Nightmare Realm Summoner

Claire stood quietly as Alex stared at her, disbelief in his expression. In the best scenario, he’d been expecting that she had some goal like increasing the challenge they faced in the trials by not revealing exactly what was going to happen. In the worst, he would have guessed that Claire had just betrayed him.

This hadn’t been anywhere on his radar of potential outcomes. Finley had briefly mentioned the Nighmarch family before, but the only thing he’d really said about them was how horrible they were.

Alex swallowed down his surprise. ”You stole a class? I didn’t even realize that was possible, not to mention changing your class’s appearance for other people. How much more did you know?”

”Yes. You can do a fair bit with some items. If an ability doesn’t give you information, then it can easily be a lie. Only your powers are absolute — anything else can be manipulated,” Claire replied. She slipped the earing back on, then returned the bracelet to her wrist. ”It’s difficult to answer your other questions. I want to, Alex. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve had someone I genuinely wanted to rely on. But I can’t. I won’t fail this Trial.”

Claire stood quietly for several long seconds as Alex studied her. It was somehow even harder to read her expression now than it had been before. There was nothing in her expression. Nothing in her eyes. Just a perfect mask.

”Can you tell me how?” Alex asked. ”How you stole a class, that is. That has nothing to do with the Nightmarch family. And why didn’t you tell me any of this earlier?”

She grabbed the bottom of her shirt and pulled it over her head in a fluid motion. Alex let out a curse and glanced away, only to glance back an instant later.

Can’t take my eyes off a threat. That’s definitely the reason.

There might have been the faintest flicker of a grin on her lips for a moment, but it was gone so quickly that easily could have been his imagination. She — fortunately — wore wrappings around chest that stopped just beneath her neck.

Claire grabbed the top of the wrappings and pulled them down an inch, craning her chin up so Alex could get a better look at her neck.

His eyes widened.

A circle of black thorns was tattooed around the base of Claire’s throat. It stretched down toward her chest — but the tattoo was more than just ink. Blood trickled down her throat from where the drawn thorns bit into physical flesh and drew blood.

Even as Alex watched, the tattoo tightened further around her neck. A faint grimace pulled at her features and she returned the wrappings to their normal place before pulling her shirt back on.

”That’s why I didn’t say anything,” Claire said. ”The closer I get to revealing information, the tighter this becomes. Outworlders… they’re all bound. The System won’t let them get a completely unfair advantage. Some of them have their power bases destroyed and torn back down to the start. Some of them want that.”

The only way she’d know that is if an Outworlder told her… or if she was similarly bound. She must have somehow taken on the Nightmarch family’s restriction when she took their class.

But if this is right… that’s why outworlders aren’t just killing literally everyone and taking over the planet. Orchid is stronger than normal because she has knowledge and access to abilities, but she’s restricted somehow as well. Just like Finley, but in a different way. That’s really good to know.

It means the Outworlders can be defeated. They’re just cheaters.

I’d love to know exactly what that restriction is… but Claire can’t speak more on it, because then she’d be revealing information on the Nightmarch family themselves.

Honestly, what the hell is going on?

”The class, then,” Alex said. ”You didn’t answer that one, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the Nightmarch family.”

”The Nightmarch family arrived on Ayrin with the System and made our lives hell. The System was already killing us, but they made it worse. There were only a few of them, but the strongest Dhampirs had already died. We couldn’t fight back. They killed everyone in their way and took every single resource before we could. They weren’t just thieves. They were cruel. They took what they didn’t even need, just to watch us suffer.”

”I see why Finley thought so poorly of them,” Alex said, his lips thinning.

Claire nodded. ”And so I found an alternate path to victory. I joined up with the Nightmarch — and so did a lot of other Dhampirs. Nightmarch killed almost every single one of us. They worked us to the bone, then put us down for the tiny scraps of energy we would provide. But I acted like I didn’t care. I became too useful. Nobody wants to do laundry or clean, and so they stopped caring about me. I was too pathetic. So, when they started to die, nobody suspected me.”

Alex’s eyes widened. ”You killed a bunch of Outworlders? How the hell were you just Novice 3? Or was that a lie as well?”

”No. I didn’t kill them. Not myself,” Claire said, shaking her head firmly. ”I was nowhere near strong enough. I just pushed in the right places.”

”You somehow tricked them into killing each other, then.”

”Some of them. A little relocation of their wealth from one bag into another, followed by innocent observations. Building tension between people that vile is easy. You just have to point them in the right direction.”

”And you got a class from that? How?”

”The Heir,” Claire replied. ”She was the strongest. I woke her up so she would survive the monsters I lured to the camp while they were sleeping, but it was a tough fight — and it left me with an easy fight. I ripped her throat out and drained every drop of energy she had. And as it turns out, some classes are earned. They’re unique paths to power that ancient warriors discovered called Inheritances. And when I ripped every scrap of power out of the Heir, I took her Inheritance with it. She was the only monster I killed during the duration of the apocalypse on Ayrin.”

Alex took several moments to process Claire’s words. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and drummed his fingers against his arm as he considered her closely.

”What happened after that? How are you bound to the Nightmarch’s restrictions now? Did the System really just bind you the moment you got it? That seems ridiculously unfair. You earned the Inheritance.”

”That’s what the Trial is for,” Claire replied. Her words sounded choked. ”The Heir only had access to the Inheritance, not the full powers of it. The only way to unlock its full potential is to pass the Trial, which descends from a very powerful member of the Nightmarch family.”

”Wait. Doesn’t that mean you’re going to be bound to the Nightmarch forever?”

Claire smiled, but it was pained. The thorns around her neck had crawled up past her shirt and were now visible as they reached for her chin. They were strangling her, but she continued to speak. ”No. They’re not strong enough for that. An Inheritance is just a path to power. It might have originated from Nightmarch and the Trial is built off his desires, but so long as I fulfill it to the letter of the deal, the class will be mine and their restrictions on me will vanish. I’m not a real member of their family.”

”And what happened after that?” Alex pressed. ”How did you end up in the Mirrorlands? And even if you can’t say what you used the Nightmarch family for, how did you use any of their power to do anything for the Initializations?”

”The Heir had a way to communicate with the rest of the family,” Claire replied. ”And by the time the 2ndInitialization rolled around, I knew my people weren’t strong enough to defend themselves from the monster hordes. I convinced the Nightmarch that they needed to send warriors for a major event they’d missed. It worked. They… I can’t say what they did or how they did it. It’s too closely related to the family. But it was enough to survive the trials. And when they thought they were coming to the Heir’s quarters to get a reward, I had the other Dhampirs ambush and kill them.”

”Damn,” Alex said. She’d literally power-leveled the remaining Dhampirs by feeding them members of a powerful Outworlder family. That was as impressive as it was brutal. ”And you?”

”I didn’t participate myself — I was busy convincing the Nightmarch that I was really the Heir. It wasn’t easy and there was only so far I could stretch it. They eventually figured out what was up. One of their warriors came through prepared. My group weakened him, but he managed to yank me into the Mirrorlands as he tried to run back to his family. It failed, and a monster ate him just moments after we landed down there.”

”Wait. What?” Alex blinked. ”He yanked you into the Mirrorlands? Why was there a path to...”

He trailed off. The Mirrorlands. Berith had called them the cracks between worlds. The Outworlder families were somehow using them to sneak people into worlds they didn’t belong in. Claire hadn’t expressly mentioned it, but he could tell by the pain on her features that she was getting close to her limit. Blood soaked into the top of her shirt as the thorns squeezed her neck even tighter, and she had to clench her teeth to keep her breathing steady.

”Why couldn’t you have said this earlier?” Alex asked. ”I get you’re restricted, but couldn’t you have said exactly what you’re saying now?”

”You figured it out. The less information I reveal, the less damage I take. They can’t just completely police me. I’m only filling in a few cracks rather than giving you the whole thing.”

Damn.

”That means you know more that you can’t say, don’t you?”

Claire sent him a flat smile and said nothing.

Damn again. She can’t have too much information given that she was only with them for a week, but it means she could know more that she can’t share. I’m still pissed she didn’t share anything about this earlier… but if I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t have said anything if it risked failing this Trial and costing her this powerful class.

Alex was silent for nearly a minute. There was a lot of information to process, but standing around wouldn’t solve anything.

”Does the Nightmarch family know you lived?”

”Probably. They know the Inheritance is out there somewhere. They’re probably looking for me. Hoping I’ll fail the Trial so they can steal the Inheritance back,” Claire replied. She scratched at her neck as if she was trying to pull the thorns free. ”I have no plans of letting that happen.”

Alex nodded. As good as she was at lying, it seemed like she was telling the truth. She could have just given him some bullshit answer that would have been more convincing than this explanation, but she was actually trying to answer the questions that she could.

I don’t know if I can completely trust her… but I don’t think she’s working against me. She’s had opportunities to kill me and she saved my life in the Mirrorlands.

”You tell me, then,” Alex said. ”Can I trust you?”

”I already said this. I like you. I’d have been dead if you didn’t show up in the Mirrorlands, and I haven’t had an opportunity to do anything like this before. I’m not unique among the Dhampirs. I don’t want to lose this,” Claire replied, her voice still in the flat tone that she’d taken on ever since he’d pointed out the inconsistency in her story. ”My only quarrel is with the Nightmarch family, and you’re not with them.”

”Then prove it,” Alex said. ”Give me something I can work with. There has to be something you know that could be useful to us right now and doesn’t make you fail your trial.”

”You’d be surprised,” Claire replied. ”But there is one thing. I was going to tell you once we were alone, but we haven’t exactly had a moment to do that.”

”And that is?”

”The Town Token.” Claire’s eyes sharpened. ”When we find the token, Orchid can’t be allowed to take or sell it. You have to use it.”