Morgan expected to feel the familiar sensations. There was no burning or pain. Instead, as he fell spiraling toward the ground, he noticed the glider wing had taken all the damage.

  “What the hell?”

  “It appears that Fortuitous Block activated and blocked the attack. You are uninjured,” Sophia said, surprised.

  Morgan was still spiraling. The single wing made him cartwheel through the air. He put the glider into his inventory but continued his dizzying descent. He scrambled to make himself lighter and slowed to a crawl., stopping the twisting. Satisfied, he made himself heavier, only to find himself ‘falling’ sideways into a wall of the citadel.

  “Now what the hell is this? What is going on?” Morgan said, throwing his hands up, or more accurately out sideways.

  “It appears your ring can not only manipulate the scalar but the vector of your gravity,” Sophia said calmly.

  “What’s that mean in English?”

  “You can control the direction that gravity pulls you, and how hard it pulls.”

  Then, Morgan ‘landed’ on the wall and stood up shakily as his perspective tilted horizontal. He took a couple of shaky steps before jumping. He left the wall and then returned.

  “Awesome,” he whispered. Jumping from the wall, then changing the direction of gravity back to down, landing on the ground in a crouch, grinning like an idiot.

  His triumph was short-lived as five Soldiers ran into the courtyard he was in.

  “Careful,” the towering scarecrow of a man in front said. A woman behind him scanned the area with a large recurve bow, impossibly thick arrow nocked. “Did you see a winged monster? She wounded it.”

  “I think that might have been me,” Morgan said, holding his hands up.

  “No, I nailed that thing. It had huge wings,” The woman said, eyes constantly scanning.

  “No, no, I am sure it was me. I have a glider,” Morgan confessed. As the guards turned, raising their weapons, he held up the letter. “I have a report for Colonel Burns from Captain Hernandez. I didn’t even think about defenders. I am sorry.”

  The lead Soldier took the presented letter and looked at it for a split second.

  “Okay, follow me,” He said. “We will escort you to the commander.” He made a couple of hand gestures to his team, and they spread out to follow Morgan as he walked behind the long-legged man in front of him.

  Morgan followed the man swiftly toward the center of the Citadel. They entered at the base of the monolith through a large courtyard holding rows of guards decked out in an odd assortment of armors and weapons training against each other. The inside of the building was surprisingly spacious and airy, lacking the noxious smell of unwashed bodies he expected. The air had a clean, sterile smell.

  As they walked down the wide hall, a young girl carrying a stack of books walked out of the room at the end. The room resembled a library. There was a large wooden desk in the center of the room, and books lay stacked in haphazard piles on every surface. Sitting behind the desk was a gray-haired woman in uniform, with Burns embroidered on her chest. She sat with her hand on the cover of a book. A young boy was holding a book and reaching for another.

  She looked up as Morgan was escorted in. Without taking her hand off the book, she raised an eyebrow at Morgan’s escort.

  “Ma’am,” The scarecrow said. “This man breached the walls and said he had a report for you from Captain Hernandez.”

  She sat patiently for another two seconds and then lifted her hand from the book. As she lifted her hand, the boy tossed the book to the side and replaced it with another from a nearby stack. The man handed her the report. She blinked twice and then handed the report back.

  “Hello Mr. Ward,” She said in a cool and detached voice, placing her hand on the book presented to her. “I am pleased to meet you. After reading the report from Captain Hernandez on the events at Mount Hope, I was skeptical of your success. I am pleased to be mistaken.” She raised her hand, and the boy repeated the process.

  “She is an Archivist,” Sophia said. “They can absorb the information in those books in seconds. Amazing,” Sophia was practically drooling. “I wish you had that ability.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Morgan said, nodding slightly, ignoring Sophia. “I am happy to have helped, but I’m not sure why I am here.”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “Well, to be completely transparent. You are something of a mystery. You are young, and a civilian, but our assessor shows your power is higher than our scale previously measured.” She raised her hand, pointing to a crystal beside the door. It was set in a brazier and was glowing a deep, almost black, purple. She chuckled. “I don’t even know what purple means.”

  “That aside, you saved many of my men at Mount Hope. I am in your debt.”

  Morgan shuffled from side to side, stealing glances at the crystal. It was changing color as Morgan moved. “I would offer you the same choice everyone has here,” She continued. “You can stay in the Citadel, but you must agree to defend it or perform some other support to its defense.” She raised her hand and placed it on another book. “Now, I think your skills are better served performing other tasks besides just guard duty.” She raised her hand and touched another book.

  “Now, if you agree and want to stay, you will need to go to the initial training we have. It takes about an hour a day for two weeks. But I will not assign you to a guard rotation.”

  “Ma’am,” Morgan interrupted. “I would like to talk to my friends first before giving you an answer. Is that alright?”

  “Oh yes, of course. But I will be assigning you a code name.” She pointed her non-book hand at a quiet girl that Morgan hadn’t even noticed, sitting in the corner. The girl had a book in front of her, scribbling soundlessly as they spoke.

  “Ma’am,” The scribe said, pen poised.

  Burns thought for a few seconds and then said, “Warden.”

  The young girl wrote quickly, and a glowing golden swirl drifted up from the page and then surrounded Morgan’s head. After swirling for a moment, the glow faded. “Sorry for the theatrics. My ability allows me only to remember things I read. If it isn't written, I forget it in minutes.” She lifted her hand, then placed it down on a new book. “Your code name will exempt you from normal duty rotations and will reference you in all reports to allow you as much anonymity as I can for a civilian. You will also now be flagged as friendly by the defenses.”

  “The group from Maple Creek settled in the Northern Center sector. They have a purple banner. If you need help finding them I can provide an escort.”

  “No. Thank you, I saw the banner before I was shot down.”

  “Shot down?” She asked, tilting her head to look at him.

  “I have a glider, and can jump really high.” Even if this woman was helping, prolly not the best idea to trust her yet. Talk to Frank and Mara and see how things are here first.

  He jogged to the Maple Creek Sector. At each sector division, there was a small group of guards. The purple banner came back into view, and Morgan saw Frank at the base of a tower, calling out commands to a formation going through basic spear forms Morgan recognized from his training with Sophia in VISTA.

  Frank saw him, and his face broke into a huge grin.

  “Take a break, five minutes” he bellowed. The group of trainees groaned as they lowered their spears. One dropped it, then scrambled to pick it up as Frank swiveled to look at him. “Twenty,” he commanded, then turned and walked toward Morgan as the man groaned and dropped down to do pushups.

  “Lad, am I ever glad to see ya,” Frank crushed his hand in a painful handshake, then pulled him in and clamped his massive arm around him, slapping him on the back. It stung. Morgan’s face was stuck in a huge smile. He stepped back as Frank released his vise-like grip.

  “I’m glad to finally be here. You won’t believe the…” he was cut off as a red-haired bullet smelling of lavender slammed into his side, wrapping him in a strangling bear hug.

  “I knew you would come,” Mara said, muffled by his body. She let him go and stepped back, smoothing out her coveralls. “That's some fancy-looking armor,” She added. Then looked behind him and frowned. “Did you not find the glider?”

  “I did, and it works great, but I got shot down and it got damaged.” He pulled the glider out of his inventory, ballista bolt and all.

  They spent the next few minutes excitedly exchanging stories. Frank went back to drilling with the ‘Maple Creek Militia’ as Morgan and Mara sat down in chairs from the Academy that were in Morgan’s inventory.

  The escape from Maple Creek was eventful for the Academy. Johansen had somehow known of their plans and exact time. He had attacked just as the primary group left the Academy and harried them all the way to the train station and for miles down the tracks before giving up.

  Then they had come through a few towns and met up with the survivors in Mount Hope before arriving here at the coast. Mara’s sister, Sarah, was here and doing great. As Mara talked, her voice got shaky.

  Morgan told his story, leaving out the worst parts of his torturous impalement, and the encounter with Loki. He showed her some of the gear he planned to give to the team as gifts and talked about the new skills he had. He stopped as he noticed a tear on her cheek.

  “I started getting worried after the first day. By the third day, I knew something was wrong. I am sorry we didn't stay longer and look for you.” She let out a wavering breath through her pursed lips.

  “You did the right thing,” Morgan said, placing his hand on hers. “I don’t remember most of that time, and they needed you for the train, I am sure.”

  “They didn’t need me,” She said, grabbing her braid in a white-knuckled fist. “They would have been able to get here without me.”

  “But how would you have been on your own searching through the city for me?”

  “I…I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own. That's why it is so incredible that you did. You gotta be like level 40, right?” She asked with a touch of awe in her voice.

  “Lol, no,” he chuckled, “I’m only 19. Almost 20. That week just hanging around set me back a bit,” he finished dryly.

  “It is still incredible, even more so that you aren’t super OP.”

  “What is OP?” Morgan asked, confused.

  “Oh, it is a thing my sister said. She plays a lot of video games. It means overpowered.”

  “Well,” Morgan said, puffing up his chest, “I am OP, just not a high level.”

  They talked for hours, interrupted frequently as people welcomed Morgan back. Katherine, Marcus, and Jiwoo were out on a guard assignment. But a feast was planned for when they returned. Annabelle was ecstatic and ready to show him some things she had made that he might like.

  The feast was delicious. Fresh fruit and vegetables and mountains of juicy meat. Morgan had been living off rations, and the delicious food put him in a joyous mood. Mara’s hand clasped in his didn’t hurt either.