Bryce

“Wait, both of them? Like at the same time?” I laughed and Sora just nodded with a bewildered expression.

“Hand to the gods, I swear it to be true. I didn’t even have to get involved until everybody’s clothes were back on.” Sora’s breath was coming out as white wisps in the chilled air. “I’m pretty sure the boss had meant for them to work out their issues in one of the fight arenas, but they went to Sheila’s instead, and they asked for me.”

“And you said yes?” I pulled the blanket wrapping around me tighter and they mocked offense.

“Are you kidding? Of course I said yes! Myrin and Vivi were Teolix’s top lieutenants. They had been eyeballing each other long before I started working for him. When I found out the tension between them wasn’t of the killing-each-other variety, I just had to be a part of that.”

“You said that you didn’t get involved until their clothes were back on.” I eyed them suspiciously over my half-empty glass of fruit juice. Sora returned a mischievous smile.

“Now, that’s not what I said. I merely stated that I didn’t have to get involved until the clothes were back on. I was absolutely going to be as much a part of that hot mess as I could get away with, and I got away with a lot.” Sora took a quick sip from their glass of wine before continuing. “It’s just that the moment their clothes were back on, I had to break up a fight.”

“All of that, just to tell me you know nothing about Lyscantra?” I asked.

“No. All of that to tell you that nobody from Teolix’s organization knew anything about Lyscantra. I must have slept with nearly the entire gang; men, women, and others, but not a single one of them mentioned anything about a Lyscantra.”

“Sounds like you were popular.” I was poking fun at Sora, but they had brought up a very valid, and very concerning point.

Teolix had given us a luxury yacht, that was probably worth just shy of 100 million credits, all for a one time delivery to a nearby star system. A delivery that was already going to be late by the better part of a year.

Why was he willing to pay so much? What in those eight crates could be so valuable? Who is this Lyscantra person? And why bother with the delivery at all after all of this time?

The questions were really piling up, and I had a bad feeling about all of this.

“I worked as a navigator for Teolix for nearly five years. Some of them just liked me and I think a few just got off on the fact that I had rejected them in the past.” Sora seemed nonchalant, but I still couldn’t wrap my head around ever doing something like that.

“And you were just okay with that? Sleeping with ex-coworkers, some of whom you had already rejected?”

Sora just smiled and shrugged.

“There’s a difference between rejecting a relationship and rejecting sex. At least, there is for me. I understand that not everybody can make that distinction, but I can.” Sora finished their glass of wine. “Besides, when a dragon doesn’t want you to work, most people will side with the dragon. Sheila wasn’t most people, and I think Teolix only let it slide because I was still working for him, just less directly.”

“Well, you’re a stronger person than me. There’s no way I could have done what you did, even if it meant starving on the streets.” I really meant it too. I didn’t have any issues with sex-work, and had even enjoyed the visuals at the Garden with Thea, but I knew myself well enough to know that I could never separate the actual act from the feelings.

“It wouldn’t have been just me who was starving, and besides, I doubt you’ll ever have the chance with that cute little demon, sorry devil, girlfriend of yours.” Sora waggled their eyebrows a few too many times before laughing at me.

I was definitely blushing a little, but it wasn’t because the thought of dating Thea embarrassed me at all. I wasn’t a child, and I actually really liked the idea. It’s just that we weren’t official or anything, and while I felt like we clicked pretty quickly, we hadn’t actually known each other for very long, and sure we had a few really awesome moments, but we hadn’t actually done anything sexual, and while I really wanted to call her my girlfriend, it was definitely, probably, way too soon for that. And now my brain was running in circles trying to figure out a label for a relationship that wasn’t even three days old.

Okay, concentrating on the concealment spell was probably getting to me. It was getting really hard to think straight.

“Sorry Thea, I may have broken your girlfriend.”

Sora’s comment brought me back to my senses to see Thea standing nearby holding four dirty plates stacked with silverware. She mocked a horrified gasp, holding her one empty hand to her mouth and looking towards Sora with fake admonishment.

“What? Softie, you can’t just break a girl’s girlfriend! I trusted you. I even made you and your sister all of that food.”

Oh, Thea just called me her girlfriend. I guess I didn’t need to come up with a label. I mean, if she just wanted to just skip to girlfriends, that would be cool. If that’s what she wanted, I could probably go with that.

“Yep. Completely broken. Sorry Thea, we can probably find a replacement in Drassun. I’ll even offer to pay for it.”

What? A replacement? No, I just got her! I don’t want to be replaced.

“Hold on, I think there’s a reset button around here somewhere.” Thea kissed me. Once again, pulling me out of my stupid head and bringing me back to the conversation.

“H-h-ello, girlfriend?” I asked intelligently.

“If that’s what you want.” She whispered mere centimeters from my face and I managed a slight nod.

“Ladies, you’re both adorable, and I love it. I really do, but I would also like to remind you, as the navigator, I feel almost everything that happens on this ship. So please keep your sexual exploits to the places that are isolated from the hull, like the captain’s cabin or the bedrooms, or maybe you can take a walk outside and ask our giant tentacle friend if they would be interested in joining.”

“Fuck off, Softie, we’re busy.” Thea growled.

“Maybe later?” I sighed.

There were still a few things I needed to talk to Sora about, and overactive brain aside, having my mana painfully drained to maintain a concealment spell wasn’t exactly the best aphrodisiac. I think Thea understood because she gave me a knowing nod before quickly kissing me and standing back up straight.

“Later, when you’re feeling better,” Thea turned back toward Sora. “Careful not to break her again, because I’m pretty sure the spell she cast earlier to keep us all alive voided the warranty.”

I groaned audibly and Sora laughed loudly, which I think was exactly the response that Thea had been aiming for, because her smug aura was almost palpable as she walked to the kitchen with the dirty dishes.

“I think that your relationship is going to be bad for my health. If Thea doesn’t just outright kill me one of these days for teasing you too much, then whatever that sappy sweet display was is going to give me diabetes,” Sora said.

Thea wouldn’t kill them for teasing me, she enjoyed it too much. But, if I could convince her that the teasing was somehow threatening my life?

Maybe, but it probably wasn’t worth trying. Sora was annoying, but it was the annoying that was mostly harmless. Besides, I kind of liked them despite the teasing.

“I think we were discussing Lyscantra.” I tried to steer the conversation to something more productive than my relationship status.

“Yes, captain. If you’re done being fun, then I suppose we were.” Sora put a particular emphasis on my new title.

“I would appreciate it. We’re relatively near to Drassun and if there’s anything we want to prepare before we get there, then sooner is better than later.”

“Like I said, I hadn’t heard the name from any of Teolix’s goons, which worried me. So, while Sami was fixing the ship, and the lovebirds were out shopping, I did some digging.”

“What'd you find?” I asked.

“I started with our destination, Drassun. It’s a pretty standard single city planet, population is a little under 10 million, so it barely qualifies for a seat with the Federation. The only thing that makes this place special in any way is that it’s not corp affiliated, like at all.”

“No corporation owns it?” I asked in disbelief.

“It’s not just that, as far as I could tell, there’s no mega-corporate presence at all. Somebody must have paid for the beacon, but there’s no record of who owns it and there’s not a single corporate headquarter, franchised store, or even a family chain restaurant.”

I had never heard of anything like that in my life. Even the densely populated core worlds had corporate sponsorship at a government level. The massive expenses related to public utilities just weren’t workable without some sort of secondary profit to back them. Hells, New Eden had gone through at least a half dozen different corporate owners before EVI corp and that was despite having relatively profitable exports.

“How are they funding everything?” I asked.

“My guess? Organized crime. It would fit with us being sent there by Teolix and if the delivery is to another crime lord outside the organization he belongs to, then he wouldn’t have wanted to be connected to it. If the higher ups found out, they would be pretty pissed.”

If I learned anything as an executive these last three decades, it was that the only actual way to fund a colony was crime. If it wasn’t semi-legalized corporate crime, then good old fashioned organized crime was close enough.

“Then it’s a power grab, and if Teolix is going outside his own organization, it’s probably a big one.” I thought for a moment before continuing. “After we made our deal, he mentioned wanting to expand his business off-world and I got the feeling he didn’t have anybody filling that role yet.”

“Something like that could put us in the middle of a very dangerous power struggle.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “And we would be the ones with the target on our backs.”

My head was hurting, and not just because of the spell. There were still too many unknowns. But we weren’t desperate yet, so we still had time to consider our options after we completed the delivery.

“How much longer until we get out of the leviathan nest?” I asked.

“Not long. Sami did more than she promised and we’re making good time. You should be able to drop the spell in about an hour.”

I carefully got up from the table. My body was still sore but the nano-boosters had helped a lot; even if they were an awful artificial cherry flavor. Standing made the painful pulsing of the concealment spell more obvious, but I felt like I could probably walk on my own.

“I’m going to take a hot shower and then rest for a while. Let me know when we get to a safe enough distance.”

Sora nodded, but they looked concerned.

“Do you want me to get Thea for you? She’s doing something weird in the kitchen, but probably wouldn’t mind helping if it ended with you naked in a shower.”

Heat rose in my face and I shook my head a little too quickly. Thankfully, I caught myself on the table before the dizziness could fully kick in.

“That’s alright, I’ll be fine, there’s no need to bother her.” I straightened myself back up before walking quickly, and carefully, to the captain’s quarters. I was really thankful that Teolix had the foresight to install handrails on all the staircases.

Much to the surprise of nobody, the bathroom in the captain’s quarters was massive. Besides the normal bathroom things, it had an oversized shower with about a million unique nozzles and a jetted tub that could easily accommodate three or four people.

I figured that time was on my side, so I opted for a bath instead of a shower.

The tub filled quickly with extra hot water that smelled like lavender and had an oily sheen right out of the faucet. The idea of Teolix, the fearsome dragon crime lord, soaking in a bath with lavender scented oils caused me to smile.

Although, I vowed to never tease him about it as I slowly lowered myself into the water, enjoying the aroma while soaking away the soreness.

~~~~

A knock on the bathroom door startled me out of my stupor and I recognized Thea’s voice shouting.

“Softie said it’s safe to drop the spell now!”

The moment I comprehend what she had said, I ended the concealment spell. It felt like I had been clenching a muscle for the last three hours and could only now release it.

“Thank you, Thea. I’ll be out in a moment.”

Surprisingly, Teolix hadn’t stocked the bathroom with a blow dryer and I hadn’t owned one in nearly 52 years. Which was the last time that I had to dry my hair without magic, and it showed in the time it took me to get it dry enough to put into a messy bun.

To make matters worse, I finished my hair just to realize that Thea still had all the clothes we bought from the market on New Eden. I had to change back into the clothes that I had slept in.

They didn’t smell that bad and there were only a few bloodstains on the shirt, but it felt like I had completely undone any sense of cleanliness that the bath had given me.

I walked into the bedroom to find Thea asleep on the bed. It was incredibly tempting to join her, but everybody had decided that I should be captain, so I owed it to them to at least try to act like one.

I found Sora reclining on the couch, reading what looked like a novel from a tablet, while holding another glass of wine.

“How’s everything?” I asked, standing behind the couch they were reclining on.

“Well, the wine is wonderful, but I think Jessabelle is probably going to pick the wrong man. It’ll be good for the drama, but I’m going to be irritated with her until she goes back to Jake,” Sora replied before sipping from their glass.

“I meant with the ship.” I sighed.

“Oh, if you’re going to be boring about it, then we’re parked just outside the nest. I figure we’re close enough that other ships will leave us alone, but far enough that the nest won’t attack us.”

That made sense. Due to the pseudo-random nature of entering and leaving the Aether, it wasn’t possible to have anything close to law enforcement. Our ship was small, and it looked expensive, which made it an excellent target for pirates or even just law abiding opportunists who felt like they were better armed than us.

Usually, we were surprisingly well-armed, but the ‘surprising’ part of ‘surprisingly well-armed’ would only work out in our favor if we could back it up. Right now, we couldn’t.

“Sounds good. Once we’re back underway, make sure Sami gets some rest before she starts on the registration,” I said. “She seemed tired this morning, and an overworked engineer can be worse than having no engineer at all. Based on her own estimates, we’ll have plenty of time to get it done before we arrive, so she has no excuses.”

“I’ll make sure she gets some sleep. How are you feeling?” Sora asked.

“Better. Much better, actually. I’m still going to need some time and a quiet place to start the healing process in full, but I’m not causing more damage right now, and that’s more than I could say an hour ago.”

Sora nodded and looked to be thinking for a moment before responding.

“There’s an observation room across from the captain’s quarters. It’s heavily insulated and comfortable, which should make it a delightful spot for silent meditation.”

That sounded exactly like what I needed. After, I had a nap.

Today had drained me mentally, physically, and emotionally. Casting the concealment spell probably should have killed me and taxing my nanites this much in the past few days had been a bad idea.

They needed power to function, like a lot of power, and any extra would have to come from my body. The nano-boosters helped, but they weren’t enough for this level of damage.

“That sounds perfect, I’ll check it out later. In the meantime, is there anything you need from me? Thea was making the captain’s bed look very inviting, and I’m exhausted,” I asked, genuinely wanting to be helpful.

“Uh, yeah, just one thing. For my sake, keep Thea out of the observation room, please? It’s not isolated like the bedrooms and I really don’t need to be watching that.”

I stared deadpan at Sora as their pleading look turned into rapturous laughter.

“Jake is Jessabelle’s cousin, she finds out, and they never get together,” I replied before stiffly turning and walking away.

“You bitch!” Sora shouted after me, which gave me just enough warning to dodge the pillow they threw.

Ringing the Belle had been a truly terrible book series, but some scenes were steamy enough to keep me reading, and the third book had the single plot twist in it that I hadn’t seen coming.

I was still smiling by the time I snuggled up next to Thea.

Hopefully, Sora would think twice before teasing me in the future.