The Taskmaster and this whole situation are a mystery so I wait, ready for anything, but I don’t dare make any kind of threatening move. I can feel my eyes narrow involuntarily in focus.

  “Ah, my favorite kind of guest,” he says, voice reverberating through me in a hypnotic mix of charm and menace that might rip me apart. “Desperate. Ambitious. Entertaining.”

  I’m not sure what to say to that, so I keep my mouth shut. He waves his other hand, the one without the coin, dismissing what he was saying to move on.

  “I make a habit of meeting with the people who win the KCT. They’re always so interesting. So full of promise. Worlds of potential in each of them, and they’re all unique in their own ways. I’ve been doing it for a very long time and it’s led me to a lot of friendships and a few enemies. All of you do seem to make your mark on the Universe. But you… you take things to a whole new level, don’t you?” he asks, as if I have any idea how I compare to other KCT winners or what he’s talking about. “Usually I just give them a little Task to do, maybe get a feeling for how they might develop if they stay alive. None of them had what you have, though. Do they?”

  I really don’t like the way this is going, and I decide to leave. As I try to trigger Omnipresent he waves the hand with the coin still in it and my Skill freezes, just as it’s blossoming in my mind’s eye. All the points of light and vast weight of space to explore float just out of reach so I can’t engage them to complete the first part of the Skill. I push at the barrier that’s preventing me from using it and feel like I could unravel it. Should I? Should I try to leave if it’s going to be a battle?

  “Let’s not cut our chat short, shall we? Interesting Skill you have, Omnipresent. I can see why it saved your life and then the lives of so many humans. ”

  The Taskmaster calls up some of my notifications and gestures to them, indicating I should look to see what’s on them. They’re all very familiar and I’m worried about the way he can casually rip them from me and sort through them.

  “Actually you have a number of interesting Skills, don’t you? We’ll get to those. But this Omnipresent, this one is really something. The Skill itself and the synergies and integrations are a work of art. Wonderful!” The force of the Taskmaster’s voice recedes somewhat, or maybe my Resistances are building up and taking hold. I try a surge of Affinity to connect with my Skill and find a place to Portal to. It’s time to get out of here.

  The Taskmaster’s expression turns on a dime to hostile and intense.

  “Stay until we’re done chatting,” he thunders. It crashes into me like a physical force and something slams between me and Omnipresent, cutting me off from it. Panic and determination surge inside me. My chest feels tight and all the wrong kinds of chemicals get dumped into my system when my escape option is cut off and then I… stop. Relax. I feel like for now I should stay and hear him out. It’s not like anything changed to cause my mind and feelings to pivot so quickly in this direction, I just… decided to do as he asked.

  “You know, most people think that my Skills only work if someone agrees to take on a Task that I offer. They train themselves to resist temptation and to decline my generous rewards for completing tasks and think that I have no sway over them. But… let me tell you a secret,” he says conspiratorially and leans in my direction, then lowers his voice. I have no trouble picking it up with my crazy high Perception.

  “That's not true, Bronwic. They don’t have to accept my task for me to bring my Skills to bear and set them a task. If I legitimately believe it’s in someone’s best interest, I can accept it on their behalf. I can also ask you to do things that are in my own best interest but that might be harmful to you, if I can handle the backlash.”

  I have no idea what the fuck he’s saying but it doesn’t sound good. Is he saying he can get me to do whatever he wants? He can give me a Task I somehow have to do as long as he thinks it’s in my best interest? That his Class Skills can do that?

  “Hmm….” he muses and floats around the sphere of my domain that I’ve made around myself. I notice he does not cross into my sphere of influence and I wonder if I can somehow use that to my advantage. My sphere wavers a bit, and I hold on by flexing my will about half as strongly as I can. I know if it falls it’s only going to be bad and send me back into a chaotic mental state. “I can see Tenebris found you already. Annoying. Maybe inevitable with your world’s Mana Influx and your time on a Bane World,” he muses, and I can see notifications relating to my encounters with Tenebris flashing by. He doesn’t bother to hide them.

  I feel deep down like I should be trying to leave or get ready to dodge an attack, but I feel compelled to stay. Part interested, part unexplainable except for the fact the Taskmaster used his Skills to give me a Task. It feels like it’s compelling me not to do something, rather than to do something. I wonder if he can give me a Task to kill myself. This guy is one scary fucker.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Why am I telling you this, you might wonder?” he asks. His voice still shakes me, but it’s now more like sitting in a railway engine car than having my molecules vibrated apart. I’m coming to suspect he has absolute control over how it affects me.

  “I was wondering exactly that,” I agree. Maybe talking with The Taskmaster and trying to make a connection with him is better than irritating him with silence, even if I say the wrong thing.

  “Perhaps a second opinion might be useful,” he wonders aloud and a Portal opens not far from him. It causes parts of the room all around us to ripple and flex, and I need to up the effort I’m exerting to keep the sphere around me locked down to almost my maximum.

  A mantis-like creature that reminds me slightly of Strogan emerges through the Portal which closes behind it immediately and super slow chittering begins that I have a hard time understanding. Reluctantly, I drop Perfect Focus and the world speeds back up to normal pace.

  “... interrupted my -” the creature is saying but then stops. “Oh,” is all it says and stays silent for a moment. The Taskmaster flashes a bunch of my notifications at the creature and I try to pull its Status through my SMI, but the chaotic Mana and bent space all around me mean I can’t get a solid connection and only have a little bit to go on.

  Goltarr

  Health: 4990/4990

  Conditions: Fate’s Web

  “He might distrust MIRI even more than you do,” remarks Goltarr. It’s not exactly the first words I thought I’d hear.

  “Maybe I’ll give him a Task to destroy it,” The Taskmaster poses to Goltarr.

  “I can’t even imagine the backlash from that,” is Goltarr’s reply.

  For a few seconds nothing happens, then The Taskmaster reaches out a hand to touch Goltarr and just before it does it becomes wrapped in a golden glow. I can see more of my notifications flash up and the two of them seem to be discussing me, though I can’t hear any of it. The really bad feeling I have about this situation builds. I focus on Unbreakable and how it feels, then try to feed it with the churning energy deep inside me and the process my Class and SMI use to convert Mana to physical regeneration. I reach deep to tap into the flows of Mana through Gift of Gaia that are still running despite wherever I am, this place which seems to keep shifting and changing.

  The two of them finish whatever discussion they’re having and turn toward me. It feels threatening, powerless. I hate it. It’s clear they’ve decided something about me and what they’re going to do next. What they’re going to get me to do next.

  “So…” starts The Taskmaster, “there are a few things I’d like you to do for me.”

  I am a lab rat.

  I need to get out, but he’s asked me to stay and that seems more important.

  In the space between moments I narrow my focus down to deeply feel Unbreakable’s power, to feed it and strengthen it. I pile my Mana Affinity and Gift of Gaia in behind it, trying to strengthen it like a wall that thickens and grows heavier and heavier. I strain and push and throw everything I have into it, and suddenly that wall slams down between my mind and whatever influence The Taskmaster has put on me.

  Mental influence resisted.

  The Taskmaster and Goltarr explode into movement immediately. I feel Skills and spells entering my Domain sphere where I am controlling space and Mana as I ramp up Perfect Focus to as high as it can go. In desperation I use the space around me to slow down and unravel whatever they’re trying to hit me with as I trigger Omnipresent and throw my thoughts away from Earth - I don’t want them to follow me there - and locate B’esloor who they might hesitate to follow me to, then dive through the Portal and close it behind me as fast as I can while releasing my control over everything around me. My body feels pulled apart by how fast I move and how space bucks and twists to try to invade my Portal, but my regeneration handles it, and I feel the Skills of The Taskmaster and Goltarr that flood in to grasp me evaporate as the Portal slams shut.

  I lay panting, my mind spinning and my paranoia dialed up to eleven, on the floor. I surge to my feet and prepare for anything, my awareness focused completely beyond this room and my senses straining to the maximum, questing for whatever comes next from anywhere in the Universe. A Portal to open. An assassin to appear. A flash from Foresight showing me I need to be somewhere. Anything.

  But there’s nothing.

  Slowly I become more aware of what’s in the room as a notification insistently flashes in the corner of my vision. I’m worried it has to do with The Taskmaster and action he’s taking so I open it, but that’s not it.

  Significant Event - Further SMI Evolution

  After repeated occasions of driving a Skill past its usual boundaries using your Affinities and focused will, you have discovered a pattern that enables you, with extreme concentration and focus, to tap into the Mana your Class processes to bolster a Skill. Establishing this pattern has Evolved your SMI further and will make this effect easier for you to reproduce.

  Significant caution is recommended if trying to boost a Skill that is not Evolved.

  I lock eyes with B’esloor who somehow has a look of shock, curiosity, and anxiousness all on his face at the same time. Since I’ve already been in the room for a while now I expect it’s taking him some time to deal with me appearing like this.

  “Bronwic…” he says smoothly without judgement, in contrast to the expression I’ve seen. “How good of you to drop into my performance review. Let me introduce you to my boss.”

  Perfect.