Nick sat on his bed, too numb to do anything else. They were all at the session. If everything went well, Grizzizzik would level up. He’d get his sword tonight. And Nick would be grounded from attending CCNC for a month.

  He couldn’t allow that to happen. An entire month was dangerous. Who knows what Akshi would plan. Did Grizzizzik realize how dangerous this was? It was Grizzizzik’s life at risk just as much as his. He could not get kidnapped by Akshi, and that was more likely to happen if he was by himself.

  This was all Grizzizzik’s fault. All Chaos’s fault. He was suffering because of his character’s choices, and he had enough. Grizzizzik needed to speak. To say something. Anything.

  Something in the air shifted. It caused Nick to sit up a bit and look around. He couldn’t quite tell, but he was getting a visitor.

  “Before I arrive in my mortal form, I must explain the rules.”

  Order. He recognized that voice. The same angry, feminine voice the night of the crash. The woman who no doubt saved him from a worse situation, but he still felt a prickle of anger at her words.

  “I am coming in the form of a human woman. It is not to deceive you, it is to spare you your sanity. My eyes are the most difficult to change, so do not keep my gaze unless you wish to go insane. No one else can see me, and no one else will be able to hear our conversation, so you may speak as freely as you wish. I am appearing now.”

  A woman popped into existence, dressed in a pale gray pantsuit. He didn’t dare look at her eyes, but he did notice the moment she arrived she started pacing. Every step she took in her flats made the carpet get more organized. Like it was undoing the chaos of so many years of living.

  “Why now?” Nick almost demanded. “You had so many chances to stop this, and you didn’t. Now that it’s almost done, you arrive. Why?”

  “Did you learn nothing from my brother?” Her voice sounded the opposite of what he expected. It was almost like a perfectly ordered language broken down into the phrases that he needed to understand. “We do not often get involved in the matters of mortals.”

  Nick’s fists tightened over his sheets. “He clearly did. He made this stupid contract.”

  “And I honored it,” Order said.

  “Why?” Again, it was a demand. Perhaps he should have given her more respect, but he was exhausted. “Why would you do that?”

  She flipped some long brown hair over her shoulder. “I do apologize, but I cannot tell you my reasonings.”

  “Why the hell not?” Nick asked, his voice louder.

  “It is the balance my brother and I give each other. We made a pact of survival. Neither one of us can be the dominant force in the universe. If one of us gets too strong, the other can take over.”

  “And you don’t think Chaos has become the dominate force in my life? Since the moment he arrived?” Nick asked.

  “I kept him from making that crash worse,” Order said, continuing to pace in Nick’s room, absently straightening one of the books on his bookshelf.

  “Why didn’t you stop this when it first happened? Hell, why didn’t you stop your brother from making the pact with Neal?” Nick demanded.

  “If there are two willing participants, what more would you have me do? The contract is made, and I agree to contracts,” Order said.

  “I didn’t make the contract. I didn’t agree to anything. Either Grizzizzik’s contract or Neal’s. Yet here I am, stuck. Isolated,” Nick said.

  Order sighed. “Yes, I suppose I am allowed to tell you this with no repercussions.” Nick almost glanced up but caught himself. “The only reason why I allowed the contract with Neal is because every contract has an expiration date, and Chaos agreed it could come to an end in one hundred years. Unless I found a way to end it sooner.” She kept pacing, brushing the dust off his desk. “Your group is the perfect one to end it.”

  Nick couldn’t help it, his eyes shooting up to meet her gaze. Her eyes were off, much like Chaos’s eyes. Instead of things changing and shifting, though, Nick saw her eyes building. Building to what he thought would be perfection. Yet it kept going.

  He tore his gaze away, his mind momentarily scrambled before he realized what she meant. “We… we are to end Neal’s contract?” Nick asked.

  “No. As long as you keep following my parameters, the potential is great for your group to be the one to end it. We both can guess the future well enough, but not perfectly.”

  Nick let out a shaky breath. “We’re teenagers.”

  Order shrugged. “It’s why Chaos agreed to let your group have your characters. To start the process of potentially ending the contract. Because you’re so young.”

  “We didn’t want this,” Nick said, confident everyone in the group felt this way. “None of us did. You can’t do this. You’re the personification of Order. You should have given us a choice.”

  Order shook her head. “I do not give you your choices. The way you get choices is Chaos and I becoming balanced enough to let you make choices, wherein you grow. But you don’t get to choose your consequences. That is up to us. That is where you have no choice.”

  Nick felt angry. “This isn’t fair. Chaos has too much power over us, and you’re not doing anything!”

  “Life isn’t fair. If it were, your species would never evolve. Never change, never grow. There must always be an element of unfairness if life must continue.”

  Nick flared his nostrils. He hated this. He realized, now, that he had seen Chaos as evil and Order as good. But both were so incredibly indifferent to him, except for when it came to their particular needs.

  “Then why are you here?” Nick asked.

  “To give you a semblance of Order,” she said.

  “Well, this isn’t it,” Nick said. “Chaos is ruling my life way too much.”

  “Yes, he is. He is pushing his bounds, but I am getting what I need from him, so I let him continue.”

  “What? What are you getting?” Nick asked.

  “It is not your right to know,” Order said as she kept pacing.

  Nick needed to try a different approach. “Tell me how to end the contract between Grizzizzik and Chaos.”

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “It ends when Grizzizzik reaches the levels he wants to in his warlock class,” Order said.

  This was way more frustrating than Nick wanted it to be. “How do I end it with my friends figuring out what he did?”

  “Mmm,” Order said, her nose crinkling. “That is prematurely ending a contract. That’s a little too… chaotic for me.”

  “Oh, god,” Nick said. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously,” Order said. “Despite the negative nature you see in this contract, it is still a contract.”

  Nick closed his eyes, thinking. “How do I rebuild the relationships with my friends? That has to be something you would prefer.”

  Order stopped pacing. Under her feet, the dirt melted from the carpet, the fibers rebuilding themselves. “A fascinating problem.” She started pacing again, thinking. “You did, after all, not agree to the contract. My brother bound you a little too tightly. I shall call to him. I must warn you, though, the two of us in the same room could be a bit too much for your sanity. Close your eyes.”

  Nick didn’t dare chance it and he closed his eyes. She snapped her finger, and Nick felt himself crumple into himself as Chaos appeared. He heard their voices and didn’t dare open his eyes.

  “You called, sister?” Chaos asked.

  “The contract between you and Grizzizzik. Nick’s participation was not freely given. Therefore, he is feeling my constraint and needs some chaos to break it prematurely.”

  From the sound of it, Chaos and Order were circling around each other.

  “Mmm,” Chaos said. “A premature break in a contract sounds delightful.”

  Nick kept his eyes closed, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead. He realized what he asked.

  “I… don’t want to break the contract,” Nick said.

  “Oh, you don’t?” Order asked, sounding intrigued.

  “I understand why Grizzizzik did this. We need a way to kill Akshi, especially with the shorter deadline. The sword is the quickest way. I just need everyone else to realize what he did so I can start rebuilding relationships with my friends. With my sister.”

  “Mmm,” Order said. “It seems fair.”

  “Oh, Grizzizzik getting caught would be a delicious chaos,” Chaos said.

  “Loosen the constraints of the contract. Stop changing my words so much. How can I go about this?” Nick asked, keeping his eyes closed.

  “Ah, this is in Order’s responsibilities. She may choose whether to outright tell you,” Chaos said.

  “How much would it cost me to outright tell him?” Order asked.

  “Loose Alejandra again,” Chaos said.

  Goosebumps rose on Nick’s arms. He didn’t know what they were talking about, but it made him nauseous. Nick about spoke, but Order spoke faster.

  “No. I just got her, thanks to your overstepping your bounds,” Order said.

  Nick’s pounding heart was painful.

  “You’ve got plenty saved up, and the apocalypse isn’t until June. Telling him outright would hardly be a dent. You can earn her again,” Chaos said.

  “I must have her. I will not give her up,” Order said.

  “Leave Alejandra out of this,” Nick said.

  “Don’t speak about that which you don’t understand, mortal,” Chaos said.

  “Why are you talking about Alejandra?” Nick asked.

  “How much would inspiration cost?” Order asked, ignoring Nick’s question.

  Chaos gave it a second of thought. “How many words in this inspiration.” Order must have done something, because Chaos let out a grunt.

  “Nick will undoubtably figure out the rest himself,” Order said.

  “Then I’d like electrical power to mysteriously drop for two hours in a rural Nebraskan county,” Chaos said.

  Order sighed. “Fine.”

  Something was happening. Something Nick knew he shouldn’t open his eyes to, but curiosity got the best of him. He saw the two of them, in his room, pacing as they placed their palms out. His bedroom had completely changed. Where order was pacing he could see everything, the wood of his desk, the metal of his chair, all of it in perfect order. Chaos’s part of the room had everything in disarray. The bookshelf covered in mold, the books falling apart. As they kept pacing, their auras either organized or broke the room down.

  Between the distance of their two palms was energy. The energy between Order and Chaos that brought life. It was already brighter than the sun, and Nick quickly closed his eyes again, covering his head for good measure.

  Then the energy went out at once, and an idea struck him.

  Ezekiel is my character, too.

  Nick gasped, his eyes snapping open to an empty room. He didn’t know what Order meant. How was any of that supposed to make-

  His mind fell on Ezekiel. After playing him for three years, he wondered what that cleric was thinking. To his surprise, he did know what he thought. He’d spend enough time in his brain to understand that the cleric was worried. Grizzizzik never got under his skin, but he could tell something was going on. Ezekiel told Grizzizzik that the rogue was more than welcome to explain the situation to the group when he was ready, but Grizzizzik wouldn’t unless something happened. Unless Grizzizzik accidentally said something. Something like…

  Nick grabbed Evelyn’s phone and turned it on. The keycode stared right at him, and his heart sputtered to a stop. He didn’t know Evelyn’s code. He had his phone, of course, but Walt checked his phone every night.

  It didn’t matter. He would think of a lie later. He slipped Evelyn’s phone back in his pocket before pulling out his and flipping it open. He found Rafael’s name before pressing it. It rang before he heard Tyler’s voice.

  “Nick?”

  Nick hesitated, confused, until it dawned on him. “Right, I switched the contact information.”

  “What?” Tyler asked.

  “Nothing. Sorry to bother you.”

  Nick hung up. There was a good chance Tyler and Rafael were in the same room, so this was probably confusing, but Nick went to Tyler’s name to call Rafael. He cleared his throat, not even sure what he wanted to say, but the idea was already forming.

  “Um, hello?” Rafael asked.

  “Is Grizzizzik in the same room as you?”

  “What?”

  “Grizzizzik. Can you keep an eye on him?”

  “Nick, they’re not here. They… can be seen now. We’re meeting up with them at Cal’s.”

  Nick hesitated, then it dawned on him. His car crash was so big that he forgot the implications of the shortened deadline.

  “Right. Um… okay, look. I need Ezekiel,” Nick said. “I don’t know how much I can tell you-”

  “You can tell me anything-” Rafael started to say.

  “You need to trust me. I know it’s a huge thing to ask, especially after everything that’s been happening, but I need you to listen closely. I need to talk to Grizzizzik, and I need Ezekiel to overhear the entire conversation,” Nick said.

  “Right. And, um, we’ll meet up at Calawit’s. Ezekiel isn’t here, either.”

  “I know. I know. I’ll… meet you at Cal’s too.”

  “Whoa, Nick. Wait. I don’t think that’s-”

  “Please, Rafael. I know I’m asking a ton. I know I’ve hurt you and your sister. And… everyone. I know none of this makes sense, but I swear it will all make sense shortly.” Nick rubbed his scarred eyebrow. “As long as Ezekiel is able to sneak past Grizzizzik’s nineteen passive perception to overhear the conversation.”

  “I…” Rafael didn’t finish, and Nick let out a sigh.

  “Please, Rafael. Please trust me this one last time. If this works, you’ll understand. If it doesn’t…” A nausea seemed to bypass his stomach and entered his very soul as he glanced down. “Then… I understand if it’s been too much and you all need a break from me.”

  There was another silence. Nick didn’t know what he expected.

  “Nick…” Rafael started to say. “This isn’t healthy.”

  “I know,” Nick said. “And I’m trying to fix it. I swear it will make sense. This is the only way. Please. Please trust me one more time.”

  There was silence on the other end. Nick was too scared Rafael wouldn’t be on board, but he didn’t know what else to say.

  “Do you… remember? A month ago? At the session at my parent’s house?” Nick asked.

  He braced himself for Rafael to get angry. For Chaos to change his words to something else that would make this worse.

  “Yeah,” Rafael said. “I remember.”

  It was vague, and Nick wasn’t sure if Rafael heard what he said, but he pushed through. “Do you remember what you said after you apologized?”

  “I… think so.”

  “What did you say? What did you warn me?”

  Nick held his breath. He needed more than a few word answers. He needed to make sure Rafael was hearing what he said.

  “I warned you Grizzizzik wanted to make you stronger. To make sure you weren’t weak.”

  Nick realized he couldn’t be sure Rafael was saying exactly what he said, either. Then again, Chaos had been on board with this idea. He wanted to experience the chaos of Grizzizzik getting caught. That alone gave Nick hope.

  “If you want to know what Grizzizzik is doing to me, have Ezekiel overhear our conversation,” Nick said.

  It was a long silence. A silence that he still couldn’t be certain was the truth.

  “Okay.”

  All the breath left his body at once. “Okay?”

  “Okay. Please… be careful.”

  “Thank you. Thank you, Rafael.”

  Nick hung up. He needed to talk to Grizzizzik before they fought in the session. Before Grizzizzik potentially leveled up. He got out of bed and left his room. He grabbed the keys to his mom’s car before he could stop himself. He then rushed into the garage, opened the door, and climbed in. The garage was noisy, and no doubt alerted Walt, but this was important. He would never repair his relationship with his father, but he had to repair the relationship with his friends.

  He buckled himself in, making sure it didn’t hurt his bruises too bad before he started the car, backed out of the driveway, and headed for Calawit’s tent.