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Alex\'s Mind Palace took shape all around him, dark water spreading across the ground as his marble basin rose up in the center of his soul. A large ball of swirling blue mist twisted above the marble bowl, thousands of misty motes of energy floating in wait for him to condense it into raw power.

Three marble pillars loomed far above, spaced in a triangle centered around the basin. Each of them had an indent within their base sized perfectly for a Soul Gem. He had one of those — the Nightmare Aspect Gem — sitting on the top of the stairs leading up to the rim of the massive basin, but he still had no idea how they worked.

Fortunately, he had a way to solve that problem. The Outworlders posed a threat, but they were also a solution. He finally had a way to get at least a few answers about the System. It wouldn\'t be free, but he had 80 Credits to work with.

I don\'t want the Great Tide family to know just how clueless I am. They still think I\'m some other Outworlder, and so does Orchid. But Finley is a totally different story. He can\'t tell anybody about who I am and needs me to spend money so he can pay off his debts to the System. We\'ll have to pay him a visit shortly after getting back… right after I figure out just how much a Credit is actually worth so he can\'t scam me into overpaying for information.

Alex pulled Glint\'s Spatial Mirror free from the deck at his side. He studied the glass card for a second. It hadn\'t been that long ago that he\'d first summoned Glint after being pushed into the Mirrorlands.

Time had felt so compressed these past few days. So many different things had happened. He wasn\'t the same person that Teddy had shoved into the cracks between worlds anymore. The world had changed — and now it was Glint\'s turn.

He ran a finger over the surface of the smooth mirror and words twisted to life within it.

Your Bonded Creature is 100% above the threshold to advance to Initiate 1. Would you like to evolve this Shardwalker? [Y/N]

"Yes," Alex said. It felt a bit strange speaking to the air, but it got the job done. The words in the mirror rippled and faded away. His fingertips prickled as energy gathered within the Spatial Mirror.

Intense heat erupted within the glass shard. Alex let out a curse and dropped it, yanking his hand back even as the pads of his fingers sizzled. The mirror erupted with light a moment before it could hit the ground of his Mind Palace.

Glint burst out from within the mirror, ripping through reality in a shower of shimmering glass shards. Viscous white energy twisted off his body in ropey strands and he doubled over, his clawed hands raking through the dark waters of the lake at their feet as a low hiss crawled from his mouth.

Light lit within the Shardwalker\'s body, pushing its way out through his skin and forcing Alex to squint. The light was so intense that it completely swallowed the details of Glint\'s form, leaving behind only his general outline and shape.

Waves of pressure drove into Alex\'s stomach like physical blows. He grit his teeth as they pushed him back. Ripples turned to waves across the surface of the dark lake. Alex clenched his jaw and held a hand up in front of his face. The power gathering in Glint was so intense that it made his teeth rattle in his skull.

And then Glint started to change.

The jagged spikes extending from his back cracked and shattered, sending the vibrant song of breaking glass carving through Alex\'s soul. Glint\'s torso lengthened until he stood at nearly seven feet tall. His gangly limbs remained at exactly the same length — and with his new height, they were almost the proper size for his form.

Ripples passed beneath the white light enveloping Glint\'s body. The long, jagged claws on his fingertips grew thinner and the claws jutting out of his feet vanished entirely. Alex squinted even harder through the light, trying to make out what was happening.

A shimmer of silver caught his eyes. The light started to fade away and Alex\'s breath caught in his chest as details of his Shardwalker began to emerge.

This wasn\'t a change anything like the previous upgrades Glint had gotten.

A glistening mask made of a solid piece of mirror covered the top half of Glint\'s face. It was perfectly smooth and glossy, contorting to his features like a wet cloth. It covered his eyes completely, coming to a stop just above his mouth.

The skin on Glint\'s face had grown even more gaunt beneath the mask. His fangs had shrunk and thinned into rows of short, razor sharp needles.

His changes didn\'t stop there. Where his back had been previously covered by jutting glass fragments, there was now a rippling cloak composed of overlaid glass fragments. They caught the light, sending it refracting across the surface of the lake in a shimmering dance.

Glint shook himself off as the light faded. The cloak let off a faint song as it moved, parting from his back and rising up to stretch out behind him. It was connected to his back just behind his right shoulder — and Alex realized that it wasn\'t a cloak at all.

It was a massive glass wing.

There was no sign of a second wing. Glint wrapped his body in the wing once again, concealing much of his form beneath it. The Shardwalker stepped to the side in a graceful motion like that of a dancer, then tilted his head curiously to the side in wait of a command.

Your Shardwalker has evolved into a Glasmir and advanced to Initiate 1.

Alex realized his mouth was hanging open and forced it to close again. Awe gripped his mind as he gazed upon Glint\'s new form.

The monster had become eerily elegant, a corpse dressed as a god.

Whoa. I didn\'t think that Glint could get scarier… but I don\'t think I could have been more wrong. He\'s so close to almost looking like a human now, but at the same time, I don\'t think he could possibly be farther from it.

"Walk over here," Alex said, pointing to a spot on the ground beside him.

Glint moved to obey. He practically seemed to flow into motion, no one movement distinguishable from the rest. The Glasmir arrived at the spot he\'d indicated and snapped to a halt, freezing in place in an instant now that the task was complete.

Something about the way Glint moved was completely alien. He had the grace of the dancer but razor-sharp precision that only a highly advanced robot could have achieved. The mask covering his eyes didn\'t help to reduce the unsettling aura enveloping the monster.

How did Glint know where I was pointing with that silver mask covering his eyes? Can he see through it? And more importantly…

"Are you sentient now?" Alex asked. "Are you able to respond to me?"

Glint didn\'t so much as twitch. He stood as still as a statue in wait for Alex\'s next command.

Looks like he\'s still the same Glint on the inside. No thoughts… not yet, at least. At least I don\'t have to worry about that, but if this was just his first evolution, what happens when I get him to Adept?

"I suppose we\'re going to need to see what you\'re capable of doing now, huh?" Alex asked Glint.

The Glasmir, unsurprisingly, didn\'t respond. Glint just remained frozen in place in wait for a command.

Alex reached to his deck, where Glint\'s card had re-appeared. Glint\'s status had updated within it, listing his new evolved name and his rank as Initiate. With a thought, Alex summoned his newly evolved monster back into the card.

Glint disintegrated into a stream of energy that flowed back into the Spatial Mirror. Alex returned it to his side.

He let his Mind Palace fall away from around him and returned to the real world. His eyes opened as he found himself back in the building in the Mirrorlands. Claire leaned against the wall beside him, a hand on the hilt of her sword as she kept watch.

"Done already?" She asked in surprise.

"I wasn\'t powering myself up yet. That would take too long," Alex replied as he rose to his feet. "We can do that once we get back to the real Valley Ford. Spending 4 hours sitting around in the Mirrorlands is basically just asking for something to attack. I was just getting Glint evolved."

"And that worked, I take it?"

"It certainly did something," Alex said with a shake of his head. "He\'s starting to get a little uncanny. I\'m equal parts scared and excited to see what he\'s capable of in a fight now. Let\'s head back to the portal and we\'ll see if it catches anything\'s attention when we open it up."

"Hold on. Can\'t you just show me what he looks like?"

"You\'ll get to see what he\'s capable of when we find a fight. If I have to wait to see what your class can actually do, then you get to wait a few extra minutes."

Alex didn\'t even try to hide the smug grin on his face as they headed out toward the portal leading back to Earth.

Nobody had ever said he wasn\'t petty, but he was just as in the dark to Glint\'s new abilities as Claire was. He was actively hoping that something would try to stop them when he opened the portal.

I can\'t wait to see just what Glint is capable of now.