Surviving Arkadia

“The Citadel is coming here?” I said.

Jethro nodded, smiling, apparently happy with the plan.

To me it seemed insane. We’d done all that running and now the Citadel was just going to plonk itself down in the middle of the Black Woods like a middle finger directed at the Gods.

Before I could say anything about it more people joined us at the table. Jez carefully folded himself into a chair and Ursula bounced onto the chair next to him, brandishing her clipboard.

“I’ll go and get us some more coffee,” said Jethro. “It looks like this conversation is going to be almost as dry as my throat,” and was gone before I could say anything.

“Sorry that Asser couldn’t be here,” said Jez, “He’s off doing engineering things. But good news, we’ve worked out exactly what kind of memories people have to hold onto if they want to remember the truth about the Fever.”

“Oh thank God you’re still working on that,” I said. “I was worried that everyone was going to forget about it the moment there was a distraction.”

“So were we,” said Jez. “That’s why we haven’t stopped. That and I had a theory that there had to be some sort of pattern to which memories worked. And I was right.”

“We’ve done some, what was it Asser called it?” Ursula’s face scrunched up as she tried to remember, “A/B testing and we’re pretty sure we can guide people to a memory that will work first time.”

For a moment I was distracted by wondering if Ursula was imitating the sounds Asser had made or if she was actually naming the first two letters of the local alphabet. I forced myself to cast the thought aside.

“What’s the big secret then?” I said.

“Allow me to demonstrate,” said Jez. “Mistress Agnes, could you assist us for a moment?”

Agnes had been walking by, probably because she was discreetly checking on me. “Of course,” she said, and joined us at the table, making the table suddenly seem much smaller.

“We know the secret cause of the Fever,” said Jez with a huge grin. “Petra worked it out. We’d like to share it with you but first you need to engage in a thought exercise so that you won’t forget the secret once you know it.”

Agnes glared at Jez with an intensity that made me worry that maybe she had taken that gaze attack skill from the Witch skill branch, but it was only for a moment. Then she smiled and said, “I’ll try anything once.”

Ursula, reading from her clipboard, said “Please think of your most vivid and upsetting memory of death. Once you have a memory please hold it in mind until I have revealed the secret.”

Agnes seemed to have no trouble finding a memory. Her face settled into an expression of sadness and she nodded.

“The Fever is caused by the children accumulating source in their bodies and getting hot as a result.”

“It can’t possibly be that…” When Agnes’ expression changed it wasn’t to surprise and horror as with the others I’d seen learn the truth. It was to rage. “There you are, you fucker! I see you.”

“You know what that is?” I said.

“No,” said Agnes, “I just know what it does. That’s the enemy. The enemy of all life. The end of all things. When witches heal someone we’re trying to keep them from that. When we ease someone’s passing we’re trying to free them from their bodies without letting that thing take them. We call it the Hunger, or the Void, or the Hunter. It exists in the Outer Darkness and it craves the light. But none of that explains what it actually is.”

“We think it might be what’s disrupting memories of the Fever,” said Jez.

“But we don’t think it’s causing the Fever directly,” I said. “We think that either it’s a side effect of a natural build up of Source or that the build up attracts that thing’s attention and then the Source hides from it.”

“And what about the Ostians?” said Agnes.

“It’s only a theory,” I said. “But they’re certainly dressed like Fascists and Fascism is a death cult. I think they’re either appeasing it or serving it.”

“Which suggests that the Ostians will continue to hunt the children and the Source unless we stop them,” said Agnes.

I hadn’t really thought about it like that before. I’d been doing things the SCAVENGER way. Take what you need and then run away and keep running until your pursuers lose interest. But I was also a SURVIVOR and a Hyena-kin. Sometimes you can only stand so much bullshit from Lions. Sometimes you need to run to the pack and turn the fuck around.

“It’s a good thing you’ve got a plan to stop them then, isn’t it?” I said.

I’d been expecting Agnes to equivocate in some way but instead she gave me a dreadful grin. Her lips pulled back, displaying her orcish tusks.

“Oh don’t you worry about our plan. I’ve got all kinds of ways to remind the Ostians why people used to fear the Black Woods.”