Nyra didn’t like Captain Valorion encouraging Hank to tell the wrong sort of secrets to Ming and Ning. Sure she didn’t like gossip, but she didn’t like liars either. The captain could detect some hesitation with her.

  “Yes Nyra, is there something you’d like to tell me?” asked Captain Valorion.

  Nyra didn’t want to embarrass the captain in front of Cong and Shui, the husbands of Ming and Ning. She encouraged the captain to step aside from the dinner table.

  “Excuse me for a moment, maybe Nyra wants to tell me my future with a tarot reading” laughed Captain Valorion.

  Kade knew it was about the captain’s toxic behavior, very few of the teammates could call him out on it except for Nyra. Even Tyler held back his own personal grudges whenever the captain would give him lousy chores to do around the tower instead of training to fight possible powered up criminals.

  “Just what is it?” asked Captain Valorion to Nyra, “I was in the middle of having a lovely conversation with Hank.”

  “Lovely conversation, you call encouraging Hank to tell lies about his own nanotechnology project a conversation?” continued Nyra.

  Nyra did her best trying to be the voice of reason for the rest of the team – Whisperblade could see how pointless it was. The captain enjoyed delivering drama as a means of creating order and Nyra’s buttons were always pushed each time.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “I’m sorry that you seem to be jealous of Hank being more professional” continued Captain Valorion.

  “What, this has nothing to do with your friend at least on that aspect” said Nyra.

  The captain laughed, Nyra could see she was facing an uphill battle.

  “Bet your fortune telling can’t crack this order” laughed Captain Valorion.

  The captain was visibly mocking her powers, and she couldn’t display any form of aggression against him knowing it would break the rules of the team. Kade could clearly see it all from his side of the table. Nyra grumbled as she sat back down next to Whisperblade.

  “So, how was the tarot reading?” asked Hank to Captain Valorion.

  “Oh, yes, I felt I wasn’t ready to deliver my questions yet” replied Captain Valorion.

  Nyra hated dealing with toxic people, the captain was just perhaps one of the worse type. As for the others, Tyler knew he had to get dessert for the rest of the dinner.

  “Getting dessert for everyone” said Ty.

  Kade assisted Tyler in picking up the plates when the guests were finished.

  “Ah, you’re a gentleman under all that anger” laughed Shui.

  Kade did his best ignoring those comments as he picked up the plates. Brun decided to assist the two in helping them clean the plates in the kitchen.

  “It will just take a moment” said Brun to Themba.

  Brun got up and headed towards the kitchen, he knew neither Tyler nor Kade liked Captain Valorion at all.

  “That captain is a real jerk” said Kade.

  “Easy, he’s just a few feet away from us” replied Ty.

  “I don’t know what he sees in these technocrats all they care about is gossip and their silly nano bots or whatever they’re into” said Kade.

  Brun could sense some frustration and decided to see what he could do to assist them.