It had been a few years since I’d been in Vegas in person, and the height of all the buildings there still got to me.

Home might have been a city, but there was a difference between a city and a city that was more and more clear every time I went into one of the latter.

That wasn’t really the primary focus, though, as I looked around mostly at ground level, categorizing the people around the Vegas primary teleport point.

Mostly people passing through, but I pegged at least four of the “enforcer” types I’d talked to Mark about. More importantly, I was able to find the small group of more obviously “security” people posted around the exit and pretending to try not to look like they were looking at me.

It was a decent effort, but not primarily a show for someone who might be trying to avoid them.

“Hey guys. You’re watching me for the guilds.” I said. I’d usually have made that a question, but the flatter delivery was important for who I’d be playing for the duration of my stay in Vegas.

If Alex and Novsha could be the same person, then I could spend two weeks being someone else to help her out.

That had made way too much fucking sense the instant that it came out. Effortlessly ahead of basically everyone else, vaguely threatening focus and coldness, attractiveness that seemed halfway between unconscious and weaponized?

Frankly, it was embarrassing that I hadn’t seen it before.

“If you’re Cadire…” the guy in from of me rumbled.

I looked him up and down, confirming the guild symbol of the Haunts on to of his gear pieces, and checked his two companions. The woman had Luck’s Shadow markings, and the other man had Appraise the Stakes. Not the three largest guilds, and the biggest, front-guy wasn’t specifically Luck’s Shadow.

Probably specifically not Luck’s Shadow.

“I am. Since the meeting is going to have at least thirteen, where are you taking me?” I asked, activating the recall beacon from the belt I was wearing. If we moved too far, I’d need to reset it, but I hoped that that wouldn’t be necessary.

“Up the nearest building. Most of them are already waiting.”

I grinned pointedly, and the guy shifted in place before looking away. The woman behind him raised an eyebrow and smirked, before she gestured to the building they were talking about.

It had been years since I’d dealt with her face to face, but it was still disturbingly easy to channel Novsha for just a moment. “I suppose I’ll lead the way, then. Do be sure to tell me which buttons to press.”

====

The room itself seemed to have been built on some nerd’s idea of the specifications of what could only be a council of Bond villains. Ornamentation that would have made a degree of semi-sophisticated sense in isolation were scattered around into a room that they appeared to have made into a tridecagon specifically for the purposes of surrounding whomever it was on trial.

Each corner had its own feeling to it, determined by the guild leader sitting there, but the edges between each section appeared to have been a little bit too blurry to effectively manage to make it not seem ridiculous.

That, or they didn’t care. Game, after all.

Either way, walking in with my head held high and sitting in the plain rotating chair there was simultaneously physically easy and mentally intimidating. While I’d come in from one of the sides and been let in, I could see several easy ways for them to shut off basically every avenue for leaving and several enchantments on the ground that would have intercepted some of the more basic forms of teleportation.

“Cadire, formerly of Third,” Geist, leader of Haunts, said from behind me. I turned around slowly, acknowledging them with a nod. I would have liked to think that they were just speaking in that order, but the setup of the room and the fact that the first one had been from nearly directly behind me said that this was the point of the room.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Annoying, but I’d looked into this on the way.

“That would be me, yes.”

The next one was a little off to the side, but behind me again.

“You’re quite cocky for someone who’s been a crafter so far. It’s surprising you followed our security up here when you don’t have a safe way out.”

I only had the one way out, annoyingly, and it was a consideration I weighed for a few seconds while staring Holdem down, her overly casual demeanor basically confirming for me that she just didn’t believe that I had.

“Who’s to say I don’t? There’s more than one way I could have gotten through the runes I see on your floor here, plus a collection of others I’m sure you have but just aren’t showing.”

A true statement, but also an exaggeration of my abilities. I didn’t actually know whether they had additional countermeasures, nor what they were, but assuming they did was probably good enough.

From behind me, again. “Interesting. I’d love to ask what they are, but we could talk about that all week. And it’s not what we’re here for. You can’t think we don’t know why you’re here.”

I raised an eyebrow during my slow turn, pulling my right ankle onto my left knee to add to the portrayed confidence of it. “Of course. I do think I’d like to know what you think of those reasons.”

“Personal. Disagreements with the LA guilds. Particularly Alliance, which we’ve been able to trace to a likely loyalty to Novsha.”

I smiled, making it a slow process to avoid any obvious cramping of it. “Partially, yes. Novsha had a habit of being owed more than she collects, despite what she’d tell you. FD solidarity plays into it a bit, but there’s also a big part of me that just likes to stick it to targets deserving– or, sometimes, just interesting.”

“Not all of us like you running off your current allegiances.” That voice, Davien of Tossed, wasn’t nearly as behind me as the others had been so far– more of a quarter-turn than a full half.

“Understandable. But there was also the very simple consideration– if I’d stayed, Third would have almost certainly been ganged up on, a la FD’s final days. What was I supposed to do? LA’s system of five and tributaries isn’t nearly as stable in a shift of power as what you have here.” I said, as if explaining something they already knew. It was even, on a level, true. Thirteen divisions meant Vegas could respond more completely to one of the guilds shooting out ahead of the others, but it also meant that they hadn’t crushed every non-tributary guild.

I could see the faces around the room accepting that explanation even as a few of the faces took on that greedy I’d seen too many times in trying to find a guild. Before, it had been the impeccable quality and efficiency of my work that had drawn that look, but now?

The rune in Alex’s possession was more than worth putting up with a flighty member, and they apparently didn’t have enough confidence that a kill attempt would be a success.

I could see where Novsha had been attached to the rush of energy that shot through me at the realization.

Worrying,

“And how do we even know that you have the rune?” Joy, Luck’s Shadow’s leader, asked.

Behind me, again, and I took the time to face her. At this point, she was probably the most recognizable member of any of the Vegas guilds, partially for the fact that her avatar was the kind of incredibly attractive that drew attention inherently, partially for her ability to seem like the to harmless person in the room, and mostly because, unlike every other guild in the room, Luck’s Shadow had not been one of the original thirteen.

They’d crushed another guild so thoroughly that they’d been handed the seat at the table.

I debated a number of ways I could play into what Alex had told me, but I was realizing that, as tired as she had been this morning, I hadn’t really had the opportunity to fully understand the rune, leaving me in a difficult position.

If anything came out about how she was using it in LA, it wouldn’t be difficult to figure out that I didn’t have the rune, leaving my own position precarious and the whole distraction ruse screwed.

The only thing that came to mind was to channel Novsha again. “You don’t.”

Joy looked mildly surprised for a moment, then blew out a laugh. “Of course not. We will need proof before we offer you any positions, obviously.”

“The quest is a little strange,” I started, hoping that it was true, “And long. I can get you an item using it, but it may take me until tomorrow.”

A gravelly voice, once again behind me. Ahab, The Rigging. “Tomorrow. For one item, with one rune.”

I turned to him, leaning back in the chair. “Yes. Never mind, of course, that that literally wouldn’t work with this rune, nor my own reputation for quality. I will, of course, drop a rune that doesn't do anything in front of you right this instant.”

Speculation. Baseless, beyond the name of the rune.

They seemed to buy it.

There was some sort of signal, and the tones of voice around me shifted more conversational as they talked about which guild I’d eventually be let into, and the divisions of where items I made would go.

I debated, for a moment, asking to be dismissed from the meeting.

Ultimately, I decided on a show of force. “I appreciate the meeting. Send your men to the same place tomorrow.”

I disappeared from in front of them, a flash of dust, light, and sound marking my exit, and appeared, silently and without flash, where I’d set the mark before and instantly activating the invisibility on the band wrapped around my leg.

Tomorrow, they wouldn’t know what hit them. Assuming I was able to get Alex to send me something, at least. If she didn’t, this would be even more complicated.