Miles’ eyes bore into me. It wasn’t like during the panel with the Feds, where he was already doubting himself and willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. If he caught a single inkling of deceit, there was no question. He was gone.

I continued. “I’m not sure how they knew, but I suspect it has something to do with their patron.”

“Hastur,” Miles filled in.

“They didn’t really pass the sniff test, even that early on. Watched them steamroll a bounty like it was nothing. My abilities were far more limited back then, and given the more understated, slow-burn nature of my class, my first instinct was to avoid large groups. At least until I got a better handle on where this was all going.”

“And they really formed that fast?” Miles prompted.

I nodded. “Within a day of the dome, maybe less. I’d put money on it. Nobody mobilizes that quickly unless they have an outside line—again, divine interference. So, they court me, I’m unsure, they get a little more aggressive than I’m comfortable with, which ends with me getting the hell out. For a little while, it’s radio silence. I fall in with Kinsley and the nascent Merchants’ Guild by chance. Matt tells me his friend has a lead on some special dungeon—”

“The trial,” Miles said.

“And while I don’t feel completely comfortable with the idea, one of them caught my eye. Some girl that went to school with them. Jinny.”

Miles scoffed.

I waved the scorn away. “Not like it sounds. Not exactly. Might be the only thing you got right in the profile. She had a title that granted her significantly more stat and feat points with every level. As a mage she was already strong then, but over time?”

“Yeah.” Miles nodded slowly. “Would have been a monster by now.”

I grunted confirmation. “Only the Order shows up, waiting for me outside the trial. From their perspective, it looks like I’ve rejected them wholesale and formed my own group—and I already have enough experience with them to guess how they’ll handle that.”

“Not well.”

He’s still working you. <Jaded Eye’s> commentary nearly threw me off. I grimaced. Even if I was editorializing somewhat, it was still difficult enough to recount the events without interference. But it didn’t matter if Miles didn’t fully believe me, all I needed to do was to create a wedge of doubt.

“Tried to play it off like I’d been doing them a favor. Scouting. Figured if I could get the Order to spare them, that was a better alternative to catching them in my collateral, and eventually, I could get them out. Nick and Sae weren’t much to write home about, but Jinny was one hell of a sweetener. I…” I trailed off, swallowed. “I betrayed her trust and revealed her title. Figured that would clinch it.”

“Only it didn’t go that way,” Miles said.

“Jinny didn’t take it well. To be clear, it wasn’t her fault—if there was anyone to blame, it was me. But… she took a shot at me, then they took a shot at her. Their aim was better. She bled out in seconds and everything went to hell. Sae panicked and ran back into the ripple, they captured Nick—”

“Why?” Miles asked pointedly. “You just said he was nothing to write home about, why would they take on deadweight?”

“The Court,” I answered reluctantly. Originally, I’d meant to bring up the Court and keep Nick out of the spotlight, but Miles was too sharp not to pick up on the inconsistency. “I’m still working on figuring out the details, but it’s one of the Order’s side projects. There are Users with hierarchical classes similar to a historical monarchy. Barons, Kings, Queens, Knights, and they seem dead set on collecting them. Whatever the overarching purpose, Nick’s a Court Knight. So they bagged him.”

“Sounds like they weren’t just there for you,” Miles observed. His accusation was so subtle it almost flew under the radar.

I gritted my teeth and pressed on. “I didn’t react well. To Jinny’s death, or the way they put innocent people in the crosshairs to strong-arm me into joining them. It felt wrong to just give in. Like they’d have too much leverage and I’d be stuck doing their bidding. I used my abilities to disappear, which wasn’t hard. The Transposition started shortly after and, as you know, all hell broke loose. Tried to help the Merchants’ Guild with their region, and you already know how that went.”

“Get to the Necromancer,” Miles growled. He felt like we were running out of time.

“There were two reasons I spared him. One personal, one broad. I’ll start with the second. I’d just gotten back from Region 6, and I was in shock. Not to mention angry as hell, only to find out that someone was picking off our people and they probably had an excess of Lux. Made sense to kill two birds with one stone. I imagine you went for the same reason. But when we got there, I recognized it as an Order operation. Everything else was more or less on the level—I wasn’t even sure what I was going to do until I found the Necromancer.”

Miles groaned and pressed a hand to his forehead. He’d already guessed where this was going.

I finished it anyway. “He wasn’t… what I expected. Not at all. There was no maniacal laughing or gleeful hand rubbing. He was just some guy, trying to level up his abilities and eventually bring his daughter back to life. The Order was effectively holding him hostage—which sure, might have been bullshit, but I didn’t get the sense he was lying, and for the Order, the hostage tactic was completely on brand. Considering the sheer volume of cores I gathered from Region 6, everything fell in place after that. Join the Order with the cores as collateral and simultaneously work to undercut them and prevent the wholesale slaughter of Users. It all just sort of clicked into place.”

“And the second reason?” Miles asked.

I slowly reached back and withdrew Jinny’s core, holding it out in the palm of my hand.

“Ah,” Miles said. Then the look on his face grew so frigid I caught a chill. “Must be nice. Getting the chance to bring a friend back.”

I swallowed. “I talked to him—the kid—before we saved you. And for someone so concerned about the good of the people, you really ought to look into what Waller was doing in his free time.”

A shadow of doubt crossed Mile’s expression, and I whispered a silent thanks to Ellison.

The elevator arrived on the fourth floor. The floor comprised a sprawling autumn forest, and leaves crunched under our feet as we walked towardsthe spot Kinsley mentioned. Miles was utterly silent as he absorbed what I’d told him. It’d be a lot for someone who didn’t have skin in the game, and Miles had more than most.

“Look,” Miles finally said. “Let’s say I believe you. In that case, your goals are good. Noble, even. If it’s anything like the first, stopping the second Transposition event could save countless lives, and any intel we can glean on a potential war between these asshat patrons of ours gives us options we’d otherwise lack. And the judgment call to leave the Order intact while ousting their leadership can’t have been easy, considering your history.”

“It wasn’t,” I said darkly.

Miles shook his head. “Still. This game you’re playing at? I’ve played it for real. Hell, I was a natural. Sometimes I even enjoyed it. And I still wouldn’t go back for all the money in the world. Undercover work takes a different sort of toll. It’s a meat grinder. A lot of good cops go in, and nearly half as many broken train wrecks come out. And that’s discounting the casualties who die or start playing for the other side, which isn’t a small number. They’re all thoroughly informed on the risks. You wanna know why they still sign up?”

I nodded.

“Hubris. They all think they’re the exception. That they have what it takes to end up on the good side of the coin flip. In the end, a coin flip’s exactly that. Each and every one of them is trained to the nines, evaluated, has a handler, a support team, and enough backup to turn over the whole goddamn city if they go missing. All resources you lack. And they weren’t dealing with gods, or powers, or some skin-and-bones asshole putting enough heat on their cover to melt tungsten. I don’t mean to take away from what you’ve accomplished. But you’ve already made a lot of mistakes.”

“Like?”

He studied me. “Sure. I’ll give you one. What was your plan, if you let mister-just-trying-to-resurrect-his-daughter-go and the Order decided you weren’t worth the trouble?”

“I—”

“Did you even create a contingency to take that Necromancer off the board if the Order told you and your cores to shove off?”

“There wasn’t time,” I protested, despite myself.

“Too bad. Because if he was their only Necromancer and your plan fell through, you gave up an opportunity to take a mass murderer out of play for nothing. And that little horror show they put on during the Transposition would have repeated itself. Only the next time, they’d be smarter about it.”

I stopped in place as Miles continued onward, heat crawling up my neck. But I wasn’t angry because he was being unfair, or that he’d said anything incorrect.

I was angry because he was right.

Miles called behind him. “If even a fraction of this yarn you’ve spun checks out, you’ve earned a cease fire. But you’re in this up to your neck, and the water’s rising. Call it and come in with me before you drown.”

The situation with Vernon was more complicated than I’d let on. I couldn’t end him in good conscience, considering his relation to Kinsley. But he owed me his life. I probably could have coordinated a contingency to meet with Vernon if the worst happened. The Order was squelching his communications, but if I was clever enough, it was possible to bait him out. And all I’d need to do to neutralize his future body count was engineer a situation where I could talk to him long enough to tell him the truth: his daughter was alive.

But I’d assumed success and ignored the gamble.

A blue glow caught my eye. Kinsley’s door appeared in the trunk of a large tree.

“Yes, I’ve made mistakes. Yes, there are things I could have done better. But I can’t just throw it all away.”

“Your funeral.” Miles reached for the knob and didn’t bother looking back.

I set my teeth. “Anyone who kills me gets an all-expenses paid ticket out of the dome. And while I can’t say what goes into clearing that bounty on your head, I’m guessing you’ll have your hands full for a while. You really think you can protect me from every goddamn User in Dallas and deal with that at the same time?”

Miles hesitated.

“So, teach me.”

Miles stopped. Turned and gave me an are-you-fucking-serious look.

I crossed my arms. “You said it yourself. You’re a natural.”

“No.”

“Cards on the table. With you as my handler—”

“No.”

“—I’d have the oversight I’m lacking, and everything I uncover goes to you first, in regular, organized reports.”

“For fuck’s sake, how many times do I have to say it,” Miles snapped. When I said nothing, he boiled over. “You’re completely untrained, compulsive, and what’s more, I’m pretty sure you enjoy this shit, all of which makes you exactly the wrong sort of person for the job, not to mention I literally shot you less than two hours ago—”

“—it didn’t take—”

“And most important, I don’t fucking trust you.”

“Trust has to start somewhere,” I said quietly.

“Then drop the goddamn magic and show me your real fucking face,” he growled.

A long silence stretched between us. Unfamiliar birds flitted from tree to tree, chirping out odd cadences. A cool chill ruffled our clothing. There was an uncanny feeling of an impasse, an insurmountable obstacle. Miles couldn’t justify working with me until he had some sort of leverage. And I couldn’t take the mask off until I knew, unequivocally, that we were on the same side. Too many people knew as it was, and even if that wasn’t the case, Miles wasn’t the sort of person I could gamble on.

“Need to get going and figure out how to deal with this bounty,” Miles finally said.

“Yeah.”

Disappointment washed over me. For a moment, I’d seen a different future. One where Miles and I were allies, not just enemies working towards the same goal.

“Guessing it’ll be a tremendous pain in the ass.”

“Could have just shot me with an arrow.”

He rolled his eyes. “We both know how that would have gone.”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

It was as good of a time as any for Miles to leave. But he didn’t. Instead he seemed distracted, troubled. “After that, I’ll poke around. See if that Waller comment holds any weight.”

I held my breath.

“If it does…” Miles sighed. “We’ll meet in Kinsley’s sanctuary. That’s probably the closest we’re going to get to neutral ground.”

With that, he was gone.

I took a minute to absorb the victory. It wasn’t ironclad, and I wasn’t willing to discount the possibility that Miles was acting his ass off and working an angle. But, for maybe the first time, I didn’t get that impression. His advice to me, and his warning, had both felt genuine.

Only time would tell.

For now, I needed to level, look over the artifact Ellison apparently wanted me to have. And finally, square things with Nick.