Chelsea and I headed back to the inn directly from the site of our…discovery. Anna split off to take care of her own affairs (which is to say, figure out how the hell we could survive this) and my sister wanted to dive into research immediately, but I called her back. I could understand wanting to learn more after such a terrifying sight, but I had other plans for the moment.
Seeing those stone lions down there, thousands, hundreds of thousands, all at least F-rank and many higher, had terrified me, sure. But it had also driven home a point that I felt the need to raise with my friends. This wasn’t what they had signed up for. I needed to give them a chance to back out of this. Even if they didn’t accept, even if they decided to do it anyway, this might be a suicide mission and they needed to decide for themselves.
Bethy had sent her flying squirrels ahead to gather everyone before slipping away herself to do who knew what.
When we finally arrived, everyone was gathered in the downstairs of the inn. Anna must have ordered Mattie and her brother to clear everyone out, because it was only my people down there, and I said a silent thanks to the spy mistress, for making that at least easier.
“So, thank you for coming.” I said with a weak smile. “I have some bad news, and I hope you can all think over what I have to say.” I filled them in on what we’d found, our trip down to the tunnels and the army of stone lions we’d seen below the earth.
Callie listened, and then smiled at me softly. “You want to offer us an out again.” She said simply.
“Well it’s not like you signed up for THIS.” I said hotly. “Sure, we agreed to stay before, but that was mainly my lead, and it was predicated on the situation being manageable. We could all die here. I can’t make this call alone. Everyone needs to get a vote. So…what do you all think?”
To my complete lack of surprise, it was Benny who responded. My best friend lacked any of his trademark levity or wit, his face solemn as he asked me earnestly. “What do YOU think Shane? I’m not saying I’ll do whatever you say, not with this, but I still want to know where your head is at.”
“I think we should stay.” I admitted. “Not just because of our contract with Camden, but because we came here for exactly this. To train with an army. To experience war. This is going to be war, and sure, we can run from that since it’s not exactly what we thought, but what will that accomplish?”
“It’ll save our lives.” He pointed out. But not like he was disagreeing, more like he was prompting me to elaborate. He got like this sometimes when he was considering.
I nodded. “It might. But then what? War is coming. Not just to the planet, but to the entire universe. And we’re going to be involved, we played too big a role in uncovering things to be ignored. Sure, we can run now if we want, but then what? What about next time when we can’t run?”
Abel laughed. “I mean, you don’t have to threaten me with a good time, kid. I want to get my hands dirty here. I wouldn’t miss a fight like this for the world. Can you imagine how many enemies will be here?” He glanced at Callie, who was glaring at him. “What? Are you pouting because I don’t care about all the dead randos? You should try not to be so judgy.”
“I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people.” She snapped in exasperated fury.
He shrugged. “Then you should stop trying. You already made the sale kid, talking me OUT of helping isn’t in your best interests. I’ll do my thing and you do yours.” He glanced back to me. “I’m in, obviously. Even if your girlfriend wants to throw a fit about why.”
Mel scoffed, smacking him upside the head. “Ignore him.” She said flatly. “Of course we’ll help. And we care about SOME of the people here. We won’t let you two down.”
It occurred to me from that interaction that I’d missed so much subtext between those two it wasn’t even funny. It explained so much about them, the way they talked, bickered, the way she’d moved past his switching sides in the temple. They were like Callie and I, as we were now, only they’d been like that for much longer. I wondered if that was our future.
Shaking that off, I turned to the others. “So? Abel and Mel aren’t a surprise. What about the rest of you. What do you think?”
Benny nodded, sighing. “You and Cel have been doing tons of work here to prep for this territory. And you’re right that if we run it probably won’t solve much long term. Based on what Zeke told you fate sense would probably crash us into a pirate fortress or something. At least here we have time and resources to prepare. I’m in.”
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Celine nodded, showing her solidarity. Cark looked unsure, but when he glanced at Zeke who was playing with Cass, he sighed and accepted. “Agreed.” He said in a sad voice. “Cass is taken care of, and I joined this army for better or worse.”
Chelsea followed suit, and Gabe and Callen followed her lead. But when I got to the next person I’d expected to agree…Jessie remained silent.
As if she felt my confusion without seeing my face, she looked down, eyes swimming with tears. “I don’t…I don’t know if I can, Shane. I’m really scared. Fighting is one thing, I can do that fine. But I’m the healer. If this is going to get as bad as you said it is, I’m the one who’s going to have to patch up all the victims and…I won’t be able to save them all.”
I winced, because I couldn’t argue that. I considered just telling her to go, that we didn’t need her. But we did.
Callie walked over and knelt down in front of our blonde friend. “I get it.” She said softly. “I get how much it sucks to lose somebody. To watch another person die and know it’s your fault. But we need you here, Jess. It’s selfish, and shitty, but it’s just true. People might die, but if we don’t want any of OUR people to die, we need our healer.”
She flinched back like she’d been slapped, looking around at everyone in fear. Nat spoke up, shocking everyone. “She’s right. I know it's scary, that seeing so many people die sounds unbearable, but if you run, and any of them die, imagine how you would feel.” She gestured to the three of us. “Could you handle that?”
It was nasty, and manipulative, but…it was true. And Jessie knew it. She nodded. “You’re right. I can’t lose any of you. Can’t lose any more family. I wouldn’t be able to take it.”
Her eyes fixed on me, and I suddenly gained a spark of understanding through the bond as Callie took in her expression. Jessie had worshipped her big brother. He was her hero, her best friend, her parent. Since he died, she’s been lost, until I told her I would help her get him back. Once that happened she had a place in the world. Had a family. Now she saw ME as her big brother, and I wasn’t sure I could handle that kind of pressure.
Forcing my mind away from that complicated issue, or how I felt about getting ANOTHER sister when I just found my first, I looked at Callie. “I take it that means you’re in as well.”
“Idiot.” She scoffed. “Like I’d let you fight an army of angry rock cats on your own. You’re hopeless without me. Besides…I want to help. Not just Camden and other people we know, but our recruits, and the rest of the army, and the people here in Saltzburg. I can’t just leave all these people to die.”
Benny raised a hand. “Speaking of which, what about the actual ruler of this fucking planet? Shouldn’t the Earl be read in on this?”
“He knows.” I said grimly. “The stone lions resting place was under a spell to disguise it left by the Magister. He’s the Earl’s right hand man, so we can assume he’s aware. Spencer probably paid him off.”
He looked appalled. “Can he even do that? Ignore his planet? I thought the Empire enforced duties on the rulers. Won’t he be punished if he doesn’t protect this place?”
“Unfortunately no.” Said Chelsea with a grimace. “Anne filled us in on the way back. The Earl IS the ruler of this planet, but he’s an administrator. There are guards for martial protection. None of them will be able to help too much. The Earl would look bad if he did nothing, but there were some higher ranked stone lions, I imagine he’s making preparations to immobilize them and take them out so he can claim he did his best.”
Callie’s expression was disgusted. “But there are millions of people on this planet. They’re his citizens, how can he just let them die? And how can Spencer unleash an army on this planet and not care what happens?”
“Because he doesn’t see them as humans.” Said Celine, breaking her silence. “I’ve met nobles like him before. Generations of exposure only to sycophants and powerful relatives breeds out all compassion. Humans are either powerful family members or expendable tools. To him, this is just washing away a hill of ants.”
That kind of casual apathy chilled me. The concept of just not caring as millions, maybe billions of people died was disgusting to me. What kind of monster was that divorced from their humanity. Turning your back was one thing, but wiping out a planet to kill one person, and a family member at that, it was despicable.
Nat spoke up. “I think you’re right Shane. We need to do this. I need to get stronger, to go further. And you’ll need my wishes to pull this off. We ARE allies.” She smiled, the barest shadow of my effervescent snarky cousin showing through the grief and the anger.
One by one, they all agreed, every one of my friends had my back, and I felt my chest tighten at the show of loyalty and trust. “Alright.” I said with a nod. “We need to tell Camden about this. I was going to do it anyway of course, but I waited to see if I’d need to break our contract as I informed him. Since that’s not the case, we should go find him.”
Everyone nodded, and we stood up, ready to head for the manor together. There would be lots of planning to do, lots of prep work. But deep down, I felt like this was the right call. Not just because of all the work we’d already done, but because of who we were. Leaving, running away and letting these people die, that wasn’t us.
I felt Callie slide her fingers between mine and looked down to see her shooting me an adoring smile. Our bond was flooded with love and pride, and I shared my own feelings with her as I gazed in awe at the amazing woman I was sharing my life with.
I should have been afraid, should have been sick with terror, but looking down into those bright blue eyes, I couldn’t find it in me to fear. We would get through this, we would win, like we always did, because we were together, all of us, and there was nothing we couldn’t do if we set our minds to it. Because that was what heroes did.