"An army? Here?"
The crowd was in an uproar. Terry let the debate spin on for some time before clapping his hands to once again to gain their attention.
"I know it's been a while since there's been a major conflict in the world," Terry explained. "For 200 years, humanity has been on a slow road of recovery. True, there may have been some minor skirmishes and bandit raids, but nobody really had the ability to project force upon their neighbours. Until now."
"And our sons and daughters? Why do they need them?"
"There are still many relics of the old world out there," said Terry. "I should know, I've made it my livelihood to find them. The truth is, many of these ancient machines have been reduced to lumps of rust in the intervening years. But, imagine if you had a group that could restore some of these old weapons of war."
A few in the crowd gasped.
"They don't even need to completely restore the weapons," Val said standing up. She held up her book, "With enough material and imagination, an army of metalmancers could create anything."
"Like what?"
"A few weeks ago, my sister and I flew on the back of a metal dragon. Now, it wasn't for very long.... and we did kinda crash...." Val's cheeks reddened with embarrassment.
"But the fact was you were able to do it. With just the two of you." Terry concluded.
A man stood up, his arms crossed. "Surely our children wouldn't attack US though?"
"Who knows what your children have been told since the time that they left your care. The fact is, for some of you, it's been years since the last time you've had any contact. Remember, that most of your children left willingly under false pretenses. This group, whoever they are, has had time to feed them whatever lies that they wished to tell. The fact that NONE of these children have ever returned should be an indication of the control that they are under."
Silence.
"So what do we do? We're not soldiers. Hell, not I'm even sure this group could stop a small bandit raid, let alone a full invasion."
"That's why I've gathered you. We need you go back to your home communities and tell those in charge what's coming. If we're to stave off an invasion, we will need to work together."
"And what of our children? Are we supposed to FIGHT them? Are we supposed to kill them?"
"I hope it doesn't come down to that," said Terry. "I hope to find a way for us to locate the children and to rescue them, but we need to be prepared if that isn't possible."
"You're sure this will happen? It's not like we've been attacked!"
"Oh?" Terry raised an eyebrow. He motioned to Carl. "This man was knocked unconscious and his daughter was taken away by force. If that isn't an attack, I'm not sure what is."
"And this purposed rescue? Where do we even start?"
Terry looked to Val, "First, we need a metalmancer army of our own."
***
The discussion continued for some time. Eventually, the crowd consented to return to their hometowns to spread the word about a possible pending invasion.
The inn was full that night. Terry handed Carl a bag of coins to pay for the lodging of anyone for whom it was to late to travel.
"This plan of yours lad." Carl said to Terry. "Are you sure it's the right way forward?"
Terry looked to Val who was nose deep in her book, the table surface around her covered in pages of notes and scribblings. "I wish I could say for certain. But to secure the future for people like her..." he paused. "And for people like my son, we have to make sure that these kids have the ability to grow up to follow their own destinies."
"Are we not following the same road as our enemies? Making our own army?"
Terry shook his head, "We won't be recruiting children. Metalmancy has been around for about 30 years. There are adults out there with this power. Adults who can make their own decisions."
"I hope you're right."
"I just hope we have enough time to bring all this together. This group..." he thought for a moment. "We haven't really given them a name have we?"
"No, we haven't. Bigger things to worry about I suppose."
"I'm a little tired of referring to them as "this group" or "the enemy"."
"The Abductors." Carl said.
"That's it!" He slammed a fist into his palm. "These Abductors have had at least 3 years to work on their plan. I'm actually assuming it has been longer than that since they only started gathering people 3 years ago."
"Make sense."
"I imagine that they still need time to integrate their new acquisitions into whatever plans that they have."
"Acquisitions?" Carl's eyes narrowed. "ONE of those acquisitions is my DAUGHTER."
"Apologies," Terry held up two hands, palms forward. "That was insensitive of me."
Carl nodded.
"If we attempt a rescue, we need to find out where the children have been taken."
"I feel like that will be the easy part."
"Quite. As I said when I addressed the crowd, I believe a lot of these kids may have been indoctrinated by this point. I fear that only some would be willing to go with a rescue party."
"So, even if we perform a rescue, it won't completely diminish their power?"
"Yes, I'm afraid that this invasion is most likely inevitable. Someone has put a lot of time and resources into this, I can't see them giving up easily. As best, we may only stall their plans."
"Is there a way to completely end the threat?"
"We'd have to cut of the head of the snake. Assuming there is even a head.... We really don't have much information right now."
Suddenly, there was a soft snoring. Both men looked to Val's table - the girl had fallen asleep face first in her book.
"I hope we don't ask too much of her," Carl said. "She's so young."
"We both need her to keep our children safe."
"I know. It just feels wrong."