Grandmaster Olmos swept his eyes over Kaius and his team, appraising each one of them individually.

  Kaius wasn't sure what he was expecting when Rieker had said they would be talking to the grandmaster of the Guild. Perhaps somebody of palpable strength, grizzled and warlike, drenched in magic and artefacts. Instead, Olmos looked almost normal. A man late into his middle years, dressed sharply in a rich suit. Yet for all casual inspection that might suggest the man was some wealthy merchant or lesser noble, Kaius would have never mistaken him for one. He had iron in him.

  It was plainly visible in his ram-rod spine; in the way each and every one of the grandmaster’s movements seemed measured and calculated, and the precision with which his hands were folded in front of his waist. Hells, even the tension to the slight, curious tilt of his head oozed gravitas.

  “Rieker has told me some interesting things about the lot of you. Among the first to discover aspects, and you brought this information straight to the Guild. I’ve been most curious — Rieker speaks of forgotten mysteries, of Honours, and just a score or so of days ago, he mentions that you wish to share skills, too? Why, this I've been positively eager for this conversation,”

  Olmos’s eyes shifted back to Kaius, minute flickers in the mans illusory projection dragging at his focus thanks to Truesight.

  “I wish to ask you personally, where do Silvers like this come from? They aren’t normally found in Deadacre of all places, especially not rising so swiftly,” the grandmaster asked.

  Kaius breathed, folding his hands in his lap.

  Their rise, at least, could be explained easily. “Grandmaster Olmos,” he started, “it is a pleasure to meet you. The story is an interwoven one. I’m sure Rieker must have mentioned some of the difficulties in my last year before I had class selection,” Kaius said

  The grandmaster nodded with the slightest incline of his head.

  “Well,” Kaius said, “because of that, we were forced to fight over our level — Porkchop and myself, that is. That led to honours, which begat strength, which led us to push further — which brought us more honours. That also led to our brush with aspects, and our ability to best the Crucible.”

  Olmos nodded thoughtfully. “That is true, but it is not the core of my question. It is rare, the man that finds wealth and moves to spread it freely. I wish to know why. What is your interest in this? You have procured for yourself and your team quite the advantage. Yet, rather than safeguard it, you would use the Guild to spread it widely. Hells, you’ve damn near handed me the keys to the largest political upheaval this continent will have seen since the Shattering.”

  How could he even begin to explain? Yes, there was danger — and yes, the stagnation of the world caused problems that he wished to end. The rising tide lifted all ships, as it were.

  More than that, he was just tired of it all. The web of death and secrecy that caught so many.

  Kaius ran his hands through his hair. “My father and my dynasty were killed by tenets of secrecy. I’ve seen evidence through the ways of the meles of a better path. My feelings were only reinforced with our experiences in the Crucible.”

  “Oh?” Olmos replied. “Rieker told me precious little of what you experienced in there, only that it would be better to hear it from your mouth.”

  “We met an ascendant,” Ianmus interjected, drawing the Grandmaster’s attention. “A godlike being of great strength, brought to our world by the System to oversee part of the integration. This phase change, we learned, was supposed to happen far earlier, and there are more to come in the future.”

  Kaius nodded at his teammates' words, drumming his hand on the desk in front of him. “We thought it prudent to help prepare people as best we could. Besides, even disregarding legacy skills, the more people forging ahead and sharing the knowledge they find, the faster we will all progress.”

  “So this is a sentiment shared by all of you, not just Kaius and Porkchop?” Olmos asked.

  “It is,” Kenva replied, as Ianmus nodded.

  The Grandmaster fell silent for a spell, thinking deeply as he interlaced his fingers.

  After a moment, he sighed. “So, the long and short of it is that you wish to detail how fully to capitalize on aspects; what honours are, and how to acquire them; how to make use of Crucibles, and even for the guild to spread a selection of godsdamned legacy Skills?.”

  Kaius scratched behind his ear. When the Grandmaster put it like that, it was a little ridiculous for a single meeting. “I suppose we do, grandmaster Olmos.”

  The Grandmaster shook his head, giving a rueful smile to Rieker and Ro. “The two of you never do come to me with easy problems, do you?”

  Rieker laughed. “No, we do not.”

  Some of the Grandmaster’s steely exterior softened for a moment, a small smile spreading across his face. “This will be big and complex. You were right to bring it to me. But I do think it is manageable,” grandmaster Olmos shifted back to Kaius. “Let’s start with aspects. We already have a bit of a program up and running for that. We can move to honours and skills after.”

  The conversation started in earnest as Kaius and his team shared every scrap they had learnt in their time down in the depths and over the last year. Excluding, of course, subjects they couldn’t share — details on cycling and the like.

  At first, the Grandmaster was silent and thoughtful, yet as Kaius explained the process behind discovering personal truth, solidifying it with embodiment, before finally the advantages that a Crucible may bring, Olmos’s expression began to shift to disbelief. When he and his team spoke of the honours they had discovered and the advantages they could bring for those who started early enough, Kaius saw unrestrained joy in the man’s face.

  It only grew when he spoke of the skills he wished to share to nurture future powerhouses — hells, anyone who would learn them — grandmaster Olmos seemed almost manic, pearly white teeth shining in the ward lights of his office.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “This could change everything,” Olmos declared, standing up as he paced back and forth behind his desk. “Do you understand what you have brought me?”

  Kaius remained silent, fairly certain that the question was rhetorical.

  “This is change. I wasn’t exaggerating when I said this would bring upheaval — there are a dozen political deadlocks that will break with this.”

  All at once, the grandmaster laughed — a deep sound from the depths of his belly. “Oh, half of the old guard will be fuming. Hell, half the dynasties on Vaastivar will be on the verge of rioting.”

  Olmos paused for a moment, his face growing serious.

  “It is a good thing you want to share this broadly, because if we try to keep this purely to the Guild, we would have a goddamn continent of war on our hands.”

  Kaius raised an eyebrow. “War? That seems a little extreme.”

  “Oh yes, my boy,” Rieker agreed. “War indeed. There’s a reason Ro and I had you keep this as quiet as possible till you hit Silver. Not only are aspects not available to those of us who are already in the second tier, but honours are borderline out of reach as well. The later you wait to start pushing for them, the harder they are to acquire. This information has the potential to shake up half of the damn power dynamics on Vaastivar — it's why I brought it to Olmos.”

  Olmos nodded, though his posture remained perfectly poised as he sat behind his ornate desk.

  “It’s a good thing we’ve managed to keep a wrap on this for now. No doubt others have discovered Crucibles, as you mentioned, but few will be ready to move like we are. Still, we need to do this right. There are logistical concerns — something like this must be released from all Guild Halls simultaneously, to mask the source.”

  Olmos nodded at Kaius. “You and your team will stand out with your age, but we may be able to obfuscate some of the sources of this information with the right approach. That said, it will be impossible to hide that the four of you posses these advantages when they become public knowledge. At the very least, if I play my cards right, I can stop you from ending up on the hit list for every noble family from here to the southern jungles.”

  Kaius was glad to hear that. Drawing noble enmity had always been his largest worry. As much as he wanted to break the deadlock on information that held Vaastivar in its grips, he wished to avoid being hunted by everyone with power even more.

  Olmos paused in his pacing for a moment, before he sighed. “There is just one major trouble remaining.”

  “He better not be talking about our loot,” Porkchop said privately through their bond.

  Kaius suppressed a smile. The one failing of the illusion they used to converse meant that Porkchop had been forced to be a silent participant, unable to use his natural telepathy to connect with a man who was so far away.

  “There’s the matter of your reward,” Olmos said.

  Porkchop groaned, slumping down to the ground. It drew a laugh from the Grandmaster.

  “Now, now, I think you’ll find my accounts are quite in good standing. It’s more a question of suitability, you’ll find. I know you are recent Silvers, so I’ll give you a small bit of advice: you’ll find at our levels, trade becomes much more in favour of knowledge and leveraged favours than silver or platinum. Of course, as newly risen, I’ll pad out your accounts plenty, but for active delvers such as yourselves, you’re more likely to get suitable artefacts directly from delving, or by bartering resources that you find down there for the time of artisans. No, truly valuable resources are hard to come by, and the knowledge you have given me is invaluable. It needs a commensurate reward.”

  “What were you thinking?” Kaius asked. He had no need of the wyvern bone anymore. and it sounded more like the Grandmaster was planning to reward them with far more than just that.

  Olmos drummed his hands on his desk. “Knowledge for knowledge, strength for strength. You’re all in possession of the dynastic trait, I assume?”

  Kaius shared a curious glance with his team. “We are.”

  The Grandmaster nodded. “The Guild harbours control of a certain delve. In one layer — which I will not disclose — grows a bush that produces a peculiar kind of natural treasure, though it only fruits once a century. With this, I can give you strength. This treasure, when prepared in the right way — a Guild secret I unfortunately cannot share — is able to progress the dynastic trait to the second stage.”

  Kaius sucked in a breath. Much to his surprise, so did Rieker and Ro.

  “An ascension fruit,” Rieker whispered. “I’d heard rumours, but…”

  “There is truth to everything,” Olmos said, smiling slightly.

  Kaius sat there bewildered. Xenanra had mentioned it was possible to advance their traits, but he hadn’t believed that they’d be able to stumble across such a thing so easily.

  It was a worthy reward. The fruit would increase the stats granted by the trait. It was one that was important to gather early—ideally, before they got any more levels in. He hungered for it, as did his teammates, judging by the wide smiles on their faces.

  “We would be happy to accept,” Kaius said.

  “I thought you would,” Olmos said with a smile. “Now, these are tightly kept treasures. Securing four of them will take time, as will safely disseminating what you have given to me. Rieker has said some ruins have been discovered beneath Deadacre, and that you and your team will be the most likely ones to explore it. You are lucky, in that the fruits have started to bud in the last year — there is still time for me to secure some for your use. If they become available by the time you return, they will be kept in my personal vault, and we can organise to have them portalled directly to Deadacre’s Guild Hall.”

  Kaius blinked. Spatial transportation was ruinously expensive — though he supposed for items of this value, and such a small volume, it only made sense to make use of it. It would be far too much of a risk to send them overland.

  As much as he wanted to wait for the fruits before they entered the ruins, there was nothing for it. From the sounds of it, while the natural treasures fruited once a century, the timing wasn’t exact. They were beyond lucky to have the opportunity to get one at all, no matter the value of what they had shared.

  Kaius gave the Grandmaster a deep incline of his head. “Thank you, Olmos. We didn’t act out of want for a reward, but this is a fine one all the same.”

  Olmos waved him off. “Nonsense — even this verges on daylight robbery. Besides, at your rate of growth, you would have earned one in a short enough time anyway. More importantly, know that you’ve earned a great deal of goodwill — not just from me, but from the High Council as well. They will be pleased to hear of this. I think you will find that the Guild will have a great deal of patience for you and your concerns. You can trust that we’ll also have an eye out for these Onyx elements that you’ve had multiple run-ins with.”

  It may as well have been music to his ears. He told, of course, the Grandmaster about his problems with Old Yon, but also of Morton, in the hopes the man would be able to help. Plus, knowing that they had the full backing of the Guild, they were much more at ease for any political issues they might run into in the future.

  Olmos rose, standing behind his chair. “Regardless, you’ve given me much to work on, and I am not one to waste time. I bid you farewell, and may your future days be bright.”

  The Grandmaster waved his hand. The transmission cut off, leaving them all staring at an empty stone platform covered in runic symbols.

  Rieker let out a deep sigh, wiping the back of his neck. “Well, that went pretty well, I’d say. Always get the willies speaking to him.”

  Porkchop gave the man a confused look. “It could have gone badly?”

  “We’ve been at the end of Olmos’s scaldings more than once, but for all he has a thin tolerance for failure, you will find him equally satisfied with success — given what you were bringing him. I couldn’t see the man ever reacting badly.”

  Rieker rose to his feet. “Let’s get out of here. These chairs are bloody uncomfortable, and I’m in need of a good scotch while I think about how much busier my job’s going to get for the next rest of forever.”

  Kaius laughed as he and his team rose to their feet, following Rieker and Ro out of the communication room.

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