“I… did, though if you keep distracting me like that, I may not think about it much more,” Evelyn warned, prompting another giggle from the succubus.
“I’ll stop, at least for now,” Zelirana promised.
Evelyn gave her a skeptical look, then continued. “I was just thinking that in Rakal, what kept things from being destroyed was a single person with the power to keep the others in line. Is that how it works with demon lords?”
“Yes! At least sort of,” Zelirana said, her eyes lighting up still more. “See, this is why I like you. Powerful and intelligent… and it triggers that gooey part of my nature that wants nothing more than to snuggle up against someone too powerful to beat and to have them protect me. That’s why it didn’t work well, really. We have an… ingrained form of it already, which only really triggers if someone is strong enough that we feel we couldn’t come out on top in any way that matters. It’s why it’s so dangerous for succubi in the lower planes, especially.”
Evelyn blinked, looking down into the demon’s eyes for a few seconds, then asked softly. “Are you saying that you’re reacting to me like you would to a demon lord?”
“Mm… yes?” Zelirana replied, giving Evelyn a slightly dreamy smile. “Or better in some ways. With you, I know you aren’t going to rip me in half because you had a bad day. What I gave up on was resisting the urges now that I’ve tested you.”
Evelyn studied the succubus for a few more seconds, then smiled, amusement rushing through her. A part of her was flattered by the comparison, while another part was troubled. It wasn’t that she liked being compared to a demon lord, but… somehow it gave her some assurances that made her feel a little better than she had before.
“Well, in that case… are you saying you’ll do whatever I ask you to, Zel?” Evelyn asked, smiling at the succubus as anticipation rose inside her.
“Haven’t I already?” Zelirana asked, but even as she spoke, Evelyn saw how the succubus’s breathing came more rapidly, her pupils dilated, and her tail began to sway.
“Yes… but I think I’d like you to do more,” Evelyn said, smiling broadly now. “Can you do that for me?”
“Oh yes.” Zelirana breathed, licking her lips.
Then she proceeded to do as Evelyn desired.
“I can’t believe it.” Moon said, her fingers flicking through icons, and Star looked up from their suitcase. They only had one between the two of them, one of the good things about being identical twins was that they could use each other’s clothing, so they’d decided to get things they both liked, at least at first.
“Can’t believe what?” Star asked. “That the Dolls had preferences? Or that Evelyn got us the tickets, or that she took Zel to bed?”
“The tickets. Zel almost got us into her bed, and she wasn’t even trying,” Moon said absently. “Besides, Evelyn slept with us, and we’re nowhere near as good as Zel has to be.”
“Succubus,” Star said simply, tossing the last items in, save for the toiletries and the outfits they were wearing. She figured they could throw them in the laundry overnight and wear the outfits from when they were being transported in the meantime. She might have bad memories regarding that clothing, but it wasn’t like it didn’t serve its purpose.
“Yeah, I know. You don’t seem that surprised, though,” Moon said, glancing over at her. “I think I found a good schedule for tomorrow. We’ll have to get up a little early, by our standards, but we can get to Corrida by about… seven in the morning local, the day after tomorrow.”
“Sounds good to me. This is using the list of providers included with the vouchers?” Star asked, looking up again.
“Yeah. I don’t want to end up kidnapped again, even if Evelyn would come find us.” Moon agreed, smiling wryly as she shook her head. “It’s just… even if we did sign that contract, do you really think anyone else would shell out an advance like that, then arrange for us to be home for a month with our parents?”
“Nope. I think that no one else would’ve given us an advance. Maybe we’d have been able to get a bit of money from one of the abolition groups, along with a slow ticket home and a message to our parents, but not much more than that,” Star said, closing the suitcase with a sigh. She thought for a second, then asked, “Should we tell them that we’re coming?”
“How?” Moon asked, looking at her. “We’re taking just about the earliest ship to Corrida, so any message would arrive what… a day and a half before us? Or we can wait until we’ve gone through the gates and send it directly for a tenth of the price over the network, and they’ll get a day’s notice.”
“True,” Star agreed, pulling the suitcase off the bed and setting it aside. “Go ahead and book it, then. We may as well get started on that… and we’ve still got like, half the day to burn. Anything you want to do?”
“Hm. I don’t know…” Moon said, but Star could see her hesitation and gave her a look.
“Come on, spit it out,” Star said in exasperation, folding her arms. “You can’t fool me.”
“Alright, I was just thinking… if we’re going home, even if only for a month, and with all the nice things they’ve done, why not make a nice meal for everyone else?” Moon asked, smiling hopefully. “Sure, this kitchen isn’t as nice as the one aboard the Gift, but it’s good enough to make some pretty nice food.”
Star thought for a moment, then shrugged and smiled, unfolding her arms. “Sure, why not? It’s nice enough, and I’ll even help. Don’t get used to it, though!”
“Whatever you say, Ms. Numbers,” Moon teased, and they both laughed, then finished up and headed for the door.
Star could hardly wait to see her parents again.
Chapter 36
“I’m glad you let them go… but do you think they’ll be back?” Fya asked, half-flopped across the console of Daggerhound’s science station. Evelyn gave her a look of amusement as she mentally scanned through the database to see if there was anything else she wanted to save before resetting the ship’s systems back to factory defaults. Except for the star charts, anyway.
“Yes, I do,” Evelyn replied calmly. “They aren’t the types to go back on their words. You?”
“I’m pretty sure they want to be part of your harem, but they aren’t willing to admit it yet,” Fya replied bluntly. “Plus, here they’ll get real-life experience and a good-paying job. The problem is their parents. You know they won’t want them to go off into danger again, not after three years missing.”
“I’m not going to deliberately go off into danger,” Evelyn replied absently, shaking her head as she considered the massive porn archive aboard the ship, then flagged it for disposal, including the VR sims. She was sure they could get more if they wanted that sort of thing, and Evelyn didn’t trust mercenaries not to have downloaded virus-laden crap. At the same time, she sent a message to the Dolls and crew to make sure they did a virus-scan on their hardware, adding the twins to the messages. They could still be contacted aboard the station, fortunately.
“No, you’re just going to end up in danger. You not ending up in danger is like a fish that isn’t swimming through water,” Fya said, grinning at her. Evelyn just made a rude gesture.
“Are you going to actually help? Leaving it all to Lyra, Ryth, Zel, and the Dolls is just rude,” Evelyn said, glowering at the djinn.
“Yes, of course,” Fya said, letting out a long-suffering sigh. “I can hardly believe you managed to sell this hunk of junk.”
“It isn’t quite that bad. Quite a few mercs would kill for a ship like this. It just isn’t right for us,” Evelyn replied absently, activating her own virus-scan as she kept working. “I’ll be done in… about twenty minutes, then I’ll be down to help transfer the weapons.”
“Alright. If anyone tries to take them that isn’t your friend, I’ll blow their heads off,” Fya said far more cheerfully, then left.
“And she calls me bloodthirsty,” Evelyn muttered.
“Agreed, Captain,” Control said, and Evelyn gl
anced at the Doll, then went back to what she was doing.
While the idea of giving them proper names had gone through her head, Evelyn didn’t want to do that. It would take far too much time and effort. If they developed souls, then she’d worry about it.
“I really like this ship,” Ilyra said, turning around and admiring the sculpted hallways, now that she’d finished unloading the first gravcart of items to Djinn’s Gift.
The hallways were more like round tunnels than the sheer walls of Daggerhound, and they were much more home-like, in her opinion. Less luxurious than her home had been back on Brightdawn, maybe, but so much more attractive than any of the places she’d seen since leaving, including the passenger ship and the spaceport itself.
“I’m not surprised! Halcyon Yards is known for building ships with a more… celestial theme to them?” Fya said, glancing at Vaneryth with a grin. “The question is whether that’s correct or not.”
“Depends on the celestial realm in question. Some of them are, others are not,” Vaneryth replied, an uncomfortable look on her face as she frowned, then admitted. “I’m not sure if it’s safe for me to talk about where I’m from.”
“Angels,” Zelirana said, smiling broadly as her tail swished happily behind her.
“How long do you think it’ll take to move aboard?” Ilyra asked quickly, hoping to cut off another argument between the two women.
“Mm… a day, I’d say. Getting everything in place will take longer,” Fya said, looking around speculatively. “Evelyn is going to want to arrange the armory just right, and whatever you do, leave the observatory alone.”
For a second everyone looked at her, waiting for her to explain, but Fya didn’t elaborate, instead steering the hovering cart down the hall carefully.
“May I ask why?” Zelirana asked after a little while.
Fya paused, looking at them all for a moment as she considered them, then spoke, her tone warning. “You didn’t hear this from me. If you tell her I told you, I’m going to make your lives miserable. Understood?”
Ilyra nodded at the same time as the others, frowning as she asked. “Is it that bad?”
“Bad? No, not really. Evelyn is just…” Fya paused, seeming to struggle with her words before she finally let out a deep sigh. “You don’t understand her. You see her strength. I see her loneliness.”
“Loneliness? But she’s had… wait…” Vaneryth paused, hesitating and frowning as well.
“Ah. Of course,” Zelirana murmured, the confused look on her face clearing. “She’s too strong.”
“Someone gets it!” Fya said, her concern seeming to ease. “I’ve never met a mortal like Evvy before. She’s more powerful than any individual her age that I’ve even heard of, but at the same time she often felt constricted, chained by the world around her. The prophecy was made to come about by the stupidity of a bunch of nobles, and she ended up with a whole pile of ambitious, backstabbing rebels and would-be conquerors as her allies. She couldn’t trust them, no one but me.”
The djinn started the cart moving again, though at a slower pace this time. “I didn’t realize it for a long time, though. Longer than it should have taken, but I figured her out eventually. She likes to fight, she has a temper that’s cataclysmic when it goes off, and by all the wishes imaginable, don’t destroy her favorite weapons, but she’s also kind to others like you. It’s because part of her dreams of being normal. Being small, or vulnerable. Not that I think she’d enjoy the experience, mind you, but… she dreams. Which is why she likes to look at the stars in an environment that makes her feel so… so tiny by comparison. It’s also why she likes to fight so much. She isn’t just enjoying the battle, though she likes them. She’s looking for a proper challenge. She hasn’t gotten one yet. The closest was… ah, that’s off-limits.”
“What’s off-limits?” Ilyra asked, frowning at the djinn. She was trying to reconcile the idea of wanting to be vulnerable with the woman who was so supremely confident that she knew, and she couldn’t do it. It confused Ilyra.
“The only time that she came close to having a proper challenge in a fight. It wasn’t a fair fight, anyway,” Fya said, sniffing. “Worse, I wasn’t there for it, damn it all. It would’ve been amazing to see the expression on her face.”
Ilyra just looked at the djinn, her confusion growing. She didn’t understand the djinn. Worse, the other two seemed to be able to, which annoyed her still more. Ilyra hated being left out.
The ship had a few oddities that Evelyn hadn’t anticipated. One of them being a set of storage bays which were designed for the Doll maintenance units, enough of them to handle a full eighty Dolls. That was enough to not only tend to the ship, but to give it four times the minimum crew requirements. Of course, the only way someone would be able to tell that it was designed for Dolls was the interfaces on the walls, as well as the documentation Fya had received. Since she’d told them how she intended to crew the ship, the company had specifically pointed the bays out. While Evelyn didn’t object, it made her wonder if the use of the constructs was rather more widespread than she’d anticipated. It also gave her a few other ideas, but she’d have to discuss them with the others before she thought it through too much.
Another oddity was the docking bays, and how they were set up. While they were likely designed for shuttles, and that’s what all the documentation claimed, Evelyn hadn’t seen many bays as tall as these were, likely for mechs like Fya had called out before. She supposed that it was a reasonable modification, since the ship could easily be used as a noble’s flagship, but it still struck her as odd that it wasn’t in the documentation. That didn’t even consider a number of other small things which just struck her as strange, little things that niggled at the back of her mind.
“Captain, you have a call coming through to the ship,” Control interrupted, causing Evelyn to look away from the lifts at the top of the bay.
“Oh? Who is it from?” Evelyn asked, frowning.
“I am not certain. The call indicates it’s from Lairia Pelcrest, but they are not in the station database, at least not publicly,” Control replied promptly. “Would you like me to reject the call? It is addressed directly to you.”
“Hm. No, put it through,” Evelyn replied after a couple of seconds, shrugging.
For a moment there wasn’t any response, likely while Control connected the call from across a quarter of the station. Evelyn really wished they’d been able to dock the ships closer together, it would make transferring everything over easier. Then she felt the tone of the call connecting.
“This is Captain Tarth,” Evelyn said, her arms folded as she watched the Dolls unloading some of the gear she’d kept from Daggerhound’s shuttle bay.
“Hello, Captain Tarth. I’m not sure if you know who I am, but we’ve met before,” a woman replied, her voice faintly familiar, though Evelyn couldn’t quite place it. The woman sounded anxious to Evelyn, and she frowned, then Lairia continued. “You pulled me off Nebula Runner, for which I cannot thank you enough. I told you to run, but you didn’t, something I’m very grateful for.”
“Oh! I wondered what your name was but didn’t ever ask!” Evelyn said, realization dawning on her, and she smiled a bit as she continued more warmly. “It wasn’t an issue, Lairia. I didn’t want to kill anyone who was brave enough to disable the engines of the ship to keep everyone else safe. Are you doing better?”
“I am. I received a regeneration spell, which did cause a few other issues, but I’d rather remove a few teeth again than be legless,” the woman said, audibly relaxing as she spoke. “However, I heard you were still aboard the station, and thought I’d offer to treat you to a meal as thanks. I know that it isn’t much, but it’s what I can afford.”
“Hm… well, I’m going to be here for the better part of a month as it is, so that’s possible. When and where were you thinking?” Evelyn asked, glancing at one of the Dolls in concern, as it parked a grav-bike in front of a power hookup. That wasn’t the best place
to place it, in her opinion.
“I was going to leave that up to you, as it happens. Given your life, I suspected that choosing someplace would make you more uncomfortable, in case of traps or something similar. Even if I think that would be foolish, given what I remember,” Lairia replied, a bubble of laughter escaping her throat. “And any time in the next few weeks would work well for me. I don’t have anything specific planned, and I’m waiting on my superiors to decide where to send me next.”
“Hm, in that case, do you mind if I call you back once I’ve made a decision?” Evelyn asked, her concerns easing a little more. “I’m in the process of moving things to my new ship, so I’m going to need some time to look at what’s available.”
“That would be fine. Your ship should have my codes now, so send me a message whenever you like,” Lairia replied.
“Excellent. Tarth, out,” Evelyn said, cutting the line, then shrugged. “Odd, but who am I to argue? I did save her life. Now, then… why did you park the grav-bike there?”
The Doll paused, looking at Evelyn in confusion for a few seconds, then spoke. “Because the goal is to move items from one vessel to the other as expediently as possible, Captain. We can properly organize them while the ship is undergoing refit.”
“Ah. Well, whether we’re being expedient or not, I expect you to follow safety procedures, and that definitely includes not blocking power hookups. Please move the bike,” Evelyn told the Doll firmly.
“Yes, Captain,” the Doll replied, and proceeded to move it, while the others began to move the other items to ensure there was space near all the power hookups.
Evelyn watched for a few more seconds, then shrugged and moved forward. Even if they were robots, she felt a little… annoyed at the thought of just supervising. She should help as well.
She was curious if Lairia had another reason for contacting her as well. Most likely, as most people tended to have other motives, even if it was just wanting to meet her. That was why a few people had come to her shop on Rakal, to boast that they’d looked Evelyn in the eyes personally.
Chosen of Chaos (Eve of Destruction Book 1) Page 24