Jason cleared his throat and continued, “Uh, so, uh, I want to give you the monster-wood rapier we found—not that I knew what monster-wood was before—and also the monster-wood staff—”
“No,” Mareen said softly, but slammed her hand on the table. Bezzi-ibbi winced. There had been enough strength in that slap to break a normal person’s bones. “No,” Mareen repeated. “Aodh should get the staff when he and Henry come back.” With that, she settled back into her chair and looked at the table again.
Uluula pursed her lips, staring at Mareen in concern before turning to Jason and shrugging. Jason wetted his lips with his tongue and said, “Ah, I meant to say, the monster-wood rapier and the enchanted bow we found. The only archer among us is Mareen, and the bow is not meant for someone with enhanced strength.”
Yanno-ibbi nodded, saying, “That is very generous, but the Jaguar Clan—”
Thirsty spoke over him, “We’ll take it.” Yanno-ibbi laid back his ear in surprise, but Thirsty continued, “I’m not taking it as a gift, though. I’ve worked for every damn thing I’ve ever had. No, this is a loan, you sexy teleporting bastard.”
Jason blinked. “Ah—”
Thirsty held up a hand. “Yeah, this is a loan. I’m gonna get rich, and I’m gonna get more powerful, and I’m gonna give all you badass pimps and pimpettes the most fierce fucking outfits and accessories on this whole ratchet-ass planet.” Then Thirsty snapped, ending the conversation.
Jason blinked while the rest of the table just stared at Thirsty. Finally, he said, “Okay, sounds like a plan! We’ll do that, then.”
Bezzi-ibbi wrestled with himself briefly. He didn’t want to make a scene, but he felt like he had achieved some small amount of wisdom over the last couple days. Finally, he steeled his resolve to do the right thing, the honorable thing, and the brave thing. He would show respect to his loved ones. He would be true to his heart and never take life for granted again.
Bezzi-ibbi stood, walked around the table and hugged Thirsty in the Terran fashion. The tall, strange Terran man stared, but Bezzi-ibbi just hugged him tighter before letting go. He said in English, “You are a pervert, but I don’t care. I love you, Thirsty, my friend. You are a near-brother to me. I hope to see you again under the light of the Day.”
Then he moved to Yanno-ibbi. His uncle already had his hands out, and Bezzi-ibbi put his on top of them. Then Yanno-ibbi reared his hand back and smacked Bezzi-ibbi across the face. Bezzi-ibbi immediately dropped back, snarling, showing no weakness while his Family member gave him respect. After a heartbeat, Yanno-ibbi settled back, satisfied with Bezzi-ibbi’s response.
The young Jaguar Clan heir took a step forward, placing his forehead against Yanno-ibbi’s and softly said, “Thank you for everything, Uncle. I will remember your words until the day I die. I hope to see you under the light of the Day again. If not, we will hunt together with the ancestors. You will always be welcome on my hunting land.”
“And you on mine,” said Yanno-ibbi, his voice thick with emotion.
Bezzi-ibbi jerkily squared his shoulders, then returned to his seat. He glanced around in confusion, wondering why everyone was crying. Why were the others emotional? The farewell had been a good one. He didn’t understand Terrans at all sometimes.
Jason cleared his throat. “Delvers LLC and friends, now that we’re all together, we—”
Suddenly, Uluula elbowed him in the ribs, stopping him in his tracks. “Where’s Keeja?” she asked.
“I didn’t see her at all last night,” said Gonzo.
“You’re right,” muttered Vitaliya. Mareen just nodded.
“When was the last time anyone saw Keeja?” asked Uluula. “We still have a ton of questions, especially about that boxy weapon. We need to figure out where Henry went.” Mareen nodded again, harder this time.
Bezzi-ibbi watched the scene and silently hoped Henry and Aodh were not dead. He knew everyone else in the group was secretly hoping the same.
“Where the hell did that irresponsible High Priestess go this time?” asked Jason, irritation coloring his voice. The rest of the table looked somewhat uncomfortable, still aware of Keeja’s recent display of enormous power. Bezzi-ibbi just smiled. It was good to know his brother had not had his spirit bent or broken in any way.
If anyone could find Henry, it would be Jason. If anyone could survive just about anything, it would be Henry.
His brothers were worthy of respect. Bezzi-ibbi believed in them.
Different Burdens
Jason wished he were still back in Harmly. Sleeping in a real bed for a few days had been nice, even if he hadn’t gotten to see Uluula much. His wife had been spending a lot of time with Mareen, helping her deal with Henry’s disappearance.
Missing. It’d been over two weeks since the group had left Harmly. The whole party felt the absence of everyone who wasn’t with them anymore. In particular, Thirsty was sorely missed by almost everyone. The strange, flamboyant man had been subtly improving morale the whole time he’d been with them, and Jason had never even noticed. He felt like an idiot.
On top of Thirsty not being with them anymore to talk about random things from Earth, or remark on everything they passed, or sing along to songs on Keeja’s music player…they didn’t even have the music player itself anymore. Keeja had taken it with her when she’d vanished over two weeks before.
Jason drove the Battlewagon slowly; the land between Harmly and the Stem River had been rough, and now that they had found the river, it wasn’t much easier to navigate. Plus, nobody was manning the turret anymore. Henry was the only one who could use it, and he was gone.
Gone. Henry and Aodh being missing was one of the many things he had been avoiding thinking about.
Jason glanced back at Mareen. As usual now, she was riding in the turret where Henry used to be. She’d been getting much better with her bow, and while she wasn’t as effective as Henry used to be on the Battlewagon’s guns, her efforts had made the trip a little smoother. Not having to slow down for every random flying monster they ran into helped a lot.
The group was still fairly quiet, but beginning to come around. Bezzi-ibbi in particular seemed to have grown up a lot over the last few weeks. Jason had a hard time thinking of the boy as a kid anymore, despite the fact he was probably still middle school aged. His eyes just had a depth of wisdom, insight, and personal pain that the programmer-turned-adventurer found disconcerting sometimes.
Jason had decided to honor Mareen’s request and save the monster-wood staff for Aodh if he returned. Hopefully he would return. Quite frankly, the weapon freaked Jason out. He couldn’t wait to get rid of it.
Monster-wood, he’d learned, was a fairly rare material that only grew on the northern tip of Halal, the largest island on Ludus. Apparently, the Areva nations of Hilil and Hanana controlled all access and trade to the island. The material was harvested and weapons were made from it. It was even stronger than steel.
Unfortunately, it was alive. He looked at the staff and shuddered. It had bonded with him. Monster-wood weapons bonded with one person and reverted to a natural state when the bond was broken. Vitaliya had found the staff while it was slowly crawling off like an inchworm after the big battle two weeks before.
Monster-wood weapons were expensive, but they needed to be fed. In fact, after learning about them, he’d had been informed they were popular with people who did a lot of killing, like hunters and active soldiers. Meanwhile, Jason had to just throw a cup of blood at the staff every few days and hope for the best. Gonzo had told him that if a monster-wood staff got too hungry, it might bite the hand holding it.
The plain, bumpy, reddish-looking wood staff didn’t look like much next to Jason, but he’d seen the thing moving before. The fact a solid, rigid weapon could move was something out of a nightmare. Deep down, Jason feared the damn thing would get hungry and just reach over to take a bit out of his arm.
He’d never seen a mouth. He wasn’t even sure how it ate, but he didn’t want
to find out.
Jason shook his head and stopped thinking about the disturbing staff. He had other, more important things to ponder.
He glanced at the box full of spirit stones by his feet and swallowed. The amount of wealth he had just sitting around in a wooden box was staggering. Minus the one spirit stone that Uluula had used to save his life, he still had ten left. It was insane.
Deep down, Jason knew he was hoping Henry would get back before he had to make a decision about what to do with all the stones, but he couldn’t afford to wait much longer. The most recent battle had been an eye opener. Now the entire team knew they had to get much stronger.
Jason had to be honest with himself. He was a little scared. He had a feeling that if he swallowed enough spirit stones again to go up a rank, he would. But he wondered what he was becoming. His transformation when he’d fought Biivan was terrifying in retrospect. He’d essentially been burning up his own life to maintain that level of power, and he hadn’t fully been in control of himself, either.
He eyed the box warily, realizing that spirit stones were no longer only a means for him to advance as an orb-Bonded. Now they were also fuel for his limitbreak. However, even if the purple cartoon cat hadn’t warned him against swallowing too many spirit stones at once, Jason wouldn’t have done so.
The spirit stones held so much raw power, the fact he was swallowing them in the first place was completely insane. He shook his head. He more or less knew how he’d spend his points when he ranked up next. He had advancement points already saved up, too. He’d been dragging his feet, but he knew he was putting the group in danger by not leveling up.
Still, he appreciated that everyone was giving him time. Losing Henry and Aodh had hit him, Mareen, and Vitaliya hardest. Mareen was beginning to become more animated, but Jason saw a brittleness, a sharpness about her now that made him worry. Mareen was Henry’s wife, but she was Jason’s friend.
He worried for her mental health.
Jason hoped she wasn’t tearing herself up. He knew all too well how poisonous that could be, but he didn’t know how to broach the subject with her.
He sighed and shrugged. What would be, would be. He was glad he wasn’t a control freak, or he’d have been having a fit.
That said, he found Keeja’s disappearance completely aggravating. More than anything, he needed answers, but the fucking eons-old demigoddess riding shotgun with his little group had decided to take off without telling anyone.
Jason huffed and began steering the Battlewagon to a handy clearing in order to make camp. After a few moments, Vitaliya and Gonzo zoomed past him, riding the last two remaining magicycles. They’d obviously understood what he intended, probably not too difficult since the sun was beginning to set in the east. The Berban spies usually followed behind the Battlewagon in case a large monster popped out of the Stem River. It didn’t happen often, but it was worth taking precautions.
Luckily, Jason had truly been mastering his null-time-enhanced throwing knives. So far, he’d been able to kill almost any monster they encountered with very little effort. He wondered again what he was becoming. Was he even really human anymore? The thought was sobering, and he couldn’t help but remember how it’d felt to battle Biivan across the sky.
The raw energy that had coursed through his body…it’d been like a drug. Jason could almost remember how he’d achieved the limitbreak state, too. He knew if he really had to, he could probably do it again, and the realization scared the hell out of him. He didn’t think he was meant to have such power, not yet, anyway.
In the last couple weeks, he’d tried replicating some of the abilities he remembered using while in his limitbreak state, but he had no luck. It was like his memories were him riding in his head, controlling his body like a video game. His memories almost didn’t feel real. He could recall what he had done, but not how. Jason wondered if he even had the power to do the things he’d done in his normal state.
Probably not. The thought strangely comforted him a bit. Remembering he had limitations made him feel a little bit grounded, a bit more human. Having superpowers and magic was cool at first, but Ludus was a dangerous world, and he was beginning to really feel the added danger of having a target painted on his back by Dolos.
Dolos, that dickhead. Jason frowned. Other members of the Delvers LLC company had been nervous around Keeja after she’d killed Biivan, but Jason had been largely unaffected. He’d not only already suspected how powerful she really was, but he’d seen Dolos casually exert enough power to obliterate a forest while only slightly annoyed.
The world was insane, or at least Ludus was.
After stopping the Battlewagon, Jason disembarked and ran his hand over the bronze exterior. He’d built this thing with Henry. It had Henry’s touch all over it, even down to the stupid name. For a guy who constantly bitched about stupid names on Ludus, Henry sure hadn’t had any problems coming up with his own. Jason chuckled at the thought.
Speaking of stupid names, Jason spotted a flash of light in the sky, probably a magic messenger bird, or MMB as the group was all calling them now. He smiled crookedly, but the expression changed to surprise when he saw the light had indeed been an MMB, and it was descending to his group.
He watched in astonishment as the MMB slowly came to a stop before Mareen, hovering expectantly. Mareen said something but Jason couldn’t hear it. Then she hesitantly held her hand out, letting the creature deposit a note before zooming off into the sky.
With trembling hands, Mareen unfolded the note. Jason quickly glanced around and noticed that the beautiful, dark-skinned woman had the attention of every member of the group. Bezzi-ibbi in particular watched with interest, his eyes bright, nose twitching.
Mareen took a deep breath with her eyes closed, and then she began to read. After a few moments, she slowly put the note down, took another deep breath, and said softly but clearly, “Henry is alive. He’s really alive.” She shed a single, slow tear, before collapsing against the side of the Battlewagon’s turret.
Uluula raced past Jason, nimbly climbing to the top of the Battlewagon to check on her friend. Jason’s mind went blank. Henry was really alive? A great weight he’d been carrying on his shoulders and hadn’t even been aware of seemed to vanish.
Jason wasn’t sure how he ended up in on the ground, but the next thing he knew, he was sitting on his butt, his hands spread wide behind him. He closed his eyes, looking up at the sky, thinking, Thank you, God, thank you for not taking my friend. Thank you…thank you.
Jason began to cry and didn’t care who saw it. It was like part of him that had died had been reborn. He didn’t even have a word for the emotion he was feeling, but the closest would have been gratitude.
While he sat on the ground of a dangerous, alien planet, a grown man wearing a sword, crying, Jason decided to swallow two more spirit stones that night and become a rank three orb-Bonded.
He had to move forward. As long as he was on Ludus, he had to move forward. He was like a shark—if he stopped swimming, he’d die. Jason has been through a lot and he bore a lot of wounds from it, but he was still whole.
The tall, sandy-haired man felt deep, profound relief. He hadn’t lost Uluula, and Henry was still alive. All the spirit stones in his box paled in comparison to the wealth he felt knowing that his only family on the entire God-forsaken planet were still among the land of the living.
Jason wept.
Politically Expedient
Yelm tapped his foot impatiently. He let his magic creep through his body, manifesting on his fingertips in a subtle warning. He growled a question. “Why haven’t you found them yet?”
The woman he spoke to, a Ludus-born Terran, a Ludan, merely smiled. She was obviously not intimidated in the slightest.
With an effort of will, Yelm reined in his temper. He was aware of all the other eyes on him. There would always be time to properly deal with Celina; the smug bitch was not as untouchable as she thought she was.
He grimace
d as he swallowed his frustration. He was in too deep now to throw a fit. Too many plans were in motion, and too many sacrifices had been made.
He glanced at the symbol of Asag on the wall in distaste. The dark altar still sported wet blood pooling around its base. One good thing about living on a planet with so many more women than men was how easy it made virgin sacrifice. Asag was an old-school god, apparently. He wanted the sacrifice of pure girls, even if finding them wasn’t particularly difficult on Ludus.
Yelm steeled himself. Originally, he’d just been out to get revenge for Jeth, but eventually his contact in the Berban seditionists had convinced him to work with the Asag cultists. He found the entire assignment extremely distasteful, but he couldn’t argue with the results.
He also couldn’t deny that the cultists somehow had a very impressive intelligence network. He didn’t know how, but they’d known about Henry and Jason heading to Berber before his own contacts had.
As he always did, Yelm had ingratiated himself with his fellows and attained a lofty rank in a relatively short amount of time. Being orb-Bonded hadn’t hurt. Still, now it seemed he just sat around and watched the dark-robed zealots murder girl-children.
Celina, the priestess of this cell of cultists, said, “Ludus may be smaller than Earth, Yelm, but it’s still a large place. Besides, we know where they’re going. In point of fact, they’re coming here, to this city. It makes more sense to set up resources to find them when they get here than try to patrol an eighth of the world looking for them. You should feel lucky. Your personal vendetta seems to align with our purpose.
“I am not sure why the Terrible Lord wants your enemies dead, this Jason and Henry, but we listen to his law, not to your threats.”
Yelm clenched his teeth, holding back a retort. The bitch was telling the truth. Every cultist he was surrounded with in the subterranean hideout would gladly give their life for the demon god and cared little about the Berber sedition.
Delvers LLC: Obligations Incurred Page 28
