254 - Rejection

The group remained still for a few seconds, while Pvilycht stood dutifully beside Lexie.

“Lexie...” Conrad spoke first, his voice quivering before he cleared his throat. “What the ever-living hell is that thing?”

“This is Pvilcht,” Lexie responded. “He’s like my assistant.”

“He looks very weird…” Cara murmured.

“That’s rude, Cara,” Lane said.

“Rude but true.”

Lexie turned to observe Pvilycht. She supposed he did look weird. Patches of skin sewn together like a Frankenstein monster. A head that was far too big for his short body and stubby limbs. Pale-purplish skin and overgrown talons for finger nails. Eyes that sparkled wth hints of madness even when they were sober.

Lexie guessed she’d gotten very used to his look after some time. She’d spent a lot of time with monstrous creatures, so his abnormality didn't even register with her at first. Plus, it wasn’t like Lexie’s Eldritch form was pretty either, so she couldn’t really judge. 

But, of course, for humans who were only used to encountering other humans, with the occasional refugee troll or travelling elf. They’d certainly never met a creature as uniquely disconcerting as Pvilycht.

Who, of course, decided to rectify the situation by executing a formal bow. “Hello, humans. I am glad to meet more associates of Lord Lexie’s.”

“Lord Lexie?” Shadow clarified. “Why did he call you Lord?”

“He’s just polite,” Lexie lied, throwing Pvilycht warning signals and a mental note, Just call me Lexie in front of them. 

Yes. Of course.

“What is he exactly?” Boris asked next, and Lexie searched for a way to obfuscate the truth convincingly.

Her friends already seemed freaked out enough, and she didn't want to scare them more by mentioning that Pvilycht was Eldritch.

Seemingly, Lexie had miscalculated and underestimated their reaction based on that of her father and Dewie. Neither of them had been this freaked out when they saw Pvilycht. Sure, Dewie had screamed his head off at first, but he'd also been willing to let Pvilycht watch him for some time alone, although that might just be thanks to his excessive trust in Lexie.

In any case, Lexie had mistakenly assumed that most people would react the same way, with cautious apprehension rather than outright terror. 

Apparently, Aiden and Dewie were very poor samples for the rest of the population. 

“He’s kind of a combination of a lot of things,” Lexie finally responded. “But right now, he’s a creature card. Remember that backfippng frog, I used to have?”

“Sir Hoppington?” Conrad, Cara, and Tate chorused. 

“Yeah. He’s kind of like that, but he’s just a combination of different other species. We met in the dungeon and signed a contract so I could summon him when I need him. Pvilycht’s special skill is the ability to decode things and figure out how they work. I figured that it would make things go faster if both of us were working on your card.”

“Oh…” Cara’s apprehension did not reduce. “You know what? Don’t even worry about it. I think I'm good on that.”

“I thought you said the card was having issues?”

"Did I?” She rubbed her chin, feigning thought. “I misspoke. It’s working perfectly. Maybe Urmas needs help, though.”

“No,” Urmas immediately shook his head frantically. “No, I do not. I like how my card is."

"You said you were struggling with it."

"Struggle is good. Builds character. Thank you, though, for the generous offer, Lexie."

“Yeah, thank you so much," Cara added.

Leie could tell they were lying because they were scared. It was understandable, but also a little frustrating and kind of hurtful. 

She reached out to probe Pvilcyht’s emotions, seeing if he was hurt by this. He wasn’t.

Or maybe he wasn't properly translating his emotion as hurt, since that was more of a human thing?

No, Eldritch could feel hurt. V the V'Sala was frequently offended by Lexie.

Maybe, Pvilycht was simply too used to this reaction to be hurt by this.

“I know what he looks like,” Lexie said patiently. “But Pvilyct isn’t a bad...creature. And he won’t hurt you.”

"You sure about that?" Shadow murmured. "He sure looks like he wants to hurt us."

"That's just his face," Lexie said.

"Yes," Pvilyct concurred. "This is my friendly expression."

No one was placated by that.

Lexie stared at Pvilycht in confusion. He didn't look threatening at all. On the contrary, he looked pretty placating.

It’s the pheremones, Lexie realized. Her father had told her once that Eldritch creatures automatically gave off pheremones that induced fear in humans, the kind of bone-chilling fear that defied rational thought. Lexie had experienced a similar thing when she’d first met Naem. She’d run and locked herselfin the bathroom and nearly had a panic attack as a result. 

At least no one was panicking yet.

Then again, Pvilycht was nowhere near as powerful and terrifying as Naem. 

“Come on, guys,” Lexie said. “Just give him a chance. We don’t have time.” 

Cara and Urmas shared a look. There was no budging in their expressions.

They wanted nothing to do with Pvilycht. 

Even Conrad said, “Erm, Lexie, we appreciate your help, but maybe this isn’t the time to experiment with the cards. They have a match tomorrow, and it's important that everything matches according to their training."

“But if you guys are weaker in team evals, that affects your sponsorships, right, and how much screen time your match gets? It also affects which bracket you fight in. Don’t you want to do everything you can to boost the team to the top of the leaderboards?” 

Cara shrugged. “I mean, we're already pretty close to the top of the non-hero division. I've been doing okay so far, even with the faulty card. And we were going to do it without you anyway."

Urmas nodded to confirm what Cara was saying.

Lexie glanced between them, then back at Pvilcyht. She could read disappointment emanating off him, if not necessarily sadness. Though he could probably understand their apprehension, he liked to work, and it was the only thing lately that gave him light. If he could not work, then…there was nothing he could do. 

“Maybe he could work on another card,” Tate suggested, sounding quietly reasonable. “Instead of working on the one Lexie gave you, he can make a new card. When he’s done, you can test it and choose to either use Lexie’s old card or whatever card he concocted.”

“Well, we don’t really have  a lot of time for a thorough test now, do we?” Cara said 

Tate met her gaze. “Lexie made you a card before. You trusted her then. What changes now?”

Cara opened her mouth and closed it. Lexie could tell that she was also bewildered by her extreme fear and animosity toward Pvilycht. Cara probably realized that she didn’t have a perfectly rational explanation for it, since Pvilycht hadn’t done anything to her yet; he was just standing there.

Yet she was frightened of him anyway.

Lexie figured it would take a lot longer than ten minutes to soothe their fears, and so she dematerialized Pvilycht with a sigh. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Pvilycht,” Boris said softly, and Pvilcht bowed as he disappeared. 

After he was gone, the room was silent for a few beats. Lexie held out her hand.

“I can try to work on the card quickly, but only for one of you,” she said. “So you should choose who I walk with.”

People moved around, some awkwardly scratching the back of their necks, because the atmosphere had turned slightly frosty.

Lexie's tone lacked the warmth it once had. Cara and Urmas shared another look, and the girl said, “Urmas, you should go. I think your situation is worse.”

“No, that’s fine, you can–”

“There’s like seven minutes left,” Shadow said, sheathing his swords. “You don’t have time to argue. One of you just do it."

Cara shook her head at Urmas, who ultimately accepted the offer.

“Alright. Thank you, Cara.” He materialized the card and handed it to Lexie. “Thank you, too, Lexie.”

Lexie nodded.

She sat on the couch to work, as sound and conversation slowly returned to the room. A few minutes with DECODE and Lexie figured out what was wrong with the card.

It would take her a few more minutes to adjust the pathways to allow for Cara’s increased power, and she needed to craft an additional card so that all the load wasn't just on one.

In the meantime, Tate took off to the library to do some research.

Lexie offered to teleport him there, but he only responded to her with a sour look that made her smirk.

The atmosphere was even more awkward after Tate left. Conrad and Boris tried to inject more levity in the group, but Lexie was quieter than when she came in, not standoffish, but certainly not as responsive to the jokes. 

Cara eventually came over while Lexie worked on the second card and asked, “Hey, are you mad at us?”

Lexie thought about it and shook her head. She was upset and disappointed, but she couldn't blame them. She'd probably been asking a lot from them to work against their own primal fears. That had to be hard.

She didn’t know how Cecilia had handled it, but then again, Cecilia had been in the dungeon and probably faced far more fearful things and situations. 

“I’m not mad,” Lexie said, offering them a small smile. 

“Are you sure?” 

She nodded. She was hurt but not mad. 

“Alright. I'm sorry about your...Pvilycht. It just looked so creepy, but that's not your fault."

"Yeah. I get it." Lexie wanted to end the conversation there.

"And just to let you know, we don’t believe the rumors that have been going around. We know it’s all bullshit.”

“Rumors?”

“Yeah, you know about you being possessed by Eldritch and getting powers from that.” Cara rolled her eyes like it was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. “Seriously, it’s like people have nothing better to do than to come up with outlandish stories.”

“Right. Outlandish.” Lexie worked as she spoke, crafting the pathways on the new card. “Just out of curiosity, how do you think I got my powers?”

Lexie felt more than saw Cara look over her head at the rest of the teammates in the room who were probably paying attention to their talk, despite holding conversations of their own.

“Well, everyone knew how much of a card nerd you were and how much you enjoyed making powerful magical cards. And dungeons have tons of mana stones, right? So you were in there for eight months with nothing else to do but craft and use mana stones you boost yourself.”

“And you think that’s how come I can teleport now?”

A flicker of doubt appeared on her face. “Isn’t it?”

Lexie stared at her, wondering what to say.

Luckily, they were interrupted by the door opening, and an usher led them to the team evaluation.

It was held in a large, luxury gymnasium with mats on the floor and mechs on the walls that controlled humanoid robots that each team would be fighting against to judge their skills as compared to the rest of the league.

Typically, team evals used to consist of teams facing each other in pre-preliminary matches, but Conrad explained that they'd recently instituted this system to save time and prevent injury.

Holograms floating at the side of the room were constantly running calculations, with the scientist in the booths above, overseeing and controlling everything. The robots would be adjusted in real time to match each candidate's skill level and would stop when they felt the candidate had been pushed to the brink, or when the candidate far outlasted every other person in the league.

Next to that, there was a leaderboard, showcasing the team's stats.

Torin's team was number one.

Of course, it was only their starting stats, not counting their level-ups, but their test today would be used to determine their rank as a team and who they would be matched against in the next tournament, which would start after the exhibition fights tomorrow.  

When Lexie walked, the ushers and security guards peered at her, but Conrad gave them winks, so they let her through.

There were a few stragglers from the previous team still in the gym, and they stopped their laughing conversation when they walked in, too.

Lexie ignored them and went to sit over at the bleachers while the rest began warming up.

She heard someone walking up to her, but she didn't look up until they patted her on the shoulder. 

“Hey," a girl she didn't recognize said, and held out a PHORB. “Do you mind if we take a picture together?”

“Uh, no.”

She cocked her head. "No, you don't mind, or no, you don't want to?"

Lexie didn't want to, but she also didn't mind. "Yes."

"Oh." The girl appeared confused for a second, then went with the answer she wanted most and said, "Great."

She sat by Lexie, raised the PHORB in the air, and snapped before Lexie could even adjust to the situation. 

The girl frowned as the image appeared on her system screen. “Oh. You were blinking in this one. Let’s take it one more time.”

Lexie allowed the girl to wrap her hand around her and take another picture.

“This one’s much better,” she said as she got up. “You’re so much cuter in person.”

“Thanks,” Lexie said, and the girl waved as she ran off. 

Conrad approached her. “Well, look who's still as popular as ever."

"It's just because of the dungeon. It'll die down."

"Not so sure about that," he says. "If you don't want your popularity to grow, you have to learn how to say no to those things. Or people will never leave you alone. Take it from me."

Lexie nodded distractedly. She was focusing on Urmas right now, seeing if the card would help him.

They started warming up the robots, which reminded her a bit of the ones in the gym back in Victoire.

Speaking of which, she should text Xena and Dewie. Xena, especially, would be happy to know where Lexie was. 

A picture would also be good, but she didn't have a PHORB. Neither did Conrad when she asked him.

The girl who'd asked for her picture was walking out of the gym, and Lexie rushed to approach her, startling some of her friends, too.

"Hey," she said. "Can I borrow your PHORB?”

“Sure." The girl beamed and handed it over.

Lexie took a picture of the field and handed it back to her. "Can you send it to my number? It's..." She rattled it off, and the girl seemed even more delighted to take it and send the photos.

"Of course!" she said, excitedly, and when it was done, Lexie sent the pictures to Xena as she returned to sit by Conrad.

"Did you actually just give her your number?" Conrad asked her, sounding stunned.

"Yeah," Lexie said. "Why?"

He sighed and shook his head. "You have so much to learn, but you know what? Sometimes, experience is the best teacher."

The team match started soon after. Urmas card worked perfectly well, better even than before, but Lexie immediately noticed Cara’s lack of balance.

She tried to compensate forit, but staying low to the ground also served as a problem, as it made her an easier target. She was faster and more skilled than before, technically, but not as fluid or stable.

Lexie could work on that after, so that while it would affect her evaluations, the card would at least be fixed for the match tomorrow.

After they were done, Lexie took Cara’s card to work on it. Cara seemed a little apprehensive about handing it over, but after Lexie assured her that Pvilycht wouldn't touch it, she did.

Lexie worked on it while the others went over their strategies and who they thought they would be paired up with for the beginning of the tournaments. 

They also talked about the rematch tomorrow and who they thought would win. Conrad, Urmas, and Boris had their money on Torin, but Shadow, Jan, and Lane were on Patriot. 

"You haven’t seen that kid, he’s insane," Jan said. "One of my cousins knows him in real life and swears he's clinical. And Torin has been off lately."

"Yeah, but Torin is still Torin," Boris said. "Patriot's not beating him."

Lexie didn't put her money one way or another, but she hoped Boris was right. 

***

Later, Lexie met up with Tate, and they started home.

While on the train, Tate pulled out a stack of books from his inventory, and Lexie asked, “How did you borrow so many?”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “Do you know that mist can make a pretty convincing clone of something?”

“Yeah, but then they have a technology keeping track of what goes in and out, don’t they?”

"Yeah, I’m also working on building technomage powers. Right now, it’s good enough that I can hack into pretty simple systems, but not the library yet.” He waved his hand, and the mirage of the books shimmered, dispersing before reforming again. “These aren't the real copies. They're only impressions of the things written in the book and who wrote them. I just formed them into books because it makes it easier to arrange them, and also because I like the way it looks."

“That’s cool.”

"Thanks." He cleared his throat. "So, your Eldritch cousin seems nice.” 

“Who Pvilycht? He is nice, I suppose. Although he didn’t start that way.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he started out trying to rip me from limb to limb.”

“And you two worked it out after?”

“Yeah. He’s mellowed out after I kicked his ass."

“I bet.” He grinned, turning one of the fake mist pages. “Look, they’ll come around.”

"You mean the team?"

"Yeah. This whole Eldritch stuff and your powers, it's new to them, but I'm sure with enough time, they'll warm up to it."

"They didn't even know Pvilycht was Eldritch, and they still didn't give him a chance," Lexie said. "What do you think they're going to do when they discover that I'm Eldritch too?"

Tate met her eyes. He didn't have an answer for her.

Lexie sighed and leaned her head back on the seat. She didn't have an answer either. Only that she felt the need to apologize to Pvilycht for some reason.

She did it once she got back home and went to her room. Her dad wasn't home yet, so she materialized Pvilycht in her bedroom.

"I'm sorry," she said when he appeared.

"For what?" he asked.

"For what happened earlier today. How my friends treated you. It wasn't right."

Pvilycht appeared confused.

"Okay," he allowed.

It wasn't good enough. Lexie felt like he didn't even understand how unfair what had happened was.

"They didn't give you a chance," she told him. "They judged you instantly, feared you without knowing you."

"Yes." Pvilcht nodded. "I am a thing to be feared."

Once upon a time, Lexie would have agreed with that statement and taken it as a token of pride.

Now, though, she thought it was the saddest thing she’d ever heard.

A knock on the front door interrupted their conversation.

Lexie sighed, dismissed Pvilycht, and started downstairs. Aiden appeared in the living room, from nowhere, startling her and beating her to the door.

He must have been in a pocket dimension again.

When Aiden pulled open the door, Lexie heard a familiar odious voice say, "Aiden Sparrowfoot. Do you invite us into your abode?"

"I don't think I have a choice, Ambassador. Is that a warrant you're showing me?"

"Yes."

Lexie reached the living room just as the Ambassador walked in.

"For you and your daughter to submit to a memory sweep."

Aiden nodded, not looking surprised at all. "Alright then. Let's go."

A few minutes later, they were in a lab at the hero headquarters, similar to the one Lexie had been in when she first came back to Earth.

The memory sweep was relatively straightforward. Lexie was plugged into a machine, and so was her father.

Looks like a hairdryer, she told him telepathically.

Just think of it as a father-daughter salon visit, Aiden said, winking at her and making her giggle.

It was nice to see him so relaxed about this.

The other people in the room–agents, scientists, Jerry, and Ambassador Raz-Ro-Nan–weren't so relaxed.

Lexie was then instructed to close her eyes and lean back as the machine was activated.

She felt something in her head, but she didn't panic. They'd been instructed that the memory sweep was limited only to the events in the Shatters.

It took a total of five minutes, tops, and after that, Lexie and Aiden were instructed to open their eyes.

"It seems the memories confirmed everything they said," Jerry told the Ambassador.

"It seems so." Lexie got the hint that the Ambassador was annoyed, as though he'd been tricked. "However, we will need further investigation."

"What does that mean?" Lexie asked.

Instead of answering, he stared down at Aiden, who was rising from his seat.

"Aiden Sparrowfoot," he announced. "I have a special warrant for a more extensive memory sweep, on Planet Fae."