Vol. 1 Chapter 2: A Hot Welcome

The first thing Kevin saw as an immediate threat were the polearms.

There were at least twenty of them, all pointed toward the five people who had appeared in the middle of the chamber.

Several more were aimed at the tents.

One guard had chosen the cooler.

Another had apparently identified Rob as the greatest immediate threat, although that may have been because Rob was sitting on the stone floor wrapped in a sleeping bag, wearing one sock and looking as though he had awakened inside the wrong hangover.

Alec slowly raised both hands.

“Okay,” he said. “Nobody makes any sudden movements.”

Rob looked up at him. “Why are you saying that to us?”

“Because they have spears.”

“...Yeah, that makes sense.”

Nicole stood behind Alec, barefoot and disheveled, gripping her flashlight tightly enough that her knuckles had gone white. Her eyes moved rapidly across the chamber.

Liza stood beside the campfire, staring at the nearest robed figure.

The fire popped.

Half the guards flinched.

Kevin glanced down.

The flames had returned to normal. Orange light moved over the wood he had added minutes earlier. Smoke rose freely into the open night above the chamber.

Someone shouted from the far side of the room.

Kevin understood him.

That was the next weird thing.

The words were not English. Kevin could hear that clearly. The sounds were unfamiliar, the rhythm wrong, each syllable belonging to no language he had ever studied.

The meaning arrived anyway.

“They are inside the sanctum! Move!”

More guards entered through the surrounding arches.

Nicole leaned closer to Alec.

“Did you understand that?”

Alec did not lower his hands. “Yeah.”

“That wasn’t English,” Liza said.

“No,” Kevin replied.

Rob raised one hand from inside the sleeping bag.

“So what now?”

“Now,” Alec said, “we shut up.”

Another voice crossed the chamber.

“Guards. Lower your weapons.”

A woman descended from the raised platform.

She appeared slightly older than the five of them, though the formal clothes and silver circlet made her difficult to place precisely. Golden hair had been drawn into tight braids behind her head. A layered cloak hung from one shoulder, fastened with a clasp shaped like a winged crown.

She walked with the confidence of someone accustomed to rooms becoming orderly when she entered them.

Kevin looked at the guards.

Most of the weapons remained raised.

Apparently, confidence was not the same as complete control.

“I said lower them,” the woman repeated.

Her voice had become colder.

Several spearpoints dipped, but not all of them.

An older man near the front kept his weapon aimed at Alec’s chest. His armor was darker than the others’, worn along the edges but carefully maintained.

“Your Highness,” he said, “we do not know what they are.”

Liza leaned slightly toward Kevin without looking away from the woman.

“Did he call her ‘Your Highness’?”

“Yeah.”

“So she summoned us.”

“Maybe.”

The princess stopped just a few paces from where Alec was standing, protected by guards on every side in case something suddenly happened.

Her gaze moved across them.

Alec first, standing with his hands raised.

Nicole behind him.

Liza beside the campfire.

Rob on the floor.

Then Kevin.

A young woman stood several steps behind the princess in plain gray-blue robes. Brown hair had been pinned severely behind her head. She held one hand against the opposite wrist and stared at the campsite in utter confusion and disbelief.

Beside the raised structure stood another woman dressed in white and gold.

A priestess, Kevin assumed.

She held an old folio against her chest and walked towards the princess’ side.

The older captain lowered his weapon only after the princess looked directly at him.

The remaining guards followed.

Alec kept his hands raised.

“We don’t want any trouble.”

The princess looked at him.

“You understand me?”

Alec hesitated.

Kevin nearly warned him not to answer too quickly, but Alec had already assumed the posture he used whenever a meeting became hostile.

Open hands.

Controlled voice.

Shoulders lowered enough to appear nonthreatening without appearing weak.

“Yes,” Alec said. “We understand you.”

A reaction passed through the surrounding officials.

“They speak.”

“Foreigners?”

“They bear marks.”

“All five?”

“That is impossible.”

Liza glanced at her own blue-white mark.

Then she glanced at Kevin.

Her eyes dropped toward his arm.

“Cover your tattoo,” she whispered to him.

Kevin looked down.

The sleeve of his hoodie had been pulled back while he was adjusting the campfire. The black lines were still visible against the inside of his forearm.

“Why?”

“Because yours looks like the one everyone will call evil.”

Kevin looked at her, then at the guards.

Liza glanced at the surrounding weapons.

“Do you want to test that?”

Kevin pulled the sleeve down over his wrist.

“Fine.”

Nicole elbowed her.

The princess raised one hand.

The whispers diminished.

“I am Aurelia Valeria Veyr,” she said. “Imperial Princess and ruler of Arvenia by charter of the Veyr Empire.”

Kevin watched the guards.

That title meant something to them.

Spines straightened. Several people lowered their heads. Even the officials who had not obeyed immediately became more careful about displaying disagreement.

“You stand in my estate,” Aurelia continued, “within my principality and under my authority.”

Alec lowered his hands slightly, but not completely.

“My name is Alexander Bennett.”

He gestured carefully toward each of them.

“Nicole Andrea Carter. Elizabeth Morgan. Kevin Mercer. Robert Benedict Hayes.”

Rob lifted one hand.

“Hola.”

Nobody responded.

He lowered it again.

“Difficult crowd.”

The older captain stepped forward.

“Names may be false.”

“They may,” Alec said.

The captain’s eyes narrowed.

Alec added, “But those are ours.”

The princess studied him.

“What nation sent you?”

“None,” Alec replied.

“What house?”

“None.”

“What temple?”

“None.”

Aurelia’s gaze moved across their clothes, equipment, tents and burning campsite.

“Then where did you come from?”

Alec looked toward Kevin.

Kevin looked toward Liza.

Liza looked upward at the two moons.

“Not here,” she said.

A murmur moved through the chamber.

Aurelia’s expression remained controlled.

“What does that mean?”

“We were in a forest,” Alec said. “Then we were transported here.”

The princess looked toward him.

Kevin sighed.

“Magic...”

The young woman in gray-blue robes stared at him. The priestess, however, had her attention already shifted away from Kevin and toward the others.

Aurelia followed her gaze.

Alec's golden mark remained visible along his forearm. Nicole's green lines branched beneath her skin, while Liza's geometric pattern still held a faint blue-white glow. Rob had made no attempt to hide the red spear and shield on his arm.

Kevin's own sleeve remained pulled down.

The priestess studied the four exposed marks for several seconds before stepping closer to Aurelia. She leaned toward the princess and whispered something too quietly for Kevin to hear.

Aurelia did not answer immediately.

Her eyes moved from Alec to Nicole, then Liza and Rob. She murmured something back. The woman gave a small nod but did not look satisfied.

Aurelia studied them again.

For almost a minute, no one addressed the room. Only quiet murmurs moved through the chamber as people tried to make sense of what they were seeing.

Then the princess stepped slightly forward.

“So,” she started. “You appeared when the Crown Covenant was invoked.”

The murmurs stopped.

The chamber became still.

The woman in white and gold turned sharply towards Aurelia. For a moment, her composure slipped entirely. Her brows drew together, and her lips parted as though she were about to object before remembering how many people were standing around them.

The young attendant in gray-blue looked between the priestess and the princess, visibly uncertain.

Aurelia continued as though neither reaction had occurred.

“The Crown Covenant,” Alec repeated.

“A rite and prayer preserved under the authority of my house and the imperial charter,” Aurelia said. Her voice carried clearly through the chamber. “I invoked it within this sanctum. When God answered, you appeared before us.”

The priestess stared at the princess, while Kevin focused his attention on her.

Her grip tightened around the folio against her chest.

That was not the reaction of someone hearing a familiar explanation.

Aurelia met her eyes for only a moment. Then she continued before anyone else could speak.

“The Covenant does not call servants, soldiers or sacrifices. It is a request to God for guidance.”

Rob’s head lifted.

Aurelia went on.

“Witnesses who may observe, judge and provide guidance where those within the Covenant cannot.”

The silence broke.

Whispers spread through the chamber again, louder this time. Several officials turned toward one another. One of the robed men near the altar began speaking rapidly to the person beside him. A guard lowered his spear another few inches. Someone farther back repeated the word witnesses as though testing whether it fit what he was seeing.

Most of them no longer seemed to be asking what the five strangers were.

They were trying to understand what the princess had meant.

The priestess was not.

She was still staring at Aurelia.

A complete explanation had been delivered into a room that had possessed none thirty seconds earlier, and somehow everyone had already begun arranging the facts around it.

Kevin and Alec looked at each other.

It looked like Alec had noticed it as well.

Aurelia had not explained what had happened.

She had decided what it would be called.

Liza folded her arms.

“So you summoned us.”

Aurelia looked at her.

“I invoked the Covenant. You appeared.”

“That is not the same thing?”

“No,” Aurelia said. “It is not.”

A guard near Liza stiffened.

“You will address Her Highness with respect.”

Liza turned toward him.

“Okay. Sorry.”

The apology contained very little apology.

Alec stepped in before the exchange could worsen.

“We are confused,” he said. “Everyone here is armed except us, so perhaps some flexibility would be useful.”

“You will be given answers,” she said.

“Do you have them?” Kevin asked.

The question moved through the chamber like a dropped knife.

Alec closed his eyes briefly.

Aurelia looked directly at Kevin.

“Not all of them.”

Well, that confirmed something. Kevin thought to himself as he nodded at her answer.

The captain gave him a hard look.

“Kevin,” Alec said quietly. “Stop grading the princess.”

Aurelia’s mouth moved almost imperceptibly.

A few steps behind her, the priestess finally pulled her attention away from the five strangers. She turned toward the young woman in gray-blue and motioned her closer.

She approached at once.

The priestess leaned toward her and spoke quietly enough that Kevin could not make out a word. The young woman’s eyes shifted toward the four exposed marks, then briefly toward Kevin’s covered wrist. Whatever the priestess said next made her straighten.

The young woman nodded.

She hurried across the chamber and disappeared through one of the side arches.

The priestess returned to Aurelia’s side.

A short while later, the young woman came back carrying a shallow stone case in both hands. She climbed the steps toward the altar and placed it carefully on top.

The case opened into a compact arrangement of dark crystal, narrow metal bands, and several smaller stones fixed around its base.

The priestess gave her a small nod.

Then the young woman adjusted two of the stones, pressed her palm against the central plate, and stepped back.

Light spread across the device.

From there, it spilled into the carvings of the altar, ran down through the grooves cut into the stone, and continued across the floor toward the campsite.

The chamber quieted again.

Five narrow strands of pale light gathered above the formation.

Each strand lifted into the air.

The surrounding guards moved back.

Then the strands started floating towards the five of them.

Rob looked upward.

“Oh, good. More magic.”

One of them moved toward Alec.

He held still as it approached his left forearm. The moment the pale thread touched the golden mark beneath his skin, the entire symbol illuminated. Gold spread through the lines in a single clean pulse before settling into a steady glow, the thread remaining suspended between his arm and the formation.

The priestess drew in a breath.

Her attention sharpened immediately. Whatever uncertainty had remained on her face disappeared as she stared at the mark.

“Light.”

The word carried farther through the chamber than Kevin expected.

Another thread reached Nicole. Her green mark responded almost at once, the branching lines beneath her skin brightening as the strand settled against it.

“Life,” the priestess said.

This time there was less hesitation.

Nicole looked from the glowing thread to her. “What does that mean?”

No one answered.

The third strand reached Liza. Her blue-white geometry flared with cold light, illuminating the edge of her sleeve. The young woman beside the altar stared openly at it.

“Magic,” the priestess continued.

Liza looked down at her arm.

“Okay.”

Alec glanced toward her. “Do not sound excited.”

“I’m not.”

“You are glowing.”

“That is not my fault.”

The fourth strand found Rob.

His mark brightened red as the shape of the spear and shield became sharply defined beneath his skin. The captain’s expression changed for the first time.

“War.”

Rob stared at him.

“No.”

The captain looked back.

Rob pointed at his own chest. “Accountant.”

The captain did not appear to understand why that mattered.

Then the fifth strand turned toward Kevin.

He stepped aside.

It followed.

Kevin frowned and moved the other way. The thread curved through the air after him.

“No.”

Alec glanced over. “Kevin.”

“I don’t like it.”

“It connected to the rest of us.”

“Exactly.”

The pale strand drifted toward his covered wrist.

Kevin pulled his arm away. It changed direction without hesitation and followed him again.

“What is this?”

He waved one hand through it. His fingers passed through the light without resistance, but the strand bent around them and continued toward his arm.

Nobody answered.

He tried to shoo it away again.

“Stop.”

A sudden cold spread beneath his sleeve.

Kevin froze.

The thread had not touched him yet. It came from the mark.

The temperature dropped so quickly that the skin along his forearm tightened. He could feel the black lines beneath the fabric without seeing them, a cold pressure settling into the same pattern that had appeared beneath his skin minutes earlier.

Kevin looked down at his wrist.

Then the strand reached his sleeve. The thread ignored the fabric and touched the distorted lines beneath his skin.

Then it vanished without a trace.

The cold remained, but unlike the rest nothing had visibly reacted. The formation on the altar showed no response, as though there was nothing it could recognize.

Liza’s eyebrow rose, but she said nothing. Her expression was enough to remind him exactly why she had told him to cover the mark in the first place.

Around them, the chamber had gone completely silent.

The young woman beside the altar stared at the empty space where the fifth thread had been. The priestess did not move at all.

Aurelia’s attention settled on Kevin.

“Show me your arm.”

Kevin looked at her, then at the guards surrounding them and finally at the captain.

There was no version of the situation where refusing improved things.

The princess waited.

With a quiet sigh, he caught the end of his sleeve and pulled it back, exposing the black mark beneath the chamber light.

Several voices started at once.

Kevin ignored them.

The priestess did not, but her eyes fixed on his forearm. She stepped away from Aurelia and came closer.

The captain shifted slightly between them, but the priestess stopped before reaching Kevin. She leaned forward instead, studying the distorted lines beneath his skin.

Kevin watched her expression change. It was subtle at first. Her eyes moved slowly across the mark, following one line until it disappeared beneath another, then shifting to a different part of the pattern. She looked at it from another angle.

Then she straightened. For the first time since the recognition began, she did not announce a domain.

She looked at Aurelia with a careful and neutral expression. The princess was already watching her.

Neither woman spoke. Something passed between them anyway.

The whispers around the chamber began to rise.

This time Kevin could hear some of the whispers as people tried to get a closer look.

“The fifth was not recognized.”

“The thread disappeared.”

“What mark is that?”

“Was it rejected?”

“The formation rejected him.”

The priestess’s grip tightened around the folio.

Aurelia looked from her to Kevin’s exposed arm.

“No.”

The word cut cleanly through the room.

“We do not know what occurred,” she declared.

Kevin lowered his arm.

The captain looked toward the altar, then back at Kevin.

“Your Highness, four were recognized. The fifth was not.”

Kevin looked toward him.

“I have a name.”

The captain’s expression remained hard.

“And an unknown mark.”

Aurelia looked from Kevin to the altar formation.

Apparently, her explanation about the Crown Covenant had just been given four pieces of evidence and one large problem.

She turned back toward the chamber before the problem could acquire its own interpretation.

“The Covenant has identified four recognized domains,” she declared.

The priestess opened her mouth.

Aurelia continued over her.

“The fifth remains unclear. It does not mean it is hostile.”

That silenced some of the room, but not all of it.

A man in dark formal robes stepped forward from behind the surrounding officials. He had sharp features, a carefully trimmed beard and the air of someone who had never apologized without a strategic objective.

“Your Highness, all five must be transferred to the imperial council immediately.”

Aurelia did not look at him.

“No.”

The man stopped.

“No?”

“They appeared within Avernia and appeared as an answer to my call for the Covenant, inside a restricted sanctum held under my seal.”

“The marks are an imperial and religious matter.”

“Then the proper petition may be filed.”

The man’s jaw tightened.

Aurelia continued.

“Until their condition, origin and legal classification are established, they remain under the protective jurisdiction of the principality.”

The phrase sounded far more established than the Covenant had.

Kevin suspected that part, at least, was real.

The man looked toward the captain.

The captain did not move.

Aurelia faced the five strangers again.

“You will be moved to secure quarters while everything is examined.”

Rob began gathering the blanket around himself like a ceremonial robe.

Kevin saw it happen.

“Don’t.”

Rob stood.

“Your Highness,” he said solemnly, “as witnesses called under this Covenant, we must reserve judgment and guidance until we receive a complete presentation of the relevant details.”

Nicole stared at him.

“Robert.”

He raised one hand with the dignity of a diplomat who was still wearing one sock.

“Therefore, while examinations and deliberations are going on, we respectfully request that everyone stop pointing weapons at us.”

The chamber remained silent.

Kevin resisted the urge to smack him on the back of his head.

Aurelia stared at him.

Rob stared back.

For one strange moment, Kevin watched two people establish diplomatic relations by confidently inventing rules in front of everyone else.

Alec understood the assignment.

He lowered his hands slightly.

“Our companion is correct.”

Kevin inhaled sharply and closed his eyes.

“We cannot provide anything concerning circumstances that have not been explained,” Alec continued. “We will cooperate with reasonable protective measures while everything is being processed.”

Rob had accepted the role.

Alec had added terms.

Kevin had now been involuntarily recruited into whatever nonsense these three had just invented on the spot.

Aurelia seized the opportunity.

“Your right to deliberate will be respected.”

The priestess’s expression suggested that this right had not existed until the sentence left Aurelia’s mouth.

The captain looked toward the surrounding guards.

“Lower the remaining weapons.”

This time, all of them obeyed.

Nicole released a slow breath, while Liza had moved closer to the group.

Kevin remained focused on Aurelia. Whatever she was doing, it had lowered the spears. That made it a good thing until further notice.

Rob leaned toward him.

“You’re welcome.”

“You accepted a religious appointment on our behalf.”

“I secured diplomatic standing.”

“You are wearing a blanket.”

“Traditional attire.”

Kevin closed his eyes briefly.

The princess’s mouth twitched.

“You will step outside one at a time.” she stated. “Your persons and belongings will be inspected for immediate danger.”

Kevin looked at the guards.

Several were already preparing to approach.

“Wait,” he said.

Every spearpoint rose again.

Alec shut his eyes.

Kevin slowly raised both hands away from his body.

“I have a weapon.”

Silence had once again filled the chamber.

Aurelia looked toward the captain. The captain almost immediately looked toward Kevin’s waist.

Alec muttered, “Way to go, Kevin Wick.”

Kevin kept his eyes on the guards.

“This is why I declared it before someone else found it.”

“Location,” the captain asked.

“Right hip. Under the hoodie. Holstered.”

“Do not reach for it.”

“I wasn’t planning to.”

The captain approached alone.

Kevin turned slightly, keeping both hands raised.

The captain lifted the edge of Kevin’s hoodie carefully.

His eyes narrowed when he saw the black polymer grip and compact holster.

He unclipped the entire holster from Kevin’s waistband rather than asking him to draw the weapon.

Good, he thought to himself.

At least one person in the room understood that unfamiliar weapons should not be handled from the dangerous end.

The captain stepped back and examined it.

He did not remove the pistol from the holster.

His thumb traced the edge of the polymer frame.

“Dwarven?”

Kevin said nothing.

The captain looked up.

“You know what this is.”

Kevin remained silent.

The captain studied him for another moment.

Then he glanced at the priestess and the attendant.

“Do either of you recognize its construction?”

The scholar shook her head.

The young attendant stared at the pistol with open curiosity.

“No, Captain.”

The captain returned his attention to Kevin.

“How does it function?”

“I cannot disclose it here.”

Alec lowered his head.

“Kevin.”

“What?”

“You surrendered the gun. Stop negotiating the manual.”

The captain’s gaze remained fixed on him.

Kevin said nothing else.

Aurelia looked toward the holstered weapon.

“It remains with Captain Varris until it can be examined safely.”

So the captain had a name.

Kevin nodded once.

“Do not pull the trigger.”

Varris’s expression did not change.

“That part was apparent.”

Alec sighed. He raised his head towards the ceiling as though he was contemplating something.

Varris looked at him.

Finally, he gestured towards Nicole’s tent.

“There is another weapon secured inside a case.”

Kevin turned toward him.

Alec looked back.

Varris looked toward the tent.

“Same construction?”

“Similar,” Alec said. “It is unloaded and stored.”

Kevin nodded toward the surrounding guards.

“Tell that to the bear.”

Alec closed his eyes again.

“Please take him first.”

Varris ordered two guards toward the tent.

“Do not open the case until it has been moved to a controlled room,” he added.

The guards acknowledged him.

Nicole stepped forward.

“Medical supplies remain with me.”

Varris looked toward the first aid kit.

“Those will be inspected.”

“By whom?”

“A healer.”

“Do they understand the contents?”

“No.”

“Then I supervise.”

“You are a healer?”

“No,” Nicole answered. “I’m a physician. I’m in surgical residency.”

Aurelia considered her words.

“Then the supplies remain in your possession while their contents are recorded.”

Nicole nodded once.

“Fine.”

Alec looked around the campsite.

“We are not surrendering everything we own.”

The dark-robed official laughed quietly.

“You are in no position to refuse.”

Alec turned his gaze at him.

His voice remained polite.

It became noticeably less friendly.

“We have food, clothing, identification, medicines and equipment that your people do not understand. Mishandling them could injure someone or make them permanently useless.”

“Equipment?” the official repeated.

Alec heard the mistake immediately.

Kevin watched his jaw tighten.

Aurelia’s attention shifted towards the transported campsite. The phones, laptop bag, power station, solar panel and unfamiliar plastic containers scattered around the chamber.

“Your possessions will be inventoried,” she said. “Nothing will be dismantled, activated or transferred to another authority without my approval.”

Kevin nodded as though Aurelia had just asked for his approval.

Alec stepped on his foot.

Kevin continued looking at Aurelia.

She continued as though nothing had happened.

“Personal effects that present no danger may remain with you. Larger objects will be sealed within the principality’s custody.”

“Your custody,” Alec said.

“Yes.”

“And not the council’s.”

“No.”

“The Church?”

“No.”

Kevin looked at the priestess.

The priestess looked mildly offended.

Aurelia pointed toward the open archway.

“Form the escort.”

Varris issued orders.

There would be no chains, or drawn weapons unless one of the five attempted violence.

Five guards in front. Five behind.

Enough on either side to make the intended route unmistakable.

Alec gathered his phone, then picked up Nicole’s sandals without being asked.

Nicole took them from him and put them on.

Liza collected her backpack and stared unhappily at the guards approaching her power station.

Rob began searching beneath the folding chairs.

Varris watched him.

“What are you doing?”

“My other sock is missing.”

Varris looked at Aurelia, waiting for her instructions.

Aurelia closed her eyes for half a second.

“Find it.”

Rob started lifting the chairs and walked around the tent while the dark-robed official looked personally offended by his continued existence.

Rob recovered the sock beneath the cooler and pulled it on before joining the others.

Kevin slung the laptop bag over one shoulder.

A guard stepped closer.

Kevin stopped.

“It stays with me.”

The guard looked toward Varris.

Varris looked at the bag.

“Is there another weapon inside?”

“No.”

“Anything that may injure someone handling it?”

“It is not a weapon,” Kevin added.

Varris allowed him to keep it.

Alec walked first beside Nicole. Then Liza followed. Rob shuffled behind them with the sleeping bag still wrapped around his shoulders.

Kevin went last.

As he passed the altar, he looked at the case and the formation placed inside of it.

He tried to adjust his position to get a closer look inside the case.

Then the female attendant deliberately stepped in front and blocked his view.

Kevin looked at her.

Up close, she looked younger than Kevin had first assumed. Early twenties, perhaps. Her hands remained steady, but her attention kept shifting between his covered arm and the formation behind him.

Kevin looked past her.

Her face was pale.

“Keep walking,” she whispered.

She met his eyes for less than a second.

There was fear there.

Fear mixed with the desperate concentration of someone carrying out an order she did not fully understand.

The princess spoke from several steps ahead.

“Serina.”

The attendant’s shoulders tightened.

Kevin looked past her toward Aurelia.

The princess was watching him.

So was the priestess.

Serina shifted half a step, blocking the formation completely.

Serina looked at him as though she were pleading with him not to poke at every suspicious thing in the room.

Kevin continued walking.

Behind them, attendants approached the campsite with the caution of people examining a sleeping animal.

One poked the cooler with the end of a staff.

Another knelt beside an empty beer can as though it might contain a prophecy.

A third stood before one of the folding chairs, apparently unwilling to accept that furniture could be made of fabric and collapse intentionally.

They passed beneath the archway.

The sanctum opened into a long stone corridor lit by lanterns fixed inside iron brackets. Banners hung between narrow windows. Carved symbols covered the arches and doorframes, none belonging to any language Kevin recognized.

More guards waited outside.

Some looked openly into the chamber. Others turned their eyes away when Aurelia noticed them staring.

The escort kept the five of them in the center.

Suddenly, his phone buzzed inside his pocket.

Kevin stopped, while Varris turned. Every nearby guard also looked at him, trying to anticipate what he would do next.

“That was my device. It is not a weapon or hostile,” Kevin told them.

Kevin looked at Varris, as he waited for his reaction.

“Shut it down,” he instructed Kevin.

Kevin nodded, as he slowly slipped one hand into his pocket while keeping the other visible.

Varris watched but did not stop him.

Kevin pressed the side button without removing the phone.

The vibration ended. They had then resumed walking.