2
1967 Words
Matt and Liz met up with Melinda’s team at the Queendom teleporter to find his friends dirty and tired-looking, but they had smiles on their faces.
“What happened to you guys?”
Tara kicked his shin. “You! You kept attacking our encampment and causing a bunch of stress!” She mockingly pouted. “You owe me for that! I lost a lot of points because of you.”
Matt smiled as Liz retorted, “You could have jumped ship when the queendom changed the rules.”
Sam scoffed. “Yeah, and join the losers? At least our side won the real war.”
Matt laughed as the three of them started to bicker and turned to Melinda and Mathew. “So, what are your plans? I hear that you’re going to the boonies as well.”
Mathew half-shrugged. “Apparently. Baxter wants us to meet someone.”
They both looked to Melinda, who looked back at them with a blank face. “I don’t know either. Everyone heard him say the same thing. He was trying to be mysterious.”
Matt didn’t care. It would be nice to travel with them either way.
Before long, it was their turn to teleport to the Queendom’s interplanetary teleporter, and they squeezed in with everyone else attempting to get into the city he was just besieging an hour ago.
Relying on Melinda, they made their way to the much larger teleporter and were quickly transported out. Apparently, with the Queendom’s taking of the Tier 20 planet, the victors rushed to bring in vast quantities of goods and used the teleporter as fast as it could be loaded on the other end.
When they appeared on the other planet, Matt, Liz, and Aster all started sneezing so rapidly and so intensely they gave themselves headaches.
Melinda patted Aster, who seemed to have it worse, and covered her face with a cloth mask. Everyone else had already brought out face coverings.
“Sorry, we forgot to warn you. We looked it up after hearing from others in the Queendom. This place has pollen that is really irritating for a while. It will pass in an hour or so, but it’s rough.”
Matt looked up through tearing eyes and saw that the air was hazy and had a purple tinge to it. It was actually really pretty. Or, it would have been, if he wasn’t attacked by another round of sneezing.
They were escorted off the platform by the workers, and once inside a sealed room, they quickly recovered, and he cursed himself for not using [Cracked Phantom Armor].
Matt grabbed Kyle, who hadn’t stopped smirking, and started jabbing his ribs. “You remembered, didn’t you?”
“Yup!” Kyle said, doing his best to speak while laughing. “That’s— What you get for— Hey!”
Upon hearing that she could have been warned, Aster had frozen his legs solid, causing him to stumble to the ground. There, she pranced onto his chest and yipped at him.
Her AI messages were broadcast for everyone to hear. “That’s not nice. So, I’ll make you ice!”
She seemed inordinately pleased with her rhyme, and the frost started to creep up Kyle’s waist until Matt picked her up.
Sam took Aster and cradled her, loudly whispering, “It’s okay. We can put itching powder in his clothes later. The big meanie.”
Liz glared at him as well before adding in the same faux-quiet voice, “I know of one that lasts for hours.”
Kyle tried to protest, but even his own team was ignoring him.
Now that he had time to observe, Matt found that they had been led into a building for charter ships to the other teleporter. They walked into a private room, dragging Kyle’s still half-frozen form from where they left him on a seat.
After settling him, Matt checked and found a local teleporter, but the price was absurd. For each teleport, it was a Tier 9 mana stone, compared to the Tier 3 mana stone for a luxury suite on the slower spaceships.
“Why does it cost so much money? That’s ridiculous.”
Matt didn’t actually expect anyone to answer him, but a frazzled looking April was suddenly at his side and said, “This is a Tier 2 planet. Mana is at a premium if they want to Tier the planet up in any reasonable amount of time. Teleporters are hungry things and eat a lot of mana. The Tier 9 mana stone is more a deterrent than anything else. It costs way more mana to activate the formation, but few are willing to pay it. If too many people start paying, they’ll increase the price.”
Everyone was looking at her, and she waved. “I’m April. Liaison for their management team.” She pointed at Matt, Liz, and Aster.
She turned back to Matt and flicked a finger at him. “This is the destination Luna wants you to go to. I’ve set a travel plan for you. It’s not a rush, but you don’t really have time to dally, either. Two larger stops because of teleportation timings, but as long as you follow this, you should be able to travel in comfort.”
Matt was reviewing the plan and complained, “These are all luxury travel plans. I can’t afford this.” He paused to ask, “Can I?”
April just blinked at him. “Yes? Yes, you can. It’s not even that expensive. But, more importantly, there are millions of people trying to get out of Queendom territory or returning home to said territory. The cheaper accommodations are booked for months.”
Mathew opened his mouth and raised a finger, but April answered, “Yes, those plans included you all. Baxter asked me to schedule for you as well.”
She peered at all of them with a raised eyebrow. “Questions? Comments? Concerns?” Seeing them silent, she continued, “Good. Then, I’m off. I won’t see you at your destination unless things go really well on my end.”
The woman looked ready and was fading away when Liz asked, “What are you doing?”
April reappeared and quickly said, “Setting up your next travel plans. This war was supposed to last a lot longer, giving me more time before our initial meeting, but Luna wanted us all to meet you first. I’m the new girl, so I get to do the grunt work. Luna wants half a dozen people to spend time with you all in just the next few years.” She sighed. “Anything else? I really need to get going.”
When Liz shook her head, April vanished.
Melinda asked, “What do we owe you for the transportation cost? I didn’t plan for that.”
At the same time, Vinnie asked, “Who was she?” His eyes lingered on where her lower half had been, and he kept blinking.
Sam reached out to slap him while Melinda did the same. He dodged the attacks with practiced ease.
Matt tried to think back and realized he had never actually explained to them about the management team.
“Well, because of my abilities, we were investigated and got the option to toughen up The Path with a personal trainer. Their job is to ensure we don’t slack off.”
Seeing Melinda’s entire team wince at the mention of slacking off, Matt rushed ahead. “So that was April. The liaison for the other two. I guess we won’t be seeing her as much as I thought.”
Vinnie made a sad noise before dodging two more slaps.
Melinda straightened up. “As interesting as that is…” She smiled before continuing, “And congratulations, that sounds really important— I don’t want charity. We can reimburse you for anything she charges you.”
Matt looked back to the travel plans that said the tickets for the entire travel were already paid for.
He relayed that to everyone’s confusion.
Liz offered, “We have to pay somehow. We’re still on The Path and can’t get free things.” She flicked through her own AI, judging by the rapid movement of her eyes. “Ah, here it is. Oh. Oh!”
She laughed. “Matt, check your training regimen.”
Not knowing that he could do that, Matt checked.
Time charging mana stones owed: seventeen days.
Matt opened his mouth but clicked it shut.
He laughed to Melinda. “Well, unless you want to donate to the mana fund that I’m apparently responsible for, you can’t really pay for it.”
Tara offered, “We have some mana stones. If the conversion cost is the same, we can pay for ourselves.”
Matt did the math and shot back, “Unless you have a Tier 25 mana stone, no. Apparently, I’m paying with my mana, and it’s dirt cheap.”
Liz actually nodded at that. “I can see that actually. The reason mana stones are worth so much is because they don’t change size. For your mana, it’ll take a butt load of storage to fit all that. I bet Luna has something in mind.”
Mathew still objected. “It doesn’t seem fair. We don’t want charity. We want to shore up our weaknesses and stand on our own.”
He looked between Melinda and Matt. “And to not rely on anyone’s Talent.”
Matt shrugged while sitting back in the chair. “I really don’t know what you can do. This is something that will only cost me a few weeks out of our travels. I can have it paid off before we even reach the halfway mark if I donate for six hours a day. We’re going to be traveling for a while.”
Kyle, who was thawing out, said, “Yeah. Jokes aside, this feels wrong. We aren’t here for free rides.”
Eventually, they accepted the trip, as there was little else they could do but get left behind to deal with the masses of people trying to leave the Tier 6 planet. It took some light bickering and explanation of all parts, but they all agreed they would pay their own way after this.
Matt really didn’t mind, but kept his mouth shut. He understood, but his Talent was paying for it, making it feel free.
Only a few hours later, they boarded a massive flying ship that soared through the sky, nearing the outer atmosphere to increase speeds. It was still slow, but Matt really didn’t want to be outside in the pollen-riddled air. Especially after having to use [Cracked Phantom Armor] for the majority of the time he had been stuck on that golem and war-infested planet. It was as annoying as it was pretty.
Their rooms were amazing. Matt and Liz had a massive shower and tub combo that they relaxed in until they were pruney and cold.
They had planned for a dinner with Melinda’s team, but their messages had gone unanswered, and Matt suspected they were as tired as he was.
The war had its downtime, sure, but the stress of never knowing if an assassin was going to attack you, even in the neutral city, meant that everyone was always on alert. It was exhausting in a way he hadn’t realized until the need for it was gone.
Add onto that the stress of leading the last of the kingdom troops against internal opposition, and Matt just really wanted to sleep.
He was lying in bed with Liz and Aster when he had the feeling that someone was watching him.
That sent a spike of adrenaline, which fully woke him up and startled Liz.
- Writer
