EG 3 Ch 17 (Patreon)

I headed over to the Sky Blue man while I didn't have my minder trailing behind me and listening to everything I said.

"Well, hello. I’m Rayden." I stepped up to the man in the very blue suit. The feathers just made him seem ridiculous. He was peacocking to a whole new level.

"Well, hello. A new face." The man gave me a giant smile and an appraising look, his gaze raking over me before switching to the other two in my entourage. He too was missing his glove for the moment. "Seems you're looking for me in particular," he said, dismissing the woman with him with a wave of his hand.

She wandered off, and he glanced at Lily and Minnie, expecting me to dismiss them as well.

"This is Minnie, though most seem to know her as the Dragon of the Void. And this is Lily." I paused. "There are no secrets between us." I was trying to cut straight through to the point.

The man's smile turned into a deep frown. "Trust me, secrets are too much fun to give up entirely." He gave me a saucy wink. "So then, lovely to meet you, Lily, Rayden, and the Dragon of the Void." He drew out the title with a small growl.

Minnie's eyes rested on him for a moment, as if waiting for something, and when it didn't come, it was like he had lost her interest entirely. Her attention shifted outward and away from the conversation.

"Frosty," he said with a smirk. "I'm sure she's all the fun at parties. Now, you're seeking me out for something. Whatever could it be?" He held his wine glass, his arm sort of curling around it as he smiled and watched me.

"I'm just here looking for some information," I said nondescriptly.

"Aren't we all," Sky Blue said, his eyes raking over me again, and he sipped lightly from his glass before his eyes began to wander. "But it depends what you're offering, and if we can come to an agreement on price."

"Isn't that the trick," I said. "Though I'm not sure if my items are fully aboard yet." I glanced at my communicator as if it would give me a hint, but it didn't, and I looked up to see the man beginning to grow bored. "Right now, I have a P-62 cloaking system, fifty-three Harpy missiles, and enough katminium to plate three shuttles."

My words caused the man to stop and slowly pivot back in my direction. "Well, now we are talking."

"This can be confirmed as soon as my glove returns." I gestured to the side and hoped he would be back in time to confirm the goods. Otherwise, I was going to look quite stupid.

"Then it does seem we have something to discuss." The man eyed me and sipped from his glass again. "And tell me, what exactly is it that I could have for such an exalted price?"

"Information on military postings and supplies," I said. "And though I doubt it's in the spirit of this place, you could give us plenty of ideas on where else to go shopping for parts." I smiled at the man dressed in sky blue.

"Is that so?" He pursed his lips like he was trying to hold back his excitement.

"Well, I can't say we'll go to all of them. We have our own rules and situations, of course." I told him. The last thing I needed was to be led by the nose into some trap.

"Of course. One doesn't rob Kikai military forces haphazardly, now does one?" His eyes glimmered as he looked between Minnie and Lily and then back to me. "Though I do suppose you have the qualifications to be at least somewhat confident in that regard. I haven't heard of the Dragon of the Void attacking anyone recently, though," he said.

Minnie, for her part, smiled and leaned forward. "If there were any left to tell the tale, I would be surprised. After all, the Void claims all in the end."

The man positively shivered with excitement. I read him as someone in a position where he could see many things but touch so few. As a high-end contractor for the Kikai forces, he was probably often tempted by what they had, even though he could only look and not touch.

"Fine. When your glove returns, I will confirm what you have, and if there are no errors, I'll pay you a tidy sum." He smiled. "However, the transaction of the information will need to occur outside their hands."

I frowned. "Don't trust them?"

"By selling you this information, I implicate myself, and I will not do that." He told me.

With a single glance, he re-summoned his date, who walked back over, and he put on a friendly smile once again. "Darling, you just have to meet this man, Rayden. I haven't heard of the Dragon of the Void being so smitten with a man before. Honestly, it makes me a little... tempted." He licked his lips and raked me over with his eyes again.

"Sorry, I'm afraid Lily is too possessive to share," I used Lily as an easy excuse.

The man let out a put-upon sigh before all of us turned as both of our gloves returned. There was a moment where I could see the recognition between the two of them that their charges had managed to be alone without them, while the two of us could only smile, having gotten one over on the meticulous station.

It was a small, silly prize, but still fun enough in its own right, and I would certainly do it again. By the way sky blue seemed to be wiggling with absolute delight, I had to wonder if he did it not for the secrecy, but for the fun of the challenge.

***

A Kikai divine walked off her ship, high heels clacking with each step, her nine white tails displayed to the world and swaying behind her. Not a single Kikai on the docks so much as looked in her direction; they were all still busily cleaning up the absolute mess of the place. One of the two-tailed divines present recognized Megumi and managed to reach her as she stood amidst the wreckage.

"Good news, I hope?" Megumi asked, snapping out a hand fan and keeping herself cool on the otherwise blistering-hot planet.

Places like this simply needed to be removed from the universe, she couldn't help but think to herself. One of these days, she and her fellow divines were going to have that much power over the universe. Megumi relished that future in which her people could stand in the light.

"Miss Megumi." The young divine, one of their newer cohort, stepped forward.

"Has anyone offered an explanation as to how this happened?" She stared out over the destruction.

"Unfortunately not, Mistress," the young divine reported, bowing low.

Megumi couldn't help but hum. "Who was it?" she demanded, and her subordinate brought forward a data pad.

"He mostly matches the description of the man captaining the ship that Divine Violet was last spotted using to exit." She handed the tablet over.

Megumi scowled deeply, Akari’s legacy still plagued them to this day. The old divines should have gone into the next life quietly. "I thought we confirmed his death. He is human, is he not? And was sliced open, according to the twins' video feeds."

"Unfortunately, it seems either those had been tampered with, or there was some way in which he survived. We still believe him to be human, but there's still the unknown on their ship. We were unsure of her capacity, but the present theory is that she is a rather aggressive branch of Frugalia."

The older divine shuddered. "If that is the case, have her identified and found. Perhaps we could take her apart to learn something new. No one wants a war with even a single Frugalia."

"Of course, Mistress." The divine bowed. "As you can see, we are attempting to clean up the situation here—"

But Megumi interrupted her with a wave of her hand. "Let them fix their own mess. There was a divine here?"

"Yes. Madame Katza," her assistant said, reading her status off the tablet.

"I will flay her alive for her failure." Megumi stated.

"That appears to be unnecessary," her assistant said. "She's believed to have been killed in the wastes. From everything we can see, they did something to distract her, pulling her away while the rest of the crew dealt with this installation. They hid under our nose and then rose up to bloody a five-tail, even if she was a pitiful example."

"That's quite a jump from taking on the failed twins." Megumi stared into the distance. She was one of their best, those that at least kept their tails were passable, but anything below seven tails was a failure as far as she was concerned.

The assistant fidgeted. "Perhaps they found sympathizers amongst some of the old guard. Violet was Akari's disciple. If any of the previous generation of divines were still alive, she might be able to garner their sympathy and support."

"Do you believe that to be the case?" Megumi asked. They were the inquisitors and while they might tell the rest of the Unity that there were old monsters still in hiding, that was mostly a lie to keep their branch active and well funded.

"Unlikely," her assistant admitted. "While she has training befitting someone who was a disciple of Akari, all the psychological profiles we can build of Violet show she simply doesn't have it in her."

"When put against the wall, people's personalities can change greatly," Megumi stated, staring over the destruction. "My suspicion is that this human," she said the race with a sniff of derision, "like many of his warmongering people, has pushed her to become more violent than she would have otherwise been. In this regard, it only affirms our resolve to raise our race out of the gutters we've found ourselves in."

"Of course, Mistress." The divine with the tablet bowed low and then paused. "It appears we may have a lead on our most recent problem."

Megumi slowly tilted her head toward her assistant.

"Source unknown," she said, quickly tapping on the tablet. "It seems we've received this communication."

The tablet was tilted toward Megumi. It was a message scrubbed of all metadata. It simply showed the ship that had been here drifting in space. The image was zoomed in enough that whoever had taken it clearly knew what they were doing, hiding enough of the background to make using the stars to triangulate it impossible.

"What do they want?" Megumi asked, keeping her tails neutral and waving in the air, though she was excited at the opportunity. She always loved the hunt.

"The message just says, 'Interested?'" The assistant reported.

Megumi paused. "They're asking us to bid for this information. Bid well." She waved her fan. "After we've gotten what we wanted, we can simply kill them for daring to make us pay for this information. The entire sector should be asking not what we can do for them, but what they can do for the Unity. We are the future of the Kikai race."

It had been a long time in the making. The scientists had eventually cracked the code on how to make a divine.

Megumi smirked at the thought. For how many years had those ancient divines held on to the notion that none of them should ever research their origins, understand where they came from? Now the reality was clear: they were old and afraid of change. Afraid of too many having the same power that they themselves were born with. Afraid of sharing their silver spoons.

Megumi always recalled the first time the old divines had become aware of her and the growing cohort she represented. At this point, there had to be almost a thousand of them. The Unity grew stronger with every generation. They were rediscovering the powers that the old divines had held hostage and funneling resources into each new cohort to create the best divines possible.

Her nine tails pushed against the breeze, a reminder of what resources were required to make a true divine.

Oh, the old guard had tried to reach out to them, to find some sort of working relationship. But every time it became known just how many the Unity numbered, those old divines had become scared enough to try and stop them. Although those attempts had led to repeated failures.

By now, the original divines were well and truly gone from the universe. As far as Megumi was aware, only a few lingering remnants of that age existed, including Violet. But soon she too would be purged, and the Unity would reign supreme.

A new age. A new race of Kikai was rising. A race that could stand up to the greater beings of the universe, like dragons, with their own source of natural power. A new paradigm shift to make up for the technological edge the Kikai had given away to the Federation.

Obviously, a good chunk of that decision lay at the feet of the divines the Unity had replaced. And good riddance to them. For they had traded the Kikai race's secure future for what? Pieces of paper. Kind words and alliances that one day wouldn't be upheld if their race lacked the strength to carry its end of the bargain.

Megumi stood still thinking of what would have to happen next. An example would need to be made of Violet. There were some amongst the Unity who wished to incorporate her knowledge of their abilities; the teachings she had from Akari were considered by many a suitable price for leaving her alive.

But that could not be allowed to happen. The Unity was redefining Kikai power. Upsetting that process would tip the current balance of power in the Unity. Megumi was not ready to risk any of her own power base.

As an Inquisitor, a hunter of the old guard, she had plenty of combat experience and well-trained personnel who would potentially be put out of business if they started making friends with those fragments of the past.

No. Megumi needed time to catch Violet and her ilk while she transitioned her role amongst the Unity from enforcing against the old guard to enforcing the Unity itself. Because even a gathering of divines needed a force to police itself internally.

Such a position would practically put her amongst the top three in the Unity, a perfect place to be. The head often gets cut, but everyone needs their arms.

She hummed and turned back to the workers busily cleaning up and smiled. Perhaps she could use some of this to her advantage. If the young divine could make a big enough mess, well, that would only give Megumi more justification to rein the others in. She could use Violet as an example to further solidify her position and expand the inquisitors.

***

"Report." A woman shrouded in darkness demanded, as she and one of the servants of Sage Shores watched through the diamond-screen window as the Griffon pulled away from the station and glided out into the twilight expanse.

"I am uncertain exactly what he truly traded," the servant said, tightening the white gloves on his hands and bowing to the richly dressed sanguafae woman. Like many of her people she was a radiant young beauty. But that was no way to guess their age. Her hair had a dark luster while her eyes were a bright gold.

"While you and one of your counterparts were gathering their meals, it appears they had a quiet conversation.” She pursed her ruby red lips.

“I beg your forgiveness for my lapse in attention." The servant bowed low, but the sanguafae waved a hand, and his back straightened as if the gesture had put an iron bar into it.

"There's no need for that," she said softly. "Sage Shores shall forever be a place where discreet transactions may take place, and there will always be those who wish to be discreet, even to our eyes."

The servant seemed perplexed at her lack of anger.

"I am sure he will return, in which case you will serve as his guide while on the station once again. They will be treated as top-level customers, even if we never learn what they are dealing in." She instructed.

"Madam," the servant said slowly, questioning his decision to ask what lingered at the tip of his tongue.

"Unknowingly, they and I are on the same team." The sanguafae's grin was nothing short of savage. The fangs enhanced the look.

"The same team as you?" The servant hesitated.

The sanguafae's bright gold eyes shifted and pinned the servant where he stood. "Of course. The Unity and I are no friends. Those upstarts have created enough turmoil to disturb no small part of the order of the universe. They will eventually set their gaze on me."

"Couldn't you—" the servant began, as if he expected she could have solved the problem all on her own.

"No." The sanguafae woman sipped at a drink, staring off into the far distance as if the walls and the expanse beyond did not hinder her vision. "My power, while vast, is under far too many constraints. Maintaining a simple station that no one else can bother is, unfortunately, the limit imposed upon me. Perhaps in the future I'll have more freedom. For now, all I can do is aid those I wish to see succeed, and ever so slightly dampen those whose ideals go against my wishes.”

“Rayden will be well taken care of." The servant understood, and could feel the weight of her gaze upon him.

"I just expect you to do your job to the best of your ability. And if they wish to slip out of your ears again, don't make it too difficult." She told him.

"Madam, if I may ask, who is Captain Rayden Valcrest? For him to have both a h-helivore," he struggled even to say the race's name aloud, "and the Dragon of the Void with him is..." He hesitated. There was no precedent, even in a place as exclusive as this, for such a guard contingent to surround a single figure.

At that, his mistress turned, the brightest smile he'd ever seen on her face. "He is truly and utterly no one." She stared out into the void, as she often did when she thought. "I think that's perhaps the most exciting part. He shouldn't be here. And he shouldn't have either of those women in his wake."

"But he does," the servant said, in no small part confused, as his mistress's grin grew ever wider.

"But he does. Which only makes the situation that much more interesting. I do hope he returns to my little paradise." She leaned back in her chair, eyes going distant as she no doubt watched everything in her domain.