Cassandra Averill struggled to acclimate to her extended stays in the capital. From the balcony of her palatial estate, she looked out at the mist rising from Lake Thaxter. A few miles from her home, construction had begun on more houses in Kingsbury’s increasingly popular Lake District. After breathing in the dew kissed morning, she lumbered down the stairs toward the kitchen for coffee’s loving embrace.

Thos and Cass oversaw Averill Estate Farms, which had become one of the largest companies in the nation. The duo spent most of the day managing the agricultural behemoth, a task both found unimaginably draining. Since the fall of the Blackthorne dynasty, Averill Estate had merged with various other businesses to become the equivalent of something in the Old World called Wal-Mart. The company had its long fingers in numerous pies including food, timber, clothing, tobacco, alcohol, and actual pies. With deals in Mexico about to be finalized, Averill Estate Farms was poised to span the entire country.

The Averills spent their days living in three locations, Kingsbury during the winter and wet season, Emerald Coast during the summer, and outside Greenfield during the harvest. They were always busy, getting little more than a week or two a year to themselves.

Cass strolled to the deck that looked out on the lake not yet swarmed with boats. The Averill’s two dogs basked in the soft dawn light in the sunroom. Cass relished her creamy morning pick-me-up with some fresh fruit and pleasant scenery.

She breathed in the lake air and sat with the dogs until the last possible second. The Averills took great pride in their work, even if neither enjoyed the day-to-day operations. Thos had shown a surprising aptitude at running this new empire. Cass held her own, but perhaps only as his assistant. She gave one last monstrous stretch and braced herself to tackle the business world.

Hastening her step up to the fourth floor, she threw off her bathrobe and swapped it for a long teal skirt and white shirt with a high, long collar. Slipping on her black shoes, she hurried out the front door to a slate gray car with an impatient chauffer. The armed guards by her door gave her a wave.

Bells chimed from the direction of the city square. Bells only rang for significant events like major deaths or gatherings of national importance. She turned back to her doorman, who was frozen in his tracks.

“Sir?” Cass asked.

The man didn’t budge. She placed her hand on him.

“What is it?” she asked.

“The Compact. We’ve been summoned,” he said.

A tugging feeling in her skull compelled her to the car. Behind her, two dozen bodyguards began a zombie-like march to the city square. One bodyguard climbed into the car with her. Silently the driver took her through the grounds and up to the city.

Driving through the city, she saw the throngs of people heading the same way. The car stopped to drop Cass and her bodyguard off near the statue of the crown-holding eagle that had replaced one of Queen Adamina, which had been destroyed a little over two years ago. Cass took her spot beside her husband and the other power elite at the head of the crowd.

The entire population gathered in the square and the connecting streets for this momentous event. Cass found it a bit unsettling that virtually nothing was known about these world changing events, only bare bones records based on second-hand accounts. The more she tried to think about it, the foggier her mind grew. She tried to take another step, but her body refused to budge. Her heart began to dance to the beat of anxiety and fear.

“Citizens of the world!” a voice cried out.

All heads turned skyward. A lone figure hovered above the people. The strange man walked down invisible steps toward the crowd. The figure was a man in a white suit and waxen, gray skin. His most disturbing feature was the golden mask with a maleficent smile and eyes of piercing blackness, an exaggerated version of the comedy mask that always freaked her out. The man’s voice boomed with inhuman power.

“Today is a momentous day,” he began. “You have been chosen to receive the great burden of knowledge. The Compact is the agreement between you and us that keeps your world spinning. As long as you remain compliant, it shall continue to turn for two thousand more.”

The figure touched the ground, moving like a specter through the crowd. It stared into the eyes of each person that held power in New Prosperity. The man gave Cass a passing glance, the black pits where his eyes should be made her heart stop. He turned and continued to address the enthralled crowd.

“Do you agree to our terms?” he asked. The crowd answered in unison with a resounding yes. The word slipped from Cass’s mouth against her will.

“Let us begin,” he said, clapping his hands together.

A throbbing pain filled Cass’s skull. All around her, the city’s people endured the pain without so much as a grunt. Lost and forbidden knowledge filled the people’s minds. For a moment, they were all connected. Cass felt their thoughts, the brain cells surging with white-hot fire. In silence, each person received the knowledge that the Compact assigned to them. Aviation technology, new medical treatments, telecommunications, weapons tech, and information of all kinds flooded through the living network. Cass strained under her paralysis, trying to break free from the hallucinatory hypnosis. Then the connection to the masses ceased. A voice pierced the silence.

“We’ll be slaves to false gods no longer!” a man said.

A dozen other men with unknown rifles emerged from the crowd and surrounded the masked man. Cass felt control of her body return. The enthralled masses fell to their knees, trying to shake off the disorientation.

“Ow . . . what the hell?” Thos said. “Cass? Why are we out here?” Thos stumbled to his feet.

“How dare you . . . you defile the Compact?” the masked man’s voice roared with a force that shook the earth.

The men aimed their rifles and opened fire. Ripples of energy knocked the masked figure back. During the attack, the zombified masses stumbled to their feet and scattered.

“No!” the masked man snarled even as the bullets hit.

A shockwave knocked the people back to the ground. The gunmen quickly jumped back up and continued firing, unleashing strange waves on the strange man.

“He ain’t going down!” one cried.

The entity raised his right hand. The masked man pointed at each of his attackers as if marking targets.

“Die,” he said.

Blood ran from the eyes, nose, ears, and mouth of each man. In unison, they fell. Only one attacker remained, scrambling for his missing weapon. The man noticed the gun falling at Cass’s feet.

“Shoot!” he cried. Cass refused to move.

Slowly the masked figure walked up to the last man. Again he raised his hand. In response, the man flung his arms out and grunted curses.

“To fight your salvation, what a sad state of affairs,” the masked man said.

The attacker tried to lift his gun, sweating from the strain. The masked man opened his palm, and the victim’s arms snapped backward. He let out an unholy scream as his elbows shattered. Cass tried to close her eyes to avoid the horror, but they wouldn’t budge. The man choked out words through the pain.

“We got your number. Your time is running out.”

Another man hidden in the crowd wielded a thick, rectangular rifle with a flat end. He pointed the gun and fired more waves. The masked figure let out a hellish shriek. Glass exploded from the windows behind him. The figure’s physical form shifted, going back and forth from transparent to opaque. It shifted through numerous forms, including one obscured in robes and a knight with a mask resembling an old king. The masked creature swatted at his attacker. The weapon in the attacker’s hand fell into pieces. The masked figure resumed the form of a man in white. The entity disappeared then reappeared in front of the defenseless attacker. It reached out and extended its finger just a hair away from the man.

Slowly the entity drove his pointer finger in between the man’s eyes. The man whimpered like a beat dog as the finger pushed through skull and brain. Cass felt the enthrallment weaken and moved toward Thos. The crowd—discombobulated—stirred. The entity scoffed and quickly lulled the masses back into submission.

“We do this for you,” he said, removing his finger from the man’s skull.

Knowledge flooded in Cass’s mind, learning all the things the Compact wanted her to know, including rudimentary surgical skills useful for her second job at her clinic. Her head throbbed and burned. Then as suddenly as it came, the pain left. The entity clasped his hands together.

“This instance of the Compact has been completed. You now possess the information you’re ready to know. Don’t waste or abuse it.” 

It offered a bow and walked up into the sky. A mist rolled off the entity and enveloped the bodies of the fallen soldiers, leaving not even a drop of blood on the ground. The entity continued upward until disappearing. The crowd awoke, confused and oblivious.

Thos instantly grabbed hold of Cass and hugged her tight. He fumbled for words, which was more than she could do at the moment. She remembered nothing—no masked figures, no attack, or even how she got here. The only thing Cass knew was that the Compact had taken place.