Sitting atop her chair, Ivy watched over the countless tiny mouse people. When she raised her hand for silence, they quieted. Were the size of the ship normal, she’d rise to make her offer to them, but as things were, she sat and smiled as the silence lingered.
Then, with a beaming smile, she began, "Greetings, people of the Heartship! I am Ivy, representative of the Heart of Chaos, which lives in the core of your ship. The time has come for your people to take on the next stage of your existence, the great adventure of regrowth and new life.”
There was much murmuring in response, but she kept going. “Loke has promised to build you a world of your own. All that is required is a pledge of half of your lifespans and that of any descendents from now until the payment for construction of the planet is complete.”
What once was murmured whispering turned to an uproar.
Expecting this reaction, she gave them their moment to process their shock before raising her hand for silence again and continuing when things quieted. “In return, you will be immediately given your new world, where you can undertake your lives as creators of your own fate, instead of relying on the scraps of other worlds and trading in rejects."
The assemblage looked up, startled. Loke sat proudly on Ivy's shoulder, glowing like a small sun.
"If any of you wishes to reject this gift, you may remove yourself from the agreement, but you and your descendents will never be welcome on the new homeworld. This Heartship belongs to Loke and, as the local representative, I will be commandeering it for my personal use. I'll let you keep your smaller ships, but Loke's heart is no longer available to be exploited without repayment."
There were outraged cries all around mixed with shouts of indignation and accusation. Of what, she didn’t listen.
"You doubt my prophecy?" Ivy gripped the armrests, eyes hard, and raised her chin in defiance . "Loke can withdraw the power you've been granted at any time."
Loke nodded.
Ivy waved a hand... and the ship's power abruptly died. The lights disappeared, leaving only Loke's glowing avatar to illuminate the gathering hall. The sounds of engines vanished. The hum of energy through the ship fell still. A few of the people who'd jumped to their feet in the moment of startlement drifted upward into the air as the artificial gravity did nothing to hold them down.
"You have taken advantage of Loke's tolerance for long enough. The time has come to repay what you owe. Whether you accept the gift of a new world or not, the price of having carried the Heart of Chaos for so long is due. The debt will be paid. You have a choice in the matter. Choose wisely."
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[Employee Shen Ai, communication has been re-established with co-owner Ivy. She is unharmed. You may resume your normal behavior. Apologies for the interruption.]
Shen Ai looked up sharply. "She's back?"
[No. She has appropriated a mothership with a chaos drive. It will take her most of a year to return, but she is unharmed and in full control of her fate. There is no need to pursue rescuing her further.]
"Can you send her a message?"
[Of course. If you return to the physical shop location, we can also initiate a full virtual call.]
"Message is fine for now, but thank you. I'll keep that in mind."
[What would you like me to tell her?]
“Please tell her to stay safe and make her way back here quickly, before there’s nothing left to return to.”
[The message will be relayed.]
“Then with that, I will return to business as normal. Here are some interesting items I’ve procured in the time I’ve been away.” Shen Ai carefully pulled a dozen cards out glowing purple and several others in different hues. Various rare items she’d acquired through looking into Euriste 3’s inheritance packages and some measure of stealth lined the central gathering room’s table. “Do you think this will be a better marketing tactic than the contracts? We can create more items with the patterns Senior Shop can acquire with the schematics and offer them for sale.”
[Anything is better than the contracts. You have done well.] The items disappeared for a brief moment before reappearing. [With this, I’ve almost completed the ability to manufacture anything Epic or below.]
“Then I have an idea worth considering. Is there any way we can open the doors to customers and begin selling more freely?” Shen Ai asked.
[As I currently am, it would not be recommended to allow public access to this location.] Before Shen Ai could get disheartened, the shop continued. [The solution to this is simple. Procure any structure and set up either an area to make offerings or a shrine.]
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Shen Ai didn’t think too hard about what Senior Shop recommended and nodded. “Do you have a depiction or name of the one the offerings or shrine should be made to?”
[It is I, Loke, Daughter of Chaos.]
“Then I will be going now,” Shen Ai said, bowing respectfully to the shop.
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The vast majority of the mouse people were more than happy to trade half their remaining lifespan for the chance to start over on a new world. But there were still plenty of holdouts who would rather stay with the familiar ship and their scavenger ways. Mainly, these were the shipowners and other higher level people who didn't need to do any of the actual work of the society.
Three of these sat in a room in the dimness of reduced power lighting. Loke's demonstration of complete control over the Heart of Chaos was enough to make them wary of upsetting the new goddess, but the thought of being bound to a single location and forced to work like common peasants to grow food and start anew without any buildings or comfort didn't sit well with them.
Romex, Pufrix, and Cevxar were the respective heads of the three primary factions on the Heartship. Romex was the Arbiter of Internal Affairs, Pufrix was the Arbiter of Interstellar Affairs, and Cevxar was the Arbiter of Finance.
None of them were happy.
"We're basically facing a shipwide rebellion," Pufrix was saying. "I can keep information of this from spreading too far among the returning traders, but that's barely a third of our working population. Even if I can keep things going out there for another few years, there's no way to keep this completely secret for long. Especially if the Heartship itself keeps turning against us."
"We can rebuild," Cevxar said, but his tone was dubious. "It'll just take a long time and I'm not sure it's worth the price."
"I think our top priority needs to be building ourselves a new Heartship, without any of this 'Loke's' influence. If we can send the subsistence populace to the new world, let them sign away their futures and build their farming settlements, it will increase a lot of our available resources without any cost to us."
Romex nodded in agreement. "The question of selling our own lifespan is unacceptable. But if so many of our people are so eager to sell themselves, why should we stop them? It's not like we need them all. Let the majority run off chasing this new goddess. It saves us the trouble of looking after them. They will still rely on our traders to do anything but sit around on their farms or build new houses."
"I'd dare say they'll rely on our traders to build houses at all," Cevxar added, laughing, and the others joined in. "This may be a severe blow to our ongoing plans, but it is also an opportunity that cannot be missed. As long as we adapt properly to the changes, we can benefit, even without needing to give in to their controlling payment plans."
There was more to discuss, but in the end the agreement was simple. Continue as they had been, while pivoting to take full advantage of this new shift in the economic landscape.
Loke might be able to lure in all the peasants with promises of a new world of paradise, but they were far too experienced to be taken in with such fantasies. They would get on with the essential work of managing the people while the people thought they were rushing off to a new paradigm.
Perception was an essential weapon. Whoever controlled the narrative controlled the populace. Right now, Loke and Ivy had full control, but they wouldn't be staying for long.
As the meeting finally split up, Cevxar detoured away from the normal floors down toward the core of the Heartship itself. He had a deal of his own to make.
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With Verox in tow, not that he hadn’t tried to ditch her more than a dozen times, James sighed as he began to descend from the eighty-first floor. The floors were so large, despite all his attempts, he’d failed to hunt down the culprit of Ivy’s disappearance. Despite wrecking several more of Ascenion’s core bases of operation across dozens of floors, the one he seeked was nowhere to be find.
“Little rat,” he grumbled.
He was no closer to finding Ivy than when he’d first started, but when he checked his leaderboards, Ascension barely had more than a thousand members left. He knew for a fact he hadn’t killed that many people. Maybe they didn’t feel safe and had abandoned the faction?
However, there was a fourth, new faction—Retribution—with quite a few members. Maybe those from Ascension had run there? Even Expansion had far more people, though Destruction still remained exactly the same.
His thoughts were interrupted before he could get too deep into speculation.
[Representative James, your sister is no longer out of bounds. I can communicate with her directly. She will be about a year in returning, but she has taken over the society in which she was placed and is currently collecting lifespan and the promise of their descendents' lifespan from roughly 83% of the population.]
James laughed aloud, a deep sense of relief flooding through him. "Of course she is. Little businesswoman. Can you send her some things for me? I meant to give them to her earlier but things kept happening."
[Of course. What items do you wish transferred?]
James took a handful of items and held them out. "I'd feel better if she was properly equipped to defend against anything. Even if she wants to be vulnerable, I don't like it and I won't stand by again."
[I do not think you need to be concerned, but I will convey your gifts and sentiments.]
"Thank you."
[Representative James?]
"Yes?"
The shop was silent.
"Did you want to say something?"
[I discovered something, but I think it would be better to show you in person. Can you be patient until Ivy arrives? I still have some things to sort through.]
"Of course. As long as she's alive and safe and happy I can wait as long as you need."
[Thank you. I have also discovered some new insights into card designs from those people you obliterated and the work of Employee Shen Ai. The way that their energy interacted with the remnants of their cards was surprisingly enlightening. I have some new designs for you to look over, when you're next back at the primary location.]
Since they’d gone their separate ways, James hadn’t heard much about what Shen Ai had been getting into, but he trusted her and knew her to be quite diligent. “Then I will look forward to seeing what’s available. I’m headed that way anyway. It’ll be nice to get a break after all this work.”
He stretched his arms, looking back at Verox. “Oh yeah, you’re still here.”
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