Claire’s surprise only lasted for an instant. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. She released the root strands that she’d been using to control the massive wooden giant and rose from the throne, still watching the smaller giant through the viewing window.
The surrender could have been a fake-out. There was a very real chance it was some kind of trap. But the System had said that the rewards for this wave were variable. It hadn’t expressly said that the only path to victory was complete and utter victory.
That wasn’t anywhere near enough to make Claire blindly accept the surrender. Their opponent was clearly intelligent. That changed things. It meant there was a very good chance that they, too, had seen the System prompt to some degree. They might have been relying on that to know that they would be more willing to accept a surrender because the System had loosely implied it to be possible.
Still… I already know what Alex will go with. The challenge is always going to be harder and the rewards better when you go the non-standard route. There’s no way he’s going to be able to resist the invitation. And if I’m honest, I want to know what’s going on as well.
They were in the Mirrorlands, but the root giants had been piloted by people. Normal-looking people. And that meant there was a pretty good chance that the one in the final giant, who had surrendered, was a person as well.
Claire cracked her neck. There was only one way to find out — and she planned to be there well before Alex did. For all the things he was good at, handling negotiations of a surrendering party definitely wasn’t one of them. The best case scenario if he arrived first would probably just be killing off the final giant’s controller and being done with it.
She climbed back out the hole she’d cut into the giant’s head. Her wings unfurled from her back and she leapt, dropping through the sky for a second before they snapped out and yanked her into a swooping glide.
Claire cut through the sky, keeping a close eye on the final remaining giant as she flew up alongside it. But the monster didn’t try to attack her. It remained perfectly still as she landed upon its arm and made her way up toward its head. She took an instant to throw a glance over her shoulder as a rumble shook the ground.
Alex was, unsurprisingly, heading in their direction. It seemed he’d decided to bring his stolen golem along with him. That wasn’t the worst of ideas. It gave her some time to work before he arrived as well.
A patch of roots in her path jerked.
Claire nearly launched herself back into the air. But, before she could, the roots curled inwards, forming a wide passageway for her to step into a familiar looking control room. Before her was yet another throne, though the swaying root controls had already been released.
The giant’s controller knelt on the ground at the base of the throne. It was a woman, seemingly somewhere in her mid-twenties, wearing the same rough bark armor that the other giant operators had been clad in. Large antlers jutted out from either side of the helm perched on her head, and brown hair spilled out beneath it.
Interestingly enough, the woman’s eyes were closed. Claire wasn’t dumb enough to take that as an admission of complete defeat. Despite the other woman’s relatively calm pose, the woman’s hands were clenched in her lap and there was a bulging vein in the side of her jaw.
It looked like she was doing everything she could to keep from flying into a rage.
The System shimmered above the woman’s head, twisting into golden words.
Vil - Deathwood Priestess (Adept 1)
Claire stepped into the control room, her whip still at the ready. There was something odd in the air. A current that buzzed against her skin and made the hair on her arms stand on end.
“Don’t move from where you sit,” Claire said. “Do anything more than breathe and follow orders and I’m taking your head off on the spot. If you understand, I want you to slowly nod a single time.”
The woman’s head inclined.
“Good,” Claire said. “I am here to discuss the terms of your surrender. Let me make this clear. If you give me the slightest reason to believe that you are attempting to trick or attack me and I will end you on the spot. The only reason you still draw breath is that I know the System is going to reward us better for this than the alternative — but don’t think that’ll save you if you become inconvenient.”
The other woman didn’t respond.
“You may speak,” Claire said. “Who are you?”
“Vil,” the woman said, practically spitting the word out through clenched teeth. “My name is Vil.”
“Is that your real name?” Claire asked. “Or the one the System gave you?”
“The System didn’t give me shit,” Vil hissed. “That’s the name my mom gave me.”
She’s got all her memories? So this isn’t some mix of people that the System crushed together into a new person? Then she’s original. Either an Outworlder or from Earth.
Claire didn’t let her surprise show in her features or tone.
“How are you here, in the Mirrorlands?” Claire asked.
“I don’t know what that is,” Vil said. “I’ve never heard of it.”
Then… if she’s not lying, this is a Nativeworlder. Why is there a Nativeworlder attacking us here, of all places?
“Do you have any idea what is going on?” Claire asked. “Why were you attacking us?”
“Yeah,” the other woman said through clenched teeth. “I know exactly what’s going on. I got stabbed in the fucking back.”
The buzz in the air seemed to grow thicker. Riftwarped Qi crackled in the skies far above them. Claire scanned their surroundings, but there was still nothing. It didn’t seem like Vil was going to try to attack her yet, but there was no doubt that something was happening.
“Calm yourself,” Claire said sharply. “Tell me what happened. The short version — and watch your motions.”
“I was nearly done with my Town’s Trial,” Vil replied. “Everything was perfect. And then I got shoved into this
We were so fucking close. And then my second in command shoved me into a black obelisk. The next thing I knew, I was here. The System told me my town was destroyed. I got a Trial to defeat you and take your town from you. That’s it.”
Claire studied Vil for a second.
That’s exactly how Alex and I fell into the Mirrorlands as well. But…
A sharp buzz cut through the air. Claire’s whip was already snaking back behind her in preparation to strike as a crackle of hissing purple energy carved through the air behind Vil, warping it like a haze in the desert — but the other woman didn’t even seem to notice it.
“There’s nothing more you can take from me,” Vil continued. Her words crackled and popped unnaturally, as if there were something within her words trying to break free. “My pride, my dignity, it’s all gone. I gave it all up to try and build a safe place in this shithole of a world. I gave everything! I just wanted a place to live!”
“Last warning,” Claire said. “Stay calm. No sudden movements. I want you to open your eyes. Look at me.”
Vil’s eyes snapped open.
Brilliant purple-red energy crackled in her irises. Two miniature storms spun behind her eyes, hungry and alien. A ripple passed through the woman’s body. Pieces of her warped. Her arms turned blocky, her features lost cohesion and her stomach seemed to tear in half—
And then she was whole again.
It happened so fast that Claire almost could have convinced herself that she’d entirely hallucinated it.
“The only thing I have left is survival,” Vil said. She definitely hadn’t noticed what had happened. “I won’t give up. I don’t care what I have to do. What you make me do. I want to live. I want revenge.”
Her voice popped and hissed again, warping with crazed energy as her stormy gaze locked with Claire’s.
The Mirrorlands had left its mark after all.
She’s unstable.
Claire could hear the madness in the woman’s voice. She might have been a Nativeworlder at one point, but she wasn’t anymore. This was something else. The System had warped her.
Even as disgust toward it welled within Claire, she knew without a fact that a madman could not be bargained with. Someone insane couldn’t be trusted to hold up their side of a deal. They couldn’t be predicted. And if they couldn’t be predicted, they couldn’t be controlled. It was too risky.
I’m sorry. The System killed you long before I will.
A shadow passed over Claire’s back.
She didn’t look over her shoulder. She could already tell who it was.
Alex stepped into the room beside her.
“Already talking terms?” Alex asked. He looked down to Vil. Then his eyes widened slightly. “Is she—”
“A Nativeworlder,” Claire said. “She was, at least.”
“I still am,” Vil said.
Her voice came out sharp and clear.
Claire blinked.
Vil’s eyes were brown. The storming energy that had filled them just moments ago was gone.
What?
“How the hell is a Nativeworlder here in the Mirrorlands?” Alex asked in disbelief. “And why are you attacking us?”
“She got screwed by her town and shoved into the Mirrorlands,” Claire said. “And it seems the System gave her a Trial to defeat us and take Mirrorwane for herself. But…”
Where did the warped energy go?
“Ah,” Alex said. “Damn. Those people we killed, were they yours?”
“No,” Vil said. She shook her head. “I don’t know who they were. The System just… had them there. The giants were mine, though. I don’t know how they got here. I had them defending my town. The System must have sent them here with me. That would have left my town undefended. Guess that’s how it got razed. Good fucking riddance. I hope those fucking traitors all died in agony.”
Despite the vitriol in Vil’s voice, her words sounded perfectly clear. There was no trace of the Riftwarped Qi that had been threatening to take her over just seconds ago.
She stabilized? That… doesn’t seem right.
“Be careful,” Claire said. “Until a moment ago, Vil seemed corrupted by Riftwarped Energy somehow. I don’t know where it’s gone. She seems lucid now.”
“Lucid?” Vil frowned. “I was always lucid. Don’t insult me. I’m not going to sit here and take shit after my own people fucked me over while I was trying to save their lives. Fucking cowards.”
Alex and Claire exchanged a glance.
“Cowards?” Alex asked.
“Yeah,” Vil said. Her fingernails bit into her palms and her gaze flicked to the side. “They sold out. As much as I’d love to believe that they all got torn to shreds, I know they got bailed out. Fucking Outworlders bought their souls with promises of safety.”
“We aren’t the biggest fan of Outworlders here either,” Alex said. “What would you do if we let you live?”
“Whatever I need to,” Vil replied. “I’m not done fighting.”
“And you’d be fine joining a town that wasn’t yours?” Alex asked.
“Screw owning another town. I’m not doing that shit again,” Vil said with a firm shake of her head. “I want to fight. To get strong enough that nobody can betray me a second time. I just want to live. That’s it.”
“Not the most reliable motives,” Claire said.
“But relatable ones,” Alex said. “I trust your judgement, though.”
Claire looked back to Vil.
The other woman held her gaze. No trace of the Riftwarped energy remained in her eyes. A second passed.
Mirrorwane did need the extra strength. Vil was already heavily predisposed against Outworlders and had a set of abilities that would have been incredibly powerful in the right hands and with the proper support. She was logically a very useful tool to have at their disposal.
Claire sighed.
“Okay,” she said. “I won’t rule your survival out of the question unless you leave me no other choice. At least for the time being and so long as we can come to acceptable terms… we will accept your surrender.”