250 - Architect

Abernathy was exhausted.

He'd spent most of last night studying new potions that he could make for the clinic, and also doing homework for some of the free courses he was taking. Not to mention Professor Aikins was even having him grade papers now, which was more than he was supposed to be doing as a thirteen-year-old TA.

The professor was overly demanding and not as thankful and warm as Aiden had been.  Unlike Aiden, who was always eager to teach Abernathy everything he knew, Aikins got annoyed when Abernathy asked questions and often dismissed him because he was 'just a mundane' and was 'lucky to have this job'.

Abernathy missed Aiden.

He’d only been to see him a few times since he quit, but not since Lexie was back.

He meant to. He almost did several times, but he thought it might be too weird now.

Aiden wasn’t technically his boss anymore, and he wasn’t his friend either. Lexie…had been his friend at one point, but right now, it felt like she was someone he barely knew. She never bothered stopping by the clinic to see him and hadn't responded to any of his texts now that she was back. So he guessed, she just didn't want to talk to him. It hurt, but that was life, as his mom liked to say. They were elementary school friends. He didn't expect they would be friends forever. So there was really no reason for him to see her again.

Also, he’d been pretty busy. That too.

But mostly it was the other stuff that kept him away. 

He was so glad it was the weekend. He planned sleep for thirteen hours straight.

“I’m home,” he called out when he walked into the cramped apartment he shared with his mother. He put his hand on the back of his neck, cracking it as he moved. “Mom?”

He didn’t know why he bothered. His mom worked even more than he did. She was hardly ever home.

He trudged to his room and pushed open his door, and almost jumped out of his skin.

“What the hell, Doyle? What are you doing here? How did you get in my house?”

The other boy regarded him with a toothy grin. He was still missing an incisor from the one time he'd physically fought Chris, and the bigger boy had punched him square in the face. It had never grown back. 

“Watching videos on the NET," he said. He had propped his black pad on his knee with his boots on the bed.

"Gross, you could have at least taken off your shoes." Abernathy shoved Doyle's feet off the bedding, then shoved the rest of him off too.

Boyle landed with an 'ouch' but quickly scrambled back ot his feet.

“Come watch this," he said. "There's a video about Lexie."

"Lexie?"

"Yeah. It's crazy. There's this guy who says he found a new way for humans to use magic without the Fae. He used to talk about the Alchemist a lot, but now he's talking about Lexie, says she's a 'progenitor' and a 'potential architect'," He squinted at the screen, "Which I think is just the technical term for 'chosen one'. He has tons of videos about her, too. I think he's a fan."

"I don't get it. Is she a conspiracy theory now?" There were rumors that Lexie had come back from the dungeon different. Stronger. Well, obviously, that part wasn't the rumor, seeing as how she teleported out of a freaking dungeon, which wasn't a thing that normal people did. The rumor part was that she'd sold her soul to an Eldritch for that power, or at least signed a very aggressive contract.

"The guy says the Eldritch thing is nonsense," Doyle said.

"Obviously," Abernathy said.

"And he also says that Lexie cultivated a new human magic and now the Fae want to get rid of her because they want to be a monopoly on magic."

"Yeah, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, and I listened to you explain crystal-backed spellcoin trading once. What the heck would they need our magic for?"

"Apparently, theirs is inferior."

Abernathy eyed him. "The Fae. Inferior. To us."

"That's what he said."

Abernathy shook his head, dropping his bag onto the seat. "That's such a brain-dead take, it's laughable. How many people are watching this?"

"A million."

"So there's at least a million stupid people in this world, and one of them is my best friend."

"Rude. I didn't say I believed it. I just saw Lexie in the thumbnail, and I clicked on it."

"Just how many Lexie videos have you watched?"

He paused. "A lot."

"A number."

"A bazillion."

"Bazillion's not a number. You know that, right?"

Doyle shook his head. "It's just crazy that we knew her in elementary school and now she's like, famous."

"What's crazy is that you're obsessed with her."

"You would know. You used to be in lurrrve with her." Boyle made kissy noises. Abernathy launched a pillow at his face.

"I wasn't."

"Yes, you were. Might still be. Anyway, we should go visit her this weekend. You know where she lives, right?"

"No. Busy this weekend."

"You already said you weren't, and you were going to do nothing but sleep."

Shit. He had said that, hadn't he?

"I don't think she wants to see us," Abernathy said

"You don't know that."

"She hasn't replied to any of our messages."

"Maybe she hasn't seen them. She's famous. Do you know how many messages she has to have right now?"

"Let me guess. A bazillion?"

"Exactly."

Abernathy sighed. Doyle opened his mouth to say something else, but then he closed it. "Wait, what's this?"

"What?"

"A recommended video." He clicked on his pad. "It's a livestream and Lexie's..." His eyes widened like saucers. "Holy shit."

***

This was not at all how Stella expected her day to go.

She'd been watching a movie about mermaids with Thor and Tamsin when she heard that there was a violation of the truce and the Hunts had returned to the Shatters.

Five seconds later, she’d been in the middle of the carnage and was told by the heroes on the scene that Vacek had called them in as back-up for something he was investigating, and just a few minutes ago, he’d disappeared along with a team of people.

She hadn’t even had time to digest that as they dealt with the incoming onslaught from both sides.

But now that the fighting had stopped, she didn’t know what to do about Aiden’s announcement that Vacek was gone. She divided her gaze between him and the Alchemist, whom he held in his hands, and then looked back at the bowing people behind her.

She had not a single speck of an idea what was going on here.

“I don’t…” She shook her head. The rest of the heroes were also standing there looking to her, as though expecting her to do something. As though they were looking for leadership.

She didn’t want to lead them. Heck, she barely wanted to lead herself, and the fact that Aiden was standing there coldly announcing that Vacek was gone after having pulled the Alchemist out from a pocket dimension was throwing her for a loop.

The Alchemist started chortling, and Stela finally turned to him, narrowing her eyes. “What the hell are you laughing about?”

“So much change in so little time," The Alchemist. "I know how you must loathe change, Stella Firebringer. And the lot of you...it's like watching domesticated wolves that have been set off into the wild. They don't know how to hunt anymore now that their master is dead."

“He’s not dead,” Stella said, sounding less than sure of herself. “Is he?”

The Alchemist simply laughed again until he was overtaken by a coughing fit.

Stella wanted to hit him, but that was probably not the right thing to do.

Okay, Stella. Breathe. Everything's fine. You have this. Just…do something.

“You should call an emergency meeting with the board, at least the hero faction of it,” Aiden suggested. “Tell them what happened. I can do the talking if you want."

Stella was nodding, but then she stopped. Aiden was still technically an ex-villain. Could she summon him to a board meeting? Especially given that he seemed to have regained some of his powers. 

God, this was all so confusing. So many decisions, and she felt like she was in way over her head.

Wait, why was she even taking on the responsibility? She was only a board member at the association, but so was Groundsmage, and he should be around here somewhere. He was probably better at giving orders than she was. Also, there was Jerry, who was the Vice President. He would probably take over now. 

Yes, that would work great. One of the most important things Dr. Shaw had told Stella was that she needed to start setting boundaries at work. She hadn't seen the woman in a while, but that still seemed like solid advice.

Things would be fine with Jerry in control. And even if it wasn't, it wouldn't be her fault.

Lexie raised her hand, like she was in class.

“Yes? Lexie?”

“Are we done with him?” She pointed at the man who hadn’t moved underneath her feet. His eyes were closed, but he was still breathing, his chest rising and falling at regular intervals. “Because I would like to kill him now.”

As all eyes snapped to her, Lexie ammendedher words, “I mean, I would like to take care of him now.”

Stella shook her head as Groundsmage chuckled.

“That’s not how it works, hon," she said. "We have to lock him up, and he has to have a trial and a whole bunch of other things before we decide what to do with him."

"Trial? Why? He really did all those things I told you about, I swear.” 

Stella smiled. Lexie was so mature about most things that it was easy to forget she was still just a kid.

“I know. I believe you. But even if he’s a detestable villain, he deserves due process. That's just how the law works.” Stella turned back to the Alchemist, “Now, as for this repeat offender…”

The Alchemist smiled. “I don’t deserve due process?”

“Seeing as how you managed to escape from the most secure place on the planet, I don’t see how we would even contain you. Death might be the only option.”

“You don’t want to do that,” the Alchemist said. “You will need me very soon. If you kill me now, well, humanity is as good as done.”

“Yeah, right. I’m sure that’s the same speech he gave Vacek that convinced them to keep him alive the first time,” Groundsmage muttered. “I saw we get rid of him now and be done with it.”

“We shouldn’t,” Aiden spoke up, attracting attention.

“Why not?”

"First of all, the PHORBs."

Stella had only just realized, and she whipped her head around and saw the things floating in the air.

Where on earth had they come from? What were they recording for?

As one of the heroes shot them down, Stella locked eyes with Tilly, who nodded and said, "I'm on it."

She teleported out of there, probably to contact the technomages at the hero headquarters to scrub the footage. It might be too late if it was being livestreamed, but if they could wipe everything off, maybe....

With the Undernet, though, it was wishful thinking.

She sighed. There were so many ways the footage it caught could be cut, spliced, and used. Eitherway, this was not a good look for the association.

"Take the PHORBs and track where they came from," Stella told Matiz, one of the heroes, who took the broken orbs and disappeared. She also ordered some of the more injured heroes to be taken to the medics, too.

It would have been the first thing she did if her mind weren't so jumbled right now.

"Okay," Stella said once that was done. "Now what's next?"

"I think to avoid widespread panic, you have to kill him now, and present his head on a spike at your national assembly," Groundsmage suggested.

"That's not how it works in our District," Stella said.

"Shame," Groundsmage said.

"Also," Aiden added. “There’s still so much we don’t know. We don’t know how he escaped from the island, we don’t  know what other plans he has in place, and we don’t know where he’s trapped Vacek.”

“Is he still alive?”

The Alchemist sang, "I have the right to remain silent."

"We also don't know if he's real," Aiden said. "He appears so, but he also makes extremely sophisticated golems. This might just be one of them."

“That's true, but do you  have any other ideas on how to keep him contained?”

“Yes.” Aiden stared at the two of them and said, “I think I understand how his Alchemy works now. It’s how I was able to reverse it twice."

“So?”

“So I can create a soul prison for him, and I'll link our souls together by a soul contract. That way, he would not be able to escape from whatever cage I put him in, and if he did, he would die instantly, meaning his soul would die, whether it's in this golem or not. Wouldn’t that work?”

“Hang on,” Groundsmage said. “No offense, Archmage, but you don't exactly have a squeaky record either. Why should you be the one to have the leash?”

“Because I’m the only one who can,” he said. “You will never be able to trap him with just magic. You will need a cage that adjusts just as he does, and you’ll never be able to do it without alchemy creating one. He’s the only and most powerful alchemist we have now. I’m the second most powerful Alchemist you have now. I’m quite literally the only one who can cage him.””

Stella and Groundsmage shared a look.

“Can you figure out if Vacek is still alive?” Stella asked.

“I can.”

"Stella…I don’t think the rest will go for this," Groundmage warned.

“Well then, we’ll bring it up to a vote at the meeting.” Stella ran her hand over her face. “So it's not just our decision. Groundsmage, call an emergency meeting right now. We’ll discuss everything there. Aiden, Lexie, both of you’ll come with us and explain exactly what happened in there. Oh, and you, too, Paul. If you’re up for it.”

The wolf guy, who was heavily injured on his left arm, raised his right arm and gave a thumbs-up.

"Okay then. Let's go."

"What do we do about them?" Groundsmage gestured behind him to the still kneeling warriors. They were all Hunts, but the Sultan's soldiers weren't attacking either, merely standing around looking confused.

"Why are they doing that?" Stella asked.

"Because of her," Groundsmage pointed to Lexie. "They're expressing their divine respects and acknowledgment. I've heard through the grapevine that they call her 'The One Sent.'"

"Is that a fancy word for chosen one?"

"Something like that," he said, but gave her a more meaningful look.

"They think she's their Champion?"

"Worse. They think she's their Guardian."

They both turned to Lexie, who was still glaring down at the man on the floor.

"What do we do?" Stella asked.

"Tell her to tell them that she acknowledges their respect," he said. "And that they should surrender, but their leader should come with us."

Stella nodded and repeated the order to Lexie with an explanation of why only she could give the order.

Lexie seemed taken aback but not displeased with it.

She said loudly, "I acknowledge your respect. Now, please go back and surrender. Your leader will come with us and confess whatever is behind this."

To everyone's surprise, they let out a loud war chant and obeyed without question.

***

As the Hunts moved around, Lexie returned her focus to Vulcan. "You really should kill him. He’s not going to be any use to us.”

"We already agreed that's not how it works," Stella said, while arranging for a teleport circle.

“Why not?” Lexe’s voice trembled with anger. “Do you know how many people have gotten hurt and have died because of him? Why does he get to live when they don’t?”

“Lexie…”

“Don’t Lexie me.” She was aware of everyone watching her, but she didn’t actually care if people thought she was a villain for her views. “Thanks to this man, unstable dungeons were everywhere, and people died in Hartville. He trapped my mom in her dungeon and Cecilia too, and Max…” Lexie took a breath because she didn’t want to get emotional. “It's not even about revenge. All I’m saying is that getting rid of him is the easiest and best thing to do.”

Stella gave her a sympathetic look, walked closer, and put her hands on her shoulder.

“I know you think that, but it’ snot,” she said. For example, how do we know whether he worked alone for any of that? He probably had associates he worked with, and if we kill him, we’ll never find them, and they’ll just continue hurting more people, even if he’s dead. Also, as with the Alchemist, we’re not sure if he’s even a real person and not a golem."

"Still," Lexie said. "He can see the future. He might already be planning his escape. Vacek went through a lot of trouble to find him, and if he escapes again, it will be terrible for everyone involved." Including Dewie and Xena.

Not to mention, Lexie had made a deal with the mountain that she would kill him at the first chance she got. She didn't want to lose a part of her soul thanks to the deal.

Stella silently shook her head.

Lexie huffed. She was tempted to say fuck it and do it anyway. Realistically, what was the worst that could happen? She would become a criminal, but it’s not like that would mean anything. Maybe she’d get off with a misdemeanor, and even if she got a tilling band, she'd probably be able to break it or at least bypass it.

Or she would just leave Earth altogether and go back to her dungeon.

Unfortunately, she’d gotten way too acclimatized to Earth. She wanted to stay, and she wanted to see her friends and her father and go on vacation with them. 

But ultimately, the thing that stopped her was the idea of what Xena and Dewie would think. Her father would not think less of her for killingVulcan. His expression showed that he was in agreement with her, actually.

Dewie might understand.

But Xena was already having difficulty accepting that Lexie was Eldritch now. Killing a man in cold blood, even if he so deserved it, would make her hesitate to trust Lexie.

"How long is this trial going to be?" Lexie asked.

"Not long," Stella asked. "We'll rush it. Use truth potions and Monty to get all the information we need out of him. So, maybe a few days?"

“What happens when he gets tried and found guilty if he’s guilty?" she asked. “Does he get the death penalty?”

“It’s a possibility, especially given the breadth of his crimes and the fact that he’s probably a repeat offender.”

“What about visions? How do we ensure that he doesn’t escape?"

“I can help with that,” Aiden said. “The Alchemist and his mind are somewhat linked. I can link it to my mind too. Whatever he sees, I will see it too.”

That did calm Lexie somewhat, but she still wasn't sure.

Apparently, neither was Groundsmage. "I still don’t know about giving him so much power," he told Stella.

Adien smiled without humor. "Unfortunately, you don’t have a choice.”

Lexie chewed on the options Stella had given her.

Well, the Mountain didn't really give her a time limit. It did say she could either kill Vulcan or get the key. Killing Vulcan always just seemed like the easier thing to do.

Maybe she’d pay a visit to the mountain again to figure it out. Maybe there was a way to sever Vulcan's access. If not, and if the Mountain showed him to still be a threat, Lexie could probably break into the prison and kill him, and no one would be the wiser.

Yes, that might work.

She finally lifted her leg from his neck and allowed them to take him. 

About half an hour later, Lexie and Aiden were in a large, dark boardroom surrounded by a group of people exuding power.

The heads of the Elemental Houses were here, as well as some other important hero families.

Aiden and Lexie stood at the end of the table and were the subject of their many stares.

“He thought this might happen,” Jerry said quietly. “When he was leaving today, he gave me…he told me that in case he didn’t come back, I should hold onto the access key for his office."

“Doesn’t he do that all the time when he goes out on missions?” Someone else asked.

Jerry shook his head. Upon hearing of Vacek’s demise, Jerry was the only one who looked truly sad. Everyone else looked like some variation of anxious, angry, or suspicious.

Except for a woman who introduced herself as Kya Wavelost. She looked like nothing at all, but she was giving Aiden and Lexie a cold, narrow-eyed look.

“What did you say happened again?” she asked. 

“He’s told the story a few times already,” Stella said tiredly. 

"Yes, but I just find it unbelievable. You and the rest of the heroes were trapped in a pocket dimension. You all got separated into your separate mini pocket dimensions, yet everyone except Vacek escaped. It just feels a bit..." She pressed her lips together. "Convenient."

“Several other heroes corroborated the story," Aiden said.

“Yes, but you saved them and not Vacek."

"I believe the Alchemist targeted Vacek in particular because that was who he wanted out," Aiden said. "He wasn’t strong enough to get rid of all of us, but he might have been strong enough to get rid of one. Vacek was too focused on protecting everyone else, so unfortunately, he was the one."

"The pocket dimension suppressed his powers, but not yours?"

"Yes. I use Alchemy."

"What about the rest of the heroes?"

"You'd have to ask them."

"Shit." Jerry rubbed his hand over his head as he hung it. “This is going to be a shit storm. I can already feel it. And with the Fae sniffing down our necks, I don't even know how we're going to explain this to them."

“Do they already know?”

“I don’t see how they couldn’t. We managed to get all the footage off the NET, but who knows if it’s on the Undenret?”

"It probably is,” Lexie said, and all eyes went to her, as if up till then, they’d forgotten she was there. 

"And how did you get Alchemy when you’re supposed to be powerless?” Kya addressed Aiden again.

“Kya–” Stella started.

“No, it's fine,” Aiden said. “Alchemy is essentially magic with a bit more chaos added to it. I started cultivating it with my Tilling bands and used a few illegal substances to weaken the control portion of the band. Then I started to take control of the alchemy within the band and made it my own."

“So you’re confessing to several crimes.”

“Yes.”

"We can send you back to prison for that."

Aiden smiled. "You can try.”

Lexie smiled too. She’d always thought the world of her dad. She’d thought he was smart and strong, and kind.

Now, she also thought her father was a badass. 

"Would you submit to a mindsweep, Aiden?" Jerry asked. "Just so we can confirm everything that happened."

"No," he said.

"How dare you–" One of the unknown men started, and Aiden interrupted.

"I don't think some of you understand. I'm the one doing you the favor here, not the other way round. And my favor isn't going to be free either."

That shocked just about everyone in the room, including Stella.

Lexie, though, was grinning. She was wondering what her father was going to ask for.

Money? No, Lexie was already pretty wealthy.

Protection? From who? They were stronger than just about everyone else on the planet.

Before she could find out, Jerry pressed a hand to his ear and swore.

"What is it?" Stella asked.

"The Fae are here. They're asking for Vacek."