Reynard Johanssen got off the elevator and entered the chill of the underground cave. He had already passed the guard-runes and video surveillance and found himself facing a long hall with laser lights cris-crossing the floor and walls. He took a breath. He put a hand on a pad, and looked into a green light. This was the moment of truth. This was when the Brotherhood would see him for what he had become.
He waited to go blind.
He heard a hum, and a click, and the laser lights had disappeared from the hallway. A door was open at the other end.
He walked slowly, letting the cameras catch him and assess him. No tech at all. All meat. Organic. At any moment the lasers could go on and he would be sliced into ribbons. But he made it across the hall and into the door.
The door slid shut behind him and another door parted before him. A man stood in the center of a large metal room, surrounded by monitors. “Reynard,” said the man, crossing his arms. His voice was deep and resonant, and his body was too perfectly sculpted to be human.
“Hello, Stephan.” Reynard walked down the three steps into the pit of the circle.
“What happened to you?”
“It’s a long story,” said Reynard. “A stupid story. I let my emotions get away from me.”
Stephan tsked. Reynard could hear the whirr of machinery as the man moved to sit down on a luxurious leather couch. “Vodka?”
“Yes.”
Stephan poured a shot for Reynard, and both men toasted, before knocking back the glass. Stephan refilled Reynard’s shot. “What brings you here?”
Reynard took out his phone, and showed him a picture. “Is this yours?”
Stephan examined the picture of the robot in motion. “No. Should it be?” He scrolled through the pictures and stopped at one. “Ah.”
“Ah, yes, you see your signature?”
He nodded. “I swear to you, it’s not mine.”
“Who else would have your signature?”
“No one else. Not even my apprentices know my signature.” He handed the phone back. “Why do you ask?”
“It’s hunting down magic users. Specifically, the person involved with why I’m 100% organic. And others that he is involved with.”
Stephan rubbed his chin. “How interesting. How did you get involved with an organic magic user?”
Reynard drank the vodka. “A few more of these, and I might tell you.” He said, as Stephan filled it again, “Suffice it to say that if he dies, I die. If there’s even a burnt hair on his head, I die.”
“You surrendered your tech?” Stephan’s eyes narrowed.
“Surrender isn’t exactly the word.”
“You surrendered yourself to someone other than the Brotherhood.”
“It was my life! I was dying.”
“You are not to give up any secrets to –”
“I know the oath. I didn’t betray the oath.”
“Then you had better tell me what happened before I set the runes loose on you.”
Reynard sighed. “I went after his husband. And his wards. He made me sick and ill so that even the tech couldn’t compensate. And then he healed me when I promised not to harm him or his wards or his husband. When he healed me, I could no longer accept any tech. My body refuses it.”
Stephan said, “You must return to the Brotherhood. We can heal you.”
“I had no contact with any of the Brotherhood. It took me over two years for me to find you.”
“You must return to us,” Stephan repeated.
“I’m telling you, I can’t accept the tech.”
“We’ve advanced.”
“You don’t understand.”
Stephan rose. “Either you remain here voluntarily, or as a prisoner and oathbreaker.”
Reynard rose also. He knew he couldn’t defeat Stephan in a fight, not without augmentation. Reynard said, “I will remain voluntarily.”
