“Welp, it worked, time to shut it down, eh?” Jed asked, moving over to one of the only working consoles.
After confirming that, yes, the barrier was online, he did exactly as he’d said, the city falling into darkness once more.
“Metsa sounds… I honestly can’t tell if she’s angry or ecstatic,” Gwen said, cupping a hand to her ear.
“Probably both,” Jed said as he checked over what he could. The shudder hadn’t repeated when he shut it down, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t been a problem.
“Right. Let’s give her a couple minutes,” Gwen said, moving to stand beside him. “What’re you doing?”
“Looking over the readouts for the power. Except this damn console doesn’t have half the things it’s supposed to,” Jed said, sighing. “Running on hope and a prayer.”
“A powerful combination, in the right parts of the Empire,” Mythlyn said.
“Are you saying that prayer does something in some places?”
“The warp is vast and mysterious, and the Empire’s priests would have you believe that when you pray directly to a statue of the Empress within the capital, it is her will reaching through the warp, and not their hidden listening devices, that answers you,” Mythlyn said with an entirely straight face.
“That… sounds like something the Empire would do, yep,” Gwen said, nodding just as seriously.
“So… prayer does something, but only because there’s infrastructure supporting it,” Jed said, shaking his head as he stepped away from the console. “Sounds about right. Let’s go see if the supporting infrastructure here is doing its job.”
After a few minutes checking it over, Jed confirmed everything seemed to be in place. They even found the source of the shudder. Some of the trash had shifted and landed in front of the door, blocking the way out once more.
“Guess we need to clean up a bit, right partner?” Gwen asked, tugging on her gloves before reaching down to grab a beam that had shifted to lay across the pile.
“Guess so,” Jed said, chuckling as he reached down and grabbed the other side of the beam.
It took them half an hour to clear a new path, this one with everything on the sides pushed farther back, as he should’ve done in the first place.
When they emerged from the pylon, Metsa and Sotas were waiting for them, having pulled out what seemed to be a barbecue grill. Similar in function at least, with the enclosed cooking area and grill, though it was far too large to be a normal grill.
“There you are? Problems with the barrier?” Metsa asked, handing Jed a drink when he approached.
“No. Barrier worked fine. Power distribution looked good too,” Jed said, taking a sip and sighing in appreciation at the fruity mix.
“What my partner failed to mention is that something went boom and threw a bunch of garbage in front of the door,” Gwen said as she accepted her own drink from Metsa.
“Yeah. ‘Cause I didn’t move it far enough,” Jed admitted after another long sip. “This is exactly what I needed.”
“Well, don’t fill up on that, we’ve got some of the best demon meat this side of the Barrier Peaks on the grill,” Metsa said, gesturing at the heavy piece of equipment.
“Wait, there were Roundos out there the other night?”
“It is true. Felled by my own hand,” Sotas said, flexing his arm.
“Caught in the arc of his gun, more like,” Metsa said, slapping the big man’s butt affectionately. “Noticed them today and figured they’d make for a good way to round off the day.”
“Isn’t Roundo meat expensive?” Gwen asked, even as she leaned forward sniffing at the grill.
Jed gave the air a sniff of his own, and he had to admit, it did smell good.
“Girl, I don’t think you understand just how expensive this whole operation has been. A roundo is… well, a rounding error, when it comes to our costs for this whole gig,” Metsa said, taking a long pull of her own drink.
“But…” Gwen trailed off, her face going pale as she did the math.
“Anything worth doing… is also worth paying a lot of money to get done?” Jed tried, smiling when he saw Sotas pull out chairs similar to the trays he’d first seen at the Down ‘n Dirty.
Taking one from the man, Jed attached his to the underside of the buggy, much as Metsa had already done. Even as he settled in place, Mythlyn came over and settled in his lap, curling her head against his shoulder and wrapping her wings about him.
Jed raised an eyebrow at the action, since she normally kept her wings completely out of the way, but she’d clearly been feeling out of sorts, so he decided not to complain. So long as she didn’t keep him from enjoying his dinner.
The grilling roundo was smelling real good.
The next couple hours passed smoothly, the roundo tasting even better than it smelled. Even Mythlyn lit up in appreciation, though she did have to eat hers with a fork brought by Sotas.
After dinner, Gwen insisted Jed help her train on the door, which they did for an hour before Mythlyn said they should probably rest so Gwen’s soul could settle.
Jed was pretty sure that had been shorthand for the warp energy integration with her body, but when he’d asked, Mythlyn’s answer hadn’t really cleared things up.
“The soul is… our reflection in the warp. Not our actual body, but how we’re seen in the warp. I believe it is what you see with your ‘warp senses’,” Mythlyn explained as they made their way up to the control chamber.
“Is it going to be safe for her to teleport up?” Jed asked, still holding Gwen’s hand, since she was having a bit of trouble standing.
Something she’d done a good job of hiding before Mythlyn had spoken up.
“It is a smoother transition, so it shouldn’t cause any damage. Even what she has gone through didn’t cause damage. I just don’t think she’ll see much more growth until she allows her soul to rest,” Mythlyn explained.
“Got it,” Jed said, stopping just before the door. “You ready, partner?”
Gwen nodded, apparently not trusting herself to speak.
Not exactly reassuring, yet Jed activated the door anyway. Gwen didn’t throw up, so he figured it was probably fine. She didn’t let go of his hand either, so he ended up guiding her over to the couch.
Gwen curled up into a ball, still clutching his hand, but soon drifted off into sleep.
“Not getting that hand back tonight,” Jed said, chuckling softly.
“An acceptable sacrifice, I suspect. She made excellent progress today, thanks to you,” Mythlyn said as she took her place on his other side.
“Speaking of… today,” Jed said, realizing he’d failed to transition as smoothly as he’d hoped, but plowing forward anyway. “You feeling okay, old friend?”
“I have been… considering,” Mythlyn said, hand trailing over his chin.
“Considering what?”
“How much I truly deserve that appellation,” Mythlyn said, pulling her hand back.
“What? Old? Pretty sure you’re older than half the civilizations on this ring,” Jed said, chuckling sadly.
She rolled her eyes, smacking his arm. “No. Friend.”
“I knew what you meant, just like you knew that I knew,” Jed said, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. “As friends do.”
“You have an awful lot of definitions for friend, Jed Thomas Grizzly,” Mythlyn said, voice raised with a slight hint of fake arrogance.
“Friendship gets complicated,” Jed replied unashamedly. “Like any relationship. And you are certainly worthy of the appellation.”
“It is nice, that you believe so,” Mythlyn said, shifting and settling her head against her shoulder. “But it has been a long day, and I desire my silent cuddle time.”
“Thought you said I snore,” Jed said as he shifted slightly, finding his head nook.
“Ambient background noise,” Mythlyn said, placing a finger on his lips. “Now shush.”
Jed chuckled, but with his eyes already closed, it wasn’t much of a challenge to slip off.
He woke long before the Eye slid away from the sun. At first, he thought it was an accident, then he realized neither of the ladies were at his side.
Mythlyn was barely visible where she stood just in front of him, face nearly pressed to the window. Gwen was across from her, looking the other direction.
“Problem?” Jed asked, keeping his voice low despite the low odds someone might hear him. Something had clearly woken one of them.
“Not sure,” Gwen said, not looking away from the window, though she had her pictcorder in hand. Well, both hands. The device was as large as Jed’s head, with most of the back surface taken up by a digital screen with a single crack running down one side. Too big to hold in one hand easily.
After a second of aiming it downward, there was a soft click. Then she moved away from the window, bringing up the shot she’d just taken for all three of them to look closer.
There were dark forms, each of them in black shrouds that brushed against the ground with every step. They seemed to be inspecting the path into the tower where the rent had been before they’d sealed it up.
“Imperials,” Gwen hissed, zooming in on the red hexagon emblem that sat prominently on the back of their robes.
“I do not recognize this order,” Mythlyn said, tilting her head slightly to the side as she inspected the picture.
“You have been gone a long while,” Jed said, tapping at a design on the shoulder. “Does this mean anything to you?”
“It is a stylized version of writing numbers. One that became popular after it was used in a play the Empress adored. Old Romanic, I think,” Mythlyn explained. “If I recall correctly, the equivalent is twenty three. One of the more understandable representations. It gets quite laborious with larger numbers.”
“That… that is actually what I thought it meant,” Jed said, wondering what the implications might be. Maybe he wasn’t the first person to solve the equations and stumble his way through.
“Old Romanic? They’re Sniffers,” Gwen said, zooming the picture out more until the entire figure was in frame. “I expected them to be more dog-like.”
Wanting to get a look for himself, Jed slowly slid around to the side of the window Gwen had been on. He pulled out his cell phone and carefully balanced it on the edge of the window, zooming in. One of the ‘Sniffers’ turned, revealing a long beak shaped mask right as he took a picture. Their gaze shifted upwards, and Jed swore they’d caught him looking at them, despite knowing the exterior was opaque.
Then one of the others said something and the figure shifted away, moving closer to the pylon.
Jed let out a sigh of relief as he took several more pictures. A few minutes later, the group of shrouded Sniffers climbed into a rectangular vehicle with heavy rubber tracks and drove off into the night.
“Well, not sure if that was a close call or if they just couldn’t get in,” Jed said, stepping back from the window.
“Good thing we sealed the pylon,” Gwen said, stepping up beside him, hand on the transparent surface.
“Yeah… good thing,” Jed said as he opened up the cell phone, moving back to the picture of the being staring up at him.
A pair of dark amber eyes stared back.