Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

Naea’s hands were clawing at her face in frustration as the two men, Larry and Morris, walked into the police station. The area was busy, as it had been since Grant and Naea first arrived, but the energy was different now. There had been a casual swagger to the members of the police force before, born of some hidden assurance that they could both do no wrong and have no wrong done to them.

Grant was pretty good at disavowing people of notions like that.

That seriousness seemed to be infectious, which was good. The faces of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum hardened. They were still doughy and unintimidating, but at least Naea could tell they were trying. It was sweet in the same way a puppy trying to get up a stair it was too short for was sweet. Still, she had nothing better to do and this was at least interesting.

To say Naea’s hopes weren’t high would be selling it short. She thought the idea of simply asking the intense sheriff of Londimin to let Grant go “because he’s a good person, actually,” had a distinct lack of success attached to it. Naea couldn’t see herself doing it, but for whatever reason the two men were confident it was the right choice. As she hadn’t been able to come up with any better ideas that didn’t involve bloodshed, she had acquiesced to seeing how their “plan” worked out.

Hence the clawing at the face.

With a few “pardon me”s and a lot of “sorry, excuse me”s, the pair manage to make their way through the stony faced crowd. Almost everyone was angled in some subtle way towards a specific door, leading to descending stairs. With her relatively high stats, Naea could practically hear the tension in each person’s muscles. Even without their bond active, it was clear to Naea that Grant was down there. She desperately wanted to see how he was doing. Grant had shut her out somewhat when he sent her away and let the fine people of Londimin start beating him.

Naea had thought he was being cruel to be kind, keeping her away from the pain and anger he was feeling so that she wouldn’t do something dramatic. Now, almost half a day later, she wondered. The pair of idiots hadn’t been very useful yet, except in telling Naea that the prison cells here were more than mundane bars. Powerful enchantments could easily dampen their familiar connection to a muted whisper.

Except, if she went to check on Grant she might make things worse. If the cells were guarded by magical means, the inexperience of the townsfolk wouldn’t matter. The System would find her if she triggered one of its traps. Better to follow these fools and see if they could somehow create gold. “Remember, let me do the talking,” Larry told Morris.

True to form, Morris looked offended and grabbed onto his brother’s large coat. “Hey, hey, hey, what are you talking about? This was my idea. You said it wouldn’t work.” People were beginning to turn their attention to the pair, who up to this point had been most ignored.

“I said it wouldn’t work if you did it, idiot,” Larry hissed in a loud stage whisper. “If you want to pull off something like this you need a little charisma, little brother.” Morris looked as though he wanted to punch the other man in the back of the head as he began to knock on the door to Nolan Fair’s office. Though it strained Naea’s control of her magic, she intercepted the blow with one of her own. Her invisibility held, but barely. The skill wasn’t built for use during any kind of combat, really.

Morris yelped in pain and grabbed his wrist, causing Larry to turn with his hand and eyebrow raised. “What is wrong with you?” He asked, more disappointed than confused. Morris just took a deep breath and shook his head before shooting a glare in what he thought was my general direction. He was completely wrong, of course. Clever boy, though, Naea nodded, definitely Fledgling material.

After a few moments pause, nearly long enough to feel awkward, the door opened slowly. “Uh, yes? We’re in the middle of-”

Interrupting the speaker, the first Tweedle pushed the door open and walked inside passed the man. “In the middle of killing an innocent man?!” Larry shouted, completely blowing the doors off any calm discussion they had planned. Morris winced and groaned, apologising to the man who had been pushed aside before trying to grab his brother. Naea paused, recognition flickering.

She knew this man, didn’t she?

While she tried to remember where she had seen this dark-skinned man, both Larry and Morris began giving increasingly frantic reasoning at a rising volume, quickly shouting over each other to try and get anything they thought might help Grant see freedom. As Naea looked up from the vaguely reminiscent face, she saw a look of bemusement stuck on the sheriff’s. The tall, nonplussed man leaned around the pair that were pushing themselves closer and closer. “You didn’t ask them to do this, did you Rash?”

The fallen man, who I now recognised as Rashid, the trader Grant had helped, simply shrugged and shook his head. “I told you, Nolan. That man is special. You cannot let Seth do this.”

“Do what?” Morris asked, dumbly.

Rashid coughed. “Wait, why are you here if you didn’t know what Seth was planning to do?” He asked the pair, confused. Naea stifled a chuckle at the coincidence of these people being in a room at the same time. Grant’s effect on people was becoming even more pronounced. Basically everyone he talked to became wrapped up in his tale in some way, shape or form. It was a powerful and intoxicating ability, which lead to strange situations like this.

There was a pause, before Morris spoke up quietly. “So… he wasn’t thrown in jail for breaking into the city?” For a moment, Naea had removed her fingers from her face, but she was reminded why this was the dumbest idea she had ever heard at every angle. It was actually quite frustrating at this point.

“I told you,” she spat, angry enough that she had been right the whole time that she dropped her invisibility, “Grant isn’t locked up because of some stupid rule, he’s locked up because of a stupid, scared man.” The silence that followed Naea’s words confused her for a second, before she heard Rashid choke next to her. Looking from his confused face to the rising fear and anger in Nolan’s, Naea realised she may have made a mistake.

———————————————————————————

Nolan had a headache threatening to tear his patience from him at any given moment. Not only was there a ticking time bomb sitting underneath his place of work, his eldest had been caught trying to leave the city again. Between keeping Seth happy, Sarah safe and the people of Londimin from rioting, the angry and impulsive acts of his teenage daughter were impossible to intercept.

He thanked his attributes for nearly wholly removing the need for sleep from his mind, at least. He hadn’t eaten in days, his stomach reminded him with a loud growl that almost interrupted the merchant’s argument. Both men smirked at each other. Rashid was one of the traders that Nolan had the most dealing with, for mostly negative reasons. Not that the man himself was a troublemaker, but like Nolan, he never stopped working.

Due to the lack of regulation in Londimin and an impossibly frayed ratio of guards to populace, it wasn’t feasible to stop thievery or bullying between the people. It was barely achievable to keep them from tearing each other apart, but it was managed by threat of further, more public violence. More than one person had their arms broken for stealing from Rashid.

It wasn’t a good system, but Nolan was just one man. For most, the potential of being brutalised by the “police force” that Nolan had gathered was enough to stay their hand. It was the best he could manage while the other, less scrupulous members of Londimin’s government seemed to actively make things worse. Things in Londimin weren’t great, but since the appearance of a human clearly above the level cap, everything changed for the worse.

Nolan could feel it in the air. Something bad was about to happen.

Rashid had apparently been helped by the man, and once rumours bounced around enough, he knew Nolan’s prisoner was his saviour. The head guardsman cringed knowing the man held in the cell beneath his feet had nothing but bad experiences within the city. Honour demanded Rashid say something in Grant’s defence, or at least find out what had happened.

The only reason Grant was underneath his police station right now and not already facing punishment was down to Nolan throwing the last of his weight around. Things in the city were beyond frayed, and the arrival of a power they didn’t understand had torn the fabric down to threads. Nolan would happily let him go, if it didn’t mean he would fall right into the hands of the scouts. Almost everyone who got an Aspect in the city was a part of the growing antisocial clique.

The scouts ran rampant, both inside the city and out. It was impossible to track what they looted and their strength jumped randomly. They were already the dominant power in Londomin, with only their individualism stopping them from taking over. Well, that and the fact that they seemed to be truly loyal to Seth. So, it was both conspicuous and challenging that a potential answer to this problem sat downstairs, likely furious at the state of things.

When Nolan’s door was knocked, he raised an eyebrow to Rashid, who shrugged and answered. Before anything could be said by their side, a pair of guards Nolan had placed in a safe position to keep them alive stormed in. What were their names again? They were both shouting immediately, and only half of it seemed to be about Grant. Mostly, they were yelling at each other for getting the explanation they had apparently not planned at all wrong.

Then the fairy appeared, correcting them with an exasperated look. Silence fell upon the room and Nolan’s entire world shrank to a pinprick as his perception raced. Everyone was shocked, but Nolan was sure he saw a look of guilt and worry appear on the tiny woman’s features. He didn’t know whether he could trust such a simple thing as facial expressions when it came to monsters, however.

He frantically scanned the creature, mystified and shaken by the idea that a monster had broken into the city. When its level didn’t immediately show up, his heart dropped. Dungeon fairies weren’t complete unknowns, but they normally stayed in the dungeons. People said they were friendly enough, but Nolan wasn’t sure. Seeing the miniature insectoid woman had casually infiltrated a space he considered safe set his teeth on edge.

Then she called Seth a stupid, scared man and Nolan couldn’t help but agree. He softened his stance, releasing a bit of tension. His fingers twitched for his glaive but it didn’t appear in his hand. “Are you with the man downstairs, Grant?” Nolan asked the fairy bluntly. It nodded, biting its lip. Nolan took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. He doubted this headache was going anywhere anytime soon.

Opening his eyes as well as his mind, Nolan did his best to smile. It probably came off as a threatening gesture, but the fairy responded in kind. Her teeth were sharp. Nolan shuddered, wondering if he was making a deal with the devil to spite a demon. Anything to protect the girls, Nolan reminded himself.

“You and I should talk.”