Thea

Bryce continued to chant in the background while the other six of us, plus Sanya, were gathered together in the hall outside our room.

“You sure you want to come with us?” I asked Leila, who was the one standing closest to me. “I’m pretty sure we can handle things without you guys. I mean, I fought Orrid all by myself, and Bryce is basically a god at this point.”

“Yes, I’m certain. There’s very little we can do on Paradise without Samira at this point, and the sooner this is handled, the sooner we can get back to repairing our new ship.”

“Fair enough. I mean, it should only take us a few days, anyway.”

“A very stressful few days,” Suriel added, but Bryce interrupted before I could retort.

“It’s open! Move!”

Since I didn’t have time for a quip, I settled for a shrug before sprinting into the room, stealing a kiss from Bryce, and rushing through the portal. We had a pretty big bedroom, but with seven people it would be tight, so I kept on moving to the living area.

Everything on the Fury was still a mess. The bar was riddled with bullet holes, the dining table was tossed aside and was covered in scorch marks, and then, on top of all of that, one of the couches was covered in dried blood. Taking in the whole scene immediately soured my mood.

“You’re paying for all of this, right?” I asked Anali, who was busy leaning against the wall.

“Yes, she is,” Ithnaa answered from where she was sitting on the couch across from her. “She’s also going to spend every waking moment cleaning up this mess until you tell her otherwise.”

“Fuck that, I don’t want the thief touching anymore of my stuff. I’ll handle all the cleaning. I just don’t want to be the one paying for the damage.”

“Sure, whatever, just send me the bill.”

I squinted at Anali. “I don’t like you.”

“You know what? Fuck this. I’m tired of being the bad guy here.” She pushed herself off the wall and started stomping towards me. “Your dumbass friends would be unconscious and halfway to Mother’s compound right now if it wasn’t for me. Hells, we only found them because Sora tried to sleep with a bartender and couldn’t be bothered to delete her contact when she didn't meet their standards. If anything, you’re lucky that we got to them before anyone else. Otherwise, it would just be some other group of two-bit bounty hunters, and I’d bet every last credit that they wouldn’t have been nearly as concerned about what happened after the two of them were handed over.”

“Which bartender?” Softie asked from behind me. I hadn’t even noticed the group forming back there. It even included Sanya, who had somehow managed to follow us through the portal.

“I thought you were just going to say goodbye to Aurora, what are you doing here?" I asked the satyr.

“Need to protect my investment.” she waved me off. “Besides, you lot are pretty entertaining. There’s no way I’m letting you leave me before I know what happens next.”

“Which bartender?” Softie ignored our side conversation to ask again.

Anali seemed to give up on being angry as she explained. “Samantha. She used to own a syndicate bar on Drassun, but it went under when the local lord was killed. One of her friends, Rossi, contacted a member of my crew and arranged to have us take her to Paradise.”

“Excuse me.” Softie pushed past me and made an angry bee-line for their room. Sami and I were both about to chase after them, but Ithnaa was faster.

“Shit. I’ll go talk to them.” She teleported away, which stopped us in our tracks.

“Samira, please work on getting the ship back online. We’ll send Sora down to talk to you when they’re out of their room.” Bryce ordered, but Sami didn’t respond right away, instead she kept staring in the direction of Softie’s room. “Samira, please, we’re racing against the clock here.”

“Right, sorry, captain. I’ll get started on that.” She turned around and sprinted down the stairs towards the engineering corridors.

“Aurora, see if there’s anything you can do to help, but leave her alone if she sends you away,” Leila ordered, and my sister nodded.

“Of course, I’ll go check on her.” She left and her twin turned towards Suriel.

“You better go with her and make sure she doesn’t get too pushy.”

“I can do that.” He left too, which only left Leila, Bryce, and me to deal with Anali. Oh, and Sanya, but she definitely didn’t count.

“You mentioned Rossi. Why does that name sound so familiar?” I had intended the question for the half-elf, but it was Bryce who answered.

“We stole her ship and used it to infiltrate Rajak’s compound, but not before Daria spent the better part of the day ‘interrogating’ her. If she managed to get off Drassun, then it could mean trouble for us. Especially if she’s still on Paradise.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about her coming after you for revenge. Honestly, the way she talked about you was, well, terrifying, but for a different reason. It was almost like she worshiped you.”

“Worshiped me? For what?” Bryce furrowed her brows, and I grabbed her hand.

“Babe, you’re basically a god now. You should get used to the idea of people wanting to go to your afterlife. I mean, it’s probably going to be pretty great.”

“That’s the last thing I want to think about right now,” she said as she shook her head, and I was about to argue about how she would need to start thinking about that soon, when Anali continued.

“It was all about how you became a candidate or whatever, not your afterlife. She wouldn’t stop talking about what you did to the Para Vista colonies. It was as if you were her hero for killing all those people.” That turned out to be exactly the wrong thing to say, and I felt my girlfriend’s entire body tense up.

“Well, congratulations on finding the actual last thing I wanted to think about right now. Thea, please show everyone to their rooms and fetch some linens so that Anali will be more comfortable on the couch.” Bryce let go of my hand and walked back up the stairs to our bedroom. I watched her leave before turning to glare at Anali.

“What the fuck was that for?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was a sensitive topic,” she apologized, and was actually telling the truth, but I was still pissed.

“You didn’t realize that her accidentally killing fifty-thousand innocent people might be a sensitive topic?” I asked in a hushed tone, but continued before Anali could respond. “Besides, it was saving my life that made her a candidate, not that.”

“Thea, how sure are you about that?” Leila asked, and I hesitated.

“It couldn’t have been anything else. The whole Vista thing happened like thirty years ago, and she only went from plain old Bryce to a godly candidate like two weeks ago.”

“She wasn’t a candidate? Why would Rossi think she was? ” Anali asked, and I shrugged.

“Probably because she single-handedly melted two of her ships? I mean, Bryce might not have become a candidate from Para Vista, but she still got almost all of her mana from it.”

“Killing those people increased her maximum mana?” Leila asked with a frown, and I nodded. “Thea, that’s simply not possible. Not unless…” she trailed off before turning to walk up the stairs. “I need to speak with her immediately.”

“Oh, this is getting good.” Sanya made like she was about to follow her, but I held out my hand.

“Nope! You can go downstairs and pick out the bedroom you want to share with Aurora,” I ordered, before pointing at Anali. “And you can go fix the dining table, then get comfortable out here, because you’re sleeping on the couch until we meet with your crew. Oh, but somebody stole our sheets, and we don’t have any extra. So, good luck with that.” I ignored the bitching coming from the satyr as I sprinted up the stairs to stop Leila from ambushing my girlfriend. Thankfully, I managed to make it there just as she was opening the door and grabbed her arm to stop her. “Lei, listen to me. This is a really hard topic for Bryce, and she’s already stretched thin. Please, just wait to talk about it until after we deal with Mother.”

“It’s fine, Thea, let her in,” Bryce shouted from inside the room, and I reluctantly let Leila go before following her in. “I know what you’re about to ask, and the answer is yes.” She chuckled grimly to herself as she answered. “Don’t look so surprised, Thea. You’re not nearly as quiet as you think you are. I could hear your entire conversation from up here.”

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Leila asked, and I was feeling a bit out of the loop.

Bryce shook her head. “There’s nothing I can say other than what happened on Para Vista was a tragedy. I didn’t even realize exactly how bad it was until a few days ago when Thea told me about her fight with Aris, and now I’m worried that it was so much worse than I ever could have imagined.”

“How could you have possibly not known?”

“Guys, what’s going on? I feel like I’m in the dark here.” I asked, and Leila turned away from Bryce with a deadly serious expression.

“Your girlfriend’s excess mana comes from directly siphoning the souls of fifty-thousand mortals. It’s the only way to make rapid mana gain like that permanent without killing yourself, and should have resulted in divine intervention. I don’t know how she got away with it.”

“Bryce, is that true?” I had killed mortals before, and even used a soul-destroying blade on more than a few of them, but there was a world of difference between damaging someone’s soul and stealing it.

“I'm not sure, but I think it’s likely,” Bryce admitted before explaining. “The spell was only designed to absorb mana, and my initial assumption was that it evolved to include life force. You see, converting between the two is relatively easy. At least, in principle. It's actually how most healing magic works. Although, I’m pretty far from an expert in that field.”

“You’re rambling,” Leila accused, and Bryce gave a self-deprecating smile.

“Sorry, I suppose I am. Anyway, the spell had already shown a propensity to self-edit, the idea that the evolution could potentially expand to include life force just made sense. Besides, I was trying to limit my research on the spell after the incident in order to prevent it from being discovered. So, I didn’t bother digging any deeper. However, after rebuilding your core, and hearing the description of how Aris died, I realized the simpler solution was that the spell took hold in the victim’s core and drained it until there was nothing left. At which point, it likely moved onto their soul and did the same thing.”

“You didn’t know that it would do that when you cast the spell?” Leila asked, and Bryce shook her head.

“No, I didn’t. It was based on a well-tested mana engine formation that I created more than half a decade before the event, one I still use even to this day to charge gems. The only thing that made this different was that I adjusted it to self-repair and targeted the output to my own core. I should have been the only one at risk.”

“And you’re not planning on ever casting this spell again?”

“Absolutely not. I would die first,” Bryce confirmed without hesitating, and Leila paused to think for a moment before continuing.

“I have one last question. Suriel told me that you threatened Anali with blood magic. Is that something you’re capable of?”

“Am I capable of threatening someone? It seems like all I can do these days,” Bryce chuckled, but Leila didn’t respond, so she continued. “I’ve studied blood magic, and in theory, can cast it, but I’ve never tried. If what you’re asking is whether or not I would have used it on Anali, then again, the answer is yes. I would have, and may very well still do it, depending on how this meeting goes.”

“I realize that I have no right to make requests, especially considering how and where we met, but I feel as though I need to ask this of you anyway. Please, don't kill Anali or her crew.”

“What? Why in the hells do you care about her?” That was probably the last thing I had expected Leila to ask. Like seriously, I had never even seen her talk to Anali.

“To be perfectly frank, I don’t care about her. However, what Bryce did to save your life likely pales in comparison to consuming the souls of fifty-thousand mortals. There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that her mantle is soul related, and it’s probably a particularly nasty one. If it’s discovered, then every single choice that she’s ever made will be under scrutiny and more than just her mantle will be at risk if she’s found wanting.”

I wasn’t sure what to say, and Bryce just sat there for a moment before pushing off the bed to stand. “I promise that I’ll keep your request in mind, but I won’t risk the safety of my crew for my own sake.” She tried to leave, but I grabbed her hand as she moved past.

“Bryce, you don’t have to sacrifice yourself for a mistake you made thirty years ago. There was no way you could have known what would happen.”

“Thank you, Thea, and I know. You don’t have to worry about me,” she lied as she pulled her hand from mine and went to lock herself in the observation room to study alone.