Newton looked at me like I was crazy. There had been a little hope in his eyes and that was now gone. I was a little crazy but not in this.

  “Lot of good that would do me,” he muttered, turning away from me. “Factionless would be even worse off. Now there’s always a chance they’ll accept me back.”

  “Chances of that?”

  “Pretty slim, but a little chance is better than no chance.”

  “What if you didn’t have to be Factionless?”

  He turned back to look at me, that little bit of hope back.

  “What?”

  “Why not join another Faction?”

  “Who would have me?”

  I leaned back and smiled.

  “Seriously?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “Why not?”

  He looked toward the Crossroads, the back of the buildings visible through the trees. At least to my left, Newton’s right. I could make out the back of my building lot. But he was looking in the other direction, which I assumed was toward the Ring Fellowship’s building lot. The halfling looked pretty deep in thought, so I let him think it through. Finally he turned back to me.

  “You’d piss off the Fellowship.”

  I shrugged.

  “Not the first Faction I’ve pissed off, won’t be the last.”

  Newton laughed, shaking his head.

  “You’re as crazy as the rumors say. You’re either going to change things up around here or get squashed by someone bigger and badder.”

  “There’s always someone bigger and badder,” I said, shrugging again. “Doesn’t mean we back down or cower in fear.”

  Newton nodded at that, liking what he heard. He looked at me shrewdly.

  “Why?”

  I shrugged again.

  “Mainly because I hate bullies. This,” I waved my hands at the campsite. “Is wrong. And you,” I pointed at Newton. “Have potential. I think.”

  “Huh,” he said, settling back, still thinking.

  “And look, it’s not like I won’t be getting anything out of this,” I continued my sales pitch. It wasn’t going to be a very good one. We didn’t have much to offer but then he didn’t have much. “The Solace Fellowship, and now after hearing your Faction is called the Ring Fellowship, I’m rethinking Fellowship in the name.” Not that I was going to change it. Kat would literally kill me. “My Faction isn’t large, not even the largest on Earth, and that’s on purpose. We don’t care as much about expansion as other Factions. I just want to give my people a safe place and let them do what they want.”

  “Sounds nice but…,” he said cynically.

  “Yeah, it sounds nice and we do our best but this is life in the Celestial Challenge System.” I shrugged. I was doing a lot of that in this conversation, which is not where I had thought all this would have gone when I found Newton. “Like I said. I get something out of this too. We’re not the biggest Faction and right now I’m the only Adventurer in Crossroads. And will be for about another month or so. If you came on board, that would make two and we’d have another two Guests able to come. You,” I pointed at him again. “Could then go to Earth. There’s a golem crafter in Solacetown, that’s my capital. I think he could help you turn your carvings into something really amazing.”

  I finished speaking, leaning back a bit, letting Newton think.

  “Ha,” he barked out a harsh laugh. “You’re all the same. Just want to use me for my guest spots. It’s not like I could go to Earth and you’d just conveniently keep telling me that this golem crafter would be here someday and I’d just have to be patient and then he’d never show up and there would be excuse after excuse….”

  “Wait,” I leaned forward, kind of shocked at what he had said. “What do you mean, you wouldn’t be able to go to Earth?”

  He looked at me confused, like I had two heads. It was a look I was used to.

  “No Adventurer goes back to their homeworld,” he said. It wasn’t said as fact, more a statement with a bit of a question at the end.

  “There’s no need,” he said, now more questioningly. “They just use up Resources that could be better spent on Leveling others.”

  “That’s stupid,” I said, shocked that this was the way of things. I needed to ask Sunie. I hadn’t realized that maybe he was living in Crossroads and not returning home. “I travel back and forth all the time.”

  “You’re the Faction leader. You kind of have to.”

  “But I had no intention of not letting others do the same. They have families and friends they’d want to visit. Coming here doesn’t mean they leave everything there behind.”

  Newton just looked at me. Now it was like I had three heads.

  “You are being serious,” he said, shaking his head. “But that’s just the way things are done.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Not by me.”

  He just stared at me then looked away, muttering. I caught the word crazy a couple of times. He got lost in thought again and I let him. The more I learned about the way Crossroads worked, the angrier I got. Making people stay here just so they wouldn’t use up Resources back home? It seemed a lot of Factions just treated Adventurers as cogs, just using them to farm Resources from the Infinite Tower. Not concerned with individuals and their growth. I could see that in some Factions back home. Subudai’s Bounding Dragons especially, but also some of the smaller ones.

  To an extent there was some of that in Fred’s Alliance. But there was none in the Solace Fellowship. I made sure of that and would continue to make sure that remained the same.

  “Sounds good but…” Newton said. “Small Faction, with the bumps you’re liable to make? Good chance you get squashed.”

  “Sure, but what else are you going to do?” I leaned forward, locking eyes with him. “Like you said, slim chance is better than no chance. What I’m offering is a bit better than a slim chance. You get to Level again, you’ll get Tower access again and you just might learn to use that carving Ability better.”

  I leaned back. That was my last pitch. The decision was up to him.

  “What do you say?”

  ***

  “Picking up strays now?” Tammy asked me, thankfully out of earshot of Newton.

  “Yeah,” I said, quickly explaining Newton’s situation and what I knew of his Essences and Abilities.

  “That’s a weird mix. Not the most useful but if he could turn those carvings into real golems….”

  “Yep,” I said, focusing on her, making her look at me. “But this is about helping him, not what we could get out of it.”

  “Of course,” she said, actually glaring at me like I had offended her.

  I should have known better. Tammy was good people.

  “Sorry.”

  She waved it off.

  Standing at the counter in the shop, Newton wandering the shelves, Tammy started writing in the notebook.

  “I’m letting Kat know what to expect. She’ll have Gunner there soon.”

  “Perfect,” I said, walking over to Newton. “So Newt…” he turned to me, not sure about the nickname. “You ready to join the good guys?”

  He sighed.

  “There’s a lot that can go wrong with this,” he said. “For me. You’ll just anger the Ring Fellowship, but that seems to be what you’re going for around here.”

  “He’s really good at annoying people,” Tammy said from the counter, not even bothering to look up from the notebooks.

  Newton looked at her in shock, then at me, gauging my reaction.

  “She has a point.”

  Newton shook his head, looking a little overwhelmed by everything. It was very overwhelming. He was being asked to change his entire world. To give up on everything he had known. He’d been mistreated, sure, but it was also the only life he had known. Now he was being given a chance to get back on course but that chance came with a dozen, or more, unknowns and not a little bit of risk.

  The risk was really on him. If this went south, he might be in a worse position than when I’d found him. He’d probably also be hunted by the Ring Fellowship, which was a reason I was going to keep him on Earth for a while.

  The decision was up to him. I couldn’t push and there wasn’t anymore I could offer. In the long run, he stood to get back far more than what he was giving us. All we were getting from him now was the ability to have two more Guests on the Nexus. He was going to get training, get back into the Tower and a new home. We might benefit from potential, but that was a chance for us. This golem training might not end up being anything.

  “Okay,” he said. “Let’s do this.”

  I didn’t see anything happen. No bright flash of light. No clap of thunder. No screaming horde of halflings running in here demanding our heads. Newton just sighed, stood a little straighter and nodded.

  “It’s done,” he said, looking a little unsure.

  This was the point where I could royally screw him. Not send an invite and he’d be in real trouble. But I wasn’t going to do that.

  His eyes widened in surprise as the Faction invite went out. Then they took on a look of determination and he accepted the invite. I didn’t get a notification, I’d long since turned that off. There were far too many people joining the Faction daily for that feature.

  Kat and Antonio Germain would be getting a Notification. Tony was the official census taker for the Clan. I wasn’t sure where he’d be, maybe up in the northeast going through that new Clan that had joined, the Gray Wolf bunch. But as soon as he got the Notification, and realized it came from the Nexus and wasn’t a human, he’d be on the crystals to Kat. Hopefully Tammy’s explanation was a good one, because she was sure to be confused as well.

  “Welcome to the Solace Fellowship,” I said. “Sorry about the Fellowship part of the name but..”

  “You’re not changing it again,” Tammy snapped.

  I nodded back at her, as if blaming her for it. I would have probably changed the name but I liked living.

  “So, you ready to go see your new home?”

  Newton didn’t look as unsure, he had that determined look back.

  “Yes, I think I am.”