Chapter 1073 - A Careful Balance

After leaving Haven, Jake didn’t take long to get to his destination. He only briefly stopped by Miranda to inform her he was going to visit his family. She seemed oddly happy to hear that and shooed Jake out of her office pretty quickly.

From there, the actual travel time was negligible, and soon enough, he found himself at the teleportation station placed right outside the city. Most of the larger cities on Earth had teleportation centers inside the cities themselves, but Jake had noticed a lot of the factions avoided this, likely for security reasons. Also, he wouldn’t be surprised if some of them had their own off-the-books teleporters hidden here and there. In fact, he would be sorely disappointed if the Court of Shadows, a damn assassination agency, didn’t have a bunch of safehouses and teleporters hidden here and there.

Anyway, the entrance to Skyggen looked much the same as always, except now it was no longer as hidden as it used to be. The Court of Shadows likely didn’t feel the need to really hide themselves anymore now that the planet had been conquered by Jake. Instead, they were actively advertising their presence now.

That’s not to say the defenses of the city weren’t impressive. It was quite the opposite, as rather than relying on staying undetected, they had now chosen to use more traditional barriers to keep anyone unwanted out. Quite a few layers of these barriers, too, with a few of them having mana signatures reminiscent of shadow energy.

The best proof of their improvements was the fact Jake chose to use the main entrance rather than try to sneak in. He’d naturally considered just trying to be all cloak and katars to surprise everyone with his sudden visit, but he quickly realized he wasn’t confident in staying undetected.

Having a barrier able to see through Unseen Hunter was pretty damn impressive, but then again, if any faction knew all the ways to stay stealthy – and thus also how to detect those trying to stay stealthy – it had to be the top assassin faction of the multiverse.

Shortly after entering the city proper, Jake was honored by having the Judge himself be in charge of his welcome party. After the guard at the entrance realized who Jake was, he led him Into a small private area close to the city’s entrance. There, Jake waited before he saw his little brother appear seemingly out of nowhere as he emerged from a shadow.

“Neat trick,” Jake said.

“Thanks, took a really long time to learn,” Caleb said with a light smile. “It’s been a while, huh?”

Jake instantly detected the slightly accusatory tone as he defended himself. “Let’s not act as if you’ve been toiling away to try and get in contact with me either. In fact, haven’t you spent the majority of your time going on a tour of the galaxy?”

“I’ve been doing my job, yes, thank you for noticing,” Caleb nodded. “The Court has branches in many places, and we even have a few planets where we are the dominant force. It’s only proper that I at least pay them a visit and introduce myself, considering they’ll be working under me for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, last I heard, you’ve been stuck at home playing with alchemy that occasionally causes skybeams to break your ceiling.”

“Hey, that’s not fair. It happened once,” Jake said, crossing his arms, seeing no need to mention that if not for Arnold and Hank reinforcing the lab, everyone would have seen a few more beams.

“Some would say once is one time too many,” Caleb countered as he went closer and pulled Jake into a hug, seemingly tired of their usual bantering. “Good to see you again.”

“Thanks, you too. It sounds like things have been going well on your end,” Jake said, returning the hug before they quickly pulled apart again. “And, to properly defend myself, I would argue I’ve also been doing my job. At least, I reckon Ell’Hakan would agree I did.”

“Yeah, it did suck having to sit on the sidelines, but the higher-ups were insistent on not getting involved this time around. I guess it’s fine to tell you now, but Ell’Hakan and Iludar both attempted to hire the Court of Shadows to help them during this conflict. On numerous occasions,” Caleb explained with a sigh. “Most recently, even the Holy Church tried. They wanted us to provide security during your little negotiation. Some did want to take the jobs, but Umbra personally placed a ban on getting involved with either side. Outright denying our biggest client did cause some internal strife, but luckily, you handled the Church pretty quickly, making them all shut up.”

“You get the feeling Umbra also knew the Malefic Viper was going to win against Yip of Yore from the very beginning?” Jake asked, curious if other top gods beside the Primordials had just assumed Villy would win.

“In retrospect, I do,” Caleb nodded. “But I will confess, I don’t think she or anyone else was entirely confident who would win between you and Ell’Hakan. They seemingly knew a lot about him that made them confident he had a good chance, and from what I gathered, they believed he did have some advantages. A predominant theory was that he wouldn’t fight you unless the environment or situation was extremely advantageous to him... which I guess did turn out to be the case. They just miscalculated how strong you truly were.”

“Well, in their defense, I can admit I also underestimated Ell’Hakan,” Jake sighed. “Or, more accurately, the Celestial Child. At least he turned out to be a lot harder to kill than I’d first assumed.”

“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, the estimated success rate for assassinating you was way lower than Ell’Hakan’s,” Caleb smiled cheekily.

“Oh?” Jake exclaimed with genuine interest. “When you say they’re lower, that means they still think the chance is above zero percent. That makes you either a lot more competent or a lot worse at risk analysis than I would assume.”

“If we go only by the power available to us in the galaxy, the chance is zero percent, rounded down, but if members from outside the universe get involved?” Caleb said with a slightly more serious tone. “While the success rate is still considered way too low, it isn’t zero. I wouldn’t really think about it too much, though. I have a hard time seeing them ever accepting a commission to take you out as things are now. If they were willing to do that, then what would have been the purpose of making me a Judge?”

“Now, wait a second,” Jake lifted a hand. “I’m not saying it would be fine, but if a little commission was made... I’m not saying that would be terrible either.”

“I’m not going to approve sending assassins your way to serve as practice,” Caleb said in a resolute tone.

“It could be fun, though,” Jake tried to argue.

“I think you’d be the only one having fun while I’d just be feeding you experience points,” Caleb sighed. “Anyway, moving on from that dumb topic, why have you come to Skyggen?”

“You’re saying I can’t visit my dear brother?” Jake smiled cheekily.

“No, I’m saying it’s highly irregular for you to visit your dear brother,” Caleb pointed out annoyingly accurately. “Which makes me automatically assume you are here for some bigger purpose. Or just to try and steal some of our more unique alchemical ingredients.”

“Is it that hard to believe I’m just here to see family?” Jake said, acting a bit offended.

“Would you be mad if I said yes?” Caleb shook his head before smiling. “Mom’s gonna be happy. She’s worried a lot.”

Instantly upon hearing that, Jake felt bad. Deep down, he knew he was a kind of shitty son, even if his parents had told him to focus on his own life. He rarely visited his parents, and while he had spoken to them occasionally using Arnold-provided phones, it wasn’t the same as actually going to see them in person.

Moreover, the scarce conversations they had were always shallow. Jake felt weird talking about what he was doing with his life, and in truth, he felt that the less he talked about it with his parents, the better it was for them. He didn’t need them to know about multiversal conflicts or Jake’s thoughts on the deep mysteries of the system.

From what he’d gathered, they were also okay with Jake not sharing much. They likely also knew that whatever parental advice or insight they could provide didn’t really apply when it came to dealing with ancient gods or destroying planets. They were great when it came to asking about taxes or something like that, but seeing as Jake didn’t have to pay taxes because he was the dictator of the planet, that didn’t help much.

Finally... Jake had done and would continue to do a lot of things he really didn’t want to talk to his parents about. He had killed countless people, been involved in wars, and even blown up an entire planet. On a morality scale, Jake definitely didn’t think he tipped toward the “good” side... though he wasn’t entirely certain he wanted to be considered “good” according to the standards of the multiverse where the Holy Church was often viewed as a beacon of moral goodness.

Still, even if Jake didn’t have a lot to talk about regarding his life, he still wanted to visit and spend time with them. He was still fine with talking about the basics of what he was doing and keeping things empty of details for the most part. Also, while he did suck at staying in contact, they did talk here and there. Jake at least knew some basic things about their lives, such as the fact they had moved since the last time Jake visited.

“Can you lead the way to their... I wanna say manor from how mom described it?” Jake asked, wanting to give Caleb the chance to show him to his parent’s new home.

“Of course,” his little brother nodded as he motioned for Jake to follow. The two of them took to the air as Caleb also took the chance to explain a few of the changes the city had gone through recently.

Overall, it had expanded greatly. No longer needing to hide, the Court of Shadows wanted to show off their presence on Earth, which meant the city was also more open now than it used to be. No longer was it a requirement to be related to a member of the Court, and many freed slaves or recent immigrants had chosen to settle down in Skyggen.

Jake wouldn’t be surprised if the city would end up being one of the largest on Earth in the future. It was also a city that was really easy to find from afar, as smack in the middle of the rapidly expanding settlement stood a towering all-black skyscraper, far taller than any of the other buildings around it. In fact, Jake wouldn’t be surprised if it was the largest currently on Earth. Even from afar, Jake could detect powerful magic on it, and Caleb gladly explained what it was.

“That’s my office building,” he said with a smile. “Filled from top to bottom with administrative staff or others working for the Court of Shadows. Most of the training facilities are placed below ground.”

“I gotta ask... seeing as the Court does assassinations, do you really have a lot of work these days? Like, enough to need that many people working on just administration alone?” Jake asked curiously, wondering if people were hiring hitmen to kill their annoying neighbors left and right.

“We have a few hits here and there, with Miranda being the biggest client by far,” Caleb said before shaking his head. “But no, the majority of jobs are more akin to traditional mercenary work. Helping clear out monster-infested areas, defending places, and a surprising amount of search and rescue missions. You know, that kind of stuff. I’m fully aware that’s not exactly what people would associate with the Court of Shadows, but we gotta take what we can in these early days. I have confidence that once things calm down, we will have more traditional work. People will always keep making enemies, and when it’s no longer feasible to outright get rid of them yourself, that’s where we come in.”

“Why do I feel like I should be reporting you to the authorities?” Jake muttered.

“If it’s any consolation, we will be working closely with the authorities. At least some of the time. I’ve come to learn that a lot of the work done by the Court of Shadows relies on walking a tightrope between illegality and remaining too useful to get rid of,” Caleb explained. “That’s why Judges are appointed. We are the ultimate authority in day-to-day matters, our job being to ensure what kind of jobs are taken and that the balance is maintained. If we fail, we also happen to be brilliant fall guys as the Court can point to us as having acted independently or been overly incompetent.”

“Not gonna lie, that doesn’t sound like a good gig,” Jake confessed. “A lot of work, and all you get out of it is responsibility. Bah.”

“Hey, it’s not all bad. In case you’re wondering, the penthouse on top of that huge tower is my home away from home. Maja and Adam also sometimes spend a few days there when I’m really stuck at work, so I can at least pop in occasionally.”

“Sounds nice, I guess,” Jake nodded, though he definitely wouldn’t trade a nice home for having to do paperwork. “Say, how are Adam and Maja?”

“You’ll see for yourself soon. All I can say is that they grow quickly when this young. Too quickly for my liking at times,” Caleb just smiled, his tone a lot different when he spoke about family compared to work.

The two of them were silent for a while as they picked up speed, and soon enough, they arrived in a nice suburban area. In one of the corners of this area was a huge plot of land with several buildings on it, and rather than a residential property, Jake would be more inclined to call it a compound.

Without using Pulse, Jake knew this had to be where his family lived... because even from afar, Jake felt the most powerful set of protective barriers he’d ever seen on the planet, if not the entire galaxy. Caleb and the Court had truly gone all out there.

“Here,” Caleb said, getting back Jake’s attention as his little brother threw him a small token of sorts. “Infuse your energy into that, and it’ll work like a key. Should let you slip through the barriers.”

Jake nodded and did as Caleb said. Upon doing so, he also noticed that he couldn’t really have waited. Caleb had done something to “unlock” the token for registration, and if Jake had been just ten seconds slower, it would have crumbled the second he tried to infuse any energy. Jake could only guess this was protection against the token getting stolen, and while it wasn’t as good as using Soulbound items, it was pretty good.

Inspecting the property further before flying down, Jake saw there were a total of seven buildings, though only two of them looked like they were in daily use. One of them looked a lot like the house his parents had lived in the last time Jake visited, making him assume it was theirs.

Next to it was the one Jake assumed Caleb, Maja, and Adam usually lived in. He primarily based this on the two people he saw right behind the building in a large fenced-in yard.

He saw Maja sitting in a lawn chair, watching a boy run around swinging a stick in the air as if he was fighting invisible enemies. He was far faster than a pre-system kid, his swings powerful enough to kill a grown man by Jake’s estimation.

Beside him, Caleb couldn’t help but have a massive grin on his face as he watched this scene before turning to Jake. “Let’s head down there... oh, and I’m pretty sure Maja also said she was baking today, so maybe we’ll get lucky.”

Jake smiled and nodded. “Let’s hope she made some of her raisin cookies; they’re awesome.”

Caleb looked at Jake with a deadpan expression. “You know... often I question how my big brother became the Chosen of an evil snake god, but at other times, I fully understand.”

“Raisin cookies are good, and the hate for them is entirely unwarranted,” Jake argued with conviction.

“...actually, I guess I could reconsider accepting a job with your name on it.”