Will stood in the wreckage of the cul-de-sac, a rusted rebar pipe in hand, two dead monsters at his feet. He took one shallow breath, then a slower one. When he shifted his weight, pain caught under his right side—sharp enough to make his teeth click.
Four survivors were staring at him.
Maddie had already climbed down from the wall. She looked at the mountain lion, looked at the canine, and then looked at Will with the exact same assessing eye she'd used when he first dropped into the clearing.
"Seven out of ten," she said.
"There were two of them."
"Seven." She held up seven fingers. "Out of ten."
"I took one hit—"
"Seven."
Before he could argue the math, the System intruded.
[DOUBLE KILL BONUS]
[Evolved Mountain Lion (Mana-Touched) - Threat Level: Uncommon. EXP: +340]
[Abyssal Stalker-Canine (Mana-Touched) - Threat Level: Uncommon. EXP: +290]
[TOTAL EXP: +630]
[LEVEL UP: 2 → 3]
[STRENGTH: 13/20 (+2)]
[DEXTERITY: 13/20 (+1)]
[INTELLIGENCE: 15/20]
[LUCK: 30/20 ← ERROR]
[RARE DROP: Mountain Lion Bone Plate (Crafting Material — High Density)]
Will dismissed the screen.
Maddie was already crouched over the mountain lion, working with zero squeamishness. She hauled a section of bone plate free with one bloody hand. Behind her, Curtis visibly recalibrated his entire opinion of her.
Hmm, Khan murmured.
Will recognized the tone. It was new, and he didn't like it.
Don't, Will shot back internally.
I have said nothing.
You said 'hmm.' That's something.
I was simply observing. A pause hung in Will's mind, carrying entirely too much appreciation. She is small. But the way she moves—that is not a small woman's strength. That is a woman built by something harder than comfort. Another pause. In my time, men rode three days to negotiate for less.
We don't do that anymore.
No. You do something far more complicated and end up with far less certainty. I have reviewed your memories on this topic. Your courtship rituals are deeply inefficient.
Will said nothing. Maddie stood up from the carcass with a handful of teeth and the heavy bone plate. The motion pulled her jacket back briefly.
Khan made a sound that Will decided to classify as inaudible.
She would make a formidable first wife, Khan said. He spoke with the absolute authority of a man who had made this exact assessment professionally for decades. Strong enough to hold a camp, fierce enough to command respect from the others, and that face—
"I need to stop you there," Will said out loud. Slightly too loud.
Maddie looked up at him.
"Not you," he said. "Sorry."
She stared at him for one more second, decided this was consistent with his overall 'bit of both' vibe, and went back to sorting her loot.
First wife, Will said internally. I need to explain something to you about how the world works.
Please do.
We don't—there aren't first wives. There's just a wife. One. That's the whole system.
Khan was quiet for a moment.
One, he repeated.
One.
By choice or by law?
Both.
Another silence. Longer this time. Will could feel the ancient conqueror processing this with careful diplomacy.
And this worked, Khan said finally. This system. In your world. This one-wife arrangement produced stable societies, content men, and strong bloodlines.
I mean—yes. Mostly.
Your father wrote forty-six letters to an insurance company and slept on a hospital couch, Khan countered, his voice dropping into a dark, heavy register. Your world collapsed so completely that the planet required a hundred thousand years to recover from it. Cities became forests. Humanity vanished. A pause. And you are defending its marital conventions.
Will opened his mouth.
He closed it.
The world you knew is gone, boy, Khan said, not unkindly. What remains is much closer to the world I understood. Territory. Strength. Alliance. The question of who stands beside a man matters again in ways your old world had the luxury of making complicated. I am not suggesting cruelty. I am suggesting clarity. They are not the same thing.
Will looked at Maddie, who had moved on to the Stalker-Canine and was extracting a claw with focused intensity. Allison was kneeling beside her now, watching and learning without needing to be asked. The boys had drifted close enough to be useful without actually committing to the grisly work.
Six people in a clearing in what used to be Los Angeles.
Will didn't have a good answer. He filed Khan's logic next to everything else he didn't have a good answer for yet.
She loots before the body is cold, Khan noted. In my camps, that was considered an excellent quality in a woman.
Please stop evaluating her.
I am paying her a considerable compliment.
She would not see it that way.
No, Khan agreed, with something that sounded dangerously close to fondness. She would give it seven out of ten.
Will let them drift back toward introductions in their own time. He didn't make them explain themselves. He didn't address the running.
"Will," he said. Just his name.
Maddie stood up from the carcass and looked at him sideways. "Maddie." She nodded toward the dark-haired girl. "Allison."
Allison raised a hand. Quiet. Paying attention.
The boys introduced themselves into the space that followed. Curtis, the one who had looked back once during the ambush, came in slightly too fast. Don offered his name quietly.
Will looked at the group. Then he looked at the hills to the north, where the smoke was still rising above the canopy.
"I'm heading toward that smoke," Will said simply. "You can come or not."
He started walking.
You said nothing about the running, Khan observed.
They know what they did.
A lesser man would have shamed them publicly.
A lesser man needs people to know he noticed.
Three steps of silence.
You are occasionally less stupid than you appear.
Behind him, Will heard footsteps. Maddie first, falling into step beside him without asking permission, chewing on a piece of dried fruit she'd scavenged from somewhere. Then Allison. Then Curtis and Don.
Nobody said anything about it.
Will looked at Maddie sideways. She caught him looking and raised her seven fingers again without breaking stride.
He almost smiled, but the pull in his ribs made him stop at almost.
Your first followers, Khan said quietly. Note how it happened. No speech. No promise of reward. No display of dominance. You simply moved toward something worth moving toward, and made it worth following.
Will watched the smoke rise above the treeline.
Remember this feeling. You will need to scale it to millions.
The hills rose ahead of them, green and ancient. Six people walking north.
Maddie finished her dried fruit, looked at Will, and said, "So. Voice in your head or full psychosis? I'm getting a vibe."
Will considered his answer.
"Bit of both," he said.
"Respect," Maddie replied.
She truly is remarkable, Khan said privately.
Will sighed.
First wife, Khan reiterated.
I heard you the first time.
The world has changed, boy. More than you know. More than you are ready to accept.
Will looked at the hills ahead. At the smoke. At the six of them walking north into a world that had been dead longer than cities had existed, with a thousand-year-old conqueror in his blood quietly rearranging his assumptions one by one.
He didn't answer.
Khan didn't need him to.