The food served at the Guild-dinner was surprisingly scrumptious, a feast in the most literal sense of the word and at first, I had a ‘feasting while the world burns around us’ impression, wondering just how we were supposed to enjoy the expertly prepared food knowing that around us, people had lost everything. After that moment, I realised just why it was served the way it was, what I was looking at was the food that would have perished in a day or two without refrigeration, prepared by the various hotel-chefs that had their kitchens destroyed. It was quite simply a case of using resources before they perished and realising that allowed me to enjoy the superb food.

During dinner, I noticed that everyone stayed away from heavy topics, mostly making relaxed small-talk and getting to know people, it was a little surreal, openly talking with other Powered and, at times, listen to their stories about heists they pulled or heists they stopped, sometimes talking about the same heist, with both sides of the conflict sitting at the table, laughing about the tricks they pulled on each other. After getting attacked the first time I went out, going out as a Powered had been serious business for me, permanently knowing that I might be attacked at any point, losing everything I had tried to accomplish in the process. But for these people, it seemed to be a game, a fun way to play with their powers and the worst thing that might happen was some time spent in lock-up before they managed to break out again. At least as long as they did not cause undue harm or destruction. It was as if they were playing a real-life version of cops and robbers, only with super-powers.

Part of me wanted to play as well, but I doubted I would be able to relax into it the same way they did, not after knowing the other side of the coin, where people ruthlessly tried and sometimes succeed in killing each other. I did not feel guilt for killing Clark the way I did, but at the same time, I knew that I would never be able to forget the feeling of pulling the trigger, killing not to rescue someone but to prevent him from coming after me, ever again.

It took me a bit to get into the swing of things, but even then I felt myself almost instinctively hold back, listening without making more than the appropriate noises to let those who talked with me know that I was not nodding off. I did manage to talk a bit with Fixit, the Healer and Doctor, mostly about possible ways to improve the current understanding of Powered and how our powers worked. Sadly, while I was certain that there was a tremendous body of research, most of it was classified to the point of being impossible to find, I had tried and even worked with Galatea to break into some of the files, but found nothing that came to actual conclusions.

It was one of the topics that I wanted to understand, not only because of practical applications but because I wanted to understand more about the world and my particular spot in it. And for that, I wanted, needed, to understand what Powers actually were and how they emerged, especially the question of the strange dreams that came with Emergence.

After an hour or two, the dinner wound down, the various plates were empty and everyone had looks of sated satisfaction on their faces.

“Thank you, everyone, for attending. Tomorrow, we will have to work hard again, so get some sleep. But you all know that, you don’t need me to mother you. Metis, would you please join me for a moment?” Fey ended the feast, before gesturing for me to walk with her. After nodding and asking Anath to head over to the plane, I put on my mask and joined Fey in a second room.

Once I was inside, she closed the door and raised one hand, before taking off a necklace and holding it above her open hand. The necklace had a pendant in the form of a silvery hexahedron on it, making me wonder for a moment, before she started to mumble something under her breath. I tried to hear it, quickly pushing up the gain on my sensors, but somehow, the sound did not carry, increasing my confusion, which reached its peak when a silvery light started to shine from the pendant, infusing our surroundings before winking out.

“Very Good, now we can talk without being overheard.” Fey explained with a satisfied smile on her face, while I tried to wrap my head around what I had just seen. Curiously, Galatea told me that we were still connected to the outside world, despite whatever Fey had done. I quickly held up my hand, stopping her. If she wanted to make sure we were not overheard, I would do my part. Scanning for small listening devices was not too hard, unless they were quite sophisticated. If they had an active connection or unshielded batteries, I would be able to pick them up and a quick scan of the room came back clean.

“I agree, there seem to be no listening devices in evidence.” I told her, letting my hand drop.

“Earlier, I named you my second in command, which is a position you earned, fair and square. But, as always, there’s more to it than the obvious.” she began and I noticed a shift in her posture and voice, a shift that strongly reminded me of Technica when she put on her serious, Guild-Councillor demeanor.

“One of the first rules of Command and Management is, always commend in public, scold in private. Yes, earlier, when Hancock went off at you, I neglected to follow that rule. What you don’t know is that Hancock and I talked before and he agreed to take a hit to his reputation to boost yours.” she began and I tried to incorporate the new information into what I already knew. Luckily, I had Galatea with me and together, we could quickly consider what that actually meant.

“It is politics, is it not?” I asked, curious how much Fey would tell me. Unless I was grossly mistaken, Hancock taking a deliberate hit to his reputation was done to enhance my own. Maybe he did not mind doing so because of his age or because he was content in his current role, or maybe it was simply done because the opportunity had presented itself but ultimately, it did not matter why. He had effectively gifted me his reputation, with Fey taking my side over his, he had publicly been put into his place, which seemed to be beneath me, thus giving me a boost that would hopefully help on my way into the Guild-council.

Fey smiled at my comment, maybe because of my quick understanding, and continued.

“Yes, it is. As much as the Guild likes to paint itself as apolitical, it is a political institution and the council is only part of that. Sure, to become a councillor, you need to have the skills and power to hold the seat, but if you want to actually be councillor, not just a body on the council, you also need the reputation, the respect of your fellow Powered.” she explained and I started to wonder if that was what I actually wanted. Part of me wanted to simply tell her that I did not care about the Guild, which was only partially true, the last few months of working with Technica had given me some appreciation for the Guild, and that I just wanted to research in peace, without anyone bothering me.

But before I could voice that, Galatea broke into my stream of thought, reminding me that the Colours, that group the Greene-Family was part of, that somehow and to an unknown extent implicated the King-Family, the family I had fled from, burning every connection to ashes as I had left, that they were out there. Was I really content to let them run wild, to let them do whatever they pleased?

Before I could come to an conclusion, Fey continued.

“But now that the positive part is out of the way, you need to ask yourself why you did what you did. To my understanding, when Hancock raised reasonable security concerns, you first ignored him, followed by sending music to his communicator.” she stated, sounding reasonable but firm, clearly displeased.

“I don’t know the extent of your abilities, nobody really does, maybe not even you. So, how would someone else know if their concerns, which, let’s be honest, were that if you made a mistake, simply overlooking something, might have dropped a building on some civilians. What you should have done was telling him that his concerns were taken into account and continued as you did. But never, ever, mock someone for stating a reasonable concern. Otherwise, they will stop doing so and at some point, you will fail to do so. And don’t claim you won’t, you might be Powered but you are still human. No human is without error.” she continued with the same tone, not letting me cut in.

Looking at it from her point of view, she was right and I started to feel quite embarrassed about my actions. They had felt right, maybe even a little funny, at the time but what I had done was mock someone who had done the right thing. Any objection I had to her scolding me, it died on my tongue when I realised that I would only sound childish.

“I have no excuse and it will not happen again. I will, privately, apologize to Hancock.” I said to Fey, to which she gave me a proud smile, indicating that she felt it was the right course of action.

“With that taken care of, go, get some sleep. I have no idea how you managed to get that communication-system set up, but I can almost feel your exhaustion.” she gave me a friendly smile and gestured to the door, clearly dismissing me.