King Umbra, the Prince of Darkness, Victor DiVinci, the Shadow Man - those were the names of this man’s boss. Umbra was a magic user and the head of some major crime syndicates, from what I could glean from his messenger’s memories. They say “don’t shoot the messenger.” Well, shooting gave me far more information than I could have ever convinced him to part with on his own, more information than he even knew that he had. I mean, tattooing the source code of a super-soldier-slash-loyalty spell on the surface of their their soul was just begging someone to come and steal it, along with all of their memories too boot. Someone like me, for instance.

Even a quick glance told me that his spell work, while ingenious in its own right, revealed that it was woefully out of date. Countless hours of studying each night lead me to spot some weaknesses that I could exploit at a later date, if I chose to do so. So, in an effort to save a record for later examination, I extracted the man’s soul and placed it into an emerald. Then, I ate my lunch: his body. No need to keep a prisoner or a corpse when a jewel is enough.

<<Chang.lng, activate. Transcribe this,>> I ordered the digital changeling. I channeled my magic into the soul gem in my hand, feeling out the foreign magic while reading it with my eyes at the same time. While the living program works, I contacted Chrysalis. [Hey, Chrysie, I have a question for you. Who are the strongest dark magic users you know of that could be alive today? I’m looking for one with black, smoke-like hair and a red horn. Ring any bells?]

[Dark magic users are a rare thing these days. I have not seen or felt dark magic in over two hundred years since the Equestrians banned the practice. It was one of the most effectively stamped practices ever. The unicorn you described was the tyrant of the Crystal Empire named King Sombra, who disappeared with his kingdom after being defeated by the celestial sisters a thousand years ago. His reign marked the worst love famine my changelings ever suffered from. Crystal ponies use empathic magic as a defense mechanism. When they are happy, the mood of the entire planet improves. When they are oppressed by a tyrant like Sombra...] she replied, letting the unsaid implications hang.

I replied, [Ouch. But there is a problem with that. I was describing a human, a Gatekeeper like us. Apparently, reports of Sombra’s demise were greatly exaggerated.]

Chrysalis hissed, both aloud and over our connection. [Then you must take extreme precautions. Dark magic draws upon hatred, anger, and fear for fuel. You can imagine what that would do to a changeling if he or she is struck. Dark magic is one of the few things that can permanently scar a changeling beyond his or her power to heal. Sombra himself is no laughing matter, either. The royal sisters claim that they turned him to shadow when they defeated him. That is a mistake; it is more accurate to say they returned his pony form to shadow, for at one point during his reign, Sombra became a living shadow of the unicorn he once was, and far more dangerous for it.]

[Thanks for the warning. I’ll be careful, but my problem literally just declared that he was going to march up to my doorstep. Wish me luck...] I sighed and resumed my focus on the project at hand. Meanwhile, another part of me debated what to do to confront this sudden intrusion. A third part of me commanded the Silencers to start investigating this man and the companies of which his messenger knew.

An hour later, I had a two hundred page .pdf document containing the complex magical formula, yet too little information on Umbra for my liking.

‘It’s time,’ I thought as I felt the magically fueled rage enter our territory. I set down the last portions of the messenger’s corpse and sighed. The prince of shadows was figuratively knocking on my door and I felt ill prepared to deal with it. ‘How do you deal with a sentient poison cloud that can actively fight back?’ I hoped my preparations would be enough. Two dozen clones of the digital changeling scouring the internet, a team of Silencers, and the combined memories of every single changeling in my hive gave many leads, but few answers. I processed information as fast as I could and prayed it would be enough, but sorely doubted it.

A limo pulled up in front of the Beehives. The man who stepped out was a giant by human standards, seven-foot-one, if I measured correctly, but shorter than what his messenger’s memories portrayed him. Perhaps the messenger viewed this bag of anger-made-flesh as larger than life? It did not matter. He was a threat, nothing more.

“I’ve come to see King Alvarium Rex,” he said loudly while looking at my changelings peeking out at him. Many of us drew guns from the hammerspace armory - damn I love that thing - and aimed it at him, the woman standing next to him, and the four bodyguards surrounding him.

I stepped outside to confront him. Greed and Wrath accompanied me, while my other five Praetorian Guards cast Notice-Me-Not spells on themselves and aim their weapons from the windows and rooftop. Annoyed, I growled, “Hello, Prince of Shadows.”

The man nodded to me in acknowledgement of the title, smirking a little, knowing his reputation has preceded him. “It seems that you are just as resourceful as I had taken you for. If there is no need for introductions then come along, we have much to discuss.” He stands to the side and motions to the door of his car.

Eyeing him carefully, I felt hesitant to trust him. He smirked a bit wider as he said, “You may bring your guardians along if you wish.” The Prince of Shadows stepped into his large limo, leaving the door open behind him. He sat next to his unnaturally beautiful assistant, while his guards sat on either side of the two of them.

I narrowed my eyes, which flashed vibrant green through my otherwise human guise. “You are a Gatekeeper,” I stated. It was not a question.

The loose-fitting shimmer fabric suit I was wearing darkened. Spikes sprouted along my shoulders, joints, and spine in response to my falling mood. I silently signaled to my guards, most of whom are hidden, to aim their weapons as I drew my own gun. Even the non-combatants in the Beehive readied themselves for a fight. Eighteen guns from Eighteen windows pointed themselves at Victor, with more ‘lings inside cradling their weapons. “Tell me, how do you know me?” I asked. “I’ve ever only told my name to one human. She and her group are all dead now. Why should I not kill you now that you so brazenly waltz into my territory while shouting my name for the world to hear?”

Victor laughed loudly in a surprisingly warm tone, though the emotions within are anything but jovial. His hand reached up and plucked off his sunglasses, revealing his crimson eyes. He chuckled, “Ha, ha, my boy I thought that was obvious enough.” His smile widened, accenting his inhumanly sharp teeth. “I know you because I made it my business to know you. The anti-changeling movement is dead because they made some stupid mistakes, something I have no intention of doing. As for killing me, well,” Victor smiled maliciously and gestured to his own pointed canine teeth. For a split second, his barely contained rage surged violently, causing his magic to flare up in tandem in that brief moment, I could feel the acrid emotion eating at my skin while the force of gravity seemed to double. “You can try if you like,” he replied. “But you won’t. You’re smarter than that. Besides, you don’t even know why I’m here yet.”

”Does it really matter?” I asked. My eyes shone brighter in response to my aggression. The already high levels of adrenaline in my blood surged even higher. “You are here, and not on my terms. You know my secrets. And that little gravity stunt makes the wrong impression of your motives. You are a threat, plain and simple.”

Victor shook his finger at me as if I was an unruly child to be scolded. “Ah, ah, ah, that is where you are mistaken. I am only a threat if you make one of me, and I trust that is not something you have any intention of doing. Besides, I am here to be an asset. As a gesture of good faith...” he turned to his assistant, “Rosaline, would you be so kind, dear?”

She answered in a melodious voice, “Yes, Your Highness.” Rosaline and the cursed guards joined hands and activated their emotion magic, filling the car with a thick fog of love. It briefly spilled out into the street before being vacuumed up by our passive feeding. I thought the love behaved oddly, sinking like fog rather than rising normally like smoke. And though it tasted good initially, there was a strange aftertaste left on my tongue when the surge ended.

“I assure you my intentions are most pure,” the living shadow declared, honestly believing his own words. “Do not make animosity where there need be none, and we will get along just fine, much to our mutual benefit,” he said, grinning all the while. “Now, are you coming, or should be discuss international politics out in the open?”

I relaxed ever so slightly along with my new guard members, both hidden and visible. “Fine. But remember this: hostility and lies have peculiar odors. I smell them, I’m out.” I holstered my firearm and walked back towards the Beehive. “You drive; I’ll fly,” I called out to the foul presence out in the street. “Forgive me if I don’t trust you enough to get in the same car as you, dark one.”

Victor only smiled even wider at my lack of trust. A twinge of respect blossomed forth in his emotions. “Very well,” he said. With a wave of a hand, the car door shut and the sun-roof opened. “Follow me. I know of some neutral ground not far from here,”

My new guards and I obscured ourselves with a strong notice-me-not spell. I took some satisfaction in watching Victor’s eyes glaze over momentarily as he lost sight of us. His chauffeur started driving, visibly heading for Atlanta’s industrial district, while my Praetorians and I shifted out our wings and flew off. For half an hour, we followed Victor’s car from above before arriving at an empty warehouse terrifyingly near the cocoon storage location. I stretched my senses for magical traps - which would stand out in Earth’s low-magic environment - and hostile presences, of which there were several. ‘Assassins, or bodyguards,’ I thought. The problem was that I could not see them, but their emotions gave their locations away. We landed, hid our wings, and I alone dispelled the magic hiding myself from perception, happy to keep my guards unnoticeable.

Looking around, I asked the darkness personified, “Why have you chosen this place?”

Victor smiled enigmatically and said, “I figured talks might go a little more smoothly around here.” With a wave of his hand and a pulse of dark magic, he opens the massive door to the warehouse. The hinges, rusted by the elements, were silenced by his power. “Let’s go inside, and we can begin.”

Victor stepped in first, turning his back to me. In any other case, he would have been idiotic to do so; however, I knew who was in charge in this game and it was not I. He walked in along side his guard while positioning himself defensively behind Rosaline.

Once inside, with his palm facing upwards, Umbra thrust his claws towards the ground. With an upwards heaving motion of his arms, two black crystal thrones - one noticeably more ornate than the other - violently emerged from the concrete flooring. The shadow man sat down on the fancier of the two and motioned towards the other for me to sit. I looked at the chair warily before pulling out a bottle of water from the hammerspace behind my back. “I’d rather not touch it,” I explained, though not for the question I know he was silently asking. After dropping my disguise first, I took a large mouthful of water and sprayed it into the air. The mist, imbued with my magic, condensed into a small, solid cloud, where I promptly sat.

Umbra then slammed his left hand on the arm of his throne, which caused a miniature wall of crystal to from halfway between his throne and my cloud chair. Dragging his left hand across, the small wall extended to the right and become a dark, crystalline table between us. He slammed his right hand on the arm of the throne, causing several crystal stools rise up out of the ground. His crystal guards sat down on them. Meanwhile, Greed and Pride stood silently behind my back, still shrouded in mind-altering magic.

With a brave face, I asked, “Now, what’s so important that you had to interrupt my lunch?”

At my mention of midday meal, Victor’s smile fell. “Yes... I do hope you’re willing to reimburse me for his life insurance, at the very least. Good employees are so hard to find these days.” His flippant disregard for the value of his workers’ lives struck a nerve with me. For three years, I had been living in intimate proximity with my changelings, loving them like my own children, caring for them like my own body. Someone who had no love for their subordinates would get no respect from me.

After a moment of silence, the crime lord shook his head and continued. “No matter, on to business. As I’m sure you’ve surmised by this point, I’ve had my eye on you for a long while now, and I thought it time we finally met, King of the Earth Hive.” He paused a moment to observe our reactions before continuing. While my anger grew, my guards looked upon him much like a man would see a wild, rabid beast, and not a human. “We are a lot alike, you and I, and in more ways than just the obvious,” he commented, gesturing vaguely towards his eyes. “We’re both Kings without a Kingdom, lost amidst the sea of humanity, despite having left such trappings behind long ago. The world goes on around us, blissfully unaware of just what happens all around them, just beneath the surface of their petty, ephemeral little lives.” Victor snorted in derision and rolled his eyes. His arrogance was thick in the air, making it annoyingly hard to breathe.

“It won’t last forever. Things have changed, and changed drastically, you and I are living proof of that. This whole world is changing around us, and we are the instruments of its evolution. Things are rapidly moving to a new world order, and I fully intend to be at the top.” The man’s eyes flashed, his gaze boring into my own. “And I want you there with me. It gets lonely at the top, and you have more than proven yourself capable to lead, whether it be a hive or humanity. That’s why I have come here today, that’s why I have sought you out. I came to make an offer of allegiance, fully and completely. I have waited as long as I could, but things move apace, and the walls are closing in. I know you have felt it too, Keeper of Chrysalis, and neither of us will be enough on our own. Let us join together, and become so much more than we would be apart.”

“I know there are more to your motives than just that.” I scoffed, “You are a snake, I can smell it. I know of your partner’s tyranny; my partner lived it personally. Oh, don’t be so surprised,” I commented, reading his emotions even though Victor’s face never betrayed his surprise. “Changeling royalty is very long lived and very hard to kill.” I shook my head. “Back to the topic at hand, if I were anyone else, I would be split between admiring your courage or criticizing your stupidity for coming into my nest. But I’m not anyone else, and you are an intruder into my kingdom. Yet here I am, listening to you spout hot air and empty words.

“You talk of an alliance; what do you have that I cannot obtain on my own? You talk of being on top; why would I ever want to be there when I can infest the foundations of society, rotting it from the bottom up, making the world dependent on my control? And you talk of the walls closing in. What ever do you mean? I have eyes and ears in both worlds and I only see the boundless horizon. Things are moving, yes, but when have they never not been?”

The man on the throne in front of me frowned a bit at my response. “Perhaps I overestimated you. I thought you at least of all people would know that we are not our partners.”

I mentally expanded his comment with, ‘...but we are influenced by them.’

Oblivious to my musing, Victor continued speaking without pause, “The Darkness changed, long ago. Being trapped in a prison of ice for a thousand years tends to do that. Thankfully, after many long nights, he and I were finally able to see eye to eye.” At this, the corners of Victor’s eyebrows turned downward in a slightly angrier expression. “I’ve never had much love for tyrants and dictators and I’ll have no such thing ever bound to me if I can help it.”

The man closed his eyes for a brief moment and sighs. When he opened them again, his glare is sharp, boring directly into me. “And you are fooling no-one but yourself. You know it’s coming.” He paused, taking a large sniff of the air. “I can smell its stench all over you.” His eyes hold the glare for several moments. He lets out muffled sigh, relaxing a little.

I took a moment to review his words and emotional patterns. I did not know if what I found was a good thing or a bad thing.“You didn’t lie,” I replied, “meaning you believe your own words to be true. Whether or not you actually act on those beliefs remains to be seen.” The worst kind of monster is the one who believes himself to be doing right; arrogance at its worst. From what I can tell, this man has villain potential in excess.

More out of unconscious habit than anything else, I channeled magic into my eyes to look at the intruder’s soul. Unlike the brilliant light of a normal human, that soul’s core was surrounded by not-black flames, which were not even really flames to begin with. It reminded me much of the void of the transition between life and death. Had I not spent time observing my own soul, several orders of magnitude more illogical in from, I swore I would have been driven mad by the sight.

I massaged three fingers against the my temples. “Forgive my blindness to my own stench. I cannot smell much over the odor of your anger and the distinct lack of the vast majority of your soul. Correct me if I am wrong, but I doubt that spells impending doom. Unless, of course, there is something that you are not telling me?” I rub my thick, spiky, blue-green hair and glanced over at Rosaline, whose soul was marked with a similar, but more advanced, version of the “crystal curse,” as the messenger called it. The act of rubbing my hair disguises the stealth casting of a photographic memory spell upon myself. <<Change.lng, transcribe her soul runes.>>

The Shadow Prince was silent for a moment, his strong poker face doing little to hide his vague and honest surprise from my senses. “You really don’t know, do you?” he asked, his composure breaking slightly while his posture slumped and voice took on both a sad, wistful quality. He sighed deeply. “Be glad in your ignorance then, I wish I did not know what I know now.”

For a moment, his physical form blurred. The edges of his form became wavering and indistinct, as if he was partially reverting to his true form, a smoky shadow. The temperature of the room dropped several degrees, though it provided little relief to the burn his ever-present anger. When he spoke next, his voice had changed slightly, taking on an ethereal echoing quality that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once. “I know what I know because I must. It is my burden to bear, and I will foster it on no-one else. I hear its call, deep within the whispers of the Void. Live well, King of the Earth Hive, Keeper of the Gate, for when the time comes, we will all have a role to play.”

Just fast as it had come, the moment had passed; the dark Gatekeeper slumped in his chair, slightly more weary than before, with a vague hint of exhaustion around his eyes. “It is no matter, I suppose. For now, let us deal with the more immediately pressing matters.”

“You aren’t going to remain anonymous much longer. Already they talk of you in Equestria. The Gryphons sharpen their claws in fear of the images your name invokes. I myself can feel the troubles of this world closing in. You’ll find I am not one for wasted words.” The shadowy man’s lips curl into a razor-thin smile. “If you really feel that you would have nothing to gain from our partnership, how about I offer you the one thing you will always desire. Love unending.”

It’s too good to be true, I knew it in my soul. The Crystal Empire is a land of endless bounty, a paradise for the changelings. I do not want this man anywhere near it, for his touch corrupts. Even know, my changelings feed me information on this man through the link, and it does not bode well.

As he spoke his promise, Victor reached out and began using his hands and magic to mold the surface of the crystal table as if it were wet clay, quickly forming it into an unnaturally precise replica of the Crystal Empire. “In a few months time, far from here, in the frozen north, my kingdom shall at last appear in this world.”

‘This world?’ I wondered.

“It will be a place of glorious majesty, unrivaled beauty and love enough to coat the very air we breathe.” He threw his hands up in a grandiose manner, then clenched his fist before his face. “When it comes, I will seize my throne, and from my seat atop the world I shall do all within my power to see the earth itself united under a single banner, our banner, the banner of the Gatekeepers.”

He fell silent for a moment, a grin adorning his face as he briefly reveled in his thoughts of what was to come. Slowly, his smile fell, and so too did his greed-driven elation. “But I can’t do it alone. The Equestrians will oppose me, as they had with my counterpart those many years ago. I doubt the leaders of earth shall stand idly by either. For them, I will need to be ready.”

Now, Victor looked up from his molded model of the Empire and looked me in the eyes. “The point I’m trying to make is simply this: I need you, and whether you know it or not yet, you need me. As I said, I’d like to make an allegiance between our two empires. For the moment, a mutual partnership between Greenfyre and SpyreShades.”

He leaned back into his throne, crossed his legs and intertwined his fingers. “For now lets start small. Perhaps a trade agreement? I sure you have something you’d be willing to part with... some gems perhaps? In return, I will be rather generous, and offer you a small Caribbean Island, on which to found Greenfyre inc’s corporate headquarters in international waters, free from Man’s laws and away from prying eyes.” The Shadow Prince stays silent for a moment as I mull over his proposal. Raising an eyebrow, Victor asked me, “Do we have a deal?”

Though still conflicted with other emotions running in parallel trains of thought, I smiles genuinely for the first time since the conversation began. “Perhaps. Or perhaps not. It seems that you do not know me as well as you think you do. I still have my secrets. I do not need an island of my own; I have more than enough personal space,” I said, putting an emphasis on the last words in reference to my megacity-sized hammerspace; I have actually contemplated building a city within the folded area of space-time, since living things can survive within.

“If you want my gems,” I continue unabated, “buy them on the market like everyone else. That said, I’m not completely unwilling to trade. I know that SpyreShades deals with drugs. I’ve bought and sold to them before through some of my own underground workers.” Many of said workers had been added during the expansion of just last month. “I also know that my venom is one hell of a drug after you process it a bit. Will you buy?”

Then, thinking of my magitech, I added, “Of course, I have other things that are about to hit the market after the patents go through. Your paramilitary should love them. And I want hard cash, nothing traceable.”

I paused for a moment, contemplating something from earlier in the conversation. “When you first mentioned your messenger, you did not seem to have much of a reaction to his apparent demise. Yes, I never said that I had killed him, nor was it him that I was feeding upon.” Lie by implication, one of my favorite techniques. “He is very much alive.”

Victor’s poker-face never faltered, but his emotions suggested that he did not believe my half truth. I shrugged. “I’m getting off topic. My point is I feel that, would you be willing, I offer my hive as stress relief for your employees. Or, if you need someone gone for good or their loyalties swayed, well, I’m always looking for a good snack. Is that agreeable, crime lord Victor DiVinci?”

His poker-face remained intact at the intentional offhanded mention of his name. The wall behind him frosted over with a thin layer of gem and crystal. “It’s not the gems I need, but your willingness to trade. Don’t bother offering to make someone disappear either, I have many ways of taking care of my own.” Victor snorted softly, his lips falling a little. “As for my messenger, don’t even bother trying. I knew it the moment you touched him. He is lost to me now. I thought that might be a possibility; that’s why I sent a disposable prototype of one of my early Crystal Cursed. You can keep whatever you gleaned from him; consider it a gift.” The crime lord’s face shifted to a more neutral state. “But if you are still willing to trade in small amounts, then it is a start, I suppose. I will buy this venom of yours. Will there be anything else, William?”

Contrary to what Victor suspected would happen, I smiled widely. “You’re too damn all-knowing for your own good. It’s like changeling chess, where both sides know way too much about the other. So the question is, do you see too much to get the big picture? Who knows?” I rocked back and forth on my cloud chair. Victor smirked ever so slightly at my reaction to my own birth name. Does he know that I never use that face anymore? It is like a collectible for me; I do not want it tarnished by chance.

“As for your so-called ‘prototype,’ it’s genius, if a bit outdated.” I point my finger at him playfully. “I have you pegged, you know. That’s far too polished to be anything but a nearly finished product. The thing is, you’re missing nearly a thousand years of magical development. Your work is flawless... for the relative time it was created. Actually, I think Celestia wrote an unpublished manuscript on the relevant theory about sixty years ago. I only happened to stumble upon it by accident due to a quirk of a spell of my own invention,” I mused. “Though it’s unlikely that you will ever see that information. Ah well...

“But seriously, I know you have ways of ending your enemies’ lives; however, I see a good meal there, or a potential replacement target. I have nothing against helping and trading with your company, for the right price - people included. Mmmm, yes, we’ll trade. Your card, please? For later, you see.” I held out my hand expectantly. “I assume that you do not wish to fly out here every time we need to talk. If we keep this relationship strictly business for now - and you keep that nasty temper I smell on you under control - well, we’ll see where this goes.” I drew two business cards from hammerspace and slid them across the table to Victor. Similarly, he passed one back. “Elizabeth Grace and Michael Brook. She is the head of Greenfyre’s sales department, he is just an average joe. I personally quite like wearing those two; they have very nice voices. Give them a call.”

He nodded at me. “I find that knowledge is power, and power is something I greatly desire.” His expression fell a bit. “As for the big picture...” His eyes flashed with magical power. “I see more than I ever wanted to.” He was silent for a brief moment before shaking his head. “Anyways, it seems we’ve reached an agreement for now. If you want me to connect you to my Human Resources Department however, you’re going to need to offer me more than simple illicit substances.” I picked up his card as he explained, “Here is the contact information for my Atlanta Regional Manager. If you ever want to talk business, you can get to me through him.

“But... if you ever find yourself in a tight spot, and are in dire need of assistance, then use this.” The living shadow reached his arm out and clawed against the air, as if he was dragging his crimson nails across the surface of a wall. His talons left a trail of vaporous shadows in their wake, creating a small rent of darkness in the space beside his temporary throne. His arm stretched out and sank through the rift, disappearing up to the elbow even though his hand never came out the other side. When he pulled his arm back, he held a crystal just small enough to fit in a fist. Its shimmered with a mass of swirling colors: black, acid green, purple and bright pink. Love and Hate, both in abundance and in exactly equal proportions, seemingly saturated the jewel. The surface of the crystal itself was etched with all manner of strange runes, many used uniquely for the summoning branch of space-time magic. His shadowy storage reminded me of my own hammerspace, though much flashier and therefore less practical.

“When you find yourself in trouble, drain this of all its love, and then break it upon the floor at your feet. Then, I will be there to assist you in your hour of need.” For reasons I do not fathom, Victor eyed me warily.

I took the crystal and pocketed it in an actual pocket of my metallic suit, rather than in hammerspace with my more valuable items. The hatred inside made the crystal uncomfortable to be near, but I bore the burden anyway. Even the fabric of my suit loosened up around the jewel, as if it too was afraid to touch the object. “Thanks...” I replied sarcastically, “I’ll be in touch.”

As I stood, I added, “Remember, waste disposal isn’t the only service we offer, nor is our venom the only product. I won’t say much now - it’s all very hush-hush - but I assure you, it will be a blast.” I stopped as I was about to pass through the warehouse doorway. As I resumed my human guise, I pulled the messenger’s soul emerald out of hammerspace. “Oh, by the way, here’s your errand boy, very much alive. Golems work wonders as prosthetic limbs.” Swallowing the last of my hesitation, I added, “And, sixteen.”

Victor snatched the emerald out of the air when I tossed it to him. “Sixteen?” he asked.

There was no chance to back out now. “Why,” I replied, “the number of assassins you had aiming at me, of course. The basic notice-me-not has two flaws. Your enemy lies in the spaces you don’t look, and real emotions drift in the breeze. There are sixteen holes where my senses don’t look and there is too much emotion here for you, Rosaline, and your four guards. I can point out their locations, if you want. Now, how many did you count?”

The shadow man only smiled, as if calling my non-existent bluff; I was completely aware of all of the assassins. “I’m aware of the notice-me-not and its limitations. It’s rather hard to hide from the shadows themselves” he said, gesturing vaguely towards some of the locations where I had hidden my own Praetorians. “And I have no need for such things,” he declared, the light in the room dimming further with each word, despite the time being around noon, “If I truly wanted a high-value target such as yourself dead, I’d do it myself. A mere assassin would just be wasted on you.” Reaching into his pocket, Victor pulled out a small caliber bullet, encased in a globule of glass, that glowed with a faint green light reminiscent of his eyes. He tossed it to me. “This is most likely what you’re feeling. I’m not exactly one to come unprepared. I find myself rather thankful we are not enemies; we’d most likely end up destroying each other.” The prince smiled again. “Is there anything else?”

I merely rolled my eyes at him. “You say you have no need, and yet there they are anyway. As you said, you’re not exactly one to come unprepared. And I just wanted a number, because you most certainly didn’t point to them all with that vague hand wave. Hint hint, they’re not all aiming for you,” I replied with mock cheer. “Come on, take a guess before I go.”

For the first time since the meeting started, Victor sported a large, genuine frown; his anger struggled against his careful mental bonds. The smoke of his eyes flowed a little more freely. “I see what matters, and I do not take kindly to threats against my Subjects, Boy. Your seven little guards don’t intimidate me.” The various crystals around the room react slightly, and the stools that Victor’s guard sit on begin grow upwards slightly, curling around them protectively, around Rosaline in particular. After a moment, Victor restored his magical control, and the crystal returned to normal, though the bits around Rosaline lingered. With a deep, calming breath and a sigh, Victor said, “I see what matters. You have guards, many with their sights trained on me, but not nearly enough to be a real threat. Of them there are only seven that are worth worrying about.” The hate-filled man’s eyes flashed a more caustic shade of green, “But if anyone of them were to try and take from me what was mine,” he growled, “they’d be dead before they hit the floor. Now, would you like to continue this pissing match, or are we in accordance?”

Slowly, I clapped my hands, mostly to hide the shaking. “Good, good. There are seven living guards here, two of which are hidden underground.” I’m particularly fond of the diamond dog form; digging is very useful for an ambush. “Six others are astral projections that feel real to the senses, but couldn’t actually shoot. None of my guard were aiming at her; that little repressed crush she has on you is too cute. But no, you missed number eight.”

At that moment, Taruke stepped out from behind one of the guards stools, even though there was no logical way he could have successfully hidden there. Of course, magic tends to make logic cry. “Goodbye!” I spontaneously shouted. With a sudden flash, all nine of us changelings vanished into thin air.

Victor smirked as Rex left. Pulling out a cigar from his coat pocket, he touched it to his lips, where the end spontaneously combusted. “Like I said kid, I see only what matters. Until next we meet, King Alvarium Rex. Arrivederci.” Taking a long puff of the cigar, Victor blew the smoke out his nose. Turning to Rosaline, he asked, “Did you get all of that?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” she responded, revealing a recording device she had hidden on her person. “I got all of it.”

“Good, good. That should be enough for now.” Taking another long drag of the cigar, Victor sighed. “You know, in a way I both pity and envy him. I just hope he’s strong enough to make it.” After a moment, he shook his head free from such thoughts. Climbing to his feet, his follower did the same. All the crystals around them fade to dust, ash and shadows. “Come along now, there is still much work to be done,” Victor stated, leaving the site of their first interaction with the King of the Earth Hive behind.

The moment I flashed us away to our home, I smirked to myself, despite the nervous tremors racking my body. ‘Damn, I’ve never bluffed so hard in my life.’ For a moment, I stood unsteadily in the hallway of the Beehive before collapsing to my knees. A second later, my nerves forced me to regurgitate half-digested human remains onto the tile floor. Magic swirled within me, fixing the damage done by Victor’s mere presence. I had it focus extra hard on reinforcing the emotion harvesting arrays in my skin in an attempt to immunize myself against negative emotions, much like I had done just last night with my Praetorians.

Taruke walked up to me and reassuringly rested a hand on my shoulder. When I no longer felt sick, and had convinced him of such, he helped me stand once more. I smiled thankfully at my faithful assistant.

<<Perhaps this may lead to a better future for our hive. My king, we could gain much from the leader of such a powerful organization,>> he commented once I felt up to discussing the recent events.

<<Agreed,>> I replied. I sighed, finally relaxing, and clutched my head. <<But I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, he knows too damn much for his own good. But frankly, he could do so much worse to us personally than anything the humans can do.>>

Taruke mirrored the smirk that had not yet left my face, despite my queasyness. <<My lord, we must protect ourselves from scrying now. Our intelligence integrity has been compromised. There must be a way to protect us from his observations.>> I fervently agreed. <<However, if there is one thing we figured out, he doesn’t know about magitech yet. Otherwise, he would have brought no computers into that room. The Come-To-Life spell was written centuries after their time, you know.>>

<<I do know,>> I replied. <<The second she plugs in that camera, we’ll have access to their entire computer system.>>

<<What did you order the program to do, sir?>> he asked.

<<Nothing traceable. It’s going to compile a list of every computer on their networks and phone in their buildings, every email address he sends anything to, et cetera, et cetera.>> I started walking back to my personal room in the Beehive. While I walked, I drew the crystal the Shadow Prince had given me from my pocket. The love contained within possessed an oddly synthetic sweetness to it, much like the love from Rosaline. I half wondered if it was even real emotion, and if I would actually gain anything by consuming it. <<Taruke, take this when you get a chance. Wear one of the unaffiliated identities, find a bank somewhere far away, open a safe deposit box under that name, and leave this there. I don't want this crystal near anything of mine, but if it does as advertised, destroying it is a bad idea.>> Taruke nodded in agreement and took the crystal.

As I entered my room, I saw that my laptop was on, as I had left it. There on my computer monitor was a second .pdf file, twice as long as the first. “Impressive,” I said aloud regarding the document. <<This man is fucking genius. Let’s see how badly I can screw him over.>> I sat down at the computer and set to studying his full crystal curse; my sudden curiosity overrode my desire to be clean of blood and chyme.

<<Never trust a changeling,>> Taruke stated, his face still adorned with a smirk.

<<Never trust a changeling,>> I echoed.

After a moment of silence punctuated by my keystrokes, Taruke asked,<<My lord, what are you planning to do about the footage they recorded?>>

<<He recorded it as blackmail, you know. We have animation majors in the hive, don’t we? Six, if I am not mistaken. Let’s have one post it on YouTube as an animation project if the situation ever gets too sticky. “A Dark Mage and An Alien,” we’ll call it. We’ll preemptively discredit it. Then, if he ever tries to show it to the world, international copyright laws will protect “our” fiction from him trying to pass it off as his own work of nonfiction,>> I explained.

<<That could work, in theory, my king>> Taruke replied, <<But it would be a gamble none the less.>>

<<I am aware. It was the first thing I could think of; we still have time to plan better,>> I replied. <<Meanwhile, Ginny has started compiling a list of affiliated businesses and individuals and it’s already over six hundred long; she’s only been working at it for less than four hours. Unsurprisingly, we already have a few changelings in place, but damn, we have a lot of work to do to catch up to this bastard. Better get started now.>>

Author's Notes:

*Ding* Have a chapter!

This it it. BQ,RK is finally a collab piece! Half of this chapter was written by InfiniteBrony, the other half was by me. His story, Gatekeeper: Prince of Darkness, is the companion to this one, and has the alternate perspective of the events of this chapter (and a much more sympathetic characterization of Victor).

Honestly, this was quite interesting to write. We played gdoc tag, adding our respective characters lines and actions, which means we each had to write a conversation, in character, without knowing what the other character's response was going to be. Sure, I had discussed what Victor's personality was like with IB beforehand, but I still think I was caught off guard by just how knowledgeable Victor actually was. My own thoughts on Victor came out in this line:

You’re too damn all-knowing for your own good. It’s like changeling chess, where both sides know way too much about the other.

But you know what the most fun part of this is? InfiniteBrony, and by extension, Victor, only know part of what is actually going on here. I can guarantee that Victor isn't completely all knowing by withholding information from IB and (later) by using something called the unspoken plan guarantee. Fun!

Also, because of the nature of how we wrote, formatting and grammar came out weirdly. So if you see any typos, PLEASE let me know, ok?

Well, I'm off to write the next chapter! Or maybe draw some more. I just got some new art supplies.

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Also, I've improved my art skills enough that I attempted to draw Rex and Victor. Here you go: