Nebula's Premise

We eventually encountered a town, which posed a bit of a conundrum.

This was the first bit of civilization on the route from the mountain. Other roads had joined the one we were on, which meant that this could be a totally normal town.

Or it could be a 'company town', completely owned by the Umbral Covenant. Which would be a bad thing to walk into.

There was a potential third option where it was a 'cover': essentially similar to being a company town, but allowed outsiders in to maintain a semblance of normality.

"Being a part of the Umbral Covenant could be the 'norm'," Celistar pointed out as we discussed our options.

"Fair," said István, who'd been doing a lot of the brainstorming of our options. "But that does not mean everyone in the area is going to be a member. If they are, is that fundamentally any different from the second options?" The second option in this case being the company town.

"Well, no," said Celistar. "It wouldn't be."

"So neither would our approach," István pointed out. Him and Celistar were having a light bit of interlocution about the nature of the trap we were walking into. Since I just assumed it was going to be a problem either way we spun it.

"My approach does not change regardless," said Viktor, grinning as he flexed a fist.

I might have been seeing things, but I swear Celistar rolled her eyes at him. She was smiling when she did it though. For someone her age she definitely had a bit of a childish streak. It was very fairy of her.

"So, we just walk in then?" I said, wanting to do something other than sit in the woods and talk. I feared I was turning into Viktor, a thought not helped by the fact that he gave me a big thumbs up when I said it.

So walk in we did.

The town had no real gates or anything of the sort, so we didn't really need to worry about them being guarded.

The woods had thinned this far from the foothills, and had also stopped trying to kill us once we left the cave. We'd been in them long enough that seeing them not move of their own accord was the freaky thing until my brain readjusted. Amazing what you can get used to.

The area around the town seemed like it was on some sort of rocky outcropping that was naturally more devoid of vegetation due to the thick soil. It also had the advantage of not really needing a foundation for the buildings, and the obvious disadvantage to making it more troublesome to make basements.

Or well, I guess one could always an artisan with a stone Alignment to help that but those always seemed to be in demand so there is no way even a larger organization like the Covenant would be willing to send such a valuable resource out here just to play the part of modern construction equipment.

No, they seemed to have just plopped everything directly down on the rock itself.

We waltzed through the entrance to town, and I quickly noticed that not a single building appeared to be the same shape, or color. Instead, a riotous explosion of hues greeted the eye.

The whole thing gave me the vibe of a children's book that had come to life. Yet somehow it was a bit too cozy to feel unsettling. I gazed around, my vision reduced to the point that it wouldn't obviously make my eyes shine. I didn't immediately spot anyone who looked even to be from the Covenant, which was interesting as this was clearly a stop outbound from their outpost.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Seemed a little outrageous that there wasn't anyone from their organization here, even as a foothold.

On the outside chance (okay, I'll stop) that I just missed them in the initial pass, I kept looking closely at everyone before they were able to draw close.

The only thing I was able to gauge as we wandered well into town was that there didn't seem to even be anyone even cultivating here. Which just felt weird after days and weeks (and weekdays!) next to a bunch of people who were anything but mundane.

Realizing my thoughts seemed to be a bit on the fritz, I looked over at the rest, but they were normal. Or rather, more normal than I was being. Then my stomach protested loudly, and I considered that the fuzz in my head was probably just hunger.

Luckily for me, the building we were heading towards seemed to be some sort of eatery. Y'know, for food. The kind you put in your face.

I covered my own with a hand, covering a fairly irrational grin that was spreading across it and trying not to giggle.

"Okay, I'm feeling really out of sorts," I admitted, which made the others look at me, minus Viktor, who was having a stare down with a cow, likely trying to will it into becoming steaks. I failed at suppressing the giggle. "I'm also hungry."

"You know," said István, "I do feel that something is amusing, but can't quite put my finger on it." He held out a finger as if testing the air.

Celistar held hers out and booped his. Then looked at her finger like it'd betrayed or bit her before giving it her trademark bell-like giggle.

"Out of town. Now," she fairly ordered, turning away. Fairy ordered? Hehehe.

That said, even I could tell something was off, so we convinced Viktor that he'd won and just kept on walking, eventually passing out the far side of the area without any incident greater than a bad joke that Viktor decided to grace us with regarding his new bovine friend.

"What do you call a cow with no legs?" he asked me.

I was already laughing under my breath, but I followed up anyway. "What?"

"Ground beef!"

He had to carry me the rest of the way out of town. I couldn't breathe and was crying tears I was laughing so hard.

I took a deep breath nearly five minutes later.

"That was weird," I said, looking at the others. István was the only one to really maintain his composure, as Celistar and Viktor were laughing nearly as hard as I was.

"Exceedingly." Agreed István.

"Yeah, not sure what that was about," Celistar said, still looking at the finger that she'd touched István with as though she was trying to figure out what to do with it. "Definitely wasn't something I wished to experience again."

"Think it had something to do with the Umbral Covenant?" I asked.

"Possible?" Celistar conceded, "But not probable. There was no Will in it. And everyone else was fine."

"They were also all mundane," I said, using Celistar's word, one I considered to be rather silly, all things considered. Which they were. Considered, that is.

Hmm, guess the town hadn't completely worn off yet.

"Ah, you've made a point," István said.

My eyes went wide. A raging torrent of Nebula formed on my hand as I whirled in place, using every ounce of strength I had to hit the man standing beside me dead in the center of his chest.

Viktor's hand, alight in red fire, landed just next to mine.

The victim of our aggression folded like a book, propelled into and through several trees before coming to a rest.

Torrents of Nebula raged from me, spiraling up into the air above as I stomped towards the broken body lying on the ground. A tempest of power twisted branches from the trees and rocks from the ground as I passed.

I approached the landing site. There was less blood than I expected. More torso, too. The man had been no pushover. A vague thought had me curious about what would have happened in a fairer fight, almost instantly displaced by a desire to remove enough limbs never to see one.

"Who the fuck are you, and what did you do with István?" I hissed, the edges of my Nebula fragmented as I said it, forming jagged bolts that danced across my hands as I grabbed him and lifted him into the air. He screamed as the power electrocuted him, fraying the ends of all of his nerves apart with surgical precision.

"How did you know?" he said through tears and snot, the fake face of my friend melting away as I watched, replaced by an almost formless mass where his features should have been.

I pulled his 'face' until it was a hair's breath away from mine, flaring my vision to its most powerful as though I could somehow look for the knowledge I required inside his brain. He shivered in spite of the pain, my eyes glowing brightly a mere breath's away from him. He attempted to look away, and I used yet more Nebula to physically force his eyes back to me.

"István," I growled, "Never uses contractions."