"What do you mean?"

Theo didn't respond, but a second after he spoke, Lexie got an alert on her SI.

THEO FIREBRINGER IS GRANTING ACCESS TO HIS SYSTEM SCREEN. DO YOU ACCEPT? [YES] [NO]

Lexie accepted and was now staring at a message from an unknown number that said, "SOS Galaxy."

"I don't understand," Lexie said.

"SOS Galaxy is something Lucy and I used to say to each other," he said. "It's a phrase from a stupid TV show she used to watch when she was young, and she would say it sometimes when she wanted me to come and save her from an awkward situation she didn't want to be in. For example, one time after she'd rescued hostages, she was having this mandatory meeting with reporters, and they kept asking her questions, not about the case, but about her background and her parents. She was tired of fielding the questions, so when she sent the message, I burst in there and pretended like I was having a heart attack. I had to act it out and everything."

"Couldn't you have just pretended that there was a crime or something you two had to stop?"

"Yeah, not my brightest moment, but it worked in that instant."

"Okay. I'm not sure where you're headed with this."

He sighed. "No one else knew about this codeword but the two of us. Like I said, it was from a silly TV show that I think only a handful of people watched. No one else would send me this but her."

"But it doesn't have her contact saved."

"She obviously can't send it via the system. Whoever took her probably has blockers preventing her from sending any messages."

"Yet, somehow she got her hands on a cell phone?" To Lexie's knowledge, that wouldn't be easy to do. She only saw phones sold in consignment stores in Indigo and other such cities with proximity to the ISTS or huge historical landmarks.

"Cell phones are more common in District 4," Theo said. "They experience system communication failures a lot due to rampant crime, so yeah. It's a thing."

Lexie nodded. "Okay, that makes more sense. But if it's really her, then why would she text you and not the authorities? Or Vacek."

"That's what I want to figure out," he said. "I tried texting that number back, but the text didn't go through, like the line was blocked or something. However, I know that Lucy is smart. If she tried to text me, then she would have already texted Vacek. She was one of his favorites in the association, and she was Jerry's favorite too; she would have texted one of them her location instantly. So the fact that none of them has mentioned anything to me or my mom suggests that something else might be going on here. Which is what I need your help for."

"Okay?"

"I'm going to meet with Jerry today. Vacek isn't back on Earth yet, so this is the perfect opportunity for me to break into his office. I wanna know if you have any cards that can help me with that."

"Oh-kay." Lexie blinked. She was a little startled because she didn't expect him to come right out and say it. "Just so I get this straight, you need my help breaking into the office of the president of the hero's association."

"Yeah. I'll need it pronto because Vacek will be coming back soon, probably by Ansing. Do you think you can make it before that?"

Lexie's brain began working. "What kind of security is available at his office?"

"Anything you can imagine. Forcefields. Password-protected lock. Facial recognition software. Steel door."

Lexie pursed her lips. For the forcefields, the <Out of Mind, Out of Sight> card would work, but the problem was that giving Theo that card was potentially dangerous and would raise questions about the card's origins and such.

The fact that it didn't use mana would definitely freak him out, and she didn't know if he would keep the secret. It might just be one too many secrets for his liking.

Then again, Lexie could just tell him Aiden's excuse–that he got the card from an old Fae friend of his, but she didn't know how well Theo would buy into that.

There were already too many suspicious things about her. This might be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

While she debated what to do, Theo kept talking about all the security measures that kept people out of Vacek's office. "...trapping spells, rune chaining, an alarm trigger..."

"Hang on a second." It hit Lexie like a bolt. "I have an idea of something that can work."

"What is it?"

Lexie opened up her inventory, pulling out the card that Torin had returned to her.

"Theo, meet Sir Hoppington." Lexie held up the card. "He's a creature card, a distinguished froggy gentleman, and an excellent spy."

Theo took the card from her, pulling up the screen to read the attributes.

"Not bad," he said.

"Yeah. The best part is that he can pass through walls. So you don't need to bypass all those security features. As long as you can activate the card somewhere near Vacek's office, it should be good to go."

"Jerry's office is close," he said. "But how do I tell the frog where to go?"

"You can pretty much remote control him to go wherever you want. It's almost like wearing a VR headset. Just think about where you want him to go, and he'll go there. One problem is that he isn't very solid, so I can't really have him opening doors and stuff." Then again, Lexie remembered when Veronica activated her frog card two years ago, and how her frog card had seemed more solid than Lexie's. "However, I think the more mana you push into him, the more real he gets. You might manage to get him to pick up something for maybe a short time."

"Excellent."

"The other problem is that he's entirely visible. So if there are any cameras in the room, they will pick up on the hopping frog. I can make him invisible if you give me a couple of days to work out how."'

Theo thought about it and nodded. "Okay. I'll postpone my meeting with Jerry by a few days, but any more than that and I'll just have to risk it. I don't actually care if Vacek catches me after the fact. I just need to find out the truth."

Lexie nodded. "Okay, the only other thing I need to add right now is remote activation, which I already know how to do. That will take me a few minutes."

"You're amazing," Theo shook his head in awe. "Seriously, you astonish me more every day. Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Once or twice," Lexie said, blushing. "But it's always nice to hear it."

After Theo left, Lexie spent the rest of the afternoon divided between three things: researching how to make the card invisible for Theo, looking up Tate's medical condition, and reading about teleportation equations.

Fate decided to smile on her that day, because the intent for the invisible card floated pretty easily to her.

Go Ghost.

It happened while Lexie was thinking about the <Out of Sight> card and how it had helped shield her from the ghoul when she got to Earth 9. She'd been thinking about whether the same type of pathway would work for shielding her against multiple cameras from multiple angles, and then just like that, the intent popped into her head.

She took that to mean she was on the right path.

Unfortunately, she didn't quite know where to go from there. Was she supposed to turn the frog into a ghost? Maybe give it some ghoul attributes? How did ghouls function anyway, turning corporeal at will? What mechanism was behind that?

As usual, there were very few useful answers on the net. Her go-to would have been to check the Undernet, but she still was holding back from that until she got her phone fixed.

She would have gone to see Isaac already, but he said he was visiting his dad somewhere else and he'd be back in a month.

That meant that she had to deal with the stalker on her phone till then.

On the other hand, Madswick probably wouldn't care that she was searching for information about ghouls. Heck, he might even help her. He might be the perfect person to ask.

But the thought of doing so made her uncomfortable.

The other things she focused on that afternoon were checking out medical information on Tate's disease and learning about Dark magic, but both those things were hard to research without using the Undernet. She was so tempted to just do it, everything else be damned.

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But she held back.

As evening drew to a close, though, Lexie also noticed that Torin was in a bad mood. She noticed it while they were watching television before dinner, but really, she recalled that he was quieter than normal for the whole day and snapped at Thor to keep it down several times while he and Tamsin play-fought.

His attention seemed focused on the TV, but then, when Lexie tried to increase the volume so he could hear better, he rolled his eyes, got up, and left.

After a few minutes of internal debate, Lexie followed.

She went to Torin's door, and the closer she got, the more it sounded like he was talking to someone. She pressed her ears against the door, but couldn't hear anything that was being said.

Torin must have noticed her presence, though, because he stopped talking and pulled open the door fast enough for Lexie to jump back.

"Hey!" she said a tad too loudly and breathlessly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"You seemed annoyed down there. Was the TV too loud?"

"It wasn't about the TV," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm just a little tense."

"About what?"

"It doesn't matter. Have they heard anything about your Uncle?"

Lexie shook her head. She was, of course, going later tonight with her father to check out the dungeon, but she wasn't going to tell Torin that. "Nothing yet."

"I'm sorry," he said.

"It's okay." She tamped down the disappointment curdling within. "Your mother already warned me that the odds of them finding him now would be low." Which was why Lexie had to find him herself. "Anywho, tell me what's bugging you."

Torin looked away. Pink stained the top of his cheeks. "It's stupid."

"Great. I worry about stupid stuff all the time, so I'm the best person to talk to about it."

He sighed heavily and rubbed his hand over his face. "I have an AFC fight coming up."

"Oh, nice. When?"

"Like a few weeks after we resume school."

"Who's your opponent?"

"Alan Daggerston. He's from the military academy."

"Is he strong?"

"Relatively. But I can beat him."

"I'm sure you can." Lexie didn't think there was any young hero as strong as Torin right now. Heck, he could probably kick the asses of some older Heroes too. "So why are you nervous?"

"Who says I'm nervous?"

"You look nervous."

He shook his head. "I'm not nervous. I'm just mildly bothered."

"By the fight?"

"No, by the fact that they're making us do interviews a week before the fight."

"Hold on, you're nervous about the interviews?"

"I just said I'm not nervous!"

"Sorry. You're mildly bothered about the interview?"

His lips pursed, and his gaze practically swam with barely-bridled anxiety. "A little. But I'm sure it will be fine. I just have to practice."

"Yeah, practice makes perfect. You can pretend like you're interviewing yourself and answering the questions that they're–hold on, is that what you were doing before I got here?"

Torin's face heated up. "Maybe."

Lexie almost giggled, but she managed to suppress it. She didn't think Torin would appreciate it at all.

It was bizarre to see Torin nervous about anything, much less something as mundane as an interview. He'd never struck her as the type to have social anxiety, but then again, he didn't talk to very many people. Lexie'd always just assumed it was because he didn't like people. But what if part of his woodenness was that he was anxious about conversations?

Huh, Lexie thought. Suddenly, so many things make sense.

"If you need my help, let me know," she said.

"How?"

"I know a couple of cards you can use as a confidence booster," she said. "One of them helps you become more charismatic."

He shook his head. "No. I'd rather do it organically. "

"Suit yourself," she said, and he nodded and closed the door in her face.

After dinner, Lexie went up to her room, pretending to get into bed.

She waited till it was late, and then she used <Lightfoot> and <Out of Sight, Out of Mind> to sneak out of her window and drop to the floor lightly, running across to the field to meet her father.

He was wearing a dark cloak and didn't put the hood down when he saw her.

"Hey, Dad," she whispered.

He leaned down and swept her up, asking, "You ready?"

"Yeah. You sure this will work?"

"I don't see why it shouldn't." He'd told her that he learned to teleport two people at a time, wrapping them in a forcefield so they wouldn't get separated. "I've practiced."

"With who? Naem?"

Aiden smirked. "No. Monty."

With that, he opened a portal and swallowed them in.

Within seconds, they were standing in front of another angry swirling portal, in the middle of the forest.

Aiden set Lexie down, dropped into a squat, and said, "Lexie, I want you to listen to me carefully right now. The only reason I'm doing this with you is because I've decided to trust you and trust that you will allow me to protect you."

Lexie nodded. "Alright."

"So we will not be going into the dungeon today."

Lexie frowned. "But you said …"

"No." He got down and met her eyes. "I allowed you to come with me because I think there's a way you can help. I'm showing a lot of trust here, and this is a compromise. But you need to compromise with me, too. The second we step into that dungeon, I'm no longer in control. I can't teleport you somewhere safe, and we'll be stuck with whatever we get. I can't allow that. I'm sorry."

Lexie was disappointed, but she understood where he was coming from, too.

"So what can I help with?" she asked

Aiden sighed and put his forehead on hers as though in relief.

"Tate gave me his dungeon unsealer," he said after he straightened. "I've already been inside the dungeon and checked every nook and cranny. Max is not in that dungeon. If anything, he's in the Other, or that other place you mentioned, but the only way to know for sure is to communicate with the Dungeon, and the only way I, as a human, can communicate with the dungeon is to be in the Other."

"How did you find the Other?" Lexie asked. "When you were looking for mom."

"With Naem," he said. "Only other Eldritch can help you find and access the place. You also need an Eldritch to grant permission into the Eldritch domain, and more often than not, the dungeon doesn't have the authority or the intelligence to do that for you. Which is where Eldritch Lords come in."

"Huh. So it's not just Eldritch who can access an Eldritch domain."

"Technically, yes, but an Eldritch Lord would have to negotiate with the Doorkeepers and any of the other Lords who might dispute your presence and, well, kill you or eat you. To negotiate with the them sometimes takes a significant sacrifice that Naem wasn't willing to make on my behalf, but he told me that if I was able to connect to the Chaos mother through him and create a dungeon, then it would be technically both our domain to command and the Doorkeepers wouldn't be able to keep me out even though the Lords might still try to kill me. So as long as I was strong enough to survive that, I would be allowed entrance into the Other. We tried again and again, creating multiple dungeons. They were extremely weak level 1 dungeons and could only last a few seconds at a time, because I'm not as good as stabilizing as the Fae. Eventually, though, we found it."

It was just occurring to Lexie. "You denatured all those creatures prematurely."

Aiden's features darkened inhaled deeply. "Yes. That is part of what makes what I did horrible."

In the past, Lexie had never thought much of it when Aiden had told her that he'd created multiple dungeons. She'd only been in awe that he could do such a thing.

But now that she'd gotten to know more about the Eldritch and what they were, she couldn't help but feel upset at what he did.

"I know," he said softly, meeting her gaze. "I'm sorry."

However, she knew he would do it all again to save his wife.

Lexie swallowed her emotions and nodded for him to continue his story.

"So we found the Other. But Naem warned, once we're in the other, he has less control. There is no authority there because the Other doesn't acknowledge any of the Lord's sovereignty, and while that makes it harder for the other Lords to get rid of me without doing it directly, it also makes it harder for Naem to protect me. The nature of the dungeons in the Other is too twisted to control. Only the strongest survive to be reincarnated as dungeons again. At least that was how Naem explained it to me."

"I see."

"So, basically, once you're in the Other, you're fighting for your own survival, fighting for the survival of whatever dungeon you're trying to go into, and communicating with it at the same time."

"And you were going to do all that for mom."

"I would have if I was given the chance." He pressed his lips thin. "But I suppose your skill makes it easier. Reach out to the dungeon. If your Uncle Max was somewhere in this dungeon and it's intelligent enough, it might show you something about what happened to him."

Lexie nodded. Without further ado, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and psychically connected to the dungeon.

It was different from what she'd experienced with the Unstable dungeon.

Instead of a scary, instantaneous connection, this one was slow to come. There wasn't as much darkness, but Lexie only felt the faintest trace of anything resembling life. Its essence was muted, like it wasn't really there.

"It feels dead," Lexie told her dad. "And it's not telling me anything."

"I thought that might be the case." He sighed. "Well, it was worth a shot."

"Are you sure we can't go in just for a bit?" Lexie wanted. "I might be able to feel more from its core. Or we can access the secret levels."

"No, and Lexie, I really need you to promise not to come back here without me."

Lexie sighed. "Alright."

"Promise me, Lexie."

Lexie was deflated, but she obliged. "I promise."

Lexie was disappointed when she got back to the Firebringer manor, but she still held out hope. Even if this dungeon didn't hold her Uncle Max, according to what her dad said, she just needed to learn how to communicate with dungeons or get strong enough to create her own dungeons with Naem like her father did, and voila. They would get him.

Lexie continued the routine. Training, researching, hoping to hear good news. As the week was close to running out, she was losing hope for the latter.

On the bright side, she received a second intent for an invisibility card, but this would be crafted in a different way.

Hide in Your Shadow.

Lexie sighed. Another darkness-themed intent. It led her back to the Void powers that she wanted so desperately to figure out and needed Shadowbane's help with.

Now Lexie had a choice of how to approach the card, in terms of ghosts or shadows, and both were equally out of reach for her.

Lexie felt overwhelmed, but she didn't mind the work. It helped keep her mind off of her Uncle.

Theo said he would take Sir Hoppington as is, but Lexie wasn't satisfied with that, though. She wanted to figure out the card and how to make it invisible, and neither Naem nor Aiden was helping her, Naem because he was withholding the information to use as motivation for her to beat Ganor. He didn't seem to understand or care about her urgency.

Which left Lexie with only one person who could help. The same person who told her that he could help her find her Uncle.

The dungeon would be closing soon.

Yet, Lexie told herself she wouldn't reach out to Madswick.

And she didn't.

For a whole two hours.

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