+ Reid +

His fingers rubbed against both temples. Dayo Evni was proving to be a goddamn headache.

Its former 'leader', Hester, was bound with a series of custom-made bone manacles, and had been fitted with a solid bone muzzle after he wouldn't shut the hell up while Reid was trying to put together all the pieces of this problematic town. Ironically, his muzzled presence seemed to make most people open up to Reid more freely.

A series of 'interviews' conducted with surprisingly amenable guards, townspeople, and Hester's 'wives' filled in the details he needed.

For a time, everything in Dayo Evni functioned much like it had in Dayo Sovni. A small council held power, made defenses, and put people to work. They allowed people to freely use the beacon for awakenings, and their people made some profit off of the travelers that came to do so. Unfortunately, the spread word on the beacon no longer putting people in tutorials had thrown that system off balance. Fewer showed up for awakenings. An unhappy people challenged the council, and made room for new and unorthodox ideals. What followed was a series of dumb events that allowed Hester to implement taxes and rules to 'reclaim the lost glory' of the town. They hadn't even been a post-awakening town for five years - there wasn't any lost glory to reclaim. But the man's plays to emotion succeeded in enough people to give him the outcomes he desired. Things further devolved into authoritarian-style rule. Hester took 'wives' when women weren't wealthy enough to afford an awakening outright. A good portion of people even 'worshipped' the man, apparently. Weirdos. And the populace cowed under the threat of being banished to the woods where they would be eaten by spiders. That also - apparently - had something to do with the deferential treatment the townspeople were giving him. It was an odd thing, really. No matter who showed up, they were overly polite and rarely made eye contact.

With each interview, Reid ended with two options. He either gained a new member in the Osteal Empire, or he added another body to the cells underground. Because of course Hester had built a prison under the 'royal residence' he'd claimed for himself. It was now packed with over a dozen different guards and 'VIPs' that proved to be part of the problem. If there was one silver lining to all this, it was that the Vuxarinans formerly imprisoned in those same cells by Hester had been perfect to act as Reid's aides. They were all thrown into confinement for their pushbacks against the power-hungry man's rules, which meant Reid could at least trust them to give objective feedback on who else was complicit in what went on. If there was one thing he could do without, it was that they wouldn't use his name when speaking. It was only 'Lord' or 'Eminence'.

The most insightful aide so far had been Isobel. She was a short, thin Vuxarinan woman who just happened to be Hester's fourth 'wife', and therefore had collected quite a wealth of information on his dealings. The most active and helpful was her brother, Isaiah. The man had been a decently respected guard before his sister's actions resulted in the both of them getting thrown into the cells, and he somewhat naturally took over the rest of the proper guards and defenders once Reid released him and gave him the task. Reid was already working on his exit strategy, and a key component of that was putting the brother and sister duo in charge. A simple plan. Set new leadership, let them decide what to do with their former overlords, and get the hell out of town.

Away from the mass of people that were trying to get a peek at the man responsible for the sudden upheaval of the power structure.

Unsurprisingly, pulling people through solid wooden structures and then carrying them around by the neck drew attention. Walking around without armor, tanking the magic and mundane blows of those still loyal to the upstart monarch might have also had an impact, there. The crowd formed somewhat naturally as he had made his way to the royal residence where he now resided. Their excited whispers and somewhat sycophantic conversations were as off-putting to Reid as the horror-show treatment he'd gotten from the last town. He'd made a short, clipped, and unfriendly speech to try and quell the growing fervor before he'd sequestered himself inside this building. It had not worked as intended.

The crowd outside had only grown. That was true for its size, and the emotion roiling through. The people quickly caught on that when someone entered the structure, the guilty stayed, and the innocent were sent outside with a new allegiance. Words like liberator and justice floated through the doors every time someone came or went. That was alright. He just had one name left on Isobel's list, and the investigation part of things would be complete. Isaiah was out getting the man - one Phierry Daigle - now. Which meant this marathon session would soon be done. Then, once he set town leadership to the siblings, they would be able to take over.

Reid heard the door swing open at the other end of the hallway. It let through the normal din of the excited crowd, and silenced it as a few pairs of footsteps drew closer. Something about them was... off. The reason quickly became clear.

Isaiah was shoved forward through the doorway into the office Reid was using. A long, thin sword was held close to the base of his neck by a smarmy-looking Vuxarinan wearing far too many gold chains on his wrist. They were then flanked by another seven idiots in actual armor. They brandished a few weapons, and two held the start of some magical spell in their hands. All looked ready to strike - to kill. Phierry tilted his head to point at Hester, still shackled and gagged in the corner of the room, and one of the new arrivals broke off to go try and release the man from Reid's bonecrafted restraints.

Reid dropped his head and pinched his nose with an exasperated sigh.

He realized Phierry had started to talk, and reluctantly raised his head to give the idiot an unamused stare.

"...so you're going to give me the keys to the prison, and then you and these two traitors are going to trade places with the rest of our people you locked up. Now, hurry up, or I'll kill him."

To emphasize his point, Phierry let the edge of the blade nick Isaiah's throat, and a trickle of blood ran down his neck until it stained his collar blue. Reid spared a glance to the corner of the room. The person tasked with freeing Hester was getting increasingly frustrated with the manacles that wouldn't come loose and weren't responding well to the attempts to cut them open.

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Reid played with different ideas of the best response. He could chuck a marrowbomb slug at Phierry - but that had the downside of potentially going through the wall, and out into whoever might be in its path after that. He could just throw something at the man - anything, really - but he didn't want to chance his aim being off. He needed Isaiah to lead the town - and he had zero desire to put the helpful and honest man in harm's way.

No. The simplest solution was the right one.

Reid stood slowly. The legs of his chair scraped over the 'sealed wood' floors as he pushed it back, and drew everyone's attention. He spoke as he took two steps around the desk to have a clear path towards Phierry. These were G grade morons, who were threatening an E grade. Maybe none of them had an identify skill. Maybe it didn't give them any information. Whatever the case, these people were aligned with the wannabe monarch, and were ready to murder someone to keep themselves in power.

"Put the weapons down, and I won't kill you."

Phierry snorted, let out some dumb comment about Reid being unarmed and outnumbered, and looked to others in his group. They chuckled and more pointedly aimed their weapons at Reid. He nodded to himself, then looked to the siblings.

"Right. Isobel, Isaiah. Close your mouths. And your eyes, I guess."

He pushed a bit of power into his leg, and wood splintered underfoot as Reid shot forward. His leap and momentum took him clear across the room to Phierry, and he had to dig his heels into the floorboards to help arrest his momentum. One bare hand wrapped around the tip of Phierry's sword, and Reid pulled it away from Isaiah's neck before he gently moved the man to the side and let him fall into one of the 'visitors' chairs that occupied the room. Then he yanked on the sword. The tip of the relatively weak metal bent and twisted in his grip, and at the handle, an unnecessarily-ornate basket hilt prevented Phierry from gracefully loosing the weapon. Reid heard the man's fingers break, even as his skin caught on the ornate hilt. Reid was planning on using the man's own weapon to put him down, but a look at the sword's handle stopped that idea. Yanking it away had partially degloved Phierry, and his skin was still stuck around the grip.

The man had begun to scream, and his allies were each starting to attack Reid. There was a decidedly unimpressive stone spike coming straight for his head. He ducked out of the way, then kicked Phierry in the side of the knee to keep him down. It tore the bottom of the man's leg off. Ah, fuck it. Reid decided to use his original idea, and swung Phierry's sword hard at the man's head. The metal carved messily through his skull and brain matter, and sent bits of both flying over to the far wall. It was then he realized he'd used the flat side of the blade instead of the sharp one. Oh well.

Reid dropped the weapon, and balled a fist. The next closest moron was hefting a warhammer, and his body glowed with some skill. Reid's punch obliterated the top of his chest. He sidestepped the man's falling body and grabbed the wrists of a woman dual-wielding daggers. Bones snapped in her arms as he twisted her hands and plunged the weapons into her throat. Another paltry bit of stone was flying in towards him, and Reid rotated his body to extend an arm and catch the magically made material. He wound up and threw the offending projectile back in a smooth motion, and winced when his aim was off. The stone hit the mage in the side of his neck instead of the center, which left half his trachea, blood vessels - and most importantly - spine and nerves intact. The mage fell back, grasping with his hands in a fruitless attempt to retain the rapidly escaping blood inside his body.

Reid continued, and pushed himself into and through the other side of the remaining three standing members of the group to ensure no errant shots or attacks ended up hitting one of the siblings by mistake. It turned out he shouldn't have been worried. Two of them - both swordsmen - fell when he crushed their skulls together. Reid grabbed the remaining mage by the neck and flicked a wrist to break it. In a neat little detail, the notifications let him know both mages ended up dead at about the same time. The last member of the ill-fated group brandished a knife when they realized everyone else was dead. As Reid walked towards them, they drew the knife back, and split open their own neck. Reid held up a hand to protect his face from the bloodspray, and watched them fall to the floor.

The room was an absolute mess. Gore and blood covered much of the furniture, and some of the walls. Reid himself was coated in a layer of the stuff, and Hester had more than a little blood and other bits on him. The siblings were seemingly alright. Isaiah's neck wound was no worse than a minor shaving cut, and Isobel wasn't injured. Neither of them had gotten coated in gore the same way Reid did, which was a plus. And he'd followed his own advice to stay mouth closed, which was even better. He still felt filthy.

"Isobel - are there working showers here?" The woman's eyes were unfocused. "Uh, Isobel? You alright?"

She startled a little, and swallowed as her gaze traced over the room. "I - yes. Thank you, my lord."

"Good. I need to wash this gunk off me. Please tell me there's a working shower here."

She nodded, and pointed as she gave clipped directions.

"Alright. Good. All the idiots are dealt with, so I'd like you two to take care of the rest while I clean up. Just bring Hester there outside and let the people decide what to do with him."

Isaiah rose from the chair, rubbing his neck. "Are you certain, Lord? It was Hester's people that dared threatened your eminence just now. King Hester is yours to kill, should you wish."

Reid shook his head. This wasn't exactly what he had in mind for a power transfer and inducting the two into his faction - but it seemed like a good opportunity to shift responsibility for the next steps. Plus, he really didn't give a shit that Hester's people had just barged in, aside from now needing a new set of clothes. "That doesn't mean anything to me. You're the ones he wronged. Let people dispense their own justice. And the two of you can stop with the titles - Lord and Eminence and whatnot. Here -," Reid pulled at where Nyx had already set up invitations for the siblings. "Accept these invitations, and just go talk to people. Help them understand what happened in here, and why. Let them know I've put you in charge here - under me, of course, and that I'm going to give them some stuff to help people defend themselves, too, for good measure. You'll be able to invite them to my faction, under you, and then you'll just... run this town for me, I guess. Sound good?"

The siblings had, for some reason, dropped to a knee when they read their notifications. Reid ignored the continued odd behavior as Isobel nodded. "As you wish."

Isaiah's brow knit. "This faction - is it... your congrega-"

A notification flashed into view and snapped Reid's attention away from Isaiah's words.

-

NOTICE: Your faction has successfully absorbed friendly faction, [Lycra's]. Experience awarded.

-

A wide smile split Reid's face, and he clenched his hands into fists as he let out an excited shout.

"YES!!!!!"

The notification was everything.

It was the perfect news. It was the only thing he could concentrate on.

Lycra was alive, alright, and had managed to meet up with Hugo.

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