Akilah’s chin jerked back, and Elora dropped the spoon she’d been toying with. Jake’s head whipped up from dreamily goggling Fig to goggle at me. A different sprite brought me my drink.

  “Dude! I asked you and you said no,” Jake bleated.

  “Were you gonna ask us?” Akilah snapped, glancing at Elora.

  “I’ll join, if Frag gets to,” Fig announced, flipping a springy lock of hair over her shoulder.

  Akilah’s mouth snapped shut, which was strange. I studied her, then shot a glance at Elora. She looked away the moment I tried to catch her eye. Both of them had changed their prevailing offense as soon as Frag was mentioned. What were those two up to? Did they like that vamp-eyed Robobrain wannabe?

  I sipped my iced coffee and found that I did like it. I should have been pleased. Instead it made me uncomfortable. How did Fig guess my taste? Maybe it was some Bard skill. Didn’t matter. They were useful; good in a fight.

  “What did you do before this?” I glanced between Fig and Frag and sipped my drink slowly, before adding, “Did you two know each other?”

  Fig smiled with a disarming charm that was all natural. Frag’s face didn’t move at all. She glanced at him and said, “Oh, we knew of each other, but didn’t really know each other. Not in the way you mean.”

  What did I mean? Were there levels to what I asked? I didn’t think so, but she made me question myself. Not cool. I shifted on the bench, tilting my head in a lazy, casual way to show I wasn’t affected. Probably did the opposite. Whatever.

  “I meant, did you know one another, and the answer was not really. Got it.” She hadn’t answered my first question. “How did you make a living? Survive? Like, a job?”

  Fig laughed as if I’d said the funniest thing and waved her hand. “I used to work in the grow plants, where we nurtured food.”

  “I’m a soldier,” Frag supplied.

  He sounded like a jarhead, or someone who’d been hit in the head too many times. He’d been pretty brilliant in that fight, though. I couldn’t argue that. Still, could I trust them? I could sit on that question forever, or I could take action. I embraced my recklessness.

  I sent them party invitations.

  Frag’s head tilted slightly. Fig’s did the same. What I found most unsettling wasn’t their slack faces, but that it happened at all. They should have been surprised. Far as we knew, the party hack was exclusive to us. Their lack of amazement made me doubt our overall cleverness. Maybe it wasn’t that hard to hack the System and bridge the gaps between our partitions, after all.

  A faun trotted up with a serving tray and deposited our food. I’d planned on bringing Loogie out prior to the unexpected guests. That wasn’t happening anymore. I’d keep the bug a secret while we sussed out these two new people. We ate and conversed, as you do at these things. The bug bites were surprisingly good, though I held my breath with the first one, just in case.

  I asked Akilah, “Why do you want a workshop?”

  “To build things. That Den place? Oh…” She clacked her chopsticks together and smiled. “Full of cool stuff. I’m dreaming up all sorts of machines.”

  “You went back?” My voice almost squeaked with surprise.

  She nodded and gently nudged Frag. “We went back while Jake and Fig went on their date.”

  I missed a lot when I went antisocial. Shit. The brief jag of concern I felt at them going there alone faded away. I had no right to be mad at her recklessness. I made myself unavailable despite the inkling that she’d want to return there. It worked out, apparently.

  “The cable construct didn’t re-spawn?”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “No,” Fig replied. “It was a System aberration. It won’t come back.”

  I frowned, but I guessed a technomancer would know, if anyone could.

  We finished our meal and went our separate ways, but the situation bothered me like a scratchy shirt. I ended up waiting for Elora at the front gate of the Grand Market. I wasn’t sure what I’d ask her or if she’d be by herself. When she sauntered along the lit walkway, casting her gaze around at closed tents, I stepped out where she could see me.

  A hint of surprise crossed her features, then she smiled brightly. “Oh, look who’s lurking! Now I don’t have to walk alone.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling like a jackass for lurking. “I wasn’t—I wanted to ask you something. What’s your read on Fig and Frag?”

  “You really don’t trust them, do you?” She said, slipping her arm through mine and tugging me into step like it was no big deal. “Why did you let them into the group?”

  A dry chuckle escaped as I fell in beside her. We passed through one district of buildings and into another. The city’s patchwork of neighborhoods stopped feeling insane; now it just made sense. Never missed a landmark. I glanced over my shoulder before answering her question. “They’re useful. Do you remember seeing Forgeborn or half-sylvan in the white room, when we got here?”

  “Are you kidding? As soon as I saw ‘elf,’ I hit select. You might not care, but I live for the fae drama. This is my moment.” She bounced along beside me, light as thistledown, hair floating in the wind, and I believed her. I’d had my moment, and I chose something else.

  I grunted softly, accepting the answer. “Is Akilah into Frag?”

  “Having sex with him? No, I don’t think so. He is pretty hot, though,” she said blithely. “Like, recalibrate my internal thermostat hot. Why? Jealous?”

  I snorted. Not in the way she meant. Akilah was my right hand. I needed her focused on team building, not flirting with the tall and glowy Forgeborn.

  “I noticed Jake’s getting possessive,” I said, my tone more sour than intended. “They’re moving fast.”

  “Mm,” she said, not in the least bit concerned. “She’s a firebug, he’s a puppy. Either they’ll make s’mores or burn down a village.”

  I didn’t have her lack of concern for the outcome. Akilah wasn’t a girl to get owned, but Jake? He was innocent. Maybe not naive, but loyal, softhearted. Breakable. I gave her a look.

  “What? I’m just saying what we’re both thinking.”

  “I should’ve stayed closer,” I sighed.

  Elora bumped her head into my arm like a cat and said, “But you didn’t. When you showed back up, you were different. Like you went off to get milk and came back with tattoos and a new philosophy. What changed?”

  She picked up way more than even I gave her credit for. I narrowed my eyes at her. “You don’t miss much, do you?”

  “You all just think I float,” she said, raising a hand to drift in the light breeze. Then she smirked and shot me a look that was as fae as a fairy moon. “I like it like that.”

  We were alone. We’d reached the entrance of Heartland Park, the thick vine fence shivered, its lush dark leaves rustling in the breeze. I grinned and asked, “Want me to show you what changed?”

  “Duh,” she said, letting go of my arm.

  I pulled Loogie out of my inventory.

  It was curled up, just a ball of yellow fluff in my palm, asleep. Elora leaned in to peer at it, eyes slightly crossing as she got close. “You went all broody over a dust bunny?”

  Broody? Ugh. That was from other stuff, but it wasn’t relevant. The Vash’Ora may have been crafted by the System to chain me to the city, but I intended to build myself stronger with it. Somehow. That part was vague.

  “No, this is Vash’Ora, according to the elders in Bauring Tok Kraup Patarshan. It’s some sort of legendary creature. Got it from a mysterious egg,” I explained.

  “Legendary caterpillar?” she asked, brushing a finger over the soft fur. Loogie’s head rose, blinking sleepy eyes at her. Loogie yawned, showing a tiny mouth full of minuscule teeth. Her curious expression went soft, and she breathed, “Aww… it’s a murder pompom. So cute.”

  Yeah, cute for now.

  I cradled the little bug in my hands and grinned.

  At least I was able to show someone.

  When I returned to the orc district, I passed the door to Fist’s Home, the livestock pens, cultivated fields, and the baobab trees. I waded out into the tall grass that swayed against the deep purple sky, spangled with alien constellations. Kept going until I felt resistance. I couldn’t push through it. A wall was there on my minimap, though the world appeared to keep going in the distance.

  There was a way to get out of the city. Archive had said as much. Ashwynn had been outside.

  I just had to find it.

  -ARCHIVE-