Lexie held her breath, as her panic spiked again. She didn't show it. She didn't want to alert Aiden that something was wrong.

Instead, she swallowed the thought down, just like she'd swallowed down everything else she'd learned today. She would pick it apart and process it all later. Then she would decide what to do with it.

But for now, she needed to get her most important questions out.

"So what was he doing here?" She'd heard some of their conversation and she could pretty much surmise the reason behind the visit. Nevertheless, she wanted to hear Aiden explain it himself.

He palmed the mug in front of him, staring into the swirling depths.

"When we found that Hechtl in the unstable dungeon," he started. "I sent a message to Litchie. I needed to get to the bottom of it and make sure that it wasn't more than we thought it was. He didn't ask many questions at the time, but he told me he would look into it. And then when the dungeon issues were resolved, we both assumed that it was a simple mistake. Perhaps an Unstable Dungeon had appeared in a Hechtl cave and the little one's egg had wandered in there and got trapped. And then it appeared on Earth next. Although that seemed unlikely too, since Unstable Dungeons were not known to spawn in caves, or underground for that matter, we were willing to accept that explanation. Especially since, after the hero association took over the investigation, the occurence of UD's had died down."

Lexie nodded. That much was true. There hadn't been a UD in Hovelton ever since the underground one was discovered.

"But something about it still bothered me. I couldn't figure out how the underground dungeon happened. Did it spawn underground, or did it appear above ground and then move? Both possibilities were troubling, but the second one was especially so. I tried to get another message to Litchie to meet up as we used to before, in my nightmares. But the message must have gotten intercepted because instead of Litchie, his brother showed up. Neqal." Aiden coughed the name and it held a certain ring of distaste. "Neqal is...not like Litchie. He's far more malicious. He knew about the Unstable Dungeons. He also told me that there had been more, occurring in other remote areas like Hovelton, and quite a few of them had been found with eldritch creatures inside of them. But the news had been suppressed somehow. He said Litchie knew but had not told me about them because he had something to hide. Neqal also said he would only tell me more about it if I agreed to a contract with him."

"Why would Neqal want a contract with you?" Lexie asked. "You're not an Archmage anymore."

Something skittered across Aiden's expression before he shrugged. "Who knows? Perhaps he simply wanted to use me to get on Litchie's nerves. Or maybe he was curious and wanted me to share some of my mage knowledge with him. Whatever it was, I turned down the contract and let him know that I wasn't interested. And since that communication method with Litchie was compromised, I needed to find another way to reach him.

"How?"

He sighed. "Well, I had to do it the long way. Use an old amulet to send a coded letter through an old Fae acquaintance of mine. It passed through several channels before it reached Litchie. But it would be too much for Litchie to reply with the same means, so he decided to come to Earth himself. He was able to hitch a ride on the Fae ambassador's spaceship and once here, he could then teleport to see me. It had to be in person. While on Earth, his powers are a bit more limited and there was little other way to contact me without anyone knowing."

"I don't get it," Lexie said. "You said you first met in a nightmare. How come you didn't just try to have another one and wait for him to show up?"

Aiden gave her a small smile. "It isn't that easy. You can't just make yourself have a nightmare Lexie, that's an incredibly difficult thing to do."

"Okay but what about Litchie? After he got your letter, couldn't he have made you have a nightmare and then met you through it?"

"It's not easy for him either. The Fae-human alliance has placed a lot of protections on Earth to prevent Eldritch and other creatures of the dark from haunting human dreams for the most part. If not, they would simply take over. It's seen as a thing of prestige for an Eldritch Lord to get a powerful human subject on his side, and without the Fae protections, the Eldritch would simply go about trapping people in dreams and forcing them to sign contracts to them." He sighed. "Our first meeting cost Litchie a lot. He was powerful but he also needed to go through a lot of tests and sacrifice for the Freritch to enable him to bypass those human protections in order to reach me. It also helped that after our first meeting, I was a curious kid and went to research more about Eldritchology. The thing about the eldritch is that the more you try to learn about them, and the more you think about them, the more likely you are to attract them to your subconscious mind." He sighed. "After the first few times, Litchie...tethered himself to me. A tether is sort of like a mini contract that binds us and enables him to find me in my dreams and also enables me to contact him. With time, the tether degrades, and we would need to continue meeting up and renewing our contract with each other every so often to keep the tether alive. But since we hadn't done that in a while, we couldn't meet in the dream world anymore."

"So that's why he really came. So you guys can renew your tether?"

He sighed and gave her a regretful look. "Yes. As much as I don't like to admit it, I rely on him a lot now, since I don't have the powers. And if anything were to happen to me, I would rely on him to protect you."

"You don't need him for that." Lexie insisted. She didn't like the idea of the Eldritch Lord being near her, much less looking after her. "You have Max. And Luke. And me. I can take care of myself too."

He gave her an indulgent smile, the kind that parents give children when they said, "hey watch this" and did a backflip.

"I'm serious," Lexie said. "That's why I'm planning on crafting cards that I can use to defend myself. That will be my starter deck."

His smile turned sad. "Cards aren't meant for that honey."

"How would we know? Has anyone tried?"

Her father gave her a 'fair enough' expression.

"Anyone talented enough to do what I can do with cards would probably choose another discipline like spells or unbound magic. I researched it and there's never been a level 10 card user before. Not even a Level 8. Most Card Users just get complacent and only a few make it to level 7, and that's my starting point. So we actually have no idea how far I can take it."

"Honeybee, I don't want to kill your hopes, because I love to see you so motivated, but I don't want you to believe that attack-heavy cards are something feasible right now. Apart from the fact that the system simply won't let you, the big problem is the mana capacity required when creating the cards. The mini generator can only do so much and does not have as much mana as an S Rank Mage would." While the generator gave her access to a mana well, Elvira had placed a limit on how much she could use it, seeing as how it was her family's well. "Not to mention your pathways can't withstand that much mana either."

Lexie blew out a breath because she couldn't necessarily argue with that. But she was still not going to give up. She had a feeling there was something more here that she wasn't seeing. There had to be some reason why the system had marked her as a [Card User Hero].

"Okay but still," she said. "I don't think you need to keep in contact with the Eldritch Lord just for me."

"But I do," he said. "Not just to watch out for you, but also for consultation. Soul injuries are tricky things and they can sometimes recur. Sometimes, the wound never truly heals and can only be managed. I might need him if anything happens to you again."

Lexie didn't understand the whole soul injury business, but once again the idea of the Eldritch Lord looking at her soul gave her the creeps. And she knew Aiden said that her fear was because of dissimilar molecules or whatever but she didn't think that was just it. The way the Eldritch Lord had stared at her, the darkness in his eyes...

Is it just because he's scary-looking? Lexie wondered. Am I being racist right now? Or am I terrified that his contract with Aiden will end up in the latter's subjugation, with a demon mind-controlling him or taking over his soul?

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And even just on a surface level, she was scared of Aiden getting in trouble again.

Despite what happened tonight, she still wanted to look out for him. And it seemed he was trying to look out for her too.

A crazy urge arose inside her, sudden and terrifying. Maybe this would be the best time to tell Aiden the truth about her real identity. There was a high likelihood that the truth might come out anyway since Litchie probably knew that she wasn't the real Lexie Sparrowfoot. However it came out, Aiden would be devastated, but it might be better coming from her than coming from someone else.

Then again, how would she know? Maybe after she told Aiden how she ended up in his daughter's body, he would assume the worst. Maybe he would think that she was a body snatcher from another dimension who had inadvertently killed his daughter's soul. Maybe he would think her dimension also had the ISTS and she had used it to take advantage of his daughter's death.

Maybe, he would seek revenge.

Is this Litchie's effect on me or my paranoia?

Or simply common sense and self-preservation?

She couldn't tell anymore. Her trust was too shaky right now, even in herself. She shouldn't make any big decisions while she felt like this and should probably sleep on it first and sort through her muddled mind in the morning.

Whatever she decided to do, it needed to come with a plan.

Lexie swallowed apprehensively. The words got caught in her throat. If Aiden knew she wasn't his real daughter, he would probably resent her for it, even if it hadn't been her fault. And if she were honest with herself, that was what she was most scared of; not that Aiden would harm her but that he would no longer care for her.

That would rip her heart out of her chest. She'd gotten used to the role she played here. Her life was a lie so seamless that it had become indistinguishable from the truth. To her, it was almost like Aiden had indeed become her father and Max, her Uncle, Emma her pseudo aunt, Xena and Dewie her best friends. She'd accepted the people of this town as her found family and telling Aiden the truth was going to ruin all of that. Finding out that she wasn't who she said she was would rip everything to shreds and she couldn't just do that. At least not until she had a backup plan.

She needed to know more about this soul-reading thing that Litchie could do.

"He said my soul was interesting," Lexie said, trying not to reveal the fear inside her. "What do you think he meant by that?"

Aiden shrugged. "People's souls occasionally have mild changes as they grow. And you experienced soul damage so yours might have healed a little differently from what he was expecting. That's probably what he meant."

"Oh." Could that be all he meant? It would be a relief if it was, but she knew that it would be all too easy.

Lexie nervously picked up a cookie, trying to hide her shaking hands as she brought it to her mouth.

"Say, as a thought experiment," she said, nibbling a cookie. "What if someone else's soul was put in a different person's body. Naem would be able to tell, wouldn't he?"

"Oh certainly." Her father's quick response had her stomach dropping. "Litchie is a master of soul magic. A lot of higher-ranked Eldritch are. It's said that our necromancy is derived from them and that is what the ISTS was based on after all."

Ah. That was what she was afraid of.

That gave her another idea, a terrifying one. What if Litchie was the one who had inadvertently brought her here? What if, while he was trying to keep Lexie Sparrowfoot's soul tethered to her body, he'd inadvertently dragged another unsuspecting soul into the same body as Lexie Spaarrowfoot? What if the real Lexie Sparrowfoot was still in there trying to wrestle back control of her body?

Lexie Sparrowfoot, Lexie thought loudly. Are you in there?

No answer came to her.

Maybe Litchie has the real Lexie Sparrowfoot's soul.

But it also begged the question, if Naem could tell that she wasn't the real Lexie Sparrowfoot, why not tell Aiden instantly? Why did he just make that off-handed comment and walk away? Was he planning on telling Aiden at a later time, so they would plan to exorcise her after? It would be fine if they were sending her back to her original world, but what if they were simply going to get rid of her so that the real Lexie Sparrowfoot could wake up?

Her eyes flicked back up from her cookie to Aiden, who was staring at her with an open expression, and caring eyes. Could he do that to her? She didn't think he would, but he'd already proved that he was willing to go to great lengths to save his family. He'd admitted to doing villainous things to save his wife and consulting an Eldritch Lord to save his daughter.

Would he be capable of killing Lexie Evans if he thought it would bring back the other Lexie?

Maybe I could tell him and beg for mercy. Maybe we could figure out a way to get me back home and bring the other Lexie back simultaneously. That might be the best-case scenario.

Still, revealing her true identity now would be jumping the gun. There were also the ISTS rules to consider.

Speaking of which, how was the ISTS involved in all this?

In any case, the secret was becoming too dangerous for her to keep, but she needed just a little more time, needed to learn about soul magic and how it worked. And she should also figure out if she could even contact anyone from her world, much less go there, and she also needed to figure out how this had all happened to her first.

Where would I even start with that? The NET certainly didn't have that information. And going back to the ISTS HQ was out of the question. It was a wonder they hadn't come hunting her down after the last visit.

Her only option for finding out information now was the Undernet.

Shit.

She might have to go back to Isaac, but it wasn't safe to go alone. Taking Uncle Max was an option. He did still owe her that favor after all and he was certainly more loose about the rules than Aiden was.

Okay. That was what she would do. Take Uncle Max to see Isaac so they can hook her phone up to the Undernet.

But how to ask Isaac questions without raising suspicion? And how to get Uncle Max to agree to let her get access to the Undernet?

So many problems, so few answers.

"Lexie," Aiden finally broke her concentration by saying. "Are you alright?"

She sighed. "Yeah, I think so. It's just a lot to take in at once."

He cringed, regret flickering in his eyes. "I know. And I'm sorry I kept this from you."

Lexie nodded and finally let go of the little tendril of betrayal she felt. On a logical level, she could understand why Aiden had kept this secret from her. She was keeping an even bigger secret from him, so it wasn't like she could be hypocritical about it either.

"No, I understand. You didn't want to freak me out. And I freaked out anyway," she said. "When will you speak to him again?"

Aiden considered the darkness outside their window. "Who knows? It's likely too risky for us to meet again or converse while he's on the Earth. Maybe in another week or so when the delegation goes back. Why?"

"No reason." That gave her at least a week to figure out what to do. She could work with a week. Hopefully, Litchie wouldn't decide to visit before then.

She laced her fingers together and asked, "Is that all you were hiding from me? You're not doing anything else that could get you into trouble?"

Aiden peered back at her. "You mean apart from my plan to dominate the pastry and drug market with love-laced sugar cookies?"

Lexie wasn't in the mood for jokes so she rolled her eyes.

He smiled and reached across the table for her hand. She reluctantly put hers in his and he squeezed.

"I'm not doing anything else that could get me in trouble," he said. "Frankly, I don't even have the time, between school and meeting my community service hours at the Healing House. Not to mention, the upcoming bakesale in Arcadia that Glinda and Terry have hooked me into."

"You're making Vegan cookies?"

"Yes." he sighed. "I couldn't say no, because Terry sincerely needed my help. Can you imagine she was using that hack, Edna's recipes? All the cookies tasted as fraudulent as she was."

Lexie hid her smile. Aiden had never forgiven Edna the V-Baker for whatever slight she'd committed against his croquembouche in the past.

"You should get an assistant," Lexie suggested.

"Maybe I will when they pay me enough," he sighed. "Which reminds me, I asked around about whether or not I can take on your friend as an intern. They're trying to see if it's in the budget. And if not, I might just let it get taken out of my salary."

Lexie's eyes flared open. "That's nice for you."

"Of course," he said. "He's your friend and if it's important to you, then it's important to me. And if there's any other way I could help, let me know."

Lexie raised her eyebrows. "And you're not just saying this to butter me up and change the subject?"

Aiden shook his head. "No, Lex. I've received a lot of favor in the past few years, and I gota second chance. I've just gotten my life back, gotten you back. So to answer your question, I'm not doing anything that would jeopardize that or get me in trouble. Believe me."

He squeezed her hand again and smiled at her.

And Lexie smiled back, though inside her heart was racing mad. Dismay tightened her stomach and suspicion echoed in her mind.

Aiden had told Lexie earlier that she had a 'tell' when she lied.

But, though he may not know it, Aiden had a 'tell' too.

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