Gaia's Champion Ch. 67 - Teaser (Patreon)

“My employer has received your message.”

“And?” Jason asked, putting down his fork.

“He would like to speak with you.”

“Good,” Jason replied with a nod. He started to stand and the bodyguard’s eyes moved toward Sheena, Phalmina, and Rosa, who were also rising.

“Only you.”

“No.”

The answer came without aggression, and that seemed to surprise the man more than anger him.

“They come with me,” Jason said, gesturing at his women.

“That was not the invitation.”

“Then respectfully, we’re going to have a problem,” Jason stated. The man’s expression hardened slightly, but Jason didn’t move, and neither did the ladies. “They’re part of this. Anything I know, they know. Anything I’m involved in, they’re involved in. So if your boss wants to talk to me, he’s talking to all four of us.”

The bodyguard studied him, then Rose, then Sheena, then Phalmina. Three beautiful women accompanying one very large man might have suggested any number of things. The mistake would have been assuming any of them needed Jason’s protection.

Sheena allowed the smallest thread of power to rise, her eyes changing first. Brown disappeared beneath a faint, unnatural emerald radiance. Not bright enough to illuminate her face, but just enough that no human being could mistake it for reflected light.

Phalmina followed suit by doing something similar as something almost playful shimmered behind her gaze. An ephemeral green, touched with something older and stranger… the faint suggestion of Fairy magic layered beneath Gaia’s blessing. She giggled to herself at finally being allowed to show something to a Normie.

Rosa’s was warmer and softer, but no less unnatural as the power of Ix Chel flowed through her, but with the full might of Gaia behind it. A slight whisper of power escaped her, speaking in tongues that no one living knew how to speak. Yet at the same time, they sounded almost familiar to any who heard them.

Jason finally allowed his own power to answer theirs, as his eyes too glowed with Gaia’s might. He allowed the energy and feral ferocity of the Wolfkin he was to overtake his eyes. They gleamed much like those of a wolf, and a low, feral growl echoed from his throat, too quiet to carry, but loud enough for the bodyguard to hear.

For barely a second, four pairs of eyes glowed with the same unmistakable green. Then it vanished, with no spectacle or threat displayed, simply informing the man. The bodyguard’s expression didn’t change much, and that impressed Jason. Most people would have taken at least one involuntary step backward, but this man merely studied them again. Only this time he was seeing four very different people.

He glanced back toward his employer, as the information broker was already watching them. The two men exchanged a look across the restaurant, and something passed between them. Permission for the invitation to change, which was given with a slight nod and a blink of the broker’s eyes. The bodyguard returned his attention to Jason.

“Very well,” he replied, stepping aside. “All of you.”

Jason rose, then Sheena, Rosa, and Phalmina followed as the bodyguard gestured toward the rear of the restaurant. The four of them exchanged a glance as they had spent the better part of two days searching Kinshasa for answers. At last, they might actually be about to get some from the man who supposedly knew everything that went on here.

Then he and the three women followed the enormous bodyguard across the restaurant, who led without hurrying. That alone told Jason that people who were accustomed to being feared rarely rushed.

The larger man moved ahead of them with the easy confidence of someone who knew that everyone in the room understood exactly who employed him and what interfering with that employment might entail. Conversations continued around them as glasses clinked, cutlery scraped lightly against plates, and somewhere near the kitchen a waiter laughed loudly enough to momentarily rise above the soft music drifting through the dining room.

Eyes still followed them, but not openly or for long, and Jason noticed the shift almost immediately. Rosa noticed it too, as Phalmina seemed amused by it, while Sheena kept her expression neutral and quietly watched every angle around them.

The information broker occupied a broad table near the rear of the restaurant. It was positioned far enough away from the busiest portion of the room to afford some privacy without isolating himself entirely. That seemed deliberate, too, as someone like him probably understood that true privacy often attracted more attention than carefully managed visibility.

He looked up as the four approached, and his gaze moved to Jason first. Then he took in the appearance of Sheena, Rosa, and Phalmina, his eyebrows rising slightly. He didn’t stare at them lasciviously, but his gaze seemed to be more… appreciative, like a man admiring a work of art. The man possessed the relaxed confidence of someone mature enough to admire beauty without needing to make a spectacle of it.

One of the women seated beside him, however, murmured something in Lingala beneath her breath. Jason understood it immediately through the translation rune he had been keeping active. Something to the effect of wondering whether the big foreigner had somehow stumbled into paradise and forgotten to tell everyone else where the entrance was.

The other woman quietly replied that if paradise looked like Jason, she wouldn’t mind getting directions. The broker slowly turned his head, as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Both women met his gaze without fear or shame, almost as though they were teasing the man.

“Really?” he asked, not sounding angry, merely mildly offended.