Spell Weaver-Chapter 116. Detained

Mark's SUV screeched to a halt in front of the checkpoint's concrete barriers. The afternoon sun cast shadows across the government installation. Its metal detectors and security cameras were a reminder of how much the world had changed.

What are those even going to do?

He was stepping out of the car before the engine was shut off, and several voices called over in alarm at their sudden arrival. "Val, stay in the car, buddy. We'll be back soon."

Sarah called out from the backseat as she gathered up her tablet and credentials from her bag. "Alex! Remember," she said as she slid out and caught up to him. "Let me do the talking. We do this right, or we'll probably make things worse for Sam and create a huge headache for everyone."

"Two days, Sarah. They've had him in holding for two days."

"I know," she said.

Alex could feel her reach out with her skill and attempt to soothe his aura. "Stop that." Alex pushed with his Willpower and mana against the skill and caused her aura to yield, negating the effect of the skill.

She sighed. "Then relax, dammit."

That caused him to hesitate. His normally composed and responsible friend almost never cursed. He took a breath and gave her a nod. "I said I’d let you take the lead here. I—I just can't stop thinking about his mom's worried voice from this morning."

"I know, we heard it too," Sarah said as she glanced up at Mark, who jogged up next to them. "But it’s just going to make things worse if you go in here and blow the door off the hinges."

Alex thought back to Tianluo and how rashly he'd acted to prevent Sam from getting hit by the merchant. He'd acted without thought and had killed a man with connections in the city. If it hadn't been for Eura’s power and influence, Alex knew he would have had many more headaches from that choice.

"Okay, okay. I get it. You said he's not in any immediate danger, right?"

Sarah nodded. "Yes, my friend said that he’s just been detained and they're running into some issues getting things cleared up. They're holding him, that's all."

"And remember... if this is Rylan, these people likely have nothing to do with all of this. They're just doing their jobs." Her tablet chimed. "My contact confirmed that Sam's being held for 'documentation irregularities' and a class verification check." She frowned at her screen. "The guard who brought him in went off shift yesterday and hasn't returned.”

Alex slowed, and his Converse crunched on the gravel as two guards stepped up from one of the nearby small buildings. He looked around, saw the soldiers’ rifles, and reassessed the situation. Even though he’d grown stronger, he had no doubt that bullets would still be very effective against his body.

The checkpoint was a maze of concrete barriers and had a chain-link fence surrounding several prefab buildings. The buildings looked hastily created, and only the central one seemed to be made of any concrete materials, while the others were the kind of premade mobile homes that could be moved around on the back of an 18-wheeler.

"Ms. Lee," the first guard said. Alex could read his name tag as he stopped a few meters away. It read 'Martinez'. "My sergeant said you'd be coming." His eyes flicked to Alex and then quickly back to her. The guard's hand tightened, and Alex felt his eyebrows come together. "If you'll follow me, we can discuss the situation inside."

Alex did his best to look imposing as they followed. He wondered if he wanted to do it all by force, even though the entire situation seemed to reek of manipulation.

The processing building's white lights buzzed as they entered. Even with the sun up, it was still under 50 degrees outside, and the heater inside had clearly been turned up to combat the chill. They were taken past the plastic chairs and a plexiglass-windowed counter and to a meeting room two hallways down.

There were a few chairs around a desk, and they were asked to sit. Mark and Sarah sat, though Alex felt the need to stand. He used his willpower to suppress his feelings and need for action. Instead, he leaned his back against the wall behind Mark and Sarah and watched the man behind the desk.

"Ms. Lee, you've got some friends in high places. My name is Captain Grant." He half stood to reach across the table and shake Sarah's hand. He glanced at Mark and Alex and said hello while settling back into his chair. "I'm afraid there's not much we can do, though." He shuffled through papers on his desk before looking back up at the trio. "Without proper documentation, and the discrepancy with his registered class—"

"His documentation was valid last week," Sarah cut in and pulled up the records on her tablet. "He's been regularly traveling to and from the Safe Zone for almost two months. He heals at Memorial Hospital. You would think that you’d be doing everything possible to get him taken care of…"

Alex slowly stopped listening as he looked around the small room and considered what steps he might take if he did need to get to Sam without Sarah's connections.

I've got [Mirage], and Valtherion is still outside. He has his newly advanced [Create Illusion] skill to potentially gather more information and find out where Sam’s being kept. If I could get to Sam, then I could use the new oversized spell circle with the rune to blast our way out. Even if it takes a few seconds to cast and a bunch of mana, it would feel so satisfying just as a statement of what I can really do… though I guess Sarah is right. That would likely lead to a lot of issues. Not just for me, but the rest of our friends, too.

It would likely cause a huge headache for the Guild. But, being that they were likely in this situation because of Rylan’s stupid games, Alex couldn’t really bring himself to care about how it might affect the organization. freewebnσvel.cѳm

He forced his attention back to Sarah's conversation, knowing that the daydreaming would do him no good. Alex felt a general need to scowl at the soldiers present, feeling that they were being less helpful than they should be.

The System window that appeared surprised him.

New Skill Learned: [Intimidate] (Novice - Level 1)

Do you accept? Yes/ No?

The offered skill was such a surprise that Alex almost laughed out loud.

Am I really intimidating these people to the point that the System just offered me a skill?

Remembering his recent conversation with Edwin about the importance of filling everyone's skill slots to avoid wasting potential, he hit accept even though he didn’t really like the idea of intimidating people. Now that he was aware of it, he eased his posture and attempted to look a bit less threatening.

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"Look," Sarah said as her professional demeanor cracked slightly. "I've already spoken with Director Matthews. He's expecting my call to confirm Sam's release."

Captain Grant glanced at his other soldiers and then back at Sarah. "Let me... just let me check with my commanding officer." He stood and disappeared through a door on the opposite side of the hallway, and the other two soldiers stepped out into the hallway on either side of the door to give them some privacy.

Alex's mind ran rampant with the worst-case scenario: Sam bound and being held in rough living conditions, Sam broken down and completely shut down like he had been in Tianluo. Remembering the quiet and skittish state that the teenager had been in for the two months after his release made Alex hope desperately that Sam knew he had help on the way.

Alex felt his blood ramping up, and he had to forcibly still himself twice more before the Captain returned.

A few tense minutes later, Captain Grant opened the door, and his posture had changed completely.

"If you'll follow me," he said, "we can process his release. We've moved him to the conference room." They followed Corporal Martinez through a narrow hallway to a small room with a conference table. Through the glass in the wall, Alex saw Sam. He looked tired, but surprisingly composed. His clothes were wrinkled from two days' wear, but his eyes were clear as he looked around the room with interest.

"Guys!" Sam stood. "I tried to tell them—" His voice was cut off as Mark crashed into him and enveloped him in a hug.

"It's okay," Alex said, taking a deep breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. When Mark let him go, Sam looked more relaxed and had blushed bright red from their attention.

"How did you get me out?" Sam asked, looking at Alex with a shine in his eyes.

"Not me," he responded while pointing to Sarah, who stood off to the side of the room, giving the Captain hell. "Sarah's handling it."

Mark made a pfft sound. "More like preventing Alex from burning the place to the ground."

"I'm sorry," Sam said as he scratched the back of his head. I tried to call when I first got here, but that guy took my phone. Then everything got so complicated with the paperwork, and since I just evolved my class, they had the wrong information on file…"

"None of this is your fault, bud. I'm just glad you're doing all right," Alex said, feeling the last of his tension bleed away.

He whispered up to Alex and Mark, "I think it's the new passive. The turtle spirit. I started to feel really bad panic when they took my phone and put me in handcuffs in a room, but then I heard this really deep voice in my head. He sounded like moving rocks, and he was a million years old, but he told me, 'Patience.’" Sam attempted to mimic the voice with the word. "From then on, I just had to think about the voice, and I felt really calm and knew that everything was going to be fine, however things played out. I didn't do anything wrong, and I knew that if it got bad, you guys would find me."

Captain Grant cleared his throat to get their attention. "Please wait here. Ms. Lee, I'll go get Samuel's release forms, and we can get him processed out." Sarah agreed, but before the captain left, he turned to Alex, surprising them all. “Mr. Moore?”

“Yes?”

“I’d like to extend my sincere apology for the trouble this has caused you and your group. The colonel is on his way here now to offer an apology and assure you all that this kind of situation will be handled differently in the future.”

“You don’t need to apologize to me,” Alex said incredulously. In fact, hearing how quickly they were switching the script and asking for forgiveness annoyed Alex to no end.

If they knew half of the shit Sam had been through in that Rift, they’d understand just how lucky they are that his spirit isn’t broken again.

“Still, I was informed that a direct apology would come from the colonel. We haven’t seen many people with levels as high as yours, which immediately put us on edge. Just two weeks ago, several of the buildings were destroyed at another checkpoint while attempting to detain an awakened who was almost half of your reported levels.”

Alex shrugged and was about to tell the captain just what he thought about their experiences with detaining awakened. Holding a young man captive without so much as a phone call and without much reason at all wasn’t something he had been hoping for as one of his first real interactions with the Hunters Association and government personnel.

“Uh, that’s okay,” Sam said from behind him. “I’d rather just leave… and get some real food.”

Mark laughed, and the captain nodded and excused himself to get whatever paperwork they needed done.

After processing through the small mountain of paperwork, Sam got a new pass with his updated Class on it. The group finally stepped out of the checkpoint building and into the late afternoon sun. Sam squinted up as if seeing it properly for the first time in days.

"Your mom's been worried sick," Sarah said, already typing on her phone. "I promised her we'd call as soon as we got you out."

"About that," Mark said, jingling his keys. "Where to? Back to your parents or the house?"

"I… I'd rather go to the house, if that's cool? I can call Mom and Dad from there." He glanced at Alex before looking away.

Alex nodded and noted how Sarah's expression shifted. "Of course. Sarah, can you let his parents know he's safe, and we'll call them once we get home? They're welcome to meet us up there if they want. Actually, tell them that they really should come up. We have extra rooms, and with everything that’s been going on in the Safe Zone, plus this event with the checkpoint, it might be best if we just got them clear of there for a while and kept them close to Sam. Tell them they should bring what they can, but not to worry too much; we can have Edwin get them anything else they need."

"Got it," she said and paused in her typing. "So we can pretty much guarantee this was Rylan, right?"

Mark opened the door behind his seat and closed it after Sam hopped in, before getting into the driver's seat himself. "The timing is way too convenient to be a coincidence. I just don’t really see what this gets him?"

"Sam," Alex asked as they pulled away from the checkpoint. "Did the guard who brought you in say anything specific? About why he stopped you or what the issue was?"

"Not really, he just said that there was something wrong with my pass, and then when I was in the building, he said it looked fake. He left for a while, and then someone else came in and asked me the same questions again."

"Well... we'll figure it out," Alex said. "Olivia is back in a few days, and Rylan with her. She'll be our best chance at doing some information gathering without being noticed. For now, let's get you home."

A bit of time passed in silence, and was broken by Sam speaking up.

"I love helping people and all, but I need to figure out some way to defend myself. I don't want to hit things or kill things... but, I just—I can't be helpless forever. Even with you to back me up, I..." Clearly, he was struggling to decide if he should finish the sentence. "I don't want to weigh you guys down."

A chorus from the entire group telling Sam to knock it off and encouragements in equal measure caused him to blush furiously and grin.

“Hey, you want food, right?” Mark asked as he turned up the radio. “Who’s up for pizza? I think this calls for a celebration.”

“Extra cheese,” Sam said immediately.

The group laughed, and Sarah looked up to add, “Don’t forget breadsticks this time.”

"Oh wait, Mark! Did you get your class? You were so close before you left to work with Devon's team."

The mood dropped again, and Sam could almost immediately tell he'd hit on a sensitive topic. Despite this, Alex was curious to hear Mark's answer. His friend hadn't wanted to talk about it before, but Sam had been gone and wasn't aware of everything that had happened to Sarah and Mark.

"Yeah... yeah, I did."

"Um, that's cool. Right? What—what did you get?" Sam looked left and right while trying to read the mood. Mark had been attempting to guess his class and rarity for almost as long as Sam had known him, so it was odd to see him so subdued.

"I got the Uncommon Class - Defender. It fits me pretty well. I guess it's a tankier version of the Warrior class, but... well, some stuff happened with Devon's group. Some people were hurt pretty badly and... and two people died."

Sam gulped and shifted in his seat.

Alex spoke up, knowing that Mark was still reluctant to say Rylan had anything to do with it. "We think this was more of Rylan's work behind the scenes. Turns out he and Devon go way back, and the accident just doesn't add up. Now Mark's getting blocked from some groups, even though it really wasn't his fault."

Sam nodded and put his hand on Mark's shoulder from the driver's seat. "You're a great tank, Mark. And you care a lot—anyone who knows you knows that."

Mark nodded but stayed quiet, and from his spot in the passenger seat, Alex could see his jaw clench tightly.

The somber atmosphere clung to the group as they drove to the mansion, and Alex’s mind was running through next steps and how to potentially handle Rylan taking things way too far.

Is it time we left the Guild? Or do we stick it out and take care of Rylan… with or without Elana’s help?