“You’re the one that took the blueprint?” Alex exclaimed, his eyes affixed on the slate in Claire’s hand.

“Who else would have?” Claire asked, arching an eyebrow.

Now that she mentioned it, Alex did suppose it would have been pretty odd for just about anyone other than him or Claire to have selected something specifically for a town. He and Claire were technically the only ones with stake in the game.

“I thought ‘bout it, actually,” Wess said, raising a hand. “Figured I could sell it back to you for a pretty penny. But I decided that might not be best for my continued employment. You’re welcome.”

“Thank you,” Alex said dryly. His eyes didn’t leave the slate in Claire’s hands. “That must have been pretty expensive.”

“It was,” Claire said with a shrug. “But I had enough points to work with. I wasn’t too worried.”

“How?” Alyssa asked. “Didn’t you pretty much have the same as the rest of us?”

“Shawn was willing to bargain if you were able to sell him anything worthwhile, particularly with regard to information,” Alex said. “And it seems Claire came well equipped.”

“You knew enough that you were able to sell significant amounts of information to Shawn?” Wess asked. He adjusted his hat, then sent an impressed glance in Claire’s direction. “That couldn’t have been easy. What in the world did you tell him?”

“Nothing you’re finding out without an equivalent contribution,” Claire replied with a wry grin. “Care to share what the rest of you got?”

“Depends. Am I going to have to give it up?” Wess asked. “Because I’ve never been one for the touchy-feely friendship stuff. Keep your grubbers off my loot. I earned it.”

“We’re not taking your stuff,” Alex said. “But it would probably be nice to figure out what everyone got so we know what we’ve all got to work with. It’s not really asking for all that much.”

Wess grunted. “I took the weapon. It was a Soul Weapon. After the whole thing in the Ancestry with the monster that didn’t take damage from non-soul attacks, that was practically a shoe-in. Though it isn’t the whole weapon. More like pieces for one. I think I can use them to modify my Soul Manifestation and upgrade my Domain.”

“You can do that? Upgrade your domain like a literal gun?”

“The world’s gone to hell and back,” Wess replied with a snort. “I’m of the mind that you can do pretty much whatever the hell you want to. And my manifestation is a gun. It only stands to reason that the parts can be replaced or improved.”

“I… suppose that makes sense,” Alex admitted. He scratched the back of his head. He’d never thought about physically modifying a Soul Manifestation by replacing literal parts of it. But with all the other ludicrous bullshit that was possible under the System, Wess’ suggestion really wasn’t that unbelievable.

“I took the technique,” Alyssa said. “It’s a method to modify a Visualization that lets you bond your soul with an item, basically transforming it into an extension of yourself.”

She glanced over at the massive brush lying on the ground beside her. It wasn’t too hard to tell why Alyssa had gone with something like that. Alex was honestly a little more interested in the fact that there were ways to continue modifying or improving Visualizations than he was in the specifics of how Alyssa’s worked.

“And I took this thing. The accessory.” Derek scratched at his neck. There was a chain of thick metal links encircling it that Alex hadn’t noticed before.

“Whoa. You start shopping at Hot Topic recently?” Wess asked.

“I don’t know what that is,” Derek said. “I like it.”

“What does it do?” Alyssa asked.

Derek’s brow furrowed. “Do?”

“Well, yeah. The item,” Alyssa said. “Does it do something?”

“It’s a necklace,” Derek said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He seemed genuinely baffled that anyone would ask him such a question. “You wear it. Well, not you. You can’t wear it because I’m wearing it. But I wear it.”

They all stared at Derek for a moment.

“Right,” Alyssa said. “I see. It’s a nice necklace.”

“Thank you,” Derek said. “I know.”

“How much was that thing?” Wess asked. “Just curious, you know?”

“Shawn gave it to me for free,” Derek replied. “Because I spent all my points on the Ancestry.”

Alex and Claire exchanged a surprised glance. Shawn hadn’t seemed like the kind of person that went around giving things out for free. Perhaps things were different because Derek had been chosen as Shawn’s successor. Still, a free item felt a little bit out of character.

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“What about you?” Wess asked as his gaze moved to Alex. “What did you get?”

“Information,” Alex replied. “And the Black Plague in a bottle.”

“You bought the Black Plague?” Alyssa asked, aghast. “Is that a joke?”

“No,” Alex said. “It’s an understatement.”

“Can I see it?” Wess asked.

“No,” Alex said.

“Fair enough,” Wess said. “Doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you should really be swinging around. Can I ask why you bought something like that?”

“Felt like it might be useful at some point.” Alex shrugged one shoulder. “Are you telling me you wouldn’t want to be sitting on an emergency nuclear weapon if the situation arose where it might come in handy?”

“I’m not sure if a nuke is more or less destructive than the Black Plague under the eyes of the System, and I don’t think I want to know,” Alyssa muttered. “I can’t believe you spent all your points on that.”

“I didn’t. I also bought plants,” Alex said.

And information about the Empty Court. But we don’t need to go into that here. I want to talk privately with Claire before we go revealing any information of that degree.

“Oh!” Derek exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. “Perfect! I’m starving!”

“Not to eat,” Alex said. “They’re for the garden in my town. So we can start cultivating some good resources.”

“Oh,” Derek said. His face fell. “Okay.”

The large man looked so sad that Alex almost felt bad enough to offer him some of the seeds that Shawn had given him.

“Don’t worry,” Claire said. “There’s other food in Mirrorwane. And, speaking of which, we should really go check on the rest of the town and get up to speed with everything before we get any more comfortable. There will be time to have further discussion on the Ancestry later.”

Everyone slowly rose to their feet. The effects of whatever magic Shawn had used to teleport them all had finally worn off. Alex still wasn’t sure how the trip had somehow been more disorientating than trips between the Mirrorlands and 274-50.

Maybe it’s because Riftwalk somehow makes it easier for me? Claire basically lost all her energy when we first went to and from the Mirrorlands, but as she’s gotten stronger, it seems like the shifts between planes don’t affect her nearly as much.

“So is your whole town made out of bones?” Wess asked as they congregated around the entrance of the Teleporter.

Alex stepped out. Sharp daylight sliced into his eyes and he winced, squinting and raising a hand to try and give himself a moment to adjust. It had been literal days since he’d seen the actual sun.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Alyssa said as she and Wess followed after Alex. “There’s no way that…”

And then she trailed off.

Mirrorwane’s massive walls rose all around them. The eyes covering the huge mounds of bone shifted and twitched, many of them flicking down to stare at them before returning to their lazy patrol of the skies above.

“Gross,” Wess said.

Derek stepped out behind them. Then he let out a whistle. “Whoa.”

Alex barely even noticed the walls. All that mattered was that they still stood. The town was still here. But more than that. It hadn’t sat around and languished in the week that he and Claire had been in the ancestry. The small town was much cleaner than the last time he had seen it. All the debris had been cleared out and the lodgings had clearly been worked on.

Relief welled in Alex’s stomach.

Townsfolk milled all about, all of them armed with a varying degree of weaponry. The people looked… harder. The softness that had been present in many of the Nativeworlder members of Mirrorwane was no longer there. They’d been busy.

And standing directly in front of the teleporter were Mite and Rhyss.

“See?” Mite exclaimed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “I told you they’d be back!”

“You did not,” Rhyss said. The Advisor’s lone eye narrowed. “As a matter of fact, I do believe that you proclaimed the exact op—”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Mite said hurriedly. He strode over to Alex and the others, a huge grin splitting his lips. “Welcome back! We didn’t want to barge in there since it sounded like you were talking. How’d the Ancestry go?”

“Well enough,” Alex said noncommittally, but he couldn’t’ keep a smile from spreading over his own features. His town was still here. And better than that. It had grown in his absence.

This was just the start. With the plants and building blueprints that he and Claire had brought back, they had another large upgrade waiting for them. That wasn’t even counting how they’d probably more than doubled their fighting strength by adding Derek, Wess, and Alyssa to their forces.

“Well enough?” Rhyss asked. “I sense a Mythic Blueprint in your possession. That is not a minor reward.”

“I think we won,” Derek said. “I got the Legacy.”

“Holy shit,” Mite exclaimed, his eyes going wide as saucers. “You got the Legacy? The cool thing at the end that Rhyss was talking about? What does it do?”

“Stem the questions for now,” Claire said with a small smile. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We need to hear updates on the town. How are things standing? All our protection from the System is gone. Have there been issues?”

“There are always issues,” Rhyss replied. “But nothing outstanding or pressing. Everything is moving along very well. The training in the Mirrorlands has accelerated the growth of our warriors beyond speeds that even I could have predicted. It is… impressive.”

“Yeah.” Mite nodded empathetically. “And I’ve got a bunch of stuff I want to build. You gotta give me more money, man. I have art to make. Nice outfit, by the way. Did it work?”

“We’ll see,” Alex said with a laugh. “And yes, I’d say it worked. I may have pissed off a few Outworlder families in there. Maybe more than a few.”

“Again?” Mite asked.

“You’ve done it before?” Wess asked.

“He blew up a Hub City with a giant Void monster,” Mite provided.

Wess’ gaze turned to Alex. He raised his hands.

“Look. He’s skipping out on semantics. It wasn’t technically my fault. I mean, it was. But I didn’t mean to. Not entirely. And I didn’t know what would happen. It just… happened.”

“Huh,” Wess said. “Neat.”

“Neat?” Alyssa asked, pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head. “Really? That’s your response?”

“What do you want me to say? Being sad isn’t going to bring the town back. I’m a little more concerned with making sure that doesn’t happen to this town, given my newfound allegiance.”

“For now, why don’t you give us a rundown of what we’ve missed?” Alex asked, looking to Mite and Rhyss. His smile widened. “We’ve just lifted quite a sizable chunk of resources out from under the noses of the Outworlders. They’re not going to be happy… and we’re going to be all the stronger for it. I think the fun is just getting started.”