Thea

We followed Greasy, maintaining the sedate pace set by his stiff knee. I had my sword out, but he seemed nervous enough, so I kept it lowered. It wasn’t like he was going to make a run for it.

I really did feel bad about treating him like this, but Bryce was right. We needed a ride off world and this Teolix guy was probably our best bet. Greasy was just the only link we had to him.

“You wouldn’t actually kill me, would you?” he asked.

I shrugged in response, but Greasy was staring forward as he limped along so he probably couldn’t see me.

“Probably not,” I admitted. “But we really need to meet with your boss. At least now you’ll have an excuse, right? I mean, being threatened with death by a soul-blade is one of the better excuses I’ve ever heard.”

“Soul-blade?” Greasy asked.

“Yeah, isn’t it pretty?” I held the sword up and illuminated Greasy’s face with a silver-blue light. He immediately stopped walking and I could see sweat dripping down his face.

“I’ve, uh, never heard of a soul-blade before, but it looks sharp.”

I lowered the sword and smiled before launching into an explanation.

“It’s able to damage your soul directly. It’s really nasty and can even kill extra-planar beings. If you use it right, then it’ll stop a mortal from getting an afterlife.”

The man blanched. I don’t think he found my sword as cool as I did. That was probably just because he was being threatened by it, so I sheathed it.

“Pretty neat, right?”

Greasy swallowed. “Yeah, neat.”

“Let’s keep moving,” Bryce interjected. “The sun will be coming up soon and I don’t want to be out on the streets in the daylight.”

Greasy nodded and started his stilted march again.

We were heading away from the city center and the further we got, the more run-down the houses were. This was clearly where the poorer citizens of New Eden lived.

The buildings were all defunct prefabs. Large portions were missing from walls and roofs, only to be replaced by loosely fitted plastic tarps. It reminded me of the early days in Hel, before I found Esme and was invited to join Lilith’s household.

Greasy eventually led us to a bar. It was a permanent structure made of some sort of stone brick that was actually pretty well maintained. It felt incredibly out of place among the ramshackle storefronts surrounding it.

We entered through the large steel door. I couldn’t help but appreciate how thick the walls were. They had clearly built this place to withstand a siege, and if the impact points that were visible along the outside were any indication, then it had already proved that it could.

The interior was well lit and had enough seating that it could probably seat two hundred guests, maybe two hundred and fifty if they were a little friendly with each other.

A pleasant-looking dwarven man with a pair of mutton chops and a beard was standing behind the bar. He seemed to recognize Greasy because he was smiling widely as he greeted him from halfway across the room.

“Farlyn, my boy! Don’t tell me you lost more product, the boss won’t be happy with you. You remember what he said last time? He’s not the type to make idle threats. You would probably be better off making a run for it instead of trying to explain what happened.”

Greasy—or Farlyn, I suppose his actual name was—sat down on a stool in front of the dwarf. I took the stool next to him and Bryce stood with her arms crossed between us. I think she was trying to look intimidating, but really, she just looked exhausted.

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“Not much for running these days, I’m afraid.” He chuckled and gave his right knee a heavy pat. “Besides, I sold all of my product to these two lovely ladies. Speaking of the boss, Braum, do you know if he’s around? They were looking to speak to him about potentially making a larger deal.”

Braum’s gaze passed from Farlyn and over a very sleepy Bryce before landing on me. It felt like he was sizing us up, so I gave him a feral grin, showing as much of my fangs as I could without snarling.

“Is that so? Well, the boss is out right now. It sounded to me like he thought that explosion in the sky meant new leadership, and he went to the inner city to talk with the more civilized folk.”

He spat out the word civilized, like it hurt him to say it. His gaze lingered on me as he continued.

“I could get a message to him. Might take a while, though. The air smells like change and he’s going to want to deal with that before taking on new business. You’ll understand, of course.” Braum gave me a smug look, like he was above us and it was his right to stand between us and this boss of his.

I wasn’t having any of it, but Bryce interrupted before I could threaten the tiny man.

“Tell him Virra wishes to deal and let him know that the deal will go stale if he doesn’t act fast.” Bryce took a pen that was resting inside of a cup on top of the bar and wrote something onto a napkin. “Have him send a messenger to this address if he’s interested.”

The dwarf must have recognized her name because he got real quiet as he pocketed the napkin.

“I’ll get this to him. I’m pretty sure he’ll be interested, but I wasn’t lying ’bout what I said earlier. The boss went to town and I won’t be able to get a message to him until he’s out of his meeting; it could be awhile.”

Bryce nodded at that before turning to walk away.

“Any chance you have a bottle of Banshee’s demise back there?” My question earned me a couple of blank stares and not a drop of whiskey.

“Something stronger would work too, if you’ve got any.” I leaned over the counter to get a peek at the bottles stored underneath the bar. “Today has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster and I could use a drink.”

“It’s time to go, Thea.”

I looked back to see an impatient Bryce standing by the door with her arms crossed. It didn’t seem like she was in the mood for my antics.

“I guess I’ll take the drink to go.”

I turned around and laid across the top of the bar in order to grab one of the fancier-looking bottles out from underneath it.

The one I grabbed was overly ornate and shaped like a cloud, forming into a very generously proportioned woman. The liquid inside was a toxic-looking pink color.

It looked crazy expensive, and it claimed to be forty percent alcohol, which was all the convincing that I needed.

I pushed myself back off the bar and slapped an iron coin down on the counter. That should have been more than enough to cover the cost of the bottle, but it really looked kind of expensive, and I didn’t want to come across as cheap, so I added a few gold coins before turning back towards Bryce.

“Coming!” I had to sprint to catch up to her as she exited the bar.

“Did you grab anything good?” she asked.

I held up the bottle and the look of disgust on her face seemed to imply that what I had grabbed was absolutely not anything good.

“Djinn’s Kiss? Careful with that, it sneaks up on you and tastes the same going down as it does coming up. That’s to say nothing of the hangover, which literally lasts for days.”

I frowned at the bottle as we continued to walk up the street. Bryce’s explanation didn’t make it sound like some fancy, expensive drink.

Considering how much money I had put on the counter, that was kind of disappointing, but it also sounded like Bryce had a history with it, and that was kind of interesting. Maybe I could still get my money’s worth.

“Now that sounds like a story.” I bumped my hip into Bryce, which elicited a blush and a slight smile. “Care to elaborate?”

“No. No, I do not.”

“Come on, you dragged me all over town and when we finally got to a bar, you don’t even buy a girl a drink,” I piled on the guilt with my most practiced pout and even threw in a pair of puppy dog eyes to seal the deal. “I just wanted to learn a little more about you, that’s all.”

Of course it worked, because Bryce was a big softie. So I mentally, and a little physically, cheered as she started her explanation.

“It was grad school. There was a girl I wanted to impress and there might have been a dare. Just like it says on the bottle, I got exactly what I wished for.” Her wistful smile turned a little sour before it evolved into a soft chuckle. “And just as you’d expect from a Djinn, the wish came with consequences. I had to defend my dissertation with the worst headache of my life and that was two days later. The board absolutely noticed. Hells, the hangover lasted longer than the damn relationship.”

“So? You want some, right?” I smiled up at her while proffering the bottle. She smiled back but shook her head and pushed the bottle back towards me.

“Never again. Although, I bet the dwarf was probably glad that you stole that instead of something actually valuable.”

Yeah, that confirmed it. I absolutely overpaid for the bottle, but I didn’t mind. The story was worth it, and I figured I could probably find something to do with the alcohol that didn’t involve drinking it.

Besides, it was a very pretty bottle.