Chapter 27: Why should we trust you?

Chapter 27: Why should we trust you?

Blake made the rounds, talking to every civilian and learning as many details as he could. He wasn’t a particularly good listener—though others often thought so. He was more like an...extractor. Of information. Of personality. He was mostly just curious, and didn’t care about these people’s lives. Unless they were interesting, of course. Which they mostly weren’t.

Linda was a clothier. Huan was a builder. There were three people from China, two from India. Two from Nigeria. Everyone else was the only person from their country. These people came from this tutorial, these other people came from a different one. Five men and seven women, twelve civilians all together. They all thought being with a group of players would be the best thing, but now they weren’t so sure. ‘We need players to protect us, not lock us in a cage!’ ‘Maybe it’s better to risk our lives out there.’

Apparently a few had already signed on with Sebastian and crew, all men, doing various things around town. The other civilians didn’t consider them traitors, exactly, or hate them for it, but it was fair they thought somewhat less of them.

Blake tried to tell them things would be fine, that sooner or later things would improve.

‘How do you know?’ asked Huan, with an almost offensive naivety.

“Because that’s what I do,” Blake had smiled. “I know things I shouldn’t.”

With every person he spoke to, after he had enough detail, he tried to improve the relationship slightly with Mental Influence. As it turned out, his mind powers worked rather terribly on civilians. As in hardly at all. It wasn’t strictly necessary for his plan, but still an overall disappointment. Perhaps there would be other powers in the future that worked better.

At last he made his way to a little Asian woman who’d been watching him from the beginning. She was rather plain and intense looking and he practically sighed as he sat down next to her with a smile.

“Hi. Figured I’d get to know everyone. What’s your name?”

The girl’s bright, and rather unusually green eyes narrowed, staring at him intensely.

“I’ve been watching you.”

Blake held his smile, thinking yes, I’ve noticed. “Oh? I hadn’t noticed.”

“You’ve been talking to everyone, but you don’t like it.”

“Oh that’s not true,” Blake clung to every scrap of remaining charm. “I like people.” He winked. “Well, some people.”

“What is it you’re trying to accomplish?” the girl said, seemingly immune.

“Well aren’t you the nosy one,” he said with the same levity. She ignored that too.

“You’ve been using magic on them. Have you tried it on me?”

Blake froze at that. The fact was, he had no idea what the different classes of civilians were and what powers they might possess. Maybe she was some kind of mage’s apprentice.

“What makes you think that?” he said somewhat more neutrally.

“I can sense it.”

“That’s a very interesting civilian ability,” he said, “what class are you?”

The girl’s intense gaze didn’t flinch from watching his eyes no matter how he looked away and back again. “All I want to know is if you’re a fool, or if you’re cunning,” she said. “Because I need a cunning player with magic.”

“Because I’m not alone,” Blake smiled. “And my allies and I are going to kill this bastard of a chief, and make this place right.”

A fair amount of eyes widened at that.

“But...if we sign,” said Linda, “we’ll be bound to this guy. God knows what he’ll do.”

“First things first,” Blake soothed. “I just need the men to sign a service contract. It’ll buy me the time I need. Anyway, it won’t last long. My brother and I will kill Sebastian sooner than later.”

Blake saw the moment of concern in Hank’s eyes, but the old angler covered it well.

“Where’s your brother?” said Huan.

“Coming.”

“He has others with him?”

“He has enough.”

“Why should we trust you?” said Billy, with an almost puppy dog kind of hope in his eyes.

“Because when Sebastian’s dead I’m going to take his place. And I know civilians are vital, not pawns to play with. I’ll never force anyone to do anything. Every contract will be negotiated in good faith. We’ll build this place together, like the community it’s supposed to be.”

Most of them liked that, but they were still wary.

“Nice words, but for now it’s all it is,” said Huan, no doubt for all of them. “We’re still trapped in a cage.

Blake nodded because of course that was true. “You believe in fate?” he asked.

“Not really,” said the older man.

“Well I do,” Blake grinned, showing nothing but confidence. “And fate put me here with you, with everything I need to destroy the man trapping us all. And the reality is they’re going to treat you like animals until you do what they want. I’m offering you a chance for a better life. A good life. Such as it is now. All I’m asking for is a bit of time.”

The men in particular all exchanged looks, and Hank came in on queue.

“I’ll do it. I’ve been with him from the start. I know he’s practically a kid, but he’s smart, and lucky as hell, and I think his brother is a genuine badass.”

The others looked at the older man, and it was clear his words swayed them. They slowly nodded, and Huan spoke for them again. “Alright. We’ll give you your chance.”

Blake smiled at them all. “Thank you, my friends. Now listen, because we’ll have to be tricky. Here’s how we’ll do it.”

Author's Note:

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