Cassio Vale faded in and out of sleep as the world passed him by. From his recollection, he was still on Bella’s back. Liora was still in trouble, and monsters haunted his every step. He barely recalled the trap set in the Forge. Or the many faces of friends, acquaintances, and strangers killing them as he and his partner raced through the darkened alleys of a demolished city.

  For the sleeping legend-in-the-making, it was all still happening. Then, Cass woke up from a particularly bad bounce.

  It was an uncomfortable sensation to start the day. One moment, dark nothingness surrounds you, the next, it feels like you’re floating, and then you quickly meet the ground.

  He groaned without meaning to, the smell of horses and unwashed bodies filtering into his nose.

  “Hey sunshine.” A feminine voice said. “Noah! He’s awake!”

  Cass mumbled, “Wha-”

  “Like I fookin care about that git. I’m driving here, woman. We gotta get there before sundown.”

  “He’s our Quest,” A familiar deep voice rumbled. “It stated, with no obstruction, to make certain we bring him alive and unharmed to the city.”

  “That’s no’ wha’ obstruction means, you fook.”

  “Do you want to pull this wagon over?”

  “I’ll take ya for a turn.”

  Cass’s fuzzy head still hadn’t fully cleared as he asked, “What’s happening?”

  “You fell off your large horse, young Vale. I caught you, but it was a close thing.” The deep voice replied.

  “Bella?”

  “Pretty name for a steadfast horse. You were lucky to have her.”

  Cass grabbed the sides of his skull as dread struck his heart, “She’s dead?”

  The feminine voice spoke up with alacrity, “No! She’s recovering fine, as far as we know. She’s just not with us right now.”

  Cass put out a feeler and found her immediately through the Bond. She was quite a distance away, but she was also surely moving in his direction. He cracked open his one good eye and caught a look at the people around him.

  A man in dark, thick armor that must’ve weighed a ton sat across from him. He had a face that would make a statue weep by comparison, but his eyes gave away a kind of deep sorrow that was hard to miss.

  Seated next to him was a willowy woman in a soft brown robe with piping around the sleeves. She was wearing thick glasses and gave him a wink when their eyes met.

  She leaned forward, placing her chin on hands with lacquered nails, “Feeling better?

  “Not particularly,” Cass said, sitting up. “Where are you taking me and why?”

  The big man nodded. “That’s a good question, so I’m happy to see you didn’t take any brain damage during your little escapade. As to the answers, the Sovereign sent us, little QuestWright. Didn’t tell us much why, but said to give you a letter when we got to the city.” He patted his chest, as if to say where the letter was. “Took us a little extra time to get out of Liora. They really didn’t want to see you leave.”

  “My family, friends, Adya?” Cass asked.

  This can’t be happening again. No! This is just like when I got my Calling.

  “My family, my fwends,” The man in the front said with a laugh. “It’s the end of the world, yah git. Why go crying now?”

  The woman across from him glared toward the front, then put on a sympathetic look as she patted Cass’s hand, “Don’t worry. We left an experienced QuestWright behind to cover for Guild Master Hollis until he’s fully recovered, as well as a very powerful mage. Liora will be good as new before you know it. As for your friends, I’m afraid we didn’t get any names. Noah, Ren, and Dawdy, the mage, were as gentle as they could be while we made our escape.”

  The driver yelled back, “That one bitch skewered me in the thigh! Almost hit me pickle!”

  “You should take pride in how well they defended you, young Vale,” The man across from him said. “But I’m afraid we have to follow the Quest. Rarely does the Sovereign ever make a mistake.”

  I’m alive, and that’s something I didn’t fully expect. But to wake up here, taken from my home…Cass felt something shift deep within him.

  Again, people were telling him what to do and where to go. He’d given up his eye, put his life on the line, and defended the city with every fiber of his being. He’d become a leader.

  But somehow, he still wasn’t allowed to choose where he went next. First, Hollis, well-intentioned or not, and now the Sovereign. It wouldn’t do. He was done being pushed around.

  Without intending to, his voice came out as a growl, “Where are we going?”

  The front-seater called back, “Oh-ho, a little spunk in da fellow.”

  The woman gave him a sad smile, “We’re on our way to Liberty, where I know for a fact, they could use a good QuestWright.”

  The way she said good made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. This was likely to be anything other than that. But Cass wasn’t the same boy he’d been when first receiving his Calling.

  He’d learned to fight, expanding on what his mother had taught him years ago. He’d built up his body, gaining enhanced healing, reflexes, and senses from several avenues.

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  If he really needed to, he might even find a way to escape.

  Only, he didn’t really know where he was, nor the capabilities of the people he was with. If they’d received a Quest from the Sovereign, there was a good chance they were high-tier, and no matter how much he’d improved, he was not a Combatant.

  The smart move was to lie low and pretend to bend. But that didn’t feel right anymore.

  I may have just hit the second tier, but I don’t give a damn. I’m not just going to walk into a situation blindly. So, reconnaissance it is. That means buttering them up.

  Cass sat up, only then noticing that he’d been taking up the entirety of a bench built into the cart. Reaching out, he said, “Cassio Vale, nice to meet you.”

  The armored man shook his hand, then gestured at himself and the woman sitting next to him, “I’m Ren, and the uncouth scoundrel driving is Noah. This is Maggie..”

  “Margaret.” The thin woman corrected with a wavy smile.

  “Maggie Margaret?” Cass asked.

  “No, Margaret Jim, Maggie’s fine. Nice to meet you.” She reached across and shook his hand as well while the man in front grumbled what could almost be construed as a greeting.

  “So Ren, Margaret, what do I need to know about Liberty, and how soon will we be there?”

  And how soon can I leave?

  Ren gave Margaret a look as if asking her something. She shrugged, then smiled as she looked back at Cass, “We’ll be there by this evening, and there’s a lot you need to know. Based on what we’ve been told of Liora, they use an almost communally Democratic government, and many of the monsters surrounding the area are what you would call…hrmm.”

  “Weak as shit,” Noah added with a laugh. “Most of ‘em go down from a single blow. Pathetic.”

  “I wouldn’t put it that way, but he’s right,” Ren supplied. “The monsters around Liora are low on the scale of difficulty. I’m assuming that most of the Combatants within your city were no greater than Tier 3, with a few older veterans being much higher?”

  “That sounds about right,” Cass said with a frown.

  The big man scratched his sculpted chin, “That’s because there’s a cap on how much experience low-tier monsters can grant you. The higher the tier, the more experience you stand to gain.”

  Maggie patted his armored knee with a clink as one of the many rings on her fingers touched the metal. “But you’re a QuestWright, so you won’t need to know all of that. At least not right away. What you’ll want to do is focus on the city of Liberty itself so you can start things out on the right foot.”

  “Hope ya got a tight wallet! Hah!” Noah laughed as they banked around a turn.

  Over the next few minutes, Ren and Maggie told him about Liberty, with Noah supplying color commentary whenever he felt the need. Liberty and Liora were as different as two guild-founded cities could be.

  While Liora was about the good of its citizens, Liberty was about the good of each individual person, with a powerful focus on Capitalism at its grandest. The founding of it placed it smack dab in the center of where Oklahoma City used to be, and its design was much more methodical than Liora’s had been.

  It was about twenty minutes into the conversation that Cass had them pause for a question.

  “How many QuestWrights do they have again?”

  Ren and Maggie shared a look before the armored man spoke up, “At least a dozen from what I’ve read. I’ve also been told they pay the Guild members quite well, and we have a writ of transfer from the Sovereign that should smooth over any ruffled feathers for your unexpected arrival.”

  Ruffled feathers, a dozen QuestWrights I’m going to have to work with at once. None of this is sounding good. I need to get out of here.

  Noah went over a bump that had everyone in the cart cursing as gravity lifted them, then brought them down with a thud.

  Cass rubbed his lower back as he said, “They paid me fifty Crests a week in Liora, though I was the only QuestWright at the time. Oh my god.” He smacked himself in the forehead, “I forgot I owe money to the Smith who made my axe.”

  Maggie laughed, “I doubt they’ll come looking for you. From what information we gathered after arriving, you’re a celebrity in Liora. I don’t think celebrities get called in to pay off loans, Cassio.”

  Cass suffered through a vision of Noah appearing in his bedroom, choking the life out of him while screaming about his money. Then, as the thought of Crests settled in his mind, he saw Orla helping the smith, yelling about his role as a Founder of Common Solutions.

  He shook the vision away as he asked a very important question, “Can I use the restroom?”

  They pulled over to Noah’s cursing. The angry man came around and spent a moment opening the back of the cart, inadvertently letting Cass know there was indeed a locking mechanism, then glared at him, pointing out.

  Cass hopped down and looked around.

  They were in the middle of what looked like a desert, with several trees dotting the horizon and a slight dip that provided some privacy. He shifted his bag around on his shoulder as he glanced at the man. Noah gave him a pointed look as he rested a hand on a metallic object at his hip.

  “There’s monsters out here. Hell, boy, there’s monsters everywhere. You be on the lookout while you handle your business.” He pointed at Cass’s bag, “Why do you have a purse?”

  “My toiletries are in there.”

  Noah snorted, “At least yah thought that far ahead. My Monster Sense is high enough that I can tell ya you’ll have a few minutes of peace before anything might get close. Should be fine. Get goin.”

  Cass did just that, moving far enough that it was realistic he wouldn’t be seen going to the bathroom. Then, checking to make sure no one was watching, he tried to make his escape.

  Tried being the operative word.

  He was no more than a hundred yards away from the cart when a boom sounded out behind him. Before he understood what the noise meant, he blacked out for a second time, waking up from a particularly bad bounce on the cart.

  Cass groaned as Maggie spoke up, “I’m sorry about this. The Sovereign was very explicit. No harm can come to you, and we have to get you to Liberty. A Quest is a Quest.”

  “She’s right, boy. It’s the way it needs to be.”

  Cass opened bleary eyes and tried to sit up. The rattle and restraint he felt told him that this time around, they’d chained him down. With a growl, he pushed against them all the same, even if it didn’t feel like they were loosening in the slightest.

  Ren’s deep voice echoed in the cart, “No use in trying, young Vale. Just relax. We’ll be in the city soon enough.”

  “This is bullshit!” Cass yelled at them. “How could you come to my city, MY city, and kidnap me? That’s what the Guild does? Just snatches people out of the night when all they’ve been trying to do is help?”

  “Hey, ya git! You heard her, A Quest is a Quest!”

  “Quests shouldn’t be created for evil purposes,” Cass said through gritted teeth, the sound of the chains filled the area as he continued to heave against them. “The Sovereign is a piece of shit.”

  “I don’t know if they is or they ain’t,” Noah commented, “But the pay is excellent, and we’re not hurtin ya. Just takin ya from one place to another.”

  “We can’t pretend to know what the Sovereign is thinking, young Vale. I suggest you relax and prepare yourself for the arrival at Liberty. I apologize, but this is the way it needs to be.”

  “The way it needs to be,” Maggie agreed, though by her tone, Cass thought she, too, didn’t fully agree with this course of action.

  He pushed, and pushed, but even after a dozen minutes and with sweat breaking out across his body, it was no use. Resigned to his fate, he lay his head down and cried quietly with his face turned away from them.

  Mom, Dad, Janine, Mr. Moore, Gary and Kara. What must they be thinking? How can this be my reward for the sacrifices I’ve made? Why am I being punished?

  No answers came his way.

  [Tier 1 Construction Quest]

  Assignment: Rebuild the Table

  You are allowed to change who gets a seat.

  This Quest asks you to examine your current circle, be they friends, coworkers, chosen family, or even casual orbiters. Then, adjust the structure.

  Your Task: Redesign your table.

  Step one:

  Analyze

  Write down the five people you interact with most often. Not who you love the most. Who is closest to your time?

  Step two:

  Ask

  Who brings clarity?

  Who causes noise?

  Who am I keeping out of habit?

  Who am I unintentionally pushing away?

  Who should I make more room for?

  Step three:

  Act.

  Make a call. Step back. Extend something. Reinforce a bond. Or release one.

  You are not exiling anyone. You are rebuilding the structure that supports your daily life.

  Completion Condition: One meaningful shift in your social structure. Done with intent.

  Timeframe: This week

  Reward: 15 XP

  You do not have to burn the table down.

  But you can sand it. Expand it. And move the chairs.

  —

  J D Mullenary Sr The Original QuestWright