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Bk 2 Ch. 41 A coup attempt
🕑 Added 2024-08-19 03:00:43 +0000 UTC41.
“What do you mean a coup?” Yesi asked as they stood outside of Homebase. They had just enough time to scrub all the blood, dirt, and dried sweat off of themselves before they were heading toward the center of the community. Dozens of people were milling about looking a mix of excited, relaxed, and a few nervous, shifty faces. Santi paid attention to those shifty faces.
They were the older people, people who had careers and lives and established themselves. People who were once respected and had thought they had a handle on life. The ones who had lost the most professionally, who had been disconnected from their personal images of themselves.
Santi and the others had moved fast enough that there were plenty of families, people who hadn’t lost everything. People who could hold onto this loss of prestige and let it fester until it became ugly. It was shortsighted and small and petty and so, so tiring.
“They’re going to make a play. Something like since the emergency is over, that the Council will be taking the drivers wheel. Could be something as simple as codifying positions and the rules and responsibilities, making me irrelevant and Tank an afterthought. Expand how many members there are and bring some of their friends on board.”
“You really thought this through,” Yesi said with an approving smile.
“Yeah, really thought about it on the walk here,” Santi lied. It was much simpler as he had experienced it. Small communities and sometimes bigger settlements. All of them dissolving into infighting and bitter backstabbing until they were easy pickings for range of monsters that sat outside their walls.
It was something that he wasn’t going to allow. If he had to crack some skulls to make it happen, then so be it.
“Glad to see you’re thinking things out finally. Where’s Tank and your other friends?”
“They’re already inside.”
“Ohhhh, going for a dramatic entrance?”
“Damn straight.”
The crowds moved into Homebase and its crowded and hot halls and Santi let the minutes pass. There were a few minutes to go before he had to go in. He tapped his foot impatient for the minutes to trickle by. Yesi was watching him out of the corner of her eye with the hint of a smile on her face.
“I’m not the best at waiting.”
“I noticed.”
“Fuck it, let’s go.” Santi pushed [Air Current] outward, a gentle breeze preceding him as he slammed into the door and pushed his way into Homebase. The crowds gave way to him as the fresh gust of air heralded his arrival. There was an edge of fear now as they looked at him, a sense of anxiety pervading the atmosphere.
He could already hear the raised voices from the room the council used. A dozen shouting and clamoring peoples, the sound of flesh smacking wood, a high pitched mocking laugh, all of it blending together to paint a dejecting picture.
Santi hit the doors like a steam train, amplifying the spell to send a powerful gust of air to send papers and other odds and ends swirling away from him as he looked everyone over. Tank was sitting with Cameron and Bianca behind him while Daniel and Hana lurked in the background. Rayleigh had been kind enough to sit nearby, along with members of Adam’s former track team. Chad and his brother were posted close by, both having left their bows at home.
Helena and Marisol were shoulder to shoulder with their own group of supporters crowding around them. None of them were fighters, but they were all vital. They were the people who cleaned the water, made sure everyone got food, got the latrines made and filled, saw to all the supplies. They were the infrastructure of the settlement.
Helena’s people were too young and too old. Those whose fire had faded or yet to ignite. The interior defense group served a great purpose as they often patrolled the settlement at night as a fire watch. They broke up disagreements and helped by securing critical pieces of infrastructure. None of them were elites. They also outnumbered Santi and Abraham’s combined crews three to one.
They were going to soon reach a tipping point where numbers would matter less. Where a person’s talent and hardwork could elevate them above the squalor of mediocrity and showcase their dominance to the world. Helena and Marisol could feel it. As could all those others who weren’t willing to risk their lives for strength. This was going to be their last chance to steer the proverbial ship before Santi and the others were too far above them.
“Sorry, you must have started early!” Santi said with a smile he didn’t feel as he and Yesi worked their way over to his corner. He kept his gaze locked on the three councilors and decided they were going to go the expansion route. There wouldn’t be any knives coming out to take him in the back from this group.
They were smart and cowardly, they wouldn’t risk a bloodbath that would result from a failed assassination. They would go the political route. The route that humanity had been working on for centuries, the polite words that hid venomous intentions.
If it wasn’t going to be such a headache, Santi would have felt bad for them. They still hadn’t truly adapted. Politics would be what the strong dictated. There would come a time when the general strength of everyone would rise enough that they could threaten the pillars of System civilization, but that was a long way away.
“Good to see you, Santiago. We were just beginning. We wish to propose adding four new positions to this Council. In addition, we will be looking to codify that this Council’s ruling be taken as law,” Helena spoke, her strong voice ringing out and silencing the talk around the table.
“That all?”
“No actually. We also will vote on elections. Every three months. General population, not by group.”
Santi raised an eyebrow at that. They were throwing the book at him. Diminishing his voting power and ensuring he wouldn’t be able to win another position as his small faction was the smallest numerically.
“Anything else?” Santi asked, keeping his smile plastered on his face as he boiled with a mix of frustration and anger. He hadn’t even been able to properly look at his gains from clearing the rift before this shit had started.
“That is all for now.”
“Excellent. Now, we’re not doing any of that shit.” Santi’s voice was sharp as ice cracking and the mood in the room plummeted as glares from the two sides promised real bloodshed.
Manipulating a simple spell like [Air Current] was normally easy, but the current casting had to be reinforced with [Air Manipulation]. Santi threaded tunnels of air out through windows and door, his voice projecting not only to the room, but to the entirety of the settlement.
“This is the most selfish, cowardly, and manipulative thing I have ever witnessed.” His spell work did its job, his normal talking voice overpowering every single sound in the camp.
“You’re disguising a power grab in the name of democracy and are trying to throw out those who have sacrificed and fought the hardest and longest for this settlement. It’s blatant to anyone who looks, the people are smarter than this!” Santi never raised his voice, but let his own anger fill his words.
Others were trying to speak, but finding their words couldn’t be heard more than a few inches from their mouths. Sweat was beading along Santi’s head and he could feel his pulse behind his eyes as he struggled to hold the spell forms together. He was manually suppressing everyone’s ability to speak while simultaneously keeping the microphone spell going.
“We haven’t even had time to eat after saving the town we founded from that rift, when you come here with this bullshit? No, we don’t recognize any authority of yours. You have cowered behind walls builts by others, guarded by others, eating food brought to you by others, all the while you do nothing. You disgrace us all. You disgrace those who serve you with noble intentions.” Santi let the spells fall away as he began to struggle to hold it all together. He couldn’t let them see him fail to hold the two spells together, it would pierce his facade in a way that might be fatal at the moment.
It took a minute for people to realize they could speak, and at first they were hesitant. Their wide fear eyed gazes locked on Santi as they began to speak. Abraham sat there silently, tapping his lips with a long finger. He rose in one smooth athletic motion and raised a hand.
The room took a few moments to take in what he was doing, but eventually they settled down and looked at the older man. His animosity towards Santi and the others was well known and he would be the deciding factor of this in their minds.
