"Can you create an illusion to throw them off?" I asked Lacy as we eyed the three Beasts down the street.

"Sure. What'd you have in mind?"

"Make it look like we went through the portal while we head for that alley there," I said, nodding discreetly to the nearest alleyway.

"Easy," she replied with a shrug. "Tell me when."

I watched the three Beasts, waiting for their attention to turn away from us before saying, "Now."

A shimmering materialized in the air, like a heat haze over asphalt. Two figures peeled away from us like an hologram projecting in the air. I watched perfect copies of Lacy and me stride toward the portal behind the last of our people. Byron and Jerome approached the projections and I worried that they would ruin the whole thing by touching one of us. But with my enhanced Perception, I heard the projection of Lacy whispering to the two of them.

"Dirk and I are gonna follow up on something here. These are just illusions, so play cool."

Byron's eyes went wide and I cringed waiting for him to do something stupid like shout, 'Illusions?' But he recovered a moment later, winking and thumbing his nose like he was in on some big con.

Jerome simply scowled and went through the portal without another word.

The real Lacy nodded toward the alley and we both ran into the shadows between the buildings. From our hidden vantage, I watched the Beasts leave once they realized there were no easy marks in the area.

I felt Lacy's illusion drop once we were in the clear.

"Damn, good work, Lacy."

She shrugged, though I noted the tips of her ears flush. "Way easier than using my sketchpad, that's for sure."

"So here's the plan," I said as we started down the alley. "We need to make contact with the Kaori before they get raided by Astrid and her Beasts. I've made a deal with their leader and if we do nothing, I'm pretty certain their entire population gets wiped out."

Her eyes went wide. "Yeah, okay, that's probably something we should prevent."

"Yeah, probably," I replied wryly. "Now, typically, I meet up with their champion—her name's Mileen—and she escorts me to the Kaori's secret village. Occasionally, I've found her first, but that doesn't usually go well. She's really good at hiding and gets kinda miffed when I out her."

Lacy scoffed. "You sure it isn't your charming personality?"

I clutched my chest dramatically. "I don't know what you mean! Everyone loves me!"

"Uh-huh…"

"Anyways," I said, pointedly changing the subject. "I suggest that we don't sneak up on our future ally. Start off on the right foot and all that."

"Sensible," she agreed with a nod.

"To that end, she should be hiding somewhere near the main portal. Let's stroll past and see if she flags us down."

"And if she doesn't?"

I shrugged. "Then we head into the nearest alley and wait for her to find us."

Lacy remained silent and I glanced over to gauge her reaction. She was chewing her lip and purposefully avoiding my gaze.

"What?" I asked.

"It's just…a little inexact," she replied skeptically. "Haven't you done this a bunch of times already?"

"A few, yes." I tried to keep the defensiveness out of my voice. "But there's a lot of moving parts!"

"Uh-huh."

"It's a very fluid situation!" She nodded, but remained unconvinced. "The timelines are different this go around!"

"Okay, okay," she said with a chuckle. "I believe you!"

"It sure doesn't feel like—"

I cut off as a pins and needles feeling passed over my body. I tapped into my Fate energy and began scanning the surrounding alleyway. Garbage and discarded objects lined each side of the alley. The sun was low on the horizon as if it were early morning on the First Floor, and the shadows were heavy. Squinting, I struggled to pierce the darkness to see if Mileen was hiding nearby.

"What is it?" Lacy asked.

I held up my hand and lowered my voice. "I think we're being watched."

"Your contact?"

Logically, it made sense that if anyone could watch us unobserved, it would be Mileen. But something about the sensation crawling up the back of my neck told me this wasn't some idle game of hide-and-go-seek with the Unseen Champion.

I pulled my diskslinger out and immediately fired, sending three buzzing disks arcing high into the sky. Another began forming immediately, a slight pull on my Friction core as the grey energy collected into the primary slot.

Lacy jumped in surprise. "What are you doing—"

"You have sharp senses," a voice said from up ahead. A shimmering formed in the air, revealing Astrid Black-Eye standing in our path. She had a rictus grin on her face, her eyes wide while her Black-Eye flipped between Lacy and I. "I noticed you two slinking off into the shadows and just had to investigate."

"Who are you?" Lacy asked.

"Astrid Black-Eye," I supplied before the Beast could answer. I kept my tone casual, but inside I was seething.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

How could I have been so careless? On the final run!

Astrid preened, rocking her shoulders back and forth with a pleased look. "Oh, so you've heard of me?"

She hadn't attacked yet, so there was still a chance. An open fight with an Adept on the final run was too risky. And I feared as soon as she truly unveiled her Eye upon us, we'd both be too weighed down to flee. But I knew that her power relied on line-of-sight, much like Yuri's.

I just needed a distraction…

"You're the leader of the Beasts of Chaos, right?" I asked, stalling for time.

She shrugged in a show of humility. "For now, I'm the strongest. So, for now, I'm the leader."

I nodded as if that was interesting. "Let me guess, you want to recruit us?"

She pursed her lips out in an exaggerated pucker, pressing her finger to them as if deep in thought. After a moment, she said, "Well, that was my original intention. But you said some things that I'm just dying to hear more about." My heart skipped a beat as I realized what she meant, and remembered what we had been talking about. "I am oh, so curious how you knew about our raid on the Kaori? A triple cross, perhaps—"

She cut off as my disk came arcing down at her like a falling falcon. Her eyes shot to the sky as I pulled the portal token into my hand.

"Go!" I shouted as I crushed the token. A whoosh sounded as the blue portal materialized directly in front of me, blocking Astrid's line of sight. I reached out to grab Lacy's hand when my limbs suddenly became heavy. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Astrid—not behind the portal, but right beside me, her manic grin only inches from my face.

How? The person talking to us had been an illusion? The real Astrid had been within striking range the entire time?

"You're clever, little bird. But I've got a trick or two as well."

"You're not the only one, bitch!"

The Lacy at my side dematerialized and a heavy push in my back sent me flying into the portal. I passed through the blue wall and appeared inside my Personal Space with a stumble.

"Lacy!" I shouted, turning to burst back through the portal.

When I popped through, the portal snapped shut behind me. I whirled in a circle, scanning the alley. But there was no sign of Lacy or Astrid.

How? It had only been a second—maybe two. My two remaining disks were like beacons in my spiritual vision, flying high above and ready to dive down upon the real Astrid at a moment's notice. But realization hit me and I switched my focus to my Fate energy. Astrid was an illusion specialist and unlike Lacy, had decades, if not centuries, to master her abilities. She could be right behind me, Lacy in her grip, and I wouldn't even know it.

Fanning out tendrils of Fate energy like spokes on a wheel, I encompassed the entire alleyway. Impressions trickled back, slow at first, then picking up speed. They seeped into my mind and I had to split my concentration to parse them while also maintaining the connections to my energy.

An agonizing minute passed as the scene coalesced in my mind. I desperately wanted to rush the process, force the images to materialize faster. For all I knew, Lacy was in a fight for her life while I stood here waiting for my Fate energy to become useful. That thought threatened to shatter my energy control and I forced it down. The energy connection solidified, and the scene of our brief fight overlaid across the physical alley.

In my mind, I could see Lacy and I facing off against Astrid. But the Astrid I had been talking to had a translucent quality, nearly see through. Then I spotted the real Astrid, standing a foot behind me, her face serene. Of all things, that shocked me the most. Astrid had always had a demented look on her face, bordering on psychotic. But instead of her usual unhinged smile, she had a thoughtful expression as she studied the back of my head.

Mid conversation, the image of Lacy bisected, the real Lacy stepping a few feet away to survey the scene. When my disk fell from the sky and passed through the illusion of Astrid, the real Astrid revealed herself at my shoulder. She had plastered on her manic grin sometime between the disk falling and her dropping the illusion, but I hadn't seen exactly when the transition occurred.

Was Astrid's crazy demeanor all an act? Was she playing everyone around her, including Yuri and all the Climbers?

Before I could dive deeper into that line of thought, I saw myself pop the token as the real Lacy shoved me through the portal. With Lacy's illusion shattered, Astrid took hold of her with her superior power, locking her in place. A moment later, I saw myself jumping back through the portal, looking around blankly.

Astrid and Lacy were only feet away as Astrid forcibly slapped what I recognized as Starsteel-empowered manacles around Lacy's wrists. Then she hoisted Lacy onto her shoulders and took off out of the alley at a run. With the girl strung across her back, the hold of Astrid's power dissipated. I saw Lacy suddenly unfreeze, kicking and punching against Astrid's back and head. But the blows seemed to have no effect as Astrid continued running around the corner and out of sight.

I stared stupidly after the projection for a single moment, then took off at a sprint to follow the images. As I turned the corner, I saw a glimpse of Astrid's back as she turned down another alley up ahead.

With my Fate energy projecting the image of Astrid and Lacy, I couldn't cycle my Mass energy to bump up my Agility. All the same, I managed to catch up to their ghostly afterimage after a burst of mundane speed. But no matter how I tried to alter the intent of the energy, I couldn't make the projection speed up. It was trailing behind the real Astrid and Lacy by a minute and I was afraid to take any shortcuts or take to the roofs in case I lost them.

So all I could do was follow and hope Astrid let her guard down so I could…

What? What was my plan?

Even if I caught up and managed to attack Astrid, there were too many variables. Could I take Astrid in an open fight, with only my Fate energy revealing her true positioning? And that was assuming I managed to alter the energy enough to pierce her illusion, rather than give me the afterimage seconds or even minutes later. Then there was Lacy to consider. With her power cut off by the Starsteel manacles, she wouldn't be able to help in the fight. And most of my attacks weren't exactly subtle. There was a good chance she got caught in the crossfire, even if Astrid didn't explicitly utilize her as a hostage.

Think, Dirk! Think!

Going back to my Personal Space for help wasn't an option. I'd lose the trail and God knows what would happen to Lacy. Then again, how many places could Astrid realistically take her? I already knew where the Beasts' stronghold was—had even been a prisoner there myself—so I could assume that was the most likely place Astrid would go.

But what if she didn't? What if Astrid had safe houses all over the Hold? By all accounts, she had been here for decades. It stood to reason that she would have more than one place to store prisoners, seeing as they had originally intended to forcibly convert hundreds of humans, Jree, and Co'xatl.

That thought gave me pause. In all my trips to the Hold, I had never seen more than half a dozen Beasts of Chaos or Champions of Order in a single place. How could four or five Beasts intend to capture that many people, even in staggered groups? Did they plan on just slapping Starsteel manacles on every person and herd them to their dungeon? Granted, most Climbers were low level and wouldn't stand a chance against just Astrid, let alone a handful of Beasts. But that was because we had rushed to the Hold rather than get here organically. If things had played out the way the Integration Guide intended, nobody would have reached the Hold for multiple days. By that point, they'd have slain at least one mini-boss and probably some golden mobs as well. A group that managed to do that would be much more of a challenge to Astrid and her people.

Had I been overestimating the factions of the Hold this entire time? Were these terrifying groups of powerful aliens actually just the dregs of a larger organization that I hadn't met yet? Now that I thought back to my own incarceration in the Beasts' dungeon, their stronghold had been pitifully undermanned. When Murn had turned out to be an illusion of Astrid, I had assumed she had emptied out the stronghold to facilitate our escape so I could lead her to Mileen.

But what if the stronghold was empty…because they had no personnel to man it?

If the entirety of Astrid's forces were the handful of aliens I'd seen over my redos, then there was a chance we could take Lacy back. All I needed were some allies…

That thought made me recall Astrid's raid on the Kaori. There had been no doubt in Hiko and Mileen's mind when word had come of the Beasts' raid. They feared them and had fled in response. But in no redo had I actually witnessed the raid. For all I knew, it had just been Astrid and her limited number of cronies.

Was I willing to gamble Lacy's life on this idea?