Chapter 32

“It is the habit of the Empyrean to leave their walls unmanned and their gates unguarded. This is not through any fault in their thinking so much as it is a result of the relentless bloat of the empire. The Empyrean has spread and spread, welcoming anyone and everyone to the table, with the net result that the few dedicated militaries that exist within the Empyrean are stretched far too thin should any conflict actually break out. We patrol our borders sporadically at best and rely on hope more often than any proper listening stations to ensure that we are not invaded by any of the interstellar powers closest to us. An excellent communication network promises a rapid response should any invasion occur, and there is no question that in a coordinated counterattack, there are few enemies that would be able to withstand the Empyrean’s focus. Were it ever brought to bear. To my mind, the largest problem that the Empyrean faces is the absence of that focus. Five individual fingers are easily broken, while a clenched fist can punch through anything. If the Empyrean were to cede territory, withdraw to inside a reasonable and actionable border, and then establish regular patrols, they would be much better equipped to repulse an invasion, but as it stands, the sheer distances involved stymie all hope of progress towards a safer tomorrow.”

—Tactical Ignorance, Fal’Vaelith

Glamrock was as miserable a rock as it had been the last time that they visited. The Dusont Gunship had made a low swing into the atmosphere without attempting to touch down, getting Sylvas close enough to teleport them without the danger of too much interference from the surroundings. Immediately, they were struck by the relentless tempest that consumed the world, and while Sylvas made no attempt to cover himself up this time around, feeling no great desire to travel incognito, Rania had to be wrapped thoroughly in all of the protective gear that they could lay their hands on if she intended to survive on the surface for any length of time. She was bundled up and slowly roasting amidst all the layers of coats.

Business was booming. The Thesulan Consortium was gone, entirely collapsed after the actions that Hector had led against them, but the black market seemed to have almost doubled in size with their absence. The products seemed to veer away from the incredibly dangerous into the merely illegal now, and while that might have meant slightly less profit, it also meant that potential clients weren’t all being scared away by eidolons and shikari being on the planet. 

The crowd parted ahead of Sylvas as he strode on. His obvious enhancements were on full display thanks to him having no need for protection from the elements, aided and abetted by the aura of raw power that surrounded him at all times now that he wasn’t actively trying to suppress and hide it. So much mana flowed through him now that it was difficult to conceive of. Even when his eidolon had been feasting in a war zone, it hadn’t produced as much as was drawn by the world soul. 

So they passed uninterrupted through the den of criminals and smugglers until they came upon a familiar-looking location and a man sitting on a fold-out chair under a buzzing shield, drinking a beer. “Nice to see you again, Mr. Saizen.”

The gangster looked up at Sylvas with the same sweaty disdain he had the first time around. “How’s it going, kid?”

“I’m here to collect on that favor.” Sylvas could feel mana beginning to flow into the turret attached to the ship behind Saizen, and he reached out with a quick flex of his hand to crush the whole apparatus with a gravity spike.

“What do you want?” Sylvas had expected more hostility, if he was being entirely honest. Maybe the gangster did think that he owed Sylvas something. Maybe gangsters had some code of honor that Sylvas didn’t know anything about.

“I need someone to run me and my friends to a planet.”

The stout man shrugged. “So call a taxi.”

“A planet in Dominion space.”

Another shrug, even more dismissive than the first. “So call a Dominion taxi.”

“Without them knowing we’re there.”

Saizen took an extra moment before replying and didn’t shrug. Which was a relief, as his oversized vest had been starting to slip down his shoulder. “So what you need is a smuggler.”

Sylvas nodded. “That is what I need.”

“What’s in it for the smuggler?”

Some sparks rained down from the crushed turret, sprinkling around Saizen. Sylvas smiled. “Repaying a favor.”

Saizen seemed to be giving it some consideration. “What happened to your friend?”

“What friend?”

“The one with all the”—Saizen waved at his face—“smiling.”

“He was on a hospital world the last time I saw him,” Sylvas answered truthfully, without giving anything else away.

“The one that blew up?” Saizen asked, with the closest thing he’d shown to a smile so far. Kaya’s eyes widened, but they’d rehearsed this interaction, and she knew she wasn’t meant to get involved.

Sylvas ignored the inflammatory question. Any information had to be paid for, so he was asking no questions except the important one. “Do you have a smuggler for me?”

“I might know a guy,” Saizen said.

Almost all activity on Glamrock was situated around Saizen’s ship and the black market, although how central Saizen’s base of operations was hadn’t been as apparent when he had contending factions to deal with. Now it was positioned square in the middle of everything, like a mayor’s house in a bustling town. Where Sylvas and the others were going was nowhere near it or anything else.

It required very little consultation with Rania to have her agree to let Sylvas carry her across the rough terrain that they were heading into, and having had a little more experience of her company now, Sylvas was coming to realize that she actually enjoyed it when he picked her up and moved her places. Rather than his strength intimidating her or making her feel weak, it actually seemed to make her content to be carted around like a baby. 

He couldn’t make out much of what she was saying, muffled under rebreathers and scarves, but she made some very encouraging noises when he scooped her up in his arms. She was less enthusiastic when he cast a flying spell on all of them so they could cover the distance faster, but by that point, it wasn’t as though there was much she could do about it.

There were no oceans on Glamrock, nothing at all except cold stone and dust once you were away from the neon lights of the marketplace and its various, dubious pleasures. This meant that for miles in every direction, the planetary surface had been turned into parking for the visitors, but it also meant that once you got beyond the outer limits of how far people were willing to walk to get to their illegal goods, there was very little in the way of landmarks. 

Sylvas had his other senses to guide him onwards, and they flew in a tight formation, traversing miles in minutes. With the precise location that they were headed to on any other world, Sylvas could have teleported them the distance in moments. Ever since he had learned how to teleport, he felt as though there had been an endless parade of reasons not to, and it was starting to get frustrating to travel the long way around to every location in the universe.

When they finally arrived, it was to the sight of a dull little frigate, thoroughly coated in dust, built rectangular in shape with a few odd protrusions, but otherwise, it was almost entirely unremarkable. They touched down beside the hatch, and it eased open to reveal Saizen waiting for them inside. As it turned out, when Saizen said that he knew a guy, he meant himself. Once they were on board the smuggler’s frigate and the airlock was sealed behind them, Kaya turned to the man, who was somehow less sweaty here than he had been back in the town, and asked, “How the hell did you get here before us?”

Saizen chuckled, sauntering off down the passage towards the cramped cockpit, where a second, identical Saizen was already standing in the command circle. 

Sylvas had forgotten the odd little detail about the Saizen Brothers criminal empire; its inner circle was comprised exclusively of clones of the original man who, by this point, could have been any one of them. “I take it none of you are the Saizen that I’ve already met?”

“What are you trying to say, kid? That we all look alike?” The Saizen in the command circle chortled.

Sylvas suppressed a groan. It was going to be a long journey.

The quarters that they were afforded aboard Saizen’s apparently unnamed ship were less than comfortable, but given how short the journey was going to be, Sylvas hoped that they wouldn’t be making much use of them. A hope that was dashed almost immediately after they’d dropped off what scant belongings they had and tried to emerge, only to find one of the clones blocking their path. “Nope.”

“We just want to be of assistance.” Sylvas had tried to explain as the sweaty, hairless man tried to shove the door of their closet-turned-cabin shut on him again.

“Don’t need it. Don’t want it.” Saizen had grimaced, eventually giving up on trying to force the door when it was clear Sylvas didn’t even need to be using the whole hand that he was keeping it open with. “Not sure how you run your criminal conspiracies, but in my experience, having strangers stomping around looking at everything is a good way for things to go south.”

“You know I’m a gravity mage. I could save you a fortune in etherium if you let me—”

Saizen stepped back and crossed his arms. “No, thank you.”

“I ain’t sitting in this culgh-hole the whole way,” Kaya brayed angrily from behind Sylvas’ elbow.

Blunt and direct seemed to be the way to go with Saizen. He rubbed the back of his neck and then sighed. “Stay put for now. I’m going to go talk to myself.”

They did their best to keep still and keep quiet, even as they felt the grinding and lurching of the ship making for orbit, and then the unnatural smoothness of motion as they slipped into null-space. There wasn’t enough room in their makeshift cabin to do more than breathe, and even that seemed to result in brushing up against one another more often than not. 

Sylvas hadn’t noticed that in the time since he had begun exercising back on Strife he had continued to bulk out, but now he was aware of every band of muscle and the various shelves and people that they were rubbing up against. Malachai had the courtesy to remain slim, Kaya was small enough that even with her bulk, she could be safely described as compact, and Rania seemed to be perfectly content being pressed up against him, so really, the problem in the room was him.

He contented himself with the knowledge that at least he didn’t sweat anymore.

It felt like considerably longer than it actually was, but when their smuggler returned, they all let out a long-held breath of relief. “Two of you can come up to the cockpit, so long as you don’t touch nothing and you keep your eyes to yourselves. Otherwise, you stay put in here.”

“How long is the journey going to take?” Malachai asked from where he’d been crammed to the back of the room.

“Depends.” Saizen shrugged one shoulder.

“Depends on what?” Kaya elbowed her way past the humans to get out into the hallway.

“Patrols, timing, stuff.” Saizen stepped away from her as she started running through a set of calisthenic stretches.

If we were going directly from Glamrock, we would be facing a twelve-hour journey.

“How much over twelve hours are patrols, timing, and… stuff going to set us back?” Sylvas graciously let Rania step out of the room ahead of him before moving into the hallway himself. Malachai lingered. 

“You in a hurry to be somewhere?” Saizen sneered.

“Yes,” Malachai deadpanned. “Obviously.”

Shrugging his shoulders again, Saizen started heading towards the cockpit. “Should have picked a fast ship then.”

“I was under the foolish impression that a smuggler would want to move fast.” Sylvas was trying to bite back his sarcasm, but it was hard.

“Smugglers want to move as fast as they can without anyone noticing them. Which is usually slow,” Saizen explained before stopping dead in the hall. “Fast ships get noticed.”

He looked at the three of them following after him and pointed back at the closet where Malachai remained waiting patiently. “Two on the bridge. Two in the cabin.”

Rania and Kaya made eye contact for just a moment before the dwarf huffed and stomped back towards their alleged cabin. She cried cheerfully over her shoulder, “Hate you.”

The bridge of the ship was barely more spacious than the cabin had been. Every part of the ship had been given over to cargo space or vital systems, and every part that living people had to occupy had paid the price for that extra real estate being turned over to the things that might make a greater profit. “I would’ve expected a crime lord to live in the lap of luxury,” Rania said, almost to herself.

“Maybe if there’s only one of you.” The Saizen in the command circle chortled. “You get a couple dozen, and the luxury spreads thin.”

“How many Saizens are there, anyway?” Rania found a seat by one of the consoles, leaving Sylvas to loom awkwardly against the wall, trying to dodge the other Saizen as he went about his work.

“More than we want anyone to know about.” Saizen, the pilot, chuckled. “Fewer than is safe.”

“Be safer if we didn’t talk about it so much,” the other Saizen grumbled.

“If I didn’t talk about it so much?” the pilot snapped.

And you thought that you talked to yourself too much.

The grumbling grew louder. “If nobody knew, it would be safer for everyone.”

Sylvas tried to calm what felt like a longstanding argument. “To be fair, I don’t think it is exactly common knowledge.”

“We do try to keep to ourselves,” one Saizen said, as the other snapped, “You knew, didn’t you?”

Sylvas briefly considered lying to try and keep the peace, but it would have been pointless and might have run the risk of turning the smugglers against them. “I knew. But I was told by someone near the top of Empyrean Intelligence.”

“Empyrean Intelligence has a file about us.” The other Saizen groaned as he headed back out of the door. “Great.”

The pilot rolled his eyes. “Don’t mind him. Some of us reckon we’d be better off invisible. Some of us live in the real world where you can’t off someone just for noticing there are two of you.”

Saizen called back from the distance, “She had it coming.”