I reach the Mustang, slide behind the wheel, and let the door shut behind me.
For a second, I just sit there.
The fortune cookie is still in my pocket. Twenty-two million dollars is sitting in my account. A million dollars' worth of clothes, services, and gifts are already being handled behind me, and somewhere beyond everything I know, an entire territory is waiting for me to stop procrastinating and actually touch it.
But first?
I have somewhere familiar to be.
I start the Mustang.
The engine comes alive with that old familiar growl, and I pull out of the mall parking lot.
"Calderon Media," I say.
Genesis answers immediately.
"Your former workplace."
"Yep."
I merge into traffic, one hand resting loosely on the wheel.
Funny how different the drive feels now.
The last time that building mattered this much, I was sick, exhausted, broke enough that every paycheck had weight, and freshly fired from a job I had spent years giving pieces of myself to.
Now I'm wearing clothes worth more than some people's cars, my body feels better than it has any right to, and the amount of money in my personal account alone would've sounded fake to me this morning.
And I'm still driving the Mustang.
That part makes me smile.
I could've taken the GR GT.
Could've rolled up in something impossible to ignore and made the entire parking lot understand before I ever opened the door that something had changed.
Nah.
I want the Mustang.
I want the same car they remember.
Same face.
Same name.
At least at first glance.
Let them decide what they think they're looking at before reality catches up.
"You are enjoying this," Genesis says.
"A little."
"A measurable understatement."
I laugh.
"Bro, I got fired while I was damn near dying. Let me enjoy the drive."
"I did not object."
"Good."
The city slides past the windows while I settle deeper into the seat.
I'm not going back to beg for anything.
I'm not going back angry enough to make a scene either.
I just need to see the place again.
See the people.
See him.
And maybe let my old boss look at me one more time like I'm still the man he thought he could dismiss without consequence.
After that?
We'll see.
A few minutes later, the familiar building comes into view through the windshield.
Calderon Media.
I tap my fingers once against the steering wheel and grin.
"Alright," I murmur. "Let's go say hi."
I get out of the Mustang and head toward the entrance.
The reaction starts almost as soon as I walk inside.
Conversations stall.
Heads turn.
A few people straight-up stop what they're doing and stare at me like they're trying to make sure I'm actually standing there.
Shock. Curiosity. A couple expressions I can't quite place.
Yeah. They definitely weren't expecting me back.
I don't make a thing out of it.
I just nod to the people I know personally and a few others I've seen enough times in passing to recognize. Some nod back immediately. Others take a second, still looking me over like something about me isn't matching the version of Mikæl they remember.
I don't hold any hostility toward them.
Most of these people are just working.
They've got bills, families, careers, bosses, and their own shit to worry about. Whatever happened between me and management doesn't suddenly make everybody in the building responsible for it.
"I guess people heard about my firing," I say to Genesis.
I keep walking through the first floor, ignoring the whispers that start up behind me as I pass.
I know exactly where I'm going.
The financial department.
I stop at HR first and let the receptionist know why I'm here.
"I'm here to see Tyler in Finance. Final payment."
Recognition flashes across her face, followed by the same awkward surprise I've been getting since I walked through the front doors.
"Of course. You can go on back."
"Appreciate it."
I head down the familiar hallway toward Finance.
Near the water cooler, two women are doing exactly what people at office water coolers have apparently been doing since Homer Simpson and Stan Smith first clocked in for work.
Gossiping.
"Did you hear?" one of them says. I don't recognize her. "The company's going up for sale. I heard the mayor's been putting pressure on the owner."
I'm already passing them when the second woman glances up.
Her eyes land on me.
She immediately catches the other woman by the arm and pulls her a little closer.
"Shh. Don't talk too much. You don't want that getting back to Laney Gerard. The mayor's his father. You'll end up like him."
She flicks a quick look in my direction.
"I bet he pissed off Gerard."
I keep walking.
Then chuckle under my breath.
They wait until I'm far enough down the hall that there's no way an ordinary person should still be able to hear them before the whispering starts again.
Unfortunately for them, ordinary hearing isn't really my problem anymore.
"Interesting," Genesis says.
"Very."
Sale rumors.
The mayor putting pressure on the owner.
And apparently half the building thinks I got fired because I managed to piss off the mayor's son.
Good to know.
I reach Tyler's office and knock twice.
"Mikæl?"
I smile.
"Still know my knock, huh?"
"Get in here."
I open the door.
Tyler looks almost exactly like I remember him. Late thirties, medium-brown skin, close-cut black hair beginning to silver lightly at the temples, and rectangular glasses sitting low enough on his nose that he's always looking over them when somebody says something financially irresponsible.
His office fits him too.
Two monitors dominate one side of the desk, both crowded with spreadsheets and accounting software. A calculator sits beside a yellow legal pad covered in tight handwriting. Three binders are stacked with labels facing outward, and a framed picture of Tyler with his family occupies the one clean corner he refuses to let paperwork conquer.
No expensive executive nonsense.
Just numbers, coffee, and the unmistakable atmosphere of a man who knows exactly where every dollar is supposed to be.
"Hey, Ty." I shut the door behind me but stay standing for a second. "What's this rumor I hear about the company going up for sale?"
His expression changes immediately.
Not shock.
Concern.
"Come in first. Shut the door."
I glance at the door I already closed.
Tyler points at the chair across from him.
"And you didn't hear this from me."
"Obviously."
I sit down across from his desk.
I smirk as his words confirm my suspicion.
"Wow. That's insane, man. That's insane. I overheard two women talking about it and wanted to see if it was true. I can't believe the company's going up for sale. Especially while it's still profitable."
Tyler nods slowly.
"That's the part everybody keeps missing. Calderon isn't failing."
He swivels one of his monitors slightly away from me—not enough to be rude, just enough to keep whatever is on it private.
"We're still profitable. Revenue isn't what it was at our best, but the company makes money. Contracts are active. Payroll clears. Clients are still coming in."
"Then selling now is crazy."
"Under normal circumstances? Yeah."
His expression tightens again.
"These aren't normal circumstances."
I lean back in the chair.
"So the pressure is really that bad?"
"Bad enough that people who used to argue about quarterly projections are now arguing about whether keeping the company is worth the headache."
"Damn."
Tyler gives me a tired look.
"That's about as much as I'm comfortable saying. Rafael has kept most of it close to the chest, and the board's split enough already."
"I'm not gonna repeat it."
"I know. That's why I told you anything."
That gets a small smile out of me.
For the next few minutes we talk like we used to.
Not about secret political pressure or company sales. Just work. People we both know. A couple clients I'm glad I'll never have to deal with again. Tyler tells me one of the junior accountants finally passed her certification exam, and I tell him I'm genuinely happy for her.
It's weirdly normal.
Nice, even.
Eventually Tyler glances toward the clock on his monitor.
"Alright. You actually came here for your money, not office gossip."
"That was the original plan."
"Your final payment and severance packet are in the secure cabinet outside Finance. HR attached a few additional documents this morning."
He pushes himself up from the desk.
"Give me a minute."
"Take your time."
Tyler steps out and shuts the door behind him.
The second I'm alone, a crystalline chime rings through my head.
༺◈✧ Shling ✧◈༻
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◈ FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITY DETECTED ◈
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
" DISTRESSED BUSINESS ACQUISITION "
♦ TARGET
Business: CALDERON MEDIA
Current Owner: RAFAEL IGNACIO CALDERÓN
Opportunity Type: FULL COMPANY ACQUISITION
Seller Authorization: VERIFIED
◆ VERIFIED FINANCIAL PROFILE
Acquisition Price: $10,000,000
Estimated Fair Market Value: $25,000,000
Potential Value Discount: $15,000,000
Current Personal Liquidity: $22,377,000
Debt Exchange Required: NO
◆ POTENTIAL PURCHASE CLASSIFICATION
Personal Purchase Return: 10.00×
Business Purchase Return: 7.50×
Principal Reimbursement: ELIGIBLE
Category Stacking: ALLOWED
System Return Recursion: BLOCKED
♦ PROJECTED RESULT AT VERIFIED PRICE
Purchase Outflow: −$10,000,000
Principal Reimbursement: +$10,000,000
Personal Purchase Return: +$100,000,000
Business Purchase Return: +$75,000,000
Projected Liquid Balance: $197,377,000
Business Asset: RETAINED
Opportunity Status: AVAILABLE
♜ THE SOVEREIGN COMMANDS • TABOO EXECUTES ♜
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Before I can fully process that, the panel shifts.
༺◈✧ Shling ✧◈༻
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◈ OPTIONAL REVENGE MISSION ◈
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
" BUY THE PLACE THAT FIRED YOU "
Calderon Media remains profitable, but pressure, politics, and questionable leadership have placed the company within your legitimate reach.
Acquire the company legally.
Face the people connected to your firing from a position they cannot dismiss.
Determine who actually deserves accountability from evidence—not rumor.
Decide what deserves to be rebuilt once the company is yours.
Mission Type: OPTIONAL
Failure Penalty: NONE
Current Status: AVAILABLE
♜ REVENGE IS A CHOICE • OWNERSHIP IS AN OPTION ♜
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I stare at both panels.
"Gen."
"Yes, Mikæl?"
"Did Taboo just tell me I can buy the company that fired me for ten million dollars when it's worth twenty-five?"
"Preliminary analysis indicates that is a legitimate possibility."
"And I can afford it."
"Yes."
"And if the deal closes cleanly, I walk away owning the company with more liquid money than I started with."
"That is how your applicable purchase returns currently project."
I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing.
"Bro."
"A concise response."
Then something on the corner of the opportunity panel catches my attention.
Buyer Identity.
Blank.
And that reminds me of another blank I saw earlier.
My status.
True Name.
I completely forgot about it.
"Gen, my True Name slot is still empty, right?"
"It is. A True Name may be discovered, received, earned, or created. You have not registered one."
"Created."
I roll that word around in my head.
No prophecy. No name waiting behind a locked door because the universe decided who I was before I got here.
Mine.
So what would I call the version of me that stands behind Mikæl Malakai Monrœ-Mercer?
The name forms almost as soon as I seriously ask myself the question.
Mælkharion.
I sit with it.
Then the rest follows.
Vœl-Astraeth.
Mælkharion Vœl-Astraeth.
The whole thing sounds dramatic as hell.
I love it immediately.
"Okay," I think. "That's mine."
༺◈✧ Shling ✧◈༻
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◈ TRUE NAME REGISTRY ◈
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
" TRUE NAME REGISTERED "
Mortal Name: MIKÆL MALAKAI MONRŒ-MERCER
True Name: MÆLKHARION VŒL-ASTRAETH
Origin: SELF-CREATED
Recognition: ACCEPTED
Authority Link: ACTIVE
No destiny claim has been assigned.
No external ownership has been established.
The registered True Name remains yours.
♜ NAME YOURSELF • REMAIN YOURSELF ♜
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I grin.
"Yeah. That goes hard."
Genesis pauses for half a second.
"It is difficult to argue otherwise."
My eyes return to Calderon Media's opportunity panel.
A thought clicks into place.
"Gen, is Calderon on the System Mar—"
The panel vanishes before I finish.
A new page opens in its place.
I blink.
Genesis sounds amused.
"I believe Taboo anticipated the question."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◈ SYSTEM MARKET ◈
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
" VERIFIED EARTH ACQUISITION "
Listing: CALDERON MEDIA
Acquisition Scope: FULL OWNERSHIP TRANSFER
Seller: RAFAEL IGNACIO CALDERÓN
Required Seller / Holder Approvals: VERIFIED
Purchase Price: $10,000,000
Fair Market Value: $25,000,000
Material Liability Review: CLEARED
Transaction Legality: VERIFIED
◆ BUYER IDENTITY
MÆLKHARION VŒL-ASTRAETH
System-Supported Legal Identity: ACTIVE
Public Connection to Mikæl: CONTROLLED
◆ PURCHASE OPTIONS
Direct Acquisition: READY
Business & Investment Voucher: NOT APPLIED
Debt Exchange: NOT REQUIRED
" CONFIRM PURCHASE — $10,000,000 "
I stare at the confirmation for maybe two seconds.
Then I smile.
"Confirm."
The panel flashes emerald.
༺◈✧ Shling ✧◈༻
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◈ ACQUISITION COMPLETE ◈
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
" CALDERON MEDIA PURCHASED "
Buyer: MÆLKHARION VŒL-ASTRAETH
Purchase Price: $10,000,000
Ownership Transfer: COMPLETE
Seller Proceeds: LAWFULLY DELIVERED
Business Asset: RETAINED
Fair Market Value: $25,000,000
◆ SYSTEM SETTLEMENT
Starting Liquid Balance: $22,377,000
Purchase Outflow: −$10,000,000
Principal Reimbursement: +$10,000,000
Personal Purchase Return 10.00×: +$100,000,000
Business Purchase Return 7.50×: +$75,000,000
Final Liquid Balance: $197,377,000
Debt Exchange: NO
Voucher Consumed: NO
System Return Recursion: BLOCKED
◆ WEALTH MILESTONE CHAIN DETECTED
$25,000,000 ACHIEVED
$50,000,000 ACHIEVED
$75,000,000 ACHIEVED
$150,000,000 ACHIEVED
Reward Notifications: QUEUED
◆ REVENGE MISSION PROGRESS
Acquire Calderon Media: COMPLETE
Accountability Review: PENDING
Leadership Reckoning: PENDING
♜ THE SOVEREIGN COMMANDS • TABOO EXECUTES ♜
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For a few seconds I just sit there in Tyler's office.
I came here to pick up my last check.
I now own the company issuing it.
"Gen."
"Yes?"
"That is fucking hilarious."
"I suspected you might see it that way."
The handle turns.
Every panel disappears as Tyler comes back in carrying a large envelope and a thinner folder.
"Sorry. HR changed how they packaged everything."
"All good."
He hands both to me, then hesitates.
"There is one issue I need to tell you about."
"Of course there is."
"Your employee equity in the company has been placed on administrative hold pending review."
I look at him.
Tyler grimaces.
"I know. I argued that your termination shouldn't affect vested equity, but Legal kicked it upstairs. Nothing has been forfeited according to the paperwork I have. It's just frozen until they complete the review."
For half a second, I almost laugh again.
My little employee stake in the company I now own is frozen.
Today is ridiculous.
I just shrug and take the folder.
"Can't be helped."
Tyler looks surprised by how easily I say it.
"That's it?"
"What am I gonna do, flip your desk?"
"I'd prefer you didn't."
"Then we're good."
I stand and offer him my hand.
"Thanks, Ty. Seriously."
He gets up and shakes it.
"Take care of yourself, Mikæl."
"I plan to."
I leave his office with my severance package tucked under one arm.
Genesis waits until I'm halfway down the hall.
"You handled the equity hold with admirable restraint."
"Gen, I own the company."
"Yes."
"I think I can survive having my employee shares frozen for a minute."
"That does provide useful perspective."
I'm still smiling when I round the corner toward the main corridor.
Then I stop.
Coming the other way is Laney Gerard.
Mr. Gerard has several members of Calderon Media's board walking with him, all of them mid-conversation until his eyes land on me.
The conversation dies.
Gerard stops.
I stop.
For a moment, neither of us says a word.
Well.
This should be interesting.
Gerard's mouth curls first.
Not a smile.
A sneer.
"Well, look who decided to come back."
I say nothing.
His eyes drag over me from the charcoal jacket to the polished boots, then drop to the envelope tucked beneath my arm.
His sneer deepens.
"Ah. Right. Final check."
One of the board members beside him shifts slightly.
Gerard doesn't notice. Or doesn't care.
"I was wondering what could possibly bring you back after we finally cut you loose."
Still nothing from me.
A few hours ago, that probably would've gotten under my skin.
Hell, this morning it definitely would have.
Now?
I'm standing in the hallway of a company I legally own while the man who helped make my last days here miserable mocks me because he thinks I'm unemployed.
The whole situation is so ridiculous I almost laugh.
Gerard looks at my clothes again.
"Nice outfit, though. Severance must've been better than I thought."
His gaze drops toward my shoes.
"Hope you didn't spend all of it already. Job market can be rough when your last employer decides you're no longer worth keeping around."
Nobody with him laughs.
That seems to bother him more than it bothers me.
His jaw shifts.
"What? Nothing to say?"
I meet his eyes.
For just a second, I consider telling him.
Ten million dollars.
Mælkharion Vœl-Astraeth.
Calderon Media.
Mine.
Nah.
He'll find out soon enough.
So I just smile.
Not big.
Not dramatic.
Just enough.
The smirk lands harder than anything I could've said.
I see it in the way his expression tightens.
Then I step to the side and walk past him.
Gerard turns slightly as I go.
"That's probably for the best," he calls after me. "Wouldn't want you embarrassing yourself on the way out too."
I keep walking.
No answer.
No middle finger.
No last word.
Just the quiet satisfaction of knowing he has absolutely no idea what happened while he was walking down this hallway.
I pass the same employees who stared when I came in.
A few glance at the severance envelope.
A few look past me toward Gerard and the board.
Most pretend not to be watching anything at all.
I don't slow down.
Through the lobby.
Past reception.
Out the front doors.
The afternoon air hits my face, and I finally let the smirk turn into a full grin.
The Mustang sits exactly where I left it.
Same old car.
Same car they remember.
I cross the parking lot, unlock it, and open the driver's door.
The severance package goes onto the passenger seat.
Then I slide behind the wheel and pull the door shut.