Seeking Strays

A shiver went down my spine as my foot dropped down onto worn carpet instead of the familiar white stone of the Lighthouse Chapel. That, alongside the faint brimstone-scent in the air, were the first clues that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

The small space of the chapel had been swallowed by an ancient, dimly lit cathedral at some point. The vaulted ceiling seemed to stretch endlessly upward, and windows along the walls let in blazing red light. By the time it reached the ground floor, though, the light was just enough to see by.

A blazing inferno sat at the center of the altar, just as all of the Pyre’s places of worship were constructed. The flames burned an ominous blood-red instead of the normally soothing golden shade. Shadows cast by the red fire danced around like sinful beasts.

My nails clawed against the weathered wood of a pew. Shadows lurched into existence around the nave. People. Civilians from Silverport, based on what they were wearing. I wasn’t the only one to enter the Overlap, though I was probably the only willing one.

Before I could get a good look at them, my attention was stolen away by golden fire arcing through the air just in front of my face. The sensation of innumerable eyes watching me faded into a comforting wave of warmth.

| Do not listen to her.

She only tells the truth.

Do not bargain.

She always honors all deals.

Do not accept gifts.

She does not give freely.

Cause no harm.

Commit no evil.

Above all else, do not look back. |

My tail curled weakly against my leg, and I tried not to focus on the fear welling up inside of me. I took a deep breath, and hugged Vigil tightly in my arms to keep myself calm. This wasn’t the first time I’d been through one of these. I just needed to follow the rules, and I’d get out of this one alive, too.

Right, I walked for over a week through the Mire. This much was nothing. If anything, it was like a tutorial. The rules were short, clearly written, and easy to follow as long as the anomaly wasn’t going to kill me over the exact definition of listen. I bit my lip and read through the list one more time. “Do you see it too, Vigil?”

”Affirmative, Operator.” Vigil’s entirely neutral voice calmed me down. Despite the situation, the Titan Core was still the same. The HUD that the Biosystems usually showed up through appeared in the very corner of my vision, and copied the rules down word for word. “We appear to have slipped into a subspace of some kind.”

“… thank you.” I loosened my hold on him, and tucked him safely into my hood so he’d have a good view of things. This way I wouldn’t have to worry about losing him either. “It’s an Anomaly Overlap. You do know about those, don’t you?”

“Those records were expunged.” Vigil’s memory proved to be as reliable as ever. “Forming a new record now.”

“Smart.” I swept our surroundings with a critical eye. At a quick glance, there were somewhere around thirty other people scattered around the cathedral. Most were human, though there were three White Rabbit Apexes mixed into the bunch. I didn’t catch a single flash of silver.

Where was Sister Neriyov? Why did I come into this thing if she wasn’t even here in the first place? Had I walked into this thing for nothing? A pang of regret flooded through me. There wasn’t even a single nun in the group of people.

If none of the chapel staff were here, when had I actually entered? Did I start slipping into the Overlap before I even approached the church? The street had been oddly empty. Maybe I stepped into a subspace between the material world and the Overlap? Otherwise, there should’ve been sisters and other clergy in here too.

“Let me out!” A bulky man with cybernetic arms pounded on the main door at the back of the cathedral. No matter how much he hit and slammed, the door remained shut. “Open up the door!”

With him causing such a commotion, the others around the room came to their senses. A punk White Rabbit at the front with arms covered in tattoos looked around the room. “Does anyone know what’s going on?”

”I’ve heard about this! We must’ve entered an Anomaly!” A panicking woman with blazing red hair collapsed onto a weathered pew at the front of the nave.

The White Rabbit glowed with a spectral blue, and dashed to her side in an instant. Some kind of speed Aspect, maybe? He grabbed her shoulders and shook her around. “Hey! You! Speak clearly.”

“I-I don’t know!” The shaking only seemed to make her more frazzled. She roughly pushed up her glasses. “My brother works for Harbor as an accountant, so I-I’ve just heard about this kind of thing in passing.”

“The anomaly! What did you mean by that?!” The punk White Rabbit’s frantic shouts spread into the surrounding civilians. One by one, more shouting voices lifted into the air. Panic instantly spread across the cathedral.

“Oi!” A man in heavy ballistic armor stood up on a pew and shouted out. He was a lone Peace Keeper with an assault rifle held loosely in his arms. “Everyone calm down, yeah? Panic won’t help anything. And you! Let her go.”

“Fine.” The White Rabbit let go of the woman, and backed away. With a figure of authority taking charge, everyone started to gather around the Peace Keeper.

The PK jumped off the pew and approached the red-haired woman. “Ma’am, what’s your name?”

”Dreary.” The red-haired woman flinched, and her head dipped toward the ground. She calmed down slightly. “Lizabeth Dreary.”

”I’m Officer Bradson.” The PK lifted his hand to his chest and showed off a badge. “Can you tell me what you know?”

”Just… just that we’re in extreme danger.”

“She’s right.” I took my chance to speak up. I pulled my wallet out and likewise flashed a badge to the group. “Canary Vargriev, Harbor. We’ve entered an Overlap.”

“And what exactly does that mean?” The White Rabbit crossed his arms in front of his chest. The spectral glow around him flickered out, and his long ears pinned back against his skull. “Bojang Whitley.”

“Canary.” Officer Bradson nodded to me. “With all respect, until this situation is dealt with, I’m taking emergency command.”

”That’s just right, you PK bastard! Of course you’d want to take charge and save yourself.” The White Rabbit spewed venom, and glared at the officer like he might charge.

“He has a point.” I frowned. Although they certainly didn’t have a good reputation, assuming all PKs were out to get the world wasn’t ideal. Especially in a situation like this. Panic was the last thing we needed. “Panicking won’t help. Did everyone else see the flaming rules, too?”

A chunky man in a suit spoke up from the altar side. He was already profusely sweating, and dabbed a handkerchief at his face. “What’s that have to do with anything?”

“Because they were the only warnings we’ll get?” I shrugged, and stood up from my pew. “I’ve been in this kind of situation before. As long as we follow the rules—“

The doors just to the side of the altar clattered open, and a nun walked out. She was breathtaking. By far the most beautiful woman I’d seen in my entire life. Her features looked as if the Pyre itself sculpted them with every curve too precise to belong to a living person. The seductive smile only made her features more distinctive.

She paused just shy of leaving the raised platform that the altar sat on. Her softly glowing eyes trailed between all of us gathered around the pews. Her voice, when she spoke, sounded like the soft tinkling of a bell. She had a peculiar accent that turned sharp sounds into gentle, lyrical rolls. “Welcome to the Church of the Repentant, my friends.”

Her voice seemed to break a spell spread across everyone. Shouts and confused cries erupted from the civilians. I was too focused on the woman herself to pay attention to any of that, though. There was something about her that I couldn’t quite place my finger on.

She wasn’t a nun. At least, not one I recognized from the Lighthouse Chapel. She was just… too perfect, almost? It made my fur stand on end just being near her. I could put two and two together. Was she who the rules warned about?

“Are you in charge here?!” The tattooed White Rabbit glared at her, seemingly untaken with her drop-dead gorgeous appearance. “Let us go!”

“Calm, friends, calm.” Her gentle voice smoothly cut across the clamor. “I’m Sister Lilah, and I’m here to take care of you during these most wretched times.”

The Peace Keeper raised his hands to assist in calming down the crowd of civilians. ”How do we leave? Just let us go.”

“Of course, of course.” Sister Lilah smiled softly as if she was watching a cute deer caught in headlights. “It’s a simple matter, really. This is a small trial for those chosen few. Great rewards await.”

At the mention of a reward, silence spread across the cathedral. I could see it in their eyes—greed. Greed, curiosity, and jealousy. Living as a mundane person in a world with heroes and monsters was hard. There was a reason Reavers existed. Some would do whatever it took to get a small fraction of power.

The burly man with cybernetic arms shouted across the cathedral. “What kind of reward?”

“Anything you could wish for.” She waved her hand and the front pews vanished into deep shadows. In their place, tables covered in various items surged out of the darkness. “You may take freely, friends. Once you have, I’ll let you go.”

Once we took something, we could go? I rubbed at my tail uncomfortably. If she only told the truth, then that was really it? No, no it couldn’t be that simple. These were just gifts by another name, weren’t they? She couldn’t lie, so I could just ask, right? “Will we be harmed after taking one?”

“No, no, my friend.” She smiled at me. The expression showed way too many teeth to fit in a human skull. “Right after taking them, you won’t be harmed in any way and can freely leave.”

Right after? What about after that? No matter what showed up on the table, I couldn’t accept one of those. I’d been around enough liars and cheats to know the truth was sometimes more dangerous than an outright lie. Especially a misdirection. The fact she only told the truth made her words more dangerous.

“Will taking one cause harm at a later point?” The best way to get through a misdirecting truth was to keep asking questions. “And what happens to those who leave?”

“I will not harm anyone who receives their reward.” The entity hiding itself as a nun shot me an annoyed look. “And those who leave will be set free.”

“Operator, do not approach.” Vigil warned me through the… the… what did he call it? Bone conduction? His unexpected voice made me flinch.

“Wasn’t planning on it,” I muttered back to him. Do not accept gifts was the fifth rule. It was a simple one—and one that most of the people immediately broke before I could shout a warning. “Put those down!”

A group of civilians had already closed in on the tables and helped themselves from the scattered items while I was thinking. The sweaty man in the suit held up a broadsword like it weighed nothing, and looked back toward me. “Why? She said it herself—this is the way out of here. There’s some good stuff here, too!”

[ Swordmaster’s Trial Sword - Pass the test, and receive the unbeatable sword techniques of a swordmaster. With it, a single grain of strength can sunder mountains.]

”Did you not read the rules?” Bojang Whitley asked in exasperation. Like me and several others, he hung back away from the tables.

At our interference, several people seemed to second guess themselves. Some hesitated, and looked down at the items they just picked up. A few of them even started to set the rewards down.

”Of course I read them. She said it herself, these are rewards, not gifts.” The man sneered at us, and shook his head. “Do you want to stay here forever?”

What was this guy? A plant from Sister Lilah? ”You’re arguing semantics—“

“Yeah? How’s this for semantics? Your stupid rules said not to listen to the gentle Sister Lilah, right? Look at us.” He rested the sword on his shoulder and waved to the twenty or so civilians that’d picked up items. “Look at yourselves, too! We’re all totally fine.”

Maybe listen didn’t mean just hear? It could mean obey. Or maybe even believe? That’d fit with the warning that she always told the truth. Really, for all I knew even just hearing her voice could’ve already doomed us. The rules hadn’t stuck a handy textbook definition onto the word.

“For now. You’re fine for now.” I sighed, and shook my head. I could see where they were coming from, though. The Blackwater Biosystems let me see what the items scattered around were.

[ Scourge Bane - A legendary vi-rifle said to cut through anything in its path.]

[ Ancient Zo’thir War Banner - A legendary banner that grants the user unstoppable strength and endurance.]

[ Bell of the Wistful - Can bring peace and stillness to all creatures who hear its tool.]

[ Pyre’s Raiments - Become imbued with Radiance.]

[ Death’s Grail - A single sip grants immortality.]

There was one of them in particular that caught my eye, though. It was an ancient, dusty manuscript that sat abandoned off to the side of the table. Hot air billowed through the cathedral, and the pages rustled under my gaze.

[ Psyker’s Fury Manuscript - A record of a long lost fighting style that channels and controls external psionic forces into brutal blows.]

And that was just at a glance at the table. I had to force myself to look away. The last one, especially, tempted me beyond all else. Maybe with that, I wouldn’t have to worry about corruption? Still, I stayed by my convictions. My survival instincts had kept me alive this long.

“Can we really just take these?” A woman clutching at a golden bag in both hands asked Sister Lilah. She was elderly with grey hair and the wrinkled signs of a hard life.

[ Descen Royalty’s Golden Pouch - Grants your weight in gold upon opening.]

“Of course, my friend.” The nun clapped her hands together, and waved toward the rows of items. “You may take freely, friends… probably best you just take one, though.”

A couple people put down multiple items they picked up. Her recommendation to only grab one seemed to further enhance her credibility amongst the crowd. The sweaty man lifted his head proudly. “See?”

“Those repentant few of you who’ve accepted your reward may leave! The exit is the door I came through. The rest of you…” Sister Lilah shook her head with an incredibly sad expression on her face like we were pitiful lambs led astray.

The look made me want to punch her in the face, though my instincts screamed not to get close. Instead, I tried one more time. “Put them back down, and get away from her! This is your last chance!”

“Ah, forget them!” Bojang threw his hands forward, and backed away. “It’s their lives they’re throwing away.”

The sheer confidence with which we spoke swayed one woman. Of the twenty or so civilians that picked things up, only the elderly woman looked down at her item. “Maybe… maybe she’s right? Nothing in the world is free.”

”Heh, you’re really going to take her word?” The sword wielding man shook his head, and his eyes narrowed on me. “Wait, yeah, I was wondering why you looked so familiar! You’re that hero Canary everyone keeps talking about, aren’t you. Don’t look like much to me.”

”Yes!” I pulled my mask off to hopefully appeal to their sense of authority. Although greed had gotten its hooks into them, they were still just civilians at the end of the day. “I’m Canary Reyna. Please, put them down and—“

”So what? I’ll be stronger than you by the time you get out of here.” The man hefted his sword and walked away without a second thought. “Stupid bitch. Just a little fame, and you think you’re something. Just a Canary. You only carry gear and scream when the real heroes need to know something’s coming.”

“That—that…” I bit down my defenses. I did som much more than that, but trying to get that point across would only weaken whatever authority I had left. “Even if you’re right this is me telling you that something’s coming if you don’t put those down.”

My words fell on deaf ears. Only the elderly woman set the pouch down. “I don’t know about this…”

”Rule five, don’t accept gifts.” I pointed toward the rows of items. “There’s no telling what will happen once you do.”

The woman with the pouch put it back down, and shrugged when several of the others looked at her. ”She is a Canary.”

”And I’m about to be a Swordmaster. Hmph.” The sweaty man shook his head and moved for the side door. “‘Sides, Sister Lilah said it herself, and she can’t lie. Your rules said as much. This is the way out.”

“Please…” I tried one last time, but everyone had already made their decision. All except the woman with the golden pouch walked toward the side of the altar. When the last of them passed through the doors, only eleven of us remained.

As I watched them go, I couldn’t help but second guess my own line of thought. I could see from the men and women around me that I wasn’t the only one to wonder if I picked wrong.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!