“You’re walking back?” Yaseb asked. “Why?”

“I'm not saying,” Daniel sharply responded.

Yaseb’s face scrunched up in confusion, “I’m sorry sir, but was there something wrong with the portal?”

“It's above your paygrade Yaseb, just drop it and lead me to the monsters so I can get this over with,” Daniel snapped.

“Very well, Sir,” Yaseb nodded slowly, before leading Daniel out the room, periodically sending him concerned glances.

‘What in the hell did I just hear,’ Daniel’s mind raced to find an answer to that question. ‘If what Yaseb said was true, then that was probably the work of one of the gods they worship, but I heard multiple voices up until the very end there.’

Daniel continued to idly follow Yaseb as he thought over what it all meant. The voices had implied that the Blood Moon was coming soon, or at least he thought that’s what they'd meant. The poem had been vaguer than he’d have liked, but moving past all of that the final voice had asked him to help their friend.

‘Logically speaking, if whoever they are chose to send that message to me specifically, then the options for who they’re talking about are limited,’ Daniel reasoned.

‘Though Id've preferred they just say who they were talking about,’ Daniel internally complained.

They were either talking about Anton, Alexander or the Blood Goddess herself. They were the only people he was associated with that were powerful enough to warrant that kind of attention. Either way there wasn’t much he could do to help any of them at the moment, and if they were talking about the Blood Goddess then he wasn't exactly inclined to help. He just needed to focus on the here and now and keep their warnings in mind.

“-and over here is where we breed the drita,” Daniel heard Yaseb say as he tuned back into the conversation.

Through a glass window that shimmered with runes Daniel could see thousands of four legged, black furred creatures about the size of hamsters scuttling across the ground. They had a ratlike appearance, and each sported scorpion-like stingers that sprouted from their lower back.

“Are these things safe to breed like this?” Daniel asked, watching as a more aggressive drita stabbed another with its stinger.

Yaseb made a so-so motion with his hand, “Safe is a subjective term. Without any good cards they aren't very dangerous. They can swarm, and their stingers have a mild paralyzing effect, but other than that they are relatively safe to handle. And if one of them gains a card that lets them breach containment, we have contingencies in place to ensure that they are recaptured posthaste.”

Daniel nodded, watching as they swarmed over one another in the enclosure, like a wave of black and bronze stingers.

“But there’s always a risk that one of them gains a legendary card and causes more trouble than we can handle. That’s another reason we have the portal. So if we need to abandon the facility we can. Though in the thirty years that this facility has been active we haven’t had to abandon it once because of a breach. Not every legendary is suitable for combat, as I’m sure you know, and few are ever able to leverage them to escape containment.”

“Sounds like you’ve been lucky then,” Daniel noted as he continued to walk down the corridor.

'Or there just to stupid to use their cards effectively,' Daniel thought.

“Yes, we have, and I thank the gods for each day we continue to be so lucky,” Yaseb said, opening a heavy metal door for Daniel that's handle only appeared once he touched its surface.

The room Yaseb led Daniel into resembled a warehouse more than it did a breeding facility, with shelves that reached high up towards the ceiling containing hundreds of heavy wooden crates.

On the ground not too far away from the duo was a large stack of stone-like bricks, just like Daniel had had Pavel request.

Daniel picked up a brick of the rough white material and found it to be just as light as he’d read. It was the same material that the exterior wall of the city was made of, and from what he'd read it'd been extremely durable even before it'd been covered in runes. It’d serve his purposes perfectly.

“Over here is where you can kill the Drita,” Yaseb said, gesturing towards a panel on the wall. “Just place your hand on it and rotate and a single Drita will be killed.”

Daniel nodded to Yaseb, glancing at the panel on the wall and quickly rereading Mimics of Stone.

Mimics of Stone

Rare

Summoning

The user of this card can imbue the souls of creature’s they kill into pieces of stone. This will animate the stone, which will then follow the orders of the user.

Size and weight of the stone is relative to the strength of the stone used.

“Will I be able to access their souls if I kill them like this? It feels a little indirect,” Daniel asked.

“Of course,” Yaseb reassured. “We often use the facility for the purpose of cards that require kills or souls. Unless your card is particularly odd it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Good,” Daniel said as he placed his hand on the panel and twisted his hand.

There was a question of whether or not this was morally okay to do, shoving a monsters soul into stone and then forcing it to follow orders.

‘It’s not like they’d give me the same amount of thought,’ Daniel thought. ‘This world’s too dangerous to be held up on things like that.’

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

As the panel turned Daniel felt it grow slightly warmer as a rune blazed to life on its surface, and moments later watched as an ethereal purple substance oozed out from the panel and hovered before him.

It almost looked like a liquid as it wriggled purposelessly through the air. It somewhat reminded Daniel of a worm in water, and hesitantly he reached out and grabbed hold of it.

“Can you see this?” Daniel asked Yaseb, gesturing towards the soul.

Yaseb looked towards Daniel’s hands and shook his head, “No, most effects like that are only visible to the card wielder.”

“Interesting,” Daniel said as he brought the ethereal substance over to a brick and let it slide inside.

Yaseb bent over watching the brick alongside Daniel and after a moment of uncomfortable silence whispered towards Daniel, “So how long is this supposed to take?”

The moment he’d vocalized the question spiderlike legs sprouted from the brick and skittered along the floor as a long toothy mouth split down the middle of the brick with a wet smacking noise.

“About that long,” a voice from behind the two said, causing Daniel to quickly turn around.

Jonathan, the priest from Gabriel’s team stood there with his arms crossed watching as the mimic skittered back over to the pile of bricks before retracting its legs and attempting to hide itself.

‘Oh yeah,’ Daniel thought. ‘Gabriel did say he’d have Jonathan come look after me when I started dealing with the church.’

“Have you been treating him well, Yaseb?” Jonathan asked.

Yaseb waved his hand dismissively, “Oh lay off me Jonathan. I’m doing my job just like I’ve been asked to. None of the higher ups have gotten their claws into him just yet, so you’re not to late.”

“Good,” Jonathan nodded to Yaseb before making his way over towards Daniel. “I heard you joined the Brighttree family. You have my congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Daniel said, still partially focused on the mimic he’d made. He could feel the creature in the back of his mind, and with a mental prod it hopped up from its hiding place and scuttled over, quickly climbing up his pant leg and onto his shoulder.

“I know that Gabriel asked you to watch over me, but are the church higher ups really that bad? This feels a tad overkill,” Daniel said.

“When they’re after a legendary wielder they most certainly are,” Jonathan said, eyeing several church members moving crates across the warehouse floor. “They make it their mission to try and get anyone worthwhile to worship their particular god of choice. They’re petty about it, and it’s best to just not get involved.”

“Whatever you say,” Daniel said as he sent the mimic on his shoulder into Limbo and twisted his hand along the panel again. “I came here to get a job done and I don’t really care who comes down and tries to throw a sales pitch at me. I’m not looking to make any deals with gods.”

“You say that now,” Jonathan said apprehensively. “But they can be very persuasive when they want to be.”

“I said that because I don’t trust any of them, or most people in the entire city for that matter. And because if anyone interrupts me before I finish animating all these bricks I’m going to refuse their deals out of spite,” Daniel said as he brought another brick to life and sent it off to Limbo.

It was a relatively quick process and shouldn’t take more than a few hours. He could feel the mimics that were already in Limbo. They were like a faint impression in the back of his mind, and they were already putting themselves together like he’d wanted them to.

‘No more than a few hours,’ Daniel thought sourly. ‘Assuming nobody sticks their nose in my business.’

Daniel sighed to himself, ‘I probably shouldn’t bet on it, but I should still try to get this job done as soon as possible,' he realistically thought, and got to work.

===

When Alexander opened his eyes, he found himself knee deep in a massive pool of blood. Strings crisscrossed throughout the space around him, wrapping around pillars and coalescing onto a throne in the center of the realm. Cards floated atop the blood all around him, thousands of them all moving swiftly like they were mimicking fish in water.

And there, dancing among it all was Navarre, the goddess of blood. She was just as beautiful as the last time he’d seen her, with pale skin and a dress of scarlet red without a single drop of white left on it. Her eyes though held emotions that Alexander didn’t care to try dissecting. There wasn’t any point. She was just Navarre, and that’s all she would ever be.

“Why am I here,” Alexander asked as Navarre danced her way towards him.

“Because I wanted to see you,” Navarre said, moving to wrap her arms around him.

She was momentarily stopped as Alexander swung the blade of his sword in a wide arc towards the god, splashing blood as he made the motion only for her to twist her body around the blade and reach Alexander before wrapping her arms around the back of his head and leaning in close.

“Did you not miss me?” Navarre asked, pouting. “Or did you forget your promise so soon after making it?”

Alexander grit his teeth, “I only come here when I die. That’s the rules, that’s how this works.”

“I make the rules, precious, and I wanted to see you,” Navarre said, smirking.

Alexander brought his sword down to his side, his grip on the handle vicelike, “I haven't forgotten my promise, but I’m not strong enough to keep it yet.”

“I know you’re not, sweety,” Navarre said, lightly kissing Alexander’s forehead. “But I think we're talking about two very different promises. You’ve made progress, but you’re still being held back. It’s those humans, isn’t it?”

A chill ran down Alexander’s spine, “Of course not, I don’t even associate with them, and besides that there's only one promise I’ve made to you.”

Navarre shook her finger, “Only one promise that matters, but I’ll help speed you along. I know you’ve been making excellent progress, but I'm getting tired of waiting, and those humans are just so bad for you.”

“Don’t worry though,” Navarre said with an ominous calm. “I’ll get rid of them.”

Alexander stood wide eyed at the god’s words, before he gritted his teeth, muttering under his breath, “you crazy bitch,” before quickly gripping one of her arms and activating a card.

“Breaker of Swords.”

The limb broke from her body like glass before turning to blood and pouring down to the pool below.

She just smiled and moved away with inhuman dexterity as her arm reformed from the pool of blood surrounding her as she laughed heartily. Though in truth the laugh had a stiffness to it that Alexander didn’t care to see. Everything she did had that stiffness. He knew what she was about to do to him, to that city, and everything he ever cared about.

“I hate you, Navarre,” Alexander said to the god as clearly as he could. “So, so much.”

Her dance stopped, her faked laugher ceased and her gaze turned back to Alexander with such cold indifference that he was almost surprised how quickly it’d replaced her playfulness.

‘That’s her, that’s what she really is,’ Alexander thought as the god began to speak.

“No, you don’t, and I’ll help you remember that,” Navarre said as Alexander began to feel his consciousness fade. A quick glance towards his freehand revealed a new silver card stuck there by blood.

‘She must have put it on me when I snapped her arm,’ Alexander reasoned as he glared towards the goddess. Despite all he’d said and how she’d reacted, there was no sadness in her eyes. No remorse, anger or confusion, just a clear lack of anything, a blankness. Even the madness she was so fond of was nowhere to be seen.

“You can’t change a sea with just a drop of poison, Navarre,” Alexander found himself saying as his consciousness finally faded and he collapsed into the pool of blood beneath him.

If Navarre chose to respond to what he’d said, he’d wouldn't know for certain, but Alexander knew in his heart that she hadn’t. It wasn’t in her nature to. Just like it wasn't in her nature to do much of anything. Including the coming of the Blood Moon that she'd just caused to rise.