Bryce

I finished the incantation, and there was a bright flash of blinding light. When I opened my eyes again I saw a small yellow rubber duck with horns sitting in the middle of the summoning circle.

“Well, at least this one has devil horns,” Sora commented. “That’s an improvement, right?”

I kicked the duck across the cargo-bay floor into the growing pile of bath toys before joining Sora and Samira sitting on the steps. “All it means is that she’s messing with us.”

“Are we sure that it’s Kai?” Samira asked.

“Thea told me that Esme is Kai’s daughter,” I said. “Besides, I don’t know who else would be able to mess with summoning magic like this, or who would do it with rubber ducks.”

“Sora, don’t you follow Kai?” Samira asked.

“Yeah, most kitsune do,” Sora answered. “If anything, it’s weird that you don’t, Sami.”

That piqued my interest. “Why do most kitsune follow her?”

“Well, she’s one of the most powerful gods,” Sora said. “She’s also one of the oldest. She has a great sense of humor, and besides, she’s definitely a kitsune.”

“Wanna call her up?” I asked.

Sora smiled. “Captain, that’s not how it works and you know it.”

I leaned back against the stairs and let out an exasperated sigh. “Yeah, well, I can’t think of anything else. So, unless you have a better idea, then praying may be all we have left.”

“You said Esme was her daughter?” Samira asked.

“That’s what Thea claimed,” I said. “And based on the fact that Kai kidnapped her, I’m inclined to believe it.”

“If that’s true, then I bet she’d have a way to get in contact with her mom,” Samira said. “And maybe she’d be able to convince her to let Thea go.”

I sighed. “That’s a great idea. Except Thea has Esme’s soul stone and without that, we can’t get her back.”

“What if that wasn’t entirely true?” Samira asked.

“Do you have another way to resurrect her?” I asked.

“No, not that part,” Samira said.

I narrowed my eyes, but kept staring at the ceiling. “Samira, the only other part of that is Thea having the soul stone, and I know that you’re not about to tell me she doesn’t have it. Not after all the times I lectured her about keeping it safe.”

“Now wait a second. This is not my fault,” Samira protested. “Thea was the one who brought it out and handed it to me.”

Never had I ever been so thankful to be dating an idiot. We might just have a way to get her back. I sat up and looked towards Samira.“Where’s the soul stone now?”

“I left it in medical after Thea disappeared,” Samira said.

I stood from where I was sitting. “Sora, can you plot a course to Zephili?”

“Sure, where is that exactly?” They asked.

“It’s on the edge of Legion space,” I said. “It’s probably still registered to the Radiant Theocracy in the nav-computer, but Legion acquired it in a recent trade deal.”

“Should be easy enough then,” Sora said. “We’re about a half day from the local beacon. I’ll let you know how far from Zephili once we’re in the Aether.”

“Sounds good.” I turned to Samira. “Alright, take me to Esme’s soul stone.”

~~~~

“Executive! It’s been far too long,” Varlin spoke with a wide smile that positively radiated across the vid-screen. It was the sort of disarming smile that was perfected over long centuries of negotiating, and I had to remind myself that the elderly dwarf was actually an ancient and powerful necromancer.

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“Varlin, it’s good to hear your voice again,” I replied with my own practiced smile. “Congratulations on your promotion, admiral really is quite the accomplishment.”

Varlin laughed a deep and hardy laugh. “Thank you, executive, but the promotion was entirely due to your own genius advice, as I’m sure you’re well aware.”

My smile turned more genuine. I had worked with Varlin about two decades ago to establish escorts for ore transports leaving New Eden. He was extremely charming the entire time, and over a few drinks, I had learned that he wasn’t happy with his meridian growth.

Legion was primarily a meritocracy, and unless he could expand his mana capacity, he wouldn’t be able to advance. I had taught mana manipulation for over a decade as a professor at the Drania Academy back on Vista Prime. So, teaching Varlin a few tricks over the weekend was nostalgic and a lot of fun. But trying to credit me with his promotion really was taking things too far.

“You’re being ridiculous,” I said. “If you didn’t already have the talent, then nothing I did would have made any difference.”

“Well, executive, I’ve never been one to shy away from flattery. So, if that’s how you want to tell the story, then I suppose I’ll have no choice but to accept it.” Varlin leaned back in his chair. “Tell me, executive, to what do I owe the pleasure of your call?”

“I was wondering if you could do me a small favor. Nothing major really, just some information on a Legion research scientist who went missing a little while ago. Ideally, where to find them,” I explained. “There’s a problem that I’ve been trying to tackle, and I think that they may have already solved it.”

“Of course! Executive, that shouldn’t be a problem at all. Really, it’s the least I could do after everything you’ve already done for me.” Varlin’s smile faded to a frown as he delivered the next part with feigned disappointment. “Although it may be some time before I can get around to that, I’m afraid.”

I maintained my smile while I sighed internally. There was no way Varlin would give me anything for nothing, and I had been expecting as much. It’s why I had Sora plot a path to his new posting near Zephili, instead of just sending him a message through the beacon network.

Besides, video calls like this were only possible while at least one participant was in the Aether. Even subspace transmissions had days or even weeks of delay.

“Is there an issue?” I asked. “A minor query like that couldn’t possibly take all that long, not for an admiral.”

Varlin leaned forward in his chair with an expression of pure exhaustion. “Normally, you’d be right, executive. But I’m afraid that I’m dealing with a diplomatic issue here and it’s taking up all of my resources. Once that gets resolved, it shouldn’t be any problem at all to put in for information on your missing researcher.”

I smirked. “I don’t suppose that this diplomatic issue is something that I could assist with?”

“Oh executive, I couldn’t possibly impose!” Varlin looked shocked and I couldn’t help but smile at the performance. “Although having an uninvested third party could make this transition go much more smoothly.”

There was practically no chance that what he needed was an ‘uninvested third party’, and the number of times he used my old title was annoyingly difficult to ignore. This call probably wasn’t being monitored, but it was definitely being recorded, and Varlin must have already learned about my falling out with EVI Corporation. He was letting me know he knew, while also reminding me he needed plausible deniability.

What Varlin actually needed was a scapegoat, one who could act without risking a diplomatic incident. He also wanted me to volunteer on video. This way he could later point to it, saying that he didn't know I was on the run and he wasn't involved with whatever illegal task he was definitely going to ask me to do in person.

“Say no more. I’m only a few days out from Zephili, and I’ll always insist on helping an old friend,” I said. “We can talk over the details in person.”

“How wonderful! How could I ever repay you?” Varlin asked before clapping his hands together. “Oh, I know! I’ll prepare a dinner for your arrival. Tell me, do you still enjoy the stealth blossom tea we used to drink together back on New Eden?”

We never drank a stealth blossom tea, and I wasn’t honestly sure if something like that even existed. He wanted me to come in without being detected, which made sense if he wanted to be able to deny knowing I was in the system. But if I were to do that, then I needed to know what I was hiding from. I suspected it was the Radiant Theocracy, but it could be another faction or even his own people.

“Of course, it’s still one of my favorites,” I replied. “Don’t you prepare it with the phoenix flames spell? Or was it another one of your necromancer tricks?”

“Just the phoenix flames spell. There was no necromancy at all,” He laughed. “Most say that it doesn’t change the flavor, but I can always find the signature.”

So, it was just the Theocracy, and he wasn’t worried about his own people. That was somewhat reassuring, because it meant he was only going so far as to hide my involvement in an official capacity. If he wasn’t worried about his personal crew knowing about me, then we wouldn’t have to sneak around while aboard his ship.

It could also mean that this was a trap, but I trusted Varlin. He was clever enough to know a good ally, and decent enough not to throw away a friend for a bit of credits. Even if he was stingy when trying to negotiate.

“I can’t wait,” I smiled. “Would you mind opening a bottle of port? It’s been a while since we drank together.”

“I’ll have a bottle prepared the moment you enter the system,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to it,” I said, and he waved goodbye as I shut off the vid-call.

I leaned back into my chair with a sigh, while staring at the blinking red notification that was alerting me to a data drop on my personal server. It had to be the information about the data-drive that I had stolen from Daelin’s office back on New Eden. It was something that I would have to deal with eventually, even if just to pay the little bot who decrypted it the last of the credits I owed.

In theory the drive contained information about Daelin’s betrayal, which had been the triggering event to cause me to flee New Eden and abandon my life as a corporate executive.

But with Thea’s apparent kidnapping, I just didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to reopen that wound. So, It would have to wait. Besides, they had been nearly two weeks late cracking the encryption, so I didn’t feel bad about delaying payment until after I had time to verify the data. It wasn’t particularly time sensitive anyway, just closure, really.

Or so I told myself, as I got up out of my chair to go see what Sora had prepared us for dinner.