“You’re sure you don’t want me to come in with you?” Halima asked for what was probably the third time.

We backtracked to the creek, just outside of the ripple. The frayed end of the rope was still hanging, abandoned, from the tree, a persisting reminder of how close we’d come. I’d waved Halima over and was doing my best not to squint at the bright-orange aura that surrounded her.

An idea struck me. “Look, let’s just be real for a minute. Your fixation on Nick is only partly professional. There’s a personal aspect, right?”

Halima froze in her tracks like a deer caught in the headlights. “… No.”

Naturally.

“There’s no shame in it. He’s a likable guy.”

Everyone liked Nick, Sae herself the only one in recent memory who deviated from that norm.

Halima shook her head, much more vehement this time. “No. I appreciate his leadership style and his strength. Anything else would be untoward.”

“Okay, well, if you felt that way, I’d probably rest easier.”

“What? Why?”

“How do you think he’s doing right now?” I asked.

This was partly a test to see how perceptive Halima was. I knew he wasn’t great—no one would be, after what he’d gone through—but I didn’t realize how badly off he was until I took Azure’s form and viewed Nick through his shade sight. Halima considered the question for a while, which was a good sign. There was no knee-jerk response filtered through rose-tinted glasses. The muscles in her forearm flexed as she gripped something in her pocket tightly.

“Fucking awful,” she finally said, words coming out in a stream. “And what’s worse, he’s hiding it. Normally if he’s discouraged, or worried, he tells us. Let’s us know what’s happening in his head. But he’s trying to play it off like he’s fine—which he’s clearly not. Which makes this the first time I’ve had to worry he might do something stupid.”

Spot fucking on.

“You have good instincts.” I watched, curious, as some of the orange tinting that surrounded her shaded closer to yellow. Was she doubting herself that much? “Which is why I need you out here. I like Keith. Think he has a lot of potential. But you’re more tuned into Nick.”

Halima’s mouth firmed. “What do you need me to do?”

I pointed to a wide patch of shrubbery next to the stream and ripple. “If I find anything decent in there, I’ll leave it here so it doesn’t overload my inventory. It’s a two-minute trek from here to the beach. Check it from time to time. That’s our excuse for me bringing you out here and sending you back. In reality, I need you to monitor Nick. Don’t tip him off, or try to get a reaction out of him to gauge his state of mind. Just keep watch from a distance. Message me as soon as you feel like something might go wrong.”

Halima absorbed the words, then her eyes flicked toward me. “Why do you care?”

“How many decent people do you know in the Order?”

“A few. But you’re right that most of the high levels are… unpleasant.”

“And how many of those decent people are tanks?” I asked.

“Ah.” Halima’s eyebrows furrowed. “Just him.”

“Exactly. I’ll take a mid-level tank I can trust over a high-level I can’t any day of the fucking week.” I waited for her reaction, hoping she’d buy the deflection onto roles. From the thoughtful expression, it looked like she bit.

“Okay. I can do that. Thank you, Myrddin.”

Don’t thank me yet.

I turned toward the ripple, putting my back to her and waved.

“What Sybil said…” Halima called after me.

I stopped.

“I won’t spread it around,” she said, “You’re not what I expected. Not at all.”

Not knowing how to respond to that, I nodded. Then entered the ripple.

I waited for two minutes, pacing until Azure informed me she was gone. I took the mask off and tossed it up through the ripple.

Then I snapped back into my body, caught the mask, and started running.

* * *

My agility put in work.

I sprinted to the elevator without stopping, where a small group of Users were waiting to take it down, and took my place in the middle of them. In the meantime, I dialed the mask’s power up to a hundred. Our plan was simple. Azure would attempt to find something—anything within the ripple, and collect more planners—while I rushed to floor twenty-eight and looked for a way to pull Miles’ ass out of the fire.

We might lose tether before that happened—there hadn’t been an opportunity to test how the tether reacted to vertical distance in the real world, and even then, the information wouldn’t have been all that useful.

The realms of Flauros rarely worked the same way. It was possible that we’d maintain connection the entire time, or be severed as soon as I took the elevator down. But Halima was so focused on Nick, I doubted she would care if “I” left nothing at the drop spot for her, as long as I returned with something to show for it. It would just strengthen my alibi if Azure could pull it off.

And with the entire tower being a realm of Flauros, I could re-summon Azure whenever I wanted without worrying about his… rather explosive entrance.

The real danger would come from the lobby. By now, anyone who showed as backup would wait there, and many of the Feds and members of the Adventurers’ Guild had already encountered me once. Which meant relying on the mask could be a lethal mistake.

I took a breath, cataloged my resources.

There were about twenty people on the elevator down. Most of them were riding bareback, armor with no helmet. There were exactly three exceptions.

Big suited-armor guy with a lance—no go. And why the hell did he have a lance?

Short person with a sword and shield—possible, but not ideal.

The last was a mid-height rogue with a leather hood up, wearing a leather tabard. She read as female, but only because I was standing this close, and I could vaguely catch a hint of strawberry coming from her lip gloss.

Note to self. Increased perception has the potential to vastly increase your creep factor.

I mapped out the lobby floor in my head and started working out a basic plan. Once I had the bones, I reached out with <Suggestion>.

“Hey, asshole. Why are you using a lance?”

Lance-guy stiffened and tilted to look at the ridiculously enormous weapon that pointed straight up, towering above the rest of the group. With the helmet on I couldn’t analyze his facial reaction, but his body-language spoke volumes.

Good. He wasn’t a weird dual spec build with high int and I was getting through, and he wasn’t dumb enough to not doubt his weapon of choice.

I focused on his mind and got a flash of something unexpected.

Huh.

I could work with that.

“Monster Hunter. Bet you think you’re a badass, using the least popular weapon in the game, but let’s be honest, you waited until World, the most popular entry in the series, to jump in. And I bet you haven’t even touched Rise, let alone Sunbreak.”

Total cold read, but a statistically probable one. Monster Hunter World was a breakout hit, selling more copies than most of the previous entries combined.

And from the way Lance-guy drooped, I nearly pumped my fist.

“Let’s be real. You know it’s not working. This isn’t a fucking game. Real lances are made for horseback use and are fucking fragile. The only reason it hasn’t broken is because you’ve been using it to bully mandrakes in the dirt. But look at how worn the tip is, just from that. You keep this up and you’re gonna get yourself killed.”

Lance-guy didn’t bother to look, because he already knew. Instead, he slowly placed the lance back in his inventory, radiating shame.

“So you’re not a real gamer. What the fuck even is a ‘real gamer’ anyway. You play what’s popular, and that’s okay. The only people who would judge you for that are elitist pricks too caught up on glory days of the past that they forget how fucking janky things were back when actual dinosaurs roamed the earth. And sure, it’s a game, but there’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from the things you love. So why limit yourself to the poke-stick?”

Lance-guy cocked his head.

I caught a flash of a comically long katana.

“Come on, man. Have some standards.”

Another flash. This time a towering sword, thick and long.

“Ah. Greatsword. With your physique, that’s a solid choice. And you know who has swords like that? The shop at the front. Bet they’d let you hold them, see how they feel.”

Lance-guy straightened, radiating determination, just as the elevator cleared the shaft, giving us a view of the lobby above. It was still packed, but the feeling was totally different. Instead of the relaxed borderline-party atmosphere from before, people were looking over their shoulders, whispering. I spotted several Feds in the crowd and a few familiar Users I placed in the Adventurers’ Guild.

Many were spread out, but there were several standing off to the sides of the elevator.

Perfect.

Shielding most of my body from view behind Lance-guy, I reached out to the Users from the Adventurers’ Guild below and emblazoned an image in their minds. Not all of them were susceptible to <Suggestion>. They didn’t need to be.

The stage was set.