Day 5 (The Ride Home)

Jacob shrugged. “Hard to say. They hear that Voice of theirs, it's real, that's a certainty, but even if they're real it's never a good sign to hear voices in your head. They seem completely insane to me. Last time I saw one, there were about three of them and ten of us. They made a hell of a fight for it. You know why they were there that time? They were going to burn down some house. An abandoned house, we found out later. Petty arson, from the people who are supposed to be coordinating the attack against humanity. No, they don't make sense.”

Alyssa was only half listening. She couldn't help but remember what she'd done to the creature. How she'd killed it without even considering it first. Her claws weren't physical, but she still felt feedback through them. She'd felt it as they tore through the Sightless' throat, and remembering it made her shudder.

“Hey, I know how you're feeling.” Jacob said, interrupting himself. “That thing would have sooner killed you than looked at you. I'm betting that's why it was there, to take you out of the picture. It's not a person anymore, it's just a thing.”

“It used to be a person?” Alyssa looked over toward him incredulously. “That doesn't help!”

“Emphasis on 'used to'.” Jacob corrected quickly. “I doubt he even remembers what humanity was like. He probably used to be some ordinary person who got bored with real life, and traded in his soul for a chance to feel better. He's probably been this way for decades.”

Alyssa felt only vaguely reassured. It wasn't that she didn't feel comfortable with killing the monster – Jacob's words made complete sense – it was just that she couldn't get the moment out of her head. She found herself wondering if she'd remember it every time she killed. The harpies weren't human, had never been human. The Sightless... were they beyond redemption? According to Jacob, probably. The one they'd fought certainly hadn't seemed interested in having a deep and meaningful conversation about his future. Still, it nagged at her, and she found that she was unlikely to be able to let it go.

“You won't forget it.” Jacob said, after a long uncomfortable stretch of silence. “There will come a time where you'll do one of them in, and you'll shrug it off. I've fought maybe a dozen in my lifetime, and I remember the first few and the last one. It gets easier. If they were people, that'd be a bad sign, but they're not. I will be honest with you. No matter how much you rationalize it, no matter how just it sounds in your head, you won't forget that first one. “

Alyssa wanted to know. She could tell from his tone that there was more to the story – a lot more – than Jacob was letting on. It hadn't been some simple ambush like the one they had faced at Knapp's. Something else had happened there. For all that Jacob seemed to be in an answering mood, though, she knew that he probably wouldn't answer that question. Even if he had been a Road Man for decades, it was still too soon.

The car turned off of the highway and onto some other busy thoroughfare. Alyssa wasn't really paying attention to the route they took. She knew they were heading to the Chambers, because they always did after they completed their job. The first few times she'd rode along with Jacob, she'd tried to figure out where, exactly, it was. The Road Man had always taken a different route every time, and she could have sworn the door was in different places as well, so she quickly gave up. Instead, she usually spent the aftermath leaning back in the seat and relaxing, allowing herself to calm down from the heat of the fight. This time, though, she couldn't.

They entered the city quickly. Alyssa still didn't know where this city was, or even its name. It was fairly big, judging from the large buildings downtown and the similarly overdeveloped suburbs they had to traverse to get there, but she never saw signs which named it completely. She asked Jacob once, and he'd explained that the sight was double-edged. While it granted insights into the world which ordinary people could not percieve, it also took something of the real world away. There was a connection between real people and the real world. Because Jacob and Alyssa had taken a step toward the unseen, their connection had been stretched. With those like the Sightless, Alyssa imagined, that connection had been broken forever.

The city was not busy; it was a weekend, thankfully. Gifted as the Road Men are, there was very little they could do about traffic except wait it out. They usually knew alternate routes, but when rush hour came, everyone was stuck. They saw plenty of vehicles regardless, and there was a brief jam when one of the traffic lights stopped working, but they saw few pedestrians and their commute took almost no time at all. This time Jacob took them to a parking garage.

They stepped out, Alyssa stretching. She wasn't looking forward to meeting with the council. Though she knew she was justified in everything she'd done, and that they'd more likely congratulate than condemn her, she simply didn't want to describe what she'd just been through. That would mean revisiting it. Again.

Jacob walked forward confidently toward a door whose label declared it to be “MAINTAINANCE” and opened it. He held it for Alyssa, who at this point was more than used to Jacob's favoring himself a modern day knight. She walked through nervously.

Jacob closed the door behind her and followed her through the familiar narrow passage. They did not speak; everything which needed to be said would be said to the council soon enough. They entered the main area, which Alyssa had long ago dubbed 'the lobby'. There were chairs, tables, books everywhere, and more than abundant florescent lighting. Savant was sitting in one of the tables, looking as relaxed as ever. He glanced up when they entered the room.

“Alyssa, Jacob! Welcome home.”

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