Chapter 267: Are you not entertained?

Suri takes a little more time to think about it, but finally decides on a new promise.

She pledges to help us achieve our goal of saving Earth in whatever way she can, as long as the means don’t cross her bottom line.

A couple of very honestly answered questions later it turns out she pretty much would prefer not to go on a completely suicidal mission, or commit mass genocide of her people.

She’s apparently not above killing a few, though, as long as the situation calls for it and they’re not friends of hers.

Combined with her earlier promises not to try and leave or contact other Peilor without our permission, and not to hinder us in any way, I’m more than convinced.

The main reason I decided to bring Suri onboard is simple: since I can’t gain the Blank Space technique myself, I’ll need someone to come with me who does have it.

Only now that I’ve grown so much stronger, do I realise how fragile I truly was when I first started Visiting the Realm of Imagination, and the idea of even just interacting with the spirits of my friends is frankly giving me palpitations.

It reminds me of the anxiety I used to feel when I tried to catch a pretty moth or butterfly in my room and wanted to bring it outside without hurting them.

I’ve also gained a new sense of respect for the stunt Akir pulled back when Starmother brought Kaitlynn to dangle in front of me as a non-singing carrot on a stick and he hurtled her through the portal with a sneeze without hurting her in the slightest.

Man, his control must be exquisite...

Anyway, after Suri made this promise, we asked Trisha to communicate the good news to Goddess, and Her Highness agreed to officially upgrade Suri’s status from secret prisoner to hidden ally.

Of course, this has a few consequences. First of all, she’s sitting in the room with us now.

Imma be honest. It’s a little awkward.

Before this change, Suri and I had a clear understanding of the relation between us. She was the captive, I was the captor. There was also her guilt about her previous actions towards me and her wish for a more genuine connection, but that was mostly beneath the surface, easily covered up by our roles.

I set boundaries and needled her, and she reacted with fitting dry wit and nonchalance.

But now... well, I still want to needle her, but it doesn’t feel as justified as it used to, so my remarks often lack the bite they had before. And Suri’s reactions just aren’t the same either; she either ignores me or responds in an almost painfully polite manner.

However, I just don’t know how else to act towards her. I’m certainly not ready to be all buddy-buddy with her...

It doesn’t help that we still don’t know the location of any of our friends.

Kaitlynn and Suri at least seem to be getting on well, the Boreum between them slowly thawing. Kaitlynn never could stay mad long.

Currently, they’re attempting to have Suri drink tea. Not with her humanoid conjuration, that is, but with her crystalline spiritform, so she can attempt to taste it directly, rather than experience only a kind of second-hand flavour sensation.

As previously demonstrated, Suri can reshape her spiritform quite easily, as long as it remains crystalline. Right now, she’s shaped like a kind of hummingbird—though much larger, of course—with a very long, hollow beak, which she’s dipped into a glass of tea.

They’re both staring at it intently, but there’s not much happening.

“Maybe you should try the shape of a sink,” I suggest from where I’m lounging on a couch, head propped up on a hand.

“Emma,” Kaitlynn chides, sending a glare my way. “That not funny. Suri’s a living being, not an object.”

I shrug, muttering, “It’s a little funny.”

Guess it’s a good thing I didn’t suggest a toilet bowl, like I originally considered. See how much I’m holding back?

“It’s all right, Kaitlynn,” Suri’s disembodied voice chimes. “Much like a small human child, Emma gets belligerent when she’s bored.”

I suppress a smirk, glad to have gotten at least a bit of a rise out of her, for once.

Suri carefully retracts her beak from the glass of tea. “Let’s try this again later, shall we?”

Kaitlynn sighs, but nods. “Sure. We’ll find a way, I promise.”

“Yeah, you’ll be gorging yourself like Loudmouth soon enough,” I add, without much heart.

Kaitlynn just shoots me a look, clearly a little fed up with my teasing.

I can’t help it if it’s the only thing that feels normal!

Then she deflates. “I hope he’s doing all right, wherever he is...”

“Oh, he’s fine,” Suri chimes dismissively. “I’d say he lucked out with who bought him, even.”

Kaitlynn freezes in the middle of pushing a lock of hair behind her ear, before she snaps her head around to face the living crystal. “Suri, you said you weren’t aware of the status of any of our friends!”

It takes a moment longer before the penny drops for me.

Suri knows where Loudmouth is? Hold on, does that mean she lied to us?! But she promised not to—

I immediately sit bolt upright, my blood running cold as I reflexively check the integrity of the one and only Command I have on Suri.

However, it appears intact, which by all rights should mean that Suri is still incapable of breaking her promises to us.

Suri reconjures her humanoid shape, using it to direct a confused frown at Kaitlynn. “Well, yes, but you don’t actually consider the Hoig a friend, do you?”

Oh... Oh! Thank Goddess! Yes, that would explain why she didn’t tell us, but, oof, Suri... that’s cold.

Kaitlynn’s jaw drops as she gapes at our Peilor ally in hurt disbelief.

Suri’s conjured form stiffens, and her chin lowers. “Right. I stand corrected. My apologies. I have a lot of... of deprogramming left to do, I suppose.”

Kaitlynn closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, before lightly shaking her head. “It’s fine. I understand why it would... seem that way, from your old perspective. So, where is he? Who... owns him?”

“Your friend is in the proverbial hands of a Peilor known as Lyrack. Though I’ve been told that’s a stage name,” she chimes with a hint of disdain.

I lift a brow at her. “So, what, he’s an actor?”

Suri scoffs. “He wishes. More like a third-rate comedian. He’s been teetering on the bottom edge of the Flawed tier for so long, I think the only reason he hasn’t been demoted yet is that the higher tiers think his desperation is funny, because his material sure isn’t. Him purchasing Loudmouth is just another example; he must’ve thrown all he had into a desperate gamble of a bid. I’m surprised he even had enough to win, frankly.”

I have to rack my mind for a moment, but then my improved memory, courtesy of the growth of my Core, comes in handy. Right, Solith tier are the plebians, Flawed is middle-class, Pellucid is upper class, and the Lustrous—which Suri got promoted to—are pretty much nobility.

I guess I can see why he’d be desperate.

Kaitlynn cocks her head sideways. “Why would he want Loudmouth that badly?”

I let out a sigh, already seeing where this is going. “Because he wanted to spice up his routine. He’s using Loudmouth as a gimmick, right?”

“More like a crutch,” Suri chimes dismissively. “But, yes, that’s why. Rather than telling his terrible jokes himself, he lets Loudmouth read them off a piece of paper. Your friend doesn’t really get the jokes, which makes his delivery at least somewhat diverting. Better than when Lyrack tells them, at least. The upside—and that’s why I said Loudmouth lucked out—is that the Hoig has an unusual amount of autonomy for a Peilor host. And he seems to enjoy his ‘job’ quite a bit.”

“So where can we find him?” Kaitlynn asks, leaning forward with an excited glint in her eyes.

Blinking, I turn to her. “Ehm...”

“Well, he mostly does street performances, but from what I understand, the locations for those are quite varied,” Suri chimes thoughtfully. “Actually, I believe he also has a regular slot in some hole in the wall that could charitably be called a comedy club, so I suppose that would be a good place to find him.”

“But... Kait,” I protest feebly. “You don’t really think we should go and—”

“Now don’t you start too!” she exclaims, whirling around to fix me with a glare. “He is our friend!”

“I’m not disagreeing,” I reply, hands raised in surrender. “It’s just... Look, part of the reason we’re saving our friends is so they can help us save Earth, right? Now, Loudmouth is a great friend, but he’s not exactly the best... strategist.”

Kaitlynn frowns, folding her arms across her chest. “Well, he came up with a great plan to save Dave, didn’t he?”

“The way Jacob tells it, Loudmouth’s initial plan was to get captured and horribly tortured,” I reply dryly.

Kaitlynn rolls her eyes. “Didn’t you just say you were sick of waiting around here? Look, maybe we’re going about this all wrong. It sounds like Loudmouth is basically wandering around unchecked, telling jokes on street corners. He’s the perfect foil!”

My eyes narrow. “That’s... true. If we took out Lyrack, Loudmouth could go around looking for the rest... He could loiter around places, check out the passers-by... Heck, he could even ask after them without being all that suspicious!”

“Exactly!” Kaitlynn says with a growing smile. “It’s probably even safer to approach them like that; Loudmouth is bound to be the least-guarded of all the Blue Dragons. The rest of the Peilor likely don’t think we consider him worth saving either.”

“You’re right,” I mutter, my mind racing as I jump up from the couch. “Starmother would never suspect us coming for him. Shit, this might actually work.”

“Now, I don’t mean to be a spoilsport,” Suri chimes. “But if Loudmouth were to walk around with Lyrack’s corpse on his forehead, people will notice, and not just because of the lack of subpar material. The lack of energy fluctuations would be a dead giveaway—oh great, now I’m making puns. Bloody Lyrack.”

I click my tongue. “Damn. Well, that’s a bridge we’ll have to cross when we get to that point. Hopefully we can simply overwhelm Lyrack and chain him down with Commands.”

“That would be ideal, yes,” Suri admits with a nod. “If we can’t, perhaps it’ll be time to test that theory about whether or not destroying a being’s body is enough to sever their mortal tether.”

Kaitlynn looks at her wide-eyed. “You mean test that... on Loudmouth?!”

“Well, in the scenario where Lyrack dies, we’d have to do something to hide our interference,” Suri argues. “Even if your friend somehow managed to perform an emergency severing on his mortal tether, we couldn’t exactly put his body in Boreum storage. Staging an accidental death seems like our best bet in such a case, because if Starmother catches on to what we’re doing, we’ll never get to the rest of your friends.”

I sigh, running a hand through my hair. “I hate to say it, but Suri’s right; this mission could get messy, and we’ll have to be prepared to deal with the consequences.”

Kaitlynn frowns, but nods slowly.

“Oh my,” Suri chimes airily. “And here I thought you’d be used to saying it by now.”

Kaitlynn clears her throat. “So... are we still going to do it? Are we going to free Loudmouth?”

I remain silent for a moment as I go over the pros and cons, the associated risks and benefits, but I ultimately keep coming back to the same conclusion.

We just don’t have enough information to make an informed decision.

However, sometimes, when the stakes are high, information is sparse, and the clock is ticking, you have no choice but to settle for making an uninformed decision.

I take a deep breath and look up to meet her gaze, determined. “Screw it. Let’s go save our friend.”

Author's note:

It took some time to get here, but things are going to start moving more rapidly now again. ;)

Anyway, thanks for reading!