Book 2, Chapter 4

“It is never ending, isn’t it,” Adrian observed to Sally as the crowd drifted away. After his tale the tone of the room had shifted, the manic celebration had changed to companionship. The threat of the Bird was still gone, but the threat of Alpha creatures still loomed. Like Rupa said, nearly everyone was a hero these days.

Sally across from him grimaced. “Different problems than before. Two months ago I was pulling my hair out because of an argument around a garden fence being too high. Now,” she shrugged helplessly before steel returned to her shoulders, “Every decision has real consequences. Who cares about a couple of voters now? The Bird dying gives us a chance, but we still need to be good enough to seize it.” She leant forward, “Today we had to put someone to death.” Her voice was sad.

“What?”

She put a finger on her lips. “Dave took care of it.”

“Why would you,” he said softly, leaning closer to her so others would not hear. “Do something like that?”

Sally’s face looked panicked. Indecision warred briefly across her homely features before the usual resolve that he had grown to expect, solidified. She grimaced. “I have said too much,” she stated, abruptly standing up. “Come.”

“Ok,” Adrian said, surprised by the sudden change of pace. Bemused, he followed her down a small corridor behind a door on the way to the toilets.

They had put someone to death. The council that had thought to provide him sandwiches and had thrown this party. Dave had fallen in behind him at some invisible signal from Sally and they exited into a room labeled manager's office. The room was medium-sized, a desk that filled too much of the space despite the spacious room. Two comfortable wooden, cushioned chairs were in front of it, and around the door stood room for ten to fifteen people. Pre-apocalypse it had already been tattier than the rest of the restaurant judging from the tattered carpet. The Alpha event even here was visible with a laptop computer melted to slag on the desk.

Why would they kill someone? Murder? Helping Alpha monsters? People would not do that.

Sally was all business, a leader instead of a drinking buddy. “My fault, I should not have brought you into this, but I will ask you to keep everything we say here confidential.”

Adrian grunted assent.

“Have a seat,” she was a tired, overwhelmed woman once more. Now that he was paying attention, there was fresh paper there, and it looked like she might have converted his office into a headquarters of sorts. “Dealing with alpha monsters is easy. You identify threats and put them down. Sometimes you buy information to help do it, other times you rely on brute strength. The Lucu is a pain in the butt because it is strong, but Craig will take care of it. People, they are harder.”

Sitting down in the offered seat. A small, treacherous part of his mind was rubbing its hands in glee. This was more like it, solving problems, being real. Celebrating had felt wrong to him. Nothing much would happen, but even being a sounding board meant something, and maybe there would be an opportunity to suggest something to make a difference.

Beside him, Dave folded himself into the second seat. The world swayed slightly. A silly grin started breaking out on his face before he suppressed it.

“The world is different,” Sally told him. “Society has to be different too. Magic opens up new opportunities and our laws need to change to reflect that.”

“Stop,” Dave blurted. “Don’t take the burden onto yourself, we all made that decision.”

“Buck stops with me.”

Dave shook his head in disagreement. “Today was not on you.”

“What happened?”

“I executed someone.”

The words rocked through Adrian. Dave was compassionate, young and not that sort of man. Yet he had not just killed someone, he had executed them. That meant cold blood.

“I would have done it, if I was there.”

“Which is why I did it,” Dave interrupted. “Better for society that you are not seen as a madwoman.” Dave’s hand landed on his shoulder. Forcing eye contact. “The council has been debating judicial structures for weeks. We can’t afford jails, there are not enough human resources to support them. So the question was what to do if someone commits a crime?”

“Initial discussions were fines for minor things, banishment for more major things, which is like a death sentence, anyway.”

“We were being civilian cowards,” Dave reminded her. “Banishment only works if you can protect your borders. And here...” he shrugged. “All humans get to go freely through the barricades and no one wants to turn them into checkpoints with wanted posters”

Sally sighed heavily. “So unfair, all these life and death decisions. I signed up to be mayor of a medium-sized town, not a feudal lord..” Sally looked sad as she talked, obviously organising resources to deal with the Lucu or Bird was fine but shaping a society… Adrian agreed with her. That would be hard.

“We agreed anyway.” Dave continued, his face bleak. The face of a man who had to execute someone and even though he knew it was necessary. A human who suffered at a fundamental level and there was only so much logic to offset. “Fines for property damage and minor stuff, banishment for serious misdemeanours like bullying or attempted murder, and then death for serious crimes such as rape and murder.”

“And breaking banishment,” Sally said coldly.

“Yes,” Dave agreed. “That too.”

“Seems sensible,” he ventured.

“Would have been unworkable,” Sally admitted, “But something we needed to put in place. If only to have the talking points when needed.”

“Luckily Judge Cooper volunteered to help.”

“Who?”

“He was part of the group up at the old cannery outside town. A level eight Justice.”

“The Fruit Company,” he asked

“Yes,” Dave said with a nod. “They had formed a community but were thinking about joining us.”

“They will now,” Sally chimed in. “Their main concern was the Bird. Without that threat, safety in numbers wins out.”

“Judge Cooper was helping us. Just using his truth spell to resolve little issues. Then two days ago some moron raped his neighbour.”

Quick in drawing of breath. He had known something like this was coming. “Arsehole.”

“Idiot,” Dave corrected absently. “The woman was pretty confident it was him, but the cunt thought he could get away with it. No forensics to pin the blame on him. We brought him in and questioned him. He lied with a straight face, accused us of framing him, demanded evidence, and claimed the woman was just making it up because of a mowing disagreement from a year ago. All the usual bluster of the criminal type. I could tell he was as guilty as sin, but Judge Cooper was there, a man who can tell when you were lying.”

Dave paused for a moment. “We had given Judge Cooper leeway to sentence criminals as required. So the Judge just looked the piece of shit in the eye and said. Enough! You are guilty. The ferret protested, but the Judge was having none of it.”

Dave smiled for a moment. “Judge Cooper went biblical and laid down the law. I can tell when someone is lying. You are guilty. I am sentencing you to five years' community labour. You will also need to take an Oath. I forget the words,” Dave admitted “but the oath was basically, do forty hours of community service a week for five years and never willingly physically harm another. There was more to it, but that was the gist. The weasel straight away agreed until the Judge told him that the oath would be magically binding on pain of death. The little rat changed his tone and immediately refused to take an oath to not hurt or harm anyone, claiming it was against his rights as a human. Claiming that five years of forced labour was illegal and that the kangaroo court they were running had no standing. There was nothing anyone could do to force him to take binding oaths that robbed him of his rights.”

Dave stopped sadly. “I think the criminal thought he spotted weakness at that moment and went more off the deep end. Laughing at me, Tamara and then Cooper. Repeating over and over again that they had no jurisdiction and could not punish him. The judge then gave an ultimatum; take the oaths or die. He continued to talk about his human rights and slavery was outlawed. Judge Cooper repeated the ultimatum. Another refusal. Then he called us cowards, and we didn't have the balls to carry through the sentence. The judge asked him one more time to take the oath. The weasel seemed to be convinced that we were all bark and no bite. So Judge Cooper pronounced his life as forfeit. I dragged him towards the chopping block that used to be used for firewood but would work on people just as well. So of course he begged for mercy. He said he would say the oaths and did not want to die. Tamara called Cooper back to accept the oath, and the man said Fuck you and spat in the judge's face. So I gagged him and carried out the sentence. The stupidity of people.”

“Shit man.”

“Better than watching a friend die,” Dave admitted slowly. “I do not want to do it again but I will. That guy got a chance to repent. Forty hours a week for five years for rape. It was pretty lenient sentence.” Dave shook his head sadly.

“So that is where we are.” Sally said quietly.

“Able to get guilty proof quickly, binding oaths on offenders, immediate rehabilitation,” Adrian said quietly. “You can build something special.”

Sally smiled at that. “And we will, but there is a cost.” she nodded towards Dave who was looking up with his normal bright expression, the dark deeds they had talked about pushed down.

“Are you really ok?”

Dave nodded. “He had a chance and blew it. He died because of his choices not mine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Surprisingly, yes! As I said, I have seen lots of my friends die. Compared to that, doing my bit to protect the town does not bother me. He could have saved himself by taking the Oath. I am fine.”

Listening to him, it sounded like his conscience was mostly clear. There was still stuff at the peripheral after all his duty had just made him kill a man in cold blood and those bits might never clear.

Poor Guy.

“So what do you think?” Sally asked him.

“I think you are going to create an Oasis and a great place to live. I just hope there are no more Lucu’s and Birds. Given a chance, you guys will thrive.”

Sally smiled, Dave patted his back.

“You need laws, you need to enforce those laws. It has a cost,” he nodded towards Dave and the man winced slightly. “A toll that is unavoidable, but better that price is paid by people who care than monsters who don’t. You guys are creating something amazing,” he flicked his head back towards the sounds of the partying. There was live music. It was not good, but people were actually playing music once more. “Thousands of people are alive because of what you have done. Thousands more have hope for the future. You are winning. You are creating something amazing and better still, you have the steel in you to protect what you are creating. If you had let this slide or resorted to banishment, then bully’s would be emboldened and everything might come crashing down.  Instead, there is awful music, laughter and hope.”

“I will drink to that.” Sally held an identical flask to the one in his hand, she must have plucked it from her bag of holding. He pulled his own out and Sally produced another, which she handed to Dave.

“To a bright future,” she cheered.

They drank together.

“This is way too morose for a celebration,” Sally had a twinkle in her eye. “With the Bird dead and Cooper’s help, we are going to make something special and that is worth celebrating.” She was cheerful again, and only a little was the party mask. Finally, she was letting herself go.

Heading back to their table, the kids had disappeared to be around others their age. A couple of tables closer to the door, all the teenagers and young adults had gathered to drink more boisterously. He settled down between Sally and Susie. It was the leader's table. Everyone was over forty except for himself, who looked twenty and was completely out of place.

A snort. Who cares what anyone thinks?

“Secret town business,” Susie asked with a slight slur.

“Nah. Sally was just begging me to stay.”

“I was not!”

“It was embarrassing,” Dave confirmed, getting giggles from everyone at the table.

“I refused, I am still going to Melbourne.”

“Who with?” Graham asked.

“Currently Susie, Kozzie, Jules and myself, but we will take anyone competent.”

“They have to be competent.”

“Of course it will be too dangerous otherwise.”

“You are not stealing any of the good ones,” Sally warned. More laughter.

“What do you think the trip will be like?”

“Dangerous,” Susie said.

“Hard,” Adrian agreed. “I am wondering what we are going to see.”

Suddenly there was screaming. A yelling Kozzie went flying across the room, thrown over multiple chairs after being hit by a giant of a man. The big man was pumping his hands in the air like a wrestling champion trying revving up a crowd. All the time he was laughing.

Jules who was sitting next to him was on her feet. A quick step back before anyone reacted, her club in her fists. She brought it up and swung it hard into the giant's back.

Adrian leapt to his feet, only to find the world swaying alarmingly. Shadow stepping by instinct closer to break up the fight.

Nothing happened.

Trying again, same result.

The world swayed.

In front of him, only five meters away, the fight was unfolding, and he was too slow. The club hit with a thump that would be heard in neighbouring buildings. Rage filled the big mans face as he almost stumbled forward. He was turning to assault Jules. Two girls stepped forward to grab Kozzie, who was pushing himself to his feet while reaching for his knives. Adrian recognised one of melee fighters that had been in their party to get anti inherent healing herbs. She had thrown her arms around Kozzie to prevent him drawing his weapons.

People were yelling, both Jules and the big man were tackled by multiple men and women.

Shadow Step.

It failed again. Using his feet to charge forward but Graham’s hand found his shoulder easily holding him back.

“Kids having fun,” Graham reminded him.

The risk had passed, so he sat down heavily with the whole world rocking around him. So drunk it was hard to see straight. Tamara and Dave were both in the action sorting everything out.

How on earth had Dave moved so quickly?

They contained the big man, Kozzie, while still shouting had put his knives away. Five people were sitting on Jules, waiting for the Berserker status to fade. The brawl if it could be called that had fizzled out quickly before anyone else had been drawn into it

Maybe he should be...

“Stay down,” Graeme insisted, grabbing his shoulder as he went to get up. “let the professionals deal with it.”

Dave at some point caught his eyes and gave him a thumbs up apparently everything was under control.

Kozzie ran over to Jules and everyone was getting off her at his insistence. The moment she was free she grabbed him in a big hug and whispering in his ears

Dave came over. The big guy was being let away by Tamara none of his friends were supporting him.

“He can sleep it off,” Dave told them, “and we will deal with the consequences in the morning.”

“What happened?” Susie asked Adrian had not noticed but Sally had been holding Susie back.

“Barry patted your daughter on the bum, Kozzie reacted by hitting him. Barry hit Kozzie back, Jules hit Barry and everyone else stopped the fight. Just standard high jinks.”

“What's the punishment going to be?” he asked Sally.

Sally looked at him like he was stupid. “I am not the queen, it will be whatever the magistrate thinks is appropriate.”

A calmer Jules and Kozzie disappeared together.

“It is an interesting question,” Dave acknowledged after a moment's thought. “Before it would have been a warning at the most. However, there is a bit of difference between kids fighting with firsts vs kids fighting with magic and swords.”

“Probably still a warning,” Sally snorted. “After all, we also have healing magic.”

“Maybe Cooper, will force an oath of no alcohol for a month,” Dave quipped.

“We are not a torture camp.” Graham protested. “That surely counts as cruel and unusual punishment.” More laughter.

He sat. The world spun. The seat shifted under him and he landed on his back, staring up at a whole lot of concerned faces. Everything was swaying.

“Maybe we should help him to his room”

He shut his eyes, making everything that worse. Opening them again. Hands were helping him.

“We have a room reserved next door.”

What is happening?