<Hidden parameters fulfilled. A new Ordinator branch can now be accessed.>

Something from the ripple activated the parameters.

I nearly focused on it before realizing that the last time I’d done so—for the conjuration branch—it resulted in a sprawling multiple choice that took a considerable amount of time to sift through. With no immediate conflicts and the rest of my team lounging beachside, it was tempting. I put it off, not wanting to rush advancement while I was still off-balance. Instead, I fished around in my inventory for the artifact.

And found nothing.

I summoned a health potion to ensure my inventory hadn’t failed, then tried to withdraw the ring again.

Nothing.

Panicked, I checked my pockets, the small, mostly unused pouches on the <Operator’s Belt>, anywhere I could have accidentally stuffed it in the heat of the moment and found nothing. I was double-checking everything, a hair’s breadth from dumping out the entirety of my inventory onto the elevator, when I felt a slight pressure on one of my fingers. Something unfamiliar.

I removed my gauntlet. And swallowed.

There, crowning my third finger, was a simple band of silver metal. There was only one explanation. A ring I was utterly sure I’d placed in my inventory had somehow equipped itself.

Despite that, it pulled free easily. Cradled in the center of my palm, its weight was so light it felt like I wasn’t holding anything at all.

<Artifact: The Devil’s Share>

<Item Description: This seemingly innocuous ring is a source of untold power for any mage or ability-dependent User. While worn, the User may cast any appropriately mastered ability reflexively. Spells and abilities cast reflexively cost far less mana to use and may be invoked in a fraction of the time.>

<System Warning: Contingently bound item. After five uses, this item binds to the User.>

<Uses remaining: 2/5>

Insidious.

Over every other adjective rolling through my head—unbalanced, broken, overpowered, game-changer—the word insidious screamed inside my mind like a signal flare.

The concept of a bound item was alarming enough. I’d heard enough horror stories about cursed weapons and items in fiction to balk at the idea of an item that bound to my person. At best, it would forever take up a potential item slot and become literally irreplaceable. At worst—

Well, that wasn’t a small list.

I stepped off the elevator with barely enough foresight to check that no one from my Order team was nearby. There was an abnormally high number of people in line for the elevator, all of whom were in considerably lower spirits than earlier. News of the chaos in the lobby had probably reached this floor by now, so they either planned to gawk or get clear of the Tower in fear the elevators might shut down.

After giving the crowd one last scan to ensure none of my team was present, I retreated into the floor, away from the elevator and toward the ripple.

My scattered thoughts returned to the ring. Specifically, its name. The Devil’s Share. Its accompanying system text claimed it required two additional uses to bind. At first that seemed like an error, or perhaps a holdover from a previous user. If someone had it before me, maybe they’d used it a handful of times before throwing it away.

That felt wrong.

I worked my way backward, reviewing every event that followed the system awarding me the artifact. Shortly after I received it, I’d thought Ellison had died. Rationally, that made little sense—even less so now that I had some distance from it. He sounded like he’d been doing this for a long time, and therefore it stood to reason that a person in his position was capable of affecting large-scale change. Whatever impact saving both Miles and myself might have, we wouldn’t cast a shadow to the sort of paradigm shifts Ellison could achieve over a loop. Throwing all that potential away to save two Users was more than sloppy; it was downright stupid. Stupid in a mewling, sentimental way that was entirely out of character for my brother, even before the dome.

Still, I wasn’t thinking rationally. Emotion took over, and I’d obliterated two stone coffins with nothing more than my fist.

How?

I pulled off my other gauntlet and flexed my fingers out, inspecting my knuckles for damage. They were pristine.

Did I cast <Probability Cascade> without even realizing it? I looked inward and found that my stores were regenerating at their normal pace, bordering on half. The last fringes of a headache still plied at my temples. When I broke the coffins my mana was low, bordering on depleted. A normal cast could have easily blacked me out.

If I had cast reflexively, the comparative drain was almost nothing.

But it was the ease with which I’d used it that chilled me. I reviewed the moment again and again, trying to find some element I was missing. Some mental prompt or ideation that the ring translated as a desire to use the ability. The closest I found was that I hadn’t tried to strike the surface of the coffin. I’d tried to strike through it.

The same thing happened with Miles. I hadn’t even considered using <Suggestion> to persuade him, because as opposed as we were, that was thoroughly outside the rules I’d set for myself, but the mental pushback slammed against me as if I had.

Was that all it took? Desire?

I fought the urge to throw the artifact as far as I could.

If my theory was right, the mere existence of intrusive thoughts made the ring a do-not-fuck-with proposition of the highest order. Sure, in a general sense it let you punch far above your weight class and chuck significantly more fireballs before you needed to rest. But what about later, when there was no threat, and some entitled asshole cut the dinner line in front of you?

Like duct taping a loaded firearm with a hair-trigger to the hands of someone with no concept of gun safety.

And if a normal mage lost control, started attacking neutral parties and allies, that specific situation would inevitably equalize itself. The guy obviously raining down magic indiscriminately eventually gets clipped. Natural order. But if an Ordinator lost control?

No. I needed to get rid of it.

But…

The Crimson Nosferatu’s harrowing visage appeared in my mind, along with the heart-stopping power it radiated. I’d managed getting Miles clear and even landed a parting shot, but I hadn’t been able to do anything to help with the heavy lifting. Not really.

Considering that Ellison had gone through this so many times he’d lost count? The casual manner with which he’d made preparations, all the while bringing me up to speed? The Nosferatu probably didn’t even rank all that high on his list of priorities. Things were going to get worse. Like the events that led to the <Allfather’s Mask>, it all came down to the same sobering equation. The prisoner’s dilemma. Any power I left on the table was power someone else would take. Either directly—finding the ring, putting it on—or indirectly, by gaining a similarly powerful artifact while I surrendered mine. And Ellison made sure it had ended up with me, instead of Miles.

I wavered.

There was no point in using it if it crippled me, but there was only one way to get definitive confirmation that it would.

My breath grew shallow as I pulled up the ring’s description, magnified the text so that <Uses Remaining: 2/5> overlayed a large swath of my vision, fully prepared to rip it off the second the number decreased.

Nothing happened.

More testing was in order. I went a little deeper into the forest, parallel to the line for the elevator. Not so far that I couldn’t make them out, but far enough that they’d have a difficult time spotting me, and dialed the mask up to full power. This test was hardly scientific. Hell, I couldn’t even repeat it. If uses remaining decreased, I’d look for the closest thing to Mordor. But if it didn’t? If I could keep the intrusive thoughts in line through discipline and self-control, and be reasonably sure I could use the ring safely?

The possibilities were limitless.