Alice's voice echoed in his mind, carrying a note of genuine surprise, "He is not just buying a fish, Lucid, he is buying a future, he is offering a solution, a way out of the cycle of despair that has gripped this town."
Lucid nodded slowly, his expression unreadable, "I know, and that is what worries me, because futures are expensive, and someone always has to pay the price, the question is, who will pay, and what will be the cost?"
He stepped forward, his voice cutting through the murmur of the crowd, "Fenwick, I have a question, what happens after the fund is established, what happens when the money runs out, what happens when the hope fades and the old patterns return?"
Fenwick turned to face him, his eyes meeting Lucid's through the mist that shrouded his face, "That is where you come in, Lucid, you have seen what lies beneath the surface, you have faced the Domain and survived, you know what is at stake, I need you, we need you, to help us build something that lasts, something that cannot be broken by the next crisis."
Lucid was silent for a moment, the weight of Fenwick's words settling on his shoulders like a mantle he had not asked to wear, then he nodded, his voice low and steady, "Alright, I will help, but know this, I am not doing this for you, or for Valen, or for anyone else, I am doing it for the people of Port Vexis, because they deserve a chance, a real chance, to rebuild their lives."
They sold it in the end. Lucid stood beside Valen, watching the transaction settle into something final. Arthur watched him from a few paces away, arms crossed, his expression unreadable.
People around the market square were starting to look more lively. At the faintest corner of Lucid's eye, a shop opened its shutters for the first time in what looked like weeks. The wood creaked as the owner propped the door wide, sunlight spilling across dusty shelves that had clearly gone untouched for far too long.
They had revived the economy. Not entirely, not completely, but they had given it enough of a spark to keep growing.
"That can't be it," Lucid said, looking between Valen and the shop. "One pearl fish sale doesn't fix an entire domain's economy."
Valen nodded in confirmation, his expression calm despite the implication.
'It's more complicated than that,' Alice said quietly within him.
She supplied him with an explanation, the words forming in his mind with that familiar warmth she carried even when discussing matters.
"Oh... so in a way it will, circulate currency back into the town..." Lucid muttered to himself quietly
Valen glanced toward the magistrate for a brief moment. Something in his expression carried pity, though he masked it quickly.
"The domain is still here," Valen said. "But the cultists are no more."
He didn't explain why he glanced toward Lucid after saying it.
Lucid felt something settle into place. The notebook. Their frequent encounters across the past few weeks. He had been their target all along. The bodies scattered through the lower district, the systematic disappearances, all of it had probably been an act designed to draw out the queen's forces. Which were him.
They had known who he was since he crossed those wretched red mountains.
He gave a faint nod, accompanied by something close to a smile. Everyone exchanged glances. A quiet agreement passed between them. An understanding that didn't need words to confirm itself.
For just a moment, it felt like everyone had reached the same conclusion simultaneously.
But it still didn't make any sense, I didn't make sense... everything leading up until that point was but a selfless act, in his point of view.
Lucid spoke his voice directly aimed at valen
"Are you sure you came here for what you actually wanted?"
The magistrate stiffened slightly at that question. Lucid looked at her, aware of the awkwardness settling over the conversation.
Valen replied after lingering for a moment.
"The cultists are gone," he said carefully. "And most of the wealthy nobles are not nearly as predatory as they once were."
Lucid considered this. This yellow haired young man, if the rumors held any truth, was the one people called the Generous Scoundrel. He seemed to be searching for something else entirely. Something beyond cultists and corrupt nobility.
It seemed like he wanted a thing. Something hidden deep within the domain itself.
Looking back, there was no other explanation. He hadn't been here simply to destroy opposing factions. That kind of widespread destruction was too risky, too costly to justify without some deeper, more self interested motive. Something he stood to gain.
Lucid kept this thought to himself.
His thoughts remained open for her to observe, since Alice had given him guidance and fragmented recollections from that rift, whether through blind luck or genuine intention. He didn't particularly care which. What mattered was that Alice could help him navigate this, even if the line between her assistance and his own judgment felt thinner than he wanted to admit.
He felt willing to cross that line if necessary. After all, he understood how to play with fire by now.
Valen looked at him directly.
"I am afraid that is none of your business," Valen said, his tone shifting into something more formal. "Thus I suppose this is how our partnership and agreement concludes."
Lucid blinked, caught off guard for a brief moment.
"Uh... Yes." He hastly replied after staring in the open.
He extended his hand forward, expecting some final gesture of acknowledgment.
Valen looked at the offered hand. He scoffed, the sound short and dismissive.
Then as soon as he turned, he flipped a platinum mark toward Lucid, the coin spinning through the air before landing in his open palm.
"This is for your pain and suffering," Valen said.
He turned his back, adjusting the cap on his head with a casual flick of his wrist, the motion serving as a farewell gesture all on its own.
"Until then, my fogged associate."
Lucid stared down at his hand, where the mismatched platinum chip sat against his palm. He wore a quiet, patient expression, the kind that suggested he was processing several conflicting emotions at once but hadn't decided which one deserved priority.
Then everything fell apart as Arthur intervened, grabbing Lucid by the shoulders before he could move.
It was almost comical to watch. Arthur restraining him with both arms while Lucid strained forward, his expression caught somewhere between genuine outrage and bewildered disbelief.
But that was how things concluded.
"To think you can just walk away after handing me a single platinum mark," Lucid said, his voice rising with each word. "Oh, you are so dead."
"I will sue!" he added, as if that somehow followed logically from everything that had just happened.
Alice spoke from within him, her tone carrying that particular dryness she reserved for moments she found genuinely amusing.
"On what basis?"
Arthur struggled to hold Lucid back, his grip slipping slightly as Lucid leaned further forward, straining against the restraint. Part of Lucid seemed to be holding himself back too, his own since his strength was more then enough to make the aspiring knight fall over and tumble.
"On everything!" Lucid shouted, his voice carrying across the market square.
Several nearby shopkeepers glanced over, curious about the commotion as well as the lingering crowd after the sale. The magistrate watched with an expression that suggested she'd witnessed stranger arguments in her time governing this domain.
Valen didn't even turn around. He simply raised one hand holding the cap, waving it dismissively over his shoulder as he continued walking toward the edge of the market.
"Good luck with that," he called back, his tone light, almost playful.
"Wait," Lucid said, finally calming slightly as something else occurred to him. He stopped struggling against Arthur's grip, his expression shifting from outrage to genuine confusion. "How are you so sure that the town will stand back its feet again, what about the slums the bodies, the orphanage, the stolen wealth."
This finally made Valen pause. He turned partially, looking back over his shoulder with an expression that suggested he was reconsidering whether Lucid deserved an actual answer.
"The domain's wealth was never gone," Valen said. "It was hoarded. Concentrated in the hands of the cult leadership and the nobles who supported them. Removing both means that wealth redistributes naturally, assuming the right structures exist to facilitate it."
"And do they?" Lucid asked.
"They will," Valen said. "The magistrate has agreed to implement fair taxation on the recovered noble estates, I left a... great impression on her." He said looking over the her.
"The funds will go toward rebuilding infrastructure. Markets. Housing for those displaced during the conflict."
The magistrate nodded in confirmation, though her expression remained guarded.
"Additionally," Valen continued, "the domain were heavily restricted under noblemen and cult control. Opening them back up means, all of the value and currency traded in there may find its way back to the real waking world. That alone will generate revenue within months."
Arthur finally released his grip on Lucid, sensing that the immediate danger of violence had passed.
"And the pearl fish?" Lucid asked, gesturing toward the now bustling section of market where fishermen were already unloading fresh catches onto display tables.
"A symbol," Valen said. "Something visible. Something people could point to and say, the market is recovering. Confidence matters as much as actual currency in situations like this. People needed to see something working before they would trust that the larger system was working too."