Ithnaa

“What’s going on here?” I asked before Nora had a chance to respond to the half-giant’s question. Clearly, Sora had been busy while I was gone. Two men were standing across from them, blocking the exit while a woman was sitting on the ground with a dagger sticking out of her shoulder.

That meant there were six of us standing in the middle of a dirty public restroom. We were almost certainly still in the bar. But I was only able to see the area directly around Sora's token before I teleported in, so I couldn’t be sure.

“That’s precisely what we’re trying to figure out,” the human man protested. The way he was standing made him seem like the half-giant’s subordinate. So, it didn’t surprise me when the larger man spoke again with obvious authority.

“Nora, these people claim you weren’t the one behind Leon’s death. Is this true?”

He was ignoring me, which wasn’t something I tolerated well. So, I cast a silencing spell around Nora to stop her from answering. Then, because I didn’t think the woman bleeding on the floor mattered all that much, I directed my demands towards the two men. “We’ll get to that in a moment, but first tell me who you are and what you’re doing in here with Sora.”

The human didn’t look happy, and it seemed like the big guy was trying to decide whether he should answer my question or just try to kill me. He didn’t look weak, but I wasn’t worried. In fact, a part of me wanted to ask Sora to kill him, regardless of how he responded.

They still hadn’t discovered what spells they gained by becoming Kai’s paladin, and a life or death situation might be just the motivation they needed to find out.

“Ithnaa, this is Captain Darrius Penn, and his boy toy, Jax,” Sora stepped forward as they introduced the pair, quite possibly saving both of their lives. “Captain, boy toy, this is Ithnaa. She’s another member of our crew, and something of an acting captain at the moment. She’s also an ex-Syndicate lord, who sometimes forgets that threatening to kill people isn’t the only way to get what she wants.”

I looked at the brute in surprise. We’d been planning on dropping in on him after we finished dealing with Nora, but from the way Aoyama had described the captain, I had expected for him to be… I don’t know, smaller?

Well, regardless, he was here now, and there was still a chance we could salvage the situation. So I ended the silencing spell on Nora before swallowing my pride and apologizing. “Right, sorry. Old habits and everything. Perhaps we should go somewhere else to talk. We have a lot to discuss, and the public restroom in a bar isn’t exactly my first choice of venue when it comes to making decisions that could shape the future of the entire Network.”

“A bit dramatic, don’t you think?” Jax, the boy toy, asked.

“You might be surprised,” Nora muttered before straightening up and nodding towards the exit. “Come on, my booth is warded against eavesdropping and we’re going to want to go over this in private. Besides, I could really use a drink.”

“Are you sure you want to let these two off the hook so easily?” Penn asked, nodding towards me and Sora. He made it sound more like a vague warning than a question. The sort a teacher might give a student when they’re about to turn in a test with the wrong answers.

“Hey, if you want to try to punish them, then be my guest, but do it outside my territory. Because I don’t want to have to clean up the blood after Ithnaa tears your arm off,” she replied before turning towards me with a frown. “Speaking of which, is there any chance I could get that back? It was expensive, and I have a feeling it’s going to be a while before I have time to get fitted for another one.”

“Sure, I have no use for it.” I shrugged. “Besides, I think I remember where it landed, but it might still take me some time to find it. So, go ahead and order drinks without me. Sora knows what I like.”

I teleported away and appeared in an eerily quiet cave. It was pitch black, and the familiar wet, earthy aroma had combined with the metallic scent of blood to make the cave even more unpleasant than usual.

I conjured a dozen fist sized orbs of light and they shot out to illuminate the space. Which made it easier to see, but didn’t help with the unpleasantness. There had been nearly thirty denizens of my artificial purgatory before I brought Nora here, and now it was completely devoid of life.

She had killed them all while in complete darkness and missing her dominant arm. The sheer brutality of it had me impressed, but the aftermath was making it difficult to spot the missing limb.

Nora had proven to be surprisingly reasonable once she managed to calm down, and we had even discovered our interests aligned. Which was the only reason I was seriously considering sifting through gore to find her arm.

Thankfully, I managed to spot it before I had to dirty my robes. One quick cleaning spell later, and it looked as good as new. Well, not really, but it wasn’t covered in blood anymore, which was definitely an improvement.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

With that problem solved, I mentally reached for Sora’s token and saw that they were just about to sit back down in the booth. I waited for everyone to be seated before I teleported to sit beside them and across from Penn and Nora.

The one-armed woman cursed, Penn went for his gun, and Sora just handed me one of the drinks they had been carrying. “Sorry, they didn’t have your favorite, but I think you’ll like this one.”

I set the arm on the table so I could take the glass of violet liquid and hesitantly sip it. The flavor was complex, but strangely delicious. Something like spiced blueberries mixed with ozone and just a hint of mint. “Oh, that is good. Thank you.”

“Does she do this often?” Penn asked, as he finally seemed to calm down. Which caused Sora to chuckle.

“All the time. You get used to it after a while.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer not to be around her for that long.” Nora pulled her arm off the table and held it near her shoulder, causing a thick black cord to snake out and attach to it. The cord reeled back in, pulling the arm into place, and she rotated it experimentally. “Thanks for that, by the way. You just saved me a painful couple of weeks and an even more painful bill.”

“It was nothing.” I waved her off as I took another drink from my glass. “Think of it as the start of an apology for our ‘unconventional’ introduction.” I looked across at the two captains, then frowned. “Weren’t there more of you before I left?”

“I asked Penn to send Jax away with Tee. I’d like to limit the number of people who know what we’re about to discuss,” Nora explained. “At least until the council has a chance to make a decision.”

“Seems wise.” I nodded before taking another sip of my drink. “Would you like to explain things to Captain Penn, or should we?”

“No, I will. There’s some context you’re likely missing.” Nora leaned forward as she started explaining. “As you well know, Leon and I had a disagreement about how things were being run. At first, it was just a shouting match, but things escalated after he accused me of trying to poison him.”

“Did you?” Penn asked, and she shook her head.

“No, and I still don’t know exactly who did. My Crew didn’t really start to hate the guy until after he had three of our ships ambushed in retaliation. After that, war was basically inevitable.”

“Are you sure he was the one who ordered it?” I asked, and she shook her head.

“I was at the time, but now it seems pretty clear that somebody else was behind it.”

“Who?” Penn asked.

“The Syndicate,” Sora declared, which seemed to get the captain’s attention. So they continued. “It’s a basic destabilization tactic. Find the largest of your enemy’s factions and turn it in on itself, then fund both sides of the resulting war. Eventually, you pull in the other factions to keep the fighting going, but only after it’s become clear that one side is going to win.”

“It sounds like you’ve done this before,” Nora pointed out, and they shrugged.

“Sure, I did it twice before my fifteenth birthday. It was one of Mother’s favorite tricks.”

“It’s circumstantial at best.” Penn shook his head. “Half of Paradise works contract jobs for the Syndicate, and the other half pays tribute to them. If you want to convince anyone that they’re behind your war with Leon, then you’re going to need real, solid evidence.”

“That’s why I asked you to meet with me earlier. I have proof, and was planning on bringing it to the council, but I wanted to get your buy in first.”

Penn leaned back with a heavy sigh after hearing Nora’s explanation. “Alright, show me what you’ve got.”

~~~~~

Nora had briefly explained her situation before I teleported her back. So, reading through the evidence she provided wasn’t entirely unexpected, but the sheer volume of it was surprising. It took us well over two hours to go through the reports, and we didn’t even go over the financial records. We just didn’t need them.

Both Captain Leo and Nora had been in near constant communication with the Syndicate. Each received reports on the other’s movements and position, many of which were falsified to increase the scale of the impending engagement. At a glance, it seemed like the Syndicate had nearly doubled the casualties of any given battle by misrepresenting the combat strength of the opposing side.

It got to the point of being so glaringly obvious that Nora stopped acting on Syndicate intelligence all together. Even going so far as to refuse reinforcements during key conflicts. And because of that, she was losing. Badly. It would have only been a matter of weeks before the war ended, and not in her favor.

Although, in her defense, the deck was stacked heavily against her. She performed admirably considering that Leo didn’t have her hangups surrounding aid from the Syndicate. He gladly accepted their help anytime it was offered, and it was offered often.

“Alright, I’m convinced. It was the Syndicate,” Penn finally conceded. “But I still don’t understand how the two of you are involved.”

“My sister and I were sold to Captain Leo, and let’s just say he had some confusion as to how consent is supposed to work. I made sure the lesson stuck.”

“Fair enough, and you?” He looked towards me, and I explained.

“Those same people handed me over to Maymi, and Sora, along with my captain, came here to rescue me before she could hand me over to Mother.”

“Which is how Maymi ended up dead, and I managed to take over her territory without a fight,” Nora added. “But the more immediate concern is that Aoyama sent them here to ask me to yield my seat on the council.”

“Why does Aoyama want you to give up your seat?” Penn asked, and again, I explained.

“She wants to go to war against the Syndicate and doesn’t believe Nora is strong enough to back her. Besides, since Sora claimed killing Leo for our captain, Nora doesn’t actually have a claim.”

“Right, as your friend already said, but where is this ‘Captain Virra’? Why isn’t she disputing Nora’s claim herself?”

“Because she’s dead,” Sora responded. “Killed by Mother when we tried to assassinate her.”

He nodded, seemingly to himself more than anyone else. “Okay, I think I understand what Aoyama is playing at, and I think we need to call a council meeting before she has a chance.”