Along the abandoned country roads of South England, a taxi driver with a large belly and a tense expression on his rounded face drove with both hands on the wheel underneath the cold and downcast evening sky.
In the back seat sat a man no older than twenty-five with a sandy tan complexion and relatively short, well-kept hair wearing a white shirt and office trousers. No matter which way the driver looked at him, he looked like a businessman.
He had a pair of thin glasses that seemingly never moved from their position despite the rockiness of the ride and the man himself had not uttered a single word since forcing the driver on a journey to the middle of nowhere.
He glanced at him again through the rear-view mirror and found him staring back at him with a small smile on his lips.
"S-Sorry..." He cursed himself for acting like such a scaredy-cat around a random man who was half his age. He wondered whether his wife had been right all along.
"Do I have an inferiority complex?"
"An inferiority complex?" A voice spoke slowly, pronouncing each word carefully as though English wasn't his first language. "Well, I'm sure it's natural to be scared of a man who's demanded you take him to the middle of nowhere with everything that's been going on in the world as of late, no?"
The driver leapt from his seat and crashed his head into the roof of the taxi. The car swerved violently as he fought to regain control and he mentally cursed himself for not paying enough attention.
'I didn't realise I spoke out loud!'
"Why do you ask?"
'He's ignoring what just happened!?'
He looked back at the man and noticed something else.
'His glasses still haven't moved!'
"My name is Taison, but everyone just calls me Tai, so you may as well, too."
Pete took several moments to wake up and realise Tai was expecting a response and quickly searched his brain for his name. It had gone missing in the heat of the moment and Pete was desperately wishing that their ride would end as quickly as possible.
"Aah? I'm, uh, Pete! That's right, I'm Pete." His common English accent was thick and layered.
"Pete? Well, it's nice to meet you, Pete."
"Uh, you too?" He laughed nervously and felt his eye twitch.
Tai laughed at Pete's uncertainty and dipped his hand in his pocket. He produced a wallet that didn't look like it could fit in the tight pockets of his trousers and flicked through the contents, pulling from it several notes that would be used for Pete's payment.
"Uhm, Taison was it? Can I ask you a question?"
"Why not?"
"Are you one of those awakened?" Tai was pleasantly surprised at Pete's question. It was a straightforward approach that he hadn't expected in the slightest.
Pete kept glancing at Tai nervously but his voice had been solid as a rock whenever he had spoken. He didn't stutter in any way, but instead, he took his time speaking, filling in the gaps with phrases like "Uhm" and "Uh".
Awakened was the term that the government used to refer to the summoners that had developed powers over the last few months. They had taken charge of everything to do with the awakened, including restrictions on their powers.
All citizens of the United Kingdom had been called back to the country in what was clearly a bid to tie down their own forces of summoners and that was why he was back in England. He had been sent home by the German government to maintain stable relations with England and their allies.
He couldn't only pick at the negatives of their approach, however. They had been very fast on the uptake and had almost instantly created associations meant solely for governing the summoners and providing them with what they claimed was 'protection'.
These associations were also a way to counter the sudden creation of guilds that happened overnight. Where guilds were useful for protecting the country, the association also recognised that they could be problematic for the nation and potentially put lives in danger if not monitored and faced with punishment for breaking the law.
The association most relevant to Tai was known as the United Awakened Association and consisted of the countries that belonged to the United Kingdom: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and England.
In truth, Tai knew they were mainly attempting to place restrictions on the summoners, but the guilds made by awakened summoners were in place to give the summoners other options.
A requirement for joining the Association was that you would be serving the country whenever called upon and several people felt that it was an unreasonable ask and others that just didn't want to do it.
Tai knew that they would eventually change their stance on that after hearing feedback from the strongest summoners in the country. They would need to meet the summoners in the middle if they wanted to keep them there.
Later, America would go hunting for foreign talents and steal a Chinese prodigy that would send China into a frenzy. He recalled how close the world had come to the first summoner war during those tense months.
"A Rogue Awakened, to be exact."
Tai was jolted from his thoughts.
He noticed that Pete was a rather intelligent guy despite his looks and demeanour. He remembered picking his taxi because he had quite clearly had a few drinks and judging by that, Tai deferred that he either cared little about his job or was a complete fool.
"That's right." Tai tilted his head back and stared into the roof of the car just above Pete's head. The indent he left when he slammed his skull into the soft cushion above was still there, just slightly visible to his enhanced eyes.
"Does that scare you?"
'Rogue Awakened' was the title given to those who evaded the mandatory examinations taken with the UAA that was needed to determine who was a summoner as well as their strength.
"Not as much as it probably should."
"Oh?" Tai let loose a yawn. "We're supposed to be dangerous you know. After all, why would any law-abiding citizen evade a mandatory test?"
Pete didn't answer. He kept his eyes on the road and only spoke when he required directions, however, that wasn't often as the rest of the journey was largely just one long road leading to an enormous oak tree that overlooked a small farm and a humble little cottage.
"There it is." Tai pointed it out and Pete merely nodded his head.
There was still a long way to go at the speed that Pete was driving at. He had sobered up majorly throughout their ride and was taking into account the dead deer he had spotted on the road a while back.
"Are you a dangerous man?"
Tai raised his eyebrows in surprise at the odd question.
"I don't know. What do you think?"
They were near the small farm now and Pete watched as Tai flicked his finger through the air with a curious look on his face.
Tai was looking at his system display and going through the notifications the system had sent him throughout the day.
The systems alert symbol (⚠) popped up in front of his face, pushing all old and previously read notifications to the very back. Now all that was left were the most recent notifications and reminders.
— NOTIFICATION —
[Your daily workout schedule has been completed and will start the week commencing the 4th of September.]
— REMINDER —
[You have 100 unused free draws.]
— NOTIFICATION —
[You have 5 unused stat points.]
Tai smiled widely. There was a lot of work waiting for him when he arrived and even though it was late in the evening, he was more than prepared to work through the night to get it done.
"The news has been telling us that you'll be recognised as a criminal."
Tai looked at Pete and spoke in his usual slow way. "Does that make me dangerous?"
"Well, yeah? I mean, I don't know to be honest."
"Then why are you thinking about it? You'll only bring yourself more stress if you keep thinking about questions that you can't find answers to. That's like putting yourself in a maze with no way out. Why would you do that?"
"I suppose so..." Pete returned to his quiet state until we pulled up to the cottage.
The way Tai had spoken was as if it was easy to just ignore it all. What was he trying to say? If Pete didn't understand something then why bother trying? What kind of logic was that? He was sure humanity hadn't progressed over the many centuries with thinking like that.
Pete widened his eyes suddenly.
"It's not your job to think about all of that stuff, Pete."
Tai, at some point, had left the car and was at the window, speaking through the small gap that Pete had left open for fresh air.
"Who's paying you to worry about nonsense like rogue awakeners? You're being paid to drive a taxi, so focus on driving your taxi and whatever you enjoy in between that and being a caring father. It's that simple."
He fed a handful of twenty-pound notes through the window and gave Pete a reassuring smile. Pete gathered the money up and flicked through it. When he turned to tell Tai that he'd overpaid him by dozens of pounds, the man was already walking away.
"This bastard... He's like a ghost, just disappearing whenever he wants." Pete grinned happily and decided on two things that night.
First of all, was that he would never judge a person based on their societal status again. It was troublesome for him to constantly look at each person with a critical eye anyway. The actions they took in front of his eyes would tarnish their image in his eyes, not their reputation or rumours.
Secondly, he decided that he would only focus on the things that interested him. Things he cared for. His family, his job, and his hobbies. He could already feel the stress that had accumulated over the last few months disappear from his body.
Pete drove off and continued back down the country lanes before he remembered the last words that Tai spoke.
"How did he know I was a father?" Pete's mind immediately went to the necklace hanging from his neck. The pocket locket was open and the small image of him and his daughter was on full show.
Suddenly, Pete's car began to slow down and he could feel the car engine die from where he was sitting. He widened his eyes and stared at the fuel meter in horror.
"That fucking rogue bastard!" He cursed wildly into the cold night sky.