Amazon Apocalypse 8: Chapter 4 (Patreon)

"So what is your goal here?" I asked Seraphyne once the two of us were seated in a quiet corner of the bar where we would be staying.

"My goal is to reclaim my family's seat of power. But when I arrived no one even remembered my family's name. It was impossible to give orders," Seraphyne explained.

I frowned. "Explain exactly what you did when you first returned here."

Seraphyne told me a tale of her showing up with her fancy ship and her family's colors, announcing her return, and asking all loyalists of House Nemaryth to rally to her banner and restore her house to glory. The ones who didn't laugh were the scammers and charlatans who promptly tried to fleece her.

Her spirits had been thoroughly crushed by the time my call for aid came out, so she was eager to drop everything and run to help me. It got her mind off things, and she hoped to eventually recruit someone who knew how to run a planet to help her get her house in order.

The problem was obvious to me, though I could see how someone born to authority would miss it. In Seraphyne's youth, her house was already built. It might grow or shrink with time, but she always had loyal people to trust with recruiting more underlings or directing the details of day-to-day operations.

People like me were different. I was the founder of an organization. Everything I had came either from me or from people I knew very well. I knew what it meant to show up to a crowd of people with no name or title to sway them and convince them to follow my lead anyway.

"So basically, we need to take over the station. And currently it's full of pirates, thieves, and murderers. But as an A-Grade, you could probably just tell everyone you're in charge. If you like, we could kick down some doors and start smashing heads until we get to whoever's in charge."

I eyed Seraphyne. With our power, we could take the place over by the end of the day. Being an A-Grade made these sorts of things simple. But Seraphyne was already shaking her head.

"House Nemaryth was a respected house of upstanding character. I will not have it refounded by taking over like some petty bandit conquering provincial locals. Nor do I want to command the scum that currently passes for governors and administrators of this station and those like it. It would take generations to reshape House Nemaryth after being exposed to their corruption. There has to be a better way."

As Seraphyne shook her silvery hair, my frown deepened. If she was taking violence off the table, this job just got a whole lot harder. Harder, but not impossible.

I sat in silence for a few minutes, putting together my thoughts and coming up with a plan. It wasn't a great plan, but it would hopefully get us pointed in the right direction.

"Alright, I have an idea of what we should do. But I have to warn you, it might lead us to conflict anyway. There are always crooks in charge of places like this, and they aren't going to be happy with a change in leadership."

"As long as my good family name is not sullied by thieves and bandits, it will be a new beginning for my house worthy of our history." Seraphyne dipped her head in thanks.

We walked back through the market stalls a few times to get a feel for the place. When I got a sense of things, I rummaged around for some shoddy scrap wood to build a stall. I needed it to be ugly and blend in with those beside it, but as luck would have it, I didn't have anything so shoddy on me.

Thankfully, one of the other local shopkeepers was closing up for the day, and a single gold coin was enough to convince him to part with his shoddy stall. Seraphyne and I sat down behind the counter and changed the sign. New text adorned the front.

Now Hiring.

They were simple words, but with Seraphyne sitting beside me, they drew attention. If she had been sitting alone, some men aboard this pirate's den might have tried their luck at getting more than a job.

"I feel certain we'll end up hiring scum in a place like this," Seraphyne said skeptically.

"Humor me. We need at least a few locals."

It wasn't long before we had our first candidate.

"Hey... the sign says you're hiring? Can I ask what for? I know my numbers and can keep track of inventory for you. I could probably learn to mop floors. You don't have to pay me, I just need to get off this station..." said a young man with nervous eyes. He had the anxious look of someone who was certain he was being followed.

"We're hiring, and yes, you will be paid. The job is whatever I say it is, which might change day to day. And it will most certainly end up being more than you signed up for. Still interested?" I asked with twinkling eyes.

Job interviews were often far less formal in most of the Arcadia Multiverse, and the young man across from me was probably used to nothing more than a handshake and a promise. But I always felt that signing on a dotted line was far more official, and it gave the person signing something tangible to remind them of their commitment.

"I... alright then. I'm in," the young man said, though he was still nervous. Apparently whatever he was worried about scared him a lot more than I did.

His name was elegantly signed. The graceful loops and arcs spoke of a more formal education than someone born in a pirate's den should have.

"Welcome to the crew, Jalen Waincrest. Seraphyne here is your captain, and I'm her first mate. Normally, I'd tell you to report to our ship for departure, but I expect you'll want to board it now. Just stand with us until then," I said.

Jalen nodded fearfully and stepped around the stall to hide behind Seraphyne and me.

I soon realized we looked suspicious with our clean clothes and unusually high levels. We didn't advertise the fact that we were A-Grades. In some parts of the Arcadia Multiverse, people flocked to those with power. But in dark places like this one, people fled from it.

We chose to go the safer route and not make the waves that two mysterious A-Grades appearing would cause, since it would likely attract the wrong sort of people. But even without being showy about our levels, we were still two clean, confident strangers in an area that wasn't kind to strangers.

It wasn't long before somebody came to test us.

"Hey, this plot requires a license to set up shop here," said a gruff-looking man in a plain shirt and trousers. He had feline stripes running across his cheeks, revealing he had come from one of the many integrated worlds the System had created.

"I don't see anyone else with a license on display here. And you don't look like a guard." I gave him an even and unintimidated look.

"You're not from around these parts. I can tell by your fancy clean clothes. Listen here, I don't know what noble house you crawled out of, but in my part of the multiverse, a firm handshake is all it takes to seal a deal. Now, are you going to pay up or not?" the gruff, striped man asked.

"If you want us to leave, then you are welcome to remove us. If you can." I folded my arms and leaned back in my chair.

The man cocked back a fist with a sadistic grin. I let it hit my face. I felt his finger bones snap with the impact. If he'd been a little nicer I might have rolled with the punch to save his hand, but for an asshole like this I stayed as stiff as a board. For him, it was like hitting solid steel. My chair didn't even tip over.

"Ah, fuck!" he cursed as he clutched his ruined hand.

"We are undergoing important work. You shouldn't interfere with it," Seraphyne said. She waved her fingers and time reversed for the wounded man's hand. The bones knit themselves together and his hand was whole.

I glanced at Seraphyne, then the man she had just healed.

"Next time, we won't be nice enough to heal your wounds. Get out of here and don't interfere with our business again." I gave the man a hard look.

When he was gone, I turned toward Seraphyne. "Why bother healing him? I doubt he's one of these innocents you're worried about."

"Probably not. But my hope is that he'll realize how well we treated him and the fact that his life was in our hands. He should have some gratitude and not make any more trouble for us," Seraphyne replied.

I let out a grim chuckle. "Your expectations are too high. Some people need to have common sense beaten into them."

Seraphyne shook her head slowly. "We shall see who is correct soon enough."

"Would you like to make a wager? If I'm right and he comes back with friends, then you have to show me more of your Architect technology and explain how it works."

Seraphyne flicked her fingers through her hair for a moment and nodded. "Agreed. And if I am correct, we will work on something I am interested in."

The little competition added some excitement to the otherwise boring next few hours of interviews. I wasn't too worried about losing, and not just because I was confident I understood the street tough's type. Seraphyne wouldn't use this win to rope me into anything too unpleasant, even in the unlikely event I lost.

Our bet resolved itself a few hours later when the gruff man with feline stripes across his cheeks returned. And this time he brought friends. All of them bore the same streaks across their cheeks, and it was easy to guess that they were a small gang all from the same world.

"Gentlemen, you wouldn't happen to be here to rough us up for not paying dues in your territory, would you?" I asked with feigned fear.

"That's right! The boss is going to teach you a lesson about disrespecting us!" said the gruff-looking man from before.

I shared a smug look with Seraphyne, who sighed and cupped her chin in her folded hands, though she still wore an amused smile.

I stood up from behind the counter and dusted myself off.

"Which one of you is the boss? I'm ready for this lesson." I smiled as I spoke.

A big man with feline stripes charged me. This time I didn't just let him break a hand on my jaw. I felt like a little exercise. Besides, I was curious whether a show like this would help or hurt our hiring efforts.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. A fistfight against an A-Grade like me was going to be unfair no matter how many handicaps I gave myself. The big guy looked like he was low C-Grade, but at my level there was hardly a difference between him and an F-Grade.

I dipped my head slowly. It was a casual motion to me that felt like slow-motion, but to my opponents and any onlookers it was an elegant dodge that just barely cleared the feline gangster boss' fist.

I bent low and struck his waist with my shoulder. I wasn't quite gentle enough, and instead of knocking him off his feet, I sent him flying ten feet behind me. All around me, eyes widened in slow motion.

I stood there for a moment with my arms folded in a pose that hopefully looked pretty cool. It gave the rest of the feline gangsters the chance to draw knives and cudgels and lunge at me.

This one was much trickier to weave through without getting hit, given there were so many of them. But since they were all moving as slow as snails, I found a path out of the group and walked off onto the sidelines, where I leaned against our stall and folded my arms.

In front of me, several of the gangsters fell on top of one another, and a few were even skewered on the knives they'd drawn to cut me with.

I turned to Seraphyne with a casual look. "You know, they'd have killed somebody weaker in broad daylight. I'm not sure this crew deserves your mercy."

Seraphyne nodded. "They had plenty of chances to walk away."

I grabbed one of the ones still holding a knife. He was a particularly vicious-looking specimen of a feline humanoid. He lashed out at me with his blade, and I gave him a right hook. To me it was gentle, but to him it was still hard enough that his head spun around until his face was pointed the wrong way. I tossed him at a few of his friends as he twitched and died.

There was one other with a knife in the group, and I stepped on his hand as he tried to get up. My boot shattered both his knife and every bone in his hand.

"Aaagh! Mercy! Mercy, please," he begged.

"I imagine plenty of people begged you for mercy. Did you grant it to them? I suspect not." I broke the gangster's other arm, then picked him up and tossed him to his friends with both arms broken but still alive. "Luckily for you, I'm in a good mood."

A hushed silence filled the air around the feline gang, and a crowd had gathered, forming a circle in the street.

"If any of you stick your noses in my business again, I'll hunt down and kill every last one of you, understood?" I crossed my arms and gave them an icy look. It was lost on them, since they were busy running away in terror. But the crowd took it in with quiet awe.

I gave it a few long moments before turning and sitting back down behind our stall.

"Done showing off?" Seraphyne asked as she hid a smile behind her hand.

I grinned and leaned back. "Alright. I see that a lot of you are interested. Who's interested enough to join our crew?"

<Note>

Space pirate Carter mini arc! Not too long, maybe just two or three chapters. There's a lot to cover in this arc, and I've budgeted max 1/4th of the book for this Seraphyne arc.

Sorry for no posts last week. I have been both busy and stuck on the upcoming arc, but I think I have it sorted out now and have a few backlog chapters so I can start scheduling them again. Though things will continue to be slow until I either get book 7 out or finish this kitchen. Preferably both, that way I can get back up to full speed.