241 - The Cruel Clue

Lexie jumped off the counter, instantly on alert. “Let’s go.”

Aiden shook his head. “No. I’ll go. You stay.”

“Aiden–”

“Dad,” he corrected her with a stern look. She sighed. 

“Dad, I need to go with you.”

“No, you need to rest.”

“I’ve been resting all day.” Well, mostly. “What we need to do is catch onto Vulcan before more people get hurt, or before he manages to enact whatever his master plan is. Vacek was right. Time is of the essence, and we’re still playing catch-up. We need to start going on the offensive.”

Aiden’s expression clearly showed that he was struggling with the idea of letting her accompany them, but he knew he was fighting a losing battle. If he refused to take her, Lexie would just figure it out and teleport there on her own. 

“Fine,” he said. “But I want you to save your energy. Let me handle the teleport and everything else, alright? You just stand there and look cute.”

“Of course.” Lexie always looked cute. 

“Furthermore, I want you to do me a favor,” Aiden continued. “I want you to stop making so many teleports and using high mana skills until you make your living cards.”

“That might be difficult,” Lexie said. “I have a lot of enemies, Dad, and there are a lot of screwed-up things in the world that need to be fixed.”

“Why don’t you let me worry about fixing them for now?” he said. “After all, what else are my powers for? If you need something done, just tell me. I’ll get it done for you.”

Lexie didn't even consider saying yes to that because she knew long-term that it wouldn't work. She couldn't rely on her father for everything because it would be too much of a strain on him, and even if she could, she didn't want to.

Thanks in part to her Eldritch nature, Lexie got a deep sense of fulfilment from using her cards, and though she didn’t need to be fighting all the time, periodic chaos did make her feel better. 

“I’ll try,” she allowed, because she didn’t want to make her father sad. 

“I suppose that’s all I can hope for,” he said. He held out his finger and said, “Pinky promise?”

After an entire day of being hounded for soul contracts, the pinky promise made her snort. She curved her pinky around his. “Sure. Pinky promise.”

A few minutes later, joined by Vacek, Dewie, and Xena, they were in what looked to be an underground bunker. 

The place was clearly deserted, but it had been the headquarters of Vulcan's operation at some point, given how much furniture it had. He'd tried to burn most of it, but the fire hadn't taken everything.

It had also left the black metallic screens that had probably, at one point, been connected to someone's system.

Lexie recalled that Vulcan had been working with some kind of hacker or at least a technology expert like Isaac. Lexie would have thought Vacek would bring one along for this excursion, but so far, he only brought a few of his soldiers to keep watch while they poked around.

Mostly, he had Dewie walk around looking at things to see if he could lace it all together. Xena was, of course, helping him with her light magic so he would reach the epiphany faster. 

It reminded Lexie that she still needed to make the light card for Dewie. Problem was that it would require her to spend more time interacting with Xena’s light, which she wasn’t sure she felt like doing, but thankfully, she thought that maybe it was just the belief and perception portions of Xena’s light that offered temporary boosts to Dewie.

So she just needed a card that could isolate and contain that.

Of course, that wasn’t easy to do, not even with her living cards, because light was completely antithetical to the darkness that the Eldritch magic used.

But she could try.

While Dewie worked, Aiden also started to survey the environment, laying his hand on the wall. 

Xena also came up to Lexe. 

“Hey,” Xena said.

“Hey,” Lexie said in return. 

“Winter break’s coming up soon. I was thinking we could go for a trip. You, me, Dewie, and our parents. I already asked my mom and Dewie’s parents, and they seem to be okay with it.”

“The mayor was okay with it?” Lexie thought after their last run-in, he would ban Dewie from ever speaking to her again, but so far, Dewie hadn't mentioned any such thing. Maybe the Mayor was scared that, if he tried that, Lexie would appear in his office again.

“I guess. I spoke to Dewie's mom. Oh, and Veronica, who by the way is…never mind, I’ll tell you about her later. I know you'll probably be busy in the next few days, but t I feel like we’ve hardly hung out at all since you got back and things have been…weird.”

“Yeah, I know.” Lexie thought about it and nodded. “You're right. We should go on the trip.”

Xena brightened up. “Really?”

“Yeah.” It should be easy enough to take the trip, considering that she could teleport anywhere she was needed.

Hold on, she’d told Aiden that she wouldn’t teleport anymore.

Oh well, since he was tagging along, he could teleport her places.

And if they caught Vulcan before that, then they would have all the time in the world to take as many trips as they could.

It was a nice dream to have, traveling with her father and friends, and putting Vulcan and the Alchemist behind them for good. It was a dream she planned on realizing.

Lexie planned on catching Vulcan soon. They were close. So close, she could feel it.

All she needed was to find him, and then she would kill him, fulfilling her promise to the Mountain and protecting her father all at once. 

But in the meantime, there was no reason for her not to spend her time with her friend.

Xena was trying hard here to reestablish the friendship they once had, and Lexie needed to meet her halfway.

Lexie could tell the other girl felt the distance and was worried. Zee had had a really rough time lately. In the past year, her best friend disappeared in a dungeon for almost a year, and though Lexie was back now, she was notably different.

More Eldritch.

More of the things that Xena was taught to fear.

Xena might not have been able to put her finger on exactly why Lexie was different yet, but she probably suspected it, just like everyone else probably suspected it, too.

Lexie was her best friend, but Lexie was also now a possible threat.

It must be difficult to reconcile the two.

Not to mention, on a more basic and human level, Xena probably really just missed her best friend. Lexie hadn't been seeking her out as much as before, too distracted with everything else that was going on. It was just like before, when she spent the entire holiday season barely calling her.

That wasn't fair to Xena.

Lexie's problems shouldn't entirely eat away at their friendship.

"You mean it?" Xena asked again, and Lexie felt her guilt grow because Zee had clearly been expecting to get blown off again.

“Yeah, I mean it,” Lexie said, throwing her arm over Xena’s shoulder. “Where are we going? Do you have an itinerary?”

“Yup.” She said. “First, we’re going to Northshore for skiing.” Northshore and Melrose were cities in the Northernmost part of District 9, and were popular holiday destinations.

“After that, maybe we’ll go to Illead for a little museum hopping. Or maybe not. And then we can visit the Island. Lionel got me express tickets for us to spend a few days there. There’s so much fun stuff to do, it's like a miniature version of the Fae planet."

“You mean the Ronan Fae Ambassadorial Islands?”

"Yeah, but the one by Northshore, though.” Ronan Fae consisted of several islands that stretched across the coast from the capital city all the way up. "I went there once for a meeting with the Fae. It was really cool, I promise."

"It does sound cool." It also sounded like a good way to get familiar with the Fae system.

If Ronan Fae were a miniature version of Planet Fae, then maybe they would use the same sort of system.

Or maybe there was an access point to the Fae system that enabled the Fae to exist there more comfortably.

If Lexie could decode it, then she could perhaps figure out what converter they'd used for the human system by working out the differences between the two systems.

She was already going to Ronan Fae to meet Ryn, but she might not have the time to discover everything she wanted to discover at that meeting. So this would give her another chance.

“Alright,” she said. "And how exactly are you paying for all that, Ms. Moneybucks?"

“Please. I barely spent any money while you were gone. I was too depressed to shop, and so all my cash was just piling up in the bank. Between Dewie and me, we could probably buy a small country at this point.”

“Lucky,” Lexie said, but then it also reminded her of all the gold she was hoarding up in her inventory. When she’d been scanned by Vacek, he had mentioned that the gold and mana stones she was holding onto were probably worth about five million credits.

He’d had to confiscate the mana stones, just so she wouldn’t sell them on the black market or use them to make illegal potions, but he'd told her that if she needed them or wanted to sell the stones to the association, he would pay her a fair price for them.

So technically, at this point, Lexie was wealthy too.

Oooh, she'd forgotten to tell her dad about that. They were millionaires now. He never had to work a day in his life.

“I sense something,” Aiden suddenly said. 

“What is it?” 

“There’s a magic presence somewhere in this room. But it’s hard to make it out.” He passed his hand in the air. "Something or someone is here with us.”

“Where?” 

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. It’s a little confusing.”

“Everyone here is dead,” Dewie suddenly said softly. 

“What?”

“He killed them here,” Dewie said, facing us with fearful eyes. “Poisoned the air, and they all died.”

"You just saw that happen?"

Dewie nodded.

“That’s not his usual style," Vacek said. "It's sloppy. It means he was in a hurry to get rid of them and couldn’t carefully plan out their deaths. Also, he couldn’t risk them getting caught. He’s only a few steps ahead of us now.”

Dewie swallowed. He seemed traumatized by whatever it was that he’d seen, so Lexie and Xena went to him. Xena put a hand on his shoulder and said, “You can stop if you want to.”

He shook his head. “No. I want to continue.”

"Are you sure?" Aiden asked. "You can come back later."

He shook his head. "No. I'm sure."

“Can you figure out what was on these screens?” Vacek pointed at the screens surrounding them. “If we can see what he was working on, we can figure out the layout for his ultimate plan."

Dewie nodded and walked closer to the screen. Meanwhile, Lexie shifted closer to her father and said, “I want to see if there’s a dungeon around here. I think maybe that could be where he’s hiding.”

“Either that or a pocket dimension."

“Yeah. But I don’t know how those work.”

“Well, for one thing, pocket dimensions cost a lot of mana, so there would need to be a pretty powerful mana source attached to it to keep one of those running."

"Like a dungeon core?"

He nodded. "A dungeon core would be enough to power it for an indefinite amount of time.”

“Is that all you need for a pocket dimension? Mana?"

“No. Creating a pocket dimension is a lot of work, and it can get fairly complex. Not only are you ripping into reality, but it's like….creating a new world. A small one where existence could be anything you want to be. The hard part is that you must also design the system of such a place, the rules, the laws of physics, down to every meticulous detail. Of course, you can cheat and just copy everything from our reality, so how hard it is depends on how different you want it to be from the real world. But even if it's a small pocket of earth, operating by the same rules, it's still extremely difficult to hold it together."

“Wow. Sounds like a lot. Would pocket dimensions work in a telepathically disabled space?”

“Yes. And I know I’ve told you this before, and been wrong, but I really don’t think this is something that card magic can manage." Aiden accurately judged what she was thinking by the obvious direction of her questions.

Lexie huffed. Her father always assumed she couldn't do things. It was offensive.

Aiden saw her annoyance and smiled, tweaking her nose affectionately. She slapped his hand away.

"So, wouldn't this be easier if I could tell you if there’s a dungeon nearby, though. It won’t take much from me, I promise.”

Her father weighed it and nodded.

Lexie reached out and sensed it almost immediately. A weak underground dungeon, probably a level 3 or 4. She couldn’t tell how long it had been open for, but it felt like Belshycht's essence, lazy and sluggish.

“Yup,” Lexie said and went down to her knees, touching the ground. “I’ll try to communicate with it to see if maybe we can find a way into the pocket dimension.” Lexie thought about it. “Dad, maybe you should connect with me telepathically, so you can check for yourself. That way you'll be able to see what I see and feel what I feel."

"He can do that?" Xena was passing by when Lexie made the comment, and she looked at Aiden in shock.

It looked like Xena and Dewie still didn't know about Aiden’s powers. Lexie wasn't too concerned about telling them since the Fae knew too.

"Yeah," she said. "He can."

“They were communicating with each other,” Lexie heard Dewie in the background telling Vacek. “I think they were setting up a war.”

"You mean the one in District Four?”

“No. They mentioned that too, but I think there’s a different war coming. December 12th. They were saying stuff about…hold on…I think I need to watch more.”

“Okay. Don’t push yourself.” Though Vacek said the words, it was in a very perfunctory manner. He seemed eager to learn everything Dewie could decipher, whether he pushed himself or not. "If you can get a list of more names, dates, and times, that would be great.”

“Alright. Right now, I see a girl with pink hair on the screen. She's arguing with them, telling him it wasn't part of the deal."

"Okay." Vulcan thought about it. "I think I know who that is."

While Dewie looked into that, Lexie reached out physically to the dungeon. She attempted a soul touch, but she was too far away for that, even when she activated her soul card. What she did do was send out messages into the ether and use DECODE to detect if anything else in the vicinity bore the dungeon’s essence. 

She saw nothing, but Aiden said, "Hold on. I think I see something."

"You do?"

"Yes.

"How? I was trying to soul touch the dungeon, but it’s too deep underground for me to reach it,” Lexie told her father. "But I could…”

“No, you don’t have to. I have it.” Aiden said. “While you did that, I think I could detect the direction of the flow of alchemic current in the room.”

“Alchemic current?”

Yes. Once you’ve had enough experience with alchemy, you start to detect it in the vicinity. I can sense where the pocket dimension is anchored to our dimension." He placed his hand on a random wall. "The owner must have put a lock on it, though."

“Would it work if we weakened the dungeon?”

“No. That would simply cause it to collapse.”

“What if I shared Pvilycht’s power with you?”

“Your cousin?"

“Yeah. He can decode anything he interacts with, given enough time. It might give you access to the pocket dimension."

"Alright… let’s try that.”

She gave her father the PVLYCHT card, directing him on how to activate it. It was still linked to her, so she could control the activation somewhat, which was necessary since the card was made for Lexie's humano-Eldritch form and not for a full human. 

Together, they were able to break whatever seal was on the pocket dimension and call it forth.

It was like a tiny slit in the air, like a literal pocket

Aiden tentatively reached his hand in and retrieved a shiny, red gem.

Aiden paled, with a sharp intake of breath.

"What is it?" Lexie asked.

"It's..." He shook his head, seeming speechless for more than a few seconds. He finally met Lexie's gaze. "It's Lara's lifelink gem."

Lexei gaped. "Are you serious?" Vacek, Xena, and Dewie also gathered around, staring down at the glowing ruby. "I thought you said it couldn't be taken out of her."

"Yes, it...it’s still active...how..." He seemed unable to say full sentences, too shaken up by the sight. His breath was raspy, moving too fast. Lexie reached out and held his free hand, squeezing it in comfort.

"The Alchemist must have tampered with it somehow,” Vacek said quietly. "Maybe to mess with you."

Aiden ignored him. He turned to Dewie. "Do you think you could discover what happened with this?"

Dewie nodded, but Vacek said, “Aiden, that’s a distraction.”

Aiden glared at him. “I'll decide whether it’s a distraction or not.”

“Let's not waste the boy's powers on this. His power comes with a cost, and we should be focused on the Alchemist.”

"I want to do it," Dewie reached for the gem, taking it gently. "It's Lexie's mom. I want to see it."

Vacek sighed, but seemed resigned.

They had Dewie hold it for about ten minutes, but he didn't get anything yet. He kept focusing, but when he started to sweat, it was clear they'd exhausted their oracle. 

While Vacek took Dewie to a healer and Xena back to school, Lexie hung around more with her father. He seemed to be searching everywhere inside the bunker for any other clue about what happened to Lara.

For all his talk about letting go of the past, it was clear he was nowhere near ready to leave her behind.

Lexie stayed with him, mostly for moral support. But she was also thinking about whether she could use either Belshyct's dungeon or her dungeon to track Vulcan. Maybe with a good soul touch.

She hadn't seen Vulcan before when she'd soul touched her dungeon, but maybe she just hadn't looked hard enough. Maybe she needed to completely sift through the dungeon's memories.

Then again, she had promised the dungeon she would leave it alone and not mess with its head. Would a conversation count as messing with its head?

Lexie released a tired breath.

"Honeybee."

She turned at her father's soft call, her heart aching at his defeated expression.

"Let's go home."

***

Later that afternoon, Lexie was watching TV with Tate. Aiden was in his room alone, still recuperating from everything that happened. Lexie had spent time with him, trying to comfort him, but she wasn't very good at it.

He'd eventually told her he wanted to be alone, and so she'd come down to spend time with Tate.

"I got you invited to a dinner with my Fae friend, by the way," Lexie suddenly announced.

"Yeah?" he asked. "Why?"

"Why not?"

He grunted and kept switching channels. They landed on a superhero interview of a hero with shiny teeth and a cleft chin.

"Earth 9's Superman is so lame, I swear," Tate commented.

"Yeah," Lexie answered.

"Do you ever think of the other Earth?" he asked as he changed the channel.

"Do you?" Lexie deflected.

"No, but I don't really have a reason to. There was nothing for me there. But I know you had friends...family..."

Before Lexie could answer, her phone rang.

She materialized and stared at it, remembering her earth phone with all the unanswered messages on it.

Eventually, she might have to actually look at it.

She just wasn't ready yet.

"Lexie," It was Dewie's on the other end of the call. "How's your dad?"

"Depressed and moody," she answered.

"Oh." He sounded down.

"Were you hoping for a different response?"

"No, it's just that..." He took a deep breath. "I did see something associated with that life gem, but I didn't want to say it there in front of him."

"What do you mean?"

"The vision I had...Vacek was in it," he said. "And Lexie, it wasn't...it wasn't good."

AN: Putting a temporary pause on all the Friday and weekend chapters for now, both to recuperate during the holiday season and also to finish editing Book 1 for Amazon's release :)