Soderberg
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Lifeweaver: Chapter 16
🕑 Added 2025-05-07 09:04:53 +0000 UTCThe orb wasn't far from the bar, and as they walked, more and more Integrated joined in, streaming toward them from all directions. People shouted their defiance against the executive order, against the state, and against the federal government.
People were pissed. Luke fell back a little, not wanting to stay in the front. He was a healer, after all, and he needed to keep his class in consideration. If people were injured, he'd heal them. But it was not his job to march at the front and wave his staff around. He'd leave that to the warriors and the tanks. Simple enough.
"What are you doing?" Luke asked Ray, who was fiddling with his phone.
Ray looked up. "Posting on the local Integrated subreddit, of course. Telling people to come to the Orb to fight for our cause."
"Good," Luke said, checking his own phone. His sister hadn't returned his text yet.
As they walked, Luke realized something. The electricity was back. He hadn't even realized when he left the tutorial dungeon. Guide must've turned it back on as soon as someone completed the dungeon, just as he'd promised. The gender of Guide wasn't clear, obviously, but Luke couldn't quite make himself refer to the being as an 'it'.
"Integrated are taking to the streets, everywhere," Ray said, putting his phone away. "Seems like the US is the only country so far to try and ban people from touching the orb."
"It won't stand for long," Luke said, focusing straight ahead to where the orb appeared in the distance, towering over the low trees of Lazarus Park as he did his utmost to ignore the sickness and injuries all around him. Tuning it out was getting easier, little by little. But in a crowd like this, with people pressing in from all sides, the silent whisper from Weaver's Eye simmered under the external shouting voices of the crowd. Together, they created a cacophony. Luke’s head throbbed, and he steadied his breathing, pushing on.
As they approached the park, another sound joined in. A low murmur at first, growing louder as they drew closer.
The huge crowd from before, people waiting to touch the orb, filled the park. Their roar of protests rose to echo off the tall buildings surrounding it. Traffic had come to a standstill, with so many people out in the streets. Tall as he was, Luke couldn't see past all those people.
His large group of about fifty Integrated stopped by the edge of the park, and Luke blinked as a voice spoke in his mind.
"My name is Kirk Davis, and this skill allows me to speak into all of your minds for a moment. It is part of my class. Commander. We are all angry at the executive order, and we will reclaim the orb, but we will do so without the use of force, if at all possible. Let me talk to the law enforcement."
A hand was waved at the front of the group.
"See that hand? That’s me, I’m at the front of our column. What I need from you now is for tanks to come toward the front, and for any ranged damage dealers to follow and stand behind them. As we approach the orb, support classes should come after, if we have any with us today. Melee damage dealers should hold back and protect our flanks, and make sure they don’t move around to surround us."
"Ready?"
"Of course you’re ready. Let’s go."
That same voice boomed out loud, up front. "MOVE ASIDE!"
The dense crowd of people in the park parted for the Integrated as they walked and shuffled positions to comply with Kirk's instructions.
"Useful class, that," Ray said.
"Are you going to move back?" Luke asked.
Ray grinned. "Fuck no. I'll stay with you and go into stealth."
Luke blinked, and Ray disappeared.
"You still there?" Luke called.
Just silence for a moment. Then a voice whispered in his ear. "You are a shitty healer."
Luke shuddered. "Don't do that."
Figuring it was best to get into position in the middle of the group, Luke shouldered his way forward and joined a small group of three who all appeared to be spellcasters, wearing cloaks or robes out of some fantasy TV show, holding thick tomes or wands. Two girls and a guy.
He gave them a little wave as he approached. "Luke. I'm a healer."
The one closest to him, a short girl in a blond bob cut and bangs with blue eyes and her nose and cheeks full of freckles, nodded to him. "I'm Liza. I'm a Warder."
"Like in that book series?" Luke asked.
"Does it look like I'm holding a sword?" Liza asked, raising a thick tome into the air. "I create wards. Area control type of stuff."
"Cool," Luke said, looking at the guy who introduced himself as Luigi, a Sealbinder, who used magic to hold and paralyze. Luke didn't quite follow, but it sounded useful.
"Hannah. Vesper," the third girl said. Shadows danced in her long, dark hair, hiding among the strands, wriggling and writhing.
"Something with shadows?" Luke asked.
She nodded. "Shadows and light. Illusions and buffs."
"Sounds useful," Luke said, having only heard the gist of what she was saying. It was difficult to hear her over the loud din of voices, and she spoke in an indistinct murmur. Her eyes, though, were anything but, and her intense gaze made Luke look away.
As they walked through the park with people on either side of them, cheering them on, he concentrated on Weaver’s Eye to get a read on the small group. They were all healthy and uninjured. Good. Luke could save his mana.
Liza leaned in close and shouted to allow her voice to carry. "Can you heal everything?"
Luke frowned. "I don't know! So far, yeah!"
"Even, like, sickness?" she asked.
"I'm not very experienced yet," Luke said, "but I think so."
"My girlfriend has cluster headaches. Could you help her with that?" Liza asked.
"I can try," Luke offered, and they exchanged numbers just before Kirk spoke in their heads again.
"Almost there. Let me do the talking. Don’t attack the police."
The Vesper girl shuddered. "Get out of my head."
They approached the orb from the same direction Luke did when he first arrived to lay his hand on it. This time, however, the line didn't move through the walled-off section. Police in riot gear held people back, standing behind an erected railing. The crowd of non-Integrated moved back to create space.
Luke wondered if Kirk spoke in their minds as well, because their eyes widened and they looked around with fear as he raised both hands to show the police he carried no weapons. The integrated spread out around him.
"Who is in charge here?" Kirk's voice boomed.
Luke moved closer, along with the other support casters. If something happened, he needed to be close. Ray remained in stealth, out of sight.
"I am the Operations Chief," a calm voice called out from behind the line of riot police.
"You are on the wrong side of the future," Kirk said, equally calm, his voice carrying over the din.
"We are just following orders," the chief said.
That excuse seemed to be going around a lot.
"You will cease your restrictions on the orb right now," Kirk demanded.
The operations commander replied, an almost bored expression on his face, "No, we won't. You will return to your homes. A curfew will be announced at any moment now. There is nothing for you here. The orb is the property of the United States government."
Hearing those words made it difficult to stay calm. Luke thrummed with energy as his fight-or-flight response grabbed hold of his body, but there was no question of whether he would fight or run. He clenched his fist as Kirk's voice boomed in his head again.
"Easy, stay calm. I know this man. Anger will get us nowhere."
"Kirk knows the cops," someone muttered to Luke's left, and he saw Luigi frown as Hannah shook her head, making the shadows hiding in her hair writhe.
"Move aside or we will remove you," Kirk said in his booming voice, addressing both the operations chief and his riot police officers.
The cops arrayed before them shuffled and looked around and the hard plastic of the riot shields clacked together. Luke saw it in them. They didn't want to fight. Another contingent of cops moved in from the side. These wore riot gear as well, but not the shields and batons, but guns. Real guns, the automatic kind.
The Operations Chief held up his hand. "You will leave now. I will not repeat myself."
"Fuck you!" someone spat.
A lot of people held middle fingers up into the air, both the Integrated and the people who pulled back but were standing nearby, hurling insults at the cops, waving signs around. Luke watched in horror as a small orb of orange flames soared through the air from somewhere behind him, heading for the line of cops. It crashed against a riot shield and stuck there, melting the hard plastic around it. Even back where Luke stood, the smell of burning plastic filled the air. The cop holding the shield screamed and threw it aside as it burned.
The cop closest to him reached out and slammed his baton down on one of the closest Integrated in retaliation, but it broke like a wizened tree branch on the Integrated's plate armor. That made the other riot police officers take note, and many of them stepped back, drawing handguns.
Kirk's voice boomed in Luke's head. "Stand down!"
Tensions rose as both Kirk and the Operations Chief shouted at their troops to keep calm, but it didn't work. An arrow whizzed past the line of shield-carrying riot police and slammed into the Operation Chief's shoulder, throwing him to the ground.
The officer standing next to the Operations Chief turned his rifle on the crowd of Integrated and let out a wordless cry as he fired.
