The Burrowing Worm's Surprising Gift: A Second Stomach

Besides hearing about the Capital Faction, Evan saw some interesting things for himself.

By now, Evan had made something of a name for himself among Bolton City's Beyonders, giving him a chance to witness the inner workings firsthand.

With Vic as his guide, he attended the initiation Rituals of two Factory Owners and one Capitalist.

The whole process reminded Evan somewhat of praying to the God of Wealth.

Every Factory Owner and Capitalist who wanted to become a Beyonder had to communicate directly with the Golden Signifier through a Ritual.

During that exchange, they had to prove the worth of their holdings to gold.

They then used their material assets to make a trade with it.

It worked rather like a secured bank loan: pledge your assets to gold, and gold granted you Beyonder power.

The more assets you had, the more power gold gave you.

If mismanagement or anything else reduced your assets, the power gold gave you diminished too.

After seeing the process, Evan finally understood the questions that had puzzled him.

When he had fought Capitalists before, they could use the burning money normally, but the money did not gain that power simply by being printed.

They had to transform it with their own power and gain the Golden Signifier's approval first.

The assets they burned really were their own.

As those assets burned, their Beyonder Assets registered in gold's system decreased as well.

That reduction in Beyonder Assets also reduced their actual holdings.

And through a channel even Evan could not explain, those lost assets became someone else's wealth.

In other words, when Factory Owners promised money to the employees they controlled, that money really did end up in those people's pockets.

If those people had fought so long that they had lost their sense of