ROD - Chapter 109

Chapter One-Hundred-Nine – Allegiances – Part Three 

Truth is often subjective in politics. 

-Former Senator Gregors- 

The radio buzzes with static as Vella changes the station. All of them are playing the same thing on loop now.  

“Attention citizens of the United World Order, I am Senator Crane, leader of district twelve. There has been a terrorist attack on the World Hunters Association, if you are a member, seek asylum at your nearest UWO military installation, I repeat, seek asylum at your nearest UWO military installation.” 

“How better to round us up and put us in front of a firing squad,” Vella says, pulling her hair up into a bun, “This is fucking ridiculous.” 

“The UWO wouldn’t do this,” I say, shaking my head, “It has Marauders written all over it.” 

“You don’t know the UWO as well as you think,” Jennifer says.  

I turn to look at her, surprised that she’s agreeing with Vella. What’s more surprising is that Clayton hasn’t once tried to say it wasn’t them, he’s not overly proud of being in the UWO, but I saw him chew out a WHA person for talking shit about soldiers a month or so back.  

“What do you think, Clayton?” I ask.  

He flashes me a look in the rearview mirror before putting on his turn signal, “They don’t pay me to think about politics.” 

“A non answer, charming,” Vella sighs.  

“There’s no point in speculating right now, there isn’t enough information,” Clayton says, giving Vella a wary eye.  

“Do you ever take your hands off of those?” Vella asks, crossing her legs, “You seem rather fond of daggers. Mmm, you must be a blade dancer. What class? No, let me guess.” She puts her hand on her chin musingly, “Ruby red daggers, a pyroblade? No, you don’t have any significant burns on your arms. A Blood Dancer? No, they usually carry bags of blood, or off-worlders to use as portable blood banks, and I don’t see any storage rings on your hands. Curious.” She leans forward, tracing her hand on his shoulder, “Do you… do you think I can touch your blade? I’ll be gentle with it.” 

Clayton shrugs her hand from his shoulder as he growls, “Fuck off.” 

She tsks her tongue and leans back in her seat, “All of you are so damn boring, what’s a girl have to do to have fun around here?” She turns to Jennifer, “Mmm, so where is your precious Starboy? At a brothel? Getting tea? Dry cleaner?” 

“He will tell me once I inspect the area we are headed,” she replies cooly, her nerves seem to have settled.  

“Mhm,” Vella turns back to Clayton, “And where exactly did you say we were going?” 

“I didn’t.” 

“Right, this should be fun then.” 

*** 

My message notifications had hit the maximum number before it just replaces it with an exclamation tag. I just finished skim reading through the messages, Cortez ripped me a new asshole with very creative words. Apparently Clayton told her I was fine and now she’s pissed because I’ve been ignoring her. Which is fair, but also distracting, Vella or Starman could be an enemy, I need all my focus.  

There were a few weird and cryptic messages from her mom, Senator Veronica Alveria. Ones that are making me wonder if the shit has stopped hitting the fan or if it’s just started. She sent me two map locations as well. Both of them are in the countryside, far away from prying eyes.  

[ Senator Alveria: No matter what happens, maintain your Soul Marks on the Heroes Starman and Vella. We are making arrangements for them right now. Do not use or discuss Abyss unless you must. We do not know who we can trust yet. 

Half of your team is missing, if you speak with them, please tell them to rendezvous at these coordinates.  

Things are… complicated. 

Acknowledge receipt of message… 

We’re going to have a long talk about your communication skills. ] 

I sent her a reply asking what was going on, all she said was we will speak more in person about it.  

It’s hard to keep track of exactly how much time has passed since the attack, but the sun has set. I’ve managed to glean some things from Vella, nothing really important, but I noticed that when there’s silence she tends to talk about herself and her accomplishments. Give her a little praise and she’ll keep going.  

“There I was, standing in a goblin den, surrounded by forty of them as they debated what to do with me. Eat me, kill me, sell me to a neighboring clan, and other things, things that made my skin crawl. My entourage was more than seven kilometers out, mind you, this was the early days of the WHA, right after we fractured from the UWO, we didn’t exactly have a large following yet,” she explains, picking at her nails, “Anyway, during that Respec phase, I had a Bard style class and a very sexy Charisma stat, especially with my Tiara of Resplendent Pride, gods I miss that damn thing.” 

“What happened to it?” I ask. 

“A fucking gnome stole it from me, then tripped into a volcano, fucking moron,” she turns, “Some people are just so fucking greedy and stupid, you know?” 

“Horrible combo.” 

“Exactly, being stupid is fine if you’re brave, it’s admirable even, and you can be handsome and greedy and get away with it, but if you’re as ugly as a gnome and steal from a princess, expect her to push you in… I mean, expect to trip, because Karma,” she gives a faint laugh and turns away, “Karma is a bitch after all.” 

“So, how did you deal with those goblins anyway?” 

“Oh yeah, sorry, I’m like a squirrel sometimes, um, right, so there I was, surrounded by fifty or sixty goblins, and I saw a lute on the table, barely had two strings that could be played, but it didn’t matter, Bards can play powerful music with the most rudimentary instruments,” she pushes her hair back, “I once played a debuff chain using a spoon and a bowl, the tempo was amazing, and they didn’t even see it coming. If you’re skilled enough, you can even hum some debuffs, and a few buffs. Though I died before I got too many skills unfortunately.” 

“What’s been your favorite class so far?”  

“Mmm, well, I didn’t have it for long… no, you’ll think I’m silly, ask me my second favorite class.” She turns an eye toward me, “Unless you’re really dying to know, then I guess I could tell you,” she looks at Clayton and Jennifer, “but, it’s easier to show you, later perhaps, when we have some time alone.” 

“What’s your second then?” 

“Probably Warden of Wards, it let’s me…” she pauses, turning to look at me fully before a smile creeps up on her lips, “You know, I’ve been talking about myself for hours, tell me a little more about yourself.” 

“What do you want to know?” 

“How many people are on your team? My file was rather light. I want to know how well supported I’d be if I joined you.” 

“You’re thinking about joining me?” 

She shrugs, “With the WHA in ruins as you said…” she turns and looks out the window, her tone shifting to be more mellow, “It’s not like I have much choice.” 

“There’s always a choice.” 

She turns back and gives me a strange smile, “I like naïve people, they’re sweet.” 

“The choice might not always be good, but at least you have one, you’re maybe level thirty, so you can probably have your pick of places.” 

“Maybe level thirty? I feel a little insulted,” she says with a frown, then with a playful scowl, “Do I not look tough?” 

“What level are you then?”  

“Forty-nine, if you must know, and you?” 

Clayton swallows and shifts uneasily in his seat. I wonder if she’s lying.  

“Seventy-one,” I lie, because I don’t want her to think I’ll be an easy target. If she is a Marauder, which I’m starting to doubt she could be, then she might be wary of me with the item, but if she knew I was reset to level seven and that I had almost no offensive skills she might just kill me. If she knew Abyss was essentially a glorified storage ring she’d be even more likely.  

There’s also Starman to consider, he’s still hiding in his rat form under my seat. I wonder how big his mana pool is, and how much does it cost to retain a form that’s not your own? What’s going to happen if he runs out of mana? Will he poof back and be splattered under the seat, or will his body get a temporary invulnerability and break the seat and crush me against the ceiling…  

“You’re level seventy-one?” she asks, tilting her head curiously, there’s a mixing of caution and disbelief in her tone.  

“Killing gods tends to give you a small boost in levels,” I wink, spinning the black ring Abyss on my finger, “They did take some of them away, but I got to keep an acceptable amount. What level did you think I was?” 

“I… I didn’t know,” she shrugs, then crossing her legs again, “I guess that makes you the second highest on Earth.” 

My heart thuds for a few beats before I ask, “The second?” 

“I’m not supposed to say, but with the WHA… you know, gone, I don’t see the point of keeping it confidential. Ajax is level seventy-four as of last week.” 

Level seventy-four… fuck’s sake. In Adaraic’s memories, when he reached the upper levels he was like a one man army. That took him a long time, and he slaughtered people by the droves… how the fuck did Ajax accumulate that many levels? She also said, as of last week… the fastest way to gain levels is inside of the gates, or at least that’s what I’ve been told… there haven’t been any gates since we met the quota, they won’t start cycling again until April. Is there a fast way outside of the gates? Shit, I need to find out more. I need whatever method he's using. And fuck Sage for not telling me about it if there is.  

“Are you close with him?” I probe.  

“Very,” she smiles.  

“So, what’s his secret?” 

“His secret?” she asks. 

“How did he accumulate so many levels without slaying a god?” 

“He works out a lot, he’s kind of a health nut too.” 

Bullshit. But I don’t say that, I need to keep her cordial, I need what’s inside her head.  

She turns to look at me again, grinning because she knows she has something I want, “You know, I might be willing to tell you a little more about him, in exchange for…” she motions at Abyss, “Black looks really good on me, almost as good as red.” 

“It looks better on me,” I say cooly.  

She smiles, “I don’t know, you’ve never seen me in black before.” 

“Are we almost there?” Jennifer asks, breaking the tension. 

“Nearly,” Clayton says, giving me a double wink in the rearview mirror.  

The double wink on our team is code for one thing. Clench your buttcheeks, we’re headed for a fight or a potentially hostile situation. Tran made it up to accompany his habit of double tapping his magazine before shit goes down.  

I let out a shallow sigh, he must have been messaging Greymore too while he’s been driving. What the hell are we headed into this time? 

“You never did say how you managed to get past the goblins,” I say, looking at Vella.  

“Did I not? Silly me. Well it’s quite interesting…”