“You definitely didn’t come here to study zero-point energy,” I said. “I pegged that as a lie pretty early on.”

  I grinned when I saw the surprise on her face. “I may not be able to read lies as well as the Dalari, but your actions don’t match up with your backstory.”

  Ersabet relaxed, accepting the situation for what it was. “Perhaps humans are more discerning than I had given them credit.”

  “I’m listening,” I said, tapping my foot impatiently.

  “What do you want to know?”

  I looked sternly at her. “Everything - who you are, what you did before this, why you’re here. If you’re in this to defeat the Triarchy and save Earth, then I need you to tell me your story in its entirety. I need to know who you are and why you are with me, and I need to believe it. I trust you, Ersabet. I always have, but I also have a history of misplaced trust. I need to be sure that’s not the case this time. Prove to me that we’re in this together.”

  This was the ultimate test for Ersabet. I had given her the most sensitive bit of information in the galaxy, and in return, I was demanding complete transparency from her. It was a damn fair trade if you asked me.

  I’d sensed that she had considered backing out of our arrangement multiple times. Hell, I don’t even blame her after all I’ve put her through, but the time for backing out was over. Things were different now. I went all in, but if my gut was wrong, and instead of opening up, Ersabet held her tongue or cooked up some lie, then this would be the end of our partnership, or worse.

  “If it is a story you want, then let us sit,” Ersabet said as she rested on a small boulder.

  I found myself a soft spot in the grass, sat down, and looked up at her expectantly.

  “Like all members of the Triarchy, my people live long lives,” she began. “Some of my relatives are old enough to have participated in multiple games. Some lived. Some died. But they all played the game, nonetheless. All except for my parents, who, unlike their relatives, did not delight in the death of a friend or family member. My parents saw the Annexation Game as the Triarchy’s greatest sin. They referred to it as ‘Suicidal Decadence.’ Participating in a game is considered the height of pleasure. There is nothing else in the galaxy that could give you the rush of playing the game. It is a drug – one so powerful that it is worth the risk of death and the destruction of worlds.”

  I held up a hand. “Annexation Game? I thought this was called Quest for Conquest or something ridiculous like that.”

  “Only the first was called The Annexation Game. Each iteration of the game has its own title, but the term ‘Annexation Game’ became a colloquial way of referring to the games in general. The Triarchy maintains control of the planet once the game ends, so the term stuck.

  Val had never referred to the game by that term, but that was typical of Val. She tended to leave out information unless I specifically asked about it.

  “There were others like my parents,” Ersabet continued, “They were part of a coalition of like-minded individuals who sought to put an end to the games. They rallied and politicked and achieved nothing but to gain the ire of Triarchy leadership.”

  She sighed and shook her head. “Loss of freedom is the price of utopia. If one did as they were told and accepted every new rule and decree with a smile, they would be labelled a good citizen and treated as such. If one dissented or spoke against the many degradations of the Triarchy, there was a very good chance that one would be killed. Despite knowing this, my parents continued to voice their dissatisfaction regarding the games, and as a result, they, along with everyone in their peace coalition, were captured and forced to join the game against their will. My parents were in the previous game, and neither of them survived past the first month. I have never received an official report on their deaths, but I have been told in confidence that their deaths were orchestrated by one of our own generals in the war games.”

  “So, this is a revenge story?” I asked.

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  She waved my comment away. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. I arrived here aimless. Only after meeting you did a path of revenge open itself to me.

  “Why did you come here?”

  “After my parents were killed, some of the other now-parentless children and I carried on in our parents’ footsteps. We kept their dream of one day ending the game alive, but we were not complacent. We did more than hope for a better tomorrow. We didn’t just protest. We took action.”

  I raised a brow. “What did you do, Ersabet?”

  “We killed someone. Someone important to the games.” She shook her head. “We felt so proud of ourselves, like we had accomplished something grand, but the next day, our victim was replaced like he had never even mattered. It was then that our young, foolish minds caught up to the truth. The Triarchy was in control, always. They were so big and so powerful that our little attack was nothing but a tickle to them. Still, to maintain their control, the perpetrators had to be dealt with. Six of my closest friends were killed within a week. I managed to hide out for a month or so, but it was only a matter of time before they tracked me down, so I bribed an administrator and was allowed passage to your world.”

  She raised both arms in the air. “Here, I am free. The laws of the Triarchy do not exist on Erda. I had come here intending to stay well past the end of the games.” She stood up from her rock. “But my plans have now changed. A strong-willed yet naive human has revived my parents' dream of putting an end to the games.”

  “I had assumed your eagerness to help was born from some past injustice,” I said. “In that, I’m glad to see I was correct, although I am sorry about what the Triarchy did to your family.”

  She sniffed. “It pales in comparison to what they have done to trillions of sentients across the galaxy. My people consider genocide to be luxury entertainment. If that is not a sign of a dying civilization, I don’t know what is.”

  “Do you think there are others here like you?” I asked. “People who want to see these games end?”

  She shrugged. “Probably, but I do not know who they are, and it would be too much of a risk to inquire among my kind.”

  She looked down at her feet. “That is how I became separated from my adventuring party before I was captured by Shask. I had made my feelings about the game known to someone I had begun to consider a friend. I was wrong. They told the rest of the group, and I was abandoned in the Bygone Mountains.”

  “I must be the luckiest person on Earth to have run into you,” I said. “Of all the players, I found the one who wanted to help the most.”

  Ersabet laughed but shook her head. “I doubt that. Many wish some form of ill upon the oppressive Triarchy. Our lives are decadent and peaceful. Even the poorest among us want for nothing. Yet, we are all trapped in a prison of our own devising. The Triarchy is a perfect flower, and if anyone dares scuff a petal, well, behavior like that won’t be tolerated. It is the enforcement of perfection that breeds dissent among the citizens. There are more Dalari like me than you would think, but not enough to make a difference. Especially not here.”

  “What about the Kurskins? Do they have little rebels among their kind?”

  “Of course,” Ersabet retook her seat and crossed her legs. “The Voxals are a different story. There is no dissent among their kind. They're too ‘evolved’ for that,” she said, rolling her eyes.

  “Have the Kurskins and Dalari ever teamed up to take on the Voxals?”

  “Never. It would be foolish to even attempt it. The Voxals saved our species from destruction. The Dalari and the Kurskins were at war when contact with the Voxals was first made. To make a long story short, that war ended a few days later, and not long after that, both our species were invited to join Voxal society. The Voxals had superior technology, but nothing like what they have today. So, working together, with the Voxals at the lead, technology continued to advance and eventually the Triarchy as you know it came to be.”

  “So, the Voxals weren’t evil then? What changed?”

  Ersabet flicked a fallen leaf off her leg. “Don’t get me wrong, they were bastards. Just not genocidal bastards. Our three species were the only sentient beings in our region of the galaxy, so there wasn’t really any other competition. It was just advance, advance, advance, and eventually, we had it all. So, the Triarchy turned its attention elsewhere, searching for something it didn’t have.”

  “We’re going to find a way to put a stop to this,” I said. “I don’t care if the Triarchy wants to exist in peace on their side of the galaxy, but after we’re done with them here, they’ll never play a game again.”

  Ersabet let out a mocking laugh. “I have faith we can thoroughly irritate the Triarchy before we die, but there is no stopping this. It is too big for you or me to break, even with your artificial friend helping.”

  I gave her a wicked grin. “Just wait until we wrap up our mission in Liport. You might change your tune then.”

  She crossed her arms. “You have been most vague about our mission thus far.”

  “I’ll continue to be,” I said, still smiling. “I feel like our relationship needs some mystery between us, right?”

  She grunted in response.

  “Okay, let’s go tell the short version to everyone else,” I said before pausing and holding out my arms. “Unless you want to, I dunno, hug or something first? That’s what friends might do after a serious conversation.”

  She looked at me softly, walked forward, and slapped me in the face.

  “Don’t be an idiot,” she said as she walked away.

  I rubbed at my cheek and smiled, having noticed the smile on her own face as she said the words.