Chapter 161

  “You are... correct. Of course, you are correct. I should tell you everything beforehand, or... until it makes sense.” Richards said, waving his hand and shoving unfamiliar entities away from him.

  “Why William? Is it because of my involvement, or is Mi-Yung that demanding, or is it the Academy?”

  “Mi-Yung... has been right all along, right? She is the source that moved the unrest for years. She instead found the links and missions going even further, until... finding the kid everyone thought was fake and gone. She has some... ideas and a connection with the person interested. Assembly and Academy are there as well, but they're not mine to take. Name Gale is the problem, as I have said, because it...”

  “...it doesn’t matter to me at all. What is a dead family to me? What is karma? I gave you something to work with, Richards, and you are spitting in my face. I am not getting anything in return, and I am sure about that kid. Guess what he does?”

  “What?”

  “Yes; he is also asking useless questions and thinks carefully around me. You have a lot of common with him, I see.” Kaufman chuckled and looked around him. In one blink, the entities were gone, scattering like ghosts washed by light.

  “Well, it is a prudent thought. I lived around your kind for far too long, and I am sure he did not.”

  “Alright. Le'ts just say he is reading about the world of Walkers for the first time, so don’t bother me for nothing. Come back to him or me in a month. I am sure William will have his voice and choices ready by then. If not, then the Awakening will answer everything and crack him wide open. Or perhaps his path of slaughter already started with the bang? Well, it might be strange because I have no idea what he is about to do. His Emblem, I mean. It is an intriguing vessel.” Kaufman interpreted his truths and what counted as that within his head.

  Richards could only agree and didn’t want to mess with him further. He already pissed him off in some minor capacity.

  “So it is true? The rumors. The lines in the past excused as anomalies.” Richards asked.

  “What, you dumb fox? That kid spent the last decade Outside like a guileless bird. No one knew about him until recently. Those leaking trips didn’t even make sense until waaaay later. That’s Mi-Yung, who dug him from some coffin, right? He is ripe for taking, and something else is missing, or it is misinterpreted. Just what can this be about, huh?”

  “Gale kid. Both...”

  “No, let me guess. Dead parents doing something sinister, or sieged some chance or heaven? Emblem did it, must it? Talent tickled to a Bloodline and mutation?! Nah. Something else paved the past, forged or dead, or everything happened all at once. It is too greedy, but he is just a kid trying to be better because he still dreams of his mother's hand and what he could have had if it weren't for them.”

  “Says someone who took care of him in this way. Saw that card. Maybe I should report it to the higher-ups.”

  “Like I give a shit.”

  “That’s true...” Richards pondered for a while before giving his final words. “This has been a good talk. Thank you, Kaufman. I will see you later, and I am hoping for your cooperation and fewer problems if this won’t be the kind of cooperation you want. There are other kids and words to give, but the influential Walkers are hard to stop. You included.”

  “Whatever,” Kaufman uttered a single word that contained a whole monologue of how much crap he could give.

  Richards chuckled and his entire body dived into the space as if a bubble popped into water. His colors washed away, and a blink later was all it took for him to depart. No undulation or anything was visible. Not like it needed to be flashy, since this wasn’t a common realm. Afterward, no one was here except Kaufman and shadows, and...

  A huge slithering cocoon resembling a snake with an eagle’s head and strange ethereal body, leaping and cruising all around Kaufman. It was big, swimming, and following Kaufman from afar and close, moving around as if everything was water and its realm. The man was closer, albeit without the hat in sight.

  Kaufman and Richards knew their abilities, but one of them was much deeper than the other.

  “Man, William will surely dislike those guys. I am not too worried about him. The choices? The choice. Future...hm? Maybe Mi-Yung will do something about it. From the looks of it, I miscalculated and ignored something big with the Academy, which isn't surprising if it is about Gales. Maybe I should start with Mi-Yung first. She will come back soon. Alright. I will do it like that.”

  Before restarting his walk, he hesitated.

  He cocked at the weird snake, noticing its angling head and one bizarre eye.

  “Wait a second. Am I too reckless? I disliked when grown-ass adults used to fight over kids, yet what I am doing right now? It isn’t about Viktor any longer. Dead doesn’t concern me. The Examination is getting closer, and a lot of interest happens every damn time. That is too bad. Maybe I should incentive him until he wouldn’t disagree. Right. Maybe Mi-Yung might… well, Songs. I don’t know about them or her plans.”

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  Kaufman helplessly shook his head and took off his cowboy hat. It flowed in the white outlines, and its brown colors dimmed. It remained in his hand, even if it felt like nothing.

  [Excsssacktly.] a voice called.

  As he massaged his temples, a comforting feeling moved his eyes. It was a small relief he liked to do whenever he was angry or hopeless.

  He preferred his hat much more because he found it many decades ago, still intact in some debris. He didn't even know its origin, but its quality was beyond great if it had survived for so long. Some styling was required every few years for it to remain crisp and clear. As a Walker of his Rank, one had to make a certain impression, yet he didn’t care for it anymore.

  Checking his still intact hairline, he soon felt better. Sighting, he put his hat back and returned to his walk, followed by that athereal snake. He had a long time deciding what to do and follow next.

  Or it had already started.

  It wasn’t about stubbornness. He felt it wasn't the wrong choice to fix the pain away with more sorrow or dive right back at it.

  “I will get to the bottom of it. Fuck the System. Fuck Gales. Screw some bonds or tales. This has to end. Has to.”

  ***

  In the room on the upper floors, William remained oblivious to Heidi or two strange Walkers walking in the unknown space.

  In his hands was a fascinating idea about Walkers connected and correlated with many equal or terrific Darks. He was taking the first passes seriously and glossed over the most complicated stuff, or straight up ignored them. He liked simpler aspects of Walker's world, while Outside knowledge made it less pressing, or more fascinating.

  Contrary to what he would say to the lower floor, he found the spark he was meant to catch a long time ago.

  A world handled by the Dawn was difficult to overlook, and he was used to seeing terrible things out there. The dangers Darks presented were countless, and William could get behind brutal and hard ideas quite well if he took it slowly. From military and painful sacrifices to war, where there were Darks, there was blood and Dawn.

  Soon enough, after more additional passes, he would get it to his head much faster than most Walkers his age could, but he wasn’t convinced because of Kaufman.

  That included the fact that he didn’t know a lot of advanced basics, or even stuff elites take for granted, so some concessions were only fair. He wasn’t sure if he could outgrow that point, with this library, six weeks, or even with closer Ellie. Maybe he wasn't meant to be like those elites or what this library was about.

  Maybe his future was already taken and only grew where it needed to.

  With the approaching Examinations, the Federation and most of its Divisions were graduating their most feasible recruits with the Forced Awakening.

  Those important enough were privately taught by their families, unique Walker teachers, or their circumstances, lands, and organizations. Those were seen as special cases, either touched by talents, their history, or established links and lineage.

  William paused, shocked to discover one unusual cause that confused him.

  How did Walkers come to be, under what cases, and from where?

  The place didn’t matter. Their births seemed to not correlate to dates, deaths, time, or anything with peace. It corresponded to the way people reproduced and lived, and Emblems were like viruses that had unknown sources.

  Walker came from common people, as that was evident from the very start. The world believed in it, yet it wasn't the whole truth.

  William grasped that much Outside, so what if a Walkers came to this picture? What then? It was possible under two feasible scenarios following the base of sex. A female Walker needed the seed of normal men. Another case was…well, the opposite. Taking seeds to a variety of women until a Walker would be born was like shooting into the sea and catching a fish after failures, bad bait, or nine months.

  It was like a gamble with lives, yet the female Walkers had a much higher likelihood of birthing Walkers for some reason. The case was probably by how mothers were ever so important in this equation.

  For the broader truth, this whole sex business was quite open in this room, and that pointed to one weird idea. Having two Walkers together wouldn’t make a new one. That was a point credited to trials and impossible scenarios. Every note ensured William about it.

  He read about it for dozens of re-reads until his anxiety gripped his heart and mind. He found what he was looking for. Luke said it. Both of his parents were Walkers, so what the hell was this about?

  It was a messy topic. William found it awkward and kind of daunting.

  At least he discovered how Walkers came to be and how these possibilities had many cultural repercussions. Humanity needed as many Walkers as possible, yet numbers weren’t necessarily dwindling or growing too high.

  Balancing on multiple lands, the past decades and organization of Walkers put substantial effort into future generations. Both in the normal human population and Outside, it was for the sake of baby-making and progress.

  William wondered if he had to do it as well, but not before he questioned the nature of his parents.

  Was he their son? Was his mother even his mother? Was he... a mistake?

  No. This was important for the future, and most leadership of the remaining nations knew this far too well. Although this reasoning was obscure behind the veil of oblivion and secrecy, it wasn’t obvious thanks to the natural approach of procreation.

  People didn’t need to know about Walkers too much, so they weren’t stressing the Outside or letting them populate out of the expected balance. They, too, have their purpose.

  William didn't know whether to cry or agree with everything. Maybe this was too much for him.