12 Miles Below

Book 5. Chapter 24: Grilling over coals

“Lady Winterscar,” The servants all bowed deeply before Kidra. Then turned slightly to me, giving equal greetings. Same respectful greetings were offered the lords ‘Deathless’ Father and Wrath, with equally deep bows to signify maximum amount of respect warranted for demi-gods.

Always caught me a little by surprise just how big the staff had grown. In the past, when we’d first arrived into the new colony home, it was a skeletal group of hired hands that had been brought in. Last second picks by Father when he’d realized in the first month he couldn’t run the logistics of an empty House with just a teenage daughter and a gremlin out to cause havoc.

In my defense, most of that havoc was outside the house grounds so he couldn’t complain I was breaking all the old heirlooms and history around the empty estate. There was only mild looting and breaking happening around the grounds caused by me. Mild.

We had a rotating staff in those days. New servants joined in under contract, then they realized Father had no intentions of making them full-fledged Winterscars over the long run, and decided to cut their losses and leave. This wasn’t a great drawing point for most houseless looking to find a rank among the Retainers. Those who had stayed, did so out of loyalty to Kidra who’d grown on them, or they were already old and simply wanted some stability in their twilight years. House servants weren’t expected to go outside, only keep the estate tidy and clear. Hard work, but certainly not as dangerous as the surface expedition sites.

Stability eventually arrived over the first year and we had a more permanent handful of staff that were happy enough with the arrangement. Up until Kidra kicked it all back up into gear and gave full membership to each of them. Now the courtyard was filled with soldiers, servants, a few Logi sworn accountants and other odd personnel like house diplomats discussing inter-house trade agreements or trying to butter us up since we’re now the estate ground where two Deathless had picked to sleep at, in addition to being unbelievably wealthy.

Our motley returning crew of Winterscars included our knights, Kidra, Father, Wrath and myself. Back to the estate grounds to decompress and digest all we’d learned talking to Tsuya. And later go hunt down a rather elusive old machine friend of hers.

I did keep the secret he asked for, it was Tsuya who ratted his existence out to the group so I wash my hands of all guilt on this. They all know about him now, and they're mulling over what to do next when he inevitably showed up again. We had traveled a long way from the underground city to reach the clan, and that was by airspeeder. He had a floating boat and great reasons to go slow and unnoticed. Might take some time before I heard his robotic voice trying to sell me something.

Kidra and Father were intercepted by her Logi accountant along with a few other high ranked staff members, and quickly began to talk animatedly about something.

I’d have been there to overhear, but another servant caught my attention. “Master Keith,” He said, stepping forward in the resuming hubbub. “You and the Lady Hecate Wrath have a guest waiting for your arrival.”

The servant nodded. “Your guest was invited by the Lady Deathless, young master.”

Wrath had asked for someone to come by the estate grounds? I turned to her with a cheeky thumbs up, “Logi friends you made while working with them? Look at you, being all social.”

She shook her head. “Not a member of your Logi cast, though I have found their work exemplary. I wished to speak to someone Kidra recommended I befriend.”

I didn’t need any kind of test rank in mathematics to add all of that together. My sister was often someone who was very no-nonsense and handled things with dignity and poise. But she was still Winterscar on the inside. Stuffing her old combat rival into a crate on an airship and then making it my problem had been something she’d consider open sport.

And if she was recommending Wrath meet someone to befriend, I had a hunch it was for less than innocent reasons and more for a need to see chaos happen.

“Would this guest go by the name of Elandris Silverstride?” I asked.

The servant nodded. “Indeed, she does. She has been staying within the guest wing waiting on the lady deathless.”

And likely quite smug about the accommodations, probably running up the bill on the house. I turned to Wrath, “I don’t think you realized the cricket farm you opened up here by accident.”

“There are no crickets within your compound.” Wrath said, head tilted. “Your society stratifies food production with external resource acquisition. I fail to see any cricket farms I’ve opened.”

My own answer was cut short when a figure walked out one of the estate doorways. Armor looked recently polished up, and brand new Winterscar heraldry had been draped over his shoulders. Most importantly, his helmet was off and I could recognize that face anywhere.

“Sagrius?” I asked, everything else forgotten.

The man gave a short nod, to which the servant next to me gave some details as I made my way up to greet him. “Captain Sagrius returned while you were away on expedition. He arrived with a few other Undersider delegates. The captain has refused to remove his armor or take rest until you returned, much to the worry of the staff at large.”

Made sense if he still had his… complications. I’ll have to do a deep dive and see if I can help, maybe Wrath’s healing fractal could also affect souls?

The staff that remained behind to keep the estate grounds clean and functional had strong ties with the military wing of our house. To the staff, it was their duty to make sure those soldiers and knights were all well rested and prepared for the trials ahead. I could see how the guard captain refusing to take a breather out of his armor would start to worry everyone around him.

Unfortunately, as I got closer to the man, I could see why he couldn’t easily take off his armor. Within the soul sight, I could see the glimmering concepts of soul fractals lining the inside of the armor. Each showing a tangled web of tendrils wrapped around the whole body. Sagrius had returned some time ago, and clearly none of the knights hitching a ride within his spare fractals had decided to move back to their own respective Houses.

"It's good to see you alive," I said, hand grabbing his shoulder and giving a few happy tugs. "I knew you're a tough bastard to take down, you had to be still out there alive somewhere. You made it back home faster than I thought possible."

"I did what I had to." Sagrius said, voice still flat. "It is... good to return back to where I belong."

I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed. Father had stalked up behind me, staring him down. The man looked back dead on, then slowly reached down for his clipped helmet and put it on. A hand slowly went to his hilt next, as if fast motions might spook the monster before him.

“Master Keith, please take a step behind me.” Sagrius said, comms clicking, voice growing cold in addition. “This man is no human.”

In the soul sight, Father didn’t appear as a human at all. Just machine parts all put together. I'd grown used to it, and Sagrius was now close enough to see that in detail for the first time.

“Long story, but who you’re looking at is my Father.” I immediately said before anything could happen, keeping things under comms. “He, uhh, stole a Feather. Everything’s fine and you don’t need to fight anyone right now.”

Sagrius froze. Then unfroze. “I see.” He said out loud. “If those are your orders, master Keith.”

Father didn’t say a word. Instead, he nodded his head as if this had been the right answer. “Testing your full abilities will be needed. Go to the sanctum and wait for me there.”

“I will not leave the young master’s side.” Sagrius said, hand going back to his blade hilt.

There was a pause, as Father's eyes narrowed slightly. “Who do you serve?” His voice asked over the comms.

“I serve Lord Keith above all.” Sagrius answered. “Lady Kidra second. Your command third. Clan Altosk fourth, and House Winterscar fifth. I am aware my rank as the guard captain requires my priorities to be different. You are free to replace me, my loyalties will not change.”

“We agree on this order.” Father said without a bother, stepping back from the captain with a nod. “You will go to the sanctum to have your skills tested so that I may see if you are fit to protect them or not.”

“It’s fine, captain.” I said, interjecting before things got worse. “I’m safe here, Wrath will be with me.”

Sagrius gave a brief salute, though the action seemed more alien to him than something practiced as it used to be. “By your will.”

The lady ‘Deathless’ in question next to me gave him an equally awkward thumbs up. “I have no intention of allowing anyone else to harm Keith. He is mine.”

“Phrasing.” I hissed back. “That’s going to get misinterpreted to the three gods and back.”

Wrath gave a confused look as Sagrius walked off behind Father. “In what way could this be understood differently?” She asked. “No one else is allowed to kill you except for me. I believe we have settled this some time ago.”

I had no idea how to answer that, or even approach the subject.

The servant behind us hadn’t left either, simply waiting for us to wrap up the discussion. He noticed the lull and gave a short cough. “Young master. Lady Deathless, your requested guest is waiting for you. What should I tell her?”

Wrath gave a curt nod. “I will be with her shortly.”

“I’m coming with.” I said, “Nothing good will come out of you being alone in the same room with her without supervision.”

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“Is she dangerous?” Wrath asked. “Kidra did recommend her. Is she a rival capable of combat at her skill level?”

“She’s certainly dangerous, but in a completely different arena.” I said. “Let me talk to her first before you walk in, see if I can defuse the situation and lay some ground rules.”

Ellie was waiting on the other side, a shit-eating grin stretched wide on her features when I first made it through the sliding door. “About time you showed your ugly mug around again.” She said, which was the traditional greeting between us.

“And hello to you too, Ellie.” I answered, equally following tradition. “I see you didn’t want to wait until I was ready and decided to get my sister into the ring. That’s cheating, I thought family was off-limits according to war-crime conventions.”

She scoffed. “Only because I had little need to before. These days, you’re harder to get a hold of than an agrifarmer’s pet fish. Named pet fish, mind you. So I had to twist a few arms.”

“Almost like I’ve gotten brand new responsibilities to deal with and very good reasons not to be available immediately.” I said, taking a seat.

“You? Responsible for anything? Let me know what those are and where, so I can make sure I’m nowhere near the explosions."

That got a good laugh from me, "Could this perhaps be a blatant attempt to weasle information out of me, within the first few seconds of us talking?"

She lounged her head forward on the table, bringing up a small bit of fruit above before letting it drop in her mouth. "Not my finest attempt, I'll admit. But I've been bored and it's fun to annoy you. The rest of your staff are too professional to mess with."

"I'll pass the compliment along to them."

She tutted, straightening back up in her seat. "But nevermind you and your stuffy house, I’m more interested in someone else right now.”

“Does she happen to be a Deathless?” I asked.

She gave a smile which was all the answer I needed.

“I see you’ve wasted no time setting your sights on bigger fish.”

“As if you’re in any position to say such things to me,” She said, taking a nibble of the food on the table. “I hear you went to the baths with her already - and she’s staying on your estate grounds. Game recognizes game. With such a head start on the rest of us clout-chasers, you think I’d play fair?”

“I’ll have you know that I… uh. Hang on.”

“Need a second to think up a good excuse?” She asked, elbow lounging on the table now while her head rested on the hand. The expression on her features was that of a cat who’d caught a pipe weasel’s tail, and was watching it squirm. “Go on, I’ll wait.”

I took a second. Then another. But if I’m being honest, I think she got me here. I have been spending an awful lot of time around Wrath, mostly because it’s hilarious to point her at anything and watch her cause chaos. Or talk to her about engineering and dig into the stupid amounts of knowledge she had in that field. Or just bicker and see her puff up.

And speaking of her, I heard Journey’s helmet chime up. So instead of answering to the gossip monger before me, I picked up my helmet and made sure it was nice and snug on my head again.

“What are you doing?” Ellie asked, one eyebrow raised. “You think I need to read your face to figure out what cards you’ve got in your hand here? Please, I’m not an amateur.”

“Nope, not for that reason.” I said, idly flicking through the settings on my HUD, looking for the right settings to toggle on. “I just enjoy grilling you over coals.”

Her eyes narrowed down with suspicion. Wrath stepped in just in time before Ellie could question me further.

One thing I’d gotten used to was the dramatics of a Feather. To the point I almost didn’t notice anymore. Wrath was many things, but absolutely and unabashedly shallow when it came to her looks was high up on the list. She’d gone a long way from an angry little spider bot hell bent on murder, to a slightly less angry spider bot now kept under check on the inside with a new war-shell on the outside to murder with.

The moment she entered the room, some part of Wrath’s thinking process must have noticed there was someone she hadn’t met in the room, thus triggering her instinctive need to flaunt. Instantly her pose changed. Metal wings flaring open behind her before she fussed them back into place, as if it was simply by accident. She took regal and measured paces to sit down at the table.

“You must be Elandris, of House Silverstride.” She said, giving Ellie a noble look over. “I am Hecate Wrath, a friend of Kidra and Keith.”

Ellie said nothing other than to give her best impression of a fish trying to breathe air, head rebooting each time she opened her mouth up to say something, before closing right back up. Something finally clicked in her mind, and she snapped her gaze away from Wrath back to me.

“You little git.” She hissed. “You’re recording all this, aren’t you?”

A thumbs up was all that was needed. I admit, I said I’d be here to defuse the situation and lay ground rules, and I readily failed at both. But what’s the worst that could happen? If Ellie tried any shenanigans, I was in the room to stop it.

“I’m going to freaking strangle you the next chance I get.” She said, and sounded like she meant it too.

Wrath frowned at that. “I would request that you desist from harming Keith. I have an und-”

My hand snapped up to her mouth, quick as I could before Wrath said Wrath things that would make Ellie absolutely insufferable for the next few months, or possibly years. See - this is exactly why I was in the room with Wrath, to make sure she wasn’t stepping on landmines. “She doesn’t know the full history we have. Probably keep the details need-to-know.” I hissed under my breath. Ellie couldn’t hear because she didn’t have stupid good hearing like a Feather would, a fact I made use of.

She gave a nod, and I hesitantly let go.

Wrath opened her mouth and everything immediately went wrong anyways. “Although I appreciate the assistance, I am more than capable of strangling him myself, miss Silverstride.” Wrath said, looking proud. “Outsourcing is not an option in this matter. He is reserved.”

On my comms she elaborated, keeping the discussion hidden from Ellie. “This answer should satisfy your conditions, I have avoided the topic of combat.”

“Yep.” I said, cradling my head in my hands. “Great work Wrath.”

She, of course, preened at the wording, clearly missing the avalanche.

Ellie looked back at her, then back at me. Those beady little eyes of hers continued to shift targets. I saw the exact moment everything clicked into place in her head. She was an expert at figuring out who people were, and Wrath’s answer told her everything she needed to know about this particular Feather in disguise's social quirks. Which meant that now she was going to make me suffer for it, because everything was fair in war.

“Reserved, huh?” She hummed, grin deepening, eyes locking back on me. “Might you elaborate more on what exactly is being reserved here? A girl wonders.”

Wrath frowned, trying to think of a way to explain without explaining. I was also trying to figure out what to say and coming empty during the one moment when I needed it most.

“Keith is a sworn servant under my banner. He has opted to assist me with a personal journey I am going through.” Wrath said first, nodding. “We have an ongoing friendly rivalry since the moment we met, which has yet to be fully settled.”

Ellie clearly did not believe any of this, or rather she believed too much into it. She turned to me, now looking outright evil with that smile. “Well, well, well. Look who’s finally no longer afraid of commitment and tied down to a decent cause. And to follow her on a personal journey? I never thought I’d see the day, but she’s certainly quite a catch.”

Oh no. Oh no no no.

Ellie turned to Wrath before I could mediate or defuse anything. “Are you keeping him in good shape? Giving him more intense one-on-one training? Can’t let your servants go soft and limp now, lady Deathless. Wouldn’t be proper. And he’s a known slacker.”

I groaned and let my head slam down on the table once before bringing it back up.

On her end, Wrath seemed happy to add onto the conversation. “We have plenty of personal spars. And I am well aware humans require consistent workouts.” She paused, eyes widening. “What I mean to say is that as a Deathless, I require a lot less to remain at peak performance.”

“While I’m certain a Deathless like you can keep going for hours, his stamina might be limited. Perhaps consider a meal plan? You know, to keep up Keith's energy levels for these strenuous training sessions after he’s been completely drained out.”

“Three gods above, Ellie. Please.”

She huffed, nose pointed up dismissively at me. “Keith, stop being a pig, please. We are having a serious conversation about your health here in civilized company. This is hardly appropriate.”

“I admit I had not put much thought on what diet." Wrath said, actually thinking it through. "And what food will be found further underground past civilization. As for the current topic, while I understand it’s not socially polite for Keith to put his head on the table instead of speaking directly to you, I fail to see how that makes him a pig? Is this a surface clan nomenclature?”

“Something of the sort. He’s just being a little shy right now, don’t worry. And I think it’s very diligent of you to consider all parts of this.” Ellie said, drawing it out. “How are your 'personal spars' going, exactly? I’m quite curious about that.”

“Sparing skills have been gradually increasing in skill and scope.” Wrath said, “We’ve added additional weapons that have promising results, they truly test my limits.”

The times I’d fought her in the digital sea training session led by Father, I’d done pretty decent and held her off until I couldn’t keep using the mirror fractal, after which I’d be gutted like a bug before dinner. The new weapons Wrath was talking about were those occult powers and weaving them in using Cathida to take command of the movements. Not that I could say anything about that, my head was back firmly on the table, rolling around in agony by this point.

“I know exactly what you mean.” Ellie said. “Boys and their swords. But sometimes it’s fun to bring a few extra toys.”

“These are not toys.” Wrath said, sounding confused. “It is important to replicate real-world conditions when training. Toys or weak replicas will not be useful tools to train with.”

I didn’t want to look up, but I could hear Ellie take a deep breath, and I knew she wasn’t going to let this go now that she’d sunk her teeth into it. “Do you also drill tactics and strategy in these training sessions, or are they more like, say... wrestling?” She said, table creaking a little as she no doubt must have leaned forward on her elbows, pressing the attack. “Do you need a whistle and a tracksuit perhaps? Or does your 'intense personal training' require a different uniform for your servants, Lady Deathless?”

There’s a place outside, deep out in the snow, where I’ll probably be buried after I die. I really want to go there right now.

“No uniforms are required, however armor is of course expected.” Wrath answered. “Why do you ask?”

“You mentioned it before, it’s important to replicate real-world conditions when training,” Ellie said, “You do test his skills when he’s out of his armor, yes? Ambushes could happen at any time in the night, especially in the bed when he’s sleeping.”

Wrath hummed, clearly in thought. “You make another good point. If enemies ambush him while he is unprepared, I have little faith he could survive in his current condition.”

“Oh my, his current condition isn’t to your satisfaction?”

“Please, mercy.” I whispered out, talking straight to the table for all that it mattered. “On all three gods, mercy.”

She had none. “That reminds me! Keith, do you have a safe word for when these intense one-on-one sessions get a bit too much? Something exactly like 'mercy', perhaps? It’s important to practice safe sparring with a partner.”

“What are your terms? I’ll pay.” I hissed out, head rolling.

“I want a jewelry cabinet.” She answered back without a pause. “And it better be glittering on the inside when I open it.” Or else the torture continues.

“Six inch box.” I said. And don’t think I’ll forget this.

“Must be quite the role reversal for him, now that he’s up against someone who’s clearly on top.” Ellie said, voice clearly turned to Wrath. “Lady Deathless, you seem like someone who’s dedicated to making sure her followers are at their best shape. I really recommend a post-workout massage if you’re too rough on him. Aftercare is important.”

I said a cabinet. Came the unworded answer from her.

“You greedy bitch,” I hissed. “Foot long box.”

Wrath interrupted the discussions. “What is this box you are speaking of? And have taken good care of those who chose to follow my leadership, I am not particularly unjust or rough. I ruled over an entire undersider city at one point with little issue.”

“Oh I see!” Ellie said, hands clapping together. “You must be quite used to ruling, have you considered heels? Smaller details like this really do add to the whole when people look up to you. From the ground.”

A foot long box is not a cabinet. The torture will continue until I have my cabinet.

“Foot long box, three layers deep.” I offered. “And an apology letter for not talking to you early enough when I came back.”

“Miss Hecate, while it’s been fun, I feel like we’ve talked about Keith for long enough.” She said before Wrath’s confused questioning could continue, to my relief. “He does have an ego, you know? We should open up a different topic before he gets full of himself. Look at him, all flustered.”

“I will file this information about using heels along with your other advice for future consideration.” Wrath said, “However, what is this jewelry box you are both talking about? Why is there a negotiation happening here?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Ellie said, “It’s something to do about being grilled over coals. Keith will explain it to you later tonight.

When you’re both alone.”