CHAPTER 160

Tom was surprised by how suddenly True Dreaming kicked in. Usually there were some standard dreams before the skill activated, but this time it was like it was chomping on the bit to be released. The introduction was abrupt and absolute and instantly the floating disconnection of the moment before entering sleep vanished.

He was a wide awake in a dream and he knew absolutely that everything he experienced was going to be real.

Between one instant and the next, he was fully focused as adrenaline flooded through him. Resolve settled inside him. He would be alert and absorb every single detail that was available. He would not fail to identify one of the killers because of a moment’s inattention. The solution was close; they knew what they had infected themselves with, what drove the killers to murder their fellows. He even knew how they had gone undetected to this point and could explain how the blood line powers could have facilitated the murders they had seen. Unlike Everlyn, at a deep level Tom respected their choice and the self-sacrifice they were willing to endure for their loved ones who would eventually arrive on Existentia.

Tom condemned their decision even if he understood what had led to it. They had to be stopped.

Abruptly, he was in a body that was not his own. The skin, the flesh, the thoughts they were familiar. This was definitely the same person he had been in the previous three times.

The body he was in squinted upwards at a bright blue dome and then down at hard packed red dirt.

A shock went through Tom.

He knew where and when this vision originated from.

This was from those first hours in Existentia.

The eyes swept the surroundings.

And Tom mentally jumped in surprise when he saw himself, his physical Tom body was standing awkwardly and isolated studying the ground.

Surprising there was no derision in the person’s mind he occupied. He viewed the man who had arrived first and felt admiration for him. Someone who was clearly competent and, unlike most of the others he was attempting to extract what information he could about the future battleground as soon as possible by checking the ground.

Keikain you’re going to have to become friends with him, the person whose body he shared thought to himself.

True Dreaming allowed the scene to freeze for a moment as Tom absorbed the shock of the killer he was inhabiting, referring to himself in third person.

Keikain was confirmed as one of the murderers.

Tom wished he could pretend surprise. Instead, there was an empty hollowness. A large part of Tom had tagged Keikain as a likely suspect ever since the bloodline’s boost to earth affinity had been established. Why such a powerful individual, a man who had arrived second, would choose the pathway, sent a hot flush of distaste through Tom.

That could have been him.

Shit, he thought to himself. Keikain! He wished that it had been someone else. Maybe a member of Legen’s team or a crafter but truth was absolute. There was a tug on his mind and he was drawn back into the True Dream.

The body he was in studied Tom, the person who had arrived first for a moment longer. A determination filled Keikain and a resolve to become friends with the first arriver. The more competency he could surround himself with the better, but that was a problem for another time.

New allies were for later. For now, he, Keikain, had to keep the people he knew under control. They had been flaky in the contribution room, and he would need to help strengthen their backbones.

The shock of this second revelation did not affect Tom as much as the first one. He had known there were co-conspirators already, and they had suspected that the murderers must have met and interacted in the system room. That Keikain’s familiarity toward his accomplices suggested a much more extensive engagement than a quick greet and meet changed nothing.

They would need support. They would have got the same briefing he had when their arrival point had been chosen. They had drawn the short straw on starting locations. Most human groups were spawned within a few days of an existing empire, even if it was only an outpost. They, however, were weeks away from the nearest border. It was serious bad luck and left a bitter taste in his own mouth, but the oracle questions could not answer regarding specifics of where they were spawning and their gamble on probabilities had apparently failed. The other two would be spitting chips. At a minimum, he needed to stop them panicking.

His eyes scanned the group and searched for them. They were here. He had spotted them just before Jeffrey had organised the groups and that sorting process had stopped him from approaching them immediately. This was his first chance since then.

Keikain’s gaze swept over the massed groups. Tom, through those eyes recognised Jeffrey, Tiny, Everlyn and then the eyes paused on.

Shock went through Tom once more.

Keikain’s eyes settled on Clare with a sense of familiarity and relief. There was one of the two that he needed to find. His new family, so to speak. The man made deliberate eye contact with the female healer.

Clare’s thin face was drawn and Tom, with his knowledge of the other woman recognised the expression. She was wrestling with her inner demons. Keikain did not, so while they were familiar with each other, they had not spent weeks together to reach the point where they could recognise each other’s underlying moods.

Fuck! Fuck. Tom screamed at himself as more and more pieces of the puzzle fell together. Clare, the woman who had possessed that elevated Fate after the first murder. Others had been affected, so he had forgotten about it. The killer had repeatedly knocked people unconscious a skill that he knew she had. Clare, the healer who he had thought, had wisely taken a spell to send patients to sleep when they were impacted by things like lost limbs. She hadn’t purchased it for healing, but to facilitate killing instead.

Tom should have triggered to the lie. In the world of magical miracles, being able to knock out a patient was only tangentially useful. He had thought it was a hang-over from old Earth surgeries where such an ability would have been invaluable in triage situations. A silly mistake of someone not fully adjusted to the realities of Existentia. He had been naïve. With the spell having dual uses… it made so much sense.

Clare who had ensured that Mac had been asleep and unable to defend himself when she had left with Tom’s group to challenge the trial. She had set up her alibi so simply.

Tom felt like a fool. In the same way as everyone else, he had been played by the group. A large part of him admired their artistry.

He also remembered other events that in hindsight were clues. Clare had argued against them using fate to find a tool to locate the killer? Her arguments had made some sense then… but more now.

Shit. Shit.

True dreaming gave him a moment to marshal his thoughts, but it was not to be denied the vision continued.

Clare nodded to Keikain and walked toward him.

The earth mage whose body he was incorporating looked for the third.

Third… Yep, what they had deduced from the crime scene was right. The remnants of the ritual had possessed two loci which had then extended to three once the alibis were in place.

Keikain’s eyes met Sven’s who immediately apologised to the two girls he was chatting with and disengaged to walk towards Keikain with an affable grin on his face. Tom felt the disgust go through Keikain’s body even as lips turned into a welcoming smile. Sven was weak in purpose, and Keikain wished they had gotten someone more suitable for this play.

The other man was coming, and they could talk soon. He glanced around to confirm he was in space free from others and then waited for the other two to close.

“Good to see you here.” Keikain said stiffly when they were in range. “Are we protected.”

“Yes.” Sven declared sharply. “If the racial class ability I took works as advertised.”

“It will work,” Keikain said confidently.

“It better. I spent all my racial upgrade points on it.”

“We know you did. You told us numerous times. The short-term sacrifice was necessary.” Keikain reminded him.

“I know.” Sven kicked the ground. “I agreed to the bloodline in order to get stronger. Taking a useless skill like this is wrong.”

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“We all took utility abilities.” Keikain interrupted again. “None of us got direct strength beyond the innate fate based racial ability. We decided we needed the flexibility. That is even more important now.”

Sven’s eyes turned wild and angry. “You saw the map?”

“Of course,” Keikain said barely holding in the flash of anger. Of course, he had checked the map. He had used his fingers to measure distances, speculated on terrain, considered the racial biographies to see if they were likely exploring, beyond their borders, estimated travel time and the various decay factors. The story they painted was pretty clear and there was no point pretending otherwise. You played the cards you were given.

“They’re weeks away,” Sven hissed at him. “You know what that means.”

Keikain frowned. “We explicitly discussed this risk.”

“I don’t–”

Keikain raised a hand in a warning gesture toward Sven. “Watch yourself, your ability can only do so much.”

Sven actively controlled his breathing and composed his face. “I don’t want to murder anyone.”

“Sven,” Clare said immediately. “Our choice was endorsed by DEUS. It’s a shitty path, but it’s the righteous one.”

“I was resigned to killing alien sapients, but this?”

“Before I agreed to this.” Keikain gestured to indicate he meant the three of them. “I explicitly asked about this. You said you would do it if required.”

“I said support, not do, and I didn’t think it would happen.”

“Soldiers have always had to kill for the greater good.” Clare said, supporting Keikain.

“Shut up Clare,” he hissed in anger. Sven glared at Keikain. “What are we going to do?”

Tom felt the moment that the mind he was in duck into his system room. Tom unfortunately could not follow, but he could feel Keikain checking something. Then, in a blink of the eye, he was back present in his body. “I have six days.”

“I have more. I might hang on until we get more acceptable victims.” Sven said.

“I only have twelve.” Clare told them, shooting an annoyed glance at Sven. “Do you have more?”

Sven nodded.

Keikain frowned internally. It was great for all of them that Sven had a higher number of starting bloodline points. After all, they had been warned that the quantity of beginning points were random and from the man’s tone he must have hit the jackpot, but Keikain knew how Sven felt. He was probably hoping to hold on indefinitely till they found natives to support their power.

“We’re still going to have to top you up.” he told Sven. “I can’t let you go mad. If you do, you’ll kill more than one or two of us.”

“It might not be that bad.”

Keikain shook his head. “You’re not that naïve.”

“I can’t.”

“You can and you will.” Keikain told him. “I was the second through and I saw when everyone else arrived. The three of us are way more important for humanity than most here.”

“How can you say that?”

“Calm yourself Sven.” Keikain said tightly. “We’re all committed to this and the situation we are in complicates things. It’s two or three weeks and potentially longer if the terrain is against us. It will not be one kill.”

“We should leave immediately. Strike out to the closest border.” Sven argued.

“We’ll die and you know it.” Keikain said stiffly. “We’ll go mad a long time before we find anything that can save us.”

“Unfortunately, he’s right Sven.” Clare opinionated.

“We gambled and lost.” Keikain stated firmly.

“DEUS endorsed this approach.” Clare said forcefully, entering the conversation proper. “We made the right choice, and it’s going to be challenging, but…”

“You and DEUS what’s with that.” Sven snapped at her.

“Love is close to hate.” Clare answered cryptically. “The fact is, we agreed that this was the best gamble available.” She raised a finger hurriedly before Sven could say anything. “Independently first and then collectively. If you had said no when we discussed it, I wouldn’t have signed up for this.”

“You wouldn’t have gone as a duo with me?” Keikain asked.

“No,” Clare said flatly. “It takes two to cast the ritual. A duo is too dangerous, and gifting the bloodline won’t be something we’ll be able to do until years of feeding. When I found the option, I was originally only going to sign up if there were four of us.”

“You should have kept your convictions.” Sven at snapped at her. “Then I wouldn’t have been in this situation.”

“As Kei said earlier, we discussed this risk, and you gave your word.”

“I…” Sven stopped, and then a shudder went through him. “Fine.”

“We’ll only pick people who are worthless space, anyway.” Clare said dismissively.

“Clare, that’s an awful thing to say.”

“It wasn’t helpful,” Keikain agreed. “I’ll take point on planning, but given our geographical location we need to create alibis.”

“How do we do that?” Sven asked.

“We only need two of us to carry out the ritual.”

Sven’s face went white. “But that means we will need to kill more people.”

The dream ended, and while Tom woke immediately, he did not wake up screaming. He knew everything at long last and it was terrifying that the dream had made all the little clues click nicely back into place.

“Shit.” he whispered as the enormity of the situation hit him.

Everlyn poked him and with a shudder he fell into her system room.

They sat on the couch with Everlyn across from him, waiting patiently.

“You didn’t sleep.”

“No, I couldn’t. You know who it is?” Her eyes studied him. “Tom? Why do you look like that? What happened? It’s Michael isn’t it?”

“No.”

“Thank god.” Everlyn said with a quaver. “He would have been the worst but… Who is it?”

“You know we had all the clues we needed to stitch this all together.”

“All of them.”

“More than enough. I just didn’t connect them. It’s so obvious in hindsight.”

“Who? Sven?”

“Yes.”

She frowned and hit the couch next to them. “Why him?”

“The dream shared a few minutes of the killers talking on day one under the dome.” Tom laughed bitterly. “The ridiculousness of that is that the scene True Dreaming showed me today was one I witnessed in person on that first day. I even thought it was strange that there were these three people randomly chatting away like old friends. I remember thinking how odd that was. Like the chances of them knowing each other from before the event was astronomical.”

Everlyn abruptly clicked her fingers. “I recall that, too. Clare and Keikain making eye contact and approaching each other. No words said. I thought it strange as well because they were from different fighting groups and there was a familiarity there that didn’t belong. It’s those three?”

“Yes, and then Sven joined them almost immediately after.”

“Oh god.” Her face went pale. “This is bad. Keikain came before me. Why would someone who did so well in the tutorial…” Her question trailed off into silence. It wasn’t necessary to answer.

“Yep, he was number two, Clare and Sven eighteen and twenty-four, respectively.”

Everlyn’s mind was racing, and from her expression it was clear she was putting together all the different clues that had occurred now that she knew who the murderers were. “The early attacks were all timed for when one of them had a strong alibi. That had to be deliberate. Sven for the first, then Keikain in our dungeon group and then when they killed Mac, Clare was with us.”

“They expected to end up close to another civilisation and to prey on the natives. They were horrified to be here.” Tom told her.

“I can see how now.” Everlyn continued. “That energy that knocked out everyone when they butchered Tiny. You said it was strange, but it wasn’t, really. It was Clare’s standard sleep power distorted and magnified by her blood-line skill to be untraceable to her.”

“And then she left Mac unconscious for them to kill.” Tom confirmed, having already worked that out.

“Bitch.” Everlyn hissed.

“The multi-loci it was two for the first three kills till they had alibis and then they went up to three.”

Everlyn clicked her fingers. “When Reilly died, didn’t you find it suspicious that Sven had a necklace to communicate with Keikain.”

“I guess I did but…”

“Makes a hell of a lot more sense if they’re coordinating murdering people. I can’t believe I didn’t question that further. We’ve been stupid.”

“And the Gita murder happening on Sven and Clare’s watch. It’s obvious now. They weren’t locked in the bunker either with Keikain there to open up an earth tunnel.”

“Yep, he could have opened the door easily and then Sven used an excuse to blow it to bits and destroy any evidence that might have been there.” Everlyn hit the couch again. “We were blind.”

“Even their fate was a giveaway. I caught both Clare and Sven with elevated fates after different murders. Yes, it was random, but hers in particularly was extreme after Jeffrey’s. I should have guessed or been more observant.” Tom hit himself when he realised something else. “Damn it.”

“What?” Everlyn asked.

“On the first day. Sven made a mistake. He told me he had a fate skill that works during fights. When we learnt about the bloodline, I should have jumped on that straight away.”

“Emotions.” Everlyn said with a shudder.

“What?”

“Their emotions. Sven committed blasphemy straight after Jeffrey’s murder.”

“But he wasn’t involved. He got an alibi, then.”

“Yet the murder was premeditated; he blamed himself for it.”

“And do you remember how he reacted when Jin was crying over Gita’s body?”

“I do.” Everlyn said. “But feeling sad after the fact doesn’t exonerate him.”

“No, it doesn’t. Damn it. How did we miss it?”

“Do you recall Keikain crying when the green gas touched him?” Everlyn told him. “No one else had such a severe reaction. That was his guilt playing out.”

“It all makes so much horrible sense now.”

“And when we talked about using fate to stop them searching for us it was Sven and Clare that were voting against it.”

She hit the couch hard next to her. “It’s so fucking obvious.”

“Yes.” Tom said grimly. “We didn’t need True Dreaming. All the clues were there for us to unravel.”

They lapsed into silence each regretting their inability to solve the mystery in time. Even Tom’s preference for the True Dreaming to not uncover the truth before the third event wave was forgotten. They should have been able to prevent Gita’s death. Probably not Reilly’s but they had the information after her loci’s went up to three if only they had put it all together.

“What are we going to do?” Everlyn asked finally.

“Bind them.” Tom answered simply.

“How?”

“Get Harry to help. Michael the entire team who agreed to come with us. Neutralise Keikain first, as he is the most dangerous, then Sven and Clare last.”

“And then what?”

“I bind them to my cause. I get a perpetual restriction on them committing harm against our core group and a less permanent solution for every other human as far as possible.”

Already, as he was talking about it, the terms of the contract he was proposing were consolidating in his head. His elemental summoning experience actually helped him to shape the relevant words.

Tom was able to turn the mental construct within the system room into a physical document, which he handed it to Everlyn.

She glanced through it. “And this is binding?”

“Absolutely. If they agree, it’ll be locked into place.”

“This will potentially make them effectively your slaves for 5 years.”

“It’s not like I’m going to abuse that power. It’ll just be to allow us to complete my plan, and then they’ll be free to go.”

“I get using them. But that is the bit I dislike. They killed Gita. They should pay.”

“You liked Sven.”

“No, I tolerated him. He was always a little wishy-washy for me. Clare, I liked, but that’s bullshit. It was an act. She’s actually a cold-hearted harpy.”

“I guess that’s fair enough. Evie, are you happy with this plan? The one to use them instead of killing them.”

She hesitated indecision warring in her eyes. “I can’t see how we can avoid it. I don’t need to like it. I just have to accept that. Those pricks are getting what they deserve and that you’re enforcing.” She clutched the contract furiously. “I mean this can bind them. So am I happy? No, I’m not. But I admit this is the best we can do.”

“We have a plan.” Tom said darkly.

“And a ticking clock.” Everlyn pointed out. “You know their names now, so we only got twenty-four hours and then the rest of us are at risk.”

“Don’t worry I hadn’t forgotten about that. Tomorrow, we act.”