"No, of course I'm not accusing you of attacking my team," Veda said smoothly to the hologram representing the head of Parshkin Conglomerate corp here on the hub. "I would never suggest such chicanery of a noble and storied conglomerate such as your own. I merely thought if you did have interest in the node my team has claimed, that we might be able to come to some sort of bargain."

"What sort?" the woman asked sharply. She was a sort of lizardkin Veda had never seen before, with golden scales mottling to white around the edges of her neck, and tall ears poking up through masses of dark curling hair that should have been out of place, yet instead accented the beauty of her form. The woman's voice had a sibilant hiss to the edge, soothing and seductive at the same time. Veda had to keep reminding herself she was here to drive a bargain. "Are you looking to sell your interest?"

"In the team and the node both," Veda said. "My team has done all I have asked of them." She had just received her company's updated license with the endorsement stating they had successfully proved a phase two node in this Reality Engine exploit. She was eligible for the next three Reality Engine exploit opportunities. As for the team, they had made far more soul coin than she had ever expected. She had even been able to take a small tithe of the profits and send them along to her family to get them out of storage for a couple of months. Her mother said that was all she needed to make marriage alliances for Veda's little sister.

The lizardfolk woman's eyes narrowed. "Indeed, it's not usual to give up such a profitable node at this juncture. Why, we haven't even had the first team challenge."

"I know that," Veda said, "but family duties are recalling me to my home. I cannot manage the team remotely, so I am looking to end my connection with them. I do have certain stipulations, however," she added quickly. "I have a slightly unusual contract with my combat team that would have to be honored by anyone buying me out."

"For the sake of argument, I would not mind looking at it," the lizardfolk woman said. Veda told her system to send over the excerpted contract she had made with Shad. She had removed a few personal details, but left the heart of the agreement intact.

"This is a great deal of autonomy for indigenous miners," the lizardfolk woman said after a moment.

"And you've seen how it paid off," Veda said. "They've done all I've asked and more. I will see this honored. Also, their support team would come along. There are a few conditions for them, though not as onerous. I have guaranteed that we will set them on a path to buy out of their indenture and into a comfortable retirement in an established reality engine."

She sent over that addendum as well. The agreement had been made with Shad and his team, not with the other humans of the Misfits Guild. As far as Veda knew, they still weren't aware of the permanence of their position.

From now on, they would be required to spend their lives in a reality engine's sphere of influence or with the help of very expensive support equipment. A reality engine completely transformed the physical body of the entity who merged with a soul coin in order to be able to support it inside the reality engine's immense array of scenarios and simulations.

One key change, invisible and unnoticeable for the most part, was equipping the body to utilize ethereum. Ethereum was the reality engine's basic substance, still not well understood by galactic scientists. All they really knew was that if you took someone who had bonded with a soul coin away from a reality engine's sphere of influence without providing a steady supply of ethereum, they would very quickly age and die.

In addition, anyone in an untamed reality engine was in danger of ethereum poisoning until the core of the reality engine was breached and a contract was made with the reality engine itself. There tended to be side effects. That's why all of the miners were checked at regular intervals by the reality engine exploitation committee's team of veterinarians and minor psychologists.

Veda had not told Shad and his team that over a million of those humans who had failed to complete the initialization chamber had died from a failed bonding with the soul coin that had caused them to explode in a massive cloud of ethereum. Since that tended to vaporize everything for about a mile around them, there were almost no humans who would have witnessed such an event and then survived. Sooner or later, Veda was going to have to tell Shad and his team the truth.

Well, no, she wasn't, because she was about to sell them out for their own good and her good. Of course, they’d have to agree to the deal. But she was negotiating a fair bargain for all sides.

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Veda took a deep breath. "Well, I think you can expect a very reasonable offer from us," the lizardfolk woman said. "We will get back to you, Veda Tvedra. Good day." She cut the connection.

Veda slumped back against her cushions, relieved. She could be done with this soon. She could go home.

Now that she had what she wanted, she wasn't sure why she had striven so hard. All of this work just to make herself eligible for the next reality engine exploit. Was it really worth it? Seeing Shad and his team struggle so hard to achieve their goals, knowing that their place in this was already determined by thousands of years of habit and custom, was really starting to hurt. She needed to take the buyout and get out of here.

Someone knocked on her door. Veda froze. No one ever visited her pod. It wasn't done. Anyone who wished to speak to her would call and talk virtually, or agree to meet on neutral territory. Arriving at someone's berth unannounced, uninvited, was, well, unthinkable.

The knock came again. Veda got to her feet, shaking. She requested her personal systems check the external cameras. They showed her three dark-robed figures standing at the door. One held up a shining golden symbol.

She recognized the logo. Veda's shaking got even worse, but she managed to tell her system to open the door and let them in.

The door disappeared. The three strangers stepped in. Veda dropped to her knees, raising her hands.

"We mean you no harm, daughter," the central figure said. He was tall, with a deep voice. Veda was sure he was male.

"Blessed be the progenitors," Veda said ritually, holding up her hand in a starburst pattern.

"And blessed be their relics, to enlighten those they left behind," the man chanted. The door closed behind him. He drew back his hood.

He was humanoid, but bald. The two with him left their hoods up. Veda was pretty sure one was a woman, but she couldn't tell about the third. They all had the same golden starburst logo on their chests. They were members of the Order of the Progenitors, and from the symbol that the bald man held, he was very high up, probably an archbishop.

Veda wasn't a member of the Order of the Progenitors herself. Her grandmother had been, and she'd been raised in some of the rites and customs, but as an adult had drifted toward the Blessing of the Void sect instead. Still, all of the rituals and words came right back to her. And here, at the opening of a new reality engine, the old beliefs felt more impactful. "How may I aid your quest?" she said, keeping her eyes averted, while still being able to see the man's expression.

He lowered his badge of office. "I am Patriarch Kvaltash of the Path of the Seekers," he said.

Veda took a deep breath. The Path of the Seekers were the Order of the Progenitors' knowledge-seeking branch, not the searchers of false hearts, thank the void.

"We are here because you have been making inquiries about selling your interest in Team Twofeather and the Misfits Guild."

Veda raised her eyes to his face before she could stop herself. "You know of them?" she blurted out. "The Order of the Progenitors knows and cares about my team?"

"As the Progenitors watch over us all, so too the Order watches all," the Patriarch intoned. "But yes, we are watching them with interest. We believe one of them has been marked by the reality engine as of particular interest. Not yet as a champion. Perhaps he never shall be, but he is of interest. Therefore we do not wish him to become entangled with any of the Coalitions. Certainly not one who has a link with these unbelievers."

He held up a scrap of Duraplass on which the logo of Proxima Corp featured prominently.

Veda gasped. "You mean they are behind Parshkin Conglomerate as well?"

"Indeed," the Patriarch confirmed.

"But why? Why do they care?"

"That is something that my Order has not yet determined," the Patriarch said. "I assure you we are looking into it with great interest. All you need to know is that this transfer will not take place."

"Yes, Patriarch," Veda bowed her head. "But what should I say?"

"You will merely refuse the deal. We have been watching some of your colleagues' attempts to interfere and are not amused. When the signs point to a Reality Engine maintaining its interest in its closest children, the rest of us should not push that aside in search of profit. Not when we could find a far greater treasure instead. Answers! We have seen this before, and the committee has squandered the chance at learning the truth. This time, it must not be permitted!"

The man's voice took on a fervored tone. The two with him raised their hands and spoke a ritual phrase that Veda repeated. "From the Progenitors came life. From life came knowledge. From knowledge came loss," they said.

"And the step to reverse that loss is knowledge regained once more," the Patriarch said. "Do not worry, daughter. You will be rewarded for your part in this."

"I understand," she said, though she didn't understand any of this. She just wanted the Patriarch and his companions to leave her quarters as quickly as possible. Speaking to one of the Patriarchs of the Order of the Progenitors in the flesh was like flying too close to a sun.

"Then I bid you good day," the Patriarch said. He raised his hood, and a moment later he and the others were gone.

Veda took a moment to compose herself. Then she started her system algorithms, searching for answers. She didn’t fully understand what the Patriarch was talking about. But she did know his interference could change everything.