3

One by one the systems that were dependent on the Overseer came crashing down. First it was the train line, this only caused a slight interruption to the average person before the controllers fixed the problem.

News stations started asking people to switch away from using the Overseer’s infrastructure in their projects.

The next major system to fail was the public communications network. This caused widespread panic and a rushed response from authorities.

Before even making any headway the most crucial system of the Meritocracy fell. Their banking system. They used to rely on the Overseer to determine how much credit to give a person for their contribution, and now that system has ceased functioning.

There was still 160 hours remaining before the Overseer would ascend and already it seems the Meritocracy has been brought to its knees.

This situation however was only true from the perspective of the average citizen, those in power had long since been prepared for the potential failing of the Overseers infrastructure. The Sage Guild was still standing strong, their stores have become the citizens clung to as a symbol of normality during these chaotic times.

Clara checked her armband. Ever since the communication network broke down the quality of their messages has gone down, but it was still workable. A projection shot into her eyes from the crystal on the armband. It was a message from Teresa, it read: The mercs should be arriving any time now. No signs of movement form the crazies.

The crazies was referring to the underground cult which has suddenly made itself known the last week. They called themselves Coming of Dawn, aiming to lead civilization into a new era. Up until just recently they were nothing more that a fringe group. But it seems that they weren’t the only one to thing of gaining support from the lesser established originations. Their aim in doing so however was anything but peaceful. They wanted power, and they were willing to burn the whole Meritocracy just to see it through.

She blinked a few times and the projection shot into her eyes changed into the familiar view of a keyboard, she quickly typed out her reply: Right, I’m going to talk to the Sage Guild. Keep me informed.

Message sent Clara focused on the building in front of her. The Sage Guild was impressive, it was almost as large as her house, but this was in a business district, meaning the land value must have been sky high.

“Miss Clara?” A polite man asked as she approached the door. She was certain he must already know exactly who she was and what she looks like, but she played along nonetheless.

“Yes, it is I. Who might you be?”

“Welcome to the Sage Guild, my name is Radam Neihere. The elders have been expecting you.”

She entered the building. The inside was unlike a mansion and much more utilitarian. There was a large sign of the Sage Guild hanging on the wall opposite the door and that was about as far as decoration went in this place. The walls were painted different colors, serving no purposed she could see, but they did somehow manage to be pleasing to the eye no matter from which angle she viewed them.

A receptionist was standing behind a plastic desk, only giving them a brief glance before smiling and waving them through.

They entered an elevator. These were of the latest designs the Sage Guild developed. The man tapped the button designating the top floor and the elevator started rising.

The man was content to remain silent. His job was not to talk. He was simply there to guide her to her next destination.

He lead her to a room with a round table standing in the center, around the table were 10 people, the so-called elders of the Sage Guild.

What surprised her the most was that she didn’t recognize even half of them.

“Greetings Miss Clara.” An Elzora man sitting in the middle said.

Elzora are the lizard skin, floppy eared and frog pupiled race. This man was larger than most of his kind, and had a very intimidating aura.

Something like intimidation was wasted on Clara though. Her analytical mind was more focused on understanding the new situation.

They must have realized that they had people that were compromised among their leaders.

She shook here armband and it buzzed in negation. It seems this place was sealed off from communications with the outside.

“Is this an attempt to catch me off guard?” She calmly asked the man.

The man smiled slightly, “Things are not as they might appear. While we know that there are eyes watching over us that is of no concern to us. There is something which your informant might not know of. That is our culture. We are seekers of knowledge, regardless of your intentions in coming here we must first determine whether or not you are a likeminded soul. Otherwise we’d just be wasting our time.”

“Interesting.” She said as she took a chair. Not waiting for the council to offer her one. “So, some sort of test is it? Go ahead, surprise me.”

“First off, do you know what is happening to the Overseer?”

She grinned; this was not a question she could answer, “More than anyone else. But its not something I’m willing to talk about.”

The head speaker looked at the other members around him and saw their indifference, shrugged then changed the topic.

“What would you consider to be the greatest technological breakthrough in the last 100 years?”

She thought about it for a moment. The question was strange, the way in which it was asked was very subjective. She supposed that she’d need to answer in such a way that she’d make it clear that it was an opinion and not a fact.

“Personally, I consider the animus battery to be the most influential work in the last 100 years. While it is certain that there are other advancements made that were much greater the animus battery was something which made this all possible. Think of it, without the ability to control animus we would never stand a chance of controlling magical phenomena. Without the control over magical phenomena we would never have been able to test the most controversial scientific theories or have any way to verify them. Then there are the other applications, things which mages might consider mundane, but with time we might even surpass those archmages of legend.”

She sat back and looked over to the rest of the elders. Some seemed to be deep in thought. One turned to her and asked, “What of the impetus drive, surely that was also a groundbreaking invention?”

She stared at the man and answered, “Though the Impetus Drive will cause many more changes to our daily life than any other invention. It isn’t something groundbreaking; it is the implementation of a well-known phenomenon called the Impetus Continuum Principle. I foresee a long arms race coming to the transportation industry, the current implementation has many part to it that aren’t sufficiently optimized. The cost of using an Impetus Drive is still astronomical in comparison. What is groundbreaking however is the way in which they’ve found a solution to implementing it. Using the Overseer’s infrastructure along with a artificial animus working on solving the problem, each iteration correcting itself and using various calculation to predict and decide on the most rewarding path of growth has a far greater impact on the scientific field. Soon we might even be seeing a new rush of papers publishing their findings after using similar methods.”

She paused for a while.

“But it’s unfortunate that the Overseer’s infrastructure is out of order for now.”

They spent a few moments asking her some more questions, some challenging her directly, some trying to lead her into refuting her own points.

Finally the elders quietened. The head speaker looked at the others. “Well? What do you think?”

“Satisfactory.”

“Among the list of candidates, this one is the most viable.”

“She’s exceeded my expectations.”

The rest of the crowd looked at the small man. He shrunk back after seeing everyone staring at him. He then held up his arms and said, “What? I wasn’t really expecting much. Not after I’ve met the other candidates.”

This caught Clara’s attention. “The other clans have approached you?”

The elders looked at the head speaker. The head speaker nodded and said, “Yes, how else do you think we detected those imposters? We aren’t really known for our political savvy otherwise this organization would be very different by now.”

“And the guild is willing to work under a clan?”

All of the council members shrugged in one way or another.

A lithe female elf spoke, “One would need to be an idiot to not realize the upcoming storm. Though this might be a time of danger there is also opportunity here for those who pick the right side.”

“And you’re fine with placing your wellbeing in someone else’s hands?”

“After this storm passes only one group shall remain, and when that time comes we’ll be at their mercy in any case. So why not fight now, while we still have a chance to influence the results?”

“Better to be a loyal servant than a subject slave.” A muscular rabbit-kin man sitting to the side muttered.

Clara couldn’t help but agree. The reasoning sounded logical. She checked the time. She was starting to shave it close.

“I need to leave in a bit. I guess I’ll hear from you, or not?” She asked as she stood to leave.

“Wait!” the head speaker called.

Clara turned and the man started speaking again.

“Given the chance to flee while maintaining all of your clan’s wealth and power, would you take it, or would you rather stay and fight?”

Clara answered almost immediately, “I’d stay. Without the meritocracy my clan is nothing. What need have I to go out and play king when the only thing I’ve ever truly wanted can only be found here?”

Clara bit farewell to the elders and left the building. Outside a man was waiting. He was leaning against the wall and stood as soon as he saw her exit.

“Are you my guard?” She asked.

The man nodded but remained silent.

Deep underground, under a place known as the Overseer’s infrastructure. A small ball was floating over a table. The ball seemed to be constrained by the rods next to it, but it still struggled to escape.

It shook, but the rods soon adjusted and held it in place, it started to fade but the next moment it was brighter and more clear than ever before. Slowly a fire was building within the small ball. The wires and servers surrounding the table all suddenly lit up.

A beep came from all the servers at once and the wires traveling to the table slowly filled with a light, as if it was a liquid being sucked out from a straw the light slowly traveled to the table.

When the light reached the table a beam of light shot through the ball and the ball shuddered and started to crack. The beam cut off and the ball slowly recovered. As soon as the ball was fully repaired another beam shot through the ball. The ball cracked and repaired itself, this time even more quickly than before. This repeated with the intervals between pauses growing shorter and the time the beam was emitting growing longer.

This continued for a day or so until it stopped. The fire within the small ball had all but withered, now only a smoke gloss remained.

The table hummed, and the ball hummed back.

Time passed…

Time waits for no one. With each and every moment the Overseer was out of commission time was getting more and more precious. Luckily the outside world was not prepared to take advantage of this momentary weakness, they still had time to prepare.

Unfortunately their country was currently going through some internal strife. Clara stood in front of the car and looked over at the two suspicious figures hanging around a car which was much too expensive to be something an ordinary civilian would drive. Clara got into the car and spoke. “Drive.”

The driver stepped on the peddle, the car pulled away and the two suspicious figures got in their car and started chasing after her. Her shadow was sitting next to her, having gotten inside as soon as she did.

“Do you see that?” She asked.

He nodded. “Not your friends are they?” His voice was scratchy and dull. Perfectly in line with the way he appeared.

“I think there’s someone after me.”

“…Can’t imagine why.”

She smirked then said, “I’m a law abiding citizen.”

She spoke to the driver, “Take a right here. I don’t think this is going to end well.”

She then turned to her shadow, “You, do your job.”

He shrugged then pulled out a pistol, “How do you want them; dead, alive, or slightly toasted?”

“Just kill them. I’ve got enough enemies that it doesn’t even matter who they are from.”

He chuckled opened the door and leaned out. “I knew this was going to be a fun assignment.”

Unlike the Meritocracy her shadow was a mercenary hired from outside the southern isles. Although he might use firearms, he primarily relied on magic to fight. So when he leaned out of the door then turned into a shadow that sank into the road she wasn’t really surprised.

Shadow magic was synonymous with deception. Although it might seem like he was only a shadow swimming over the ground he was actually using his magic to glide along the floor. His figure was totally shrouded so at the fast speed he was traveling he seemed like nothing more than a blur.

The shadow sprang up right as the car chasing them passed. He slammed into the car’s dash and aimed his gun at the two people sitting inside.

Firing twice he leaped into the air as the car, now without someone at the wheel, lost control, skidded to the side then flipped over.

The shadow used some sort of method to appear by their car and entered from the open door.

“Nice,” Clara commented.

The shadow shrugged, “That was nothing…”

He seemed to hesitate for a moment before he turned to her. “The people here aren’t very skilled are they?”

“No, it’s been a long time since we’ve been under conflict… If you’re some sort of thrill seeker then rest assured, the real experts have yet to make an appearance.”

He chuckled, “You’ve read my mind. The only reason I’m here is cause Teresa said there’d be fighting.”

“Is that so? How do you know Teresa?”

He gazed out at the side of the road longingly, “Teresa is one fine woman. I’ve never seen someone so strong.”

“Teresa can fight?” This was a surprise.

He looked at her in surprise, “What you don’t know? She’s made a legend for herself in the North. I’ve fought her once before, we were on opposite sides at the time and I’ve since vowed never to fall into the same situation again.”

“Why is that, are you afraid of her?”

“No, although she’s way better than me in almost everything that doesn’t mean I’m afraid of her.” He sighed, and a silly expression appeared on his formerly dull face. “From the moment I saw her fight, I’ve fallen in love.”

“Bleh.” Thinking of Teresa together with this dull guy was a bit sickening.

They drove in peace the rest of the way, nothing else came to interrupt them as they arrived at the Harcourt clan’s base. The building was a common office building which was about 10 floors high

“You can take a room on the second floor as long as it isn’t already occupied. I’ll be working on the fourth floor. You can contact me through your com-ring if there’s anything urgent.”

“Sure, I know the drill. Teresa said you’re going to be a handful and she isn’t one to exaggerate. So I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Clara grit her teeth and muttered, “That girl.”

Clara stepped into the elevator, the guard greeting on the way. She had long stopped waving them off when they saluted her, her arms would get tired from how much she would have to do it.

As she stepped into the fourth floor she met up with the lead researcher and had him update her on their progress, things were proceeding smoothly.

After that she spent the rest of the day absorbed in her own work, given her current situation she wasn’t sure whether her project would be finished by tomorrow, but she should be able to finish within three days.

After finishing for the day she went to the fifth floor and went to sleep. She dreamed of many things, chief among them was all the imagined horrers their enemies would be unleashing on them.