Rise of the Phoenix King (Shadowrun/Exalted)

So, Theo and I had been part of a deeper conspiracy all along without even knowing it, but we didn't have time to care with Great Dragons and Gods on their way. Instead, we launched into a sales pitch for why Robin's team should be part of this discussion, doubling as a briefing for what it would all be about. We had the Amazonia-Aztlan war, Sirrurg, and a potential Great Dragon civil war to avert and as much as they didn't feel like they could contribute to that discussion, the truth was that all of those things would profoundly affect metahumanity. Ultimately nobody would be voting on anything. The decision on what Theo would do would be up to Theo himself, but having a meeting to discuss the matter would at least give him the chance to show he was taking the matter seriously, and not taking flagrant unilateral action.

And since this meeting was only a one-time deal they all eventually came around, so long as Theo agreed he owed each of them one hell of a favor. And that he would never ever put them in a situation like this without warning ever again.

But eventually, time ran out and Theo excused himself to go greet our guests, taking Masaru with him. Everyone quieted down for a moment, but it was Gregor who broke the silence.

"Was he right?" Gregor said.

He'd caught me off guard since we'd talked about so much since coming down here, but we were all friends here so I didn't have to worry about looking stupid.

"Right about what?" I replied.

"That there isn't any meaning in the universe?" Gregor clarified.

I sat back, staring at him and feeling my brow furrow all on its own, "What?"

The other members of the team all seemed to share my confusion as well.

"On our way to this room, he said it was all bulldrek. That even the gods aren't special. Is there truly nothing in this world but power?" Gregor explained.

And I could see in his eyes a deeper vulnerability than I'd ever see him show publicly. It seemed that by misspeaking, Theo had really pulled the rug out from under his entire way of looking at the world.

I took a deep breath and let it out, "All these years, and you don't understand Theo-speak yet? Gregor that's not what he was saying at all. I think if you were to ask him, Theo would say that Meaning, like Wealth, isn't created from the top and dolled out to the peasants. It's created at the ground level and then concentrated by those who wish to control it. Some for good. Some for ill. And in most cases, both. You have to understand, he's been isolated his whole life. And now he's even further from the people he cares about than ever. Of course, he's going to try to minimize that difference,"

"Oh," Thug interjected, a look of realization on his face, "That's why he wants us to do the whole Enlightenment thing. Wow, that's...kinda sad actually,"

That...hadn't been what I'd been saying, but he wasn't wrong.

I sighed, "That's not what's important right now. The question of whether or not to go through with becoming Enlightened shouldn't have anything to do with Theo's motives. Not when you already know he doesn't have a malicious secret agenda. The question is, do you want to become more than you are? Do you want to contribute more to the world? If not, that's fine, you're already contributing a lot. Whether you do it or not, make up your mind for your own reasons,"

Fabio had been conspicuously silent, resting his face in his left palm with his elbow on the table. And when he spoke I wasn't sure, at first, whether or not he'd been listening to what we were saying.

"He's wrong," Fabio said in a tone both angry and sad before dropping his arm and turning an intense gaze my way, "I'm not worthy or something like that. I don't care how many Great Dragons or Gods are lining up to suck his dick. I don't care how far up the supernatural pecking order he is. You don't get to just arbitrarily decide something like that,"

Fabio hid it well, but he was originally a citizen of the Confederate American States. He'd trained away his accent long ago to such a degree no one would ever guess and developed an entirely new persona, but he couldn't escape his past because he couldn't escape his conscious. The real irony was that he actually hadn't done anything wrong in the beginning. He'd been the victim. After enjoying a devil's threesome with his wife a little too much it had become clear to her that he wasn't entirely straight. He'd kept it a secret from everyone his whole life, including his wife, but he was perfect three on the Kinsey Scale. And having grown up the only elf in a trailer park full of humans, he had a desperate need to be "normal". Not that the CAS was particularly more homophobic than the UCAS, but Fabio had always dreamed of being a country music star and the corps had long ago decided that "gay" and "country" didn't mix. So he'd stayed in the closet, which was a lot easier for a bisexual than a homosexual, and eventually built a life living out his dream. Oh, he hadn't hit it big, but he'd been extremely talented. Everyone who knew him or heard his music knew he was going places.

Then his wife stole it all away from him a centimeter at a time. It had happened slowly at first, but after he'd opened up to her, she knew she owned him and could get away with anything. She'd started off by cheating on him and forcing him to live with it. She racked up truly enormous debts in his name, both with legitimate banks and criminal organizations. And she publicly humiliated him at every opportunity. And she was perfectly happy to watch when the loan sharks came by to break a few of his fingers. They'd only left her alone because after the first time they'd realized how much he'd grown to hate her. But she'd forgotten something.

She'd forgotten she'd married a Social Adept. And while he'd tried and failed to talk her out of being such a goddamn monster over and over, one day she pushed him too far and in a moment of "inspiration", he talked her into killing herself. And the worst part? To this day, he still doesn't know if he did it on purpose or not. No one had ever found out that he'd done it, either. Technically his life back in the CAS was still there to go back to any time he wanted. But instead, he ran. He turned himself into the scum bag he believed himself to be. Tame stuff at first, just breaking hearts for a place to sleep or typical short cons, but he was escalating prettily steadily. Until one day, he'd gone out of his way to get in touch with Lucifer to ask a favor and then promptly failed to keep up his end of the bargain. That had made Theo curious, so he'd had Fabio thrown into a locked room for a few days while he looked into his past. Theo eventually realized that something about Lucifer's reputation as a Hood had made Fabio want him to be the one who killed him. He was the villain of his own story and he wanted to die at the hands of a hero.

Instead, Theo put him to work. And for a while, it seemed like he was putting his past behind him. Not anymore.

"Fabio," I said, gently, "Nothing can change what happened. And if you don't want it you don't want it. Same goes for the Board position. But I hope one day you'll stop punishing yourself,"

My eyes widened and I turned towards the doorway, my enhanced hearing picking up five sets of footsteps. I knew who three of them were, but Theo had entirely failed to text me who Hestaby had invited. So, I turned to Robin's team.

"They're almost here, play it cool," I told them, and then unsheathed my divine aura.

I really shouldn't have been making last-minute decisions at this point, but my gut was telling me the four of them weren't ready for this so I wanted to give them an edge. If I could show them interacting with me while my divine aura was up, it would present an image of them as people who weren't easily cowed by encountering beings of significant power. And hopefully, that would give them a respectable first impression. I made some idle chatter about the Redmond Program so it wouldn't look like we were just waiting on them when they came in.

Theo entered first, followed by Hestaby and then a human form I didn't recognize. She had red hair, red eyes, and wore an elegant evening dress of the exact same shade. I took a picture and ran it through Lucifer's database and came up empty, and I didn't dare try anything so stupid as running it through a reverse image search on the wider matrix.

Lofwyr walked in right after her. His long, steel-grey hair and golden eyes were distinctive to the point of unmistakable. He didn't do a lot of public appearances, especially not in his human form, but once you'd seen him even once, you weren't going to forget.

Masaru entered next bringing up the rear.

I stood when they'd entered, though I'd already instructed the others not to. We were all supposed to be equals here - in theory - but I was one of the hosts. The Great Dragons all seemed slightly confused, but Theo sidestepped the issue for a moment.

"This is Miho Tanaka, my Voice," he began, "and may I present to you, Thug, Fabio, Gregor, and Opticon who comprise the name-giver delegation,"

Lofwyr turned to Theo, "You did not say others would be present when you asked for our aid,"

Theo somehow managed to keep the smile off his face, "There is in fact a third delegation that will be arriving once I've finished introductions if you'll allow,"

"You have misled us," Hestaby added although I couldn't read her tone. Maybe she was impressed? (Wishful thinking, I know)

"But I did not deceive you, and it is not to the detriment of any. Unless you find the company disagreeable enough to initiate violence. But that is no choice of mine," Theo replied.

Theo then turned to Robin's team, "I'm sure everyone here is familiar with the Orange Queen and Gold Master. May I also introduce Fire Wings who first awoke in Germany in 2012. And of course, you all know Masaru,"

It was no coincidence that Theo had referred to them by their use-names - all except Masaru who didn't have one just yet. And we'd already instructed Robin's team to do likewise. Dragons didn't mind so much when metahumans used their true names, but something about their etiquette meant they needed an extra name when speaking to each other. I didn't know all the details just yet, but hopefully, Masaru would fill me in.

The Four took their seats and as they did I looked up dragon awakenings in 2012 and immediately realized our one unknown guest was almost certainly Feuerschwinge, even though she was supposed to be dead.

"And this...other delegation?" Lofwyr looked like he was trying not to sneer, but being what he was I could only assume that that had been his exact intended expression rather than him having any kind of difficulty in controlling his expressions.

"I will allow them in immediately," Theo said, before stepping back to the head of the table.

He spread his arms out, closed his eyes, and tilted his face towards the ceiling, and as he did his caste mark appeared and his whole body became outlined in that same golden light.

"Isis...Izanagi...Prometheus...Orishako...I invoke, conjure and invite. I invoke, conjure, and invite. I invoke, conjure, and invite,"

And Gregor was already facepalming before they even arrived. Feuerschwinge seemed curious. Masaru was inscrutable as always. Hestaby looked nervous, and Lofwyr looked equal parts annoyed and amused. All of the gods Theo had invited were dressed in modern fashions rather than ancient ones, not just Isis. And I knew just barely enough about mythology to know that the barrel-chested caucasian one was probably Prometheus. He had a smirk on his face that reminded me of Theo's. Izanagi, I of course knew by name. I may not have been explicitly religious but my father liked the tell the old mythological tales from time to time. If I had expected him to have the bushy hair from the way Kobayashi Eitaku had portrayed him I would have been disappointed. Instead, he looked like he could have walked out of a Renraku board meeting. Orishako I didn't know and had to look up. She was apparently a fertility and agriculture goddess of the Yoruba people who lived in the area that used to be Nigeria.

"Alphabetical order?" Isis spoke first, "I understand your desire to be diplomatic, but isn't that a bit dry?"

Theo shrugged, but before he could answer, Lofwyr interjected.

"Passions? I see now that you are young. You'll receive no aid from them. It is beyond their capacity to be useful to anyone but themselves,"

"I'm afraid I must agree," Hestaby added, "it is not that we are offended by their presence, but if you had shared your intentions with me beforehand I could have saved us all a great deal of frustration and irritation,"

Izanagi sneered and stepped forward, "Our kind and theirs have been at odds for some time now. It has not always been so, but in this age, cooperation will be especially difficult. But if there is a breakdown in diplomacy, I assure you it will not be we who cause it,"

Theo bowed slightly, "I thank you for your assurances. But if you will please take your seats, we may begin,"

There were more than enough seats for everyone, but all four the god's delegation chose to sit on the same side as the humans. Which not only made the table lopsided, but meant that Fabio was sitting immediately next to Isis. And she immediately leaned towards him and whispered.

"I've always liked your music,"

Did she mean it? Was she fragging with him? I honestly didn't know.

"Uh...thanks?" he managed to say.

Theo took his own seat finally, took a deep breath, and spoke, "First, I want to thank all of you for coming. I understand and acknowledge that you are doing me a favor by being here and I will not forget that debt. There are several things for which I wish to draw upon your collected wisdom. Probably most pressing is the Amazonia-Aztlan war which has just recently been declared and of course the obvious corollary of Sirrurg's inevitable opportunism in its wake. In the longer term, I wish to discuss how I might avoid causing disruptions in your communities. A civil war amongst gods or great dragons would be a blight on the world in the best of times, and as we all know, these are not the best of times. Which brings me to the final topic, how I might best offer my aid in your preparations for the coming invasion of the Horrors,"

Eight pairs of immortal eyes turned immediately to the only four mortals in the room, who probably would have wilted under the pressure of it, but as usual, it was Thug to the rescue,

"Yeah, that's right. We know,"

And there was just enough obviously intentional melodrama to it that the other three struggled not to laugh. Even if they didn't, though it broke some of the tension.

"Might I ask what the point of inviting mortals to this conference is?" Lofwyr asked, but before Theo could answer Feuerschwinge answered for him.

"Well...these matters do affect them as well. As long as knowledge doesn't spread to the general public it seems appropriate for them to have a voice,"

"First," Theo interjected, "I would like to ask what the response from your communities would be if I involved myself in the war? Or if I moved against Sirrurg?"

We found ourselves in an immediate awkward silence, so Masaru saved us, "I believe I can say with some certainty that everyone here would be overjoyed to see Aztechnology brought low. But for those not inclined to follow you, my liege, it would be a great wound to their pride should Sirrurg fall to a hand not our own. Even if the vast majority of us would prefer he stay his hand,"

"Obviously our people would not be affected by how you choose to deal with Sirrurg," Isis added, "and we too would like to see Aztechnology wiped from the face of the Earth,"

Theo and I looked at each other, but I was the one who asked, "Why?"

All of the gods turned to glare at Masaru.

"You didn't tell him?" Isis asked.

Masaru took a deep breath and I could tell he did not like being called out like that, "There has been less time than you think,"

Isis glared at him a little longer, but then turned back to Theo and said, "Aztechnology is consorting with the Horrors,"

Theo started rubbing his forehead, "And would it cause too much panic in your communities if I destroyed them?"

"Wait, what?" Fabio asked, "You can do that?"

Theo turned to face him, "Not in a direct confrontation, but I have access to certain...curses that operate on an organizational level. Combined with a little research here and there I can make them suffer an unending series of catastrophes and failures in business that they have no defense against...well unless the Horrors can protect them, I suppose,"

Gregor finally found his voice, "Of course, that would also cause major disruptions to the global food supply,"

Thug leaned in and turned to look at the gods delegation, "Any of you able to help with that?"

Orishako answered, "If it meant the end Aztechnology, we would certainly be willing to lend our aid. Do not expect us to do all the work, however,"

Theo looked to Hestaby, "And the Great Dragons?"

She raised her chin slightly, "Should you bring down a triple-A megacorp from the comfort of your college dorm? Yes, I believe that would cause some disquiet, and I am afraid there is no avoiding that,"

"If, however, your involvement were not generally known, I might be able to claim responsibility," Lofwyr countered, "assuming you would be willing to work together with me on the project. Unless such a plan does not suit your sensibilities,"

"And I'm sure you won't end up owning the entire country of Aztlan," Fabio jumped in, "You do know that you're the reason for the saying, 'Never deal with a Dragon'? You personally,"

Lofwyr turned to look at him and a slow smile spread across his face, easily one of the most intimidating things I'd ever seen, but Fabio stood his ground.

"I'm no glory hound," Theo said, "but do you all agree that this would be a workable plan?"

Gregor spoke again, "I do have some concerns about the degree and nature of reparations a nation ruled by dragons such as Amazonia would require should you ensure their victory,"

"I'm sure I can keep them reasonable," Lofwyr responded.

All three of the other Great Dragons, all four of the gods, and all of Robin's team all glared at him all at once. But he was Lofwyr.

"You find that surprising?" he quipped.

"It is also irrelevant," said Izanagi, "they are a gangrenous limb. They must be excised for, no matter the pain, the whole will die if we do not,"

Theo nodded, "Thank you for helping me see the situation clearly. I believe I understand, but it will take significantly more contemplation on my part before I make a decision. But your input has been invaluable. Unless there's more to say on the subject, I'd like to discuss what preparations you've been making to fight the Horrors and how I might be able to assist you if your efforts,"

Silence filled the room for another moment as both gods and dragons looked back and forth among one another.

"What do you mean fight them?" Loftwyr asked.

 

Theo took a moment to compose himself.

"I...was given to understand that the Second World was spared from the Horrors entirely by one of my kind,"

The Dragons all writhed in their chairs, "And may I ask who told you that?" Hestaby asked.

"I told him," Isis said, lying for us.

Lofwyr snarled, "That...Solar was already ancient even in those days. It will take too long before you are ready. And you are particularly unready to deal with her mate,"

Theo and I sat up at the mention of it, though it wouldn't do for us to be too interested. Tabitha had guessed correctly that Masaru wouldn't share what he knew about her without Theo's permission and we didn't want them knowing what we knew unless we had a damned good reason for it. Still...

"What do you mean, her mate?" I asked.

Masaru answered, "He is known by many names in many legends. Name-givers once called him the Dark Warrior or the Horror Who Is Worshipped As A Passion, while we Dragons referred to him as the Great Hunter. His name is Verjigorm, a corrupted Lunar and mate to the Solar who ruled and defended the Second World. Among the Horrors, only he could bear up against the power of her Voice. And for a time it seemed he wished only to be with her, but his very presence blackened the land. So she left Earth to be with him and protect the world from his presence,"

"Drek," Thug added.

"Indeed" Lofwyr replied, and oddly it didn't seem like he was being sarcastic.

Theo sighed, "Alright...I understand your position, but I will still make my own preparations to fight them. But I don't want to work at cross-purposes with any of you. If you are all amenable, I would like to work out a trade and nonaggression agreement. We don't need to complete it here and now, but I'd like to know if it's at least a possibility,"

Lofwyr snarled, "You are already working at cross-purposes with us with this Redmond Program of yours,"

"Hang on, what?" Thug asked.

Hestaby sighed, "The only reason anyone, metahuman or dragon, survived the last scourging was through the building of kaers. Today they would be called city-sized bunkers deep beneath the surface of the Earth. The issue Gold Master is referring to is the greater freedoms the people of Redmond are now becoming accustomed to. It will make kaer life very difficult for all involved. Not that I necessarily agree with the approach myself,"

Fabio slapped a hand on the table, "That's what the megacorps are doing? Domesticating us? Getting us used to living in a pod and eating soy because that's what our descendants will be doing for generations?"

Lofwyr sneered at Fabio with raw contempt in his eyes, but Hestaby answered before he could, "As I said, it is not an approach favored by all of us. But there is some utility to it. If that is truly what it takes to survive then would you prefer your descendants suffer more than is necessary?"

Gregor took a deep breath, likely to calm himself because I could hear the anger underneath his finely controlled tone, "You're breeding us to be submissive,"

"Not all of us," Masaru interjected, "I submit for your consideration, my actions in the Philipines defending the Huks from Japanese Imperial colonialism,"

"And further," Feuerschwinge added, "some of us owe your kind a great debt. I, for one, intend to advocate for your people's welfare when the time comes,"

Thug rolled his eyes and held out a hand in Feuerschwinge's direction, "Oh look! An animal-rights activist!"

"Ha!" Prometheus laughed sharply, "Well said, mortal! Well said!"

Fabio folded his arms, "You guys any better?"

Rather than take offense, Prometheus just smirked, "I am the Fire Bringer. Look me up,"

"Getting back to the topic at hand," Isis said, probably to keep Theo from having to, "You will not find the same difficulties with us as with the Great Dragons. Your exaltation woke those most closely in tune with your essence. And we have been awakening only those we believe we can work with. We are not yet ready to swear fealty to you, but you will nevertheless find us both united and willing to work alongside you. But we too survived the Horrors only by hiding from them. If you have a plan or should develop one in the future, we will give it fair consideration. And if you wish to make trade...well I'm sure you will find us agreeable to that as well. But only if you are willing to direct the faith of mortals back to us. It is, at the moment, all you have to offer us,"

Theo drummed his fingers for a moment before turning his gaze back to Lofwyr, "And if I let you take all the credit it will be safe for me to move against Aztechnology and Sirrurg?"

"You must also agree not to turn your curses upon Saeder-Krupp, but I believe we can work something out, yes," Lofwyr replied.

"There is an added danger there," Masaru interjected, "Those who would follow you might be quite displeased should they learn of this arrangement. They will, no doubt, believe that Gold Master has taken advantage of your youth and inexperience. Such an eventuality would be perhaps worse since those loyal to you would not heed your calls to stop should the worst occur. Their misguided loyalty could lead them to treat you as an idol to be placed in a cage and worshipped rather than a king to be obeyed,"

Theo gave an exasperated sigh, shaking his head. But then a thought occurred to me.

"What if we made a compromise?" I began, "What if...everyone in both camps and Theo himself swore a Sacred Oath that he would be in all ways as a Great Dragon. Not a king come to dominate you, but an equal. Would they accept that?"

Hestaby smiled and spoke immediately, "Well...that would give him the right to seek the position of Loremaster, which would appease the loyalists..."

Lofwyr completed the thought, "But those who fear what you represent would not be so easily appeased. Even if you swore a second, private oath not to seek the position of Loremaster, many of them would still fear you,"

"Why?" Masaru asked, sounding almost hurt, "Why fear the Lawgiver's authority?"

Lofwyr folded his arms and turned to glare at Masaru, "You are too young to remember what happened after the Primordial War. But I can allow you access to the Jewel of Memory to see it for yourself if you like. The Lawgivers of that era were in many ways worse than the Horrors,"

"I agree," Theo added immediately, "but there was a reason for that. The Primordials who died laid a Great Curse on all exalted, though it struck the Solars the hardest. But now that I know about it and how it works, it is a condition that can be managed,"

That got Hestaby's attention with a quickness. Feuerschwinge's too. And when Hestaby spoke, there was a sadness in her voice but also a hopefulness that I didn't quite understand, "Please tell me of this curse!"

Theo shook his head, "Not yet. Because it also represents a tactical vulnerability and we haven't reached a formal nonaggression agreement yet. But in time I am willing to share this with you,"

<Oh no.> the big guy's voice rang out in my head.

<What's wrong?> I thought back, worried there might be an emergency.

<It appears I judged my children too harshly. I turned my face away from them for so long! I even allowed the Usurpation. But they were not wholly at fault it seems. When you are able, I strongly desire to know more,>

<Of course, big guy. I'm curious too,>

"And the war?" Gregor asked.

"Well, I suppose I can convince the Board of Horizon to get involved. And if the Great Dragons or Gods can bring me information about Atzlan's military projects, I'll curse them to failure. In return," he said looking to the Dragon delegation, "I'd like you to take a more active role in stopping Sirrurg,"

Lofwyr shook his head, "We cannot. You do not understand our ways, but Sirrurg has a right to his vengeance under our laws. And the Passions will be of little aid in such an endeavor. Instead, I will offer my aid concealing any efforts you choose to take,"

"And I will fight at your side against him!" Izanagi added.

"As will I," Prometheus said, joining in.

Theo nodded, "Well...it would appear we have chosen a direction we can all be satisfied with. Unless there are any other issues that need to be discussed?"

Isis spoke up, "There are many things going on in the world as we speak. How full do you consider your plate to be?"

Theo shrugged, "It depends, but it wouldn't hurt to know about them I suppose,"

"There are Malfean immigrants living in Hong Kong, and they are a blight upon the world. You could gain significant support from my kind if you expelled them,"

Orishako spoke up, "And many of my children suffer horribly. Especially in the city of Lagos. If you provide your aid to them and deliver the city into their authority, I would swear fealty to you immediately upon seeing such a thing completed,"

"I have no great pressing needs, " Prometheus said, taking his turn, "but even as I slept I have been building an army. If you show that you are as you appear to be, they will be yours,"

<An Army?> I thought, telepathically addressing Isis.

<Those whom he Mentors>

That's right. She had said something about sleeping gods being the secret truth behind Mentor Spirits, but honestly, so many Secrets of the Universe were getting thrown around these days, I just couldn't keep track of them all. Especially since that we before getting my mental augs.

"And you, Izanagi?" Theo asked.

Izanagi took a long slow breath before looking at Theo, "If you could return my wife to me, I would be yours forever,"

Theo nodded absently, "I'll...look into it. I know your legend, but modern scholars haven't been able to associate the realm of Yomi with any known metaplanes,"

"I have waited to hold her in my arms again for eons. I can wait a few more years,"

Theo turned to Robin's team, "And you guys?"

Fabio shrugged, "Well, you still owe us like crazy for springing this on us last minute, but we've got your back,"

"Damn straight," Thug added.

"Do you...um..." Gregor began, "if you could perhaps convince one of the...Passions...to consent to some...private tutoring? I would consider that debt more than repaid,"

"We would be happy to," Isis said before Theo could answer, "we will hear your prayers and answer when we can. And we will teach you our secrets if that is what the Lawgiver wishes,"

Theo nodded, "Absolutely," and then he turned to Opticon, "And you, buddy?"

Opticon was holding his elbows in his hands, keeping his forearms over his stomach, "I think...I think I'll wait 'till later. But yeah, I'm on board. Sol Purpose...the whole thing,"

"You won't regret it," Theo said, smiling.

"I must ask, however, " Lofwyr said, and much to my surprise he'd directed his question to Fabio, "How committed are you to this foolish quixotic nonsense of fighting the Horrors when you have no understanding whatsoever of what you will face?"

Fabio smiled and leaned over to Isis, "Were you being serious earlier?"

"Oh yes. Entirely," she replied.

"Help me out real quick?" he asked.

She continued her smile as she placed an old-fashioned microphone on the table in front of him. The kind that takes an entire hand to hold.

"There's something about mortals I don't think you understand, Gold Master," Fabio said, "so let me explain,"

Fabio took up the mic and stood, and as he did, music began to fill the room, no doubt Isis's doing. Although I knew Theo did in fact own all of Fabio's albums.

And as he sang, Fabio let out his real accent for the first time in years.



An hour later, the Great Dragons had departed. Prometheus had stayed to speak with Gregor while Izanagi and Theo had gone off somewhere to discuss things in private. Isis and Fabio had struck up a conversation, while Opticon, Thug, and Orishako had all excused themselves and departed separately.

And I couldn't help but think that this was Theo's real power. Bringing people together. Not just metahumans, but also Great Dragons and Gods. He'd created a space where discussion could happen and brought the Divine into the reach of mortals. It was a beautiful thing, and I didn't want to interrupt it.

<Little sister?> Isis's voice appeared in my mind, <could you please join us?>

"I am not saying that what you did was excusable, Dean Johnson," Isis told Fabio as I approached, "I am saying that I forgive you. Those are different things entirely,"

Fabio looked away from her, "I don't see how you can - "

"Ah, little sister, thank you for coming. Dean and I were just discussing how he came into Theodore's service,"

Fabio wilted, "I...really prefer 'Fabio'"

"No you don't," Isis said with a smirk, "in fact, I'm convinced you chose it explicitly because you hate it. And I think perhaps its time you returned to who you are and to your home,"

"Isis," I interjected, "We really need him. Don't get me wrong, I want what's best for him too, but our operations will suffer without him,"

Isis raised an eyebrow, "I am not suggesting that you dismiss him. But you already have plans to expand Sol Purpose into the Philipines via Masaru's influence, do you not? Why not expand into the CAS?"

Huh.

I turned to Fabio, "That is 100% up to you, but we could make that work,"

"What would I...I mean, how?"

I shrugged, "Well, we're aiming for full megacorp status, which means having our fingers in every industry. You could start your own music label. Maybe show the other corps that people are ready for a queer country music star?"

Fabio harumphed, "Please! People have been ready for that for decades. But the corps never will be. They're too afraid of coming up a few nuyen short on their bottom line!"

I put a hand on Fabio's upper arm, "Fabio? We're the corp,"

"...oh. Huh. Let me uh...let me think about that?" he told me, and I nodded in reply.

He turned back to Isis, "I...thank you. I'll try to think about what you said. I hope we can talk again someday,"

Isis smiled, "Theodore has taught me the value of being approachable. I am every bit as busy as you are, but I promise to always hear your prayers. And if you truly need me, I will be there,"

After he was gone I smirked, "Of course, having a famous musician who's devoted to you won't hurt in building back your worshipper base,"

Isis's eyes twinkled, "If I have truly helped him, then perhaps I have earned it?"

"Is that what you wanted to talk about? Building up your uh...faithful," because even if it was warming up to this drek, I sure as hell wasn't going to call it a 'cult'

"No, little sister, I wanted to talk about yours. I understand the wisdom of setting a powerful guardian to watch over your high priest, but I hope you understand that she has not been made whole yet. There is a danger there, though I do not believe she will intend to harm him, or that she will harm him directly. But I sense tragedy approaching them. Watch over them closely, little sister. In the next few days especially,"

I nodded, "Thank you, Oneesama. I will,"

"And don't you think it's time that boy started doing his job?" Isis said, playfully.

I raised an eyebrow, "His job right now is to be a student. And I can't just start churning out priests or people will notice. I'm not prepared to put people in danger like that,"

Isis shook her head, "No, little sister. Not every worshipper needs to be a priest. Simply teach the boy your ways and have him teach them to others. And they do not need to know your true name to revere you,"

I took a deep breath, "I'll think about it. I'm just...worried. Won't people start to think uncritically if they just listen to everything I tell them?"

"Not if you make avoiding that part of your doctrine. You are a teacher, little sister. Teach them what you know,"

It took me a moment but eventually, I nodded, "Thank you. I will,"

 

"Begin!" I commanded.

After talking to Isis I'd decided to take a more active role in Jeremy's training, both in martial arts and in the Code of Bushido. I hadn't been quite sure where to do that training, but then I'd had a bit of a mischievous thought. So here we were, in the Bellevue estate, in the same dojo I'd trained Theo in. Mary was here to, watching on the sidelines, though I wasn't training her. I might eventually, but for now she, like Theo, had a much broader field of focus and it seemed wise to leave that to Red, her vampire mentor, for now. But she needed to be familiar with how Jeremy fought and eventually get some practice in fighting along side him. And as much as I might not like admitting it, I liked pampering them.

Jeremy closed the distance between us immediately launching a strike at my face with his right hand too sloppy to be anything other than a feint, so when he continued the twisting motion and ducked into a foot-sweep I backflipped out of the way and hit him with a Clout spell (yes, really, that's what it's called) striking him with psychokinetic force equal to a light punch. Like most teenaged boys I'd trained - except Theo - he was overaggressive and I needed to train that out of him. I hadn't put too much effort into the spell though but he'd been so focused on the physical aspects of fighting that he failed to counter in time. The spell had no visible components but I saw it knock him off balance, so I cast the same spell again. And again.

On the third casting he started countering and even launched his own back at me. I shred the mana before it could reach me, but that gave him enough time to close the distance again. I stepped in which I knew would throw off his timing and then spun backwards out of his path, gently slapping him on the back of the head. He clumsily aborted his charge and nearly lost his balance in the process so I raised a foot but rather than kicking him just pushed him to the ground.

He slammed the side of his fist in the mat and growled wildly.

"Jeremy," I said, reproaching him.

"I know I know," he whined back.

"If you don't find emotional balance, you'll never find physical balance. This isn't a sparring match. I'm not your opponent. You are," I said.

"What does that even me- " he began, but I didn't let him finish.

Instead I leaped forward to stomp on him, but slow enough that I knew he could roll out of the way, which he did. He even managed to carry the momentum into a somersault that brought him to his feet, but I kept the pressure up. The moment he was on his feet I was back in his space launching a series of strikes perfectly calibrated to keep him under too much pressure to counterattack but not so much that he couldn't defend.

"You are the only real enemy you will ever face, Jeremy. Conquer the Self. Conquer the World," I said as he continued his fighting retreat.

And through our bond as goddess and priest, I felt something like a tiny spark of enlightenment and for a brief moment, the kid managed to turn the tables on me. His strikes were coming in a lot faster now too, and I suspected he'd picked up a new level of Improved Reflexes. I ramped up my speed as well, but not enough to take him down. I synchronized with him and in a moment of perfect flow we were no longer fighting. Oh, don't misunderstand. We were still punching and kicking and blocking, but we'd gone beyond fighting into a realm of something higher, a place with no conflict. But that isn't a place where mortals can stay for very long so when I saw him slipping, I hopped back and held up a palm.

"Stop! We're finished. Well done, kid. Well done," I told him.

Jeremy smiled, "I almost had you there, didn't I?"

I smiled back, "Sure you did,"

"Wow..." Mary spoke up, "I didn't think that stuff was possible outside of mov - err, trids. Will I be able to fight like that someday?"

I winched, "It'll be...different. As a full magician you won't have access to Adept Powers, but your own innate abilities will help you keep up. Your fighting style will just be...well, more primal,"

I took a deep breath, "Alright, I think we're done for today. Hit the shower, kid. I've got to get back to work. The world's not gonna fix itself,"

And I pretended to ignore the glance between him and Mary that told me he might not be showering alone. He'd been doing well in school, and not just academically. I hadn't gotten any notices of any behavioral problems and he was keeping his grades up, so I didn't see any problem letting them have a little fun, even if it did make it just slightly harder keeping an eye on him. I'd talked to the big guy about it, and apparently the connection I had to Jeremy was the reason I had showed up at his location when Astral Projecting while thinking about him. For magical purposes, it seemed, he counted as an extension of myself. I could even cast spells on him from anywhere in the world. The big guy called it the Avatar Effect, and I'd used it after talking to Isis to cast Clairvoyance on him...only to immediately discover him in bed with Mary. Of course, I gave them their privacy, but I knew keeping an eye on him was going to be a little awkward going forward.

I'd returned to my old apartment on the second floor, needing a shower myself before getting to the next item on my itinerary, when I got the call. I'd hired a stealth security crew to keep an eye on Jeremy to hopefully get a head start on whatever tragedy Isis had sensed coming. Really, I should have done that long before now. The world was a dangerous place. Sargent Bigsby had called because he noticed Jeremy being tailed by a known foot soldier for the Ciarniellos. And here I'd thought I'd wiped that particular trail clean. But if they still knew he was a mage, why hadn't they moved before now? And if they'd trailed him here why weren't they backing off when they discovered his involvement with someone bigger than them? Were they dumb enough to try moving against Theodore McWellan? Or maybe they had some kind of short con or hostage situation in mind.

I looked at the shower longingly. For all the years I'd lived in Redmond, I'd still gotten rather accustomed to being clean most of the time. But as much as I was sure Jeremy would love for me to show up to defend him in only a towel it was something I'd rather avoid.

Oh frag it. I mean, what were the odds? It's not like I could put my whole life on hold. After all, he was only a Mindlink spell away.

<Hey kid. You finish learning Detect Enemies?>

<OH! uh, hey Miho-san. Uh...yeah, just yesterday. Why> he replied, and I got the distinct impression I might have interrupted something.

<I have a hunch. Cast it and leave it running for a while. Might be nothing, but it never hurts to be prepared>

<I'm on it, boss>

Wonder of wonders, I actually made it through my shower without having to dash out and fight the Mafia while naked. Guess life isn't always like the trids. And once I was out, I got to use my new favorite Spirit Charm. I'd been pretty envious of Theo's ability to dart through the manasphere physically, especially since the manasphere was literally my Domain. So I decided to see if Isis had been serious, in our first meeting, when she said she'd be willing to just drop by to chat. She'd agreed I needed to push myself a little further in my divine development, so we'd been training ever since. That was two weeks ago, and I'd picked up several new charms in that time. But this one was by far my favorite.

Portal

To my senses, and mine alone, a two meter diameter circular portal opened up in front of my as I stood in my old living room. You see, I wasn't limited to just shifting into the manasphere and maybe dragging along a single person with me. Anyone I allowed could pass through. And that meant I had Theo beat on something. She'd also taught me how to Measure the Wind gaining knowledge of a targets true nature and how to Sense Domain, which gave me an understanding of how mana was being used all around me out to a few kilometers, and also in Jeremy's immediate vicinity. I could identify spells as they were being cast, immediately know about distortions such as mana warps or background counts and gave me a dramatically clearer view of people's aura when I assensed them. Those two were more practical by far, but they didn't let me outdo a Solar Exalted.

There were actually quite a lot of Spirit Charms I should have been working on. Some in particular had profoundly broad ability, like Domain Manipulation Scenario or Divine Decree which could let me do almost anything with mana if I had enough raw power to put behind them. But as long as part of me was still human I'd never have the kind of power to do very much with those charms, at least not without worshippers. So while I was working on getting some, I decided to focus on Ancient Sorcery.

Because it appeared that the late great Dunkelzahn had left behind some breadcrumbs. According to Masaru, Big D had been the main one keeping hope alive that a Solar would one day return to protect them from the Horrors. And he'd left behind quite a number of bequests in his will that were not only open to anyone who accomplish them, but were quite easy for a Solar, especially one with access to Ancient Sorcery. So Theo and I had taken turns making use of the portion of our new Manse dedicated to magic use. The Rainbow Tabernacle enhanced both mortal magic and Ancient Sorcery in a variety of ways. For mortal magic, it allowed anyone attuned to gain the same drain resistance Theo and I had. It had taken me a while, but I'd finally worked out that our resistance to drain worked a bit like armor, taking the brunt of the damage and negating lesser amounts of drain entirely. Of course that meant that when Theo and I used it, we had what was effectively a level of protection from drain equivalent to hardened milspec armor.

For Ancient Sorcery on the other hand, it dramatically softened the essence of the universe making it easier to shape into whatever form we wanted. This worked out especially well for Sorcerous Workings, giving us more time to get the shape just right and making it easier to get the subtler portions of the shape exactly the way we wanted it. Theo, naturally, took the harder working. Just as he'd hinted to Mary, he was working on a custom semi-magical creature with the same essence as a sapient creature but without actual sapience. But since he was Theo he decided to also go the extra kilometer. The thing was shaping up to be a giant fleshy starfish three meters across with human blood and organs rather than just metahuman essence, because apparently revolutionizing the lives of the Infected and getting the entire nation of Asamando in our back pocket wasn't enough. He also wanted to put the Tamanous out of business by crashing the market for organs at the same time.

Also, Big D had left a couple million nuyen to whomever could pull it off. It seemed strange really. He'd left four times that amount for revitalizing Ecuadorian honey ants and ten times that amount for a fragging popcorn machine patent. Not that money was the real problem. Once we got a deal going with Queen Laula the money from Dunkelzahn's will would be chump change. Although I suppose it was nice to have a third party involved to confirm we had what we said we had. Maybe that was the point all along?

The Working I was...erm...working on was far simpler. Old Dark Tooth had also left 20 million nuyen to anyone who could develop a plant hardy enough to clean the atmosphere of smog in places like Tenochtitlán, the Capital of Atzlan. And of course, much like the bequest Theo was working on, the real payday wasn't the bequest itself. The real payday was selling hundreds of millions of them to cities and corps all over the globe. So I'd gone with a sunflower as a base and it really didn't require much effort to get them to metabolize smog particulates and several other airborne toxins. What a shame they wouldn't bear seeds of their own in the wild! But hey, at least I'd made them edible.

But with the Life-Eez factory on hold I really needed to get my ass in gear and create the plant that created the precursors for Seven Bounties Paste. The factory wasn't entirely idle though. I'd worked with the big guy on modernizing the formula, mostly just the delivery system. So now we'd be marketing it as Seven Bounties Gel, since the focus groups were saying that was significantly preferable. But our new factory was currently stockpiling tonnes of what amounted to an edible version of DMSO while it was waiting on me. Theo had taken five minutes out of his busy schedule and thrown together a lists of flavorings that he thought might be popular and - just for funsies - bought the trademark for something called, "Jell-O" so at least Life-Eez wasn't a complete cash sink in the mean time.

I'd also bitten the bullet and paid through the nose to get my hands on Bargain Basement. With the Yakuza and Mafia gone, things were starting to turn chaotic there and I didn't want to wait for things to get out of hand. So we set up our own administrators there, shipped in half-a-dozen Infrastructure-Megamachines, and sent in a number of Lucifer's Agents and technicians from Squatter's Mall to get the place to a baseline of safety. About a third of the pimps there mysteriously ended up dead too. The ones we'd let live quickly got the message. All in all, it was shaping up to be a redux of Squatter's Mall. We'd been so successful there it was almost boring. And boring is good in that kind of situation. Things at Rat's Nest were going well too. We would have been profitable, but since we weren't required to be, we were reinvesting every nuyen. We now had respectable living areas and barely passable medical care for everyone and decent food as well. And the people of Plastic Jungle were even starting to warm up to us. All in all, things were going well.

And yet, I could still feel a tension hanging in the air. The Atzlan-Amazonia war, much to everyone's surprise, was going poorly for Atzlan. There's an old say, 'An army marches on its stomach' which usually means that to have any kind of effective military you had to meet the needs of your soldiers. But in more general terms, what it means is that war is more about logistics than fighting. And Theo had apparently cursed the drek out of Atzlan's war machine. I wasn't privy to all the details, but Atlan's forces were routinely being caught undersupplied, their drone factories constantly malfunctioned or occasionally exploded, and their counterintelligence agencies looked like they were being run by children at least if you went by the press reports. It seemed like Amazonia was bombing a critical secret facility in Atzlan every week.

(And Theo and I were making a tidy sum short-selling Atztechnology.)

But the weird thing, weird enough to be extremely worrisome, was that when Sirrurg finally did show up, he seemed to be confining himself to military targets. He never did that. I mean he was essentially a terrorist. Theo seemed to think that either Hestaby or Lofwyr had convinced him somehow, but neither of us was really sure about that. We'd decided to ask at the next conference, but neither of us thought we'd get a straight answer. Especially if this was another of Hestaby's tests.

[I'm on my way,] Theo texted me, and according to his location tracker he was still in Boston.

I had just enough time to put the finishing touches on the Seven Bounties Plant and get it set up for exponential replication. We'd set up a small aeroponics production facility on this "side" of Squatter's Mall staffed entirely by specialized drones since it seemed like a lot of our Workings were going to be plant-based. The Ethereal Sunflowers, as I'd named them, had produced several thousand seeds and I'd already packaged up several dozen and shipped them off to the Draco Foundation. We shouldn't need nearly so many Seven Bounties Plants, since I'd designed them to be extremely concentrated on top of being perennial.

I managed to make it to our bedroom less than a minute late. Theo sat on the sofa with the holographic vidscreen already playing.

"Come on, she's about to start!" Theo waved me over, clearly excited.

And I had to admit, I was pretty excited too. For all that my younger self wouldn't have been able to fathom it, I knew now that Hestaby's address to the United Nations was going to be a major crossroads in history and I couldn't miss it. Not that there were many surprises, and since the recording can still be viewed online today I won't retrace her steps. As many of you know, she urged metahumanity not to kill Sirrurg, but also advocated for Great Dragons to be subject to metahuman law. That had come as a surprise even to me and Theo at the time though, and we weren't sure what, if anything, Theo's presence in the world had done to influence it.

We were still talking it over when we both received a group text from Masaru.

[Elliot Eyes-of-Wyrm has been murdered. Hestaby suspects Lofwyr. Will you meet with her?]

 

AN:

As I've said in the past, my knowledge of Earthdawn is extremely limited, so I'm taking what I know and not worrying about the rest.

---

In retrospect, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that Hestaby had not meant she wanted to see us immediately. Dragons, especially Great Dragons, thought on incredibly long timescales, and an "immediate" response from her could be months away. So for all that Elliot had been one of Hestaby's closest friends in addition to being the chief of a major shaman lodge near Shasta Mountain, any vengeance he received would not be quick in coming. We offered to attend the funeral, but Hestaby had requested that we not put in a public appearance. It seemed she didn't want to make it too obvious that she'd involved us. Also, Masaru suggested that she'd need at least a week or two to grieve in private. In fact, even he was giving her some distance and they'd been friends and allies for quite a while. Also, she probably wanted time to gather evidence either to be absolutely certain Lofwyr had really done it or maybe to organize the evidence she already had to make her case to us. So Theo went back to school and I went back to work. Spinning off the Redmond Program into Sol Purpose was, paradoxically, an incredibly fast process that also took forever. The rebranding and filing of paperwork happened immediately, but we'd then had a million little jobs to do in order to solidify our operation into a full corporation. We needed our C-Suit and Board obviously, but a million other positions need to be filled as well. By Tabitha's edict, Theo couldn't help with any of it, either, although Masaru provided enormous help and Julia was no slouch either. I'd gotten the impression that Tabitha didn't want the other Great Dragons to know about her and was forcing Theo to pretend he was hiding his newfound power from her, but I also knew that couldn't be all of it.

So, I talked to Masaru about her, specifically what memories, if any, he had of the Second World. Apparently, his knowledge of that time was spotty as well, though not nearly as bad. Apparently, a Great Dragon's genetic memory depended more on how similar their current perspective was to the dragon that had actually been there, experiencing things firsthand. He most clearly remembered the time immediately after Tabitha's departure. It was a bittersweet time for dragons everywhere. They all thought of her as a surrogate mother, and many blamed mortals for her departure. But at the same time, she'd told them to care for the mortal races in her absence, and had given them a tremendous boost in power. For millennia there had only been a single being on Earth that could reasonably have been called a Great Dragon, and it had been Tabitha's familiar, All-Wings.

Before leaving, Tabitha - and Masaru didn't remember her true name - had given All-Wings her magical Voice and the power to confer on any dragon eggs she raised the potential to become Greats themselves, thus beginning the dual traditions of dragons fostering their eggs with others of their kind and selecting a beloved and honored subordinate and bestowing on them the title of "Voice". She'd never fostered out her own eggs though, even when the option became available. And she'd raised some truly impressive children, most notably Dunkelzahn himself, which probably had something to do with Big D being so fanatically devoted, not only to the care and protection of metahumanity but also to the prophesied Return of Glory. And Masaru had been grateful that Dunkelzahn hadn't lived to see what had become of Tabitha.

But Tabitha had also charged the gods with the same protection and provision of mortals, and the conflict between the two groups had started almost immediately after her departure due to wildly different views on how to go about that task. But time marches on, and by the Awakening of the Fourth World many members of both groups had largely forgotten her commands and given up hope that she'd ever return. And perhaps some were hoping she wouldn't. In the beginning, many delved deep into the Astral to spend time with her, enduring Verjigorm's presence as long as they could, but by the time of the Fourth World, this practice had entirely ceased.

They'd abandoned their mother.

No wonder Tabitha didn't want them to know about her. If Theo's presence made them worry, they'd have all flown into a panic if they found out that, not only was she back, but she'd become an Akuma 2.0 and a merciless bitch besides. At least the ones that remembered her would. Even Masaru knew that her return did not bode well for dragonkind, especially the Greats, but he eventually took comfort in his faith in Theo. And he was right to, to a degree. As dickish as the Great Dragons could be, Theo would protect them if he could.

It had taken some time, finally settling in to my new role as CEO of Sol Purpose. Emotionally, it hadn't been that different to when Theo had upgraded my SIN to full corporate status and dumped all those Horizon voting shares on me. My day-to-day life hadn't changed much, even if on paper I'd just ascended even higher, also being Chairman of the Board. It was a lot more work though. Fortunately I had more help than even Masaru.

I had The Deliberative.

Theo and I had owed them quite a lot, because as much as we had been participating in the community, we'd drawn more from them then we'd given back. And you might be tempted to think that we were drawing on them now more than ever, but that's not how the uber-elite favor economy works. I mean, sure, it might look that way on the surface. Basically every member of the Deliberative had used their public resources to invest in the project, making the whole thing a collaborative effort by all of the Big Ten (Atztechnology included) and rocketing every member of the Board towards billionaire status if they weren't already - such as myself, Robin's team, and Julia - but those resources came with the expectation of being able to use Sol Purpose for other projects. I didn't mind that. The Deliberative were good people, and whatever they were trying to sneak through would undoubtedly be to help people.

Still, being the CEO of a company growing this fast was a bit like being an ant riding on the back of a dragon trying to tell it where to fly.

But even as I was working, I'd also been worrying about Jeremy and Mary. I tried to make time for them as often as I could, even beyond officially becoming Jeremy's sensei. But it had been weeks since Isis's warning, and still no moves from the Ciarniellos. Of course, I had acted on those warnings immediately, so perhaps I'd pushed that impending tragedy further away? I had no illusions about it not being a concern anymore, though. The private security I'd hired continued to report that Jeremy remained under Ciarniello surveillance, but what were they waiting for?

So I was busying myself with the new software engineering division of Sol Purpose, secretly just Theo himself for now, although I was currently in the process of fixing that. Apparently his Artifact commlink could do all kinds of things, just not anything that would have been much use to us before his trip to Malfeas. In addition to also acting as a cyberdeck, control rig, and rigger control console, it also allowed him some pretty impressive abilities in creating software. That, added to the dramatic boost in speed afforded by his Craftsman Needs No Tools charm, meant he could compete favorably with lower ranking corporations dedicated to software development, if he focused on it. Not that he could. He had too many things to worry about. But he'd spent enough time on it that we now had our very own major software library, including enough Skillsofts to have our own subscription service. At Julia's recommendation, we were keeping that in-house rather than opening it up to the public. So I'd made it part of the employee benefits package, which was already quite extensive.

The other major part of Theo's software library was a truly absurd number of tutorsofts. We now had enough to get a good start on our own online university, which I'd mostly made Gregor's problem. Tutorsofts, by themselves, weren't enough to have a real educational institution, but it constituted a major step in the that direction. Theo had even dug up something from last century called the "Freemium" model and we were now offering free access to tutorsofts to basically anyone. Assessment still cost money, but anyone who graduated got their own SIN if they didn't already have one. We also included a number of programs in Surival Training and Wasteland Survival Skills useful to anyone living in places like Redmond. And Gregor was onboarding about a dozen new professors every day.

And it made me understand why Julia had recommended keeping the Skillsoft Subscription Service in-house. The other corps involved in tutorsoft creation did not take kindly to us obviating their business model. There were plenty of ways they could have competed, mostly by trying to go value-added, but predictably they'd chosen to try to tear us down instead. But that didn't go very well for them. Oh they'd managed to hurt us, but if Theo could curse all of Atzland's military industrial complex, he could sure as drek curse the corps coming after us, which he promptly did. All while I worked on hiring enough software developers to explain how we had all that drek in the first place. Also, we were planning on buying the companies hardest hit by his curse.

"You're two o'clock is on the line, ma'am," my new executive assistant, Fredrick, told me over the intercom.

Fredrick was a good kid. A gnome who'd been born and raised in Squatter's Mall and jumped in with both feet the moment we created our first school. We hired and promoted from within whenever we could, and Freddy was one of our first success stories.

"Put her though, kid," I told him.

A holographic representation of Queen Thelma Laula of Asamando appeared over my mahagony desk here in what used to be Theo's office, now mine. Like most residents of the African nation, she was a ghoul, though nonetheless famous for her wit and charisma.

"Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, your majesty." I began.

"How could I not?" she replied, "It's not everyday someone offers to revolutionize the lives of my people and Infected all over the world. Ah, but I tell a lie. Rather I should say that you are the first to make good on such a promise. I must say, I'm rather curious. You're corporation is barely a few months old and you have already succeeded whether others have failed, not only providing ethical nutrition for the Infected, but also developing some incredibly efficatious medicines, even curing dragon-flu, as well as a genetically engineered flower that's incredibly effective in cleaning up polluted cities. My congratulations on turning Dunkelzahn's Will into your own personal to-do list,"

I smiled, but it wasn't just a complement. We had the eyes of the world on us, but it wasn't entirely unheard of to have a string of breakthroughs. Still, there were forces out there chomping at the bit to tear us to pieces at the first opportunity. If it hadn't been for Theo's curses, the protection of the Deliberative, and the fact that the Great Dragons still didn't seem sure what they wanted to do about us, we never would have made it this far.

"Thank you, your Majesty. We've been very fortunate. And it seems on this occasion, our good fortune is your good fortune. But if you'll allow me to demonstrate my respect by being frank, there is the matter of payment. And I think you'll be surprised by the offer we're willing to make you,"

Queen Laula raised an eyebrow, "Is that so?"

I sat back in my chair, "A traditional arrangement, wherein we do the manufacturing and sell you the final product would be problematic for both of us. It would place us in a position with too many operating costs, especially security, and it would make you wholly dependent on us,"

And I left the part where it would encourage her to try to go behind our backs and steal whatever materials and information necessary for them to create their own foodstuff on their own entirely unstated.

I continued, "So we're willing to agree to a licensing agreement and give you the materials and information necessary to produce your own food and scale production at your own pace,"

Queen Laula was a consummate diplomat but even so, she seemed unable to keep the incredulity off her face, "I..must admit, that is surprising,"

I hadn't even needed Theo to come up with it, though I had run it by him to be sure. He'd just smiled and said And so the student becomes the master. You see, it was the kind of thinking people of the 21st century had just plain forgotten about. If we'd tried to squeeze the entire nation of Asamano for every last nuyen, we'd put ourselves into an untenable position in the long term, and we'd have earned their enmity. But by licensing the production to them, we not only took production costs and security off our plate entirely, but also earned us an unending stream of goodwill from them. Because we weren't just selling them food. We were giving them something far more important. Food security.

And I intended to spend some of that good will immediately.

"There will, of course, be royalties owed, but we're willing to give you a fair price. There is, however, something else we want. I promised to demonstrate my respect through frankness, so that is what I will do. We want you to betray the Tamanous,"

The Tamanous organization, being organ thieves, was a blight on the world for almost everyone. But in Asamanod, they were almost saviors. A huge portion of their "product" found its way there and kept the population from starving.

Queen Laula raised an eyebrow, "Well, we'd already intended to cut off relations with them in the event someone succeeded where you have. Do I understand correctly, that you wish us to go further than that?"

I nodded, "If you've gotten our prototype you know that it also contains organs compatible with all known metatypes. In addition to manufacturing food for your people, we want you to ramp up production to levels high enough to crash the organ market. We want you to put Tamanous out of business by outcompeting them. Our projections show that when you reach scale, the price of transplants should drop low enough to put them out of business almost entirely,"

Queen Laula smiled, "That's quite a large scale your talking about. And of course, since you are receiving royalties, a portion of those monies will go to you as well,"

I didn't let a single moment pass before responding, "More will go to you. And having a new major export will be a profound boon to your nation's economy. And if you should hire some out-of-work organ-leggers you've had good relations with, we won't complain. But the Tamanous organization needs to die,"

Laura took a deep breath, "And what makes you believe that people will accept organs grown in a nation of Infected?"

I smirked, "We're not asking you to take up the burden of doing the marketing, your majesty. And we'll arrange for third-party quality assurance,"

And I wasn't going to mention it here but I'd had the big guy work out a spell to detect all known forms of infection. Not only would that make said quality assurance easier, but it would let hospitals double-check just before implantation. Some people would still be paranoid, but that would lessen over time. Of course, the Tamanous would probably switch over to some other despicable means of making money, but wherever they went, we'd follow. At the scale we were on the cusp of operating at, we'd be poised to make life very uncomfortable for anyone who thought they could make money by profiting off human misery.

That went for the other corps as well. Or it would eventually.

Queen Laula's eyes turned to slits, "What is it you're really after?"

"A future that won't make me sad to think about," I responded immediately.

Laula's face turned pensive and I could see her drumming her fingers on her desk, "So is this some sort of act of charity? Or why ask so little?"

I sighed, "Your majesty...it seems to me that having a good relationship with you and your people is worth far more in the long run than mere money. You've never signed on to the Business Recognition Accords and I don't expect you to make an exception for us. Even so, I imagine that if we were to do business in the future, you might be better diposed towards us than most other corps. And that has value in itself,"

Laula made a thoughtful frown, "A very strange way of doing business for a corporation, but it certainly has merit. Tell me though, what sort of business do you imagine we might do in the future?"

I took a deep breath, "Well...we do have some interest in Lagos, and we understand you have a foothold there, especially in the district of Surulere,"

Orishako wanted Lagos for her faithful, and Theo and I hadn't quite made up our minds about going along with that, but Lagos had been on Theo's list since his exaltation. Of course, Surulere wasn't the most obvious way in, being a broken-down wasteland that made Redmond look almost like a paradise. Only ghouls lived there and based on what I'd read about the place, the manasphere over the entire area was aspected towards toxic magic. But if Theo could revitalize Redmond as a mortal, I had no doubt he could do that and more in Surulere. But we needed an in. And Queen Laula could make that happen.

"Lagos? Seriously? Why? Surely you don't think you can make it into some sort of corporate stronghold, do you?"

It was a fair question. Lagos wasn't called a "Feral City" for nothing. The whole place was dominated by gangs and worse. Like Redmond there wasn't even a semblance of law and order. Just kids on the street holding you up for cash every hundred meters or so. And that was the least of it. The corps loved it that way, too. They could get away with absolutely anything there.

"I think, your majesty, if you look into our brief history, you'll see what we're about. The people of Lagos are suffering terribly and we believe we can help," I told her.

"There are many feral cities in the world. Why not something closer to home, like Chicago?"

I shrugged, "Chicago is on our list. It's just that you don't have any resources specifically geared to helping us with that. With Lagos you do,"

Queen Laula took a moment to stare me in the eyes. Not that she was being aggressive, it was just hard to believe. For all the Horizon had billed itself to the world as the Good Guy corporation, there'd been too many scandals for anyone to still take that seriously, and no doubt, people expected us to follow the same trajectory.

"Anything else?" she asked.

I shook my head, "Not at the moment. If we had any particular needs that we feel you can help with, we'll give you a call, but we value our friendship with you. And we have no intention of abusing that friendship,"

She shook her head in return, "So strange. Even stranger that I believe you. Very well, send me the contract and if there are no surprises, we will be in business together,"

I smiled, "I already emailed it to you while we've been talking,"

I ended the call, which automatically triggered the system to leave Emergency Only Mode, and intercom went off immediately.

"Tanaka-san?" Freddy's voice had a tension to it that immediately set me on edge, "There's um..." I could hear him swallow, "there's someone here to see you. She said I shouldn't bother you while you were on the comms. She said her name is...Fire Wings,"

I didn't hesitate, "Please send her in. And go take a 15 minute break. Or longer if you need to,"

Feuerschwinge's existance wasn't public knowledge, or rather it wasn't public knowledge that she was still alive, but it didn't take a genius to hear a name like 'Fire Wings' and realize you were talking to a dragon of some kind. I stood as she entered my office, this time dressed in suit jacket and pencil skirt with another set of stilettos. All still crimson though. I hoped if I ever became that powerful that I wouldn't decend into the kind of monochromism that she and Tabitha had apparently descended into. (God, when did I start caring so much about fashion?)

"Thank you for receiving me, Tanaka-san," she said, extending her hand.

I shook her hand and pretended it wasn't awkward, "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit? Oh and do please sit down,"

I motioned for my brown leather sofa and we each took a seat, slightly tilted to face each other.

"I have been following the exploits of Sol Purpose with a close eye. You have done a great deal for the metahumans of this world, and in a very short time. I know that you will say that the full effect of your Workings have not yet been felt, but that they will is a forgone conclusion. Further, you have begun significant work towards aiding the environment, a thing both the Orange Queen and I applaud, and I hope that you will continue those efforts. But I wished to ask what you plans you have to ease the plight of my people,"

I couldn't help myself, my jaw fell open, "I'm sorry I...didn't realize your people were in distress. And I doubt Theo does either. But please don't take our ignorance for apathy. If there's a problem please share it with us and we'll do what we can,"

Feuerschwinge raised an eyebrow, "You are unware of the existance of dragon hunters? Of the murder of Dzitbalchén? And while I do not expect you to be aware, I myself spent 43 years in a black lab in Germany being experimented on. Though I acknowlede that it was also mortals who made me whole and set me free, without expectation of reward. And that act of kindness I will always remember. But it cannot be ignored that mortals are growing ever more powerful, and the immortal elves alongside them. Dunkelzahn always favored peace, and I am inclined to agree, but how can their be peace without justice? If the Lawgiver will not protect our kind, why should we submit to him?"

I took a second to measure my words, never a bad idea in the presence of a Great Dragon, "There's...a great deal to respond to there. Before I answer, I'd like to better understand your position. Aren't you friends and allies with the Orange Queen? And didn't she just advocate for the Great Dragons to be subject to metahuman law?"

Feuerschwinge sighed, "But she did not give her true reason. She believes the Lawgiver intends to subordinate us to it anyway, or perhaps to take an even harsher stance. In my view, she is attempting to ensure our survival through capitulation and submission. Though it is not loyalty that drivers her, but fear,"

It was like I'd swallowed a rock, though I still had to be careful. I didn't have any certainty that my powers would tell me if she was lying. Even still, I looked away, ashamed on Theo's behalf, "I hope you're wrong about that,"

"Why?" Feuerschwinge asked.

I turned back to look at her, "Well for starters, Theo isn't like that at all. Yes, he can be...a little more judgemental than is called for from time to time, but he always listens to reason. And I can't imagine that he'd ever treat a dragon's life as inherrently less valuable than a metahuman's,"

"But those who, in his estimation, have trespassed against mortals? Will they not be crucified as well?"

I rubbed my forehead in frustration. Theo had screwed the pooch on that one way worse than either of us had known at the time. But then my eyes widened as I realized the horror of the situation. People often think that using fear to motivate others is easy if they're already afraid. And often that's the case. But when people are truly terrified, they can become erratic and unpredictable. They can lash out in irrational ways, no matter how intelligent they might be. And if Theo's existance scared the Great Dragons enough, that could descend into absolute bedlam on a global scale. And I suddenly came to understand that Theo and I were ten kilometers into a tight-rope walk that we hadn't even known about.

I sat up and locked eyes with Feuerschwinge, "I promise you, Theodore McWellan will not become such a tyrant. He acknowledges his mistake in how he handled the Nukes, and he will not repeat that mistake. I swear it,"

She raised her chin, but I could still see fear in her eyes. I tried to keep a clear head. She was a multi-millenia old super-being and this could all be an act. But that didn't mean it necessarily had to be.

"I believe in your intentions, Tanaka-san. Your suggestion that the Lawgiver condescend to be treated as one of us did not go unnoticed, and I do not merely speak of myself. And while he seemed to accept the idea in principle, do you truly believe he would do this? Even swearing a Sacred Oath?"

I nodded, "I don't want to speak for him of course, but I think if he truly understood the situation as you've described it to me, he wouldn't want you to feel as you do. Yes, he can lose himself in a moment of passion, but he's also the kindest man I've ever known,"

Feuerschwinge paused for a moment, "That is...gratifying to hear. But strange that you say you do not wish to speak for him. Are you not his Voice?"

"Oh...well. I mean, Masaru has provided me with some cultural information about dragonkind, but I may not fully understand the ramification of that position. I only mean to say that I don't want to make promises on his behalf,"

Feuerschwinge smiled and nodded in what looked like recognition, "Ahh, I understand. But I am not inclined to believe the Lawgiver was simply making a cultural analogy, or invoking such a title without a full grasp of its meaning. For you to be his Voice means that your words are his words. And while most in such a position would hesitate to make promises on behalf of their principle, in our society you are permitted to do so. Though to do so rashly would invite punishment, and yet the Great Dragon would still be bound to it,"

I rubbed my neck, "Well, in that case I'm definitely not going to make any promises on his behalf, but I will promise you this. I will continue to do as I have always done. I will ensure Theodore McWellan acts in ways both honorable and just. And I can assure you, he will not punish the innocent for the crimes of the guilty,"

Feuerschwinge sighed, "But will he protect us as he would the mortals?"

"Again, he and I were both mortals ourselves not too long ago. Our ignorance is not apathy. Frankly, it's news to me that Great Dragons have any threats they take seriously besides each other. If you can provide me more detailed information, I will bring it to him and we will find a way to act on it,"

"Has he no plans for killing Sirrurg?" her words came at me like a knife.

I sat up a little straighter, "So long as Sirrurg restricts himself to military targets or those responsible for Dzitbalchén's murder, he has no plans to intervene. We've looked into the matter and Dzitbalchén's trial was a sham. Further, we recognize Sirrurg's right of vengence but only against those truly responsible. If he acts to harm innocents, only then will we step in. But even then, I know that he would not kill Sirrurg unless he gave him no other choice."

"But would he assist Sirrurg is achieving that vengence?"

I took a deep breath to stall for time, "That's...not out of the question, but would Sirrurg accept his help? And would he be willing to continue to restrain himself as he has?"

"That I cannot answer, but I shall endeavor to find an answer for you. It would do much to ease the fears of my kind. Sirrurg is not well liked among my people, but he is respected,"

I looked away from her a moment to get a grip on my emotions, "I have to say, Fire Wings, it grieves me in no small way to know that someone like the Orange Queen of all people fears him so much. I've always looked up to her and so has Theo. We both feel that she, like Dunkelzahn himself, are what your people are when they are at their best. If there is anything we can do to allay her fears, even to a small degree, please tell me and we'll do what we can,"

Feuerschwinge took a long moment to consider her words before speaking, "It is not impossible that Sirrurg will fail and be overtaken by Atztechnology. That was the reason for her call to mercy at her speech before the United Nations. If you would have her trust, then please...save him,"

Of all the Great Dragons, Sirrurg was the absolute last on the list of ones I'd ever imagined we'd be helping. At least with Lofwyr we might have some mutal goal or scheme in mind. But Sirrurg the Destroyer? Never in a million years. But I knew precisely what Theo would be thinking if he'd been here.

"On behalf of the Lawgiver, if you have not deceived me about any of this, then we will do everything in our power to make it so,"

Her expression turned to something that, if I'd seen it on a metahuman, I would have called relief and without question.

"Thank you," she said, in an almost demure tone.

It was a poignant moment and perhaps for both of us, at least until Jeremy's prayers invaded my thoughts.

Oh-god-oh-god-oh-god help help HELP! Sensei help!

 

AN:

Work has been getting rough again and I've been suffering writers block. I may be taking a break of a week or so, unless my muse decides to strike me with lightning as she sometimes does.

---

A quick casting of Clairvoyance and Clairaudience let me see what was going on. With Jeremy under surveillance by the Ciarniellos, I'd forbidden him from going anywhere near Mary's apartment until further notice except in cases of dire emergencies. Also, they'd had some trouble hiding their activities from Jeremy's father, so they'd chosen to have their intimate moments at coffin hotels. Not that they weren't doing anything but fragging, but when they were they were doing it on the cheap.

Half-a-dozen Ciarniellos surrounded them, and it wasn't just race that told me that. They were dressed like two-bit thugs out of every trid I'd ever seen including the Mafia. Guess they didn't mind being stereotypes. Two of them held Mary, who was doing a decent job of pretending to be in their power. Another brandished a knife in Jeremy's face.

"This doesn't have to be difficult kid. Just call your boss - err sensei or whatever she is to you. We need to have a chat with her,"

"Is something the matter, Miho-san?" Feuerschwinge asked.

I flinched. Never a safe thing to do in the presence of a Dragon, but what can I say? I was distracted.

"It...seems I have a rather pressing personal emergency,"

"Frag you," Jeremy told him.

<No don't!> I said, via a Mindlink spell. But I was too late.

"Is there anything I might do to help?" Feuerschwinge offered.

The mafioso laughed, "You sure that's how you wanna play it, kid? Alright...Anthony, show him what he's won!"

One of the Mafioso's hold Mary reached down, grabbed one of Mary's fingers and wrenched it sideways, breaking it. And that's when everything went to hell.

Breaking Mary's fingers was one of her maker's favorite things to do while raping her. Mary's gutteral scream left everyone there but Jeremy confused, because it wasn't a scream of pain or fear.

She screamed in rage.

Remembering Isis's warnings, I knew immediately what was about to happen. My gut told me that Isis had been right. She wouldn't hurt Jeremy, even in her rage, but she wouldn't hold back against these men. Not one bit. So I reached out through my connection to Jeremy and cast and Improved Invisibility spell on her. Hopefully it would provide enough plausible deniability to cover what she was about to do, at least long enough for me to cover up the rest of it.

The mafioso who'd broken her finger erupted in blood as his neck tore open, seemingly of it's own accord. Fortunately it looked like Mary had clawed it open rather than biting him. And when the closest thugs to Jeremy stopped paying attention to him to blind fire at Mary's approximate location, I pounced on the opportunity.

<Take cover!> I shouted into his mind.

Fortunately he seemed to be at the point where he'd take my orders reflexively and without question. He dove back into the coffin hotel. Not the best choice, but at least he'd be out of sight.

[Ms. Tanaka. We have gunfire at the Lovebird's location. Please advise,] one of the security officers on Jeremy's detail texted me.

[Stay out until I order you to go in,] I texted back.

Things were complicated now. I could move the spells I'd cast, but only one at a time and I needed Jeremy's line of sight to cast through. I could cast an Armor spell on him but I was already maintaining four distinct spells. I could probably manage a fifth, but the weight of it was certainly noticeable.

"Tanaka-san?" Feuerschwinge asked.

[Opticon, I've got an emergency,] I texted, [I'm going to need Lonestar distracted and a frag-ton of electronic evidence wiped,] and I added the location and name of the coffin hotel provider.

Only then did I look back up at Feuerschwinge, "Uh...in a moment perhaps,"

I could still hear gunfire through the Clairaudience spell, <Have you cast Armor yet?>

<YES! But shouldn't I help her?> Jeremy thought back.

<She's your bodyguard and frankly, she's not in any immediate danger. Clean up is going to be a bitch though,>

[I'm on it] Opticon texted me, which was a relief.
[Awaiting orders,] the security officer's text followed immediately after.

I looked up at Feuerschwinge. How much did I trust her? More practically, how much could she help in this situation? Well, once Mary ran out of thugs to murder, I had no idea if she'd stop. And I wasn't going to rely on Jeremy to try to talk her down either. Best cast was that she'd run, but that was also a problem. Frag it.

"I have a very sensitive situation brewing. I have someone under my care that's lost control of herself. I could use help subduing her, but I have no interest in harming her. Would you be willing to help with that?"

Feuerschwinge nodded, "Of course,"

I opened a portal, which apparently Feuerschwinge could see, "Please follow me,"

<I'm on my way, kid. Won't be long now,> I told Jeremy, dropping the Clairvoyance and Clairaudience spells.

Feuerschwinge seemed to hesitate, but only for a moment. Once we were in the manasphere, her eyes widened but she said nothing. It didn't take long to reach the coffine hotel at Astral speeds, and my connection to Jeremy helped keep me from getting off-target.

"Please cast Improved Invisibility on us," I asked, and Feuerschwinge obliged without comment.

<We're here> I told Jeremy, and tapped on the door of the coffin hotel, <but stay inside for now,>

Mary continued her invisible rampage leaving Feuerschwinge with an obvious question.

<Shall I allow her to continue before subduing her?> her words rang out in my mind.

<No, I'll finish her work. Please take her back through the Portal, I'll join you shortly.>

Of course, I was asking for a lot of trust on her part. Without me, she presumably couldn't get back to the material plane, but I didn't have the slightest intention of betraying her, so hopefully she knew that.

It was the work of a few seconds to Manabolt the few remaining thugs to death, though I could hear Mary's feral screaming in the background. Which left me wondering who else could hear it. And I could hear Lonestar security sirens fast approaching.

[Delay Lonestar] I texted the security officer. Seconds later I could hear the unmistakable sounds of a car crash and knew whoever had done that deserved a nice little bonus.

<Alright, Jeremy, let's get out of here,> and I cast Improved Invisibility on him as well and guided him through the Portal.

A relatively clean getaway, but not entirely. Opticon would wipe any datatrails, but individual interviews would leave some clues. And I didn't have time to wipe out all the physical evidence. If anyone bothered to look, they might find Infected DNA, but I didn't have time to do anything about that, and hopefully since this was Everette, no one would look that closely at it.

Actually, why had they showed up so quickly? It could have been random, but I should probably look into it.

Moment later we were all back in my Office at Squatter's Mall. Feuerschwinge dismissed her invisibility to reveal Mary completely unconcious.

"Is she okay?" Jeremy asked, as I dismissed his invisibility.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Define 'Okay',"

Jeremy's face fell and I immediately regretted saying it. Still, it wouldn't do to shelter him from the cruelty of the world. With Mary retrieved I thanked Feuerschwinge and she made a graceful exit. I still had profoundly mixed feelings about letting her know about Jeremy, but the most I expected from her at this point would be to subtly probe him for information about me, and I wasn't afraid of the truth. So all that remained at this point would be the inevitable freak out from Mary once she woke up.

In a way, we were fortunate, because that freak out mostly consisted of her curled up in the fetal position on my sofa, crying. Jeremy moved to comfort her, but at first I didn't let him. At least not until I checked her aura. I didn't see anything that looked like she was on the cusp of violence again, but I kept assensing her even as Jeremy sat on the sofa next to her and put his arms around her. She threw her arms around him immediately and started sobbing all the more. I wished I could give them some privacy, but I couldn't. Not until I was sure she was stable.

So I spent the time checking on the security team's work, as well as Opticon's. On the surface, it looked like a clean getaway, but I had my doubts. So I texted Red and asked him to double-check and oversee the work being done to cover it all up. I felt better with him on the job, so I put that part of the problem out of my mind for the time being. And eventually, she run out of energy for crying and just laid there, her head in Jeremy's lap as he ran his fingers through her hair, likely to calm her.

I pulled over a chair into their space. It was time to talk, "Well, the emergency part is over. The datatrails are gone and I've got a team working to cover up the rest. It's looking like things are going to be okay,"

Mary pulled herself into a sitting position, still hunched, "What's...going to happen to me?"

I sighed and shoot my head, "Mary, it's okay. I told you this might happen. From what I saw, you didn't choose any of what just happened. And no-one you hurt was particularly innocent. We'll have to see how safe it is for you to return to the life you were building, but I'm leaving that in Red's hands for now. In the mean time, you can stay here but you'll have to stay in your room for a while. This is not a punishment, but no one can know you're here,"

No questions from Jeremy about who Red was, which could either mean he wasn't in a place to ask questions or it could mean she already told him. But I hadn't forbidden that so I didn't particular care. Nor did either one of them ask where they were now or how they'd gotten here, but those questions might come later. For now, Mary just nodded. I renewed Improved Invisibility on them and let them to the freight elevator. Jeremy must have realized he was in Squatter's Mall along the way at some point, but he said nothing. Once on the other side though, he spoke up.

"Wait...what's going on? Where did everybody go?" he asked.

"This is Squatter's Mall's reflection. There's nobody here, which I admit might get a little creepy after a while, but the Matrix works...somehow...so you two can still stay in contact,"

There were a ton of obvious questions to my statement, but my words were only met with silence, so I led Mary to her new room. Larger than some in Squatter's Mall and certainly larger than a coffin hotel, but still a single room with little in the way of the ammenities Mary had become used to. Still, they made no complaints so after a perfuntery explanation of what was available and that they should call me if they needed anything I left them alone.

We were now in the phase I hated the most. Waiting to figure out where things stood. That was in Red's hands now, and to a degree Opticon's. I didn't have much to add to the process, so all I could do is wait in my office. And with nothing to go on with the Mary/Jeremy situation, my thoughts quickly turned back to the Dragons. I hesitated to do it, knowing draogn Pride to be thing not wisely forgotten, but eventually I called Masaru.

"Tanaka-heika, it is a pleasure to speak with you, as always," the holographic Masaru said from my desktop.

"Thank you for taking my call, Great Masaru. I have a matter I wish to discuss with you, and I hoped you would inform me of a convenient time we might discuss it," I'd been doing a little reading on Dragon Etiquette, but I was pretty sure I was getting this part right.

Masaru smiled, "I am at your service, Tanaka-heika. How may I be of aid?"

That was not the traditional response, but I went with it, "I would like an objective threat assessment, from the perspective of the Great Dragons towards their interests of dragon hunters, immortal elves, and metahumanity in general. Feuerschwinge just visited me and expressed some concerns. As you know, I am still operating largely from a mortal perspective and I was unaware your kind ever took such things seriously. I would also like advice on how those threats could be handled in a way that might inspire more loyalty from the Great Dragons and dragonkind in general,"

Not that I was thinking in terms of an influence operation, but I needed to phrase things just right to get the kind of information I wanted from him. Of course, he was coming around to our point of view as well, but meeting in the middle was only fair.

The conversation that followed opened my eyes to a great many things. Masaru danced around it, of course, but the Great Dragons and all of dragonkind feared mortals more than I ever thought possible. And the more Masaru went on the more he sounded like a member of Humanis. He talked about mortals getting 'uppity' though without saying the word, and expressed, in his uniquely dragon way, that their success while useful was ultimately something to be feared, especially if dragonkind was going to spend thousands of years stuffed into the cramped quarters of a kaer with them. Dragon hunters just proved the inherrent lack of understanding mortals had of their place in the world and if they'd just calm down and obey, the dragons could get back to their job of caring for them.

The Scaly Man's Burden was a heavy one indeed.

I thanked Masaru for his wisdom and ended the call adherring to Dragon Etiquette to the best of my current knowledge. Things just kept getting more complicated. Dunkelzahn, in his will, encouraged Lofwyr to see himself as no greater or lesser than any being on Earth, so it seemed dragons didn't have to be supremacists, but if even Masaru was, that did not bode well. And it seemed Masaru's bigotry came from the same source as most mortal bigotry: Fear. Except dragons were even more loath to admit to such a thing that mortals were, which made dealing with that even more difficult. An idea started to form in my mind, but not one I had any idea on how to accomplish on my own.

I needed to find a dragon, Great or otherwise, that wasn't bigoted. One that wasn't afraid of mortals. Not that individual mortals tended to frighten dragons, but it seemed that collectively they were. So I did some digging into notable dragons, and eventually found a possible lead.

She wasn't a Great, but Urubia, also known as the Crimson Queen, had onced made Redmond her home. In fact she had several allianced between the gangs of Redmond though that had been before Lucifer's time. She had even renovated a low income housing complex consisting of four 16 stories apartment buildings, turning one of them in a sort of low-class resort or den of iniquity hosting all manner of parties. She even invited metahumans to literally climb all over her when she was "dancing". Further, during her time in Redmond, her territory was neutral ground for the gangs and she seemed to be trying to build a power bloc in a very similar way to Lucifer. Of course, she'd also been implicated in the abductions of Awakened children, though a fair chunk of that had been willing purchases that the parents had come to regret. (And therer were probably a number of parents who'd sold their children to her and simply hadn't ever admitted to it). The best estimates we could find for the number of Awakened children she'd 'abducted' was just over 500.

The bare minimum necessary for a stable breeding population.

To the best of my knoweldge, though, the non-Greats didn't know about the Horrors or what was to come, but that didn't mean they couldn't be operating on orders from above. But it was also possible she'd been operating on her own. And given that she was a dragon, there was any number of reasons she could have been gathering up Awakened children and we didn't know for a fact she was keeping them. Broadly speaking, however, their were two main possibilities. Either she was doing something nefarious, in which case it gave us the opportunity to shut her down and hopefully be able to show her mercy, which would send a single to the Great Dragons to let them know we were just but not tyrants, or she was doing something benevolents, in which case we could offer her our help and get another perspective on how to interact with dragonkind. And having a non-Great who didn't know what Theo was could be an enormous help. Especially if she turned out to not be quite so afraid of mortals.

But make no mistake. While the files I had access to said she had a need for metahuman contact that bordered on an addiction, that didn't mean she wasn't afraid on some level. A lot of people played with their fears in that way, just like a lot of women had rape fantasies. But regular contact with people not like yourself is the best way to put those fears to rest, and as dragons went, Urubia's contact with metahumans was pretty high, but then Masaru's had been as well. Of course, to be fair to Masaru, he was pretty far from thinking mortals had no redeeming qualities. But as Thug had so aptly put, he was in the "animal rights activists" category of bigotry. He didn't think it was the mortals' fault that they were inferior, and as a superior being it was his duty to see to their best interests, since they were so much less competent and thus unable to know what was best for them.

He venerated Dunkelzahn's memory, but in the end, he hadn't understood his words at all.

And it may surprise you to hear this, but I didn't think any of that made Masaru a bad person either. He was wrong but he wasn't a bad guy, and he certainly wasn't evil. Not that he was even wrong about everything. He'd first hatched 7000 years ago, and even if he'd spent a large chunk of the time since then asleep, he still had more wisdom and intelligence and experience than any mortal that walked the Earth today. And everything he'd done with the Huks had well and truly been to their benefit. But like Theo when I'd first met him, he didn't respect them for all that he absolutely did indeed value them. If I'd never met Theo I wouldn't have been able to wrap my mind around that so easily. They were like precious children, but with no expectation that they would ever grow up.

And who wouldn't fear a world of billions of children with access to massively destructive military technologies? So yeah, I sympathized with his position, even if I didn't share it.

Urubia on the other hand, well I was about to find out.

 

It was a shame Urubia had chosen to leave Redmond when she did. It would have been nice to have her on board when we were still establishing our control over the region. Not that we hadn't tried to get in contact with her, but she'd ignored us. No one knew just why she'd left Redmond, but she'd left her 'Funhouse' in Redmond with all the automated defense systems running which left a lot of people with the impression she was coming back. Although on the timescales dragons were known to think on, that could be centuries. There were a few theories about why she'd left. Most centered around the "Funhouse Massacre". While her territory had counted as neutral ground by all the gangs in Redmond, there's always some idiot who thinks they can get away with something. And as quick as Urubia was to violence, she hadn't been able to stop it. Reports said she'd been in another room when the bullets started flying. There's been no warning or even expectations of violence. No meeting of opposing factions. Just a massive eruption of gunplay that had left thirty people dead by the time she showed up - and she hadn't been slow.

In the week after, she never saw or spoke to anyone. She never left her lair. And based on my studies of dragon etiquette and culture that seemed almost certain to be a grieving period. Afterward, she kicked everyone out of the Funhouse and left. It seemed she'd given up on Redmond, and maybe mortals in general. It hadn't been easy to track her down either, but with the resources I had now, it was far from impossible. It looked like Urubia was shacking up with Kalanyr a dragon she'd long been connected to, but seemed to be on the outs with for decades. Kalanyr, conveniently, made his lair in downtown Seattle on the top of the fairly upscale Madrona Apartments building. I'd sent them both emails about potentially purchasing the Funhouse for Sol Purpose, but only Kalanyr had replied.

So, there I was, on the elevator to the top floor, all by my lonesome. Kalanyr insisted I come alone, which I'd agreed to readily. I didn't think I was quite on par with a Great Dragon, but the regular kind? Well, I was pretty sure I could get away at least. Not that I thought it would come to violence. Based on the understanding I did have of dragons, both in general and these two in particular, Kalanyr wanted Urubia to cut ties with her former life. He was solidly in the Dragons Are Superior camp, even if he was courteous about it, and it was likely that's what had driven them apart. And if Urubia wasn't answering my request, that meant it was likely she wasn't completely ready to let go. Mortals had broken her heart, but she still cared for them.

The elevator came to a shuddering hault as a dagger made of fear briefly dug itself into my heart. I calmed myself immediately though. There was no reason to believe this was an attack. Probably just some kind of test.

"Sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am," an ork voice came over the intercomm, "Not sure what's going on. Everything looks fine on our end. I'll be down in a second to check the on board systems,"

At least he was prompt. Less than a minute later an ork popped down from the ceiling, cyberdeck in hand and dressed for all the world like you'd expect for an elevator repair man.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, ma'am. I should be able to get this thing running before too long. Hope you're not in too much of a hurry though," he said.

I noticed immediately how carefully chosen his words here. He hadn't explicitly said he was sorry for the inconvenience, and he'd only said he could get the elevator running again. I still had Matrix access though, so I downloaded the knowsofts that would help me repair the elevator myself and watched him carefully.

"You can call me Charley, by the way. Hope you're day's going well...or was before this," he continued.

He didn't say his name was Charley, only that I could call him that. I said nothing at first. Instead I tried to figure out what the point of all this was. I Measured The Wind while simultanously assenssing him. Fortunately he was as mortal as he appeared to be though he had some extremely pricey headware, far more than a technician would be able to afford.

"You know, not a lot of people get time with dragons. You some kind of big shot?" he said.

"Technically, I am, I suppose, " I replied. I'd gotten as much information as I could without engaging, so it was time to play the game with him, "My name's Miho Tanaka. I'm with Sol Purpose,"

He stopped, "Wait, you're the Miho Tanaka from This Old Mall? I thought that was a Horizon show!"

I smirked, though not because of what he'd said. He'd been careful with his words, but he didn't know the extent of my ability to read truth, and he'd just fragged up. That last sentence of his smelled just faintly of sulfur. It was a half-truth intended to deceive. And as I watched him work, he was running way more diagnostics than he needed to be for something like this in a clear attempt to stall for time.

"This Old Mall was just the beginning. We're working on a bunch of new programs intended to revitalize Redmond. And we even managed to convince the board to spin us out into a subsidiary. Right now we're gearing up to go global,"

The ork whistled while he worked, "Damn, so what does that make you? Vice-President or something? I guess that Theo kid is CEO right?"

Still faint traces of sulfur in his words, but not outright lies. Questions, of course, couldn't be lies in and of themselves, but they could still be intended to deceive, and these all were. But I played along. It's not like anything I was about to say was hard to find out with enough leg work.

"Theo's focusing on his education. So the job fell to me. I'm even Chairman of the Board. Why? You looking for work?" I smiled.

The ork laughed, "I mean, maybe," he lied, "but you know, I watched a lot of your show. Must be crazy coming from being born in Redmond to being a full-on head-of-state, even if it's a subsidiary,"

He was softening me up, asking questions I wouldn't have trouble answering to get me in the habit of actually answering. Which meant he knew what he was doing.

"Well, if you watched the show, you know I've answered questions like that dozens of times. If you want to know if that was all bulldrek, it wasn't. This isn't that different, except that I'm the one calling the shots,"

The ork turned from his position, squatting in front of the open elevator panel and raised an eyebrow at me, "Nah, I don't buy that. I mean sure, you've been hanging out with the elites for a while, but now you're really one of them. And being a CEO with no training? That's gotta be hard. The McWellan kid at least helping you?"

That narrowed things down considerably. The dragons all knew what was going on with Sol Purpose. And while, yes, it could be the case that this question was designed to throw me off, my gut told me it wasn't. But it didn't hurt to double check.

"You really wanna know?" I asked him.

"Well sure!" he replied, and it was absolute truth.

I shrugged, "Theo's been training me roughly as long as I've been training him. He always wanted me to be able to stand on my own two feet. If I needed his help, I'm sure he'd give it, but he's not running the show from behind the scenes or anything,"

I saw a hungry look in his eyes, like he'd found an opening.

"Nah, nah...I didn't mean to insult you or anything. It's just strange, you know? You always want to go corporate?" he asked.

I smiled, "Not hardly. But I've been helping Theo manage things for a long time, and at a certain point it just made sense. And we've got similar enough values that he doesn't really need to run it from behind the scenes. I'd run it the same way he would,"

"Wait, you managed stuff for him before the show?" he pretended to be shocked.

I folded my arms and leaned back against one of the walls, "Mostly just his relationship with Gnostic Lucifer,"

He stopped and turned around to look at me.

"Uh...I don't know if I want to know about any of that," he lied.

"Caught you off guard, did I? That was a flat-out lie. Don't get me wrong, you did pretty well for locking yourself in a room with someone who can smell lies and trying to get an interview. I almost pretended not to realize it. But let's just get this drek all out on the table. What do you actually want to know?"

"Listen...lady, I don't know why you think I'm someone I'm not, but I'm just doing my job here..."

"Are you kidding? I have the best Knowsofts money can buy, and watching you work on that thing is like watching a child spread food around their plate to make it look like they've been eating. You're lucky I'm not more annoyed about this. I could have fed you all kinds of fake drek and ruined your reputation,"

The ork slumped and stood up, "So why didn't you?"

I shrugged, "Because my gut is telling me this isn't some kind of inter-corporate oppo research. You're looking for the truth. Am I wrong? Keep in mind, you're stuck in a cage with a top 1% physical adept and I can tell when you're lying."

He swallowed and shook his head, "No. You're not wrong. People need to know what's really going on in the world,"

That made him an ork who liked to play dress up and do undercover investigations to get real truth out to the people. All of which added up to one thing. (Thanks Analytics!)

I smiled again and offered him a handshake. He took a moment to decide but eventually shook my hand.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Sunshine. Though I wish you would have made an appointment," I told him.

Sunshine was a sort of freelance investigative reporter in the Shadows. He'd gotten his start in KSAF, a small independent news organization founded in Chicago but operating out of Seattle, and had spent his career exposing the corps dirty laundry. Theo had been throwing him money anonymously for years.

"I almost did, but I wanted to know what you'd say if you didn't know you were being interviewed," he replied.

I flinched. That pretty much explained what this was about. Sunshine probably didn't know it, but he'd been manipulated into coming here and doing precisely what I was intending to do to Urubia. Smelled a bit like Hestaby.

I took a deep breath, "Yeah, I get that. A lot of people think Sol Purpose smells like the Universal Brotherhood. I don't fault you for being cautious. Hell, I'd offer to show you our whole operation if I thought an NDA would apply to you. Also, I think you should know, I'm pretty sure you were manipulated by a dragon into doing this,"

He blanched, "Uh..no that...that can't be right. This was completely my idea,"

I shook my head, "I came here to speak with Urubia under the same kind of false pretenses you did, because I wanted a more candid opinion. Pretty sure one of the Greats caught wind of it and decided to give me an object lesson before I went through with it. I have my suspicions but I won't say who I think it was until I'm certain,"

Sunshine's brow wrinkled, "If that's really true should you be admitting it while in a metal box that could crash and kill you at any second?"

A slow smirk spread across my face, "My relationships with the Great Dragons are complicated, but I don't think it would help the world to know too much about that or I would tell you. Some things need to be managed more carefully,"

His eyes widened, "I uh...I mean you're right about the whole NDA thing, but I do protect sources. All the time,"

I frowned in agreement, "Sure, but in the end you're the one who decides what people get to know. Whatever I tell you, I have no control over what gets out,"

Sunshine shook his head, "Nah. I don't decide what people get to know. I mean, yeah, I hold back on my sources to protect people but that's not the same thing. People have a right to know what's going on in their world,"

I drummed my fingers. Theo and I hadn't really gotten around to discussing disclosure so I didn't feel empowered to do it unilaterally, but Sunshine had a point and Theo would agree with that.

"What do you want to know?" I said, finally.

"Heh, how about we start with 'what the drek?' Sol Purpose is squeakier than Horizon ever was. That makes a lot of people nervous," he replied.

I sighed, "I get that. So lemme start by giving you some insight about Theodore McWellan. Not everyone believes in the Horizon Principles, but he does. He's a true believer and then some,"

"So you still take orders from him?" Sunshine asked.

I smirked, "Not officially. Like I said, we have similar values. Actually the spin off wasn't even his idea. That was the brainchild of Julia Ling our COO. The Board of Horizon wanted to promote me and move me into other projects. I wanted to stay, so I tapped Julia for help. Theo was pretty happy about it though,"

You didn't say, 'only in the bedroom!' Robin's ghost screamed at me.

"So how did a Barren's Rat end up so attached to the Horizon Principles?"

"I'm a Samurai, first," I told him, "but I learned to hold to the Horizon Principles about as well as Theo learned to hold to Bushido. We're trying to make the world better for everyone. Just like my father did,"

"So how did you end up with elements of all of the big ten signing on practically overnight? Sounds like this has been in the works for a while,"

I shrugged, "Some of it has, yeah. The Squatter's Mall plan and its expansion into the Redmond Program were things Theo had been working on for years. The outside investors had more to do with some very good networking on Theo's part and the fact that there's people of all walks of life that still give a drek,"

"So why does that explanation smell like bulldrek?"

I winced, "I have to protect people the same way you protect your sources. You dig too deep on that and publish, you'll be hurting good people,"

"How?" Sunshine demanded, clearly unconvinced.

"Most people assume that the people who invested were only pretending to give a drek and are using the investments to gain some kind of advantage. And there are certain other people who wouldn't look twice at that but would pay a lot closer attention if they thought it wasn't some kind of game. I won't try to stop you from looking into that, and hopefully you'll understand when you do. But know that if you hurt my friends, I'll take it personally,"

My words set him on edge, but to his credit he didn't let fear stop him, "And what will I find out if I start looking into the outside investors?"

"You'll find that they're all young, many are corporate princes like Theo, and that they have differing political views from their parents, even if many of them play that close to the vest,"

"So all of those billions of nuyen that flowed into your corp are what? Them hiding in plain sight?"

I nodded, "Exactly,"

"So there's nothing to see? Nothing interesting going on? It's all just as Shiny Happy People as it looks and I'm wasting my time? You really expect me to believe that?"

My smirk returned, more wicked than ever, "Oh not at all. We have all kinds of juicy secrets. Tell you what, if you're willing to submit to a magical oath of silence on the details, I'll try to convince Theo to let you in on everything and then you can give your impressions on your blog. How's that sound?"

Sunshine harumphed, "Like a knife looking for a spot on my back...not that I haven't done that kinda thing before..."

"Come on..." I told him, "If you're here that means you've already been to Squatter's Mall at least. Probably Rat's Nest and a few others too. And I know you haven't found anything nefarious because there's nothing to find. That's why you got desperate and did this. But you're not going to get the really juicy stuff without that oath because, among other things, if I told you the truth you wouldn't believe it,"

"Please. I've heard that a million times," Sunshine said, dismissing my words.

"The gods are starting to wake up," I told him, and I knew Theo would approve of me trolling him with the truth.

Sunshine stood there a moment, trying to figure out if I was being serious or not. Finally he spoke, "Now you're just fragging with me,"

I nodded, "Oh absolutely. But I'm fragging with you by telling you the truth. And what Sol Purpose is really about ties in with that fact intimately,"

Sunshine started to writhe, "You really want me taking that oath, don't you? Why?"

I stepped into his space and leaned close to him, "Because it will be hilarious,"

I moved back out of his personal space and added, "Plus, we haven't really had time to think about how to do disclosure. I'm sure Theo is thinking something along conventional lines, but shadowrunners and other underworld types would make a good test market. And it might cause less of an upheaval if the truth leaked out from the Shadows slowly. If you've done this kinda thing before you know we won't ask you to be bound to anything you don't agree to in advance. And having your help figuring out when and how to do the disclosure would be profoundly useful,"

"How big is it? What are we talking here?" Sunshine asked.

"My word as a Samurai...as big as the Awakening. At least," I responded.

"That's what you're really here to talk to the dragons about, isn't it? Not some trivial building purchase?"

I shook my head, "Well yes and no, some of those conversations have already happened and we're mostly in talks with the Greats. What I really want is to get a sense of how Urubia feels about mortals. If she has the perspective I'm hoping for, or at least something close to it, I'm going to ask for her help,"

I wasn't just opening up to him. There was just no way we weren't being watched.

"With what?"

I took a deep breath, "Building a world where dragons and mortals can lilve together in peace,"

"Why Urubia?" Sunshine asked.

"I think she might be the only dragon in the world that doesn't fear metahumanity," I told him.

That set him on the backfoot, "Fear metahumanity? What the frag are you talking about, lady?"

I sighed again, "To dragons, especially Great Dragons, metahumanity is a collection of children at best. I know for a fact that's how Masaru feels and I suspect Hestaby and the other pro-mortal dragons do as well. They value us, but they don't respect us. But think about what that means about the world as they see it. They live on an Earth surrounded by billions of children who, collectively, are in control of absurdly powerful and destructive technology. We've already fragged up the climate and who knows how we're going to screw things up next. They may not fear us as individuals but collectively...that's another matter entirely,"

"Why do you think Urubia's any different?"

I shrugged, "Unlike Hestaby and Masaru, Urubia took an approach to her work in Redmond that was more...honestly I don't even know how to characterize it. The territory she claimed was small and she never took sides. Plus she spent an inordinate amount of time just having fun with mortals. It really seemed to me that she was trying to make a genuine connection,"

"Are you just saying this because you think they're watching?" Sunshine asked.

"No. I know they're watching, but I'm saying it because it's true and the message behind sending you here reached me. I shouldn't have gone about this the way I did, and I'm glad this happened,"

"Were there any other reasons for this approach?"

And that's when I realized he wasn't coming up with all of the questions. In fact, a lot of his recent ones were things Urubia or whoever set this up would want to know. Probably part of the deal to make this happen.

"Sure, but I'm not sure they'd want you to know. Surprised they told you to ask that, really."

Sunshine's eyes widened, but I continued before he could speak.

"But I'll say this. It wasn't to trap them into saying something they'd regret later. If they'd said things they normally wouldn't want to say around my principle, neither he nor I would have held that against them. We just need to know their real position, and even if we find that position to be repugnant - which I doubt - he won't punish them for mere opinions,"

Sunshine's eyes widened even further and I could see the anxiety in his aura building into real fear.

"I...uh...I'm gonna go," he said, and the elevator door flew open immediately. We were about 90% on one floor and only 10% on another, so all he had to do was step up a bit and he was gone. The door closed again and brought me all the way to my real destination.

The top two floors of the building had long ago been refurbished into a single large floor comfortable enough for a dragon to walk around in their true form. Or in this case, three dragons. Urubia and Kalanyr were there, of course, as well as another, much larger dragon that I had not at all expected to see.

"Hello, Gold Master," I said.

 

Okay, time to process. Lofwyr's presence recontextualized everything. I'd thought Sunshine's deception had been some kind of moral lesson so I'd assumed Hestaby had been behind it all. But what did Lofwyr want out of this? No, wrong question. What would Lofwyr have expected to happen sending Sunshine at me in that way? Did he get what he wanted out of it? I couldn't be sure, but my gut told me no. If he wanted to sabotage the negotiations...oh...obviously.

He wanted me to behave like a hypocrite...to lose my drek over the deception. And if I got violent that just would have been a bonus. That's why he was here. When I'd thought Hestaby had been behind all this, I wouldn't have expected her to be here, except maybe to congratulate me on passing her test. But for Lofwyr to show up at the end, making the deception obvious was probably in hopes of making me lose my drek even more. He couldn't kill me. Well, no, he could absolutely kill me, but he didn't dare. Not that he knew about Theo's training from literally-hell for twice as long as Masaru estimated it would take him to reach Great Dragon levels of power. It wasn't even that Theo's mere existence represented a danger to his status, and killing or even substantially harming me would give Theo enormous leverage. It was deeper than that. It had taken some time, but I'd finally realized that the legend Tabitha had left behind affected them all so much deeper than any metahuman legend affected mortals. They had genetic memory after all. Lofwyr's fear of Theo wasn't rational. It was instinct.

But irrational fears could be overcome by will and intelligence. And Lofwyr was no slouch in either department. The truth is, I hadn't outmaneuvered him. I'd done the equivalent of slipping on a banana peel and randomly landing on my feet, leaving all observes assuming I'd done a back-flip. But a random windfall though it might be, I was still gonna fragging wring every last drop of advantage out of it.

<Greetings, Tanaka-kun> Lofwyr's dragonspeech entered my mind.

Lofwyr was in his true form, along with Kalanyr and Urubia. True to her name, Urubia, the Crimson Queen, was as red as her sobriquet suggested, with a spiked tail to boot. But despite her fierce demeanor I could see a sadness in her eyes, and what might have been a little hope. Kalanyr on the other hand, looked more like a winged dinosaur than what people normally associate with a dragon. He had a rounded, smooth head with horns that curled downward to under his jawline then flowing out even past his snout. And to me it seemed like his eyes were unnaturally large. His coloration was currently red as well, but as I understood it, he could change it. Maybe he was showing solidarity with Urubia? Old Gold Master was equally true to his use-name, being solid gold and one regal-looking motherfragger. Made it easy to understand how he developed such a big ego. He'd just looked in a mirror.

They'd set up a conference table for me, right in front of the elevator. Apparently, they weren't too keen on me seeing the rest of their lair. From what I could tell though, the place had a fairly modern aesthetic and not at all done up to mimic the inside of a cave or anything (hey, leave me alone! It was my first dragon lair!). I didn't see much in the way of furniture, but there were some pillars with various bits of art or other expensive shinies I didn't bother focusing on. All in all I wasn't too impressed. They were just Old Money with scales when you thought about it. The conference table had a single chair at the head. A bit farcical really. I didn't have anything like seniority in any of their eyes.

<Do please, sit down,> a feminine voice appeared in my mind, clearly Urubia's, and I immediately got a sense of authenticity from her.

I nodded, "Thank you. And I appreciate you taking the time to see me,"

<So why have you really come?> a third voice in my mind, Kalanyr's by process of elimination.

I took the offered seat and much to my surprise, the dragons gathered around the table as well and sat around it. I couldn't help but think they looked like regular-sized dogs at a lilliputian tea party and immediately found myself struggling not to laugh.

"As I said in my email, I am interested in purchasing Urubia's buildings in Redmond. They would make an extremely useful addition to our Redmond operations. However, as you have surmised, there are other topics I would like to discuss,"

I'd originally asked for lessons in dragon etiquette because if Masaru was going to declare me his Lord then I was not about to let myself casually disrespect him. That wasn't about fear. It had been about honor. But it turned out to pay dividends a hundred times over in this situation alone. I knew now, that bringing up anything that happened in that elevator would be extremely crass to their sensibilities. So I didn't.

<And those would be?> Lofwyr asked.

In an equivalent situation with mortals I would have been a little off-put by how little Urubia seemed allowed to participate in this conversation, but according to Masaru dragons didn't have anything like the sexual dimorphism of metahumans and so they have never evolved a sense of chivalry that would devolve into sexism in modern times. Perhaps that was another of Lofwyr's tactics.

I turned to Urubia anyway, "I'd like some insight into how you accorded yourself when you ran the Funhouse, if you're willing to give it,"

Urubia seemed to almost writhe or shiver before she responded, <And if I give an answer meeting with your approval? What then?>

I smiled, "Then I will offer you a job working with Sol Purpose. If your answer is what I think it is, then I'm guessing you will find the work fulfilling,"

This time Kalanyr hunched and even snarled. He looked to Lofwyr expectantly and it seemed like there might even be fear in his eyes.

"You've already told them, haven't you?" I asked, looking at Lofwyr.

I may have defeated Lofwyr's first trap by accident, but that accident gave me insight into how to play to rest of this game. He was completely unprepared for me to play with an open hand. Or so I hoped.

<It seemed prudent. And if her answer does not meet with your approval? What then?> Lofwyr replied.

I shrugged, "I will continue with the negotiations to purchase her property. After that, I will leave. Beyond that, I will hold her no animus. Nor will my principle,"

Kalanyr's head swiveled at speed in my direction, <And if she tells you that mortals are nothing but meat and slaves? What then?>

I shrugged again, "My principal and I are more concerned with what people do than with what they say,"

<You did not answer the question,> Lofwyr noted.

I nodded, "Very well then. We would not take any direct action based on those words alone. Except that we would, perhaps, attempt to change her mind through persuasion alone. If we could not, we would factor her unreliability into any future negotiations. But as I've often said, merely holding an opinion is no crime, and as you well know, my words are His words,"

<Does your principal truly believe me to be the only dragon unafraid of the collected masses of mortals?> Urubia asked.

A wicked smile spread across my face because I immediately knew how to play this. And it would send Lofwyr spinning.

"He doesn't know I'm here,"

They all pulled back in obvious shock, but it was Kalanyr who responded first, <You go behind his back?>

I shook my head, "No,"

<Explain yourself then! We have no appetite for games!> Lofwyr demanded.

Julia's advice about the Board of Horizon came back to me, and I decided to make them wait just a little longer, "Oh really? Dragons have no appetite for games? Pardon me, I seem to have accidentally stepped through a portal to a different universe,"

Urubia smiled, but both Lofwyr and Kalanyr failed to find the humor in it.

<Answer the question!> Kalanyr demanded, <Or I will grant Gold Master the right to commit violence in my lair!>

I drummed my fingers absently a couple of times on the table and sighed, showing how not in a hurry I was, before locking eyes with Kalanyr, "He wouldn't dare,"

Lofwyr took such a deep breath I thought I might be in for a blast of fire, but instead he just held it.

<My patience is growing thin, young one. You say your principal does not send you, and yet you claim you are not betraying him. You will explain immediately,>

I sighed again, "You, Gold Master, are far more intelligent than is necessary to grasp such a thing immediately, so I will assume there is some kind of cultural bias at play preventing you from seeing the obvious. I am acting on my own authority. I am his Voice, yes, but I am more than that. By order of the Lawgiver, I am the Lawgiver. And we are one,"

And for a moment, a silence more golden than Lofwyr himself.

<He must love you dearly,> came Urubia's thoughts, finally.

I turned to regard her, "I'm glad you understand. I understand that I am a guest in your home, but I have answered many of your questions. Would it not be impolite of you to leave mine unanswered for so long?"

Lofwyr snarled but Urubia and to my great surprise Kalanyr seemed impressed. Still, it was Lofwyr who responded.

<Great Masaru has taught you much. A waste of effort though. The traditions do not protect you,>

Kalanyr raised a short arm in Lofwyr's direction in a surprisingly human gesture, <You are, of course, correct Loremaster. But it is intriguing behavior nonetheless,>

I knew what he meant. I'd seen Theo sit down for a meal with Kenneth Brackhaven, governor of Seattle when he was 13 years old to discuss foreign policy. Brackhaven had probably only taken the meeting to not piss off Tabitha, of course, but I'd seen how dumbfounded he looked when Theo managed to speak intelligently on all of Seattle's issues and offer real actionable advice. Not that he took any of it.

<I will answer her question,> Urubia added.

She seemed to take a moment to center herself, or at least that's what the subtle movements I saw would have meant to me for a metahuman.

<I regret to inform you that you are incorrect. I do indeed fear metahumanity,>

Both Lofwyr and Kalanyr looked away from her like she'd sneezed and had snot hanging out of her nose.

<As for others of my kind...well, I refuse to speak for them, but take notice that I am not correcting you on that topic. My behavior at the Funhouse was instead a direct result of a message I received from Dunkelzahn mere hours before his death. He said...>

She bowed her head and I couldn't help myself. I assensed her. I didn't even have to Measure the Wind. She wasn't trying to hide anything. Her aura flowed with all the varied colors of grief and shame.

<...he said, 'It is enough to try' and so that is what I have done. What I once did. I tried to rid myself of my fear and my revulsion for mortals. And for a time, I thought I could almost see what Dunkelzahn saw in them, But after the Funhouse Massacre I lost all hope. I lost the will to try. I hope you and your principal will not judge me too harshly for such a failure,>

I slid my chair back and walked into her space. All three dragons watched me but did nothing. Her head was still low enough, so I placed a hand on her snout, "We won't judge you at all for that. Don't you see? The massacre hurt you because you succeeded. You cared about them. And you cut yourself off from them afterward because it hurts to lose those kinds of connections. All I came here to do was to call you back to your own mission. This time, with our help,"

<And how many of her own kind will you order her to kill in the fullness of time?> Loftwyr asked, trying to rip control of the frame back from me.

I dropped my hand and turned to regard him, making no effort to hide my annoyance. I knew he wanted me to look bad, but that didn't mean I was going to ignore it when he was rude to me. I wasn't Theo.

"Last I checked, Gold Master, Theo and I were the ones looking to avoid a dragon civil war. And you were the one begrudgingly giving as little of your help as possible, but that's not what's relevant here. We do not require her fealty at this time. It is enough to have her partnership,"

Kalanyr responded immediately, <What? But Gold Master, you said - >

<They are not mortals, young one. They can think in our time,> Lofwyr replied.

I glared at Lofwyr, "Theodore McWellan is not a tyrant. He values all life,"

<Oh?> came Lofwyr's immediate reply, <Is he a vegan now?>

I folded my arms.

<Then he does not value all life. Certainly not equally at least. Can you tell me what difference there is between farm animals and mortals that is not equal or greater when comparing dragons and mortals?>

Fortunately, I had an answer already prepared for that, "To the best of my knowledge, farm animals do not have souls,"

<Hmm...> Kalanyr interjected <They have one soul, though not the two of mortals or dragons. And if I understand correctly, the Lawgiver has three does he not? Does this inform his view of us?>

I shook my head, "And Exaltation is not a soul,"

<Indeed not,> Lofwyr replied <it is a thing much greater. And if this is still not a consideration for him, then why should something lesser like a soul be a consideration between farm animals and mortals?>

I took a deep breath, "I'm afraid there hasn't been enough time for us to solve every philosophical question. Perhaps the vegans are right. I don't yet know. I'm sure Theo and I would be happy to discuss the matter at length at another time," I turned back to Urubia, "the matter at hand is, What Do You Want?"

She raised her head and stood tall and regal, <I think...I would like to know what it is to feel at ease in the presence of mortals. But he will not have my fealty until I am sure of him. Nor any of my hoard or treasures,>

I shrugged, "I wasn't even going to ask you to become an investor, though you are welcome to at your leisure,"

<Why do you ask so little?> Kalanyr asked.

Lofwyr beat me to the punch though, <A single snowflake can create an avalanche. By standing at his side, you offer him legitimacy. Others will surely follow. This is what they desire. And the ones who come after you will not be received so graciously,>

"I haven't heard Great Masaru complaining,"

<He too was an early recruit. And the more dragons flock to his banner, the more leverage he will have against all our kind. In a few centuries, he will be your Lord and Master and you will have no recourse against him,>

I couldn't help but smirk. He was dracopomorphizing us.

"I think you're projecting a bit, Gold Master. It is true that Theo wants to build a world where we can all live in peace, but we aren't even close to working on the details of that. Before we can even start, we need to understand the dragon perspective first," I turned back to Urubia, "Will you help us with this?"

Kalanyr didn't let her answer, <And why is Great Masaru not sufficient for this?>

I turned back to him, "Because it turns out, his Oath of Fealty was entirely redundant. He sees the Lawgiver as Unquestionable and that skews his perspective and limits his usefulness on this particular task. We want someone who will advocate for the dragons, and we would prefer one who does not remember the Lawgivers of old, because we do not wish them to be burdened by the Celestial Hierarchy,"

<Or perhaps you do not wish them to be cognizant of the horrors of Old Ones,> Lofwyr countered.

I shook my head but then stopped to think about it, "No, actually you're right. It would be helpful to have someone who could take us on our own merits to the greatest degree possible,"

<And someone who was entirely unprepared for madness into which he will inevitably descend?>

My turn, bitch, "Oh? Did All-Wings's mistress descend into madness? Or did she perhaps rule for an abnormally short period?"

(And yes, I was cheating there, because if you wanted to be technical she sorta had descended into madness, not that he would know anything about it)

<She abandoned us!> Lofwyr practically shouted in my mind.

"And yet, so many of your kind still went to visit her in the deep astral, at first. Because she didn't leave of her own accord. She left to protect you. And you know it. But then, of course, you stopped visiting her. Some would say your kind abandoned her,"

He roared. The motherfragger actually roared. But it wasn't mere sound. The magic it carried didn't feel like an intentional spell. More like some kind of natural mana expression, and a profoundly intense one at that. It would have been terrifying had I been mortal. Hell, I probably would have lost bowel control to say nothing of my bladder. But I deepened my divinity every day it seemed and while it was a hefty expense in power I managed to bear up against it. Even Urubia and Kalanyr seemed more shaken than I was.

Which they noticed.

<Oh...> Urubia thought in my direction.

<I...I see...> Kalanyr added.

Kalanyr then turned to Lofwyr and bowed his head, <I thank you for your visit Loremaster Gold Master. It was a privilege to have you as a guest in my lair. I hope to one day have the honor again,>

I might not have even needed to study dragon etiquette to know that meant, It's time for you to leave. Somehow I'd managed to push Great Lofwyr so far and so hard he'd lost control of his emotions. Which wasn't at all something he was known for. In fact, he was known for exactly the opposite. I'd learned a lot about rhetoric, debate, and other forms of social manipulation over the years. You practically picked that up by breathing when you were from Horizon, but I didn't think I was that good. Had something been going on behind the scenes that I didn't know about? Did I luck out again?

Oneesama, was that you? I prayed.

But it seemed she was leaving me with no answer this time.

Fragging gods.

 

The time had finally come. Hestaby had been considerate enough to set up the meeting for a weekend so Theo wouldn't have to worry about missing his classes. I hadn't been paying a lot of attention to anything he'd been doing in Boston, although I'd noticed him spending a lot more than I would have expected so I assumed he'd been doing some work in the Boston-area's slums. He hadn't mentioned anything of that nature, but he'd only dropped a few million beyond what I would have expected, so I assumed it was just some pilot project and he'd tell me when he was ready. Hestaby had scheduled the meeting for 9:00 pm Pacific time (midnight in Boston) so I decided to take the entire day and visit him in Boston to see what I'd been missing.

We didn't talk business at first. Turned out Theo had been as busy as I was these days. He'd intentionally limited himself to taking 18 credit hours. He could have handled a much much higher course load if it had been worth the effort to focus on it, but there wasn't really much of a point, and since he was pretending to hide his power from his mother going significantly higher would have been suspect, even as a transhuman. Instead, he'd been spreading himself out as usual. He'd kept on software development for a little while until he ran out of ideas, though he did throw together an Essence Simulator to help in creating new spells, both modern and ancient. Then he'd picked up architecture and civil engineering for a while. By the time of my visit, he'd decided to get back into his core competency: Economics. We'd talked ad-nauseam over the years about how stupid the corps were even when it came to pursuing their own interests. Of course, some of that came down to middle-managers pursuing their own agendas above that of the corp's and a lot of the rest came down to the fact that the Great Dragons seemed to be trying to adapt metahumanity to Kaer life but that just couldn't be all of it. So Theo decided to write his own General Theory of Economics.

Multigenerational Macroeconomic Permaculture was the working title, and it pretty well formalized everything we'd talked about over the years. The way the corps were going, there wasn't going to be an economy in 50 years. They just didn't have the mechanisms and structures to limit themselves in the way nation-states used to be able to. And the more they squeezed their employees for productivity and the less they gave them in return for their labor, the more fragile the corps themselves became. And without robust nation-states to fall back on, there would be no one to bail them out. Theo had numerous projections in his book of the painful evolutionary process that would follow and the nasty equilibrium the world would get stuck in if the status quo continued, and it wasn't a pretty picture for anyone, even the elites. At the end of the book, Theo's call to action was too complicated for me, even as far as I'd come in my understanding of business and economics, but the gist of it seemed to center around a greater focus on employee well-being and a better mechanism for intercorporate disputes.

"So how's Life-Eez coming?" Theo asked after finishing up his elevator pitch for revolutionizing modern economics.

I took a bite from my filet mignon to give myself time to think. The restaurant he'd taken us to was your typical five-star fair, which didn't seem to stand out too much from any of the others we'd been to. I'd even grown out of feeling embarrassed about not being impressed by them. We'd gotten our own private area so as not to be bothered by the rank-and-file rabble of average rich people, though. Which meant it wasn't that different from eating at one of our estates.

"Well," I began, "I've got shipments of precursor set up finally. And the Draco Foundation has confirmed the gel does everything we said it does. The Bristol-Meyers Squib stock listed as the reward for the Dragon Flu cure has already been transferred and we're rolling out the final product as fast as we can. Reaching the necessary scale for global production is going to be hard, but we'll get there. Speaking of which, the Ethereal Sunflowers have been a big hit as expected, and Queen Laula's doing an excellent job on Flesh Beast rollout. I think she's still looking for the screw job, but in the end I think we'll get her on our side. Probably going to see about doing a lot of the manufacturing for the Sunflowers and gel in Asamando,"

Theo raised an eyebrow, "Wait..they're calling them, 'Flesh Beasts'?"

I shrugged, "I mean, you're the one that made them into giant fleshy starfish,"

Theo rolled his eyes but didn't complain, "And the spell research the Board is making you do?"

I sighed, "Starting to run out of ideas, really. I've got permanent cures for all of the major allergies, a reusable version of Fix, a combined Physical/Mana Barrier, and a few spells to make Alchemy easier, but I'm starting to run out of ideas for spells that won't seem suspiciously powerful,"

Theo rubbed his chin and looked off to the side, "Well, I'm sure they're crediting the Sunflowers, Seven Bounties Gel, and 'Flesh Beasts' to your account. Maybe we should move into agriculture. Aztechnology is hurting pretty bad these days so it might not hurt to throw together some kind of hyper-productive food plant that can 'unexpectedly' be grown by individuals,"

I frowned, "Yeah, I could probably do that. Might help to get some help from Orishako. Of course, she'd probably want to see some movement on Lagos first,"

Theo nodded, "Yeah, I was thinking Christmas Break would work for that. Really, I'd like to do it the same way we did Squatter's Mall, but I don't think I can work out living there full time until I graduate. Unless Mother lets me attend classes online, but now that I'm a publicly registered magician, it's hard to justify. I can't take most of those classes online,"

Theo's commlink beeped. The 'official' one that people knew about, that is. Theo's eyes widened a bit, but before I could ask he'd pressed a button and a holographic image of Hestaby's head - in her human form - appeared floating above it.

"Orange Queen," Theo began, "I'm surprised to receive your call. Is there some kind of emergency?"

She nodded, "Two in fact. And I fear I may be partially responsible for one of them. Sirrug and Alamais seemed to be operating in coordination with one another. Are you in a position to discuss sensitive information?"

Theo nodded.

"Sirrurg is attacking Tenochtitlán, a bold move even for him,"

That was an understatement. Tenochtitlán was the capital of Atzlan. And while it was true that Atzlan was doing quite poorly in its war with Amazonia, Tenochtitlán didn't sit anywhere near the front. And it was 400 kilometers from the coast.

Theo's expression turned hard, "And I suppose he expects me to consider it a military target due to the war?"

Hestaby tilted her head, "He somehow managed to bring a squadron of Amazonian aircraft with him. It would be hard to consider it otherwise,"

Theo's teeth clenched and he almost looked like he was about to snarl, "I am not a fan of loopholes, Orange Queen,"

Hestaby pressed her lips tight, "Must I remind you that the greatest power you possess at this time is the potential backing of many of my kind? And as you might imagine, we are quite fond of technicalities,"

Theo clenched his right fist, "And the other emergency?"

"Alamais has attacked GeMiTo and he has over a dozen adult dragon followers with him," she replied, flatly.

GeMiTo, the Genova-Milano-Torino special administration zone of the Italian Confederation, sat near the top of Theo's list of feral cities he wanted to help. When the nation-state known as Italy collapsed, the region now known as GeMiTo was the hardest hit. It wasn't quite as bad as Lagos, more like a massively scaled-up Redmond. But still, that was about ten million people at the mercy of a dragon supremacist and his cronies with no one who cared enough about them to do anything about it.

Theo drummed his fingers on the table a couple of times before asking, "And are you willing to intervene in either of these situations?"

"I am afraid I have my own tasks. Lofwyr will no doubt take an interest in his brother's attack. Normally he would not move quickly, but knowing your involvement will be inevitable will set a fire under him. And I intend to make use of that distraction,"

Theo rubbed his forehead, "So when you said you wanted to meet with us to discuss Elliot's murder, you just wanted to make sure we were in place to provide the distraction you wanted. I don't suppose it would be too much to ask that you didn't plant the idea in Sirrurg's head to coordinate with Alamais?"

"Or to complicate matters," I added, "by working with the Amazonian military?"

Hestaby paused a moment, "Interesting...that was faster than I expected. Yes, I have done these things. It seemed the most likely means of ensuring Sirrurg's survival. I have no attachment to Alamais, however. You may do with him as you wish. Even Lofwyr will not mourn him. Sirrurg, I suspect you will be able to persuade. He has already moderated himself at the mere mention of your name. Explaining the moves you have made against Aztechnology already and promising to aid him against those truly responsible for Dzitbalchén's murder should be enough to secure his fealty,"

Theo placed his elbows on the table - something he rarely did - interlaced his fingers and placed his chin atop his knuckles, "I don't appreciate being manipulated, Orange Queen. I thought you learned that back in Hawai'i,"

"If you are indeed the tyrant that Lofwyr fears, then my kind will learn such from my fate. If not, then I am in no danger,"

I shook my head, "You're wrong, Orange Queen,"

She raised an eyebrow, "About which part?"

Theo leaned into the hologram, "I'll let you wonder about that,"

Theo ended the call abruptly and let out an exasperated sigh as he put the commlink back in his pocket.

"So how are we splitting this up?" I asked him.

"Well, obviously I have to handle Sirrurg. But we don't have to split the party. We can do GeMiTo after,"

I shook my head, "People are dying every second. I can get to GeMiTo on my own. What I meant was, who's going with you and who's going with me?"

Theo rubbed his forehead with the fingertips of both hands, "Uh...I don't know. Having Masaru around would help me with talking to Sirrurg. Are you sure you're up to dealing with Alamais and a dozen adult dragons?"

"I'll have to be," I said with a shrug.

Theo writhed in his chair. He knew he could order me not to, but he also didn't want to.

"Do you think you could get Isis to go with you?" he asked after a moment.

Call our names, little sister, and we shall appear.

"Uh...yeah. Looks like it. You think I should try to get Fire Wings to come along? Or Urubia and Kalanyr?" I asked.

Theo winched, "Yeah, I don't know...might be a bad look asking them to kill their own kind, especially this early. But you've spoken to them more than I have,"

I nodded, "Alright, we better hurry,"

Theo held up a hand, "Wait. Don't go straight to GeMiTo. I've got some things I've been planning to give you. They're in The Reflection. Look for the armory. I wanted to be around to explain everything, but it looks like we don't have time for that anymore,"

I nodded.

A few minutes later, I exited my Portal directly into the cargo elevator at Squatter's Mall, attempting to save time, when I got an immediate call from Freddy, my assistant. Apparently, there were seven people waiting for me outside my office, including all of Robin's team. I didn't have time to go up there, so I told him to let them into my office and activated the holographic system.

In addition to Robin's team, I saw the human form of Fire Wings and two human-seeming people I didn't recognize, though they were suspiciously nondescript.

"I'm in a really big hurry, guys. Make this quick," I told them.

"We know what's happening," Gregor said, first, "Wherever you're going, we're going with you,"

Everyone else, including the two I didn't know, nodded their heads.

"May I ask who you've brought with you, Fire Wings?" I said.

She held a hand out to each of them, "These are Urubia and Kalanyr. I did not bring them but simply met them on the way here,"

The woman who was clearly Urubia stepped forward, "Based on what little we know from Lofwyr, would it be correct to guess that the Lawgiver sends you to GeMiTo?"

My eyes widened and I made a mental note that dragonic intelligence was roughly as potent as draconic pride.

"Yes, that is correct. I hadn't intended on asking you to come, though. We both found it an inappropriate thing to ask of you at this point, but if you're volunteering..."

Feuerschwinge stepped forward, "I wish to come as well, but as an observer only. If you will allow such a thing,"

I nodded. It made sense. The dragons would want to know what went on there from someone they trusted. Further, it would be a bad look if I said no, and it wouldn't stop them anyway. Feuerschwinge knew all that, but as a dragon had asked politely anyway.

Urubia spoke up again, "I...am not ready for this to be a permanent arrangement, but if you will, as I suspect, be attempting diplomacy first, then I am willing to accompany you as an honor guard. I know not what level of power you possess personally, but as Gold Master suggested, having me at your back should grant you a degree of legitimacy,"

I bowed my head slightly, "Thank you, Crimson Queen. And you Kalanyr?"

He took a deep breath and stared into my eyes. I didn't get the impression he was trying to stare me down though. I wasn't quite sure what was going on behind those eyes, but he looked a lot like some of my student had in the past when they spared with me. I hoped that didn't mean what I thought it meant because the whole point of going for non-Great dragon allies was for them not to be biased by fearful legends of unchallengeable power.

"Wherever Urubia goes, I wish to be. I do not share your cause, but I will stand by her side, and in so doing, by yours," he said.

"We're coming too!" Thug practically shouted.

I shook my head, "I'm sorry, but no,"

Robin's team practically erupted into indignant shouting. Even Gregor. But I was losing critical seconds and I didn't have time to coddle them.

"Maybe if you were Enlightened, but without that, it's too much of a risk. You're all too valuable in your current roles. I need you here. Now...if you've got scales, meet me at the main cargo elevator. If you're mortal, get back to work...and...I'm sorry,"

"I believe the Ritual is finally ready," Gregor said after a moment, "I can have it ready for you soon,"

I took a moment to consider it and then nodded, "Hopefully it'll work this time. I'm sorry to be a bitch about all this, but this is how it has to be,"

Fabio, Thug, and Opticon looked sour, but Gregor nodded, "Be safe," he said.

I nodded and then cut off the feed and waited. I really hated saying those things to them. I really really hated it. Because I knew what they'd be feeling hearing it. But where I was going was well and truly a place I wouldn't want to take a mortal. Hell, I wouldn't even want to take Mary. Not even if she had years more training than she did. Finally, my draconic cohort arrived. With hardly a word spoken, I lead them into The Reflection and found the armory. You never really needed directions on this side of Squatter's Mall. You just walked down a random hallway and thought about what you were looking for and you'd inevitably find it. Eventually, I came to a door helpfully labeled, "ARMORY" because even if Tabitha had technically made this place, Theo had obviously designed it.

The room inside had a long table, too broad to be a dining or conference table, and was surrounded by other doors, with names on them. There was a door for every member of Robin's team, one for Masaru and of course, one for me. None of us had spoken on the way here, and the trend continued. Which made it all the more jarring when I opened the door with my name on it, only to hear Feuerschwinge shriek in fear. I turned to look at her. She'd turned and placed her back against the same wall that held the door with my name. Her breathing was quick but she was already calming herself. Kalanyr's and Urubia's eyes were wide and they were keeping a distance from Feuerschwinge, but otherwise they showed little in the way of reaction. I took my cues from them and gave Feuerschwinge a moment.

"An armor stand...obviously..." she began, "no doubt to help you better survive the tribulations to come,"

I looked back into my section of the armory. Everything had happened so quickly that I hadn't even noticed that it appeared for all the world that someone dressed in the strangest armor I'd ever seen was standing in the middle of the room. But as Feuerschwinge had concluded, it was no doubt an armor stand. Still, I'd never seen anything quite like it. It looked, for all the world, like some kind of science-fantasy heavy milspec armor that ubernerds would cosplay in. Except it would have been way too expensive for that. The whole exterior was moonsilver, though heavily tarnished...even though moonsilver wasn't supposed to do that. And it all just seemed too heavy and bulky for me and I didn't know what the hell the designer had been thinking by giving the thing what looked like bone wings.

<Celestial Battle Armor? Interesting. Such a thing would normally be too costly for you to use, but Theodore would know that. It seems likely that he has some means of getting around that. And I believe that is a Grand Daiklave hanging on the wall to your right,>

I looked over and sure enough, there on the wall hung a sword with a blade the size of a surfboard. I walked over and tried to lift it but it would barely budge. Though the moment my hand made contact with it, I could feel a sort of absence in it where I knew instinctively I could pour my power into it. Looking back at the armor, from this angle I could see a wooden box sitting on a small podium just behind it with a piece of paper sitting on it. I approach the box and say that the paper had the words, "THIS ONE FIRST," written on it in Theo's handwriting.

Opening the box revealed a tarnished moonsilver collar with some kind of enormous yellow gemstone the size of a golf ball.

<What does it mean for moonsilver to be tarnished?> I asked the big guy.

<Potentially many things, but given where Theodore spent the last two years of his subjective experience, it almost certainly means that it was manufactured in Malfeas. The Green Sun Princes would often treat major magical artifacts with Vitriol in order to better bond with them. Though as a godblooded, you don't have a specific material resonance, so it's of little consequence to you,>

Because of course, Theodore McWellan couldn't travel to another realm of existence without doing a little shopping.

<If I don't have a material resonance, why is everything he gets me in moonsilver?>

<I think, perhaps, young Theodore is being hopeful. Also, note that the yellow gemstone set in the middle appears to be Yasal crystal. And unless I miss my guess, it is the means by which you be able to power the Battle Armor. It likely contains a demon that will be slaved to your will,>

I took a deep breath, but I didn't have time for trepidation. I picked up the collar, only now seeing how incredibly ornate it was. Strands of tarnished moonsilver crisscrossed up and down its width almost like lace and yet it felt incredibly sturdy. I unlatched the back and the sides fell open left and right. No flexibility it seemed, but I wasn't in this for comfort. I placed the collar up to my neck and it snapped shut on its own.

<Greetings Mistress! I am The Climber of Impossible Ladders, Demon of the First Circle. And I have been commanded to aid you,>

Great, another voice in my head. Although the demon seemed quite eager to please for all its deep echoing bass tones.

<Look, I'm in a bit of a hurry. I need to get this armor on and attune to that Daiklave over there. Can I assume that's your job?>

<Yes, mistress. The collar you wear is a Yasal Integration Matrix, first designed by the Scarlet Empress to empower her - >

<Short version!> I demanded.

<Place a hand on the Battle Armor. I will do the rest,>

I stepped in front of tarnished moonsilver armor and put my right hand on its chest plate. A brief moment passed and then a huge swell of power filled me and poured into the armor. For a moment the world turned into light and when it was over, I looked down and found myself wearing the armor.

<The armor has many systems and subsystems. First - >

<Later! When we're on the move I'll have time for an explanation. I assume the same will work with the daiklave?>

<Yes, mistress,>

I attuned to the grand daiklave in much the same way, although it was much quicker this time. And I could feel both in the armor and the massive sword a deep well of nascent power that would probably take me months to begin exploring. But for now, I didn't have time. I looked back at my dragon compatriots and found Fire Wings staring at me while Urubia and Kalanyr were trying not to stare at her. I placed the daiklave on my back and it just stuck there. Somehow I knew that would happen although I couldn't tell you why.

"Alright, everyone. Time to go,"