Name: Gray AdamsAge: 20Status: Comfortable (79%)Wealth: $520,984.92 (+$243,320)Power: 12Influence: 26Skills:Basic Negotiation (Passive) — Slightly improves chances of earning more through bargains.Hard Labor (Active)— Increases strength and endurance in physical work.Giga Confidence (Passive) — You are no longer easily shaken by insults, mockery, or pressure. Instead, you find them funny, as if they were just a big joke.Eye of the Beholder (Active) — Allows the host to determine whether a person has good or bad intentions. Must be activated consciously. Prolonged usage of this skill causes rapid drain in stamina Golden Fingers (Passive) — A rare investor-type skill that passively enhances all future investments for the Host. Even with no special insight or timing, your investments will begin to perform better than average, consistently growing over time.---Mara was out for lunch. The office was quiet.Gray pulled up his stats and sat with them for a moment.In three month

Three days after Mara's call to the mayor's office, they had a schedule.The foundation already existed even though it was currently small, running on limited funding, tucked into a part of the city that didn't make headlines. What Alistair wanted was to grow it into something with real reach and long-term structure. That was the point of the proposal. Gray understood that now more clearly than he had at the restaurant.He and Mara rode out in the morning. Daniel drove them east, away from the Davenport Building and the stretch of high-rise glass that surrounded it. The skyline changed gradually from tall commercial towers giving way to older mid-rise buildings, then to low, wide structures with painted storefronts and wide sidewalks. Community-scale. The kind of streets that functioned without needing to look impressive.Daniel stopped the car at the address from the secretary.Mara leaned toward the window. "That one?"Gray looked. It was a medium-sized building set back slightly fr

Gray took a slow step toward the kid.This part of the yard didn't carry the same energy as the rest of the foundation. Earlier, everything had felt lived-in. Warm. There had been noise and chalk drawings and children arguing over turns at the swings. Here, the warmth was gone. This corner of the building felt like it had been excluded from whatever renovation effort had touched the rest of the place. Dark stains ran along the wall. The air sat heavier. The ground was dry and unswept.It was just Gray and the boy and the old tree."Hey," Gray said again, clearing his throat.The boy didn't move. Not his head, not his hands, not even a shift in his breathing that Gray could see. He stayed exactly as he had been. His knees pulled up, chin down, eyes fixed on the same small patch of dirt."Kid?" Gray tried.Nothing.A chill moved down the back of his neck. He straightened up and looked around the yard again. The place was old enough, and quiet enough, that he could understand why his bra

The shaking in Eli's body had slowed by the time he finished talking.His words came in slow bits, the way things did when someone had been carrying something alone for a long time and had finally, unexpectedly, found someone willing to sit still and listen. Gray did not rush him. He asked a question only when the silence had stretched long enough that Eli seemed to lose the thread of what he was trying to say.What Eli described wasn't an accident. It wasn't one incident that had gotten out of hand. It was a system. The older caretakers though not all of them, but specific ones, had been doing this for a long time. When a child made a mistake, they were taken somewhere private. A back room. The side yard. Somewhere the sound wouldn't carry. And hit with a stick. A kick. A wrist grabbed too hard.New employees were told quietly what happened to those who caused problems by speaking up.Some of the younger staff had tried. Fear had made them stop.Eli wasn't sure if Lita knew. He'd hea

The hallway was quiet after the door closed behind them.Gray and Mara walked slowly. Eli was still between them, still holding a hand each, but the grip had loosened. His breathing was steadier. The tight, braced quality he'd carried all afternoon had softened into something more like tired. After a few steps, Gray looked down at him."You did well in there," he said. "You know that?"Eli kept his head down. A small, uncertain smile pulled at one corner of his mouth. "I'm still scared," he admitted. "What if they get angry again?""They won't," Gray said. "Being brave isn't something to get angry at." Mara moved in on Eli's other side, watching him with an expression she didn't usually let show. "You're safe," she said. "Both of us will make sure of it." Eli looked up at her, then at Gray, and nodded slowly. The tension in his small shoulders came down another notch. --- The play area was the way they'd left it — children drawing at low tables, others on the floor with toys, the