Mask of Humanity

‘Keep control of your people,’ Nicolai began to Pot Helmet, his voice a rising snarl, only to pause. Cool and calm. He forced his mind away from the vision, refocusing. Nicolai cleared his throat and adopted a smile.

‘I didn’t do anything. What is the matter with her? Is she okay?’ He twisted his features into an expression of concern, guided by his Mask.

Pot Helmet glanced back at the others and let out a sigh. ‘She’s, uh, always been like that. Sorry. In the past she’s noticed some stuff. Warned us of things…’ he said the last leadingly, clearly inviting Nicolai to give some kind of explanation for her reaction.

‘I see. She probably sensed this, it’s a strange item I found,’ said Nicolai, pulling the Swollen Amulet from beneath his clothes and showing it to the man. ‘I’m not sure what it does, but it has a scary aura to it.’ If his manner was a little perfunctory, so what.

The man peered at the proffered amulet, frowning. It had quite an unnerving appearance, carefully carved to resemble a bulging, inflamed eye. Nicolai knew for a fact this wasn’t what she’d sensed from him, but he felt it worked well as an excuse due to the odd appearance.

‘Why are you carrying it?’ asked Pot Helmet.

‘I think it might be valuable.’ Nicolai shrugged. ‘I sell things.’ Desiring to move on, he looked over his shoulder into the grassy area, at the great tree in the centre of it, surrounded by what appeared to be worshippers. ‘What’s all that about?’ he asked, pointing a thumb at the tree.

Pot Helmet smiled. ‘That is the Great Tree. Our people—our Commune—are centred around it. It guides us.’

‘Guides you? How?’

‘With our Seeds we are able to hear its voice. It has guided us and kept us safe. Actually, we were only willing to reach out to you and allow you here because of it. It wants us to grow stronger. It worries we are not able to defend ourselves, to defend it.’

‘Well. That’s uh, that’s great.’ Nicolai managed a smile, gazing at the people kneeling around it the tree. There’s something very weird going on here. His eyes turned towards the branching bulk of the tree, his Soul Sense reaching out, but he was too far to reach it. He wanted to get closer to it, to touch on it, and see what he felt.

It must be more than just a simple tree, unless these people were all delusional. If there was something special about it he wanted to know what that was. Perhaps it could be useful to him. He was trying to think of how to phrase a request to go closer to it when Pot Helmet spoke again.

‘Would you and your people like to be Presented?’ The old man said “presented” with heavy emphasis, like some holy word. ‘The Great Tree has decreed that we might allow you to draw near it, if you wish. It may have words for you.’ There was a zealous light in the man’s eyes, and the others had quieted to wait for Nicolai’s response.

‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Please… Present us.’

The others had finished crossing the bridge and were entering through the gatehouse. The members of the Commune, as pot-helm had called them, moved aside to make way. Nicolai nodded to John and the others as they emerged. ‘We are going to see the tree,’ he told them simply, gesturing towards it.

John stared past him. ‘Why?’

Nicolai shrugged, turning and following after Pot Helmet. ‘It is important to these people. They wish us to greet it,’ he said over Local.

‘What? They worship the tree?’ Beth asked.

‘Apparently. They are odd,’ he replied.

‘They seem friendly enough, at any rate,’ said John, and Nicolai saw the man looking around at the people beside him, a strange look in his eyes. Like a kind of yearning, mixed with sadness.

They moved in a loose mass towards the tree, the members of the Commune around the area all watching in silence, a feverish glow to them. It made Nicolai uneasy, his paranoia twitching, and he kept his hands ready on his SMG, safety off. Threat Analysis watched closely over his shoulder and through the drones. Its process-driven mind had also flagged numerous concerning oddities in the behaviour of these people. They weren’t reliable and shouldn’t be trusted.

He soothed himself with the knowledge that regardless of any intent to betray, there was no way these people would stand any chance in a fight. There wasn’t a single gun with them, none of them were Cultivators, and the simple bows they held in unconfident hands were no threat. He doubted they would be able to shoot straight, let alone get through his shield. He and the others could gun them down without any significant risk, though doing so might take a while as there were a lot of them.

Drawing closer, Nicolai got a better look at those prostrate before the tree. Each of them was kneeling, heads bowed, arms extended, and in their proffered palms they held their Seeds. From those Seeds he saw Soul Sense tendrils reaching out and towards the tree, merging with something around it. Closer still, and Nicolai reached his own Soul Sense tendril out, and realised that the diffuse mass around the tree was its own Soul Sense, a different type, faint but massive. His Soul Sense tendril made cautious contact.

Immediately he felt it, the vitality and life and hunger emanating from the tree. But more than that, its awareness, an awareness of what was around it and especially, of him.

A wave of slow emotion rolled out towards him. Welcoming, calming, pulling. Join with me, said the tree. The hunger he’d first sensed was muted, hidden.

Nicolai rebuffed it near effortlessly, taking a step back. He had enough shit in his head already, and the tree’s attempt to connect with him had triggered one of them. The stirring of the dark within him was increasing. It was because of this tree, he felt suddenly sure of it. The light around him dimmed again, and his eyes narrowed, wary. Another hallucination? The light faded and he was in darkness. His eyes widened as he felt the dark suddenly burst free from the Cage and he felt the hole within him, yawning wide.

The light flared and the world was revealed in a new light, dreamy and amorphous. From the tree he saw dozens of tiny root-like cords emerging, spiralling through the air and sinking into the heads of its worshippers, of the Commune. He saw some of these roots coming towards him.

In that frozen moment he understood. He was looking through the Hole. He was looking into another world, one that existed in some way behind reality. He moved immediately, clamping down on the Darkness, and the Hole, firming his grip over the Cage. His teeth grit as he squeezed it tight, prepared for a savage fight, but to his surprise the Dark went easily and the Hole closed up.

The light dimmed, dark again, then there was a flare and he was back in reality, staring up at the tree.

‘Does the Great Tree have words for you?’ Pot Helmet’s breath whistled beside Nicolai, pressing so close Nicolai could smell the stink of the man’s unwashed mouth.

Nicolai raised a hand and put it on Pot Helmet’s chest, pushing him back with as much restraint as he could muster and stepping rapidly away from the tree, his mind replaying the image of the strange spiritual roots he’d seen coming from it, coming toward him. He stepped faster, and carefully monitored everything around him with his Soul Sense.

‘It does not,’ he said over his shoulder to Pot Helmet. ‘Except that I think it wants us to get on with our trade. Let’s do it over there.’ As he quick-stepped he gestured to a spot back the way they’d come from, closer to the gatehouse.

He’d learned enough of the tree to be getting on with. Logically, he wasn’t sure how seriously to take the hallucination. Had he seen some kind of truth, a hidden layer? Or had his mind just made everything up, a paranoia infused dream? Either way, it didn’t matter. His gut feeling told him to take what he’d seen seriously.

We know nothing of this new world, and this new “magic,” added Threat Analysis, if something seems dangerous, it should be treated as dangerous.

Nicolai nodded. He and the Modules didn’t trust the tree, simple as that. He glanced back at the tree, and imagined it burning, his mind setting it on fire. Perhaps that would be best. The dark urges within him pulsed hatefully, gazing at the tree with enmity, and he paused, the flames firming, becoming more hallucination than imagining, and a desire to set those flames into reality grew within him.

The Tree’s Soul Sense flinched. Then those around it were rising. ‘Away!’ they barked in unison. ‘Away from the Tree!’

Pot Helmet gaped at them before turning to scowl at Nicolai. ‘Away, then!’

‘Yes, of course.’ Nicolai smiled. ‘Let us make our trade and I will be on my way.’ It was unfortunate the Tree had sensed his impulse. He pushed his dark urges down, squeezing them back through the bars of the cage where they’d been creeping out. He didn’t trust the tree but he wasn’t going to burn it, not without any reason.

Nicolai didn’t believe in killing things simply because he didn’t understand them. His preference was to understand them first, and then kill them if necessary.

‘What’s going on?’ John hissed at him, the man lumbering with one of the bags behind him. ‘Why’re they upset? It’s just a big bloody tree.’

Nicolai gazed at him. Then his eyes turned to Cait, and to Beth still up on the wall. He struggled to control his expression as he realised he might’ve made a mistake. He shouldn’t have let these two comes anywhere near the tree. Just like John, he’d assumed it was just a tree, but in this world nothing was as it seemed.

He knew that he was safe from it—probably safe from it, spoke up Threat Analysis—because he’d seen it, felt it, and rejected it. He felt that Beth should also be protected, at least to a degree, because she was a Cultivator. Being a Cultivator gave one a kind of passive spiritual protection against many things.

But John and Cait had no such protection.

‘There’s something very off about that tree,’ he said quietly, figuring that at a time like this, honesty was the best policy. If he didn’t provide all the facts they wouldn’t know what to watch out for. He switched to Local. ‘I think that tree might be… doing something to these people. Some kind of strange mental effect. You two need to drop the bags here then head back over the bridge. I shouldn’t have let you come so close to it.’ Cait and John were giving him deeply concerned looks, exchanging wide eyed glances and peering back suspiciously at the tree. ‘Do you feel at all… strange?’ he asked them. ‘Do you feel anything toward the tree?’

John shook his head, as did Cait.

‘I feel normal,’ she told him.

‘And I. Just a tree,’ said John.

‘Good.’ He gestured to the gateway, and the bridge. ‘Go on, wait on the far side. It’s best you keep away from it, even so.’

The pair paused, then, and strange looks crossed their faces.

‘You sure you don’t need us here?’ asked John.

Nicolai eyed him. Uh oh. He took a deep breathe, and attempted to look through the hole, focusing his mind. But blocking the hole was the Dark and the Cage, and after a little pushing he gave up. He’d have to open it all up and risk losing himself. It wasn’t worthwhile.

Still, perhaps he didn’t need to. Once he’d noticed the strange tendrils, he’d been able to cut them away simply with Soul Sense. His Soul Sense flexed like a scythe and it sliced invisibly around John and Cait, and while it did so he listened carefully to the Aura. He felt a faint and distant sense of stymied rage from the tree, through the answering ripples. Good enough.

‘Go,’ he told them.

Their expressions cleared and they nodded, dropping the bags and departing. He’d have to keep an eye on them for a little while, and also check Beth hadn’t suffered any strange effects.

‘Your friends are going?’ asked Pot Helmet beside him as they tramped off. ‘Don’t they want to stick around a little longer?’

Absolutely not. ‘They have things to do, as do we.’ He gazed at the crowd forming around him and Pot Helmet. A lot of people, and he didn’t trust any of them. ‘Keep your people back,’ he hissed at Pot Helmet. ‘They’re making me nervous.’ He fingered his SMG. ‘You don’t want me nervous.’

Pot Helmet looked merely surprised and confused, so Nicolai relaxed. A little. The man told the others to move back a bit, and then a bit when Nicolai prodded him to do so. And then a bit more when Threat Analysis prodded him to prod the man once again. A few did stay close, however. Pot Helmet’s little group of worthies; the leaders of this place.

With over thirty metres of empty space around him, Pot Helmet, and the leaders, Nicolai finally hunkered down, opened the bags up and showed his wares. These had now expanded from just guns and items of Earth, to include a few Soul Traps. Old Ben had been busy and had made quite a few, enough that Nicolai was able to start selling the excess.

This largely dispelled the lingering uncertainties of Pot Helmet and the rest, and they all clustered as close to the bags, eager to look upon what he’d brought.

Over the next twenty minutes Nicolai wheeled and dealed, pushing for the very best deal he could.

‘These prices seem… very steep,’ said Pot Helmet after much hemming and hawing, an unhappy frown on his face.

‘They’re the same prices I give to all,’ Nicolai lied. ‘Your tree wants you to be stronger, doesn’t it? The prices are what they are, I’m afraid I can’t change them for now. In fact, it would be remiss of me not to warn you that the current price is likely the cheapest these guns will be. Over the next few weeks I’ll have to start raising the prices. Everyone wants guns, and these Soul Traps are also in very high demand. You’re very lucky to have caught me at a time where the prices are so low.’ He gave a pleasant, smile with these words, as though delivering some great news.

‘They’ll be more expensive?’ Pot Helmet’s eyes goggled.

‘I’m afraid so,’ said Nicolai, sighing with dismay. Whether he would actually increase the prices even further remained to be seen. He was largely saying this simply to push the man and his people to buy as much as they could be persuaded to. This was a common strategy, well-known to any corporation on Earth. Present people with a price, then tell them that it was going to go up. No, not only would it go up; it would go up soon, and significantly.

If you don’t buy now, you’ll be missing out! You need this anyway, don’t you? So get it now, before it goes higher in price! One of consumerism’s many cries, over the centuries. Still just as effective as ever, in Nicolai’s opinion.

It was proven effective then, as Pot Helmet’s wavering resistance collapsed alongside the rest of the Commune’s leaders, all of them clustering around to gather as many points-tags as they could then moving off to the larger crowd of onlookers to rustle up even more.

Nicolai “cut them a good deal” by accepting Rejuvenating Orbs in place of points-tags, giving each orb a price in exchange of two hundred points. In his view this was practically stealing, as in truth he internally valued the orbs at closer to one or two thousand. But these people had quite a few such orbs simply due to their number and from spending all of their time in this place where they’d been nice and safe; little need to use them. Perhaps because of that, they had little understanding of the true value of the Orbs.

It seemed they’d been very lucky, and now Nicolai took advantage of that.

When he and the others departed, it was with the bags largely emptied of guns, clothes and amenities, instead bulging with points-tags and Rejuvenating Orbs. The best haul yet. This was the fifth trade he’d performed since the first with the Communists, and he had only been a few thousand points off being able to afford the Market Upgrade Permit prior to it.

This trade had brought in around twenty-five-thousand points all by itself, enough that he could have bought the permit just with that. Now, he would be able to get the permit, and restock his wares, and perhaps have enough to see about getting some of whatever advanced items the Market Upgrade Permit made available.

###

Before returning to the safe place and the Trade Link, Nicolai and the others ventured to the tunnel which led to the prison, where he retrieved another weighty bag of Oma crystals. In the distance down the tunnel he made out figures coming toward them, arriving in time for the planned meet.

Jo, Perro, and Azure. As they drew closer he saw their Soul Senses, coming into view. Still in Seed-form, dozens of slender tendrils emerging from the places on their bodies where they kept their seeds. The three of them had more than was typical, and were keeping them moving even as they moved their bodies.

Nicolai nodded approvingly. They’d come a long way since he last saw them. His Soul Sense loitered around their Seeds, feeling the vibrant energy within. Three tiny stars of Oma, roughly the same amount in each. They reminded him of his own Seed, once he’d filled it to a hundred percent. A smile tugged at his lips. They’d completed their Seeds on-schedule. It would remain to see whether they’d sufficiently bonded.

‘Jo!’ came a cry, and Beth dashed forwards, grabbing at her sister, the two colliding in a hug. John came quick after, reaching out for Azure who accepted his hug with a sort of grimacing teenage embarrassment that failed to hide (from Nicolai, at least) how glad she was to see her father. Perro, smiling and rubbing at the back of his head as he looked at the others, moved on past them. Nicolai felt a sadness from the boy, and his Mask made him act, making him reach out and put a hand on Perro’s shoulder.

‘Well done down there,’ he said, smiling. ‘Welcome back.’

Perro stared at him, then a grin broke out on the boys face as he nodded back.

‘How are things going with our prisoners?’ continued Nicolai.

‘Oh, uh, they’re fine. They tried to cause a little trouble at first, but we did like you said and since then they’ve just been eating and feeding their Seeds.

‘Very good.’ Nicolai’s smile grew. He’d ended up informing the others about the prisoners, and had managed to wrest Cait and John onboard with his plan. When he’d told them what the pair had done to Azure, John’s opinion had shifted rapidly. In fact, the man had seemed like he wanted to kill them. But Nicolai had convinced him that it was wise to have the pair finish their Seeds, first.

‘How was it?’ asked a smiling Cait, clapping her hand on Perro’s other shoulder.

He puffed his cheeks, shaking his head. ‘It’s scary, down there.’ He shot a quick glance at Nicolai. ‘But, uh, we were fine. Saw some fights. Had some… moments. But. Uh. Yeah.’ He smiled. ‘Seeds complete.’

‘Moments?’ questioned Cait.

Perro frowned, chewing his lip. ‘Just some times it got a bit close, that’s all.’ His frown grew.

‘It’s fine,’ Nicolai said, extending a hand. ‘It’s all fine. Are you bonded with your Seeds?’

Azure glanced at him from where John held her and shook her head. ‘None of us managed that. We’re not sure how far off we are, there’s no indicator.’

Nicolai nodded. He hadn’t really expected them to manage to bond, considering that they’d rarely used their Seed’s Soul Sense prior to this. They’d made good progress regardless.

‘Are you okay?’ John was saying, pulling away from her. ‘I heard what happened.’ He frowned as he looked her over, clearly noting the bruises on her face. He turned to scowl at Nicolai. ‘You told me it was safe down there!’

Nicolai shrugged. ‘It is, normally.’ Sort of. ‘How could I predict there’d be two vagabonds down there?’

‘Vagabonds?’ said Beth with a confused look. ‘What’s that?’

‘It means like, robbers and sneaky types,’ said Jo. ‘Old word.’

‘Anyway, now Azure is out, and she’s fine,’ Nicolai added to John. ‘We’ll look after her.’ John frowned at him and looked to speak, but Nicolai kept talking, aiming to move things on before John could work himself into a froth. ‘How are things with the prisoners? What is their Seed progress?’ he asked Jo.

She shrugged. ‘They caused some issues at the start, but now they know how things are. I think their Seeds are around seventy, maybe eighty percent.’

Nicolai nodded. Soon enough, I’ll have two new Symbiotes. He smiled at the thought. He glanced to Cait, and John who was leaning down and talking quietly to Azure, hand on her shoulder.

‘Get their Seeds to almost complete before you leave the prison,’ he said to Cait, who gave him a nod back. ‘Are you two ready?’

John eyed him. Then looked to Jo and Beth. ‘You’ll look after my girl, won’t you?’

‘Of course,’ said Jo, nodding to him, while in the background Azure rolled her eyes.

John nodded, and started removing his gear, stripping to simple clothes, handing his things to Azure who stared at him.

‘Wait, you’re going in there right now?’ she asked. ‘I just got back!’

‘Needs must,’ murmured Nicolai, his Mask drawing his face into a frown. He shook it away. ‘Everyone must go and complete their Seed. It is the best way for us to all survive.’

And you want more Oma crystals, said his Mask.

That’s right, Nicolai admitted freely. Benefits on both sides. His Mask was saying something about not everything being a transaction but he ignored it.

It was increasingly chatty these days. Chatty, and opinionated.

‘He’s right,’ said John, smiling at Azure. ‘Me and Cait will be back soon.’

She pouted. ‘Be careful.’

‘Is it dangerous?’ Cait asked. ‘And how are these prisoners, any issues?’

‘Increasingly dangerous,’ said Jo, approaching with Beth. ‘But if you take care you’ll be fine. We haven’t seen the centipede and you’ll be able to hear the bugs before they show. Just run if you think you hear something happening. The prisoners are easy enough, all we do is check on them now and again to hand over a few more Oma crystals or Soul Wisps.’

‘Don’t forget to practice with your Soul Sense,’ added Nicolai. Throughout this he’d been watching the pair carefully, and now felt reassured that the tree hadn’t managed to do anything significant to them; they were acting entirely normal and had expressed no desire to return to it.

There was a final moment, John and Cait standing off and looking back at them, then they turned away.

Nicolai watched them dissolve into darkness, his mind on other things. Next up, Trade Link. A smile pulled at his lips. He was eager to see what might be bought once he’d used the Upgrade Permit.