"Not that I'm complaining," Alex started as they walked along the shimmering pathway of color leading back to Zeal's platform. "…but why did you do that? I'm glad it worked out — and I'm never one to complain about a risk — but couldn't you have just defeated the Trial normally? You were about to get your Partial Domain."

Claire shook her head. "Yes and no. I'd have had a chance to enter the final part of my Trial, similar to what we did when doing the Trial to take control of Mirrorwane. But I would have had a chance to fail… and it would have given the Nightmarch another moment to try and find me."

"They can do that?" Alex blinked in surprise. "They control the Trial?"

"Not the Trial, but the magic fueling it. The Trial would have called upon the powers of one of the Nightmarch Family's ancestors. It's called an Ancestry," Claire explained. She paused, then let out a soft laugh. "An Ancestry. Can you believe that? I can say it, and the Nightmarch can't do shit to stop me."

"Can you also say what that is?" Alex asked.

"Whoops. Sorry. I'm so used to speaking in riddles that an actual answer feels like ripping my own throat out," Claire said. "An Ancestry is kind of like robbing some poor old bastard's grave. Some people become so powerful that, when they die, part of them remains. The System can't take it all back."

"So basically a magic corpse."

"More than that. A magic corpse that can pass its power on to someone that proves themselves worthy — or store its magic for the next in line of their family. The Nightmarch have the latter, but they're always searching for the former," Claire said, idly scratching at the thorned tattoo that now adorned her right hand as they walked. "That's one of the main reasons they're going around from planet to planet recruiting people. They need fodder for the Ancestries that aren't so easy to get. When really powerful people die while trying to advance into the next stage, they're often surrounded with powerful magical treasures or weapons. Lots of people want to get their hands on that."

"Something tells me that really powerful people also don't leave their bodies undefended."

Claire nodded. "That was the impression I got as well. The Nightmarch didn't go into much more detail than that, but it's not hard to come to a good guess. Given the scale of the operation they were doing, Ancestries can be enormous dungeons that draw attention from every single Great Family in the area. But I digress — you asked about my class. It's from one of the other Ancestries. The kind that you get when an elder of a Great Family dies and leaves their body with their family. I mentioned this before. My class is called an Inheritance."

"Right," Alex said. "I remember that. So the Nightmarch would have known if you'd activated the Trial because they've got the corpse?"

"Exactly."

"But… didn't you get the class anyway? Won't they still know?"

"They'll know that the Trial ended," Claire said. "But they won't know what happened. They might have had some way to influence the Trial, or the Trial could have been heavily rigged in a way that only someone from the Nightmarch family could truly defeat it the normal way."

"So that's why you tore it out," Alex realized. "It counts as beating the Trial and they can't screw you over in the process?"

Claire cleared her throat. "Yeah. That."

"You don't sound very confident in that answer."

"It was definitely a major factor in the decision," Claire said. She paused for a moment, then let out a huff. "But defeating the Trial could have taken weeks more of preparation. I had a chance of beating it when I got my Partial Soul Manifestation… and an equal chance of losing. The idea of having to keep those bleeding shackles on any longer than I had to was too much. There was a good chance I just slipped up and they killed me before I got a chance to ever take the Trial. I couldn't turn down the chance to escape. Would you have done any different?"

Alex shook his head. "No. I don't think I could have. Then your class — what exactly does it do?"

"Its focus is manipulating the terms of a fight. Nightwhisper merged with my nature as a Dhampir when I got the class," Claire said. "You've seen some of my abilities already. My Soul Manifestation lets me extract energy from the blood I drink, and I can use that to fuel my abilities. You want me to spell everything out before you take a guess at what they are? This is your last chance to do it, after all."

"Well, one of them is definitely blood manipulation," Alex said as he scratched his chin. "And another is probably whatever lets you change your body and grow wings. So I guess the last ability is the whole "you have no eyes" thing? Maybe some kind of magical theft ability, considering how you yoinked my magic?"

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Close," Claire said with a nod. "The blood and the body manipulation are actually the same skill. The ability is Absolute Dominion. It gives me control over everything that belongs to me. Dhampirs just happen to have wings we grow when we drink enough energy to manifest them. It's part of the package."

"Damn," Alex said. "What defines things that belong to you?"

She looked over her shoulder to grin at him. "Right now, it's things that are part of my body. But as I get stronger… who knows." Alwaysreadfromthesource:

M|V|LE4MPYR.

"Seems balanced," Alex grumbled. He waved a hand through a thick cloud of crackling red mist as it curled past the bridge and tried to momentarily blind him. "What about your other skills?"

"One is Energy Thief. I can steal attributes and abilities from things I drink the blood of. That's what I used on you. And the other is The Black Thread. It lets me restrict the senses and powers of things I drink blood from."

Alex hesitated for a moment. "Is… that the ability they used on you?"

Claire's hands tightened into fists for a moment. Then they relaxed again. She nodded. "Yes. The person that put me into the coma was the Heir. And now that magic is mine. It doesn't work exactly the same because of the difference in our Soul Manifestations, but the purpose is the same."

They both fell silent for several seconds. Alex was pretty sure Claire didn't want him heaping condolences on her. She didn't want to be coddled. But he couldn't exactly just ignore what had happened either — so both of them just opted to do nothing but walk for a little while longer.

It wasn't long before the end of the glowing pathway came back into view. They'd made it back to Zeal's platform. An old rug sat on the ground where Zeal had once been, but there was no sign of the old man. He was gone.

Both of them stepped back onto the platform, then paused.

"By the way," Alex said. "You passed whatever it was that Zeal did to check you, right?"

Claire scrunched her nose and inclined her head. "Yes. He dug through my memories to see if I was worthy of joining the Empty Court."

Alex winced. "Ah. That's why he apologized, isn't it? He realized he did the same thing to you that Nightmarch did."

"Yeah." Claire let out a snort. "But apparently I passed. Some entrance exam. And you?"

"Someone vouched for me," Alex said with a frown. He walked over to the ancient rug and knelt beside it. "And I don't know who. Or why. There's someone within the Empty Court that wants me to enter. Something tells me it's a trap."

"They vouched for you?" Claire moved to join him. "That is odd. And I take it Zeal didn't say who?"

"I'd have said if he did." Alex blew out a breath and shook his head. "But we don't even know how the hell to get into the Empty Court in the first place. It hardly matters right now."

"Actually… about that." Claire cleared her throat. "Zeal told me."

Alex spun to look at her. "What? When?"

"When he was rooting around in my skull," Claire said. "It was after he saw my memories. He told me that there are entrances to the Empty Court on pretty much every world. They're very literal. Now that we've both been approved entry, we can get in through any of them. We just have to find one."

"Huh. Why didn't he tell me?" Alex asked with a frown.

"He said it would have been interfering. I wasn't sure what he meant at the time… but now I'm pretty sure it means that whoever vouched for you also doesn't want you getting help from other people in the Empty Court."

"Lovely. Did he mention anything else?"

"Just that the doorways were often in locations with a lot of magical energy."

"Dungeons," Alex said, looking up from the carpet. "We need to look in dungeons."

Claire nodded. "Yeah. That's the thought I came to as well."

"Convenient. We'll just keep an eye out for any suspicious doorways when we're in them, then. I wonder if the Cracked Steps count. Maybe there's a doorway here somewhere? I guess we'll just have to check later. We should probably start heading back to Mirrorwane now so we don't show up too late. Mite is waiting for us."

"Agreed," Claire said. "And the next time we come back, things will be even easier."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small golden coin, holding it up for Alex to see. The coin was old and weathered, with a spiderwebbing crack running through it. "This is what I got from the Night Devil. It's a coin — and the System says that it'll let me request a direction for the tree roots that connect all these platforms to go."

Letters shimmered through the air before Alex as she spoke.

Cracked Coin (Epic) — Consumable

Upon Destruction: Request a path through the Cracked Steps in the direction of a desired target. The path will lead toward the platform in the way of the existence most closely matching the request.

This item will create more efficient pathways and span farther distances the more times an item with its name is used by the same existence. Defeating another existence within the Cracked Steps will reward one Cracked Coin.

Alex blinked. "Well, shit. That's pretty sweet. It's like a google search. A really murderous one. We'll have to test that out the next time we come here. If we start using it now, I don't think we're getting back home anytime soon."

Claire returned the coin to her pocket. "Yeah. Next time. But there's still one more thing I want to do before we leave the Cracked Steps and head back to the Mirrorlands. I think this platform should be safe for the time being… and I don't want to delay this any longer. I finally have all three of my Aspect Gems."

Realization washed over Alex and he grinned. "You mean—"

"Yeah. Watch over me for a bit," Claire nodded as excited determination cut across her features. "I'm going to unlock my domain. Any pieces of advice?"

"About damn time," Alex said with a grin. "And yeah, I've got one."

"What is it?"

"Pick a good name."