Nightmare Realm Summoner

Wess rifled through Brandon’s pockets. He checked the man’s blooded jacket for hidden sections and pulled his shoes off to inspect them for any hidden compartments. He lifted the ring off the dead Outworlder’s pinky finger and was in the process of pulling the man’s pants off when a shadow fell over him.

He glanced up, tipping his hat back with one of his guns, to meet Hazel’s somewhat-horrified gaze.

“Why are you… defiling his corpse?”

“Defiling?” Wess asked, aghast. He took a quick peek at the man’s underwear, then rose back to his feet. A wave of dizziness washed over him. He pushed it back. “I most certainly am not. That wasn’t defiling a corpse. You want to see defiling a corpse?”

“Absolutely—”

A bang cut through the air as Wess sent another blast of energy into Brandon’s hole-riddled head.

“—not,” Hazel finished.

“Whoops,” Wess said. Then he shrugged. “Well, not like he cares much anyways at this point. Can’t hurt. You want a shot?”

Hazel stared at him. “There’s something seriously wrong with you.”

Wess smirked in response. He crossed his arms behind his back, slipping Brandon’s ring onto his pinky finger in the process. “You’re the one that came asking for our help. It looks like it worked out pretty well for you, I’d say.”

And that it had. The boss room was riddled with bodies — and none of them seemed to be from Hazel’s small group of dissidents. All of them were still alive. Almost all of that success could be attributed to the fact that Glint was an absolute menace.

No fewer than four of Brandon’s men had been carved to pieces by the terrifying monster. It was a bit hard to tell for certain just how much damage he’d committed because all his victims were in a dozen pieces and scattered throughout the room.

Hazel just shook her head. “Victory doesn’t have to mean you turn into an… animal.”

Laughter bubbled up from deep within Wess’ chest. “Oh, that’s rich. Hon, you hired Mirrorwane to murder your compatriot. You just slaughtered 11 members of your own family just to grab for power. All I did was kill some asshole that I vaguely didn’t like to get paid. And you’re calling me an animal? Well, maybe so. But at least I can be honest with myself. Better a free animal than a caged one.”

Hazel’s lips thinned. She held his gaze for a long moment. Then she held her hand out.

Wess tilted his head to the side. Then he plopped one of his pistols into her palm. Hazel studied the weapon for a moment.

“Have you even considered the fact that I might shoot you with this instead of the dead body?”

Wess smiled. “Go ahead and try.”

Hazel was silent for a moment longer. Then she turned to Brandon’s body and pointed the gun at the man’s smoking head. A loud crack rang out as she pulled the trigger. Blood splattered and the head rolled to the side, only for her to shoot it twice more.

Only then did she turn back to Wess and hold the gun back out to him. He took it without a word.

“Thank you,” Hazel said. “That felt good.”

“Getting out of the cage always does,” Wess replied. The guns both shimmered, then faded away into nothing but air. “Congratulations on your new leadership position. Make sure to pull the ladder up behind you.”

“I plan on it.” Hazel’s lips curled. “Does that imply that you’d be willing to help out the next person unhappy with the Crimson family’s current leadership on 274-50?”

“If they pay well enough? Gladly,” Wess said.

Hazel laughed.

He didn’t.

“I assume you’re done with the body at this point? He might have been a scum incompetent fool of a leader, but there’s certain things I have no desire to watch,” Hazel said as her amusement petered out.

“Don’t mistake me,” Wess said. “I was just checking to see if he had anything worthwhile. Anyone whose been at this for a while learns to start hiding the important bits in places people won’t check.”

“Your planet was inducted to the System no more than a month ago,” Hazel said. “How is it that you’ve got experience with this? I was under the impression that the majority of the Nativeworlders here have never experienced conflict at the scale of the System.”

“There are other manners of conflict,” Wess replied with a shrug. “You’re not wrong. A lot of us lived pretty conflict-free lives. But not all. We had our share of people that found the normal way of things a little too uninteresting.”

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“Is that why we found you inside a prison cell?” Hazel asked. Her lips twitched. “I must say, there’s a definite amount of irony in Brandon’s killer being the Nativeworlder mercenary that he saved.”

“The world loves its irony,” Wess replied. “And nobody saved me. I enjoyed that prison cell. It was good for the brain. You should try one sometime. Nothing else lets you ponder over your life quite the same. It’s a unique experience.”

“I think I’ll pass.” Hazel shook her head. “What did you do to get in there in the first place? I did wonder how it is that there was only one survivor from that whole area, but Brandon never told me.”

“That’s a story for another day,” Wess replied. “And it certainly isn’t a free one. Besides, you didn’t even ask for me to be here. I’m just Nobody’s replacement, right? That stings. You’re going to have to ask for me specifically if you want the juicy shit.”

Hazel studied him for a moment. Then she snorted and shook her head. “Brandon have anything good on him?”

“Nope.”

“Liar.”

“Yep,” Wess agreed. “Which we were both more than aware of. Let’s move on, shall we? I’ll be collecting the golem body. You’ve got your problem out of the way. Enjoy your new rule of Crimson — and don’t forget we helped you out. It would be a shame if you got your wires crossed and turned against us. That hasn’t worked too well in the past.”

“How much to join up with Crimson?” Hazel asked. “I could use—”

“You can’t afford me at the moment,” Wess replied. “I’m having a little too much fun with Mirrorwane.”

Hazel pursed her lips. Then she inclined her head slightly. “Fine. I could use some allies that aren’t connected with the other Great Families. And I’m not stupid enough to bite the hand that helped me. We’re good, Mirrorwane and I.”

“Fantastic,” Wess said, starting toward the fallen golem. Hazel walked alongside him, and Glint followed just a few steps behind them. The monster seemed to just be waiting for its next orders. It certainly made Wess feel a hell of a lot safer. Nobody would be stupid enough to try to attack him with Glint holding up the flank. “Glad to hear it. Feel free to make that clear by tossing a few extra Credits my way. I’m from America, you know. We had a tipping culture.”

“…I’ll pass,” Hazel said.

“Fair enough,” Wess replied. They came to a stop beside the fallen golem and Wess placed his hand on the side of the huge monster’s craggy leg.

“It’ll take a little while to dismantle this thing,” Hazel said. “Why don’t you just take the parts you want? We’ll deal with dismantling it and…”

There was a flash of blue light. The entire golem vanished, sucked into Brandon’s ring. Wess stepped back and brushed his hands off.

“There we go. All done.”

Hazel let out a choked curse.

“Wait! You can’t—”

“This was the deal,” Wess reminded her. “We get the loot.”

“I also reminded you there was something we needed,” Hazel hissed. “You can’t just take the whole thing! You don’t even need—”

“How do I know if I don’t need it if I don’t know what it is?” Wess asked, tilting his head to the side.

Hazel ground her teeth together. “The Golem has a key imprinted in its core. We need that key. It’s the reason we were doing this dungeon in the first place, and it’ll do Mirrorwane no good at all. We’re in possession of other keys already, and there’s no way we’re selling them. It would also be impossible for Mirrorwane to find enough keys to use this one. You need a full set.”

“A key? To what?”

“Another dungeon,” Hazel replied tersely. “But it’s impossible. Don’t even think about trying to bargain for it. It’s completely impossible. Just give us the key. You can have the rest of the rewards. Don’t act like that isn’t a fair trade. You’re more than compensated for your efforts, and the key would be completely useless to you without all of the others.”

Wess tapped his chin. “I suppose we have been paid pretty well for this. But now you’re asking me to do something for free. You didn’t mention anything about not giving us anything before you called us over. Would you try to pull this shit if Nobody was here?”

Hazel hesitated for a moment. “We’ll throw in something to make it worth your while.”

“Oh?” Wess asked. “Keep talking.”

“There’s an auction,” Hazel said. “One for the Great Families. I don’t know exactly when it’ll be held, but it’s soon. We’ll get you in. The key is useless to you, but this will give you a chance to get some really good items. Stuff that you’d never have a chance to access under normal circumstances.”

“How do I know you’re capable of this?” Wess asked.

Hazel held her hand out. A shimmer of energy passed up from the ring on her pointer finger, and a slip of golden paper materialized above her palm. Shimmering letters materialized in the air above it.

Bleak Night Golden Pass (Legendary) — Consumable

Upon Destruction: Transports the activating entity and anyone in contact with them (up to 5 individuals) to the Bleak Night Auction Hall for (1) auction.

Time until Auction: ??? (Date not yet announced)

“Ooh,” Wess said. “Shiny.”

“Exactly,” Hazel said. She waggled the paper. “So?”

“Done. You can have the key.” Wess plucked it from her hands and banished it into his own ring.

Hazel grinned. “I knew—”

“When we get it, of course.”

The smile fell away from her lips. “What?”

“The Key somewhere deep in the Golem,” Wess said, turning and starting for the exit of the dungeon with Glint at his side. He raised his hand in farewell. “And I really don’t want to sit around waiting for you to excavate it. So I’ll bring it along with me to the auction.”

“Hold on,” Hazel said, hurrying after Wess. She reached for his arm but caught herself a moment before she touched him. Her eyes flicked to the side. Even though the upper half of Glint’s face was covered by a shimmering sheet of rounded silver, there was no doubt that he was staring right at her.

“Careful,” Wess drawled, drawing to a stop by the exit of the room without even glancing at Hazel. “You don’t want to piss him off. I don’t think he’s tired out quite yet. I wouldn’t get too close.”

Hazel let out a muttered curse. “It’s a private auction. We won’t know who you are. How are we going to get it from you?”

Wess paused. Then he turned to look over his shoulder, a grin splitting his lips. “Well, I suppose you’ll have to buy it off us during the auction. Best of luck with that!”

Then he was gone, whistling cheerfully as he and Glint vanished into the dungeon on their way back to Mirrorwane with the spoils of war.