It took a while to figure it out. Especially since I didn’t want to ‘die’ like the last time. In that time, his ‘memories’ faded into a proper dream of dozens of scantily clad women. I saw things no cat should ever see. There was once a Duke that had a harem like this. EuGH- begone foul memories. Go back under the fog.

  On the bright side, I now had a total of seven Utility Chips, several more Meal Chips, and a fancy new frost dagger ripped from his chrome. Unfortunately, it was an enchanted one and not system loot, so I couldn’t bind it. I made a simple sheath of Ebonshroud and shoved it into my boot. I'd probably find a purpose for it at some point. Or sell it.

  I dumped his corpse into a trash bin. It’d probably get taken outside the walls and dumped along with the rest of Bastion’s trash. Wild monsters or scavengers would take care of the rest. Nothing to tie back to me... probably. There wasn’t any blood, and fingerprints were taken care of by my gloves.

  The whole situation was incredibly confusing in the first place, but as best I could tell? Swagger Dagger was an assassin. Something went wrong though and that flame showed up, driving the man absolutely insane. What even was that? Felt like contamination, but no way an Outsider would be out and free in Bastion, yep? What were the Arbiters even doing?

  From the snippets of his dreams and possessions, he must’ve gone on a killing spree after that. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, which led to him picking me out off the street as a target. Unfortunate.

  I cleaned up and called a cab to head to the Awakener Bureau’s Aegis location. It wasn’t that far from Tlacauli, located just to the south of Olton. My apartment was almost right in between the two.

  I was oddly looking forward to claiming my status as a Warden. Wardens were basically the ‘knight’ class of Bastion, or close enough to it. Funny how I’d become a knight-equivalent even here. The respect and honor were secondary, in this case. Chances were high I’d become an Anarch anyway given my nature as a mercenary.

  The driver stopped on the edge of a massive plaza. The actual Awakener Bureau itself sat on the complete other side of the plaza. "Closest I can get without running anyone over."

  "'S fine." I paid with a shard and stepped out of the cab.

  The plaza was extremely busy and full of people in wacky and weird clothes. There were almost as many mascots as there were people. The drones buzzed around with blinking red lights. No clue what was so interesting about the plaza that they’d want to record everything here, but they were a bit annoying. Stuff flying over my head made me uncomfortable.

  Most people had weapons and armor. Everything from bows and rifles to heavy zweih?nders. The armor varied from simple plate carriers to full on power armor to more traditional heavy plate and light stud armor. People really did just use whatever they wanted... although I guess some of these choices were inspired by their builds, Skills, and Innate Traits?

  Although the bureau was specifically for awakened, there were a large number of merchants, journalists, and even just normal citizens scattered around the place like it was some kind of town market. Crazy chaotic. I'd hate to be the person responsible for managing this. If just one Anarch came through here with horrible intentions… well, its a good thing the city had a population in the billions.

  I kept my head down and passed through the congested plaza to the actual building itself. A line was quite apparent, wrapping around the entire plaza. Guess I should join that?

  The chatter and noise was overpowering, to the point it drove a spike of anxiety down my spine just the same as any crowded place did. After being so long without people, I still wasn’t used to the overcrowded life of Bastion. It was... stifling?

  Eventually, I made it to the front desk. The attendant behind it smiled at me with a polite, though empty, smile. “What can I help you with today?”

  ”Register.” My hoarse voice croaked out.

  The woman frowned. ”You’ve come to register?”

  ”Yep.” Was there something wrong with that? Did I not look enough like a Warden? I even took off the mask to look less Anarchy this time around. A pair of shades covered my eyes.

  ”Right, uh, head to the elevator over there.” She pointed across the crowded lobby. “You’re looking for sub-level three. Got that?”

  “...” I nodded to the woman and left. Almost immediately, I was replaced by some other sap in the long line. I walked across the lobby, feeling quite a few people bump into me. My paranoia slowly crept up with each bump, though I managed to barely keep myself contained long enough to get to the elevator.

  After a short ride down, alongside a group of fresh-faced youngsters, I stepped out into sub-level three. Down here, the space was much, much more calm. It took no time to get to the front of the line.

  A tall elf at the front handed me a paper and a pen. “Fill this out, and then head through the door on the left.”

  I nodded and stepped back, working on the registration form. Most of the stuff was quite simple. Name, sex, race, age—that kind of thing. I filled it out according to the details of my SIGIL. It was only once I hit near the bottom that I slowed down.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Innate Trait? I thought back to what Pursius said. I shouldn’t put Dream Stride down. Hmm… I was in a bit of a unique situation considering I had three Innate Traits. I should keep Ebonshroud close to my chest too. I didn’t want to stand out too much, and it was definitely my strongest ability.

  All-Speech then? It wasn’t so powerful that it’d make me stand out. Just a good quality of life thing. I thought for a moment longer before writing down All-Speech in the box. What’s a the worse that could happen?

  Skills were after that. That much was simple. I had nothing particularly strong, nor anything worth hiding. I wrote down my Skills exactly as they were.

  There was also a section for an alias, though I wasn’t quite sure what that was all about, so I skipped it for now. I could always fill stuff out later. That, or someone would toss my form into the trash for being incomplete.

  With the form as complete as I could make it, I headed off through the door on the left. It led into a massive office space with a fairly long line of assorted peoples. In no time, I was through the line and sent into an office by the workers managing it. The Bureau sure was efficient.

  An Enforcer with a brilliant smile nodded at me. He had on a red tie, the only mark of his position. “Welcome in! Please, take a seat.”

  “…” Ugh- so bright… Some kind of chrome blinder? I passed over my form.

  The man read through it. His eyes sifted through the information and he typed rapid-fire into a terminal. He paused near the end and leaned back. “Okay, looks mostly good. No alias though?”

  ”…?” I tilted my head to the side.

  ”You know, an alias? Like… Solis, the number one Warden. Or Huntsman from the Lodge?” He shrugged. “A name for your future Warden career. One to operate under.”

  Oh! Like Bombastic Bowman and Obsidio? Hmm… What should I name myself? Something from my past? How about… Abyss? Ugh- no. That was Damion level right there.

  Something from my past… what did Elysia call me back then? It’d been so long since she died. My memories before Bastion were a foggy haze of agony and sorrow best left forgotten. I thought long and hard, trying to dredge them up. What was it again?

  A gentle voice seemed to replay in my mind. A voice I longed to hear even just once more. “Aylin, my Night Halo, willst thou-“

  I cut off the memory. Even just remembering her voice felt like glass shards tearing through my heart. My hands trembled in my pockets. I looked up to meet the man’s eyes, though I managed to answer calmly. ”Night. Halo?”

  He tapped away on his keyboard, staring at the screen. “Already taken by a C-rank Warden. Any other ideas?”

  “Hmm...” I’d have to hunt and kill that Warden later. “Moon?”

  He tapped around for a while before his face lit up. “Oh, Moon is available! The original Moon just died of old age. Normally, once an alias is taken, it's gone. The deceased Moon never officially acted as a Warden after registering though, so it's technically up for grabs. Want it?”

  ”Sure.” Moon was fine. Unfortunately, it seemed even if I hunted down that C-rank, I wouldn’t be able to take Night Halo back. What a bummer-

  [Nighteye is greatly pleased with your alias! She proclaims that you two are absolutely meant to be.]

  Go away! Stop bothering me! I felt my mood drop even further. I glared at the message sent by the unknown entity.

  [Nighteye locks her lips with a twinkle in her eye, throwing away the key.]

  Good riddance. I hope that key never gets found-

  “Hello?” The worker waved his hand to get my attention.

  ”Sorry. What?” I hoarsely asked.

  ”Oh, I was asking about your disability. I see you can still talk. Are you limited to single word replies?” He asked, a trace of pity flashing through his eyes. “Would getting a chrome voice box work?”

  ”…” I shook my head. Pursius tried something similar after I first met him; it was a complete failure.

  ”Unfortunate. And your Trait? All-Speech? Is it truly any spoken language?”

  “Yep.” As long as there was sufficient intention to communicate using a language, it should work. Even wild beasts had sometimes been translated in the past if they were smart enough.

  “Right. Well, you should have a brilliant career as a translator if being a Warden doesn’t pan out.” I had a feeling it was supposed to be a joke, but it rang too true for either one of us to laugh.

  We went back and forth for a while longer as he asked questions. I had flashbacks to Sergei, honestly. Eventually, though, he finished entering all my information. “Good, now we just need to test your Trait, and then you’ll be fully registered, Aylin.”

  ”Test?”

  ”Indeed… usually it's done in the gym on sub-level four, but yours isn’t combat focused.” He shrugged lightly. “You’ll probably get sent upstairs and a bunch of people will ask you questions in different languages. Just waiting for a reply from my manager on where he wants you.”

  “…”

  His computer chimed loudly a few minutes later. The Enforcer tossed my form into a filing cabinet after scribbling on it. “Oh, there it is. Head up to floor fifteen, office one-five-two-three.”

  I flashed a thumbs up and headed back the way I came.

  — — —

  A few hours later, I stepped out of the Bureau as a newly registered Warden. The testing phase took forever. They had some weird machine that was supposed to bring up my status. It didn’t work for some reason. Actually upgrading my SIGIL to white, though? Done almost instantly by an Enforcer with some fancy magitech.

  I and about a dozen other new Wardens were given a quick rundown on responsibilities and benefits after that. For the most part, it wasn’t anything too complicated. Throne didn’t expect much from F-rank Wardens. Basically, if a rift popped up, I was obligated to report and watch over it until an official from the Bureau could come.

  Other than that, there were a bunch of oaths and stuff I half-paid attention to. Most of it was basic stuff I’d break almost immediately anyway, such as not using my abilities to become or support an Anarch. I mouthed along, not actually making the oath. It was good enough for the guys working there with a hand wave on account of my 'disability'.

  They even handed out new Glasses with Throne’s official Warden app already installed, and then we were dumped back off at the lobby. My Glass was just a cheap knockoff, but the one the Association handed out was a real SeluNet Glass. It was even the latest model, offering an even more transparent and resilient screen. Pretty primo, yep.

  The Wardens I was dumped out with were swarmed by scouts offering their professional services. Promises for everything from becoming a Bastion famous Warden to joining one of the Pentarchs, the five major guilds, poured from their mouths. There were surprisingly few offers from Throne, though. Guess they didn’t deal with Fs? I ducked my head and fought past them.

  Most of them seemed like scams, so I hardly paid attention. Pursius had put me through a long, long conversation on scams not too long ago after I came to Bastion… I lost all my money on Warden Coin. In my defense, it looked super authentic and I was still figuring things out. It was a very confusing time. It still is, in some ways.

  I shoved my way through the plaza once more and called a cab. Back to Tlacauli.