“Zach Griers is no longer necessary. I, Maeve Marie Newton, designation Starbreaker, will stand in for Pulsar. Unless he has any objections?”
Everyone turned to Eli.
“I accept.” He grinned.
“There you have it. Before we start, it’s disgusting that you all forced Pulsar and Inkmaster into this meeting.” Maeve’s glare was a tangible thing that had George reeling. “So let’s see what you’re wasting our time with.”
“Noted.” Jane made a literal note on a notebook in front of her. “I’m surprised to see such an esteemed Delver paired not only to Inkmaster, but to Pulsar as well. One has a history of several infractions, while the other is an empty file with only a single paper referring to a witnessed slaying of a Starwraith. Peculiar, don’t you think?”
“You want to try that again?” Maeve’s face was blank, despite the clearly restrained tempest in her eyes. “We’re not here to discuss me, but Pulsar.”
“I apologize for my colleague, Starbreaker.” George cleared his throat with a sticking cough. “We got an anonymous tip that Pulsar here was linked with this APD report and newspaper article.”
“Anything to say about that?” Jane asked Eli with a pointed tap of her finger on the paper showing him in the sky.
Eli opened his mouth before a sly pulse in what must be planar space tickled against his skin and spatial field. Letters scrawled across his mind’s eye. Say no comment. Just in case you don’t know, only your DRC identity matters. So if they ask, your real identity or Herbert’s doesn’t exist to them unless you share it. You are only Pulsar, now.
“No comment.” Vigilant Muse helped keep his composure even as he fought to frown. What the fuck was even happening? How was Maeve here? Did Zach call for her or something?
“Your powers seem to share a striking similarity to this spawn or person here.” Jane pressed. She clicked her pen compulsively. Her eyes bored into Eli’s without a hint of her blinking.
Eli turned to look at Maeve, but she just fiddled with the lever at the bottom of her chair so she could recline farther. Her eyes seemed to spark with the unfathomable weight of thunderstorms bearing down on the earth. But she said nothing.
George shifted in his chair before he spoke.
“You also displayed a remarkable ability to punch above your color class. Very few greens could defeat a blue like that. Not to mention, fewer reds could help enough to make a difference.” George said as a flash of Dream or another power inscribed a bunch of images lifted from his delve and duels onto blank sheets of paper. “APD has a fairly substantial success rate with stray spawn or the average unruly citizen. So how did they fail last Wednesday night and how are you connected enough for an anonymous person to tell us and not the authorities with APD or the Delving Regulation Committee?”
“It would make sense. From what we and our viewers have seen, you are far from average.” Jane smiled with a tilt of her head. “It would be reasonable, likely even that you could be or have a relation to this image. I think our anonymous tip is accurate. What about you, Inkmaster? Starbreaker?”
“I really couldn’t say.” Zach grimaced as everyone turned to look at him.
“Really? Because my assistant Daisy found this lovely video on one of your invite-only websites, Inkmaster.” Jane pulled out her phone, flipped it over, and set it in the center of the table. A holographic projection flickered above her phone.
It was a grainy video of Eli fighting the Starwraith.
Wisps of dim lumencloud streamed all over the field as he and the Starwraith exchanged blows. Eli watched as the small figure of himself blasted forward with a blinding fist that splintered the Starwraith’s jaw. His other hand shot into its ribcage before the spawn imploded on itself.
“Do we all need to sit around and act like that clearly isn’t Pulsar?” Jane paused. “No? Great. Take it away George.”
“Here, you display a lot of the hallmarks your build has now. You clearly have a light storm ability and transformation capabilities either through your Body stat or something else. It doesn’t matter, but if this is you, then you clearly have a lot of potential.” George smiled gently, despite the harsh intensity of Maeve’s withering glare.
“He does, doesn’t he? What do you think, Pulsar? I’d hate to see you waste what you could be. Are you afraid of the police? We can make any possible charges go away.”
“We only need the tru—“
“This is getting old fast. What do you want?” Maeve tapped her fingernail on the tabletop with a soft click. Granular crystals grew from the sound as she repeated the action. “We all know you don’t have any authority. So, what do you want out of Pulsar and his ‘potential’?”
“Are you threatening us?” Jane narrowed her eyes at the growing grains of crystal.
“What do you mean? I just tapped my finger.” Maeve smiled disarmingly, but Eli didn’t miss how Zach’s face paled at the sight of the crystal now the size of a bead. “The only threat I see here is how you’re trying to coerce Pulsar into… what, exactly? You want to sign him on for exclusive rights to your gaudy tournaments? Trap him in a contract in case he gets big? All you’re doing is trying to scare us. You aren’t the DRC, hell, I’m the closest one here to being a rep for them.”
“Delver’s Dive would nev—“
“You or your company have before. Why not now?” Maeve leaned forward as George and Jane instantly pulled back. “I won’t let you ruin that potential you see for fucking profit.”
“I hope you’ll enjoy repeating this conversation with the police, then. We are duty bound to pass this information on” Jane crossed her arms with a triumphant smirk. Eli couldn’t help but notice how her pupils drowned her irises. Droplets of sweat shimmered on her brow.
“This evidence is circumspect at best.” Maeve raised an eyebrow. “
“Does it fucking matter? It’s obvious that Pulsar here is suspicious somehow.”Jane continued to rant while Eli tuned her out. They were just going in circles now.
Eli flexed Artificer’s Nullstar to probe the shell of Dream trapping him. He felt a tug from somewhere far away, but still relatively close. With enough time, he could probably teleport or cut his wristband so he could leave. He almost tried to sever it right then and there before he stopped himself. It’d be better to ask first. No point in tipping his hand needlessly and making things worse.
“Can I leave now? It doesn’t sound like you have anything substantial.” Eli pushed himself up although he knew he was actually piloting a Dream projection. Space tugged his real body up in his cell.
“I agree. This is clearly a ploy.” Maeve stood up with a scoff. “Push this and I’ll report you two and Delver’s Dive for this. If you want Pulsar so badly, try to reach him through the DRC like you’re supposed to.”
“Wait!” George stood up. “You’re right, we need—“
“George, don’t!” Jane hissed.
“—Pulsar to sign with us. It doesn’t matter whether or not that’s him in the article. We’ll be able to take him far. Very far. It’s in his best interest to sign with us! Imagine what he could do at the tournament after the Tri-Delve Cup! A few months with our trainers and Pulsar could have what it takes to win the Green bracket or even place well in Blue if he decides to slot another stat.”
“He doesn’t need to sign with you to participate, if he even wants to.” Maeve crossed her arms. “Fuck both of you for this and for wasting not only our time, but my time for the stupidest bullshit I’ve ever heard.”
She turned to leave while Zach and Eli followed.
Vigilant Muse helped Eli navigate what he felt of space around his real body. His fingers clasped around the wristband so he could pry it off and get away from here.
“We’ll provide serums and power gems!” George shouted. “Mem-Dreams, a Ghost, anything! Whatever you want, we’ll get it!”
“We don’t have a budget that high for a green.” Jane hissed.
“If he can have Starbreaker represent him then he can definitely go the distance. Think of what he could do! Imagine the bonuses we’ll get for signing him on, Jane!”
“I’m not interested.” Eli said over his shoulder as they walked toward the door. Vigilant Muse helped him track their incentives so he could look it up later. Already in his vault, textbooks fluttered as he searched for those terms. Zach stood up as he rushed over to Maeve to talk to her.
“I’m sorry. Right after I messaged you, they pulled me out of my dive. They wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“Don’t apologize to me, Zach.” She grunted as she turned toward Eli. “End your dive and meet me up front. We need to talk.”
He nodded before flipping the two kidnappers off. A series of prompts flickered across his vision. A minuscule starblade sliced through the wristband on his real body.
Pressure swept across his head. Hooks clamped into his mind as the connection between him and his projected body tore. Elasticity snapped. Eli stumbled as he toppled into his real body with a lurch.
Green waxy paper crumpled beneath him on the floor before it vanished into his vault. Cunning atomic enchantments spread all throughout its structure at a far higher level and evolution than he was capable of, but he felt inspired by what he could potentially learn from it.
Mazelike corridors blurred together as he walked out and hurried toward the lobby so he could pick up his winnings.
Spatial pulses clacked into Herbert’s phone screen in his vault. Text messages sent off to Roman and the others, he finally let himself check his notifications from the fight and his purchases. He had also leveled up Vigilant Muse and Artificer’s Nullstar quite a bit.
Power: Cybermancer’s Tech Ev. 3 [Cost: 350 GP] Power: Phytomancer’s Regency Ev. 3 [Cost: 400 GP] Perk: Control Water [Cost: 10 GP] Perk: Control Air [Cost: 10 GP] Perk: Perception [Cost: 10 GP] Stolen novel; please report. Perk: Cloud [Cost: 15 GP] Perk: Navigate [Cost: 15 GP] Perk: Farsense [Cost: 15 GP] Perk: Mirage [Cost: 20 GP] Perk: Warp [Cost: 20 GP] [Total Cost: 865 GP] [Game Point Balance: 6,782 GP]> Artificer’s Nullstar Ev. 0 You may now select from one of the following options: Evolve Power Obtain New Power N/A N/A> Eli couldn’t wait until this was behind him so he could finish grinding out Vigilant Muse. He was tempted to merge it with Artificer’s Nullstar, but it felt like Artificer’s Nullstar was full and further merging would diminish it right now. Visions of being able to turn space itself into a vessel for his mind evaporated for the moment. Maybe that’s how Lumencloud Transfiguration would be after he evolved and slotted it at evo-2. Regardless, it was practically time to evolve Artificer’s Nullstar. After he spoke with Maeve, Roman, and the delve team he’d be able to take that last step “Hello, how can I help you?” asked the male receptionist with a practiced, friendly smile as he stepped up to the desk. A name tag pinned to the front of his shirt read ‘Jared’. “Hi, I’m here to pick up my cash out card?” Eli returned the smile with ease. Vigilant Muse helped him compartmentalize his upset over being forced into a meeting for recruitment. This power would have been a lifesaver when he worked fast food a year ago before he quit. “Excellent. Let’s sync this up here…” Jared said while he pulled out a plastic card from under the desk. He tapped it against the tablet. “Great, now if you can sign your name and let it interface with your system, we’ll be all set.” Eli suppressed a frown while he pushed the side of his finger against the warm glass. He didn’t want to give them his fingerprints or anything, if that was even a concern here. It seemed like a lot of their technology relied entirely on Dream powers to make them work as well as they do. User is: Elias Newton [Alias: Pulsar]> Hues of verdant green shimmered across the card as it saturated the cheap plastic. Dark lettering stamped itself across the face of the card with the Delver’s Dive logo in the corner and the name PULSAR in the center. Eli stuck it into his pocket with a nod as he slipped it into his vault. He turned around so he could exit out the side doors where Maeve and Zach were already waiting. New smudges of ink coated Zach’s porcelain pale cheeks. Maeve looked impeccable, as always. “What are you doing here?” Maeve frowned at Eli. “Don’t you have finals this week?” “Yeah, but the Delve team wanted to go here instead for practice.” He shrugged while heat nipped at him. She told him to stop, to hurry up and disappear. Now she came to save him? “What are you doing here? Not that I’m not grateful or anything, but you were pretty clear about what you thought last time we talked.” “I’ve had a chance to think over some things. You deserve the benefit of the doubt, at least for now. Besides, I like the drive you have. The edge. I want to see what you can do.” She glanced to the side as Zach tried to slip away. Lightning flared out in a crackling whip as it snared around his waist. He sagged in defeat while Maeve continued talking. “By the way, Mom and Dad know and they’ll be coming up tomorrow or Tuesday. They want to see you.” “I… I’d like that.” Eli choked on a sudden well of emotion. He wanted nothing more than exactly that. Relief thawed in his chest. He missed his own family, but he was eager to meet their counterparts. Excited to be accepted and welcomed by Maeve and, hopefully, the rest of them. “So… can I go now?” Zach tugged against the glittering chain of lightning. “You owe my brother.” Maeve pinned the squirming man with a glare. “You ratted him out to Delver’s Dive, of all places. Zachary Griers, you are a very lucky man. That could’ve turned out much worse.” Zach winced as the chain crackled with a fresh burst of static. He muttered, “It already turned out pretty bad.” Eli suppressed a blush of embarrassment as he noticed several people loitering outside the entrances, including the security guards, staring at them. Space spread around him as he listened to people talking about the publicly known persona of the Starbreaker. Three people walked out of Delver’s Dive with a ripple through space. Dorian and Nora rushed over to Maeve practically at the speed of force and sound. “Maeve! By the Savior, I can’t believe you’re here! Did you see our fight?” Dorian almost squealed as he shook her offered hand enthusiastically. Afterward, Nora pulled her into a quick embrace. “I haven’t seen you since you took the team out to Harbor Rock for ice cream! How was the gorgon dungeon you were telling us about?” Nora bounced before Maeve could answer Dorian. Roman walked up beside Eli with his hands shoved into his pockets. Something felt different about him. “What happened back there?” Roman asked casually, but Eli felt the tension shrouded around his friend. “Got forced into a bullshit recruitment meeting.” Eli said while the world blackened around them as Maeve planeshifted them. He narrowed his eyes as his spatial field snagged on another familiar person. What was Lacey doing here? “Alright, it should be safe for us all to talk now.” Maeve called as the darkness continued to spread. Eli’s feeling of space detached further and further as the purity of planar space consumed his lesser understanding. “But first, I need to check something.” “What?” Eli asked as the woman reappeared beside him with a flicker of power. His backpack and bracelet that were no longer suppressed by the Dream power vanished into her hands. “Where and how did you get this?” Maeve let the backpack drop as she pulled out the shimmering faceted power gem. The spider bracelet hung, spinning from her fingers. “Cleared a Crucible delve on permadeath.” Eli shrugged despite her withering glare. “Savior’s Peace, I keep forgetting how little you actually know…” Maeve’s eyes widened before she reappeared in front of Dorian and Nora. “Speaking of. What do you two know?” “Everything. Roman told us.” Dorian bowed his head while everyone turned toward him. Zach’s eyes shone with interest. “What do we all know?” He asked nonchalantly before he vanished from planar space with a plop as Maeve ejected him. “Fine.” Maeve sighed. “Don’t tell anyone else, not even Romulus’s family.” “Like they’d contact him.” Nora snorted with clear disdain. “Les spent Christmas break over with my family. They forgot about him entirely.” “I see.” Maeve rubbed her forehead for a second before she nodded. “First of all, Eli, it’s very risky to take on any dungeon with permadeath. The System is generally pretty nice to delvers by giving us somewhat of a safety net, but none of that remains with permadeath. Not even in people run dungeons like Delver’s Dive. It clears that instance of a dungeon forever or it eats you. You’d feed yourself and your powers to a dungeon and the System to use as it saw fit.” “Oh.” Eli winced as Nora glared at him again with the same fury she had that morning when he had cleared it. “But you can also get exceptional rewards from it. This is an uncommon power gem bound to you and only you unless you trade it away with your system like a power.” She hefted the gem in her palm. “You can use this to Initialize a new custom power, upgrade, level, or evolve a power outright, modify your system. Hell, I’ve heard rumors of people finding rare or legendary ones that they used to create new stat or equipped power slots.” “I heard someone once removed a slotted stat power entirely with one.” Dorian whispered while he kept a wary eye on the gem. “But they’re a bit… unwieldy. And they aren’t instant either.” Maeve continued with a slight nod at Dorian. “They can be a bit hard to use for more obscure uses. Most people channel one of their powers through it and call it a day.” “Have you ever used one?” Roman asked curiously while he peered into the shifting labyrinth of fractals inside of it. “Eh, small ones. Poor power gems are common rewards for regular delves. Used a lot to powerlevel without a penalty, but they’re worth more money than they are experience. I don’t know what the hell you did to earn an uncommon one, though.” “So, what should I use this one for?” Eli asked as he held his hand out for the gem. Maeve placed it back in his hand. His immediate first thought was to improve Artificer’s Nullstar. Make it as capable as he could to sense or feel dimensional and planar space. Or even see if he could Initialize a power capable of dimensional travel. Maybe he could even improve Body of Light. Although changing his system sounded interesting, too. Could he make the System give him more of a description on the different powers and their rarities? Both for what powers he had and even others? “Whatever you want. But do it later. I’m taking you and Roman to my hotel after dropping Nora and Dorian off. I need to talk to you two about plans and about what happened.” She glanced at him before space brightened around them. Anchora University’s campus gates rose around them as they popped back into realspace. Quite a few streams of students moved in and out of the gate with them stopping at their sudden arrival. Multiple people gawked at them. At Maeve with gasps of her alias, ‘Starbreaker’ echoing around them. “That was fun. Let’s do it again sometime.” Dorian said as he extended his hand to shake both Roman’s and Eli’s hand before he waited for Nora to say her farewell. “I hope you both reconsider about the Tri-Delve, but if you don’t or can’t find a way back home, let us know. We’d love to hang out again in the summer after finals.” Nora smiled before she turned to walk with Dorian back onto the campus while they held hands. Space bled around them again. A small hotel room bloomed into existence. Roman stumbled from the whiplash of slingshotting through regular and planar space so rapidly. He pushed his hand to his forehead for a moment before he straightened. “Congratulations on your blow against Dorian, Roman.” Maeve nodded at him once he settled on one of the office chairs Eli created out of a stored copy from his desk back home. “He’s been worthy of a delve name for a while, but he keeps refusing one. What you did was really impressive, especially for a red.” “Thanks.” Roman nodded at her before he turned to Eli. “What the fuck happened back there? What’s going on? I thought you both had a fight.” “We did. I got upset.” Maeve shrugged before she sighed. “But I feel like I overreacted a little. I still dislike how you tried to pretend to be Herbert. That pisses me off, but I think I get it a little. And I mostly just want to help you both get home now. Being mad doesn’t help anyone.” “If it helps, I’m sorry too. To both of you.” Eli fidgeted with the power gem in his hands. “I made a lot of excuses, but I haven’t been acting the best. I want to fix this.” “You don’t want to wait first?” Maeve raised her eyebrow. “No, I want to see if this is the answer first. Delver’s Dive had nothing related to dimensional travel or anything useful like that, but maybe this will help me push my spatial powers in that direction or help in another way.” “Is it safe?” Roman asked warily while Maeve nodded. “Yeah, the System doesn’t hand out anything that will hurt the user too often without some kind of benefit.” Eli took a deep steadying breath before he pushed Artificer’s Nullstar into and through the dizzying bands and edges of the power gem. Reflections refracted in a chain of thrumming power. It pulsed against his hand like a second heartbeat as the power built. Space swirled around him as the concept seemed to elongate. His System resonated with the gem as it, the gem, and his power connected. Then it failed with a harsh click. A notification blared into his eyes and ears as he almost dropped it. “It failed. System said its quality is too low. Let me think for a bit on how to use it.” Eli leaned back into his chair with a sigh as he unstuck the gem from his sweaty palm. He thought about his other powers. Vigilant Muse was the next main contender. It felt pretty full from all the perks he used to build it, but he could probably find a way to improve it. Make it so he could split it for multiple thought processes going on at once? But maybe he could do that already. It wasn’t even maxed out yet. Lumencloud Transfiguration also felt full. Solid. He supposed he could push it to have more of a storm aspect or even space. But that also felt like a waste. It wasn’t that long ago that he figured out how to create electricity with it. Besides, he wanted to wait until he was back home so he could talk to Dad about it. Nothing else was a candidate really… Eli bolted upright as he turned toward Maeve, who sat across from Roman at the dinky hotel table. He had various sheets of paper scattered across the tabletop. “Wait, you said this could modify the System too?” He asked with a blink as he teleported closer to the table to look at what they had laid out in front of them. Schematics for different kinds of machines littered the table, but in the center was a sort of stage with a doorway on top of it. It looked like a sci-fi rendition of a portal. Enchantments in the pages helped him visualize the core idea and concept of it. A machine that would sense where the user wanted to go which would create a bridge to take them there. “Yes. It can modify the System. Think of the change you want to make and it’ll approve it or not.” Maeve said absently while she read through the explanation Roman had written in the margins. Eli read it too until he came to the words ‘dimensional and spatial travel’ before he looked up at the excited, but also extremely nervous face of his friend. “What is this?” “It’s a potential way back home. I haven’t been able to make it work yet, but it’s promising. Working on this and my suits has been my main focus since we’ve arrived.” Roman looked away. Irritation flashed in Eli’s chest, mingled with relief and gratitude. Eli said he would handle it. He was almost there. Now he could sense the faintest edge of dimensional and planar space. It was just at the boundary of Artificer’s Nullstar. After he evolved it he could very well sense it for real. Why couldn’t he wait? Vigilant Muse prickled at him. Memories of Roman tinkering like he always did in their dorm room, working on schematics and diagrams with Romulus’s friend Jane in the library. He had been gone half the time whenever Eli came back to the dorm room lately, too. Eli hadn’t even noticed. Hadn’t even cared to ask. He opened his mouth to apologize, to explain how he had been caught up with his own stuff this whole time, but he closed it for a second before he asked something else. “How can I help?” Eli set the power gem aside while he flexed Artificer’s Nullstar and Vigilant Muse so he could parse through the pages faster. He knew next to nothing about the various fields of engineering, but he knew about space. Galleries of diagrams and paragraphs of text stored themselves in his vault while he read. Maybe they could figure out a way around the power gem’s restriction so Roman could use this to help make his machine work. Or with Artificer’s Nullstar and whatever it’d become after he evolved it soon, they could take that next step together. All it would take was time and plenty of experimentation.