May as well take the shot here. I walked toward Grond but stopped just inside the effects of the Mandir. “Mornin’ Grond, What are you here to talk about?”

Grond glared at me. His eyes flicked to the edge of the Mandir’s effects. It was just for an instant. I could see him make the decision that he couldn’t grab me without entering. “What did you do to Adora?”

I blinked… Seriously?

No point lying, “She was interfering in my life, and would stop. After telling her multiple times to leave me alone, Adora escalated our conflict to violence. When she couldn’t beat me and I hurt her, she ran off and it would seem started crying crocodile tears to anyone who would listen.”

Grond didn’t receive that well. “And you give me shit, hypocrite.”

No bonding over a shared history of abuse from Adora it would seem. “I thought you and Adora were fighting.”

“Our relationship is complicated. You wouldn’t understand,” Grond said, still studying me. He wanted something from me, and was finding that his started high agro approach wouldn’t work.

Just keep talking, “Try me.” When he didn’t respond I pressed again, “Adora is from the World that Was, right?”

“Yes,” Grond admitted, “That doesn’t mean you understand her like I do, just because you know that time as well.”

Ah shit. She had hooks in deep. I felt bad for him. I sure as fuck wasn’t going to drop my guard. It was a long shot but maybe I could resolve this peacefully, “Grond, Adora and I have nothing in common. I don’t want her in my life. Do you even want her in your life?”

Grond gazed at me for a long time. He pointedly looked at the snowlion cloak I wore, “Stop trying to act like you care. You’re not my friend.”

“That’s true, we’re not friends,” I admitted. “We don’t have to be enemies though. Adora arranged for us to fight. I don’t think either of us needs to do what she wants.”

Grond crossed his arms. He ran a finger along his cloak made of Bigfoot hide. “Prove it then. Give me my claws and my Aspect of the Snow Lion back.”

“Not until after the tower,” I tried to explain. I needed everything I could throw at the place.

“More bullshit,” Grond snapped.

“Look at it from my perspective.” I cut in again, “The first thing you did to me was try and kill me and my friends. I am heading to fight demons, and you're still threatening me. If our roles were reversed would you give me the weapons?”

After a moment Grond said, “You were in my dungeon. You were ruining my plans. You threatened my follower” after a beat he added, “Rebecca. How could I respond with anything other than aggression?”

“I wasn’t in the dungeon by choice.” I told him. “Adora showed up to tell me to get Brand out of there alive. Our conflict was manufactured, Grond. Us fighting is dancing to someone else’s tune.”

Grond started pacing. He didn’t like me. He really didn’t like that I was making sense. “So you don’t want to oppose me?”

“No,” I said. That had a lot of qualifiers.

“You mean not today,” Grond scoffed.

I shrugged, “If you try something like building a massive army of genocidal mobs to kill as many people as possible, I’ll work against that. What is the end game with that anyways?”

“Followers,” Grond explained. “They don’t need to revere you. Appeasement is just as good. If my followers are the only ones who get a pass on the horror. They’ll flock to me.”

“You get that’s fucked right?” I asked him.

“No worse than the things the other gods have done. You’re pal Lola does the same, but globally. Every little boy and girl sent to war bends the knee to her in the hope she won’t allow them to be butchered like everyone else. Ignore the fact that everyone on the other side worships her as well.”

I wasn’t impressed with that, “So then everything I did to you is justified and normal?”

Grond stopped pacing.

When he didn’t speak I continued, “People aren’t what you can get from them. Even if others treated you that way.”

After a long moment Grond asked, “What do you want?”

“To get by you without a pointless fight, and then go knock that demon tower the hell over.” I explained.

“What do I get?” He demanded.

“The demons gone,” I said, not interested in bargaining further.

“Where the fuck is Aiko?” Grond all but growled. No more beating around the bush.

“Why do you want to talk to her?” I asked. I braced for an outburst.

To my surprise Grond took a deep breath, “That is none of your business.”

“Do you want to talk to her? Apologize? Kill her?” I pressed.

“I am not going to talk to you about this,” Grond said bluntly.

“Then just listen to this,” I said calmly, “I am not going to let you see her unless she asks to see you.”

“Where is she?” Grond demanded.

“With Angelica and Brunhilda, go ahead and blunder into that,” I told him.

“If you hurt her,” Grond started.

“Why is her face scarred?” I spoke over him. I could feel rage bubbling inside me. My thumb touched the nail on my pinky. I -the Titan- spent the majority of his life with facial scars. His biological father would punch him in the face. His left eyebrow was split in multiple places. Same with his upper and lower lip. The repeated impacts tear the skin. Do that enough times the scar tissue stacks up. Then there was that night. The knife clipped his little finger and his face from his nose to his left ear. The bone was cut deep.

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He lucked out for two reasons. First was the knife scraped along the cheek bone and missed the eye and most of the muscles. Secondly, the cold froze the injuries shut, but it made the scars obvious beyond repair. It was better than dying.

People judge you on how you look. It sucks but they do. The strange thing with scars through is some are okay and others aren’t. The ones the Titan had weren’t acceptable. Almost no imperfection on a face is. His though scared people. They didn’t see the survivor of violence and abuse. They saw the violence.

One of the most common mistakes I see is people assuming the world has a sense of justice. Hell the prompts keep saying, ‘this action will have consequences.’ That implies a cause and effect. That outcomes are limited by personal inputs. That someone with a fucked up face did something to deserve it.

The people that scar someone else know this.

Grond knew this. I could tell by looking into his eyes.

“I reacted badly after she betrayed me,” Grond said slowly.

“I see,” I nodded. “I think you should go then.”

“I am not going anywhere until I get what’s mine,” Grond snarled. “Last chance!”

“Grond, I am the one giving you the last chance here. You can’t threaten me.” I told him calmly, almost like I was trying to teach a child.

“Come out of the Mandir and say that you big bitch!” he shouted at me.

I shrugged. I walked out of the Mandir and right up to Grond. I loomed over him. He was a big man but I was… titanic, “You can’t threaten me.” I repeated gently.

Grond went very still. I could see the gears turning in his mind. He couldn’t take this kind of disrespect, but now that a fight was possible he wasn’t sure he could win. He was angry but still able to see beyond this moment. He understood that winning a fight with me could still result in him losing something else.

My advantage was he didn’t understand I wasn’t like him. He believed I saw things the way he did. “Not you. The little gaggle of freaks from the Technacoast. Without them you lose access to your purview and the god options with it.” He was also assuming I knew more than I did. He probably assumed I knew how food works too.

Either way I could lean into that, “If we are going to start exchanging hostages, remember who I got.” I didn’t not have it in me to hurt Aiko. Bad people love to tell on themselves. Grond was terrified someone could take Aiko from him. I doubted that desire was anything close to loving, probably possessive at best. He tipped his hand and called his bluff.

Grond stepped back from me, “If you hurt her-”

“Stop it,” I wasn’t interested in doing that loop again. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You threaten me. It doesn’t work. What are we actually going to do today?”

“I want to see Aiko, I want my aspect returned, and I want my claws back.” Grond insisted.

“Only if she wants to see you,” I doubted it, “After the demon tower, and only if you let the Chimera Corp run the dungeon fairly. No interference from you. I’ll even tell them to leave your followers alone.” I offered.

“That’s not good enough,” Grond growled.

“Listen man, I am trying to talk to you like a person,” I told him.

“I am a god!” Grond roared. Two wicked daggers appeared in his hands.

Everything happened so fast after that. I didn’t have time to block. I manifested a layer of Ablative Shell. I also managed to toggle on Tenebrous Form. The first swipe of Grond’s knife phased through my neck. The second scraped along my leg. Ice flew everywhere. I actually failed the deflection check.

Something behind us exploded. Grond lept backwards. In a fraction of second he went from being up in my face to windmilling his arms a few hundred feet away. I could only see it in retrospect but a six inch diameter piece of ordnance flew past me, just under my arm. It almost hit Grond right in the face, but some instinct of his had allowed him to avoid it.

Then there was a massive bang of it hitting the ground. This was followed by a concussive explosion.

Janie hollered over the noise, “If you are gonna start shit, do it outta range of me!”

I looked back to see her turning wheels having the gun swing in Grond’s general direction.

“You have three days to hand her over or I will reign hell on you,” Grond snarled and then vanished.

“Thanks Janie,” I called to her. “But I thought you said you were going to shoot at me.”

“Two things,” Jannie yelled back, “First, I shot at Grond. It is not my fault you put your big ass next to him. And second, I said I wouldn’t shoot that one at you,” She pointed to the other gun. “This one is a gray area.”

I could see my ride rolling toward me as fast as it could, “Well I guess this is goodbye, Jannie.”

“See you next problem,” She called back waving.

“For the record I am sorry for causing you trouble,” I said, not walking closer.

“And?” She called back.

“Is there something I can do to make things up to you?” I asked.

“Not unless you get cool with a lot of things real quick,” She called back. “Don’t worry about me. I’m just being sore. I’ll get over it.” I had meddled in her love life pretty consistently. Cockblocking is a dick move.

“I do give good foot rubs,” I said as the truck pulled up to me, engine roaring. “Only foot rubs” Technically back and neck too, but boundaries are important.

Janie considered that, “See you, when I see you, Doug.” She turned and walked away laughing to herself.

I climbed into the back of the vehicle. Toad was up front with a driver. Then Brand and Aiko were behind them on a bench facing back. Sunit was sitting on a bench to my left. Angelica and Brunihla on my right. I was too tall to stand and ultimately just sat down on the floor and closed the hatch behind me.

“So… what went bang?” Toad asked. His voice was conversational but I could tell he was concerned.

“Janie has a gun,” I said, trying to ease the mood. Goblins like references.

I meant to follow up with that she wasn’t shooting at us, but Toad immediately slapped the driver’s shoulder, “Get us out of here! That’s the elf!”

The driver did not need to be told twice and we immediately sped toward the others.

“She fired it at Grond,” I continued as the driver eased off the gas.

Everyone looked to Aiko. Toad slapped the driver again. “Watch where we are going.”

“I was afraid of that,” Aiko said, watching me like a hawk.

“He says I have three days to hand you over,” I said. I doubted it would shock her and it didn’t.

“That will put us very close to the demons, and the sasquatches’ dungeon.

Angelica and I exchange a look. The debate was still on.

“So four days to get to the tower?” I asked.

“Three if we don’t stop,” Toad said. “We can drive in shifts.”

“Four days to the tower then,” I said. My mind drifted to Wilson’s words. Three big fights leading up to the clash at the tower. Angelica had survived the first one with the horde of Demons. Grond was shaping up to be the third fight. That left one more. A nasty surprise somewhere along the way. “Are there any other known hazards along the way?”

“This area is not well mapped,” Toad admitted. “We aren’t exactly exploring, but aren’t overloaded with information.”

“There are three portals near the tower. Two leading to Europe and the third connects to Asia,” Brand said.

“Any guess what they might have?” Angelica asked.

“On this side,” Brand said, considering, “Likely a small forward observing force. On the other side, multiple hardened defenses and enough soldiers to repel an invasion. One leads to Northern Europe, deep in the territory of the Steam Meister. The other connects to South Eastern Europe, near the Black Sea. The Countess controls it. So honestly all sort of mechanized terrors and vampiric monstrosities. “

“And the portal to Asia?” I asked.

“No idea,” Brand admitted. When he saw everyone was confused he continued “The portals predate the tower by more than a century. Europe was a massive trade hub before we started warring over the portals. I know it leads to East Asia, but who or what is on the other side could have changed.”

“So we are probably going to face check something,” I said, not happy with the idea.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Toad said, “We won’t be… face checking anything. The scouts will.”