Chapter 10 – Nobody Thought About It

  “It is rather unfortunate that our most brilliant minds are often crochety, ancient beings that are more set on their path than a concrete sidewalk.” – Jay to Penny after she recounted the binding of Kurt’s hub.

  Kurt saw Val colpse into a ball and whimper. He forced his body to move, one shaky step at a time as he fought to regain control. After a couple wobbly steps, he managed to reach her, sitting heavily on the ptform beside her and reaching out to hold her hand. She took it and pulled it into her chest, hugging it to her core but otherwise not moving.

  “I’M SO SORRY.” Penny cried from her position near the door. “I heard it was painful but didn’t realize…” She trailed off, looking to the ritualist.

  The elf shrugged. “Powerful magics demand a price. In this case, it bound to their spirit.” She began collecting her things. “We haven’t found a better way in all the centuries we have been doing this.”

  “Shunt.” Kurt mumbled through his still clenched teeth. He was still fighting to keep himself from shifting and trying to shed the mass he had packed on.

  The elf looked up, stopping halfway through her clean up. “Pardon?”

  “It’s feedback. You can draw a feedback shunt in the ritual for the excess energy to divert into.” Kurt was almost growling as he forced the words out. “Put an empty mana vessel in the diversion branch of the circle and let it soak up the mana.”

  “Would that actually work?” Penny asked with her voice full of hope and eyes full of tears.

  The elf frowned. “I…ah, that.” She barely stammered while her eyes darted around the ritual circle. “Maybe? I don’t see why not but… why has nobody tried it before?”

  Val looked up at Kurt, with a shaky breath and his help, sat up. She was still holding onto his arm but was no longer in the fetal position on the floor. Kurt looked at her and she nodded to his silent question. She would be ok but needed a few minutes.

  Returning his focus to the elf, Kurt weighed in with his carefully crafted, expert opinion. “Probably because they are a bunch of assholes who couldn't be bothered to try after finding something that worked.” He spat the words with as much venom as he could muster.

  The elf flinched at his rebuke. She didn’t seem like she had answers and confirmed as much a moment ter. “I will endeavor to find the truth of this. If it is as you say, future generations will owe you a great deal.” She paused when she saw the look on his face. “I think I should go and start that now.”

  She quickly swiped up the rest of her materials, bowed and retreated out the door as fast as she could. They all watched her go before another blue fsh of light could be seen from the open door. She had wisely read the situation and decided to make a break for it.

  “Are… are you ok?” Penny asked, taking a couple hesitant steps forward. “Is there anything I can do? Can I help?”

  Kurt was trying very hard to not bme her for what had happened. He managed in the end, going off how she was on the verge of tears. “No. Just get the door.” He said and helped Val to her feet. Both of them felt oddly drained and their bodies ached from the experience.

  With some stumbles, Kurt helped Val into the house, supporting her as much as he could without just picking her up. He set her down on the couch in the living room.

  Running a hand over her hair and brushing some away from her face, he spoke softly. “Hey, what can I get you? Want a bnket, or food, tea? I can draw a bath or…” He offered and she nodded at the bath part.

  “Hot bath please. I feel like I have the flu with chills and aches.” She said.

  Walking over to the bathroom, Kurt began filling the tub. The tankless heater thankfully worked quickly, and he soon had a half full tub of steaming water. He helped Val into the bathroom after putting a couple towels on the counter for her.

  “I’ll go deal with Penny and start dinner.” He said. “Take your time and let me know if you need anything.” He began to turn away and leave but she stopped him by grabbing his hand.

  “Thanks.” Was all she was able to say. She really was thankful that he was so supportive in one of her more vulnerable moments. She was especially appreciative that he wasn’t hovering but staying nearby for support.

  “Your welcome.” He said with a smile. “I’ll check on you in an hour if I don’t hear from you sooner.” And with that, he left. Leaving Val to her own devices while he went to deal with Penny.

  Val slumped after the door closed. She was still shivering from the aftershock of the ritual. That had hurt more than it should have. She took a moment to inspect herself in the mirror, looking for any signs of physical damage. Other than a scrape from when she fell, there was nothing obvious.

  Without any further dey, she shifted, hiding her tail away and climbed into the tub, sighing as the hot water covered her. She noticed that the water was just up to her breasts and let it run for a while longer. She wanted to have a deep soak for a while and didn’t want any exposed skin. She was also rather pleased with the size of the tub and how it allowed her to stretch out without touching the far side with the pads of her feet.

  “I still wonder why he has a tub.” She said to herself. Either way, she certainly appreciated it at that moment and sank back, trying to forget the horrible experience she had just gone through.

  Back in the kitchen, Kurt saw that Penny was still standing in the doorway, fidgeting with her hands and tugging at her blouse. “Are you staying or going?” he said with a little more force than he intended. “I mean, would you like to stay for dinner or do you need to get back.” He quickly amended his initial question after seeing her wince.

  “I… if it…” she took a breath to steady herself. “If you wouldn’t mind a little more of an intrusion.” She managed to get out. “I wanted to cover some things like our findings on the men who attacked you and fully expin the injection and how it normally works.”

  Kurt raised an eyebrow as he walked over to the fridge and pulled out some fnk steak, bell pepper and onion. Fajitas were on the menu tonight. Well, there wasn’t a menu, but he suddenly had a craving for red meat and didn’t want to do steaks. “Does this mean that you are our handler?”

  “Yes but… but we prefer the term coordinator in official communications.”

  He brought everything to the counter then thought better about his situation and went back for a beer. He decided to offer one to Penny, since he was nice like that. She hesitantly took the bottle but opened it none the less.

  “So, what is first?” Kurt said as he took a pull of the ger and began slicing the steak into thin strips.

  “How about the 3 men?” Penny offered and continued after he agreed. “There isn’t much to report there but we suspect they are part of some sort of religious cult. They also seemed to be both well supplied and misinformed. I will send you the complete findings once they are published.”

  Gncing up, he raised his eyebrows. “That’s something. Why do you suspect that?”

  “Well, in their car they had a scrying tablet. It was a short range one that would only detect the presence of mana above a certain threshold.” She said.

  “Yeah, we saw them looking at that in the parking lot of the store.” Kurt said, “They were standing in the corner of the lot near the road and looking at a tablet or something. What else?”

  Penny seemed surprised about that but continued on. “Here is the report from the evidence teams but interrogation didn’t work out. The one that was alive died shortly after we got him back or during the transit. All 3 of them had a talisman that fried their brain after death and prevented our necromancers from getting anything. We are still investigating backgrounds.”

  Kurt had finished slicing the meat and was now rinsing his things before starting on the onion and bell pepper. “Sounds like they were pretty well equipped to me.”

  “Indeed.” Penny said and took another pull on her beer. She seemed to be rexing a little as they talked. “They also had some stuff that was nearly useless. In their trunk they had silver pted chains, naturally iron ones too. They also had a bunch of religious iconographies from a few different religions.”

  “So, none of the things that actually work.” Kurt commented with a snort. “Well, they don’t work outside of Hollywood anyway.”

  “They did have those tranquilizer guns, so it looks like they wanted to take you alive. It was a common drug that is often used in wild animals and livestock.” She said. “The car came back as stolen from someone down in the Detroit area. We are trying to follow up with that but probably won’t get much.”

  “Eh, I have a feeling we might find out more soon. I will try to take one alive next time.” Kurt thought that it wouldn’t be the st he had seen of these people. “What’s the deal with the nanobots?” He wanted to get that out of the way before focusing on more pleasant topics.

  This time Penny seemed a little excited. “So, you use runes and runic circles to work magic right?” Kurt nodded so she continued. “And when you cast a spell, you have to draw the circle using a technique to literally write with mana in the air?”

  “Well yeah.” Kurt demonstrated by forcing mana into his finger and making the letter ‘B’. “That’s the way it works for me.”

  “Great!” Penny cpped her hands. “So, the next time you cast a spell, like fully cast it, the nanomachines will imprint with it and essentially form a permanent runic spell under your skin. Then the colony that is in your brain will…”

  “Wait, they are in my brain too?”

  “Um, well, yeah…” she said it like it was obvious. “Anyway, the ones in your brain will interpret the signals and essentially instant cast the spell. Your casting will be both instant and invisible.”

  While Kurt didn’t like the idea of the little things in his grey matter, he also really liked the idea of instant casting spells. “Does it work for enchanting or summoning and other types of magic?”

  “Um, what part of it? Cause I don’t think they will carve the sigils, since they are kind of internal, but you wouldn’t need to draw the rune spell construct to imbue and activate the enchantment.” She paused for a moment. “That does make me wonder about the rituals that require other activation and upkeep materials though.”    “Is that their only function?” Kurt would be happy either way but also wanted to know if they could do more.

  Penny smiled. “For the normal first injection it is all they will do. We need to let these settle before we introduce colonies with other functions.” She took another sip as Kurt began getting a pan heated up on the stove. “We did add something to yours. A little bonus to help with part of your condition.”

  Kurt gave her the side eye. “What part of my condition?”

  “The pain from shifting. Half of your nanobot colony is extra and normally isn’t in the first injection. Its whole purpose is to suppress the pain and damage from shifting and ease the transition. Now that they are active after your first night of sleep, you can try it at any time.” Penny looked rather proud of herself.

  “Then why didn’t they help with the pain of that ritual?”

  Shock. Shock would be a good description of Penny’s face at that moment. “I… don’t know. Maybe because it wasn’t part of a transformation? They don’t block all pain and discomfort since you need those feelings to survive…” She trailed off.

  “It’s fine.” Kurt said with a sigh. “I can experiment ter.” He was also thinking through how they had known about his issue with shifting. Where a normal human werewolf was able to shift in retive comfort, Kurt was not. He could still do it, but the experience was excruciating.

  There was a silence as he cooked the steak slices and the veggies. While there was more to talk about, it seemed that neither knew where to take it after the st exchange. Over the sizzling sound, Kurt heard the bathroom door open and shut before another door closed. It looked like Val was out of the tub and getting dressed.

  “Anything else you wanted me to know or that I should know?” Kurt asked while he heated some tortil. In between stirring and shuffling the tortil around, he id out some other condiments and toppings. “What’s that other door for?”

  Penny seemed rather engrossed in watching him prepare dinner, simir to Val watching him cook. “That door will be connected to the order. You will be able to go there at will.” She saw him turning around, brandishing a spatu and cut him off. “Don’t worry, its keyed to you and Val. Well, also me but anyone else needs permission to come through.”

  Kurt snorted. “Fat lot of good it does when they can just drive up the road or see what I’m doing with that satellite.” He hadn’t forgotten about that little factoid. He did have to take the good with the bad though. For all the loss of privacy and anonymity, he got a direct line to a group of fixers that would handle any ‘messes’ he made.

  “Have you looked in your welcome packet?” Penny asked. She knew full well that he hadn’t since it was still sitting on the counter over in the corner. “It has all your documentation as well as log in information for order websites.” She paused to look at him. “You do have a computer, right?”

  “Yeah, I got one, but I don’t have internet. I didn’t know you guys had all that stuff in there. I just assumed it was contract info and maybe some tax forms.” Kurt said as he brought the skillet over and set it on the isnd. “What else is in there.” It was noted that he made absolutely no move to actually open the folder.

  “Well, there is information about retirement accounts and some member discounts to various stores and services. Oh, there is also info about the resource groups!” she said the st part like it was the icing on the cake.

  “What are resource groups?” He was hesitant about that since his st experience was the military ones which actually were a cult.

  Penny smiled and leaned in. “Think of them like guilds or clubs. They are pretty much a social network for what you are interested in or might want to share with others.” She then opened her satchel and pulled out a thin booklet. “We have groups for gunsmithing, forging, fitness, small engine repair, computer coding, video games, movies, sports, enchanting, summoning and a bunch of others.”

  Kurt gnces at the booklet that she had open to a page dispying a couple dozen different logos with little text boxes under them. “That’s great, I guess. Do you just pick one or?”

  “You can pick as many as you want and attend as you like.” Val said as she walked into the kitchen. She was wearing sweatpants and an oversize pullover hoodie that Kurt recognized as coming from his closet. “I was in the fitness and assassin groups but that was just for pointers.”

  She made her way over to the counter and Kurt fished another beer from the fridge, holding it up for her to see. She accepted, taking a long pull from it as she sat down at the isnd. “Feeling better?” Kurt asked.

  Val nodded. “A bit. That took a lot… it was…” She just went quiet and looked down at her p.

  Penny reached over and put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. “I wish I knew; I could have warned you or maybe Kurt could have taken a look at it.”

  “It’s ok. I know it’s not your fault.” Val turned to look at her and smiled a little. “I will get over it and there is no sting harm done.”

  “Bet you sweet ass I’m going to double check every single ritual going forward.” Kurt mumbled and got a ugh out of the dies as he finished putting out all the food. “Alright. Dinner is ready so let’s dig in.”

  They ate and chatted happily. Or Val chatted with Penny, telling her about her two days with Kurt and getting to see a new pce. Kurt chipped in with some comments and corrections on occasion but mostly let them catch up. Kurt did exchange contact information with Penny after a little while. He figured they should since she would be dealing with them the most.

  A couple hours and many ptes of food ter, Penny had to make her excuses. Val and Kurt followed her out to the Hub and watched her open the door. When she did, there was nothing but a bck void that slowly resolved into an image.

  The image was in grey scale with no color, and it opened to an empty office with a desk, some filing cabinets and several monitors. Penny expined that was her office and pretty much only she would have access. She did warn that others might connect in event of emergency, but Kurt figured at that point he really wouldn’t care about privacy.

  “Well, I will leave you now.” Penny said, approaching the open door. “Unless something crazy happens, I will see you on Monday morning around nine AM.”

  “Anything we need to do or…” Kurt trailed off, fishing for an answer.

  “Just be ready to either train, file paperwork or kill stuff.” Penny said with a little ugh. “Night guys. See you Monday.” And with that, she stepped through the portal, the color fading from her and they closed the door.

  “Huh, that was weird. Some real twilight zone shit.” Kurt said while they stood there.

  Val looked up at him. “Twilight zone?”

  “Oh, it’s an old show about strange or paranormal things.” He thought for a moment and realized he never actually watched an episode. “Come to think of it, I have never seen it.”

  Val started walking back to the house. “Mind if we watch another movie?” she seemed rather tired to Kurt, and he could completely understand.

  “Not at all. What do you want to watch?”

  “Something silly. I really don’t want to think of anything serious for a little while.” She answered as the stepped back inside. They went down the stairs and she picked out the movie Flubber. She misunderstood the title and cover, thinking it was a movie about slime monsters but was pleasantly surprised.

  At around the halfway point Kurt noticed that she had fallen asleep. He briefly debated if he should let her stay on the couch but figured that would not be great to wake up in a dark basement in the middle of the night. Given he had to move her anyway since she was snuggled against him, He scooped her up and carried her upstairs.

  She hadn’t made her bed that morning, so it was easy for him to deposit her under the covers. He put a bottle of water on her nightstand and quietly closed the door. He crawled into his own bed not long after. His body also slightly ached, which was strange with his lycan constitution.

  He decided that if he was still sore in the morning that he would try to do something about it. He also hoped that a good night’s rest would do more to ease his pains than most other remedies unless he wanted to use on of his talismans. With thoughts of all he had to do the next day, Kurt let himself drift off to sleep.