Cadan wasted no time once all of us, minus Fen, were seated in Dark Eternity’s conference room. “My favorite group returns, but it looks like you’re one short. Did you bring any souvenirs for me?”
“We’ll see,” I said, keeping my voice level. “The first thing you should know is that we put the relic we found in the temple in a deadman’s safe—it’s linked to all three of us. If any of us die, the relic is gone for good. You lucked out by not blasting Ether Rogue out of space on our approach to your hangar.”
Good, we’re getting that out in the open early, I thought. Anything we could do to protect ourselves and try to navigate this situation would be for the best. Surprisingly, the return journey from the Strexian temple had been painless. Upon completing the Architect of Ortonan’s arena trials, another wormhole had opened in the sky outside of the temple, and upon calibrating it with an ancient spell tablet we found upon our exit, it brought us back to Dark Eternity’s system.
Cadan shrugged, but without a face or facial expression to read, the gesture carried little weight. “You’ll learn I have no intention of harming any of you eventually. I don’t blame you for putting the relic in a safe. How could I until we’ve had the opportunity to build more trust? I realize I have quite a lot to do to restore whatever has been lost with my previous involvement with Kyle and Dalthaxia. If it's okay with you, one of my officers will join us for our meeting,” he said as we walked into the conference room.
There was a man seated in the chair next to Cadan’s. He was human, middle-aged, heavyset, and wore an expensive-looking business suit accented by a tie that was too tight around the neck. By his appearance, I doubted he took any part in the combat side of Dark Eternity’s operations. He stood to greet us, fixing a smile on his rounded face. “A pleasure. My name is Kavahn, I serve as Dark Eternity’s resource officer and the primary liaison with Romero Mercantile on matters of finance and objective alignment. Cadan has told me quite a lot about you. I'm excited to see your other findings from the temple, it looks like you got a few new pieces of gear while you were there, too.”
As far as I could tell, Cadan hadn't rigged the room with a trap, and there weren't ambushers waiting to kill us and take our loot. I wasn't getting the feeling that we were in immediate danger, but my adrenaline was pumping and my nerves were still frayed from the close encounter we’d all had with death and failure at the temple. “Hello, Kavahn,” I replied, shaking the man’s hand while the rest of my friends made their introductions.
Gwen set the deadman’s safe containing the Strexian relic in the middle of the table like some kind of decorative centerpiece as we took our seats. “Right then, let’s talk.” The safe was a stout metallic box with rounded corners and collapsable handholds covered in chipping yellow paint.
Cadan nodded. “My ideal agenda for this meeting is to inspect your item, consult with Kavahn, and make an offer. I’m thrilled you were successful in completing your expedition, and even more so that you followed through and honored the terms of your contract with my guild. As I’m sure you can appreciate, I hope to make the acquisition today to secure the relic and avoid its loss or the possibility that it falls into the wrong hands.”
“We’ll see,” Gwen said, still keeping her tone polite as she stood and pressed a button on top of the deadman’s safe. “Here’s the transcription.”
I watched Cadan and Kavahn as they parsed through the data. Cadan’s featureless face hid everything, but Kavahn was much less subtle. His face changed from a look of shock to something more resembling extreme satisfaction and desire. They seemed to know more about the Coilmatter Cell than we did, and that put us at a distinct disadvantage.
I gave them another minute before asking for a response. Kavahn nodded to Cadan, saying nothing. I had the feeling they were going to try to lowball us, though I had no idea how to price the relic. “Well?”
Cadan leveled his faceless gaze at Gwen from across the smooth surface of the table. “What’s your freedom worth to you, Gwen? What’s it worth to your friends?”
“My freedom is worth everything to me, Cadan,” Gwen responded, keeping her voice level despite the fear she must have been feeling.
Cadan nodded appreciatively, folding his celestial hands in front of them and setting them on the surface of the table with a metallic clank. “As it is to me. Well, that’s what we can offer on top of the substantial monetary offer Neris Romero has authorized us to make you in exchange for this relic. We can offer you freedom from your Dalthaxian conscription—a way to remove your in-game binds to them despite the fact you so proudly claim your neutrality in the Eternity War.”
“Do you have an item transcription or anything to back up what you're saying?” Gwen asked, sounding more defensive and cautious now. It was the thing Gwen needed most to safely continue playing her way through the Eternity War her way. Without it, she would likely have to take whatever windfall we might acquire from the Strexian relic and divest most of the funds while avoiding real-world detection from Dalthaxian authorities.
Cadan nodded. “Of course, see for yourself. I’m guessing the AI engines generated these items for situations very much like your own. It encourages people to explore parts of the game universe that might have been untouched. Either way, these were very hard to come by, and I doubt you have heard of their existence through other channels.” he passed over the item transcription for us to see.
BINDBREAKER TABLET
Relic. Consumable.
Upon use, the character permanently removes their allegiance to their current faction. This item removes any effects that would force a character to respawn at a set location controlled by their former faction. Bindbreaker Tablet can only be used on player characters and can only remove allegiance to player-controlled factions. The effects of this item cannot be undone. Use of this item destroys it.
Everything was legitimate, and this tablet could offer Gwen her freedom. She would be able to do change her character alignment to neutral and change her respawn point to a place of her choosing.
I wasn’t satisfied. “I understand you haven’t screwed me over yet in the real world, as far as I’m aware, but now that you can get what you want and you might not need to keep me alive any longer. Maybe I'm dangerous to you because I know you're still alive.”
Cadan laughed, a metallic throaty sound without humor. “I am the face of Dark Eternity. I want Dalthaxia to know I'm still breathing and alive. Believe me, they know their assassin screwed up. Do you think Neris Romero would have contacted you and revealed his identity if he had even the faintest suspicion that I planned on turning on you or him? No. We’re putting trust in you because we want you to put trust in us. You've clearly shown your worth, and I hope to create a very lucrative partnership with you and your group.”
I exchanged a glance with Gwen and Brandon, considering what Cadan was saying. We all owned a piece of this decision, and Cadan seemed to be putting all of his cards on the table for once in his life. His offer of the tablet to give Gwen her freedom sweetened the pot. “What's the offer? We know what we have is valuable.” My voice sounded a lot more confident than I felt, and that was good.
Cadan laughed. “Of course you do, and you're right. This is what we’ve been searching for. It's one of the pieces we need to secure a sudden victory in this war. To us, it's worth twenty million credits.”
I had to fight against the urge for my mouth to swing open and hang like a hinged panel. I had expected a low-ball offer, and maybe that's what this was, but it didn't feel like it.
“Oh,” Cadan added before we could respond. “Those are standard credits, not eCr.”
On the way out of Ortonan through the voltaic rift, we had discussed what a best-case payout might look like—coming to the sum of 50 million eCr, only half of what was on the table now. Dealing with Dalthaxia wasn’t an option unless we could find a way around Admiral Nsara, and unless we honored our contract with Dark Eternity's to at least give Cadan the option to make or exceed a counteroffer, Neris Romero and Dark Eternity would be added to our list of enemies. This was our best way to minimize our risk and secure our credits.
“How do you propose to pay?" I asked, knowing a payment even a fraction of that sum would be flagged by Dalthaxian AI if we tried to withdraw or move it into hot accounts that had an association with the Dalthaxian Alliance. Going from eCr to standard credits would pose as much of a problem—and shadier third-party solutions would either bleed us dry with fees or fail to support the withdrawals entirely.
Cadan nodded, considering the question. “I'm glad you asked. Since Neris Romero will be funding your payment, you need to understand that liquidity in this amount is… difficult. There are a few options. If you want the payment strictly in eCr, we can pay it out over three months. If you want it in standard credits in the form of instant transfers or wire transactions, it will take three times as long, but you also risk Dalthaxia catching onto your trail if you’re reckless. We are paying so much because we want to invest in a future relationship with you. This is only a fraction of what’s on the table if you work with us and help us win this war.”
“You don't need to tell us twice about the risk of Dalthaxia. We're all too aware,” Gwen said bitterly before turning to the rest of us. “I think we're all good with the offer, but is everyone okay with selling if we can hammer out the terms of the deal?”
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I evaluated the question, still somewhat indecisive. Cadan hadn't screwed us over yet, and maybe he hated Dalthaxia as much as he claimed. The relic was going to be burning a hole in our pocket until we could sell it.
Brandon answered first. “I'm good if the rest of you are.”
I sighed. “Cadan, I'm not eager to do business with you, but I'm not going to let my pride get in the way of a deal like this, especially since I have other people to consider.”
“Okay then. There's no doubt that the amount in question is fair enough,” Gwen considered. “But I think you'll appreciate that we'll need a substantial portion of this payout up front, delivered in eCr.”
Cadan exchanged a glance with Kavahn who offered him an easy smile. Seemingly content, Cadan faced us again. “Certainly. We can offer you thirty percent up front right now before you release the item from the safe then the rest over equal payments. The rest will be delivered in accordance with the bill of sale. You decide the split and provide your Eternity Online account links so we can transfer the credits.”
If everything looked good, we were about to have more money than I would have earned in my entire life many times over—even after it was split four ways. Gwen would have her freedom, Brandon could get his sister out of the Dalthaxian Slums, Fen would be able to leave whatever isolated station she called home, and I would have more money than I could ever know what to do with.
Gwen took a deep breath, pausing before speaking. “Okay. Let's review the contract. If we sign and your payment goes through for the first 30%, we'll release the deadman's safe. I want the tablet up front too. I'm not going to budge on that.”
Cadan raised both his hands. “I wouldn't dare ask you to do otherwise. Take a look at the terms and let us know if you need some privacy to discuss anything.”
Kavahn sent over an AIAO prompt with the information to each of us, sliding the data tablet across the table that we could use to read the contract, allocate payment details, and make the deal when we were ready.
After 10 minutes of review, we signed away our treasure. Cadan slid the Bindbreaker Tablet across the table to Gwen as Kavahn initiated an eCr transfer to our accounts—an even four-way split down the line on a 30% payment, Fen’s portion set aside into a new account for when she could retrieve it.
An AIAO flashed in my vision, alerting me that 7.5 million eCr had hit my account as an irreversible transaction. Suddenly, I found I wasn't concerned about the insurance payout for the loss of Exowurm, even if I did miss the hell out of that ship.
Gwen's face ignited into a smile as the tablet she was holding digitized, disappearing into thin air. “It worked. I'm free.” She immediately released the lock on the deadman's safe, disabling the functionality.
Cadan lifted the Coilmatter Cell out of the safe with reverence, examining it and confirming it matched the previous transcription we had shown him. “Excellent. We’re good to go. You'll get the rest of your payment over time as agreed. I’ll be in touch when I’d like you to come work for me again. I understand if you’d like to wait for the payments from this contract to clear in full.”
“Okay then. Thanks, Cadan,” I said, surprised things had gone well so far. Even if no more money came, we would be set for life. If we got the full sum of money, we’d be able to become almost anything we wanted—as long as we were careful to dodge Dalthaxian law inside and out of Eternity Online.
“One more thing, Cadan,” Gwen said, leveling her expression.
“Hmm?” he asked.
“We need to do some work on Ether Rogue. Need a new transponder that can be encoded with a new ship ID and name. We could probably use a new paint job too. The make and model isn’t that common from what I’ve seen. We need to be able to dock at neutral stations without drawing attention.”
Cadan seemed to consider this. “I’ll take care of it and cover the cost. It’s an expensive job, but I have mechanics and slicers with the skill needed to get it done right. I’m assuming you want this done before you depart?”
Gwen nodded. “Yes.”
“All right. We’ll put in the work order now. If you’ll be so kind as to return to your ship while my people work, we’ll have you out of here in no time.”
I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of staying at Dark Eternity’s station longer, but Gwen was right. Until we could mask Ether Rogue’s real identity, we’d be putting ourselves at unnecessary risk of attracting Dalthaxia’s attention.
We said our goodbyes to Cadan, taking the empty deadman’s safe and walking back to Ether Rogue with Gwen’s freedom in Eternity Online, and bank accounts filled to the brim with eCr.
“What now?” Gwen asked, fixing her beautiful eyes on me as we boarded Ether Rogue. The technicians were still working on the exterior of the ship, repainting Ether Rogue a matte black. They had made quick work of the transponder switch under Gwen’s supervision, and all we needed to do now was code in the new ship name. It’s maintenance records, bills of sale, docking logs, and everything else had already been fabricated, telling a new story that wouldn’t draw suspicion. There would be people looking out for our exact make and model, but to Dalthaxia, it would look like a simple false positive—like someone was a little too eager to cash in an information requisition bounty.
I shrugged. “Back to work in the real world for me, I guess. I’d say our partnership is off to a great start. We’ve all secured enough credits to buy better lives for ourselves, but are we really safe enough from Dalthaxia?” I asked, wanting to get a read on how the others were feeling. I wasn’t confident, even with a literal fortune to my name.
Brandon shook his head, his voice taking on a darker tone as he answered my question. “None of us are safe right now. This fortune comes with great cost and danger for us all. We need to look into the possibility of buying into immunity, but we also can't put ourselves in danger from Neris Romero during the process. This money might be enough to buy our lives if Salgon wins, but with Dalthaxia, I'm not so sure.”
“We have a lot to consider,” Gwen agreed. “But I think we have all earned a much-needed break and celebration, even if it is short lived.”
She couldn't have been more right. We deserved the chance to breathe and to appreciate an outstanding victory against dangerous odds.
I should have felt more triumphant at our success, but didn’t. I felt hollow and tired. Fen was gone, and she had so selflessly thrown herself in front of a crossbow bolt that would have killed Gwen for sure—all because she had known Gwen had the better chance of escaping Dalthaxia in death.
If I was being honest with myself, I didn't expect we would be able to reunite with Fen anytime soon, maybe ever. It was a harsh reminder that our deaths would put us in a similar situation unless we had the opportunity to change our respawn point away from somewhere Dalthaxia was stationed. Until we were physically on another station, there would be nothing we could do to save ourselves. Since Gwen was in our party, her respawn point with the Bindbreaker Tablet had automatically been set to Vrenn like ours. The first order of business would be finding somewhere safe and low-key to call home.
“We do deserve a chance to celebrate," Brandon commented, fixing the Metalbound's wicked bladed to the armored composite on his right wrist. He tested out the deployment mechanism, lancing his arm forward with powerful intent. The cruel, angular obsidian blade slid forward on its spring-loaded track, clicking into place and extending nearly a meter past his arm. Despite the size, it looked surprisingly lightweight and lethal. Brandon grinned, retracting the blade and letting the ancient weapon shrink through some fusion of Strexian magic and technology. “I think this suits me nicely.”
The massive crossbow from the Shadow of Ortonan was the only piece of gear we probably wouldn't use as a squad. Brandon was the only one who could realistically wield the weapon with anything that resembled proficiency due to its ungainly weight and size, but with the accurized slug rounds his shotgun relied on, Brandon already had surprising range capabilities on what would have been an otherwise short-ranged weapon. Fen hadn't spoken, but it was clear she wouldn't have wanted the weapon.
“A moment, Kyle?” Gwen asked, standing from her flight chair.
Brandon grinned at me. “Make it quick, lovebirds. And stay away from my crafting chair. We start work soon, Kyle, and I don't think you’ll be able to keep taking all this time off, even as a secret millionaire.”
I shook my head at Brandon, trying to keep the smile tugging at the corners of my mouth from showing. My heart started to accelerate as I stood and followed Gwen away from Ether Rogue’s flight cabin. “Yeah?”
She turned around and looked at me with concern. “Thank you for everything you've done for me and Fen. A lot of people probably would have screwed me over by now, but you didn't. I know you did your best to protect Fen. I think she chose this outcome to try to protect the rest of us. She knew what it could cost her.”
I nodded. “And you didn't screw me and Brandon over either. We still have a lot of work to do to make sure we’re safe in the real world, but it’s looking good for us, and this money certainly helps. I’m sorry about Fen, I really am. It’s no one’s fault, the situation was just too hard. I want you to know that I meant what I said at the temple. Brandon and I are going to do everything we can to get Fen out of this. We’re with you.”
“I know you will. And I’m thankful for that,” she said. “Is it bad that I don’t feel like celebrating right now?”
I shook my head. “I hope not, because I don’t either. It was a hard day. We can’t really celebrate when we haven’t had the opportunity to make the situation right for Fen.”
That seemed to put Gwen at ease. “Brandon seems happy enough.”
“Ehh, he got a new toy from the temple—I did too. But he misses Fen and I guarantee he’ll work with us to help her. He’s the type of friend you always want to be by your side. I don’t always deserve him. About what happened earlier…” I started.
She grinned, and vibrancy and happiness washed across her face, replacing the far off look she had before. “No need. I know what happened, and it wasn't a mistake.” She leaned in and kissed me. “Brandon’s crafting chair is looking very comfortable for two. It's a big chair...” she mused.
I grinned at her, feeling the electrifying warmth of being in her presence. “I can't argue with that, but we should probably wait.” I had been playing Eternity Online for longer than I ever had in one session and I needed to make it to work if I wanted to keep my job and reputation intact. As soon as the technicians were done with Ether Rogue’s new paint job, we needed to leave and log out.
“Fair enough,” she agreed, kissing me again before turning back toward the flight cabin. “That's all for now, I suppose. Let’s get back to the cabin and we’ll schedule our play time for the next few days.”
“Sure,” I agreed, starting back with her.