Sora

“Trust me, there’s definitely a good reason she teleported away without saying anything, and I’m sure she’ll tell us exactly what it was the moment she gets back. In the meantime, let’s just enjoy our drinks and talk about literally anything else.” I gave the two pirate kings sitting across from me my most charming smile. Penn at least looked amused, but Dimitri clearly wasn’t having any of it.

Ithnaa and I had been invited to a meeting in a private room at Penn’s Pretty Prick to go over Syndicate strategies with the council’s expert in close quarters combat. That 'expert' turned out to be Captain Dimitri, a grumpy old goblin who thought carbonated water was ‘too strong of a drink’ and ‘meant for a younger generation.’

Yeah, I had no idea how to deal with someone like that, and Ithnaa had just stopped talking mid-sentence and then teleported away without so much as a mumbled excuse. I honestly didn’t blame her, since I had just spent the last two hours doing everything I could just to stay awake through the goblin's passive aggressive insults, but we were definitely going to need to have a very long conversation about taking me with her next time.

“Well, however good her reason may be, please let your captain know that I don’t have nearly enough years left to be waiting around a bar for rude upstarts,” Captain Dimitri complained as he pushed himself off the leather couch and started towards the door.

“Dimitri, we have other things that can be discussed without the djinn,” Penn pointed out lazily, but the old goblin continued to shuffle across the room.

“Such things should be discussed away from the ears of outsiders. Especially when those ears belong to a self-admitted spy trained by our enemies.”

“Well, I guess that’s that then.” I stood up from the couch, but then froze in place as all eyes in the room turned towards the still closed door. Despite there being no known gods on Paradise, somebody with a mantle was coming towards us and they weren’t being shy about it. I quickly reached for my connection to Kai and sent her a message.

Hey, hottie, how you been? So, there’s a god or something heading towards me, and I don’t know who it is. Any chance you could take a quick look and let me know who’s nearby?

She responded almost immediately, and as she did, I felt the world slow around me. Oh, hey, Sora. I’ve been better. Tess is in one of her bitchy moods again and has Z running all over the place doing her bidding. So, I’m stuck managing her afterlife, and it’s super boring here. Like seriously, she has a hundred times more followers than I do, and there hasn’t been a single crisis for me to solve since I fixed a clogged fountain three days ago. But anyway, yeah, the closest god to you right now is Faralei, and she’s still a few million kilometers away. So, unless you’re an orphan who’s allergic to motherly advice and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, you’re probably okay.

Alright, thanks for the heads up. I’ll make sure to steer clear of her, but are you sure Faralei is the only one? Because I can definitely feel a mantle and it’s a lot closer than a few million kilometers. Oh, and if you want to ditch work tonight, we were planning on watching a movie and it could be fun if you wanted to show up.

I’m pretty sure. Here, let me check. There was a short pause before she continued her message, obviously amused by something. Okay, you’re right. There’s a mantle, but it belongs to a candidate, not a god, and you’re not in any danger. So, don’t worry about it. And, yeah, I’ll absolutely be there for the movie. You can count on it.

Time returned to a normal speed, and I sat back down on the couch with a wide grin. “On second thought, I think we might just be getting started. Captain Dimitri, you might want to sit back down for this.”

“Who is that? There hasn’t been a god on Paradise in nearly two hundred years.” The wrinkly old goblin turned to scowl at me, and I smiled back at him.

“That would be the very good reason that Ithnaa left in such a hurry. To pick up our captain.” I managed to time the line perfectly with the door opening. Although I don’t think I looked half as smug as I felt as Bryce stepped into the room.

“Sora, it’s good to see you.” She smiled at me, and whatever smugness I felt disappeared immediately. She was clearly well beyond exhausted. I mean, I had seen Bryce tired more times than I could count. Hells, it was practically her default state, but this felt completely different. Like she was on the verge of giving up, or maybe giving in. Either way, I didn’t like it, and I did my best to hide my worry as I smiled back at her.

“Hey, you, I was just explaining to these two how Ithnaa wouldn’t have left without saying anything unless it was extremely important. Like, say, our captain coming back from the dead and needing a ride home.”

“Right, sorry,” the accused apologized as she slinked in behind Bryce with Thea, and they both took a seat beside me on the couch. “Usually I have more decorum than that, but I could feel the urgency in the captain’s message, and I was worried that she could be in danger.”

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“I think that you can be forgiven, considering the circumstances. Don’t you agree, Dimitri?” Penn tried to relax back into the couch, but he was clearly still on edge. At first, I thought it was Bryce’s mantle making him uncomfortable, but then I remembered our little crusade to rescue Ithnaa, and realized that it definitely wasn’t just that.

Bryce had something of a reputation on Paradise, and the mantle probably only served to reinforce it. Or maybe just announce it. Either way, it was clear that Penn was smart enough to respect her, which was more than could be said about Dimitri.

“Fine. You’re forgiven. At least until one of you tells me what was so damn important,” the goblin complained as he hobbled back to the couch and pulled himself up to sit down. “Well? Go ahead. I’m not getting any younger here.”

“I’m sorry, who are you exactly?” Bryce frowned at him, which caused the little goblin to turn an angry shade of green. Meanwhile, I was busy trying not to laugh out loud.

Thankfully, Ithnaa was better at hiding her emotions, and was able to come across as amused instead of insolent. “This is Captain Dimitri. He unified the goblin clans thirty years ago, and now has the largest crew on Paradise. He’s been placed in charge of close quarters tactics.”

“Which is something you can damn well expect a lot of in the upcoming war with the Syndicate.” Dimitri puffed up his chest as much as his hunched over frame would allow, and Bryce frowned as she looked to Ithnaa, who nodded, answering an unspoken question.

“Well, that simplifies things somewhat. I have information about a new bio-weapon that Mother may have access to as early as the end of the week, and it’s absolutely vital that we take her out before she’s able to use it,” Bryce told Penn, before turning to focus on Dimitri. “Until we can confirm that she’s dead, we’ll need to quarantine anybody who comes into contact with Syndicate troops for at least a week. I’d recommend avoiding close quarters combat as much as possible until then. I’d also like to spend some time discussing tactics for the assault on Mother’s compound with you and any other captain who’s planning on participating.”

“No,” the goblin refused outright, and Bryce just glared at him for a moment before responding.

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“I think what Captain Dimitri is trying to say is that a few members of the council have expressed concerns about allowing ex-members of the Syndicate to know about our battle tactics,” Penn explained. “We were planning on letting Sora and Ithnaa know that their assistance will no longer be needed after this meeting.”

That was news to me, and based on Ithnaa’s expression, she hadn’t been expecting it either. Bryce didn’t miss a beat.

“And how would we go about disputing that?”

“You don’t,” Dimitri laughed. “You gave up your chance when your crew yielded your seat to Captain Nora. Now you’ll need to find another member of the council to argue the point on your behalf, and I doubt you’ll be able to do that before Mother has a chance to use this mystery weapon you’re going on about. It sounds to me like you’re going to be doing this assault all on your own.”

“Sora, would you please remind me what it was you did to earn a spot on the council in the first place?” Bryce sounded furious but the goblin just continued to cackle even while both Bryce and Penn scowled at him.

“I killed a sitting member of the council and claimed it for our crew,” I explained.

“That’s what I thought, thank you.” Bryce nodded before stretching out an arm and pointing her palm in Dimitri’s direction. A green circle of light appeared not even half a second later, and was immediately followed by four thin lines of plasma that combined into a single beam a dozen centimeters from the source.

The beam shot forward before ending abruptly around an arm's-length from its intended target. It almost seemed like that was going to be the end of it until I heard the sound of glass cracking, then shattering, and the plasma continued cleanly through the goblin’s forehead. Then through the couch he was sitting on. Then the wall behind that, and while I couldn’t be sure from where I was sitting, it seemed like it continued even further past the next room.

“Sorry about the mess. I wasn’t expecting him to have enchanted jewelry, and may have overcompensated to make up for the oversight.” Bryce apologized as she ended the spell and turned to address Captain Penn. “Please, send me a bill for the repair and I’ll happily cover it. In the meantime, I’d appreciate it if you would let our fellow council members know that I intend to call a meeting to discuss strategy in the next few days.”

“And what assurances do I give them that you won’t be out for their seats as well?” Penn asked as he stood from the couch to tower over our captain. Thea immediately got up to stand beside her, with me and Ithnaa joining her a moment later.

Bryce let out a tired sigh, revealing just a small amount of the exhaustion that I managed to glimpse earlier. “Captain, the only assurance I can give you right now is that of a painless death, and trust me when I say that’s a lot more than what Mother is offering. Please understand that I don’t enjoy killing people, but there’s a lot more at stake with this than just our lives.”

Penn stayed silent for a tense moment, seeming to consider his options before finally nodding. “Alright. I’ll let the others know about the change and the upcoming meeting. Some of them may try to contact you directly, but I’d recommend talking to Milohsh first. I’ll send the instructions on how to contact them, along with the bill for the repairs. Expect it by the end of the day.”

“Send them to Ithnaa, please. It’ll take a few days before I can get my implants repaired, and I’d like to move this along.” He agreed, so Bryce continued. “Thank you, Penn. This could have ended very differently had you tried to stop us from leaving.”

“Don’t mention it, and don’t expect it to happen again. The only reason I’m letting you go now is because I don’t want any more damage to my bar. I’m already going to get an earful from my crew as it is.”

Thea scoffed, but at least had the self-control not to state the obvious. He was lying.

“Of course, I wouldn’t dream of it, and if the complaints get too bad, then just send them to me. I’d be more than happy to address their concerns in person.” Bryce smiled, which caused Penn to pale.

“That won’t be necessary. Here, let me show you out.”