Suriel

“Grab a seat Anali, I’ll let—” Thea reached up from where she was still sitting and grabbed the half-elf’s neck before slamming her head into the bartop. Morgan just stared at the scene with her mouth half-open while the room went eerily quiet.

Bryce stood up with a heavy sigh and let go of the spell hiding her mantle before casually walking over to the other side of Anali to check her pulse. “Suriel, it seems like she’s still alive. Could you make sure she stays that way? Try to limit any permanent damage if you can.” I nodded and immediately started channeling healing magic into the poor woman.

She wasn’t even breathing anymore and calling her ‘alive’ was stretching the definition of the word. At this point, what I was doing was far closer to a resurrection.

“Please let Zen know that Captain Virra is here, and that Anali showed up while I was waiting. He’ll understand.” She just stood there, unmoving, so Bryce spoke again. “Morgan, this is somewhat urgent. I’d appreciate it if you hurried.”

“W-what?” Morgan seemed to snap out of it and nodded a few too many times. “Right, C-captain?” Bryce nodded very deliberately, causing the human to swallow before continuing. “Captain Virra and Anali, I’ll go tell Zen.” She rushed towards the back of the room while the few people left in the bar decided that now was a good time to make an exit.

“Thea, she’s losing blood too quickly. I’m not going to be able to keep her alive with your talons in her neck,” I warned, which earned me a death glare from my sister. Thankfully, Bryce intervened.

“For gods sake, Thea, let her go. We aren’t killing her here. Just grab her gun and belt to be safe, but don’t put the belt in your ring, it could be enchanted with dimensional magic.”

“Fine, but if she attacks us, then I won’t be nearly as gentle.” Thea released Anali, letting her fall to the floor, and I was finally able to heal her fully. She let out a gasping breath, and once she regained some sense, she quickly reached for her missing belt as she backed herself against the bar.

Bryce squatted down in front of her with a half-grin that went nowhere near her eyes. “Hello Anali, do you know who I am?” She nodded without speaking, so Bryce continued. “Then I assume you also know why you’re sitting on the floor in a pool of your own blood?”

Anali looked down at her blood-covered hand, then back up to respond. “Look, I know they were your friends, but don’t you think you might have overreacted just a bit?”

Her head snapped back into the bar as Bryce broke her nose. I was going to object, but then I saw Thea smirking out of the corner of my eye, and realized that breaking Anali’s nose had probably just saved her life.

“Alright, this is what happens next. Zen is going to walk down those stairs any minute now, and when he does, you’re going to be sitting at the bar with a smile on your face, excited for the opportunity to make things right. Then we’re going to have a very short conversation where you explain where Ithnaa is and how exactly you’re planning on helping us get her back.”

Anali seemed like she was about to agree, but paused instead. I used that opportunity to heal her. “Thanks…” She rubbed at her newly fixed nose before finally addressing Bryce. “You didn’t get permission to attack me in Captain Aoyama’s territory. That’s why you want Zen to mediate, and why you healed me. You’re in deep shit here, Virra, and if you want me to help you, then you better make it worth my while.”

Bryce let out a heavy sigh before looking around the room and pointing towards the bar. “Suriel, hand me one of those napkins.” I did, and she thanked me before wiping most of the blood off of Anali’s face. “We can discuss how I’m going to make it ‘worth your while’ in a moment, but first, how much do you know about blood magic?” She held up the now blood covered napkin and Anali’s face paled.

“What the fuck did you do to my bar?” A man shouted from the other side of the room. Bryce stood up before motioning for Anali to do the same.

“It’s alright, Zen, I’m fine.”

“I don’t care about your dumb ass who can't even follow a simple instruction. Who in the hells is going to pay for all this?”

The bartop was covered in blood and had a huge crack in it. To make matters worse, it looked like it had been made of real wood.

“Sorry about that,” Bryce apologized as she approached the burly human. “Thea will be cleaning up all the blood, as well as covering the cost to replace your counter. In fact, she’s going to start cleaning now while we have our conversation in the other room.”

“Wait, what? Why me?” She asked indignantly, but then backpedaled when we all just stared at her. “Fine, but I’m not giving the gun back. Morgan, where do you keep all of your cleaning supplies?”

The poor bartender jumped at the mention of her name. “Oh, they’re, um, in the back room.”

Zen shook his head, but seemed less upset than before. “Mor, help Thea find the supplies, then close out and let anyone still around know to head home. You and everyone else will be paid for your full shifts with triple overtime, so enjoy your night off.”

“Yes sir. Um, right this way, please, Ms. Thea.” Morgan directed Thea behind the bar, but my youngest sister didn’t move, not right away at least. Instead, she glared at me, of all people.

“I’m only doing this because you’re going to be with Bryce the entire time. Don’t leave her alone under any circumstance. If this bitch even so much as looks at her suggestively, then I want you to tear her head off. And for fucks sake, don’t heal her afterwards. That would just make the whole thing pointless.”

“Understood,” I responded while nodding seriously. I had never seen Thea like this before, and it was honestly terrifying. She had always been the baby of the family. Mischievous, sure, and more than a little spoiled, but this was so far removed from the Thea I knew that I barely recognized her. The shift had to have happened after we lost our father. There was no other way to explain it.

Amazingly, Thea seemed to visibly relax and asked Morgan softly. “Sorry about that. Where did you say the cleaning supplies were?”

“Just over here. Please, follow me.” She led Thea behind the bar, and Bryce turned to address Zen.

“Shall we?”

“Captain Aoyama is already on her way, but she can meet us upstairs when she gets here. Follow me.” He turned to leave, and the three of us followed him up a set of stairs and through a short hall to a small room. It was an intimate space, with a single couch that followed the circumference of the room allowing two people sitting on opposing sides to face each other.

Bryce took a seat on one of the edges and I sat beside her with Zen and Anali sitting across from us.

“First, I’d like to apologize to Zen. We agreed to a set of circumstances and had every intention of following through with them. However, the situation has clearly changed. I would like to make this right for you and Aoyama, but not at the risk of my crew. Thea will reimburse you for damages, including any loss of profit caused by this incident. In exchange, I expect you to facilitate the immediate return of my crew. At this point, I’ll consider any further attempts to delay as acting in bad faith and will respond in kind with decisive, lethal force.”

Anali seemed like she was about to respond, but Zen cut her off. “Captain Virra, that sort of threat coming from a member of the council, even an unofficial one, is above our paygrade. We can’t continue to discuss this without Captain Aoyama present.”

I leaned over to Bryce and whispered in her ear. “Apologies for interrupting. However, I believe that it’s worth me pointing out that Zen isn’t being honest. If I had to guess, he’s attempting to delay discussions until Captain Aoyama arrives in order to shift the blame to her or possibly just use her rank as leverage in negotiations.”

“Thank you, Suriel,” she responded without breaking eye contact with the human. “Now would likely be a good time to mention that the devils I travel with are all fallen celestials of Inim, and that each is capable of discerning lies. This is your final warning. Return my crew to me, or there will be consequences.”

“We don’t have her anymore,” Anali blurted out before Zen could respond. “The meeting with Maymi was last night, and we handed her off the first chance we got. Hells, we didn’t even make any money from doing it. We just wanted her gone.”

“Where is she now?” Bryce asked, without skipping a beat.

“She’s still in the area, but probably not for long. Maymi set up a meeting with Mother even before the handoff. I can’t imagine she’ll want to hold on to your friend for longer than she has to.”

“Which sector does Maymi operate out of?

“She controls twenty-nine, but if you want to meet with her, then you’ll need to arrange it first,” Zen answered. “She spends most of her time off the station while renting the majority of her sector to freelancers.”

“Are you willing to manage the arrangements?” Bryce raised an eyebrow, and he hesitated.

“Will Maymi survive it if I do?”

“As it stands, I have no grudge against Maymi, and if she cooperates, that will continue to be true,” she answered, but Zen didn’t seem convinced. “In that case, if you don’t want to set up a meeting for me, then just let her know I’ll be by her sector early tomorrow morning and if she wants to be lording over anything more than a pile of ash, then she’ll be there to greet me.”

Bryce stood up, and I followed her lead. “I’ve sent you a feed request. Send me an invoice once you’ve determined the total cost of today’s visit. Feel free to charge me whatever you deem fair, just don’t overdo it. If you do end up contacting Maymi, and she wants to talk, then let me know. And finally, Anali, this isn’t over. We’ll be having another conversation soon, and next time I won’t be bringing a healer with me.”

We left the room without waiting for a response and met back up with Thea a short distance away in the bar area. She had done a surprisingly good job cleaning up the blood, considering how short our meeting had been.

“Hey babe, all done? Did you kill her?”

Bryce shook her head without pausing her march. “Not yet, but we shouldn’t have any issues tracking her down in the future. Come on, I can explain the details on the way.”

We left the bar, but only made it a few meters towards the transit station before we were stopped by an angry-looking vampire woman flanked by a pair of bound demons. “Captain Virra, you’ve overstepped. I warned you not to pursue my wards while you were on Paradise.”

The streets weren’t quite busy, but they were far from empty, and a crowd started forming around our two groups.

“You did,” Bryce agreed. “But unfortunately, Captain Aoyama, we found ourselves in a position where a fight was unavoidable. I’ve provided Anali with healing, and as far as I’m aware, she’ll suffer no permanent side effects. I’ve also offered to pay Zen for any damages, should he provide me with an invoice. If there’s something else you’d like me to do to make things right, then I will consider it.”

The vampire captain stared at her in a seething silence, but Bryce refused to budge. Eventually, Captain Aoyama spoke. “You clearly care for your crew deeply, which is a sentiment that I can appreciate. However, this search is clouding your judgment. This is your final warning. Do not attack my wards. Doing so again will mean war between our factions. Seek me out when you are finished with this crusade of yours and we will discuss appropriate recompense.” She walked past us and into the bar, causing the crowd to begin to disperse.

“She was lying,” Thea pointed out, and I shook my head.

“Not quite. She was actually bluffing, which has a subtly different taste to it,” I explained before addressing Bryce. “I’d recommend against trying to call her on it, though. We’ve backed her into a corner where she’s forced to choose between her fear of us and her pride. All too often, people in this situation will choose their pride. While I have no doubt we’d be able to handle her if it came to a fight, killing two members of the council in the same week could cause the rest of them to consider you a threat.”

“Well, maybe they should,” Bryce said as she started towards the transit station again. “I’m starting to get tired of playing politics with a bunch of pirates.”