The entire throne room was silent for several moments as everyone stared at the updated description of the Town Token. Alex wasn’t completely sure as to how rarities according to the System worked, but he was pretty sure that Mythic ranked above Legendary.

“Fuck,” Orchid breathed. She raised a hand involuntarily toward the token before she caught herself and swallowed heavily. “What is that?”

“You don’t know?” Derek asked. “Isn’t that what we wanted? It’s the Town Token.”

“I’ve never seen a Town Token like that,” Orchid said.

Alex hadn’t either — but that was largely because he’d never seen one before now in the first place. The token had a lot more weight to it than he’d expected, as if it were made out of tungsten. Its edges were slightly ridged and even though its surface had been blackened and scorched by Rift energy, he could make out a scarred engraving of a city upon its surface. The other side had the symbol of a crown upon it.

“It looks like the rest of the families didn’t quite make it in time,” Claire said, the corner of her lips quirking up in amusement. “We win.”

“They’re going to be pissed about that, I think,” Derek said.

“Not if we sell it to them,” Orchid said. “Alliances between the families — especially ones that weren’t ever officially established — last about as long as a summer breeze. They’ll stab each other in the back here and now if it meant getting that token before anyone else can. Just watch. We’ve just become everyone’s best friend.”

Only if we sell this thing… and sorry, Orchid, but I’m not selling it. If a normal Town Token was already really important, then I can’t even imagine how powerful this one will be. There’s no way I’m giving up an advantage like this to the Outworlders in exchange for some credits.

“That can’t be right,” Derek said with a frown. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and shook his head. “You can’t just become someone’s best friend. You have to earn that. It’s a very important position. The people that tried to kill us were quite rude. I don’t think they’d fit the role of a best friend in the slightest.”

Orchid studied Derek for a long second as if he were an interesting lab specimen. “I was using a turn of phrase. They won’t actually be our friends, but they won’t care that we killed some idiot mercenaries. All that matters is power.”

“Well now I want to help them even less. There’s nothing worse than a fake friend.”

“Morals are expensive,” Orchid warned Derek. “I’ve got a lot of respect for anyone that can afford theirs for long. I’m not one of those people. The amount of money we’d get for selling something like this… I don’t think you realize how much it would be.”

“I don’t care about money. I’m happy enough as things are right now. Money isn’t going to change that. What do you even need the money for? You’re also an Outworlder, aren’t you? You should be strong already. What else do you need?”

Orchid’s hands tightened at her sides. “My family is in debt. I have to get resources on this world. A lot of them. Some for myself. Some for contractual obligations that I have to fulfill. If I can’t do that… everyone from my family will be killed. I’m our last hope. My Matriarch pulled in every last favor we had to get me onto 274-50.”

“And you think that giving away an advantage like this is going to be the best move for you?” Alex arched an eyebrow as he took the reins of the conversation from Derek. The berserker had done a fantastic job unintentionally preparing the situation. “Haven’t you ever heard that the best way to make money is to be your own boss? Working for someone else is never going to free your family of debt. It’ll only postpone the deadline.”

For the briefest instant, a flicker of anger passed through Orchid’s features. Then she suppressed it and the emotion was gone. “That only applies if you survive long enough to take advantage of that opportunity — and I doubt you plan to throw the value of that token away by giving it to me for any amount of money that my family could muster up.”

“We wouldn’t,” Claire said with a nod. “But I think you can tell where we’re going with this, Orchid. This is far too powerful to waste on the incompetent idiots in the other families. And, frankly, I’m not feeling charitable. We’re using this ourselves.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

You bet your ass we are. Could this Town Token let me establish a town in the Mirrorlands? I have no idea, but I’ll be damned if I give that up to some stuffy planet-stealing prick.

Orchid’s shoulders slumped, but she didn’t look surprised in the slightest. “Yeah. I thought you might have said that. Damn it. I could see your family passing up on a normal Town Token — I’m sure you’ve got a ton of them — but I wasn’t expecting it to get warped like that. Luck is a curse. Did you know that would happen?”

“Hadn’t the slightest idea,” Alex said honestly.

He decided not to mention the fact that they’d have done the exact same thing even if the Town Token had turned out exactly as it should have.

“That doesn’t mean you have to come out of this with nothing,” Claire said. “I’d argue we’ve probably paid you for your work by saving your life — but we can use someone like you. We can’t handle everything on our own and there’s little point in using a Town Token if there isn’t anyone to defend the town.”

Orchid’s gaze snapped over to Claire so quickly that Alex feared the sharpness of the motion would send her eyes flying out of her head. “What?”

“You said you didn’t know how you’d ever get a chance to capitalize on an opportunity like this. The answer is to piggyback off an investor,” Claire said with a practiced smile.

“You want me to join up with you?”

“You don’t have to answer now. Feel free to spend some time thinking about it until we find our way out of the Mirrorlands,” Claire said with a one-shouldered shrug. “You shouldn’t have much issue with the other families now that the token is gone. They aren’t stupid and petty enough to go after you now that the opportunity has passed. After all, the System always provides new challenges and ways to grow stronger. Keeping a grudge will only hold you back and waste time… unless you’ve still got something they want.”

“I don’t even have a staff anymore. Keeping on as I have been isn’t going to change anything,” Orchid muttered. Her features set and her jaw tightened. For a moment, she debated internally with herself and said nothing. Then she gave them a firm nod. “I accept your offer. I know I’m not capable of much right now, but once I get my staff back, I will be. Thank you for your kindness.”

Alex would have given Claire a fist bump were they alone. She’d somehow managed to frame getting Orchid to back them up and feed them all the information they could possibly want on Outworlders as a favor.

“Then we can work out the semantics once we get out of here,” Claire said. “Until then, we should start moving. No reason to sit around when the other Outworlders are probably still searching for us.”

“Wise,” Orchid said with a nod. “They’ll never let it slip between their fingers so easily. If we aren’t going to sell it at an Assembly or to the Great Tide, then we need to put as much distance between ourselves and Valley Ford as possible before establishing the town. Until then, the Token is just a death note in our pockets.”

“So we’re heading back to Earth, then?” Derek asked.

“Soon,” Alex promised. He looked down at his burnt hand and winced, shaking it off and wishing his body would heal itself a little faster. “We’ll travel through the Mirrorlands. Even with all the monsters, it’s safer than waiting for some idiot to try to stick a knife in our backs. We’ll slide out of the Mirrorlands once we’re starting to get hungry or thirsty. But, if you’re all fine with it, I want to take one more pause before we continue.”

“Why?” Orchid asked. “Shouldn’t we move as fast as possible?”

“Haste is good, but don’t forget where we are. The Mirrorlands isn’t exactly safe.”

Orchid’s eyes lit up in understanding. “Ah. Was that your third Aspect Gem? I’m surprised you didn’t already have them set. I would have thought the Starfallen Family — no. It doesn’t matter.”

Soemthing important happens when you get all 3 of the gems set? That’s good to know. Derek, come on. This is your time. Ask her about it.

Unfortunately, Alex’s telepathic attempts met with failure. Derek seemed lost in thought and didn’t say anything, leaving Alex stuck with the tail end of the conversation.

“I’m just doing a little work on my Mind Palace,” Alex said not providing any useful information to avoid accidentally incriminating himself. Someone from the Starfallen Family would know a whole lot more about literally everything that he did. The vaguer and more mysterious he was, the better.

I really need to figure out what the Aspect Gems do. I’m not setting them until I know. Asking Orchid is too much of an obvious giveaway… damn it. I need to get back to Finley. Yet another reason to use this token myself. It’ll give me a portal that I can use to get back to Towntown. We finally have Credits, but there’s no way I’m going back to Valley Ford to spend them.

But while Alex had no plans of using the Aspect Gems until he knew what they’d do and he could ensure he used them properly, he had one significant thing he could do that bore quite a bit of potential.

Spark had been lagging behind Princess and Glint in power for a bit. His ability to swap locations with his shadow was a fantastic trick and escape tool, but that was about where his normal kit ended in usefulness.

But the Night King… the monster had been an absolute menace, and Alex had never gotten his hands on an Adept ranked Soul Flame before. The Night King leaned heavily into shadow attributes, similar to an Echo Wraith, but was a skeleton while the wraith was closer to a ghost carrying around a bunch of armored plates.

I have no idea just how well the two of them will combine… but even if it doesn’t line up perfectly for every trait, I can’t just pass up on the chance that their shadow-related powers combine to make something even more powerful.

Let’s see what you can do, Spark.