Spell Weaver-Chapter 115. Connecting the Dots

Alex drummed his fingers against the closed leather-bound book he had sitting on his desk. Edwin had asked him to review the financial accounts after he'd woken up from 11 hours of sleep. He'd grabbed the leather notebook to take notes and scribble any additional thoughts, though he'd yet to open it once. Edwin's neat and elegant handwriting was flawless, and his notes on expenditure and income were detailed.

He contemplated offering Edwin a raise. Alex felt that without his expert assistance, he'd be hopelessly lost.

According to the records, he still had 8 million in liquid assets, which was mind-blowing for him to think about. Edwin had set aside a sum of money for taxes; then, after the purchase of the house, setting aside money for Sam and the two major construction projects, Alex had thought that it would be lower than that. It was also impressive to him was the fact that there was a record of a D Rank mana stone in holding with the Guild for them based on the accrued profits from the Celestial Rift.

That means they've gotten into the Rift and already looted around 50 of the stones for themselves? That's impressive, but it makes sense if Olivia already had the Unbound title. I'll have to ask Elana how they're getting in there and avoiding the sects or if they've made contact with Eura.

The thought that the Guild had potentially made friends with the Celestial Sect made Alex smile. His thoughts drifted toward going to see Eura and hoping that they were doing okay, and he realized that it had already been two months since he made the deal. That meant two things: He had two days already on hold for his slot into the Rift, meaning next month would be his third day and the max that he could stockpile. The other thing was that more than a year had passed in the Rift due to the time-dilation, which was just crazy to think about.

Do I really want to go back in there? Maybe it would be worth passing the days off to Olivia. I've clearly got enough to occupy my mind here…

He leaned back in his chair and yawned. He still needed to look through the separate account he'd asked Edwin to set up for the team. Those funds would serve for group needs, future projects, gear and consumable replacements, and more. They had gotten it off the ground by selling a lot of the miscellaneous items that they'd gotten from the Teams Event, but he still needed to look at the specifics.

A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. Mark and Sarah poked their heads into the doorway, and Alex could immediately tell that Mark was stressed. His stomach clenched, and he'd been dreading the conversation with Mark all morning after the state he'd seen his large friend in the previous day.

"What's up, guys? Come in," Alex said and closed the ledger while setting it to the side. "Hope the drive wasn't too bad, Sarah. Can I get you anything?"

"I'm good," Sarah said with a small smile. "Edwin offered when he let me in."

Alex nodded and stood to walk with them over to the larger table to sit with them on the stools. He felt it was too awkward to talk to his friends from behind a grand desk like he was their boss or something. He gave Mark's large shoulder a pat as he walked past and sat on the far side of the table, across from them both.

"How're you holding up?" Alex asked.

His friend's easygoing smile was nowhere to be seen. Sarah sat on the other stool, crossed her legs, and adjusted her posture. "Struggling, man. That's why we're here." Mark laid his hands on the table and picked at the back of his hand. "I've been running with that new party for almost two weeks. Devon is a solid dude, and honestly, I felt a bit more needed there. Just because they don't normally have a tank, their other party members have all let me know a bunch of times that they appreciate my help, and they are pretty professional, even though they're only around levels 12 to 15. But our last run…" He trailed off and Alex could see his jaw clench.

Alex waited for him to continue.

"Well, we got a good contract a few days ago to try and close an Uncommon Rift. I was really excited about it since we've only closed Common ones so far, and because I was so close to hitting level 10, I knew that if we closed it, I'd get to pick a class. We had to drive a few hours up to Pennsylvania, but the Quests in the Rift were different. The Personal Quest was just to participate in killing the Rift boss, and the Rift Quest was to kill the Rift boss. There weren't any other monsters in the Rift at all. Just the one huge jungle cat that was lurking around."

"Never heard of a Rift like that," Alex said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, well—we found the Rift Boss. But the problem is, we were setting up to attack it in its nest and everyone was getting into position. I could have sworn—" Mark choked on his words and wouldn't look up from his hands.

Sarah rubbed his upper back, and they both waited patiently for Mark to continue.

"I could have sworn I heard Devon give the signal to pull the boss. He said ‘3, 2, 1, Pull’ just like he always does on a pull. So, I used [Charge] and [Taunt] to start the fight just like we'd planned. But then all hell broke loose. No one was actually ready, and the fight devolved. We ended up winning in the end, but… but two people were killed, and a few others were injured." Mark's lower lip quivered a bit, but he clenched his jaw and clearly wrestled the feelings under control. A few tears spilled from his eyes, but he didn't blink or wipe them away.

"I jumped the gun. I started the fight before anyone was ready. For the next day or two, I got a lot of hate messages and stuff in the AG app, and some people were saying that I needed to pay for all of the healing for those who were injured. Devon and his team stood up for me, saying that it wasn't my fault. But… but now they're not getting any more contracts either. They said that they think someone in the Guild is blocking them from contracts as long as I'm on the team…" He let out a deep breath to steady himself.

Alex's eyebrows had slowly risen as he heard the story, and he knew that, more than anything, the idea that he'd been directly responsible for two people's deaths was tearing Mark up inside.

"They asked me this morning to step away from the team so that they could pick up a few contracts again. I don't think I can join you again either… or else you won't get contracts."

"What the fuck?" Alex blurted.

Mark and Sarah both looked up.

"You can absolutely join me. You can always join me, Mark. Don't say stupid stuff like that. If there's someone in the Guild that's blocking contracts from you, it's probably fucking Rylan." Alex stood from his stool and began pacing along the backside of the office table next to the bookshelves. Alex muttered to himself as he moved, and Mark started to speak up.

"You think he saw me make a mistake like that and is just capitalizing on it to make things harder for us? That seems a little over the top, doesn't it?"

But before Alex could respond, Sarah interrupted. She was staring at the table with her chin in her hand. "Wait a second. I know you were just bashing Rylan there… but, I should have made the connection when you told me earlier. Describe Devon for me?"

"Huh? Uhh, he's a skinny guy. Dark hair. Uses a spear. He's got a short beard?" Mark looked at her curiously as Sarah nodded along with him. "Why?"

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"Here," Sarah said while pulling out her phone. She pulled up her social media and swiped through for a long moment. "Yep." She passed the phone over to Mark.

His eyebrows slowly rose, and Alex watched for a moment, but when Mark started cursing, Alex quickly moved around the table to look over his friend's shoulder at the phone screen.

On the post was a picture of Rylan and a guy that fit the description Mark had given for Devon. The picture was dated back more than a year and they were sitting on a beach together with drinks in their hands.

Mark swiped through the profile and saw picture after picture of the two in various social settings. One of them on a boat, then another with them on a golf course, then another with them on a private plane.

“Mother f-”

“They’re friends?” Alex said with surprise.

Oh shit.

“Wait, you think?” Alex asked Sarah.

“I do. I think the entire accident was a setup. And now that I’m on this thought… it wouldn’t be a stretch to think of Rylan or one of his friends being the person to call my work and make that ‘anonymous tip’ about me working with the Guild,” Sarah said, causing Alex to curse again.

"So what? He's just going after everyone close to me?" Alex's voice was quiet but he had goosebumps run down both of his arms. He started pacing again and moved over to the window behind his desk. "This just sounds so over the top.”

“Just think about it for a sec,” Sarah said. “Think of all the stuff Rylan has done so far. Actually, let’s think of the issues we’ve had that “haven’t” been related to Rylan. We had trouble with that note in the system to prevent us from running rifts. Then, there were some of those rumors that Olivia said started after you lost the fight with Rylan. Luckily, for that one there was video evidence there to disprove them. Now I can't work with the Guild anymore because of an anonymous tip, and Mark gets set up to look incompetent and dangerous… That’s an awful lot of things going wrong to be a coincidence."

"But why?" Mark asked. "Just because you two had a fight? Because he lost?"

Sarah shook her head and looked over at Alex. "It probably started there. I’ve seen plenty of people like Rylan who feel that losing face publicly is worse than any sort of personal insult. But, it's more than that. Remember what you told me about Elana's story? About how they grew up in their dynamic being even more competitive than yours and Jake's? Rylan's always been about power and control. This is probably his way of isolating Alex to make him appear unstable or unreliable."

"We'll need proof. This feels like a stretch even to me," Alex said as he turned back to face them. "Something more concrete to actually show it was him."

"Wait, this doesn't make sense, though," Mark said. "Even if Devon and Rylan are friends, Devon and his party really stood up for me and tried to make me feel better. And honestly? Two people died because of me. Even if it was a setup, that's still on my conscience."

"No, Mark. That's not on you. If I had to guess, Devon is definitely in on this. I'm not sure about the other people from his party. They might not know and are just trusting Devon… But you said you heard him give you the go-ahead to pull the boss, right? What if he did give it to you? He just intentionally gave it to you at the wrong time. It could've been their plan all along to get you to look like a bad tank. Who knows why they stood up for you, maybe to make you less suspicious or because they felt bad that things actually went as badly as they did? I can't imagine that they actually wanted anyone to die over this stupid nonsense… maybe it escalated past what they had planned. It’s not like they’d admit that it was their fault now, if anything they’d double down on it being you."

"I don't know… It feels convenient to just blame this stuff on him." Even as Mark said the words quietly, Alex could see the gears turning in his head.

Alex knew he wouldn't want to accept this until he saw proof. In Mark's mind, if he agreed with this theory, he would feel like he was shifting blame for his own mistake, which he just wouldn't do.

Alex pulled out his phone.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asked.

"Going to text Elana. We don't have any proof yet, but she's been really reasonable about her brother so far. She told me after the New Year's tournament that she was going to try and keep him off our back. Even without proof, I think if I tell her what we're thinking, she'll at least be able to rein him in a little bit until we can come back with some hard evidence."

"I don't know, that's a lot of faith in her. You think she'll take your side over her brother's? And that’s assuming she isn’t in on all of this."

Alex shrugged. "I don’t know her all that well, but I really doubt she’s aware of any of Rylan’s bullshit. I mean, I'm not trying to take him up on charges or anything. Last time we talked, she seemed to really understand how carried away he could get." Elana's response was almost instant, and she told him to call whenever he wanted to chat. ƒreewebɳovel.com

He dialed her number and put her on speaker when she answered. "Alex? Everything okay?"

"Not really. Got a minute? There's something I wanted to talk to you about. About Rylan."

"Shit. What's he done now?"

Alex laid out their suspicions, connecting the dots between their earlier struggles with getting into a Rift and the more recent incidents with Mark and Sarah's troubles. Elana listened until he had finished.

"Alex," she said cautiously. "Rylan's been in Europe for almost two weeks on Guild business. You should know that. He's with Olivia and the rest of that team. They're handling diplomatic relations with several different European guilds to hopefully start a branch out there. There's no way he could orchestrate all of this."

"He doesn't have to be here personally," Alex argued. "His friends—"

"Stop." Elana's tone hardened. "Look, I know you're probably still upset about losing to him, but seeing conspiracies everywhere isn't healthy. Sometimes accidents just happen, and the one with Mark was tragic. I've been talking to several of the families almost all morning."

"Elana, I'm not saying it was all him. But it is all really suspicious. You even said—"

"Look, I have to go. If you've got some actual evidence that Rylan is behind all this, please bring it to me. But for the last few months, he's been the brother and Guild member that we really needed around here. This seems really elaborate for almost no payoff—”

“Elana. Look, I get you have a lot going on and you’re looking at a bigger picture here than I am. But it shouldn’t be up to me to gather evidence when I’m telling you someone in your guild, who you’re pushing into a leadership role, is harassing me and my friends.

“What do you need me to do? Start some sort of formal complaint process? I’ve only been home two months and there’s been at least three or four incidents where he has gone out of his way to be shitty and smug. I’m trying to come to you here because you seem to understand your brother and have some ability to reign him in. The entire Guild environment is starting to feel sour to me and it’s almost entirely because of Rylan.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. “All right. You’re right. Don’t open some sort of complaint. He really has been changing, and I want to believe that’s real. I’ll look into what he’s doing, or if his friends are being shady while he’s gone. But… just try to let this go for a bit. Things are clearly tense from the podium event and even though I know Rylan is petty, this seems like a big leap. I’ll let you know what I find. I really do need to go. Take care of yourself, Alex. Maybe take a break from all this for a while."

The call ended. Alex stared at his phone for a moment with his jaw clenched tight.

"Well, that went about as expected," Sarah said softly.

"I really thought she might be a little more reasonable than that. But… I guess from her standpoint, it probably does look like I'm grasping at straws. I’m a surprised though, I thought she would have at least heard me out… She said to bring her the evidence if I find anything. Is that so she can bury it? You might be on to something there, Sarah."

Am I jumping at shadows and seeing conspiracies? I really don’t feel like Elana would be in on something like this. Maybe I’m giving her too much credit?

"She's right about one thing," Mark added. "We don't have any actual proof yet. Just suspicions."

Sarah slumped down into the stool shed been sitting on. "So what? He just gets to keep messing with us one by one?"

"No," Alex said, looking between the two of them. "We watch each other's backs. Make sure we're aware of what we're actually doing and what the results could end up being. In the meantime, we can start looking into some of this, and maybe when Olivia gets back, she can use some of her stealth skills to help us get something that sticks. Something that the rest of the Guild can't dismiss."

Mark nodded slowly and looked up from the table, and met Alex's eyes. "In the meantime, we stick together. If he's trying to isolate you, we do the opposite."

Sarah nodded along with Alex until a thought occurred to him. "Sam," he muttered and pulled his phone back out of his pocket. "If Rylan's targeting each of us…"

He saw he had missed two texts from Sam over the last few days. One was just a random check-up and a picture of his parents' bloodhound. The other was an apology and a text that he would be coming back to stay at the mansion in a few days.

Alex quickly sent him a text to make sure everything was okay and felt some frustration begin to rise as the text sent but never showed as delivered. He stared at the screen for a few long moments, hoping that it would update.