“The newspapers began yesterday, around this same time,” Abby explained as the two of them walked up to the Crafter’s Guild. Seeing as it was also located in the center of town, they didn’t have to go very far. “Public opinion on them has been rather divisive. On the one hand, people are starved for news and methods of entertaining themselves. Currently, word of mouth or the occasional bulletin from the council is about all they have. On the other hand, the newspaper has already taken things a bit too far, bringing focus on certain individual’s private lives who would prefer to remain out of the limelight. There was an article yesterday questioning if Spur wasn’t working with Golrim to transform Terra into his own personal kingdom ruled by his future descendants. As you would imagine, Spur was not happy.”

  “Why start off with such outlandish claims? Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme?”

  “Why did tabloids and gossip magazines sell so well back on Earth?” Abby answered, shaking her head as if she disagreed with the idea as much as he did. “People like to be entertained, and that goes doubly so here on Edregon where there’s not much to do. The council is making important strides with getting the theater up and running so quickly and a few other smaller projects, but it’s not enough. Not for people who are used to having all of the information in the world at their fingertips.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Vin said, following behind Abby as they strolled into the Crafter’s Guild. Unlike the town hall, the guild didn’t have anything resembling a receptionist, so Abby turned toward him.

  “I don’t suppose you have any method of locating them? I’d bet money they have a secret room they are operating out of or something. This is the Crafter’s Guild, after all.”

  “Let me take a look.” Ignoring the confused looks they were getting from a few dozen crafters simply going about their days, Vin silently cast Tremorsense and closed his eyes, focusing on the imagery all the different vibrations were giving him.

  He found what they were looking for in seconds.

  “There’s some sort of machine making quite a racket down in a basement room,” he said, motioning for her to follow as he made his way down the stairs. “There were three people running around inside as well, so it’s a multi-man operation.”

  “Let’s just hope they’re not stupid enough to try and fight their way out,” Abby said, reaching over her back to confirm her quarterstaff was still secured on her person. “I’d rather not have to rattle anyone’s skulls, but the downside to secret rooms is there’s often only one exit. They might panic.”

  “Can’t you hit them with your Righteous Action? It seemed pretty effective up there.”

  “It’s not quite so simple,” she explained as they went down the stairs. “My Capstone only helps me convince people when it’s about something I personally view as being best for Terra overall. While I have some misgivings about these newspapers and agree they need some regulation, personally, I’m not that against them to be honest. And because of that, I can’t order them to freeze or anything like that. We’ll have to do this the old fashion way.”

  Vin had to admit it was a bit of a relief to hear that Abby’s Capstone was far more handicapped than Patty’s had been. With Kym and his vast knowledge at their disposal, the council had long since learned that Patty had most likely happened upon the Siren class, a remarkably rare support class that was all about swaying people to do the Siren’s bidding and placing them into a position of power. As they’d suspected, Kym confirmed it was largely seen as a poor choice of class, as those with higher attributes wouldn’t be swayed at all, and would often kill the Siren early on just to be safe.

  “This is the place,” he said, laying a hand on the wall situated between them and the secret room containing the rattling machine and three people hard at work. “There’s probably some sort of secret mechanism for opening it, I’d bet. Or an ability they have. The wall isn’t very thick.”

  “Got anything else in your bag of tricks?” Abby asked, raising an eyebrow expectantly.

  “Well, there’s the obvious.” Unfortunately, the wall had some metal incorporated into it, which meant using Stone Shape to force his way in wouldn’t work. Instead, he used Tremorsense to make sure the three people on the other side weren’t anywhere near the wall.

  And then he punched straight through it.

  His arm flashed blue and the basement shook as the rock and metal within the wall crumbled and exploded into the secret room. Vin and Abby stepped into the room, turning to look at the three startled faces, each one arms-deep in ink and paper as they paused in the middle of preparing what looked like stacks of newspapers for tomorrow.

  “Is that a printing press?” Vin asked, staring at the hulkish-machine that reminded him of something he’d seen back in elementary school history textbooks.

  “I believe it is,” Abby nodded, flashing a silver badge and stepping forward. “Vice-captain of the town guard. I’ve been asked by the council to find whoever was in charge of these newspapers and bring them in for a discussion. Let me be clear, you’re not in trouble just yet, but there will be consequences if you make this difficult.”

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  “Not in trouble?!” a man with ink stains on his face and a baseball cap asked, looking at her like she was crazy. “You just blew up our door and forced your way into our secret workshop! What right do you have to do such a thing?!”

  “Actually, according to the laws put in place by Witherson and the council, secret, personal workshops are allowed, but only so long as the appropriate paperwork has been filed and they are not within a certain distance of any public space,” she said, tapping a foot on the earthen ground. “I do believe your workshop is quite literally connected to the public Crafter’s Guild, and I’m willing to bet you never bothered to file the appropriate paperwork. As it stands, I am well within my rights to arrest all three of you and haul you to jail for processing.”

  At that, three mouths fell open, and Vin turned to stare at the knowledgeable Guard in shock. If it had been anyone other than the straight-laced Abby, he would have assumed they were bluffing. As it was, he was surprised to learn that Witherson had actually had the foresight to allow for individual, secret workshops to be constructed.

  He had a feeling Golrim had played a role in that decision.

  “Jim, you told us this was all above board,” a woman said, frowning at the first man as she tossed a handful of tiny metal pieces to the ground. As they scattered, Vin realized they were tiny, individual letters, no doubt the ones used to prepare the printing press to say what they wanted. “I knew there had to be more to this ‘secret workshop’ besides you wanting to protect your equipment from nosy crafters!”

  “You really want to go down in history as being the ones to shut down the first newspaper?” Jim asked, ignoring his colleague and switching tracks the moment he realized Abby was technically allowed to barge in here like she had. “Because there will be others! The will of the people can never be stomped out!”

  “You’re publishing Edregon’s first tabloid, not sparking a revolution,” Abby drawled, looking entirely unimpressed. “Let’s dial it back a notch. From what I heard, the council has no interest in silencing you, or anything like that. They just want to have a word about what is and isn’t appropriate for you to spread around town. I mean, really, you’re trying to preach about the importance of your paper when you’ve immediately started out with a ‘Terra’s Top Ten Bachelors’ article. You really think any of the famous newspapers in history were running that type of news?”

  “Free speech is free speech,” Jim said, crossing his ink-stained arms. “I’ve been in the business for years, I know what sells.”

  “Newsflash, this isn’t Earth anymore,” Abby said, rapidly running out of patience as the man stood his ground. “I’m done asking, I’m now telling. The council might be willing to coddle you and explain why you’re an idiot, but I’m not. My time can be spent far better. You’re clearly the one in charge, so I’ll make this easy. You and you,” she said, pointing at the other two worried people down there with him. “Unless either of you have anything to do with this, get out of here.”

  The woman who had tossed the metal letters immediately ran out of the room, but the other accomplice, a woman with her hair tied back in a messy ponytail and covered in more ink than the other two combined, stayed put. Raising her hand, she cleared her throat.

  “Actually, I’m Christina, the crafter who created the printing press. Jim here is an Investigator. We’re both with the fourth wave. When he heard what I was trying to do, he asked to work together, and has been helping me get the materials I needed. I’ll be honest that I haven’t really paid much attention as to what the press was actually printing out, I’ve just been trying to make improvements ever since I finally got it operational the other day.”

  “Another Investigator, huh,” Abby said, her frown deepening as she peered at Jim in a new light. Vin couldn’t exactly blame her. The only other Investigator the town currently had was a bit of an odd ball, and there was a good chance Abby would be forced to work more closely with Jim in the future as he leveled up. “Alright, both of you can come with me in that case.”

  “Lady, I ain’t going anywhere with you,” Jim spat, narrowing his eyes as he looked toward Vin. “Or with him for that matter. I don’t care what ‘rules’ you think you’re enforcing. I didn’t vote for this council, they can go pound sand as far as I’m concerned. You try to drag me over to town hall, and I’ll be sure to make the biggest scene this world has ever seen. Let’s see how your fancy council likes that being talked about.”

  “Looks like you don’t actually understand how this world works, huh?” Abby sighed, pulling her quarterstaff off her back and stepping forward. To everyone’s shock, without even a moment of hesitation, Abby brought her staff down hard, cracking it against the top of Jim’s head. The Investigator dropped like a sack of rocks, splaying out lifelessly on the floor.

  “You killed him!” Christina gasped, taking a step back and pressing herself against the wall. “Oh god, he’s dead!”

  “Hardly,” Abby scoffed, securing her staff once more as she bent down and lifted him up, displaying an impressive strength attribute as she held him like an oversized baby. “Non-lethal Strike. A passive that lets me ensure I don’t accidentally do any lasting damage when I hit someone if I don’t want to. He’ll be up in an hour or so with little more than a bump on his head. I’m requiring all of the town guards to take it. Seeing as we don’t have anything nearly as convenient as a taser, this is the next best thing.”

  Turning toward Christina, Abby gave her a pointed look. “Now, are you willing to come with me, or do I need to whack you on the head as well? Trust me, I have more than enough strength to carry both of you at the same time.”

  Christina didn’t say anything, simply nodding as she quickly fell in line behind the scary Guard. With that taken care of, Abby glanced toward Vin. “I imagine today’s council meeting will be devoted to this topic, but you probably have some time to run home and grab a bite to eat. I know you only just got out of the hospital.”

  “Thanks… I think I’ll do just that,” Vin said, still a bit shocked at how everything had turned out. All he’d wanted to do was make it clear that Lumel was to be left out of the public eye, yet somehow, he’d joined forces with Abby to shut down Edregon’s first newspaper.

  Crazy how things escalated sometimes.

  press? Doesn't sound right. Christina needs to get started on a second printing press stat!

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