“I am not your pet, and you will not treat me as such.” The wolf growled. She was as far from me as possible, though even with her newer, smaller form the elevator didn’t allow more than a single foot of distance.

“Only a fool would treat a sapient being as a pet,” I agreed, attempting to build some semblance of rapport. I was used to uncomfortable relationships and difficult working environments, but the air between us was straight-up hostile.

“Yet you insist on naming me.” Her silver eyes narrowed.

“No insistence here. Just, if we’re working together, it would be helpful to have something to call you.”

A long, awkward silence followed as we passed the empty cages. The wolf inhaled in a long sniff, nose pointing to the cage that sat opposite of her own. “The wretch has escaped her prison as well.”

That caught my attention. “That’s what the shadow monster in the other cage was? A wretch?”

“No, though it describes them well. Foul creatures sustained by hate and regret, formed in the void between worlds when a being commits the unforgivable. The true name of her kind, is Lithid.” The wolf’s voice was a mix of trepidation and disgust.

“I’m pretty certain that thing is waiting on the fifth floor,” I said quietly.

“Then I may have the pleasure of watching your end, sooner than expected.” The wolf let out a low, rumbling grunts that could easily be mistaken for a laugh. “Even with a fully grown pack of my kind, that is not a fight I would engage in eagerly.”

“But you would? Fight her, I mean,” I asked. If I was ever going to complete my quest, there was no question in my mind I’d need the wolf’s firepower.

“If this were a Lithid with whom I had no history? No. But I have a personal stake in seeing this one returned to the void. She…” The wolf’s jaw clenched. “Taunted, me. Stoked my doubt and fear for my pups until my mind consisted of nothing else. Forged enjoyment from my misery. And when I consider the possibility of returning the favor? My heart quickens.”

Audrey shifted uncomfortably in my arms. She’d been giving me uncertain looks ever since I’d recruited the wolf. Probably some primal fear of being replaced, demoted in the pecking order. I stroked her petals, using to impart a feeling of security, comfort.

There wasn’t much I could say to comfort the wolf because in the end, I’d done something very similar to the Lithid. For my survival, not out of cruelty or sadism, but similar nonetheless.

“You’ll get your chance,” I finally said.

I still wasn’t fully confident that I could rely on the wolf. She was crafty, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was plotting against me even now. But I didn’t get the sense she was lying about the lithid. The rage and anger towards the creature I felt from her couldn’t be so easily manufactured. She would be useful to me until I cleared the fifth floor and enacted her vengeance. What happened after that was anyone’s guess.

“I have chosen a name.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Talia.”

The elevator’s doors slid open, revealing the deathly tundra of the fourth floor. An inch of freshly fallen snow had nearly erased my footsteps from the other day.

“Do not interrupt.” As gruff as her voice was, her tail was planted firmly between her legs.

We're losing time. whispered. I ignored it, willfully forcing myself not to look at the ever-descending countdown. This was a condition of my new summon’s help, and I knew all too well that any demands I made here would be remembered forever.

So, instead, I sat in the open elevator, Audrey beside me, and watched as Talia entered the chamber that had once been her home, her shoulders shifting, her movements slow as her paws sunk into the snow. Talia stopped once to sniff the skeleton of her mortal body, then moved on to the clearing where her three pups lay.

It was difficult to make out detail from where I sat, but from what I could see, she seemed to be inspecting each of them gently, rolling them over and pressing her ear to their chests.

Then she threw back her head and began a low howl. Over and over, the howl repeated until the sound itself grew hoarse and otherworldly.

An unsettling feeling grew in my stomach while I watched her. Realistically speaking, she should have had me. It doesn't matter how smart or strong you are. Mistakes are inevitable. Eventually, the variables line up to screw you over. And if you’re alone when that happens, that’s it. This is what the end looks like.

I needed strong allies.

More than that, I was starting to entertain the idea of having at least one, particularly well-positioned person I could trust with the complexities of my situation, for if and when this all went sideways.

I remembered my reaction when Audrey used on me. It was instantaneous, almost viscerally repulsive. I consider myself a fairly rational and even-handed person, and I nearly dismissed her right then and there.

In the context of a User discovering me, the way that translated was fairly clear.

Execution.

Three names came to mind in the context of whom to trust. Nick, Tyler, or Kinsley.

On further thought, Nick was a terrible candidate. Even if he wasn’t already under surveillance. Though not entirely traditional, he had an extremely staunch interpretation of right and wrong. If I went too far in his eyes, or did something he perceived as unforgivable, I could see him either bringing in outside help to stop me or opposing me directly.

I didn’t blame him for that. It was just the type of person he was.

Tyler, by comparison, seemed a lot more flexible. If the Adventurer’s Guild was as promising as I hoped, Tyler was a real possibility. He was capable of making hard calls under pressure, and also mature enough to listen to reason.

Kinsley—well, I’m not sure why I thought of Kinsley. She was likely to be prominently positioned and already knew something was off with my situation, given the way we met. Part of me chided myself for even considering it. Kinsley was just a kid who was already under enough pressure to crush a normal person. That the system wouldn’t consider disclosing information to her a failure of my personal objective also factored.

It wasn’t something I could act rashly on. And I had no intention of acting on it at all until after the transposition event, when the shape and trajectory of all this became more clear.

I fed Audrey another few strips of raw bacon, only noticing when she paused mid-bite that the revenant wolf had returned. Her head hung low, her ears flat. The air felt like a coiled spring, ready to explode if the wrong word was spoken.

I pushed myself to my feet. I needed to get to Nick’s as soon as possible to try to get a handle on whether or not he was likely to get himself killed.

“Ready to leave?” I asked.

“Ready as one can be, given the circumstances” Talia replied. Anger still billowed off her dangerously, reflected in her stance, her manner. But for the first time since the summoning, it didn’t feel directed at me.