Tower of Souls

Cam watched in fascination as his hand seemed to move on its own, a spectral light flowing into his open palm and extending out before it began to curve- it took him a moment to recognize the shape of a sickle being formed... But not from Mana; rather, it was something more... ephemeral, yet familiar. It was like an extension of himself...

A part of his Soul... which, as he thought about it, made sense. He was harvesting a part of their's, using his own...

Once the sickle shape was complete, his hand flashed twice, cutting the Ability free before stabbing the point into its center... and, as the Soul dissipated with a silent wail, the sickle flowed smoothly back into him... dragging the Ability with it.

He wasn't sure whether to call it creepy or beautiful.

While it seemed like a long process, he knew it had only taken seconds- and a simple chime announced his success in gaining his second Ability.

Soul Harvest Complete.

Ability(Clone) acquired.

Cam chuckled shakily, knowing exactly how lucky he had been; not only had he caught Cole off guard... but the man was still only Level 1! If he had been higher level, or not as cocky, things could have easily gone wrong- being out numbered and surrounded wasn't a joke.

Curious about his new Ability, he was just about to pull up his Status to read its details when his door shattered under a heavy blow... And Davis stumbled in, barely supporting himself with his crutch.

"I've got your back, son! Don't matter which bastard-" The old man's words choked off as he had a second to process the sight in front of him: Cameron kneeling over a dead body- Cole's dead body. Somehow, the young man had taken out the thug that had terrorized their area for years, and came out of it looking... Fine?

"Sorry about the noise, old man." Cam chuckled awkwardly while trying to down play the whole situation. "I just need to clean up a little-"

"Ain't no time for that, boy! Grab whatever you need and can't live without, then hustle your ass over to my place!" Davis huffed before turning and hobbling out just as fast as he came.

Cam was left stunned for a second; he could understand Davis busting in, trying to help him... but being told to grab his stuff and hurry up?

He had no idea why the man told him to do that... but he trusted Davis enough not to question it- he had to have a good reason, and it was clearly urgent. Jumping to his feet, Cam scrambling around the room for a moment, grabbing the few things he knew he couldn't leave- clothes, backpack, his mother's necklace...

For a single frantic moment, he struggled to stuff everything into the backpack... before nearly slapping himself for being stupid and simply tossing it into the Inventory- the space had twenty slots, and each slot could hold a stack of five identical items, so while none of his things actually stacked... it didn't matter, considering how little he actually had.

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With his few possessions secured, he hurried over to Davis's apartment.

"Close the damn door behind you. And lock it, mind!" Davis grumped over his shoulder without looking back. Standing at the window, staring out, his hand clenched tightly around his crutch as he muttered to himself. "Damn fool. Damn, stupid fool..."

Hearing the old man's mutterings, Cam hesitated for a second; was Davis upset at him for using his old dagger to kill that asshole? But Davis had already said plenty of times that he would have done it himself if he could... But what else could it be?

"Give me back the dagger, son." Davis said with a sigh. When several seconds passed, he turned repeat himself and, seeing the heartbroken look on the young man's face, quickly limped over to him- and roughly pulled him into a hug. "It ain't like that, boy."

Leaning back from the younger man, Davis looked down on him, face marred with worry and fear. "The damn Innies is almost here; I can see their fancy ass carriages coming down the lane as we speak..."

"The death of a Classer- even a failed climber- requires an investigation." Cam froze, that fact having slipped his mind in the midst of everything that had happened- killing a Classer was a serious offense, punishable by death... unless the investigation ruled it justified, usually in the form of self defense, or for stopping a criminal Classer- which Cole certainly was. "I already know what you're thinking, boy, but you don't need shit like that on you right now."

"You being taken in and investigated will only give those bastards more leverage against you... assuming whoever investigates it doesn't just flat out tell you 'join us or you're guilty'... I wouldn't put it past some of 'em..."

"Then what-"

"I'll tell you what, son." Davis said calmly, patting Cam's head. "You're gonna stay here until the investigation is concluded- there's plenty of food, just make sure you don't go anywhere... and probably stay away from the window, too."

"You're gonna lie low until this shit blows over. I'll take care of everything else."

"But how-" Cam choked, as he suddenly realized exactly what the old man meant- he was going to claim responsibility for what happened. With the weapon in hand, and him there to explain, it wasn't likely anyone would look to deeply into it- Cole was a criminal, after all...

But, putting the pieces together, Cam quickly realized a problem. "But... it won't take much for them to find out that it was my apartment! What if they just hold you until you tell them where I am? Or threaten you or something?"

Davis chuckled again, patting his shoulder and relieving him of the dagger before hobbling towards the door. "That part is easy: I'll just say I told you to run and hide, so I have no idea where you are. While they might try to bring in a Tracker or something... That won't matter; you've been in an out of my place so many times, it only makes sense for some of your tracks to lead her."

"And there ain't no high Level trackers that I know of, so you should be good. Just stay here and stay quiet- and if anyone comes around, hide in the closet; there's a hidden crawl space back there... just ignore my stash of hooch, ok?"

Chuckling to himself, Davis didn't wait for an answer as he hobbled out, closing the door behind him...

Cam stood there, staring at the door for several seconds as he agonized over what was happening. Was it right to let Davis do this for him? Sure, the man had some good points to his plan: it was somewhat believable- Davis was a higher Level than Cole and more experienced, even if he was crippled... and, if he spun the story right, it was certainly possible... and they wouldn't be able to use the incident as leverage against Cam...

But what if they used Davis as leverage against him? And could one old man really bear up under the pressure of the big Families?

"Maybe the Old Man can..." Cam muttered to himself as he grabbed a few T-Rations from the kitchen and headed straight for the closet crawl space- just in case someone barged in here; no sense in not taking extra precautions.

Glancing once more at the door before he crawled into the dark, cramped space, Cam shook his head to chase away his spiraling thoughts. "I owe you, Old Man... for so much..."