Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 8) - Chapter 20 - I’m Going to Need Another Drink

“Bring me into the fold?” Adranial asked.

The tavern at the bottom of the Tower of Champion was silent. Xavier sat across from Adranial, the two of them inside their own personal time dilation field, not another soul in the place able to move. The candle on their table was the only one flickering, the rest were suspended in time.

Xavier, elbows on the table, leant forward, the wood creaking under his weight. “You were sent here to watch me. Befriend me. Make an ally of me. Now, I think it’s time to turn that around. The Old Man, when he sent you here, he pulled out so many of your memories for this, taking out parts of you that made you you. Parts you aren’t even aware of anymore.”

Adranial stared hard at him, her eyes narrowing. “Why are you talking about that?”

“Because it’s important.”

“I’m me. Exactly who I’ve always been. Losing those memories hasn’t changed anything about me.”

Xavier blinked. “And you know that for sure?”

She looked away. Swallowed. “It’s irrelevant. Can’t miss what you don’t know. The Old Man… He isn’t going to allow me to have my memories back. Not yet.”

“The old man doesn’t have to be the one to make that choice.”

Adranial sighed. “Yes. He does have to be the one. And you still haven’t explained what you’re asking of me, Xavier. What do you mean by bringing me into the fold? My true loyalty will always be with the Old Man.”

“Why? Because he’s your family? Or because that’s what you’re contracted to do?”

“Both,” Adranial said. “It’s because of both. And he didn’t force the contract on me. It was voluntary.”

“I’m sure it was,” Xavier muttered.

Adranial’s eyes widened. Something shifted within her and she shook, fists clenched. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Xavier. Be careful with the next words you spew out.”

Xavier swallowed. This wasn’t what he’d been wanting. As he looked at her, he realised it was the first time he’d seen the woman angry, and though he had nothing to fear from her he still felt it in his gut. He hadn’t intended to make her angry at all. He’d wanted to be honest with her. Speak freely. Tell her what was really on his mind, instead of hiding things from her like he had in the past.

He’d been gone from here for a very long time. In that time, he’d had an awful long while to think. Even if much of that time his thoughts had only been on the next target, the next Denizen to kill in order for justice to be fulfilled.

That was another part of the story he’d skipped as he’d told Adranial “everything.” Something had held him back from telling her, and he wasn’t sure what it was. He supposed he wondered how it would make her see him, but this woman had seen a lot in the Greater Universe. Far more than him, despite the fact that he was now much older than she was.

“I’m not trying to make you angry,” Xavier said.

“You don’t need to try,” Adranial snapped back. “Why are you talking about my memories? My loyalty?”

“I want you on my side. I want your loyalty—all of it. I’ve never been able to fully trust you as an agent of your ancestor, because I don’t trust him.”

Adranial leant back in her seat. The anger was still there. Fists clenched. Nostrils flared. Gaze hard. But when she spoke, the words were calm—coldly calm.

“That isn’t possible, Xavier. My loyalties lie with him. And whether you trust him or not isn’t important. I trust him. If this is what you meant by bring me into the fold, if you want to control me, well, that isn’t how this works.”

Xavier frowned. “Control you? What makes you think I’d want that?”

“What else would you mean when you say you want all my loyalty?”

The dragonkin let the woman’s words sink in. “Is that what you think loyalty is? Being controlled?”

Xavier’s words seemed to puncture the woman’s anger and she deflated slightly.

“What? No, that’s… that’s not what I meant.”

“It is, though. Is that how you feel? That you’re controlled by your ancestor?”

Adranial’s gaze flicked upward, then she looked off to the side, seeming suddenly smaller. “I’ve always done what’s expected of me. My entire life.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “But that’s what I want. I want to show my family I’m loyal. I want to make him proud.”

Xavier didn’t say anything for a long moment. He leant back in his chair and brought a cup of coffee to his lips, sipping it. Adranial, for perhaps the first time since he’d met her, seemed conflicted and lost in thought. The conversation, her anger, seemed to be revealing something to her. He didn’t want to interrupt what was going through her mind.

“It doesn’t matter,” Adranial whispered in a voice so small only the strength of his ears allowed him to hear it. “I can’t change any of it.”

“No,” Xavier said. “You can’t change any of it.” He bit his lip. “But I can.” His own gaze flicked up. When he’d entered the tavern, he’d checked and found he couldn’t feel the Old Man’s presence. As far as he could tell, Adranial’s ancestor wasn’t watching what was happening in here. Still, he wasn’t sure of how… wise all of this was.

“You said you were contracted to him.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “Well, I happen to have the ability to remove contracts.”

Adranial’s gaze flicked to Xavier, eyes wide once more—though this time there wasn’t a hint of anger in them. “You… You can remove contracts?”

“Yes.” Xavier explained to her how he’d removed someone’s contract already. How that was how he managed to spare someone’s life.

Adranial shook her head. “No. That’s impossible.”

“It’s not.” He tilted his chin up. “I promise you that.”

The young woman bit her lip. For the first time in their conversation, Xavier felt a little fear wafting off her. “Okay. Let’s say you’re telling me the truth.”

“I am telling you the truth.”

“Fine. Let’s go with that. If you can remove contracts, why hasn’t the System smote you dead where you stand? I can’t see how it would allow something like that to happen, do you?”

Xavier tilted his head to one side. “Well, actually, it almost did kill me. See, at one point it labelled me an anomaly…” He drummed his fingers on the wooden table. “Fortunately, it decided to assimilate my abilities into the System instead.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?”

Xavier nodded.

Adranial sunk back into her seat. “I’m going to need another drink.”

Xavier extended the time dilation field toward Sam again and let the man serve them. They were silent the entire time. Not even Sam said a word, as the tension was easily readable in the air around them. When the man returned to the bar, Xavier contracted the field back to just the two of them.

The young woman drank with a quiet determination for a little while, for the second time in their conversation she was stuck deep in thought. “You can remove contracts.”

“I can remove contracts,” Xavier confirmed.

“And that’s what you’re offering me? To remove my contract to my ancestor? To, what, free me from my loyalties so I can sign a contract with you?”

Xavier raised his hand and turned it from side to side. “Yes and no. I’m offering you a clean slate. I can remove your contracts with no obligation to me at all, if you wish. “

Adranial blinked. “Really? No strings attached?”

“Not a single one.”

“And you’d do this, what, out of the goodness of your heart?” She sighed. “Yes, actually, that does sound like something you would do.” Adranial took a long sip from her drink. “Do you know the significance of what you can do? If people figure it out, they’re going to—”

“Hunt me down and try to pry the secret out of my head? I think they’re going to do that for a lot of other things I’ve already told you about.” He shrugged. “This doesn’t change the danger.”

“You’re wrong. This changes everything. The Greater Universe is held together by the contracts that bind the sectors under their rulers, if you come in and just… unpick all of that—the consequences will be unimaginable. You’ve just become a very dangerous man to leave alive for just about every Denizen around.”

Xavier inclined his head. He’d thought the same, more than once. “Even your ancestor?”

Adranial sipped her drink, taking her time with it. “Honestly, I don’t know. But breaking my contract with him doesn’t sound as though it would endear you with the man.”

“I don’t care about that. I’m not trying to endear myself with anyone.”

“Well, you should care about it.”

Xavier leant back in his chair. The wood creaked. “Maybe. But I can’t make all my decisions around what others might do to me. Besides, I have it on good authority that your ancestor wants me very much alive.” He paused. “At least, he did last time I checked.”

“That doesn’t mean you should push it.” Adranial shut her eyes and released a long sigh. “You don’t know what you’re asking of me, Xavier Collins.”

“You’re not obligated to do anything. I just want you to know the option is there.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “What other things aren’t you telling me?”

He smiled. “Oh, a thing or two.” He raised his index finger and made a circular motion, taking in the Tower of Champions. “Something very important is about to change in the tower. The System… asked me to make a decision.”

“Let me guess, you’ll only tell me if I decide to allow you to break my contracts?”

“Again, I’m offering to do this without any strings. And what’s about to happen to the tower, well, that’s something you’ll find out very soon without me needing to tell you. I didn’t receive a notification when I entered, but I imagine everyone will get one the next time they’re in their Staging Room.”

“What the hell are you talking about? What kind of change could the System have made? And why would you know about it before anyone else?”

Xavier bit his lip. “Well… It sort of made me decide.”

Her eyes widened. He’d lost count of the number of times she’d looked at him with shock. “You spoke with the System?”

“I spoke to the Voice of the System. For the second time, actually.”

She sunk back into her chair, lost for words. “Xavier, Xavier, Xavier. Did I mention that you’re insane?”

“Yeah, we covered that part.”

“What, exactly, did the System have you choose?”

“You’ve not going to ask for a truth contract? To ensure I’m not lying?”

“You told me already you wouldn’t lie to me. Besides, if you’re telling the truth I’ll find out pretty soon.”

Xavier told her. The look on her face was unlike anything previously. It was a mixture of shock, awe, fear, and ambition.

Because of the options the System had allowed Xavier to choose from, now every single Champion in the tower would be able to decide which floor they would go to—regardless of their level, regardless of if it was their first time in the tower or they’d cleared every single floor already.

The Champions had been given the freedom to choose, because Xavier wanted it for himself.

“A lot of people are going to die,” Adranial breathed. She looked at him. “You still can’t get information on these floors before entering them, can you?”

Xavier nodded. “The System doesn’t seem to think that would be a good idea. It seems to like keeping me on my toes.”

“Well, maybe it’s right, considering how far it’s gotten you so far.” She sat with the revelation for a little while before looking at him again. “So, anything else you want to tell me, hmm?”

There were things he hadn’t said—like the fact that he had a dead Wanderer in his head, or that he one day wished to overthrow the System—but they were things he would continue to keep to himself. He remembered the words that had been scrawled in the sky when he’d been in the Roving Seed Base with his found family.

The System is Watching

A warning he was sure to heed.

“No,” Xavier said. “Nothing more.”

Adranial narrowed her eyes further but didn’t question him anymore.

“So, what are you going to do?” Xavier asked.

“You mean, am I ready to renounce my contract, my loyalty, to my family?” she spat back.

The dragonkin gave a slow nod. “Yes. That is what I mean.”

Adranial sighed. She looked down into her drink but didn’t sip from it. “Those memories. You would give them back to me afterward?”

“If you wanted me to.”

“I might not be able to remain a Champion of Earth if you do.” She played with the sleeve of her robe. “I don’t know how they’ll change me.”

“You’ll still be exactly who you are, you’ll just remember more of who you’ve been. As for you no longer being a Champion of Earth? If that is what happens, then that is what happens. This is not the only place that we will be able to speak.”

“Why do you want my loyalty? I’m nowhere near as powerful as you are. I’m no longer even as powerful as your old party and some of their children. You’ve created monsters. A lot of them.” She tilted her head to one side. “Is that what you want to do with me, Xavier Collins? Create another monster?”

“Well, I thought that went without saying. Why do you think I told you about everything I could do? These abilities of mine… I’m not going to hide them away. I’m going to spread them through the entire Greater Universe. I’m not the only one who deserves them. Not the only one who needs them.”

“You really think you’ll be able to do it, don’t you? Unite the universe?”

Xavier had told her of his goal as he’d told her the story of where he’d been since last they’d spoken. It explained, after all, why he wanted to rule the Ventorin sector in the first place. It was one thing to take out The Collector; it was another thing to wear his mantle.

“If I didn’t believe I could do it I wouldn’t try.”

“I still don’t understand why you want me.”

“There’s something about you, Adranial. I hate what you did to my friend. To Howard. The way you treated him, the way you manipulated him—but I understand it. I think I understand a fair bit about you. I know that at your core, you want to save the universe from destruction. Isn’t that why you’re here?”

“I’m here because I was ordered to be here, and because I happened to be the right level to come to your world.”

Xavier’s forehead creased. “Yes. That’s why you were sent here.” He tapped the table. “But why you’re sitting here with me, still listening after I’ve asked you to renounce your ancestor? I saw the doubt in your eyes when I told you I could erase the contract. I don’t think that doubt was merely about my ability to do it. There’s a part of you that wants this, isn’t there? A part of you that chafes at the chains the contract put around you. That chafes at the fact that you can never make your own decisions.”

“Who doesn’t want to be free?” Adranial replied a little too swiftly. “There’s another reason you’re offering this to me. Tell me.”

Xavier thought on her words for a moment. “I think I can make you into a true ally. You’re driven, and the information you have is very valuable.”

The young woman stared at him for a bit after those words, then a look of disappointment seemed to slip onto her face, disappearing as fast as it had come. “This is a practical decision, then.”

Xavier had thought it was, but then, maybe he was fooling himself. In a way, she was right. He didn’t exactly need her. And freeing her from her contract to the Old Man? Well, that was a dangerous thing. There was every chance it could place a rift between him and Adranial’s ancestor—it would certainly place a rift between her and the Old Man, if she were to renounce her loyalties to her family.

So, why was he really doing this? Was it truly just because he thought she would be a good ally? Thought she would be valuable? And had he really avoided her much of the time because she was a spy?

Or was there another reason lurking beneath the surface?

He could have left it at that. Adranial was silent, no longer asking him any more questions, no longer prodding him for another reason. Even so, Xavier cleared his throat, opened his mouth, and tried to find the right words.

After all he’d done, all he’d been through, and all the years he’d aged within his time dilation fields, speaking to this woman in this way should be easier than it was.

“There’s something about you, Adranial. You come to my mind at the strangest of times. Despite all you’ve done, all I know you to be, and the places we disagree… there’s a part of me that has always wanted to trust you.” He opened his hands. “That’s why I told you as much as I did. I could have made the story a short one, the offer simple, concise.”

Adranial’s expression softened. “Well, now I definitely know you’re telling the truth.” She gave a small smile. It was different to any of the smiles she’d given him in the past. There was an almost shy quality to it. A quality he would never have attributed to Adranial before now. The smile fell from her face after a moment, however. “Is this a decision I can even make without my memories?” she wondered aloud. “If I allow you to break my contract, then regain my memories… What if I regret it? What if my family never forgive me for it?”

“If they truly care about you, they will understand,” Xavier replied. “A contract should not be needed for true loyalty, and certainly not between family.”

“That sounds so naive,” Adranial said. “You’ve always sounded so naive. So idealistic. A trait that I should have hated in you. I thought it would leave you, soon enough, once you stepped into the Greater Universe. Once you experienced what things are really like. Yet here you are, still hanging onto it, despite everything.”

“I’m not naive.” Xavier’s words sounded harder than he’d intended. He shut his eyes. Faces flashed through his mind. One after the other. The people he’d killed. The people he’d brought to justice. He didn’t see every face. He would have had to sit there with his eyes closed for an unimaginably long time to see them all. When he opened his eyes, he looked at the woman across from him with a serious expression. “There’s something you need to see.”

He touched a hand to his forehead and pulled out a whisp of energy that formed into a glowing ball. A memory. Something Roln had shown him how to do, though when he’d done it, it had simply been a visual metaphor—something only Xavier could see.

But it was a skill he’d ended up learning anyway. It was how he’d rained memories down onto all the different planets back in the Ventorin sector and shown them what he’d done to The Collector.

Adranial stared at the glowing ball and seemed to instantly know what it was. “What memory is this, Xavier?”

“One that will take you a long time to view, though I’d recommend you only watch it for a few moments.”

Adranial frowned, hesitated. But her curiosity got the better of her. She leant forward and placed a hand on the glowing ball. Her eyes turned upward, showing the whites, then fluttered closed. They rapidly moved behind her eyelids as she experienced the memory.

“So many…” Adranial breathed.

A long while passed before she drew her hand away from the glowing ball and opened her eyes to stare at Xavier. “You didn’t tell me about this. Why?”

Xavier sighed. Ran a hand through his hair. He looked down at the table instead of into Adranial’s eyes. “Because I didn’t know how it would change how you saw me, though I knew it wasn’t exactly something I could hide.”

“Are you ashamed of what you did?”

He shook his head instantly. “No. I did what needed to be done.” He gritted his teeth. “I’d do it again.”

Adranial tilted her head to one side, looking at him closely. Her shock at what she’d seen—at all they’d talked about since he’d sat down across from her—was no longer evident on her face. Instead, she had an expression he’d never seen her wear before. One of care. “Doing all that must have been hard.”

Xavier shut his eyes. He wanted to say that it was hard. And there were parts that were difficult. The conflicted thoughts and voices warring in his mind. The memories it left him with. But even with all of that going on, he hadn’t actually truly doubted any of his actions. He’d chosen the path, and he’d intended to walk it until the end.

And that’s exactly what he’d done.

“It wasn’t hard,” Xavier breathed.

Adranial leant in. She reached over the table and touched her hand to his. “That’s what you’re struggling with, isn’t it? That you were able to do all that in the first place.”

He flashed his gaze to her. “Everyone calls me naive. Idealistic. Perhaps I suffer from the latter, but I am not the former. I have done, and will do, whatever I need to achieve my goals.” The look he gave her wasn’t a kind one. It was cold. Hard. Like a stone left out in the snow. He didn’t pull his hand from hers, however.

Adranial didn’t pull away at his words. She did something else unexpected. She smiled. The warmth of her smile filled the coldness that had just flooded him, thawing his entire body in a moment. “I know. That’s why I believe in you.”

Xavier blinked. “You do?”

“When your cores were shattered… I have to say I was more than a little shocked. Disheartened.” She cocked her head. “But I didn’t truly expect you to fail. It was illogical, the thoughts that ran through my mind. Illogical to think that you would be able to come back from something like that.” Her warm smiled brightened, a spark entering her eyes. “But look at you now. Look at how far you’ve come in such a short time. You bounced back, and you bounced back stronger than I could have imagined.”

Xavier stared into her eyes, that spark such a strange thing to see in them. “What are you saying?”

Adranial gripped his hand. “That I want you to do it. I want you to break my contracts.”