De'Vas Chronicles Book 4: Chapter 21

“I’m ready to sleep in an actual bed instead of a sleeping bag,” Faylen said as she packed her backpack.

She and Cleo were standing on the rooftop that had served as their home for the past two weeks. They would still be here, training, if Vivian hadn’t called requesting they come back to District 114.

Faylen’s heart had raced at that call, hoping it meant they would soon have a way to get Ash back.

“You ready, Fay?” Cleo asked, swinging her bag over her shoulder.

Faylen nodded, lifting her own pack and slinging it onto her back. Once she did, Cleo started for the stairwell, pulling the chain off that they used to keep any adventurous slimes from making their way to the roof.

“Keep your senses sharp in case there are any slimes that made it inside. Once we’re on the street, it’s bright enough that they should only be in the shadows,” Cleo said.

Faylen rolled her eyes at the banshee.

“I know, I’ve been hunting them every night now,” she said with a slight growl.

Cleo smiled and tried to pat her on the head, only for Faylen to bat her hand away.

“And you’ve done such a good job at it. Still, I’d rather remind you than have to rescue you in case you forgot,” Cleo stated.

Thankfully, their trip through the district was uneventful, apart from Cleo being her usual smartass self.

Faylen let out a sigh when they arrived at the portal, and it turned blue as Cleo put in their district’s number. They stepped through once Cleo had shifted to the form she used as Silver.

“Welcome back!” Naomi greeted them as soon as they stepped through.

The ice salamander beamed at them and quickly rushed forward to embrace Faylen in a hug. When she broke away and tried to do the same with Silver, the banshee-rabbitkin stopped her with an open palm.

“Let’s just do a handshake, Naomi,” Silver said.

Still beaming, Naomi grabbed Silver’s hand and vigorously shook it. Faylen just smiled as Silver’s joints experienced whiplash.

“Did Vivian send you to meet us?” Silver asked, shaking her hand.

Naomi shook her head. Before she could answer, the portal whirled to life, and a haggard Lilly stepped through.

“I’m finally back,” she said with a sigh.

Naomi turned away from Faylen and Silver, stepping over to the side of the portal where a push cart was. The same one Lilly used to haul bags of dirt for her greenhouse, only instead of soil, it had pillows and blankets on it.

Faylen and Silver both arched an eyebrow as Naomi pushed the cart over to Lilly.

“Thanks, Scales,” Lilly said before collapsing onto the pillows and blankets.

Silver clicked her tongue.

“Seriously?” she said.

Lilly looked up at them from her pillow cart.

“My legs, feet, arms, and butt all hurt! If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that— ” Lilly paused and glared at the deactivated portal. “That horrid bitch I call my mother was trying to kill me!”

Faylen looked at the portal and back at Lilly.

“Why did you pause? It’s not like your mother would ever show her face here again,” she growled.

Her hand flexed, already wanting to pull on her Iron Claws at the thought of what Lilly’s mother had tried to do to Ash.

Lilly was still glaring at the portal.

“Vivian wants to meet with her,” Lilly said.

“What!” both Faylen and Silver exclaimed at the same time.

Lilly just rolled over and buried her face into one of the pillows.

“Don’t ask me details. All I know is Vivian asked me to pass along a message that she would like to meet with my mother, even said the gangs would stand down and give her safe passage in the district,” Lilly replied. “My mother is considering the offer.”

Faylen and Silver shared a look.

“Let’s go see why Vivian called us all back here,” Silver suggested.

They began moving through District 114 together, Silver walking beside her, while Naomi pushed the cart that held the lazy cart potato that was Lilly.

Faylen smiled as she caught sight of her gang members around town, trading waves and nods with them as they passed each other. It felt good to be back home, though it still felt empty without Ash.

“How has training been?” Naomi asked.

Faylen tugged on the strap of her backpack.

“Lots and lots of death slimes. I have what reagents we could harvest from them in this bag since Vivian said we would need all we could get.”

Silver hummed.

“Faylen’s been improving, Naomi. Her Iron Claw spell now completely covers her arms and legs. She has also been experimenting on different ways to utilize it as an attack,” Silver said, casting Faylen a serious side glance. “You’re someone I would now consider a potential threat. I wouldn’t toy with you in a fight like I did the day we first met on the beach.”

Faylen felt a little pride swell from Silver’s acknowledgment, though it was short-lived.

“I would just end it in an instant now,” Silver said, flicking her hair. “So, how has your training been with Rory?”

The sound of Lilly softly snoring came from the cart as Naomi pushed it.

“I’ve learned a lot from Master Rory and Alyndra on how to fuse my weapon and magic together. Not just encasing my sword, Torrent, in ice, but actually infusing Ice Magic into it,” Naomi said. “In return, I’ve been teaching Master Rory about humans.”

“Learning to fuse magic with your weapon is good. It allows you to perform very quick and deadly attacks,” Silver said with an approving nod. “Rory is a Master swordsman, so I don’t doubt he’s taught you much in these past two weeks.”

Faylen was wondering about something else.

“Why is Master Rory interested in humans?” Faylen asked. “I figured it would be Alyndra who would want to learn about them.”

Naomi just shrugged.

“I’m not sure,” she answered. “But he does spend much of his time with Vivian.”

Silver roared with laughter, and Faylen wore a smirk.

They arrived at the Flatiron within a few minutes and were immediately escorted by gang members to a heavily guarded hallway within the building. They passed through several security checkpoints before arriving at a door with one final checkpoint, guarded by their second-in-commands.

“Hey, Boss,” Celeste greeted as she placed a silver coin on Faylen’s hand.

Faylen smiled at the minkkin woman.

“How have you been, Celeste? Is the gang giving you much trouble?” she asked.

Celeste returned the smile.

“Naw, I just crack some heads if anyone tries to cause trouble, which is usually the new pups that join. I’m doing my best to run things like you would,” Celeste answered.

Jek, the second-in-command of the Frozen Scales, opened the door for them.

“Mrs. Grayson is waiting inside with the others,” he said.

The room was a fairly large conference room with a large rectangular table in the center. On one side sat Bo, Ella, and Jacklyn. The big orc gave a friendly wave in greeting as they entered. The three of them had been working to run District 208 in Selena’s absence.

On the opposite side of the table sat a goblin with tattoos covering his body. Ash had told her the goblin had been a slave of sorts for one of the coalition members, someone they had hoped would be able to decipher WillCo’s blueprints. She had learned later that the goblin’s name was Perry.

Vivian, Master Rory, and Alyndra sat in the center of the table, with Agent Miller leaning against the back wall behind them, his gaze fixed on the door to the conference room.

“Girls!” Vivian said as she stood and made her way over.

She gave each of them a hug, including the reluctant Silver and frozen Lilly. It still amused Faylen that being around Vivian quelled the chaos that was usually Lilly.

Vivian smiled at them, only breaking to check and see if the door was shut before looking back.

“I have news on Ash,” she said.

Faylen’s tail swished as she drew a deep breath.

“Is he okay?” she asked.

Bo let out a hearty laugh.

“Better than okay. He’s a warchief now!” the orc said before dusting his knuckles on his shirt. “I knew I taught him well.”

“He would be better than okay if he were here,” Silver hotly retorted.

Vivian just rolled her eyes.

“The Coalition is keeping tabs on him on Vas. Ash is alive. He has apparently conquered an orc tribe and set up in a castle. Some place called Markal Forest, which Rory tells me is mostly wilderness and ruins,” Vivian said, then glared at Bo. “Also, I would like to remind everyone that this information is secret.”

Bo shrank in his chair at the much smaller woman’s gaze.

The news was a weight lifted from Faylen’s shoulders. She had faith in Ash, faith they would bring him back, but to actually hear he was alive was a massive relief.

“Do we have a way to bring him back?” Faylen asked hopefully.

Vivian gave her a sad smile.

“Not yet, but we are closer,” Vivian said before turning back to the table and gesturing for them to take a seat.

Once they had, Vivian moved to where she had been sitting beside Master Rory. She drew a deep breath and opened a folder that was on the table. She started passing out sheets of paper with schematics on them.

“Perry has successfully deciphered the blueprints by WillCo, along with help from Grayson Industries. We can build it, but magical reagents are going to be an issue,” Vivian said as everyone picked up a sheet of paper and examined it.

Bo lifted a bag and placed it on the table.

“I went back to the old mall and harvested what I could from the mimics Ash and I fought. Mostly weak reagents aligned with Earth Magic,” he said.

Faylen placed her bag on the table next.

“I have some Death Magic reagents,” Faylen added.

Vivian nodded approvingly.

“Thank you both, it’s a start. I’m also working on securing reagents, which leads to my next line of discussion. The formation of our own alliance.” Vivian paused, giving everyone a hard stare. “We all know where this is leading. Confrontation with the Coalition and its allies, or in simpler terms, war. I have started to form and strengthen alliances between District 114 and others. Part of that is I’m using the resources of Grayson Industries to barter with them for reagents.”

Vivian let out a heavy sigh.

“All we can do now is strengthen ourselves and prepare for their first move,” she said.