Changeling

(62): Raiders of the Lost Meal

Nestra was faced with a small problem of logistics which happened to illustrate her large issue of leading a double life. The truth was, she was a bit of a musclehead and not prone to deception on a long term basis. It meant that her separation of life between Crescent and Nestra was getting paper thin, and it was a miracle it hadn’t broken already. Actually, no, it would have broken if it weren’t backed by Threshold’s two A-class gleams and a grumpy brother.

Nevertheless, she had to be more serious. The two Americans had followed her home after placing a tracer on her motorcycle. The audacity! She’d purchased an ECM suite from Gorge to remedy that, but the fact remained that she’d been careless. It was too easy for someone obstinate enough to find out her secret identity because Sereth was right. She was being careless.

For now, the culprits were dead, the techs quiet, her house sealed, and the A-class complicit. The list of people who knew part of the truth was long but still manageable. It was now up to her to keep it that way. Which led to the current issue.

“I must simply come with you,” her mom insisted.

“And I must simply refuse. My friend asked me to come alone at a difficult time, and I will do as he asks.”

Valerian had specifically asked her to come ‘masked’ via her secret phone. She knew what he meant.

“At least let me drive you there. In your nice roadster?”

“No mom, sorry, I’m going alone.”

“You just told me it’s somewhere in the BaiHe arcology. Why won’t you let me accompany you since I already know where you’re going.”

“I did it so you would know I’d be safe. It’s very important for me to be there for him,” Nestra said.

Her mom was clearly worried for her. Dad came and placed his hand on mom’s shoulder. On her seat in the kitchen, Helena pretended not to see.

“She’s an adult, love.”

“I know, I know. Fine. But promise me that you will be careful.”

“You have my word. I swear those were just thieves and they’re dead, mom.”

Well, she hoped it would be the end of it anyway.

“Go then,” Mom finished with a dramatic wave of her hand, her other arm reaching to her forehead as she pretended to faint in dad’s waiting arms.

“Oh, woe, woe is me!”

“I’m out,” Nestra declared before any more silliness could occur.

She drove her roadster to the nearest ramp and prepared her plan. There was a visitor parking in the arcology, but it felt too risky. Someone really thorough could check the camera footage for who went out of their cars or something. Instead, she picked one of those semi-deserted malls at the arcology’s periphery, the kind of place where students and other young employees could hang out without risks of coming across their superiors. Parking there wouldn’t be costly and security was intentionally lax. When she arrived, she found a parking space in a camera’s blind spot, not too far from an automated car-cleaning service. It was then a simple matter to passe-muraille down to the lowest basement, landing on top of a parked SUV. She made sure to blur her presence as much as possible before finding the stairs up.

“I am not here. I am not here. I am not here.”

It was fun dodging the few customers hurriedly running errands at this hour. She was pretty sure no one had seen her when she reached street level, though she still wall jumped into a car mechanic before striding confidently into the open.

A drone brazenly scanned her on the way to one of the arcology’s less used entrances. She presented her ID to an aug woman in tight security uniform, the kind that was elegant but would also stop a rifle bullet. BaiHe loved that shit.

“I’m terribly sorry, Crescent-xiaojie. Only authorized personnel may carry a weapon inside of the arcology.”

Nestra could have hidden her sword in her spatial pocket. Oh well. She watched the guard respectfully open a box for her to leave her stuff in. She was issued a chit and a bow before moving further in. Valerian sent her a map to the meeting point instead of picking her up in person, which was a little strange considering she was here in advance. The path led her through the beautiful grounds towards the central hub. Nestra felt strange when she actually approached the thing. She was no longer in BaiHe’s pleasant outer shell, the carefully curated world design to advertise the megacorp’s aesthetic and bioengineering ethos. This was the marrow. It was reserved for employees, yet when she approached the gate with her ID, she was let through. The innards of the arcology were more austere but just as elegant, with the safety elements and janitor closets cleverly hidden behind wall panels. People were giving her a lot of attention now, especially the white-clad security personnel. They didn’t have Touhei’s heavy exo armor gear but she was still reminded, by looking at their fancy rifles, that this was a megacorp. It had an army. It was practically a state in itself. ṙА₦ΟbƐŝ

Deeper she went. Every security checkpoint she assumed would finally stop her let her through without issue. She took an elevator up, the trip lasting a full minute. Up there, titanic trees and walkways merged into the illusion of a village while beyond the reinforced glass, gentle afternoon light shone on the distant kaiju wall. There was a management office nearby. Those were the living quarters of BaiHe’s elite.

It was mostly deserted at the time, but a couple of mothers pushing old-fashioned strollers stopped when she appeared. Nestra approached the railing so as to not alarm them. Valerian appeared a few seconds later anyway.

She did a double take.

“Hey. You look stronger.”

And he did. Valerian had never been a pushover but now it looked like he’d picked up bodybuilding. His large shoulders struggled against the seams of his uniform. There were deep pockets under his eyes though, and his facial features showed a degree of wariness that were unusual on a gleam.

“It also looks like you aged ten years,” Nestra remarked.

“Thanks.”

“Right. What the hell happened while I was gone?”

Valerian struggled. His hesitation turned to melancholy. A service drone carrying luggage stopped by his side.

“Errr, Valerian?”

“I’m leaving the arcology.”

He chuckled. It was not a nice sound.

“Do you happen to know how one can rent a spot? I appear to be... homeless for now. And I am willing to admit I’ve lived a sheltered life.”

“Sure. There are apps. Mind explaining?”

“Not now. I don’t want to have to explain things in two sessions, if that’s ok. After we’re gone, alright? I have a meeting I’d like you to attend first.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“You don’t need to say or do anything beyond showing up. In fact, it would be best if you didn’t say anything.”

Nestra kept quiet. Valerian passed his hand over his face as if trying to wipe away months of exhaustion.

“Look, I’m being an ass, sorry.”

“Hey it would be hypocritical of me to criticize you when you’re obviously in distress. I was in distress for a long time. I’ll be there, don’t worry.”

“Thanks. Sorry, I just... really don’t want to speak right now. You’ll get it when the meeting starts. As I said, I’m leaving so don’t interrupt.”

“Okay.”

Nestra waited while enjoying the view. At some point, Valerian moved them to a small restaurant on the same level that served homemade salads. It was really nice, though they didn’t have a privacy booth so it made it inconvenient to eat with her physical mask on. The atmosphere grew heavier as time went on. At one thirty PM, her sullen companion led them both down towards the core. This time, Nestra was stopped by heavy security. They had gleams with them, and not lightweight either.

“She’s my witness,” Valerian stated with a kind of cold composure she wasn’t familiar with. “She was cleared and approved by the system. Let us through.”

“She’s a C-class threat, and a strong one as well.”

“Unless you have reasonable grounds to deny us entry as you question central, sergeant, I suggest you stand down. We are expected.”

The armored gleam clearly didn’t like it. He was C-class, like her, but one of the retired old raiders that could punch above their weight class. The way he kept her on his heavily armored left side showed he was aware of exactly how dangerous she could be. Nestra found that flattering. She liked hard-boiled combatants like him. They were always so full of tricks.

He still let them through but she could tell he would be making calls for the next five minutes.

Valerian was tense as they approached the administrative wing of the BaiHe arcology. They took another elevator before stopping in a waiting room that smelled of stale coffee. Gone was the quiet elegance that qualified the megacorp. This place had been designed to be sterile on purpose, a cold design to instill discomfort instead of harmony on its visitors. A female aug in a very expensive suit entered the room before they could even settle down. It was probably for the best.

“Valerian. They’re all here if you want to go now.”

“Thanks, Elise. We’ll do that.”

“Good luck,” she said with sympathy breaking through her professional mask.

Valerian didn’t reply. Even his attempt at a smile died on his lips. Nestra felt stress bleeding through their friendship. She’d been in enough disciplinary hearings to know when things were Bad.

The aug interposed herself between Nestra and Valerian as she was going to follow him. She quickly made a sign for head cutting, and a bad wince.

Nestra nodded. Things were, indeed, ‘Bad’ bad.

Valerian walked to a large set of double doors. He knocked, then entered without waiting for a reply. There were seven people in the otherwise deserted courtroom, whispers stopping when Valerian crossed the threshold. It was suspicious how close they were to an official Threshold facility. The fact those megacorp assholes usurped every sovereign tool at their disposal from an army to a justice system tickled Nestra the wrong way. Nevertheless, she went to stand on the right on the defendant’s bench. Valerian didn’t sit. He walked straight to the central pulpit.

One against seven. The image couldn’t have been more clear.

The jury — Nestra guessed — was composed of a few people who shared Valerian’s angelic features but also Chinese people and another anglo. It was a rather diverse bunch in terms of age and gender, with the only thing in common being the high status of the white uniforms worn around. Three of the juries looked livid while the rest ranged from bored to vaguely annoyed. Unsurprisingly, those who looked personally offended were clearly Valerian’s relatives. It wouldn’t have been so obvious if they didn’t all share the chiseled, perfect model appearance of the accused, the kind that a regular application of life mana could create. All of them were gleams, of course.

“Unrepentant until the end,” the lead man said.

He looked to be on the younger end, though that didn’t mean much with gleams. He was a rather strong B-class, though healers like him tended not to learn how to kill.

“Get on with it,” Valerian replied in a tired voice.

“Very well. You are summoned here to be held in contempt for your refusal to comply with the recommendation of the Board of Directors. I believe we can get on with the disciplinary part of the meeting, unless you are denying the charges?”

“I admit to not following your... ‘recommendations’,” Valerian said, voice heavy with dark amusement.

It was weird to see him with a bite like that. He was always so polite in public.

“And why did you bring this witness mentioned here then?” the judge asked with some suspicion.

“Moral support.”

The judge was speechless. He turned to a nearby woman who was a respectable C-class and thus probably important. She was more on the sad end of anger. Other judges reacted, some with amusement, others with offense. They were very open about their emotions, which meant they were playing a game of face.

“Is this true?” the judge asked Nestra.

She shrugged.

“I suppose.”

“You suppose?”

“Aye.”

“Master Nepthrite,” an old Chinese gleam asked. “If you could proceed...”

He was old as in, he must have been old when the Incursion hit. That placed him in the same age category as Ragnarok and from his contained annoyance, he shared her short fuse as well.

“Very well. To the matter at hand then. You have been repeatedly warned against pursuing alternate uses of life mana, up to and including nerve attacks, stroke spells, instant osteosarcoma...”

The list went on. It was long and a little gruesome. Nestra had no idea what some of those spells meant but even the old Chinese master seemed impressed.

“... toxin generation, and general sepsis. Have I forgotten anything?” the man continued, his voice very judgmental.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Accelerated hormonal alteration for the purpose of myogenesis,” Valerian helpfully suggested.

There were a few gasps. Nestra frowned, until Valerian turned to her and tapped his large biceps. Ah, he was using his powers to get swole quickly. Nestra approved. It was cool if anything else.

“We specifically forbid alteration of the self!” the judge screamed.

“Is that another rule you just made up?” Valerian politely asked.

The room erupted in discussion. Nestra didn’t catch most of it as only a few people were speaking in English and there were a lot of dirty words like ‘deontology’ thrown around.

“We have given you every chance to stop going against our code of conduct. The Nephrite stand for the sanctity of life and the hippocratic oath, for a healing magic devoid of evil or assault so that mana users from every corner of the city may come for help without fear of manipulation or threat. By your actions, you are staining a reputation we have spent decades building. Do you realize this?”

Predictably, Junpei tried to run — he should have led with that and he would have remained free. Predictably, he and his friend were electrocuted. A van picked them up less than five minutes later. Some beat cop made a token attempt to ask him questions so Takashi tossed some random comments about Mayor Kim being controlled by sapient mushrooms and that was it, he was dismissed. Even if Junpei was an asshole, it was not enough to force Takashi to help the pigs. They probably had the car footage anyway.

Tin man stayed, which was unusual. He was curious as well.

The two women returned in sixteen minutes. It meant they’d cleared the one-time portal in less than fourteen. They were beasts.

“Hot damn,” Tin man whispered.

This time they were carrying what looked like giant flowers in a plastic bag. They were smelling really rank too. The black-haired girl was looking a little green around the gills. As for the ice princess, her helmet had a mask.

“Huuuh fuck. Do we have to do that every time?” the black-haired one asked.

“Nah, that one was a one-off,” the ice princess replied in a much more casual tone than what Takashi would have expected.

“Alright Helena, you got it worse so you get the free pizza this week.”

“I need to buy a rebreather or something.”

“That would be wise.”

“Anyway, I’m going to get changed. I saw a spot near the repeating portal that would work. You?”

The ice princess didn’t reply, but a wave of cold made the barrel fire shiver. Tin man shook a bit. He didn’t like the cold at all—bad memories. The scum on the ice princess’ foot froze. She stomped her heavy boots, once, twice, and all the dirty water fell as shards of black crystal on the asphalt. Fucking nifty, that was.

“This is bullshit,” the younger one complained.

Takashi was inclined to agree. It was bullshit, but it was also gleam bullshit and the black-haired girl was a gleam. Was there some sort of bullshit gradation among Threshold’s most privileged? That decided it though. There was no way someone with that gear was there for money reasons.

“Hey, ladies! Hey!” Takashi said.

Tin man looked at him like he’d lost his mind but Takashi lived around there and, well, he was curious. Normally, they only got unmotivated pairs of government-mandated raiders clearing things at the very last moment. This was too new.

“Yeah man what’s up?” the younger one replied.

Even the ice princess was paying attention to him. He felt vindicated.

“You’re getting punished or something?”

“No, we’re the Little People League! We take shit assignments no one else will take as a way to give back to the city.”

That was new.

“You, err, you’re looking to get into politics?”

The two girls exchanged a look. Now that Takashi was looking, it was clear they were related.

“Fuck the hell no,” the younger one said.

“I’d rather stab myself in the knee,” her sister added.

“Oh, well, thanks, Little People League. By the way, a pair of assholes tried to jack your ride. You’ll get a notification from the popo. I just wanted to give you a heads up.”

“They got nabbed?” Ice princess asked.

“Bagged and tagged. The van just left,” Takashi explained.

“Right. Thanks for letting us know. Hey, you want a frog leg?”

A mana frog leg?

“A mana frog leg?” Takashi asked, brain going into overdrive.

“Yeah we got a few too many for ourselves, I think. You’ll need to be careful peeling the skin off.”

“Oh, Mother Hen can do that. She used to be a cook. Yes please,” Takashi said.

The women gave him the meat, then they left. What a great day.

“Come on,” he told Tin man. “Let’s go feast.”

***

“What the fuck is going on here?”

The expletive came from the portal world’s entry point, scaring a few nearby workers. The D-class harvesters wisely decided that they had some harvesting to do somewhere else.

Nestra sighed. She had been sure she’d get her twenty minutes of calm as Crescent since people tended to ignore her anyway.

“You. Get the fuck out,” the female voice said, suddenly closer.

Nestra felt a wave of nature mana accompany the threat. C-class, decent if a little undisciplined. With a sigh, Nestra removed her meat skewers from their fire. It was already hard enough to find mammal meat around Threshold, and then also meat that didn’t come from a predator because those tended to be stringy, but now even that small miracle was getting messed up. She set the half-cooked skewers aside and prayed to whatever Ashzii god might be listening that cutting the process midway wouldn’t ruin the meal.

She turned to the newcomer. This world was lush and verdant, like many others around the city, but the vegetation stretched over porous red rock that made navigation treacherous. The woman now approaching with thunder in her green eyes fit right in with an armor seemingly made of wood. Thorny growths spontaneously popped from her pauldrons while whips made of vines shivered with each of her steps. It looked pretty cool. Made Nestra want to fight her.

“Don’t make me ask again,” she repeated from behind a half-closed helmet.

Instead of replying, Nestra checked the entrance portal. Only one person had followed, a guild guy in a neat piece of armor with a nasty bow. He had rare electricity mana. The two of them working together had to be something to behold: she would control and he would snipe. Nice synergy. No one else though, and the archer was clearly reluctant to approach. He looked like he wanted to hold his boss back but didn’t dare.

Nestra finally turned to nature lady, real name Emily Narinrak and guild master for the Green Grasp.

“You must have missed the people in suits at the entrance,” she told her. “Your portal license is suspended pending investigation.”

“Who decides that? What the fuck?”

She really was hot-blooded.

“The government did, and you are trespassing. I believe the nice people in suits warned you?”

Nestra tutted while the woman seethed under her helmet. The archer took a few tentative steps forward.

“What the fuck is this about?” the woman growled. “I paid the taxes and everything.”

Nestra gave her skewers one last forlorn look. It was fine, she still had plenty of meat left. She could try at home later, after she killed the guardian. The monsters here had some pretty cool resistances to acid anyway.

Now, should she antagonize the lady for a good fight?

It would be kind of a dick move, but... so tempting. Ah well. She’d give her a chance.

“As I’m sure you’ve been told, the mineral yield of this world has been in free fall for the past few months. It made the city wonder if perhaps some of the ore might have been... mislaid.”

This world’s obvious bounty was a plentiful harvest of bulbous fruit that tasted a bit like banana. She’d tried some. It was ok but maybe thirty percent seeds so not exactly convenient. As usual, Threshold had taken a look at the world as an industrial superpower, not as a foraging civilization.

“You got no proof or I’d be under arrest, and besides why do you care? I’m the one losing money here, week after fucking week. I barely have enough to pay everyone plus the license...”

“I don’t care but the city does, and the city does because Touhei does, and Touhei does because of the bauxite.”

Another D-class worker approached with a heavy bag of red rocks over his shoulder. There had been a steady stream of such rocks being carried away, and the distant sound of jackhammers shook the jungle. Bauxite was the primary ore for aluminum, a material heavily used in the defense industry... and mana-infused aluminum was not valuable in the monetary sense. It was a strategic resource.

“So the city will take care of this cycle and if we find that the output was, in fact, stable, you will lose the license. Simple as that.”

“Who’s doing the raiding?” the woman asked.

“I am. Now I’ve answered your questions as a courtesy. Be advised you’ll be fined three thousand creds for trespassing just as you've been warned not to do. And now, fuck off, or I’ll make you,” Nestra finished.

The archer winced. Under the helmet, the eyes narrowed. That pride. Ah, so brittle.

“I’d like to see you try, bi—”

Nestra kicked the woman in the chest. The power of the blow cut her breath as she took off, but Narinrak was no pushover. The vegetation around Nestra’s feet mutated at blinding speed, growing spines and thorns glistening with translucent liquid. Poison. Interesting. Nestra stepped forward before they could wrap around her limbs.

She was curious to know if it could penetrate her skin through her armor but not that curious. She raced after the airborne woman right before she crashed into a tree, except, it didn’t happen. The tree opened to receive her like a cozy chest. Nestra slammed into them both. The tree exploded in a shower of splinters.

“Ooof.”

For the second time, Narinrak’s lungs took the brunt of the hit. Her back smashed against a red wall. Twin whips snaked towards Nestra who dodged low. One of them left a searing line down her back, but it wouldn’t be enough. She closed in and gave the poor spellsword a devastating cross. The stone cracked.

Nestra grabbed the mage by the whips before she could recover, used them as ropes and then smashed her opponent against a nearby rock. Newly grown spikes tried to pierce her fingers. They failed.

The whips detached from Narinrak’s gauntlet to protect her from yet another slam. The woman rolled to her feet though she was wobbly. Nestra tossed the whips aside.

“So if it’s on the thorns it’s poison, not venom, right? Even if it technically stings you?” she asked in a conversational tone.

Narinrak couldn’t reply because Nestra’d almost caved her ribs in twice by now. To her surprise, the archer rushed towards his boss. He was pretty fast too.

“Alright, that’s enough.”

She tried to push him away, but he grabbed her by the collar.

“Enough with the bullshit. You’re going to get arrested and for what? She’s playing with you.”

A wave of doubt clouded her eyes. He was right though. She was playing with the poor mage. To be fair, a nature hybrid fighter was a great matchup for Nestra.

“I can take her,” Narinrak insisted.

‘You absolutely cannot. She’s toying with you. Stop it.”

The guild master sulked in silence. The archer used that opportunity to hammer the point home.

“I told you about the quotas. I warned you.”

“I know,” Narinrak hissed.

She coughed a bit.

“I know...”

“You are Crescent, right?” the archer asked.

“Oh, I’m famous?”

“Infamous... In any case, I think you may want to find her brother before he leaves the territory. I think I know where that ore went.”

Detective Nestra had cracked the case once again.