t blameless.”

Sarah chopped her hand through the air at him.  “If *you* ordered people to kidnap a kid, to save the world, do you not think anyone would do it?”

“I mean, not if I didn’t give them a reason!”  James argued.  “Also I don’t think I’d do that!”

“Probably why people listen to him.”  Harvey muttered to Nate, who gave an agreeable snort.  Then, out loud, added to the group, “This is basically where the rubber meets the road for our - stop laughing, Momo, that wasn’t a pun - for our interpretation of a legal system.  Or rather, a *justice* system.  Now, I know James has talked about this before, but it’s not theoretical anymore.  The good ‘ol US of A doesn’t consider ‘attempted deicide’ to be a crime, and we have no proof that these people ever attempted kidnapping, murder, or fraud.  Their fates are entirely up to us, and we need to decide on what that’s going to be, because it’s gonna come up more and more.”

A few people started talking at once, before they all paused, and tense quiet took over before Harvey took control of the proceedings.  “Karen, how about you go first, and we’ll go around the table.”

“Lock them up, throw away the key.”  Karen said simply.  “Some mistakes, you don’t get to come back from.”

“We could also just shoot them.”  Nate offered.  “I know a lot of you here won’t like it, but we don’t *have* long term prison facilities.  And we know at least one of them can do some kind of road magic, and they’re more than willing to use it to fuck people up.  They’re too dangerous to leave alive.”

James took a deep breath, and was going to give a harsh answer, but Priestess-Under-Stone jumped in first.  “I could kill anyone in this room.”  She said quietly.  “We” and she twitched her snout toward Knife-In-Fangs at the word, “only exist as we are, because of a killing.  A murder.  But we were *forgiven*.”

“Yeah, thinking about it, I’ve got way more blood on my hands than any of them do, as far as we know.”  Sarah sighed.  “Self defense, sure.  But… Priestess isn’t wrong.  How many people in this room *aren’t* deadly weapons?  Show of hands?”  Jake’s hand shot up, a worried look in his eyes.  Aside from Davis making a wobbling gesture of uncertainty, it was the only one.  “Yeah.  Yeah, being dangerous isn’t worth killing someone over.”

“But they’re still… I dunno what to call it.”  Momo shook her head, a look of disgust on her face.  “Incompatible? Assholes? Maybe not all of them, but some of them.  They *wanted* to have power over people, they were *okay* hurting people if it made them richer.  That’s messed up, and we shouldn’t tolerate that.”

And now, James spoke.  “I wouldn’t ever want to be part of an organization that kills people it finds inconvenient.”  He said.  “Hell, it’s part of why I think we’d be better for humanity than most governments.  No, no executions.  But we need to do more than just lock people up.”

“Why?  The point is to punish them for what they’ve done.”  Karen asked.

“No, the point is to make a better world.  That’s always going to be the point of anything we’re doing here.”  James answered her.  “Isolating someone from society fixes one problem; they can’t keep hurting people.  But it doesn’t fix the problem that you either have to keep them isolated, or eventually let them go, and then you have the same risk as before.”  He shook his head.  “It’s something we see with US prisons *all the time*.  Recidivism is way too high, because the main thing people learn in prison is contact information for other criminals, and how to do violence better.  And yes, that’s reductive, I know, I’m going for a point here.”  He cut Harvey off before the other man could correct him.  “My point is, we need a better solution.  Rehabilitation.  Therapy.  Cultural immersion.  Isolation from anyone they can hurt, sure, but also a path toward a better life.  Maybe as members of the Order, maybe just as citizens of our new world.  But we can’t just lock em up or shoot em.”

“You want to treat them like victims.”  Davis commented.  He didn’t say it with malice, just like he was making a mental connection.

“Aren’t they?”  Harvey said.  “Maybe not everyone we need to deal with will be, but a lot of these folks, they’re *cultists*.  Cults aren’t exactly a full disclosure voluntary thing, right?”

“Oh, hell no.”  Sarah agreed with him.  “There’s a lot of lying, a lot of implicit threats.  The whole point is exploitation of the membership.”

Jake cleared his throat.  “Cults are often uncomfortable territory, but Ms. Moyle isn’t wrong.  A cult of personality, which it sounds like this was, is often a form of coercion against its members.  It doesn’t *legally* excuse their actions, but US juries will often show leniency on the actions of members, compared to leadership.”  He looked around.  “Also I would probably quit now if you decided to carry out extrajudicial killings.”

“It was just a suggestion.  I’m fine with James’ thing.”  Nate shrugged.

“There’s still a logistical issue.”  Karen said with a sigh.  “We don’t have the space, and we cannot afford another building if we want to remain solvent through the end of the year.”

“...Sure we do.”  James said, blinking.  “We have a whole city.”

“And now we get to the second question.”  Karen quipped.

Jake jumped in.  “Okay, I was asked to prepare for this.  If you look at page ten through sixteen in the meeting notes, you can see a cost breakdown of expected capital gains and property taxes, and legal fees.  As well as the process of becoming an unincorporated township in the US.”

“Wait, isn’t Townton already a city?”  Momo asked.

“Well, it *was*.  But since no one can remember it, documentation of it doesn’t appear relevant.  And despite having a very good degree, I don’t actually know what the law is about ‘what if everyone just doesn’t acknowledge the missing city. So you’ll probably want to file at least some paperwork.”

James hummed.  “What if…”

“Here we go.”  Momo rubbed her hands together.  “I’ve been *waiting* for this.  Fuckin’ *say it*.”

James gave her an exasperated glower before looking back around the table.  “What if we just moved in?”  He said.  “With the dungeon there, it’s a powerful resource.  And the residual antimemetic effect gives us at least a little cover.  If we move fast enough, by the time anyone notices… well, refuge in audacity, right?”

“I cannot, *legally*, recommend that.”  Jake answered.

“Buuuuut?”

“No, no but.  I’m not… sorry, I should make this clear.  I’m here to assist with the estate processing for the deceased, to help people who haven’t… been exposed to your world… to understand what has happened, and to help arbitrate property transfers.  Your organization seems good at heart, and I can appreciate a lot of what you’re doing.  *We’re* doing, now.  But I am not, as you’ve put it, culturally immersed.  I am here to make sure that your actions in regards to this city and its surviving citizens do not veer into the unethical.”

James nodded.  “Okay, that’s totally fair.  So, from an ethical perspective, is there anything wrong with us paying insurance or property value payouts to those who lost homes or their next of kin where available, and then just moving in?”

“A number of small things, yes.  Though since your people have made it clear that the area is functionally an active disaster site, it mitigates most of them.”  Mr. Redding flipped a page of his notes over and checked a couple of things.  “The thing to remember is, the law isn’t always enforced equally.  A number of things, such as zoning restrictions, or use of firearms within city limits, would normally be enforced by people who are dead now.  And no one is planning to take their place.”  He let his shoulders slump slightly.  “The loss of life, assuming this isn’t some elaborate game you’re all playing, is… staggering.  There have been wars that cost less than this.”  He sighed, banishing his frown as best he could.  “Your concept of refuge in audacity isn’t even legally irrational. If you were the sole caretaker of otherwise abandoned property, and that property remains abandoned for seven years, then you can claim the title for it.  I’ll need to do more research to see about the responsibilities of a city government.”

“That would be helpful, thank you.”  Karen told him.  “Is there a barrier now to occupying the empty land?”

“Well, Tennessee trespassing laws could allow you to be arrested by local or state authorities, regardless of if the property is owned or active.”  He shrugged.  “But again, they’d have to find you.”

“I should mention the city doesn’t actually connect to a highway anymore.”  James pointed out.  “The Last Line Of Defense blew up the main road out of town.

Jake flinched at the name.  “The *what*?”

“Oh, yeah.  Some kind of post-human soldier archetype.  Bit of an asshole.”  James shook his head.  “I’ll explain fully later.  Everyone else here has heard this already.”

Harvey pushed his chair back and stood up, and Nate followed suit.  “This mostly answers my question on what our future operations should be.”  He said.  “We’ll start preparing for combat operations starting next week.  Clean the place up a bit.”

Nate nodded.  “Also, I’m gonna find someone to take my place as a military commander.  Not my thing, and I’ve mostly just been filling in.”

“I can find some people to get to work on putting all the asphalt back where it belongs, and not ‘all over the damn place’.” Momo added, stretching out before she also wobbled to her feet.

“And I’ll get the word out.”  Sarah said.  “Actually, we should get a stenographer for these meetings!”  She declared.  “Just auto update a website somewhere with our discussions and stuff.”

Davis nodded.  “I can get Reed to start on something for that.”

“I believe,” Planner whispered, “Ms. Moyle meant that we should ask someone to type.”

“That seems lazy.  We have engineers to solve problems like this.”  Davis replied.

James grinned.  “That sentence right there? That’s how I know we’ve got our idea hooks in you.”  He said.  “Alright.  Thanks everyone for catching me up.  Sorry for dumping more work on us all.  Just let me know if anyone needs anything extra.”

There was, as there always was with meetings of this size, a period at the end where some people split off for individual conversations, or where the process of leaving overlapped for various people.  As Jake folded up his own notes and followed Karen to her office to discuss funeral proceedings, a group of people headed to the elevator.  Momo didn’t waste time, and just teleported out alone, not wanting to sit around the conference table for a moment longer than needed.

And so, at the end of a long talk, Sarah found James, the two of them the last ones in the area, standing at the window and looking down over the web of roads and glittering glass below.

“Every time I look at this, I just think we could build something more efficient.”  James shook his head.  “Not, like, *us* us.  But us.  Humanity.”

“We have, in other places.”  Sarah said.  “Cars are… eh.  They solve a problem, but also cause other problems.  We need to make teleporting the transit of the future.”

“We’re gonna need a *lot* more magic coffee grounds.”  James smiled at her.

“I was *gonna ask* if you wanted to hit up Officium Mundi this coming week.”  Sarah grinned back.  She was, James was pretty sure, the only one who always pronounced the whole dungeon names.  Every time.  “Need a teammate?”

“Always.”  He said, trading a light high five with her.  “Gonna need someone to carry me when I break the rest of my bones!”

“Psh.”  Her smile wavered a little.  “You okay?”  Sarah asked.

There was, James realized, a lot of emotion and language packed into those two small words.  You okay.  Was he okay?  He’d tried to go on vacation, and because he’d been screwing around, not acting fast enough, thousands of people had died.  He’d had to kill another person.  He’d been kicked around, beat up, damaged and injured.  And now all these people who were so *obviously* smarter than him were asking him questions, looking to him for direction on important shit.  And he was exhausted.  So, so tired.  He just wanted to… well, fade into the background of a dungeon delve, really.  Explore, out there where there were no expectations or worries.  See something new and cool, without major stakes and ethical ramifications, and maybe pick up a new superpower while doing it.  But was he okay?  He didn’t know.  But maybe that was okay, on its own.

“I’ll live.”  He told Sarah with a soft smile.  “I could have done more, you know?”

“Maybe.  But you also could have done less.”  She reminded him.  “Also!  What’s the new dungeon like?  Tell me!  We haven’t really talked except at the security debrief!”

“Oh, you’d like it, I think.  It’s got mazes and magic gasoline and a whole bunch of weird stuff.  Though not all clumped up, like here.  It’s a hell of a road trip.”

“What’re we calling this one? El said that she didn’t like the name Route Predation anymore, since… you know, the whole thing.”

“I’ve been mentally saying Route Horizon.”  James said, nodding understandingly at El’s change of heart.  “It… it tried, you know? I think that’s the thing.  The inside is hostile, and *harsh*.  But when the time came, the dungeon *tried*.  It for sure saved Jeanne and Ava.  And probably thousands of others.  It was fighting back, I think.  Right up to the end there.”

“Route Horizon.”  Sarah said the words, like she was intoning them into a mental shelf where she kept special names.  “I like it.  Can’t wait to visit her.”

“Her?”

“Oh, her, absolutely.”  Sarah nodded.  “Probably.  I mean, I’ll *ask* when I have the chance!”

James found himself laughing, a smile on his face so wide it shot pain through the damaged skin of his cheeks.  “Everyone should has someone this optimistic in their life.”  He told her as he wiped away a small tear from the corner of his eye, still grinning broadly.

“I know, that’s why I do a podcast!”  Sarah reminded him, matching his smile.  She elbowed him lightly.  “So, any big plans for your progression up the power ranking?”

Giving a snort, James shook his head.  “Honestly, I think I’m cool not getting any more magic.  Like, don’t get me wrong, it’s a huge dopamine hit every time something happens.  But do I actually *need* another rank in Aim, or another weird road spell?  Wha-”

“Yes.”  Sarah interjected.

James gave her a *look*.  “Okay, but you get what I’m saying, right?  There’s a lot of people in the Order now who could make use of a copied armory package, or the next schoolbook.  Am I really the-”

“*Yes*.”  Sarah reiterated.  “And not just because you’re my best friend, and I trust you with phenomenal cosmic power.”  She waggled her fingers in the air as she intoned the words.  “But also, because you keep ending up as our front line.  You almost died!  You… you almost died again.”  He voice trailed off, and she turned her face away from James, the optimistic smile slipping.

He didn’t turn away, just watched her as his confusion cleared up.  “Ah.”  James said with a sigh.  “Yeah, I guess that’s true, isn’t it?  People just keep shooting at me or throwing monsters my way.  Dammit.  I was hoping I could outsource that!”

“Really?”  Sarah glanced back at him.  “Really.”

“Nah, not really.”  James admitted.  “I mean, okay, I don’t *like* the repeated near death experiences.  But I do like protecting people when I can.  I like exploring new places, even when they’re dangerous.  Maybe *because* they’re dangerous, I haven’t done that much introspection.  But… I mean, hell.  When I found the Office for the first time, I remember… fuck, this sounds so bad… I remember feeling alive when I was in it.  Risking my life for tiny yellow orbs or a weird pen or something.  It was so much more than everything else in the ‘real world’, and I loved it.  And I’m probably super lucky I ended up bringing in Anesh and then everyone else later, or I might have just gone in and not come out.  And I… well, I don’t think I’ve ever shaken that feeling.  Even when I was feeling depressed and exhausted, my instinct was to go on another Office delve, or to take a ‘vacation’ to go beat up a Road Necromancer.”  James thunked his head into the pane of the window, eyes unfocused on anything but the sun glittering off the horizon.

Sarah rubbed a hand across his back.  Gave him a nod, like she knew exactly what he meant.  And he realized then, that he’d never actually asked her why *she* had been going into Officium Mundi in the first place.

“So.”  Sarah drawled.  “Got any plans for sucking up the magic through the danger straw?”

“I’m gonna go climb the stupid mountain.”  James said, neither of them unable to hold back grins, and then a rapid waterfall of laughter that bounced through the office floor and drew raised eyebrows from the people still working up here.

Sarah gave him a soft high five.  “I’m right there with you my dude.”  She informed him.  “Wanna go see if we can weasel into the hospital and ask the kids what they’re gonna name it?”

“Pff. No.  Because Karen would kill me, and I cannot prove she doesn’t have that power.”  James shook his head.  “Also, hey, I didn’t realize this, but Momo said that Chevoy was there too?  But Chevoy was… one of the people on the rescue team for *me*.  Is that girl cloning herself too, or did she just walk off frostbite?”

Sarah blinked.  “Thaaaaat is a good question.  Wanna go get lunch and see if we can ambush her and ask.”

“Alright.”  James decided.  “Yes.  And also, I’m okay.  Yeah.  I’m good.”  He said, and meant it.  “Now!  Let’s get back to work.”

There was a lot to do.