Andy in the Apocalypse [LitRPG System Apocalypse] 2.58 An Oath

58 – An Oath

“…don’t think we should be sharing this with anyone who isn’t a citizen, and even then, we need to make sure people will abide by that rule!” Bree said, her cheeks flushed with emotion. “The System has made clear to a few of us how precious Codex entries are. They represent a deeper understanding of how things work. That book of Andy’s is the first one I’ve heard of that didn’t disappear after he read it, but it only works for him, and that’s got to be for a reason!”

Several people started to reply imdiately, but Bree held up Lucy’s arrow—a makeshift prop to signify she had the floor. When Lydia had brought Bree as the ninth mber of their council, Andy hadn’t really been surprised. He’d seen the two won together quite a few tis, and Bree had apparently been respected by folks at the big box store, despite how Brooks and Rhodes had put her owl to use scouting for their raiding teams.

She continued, “I know how that sounds. I know it goes against how most of us were raised, but the world is different now. This knowledge can give our settlent a head-start, which will give us lasting protection down the line.”

Omar raised his hand, and Bree hesitated for a mont, began to speak, then shook her head and handed him the arrow. He cleared his throat and glanced at Andy before saying, “I agree; we have to be careful with the details of what’s in Andy’s book. That’s not to say we can’t share it with people we learn to trust. It could be used to secure trade deals or treaties or…” He trailed off, shrugging as he held up the arrow. Tucker raised his hand, and Omar passed it over.

“Look,” the Frontier Steward said, glancing around the circle; they were all gathered at the center of the mostly dry cavern, so people sitting and others standing. “I won’t pretend to know as much about this as all of you, but I really don’t get how this is such a big deal. I’ve only earned a grand total of eight Improvent Points, and I’ve spent every damn one of them. If I saved up for twelve, I’d be nowhere; I could buy one of those um, Evolution Points, but then what would I do with it? Even if I saved up a few more, got a skill to the max and then used the, um, EP, then what? I’d have one good skill?”

When no one answered at first, he held up the arrow, and Andy stepped forward to take it. “Okay, I can see how that could be hard to imagine, considering what you’ve experienced so far. Thing is, Tucker, I’ve earned a hell of a lot more than that. Sothing like fifty altogether, though I really don’t even know. If I’d known about Evolution Points back near the beginning, I could have focused on one of my attributes—speed, for instance. Right now, I’m pretty sure I’m the fastest person in the settlent. If I save up twelve more points and break this second ceiling? I don’t know what it will do, but I promise you, I don’t want to fight anyone that fast—not until I’m that fast, too.”

“Think about all the attributes,” Violet said, pausing as Andy handed her the arrow. “Any one of them could be devastating, by our standards, if it were to be doubled or tripled—”

“It’s true,” Lucy interrupted, and Violet paused but didn’t hand over the arrow. “I’m sorry, Vi, I just wanted to add an example. None of the other fighters—Omar, Jace, Bella—can hang with Andy in a spar, and I’m just talking about weapons, no magic.”

Violet nodded. “A perfect illustration. Andy’s speed is only five points past what we think the normal human maximum is. Imagine if he gained another five or ten points? These are the sorts of threats we need to begin contemplating.”

Jas held up his hand, and she passed him the arrow. “If I had one of them EPs, I’d put it in my Weapon Invention skill. I’ve been stuck at a cap for a while, waiting to complete a quest.” He glanced at Andy and winked, confirming Andy’s suspicion that he was talking about the spear quest. “As it is, I’m probably going to pass it up with one of the Forgemaster skills I gained working with Lydia.” He shrugged.

“I wonder if it will lead to a class rger…” Lydia mused, waving away the arrow when Jas offered it.

Omar held up his hand, and Jas handed him the arrow. Andy thought it was a little silly, passing the arrow around, but they’d had to implent the rule; the first ten minutes of the eting had been a waste of ti with people talking over each other, going round in circles. Omar said, “I think we need to recognize that Evolution Points could be really dangerous if applied to certain attributes—maybe all of them—or certain spells. I an, have you folks seen Andy breathe fire? I don’t want to know what will co out of his lungs after a couple of evolutions.” He grinned at Andy, shrugging.

Andy took the arrow, looking around at everyone as he held up the little black book. “It’s more than the knowledge that EPs exist; half this book talks about easy-to-acquire classes and how best to farm improvent points. If we spend a month working on that before the, uh, invasion, we’re going to be in a much stronger position.” He chuckled as everyone looked around at each other, muttering. “You all rembered there’s an invasion coming, right?”

“So, what do you suggest?” Bea asked, breaking her own rule; she’d been the one to suggest the “speaking arrow.”

Andy had been thinking about it quite a lot, so he let his thoughts out, speaking slowly at first, but then picking up steam. “I think we need to let everyone in our community know that there’s a good reason to save Improvent Points, so long as they aren’t neglecting their primary abilities—their best spells, skills, and whatnot. We can let them know that it’s a secret, but that if they regularly check in with Eduardo,”—he glanced at Violet and smiled—“that he’ll keep track of their progress and let them know if they’re close to a situation where they might benefit from our secret. That way, we can limit exposure to just us on the council and those who progress to the point where it will matter.”

He took a breath, gathering his thoughts, but he didn’t offer up the arrow. “In the sa way, we can figure out who’s already reached a limit, and we can take them aside and explain things. Before we do that, though, I think we need to co up with a proper, um, I don’t know—spiel? Sothing to drive ho the point of how dangerous this knowledge could be for our community if it got out, while being a real advantage to us if we can keep it close.”

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He wasn’t done, but he was reluctant to voice the last part of his “plan,” if one could call it that. He turned, pacing in a small circle as he stretched his neck. When he looked back at everyone, he could see that they knew he had more to say. Nobody tried to interject anything. Finally, with a deep sigh, he said, “And we need to think of a consequence. There has to be so kind of punishnt for spilling our secrets outside the community.”

“Gosh, man,” Tucker said, whistling. “We’re talking about developing frickin’ laws and shit. Heavy.”

“It’s a tough one,” Andy said, “because obviously, we don’t want to kill anyone for sothing like that. So, what’s the option? Banishnt?” He smirked, shaking his head. “Then they can go out into the wild, blathering to everyone they et to get back at us?”

“Locking them up won’t help, will it?” Omar asked. “I an, if they already told soone, the cat’s out of the bag.”

The arrow had been forgotten, it seed, as Lucy chid in, “The consequence has to be a deterrent. Sothing people are afraid of. We can’t say, ‘Oh, well, as long as the secret doesn’t spread too far, it’ll be okay.’ People with good intentions could cause a real problem. So, banishnt might not be an optimal solution, but it might be good for that. I an for deterrence.” She shrugged. “We have to be—”

Bree interrupted, “We have to be hard, you guys. We have to say, ‘Listen, if you break this rule, you’re dead to us.’ People have to believe us, too!”

Bea was shaking her head. Andy put his hand on her shoulder, smiling encouragingly. “What do you think, Bea?”

“I think I hate this. I was in the military for a while, though, in ancient history, and I rember swearing oaths that ant sothing. I worked at a place where I had to keep so secrets. Thing is, I didn’t have to take those oaths. I could have walked away. I think we have to let people know ahead of ti. We can offer our secret if we think it will help their developnt, but we have to warn them about what will happen if they spill the beans. They have to swear an oath, and it has to lay out the consequence for breaking it.”

“Andy,” Violet said, her voice a little shaky. “Who will decide which citizens are ready to, um, take that oath and hear the secret? Should that be a council thing?”

He tilted his head, thinking. After a minute, he shrugged. “Sure. We can have a weekly eting, and that can be one of the topics—petitions or whatever we want to call them.” He looked around the group. Nobody looked too troubled, but Omar was frowning as he stared at the stony floor. “Omar, what’s on your mind?”

“I don’t like that we’re basically creating this big policy out of fear.” He held up his hand for peace as a few people objected. “Let finish. I’m not saying we’re wrong, but I’m saying we need to be aware of our motives. Right now, we’re afraid of the specter of soone out there eting three criteria.” He held up three fingers as he listed them off. “One, they have lots of Improvent Points to spend or can earn them quickly. Two, they decide to spend them on sothing that will be dangerous. Three, they want to harm us.”

He held his arm outstretched, three fingers in the air, looking at everyone. “I’m not saying it’s a stupid fear; we’ve t plenty of bad people—plenty of dangerous monsters, too. But I think we need to rember that not everyone is bad. We should be cautious, but we have to be willing to evaluate things and not blindly go with decisions we make in the mont.” He chuckled, pointing to the cavern ceiling. “Particularly after we’ve just survived a war, a vermin invasion, and now have sneaky fairies lurking around trying to steal our trees. After we get things settled for a while, can we all agree to talk about this again?”

It was the most Andy had ever heard Omar speak, and his eloquence and obvious wisdom made him glad that he’d picked him to be on his “interim” council. “I can agree to that, Omar. I think you all know that, right? I’m not the dictator type.”

The question released so tension, and Lydia chuckled, nodding. “I’m coming to learn that, Andy. Definitely. I think we’ve talked this subject out, though.”

“I agree,” Tucker said. “Are we about done?”

Jas shook his head, tamping a hand down. “Simr down, Tucker. We got two things left to settle before anyone can walk out that there tunnel.” He pointed to the cave exit, then held up his thumb and forefinger. “We all need to take that darned oath before we leave, and second, we need to know what we’re going to do about them little green n up there!”

Andy laughed, shaking his head at the older man. “Jas, they’re not green. Anyway, I have an idea for them, but first I need to go out and scout around. I have to figure out what that Whisperwood boon did before I talk to them again. As for the other issue, do we all agree? We need to swear an oath about keeping our, um, settlent’s secrets?”

Bea nodded, thumping her long walking staff on the stone. “I think we should. We can’t ask others to do it if we don’t.”

“Yeah, true,” Tucker said, stepping forward. “I used to write music—love to help with the words.”

“Music?” Lucy asked, glancing sideways at Andy.

“I only an I’m kind of good with words.” He shrugged, taking off his cap to smooth so of his long hair back away from his face before putting it on again.

“We can all help,” Andy said. He put Lucy’s forgotten arrow back in her quiver, offering her a quick smile, then looked around the group. “Anyone got any ideas on how it should start?”

Bea nodded, glancing at Tucker, then back to Andy. “I don’t know how to fra it, but it should start with reminding people why—a purpose for the oath.”

Violet cleared her throat. “I like that, Bea. We should start with the premise—how we can trust each other, but we have to be careful outside our settlent.”

Tucker grinned, nodding as he said, “Two circles.”

Andy leaned toward him, encouraging. “Go on. What do you an by that?”

“Well, in this world, there are two circles: ours and the…other, I guess—no! The wild.”

Softly, so everyone had to turn and watch her mouth as she spoke, Lucy said, “There are two circles in this world: ours and the wild.” She smiled. “That should be the first line.”

Andy repeated it quietly, tasting the words. “Ours and the wild.” He nodded once. “Yeah.”

He wanted to say he liked it, but Bea was already expanding on the oath. “Inside this circle, we share, we teach, and we grow…”

Tucker, still grinning almost madly, took up where she left off. “Outside this circle, we are careful.”

Bea thumped her staff. “That’s the premise done. Now, the promise part.”

Omar spoke next, his voice rough and halting, but full of emotion. “I will not carry our secrets into the wild—not our ways of fighting, not our ways of surviving, not what we’ve learned about the System…” He trailed off, looking around.

Lydia stepped in smoothly. “Not any of our advantages.”

Bea thumped her staff again. “And now, the consequence.”

Bree didn’t wait. She stepped forward. “If I break this rule, I don’t get to stand in our circle anymore.”

Everyone looked at her, and it got quiet in the cavern. Andy heard water dripping into a dozen distant pools. After a mont, he prompted, “Permanently?”

The question was posed to the entire group, but he was glad it was Violet who answered—gentle, calm, caring Violet. “Permanently.” She glanced around the group, then shrugged, her expression almost sorrowful. “It has to be scary. It has to sting.”