The party was being held at a restaurant called Flat Bridges. I had no clue WHY it was called that, but no one else seemed to think it was weird so I didn’t bring it up. “So…” I said as we stopped in front of the doors to the restaurant. “How do you want to do this? If we’re trying to be political our entrance is important. What should we say?”

We stood like that for a second before Bethy shrugged, kicked in the doors and squealed joyfully. “We’re back, bitches!” As she strode into the place.

“That’ll work.” Said Callie wryly. I just laughed and draped an arm over her shoulder and headed inside as Abel, Mel, Gabe, Celine, Jessie, and Benny followed us in. “This place is really nice.” She commented as we entered. “And the food smells amazing. What is that?”

I took a quick sniff. “Meat? Smells like something is grilling.” Sure enough, when we entered we realized that the place seemed to be designed around the concept of grilling your own food. A series of long tables with grills in the middle were laid out along the length of the room. On the sides of the grills were plates of different foods along with small bowls of marinades and what look like breading.

The whole thing was making me hungry, and we immediately found our part, or at least, the people we recognized. Not everyone who had been at the Glade was here, but there were enough of them to fill the place. The signatories were at the last table, and the rest of us hurried to join them, finding Valsa, Annalise, Markoth, Nasha, Drake, and a few other familiar faces.

“Tala!” Squealed Bethy. “I didn’t see you on the ship, it's so good to run into you.” She hurled herself onto the dead god’s daughter, giving her a tight squeeze. Aida and Tracey were beside her, the two thralls clearly having already greeted their mistress.

Satala smiled warmly. “It’s lovely to see you as well Bethany. I was happy to hear you’ve been growing so quickly. E-rank already, I see.”

“Yup!” The vampire said brightly. “I joined the army. I was super good at it too! They made me Jessie’s bodyguard, and I totally kept her safe from all the bad guys. They were like ‘Let us in Bethy!’ and I was like ‘POW! Not today!’ Tell them Jessie!”

I turned to my healer, who had taken a seat across from her. “Oh, you guys were attacked?”

“Not once.” Said Jessie matter of factly, and Bethy clutched her chest, falling backwards out of her chair only to be caught by Tracey (or was it Aida, I had trouble remembering which was which). She was being even more effervescent than usual, and I noticed she’d been acting similar around her thralls when I met her. Maybe it was her way of making sure they didn’t worry.

Satala snickered softly. “Well I’m glad you had a good time. The Master has been keeping an eye out for the Glade, and the recovery effort has been going very well. Anna-Marie sends her best. She wanted to come with us, but the Glade is her home and someone needs to keep an eye on things while I’m away.”

I laughed at that. “So things worked out for her in the end huh? Bet she’s glad she stumbled on us in the woods.”

“She’s said as much many times.” She said with a wide smile. “You’re always welcome to visit, you know. Without the disruption entry and exit is simple enough. The bazaar has been converted into a standing market, and it acts as a sort of staging area where people can prepare to enter. Without my mothers Impact, there are far fewer, but there are many rare and precious ingredients growing there, some of which have been lost to time elsewhere.”

Callie looked delighted. “That sounds lovely, but actually, we were going to extend an invitation of our own.” She grinned, holding up her hand to show off her ring.

“You’re getting married!” Squealed Bethy. We all turned to look at her. “What? I know I already knew that, but it’s very exciting. Plus I get to pretend like I’m just finding out. I want to be a part of things too!”

Satala just laughed. “Congratulations the both of you.” She said with a wide smile. “I’ll see if we can make it to the wedding. I’m sure Yvette will be interested in attending. I couldn’t convince her to come tonight. She wasn’t a signatory and considered this sort of outside her purview.”

Stolen story; please report.

That sounded like Yvette. “So Annalise, it’s good to see you again.” I greeted the fae. “Same to you Valsa, Dralka. Thank’s for the invite, we don’t know many people on Tricorn.”

The regal fairy nodded her head. “Nor do we. It’s been a strange time settling in, though I was told you’ve only just arrived. I appreciate you accepting our last minute request. The food here is quite exceptional.”

I glanced down at the plates of meat and vegetables. Callie was sitting beside me, her eyes locked on my mask, and I sighed. “Fine, I’ll cook it because I have the Skill. It shouldn’t make THAT much difference.” She just smiled triumphantly, and everyone laughed while I put together a plate for her.

I grabbed plenty of beef (I thought it was beef, it was multiple different colors) and some veggies, then I whipped up a quick tempura batter before dipping the vegetables and laying them on the hot grill. The smell of frying food bloomed, and I flipped them nearly instantly, careful not to overcook. Then I seared the beef and set it all out on the plate before handing it to her.

Once she had her food I repeated the process for my own, excited to try it. My personal favorite tempura was the sweet potatoes, so I made sure to fry extra for me. I finished them up, taking a bite of the still piping hot food and groaned in bliss. “Ok, that’s really good. How’s the beef?”

Callie was just stuffing a piece in her mouth, and held up a finger while she chewed. “I like the purple stuff best. The red is ok. The blue is weirdly tart, but not terrible. It goes well with the zucchini, and the red is good with the carrots.” She turned to Jessie, pouting. “Can I taste yours to see if Shane’s cooking Skill made a difference?”

Our healer rolled her eyes, offering a piece of freshly seared purple meat. Callie chomped down delightedly. She nodded in contentment. “Definitely better. But not like, crazy different. I’d have thought it wouldn’t be possible for people without the cooking Skill to make ingredients of this quality into food.”

I waggled my hand. “First off, I’m pretty sure these grills are enchanted. Secondly anyone can prepare ingredients of any quality, assuming they have access to a heat source that can cook it, or knives that can cut it or what have you. The cooking Skill just guides that preparation so they don’t end up producing inedible charcoal. Cooking gets more complicated once you get to higher level ingredients.”

She nodded in interest as she popped another piece in her mouth. “These are F-ranked.” She said after swallowing. “Makes it easier to cook them I assume? Or at least easier not to screw them up. An enchanted grill is interesting though. Does it act to replace the cooking Skill?”

“Basically.” I said with a shrug before biting into a piece of fried and battered broccoli. “Moderates the heat and exposure for you. Intermediate cooking Skill, but not quite at the same level as mine.”

Benny nodded from where he sat diagonal to us, stuffing his face with the red meat. Finally he swallowed, then turned to Annalise. “So, you’ve been here for a while right? Any advice?”

She nodded slowly. “A few pieces, perhaps. Stay away from Sunset Lane. It’s at the edge of Fairyland and Empire territory, near the outer limits of the Tricorn. It’s where the most notorious criminals go to trade.”

“Why don’t they just clean it out then?” Asked Jessie in confusion. “Seems like a bad idea to leave a nest of bad guys sitting around.”

Annalise shook her head. “Each district is beholden to the laws of its faction, and that means certain things are forbidden to buy and sell. By overlooking the criminal element in Sunset Lane the powers that be allow for some wiggle room in terms of legal sale and trade. Some things can be difficult to get your hands on legally, but are still extremely beneficial.”

I wished Zeke was in here, but my uncle had decided to wait outside so he didn’t intimidate everyone in here. I decided to broach my question to the group to see if anyone could answer it. “If that’s their aim then why don’t they just let the WCP put down roots here?” I asked bluntly.

“Power.” She answered simply. “Despite being overlooked, the sellers are all citizens of the three factions at play. If necessary they can stop ignoring them, and the sellers know that, so they’re leveraged to keep them happy. The WCP is one of the most powerful factions in the universe, and their territories are truly neutral under universal law. That means no leverage.”

I nodded slowly. “I can understand that, it makes sense not to want to-” I was cut off by a loud crash, and all of us turned to see a group of men entering the restaurant.

“Who the hell is that?” Asked Callie in annoyance, shooting her food a devastated look. We were all staring at the group of about fifteen men, all E-rank, standing at the entrance to the restaurant.

Each man was wearing black leather pants and black shoulder pads with horned skull masks. Chains wrapped their torsos and their eyes blazed red, probably some sort of special effect of the mask. I honestly wasn’t impressed. “Well, well, well.” The shortest one crowed in amusement. “What do we have here?”

“It’s a restaurant, boss.” Said an absolutely gargantuan man standing next to him. Easily seven and a half feet and about five feet wide at the shoulders.

The short guy paused, putting a hand to his mask like he was gripping the bridge of his nose. “I was trying to be ominous, Bruno. I KNOW what a restaurant is. I meant why are all these people here that I don’t know? In Horned Lords territory.”

Bruno shrugged. “I dunno boss, why don’t you ask em’?” I had to clamp down desperately to keep from laughing, because I knew it wasn’t going to help things.

The short guy was nearly frozen with frustration, the sounds of his teeth grinding audible from where we sat. Finally, his shoulders slumped and he sighed, turning away from the big man. “This is Horned Lords territory!” He shouted, trying to regain his air of menace. “You’re all new here, so we might be convinced to let you off with a warning for not paying the toll. An expensive warning.”

“Yeah.” Shouted Bruno. “Give us your dinners!” Every single member of the gang turned to stare at him. He froze. “I mean. Pay us money and also your dinners!” He shrugged at the others. “Sorry, I skipped lunch.”

Abel was openly chortling at the production. “Alright.” He said pleasantly. “You guys are funny. So tell you what. Turn around and leave, and we won’t kill most of you. As thanks for the dinner theater.”

“Do you know who we are?” Shouted the short guy. “We’re the Horned Lords. We work directly for the Red Brethren!”

I saw Annalise go stiff at that statement, and was about to tell Abel to stop then a massive fist image made of lightning smashed into the short guy, sending him THROUGH the front wall and tumbling out into the street, smoking as he went. Abel flexed his fist, letting the electricity settle. “Loving these new gloves.” And then the fourteen remaining gang members attacked.