From his slumped position he wondered if he was hallucinating, maybe he was dead and this was hell. Looking back at Gordon he felt a little unnerved at the way Gordon was looking at him. Feeling the ground under him he was looking for anything to keep him steady.
"What do you mean by magic..?" asked Rephan.
"I know by now you have noticed the fact that your arm and ankle have been healed despite been used as a chew toy but that daimon." answered Gordon.
"It seems you are a fortunate person, you are a healer." he continued.
Rephan spared his right arm and left ankle a look.
"Healer? huh, You don't say"
Rephan stared at him dubiously for a while before sneering.
"I doubt it, If I was so fortunate I wouldn't be here in the first place"
'Too fast, it is all happening too fast.'
"Look I appreciate your help but all of this can't be real", he said while standing up to leave, turning his back to Gordon.
"Where do you hope to go to, you've seen what is out there ", said Gordon calmly.
Unable to comeback with a witty reply, he resolved himself to leave the cave and thought to himself.
'Maybe I if I get out all this will go away'
Taking a step forward he felt a blunt force hit the back of his neck and he saw black, but before he passed out he heard the words.
"Ahh denial really, for some reason I expected more."
Gordon lowered Rephan to the floor and thought to himself.
'A healer and a powerful one at that, while this is good for me. It also means the barrier is weakening, I wonder how the order will react when they find out.'
Rephan dreamt, he dreamt of the life he had lived it seemed so far away even though a day hadn't passed.
****+
Rephan woke up to the feeling of water splashing on his face from his leaky ceiling. Standing up from his swaying bed in his ramshackle apartment. He had urgent business to attend to, going to the bathroom he emptied his bladder.
He rubbed his face and heard the sound of knocking on the door.
Opening the door slightly, he looked straight ahead expecting to see someone.
Hearing the sound of someone clearing his throat coming from below. He looked down and saw a disgruntled man staring back at him. Recognizing him he opened the door and allowed the man to enter his room and peered out onto the street before closing the door.
Echo leaned against the wall and fiddled with the robotic replacement for his finger, something he did absentmindedly.
"What are you doing here Echo", asked Rephan. He had that name because he was the messenger for their "group".
He caught Echo looking around the room, it was coming apart at its seams.
"Gosh, isn't this place a proper mess.", he replied
"Is yours any better?" he quipped back.
Echo turned around and shook his head.
"Look, ya up for another job."
Rephan turned and looked at him nervously.
"I told you it was a onetime thing"
He had worked once as what you would call a Transporter for their "group", he tried to avoid thinking of them as the gang that they were it helped remove some of the reality of what he was doing.
Echo continued to stare at him some more before he said.
"See, the boss was impressed with your performance the last time ya worked for us."
Pacing nervously in his small room he heard Echo continue.
"He wants ya to do another job for us."
Rephan turned to look at Echo's smiling face, for some reason he didn't like the way he was smiling.
"I know ya could use the cash, its easy money", he said while looking around the room.
Rephan paused his pacing for a moment and thought about it carefully before replying slowly.
"Ok one more, one more time, I will only do one more job. You get it."
After performing the job without any hitches, just as expected there was hardly anyone who knew the streets like Rephan did, he received his part and departed, resolving himself to never do that again.
Time passed and Rephan found himself strapped for cash. It turns out working for a gang makes it hard to find any other job even though it had only happened a couple of times, word got around fast.
Rephan faced his meal ration, the third time he was eating the cursed thing but it was the only thing that kept him full.
With a resigned sigh, he shoved a handful in his mouth.
The next day, he went looking for Echo.
It wasn't particularly hard, if he wasn't at his hideout the next place would be the nearest pub or the betting ring no doubt betting on his robot winning a fight and most often losing his money.
He had worked as a scavenger at a landfill before all of this, taking whatever was valuable and selling it or recycling until the government declared it state property.
'Damn snobs.'
Rephan spotted him at the edge of the fighting ring cheering loudly for his robot dog, organic ones are hard to find nowadays.
Rephan tapped on his shoulder causing him to turn and start shouting.
"I'm going to win this-"
His eyes widened for a bit before he displayed a knowing smile.
"Its not goin' to be a one time thing anymore, ya know that right."
Rephan suddenly had a revelation and he didn't really know how to feel about it.
"You knew this would happen, didn't you."
'Turns out he is smarter than he looks.'
Echo pivoted and started walking beckoning with his hand for him to follow.
'Here goes nothing.'
'It seems he is pretty excited, he forgot the fight am I really that important to him.'
While they were winding through narrow streets, hawkers selling the latest tech; bioenhancers, levitating shoes stuff like that. His gaze wandered to the sky or at least what would have been the sky if they weren't underground, all he saw was a dome that shone luminously.
He had been above ground a few times as it wasn't exactly illegal for people who lived underground to go above ground though most would probably return underground since they couldn't afford to live above ground.
Not to mention the unwanted attention and stares, that memory was up there among some of his worst and he had some really bad ones.
But still it had been mesmerizing.. while it still lasted.
"I'm taking ya to meet the boss."
Echo's slurry voice disturbed his train of thought.
Rephan his eyebrow quizzically.
Echo flashed his characteristic smile before saying.
"We've been expectin' ya to come around."