Nocturna League- Season One Box Set

by Kell Inkston

  “Like him? A dullard for cooking but he’s a fast and accurate preparer of ingredients- more than one could ask of for any decent sous chef.”

  “Hey!” The minion huffs. “Maybe if you’d just let me cook something ever you’d know how good I am!”

  Jacqui doesn’t show offense, but instead just looses a soft, antique chuckle. “Oh, of course my good boy.” He turns to Boris. “A bit full of himself. Claims he’s some overlord’s chef out on a pilgrimage to learn as much as many legendary recipes as he can.”

  Boris’ stalk-like eyes twitch in thought. “A GOAL OF THE BIG FOR SOMEONE BEING SUCH OF THE SMALL. NOW, JIM FLESH- BE COMING OF THE HERE. IT’S TIME TO BE WHOOPING OF THE BUTT AS THEY YOUNG FLESH IS OF THE SAYING.”

  Jim breaks from his trance over the minion “Uh… you want me to be your assistant?”

  Boris sighs heavily, which for him takes form of just spewing a bunch of saliva-covered fish bones from his crustacean jaws. “IN THE STEADING OF THE GRANCIS FLESH YOU WILL HAVE TO BE TAKING OF THE PART. JUST BE DOING PRECISELY AS I WILL BE OF THE SAYING.”

  Jim looks over the minion again, and shimmies back. “Uh, hey Boris. You do know who this dude is, right?”

  The minion is beside himself. “Wh- See!” He waves his arms over between Jacqui and Jim as if he were trying present one to the other. “He recognizes me! I’m telling you I am the best!”

  Jacqui huffs with a smile. “Not from what I’ve seen, little cook. I don’t care what pseudo-intellectual weakling of an overlord you said you worked for, you haven’t been trained by the finest cooks in the Omniverse like I have.”

  The minion flips up a frying pan and starts slowly for the fox man. “Weakling? We’ll see who feels like weak after he’s had his ears-”

  “Nah ah ah! You do want my secret recipes, don’t you?” Jacqui waves about a finger with instructor-like pretension.

  The minion falters, hit by the one motivation keeping him here in this insane land of dark oceans and eldritch insanity. He lowers the pan in defeat. “Y-yes, sir,” he mutters.

  Jacqui smiles slyly. “That’s a good boy. Now of course I would ask for further assistance if I had any need for it, but I would rather you simply made a side dish, a dessert, perhaps. Something fitting of your experience and maturity.”

  Before the minion rebuts and tells Jacqui that he is, in fact thousands of years older than him, Boris turns to Jim with a predatory gaze. “THIS WILL BE OF THE SIMPLE, JIM FLESH. BE HERE OF THE COMING AND WE WILL GET OF THE STARTED.”

  Jim hesitates, takes a deep breath, and steps up to the counter. He’s not a good cook, but now’s as good a time as any to learn. After all, it’s not every day you match pans with a chef of this caliber.

  The ~Adult Intercourse~

  “Intercourse” in this case meaning “a chat between two people”, obviously.

  “And here we are!” Miss Irefall exclaims as she’s let out from the steam car by Chief Vangair, offering his hand to her and spiriting her to her feet in a graceful movement.

  Colette and Grancis scoot out from the car in a form of disbelief - not even the overlord’s castle was this big. The great bronze spires cast a looming shadow over the group, blocking out the weak sun in the densely-clouded sky.

  They stare on until the nearby squad of butlers have finished taking up all the baggage and Miss Irefall rotates her hand forward in presentation. “Let’s not delay. I have so much to show you all!”

  The Captain straightens his hat, raincoat and spectacles with his free standing moment, and then nods. “Very well. Come along, Miss Ketiere, Miss Vereyrty. I believe we’re due a tour.”

  Colette and Grancis say nothing as they start off for the enormous double doors of the manor. As they step across the entryway tile mural of a soaring airship, Miss Irefall steps into The Captain’s space and wraps her arms around his own. “Now you wouldn’t want me to be improperly escorted, would you?” She coos in a gentle mock distress.

  The Captain stifles a sigh. “I would not dream of it, my wonderful macaroon.” He tightens his grip as she gently notches him along through the doors. Pertalaine fires a glance over to Officer Vangair, Colette sees, and it’s nasty.

  He coughs and presents his arms in between Colette and Grancis- one each. “I’ll be your escort, ladies.”

  Grancis hesitates for a moment, and then takes his arm. Colette just scoffs. “Whatever, dude,” Colette says, shoving his arm away with a grin.

  Vangair presents his arm again. “Her ingeniousness insists,” he says gently.

  “I don’t get escorted by anyone, man,” she says in her usual tone of defiance, employed for everyone save The Captain.

  Vangair nods, dropping it quickly.

  “Now, first off is the best part. The laboratory!” Pertalaine presents as the group enters a strange glass room with an array of buttons on a side panel.

  Colette sighs, certain this is going to be another stupid formality that Pertalaine’s going to force them through. “So what now?” She says, watching Pertalaine press one of the buttons and then step away from the door.

  Miss Irefall smiles. “Oh, dearie, like I said, the laboratory.”

  Colette looks about. “Yeah, but this is just a ro-” She silences instantly as the room jerks into movement, sending them soaring up a multitude of floors, into a steaming, sepia-lit hall of electro-mechanical wonder. “Oh… its a room that goes up,” she says blankly.

  “They call it an elevator in the rest of the Omniverse, sweetie,” Miss Irefall says with a sweet, subtly wry smile.

  Colette nods. “Cool, I guess.” She’s playing it down- this stuff is awesome.

  “Welcome to my own little piece of paradise.” She presents. “The very forefront of magi-tech research and prototype-construction goes on here- I’d like to see you tell me just what… this thing here does!” She says to The Captain in her unique mix of smugness and friendliness as she points out a particularly complex-looking device with a multitude of whirring sounds and flashing lights emanating from its rotating steel core.

  Upon looking at the device, Grancis gets a very, very strange feeling, as though the device is not just eerily familiar, but even of her own design— but that’s impossible, Grancis is an engineer of nothing other than dishes and food.

  The Captain looks up and down the contraption as a hissing flush of steam releases from a nearby relief valve. “I haven’t the slightest idea.”

  She scoffs with good humor. “Oh, Captain, of course not. That’s because I invented it just last week! It’s designed to target, intercept and block any at-range magical interference for as far as a hundred kilometers. It can even block electronic wave signals- any kind of energy at all, really.” holding his arm tightly, she feels the Captain’s neigh imperceptible jolt- she got the jump on him.

  “That’s… quite an ingenious contraption, my biscuit. Does it simply block everything, or are you able to choose?”

  She smiles widely. “Anything I please. It’s a linked device as well, so I can operate it just by thinking.”

  “Ahh… wonderful.”

  “It certainly is!”

  “Do you deal with magical threats often?” Colette asks, stepping up to the humming device and doing a three-sixty inspection of it.

  Pertalaine tightens her grip to vice-levels upon The Captain’s arm. “More than you know, dearie… Next!” She tugs The Captain along past a group of managers surrounding both Luisoix and Tidealane as they argue about the most efficient placement of speakers throughout the manor.

  “Having fun, Luisoix?” Colette asks with a grin.

  Luisoix does not even bat an eye as he explains his case to the other managers. “-this position would provide the most sound coverage and still minimize fuck you, Colette, the load, considering the available output is only-” And he goes right on explaining.

  The tour group passes the planners and enter another block of technology, these inventions looking to have especially arcane properties. She shows
them a magically-activated force field, anti-air missile system, and hot tub, all of which run off plenteous amounts of mana and also the souls of humans, though she leaves out that last part. The tour goes on until they go through the secure, tri-barred doorway to reach the holding pens.

  “And this is where I keep all my wonderful beasties!” Miss Irefall says as she leads them into a roaring, screeching, screaming room of cages and madness.

  “Eh, you keep animals here?” Colette says, looking over rows and rows of stacked cages.

  Irefall hums positively. “Well it certainly looks like it, mmm?”

  Colette coughs. “Obviously.”

  “I had my boys gather them up for research. There’s much a skilled inventor can learn from copying the structures of animals, you know.”

  The Captain looks about quietly as Miss Irefall points out and describes one horrible animal after another. None of them of the true eldritch variety, but certainly some nasty land and sky dwelling creatures. “And this one lays its eggs in its victims like the previous, but the spawn hatches much more quickly, which vomits digestive enzymes onto the open wound to liquefy it into a fine paste, thus easing consumption. Cute!” she explains with a smile as she steps past the flying scorpion thing roughly the size of a child.

  “L-lovely, Mam! You have a very impressive collection!” Grancis’ smile is wide and nervous, a typical of her when looking upon something horrifying.

  Irefall waves her hand about dismissively. “Oh, you flatter me… Would you like to pet any of th-”

  “I-I’m just fine, mam!” Grancis responds a bit too quickly.

  Irefall shrugs gracefully. “I suppose you two are a bit young to fully appreciate the effort its taken to amass and maintain so many animals in one place, but I understand that you find them a bit frightening… Yes, this simply won’t do.” She turns to Officer Vangair. “Mister Vangair.”

  “Mam?”

  “Please show the ladies to their quarters and ensure they’re properly at home before we commence the dinnertime activities. Besides, The Captain and I need to have a little private time,” She says this rubbing her cheek against The Captain’s solid shoulder. The Captain is unmoving.

  Vangair bows his head. “This way, ladies,” he says as he leads off Grancis to elsewhere in the spiraling manor. Grancis doesn’t put up a fight at all, but rather is quite happy to be escorted along by the first markedly good-smelling man she’s been near in months- The Captain doesn’t count, because, as much as she admires him, she sees him as more of an “it” than a “he”. A man cannot do as The Captain does, she thinks- it must be something other than human.

  Colette, however, is not so easily dissuaded from The Captain’s side. “How about no? I think I’ll stick with Salt, thank you very much,” She says laxly, stretching carelessly in the room filled with deadly animals, insects, and what have you. “Come on, Grancis, we’re staying here.”

  Grancis tugs politely from Vangair’s arm, but he holds strong. “Eh-”

  “I really must insist that you give us adults some time to ourselves. We two have quite a lot to talk about.” She says with with a sensual friskiness that sends a flush of embarrassment through Grancis, and a rush of fury through Colette.

  “Think I’d leave that call up to The Captain, if you don’t mind,” she says with no small amount of sass.

  Miss Irefall draws back haughtily. “Oh, I’m afraid you young ladies must really be on your way. You see it’s not meant for you and I just know we’d all hate to be snooping into things that are above us, yes?”

  Colette steps right up to Miss Irefall and stands on her tip toes - she’s not that much taller than Colette this way. “Yeah? Well anything The Captain is filled in on so can we! We’re his crew and we don’t leave his si-”

  “Actually, Miss Ketiere,” The Captain starts.

  Colette’s confident strength is dealt a swift blow as her expression falters. “Yeah?”

  “I think I would like some time alone with Miss Irefall, if you don’t mind.”

  “B-but Sal-”

  “Miss Ketiere.” The Captain’s tone is prompt and firm.

  Colette backs off. “Yeah, alright, sir.” She turns away briskly and starts off toward the exit.

  Officer Vangair offers his hand. “This way, Miss Ke-” She cuts right past him, ignoring his existence completely. “Well then. So be it. Come along, Miss Vereyrty.”

  Grancis nods and reciprocates his grip. “Gladly, Officer.” The three leave to exit the dark animarium through the lantern-lit doors they entered through.

  Miss Pertalaine Irefall coos victoriously as the door shuts behind Vangair, and she quickly tightens her hold on The Captain, drawing her skin against his bandages. “Alone at last!” She says in a sensual tone.

  “Wonderful,” The Captain says with what couldn’t possibly be sarcasm.

  She draws him out from the strange noises of the animarium, down a dim passageway and into a warm, plush-carpeted, very fancy room, the defining feature of which simply must be the king-sized, curtained bed at the center of it all. She tugs him over to a pair of cushy seats with a charming polished-brass coffee table - of course, she simply must be sitting on the same chair as him. “That Ketiere girl’s quite the firey one. I must admit I’m a bit jealous... Wherever did you find her?” She asks, loosening her grasp to stroke the back of his neck.

  The Captain turns away with far less motivation than Colette would have expected of him. “It hasn’t changed that I am one to keep my secrets safe. Besides, I would hate to spoil all the surprises we have in store for you.”

  “Well…” She wastes no time to brush a long, smooth leg over The Captain’s legs and straddle him at the waist. “You know how much I dislike secrets, Lewis. Are you sure you couldn’t just…” She leans in, so close that her lips brush against what should be his ears. “- at least tell me one little thing?”

  The Captain is unmoving. “And what might that be?”

  “Where’s my box?” She whispers with an enticing grin, her hot breath marking his clean bandages.

  The Captain reaches up past her legs, thighs, breasts, neck and lips to adjust his glasses. “Cutting right to the chase, as expected. I forgot to bring it,” he says plainly.

  Her expression disintegrates into disgust. “A-are yo-”

  The Captain scoffs lightly. “Yes.”

  Just as quickly as it had disappeared, her ravishing sexuality is back. “Oh! Wonderful~ where is it?”

  “Well…” The Captain clears his black-sand throat. “That’s the matter of it, you see. I was under the impression that you wanted to pardon me first.”

  Pertalaine loses her guise again. “…You do have the box, don’t you Lewis?”

  “It is certainly on one of the sorts I brought from The Nocturna. I forgot about which one of us had it on purpose, because I’d hate for you to figure it out with one of your crazy inventions. Also, my dear, coercing me using your typical degenerate mannerisms did not work for you in the past, why would you think that rule’s changed?”

  She smooths herself off of his body and takes the seat next to him. “Captain, I want my box.”

  He politely folds his hands upon his lap, one leg now resting laxly over the other. “I know you do, my dear. Why else would I have brought it?”

  “Well then why don’t you simply give it to me, then?”

  “Because I don’t want you to have it… yet.”

  She draws up to an elegant, businesswomanly height. “You want something from me, I presume?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Alright, what is it? Money?”

  The Captain adjusts his cap as he spies over to the ornate small bar at the side of the room. “Not for me, but it will be quite costly.”

  She hums. “But more than simply money?”

  “Quite a lot more, my cake.”

  She looks away and scratches the side of her face in the same way The Captain remembered the little Pertalaine to do all
those years ago. “Technology? I have plenty of that to share, Lewis. All you needed to do was ask.”

  “I will ask for that too.”

  She begins rubbing her chin in thought. “Then… perhaps you’re saying you want me to give up my… more lucrative and enlightening trades?”

  The Captain lowers his head so just the slight glint of his spectacles can be seen by Pertalaine. “I would like the Golden Queen of the Eversea to disappear entirely. You have no right dealing in the human soul trade.”

  She crosses one leg over the other within her frilly dress. “And why not?”

  The Captain’s demeanor starts to change- that almost imperceptible difference in tone and movement that a normal person wouldn’t so much as notice, but after all these years, still makes the young girl inside Pertalaine cower in fear. “You know very well my employers refuse to allow humans to meddle in these affairs. A soul from a human is of unimaginable value. It is the entire being of a person, without it they are a shell of what they could be.”

  She smiles to show confidence. “And yet… you run about with all your little spiritual monstrosities on your crew? I’m certain your employers would disapprove of that as well. Are you a hypocrite, Captain?”

  The Captain peeks at her expression. “… You’re more perceptive than usual.”

  She scoffs. “I can be whatever I want to with the help of The Black Eye. Intelligence, strength, charisma, form…. I must say, Captain, I’m about as incredible as you are.”

  The Captain gets up and motions gently to the alcohol. “May I?”

  She nods smugly as he goes over to pour himself a glass of whatever taste she keeps in the manor. “I know you better than you know yourself, Captain. I know your tricks, and I know how to trick you. I can dip my little fingers into any one of your crew- a matter of fact it’d be easy. As we speak they’re being monitored, just like I’m monitoring you, and once I decide its time. I’ll simply take the box and have you all dealt with.”

  He decides on a single malt and pours himself an iced glass. “I’m afraid you’ll have a hard time doing that covertly.”