Monroe

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy. Compassion.

Bob watched as the weary freshers staggered upstairs, eagerly seeking their bunks.

They'd been determined to succeed, and he had to wonder if things weren't getting a little bit desperate for the new arrivals in Holmstead. Maybe something to check on.

He was at an impasse regarding them. On the one hand, they really wouldn't be able to delve once the recruits from Earth started rolling back in. On the other hand, it wasn't inconceivable for them to push down to the seventh floor if he completed another floor tomorrow. If the cooks and butchers used Summoning Affinity crystals, they could theoretically have the skills needed on top of the powerful path. The Druids, despite their importance, would fall a bit short due to the lack of Plant Affinity crystals, but that couldn't be helped. If they grouped them together, one Druid to every three Endless, carrying them to level seven wouldn't be impossible, and the extra two levels would make a difference when they were ritually growing food.

The problem was that if they couldn't hit level seven, the Endless would end up without the skills he'd brought them over to take and use. He needed to make a decision by tomorrow morning. If they spent twelve hours grinding out Summon Mana-Infused Creature...

Bob sighed and headed into the tavern, hoping for a quiet bite to eat.

He paused as he saw an unlikely group sitting at a table.

Mike must have been watching for him because he stood up and beckoned him over to the table, where one of the Endless girls, Carrie, another Marine, a teenage girl he didn't recognize, and most disturbingly, Nora, whose face was streaked with tears, were seated.

Bob strode over to the table and sat down next to Nora, who shifted from quietly crying to full-on sobbing as she shrank away from him.

Bob looked at Mike, who retook his seat, his face grim.

"Mike?" Bob asked, gesturing to Nora. He could only imagine a few scenarios that would have the fiery young woman crying, although he was aware that his imagination was somewhat limited, and none of them were good.

"Lance Corporal Jackson was part of the group that we sent back to Earth to purchase provisions at Costco today," Mike began, shifting his gaze towards Jackson, who looked guilty. "Carrie volunteered to handle portaling us there and back, and she brought Nora along to see what Earth was like."

Bob grimaced. Earth wasn't an amusement park, and the shortlist of terrible things that could have happened to Nora had just grown exponentially.

"Jackson had the brilliant idea of dropping Nora and Carrie at the South Coast Plaza to meet up with his daughter, Elaine," Mike nodded towards the teenage girl, "for some shopping."

"Pretty girls that they are, and fuck the system very much for the Beauty Attribute by the way," Mike growled, "they attracted the attention of a group of boys, who followed them around, although to be fair, at a respectful distance."

"A saleswoman in Hot Topic startled Nora when she approached her from behind and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to leap back, knocking over a mannequin which fell into a case, which fell into another case in a terrible domino effect," Mike paused for breath. "Glass shattered, things broke. Nora panicked and cast an Area of Effect Repair spell, which repaired the damage."

Nora burst into even louder sobs.

"Carrie pulled them out of the store, and got them out of sight, where she opened a portal, evading the teenage boys who had not only witnessed the event but also likely have a video, taken on their cellphones, as they'd been trying to catch video of the girls in their various outfits," Mike continued.

"Showing either uncommon forethought or reckless abandon, Carrie then dropped a ritual Portal at their feet, dropping them into the bed of the truck, where they landed on a pallet of flour," he finished.

"If the terminus were outside of the range of the ritual, it wouldn't have worked," Bob murmured, looking at Nora.

"Nora," Bob said carefully, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay."

Bob could feel Mike stiffen and could imagine the frown on his face. He kept his focus on Nora, whose sniffling had paused.

"But, I used magic," Nora snorted back another sob, "and now the people over there know," she failed to restrain the next sob, and the rest was almost incomprehensible as she bawled, "and it's all my fault." The last was drawn out.

"It was an accident," Bob tried in what he hoped was a soothing tone of voice, "you're an Adventurer; we're lucky you didn't just start blasting when something grabbed you from behind."

Nora snorted something that might have been a laugh, so Bob kept going.

"You've spent months fighting for your life against monsters," Bob went on, "we can't ask you to just turn those instincts off. This is not your fault."

Nora finally looked at him, her eyes red, her cheeks shining with tears. "You aren't mad at me?" She asked incredulously. "I shared the secret," she whimpered.

"No, I'm not mad at you," Bob replied, cautiously covering her hand with his own. "It wasn't going to remain a secret forever, or even much longer," Bob assured her, "Mike here is setting up a meeting for me with some important people, high ranking Marine officers, and once they know, it'll start spreading quickly."

"You didn't do anything wrong," Bob said. In an uncertain motion, he moved his hand off her shoulder and delicately brushed away her tears. He remembered his mother doing that for him once when he was little.

"Go get cleaned up," Bob said softly, "you've had a rough few hours."

Nora nodded and impulsively leaned forward to squeeze Bob in a hug before dashing out of the tavern and up the stairs.

Bob looked around the table. Carrie and Jackson looked relieved, Mike looked surprised, and Elaine looked confused. 𝓯𝓇𝘦𝘦𝑤ℯ𝓫𝑛𝓸𝑣𝓮𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓶

With a sigh, Bob pulled a slumbering Monroe out of his inventory and poured him onto the center of the table. Running his hands through Monroe's fur, he looked over at Mike. "The kid really didn't do anything wrong," Bob told him, "we can't expect them to be highly disciplined secret agents. It's unfortunate that it happened, but what's really out there? Some jumpy cellphone footage taken at a distance, and the cheapest security cameras that were available twenty years ago."

Mike pursed his lips and shook his head. "The whole thing was reckless and didn't need to happen."

"Sure," Bob shrugged, "but we're sending Carrie and the other Endless kids over to Earth, giving them a few tantalizing glimpses of our world, and then pulling them back here." He shook his head, "I'm not a people person," he said, drawing a snort from Mike, which he ignored, "but even I know that at some point, their curiosity was going to get the better of them, and with the ability to portal, it wasn't like they can be detained."

He looked at Carrie. "You're giant spiders, right?" He asked.

"I am," Carrie beamed.

"I'm guessing your Summon Mana-Infused Creature is capped?" Bob queried.

"It is," Carrie agreed happily.

Bob looked over at Mike, who didn't appear to be following. "Imagine, if you would," Bob began, "a thirty-foot tall spider, appearing in the middle of the mall, or maybe in the parking lot."

Mike paled. "I call them kids because they're young, but never doubt that each one of the Endless is a goddamn powerhouse," Bob explained, "and if they feel threatened, their go-to reaction is to bring out the biggest, beefiest summon they can."

Carrie nodded happily.

"So Nora popping out a repair spell, Carrie dropping a portal once they were out of sight?" Bob shook his head, "Not even registering on the worst-case scenarios I'd imagined in terms of the secret getting out."

Bob sighed and rubbed Monroe under the chin, although the super-size kitty remained stubbornly asleep. "I honestly thought that a summoned monster was the most likely event," Bob admitted, "we're leaning exclusively on the Endless after all."

"So," Bob looked around the table. "Anything else I should know about? Because I've got to be up in another five hours."

"Well," Jackson hesitated as he glanced at Mike, "I did bring Elaine over, and I'll need to have her back Monday, as her mother isn't about to let her miss school."

Bob looked at Elaine, who still looked a little confused.

"Are you sure you want her to go back?" Bob asked bluntly. "She was recorded on video shopping with Carrie and Nora, no doubt using a credit or debit card. While keeping Nora and Carrie off the radar isn't hard, if anyone does decide to investigate, Elaine is the only target."

Jackson paled, and Elaine's look of surprise shifted to one of fear.

Mike shook his head, "It's one thing to pull adults over," he sighed, "the truth is it'll be a few weeks, a month maybe before anyone starts looking for us, but you pull a kid over, and the school labels her truant, her mother reports her as missing, and suddenly Jackson and Elaine are both on the local news, asking that anyone with information regarding her disappearance, or their whereabouts contact this hotline."

"Now people are looking at Jackson, and they start talking to his friends. Except his closest friends are all suddenly missing as well," Mike growled, "so the story turns from a fairly common Dad abducting his daughter due to custody issues to a bunch of crippled ex-marines being involved. More questions are asked at the VA, and someone somewhere is going to realize a couple of hundred Marines have missed their appointments." Mike nodded to Bob, "People are getting curious now, thinking maybe they've stumbled onto a home-grown terrorist group, and they start checking in on friends and acquaintances, which reveals two thousand marines are missing. It's national news, the names and faces of every Marine here are suddenly on half a dozen watch lists, and we can't go back over without causing a shitstorm."

Bob nodded. Mike had been a detective, and he knew better than anyone how events were likely to proceed.

"Keeping in mind that I'm not good with people, what's your relationship with your ex-wife like?" Bob asked.

"You did pretty well with the kid," Jackson smiled, "you'd make a good father." He sighed, and his smile faded, "Probably better than me," he turned to Elaine, "I'm sorry Elli-bear, I shouldn't have dragged you into this; I just wanted to introduce you to a couple of the kids from Thayland so you'd have some friends already when the time came to bring you over."

"You wanted her to have friends," Mike said, and Bob swore he could hear the man's teeth grinding.

"When Stacia and I split, it was amicable enough," Jackson replied to Bob's question, "We got married straight out of high school, she knew I was joining the Marines, but there's a difference between knowing your husband is likely to see combat, and the reality of a man missing his leg up to the hip, as well as his wedding tackle."

Bob winced at that statement.

"I was drinking and feeling sorry for myself, and it was all just too much for her," Jackson explained. "We divorced, and once I'd gotten myself cleaned up, she had no problems with my being a part of Elaine's life."

"That being said, she's not going to be okay with Elaine disappearing. If school was out, and I wanted to drag her out Yosemite to go camping for a week, she'd agree, but she won't want her to miss school," Jackson finished.

"Does her life suck?" Bob asked bluntly, then clarified. "By that, I mean does she have a great career or something that would keep her from coming over herself?"

"She's a nurse," Elaine volunteered, "but she's been taking some courses to become a nurse practitioner."

Jackson nodded, "she went to nursing school when I joined the Corps."

Bob shrugged, "Show her some healing magic, offer her the chance to learn it; I can't imagine she'd turn it down."

Jackson opened his mouth, paused, and then closed it, looking thoughtful.

"Mom could grow people's legs back, like yours, Dad?" Elaine asked quietly.

"I think so," Jackson replied, looking to Bob for confirmation.

"Yep," Bob agreed, "Animancy, Ritual Magic, Regeneration. Grab Anima blast for general healing, have her follow Vi'Radia, and she can have Reincarnation as well. Just a one-stop-shop for all your healing needs."

'I'm right on that, Trebor?' Bob mentally projected.

'Effectively, yes,' Trebor replied, 'Reincarnation is a ritual granted by a divine blessing of Vi'Radia, so while she'd need to accept the first blessing, which is free, she would need to dedicate a skill point to receiving the blessing that grants the ritual.'

'Good enough,' Bob projected.

Elaine's eyes suddenly lit up with hope. "Do you think she could do something for grandpa then?" She asked eagerly.

"If she can't, Bob could," Jackson responded carefully, "I've heard that you can cure cancer, right?" He directed the question to Bob.

"I can, and she could as well," Bob confirmed.

"That might do it," Jackson said slowly, "she loves her Dad almost as much as she loves Elli-bear here; offering to cure his cancer might be enough to get her to move."

"It would," Elaine added, "she's always sad when she comes back from visiting grandpa."

"Simple enough then, just bring them both back over, we'll cure his cancer, get her set up with some healing magic, although," he sent a warning glance at both Jackson and Mike, "let's make sure he's interested before we throw a reincarnation at him."

"Carrie, do you mind handling the portals?" Bob asked.

"Whatever you need, Reef," she replied with a grin.

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