Chapter 1057: A Parade of Jasons (Patreon)

Jakaar watched his enemies depart through the portal after the last of his own people had emerged from it. When the portal closed behind them, it was like a fresh breeze cutting the oppressive heat of summer. He gathered his staff, checking numbers on the freed prisoners, finding all but a handful of names present. He couldn’t help but notice that the missing captains were amongst those who revelled in being a pirate more than Jakaar would have liked.

He was finally able to get firsthand accounts of what happened, but not much was revealed. They talked of hungry shadows and flesh-rotting plagues. Cleansing magic inflicting worse damage than the sickness and escape magic failing completely. Enemies that were never seen and friends vanishing in the dark. Jakaar recognised the hallmarks of an affliction skirmisher.

It was an uncommon path at the lower ranks, and all but unheard of in higher ones. For all that they were dangerous to their enemies, Jakaar had never heard of one surviving past silver-rank, including the one he’d killed himself. Even with the skirmisher dead at his feet, he was left watching his friends die slow, miserable deaths anyway. The healers couldn’t save them as wounds refused to heal and cleansing the maledictions caused the victims even more harm.

Centuries later, that encounter remained one of the most confronting experiences of his life. He’d fought stronger enemies, but never a worse one, and now a diamond-rank version of that monster had come to hunt his people. They probably could have taken him down eventually, but there was no way it would have been worth the cost. Feeling validated, he trudged to his stateroom, mentally exhausted. When he opened the door, he found a man in the kitchenette, brewing a pot of tea.

“Not what I expected from your cabin,” the man said, not looking up. “Comfortable but practical. I take it the whole sleazy pirate act is to make people underestimate you, which I can respect. I’d look for a better hat, though. Have you ever heard of a tricorn?”

He was not a large man. He wore combat robes of the style favoured by stealthy, agile types. They were the red of dried blood, with the too-perfect drape of a conjured item. He had glossy hair and a sharp chin, not as attractive as one would expect from a diamond-ranker, although Jakaar could cast no stones in that regard. What terrified Jakaar was that there was no trace of aura coming from the man. To his aura senses, the man in front of him did not exist, and that conflict with what he could see was unnerving.

“You’re him.”

The man looked up just long enough to flash a friendly smile, his brown eyes briefly flaring blue and orange.

“I’m him,” he confirmed.

“Are you here to kill me?”

“I don’t think so, although I do see the advantage. In the few years it took you to resurrect, your whole fleet would splinter and fall apart, especially after how things went here. That being said, you seem like an okay guy by pirate standards. That’s a low bar, but your captains were mostly benevolent in how they held this planet. There were some exceptions, and I didn’t give those ones back.”

“Are they dead?”

“Yes, and they won’t be back.”

“How?”

“Diamond’s rankers aren’t immortal. They’re close, but you can keep them down.”

“How?”

“I’ve learned a lot about the mechanics of death recently, and the Reaper knows better than to cross me right now.”

“You’re claiming that the Reaper is scared of you?”

“The Reaper doesn’t get scared. It does get careful.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

It doesn’t matter what you believe.

Jakaar stared at the system window floating in front of him, trembling as the ramifications scorched through his mind like wildfire. The man left him to his thoughts, continuing to brew the tea.

“The new great astral being. The System.”

“Yep.”

“You’re one of his cultists? Prime vessel?”

“The System doesn’t have vessels; I’m one of his avatars. Things work differently when a great astral being is raised from mortality. Hopefully it goes better than it did with the Builder.”

“Why are you hunting pirates?”

“You may have noticed that I didn’t do a lot of hunting. Be grateful you didn’t catch any of my friends.”

Jakaar snorted.

“Are you kidding? I practically ran a training course for them.”

Amusement crossed the man’s face, which at this point left Jakaar deeply relieved.

“Why bother with attacking my people and pretending to kill them? You have to know that I would have given up immediately if you revealed who you are.”

“Your people are pirates. I don’t trust them to keep discipline and follow orders. I wanted to grab your attention while I found my friends. More than that, though, being The System comes with responsibilities. Throwing my great astral weight around for personal business isn’t ethical.”

“So? If you’re a great astral being, who could possibly hold you to account?”

“You’ve met her.”

“Farrah Hurin?” he asked and frowned in thought. “She said something to me. Something about you answering to her.”

“That’s right?”

“How could she force you to answer to her?”

“I sanctioned myself to place her beyond my authority.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Accountability is important to me. I’ve spent most of my life dealing with the consequences of great astral beings ignoring it.”

“Who are you?”

“You once sent people to a planet called Earth to kill me.”

“Jota. You’re the one who turned him against me.”

“You didn’t make it hard. Do you think he chose wrong?”

“I suppose not.”

“I can forgive you trying to kill me.”

“I appreciate that.”

“Coming to kill my friends, though? That will require amends.”

“Then why didn’t you kill me? You even went to the effort of keeping my crews alive. Mostly.”

“I try to be merciful when I can. Pirates are a problem, though. Even if you’re one of the less-awful ones, the cosmos is better for having fewer of them in it.”

“Then I ask again, why am I still alive?”

“It’s starting to sound like you want me to kill you.”

“I want to understand. I’ve been doing this for a long time, dodging the true powers of the cosmos while knowing this day was always going to come eventually. That I’d get sloppy or greedy or just unlucky. I’d step on the wrong toes and find someone like you standing in front of me, and here you are. I never expected, when this day came, that I’d survive it this long. Why have I?”

“I told you: your actions require amends.”

“What do you want from me?”

Jason filled a pair of teacups from the pot, then picked one up and sniffed at it.

“Not one to spoil with cream or sugar.”

“Hardly,” Jakaar said. He moved to claim the other cup, avoiding the still-present system window as if the intangible projection had sharp edges.

Jason blew on his tea, not yet taking a sip.

“I said that piracy is a problem and I meant it,” he told Jakaar. “It’s time for you and your fleet to move on. You once sent Jota to Earth, and now you’re going to take your whole fleet there.”

“Why?”

“It’s under invasion. Right now, it’s sealed against diamond-rankers by the World-Phoenix. It will stay that way until a diamond-ranker from Earth goes there or the dimensional membrane finishes stabilising, which will be in a handful of years. If that happens before I stop the invasion, the invaders will send through all their diamonds, and the Earth can’t match those numbers. Your crew is going to wait until that happens and step in to tip the scales.”

“And if I refuse to throw my crew into a war I know nothing about?”

“The leader of the invasion already hired you to come here and kill my friends, Jakaar. You’re already in it.”

“A goddess hired us for this job. She’s invading your world?”

“Yep.”

“How?”

“It’s complicated. Do you really care?”

“If I’m going to be stuck between a goddess and a great astral being going to war with each other, then yes, I care.”

Jason grinned and sipped at his tea before nodding appreciatively.

“Fair enough. But whatever the details, Admiral, you have to decide what it’s going to be. I have an avatar on every one of your fleet’s ships. One way or another, there’ll be one fewer pirate fleet in the cosmos today.”

***

“There’s little Niks everywhere!” Neil exclaimed, his face lighting up. “That’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen!”

The forest city was swarming with adolescent, rabbit-like Lehenik and teenage-looking messengers. The messengers were largely quiet and dignified, older messengers guiding them on how to fly through the trees like they were an obstacle course. The Lehenik, standing two feet tall, were running around like they’d just downed twelve cups of coffee. The messengers had been supplied with simple togas in typical messenger cut. The lehenik had all been given shirts and pants, although getting them to wear them was proving a challenge. Hundreds of Arbour’s avatars, looking like female sculptures made from vines and branches, chased the Lehenik around as the rabbit children giggled and ran. The avatars were forced to resort to catching them with long, prehensile vines and dangling the children in the air while their clothes were applied. Neil and Taika had delightedly joined in, although they seemed more inclined to join the kids playing than the avatars being responsible adults.

Watching from a balcony treehouse was Farrah and the rest of team Biscuit, minus Jason, going over the events prior to their rescue. They were sitting on benches around a picnic table loaded with food, mostly fruit and pitchers of juice.

“Belinda was doing an excellent job of keeping us hidden,” Rufus explained.

“Right up until Humphrey screwed up everything,” Belinda said.

“He was being brave,” Sophie said.

“He was being an idiot and almost got you killed,” Belinda shot back. “What kind of idiot gold-ranker walks into the middle of a town taken over by pirates, no fewer than seven of which were diamond-rank, and starts a fight.”

“They were abusing people!” Humphrey said.

“Yes,” Belinda said. “Because they were diamond-rank pirates, who get to abuse people. It sucks, but they were DIAMOND-RANK PIRATES!”

“Which is why he ranked up to diamond right there,” Sophie said, leaning into Humphrey and hugging him.

“And he would have died right there if Neil hadn’t ranked up when stepping in to keep him alive long enough for you to get them all out and then lead the bad guys away, Soph.”

“Where I also ranked up, Lindy. We’re all alive and we all ranked up.”

“Because we got lucky! We’re not Jason, Soph. We don’t get a free resurrection every five stamps on our sandwich loyalty card.”

Sophie got up, walked around the table and pulled her friend into a hug.

“I just…” Belinda mumbled into Sophie’s shoulder. “A lot of my powers are just copying everyone else, or letting you all do what you do again. I got to diamond because I finally felt like I can contribute things no one else on the team can. That I’m more than just back-up Clive. I don’t want to just die on some mercenary planet after finally feeling like I have a place that isn’t just tagging along after you.”

Neil came loudly stomping up the stairs to join them.

“You’re an idiot!” he told Belinda.

The whole group wheeled on his with shocked and angry expression, which he ignored.

“For someone so smart,” Neil continued, “You seems to have a pretty bad memory. You’ve been doing things the rest of us can’t for years. All of us, and people across two universes and more would be dead if it wasn’t for you. Very specifically you. Remember back in Greenstone when you and Sophie were pulling jobs to stay alive? You think Sophie could have done any of they without your planning? She’s basically good at jumping on and off things and that’s about it.”

“Hey!”

“And remember than base full of crazy Purity zealots you infiltrated entirely alone? That guy you found in there was the entire basis for Carlos Quilido’s research. Before him, Carlos had been stalled out for years. If you hadn’t found that place and found that kid, there wouldn’t be a cure for lesser vampirism, or monster core taint. Sophie’s Mum would still be the brainwashed foot soldier of a god who died centuries before she was born! You think you haven’t been contributing all this time? Have you been huffing alchemy run-off or are you just thick in the head?”

Taika landed heavily on the platform and slung an arm around Neil.

“That was the sweetest, rudest thing I’ve ever heard. You’re kind of messed up, bro.”

A portal opened on the deck and a parade of Jason’s came through.

“Jakaar came around, and the new avatars are working perfectly,” he announced. “And now I get to hug everyone at the same time.”

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