Now, Las Vegas

Cal floated a few inches off the ground in front of the closed motel room door.

A dark shadowy presence within bristled at his proximity. There was a feeling of familiarity, yet he was certain that it was a distinct thing from what it had reminded him of.

“What is it with traumatized young people being given offers of power by otherworldly entities?” he murmured.

“Who and the what now?” Nila said.

Cal held the steering wheel of the Tesla at 10 and 2, safety first and all that. He kept a light touch on the pedal. He wasn’t in a rush to get back to the hotel. The bright lights and the empty streets made for a pretty cool view if you didn’t think too hard about the why of it.

“Sorry, I’m trying to look into that Dread Paladin business.”

“Maybe I should drive?”

“It’s fine I can handle being in my meat body while doing a psychic projection thing.”

“If you say so. Remember, we’ve got a baby in the back seat.”

“Of course…”

Cal hesitated.

Nope.

Now was not the time to test whatever the dark and shadowy presence behind the door was. Chatting with the Furies had been pleasant and he didn’t want to ruin the rest of the night.

He withdrew from the door and cast about the rest of the motel for anything interesting, well, for threats mostly. He kept his mental scans shallow. For the most part the expedition members were normal people. No one was secretly evil, which was nice to discover.

The Dread Paladin was the exception, as was the pastor.

The latter wasn’t evil, so much as deluded, even though the man genuinely believed what he believed.

A golden angel, God’s herald for their church community. The Eternal Church of Joyous Light—

“Shitfuck!”

“Hey, language!” Nila said. “You’ll set a bad example.

“Nononono,” he murmured.

He tried to dig deeper into the pastor’s thoughts, but was met by a wall of music and song. There were words and sounds, but he couldn’t describe them.

“That fuc— sorry.”

He tried again and again to no avail.

He stopped the projection and floored the pedal.

“Hey! Be careful!” Nila snapped.

“It’s fine. I’ve got good reflexes.”

“Okay, you’re going to tell me what’s going on!” Nila said as he ushered her and the baby into the hotel’s front lobby.

Once safely inside, he plopped down into one of the comfortable couches.

“Zalthyss…”

Nila’s eyes widened. “Here?”

He told her what he had seen or rather heard when he had brushed against the pastor’s thoughts.

“The name’s not very subtle, is it?”

He shook his head and traced fingers over the base of the knuckles of the two missing ones on his left hand. “If it or one of its representatives is here then I have to be very careful. It’s my advantage that I know, but they don’t know that I know. I have to be circumspect in gathering intel so that when I do strike it’ll be quick and overwhelming.”

Nila placed the sleeping baby on the couch and stepped out of her Threnosh armor before sitting down and throwing her arms around Cal. “You’re not alone this time and you’re stronger. You’ve fought and beaten things just as bad or worse.”

“Well… they say that the first time always leaves the biggest impact,” he flexed his three-fingered hand. “Enough on that. I don’t want to think about it. That might draw attention.”

“Okay… then let’s talk about how the night went,” Nila said.

“What did you think of them?”

“The Furies? They’re fun… in a crazy dangerous way. Good to fight alongside with, merciless killers to their enemies. Reminded of some of the rangers. Except the girl, Prim,” Nila shook her head sadly. “The way she was being groomed… I’m assuming we’ll be paying a visit to their hometown at some point?”

“Yeah. It made the list. I got more from the expedition leader, Elliot. The place isn’t that bad. Life there sounds close to what it was generally like before the spires showed up. They use paper dollars and make people work jobs.”

Nila made a face. “Pointless waste of time.”

“I didn’t read deeply into their thoughts. Mostly scanned through recent memories. Saw what they experienced on the journey from Texas to here. It’s not perfect since each individual’s memories are filtered through their own perception. Bias and such colors the remembrance. However, cross-referencing singular events through multiple eyes gives me an accurate picture. It’s very useful, but I still fill like a creep for looking into other people’s thoughts. Not to mention the psychic bleed through,” he sighed. “What they see and feel, I get too.”

“And?”

“Two big takeaways for me, well three, but we aren’t talking about that one. The first is that I’d like to vet the Furies more. They have the potential to be good allies in our more proactive approach to things. Hayden’s got a straight up superpower. First I’ve personally interacted with that wasn’t family.”

“What about that racist cop from way back then?”

“Technically true, but he got eaten by a gremlin alpha… anyways. Hayden’s body generates electricity.”

“What about the others?”

“Dayana’s a high level Rogue. Almost 40. I know Hanna and a few of the rangers got into the 30’s from what we did in the Philippines. That was months ago, so I don’t know where they are now. Hanna might be pushing 40 depending on what she’s doing. Jayde’s a low 20’s Punch Mage…”

“That’s a new one,” Nila said. “How does that even work? She does spells by… punching?”

“Pretty much. It’s interesting because it’s a consolidation of two classes. Mage and Boxer.”

“Why is it so low?” Dayana’s twice as high,” Nila said.

“She had both classes at 20 when they combined,” he shrugged. “This is the first example of consolidation that I’ve discovered. Not enough data points to establish anything really. With spires bullshit there are probably as many potential outcomes as there are people. Level 20 in two classes might just be the minimum pre-req. The most important thing might be that she saw herself or really wanted to be a Mage that punched things.”

“Or a Boxer that hits things with magic,” Nila said.

“A possibility with an equal chance of being true. As for Prim. She’s a standard Mage at around 20. Though she does have a spell that I’ve never seen before. Some kind of spell orb that functions like a sort of drone. She learned it from a woman that tried to do good, but had the bad luck to run into an overpowered opponent. Kath was her name and she’s the tie that binds Hayden to Prim… and binds the two of them to the Dread Paladin.”

“He killed this Kath…” Nila said.

“My second point of interest or big problem, depending on perspective. The Dread Paladin is a very dangerous young man. I barely scratched the surface on him. I thought that I wasn’t ready to cut our relaxation time.”

Nila snorted.

“What? This has been a veritable vacation. We get to stay in an opulent suite, eat opulent food.”

“Spawn zones and monsters,” Nila reminded him.

“Honestly, those fights have been pretty easy. Unlike the Dread Paladin.”

“Doesn’t he have a real name? You keep saying that and it makes me cringe,” Nila said.

“I told you I didn’t dig and no one in the entire expedition knows him as anything else. He almost reminds me of Fin. Different feeling, but similar. Like there’s another presence. It’s the same issue though. I don’t want to let it know that I know, you know?”

“Yeah, because you’re worried that it might do something bad to Fin if you just start kicking down doors. I keep telling you that it might be worse the longer you don’t do anything,” Nila said.

“I’m folding the Fin concern into our current broad objectives. Hopefully, a solution appears or is created.”

“How dangerous?” Nila said.

“I only have the expedition’s memories of him in action and they’ve been colored by an unnaturally high amount of… dread—”

“Hence the name. Wait, is that just a name or a class?”

“It seems to be the latter.”

“And a paladin is? I recognize it from your games. Like a magic knight?” Nila said.

“Close, but not a knight like you, Ila,” he grinned. “Seriously, what was that?”

“Well you said that you would make them see my Threnosh armor as knight armor and I sorta panicked when she asked my name,” Nila scowled.

“That’s why I didn’t give them mine and made up that whole Witch curse excuse.”

“You didn’t tell me before hand,” Nila said. “So… that’s your fault.”

“I guess that’s true from a technical standpoint, but it doesn’t change the fact that your secret fake name is just your real name, minus the N,” he laughed.

Nila poked a finger into his ribs.

The baby stirred from their jostling, which made them freeze.

“Your fault,” Nila hissed.

“He’s fine,” he regarded the baby fondly. “You’re not going to wake up are you?”

Nila let out a breath. “The Furies are planning to kill the Dread Paladin. I don’t need telepathy to pick up that much from what they said.”

Cal nodded.

“Can they do it?”

He recounted what the Dread Paladin had accomplished throughout the expedition’s journey as filtered through the eyes of over a hundred people. “I’m pretty sure he’s empowered by fear, terror and ultimately the dread others have in regards to him simply existing in their world. He’s got a demon-y shadow horse and gear he pulls out from shadows. He’s got combat Skills and magic spells. Hence the name. A mixture of might and magic in the service of… something.”

“This something is what gives him power, which implies that it is the real threat,” Nila said.

“I’m not sure if the Furies can do it.”

“He sounds like a bad guy, probably in the service of another evil entity thing,” Nila said. “What if we need to handle it?”

Cal eyed the baby.

“We can get a sitter,” Nila said.

“Where? Who?”

“I think we can trust him with Prim for an hour,” Nila said. “I fight the Dread Paladin, while you take care of his evil mentor.”

“I don’t know if you can beat him.”

Nila’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

Cal rushed to explain. “From what I’ve seen in their memories, he appears to have Class 7-ish strength. Not to mention the fact that his weaponry might have magical properties that can beat your armor.”

“Can you explain in English and not you and your brother’s nerd speak?” Nila said.

“Alright, just going by the physicals… You’re just below a Class 2, as you know.”

“Yeah, I can almost press 2 tons. He can do 7, so what? Fighting’s not just about strength,” Nila said.

“True. There’s skill and technique. Speed, reflexes, equipment and a bunch of other factors. Breaking down the rest of these… I’d say your speed is about the same. You’re more acrobatic, agile. I only saw him fight monsters so I can’t say for certain how his fighting skill is against a humanoid opponent, but from what I saw I’d say he knows what he’s doing. What he does have is magic. Spells and equipment, a lot of which, I suspect have yet to be revealed.”

“Okay. You don’t have to say anything more. I’m not stupid and reckless,” Nila said.

“Oh thank God… I thought that was my job and I was getting confused.”

“Very funny,” Nila gave him a flat stare. “What’s the next step then? Invite them to a buffet?”

“I— that’s a great idea! Then when they’re full and in a food coma I can hook them into a plot, like cults do!”

“Not funny now that there are cults out there that do things like turn humans into seafood hybrids,” Nila said.

“Yeah, we’ll definitely need to do king crab legs, lobster and grilled scallops. Pair those with a variety of meats?”

“Whatever you want,” Nila stood and gathered the sleeping baby into her arms. “Since this is your idea, you’ll be doing all the cooking. The baby and I will be going to sleep.”

“I’m not going to cook now. I still have to send the invite. Maybe for dinner tomorrow? We can cook during the day. Make it a family project?” he ventured hopefully.

“The baby and I will be in the pool,” Nila dashed his hope.

Meh, he thought after a moment.

Thanks to his powers he could do the work of dozens of people without it being difficult.

“Do you want to help with a presentation… at least that?” he called after Nila.

“Pool!”

He waited for her to disappear into the elevator before getting up and walking over to the buffet kitchens.

Things probably need to be defrosted and he could start the prep work at least.

Anything to keep his mind busy and off the golden-voiced song threatening to emerge from his memories.

“My proposal is pretty straight-forward,” the strange man from last night said with a smile.

Hayden dipped the chunk of crab leg into lemon butter sauce and crammed it into her mouth as she listened.

“I’d like you join me in exploring something I discovered.”

She listened to the murmurs from the rest of the expedition’s members. They had all been invited to this strange dinner party thing. Best buffet in Vegas was right. Though, to be fair they hadn’t had the best of eating for a long time. The cooks had tried, but there was only so much that one could expect when traveling a thousand miles through monster-filled lands.

“It’s weird, but this is suspicious,” Dayana whispered.

“Yeah, but I’m going to eat as much as I can before the fighting starts. Two nights of heaven in a row… I can die happy!” Jayde said.

“I liked him a lot more last night,” Prim said.

“Feels like a completely different person. The man from last night I trusted completely. That’s gone now,” Dayana said. “But I know it’s the same guy, even if his face looks off.”

“I don’t remember what he looked like.” Hayden regarded the man’s strong features. Brown skinned, short black hair. Could be anywhere from 20 to 40, but the eyes suggested he had seen things. Decent overall, but not her type.

“I believe you’re here to take on encounter challenges and spawn zones to gain all that you can from that. Had I known you were coming I might have left a few more spawn zones.”

“Where’s Knight Ila and the baby?” Prim scanned the dining room futilely. “They were real… weren’t they?”

“Did you see anyone else in this place?” Dayana said.

Hayden thought back to walking into the large and conspicuously empty lobby. “There weren’t any signs that there’s a large group here. Maybe they’re in one of the other casinos?”

“Have to be. No way two people and a baby claims a place this large by themselves,” Jayde said.

“I was one of the scouts that spent all morning checking out the Strip. We found zero signs of that,” Dayana said. “I was sure that I’d find them here, but… nothing, like you said.”

“It’s a bit of a hike, but I don’t imagine something as minor as that will stop you.”

“What’d he say?” Hayden blinked. “We need to listen to this.”

“I’m sorry could you repeat that?” Jayde raised her hand.

Elliot shot her a glare, but she was oblivious.

“We weren’t paying attention,” Jayde continued.

For his part their dinner host smiled. “In the interest of brevity… I think I found a new kind of encounter challenge inside the mountains to the west.”

“What makes it new?” Hayden said.

“For one the entrance is an almost perfect dark circle in the side of the mountain. Didn’t look like a normal cave at all.”

“How do you know it’s an encounter challenge if you didn’t go inside?” Hayden said.

“I could tell,” the man failed to explain. “All encounter challenges I’ve come across to date have been our places. Buildings, parks, so on and so forth. The spires added monsters. They didn’t change their basic structures.”

“Yeah, sure, but how do you know that something else didn’t make this hole? A giant worm or something,” Jayde said.

“There would’ve been signs. Giant piles of dirt along the wayside would be an obvious one. Unless your worm eats dirt,” the man smiled. “The evidence seems to indicate that the hole just appeared. Almost as if it was always there.”

“Maybe it was. You just didn’t know,” Dayana said.

“Possible, but you’d think it would’ve been a huge tourist attraction and in the national park’s map as a picture spot,” the man said. “You can look at the guide yourself. I placed a copy on each of your tables.”

So that’s what that was for.

Prim opened it up and started reading.

“Seems suspicious, is all I’m saying,” Dayana said.

“Stop!” Elliot had enough it seemed. “You three… be quiet. And as for your offer mister— you haven’t given your name and I won’t consider any sort of agreement without at least that.”

“Cal is my name,” the man said without hesitation.

“Thank you. Obviously, I need to discuss your generous offer with my command staff. I hope the meal you’ve provided doesn’t come with any strings,” Elliot said.

“Freely given with no conditions beyond listening to my idea, which I’ve shared. What comes next is up to you. Whatever you decide there will be no grudges,” Cal said. “I would like to add one last thing. My offer isn’t just for the Golden Eagles Company as a whole,” he smiled, “it’s open to everyone who qualifies.”

“Which are?” Hayden said.

“A minimum level of strength and competence to not be a burden. Of course since we know nothing about what’s inside the encounter challenge that level will be determined after the first scouting trip. And, most importantly, no evil people. I won’t be a part of those types gaining experience, points and other rewards,” Cal said. “With that said… enjoy the rest of your night. Eat and drink as much as you want. You can even play in the casino. You can raid the many bars. Swim in the pools. There’s, like, spas and saunas and shit. Fitness centers, though that’s probably the last thing any of you will want to do.”

“Er… uh…” Ledge raised a hand from a far table, “if I get too drunk… can I crash here?”

Cal raised a brow.

“I’m just thinking that it’d be dangerous for drunk people to drive back to our tiny and cramped motel,” Ledge continued.

“Good thought. I’ll change your permissions and open the doors to the rooms on the first two floors of the Julius Tower. You can sleep it off there. Check out is before noon. Just follow the signs,” Cal nodded and left them to it.

“I wonder if Elliot already realizes it,” Dayana said.

“He looks like the crab went down the wrong hole,” Jayde said.

“Realizes what?” Prim said.

“It’s an open invite. Even if our contracts prohibit taking on other things during an expedition, the potential rewards might just be worth burning those bridges. If Cal is telling the truth then being the first to step foot inside a brand new type of encounter challenge means a lot of Universal Points is only the starting point. Who knows what other kind of bonuses we can get? This could gut the heart out of this expedition and the 1st Company,” Hayden said.

“Then he’s definitely going to take the offer,” Jayde said. “I really want to try this out, but I don’t want to leave the others hanging.”

“It sounds too good to be true,” Dayana said. “Except… I don’t think the guy was lying.”

The expedition ate their fill over the next few hour. Some more happily than others. As belts strained to keep bellies from bursting, Elliot stood and called for their attention.

“Listen up. I know some of you are already thinking about taking the guy’s offer…”

“Of course he looks at us,” Jayde whispered.

“Please don’t do anything you’ll regret. Don’t allow all this,” he gestured at the piles of empty plates on each table, “cloud your better judgment. The lieutenants and I need to discuss this and come up with a plan that will benefit all of us, the company, while giving us the best risk to reward ratio possible. By all means do what he said. Enjoy the games, get drunk, whatever you want. I think you’ve earned a carefree night after what we’ve traveled through.”

“At least he didn’t remind us about the contracts,” Dayana said.

“He’s smarter than that,” Hayden said.

“Dismissed,” Elliot said.

The lieutenants left their subgroups and headed to Elliot’s table.

Ledge appeared torn, but finally sighed and trudged over to join them.

“What are we going to do?” Prim said.

“Cocktails!” Jayde slammed her fist on the table.

“I’ve always wanted to properly gamble,” Dayana said. “The gaming houses we have are shacks compared to this place.”

Prim eyed Hayden.

“You’ve never drank, have you?” Hayden said.

The tall girl shook her head.

“A little can’t hurt,” Jayde said.

“She’s 14,” Hayden said.

“And she fights monsters with us,” Dayana said.

“Fine, but only a little,” Hayden said.

It wasn’t that big of a deal and she was going to keep her eye on Prim. You never knew what could happen when people had too much drink in them.

“I bet the Dread Paladin will regret staying behind,” Jayde smirked. “Dumbass.”

Elliot didn’t wait for his lieutenants to take their seats around the clean table.

“Thoughts?”

Ledge struggled to pay attention to their blathering. The delicious food sat heavily in his stomach. He longed to head to one of those rooms and its undoubtedly soft bed to sleep it off. A few hours to digest and he could go enjoy all those amenities. He had never been to this one particular resort, but he had stayed at others. Privileges from his father. Ones he had thought forever lost to him.

Elliot and the rest of the lieutenants talked for what felt like an hour.

Time wasted as far as Ledge was concerned.

“What do you think, Ledge?” Elliot’s voice had that tone it usually did when he thought he had caught on to Ledge’s inattentive ways.

“Agree or don’t. That man, Cal, gets what he wants.”

“You’re going to elaborate,” Elliot said.

“He’s going to get people to explore this place with him, like he wants. Whether it’s with our entire company or the ones that breach their contracts.”

“A person that breaks a contract doesn’t get to go home with us,” Elliot said.

“The potential rewards are worth it to the right kind of person. I’m specifically thinking of three individuals that will make things a lot harder for us if they leave.”

They all knew whom he spoke of.

“You can’t make them do anything they don’t want to. It’s always been that way with those women.”

“Screw them!” Tyson, Ledge’s least favorite fellow lieutenant, snapped. “They’ve never been anything, but borderline insubordinate. It’s time they learned their place in the chain of command. If they won’t then we’re better off cutting them loose. Otherwise they’ll continue to corrupt the rest of our troops.”

“Maybe, but without them we will lose enough people that it’ll be impossible to get back home anyways,” Elliot sighed.

“What if we don’t really need them anymore?” Megyn, Ledge’s third least favorite fellow lieutenant, said. “We simply continue to use the Dread Paladin to take the brunt of the worst threats.”

Ledge thought of the terrifying young man alone in the motel. A strange development worth investigating had he cared enough. He laughed.

The others cast contemptuous glares.

If they only realized how inconsequential they all were.

How pointless this entire meeting was.

They were cutting into his drinking time. Think of all the cocktails he could make with the highest quality liquors. Over a decade since he had tasted them.

“That would be very stupid,” he didn’t mince words. “Trusting the entire expedition to that guy? Really? If that’s the plan then we’re all better off taking up Cal on his offer.”

“I was inclined to agree in any case. It’s worth a shot. We gain from the encounter challenge and we gain from Cal in the event that he proves to be a worthwhile ally,” Elliot said.

“Or it’s a trap and this cave is filled with his fellow cannibals,” Tyson said.

“Nah,” Ledge snorted. “I heard from the Furies that he had a baby with him. Someone in the Meat Parade can’t resist that. Too soft, tender and tasty from what I understand.”

The half dozen people around the table looked at him with disgust.

“What? It’s true. Fuck you, Tyson! We were both there when Leon interrogated that Meat Parade scout that one time.”

“Fuck off!” Tyson snapped. “Why don’t you go get drunk? I can tell you’re itching for it.”

“Enough!” Elliot snapped. “I want you all to come together for this. We’re not leaving this table until we come to a decision. I want pros and cons, for and against. As always, the long-term well-being of the Golden Eagles is our priority. So, let’s do this round table style. Just say whatever is on your mind. Megyn, you can start. Then we’ll go clockwise.”

“Fuck,” Ledge sighed.

There would be no enjoying the amenities on this night.