Chapter 128
Ellison made his choice. Hes an enemy now. Same as the rest.
I shook my head. That was wrong. Not only was Ellison young, hed just been through one of the biggest societal upheavals in the last century. If not the biggest. Anyone would be confused. Reevaluating what you once held as fact and using that as foundation for challenging old thinking was a natural part of learning.
Even if thats true, it doesnt excuse what he did. You can say with relative confidence that he was the User at the Cathedral. Yet, no noteworthy contributions to the receptacle before you made your last drop, right before the buzzer. He had every intention of letting you all die.
There had to be a reason. Something I was overlooking. Considering how he was already halfway out the door before wed talked, Id avoided confronting Ellison on his User status directly, reasoning it would only push him further away. As it was, that was only a partial success. My brother had chosen to remain in the building, unready to strike out on his own yet.
Still, that was probably temporary.
Ellison ignored both nuance and context, and latched on to the most selfish, self-serving aspect of what you taught him and ran with it. Then he followed it to its logical conclusion, with no budgeting for wiggle room or gray areas. Youve spent plenty of time ruminating on the far-reaching aspects of your philosophy. You know exactly where it leads.
Shut up. I hissed, laying back on the couch and placing a hand on my forehead. There was no one left to witness my frustration. Itd taken a large chunk of the morning and afternoon to get my family settled. As expected, Iris and Mom had opted to live together. Id spoken to them separately to ensure that was what they both wanted. They were still taking up two apartments at the end of the hallIris was using the adjacent room for a future workshop. According to Kinsley, Ellison chose an apartment on the seventh floor, content with the tradeoff of reduced square footage in favor of distance.
The only place we were likely to run into each other now was the lobby.
Maybe thats for the best. If you need to deal with him, itll be easier
Shut up! I shouted at no one in particular, then immediately felt stupid. Sae was still in the guest room. Iris said their initial meeting was productive, giving her plenty of ideas for how to improve Saes situation, but I hadnt seen Sae herself since yesterday.
could go fuck itself. Even if I wasnt overlooking anything, and the reality was exactly as it appeared, there was no reality where I dealt with Ellison preemptively. Perhaps he wasnt an ally anymore, but he was still my brother. The only way Id ever consider that line of thought was if he posed a clear and direct threat to the rest of my family. As it was, he was just selfish.
And, frankly, not nearly as rational and pragmatic as he believed himself to be. There were plenty of holes in what he was putting forward. If he was truly that cold and calculating, what hed done made little sense. Even if the situation was the worst case, and he was actively working against us. The smarter move would have been to ingratiate himself with both the Merchants and Adventurers guild. He was already positioned for it. Which made the justification to shut himself off from the resources of both over notions of philosophy, hypocrisy, and pride, a borderline idiotic call.
And whatever else he was, my brother wasnt stupid. Either it was an emotional decision, or there was another a reason.
Tired of spinning my wheels and coming up empty, I glanced over to a pile of boxes next to the door. Id been explicitly forbidden from helping with the moving process. Instead, Kinsley sent some of her mercenaries over to help Mom and Iris pack up the apartment, and they had stopped by afterwards to drop off most of the things from my room.
With a sigh, I started going through the boxes. One was mostly clothes. I didnt have a lot of variety when it came to wardrobe. Generally jeans, unbranded t-shirts, and hoodies. As I unpacked, my mind began to wander in another direction.
Kings Ranger wasnt exactly an ideal fit, even beyond the fact that it implied the King was a real User who would potentially hold sway over me. The immediate issue was one of stats. From the feats Id reviewed, it prioritized Agility, Strength, and Intelligence, in that order. It would have been worse if Nychtas Ally had assigned me a class with Strength as the primary focus, like a variant of Knight or Barbarian. But current circumstances still called for reevaluating my leveling strategy if I intended to use a bow at long distance. Heavy draw weight was crucial to both range and penetration. At my current strength, I could probably manage to draw and fire an average compound bow. But the bows Id seen both in Kinsleys store and in the wild were exclusively recurve. Even the training bow I bought took significantly more effort to draw than I expected.
Taking a deep breath, I emptied my mind, and began to lower the dice towards my kitchen counter with the silver one facing up. This was the control test. If I didnt drop it, and set it firmly on the counter, it shouldnt be possible to achieve the goal I wanted. Better to rule out the impossible first, before I started testing in earnest.
Whatcha doin, helpline? Sae asked.
I jumped in my seat, sending the dice flying. Sae had crossed into the kitchen to talk to me. Shed spoken just before entering awarenesss range, and made absolutely no sound before that. The shower and nights rest had gone a long way towards improving her bedraggled appearance, though the red compound eyes were still off-putting.
Sae reached up and caught the dice out of the air without turning her head. Then placed it back down on the table and slid it across the counter.
I caught it beneath my hand, my brow immediately furrowing at the timing.
No fucking way.
Slowly, I removed my hand and revealed a silver 20.
That shouldnt have worked. Too many moving parts, and I had no idea Sae was there. The only time I ever tried something remotely similar, it nearly knocked me out, and all the arrow had to do was hit the target. Not land in a highly specific manner.
Nice. Sae raised an eyebrow. Can we retroactively say I was rolling to talk you into raising the thermostat?
I bit back a catty response on the table etiquette of calling out what you were rolling for before you actually rolled, and used the penthouse remote to bump the temperature five degrees higher. Done.
No banter? Saes face fell. Please tell me youre not abstaining from your usual assholery out of pity.
I shook my head, Nope. Im abstaining from assholery because I want something.
Oh. Well I did come out here to try to make myself useful, especially considering everything youre doing for me. Iris is far too nice, by the way. Guess Im game. Sae shrugged, then her eyes narrowed. As long as its not too weird.
I thought about it. As an exception to my Remain Unidentified as an Ordinator clause, Kinsley would have been ideal. But she was busy, and I relied on her too much as it was. As the only standing member of my original group, Sae already knew my cover story of receiving User status after the transposition event was bullshit, and that in truth, Id been a User long before that. And from the footage the Overseer had shown, Ordinators varied drastically. Even factoring for the possibility that more information came out, it was unlikely shed be able to connect the dots. There were too many classes and abilities to make that logical jump. Still, Id need to be careful.
Matt? Sae tried again.
I made a decision and stuck the dice bag in my pocket. Come on. Grab a notepad and pen from the box.
