Bryce

“She totally knew everything,” Thea exclaimed. Persephone was back sleeping in the hidden room, while we gathered in the kitchen. There were seven of us in total, including Lilith and Esme, which made everything feel somewhat crowded. Thea was still avoiding Rose, otherwise we would’ve probably tried to gather in the garden. “I mean, like literally everything. I don’t know how she saw through us, but she did.”

“What do you mean, she knew everything?” Leila asked with an understandably concerned look. “Is it going to be a problem?”

Lilith frowned. “Not likely, but I’d recommend leaving the hells as soon as possible. Lady Tenebris made it clear that she was going to help cover for you being missing, and I’d rather not put her in a difficult position by having somebody recognize you.”

Aurora turned to me with an anxious look. “Bryce, Thea said you had a way to get us out of the lower planes. How soon can you arrange that?”

“I can have us back on my ship within the hour, assuming there’s a room I can use to set up the circle.” I looked to Lilith for confirmation, but Esme was the one to answer.

“We could clear a room in the dorm basement, but that could take a few hours.” She hesitated a few moments before continuing. “Still, it might be worth doing so that we can set up a permanent circle to make it easier for you to return in the future.”

I couldn’t help but smirk at the succubus. “That feels like quite the reversal from how you felt about me earlier this week.”

“In my defense, that was before you saved Thea’s life to become a candidate, negotiated with Vurdex on our behalf, and launched a potentially suicidal mission into Tartarus to rescue Lilith’s daughter.” Esme returned my smirk with more than a little self-deprecation. “At this point, it would be foolish of me not to recognize that you’re going to be a part of my life for the foreseeable future.”

“I guess it has been kind of a busy few days, hasn’t it?” Thea chuckled from beside me.

“It certainly has.” I paused to do a few calculations in my head before continuing. “I appreciate the vote of confidence, but if we want to go the route of a permanent circle, then it’s going to take the better part of a day to set up. Is that something we have time for?”

Lilith addressed Thea’s siblings. “So long as the three of you stay out of sight until the circle is finished, it shouldn’t be a problem.” Suriel and Aurora agreed, so she turned to me with an intense look. “Bryce, please understand that creating a permanent teleportation circle underneath the dorms isn’t something I take lightly. After you depart, the door to that room will be sealed from the outside to prevent unauthorized use. You’re welcome to use it to return whenever you’d like, but you’ll need to contact either me or Rose in order to have the door opened, and I can’t guarantee that it will be done in a timely manner.”

A teleportation circle inside the wards was an obvious security risk. If anybody was able to discover it, then they'd be able to bypass all of Lilith's security and have direct access to members of her household. I was honestly just surprised that she was letting me create one. “I understand, and thank you for your trust. It’s not something I intend to abuse.”

“In that case, search out Rose if there’s something you need. I’m going to be busy writing a report and trying to think of a way to pay Orrid back for the stunt he pulled in our meeting with Chorus.”

“She’s definitely going to kill that man,” Leila stated matter-of-factly as she watched Lilith leave. “Remind me to never get on her bad side.”

“You already tried to sacrifice her daughter in a blood ritual that probably would have destroyed her home and killed everybody she ever cared about,” Thea pointed out, which caused Leila to go pale.

“Right, I nearly forgot about that part.” Aurora looked nearly as white as her twin. “Where exactly can we hide out until you’re ready to leave? Preferably someplace far from the angry, ancient, and powerful demon lord.”

“Come on, there are a few empty bedrooms upstairs, I can show you where.” Thea started to leave, but then paused as she remembered something. “Oh, right, speaking of forgetting things. Babe, you should send a message to Softie to let them know we’ll be back soon and we’re bringing company. Maybe if we’re lucky, they’ll even clean up the place before we get there.”

“That seems a bit optimistic, but sure, I’ll do it before I get started. Hopefully, that'll give them as much time as possible to figure out where things go.”

“You know me, glass is always half-full and all that shit.” Thea quickly rushed over to give me a kiss before leading her siblings out of the room.

“Give me a moment to cast this spell, then we can get started,” I said to Esme, but didn’t wait for her response to start casting.

Hey Sora, we're just about finished up down here. It's a long and complicated story, but we ended up helping out a few of Thea's siblings who need a place to stay while they sort things out. She threatened to not cook for two months if the ship isn't presentable. Maybe you can get Samira to help, but make sure she doesn't end up covering everything in grease. Anyway, we'll be back by tomorrow morning.

The message went through, but for whatever reason, it didn’t reach them. I checked the ship-board time through my implants and saw that with the time difference it was still around eleven in the morning, which meant knowing Sora, they were probably still asleep. I decided to just set an alarm to remind myself to try again in a few hours. There was almost no chance that the ship was going to be cleaned to Thea’s standards before we got back, but I figured it was worth trying, if only because she’d appreciate the effort.

~~~~~

I sat up and stretched my back until I heard an audible pop. The circle was finally done, but I was starting to get seriously worried.

“Maybe we should try messaging Sami again?” Thea asked without looking up from the runes that were inlaid in ruby dust on the floor. I had been trying to send messages all day while we worked on the teleportation circle, alternating between sending them to Sora and Samira, even going so far as to try to send a few to Ithnaa in the last few hours. They were all being sent, but none were received.

“I can try, but I don’t think anything is going to change.” I was feeling helpless, which was something I hated with every fiber of my being. “We might just have to teleport to the ship and see what’s going on for ourselves.”

“Didn’t you give Sora something for exactly this sort of situation while we were leaving?” Esme, of all people, asked, and I had to stop myself from slamming my face into my palms.

“Of course, I did.” I gave Sora a token imprinted with a divining spell based on the coins that Ithnaa used. My intention at the time was to use it as a focus to ensure I’d be able to get a lock with messaging spells across the planes, but that hadn’t been an issue. Thankfully, that’s not all the token could do. “Esme, could you go get the siblings while Thea finishes her final check on the runes? I’m going to use the token I gave Sora as the focus of a scrying spell to see what’s going on, and I have a nagging feeling that we might want to leave as soon as possible.”

“Sure, I’ll be right back.” Esme jogged out the door, leaving Thea to continue reading in silence and me to focus inwardly on the spell.

Scrying magic was primarily used for covert surveillance, and outside of learning to hide a few college dorm shenanigans, I had never really had a reason to study it. Thankfully, that changed somewhat when Ithnaa lent me her enchanted coin, but a spell like that took more than a few weeks to master and I was about to push my knowledge to the absolute limit by trying to cast it across the planes.

There were a few false starts, but after the fifth or sixth attempt, the image of Sora’s sleeping face came to my mind. At first, I was relieved because they looked unharmed, but the image slowly grew and I saw that they were wearing heavily enchanted restraints. Eventually, Samira also came into view beside them, wearing the same thing.

Finally, I saw Ithnaa. She was equipped with a mana draining collar, something that could probably be lethal to a djinn under the wrong circumstances, along with a series of cuffs that were so heavily enchanted that their runes were glowing visibly.

More and more of the room continued to come into focus until I saw that they were lying on the floor in some sort of cargo-bay belonging to an unfamiliar ship. Suddenly, a blonde half-elven woman came into view. She was dressed as a mercenary of sorts, but looked panicked as she searched around the room. She was shouting something, but I couldn't make out what she was saying.

Then I flinched backwards as I felt the spell double back on itself, the feedback causing a painful pressure to press against my mind. It was an elegant tactic to counter a spell, and not one I had ever experienced before, but I took note of it to study for the future.

“Bryce!” Thea was at my side in an instant, wiping blood from underneath my eyes. “Are you okay? What did you see?”

“Somebody took Sora and Samira, Ithnaa too, and they’re keeping them all unconscious to transport.” I stood up slowly and noticed that Esme had already returned with everybody. “How long was I out?”

“We’ve been standing here for about five minutes, but I don’t know how long you were going at it before we arrived.” Leila answered, and to her credit, she seemed genuinely concerned.

“We need to leave, now.” I started towards the circle and immediately began constructing a much more complicated and theoretically accelerated version of the teleportation spell. “There’s no telling how much of a head start they have on us.”

“Do you want me to come with you? I can help.” Esme asked, but I ignored her in favor of continuing to cast.

Thankfully, Thea answered for me. “No, we can handle it. Besides, you still need to heal, and I’m planning on making Aurora and Suriel help, anyway.”

“Hey, what about me?” Leila protested, which caused Thea to shrug.

“I mean, you’ll be there too, I guess.”

“If you’re not going to be silent, then leave the room and come back when I'm done. This spell is going to take all of my concentration, and you're distracting me.”

“You heard Bryce, shut up, no arguing.” Thea chastised Esme in a stage whisper, and stepped forward to hug her.

“Please, be careful, and summon me if you need anything. Oh, I almost forgot, make sure she gets this.” Esme handed Thea something, but she stored it in her ring before I could catch what it was.

“Okay, I will. Now get the fuck out of here. Bryce needs to concentrate.” I continued to focus on the spell as Esme exited the room, and the portal began to open mere minutes later.

“Step in the moment it stabilizes. I’m going to need to be the last one through, and I’m not sure how long I can keep it open.” Everybody tensed, ready to pounce, as a blue tear in reality appeared in front of me. Our bedroom aboard the Fury was visible on the other side. “It’s stable, go!”

Thea was the first, followed by Aurora, then Suriel, and once Leila stepped into the portal, I leapt through.