Kelsey walked into the Auction Hall, looked at the goblin auctioneer, and asked when he had last eaten.
“I’m fine.”
“Your gums are gray.”
“I’m a goblin.”
“Your gums are grayer.”
The auctioneer opened the auction eleven minutes late and with a glass of water he had not asked for. The System permitted this. The infirmary back at the Tutorial Guild had never recovered from her, and it seemed wise not to make an enemy of the only crawler in the dungeon who could set a bone.
System NoticeTEAM NAME SUBMITTED: SMOL SEXY SCOLOPENDRA PARLAYS. “SMOL”: CONFIRMED. HEIGHT REMAINS UNREMARKABLE.“SCOLOPENDRA”: A GIANT VENOMOUS CENTIPEDE. NOTED.“PARLAYS”: MATT HAS FILED A COMPLAINT.
Matt, from the podium, was in fact pointing at her. She did not look at him.
The tenth recruit of the night was Leon Draisaitl. I had just paid sixty for Celebrini three picks earlier, and the whole hall had watched me do it, and I watched Kelsey watch me do it.
“Sixty.”
Same number. Same tone. Sold.
That was on purpose.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
You matched my bid to the gold.
“Mine has more assists.”
I checked. Hers did. Mine has more years, more upside, and better hair. I did not say this out loud. I live with her.
The Squeaker Syndicate assembled itself with clinical precision after that. Brady Tkachuk for thirty-one, a man who hits people, which Kelsey approved of professionally. Jake Oettinger in net for twenty-one, then a second goalie named Dobes for four, because she had read the rules, all seven pages, this time. Seider. Chychrun. A defense corps built by someone who has seen what happens when nobody’s guarding the door.
Then Alexander Ovechkin came up, and the hall did the thing it did with old men, which was nothing.
“Ten.”
Sold. She wrote it down without expression.
The dollar bin gave her Bo Horvat and Nick Schmaltz. Six gold left in the purse when the last name was called, and the System braced for her to leave it there, and instead she looked at the six gold for a long moment and then closed the ledger.
“Contingency.”
There is no contingency. It evaporates.
“Then I’ll know I had it.”
The System does not fully understand doctors.
Auction RecordROSTER: COMPLETE. GOLD REMAINING: 6. FRANCHISE PLAYER COST: 60. MATCHES MINE. NOT A COINCIDENCE. I AM FLATTERED. GOALIES: 3. SHE READ THE RULES.PENDANT: EQUIPPED. BOON: UNSPENT.CRAWLER TWO ROWS BACK HAS NAMED HIS TEAM “RAT CATCHER.” SHE KNOWS.
Kelsey stood, tucked the Pendant of the Squeaker Syndicate beneath her collar, and walked out past the Rat Catcher’s bench without slowing down. Six cats watched her go. Kyle did not.
The Celestial Boon stayed in her pack, unspent, one use, all season.
Somewhere in the dungeon, something with a great many legs was already awake.