Ithnaa

“Are you serious? She said that?” Anali asked in disbelief. “Wait, what about our contract? I’m not going to agree to anything with that still in place, and I want to talk to Captain Virra myself to go over the details. I’m not giving her an open-ended promise, especially not through you.”

“Too bad.” I glared at the mortal still lying on the couch. “Bryce isn’t leaving that room until she comes up with a way to kill Mother, and that’s something that I have a vested interest in. So, I’m willing to make you a deal.”

“What kind of deal?”

“Convince your crew to do what Bryce asked, and I’ll let you buy out your contract with me.”

“How much?” She looked up at me warily.

“That depends. How much did you make selling Sora and Samira?”

“Ten million.”

I stared at her without saying a word before teleporting to Suriel’s room. He nearly fell out of the bed as he shot upright and tossed a data-pad at me. I caught it and handed it back to him. “Gods below, you scared me.”

“Come with me,” I demanded, before adding an apology. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. Would you mind helping me with Anali? I could order her to tell me the truth, but I’m trying to be nice.”

“Why?” Leila asked from the other bed without looking up from what she was reading.

“Because I don't trust her, and my first impulse was to teleport the two of us outside so that I could negotiate while holding her over the engines. Your brother would serve as a way to dissuade her from lying without me having to resort to violence.”

“That’s not what I was asking.” Leila finally sat her book down to look at me. “Why are you trying to be nice?”

“That’s personal.”

“He isn’t going to help you unless you tell us first.” Suriel seemed like he was going to object, but a glare from his sister caused him to shift directions.

“Sorry, but if you don’t want to tell her, then you could probably just ask Thea. She’s generally pretty good at detecting lies.”

“Yet decidedly bad at deescalating situations. Especially when Anali is involved.” I shifted my weight as I considered alternatives, but then, in the interest of being open, I gave in. “I spent more than two years trapped in a bottle of cheap alcohol because I was arrogant and impulsive. Then, not even a month after being released, I was captured again for the same damn reason. I’m trying to do things differently now so that it doesn’t happen again.”

Leila looked towards Suriel, who shook his head. “She’s telling the truth, but not all of it. There’s definitely more to the story.”

“Well? What else?”

“Does it matter?” I asked, and Leila shrugged.

“I’m bored. Entertain me.”

I gritted my teeth before sighing and unclenching my fist. “I’ll try asking Aurora. Thank you for your time.”

“Ask me what?”

I turned around to see the ex-celestial standing in the doorway. Her hair was a mess and her shirt was inside-out. If it wasn’t already obvious what she had been doing, the satyr she had been doing it with hadn’t even bothered to get dressed before joining us.

“Ithnaa wants help negotiating with Anali,” Suriel explained.

“But she won’t tell us why she can’t just threaten her,” Leila added. “We’re refusing to help until she does.”

“Sounds like fun. So, Ithnaa, what’s going on?”

“This was a mistake. Excuse me.” I tried to leave, but Aurora moved to block me.

“Come on, you can talk to us. We won’t tell anybody.”

My first thought was to teleport away, but it wasn’t a large ship, and I would just be in the same position as when I started. Besides, my only other option at this point was to either threaten Anali, or go to Thea, and I was starting to think that this sort of thing ran in the family. “When I woke up the other day, I coerced Anali into a contract, then used the contract to force her to tell us about her crew.”

“Oh, I get it. You feel bad about it, right?” The satyr asked with a grin.

“No, I don’t,” I answered without hesitating. “Sora saw most of it, and they told Samira. Now, she’s worried about me.”

“Is she worried about you, or your relationship with Sora?” Suriel asked.

“I’m not in a relationship with Sora.”

“But you would like to be, which means you need Sami’s approval.” Aurora grinned at me, and I didn’t argue. “Come on, I’ll help you out. Anali and I kind of hit it off while we were looking for a way to free you. I think she’ll trust me to be fair.” I went to grab her shoulder and teleport us away, but she held out a hand to stop me. “Just know that I am actually going to be fair. If you want someone to lie to her, then you’ll need to ask Leila, or maybe Thea. Although, Lei won’t do it for free, and it’s a coin toss on whether or not Thea would even talk to her.”

“And what about you, Suriel?” I turned back to look at him and he shook his head.

“A few centuries ago, I would have ordered my sisters to apprehend you for even suggesting something like that, but I’m not that person anymore. I won’t help you trick Anali, but I won’t stop you either.”

“Those are your choices. You can either work out a deal fairly with me, owe Leila, or try to convince Thea.”

I didn’t even need to take time to consider before answering. “I’m planning on acting in good faith. Having somebody there that Anali trusts could only help the situation.”

“Alright, great. Let me go get changed and I’ll meet you upstairs.” Aurora went back into her room across the hall with her satyr in tow, and I teleported back to the living area to deal with the irritating mortal.

~~~~~

“Somebody is at the door.” Sora lazily tapped my arm, and I pulled them in closer as I snuggled into their neck.

“You should answer it then.”

“I can’t unless you let go of me.” They pulled my arm tighter around their waist, and I let out a heavy sigh before teleporting to the door and opening it.

“What do you want?”

“I don’t know enough about djinn anatomy. Do you have a moment?” Bryce didn’t even bother to look up from her data-pad when Sora started laughing from their bed. “Shut up. That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“I didn’t say anything, but if you want an expert on djinn anatomy, then I volunteer as tribute.”

I shook my head at their antics before actually answering Bryce’s question. “I’d be happy to help.” I turned around to grab a robe off the floor and pulled it on before turning back to give the goddess-to-be a concerned look. “This experiment of yours won’t kill me, right?”

“What?” She finally looked up at me as she took a second to process my question. “Oh, no, it’s nothing dangerous. I just need to take a look at your core. If it works like a mortal’s, then I should be able to disconnect it from your soul, which would effectively put a near-silent expiration date on Mother. It wouldn’t kill her right away, but eventually mana-decay would kick in.”

“What’s mana-decay?” Sora asked from the bed, and I explained with a frown.

“Most living things require a constant supply of mana in order to live. If they don’t receive it, then they start to decay. It’s a particularly unpleasant way to die, and would be a fitting end for Mother, but djinn aren’t mortal. So, I doubt our cores are at all similar.”

“And even if they are, Mother’s core might be different than yours since she’s a progenitor,” Bryce added with a sigh. “But it’s worth a shot. If it works, then we’ll have a nearly silent way to kill her, and if it doesn’t, then I have six other spells that might.”

“Will any of them destroy the planet we’re on?” Sora asked, and I was about to tell them to take this seriously when Bryce nodded.

“One of them would likely ignite the atmosphere. I’m not sure what it would do in the Aether, but it shouldn’t be as bad.”

“Let’s keep that one to real-space, then?” They pleaded.

“We’ll see. Right now, that particular spell is my second-to-last resort. So, hopefully, I don’t have to cast it at all.”

Sora immediately got out of bed and marched up to her. “Bryce, no matter what happens, you cannot cast the spell from Para Vista. I don’t care if nothing else works. It’s not worth the risk.”

She took a step back as she blinked at them. “Sora, that’s not even on the table. None of the spells I’m preparing have anything to do with the soul. The closest by far is the one I’m experimenting with right now, and since it shouldn’t damage either the soul or the core directly, it'll hopefully be different enough to keep me from getting a soul mantle.”

“Wait, then what’s your last resort? What could be more dangerous than destroying a planet?”

“Ithnaa, would you mind coming back with me to the observation room? It’s a little quieter there, which should make it easier to focus.”

“Of course. Lead the way.” I followed her away from Sora’s shouting. “You know they hate it when you do that, right?”

“Oh, I know. It’s the only way I’ve found to get back at them,” Bryce chuckled as we made our way into the dining area, where Anali was waiting to ambush us.

“Captain Virra, we need to talk.”

“I told you to wait until she’s done.” I crossed my arms and set the half-elf with a glare.

“You said not to bother her while she’s in her room. Now she’s not. Besides, this can’t wait.”

I was about to object when Bryce interrupted. “It’s fine. If it can’t wait, then it can’t wait. What do you need, Anali?”

“Doc’s tech takes time. If you want something built by the time we reach Halcyon, then you’ll have to choose between anti-scrying or teleportation dampening. He can’t do both.”

“Ithnaa, what do you think?”

“Anti-scrying. Mother is going to be able to push her way past any wards we put in place, but she does still need to know where we are to do that. I doubt anything we can do will stop her from finding us if we’re nearby, but it might slow her down.”

Bryce shrugged. “Well, you heard her. Anything else?”

“Yeah, how much are you paying us for this?”

“I wasn’t aware we were paying you.” She looked towards me and I nodded.

“We renegotiated her contract to end if she pays Sora and Samira twenty-five million credits each, but her crew refused to give up their share of the bounty. As a compromise, I offered to give her work instead of demands. I’m going to pay her whatever you decide is fair for this.”

“Did Sora and Samira agree to this?” Bryce asked and continued questioning Anali after I confirmed they had. “How much are you actually willing to do here? Are you going to help us ambush Mother, or just provide us with the tech?”

“Yeah, no, fuck that. I’ll give you the tech, but I’m not sticking around to die. Reach out to me if you somehow make it out of this alive, and I’ll do my best to hold up my end.”

“In that case, five-thousand seems more than fair.”

“Bullshit. It’s worth at least ten times that much.”

“Alright, how about this, then? I’ll do forty-five thousand if I can’t break through with a scrying spell, otherwise it’s five.” Bryce smirked at Anali, who didn’t even skip a beat.

“If you want to make it a bet, then let’s make it a bet. I’ll give you the tech for free if you can get past it, but if you can’t, then you owe me seventy.”

“I just wanted a quality assurance test, not a bet. But sure, if that's what you’re after, then let’s do it for real. If I can’t scry through your counter measures, then I’ll pay off the debt you owe to Ithnaa.”

Anali froze before reluctantly asking the obvious question. “And if you can?”

Bryce shrugged. “Then I’ll be added to Ithnaa’s contract. You’ll be forced to accept any job I offer, but I’ll pay you a fair price for each.”

The half-elf chewed on her lip for a moment before firming her resolve and holding out her hand shake. “Deal.”

Bryce stared at her before conjuring a magical contract and placing it in the offered hand. Anali rolled her eyes before signing it, causing the contract to disappear. “Pleasure doing business with you. Was there anything else you needed?”

“No, I think that’s it.”

“Well, have a good night, then.” Bryce continued towards the observation room, but I didn’t follow right away.

“You made a mistake,” I chastised, but Anali just smirked back at me.

“You don’t know Doc like I do. There’s no way Captain Virra will be able to break past his wards.”

“You misunderstand.” I gave her an exhausted sigh. “Tell me, how much do you owe Sora?”

“Twenty-five million,” she answered after just a moment of hesitation.

“And how much do you owe Samira?” I asked, and she answered the same. “Now, with that in mind, exactly how much do you owe me?”

She started to answer, but paused when I raised an eyebrow, and all the blood drained from her face as she realized her mistake. “Fucking hells.”

“Ithnaa, are you coming?” Bryce called from the stairs and I made certain to pat the poor mortal on her shoulder as I walked past.