By the time Vacek arrived, Aiden had packed away all the tools and cleared his desk of everything but school material.

When the doorbell rang, he walked over to open it while drawing his magic into as tight a ball as he could manage within his body.

It might not prevent Vacek from noticing it. The other man probably still would, but Aiden was prepared for that, too. Even if Vacek sent an entire battalion of [Heroes] here right at this moment, they wouldn't be able to stop him.

He would find Lexie no matter what.

Aiden pulled open the door, facing the man's shrewd gaze without flinching.

"Aiden."

"Vacek."

"Are you going to let me in?"

"I don't know. I'm really in no mood for company."

"I understand." He sighed. "Listen, I know that I'm probably the last person you want to see or talk to right now."

"So why are you here?" So far, apart from one phone call, their correspondence had been through Monty, who was still iffy about Aiden after the whole threatening-him-mid-pee-break incident.

Monty was constantly trying to read his aura. At their last meeting, Monty had even tried to use his powers to probe Aiden's mind, but Aiden had shut that down instantly, giving the other man an arched look that had him blushing.

"Sorry," he'd said, and Aiden had let it go.

"I told Monty everything I know." He'd told Monty that he thought the Alchemist had another golem running around that was estranged from the one currently locked up. While the one locked up might be the original, and killing him would hopefully kill all the other clones, Aiden advised against it.

Not just because of Lexie, which he didn't think Alchemist could help him with.

Aiden didn't know what they had discussed that night, and it still bothered him, but he got the sense that he'd offered the Alchemist a deal in return for saving Lexie, and the other man had turned him down.

Or vice versa. Maybe the Alchemist had agreed to help only if he could use Lexie in some way, and Aiden had turned him down.

Either way, the deal didn't go through, and Aiden's memories were wiped, possibly so that he would not remember any incriminating information about the Alchemist's plans or his whereabouts.

Aiden constantly probed his mind to find the missing information, and he may eventually get it, but for now, he was focused on his experiments.

The major reason Aiden didn't want them to kill the Alchemist was that he was currently their only link to Vulcan, and finding and eliminating Vulcan was Aiden's priority after saving Lexie.

"I know," Vacek responded. "That's not why I'm here."

"Why are you here then?"

"Let me in and I'll tell you."

Aiden's feet felt glued to the ground. Everything inside him rebelled against letting Vacek in his space, but he knew that if he insisted on not letting Vacek in, it would only make the man more suspicious. So he shifted back.

"Thank you," Vacek said as he entered. He glanced around at the space, eyeing the two mugs lingering by the sink. "Is someone staying with you?"

"One of Lexie's AFC friends didn't have anywhere to go," Aiden answered. "So I let them stay."

"Do they have parents or guardians?"

"Not to my knowledge. What do you want, Vacek?"

"I came to apologize once again."

"You could have done that over a call."

"I did. You told me to go fuck myself."

"I still feel the same way, so this visit was unnecessary."

"No," Vacek said. "I owe you more than just an apology, Aiden. I really am sorry. I know you think I planned all of this, and that I wanted Lexie to go to that dungeon on her own, but that's far from the truth."

Aiden smirked. "Don't try that on me. If you didn't want her to go back there, you wouldn't have told her about it in the first place. You wouldn't have put the idea of communicating with the dungeon in her mind, and wouldn't have teased the possibility of finding her uncle through that."

Vacek didn't say anything, so Aiden continued. "You forget I know who you are, Vacek. You're a manipulative, selfish user who has just enough honesty and charisma to convince people that you're in the right and everyone else is wrong. You make people believe in you, believe that you're the one who will save the world and fix everything that's wrong with it. It's how you got me on your side all those years ago, before I got wiser. And then you did it to Lara, too, and you were going to do the same with Lexie, weren't you?"

"I'm not going to deny that," he said. "You're right. I did envision Lexie working for me, but not in the same way Lara was."

"You wanted her to help you communicate with dungeons."

"Yes."

"And you thought that was less dangerous than what Lara was doing?"

Vacek at least had the decency to look chagrined. "I would never have had Lexie go deep inside any dungeon, and she would never have gone without me as security."

"Sure, right until you needed her to. Don't waste my time, Vacek, I have far too many things to do."

The other man exhaled and nodded.

"No, you're right." He said. "Whatever the case is, I was wrong for what I did, especially for going behind your back. I'm sorry."

Aiden wasn't buying his apology at all. It was probably another manipulation tactic, but he was too tired to go back and forth with him right now.

"Fine," he said. "Is that it?"

Vacek looked at Aiden, really looked at him. It felt like he was reading him from top to bottom, and Aiden now had enough awareness of his pathways to feel the slight movement over them, like a snake in soil.

"We all know you've managed to somehow crack your Tilling bands," Vacek said finally. "I also know that your magic is much stronger than before. Something changed. I can feel it."

Aiden didn't bother denying it. It would be pointless.

"So what are you going to do now?" he asked instead.

Vacek tucked his hands in his pocket.

"My options are limited," Vacek responded. "I can either alert the association and have the Heroes take you into Viejo or to another maximum security Island."

"But then how would you find the Alchemist?"

"Precisely," Vacek said. "The problem is that I still need you, Aiden, and I trust you not to be stupid enough to do what you did last time. Right?"

"Right," Aiden said. He wasn't going to do what he did last time. This time, he would do worse, but would be much smarter about it.

He could tell Vacek didn't believe his words. Aiden wasn't trying very hard to pretend.

Vacek raised an eyebrow. "Do you plan on opening another dungeon to find Lexie?"

"No," Aiden said. "Not right now at least."

"Aiden, we are searching for Lexie already," Vacek said, surprising Aiden for the first time that day. "I got in touch with some of my Dark Fae associates. The dungeon that Lexie disappeared into, they also have some interest in it, having lost a general's son and a Light Fae child in there, too. I managed to convince them to arrange another search party when it appears again. It will be a Fae and human combined expedition, and you will be able to come with us. So just wait a short time, alright? The Red Tails are currently searching for the whereabouts of the dungeon. It will reappear soon, and with our combined efforts, I'm sure we can find her. You don't need to do anything crazy."

Aiden's eyebrows raised. "You would let me go with them?"

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"Of course," Vacek said. "I had to give the Fae a lot of concessions to get this information, and I will probably need to give more after it's done. But like I said, I owe you more than just an apology." He shook his head. "I'm sorry I couldn't do it for Lara. I did not have the power then, or the contacts. I know you won't believe me, but I never intended for Lara to die like that. Losing her haunts me."

"You said you didn't give the order."

"I didn't."

Aiden stared at him. It was certainly a generous deal Vacek was offering him. Aiden would never have expected something like this from the other man.

He would have been touched, and this could have changed everything...if Aiden believed him.

And even if he was telling the truth, Aiden wasn't willing to sit around and wait again. He wasn't willing to trust Vacek with Lexie's life.

"I don't expect you to believe me," Vacek continued. "I will prove it to you."

"You don't owe me anything."

"Yes, I do," Vacek said. He gave a tight-lipped smile. "My entire life, I've always felt like I had the answers. I thought all I needed was the power and authority to enact the change that I wanted to see. Now that I have…it's hard to say if I've made anything better or worse."

The words weren't said in self-doubt or self-pity but in deep introspection.

Unfortunately, Aiden could empathize with him here, too. Vacek didn't always lie, and though he used people, he was generally okay with them using him, too.

He also probably did have good intentions and wanted to make things better, but he was in a difficult position to effect change, constantly in the center of tipping scales, blamed and denigrated no matter which way it went.

Aiden responded in a far less antagonistic tone than when he'd started. "I will think about what you said. In the meantime, have you decided what to do for the Alchemist?"

"I think that the smartest thing to do right now is to kill him. It might stifle discoveries for some time and negatively impact the war in District 4. Not to mention it would cut off our primary lead, but we're not getting any information out of him anyway, and he's far too dangerous to leave alive. We don't know what his goal is, but it's not going to be good. At the very least, killing him would stop him from helping this Vulcan guy, which might then force Vulcan out of hiding." He sighed. " Additionally, I want to put out an APB for Vulcan as a person of interest, along with a reward for anyone who knows anything. He might kill most of them before they confess, but maybe he might miss something. Or we can follow the trail of bodies that leads right to him."

Aiden nearly shivered. Look at him, speaking of leaving a trail of death as if it were something casual.

Then again, Aiden couldn't judge him too harshly because right now, he was the same way.

He also didn't care who he had to hurt or kill to find Lexie.

"Do you think that's wise to kill the Alchemist?" Aiden asked.

"We don't have a choice. Vulcan is running circles around us, so we need to handicap him in some way until we can find a counter for him."

Aiden nodded. Vacek was right. Hopefully, this would help them find Vulcan, and maybe Aiden could get rid of him, too, before he got Lexie out of the dungeon.

"One more thing. We were able to save Theo Firebringer from a dungeon. I'm told it's thanks to information Lexie gave Torin."

"That's good." Aiden couldn't begrudge them their good fortune, even though he was still angry at Torin's involvement in Lexie's disappearance.

Every day without her hurt, and it made him angry to see or think of the people who had caused it.

Vacke stared at him. His mouth opened, then closed again. A troubled look rippled across his face, and he shook his head.

"'ll leave you to it then. Take care of yourself."

"You too," Aiden said as the man left and finally closed the door behind him.

Aiden predicted Vacek's next moves. He would now put spies on Aiden, invisible spies who would monitor his every move. He would have them report back to him, and the second they saw him doing anything dangerously illegal, they would be after him.

Which was why Aiden wouldn't be doing anything.

Tate would.

Aiden only needed to finish the golem before Vacek's spies arrived. Back to work.

***

Abernathy was walking toward Professor Sparrowfoot's home with a fresh batch of potions and scrolls. He wasn't sure if he was going in the right direction, but there were only a few other directions he could be going. The town was basically one straight, narrow road from the train station all the way down, with cottages scattered around it. He was supposed to go left at the lake and right at the multistory apartment complex called Green Fox, and then just go all the way down until he saw a line of three cottages. The other two were empty, but the one in the middle was occupied by the Professor.

The door opened before Abernathy got there, and someone walked out. They were small, and wearing a familiar pink jumper, and for a second Abernathy's heart beat in excitement.

"Lexie?"

The person turned, and his heart fell.

It was a boy with hair darker than Lexie's and skin much paler.

Of course it's not Lexie, you idiot, Abernathy scolded himself. Lexie was dead.

Everyone, at this point, had heard the news. It had even been on some news stations. Lexie Sparrowfoot, daughter of villain Aiden Sparrowfoot and rising AFC star, had followed her mother's footsteps and died in the dungeon.

It was a kind of tragic irony.

Abernathy couldn't believe Lexie was dead. It didn't feel real, and it also didn't feel right.

She was so young, so vibrant, and while his mother told him that had nothing to do with it, Abernathy was still pretty much in denial.

Doyle had been practically inconsolable when he'd heard, ranting about how the Heroes must have killed her for some reason. Chris was practically unreachable these days, but even he'd texted Abernathy to see how he was doing.

Abernath didn't know why they were asking him. He wasn't the one who was dead.

But he had been feeling pretty shitty for the past few weeks. He'd even cried once or twice and thought about it endlessly.

He thought about when Lexie had come to the healing house, and he was a little upset that she didn't bother to check in on him.

It felt so dumb to be mad about something like that right now.

He'd also been too busy to go out and say hi to her, and now he regretted it.

Since they got the news, the atmosphere at the healing house had been terrible, like a graveyard. Everyone was walking on eggshells around Emma and especially around Aiden, who often looked and acted around like a powder keg about to go off.

He was less good-humored these days, more snappish. Sometimes he would stare off into space, distracted.

Abernathy understood why, but apart from missing Lexie, he really missed the old Aiden.

"Do you know her?"

Abernathy's thoughts were interrupted by the boy who sauntered over to stare at him. Recognition hit.

It was the guy, the mundane, who'd fought at the AFC. Tate. God, he looked terrible.

"Yeah," Abernathy said, trying not to stare. "I know her."

The other boy still stood there as Abernathy gestured with the container. "I'm supposed to give this to Professor Sparrowfoot."

"He's busy. I can take it in."

"Oh, um…" Abernathy wasn't so sure, but the other boy wasn't giving him a choice. Tate took the potions out of his hand and turned to go back in. Then he paused at the door and turned back to Abernathy.

"Do you enjoy it?"

"What?"

"Your job. Working for Aiden. Do you like it?"

He nodded. "Yes." As a potion-making apprentice without any magic, he wasn't sure how he would fare in the future, but for now, he counted himself lucky. He was learning a lot about magical elements and how to find them in plants. Learning how to extract components and brew potions. It was great, and he felt really valuable, especially when he worked in the healing house and everyone was in awe of him putting things together. When his potions helped people, he didn't feel mundane. He felt important.

He also got paid, so he couldn't complain.

"Yeah," he repeated. "I enjoy it. Professor Sparrowfoot is a really nice guy, so it's great working for him."

"That's good," Tate said and gave almost a mild regretful smile before he walked in.

Abernathy texted Professor Sparrowfoot to let him know what happened, but he was bothered by that last conversation with Tate. Especially the smile.

What the heck was that about? Did the other mundane want his job? Was that why he was at Aiden's home?

Abernathy was suddenly worried that he was being replaced.

***

There was one more card Lexie had not tried yet. The only card that the creature hadn't been able to mimic.

Her first soul card.

She thought she'd inadvertently triggered it while in the Old One's soul. That was what made her envision her other selves, triggered by the split pieces of her soul.

The Old One had been clearly furious at Lexie for using it, but he hadn't been able to stop her. Which meant he was vulnerable to the card, too.

Lexie could feel the card inside her now, still giving off its heat.

It had allowed her to hijack the creature's mind, and its power had reflected back on her, to portray the better and worst versions of herself. Who she'd been and who she could be.

And now, she was going to do that to him.

She activated the card again and shoved herself back at his soul.

The Old One raged as he tried to take her out, pushing everything it had at her, but Lexie hung on. She felt the card redirecting the darkness, swallowing, taming the storm surrounding her.

The chaos pulsated underneath the threat.

Lexie felt the Old One's confusion, felt him reaching out to the card. She also felt him entranced by it as it took away a burden he'd never been aware of holding.

She planted her flag and held on for as long as she could. She thought maybe she could use the card in a different way. She molded the darkness surrounding her, using it as a shield. It was drawn to her now, and she used it to cloak herself, like the other Lexie had done.

She felt the Old One's power floating inside her, felt her making it her own, remolding it.

Using it.

She felt her soul straining, almost splitting apart to accommodate the chaos, but she ignored it. She didn't shift. The Old One would either devour her or she would subdue him.

But she had to win. The Old One was powerful, but so was she. Only the strong survived.

Her mind was now filled with images she could now comprehend. Images of the Old One were so plentiful and vast that it was hard to put into words.

Mirrors in mirrors in mirrors.

It was everything and nothing.

It was never its own. Merely a reflection.

That was why it despaired after all. Lexie didn't need to feel it or even understand it. The Old One wanted to be real. It wanted to be the best, rather than just what it was.

Lexie knew she was right. She'd found its light.

Now, she could kill it, expand it, or give him hers.

"NO!"

The creature screamed in her mind and ripped away from her.

Lexie lost her grip and fell out of the soul again.

But this time, it was the creature retreating, taking its darkness with it. It was running away.

Lexie had won.

And they were free.

Right before her eyes slid shut and she fell into a deep sleep, she heard someone murmur, "Rest, Lord Lexie. Do not worry. I am an excellent weaver. I will weave you back in one piece again."

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