Ruthless: Path of Conquest

Rotter and Luntz each took a knob in hand, and they pulled the heavy doors of the Community Center open.

Apparently quite a few people had been waiting for the meeting to be opened to the public. Members of the community began to stream in, moving in a slow, orderly fashion and filing carefully into the gallery seats.

Mina was impressed by how patiently they had waited. There were a surprising number of them, though Mina realized there were a few faces she hadn’t seen around yet.

Damien strode to the front of the group.

“Thank you for opening the meeting to the public,” he said, projecting his voice to be heard over the din of moving people and scraping chairs. “If it’s all right, we would like to let some new arrivals greet the King and his Council members first. There are several dozen new people who arrived this morning. Some of them are very excited to be here. While we were outside, everyone agreed that would be the fairest—er, the best—thing to do.”

There were nods and murmurs of assent from the gallery.

Mina raised an eyebrow. Really, after they waited all this time, they want to let some new people speak first? And everyone was just okay with this?

Then Damien took a seat in the front row, and a woman who had seated herself near the back of the room stood. She wore Mages’ robes.

Mina suddenly understood exactly why the consensus outside had formed, to let the King and his Council welcome the new arrivals before handling other business. Her stomach did a little flip as she saw the familiar face.

She’s probably the only woman alive in the world who can make me nervous with just her presence, Mina thought.

The older Black woman stepped forward to the front of the center aisle and dipped her head in a slight bow.

“It’s good to see you’re alive and well, Fisher King,” she said in a playful tone, a mischievous smile on her lips.

James rose from his seat. “It’s good to see you, too, Mom,” he said, matching her tone.

He walked around the table to the edge of the stage, then jumped down, took another few steps, and pulled her into a bear hug. The tiny woman looked almost like a child being embraced by an adult in her massive son’s arms.

“Not too tight,” she rasped breathlessly, almost laughing despite being short of air. “You’ll crush me! What, are you part bear now?”

James relaxed his grip but didn’t let her go. “I thought—well, I’m just really glad to see you’re okay. Do you know if Alice is alright?”

Zora Robard turned her head and tilted it at a woman who sat in the back corner.

And Alice Robard raised a hand and waved, wiggling one finger at a time at James.

James let out a deep breath, then let his mother go and stepped back. He raised his voice so the whole room could hear him.

“I would appreciate it if everyone could give me and my family five minutes,” he said.

Mina could feel, and she was certain the whole room could hear, the emotion in his voice.

“Woo!”

A quiet cheer went up in the crowd, along with some applause. Both people in the gallery and those outside began to take it up.

“Woo! Congratulations!”

Mina heard the emotional voices of people who had been separated from their loved ones by the System’s advent—many of whom were still not reunited with their families. They seemed to take a vicarious pleasure at James being reunited with his mother and sister.

Mina smiled, too. She was happy for James, though she was slightly uncomfortable on her own behalf.

There were so many complex emotions at play in Mina’s relationship with Zora. On the one hand, Zora was intelligent and sophisticated, significantly more intellectually curious than Mina’s own mother. Mina and Zora should have a lot in common.

On the other hand, Zora was a very particular person.

For years, I felt like I could never be good enough for her… Memories played out behind Mina’s unreadable eyes and the mask of her frozen smile.

Then people filed out, still smiling and cheering. The Council members followed after them, leaving the room vacant but for Mina, James, Zora, and Alice.

Mina had risen from where she sat and walked around to the edge of the stage, but she stood uncertain for a moment. Will James want me to stay for this? Should I go down there? Should I go outside and let them have some privacy?

Then Alice Robard was standing in front of her in her Mages’ robes, reaching up to Mina with both hands.

Mina took James’s little sister’s hands in her own, and then Mina leaned on Alice and climbed down from the stage. The two women embraced.

“It’s good to see you guys came out okay,” Alice said.

Mina nodded, not yet quite trusting herself to speak.

“You’re, um—” Alice gestured at Mina’s diminished stomach.

“You gave birth.” Zora’s voice cut through the awkward, uncertain conversation. She stepped toward Mina, pulled her in close, and kissed her on both cheeks. “Thank you for keeping my son safe,” she said. She sounded genuinely grateful. “And I look forward to seeing my grandson.” Zora looked into Mina’s eyes, and Mina was startled to realize that her mother-in-law was looking for some reassurance.

“Of course,” Mina said. “My sister is watching him now. Also some other children we rescued.”

“Oh, of course,” Zora repeated, sighing with relief. “I’m so glad you all made it out okay. How is little Yulia doing?”

“Not as little as last time you saw her,” James said, stepping between his mother and sister. “How’s my little sister doing?” he asked.

“Oh, just thrilled to come and find my brother in his Kingdom,” Alice said, speaking with a slight ironic edge. “I survived. Figured I’d look after Mom, but you know Mom.”

“Yep,” James said. “I hope you didn’t let her kill too many of the poor monsters.”

They all laughed at that.

“Yes, I can look after myself, young man,” Zora agreed. “Where do you think you got it from?”

“Definitely you,” he said, shaking his head with a faux exasperated expression on his face. “Again, my sympathies to the poor monsters that had you for Orientation.”

“How is, um, Ben?” Mina asked.

“He survived,” Zora said, her tone flat.

“He’s here with us,” Alice said, giving her mother a sideways look and gesturing toward the door. Ben was apparently waiting outside. Giving the family time to reunite.

I guess that’s the difference between being a boyfriend versus being a wife. I get to be in the room right now.

“Yes, I’m glad he’s all right,” Zora said. She lowered her voice. “But maybe you can do better? You are a princess now, right? With your brother a king?”

This feels familiar, Mina thought. Zora had pulled back some on the idea of Mina not being good enough for her son after they became engaged, then even more so when they married. The insinuations vanished almost completely when Mina got pregnant, and then the final end to them occurred when Alice embarked upon her current relationship. Then it was Ben who wasn’t quite good enough—and look at how well James married!

“Mom, we’re not discussing this right now,” Alice said irritably.

“Right, right,” Zora said, putting her hands up in surrender. “It’s your life.”

“How did you guys get back here?” James asked, in a very blatant attempt to change the subject. “You were upstate when this thing started, right? And how did you find us?”

“It’s a long story, son,” Zora said. “You asked them to leave for five minutes, right?” She gestured to the door.

“Though you are living in exactly the same place you were before the System appeared,” Alice said in an amused tone.

“Later, you guys are going to have to tell me everything about your Orientation—or Orientations, as the case may be—and any other news you have about the world outside my borders,” James said. “For right now, it’s just more than I could have hoped for to see you two again. Alive. In one piece.”

“The whole family reunited,” Alice agreed.

“Except those who can’t be with us,” James said. His eyes took on a faraway look that told Mina he was remembering his dead father again. He seemed to be in a very morbid frame of mind today.

I wonder where my other sisters are right now, Mina thought. They might be alive or dead, and she would never know. They wouldn’t look for her and Yulia. She knew that. They had their own families to worry about. I guess this tells you something. Once the phones and the Internet are gone, you only have the strongest ties to connect you. James and I are married, and we have a child together. Yulia is our responsibility. Alice and Zora are his only surviving family. Maybe this says something about which bonds can survive a cataclysm.

“You know, I knew that you would achieve great things,” Zora said. “Didn’t I tell you?”

James nodded. “From a young age, I remember. You were asking me when you were going to get your invitation to my inauguration. Filling my head with the crazy notion that I was going to be President, when in fact what you should have led me to expect was that I would replace our representative system of government with a monarchy.”

“Naturally,” Zora said, chuckling.

“I think our five minutes are up,” Alice said quietly. “Why don’t we take a seat in the front row here?” She gestured to the chairs behind her. “We’ll wait for the meeting to be over.”

“Nonsense!” James exclaimed. “You’re both going to come and sit at my left side. I’ll go and grab another couple of chairs.”

Zora was nodding, but Alice shook her head.

“I’ll sit with Ben in the front row,” she said. She looked up at James. “I look forward to seeing how you run things here.” There was a slight air of challenge in her tone, as if she couldn’t quite believe that her brother had declared, and was really operating, a monarchy.

“And so you shall, Princess,” he replied.

They all laughed.

James walked off to find a chair for Zora, and she pulled Mina into a sudden embrace.

“I’m so glad that you’re okay,” she said, her voice low, directly into Mina’s ear. “I know we’ll all need to pull together if this enterprise is to work. Even if we sometimes have our differences, we all want to stand behind him. And I’m going to stand behind you, too, however I can. I just want you to know you have all my support.” She spoke warmly, with such apparent sincerity that Mina finally relaxed a tension that she didn’t know her body had been holding and sagged into Zora’s arms.

“Thank you, Zora,” she said with genuine gratitude. The use of her mother-in-law’s first name still felt a little awkward to Mina. She had called Zora “Mrs. Robard” through most of her courtship with James, until Zora finally pointed out that Mina was also about to become a “Mrs. Robard,” and them both being called that would be confusing.

“We’ll take it one day at a time,” Zora said, pulling back and smiling.

If you try, I’ll try, Mina thought. That was all there was to it for now.

James was placing Zora’s chair up on the stage beside his own, positioning everyone else to that side slightly further away. Mina tried to remember which apostle sat to Jesus’s left hand side in “The Last Supper,” but her mind was spinning, and she didn’t want to try to focus on that right now.

We’ll work together, she told herself. Maybe we’ll even get along.

“I’m going to open the doors, bro,” Alice said from over by the doorway.

“Sounds good!” James replied.

Then Mina took her seat again, beside James and one away from Zora, and she prepared for whatever was to come next.

As the heavy doors opened, other faces appeared, and again there were those she recognized.

Jose and Paulo. Adelaide and Derek. Alba. Leo!

There were several other faces she knew from her Orientation, but these were the people she was happy to see. Since Mina had spent most of her Orientation sequestered in her rooms, and a couple of members of the group she spent the most time with had turned out to be monsters, there were only a few people she felt she could say she knew and somewhat trusted.

It was so good to see those familiar faces. No, it was more than good. Surreal? Magical?

In some way, it made Mina’s Orientation more real—brought everything back into immediacy. But because Cara wasn’t there, the horrors were placed at a remove. Mina was reminded that she herself was heroic, had done great deeds and saved lives—these people’s lives. Because that last challenge would have wiped out her whole Orientation if she hadn’t beaten it.

And now they were here, alive and safe.

A big, natural smile spread across her face, and Mina felt her eyes watering.

I’m glad you all survived.

There was a man next to Alba, and Mina saw a pair of teenagers beside them. Leo had a woman next to him, too. A Warrior wearing white armor. The two stood rather close together.

Does Leo have a girlfriend? Wow. He must be ten years older than her…

James was waving at them. At Leo?

Then she realized he was actually waving at the woman in armor. She must have been in James’s Orientation.

Mina looked back at the faces of those she knew. Are they really all planning to stay here with us?

She hoped so. But she was surprised these people weren’t settling in some other area. How had they all ended up here?

“Once everyone is seated, we’ll begin taking questions, comments, and concerns,” James said.

Mina happened to be looking at him as he spoke. She only noticed because she was looking at him. His eyes took on a distant look for a moment, and then an annoyed expression crossed his face, before he quickly smoothed it over for the crowd in front of them.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered in his ear.

“Another territory just connected to ours,” James said, keeping his voice low. “Another potential headache. No emergencies yet, though. We can continue with the meeting until and unless something crosses the border.”