It took Angel a few minutes to find the market – if it could even be called that. Mistwall had forsaken the open spaces riddled with tents and vendors that most cities tended to favor. In its place was a drab alley lined with crooked buildings.

Angel never would have pegged the street as a place he could have bought anything. The merchants were silent and uninterested, and many of the stores weren’t even labeled.

“Something tells me they don’t get very much business out here,” Angel muttered as they approached a building at the front of the alley manned by a tall, thin man with a goatee. His bored eyes flicked across the two prospective customers and he yawned, leaning on one hand.

“What are you looking for?” the man asked.

“A good amount of scrap metal as well as some jewelry,” Angel said. “And I don’t care much for the quality of the jewelry, so long as the gems look legitimate.”

The man’s gaze sharpened ever so slightly. “That can be arranged. You have the coin to back your request, I trust?”

“You have change?” Angel asked, palming a Vei and sliding it across the table. He still had a fair amount of coin from the bandits on the sand barge, so he wasn’t exactly hurting for money. The merchant’s eyes widened as he caught a glint of the coin before him. Lilian took a step up, drawing his gaze back to her. She nodded back at the huge sword on her back.

The merchant swallowed and nodded. “Your meaning is clear. You’ll have no trouble from me, I promise. I’ve got what you want and the change in the back of my shop. How much jewelry do you want? You could buy a fair amount with that, especially given the type you’re looking for.”

“Ten gemstones,” Angel said, leaving himself a little wiggle room in case something went wrong while remanufacturing the Key. “And enough scrap to fill my bag.”

“I’ll get it right away,” the merchant said, bowing politely and slipping back into his store. Muffled bangs and crashes rang out intermittently for the next few minutes before he reemerged with two tarp bags in his hands. His face and shirt were covered with dust.

One was about the size of Angel’s travel pack, while the other just barely fit in the merchant’s hand. He plopped the bags down on the table and sneezed. Wiping his nose with the back of the sleeve, the merchant grimaced and opened the larger bag so Angel could see inside.

As requested, it was completely full of scrap pieces. They ranged in size and shape, and Angel could tell that the quality of the metal was far from perfect. It was still enough for his needs, so he nodded in approval.

The merchant slid the smaller pouch over to him. Angel picked it up, glancing inside to see several dozen Vex. He weighed it in his hand, then flicked the Vei over to the man. The merchant had offered him a fair enough deal, although he probably could have gotten better if he’d haggled.

Lilian gave him a querying glance as Angel tucked the coin pouch into his belt and slung the bag of parts over his shoulder.

“That’s all we need,” Angel said. “Although we should probably grab some supplies before we head off again.”

She nodded. They wandered down the row of merchants until they came across a butcher and bought a fair amount of travel supplies from him with the coin that the previous merchant had given them.

Angel filled their water skins and bought a few extra ones as well before heading back to the chopper.

“Find everything you need?” Silver asked as Lilian climbed back in, sitting down in the co-captain’s chair.

Angel tossed Silver a water skin and plopped his bag of components down on the ground as he squeezed into the corner beside Tilly and Alison.

“Are you going to make the Key again?” Alison asked. “Didn’t Blue help you make it the last time? Do you remember enough to do it on your own? Blue did get destroyed during the fight with Reave, didn’t it?”

“I’ll have do my best to,” Angel said. “And I’m not sure about Blue quite yet. I’ve been a bit scared to find out. Losing it would be a serious blow. The snarky little bastard had grown on me, not to mention all the knowledge there was inside it. I just wanted to have components to work with on hand in case I needed to do some form of emergency repair.”

“Should we stay on the ground while you work?” Silver asked. “If your artifact goes boom, I’d rather not have to vacate the chopper midair.”

“It should be fine,” Angel said, shaking his head. “I don’t think we should hang around Mistwall too long anyways. Who knows where the Reawakening has influence. I’d rather be out of their line of sight.”

“Where are we going to do that?” Silver asked. “This is about as small of a town as you’re going to find.”

“I don’t think we need another town,” Angel said, a grin crossing his face. “I think we need to go somewhere where Reave would never expect us to go.”

Lilian glanced back at him. She tried to say something, but pressed her lips together when nothing emerged from her lips. Her nose scrunched and she settled for raising an eyebrow.

“What?” Silver asked, glancing between them. “I’m missing something, and I don’t like that. Captain Silver is always in the know.”

“We’re going back to the Reawakening’s old base,” Angel said. “There’s a veritable treasure trove of artifacts there, and they’ll never think we would show up in their old base. It would be too stupid. Why would Lilian return when she knows that they’re against her now?”

“Let me get this straight,” Silver said, twisting to fully look back at Angel. “You’re betting that the Reawakening won’t think to protect their base because they wouldn’t think that Lilian would be dumb enough to go back there?”

“Yup,” Angel said. “Besides, if I understand correctly, they don’t have anybody left that actually knows how to use Magitech properly. Correct me if I’m wrong though, Lilian.”

Lilian gave him a thumbs up.

“Then even if they did have some way to check in on the base, I bet they can’t do it anymore,” Angel said. “Besides, now that they have the Key, it’s unlikely that we’ll have to deal with any of the main members of the Reawakening until we catch up with them. They’ll be busy trying to figure out where the Key goes.”

“It sounds dumb enough that I just might see why the Reawakening would never consider it themselves,” Silver said. He shook his head and pushed a lever forward, bringing the rotors of the chopper to life. “How the mighty have fallen. I was once considered one of the brightest bandits around, and now I’m betting on my enemies having the collective intelligence of a rock.”

“Wait, who considered you that?” Tilly asked. “Is there some group ranking bandits or something?”

“My crew,” Silver said, turning his nose up.

“How much did you pay them to think that?” Angel asked.

Silver made a face at him. The chopper took off, blowing sand back in a wide circle. They rose up above Mistwall and the former bandit tapped the map on the dashboard.

“If you’re done making fun of your underpaid and hardworking captain, you should tell me where exactly this reawakening base is.”

Lilian put a finger on the map a short distance away from Stormpoint. Silver examined it, then nodded. “Onwards, then. Lilian, if your old buddies are waiting for us there, I am going to make a note now that I will be very displeased.”