”Bastion Association of Meteorology warns of Obsidian Rain later tonight. As a reminder, that’s rain mixed with shards of obsidian and ash from nearby super volcanoes, which can and will cause severe danger-“

  I opened the door, and the TV abruptly went mute. Lucia sat at the dining table, head down as she watched something in her oculus. “Welcome back.”

  “…!” I attempted to smile at her and lifted a stack of pizza boxes. I’d used most of my remaining Meal Chips getting them. They were tantalizing, to say the least. I didn’t even need to eat anymore, and I still felt hungry. The scent of pizza was a hard one to say no to.

  “You brought pizza?” Lucia’s face lit up.

  I slid the boxes onto the table, shook off the water from my hoodie, and sat across the table from her. I checked my SIGIL once more. Nineteen thousand Nytes. Not too bad for a couple hours of work. It would’ve been more, but the Arc vendor charged me for the bullet holes.

  I should run some of this by Pursius, yep? I only owed… several hundred thousand more? I lost count, but I think it was around five or six. The day was rapidly coming that I’d pay it all of, especially if I kept taking high paying jobs like this one. Not that the Miix ever pressed me for payments. If anything, it always seemed like he tried to do the opposite.

  Lucia stopped after chowing down on her first couple slices. She hesitated and lifted the lid of the box. ”Are you not eating?”

  “Diet.” I shrugged.

  ”I see…” She didn’t look like she believed me. The hesitation form before elongated until she dropped the lid back down without pulling out another slice. “Thanks for the food.”

  ”No. Problem-” I rubbed at my throat, feeling my voice go out.

  “Oh! I have good news! I’ve managed to rally my supporters. In five days, just after noon, we’ll be making our move.” Her cheer faded significantly and she dropped her head onto the table. “Bad news? Over half the board was in on the attempt. The other half there isn’t enough evidence for yet, but most seem involved.”

  “Why. Ashlands?” That was something I’d been curious about for a while. I got that her corp betrayed her and shot her out of the sky, but why go out there in the first place? There wasn’t much out there for her, yep?

  Lucia glanced away for a moment, her eyes sinking deep into thought. “Um- there’s a group. The Golden Dipper Society. It’s super elite, made up of all the uber rich. They promised support if I landed a deal in- um… have you heard of Epsilon?”

  “…?” I shook my head. There was something about it on Lotus’s bounty board, I think. An experiment or something like that?

  ”It’s part of Throne’s reclamation efforts. An experimental satellite-city outside the bounds of Bastion, created by the collaboration of several mid-level and higher corporations.” She shrugged lightly. “Basically, all you need to know about it is that hopes are high. Lots of Nytes exchanging hands, especially with its location.”

  Okay, to put it into terms I was familiar with, basically a colony? One that was on a gold mine, at that. “Society?”

  “Right. If I landed the deal, they’d back me. My position as CEO is… turbulent, to say the least. I only inherited it after my dad died.” Her face twisted in sadness for a moment. It seemed that wound was still fresh. “Their backing would help me stabilize, so I took the deal and flew out to Epsilon.”

  ”Downed. On. Way?”

  A touch of pride gleamed through her silver eyes. “No, I did make the deal. Cernobog is the highest producer of specialized mining equipment, and in the top fifty for industrial goods, which they’ll need lots of.”

  “…!” I clapped my hands cheerfully for her.

  A grin crossed her face. “We used to be super niche, but there’s several generations of wealth to be made with Throne’s expansion plans. Epsilon is right on an ether vein. Bastions been mostly cut off from ether veins since Hope was destroyed a hundred years ago, so plenty of corporations want to make a move.”

  Hope… I think that was another megacity? Bastion was the last one left now, but there were supposedly thirteen of them at some point. Arks, if I remembered correctly.

  So she got downed on her way back. The bastards must’ve known she could get the deal to go through, so they waited until they could take the fruits of her labor before attempting to kill her. There was nothing worse than biting the hand that feeds. Mutts like that should always be put down.

  “Board. Die?” It was the easiest solution, all things considered.

  “An assassin?” Lucia sighed once more. “I need this to be legal. Anything else would tank Cernobog Industries. No telling what kinds of ratholes the board’s dug over the years.”

  So… as long as they appeared to be natural deaths it’d be fine? I could do that… probably. Hmm… assassination in Bastion would be much harder though. I simply wasn’t built to deal with all the tech and capabilities of the modern corporations. Not to mention all the cameras everywhere. It wasn’t as simple as pushing someone off a cliff or tying a noose and writing a suicide note.

  Lucia’s plan would be the best for now. If it didn’t work? I’d help out in my own way. Besides, I didn’t necessarily have to be stealthy to get rid of some people. I just had to escape afterwards.

  Oh no, what an absolute shame. The Anarch Nyx happened to pass through Cernobog and collect nine heads… Did Anarchs count as natural causes? I could always go plan B and release a ‘monster’. Been a while since I played the part of a monster. Subtle manipulations of Ebonshroud could make for some terrifying effects.

  “Support. You.” I lifted a thumbs up to the teenager. She sure had a lot resting on her shoulders for a seventeen year-old.

  Some of the tension faded away and she flashed a radiant smile. “Thank you! If it all goes well, the future is super bright! Besides, I have the Heads of Security, Finance, and Legal still on my side. It’s not a complete twelve verse one.”

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  IF. She said IF. Sounded like she wasn’t too confident in her plan either. Hmm… Well, I had connections I could call on for help if need be. Besides, like I said, Nyx truly was a blood-thirsty Anarch. Such a shame…

  I chatted with her a bit more. Or, more accurately, she talked while I listened and occasionally gave one word replies. It was kind of fun? Been a while since I talked to anyone except Kali. Eventually, she moved back to the couch and laid down for the night.

  I waited until she was asleep before leaving for the bathroom, Dew in hand. The flesh of my hand burned slightly under its effects. I waited till I was fully in the bathtub before downing the scorching liquid all in one go. I’d learned through previous mistakes how messy this could get.

  — — —

  Lucia jolted awake, a night terror fading as her awareness snapped to attention. What woke her up? Not that she was condemning whatever it was. Being awake was much better than the alternative.

  “Aylin?” There was no response. It wasn’t the strange woman that woke her up? Not that she was strange in a bad way, but her mannerisms seemed ever so… unique?

  She rubbed her head, feeling a headache building up. Familiar nausea overcame her for a moment and she curled up into a ball. She missed Ethan dearly. Her loyal guard always knew the perfect joke to make her laugh and smile. And she couldn’t even give him a proper burial…

  Ugh- how was she going to be able to look Ethan’s son in the eye after all of this was over? He was just becoming an adult, and now losing his dad? Lucia was intimately aware of how awful that was-

  No- no, one step at a time. Slowly work through it and it’ll be over before she could even check the time. Just one step at a time…

  Out of habit, ether gathered in her eyes and her Trait, Eyes of Providence, activated. Countless strands came into view, entwining and wrapping through everything. They stretched far beyond the horizon, entangling with each other and breaking to the point it was nauseating to even try to figure out what was going on outside of her immediate area.

  The weave was like a maze, only one that was stacked infinitely inside of itself into a twisted five-dimensional amalgamation. Heighth, width, depth, time, and information all twisted into one dizzying array of confusion. Even with over a year’s experience with it, the Trait was still extremely difficult to use.

  Lucia had long learned not to follow the knots and strands too deeply. Instead? She read the colors while looking through them. Almost every strand had a color, all helping to make informed decisions. The strands coming off of Kali, for instance? Radiant. It was part of the reason she was so trusting of the odd duo.

  And Aylin was nice to be around. She was like her only sanctuary in the middle of a storm. Eyes of Providence wasn’t nearly as overwhelming when near the woman, making it much more manageable to try and figure things out. Of course, Aylin herself was an entirely blank space under Eyes of Providence.

  After looking through the strands, a habit she did every time she woke up, the girl stood up. She ran a hand through her dingy straw-like hair and moved to the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. She took a few sips and idled back to the couch, her mind resettling down-

  Lucia’s nose scrunched up. Was that… blood? The stench was overwhelmingly strong, practically radiating in waves. Why-?

  She followed the trail, stopping just before the bathroom’s door. She didn’t even have a particularly strong sense of smell, but it was just that overpowering. From beyond, she could hear a light retching. “Um- Aylin? Is that you?”

  The noise from beyond the door abruptly cut off. Aylin’s voice sounded much worse than usual, as if she’d been up all night screaming. Old injury flaring up? “Yep.”

  “Are you… okay?” It was hard to put into words exactly, but she had a faint feeling something was off outside of just the blood. There was a slight… tension in the air? Like standing next to a wild animal.

  “‘M fine-“ The voice cut off as more retching came, though it was much more muffled.

  Lucia paused for a moment. It was obvious she was trying to hide something. Back away? Or keep pushing? But if this was serious… “I- uh- I smell blood. A lot of it.”

  “Shaving.” Her voice sounded even worse than the last time, crackling slightly. The shower kicked on, covering up the sounds of something splattering. The scent of blood slowly started to fade away.

  “Okay.” Lucia stared at the door. She’d cut herself shaving enough to know how much blood came out. This- this wasn’t a shaving accident.

  Lucia stood by the door for several long moments, worried. It didn’t help that Aylin was immune to her Eyes of Providence. She couldn’t even use her Trait to see if she was actually in need of help or not.

  Several long minutes later, the shower shut off. The door opened up and her mysterious savior appeared. The taciturn woman leaned against the doorframe and rubbed at her wavy black hair with a towel. “…?”

  Lucia stared up at her. Black pajamas covered her tall form, ruffling slightly as she shifted from foot to foot. As per usual, her unique purple eyes flicked and shifted around, seemingly avoiding eye contact. Her expression was entirely muted, just like a beautiful doll.

  ”Just- um… Sorry.” The teenager backed away, rubbing her hands together uneasily. The woman looked fine… maybe it really was just an accident?

  ”It’s fine.” Aylin’s voice came out. As if the previous time she heard it just a few minutes ago was a lie, her voice sounded far better than usual. The hoarseness had faded away, turning slightly husky.

  “Woah… your voice.” Lucia flinched in surprise. Two words? That was the most she’d ever heard from the woman without the hoarse halting. Not to mention she sounded way better. Her voice was almost like a late-night talk show host. It was far removed from her usual way of speech.

  “…!” The woman herself seemed a little surprised. Her eyebrows barely knit together and she rubbed at her throat.

  ”Is your injury healing?” That was good news. Old injuries mending was always worth celebrating.

  “Maybe-“ Aylin grimaced. She sounded way better, but the injury seemed to still be a bit of an issue. “You up?”

  Lucia moved back to the couch and twisted the cap off her bottle. “I got thirsty.”

  “Hmm…” Aylin ran the towel roughly through her wet hair once more, cowlick popping back up as she tried and failed to smooth it down. Her eyes flicked out of focus for a moment before she nodded lightly. “Goodnight.”

  ”Yeah… yeah, goodnight.” Lucia watched the taciturn woman disappear back into her room. She stared after her for a moment before settling back down on the couch and pulling the blanket up.

  Lucia stayed up for a while after that. Half her mind set stuff up on her Glass while the other half focused on a report from the Head Legal Officer, one of the few people she could still trust within her family’s company. Likewise, one of a few that knew she was still even alive.

  He’d been her father’s best friend since childhood, and closer to an uncle than anything else. It was a massive weight off her shoulders when she confirmed he had no part in the assassination attempt. He’d also taken care of her re-entry into Bastion, hiding it from prying eyes.

  According to the report, all the chess pieces were playing just as she expected. It was almost too easy. The grief that’d been holding her down faded under burning rage to see them crash and burn. A word here and there to the right person, and she had the nine that sought to bring her down playing in the palm of her hand.

  And, although she hated the option, assasination was technically still on the table. She had a trump card hidden deep up her sleeve. The Tenok would be more than willing to eliminate any threat to her well being. Especially now that they’d almost failed once already. It’d be a miracle if the shadow guard could even forgive themselves for such a mistake.

  Her father was forgivable. Nothing they could do about natural causes. But the crashed hova? If it weren’t for Aylin, they’d be entirely masterless. Although she’d been keeping contact to a minimum, she knew the Tenok were flaying themselves alive for their failures. Granted, there were extenuating circumstances, but when were there not?

  She barely kept the shadow guard from rushing over here to protect her after contacting the Head Security Officer and letting him know she was still alive. They practically begged for her to go to one of their safe houses. Eyes of Providence showed the path, though. Staying with Aylin and Kali? There wasn’t a safer place.

  Regardless, in just five days it’d all be over, one way or another. Her checkmate was nearly complete. A small smile crossed Lucia’s lips. How would the traitors react? What would their move be? Or would they just give up when her trap card was played? She couldn’t wait to find out.