Chapter 116: The meeting


    After leaving Reba an exhausted, sweaty, sex-stained mess, Mason stretched and enjoyed the soft pillow and sheets in the chieftain’s hall room. He could smell something cooking in the kitchen, Haley’s soft voice echoing down the hall. But after a few moments of quiet his mind drifted back to the rain and the hills and the battle with the orcs. Then to his strange new power and the way it made him feel.


    “You were pretty amazing, you know,” he said.


    “You weren’t so bad yourself,” Reba mumbled, and Masonughed.


    “I meant with the orcs. I was thinking about the battle. I was watching. They all tried to take you down and couldn’t.”


    She sat up a little, holding the sheet over herself as if they hadn’t just spent thest hour screwing each other’s brains out.


    “Seul-ki helped,” she grinned. “Anyway, nevermind me, you’re the one who came outta the woods like bigfoot, naked and sportin’ ws.”


    Masonughed but felt his humor drain faster than it should have. “I don’t remember it well, to be honest. It''s...a very strange power. I''m not sure I should even use it again.”


    “That sounds too serious for naked cuddles.” She gave him a squeeze and sighed. “What time is it?”


    He smiled. “I don’t care.” But then he realized he should probably talk to ke more seriously about the worm, and prestige sses, and ‘Makers’ and Phase two… “Actually I should go talk to ke,” he sighed, and Reba gripped his chest.


    “I''m not finished with you yet.”


    He patted her arm. “I can stick around town for a few days, I think. I''lle right back.”


    “Promise?”


    “Promise.” She released her death grip and got out of bed, then he showered off and wandered past Haley, stopping to give her a quick squeeze. She just grinned and kept on singing over her cooking, and he wandered out into the hall.


    There were plenty of people as usual. A mix of refugees, original citizens, and the new people from Sanctuary. Most gave Mason looks he either didn’t recognize or had no idea what to do with. But he did his best to meet the eyes and smiles with one of his own or a nod.


    <em>See? Getting better at </em><em>‘this’, ke, </em>he thought<em>, just like you said, ke.</em>


    He found his brother in his office, dressed in what could only be called post-apocalyptic business casual.


    “There he is. Good timing, I’ve just rounded up the others.”


    “Uh. What others?” Mason nced at the empty office before ke came out and took his arm.


    “This way.”


    He led them to what Mason supposed might have been a ‘conference room’, with apparently every yer but Reba sitting around the table with a mug or a ss. Haley swooped in behind them with arge tray of cookies, dressed smartly in office attire like she hadn’t just been having a threesome most of the day. She gave Mason a wink on the way by.


    “When did you…” he cleared his throat and nced at the others. “Uh hi. What are we discussing?”


    “Our ns,” ke said, nodding at the others before taking his seat. When Mason gestured to exin further he rolled his eyes. “To deal with the giant orc fortress that is likely hell bent on our destruction."


    "Oh. That."


    He found a seat next to Carl, who looked him up and down and grinned.


    “Get enough beauty sleep?”


    “You tell me.” Mason matched it, but turned sober. “How’s Silvie…and the girls?”


    “Rosa is doing fine, I think,” Carl said without flinching. Mason opened his mouth and closed it, at something at a loss before Reba burst through the door.


    "I''m here!" Her hair was still a sex-tangled mess, and she practically oozed ‘recently banged’ as she adjusted her shorts and sat down in the closest seat. Several people were grinning now, and she was just starting to turn pink when ke pped his hands.


    "Well! Now that we''re all present and ounted for. I have it on good authority—that is, the great artificial overlord himself—the orcs of the ‘ck Towers’ intend to obliterate us."


    Everyone went quiet at that. Phuong spoke first.


    "Thank you for telling us, patron. But may I ask, how <em>exactly</em> do you know that?"


    "Because I''m me.” ke grinned. “And none of that ‘patron’ nonsense. But if you must know, because as I was taking over the minds of our orc friends, I was able to see through their eyes. I saw their objectives. They think of them as ‘divinemand’ from their various gods, incidentally, but the result is the same. I quote directly from a random orc warrior— ‘Objective: Destroy all human settlements in the Great Forest. Receive ‘n points’ for your family.’ I imagine their leaders have something simr.”


    The yers all shifted and whispered amongst themselves until Mason spoke.


    "You''re telling me, those creatures are getting orders from the system to kill us?"


    "Precisely so."


    "Jesus Christ.” Mason clenched a fist. “Why would it do that? I mean...isn''t all this...aren’t these things basically like robots? Artificial things in the shape of fantasy creatures?”


    ke frowned and pursed his lips. "I don’t think so. I was in their minds, and they seemed quite conscious and sentient, much like humans. If they''re some kind of biological robots, they are extremely convincing."


    Again the room silenced, this time Garet broke it.


    "So what do we do?"


    "That''s why we''re here.” ke drummed the table with both hands. “I thought we should discuss it. And perhaps vote."


    "Vote on what?" Garet asked.


    ke pulled back and quirked his head. "I''m happy to hear suggestions. And I''m no general, but, I think basically...do we wait, or do we attack?"


    "Attack?” Carl practically choked. “I mean….I know you folks haven’t seen it…but it’s a fortress. God only knows how many of them are in there."


    "We killed quite a lot already,” ke shrugged. “We can kill more."


    "Aren''t ya’ll forgetting an option?” Reba said, a little shyly. “Can’t we…uh, try talking to ‘em?"


    A few people scoffed, which annoyed Mason because Reba went beet red. ke didn’t, but he didn’t look optimistic.


    "Anything’s possible. But I’m afraid it doesn’t seem likely."


    "Why not?" Mason asked, genuinely curious.


    "They seem to think of humans as some kind of…diametrically opposed entities. Eternal enemies only to be destroyed. A kind of blood feud, I believe is the correct description."


    Everyone silenced again at that. ke looked straight at Mason.


    “Only you and Carl have seen this ce. What do you think?”


    Every eye turned to Mason, which as usual made him ufortable. “You don''t want to know what I think,” he said and shook his head.


    “That’s why we’re here, brother. Go on, we’re listening.”


    Mason red, feeling pulled back in time to when they’d first arrived at the settlement. “I think if they want to kill us, we leave. We go buy a giant boat with patron points, or find a coastal settlement. Or we split up and spread out. The system took away children, sick people, elderly—we can run. I say we do anything but y this stupid game by fighting a war with crazy, bloodthirsty orcs or giant fucking worms or legions of undead.”


    There. He’d said it. It felt slightly petnt and stupid but a piece of him wanted nothing to do with any of this. The same piece just wanted to say ‘fuck this’, take his women and his brother and hide so deep in the forest nothing would ever find them.


    The yers were exchanging looks and ke clearly looked like he needed to perform some kind of damage control. He was preparing to do just that when Mason sighed and spoke again.


    “But if we <em>don</em><em>’t</em> run, then defence is a losing strategy. You don''t leave an enemy like that to think and n. Who knows how they''ll try and hurt you, or how far they''ll go. If you all insist on staying here, then there’s only one choice. We go out there, and we wipe out everyst one of them.”


    “Amen to that,” said Carl with a wink, and the feeling more or less spread from yer to yer around the room. Only ke seemed to frown and meet Mason’s eyes.


    “Do we need to vote? I agree with Mason. Kill them all and get it over with,” said Tommaso, who had stayed to guard the settlement and had likely yet to <em>see</em> an orc.


    A few grunts of agreement until ke finally stopped it and called for a vote anyway, and everyone but him raised their hand to attack.


    “I suppose that’s it then,” he shrugged. “But I’m still going to ask the civilians. They aren’t doing the fighting, of course. But if we all get killed, after all, they’ll be screwed too.”


    No one said anything to that, though it was clear not many agreed. ke seemed to sense it and shrugged.


    “But it may not matter what they say. Thank you everyone, that’s all. Take a few days to rest and prepare. Then I expect Nassau is going to war.”


    <hr>