novelraw Chapter 146 – Converging
Chapter 146 – Converging
Chapter 146 – Converging
“So, they built a city in a river valley, with the river running though it? And most of the official downtown area is below the flood line? Who thought this was a good idea?” – Jade upon entering Grand Rapids.
“So could you enchant parts of the car?” Val asked, continuing their conversation about her hobby. Kurt just found out she was having a lift installed in the second garage bay so she could ‘mod the shit out of her car… and probably do maintenance too’.
Kurt thought about how to answer that question and decided on the simple route. “Yes, but not always.” Yeah, that was probably enough to sat-.
“How so?” Val asked immediately, turning in her seat to face him.
“Better give her a full answer or she won’t leave you alone.” Kristi said from the back seat where she was playing on her hacked Switch. She had gotten the bug for Pokemon Roms and was having a field day with some of the fan games. It was how she was spending her time on the three-hour trip down south to Grand Rapids.
Penny was also in attendance but was napping after having a ‘long night’ with Jamie before she left for a few days. She had been rather worried about him and leaving him alone, but Ra assured her that he would look after him and his sister.
“It depends on the parts in question.” Kurt began to answer after passing a semi-truck. “Things like glass, body panels, transmission cases and engine blocks can all be done pretty easily and simply. Things like tires, brakes cooling systems and such need some thought before you go and enchant them.
“While I could probably enchant a tire to be ‘durable’ it would be a very bad idea. Because that enchantment would likely make the tire harder and reduce the grip it had on the road. Same thing with the radiator, if I just slapped an ‘efficiency’ rune on it, I could have trouble with the engine temp warming up enough to be reliable in the winter.”
Val nodded along while taking notes in a book she had summoned from her ring. “Mhm, so what are some good ones for cars then?”
That started an hour-long conversation about what Kurt had done to his car and some of the things he thought might work for hers. He noted that she seemed rather focused on durability and reliability enchantments and wondered if that was for her own safety or if it was because she didn’t care about trivial things like fuel efficiency.
After a few minutes of Val making notes in her book, Kurt asked a very important question. “How’s everyone feel about lunch and topping off gas?” He had just passed a sign that said they had plenty of options coming up at the next exit.
“I can eat.” Kristi said in what was likely the understatement of the decade. She was always hungry with having to fuel a semi-draconic body.
Val put her book away. “Me too. And I bet Penny will be hungry when she wakes up too.”
“HNNnnn, I am up.” Groaned their handler as she rubbed sleep from her eyes and stretched. “Food sounds good to me.”
“Great.” Kurt said and then reached out via the implant.
“Jade. We are pulling off here to get lunch and refuel.” He glanced into his rear-view mirror and confirmed they were still behind him despite doing it not long ago. Convoy habits died hard.
”Understood, sire. We will follow you.” Came the immediate reply from the saint.
That sparked a brief debate among the occupants of Kurt’s car, and they eventually decided on a burger place. The fast-food chain was a popular one and actually had some of the better-quality food for the type of restaurant. It also helped that it shared a service drive with a gas station making it almost a one stop shop.
After ordering, they pulled a few tables together and sat down in the dining area to wait for their orders to be brought out. Once the food arrived, they quickly ate, easily powering through the calorie dense food with their supernatural appetites.
Once everyone had their fill, De’nath leaned in and looked down the table. “Sire, why are we driving and not taking the Order portals? It is my understanding that we have one in that city.”
“Mobility.” Kurt answered. “If we go through the Order facility, they will know what vehicles we drive and how many of us there are.”
“You think they are watching our facility?” Penny asked, sounding much more alert after slurping down her second Coke. “Why would they do that?”
“I don’t think they are, but I am going to assume they are.” Kurt got a lot of very questioning looks. “Just because I don’t think something is likely doesn’t mean the enemy can’t do it. These people are the type that can be very dangerous if properly motivated or informed. I am going to assume they are hostile until proven otherwise and take precautions all the while.” The table was quiet for a little while after that as everyone digested his point of view and their lunch.
Eventually Penny was the one to speak up. “As… bleak as that is, I can appreciate the sentiment since this group is virtually a complete unknown.”
Kurt nodded. “Yeah, and after looking into their request a bit more from the Order intel section, I don’t think they are the most unified. They have a presence in most major cities but especially the ones near the permanent and temporary bridges to other realms.”
“So, places with a lot of Para’s.” Kristi surmised.
“It’s a numbers game in the end.” Jade said. “The higher their ratio the more influence they have.”
“Yeah. Well, let’s get going.” Kurt stood and took his tray to the trash before heading outside with the others.
They had already topped up the cars with gas, so it was a short final leg into the city. “Jade, you guys go ahead first. We will delay a bit and drive slower so we arrive at separate times.”
Penny cleared her throat. “You guys have the reservation information and directions to the hotel?”
“Yup, got them printed and GPS is running.” Said Connor who had been driving.
“The rooms are adjoining so you guys can pile into one big room, and we are across the hall. We will pretend that we don’t know each other until further notice.” Kurt reminded them.
They agreed to stay in touch via the implants and left soon after. Kurt and the girls did another round in the convenience store and got some snacks for the room. After a quick bathroom break, they got back in the car to finish the last of the trip.
*****
Rindi stared out the window of the transport vehicle in amazement. In all her years of travel, she had never seen or even ridden in such a contraption. The speed of travel was on par with some of the larger airships that dominated long distance travel on Askenet. This ‘bus’ was quite the marvel. She wondered what sort of speed the smaller ‘cars’ could achieve as they seemed to be even faster than the larger vehicles.
The sights outside were equally intriguing. In the hundreds of miles they had traveled, the terrain varied as she might expect, having seen many different climates and landscapes on several different worlds. What amazed her was the strange way that the people of ‘Earth’ seemed to spread out. They built homes seemingly anywhere and everywhere that wasn’t being used for farming and had absolutely no fortifications she could see.
When she was on Askenet she had seen similar, but it was only for industry. Lumber mills, mines and various processing industries were located outside the city walls and provided raw material to those within. Everywhere she had been on that world followed the same pattern. Farms and industry outside the walls, shops, craftsmen and citizens within.
She once again looked down at the booklet she had been given to study. It was a small thing, only a dozen pages, and explained some of the technology and cultures of this world. It was a rather handy thing to have and she was surprised that they had been given one at the welcome center in the inter-realm transportation bridge.
“Why aren’t we there yet?” Grumbled her fifth and latest master.
Her master, Garik, was a surly dwarf who had somehow taken over her slave contract. She never understood how that had happened as the man’s only distinguishing trait, after his stinginess, was his cowardice. She suspected treachery since her last master was a strong warrior and easily the better of the dwarf in a fight. Garik was a truly contemptable person, and she was glad her slave contract was nearly up. This was the closest she had gotten to her ten-year contract ending before her master died and it was reset and transferred to the new one.
That was also part of why they had come to this world. He was trying to ‘get his money’s worth’ out of her and his other slaves before her mark expired in a couple weeks. He had found a bounty posting that promised a large payout on an easy target with the catch being they had to wait for the bridge to get to his world. Apparently there had been some legal issue that limited travel between the worlds.
One of Rindi’s counterparts, Tanska, answered their master. “Master, just think, we have already made such progress and in complete comfort. Surely a few more hours aren’t too much to wait in such luxury.”
Rindi hated Tanska. The human woman was less battle slave and more pleasure pet for their master. She rarely did any work other than climbing into bed with him every night while her and Manto picked up the slack.
Manto was another issue for Rindi. The lesser angel always looked down on her, even more than the others. He constantly made hateful comments about her ‘impurity’ and her ugliness. He also made nonstop aspersions about her mantle every time she summoned it. Every time he saw the fur of her four wings he compared her to ‘true angels’ as he put it.
She snorted at the thought. How could he make such comparisons when he barely had a halo and didn’t have wings at all like his higher echelon cousins. He would probably try to find fault with a purebred Valkyrie like her mother, though not to her face.
Her thoughts were derailed when her master once again spoke. She hated the compulsion he had put on her through the slave mark to always listen to him. She was just glad he was an idiot and hadn’t commanded her to always do as he said.
“When we get there, Tanska, find lodgings. After that we will try to find this contact in their local ehh… what was it?” He began giving the same command he had already given three times since boarding the bus. He then forgot in the same place for the fourth time.
“Our contact is a member of the Paranormal Parliament.” Answered Manto while Tanska tried to snuggle even more into Garick’s lap.
The dwarf nodded. “Right, them.” He pulled out a slip of parchment from his shirt pocket. “The job posting says to ‘call them’ on something called a phone.” He looked around bewildered. “Does anyone know what that is?”
Feeling the compulsion to answer, Rindi spoke up. “It is a communication device, master. Each one has a specific number sequence and those are used to connect the devices.”
“Where did you come up with that nonsense?” Manto scoffed.
Rindi held up the booklet. “It is in the booklet we were all given when we passed through that Customs place and welcome center.” She flipped it open to reveal a picture of several devices that were all phones according to the caption.
“Ha, good one.” Garik, chortled. He then turned to Tanska. “Cast the translation spell when this carriage stops. Then we can find a phone to call our contact.”
Rindi went back to ignoring him and the others as Tanska used the opportunity to lay some undeserved praise on her master. The witch really took every opportunity to win him over and he fell for it every time. It’s almost like he was unaware she was convicted of criminal manipulation and murder.
To be fair, he also seemed to be oblivious to all their criminal records and only cared how long he had left to get some use out of them. Tanska was in for another fifty years for her crimes, pretty much guaranteed to never be free and will die a slave. Manto was convicted for a whole slew of things including several cases of assault and inciting violence due to his puritanical personal beliefs.
If she was being completely honest, Rindi truly didn’t deserve to be a slave anymore. She had spent nearly forty-five years as a battle slave because she had accidentally burned down a tool shed while taking shelter as a youth. The original ten years for arson had turned into over four decades of service due to a series of unfortunate masters because of the way the slave mark transferred.
She also wondered if it wasn’t some sort of divine punishment. How was it possible that she was forced into being a debt slave then have a slew of masters all be murdered or otherwise killed by another? Who even came up with that stupid rule about ‘spoils’ and why would they put slaves in that category?
With nothing else to do, her focus returned to the scenes passing outside the window. She only had a couple days left, then she could finally leave a free woman. She could summon her mantle again and feel the wind in her wings whenever she wanted. She just hoped that when the time came, that witch Tanska would open her pocket dimension so she could retrieve her few personal possessions. The idea of starting he life as a free woman with nothing but the clothes on her back was not exactly appealing.
*****
“This is a nice place.” Kurt said as he walked through the atrium of the hotel. He found the wall of plants and water amusing since it seemed that there was always someone cleaning up after the mist it made. He wondered if the wet floor sign had ever moved from that spot or if it was a permanent fixture.
Kristi walked next to him as Penny and Val trailed behind. “It has a light and spacious feel to it with the upper level and the skylight.”
They found their way along the lobby wall to the elevators and then up to their floor. The rooms they ended up in were toward the far end, near the emergency stairs and vending machines. Kurt tested the implant and received a reply from Jade stating that they were already settled in across the hall from their rooms.
Once inside, they opened the partition doors to see Penny on the other side in her room. They all decided to have a quick huddle in Kurt’s room since it had a seating area, and he had an ice-cold case of beer.
“So, what do we do now?” Kurt asked while passing beers around.
Penny cracked hers open and took a pull. “Mm, well, the meeting isn’t until tomorrow evening, so we have today and most of tomorrow to do what we want.”
Kurt nodded. “Sounds good. Anyone have some ideas for what they want to do while we are here?”
Kristi, who until then had been studying her beer bottle after taking a sip, looked up and pointed to a section of her label. “Can we go where they make this? It says made in Grand Rapids.”
“Founders?” Kurt shrugged. “Sure, I think they have a restaurant too, so maybe we do a little recon of the area and hit them up for dinner?” He glanced over at Val as she made some hand gestures toward the corner of the room.
When she noticed them looking at her, she looked like she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “What, I wasn’t doing anything. Its completely normal and healthy behavior for a kitsune of my age.”
“Umm, we didn’t say anything.” Penny said after a moment. “We were seeing if there was anything you wanted to do in the city while we are here.”
Val flushed a little. “Oh.
“But now that you mention it, what are you doing?” Kurt asked as he glanced to the corner where a shadow cast by the door to Penny’s room suddenly moved. The sight made him want to both recoil away and investigate out of curiosity.
“Remember how I talk with Inari a lot.” Val began but was immediately interrupted by Penny who did a spit take and began coughing harshly while Kristi reached over to pat her back.
Finally, the Naga calmed down enough to take a heaving breath before blurting out to the room. “YOU TALK WITH WHO?”
“Inari.” Val answered calmly. “I thought I told you this in Florida.”
“Well yeah but I thought that was a vision of some sort not a regular luncheon with a goddess.” Penny graciously accepted a towel from Kristi who had summoned it from her ring.
“Its actually more like tea but yeah. I talk with her like every other night.”
Penny’s gaze then landed on Kurt. “You have some freaky shit going on too? Are you having bi-nightly conversations with a god too?”
Kurt shook his head. “No, Lycaon is long dead.” Penny sighed a little, but her relief was short lived as he continued. “But I talk with what is left of him as the Avatar once in a while. Oh, and the wolf that inhabits our souls. He’s pretty chill though.”
After gaping at them for a moment, Penny took a long pull at her beer and drained the remainder before reaching for another. “I hate you guys sometimes.”
“Noted. So, Val, shadows?” Kurt said, turning back to the kitsune.
“Damn.” She sighed, likely having thought she would get away with it. “Yeah, it’s one of the things I have been working on with Inari. Turns out my natural affinity with illusions and shadow aspect mana lets me control them.”
She then gestured and the little pool of darkness in the corner slowly creeped outward, expanding past its former boundary. Val then made it rapidly change shapes, wiggling into a variety of forms before she let it settle. Then she made it darken, driving almost all the light from it then lighten, making it seem like there was barely nay shadow there at all.
“That is something.” Kristi said dryly.
Val bobbed her head. “Yeah, I am practicing with it but its mostly instinctual. Like this.” She suddenly vanished from her chair as the corner she was sitting in turned into an inky black pool. A fraction of a second later, she reappeared standing against the wall. “I can kinda teleport within a pool but not across unconnected shadows. I figured it out last time I talked with her after getting the idea from Tig.”
“Well, that’s going to come in handy.” Kristi amended her tone, surprise showing plainly on her face. “What else can you do?”
The rest of the case of beer was spent with Val demonstrating what her shadow magic and illusions were capable of. It seemed that she could actually influence an illusion with shadow magic and make it have actual substance. Kurt could literally reach out and pet the little shadow bunny she made as it sat on the table. The only downside was the shadow puppets didn’t have mass and could be easily pushed around unless they were braced.
While Kurt and the girls tested Val’s ability, Penny spent most of her time texting. She was nearly constantly checking in with either Jamie or the team posted on him and their building. They slowly whiled away their time until they decided to make a couple passes around town and the building they were going to be meeting their contact at. Once getting a good look and having Jade and her team scout it out, they had an early dinner before calling it a night to get a jump on their reconnaissance in the morning.