Thea

“We’re totally going to your dad’s temple while we’re in Hades, right?” I asked. Chorus had just left after hugging Esme again, and we were all still gathered in the observation room.

“You’re not coming with me,” Esme declared. “Besides, don’t you have a girlfriend now?”

“There are plenty of things to do at the temple that aren’t other people, and we absolutely are coming. Aren’t we?”

“Those were gods,” Bryce replied while staring at the spot where Chorus had been a few minutes earlier. “Like actual gods. On my ship.”

“See? She agrees, we’re going.”

“She’s clearly in shock.”

“I’m fine. It’s just that I didn’t wake up this morning expecting to meet a couple of gods today.” Bryce shook her head. “But regardless, Thea is right. We’re going.”

“Really?” Esme seemed surprised. “I didn’t take you for the hedonistic type. Well, good for you. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”

“I didn’t mean the temple. We’re going to deal with Malvoch.”

“But we can also go to the temple, right?” I asked.

“I don’t need your help,” Esme ignored me. “You’ve already helped more than enough by resurrecting me. Besides, I’m the one who came up with the original plan. Which makes this whole damn thing my fault, and I can handle Malvoch on my own.”

“You misunderstand.” Bryce shifted her weight and set Esme with an annoyed glare. “I know that this is your fault, and we’re not offering to help you. We’re the ones who are going to fix the Malvoch problem, and if you’d like, then you can come along.”

“Excuse me?” She was completely taken aback.

“I told you that Bryce agrees with me.” I couldn’t help but smile. “She doesn’t really trust you, since you tried to kill her and everything. Plus, I’m pretty sure she already has a plan to deal with Malvoch.”

I looked to Bryce to confirm my completely substantiated claim, and she gave a noncommittal shrug. “I have most of a plan, but I need to clear some things, and then talk to Chorus before I’d want to commit to anything.”

“So we are going to the temple!” It had been a few years since I got the chance to visit. Esme always claimed that the god was her dad, but she never actually let me meet him. I think she was worried he would try to sleep with me, or maybe that I’d try to sleep with him.

Either way, anytime she would go back to visit her dad, I would tag along and spend the afternoon in the common area. Esme used to say it was like taking me to a daycare, but with blackjack and hookers. But I always thought that was a ridiculous comparison. Chorus’s clergy didn’t charge for anything, so they definitely weren’t hookers.

“How could you possibly have a plan?” Esme asked. “And if you needed to talk to my father, then why didn’t you do it while he was still here?”

“I was going to, until Kai decided to show up, but now I’ll just have to wait until we’re in Hades.”

“You’re seriously intent on going down this road?”

“We are,” I answered this time. “If you try to do this by yourself, then you’re absolutely going to die, and whoever kills you this time will do a much better job of it than I did. Besides, Bryce is going to ask you to help us deal with the Syndicate when we’re done, and you’ll have a much harder time saying no after we kill the shit out of Malvoch.”

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“What’s the Syndicate?”

“It’s a problem for the future,” Bryce said. “Right now, we need to get Sora and Samira back up here so that we can explain the situation.”

“Softie isn’t going to like cutting their vacation short.”

“Well, they'll get over it because I need them to protect Samira and the ship.”

“They’re going to like that even less.” I pointed out as the three of us left the observation room.

~~~~

“I don’t like this,” Softie said when we finally got ahold of them. “What are we supposed to do? Just sit on the ship with our thumbs up our ass while you two go crusading through the hells?”

Bryce and I were huddled together on the bridge while we talked to Sora and Sami over a vid-call through the ship’s terminal.

Esme had gone to one of the spare rooms to take a nap. Apparently, being resurrected, undergoing super invasive surgery, and yelling at your estranged mother all in the same day makes you sleepy. Who would’ve guessed?

“I was getting kind of bored down here anyway,” Sami said. “Besides, there are a few upgrades that I’ve been wanting to make to the shields, and if we’re just going to be sitting in the Aether waiting for you to get back, then this seems like a good opportunity to get them done.”

“Sora, I was also hoping you could use this time to figure out how to get into Rajak’s vault,” Bryce added. “If you can do it without Ithnaa’s help, that would be ideal. But if you can’t, then it might be worth offering her a portion of the contents to have her open it.”

“Alright, fine. But I doubt Ithnaa will be around much to help while you’re gone. Apparently, one of her younger cousins has been giving her trouble since she got back and she’s trying to deal with them discreetly.”

“Do what you can,” Bryce said. “I have a feeling we’ll be getting more of those vaults in the future, and having a way to open them could make our lives much easier.”

“You aren’t planning on killing Ithnaa, are you?” I asked. “I’ve seen her fight, and I'm not sure we can kill her without help.”

“I would be lying if I said the thought had never crossed my mind.” Bryce shrugged. “But I’d much rather have her on our side if we can keep her that way.”

“It’s not like we’d need to kill her in a fight,” Softie added. “Djinn aren’t immune to every poison, and anything sufficiently mana-enriched should make quick work of her.”

“In that case, see if you can’t source some mage’s bane.”

“Isn’t that the stuff Ava used on you?” I asked, and Bryce nodded.

“It’s a mostly incorporeal weed that grows in the Aether and feeds on mana. The more you give it, the faster it grows, which means even a small dose can quickly become lethal for somebody like a djinn.”

“Or for somebody like you,” Sami pointed out.

“Or for somebody like me,” Bryce agreed. “So, if you find any, then try not to poison me with it.”

“I’ll do my best.” Softie grinned. “Are you two going to at least wait for us to get back before you run off to the hells together?”

“Hey, it’s not like this is some big romantic getaway,” I complained. “Esme is coming with us.”

“Right, I’m sure the literal succubus will keep everything super chaste.” Sami rolled her eyes.

“I think you’ll be surprised at how boring Esme actually is. She's kind of a failure at the whole sex crazed part of being a succubus.”

“To answer your question, Sora,” Bryce interrupted. “We’re going to wait until after we shift into the Aether to leave. The planar borders are weaker there, which should make it easier to travel between them. Besides, Esme could use the sleep.”

“Alright, then we’ll see you in about five hours,” Softie said.

“What? Why five hours? We could just leave—” Sami’s question was cut off by Softie ending the call, and I turned to Bryce.

“You know, it'll be awhile before the kids get back.” I summoned a pair of glasses from my spacial storage and put them on. “We could use the time for some extracurricular activities.”

She raised an eyebrow as she smirked at me. “Extracurric—wait, aren't those Ashaiya’s glasses? When did you get those?”

“Remember when she ‘accidentally’ tripped on the way off our ship?” I asked. “Well, Softie grabbed them for me while I made an illusionary pair. She didn’t even notice the difference.”

“But Ashaiya adjusted them like four times after she tripped, which wouldn’t be possible unless you can create solid illusions.”

“Oh yeah, I learned to do it while I was trapped in Kai’s domain… Did I not mention that?”

“Can you still do it, even after we decreased your mana?”

“I don’t know, probably, but I haven’t tried. Why? Did you want to go over battle tactics? Because I was kind of hoping we’d do something else while we had some time alone.”

“Going over battle tactics wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Bryce carefully took the glasses from me before putting them on herself and leaning down mere centimeters from my face. “But that’s not exactly what I had in mind.”

“I, uh okay.. I like your.. I mean, yeah let’s try your thing.”