Nightmare Realm Summoner

Alex stepped out from the Warped Embassy and into the Mirrorlands version of Mirrorwane. Before him rose a reflection of the town. Every single building had been copied, though in typical Mirrorlands fashion, the copies weren’t exactly perfect renditions of their original counterparts.

Certain things, such as the Veil of Stolen Confessions — the wall of eyes Mite had built — were nearly identical. Maybe it was already creepy enough to fly under the Mirrorlands’ radar and remain as it was.

But the lodgings and many of the other buildings had been warped like pieces of taffy. The damage was considerably less than the random cities that had gotten reflected over. There were no random trees growing in the middle of town, nor had any buildings been blasted apart and frozen mid-way through their collapse with dull purple energy.

If it weren’t for the churning red-purple mists in the sky, it might have been hard for Alex to reconcile this town with the Mirrorlands. Townspeople rushed about the town. There weren’t nearly as many as there had been topside, but even seeing one other person was odd when one was in the wastebasket of the universe.

The others emerged from the portal behind Alex. They came to a stop all around him, looking around in awe.

Wess let out a slow whistle.

“You’ve got two towns for the price of one. Did you get it in the bargain bin?”

“Something like that,” Alex said. He tilted his head to the side. Unlike the town in 274-50, this version of Mirrorwane wasn’t exactly silent. The sound of crashing magic and battle rose under the stormy skies overhead.

“Are we under attack?” Derek asked, his hand drifting to the hilt of a dagger sticking out of his bicep. “I hear fighting.”

“It’s training,” Claire said. She nodded to a man hurrying past them carrying a large tarp bag that seemed to be stuffed full of monster parts. “Nobody is moving as if they’re under threat. There’s probably nothing to worry about.”

“Oh, yeah,” Alyssa said, lowering her brush slightly. “That’s a good point.”

“Come on,” Alex said as he started toward the wall. “Let’s go see if we can find Orchid and see what she’s up to. I’m curious to see just how far everyone has come.”

The others fell in behind him. Several townsfolk that Alex vaguely recognized from the fight against the Gorgonaga did a double take upon spotting him before sending a nod of greeting in their way.

Alex felt a bit bad that he didn’t actually recall most of their names. It wasn’t like he was trying to be rude. He just hadn’t spent enough time with the majority of them yet — and there had been other things on his mind.

They walked through the gate in the wall, which was manned by several townsfolk, and then headed out into the twisted Mirrorlands of the forest covering the basin that the town had been built within.

It wasn’t hard to figure out where Orchid was. The sounds of battle were really all they needed to guide them, and they weren’t far at all. Alex soon spotted several townsfolk spread throughout the sparse forest.

All of them were armored with somewhat prehistoric-looking armor made of thick, padded leather and bone. Some were clearly Outworlders, while Alex recognized others as the campers from Earth.

But any difference between them had long since faded. The way every single one of them carried themselves was the same. There was no fear or concern in their posture. They stood with eagle-eyed vision, watching over small groups of other townsfolk that were locked in fights with Mirrorlands monsters all throughout the forest.

And standing in the branches of a tree, gnarled white staff in hand, was Orchid.

Her head turned on a swivel as she watched over all the fights. She spotted something and brought her staff down, sending a razor-sharp shard of ice flashing through the air. A thunk rang out as a lizard monster that had been locked in a fight against a man stumbled moments before it could bite down on his neck.

The man killed it an instant later, driving his sword up through the base of the monster’s skull before ripping it free in a spray of blue fluid. He staggered back as the lizard collapsed to the ground.

“Thank you!” he called.

“Keep your guard up!” Orchid snapped. “Don’t go for a kill if it means losing your own life. Victory doesn’t matter if you’re dead.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he called back, wincing slightly. “I won’t let it happen again.”

“Get off the field. You’re done for the day,” Orchid ordered. Her ironclad tone didn’t even soften in the slightest, and her gaze never even returned to the man. She just kept scanning the field around her for any signs of trouble.

“Damn,” Wess said. “No wasted words with her, are there?”

“She’s a battle trained Outworlder,” Alex replied. “The fact that she’s managed to keep everyone alive while fighting monsters in the Mirrorlands means she can say anything she wants. Whatever she’s doing — it’s working.”

“Never said it didn’t,” Wess said. “She’s kind of scary. Almost feels like she’s got eyes on the back of her…”

Wess trailed off as Orchid turned around to look straight at them.

Her eyes widened slightly. Then she turned back to the people battling the monsters.

“End Fight!” Orchid yelled.

As one, every single one of the townsfolk that had been standing around and observing the field burst into motion. Magic, arrow, and sword sliced through the air as a dozen coordinated attacks all went off as one.

Every single one of the monsters was dispatched almost instantly. The speed everyone had responded to Orchid’s command made it clear that this wasn’t just a fast reaction. It was a trained order.

“I think she heard you,” Derek said.

“No way,” Wess said. He glanced at Claire. “There’s no way she heard me, right?”

“Probably not,” Claire said. “And even if she did, I doubt she’d really put much stock in what some random person observed of her training methods.”

Stolen story; please report.

Orchid hopped down from her tree branch, alighting easily on the ground and striding toward Alex and the others.

“I hope so,” Wess muttered. “She’s got my hair standing on end. You sure that woman’s on our side?”

“Yes,” Alex said. “We’ve been on good terms ever since she tried and failed to kill me.”

“That’s rich.” Wess snorted. Then he paused. “Wait. Are you serious?”

There was no time to respond. Orchid drew up to them, coming to a stop several feet away, and gave them a once-over.

“You’re back,” Orchid said. She sounded a little more surprised than Alex would have liked.

“You don’t have to phrase it that way,” Claire said. “But yes. We are. And we met your favorite Outworlder while we were out.”

Orchid paled slightly. “Absolution?”

“Ran with his tail between his legs,” Alex said. “We beat him. Kind of, at least. We got it to the point where he realized he wasn’t going to win.”

“And Alex rocked his shit pretty hard,” Claire added. “I think you’d have liked it. Absolution looked like he’d swallowed a bee.”

“You’re full of it,” Orchid said, shaking her head in disbelief. “You were actually able to hold your own against Absolution? What happened in there?”

“A lot,” Alex replied. “We’ll be happy to bring you up to speed. Speaking of which, we’ve brought some new recruits.”

Orchid started to nod. Then she paused, seemingly noticing Derek for the first time. Her eyes widened slightly.

“Derek?”

“Hello again, Princess,” Derek said cheerfully.

“Princess?” Wess’ brow furrowed. “Alex’s monster? Am I missing something here?”

Orchid’s cheeks went bright red. She didn’t even seem to hear Wess’ question. “Orchid. Just Orchid. Please. I thought you weren’t interested in joining a town, Derek. Why are you here?”

“I got bored,” Derek replied. “And I made a bunch of people mad at me. I decided it was probably smarter to come along.”

“This is Alyssa,” Claire said, nodding to the painter. “She’s—”

Orchid blinked. “Wait. That brush. TacticalSandal? You recruited another one of the Leaderboarders? I thought she was with the River King? Don’t tell me he’s also…”

“Hell no,” Alyssa said sharply. “That bastard betrayed me. He wanted to sacrifice me. For some reason. We never even found out why. Greasy prick.”

“I see,” Orchid said. “It seems I’ve missed a lot. And the last newcomer is… who, exactly?”

“Just a mercenary,” Wess said, raising his hat slightly. He cleared his throat. “I like shooting things. And people. Mostly people.”

“Charming,” Orchid said. Her tone was deadpan, but that was its natural state. It was hard to tell if she was being sarcastic or serious. “I didn’t think you’d come back with more people than you left with, but we can definitely use the extra bodies. There’s a lot to do. Has Rhyss updated you?”

“Only partially,” Alex replied. He nodded to the townsfolk that had kept a respectful distance from them to avoid eavesdropping on the conversation. “We wanted to check in on you and how training was going first.”

“It’s been good,” Orchid said. “Very good. To the point where I’m a little bit stunned. I’d expected that the Outworlder turncoats would be competent… but the Nativeworlders have adapted surprisingly well.”

“We’ve always been good at that,” Alex said with a grin. “Rhyss said you were having a lot of success.”

“He also mentioned there were outliers,” Claire said. “Who? Is there anything special that we could replicate to help the others?”

“Special,” Orchid repeated. “Yes. But no. It cannot be replicated.”

The hair on the back of Alex’s neck stood on end, but not because of any instinct or forewarning.

It was ionized air.

Electric energy buzzed against his skin. He reached for his magic. But, before he could even say anything, a crackle split the air as a flash of blue lightening crashed down at Orchid’s side.

Arcs of magic pattered across the ground as May straightened to her full height, which was barely past Orchid’s waist.

“Alex! Claire! You came back! And — whoa.” May’s eyes caught on Derek and her mouth dropped open. “That guy has a bunch of weapons stuck in him. Doesn’t that hurt? Also, he has no shirt. Dad said that if you have no shirt, you can’t have any service.”

Holy shit. I don’t remember her being able to do anything like this the last time we were here.

Orchid put her hand on May’s shoulder.

“May has shown… unexpected ability. She reached Initiate 7 yesterday, and her Soul Palace is not far behind.”

“No fucking way,” Wes said. “She’s only 2 levels below me? Oh, shit. Sorry. What are you, like 12? I probably shouldn’t curse.”

“It’s okay,” May said with a cheerful grin. “Dad used to say fuck all the time. Aaron says it too when he doesn’t think I can hear him. But did you know it actually means—”

“That’s quite enough out of you,” Orchid said firmly. “A warrior must be restrained until the possess the training to do as they will. You will conduct yourself with decorum in my presence.”

“Kay,” May said. She glanced back at Derek. “Miss Orchid said getting stabbed is bad. Why are you stabbed?”

“It’s only bad if someone else stabs you,” Derek said. He pulled a dagger out of his chest with a wet pop in demonstration. “I put these here myself.”

May tilted her head to the side. “Oh. So can I—”

“No,” Orchid said. “Derek is a special case.”

“Why?”

Orchid’s eye twitched. Something told Alex this wasn’t the first time she’d gotten that particular question from May.

“Because,” Orchid replied. “No more questions about Derek. It’s better if you don’t think about him too much.”

May looked back at Derek.

“Do you want a dagger?” Derek asked.

“Yeah,” May said without an instant of hesitation. “But I want a big one!”

“May,” Orchid snapped.

Derek didn’t even blink. He stuck the dagger back into his chest, then pulled a short sword free from his side and spun it around, holding the hilt out to May. She took it eagerly while Orchid suppressed a groan.

“Thank you,” May said. She held the sword up before herself. It looked ridiculously large compared to her, but she held it without much issue at all. The System had clearly advanced her strength to the point where a deadly chunk of metal was little more than a toy in her hands.

“That will go well,” Wess said. “I’ve always been one for giving children weapons.”

May swung the sword in front of her. She staggered slightly, then frowned. “Miss Orchid? How do I use this?”

Orchid sighed. She massaged her temples with one hand, then sent a sharp look at Derek. “This is your fault. You’re helping. I do not have time to each her physical combat as well as magic.”

“Okay,” Derek said without a second of hesitation.

Orchid hesitated. It seemed she’d just realized that inviting Derek to help her teach May might not have been the safest decision. His entire strategy for most fights was charging blindly forward until he died enough times to get so fast he couldn’t be stopped. That wasn’t exactly the kind of technique that was optimal for literally anyone other than him.

It was a bit too late to retract the offer, though.

“I need to sit for a little. I’m tired,” Orchid said with a shake of her head. “Come on. Let’s go get lunch. I want to know about what happened in the Ancestry and I’ll fill you in on the town’s progress while we’re at it. There are some developments you might be be interested in.”

Orchid started back toward the town.

“Like what?” Alex asked.

She stopped to look over her shoulder at him.

“A few things. But the weirdest one was a letter. Someone sent it to Finley, and it’s addressed to you. It came a few days ago.”

Alex blinked. “What? A letter? You can send those through merchants?”

“Yeah,” Orchid replied. “It’s the best way to get messages to people when you don’t know where they live. They hand letters to each other through their channels. It’s untraceable because you can just hand it off to the System and let it distribute the letter to someone who pays the fee on the behalf of the recipient, who they then turn around and charge to get their letter.”

“Huh,” Alex said. “Who’s it from? The River King ranting at me for betraying him or something?”

“No. That’s the weird thing. I didn’t recognize the sender at all.” Orchid shook her head. “It’s just from some guy called Teddy.”