Soulforge Legacy Series

If the Chancellor’s words hadn’t clued me into his unit being some form of intelligence unit, the fact that we ended up at the black spire in the center of the city would have. Especially as the various soldiers bowed at the man leading us.

Shortly after arriving, every person was directed into our own rooms. Likely to be questioned. To have our stories checked and cross-checked before they pronounced judgement upon whoever they felt was guilty.

Once in the room, I sat behind the table. Waiting for my questioners to enter. To ask their questions so we could move on. Maybe after this I would finally have time to head into the city once again. To both see the jeweler and maybe visit the guild.

Or would the guild be the best place to ask about the spider threads? While I was sure they dealt with every kind of monster material that was only because of the various quests they handled.

That didn’t mean they knew about the materials or if they were even useful. Anyone could put up a quest to find something but that didn’t mean that the item was worth anything to anyone else. Various quests in other games were just like that.

In fact, I remember this one quest in Skyrim to find twenty-four unusual gems. Finding one would trigger a quest to see an appraiser. Unfortunately they would be useless. Well, all except for the fact that there was one fence name Vex where you could eventually turn them into the Crown of Bareziah.

As I said, useless items. Though at least those gems turned into something useful after a bunch of quests and work.

Anyway, where was I going with this? Fuck, just how long was I going to have to wait here? My mind was bad enough at staying on track at the best of times. Alone with my thoughts in a place I wasn’t allowed to leave, I was going to drive myself insane.

Oh, right. I had been thinking about my items and what they could be worth. Actually, while I was here, I might as well go through the rest of my inventory.

What greeted me in some of the bags caused me to let out a sigh of annoyance. The corpses from the Emergency quest to kill those Gobbler monsters. At least the inventory system kept the smell in. Maybe the guild would at least know what to do with the bodies.

If not, I would have to find some way to get rid of the things. Anything to clear up the slots they were taking. Though, if they didn’t have a use, maybe they might know of some necromancers that would like the bodies. Or was necromancy even possible with this magic system?

Though, if it was, how would necromancers be treated? Most stories and games treated such castors as evil. Of their magic being rooted in evil. That it could never be used for good. Mostly by churches. Churches that just so happen to teach about resurrection or about the body merely being a container for our souls.

That brought me up short. Not because of the absurdity of souls being able to leave a body to move onto the next life. But because of how true it had turned out to be. How else could everything that happened since a person entered a pod have happened otherwise?

And that isn’t even considering the whole gods thing or that we could be brough back to life so long as we paid the toll keeper. Which begged the question; what else had I, or even humanity as a whole, discounted as an exaggeration or impossible?

Of course, just as my mind started to chew through everything I had learned in school about the various religions, the door to my room opened. Two men entered. Each moved to opposite sides of the table. As one sat in the chair opposite me, the other stood behind me.

His cold hands gripped the sides of my head. Thin threads of mana pushed around my head. They felt along my skin and even my bones, but no deeper.

“Kyren Vulpier.” The man across from me started as his hands slid across invisible screens. “It seems like this isn’t the first time our unit has questioned you.”

I didn’t know if he was asking me a question or not. Whichever it was, I wasn’t going to answer him. Not unless he asked me a direct question. And even then, maybe not. Not when whatever I said could be used against me.

“Our AI’s have put together quite a dossier on you.” With a tap, his screen became visible and settled onto the table between us. An image of my old face looked back at me. It wasn’t the best picture, but what government ID had a good picture of someone?

Slowly, the lines started to scroll up as the man read off a few parts. “Born 2038, June. Attended the local public school until you graduated with a 2.9 GPA. After which you went to work at a machine shop. A shop that, despite a multitude of laws, regulations, and contracts, has recently laid off the entire workforce.”

Like such things would have ever stopped a company from doing what they wanted. They wouldn’t be the first to break the law. Especially when doing so would cost less than not breaking it. Even if their actions, or a lack of it, caused people to die. Just look at Ford and the Pinto. It wasn’t the first time a company had come up with a value for a human life, nor would it be the last.

“A company that is in the midst of a legal battle over these very laws with some of your coworkers. As a result, the money they gave to everyone has been put on hold.” While I should have been surprised to see him bring up my financials, I wasn’t. “Money that you desperately need to pay for the pod you used to come here.”

Again, I didn’t say a word. I just shrugged. Let him take the motion as he wanted. I wasn’t going to implicate myself in anything or any way if I could help it.

“As I am sure you have been made aware, most companies have a presence in this world. That includes your bank.” Wait, they did? “And with the new month fast approaching, the bills will come due fairly soon.” Oh, crap. “Tell me, did you ever read the terms and conditions you signed when you opened your account? Or any of the subsequent changes they sent you? Say, the one from two weeks ago?” No one reads those things. There was just too much legal jargon to try and grind through.

“That coupled with the fact that your former employer has a small office in the city, I am sure you would like nothing more than to get revenge for their recent decision. Especially if said revenge got you out from under any legal obligation your bank will put on you for failing to meet the next payment.”

I couldn’t stop the question as it exploded out of me. “What do you mean legal obligation?”

His smile told me that he had gotten the reaction he had expected, if not outright been looking for. With a swipe, the screen with my file moved to the side as another document appeared between us. One covered in tiny, hard-to-read, text. All except for one section. A section highlighted in yellow and enlarged for ease of reading.

‘In accordance with the international charter, the contractee agrees to a change in the payment terms of their agreement. Payments are to be made at least once a month. Failure to do so will result in the account being sold at an auction and the contractee being turned into an indentured slave to pay off the remainder of the debt. Amount and time to be determined at the time of the sale by the seller and the purchaser.’

I wanted to reach out and tear up the document. There was no way this was legal. A fact that I pointed out. “Ah, but with the formation of the new government, such agreements were allowed. In fact, they are encouraged as the current workforce is quite…lacking compared to what was available on Earth.”

Aka the corporations were the ones that controlled the government. Not as puppet masters like on Earth. But outright built and controlled the government. Doing so in a way that benefitted them and their friends. A way to put chains on us before we grew powerful enough to defend ourselves.

“Fine,” I slumped back. “So I have to pay them on time. Nothing new.” And it wasn’t. I had yet to miss a payment and it wasn’t like I would start now. Though, I would have to figure out how much I needed to make and a way to do so.

“Sure, you could do that.” His finger tapped the screen, causing it and my file to vanish. “And maybe that was your plan in the first place. But then you got a better offer.”

What the fuck was this guy going on about? What better offer? And from whom?

“One from the demons.” My hands slammed against the table as I started to denounce the very insinuation. He didn’t so much as pause at the noise. “It wouldn’t even be your first time meeting with a demon. In fact, according to a report filed by one Xander Létoquart, you had a conversation with a demon. Add in the fact that it was in a starter town, you must understand just how that might look.”

And this is why I hated talking to cops. While not every one of them did so, quite a few loved to twist anything and everything to fit their narrative. To fit their already made up mind.

It took everything in me to stay quiet until he asked a direct question. After a beat, of a silence so loud that it hurt, he did. “So what did they offer you to betray humanity?”

The gall of this man to even suggest such a thing, let alone ask the question. “Nothing.”

“They offered you nothing?” His eyes went wide as he purposefully misunderstood what I said. “Surely you wouldn’t betray your own race for free? You can’t be that stupid.”

“They didn’t offer me anything because they never once asked me to do anything. I have never even been offered any sort of deal with a demon.”

The man behind me spoke up for the first time since this farce started. “Lie.” A single eyebrow rose on my questioner’s face.

He let out a couple clicks of tongue, like he was disappointed in me. “I would have thought you would have known better than to lie.” I did know better. And I wasn’t lying.

Actually, thinking back, Kaelis had offered me a few things. He even gave me a quest. But that was before I knew he was a demon. So did it really count? According to the man behind me, yes.

“He never once asked me to betray…” I stopped there as I realized what I was about to say. Depending on how you looked at it, the quest he had offered me had been centered around betraying humanity.

Sure, it targeted the non-human races, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt humanity as a whole. Especially given how doing so would have led to internal fighting. Likely just in time for a third party to come in and take both sides down. A third party, like, say, the demons.

With a sigh, I shifted gears. “I never once contemplated joining the demon’s side against humanity.”

A spark of something appeared in his eyes as he latched onto the change as well as my wording. “So, you just want to see humanity fall? Is that it?”

“Fuck no!”

“Just the government? After all, they are the ones that failed people back on Earth. People like your parents.”

“Don’t bring them into this.” While I wish I could get revenge on the company for their cost cutting that had led to the self-driving semi smashing their car to pieces, I had come to understand such a thing would never happen. The laws were just too one sided and it wasn’t in my favor.

“Why?” He looked almost happy with how I was reacting. “With the government gone that would allow people like you to take over. Or do you think you wouldn’t do as good of a job?”

“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t do it!” At this point my voice was loud enough to echo off the walls only for my voice to drop to something closer to a whisper. “I don’t have the power to do anything.”

And I didn’t. Sure, I could defeat a few monsters, but what was that compared the just the people in my Unit? Some of them could beat me without magic while others were able to cut through monsters with water. Me? I could toss fireballs very fast.

I mean, sure, I had the missile, but it was more of a test than anything. It took too much mana, too much attention, and too much time to cast. And while I had a few other ideas, they were more tricks to get through whatever my opponent had protecting them. A tactic that would only work so long as their armor didn’t just shrug off the attack. Something the spiders did without issue.

“Is it that you don’t have the power or the will to attack the city?”

“Either.” I groaned. “Both.”

“No mental power what-so-ever?” What was with these guys and asking about mental powers? The last person to question me had asked the same thing. But why? What was the point?

Was that how they thought the monsters were controlled? If that was the case, then why ask me a second time? Surely my last interrogation was enough evidence that I wasn’t the cause of the attack.

“I don’t have any skills that can control other people, monsters, or otherwise.” There, it wasn’t a lie and answered their question.

“Do you know anyone with a skill that can?”

“How in the hell would I know? Just like how I don’t share all my powers, I don’t expect others to tell me everything either.” Not that I could given that I didn’t know all of what my abilities could do. Who knew what kind of limits I might find given some experimentation.

“Since you arrived in our little town,” I wanted to scoff at that.

This wasn’t a small town. Fuck, I was fairly sure there was more to this city than most of Earth’s biggest cities. What with our modern technology and techniques when it came to building bigger, taller, and even deeper. And that doesn’t account for the presence of magic.

His eyes pinned me back as he restarted. “Since you arrive in town, the rate at which the oracles have been killed has more than tripled. As one of the only new people in the city with access to the inside of the tower.” I had access? Why? “You are in a perfect position to kill or help in the killing of those who keep an eye on the future.”

It was then that I understood what was going on. Someone had been killing the oracles. Sure, the first few times the city defenses might go on high alert, but do this enough times and eventually they wouldn’t.

Sort of like the boy who cried wolf. Do it enough times and when the wolf finally comes, no one will be there. No one will be ready for the attack. An attack that we had just thwarted.

Of course, this could also be a part of the setup. Cry wolf over and over then save the herd. As a result, you would be proclaimed the hero of the hour. And it wasn’t even a stretch. There were people that did exactly that. From firefighters that set fires to Angels of Death.

Each would create a situation before saving their victims. From some accounts, there were those that got off on such events. And I wouldn’t put it past a motivated assassin to do something similar to get closer to a target.

Sure, the concept was a bit macabre, but that didn’t mean someone wouldn’t do it. Hadn’t done it. Wasn’t doing it.