Mark stood to the side of a large black table, one floor below Blackthorn’s penthouse suite. He was wearing a nice suit, thanks to Eliot. Sally, Isoko, and Eliot were all wearing nice things, thanks to Eliot, and all of them were there.

  Blackthorn was downstairs in the lobby of his tower, leading four people into the elevator.

  Two of those people were representatives of the Collective. Eliot had briefed the team on them as much as he could, but Eliot had only known of their involvement in the last 5 minutes, so he didn’t know much.

  And then the people were on the elevator and on their way up.

  Mark sighed a little, and then he stood up straight. Time passed way too fast, and also excruciatingly slowly.

  And then the elevator dinged and the doors opened.

  Only a single pane of half-frosted glass and a small receptionist desk separated this conference room from the elevator, and the receptionist desk was empty.

  Mark saw everyone, and they saw him.

  Inquisitor Saikou Jowa was a purple-tinted older man with bright blue hair and an angry expression. He was Daihoonian through and through, who lived and worked mostly in Crystalis; Addashield’s home city and the capital of the Aluatha Empire. Saikou was one of the main overseers of the inquisitors of Aluatha, and the direct boss of the people who had once overseen Addashield himself. Addashield had killed all of his actual oversight inquisitors in his near-Fall. Saikou had only survived because he had been an order of oversight removed from Addashield’s usual people.

  Saikou was also a Sentinel of the Empire.

  So Saikou was either directly responsible for the subterfuge regarding the Empire trying to capture Mark, or he reported to the person who was responsible. Either way, he was a big guy in the Empire, and here. The boss of bosses, but also subordinate to the Imperial Family, so… Pretty high up there.

  Saikou wore a suit in the Daihoonian style.

  The other guy with Saikou was an Executioner of Drakarok, his clothing all spiky and his face a mess of scars. His name was Walter, and Eliot didn’t know much about him, only that he was a Sentinel of the Empire, too.

  The other two people were Lola and David, and Mark could tell they were already in conflict with Saikou and Walter, though they appeared in step with the others, as they got off of the elevator. While they had been riding up the elevator they were all talking in small ways, their vectors pointing and softening and doing things that were all indicative of deep and uncomfortable topics. Like the prelude to a fight.

  Mark had no idea where the battle lines were being drawn, because Lola was angry with David, too.

  All of them were holding back from actually fighting.

  … Except for maybe Walter. Walter felt ready to explode at a moment’s notice, and the only thing that held him back was a bunch of training and Blackthorn being there. Mark got the distinct impression that Walter was here mostly for Blackthorn, to keep him in check.

  But then Walter moved out of the elevator first, his gaze locked on Mark. The rest followed, with small words being said quietly, except for Walter, who moved in with surety.

  Walter stepped into the conference room, looking at all of Mark’s team and then to his seat at the table, but he did not sit down. He looked like a normal Earth-based human, except for his vaguely grey hair which was clearly a Daihoonian artifact. He was not grey-haired with age, he was just grey-haired. He was wearing a grey suit too, so he clearly leaned into the color. With his scarred face and big, meaty arms, he would have been the most imposing man if Blackthorn hadn’t been there.

  Blackthorn walked into the conference room next, telling Saikou, behind him, “You’re blowing this all way out of proportion—”

  “Just stop it, Steve,” Saikou said, as he turned toward Mark, ignoring Mark’s team. His purple skin was odd, but his expression was the same as any angry older man’s, and his voice was like an anvil. “You’ve fucked up, Mark. Submit to the authority of the Aluatha Empire and we’ll go easy on you.”

  “Fuck off, asshole,” Mark responded, keeping the heat out of his voice as much as possible.

  Walter glared.

  Saikou had no expression at all.

  Blackthorn smirked a little, though he was not going to step into this particular confrontation at all; not more than he already was.

  Lola and David, however, were going to step into this confrontation.

  David was blond with red highlights and with bright purple eyes. Another Daihoon-native, but also a transplant to Earth years and years ago, as far as Mark knew. David said, “Everyone here knows the real reason why Aluatha is doing this, and you do, too, Saikou. You are doing this all wrong. You have no right to demand any of these things you are demanding.”

  “I have every right,” Saikou responded, “Because the alternative is either Mark outs himself as adamantium blooded to the world and the problem becomes so large that none of us could hope to contain it at all, or Mark submits to the power of Aluatha and becomes a protected subject, and we fight all of these rapidly accruing legal battles for him.”

  Walter spoke up, “Or he could choose Okuana.”

  Oh, Mark thought.

  They weren’t going to talk around the bush at all, were they? Saikou was fully knowledgeable about the real problems of this shadow war happening right now, and he was here as a representative of the Empire.

  Also: Walter was from the Okuana Empire, and here for the same reasons as Saikou, but he wanted to pull Mark into Okuana oversight.

  Mark hadn’t expected that.

  From Eliot’s surprised vector, Eliot hadn’t known that either.

  Lola was the only one of the Collective who seemed to want to actually protect Mark, though. She made as much apparent when she said, “He’s strong enough to forgo all of this nonsense, as we all saw this morning.” Lola told Mark, “You should not subject yourself to any of these parasites, Mark.”

  Mark felt many things in that moment. Lola truly cared, and that mattered. She was also taking a big hit to say what she had just said. From the way Saikou frowned a little, Mark could tell that Aluatha had done something or threatened to do something to Lola, and that’s why she was here at all. Saikou had expected Lola to side with him, but Lola was now siding with Mark.

  She had probably gone along with everything that Aluatha had demanded of her, just so she could be here, so she could do a 180 and tell them to go fuck themselves.

  Mark knew he had missed Lola, but not how much until this moment here.

  But David was actually on the sides of the Empires, which was fucking weird. He just didn’t like how they were doing this.

  David expressed that sentiment as he said, “And I think Mark should choose one of them. Aluatha or Okuana. Either is fine. To forgo either of them is a terrible option. But to force him to choose is also wrong of both of you.”

  Before Mark could really work through that, to arrive fully at anger—

  Saikou said, “Pick one of us, Mark. It doesn’t matter which. Not really. Right now your truth is hidden from most of the common people. Right now the people aiming for you are those who know, who know how to keep secrets. But if the world should find out, then there is no telling who would come after you, and that would be a logistical nightmare for anyone trying to protect you, including yourself. Metallic Bank cannot protect you from that hurricane.”

  Blackthorn spoke up, “And I think he should remain his own person.”

  Saikou turned his nose up at Blackthorn, narrowing his eyes. And then he spoke casually to Mark, “I understand you have an arrangement with the archmage? Aluatha is prepared to match and expand that arrangement 10 fold.”

  “And in exchange you must give up everything and submit to their rules, Mark,” Blackthorn said.

  “It’s for his own safety,” Saikou said.

  “He looks plenty safe to me!” Lola said, trying not to shout.

  She was right! Mark was doing well out there! He wouldn’t be a statistic—

  Saikou said to Mark, “Hunters either die before they hit 20, die to something they thought they knew how to handle at 25, or they have such a small impact on the world that they manage to live a very long time. The last option is closed to Mark, so, from our perspective, we either need to get you into a holding pattern with actual good defense, or we lose you forever, and that is simply not an option.”

  Mark realized something, as his emotions bounced back and forth, and Saikou tailored his speech to what Mark was feeling. Mark frowned, and said, “You’re emotion-reading me.”

  “I am,” Saikou said, “Just as you do to everyone all around you all the time, I am doing to you right now. Now here’s the big point, Mark: Either choose Aluatha or Okuana, or be railroaded through the legal system for selling Addavein’s metal and be tossed into an Aluatha or Okuana prison.”

  A red rage crept upon Mark.

  Mark glared. “Try it.”

  “We don’t ‘try’, Mark,” Saikou said, “We do.” And then he said, “I’m done here.” He took out a card and set it on the table. “Contact us whenever you wish to end this farce. Otherwise expect us to come at you for your next HVP playtime with enough countermeasures to lock you down properly.”

  And then he left.

  Walter set down his own card on the table, and followed Saikou out, back to the elevator.

  The very second the elevator started going down—

  Blackthorn walked out toward the window, saying, “You all talk. I’ll be meeting them downstairs.”

  The window opened on its own, letting in the cold, and then Blackthorn hopped out and fell downward. The window closed on its own.

  Mark instantly turned to Lola, asking, “What the hell are you doing with them?”

  Lola instantly replied, “They threatened me with human experimentation charges, threatening to reverse the decisions made to forgo such charges last year!” Lola breathed a little, more upset now that her fears were out there, but also more composed, as she added, “And now that I am here and told them to fuck off, they’re going to pursue that threat.”

  “Mark should just pick an empire,” David said, “And then all of this problem goes away.”

  While Mark was still coming to terms with David’s words—

  Isoko said, “I want to know Freyala’s stance on all of this.”

  Mark had told everyone what David had told him, before David signed off. The fact that Freyala wanted Eliot rescued was a big deal to Eliot, and Eliot was still mulling all of that over. He had pledged himself to Hearthswell, and he liked what he could do with Castellan, but it was doing something to him to know that Freyala hadn’t abandoned him.

  It was weird to also know that Hearthswell hadn’t intervened. Freyala, the goddess Eliot had abandoned, had not abandoned him, while the one he went to hadn’t intervened.

  That knowledge was doing things to Eliot.

  David responded, “The gods help where they want, and if they want to speak to us then they will. I don’t need answers to any of these questions that all of you seem to need. All I need to know is what I need to do, and then I do it. If you want to know why, then you need to go ask them yourselves.”

  “But why?” Eliot asked, quietly. He wanted to know why Freyala had helped him, but Hearthswell had not. And then he changed his question to something less personal, asking, “Why is the Collective even doing any of this, at all? Why are they working for the empires?”

  Mark supposed the second question was more comfortable to ask.

  The only one in the room who didn’t catch Eliot’s first real question had been Sally.

  David seemed to soften, just a little, saying, “Because world-impacting events are happening right now, right here in Memphi and on Daihoon, and so the gods are involved. That means we servants of the Pantheon are involved, and the Pantheon is not a monolith. It’s Freyala, Malaqua, Hearthswell, Verdago, Drakarok, and Pluta. The desires of them all are further magnified by we paladins pledged to serve, and every paladin has different personal goals in their own lives. Why are we working for the empires? The answer is simple: The empires are bastions of humanity, and there’s a War for Life going on right now, at this very moment, in this very room, Eliot.” And then David turned toward Mark, saying, “You need to drop this lie about selling Addavein’s metal and then the Collective will help you rather than try and deny your whole deal, because that’s where this is headed, Mark. What happened this morning was the least amount of power the Collective can bring to bear.

  “And you’re being divisive.

  “You appear to be working for the dragons right now, adopting their imagery and telling people you’re selling their goods. Of course there are 10,000 paladins of the empires —the people most sworn to never let dragons interfere in humanity ever again!— aiming for your subjugation, Blackvein.”

  Mark had a difficult moment.

  … But it was just a persona? Hype for the camera?

  “It’s just a character,” Mark said.

  Lola said, “It’s not just a character, Mark.”

  David nodded.

  Lola continued, “I don’t agree with David’s position that you should join an empire, but whatever you do, you should stop this Blackvein persona. What you did today…” She breathed in, then said, “What you did with the Dominance and Submission—”

  “That wasn’t what I did,” Mark said.

  Lola frowned a little.

  David furrowed his brow. “What did you do?”

  “Obedience and Free Will,” Mark said. “And I think it only worked because everyone out there had already given up their free will to the machinations of empires—” Mark had briefly lost his edge under the onslaught of Lola and David’s genuine care, but he regained that edge, that quiet fury at authority, and said, “Every single person out there was working for people who were using them to enact something that none of them would have done if they knew the truth. So I took what little free will they had and gave them the obedience they wanted, but to me.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Isoko had an unvoiced complaint.

  Mark guessed that complaint, and corrected himself, “Most of them wouldn’t have gone for this shadow war to secure adamantium resources that I am already selling to people. Most of them wouldn’t have tried to take me in.”

  Isoko was solid again. She nodded.

  Mark continued, “You even said it yourself, David, that if I chose an empire this would all go away. So you agree with me! The only reason this problem exists is because of people in the Empire wanting me for their own purposes, and people like you for going along with it! Well fuck them, and fuck you for taking this stance.”

  David sighed a little, weathering all of Mark’s words like a fish in a rainstorm; completely untouched.

  Lola looked like Mark had slapped her across the face, but he wasn’t even aiming at her.

  Lola’s vector had been all over the place, ever since Mark first saw her again last night, running out of that trap, calling out to him. She had walked into this meeting and told off Saikou and Aluatha by extension. But now she thought Mark was attacking her, too. He wasn’t attacking her, but she felt that way, anyway. Lola had deep, deep guilt over what she had done to Mark, when she touched his soul and Freyala acted through her to impart Union unto Mark, putting him into a coma and then all the rest that came later.

  … But something more-than-that was happening with her, and Mark had no idea what.

  But he did know his own stance.

  Mark scowled at both of them, saying, “I already sell my adamantium, and yeah, I lie about where it comes from, but so what! It’s still getting out there to other people, into kaiju blades and enough weaponry to save civilizations, but what you’re aiming for is to make me a slave, and I won’t have it.”

  “That’s not…!” Lola began, but she lost her words as tears crowded her eyes.

  David sighed.

  Mark steeled himself, saying, “I did enough for the world. I don’t need to be a slave to do more. The empires want me for themselves, because I have somehow upset their stranglehold, even though it’s all just an act for the cameras. Well fuck that! I won’t be controlled. Step back, David… And what the FUCK is wrong, Lola?”

  David sighed and took one step back.

  Lola exclaimed, “You don’t need to fight these battles, Mark! You have done enough, exactly as you say! So why are you antagonizing them at all? Pick a different persona! Maybe they’ll drop all of this nonsense if you’re not threatening to bring back the rule of dragons.”

  “No,” Mark said.

  Silence.

  Disbelief.

  Lola quietly, desperately, asked, “Why?”

  Mark said, “Because those empires decided they would rather control than cooperate and they conspired to make you work for them. They threatened you, Lola. I don’t know the exact threat they made, but I wouldn’t be surprised by much right now. And I hate them for that. And all this right here is a threat to me. To allow myself to be controlled in this way would dictate the rest of my life, and I will not have it. Ever.” Mark felt invincible, even as his heart went out to Lola, to the woman who had pulled him out of his misery at Citadel Freyala, who had taught him so much about Union and healing and protection and all sorts of useful life lessons. Mark imparted his own lesson right now, saying, “Stop being used by others, Lola. You’re better than that. You’re an Inquisitor for Freyala. Stand taller.”

  David snorted.

  Silence.

  Lola had a deep moment, then she stood tall, saying, “I’m proud of you, Mark. You’re going to go far. Never let anyone tear you down, okay? I’ll simply have to fight my legal battles, as expected.”

  “Let me know when I have to appear and tell people that I asked for it, and that you didn’t impose anything upon me I didn’t want.”

  Lola softened. “That just means I’m guilty, but I already knew that. I… I know how this goes.” Her breath stuttered for a moment as she worried.

  … Wait.

  ‘Know how this goes’?

  She wasn’t talking about execution, was she?

  A cold pang of worry shot through Mark—

  David said, “Look. Mark. This is admirable of you, sure. Stick it to the man. But when they offer you a real out, because they respect your power and your capability to use that power, you should take it. Make your own demands, too. The offers will get better as you prove yourself more and more, but past a certain point the offers will end and the supreme rule of nations will assert itself upon you.” He told Lola, “Let’s get out of here.”

  “It’s crazy that they’re coming after you!” Mark said, desperately. “Why the fuck are they going after you? The Collective decided that Addavein was the best possible outcome!”

  Lola answered in an instructive tone, “Because empires don’t remain empires by playing nice, Mark. They take everything they possibly can, from everyone they can. Most people never get to experience that fact, but you’re not most people. But don’t worry about me; they won’t execute me. It’ll probably just be exile.” She told David, “Please.”

  Mark was thinking of something to say, of answers and solutions and fights to be had. He thought of asylum from Memphi, of protection… in some way that might work.

  But David flickered.

  David and Lola were gone.

  The door to the stairwell was open, but it slipped shut on its own.

  Mark, Eliot, Isoko, and Sally had not sat down at all. No one had taken a seat.

  Mark took a seat now, saying, “Fuck…” And then he repeated, “Fuck fuck fuck fuck.”

  Isoko said, “So. Mark. This is a rough time to say this, but…” She waited.

  Mark breathed in the good and out the bad, threading black miasma into the world and away. And then he looked up at Isoko, and calmly asked, “What?”

  “We need to talk to Crystal Tower and get their perspective. If this villain's debut and gate-capture storyline is still happening then we can add in some protection agreements for Inquisitor Lola.”

  “… Would that work?” Mark asked.

  “Maybe? We haven’t heard from any of them at all, right?”

  Eliot asked, “You didn’t call your grandmother?”

  “I haven’t really had time. I talked to my parents but that was all...” Isoko cut herself off. And then she reiterated, “We need to contact Noel and Crystal Tower. From the way Noel gave us all a thumbs up, I’m pretty sure we’re good from a legal setting, but we should know exactly how good we are.”

  Sally, who had been quiet, spoke up, “Fuck the empires and everything about them. This sort of shit is exactly what Drakarok is against.” She told Mark, “But David has a good point about the need to choose an empire eventually. But only after getting good terms.”

  Mark frowned a little at that. After a silent moment, he said, “I thought I had already chosen Aluatha and that the terms were agreeable. It was all... nebulous and inexact, but the deal was there. I was selling adamantium through Metallic Bank. I was… I was working with the system, Sally. And then they pulled this shit.”

  Sally nodded, saying nothing.

  Did more need to be said?

  The Aluatha Empire was greedy, of course. They wanted more than what they already had. If it was up to them they would put Mark into some idyllic farm where the walls were invisible and they had him pump out a kilo of adamantium per day.

  Isoko said, “We need to talk to Crystal Tower.”

  Mark hopped out of his chair, saying, “Quark. Can you please contact Crystal Tower and set up… whatever they need? I’m not sure. I want to know about today’s event, too. The fallout.”

  Quark spoke to everyone as he said, “Mister Oliphant had set up an automatic response to a query from you, regarding this. The message was updated several minutes ago, and is as follows:

  “Original message: Great show today! We’ll have to go over liability concerns and I want you to give a statement to the actors affected by today’s event, and Legal will want to talk with you about that Dominance and Submission aura. There are concerns. We were not aware that the Collective was doing most of that, but it turned into a lot. Sorry. We’ll talk about that, too.

  “Update 1, 12:02 AM: A representative from Crystal Tower will be in the city at 1:30 PM to speak with you about today’s event regarding liability concerns. Please be ready for that.

  “Update 2, 12:31 AM: Tartu and his team wish to speak with you in a non-violent setting before tomorrow’s event. Normally I would be against this, but they’re talking about pulling out completely, and the HVP doesn’t want to pull out at all. We expect this ‘Attack the Gate’ story line to be a high-grossing miniseries and debut for everyone involved. We want it to continue. We expect this to do some good numbers during prime time if we can pull off the whole event, and that means we can apply pressure to Aluatha and Aurora and get the HVP more presence in the settlement, which means endorsements and television spots and fame and fortune for all.

  “Update 3, 12:58: I’m calling at 1 PM unless you call me back first. I await your call.” Quark ended the message there, then spoke in his own voice, saying, “It is now 1:21 PM. Mister Oliphant has tried to call you twice while you were otherwise occupied with the Collective. He is leaving another message right now. Would you like me to patch you through? Or listen to the message?”

  Mark rubbed his eyes, breathed out a few breaths of purity/impurity, and then he centered himself. He looked to his team. “We ready for another big conversation?”

  Sally said, “I’m hungry. But yes.”

  Isoko sat down, saying, “It should go easier than the Collective meeting.”

  Eliot pulled a phone out from his pocket, tapping away at it as he said, “I’m hungry, too. How about Old American? Hamburgers and fries? They got drone delivery.”

  “Medium well and with lots of fries, please, if they can drone it up here,” Sally said, plopping down onto her chair.

  Isoko perked up, “Oh! Have Noel bring us stuff? We need to do an after-action thing with him, anyway. It’s gonna take an hour to get through that.”

  “Fuck him,” Sally said, perhaps a bit too harshly. She realized her mistake the very moment she made it. She frowned a little, and it was mostly at herself, but then she said, “They tried to poison Mark and all of that entire shitshow, was a shitshow. Is this HVP thing even good for us? For any of us?”

  Isoko tried not to recoil too much, but Mark could tell she chose her next words very carefully, saying, “I agree, somewhat. But none of those actors or HVP people were in on what the Collective tried to pull—”

  “They didn’t try to stop them, though,” Sally countered.

  Isoko wanted to scoff, but she restrained herself because she could see how angry Sally was. Instead, she said, “Sally. … And Mark and Eliot. We’re stepping into the big leagues. This sort of shit is going to be common. Heroes and villains always draw ire from established powers, because we are power and influence, too! And of course the HVP didn’t protect us from the stuff the Collective tried to pull. If we couldn’t weather that stuff, then we’re not worthy of being international heroes and villains.

  “So here’s what I’m going to think about all of that: We were thrown to the wolves and the HVP did their best to capitalize on the fight and the outcome, and they’re going to monetize all of that in order to fight the legal and social battles that are the natural fallout of any large hero and villain action. Like… The only reason grandma —The only reason that the supervillain Wandering Sage retired was because Crystal Tower stopped supporting her actions. Kidnapping that True Healer was a step too far, but she had a lot of people coming after her all the time. As long as she was bringing in more money and positive fame than she was causing problems, then they kept her on, kept defending her from all peoples, but the True Healer stuff was too much.

  “Also! We could ask Blackthorn for anti-shavallian buffs, or whatever.” Isoko said, “Those probably exist, I’m sure.”

  Sally sat back in her chair, taking that all in, her eyes widening just a little as her ideas of how the world worked reorganized. It was much the same as what was happening to Mark at that very same moment. But both of them had problems with authority already, so it was pretty easy for both of them to slot that new understanding into their worldviews.

  Of course the Hero and Villain Program had incidents everywhere, all the time.

  Eliot glanced at Mark and Sally, and asked, “Did you guys… not know that?”

  “Not really,” Sally said, “But media control and propaganda makes sense, yeah.”

  Mark sighed a little, wondering what Glorious Man got up to that they never showed on the screens, and then he asked Quark, “Noel still leaving a message? Patch him through.”

  Quark flickered silver and then a voice came through the speaker.

  “—e’s going to be fine, but— Wait.” Noel paused. “You’re there? Mark?”

  “Hello, Noel. We were busy, but yes, we’re all here. You had lunch yet? We’re ordering from some place and having it delivered.”

  Noel instantly said, “We’ll buy you lunch! What are you looking for?”

  Sally shook her head; she didn’t trust them not to poison the food. Isoko rolled her eyes at that.

  Eliot raised an eyebrow as he hovered a finger over his phone, poised to make the order.

  “We’re ordering for us, and now for you, too,” Mark said, “Hamburgers and stuff. Old American. We’re up at Blackthorn’s tower, in the conference room on floor… 28, I believe?” Mark looked to Eliot.

  Eliot nodded.

  Mark continued, “Floor 28. Take the elevator. He already told us we could have meetings here, so just come on up whenever.”

  Noel pivoted, saying, “Sure! We’ll… uh. Be there! Yes… Uh. We will be there, yes. 15 minutes? 15 minutes.”

  He was talking to someone else on the other end of the line, too.

  Mark said, “See you soon!” Mark hung up.

  Eliot said, “Order placed! It’ll be on its way, soon. They’ll deliver it downstairs.”

  Sally asked, “So what’s happening with Blackthorn and the others? They're still downstairs, too?”

  Mark said, “They were, briefly, but they moved on. Saikou and Walter went… I don’t know where. Blackthorn flew upward and then away.”

  Silence.

  Comfortable silence. Everyone was thinking about everything that had happened.

  Mark ended up putting his face on the table and groaning a little.

  Sally patted his back. And then she told Eliot, “Can you add milkshakes to the order? I want a big strawberry.”

  Eliot said, “Sure. Anyone else?”

  “Chocolate cream,” Isoko said.

  Mark raised his head just enough to say, “Vanilla.”

  Eliot tapped away at his phone—

  And Isoko teased, “Vanilla domination. So unoriginal.”

  Sally snorted.

  Mark buried his head in his arms again, staring at the table. He groaned.

  Sally patted his back again.