Rise of the Phoenix King (Shadowrun/Exalted)

[Erenthia]

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Dr. Fadil asked.

Anna and I had made our way down to the infirmary where Anna's brother Daitan still remained under sedation. We'd long ago moved Dr. Fadil to one of the larger spaces in the mall to accommodate all the autodocs and other medical equipment we'd had brought in. And like any other hospital, the place was organized around trying to waste as little of Dr. Fadil's time as possible. He had about half-a-dozen assistants he'd been personally educating for years to do initial diagnoses and could handle a lot of things on their own, especially now with access to real equipment. They were as well educated as licensed nurses, but only a few of them had had the time and inclination to get certified. For the vast majority of operations, they just dumped people in one of the autodocs even if they weren't using the actual software. As a self-contained, self-sterilizing environment there was hardly any reason not to use them. Occasionally, the nurses would need to fall back on the built-in software or call in Dr. Fadil himself, but that was pretty rare these days.

Instead, the good doctor spent most of his time with more difficult cases, doing administrative work, or training the nurses. And one of the more important techniques he'd taught them was medical restrainment, the use of chemicals and drugs to render someone incapable of resisting. Fairly common back then really. But drakes were a bit beyond their paygrade. Even Dr. Fadil wasn't entirely certain how long he could keep this up without either the techniques failing or going too far and doing lasting damage to him. So we'd moved him to our jail, gurney and all, and asked Dr. Fadil to set the wake-up routine

"We don't have a lot of options," I replied, "we need to know what he knows. Besides, I beat him once before, I can do it again,"

Dr. Fadil sighed and something about that made the lines and pockmarks on his face stand out against his mostly gray hair and tired eyes. Clearly, this job had aged him more than time ever had.

"And now you're on three different kinds of antibiotics as well as two stimulants just to be on your feet. Just because you don't seem to notice pain doesn't mean that you're damaged any less. And don't even begin to start making excuses about your strange healing powers. Those may make long-term consequences of injury less of a problem for you, but this is happening right now. Will you - "

"Thank you, Doctor, but for the time being, he's not going to be in any shape to fight. And I'm confident I'll be back in fighting shape before he is. Please, just get on with this," I interjected.

He wagged his head in frustration but said nothing. Instead, he simply tapped an AR Icon floating over Daitan's bed and it looked for a moment as though he'd leave in silence. But then he stopped as he passed me and turned to look me in the eyes.

"If he escapes - " he began.

"I know. Believe me. I know," I replied.

And then there were three. According to the doctor, it would be impossible to tell how long it would take for Daitan to wake up. So little medical information was publicly available about drakes we didn't even know what it meant that he hadn't reverted to human form. So, I started perceiving astrally. Even if he had the ability to mask his aura, there should be a brief moment of disorientation when he first woke up that would let me know he was awake and prevent him from tricking us that way. And once this part was over and we knew what we were doing next, Gregor's ally spirit Daisey should be enough to handle him. Like I said, people didn't know much about drakes.

For a while, Anna and I sat in silence. We'd expected to have been contacted by her father by now, but we'd had no word. Opticon was still trying to break into the stealth aircraft they'd flown in on - as well as Daitan's commlink - but so far no luck. Meanwhile, we had people assessing damages and scooping up the bodies of the Red Samurai. Some of Delucca's boys wanted us to sell them to ghouls as food, but that was mostly because they'd suffered the vast majority of the casualties. And frankly, I wasn't taking that off the table, but returning their remains was an option I wanted available when we started negotiating. I'd even balked on selling the flying stealth craft they'd flown in on. I was still taking offers, of course, but I wasn't committing to anything.

Anna looked worried, but she wasn't saying anything, so I decided to break the ice.

"So tell me about your brother," I began, "What's the best approach here?"

Anna winced, "Daitan...was always the loyal one. I was the one who couldn't stop rebelling. Aside from that, we were inseparable. He'd never hurt me. Any claim to the contrary is a bluff, like on the roof. It's going to be awfully hard to get him to cooperate without either threatening me or somehow making it seem like doing what you want is serving Father's interests. And I really don't recommend pretending you're going to hurt me. Daitan has a temper. A...well let's just say when he first transformed it was less of a shock and more of an 'oh that explains it' kind of experience,"

"But he never hurt you?" I asked.

"Only physically. But that was everyone really. It's probably the thing he's most ashamed of. He eventually did get himself under control. I remember when he was little though, seeing the horrified look in his eyes after he lost his drek and did something crazy. I think that's why he's so attached to our father. Daddy really laid down the law when he realized how bad the problem was. Personally put him through training-from-hell type stuff. Now he's a lot more disciplined, but the rage is all still there,"

I sighed. She'd given me a great lever for manipulating him, but I'd have to walk an awfully fine line.

"Anything else?"

Anna looked down at the floor for a moment, "He's probably pretty lonely. After I left...I mean he had mother and father, but most people kept him at a distance. We kept the fact that he was a drake secret, but they all knew he could fly off the handle at any moment. He had a very hard time connecting to anyone. And growing up, our parents weren't exactly available. For a while there, I was all he had,"

And since I was astrally perceiving this whole time, the shades of regret and sadness in her aura could not have been more obvious. I didn't exactly know what to say after that so I let the silence hang in the air for a moment.

Daitan's aura began to shift. He went from confused to irritated to afraid in a fraction of a second, but it looked like he didn't have any intentions of deceiving us on that.

"And now you have captured me as well,"

He pulled the medkit sensors off and sat up, and I knew immediately I could not show fear in this situation.

"I have no intention of keeping you here forever," I began, "I'll be sending you back to your father presently. So long as he agrees to grant Julia her freedom,"

He growled in rage, "YOU are the ones who have denied my sister her freedom! I came only to liberate her!"

And he believed every word. Anna looked at me, and I nodded.

"Dai, daddy's lying to you," she replied, "I'm here of my own free will,"

"You are under duress! Or you have been altered by ASIST feedback. I cannot believe anything you say!" he roared, but at the same time I could see in his eyes and his aura how deeply he felt for his sister.

"She is not," I interjected, "if I thought An - Julia wanted to go home, I wouldn't try to stop her,"

Daitan rushed for the bar but thankfully he didn't try to reach through them, "LIAR!"

Anna shook her head, "Dai, you know me. I was never the good little girl. How did you think I'd react to what father did!"

Daitan let go of the bars, "Father? What do you mean?"

Anna stepped right up towards the bars and put a hand through them to lay it on Daitan's shoulder, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised he didn't tell you. Daitan...father had someone killed. Someone I loved very much. I just couldn't stay after that. The people here...]I only met them about a year ago, and they aren't holding me against my will,"

His eyes went wide and I could see a truly massive flare of shame in his aura the likes of which I'd only ever seen on Theo. He pulled away from her and faced the far wall.

"You refer to Mr. Grimes?" he said in a quiet tone.

I looked at Anna. She hadn't given any information about her dead lover in the livestream, but I had to admit it was an odd name for someone living in the Japanese Imperial State.

"He told you?" she asked.

Daitan's whole aura turned to solid fear and nothing else. Almost nothing. I could see tiny strands of hope begin to flicker into existence.

"And if father had not done such a thing? Would you return?"

Anna dropped her hands from the bars and sighed, "Dai, he did do it. He told me himself! He went on and on about how unworthy Morgan was and about the purity of our bloodline. He wouldn't shut up about it!"

Daitan turned his head so he could see us even with his back still facing us, "It seems he lied to both of us then,"

Anna looked at me and I nodded. I'd never made my truth detection abilities public, and while our enemies might very well know about them, it would have just been stupid to make it blatantly obvious.

"What are you saying?" Anna said, looking back to Daitan.

He turned his face back to the wall again, "Father did not kill Mr. Grimes,"

It was the truth, or so he believed, "How do you know this?" I asked.

"Will you return?" Daitan asked, ignoring my question.

Anna clenched her jaw and her face turned to a stone mask, "Not of my own free will. I have a life here,"

I heard him take a heavy breath, "Then there is little point in telling you,"

"Dai, don't do that to me. What happened to Morgan?" she pleaded with him.

He said nothing and for a moment we found ourselves at an impasse. So I stepped in.

"Just because she likes her job and doesn't want to leave it doesn't mean she can't have a relationship with you. If you can convince your father to let her have her freedom you can still be part of her life,"

Even with his back to us, I could still see him shake his head, "That is impossible now,"

There were multiple possibilities here, but if Daitan knew for a fact that his father had lied about having Anna's lover killed, that meant he was covering for someone. Someone he loved. Someone he felt so close to that he was willing to endure his daughter's hate for years to protect them. Someone who, perhaps, had a history of violent anger issues. Someone who now believed that a relationship with Anna was impossible now that the truth was coming out.

"What is it?" Anna said, looking at me. She must have picked up on the fact that I'd put it together, even though she hadn't. The fear and vulnerability both on her face and in her aura rooted me to the ground, but I knew I couldn't keep this from her. I shut off my astral perception.

"Did you see him die?" I asked. I had to cut off any possibility of miscommunication or misunderstanding before I shared what I knew.

"Oh yes," he replied, almost absently.

Anna looked back and forth between us, but apparently she couldn't bring herself to speak.

"Tell her what happened. It's the only hope you have that she and your father will ever have any kind of relationship," I ordered.

Daitan finally found the courage to face Anna again, "You remember how we often liked to sneak out and explore the city without our security? Sometimes I would do this alone, even without you. And as we often did together, I would pretend to be a common street urchin. The day Mr. Grimes died, I had run afoul of some random street thug. He saved me, but when I offered my thanks he told me that no thanks were necessary because, in his estimation we were practically brothers. He knew who I was, but I refused to believe that he knew you at all. I could feel the rage building up in me with every word he uttered. And when he told me that you and he were lovers..."

He broke eye contact with Anna, looking down at the floor for a moment, before looking back up at her, "I lost all reason. When I came to my senses, he was dead at my feet."

Anna put a hand over her mouth and stepped back and in a brief moment of cowardice I was very happy that I'd turned my astral perception off.

"Father told me, of course, that he knew of your relationship. He had chosen to do nothing because he expected you to grow bored of him in time, but had plans to bribe him to leave you if it became necessary. I never knew he took the blame for my actions until today. Nor did I know he lied to me about your extraction. I do not expect your forgiveness, but I beg you to forgive father. He has done nothing but cover my shame,"

And now Anna was staring at me, "It's a lie right? Tell me it's a lie. It has to be a lie,"

I shook my head.

With what must have been a herculean effort, Anna managed to maintain her dignity as she walked out of the room. A moment of silence passed.

"And now?" Daitan asked.

"I'm going to have to negotiate with your father for reparations for this attack. This is Anna's home now and she wants to be here. You owe it to her to not interfere with those negotiations. Submit to imprisonment and you will be returned to your father unharmed,"

He shook his head, "I care not for my freedom. Only for my sister and my parents. Will they be family again?"

I shrugged, "I can't see the future, but if there's to be any chance of that, then they have to give her her freedom. Is there any chance of that?"

He took a deep breath, "That I do not know. But if you return my commlink to me, I will beg them to do so. Further, I will make reparations for this attack with my own funds, if I can meet your demands,"

His words were true, so I sent a text message off to Opticon to bring Daitan's commlink down to the jail.

I sat in on the conversation of course, and it turned out that Anna's father hadn't sent Daitan at all. He'd been running his own investigation into his sister's whereabouts indepent of his parents and when he'd found her he'd simply run in head first, hoping to bring her home as a conquering hero. Anna's mother left the call early on - apparently Anna had called her. So it was just the three of us after that. I made it clear that I had no intention of revealing Daitan's secret dracoform or selling him to any kind of black lab, but I wasn't letting him go until reparations were made. His father immediately offered me 20 million nuyen, and I tried not to agree too quickly.

And he agreed to let Anna stay. Over a commlink, I couldn't tell how much of what he was saying was the truth, but it really did seem like he wanted a relationship with his daughter more than anything else in the world. Even if it was just the occasional commcall.

Half-an-hour later, we were all back on the roof, the remains of the Red Samurai being loaded onto Daitan aircraft. I can't say I felt nothing over having killed 26 people over a misunderstanding, but at least it hadn't been my misunderstanding. You had to take comfort where you could find it.

"Goodbye my sister, "Daitan began now in his human form, "And though I do not ask your forgiveness, do not take that to mean I do not regret my actions. I would do anything to undo what I have done. But I would never - "

Anna practically leaped onto him and threw her arms around him and held him silently for a moment.

"I forgive you," she said, finally.

I could see the tears streaming down Daitan's face, but he said nothing at first.

But after a moment, he spoke,"Thank you,"

It was a profoundly bittersweet moment. Good people had died today and probably on both sides. We couldn't do anything about Daitan's side of things, but here in Squatter's Mall? We'd make it right. We'd find a way. And Anna had her family back. But it was more than that. With Anna able to operate in the open - I probably needed to start thinking of her as 'Julia' now - we had a lot more resources now. And as awful as it was, I couldn't deny the funds and allies in Renraku that she'd be able to call on now would help those still living in a meaningful way, not just in Squatter's Mall but throughout Redmond.

I wouldn't have ever wanted it to happen this way, but it had and I would weild any weapon life gave me against the darkness, even one forged in tragedy.

"So," Anna began after Daitan's stealth aircraft was out of view. She was smiling through the pain, but I didn't need to assense her to know that part of her knew true joy.

"Do I still get to marry Theo?"

 

[Erenthia]

It was, in a way, a sign of progress how poorly people were taking our response to the attack. The Christmas Massacre and other attacks had resulted in significantly more casualties, but at the time the residents of Squatter's Mall had responded to them with an almost hopeless stoicism. Of course, in those cases, and especially in the case of the Red Hot Nukes attack, they'd been given no small amount of closure due to the vengeance Theo had gotten for them. Now, the residents of the mall weren't feeling like they had to just shut up and take whatever life threw at them. And our miscalculation about how to deal with Anna's Julia's parents had resulted in the entire population of the mall taking roughly two seconds to realize that the attack had had something to do with her. And we hadn't been willing to lie about it, which led to some serious tempers flaring, albeit among a fairly small number of people. Many were upset we'd given Daitan back so quickly. Some wanted him executed, although most understood how infeasible that was. More wanted Julia fired and removed. We'd ended up giving the families of the victims a million nuyen each as a settlement, which when combined with Crimson Crush's cut, left just under four million for the general fund, which was just fine with me. We weren't expecting that money, and I still got queasy thinking about how we had turned a profit on the Nuke's attack. Although in retrospect, some of that money might have come from The Deliberative. The settlements eased the tensions, but a number of people still resented the fact that Julia wasn't being kicked out.

The only thing left to do was to get back to business as usual and hope tempers would die down. And since it wouldn't be long before Theo got back from whatever hell his mother had taken him to, I finally got off my ass and asked for Isis's help. I knew she'd be limited in what she could say, so I took a page from Theo's book and just asked her how to prepare for his return. The answer I got back was less than reassuring.

She didn't know.

And it wasn't that she couldn't tell me. She was surprisingly straightforward on the matter. She simply had no idea what to do, other than what the big guy had already told me to do. I needed to be ready for Theo to be a mess, but other than that, she had no idea. Also, she couldn't tell me any of what she'd discussed with Theo because he was also a Celestial and considered the matter secret, making it impossible for her to tell me.

So I got back to work. We were making headway in Rat's Nest and the Plastic Jungle. The Jungle's productivity was up and our projections suggested that they'd be able to put a much bigger dent in Redmond's foodstuff deficit after the next harvest. The Rat's Nest trid-show was getting excellent ratings, but the population was too scattered and the leadership too diffuse to make it a sensible place for our next big move. So I started looking elsewhere. Bargain Basement looked promising. As a cluster of apartment buildings and condoplexes it had an ideal level of centralization, but it had the same legal issues Squatter's Mall had before Theo had worked his magic there. And we weren't getting away with the same trick twice. In fact, we'd already gotten plenty of offers to "help" us purchase the place...and all they wanted was a 40% commission. Frankly, I was still considering it, even with the exorbitant rent-seeking bulldrek, but I wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger on it without Theo looking over my shoulder.

Then I remembered Life-Eez Appliances, one of Redmond's only "legitimate" factories. They made household cooking and cleaning appliances - largely semi-autonomous drones - and the place was an absolute hellhole for the employees. So I pulled some analysts from the general labor pool and got them working on an estimate of the place's financials, and if the numbers I got back were even close to being right, it was a miracle the place was still in business. There had to be some sort of off-the-books alternate income. I'd been prepared to order a shadowrun on the place to find it and destroy it but that turned out to be unnecessary. My initial low-ball offer just to test the waters got accepted by the owners immediately and with no haggling. The email had come back in less than an hour.

That made me even more suspicious, but I needed the land more than the building so I went through with it figuring what was the worst that could happen? I gave the employees a week of paid time off - and then had to explain the concept to them - while I flew in an inspection team also pulled from the general labor pool. I even asked for a mage in case the place was literally cursed, which I considered a distinct possibility given how easily the purchase went.

And wouldn't you know it? It was.

There were half-a-dozen angry spirits that called the area home and absolutely loved using their Accident power on anyone and everyone, and the owners hadn't wanted to hire the mages necessary to exorcise them because it would have left a paper trail and made selling the place more difficult. Also, it was only really killing the employees, so why bother? I could practically hear Theo screaming in the background about how a publicly successful exorcism and subsequent increase in worker productivity would have increased the potential selling price and quarterly profits, and frankly, I was starting to sympathize with him. The more I learned about business and economics the weirder the world became. I'd thought the main problem with the world was corporate greed, but the more I looked at it, the more...well...stupid the corps all seemed to be. If the owners of the Life-Eez factory had been greedy, but also smart about it, it would have been better for everyone, even the employees. But then, when I was growing up I couldn't help but feel a lot of my neighbors in the Barrens were also the main source of their own problems. I guess just having money didn't make you any less of an idiot.

The exorcist team gave me a rough estimate of three weeks before the place was safe for the workers to return, so I waited for them to leave, astral projected over, and tore the spirits to shreds myself. The next day the place was declared safe and I got repair and construction crews brought in. I'd had to sit down for a few hours and talk it over with Julia to figure out what exactly to convert the place into. The Redmond Program had two main strategies. You had things like the coffee/fish aquaponics facility on the first floor of the mall. Since those were both extremely expensive luxury items, that was there for pure profit, which is to say, to divert funds from outside Redmond into it, to be spent on things that would help people. Then there were things like the Squatter's Mall Library or School. The Mission. So we could convert the factory into something that would build stuff for sale outside Redmond or to lower the costs of things we wanted for Redmond.

That's when the big guy chimed in, telepathically of course. You see, Creation had something called Seven Bounties Paste that did not, in fact, require any magic to create, old or new. It did require some exotic ingredients, but creating the magical plants that produced the precursors would be easy, at least within the realm of Ancient Sorcery. Actually learning that kind of sorcery wouldn't be easy, but the big guy was confident he could teach me.

And, at least in Creation, Seven Bounties Paste could cure almost anything. If we could mass-produce it, we could become one of the Big Ten megacorps in our own right, although we'd need Theo's help on the legal end to make that work. So I got to work ordering the machines necessary for the processes the big guy described. And I got to work on learning Ancient Sorcery almost immediately.

And holy drek was it cool. There were spells that could turn my whole body into bronze, pull buildings out of the ground, make ships fly, summon up extremely powerful magical minions, and part the sea like fragging Moses. And those were just the ones within my reach. That didn't even begin to cover all the crazy drek Theo would be able to do with it. But the real money was in Sorcerous Workings. They were like Rituals in that they weren't just spells you conjured up in the moment and flung at people. Though, unlike Rituals, they were ad-hoc and took weeks rather than hours. But they could do essentially anything if you dumped enough power into them and had enough skill. Want 300 tons of palladium? No problem! I could do that easily (once I learned how). Sorcerous Workings were also the means by which someone as powerful as Theo could make their own gods.

So I knew what I was doing for the next few weeks, aside from nursing Theo back to health, mentally speaking. Or figuring out how to de-mind control him. Or both.

The learning process began with developing a Shaping Ritual. You see, much like mortal magic, I wasn't using my internal power for Ancient Sorcery, but rather pulling at the underlying Essence of the universe, gathering it up, and literally shaping it to a form of my own choosing. There were any number of little tricks you could pick up to help with this process, collectively called "Shaping Rituals" and since the manasphere was kind of my thing I opted to try to combine the two. And I'd almost gotten the hang of it when I got the call.

The commcode ID said, "Gary Cline"

I hesitated, but I couldn't keep him waiting too long, "Uh..hello? Mr. Cline?" I asked, almost hoping he'd accidentally butt-dialed me.

"Miho-san!" Gary nearly shouted, "Great to hear your voice! How's Redmond these days?"

"It's uh...a work in progress, but we're getting there," I said, trying to manage his expectations.

"Oh don't be so modest!" he replied with infectious enthusiasm, "I hear you're working miracles! And you just bought a new factory! You know I did a trid-film set in Life-Eez once, got me my first Academy Award,"

"I...had no idea..." I said, still trying to figure out why he was calling.

"Nah, I'm just fragging with you. The real reason I'm calling though is about these spells you sent to R&D. Girl, those things are amazing. Some of them still need to get the kinks out, but the mages who looked at them said they were truly inspired! Whatever team you put together, give 'em a raise! They'll be major money makers and I mean indefinitely. Especially the one that cures soy allergies. In fact, the board's been pretty impressed by how you've been handling things in Theo's absence in general. We want you to come by and have a sit down so we can discuss your future,"

My eyes went wide, "You...you do?"

"How's Friday work for you?" he asked.

It was Wednesday, but I had Theo's private jet which meant L.A. was less than three hours away.

"I...sure. Absolutely!" I replied, nearly dumbstruck. In retrospect I shouldn't have been, I knew those spells would be major money makers. That's why I asked the big guy to design them for me in the first place, but there's an old saying: the difference between Theory and Practice is that in theory there's no difference between Theory and Practice, but in practice there is. Knowing it and having it happen were two different things.

"Great!" he replied, "let's pencil you in for 10:00 am. If it all goes well I'll take you to lunch after. Sound good?"

"It's a date!" I said, immediately regretting it. But the upper lever corporate types all seemed pretty corny. It almost seemed like an integral part of high level corporate culture, at least at Horizon.

"I won't tell Theo if you don't!" he said, and it was like I could hear him winking.

The moment the call ended I ran for Julia's office. Literally ran. I'd been in the private basement training area and her office was on the third floor like mine, so it took me nearly a minute to get there. And I nearly knocked over Opticon when I rounded my last corner, but I managed to hop over him at the last second.

"Miho!" he shouted, "you nearly have me a heart attack!"

I chucked,"Sorry, just got some exciting news and...hey wait, were you just talking to Julia?"

He hunched his shoulders, "Oh...yeah just uh...you know, business stuff,"

His words were technically true, but it was clear he was hiding something. But then I remembered how Theo had recruited Opticon to begin with. For a lot of Lucifer's Agents, we had limited information about their pasts. We had a lot but we didn't always have everything. In Opticon's case, he first showed up on Theo's radar when he moved to Redmond and set up shop as a cyberware mechanic, but he had a quirk in that he worked from a large industrial drone that he stayed jumped into 24/7. He had - no pun intended - rigged up a special long term life support to a standard rigger cocoon and stayed in it for weeks or months at a time, living his life as a robot. Lucifer had done business with him for a while, but eventually, between Theo's psychographic profiling software and his own intuition, he'd picked up on Opticon's social isolation and how it had a major sexual component. In other words, he was lonely and starved for touch.

Theo had already liberated a few bunraku parlors by this time, but he'd quickly discovered that not everyone had a place to go back to after that, and unlike Robin not all of them had the wherewithal to do something different with their lives beyond sex-work at that point. So for the ones who couldn't move on, he supported their forays into independent work as Joygirls or Joyboys. He didn't know why Opticon had never done it himself but one day Theo had sent a "present" Opticon's way in the shape of four Joygirls. That's when Theo found out about Opticon's body dismorphia problem. He had a mental health condition wherein he believed he was so disgusting that he couldn't even approach a sex-worker, no matter how lonely he was. Opticon ended up spending an entire week with those girls, and they did a lot more than just sleep with him. They bathed him and groomed him and some just spent a lot of time holding him. They eased him back into the world. Afterwards he started spending more and more time outside his rigger cocoon and in the real world.

I looked side to side to make sure no-one else was in earshot, "Opticon...it's fine. I know how you were recruited and it's nothing to be ashamed of,"

He winced and flinched at the same time. I understood. Outside of Redmond sex-work could be looked down on to a degree I still didn't understand. I mean, forced sexual slavery was obviously disgusting, but for those who chose it, I could never see the problem. And I especially didn't have a problem with the people who went out of their ways to find indepents to buy from. It was a lot more expensive that way and that meant you were doing it because you gave a drek. People who didn't get that were just blinded by their privilege. And for the independents, if nobody bought what they were selling, well it was Redmond so they didn't get to eat that day and it would rapidly get worse if they couldn't afford their protection. Their customers kept them alive.

Also a lot of my students were independent Joygirls at one time or another.

Opticon rubbed the back of his neck and looked away, "It's...still difficult though," he turned to look at me, "just...please don't tell her you figured it out. She doesn't want people thinking she still does that kinda thing,"

Wait...Julia? She was the only sex-worker who wasn't a sex-worker anymore that I knew about in the entire mall and we were right next to her office. That was strange, but I didn't see the need to press. Even if I was really curious how that got started.

"Won't say a thing," I promised.

Opticon slunk off and I felt bad that I'd left him in such a state. Squatter's Mall being in the Barrens it's not like he'd face the same level of social censure he might face elsewhere, so it probably had something to do with his dismorphia. I stepped into Julia's office and she beat me to the punch, speaking without even looking up from her commlink.

"Yes, I still do tranrika work, sometimes. Please don't tell anyone,"

My eyes went wide, "I...but I didn't, I mean how did you...?"

"Rich-people magic, " she said, looking up at me and smiling.

I looked to the door and then back to her, "You have enhanced hearing, don't you?"

She placed an index finger over her lips in a shushing gesture.

"So what's up?" she asked.

"I need your help. And before you make the joke, not as a trantrika."

She folder her arms in front of her, "Oh spoil all my fun, why don't you?"

"I just got a call from Gary Cline. He wants me to talk to the Horizon Board of Directors in two days. And all he said was, it's about my 'future' whatever that means,"

That got her attention. She sat up straight and focused on me, "Did he sound happy?"

I nodded.

"Oh. Oh wow. Sounds like your up for a promotion," she said, smirking.

"Wait, really?" I asked.

Julia nodded, "They'll probably grill you first. You don't have a formal education, but you've been hanging out with Theo for over six years, and if they like what you've been doing in his absence...then yeah, that's almost certainly what they want,"

I paused for a moment, "That...that doesn't mean I have to leave Redmond does it?"

Of all the things I never thought I'd hear myself say...

"It might, but you're lucky. They gave you time to prepare. Of course, they know I'm here, so that could be why. If you want to stay then you're going to need a counter-proposal,"

"Like what?" I asked.

Julia smiled and leaned in, "Something...ambitious,"

She told me her idea.

"Holy drek! Really?"

She leaned back and spread out her arms, suddenly taking up a lot more space, "You're so lucky to have me,"

We spent the next day and a half cramming. I had to put everything else on hold, even my studies into Ancient Sorcery. I pushed my mental augs to their limit in that time, and the extra five hours a day I got from my Sleep Regulator might have been the most critical. In the end, I even decided to bring Julia with me as my executive assistant even though she was already the official Administrator for Squatter's Mall. So there we were, sitting in the waiting room, waiting for our turn to face some of the most powerful people in the world and convince them that what we wanted was better than what they wanted.

I hadn't been this nervous since I first laid eyes on the McWellan Bellevue estate. Oh I'd been more afraid at times. Like when Tabitha had slammed a Great Dragon into the ground by the tail for its impertinence. But nervous like this? No, apparently only meeting super-rich people for the first time did that to me.

"It'll go fine, Miho. I promise. I know how these guys think," Julia said, clearly trying to calm me.

I shrugged, 'I'm sure you're right it's just...I'm fine eating out at a place like Greyline or meeting Theo's friends, but I've always had him with me until now. And I'm feeling a lot more like an imposter right now,"

Julia took my hand, "You walk our earth, Miho. You breath our air. Remember?"

I squeeze her hand, "Thanks,"

The door to the Board Room opened and a caucasian human man in clothes almost more expensive than mine - and I'd dressed up considerably with Julia's help - stepped out of the Board Room into the waiting room with us.

"Tanaka-san? The Board will see you now," he said.

I stepped into the room and froze. I knew Gary Cline would be there so that was no surprise, and Julia and I had done our research on the other Board members so there were no surprises there either. But there was one thing that I hadn't expected in a million years and to say it threw me off my game was more than mere understatement.

Tabitha was there.

She'd come home early.

 

[Erenthia]

Frag the bitch. I wasn't going to let that distract me. Even knowing that it meant that Theo was out there somewhere and he hadn't called or texted. Even knowing that an early return could mean all kinds of things and most of them bad. I couldn't do anything about it right now. I was in this moment and that was where I'd stay.

"Thanks for coming, Miho! Have a seat!" Gary said, waving at me from his seat at the head of the conference table. And words smelled like cheap cologne which is pretty much how all corporate executive's words smelled. Rife with half-truths too entangled to make sense of. And my truth detection abilities were a matter of record, so I doubted they'd be any use here. Especially if Tabitha was somehow shielding them.

The room itself loomed over me, reminding me in many ways of the various dining halls at the Bellevue estate that never saw use. There were easily three meters from the table to either of the nearest walls, with smaller tables here and there with various kinds of refreshments - mostly alcohol - and all the meaningless, perfunctory decor I'd learn to ignore when spending time in spaces crafted by the uber-elite.

The only free chair sat at the other head of the table, with the board members not making it past the halfway point between Mr. Cline and myself. And perhaps in some sort of private irony or inside joke, Tabitha had an unremarkable spot in the middle on Gary's left.

I sat and waited for what Julia had told me would come first. The part she called, 'Opening Compliments'

"I just wanted to start by saying how impressed we all are by how you've been handling the Redmond Program in Theo's absence," Gary continued.

And, according to Julia, the proper response was modesty which dovetailed nicely with a technique for putting them on the backfoot immediately: sincerity.

"It's only been two months," I replied, "I like to think I've kept the trains running on time, but I don't know that I've done anything particularly special,"

Gary sat back, "Two months, true. And in that time you've kicked out both the Yakuza and the Mafia, solidified your hold over the area, held off an attack by Red Samurai, and somehow managed to parlay that into a partnership with Renraku. Don't sell yourself short,"

Of course, the real purpose of an initial modesty play was to get them singing your praises for you. Which would make future negotiations easier.

I shrugged, "I've done my best. Theo was a good teacher,"

"And that's to say nothing of the magical research you spearheaded," Gary added.

And there it was. The real reason I was here. Of the spell the big guy designed for me, eight had been for-profit and fully half of them had worked right out of the gate. The permanent Alleviate Soy Allergies one, in particular, would make truly absurd amounts of money over the coming years and they probably wanted me on that full time. Fortunately, I was prepared.

"Well, I can only take so much credit there. I didn't do any of the research myself. It's really just proof of the underlying concepts that went into the Redmond Program,"

Make them ask Julia had told me. Making half-finished statements and forcing them to ask for clarification let me direct the conversation.

"Oh? How so?" asked Marty Bateman, a plain-looking brown-haired human, and the company's Chief Operations Officer. Not that that information was public. In fact, I'd had to use Theo's access just to get their names.

I settled deeper into my office chair, "Really, the Redmond Program is just Horizon getting back to its roots. Just like how we rebuilt so many places after Crash 2.0 rebuilding Redmond lets us dig out the diamonds in the rough amongst its people. Or maybe panning for gold is a better analogy. The point is, it's the people who are valuable. You just don't know which ones will be the most valuable before you go looking,"

Tabitha decided it was her turn, "And in fact, we still don't know, do we? At least not as a matter of public record. I must commend you for your skill in hiding their identities. Even we couldn't figure out who those SINs were supposed to be linked to,"

And I recognized clearly the barely contained intensity behind that casual smirk she was always wearing. The eyes gave it away.

Gary stepped in to play good cop, "Not that we're upset about that or anything. We all know what it's like to have rivals. You've gotta protect your accomplishments after all, and this was one hell of a find,"

I needed to keep this on topic, "For the most part, I was protecting the Redmond Program. As I understand it, a significant portion of the licensing fees and royalties goes to our general fund. And that's money the people of Redmond in general and Squatter's Mall in particular really need,"

So far so good. I wasn't born to play politics or anything, but I seemed to be holding my own.

Except they were all looking at each other in confusion.

But it was Gary that spoke up, "Look, I know you're from Redmond and all, but how attached are you to the project really? You can't tell me you didn't spend most of your life growing up wishing you could escape, can you?"

When someone makes something sound like it would be ridiculous to contradict, counter hard, Julia had told me when coaching me for this meeting.

"I can absolutely tell you that. In fact, Tabitha probably recalls quite well how difficult it was to recruit me. And it would have been much harder if I'd had more experience with those kinds of negotiations...or if I hadn't been a teenager at the time," I replied, but I couldn't stop there. I had to keep the conversation where I wanted it, "And since returning to Redmond with the full force of Horizon behind me, I've managed to do great things, just as you pointed out at the beginning. But I have more to give to Horizon, right where I'm at. Because Redmond itself has more to give,"

Usually, when people feel they're losing ground, they'll peel back a layer of pretense in an effort to start over.

Gary looked around at the members of the board, smirking, "She's good isn't she?"

Then he turned back to me, "Alright, so it's pretty clear you know we want to transfer you and you don't want to go. But if you're worried we're gonna shut the project down, we won't. You can even pick your successor. Hell, we'll even give you some time to train them, assuming you don't just go with Julia out there. But the thing is...even if we couldn't link those SINs on your R&D team to real bodies we still know who designed those spells...because we saw what you did to that Red Samurai team,"

How? The wireless had been down. And then I remembered what I did after it got brought back up...and where I'd been standing when it had. God, I really needed an Opsec expert.

Laura Byrde, a blonde human in her 40s and Chief Analytics Officer spoke up next from Cline's right hand, "You're not heading for a black lab, no matter your answer, but you're being seriously underutilized. And we're ready to make you any kind of offer you want. Salary, job title, voting shares...name your price,"

And she'd given me the exact opening I needed. I felt the anxiety in my gut, but I had to strike, "How about...CEO for a job title?"

And that was the moment when Miho Tanaka, the Barrens Rat, left the board of directors at one of the Big Ten megacorps utterly speechless. At least for a moment.

"You want my job?" Cline asked, incredulously.

When you pull the trigger, make them wait as a long as possible for an explanation

I leaned back in my chair, "Look, I understand why you want me on magical research. It makes sense from a certain point of view. It's a direct solution to an obvious problem. You're probably thinking about giving me my own building and staff, and that's great and all, but I have my own ambitions and goals outside of just coming up with new spells and rituals. And as flexible as Horizon is, I don't think I can meet those goals as a simple research director,"

They all seemed rather baffled...except Tabitha of course, who was currently looking at me like a starving, horny man would look at a sex robot made out of steak.

Gary noticed as well, "You understand what she's getting at?"

She nodded without taking her eyes off me, "It appears Tanaka-san would like her very own wholly-owned subsidiary, or perhaps a joint venture with Renraku, and likely to fold the existing Redmond Program into it as well. Do I understand you correctly, Miho-san?"

I nodded, "I understand that it would not make me immune to oversight and that I would have certain goals I'd still need to meet but with Theo's help - "

Tabitha cut me off, "No. Theodore's efforts for the moment must be focused on his education. If this happens at all, it will be without him for the time being. Although I'm sure he'll be happy to see you once this meeting is adjourned,"

"You sure you're up for something like that on your own? I've heard the kid's been training you, and you've been making it work at Squatter's Mall, but you don't even have an MBA," Gary added.

I took a breath. I hadn't expected this at all. Why was Tabitha so hell-bent on Theo getting a degree?

"I'm willing to pursue academic legitimacy if it's a necessary condition, but yes, I think I can do this without him," I told them, finally.

Laura waved me off, glaring momentarily at Gary, "We can have one of our universities issue you a degree. And I believe Ms. Ling already has a significant education, and after the situation with her brother, I'm sure she's quite loyal to you,"

Gary chuckled, "I mean, she's no transhuman, but she'll do,"

My eyes went wide. They'd managed to turn the tables on me. Now I was speechless.

"What?" Gary continued, "you think Theo's the first non-military prototype we've ever made? World's probably full of them,"

With an effort of raw will, I wrenched myself out of my shock and kept going, "Yes I...I believe that would work,"

Tabitha went on, "We'll still need a basic summary of your abilities in order to set appropriate goals for your new corporation. And think twice before holding back on us. You may not like having an additional workload, but we will be quite put out if you withhold anything substantial from us,"

I nodded, "I'll...I'll email you a report by the end of the day,"

"Oh, hey," Gary chimed in as if it were an afterthought, "Since you came in here with this already in mind, I assume you have a name already in mind? It'll help with the paperwork,"

I smiled.

Because that was the moment I became the CEO of Sol Purpose.

Julia wanted to find somewhere in L.A. to celebrate, but I was anxious to get back to the Bellevue estate. I'd texted Theo moments after I'd gotten out of the meeting, and gotten back and auto-response claiming he was asleep, but since I had access to literally everything of his, I was able to get his commlink to send me his location.

"Don't worry, Miho. We'll make it right. Whatever happened, we'll figure it out. And we should still celebrate," Julia told me with a hand on my shoulder before the jet had even taken off.

I smiled. It was a struggle, but I did it, "I mean, I wouldn't mind going to Gray Line once I've seen Theo. Maybe we can all go,"

But Julia was already digging through her purse. She pulled out a hand-rolled joint and a long, black cigarette holder.

"Please don't judge me. I know these things make me look snooty, but I fragging love them,"

I shrugged, "It's not like I'm one to judge. I sleep on a fifty thousand nuyen mattress. But I don't know if Theo would appreciate you smoking on his jet,"

She'd been about to light up but my words had somehow jarred her and she started laughing, "Holy drek! Miho Tanaka sleeps on a Klein Star? That's just too rich!"

I rolled my eyes and made a show of droning on in a monotone voice, "Oh...yeah....how New Money of me,"

Julia took a puff from her joint, "Oh honey. New Money doesn't even know what a Klein Star is. They probably think it's some magical device for storing mana or something. Here, take a puff,"

She offered me the joint, cigarette holder and all, but I waved her off, "I'll pass,"

She rolled her eyes, "Ugh, no wonder you and Theo never got it on. No room for his dick with that stick up your ass,"

I slumped. Because having spent the last couple of months being Theodore McWellan, I'd learned more about him than in the six prior years of standing next to him. And I knew what it was going to take for our relationship to go to the next level.

"You know...now that you bring it up...I don't think the whole letting Theo take the lead thing is going to work," I told her.

When I'd first tried to get sex advice from Julia, she'd suggested I think of Theo as my sensei in sexual matters. I didn't quite get that at first, but I'd eventually realized she was trying to provide me with a context I understood well. And from what Robin had let leak into the wild about his sexuality, the Master-Student relationship wasn't a bad match. But I understood now that it was infeasible.

"Why do you say that?" Julia asked.

"Well...basically I don't think he has it in him to initiate a sexual relationship. Too much shame. Having filled his shoes and seen the world from his perspective, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna need to take the Robin approach,"

Julia took another puff, "Full court press megaslut? And you want some advice on how to pull that off?"

I nodded.

"Well, contrary to popular belief, guys don't want it 24/7. Frankly, I think Robin just got lucky and caught him at the right time. So really, my advice is don't go megaslut. Not with Theo. If you catch him at a bad time it could make things awkward and that could color things for a while. You wanna go aggressive? Do it like a guy does. A competent one anyway. Test the waters, flirt, and just keep escalating a step at a time. Be sensitive to bad vibes though,"

"Is it weird that I'm already getting them?"

Julia raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"He's apparently been back for almost a full day and he hasn't texted or called. And yeah, I'm worried about PAB, but I'm also worried about PTSD. Who fragging knows what she put him through. And the fact that Tabitha came back early...she basically always keeps her schedule. It would take something pretty big to make her alter it. And I'm worried that she might have finally broken him this time,"

Julia shrugged, "No way to know until you see him. Let me know if you want me to come along,"

Somehow those words hit different then when Robin had said essentially the same thing. Apparently the revelation about her father's innocence in Morgan's death had lifted her ban on men her father might approve of. But she wasn't being pushy or weird. Just making an offer. And I was considering it.

When we finally made it back to Bellevue, Theo wasn't in his room so I checked the estate's mapsoft and my heart fell into my stomach. Stowly and methotically, I made my way down to the basement, and found him curled up on a cot in the Panic Room. His back was to the entrance, but if he'd noticed me opening the vault door, he made no sign. Still, if it had been anyone else I was sure he would have. So I pulled the door closed, took off my shoes, and crawled into the cot with him. Now that he was taller than me, being the big spoon was a little more awkward, but I didn't have much of a choice.

"Hi," I whispered after a moment.

"Hey," he whispered back.

I put my arm around his stomach and held him for a few minutes until he was ready to talk.

"Mother didn't mind control me. I was surprised too," he said.

"Uh..." I started, but he interrupted.

"No, I get it. That's exactly what I would say if she had. Do whatever tests you want. I'll go along with it,"

"Maybe later. I think you've been through enough for...for however long it's been for you,"

"Two years, give or take," he replied.

My god. Two years? I didn't know what to say to that, so I said nothing...for a while at least.

"I never thought we'd be here like this again, you know?"

He nodded.

"You know, it took me six months after I moved here to stop searching my shower for hidden cameras?"

It wasn't a joke either, though at this point it was just a funny story.

"Oh? So you never found them?" Theo replied, and it was the first positive emotion I'd heard in his voice since he got back.

I laughed, "I always knew you were a good kid. I was just freaking out over nothing. I knew I was freaking out over nothing. But I didn't understand until now how that must have made you feel. I'm sorry,"

He shook his head, "You don't need to apologize. I mean, you didn't have any recourse if I decided to do something crazy, like making saying no to sex a contract violation,"

That hurt, but I couldn't have told you why at the time. I wasn't insulted or anything. But it was painful to watch him excuse other people - even me - for being mistrustful of him. And right then, more than anything else, I needed him to know I trusted him completely. Even if he had been mind controlled, somehow I didn't seem to care.

"Do it," I told him after a moment.

"Do what?" he asked.

"Put that in my contract. And anything else you want. I trust you, " I wasn't coming on to him. Now didn't seem to be the time, but at the same time I wanted him to know I loved him.

"Miho..." he began, but couldn't finish.

After it was clear he wasn't going to go on, I sighed and said, "I've been asking Julia - er I mean Anna, for sex advice while you've been gone. When you brought me back from the dead I told myself I'd stop wasting time. Then you're Mother took you and I realized that was all talk. I don't expect you to be in the mood after whatever hell you've been through, but I'm yours whenever you want me. And I'm serious about you putting that in my contract if you want. I'm done holding back,"

An eternity of silence followed, but eventually Theo said, "Malfeas. She took me to Malfeas,"

My face screwed up in pain, but it kept silent so he wouldn't know. I wanted to say something but I didn't know what, so eventually he continued.

"The demons there are in a war...against something worse. Mother had me fighting on the demon's side. And after what I saw, I think I would have done that anyway..."

Malfeas was the prison-realm that gods had locked their former masters into after defeating them. It was not the place sinners went to in death...but it was Hell. As an Akuma or whatever she was, presumably she would have been some kind of queen there, but whether or not that translated into any kind of mercy or benefit for Theo was entirely up in the air.

Theo rolled around to face me, "I know what she wants from me now,"

I waited but no answer came. Instead he just said, "And I'm sorry...but I can't tell you,"

I nodded, "Okay,"

"Really?"

I nodded again and pulled him close, putting my arms around him, digging my left under his neck in the process.

"I spent a lot of time in your shoes in the last two months. And I'm still going to check the drek out of you for mind control techniques, but only because I don't trust your mother. But you? Theodore McWellan? I trust you completely. There are still things you don't understand, still things I need to teach you. But you're the best man I've ever known. So you're allowed to have power over me. Because I say so. Because I want you to. And I never ever want you to feel ashamed about that,"

He put a hand on my face and locked eyes with me, "Miho,"

It was finally time for me to say it.

"Shujin,"

 

[Erenthia]

We stayed in that cot for several hours, but eventually, physical proximity did its work to penetrate the haze of pain and grief. I could feel it building up in him. The need. The hunger. I would have gone for it right then and there, but Julia's advice echoed in my mind. She'd been wrong about Robin, of course, but that wasn't her fault. There were things she just didn't know. Robin had bridged the gap between them by showing that she understood his pain on a level that even I hadn't. She understood his needs, and she made him understand hers. Looking back on it now, there was so much she could have told me, but I might not have been able to understand even if she had.

"Did...did Robin ever talk to you about...me?" Theo said finally.

I took a deep breath, "Girls talk, Theo. You know that,"

He winced and tried to look away - not an easy task in that cramped space.

I placed a hand on his cheek and gently pulled his gaze back to me, "Don't. I don't think less of you. You shouldn't either,"

I'd always hated romance novels. All that he gazed longingly into her eyes drek. I'd been a fool. Oh sure, anything could be done poorly, and most things were. But the real reason I'd hated them is because I had no idea what they were really about. I didn't know what they were trying to say. But looking into his eyes now, I understood. I got it.

"Can you...I mean, could you...not though? Please?" he pleaded.

"Hai, Shujin-sama,"

When Tabitha's drone first descended out of the sky near my home in the Barrens, I'd worried that she was looking to pick up a sex-toy for her son. And as much as I'd taken his side over hers almost immediately, that fear took a while to fade. And he'd known. Hell, he even even tried pretending to be gay for a while, just to make me feel safe. It had back-fired spectacularly, of course, not because it had failed, but because he'd managed to succeed in deceiving me for months before the deception fell apart. I didn't react very well to that. Not at all. I freaked out to such a shameful degree that I'd left him severely injured. He had to set off an EMP in the house just to make sure that his Mother never knew I'd raised a hand to her son. And with everything that needed electricity destroyed, we couldn't get him fixed up in-house. And he absolutely refused to go to a hospital. We ended up going to a street doc who made jokes about, 'not pissing off your girlfriend when she's a physical adept,' I hated that guy.

I didn't know what was going on back then, but it was plain as day now. That Miho Tanaka could never had said the words I'd just said to Theo. She would have been too afraid. Now, I knew the only place in the world where I had nothing to fear was when I was alone with him. And I wanted him to feel the same.

He reached out a hand and put it behind my neck, pulling our heads together so that our foreheads touched.

"I need you," he whispered.

I sent a quick command to the vault door and it closed.

"You have me," I replied.

Even as I'd been warming up to the idea of being with Theo, becoming his lover, for quite a while now, I would not have predicted our first time would have been be in the Panic Room. I assumed he'd plan out some over the top tropical vacation and we'd make love under the moon light on a beach on the other side of the world. Instead, we were here, in the heart of his pain. But also in the place we'd first connected. We'd met over comms and gotten to know each other for a couple of years, and we'd first laid eyes on each other in my apartment two floors up. But this place was where I first came to understand who he was. It was the place he first shared his secrets with me. I'd tell you how it went, but I promised him I'd never talk about that. And I never will.

But I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised he wasn't in the mood for anything other than vanilla.

Some, strictly classified amount of time later, he sat up from the cot, facing the door in silence. I watched him, my eyes taking in both his delicious back muscles and the heart-rending scars I knew he must have picked up in Malfeas. And since I knew scars never lasted on an Exalt, I knew that meant they had to be relatively fresh. I was about to say something, but then he took a deep breath, and I couldn't bear to interrupt him. I never could when we was singing.



He was pouring his True Power into his voice, but I suspected only to improve the skill of his delivery, and boy did it ever. I sat up next to him and just listened until he was finished, and my god...his voice. There was something magical and divine about it, and it almost seemed distinctly separate from the rest of his power. I knew that true Artifacts worked that way sometimes, but apparently a voice could too. Had he gotten that from his Mother as well?

"I want to show you some things," I told him when he finished.

Bruce took us to Renton, though we took the Bentley instead of the Nightsky in order not to stand out too much. There on 132nd Avenue we found the Temple of the Book, a combination Church/Synagogue/Moque for the People of the Book. The Leviathan religions had taken a bit of a beating after the Awakening and old rivals had become friends-in-need. Not always, but in a lot of places. We didn't go in. Instead we astral projected out of the car and into the building. The people there couldn't afford much in the way of warding, but I'd been keeping an eye on them for a couple of weeks now. Someone had to watch over them.

"See him?" I whispered to Theo and pointed out a particular human. One he'd seen before.

Barry Stackhouse was sitting in a pew right between an ork and a dwarf. Theo's mouth fell open.

"In fact, if you look around, you might see a lot of familiar faces," I said, smiling.

More of than half of that particular humanis-gang had made there way here. They were probably still afraid deep down, but they'd been able to make common cause with metahumans by turning to faith. I didn't share that faith and Theo didn't either. We knew too much about the true secrets of the universe. But there was truth here too, if you didn't try to take it too literally. Peace, Hope and Love. It made me wonder how much of the current darkness in the world was our fault, collectively, for deciding those things were corny. That the message the true faithful were trying to get out could be ignored, just because they got too many of the facts wrong. Or when people had decided that bigots, charlatans and predators that infest every community somehow defined theirs.

They could be stupid sometimes, but they had a point.

Theo took my astral hand, "Thank you,"

I smiled, "There's more,"

We got back in our bodies and Bruce took us Downtown, to the University of Washington. I'd been using Lucifer's resources to keep track of a lot of people these days, and according to the itinerary I had, we should be right on time. I'd gotten used to being around older buildings or buildings designed in older styles since that's what Old Money tended to prefer, but I'd never actually been to a college campus. The AR kept us from getting too lost though, and we soon found ourselves in the student center. Dozens of people from Theo's age to mine were lounging around, watching trids or playing all of the classic college games. We'd dressed down in hopes of no-one seeing us. But some one eventually did recognize us. And it was exactly who I'd hoped to find.

"Theo!" shouted Becky Cartwright.

We turned around just in time for her to practically tackle him with a two-armed bear hug.

"Oh my god! What are you doing here?" she asked after letting him go.

Theo was dumbstruck, so I answered for him, "We just wanted to see how you were settling in. The new semester about to start?"

She looked to me, "Oh! Yeah! Just finished moving my stuff into the dorms," she turned back to Theo, "Thank you so much for everything! My mom was able to get her job back and we got dad the surgery he needed! They're both working again! It's amazing!"

Theo smiled and I could see the tears welling up in him. He nodded, "You deserve it. You all do,"

Beck hunched her shoulders, "I'm sorry I got mad at you before. Mom explained...I mean, she watched our fight and...well, I hope you're doing okay. I know you didn't mean to let me win and...I hope you know, I think you're a really good guy,"

Apparently Beck's mom had put some things together about Theo's psychological state during that last round. And probably from the information he'd given them.

Theo looked away, centimeters from crying, "I...um...thank you,"

"You should come by. We have family dinner every Sunday. Mom would love to set and extra place or two," Beck offered.

He looked at her in no small amount of shock, "Really?"

Becky nodded enthusiastically.

"You know," I added, "I think we will. Theo's starting at MIT&T soon, but we can make time for that. We'll call ahead though, don't worry,"

Theo managed not to break down crying until we reached the car. But it was happy crying.

Eventually though, he spoke, "I haven't felt like this since after the first time we spoke,"

I raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

He turned to me with that boyish smirk of his, "I had your commlink hacked. After we were done talking I wanted to see your reaction,"

My mouth fell open, "Oh god. I was literally bouncing off the walls and cheering. You must have thought I was so silly,"

Theo shook his head, "No. I was so happy I cried for hours,"

I smiled and put a hand on his shoulder, "Well...I bet I can beat that. Hey Bruce? Last stop,"

A few minutes later and we were in one of the nicer parts of Everette. The house we stopped in front of was also one that Theo knew well. A two story brick building, aging but well kept, Theo had never actually been here, but it was a place he'd always wanted to go as a child. Even so, he'd poured a lot of money into this place over the years, both on security and amenities. Both as Theodore McWellan and as Lucifer. There were Agents of Lucifer and legitiment private security watching the place 24/7, guardian spirits, stealthed security drones and every person living there had a Super Platinum DocWagon subscription and not a single one of them knew it. The gangs in the area were especially well paid to leave the place alone or to defend it if necessary. Theo spent millions every year on these people, but probably only a single one of them suspected anything.

Theo shook noticeably as we approached the front door. He didn't ask any questions though. Or speak at all really. He just activated the doorbell icon and waited.

An ork answered the door that, to all appearances, looked like a teenager. But she wasn't.

"Meela?" Theo asked.

"My boy!" Meela shouted and dove towards him and wrapped him in her arms. We'd kept her relatively informed about Theo's overall status, including his 'disappearance' even if the details had to stay private.

Theo's relief and joy poured out of him in the shape of tears and he sobbed.

"You know, you've made my husband a very happy man," Meela said, still holding on to him.

"Well yeah..." Theo said, trying to be respectful in his confusion, "I mean, now he doesn't have to lose you,"

Meela finally let go of him, "Yes, that too. Now come on inside. Dinner's almost ready,"

"Oh I..." Theo began, but Meela cut him off.

"Oh no you don't! You are absolutely not just dropping by. I don't care what you have planned. You're staying for dinner and that's final. Now get on inside,"

Theo smiled and nodded, "Yes, ma'am," and I took his hand as we crossed the threshold.

Meela raised an eyebrow, clearly noticing, "Well finally,"

Dinner at the Jenkins house was a fairly chaotic affair. Three generations lived in that house but it felt like four. Mixed metatype marriages never resulted in anything half-way between types. So about half of Meela's children were human and the other half were orks. The orks matured noticeably faster, of course, and two of them had children of their own. The economy being what it was, and life just generally being more dangerous than it had been a hundred years ago, it just made sense for everyone to stay at home as much as possible.

We stayed for hours, well past just diner. And it was one of those rare occasions Theo got to be just another person. You see, Meela wasn't the only person here he'd ever met. Before Mother had banned children from the house, he'd gotten to know several of her kids. That was before my time, of course, but I'd heard the stories.

"I still can't believe you let me smash that thing. What was it worth? 200 million?" Meela's son, Chuck said. One of the grandkids had asked the story about how they got banned from the estate and Chuck and Theo were competing to take the blame.

Chuck who was also an ork, was a school teacher now, and his clothing matched it. All formal and buttoned down without being corporate.

Theo shrugged, "It was stupid of me, yeah. Probably never would have happened if I hadn't lied about who I was. Sorry about that,"

"Wait, what happened?" I asked.

Chuck turned to me with a smile, "Hang on, how many years and you haven't heard this story?"

I turned to look at Theo who just winced and said, "It's...embarrassing. Not one of my finer moments. When I started letting the staff bring their kids to the estate I...pretended to be one of them,"

Chuck waved him off, "Bah, we all know why you did that. I just had anger issues back then,"

Chuck turned to me, "Theo was pretending to be an ace decker to explain how he could control the estate's systems. And I wanted to destroy a priceless piece of art to hurt the stupid fra - err, spoiled rich kid who wouldn't show his face to us. So he let me. Smashed some priceless vase to bits. Probably centuries old. Pretty lucky Tabitha didn't decide to take that personally,"

He had no idea.

I sighed, "Yeah, that sounds like something Theo would have done back then,"

Theo winced and shrugged, before turning to Chuck, "You know...I still have the arcade. If you want you can show it to your kids,"

"Arcade?" I asked.

Meela chimed in, "Oh just some play room Theo set up before he got the Host installed. He told the other children that the 'spoiled brat' who lived there got tired of it immediately and wouldn't notice. I'm glad you stopped talking about yourself like that. It was making momma sad,"

Chuck jumped in to save Theo, "You really serious about that? I've been telling my kids stories about that place for ages,"

Theo smiled, "The estates mine now. Heck you can live there for all I care,"

Everyone laughed. Well, everyone except Theo, Meela and myself. Because we were the ones who knew he wasn't joking.

"I suppose that would save you quite a lot of money, wouldn't it boy?" Meela replied.

That raised some eyebrows.

"Uh..." Theo started, but Meela cut him off.

"Oh, please. You think Simon and I don't know what you're doing to keep us and our children safe?"

Simon was Meela husband. Theo looked back and forth between them, like a deer caught in headlights.

Chuck rescued him, "We've got our own lives, buddy. But I wouldn't mind dropping by. Bet I can still kick your ass at Laser-Phoenix too!"

Theo turned to him with an almost wicked grin.

"You're on,"

 

[Erenthia]

Opticon's Theme
All You Wanted - Michelle Branch


Fabio's Theme
The River - Blue Saraceno


Mary's Theme
Isolated - Chiasm


Theo's Love Song to the Sixth World
High Hopes - Panic At The Disco


Setting Theme
Make a Move - Icon for Hire

 

[Erenthia]

AN:

So...the official shadowrun timeline is not in effect. It's not that I ran into specific problems with fitting this story into it, rather I'm just too lazy to let myself be bossed around by a canon timeline. That said, most things that are supposed to happen will still happen, it's just that they'll happen when I want them too.

---

Tabitha's itinerary, as stolen by Alex, suggested that she'd be bringing him home literally on the day classes at MIT&T were to begin. She'd already registered him and chosen his class schedule, and much to my shock, she'd arranged for him to be living on campus. Alex was of the opinion that universities were more about networking than education for people in their position, so maybe that made sense. Although from my experience, people were falling all over themselves to do business with Theo already but whatever.

As it turned out there, she'd brought him back a week early, which gave us seven whole days we hadn't planned anything for. So I decided it was finally time for that Hawai'i trip. It had taken me a while to grow accustomed to having full access to Theo's resources, and since we'd never really gone on vacation, I'd still been thinking about the whole thing from a Barren's Rat perspective. Oh sure, I'd been growing steadily more wealthy and powerful for the last year and change, to say nothing of the five years previous to that. But those first five years had done nothing to change my perspective on the kinds of things I could accomplish, and the time since then had all been tightly focused on Squatter's Mall and Redmond. But when I opened my eyes to consider the rest of the world, I realized the Kingdoms of Hawai'i weren't some far off impossible fantasy. They were a five hour plane ride and little else.

It really made me wonder what else I'd been looking at all wrong. Though to be fair, my perspective had been one of the main things the Deliberative wanted out of me. And it was one of the big things Theo had looked at when recruiting advisors for Lucifer. So, while I didn't want to lose my old perspective, I now realized it needed to be broadened. In fact, I had a lot of horizons to broaden when I thought about it. So, I got some advice from Julia for how to dress. I wanted to push my limits, do something daring, and keep Theo in a constant state of shock. The more surprises I could distract him with the more I'd keep him from getting stuck inside his own head and dwelling on things I didn't want him dwelling on.

So, just before we landed at the Horizon-owned landing strip on the island of O'ahu, I stepped out of the jet's bedroom wearing high-heel sandals with straps that went all the way to my knees, a double loincloth, front and back with nothing underneath, and a slingkini that wrapped around my neck and hooked into the same tiny belt the loincloths hung from, though I still had all my moonsilver foci. To say I was embarrassed to be wearing such a thing, even in private, would have been an understatement. But that was the point. I was dating a sadist after all, and nothing would get him off more than me willingly humiliating myself.

Theo's eyes went wide when he saw me and his mouth dropped open slightly, "You..you don't have to..."

"I want to," I interrupted him.

He took a deep breath and the intensity of his eyes reminded me of Tabitha. He really was his mother's son. Except he had control over his darker impulses, and that made all the difference. In fact, he once told me that his instincts for how to help people were ultimately the same as his sadistic drives only run in reverse. He had a natural instinct for understanding people's vulnerabilities and he used it to help them. You know...unless he was currently in the process of fragging them. Then the blades came out. Well, not literally. Usually.

Theo, for his part, had dressed in a short-sleeved white polo and matching shorts and shoes, an outfit I'd only ever seen him wear on a tennis court, although he swore it wasn't a tennis outfit at all. I guessed Old Money fashion was harder to pull off in hot weather.

When the airstair finished unfolding, and we started walking down I felt more exposed than I ever had in my life. I'd wanted to push myself and it had been massive success on that count. Part of me wanted to run and hide, but that would have been cowardly. And then I started to wonder if any of this was even worth it, so I took a quick peak at Theo's aura...and immediately realized he was assensing me back. Putting those emotions into words were impossible for me back then. I didn't really have the context, but I knew he was enjoying the whole thing a lot more than he was letting on through mere physical expression. As we walked down the airstair the best I could understand of his emotions was that of visceral satisfaction and a surprisingly large swell of relief, which I thought was strange. Of course, when saw that I was assensing him no small amount of sadistic glee worked their way in as well.

What about this made him feel relieved? I made a note in my commlink to ask about that later.

But it got weirder. Because I kept assensing everyone we saw for the next hour, and while a fair few of the women we came across had noticeable amounts of contempt in their auras, most people didn't. It shouldn't have been a surprise that most of what I saw in people's auras when they saw me was desire, but it kinda was. That might be hard to understand, but being sexually desirable just wasn't part of my identity. I'd known Theo wanted me long before I was okay with it, but that was a lot deeper than just sex and part of me had always known that. Robin had said that I didn't see how lonely he'd been, and that wasn't untrue but it would have been more accurate to say that I was pretending not to notice, even to myself. But being objectively attractive? This was new to me and I didn't know how to respond to it. I mean, it's not like I'd never assensed someone and discovered they were attracted to me to some degree or another, but the difference here was scale. Once or twice, here and there, and I could dismiss it. Not anymore. Although there was one thing I was seeing that I absolutely didn't understand and had to ask Theo.

[So...why are some of the guys who find me attractive sad when they see me?] I texted him.

[Seriously?] he gave me the old raised eyebrow, [It's because they know they can't have you. 'Unattainable' isn't a turn-on for everyone,]

We'd gone for some al fresco dining in a local bistro for tourists not too far from the Horizon offices. The place looked just like how you'd expect from the trids and that was no accident. It's not that the trids were anything like accurate, but rather that places that catered to tourists had shaped themselves based on what tourists expected. The place had a faux-grass roof, pretty polynesian waitresses in grass skirts with coconut bikini tops, a heavy-set ork in an unbuttoned hawai'ian shirt behind the bar and not a single local in sight. I didn't expect this place to represent real local culture, just to be a place to sit and talk while we finished planning out our vacation. We'd already rented a small house on the beach, but we hadn't put much effort into it beyond that so far.

"So, why the Kingdoms of Hawai'i?" Theo asked, finally.

I shrugged, "Oh, I don't know. I guess growing up in the Barrens, a Hawai'ian vacation always seemed like the ultimate dream of success. I know it must sound so very New Money to you. But I figured it would at least be relaxing,"

Theo smirked, "Nah, New Money would look down on a Hawai'ian vacation...usually. Their idea of an exotic locale is typically Europe," and he rolled his eyes.

I leaned back in my chair and put my left arm over the back, "Oh yeah? And what's Old Money's idea of exotic?"

He locked eyes with me and without the slightest hesitation said, "The past. Why do you think we collect so much old art? It's not just the rule of thirds. We're the most jaded people in the world. And once everything in the world is old and boring...well most of us start getting real nostalgic and for times we never lived in,"

"Why do you hate your own people so much?" it was a question I'd wanted to ask him for a very long time, but only now had worked up the courage to do it.

"Occam's Razor," he said, again without delay, "However the world is, it's most likely that the most powerful people in it want it to look that way,"

"What about our friends? Alex, Izaya, and the others?"

Our conversation paused a moment as the waitress brought our food. Grey Line this was not but it catered to tourists and tourists had to have at least some money, which meant real food on the menu rather than 3D printed soy. So Theo had gotten the Lomi Lomi Salmon, a dish of diced tomatoes, green peppers, onions, and salted salmon. Whereas I'd gotten the Kalua Pork. And just to complete the image of us being tourists, we'd gotten a couple of Mai Tais.

"They're fighting an uphill battle, mostly against their parents," Theo replied when the waitress had gone.

I sighed. I'd brought Theo here to relax and this conversation wasn't going anywhere helpful.

"Okay, new topic. We've got basically six days. What are we doing for fun?" I asked.

Theo took a deep breath and let it out, pondering. The way he normally relaxed usually involved pretending to be someone else. Once, when he was 15, he'd snuck out with an altskin disguise just to volunteer at a soup kitchen in Everette. And then, at the end of the day, all the other volunteers found credsticks with 50,000 nuyen on them waiting for them at home. He loved that 'king in disguise' drek.

"I mean," I jumped in before he could answer, "if you want to do your Santa Claus thing, I won't pitch a fit, I promise,"

He shrugged, "I mean...this is your trip. If you want to know what I want to do with a week off, it doesn't involve leaving the bedroom,"

I wilted slightly under the attention, especially with that boyish smirk on his face, "Oh come on. There's got to be something else you want to do besides..."

"You?" he interrupted and his face continued to brighten, "Is that really so surprising?"

I didn't need to see his aura to know that he was getting turned on by how embarrassed I was.

"You're terrible," I said, smiling, "I bet you packed more shibari rope than clothes. Pervert,"

"Oh yeah, " Theo replied, voice dripping with sarcasm, "the incredibly hot, wealthy, and powerful Theodore McWellan has a dark side. I'm sure that makes me way less attractive,"

My mouth dropped open in shock. He wasn't normally this audacious, "Oh frag you!" I said in a playful tone.

"Here? I thought you'd want to wait for the beach house?"

But if he could do it, so could I, "Okay, I get it. You're horny. Not much of a surprise there. But what are we doing on our vacation,"

His face turned dark but with a wicked grin. It was an expression I'd rarely seen on him, "Well...I suppose I could stalk you down a dark alley somewhere. Then when I catch you - "

A sharp cry took us out of the moment, "Polunu!" a deep feminine voice shouted in a tone of naked fear, grief, and despair.

We turned to see a Polynesian ork woman running in from the street into the interior of the bistro, so naturally, we followed her in.

"It was the Night Marchers! It had to be!" she told the bartender, "The Astral Advisory Commission put out a warning that they were on the east side tonight!"

We'd gotten that same advisory on our commlinks even before we'd landed. My knowsofts had made me aware that the Night Marchers were a group of free spirits that patrolled the various islands of the Kingdom of Hawai'i without regard to metahuman authority. Many Awakened had tried to interview them to figure out what they wanted or what they were about in general, but they never seemed up to giving interviews. Nor could the people observing them figure out any pattern to their behavior. They just roamed around, from one island to the next, never appearing to do anything. Unless of course they were approach in person by a metahuman. Then things could get ugly.

"Maybe I can help," Theo offered, "I've worked with spirits before. And I've read about the Night Marchers,"

Now that we were no longer in flrity date mode, my outfit suddenly made me feel ridiculous again, so I decided to stay in the background.

Both the bartender and the woman turned to look at Theo, uncertain and skeptical. They turned back to look at each other for a moment, but it was the bartender who spoke.

"Uh, look bruddah, don't matter what kinda kahunah you might be, meetin' the Night Marchers is a quick way to make loa. The Na Maka'i take care of us around here. They'll handle it,"

He trusted the police? Wow, Hawai'i really was a different world.

The ork woman slapped him on the chest, "Bah! Na Maka'i won't help with anything but finding the body!"

She turned to Theo trying fiercely to control the desperation in her voice, "My boy's name is Keona, he's 16. He has a girlfriend he thinks we don't know about in Kailua. He went to see her today, but he was supposed to be back hours ago. Then I got this:"

She held up her commlink, which looked like it was supposed to be playing some kind of flatvid, but the screen was black. There was, however, sound. Terrifying sounds. First, what sounded like a young man groaning and crying...and a raspy feminine voice both crazed and unhinged.

"Why? Why? No no no no! Not again! Not again!"

Theo looked at me and back to the woman, "That...doesn't sound like what I've read about, but I'll look into it. Is his commlink set up to share his location with you?"

It turned out that the real-time tracking on the Night Marchers lined up pretty well with Keona's location. Or it had when she'd checked last. They'd moved on now, but he hadn't. And while a manifesting spirit wouldn't be audible to a microphone, it was possible for a spirit that had fully Materialized to show up on technological sensors, but the Night Marchers weren't known to do that very often. And they were even less known for leaving survivors behind when they did. They took a dim view of people so much as seeing them. Preawakening traditions said that if you sensed their approach, you were supposed to lie down on your stomach with your face toward the ground and "think humble thoughts" or something like that.

So once we got the coordinates, Theo paid for the meal and dragged me around the corner into an alley and then into the manasphere. God, I really needed to learn how to do that.

"So what are you thinking we'll find?" I asked him as we zipped through the manasphere at speeds impossible by any technological means.

"Whatever hurt him didn't mean to, but she's done that kind of thing before. And it keeps happening, so there's probably some kind of compulsion there. Probably a newly infected that doesn't understand what she is,"

Before I could even ask a second question, however, we were there. Theo pulled me back into the material world and we found ourselves far outside any city near the mouth of a small cave that didn't appear on any map. I activated my enhanced hearing and immediately heard what sounded like a girl crying.

"You have you thermographic vision focus attuned?" Theo asked, while staring into the cave.

Oh. Right. Just like with the Vision Magnification focus, I'd forgotten I had it. That was the problem with dumping too many abilities on someone all at once and then going on vacation to...well, hell. I'd been too busy doing all the stuff he normally did to train with them all. But the power was there when I called on it. The world around me expanded into colors I'd never seen before. Infrared goggles just translated the light up into the visible spectrum, which was usually fine since if you were bothering with infrared it meant the visible range wasn't giving you anything useful, but cyberware and magic opened your mind to new worlds entirely. God, it was beautiful. I could see clearly into the mouth of the cave, and it was clear that the source of the sound was deeper in.

So in we went. Spelunking was a notoriously dangerous activity to be doing under the most favorable of circumstances and these circumstances were anything but favorable. But right now, the natural dangers of caves were the least of our problems. Eventually though, we rounded a corner and found what certainly appeared to be a girl in her nearly 20s dressed in local fashions and on her knees holding a teenaged boy. I immediately assensed him and saw that he was still alive, but barely. She on the other hand, well...

I couldn't tell their ethnicities just by looking at them, but the boy was certainly an ork and the girl looked human, but by the bite marks in the boy's neck and the obvious signs in her aura, she clearly wasn't.

She looked up at us, bloody tears streaming from her eyes and begged for an answer, "Why does this keep happening?"

Theo stepped forward and squatted down in front of her, "He's not dead yet. I can help him, if you let me,"

She nodded, and Theo placed a hand on Keona's forehead. And yet I didn't feel anything in the manasphere, only Theo calling on the deeper powers of essence. I heard him take a deep breath and then felt the manasphere react just as the bite wounds on Keona's neck closed up.

"Well, the good news is, I managed to stop the infection from passing to him, but it'll take several more treatments to get his essence back to where it was," Theo explained.

"Essence? Infection? What...what are you talking about?" the girl asked.

Oh boy.

"Uh...how long have you been in this cave?" Theo asked.

She shrugged.

"If I told you magic was real, what would you say?" Theo asked again.

"That your crazy?" she replied.

Ohhhh boy.

Theo took a deep breath and exhaled, "Okay look, we...we have a lot to talk about, but first we need to get this boy back to his parents. But we'll be back to help you very soon. My name is Theo. This is Miho. What's your name?"

"Mary," she said.

"Alright, Mary. We'll be back in a few hours. Just...just sit tight,"

She nodded.

It took us considerably longer to get back to the bistro since we had to use conventional transport and to do that we first had to trek through the wilds of O'ahu. Theo used the time to apply whatever 'treatment' it was that healed essence drain. Which I just needed to know about right then for some reason. And since we were in an automated taxi I could speak out loud.

"Is that some new charm you picked up in hell?" I asked.

He nodded, "Technically. It's called 'Craftsman Needs No Tools'"

I raised an eyebrow, "Uh, that doesn't sound like it has anything to do with essence recovery,"

Theo shook his head, "Not directly no. I'm using it to apply a genetech treatment to him and that's what's healing his essence,"

My mouth fell open, "You can do that just by touching him?"

Theo smirked although his eyes only looked tired, "That's the 'Needs No Tools' part,"

<Interesting. That Charm requires a fundamental basis of knowledge to make use of. His mother must have seen to his academic education during his trip to Malfeas>

"Sounds like you were pretty busy for the last couple years," I told him.

Theo looked away, "...yeah,"

I'd had to resort to the Touch of Eternity to get Keona back to full health by the time we got back to the bistro, just before closing time. Polunu, the bartender, immediately rushed towards Keona and wrapped his arms around him, "You had your mother and I worried sick. What the frag happened to you? No, hang on. I need to call your mother first,"

"Hey, guess who I found!" Polunu said into his commlink after a moment, "Keona! Obviously! What do you mean he - what? What are you talking about, you were out of your mind when you were down here before! What the...yes you were!"

They continued to argue for a few more moments before he finally ended the call in frustration. Polunu looked at us in both confusion and a little fear.

"She...she said she never came down here..."

 

[Erenthia]

Even with everything going on I was still a little miffed at not getting the Beach Episode I wanted. Theo managed to convince the bartender to check into his wife's whereabouts to see if she'd been mind-whammied or if the person we'd seen earlier was some kind of imposter. Meanwhile, he sent me off to the beach house we'd rented and promised to meet me there with our new friend. The sun had just gone down a while ago so there wasn't a huge hurry, but I was still fairly sure the reason he'd sent me off alone was because he couldn't drag more than one person through the manasphere with him, and sure enough, he beat me there, Mary in tow.

Even so, I took the time to change clothes. Going that far out of my comfort zone had been a worthwhile experience and I knew I'd give it another go, but I didn't want to give Mary the wrong impression of what she was doing here. But I was still on vacation, so I went with regular sandals this time along with jean shorts and a tank top. Casual but not remotely sexual. Mary's clothes looked relatively new compared to how old she probably was. Whoever it was that had sent us Mary's way had implied that she'd had some kind of relationship with Keona, and his father had confirmed it. The boy had certainly been smitten and had been sneaking off at odd hours, so he'd likely been providing her with basic essentials. And based on the question she'd asked us when we first arrived, he probably wasn't the first.

Mary's memories of her life post-infection were spotty, to say the least. She remembered being chained to a metal chair along with three other women for what felt like - and likely was - a lifetime. She'd descended into an animal state having been forced to fight for scraps by the man who'd kidnapped her, almost certainly the vampire who'd infected her. But she didn't remember coming to Hawai'i at all. The last thing she remembered was going into a shady nightclub in 2012 in Los Angeles before her life turned into hell. And she was having a hard time adapting to the fact that she'd just lost sixty years of her life.

The living room had been furnished fairly well, designed to feel homey and not cookie-cutter, though it lacked the personalized touch of an actual home. Mary sat on the sofa alone while Theo had taken the recliner and turned to face her. I stayed at the bedroom doorway, waiting for an appropriate moment to really enter the conversation.

"No, I'm...I'm not eighty years old!" she said, emphatically.

Theo sighed, "You don't look eighty years old. You probably don't feel eighty years old, but I assure you the year is 2072 and...quite a lot has changed in that time,"

She looked to me and I nodded.

"And I'm a vampire..." it wasn't a question. She had to have known at some level. She'd been awake for a while now so she had to have been drinking blood, and it would have been fairly obvious the pain the sun caused her.

Theo nodded, "Your condition can be managed...to a degree. Your allergy to sunlight can be mitigated significantly as well as your wood allergy, and I can help you find a supply of blood. There are other issues though, and one in particular that we're going to have to talk about,"

She looked up at him with those doe eyes and combined with her ragged black hair and hunched demeanor she looked particularly vulnerable for a super-predator. She was not going to like what Theo was about to say.

"Vampires need more than blood to survive. The world's knowledge of things magical is still limited, but this much we know: metahumans - that is to say, humans and other sapient, human-like beings - have what's generally referred to as 'essence' which is largely a way of avoiding saying the word 'soul'. And the essence of vampires degrades naturally over time...and has to be replenished..."

Mary stared at Theo as if he'd just uttered some kind of terrifying threat, "I need...to eat...souls..." and again it wasn't a question.

Theo nodded, "I know that's a lot to take in, but there are options - "

"Options?" Mary interrupted, "Options? You just told me I need to eat souls! What the fuck kind of options are there? Who could be so bad that they deserve having the soul eaten?"

I took that as my cue. I stepped into the room and sat down on the sofa next to her, "More people than you think. But unless I miss my guess, he's got another option for you besides picking acceptable targets,"

Theo made an exaggerated sigh, "I was working up to that. Given that you just fed on Keona it'll probably be a while before it becomes pressing but there are actually a couple of possibilities. For starters...my soul grows back. So does Miho's. You'd have to stick around us though, and if something happened to both of us, you'd be back to square one."

Her gaze turned skeptical. Theo had mentioned two possibilities but had immediately left one out and she was probably wondering why, "And the other one?"

"The other one is frankly something I'd like to wait on discussing," he told her.

<You think Enlightening her essence would help?> I asked Theo telepathically.

<Sort of. I don't think she'd be compatible with the normal process, but I picked up something in Malfeas that might work> he replied.

"Also," he continued, "I'm working on alternative means of providing food for vampires and other kinds of Infected,"

"Other kinds?" Mary asked.

I jumped in, "Ghouls mostly. They don't need to drain people's essence, but they can only eat metahuman flesh, which is still a rather large problem for them. And there's actually a lot of different variants out there,"

Mary looked back at Theo, "You...you can do that?"

Theo nodded, "Please don't tell anyone but...pretty sure, yeah. It'll take me some time and I have other things I'm...required to be working on. It's certainly near the top of my priorities though. And we also need to see to your training,"

"What training?" she asked.

"Well...you've been operating on instinct ever since you washed up on that beach. At this point, you probably don't even know how to control whether or not you're feeding on essence or just blood. That part I can help you with. But for the more advanced stuff, we might need to hire you a tutor, " Theo shrugged, "although I understand most vampires do learn how to use their more advanced powers on their own eventually. But I'm sure I could find you someone, sooner or later,"

I glared daggers at Theo.

"No not...not them. I learned my lesson okay?" he whined.

Mary looked back and forth between us, so I made sure I was the one who answered, "Theo hired a group of vampires a while back...and they weren't the type to struggle with the ethical conundrum of their situation, and it went nasty,"

He took a sharp breath, "I know it was wrong. We've been over this," he turned back to Mary, "the upside is, you will be a lot more powerful than you are probably thinking. I know that makes the moral dilemma even harder, but at least there's that. Also, you need to know that not every place in the world will recognize you as a person with legal rights. But don't worry about that right now. That's something I can help you out with, once you understand enough about the world to operate in it at all. Which is probably what we're going to focus on for the next few days at least,"

Mary looked back and forth between us, "I'm...gonna end up owing you guys a lot aren't I?"

I put a hand on her shoulder, "Mostly we want you to be in control of yourself and not a blight on the world. Once you get your feet under you, you're going to want to do something with yourself anyway, and Theo and I can always find work for powerful people. Which you will be. But if you want to go your own way, you certainly can,"

She took a few seconds to process that.

"So...2072 huh? Sounds like a lot to get caught up on," she said after a while.

Theo smiled, "Yup. And since Miho and I are technically on vacation, I know exactly how we're going to do it. Good thing I'm an efficiency expert," and he fragging winked.

Theo snapped his fingers and a holographic image of a vidscreen appeared over the coffee table.

"What? Movies?" Mary asked.

"They're called Trids now, mostly. But yes. So what do you want first? Best cinema experiences of the last 60 years? Or a documentary?" he answered.

Huh. Looked like I was getting my Beach Episode after all. And we spent more than a few hours watching some of the most enjoyable and informative media I'd ever seen. It was almost like Theo had paid an older vampire to come up with a...list of...hmm.

[Did you by any chance hire an expert to give you trid recommendation?] I texted him.

Theo smiled, [His name is 'Red' He's a shadowrunner and was more than happy to help. He even did it for free, so I hired to him to train her when we get her back to Seattle] he replied.

Because of course he did. I was about to reply with something snarky when I noticed the sun was coming up and now that I thought about it, I noticed Mary looking like she was getting pretty tired. So I excused myself from the living room to get her room ready. We'd had some basic supplies delivered during our marathon so blacking out the windows was pretty straightforward. Luckily we'd rented this particular beach house for it's proximity to the beach without consideration for other, more trivial things, like how much it cost. So we'd ended up with a two-story house with five bedrooms. And yes, there were some pretty spacious closets as well, but frag that. Sunlight allergies or no, we were treating her like a person.

And since being Infected didn't mean she didn't need sleep, and Theo and I only needed three hours, it would give us a chance to talk in private.

"So what are you thinking?" I asked him after Mary had gone to bed. We'd made our way to the kitchen because Theo wanted to try his hand at cooking us some breakfast.

"You think you're Mother did this?" I said, finishing my question.

He shook his head, "No, we're sort of...past that part of our relationship. At least that's what she said when I asked. She said it smells like dragon manipulation. Maybe they want to see what I'll do,"

I ran a hand through my hair in a self-calming gesture, "You asked her? Why?"

Theo winced as he took a pancake off a skillet and transferred it to a plate before pouring more batter for the next one.

"Well...the main reason I could see her doing this is to send more resources my way, but she wouldn't be so round-a-bout at this point. Frankly, I have to agree with her. It's looking like a test of some kind,"

He'd failed to answer, but I didn't feel like pressing so instead I leaned up against a cabinet and folded my arms, "If that's the case, what do we do about it?"

He shrugged, "Well, we can run ourselves ragged trying to figure out who did it, but I'm sure they're ready for that. If so, we'll probably run into more tests, cryptic bulldrek, get strung along like fools...you know, the usual. I say we skip it. Someone wants to learn about how we operate? They're welcome to watch, but I'm not jumping through a single goddamn hoop, "

I snickered, "Yeah, and I know the feeling, but it seems like it could be dangerous in the long term. What if they escalate?"

Theo added another pancake to the stack and said, "You're not wrong, and if it's really a Great Dragon we could be looking at reverse psychology, double-reverse psychology, or triple, or quadruple. I think the best thing we can do right now is just go on with our lives until we have to respond. At least that's what Masaru suggested,"

I stood up straight, "Oh drek! I was supposed to get in touch with him when you got back! I was so worried about...I mean - "

"You were worried about me, it's fine you can say it. But it's alright, I called him...well...I called him before you caught up to me in Bellevue. He's fine. He said he had a crisis of faith after what happened with Mother, but he was happy you gave him some privacy during his recovery. Probably some Dragon pride thing. I called him after I called Mother and he seems to agree with her. I asked him to look into it, but he said that was something they would certainly predict. So I told him nevermind. I figure if nothing else we can screw with their heads,"

"And if they escalate?" I pressed.

He shrugged again, "Look, we can't control the whole universe. And yeah, maybe playing along would keep things contained, but I'm nobody's puppet and neither are you. Besides, I need this vacation and so do you. If we're going to be damned, then lets be damned for who we really are,"

I smirked, "Captain Picard. Encounter at Farpoint,"

He turned and looked at me with those mischevious bedroom eyes of his, "God, you're sexy,"

And he leaned in and kissed me long enough to burn one of his pancakes, which he somehow managed to toss all the way across the kitchen into the trashcan without pulling away.

The next few days went almost how I'd originally planned. Mary obviously felt like a bit of a third wheel, but we tried to make her feel as included as we could. Theo got his hands on some UV-opaque body paint in her skin tone, some imagine goggles - not that she had any use for the enhancements - some specially designed Second Skin with even more UV blocking, an Alleviate Sunlight Allergy spell for back up, and a whole host of other things. By the time she'd woken up after that first day with us she had a SIN, an entire wardrobe, and all the rest of life's essentials - most notably a commlink. Red had even thrown together some essential reading for her, along with some he'd written himself.

But even if Theo could leave it alone, I couldn't, so I'd checked in with Polunu. His neighbors had been able to confirm that his wife had been at home the entire time we'd been at the bistro. Which made it all but certain whoever that had been wearing her shape had been an imposter. I even bribed the local police to let me look at local security cam feeds and watched the imposter snake through the streets and alleyways of O'ahu before slipping into a talismonger's shop.

And you know? That's when it hit me. This really was a game that we were expected to play, and this was my goddamn vacation. Theo was right. Frag this drek.

So we did the whole tourist things full throttle. We went on a few hikes, went to a luau, took in a few shows, saw the sights, the whole thing. We even went out of our way to bring Mary on each and every one, since, as Theo pointed out, the quickest way to get us back into the "game" for whomever it was that wanted us to play, would be to snatch Mary from under our noses. We even set up powerful Guardian spirits to watch over her when we slept. Only needing three hours, we certainly could have slept in shifts and still had plenty of time together, but actually sleeping together - yes I mean that literally here - was a luxury we were absolutely not going to deny ourselves just because someone out there wanted to frag with us.

And frag with us they did. Mysterious occurrences seemed to plague us everywhere we went, especially on those hikes, but we turned a deliberately blind eye to each and every one. There were times we couldn't of course. If we saw people in need we helped them, but beyond that we refused to get involved. Strange noises coming from outside? White noise. Mysterious figures dropping hints they knew about Creation? What's Creation? And the more subtle attempts we just pretended not to notice at all. I'd thought it would get old, but honestly, we were starting to have fun with it. Whoever was doing this had to be getting frustrated, and the long distance schadenfreude was palpable.

We were pretty happy with how Mary was coming along as well. She'd learned how to not drain essence while she was feeding, started to adapt pretty well to modern times, and was showing signs of being able to become a full magician. She had a long way to go, even to get a handle on her innate powers, but this wasn't boot camp so we only did whatever training was absolutely necessary or seemed fun. But all good things must come to an end and all too soon, and much sooner than I would have liked it was time to go. Of course, whoever had been fragging with us would probably have one last card to play before we left, and while we had considered sneaking out the backdoor so to speak - Theo ferrying Mary and I to Seattle via the manasphere and having the jet fly back to Bellevue on its own we ultimately decided against it. After spending some time talking it over, we didn't want this drek to follow us home if at all possible, so we decided ahead of time to meet whatever was coming head on and make our displeasure clear.

We'd kept Mary in the dark about all this, because why tell her? And it had been the right call. Despite still being in shock about her "jump" forward in time, and only just beginning to process the torment she had lived with for likely decades, she still managed to enjoy herself. Frankly it was goddamn heroic in my book. We still heard her crying in her room during the day and she was having nightmares every time she slept, but every evening when she woke up she put on a brave face and went out to meet the world. She even managed to get laid a few times, much to my and Theo's relief. We'd never said it out loud, but Theo and I had been worrying that as her rescuers she might throw herself at one or both of us. She even managed to track down Keona and apologize, which I thought was sweet.

So here we were at the end. Theo had rented another Nightsky to take us back to the Horizon airfield, the two of us bracing for whatever crazy bulldrek that would fall on us like an anvil from the sky. But somehow we made it all the way there with nothing happening. If you thought that was any kind of relief, it wasn't. That left us standing in front of his jet's airstair, just staring at it. Something would be inside. We just knew it.

"Something wrong?" Mary asked, innocently.

Theo and I looked at each other but he was the one who spoke, "Oh no, sorry. Just distracted,"

We reached the top and I heard Theo groan before I saw it. Someone was sitting in one of the seats facing away from the passenger door. A woman by the bits we could see of her, mostly her hair and everything below her knees.

"Don't you have you're own private jet?" Theo groaned.

"Yes, but it seems I've had some difficulty in piquing your interests. Come. Sit. We have much to discuss," the woman replied without turning to face us. And it certainly wasn't Tabitha. Her clothes had actual color, from what little I could see of them anyway.

Theo shrugged, "Alright fine. Ladies, if you'll join me,"

"Uh...what's going on?" Mary asked.

"It's...nothing you need to worry about. The bedroom is that way if you want to bow out," I replied.

"Stay if you like though. It's not everyday you get an opportunity to meet a Great Dragon. You know, unless your me," Theo quipped.

I took a deep breath through my nose in spite of myself. Who was it this time? Mary didn't know much about the world, but we'd talked about dragons in general and Great Dragons in particular, so she made the obvious play.

"I um...you said the bedroom was that way right?" Mary said, and slunk off without waiting for a reply.

Theo sat down at the opposite side of the little table and I knew I wasn't getting out of this. When I finally got a view of our visitor, I saw a woman with full auburn hair, but with a grey streak coming out of the top of her forehead. She wore an off-white cashmere sweater with deep blue pants and dark red stiletto pumps. I'd seen her before on trids many times, in this form and her true one.

The Great Dragon Hestaby.

She nodded to me as I sat, "Hajimemashite, Tanaka-san,"

I nodded, "It's a pleasure to meet you,"

She turned her gaze back to Theo, "Before I begin, I suppose I should ask if you need me to explain my presence?"

"No," Theo said flatly, "and I'd prefer to get this over with as quickly as possible. You've been trying to get my attention all week, and you nearly ruined my vacation in the process,"

Hestaby raised an eyebrow, but if she was offended she didn't show it, "Very well then, I shall be succint. It had been my hope to take your measure in lesser ways, but there is no longer time for such games. So now we are here. And I must risk far more than I would have preferred,"

"I believe you said something about being succint?" Theo pressed. And I really wished he hadn't.

Hestaby looked him over with an assessing gaze for a moment and then said, "While you were relaxing here in O'ahu, Aztlan and Amazonia have declared war on one another. And I have it on good authority that Sirrurg is intending to become active again. Almost certainly to take vengeance on Aztechnology for the execution of Dzitbalchén. And I am curious to know what you will do about it."

"Perhaps I'm not yet powerful enough to do anything about it. Nations clashing against nations. Great Dragons clashing against megacorps. You know when I exalted. What makes you believe I consider myself capable of interfering at all?" Theo replied.

Hestaby's face could have been a stone mask, "There are many things you might do. Even with only the resources you possessed as a mortal, you have significant wealth and a high position within Horizon. Perhaps you will bring them into the conflict. It would not require much in the way of power, at least as a Solar reckons, to sway your mother and her peers. And unless I miss my guess, you possess supernal skill in the scope of bureaucracy. Perhaps you believe you can manipulate the conflict from afar to your own advantage with none of us being the wiser,"

Theo rolled his eyes and scoffed, "I'm not stupid. And if the last week is any indication, involving myself in the affairs of your kind seems pretty tedious. I may not be able to avoid it forever, but I intend to do my best,"

"And what of the innocents who will suffer?" Hestaby asked.

Theo looked down at the table for a moment and said, "From what Masaru has told me, some of your kind are inclined to follow me. Others are not. That sounds like a recipe for a civil war. And I'm not sure if the world could survive a civil war among the most powerful beings in the world. If I try to throw my weight around, a lot more innocents would suffer. "

Hestaby raised her chin, and there was something in her eyes that I couldn't quite place, "I see. And if you could involve yourself without such fears?"

Theo sighed and looked at me. I knew what he was thinking so I nodded.

He turned back to Hestaby and shrugged, "Then if it would save innocents, how could I say no?"

Hestaby paused for an uncomfortably long moment. She didn't seem like she was pondering anything, but I didn't know if metahuman expressions really applied to her kind. But for just a second, I got a tiny glimpse of something that looked like sadness.

"I have managed to convince Sirrurg that I will support him in his efforts. Instead, I will deliver foreknowledge of the times and places of his attacks to you. Do with that knowledge as you will,"

Theo glanced at me once again, but only for a moment, "And if the other Great Dragons discover my interference?"

Hestaby took a deep breath, "You have Masaru. He can confirm what I am about to say. Sirrurg has lost a great deal of face with us. And further, you may have him claim responsibility for your actions. Even the pretense of such will send a signal to the others. Most will not be quick to move against you in such a situation,"

Even I had heard some of the loopholes in that.

Theo took a deep breath and exhaled, "You know what the third rule of shadowrunning is right?"

Hestaby smiled, "Are you a shadowrunner?"

Theo locked eyes with her for a long moment before replying.

"No. I'm not."

 

[Erenthia]

I'd brought Mary to her new house in Everette while Theo got in some last minute preparations for some Squatter's Mall project he wanted to surprise me with. He had to be in Boston by tomorrow morning, but with his ability to travel via manasphere that wasn't any kind of a problem as long as he didn't make his traveling ability too obvious.

I took a deep breath. I'd worn a lot of hats in the last six years, but Realestate Agent wasn't one of them. Until now.

"So...it's your basic townhouse. Two bedrooms upstairs, kitchen, living room, etc. Pretty sure it's mostly the same as in your time. Oh, but you control basically everything through your commlink. Any questions so far?"

Mary shook her head, "Not yet but...wow fashions have really changed. Am I allowed to redecorate?"

"Eh...most people redecorate using AR these days. You can if you want, but please be careful. Anything odd gets attention. Attention is bad. You need to be as boring as you can," I sighed, "Look, are you sure you're ready to be alone? Theo and I are only a commcall away, but this is really soon."

Mary smiled, but it was pained, "Red said I need to jump into the deep end as fast as I can or I won't ever want to. And I think he's right. I'm sure it'll be rough, but it's the fastest way. He's uh...not going to be staying here right? You said two bedrooms..."

I shook my head, "No, he shouldn't even know this place exists and if he so much as asks about it, text me, Theo and your handler about it and then find a public place you can stay in as long as possible. It's not that we don't trust him it's just...well...by the standards of your time, nobody really trusts anyone anymore. Operational security is just a way of life. That reminds me, you're going to need to keep your kitchen looking used and try to be seen in the daylight by your neighbors as often as you can. I know that'll be painful even with all the UV blocking, but you have to avoid suspicion as much as possible. And don't pretend to have anything like a albinism or other mundane sunlight allergies. That works in the short term but the moment anyone gets a second data-point it starts to look really suspicious. And vampire hunters aren't something we can necessarily protect you from. They tend to stalk and pounce. We might not know about them until it's too late,"

Mary nodded, "Red talked to me about some of that. He also said if I was going to be living in one place that I shouldn't eat where I sleep,"

"True in general," I told her, "but you shouldn't need to worry about blood or essence. Theo and I can keep you stocked up while he works on a more permanent solution. But do keep your eyes out for activity from other vampires. The last thing you need is someone else's sloppy behavior bringing the heat down on you. But don't try to handle it yourself. Not yet. If you find evidence of a vampire attack tell us immediately and we'll handle it. And..."

I turned to face her and put my hands on her shoulders, "If the worst happens and you do something you regret, please know that we aren't going to just abandon you. These are early days and you're still learning to control your instincts. That's not permission to cheat here and there, but we aren't going to throw you to the wolves over a genuine mistake,"

I dropped my hands and shrugged, "And in the future, if our long-term solution doesn't work out and a rapist or child molester goes missing here and there, you might find that we were looking the other way at the time,"

Mary clenched her teeth and hunched slightly. It was a good sign really, that she wasn't jumping in with both feet on the being a killer part. She took a deep breath and changed the subject.

"So...you said you had a job for me?" she asked.

I nodded, "We'll get to that in a second. First, let me show you around the place a little more and show you how to operate the house's system,"

Mary was adapting to AR pretty quickly, but there was a lot to adapt to. And for all that I'd heard Theo talk, ad-nauseam about how the lower-middle class of today wouldn't want to trade places with wealthy one-percenters a century ago, I'd never thought that was anything other than a talking point before now. It was a bigger place than most people had, especially when living alone, but the way she marveled over trivial things like the integrated holo-projection systems, the cleaning drones, and even cheap kitchen appliances made me start to reconsider my position. And the moment she found out about anthropomorphic drones she squealed like a little girl and immediately put herself 8,000 nuyen in debt on the credit card we'd just gotten for her.

"Wait, was that the doorbell?" she asked. I'd set the house's systems to alert via commlink only for security purposes.

I nodded and checked the door camera, "Yup, he's here. Let him in,"

Mary started to head for the stairs but I stopped her, "Let him in from here,"

She looked at me for a moment in confusion followed by realization, "Oh! Right!"

I tried not to grin at her very obviously moving her head while going through an AR display to find the option to unlock the door. Only then did we make our way down the stairs.

Jeremy stood the moment he saw me...and bowed at 90 degrees, "Kon'nichiwa sensei,"

I couldn't help myself, I laughed, "Kid, look. I used to be a martial arts instructor and back then I did insist on that kinda stuff, but you're not wearing a gi and we're not on a mat. 'Miho-san' is fine,"

Jeremy rubbed his neck, "Uh...sorry, sens - err sorry Miho-san,"

I smiled, "Let's all sit down,"

Once we were all sitting comfortably in the living room I began again, "Alright, Jeremy Delle, this is Mary Jenkins. Mary meet Jeremy. Mary is going to be your bodyguard. She's a bit new at the job, and she won't be starting right away. Mary here is a full Magician, though she's not quite as far along in her training as you are. Mary, Jeremy here is a Mystic Adept, which means he can do some things you can't and you can do some things he can't, but you both share spellcasting so you can and probably should study that together. Jeremy, this is also your safe-house. If there's an emergency, come here, but under no circumstances should you bother Mary if she needs to be alone for any reason. You got that?"

Because if there was an emergency then there would be a high chance Jeremy would be bleeding. But even as I was thinking this, I could see Mary bobbing her head, clearly texting.

[Aren't we going to tell him?] she asked.

[Do you want to trust a teenager with something like this?] I replied.

The simple truth was, Theo and I were all Mary had, and she knew it. Mercenary as it was, we were pretty sure we could trust her with him on that basis alone.

"Yes! Absolutely! Perfect gentlemen, right here!" he responded.

[Would it be stupid if I said yes? I really really don't want to lie to him about this. Not if I'm supposed to be taking care of him,] she texted back.

I sighed. She had a point, and I had shared a lot with Jeremy already, but this was dangerous information and he didn't have a Sacred Oath hanging over his head in her case.

"Alright Jeremy look, I have something else I might want to tell you. But this is a secret as precious and as dangerous as any I've shared with you before. Can you convince me you know how to keep it to yourself?"

Jeremy rubbed his neck, "I mean...my dad never found out about...my after-school job,"

I felt a twinge of pain as he reminded me of his time as a child prostitute, "That's...fair. But this is a much more dangerous secret. Life or death. Literally,"

"Whose?" he asked, which was surprisingly wise for a kid his age.

"Mary's," I said, flatly.

He looked at her and back to me, "Oh...um, do you want me to know? I'm okay with not knowing everything if that's important. I don't want to put anyone in danger,"

I looked at Mary and I could see the weight the decision put on her. I was starting to wonder if maybe I shouldn't have left this up to her in the first place before she obviated the whole line of thought.

"I'm a vampire," she said.

His eyes went wide, "Oh...oh...um," his eyes darted back and forth, "I'm gonna need protection from mind-reading like...immediately,"

Mary held up one of her palms, "No no, I would never do that to you! I owe Miho and her boyfriend like everything so - "

Jeremy cut her off, "Huh? No, not for you. If Miho-san trusts you then I trust you. End of story. But like...hey, Miho-san, do you have any Opsec tutorsofts? I'm really gonna have to up my game here,"

I smiled. Jeremy was taking this way better than I hoped and more responsibly too, "For you, kid? Plenty,"

"Hey are these windows UV-opaque? Oh, and what's your kitchen look like? You need to keep it looking normal," Jeremy said.

I put a hand on his knee, "You can assume we've handled the basics,"

He nodded but I could still see the gears turning in his head, "Right right. Hey is there a spell for protection from sunlight or anything? If so I should probably learn it for backup. And something to keep vampire-hunters from reading my mind. Oh hey, is there an adept power for like...replenishing my blood if there's an emergency? OH! There's a Detect Lifeform spell for Vampires right? Is there a way to counter that?"

Looking at Mary now, seeing what I saw in her eyes, I knew there was no way she'd ever harm him. And really, she didn't even know how significant it was that he'd dropped an entire lifetime of fearing the Infected for her. But she didn't need to. She'd defend him with her life, regardless. That, combined with the unending stream of machinations spewing forth from Jeremy reminded me so very much of Theo and me. However their personal relationship developed, be it brother and sister, eventual lovers, or both as in the case of me and Theo, these two were going the distance.

"Alright kid look, let's slow this down," I said after several minutes of him retreading territory Theo and I had already gone over days ago, "Just...just write all this down and we'll look it over. But we know our drek, okay? It's okay if you can't come up with anything we haven't already thought of,"

"Oh...I need better encryption on my commlink, but no that'll look suspicious. Is there a way I can have like a fake outer layer on my commlink and a hidden inner encrypted one?"

I sighed in exasperation, even while Mary smiled ear-to-ear, "I'm...just gonna give you Theo's commcode. You can talk it over with him. But for now, I need to head out. I'm about to be CEO of a new major corporation and that's not the kind of job you want to be late for on the first day,"

Mary immediately jumped from her recliner to sit next to Jeremy on the sofa and he didn't so much as flinch, "So...I've sort of been out of the loop for the last sixty years. Still getting caught up on stuff like history and technology and modern stuff. Wanna help me out?"

I stood up, "I'm leaving now,"

While Jeremy hadn't flinched at her approach, he was certainly breathing harder and while he wasn't ogling Mary, there was a certain intensity to the way he was looking at her.

"You uh...ever been to a simsense theater?" Jeremy asked, smirking.

I should have been annoyed, but I wasn't. Okay, maybe a little but these two needed each other. Mary had been through quite a bit more than Jeremy had, but they'd both suffered, and in helping each other they'd be healing themselves. So I made my way back to Squatter's Mall, and when I was still a kilometer out I could feel the reverberations of the raw essence of the universe and I knew that Theo was working on something Sorcerous in nature. I texted him to let him know I was here and he told me he wasn't quite ready but that he would be soon. So I thought I'd give Julia a quick visit. When I got to her office, she was arguing with someone on her commlink but waved me in any way even as she argued with whoever was on the other end in a rapid-fire conversation I could barely follow even with my augs. But I figured I'd sit down and enjoy the show.

"No, daddy, I'm sorry but you're wrong. The numbers back me up here! Worker productivity starts to go down after 35 hours a week and it falls off a cliff after 50. People have known this for decades! What? Like you don't buy the highest quality of everything when you get drek for yourself? Well, then why wouldn't I buy the highest quality labor? Oh, who cares about that! No, I don't care. Oh, come on! There's plenty of potential labor out there! Daddy, look...this is my job and my bosses are very happy with my work, and I appreciate your advice, but if you're so concerned about corporate culture you should know that this is ours. Okay look, my boss is here, she wants to talk to me. No, I will not put her on the comm. Ugh...bye daddy. Yeah, I...I love you too,"

She took a very deep breath before explaining.

"Sorry, my father thinks we're insane for only mandating a 35-hour work week and I think he almost had a stroke when I told him we brought back overtime,"

I chuckled. It was one of many things I just plain hadn't believed Theo about at first when he'd told me that the corps practices were all insane from an economics standpoint. In that first year when we met he'd gone on and on about how all their business practices were insane and how anyone with a basic economics education would totally eat their lunch if the world had any kind of protection for competition like it used to. Instead, he'd told me, the evolutionary neglect of the Big Ten's oligopoly had driven efficiency down and reduced growth to a crawl compared to where it would be if nations still had the power to regulate them, and even the wealthiest of the wealthiest like him were poorer for it, to say nothing of the bottom 50%.

The solution? According to Theo at least, was to bring back Capitalism. I'd literally worried he'd had some kind of psychotic break when he said that, and I'm not exaggerating. But according to Theo, the Sixth World actually ran on something called "Mercantilism" at least if you classified the megas as states in their own right, which they basically were. He was still working on how to do that though, and even as a Solar, it wouldn't be easy.

I shrugged, "I think...basically everyone thinks we're crazy. Frankly, I don't think any of this drek would have gotten off the ground if it wasn't for Tabitha letting Theo have the original pilot project basically as a toy to play with. We even got a pretty easy start what with everyone assuming it would fall apart in a few weeks,"

Julia sighed and shook her head, "Well that's over. When you guys were in Hawai'i we had like half-a-dozen incidents, mostly shadowrunners. Damage to the aquaponics facility, damage to the computers and security systems, attempts at data-steals. Nothing out of the ordinary, but we're definitely being taken seriously now. You don't need to worry about it though, I'm on it,"

I let an awkward moment pass but finally spoke, "So uh...how's the restructuring going?"

She looked at me in wild-eyed confusion for a moment before letting out a relieved breath, "Miho...you need to be careful how you use that word. It has...implications,"

I winced and groaned, "Oh you know what I'm talking about! The Redmond Program getting spun off into Sol Purpose. I know there's a lot of work going into all that. And I felt pretty bad when I realized I'd dumped it all on you. It's just...after Theo got back from his time with his Mother...well, he needed..."

"A little sexual healing?" Julia smirked.

"Um...I sorta promised him I wouldn't talk about that,"

"What? You can't do that! You're breaking the Girl-Code!"

I sighed, "I mean, I can tell you about anything that happened when we were verticle. But I promised him I would keep our bedroom fun private. And I'm going to,"

Julia crossed her arms and pouted for a moment, but then I saw a gleam in her eye, "Did you at least wear that little number I sent you?"

"The slingkini with the double loincloth? Yup, even in public. And it was as humiliating as I thought it would be from the picture,"

"I bet he liked that," Julia said with a mischievous half-smirk.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead, "You know, he's a little sensitive about people knowing about that stuff...but you know...if you have any other suggestions, I'm definitely listening,"

Julia leaned in, "Worked out well, huh?"

"Very very well,"

"No collar yet though?" Julia asked.

"Collar? You mean like a choker or something?" I asked in return.

Julia drummed her fingers, "Knowing him, he's either waiting to ask, or he's planning to just never ask. Do some Matrix searches, you'll figure it out,"

[It's time, please come to our room] Theo texted me.

"Alright, looks like he needs to see me right now anyway. Keep up the good work,"

"You too," Julia said in a suggestive voice.

I rolled my eyes.

As I approached Theo's room - now our room - in Squatter's Mall, I could feel the tension in the essence starting to bubble into the manasphere. It didn't have any particular character to it that I could identify, so I assumed that meant it was incidental. Ancient Sorcery could in principle force the manasphere to do things, and probably things conventional sorcery couldn't, but truly powerful expressions would cause ripples in the manasphere even if they weren't intending to. Although this didn't seem like too much, since the disturbance to the local mana felt relatively minor by comparison.

I opened the door and immediately froze, too shocked to even close the door. I just stood there like a statue.

Tabitha was there. Her palms out level with her waist, balls of green energy in each.

"Miho," Theo said, "close the door, we can't let anyone see her!"

It took me a second to yank myself out of the ice, but eventually, I did as I was bid.

"A pleasure to see you again, Ms Tanaka," Tabitha said as if she meant it. And maybe she did. Maybe our attempt on her life meant so little to her that it may as well have never happened. I'd seen her a week ago in L.A. but that had been the presence of the rest of Horizon's board members, but even then I'd felt the pressure of her presence bearing down on me.

"Mother is casting a spell for us. It's technically one I can cast, but she can do it faster and quieter. She's almost done," Theo explained.

I glanced at her for a moment but didn't dare make eye contact, so I switched to looking at Theo, "Why...is she helping us?"

Tabitha answered for him, "Theodore has agreed to undertake a certain task for me. One of the few I cannot do on my own. For this, I am rewarding him handsomely and in advance, in full faith that he will meet his obligations when the time comes,"

I kept looking at Theo, "Does that have something to do with..."

I stopped because I suddenly wasn't sure if I was supposed to know about his trip to Malfeas.

"His trip to Hell, yes," Tabitha said, hopefully not reading my mind.

"Look," Theo added, "I've got a briefing prepared for you and Robin's team and Masaru, but first I wanted to get some modifications done to - "

Tabitha interrupted and I could feel a swell of sorcerous essence explode out from even as the balls of green essence expanded and dissipated, barely causing any ripples in the manasphere.

"Complete the Puissant Sanctum!" she intoned.

Theo looked at her with excitement in his eyes, "Did it work?"

"Of course it worked, child. I'm your Mother. I know what I'm doing,"

And for the first time in the entire time I'd known them, it was almost like they were really mother and son.

I looked at Tabitha and couldn't help but wonder if this newfound camaraderie wasn't sorcerously inspired.

"Can I speak to you in private?" I asked her.

Theo's eyes went wide in fear, even as a half-smirk spread across his Mother's face.

"Why of course, my dear. Theodore, would you give us the room?"

Theo, for his part, looked like he wanted to say something, but he swallowed it down and simply replied, "Yes, Mother,"

The moment he was gone, I spoke, "You two seem to be getting along well. Better than seems realistically possible in fact,"

Tabitha raised an eyebrow and her smirk still remained, "Are you accusing me of something, my dear?"

"Have you mind-controlled him in some way? Or in any way abrogated his free will?"

Tabitha clucked her tongue several times, "Silly girl. Of course not. The task I have set before young Theodore is not one that can be forced, even by the strongest magic. It must be chosen. And so I have and will continue to order the world in such a way as to cause him to want to choose it. And before you start whining about the loss of Robin, do remember that I also gave him Meela...and you. I have never been beyond using both the carrot and the stick, and it might surprise you to know that I have largely retired the stick. And so long as Theodore continues along the path I have laid out for him, I foresee no need to take it back up,"

I folded my arms, "And what path is that?"

"Oh, you'll have to discuss the matter with him. I have not forbidden him from doing so, but if he has not...well I hardly find that surprising,"

I stared at her for nearly half a minute, just trying to control my breathing. I'd have to discuss what she'd said with him later, but for now, I had one more thing I needed to try to dig out of her.

"Why don't you rule the world?" I asked, finally.

She raised another eyebrow, "What makes you think I don't?"

I just glared at her.

"Oh fine. You'd ruin all my fun if you could, I suppose. Well, if you're really curious about me then I'll give you a few hints. The truth is this. I once did rule the earth, in what you would call the Second World. Little knowledge of that time remains of course, but there is one scrap of record about my time as Earth's ruler, hilariously inaccurate though it may be. It seems the modern mortal mind simply cannot contain the Glories of the Past. What little record there is of me claims that I ruled a simple valley region between two mountain ranges. I suppose that might be some sort of analogy or metaphor for the material world's position between the Resonance Realms and the Astral Plane, but that may be giving them too much credit. The truth is, when I was a Solar, I ruled all. And it was a time of peace and prosperity, for I alone could hold back the Night. But I no longer have any desire to rule the Earth, or even to remain here. When my task is done, I will return to Malfeas, a place I much prefer,"

I unfolded my arms and made no effort to disguise my surprise, "You're...going to leave us alone?"

"Do you see now, why Theodore has swallowed both his pride and his rage? If our project succeeds, he will be rid of me. And the Earth will belong to you,"

I nodded absently, "I...I suppose that makes sense. But how can I know any of this is true?"

She shrugged, "There are methods by which my words can be verified, but if I suggest them to you, they will immediately become suspect, so I'm afraid I will have to leave you to your own investigations. Know that you have my permission to investigate anything you like about me, by whatever means you can find. I know you've already investigated my infiltration of the McWellan family and I hold you no animus for it,"

I took a nervous breath. I really had thought I'd kept that from her...but if she didn't mind then why not ask.

"What happened in 2057? Why come to Earth then?" I asked.

"That was around the time I received the Investiture of Infernal Glory...or the 2.0 version as modern mortals would call it. You know of the Green Sun Princes? And the Akuma?"

I nodded.

"Well...despite the Ebon Dragon's treachery the Green Sun Princes were largely considered a success, so the process of creating Akuma was reformulated to more closely mimic them,"

"Wait! You were a Solar as recently as 20 years ago? Where were you for the past few centuries?"

Tabitha's face turned dark and I immediately regretted asking, "I spent much of that time...imprisoned...though it was a prison of my own making just as much as it was made by another. I was freed from that and those who secured my release begged me to return to my old task of holding back the Night, which I felt obligated to do for many reasons. Yet another prison of my own making in a very real way. Ironically, I was freed by an act of vile betrayal which in no small way contributed to my accepting the Yozi's offer of salvation and power, "

I wasn't sure if I dared ask, but honestly, how could I not?

"Who betrayed you?"

Tabitha grinned, but it was the most wicked and terrifying thing I'd ever seen.

"Metahumanity,"

 

[Erenthia]

About five minutes later I found myself in front of Squatter's Mall's main freight elevator. Theo had sent out a text message to me and Robin's team to meet him there as soon as possible. So, while it was no surprise to find Theo there waiting, I hadn't been prepared to see Masaru.

"Tanaka-heika," Masaru said bowing.

I wanted to correct him. The honorific he'd used was explicitly and only for the Emperor of Japan. Even the Emporer's wife would have merely been, '-denka' but then Theo had ordered that I be treated in all ways as him, so maybe that was on purpose?

I bowed in return, "A pleasure to see you again. I hope you're doing well?"

And...it kinda was a pleasure to see him. For all that I was pretty comfortable in myself as a Divine being, Great Dragons had still seemed as far above me as they always had been. But then I'd fought by Masaru's side, and then had a quick chat with Hestaby. They were still more powerful than me, of course, and I wasn't sure if that would ever change, but I was starting to get accustomed to rubbing shoulders with them just as I'd eventually gotten accustomed to rubbing shoulders with Old Money after moving to Bellevue.

Hopefully, that kind of thinking wouldn't get me killed.

"Indeed, I am, Tanaka-heika. I appreciate your discretion in allowing me a time of solitude after fighting at your side,"

No mention of how badly we'd lost or the fact that he'd been hurt worse than the rest of us. Or that he'd been hurt at all. I made a mental note to never ever forget about a Dragon's pride.

"I received some advice on the matter. I'm afraid I don't know enough about your ways yet to act in your interests on my own, so please let me know if I'm stepping on your toes at any point in the future,"

I learned a lot from the fancy parties Tabitha had constantly sent us to, and there was no better place to put it to work.

"That is hardly necessary - " Masaru began before Theo interrupted.

"Consider it an order, Masaru. It matters a great deal to her, that she have the opportunity to treat you with respect,"

Masaru bowed to Theo before turning back to me, "Then if it would please you, I shall provide you with materials relating to our kind's etiquette,"

"I would be most grateful," I told him.

It was around that time that Robin's team rounded a corner. The moment they saw us, though they flinched, almost certainly because of Masaru's presence. Theo pretended not to notice and waved them into the elevator. After a short hesitation, and absolutely no words uttered allowed, they crept in. The elevator door closed and I didn't bother with Astral Perception. I knew Robin's team was straining to go along with being stuffed into what was essentially a cage with what they knew to be a Great Dragon, and yet they'd done it. Even if every single one of them was straining to keep me or Theo as a buffer.

"Alright, guys," Theo began, "I'm gonna need you to pay very close attention. You can't keep a copy of this information anywhere. Just memorize it,"

Theo summoned up the AR interface for the elevator, but instead of selecting a single floor, he used the interface as if it were a keypad and typed a six digit code. The elevator shook slightly and then opened. For a moment it seemed like nothing had happened, but as Theo led us outside it quickly became apparent that we weren't at all where we were. While the real Squatter's Mall didn't look too bad these days due to the nonstop refurbishment and repair, this Squatter's Mall looked entirely new, no damage from gunfire, no aging structural pillars, nothing. All shiny and new. And there was no one else here. And it was daylight outside, apparently.

"Spooky," Thug said because no one else would.

"And...why are you showing us this?" Fabio asked.

Theo looked at Fabio like he didn't understand the question, "What? Come on, you're my top guys! Besides this stuff'll be essential to Lucifer moving forward,"

"Uh..." Opticon spoke up, "I think what Fabio is saying is that some of us aren't sure we can follow you this far into the deep end. We'll never forget what you've done for us, and we're more than happy to keep doing what we're already doing, but if you want us to go further...I don't think..."

He looked away, and suddenly I remembered how frightened Theo had been, when I'd first woken up after his Exaltation and he'd had to tell me I was now a divine being. Would I have balked if I'd had the choice at the time? The way things went down it just seemed like a side-effect of getting to not die, but the more I thought about it, the more I was starting to wonder if perhaps Tabitha has lied - or at least omitted some rather large and important details - about why she'd killed Robin. She'd orchestrated so much, and I'd never thought of myself as more than Theo's accessory, at least in the context of matters Divine. Had Tabitha McWellan of all people put more stock in my agency and importance than I had?

Theo walked up to Opticon and put a hand on his shoulder, "Buddy...it's all bulldrek,"

Gregor piped up immediately and there was something distinctly disappointed in his tone, "You're saying Miho lied to us?"

Theo shook his head, "Oh no, that's not what I'm talking about. It's all this mysticism nonsense. It's not at all what it's made out to be. I know that'll probably disappoint you most of all, Gregor, but the sad fact is, Divinity is just another empty mystery box. Once you break it down into it's core elements, there's no 'specialness' left. I mean, yeah sure, I have a bit of a different perspective now, but not by as much as you think. And I'm sure Miho would tell you the same. Ultimately the main reason to keep something mysterious is to get people to pay attention. But nothing is inherently mysterious. And that's probably what you're afraid of experiencing, am I right?"

Robin's team all shared a number of glances while Masaru waited patiently in the background. So I decided to jump in.

"They don't know what they're afraid of, because they don't know what there is to be afraid of. Aside from getting on the radar of the most powerful beings on the planet. And look, guys, I can imagine how you're feeling and looking at you all right now, frankly, I'm glad I never had a choice. Because right now I'm happy to be where I am, doing what I'm doing, being what I am. I wouldn't trade it for anything,"

Gregor looked like he was about to say something but Theo got there first, "Right now, though, I'm just showing you the building. After that, we'll talk about the mundane operations. How and if we can roll Lucifer into Sol Purpose. After that...well...there are some things you all need to know. And I'm sorry, but it's not an optional briefing. Because the truth is, I need you guys as much as I always have,"

So we let Theo take us on the tour, and it was only in retrospect that I realized the magnitude of what Tabitha had done. Not only had she created this place, but she'd done it with hardly a whisper in the manasphere. And what a place it was. Apparently, according to Theo, there wasn't a strictly limited amount of space on "this side". The building didn't have a fixed volume or number of rooms. Rather, it had a fixed capacity for people and objects it could store. And the layout could be changed. Furthermore, the manasphere within the building could be tweaked and changed from the central control room. There were even aids for Ancient Sorcery, though we didn't have much time to go into it. Or not as much as I would have liked anyway. Theo called it a Rainbow Tabernacle and I made a note to ask the big guy about it, later.

As Theo eased them in, everyone started to look just slightly more comfortable. All except for Fabio. He kept getting more nervous and uncomfortable and - with a quick peek at his aura - ashamed for some reason. Eventually, we wound up in the conference room for the Advisory Board, or rather its 'reflection' as Theo called it. And when we were all seated, Theo got right down to business.

"So, Miho and I discussed things while we were in Hawai'i, and we'd like you guys to be involved in keeping Sol Purpose on mission. I know that's new territory for you all, but the day-to-day stuff you can learn. And I'm sure Masaru would be happy to provide executive assistants and training, and - "

Fabio interrupted him, "We don't know how to do C-suit drek! You're crazy! And why us?"

There was no small amount of contempt in Fabio's tone, but it was a smoke screen for the fear and...something else he was keeping well hidden. Theo just looked at me. So I took a deep breath before diving in.

"We're not looking for anyone from Squatter's Mall for C-suit positions...except maybe Julia. She's probably a shoo-in for COO at this point. Theo and I would like you all to sit on the Board of Directors,"

Fabio just threw up his hands in disgust and double-face-palmed. But he said nothing, so I continued.

"As for why...we want you for your perspectives. You all rose so high in Lucifer's operation that you became Lucifer. That wasn't just about competence. That was about our trust in you and that you are all some of the most moral and ethical people we know. And as far as we suspect Sol Purpose is going to go, it desperately needs people who will keep it grounded,"

Fabio folded his arms and looked away. It was no surprise that he was the main holdout, and not just because he'd been a con artist before becoming one of Lucifer's agents though that was no small part I was sure. Fabio had never forgiven himself for his past. And while on the one hand, that had pushed him harder and harder to become a better person and to help others to make up for the things he'd done in the past. On the other hand, he'd never allowed himself the luxury of thinking he'd improved, no matter how much he actually had.

"I..." Gregor began, "have worked in a university, which I suppose makes me the closest to being qualified to work in that kind of environment, but I share Fabio's disquiet. We all know your penchant for sharing your good fortune, but not all of us feel as though we've earned the right to go even that high,"

The subtext was clear. Back when I'd told them about Theo's Exaltation and how he'd uplifted me one of the first questions was if he would or would want to do the same for them. At the time, they weren't really asking. They were just trying to get a handle on what the frag was going on. But I'd already hinted at the possibility of them becoming Enlightened when I'd told them I was glad to be what I was.

Theo responded before I could, "You don't think there are people in similar positions who deserve to be there less?"

Gregor folded his armed and glared at him, "That is not an argument as you well know,"

"You'd be in a better position to make amends, " I offered.

"You don't get it!" Fabio growled at me, "You're not tainted like the rest of us. Neither of you are!"

"Speak for yourself, chummer," came Thug's indignant reply.

"This is bigger than any of you realize," Theo interjected before anything could get heated between the two of them.

I looked at him and sighed, "So I guess it's time for that?"

Fabio placed the tips of his fingers all around his face and shook his head, "No, no no, no more of this crazy bulldrek - "

"It's the end of the world...literally," Theo interrupted him.

And finally, he had Masaru's attention. And mine.

Theo turned to me, "You said you told them everything about Creation that I told you, right?"

I nodded.

Theo took a deep breath, "Well, I picked up a little more information on the field trip Mother decided to take me on. She took me to Malfeas...that's Hell if you don't remember,"

Even Masaru looked shocked.

"So...it turns out that after the Primordial War, when the beings that became the Yozi were locked inside the body of their king, good old Autochthon had a secret last line of defense against their escape. When they circumcised the Shadow Of All Things and turned him into the Ebon Dragon Autochthon did more than just mutilate him. He made it so the Ebon Dragon's very nature was to ruin everything. I guess the idea was that he'd ruin any escape plan they came up with, which sort of worked, but it turned out not to be enough. And after the Unconquered Sun died and the Ebon Dragon took over Creation...well he ruined Creation pretty quickly too. His mismanagement ended up being worse than the Great Contagion,"

Theo took another deep breath and continued, "Which prompted yet another invasion by the Fair Folk, but unlike the Balorian Crusade...they won. And in fact, they ended up devouring the Ebon Dragon,"

He rubbed his neck and looked away for a moment before continuing, "You see, the Raksha were always pretty nasty for mortals to deal with, being soul-eating monsters and such, but ultimately what they are at their very core are stories...stories incarnate. But after devouring the Ebon Dragon...well...now they're all Horror Stories,"

"Or simply Horrors," Masaru interjected, "as those few alive in this world who know would call them,"

"That's what I was doing in Hell. Fighting the Horrors. Hell has been fighting a nonstop war with them ever since. And...they've invaded Earth before too. But we have an opportunity now. We can put both Realms at peace and prevent the inevitable conflict between Earth and Hell that would come from that. I brokered an agreement with the Yozi. If I can get the Horrors off their back, they'll leave Earth alone,"

"Wait," I added, "I thought they were imprisoned,"

Theo shook his head, "The Horrors destroyed those bindings when they broke in. And if the Yozi defeat the Horrors on their own then God help us. That's why I need you guys. There's only one of me, and I've got a lot to do now and I need people I trust. Someone needs to represent the interests of metahumanity, and not just me. That's why I'm also inviting you to be the metahuman delegation at a deliberative body I'm putting together,"

"Oh god," Fabio placed his elbow on the table and rested his head in his palm, "what now?"

"Twelve delegates in three groups. One delegation for metahumans, one for dragons, and one for...spirits. Plus Miho and I. Masaru will be one of the dragon delegates of course,"

Opticon finally piped up, "More Great Dragons? Jesus. Who are the other three?"

Thing was, he was focusing on the wrong thing. I'd heard the delay in Theo's voice when he'd said, 'spirits' and while it didn't register as a deception - if that power of mine still worked on him - I knew him well enough to know that he really meant gods.

"One is Hetaby," Theo replied, "the other two I left to her discretion. But we'll be finding out pretty soon. They're scheduled to arrive in about an hour and a half,"

Literally, every single one of them slapped their foreheads, even Gregor.

But it was Fabio who spoke, "You think I can't recognize a high-pressure sales pitch? You're not giving us a chance to say No,"

Theo leaned in, "You can walk out right now and I'll never bring it up again. But in my estimation, you have every right to be here. So Sayeth The Lawgiver,"

Fabio folded his arms again but settled down a bit, "I...what are we even supposed to do?"

I smiled because I knew this one. Even if Theo had kept this from me, which I would have words with him about later, I knew exactly what their job would be in this situation.

"Give metahumanity a voice," I told him.

"Why can't you do that?" Opticon asked, glaring at Theo, "isn't that what you're for?"

I smiled. Theo had said those exact words to Isis in that exact tone, and as much as I loved him, I did still occasionally enjoy it when he got his words thrown back in his face.

"I have to present at least a degree of impartiality," Theo explained, "And metahumans aren't the only ones in danger here. I have to represent everyone,"

"If I may, my liege?" Masaru said finally entering the conversation.

"Of course," Theo replied.

"While I do not question your choice of delegates, it is my duty to make you aware of another option. Dunkelzahn, in his superlative foresight, places provisions in his secret will for the creation of a body of metahumans to serve a similar purpose. And while I encourage the ones you have selected to have faith in your judgment, these may also be of use. Had I understood your requirements in having metahuman representatives, I would have made them known to you already. Please forgive my lapse,"

Theo and I stared at him.

"Uh... you're forgiven," Theo said, finally, "But please do make me aware of anything else of that nature in the future,"

"Who are they?" I added, not even attempting to disguise my shock.

Masaru lifted his head slightly, "They are called...The Deliberative,"

 

[Erenthia]

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.

 

[Erenthia]

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,"

 

[Erenthia]

"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?]

 

[Erenthia]

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!

 

[Erenthia]

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.

 

[Erenthia]

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.

 

[Erenthia]

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.

 

[Erenthia]

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,"