“And now, bring your chest forward and lift up in Salutation Pose!” the instructor on the projector enthusiastically continued, moving her body in a way Jack felt no sane sapient being should ever have to do…
“And hold. 1…2…3! And exhale!”
All residents of the house, old and new, collectively let out a breath as they completed the pose, with the exception of Rayle who was still too hurt, and Dante who was still asleep next to them. Both of them had recovered significantly during the night, with Rayle using their physical connection to the earth to empower their own recovery process, and they had also found some incense that they had lit near Dante which seemed to make his breathing less laboured.
“And now lift your hips into an Arch Pose!” the instructor cheerfully told them, which was apparently where you planted your hands and feet on the ground, folded yourself up in the middle and kept the rest of your body straight, like making a triangle. Jack grunted in annoyance as he tried to reach forward and touch the ground, barely even scraping it with the tips of his fingers, and only when he bent his knees in a Slav Squat.
“Jack, are you having trouble making that stretch?” Alora asked innocently from next to him as she effortlessly held her perfect pose, turning her head slightly to look at him. “Our dimensions are about the same, you should be able to pull it off…”
“If I try to stretch even more I’m gonna headbutt the floor,” Jack grumbled.
‘And I’m trying not to fart too!’ He privately thought to himself, though looking around he could see that a few of the others were struggling too. Nika was still quite hurt despite her rest, but she was still stubborn enough to get stuck in and tough it out, which Jack could respect. Zayle was small enough that the exercises were easier on them, though they struggled with several of the balancing acts that required a reasonable level of strength, while Chiyo was just outright cheating, slightly floating off the ground and hoping nobody would notice.
Even Vanya was doing better than he had expected of the chubby rabbit, though he was glad she had joined them in their exercise. It was Alora who had come up with the idea of getting all those capable into doing a group activity of some kind, and a morning exercise certainly qualified. Though Jack did not know Vanya well, he had noticed that her mood seemed to improve by tiny amounts over time, and he was glad that she had agreed to take part with little persuasion on the part of both Alora and Sephy.
Speaking of the Skritta, Sephy seemed to be very much within her element, effortlessly folding and contorting her body to match the pose of the instructor, though Jack had to look away as she gave him an erotically good view of her very nice bottom and she bent down low right in front of him, before Chiyo used a little bit of her power to prod her into losing her balance slightly.
“Hey Nika, looks like Chiyo isn’t doing it properly!” Sephy grinned, knowing full well that Chiyo wasn’t actually doing the exercises. “Maybe you should oversee a few private sessions for her!
“That sounds like an excellent idea!” Nika chuckled, also having spotted the cheating.
How are you so enthusiastic doing this? This is cruel torture! The Ilithii complained. Why do you have to push me? You know I have no talent with this kind of activity!
“That’s exactly the reason to push you, Chiyo.” Nika grinned. “And we’re all doing this together as a team to get better!”
“You’re complaining now, Chiyo?” Alora questioned. “We’re only just reaching the halfway point!”
Curses!
“And now, bring yourself into Rebar Pose.” The presenter beamed as she moved into what Jack recognised as a plank position. “And hold there, breathing in, and out….”
This was a pose Jack was comfortable with, having alternated it with the many pushups he had been doing since he got here. Since he had recently gotten past 100 pushups in a single sitting now, he had wanted to alternate his morning strength exercises a bit, and so the plank was his go-to when he really didn’t have any better ideas at the time.
“And now, turn your body facing right, and lift your right-most limbs into the air, stretching them out as far as you can!”
It felt weird but Jack was able to do so, trying his best not to lose his balance. He heard Nika curse as she stacked it, and saw Vanya next to him wobbling heavily, fighting not to fall.
“You can do it, Vanya!” he encouraged her, and the Chuna seemed to fight harder to stay balanced. Finally, mercifully for them all, they received the instruction to return to their previous position, before immediately groaning again when they were told to do the other side.
Jack allowed his thoughts to wander as they were facing Alora now. They had started today productively, and would have a lot of free time ahead of them. They weren’t lacking for resources, though the unstable local economy didn’t help, but even if things took a turn for the worse it was possible that they could be more self-sufficient if they utilised the home they had more.
There were a multitude of things they could do to improve their home district, and assuming there weren’t any more attacks they would ideally have the time and freedom to get them done. He agreed with Nika that fixing the shuttle could be a good start, but he personally wouldn’t even know where to start. A fabricator sounded like a fun idea, but he would need to have a talk with Sephy or Nika who could hopefully explain to him in a bit more detail what it actually did. Was it like the sci-fi stories, or was it more like a 3D printer from home?
Expanding Alora’s garden to accommodate some of the Squa’Kaar’s crops would be an excellent way to ensure their survival too, though Jack didn’t know if the change in environment would kill that possibility or not, so he would have to float some of the more intricate parts of the idea when they next sat down as a group with clearer heads.
But that wouldn’t be right now. This morning he had promised to meet up with Kritch so they could both head towards Red Legion territory and help out Kizzarith, and it would be good for him to stretch his legs and explore without somebody trying to kill him for a change.
After that, they needed to collect a few things from Vanya’s place, but from what he understood the Chuna lived in a stable district belonging to one of the Megacorporations on the other side of the city, and had paid rent well in advance using the funds she earned from her journalism, though Jack didn’t know the details, aside from the fact that the school paper wasn’t the only thing she did. Jack made a note to ask her about that later. After all, now that there wasn’t any immediate danger it would be good to actually…try to live a little.
They had no leads to go on for anything personal right now. They knew Malakiel had tried targeting him, but taking out their relay in the Pallid Pit had put a stop to it, at least for now. As for being able to go home, Jack had hoped Mr Sparrel might be able to tap into their Starseeker connections to try and give them a direction, and the others also had various ideas of things that might be able to help.
It was the one strand of hope Jack had left to hold on to, but it was a long shot. Deep down he knew there was still that part of him that held a death wish, recklessly fighting like hell in whatever dangerous situation he found himself in while he was still alive and kicking, because he would be damned if he just laid down and accepted his inevitable fate without a fight, and he sure as shit wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing in the face of such unnatural evil like the Klowns or the Risen.
There are those who might call it a saviour or hero complex, but he would consider it a good, worthy death when the time came, and until it did, he would ride it out and keep fighting.
But there had been good times as well, increasingly so since he arrived.
He owed Alora and the others so much for the love and friendship they had given him, all bastions of light amidst the darkness. Had it not been for them, he would have completely succumbed to the madness and mental suffering already.
But right now? He was still able to hold on with the strength they gave him.
“And now, rest your limbs as we now come into Corpse Pose,” the instructor finally announced, and they all sighed as they realised that the torture was now over.
“At least you’re not cheating with this pose, Chiyo!” Sephy quipped, causing everyone to laugh.
Leave me to my shame! The Ilithii sighed.
“Well I’m sure you’ll do better next time!” Alora encouraged her.
Next time?!?
“Yes!” Alora smiled. “I think this was an excellent group activity, so I think we should do this more often! It’s much better than sitting on the sofa doing nothing.”
No it isn’t!
“Sorry Chiyo, looks like you’re outvoted!” Nika grinned as she sat up and saw the agreeing nods of enough people around the room.
Oh fine. Chiyo sulked. But I’ll lead a guided meditation tomorrow to calm you all down.
“That’s the thing you do where you sit down with your eyes closed and do fuck-all for a few hours, right?” Sephy asked. “Isn’t that basically sleeping?”
“Good idea, Chiyo!” Alora interrupted to head off the argument. “Maybe we can do that tonight since we have school tomorrow?”
Sounds good to me!
“I’m gonna hit the shower.” Jack excused himself as he quickly headed upstairs, a second too late for the others to realise that there were fewer bathrooms than there were people.
“Hey, Jack, is there room for one more!?” he heard Sephy call out as he hurried his pace. He got the sense she was joking just to rile up the others, but honestly that reminded him that he and his four friends would need to have a sit down and work their relationship out. Either way, they were definitely nowhere near that stage.
Besides, they’d have a hot tub soon. Apparently the workmen were going to come along in the afternoon and get it done in a day. Jack hoped their potential fabricator could be used for basic clothes he could tailor for himself, since he didn’t have any swim shorts.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Unless he got drunk enough to consider skinny dipping…
Jack shook that thought out of his head as he allowed the warm water of the shower to wash away what was left of his morning drowsiness and energise him for the day ahead.
“I’m heading out!” Jack called out once he quickly finished his shower and got changed, taking a bag with a few of his things with him, deciding it would be good to slip out while most everyone else was occupied.
“Don’t forget to activate your emergency beacon if anything happens!” Alora called from somewhere upstairs.
“I will!” Jack replied, before giving the sleeping Dante a few pets and looking to the only person still around. “How is he, Rayle? And how are you, for that matter?”
“I am much better!” The Squa’Kaar smiled weakly. “Though I think I will go back outside and lie down on the ground to keep healing. Dante will get better, but they need a lot of rest - they’re still exhausted.”
“Alright.” Jack nodded as he headed to the front door. “I’ll catch up with you all later, bye for now!”
“Bye Jack!”
*****
“So what kind of tea is this?” Jack asked as Kritch brought a pot over to their VIP table at the Tea Garden.
“Something called ‘Dragon’s Blood.” Kritch grinned as he poured them two small mugs of the red liquid. “It’s rare, but it’s good!”
Jack took a sip, and was taken aback by the sensation of pop-rocks going off in his mouth before his tastebuds were bombarded. “That’s…unusual, but I like it.”
“Good!” The Lizta grinned. “I know Grandfather already gave you guys a reward for helping out at the marsh but I wanted to thank you myself! We had the situation in hand, but still, you really helped our asses out there!”
“Hey, you helped us too!” Jack replied with a smile as he enjoyed the tea, though in his mind he was wary of Clan Ashtail. “Though out of all the surprises I thought we’d run into over there, you guys weren’t it. We were just there to help the Squa’Kaar move out.”
“Yeah, I nearly shat myself when I saw you guys - I thought the Laird had hired you on as mercenaries - but when you took on the militia to protect the kids, I knew something else was up.” Kritch grinned. “I had no idea Rayle and Zayle lived there, and had I known it was that bad I would have put them in contact with Grandfather. He’s been planning to get tenants for a possible expansion for a little while, and yesterday was too good an opportunity.”
“How’s that going?” Jack asked.
“Pretty well! A few decided to part ways and decline our offer, but Grandfather accounted for that too. We’re settling the ones that accepted next door and they’re pretty happy. Rent is being waived for the first few months to help them get back on their feet, then after that we’ll keep it reasonable. We’ve even got some chefs that owned a diner in the area that Grandfather is helping to relocate to one of the districts we now have that goes along a major street.”
“Your Clan seems like quite the savvy one.” Jack slyly smiled, considering now the best time to test the waters. “Considering what you were able to pull off yesterday with the people and resources you had, I’m guessing the Tea Garden business must be quite profitable. After all, those magic items you gave us were quite something….”
Kritch nervously smiled at Jack with wide eyes before the human raised a hand to calm him down.
“Relax. You and your Clan have been good to us. It’s none of my business what you guys get up to as long as you don’t act against us or other people we like.”
“Heh.” Kritch sighed with relief. “Yeah we do a few other things, but Clan Ashtail has a code we stick to. It was why we ended up migrating here in the first place.”
“Oh?” Jack asked, sensing a story as he poured himself another mug. It was damn good tea!
“Yeah, my Grandfather was pretty high ranking in his former Clan out in the wilds but realised that not only were they getting too big, but they were fighting amongst themselves in ways he really didn’t like. Basically, the way I was told, he convinced his closest family and friends to come with him and migrated here under a new banner. We took this district when it was unoccupied a few years ago and have settled ever since, doing whatever we could to not just survive, but thrive! And now all that hard work has paid off we’re making the most of it.”
‘Yeah.’ Thought Jack to himself as he finished his tea. ‘Though I hope you guys are more ‘Thieves Guild’ than ‘Dark Brotherhood’…’
“Sounds familiar.” Jack nodded, then indicated his mug. “This stuff was great, how much do I owe you?”
“On the house! Put your credits away!”
“Thanks!” Jack grinned. “But I can still leave a tip. I could chill here all day but we should probably get moving. How far is Kizzarith's place from here?”
*****
It turned out that the Red Legion territory wasn’t that far away at all, about half an hour away on the north-eastern outskirts of the city. As they walked, Jack noticed that though the street traffic had gotten much quieter, they saw more and more people the closer they got.
“Yeah, the Red Legion keeps itself out of the way of most of the busier stuff in the city since they keep their activities in-house,” Kritch explained when he pointed this out to the Lizta, “but many people like the security of being close by, and some of the neighbouring districts are either direct vassals or are maybe controlled by a Regulator Order. Anyways, that’s them just up ahead.”
Jack looked ahead as Kritch made a quick call. The black walls of the district up ahead were pristinely clean, with many Red Legion banners hanging from the tops. A patrol of red armour-clad troops were guarding the front gate, and looked alert as they approached.
“State your business!” the leader, a haughty-looking reptilian man, shouted at them.
“We’re expected, our friend is just coming to pick us up!” Kritch told them confidently.
“Who is?” the leader snarled, not believing the Lizta.
“Vaal of the Eladran Dreadnaught Ishkabal,” Kritch instantly replied back. “He’s on his way.”
Just as he said that, the leader received a ping on his device.
“You are verified, remain here and don’t try anything funny,” he told them sternly.
Jack just decided to keep his mouth shut as they waited several minutes until finally a door to the side of the main gate opened, and Vaal came to greet them.
“Hello there, you two!” The Eladra grinned as Plooderoo appeared behind him with a wave. “Captain Barika didn’t need to frisk you, did he?”
“Hey Vaal! No, our reception was fine. I’m pretty sure they’re used to me by now.” Kritch grinned. “They didn’t even bother trying to recruit me this time.”
“Hah.” Vaal smiled as he waved them both in. “You know you’d be welcome at any time Kritch, we need some good scouts. You too, Jack!”
“I’ll pass.” Jack sighed as the door shut behind them and they were out of earshot. “Apart from you guys, I haven’t exactly had the best experience with the Red Legion.”
“Yeah, I get that, and it sucks that was your first experience with us.” Vaal sighed. “But there is much good to be found within the Red Legion as well. If you’re up for it, I can give you a full tour once you recover Kizzarith’s porn collection.”
“I-” Jack began hesitantly but Vaal just laughed.
“It’s alright, it’s obvious he asked you two to help out, but we’d never snitch on him. He is not as subtle as he thinks, but we’ll play along.”
“I knooooow where he keeps it, I’ll help yooooo!” Plooderoo rumbled with a chuckle as Vaal led the way.
“So the Aspirant barracks are about a five-minute walk,” the Eladra casually told them as they emerged past the checkpoint, only for Jack to stop as he took in the view.
The district was clearly quite a large one, as Jack could see the walls disappear into the horizon ahead of him, with a straight structured grid of paths everywhere that he could see. Everything immediately around him reminded him of every stereotype of an army barracks he’d seen on TV from Earth, as various squads either marched or ran in formation around the district perimeter, being barked at by various officers as they passed the boys by.
“So Jack, welcome to the Red Legion Bastion: Scion of Wyrmwalker,” Vaal began, clearly used to being the resident showman. “Named for a Red Legion hero who founded this site many thousands of years ago. We’ve kept some kind of presence here ever since, and right now it’s our primary base of operations on this part of the Ring.”
“What kind of operations?” Jack asked as a gap between the various working groups opened and they ducked down a side street.
Vaal shrugged. “Mostly recruitment and training of fresh volunteers, but occasionally we conduct missions against confirmed threats where we can, though we’re more a feeder station than anything else. However, Aspirants who want or need to can live here and either go to school or help out in other ways until they are of age. It’s usually a good system to get fast-tracked to officer training or specialist roles. I’m personally here as an Eladran representative, so technically I already have officer rank.”
“Sooooo you keep saying.” Plooderoo snorted with amusement. “Kizzarith and I are technically specialist representatives, but yooooooou got the stripes!”
“Hah, I was already an officer within the Eladra Fleet and you know it!” Vaal grinned. “Can’t really demote me from that without good reason so they let me keep it!”
“Scion of Wyrmwalker is mainly an outpost in an area very far from Red Legion territory,” Plooderoo added. “Though it serves as an embassy and refuge for all Red Legion citizenry should it be required. Technically the General-Commander here has broad-authority and can expand and colonise in the name of the Legion as we see fit, but General Opathu has forbidden it.”
“Probably a smart idea.” Vaal shrugged. “Other Red Legion Bastions have tried it but have nearly always failed, and our enemies are always looking for us to make a move they can exploit. I’ve heard we do have a city of sorts somewhere else far away on the Ring, but those are just rumours. And I know for a fact that a coalition of several Drow Houses wiped out Wrath of Carrion to the last man, woman and child elsewhere, and that was one of our best Bastions, apparently. The Regulators are free to spread as they, wish of course, and I think General Opathu likes to rely on them to advance our interests.”
“What are they?” Jack asked.
“So this one is a little controversial,” Vaal admitted with an awkward look. “In simple terms, the Regulator Orders originated in Red Legion controlled space as paramilitary groups that spread themselves out throughout the galaxy to impose their visions of structure and order wherever they go. Trouble is, that varies depending on the Order, and even I’ll admit there are some bad ones roaming around…”
“That’s the understatement of the fucking decade,” Kritch pointed out. “According to my grandfather, The Order of the Whip tried to enslave him long before I was born. He barely escaped with his life!”
“Hey, the Regulators might have originated from Red Legion territory, but they’re not controlled by us! They are their own entities,” Vaal hastily retorted. “And there are some that aren’t bad! The Order of the Gale specialises in liberating slaves, after all!”
“Well those guys in particular sound ok at least.” Jack had to admit as they headed towards a quad of several tall buildings ahead of them.
“Well we have a feeeeew Orders here, but most like to fortify a position elsewhere,” Plooderoo admitted with a shrug. “The ones we have here are some kind of auxiliaries for the Red Legion in all but name.”
“The normies!” Vaal chuckled. “But anyway, here we are!”
The group didn’t say much as Vaal led them to a grav-lift which quickly took them to their apartment. Apparently, Vaal, Plooderoo and Kizzarith all shared one which was the reason why the unlikely trio knew each other so well. Jack had expected the place to be very Spartan and neat and tidy, so he was surprised when he found….a typical teenage space!
Dominating the room there was a huge, worn sofa with several garments of clothes hung over it, with a small kitchenette to the side that didn’t look very used. A massive screen was hung on the far wall with a gaming console that had enough controllers for guests.
“Anyway, Kizzarith’s room is over here next to mine…” Plooderoo led them to the right-hand side of the living room, turning the unlocked door and letting the two of them in.
“Now I would recommend checking the bedframe,” the Ploothe added with a chuckle. “The metal piping is hollow and has a secret compartment at the head.”
“Thanks!” Kritch grinned as he checked it. “Just need to deal with a few things on his computer too, pile some clothes and books in the bags and then we should be good.”
“Hey you two…” Vaal began as they got to work. “Do you want to hang out here a bit before you go off to see Kizzarith and the others still with the Bharzums? Karzen and Bentom were going to meet up with me and Ploo before we were going to see them ourselves, maybe we could all go together?”
Jack considered that. Vaal and Plooderoo had been cool with him so far, despite their faction being less-so. And he did want to try that whole ‘living normally’ thing…
“Sure!” Jack smiled as Kritch nodded in agreement.
“Sounds good to me!”