Prax swore under his breath. One of his system windows was up, showing James arriving and moving through his ship.

  This was far sooner than he’d planned.

  He briefly considered just taking all the Commanders on ‘his’ floor and making a run for it.

  It would definitely break his cover though. It had taken a long time for Bob to let down his guard and let him in. It had taken even longer to gather evidence for his crimes.

  The scene of the original trapped Gweneviere might even be enough to convict Bob on its own but he wanted to take this bastard down once and for all.

  As if on cue Bob arrived at Prax’s booth.

  “Return James to me immediately,” Bob demanded, barely controlling his anger.

  “I do not want one of you rats scurrying around my ship. I’ll return him, for favourable enough terms.” Prax replied, not missing a beat.

  “So that’s how you want to play this? He can be replaced. Kill him.” Bob’s voice demanded obedience, while promising violence.

  “That too can be arranged, depending on the terms,” Prax said, keeping his voice level.

  Bob took a threatening step forward.

  “Need I remind you that you are on my floor at the moment. Threatening me here will not go well for you, Bob,” Prax said carefully.

  Bob snapped his fingers and they were in a bubble to prevent any eavesdropping. The fact he’d only done it now showed his lack of control of himself.

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  “If I don’t leave here, then neither do you. Your ship will be destroyed before you can get far enough away to engage your main drives.”

  “I agree. You will be dead as well though, so can we stop with the threats and actually negotiate?” Prax spoke evenly, his voice remaining calm and collected the whole time.

  “What do you want?” Bob capitulated.

  “Change the rules of the game. Let the commanders work together if they wish. Let the Arena floor remain an option for PVP, but death matches are optional and only for real grudges. Come on, we’re here to see them fight your labyrinth, not see them all forfeit. This feels like a scam that lets you collect the circus fees, while cutting the show short.”

  “If you really want a show, perhaps I will loosen the mind control rules.”

  “Ahh, but that would be against the law. Are you really willing to do that?”

  “Ha, I’m playing with you. Of course I wouldn’t go that far. Okay, have it your way. For the rest of this season I will change the rules. The ones that have already forfeited are out though. I have to keep the illusion that they have been returned to Earth. Besides, they’ve already been ‘adopted’ by some of the patrons.”

  “I assume you would like me to wipe James’s memories. How far back?”

  “Wipe to the point just after he used Window into Reality. The skill will still work of course, I can’t change the system, but an invisible barrier will also appear in any environment I control in response. I need you to impose the same effect on yours as well. And for all this I expect you and the Arena floor to remain for the rest of the season.”

  “Okay, we have a deal. I’ll be back shortly.”

  Prax walked over to his teleporter and vanished.

  He sat up in his real body.

  “Hello James. Did you enjoy the show?”

  Of course, he’d live-streamed every part of the interaction with Bob, complete with word captions on the screen James was staring at.

  “I need you to go back in. With your help, let’s take down this bastard.”

  “Play along and I will make sure you and as many people as I can get rescued and returned home. That is, if you want to. There’s far more to the Void Sea than one planet.”

  James smiled.

  “Okay,” he said. “What do you need from me?”

  Hi Readers,

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