(Vol 2) Chapter 60: Trouble Brewing?

The voice of Jeeves resonated in the throne realm. “Right away, Madam. But it may prove difficult without an actual shadower. Mirrors facing out are hardly ubiquitous here, and many puddles have dried by now.”

“Dispatch someone! Either Belvedere or summon Alfred down, whichever is better. I’ll try to track him myself in the meantime.”

“Arranging to have Alfred in-world now… it’ll take time…”

In that time frame though, they lost him, as he got a lot less ‘idle’ in his walking once he was past the ships. Immediate to the docks was a busy market that such an unremarkable fellow would find it all too easy to fade away into, and that’s exactly what he did, likely becoming one of the innumerable folks moving around with a brown hood down.

They couldn’t track them all, and their guesses led them to verifiable deadends.

Sammy slapped a hand on the throne arm once it became obvious. “Fuck! Damn these nondescript people… wear some cool boots or something at least! Jeeves, keep searching for him. We at least have a good face hit, right?”

“Yes, Madam — in fact, I have him in the recorder. Not that his face is the easiest to differentiate or identify. And that is assuming he wasn’t using an illusion.”

“I doubt it. He doesn’t bloody need it! If his eyes hadn’t flashed across my mirror thanks to his eye-fucking of every inch of our ship, I’d have completely ignored him. On the plus side… there was no one but random crew members on the ship. Hardly anything of note.”

“But you felt a bad vibe, I believe, and we can hardly ignore such a thing.”

“Yes. There’s a danger brewing in Geirkos, though I can’t say what or feel a timeframe for it. I’m going to inform everyone to be ready and to be paranoid. Hmm, by the way, with multiple users now, should I make more recorders?”

“A couple more of them wouldn’t lack for useful application, Madam.”

She did so, expending 2 FE to create a couple of record-keeping mirrors for the use of her Servitors, basically giving them video cameras. Jeeves had already created a still-image flip book of contacts and other ID’d persons from his use of the recorder. Just what she should expect from her organizational wonder!

To her Followers in Geirkos, she sent, “Trouble is brewing for us in this city. I don’t know the details right now, I just know it’s around the corner. Saw someone eyeing the shit out of our ship. Maybe others besides ours. Keep your eyes open and your ears piqued. Look out for anything and anyone suspicious. And make damn sure you’re ready to fight or flee at a moment’s notice.”

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New Quest unlocked: “Trouble Brewing?” — Uncover the trouble, resolve it, or verify it otherwise.

● Rewards: Highly variable FE and exp, possibly none.

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No, that's not suspicious at all! Fuck you, Sys!

There were numerous acknowledgments sent back. Orswyth, Tashome, and Bast detached from their current issues enough to arrange a mental conference with her.

Bast, seemingly in a very good mood despite the news, was the first to communicate. “It could easily be nothing more than greed. Rumor has probably spread about the killing of Wraevaus and the existence of this armor. Just the nature of trying to sell something that some think they might profit off of instead.”

Orswyth seemed dismissive about that. “While it’s possible, the more likely scenario is bounty hunters, whether issued to the proper scumbag channels by Wraevaus’s wife, Zadkiel, Baron Gerehart… or some other damned enemy we don’t even know about yet. Unfortunately, we’re in the position of being both in the best place Dominion-wise while not so great for the reach of our other enemies.”

Tashome seemed to be weighing all possibilities. “It could be these, or it could be new trouble with this Mr. Smile character. The eyes on the ship and the trouble aren’t directly connected, right?”

“Not yet they aren’t,” Samantha replied, “but it’s highly likely. Ideally, my agents can confirm the threat before the shit hits the flail, but we aren’t going to count on it, are we? Let’s take every additional precaution we can. Disguises, changing to locations preferably more secure, moving the armor, etcetera. We can also move the ship out of the direct docking to complicate access. She isn’t going anywhere for a few days at the least.”

Bast was chuckling. “Shit hits the flail! I love it! Because a flail swings around, and if sh- ahem! Anyway, while we could flee immediately into the sticks at this point, it would hamstring our goals and operations here. Sadly enough.”

Well isn’t he just downright chipper? It annoyed her. And it annoyed her that it annoyed her because it shouldn’t. She should be perfectly fine with ‘it’. Constance’s commentary about being an ‘extension’ of herself was doing unfortunate rounds in her head. Had Bast actually done ‘it’ with…? No. Gah, this is so dumb! Stop, brain! Out.

Orswyth was mentally sighing, and grandly so. “It’s an unfortunate case of higher risk and reward. Running might delay things, but then we sacrifice what we’ve been building so far in boldness. Fortunately, we’ve made enormous inroads today. The prominent Club member Councillor Zephyr has taken a strong liking to us, so we may have acquired a powerful patron. We soon noted a shared disdain for the Bank, as we suspected.”

Tashome had a brief chuckle. “A strong liking especially to Bast — he treated him like a long-lost son, laughing and joking around with him. They’re both inventors and painters. An interesting character. Boundlessly interested in our histories and stories. He was asking me about spirits in my homeland and the similarities to fae here.”

Bast scoffed. “Let’s not so hastily ascribe him purely benevolent on our part. He is clearly dynamic, perhaps ambitious, and sees us as a powerful pack of allies. The key thing to note about this man is that he is shrewd and well-informed. In, what, a day or two? He knew who we were and what we’d done, and immediately sought us out. He didn’t hide that, of course. But he deliberately preempted anyone else in that ‘patron’ role.”

“But you like him nonetheless?” Samantha asked.

“Naturally. He’s an experienced Bard and Wizard for one thing. I suspect he is one of the most knowledgeable outside of the Dominion in creating magical items. Not to mention having his hands in the flow of trade therein. I could learn a great deal from him and we seem to have similar tastes.”

“I let on a little alchemical knowledge,” Tashome offered. “I’m considering being more forthright about how deep that goes, considering the possibility of partnership. I could certainly use some synchronizing with this world’s operations of the skill. I have unusual specialties of familiarity. Poisons for example.”

Orswyth made a sort of mental motion indicating a desire to wrap up the conversation. “We should get back to it. We will heed your orders as best we can, Your Majesty. I think I’ll share concerns for these dangers very generally with Lord Zephyr. If he helps to some degree, it’ll likely put us in his debt, but there are worse things, after all.”

Samantha gave a mental nod to that. “Yes, do so while you have the opportunity. If he has a mutual need for us, so be it. This is already where we’ve chosen to throw our hats. And we must act urgently.”

Orswyth and Tashome departed, while Bast lingered. He was a bit sheepish. “Your Majesty… there’s something I have to tell you, and I do hope you can forgive me if it is an offense…”

Are you fucking kidding me, dude?! Psh! Clueless idiot.

Sammy fought hard not to roll her eyes directly in his head. “Bast, I already know. How could I not? That’s my Servitor.” She had not even meant to emphasize ‘my’ like that. “Look… whatever. It’s your business, it’s her business, I fashioned her a certain way and this is the bed I made.”

Oh, gee, great choice of words, Sammy! Fuck…

It certainly did not placate Bast. “So you do actually disapprove?”

“No! No. Not at all. Just… do whatever — keep you know… doing…. it. Or not. Whatever!”

“Your words are ‘whatever’ but the tone is annoyed and frustrated.”

Sammy took a deep breath. A quick little meditation. Calmness. Calm. “I’m not good with this stuff, okay? But that’s my problem. I will not stand in the way of your happiness. If you both like to bonk, then bonk. Just, for fuck’s sake, squelch your connection to me when you do.”

A slow, slow nod in response. “I’ve been feeling somewhat guilty, but it certainly happened like a whirlwind. It isn’t often a woman responds to flirting with eager directness. That just made me eager and… Well, I know you don’t want to hear anymore. Suffice to say she ensured I understood how casual it was. She emphasized it afterward. Each time, actually.”

“She’s learning from you. She wants matters of seduction and pleasure in her repertoire.”

“She was frank about that, too. I can assure you she’s got a firm handle on it.”

“I bet. Okay, I’ve definitely had enough on this subject. Run along and get shit done, hmm? I’m sure you have a special reward at the end for your hard work today.”

Shock and embarrassment shot through the connection. “How did you know?!”

Sammy facepalmed and withdrew, trying not to think about it.

The betrayal voice had something to say though: You just need to get laid. You’re jealous of a healthy sex life.

Glowering, Sammy really couldn’t argue with the damning accusation, because it made a lot of sense. Intellectually, she was perfectly fine with Bast pursuing his lecherous inclinations. Emotionally, though, the connection caused bitterness, especially due to how close she was to them.

Whatever! I’m not going to just go ‘knock it out’ like it's a note on the fridge to check off. I’ve waited this long. It should mean something…

Her thoughts went to Azure. Rolling in a bed — giggling — fingers interlocking — kissing. A flush went through her body. Desire suddenly, to an intensity level she was rather unfamiliar with. Just a pulse, but hot enough to melt steel.

H-holy shit. Why?! This body is traitorous too! And in the middle of the day!

Squirming in her throne, Samantha enforced her Goddess-like Iron Will over the intrusive lusty thoughts and focused intently on the urgent matters of life and death at hand.

Servitors. Think about the Servitors. Yes. A free use, a new Line available too. Which one was she going to do? Servitors, Servitors… she needed a walk, that was it, yes — a walk, a good pacing would do the trick…

It would have to be Light. It was too powerful not to have a specialist in, and in any case, she’d eventually have more Lines available than domains at some point. She was pretty sure. Redberry was apparently very high level from all indications, despite her tremendous mental deterioration, and she had seven domains. They didn’t come at every level. Not even every other, probably. They were somewhat lopsided at earlier levels.

She perused the Servitor options copiously. ‘Flight’ was interesting. While Dart could polymorph to fast things, they did not increase in speed. Flight on the other hand was fast and got faster with levels in addition to supreme maneuverability and dodging capabilities. Wings were technically optional but increased performance for the price of vulnerability.

The only trouble was subtlety. She didn’t really want obvious new supernatural things running around. Magic sometimes allowed extraordinary entities as summons and so forth, but it was always something that would get noted and spread around. It wasn’t common at all. Due to fear of the attention of the Shiners, objects, constructs, and natural creatures were more common. A man would be far more likely to fly on a disk or a rug than a dragon.

And certainly not a pegasus.

Sammy grinned. Looking at some of the options Light had made available, she was getting a sense of what she’d ultimately do.

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