Bryce

“Sora! Are you in there?” I shouted as I knocked on the door to the navigator’s quarters. We had been traveling in the Aether for well over a week and we should’ve arrived at the Legion station days ago. Usually, I would’ve just asked Sora what was going on, but they’d been avoiding me.

“I’m serious, Sora!” I banged on the door a few more times and it finally opened to reveal a naked Ithnaa. She had been aboard off and on since we left, but never for more than a day at a time. Actually, a night at a time would be more accurate.

“Is there something I could help you with, captain?”

“Where’s Sora?”

“They said they felt dirty, so they’re in the shower,” Ithnaa smirked. “You can leave a message if you’d like.”

“The shower isn’t running.” I shifted my weight and set the lying djinn with a glare. “Tell them to get out here or I’m coming in.”

“Come on in then.” She stepped aside and gestured for me to enter. “This is all their stupid plan anyway.”

“What stupid plan?” I asked as I stepped inside. The small room was a complete mess, with Sora’s clothes covering most of the floor and the sheets sliding off the far side of the bed.

“I’m taking a shower.” Ithnaa stepped over a particularly large pile of clothes to make her way to the bathroom. “Come join me when you’re done with your little talk.” She stopped mid-stride to eye me up and down. “Unless you’d be interested in joining us now, captain. Could make your conversation somewhat more fun.”

“Not interested.” I dismissed her offer while looking around the room. “Where did you say Sora was?”

“Over there in the corner somewhere.” She unleashed a wave of magic that passed over the previously invisible Sora standing in the corner.

“Oh hey, it’s been a while.” Sora waved at me with none of their usual grace. “Captain, have you been avoiding me?”

“Don’t you start with me.” I picked a wrinkled robe up off the ground and threw it at them. “Get dressed and then explain why we haven’t made it to alpha-nine Station yet.”

Sora sighed as they wrapped the robe around themself. “Maybe because it’s called alpha-nine station?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that the station is so boring that it has a designation instead of a name.” Sora sat on the bed as they continued their explanation. “It would’ve been weeks before a ship could have picked up our new friends, and they’d be stuck the entire time on some backwater station with nothing to do.”

“So, you decided to reroute us out of the goodness of your heart?” I crossed my arms and continued to glare at the kitsune.

“I didn’t exactly reroute us, so much as I just never told you about our real destination.”

“And where is that destination?”

“A resort planet called Silver Skies,” Sora explained. “It’s located deep within Legion space, and since Legion is one of the few people who aren’t hunting us yet, it should be relatively safe.”

I took a slow, deep breath while I tried to process everything. My intention had been to drop the researchers off at alpha-nine before finding a safe place to resurrect Esme. Soul stones were highly illegal and using one to resurrect a greater succubus wasn’t exactly something I wanted to broadcast.

Not to mention we’d been avoiding populated planets for a reason. Everybody on this ship was wanted by one faction or another, and while Legion wasn’t hunting us, that didn’t mean we would be safe.

“How far are we from Silver Skies?” I asked.

“About a day and a half.”

“We’re dropping the researchers off when we get there, then we’re leaving immediately after. We aren’t staying, and Sora, you and I are going to have a long chat once this is over.” I turned to leave, but Sora stopped me.

“Bryce, wait. I understand why you’re angry, but hear me out.” They stood from the bed and stepped in front of the door to block the exit. “We’ve been going non-stop from one lead to another ever since we left Drassun, and we can’t keep that up. Hells, you can’t keep that up.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying we need a break, a real one. You especially.” Sora took a step towards me and set their hands on my shoulders. “I know that the moment Esme is up and walking again you’re going to go running off on the next mission, but that’s not sustainable. You haven’t taken a day to rest, even during these long travel times, and you’re going to collapse if you try to keep this up.”

“So what? We’re supposed to just sit on a beach while we’re being hunted by half the network?”

“Yes! At least, for a few days while the doctor finishes making Esme a new body… and maybe a few days after that.” Sora grinned. “Lorelei offered to pay for a full month since we rescued her, and it’s all inclusive. That includes security. Discreet security.”

“Sora, it’s not about the money, or the resort--”

“No, it’s about keeping us safe,” They interrupted. “I understand, but none of that matters if we run ourselves into the ground. Bryce, this isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon, and if we keep up the current pace, then we aren’t going to make it. We need a break and we’re literally being handed the perfect opportunity on a silver platter.”

“It’s still dangerous.”

“What’s dangerous?” Thea asked as she turned the corner to enter the room.

“Bryce says we can’t go to the resort,” Sora accused.

“You were just stalling for Thea to show up?” I glared at them and they smirked.

“Why can’t we go? It sounded like fun.”

“You knew about this?” I asked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We were going to surprise you. Softie said it’d be fun, and I agreed. Why is it dangerous?”

“Maybe because we’re on the run from half the network?” I asked rhetorically. “We can’t afford to stay in one place for that long.”

“But we aren’t on the run from these Legion folks, right?” Thea asked. “Also, Lorie said we’d be protected while we’re there, so what’s the problem?”

“The problem is you’re dating a big party pooper.”

“I’m just trying to keep us safe.”

“And you can’t do that at a resort?” Thea asked, but then took a cautious step towards me and changed her tone. “Bryce, if you really don’t think we should go then we don’t have to, but it sounds like fun and I think we could use this.”

~~~~

“Hey babe, want to come over here and keep me safe from this drink?” Thea asked from the chair beside me. I rolled my eyes before leaning over to kiss her.

I had finally given in and just accepted that maybe they were right and we could use a break. Just while we waited for the doctor to finish with Esme’s new body and then we were leaving immediately. It just made sense. This way, we wouldn’t need to go out of our way to drop the doctor off after she finished and Sora would stop bugging me.

In the meantime, we were sitting on a silver sand beach in newly bought swimsuits enjoying bottomless drinks. Maybe learning to compromise wasn’t all bad.

“This is ridiculous,” I said, carefully avoiding the tiny umbrellas in my glass to find the straw. “We’re supposed to be on the run, not sunbathing on a beach.”

“We can’t do both? Because it feels like we’re doing both.”

“Fine,” I conceded. “But we only have a few days here. So, I’ve put together a schedule that will let us enjoy almost all of the resort.”

I sent Thea the schedule that I spent all night putting together. There were a lot of activities that were only available during specific times, which made scheduling everything somewhat complicated.

“Uh… Princess, this seems like a lot.”

“It’s a big resort, lots of things to do.” I took a casual drink from my glass and managed to only poke myself in the eye twice.

“I’m going to make a very slight tweak, if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” I shot Thea a cautious look. “Just don’t mess with it too much, it took me a while to make.”

“Oh yeah, no worries, just one small change and it’s perfect.” Thea sent me back the schedule, and I just stared at it for a moment. “What do you think?”

“You deleted everything, then replaced it with drinking and sex on the beach.”

“I know, it’s a bit complicated,” Thea smiled at me from over her drink. “But we can always reference back to it if we get confused.”

“Well, as long as we have reference material.” I sat my glass on the table before turning back to Thea. “I noticed that your revised schedule started fifteen minutes ago.”

Thea fake gasped. “Then we better get started immediately.”

~~~~

We met up with Sora and Samira at a restaurant later that afternoon. They were both smiling happily and Samira was even wearing a tropical themed shirt instead of her usual overalls.

“Looks like you two are having a good time,” I commented. “I was worried that Samira was going to get bored not having anything to fix.”

“There are eight different all you can eat buffets included with our rooms,” Sora said. “Honestly, we’ll be lucky if we can ever get her to leave.”

“I’ve only made it through the first three,” Samira smiled. “One of them is vegan, but I’m going to try the other four tomorrow.”

“What about you two?” Sora asked. “It looks liked you had fun. I didn’t even know devils could get sunburn.”

“Aren’t you like basically immune to fire?” Samira asked.

“I’m only mostly immune,” Thea said. “And I didn’t know I could get sunburned either, but we put in a pretty good effort and I guess it paid off.”

“We’re probably going to spend tomorrow in the room,” I added. “We both got plenty of sun.”

I wasn’t burnt, both because of my darker skin tone and the fact that I actually used sunscreen. But Thea looked like a cooked lobster. The girl was incredibly pale, and I had warned her to use sunscreen, but she ignored me.

“What are you planning tomorrow, Softie?” Thea asked.

“I was hoping to experience some of the more regulated services that the resort has to offer.” They smiled. “The brochure mentioned a wide offering, and I wanted to test the claim.”

“Is sex all you ever think about?” Samira asked.

“Now, that’s hardly fair.” Sora mocked offense. “The resort services also include drugs and other entertainment. Besides, Thea forwarded me the captain’s schedule and I’m hardly alone here.”

“Anyway,” I interrupted. “We’re leaving the day after tomorrow, and I don’t know when we’ll be able to do something like this again, so enjoy everything while you can.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Sora smiled.

“What’s the plan after we get Esme back?” Samira asked.

“That’s going to depend on a lot of things,” I explained. “We still need to get Kai off Thea’s case, and I’m hoping explaining things to Esme will convince her to vouch for us.”

“If things go well, then we can probably just send Esme back to Hel where she can recover in safety and handle her mom without involving us,” Thea said. “I know we were hoping to have her fight with us, but doc said she’s going to need time to recover and since Ithnaa is hanging around Sora, we probably don’t even need the extra help. At least, not against the Syndicate.”

“You don’t happen to have any other demons you could call on for help?” Sora asked. “I mean, we’re probably not going to be fighting Mother anytime soon, but it might be nice to have some sort of demonic backup when we eventually do.”

“Maybe,” Thea answered. “But it’s a longshot and I don’t want to get your hopes up.”

“Did you have somebody specific in mind?” I asked.

“There aren’t many powerful people in my household, it’s mostly just me and Esme, and I wasn’t even all that powerful before our pact. But there’s one other person who might maybe help, only if we could get something to her first and only if it’s not too late.” It seemed like Thea didn't want to answer and was stalling.

“Thea,” Sora interrupted her. “If you don’t want to tell us, then just say the word and we’ll drop it.”

“If I can get a package back home, then maybe Lilith can help,” she finally admitted. “It’s a big maybe, and I absolutely can’t promise anything, but it’s possible.”

“The Lilith?” I asked. “As in the arch-devil, Lilith?”

“She’s not a devil,” Thea corrected. “But she is a demon prince, and a pretty damn powerful one. But she isn’t going to be happy with me and Esme going missing for as long as we did. And she’s really not going to be happy when she finds out why we’ve been missing.”

“But she might help?” Samira asked.

“If she doesn’t outright kill us,” Thea smiled sardonically. “Then maybe we can ask for her help, but it’s going to depend on her mood.”

“Well, none of that matters now,” Sora said. “Let’s just enjoy our time here and worry about the future in the future.”