Aiden thrust his hands through his hair and pinched the bridge of his nose.

There was a constant buzz in his head and underneath his skin, both from his alchemy workout and the fact that he'd been chugging coffee and energy drinks for three days straight as he sorted through the information that was all in piles on his desk.

He'd posted up on his wall the most important details, all surrounding the man who had hurt Lexie. He'd tried hard to find the links.

And right now he had…nothing.

There was absolutely nothing linking all the situations together. The [heroes] who didn't show up in Hartville on time all had different plausible reasons for it. One of them had his car break down, so he stopped by briefly to get it fixed, and his usual mechanic had gone AWOL, so he had to find another genius to work on his new Road Rocket. He'd used up all his orbs for the month, which was why he couldn't simply teleport there, and he'd also wanted to show up in style to impress the lady who worked at the ticketing booth.

The other [hero] had his mother fall sick suddenly and had to take her to the medics first. The healing house was crowded that day, and so the wait had felt eternal.

The rest of law enforcement for the area also suffered strangely mundane setbacks that had nothing to do with anything other than a poor stroke or fate.

Everything else concerning Hartville and the Villain Alliance uprising had the same notes of luck. Very few patterns, except the obvious, could be found, and Aiden was usually good at recognizing patterns. So was Vacek.

So the fact that neither of them could sense the pattern here was really bothersome.

Aiden traced everything over and over again, from beginning to end and then end to beginning. Starting with the incident at Hartville. All the shops had been empty, purely by coincidence, having nothing to do with each other.

The [Heroes] who should have been in the area had been in other places through no fault of their own. So had the owners of the shops around the dungeon spawn site.

Not just that. The minute the dungeon spawned, a hero alert should have gone out, but a system failure happened at exactly that moment to prevent it. System failures could technically occur when reporting unstable dungeons, but adding this to everything else just made it more suspicious. Not to mention that the communication went down when a dungeon spawned, so no one could get the word out on time, except Dewie, who had left before the spawning.

Several people in the audience were hero students, and thanks to their trackers, their mentors should have sensed when they were in severe danger. A girl had been attacked and killed by a troll, but the academy still had not been alerted to what had happened. Maybe her hero tracker was disabled ahead of time, but why hers in particular?

It wasn't like the troll had sought the girl out. On the camera footage Aiden got, it seemed like the poor girl had gone after the troll to save other people in the vicinity. She'd died a heroic death, but it should not have happened at all.

Then there was Lucy Frank's disappearance. No one could have stopped a disaster like this quite like she could have. But she wasn't there, and she should have been.

All of this somehow came back to a man that no one had seen except Lexie.

It made no sense. Nothing about how widespread and damn near perfect these attacks were made sense.

But maybe the lack of a distinct pattern was the clue itself. Because there was only one way someone could pull this off, unless they had eyes everywhere, were the most intelligent person ever, and were possibly omnipotent and omnipresent.

The only plausible explanation was that they could see the future.

It was improbable, but the only other option, that all this had truly happened randomly, was simply impossible to fathom.

Lucy Frank's disappearance had been the thing that confirmed it. All the other heroes that could have stopped the attack had been occupied and taken somewhere else. Lucy had been taken off the map entirely. She probably wasn't dead, but she simply wasn't anywhere they could see.

Silas himself had gone through a lot of trouble and risked getting caught to cloak her disappearance. Which meant that Lucy had posed a more powerful adversary to their plan than any other [Hero].

Sure, it could simply be because of her arithmetic foresight, but the way Aiden understood it, her powers were not undefeatable. One could simply overwhelm her with too much information, distract her with another mission, or make sure that she was nowhere in the vicinity before the attack.

But given a case like this, if she were brought into the equation, she would be able to predict things with a certain degree of accuracy. And for such a widespread, far-reaching plan of sowing chaos, Lucy Frank posed a significant danger anywhere in the world. If Lucy had caught wind of even one portion of it, even if it were just the end of a string, she simply had to tug it loose, and the entire thing would unravel.

Which meant that she had to be taken off the gameboard for them to win. Her future sight interfering with even one aspect of this butterfly effect would have exposed the nameless man.

That meant that, to defeat him, they needed to find Lucy Frank.

Aiden instantly placed the call to Vacek, and though it was near midnight once more, the other man picked up instantly.

"What have you found?" Vacek asked.

"How many arithmancers with Lucy Frank's capabilities do we have?"

"You mean in the Hero association?"

"No, I mean in the world."

Vacek was silent as he contemplated what Aiden was asking him. His surprise was apparent, and there wasn't a lot that surprised a man like Vacek.

But the older man should have been used to it already. Aiden was known for having information that he wasn't supposed to have.

There was a lot about the system that was a mystery to people, including Aiden. Some treated it like a god that bestowed gifts like the guardians did. Others treated it like a machine that was bereft of emotions and was simply a tool to disperse and organize magic into this world. Aiden leaned more toward the latter explanation, and, like all machines, there had to be something or someone maintaining and oiling the wheels on it. Those were the System Developers and Engineers.

There also had to be a reason why it was created and a place where all that data was collected.

The system kept information about every single skill, level, magic type, and physical ranking of everyone on Earth. That information was, however, known solely by the Fae and, for whatever reason, Dominic Vacek.

Even conspiracy theorists didn't know why or how Vacek had that information.

Aiden, on the other hand, knew for a fact that he did.

"How did you–"

"It doesn't matter how I know," Aiden answered. "I need an answer. This is very important."

Vacek responded tightly, "To my knowledge, there's only one arithmancer with future sight. We have another arithmancer in training, but she's pursuing more of a financial route, and she's not great with disaster and crime predictions."

"I see." Aiden knew there couldn't be many future-sight arithmancers. Foresight was such a risky skill that the system never granted it anymore. Lucy Frank's development had been a fluke or an experiment to see if there was a way to introduce foresight in a way that didn't cause too much chaos and upset the delicate balance of things. Hers was more controlled and had certain limitations, and it worked for its purposes.

Some wouldn't consider Lucy's arithmancy as true foresight, the same way Monty's powers weren't true mind control. It had too many limits and ways that it could be overcome.

True foresight had only existed in the time of the Guardians, who could bestow any gift they wanted for a price.

But the guardians were not around anymore to grant such gifts.

Nevertheless, Aiden had heard stories of people awakening with these ancient powers that the guardians had granted their bloodline, but that magic often didn't work within the system and so couldn't be controlled. It was dangerous to them as well. Such people tended to lose their powers as time went on, and the system corrected their defects.

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

But Aiden had never heard of anyone awakening and living with powers such as these.

"I think the mastermind behind everything that is happening is a [villain] who uses a form of foresight," he said. "He can not only predict with a high degree of accuracy what will happen, but he can also change random things to enact a butterfly effect to give him the result he wants. This means that he can either go back into the past, which is even more unlikely, or he has a way of looking into different futures ahead of time and adjusting his actions based on the result. Personally, I think he's running several models, and he adjusts something in each model and then observes the effect. When he's done, he enacts all the changes he made into reality and shields his manipulation that way. His powers are impacted by people with other predictive abilities, like Lucy Frank, which means that to defeat him, we need to find her."

Vacek was silent, possibly in respect for everything Aiden had just said. The implications were massive and horrifying because that kind of foresight was a truly terrifying power to have on such a large scale.

The fact that the nameless man hadn't made any mistakes yet showed how good he was at what he did. He could see everything, know everything within a certain limit of whatever variable he was working towards.

And right now, there was a high possibility that he knew that Aiden was on to him, too.

At any point, he could walk through the door and kill him. The only reason he hadn't was likely because he hadn't yet found a model where he was guaranteed victory.

Or maybe, he was delaying Aiden's death for another reason.

Aiden thought back to that moment when their eyes had met.

Was that part of the plan? Or was it an error? He was inclined to think it was the latter, given that the nameless man had tried to kill Lexie, possibly to avoid this outcome. Also, the shock on his face when Aiden had identified him felt genuine, which meant that he hadn't expected it to happen. He'd gone for years, possibly decades, without being identified. Being caught hadn't been part of his calculations, so maybe Lexie, for whatever reason, had messed with that.

Now that he had messed up, what happened next? Would he go after Lexie again?

Aiden was suddenly beset with terror for his daughter. Why did this man want her dead, and why wasn't he able to hurt her in the first place? She said he'd tried when she was a child, but not recently.

Unless…

Unless somehow, her soul injuries had all been a part of those attempts. Or maybe the incident with Mouse, where the bomb had hit right where she was sitting. Or even the battle against the Eldritch Eye.

He thought about how many times his daughter had been close to death, and he immediately felt like he was on the verge of hyperventilating.

"I need to pull her out of school," Aiden muttered, getting up and pacing, trying to think. "I need to get her somewhere safe…somewhere like... where?" A bunker? He needed to get her in a bunker where nothing or no one could touch her again. But would that be safe? Could he hire guards and ensure nothing would happen to her?

"No," Vacek said.

"What do you mean 'no'? This maniac is after my daughter. He already tried to kill her more than once."

"She's safest on the Island," Vacek said. "And it doesn't look like he'll be able to hurt her anyway."

"How do you know that?"

"Because if he were able to hurt her, he would have done it already. She's a very tiny girl–one small misdirected gust of wind and she'd be dead. It would have been very easy to take her out in Hartville, but he either couldn't or wouldn't. Perhaps she's vital for their long-term plans."

"That doesn't give me much comfort."

"Maybe this will. You forget that one of my skills is knowing the weaknesses of other people's powers. Now that you figured out his power, I have a feeling I know his weakness. Apart from Lucy Frank, it's your daughter."

Aiden's jaw tightened. Panic still jumped in his chest, and demanded he find Lexie and protect her immediately, but he didn't even know how he was going to do that on his own. Putting her in a bunker wouldn't help, and Vacek was right. She was probably best on the island.

"So the next step," Aiden continued. "I think I need to meet the alchemist. I know you don't want him to know of my involvement, but if our assumptions are correct, he already knows. And he knows I think he's a suspect."

"Alright," Vacek said. "I'll be travelling to the Fae planet in a few weeks. I think there's something about to happen between the seelie and the unseelie factions. The last time I was there, there was a heated discussion in their parliament, and I didn't think it had to do with this before, but I'm thinking it might have to do with it now."

"Okay. Let me know what you find."

"Likewise."

Aiden hung up, but he was too hopped up on anxiety and caffeine to do much more than pace. He assured himself that Naem was with Lexie, but Naem could not completely protect Lexie as he was limited in this world. The next best person would be the Firebringers. Of course, he couldn't tell Stella exactly what was going on with the investigation, but he needed to tell her Lexie was in danger, and he needed her help in finding this guy.

Aiden planned to find him before Vacek did, and when he did find him, he didn't plan on taking him to prison.

He planned on killing him.

***

Lexie blinked at the creature that was speaking to her with Jett's voice and Jett's face. But he wasn't Jett.

Even if he hadn't called her his cousin, she would know simply from the way he sat up straighter for a second, then hunched over, like he couldn't help himself.

"Albion?" she asked.

"In the flesh," he whispered. "Lovely name, isn't it? I stole it from a gentleman I met a thousand years ago. He was a wastrel and wasn't using it wisely, so it might as well be mine. Speaking of stealing…" Quicker than she could track, he snatched the black pad Xena had been using and clutched it to his chest. "This is mine now." He sniffed it and frowned. "It doesn't look like much, but it's mine."

"I.." Lexie shook her head in shock. "I don't understand what's going on."

"I can explain it to you for a price."

"No, thank you."

"Fine. No fun."

Lexie exhaled. "I was trying to get rid of you, or at least bind your soul to the card to reduce your influence on Jett."

"Yes," he pouted. "That was a very mean trick you pulled on me, cousin. Very mean. Unfortunately, it worked."

"Okay, so why are you here?"

"Because, fortunately for me, you triggered one of the conditions of my most recent soul contract. That enabled me to possess this body temporarily in order to… renegotiate terms."

"Renegotiate...wait, sorry, you have a soul contract with who?"

"A gentleman by the name of Pietro Madswick." He thought about it. "Now that I think on it, that's a nice name too. I should steal it."

"What was the contract about?"

"You know I can't tell you. Secrecy was encoded in the contract, and the only ones who can know about it are Pietro Madswick and another man called Melvin Journeyman."

"I see." Lexie instantly put two and two together, deducing what the contract was about. She figured that it probably had something to do with allowing the creature to stay in the body as long as he didn't hurt Jett or anyone else, used his powers to defend Jett as a [hero], and only caused mischief when Jett was asleep and not 'using' his body.

The soul contract was likely why the teachers and staff weren't too bothered about having a possessed student here. But the cruel thing about it was that it was Jett who was left to deal with the repercussions of the actions of the creature, and none of them stepped in to defend him. Lexie was incensed on his behalf.

"But we can sign a new contract, cousin," Albion said. "I know you are Naem's spawn. I could sense traces of his authority in that card you attached me to. I'm not sure how he spawned a human, but any spawn of his is bound to be powerful, too. Which means our soul contract will likely supersede the one I have with the other two."

"Wait, you can do that? Overwrite a soul contract?"

"Not overwrite, simply do away with. You would need to sacrifice a piece of your soul for it, but I used non-essential soul components for that contract, and even if I end up significantly weaker, I'm willing to take the risk for a taste of your power."

"No can do." Lexie figured it was time to start enforcing some of that authority Naem said she had. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave the creature her bossiest look. "Here's what's going to happen instead. You're going to leave Jett alone when he's asleep, and you'll only come out when he needs you to defend him. You'll stop making him steal things, rendering him a social pariah, and in return, you can enjoy your nice little illusion home in that card."

Albion cocked his head to one side. "And if I don't?"

"If you don't..." Lexie walked forward threateningly. "Bad things will happen to you. Real bad things." She wasn't sure how authority worked, but she thought of Naem smacking the V'Sala and said, "Maybe I'll smack you around."

"Ooh, scary," Albion said semi-sarcastically. Then he shrugged. "Alright then."

Lexie wasn't expecting that. She raised her eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yes."

"It's that easy."

"Also yes."

Lexie paused. "Are you one of the Eldritch that can lie?"

"Yes, but I'm not lying now. I'll even sign a soul contract if you want." Greed shone in his eyes, and he licked his lips.

Lexie shuddered. "Still no."

"Sad."

"Okay, not that I don't appreciate it, but why are you being so compliant?"

"Well, I don't have much of a choice, do I? You have all the cards here, and I have none except the one you gave. In lieu of the soul contract, I simply want one thing from you. Given our deal, I want to now claim association with you."

Lexie blinked. "What does that entail?"

He rubbed his chin. "You humans will term it as...bragging rights? Once I return to my domain, with express permission from the Eldritch Lord, I get to tell all the other cousins and the intelligent ones in my soul line that I have an association with the Lord of the Eldritch himself through his direct soul-spawn." He raised his eyebrow. "I can do that, can't I?"

"Um, no?" Naem wanted to keep their association a secret for now, but Albion was currently stuck on Earth, so he probably couldn't tell anyone yet. Still, she didn't want to make any promises she didn't understand.

"Good." He clapped. "I'll do it anyway. I have now stolen association with the soul-spawn of an Eldritch Lord. I will leave and yield the child's body back to him for the meantime."

"Okay, thanks." Lexie shook her head. "One more thing. How do you speak the human language so well?"

"I've been on Earth for many years. I have adopted some of their mannerisms and speech to better relate to humans. They find me charming, so it makes it easier to steal from them."

"Oh, I see."

"Besides, we haven't only been speaking human." He smiled wickedly. "It seems you know a few words of subconscious eldritch, cousin."

Lexie cocked her head, but before she could respond, a noise at the door had her head snapping in that direction. Her mouth gaped, a short gasp leaving it. She didn't know who was more taken aback by the scene, her or the girl at the door.

Veronica.

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