Coalescence

Chapter 16: Another 'Accident'

 Introductions were in order, and that left Malcolm and Bren with a lot of paperwork. Their father joined them for a lot of it, happy and shocked to see Bren in the flesh again. After the hours of work were done, they walked out of the room stretching and yawning.

"Y'know, I never thought I'd have to check my own birth certificate." Bren commented.

"I never thought I'd learn so many new words in a day. Turns out there's a lot of big words in a legal document." Malcolm laughed as they walked into a small meeting room just down the hall. The rest of Division I was sitting around a table waiting for them, patiently looking over a map in the center of the table. Juten grumbled as Brigund greeted them.

"Good, take a seat, recruits." Juten stood up and pointed on the map, directly to the Feywilds.

"Alright, we've been directed into the Feywilds. Malcolm, Bren, this isn't your first time so we'll rely on you to watch for traps and Fey." They nodded as Juten looked around the table. "Griffith, you're the same. You can scan our surroundings with your Art, correct?"

"Correct, but I can't do it constantly." Juten cocked his head.

"Can you not passively use your Art yet?" Griffith shook his head. "Have you mastered it at least?"

"Of course."

"Then you're not completely useless. Just use it when you can and we'll work around it. Brigund, Carlisle, you two are on front and rear guard respectively. We'll be on the northwestern side, supposedly looking for signs of a Fey necromancy ritual."

"Don't Fey necromancy rituals sound out of our specialty?" Carlisle asked. "We can find them, but dealing with them might be another matter."

"They never said what to do once we found them, the only order he gave me was 'locate them'."

"If I have to deal with Fey zombies, do not expect me to leave peacefully." Carlisle noted. Brigund gave a hearty laugh before continuing.

"We'll just blow it all to hell if we run into trouble, no skin off my back."

"There'll be trouble once we get back, so try not to cause a natural disaster." Juten said as he sighed and placed his hands on the table. "Anyways, the commander gave us a week of preparation, so everybody rest up and meet with your families." With that, the meeting broke off and everyone went their separate ways.

Malcolm and Bren went home, flying out of the compound inside the mountain and over the city. As they entered the countryside, Malcolm pulled down early and stopped on the side of the road below. Across from him sat Jameson's facility, no lights on inside and several bouquets of flowers out front.

"Hey, what's with the sudden stop?" Bren asked as she floated down beside him.

"This is Jameson's place, his compound he used to run by himself." A sense of solemn grief fell over them as they sat silently on the roadside. Malcolm walked up the front step and ran his hand down the door, feeling every groove as a painful memory. He searched on his backpack for the twinblades Alexander had gifted him, separating them and jamming them in the ground in a cross. He backed away from the building and waved Bren down the road towards home, leaving the blades stuck in the dirt.

They approached the front door and saw their father out front, smoking in his chair and letting the smoke drift into the afternoon air. His face lit up with joy and he called inside, their mother soon charging out of the door. She almost tackled Bren to the ground, embracing her as tight as she could. The moment of pure joy manifested itself in tears that fell from everyone's eyes, Malcolm and his father turning away and passing a pipe between them as their tears rolled and hit the ground.