Nightmare Realm Summoner

“60,000!” Thorn called. His voice echoed through the silent auction house.

“62,000!” The man in Room 10 called no more than a few moments later.

“A third Initiation,” Alex muttered. He looked to Claire. “What does that mean?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. But it’s not good. It means upheaval. Probably a lot of it. And given by how aggressively people are bidding on this, it’s significant.”

“Anyone know where we can pull 70,000 Credits out of?” Wess asked. “Because now is sounding like a very good time to do that.

Alex shook his head mutely. Ideas and theories spun through his head. He didn’t have the faintest idea as to what could come with a 3rd Initialization. But he got the very strong feeling that letting the Outworlders get it would probably not be the best outcome for him or any other any Nativeworlders.

But there was no way to stop the auction. There wasn’t any way to even try and bid. This was what everyone had been saving for. It begged the question where they’d gotten so many damn Credits in the first place. The Wealth Leaderboard implied there should have only been a few groups richer than Mirrorwane right now.

Something’s definitely missing. They’re hiding their money from the System somehow, aren’t they?

That unfortunately didn’t much matter at the moment. All Alex and the others could do was sit and stare in awe as the price crept up to 65,000 Credits.

And then a new voice cut through the air.

“100,000,” the woman in Room 8 called.

The auction house went still.

Alex felt his eyes nearly pop out of his head. Mite doubled over coughing next to him, and even Claire muttered a curse of disbelief under her breath.

Nobody said a word. Even Sofia seemed somewhat taken aback at the incredible jump in cost. She glanced around, as if searching for something. A second passed. Then she cleared her throat.

“I — that bid is verified. We can confirm that the bidding room is capable of providing the funds.”

“Mother fucker,” Wess breathed. “100,000 Credits? Seriously?”

“That’s ludicrous,” Aaron said. “How? We didn’t get any notifications about someone else clearing a Region Boss! Surely the System would have mentioned an event big enough to get someone 100,000 Credits.”

“At least we know why they dropped out of the blueprint,” Alex said with a disbelieving laugh. “They were probably trying to make sure they had around 100,000 Credits for a power move on this item. Looks like we didn’t get the memo about the full extent of what would be for sale in the Auction because of the, uh, slightly nonstandard method we used to get our ticket.”

“Well, the auction’s done,” Mite said. “There’s no way anybody can beat that… right?”

They all stared out the window. A second passed. Another followed.

Sofia didn’t even try dragging it out. There were limits to what was possible, after all. Room 8’s bid had completely crushed any dream of opposition from even the other Outworlder families.

“Sold,” Sofia said, almost meekly. The tiny black cube beside her vanished. “To Room 8.”

“You held a good auction,” the woman in Room 8 said, her words echoing through the stunned auction house. “It was an enjoyable experience. Bleak Wind has done a respectable job gathering an interesting selection of items today. I can say with complete honesty that we underestimated the value of what would be up for auction.”

“What, now they’re doing a villain monologue?” Mite muttered. “Anyone have a tomato for me to fling? This is just too much.”

“I would like to extend my family’s invite to all those of you who are capable of accepting it,” the woman continued, obviously entirely unaware of Mite’s complaints. “We have every plan of controlling 274-50. But there will be need for a group of competent to manage in our leave. We are not greedy. And anyone who proves themselves capable enough to earn our respect will be more than welcome to their share in the rewards.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Alex’s eyes narrowed. There was more than just arrogance in the woman’s voice. There was confidence — and a hell of a lot of it. And though he didn’t truly have a way to know for sure, this didn’t seem like bluster and hot wind. Maybe the 100,000 Credits that the woman had just slapped down were doing a bit of extra work in making her seem more legitimate.

But he couldn’t shake the feeling that this level of complete confidence was something he’d heard before. The way the woman spoke, as if the future had almost already written itself and selected her as the victor…

“When we decide it is the optimal time for the Third Initialization, we will ensure that the world hears of it,” the woman said. “Know that we will be fair. The Starfallen have no need to be anything else.”

And then there was silence.

“I fucking knew it,” Alex ground out. “I’d recognize that arrogant tone anywhere. So the Starfallen were here.”

“It’s not really a surprise, I guess,” Claire said. Her lips were thin in displeasure. “But how did they get so rich so quickly? They didn’t even succeed at claiming the Rotkeeper’s Legacy. Where’s all this money coming from?”

Alex just shook his head. “I have no damn idea.”

Sofia coughed into her fist. “I — well, thank you to all those who attended the auction! We’ve finished. In a few minutes, your tickets will re-activate to send you back to the location that you were taken from. Please hold onto your ticket, even after you return. It will continue to operate so long as Bleak Night still stands. Our Auctions may not have a set schedule, but definitely keep an eye on it to see when the next opportunity to claim some powerful items arises. Thank you all for your attendance.”

“They stole our thunder,” Wess muttered. His eyes narrowed. “I hate them.”

Mite held his hand out to his puppet. It shuddered, clicking back into its portable form and leaping onto his chest, holding itself with mechanical, spider-like legs. The puppet crawled over to his back, beneath his shirt, and attached itself with a hiss.

“This is probably good for us,” Alex said. “We drew a bit of attention. This will keep too much heat from landing on our backs. I’m not looking to openly declare war on Outworlders yet. The more someone else shows off in front of them, the better. Something tells me the other Outworlder families aren’t going to love that whole spiel all that much.”

“Definitely not,” Claire agreed. She rose to her feet. “They’ll be furious. Even if they don’t say anything, nobody powerful likes being told that they can fill in as a servant.”

“You reckon Starfallen is so arrogant they don’t care? Or are they hoping that people get mad for some reason?” Aaron asked.

Claire shook her head. “I don’t know. I suppose we’ll find that out. There’s nothing we can do about it right now. The only consolation I have is that I doubt Bleak Night would have sold the item if it was something so incredibly powerful that it would singlehandedly make its user win the race to control 274-50.”

Alex blinked. Then he nodded. “That’s a good catch. At that point, even they would definitely use it themselves. And I suppose the item doesn’t say anything about controlling the Initialization. Just when it starts.”

“So all we really have to do is be ready,” Mite confirmed. His fists clenched. “And the town has to be ready as well. Who knows how long they’ll wait to use that thing.”

“Oh, we’ll be ready,” Alex said. “Starfallen aren’t the only ones that got something good out of this whole thing.”

He pulled the Bleak Night ticket out. The golden item shimmered with magic, growing brighter with every passing second. Everyone gathered around him, ensuring they were all in contact.

Then there was a brilliant flash of gold light, and they were gone.

The world lurched beneath Alex. He felt familiar, beaten dirt materialize beneath his feet before his eyes had even cleared from the energy that had come from his ticket. He, along with all the others, stood back in Mirrorwane.

Several townsfolk who had been in the area jumped at their sudden arrival.

“How’d it go?” one man called.

“Well,” Alex replied with a grin. “We’ll update everyone later tonight.”

The man nodded, waving to Alex before striding back off in the direction that he’d been heading.

Alex looked up past the wall of twitching eyes and into the sky overhead. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

The Starfallen were strong. He’d already known that. This really didn’t change anything at all. If anything, it just made him even more determined to make sure the arrogant bastards had to eventually eat their own words. The time would come. He was certain of it.

But it wasn’t today.

Today, there was something else on his mind.

“What now?” Aaron asked.

“Just train, I suppose,” Wess said.

“Not exactly,” Alex replied. “I mean, yes. Train. That’s always the case. It never isn’t. But we’ve got some work to do.”

He pulled the blueprint out of his ring and held it out to Mite, who took it gingerly, a delighted grin on his face.

“Oh, yeah,” Mite breathed. He ran a gentle hand across the paper. “This is beautiful.”

“I know he does,” Wess said. “But what about the rest of us?”

“Well, first, we tell the town how the auction went,” Alex said. “Then I distribute the remaining credits among them so they can spend it with Finley and reduce his debt.”

“And then?” Aaron asked.

“You do what you need to in order to strengthen the town,” Alex said. “Claire and I are going to have to head out soon. It might be a while before we return to Mirrorwane. I don’t know. But there’s something we’ve got to do — and I’d like to do it before Starfallen summons the next Initialization.”

“And what’s that?” Wess asked, tilting his head to the side.

Alex smiled.“We’re going to seek out the Empty Court.”