Chapter 40

Everlyn still looked uncertain.

“Please,” Tom said gently. “I want to know.” Now that he had seen the pictures Tom knew it was more than a want. He had to know!

“Are you sure?”

It was a simple question and Tom was aware of the egg shells he was walking upon. He appreciated her situation. Those photos had probably been her life line for years when she was alone and stranded in the tutorial. In a practical fashion, the man in those photos was effectively dead to her. Life in the trial would have changed him, and they had certainly forged Everlyn into someone else. But conversely, she had been by herself for decades and memory could play funny tricks. They can elevate people from mortal to divine.

He was clenching his jaw and his fist, the one hidden behind his back was clenched so hard that his imperfectly trimmed finger nails felt like they were cutting him.

How would he react if she confessed he was the love of her life? He didn’t think she would, but what if she said something else but thought that?

The worst thing is that none of it mattered. If her past was important, then he needed to support her.

He wished there was a monster nearby to kill. Not some shitty wasps, but something large with claws that would be a real challenge.

“Tom?”

Forcefully, he relaxed his jaw and then cleared his throat. “Yes. If it’s important to you. I want to know.”

“It is.” She nodded at the wall of pictures.

The picture of the younger Everlyn and what must have been her husband was back. There was no point examining the original picture further, so instead he focused on the others; a young Everlyn with her parents and siblings. Another with a boyfriend from pre-kids days. A third where she was older, with the same man from the previous picture.

Definitely her husband.

A family portrait with kids on her lap. His eyes scanned the wall and the oldest picture was Everlyn looking in the forties with what based on the banner in the background was her twenty-one year old son.

“Oh, fuck.” He whispered unable to help himself.

He had known, or at least suspected… but an adult son.

Everlyn looked terrified.

His heart softened. She trembled with uncertainty. Nothing specific had changed. She still wore the same dress she must have picked to impress him. The small amount of makeup to highlight her features… but her body language… It made her look insignificant, shoulders hunched, arms together, lips twitching in worry. Subconsciously, she shuffled a couple of steps backwards.

Tiny, uncertain and afraid.

Tom guessed she was terrified of rejection. This was probably more confronting for her than him and his own emotions were all over the place, so he could only sympathise where hers were.

He wanted to run and flee, but he did nothing.

It was ridiculous.

He had known that she had a family and had been older in the real world than he had been. Of course, they would be important to her, but they had never spoken about it or really anything about the past on Earth. He was sure this was not how she would have wanted to broach the subject.

Say something. He screamed at himself internally.

“You were a mum?”

She nodded.

He wished he was better with words, and that was hardly the most suave conversation starter that anyone had ever come up with.

“Good. It means you won’t lose motivation.”

Tom felt like slapping himself.

Motivation? That was the worse than the first questions.

She laughed bitterly at that. “True. Building a liveable world for my kids comes first.”

The awkwardness had not dissipated in the slightest. There was a long silence. Motivation, determination, kids, a husband… He couldn’t ignore it.

“And him?”

She shrugged. “Gone.”

Tom nodded a feeling of relief washing through him

“No. Not like that.” she clarified, shaking her head. “Even if I want to, I won’t lie. When the trial started, we were still together. Not happy, but together.”

“Oh.”

Why was he here? That moment before he came in. That feeling, that taste of what a relationship was like. Stupid hormones promising the un…

“Hey,” she moved closer to him, her hand moving to pat his arm.

It went straight through.

“Please don’t run! I should have gotten rid of the pictures. I forgot.” Her voice was tense, and those exotic eyes looked watery. “I’m the same as you. Yes, twenty years ago I was with Doug, but I’m a different person and Doug probably didn’t even bother with the trial. He was soft like that.”

“Shit.” Tom slumped down onto the couch and the leather puffed. Then the cushion deflated, and he sunk down further. “I didn’t know.”

“It’s the past. It doesn’t matter. There’s a reason that none of us talk about what happened on Earth much.”

There was a long silence as Tom struggled with the thoughts running through him.

“You don’t hate me do you?”

He looked at her in surprise. The anxiety was written across her features. “No. I never truly realised how close to torture all this is. As you told me the other day, we don’t get to set the rules. We just need to live with them.”

“I’m sorry about the pictures.” Everlyn said finally. “We should have talked first. Doug’s not dead to me. He’ll always be my kid’s dad, but beyond that. I don’t want anything to do with him. You finding out like this was a mistake.”

“At least I know.”

“In the old world you were twenty weren’t you.”

Tom nodded. “And now I’m some mixture of crusty old age retirement and still that twenty-year-old.”

“Damn,” Everlyn said. “This was supposed to be fun but…” she waved at the wall. “Can we go back to the real world for ten minutes? I want to be able to feel you.”

Tom opened his eyes to find their noses almost touching.

Her eyes were intently searching his.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Tom promised her.

“Hold me.”

Tom did just that. He was not sure what she was thinking, but he let her have all the time she needed. He was annoyingly glad that she was not pulling away instead choosing to press her face firmly into his shoulder.

After a moment, he realised she was sobbing quietly, and he resolved to hold her till she was ready.

Thankfully, the eyes of their guards were pointedly turned elsewhere to give them an illusion of privacy. What were they imagining? At best, they would be confused. After all, they wouldn’t know about the ability to share the system room.

While he waited for Everlyn to work through her emotions, Tom deliberately distracted himself. Their intention had been to spend auction credits.

He wondered what he could buy? Whether to rely on finding his purchases by random chance? Flip through the lists until he stumbled upon an amazing upgrade or if he should target a specific development? Was it better to target a stepping stone for the future or something to strengthen him immediately? Would the auction prices and range be useful or a disappointment? Almost certainly the former as and with the credits he currently had he should be able to make a splash, at least relative to his low level.

In his arms, Everlyn stirred. “Let’s shop”

Her face went slack and then Tom counted to ten and when he shut his eyes, he received the expected prompt.

He accepted and was immediately back in the beautiful surrounding she had created in her system room. She had transformed her clothes, switching from the gorgeous and revealing cocktail dress to a casual jumper, jeans, and fluffy slippers. Instinctively, he looked, and the photos had changed as well. The family ones were still there, but the couple photos had been removed.

“I ducked in earlier.”

“You didn’t have to.”

She shook her head, disagreeing with him. “I did. I set them up during the first six months when I was looking for normality. They were superfluous. I haven’t looked at them for years.”

“That’s normal?” he asked, waving at the spectacular views.

She laughed. “No, that’s pretty.” She walked over to the window. “I love how you can feel the cold and if there’s a storm, the windows vibrate and rattle. Alexander created it when I mentioned what I wanted. It even changes with the seasons. Sort of, it rotates from Mid Autumn to Late Spring and then back again. It skips Summer every time. I complained in that first Summer because it wasn’t as pretty.”

He stood next to it, looking out. “I’m glad we can’t touch here.” He confided.

“I’m not.”

“If we could would we leave?”

She nodded at that. “Maybe, but I would love it. We could definitely have some fun here.” She glanced at him sideways. “Do you think we’re going too fast?”

They were both looking out the window deliberately not watching each other. “I think Earth rules don’t apply. It’s all different now. We’ve been through too much to worry about them”

“I wonder… I mean… Is this real?”

“I hope so.”

“Enough,” she declared. “Let’s shop.” She walked over to the couch and Tom settled on the opposite side. Sitting next to her and having his hand accidentally go through her was too disorientating for them both. “I assume you haven’t checked the auction out at all.” His expression must have given it away. She laughed. “Okay, basics. You have the regulated shop. It’s maintained by the gods and maintains a buy and sell on both sides with the buy price being fifty percent the sell price. It’s guaranteed. No matter how much you order there’ll be stock. Likewise, you can sell as much as you want without affecting price. Not a market. It’s a shop run by the GODs, but the downside of that simplicity and flexibility is that it only trades in tier zero and one item’s. I doubt collectively we’ll be organised enough, but humans need to not use it. We should sell direct and not via the shop that takes a fifty percent profit margin. Then there is the human auction house. Five percent of the sale price is taken as the fee. It took a couple of days to build up, but it is populated now with a variety of stuff and almost has more than the regulated shop. We sell and buy through there then that’s forty-five percent we’re keeping for ourselves.” She paused her hand tapping her leg, and she leant forward, looking towards the wall where details displayed. “The final one I don’t understand. It’s called The Spectaculi and only offers rare stuff, tier two and above, but the seller is not humans. I don’t know if it’s the GODS, or the system links us into physical auction houses somewhere in Existentia, but there are only ever a hundred items listed and the auction period for any specific item if the same and is a little over an hour.”

“Do you think we should have someone monitoring it?”

She shrugged. “Once we’re more organised.”

“I’ve got a better idea.” Tom said with a grin.

His fate pool was full, they had credits to spare. They had an auction house with presumably randomly selected rotating items. There were exotic items out there that could help Everlyn and him personally. He didn’t know what they were, but he was sure there would be something spectacular if he got lucky. He wanted the very best they could get for their credits, one for each of them.

For a long moment, he existed with that need, that desire, that certainty in his head that destiny was there to help them and then he released all of his fate into the concept.

The energy flowed out of him and away, and he felt a shift as the push of fate affected the world around him. Invisible to everything, Tom knew that dump of fate would change probabilities, altering the future, locating a bargain for him to buy.

Everlyn studied him suspiciously.

Tom smiled innocently. “Maybe we should watch this Spectaculi for a while. Get a feel for what it’s like. You know to see if anything fun comes up.”

“What did you do?”

He hesitated.

“I know you did something. I recognise that guilty look.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I threw my fate pool at the auction.”

There was a flash of white teeth. “That’s smart. It’s basically free.”

“Yep, it’ll be mostly recharged by morning.”

Everlyn looked thoughtfully. “The spectaculi objects appear to be selected by random event, so the fate’s probably uncontested.”

“Not necessarily. Another a hundred people might be doing the same? Then we might struggle to get traction in getting what we wanted.”

“Still, I doubt many people have thought about using fate this way and Humans are the only species that can do it actively. What did you wish for?”

“The concept of something valuable that we could buy.”

She nodded thoughtfully. He saw her nose crinkle as she concentrated.

Tom pointed at her. “I saw that. You used your fate pool too.” Even as he made the accusation, he opened up his fate pool and confirmed what he suspected.

“Sue me.”

He grinned at her.

On the screen, the existing items already up for auction appeared. They started at the ones closest to expiry. Effectively, they were running due diligence to ensure that items had not already been pre-seeded with fate reaching back through time to deliver what they were after.

It was relatively easy to confirm that nothing useful was waiting for them. Most items had a starting price which was significantly above their available funds, let alone the budget. Even if they gave up on the teleporter plate, they still couldn’t afford the items.

Dragon Egg (Tier 6)

This egg has been primed to become a pet. Along with the egg, materials and instructions to run a ritual circle will be supplied. Hatching the egg within the ritual will cause the dragonling to bind to the ritualist as a familiar. There are no Skill or Spell pre-requisites required to cast the ritual.

Type of dragon - Bloodlines contain Red, White, Blue and swamp lines, up to three themes may be expressed.

Current Price 93,000,000

Time to sale 39:14

Around half the items were similar tiers and prices.

“Oh look,” Everlyn exclaimed, pointing. “One we could afford.”

Axe of Targola

Increases the chop skill by 10

Current Price - 22,100

Time to sale 4:12

“This is fun isn’t it?” she continued.

“Waiting to see the results of abusing fate?”

“Are you really that confident? You’re almost jinxing us.”

Tom shrugged. “It really depends on the number of people watching what’s happening. If it’s just humans, then my points should overwhelm anyone else. However, if the audience includes other competitors or even natives of this planet, I’m a lot less confident.”

The first item popped up on the screen

Strength enhancer for bonded pet.

If consumed by a beast, this will increase strength by twenty.

Current Price: 12,000

Time to sale: 1:28:00

“Not for us.”

“Nope, as I was saying,” Tom continued. “If lots of sapients are watching and wanting for stuff, then that means that a lot of fate may wash through the system. Even if it’s not consciously directed, that’s going to weaken our attempts. For example, if a species of hundred of millions is structured around creating the strongest pets, even if only a small percentage release fate, then the total volume will be overwhelming, and we’ll get lots of items to improve pets.”

“That would be a bummer.”

Claw Extenders - Tier 3

With a flexible set of adjustable straps, this matching set of claw tips can extend the length of claws by eight centimetres and can be fitted to any natural claws with a width ranging from two centimetres to three centimetres wide.

The metal is enhanced for sharpness and durability and compatible with fitting spells.

Current Price: 31,000

Time to sale: 1:28:00

“Absolutely useless,” Everlyn said.

“Agreed. As I was saying, the risk of opposing fate was theoretical. I don’t think that is the case. From what I understand, the auction house and the ability to spend experience on skills, spells and items are purely for competitors. It’s why Dux’s warned everyone. Humans are valuable to the other races out there because we can revive lost crafts. They can abduct us and then force us to use experience on buying the knowledge and skills then force you to teach their young.”

“If that’s the case do you think these hundred items are all eight races or just humans?”

“I think the first. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re interacting with a physical auction house somewhere else in the world. Besides bidding against opposing competitor races, the natives will also bid against us.”

They trailed off into silence.

Stone Giant War Club (Tier 3)

This stone giant club is three metres long and can only be wielded by a massive creature with opposable thumbs. In addition to being near unbreakable, this club has the passive ability windshear. This generates blades of wind that instantly shot kill anything below rank four.

Perfect for fighting both a singular, powerful monster or lots of minor monsters.

Cost: 116,000

Time to sale 1:28:00

“That would be perfect for us,” Everlyn mused. Then laughed. “If we could use it.”

“True.”

Her eyes were amused, and he watched as she read the screens. Her intense concentration was cute, the little twitches of her lips. The only sad thing was that he couldn’t hug her. She jumped off the couch in a flash of excitement.

“That’s for me!”