Delvers LLC 5, chapter 4

This is the longest chapter I have ever written.  

It took a long time, but I'm pretty happy with it.

There were a lot of technical and artistic challenges with this chapter, but I felt it was necessary.

/tired


***

Jason rested his arms on the deck rail of the Hull and watched Taretha getting smaller in the distance.  He felt a little conflicted about leaving the city, maybe a little guilty.  It was good to be moving again, but he also felt worried about Bezzi-ibbi.  The way Henry had been stomping around, Jason knew his friend might be even more upset than he was.

There wasn’t anything they could do about it, though, at least not this moment.  All they could do was try to get done with their mission and make it back as fast as possible.

Jason sighed and turned from the railing.  Stewing about it wouldn’t change anything, and everyone was already more or less training as much as they could, so he decided to let it go for now.  Instead, he went to go check on the rest of the crew.

Uluula was chatting quietly with Mareen.  His wife was as beautiful as ever, even more than when he’d first met her in a prison cell what felt like a lifetime ago.   Her white hair shined in the sun, and her new armor from Mensk fit her like a glove.  Jason knew that she was still frustrated about being on a different level than he was now, at least in a straight-up fight.  But the reality that she was still incredibly valuable as a scout was luckily finally starting to sink in.  Jason felt like he’d been repeating himself every five minutes for days about the matter.

Mareen appeared as dangerous and threatening as she always did these days.  The kind and adventurous young woman that Jason had first met when he’d arrived on Ludus, and his best friend’s wife, had become a blood mage.  After seeing what she could do now, Jason understood why blood magic was feared and forbidden.

Her red eyes glowed as she snapped her head over, watching him approach.  She did things like that now.  Jason was very, very glad that Mareen was a friend, not an enemy.

Once he actually walked up to the two of them, he realized he didn’t really have anything to say.  “Uh, anything to report?”

Mareen’s expression didn’t change, but Uluula gave him a very confused look.  “What?  Is something wrong?”

“Just, uh, checking on the crew.”

Uluula slowly said, “We are fine.  I promise that I will tell you before scouting with the wing.”

“Uh, yeah.  Thanks, my heart.”  He said the last part in Uluula’s native language, Quadrant.

Her expression softened into a smile.  “I will not go off on my own, my heart.”

Jason nodded like this was exactly the outcome he’d been expecting, then wandered off as Uluula and Mareen returned to their conversation.  He tried not to let Mareen’s changes make him think of her any differently, but sometimes she unnerved him.  It made him feel bad every time.  She’d made mistakes--all of them had--but they were all family at this point.

He’d actually thought of something to say before checking on Trask in the main pilot’s room.  The little goblin wore his fake wooden glasses with as much dignity while he could as he carefully monitored his readouts.  Trask had come a long way from being a Gobskulls’ Luda interpreter.  Now he was piloting one of the most technologically advanced weapons on the planet.

“Hey buddy, is everything okay here?  The Hull is working okay?”

Trask nodded seriously, the motion almost made his top hat fall off his head.  “Yes, demigod-friend, I will deliver you to your enemies so we can destroy them and dedicate their lives to Memory.”

Jason gave him a grave look and said, “That’s good.  Uh, the demigod approves too.”

“Of course, demigod-friend.  I will be your wings.”

Jason always felt strange after talking to Trask.  According to Henry, the little goblin had been sort of timid and geeky when they’d first met, but had been growing in confidence and...changing in personality over time.

Next, Jason went and visited all the goblins stationed on the ship’s turrets.  He knew most of them by name now, and they all acted awed that he was speaking to them.  It was a little odd.  They always performed their jobs flawlessly, though.  Each turret would crew two goblins during an actual battle, but there was usually at least one of them on duty per turret at all times.

He visited the galley next and nodded hello to the new galley crew.  They were all retired adventurers--two chefs and seven other crew.  From what he understood, the two chefs were married, and at least one of the crew was part of their family as well.  Uluula had already screened them all, and Jason trusted his wife.  It was going to be good to start getting regular, decent meals on the Hull.  He passed through and kept moving further down the ship.

Henry was exactly where Jason expected him to be, tinkering in the ship’s shop. This space had sort of turned out to be Henry's de facto office.  Jason half-waved and asked, “Everything good, man?”

“Yeah, dude.  Just working on a new type of weapon that maybe the goblins can use if we ever need to leave the ship.”

“Do you want to tell me about it right now?”

“Not really.”

“Oh.  Well, have fun.”

“Maybe if I can get this damn thing to....”  Henry’s voice trailed off.

Jason sniffed a laugh as he left.  It figured that Henry was making weapons for goblins now.  Since coming to Ludus, it seemed despite complaining the most about their new lives, Henry had actually acclimated faster.  He also kept coming up with wacky, near-insane inventions.  Over the last couple of days, Jason had finally figured out how he and Henry brought different things to the table--specialties to help the group.

Henry was a builder.  Meanwhile, Jason kept getting better at breaking things.

With that thought, Jason moved to the deck of the ship again.  There was a rule that nobody could leave alone, or leave the ship without telling someone first.  Common sense stuff.  Now that the Hull was moving again, Jason planned to return to his old scouting role.  The only person on board who could keep up with him was Nora Hazard.

Luckily, he had a feeling she wouldn’t mind coming along.  It was a good thing, too.  Jason felt like he’d been going stir crazy the last few days.  It’d be good to get out and actually do something.

He fished his goggles out of his pocket.

***

After a grunt, Jason asked, “Are you ready to go?” He stood by the railing of the ship with Nora, hours after he’d first found her.  As it turned out, Henry had found a couple waygates to map out in quick succession, so Jason had needed to be attuned instead of scouting. He’d been fidgeting with his goggles the entire time.

Luckily, now the ship had a pretty long stretch of travel coming up before nightfall.  Uluula wasn’t too happy about being left behind, but seemed to have accepted her role as a ship’s defender.  Henry had offered to make her a big weapon of some kind to use on the Hull, and that seemed to have finally satisfied her.

“I’ve been ready,” said Nora.  “Flying is great, but being in the air on a rotting ship...I’ve never really taken a liking to it.”

Jason nodded.  “Yeah, I heard your stories about the batmen.”

“Hate those things.”

Henry walked up to them from behind and said, “Hey, try not to get into too much trouble, okay?

“Uh huh,” said Nora.  She turned to Jason. “It’s just a patrol.  Is he always this fussy?”

Jason stifled a chuckle.  “I think he’s just worried about Bezzi-ibbi, and freaked out about getting a mission from Dolos.”

“Well, we all are,” said Nora, tone flat.  “There’s no use acting all broken up or worrying about everything, though.”

Henry crossed his arms.  “Alright, Miss Chuckles, soon to be Queen Chuckles.  Your way of coping is being a bitch, eh?”

“I guess so.”

Jason began to worry that Henry and Nora were going to get in a pissing contest.  “Hey everyone, we’re about to leave and--”

His friends ignored him.

Henry said, “Well, if you know you’re being a bitch, why keep being a bitch?”

“I don’t know, but if you know you’re asking unnecessary questions, why keep that up either?”

“Well, I guess you have a point.”  Henry scratched his shoulder.  “But if you die before you get back, I get your spear.”

Nora didn’t say anything, and Jason looked back and forth between the two, wondering if he was going to need to use a null-time shield. Finally, Nora said, “Alright, deal.”

And the two of them laughed.

Henry pointed to Jason and said, “Did you notice him getting all tense up a second ago?”

“Yes.  He looked rotting pregnant.”

Jason gave the two a flat look. “I hope you enjoyed yourselves.”

Nora nodded and was still chuckling as she dropped off the side of the ship.  Before Jason followed her into the sky, Henry said, “Loosen up, Jason. Everything about what we’re doing is crazy.  You’ll give yourself constipation if you keep trying to play peacemaker between everyone all the time.  You’re too nice for your own good sometimes.”

After another stink eye, Jason said, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“It wasn’t just me. Nora was fucking with you, too.”

“Is there something about being in the military that erodes your brain or something?”

Henry shrugged.  “Just gallows humor, dude.  But seriously, be safe, alright? If anything goes fucked up, you and Nora will just have each other.”  He seemed to think about what he’d said for a moment then sighed.  “Yeah, okay, maybe Nora’s right.  The two of you are a scary ass team.”

“Whatever,” sighed Jason.  He dropped off the side of the Hull and muttered, “Veterans.”

***

Nora was glad to be back in the sky.  The last few days, being surrounded by clueless, arrogant nobles had been too much for three lifetimes.  There had been plenty of nobles back in Berber too, but for some reason they’d never bothered her as much as in Tolstey.

She missed Aodh a lot.  Maybe everything was just less annoying when Aodh was around.  She even missed Tanushree Bobrik.  The woman had almost immediately earned her respect when they’d first met, only days after the attack on Mensk.  Since then her respect had grown.  Tanushree could never challenge Nora in a straight fight, not in a thousand years, but she was incredibly clever and competent at dealing with matters in the capital. Sometimes Nora wondered how the blond woman could fit everything in her head...at such a young age, too!

Wind screamed by as Nora flew, and she caught sight of Jason popping into existence about a hundred yards ahead of her to one side.  He “flew” in a strange way, using his momentum from falling to propel himself in an arc at the end of his next teleport.  Nora didn’t know how the repeated, lurching movement didn’t make him sick.

Henry and Jason were both odd.  If Nora had to be honest, so was Aodh.  Most men on Ludus were very lazy and proud of themselves for no reason.  Nora’s father had been from earth, so she’d known from a young age that people on the Terran homeworld were very different from people on Ludus. In fact, since he was a native Ludan, maybe Aodh was the only truly strange man she knew.

That thought filled her with an odd sort of pride.  Nora didn’t care that Aodh was a king.  But the fact that Aodh walked through the palace with a quiet, deadly sort of confidence, well, that was the sort of thing she thought about sometimes while alone in the sky with her own thoughts.

Suddenly she heard a pop, even over the screaming of the wind and spotted a bronze knife flash by to one side.  This was an agreed-upon signal to get her attetion since the wind was too loud to hear the team coms. If she wanted to get his attention, Jason had told her to shoot one of her magical air drill attacks where he could see it.

She glanced over and followed the lanky man’s pointed finger down to the ground.   It didn’t take her long to understand what had caught his attention.

Smoke was beginning to rise from behind a ridge in the distance.  Nora’s eyes narrowed and she felt a flash of something indescribable that she’d learned to recognize over time.  Trouble.

When Jason teleported toward the smoke, Nora followed.  Where there was smoke, there was fire, and fire could mean danger.

Over the ridgeline, Nora’s stomach tensed when she saw where it was coming from.  It seemed her premonition had been correct.  When she got closer she noted more details.  A few buildings of a village were burning, and a group of villagers were standing in a rough semi-circle, facing another group.

There’d been fighting and both sides looked like they were yelling at each other now.  As she and Jason approached, they stopped screaming and watched the two of them warily.

If she’d been by herself, Nora might have flown up higher over the trouble to better figure out what was going on. Jason seemed to have other ideas.  With all the subtlety of a yukka breaking through a fence, Jason teleported three more times before he reached the ground. His last teleport ended in almost a perfect landing on the ground, falling about an inch onto his heels.

Nora followed and studied the scene before her with a sharp, experienced eye.  There had definitely been a scuffle.  The majority of the villagers were arrayed around what looked like an adventuring group.  Almost everyone involved in the standoff was holding a weapon or two. A few had the telltale glow of barely-restrained magic.  They all turned as one to watch as Jason landed. Each of his teleports had been followed by a loud pop.

The air was tense with potential violence.  Nora flew down silently to one side to back up Jason in case everything went sideways.  It was unlikely that anyone from either group would be interested in endangering the Raising Hull, or even able to, but she was curious what was happening here.

The group of townspeople numbered a little over two dozen strong, all adults holding weapons.  Somewhat surprisingly, most of them had real weapons, not just farm tools.

Two fighters were out in front of the rest and seemed to be holding much more fine-looking weapons than the others.  Nora got the feeling at least one of them was a mage.

As she studied the adventurers, she realized that they were actually standing between the villagers and the village.  There were nine of them, either one big adventuring company, or maybe two working together.  Two of their number were Mo’hali, and three were men. All of them were dressed in similar-looking armor.

Jason stiffened around the same time as Nora spotted the bodies too.  She couldn’t see much of them, but there were at least two dead people on the ground to one side of the two opposing groups.  One looked to be dressed the same way as the adventurers.

One of the adventurers, a human woman with a scarred face and a bloody arm, pointed at Jason.  “Who are you?”

“Jason Booth.” After a pause, he added, “Of Delvers LLC.”

“Oh,” she said.

“Friends of yours?” snarled one of the townspeople, an older woman holding a spear and shield.  Her clothing was plain, but she held her weapon like she knew how to use it.  The spear was not some simple, rough weapon, either.  It was likely enchanted.

“No,”said the adventurer.  She glanced at her fellows and back to Jason as she said, “Delvers LLC is an adventuring team. Made a big name for themselves in a short amount of time.  Word spread fast.  They should be in Berber right now, though.  These two might be imposters, but they did just fly here.  I’ve only seen someone fly before once in my life, and she was a Mo’hali.  Delvers LLC is hot rot, maybe they are telling the truth.”

One of the other adventurers, a blond man, spat. “This timing is suspicious.  Why are they here now?  Also, the stories go that Delvers LLC are such aristo darlings, they’re being paid  by Queen Smruti and the new king of Tolstey.  Or one of them married the queen. Or something.” He shrugged.  “Again, why would they be here?”

The first, scarred adventurer turned to Nora and gave her a calculating look. “Now I know who you say you are, so why are you here?”

Good question, thought Nora. Out loud she said, “We are scouting and we saw smoke. Then we came to check it out.  There are bodies but no monsters, so you can imagine I am awfully rotting curious about what is going on here.”

“Why should we tell you anything?” asked another adventurer, a woman holding what looked like an enchanted bow.  “Even if you are telling the truth, you are just adventurers, like us.”

“No, maybe they can help,” said one of the townspeople, a middle-aged, dark-skinned woman.  “Maybe you’re just worried they won’t be on your side, eh?”  She smiled nastily.

“They are adventurers too,” said the woman with the bow.  If anything, they will help us!”

The dark skinned villager ignored the adventurers and said, “I am Calista, the mayor of this town.  Do you two have ties to the government?  Are you really from Delvers LLC?” She shook her head.  “Actually, never mind, it doesn’t matter. A third party might help either way.”  Under her breath she said, “It sure couldn’t hurt.”  She turned to Nora.  “We heard Jason Booth’s name, but who are you?”

“That,” said a new, snarling voice, “Is Nora Hazard.”  A Mo’hali woman wearing the same general armor style as the other adventurers stepped forward.  She was small, but lithe, and Nora recognized her swiveling ears and beady eyes.  The last time she’d seen this particular Mo’hali, she’d been lying on the ground with a nasty stab wound.  Nora had thought she would have died for sure.

“Oh rotting damnation,” she swore.

Jason frowned.  “You know her?”

“Yes.  Her name is Zast-clasta.  I killed all of her friends a while back when I was still in the Tolstey Army.”

“Oh.”

“Friends!?” snarled the rodent-race woman.  “You destroyed my family, left me and my sister wife for dead!”

“That doesn’t sound...pleasant,” said Jason with a mild tone.

Nora shrugged and frowned.

“Wait, Nora Hazard?” The blond male adventurer narrowed his eyes. “I’ve heard that name.  Saw it in the newspaper a while back. Berber something I think.  Hero of Berber.  Are you the Hero of Berber?”

Nora reluctantly nodded.

“Oh great.  So according to Zast-clasta she’s a murderer, and now she’s an aristo too. Nobody gets awards without being connected, right?  It’s all smoke and mirrors.  How can this day get any better?” The woman with the enchanted bow had a voice dripping sarcasm.  To her side, the woman with the scarred face nodded.

Jason kept his attention on the mayor and asked, “What happened here?”  Nora was glad that he’d changed the subject.  As everyone’s attention turned back to Jason, Nora eyed Zast-clasta. The Mo’hali was was clearly agitated, but one of her fellows had her hand on her shoulder and was urgently whispering in her ear.  The truth was Nora had a heavy heart about seeing the rodent race woman again.  If she had to, she was ready to defend herself but she hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

The entire situation in the past when she’d first met Zast-clasta had not been one of the high points of her life. She still didn’t regret the fight or skewering Jialji, just how and when she’d done it.  The timing in particular.  She wished she would have waited for a more appropriate moment.  Dressing it up in her mind was not going to help matters--she’d abandoned her duty for a personal grudge.  It was one of the most shameful things she had ever done.

But this little reunion had to be easier for her than Zast-clasta.  Nora had gotten her revenge.  Meanwhile, the Mo’hali woman had just come face to face with the woman who’d killed her husband and her entire family only a few months ago.

The mayor, Calista explained, “We made a request through the Adventuring Guild to bring someone in for a trial.  Tyron was wanted for rape and attempted murder, and he ran away from here to escape justice. These...people… took the contract and they brought Tyron here, but then threatened us and are trying to take our homes!

“Why don’t you tell the whole story, bitch?”snarled the bow-adventurer.   “We did what we were asked to, brought Tyron here, but then you said you couldn’t pay!  On top of not paying, you were going to string him up without a trial, which is exactly what he said you would do and why he ran away in the first place!  It was bad enough we had to deliver an innocent man, but then you didn’t pay and were going to execute him?  You don’t deserve this place.

Calista pointed. “This woman just fell in love with Tyron. And she and her team decided they were going to steal our town!”

“It’s a little more complicated than that,” said the scarred adventurer.  “We did our job in good faith and we promised Tyron that he’d have a fair trial.”  She pointed at one of the men, a plain looking man holding a sword subtly wrong.

Nora snorted.  That's Tyron? Aodh O’breen could probably destroy that man by looking at him.

The adventurer continued, “When we got to this...place, we were denied payment, and these people took Tyron to kill him immediately without a trial.  Then we were told to leave, just given a hand-written IOU.  Some of us...didn’t take it well.”  She glanced at the woman with the bow.  “Things got heated.  I don’t know who attacked first, but now there are bodies.  Both sides have wounded and have lost one.  Before you showed up, things were probably about to get uglier.”

Jason pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers.  “Mayor Calista, if the adventurers did a service for you, you have to pay them.  If not and you tried to take control of this man, that would be like stealing. Is it true that you didn’t pay the adventurers?”

“I don’t see how any of this matters,” snarled Zast-clasta.  “Didn’t you all hear me? That fatherless mutant murdered my family!”  The Mo’hali pointed her two short swords at Nora.  “We came close to dealing with you before. Maybe this is a gift from the Sun.”

Nora sadly shook her head. “No, some of your family came close.  You got a cheap shot in.  Right now you need to just stay right there.  I really don’t want to fight you right now.”

“Well, we don’t always get what we want, huh?  Maybe you should have just properly finished the job back then!  Jialji and I would both be dead if you’d destroyed our gear as well as you killed the zebras!  You left us wounded, left us for dead with no mounts in the middle of the wilderness, but we still had potions and medical gear!  When you flew off, Jialji was on the ground with a stick through her stomach!”

“Same as she did to me in the past,” growled Nora.  Regretful or not, she was starting to feel some heat creep up her neck.

“Now she’ll never walk again.  You made my sister a cripple!”  The word Zast-clasta used for sister meant sister-wife and widow.  Some of the other adventurers were watching with sad or angry expressions.

One of the adventurers who hadn’t spoken yet, a plain-looking woman holding a spear, haltingly asked, “We’ve heard this story before.  But now what do you want us to do about it, Zast-clasta?  Your enemy is here now, but she isn’t doing anything.  We already have this thing with the villagers.  You want us to fight a second group?  What would we gain from having two more enemies right now...that can fly?”

Nora gave Zast-clasta a cool look.  “Your family before was from Berber, Zast-clasta.  And I was alone at the time. Do you really think your little Tolstey adventuring team here could deal with me now that I have help?”  Nora didn’t mention that she’d grown in power.  She felt like she’d already made her point, though.

“Wait, what did you say, bitch?” The adventurer with the bow frowned.  “Who the fuck are you, some aristo pet, to come in here and talk like that?  We have this rotting village trying to steal from us, kill an innocent man, and now some soft-hands people with clean clothes come flying in here to talk rot, talk down to us?”

“I don’t like their attitudes,” said the male adventurer.  "There are only two of them.  Who do they think they are?"

"Well, I don't remember ever being held up or scammed by random villagers," said Nora mildly.

The scarred woman shrugged like Nora had a point, but the woman with the bow snarled, glaring daggers.  Behind her, Tyron just looked worried.

“So what now?” asked the male adventurer.  “Do we really think telling these two strangers our problems is going to fix things? Franz is dead.  People are dead on both sides.  It’s not like anyone is just...going to let this go now.”

“Just wait a minute,” said Jason, hands outstretched.  “So the issue seems to be that the adventuring group didn’t get paid.  That’s where everything went sour.  How much were you supposed to be paid?”

After the adventurers quoted a figure, and Jason nodded.  “So a pretty large amount of money." He turned to Calista. “What were you thinking, putting out a request like this if you couldn’t pay?”

The major stiffly said, “Kline is my daughter.”

One of the other villagers, a heavyset woman with a leather apron shook her head.  “Calista’s heart was in the right place, and we all agreed at the time.  We were going to raise the money, but the job was done so fast we...just didn’t have time.”

Jason sighed.  “So they actually did too good of a job, fast anyway.  No efficiency goes unpunished, eh?”  He asked, “Calista, how old is your daughter?”

“Twenty winters,” she said curtly.

“And the circumstances of her…accusation.  What were they?”

Before the mayor could answer, the bow adventurer standing next to Tyron shouted, “She falsely accused an innocent man because her high standard rotting mother there thought her spawn was too good for an honest, simple fellow!”

“That is a lie!” Calista snarled.  “My daughter never lies to me!”

“Really, bitch?  Tyron says he was seeing your daughter for months, and there was only a problem after you heard they were together!  Mysterious, that.”

Jason shook his head.  Nora frowned.  With contradicting stories like this, the truth would likely take a while to dig up.  They didn’t have all day.  In fact, with every second that went by, her desire to just leave grew.  At the end of the day, this wasn’t her problem.  She didn’t want to leave Jason alone, though, and he seemed to enjoy playing detective right now.

Nora would never leave her team again.  The situation with Zast-clasta’s family in the past had drilled that home for her.  To make a mistake of that magnitude was bad enough, but doing it again would be unforgivable.

Calista started to shout an angry response, but Jason held up a hand.  “Where is your daughter, Mayor Calista?”

“She is back in the village.  Kline is not a fighter, and she shouldn’t have to deal with this, or see…” She broke off and frowned in a way that made it clear she was holding back tears.

What a mess, thought Nora.  No wonder the man fled.  Whether he was guilty or not, if he’d stayed here, he would have died for sure.  Nora had a soft spot for anyone who’d been taken advantage of, but this entire situation felt strange to her.  The bodies on the ground were very real, too.  Regardless of Tyron’s guilt or innocence, other people had been dragged into this.  Lives had been destroyed.

Jason said, “Alright, I could ask more questions, but I think this will be enough.  I’m going to think for a while, now.”   When one of the adventures began to speak, leading with curses, Jason shook his head at her.  The hardened  warrior quit speaking immediately.  Even though Nora hadn’t been the focus of Jason’s attention, she’d felt the chill, too.

Then Jason scratched his head absently, apparently deep in though.  Nora was impressed, both by how he was approaching the problem, and how both groups  were clearly waiting on his decision.  This sort of aura of command was not common, nor easy to acquire.  She thought her fiance’ Aodh did a good job, but he’d confided to her that half the time he was just acting.  Just like Jason, she doubted that Aodh knew what kind of first impression they made on others.

Whenever Jason teleported, it was really very impressive.  Nora’s flying was rare too, but it didn’t compare to suddenly popping out of nowhere with a sound like small thunder rolling in from where you’d just been.

There was still a bounty for orb-Bonded and Mo’hali heroes, too.  The entire world had a feeling of pressure, ready for a fight.  Even regular encounters in public could feel as taut as a spring under tension.  For two angry groups of armed people to be waiting on Jason’s pondering was really a sight to behold.

Finally Jason nodded slowly and said, “The town is at fault for not paying, but this should have been handled by the Guard, not with a brawl.  If the town had paid, maybe the whole thing with...what was his name, Tyron?”The adventurers nodded. “Maybe his guilt or innocence wouldn’t have factored into this stuff at all.  Both sides acted badly, so neither side should get exactly what they want.  At the same time, both sides won’t back down unless they get what they want...and who knows how many more people will die?”

Jason coughed and continued, “I am a noble of Berber.  This area is not a part of any Tolstey holdings, right?”  

Mayor Calista shrugged.  “I don’t know.  Nobody has ever tried collecting taxes.

Jason said, “Even if it is, I’m willing to deal with it later. Alright, this is my suggestion.”

Like all the townsfolk and adventurers, Nora leaned forward, wanting to hear what Jason had to say.  His speaking style was strange.  Self deprecating and humble, but he was obviously a thinker, too. In some ways, he reminded Nora of her childhood friend, Arren.

“In order to properly settle with the adventurers, I need to actually be a part of this first.  Therefore the first thing I need to do is deal with the town.”  He gave a short bow.  “Mayor Calista, I want to buy this town.”  He smiled.  “ I’m not a noble of Tolstey, but I bet the next time I see the queen, she’ll give me a proper title and allow me to take control of this land.” He held his hands out and said, “I don’t want to buy it for me, though.  It’ll eventually be for my friend Henry.  He’s better at stuff like this than I am.”

“What?” asked Calista. “Take the town? Is there rot in your brain? That’s what these damned adventurers were saying before we started fighting!”

“No, I didn’t say take it, I said buy it,” clarified Jason. “I’ve known people like you before who struck out and tried making something on their own in the wilderness.  In fact, Henry’s wife used to be part of a small pioneer farming community, so he understands the issues you face even better than I do.  So I see it like this:  If me and Nora hadn’t come along just now, it’s possible that these adventurers might have taken your town from you.  Hell, the fact you hired them in the first place, but couldn’t pay, means you have other problems going on, most likely.  Then there’s monsters to worry about.  I bet you have monster problems sometimes too. That would explain why so many of you have weapons and seem to know how to use them.”

“We don’t need money,” growled the mayor.  “The town is not for sale. This place is our lives.”

“Just hear me out,” said Jason.  “Here is what I propose.  I will give you, the mayor, three Dolos orbs to award to three deserving citizens.  Anyone living in this town who takes one will promise to stay here for at least five years before setting out to do anything else.  This means the place will be well protected during that time.

“And if I own the town, I have the authority to deal with these adventurers.  I’ll be honest, I plan to let Tyron, the accused man go...for now.”  The major began an angry retort, but Jason made a slashing gesture with his hand.  “Wait until I’m done, remember?  Anyway, I don’t know what happened, but if you execute Tyron, a fight probably can’t be avoided.  Just keeping him here for trial won’t work, either.  As a compromise, I would like to give your daughter a Dolos orb.  This will give her a great deal of power, and if her complaint is real and she wants to, she will have the power to find justice herself.  I know how things work on Ludus.”

“What about them?” asked Calista.  She pointed at the adventurers.  Nora scanned the lot of them and saw that some were openly scoffing at Jason’s suggestion.

One of them actually spoke up.  A homely woman holding a sword and shield laughed and said, “Three orbs?  No, four, right?  Like anyone carries that many Dolos orbs around.  Even one would be hard to believe!  Are you trying to scam that stupid woman?  At least we were trying to take the town fair and square.”

Nora did a quick recount and confirmed that there were nine adventurers, probably actually eight plus Tyron.  Some of them were fidgeting.  There had just been violence and they’d been heading to a life or death fight before the two newcomers had come from the sky, after all.  Nora noticed a crossbow being pointed directly at her and felt her eye twitch.  She’d already activated her shield earlier which was all but invisible and would protect her from a sudden shot.  Even with the protection, she still felt an itch between her shoulder blades.  She was tempted to show her displeasure, but decided to let Jason keep handling the situation his way.

Sometimes, Nora was very proud of her restraint.

“Calista, I can’t deal with them right now as an outsider,” said Jason.  “But I believe I can be fair with them like I have been with you and prevent any more bloodshed.  Just sell me the town.”

“Why are you doing this?” asked one of the adventurers, the man who spoke before.  “What’s in it for you?  Can’t you just fly away?  Like, can’t you piss off and leave us to our business?”

“Your business?  You mean killing each other?”  Jason rolled his eyes.  “It’s true I don’t need to solve this, but my friend Henry forgot my birthday.  I figure I can get him a town for his birthday coming up.  He’s hard to get gifts for, you have no idea.”  He turned to Mayor Calista.  “Speaking of which, Henry is a powerful earth mage.  By the time he can actually visit this place in the future, if you all haven’t already produced an earth mage with one of the Dolos orbs, I’m sure he’d be glad to help with building walls or houses or whatever.  Plus, this is an opportunity for you.  Trust me.  Henry just built this world’s first flying battleship.”

“What?”

“It’s true,” said Nora.  “We just came from Taretha where we’ve been staying at the palace.”

“This is all a scam!”  crowed the bow-wielding adventurer.  “If you believe a word of this, you are a fool.  And you,” she said, pointing at Jason.  “You should give up on convincing these middle-of-nowhere-living inbreds from ever giving up on murdering Tyron.”

Jason ignored all of them and asked the major, “What do you say?”

Calista swallowed.  “Three Dolos orbs, and one more for my daughter?”

“That’s right.”

Calista looked overwhelmed.  She said, “I need to talk to the elders.”  Then without another word, she moved back into the portion of the village that wasn’t burning.

The rest of the villagers glowered and aimed weapons at the adventurers.  So far, none of them had actually pointed any business ends at Jason or Nora.  She took that as a good sign.

“What about us?  What rotting fairytale are you going to offer us?” asked one of the adventurers with a laugh.

“You will find out soon if the villagers accept my deal,” said Jason.  Out the corner of his mouth, he said, “Nora, can you help me watch them?”

“I’m already on it,”  muttered Nora.  “We really should just leave, though.”

“Yeah, Uluula would say the same thing, but all this pointless violence annoys me.  Demons just attacked Berber and meanwhile these people are killing each other.  Plus, I’ve been cooped up lately and I felt like solving a problem.”

Nora blinked.  “You are doing this because… you’re bored?”  She shook her head and crossed her arms.

Jason just shrugged in response.

After a couple minutes of waiting, Nora was feeling Zast-clasta’s hate-filled gaze like a needle on the back of her neck.  Luckily, the Mo’hali woman still hadn’t done anything other than glare.  Another adventurer, the other Mo’hali, had a hand on her shoulder and was whispering in her ear.  Nora began to wonder if there was really any way to avoid violence in this situation.  The thought made her melancholy.  When she’d been younger, fighting had just been a part of life.  It had always felt like a waste, but now she knew it really didn’t have to be this way.

She said, “Should we do something while we wait?  Maybe show a bit of power so nobody gets any ideas?”

Jason softly replied, “I thought of that, but I think everyone is wound up so tight right now, if we did anything but stand here, it’d start everything off again and we’d be targets.  Probably better just to wait it out.”

Curiosity made Nora ask, “Can you actually buy a town?”

“No idea, but I’m doing it anyway.”  He smiled.  “Bezzi-ibbi is going to regret not being here to see this.”

“Probably.  He’d want to put it in one of his awful songs.  What will you do if they actually agree to your offer?”

“I’m going to pay the adventurers,” said Jason.

Movement between the distant buildings brought Nora’s head around.  Calista was heading back to them at a trot.  The mayor had an unreadable expression on her face.

She stopped and swallowed first before saying, “Jason Booth.” The woman was a little out of breath, but Nora noticed she actually had acquired another weapon from somewhere, a fancy-looking knife on her belt, probably enchanted.

“That’s me,” said Jason with a smile.

Out the corner of her eye, Nora noticed all the defending townspeople listening intently to the exchange.  None of them had said anything the entire time.  They obviously trusted their mayor, but also had to be curious.

“This is sudden, but I have met with those I needed to see.”  Calista gathered herself.  “If you can show me the four Dolos orbs you are promising, right now, and you will leave the leadership of this village to us for another year, I will agree to your...offer.”

Jason smiled.  “Great! That’s easy.  I don’t intend to actually govern this place, and neither would Henry.”  He gestured and a line appeared in mid air.  Nora had seen him use his “sideways space” enough that it didn’t surprise her anymore, but Calista’s mouth fell open when Jason plucked four Dolos orbs out of thin air.  He set them all in her outstretched hands.

Calista wasn’t the only one who’d been shocked.  The town’s defenders were trying to play it off, so were the adventures.  One of the adventurers still almost dropped her spear.

Jason scratched his cheek like this was all normal and turned to the adventurers.  “Alright, now I have some business with all of you.  Hello! I am this town’s Lord.”

“Since when?” Demanded the bow-adventurer.

“Since a minute ago,” replied Jason.  “You literally just watched it all happen.  Anyway, I agree that it was unfair to do a job and not be paid for it.  You have also lost at least one of your team mates, right?”

“One, yes,” said the male adventurer with a sword.  “And we have wounded.”

“Alright.  I know that Tyron is a point of contention here so he can go with you.  Aso, I’ve heard what you were going to be paid, so I think it’s generous to pay you many times that for your trouble.” Jason pulled another Dolos orb out of his sideways space.  “I will give you one Dolos orb for payment, and we can all part ways without any more violence.  The villagers killing more of you won’t bring their friends back, and you killing more of them won’t revive your comrade.  What do you say?”

Tyron raised a hand.  He asked, “Do I get any say in this?”

“Not really, no,” said Jason.  “You should probably just be happy that you haven’t been executed and you have a lady with a bow who’s ready to kill people for you.”

The other man frowned and slowly lowered his hand.  Nora studied him and tried to decide whether he was guilty or innocent.  He looked like an average person, but maybe not the smartest man on Ludus.  She couldn’t tell.  In most places, rape carried a death sentence.  Rapists should all be killed, but it seemed strange that the village had been trying to convict and execute this man before the adventurers had even been paid for bringing him back!

All of the adventurers shared a look.  The woman with the bow grabbed Tyron by the arm and pulled him over to a group huddle.  They began to speak quickly and quietly in a circle before all the sound ceased like it’d been cut with a knife.  One of them had just used magic or a magic tool to prevent eavesdropping.  As they conversed, one or two of the adventurers looked up to cast glances in her direction, or maybe Jason’s.  Zast-clasta did once too.  The Mo’hali woman was shaking her head.

Nora started to get a bad feeling.  She scooted closer to Jason and said, “I told you that we should have made a show of power.”

“Maybe you were right,” admitted Jason.  “But still, if they’re stupid enough to start something now, well…” He left the rest unspoken.

Nora agreed in principal, but killing was murder, regardless of how people dressed it up or rationalized it, at least she thought so.  If she had to murder more, she would, but she really didn’t feel like dealing with that sort of thing if she could avoid it.  She’d seen enough death for three lifetimes already.

The adventurers continued to argue, and Zast-clasta in particular snuck more glances.  Nora whispered, “I’m getting a bad feeling about this.”

Beside her Jason made a face.  “Well, your feeling is right.  I am monitoring their emotions and they are about to attack.  At least I’m pretty sure.”

“You can do that?”

After a nod, Jason said, “Yeah.  I’ve been getting better at it lately.”

“Then why don’t we just take them all out now?  If you’re sure, I mean.”

“I don’t think it would be right.  Killing people for things I think they will do, that they haven’t done yet, feels too much like playing God to me.  It won’t matter anyway.”  His voice sounded sad, but he’d begun getting a look in his eyes that Nora had never seen before.  “Besides, buying a town in Tolstey is bad enough.  If I started killing people unprovoked, the queen would definitely not be happy about it.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,”  Nora agreed.

“Are you going to be alright if they attack?”

“I already have a shield up right now,” whispered Nora.  She felt a flash of annoyance.  This wasn’t exactly her first tense situation on Ludus.  “If anything happens, I’ll fly up as fast as I can.”

“That works.  In fact, why don’t you just go now?  Maybe it’ll be enough to stop them from doing something dumb.  Might be too little too late, but let’s hope.”

“Got it.”  Nora began to rise.  She also dropped into floating time, the mental state where she shoveled all of her emotions into nothingness, clearing her mind, thinking quickly and clearly.  If there was any violence, she’d be ready for it.

As she rose, her vantage point improved and she could clearly see that Zast-clasta was shaking her head again within the huddle of adventurers.  One gave her a look, but the bow-bitch said something with an ugly looking smile.

Why do I always run into people like this? thought Nora.  The more she thought about it, the current situation made sense, though.  Jason had just casually pulled out four Dolos orbs and had at least one more.  It was a fortune.  Not only that, a Dolos orb represented real power.  The mercenaries likely already had an orb-Bonded or two, but if they could get their hands on a few more orbs, they would likely be able to come back to this village and take it over at their leisure.

They’d become one of the most powerful adventuring groups in Tolstey pretty much overnight.

If that happened and they still wanted this place, the village’s defenses wouldn’t even slow them down.  It was possible that one or two of the villagers now were orb-Bonded as well, in which case in the ensuing blood bath, the adventurers-turned-marauders would even get the bounties for killing them.  Nora realized there was still a lot about the situation she and Jason didn’t know.  He seemed to have made some good decisions, though.

Down below, the townsfolk had backed away and were standing in front of their homes, at the outskirts of the village.  A few non-combatants including what looked like a water mage had materialized, using the opportunity to begin putting the fires out.  Nora thought this was shrewd.  When she’d first showed up, the adventurers had been between the villagers and the town.  At some point, the villagers had repositioned themselves, probably while the adventurers were distracted in their huddle.

Because of Nora’s elevated position, she had a great view of when everything went sour.  One moment the adventurers were still talking, and the next, they’d turned and unleashed an arrow, a bolt, and a flurry of magic at where Jason was standing.  

Every single attack halted in mid air, striking a large null-time shield.  Nothing even came close to touching the man.  His reaction time was incredible.  The group had committed.  With a yell, they desperately rushed where he was standing.

They had to be blinded by greed to rationalize attacking a teleporter in the first place.  Maybe they’d assumed they’d get him with a sucker punch.  Or maybe they assumed he was out of energy.  Either way, they’d been wrong.

An arrow flashed up at Nora, too.  Just like all the attacks aimed at Jason, it harmlessly bounced off of Nora’s shield, but did succeed in breaking her magical protection.  The enchanted shield was only really meant to stop conventional attacks, not heavy-hitting magic like the arrow had obviously carried.  The moment the shield broke, Nora willed her Vibration powered vib-shield up.  Another arrow flashed up at her, but it was broken apart and diverted to the side.

Nora glared down at the adventurer with the bow.  The woman was nocking another arrow, and her startled expression would have been comical if for her murderous intentions.

“Greedy rotting bitch,” muttered Nora.  “Hazard!” she yelled, and pointed Pewpew, her deadly ring.  Then she activated a subtle current of Vibration in her arm to generate a scatter shot attack.

The kill was as quick as it was messy.

Pieces of the would-be ambusher fell to the ground.  The woman’s attacks had been fast and powerful, but she hadn’t been anywhere near the level necessary to give Nora any serious trouble.

She turned to help Jason but stopped and blinked.  Shock managed to echo around her floating time state.

More than half of the other adventurers were already dead or down.  Jason snarled as he flashed among them.  His movements were concise and he wasn’t teleporting or even using his longsword.  Instead, he was...throwing rocks.

Nora watched in interest as Jason dodged and darted around, avoiding attacks like a ghost.  His uncanny ability to judge distances and predict danger suggested long experience, like he was the survivor of thousands of battles.  Nora realized that with the World Jar, he likely was now.  At the back of her mind, she wondered if her adomopathy made her look like this to others when she fought.

Jason pointed and one of the men howled and clutched his head.  Nora hadn’t seen anything actually hit the man, so maybe it had been a mental attack.  She wasn’t sure.  Then Jason ran up and put a rock in the screaming man’s mouth.  He’d already rushed past when the little rock expanded to the size of a melon and pulped the adventurer’s head, breaking his teeth and making his jaw hang down, useless.  The stricken man dropped ot the ground and began rolling around, clawing at his face as he struggled for air.

Jason easily dodged several more attacks, like he had eyes in the back of his head, and drew throwing knives out of his sideways space.  He threw them, but didn’t teleport them.  Instead, his double ended blades somehow multiplied into a dozen, then a couple dozen spinning, buzzing bronze projectiles, all aimed at an adventurer as she tried to load another crossbow bolt.

Her armor stopped some of the attacks, but there’d been too many.  Most exposed areas of her body got hit.  The adventurer looked like a pin cushion.  She thrashed and mewled on the ground, a blade in her face.

The way Jason was fighting was not efficient at all.  He wasn’t using any of his strongest abilities.  It took Nora a second to realize what he was likely doing.  The man was...training...in the middle of a life or death fight.

“That crazy rotting fool,” she whispered.  She didn’t understand the point.  If you fight, the objective was to kill your opponent as quickly and cleanly as possible.  On top of that, Jason was snarling and yelling.  The logical, cool-headed man from moments before had disappeared.

As Nora watched, his outline seemed to go fuzzy for a moment, and she could see what looked like shadows, or maybe inky blackness with stars.  She shivered a bit.

Nora took her time floating back down.  When her feet finally touched the ground, all the attackers were dead or dying.  Every single person who’d attacked Jason was down.  The tall, dangerous man drew Breeze, his sword, from his sideways space, and began methodicallys skewering every fallen enemy, making sure none of them would jump up and be a liability later.

Do I look this savage when I do that? Thought Nora.  Probably.  The thought wasn’t nice, but she still approved of Jason’s thoroughness.  Once violence finds you, you shouldn’t engage in half measures.  Nora had learned that at a young age.

The last remaining person from the adventurer group was a Mo’hali woman.  She was bowed on the ground in a submissive posture, her hands on top of her head.  There were no weapons anywhere near her, she must have thrown them away.  Her rodent ears quivered, and Nora realized it was Zast-clasta.

The rage that had been in Jason’s eyes died and his face relaxed like he hadn’t just been growling and messily tearing people apart moments ago.  Somehow, he barely had any blood on him, either.  Nora didn’t think it was fair how good some people could look regardless of circumstances.

“Why didn’t you attack with them?” asked Nora.  “Weren’t they your new family?”

“Friends, not Family,” said Zast-clasta.  She lifted one side of her face to show Nora an eye full of hate, weariness, and resignation.

Jason walked up and spit to the side.  He said, “That Tyron guy attacked, too.”

“I saw.  His body is over there.”  Nora pointed.

“What a moron,” said Jason.  He shook his head.  “I didn’t even know what these adventurers were called.  We should probably report that they’re all dead.  I’m still technically an adventurer.  You too.”

“What was your group’s name, Zast-clasta?” asked Nora.

“Destiny’s Chosen.”  The woman flexed her little claws on top of her head, but kept her fingers interlaced.

“Why didn’t she attack?” said Jason.  He pointed at Zast-clasta with a toe.  “I thought she wanted you dead.”

“Good question,” said Nora.  She’d dropped floating time, and her heart rate wasn't even up, but getting hit with backlash from using Pewpew hurt.  Even a single blast from the ring made her entire body sore.  “What the hell happened, Zast-clasta?”

The Mo’hali woman looked at Nora with hateful, tear-filled eyes.  “I told them not to do it.  They kept focusing on all the orbs, but I told them how dangerous you are.  You were right, what you said earlier.  My Family from Berber was much stronger than this group, even though there were fewer of us back then.  They wouldn’t listen to me, though.  The difference in strength between Tolstey and Berber adventurers was something they just didn’t understand.  And Trissa was sure that she could kill Nora.  She said her bow had never failed her.”  She shook her head.

“Trissa?  Was that the name of that dumb bitch that fell in love with your cargo and tried to kill me?”

“Yes.  Don’t talk about her like that.  She wasn’t a bad person, just...emotional.  Blinded.”  Zast-clasta laughed hollowly.  “Maybe I should attack you now so I can just be done with this life.  Maybe I was a coward for not attacking.  They called me that, you know.  Right before they went.  But I knew.  I knew how this would end.  Jialji could have killed all of them before you’d crippled her.  They didn’t understand.  And that man you are with, he is a monster.  A true monster.  I guess it would make sense that monsters would travel with monsters.”

“Monster?  I think he said he used to be a programmer,” said Nora.

"Code monkey not a monster," muttered Jason.

Zast-clast’s hackles rose and she glared at Nora, baring her teeth.  “I hate you!  I curse you under the sun!  May your Family rot and suffer!”

Nora’s expression didn’t change.  This wasn’t the first time someone had tried cursing her.  The way she saw it, maybe she was immune after surviving her childhood on the streets.  She glanced over at the sound of footsteps. “Jason, the mayor is coming.”

Jason turned and smiled at Mayor Calista.  Nora couldn’t believe how quickly the man transitioned from a wrathful killer to an affable intellectual.  “Callista,” he said.

The mayor’s face was white and she looked like she might throw up at any moment.  “The others asked me to find out if...these...recent events mean that our deal with you has ended.”

“Nope,” said Jason cheerily.  “I’m still going to let you have all the orbs, don’t worry.”  He rubbed a hand over his mouth and suddenly said, “Oh, that’s right!  Mayor, this adventurer is all alone now and I'm sure as hell not paying her after killing her team.  How would you feel about her working here to earn a little money and pay off her debt to the town?”

Nora, Calista, and Zast-clasta all said, “What?”

Jason turned to Nora.  “You regret some things, I can tell.  I mean, I could probably tell even without, well, you know.”  He tapped his head.  “I promise I’m trying not to listen in, you are just emotionally kind of...loud sometimes.  And doesn’t she look pitiful?” He pointed at Zast-clasta.  “She’s likely going to be done after this since she’s caring for her sister wife, right?  No other groups are going to take her in.  It’s at least two days travel to the nearest bit of civilization anywhere, and she’ll be alone, wounded…"

He scatched his cheek.  “Like, she can’t be a prisoner, the villagers don’t have a jail that I could see, and they’re short a few houses now.  If she leaves on her own she’ll probably die.  If you don’t think we should just kill her, maybe we can just give her a job.  It’s not like the village will be defenseless anymore after they have so many orb-Bonded.  What do you think?  It’s up to you.”

“Uhh…I don’t think--” began the mayor.

Jason held up a hand.  He smiled, but his eyes were steely.  “I bought the town.  You can administer it as you see fit, but I think as the new lord, this is where I should step in.”  He rubbed his chin and said, “You know, I still don’t know the name of this place.  What is it?”

Calista’s mouth worked a second before she finally said, “Green Gulch, my lord.”

Jason said, “Yuck.  Green Gulch?  Yeah, not anymore.  From now on, this place is called Pallet Town.”  He smiled and looked at Nora out the corner of his eye.  “What do you say, Nora?”

She looked down at Zast-clasta and was about to say they should just kill her, after all, leaving living enemies behind complicated matters.  This situation was proof of that.  But something stayed her hand.  She thought back to her own life, of the handful of times she’d received mercy from the least likely of places.  For some reason, she thought about how Aodh would handle it, too.  She’s seen him make much more important decisions than this almost every day before she’d left Berber.

“Let’s let her live,” she said slowly.  “But I think after Bezzi-ibbi gets back, we should come back here and let him do whatever it is Mo’hali do to bind oaths or whatever.

“That’s a good idea.”  Jason looked down at Zast-clasta and said, “You have a job now.  As long as you abide by the rules of this village, you will be safe and protected, but you do have a debt to pay.  Make sure to pay it well.  Do you understand my wishes on this, Mayor Calista?”

“Uh, yes my Lord.”

“Cool . Now I’d like to see the damage to the town now and also see your books if you have any.”

“Our books?”

“Your records.  Like expenses, taxes, that sort of thing.”

The woman’s eyes grew huge and she stammered, “Uh, yes my lord.”  She led Jason away.

And all of this was because he was bored, thought Nora.  She shook her head.  These adventurers had been extremely stupid.  They could have walked away with a great deal of money.

Jason hadn’t even seemed phased that he’d just slaughtered an entire adventurer company.

It seemed to Nora like everyone she met these days seemed to think she was a violent woman, but from her perspective, she was just doing a job and helping her fiance.  Meanwhile, some of the other members of Delvers LLC might have a screw loose.  Was the well-dressed little Mo’hali boy who’d disappeared hiding some kind of dangerous secrets too?  Well, definitely, she amended.  She already knew that Bezzi-ibbi was a true Mo’hali leader.  Young or not, he’d probably have no probably doing what needed to be done to protect his Clan.

She eyed Jason’s retreating back and wondered how deep the darkness in the man went.

Nora shook her head.  She’d truly fallen in with a dangerous group of people.  The Jackals back in Bittertown didn’t even come close!  Hell, Mareen may look like walking destruction, but Jason had it inside of him!  Nora was sure of that now.  

Now more than ever, she wished she could have seen Delvers LLC taking back the palace of Mensk from a true-demon horde.  She had a feeling that even some of the true-demons might have gotten a shock.  She’d never seen the group go all-out before in a fight.  But then again, especially considering current events, the odds were good that she’d get her wish in the near future.

It was a sobering thought.

She hadn’t known her new team mates long, but they were true friends.  Her life hadn’t always been the best, but she’d really been lucky in some ways.  Somehow, she’d bumped into people she could truly trust to watch her back, and she understood how precious that was.  Nora knew what real loyalty was.  Maybe it was part of why she’d spared Zast-clasta’s life.  Maybe in another life, she would have made some of the same decisions the Mo’hali woman had.

Nora slowly rose into the sky, keeping watch over the area until Jason was ready to return to the Raising Hull.  She had a lot on her mind, and wished she could settle the feeling of dread that had been growing inside of her lately.

A storm was coming.  She could feel it in her bones.