Delve

Chapter 256: Rollover

chapter 256: rollover

zero quivered uncertainly, confused about what she was meant to do.

like this! floofy-cloud seemed to say, demonstrating for her one more time.

zero listened with all her might as the ⟬furry bonesack slime⟭ dropped the bulk of himself to the ground, his long-bone protuberances waving ineffectually as they traced an arc over his body. soon, he was propped up on them again, vigorously thrashing the air with his final protuberance, the extra floofy one he usually used for that mysterious purpose.

zero thought.

zero thought and thought.

zero thought and thought and thought, but despite rain-king’s thinking-chill, she did not understand.

“you can do it,” said cloud-mother, using her ⟬greater bonesack slime⟭ noises. “go on, zero. roll over! it will be fun!”

try! floofy-cloud seemed to say, nuzzling at her encouragingly with his nuzzler.

zero tried. zero did not understand, but zero tried.

she formed her own protuberances and wriggled them until they made approximately the right motion.

“you did it!” cloud-mother exclaimed.

“boof!” said floofy-cloud.

“ah, perfect,” said rain-king’s voice from outside the thin film of their enclosure. “hey, meloni. it’s rain. can i come in?”

“ah!” cloud-mother said. “rain? sure, but what—?”

“thanks,” rain-king said, entering.

zero urgently oozed behind a pillow.

rain-king kept speaking. “i need a place to hide out while i deal with something urgent soulside, and i don’t want to run all the way back to my tent. can i impose on you for, say, fifteen minutes?”

“i’ll make tea,” cloud-mother said. “stay as long as you’d like. jamus should be back soon. i’m sure he’d love it if you joined us for supper. you really should visit more.”

“great, thanks, and yeah, i know, but busy, busy! you know how it is. zero, what are you doing, hiding behind there? oh, you’re shy, huh? well, aren’t you adorable? yes, yes, cloud, you’re adorable too. i know, i know.”

most of the words between cloud-mother and rain-king were lost on zero, but she had recognized her name. she had been heard! that was bad! rain-king was too grand and too important to be hearing her!

maybe if she stayed very, very still...

“cloud, enough! depths, you’re soaking me! get off! right, meloni, if anyone asks, tell them i’m here, but on break unless the world’s ending. going under in three, two, one...zero.”

oh no!!!

despite the initial rush to get settled, rain found he had plenty of time to prepare for his conversation with the warden. so much so, in fact, that he was quite lost in the process of working through his observations from the lair by the time a knock made him tear his eyes from his interface. he blinked, then looked toward the door. “you’re supposed to use the button.”

“what?” called a muffled voice on the other side.

“there’s a call button beside the door. you push it, and it chimes to—you know what, never mind. just come in.”

the doors opened with a pneumatic hiss, revealing the warden standing there with a highly compressed dozer sitting on her shoulder.

“finally,” vatreece snapped as she walked in. “i know what you’re doing, you annoying bastard.”

“what are you talking about?” rain asked, busy inspecting her pseudo-soul. “can we maybe start with hello?”

“hello,” the warden said with a huff, planting her hands on her hips as she stopped in front of his desk. “i’m talking about this little power play. making me come to you. like i need the reminder that you own me.”

“okay, back up,” rain said. “firstly, i was in the middle of something; secondly, you said you needed time; and thirdly, did you forget what the note said? you’re your own person-slash-construct-slash-ghost thing. clearly, you know that, given you’ve changed your outfit.”

“uh-huh. very cute. pretending you weren’t spying that whole time, eh?” she scoffed. “no, you were watching and pretending like you weren’t. you wanted to see what i’d do.”

“no,” rain said tiredly. “i was keeping tabs on where you were, yes, but that’s it. dozer would have told me if you were causing— okay, you know what? we’re starting over. hello, warden vatreece’s memory construct, how are you? i’m fine, thanks. please, no, don’t trouble yourself. saving you was no trouble at all. have a seat.”

“just call me reece,” vatreece said, dropping into the indicated chair with a snort. “on the way here, i decided the warden is dead. i’m part her, part you, and part i don’t fucking know what, so reece will do. she always hated that name, and it should help me create some mental distance.” she considered him with a smirk, toying with the platinum plate dangling from her neck before removing it and tossing it across the desk. “there, that’s yours now, warden. how can this helpless prisoner serve?”

“no mind games,” rain said, inspecting the plate briefly after he caught it. it looked like the silver watch plates he was familiar with but with more engraving and a golden border. he set it on the desk and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “let me be perfectly clear about this, reece. you are not a prisoner. out the door, take a left to the shuttle station, and there, you can catch a ride to the nearest airlock. i’m sure you know what the system will do to you if you leave my soul, but if that’s a road you want to walk down, that’s your business.”

“ha! suggesting i off myself?” reece inclined her head toward dozer. “you’re even angrier than he was.”

“i did not suggest that,” rain said tiredly. “again, no mind games. all i said was that i wouldn’t stop you.” he shifted his gaze to dozer. “dozer, zero and cloud are outside with meloni. thanks for guarding our guest, but it’s just going to be a lot of bickering now. if you want to go play, feel free.”

“so what do you suggest? how do we deal with the bank if we can’t touch them?”

“work with luna and take it slow,” reece said with a shrug. “the devil you know and all that. you make him money, you make the bank money. he’ll know how to toe the line and who to pay off. the top three will be happy so long as they get their cut.” she took a sip of her coffee, then gestured with the mug. “as an aside, good work on ascension’s codes in that specific regard. it’s much harder to stamp out corruption once it’s taken root. i would know.”

rain nodded. “i do want to talk to you about politics and the watch situation, but we’ll get to that in a moment. velika is a more pressing problem, if only because she’s in my face. she’s not going to tolerate sitting around much longer, and i can’t get her to go to therapy. i’ve tried. she needs an outlet.”

“remember, you brought this on yourself,” reece said, pausing to suck her teeth. “well, if you want missions for your leashed maniac, i should be able to give you a few suggestions. the depths, for one, but i assume you already thought of that.”

“i did. we don’t have a good way to get her there. if we send her to the great delving, she’ll cause an international incident if someone so much as looks at her funny. there’s the crack near vestvall, but that’s on the wrong side of an ocean and deep in enemy territory. tallheart knows a few spots we might try across ekrustia, but those all have the same problem as vestvall. you wouldn’t happen to know of a secret, unclaimed access point on this continent, would you? or of any lairs just lying around in the wilderness for the taking?”

reece snorted. “no, nothing unclaimed. accessible, though?” she raised a hand, counting on her fingers. “first, there’s etter’s gap in sadiir. rank twenty-five at the bottom and owned by mercs who don’t care who you are so long as you can pay. second, the...the...shit, what was the name? the something pass. stupid memories. anyway, it’s in the azure range. there are chasms at rank nineteen, and they’re open to anyone who flashes a guild plate or is motivated enough to climb over a few mountains. there’s also the thunder chain off the eastern coast of nov. most of the caves are flooded and are thus a complete pain in the ass, but some of them go all the way to rank forty. the novians don’t patrol them nearly as often as they claim. that’s three. pick one. oh, and there’s also brightside, but you know about brightside.”

“i have other plans for brightside,” rain said, working to contain his excitement. he drew essence from the tap, shaping it into a notebook. “if you’ve got more spots, even if they’re only rank one, write them down.”

“sure, sure,” reece said, folding her arms. “missions for the masses. full disclosure, it might take me a while. i’m still working to sort out my memory. it’s like an audiobook on shuffle in here.”

“of the three places, which—“

“can’t tell you,” reece interrupted as he placed a ballpoint pen beside the notebook for her. “they have their pros and cons. scout them, talk it over with your advisers, let her pick; i don’t care. any of them will keep her busy.”

“right, more important things,” rain said, controlling himself. “thank you.”

“never say i’m unwilling to earn my keep,” reece said, flicking the potential spigot with a finger. “can i get one of these in my house?”

“done,” rain said, though of course he would keep an eye on how much she drew. he took a moment to consider what to cover next, holding hands over his eyes before dropping them and scooting his chair forward. “okay, now that you’re caught up, i’ll ask again. what’s the most important issue i need to tackle first?”

reece nodded. “you need to pick a side.”

“a watch faction?” rain asked, guessing her meaning.

“yes,” reece said. “specifically, you need to pick nem’s side, and not so he can help you, but so you can help him. a custodian’s influence won’t mean much, but it’s better than nothing. the fact that he hasn’t already brought the other guardians in line concerns me. of the three, he’s the only choice.”

“why? annerlain seems okay, from what i’ve heard.”

“annerlain is a moron who’d see us wage open war against the entire world in the name of saving it. he’s like you, but worse. an idealist without a plan. as for olicia, don’t let her conviction fool you. she is a greedy, power-mad, scheming piece of shit who’ll say anything to get what she wants. she’d keep the watch together, but it wouldn’t be the watch by the time she was done with it. nem may be a traditionalist and a hardass, but he knows what the watch is supposed to be.”

“what about guardian tanergal? sana says he’s popular with the younger officers.“

“tanergal?” reece laughed. “tanergal doesn’t know his ass from...his ass from... damn it! anyway, hells, you know more about the soul than tanergal.”

“is that a requirement?” rain asked. “so olicia, nem, and annerlain all—“

“know more than you do, yes, as do burrik and those other ‘monsters’ of xiugaaraa. anyone with any real power does, to varying degrees, and you’d do well to keep your damn mouth shut about just how far you’ve come. until you can stand with them as equals, you will play dumb, do you hear me? under no circumstances will you tell any of them that i’m riding along in your skull. maybe, maybe, nem, but not until you gain his trust.”

“i wasn’t planning on telling anyone anything,” rain said. “so, nem, then. how do i get to vigilance to talk to him?”

“you get yourself invited,” reece said, resting her hand on the notebook. “i’ll have a think about it and ghostwrite you a letter. ghostwrite, get it? because i’m a ghost?”

“i got it,” rain said. “it’s really weird to hear you use expressions like that, by the way.”

“know what’s weirder?” reece asked, finishing off her despoiled coffee. “having to remove ‘mordor’ from the list of dangerous places i gave you earlier after struggling to sort out whether it was real or not.”

“i can see how that would be a problem,” rain said. “do you want to talk about it, or...?”

“no,” reece said.

“okay then,” rain said. “in that case, did i hear you say you know how i can raise my cap?”

“did i say that?” reece asked, smirking at him.

“yes. did you mean, like, without a blue?”

“ah, ah, ah,” reece said, wiggling a finger at him. “priorities, custodian. i do know a way to do exactly that, but it’s slow and dangerous. remember, if you die, i die. lending nem your aid comes first. deal with that, and then we’ll see.”

damn it.

“looks like we’re done here,” reece said, picking up the notebook and getting to her feet. “i’ve got a letter to write and a brain to unscramble, and you’ve got an ex-citizen to distract. how do i call you when i’m done?”

“i’ll make you a phone,” rain said, getting to his feet as well. “hold on a second. i want to ask a few more—”

“nope,” reece said, turning for the door. “we’ll be here all day if i let you set the pace, and you know it.” the door hissed open at her approach, which was good, as she’d have crashed straight into it otherwise.

“ha, knew you wouldn’t lock it,” she said, pausing in the doorway. she lingered there for a moment more, then gave him a single, sharp nod. “thank you for saving me.”

“you’re welcome,” rain said, but she’d already walked away.