Chapter 508: For the sake of others

Mason found his key players and civilians all in the Nexus meeting room. Or at least milling around outside of it, eating Haley’s cookies.

“There he is,” Carl said around one said cookie, some crumbs falling out of his mouth. He was a bit pink and had a nervous, twitchy kind of energy. More and more Mason was getting worried telling Sylvie he was getting an elven wife might kill him. Or maybe she would.

Haley saw him and smiled, brow furrowing in question as she met his eyes and maybe sensed his mood. He’d tell her everything later. Get her advice, if he could bring himself to go into the details. Even though Haley was always there to help him handle his women problems, he still struggled being comfortable about it.

This time was worse, too, because with the other girls it was more about getting them past jealousy or resistance to the bizarre situation. With Demi it was more…emotional. They had a connection that was literally magical, and he was pretty sure it frightened both of them.

He was worried he wouldn’t be able to explain, and that if he

did

explain it might make Haley feel…threatened? Left out? He wasn’t sure, but he sure as hell didn’t want her to feel anything negative, especially because it wouldn’t be justified.

She would always be his wife, the mother of his child. He couldn’t even imagine the new world without her now.

But he was probably just overthinking things. When the hell had he gotten neurotic? Was it part of the ‘new phase’, or something?

He was about to introduce Demi to the others when he realized she wasn’t beside him. He turned around in confusion, ignoring Carl until he walked back to find her around the corner. She was breathing fast, eyes wide.

“I…don’t know if I can do this,” she said, looking up at him with a kind of sheer animal panic.

Mason’s spinning brain instantly focused. She’d told him and he hadn’t been listening—

not everything is about you.

She wasn’t emotional because of him. She was overwhelmed with anxiety about the settlement. She’d been alone for so long, her friends had died, and maybe she was always like this a little. She was just terrified of meeting new people.

“You’re alright,” he said, taking her arms. “There’s no pressure. We’ll wait. You don’t even have to do it now.”

“I do,” she said, fighting a sob. “I can’t just hide. It won’t get better if I wait, it’ll get worse. Maybe…maybe if we just…started with one, or two, I think…”

“Well, hello there!”

Carl walked up still dropping cookie crumbs, a big dumb smile on his face. He looked between and Mason and Demi and seemed somewhere between confused and oblivious.

“Ohh, you must be the nymph. That’s so cool. I used to play this game, where…well, nevermind. Anyway don’t worry about me, I know I’m not nature, or whatever, but I’m harmless, really. We have a lot of elves, do you like elves?”

The older man smiled like an idiot, and Mason took a deep breath, keeping an arm around a frozen Demi.

“Carl…you are literally the most dangerous person I’ve met. You’re not even close to harmless. You’re the invisible man, and your stupid glassassin knife gives people nightmares.”

“Well Christ don’t scare the nymph.” Carl chomped another cookie then put his plate forward like he was feeding a stray dog. “These are really good. Sugar and butter, mostly. I guess you wouldn’t know about butter. Are their cows? What a tragedy if the cows are gone. Wait how did Haley even make these? But they’re good, here, just…”

“Carl, she’s not a nymph. This is Demi. From the neutral zone. Mushroom girl, remember? Also dial back the coffee and sugar.”

“Oh.” Carl pulled his plate back and his bald head went a little pinker. He wiped some cookie off his mouth. “Well you could have told me. Now I look silly.”

“You’re fine,” Demi squeaked, and Mason gave her another little squeeze.

Haley and a few others were coming over too, but Mason gave her a head shake and she managed to stem the tide, turning the gawkers back towards the meeting hall.

“So.” Carl beamed again. “Where’ve you been hiding all this time? South somewhere? Kind of amazing you made it without a settlement. You must be pretty strong.”

“South.”

Demi choked out the word and looked like she was pinching her own thigh. Mason did his best to take her hand.

“Right.” Carl kept on smiling politely and looked between them again. “Well. If you’re ready, kid, Phuong and I have…let’s call it a tentative plan. Which is really just the same, pre-demonic portals plan. Though I’m sure we can fit in Demi here. Or you can stay back, get the lay of the land. No pressure or any…”

“I’m probably about to blow that plan up,” Mason said, and Carl sighed.

“I’m completely shocked. Well, let’s go do it. If I eat any more cookies I’ll shit myself. Er,” he glanced at Demi and cleared his throat. “Pardon my French.” Here he laughed like it was some clever joke.

“I promise they’re not all like this,” Mason said. Demi even smiled a little.

“Very nice to meet you, Carl,” she said, and the older man winked and walked off. Mason didn’t give her a chance to retreat. He took her forward by the hand, moving past the various loiterers until he was in the meeting room with every player except for a couple guards, and a few of the key civilians.

“This is Demi.” He gestured, putting her in a chair when she looked kind of wobbly. “She’s a new player and will be joining us. You can all introduce yourselves later, we’re here to talk about an immediate plan.”

A few of the men especially looked keen to meet Demi’s eyes and smile. Mason did his best not to stare like a psychopath.

“You intend to make use of our Nexus advantage,” Phuong said, and Mason nodded.

“We have the main beacon, and our mobile version. We can take at least a team of five and warp them out. But possibly up to seven because I can Wyrdwalk and take Demi here with no trouble.”

“No need for the mobile device, Patron,” said Phuong, “or hopefully your power. The beacons on the other side will be able to take us back, perhaps after a small delay. As long as we can hold them.”

Mason nodded, supposing that made sense.

“Do we know exactly what that delay will be?”

“Nope.” Carl sat back and smothered a burp. “Can’t know until we go through. It’ll be a day minimum because that’s how our Nexus works. But if I had to guess? Rando teleporters will be even slower. Civvies seem to agree.”

“They don’t

seem

to,” Haley said as she came in from outside and settled by Mason. “It will be at least two days, but better to assume three.”

Mason gave Demi a glance just to see how she was doing. It looked like she had one hand digging into her own thigh, and the other digging into his. There was also scent waves of angst coming off her. But she managed a pretty good poker face.

“What are you thinking, kid?” Carl raised a bushy eyebrow. “Some kind of scouting slash spying party?”

“I am happy to volunteer my services, Patron,” Kiaan said from across the table. “From my understanding, their continent is less wild and dangerous than ours. Civilians could technically harm me. But civilians are slow. And if I encounter any more prepared for violence than myself, I would be surprised. It will also make them fair targets for you, patron. I don’t think many would be willing to try.”

Even Phuong looked impressed. Mason snorted and shook his head.

“You’ve got balls of solid rock, Kiaan. And you’re definitely coming along. But I’m not risking a few scouts on their own.” He considered one last time, but now he was sure. “We’re all going. Every last player.”

The room went quiet with surprise and probably expectation of more. Mason took a breath.

“I want to show these people Jeong isn’t in control. With the portals open, it’s time to steal away his players, his power. We don’t attack. We just go where we want, we see what we want. Let them try and stop us. Then we take anyone who wants to come with us, hopefully including at least Chinua and his people.”

Carl sat back and puffed out his cheeks with a long exhale. Phuong’s head bobbed around like the idea at least wasn’t batshit crazy. Demi gave him a kind of ‘what the fuck?’ kind of expression. The silent Alex…made no discernible reaction whatsoever.

“What do we do if they just attack us in full force?” Carl said eventually. “They might think it’s the perfect opportunity.”

“We’ll camp a ways off from the city,” Mason said. “I’ll go first with Kiaan and whoever else to look around. If they attack, I’ll lead them in circles however long they feel like dying. If they behave, we’ll go from there. My plan is for people to come out to talk to us. We’ll watch and wait, gather as many as we can before the cooldown is back.”

“So we’ll see if the city rallies to attack,” Phuong said, and Mason nodded.

“What’s the teleportation limit, by the way?” Mason said. “I assume there’s a number.”

“Sort of?” Carl shrugged and glanced at Haley.

“It’s more about time than numbers,” she explained. “The beacon can only be held open for so long. You’ll want to rush people through the device as quickly as possible. We can be ready to get them out of the ‘box’ on our end to make space. You have about a minute.”

A minute was a long time if you had people lined up and ready to run straight into a portal. But it wasn’t much time at all if things were a chaotic clusterfuck.

“What if Jeong and his key people attack you, Patron?” Phuong raised an eyebrow. A few anxious faced turned his way, but he just didn’t feel any of it himself.

He didn’t want to seem arrogant, but he’d watched the eastern players fight. Their ‘assassin’ was a threat, but not enough. They had some kind of faster scout type who could screw with Mason’s regeneration, but out in the open he’d be easy to kill.

Jeong’s Brazilian warrior bestie was too slow to matter. That wizard probably had tricks, but Mason was oozing with resistance titles. Magic had rarely caused him problems, except a complete assault from Blake’s mind powers. And he’d only grown in power since the tournament. He had his own tricks and was harder to kill than ever.

The reality was, other than Jeong, there didn’t seem to be a single player in the world who had any chance of keeping up to him who could threaten him. Blake had only had a chance because of the terrain in their fight, and frankly because Mason wasn’t trying to kill him.

On open ground, where Mason could out-run his enemy? Where he had all the time in the world to fill even a horde of players full of arrows? No. They couldn’t stop him, couldn’t wear him down, couldn’t surround him with enough strength to trap him.

Just as he’d planned from the first day of the apocalypse, Mason had become like a Mongol raider who didn’t need a horse. He could run forever, shoot arrows forever, only growing in power if they tried to pick away at him.

“If Jeong comes out, I’ll chase him off, or kill him,” he said eventually. “I’ll kill his key people if they get close. Every other player gets a chance to talk and switch sides. No exceptions. We want anyone outside the inner circle with an option other than fighting us to the death.”

Mostly everyone stared. Carl broke the silence when he laughed out loud.

“Kid, only you would walk up to a city with hundreds of players, by yourself, and tell them to surrender. I’d say it’s crazy, but I’m not sure it is.”

“So what’s the point of the rest of us?” Garet asked. “I mean, why bother risking us even a few miles away?”

“Violence isn’t pretty,” Mason said more seriously. “Things can go wrong. If they do, you’re my hard point to run to. Anyway I’m not killing anyone if they leave me alone. You’re also there to explore and help find Chinua and his people—we’re bringing civilians to help. And you’ll be there to calm and protect whoever decides to come out and join us.”

“I’m not sure they will,” Phuong said with a frown. “I doubt they’ll be able to leave. Jeong will have them killed.”

“We’ll see. And if we learn that’s true we might…help keep Jeong busy.” Mason took a breath and spread his hands on the table. “I know it’s risky. But the clock is ticking. I want to leave. Today. So start packing your shit. If you want something in void storage let Haley know. Unless there’s questions or concerns, I think that’s it.”

He could tell they were still a bit stunned this was happening, but that was fine. Jeong and his people would be even more stunned. Hopefully they’d get as much time as possible on the other side of the teleporter without being seen. They could change their plans on the ground.

Ideally, they’d wait out the cooldown before they moved, so it would be ready whenever they wanted to get out.

When no one asked any questions, or at least hadn’t thought of any yet, he stood and went for the door. For their sake, he tried not to be excited at the prospect of danger.