Alice didn't really like her toys. They were all boring. Puppets and dolls were nice, but she got bored of them too. The only thing that could hold her attention were the gifts from her father. She was just listlessly kicking a ball against one of the walls of the compound they lived in when her father came over to her with a smile.

"Daddy!" she cried and ran up to him to give him a hug.

"Hello my star, how are you?"

"Bored." she said with a pout.

"Can you play with me today daddy?"

"I am sorry buttercup, but I have to work."

Alice made a face and her father chuckled.

"But I have something for you as an apology." he said teasingly.

Alice perked up and looked up to him.

"What is it?"

"This!" he said and offered her a beautiful big marble that shone in the early morning sun.

"Wow!" she said, because the gift came from her father and it did not matter what it was. But it was all over too quickly. Before long her father had gone to work and she was left alone in the compound.

With her feet up the wall she stared up into the sky, holding the marble in between her fingers as she rolled it this way and that way. It was bigger than a regular marble and not made out of glass. The surface was carved and beautifully shaped. The lines were flowing in mesmerizing patterns all over the surface of the perfectly even ball. Her fingers traced the marble and she squeezed it to hold it upright until the small ball clicked. Alice blinked as the sun vanished above her. At first she was too stunned to be afraid. She looked around into a misty outline of a forest and her eyes were wide. She sat up, the marble clutched in her hands while she looked around wearily. Suddenly a giant cat jumped out of the underbrush, its fur matted, its eyes gleaming, its ears laid back, its fangs bared. Alice screamed and flinched backwards, knocking her head against the wall behind her.

Half an hour later guild elder Karl Nimeg studied the strange and mysterious marble that had conjured apparently a lifelike illusion around its user. One of his families guards stood in front of him, his helmet tugged under his arm while Nimeg stared at him incredulously.

"So you are sure that there was an illusion of a monster there?"

"Yes, sir. When the young miss screamed I rushed into the compound, just that it did not look like the compound anymore halfway through it was a forest. And right in front of the young miss there was a giant cat like monster. I rushed to face it and the creature reacted to me, so I thought it was all real. It dodged my first strike, but then I used a skill and I managed to hit it and the illusion vanished. The young miss had knocked herself out on the wall of the compound and I quickly used one of the house potions on her." the man said nervously.

Nimeg frowned deeply and studied the marble with his magical senses intently. He believed the story of the man, mostly. There was a chance that he had made this all up to obfuscate the truth of the matter. He might have been responsible for injuring Alice and made something up to explain himself. But part of him found that unlikely to be true. The story was too elaborate, too fantastical. An illusory monster that reacted to the man's strikes? Impossible. Besides Alice would tell him the truth when she woke up, which was soon according to the doctor they had called.

And yet as impossible it seemed, here he was, studying the only item that could have been the source of the whole debacle. The Marble looked beautiful and like a work of art, which was why he had bought it on a whim while looking for a present for his daughter. But now there was a possibility that he had found something truly remarkable. He closed his eyes and let his mana flow around the marble from his hand, trying to detect even the slightest hint of a spellform. But there was nothing. Not even residual magic. He tried to fuel magic into it, but nothing happened again. The marble reacted just like any other stone would. But from the material he guessed it must have been made out of a beastcore. Which was why he had been so fascinated with it in the first place. He had never heard of anyone carving into beastcores.

One of the servants stepped into the room and bowed.

"Excuse me, sir." the young man said and Nimeg snapped at him.

"What? Can't you see I am busy?"

"Apologies sir, but there is a woman at the door, asking to speak to you."

"A woman?" he asked bewildered.

"I believe she is from the district, sir." the young man added with a rather hushed tone. Nimeg frowned. His morning had been thoroughly ruined. First he got a message that his daughter had been injured and he had hurried back home only to find the culprit being the very marble he had gifted to Alice just hours ago and now someone from the district wanted to talk to him. This could not be a coincidence.

"Fine, let her in, I will talk to her." Nimeg said curtly.

He could not help but think that this visit somehow validated the guards story. If the district was calling then not as a courtesy. He had worked his whole life in the adventurers guild and he knew that the guild had many branch offices on all floors, going even beyond the gap, although commerce and the flow of information was slow and spotty there. Nevertheless the guilds were mighty and unrivaled. Except here on the first floor. The district was an anomaly. They had resources mirroring the guilds down here. Not just because they controlled all the illicit and less savory elements of society on the first floor, but because they had contacts that stretched just as far as the guilds it seemed. It had been a troubling discovery when he had made it, but everyone else around him had apparently known about it and was okay with it.

In private Nimeg guessed they used these contacts to further their own careers in the guilds as part of the price of condoning the district's existence. Nimeg had to admit it was a neat system that worked very well for the first floor, but he was disgusted by the amount of power the district wielded. Even he, a guild elder of the Adventurers guild, had to be careful dealing with those people and that said everything about the power of that organization.

Nimeg welcomed the strange woman in the foyer. Not even giving her the courtesy of inviting her into the salon or the dining room. He wanted to make sure they knew that he was not to be trifled with. Sucking up to anyone from the district would not help with that. The woman that entered the room made Nimeg pause for a moment. She was a beauty! Her long red hair fell in gentle locks over her shoulders and she wore a beautiful dark dress that brought out her figure nicely. Her face had a beautiful shape with mostly clear skin and a dusting of freckles gave her a youthful look that stood in contrast with her more mature way to dress and the way her ample curves strained against the fabric.

Nimeg caught himself staring and cleared his throat.

"Welcome to House Nimeg. How can I help you, miss?"

The woman smiled, her nice even teeth and her dark eyes making her look as desirable as anyone he had ever seen. The curve of her lips added to the list of curves the woman put on display.

"My name is Iris." she said in a pleasantly deep and feminine voice that made Nimeg feel flustered a bit.

"I am here for what you bought in one of the pawn shops yesterday. I apologize, but the trinket you purchased is not for sale."

Nimeg looked the woman in the eyes and his mind was finally waking up, asking him important questions that needed to be answered.

"You represent the district?" he asked, avoiding the subject of the "trinket".

"I am in this matter." the woman answered and gave him another polite smile.

"Do you have any matter of identification?" he asked straightening. If the district wanted the marble back then it was important or precious. Either way this made him not want to give it back even more.

Iris pulled out a badge and Nimeg leaned forward to look at it surprised. It was an alchemist guild badge with a horrendously high clearance. How had she...of course. Mars. She was sent here directly by Mars Ventros personally. Nimeg felt his blood chill and his throat tighten. The alchemist guild elder was nominally his equal, but in reality his power was equivalent of an entire guild in itself. His superiors went to Ventros to beg and grovel at his feet, not the other way around and yet, his personal involvement made this whole matter even more mysterious. He looked back up at the woman and her beauty stole his breath for a moment. By Emnu where had Ventros found this woman?! But considering the man owned every brothel in the Town it was not hard to guess from where. Envy and lust crept into his mind, but he pushed it all aside.

"I see. Well…" Nimeg said while his mind spun.

Iris smile broadened and she leaned forward slightly, making Nimeg's eyes jump down to her cleavage, before he focused on her face again.

"Guild Elder Nimeg." she started. "There is of course no fault with you buying a trinket in one of the many pawn shops of the district. Its just that the proprietor should never have put this trinket for sale. We would like to buy it back to compensate you for the error of our employee."

Nimeg found himself almost involuntarily nodding along with her story, but he caught himself. So the marble was even more miraculous than he had expected. It must contain some secret. The way it had not reacted to his magic at all stuck in his mind and curiosity overwhelmed him. A lifelike illusion that could react to stimuli? He had never even heard of anything like that. If he could tease out the spellform from the marble, if he could master it? Why he would be hailed as a genius, he would be able to make a whole career out of it and if he was honest with himself his career had plateaued recently. Maybe this was exactly what he was looking for!

"What exactly is the marble?" Nimeg finally asked, more to give himself time to think, rather than expecting the beautiful woman to answer his question.

"A trinket from someone quite powerful. Lost in an accident, found and sold by fools who did not realize the wrath they could incur if the person in question found out what happened to his keepsake."

"Someone powerful?" Nimeg asked, his neck prickling with fear. What had he gotten himself into?

"There is certainly nobody on the first floor his equal." Iris said with absolute confidence and Nimeg swallowed. It might of course be hyperbole. But there was a chance it was the truth, which meant what? Someone more powerful of a mage than Aurix? Someone on par with Commander Thresius of Emnu's army? Someone beyond that? Suddenly the fear and awe of people higher up in the tower impressed itself on his greed and curiosity.

"But of course, it is your choice if wish to sell the marble back to us. But in that case, the district will leave this matter to the person aggrieved to solve." Iris said and she looked uncomfortable and maybe even slightly afraid to Nimeg in that moment.

Nimeg had never had grand ambitions and yet, with something so marvelous in his possession. Could he let a chance like this go? What if he could make himself into someone dominating not just the first floor, but Ambition?

"Lifelike illusions." Nimeg said, looking for a reaction by the woman in front of him, but she just looked evenly at him, her soft smile not wavering. "Such magic would be for the benefit of all."

"If you stay alive long enough to learn something like that, yes." Iris said incredulously and Nimeg felt cold.

"Do I have to remind yourself who you are talking to? I am a guild elder!" He said with more bluster than he intended to display. But he could help himself.

"Indeed you are and you have my utmost respect." she said, emphasizing the my. "But I doubt the owner of that trinket will pay your station much mind. Really I am doing this out of concern not just for the district that lost the trinket, but out of concern for you, who might want to keep it."

Nimeg hesitated and he wanted to do nothing more than follow his greed and urges, but fear crept into his mind and made him consider the whole situation in a different light. Of course a marvelous trinket like the marble that could create lifelike illusions would belong to someone. And of course that someone would want it back. Which meant that he would have to deal with possibly the creator of this trinket, who had to be so far superior than anyone on the lower floors to be able to create something like this. Clearly the district feared him, clearly they were in a hurry to retrieve it. This was bad. Keeping the trinket might summon a calamity that would bring down his whole house, everything he had built, that might even cost his life. And yet. His curiosity needled him.

"What is your price?" Iris asked, interrupting his internal monologue.

"Beg your pardon?" he asked more out of reflex than actually meaning it.

"For the district to buy the marble back and make it our problem. What is your price?" she asked and took a step closer to him. "The district can be very generous." she said in a soft and slightly husky voice that made Nimeg look down at the top of her breasts again, propped up enticingly, just an arm's length away.

"Maybe I can help you make a decision." Iris said with a lewd smile. She reached out and gently traced the line of his suit following his shoulder with her fingertips.

"You look tense, maybe I can help you relax." she said gently and she was suddenly so close he could smell her perfume, and her hand made soft circles downwards on his jacket. Nimeg swallowed and stepped back. His wife was here, so was his child. He should not even entertain such thoughts. But when he looked at the woman he was sure he would have done more than just look if they were anywhere else but his foyer. He sighed.

"50 manastones." he said more than doubling the price he had paid.

Iris looked at him and smiled.

"Deal."

There was no haggling, just expectation as the woman opened a purse glimmering with manastones. Nimeg eyed it and cursed himself for not asking for more, before he remembered who he was dealing with. He almost fled out of the room when he went back to retrieve the marble. He had decided that all of this was too much trouble for him. Too much of a risk, no matter how interesting this marble was, he could not justify bringing down a furious mage from the upper floors down on him. But when his fist closed around the marble he tried to peer into its secret again, but it did not do anything for him. With hesitation the man placed the marble into Iris hand and the woman paid him the manastones without hesitation. They both knew it was a steal.

"Happy doing business with you." Iris said with a broad smile and gave him a small bow. "The district will remember this. I wish you a good day." and then Iris walked out of the foyer. Nimeg stared after her for a long minute, before he shook his head in regret. What a day.

Iris was ecstatic when she felt for the second marble in her purse and compared it to the first one. They felt and looked identical. It had been difficult to convince the guild elder, but she had successfully build up the image of a boogie man that would come down on Nimeg like the wrath of Emnu himself. Fear and caution had overcome greed. But what the man had said about lifelike illusions was interesting. Aaron had said nothing about what the marbles actually did. Hearing the man ask about illusions of all things was fascinating.

Iris was walking down the street away from Nimeg's home when a man in a tuxedo stopped in front of her. Iris looked up. Tex smiled at her.

"Miss Baker, master Ventros would like to have a word." Tex said with a polite smile.

Iris tried her best not to flinch in surprise, but she felt cold all of a sudden. She recovered quickly though and smiled back, trying to hide her dismay. She felt like this might be trouble.

"Of course, you didn't have to come personally Tex. What an honor." she said and meant not a single word. Of course the district had found out what she was looking for and knew where she would go next. Damn. All of her hard work might be for naught because Mars got curious about what she was doing.

"Have you been successful in your endeavors, miss Baker?" Tex asked conversationally while he walked besides her in the direction of the guild halls.

"I have." she said, because at this point the district must know everything, which meant she better tell the truth or be in even deeper trouble. Tex lead her through the streets through bustling crowds of people going for lunch. But Iris could not appreciate the beautiful sunshine anymore. What would Mars do? Would he punish her for not saying anything about the marbles? Could she, or should she stash them somewhere? No...no. The jig was up. She had to own up to what she did or pretend not to have gone behind Ventros back. That was the only way forward. Tex guided her expertly through the midday rush and into the alchemist guilds headquarters. Nobody stopped them and they walked up a narrow staircase in stead of the normally accessible hallways of the alchemists guild. This must be one of the many hidden paths people like Tex who were actually working here used.

When they finally entered Mars office, he was not alone. A tall white haired man with a pony tail stood next to the lord of the first floor's underworld. They both looked up when Tex entered with Iris in tow.

"Iris." Mars said and studied her for a long moment. "How good to see you. I heard you have been busy. Preparing things, buying things, even looking for things." Mars said pointedly and gave her a look that made Iris look down to the floor.

"Apologies that I have not told you immediately what I was looking for. I thought I could handle it on my own and there was no need to involve you." Iris said, but Ventros interrupted her.

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"Enough. Show us what Aaron lost so foolishly." he ordered and Iris hesitated only for a moment before she stepped forward and placed the two marbles on Mars desk.

She backed off to the side and watched how both Mars and the white haired man studied the two identical marbles.

"Beautiful craftsmanship." Mars said and the other man nodded.

"These might be enchanting lines." he began and reached out with a hand before he paused and looked at Iris.

"Are they safe to touch?"

"I believe so." she said and the man nodded, before he gently plucked one of the marbles off the table and looked at it carefully while running his fingers around the marble.

"What do your senses tell you, Torus?" Mars asked and the man did not say anything for a long moment, before he frowned.

"Nothing. To my magical senses this looks exactly like a marble that was carved beautifully out of a beast core." Torus said. Mars nodded and turned to Iris.

"Do you know what they do?"

"No...Aaron just said they were a Cultivator training aid. But he did not say anything else. Apparently Nimeg, the mage who bought one of the marbles, got it to work though."

"Really?" Mars said surprised.

"Well, I do not know the details, but he said something about lifelike illusions."

"Lifelike illusions?" Mars repeated and stared down at the marbles with curiosity. For a few minutes both Torus and Mars studied the two beastcores and swapped them around. At first they did not find out anything. But then Torus managed to press a button on the marble and they all braced for something to happen. But nothing happened at all.

"Huh. What about you Mars?" Torus asked and Mars shook his head.

"It does not work for me either."

"You know." the old enchanter started. "This does remind me of an artifact I studied in Ambition once. An axe."

"An axe?" Mars asked with a frown.

"Yes, it was a Cultivator's weapon. It was said to have incredible powers, none of which I could confirm. It was just an indestructible, very sharp weapon. Of course that alone makes it one of the best weapons imaginable. But it had a catch. Whoever used the weapon would hear a voice in their head, talking to them, distracting them, slowly trying to drive them to madness."

"How does that apply to these marbles?" Mars asked.

"I am fairly certain that there was a condition on the weapon, some sort of connection. Like it could sense who was using it and react accordingly."

Mars frowned then his face brightened. He scrambled around his desk and after searching through some drawers he came back with a small bead, barely larger than the nail on Iris ring finger.

"Whats this?" Iris asked tentatively.

"A multiversal translator. Cultivator made. They are sold by the adventurers guild for cheap and we know that every single summoned has them embedded in their skulls. They automatically detect which language is spoken and translate it and even make you speak in a tongue other people can understand. Most people have one, even though the Tower does only have one official language. The influx of people summoned here and the different dialects makes this a very useful tool."

"Right...And this bead does the same as the axe." Torus said with some excitement in his voice. "It detects and reacts to its user accordingly, more than that. It reacts to its surroundings."

"Exactly. So if neither I nor you Torus can get this to work, it might be because we are a Vessel and a Mage respectively." Mars concluded and suddenly both men looked at Iris, who looked back surprised.

"You want me to try?" she asked and Mars smiled his patient grandfather smile.

"If you would be so kind." He handed her one of the marbles.

Iris hesitated, but then she let her fingers trace the outside of the marble with interest.

"How do I use it?"

"Keep trying to press into it, it will give a bit. I suspect that is part of its mechanism." Torus explained and Iris frowned while she slowly and meticulously pressed the marble over and over. For a minute or two nothing happened, but then by pure chance, her thumb found the right spot and the marble clicked.

Iris suddenly found herself surrounded by a tranquil compound made out of purple marble with stone tiles and a pond with beautiful water flowers to her right. Right in front of her stood a woman. Tall, graceful, curvy and alien. Her ears were long and pointed and her ethereal face had a hardness to it that stood in stark contrast to her beauty. Mars jumped back at the appearance of the woman and had two daggers drawn faster than Iris could blink. He crouched in a low stance, poised to jump and fight while Iris was still flinching in surprise. This confirmed Iris suspicion that the old master of the district was more than strong enough to defend himself. Torus had an amulet clutched in his hand as he stood back to the other side. There was a tense pause, but nothing happened. The woman did not even seem to see them. Then with the soft sound of bamboo hitting a rock the woman started to move.

Iris had never seen anyone move that gracefully, never seen a dancer with more poise or strength in their body. What she did in front of them was nothing short of impossible to anyone, even the most competent rogue. It took minutes for the woman to go through her intricate dance routine and the men became bolder during that time. Tex stood back against the wall, his eyes wide and Iris wanted to follow his example, but quickly found out that the illusion moved with her as she had the marble still in her hand.

"Don't move!" Mars snapped and Iris paused. Mars started to investigate the illusion and it was surreal. It was like the light bent in shape of the surroundings recorded in the marble and even Torus studied what was happening with wide eyes.

"How...how does that work?" Mars uttered as he let his hand phase through a wall of marble only for it to reappear the same as it had. The illusion ended abruptly and the men stared at Iris who flinched.

"I did not do anything!" she protested.

"It must have ended on its own. Marvelous. Torus, what do you think?" Mars asked, his daggers sheathed again and the older man started to walk up and down his office with vigor.

"Its not an illusion of light. I do not know or understand it. There was no magic used. No energy. I...I can't even begin to guess how it works or how it was made."

"Would it be valuable?" Mars asked with a slight frown.

"Possibly, you know that better than me most likely. Its basically useless because only normal people seem to be able to activate it. How many normal people could afford to pay a significant price for something like this?"

Iris cleared her throat.

"Sorry to interrupt. But Aaron will come looking for these marbles." she said. "Selling them might not be a good idea if we wish to stay allied to him." she explained, purposefully using we to include herself in their calculations.

"Yes, I am not considering that, Iris. I want to merely understand this mystery." Mars explained patiently. "We know very little about Cultivators and even less about their training methods. Information like this might even be interesting to Emnu himself."

"I don't believe this Aaron could have created this." Torus cut in. "It feels more like a relic left behind by Emnu or something akin to that."

"Yes, Emnu has left many relics in the tower to find and agonize over." Mars conceded. "But how could Aaron have found one? He was either on the run or with a group of mine. He must have already had these things by then, so…"Mars considered, but then he shrugged and moved on to more important matters.

"Can we gleam anything from the techniques shown by the woman in the projection?" Mars pondered.

"Its possible, you are asking the wrong man there, Mars." Torus said.

"Right. Well. Either way this needs to stay between us." Mars said and seemed to come to a decision.

"How long can you stall Aaron until he comes looking for these?" he asked Iris.

"Maybe two weeks at most?" Iris said unsure of her accuracy in predicting Aaron.

"Hmmm not much time. Okay. Iris you will take the next two weeks to experiment with these cores. Tex you write down anything that happens. Its possible these cores are entirely useless to us as well as the techniques described. But its possible it might be of some use to us. So we will get as much as we can out of it."

"Yes sir." Tex said sounding rather miserable.

"The marbles stay here until Aaron returns from his climb. He is going to leave, yes?" Mars asked Iris.

"I believe so, sir."

"Good. Good. Tell him that I will take care of his little mage problem. The public backlash was subdued and since the mage in question is still missing it will give me enough time to deal with it."

"If I may ask, how do you plan to deal with it?" Iris asked, uncomfortable to ask, but it was better to know what to tell Aaron if she did not bring any of the marbles with her.

"I do like his suggestion, but a green mage with money problems is not really realistic. I will say he got into an altercation over his "acts" with one of my girls. Everyone knows that such conduct is not permitted. He used his magic items to escape us and fled into the first floor where he succumbed to an animal attack, because he used up all the charge on his items. People will doubt it, but they will not ask more questions."

Iris nodded satisfied.

"I will tell Aaron that."

"Good. Try to find out how long he will stay away. The more time we have with these marbles the better."

"I will, but he will come for them if we delay too much." Iris stated again, trying to make them understand. "I do not wish to presume what would happen. But he has escaped a dedicated effort of the entire Town to capture him."

"I would never jeopardize our arrangement for something trifling like this. I have plans for Aaron. So do not worry. You can give them back to him in two weeks."

"Very well." Iris hesitated."Is there anything else?"

"No, not for now, return tomorrow here, Tex will schedule something."

"Alright. Thank you." Iris said and left the room leaving the two cores behind. She breathed out a sigh of relief when she was out of the guild building. Now she only had to agonize over the question what to tell Aaron.

Mars turned to Torus when Iris left and the old enchanter was still looking at the identical marbles with interest.

"You can study them if you want." Mars said, but Torus shook his head.

"No, nothing gained from it. These marbles can tell me as much about enchanting as a rock. Besides my caravan leaves tomorrow."

"I know, thank you again for coming down here."

"It was interesting. Much more than I anticipated."

"And I paid you a fortune." Mars added with a smirk that his old friend returned.

"Not like you lack for funds."

The two old friends chatted for a while longer, before Torus left for lunch. Mars had Tex store the two marbles securely and then went over to his next task for the day. His days were even busier than he had expected them to be and he felt the strain on him. Even his enhanced body could not stop the weariness of his mind. But he was getting closer to his goal. And his unexpected fortune falling into his lap might just accelerate the way to his goals.

Mars walked into the bowels of the district, where nobody who had not worn the red armband for years ever got to go. He opened a big heavy door and entered a small out of the way compound with high walls and a constant rotation of loyal guards. He nodded to his old friend Stab who had taken control over the compound's security. The man was more than capable of that. Totally overqualified to be frank, but it gave Mars peace of mind to know Stab took care of things. Mars turned to one of the guards and asked:

"Where are our guests?"

"In the dormitory. Some of them are still quite sick."

Mars nodded and stepped into a small hospital room where a group of what Mars could only consider children sat around or lied in beds. For a moment he hesitated, because he knew his own daughter must be their age by now. But he pushed those thoughts aside. He was doing this for her after all. No scruples were allowed.

The kids turned towards him and Mars could see anything from frowns to confusion on their faces.

"Welcome young masters from the 52nd floor." Mars said with a smile and a deep bow. "My name is Mars Ventros, but you may call me Mars. I am the master of the red-light district and your host."

There was silence until a young woman straightened in her bed and said coldly.

"We know who you are."

"That makes things easier then. I have come here to explain to you what I want and what you can get out of it. Lets start by stating the obvious. For the next one and a half years you will stay here in this compound. It is in the heart of the district and impossible to escape out of for a group of normal people like you."

There was some shuffling, until one of the boys spat out.

"Traitor!"

"You swore an oath to protect groups from upstairs!"

"Incorrect. I swore to treat any faction from above equally. Which I am doing. Your group caused directly the death of a climber from the 51st floor. They asked me for help and I chose to give it to them by delaying you, not killing you. Which they could have demanded. A death for a death."

There was silence after that and one of the boys was very pale and looked to the floor. The girl that had started talking looked at Mars unafraid.

"You still broke the pact by taking us captive. This is all sophistry. Tell us what you really want."

"I want the only thing you have. The knowledge inside of your heads. I want you to write down all class combinations you know, how to get to these classes in the first place as well as safe training locations from here to the 20th floor."

"Impossible!" the other girl spat, but the leader of the group held up her hand to stop any interruptions as she looked up to Mars.

"Why do you want this? As far as we know you are a rich, influential information broker whose organization stretches even as far as the 50th floor. Do you wish to sell this information to our enemies?"

"Ah, an astute question. No. Everything you tell me will stay within my organization. It will not be spread past it and nobody will ever know you talked to me."

"Why?"

Mars smiled, but a smaller boy beat him to the answer.

"He is building an army."

"Yes, excellent. I am indeed building an army. I need safe spaces for my potential troops to fight and level and strong classes for them so they can pull their weight."

"And what will you do with said army?" the leader of the kids asked carefully.

"I will take over Ambition. Well, at least part of it."

"That's it?"

"Well unlike you young masters from the 52nd floor, we know the value of what we have down here. Ambition is the biggest and most prosperous city in the lower floors and I have personal business there." there was a long pause while the kids shared looks.

"So, here is what I am offering. If you are cooperating you will stay here for one and a half years, you will be eating lavish meals and will want for nothing. Food, wine, company. All of that can be arranged. I will even allow you to train and prepare yourself for another climb. But in return you have to give me all the class combinations you know and write down all you know about the tower's lower floors." Mars paused and let that sink in before he continued.

"If you refuse. Things can be very different. At first, you will be starved, the amenities will be sparse. Then, if that is not enough to convince you, we will isolate you. If isolation and being locked up all day does not give the wanted results I will be forced to rely upon even less savory methods. You see, as much as I am a reputable merchant of information, I am also the head of the biggest criminal organization on the first floor. The only one actually, because we got rid of all the others. Organizations like mine come with all kinds of people, some of which are quite twisted and used to cruelty. I will unleash them upon you. One by one. If I have to, I will torture every single one of you." Mars said the last part in a low cold voice. "By that point it will not be for information, but for punishment alone. By that point I will turn your stay into living hell and you will never be allowed to return to the upper floors. If you prove to be useless I will cart you off to the brothels and for the rest of your miserable lives you will wish you are dead."

Mars let the silence linger and then appealed to their logic.

"Listen." he said with his amicable grandfather smile. "The information I seek is nothing I could not gain slowly over time with my contacts to the higher floors. But as you can see, I am not getting any younger. This is an opportunity for me to accelerate the timetable and instead of returning with an army in a decade, I will be able to do so in one or two years. The knowledge you give me will never leak out of my organization and your superiors will be none the wiser. The only downside is the year you have to stay here and the fact that you broke your oath. If you can live with that, your choice should be easy. If you can't, then you have a difficult choice to make."

"Either way I will give you some time to decide. I will return tomorrow. Think it through, be thorough and then come to a consensus. But be aware that should you decide on the wrong thing. You will wish you were dead." Mars said darkly and left the room. The stunned silence he left behind was satisfaction enough for now. He nodded to Stab, who would listen and surveil them to make sure they would not make the wrong decision.

Myria sat stunned on her cot, feeling weak and stunned by the speech of the old man that had them in his clutches. It took some time until Trisk cleared his throat.

"Wow, what a monologist. Didn't even give us time to answer." he joked, but none of them smiled. The tension in the room was palpable.

"What do we do Myria?" Miran asked and Cloe looked defiant.

"We can't break our oaths." she said.

"They would execute us if it ever came out." Orlean agreed.

"Worse they would shame or in my case execute my family as well." Cloe added and balled her fists, looking angry and scared.

Ken sighed and looked up to the ceiling.

"I don't think we have much of a choice if we ever want to go home."

"You always have a choice!" Orlean said fiercely.

"We can't just surrender to them."

"We already have!" Ken said bitterly.

"You maybe. Not me."

"This is all your fault to begin with!"

"Stop it. SHUT UP!" Myria roared. And the bickering stopped, replaced with an uncomfortable silence.

"You know, I think this Mars might be right." Koris said after a long while.

"Koris?" Myria asked surprised.

"Listen, if he really has contacts to the 50th floor, he can get most of what we know in due time."

"Most, but not all. Some secrets we swore to take to our graves." Cloe interjected.

"Yes, but we don't have to tell him those, don't have to tell him all we know."

Myria frowned. "Explain."

"Okay, so this is not the first time information leaked. There have always been leaks. People who go down to Ambition to retire. Entire clans have gone down. You think they will keep their secrets? What about their children? You think they won't give them the classes they know about? In the end nothing happened to the status quo.

We." Koris gestured to them all. "Don't even know that much compared to any of those people. All this Mars was interested in was class combinations and safe training spots. We know plenty of that. If we are smart we can keep our path hidden and tell him about the auxiliary paths and training methods in case of an emergency."

"How are you seriously considering this?!"

"Because its the best thing we can do in a shitty situation!"

Ketris frowned and nodded.

"Its true that leaked information does not usually lead to an actual increase in strength of the lower floors. I read that its the institutions that give rise to significant change. You think this Mars could copy the Academy, the training, the memorization, the culture around it? No, impossible. Besides we only know our path. None of the others will be affected by what we tell. That is why it is designed like this."

"There must be another way."

"I don't see any other way. I walked around this place earlier." Ketris continued. "This compound sits on solid rock. The walls are tall and too high to climb. There are guards everywhere and even if we could escape this compound, then what? We would still be normal people."

"Yes but the source of the spirits is here on the first floor, if we can get to that…"

"How? All Mars has to do is guard the entrance to the well of spirits and we will be stuck on the first floor forever. Besides we will never able to leave this compound in the first place!"

"Alright." Myria raised her voice and when they all looked at her she sighed. "I don't want to give up. But we have to consider all options. If we can keep some things secret and tell other information to Mars in return for our freedom, then that is something we have to consider." she said looking at Cloe and Orlean.

"Lets think of alternatives till tomorrow. Think, maybe we will find a way to turn this around for us. But I want to add that even if we could get new spirits they could still find us. The Cultivator did. The 51st floor has made a deal with them and we do not know how much they told him about us."

"That is another reason to take the deal." Koris said grimly.

"Listen, no matter what this Mars does down here it will never affect the 52nd floor, will not affect our homes. Even if he conquered all of the lower floors, which would be surprising considering the mages in Ambition. But even if he managed to do that. No army can fight across the gap and keep up supply lines to invade the 50th floor or beyond. Nothing he can ever do will ever affect us. But the 51st floor can. They are already gearing for war. Our group is not going to win the war, when, not if it comes. But we can make a difference. Screw the lower floors. We need to return to defend our home, at all cost."

"I agree." Ken said, nodding grimly and he looked to Ketris sitting close by. Ketris frowned.

"Its dangerous. Either way we would do well to give them a reason to keep us alive for that year and a half. Stagger what we give them so they don't...discard us."

"I can't believe we are seriously considering this." Orlean said again, but Cloe was considering it, Myria could see that. If she agreed, Miran would agree. Trisk would follow her lead and it looked like Koris, Ken and Ketris were for giving information. Myria was not sure how she felt herself, she needed time to consider things and cooperating until they were all healthy was a good idea.

"Lets think about it till tomorrow and lets make a decision then. Sleep on it. We all need to regain our strength." she said to end the matter. But she feared they had no choice. They would give the district what Mars wanted and she hoped it would be the right decision.

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