Ruthless: Path of Conquest

[You have entered the territory of the Fisher King uninvited. Surrender to him or his representatives, or prepare for battle.]

The words presented themselves like a System message, but they were accompanied by a terrible sense of pressure that made Alan want to stop walking and fall to his knees.

James, who the hell are you?! Deep down? You declared yourself a king? Alan was certain that this was the right place; he’d been checking addresses on the ruined buildings they passed when he could. This complex was off the main road, but it was in exactly the right spot to correspond to James’s street address.

And the voice that he heard during the message was an automated-sounding version of James’s voice.

Even if it hadn’t been, how many people would have come through Orientation powerful enough to start dubbing themselves royalty? With System support, to boot?

“Well, I think we’re in the right place,” Jeremiah Rotter said from behind Alan, chuckling nervously.

“Assuming that our guy is the ‘Fisher King,’ there’s no question,” Alan replied without looking. In truth, he had no doubt that Rotter was correct, but the man was getting on his nerves already, despite their short acquaintanceship. If he hadn’t been in that gas station with Charlie Roebuck and Amalia Rosario, Alan would’ve tried to avoid him. But now they were stuck together, along with the others they’d encountered along the way.

On the road here, they ran into a number of people who were clearly looking for some place to go. People who looked harmless enough. When they asked Alan, Mitzi, Rotter, or any of the party members where they were going, they told the wanderers the truth. And more often than not, those lost people chose to follow them.

There seemed to be little point in rejecting them. How would Alan and Mitzi’s little party have even forced them to stop following? Physical violence?

Mitzi had quietly suggested that there was safety in numbers anyway, and Alan thought she had been proven right over the subsequent day. The roads were crowded with disreputable characters. People wearing a diverse array of armor, robes, and clothing obviously looted from stores, sometimes with price tags still on.

The law was no more.

If Alan and Mitzi had still been traveling alone, they would’ve had to retreat to the woods to avoid the possibility of being pulled into conflict. With their increasing throng of acquaintances, other people moved off the road to avoid bumping into them instead.

In that sense, I suppose James declaring himself a king makes sense, Alan thought. If he’s promising safety and order, I have no doubt he’ll find his share of willing followers. It felt a bit retrograde to bring back the concept of monarchy to these shores that had rebelled against it almost three centuries past. But then, Alan had to admit that it didn’t feel much like they were in the modern world anymore.

He continued leading the group further into the Fisher King’s territory, praying silently that it would actually be James who controlled this place. But forward progress was difficult. The unpleasant pressure in the air grew more intense with every step forward. It was as if James had chosen the defense mechanism of increased gravity for his land.

Perhaps he had. Alan couldn’t remember if manipulating that fundamental force of physics was on the long list of James’s powers.

Whatever the reason, a few yards into the Fisher King’s space, Alan was pouring buckets of sweat down his forehead and back.

I don’t think I can take any more of this, he thought. He and Mitzi exchanged worried looks. It wasn’t clear they would make it far enough into James’s territory to surrender to him even if they wanted to. If I hadn’t gotten so much stronger in Orientation than I was pre-System, I think my heart would have given out already.

“Are we stopping here?” asked one of the followers, a young woman who was there with her father and brothers. She spoke through gritted teeth, but her voice was determined.

“I don’t know if we can continue if the Fisher King doesn’t want us to,” said Rotter, who sounded as bad as Alan felt.

Then the pressure suddenly vanished like a mirage.

Alan’s posture righted itself, and he threw his head back and sucked in a sweet gulp of air. Even his lungs, he realized dimly, had felt compressed under the increased gravity of this area. The Earth’s gravity post-Orientation had already been bad enough, but with the additional pressure from the Fisher King’s defenses, Alan thought it was possible that he might have suffocated.

Thank God, he thought. Then, his head still tilted back, he saw something flying through the air. It was too far away for him to get a really good look at it, but it was clearly looking at them. Oh. That must be one of James’s pets. I suppose they’re putting out the welcome mat now.

They proceeded further onto James’s land, and the ruined buildings that Alan couldn’t see at all from the main road came into view, alongside a single very large, crudely constructed building. The new structure was clearly modeled after the old ones, with the difference that it was clearly made from compressed earth that had come from the ground all around it. Alan thought he could guess who might be responsible for this.

“That’s undeniably James’s work,” Rotter said aloud, in a confident tone.

Quit talking about James as if you know him, Alan thought irritably. Then he felt a bit of inner conflict. Wasn’t he just annoyed about James declaring himself a king? Maybe Rotter was more squarely on James’s program than Alan himself was.

“He did construct your group a building at one point in Orientation, didn’t he?” Mitzi asked indulgently.

Rotter nodded and began yammering to the whole group about how James had saved him and his Orientation group from certain death. This was not the first time he had told this story, but most of the group had not been present for the last occasion.

Alan sighed to himself and quietly led the way forward, until they were standing directly in front of the new apartment building.

Then he looked around. There was no one outside, and nothing to distinguish one door to this place from any other. It felt strange to go up to a random door and knock, but he didn’t know the best way to find the single person he was looking for otherwise. Alan stood there, trying to think of a solution. Other members of the group began looking toward the woods, which surrounded the plot of land on all sides bar the approach from the road.

Alan followed their gaze, and he saw James walking with two other figures.

Well, that solves the problem, he thought. But something strange presented itself as the figures approached. One of them was carrying an unconscious person on his back. Someone’s hurt.

Alan began striding toward them, eager to lend his medical aid as needed.

“Good to see you, Alan!” James called as they got close to each other. “Sorry for the rough welcome earlier.” The lack of urgency in his tone slowed Alan’s pace.

I was wrong. No need for a Healer right now after all, he thought. It was a little frustrating, feeling as useless as he sometimes did around James. And then he felt slightly guilty for resenting not being needed in this specific way.

“It was very impressive how the area sort of announced itself as your territory,” Alan said, for want of a more interesting topic. “Makes this Fisher King position sound very official.”

James tilted his head slightly to indicate confusion. Alan began to explain what had happened when he and those he’d brought with him entered James’s land. James listened with great interest, only pausing to give direction about the care of the incapacitated man—James indicated that the person had lost a lot of blood and should drink plenty of fluids and eat a sizable amount of the pork they had apparently acquired.

Then the others from Alan’s group walked up and swarmed James.

“So you’re the Fisher King, then?”

“Is it true you created that whole building by yourself?”

“What, is construction like your hobby?”

“Can I stay here?”

“Can I live on your land? I can make myself very useful. I can…”

“I heard that you fought a giant three-headed wolf by yourself. Is that true, or is this fellow full of it?”

“One at a time, please, everyone,” James said gently, smiling politely.

Alan began to feel a little bad. I came all this way to ask James for a personal favor. Really, to make Dean’s life easier. There’s probably some solution to the monster problem around the office besides just getting James to help. And these people came here hoping he could save them from danger. It was incredibly selfish even to think of asking James to walk away from this place for a while to try and fight Dean’s enemies. What would happen to these people he was responsible for while he was gone?

As he had these thoughts, James was doing the work of a retail politician. Making everyone around him feel important. Giving them the sense that they knew the real James.

“I am the Fisher King, yes. I did create this building by myself, although I think I’m going to want some help with the next set of buildings. I’m not much of an architect. Whether you can stay is a great question. We haven’t laid down rules yet, as such. The whole community is going to have an assembly soon, and then we’re going to discuss the standards for who can stay. Oh, and yes, I did fight a three-headed wolf to the death by myself. The whole wolf pack is going to come stay here soon—no, don’t look at me like that, they know not to attack humans unless I order them to, just don’t start anything with them.”

He was direct, charming, even a little bit funny.

These people will absolutely follow him, Alan thought. It made sense. James was the hero of Orientation, and he seemed to be an even bigger fish here if that was possible.

[Any Mages who have earth magic, please come outside if you are available. Your assistance is requested in constructing additional dwellings for new arrivals.]

Alan was slightly startled to hear James using the System-like announcement function that had threatened the new arrivals earlier as a public address system now. Then he snorted.

Of course he is. James hadn’t known the land even had such a function before Alan told him about it, he was fairly certain. So the Fisher King was testing his ability to control it. Alan thought that the function would be more useful now that James was consciously aware of it. For one thing, it sounded much more diplomatic in tone and style now. In addition, the slightly robotic sound to the voice was gone. Now it sounded like James speaking in a relaxed manner, his deep, calm voice gently caressing the ears.

Two Mages made themselves known to James, one from within the apartments and one who was already outside. And a woman emerged from another apartment, walked up behind James, and took his hand.

Oh, that’s his wife, Alan realized. He had never met her, though he almost felt as if he had. James liked to talk about her quite a bit.

“Why don’t you let me give construction directions, skapi?” she asked.

James smiled, a bigger and more unreserved smile than Alan remembered ever seeing from him before. “That sounds like a wonderful idea,” he said. He briefly introduced Mina to everyone, and she walked away with the two Mages, and Alan didn’t hear the details of the conversation, though he did catch a few odd phrases. “Rammed earth” and “formwork” were among them.

Alan guessed the next set of buildings constructed were going to be a little more thoughtfully built than James’s initial structure, which seemed all to the good.

He needs someone to make sure he thinks these things through.

James continued schmoozing with the new arrivals and people who had been there for longer for half an hour, before Alan finally decided to seize a moment alone with him instead of waiting.

“James, could I have a word in private?” he asked.

“For you, Alan, we can have as many words as you like. I’ll be back in a while, everyone. In the meantime, I hope people will try to make themselves comfortable. You may need to be ready to camp out. I know that Mina and the Mages who live here will do their utmost to construct lodgings for all of you as quickly as they can, but as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. And anything worth having is worth waiting for.”

Alan looked toward Mitzi, but she was engaged in conversation with some more residents of the Fisher Kingdom who had emerged from the makeshift apartment building.

Guess I’ll go on my own, then. He felt inexplicably nervous.

But he followed James up into his family’s apartment, still trying to decide exactly how he was going to say what he needed to say. Ask this man, who was clearly the leader of this rapidly expanding community, to abandon it for a while to go and help some other people, only one of whom he knew at all.

As they reached the top of the stairs, Alan saw a teenage girl. She looked like a miniature version of James’s wife. Oh, the little sister they adopted. He’s mentioned her too. Julia, was it?

“Did you find anything?” she asked James.

At first, Alan thought she was talking about the hunt James had just come back from when the newcomers arrived.

But James’s expression became very serious as he answered, “My creatures found two so far. They’re flying back with them. One of them is a bit hurt, which I hadn’t thought of, so I’ll make sure the next monsters I send out have healing abilities.” He turned back to Alan. “By the way, Alan, this is Yulia, my little sister-in-law. Yulia, this is Alan. He was my neighbor at work, and he was in my Orientation. He’s a Healer, like you.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said, shaking hands with him soberly. She seemed slightly uncomfortable, and she walked into another room immediately after introducing herself. But as the door closed, Alan heard the sound of children playing.

So she probably just left because she’s on babysitting duty, he thought. I didn’t realize they had other kids besides her.

“What was that about?” Alan asked.

“We found some children in the ruins of the apartment complex. We’re taking care of a few, and our neighbors are taking care of others. The new people are really a godsend, in that regard. So to speak.” He chuckled, and Alan smiled wryly. The gods were sending many things indeed. “Anyway, I’m sending my pet monsters out looking for other survivors. Yulia pointed out to me that with the way Orientation went, there were bound to be a lot of orphaned children.”

Wow. They’re really doing much more to rebuild civilization on a micro scale than Dean has even talked about doing. Even rescuing children. Well, I always knew James was the hero that we needed back in Orientation. Maybe he’s the person the world needs.

“Actually, I’m really glad you and Mitzi are here in particular,” James continued. “I know I’ll need a lot of wisdom if I’m going to run this place. I really can’t mess around if there are all these kids depending on me. I always thought of you as the wise counselor type—”

“We’re not staying,” Alan blurted out, only halfway cognizant of what he was saying.

Are you really sure you don’t want to stay? he questioned himself. The answer, of course, was “no.” He wasn’t certain at all.

“Are you sure?” James asked, his expression showing surprise and—a bit of sadness? “No pressure on the two of you, of course. I know you have your own children to be thinking about. But if they’re looking for a place to stay while we rebuild civilization, they’re welcome here too. We have to stand together.”

Alan didn’t know quite what to say to that. If he said “no,” he would just be giving James the impression that he was open to arguments. That he wanted to be persuaded. But that wasn’t it. This was a decision that Alan and Mitzi needed to make for themselves. The facts would make their own arguments.

A brief but awkward silence ensued.

“Like I said,” James resumed, “no pressure. Uh, what was it you wanted to take me aside for, anyway?”

“I feel terrible asking for this,” Alan said, his mouth suddenly dry.

“Do it anyway,” James said. “I never like to be constrained by what’s reasonable.”

“Dean back at the office has his own plans for rebuilding civilization,” Alan said. “He wants to turn the office into a fortified base, but there are problems. Monsters in some difficult to reach places, and a dungeon inside part of the building.”

“A dungeon, huh? Is that a problem? It might be a decent place to train, depending on what kind it is.” James seemed to be thinking aloud. “And most monsters are still easy enough to kill. If Dean and his crew can’t do that themselves, how would they rebuild civilization? Would they even be able to outlast one monster attack? They’re still going to be all over the place on Earth, you know?”

“I’ve been becoming gradually more aware of that,” Alan said. “I hadn’t realized before we set out. And I did have the idea that—well, I had thought that you would come back with us and stay there with your family. Maybe I could put you and Dean together and watch you rebuild the world as a team.”

“Dean is the kind of guy I could imagine surviving the apocalypse,” James mused. “I’m glad he at least made it through Orientation. Crazy that the firm office building survived, too, honestly.”

“At any rate, the idea that you would stay there seems very silly now. And I realize you have no reason to help Dean with his civilization-building project, when you’ve taken on complex problems of your own already. You’re building a community here, and it’s bigger by far than what Dean had when I last saw him. I don’t know what would become of this place if you left, and there are all these children—”

“I think this place will survive without me for a day,” James said firmly. “I was gone for almost all of today hunting, and people took care of themselves. There might not be any direct benefit to me, or my people here, but since you’re asking, I want to help anyway, if I can.” He looked into Alan’s eyes warmly. “As far as I’m concerned, you’ll always be part of my team. Your problems are my problems. Your enemies are my enemies.”