An Understated Dominance (Dustin Rhys)

The night passed quickly, and by morning, Callan had finally regained consciousness. A whole night’s rest had restored color to his face, though he was still physically weak.

Grace had kept watch outside his room all night. As soon as she learned that he was awake, she immediately walked in.

“Callan, I’m the official in charge of handling this outbreak. I need to ask you several questions, and I kindly request that you answer them truthfully. Understood?” Grace said, getting straight to the point.

“Yes,” he replied, nodding with visible apprehension.

“When did you first get infected?”

“I’m not sure how long I was unconscious, but from what I remember, it started about three days ago. I suddenly felt dizzy and weak, with chills running through my entire body,” Callan said weakly.

He went on, “At first, I assumed it was just a common cold, so I took some medicine. But the symptoms kept worsening, and by the time I realized something was seriously wrong, it was already too late.”

“Before you fell ill, did you come into contact with any strangers?” Grace pressed.

“I hardly ever leave the house, but a few days ago I met up with this woman I’d been chatting with online. We’d known each other for two years, and this was our first time meeting in person,” he explained.

He continued, “She was gorgeous and even said she wanted to be my girlfriend. I was thrilled at the time and had a meal with her. Afterward, she said she was going to Harbortown to see her best friend, so she left for a while.”

“You started showing symptoms after that meeting?” Grace asked.

“You can say that,” Callan replied.

“Do you know who she was planning to see in Harbortown?”

“I’m not sure. Even though we’d been chatting online for two years, we rarely asked about each other’s personal details.”

her name, right?”

told me her name was Lauren Stephan, though I have no idea whether or not that was her real

need you to describe Lauren’s appearance in detail,” Grace

snapped her fingers at Sadie, signaling

sketching based on Callan’s description. After nearly an hour of adjustments and corrections, she finally captured Lauren’s

nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, that’s her. No doubt about it-you’ve captured her almost perfectly,

and handed the sketch to Sadie. “Find out who she is, and make it a

Sadie responded before

did you notice anything else unusual around

most of my time at home gaming and seldom go out. Anyone in the village

I need for now. Get

that, she

suspicious. He was a classic

left his house, and had virtually no social skills. He was passive and indecisive, which was precisely

the outbreak. Her

Linsor, I found Lauren’s

later, she had compiled everything she could find using the name

have you got on her?” Grace

was indeed Lauren Stephan. She returned to the country three years ago and got into Nexology. She spends a lot of time online spreading their teachings and appears to be a devout believer,” Sadie

her family

and we can’t trace her foreign identity right now. However, she does have

checks on all

who recruited every single one of them into it. I suspect this Nexology is just the Skull Covenant operating under

surprised upon

have been planning this for years. They’d need a front organization to stay hidden. Otherwise, how else could they have survived this