Chapter 98: A Play

  A few of the miners stepped forward to offer handshakes or pats on the back.

  I had no idea my mother meant so much to the people here...

  It was wild.

  She had saved Solvane by designing her magitek engines, yet thanks to the oligarchs, the importance of her invention was deliberately downplayed, its impact diluted until most people barely acknowledged the old deteriorating steam engines were ever replaced by new ones.

  But here? Here she was seen as a hero. And for what? For creating some cheap, crude air-filtration units that were surely far simpler to make?

  Like I said: wild.

  I wiped off the single tear from my cheek.

  “Watch yourself,” Riven said from behind me, standing beside Xander. “They might like your mother, but that doesn’t mean they won’t pickpocket you for everything you have.”

  Instinctively, I reached for my pockets. Then, I immediately remembered that anything of value was already stored in the Inventory, so I didn’t really have anything to worry about.

  “Hey! Who do you take us for?” some of the miners barked at Riven, half-grinning.

  Both him and Xander chuckled in return, making it clear that the jab was meant in good spirits.

  Riven stepped closer to me.

  “Remember how I said I need to check which exact mine V is in?” he asked, not waiting for a response. “That happens now. I’m going to ask some people.” He gestured away from the crowd with his head. “Shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes. You should stay here until I get back.”

  He started walking away, then stopped and turned back with a grin. “Don’t run off, yeah? Remember—I would get disappointed.” He chuckled. “Meanwhile, you can ask some of the guys and gals here about what your mom means to the Foundry. The answers will probably get you all warm and fuzzy inside.”

  Then he left with Xander.

  I stood there, weighing my options carefully, trying to ignore the last thing he just said—a clear attempt to influence me.

  Maybe my mother was a hero to these people, but that didn’t mean they weren’t trying to disarm me right now—mentally, of course.

  I didn’t mind staying on my own—I didn’t exactly feel threatened by anyone here, at least not compared to the Foundry’s air itself—and that was why I hadn’t protested him leaving. But I needed to figure out what to do next.

  I hadn’t come to the Foundry to be led straight to Valdemar. I came to understand Riven—what drove him, what anchored his loyalty. If I followed him blindly until he delivered me to Valdemar, I’d be playing directly into Valdemar’s hands.

  And that was not the plan.

  Whatever Valdemar wanted from me, I couldn’t allow him to have it.

  Whatever happened, I could not let this meeting happen. At least not on his terms.

  And so, first thing first, I activated Checkpoint.

  [Checkpoint Set: Your progress has been saved at this point in time]

  [Current anchor will be lost upon death, or after thirty minutes. The earliest of the two.]

  [Checkpoint lvl. 1: Time left until Anchor expires – 00:29:59]

  Maybe I’d activated it too early. But with so many unknowns and uncertainties in play, how could I know the perfect timing?

  Everything my other skills had already shown me made one thing clear: I had never come to the Foundry before—at least not to this area, and not by the means I had arrived here.

  Even Temporal Trace’s marks were at zero—no previous marks set.

  “Your name’s Viktor, right?”

  The voice came from one of the miners—a woman standing not too far away. Her skin was dry and darkened by soot. Her blonde hair—with strands of gray—was pulled back into a tail.

  I was momentarily caught off guard, but the confusion faded quickly.

  I needed to remind myself that this entire place was an orchestrated setting.

  Yes. That’s right. Everything happening right now—Riven bringing me here, the miners bowing their heads in respect, Riven leaving with Xander, this woman suddenly addressing me—was part of a larger plan to confuse me.

  Sure, Riven couldn’t have known we’d land here specifically. But he could’ve easily estimated the general area. He could’ve checked the ship’s planned flight route and calculated how long into the flight we needed to jump off the BrassVulture to land nearby. That was why he’d been so reluctant to board that specific ship back at the Cargo Dock, and why he shoved me off the moment I climbed over the railing.

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  He needed us to land here for their plan to proceed.

  And even if the calculations couldn’t be precise enough to bring us to this exact spot, was it really that far-fetched to think every miner within a five-kilometer radius had been warned about our arrival in advance? I mean, they were all definitely rooting for Valdemar since he was the only person in the world who'd promised to change their lives for the better.

  I nodded slowly, feigning confusion. “How do you know my name?”

  “Your mother talked about you and your sister constantly,” a different miner said—a young man seated nearby who looked far older than he probably actually was. “Whenever Libra brought the Air Filter IIs, she’d try to come to oversee the installation personally.”

  The mention of Thea made my heart twist. I still had no idea if any of my previous selves had managed to find her.

  “Air Filter IIs?” I echoed, trying to push my half-sister away from my mind for now.

  “The air filtration units,” the female miner replied.

  Well...that's an underwhelming name...

  “My name’s is Helen, by the way.” She extended her hand.

  I shook it, still playing along.

  “Damn,” I said with a light laugh to test their reactions. “Seems like you all knew her better than I did.”

  Their expressions seemed to sour, and I immediately reminded myself they were faking it.

  It was all a play—an act.

  “She suffered from this choice immensely,” the young miner said. “She always said she could only hope that when the time came, you’d understand.”

  Several of the miners nodded in agreement.

  Fuck they were good and coordinated.

  I needed to steer the conversation away from my mother before I got pulled into it and lost my focus, resolve, and sanity.

  “How long have you known Riven?” I asked sharply.

  Helen shrugged, glancing at the others. “What, a year or so? Maybe a bit more.”

  The surrounding miners nodded.

  “And do you know who he really is?” I pressed, pushing a tricky angle.

  “What?” the young miner asked. “A Libra agent?”

  “Not only that,” I said. “He’s also an ex – “

  “Stop,” Helen cut in, raising a hand. “We don’t want or need to know that.”

  I shook my head, confused. “What?”

  “We don’t want to learn anything that could later be tortured out of us by Ironwatch,” the young miner explained.

  I…hadn’t thought about that. That this was the way they treated truth down here. The reason for it.

  “Valdemar makes sure we know nothing that could make us valuable for Ironwatch, and eventually hurt us,” Helen added.

  And I take that back. There it is: the real reason.

  Should I even start explaining to them that Valdemar keeping them ignorant wasn’t any different from the oligarchs? Both sides were protecting themselves first, using the simple people for their own selfish goals.

  “Valdemar has our safety as his top priority,” another miner said, earning several nods and murmured agreements and “Amen”s—whatever that meant—from the others.

  That was enough to make me realize how speaking sense to them would be pointless. They were already deeply influenced—maybe irreversibly so. And looking around, could I even blame them? I’d been in the Foundry for barely ten minutes and already wanted out. They didn’t have that option. They were destined to spend their forty years of life down here or die to the Parasite beforehand—likely a blessing in disguise.

  Asking them about Overlord or if they ever heard about anyone turning into crystal was pointless as well. If Libra controlled the information flow here, they wouldn’t know anything useful. Moreover, Riven wouldn’t have left me alone with them if I could extract something useful.

  Asking about my mother was out of the question too. I wasn’t walking into that trap.

  So…what was left?

  Do I just wait here like he wanted me to? Or do I leave?

  I glanced around and realized the miners had subtly arranged themselves around me. Not aggressively, but tightly enough that leaving would require me to actively push past people.

  Which was obviously intentional.

  Because no matter how much Riven claimed Valdemar didn’t care what I did, everything else around me always screamed the opposite.

  And no. This wasn’t just paranoia. Some of it was, sure. But not all of it.

  “Play a round with us?” Helen asked, gesturing toward the stone block where they’d been playing their odd game earlier.

  I kept her question at the back of my mind as my gaze slowly surveyed everything around us, and especially the distant crane-like machine stationed at the nearest mine, partially obscured by nearby buildings. I could already guess what its base was mostly made of.

  Tungsten.

  I wondered if I could store the entire crane in the Inventory and convert it into upgrade material. There had to be tons of it in a single structure like that.

  "Thanks" to my memory loss between loops, I couldn’t remember if I’d ever tried something like this before.

  Maybe I should.

  “Excuse me,” I said, beginning to push my way through the crowd, surprising them all.

  “Where are you going?” Helen called after me, confusion clear in her voice.

  “To the nearest mine,” I replied, pointing toward the crane in the distance.

  “But you should – “ She stopped herself abruptly. Very abruptly.

  Great. Another confirmation.

  Riven never so much as exchanged a single glance with her since we arrived. How would she know what I was supposed to do here? Unless, of course, she’d been prepared for my arrival in advance and tasked with keeping me occupied.

  “I’ll be back soon,” I said, meaning it. After all, I still needed Riven if I wanted to reach Novus.

  “If he gets back before me, tell him to wait.” I added, feeling smug.

  I knew he wouldn’t. Better than that, I knew he’d come after me.

  I was a hundred percent certain of that.

  ***

  I made my way toward the mine.

  With every step, the machinery grew louder, the sound stacking until it became so annoying it rattled my bones.

  I suddenly fully understood why there was a crate filled with used cotton earmuffs at the Rations Stations I’d noticed on my way out.

  I should’ve taken a pair, but it was too late now.

  I glanced back, half-expecting Riven, or any of the other miners, to come rushing after me.

  They didn’t.

  I shrugged, unbothered. Deep down, I knew Riven was bluffing. Whether this loop or the next, I’d always end up where Valdemar wanted me. With his reach and influence there was no escaping it.

  My control of the situation came from anticipation. By preparing for his moves and abusing them. By causing just enough disruption to keep all his pieces scrambling while I quietly gathered intel, hoping my future selves would make sense of it.

  As I drew closer to the mine’s entrance, I spotted four Ironwatch Enforcers—two pairs.

  One pair slowly patrolled the perimeter, their movements constant and methodical. The other stood stationery near the entrance itself, guarding an access point cordoned off with safety guardrails bolted to the ground.

  I waited a minute or two for the patrolling pair to pass the stationery guards before moving.

  If I could slip past the stationery ones, I’d be only a few meters from the crane. Close enough to test the Inventory’s limits.

  Now…how do I get past these bastards?

  Before I could even settle on a plan, I felt a presence behind me.

  I had no time to react.

  An armored hand clamped around my mouth firmly.

  “Stay quiet,” Casten Vorrick’s unmistakable voice murmured in my ear.

  My blood ran cold.