Pepper / INK /

Aftermath

"Tell me something Max, this taskforce usually is not just police is it?"

"No, it isn’t it’s usually police and those who know about the Inkwalkers. They had to change the whole reason for the existence of the Taskforce. Banned the use of all magic. And tried to vilify you instead of work with you. And they used the fact that you had sent a proxy in as a reason to vilify you." Max said. "So what do we do now that half the higher echelon of the Cog-bound are out of service?"

"We find honorable people to stand in their place. We say prayers for those who are sick and we remember those who are gone." Daniel said. "And we put the protections back in place. The ones I unwittingly destroyed." Daniel looked sheepish. "I wonder if Shum would be willing to re-build the old homestead. There are too many bad memories for me there, but he has no place to go, since his parents are gone, and his step-parents as well. According to the Inkwalker Law, as long as he has a guardian who is older than him, he can be out on his own, so I figure that Sebastian would be a good fit, the two already work together. John would be able to stay over whenever he wanted, and would be able to choose where he wanted to go.

We need to make plans to set up the old cities again, I’m tired of them being in ruins, and now I find some of that may not have been their fault."

Max nodded. "You think the same plague that hit us hit them?"

Daniel nodded and paced. "Inkaru agrees. He was the one that brought it up. He thought maybe that was why the cities had gone so badly to the Darkness. It would also explain why the Necromancers, always the minority were the most powerful. The plague was feeding their power, and their power was feeding the plague. Eventually it would have destroyed both."

"And I feel like there is still more to the story, with the engine we have found full of plague, and the fact that its very design screams Presidium, tells us we should all be wary." Daniel frowned at his own summation and then tried to change the subject

"Do you think there are enough who know to rebuild the cities?" Daniel asked after a long pause. "I mean. I know you think it is a good idea, but do you think that we few Walkers are enough?"

"It’s enough to start. Once the other cities are set up there is a good chance we will find other sevens, and maybe even your Grotto." Max replied.

"Then it looks like I have a lot of decrees to make. Besides the obvious ones. And the Prince of the City." He sighed. "That’s just ugly. I want to make sure we don’t repeat history, but I don’t know if I am strong enough to deal with this."

"You don’t have to deal with it alone Daniel." He said. Remember there are seven of us now, and we will make the Taskforce back into what it is supposed to be, for now we can keep John and Kari and Jessie and me on the taskforce and you, and maybe hire one more."

"Claire, claire needs to be on the taskforce, she can take Robert’s place. And it will once again be what it is supposed to be. Those who wear the Moon lily." Daniel smiled. "Though we should check and see if we have any solar botanists, if Claire is here, there is a chance we will find more solars coming forward, I mean a solar Inkwalker is not unheard of."

"But I doubt there is a fourth." Max said. He had already seen the sparks flying between the two, and while he would never set his friend up with someone against his will, she was unafraid of him, and knew enough to be a Seeker. "She’s a seeker, and you don’t have one."

"Butt out."

"He’s right though " Inkaru said.

#

Daniel held up his hands to quiet the crowd. He was, for the first time in a long time, dressed in the finery of his office. "About this battle there will be many things written. About who we are, about what we are. And there are those who will have their say, but I am the guardian of the city, of things written, and of things done, and I will speak first.

There are many who will say things about the Services Officer without understanding. I will say this, have care. Damien was a Necromancer, I will admit that. Damien was an Inkwalker, I will proudly admit that. He was my brother, and a friend, I will also admit that. But let me not hear from all of you that he was Evil, or that he did not deserve the honors he has been given, because he was, above all, human.

Yes, my brother dabbled in the dark arts, and yes, his Ink killed him in the end, but that is not what I want you to remember. My brother was a good man. He was also a very sick man. You see, the madness that overtook him, that overtook the ranks of the Cog-bound, and even me, it can change your mind, and your magic, it can make even the worst Taboo seem normal.

There are two words rightly feared even more than Rogue Inkwalker among those who have magic, and those two words are "Shadow Plague" the reason my brother was mad was because of the plague. And you see now, there are no proxies, no more hiding. I refuse to let people speak of what they do not know or understand.

I am the Inkwalker. We are Inkwalkers, there are three of us now, and as these two grow in their abilities they will move to the cities that have been hurt and destroyed and we will bring this country to what it was supposed to be. For we have found that many of the cities judged may, in fact, have been overrun by plague."

Daniel held up his hands to quiet the crowd that had gotten loud again. "Let me finish. There are things that will be written about the Prince of the city, and the fact that she was brought out of the tower by force today. Or at least that is the story heard in the paths of the cog. You speak and write that she was brought down by force as if she was a common criminal. But let me tell you what happened for I am one who would know. The moon is high now, Ay Dede can witness, for the was no wrongdoing with her.

Not four hours ago, while the sun was high in the sky, the Prince of the City called me into her presence, and demanded, under the name of the city, the name I do not acknowledge, that I step down, having been infected with plague and thereby becoming forever unclean. She did not do this under the name of the city as it is known. She did this under the human name of the city, a name which lends no power.

He held up his hands. "This frail girl, no more than skin and bone tried to take my place away from me, and when she saw that I would not be moved she screamed for the guards to have me arrested. She screamed for the guards, saying that I had tried to kill her. But I bore no weapon save the ink on my skin, and she had done nothing worthy of judgement.

The die was cast however, and the moment she had tried to call for the guards she fell back, unconscious. The sisters of medicine took her into their house, and she screamed and cursed at them and swore she would destroy them all." He paused adjusting his tunic. "And this she screamed and cursed until she was out again. But she did speak one word that told us why she spoke this way. She said "Presidium."

He held up his hands again as the crowd of reporters got loud talking about what had happened. "Her eyes were red, her lips were black, her teeth were sharp, and it was finally found that Prince of the City was infected with shadow plague as well. She was also, not a Solar." Daniel smiled in the sudden silence. "Her parents were, most of her sisters were, but she was a Lunar. Anathema to her people."

"No child of the presidium was allowed to use moon magic. And even those who used the sun were taught the song only the way their prince taught it, but so that you understand this, no man or woman or child of this city, having come from any place, or kin or family shall be, because of that family, unclean. They shall not be excluded, and it shall not be spoken ill against them, for they can no more help their parentage than you can. And such exclusion leads to division and such division leads to lies like the ones I have taken such pains to destroy. And so that you understand. One of my own seven, my friend, and perhaps more, Claire, has asked pardon from this gathering to sit with her sister in these, last few hours."

"Please, children, it will be easier if you do not keep shouting things out, let me finish my story and everything will be answered." He frowned at them as they tried to shout over him, and then waited for the silence again. When no answers were forthcoming they stilled. "The vile things the Prince of the city said, those are not my words or thoughts, but hers. The city now known as the Presidium was a city once known as Güneşin Şehri, The city of the Sun. And the eternal prince decreed, in his madness, that all forms of magic but Solar were anathema. And that they would destroy the world and so he closed the gates, renaming the city Presidium. We do not know more about what has happened except this, every person who has come from the Presidium has been infected with plague. So I ask you, if your friends or family are Presidium, go to the medical centers and have yourself tested for plague. Solars are unaffected by this form of plague, but they can carry it." Daniel held up his hands to stop the talking.

"I will say this again. For there are those among you saying why we do not cast them out because of this. They have done no wrong. And it was not their choice or permission. In fact, in speaking with many of those reclaimed from the Forbidden City, they did not know until now what their eternal prince had done to them. Why he had sent them into the wilderness. And we have sent runners to other cities to also send word of the plague and its cure.

We do not know what the presidium was doing or why, we can only guess. But with our prince of the city out of commission, there are a few changes being made. Firstly, the Prince of the City position is open to any who wish to submit their names, Lunar or Solar, the only exclusion of course, is the children of blood, and considering the plague on our streets you can understand why.

It will be returned to an elected office as it was meant to be, no longer will it be appointed. Elections will be held, as always, here in the cog, three weeks from today. From sunrise until sunrise will be the appointed time. Our city, my brother is right, has fallen on disrepair, and part of it is our fault. We have failed to do what we knew was right, failed to speak against those in power because we were afraid.

"Secondly, the job of Services officer, made up by my brother is hereby disbanded and stricken from the record. And, with hope it will never be brought up again.

Inkwalkers are prohibited from holding any elected office, even services officer. They are members of the police force by design, but they are excluded from being an elected official to prevent things like this from happening." Daniel smiled.

There are a few more things in closing. The Steward shall return to the job as held in the charter, and until the election of a new Prince of the City, shall act as the Prince Pro-tempore as is the custom and law. Removed from him is any bond or spell agains speaking what he knows to be the truth, nor shall he be a slave to the office ever again.

And, furthermore, with the malaise mostly gone we will work on a block-by-block and cutout-by-cutout plan to restore the gardens and magic gatherers that have died or gone dark over these years. And with luck and care our weather should begin to return to normal. And we shall work with magic services and the Cog-bound to re-implement the magic traffic rules as they are needed and conveyance comes back online.

And all these things, I speak to you in the presence of the cog bound that you know they are true. I speak them in my right office so that you understand that these are the things we are held to. And for my part in this disaster, I ask your forgiveness, for if I had not hidden away perhaps we could have ended this much sooner.

"Now that you know the truth, I expect the things written to reflect them. For this is the truth as it has been said. And this city, once a haven of the Necromancers will be returned to a city to be proud of. Yes, Solars, and Lunars and Mortals may live in peace here. That is my decree. I am The Inkwalker of the City of the moon, and all are welcome here."

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