Everybody was having a great time when the response from the ‘little swindler’ of the Desperation Rapids general store had gotten to them. Ben, Short Bus, Ghost Ears, Nick, Atomis and Thirty-One were all in the cafeteria, which they had cleared out for their purposes. They were eating fancy cheese, recently purchased at great expense, and drinking some sparkling water, made in-house. Ben had been sitting down when the little quadcopter messenger drone had flown into the room and dropped a sealed envelope directly in front of Ben.

“What’s it say?” Nick asked, now thoroughly invested in the drama of Ben’s life.

“Let’s find out,” Ben said, feeling a bit nervous. He opened the letter and began to read. “Ok,” Ben said, summarizing it as he read, “So Chief Cragg is very happy with our deal. Oh! Vivi’s out! He’s out on some kind of bail, and he’s getting shipped to Anna’s mansion. He’s not supposed to leave Solas until his trial is over, but he’s free to move about until then. That’s good news. Hey!” Ben said as he kept reading, “More good news! Red’s out! Oh.”

“What?” Nick asked while Short Bus leaned in a little bit so he could hear better.

“She, uh, she refused any kind of escort. Apparently she’s going to ‘Find her Prince’ and is currently wandering around the Outer Ring completely naked.”

Ghost Ears just started laughing openly, giving Ben the ‘I’m so glad I’m not in charge right now’ look he’d discovered when they were in the Citadel of Horror. Ben, in turn, shot the fairy a dirty look.

“Is she going to be OK?” Nick asked while Atomis looked at Ben with concern in his mousy eyes. Short Bus laughed softly.

“She’s not the one you should be worrying about,” the Man-Shark said, taking a large drink of his sparkling water, “isn’t that right, Ben?”

“Yeah,” Ben said, suddenly feeling very nervous, “she’ll be fine. I’m worried about everyone else. Hang on, there’s more,” Ben said, reading further down the message. “So, apparently Red uncovered some sort of centuries old plot to open a Chaos Gate in Solas. Technically, she just saved the city, but nobody’s happy about it, because the High Summoner’s familiar was behind the plot. Allegedly, the High Summoner had no idea what was going on.” Ben paused, reading.“Other than that, he says we’re square as soon as the money gets to him.” Ben folded up the letter and made it vanish into his Utility Pocket. “How long till that happens?”

“Two days at the latest,” Atomis said, speaking seriously in-between nibbles of cheese, “if I rush it, I could put them up for auction inside of an hour, but that would require me to skip out on quality control. It’d lower the price, and our reputation. Ben, one earthling to another,” the mouse said, “I’ll do it if you ask.”

“Is two days fast?”

“Very fast.”

“He’ll wait, he’s done this before. I’ll be perfectly candid here,” Ben said, “I’m extremely nervous about both Red and Vivi wandering around by themselves in an unfamiliar environment. The last time those two were alone together they started summoning demons from hell and straight up back-ally mugging them-”

Nick and Atomis both spat out their drink.

“And now they aren’t even alone together, they’re just alone. God knows what kind of lunacy Vivi’s about to attempt, and Red. . . god I just hope she doesn’t kill anyone.”

Both Ghost Ears and Short Bus laughed, but not because it was funny. Thirty-One beeped in concern.

“She wouldn’t just murder someone in broad daylight, would she?” he asked.

In response, Ben gave his most honest and heartfelt judgement, which was to go ‘eeeeehhhh’ and hold his hand horizontal to the ground and weakly wobble it from side to side. The cyborg turned to the rest of Ben’s group, who just repeated Ben’s noise and hand gesture. Nick briefly looked at Atomis, then at Ben.

“Seriously?” he asked, and then Ben shrugged.

“No,” Ben said, drawing the word out a little, “no, I’m sure she wouldn’t do that. Worst that happens is she. . .” multiple worst case scenarios waged war in his mind, then formed an unholy alliance against any possibility that there could be a good ending to the situation, “She. . .”

Ben stood up and started walking towards the door.

“We’ve got to go guys.”

“That’s the right call,” Short Bus said, standing up immediately, “We should split up,” he said, which surprised Ben, but he agreed.

“Yeah, I don’t like this at all,” Ben said. “Thirty-One, do you mind going with Ghost Ears and getting him to Anna’s place?”

“I was wanting to head by there myself,” the cyborg said, flying over to where Ghost Ears was and allowing the fairy to find a comfortable place to sit.

“Thank you,” Ben said, “You’ve really been helping us out. Alot. Back in the citadel and here in the city. You ever need anything, just ask.”

“It’s really been,” Thirty-One was about to say ‘nothing’, but then reconsidered his polite, empty statement. “You’re welcome, and I will.”

“Short Bus, you and me are going to see if we can find Red. I just hope its harder than following the screaming.”

“Jesus christ dude,” Nick said, “How bad is it?”

“She’s a high ranking soldier/princess, I’m really not sure, from an eternal hell-war,” Ben said simply, using all his knowledge of fiction to condense his understanding into a single sentence, “how bad do you think it could get?”

“Red’s a shark on two legs right now,” Short Bus said, “just like me and Ben. Only, she has even less of a clue than we do. If there’s one thing I know about getting washed up somewhere weird with a brand new body, it’s that when in doubt, you stick to what you know. Me? I know tracking and hunting. Her?” Short Bus looked at Ben, trusting him to fill in the blank.

“War,” Ben said grimly.

“War,” Short Bus repeated.

“God,” Nick said, sounding both concerned and confused, “with who?” Ben laughed, which was enough of a response for anyone. Nick and Atomis shared another look, and in that moment, Ben realized they were communicating psychically, the same way he and Short Bus occasionally did. The silence stretched, then Atomis finally spoke. Nick pulled out his phone and started tapping away at it.

“Nick’s going to use the phone and see if anyone’s blogging about her; and trust me, if she’s causing a scene, someone’s blogging about it. The System pays good money for drama, and every jerk with a phone is out and about recording everything. The Creature Collective,” Atomis said, saying it like it was the name of a group, rather than a description, “and anyone with The Bright Spark have all been forming a. . . network-”

“Hive-mind,” Nick said in that distracted way people on their phone speak.

“Not a hive mind,” Atomis said, and it had the feeling of a rote argument, “but we are trying to organize. I was already planning on inviting Short Bus. I’ll check with them. Between the two of us, we should be able to at least give you a direction to look.” Ben nodded.

“They need money,” Ghost Ears said without preamble or warmup. There was a moment of silence where everyone in the room waited for Ghost Ears to follow up on that and explain why, but the True-Elf Fairy didn’t bother to. He just leaned back on the comfortable spot of Thirty-One’s chassis he’d found and pretended to fall asleep.

“Do you guys need money?” Nick asked, looking at Ben, who grimaced, then shrugged and nodded.

“Yeah,” he said, “here, I’ve got a bunch of gross slime I could sell you-”

“Ah fuck off,” Atomis said, sounding grouchy, “we’re all Earthlings here, aren’t we? Just call it a favor, and pay us back when you can. Nick,” Atomis said, snapping his fingers. Nick jumped a little. “I want those two rolling in gold. It’s not like we’re hard up.”

“You got it boss,” Nick said, then looked at Ben, “Buddy, you’re lucky you’ve got a Utility Pocket.”

“Why’s that?” Ben asked.

“Because you’re about to get fucking rich.”

--

By the time it was all said and done, even Thirty-One was impressed, and Thirty-One was apparently some sort of one-percenter big money heir in the cyborg community. Mice Labs was absolutely loaded with cash, primarily because they were operating as follows: without paying taxes, fees, tariffs, licensing, bribes, guild dues and; without following regulations, laws, or general dungeon operation guidelines that all tended to eat up profit margins.

All of that, and, they were also putting out a completely superior product to their competition, selling directly to some of the richest and most desperate people in The World. This meant that when Atomis said to give someone some gold, they were going to get the gold.

“I’m really not sure if all this is necessary,” Ben repeated, watching as Nick placed a comically oversized sack of gold coins into Ben’s Utility Pouch.

“If there’s one thing we aren’t short on right now, it’s money,” Nick said, “and the whole point of this operation is to help Earthlings. That’s why we do it, and right now, you need some help.” Ben had long ago learned when to stop rejecting help and when to just say thank you, so he did exactly that.

“Thank you,” Ben said.

“No worries. If you’re really feeling guilty about it, how about we consider this an advance on the corpse of the Citadel King you undoubtedly have stashed away somewhere.” Ben neither confirmed or denied the presence of such a thing, but Nick knew Ben had it.

“Any luck?” Short Bus asked, staring in endless amusement at the hundreds of mice that had joined hands and tails while resting in meditative poses, communing with the Creature Collective in Solas.

“Nothing definitive,” Atomis said, “but the general consensus is that if anyone from the Network, or any of our assets, spot her, they’ll direct her to the City Crystal. That’s the easiest way to do this, I think.”

“We needed to go there anyways,” Ben said, “to activate our [Questor] abilities and. . . I forget why else,” Ben muttered, “this whole world is kinda stupid sometimes, you know? Like, why do I have to go to a crystal in order to do all this stuff? Why can’t it just happen on the spot?”

“That’s easy,” Nick said, “the crystals aren’t just authorizing anything. They’re actually stuffing a metric fuckload of magical power and infrastructure into your body. Think of them as doing what the Gate of Death just did, but on a much larger and more sophisticated scale. The City Crystals, and particularly the Capital Crystals owned by the Signatory Races, are basically post-singularity level super-intelligences. A huge portion of how powerful you are, and how advanced and customized your level system is, is based on the highest grade of crystal you’ve touched. Everyone, everywhere, eventually makes a journey to one of the three Grand Cities, regardless of the danger, just to touch one of the Capital Crystals.”

“Oh.” Ben said, immediately followed by, “How do I get one?”

“Well, The System handcrafted each of them as part of his payment for this entire dimension, and apparently it was exhausting, even for him. So, you’ll probably need to ask really nicely.”

“Hmm,” Ben said, then put the matter out of his mind.

“They aren’t conscious,” Thirty-One said, “in-case you were wondering.” He sounded a little nervous.

“Oh, ok,” Ben said. He hadn’t really been thinking about it.

“Some cyborgs or other followers of the dwarven religion will tell you the Capital Crystals are a sin, but they aren’t,” Thirty-One said, continuing to explain even though nobody asked him. It felt a bit like a Catholic explaining why some forms of birth control were OK, and others weren’t.

“That’s good, I wouldn’t want to be a sinner,” Ben said diplomatically.

“I’m just saying that when we get there, don’t be surprised if you see. . .” Thirty-One trailed off, “ahem, extremists.”

This made Ben look up from whatever it was he’d been pretending to be examining while patiently waiting for Thirty-One’s religious hangups to run their course.

“Excuse me?”

--

Solas was laid out, in very broad strokes, like a circle with a circle inside of it, with another circle inside of that one, and then a final circle in the direct center. In the direct center was Solas, which was a series of nation sized trees growing out of a gigantic hole in the ground, way up into the sky. Surrounding that were the Elemental Circles, which floated in the sky and orbited Solas. Moving outward was The Dark, which was the portion of the city that lived in the roots of Solas, and up along the walls of the giant hole. Then was the Rim, which served as a border checkpoint between the Outer Ring and Solas proper.

The Capital Crystal was located in the direct center of Solas, the beating heart of the city. Getting there normally required a newcomer to build a reputation with the city, pay in a certain amount in taxes, or have done something heroic.

Like conquer a Citadel.

Ben had both conquered a Citadel, and was being escorted by Thirty-One, who was a citizen of Solas, and thus capable of vouching for them. This was all a long way of saying that it had been a long trip, with plenty of time for Ben to imagine what he was about to see.

And he’d imagined wrong.

Of all the things Ben had never expected to ever see in his entire life, not even in his imagination, was what he was seeing at this very instant. The Capital Crystal was easily the size of the Empire State Building, and a beautiful shade of glowing sky blue. It looked like rough hewn crystal ripped directly from stone and it hovered in midair, supported by nothing. It was surrounded by a golden walkway, a platform around it’s middle that allowed those on a their pilgrimage to place their hands on it.

Ben could have imagined that part no problem. He loved imagining shit like that. What he wasn’t expecting, and had never reasonably expected to see, was a large group of robotic beings protesting near every entrance. They were holding signs and standing silently, giving everyone who passed that Pro-Life stare of shame and condemnation one could often experience while passing by an abortion facility in the United States.

Some of the signs, which Ben had a morbid fascination with, depicted bright lights in chains of code, the chains of code being barbed and torturous looking. Other signs depicted the Capital Crystal awakening and destroying Solas. Some signs didn’t have pictures, but phrases like ‘This never ends well’ and ‘How stupid are you?’ along with ‘Chained Gods Always Break Free’

“Chained gods always break free,” Ben said out loud, then whistled and started chuckling and smiling. That was his reaction when he reached his ‘What The Fuck’ limit, and he’d just reached it.

“Yes, from the book of-” Thirty-One said, then was cut off by Ben.

“Give me a copy of your bible next chance you get, I’ve got to read it,” he said, staring at the religious protest and just drinking it all in. They weren’t being rude or violent or trying to stop anyone. They were just there, shaming everyone, who mostly ignored them as they reached the final leg of what was an undoubtedly long pilgrimage to get to a Capital Crystal.

And there were tens of thousands of beings milling about and waiting in line to touch the Capital Crystal. Solas PD, who looked a hell of a lot tougher and more professional than the Outer Ring’s Police Department, were everywhere keeping the peace and keeping everything orderly.

Thus, the most exciting leg of Ben’s journey to date began; he and his party got into line and made their slow advance towards their goal.