--- Kamiko ---


    "… and that''s everything we picked up," finished Hunter. Meg was off to the side with a clipboard and sses for reasons Kamiko didn''t understand and Bower was dutifully ignoring. Hunter hadn''t even noticed.


    "So what is it your suggesting here?" asked Bower.


    "Kill them all?" asked Meg with a grin.


    "Stop trying to turn that into a joke," grumbled Bower. "We all know you were serious the first time. Repeating it every time it''s vaguely applicable will not turn it into a running gag, nor make us forget that you mean what you''re saying." Once done with that Bower turned back to Hunter.


    "I was mostly hoping for you input. This is your world after all," said Hunter.


    "What I''m hearing is that you want to push this decision onto me," grumbled Bower.


    Hunter shrugged, "Despite Meg''s sé attitude towards consequences quite frequently… she''s got the right idea in this case. We won''t be around to deal with these people once we leave. I am unsure how much we will even have to do to get them out of the mists. We''ll leave… and you won''t be able to. You''ll be at least somewhat responsible for them all,"


    Bower groaned, "So much for my vacation ns I guess. Whatever, I guess I cane up with something if I really have to… but I get the feeling that you have an idea, otherwise you wouldn''t be back in front of us,"


    "You are correct…" admitted Hunter. "I suspect that the best course of action will be to wake Cor and fill her in on the details assuming Meg can open the pod," Meg of course nodded, "Once she''s out we just… allow her arge amount of influence on our final decision.


    Frankly, everyone in thepound is some mixture of anxious and scared but the only person who wants to force a decision, like really force it, is the youngest around and I am unsure if we should allow that pressure to fall on her shoulders. Additionally, if she were to wake Cor herself it would drastically limit our approach options."


    "I''m not against it in principle… and in practice I suppose I can''t find a reason not to go along with it. I''m not happy with it, notpletely but I can ept it for what it is. The fact we''re on a bit of a time limit does force things… but we didn''t exactly want to spend long on this anyway… so why not let''s go," confirmed Bower.


    Kamiko just stood off to the side awkwardly as she remained blended into the background. She hadn''t been entirely forgotten because Meg would look over and smirk at her at slightly irregr intervals but that was it. She wasn''t even entirely sure if they wanted for her toe along on this trip.


    Kamiko was assuming so, she didn''t want to remain here by herself where she could get caught alone… but nobody had exactly addressed it.


    In the end though, it was fine. The group made there way over to the exit and Meg simply put Kamiko up on her shoulders. Hunter didn''t say anything at this, but did nod slightly. From there the three snuck through thepound making their wake back to the cryo pods.


    Bower was able to keep up with the other two in regards to moving silently and knowing when to avoid the halls… but part of that might be the fact Kamiko was being carried, slowing down Meg proportionally. Or perhaps not? Kamiko had no idea how fast they could realistically move while keeping quiet.


    Eventually the group made it to the cryo chamber and Kamiko was surprised to find it wasn''t all that cold in there. Sure there were a bunch of pods that were somewhat iced over but the room itself seemed to be a mostly normal temperature. Perhaps her own affinity for cold kept her from telling the difference.


    While Kamiko was keeping herself off to the side again, Meg stepped forward and worked the interface for the cryo pod. They seemed to be all individual and disconnected, Cor''s especially. Meg had to press a few buttons, waiting for the right time before continuing the sequence and fiddling with a couple dials for some reason.


    There was a slight sh of red but it was either a trick of the light or it was dealt with so fast Kamiko couldn''t properly register its existence before it was gone.


    With a hiss the pod opened and Meg took a few steps back. Cor remained motionless for a couple of seconds before striding out of the pod like she''d just woken up from a short power nap. "So what have you young idiots got for me this time? What did you break?" It was only after she finished speaking did she actually open her eyes and take a look at the room. "Well… this is unexpected. Demons.


    Did someone call you here to finish the job? Or did someone else call you here to take our knowledge?"


    "Neither actually," said Meg stepping forward to be the spokesperson for the group. Kamiko gave Hunter a quick nce of worry at that but Hunter seemed unconcerned… or maybe like she expected this?


    *Why are we letting Meg handle the important negotiations that will be setting the tone for all interactions with these people moving forward?* "You see, we were tasked with destroying an item that teleported into thepound,"


    "You expect me to believe it just so happened to appear inside thepound? In the deepest levels? With no tampering for you lot?" asked Cor.


    Meg shrugged, "It''s part of arger whole and just one piece managed to end up here, and due the magical affinity of the item a closed of space somewhat separated from time makes it seem like it is not quite so idental. Of course, I''m not her to dictate anything, just make some offers,"n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    *She can say that?! With a straight face?! And like… at all?* "Oh? Well what were the options you were going over? All of them please, I HAVE met demons before this ce got locked down," said Cor.


    Discover hidden stories at empire


    "Of course. We''ve been discussing it for some time, and eventually decided that it was best to get your advice before approaching the rest of the people living here.


    We could of course simply take the object and leave, open a gap in the shield around the ce and let whoever out who wants to go… or we could ensure that any issues acquired froming into contact with the object were dealt with in a more thorough fashion," stated Meg.


    "Ah, so killing everyone and burning the facility to the ground. It would certainly be less hassle for me if you went that direction," said Cor with a sigh. "Yet you''vee to me… so not every one in your little group was up for the whole murder… hmm… is it the old man? He doesn''t feel like a demon,"


    "I''m a native of the actually," said Bower. Meg turned around and shot him a re but Bower kept going. "This is what essentially everyone sentient looks like now. Well, it''s possible the distant kingdoms have their own unique appearances but as you can see, scale coverage is a bit more…plete now,"


    Cor turned her gaze on Bower, and for a split second Kamiko shivered. It was clear Cor was here as a researcher and not as a rtive because for just a moment Kamiko could see Cor''s attempt to rip apart Bower with her eyes and study all of the changes involved in his anatomy.


    For Bower''s part, he didn''t flinch… though if that was due to his old eyes missing the glint, or not Kamiko didn''t want to know. Nor did she want to know why his lips seemed to twitch in that moment.


    "Welp, I suppose it''s still better then that time I was getting woken up once a year to fix the oven. Gonna need to ask a whole bunch of questions though. Though I guess the first thing, is the world even inhabitable at the moment?" asked Cor. "For us I mean,"


    Bower shrugged while looking at Kamiko and Hunter. "I noticed no reason for you to be excessively worried though the tech level has been significantly reduced. This is likely the most advanced facility still remaining," admitted Hunter.


    Meg pointedly did not re at this but she did step forward a slight touch and confirm it. "Hunter there is correct.


    I know of no reason for the outside world to be intrinsically fatal but there are political and social realities that need to be recognised should you chose to leave… of course the generators outside are slowly falling apart and the ones inside are likely going the same way so it''s unclear for how long you could remain here safely anyway,"


    "Of course. Suppose the robots are doing maintenance on them?" asked Cor.


    Meg shrugged, "There is a small de of treants living on the exit,"


    "Do you mean de as in de, or is a group of treants CALLED a de?" asked Cor


    "The second," confirmed Meg.


    "Not sure that makes things better…" grumbled Cor.