“NOW HEAR THIS!” the voice declared. Danielle tried to cover her ears, but it didn’t change the volume of the almost-shouting at all. “A message to all Exiles of Firmitatem on layer 1, from the Firmitatem Rangers Layer 1 Outpost! Dawn was 15 minutes ago, and your doors are unlocked. We come bearing breakfast. THIS WILL BE THE LAST MEAL WE PROVIDE FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE. Please line up politely on the road between the buildings to get your food, and take it back to your balconies to eat. We will be moderating a discussion on camp rules once everyone has their food. Violence will not be permitted in camp while the Rangers are on site, so keep it polite this morning. Ending Skill.”

  Danielle sat up and tried to look at her watch, but it was too dark.

  “Did you all hear, um, that?” Someone asked – Heather, by the voice.

  “Tol’ you there’d be something,” Akari mumbled, stumbling towards the wall between the so-called kitchen and the bathroom, where the light switches for the main room were. She turned on both switches, then quickly flicked the larger main light back off. “Sorry, s’too bright.”

  Danielle looked at her watch again and groaned. “It’s barely 5:30! Did they have to wake us up just because the doors were opening?”

  “They probably did if they wanted to catch everyone still in camp,” Sadie said, punctuating the thought with a yawn. “I’ve got first shower,” she added.

  “Have it! Um, but quickly please,” Danielle replied.

  Sadie rolled to her feet and started rummaging in her footlocker, presumably finding soap or some other necessity.

  “This is why I went last night,” Akari said, sounding marginally more awake.

  “What was that, though?” Heather asked nervously, pulling on her denim over-shirt and jeans.

  “A Skill, obviously. Something to be sure he was heard by everyone, in every room, asleep or awake. I wonder how far it can go? It said to all Exiles of Firmitatem on layer 1. I don’t know much about layers, but layer 1 is just, you know, reality, right? Do you think they got older exiles with that message too?”

  “I think all the layers are reality, we just can’t normally get off layer 1 without Skills,” Akari said. “Do you think that’s how they keep Sent groups separate? Are some of them on other layers?”

  “I dunno.” Danielle yawned and put her feet over the side of the bed. “Wow am I sore. I think I’ll do some stretching while I wait for the shower.”

  From the bathroom, the sound of the shower coming on reassured her that Sadie was moving as fast as she could. Akari and Heather were both rummaging in their footlockers now.

  “Actually, you might want to unpack a little,” Heather said. “We really wedged everything in, you know? We should have done some of this last night. Can we turn the main light on now, Akari?”

  “Yeah, it’s fine now that everyone’s up and had a chance for their eyes to adjust a little,” Akari said. “It was just too much, the first minute, you know?”

  “Oh, definitely, but I think we’re all set now, and I could use some better light to organize my box here,” Heather said. She continued whatever she was doing with the things in her footlocker.

  Danielle stood up and turned on the light, then did a few basic stretches to work out the worst kinks. “How is the shower, by the way?” she asked.

  “Bleah,” Akari said, continuing her own unpacking without elaboration.

  Heather chuckled. “Yeah, it’s not really that bad, but it’s kind of low pressure and doesn’t really get hot enough and there are no towels.”

  “Four places to hang towels, though,” Akari commented. “In the wall opposite the sink. If you look at yourself in the mirror, they’re behind you. Oh, I don’t believe it!”

  “What?” Danielle asked, opening her own footlocker. The ward released smoothly, as if it wasn’t even locked, but so had the ward on the door – for them, but not for the guide. She started unpacking her school bag; the gear in the leather bag from the decision line was mostly aimed at camping outside the rooms, or dealing with bad weather, so it wasn’t urgent to unpack that.

  “I forgot to bring a second ponytail holder,” Akari grumbled. “I can survive being unfashionable, but the one I’ve got won’t last forever.”

  “Oh – don’t worry about that. We all grabbed a pack of the thick ones with the – how would you describe it, Heather, like a cloth wrapper?”

  “Oh, uh, hm. I mean, it’s not a wide cloth part like some have. I always just called them rubber bands,” Heather replied.

  “Well, anyway, we grabbed big packs to use like normal rubber bands, we can spare you a few for actual hair,” Danielle finished.

  “Oh, that’d be great. I’m kind of sorry I wasn’t at the same Necessities Store as you guys,” Akari said. “I tried to think of what would be most useful, but I feel like I really flubbed that when I didn’t think to bring an extra bag. Or, like you said, more hair bands. I mean, I have some actual rubber bands – like the office supplies kind – but hair bands will be way more sturdy for jobs they’re the right size for.”

  “That’s what Danielle said, too,” Heather said with a grin.

  “Can I just say how grateful I am to you for helping us keep everything yesterday, though?” Danielle turned to give Akari her full attention. “I mean, we didn’t actually know if we’d have a chance to stay together yet, so there’s a lot of redundancies between Heather’s stuff and Sadie’s and mine, but still. Not only did you carry one of Heather’s bags for more than half the way, but you basically held the two of us up for the last part.”

  “Me too,” Heather added. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I don’t know if I could’ve gotten even one bag the whole way if you hadn’t been bracing me, and I definitely wouldn’t have made it with all three.” She paused, then sighed and continued a bit more quietly, “I feel so pathetic…”

  “Aw, it’s ok, don’t be like that,” Akari said. “You healed Danielle’s blister last night so she can’t get an infection there. I couldn’t have done that. It’s like we were saying when we decided to make the Party – we’re going to be so glad we have you, it’ll be worth every ounce of extra stuff we carry for you ever. Besides, your Body trait will go up for sure. You’re bound to get tons of exercise out here.”

  “Well, thanks again,” Heather said, blushing faintly, and went back to her unpacking.

  Akari brushed out her hair and put it in a ponytail using the hair band she already had, then went back to unpacking her own bags. A few minutes later, she said, “Is it just me, or do these foot lockers have that bigger on the inside thing going?”

  “You think so too?” Danielle replied. “I thought I was imagining it at first, but – ”

  “I’m sure now!” Akari interrupted. “Look!”

  Danielle and Heather came over to look into Akari’s footlocker, where her staff was lying diagonally over the loose gear inside, each end propped up to about the same height and not quite reaching either corner. “Now watch,” she said. She took it out of the footlocker, closed the lid, and set the staff down on top of it in almost the same position. With the lid closed, however, the staff hung over the two corners, by a few inches on each end.

  “That’s so strange,” Heather said. “I didn’t even see when it changed sizes or – what even actually happened?”

  “I don’t know, but in normal out-here space, it looks like it shouldn’t fit, and inside it definitely fits,” Akari declared.

  “I definitely need to take the Skill for this stuff,” Danielle said. “I found it in my unlocked Skills last night. It’s not a very big expansion at level 1, but I don’t know, this doesn’t seem like a huge expansion either. But being able to get everything in the footlocker if we needed to, say, before inviting a guest in? Could be huge.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Not to mention being able to store more stuff for winter,” Akari added.

  “Yeah…” Danielle trailed off thoughtfully.

  “What’s up?” Sadie asked, coming out of the bathroom dressed and wringing her hair with a washcloth.

  “My turn in the shower!” Danielle grabbed her own soap, washcloth, and clean underclothes, and headed for the bathroom while Akari and Heather caught Sadie up on their discovery.

  Heather was right, the shower was stronger than a trickle but not as strong as what Danielle was used to. It was definitely warm, but not really what she would call hot – though maybe that was a volume problem? If they were sharing a hot water heater with a couple hundred people, maybe it was running partially heated water to all the rooms right now. How big was the hot water tank for The Rooms? Was it really just one, or one per floor, or some other grouping? Danielle wasn’t sure if she should really be worrying about this sort of thing right now, but it was hard not to think about it when she was trying to hurry in the insufficiently-hot shower.

  Maybe it was that way on purpose to get everyone to hurry and save water. It definitely worked on her.

  Danielle dressed quickly in her shorts and T-shirt, then came back out to the room to put on socks, jeans, denim overshirt, and hiking boots. She hissed as the rest of yesterday’s blisters reminded her that the boots weren’t broken in yet.

  “Maybe try an extra pair of socks,” Akari suggested.

  “I’ll just have to wash them more often,” Danielle replied.

  “Beats having blisters, though,” Akari said.

  “Hard to argue that point.” Danielle took off her boots and started pulling on yesterday’s socks over the clean pair.

  “Is everyone ready when Danielle gets her boots on?” Heather asked. “We need to get out there before they’re done giving away food. It’s making me nervous, but we already talked about checking the door and going together and stuff.”

  “We’re fine,” Sadie assured her. “There’s 1200 people in that line, remember? It’s only been half an hour, tops, there’s no way everyone is through that line already.”

  Danielle checked her watch. “It’s 6:08, so it’s been just a little over a half hour, but Sadie’s still right. Still, let’s open the door and prove it. Everyone got a weapon, just in case?”

  “What? We can’t bring weapons, the announcement said no violence, remember?” Heather protested.

  “Bring your staff, then. Just for a walking stick. After yesterday’s hike, you’ll be glad you have it anyway,” Danielle suggested.

  “I’m getting my sword on,” Akari said, buckling on the belt. “If someone tries something, the Rangers can only react after the fact. Having something to defend ourselves with works before by convincing them not to try it with us, and during if they’re not smart enough to get the message. We don’t have to start anything, but if we don’t have anything to defend with, the Rangers might not be fast enough to help us.”

  “That’s what I was originally thinking,” Danielle admitted. “But the part about a walking stick being plausibly useful for non-violent purposes is true too.”

  “I’ll stick with the stick for now, then,” Sadie said. “The bow will just get in the way of sitting and eating, and it’s not much good for defense. We can come back for it after.”

  Danielle grabbed the belt with the knife and hatchet out of her footlocker and put it on, then put the hatchet back in the footlocker without its scabbard. “I’m going to take staff and knife, in case I want to cut my food in half to save some. Besides, I think I want to start letting the tools do the mana collection thing.”

  “And you won’t be unarmed if someone knocks your staff out of your hands,” Akari added.

  “Yes, and that, but stop rubbing it in, Akari,” Danielle said with some exasperation.

  “Well – we’re in private, though,” Akari said. “And I mean, Heather may not like it, but she needs to learn it. We all gotta learn to think this way, even if we also do like you and choose stuff that makes it less obvious.”

  “Yes, all right,” Heather said testily. “I’ll bring my knife too. And stand next to you and your sword and be grateful that you’re willing to be a little scary on my behalf, ok?”

  Akari laughed. “Fine with me!”

  “I think it’s a good balance,” Danielle said. “Akari being the only one with a sword, I mean – she’s the one of us who can use it best, and it’ll be just enough warning for everyone without making us look hostile as a group.”

  “We really shouldn’t treat anyone else who wears their sword out today as hostile, though,” Sadie said. “Everyone’s scared, and nobody knows what to expect, not to mention that a lot of people are probably planning to go hunting after the camp rules thing.”

  “Good point. Also, I’m ready!” Danielle said.

  “I’m good to go, too,” Heather added.

  “One more thing,” Sadie said, then held out a hand, a look of concentration on her face. After a moment, a token appeared on her hand. “Hah! Ok. I learned something,” she said.

  “Is that a Mana token?” Heather asked.

  “Yeah,” Sadie said. “It turns out, the minimum size is 5 mana, and you have to spend one more to make the token.”

  “Soooo, you just used your entire mana production for the day on that?” Heather said, in tones of dissatisfaction.

  “You don’t have to say it like that,” Sadie complained. “I was totally full, and we’re probably going to spend half the morning on this breakfast-and-talking thing anyway, and now if one of us needs a bigger heal for any reason, we have a token to work with.”

  “Oh. I guess that is a good thing,” Heather allowed. “Where are you going to keep it?”

  “Oh, um. Do you want to carry it, actually? You’re the one who has to use it, if something did happen.”

  “Maybe put it in the little pouch the whetstone came in,” Danielle suggested.

  “Where?” Heather looked towards her footlocker in confusion.

  “On the belt. Either belt, sword or tools. The little pouch,” Akari explained. “Everyone else will have their whetstone if you actually need to sharpen anything.”

  “Oh, I didn’t even realize what that was,” Heather said, taking the token and quickly swapping it out for the whetstone from her belt. “OK, are we ready for real?”

  “You guys just need to use your hostility-sense now,” Sadie said.

  “Right.” Akari went to the door, and stared at it for a moment as the others came over. “Nothing so far. Opening the door now.”

  “The nice thing about staves is you don’t have to draw them,” Sadie said conversationally.

  Akari opened the door, revealing an empty walkway. “Still nothing to the limit of my sense,” she reported.

  “I’m saving mine for when we get to the narrow spot between the buildings,” Heather said nervously.

  “Let’s get moving,” Danielle said. “We’re probably not the only people who took some time to get ready, let’s go make sure we’re not last in line!”

  Everyone got moving with a chuckle. Danielle quietly activated her new Skill, Sense Mana Source, as they walked toward the stairs. She was half thrilled and half dismayed when she immediately saw a number of glowing somethings appear in her vision. They were almost like light sources that shone right through the walls. It was plain from the way they moved in her vision relative to how she was moving along the building that there were at least three people still in rooms on the lowest floor, all of them apparently alone. Looking up, she could see a few more. The sense reached at least into the first floor, though not all the way to the end of the building – unless it just happened to be empty? No, as they reached the stairs, one more light faded into view further down.

  “I tried my new sensing Skill,” she told the others quietly as they crossed the cracked pavement and prolific weeds towards the front building of the pair. “The good news is, it’s got a decent radius of effect and works right through walls. The bad news is, it’s less than a bowshot, and it works right through walls.”

  “What’s bad about that?” Akari asked. “Mine does too. That’s why I was confident I could open the door.”

  “Yeah, but yours only works on people who are hostile, right?” Danielle asked. “Mine can apparently spot anyone. Anyone who can take it can see whether any room is occupied at any time.”

  “Oh, OK, I can see why that could be a problem,” Sadie said.

  “Yeah, we might want to see if we can find a Skill or something to block that,” Akari added. “Hooray for goals!”

  That got another strained chuckle from the others.

  “How long does it last?” Heather asked, as they reached the alley between the two buildings on their side of the old road. “I’m about to trigger mine, by the way.”

  “I’m not sure – it’s still going,” Danielle admitted. “I can see people in this building already. Let’s stop talking about it, though.”

  “OK. My Skill isn’t seeing anything, though. Kind of worrisome?” Heather said uncertainly.

  “Not really. It’s like she said, her Skill shows everyone; ours only shows us people we need to worry about,” Akari said.

  “True.” Heather fell silent, and the four of them walked between the buildings and out into the center of the Rooms complex.

  Each of the Rooms buildings had its border of grass, then the paved walkway under attack by determined weeds. Beyond that on one side, there was then an odd rectangle of pavement, black like the road but much wider and not quite as long as the buildings. It led only to the odd small building that had covered walkways leading forward towards the road-side Rooms building and back to the building behind it. Each Rooms building that faced the road had its black rectangle, its smaller building guarding its covered walk, and its pair, flanking the wide black spot. On the far side of the “back” buildings, like the one that contained room 6024, the walkway was the last effort of fractured civilization to hold back the encroaching wilds. Between every “front” building’s walkway and the road, there was another stretch of grass, and then of course the long black pavement of the road itself, and then the pattern repeated in mirror on the far side of the road – eight buildings in all, in four pairs.

  Now, the Rangers held station in the middle of the road in the middle of the four pairs of buildings, and four lines snaked back and forth in the grass between each “front” building’s walkway and the center. Folding tables had been set up in a square, and from inside that square were wafting the sizzle and the scent of frying sausage. Hundreds of people had been served already, it seemed, and were sitting on the balconies or leaning on the guard rails. Many were eating, or drinking from oddly irregular brown cups, but many others were clearly just waiting. The noise of hundreds of conversations roared in the background like a waterfall in a video, or an industrial zone at the end of the next block.

  Heather and Danielle both swept their glances over the crowd. Akari and Sadie scanned the area more slowly.

  Danielle was nearly overwhelmed by the glare coming off the very center of the Rangers’ square.

  https://discord.gg/u5dtzpShv2