The Interviewer seizes control of the flow of memory, halting Noah’s retelling.

“Uh,” Noah says, trying to stay calm.

The Interviewer studies him for a very long time.

It takes all Noah’s will not to react.

“This is the central point,” the Interviewer says carefully. “For a particular interest. We will review it in more detail.”

The Interviewer pushes forward into the memory, and it’s all Noah can do to not let absolutely everything out.

He can’t, not yet. He can’t let it know what really happened the first time Semermen came to visit. If the Interviewer finds out, the Overseer will find out, and if the Overseer finds out, The Oversight Committee will.

And ultimately, Chairman Vaun.

And Noah can’t have that.

But there’s only a small part that he needs to exclude.

So, using his unparalleled control of mana, he subtly guides the memory, sticking to the truth, save for one crucial exchange.

“Right, yes, details. If that’s what you want. It’s not very exciting.

So, I looted the Titan’s sparkling corpse as quickly as I could, since I could see from my map that it straddled the edge of the safe zone.

As I looted it, I noted the reserve was sparkling as well.

It made me wonder what had been killed over there. It must be huge if I could see it from here. Even bigger than the coral Titan.

I wasn’t about to swim out there to loot whatever it was. I was curious though.

I headed back to my store, Semermen right behind me the whole way.

I nearly walked right into a strange mélange of colors on the ground in front of me and came to a halt, staring down at it.

I tried inspecting it but got nothing. It was oddly invisible to my manasight.

“Strange place for an aberration,” Semermen said.

“What’s that?” I asked, grateful for the distraction from his endless compliments intermingled with something that felt vaguely salesy.

“I am unfortunately unauthorized to dispense such information to a specimen such as yourself notwithstanding your lovely magnificence.”

I studied it for a bit longer, then shook my head.

It had reminded me of what I’d seen on my map, which I brought up now and altered course to head toward.

“This isn’t the way to your store,” Semermen noted. He sounded worried, but also excited.

“I want to check something out.” I glanced at him, suppressed a shudder. He looked really weird. “So you’re a selven, I take it?” I remembered Torath mentioning a species of frog-squids called selvens.

They were certainly not sexy elves.

“Indeed my dear one, I am such a person who is humbled to be in your supreme presence.”

“Uh, cool. And you’re here to see me?” I asked, trying and failing to outpace the frog-squid as I headed toward the spot of interest on my map.

“Why yes, you are indeed an important and lovely being. And I am authorized to present you with an equally lovely offer for you as befitting your beautiful benevolence.”

“Uh-huh. Well, whatever it is, I’m not interested in selling my store to The Corporation.”

“But you haven’t heard my offer!”

Luckily I was saved from hearing it, as we’d arrived at our destination. It wasn’t far from the beach.

I frowned at empty space where my map indicated something should be.

“Oh,” Semermen tittered, “I don’t think you can afford a gateway yet. I can help with that. I have a great offer for you.”

“Why can’t I see it?”

“The offer? I haven’t presented—”

“No, the gateway.”

He looked at where the gateway was, back to me, gateway, then shrugged. “Mayhap by virtue of it being barred to your passage. Portals are not my purview.”

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I sighed and shook my head, heading back to my shop.

A few prospectors—at least I assumed that’s what they were judging by their outfits and one of them being a humanoid turtle—wandered the streets here and there, but it was otherwise empty. It was strange to see the town so deserted in the middle of the day.

There was even a kangaroo with a joey in its pouch, though when I inspected it it turned out to be an actual kangaroo rather than some alien species.

It darted off as soon as I inspected it.

“What’s this offer you mentioned?” I wasn’t interested in accepting it, but I was curious as to what it would be.

He went into a whole spiel about how great his offer was without actually saying what it was.

He followed me all the way back to my shop, blathering the whole time about bountiful business opportunities.

I tuned him out.

“Well it was nice meeting you,” I said when we reached my store, “but I have work to do now.”

“Of course of course, you’re a very busy and important Merchant.”

“Right,” I said. I opened the door and went inside. I tried to shut it, but he pushed right on through like I wasn’t even there. I didn’t know then just how much stronger than me he was.

I stumbled out of the way, not wanting to get any of his caustic mucus on me. Where he’d brushed against the door began steaming, little dots of etching starting to appear.

I looked down at his feet, but was glad to see they were covered.

At least I wouldn’t end up with holes in my floor.

He cast his big amphibian gaze around the shop. “It’s… stuffy.”

“You’re welcome to leave and get some fresh air,” I muttered.

“Ah, I shall not derelict my duty due to some dust!”

A thick stack of papers appeared in thin air in front of us. He snatched it, looked around, then strode toward the counter with my register and slapped the stack down on it.

The glass shattered, frosting my pastries with glass in addition to sugar. My register tumbled off, hitting the edge of the display, catapulting the corrupted pastries through the air and sending glass flying, the register itself breaking into two parts before crashing to the ground and utterly exploding, sending coins and bills and machine parts everywhere.

Semermen slowly turned around to look at me, steaming and melting glass stuck to his gooey skin. “I think you broke it.”

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∎ ∎ ∎

“Let me get this straight,” I said, sitting at one of the coffee tables across from Semermen. I was torn between hoping the chair would dissolve and dump him to the ground, and not wanting to have to deal with anything else breaking. “You want me to sell you my store for a pittance, still have to run it, and yet you’ll take half the profits from it.”

“Exactly! So we have a deal I take it.”

“Uh, no. That’s a terrible deal.”

He looked around nervously. “I can hurl in your direction the deeds to several shops in the area.”

I wondered if he was speaking English, or using an interpreter. A bad one.

“You can do that? Aren’t they owned?”

“Indeed they are, by The Corporation, of which I represent humbly.”

“Can you get me the deed to The Grand Hotel?”

“I’ve not heard of that.”

“Finnegan’s Place,” I corrected, remembering the new name and chuckling.

“Unfortunately, that is not owned by The Corporation.”

I shook my head. “Then I—”

“But,” he quickly interrupted, “I can humbly endeavor to attempt to obtain said deed to trade with you in trade.”

“Right, well, you do that. And good luck.”

“Yes, I shall! Do that. And return.” He popped up from his chair, sending it flying into the wall, whereupon it shattered.

He looked at me nervously. “Would you… be interested in some new chairs?”

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∎ ∎ ∎

After he left, I swept up the glass from the broken display case and tossed out the pastries. They were stale anyway.

I tossed all the money in a box and put it in the bike workshop at the back of the store. It probably wasn’t worth anything anymore, but I wasn’t just going to throw it out.

Then I tried putting the chair Semermen had broken back together. A few screws and it was if not good as new, at least functional as new.

This done, I sat down behind my counter, now feeling exposed without the display case and register in front of me.

I was tired, and wanted to get some rest, but not yet.

I needed to figure out what to do about the tower, but I wanted a clear head. It was obvious The Corporation was trying to buy it—they’d sent Semermen after all—but should I get an attorney? Or try to negotiate?

I read the message I’d received earlier again.

If you have a complaint about how The Corporation is running your integration, you are entitled to an attorney and review by the Oversight Committee. Would you like to initiate this process?

I wondered what the Oversight Committee was, but was too tired to look into it right then.

While at Copper I needed less sleep, I still needed some, and I hadn’t gotten much since entering the tower: a few hours after first arriving in the town of Ventis, a brief period unconscious due to Rilen’s fist, a couple more times from breaking barriers and reaching Copper.

My resurrections may have restored me, but I found my eyes drooping shut as I sat there waiting for Koren and or Vyrania to return.

Maybe the beer I’d had after getting back played a role.

Still, I found myself craving another one.

To keep myself awake—and sober—I figured I might as well make my store more inviting. The whole downtown area closest to the beach was a safe zone, and a few bookcases wouldn’t keep out anything capable of harming me.

With my new Copper body, even as tired as I was, I made short work of moving the bookcases back in place and even opened all the windows of the store, getting a nice cross breeze going. Semermen had been right about one thing, it was a little stuffy.

I was in the middle of moving the rest of the bikes outside since I didn’t have to worry about them being stolen, when a familiar face appeared.

“Back already,” I said disappointedly. I was hoping for Koren or Vyrania—or even Bob—but it was none of them.

“Indeed my friend, and I bring deeds!”

I looked around the empty town. “Are people holed up in their stores?”

“Oh there are very many holes. I can’t toss those your way. Any holes are your responsibility,” Semermen said firmly.

“Uh, right.”

He headed inside my store, leaving me alone outside.

I stared at the door, shaking my head.

Something slammed against the door, startling me and cracking the glass.

Through it, I saw Semermen get up. Then he walked into the door again.

I stood there, dumbfounded, as he repeated this process a third time, this time shattering the door and stepping outside.

He brushed the glass from his gooey skin. “I think your hole is broken.”

“It’s called a door. You push it open.”

“That did not work.”

“Well you pull when you’re on the other side.”

“What a strange civ you have. Have you not invented bidirectional hinges yet?”

I shook my head. “Now I’m going to need a new door.”

“You wish to modify our contract again?” He rubbed his hands together. “Starting already. I like you. Come, let us sit and negotiate.”