Nicholas cracked the glow stick, giving it a vigorous shake before stuffing it in his pocket.
With the last bit of his countermeasures in place he stepped out of his tiny apartment and into the gray morning.
Mary sat on the low brick wall surrounding the flower bed.
Pleasant sights and smells to bring a bit of lightness into the heavy lives of a career soldier, which was mostly everyone.
Rightful Destiny made total retirement the path of the minority.
If a soldier grew too old and battered to stay at the tip of the spear in the fight to take their country back from the monsters and traitors they simple slid into a support role.
The majority of the men and women that had left the combined armed forces didn’t do it willingly.
“Nicholas.”
“Mary Ann.”
Code they came up with themselves.
Full names meant watch their words.
It wasn’t normal. Not in their barracks. Not in their home.
“There’s a rave coming up. Remember those? Haven’t been one in awhile,” Mary said lightly.
He didn’t because they were stupid when he was younger and age hadn’t changed his mind.
“Sounds fun. I’m right there with you.”
They chatted idly as they proceeded on their semi-regular morning walk around the base.
Fellow soldiers and civilian staff moved about their days.
Those on duty or work moved briskly and with purpose, merely exchanging quick greetings rather than stopping for a chat.
The number of people they ran into thinned out when they neared the firing range.
The loud pops and bangs didn’t make for a conducive environment for calm talks or quiet introspection. People entered or exited the range rather than linger in the vicinity.
He felt the glow stick in his pocket for reassurance.
The enchantment kept any sound he uttered from traveling more than a few feet.
“What’d you find out?”
“They’re keeping him in a dark house a few blocks off base.” Mary gave him the address. “That’s all I got. I figure command’s still deciding how quiet they want to play this thing.”
“Anything more on the why?”
“Nope. Same as before. Word is he got caught snooping around places in a suspicious manner.”
“Snooping, by its nature is suspicious.”
She snorted. “You’d know.”
“It’s weird, isn’t it? All this time and this is what he gets nailed for.”
Mary eyes narrowed. “What do you mean? Obviously, espionage is much worse than raping civilians, allegedly. They were traitors anyways, right?” She practically spat.
He didn’t argue.
The strength to defend or deflect the alleged abuses perpetrated by his fellow soldiers had steadily left him the more he had done sketchy things, like, say attacking a country they weren’t at war with and trying to kidnap an old doctor… for… reasons?
As special forces they claimed to bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood, but that was only a lie told to children.
“I say let him rot,” Mary said.
“Not arguing the merits of that, but I want to know why before I decide what to do.”
They parted ways and he slipped into his invisibility to pay a visit.
Surveillance cameras didn’t bother him.
It was a simple matter of waiting for one of the soldiers guarding the dark house to step back inside after a smoke break to slip inside on the young man’s heels.
It was just as easy to take the keys to the bedrooms turned prison cells from the soldier’s belt.
Jaydin lay on a small, soiled mattress on the floor. He opened his eyes at the sound of the click, but before he could react, Nicholas had clamped a hand over his mouth.
“Not a word?”
Wide-eyed Jaydin nodded.
Nicholas carefully shut the reinforced door and took one last peek through the barred opening.
He had temporarily killed the camera in the ceiling with a magitech device that shutdown electronics it was aimed at.
“Double D…” Jaydin looked different as he sat up on the mattress.
Nicholas remembered a sharp-eyed predator of a man with a perpetual upward tilt of his chin as if he wanted to look down his nose at every person he came across. The only ones spared had been superior officers, at least to their faces, and those he was certain were more dangerous.
Now?
Jaydin’s tall, wiry frame was hunched over.
His eyes haunted.
Good, Nicholas thought. If half the rumors about you are true then I should—
Selfish thoughts were unproductive.
“You’re going to tell me why you’re here and make it succinct.”
“Yessir, lieutenant.” Jaydin stood and gave a defeated salute. “Truth is… I’m not sure. Sometimes I feel like I’m dreaming,” he sighed, “all this doesn’t feel real. I sleep and dream or have nightmares of all the things— that feels more real… sometimes…”
“Stick to facts.”
“Sorry, sir.” Jaydin straightened. “In light of recent events, I grew suspicious of our allies. So, I decided to try to find out what they’re hiding from us.”
It was, Nicholas decided as Jaydin spoke in clipped words, not only out of character, but sloppily done.
Jaydin lacked the skill set for espionage.
The soldier was a killer, not a spy.
It wasn’t surprising that his clumsy attempts to find where and what the demigod was hiding were caught fairly quickly.
Plausible deniability.
Everyone made sure to have it to varying degrees.
Like the constant construction of new underground bunker complexes or additions to old ones all over the capital. Well… technically, under.
That was what and where Jaydin had honed in on.
Nicholas would have done the same, at least to start with, had he been in Jaydin’s shoes.
“What I don’t understand is why you did all that. You haven’t explained that part.”
Jaydin shrugged.
“I can’t explain it any differently than how I already have, lieutenant.”
“You just… woke up guilty about… things—” Anger swelled into an urge to punch his fellow soldier’s teeth in, but he reined it in quickly. That was what made the two of them different. “And so you, what? Thought you could find evidence of crimes?”
The irony made Nicholas want to laugh.
“I know it’s supposed to be classified, but I heard from a few guys that were running guard duty on the artillery at that Austin thing and— they dropped monsters and those rabbit freaks on our people! I know I’ve done some fucked up things, but that’s, like, on a whole nother level, right?” Eyes streaked with red and dark bags beneath bored into Nicholas desperate for an answer. “I mean, if I do something good, then the voices will stop, right?”
Now you’re guilty?
“That’s not how absolution works. You’ve got to get it from the people you’ve hurt.”
Jaydin didn’t have anything useful left to share.
Nicholas gave him one last cold look before turning his back on his fellow soldier.
Troubled thoughts dogged him all the way back to his apartment.
What would the captain do?
Elsewhere, the Sentinel of Liberty sneezed.
The monster looming over her was a mix between a colorful flower and a dinosaur.
At least what she imagined the latter looked like when they had been more than just fossils in the ground or one of the monster versions running around because she refused to see those as anything more than superficial physical resembles to actual animals that had once existed millions of years in Earth’s past.
The long tail, thick as a tree, whipped around, forcing her to leap.
Petals in place of a head opened up and sprayed her with the pollen again.
Her sneeze shook the sky.
A blind strike with her white-empowered stick connected with a squishy thud.
The monster’s silence was eerie, though she supposed the lack of a head precluded the sorts of sounds she was familiar with.
Her eyes, nose and throat itched in a way she had long forgotten.
Captain Patriot once had bad allergies to pollen and such, which had all vanished after the spires had appeared.
She landed in a crouch, dodge rolling to the side as the tree-sized tail carved a deep furrow in the muddy ground.
Despite her semi-exile punishment, it was days like this that reminded her that it was for the best.
She shuddered to think at what the monster’s pollen spray would’ve done to her soldiers, let alone civilians.
Images of people dying from anaphylactic shock by the hundreds flashed through her mind.
She leapt like a bullet fired from a gun, plunging her glowing white stick deep into the middle of the monster’s petaled head.
The sneezing never stopped, but she ripped petals and stabbed deeper until reaching what felt like a squishy bulb.
The monster thrashed like an unhappy stallion about to be turned into a gelding on her long-dead daddy’s ranch.
It crashed to the mud, taking her with it.
Rolling, whipping, squeezing, tearing.
Sneezing got her a mouthful of everything from monster petals and flesh to mud and grass.
Clapping greeted her as she shoved the dead monster aside.
She spat.
Without the constant pollen sprays the white light in her cleared up her sinuses in seconds.
Expelling the mucus for an audience would’ve been embarrassing had her woman instincts not rang alarm bells about the young-looking man observing her from short distance away.
Human, but not Earth human.
That was obvious enough by the skin tone paler than any she was familiar with, but features closer to some of the Pacific Islanders and Asians. Jet black hair that seemed to suck in the sunlight was the only other noteworthy physical attribute aside from the golden eyes and perfect body on display thanks to the lack of a shirt of any kind. And tall, very tall by Earth human standards. At least 7 feet tall with perfect proportions.
She hadn’t met any of the new demigods. Only knew that more had arrived.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
One would’ve thought command would’ve been concerned enough about more powerful individuals inserting themselves into the country to loop their most powerful soldier in.
Instead, she remained an attack dog consigned to her solitary cabin at the foot of the mountains waiting for the next special wandering monster to lumber down from the spawn zones they kept for training and leveling purposes. The only times she could leave was when they needed her strength elsewhere.
A mere five times in the last two and a half years.
Three months since the horrible things in the New York subway system.
She didn’t relinquish the white light as she faced the demigod.
“You are not an approved liaison.”
Official terms sounded better.
Calling the interchangeable set of young and innocent looking interns ‘handlers’ made her feel dirty. Like, she was more an attack dog than a loyal soldier that had served her country without question for most of her adult life.
She didn’t think that a demigod would concern himself with getting proper clearance to approach from the little fort at the end of the winding road farther down.
She brandished her stick, disguising her slipping her other hand into a pocket for the panic button.
Was this to be the first shot fired in the demigods seizing power to rule openly?
“I am Sallaiades, son of Salla, true Goddess of war, among a diverse and powerful portfolio.”
“Captain Patriot.” She bowed. “On behalf of my country, I am honored.”
She wasn’t, in fact, honored.
This smelled like trouble, but she was loyal and followed instructions on how to interact with a demigod.
Deference, but not obsequiousness.
She had power and represented her nation.
The groveling was left to mere mortals without it or without high status.
“Your true name?”
“Captain Patriot.”
The demigod nodded as if that was a normal thing in his experience, which could be centuries worth or more.
She was a literal child despite being old enough to be a grandmother.
“The young do tend to become enamored of personas. I, myself, went by ‘War’s Red Blade’ for much of my youth.”
“What can I do for you, Sallaiades?”
“Listen.” He waited for her to nod her head. “I have an offer. Serve my mother and be granted what you desire.” Gold eyes darted to her cabin. “A mansion to start with. Complete with a full staff to your specifications.”
“I am honored, but I refuse.”
She had turned down several such offers from various eidolons over the years.
“I promise you that your standard of life will improve immensely almost immediately. And that is promise backed by more than my honor. Mother is fair. Unlike many of the other Gods and Goddesses, her contracts are not predatory. For one, she doesn’t believe in eternal terms. Depending on your lifespan, you may be free to pursue other opportunities in as little as 10 years. And, depending on your contributions that could mean a new, better contract.” He smiled. “Naturally, you would serve under me. I govern 7 city states and will grant you the choice for your primary residence. However, in practice, those of your stature have a residence in each for convenience and comfort when not performing your duties. Furthermore, unlike most other demigods my standard breeding terms are not onerous. One child every 10 years up to a maximum of 5 children without gender stipulations.”
Captain Patriot blinked.
Breeding?
The eidolons hadn’t mentioned anything of the sort.
Sallaiades hesitated.
“Naturally, I wouldn’t expect an answer this moment nor in the coming days or months. Such decisions aren’t meant to be made lightly. Indeed, I would personally find it questionable were you to agree this instant.” He gestured, opening up a small golden tear in the air.
The scroll that dropped into his palm glowed with obvious magic to the white energy in her empty eye sockets.
“Read it.”
The scroll flew across the distance into her hand.
“Several times. It is a negotiation. I expect you to have demands of your own. Perhaps, you wish to bring along some of your fellow soldiers? There aren’t many things that are not negotiable in this. You’d find that to be not true with the majority of the others.”
A larger golden portal slowly opened behind Sallaiades.
“I will not prevail upon you again. Seek me out only to deliver your answer. I leave you with one thought, Captain Patriot. Your homeworld is a Terminus World. A splendid place to test yourself, to gain strength. But, it seems to me, not a place to live an entire life. We are soldiers and soldiers cannot wage war forever. Blades must be oiled and re-sharpened, after all. And, even if you took care of it meticulously, a blade swung eternally on an unending battlefield will dull and chip until it will eventually break. You go to the battlefield, you don’t want to live there.”
The Guardian of Liberty resolved to stuff the scroll into a drawer and leave it there, unopened.
----------------------------------------
Alin sat and shoveled leftover pizza into his mouth.
Dinner before duty.
The studio apartment he shared with Kat was sparsely furnished.
A small table that doubled as a desk for writing reports shared space with a bed just large enough for two and a large, flat screen TV on the wall.
It stayed off.
All they broadcast were very old shows and movies or propaganda disguised as news.
They were always going on and on about the traitors terrorists that refused to return to their rightful destiny.
Still, watching them provided information about the pulse of their enemy.
Luckily, he hadn’t been assigned that particular task.
“Sucks to be you, Luzi.”
She did want to write history stuff.
The Mist Spekters had been given a section of an apartment building shared with other mercenaries, adventurers and murderhobos.
Contractors for one entity or another.
They didn’t use the term ‘private armies’, at least not out loud.
They hadn’t done much beyond providing security for the congresswoman and her slowly growing staff or attacking the encounter challenges and spawn zones in and around the city like any other mercenary company.
Aside from that, they had been granted freedom to travel the city as they willed with a few exceptions. As long as they kept their badges visible.
Incidentally, said badges contained tracking devices and enchantments.
A reasonable and expected precaution they didn’t tamper with.
Now, the spying features on the other hand…
Those meant the badges had to go into a shielded box whenever they weren’t walking around outside. It also meant that they had to watch what they said when out and about.
Alin was magnanimous about it.
Unlike some of the others, who had grown tired at the required awareness of opsec that bordered on paranoia after only a month.
He, on the other hand, had been busy probing with the gray.
Testing the city to see if they had ways to detect and defeat it.
So far, so good.
Soldiers hadn’t come barging through the door, nor did they swarm him as he roamed around in a non-suspicious manner.
He still wasn’t any closer to finding the source of the barrier, let alone his cousin, Ranger Captain Aims and the other hostages.
“Slow and steady,” he mumbled around cheese, pepperoni and dough.
A key jiggled in the lock.
Kat was back.
He had clocked her coming from a block away through one of the tendrils of the gray that he had sweeping the surrounding area in an erratic pattern. More like a blind octopus than an all-encompassing blanket. Theoretically, it would make it harder for the enemy to zero in on him as the source.
“Welcome ba—”
His mouth fell.
There was a pink bandage on her forehead and her eyes did a great raccoon impression. Red speckled the front and sleeves of her workout shirt.
The first thing she did was to place her badge into the box on the counter.
“It’s fine,” she grinned. “I got healing.”
“That’s after healing?” He jumped from his seat to embrace her.
“Nose was crooked too.”
“What happened?”
“Duel. Supposed to be to first blood, but the little punk wasn’t used to seeing his own blood. I had to drag him into the mud to calm him down.”
“Same guys?”
Fighters fought.
It made the government provided training grounds a ripe spot for impromptu fights.
Fatalities were exceedingly rare because that was just a waste of a perfectly good fighter, which was why the government also provided healers for those that thought more with their pride than their intellect.
It was a good deal all around for the government.
They charged for everything from field time to healing services.
Their healers got practice and levels.
Freelance healers could even pay the government for a time slot.
Most eventually decided why pay when they could get paid to do the same thing.
It made for good recruitment for the government.
“Senators’ sons. They’ve been eyeing us all week. Zeroed in on Catelin. Got handsy today.”
Typical of their kind to go after the weaker one.
He went to the freezer to get an icepack for his girlfriend.
“Thanks, Love.” She sighed with relief as she pressed it to her face.
“What are their names?”
They had detailed files on everyone connected to the halls of power.
“It’s handled. They won’t bother anyone for awhile.”
“They won’t have the energy to do more than stagger from their beds to the toilet for as long as I’m in the city.”
“Thanks, but that’ll take time and energy away from what you’re doing, which is way more important.”
“Guys like that don’t tend to learn lessons well.”
“They will when the congresswoman writes a formal complaint to their fathers and mothers. They’ll probably mix our training slots around so that we won’t run into each other at the practice grounds. I’m pretty sure they’re the kind of guys that’ll think twice about scrapping when there aren’t healers around. Plus, they’re a shit group. They haven’t fought in real fights.”
That sounded acceptable, so he dropped it.
“So, how’d the fight go?”
“Easy. Rapier against katana.”
“That sounds like the opposite of easy.”
“Yeah, sure, if we had been equally skilled and battle-hardened. Spoiler… we weren’t!” She smiled, then winced.
“You need more healing.”
“It’s fine. I need the pain to let the lesson sink in properly. Where was I?”
“Were you checked out for a concussion?”
“Yeah?”
“Okay, just checking.”
“Right, the duel!” She snapped her fingers. “Rapier versus katana.”
“Let me guess? He thrust?”
“Yup! I just hopped back. Didn’t even try to parry or bind.”
Stepping to the side would’ve been better unless—
“Then I grabbed his blade, pulled it and cut him in the arm.”
Depending on the rapier, the blade might not have good cutting edges, which made grabbing it a viable tactic.
“I imagine no one has ever made him bleed his own blood,” he said dryly.
“Seems that way from how he reacted. Second thrust, same as the first, but this time I stepped inside phone booth distance and slammed the end of my tsuka into his face a few times. Broke his nose and a few teeth. After that, it was wrestling in the metaphorical mud until the referee got enough back up to pull me off.”
“And what was the rest of his crew doing the whole time?”
“Nothing. They got second thoughts about messing with the Mist Spekters. I mean, they were only messing with the girls. Steph challenged them all right then and there.”
“Yeah, well, he’s the last person they’d want to fight in a structured duel.”
“His Senator daddy—”
“Mom. His mom’s a senator. His dad owns a bunch of homes and apartment buildings… for some stupid reason.”
“His mommy, then. She’ll be upset.”
“Yeah, but I’m technically in the clear. Plenty of witnesses and we recorded the whole thing. Galen said they’ll probably want to keep it quiet to avoid embarrassment. You should’ve seen the smiles on Reg’s and Molly’s faces when we told them. They think the congresswoman’s going to be able to use the incident to get stuff from the senator.”
“The senator is on the armed forces committee and the congresswoman said that was one of her goals for the next session or something like that.”
“What? She’s not happy about her arts and crafts committee?” Kat laughed.
The sound made him smile as it always did.
A tickle to the heart as some said.
“Had I known you’d be coming back from victory, I would’ve made something better for dinner than leftover pizza.”
“It’s not just my victory!” She pulled her katana from a bag of holding.
The one she used for regular practice was plain steel.
She had several others with enchantments that synergized with mist, plus a Threnium one that would only see use if their cover was blown.
“Katana proved superior to rapier!”
“Not to doubt you, but your description suggested there wasn’t much swordplay involved.”
“Alin, my love. This is real life. Not the theoretical world that nerds argue about hypotheticals and imaginations. I wield the katana, he the rapier. I won easily. Ergo, the katana is superior.”
Truth was all swords had their uses based on their design and vice versa, like the ouroboros or the age old chicken egg question… regardless of what his uncle had claimed as the definitive answer to that particular question.
He was partial to the longsword, though Hanna and the other teachers had maintained a broad base if only so they would have an idea on what to expect when facing any sword.
Ultimately, the human body was constrained by its physical structure, which was why the movements with a longsword were similar to the movements with a katana.
“The katana still has a long way to go to catch up to the longsword.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“You’re lucky this Quest doesn’t give us a lot of time to answer that question.”
“It’s been answered many times over the years.”
“I’m catching up though.”
“Sure… with Skills.”
“Well, it’s only fair,” she huffed theatrically, “since you have a superhuman body.”
“Not the whole time.”
“Alright, next time we’re both free we’ll settle it once and for all.”
“It’s a date!”
“Haven’t had one of those in a while,” she nodded sagely. “So, what’re you doing tonight?”
“Er… bodyguard mission.” Which was also a Quest as generated by the spires with an additional reward thrown in by Milly’s parents. “There’s a party. Charity benefit for the victims of the terrorist attack on Austin.”
“Filthy liars.”
“Not these people. They genuinely believe it. Anyways, Milly’s attending as a representative for the congresswoman and her parents.”
“It’s like a tangled spiderweb. Everyone’s got connections to everyone else. Bunch of snakes tied up together. Lots of attractive young women going to be there?” she mused.
“Probably, you’ll have to ask one of the others since I’m walking the outside of the venue. It’s not too far from all the monuments so I can start probing those and the underground bunkers.”
“That— sounds dangerous.”
“Yeah, Galen’s going to hold a meeting warning you guys in about an hour once everyone gets back. Sorry, you probably just want to relax and hold ice on your face all night.”
“Hmm, that is true. When do you leave?”
“In half an hour.”
“That’s plenty of time!” She dragged him to their bed.