The day manager, Imelda was not happy with the presence of the soldiers in the hub. They had show up out of the blue and the Night manager, Gen, had not left any note as to why they had actually taken over the hub itself. She was quite furious at the worker she had sent out of the office. He hadn’t taken the time to learn the exact details of what the soldiers were doing there either. There was also this man, the commander of Westwatch just dancing around and keeping the ever turning wheels of the empire. They had offered to take her up to see what was causing the slow down, however she still had a ton of work to do and these people were interrupting it.

  “This hub needs to be open, Now.” She looked at Malik coldly.

  Malik returned the same icy stare.

  “We can’t do that,” he growled through his teeth.

  Imelda slammed her hands into the desk. The move further hardened Malik.

  “This isn’t a request. Get your soldiers out of here, or face the consequences.”

  “There’s not a damn thing you can do,” Malik slammed the seal on the desk in front of her. “This grants me the authority to do what I need for the good of the empire.”

  Imelda’s gaze didn’t stray from Malik’s face The seal sitting on her desk meant nothing to her.

  “Get your men and get out of here.” She reiterated.

  Malik scooped up the seal and put it back onto his person. Malik closed his eyes, and tried to picture the Forrest . It had always calmed him. He let go of a long breath and felt the tension that had been building in his body start to fade. He looked at Imelda. She had the same uniform as the manager from the night had. The uniform had been a bit looser on her. The stern expression remained. They stared wordlessly at each other for quite some time.

  Malik tried to use the silence to probe into her character. The worker that had advised her of the situation in the hub was filled with relief once Malik strolled in and hastily exited. He expected that the behavior she was exhibiting was somewhat of a constant thing. The activity in the control center had been unchanged from the night before. He could guess that she was usually unpleasant to be around. He couldn't think of a way out without the rest of his people. He saw her casting a few looks at his thermos. Malik wondered if she just might just not e a morning person. He produced his thermos and rested it on her desk.

  “Do you have a cup?” he asked.

  Her demeanor slightly changed. The hostility was still quite present, however it seemed to have lost the edge. She slid open of of the drawers on the desk and pulled out a mug. Malik slipped the top on the thermos. The tea inside was still quite hot and steam curled in the air once it was exposed. The aroma had quickly spread throughout the room. Malik poured some tea into Imelda’s produced cup and gently slid it back to her. She watched the cup and tested the outside with her hand. It was still to hot so she let it sit.

  “I think we got off on the wrong foot,” Malik said as he poured some more of the tea into his own cup. Once it was filled He closed the thermos

  I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here.” He continued, “What can we do here to make this as smooth as possible?”

  Imelda rested her hand on the outside of her cup. She was still a bit angry, but looking at the tea steaming in the cup had somewhat taken the edge off everything. She was still quite distrustful of the commander but he seemed to be genuine about not wanting to be there. She stared at the tea that she was offered for some guidance. The dark liquid rippled softly as steam rose from the top. Her hand strayed to her wrist and she lightly stroked it. Malik caught the movement. She moved both hands to the cup and lifted it into the air in front of her face, resting her elbows on the desk. There had been some slight scarring on the wrist she had been rubbing. Malik filed this into the back of his head.

  “I’ll need to call the Mayor at least.” She said.

  “I’m not sure what you had been told by your subordinates, but I’ll one up that. I’ll show you everything that we’ve done here and we’ll let you into the plans as well.”

  Malik felt he might be overstepping something, but he didn’t want to chance pissing off the one person that could call his bluff if she were to look into the actual edict proclamation. Imelda nodded slowly. She sipped some of the tea in the cup and blew across the liquid in an effort to cool it down.

  “I’;m going to have a few of my people come into the office here and we’ll talk about what we’re going to do.”

  She agreed simply.

  As if on Cue the unnamed officer entered the room.

  He greeted Malik with a respectful bow and stood rigid near one of the walls.

  “Laudislaus is on his way sir. And the scout master stated she would meet you on the way.”

  Imelda sat up straight when she heard Laudislaus mentioned by name. She pushed some of her stay hair over her ear. Malik caught a better glance at the scar on her wrist. It almost looked like a rune, but the darker colors that indicated something had been implanted were missing. He could gauge from the reaction she had from the mention of Laudislaus there had been something there. He might want to have a few brief words with Laudislaus when they were on the way.

  “Thank you,” Malik paused briefly, trying to recall the man’s name, but couldn’t think of it still, “Can you wait on the twins for me? Send them up here once they’ve eaten, just don’t rush them.”

  The officer nodded and left.

  “Who are the twins?” asked Imelda.

  “They’re a pair of scryers.” Malik replied, “ they found something down the transportation line and we need to investigate this.”

  A thoughtful look crossed Imelda’s face at the mention of the word scryers. Any of the anger she had felt had appeared to have been dissipated. Malik sipped his tea, mirroring Imelda. The initial buzz had worn off and had a feeling that his entire body had been awake.

  “By the way, what kind of tea is this?” he asked while tapping his cup.

  ———

  Kob walked himself down to the quarters. With the required sleeping schedule in place he had become quite accustomed with walking down to the room. He still hadn’t found the time for himself to sleep, but he knew that later in the day the sergeant would be coming down to relieve him, and after a briefing, he’d be able to get himself some shut-eye. The tea that had been served in the cafeteria had been quite well accepted and generally loved all around.

  From all Kob could figure it was some kind of a mild stimulant. The effects of wakefulness and clarity worked quite well for the soldiers that had been posted for the over night duty. The way Kob figured it The soldiers on the move from the fort would arrive in two to three days. The soldiers should be showing up at the way station, if not now, they should be there by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. He had made the sleep scheduled stagged enough so that the quartered troops could watch the recovery of the new troops once they arrived.

  The quarters weren’t too busy as he must have come at a point when people were either following the schedules or actually sleeping. Kob walked down the aisle between each bunk. He couldn't find any indication of which bunk contained who, however, he assumed that the ones closer to the entrance had been occupied prior to his work scheduling the shifts. They were still closed when he checked in on them.

  It took an hour for the two scryers to wake. They still wore the loose clothing that they had brought on the trip with them. It looked like they weren’t too concerned about wearing dirty clothes. Kob was quick to greet them and take them to the cafeteria. They declined the tea that had been making its rounds between all the soldiers and ate a hearty meal. It was already past the breakfast serving times and the two scryers opted for just about the same meal. The only difference had been that Taelon had opted for the chicken and Maeve went for the fish. The sides had been an assortment of vegetables, mostly a mixture of greens and reds. Kob hadn’t been hungry but he still grabbed some pastry just to have something to nibble on, to be polite while talking to the scryers.

  They hungrily devoured their meals like they had not eaten in quite some time. Kob gestured for them to grab a second serving, which they gladly accepted. Kob felt a little repulsed at the speed at which they went through their food, but he quietly kept that to himself. He hadn’t had much experience with mages as he had only been at the fort a few months, but, whenever he talked to them, they tended to be rather short with answers and generally avoided talking to people at all. It still irked him a little bit when the scryers opted instead of engaging in conversation, to instead put more food in their mouths. Kob figured he should probably ignore it. When they finished he would urge them up to the command center where they could talk with Malik and the others. They just silently followed along while Kob threw a few words of light conversation at them.

  The officer opened the door to the office and ushered the two scryers in. They had been greeted with smiles from both Laudislaus and Malik, but Imelda the manager, still held on to her stony expression. The tension that had been present initially had been cut down by a considerable amount. The officer stood by the back wall near the door and the scryers stood on either side of him. The second chair that had been set up facing the desk had now been occupied by Laudislaus. His presence had seemed to help cool things even further.

  “Alright,” started Malik, “We’re going to have to start measuring where the anomaly and see if there’s any sort of way to fix it.”

  Both the scryers nodded in unison.

  “It should take us about a day or two to actually reach this area.” He continued.

  Laudislaus spoke up, “I’ll help navigate the area. I did have a part to play with the actual scouting of the terrain where the line actually runs.”

  Imelda wasn’t exactly too pleased to hear that, Malik started to idly wonder if they had been just friends or if there was anything else lying underneath it all. He considered getting some time alone with the old paper pusher to get some answers to help with the curiosity that was now bubbling beneath the surface.

  Laudislaus continued talking about what he had seen and all the landmarks he could think of about their actual journey. Malik knew that most of this was just for the benefit of Imelda, most of everything would be figured out by the scouts as they approached the anomaly itself. He continued on for a bit, and then Imelda started up saying something herself.

  Once there was a lull in the conversation Malik noticed both Laudislaus and Imelda looking at him expectingly. Malik silently cursed. He had no idea what was just said, and wouldn’t have any idea of where to continue. He simply nodded, and that seemed to satisfy both of the conversation participants. The officer opened the door and left in a hurry. Malik cringed internally. It was probably going to be the arrival of the mayor at this point. Malik wasn’t too happy about all the extra hurdles they’d be putting in their way and felt it was not an effective use of their time. He didn’t want to risk upsetting Imelda and wanted to keep the hub relatively happy. It was their turf he was on, and if they actually called him out on his bluff there wouldn’t be much else he could do other than pack up and go home.

  He decided to stand up from his chair, but neither Laudislaus of Imelda seemed to pay any attention. He left the office feeling a little clueless, and cursed under his breath. The two scryers followed him out. Once they had left the control center the male scryer spoke.

  “You agreed to have the Mayor come by you know.” The scryer continued, “We could kind of tell you had been lost in thought there.”

  Malik felt some conflicting emotions rise in him. There had been a little fear that he had been caught out, but it was quickly pushed down by gratitude.

  “Not really sure how you caught that,” he replied, “but, thanks.”

  “We want to leave as much as you do.” The female scryer added.

  “Are you all hungry?” asked Malik.

  They agreed and walked off to the cafeteria.

  ———

  Kob left the hub to get to the mayor’s estate. He found a fresh horse and attempted to get through the city as fast as he could. He didn’t exactly have to rush but he wanted to make sure that commander wouldn't have to put up with Imelda for longer than necessary. The streets were busy with the every day hustle and bustle of daily life. The streets had been set out in a grid like pattern, and were wide enough for carts to pass through. The hub was more of a commercial district, the zoning work that had been done in the area had seen to the more encircle layout that had been here.

  Most of the citizens that had lived in surrounding neighborhoods. Transportation through the city was handled mostly by horse and cart, however with the influence of the transportation lines from the hub there had been more small scale public transportation lines that had been constructed in the city. They weren’t as wide spread as some of the larger cities in most of the empire, they were still considered to be in their infancy in the city. Kob hadn’t seen any of the public transportation plates moving around most of the traffic he had encountered were just the standard horse and cart.

  He had a lackluster trip until he got to the old-town. There4 had been a distinct line where the new city ended and the old one began. The building tended to be a bit more tightly packed and a majority of the actual construction work was seemingly more haphazard. There was still evidence of a few of the old properties but most of everything had been purchased by others seeing to consolidate land or to actually work on the urban planning. The architecture here was just as new as the rest of the city however due to the odd shapes of plots and the narrow roads.

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  Kob had arrived at the governor’s estate without too much of an issue. The building itself was packed in just as tight as every other surrounding building, and if it hadn’t been for the title that had been shown in giant golden letters above the entrance it would be possible to completely pass it by. Kob figured that the land was named as such sarcastically. The mayor’s estate was more than anything, just the government building. The city would most likely end up having the mayor’s property and the actual government building separate as time went on, however for right now this was exactly where he needed to be.

  Kob had taken his horse to a stable that had been a short distance away from the actual estate building.It hadn’t taken him too long to walk back to his destination. The building itself had only been recently constructed. It was by no means grand or even impressive. The stonework outside the building had mostly been bland, blending in with a few of the other buildings that were in the area. There was a large entryway that set it a little apart from the other buildings near by. Kob hesitated briefly contemplating how much strength he would need to actually open the doors as The doors were rather thick. He was impressed when he opened the entrance, had been done in the construction of this building had seen that they moved as smooth as butter when they were opened

  The interior of the building had been mostly open, except for an information desk that had been in the middle of the room. There hadn’t been too much activity in the building itself, which surprised Kob. The worker in the Kiosk spotted and watched him with disinterest. Kob walked over to the kiosk.

  “I need to speak to the mayor.”

  The worker pointed in a direction vaguely without saying a word and waved Kob off.

  “Thank you, I guess.” Kob replied as he turned and walked to where he had been pointed to.

  A giant information board had been set up along the wall. There had been arrows pointing to a variety of different departments. Kob followed the arrows to the mayor’s office. His footsteps echoed along the hallways as he walked. In the back there had been a small looking office. Kob opened the door and was met by a secretary. Kob approached her.

  “I’ve been sent to speak with the mayor.” Kob said simply.

  “Have a seat,” The secretary said, gesturing to some chairs that had been lined along the wall, “I’ll be just a moment.”

  She got up and walked into the room she had been seated in front of. It hadn’t taken too long.

  “The mayor will see you now.” The secretary stated, leaving the room to go back to her desk.

  Kob stood up and entered the office. mayor Basewin had been sitting in a large chair behind a wooden desk. It hadn’t been much to look at but it looked sturdy. There were two security guards holding some news papers sitting on a simple couch. They watched Kob carefully for a moment but nodded upon seeing his command dot.

  “How can I help you today?” asked Basewin.

  Kob stood straight, “I’m third rider Kob. I’ve been sent by my base commander to retrieve you for potentially catastrophic issue at the hub.”

  Basewin readjusted his position in the chair upon hearing that.

  “What do you mean catastrophic?” Basewin asked, narrowing his eyes.

  “I’m not at liberty to say sir, This is something that requires your attention personally.”

  Basewin sighed, standing up reluctantly. “I take it you were issued an edict?”

  “Yes sir, 3715-A in fact.”

  Basewin stopped suddenly, “Repeat that?”

  “3715-A sir.”

  He covered his face with his hand quickly and turned around, falling suddenly silent. After a moment he turned back around, regaining his composure.

  “I take it Garren gave you the edict?”

  “Yes sir, that he did.”

  Basewin gestured to his security and approached a shelf that was along the side of the office. He quickly touched a book and the shelf swung open revealing a hidden passage. It had been dark at first but some dim lights came to life after a moment.

  “I take it you left your horse at the stables?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “We’ll meet you there.”

  The mayor and his security men walked at a quick pace down the hallway, the bookshelf swung by itself back into place noiselessly. Kob stood for a moment looking at the hidden door. He then turned and left the office. He thanked the secretary and then continued out the building.

  Garren had always enjoyed the scenery out in the forest. It had always been calm and serene. The light danced through the leaves illuminating the path he was on. It was shattered by the rhythmic sounds of soldiers marching, pulling him out of his moment. He shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts. A fraction of the soldiers that he had were on horseback, they had been assigned to watch the pace of the rest of the group as they marched toward the hub. They had been marching a hard pace. It wasn’t anything too grueling and a little too slow to his taste. The travel time on foot was usually around four days. They had yet to get to through way station, but it shouldn’t take them too much longer. He thought about the way station a moment. When they would arrive they’d rest well and get more supplies for the march ahead.

  It wasn’t a particularly interesting trip. He had made the journey countless times throughout his posting at the fort. His initial time at the fort was rather boring. It took him a few2 years to be shifted on over to some covert operations. The mages had become quite handy at covering command marks and the honors that were tattooed on his neck. Garren hadn’t been to fond of hiding who he was and honors that he won in service to the empire. It had taken him quite a long time to see things along the lines that were needed to operate the research facility. It had been something that all the higher ranking officers had all been in on. Even for the lower ranking conscripts it became quite hard to ignore that the mages had run of the place. In fact for most soldiers in the empire, it was quite rare for a soldier to even have contact with a mage beyond seeing them in processing during their conscription into the service.

  Garren had been a little wary with his interactions with the mages. It wasn’t exactly anything that was awful. It’s just that they operated in a different world. Klaas had been alright, he figured. It took him a while to warm up to the Magister. The trip that Garren had taken with him was quite similar to the one that he had with Malik. They had a lot of the same personality traits, except for the fact that Garren had always considered Malik to be a bit absent minded, but generally a pretty deep thinker. Klaas on the other hand was able make snap decisions and was generally present in all the time4 he had spent with Garren.

  Something was off with the road. Garren could quite put his finger on it, but something about the pathway seemed a little off. The rest of the soldiers didn’t show any signs of awareness on something being off. From everything he could see in the surrounding area it all looked pretty much the same. The road appeared to be just as it had been the countless times he had been down it. He figured it out there hadn’t been any wildlife around. He had noticed this earlier but pushed it out of his mind figuring that it would have been everyone marching down the road that scared off the local wildlife. Had the air been warmer before? Garren tried to remember. He did feel a little bit more chilly, but then again he could just be paranoid about nothing. He tried to push everything out of his mind and focus on the march. The unease remained.

  ———

  Just like the mayor said, he had met Kob at the stables. The security men had greeted him and had shown him a rather nondescript black carriage. The mayor had already situated himself in the carriage. One of the security men climbed in the back to sit with the Mayor, and the other would be driving the carriage to the hub. Malik retrieved his horse from the stable workers and they set out. The streets were still a little empty in places, however, it did appear that there was more traffic as they came to the hub. Initially Kob had been riding aside the carriage but with the people that were now out in the streets he had to take lead.

  Besides a few incidents where they were forced to push through a few crowds of people, and the general nervousness of the carriage horses, they managed to make it to the hub without incident. The stables at the hub had been a little bit more tidy than the ones near the mayor’s estate. Kob wondered idly if it were because there hadn’t been much activity in this stable because of the shutdown that they were enforcing, or if it was just the fact that the stable hands at this stable were better equipped with cleaning and maintaining their stable. Another factor he considered was that the stable near the mayor’s estate had also been older. Once they were in the actual stables Kob dismounted from his horse and gave the reins to the hub’s stable hand and the mayor and his two security men passed off their horses and vehicle as well.

  They entered the hub and strode directly to the command center. Kob wondered to himself how Malik had been informed that he had arrived with the mayor as the room was filled nearly to standing room only with everyone that had previously been there was once again in attendance. The two security guards were quite massive and they took up more room then the others. In an effort to keep everyone more comfortable, the mayor had the two security guards stand outside the room. They carefully considered the attendance of the room and stood outside without protest.

  “OK, I’m here,” stated the mayor.

  Imelda spoke up first, “Sir, we’ve under lock down. None of the passengers or goods have been allowed to leave.”

  The mayor looked at Malik.

  “Is this true, the hub is under lock-down?”

  Malik nodded gravely. “I fear something has happened to the line itself. No shipments have even been received from the anchor point.”

  “The edict you gave as justification,” the mayor paused, while a slight grimace formed on Malik’s face, “I think you chose correctly.”

  Malik gave out an unnoticed breath of relief, “There’s more. One of the last plates received, well it’ll be better if we show you.”

  They left the office and went to check on the quarantined plate. The hub manager decided to come along and take a loot at it as well, for the first time. The barricades that were constructed around the plate still did an excellent job at keeping out prying eyes. The soldiers that Kob had posted around the plate had also worked as an effective deterrent. The group got to the plate. There was now a slight shimmer to the air that surrounded the plate. The makeshift containment rods that had been set up around and affixed to the plate itself strobed slightly, their etchings glowing in time with each other. The crystals that had grown on the plate were not readily visible.

  The mayor walked to the edge of the shimmering barrier, the two scryers tensed visibly as he did so, only to relax once he had stopped moving.

  “Please don’t get any closer, it’s only temporary and rather delicate.” Maeve spoke up.

  The mayor looked back at her and nodded, “What exactly is this for?”

  Malik lead the group around to the side where the crystals were more visible, he had been careful to avoid showing them the body, he didn’t want to chance spooking either the mayor or the hub manager more than he had to.

  “I understood there was a body,” Imelda spoke up.

  Malik nodded and reluctantly showed them where the body would have been. Malik and the scryers stared at the empty spot bewildered. The body should have been there.

  The scryers spoke up.

  “The body is currently concealed by the containment Field that was set up here.” Taelon then followed that up with a string of technical terms and jargon until he could see that everyone’s eyes had started to glaze over.

  Maeve took the moment when everyone was focusing on Taelon to whisper into Malik’s ear, “I’ll have to get Klaas so we can figure out what happened to the body.”

  Malik gave an unseen nod to Maeve as she broke off from the group unnoticed. Taelon continued his lecture giving details on the crystals what they were and details on how to body was found. The lecture itself had taken a little longer than he would have liked, but as long as people were brought around to his point of view he couldn’t complain.

  Malik looked at the barrier as Taelon continued talking. He knew it had been hastily constructed the previous night. He had seen where Klaas had pulled down some of it to construct his own containment rods. The barrier had been reconstructed around those parts and it appeared that it was also somewhat extended to encompass the whole plate. Malik would have to talk to Garren at some point about how well he thought the officer, who’s name still escaped him, had done his job. Malik stepped away from the group and walked a bit around the plate. He wanted to see if he could figure out what happened to that body. The position that the body had been in, was indeed clear of any remains. The large crystal that had penetrated the body’s side was still in position. The container directly behind the body that had been encrusted with smaller crystals seemed off. The crystals that were growing at the base of the container had shown evidence of shattering. Malik craned his neck and squinted to see if he could get a better view along the bottom of the container. It was barely visible, but the more he looked at, the more it stood out. The crystals along the bottom of the had been neatly removed, as if the container had been pushed slightly back.