De'Vas Chronicles Book 3: Chapter 6

“In you go,” Bo said as he opened the trunk of Selena’s Frankenstein car, placing the briefcase of notes inside.

The goblin bucked against the reflective tape as Bo lifted him up, making him look like a pissed-off disco ball. Bo, not so gently, tossed him into the trunk.

“Hey, Pickles, fu—” the goblin yelled before Bo closed the trunk.

Only faint cursing escaped the trunk, though Ash couldn’t make out what the goblin was saying. Not that he was really trying to piece it together. He was on his phone letting the gangs know he was about to drop off a prisoner. Once that was done, he started a new message to Silver.

Ash: Bo wants to go get dinner with Ella. Dropping the goblin off with the gangs, they’ll have him in the cell. He’s covered in rune tattoos that’ll go off if he says certain things.

Silver: That’s a nasty trick. I’ll think about how to get around it. I figured Bo would drag you off somewhere. It’s fine. The slumber party is getting good. Just some advice: Don’t come home smelling like a unicorn or you’ll have a pouty puppy to deal with.

Silver then sent Ash a picture of a very drunk Naomi wearing a lampshade on her head and dancing with Coral. Ash chuckled at it and set the picture as the wallpaper on his phone. He would tease Naomi about it later.

“Pouty puppy, right…” Ash said to himself.

He recalled how mad Faylen had been when Selena kissed him. He didn’t fully get it, but there was some underlying hostility to Selena from Faylen. Naomi was the opposite though. She had asked him, in-depth, how each monthly meeting of the District bosses went, including his interactions with Selena. It was almost as if she was waiting for something to happen, despite him telling Naomi that Selena was usually cold and distant towards him during those meetings.

“Ash! Let’s go!” Bo called to him.

He turned to see Bo opening the door of the car. There were two bench seats facing each other in the backseat. It took Ash a second, but he connected their position with how the seating in carriages would be placed. He guessed that was the more familiar way to paranormals.

He crawled in and took a seat. To his surprise, it wasn’t Bo who sat by him. The orc squeezed beside Ella on the bench seat across from him. It was Selena who took the seat beside him, though the unicorn leaned against her side of the bench to put as much room between them as she could. Not that it did much good. There were no seat belts and the kobold driver had a lead foot. Selena was pressed up against him after the first corner.

The vehicle whipped around the streets and Ash did his best to take in District 208 as he was flung around. The district was larger than 114 was, but Ash noticed signs that it wasn’t very healthy, at least not the portion they were driving through. He noticed several businesses boarded up.

The ride was silent except for Bo and Ella, who were in their own little world, and the squeals of the tires from the car. Ash and Selena hadn’t said a word to each other since getting in the car, and he felt like she was giving him the cold shoulder again.

The car finally stopped at the portal right as Ash was starting to get motion sickness. He and Bo staggered out of the car and dragged the goblin from the trunk, who was looking even a deeper shade of green.

When Ash and Bo stepped through the portal, they were greeted by Jek with members from the Frozen Scales and 114 Pack to take the goblin into custody and take the briefcase with the notes. Ash wanted to make some small talk with the lizardkin, at least until his stomach settled, but Bo was anxious to get back. Ash let out a sigh when they stepped back through the portal to 208 and he saw the car idling for them.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a long ride before the car braked hard and pulled into a faded parking spot outside a building that had a neon sign of a boxer throwing a punch. Another sign said the place’s name The Warrior.

“We’re here!” Ella said as she opened the door to the car.

Bo shot out behind Ella and Ash followed, holding the door for Selena. She cast him a side glance as she stepped out. The interior gave away instantly that the place was a sports bar. TV’s hung on the wall and there were memorabilia on the wall, such as fight promotion posters. The place seemed to really like MMA.

There were also hand-drawn posters of a similar nature but looked like fight promotion posters promoting paranormals. Bo noticed him looking at them.

“Gladiator matches were popular back on Vas. Most large cities had an arena,” Bo said as he pointed to one of the posters.

It was a drawing of three dwarfs standing shoulder together with an intimidating pose. Bold text declared them as the Ale Brothers of the Pine Mountains and gave a statistic of wins, losses, and ties.

“The matches were showy and used blunt weapons. Injuries happened, but deaths were only tragic accidents and rare.”

They only waited at the podium for a moment before a waitress came over. She smiled as she turned to greet them.

“Welcome to The Warrior. Would you like a booth or…” she paused and her smile dropped. “Lady Selena, I didn’t realize you would be dining with us today.”

Ash was a little surprised at the hostess’s nervousness as she did her best to avoid eye contact with Selena.

“Booth, and somewhere with privacy. Lady Selena is meeting today with the District boss of 114,” Ella said as she gestured to Ash.

The waitress turned and stared at him for a moment.

“D-district 1-114,” she said with a stutter. Her hands shook so bad, it took her several tries to grab the menus. “R-right this way, please.”

Selena let out a sigh and their waitress quickened her steps at the sound. She brought them to a booth in the corner that had a decent view of the TV’s over the bar, but was far from anyone else. She placed the menus on the table, gave them a forced smile, and quickly left. Selena watched her leave with a scowl on her face.

“We’re going to run to the ladies room. You two go ahead and look the menu over. We come here a lot so already know what we’re going to get,” Ella said as she took Selena’s hand and pulled her away.

Ash sat down in the booth and took a menu. All the dishes were named after MMA fighters and what looked like the stage names for the gladiators back on Vas. He couldn’t help himself and smirked as he decided on a burger with bacon named after a wolfkin gladiator with the stage name ‘The Fanged Queen’.

Bo was still searching through his menu and mumbling to himself. Ash was sure he was debating what to get, or what combination of things to get. If he wasn’t trying to hide the fact he was a glutton from Ella. With Bo busy, Ash turned his attention to one of the TVs over the bar, which was the one playing the news.

He raised an eye at the news headline scrolling across it and focused on the captions. He didn’t watch the news. It was a reminder of the world he left behind. He mostly used the monthly meetings of the District bosses to keep tabs on events related to him now. This, though, was something Silver or Aerial, disguised as Cleo, hasn’t mentioned.

Goodwill Trip being assembled for De’Vas:

News Anchor: The selections are underway for celebrities that will take part in the Goodwill trip to De’Vas, with the aim to help bridge the divide between our two people. Tensions have been high between De’Vas, the nation of paranormals, and several governments around the world after it was revealed that the military arms company, WillCo, had conducted unethical experiments on paranormals. While WillCo has insisted it has not violated any international laws, it has been vilified by governments worldwide. Many countries are pushing for international laws that better protect paranormals.

“Wait, there’s a Goodwill Committee coming to De’Vas?” Ash said to Bo.

The orc looked up from his menu and looked at the TV Ash pointed at.

“Oh?” Bo asked as he watched the TV. “Oh! I hope we get some good bands coming over. Doubt they will leave District 1, but I would portal to see a live show! Bet Jacklyn and Ella would like to come as well.”

“I’m surprised they’re letting anyone cross the border at all. It’s not like people in De’Vas are allowed to travel outside of it.,” Ash said with a bitter tone.

He sure as hell wouldn’t be allowed to cross over to see his family and old friends. Bo turned from the TV and gave him a solemn nod of understanding.

“The WillCo Arms incidents have caused a lot of tension between De’Vas and many human governments. The Council is pissed, and rightly so. The news stations are nothing but fear pieces of what will happen if De’Vas cuts off the supply of magic reagents.”

Ash huffed.

“So they’re sending a bunch of washed-up celebrities as an apology to try and smooth things over?”

Bo shrugged.

“Image and posturing would be my guess,” Bo said before turning back to his menu. “You’re closer to a political figure than I am.”

“Technically, I think I’m a feudal warlord, and I would say you’re probably guessing right,” Ash answered looking back at his menu and reaffirming his decision on The Fanged Queen burger. It had bacon after all.

“Sorry, we’re back!” Ella said breaking Ash from looking at his menu.

Ella slid onto the bench next to Bo, snagging her menu and purposely bumping into the orc. Selena slid in beside him and for the first time since he saw her today, she gave him a faint smile. He wasn’t sure what Ella and Selena talked about in the girl’s room, but it seemed to put Selena in a better mood.

“So, did you decide on something?” Selena asked him.

Ash pointed to the large burger on the menu.

“Think I’m going with The Fanged Queen, is it any good?”

 Selena looked up at him and their eyes locked for a moment before she looked back down to the menu.

“I’ve had it a few times, it’s good. The sauce they put on it is very sweet,” Selena said.

The waitress arrived a moment later and took their orders. Though Ash worried about her as she wrote down their orders with a shaky hand and a bead of sweat on her brow. He was getting flashbacks to the first time he had gone to Mei’s Den.

“I should apologize,” Selena said and Ash realized she had been watching. “I’ve gained a reputation during the early part of my time as District boss of 208. It’s why…well why the staff has been acting strange.”

Ash looked at Selena. She was poised and in control of her emotions, at least on the surface. He could see a small crack in the image she was trying to project. Through that crack, he could see that the reactions from the waitress bothered her deeply.

“Nothing to apologize for, Selena. Don’t let it weigh on you. In time, your people will see the real you. Then their reaction will be different,” Ash said with a reassuring smile.

“We’ll see…” Selena said softly before turning away and watching one of the TV’s over the bar.

Food arrived faster than Ash had expected it would, almost as if the cooks focused solely on their orders when they came back to the kitchen. The Fanged Queen was good and Selena was right about the sauce being sweet.

“Hey, Bo! Come try this game. I want to see if you can beat my high score,” Ella said as she grabbed Bo’s arm and pulled him from the bench.

Ash caught Ella wiggling her eyebrows at Selena as she and Bo left. She was trying to convey something to Selena, but he didn’t know what. Selena looked at her bodyguard with an almost helpless expression. The expression left Selena’s face as she slipped her professional mask back on and turned to face him.

“I-I was hoping we could discuss a trade deal between our districts,” Selena said.

“Sure,” Ash said.