Ch: 11 Temper Tantrums, Sage of Humanity (Patreon)

Fully edited by Aldous.

Sage of humanity. Second chapter for today. Enjoy

Chapter 11

Temper tantrums

Lily sat fuming in the back of a much smaller car while Corrina drove. “I should have known this would happen.” She thought to herself as her anger mounted.

“Look, it's not that bad. A lot of people get drafted.” Corrina told her. Lily looked up and saw the other woman looking at her through the mirror. “Five years will pass in an instant and you’ll be free to do whatever you want. Plus, this is free training. You have no idea how dangerous it is out there.”

“I don’t know how dangerous it is out there?” Lily said, her voice rising. “I lived alone for the past ninety-seven years. You think it was peaceful?”

“I don’t know what you went through. I’m sorry if it sounded like I thought you were weak. It’s hard to tell since you are still a level one mage.” Corrina told her.

“I’m not going.” Lily said with heat. “Screw your draft and screw your city.”

“Look if you have a problem you can apply for a system rep to review the case. Not that I think what we did was wrong. We need people like you.” Corrina told her.

“You know I was making plans to protect your city and all the forts, right?” Lily said, turning to look at Corrina.

“You still can do that. The only difference will be that you’ll be in the military.” Corrina replied.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Lily said quietly.

“Look, life sucks. You got dealt a bad hand. Deal with it.” Corrina said, sounding irritated. Lily didn't know why she was irritated. It wasn’t like her life had been hijacked by some jackholes.

A flash of rage swept through Lily. “Deal with it!” She thought to herself as she looked out the window not really seeing anything but her reflection. “Screw her. I’ll find a way out. I don’t care about the System. I lived without it before, I can live without it again.”

“We’re here.” Corrina said after a while, bringing Lily back to the present.

Corrina parked in front of a two-story brick building that faced a larger, shallow river. It had a small fenced-in area that enclosed a bright green lawn. There were some stairs that led up to a glass door that Lily could see a small foyer through. Between her building and her neighbors’ buildings, there was a small driveway on the left side and a small alleyway on the right side. It was a nice street with large trees that had their branches covering it.

On the other side of the street was a large sidewalk and the river, which was blocked off with a black-poled fence. Across the river, Lily could see a larger road and a bunch of restaurants. Not that far to the left of her house was a large cement bridge that led across the large river. She noted that there were more people walking over it than cars driving on it. If it wasn’t for the fact that she had been drafted, she would have loved living here.

“Let’s go check your new place out.” Corrina said from the top of the stairs as Lily turned back around towards her new home.

Lily didn’t say a word as Corrina opened the foyer door and went inside. She felt a bit less angry as she looked around at the foyer as Corrina unlocked the door. It really was, she had to admit, a beautiful house. Corrina opened the door and waved for Lily to go ahead in front of her. Lily walked past her, getting irritated again. She knew Corrina was just being nice, but everything the woman did set her nerves on fire.

The first thing she noticed was the gleaming hardwood floor. It looked worn, but in a good way, like some places got when they were lived in. Then her mood went south as she looked around at the furnishings. Everything looked expensive and not what she would like at all. There was a small bookcase with a stack of leather-bound books. They had white roman numerals on them.

The couch was leather and looked uncomfortable. Not that it looked bad - it was the sort of couch that you looked at, but didn’t sit in. There was a fireplace with fake wood that was lit up with a yellowish-red light. At first glance it looked real, but that quickly faded when she really looked at it.The living room was a small room, and Lily couldn’t see herself using it all that often.

The kitchen was another separate room beyond the living room. It looked nice, but not as nice as the kitchen in her apartment in Woburn. It did have a backdoor with a huge window that took up half the door. Looking out of the door, she had a surprisingly big backyard, although it was mostly cement. There was a small strip of grass with a thick tree in one corner. The backyard was enclosed with a small cement wall that was about six or so feet tall.

There was also what she thought was a large garage until she read a sign that said it was the entrance to a bunker. The sign also said it was a private bunker and some numbers below it. She absently guessed the numbers corresponded to the street address of who could use it. She didn’t care for it. She felt that it was a bit elitist.

She passed Corrina, who was standing in the living room looking out the large front windows. She gave Lily a smile, but Lily didn’t return it. There was another door on the opposite side of the living room which was open to show some stairs behind it. Lily took the nicely polished wooden stairs to the second level. There was a small hallway with a few expensive- looking, oval throw rugs on the hardwood floor.

There was a bathroom immediately in front of her and a door on either side of the hallway. The door to the front of the house led to a medium-sized bedroom that had two huge windows that overlooked the river and the street below. As she looked out she saw an older-looking man with salt and pepper hair walk by. He was walking a huge dog that came up to his waist.

The dog turned to look at her in the window on the second floor, and opened its mouth, showing a huge snout full of shark-like teeth. The man ignored what his dog was looking at and kept walking. As the wind hit his jacket she saw a huge double-barrel pistol strapped to his side. From what she could see, the gun was decorated with what looked like tiny monster cores. Shaking her head, Lily turned away.

The last door led to another bedroom, which was a bit smaller than the one in the front. It had a smaller window that showed the backyard. She couldn’t see much of the house behind hers because the tree took up much of the view, but she did spot another brick building through the leaves. The bathroom, when she peeked in, was small and didn’t have a tub. All it had was a shower stall.

She met Corrina on the first floor. She gave Lily a smile and asked, “Well, what do you think?”

“Not going to be spending much time here in the next five years, am I?” Lily said to the other woman.

“I’m sure you could when you're stationed here in the city.” Corrine replied, not looking Lily in the eye.

“What are the odds that I’ll be stationed in the city?” Lily asked her.

“Look, I don’t know where you’ll be going once you're done with Basic.” Corrina said, looking up at her. “If you want my opinion, no, I don’t think you’ll spend a lot of time in the city. Conscripts usually man the forts. The city is usually garrisoned by the career military members. I don’t think they’ll place you in a sentinel tower, but expect to move around a lot between the forts. They do it because it gives the draftees experience in combat.”

“Are they going to pay me to set up the force fields for the city and forts?” Lily asked, suddenly having a thought.

“No, of course not. You’ll be doing duty for the city.” Corrina said, sounding a bit put out.

A flash or rage coursed through Lily viens as she realized why she had been conscripted. They wanted her to build force fields for the city and forts. It was the only reason she could think of for them wanting to draft her. They wanted the force fields, but didn’t want to pay her for them. She wanted to help out the city, but on her own terms. “I have no duty to the city.” Lily told the other woman, anger coursing through her veins.

“You are a citizen now. So, yes you have a duty to protect your city.” Corrina said heatedly.

“A citizenship I don’t want.” Lily shouted at the other woman. “You people only want me to build you the force fields, but don’t want to pay me for it. You know what, I don’t want or need your Manor.” Lily said, stressing the word Manor waving her arms around her indicating the small house.

“If you don’t want the house, then you don’t have to accept it, but you will report tomorrow for Basic or face the consequences. And let me tell you desertion is penalized hard by the System.” Corrina shouted back. “Grow up and do your duty.”

“I’m over a hundred years old.” Lily shouted back. “Fuck you and your duty.”

Corrina’s face turned red and she took a step towards Lily. Lily stepped back and found herself automatically casting her Mobile barrier. She tilted her head at the other woman, but Corrina stopped and took a step back. Lily watched her as she closed her eyes, and took a few deep breaths. When Corrina opened them again her face wasn’t red anymore.

“You have been drafted into the homeland guard. Your draft has been filed with the System, as is proper. I’ll be here tomorrow to escort you to Basic at six in the morning. In case you have some stupid ideas about running, I’m going to have my people outside. Good luck trying to sneak by them, level one mage. If you want to visit the System Hub, and I strongly suggest you do, send me a message and I’ll escort you.” Corrina said in a quiet but strong voice.

“I shouldn’t have ever helped you.” Lily said angrily.

“I’m sorry you feel that way.” Corrina said, in a quiet voice. “Be ready at six.” Lily watched as the other woman turned around and walked out the front door. Lily watched as the other woman stopped by the sidewalk and opened up her phone. She stood there on the sidewalk talking on her phone for a few minutes then got in the car and drove away.

She looked around and thought about running, but then what? She had no idea how to get back to Woburn. Even then would he accept a deserter? She turned around and looked at her living room, suddenly hating it. The whole house reminded her of what they’d done. She needed time to think and she couldn’t do that here. She turned around and opened the door. She left the foyer, walked out to the street and looked both ways. She didn’t see any signs of Corrina’s people so she ran across the street and started walking, trying to clear her head.

She had no idea where she was going, but she couldn’t stand being in the tiny house any longer. She cursed her own stupidity at coming here. She cursed Woburn who said this wouldn’t happen. She cursed Corrina for tricking her.

“Did Corrina really trick her?” She asked herself as she walked with her head down, not really looking around. She thought about what had happened, and what had been said.

“Yes she did. She knew what was going to happen. She told me to accept the gift. I bet it was the only way they could make me a citizen against my will.” But when she tried to remember if Corrina had told her to accept the gift she couldn’t remember if she did or not.

“She knew and didn’t warn me.” Lily told herself as she started to walk faster. “She let me walk in that trap without warning me. After all I’ve done for her.”

She kept walking, lost in thought, on the sidewalk next to the river. Sounds of tires squealing made her jump back and look to the street. She saw a bunch of trucks stop all around her on the street and people in camouflage clothing jumped out, pointing guns at her. She froze as they ran at her, yelling for her to stop and freeze. Since she was already doing that, she just remained where she was with her hands in the air. She was scared out of her mind.

“Get on the ground.” One of the guys yelled at her. She started to kneel down, but someone rushed towards her and slammed her to the ground. She grunted, but it didn’t hurt because she still had Mobile barrier on. She had completely forgotten about it, even though she was still channeling mana to her chest. She could feel the pressure as the guy put his knee on the small of her back and pushed her down. She felt the spell compact as the guy squeezed, but it held. Aside from some pressure, she didn’t feel anything.

“Hands behind your back.” The guy on her back yelled even as he yanked on her hands and pulled them behind her back. “Do you have anything on you that would be considered a weapon?”

She shook her head, no. Seconds later she felt pressure on her wrists as the guy cuffed her. Her barrier kept it from hurting, but the way he forced her arms up her back hurt her shoulders because of the unnatural angle. She absently made a note of the weakness of her spell as the man started patting her sides. He didn’t seem to realize she had a spell protecting her as he ran his hands down her other pant leg.

Then he pulled her upwards, yanking on her arms, causing her shoulders to hurt more. As soon as she was standing, the guy yanked her towards a truck while another guy pulled the door open. The first guy grabbed her head and pushed her down while at the same time pushing her into the back seat of the truck with his body. Once she was all the way in he buckled the seat belt then closed the doors.

She found herself in the back seat of a smelly truck. It smelled strongly of body odor. She wrinkled her nose at the smell, and wished she had her hands free to hide her nose in her shirt. The guys stood outside the truck, and talked to each other for a while as she sat in the hot truck sweating like crazy. They army guys stood around in a circle talking to each other long enough for her fear to recede. She started getting pissed.

“I was only going for a walk.” She thought to herself as she leaned against the window. “Can’t do that anymore? I’ve got twenty-four hours until I have to report, right?”

Finally the guys got done talking to each other and the guy who cuffed her got into the truck and turned it around, then drove back down the street. He didn’t speak to her, and she had no desire to talk to him either. The radio went off and he answered it as they drove. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry as he drove past her house. She watched it go by then turned towards him.

“Where are you taking me?” She asked him.

“I’m taking you to booking.” He said not taking his eyes off the road.

“For what?” Lily asked, frowning. She didn’t think she broke any laws. “I was just taking a walk. What law are you charging me with breaking?”

“They’ll explain that in booking.” He told her, seemingly unconcerned.

Shaking her head in anger and frustration, she sat back as the guy drove her to a large, ugly, square building. He parked just outside large, green, metal double doors before opening her door and telling her to get out. He then grabbed her arm and dragged her towards the green doors. Inside she was brought to a small room that had a camera pointed at a wall and an overweight woman who had her back to them doing something with a pen.

“Be with you in a second.” The woman said, sounding jovial.

When she turned around she froze. “This woman has an active spell on her. Why are you bringing her here without removing it, officer?” She asked the military guy, who looked surprised.

“She’s a level one mage.” He said looking at Lily. “What kind of spell can she cast?”

“I’m a Sage of Humanity, jackhole.” Lily said, looking at the guy. Then she turned to the woman, who had taken a step back away from her. “What am I being charged with?”

“You can’t be a Sage.” The guy said, reaching for his gun. “You’re a level one mage.”

“Do you even know who you arrested?” Lily shot back, getting really angry. Turning towards the woman she asked, “Is this normal? Arresting people without knowing who they are?”

“Please remove your spell or I will fire on you.” The man said, pulling his gun. Lily was mostly sure her spell would keep her from getting hurt should the guy shoot her, but it still pissed her off.

“I have a name, jackhole. Wait, do you know it?” She asked him as she realized he never asked for her name or some kind of ID. If her memory of cop shows before the invasion was right, then they should already know it or at least ask for it. He never asked nor did he call her by her name. On top of that, he didn’t know she was a Sage of Humanity. Everyone so far she met already knew her name and title. She had no idea how, but most people just did, even if they never met her before.

Suddenly she felt a wave of magic come off him. It was weak and very short, but the man paled when the magic bounced back at him. “You really are a Sage.” He said, lowering his gun. His voice rose with awe.

“Glad that’s over, now why am I being arrested?” Lily asked him.

“I don’t know. A picture of you was sent to us telling us to arrest you. It didn’t say what you did. Ma’am. Sage Wilson. Will you please remove whatever spell you have on you.” He said, raising his gun again.

“I don’t feel safe around you.” Lily told him honestly. “It’s a protection spell, and I’ll keep it on, thank you very much.”

“You are being charged with desertion.” The large woman said, starting Lily. “The funny thing is that the System doesn’t show you in the military. It says your start date is tomorrow.”

“Can someone who isn’t in the military be charged with desertion?” Lily said, frustrated.

“It’s not up to us.” The woman said apologetically. “He’s right. We can’t book you with an active spell. If I have to, I will remove it from you. If I do, you will be charged with resisting arrest and fined by both the city and the System.”

Lily looked at the woman and slipped into her soul. The woman had some power, but Lily was sure she was stronger than the woman. She debated leaving the spell in place, as she couldn’t cast it if her arms were behind her back. She looked at the military guy who had his gun on her and shook her head, no.

The woman sighed and took a step forward. “I don’t trust that guy. Make him leave and I’ll take it down.” Lily said as she sensed the woman starting to cast a spell.

“He is here for my protection.” The woman said, reaching to her chest and pulling out a metal amulet. “He stays.”

“Tell him to put the gun away and I’ll do as you ask.” Lily told her as she looked at the guy who still had his gun out.

“You are currently under arrest. You will do as you are asked. Lower the shield, or I will defend myself and my fellow officers.” A menacing male voice behind her said, making her jump. She looked down and found a knife at her throat. “It’s a shield breaker. It will cut right through your shield. Do as I ask or I will defend myself and my fellow officers.”

She dropped the spell. The next thing she knew she was on the floor and her nose hurt. There was some shouting as more people piled into the room and everyone had guns drawn on her. She was put into a chair, which they cuffed her hands and feet to. They released one of her hands at a time to fingerprint her while the guy with the knife held her hand in an iron grip. Then they brought her to another room where three female officers stripped her and put her in a black and white striped jumpsuit. She was given shoes with no shoe laces and cuffed back into the chair. Then she sat in a white room for hours, unable to move except for her head.

Some time late in the morning, they pulled her out of the room and told her to get changed. She changed back into her clothes. She was given a brown paper bag with the rest of her stuff in it before she was shown to a large door made of steel that had a weird rainbow glow to it and large waves of magic emanating from it. On the other side of the door was another door which they kept closed until the door behind them was shut. Then they opened it and she saw Corrina standing on the other side waiting for her.

They were driving back to her new home when Corrina spoke for the first time. “I told you not to run.”

“I didn’t run. I was going for a walk.” Lily replied.

“You were running.” Corrina replied. Lily ignored the other woman for the rest of the trip. She didn’t care what the other woman thought. She was too angry to carry on a conversation.

Corrina followed Lily inside. Lily ignored the other woman and walked up the stairs. She went into the master bedroom and closed the door. Corrinal had followed her up the stairs, but hadn’t followed her into the bedroom. She was so very glad as she turned around and started to create a doorway to her real home. It took nearly five minutes, but once she was done she got a message asking her if she wanted to create a new doorway. She clicked yes and then opened the door to her real home.

She stepped through and found herself standing in front of the odd barn with four doors. Two looked like real doors now. She quickly closed the door behind her, not wanting anyone to follow her (not remembering they couldn’t). She took a deep breath and screamed.

She screamed her anger to the sky as the rage boiled up and out of her. It didn’t help. “I’m never going back!” She screamed to the sky, but all that did was make her more mad. She trusted Corrina. Gave her a spell and a profession, and this was what she did in return? Lily hadn’t felt this angry in a very long time.

She turned back towards the door and slipped into her soul. It was much harder to do with her emotions flowing so fast, but, once she had, she looked at the door. The System had said she couldn’t close a door from inside her home. She didn’t believe it. She searched for the anchors she knew to be there. She knew she could pull them apart. Once the anchors were gone the doors would be closed forever.

“Then what?” She asked herself, in a moment of clarity. “Run to Woburn? All that will happen is that I’ll get arrested, again, and sent back there.” Lily told herself, as she looked at the anchors.

Then her rage reared its ugly head and all she could think of was the injustice of it all. How dare they arrest her? How dare they force her to join their military? How dare they? For the first time in her life she saw red. It wasn’t like what she expected. It was like a pink film around her eyes, with deeper red at the edges. She had always thought it was just a saying, but looking at the anchors in the door she found herself seeing red.

Then something clicked in her head and suddenly she felt oddly calm. She wasn’t going back. She was never going back. What did she care for other people? They tried to force her to join their stupid military. They arrested her. They hurt her. They died on her. They left her alone in hell for ninety-seven years. With hate in her heart, she reached out and yanked out the anchors. The doors exploded.

She didn’t regret what she did, at first. She was glad she was back alone again. She spent her days eating her mushrooms in the mornings, and taking long baths at night. Once in a while she ate a big meal, but that just reminded her of what happened, so she didn’t do that often. She was ok with just eating mushrooms.

There were a few differences to being alone this time. First no monsters or beasts ever appeared in her home. Her home never got too hot or too cold. She even had her watch which she could use to track time, but, oddly enough, it couldn’t show her the messages that everyone had been asking her to read. It told her it wasn't connected to the System. It worried her for a bit until she remembered she survived for years without it, she could do it again.

It took her a month for her to venture into the attic. She kept making excuses why she shouldn’t, like why did she have to create spells? She wasn’t leaving this place. It was her home forever now. It was safe. It had everything she needed. She didn’t need to do anything, but live her life. Then one day she got bored. It got worse the next day and the next until she finally relented. She was still scared of the spell balls, but she was scared of being bored more.

Two months later, she discovered her first spell ball in her new home. When she held it, it tasted like freshly turned dirt. She had no idea what it did, but it wasn’t as dangerous as the universe ball so she added it to her grimoire with all the other spell balls. Then the next night before her bath she returned and started searching again.

Four months later, Lily sat by the river and finally started to regret what she had done. She had found another spell ball, and created a new spell. She failed to modify her Mobile barrier because she had no idea how to create the intent of how to prevent someone from grabbing her arm and twisting it the wrong way. The barrier was great at preventing her from being cut or being crushed, but she couldn’t think of a way to prevent her limbs from being twisted out of place. She couldn’t think of a way, so she couldn’t create the intent.

She also had no idea how a spell breaker worked or if it was even a thing. For all she knew, the guy was lying. She wished she had paid more attention to weapons and what was possible, but she had been so focused on protecting Woburn that she excluded everything else. She hadn’t the foggiest idea where to start.

After her failure, she couldn’t think of anything else to do but look for more spell balls. Even that started to get boring, since she had stopped being afraid of the spell balls. She tried swimming in the river, and it was fun, for a bit, but hard on her body as she kept hitting the rocks under the water. She did discover that the river looped back on itself like the rest of her world. If she went too far she returned to where she started.

But she could only do that so many times before it got boring. She even figured out where all the rocks were in the river, mostly by trial and error. She lost her passion for creating new spells after creating her newest spell, mostly because she couldn’t think of any good spells to create. When she created the new spell she expected to hear her double’s voice like she always did in the past, but this time there was no voice asking her to name her spell or if she wanted to share it with the rest of humanity.

Her newest spell was a three spell ball which she called bust-a cuff. It basically created a small, weak wave of mana to pour out her body, melting anything near it. She hoped it would dissolve cuffs and rope that might be used to try to keep her unable to use her hands. Like she had designed, it only worked on non-living things, and the first time she used it she nearly destroyed everything she was wearing. The good news was that she was able to remove her clothing fast enough that she could cast Repair on it to save everything. The kind of good news, bad news was that it dissolved all her hair on her body except her head. It wasn’t designed to do anything above her neck. Apparently she didn’t need to shave her legs anymore. She practiced for a bit and discovered that, as long as her fingers were free, she could cast the spell. The movements of the balls were fairly simple.

After that, she couldn’t think of any spell she felt passionate to create. With her hitting a dead end with her barrier spell she was at a loss of what to do. Six and a half months, according to her watch, later and she was at a loss of what to do. Two months after that, she decided to grow a garden where her front lawn used to be. She used seeds from the fruit she bought from the shop back in Woburn. She had eaten most of the fruit and plants already, but she still had their seeds. Most of them didn’t grow, but a few did. She now had strawberries and tomatoes growing, as well as a banana tree near the forest on the left side of her house. It was really small right now, but it was growing pretty fast.

The problem was, once the initial work was done, the maintenance was roughly an hour or so a week. There were no animals to worry about eating her plants. There were some bugs, but none of them seemed interested in eating her stuff. It made her wonder what they did eat. There were also a lot of worms. Too bad she didn’t see any fish in her river. She wrote a note in her grimoire to remind herself, if she ever found her way back, she needed to stock her river. It was roughly a month or so after she created her garden when she started to think about trying to figure out a way to go back.

The problem was the universe spell ball. She was deeply afraid of it. She had only used it twice. Once when she found it, and the second time when she cast a spell with it in it. The first time she fell out of its grasp. The second time she was saved by a giant turtle. She had a very bad feeling that if she used it a third time she would be forever lost in the constantly churning universe.

“So, how do I find my way back?” She asked herself nine months, eight days, and four hours since she ripped out the anchors to her world. The odd shed was still there, but the wall where the doors had been was gone. Blown out in a fit of madness.

“If I answer that question does it count as you being crazy?” A voice that sounded just like her own asked her. Turning around, and away from her river she found her double standing behind her.

“Depends.” Lily replied, looking up and down her double’s body. “Am I hallucinating?”

“Nope, it’s the real me, not you.” Her double said, walking towards the edge of the river and sitting down. Her double looked exactly like her, still. The same clothes, same wild hair that Lily had stopped brushing all that often. Even the same shoes, which her double was currently taking off to soak her feet.

“How did you find me?” Lily asked as both she and her double looked out at the rushing water.

“Let me tell you, it was really hard. When you go crazy and run away, you really know how to do it, I’ll give you that.” Her double told her, sounding exasperated. “Next time you have a temper tantrum, don’t rip yourself out of your own reality. It’s really hard to find you again.”

“Yeah, I think this is a one-time thing.” Lily replied, feeling both embarrassed and ashamed.

“So do you want to know the good news or the bad?” Her double asked, still not looking at Lily.

“It must be bad if you’re not looking at me. Hit me with the bad.” Lily said, turning to look at her double.

“There has been a ruling by an arbitrator. You are being penalised for deserting. First off, you lost your citizenship with Lowell, but I expect you never wanted it in the first place. You lost one third of all of your wealth from the point of desertion to today, which was a lot of credits by the way - lots of people bought your profession. Lastly, you lost all of your unclaimed experience, which amounted to twenty-six levels. Seriously, you never went back to the hub? Not even once?” Her double asked, sounded pissed.

“Never needed to.” Lily admitted, not really caring about her levels.

“You do know that most people visit a System Hub at least once a week, if they can?” Her double told her.

Lily shrugged, not really caring.

“Well, that’s all gone. You’ll need to start all over again.” Her double explained. “You also lost your good standing with the System.”

Again Lily just shrugged.

“You know you’re lucky he didn’t hit you with the normal ruling on desertion. Normally, someone like you would be banished from all System-operated settlements. All city spirits, like Woburn, would have to order all of their defenses to kill you. He would not have a choice.” Her double said, looking at Lily.

“I survived without the System’s help for almost a hundred years. I think I would have been just fine by myself.” Lily replied, feeling slightly angry.

“You’re probably right.” Her double said, turning away and looking back out at the river “But humans aren’t meant to be alone for long periods of time. Your people can survive alone just fine, but that’s all you’ll be doing, surviving. Surviving is not living, Lily. You are all social animals. I know you’re hurting, my love, but you need human contact. It’s in your nature. Please don’t let the bad of your species turn you off to the good. There is good as well as bad in your people, Lily.”

“I don’t know.” Lily said, feeling tears starting to fall down her face. “I’m just so tired. I was so happy to be out, but it all went wrong. All of it. Please, I have to know. Did they all lie to me?”

“Woburn didn’t.” Her double said with a sad smile. “I don’t know about the others, but Woburn was the first to bring charges against the city spirit, Lowell, for endangering a Sage. Lowell has been found at fault, and has been censored. It might not seem like that bad of a punishment, but he is one of only two city spirits since the invasion to be censored. He will feel it.”

Lily laughed a bit and whipped the tears from her face. “Why did they do it?” Lily asked her. “It was the force fields, right? I would have done it for free.”

“The investigation found that it was. Lowell is poor, and I know you want to hate the Governor and everyone at the top, but they were apparently desperate. Yes, they should have asked you to do it, but they didn’t and made some seriously bad decisions. The Governor has otherwise done some good for the city. The System wouldn’t have allowed him to stay in office otherwise. It’s also why he didn’t get the maximum penalty, which is banishment.”

“What about Corrina?” Lily asked, looking at her double.

“Lost her commission and fined.” She replied. “They allowed her to stay in Lowell’s military.”

Lily nodded and looked away. She wasn’t sure if she was happy that the other woman was still in the military or not. From their conversations she knew that Corrina loved being in the military. Lily was not sure if she was a good officer or not, but she felt a little bad that the other woman lost her officer position. Honestly, Lily still liked the other woman even after everything that had been done to her.

“Love. I still have some bad news.” Her double told her. Lily turned to her double and waited, not sure if she could take any more bad news.

“You temporarily lost your title of Sage. You still have it, but it won’t show if anyone uses Identify on you. It won’t matter how strong their Identify ability is. The System will simply not show it. Your spells, the ones you already created and the ones you will, won't have the title in front of your name. It’s been removed until you get your rep back with the System. Honestly, it shouldn’t be too hard. If you do nothing but sit on your spells and your profession then it will take right around a year, maybe less. If you work at it, maybe a couple of months. Now, this last one is going to hurt.” Her double told her.

Warily, Lily looked at her double.

“With your title temporarily removed, you will temporarily lose access to your home here until you get your rep back.” Her double told her, waving her hand all around her while watching her with a sad expression. “I know we can’t stop you from creating a doorway, but we ask you not to. The arbitrator has ruled that you need more contact with other people. He wants you to make friends and assimilate back into human society. The one third of your wealth is to recoup a fraction of the cost of what the System had to spend to find you. He also wants you to visit the System hub more often and, my love, I agree with him. He took away all your unclaimed experience as a lesson. Right now you don’t see the value of the System but, honey, you have so much to learn. You barely know anything about magic and mana, and the System will teach you, if you let it. It's part of why your people were given it. Your spells are amazing, Lily, but you can do so much more. Let the System help you. Let it make you stronger. Please.”

Lily felt as if the world fell from under her feet at the knowledge that they were taking her home away from her. She barely heard her double talk about why. She didn’t really care. Well, she did, but still, it was her home. Her vision tunneled until all she saw was in front of her. This world was her home. It was her safe space. She wanted to go back, but not at the cost of losing her home. Thoughts of defying the System and creating a doorway back kept popping up in her head.

“Stop it.” She told herself. “You lived without it for months. You don’t need it. Plus, it won’t be forever. Just a year, then I can come back. I’ll do what they ask, but on my own terms. I won’t be used again. Not ever!”

“How about a compromise.” Lily said, looking back at her double.

“Don’t.” Her double replied. “The System’s arbitrator has made his ruling. There is no compromise. You will do what he asks or you will lose all its benefits. The System doesn’t play around, Lily. It spent a lot on getting you back, but if you defy it, it will make your life miserable. There are worse things it can do to you than just banishment.”

“Fine, for now.” Lily thought, looking at her double.

“What about the people who arrested me when I didn’t do anything?” Lily asked, feeling a bit of anger growing in her gut.

“Oh, a lot of people got in trouble for that one.” Her double said with a small smirk.

“Pretty much everyone who was in on the unethical conscription lost their in-good-standing status plus a lot of credits when the System arbitrator evaluated the situation. It was big news when the story broke. The Governor and the Mayor, plus a few other political members of Lowell, are out of a job and have been punished with fines and loss of rep with the System. And, unlike you, it’s going to take them at least a decade, if they try really hard, to get that rep back. A few members of the police have been disciplined for blindly arresting and assaulting you without reason. When a Sage tries to kill themselves, even if it's unintentional, heads will roll.”

“I didn’t try to kill myself.” Lily told her double.

“You ripped the bindings off your little reality while you were still inside. You’re lucky you didn’t cease to exist. As it is, you had maybe a couple of months until this whole thing folded in on itself. If it was anyone else, the System wouldn’t have wasted all the resources it used on searching for you. Despite that, what you are doing is considered critical to the war effort. Some of you humans are going to reach high enough levels to join the war effort soon. Your spells are surprisingly effective, no matter what level the wielder is.” Her double told her.

“It’s because I built mana control into most of them.” Lily thought to herself. A person could control how much mana they used for the spell after the initial mana cost. Want a bigger boom, then add more mana to it.

“So what happens now?” Lily asked, after digesting just how close she came to accidentally killing herself.

“I dropped an anchor in a city north of where you were. It has no conscription, and has very lax immigration policies. They give immigrants free housing. It’s small, but livable. The first three months are free, but, after that, they request you pay a small monthly fee. My suggestion is work on your spells, and, for the love of the System, read your damn messages. There is a System help book in there where you can learn pretty much everything about the System, including how to request an arbitrator who could have ruled on the validity of your conscription. You still would have had to do it, since it was for the betterment of humanity, but you could have argued your case down to a year instead of throwing a stupid temper tantum like you did. So much of this could have been avoided if you just read the damn book. Make better choices,” her double scolded her like she was a child.

“Why would I still have to get drafted? I thought what they did was illegal?” Lily asked, confused.

“Your people are at war, Lily. The System has no problems with forcing people to fight to protect the rest of your civilization. The problem it had was how unethical the reasons for the draft were. Humans need to get better. Your people called what happened almost a hundred years ago an invasion. My people would have called it a simple raid. Your people can’t stay where they are, or the next raid on your planet will end your people.” Her double told her, looking Lily right in the eye.

“I’ll give you a few minutes to gather your stuff and collect a bunch of mushrooms before I open the doors again,” Her double told her.

Lily stood up and started to head back to her cabin but stopped and looked at her double. “What’s the name of this new city?” Lily asked, getting why her double wanted to change the subject.

“Quebec.” Her double said with a slight smile. “I suggest you brush up on your French.”