“Tell me,” Kesh said.

Gathering my thoughts, I wondered how to phrase my request, then realized it was best to just come out and say it. “Safyre needs her robes back.”

Kesh’s eyes widened. “She wants to rejoin the emporium?”

I shook my head. “No. She wants to borrow a set.”

The old merchant frowned. “That’s not the way it works.”

“I know and, more importantly, Safyre does too. She doesn’t need the robes permanently. Only long enough for a quick visit to Nexus.”

The red robes of the emporium’s agents weren’t just ordinary pieces of cloth as I’d learned when I’d first met Safyre. They were high-tiered artifacts crafted by the Triumvirate. While Safyre wore the robes, her forsworn Mark would be concealed, letting her safely enter Nexus.

“Why would Safyre need to come here?” Kesh asked sternly.

“To speak to you in person.” I paused, wondering how much to share. “And to speak with the other forsworn.”

Kesh stiffened.

“Yes,” I said quietly. “Safyre told me all about them. I know there are more like her within the emporium’s ranks.”

“She shouldn’t have told you that,” Kesh said tightly.

I shrugged. “Perhaps. But she did. And you have my word I will not share the secret with anyone.”

The old merchant stared at me in silence for a moment. “Why does she want to speak with the others?” she asked eventually.

“To make them an offer,” I replied.

“What offer?”

“A life free of persecution.”

Kesh laughed hollowly. “Such does not exist,” she scoffed. “Not for the likes of them. The Game and its players are everywhere. No sector is truly safe for a forsworn.”

I inclined my head. “That may be true. But how about a faction that needs the forsworn as much as they need it? How about a Power who is willing to take them on as followers and who promises to protect them?”

“Bah! More foolishness. No Power will ever consider binding themselves to someone who has already forsworn their oaths. If they’ve done so once already, what’s to stop them doing the same again?” She shook her head sadly. “That’s how the Powers think, anyway. Few will even acknowledge that the fault may lie with the commander and not the commanded, that they themselves may have been the unjust ones, that what was asked was too onerous, and that the forsworn had little choice except to disobey.”

I stared at Kesh thoughtfully for a moment. There was an ever-so-slight tremor to her voice that bespoke a deep-seated passion. The topic of the forsworn was clearly an emotionally charged one for her.

“Do you know what I am?” I asked softly.

“Trouble,” she muttered. “Trouble I should have chased from my door the day our paths first crossed.”

Unfazed, I tried again. “I was watching you carefully earlier, you know. When I told you that I didn’t want Loken analyzing me, you didn’t so much as bat an eyelid.”

The merchant raised her chin. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“How old are you, Kesh?”

She blinked at the apparent non-sequitur. “Again, what does that have to do with anything?”

“Old enough to remember the ancients?” I asked quietly.

Kesh’s face blanked. “We’ve drifted far enough afield,” she warned. “You don’t want to go down this path. Let’s return to the matter at hand.”

I shook my head. Kesh’s response only confirmed what my intuition was telling me. “I think you suspect what I am,” I went on. “I think you have for a long time.”

“Enough,” Kesh barked.

I was taking a dangerous risk, I knew. But the way matters were going my bloodline would not stay secret much longer, and if I was going to be revealed, it was better for it to happen in pursuit of allies rather than when someone like Loken inevitably figured out the truth.

“I am a Power, Kesh,” I whispered. “One willing to bind even forsworn to his cause. But I’m not just any Power, I’m one who will do everything I can to shield my Pack. If the forsworn join me, I promise you I will go to the same lengths to protect them that I do for Saya.”

Kesh froze. “Wolf,” she breathed.

“Yes,” I said simply.

A riot of emotions flickered across the old woman’s face, too many and too fast to decipher. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I think you care. Someone who has done what you have to protect so many forsworn women cannot but care.”

Kesh laughed—bitterly I thought. “You think I care? That’s a slim thread on which to hang your life on. If you only knew of the hundreds I failed to help. Or the deals I had to make to survive.”

“That does not negate what you’ve done for those you’ve saved,” I countered. “Each of us can only do so much.” I thought of Adriel. “And we’ve all done things we rather not have.”

Kesh’s gaze hardened. “The Triumvirate will pay a fortune for the information you’ve just handed me. What’s stopping me from turning you in?”

“Nothing.”

Kesh waited for me to go on, but when I didn’t, she rasped, “That’s all you have to say? You’re not going to even try and convince me not to?

I shrugged. “If I fall, others will take my place. Safyre amongst them.”

Her gaze narrowed. “Then she knows about…?”

“My bloodline? Yes, she does. She knows that I intend on becoming Wolf Prime. She knows that I plan on raising the ancient Houses again. She knows I will not stand idly by and let the new Powers destroy what’s left of the Kingdom.”

Kesh flinched at my bald statements, and despite her earlier professed confidence in the wards about the room, her gaze flitted left and right as if trying to spot any would-be eavesdroppers.

“I can’t tell if you’re mad or simply stupid,” she muttered.

“Neither,” I said gravely. “Some things need to be said no matter the risk so there is no ambiguity.” I leaned forward. “And I have a plan. We have a plan—Safyre and the others who have joined my cause, I mean. It may seem far-fetched at the moment, but I assure you it’s perfectly achievable.”

“Oh, really? Let me guess you’re going to take over Nexus. No, wait, you’re going to defeat the combined might of the Forces.” She shook her head. “It’s all been tried before. Many times. No one has come close to succeeding.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“It’s nothing so grand as all of that,” I replied mildly. “What we intend on doing is claiming a sector and holding it.”

She snorted. “Once the new Powers learn the truth of what you are, and they will, they will come banging on your doors. How do you plan on holding your sector then?”

I smiled. “Simple. With an Aether Cloaking Device.”

Kesh’s mouth snapped close.

Still smiling, I watched her working through the implications of my startling statement. I’d gotten the idea from the Awakened Dead, of all people. A cloaking device was the exact same artifact Ishita had used to hide the wolves’ valley’s coordinates from the rest of the Game—and that included Powers like Loken. For a newly discovered sector, it was the perfect solution.

“The sector you have in mind… It can’t be the wolves’ valley,” she said at last, a hint of a question in her tone. “Its coordinates are known far and wide already.”

“It is not sector 12,560,” I agreed.

She blinked owlishly at me. “Then you have found another hidden sector?”

I nodded.

“One that is also closed off?”

Again, I nodded.

“Have you claimed it yet?” she asked sharply.

I shook my head. “Regretfully not. There is a minor problem.” Or perhaps a not-so-minor one.

“What problem?” Kesh demanded when I didn’t go on.

My lips twitched. “Does this mean you’re in? You will help us?”

Kesh scowled. “Well, I certainly don’t intend on letting Safyre suffer for whatever idiocy you’ve planned.”

I laughed. It was not the most glowing of endorsements, but I was not fooled by the old woman’s irascible response. Kesh had just committed herself. And if we were going to succeed, her help would be invaluable.

✵ ✵ ✵

“Don’t tell me any of the details,” Kesh said a little later. “I don’t want to know.”

“It’s safer if you don’t know,” I agreed. For both her and us.

She met my gaze, her own steely. “But I will need to know the broad strokes if I am to help.”

I inclined my head. “Of course.”

“Then let’s start with the basics. Earlier, you claimed to be a Power, is that true?”

“Technically, I’m not one yet,” I conceded. “I’m a Powerful Initiate.”

She nodded. “Good enough, I suppose. You’ve already formed a faction then?”

“I have.”

“What about your blood?” she asked suddenly. “Have you awakened it?”

If Kesh had thought to catch me off-guard, she failed. “I have,” I said evenly.

“What is your House rank?”

I raised one eyebrow, only mildly surprised by the question and the breadth of understanding it implied. If Kesh was as old as I suspected, then her knowledge of the ancients had likely been obtained firsthand.

“House Elite,” I replied.

Something akin to respect flashed across Kesh’s gaze. “Then you have managed to accomplish more than the others that have come before you,” she murmured. “Perhaps your fate will be different from theirs.”

It was an intriguing aside, but staying focused on the matter at hand, I didn’t pursue it.

Kesh planted her elbows on the table. “Back to this sector you’ve found. Tell me, why haven’t you claimed it yet?”

I sighed. “It’s been overrun by the void.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Is that the reason you were so desperate to purchase the nether absorption skillbook all those months ago?”

I nodded.

“You’ve been planning this for a long time then?”

“I have.”

“And no one but you and your faction know the whereabouts of the sector?”

“Correct.”

“Then why risk telling me about it now?”

I sighed. “Because unfortunately, given the strength of the void’s forces in the sector, we cannot fight them off alone. We need allies.”

She steepled her fingers. “I see. And that’s why you need the Aether Cloaking Device.”

“Yes. The device is the only way we can keep the sector’s coordinates hidden from any allies we teleport in.”

“Procuring the device will not be easy,” Kesh warned. “Nor cheap. Shield generators are sector-tiered artifacts.”

“I’m aware. But I can afford it.”

Kesh’s brows rose in surprise, but she refrained from commenting further.

“The device is only part of what I need.” I laid a parchment down on the table between us. “I need these things too or as many of them as you can get.”

Personal Equipment

wayfarer legendary armor pieces,

rank 4 Perception & Mind rings,

tiamaten legendary armor pieces,

rank 6 spellhold artifact.

General items

farspeaker bracelets (set of 20),

10 x upgrade gems,

10 x greater portal scrolls,

100 x blank faction tokens,

20 x rank 5 nether crystals,

40 x miscellaneous tomes,

1 x steel door, 20 x beds, 20 x storage chests, 2 x cooking stoves, 100 x stores of preserved…

Once again, my shopping list was not as comprehensive as it could be, and I’d only included ‘must-haves.’ Assuming Nicola upheld his end of the deal we’d struck, I wouldn’t need to be as circumspect in my purchase in future.

But until then…

“Tiamaten,” Kesh muttered to herself, as head bent, she worked her way through the list. “Why am I not surprised?” But despite the comment, she didn’t look up until she got to the general terms. “Faction tokens?” she asked, her brows rising. “And by that, do you mean what I think you do?”

“If you’re thinking of stamped coins manufactured from unbound soulbound material, then yes.”

Kesh pursed her lips. “I take it, you already know how expensive and rare such items are?”

I nodded. “I do. I must have them nonetheless.”

Soulbound items could not be created. They could only be found. And there was really only one dependable source of the artifacts: the Game. Typically, the Adjudicator only gifted players with soulbound items after they performed an extraordinary feat in a dungeon.

Which accounted for their rareness.

Soulbound items could be repurposed, though. Adriel had done just that when she’d created the Cloak of the Reach from the Magister’s Cloak and Sunfury’s feather. But by far the most common means of reutilizing soulbound items was in the creation of tokens.

Tokens like the ones I’d received from Viviane and Tartar.

While not exactly commonplace, the tokens were a simple, if effective, means of negating the deception skill. Unlike spirit signatures, they could not be forged, and all the major guilds and factions used them to verify their members.

“You have someone trustworthy who can work the tokens?” Kesh asked.

“Yes,” I replied simply.

While soulbound tokens could not be counterfeited, their designs could be duplicated—but only by their original maker. It was their one weakness—and the primary reason why the identity of a faction’s token makers was one of its most closely guarded secrets.

“And you’re certain you can pay for all this?” Kesh asked doubtfully.

“Yes.”

“You’re sure? The money remaining in the tavern’s accounts will not be nearly enough to cover everything.”

“How much is there?” I asked curiously.

“Twenty thousand and three hundred.”

“Impressive,” I murmured. Saya had clearly gotten the tavern back on track before the untimely war. “But to answer your questions, yes, I’m fairly certain I will be able to pay for the items.”

Assuming Nicola comes through.

Kesh slipped the scribbled note into one of her pockets. “Then, I’ll begin the process of acquiring them.” She shook her head. “But some of these items, I warn you…”

“I understand, they’ll be hard to come by.”

She nodded. “Exactly.” She studied me for a moment. “Just so you know, I’ve found a player willing to sell his wayfarer item. His asking price is well above the market rate, though.”

“Which piece does he have?” I asked eagerly. “And how much does he want for it?”

“The pants—for forty thousand gold.”

I winced. That was a lot of money, but even at the exorbitant asking price, I was not about to pass up the opportunity to add to my own set. “Get it.”

“Very well. I’ll make the trade,” Kesh said, looking unsurprised. “In the meantime, can I offer you some advice?”

“Please. Go ahead.”

“You mentioned coming to Nexus to find allies.”

I opened my mouth, but she held up her hand, forestalling me.

“Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know who you will be approaching. But if I can make a suggestion: speak to the brotherhood.”

The stygian brotherhood was already on my list of potential allies, but wanting to hear Kesh’s own reasoning, I made no mention of that. “Why?”

“Every nether-infested sector is of interest to them, and like it or not, they are amongst those best equipped to fight the void’s creatures. If nothing else, they will have the gear others you recruit require.”

“That’s a good point,” I allowed. “I will consider visiting them.”

“Good. Now back to the matter of Safyre’s robe.” Reaching beneath the table, she extracted a slim package. “Here you go.”