Rain left Velocity running as Velika slowed her breakneck sprint through the trees to a jog, then a walk. Rather than dart off in a new direction as she’d done twice previously, this time, she came to a complete stop and turned to face him.

“What the hells is wrong with you?” she asked, crossing her arms.

“Sorry?” Rain asked.

“You know I’m furious with you, and yet, you let me take you out here alone. Halgrave’s gone. Ameliah’s not following us. I could rip your head off, and no one would be able to do anything about it before I was halfway across the continent.”

“Is that something I need to be worried about?” Rain asked, honestly confused. “What’s brought this on?”

Velika sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “You’re too trusting.”

“You won’t hurt me.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yes. It’s against your interests, and you’re not crazy. Seriously, we’re past this. You’re not that person anymore.”

Velika’s eyes narrowed, and murderous intent poured off her, the damaged surface of her soul rippling with fury as she laid one hand on the hilt of her best sword. Despite Rain’s improved skill, the heavy, furious power of her gold-level domain was enough. His ability to Read her was abruptly cut off.

From her smirk, she knew it. “And now?” She drew her sword coolly, holding it point-down to the side. “Now are you still fucking sure I’m not going to hurt you?”

“Yes,” Rain repeated. “Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you so I can do something about it?”

“What’s bothering me? What’s BOTHERING ME!?” Velika lashed out with her domain as she’d done in their training sessions. “You’re bothering me, softboy!”

“Softboy?” Rain said indignantly as he batted her testing assault aside. “Now that’s just rude. You know how hard I’ve been working.”

“And now you’re just sitting around!” She slashed with her sword, but it was just a gesture, coming nowhere close to hitting him. The blade of will that fell with it, though, was anything but. It cut deep through his domain, nearly reaching his paling.

Rain took an involuntary step back. Looks like she’s done pulling punches!

“I owe you my life multiple times over!” Velika screamed, slashing again.

Rain urgently flooded his domain with essence, pulling it back together from the first attack as he did his best to deflect the second.

With each sentence, Velika continued her assault. “I offered to help you! To train you! Now that you’re back and stronger than makes any damn sense, what have you done? Have you sought my advice? Asked me to continue your training? No! You’ve been having your little meetings, talking about crop rotations, menu options, and everyone’s feelings!”

Rain hissed through his teeth as he opened the floodgates wider still, forcing essence into his domain. Oversoul wasn’t just a toy for intimidation. It was how the truly powerful fought. How goldplates fought when the system wouldn’t let them otherwise hurt each other. Despite his advantages, he was not a goldplate.

“There’s work to do if you want your little cult to last another season!” Velika snarled, slicing through his flood as easily as a stone through the tide. Quality over quantity. “They had me wrapping wire! How is that a good use of my time?”

The errant thought to strike back with his magic came and was discarded. Even with her lacking traditional defenses, her raging domain meant any spell he cast would just slide off her. Struggling for equilibrium, he used halting words instead. “You must have kept practicing...while I was gone. Filth, you’re strong!” He paused to gasp for air before continuing. “They’ve also....had you scouting, and...exterminating monsters, and...helping Samson with...sword...lessons.”

“Pointless!” Velika screamed, slashing wildly, but in so doing, she overextended herself.

Rain managed to get his spiritual self out of the way that time, speaking quickly while she recovered from her lunge. “No, not pointless! How long would it have taken anyone else to do what you’ve done? By credit earned, you’re near the top of the list. By ground covered, there’s no contest. There can’t be a Bloodhog left anywhere within a hundred kilometers.”

“Like that fucking matters!” Velika said, resuming her assault and slicing his domain apart again despite his efforts. “We don’t need cozy houses, fancy food, and little toy airships! We need accolades! Lairs! More fucking goldplates! Nobody’s going to give us that stuff. We need to take! Don’t just sit there with that power you’ve collected, blunt as a boulder and twice as heavy. Fucking fight!”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Rain asked, having actually managed to reverse the pressure during her tirade. His attack wasn’t a flurry of slashes like hers. Instead, it was a squeeze, like he’d used against the Incarn.

Velika visibly tightened her jaw, working to hold him at bay. Through the haze of rage and power, Rain began to catch glimpses of her crimson soul’s surface. It was trembling, and not from rage. The twisting network of scars from the Majistraal artifact’s removal stood out like lines of fire.

Shit, her paling’s going to tear!

He loosened his grip.

That was apparently the wrong move.

“DON’T YOU FUCKING LET UP!” Velika screamed. Some of her weakness must have been feigned, such was the mind-bending power of her next slash. The invisible blade of will sliced through his domain like it wasn’t even there, and he swore he heard the screech of metal on metal as it gouged deep into his paling.

“Ah!” Rain dropped to one knee, pouring all his will into holding that horrible blade right where it was.

“Stop! Being! So! Gentle!” Velika grunted the words through her teeth, doing her best to force the attack the rest of the way through. “You hate the Bank? The Empire? Fight them! Strike first! Strike first before they find us and kill us all! If your stupid morals are in the way, cover your eyes and send me!”

Exhausted and having made no headway, Velika let her arms fall. She panted, sheathing her sword in disgust before dropping to her knees as her domain collapsed around her.

Rain took a ragged breath, squeezing his eyes shut. It felt like his paling would split open if he took his hand from his chest.

And just when I got used to having it in one piece.

Both of them remained like that for quite some time. Rain was the first back to his feet, repairs already underway, but Velika staggered up to face him soon after.

Meeting her eyes, Rain nodded. “Okay.”

“Oh, ‘okay’, is it, you absolute freak of nature?” she said, her voice tight. “Could you possibly be more vague? ‘Okay’, what?”

“’Okay’, we’ll send you out on a mission,” Rain said, rubbing his chest. “That really hurt! And why the name-calling?”

“Oh, stop being a baby. You’re fine. You shouldn’t be, and that’s what makes you a freak, freak. And what mission? It better not be flower picking, that’s all I’ll fucking say.”

Rain shook his head. “The one you suggested. You’re not privy to the meetings, but we’ve got plans for the Bank. This is highly classified, but hitting them is absolutely on the table. If you’re up to getting started, there’s no reason not to let you be the one to do it.”

“You’re going to let me attack people?” Velika asked incredulously. “Who are you, and what have you done with Little Mouse?”

“Steal from people,” Rain corrected, feeling the tension lessen at her use of Carten’s nickname for him. That name hadn’t been seeing much circulation recently, so she’d probably picked it up when she and the bearded Defender had been together what felt like a dozen lifetimes ago.

Velika spat. “Still soft, but more than I’d hoped for from you.”

“It’s not stealing if they stole it first,” Rain said. He finally took his hand away from his chest, the repairs almost complete, and raised it to scratch at his beard instead. “They’ve been ripping off the whole world for who knows how long, and there’s no authority out there willing or able to take them to task for it. We certainly can’t, not as we are, but we can make a start of it.”

“Uh huh,” Velika said.

“You’re friends with Niriri, right? The Bank spy we turned? She gave us a whole list of branches and who runs them. We’ll pick a small one under Lord Jien, the head of Lightcore. He’s the worst of the lot from what I’ve heard, and I’ve got a personal bone to pick with him, besides. You zip in, take everything you can carry, and zip out before their Enforcers can react. If you don’t think you’ll be fast enough without your accolades, I’ll give you a Velocity anchor to fill the gap.” He rubbed his hands together. “They won’t know what hit them!”Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I—“

“We’ll get you a disguise, just in case,” Rain said, beginning to pace as he worked through the plan. “We’re not ready for open war. Oh, most Bank employees aren’t whole-ass assholes, just the ones at the top, so no killing. Did you know they drive their new members into debt on purpose?” He stopped and turned to face her, his expression grave with determination. “Their families, too. While you’re not-smashing and just-grabbing, maybe you’ll be able to find records or something related to that. Seems like an easy way to find some more recruits.”

“We don’t need more recruits,” Velika said. “We need better recruits.”

“We can work out the details,” Rain said dismissively, waving a hand. “Obviously, I can’t just decide something like this on my own.” He turned for camp, then paused and looked over his shoulder. “Well? Are you coming, Specialist? We’ve got a High Council to talk to.”

“Oh, joy,” Velika deadpanned. “I love democracy.”

“You didn’t say that right. Your inflection was all wrong. You’re supposed to— Hold on.”

Velika snorted. “To what?”

Rain held up a hand, closing his eyes and looking inward.

“What the hells is it now?”

Rain shook his head, all levity gone. “She’s waking up.”

Vatreece’s eyes shot open, and she bolted upright, unfamiliar covers falling away as she found herself in...not her room. Patchy memory came rushing back.

This wasn’t Vigilance at all, not any place at all in El’s Garden.

Shit. I’m a copy. I’m a copy, and this is the Custodian’s soul, however the hells that’s possible.

Her aged heart beating a brisk tempo in her chest, not having gotten the memo that she was dead, she took inventory.

Firstly, she was thinking, which meant her artificial mind was intact. That was a good start. None of her mental enhancements were working, which was less good on the whole. Her body felt...like a body. She reached for the system and got nothing, not even a flicker of response.

Damnation! Although, if it could get to me, it would have erased me by now, so there’s that.

Clicking her tongue, she turned her focus to her environment. The bed she was in was sinfully soft, which should have had her back screaming at her, yet did not. Light came in dimly through a curtained window, the smell of the sea and the distant crash of waves telling her there was no glass. The walls were painted a pleasing blue, and the floor was carpeted from wall to wall in creamy white. Across from the window, there was a closed door, and at her bedside was a small table bearing a strange, fabric-hooded vase.

There was also a folded piece of blue paper. A note.

Grumbling, Vatreece reached for it, only for another wave of disorientation to hit her. She diverted her fingers as if by instinct to the lamp, which came alive with the barest brush, shining with the steady glow of electric light.

Perhaps her mind was not as intact as she thought.

As a construct, she’d started with barely a thread of her own history beyond recent events, just enough to ground her persona, but even that was tangled up in the weight of the raw knowledge she’d been left with. Instead of neatly organized memories sorted by date, origin, and purpose, she had a jumbled mess. It was as if someone had upended what passed for her mind and given it a good shake.

Grumbling all the harder, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and snatched up the note.

Warden Vatreece,

Welcome back. I thought to handle things this way to give you some time to adjust to your situation. I don’t know how much you remember, so I’ll spell it out as plainly as I can.

You are a mental construct of your original’s creation. You were left in my mind to test me and to ensure that the dangerous knowledge I hold is protected. I passed your test; I hope you agree. I likewise hope that you’ll forgive my crackpot plan to stabilize your construct, given that it clearly worked. You’re reading this, aren’t you?

Getting back to the subject of you, your essence body is based on my own avatar, Dozer, and the avatar of Ameliah’s soul guide. Your mental construct is taking the place of the echo, which itself stands in for the mind, kinda. I think. Hopefully, you understand what I’m talking about because I sure don’t.

It’s been eleven days since you helped me anchor you. I think you took so long to wake up because your construct had to assimilate the body first. I’m fuzzy on the mechanics of essence ownership, but I can tell the stuff you’re made of isn’t mine anymore.

Anyway, I don’t know how you’ll be feeling, so I’ll leave the theorizing there. There are some pills for headaches in the drawer, though whether the meaning they’re charged with will work on you is a question.

This guest house and everything in it are yours. Feel free to explore. When you’re ready to talk, just say so.

-Rain