Hot off the presses and there won't be a #4 this weekend. With this, I've made up my missed chapter.

Hope you enjoy, as I've been setting this up for...I don't know. Seventy chapters.

Chapter 75: Revelations (III)

The safe house wasn’t anywhere close to Liberty. Getting there meant following the main road for miles before turning onto a hidden switchback buried beyond a forest, itself concealed behind a rising hill that felt more like a small mountain. This close to the city, there shouldn’t be any monsters in the wilds, but they still kept a lookout while they moved.

Cass and Alan argued for most of the journey, and their current topic was a close one for the QuestWright.

“She’s a merchant! You can trust ‘em about as far as you can throw ‘em.”

“When I was running Liora, her father, a Merchant and a Marrowind, I’ll have you know, protected me while I was defenseless,” Cass retorted. “Whether you hate the Calling or not, Orla is a good person and comes from a good family.”

Alan refused to budge. “That was Liora, son. This is Liberty. She’s been swallowed up by the greed machine. This city changes people.”

When Cass opened his mouth for a response, the old man held up a hand to stop him. “I like the girl, don’t get me wrong. She’s got some real balls, and she makes me laugh. But trusting a Merchant is just asking for you to lose something every time they come to the table. You really think she’s going to honor that little promise you extracted from her?”

Cass nodded. “She’s my friend. I know she will. She’s just become more…Orla-ish since being here.”

Alan snorted, the sound reminding Cass of someone ripping paper. “Oh, well, if you know, then surely that must be true. I guess all of your Quests are designed with feelings, too?”

“Actually, they are,” Cass said with a bright smile. “A lot of my Calling is decided by feelings and trusting your instincts.”

Alan looked at Adya on her horse behind him. “You believe this kid.”

“Enough to sign a contract with him, twice. I also believe in him.” A wink came Cass’s way as Alan turned around, but he pretended not to see it when the old Scout scowled at him.

“You’ll see soon enough, Vale. Every Merchant is dirty.” Alan kicked forward, putting a little distance between them, clearly unhappy that Adya had sided with Cass.

Everyone hates a particular Calling. How strange this world is.

The rest of the trip was done in silence, with one exception. As Alan informed them that the cabin was near, a screech came from above. Cass looked up to see a large, scaled monster with wings diving at them.

“Look out,” Alan yelled with genuine panic as the monster seemed to have its sights set on Cass. He needn’t have worried.

Bella exploded in size and snatched the diving monster out of the air with her teeth while Cass fought to maintain his seat. Shaking it like a dog with a bone, she beat it into the ground until its body moved bonelessly, then threw it aside with a snort.

Disgusting! Knave.

Alan jumped down and looked closer. “I think that’s a Caliope. What the hell is it doing way down here?”

The monster was just a little larger than a half-grown child. Its body was brown, better fitting in with caves than the sky, and it had a long hooked bill that was covered in cracks from Bella’s thrashing.

“Sightseeing?” Cass supplied as Profile updated.

“Not anymore.” Alan rolled it over with some effort. “They’re normally much further north, where ole Minnesota used to be. I can’t explain its presence here, but that’s definitely a Caliope.”

“How do monsters get their names?” Adya asked.

“The System gives that honor to the first person who meets a new species. Greybeards were named by an old buddy of mine, Charles, when we were a part of the first group to close a Dungeon. He’s off in his home country now. I should write him.”

When Alan mounted his horse and the group started again, Cass felt a short moment of cognitive dissonance. He fell back to speak about it with Adya.

“You ever find it strange how quickly our lives are put in danger, and how we adapt and get over it even quicker?”

“They talked to us about that in our Foundational classes, don’t you remember?” When Cass looked at her blankly, she rolled her eyes. “The more life-or-death situations you run into, the more your mind starts treating danger like it’s normal. That’s not healthy, and why it’s a good idea to take breaks every so often.” She came closer and bumped his leg with hers. “I keep trying to tell you. Don’t work yourself to death.”

Thou shouldst be more like mineself.

“How so?”

Realize that life is but a dream within a dream.

“Where did you get that quote from?”

A drunkard spake it outside a tavern. I thought it pretty.

“Huh. It is pretty.”

The cabin could barely be called that. If anything, it was a medium-sized shack, making Cass wonder just how they’d gotten the giant of a man within it. Alan had them tie up their horses to a thick tree while Bella stood on watch. He then walked them around the back as both Cass and Adya began to wonder if the old man had a screw loose.

But Alan being Alan, he led them directly to an unremarkable patch of dirt and leaves, then lifted it up and began to walk down a flight of stairs. Cass gave Adya a look, then followed.

The inside was much larger than he’d expected. It was close to the same size as his Journeyman room back at the Guildtower, though without the high-end furniture. The room was dark, with only a few candles lit in the corners and some cheap furniture, but Cass could still see the person they’d come to speak with. 

He was hard to miss.

William Atherby was just as large as when they’d discovered him near the corrupted tree. If anything, he seemed even larger, now that he was sitting up and comfortably resting on a large couch.

Cass watched the big man’s eyes as they entered, but William never took them off Alan as the old man moved to a chair across from the Private. Nobody spoke as Cass took a seat next to Alan while Adya positioned herself beside the door. 

Cass looked around, not understanding why William stayed in place when there was no guard. Then, a shadow thrown by a candle detached itself from the wall. It was a woman dressed from the neck down in tight black clothing that seemed to almost swallow the light around her. Cass knew, without understanding how, that she’d only appeared to them because she wanted to.

But he did get a kick out of Adya feeling just as shocked as he was.

“You got it, Scout?” the woman’s soft voice said.

“I’ve got it, Shadow,” Alan replied in the same tone.

“I’ll be outside catching some sunlight.”

Crossing the room, Cass watched her go. The moment she scaled the stairs, her steps completely silent even to his enhanced hearing, he looked at the old man.

“Who was that?”

“Don’t worry about it. So.” Alan leaned his elbows on his knees. “William, I want to cut to the chase here. What can you tell us about the Underdark?”

Cass really looked at William for the first time. In the Dungeon, he couldn’t put an age to the man. All he’d really known was that he was large, and he was in trouble. But now that he studied the high-tier Private, he realized.

He’s only a little older than me.

William cleared his throat and leaned forward to match Alan. When he finally spoke, his voice matched the age Cass had guessed.

“How much do you already know?”

“There’s a bunch of Dungeons down there, and the Guildtower is using them to train up their Privates. That’s about as far as we’ve gotten.”

He didn’t mention the corruption, Cass thought.

“That’s what they tell the Privates, but there are worse things than Dungeons and Monsters beneath the tower.” He shuddered and paused as he looked at Cass. “I know who you are, Alan, but who’s the kid?”

“A friend,” Alan said with a short-lived smile.

“Yeah.” He scrubbed his eyes. “Look, it’s easier if I just tell you from the beginning.”

William told them about the start of his life. Still just a toddler before the Reshaping, his family had escaped from monsters as the world went to hell, constantly in search of salvation. They’d settled down in Liberty because it was the closest safety net they could find. 

He grew up in the Fifth, the same as most people, and in a terrible form of poverty where each meal was hard to gather. His father had died while he was still young, and his mother had disappeared during one of the Monster Trains. Just scraping by, he’d found a recruiter saying they were looking for new enlistees, and he’d signed up just to get some food in his belly. 

He’d been sixteen.

“They took me to the Guildtower, then put me in something called an elevator. A few minutes later, I’m standing in line, and one by one people are stepping forward, putting their hands on this weird book, and walking away with smiles on their faces. So I did the same.”

“You didn’t go through the Uncalled Way?” Cass asked.

“No. I didn’t even know what that was at the time. Heard of it a few months later. Everyone gets to the Guildtower, bingo bango, you have a Private Calling. It’s done.”

“Go on,” Alan encouraged.

“They give you some training depending on what you first picked after getting your Calling. Sword, shield, pike, stuff like that. I tried all of them before going with spear. Can’t go wrong with a spear.”

“What did you pick second?” Cass asked, curious about how the Private’s progression worked.

“Second? Nothing. After you pick your weapon, it all kind of lines up for you as you train with your weapon.”

But…that is not how Callings work. Something is wrong here.

While Cass was thinking that, Adya threw a comment to the room, “He’s right about the spear.”

William gave her a happy nod, then continued, “I built up my proficiency with it, got the sign-off from an older Private, then started patrolling the city. Eventually, I was trusted enough to start really building up levels. For that, they send you back to the…what did you call it again?”

“The Underdark,” Cass supplied.

“Right. We call it the Beneath, but same thing. You build up your skills, get proficient, then they put you with a group of guys, real brothers-in-arms stuff, and you kill monsters each month. And the levels, you guys. I mean, I grew up hearing a little bit about how Callings worked, especially from my mom, but I couldn’t stop getting them.”

That’s right, he’s level 100. That’s way too fast from everything I’ve seen. There’s something seriously wrong with his Calling.

Meanwhile, William smiled to himself. “Me and my brothers- John, Phil, Mason, Wyatt, and I. We couldn’t believe it, and that made us inseparable. A real team, err, squad. They were good guys.”

His smile faded away as Cass focused on the word were.

“And then, a few days ago, not long after we were celebrating reaching one-hundred with a big feast, we got a call to inspect a part of the Dungeon I hadn’t been to before. They told us we were the only ones strong enough to take care of it, and why wouldn’t we? The Guildtower had taken care of us for years at that point. They gave us a home. So we head over, and-and…”

The story stopped, and so did William. He kept trying to swallow something in the back of his throat, but it wasn’t working. Cass reached into his bag and pulled out a small canteen he’d taken to carrying. Handing it to William, the big man drank down the whole thing before he got control of himself.

He handed it back to Cass with thanks, then stared straight ahead. “We were surrounded. It was mayhem. Monsters came at us from the left, right, and center. There were so many that I stopped counting my kills in the sixties. Wyatt went down first, then Mason, but me, John, and Phil were always the strongest. So we kept going for the Guildtower, you know. For each other.”

He paused, but Alan said, “And then what happened?”

“John held the ground. He was a good man. No, a great one. Always quick with a joke, looking after us when we were down. We were all the same age, but I looked up to him like he was my big brother. He told us to run and warn the Guildtower. So that’s what we did. Phil took a hit to the leg, so I picked him up, and I ran. It tore me up to do it, but…I ran.”

He was openly crying now, but he still had enough control to continue. “I got back to the entrance, and I saw one of the Generals. He’d been one of the men at the book when Under-Guildmaster Martin had us step up. I put Phil down, tried to explain what had happened. About the numbers and my squad. Then…he killed him. He killed my brother right in front of me.”

It sounds like they sent them into an ambush, then when they tried to escape, killed the survivors.

The room was quiet except for the sobs coming from William. Cass desperately wanted to know what happened next, but William needed a moment more than Cass needed an answer. He stayed silent. So did Alan and Adya.

After a time, the big man dropped his hands and looked at Alan with puffy eyes. “I heard him say he’d gained a level. He looked disappointed by it. The blood of my brother was on the tip of his sword, and he was disappointed in the life he took.”

We don’t get experience for killing other humans! Cass screamed in his mind as William choked back a sob. I’m starting to think his Calling is-

Cass’s thoughts were interrupted when William started speaking again. 

“So I ran, for a second time. Through the Dungeon, away from the monsters and anything else that tried to slow me down. I hid in there for two days, moving from place to place. Couldn’t sleep, not in there. Then, when I found this tree, I thought I was safe. I figured it meant I was close to the surface, maybe. But it attacked me, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t hurt it. I took a nasty hit, and woke up here, with you and that scary woman.”

Alan stepped over and put a hand on his shoulder. When he spoke, it was in a gentle voice, “What you went through is terrible, William. Nobody should have to experience the wonders of life that way. But it’s not your fault. Your brothers dying is not your fault. You need to understand that.”

William stared at him, glassy-eyed. “Yeah? Well…I thought about going back, you know. Seeing if I can find the man who took Phil’s life. Pay him back. But it’s so dark, and there are so many monsters. Thousands and thousands of them. More.”

“Can you stay here for a moment while I speak to my friends?” Alan asked kindly.

“Sure. Yeah, I can do that.”

“Thanks.”

Alan tilted his head at Cass and Adya. They met right next to the stairs as Alan spoke quietly, “What do you think?”

“Observation says everything he just spoke of is true,” Adya replied.

“Can you always trust your abilities?” Alan asked.

“No, but that doesn’t mean you should discount them.”

“Good.” He nodded, then looked at Cass.

“You said that Privates go missing when they reach a certain level. Is that what they’re doing? Feeding the high-tiers to the Dungeon?”

“It’s one possibility,” Alan replied, scratching his chin. “But I feel like there’s more to the story that we’re not seeing. It’s hard to know everything from only one account.”

“Tell me if this sounds right,” Adya said. “You have a city where poverty is enforced through the control of Callings and restrictive walls. Then, when the poor seek food, you tell them they can go and get food, but they need to join the army. After they join the army, you level them up, then feed them to the Dungeon because…”

When Adya trailed off, waiting for their input, Alan and Cass looked at each other. Neither of them could think of the Guildtower’s end goal.

This wasn’t going to be solved in a day. They shared theories for a few more minutes, but nothing fruitful came from it. It would always be guesswork and hypothesizing until they went into the dungeon to discover the truth for themselves.

Alan and Cass sat down in front of the Private again as the older man asked, “How many people do you think it would take to eliminate the Dungeon near the Guildtower, William?”

The big man sighed, “I don’t know. An army, probably. A big one. I’d never realized it until we were betrayed, but we never pushed that deep. The monsters came at us, and we responded with steel. Those were our orders.”

“I can make an army,” Alan said, his eyes staring at the ceiling. “But I’m gonna have to call in a lot of favors.”

Against all odds, William chuckled. “I bet they already have new Privates getting their Callings in the Beneath right now, even as we’re talking. I can already see them, stepping forward with dreams and hopes, their hands on that red book, not knowing-.”

“Hold on,” Cass said sharply. “The book is red? You’re saying that The Book of Callings you placed your hand on is Red?”

William shrugged. “Yep. Red as blood. I thought it was a little creepy, but I was hungry, you know?”

That’s not right. The Book of Callings is simple. It’s a big book; you can’t discount that, but they’re never red. The only things that touch systems and are red is…

“The Book of Callings is…it’s…” He didn’t want to say it out loud, as if that proved he was right. But the potential truth that arrived in Cass’s mind was one that felt all too right for Liberty. He looked at Alan. “Is there a possibility that it’s corrupted?”

The old Scout helplessly shrugged.

Fuck.