Accounts Payable

by Blaise Corvin

  Now for the fun part. For any Mo'hali Hero or Dolos orb wielder killed, the killer will be rewarded with a new Dolos orb or spirit stone! Winners don't get to choose which reward they get. Each reward will appear within a few minutes of each death.

  That's it. I will leave you to go back to your wretched little lives. Please try to live as long as possible to provide me with more research.

  Luckily, unlike others I knew, I hadn’t had a crisis of belief, hadn’t questioned my sanity. I’d never really doubted that Dolos had existed before. After all, I’d been unfortunate enough to meet a High Priestess, Enheduanna—multiple times—and she’d talked about Dolos quite factually. But it was one thing to intellectually believe that the god Dolos existed, worshipped by some as the ruler of Ludus. It had been another matter to have him talking in your head.

  The incident had caused the Church of Dolos to surge in membership almost overnight, and had also started an unprecedented wave of ‘Bonded hunting. Killing one of us would be extremely lucrative these days. Those of us in the military had a bit more protection than some others, but we could still be targets if we weren’t careful.

  Rakles nodded at my cards and sighed. “Do you know Basak in 12th Division?”

  I frowned. “Not personally, but I know who he is. He’s a lieutenant, right?”

  “Yes. The upper brass is keeping it hush-hush, but he got killed a week ago. They’re saying it was a ‘Bonded bounty job.”

  “Rotting bounty hounds,” I hissed. The ‘hounds had been a concern for the last couple months, and through good intentions, the military had grounded a lot of ‘Bonded, a way to protect us. But what this had actually done was make the country less safe, though. The stupid bak-birds killing ‘Bonded were stabbing the regular people of Tolstey in the back.

  My conversation with Rakles abruptly ended when we saw Colonel Tremondy round a corner, her uniform as sharp and orderly as usual. The woman’s steel-grey hair seemed to be up in a tighter bun than usual. That was usually not a good sign.

  Rakles double-timed to the front of the formation area and those who saw her began moving to where they’d be standing in formation in response. As I ran to my place, I nodded to my friends. Jessica, Christopher, and Benjamin all hurried over and I asked all three lieutenants in a business-like tone if they had anything to report. None did. I somehow managed to avoid Benjamin’s eyes the entire time, not wanted to make eye contact after my moment of weakness that morning.

  After the brief meeting with my friends, I tracked down Jones and Chen, the last couple members of my small, but powerful group. Jones, an aging redhead, a first lieutenant like the others, and Chen, a young and petite second lieutenant, both informed me that they had nothing unusual to report either. All five of my soldiers had held their own command at some point in the past, but right now they were all assigned directly under me.

  I approached Captain Gratis, my direct superior, and nodded. “Hazard,” she said, her short hair bobbing around her plain, square face.

  “Specials all accounted for, nothing else, Captain,” I reported. She nodded, and nodded at her XO, Major Hartman. Hartman would be having a quick word with the NCOs before formation. I personally thought the way we handled formation was archaic and didn’t make a lot of sense. Why couldn’t I just give my head count directly to Sergeant Major Vern, the senior noncom working with Captain Gratis? Vern would be the one giving his report during formation, after all. I just shook my head as I walked, reminding myself again that the army didn’t want my opinion on the matter.

  My morning duty complete, I went back to my area, standing behind my small formation. My little section and my chain of command were a bit strange, but I didn’t mind. Based on what I could remember from my father and his books, someone from most Earth militaries would probably find it even stranger than I did.

  Normally, I would have an NCO who would be handling our head count directly, but my group, composed entirely of ‘Bonded, was hardly normal. Ability-wise, we were probably equal to an entire battalion of regular infantry. Unfortunately, everyone seemed to know about this fact, at least in the 99th. The rank-and-file soldiers seemed to like us, or at least respect us, but some of the higher-ranking, career soldiers grumbled about, “Those damn Specials.”

  My thoughts were roughly yanked back to reality as the 99th’s leadership took their positions for our morning formation. By now, each company and section had already been lined up for headcount.

  “Fall in!” Rakles barked, and as the entire 99th snapped to the position of attention, my day truly began.

  Varied Relationships

  “I hate winter,” groused Jessica. I didn’t say so out loud, but I could relate and secretly agreed. Luckily, it was only fall at the moment, but it wouldn’t be long until we had to deal with the added discomfort of cold weather. Sleeping on cold, hard ground almost never made anything better. The conditions had been so nasty over the last few days that we’d all barely talked to each other, just did our duty and drank tea at night.

  Away from base like we were, we all had on simple masks around our eyes, just a wide strip of cloth with holes cut out for the eyes. While they gave away our identity as orb-Bonded, so did flying. This way, someone seeing us wouldn't automatically know our names and our power. We were all still adapting to Dolos' new rules for this world.

  I didn’t need the mask, but I didn’t want to advertise this fact. It was also important for our entire group to wear masks so enemies would never be sure who was and was not ‘Bonded. This was common practice among adventurers, too.

  My little group and I had been heading south for almost a week, and my orb-Bonded officers were starting to lose their military bearing. I turned to look at Jessica, and best friend or not, I could have strangled her. She was always the first to start bitching and complaining, and after she did, it could open the floodgates for others. Jessica had grown into a great warrior and a stronger woman but even after all this time, she was still a rotten soldier.

  Apparently, she wasn’t done complaining, either. After rolling her eyes at my scowl, she said, “Nora—”

  “We are working, so it’s Captain Hazard,” I growled. Jessica might be one of the most stubborn people I had met in my entire life. She’d been through Officer Integration School the same as the rest of us, and actually served as a competent officer, but still couldn’t—or wouldn’t—completely fall in line.

  “Okay, Captain Hazard.” She stressed my last name. “You know this mission is yukka shit too. We all know it. Command keeps us cooped up for over a month with nothing to do, then sends us to investigate a distress signal from some random colony? We’re the Specials, this is not our job. Some regular army outfit should be mucking it up, slogging their way over to see what the fuck happened. What is the brass gonna do when some new adventurer group figures out they can make a hell of a lot more money by being murderous, terrorist assholes than by fighting goblins or whatever in dungeons? Who will they send to put them down if we’re out here, playing in rain, enjoying this fresh, soggy, Ludus nature?”

  “She has a point, Captain Hazard,” muttered Christopher.

  “Stow it, Lieutenant Santos,” I growled. Christopher was not the same quiet man he’d been when I’d had first met him, and spoke his mind now. Still, despite the two being engaged, he generally didn’t back up Jessica like this. If even Christopher was ready to throw in with Jessica now, I was probably about to hear from the entire team. It really had been a miserable week of travel so far, so I should have expected it. Great, I thought, my mood dark.

  I glanced over as I air skated and Christopher met my eyes, his face expressionless. He rode on Gwen Jones’ back, carried piggyback, his usual mode of travel while the team moved. Chris was the team’s only member who couldn’t move faster than normal on his own, but it had never been a problem. Gwen was big, and a strength-based ‘Bonded—she had no problem carrying Chris all day without ever even getting tired. This allowed him the freedom to scout
ahead while daydreaming too, letting his senses extend while he was never awake nor asleep.

  For an orb-Bonded who had half his power tied to a state of sleep, the arrangement worked out well. He could drift half in and out of sleep to scout, but had probably not fully woken to report what he’d seen, or in this case, be a pain in my ass.

  Jessica glide-walked nearby, the motion looking strange as ever. She kept one thick, glass wand pointed downward and slowly spun it in a circle as she moved. I still didn’t understand exactly how she did what she did, or even how she described the sensation. She’d said it was like using a moving walkway at an airport on Earth, but faster. All that mattered to me was she could move almost as fast as a galloping zebra, about the same speed as Gwen, and keep it up all day.

  The shiner had really matured, and while she could still annoy and confuse me, her orb-Bonded abilities had come a long way. Rather than conventional weapons, Jessica wore a complicated harness of holsters filled with her wands. She probably had two dozen of them, all in various lengths, thicknesses, and made of different materials. Jessica had spent countless hours of practice and research, all to make new wands or improve the ones she already had. Since they were the core of her power, she’d been dedicated, making them more durable and responsive. She’d complained about, well, everything over the years, but I was actually proud of my friend, for her stubborn pride and the hard work she’d done refining her abilities.

  Blonde hair glinting, Jessica cut an even more impressive figure than she had in the past. Every trace of baby fat was gone now, not that I’d been able to see much to begin with. The woman she had been on Earth had been transformed. Dedicated training had built hard, ropy muscle, and she moved like a dancer, somewhat at odds with her...difficult personality. Jessica had become my best friend, and I wouldn’t trade her for the world.

  Benjamin Tremblay loped along up ahead, shifted into a giant horned demon wolf. Now that he was second-rank ‘Bonded, he could make full-body transformations, but his original abilities, partial shifts, were probably still most powerful in a fight. Like Jessica and Christopher, I’d watched Benjamin grow in power and refine his abilities over time. My personal feelings for the man might still be untangling themselves, but Lieutenant Tremblay was an excellent officer.

  The fact that he had to eat pieces of monsters for a chance to gain any new transformations was still gross, though.

  “Come on, Captain Hazard. You know I’m right,” muttered Jessica.

  I grunted something noncommittal. Unfortunately, the shiner was correct. Colonel Tremondy had even seemed a little apologetic when she’d given me this assignment, an hour before my team had scrambled. It had been good to actually get off base, but my intuition was telling me that something weird was going on.

  The Specials, my team and one other in north Tolstey, and a couple in the south, were orb-Bonded and Hero hunter-killers. Our job was to bring the hammer of the Creator down on criminals or insurgents that the regular Guard couldn’t deal with. We didn’t actually go on many missions, mostly filling our time with training and random countryside monster suppressions, but the big missions we did get were usually completely rotten. Luckily, my team had always been up to the task.

  Other than Lieutenant Chen, my team was all second-rank ‘Bonded now, but I would be third rank if Muffin would actually do something...or even talk to me. I shook my head and pointedly stopped thinking about my annoying orb controller. Instead, I glanced over at Gina Chen, my newest soldier.

  The young woman was an air-based orb-Bonded, and I marveled at how at only first rank, she could move almost as well as I could, flying, or skimming across the ground. Not for the first time, I wondered how different my life might be now if I’d chosen a different ‘Bonded power than Vibration. Of course, I might be dead if I hadn’t.

  The petite, plain-featured woman wore the Tolstey army uniform, but like the rest of us, had also equipped non-regulation clothing, accessories, and weapons. At Gina’s hip, she wore a slender smallsword, a stabbing weapon useful for skewering an enemy and not getting ripped out of her hand as she passed at high speed. She also wore a pack and a bandolier of pouches, which contained all manner of enchanted weapons and gizmos. Lastly, a massive air rifle hung from her back. I knew from experience that she was deadly with the thing, and could silently float above a target before making a kill.

  Lieutenant Chen had joined us after our big rescue mission about a year before, prior to the entire team being awarded with spirit stones by Plenica Reese, the governor of Colo. This meant that the whole team minus Chen were all second-rank orb-Bonded now. Our team, Hazard’s Specials, were one of the strongest small units in all of Tolstey. A handful of Tolstey adventuring parties would be a challenge, and I’d recently gotten intel on a few up-and-comers that could be a danger one day: KJ Smith Brigade, Delvers LLC, and Alpha Company.

  A few months ago, there had been more of them, powerful adventuring parties in Tolstey, but the ‘Bonded bounty hounds had taken their toll. Ludus was a dangerous place anyway, and even more so for ‘Bonded these days. Briefly feeling sorry for myself, I inwardly cursed Muffin. I’d swallowed two spirit stones a year ago, expecting to rank up...but nothing had happened. At first I’d worried that the spirit stones had been fake, but they’d been real. I could somehow sense they’d been legitimate, so this just meant my orb controller was being difficult as usual.

  Lieutenant Jones adjusted her grip on Christopher. His body had gone slack again as he presumably scouted using his ‘Bonded power. The red-haired woman spat, and said, “The needs of the army and all that, right, Captain? I wish the needs of the army had sent us somewhere dry.”

  Then the normally reserved Lieutenant Chen surprised me by speaking up. “There has been a shortage of soldiers across the entire country, and I’ve heard the same is true in Berber. Monsters are increasing in number, reports of disappearances have become more common, and the Dolos kill order came out, which knocked off dozens, if not hundreds of established orb-Bonded. Half the orb-Bonded in this country now are all brand new, barely better than an average adventurer. My guess is that we were sent because we could get to this place quicker than others. The garrison nearby is probably gone or not responsive.”

  “Gone?” asked Jessica.

  “Yes. It happens. We don’t have the same problems here as Berber, thank the Creator, but they also at least know where their threats will come from—the mountains and their borders.”

  “We have the mountains to watch too,” said Lieutenant Jones. The strength-based orb-Bonded was not even winded, speaking normally as she galloped along. Strength and endurance orb-Bonded were probably the most common, but a lot of them were also lazy. Gwen actually trained, and it showed. The big woman’s axe peeking over her shoulder probably weighed half as much as I did, and the massive, cannon-like air pistol on her hip would be far too heavy for a normal soldier to use.

  Chen kicked off the ground, easily turning to talk in the air. “Yes, but our side doesn’t have as many monsters as the Berber side, and they’re weaker. In some ways, we’re lucky.” I nodded, understanding. Being from Berber, I knew what a drain the constant invasion of demons from the mountains caused on the country. The draw from the military was just a fact of life in Berber, and everyone just understood that without the military, the entire country would be overrun by monsters in less than a decade.

  Tolstey was a little different. Monsters and groups of demons still came from the mountains, but posed far less of a threat than the Berber army dealt with. About two hundred years ago, the Tolstey government had decided to be efficient, placing Fort Stalwart in the desert, far enough from the mountains to see new forays of monsters, but close enough to the areas they came from to intercept them before reaching civilization.

  “Lucky my ass,” said Jones. “They have all the good stuff, like those magic cars, and big air guns. Most of us still use bows.”

  “There are all those rumors about cultists and whatnot too late
ly,” added Jessica. “I’ve read some reports of weird shit happening. Lights in the woods, stories of true-demons… I’ve never seen one, and don’t want to. I’ve got my wands,” she said, patting her holsters, “but it would be nice if the army would give the regulars better gear. What the hell are bows gonna do against something made of rock?”

  My patience was about to run out. Maybe the rotting week had gotten to me, too. I managed to keep my voice professional, but a bit curt as I said, “Things around the country have been heating up for a while, but it doesn’t matter. We have our orders, this is our job, and killing monsters is a good thing—so is helping people. I want to hear less bitching.”

  The group was quiet at that, at least for a moment. I noticed Benjamin turn his lupine head with a look of relief and I tried to hide a grin. Lieutenant Tremblay was probably the most straight-laced of us all. I knew he was planning to make the military a career, at least for a while, and wished everyone would take protocol as seriously as he did.

  My assumption that the bellyaching was over proved wrong when Jessica blew a raspberry and started complaining again. “It’s been a week. This is taking forever. Weren’t we supposed to be there by now? If this is just bandits or whatever, we should have come in, fried them, and gone back already. My gaming group back at Stalwart was going to do a new module, and I’m missing it!”

  I didn’t try to hide my withering look, and pretended not to see the weird expression cross Chen’s face. I could guess what had thrown her—she was still adjusting to the team.

  My reputation was terrible—regular soldiers seemed to think I’d cut someone in half as soon as look at them. I knew it had to be strange for outsiders to see how Jessica and I actually interacted. A couple years ago, the shiner had secretly tried to influence others to nickname her Magical Girl Jessica, but most of the 99th unofficially called her Wandslinger, and used the nickname with respect. Of course, I was Hazardous Nora. So when other soldiers discovered that Jessica was actually a silly, vain, tunnel-vision flutter-mouth, and that I didn’t automatically chop her head off seemed to be a surprise for a lot of them.