Purgatory Chronicles - A New Life After Death

Chapter 5 - Small Enforcer

"The Consortium rules with an iron fist, toting their games and rituals. Saying that it is all for the purpose of stabilizing the realms. The games grant immense power, yes, but I'll dare say not all that power is going towards stabilizing a realm, but somewhere else entirely. The Game Keepers only grow stronger and stronger. Who is capable of challenging their rule? They are practically gods!

The people are blind. Perhaps it is a willingness. A voice spoke to me in my dreams, it said 'I'll break the chains, I'll absorb your rule.' We both know the anthem, but did we forget why we fight?"

- Unmarked Letter
Sender Unknown, Intended Recipient Unknown

***

Time passed with unrelenting intensity in Purgatory. Liam couldn't believe two weeks had passed already. It was likely due to the constant training and work.

The first week was purely training with Alaric. It was all magic fundamentals. That damn man! The training was hard and Alaric even knocked Liam out a few times. Controlling flames grew easier and easier, but it was no match for Alaric's virtue.

Alaric twisted and contorted light, even creating illusions. The trick was trying to figure out what was real. Alaric was so proficient at it that he could turn invisible with what he called "bending the light."

The training was brutal and resulted in a lot of bruises and wounds. When one can just heal themselves with magic, the pain wasn't as unbearable, but pain is still pain. Liam was glad when he was reassigned. The joy of leaving that man behind was immense, at least for the first two days.

Liam was assigned to sector seven of the realm. He was just a small enforcer, the lowest of the low when it came to the Noctari. It would take another week or two for him to earn the rank of Dusk Enforcer, the rank and file members of the Noctari.

The hierarchy was truly remarkable in the Noctari. The level above Dusk Enforcers are Shadow Lieutenants. For some reason their naming scheme seemed to reinforce the fact that the Noctari weren't very reputable in the eyes of the small folk, the mundanes.

After the Shadow Lieutenants was Nocturne Captains. Then it got a bit muddy and convoluted from there. At the top was the Grave Warden, a title held by Viviette Grenadine as hard as that was for him to believe. Liam hadn't seen her since the first day of his arrival. It seems she forgot about him completely.

Maybe not completely. When he was given his first dwelling in the castle, the book he left at the publishing company was delivered to him. Delivered by a messenger, not Viviette herself. Attached was a note, "Learn and Grow" was all it said.

Liam could only sense that he was saved and then abandoned, left in the hands of Alaric.

The transfer to sector seven meant doing real work. As a small enforcer, pretty much a man in training, all he did was follow and shadow actual Dusk Enforcers. During his time he learned that it was notoriously hard to climb the Noctari hierarchy. People were stuck as Dusk Enforcers for decades before they were awarded a higher rank, that is if they were ever moved up at all. Turns out there is very little turnover in a place people don't often die, at least permanently. Moving up the hierarchy means besting someone else.

And in the case that someone did die, as in getting erased, then it was likely a Dusk Enforcer. Although, there was another class Liam recalled, The Reapers. These were individuals that were sent on missions, typically to other realms. According to all the rumors and banter, they hunted down magical artifacts in other realms. Realms outside of the Consortium. They were also the main force hunting down the rebel faction to the Consortium, the Game Breakers.