Bryce

“That’s not what I asked, Captain Virra. I need to know who knows you, not who you are. You can’t land here unless someone vouches for you.”

We were sitting just outside of Paradise, trying to negotiate a place to land. The station, if it could even be called a station, was actually tens of thousands of individual ships welded together to create a chaotic mishmash with no apparent rhyme or reason to the design. The end result was a multi-layered, web-like super-structure about the size of a small moon, and more guns than I could possibly count aiming at our tiny shuttle.

“And how much would it cost for you to vouch for me?” I gave the pale-skinned, curly haired human my best diplomatic smile as I sent him a transfer request for five thousand credits. “I won’t be here long, and I’m not looking for trouble.”

“I’m sorry Captain, that’s not how this--” the line muted for a moment as the man looked away from the camera and discussed something with somebody off screen. He returned a moment later with a half-grin. “Aright, captain, maybe we can arrange something, but not for five thousand. I can blur a few lines and get you aboard, but if this leads back to me, then it’s my ass, so it’s going to cost you, say, twenty thousand.” The human continued to grin at me, but his eyes told a different story.

“Sounds good. I’ll transfer you the credits.” I sent the request, and the man chuckled to himself before accepting.

“Thanks, Virra, it’s always a pleasure to meet a friend of Captain Penn. I’ll put you down on the edge of his territory, but I’d recommend you avoid his crew, and don’t stick around too long. He’s not the sharing type.” The call cut off, and I leaned back into my chair with a sigh as I mentally cursed. It would have been nice if Sora had mentioned that we needed someone to vouch for us.

“The asshole didn’t even give you his name,” Aurora pointed out from where she was standing behind me.

“He’s not expecting us to survive,” Suriel added, and I agreed with him. “Do we know anything about this Captain Penn?”

“Just his reputation.” I shook my head as I rotated my chair to face the others. “This is going to be a lot more dangerous than I expected, and as much as I hate to admit it, I think the nameless asshole is right. Our best bet is to get in, grab our people, and get out as quietly as possible.”

Thea groaned as she fell back onto the chair next to me. “Which means, if Sami and Softie’s new pirate friend doesn’t work out, then we’re all going to be stuck on this shuttle for another five days.”

“I’m starting to think that we would’ve been better off staying in Tartarus,” Aurora commented, which made me chuckle as I spun my chair back around and started us towards the station.

“We’ll see, but for what it’s worth, I’m going to make it my life's goal to never have to do this again. Any part of it.”

~~~~~

Navigating the traffic around Paradise pushed the limits of my piloting skills, but we eventually made it to the hangar. From the outside, it looked like a large portion of a mid-sized freighter, but once we passed through the light barrier, we could see that they had seamlessly integrated the hull into the station along with a half-dozen other ships from a half-dozen different corporations.

The hangar wasn’t large, but it was still big enough to land the shuttle with plenty of room to spare, and much to my surprise, it was empty. I had half expected a team of pirates waiting to ambush us. The fact that there wasn’t one raised my estimation of the man who allowed us to land. Albeit, not by much.

“Alright, let’s be quick.” I got up from the chair and made my way to the back of the shuttle. “Sora and Samira are staying at a bar called ‘The Last Loss.’ it should be somewhere in the south-eastern part of sector eight.”

“Wait, Bryce, if we’re going to try to be inconspicuous, then we should probably do something about all this.” Thea gestured towards Leila, which earned her a glare from her sister, and after a short moment, I realized what she was saying.

“She means your outfit. White robes would stand out anywhere, but especially on a pirate run station.”

“And there being three of us probably doesn’t help,” Suriel added to my explanation, and I nodded to agree.

“Don’t forget the black eyes,” Aurora laughed, but Thea just shrugged.

“I haven’t had too many issues with the eyes. If somebody looks at you funny, just snarl at them a bit.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “Thea, half the people you meet immediately assume you’re a demon.”

“She’s not a demon.” Leila glared daggers at me, and I could feel the heat rolling off her.

“Lei, chill, she never said Thea was a demon, just that people were getting confused.” Aurora came to my defense before addressing Thea. “Even if we ignore the issue with the eyes, we didn’t exactly bring a change of clothes, so I don’t know what you want us to do about it.”

“Well, Bryce and I did pack for two weeks in the hells…” Thea gave me an apologetic look and I rolled my eyes at her.

“Okay, fine, but nothing tailored, and you’re paying for anything that goes missing.”

“Deal.” Thea started pulling clothes from her ring to distribute, and much to Leila’s dismay, the three siblings were dressed a few moments later.

“It’s a bit--”

“Leila, if you finish that thought, then I’m going to banish you back to the hells.” The clothes Thea had picked were, of course, all mine, and since I had packed them to go to the lower planes, it meant they were overly practical designs in neutral colors. Thankfully, they seemed to fit Aurora surprisingly well, but were too big for Suriel, and a little too tight for Leila in a few very specific areas.

“Alright, alright, fine, I get it. I can make this work.”

“That’s what I thought.” I turned back towards Thea, who was smiling way too widely. “Is everything good? Can we go, now?”

“Not quite. I think you’re forgetting something.”

I frowned at her, trying to remember what I was forgetting, but Aurora was the one to answer. “Bryce, you reek of divine magic. If you walked out there like this, then half the station would know it. Hells, if there’s anybody who’s particularly sensitive in the area, then they probably felt you arrive.”

“Shit.” I immediately started casting a short-range concealment spell and finished a few moments later. “I’m going to have to keep this damn spell up permanently, aren’t I?”

“At least, until you die or the mantle determines you’re worthy.” Leila shrugged at me before switching to a frown. “What’s your mantle, anyway? I mean, you’re not bad with magic, but you’re obviously nowhere near as good as Tess.”

“Leila! You know better than to ask that,” Suriel chastised.

“Yeah, Lei, that’s rude,” Aurora nodded in agreement before turning towards me. “But for real, what's your mantle? Usually, it’s pretty obvious, but I have no idea with you.”

“It’s… complicated.” I briefly considered explaining the entire situation, but decided against it. I was expecting the three of them to go work with Ashaiya after this, and I wasn’t sure how well I trusted her. “I’ll just say that we aren’t exactly sure what the mantle is, and I’m trying to prevent it from becoming what we suspect it might be.”

Leila and Aurora exchanged troubled glances, and Suriel groaned as he held his head in his hands. “You see? This is exactly why you don’t ask that question.”

“I mean, Bryce is just a candidate, so we don’t have to report her, right?” Leila asked, but she didn’t seem entirely convinced. I took a half-step backward, and Thea did the same.

“What are you guys talking about? Report her to who? And why are you pretending like you know about this shit? I barely know about it and Chorus explained a bunch of it to us in Hades.”

“You barely know about it, because you kept skipping all your lessons and eventually Ashaiya gave up on trying to teach you,” Aurora chided Thea before addressing Leila’s questions. “And we’re fallen now, which means we don’t have to report anything to anybody. Besides, Chorus took over for dad, and if he already knows, then there’s nothing to report.”

“I think Aurora is right,” Suriel agreed before turning towards me. “Bryce, if for whatever reason you’re not happy with what you think your mantle may be, then it might be worth talking to Ashaiya about it. Our father used to be responsible for mentoring new gods, and because of how often he was away, that usually fell to her.”

“I’ll remember that, but I’d appreciate it if you would keep this to yourself for now.”

Leila scoffed, then shook her head as she seemed to deflate. “Suriel was right. We shouldn’t have asked. We won’t mention it to anybody, especially not Ashaiya.” Suriel looked like he was about to object, but was cut off by a glare from Leila. “Anyway, your friends are probably getting worried, and we’ve wasted enough time here. We should head out.”

“Agreed. I’m not sure how far the place they’re staying is, and if the exterior is anything to go by, then it won't be easy to navigate this place.” I walked past the siblings to get to the shuttle door, and even as I spoke, I sent Thea a message through our implants.

This isn’t going to be a problem, is it?

Thea didn’t follow after me right away, but her response was immediate. Leila wasn’t lying, and Aurora will follow her lead, but Suriel didn’t look convinced. He can be a bit of a goody-two-shoes. I’ll get a promise out of him later, just to make sure.

Thanks, Thea. You’re the best. I felt a sense of relief wash over me as I sent my reply and even saved the image Thea had sent as a response to a private folder on my implants for later.

Of course, my sense of relief didn’t last as the shuttle’s ramp lowered to reveal a small group of heavily armed and armored pirates patiently waiting for us a few dozen meters away.

“Virra, is it?” The dark-haired human man in the front of the group asked. There were two other humanoids flanking him, but none of the three seemed to be overly threatened by the five of us coming down the ramp.

“Aye, that’s what Galen down in sorting said.” An extremely pale, short-haired, half-elven woman stepped forward to stand near the human. “He also said she knew the captain, but the captain said he don’t know her.”

“Doesn’t,” a large orcish man said from behind her. “The captain said he doesn’t know her.”

“What I said, innit?” The woman turned back towards the orc, and he started to explain his correction, when the human interrupted him.

“Worry about your grammar later, Shan. Our guests need a chance to explain themselves.” The human shifted his weight as we got into conversation range, but continued before I could speak. “Grun is right, though. You should have him explain the difference later.”

“Damn, thought I was gettin’ better,” Shan, the half-elven woman, muttered just barely loud enough that I could hear her, and then the three of them watched us expectantly.

“I paid a human a rather substantial sum of credits to let us land, and he directed us here.” I crossed my arms and let out an exhausted breath. “From what you’ve said, that seems to have been a mistake.”

Shan elbowed Grun, the orc, and leaned back to whisper something to him. To which he responded with a grunt, before saying loud enough for us all to hear. “Means a lot. The elf is saying she paid Galen a lot of credits to land in our territory.”

The half-elf nodded to the orc before returning to the conversation. “Man was a lancer. Which meant, he don’t have rights to let you land here. But if you paid him stantial, then maybe we can chance a deal.”

“I paid him twenty-thousand credits.”

The human whistled. “That’s a lot of cash just to land at our humble little station.”

“Shuttle is pretty nice, too,” Grun chuckled. “Doesn’t have a shifter though, which means something even nicer had to drop you off in the Aether.”

“And nice means expensive,” Shan added with a grin.

“Nice does mean expensive,” the human agreed. “Tell me, Virra, just how much is it worth to you and your friends to stay here?”

“I’d say, right around twenty thousand credits.” I answered, and when I did, I saw Thea step forward out of the corner of my eye to amend my offer.

“Well, twenty thousand credits, and three dead pirates.”

Shan frowned, and Grun tensed, but the human just laughed. “If that’s the route you’d like to take, my little elven friend, then you’re going to have to kill a lot more than just three. Our fleet is the second largest on the council, and if you start a fight in our territory, then you’ll be fighting all of us.”

“She’s not your friend, pal.” Aurora stepped forward and ignited a ball of golden flames directly above one of her open palms. “And we aren’t elves.”

Grun pulled his rifle up, but apparently couldn’t decide which of us was worth aiming at, because he kept switching targets. “Their eyes ain’t mods. Those four are demons.”