Chapter 9: Chapter 8 – Census of the Sixty

Julia Sarcos

 

“Why do men always seem to enjoy beating the crap out of each other?” asked Julia as she watched another match begin.

Clarissa and her had been captured by impressive combat. Warner and Vincent bruising themselves several times over. It was interesting enough that they had stayed through the second match, sadly there hadn’t been a repeat of the light show.

The excitement of the crowd had still been roaring when the two fighters had begged off continuing for the sake of a break. Volunteers quickly leaped up, to the enthusiasm of the watchers. Into the impromptu ring went a series of new pairings. Before Julia knew it, she had watched several more matches. This was more from surprise and momentum than any real desire to see them. She did note some interesting moves though.

The spell broke after a couple of rounds when none of the matches showed off the same wondrous level of skill. Warner and Vincent were just in a league of their own

“I think it’s a show-off thing,” answered Clarissa after some thought. “Like the peacock show of our ape ancestors. Personally… I enjoy it... now and again.”

“Of course you would,” sighed Julia with an eye roll.

With mock offense, “What do you mean by that?! Just cause I appreciate a good peacock dance! They have beautiful feathers.”

“Pff, whatever… at least Malachi isn’t fighting,” said Julia absently. The sword acolyte was involved in the matches. Instead of taking part in the fights, he had taken it upon himself to referee. 

Tilting her head, the redhead added, “Well someone needed to make sure it didn’t go any further than bruises. Some people are not the best at losing.”

“Or when those two chuckleheads knocked each other out, and the next two just wanted to fight around them?” suggested Julia.

“Yeah people are morons,” mused Clarissa.

Smiling, Julia declared, “We’re lucky to have him to look after the morons.”

“Yes, yes admirable and all that jazz,” yawned Clarissa. “ You know… he’s all yours! I like them pretty, but he’s too... boring? Anyway, I prefer someone a little rougher around the edges. Or meek. That’s a fun all on its own.”

 “I don’t know what you're talking about,” blushed Julia. “Don’t just assign people…”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” insisted the archer with a grin. Then suddenly she changed the subject. “Alright, I’m bored… bored, bored, bored. Enough with the silly fights and sillier crushes. We have a census to finish!” Grinning, the shieldmaiden’s friend shook a spiral notebook in her face.

Groaning in anticipation of the anxiety. Forced social activity was never pleasant. Julia regretted leaving the bed she had woken up in. Not that the shieldmaiden had been left much of a choice in the matter. 

Awakening with a scream, Clarissa had been there to comfort her with assurances that the rat things were gone. Normally after a traumatic event, Julia would stay in bed until the world seemed less scary. That would have been especially nice this time around. That tunnel had been worse than anything in the past. That’s when her delightfully bright friend had turned demonic. Treacherously tricking the shieldmaiden. Lost was the warmth of a cozy bed. No safety of sheets.

Whispering sweet nothings about seeing how Malachi had fared. That was shamefully enough to get her moving. Though, of course, the betrayal wasn’t revealed  right away. Not until they found out Malachi had already woken and departed the common area. For Julia, that was enough to know and planned to immediately return to her room. There were blankets to hide under. 

Grinning like a fox, Clarissa had intercepted her with impenetrable words of duty and logic. Each binding and unbreakable. From there she was locked in. They had to complete the promise Clarissa had given in both of their names. It was time to gather a census of the sixty.

Her friend was sly and full of laughter, so it was hard to be mad at her even when being maneuvered. That the affection was returned in kind, Julia was quite sure. Only having to see it in the eyes of the redhead. Of course, actions do speak louder, and there Clarissa had also proven herself. 

Almost nonchalantly the archer had explained what had happened when the flood of monsters ended. How the impish woman had seen them all to safety and recovery. Any praise was redirected softly, but cleanly. Julia may have been annoyed to be forced to engage with strangers, but she would suffer it for her friend. Adventure was just the sort of thing you have to expect with Clarissa around. That meant she had to force her anxiety away. Becoming just a buzzing in the back of her head.

Gathering the tools of recordkeeping had been surprisingly easy. Unwilling to leave the remaining cores unwatched, the archer had kept them close instead. At the screens, a quick search brought them a surprising number of options for writing implements, from arcane pens to charcoal to even something close to crayons. Julia showed a rare moment of being assertive when she saw that they could get something reminiscent of spiral notebooks. The need for one was strong in her blood. Doodling in them since elementary school was a core memory.

In the end, they went with Julia’s choice for notebooks and with Clarissa on the arcane pens. Though arcane pens were hardly a fight. Both the shieldmaiden and the redhead were thrilled st their function. For the price of two cores, one core for each selection, they got three notebooks that were an inch thick and five pens with the appearance of petrified stylographs. The purchased loot was quickly split in the time it took for the black container to be swung open and then bounce back on the hinges to close again. 

The archer whooped in victory while holding her chosen color notebook in the air victoriously. The bright orange was blinding to Julia, who was content with her dark blue notebook. A pen was claimed by each of them. Everything else was dropped into the core bag while they checked out their new stuff. The covers of the notebooks weren’t glossy paper despite the similarity to past school supplies, but instead a stiff leather that was pleasantly smooth to the touch. 

The arcane pens were the real prize though. Somehow they reacted to thought and allowed the writer to change color on command. At least one hour was gone forever in testing out that feature. Then another was lost when it was discovered that you could modify the thickness of the line drawn. Julia had been happy to encourage Clarissa’s impish nature. Even pushing herself for them to try the pens out to their fullest. Anything to delay having to talk to people.

There was shockingly only so much that can be done when fooling around with a magic pen before it got boring. Julia wasn’t willing to start a more ambitious piece. Definitely nothing more than doodles in an open space where people could see her art in progress. It wasn’t a habit she had been willing to drop even after getting recognition in the art community, so the dark-haired woman wasn’t going to start now. Which meant, with no further delays at hand… the devilish fox declared it census time.

Her plan at first had been to just let the sociable one do all the talking, but that was a cursed path. The downside was that while Clarissa was happy to talk, the conversations were more about interests than getting answers they promised Malachi. Julia had to keep interjecting with questions to gather anything useful. Which was worse than talking to a stranger, but still better than starting the conversation in the first place. 

If I wasn’t sure she’s just that chatty, I would think this was all on purpose…. Forcing me to take charge because of my sense of duty, complained Julia in her head.

Three times she had to awkwardly dip in and out of conversations. This was all she could handle before having enough. Declaring they needed a strategy, the shieldmaiden began formatting the questions that they needed to ask. Frustration could be an astoundingly good propellant for courage. 

Julia’s hand had hovered over the notebook with pen in hand, contemplating what were the necessary questions. Clarissa amused herself while commenting and offering suggestions when it appealed to her. A few were even helpful. The shieldmaiden wrote out the list of  questions in both notebooks and even designed a way to keep everything organized. The redhead rolled her eyes at the neatness.

“I thought artists were supposed to be crap at organizing things,” whined Clarissa. “This was supposed to be just a fun excuse to talk to everyone… strangely some people are weirded out by random people deciding to start conversations without an agenda. The census was supposed to be a flimsy excuse for an agenda!”

“Also torturing me,” interjected Julia.

“Yes, also that. Well, “messing with” was what I was going with…” explained the archer. “That’s beside my very serious point! Now that flimsy agenda is all official-like! Which is just boring and gross!”

  “Riiight,” replied Julia. “Ehh, I don’t care. If we’re going to do it, we are doing it right.” Clarissa made a face to say something, but was cut off furiously with, “And no, we can’t forget it now because we promised. Well, you promised and dragged me with you. Also, not all artists are like that. Some of them can be pretty OCD too.”

“So like you,” suggested Clarissa.

“Sigh… Yes.”

With the questions locked in, the two worked together to survey everyone. It was less painful for Julia and less fun for Clarissa. It was now the redhead who searched for distractions. Which is why she ended up watching the archer give impromptu archery lessons and the two of them happened to be there for the duels.

“Let’s take a look at the crowd,” suggested Julia. “There might be someone here we haven’t talked to yet. Then we can knock on doors.”

“O’ goodie we get to act like real census workers,” replied Clarissa as she rolled her eyes.

Dramatically, Julia huffed, hands on hips. “Don’t be giving me any guff when you got us into this.”

“Yeah, but what I had in mind was way more fun,” countered the redhead. “You went and sucked all the fun out of it.”

“Sorry I made it efficient!” declared Julia. “You know, maybe so it will actually be useful.”

“You’re just repeating what I said with different words,” grinned Clarissa. “Making it into work is sucking all the fun out.”

“Whatever red,” scowled the shieldmaiden. “When we bring our organized report back, we’ll be praised. It’s ok to coast on my brilliance.”

“Yeah, yeah you’ll definitely be getting praised by Malachi. Aaalll the praise from your crush.”

“Hey! Shut it!”

As they bantered, the two of them weren’t idle. Their eyes scanned the crowd to look for anyone missing in either notebook. Here and there, a potential was pointed out to the other to check their memory. There were a few that must have been drawn by the noise of the duel. I suppose that’s one good thing that came out of the guys trying to knock each other silly, decided Julia

There were already patterns starting to appear in the information that she had gathered. Julia wasn’t willing to take it at face value yet. Not before finishing. Plus She only had a quick look at what Clarissa collected. It would be interesting to sit down once they had it all and see what could be made from the census. Knowing what everyone could bring to the table was great, she agreed with Malachi on that. What the shieldmaiden was personally looking forward to was seeing if the patterns gave them a better idea of why them. That Would at least give them more than the Commandments had.

They scooped up the stragglers in the training area and the two of them made their way into the Great Hall where they ran into the recovered Reuben in the hallway. 

“Oi, Reuben!” called out Clarissa. “Good to see you on your feet again, buddy!”

“Mmm, too loud, girly,” groaned Reuben. “The headache is still fading.”

“Better a headache, than you know worse…” awkwardly offered Julia.

“Ooo the sweet maiden gets dark!” roared Clarissa with a grin.

“You are just the worst people to meet during a hangover,” muttered Reuben. “Remind me if we ever figure out how to get drinks here, to avoid you the next day.”

Fluttering her eyes, the fox devil returned, “Aww come on now boysly! You know you have to be happy to see these two lovely ladies!” Then to the horror of Julia, and poor Reuben, Clarissa clapped loudly a single time. Then cackled mischievously. Both booms of noise echoed painfully in the tunnel of the hallways.

“Wow that was utterly cruel,” accused Julia. The archer only nodded in agreement as they continued to laugh. “Sorry about my impulsive friend… well a downgrading to associate may be in order…”

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“Hey! I’m adorable!” declared the redhead.

“O, shush,” dismissed Julia with a wave of her hand.

Reuben shook his head and appeared to have recovered from the ringing in his ear. “Somehow that jolt did less harm than good. Ya’ll are bizarre.”

“Please don’t lump me in with her on this!” pleaded Julia while Clarissa did a victory lap around them. The redhead chanted, “Woo, I’m amazing!”

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Reuben goggled the notebooks in their hands. “Hey, where did you get those?”

“The screens have everything dude!” grinned Clarissa, proudly for some reason. “Even hot fudge sundaes. Not even sure how that works! One day I will gain enough cores to devour one.”

“We used some of the leftover cores from our expedition to get them,” explained Julia. “I don’t know if you remember, but Malachi wanted us to collect some information on the other sixty. Needed something to keep it in.”

“Huh, weird place,” said Reuben thoughtfully. “Any cores left? I’d like somewhere to write down what I see when I go out scouting.”

“You’re planning to go out there alone?” Julia asked, horrified.

Her face blanched and in a serious tone, Clarissa pleaded, “That’s not a good idea. I’ve been in there alone… it’s not something I would willingly do, ever…”

“Look, I get it,” began Reuben. “I was there with you in that tunnel. What waits in there… yeah dangerous as hell, but so was going in blind. I’m not unfamiliar with scouting in dangerous places. We need more intel, and frankly, I am the man for the job. Because literally, that was my job often enough.”

“Your job?” queried Julia. “Were you a soldier? In the army or something?”

“Yeah, for a time,” agreed Reuben. “Got out, then did similar stuff in the security and bodyguard business. So it’s not like I’m rusty either. Trust me, please.”

Julia frowned in thought. Clarissa asked aggressively, “How are you going to keep from getting swarmed? That sense of smell was no joke, and I know jokes.”

“I’ve got a plan for that,” replied the scout. “Kinda gross, but it’ll get the job done I think. Look worse case, I waste a life.”

“That’s a terrible argument,” said Julia aghast. “Yeah, “death is barred” or whatever that means, but who said we wouldn’t remember being torn apart? I wouldn’t risk that!”

“Wait… gross... Sense of smell,” interjected Clarissa with growing horror. “Noo… you're gonna cover yourself in that stuff? You are mad!”

Reuben’s head flipped between the two of them before saying, “Uhh, yes to both of you... that I am willing to take that risk.”

“Well at least the barrier should clean you on the way back,” grimaced Clarissa.

Rolling her eyes and sighing with exasperation, Julia dismissed it all. “Whatever, can’t stop idiots from being morons…”

“Never can,” agreed the redhead sadly and solemnly. Then looked up at the scout, “So, not gonna argue with you, but so you know… we didn’t really clean that area out. After I got everyone out, I went back for the cores. Like fucking respawning monsters… new rats fell from the ceiling like runny snot. Just as many are out there as before.”

“Like a runny nose?” pressed Reuben.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” stonewalled Clarissa. “I don’t want to think about it anymore. Here take these, do what you want.” From her bag, the archer quickly gave the scout the leftover notebook and a pen. Her hands moved quickly as if to get rid of something foul.

The redhead departed, but Julia waited a moment knowing she would catch up. “Good luck, and be careful.  Though… before I leave, can I ask you the census questions?”

Looking with regret at the departing Clarissa, Reuben awkwardly agreed. Julia quickly put down things like his full name as Reuben Frost, age forty three, self-employed in security, and a long list of skills that the scout had acquired in his military lifestyle.

Julia rushed off after collecting the information and met the redhead leaning against the wall just left of the hallway entrance. Clarissa had a shaded look over her face until Julia came close and a smile surfaced. Not quite carefree, but pleasant. The shieldmaiden smiled back and the two of them strolled away. 

They headed towards the rooms. Going Out of their way past the stalls to give the common area a once-over. To make sure they didn’t need to interview anyone there. Despite saying they had no preference either way on which hallway to start with, the two of them played rock, paper, scissors to decide. Julia smugly won, and they went with the one on the left. Secretly, the dark-haired woman was pleased. Starting with the other would have caused a mental itch.

  It was decided that the odds went to Julia and the evens were for Clarissa. Both of them forgot this immediately. The edges of room L1’s door were glowing violet. The light shifted not as if the source was moving, but on its own and against the natural edges of the door. Almost like something reaching out and grasping. Mesmerized and curious, the two rushed over to knock on the door. By the second knock the violet light cut off and the two women heard a noise in the room. Someone was coming to the door.

Whispering, Clarissa asked, “What do you think that was? Magic?”

“I mean yeah, it was strange,” replied Julia. “Could just be some weird light option we haven’t noticed yet. This place has a surprising range of options to everything.”

The door opened and ended any further theorizing. A man of average height with skin as dark as obsidian looked at them from their room blankly.

“Uhh hi I’m Julia, we're talking to people about a sort of census of all of us, “ spurted the shieldmaiden in surprise. “All sixty, you know?”

“Hello Julia, I am Damian Franklin,” answered the man, friendly, but off-tone. Distant curiosity came in his voice as he asked. “A census? Don’t we already magically know there are sixty of us?”

“Not that kind of census, we're asking about people’s info….” Julia explained but was cut off.

A touch angry, but more bewildered Clarissa jumped in, “Seriously were talking about the census here?! Yo dude, what was that violet light we just saw?”

“O’ you could see that?” responded Damian. “That was magic. I was practicing.”

Blinking, the two of them looked at each other and then blurted out, “You can do magic?”

“Yes, I read the book,” explained Damian. “Made a lot of sense once I read through it a couple of times. Can you not do magic yet? You seem… surprised? You should read the book we got or did you not pick the Acolyte path?”

“Neither of us picked the Acolyte class, but we both got a book about internal mana manipulation,” Julia told him. “I went with the Warrior path and Clarissa here picked Archer.”

Damian automatically offered, “Hi Clarissa.”

“Hi Damian,” replied Clarissa warmly.

“If you read your book it will be clear,” suggested the obsidian man. He added with an edge of hope, “Have you read it?”

“We’re been a bit too busy,” shrugged Clarissa. “Woke up here, almost in a panic. Picked out a path and then went out the big doors. Got super dicey out there. Now we’ve been doing the census.”

Julia decided the tone of hope was for a different reason, “Hey Damian do you want to read one of ours?”

“Yes, I would,” nodded Damian with a quirk of a smile. “But… I do not want to deprive you of learning.”

“We’re friends so we can share a book,” offered Julia.

“O’ that makes sense,” decided Damian. “Friends are good for sharing. Must be nice.”

Clarissa looked heartbroken and was close to babbling, “We can be friends! We’ll share with you!”

“That is great,” said Damian with a small smile. “A new place and I am already making friends.”

“Happy to be your friend, Damian,” added Julia with her own smile. “Do you think after you read about internal mana you could help us learn it? I’ve taken a look at the book and so far can’t make heads or tails of it.”

The obsidian man grew serious as he replied, “I can help, but only if you read the book… at least twice. If you still don’t understand, I’ll help if I can.”

“Sweet!” roared Clarissa.

Damian looked at her mildly uncomfortable, but pleasantly received Julia’s quieter thanks. They left their new friend to grab the book for him. 

Clarissa was all grins as she said, “Hell yeah we’re going to be doing magic! Now I can’t wait to dig into the book even if it reads like a technical tech book.”

“Yeah, but we still need to finish the census first,” reminded Julia.

The redhead was quiet for a moment before sighing, “Damnit.”

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