He Who Fights with Monsters 9

2

“Sit anywhere,” Jason said as they entered a casual lounge inside the cloud structure. “I’m not really the conference table type.”

The lounge, like most of the pagoda, was designed in such a way that the room had a flow leading out to an open wall balcony terrace. This particular room was made up of undisguised cloud substance rather than being masked as more ordinary material. The sprawling layout of plush couches and armchairs fell outside of the meeting etiquette that Rick and Liara were familiar with, so while they looked around for the most appropriate place to sit, Jason moved behind the bar.

After taking out a selection of fruit and two magical wands, Jason started waving the wands like a slightly confused orchestra conductor, and the fruit rose into the air. After wobbling in place for a moment, the fruit peeled, sliced, pulped and juiced itself into a pitcher. Liara and Rick gave up on finding appropriate seats for the moment to watch.

“I could be better at this, I know,” he apologised. “It’s something I picked up while I was recovering to practise my mana control. I know a guy who’s way better at this than me, but he probably wouldn’t be great at saving the world. We all have our areas.”

He paused, frowning.

“Wow, that was really braggadocious. Am I a braggart? When did I start bragging about things I’ve actually done instead of making crazy stuff up? Oh yeah; my life caught up with the most ridiculous things I could think of. Damn, I’m great.”

Jason flashed his guests a grin as he resumed moving the wands. He

finished the pitcher of blended fruit drink with a bundle of ice cubes that floated in on their own, and then came out from behind the bar, looking at Rick and Liara standing around.

“Couldn’t find a seat?”

With a sweep of Jason’s arm, all the furniture outside of the bar area sank into the floor. Three chairs then emerged from the floor, spaced equally around a low, circular table. Jason plonked down into one of them and the others sat down after.

“I think you forgot the drinks,” Rick pointed out. “Crap, thanks.”

Jason reached out with his aura, grabbing the pitcher of juice and three glasses, floating them across the room and onto the table. Liara was able to sense the aura he projected to do so and looked at him, wide-eyed.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Jason told her. “This is pretty much how it always goes. I almost die, come out of it with some weird new power, and a god or some other ridiculous thing shows up. The order changes around, but it’s a pretty reliable pattern.”

He filled the glasses from the pitcher.

“No exciting ingredients, just fruit. Bit early in the day, yeah?”

Jason leaned back in his seat and sipped at his drink, waiting for the others to talk. Rick was waiting for Liara to speak first, but she was looking around the room.

“Your cloud building has changed,” she said. “I don’t mean the shape; that’s normal cloud house stuff. I mean whatever is under the surface. It feels different. Focused, somehow. Solid.”

“I made some changes,” Jason acknowledged.

“How bad would it be? If someone came for you here?” “For me? Not so bad. For them? Depends on who it was.” Jason’s gaze turned to Rick.

“I have to apologise,” he said. “I didn’t realise you were still in town. I thought you went back north after the Builder abandoned the Sea of Storms.”

“I had intended to be gone,” Rick told him. “You remember my sister Phoebe, yes? She’s on my team but had to stay home to deal with family issues. I don’t like having the team split up and wanted to head home, but we were instructed to stay. Didn’t Neil tell you? He and Dustin have been spending plenty of time together since then.”

“No, he didn’t.”

Jason looked to Liara, then back at Rick.

“Let me guess: the Adventure Society roped you in so I’d actually take a meeting, and then Princess Adventure Pants here turned up, right as you were about to set out. The royal family ‘convinced’ the Adventure Society to let their local representative tag along, given that I’ve been willing to meet with her before.”

Rick gave Liara a panicked look at ‘Princess Adventure Pants,’ his eyes desperately trying to communicate that he wasn’t responsible for Jason.

“I’m very familiar with Mr Asano’s way of conducting himself,” Liara assured him. “And yes, Mr Asano; that is a more or less accurate description.”

She reached forward, took a glass and sipped at it, nodding appreciatively.

“Not bad. But we have to talk about this,” she said, gesturing with her glass.

“We have to talk about the juice?”

“More what the juice represents,” Liara said. “That is the gist of what you were sent to propose, was it not, Mr Geller?”

“Uh, yes,” Rick confirmed. “Basically, Jason, everyone would be more comfortable with your level of prominence going down for the immediate future.”

“Precipitously down,” Liara added.

Jason looked at the juice Liara was holding, his mind ticking over what she had meant. Then a huge grin spread over his face.

“I’m in,” he said.

“We haven’t even told you what the Adventure Society is proposing,” Rick said.

“It’s a secret identity, isn’t it? Jason Asano, scary god-socialiser, leaves his team for parts unknown. Then casual juice enthusiast, Bruce Wayne, joins the team as an auxiliary member in charge of cooking.”

“Something like that,” Liara said. “There will be a lot of details to sort out, but yes. The Adventure Society is proposing the creation of a more discreet legal identity for you to inhabit. You’ll need to be more cautious when working with your team, but it should be manageable. You generally won’t be observed when you’re in the field, fighting monsters. It would help a great deal if your team stayed on the move, taking ordinary contracts.”

“You know that won’t hold up to almost any scrutiny from someone who

knows enough,” Jason pointed out.

“It’s not intended to,” Rick said. “There’s no hiding you from anyone of real influence. The idea is just for you to be a lot less loud for a while. Preferably until you rank up, because the higher your rank, the more that the crazy stuff you get caught up in becomes acceptable.”

“I won’t be ranking up for a long time.”

“The Adventure Society is very open to you spending the next decade or five being nice and quiet,” Rick said.

“Fair enough,” Jason said with a chuckle. “So, barbecue-Jason is roaming around with melodrama-Jason’s now-former team. Where is drama-guy while this is going on?”

“He leaves with His Ancestral Majesty,” Liara said. “With everything he has going on, it’s time for him to go out and see some of the cosmos.”

“Apprenticed to Soramir Rimaros,” Jason said. “Prestigious.” “Obviously, this will work a lot better if your new identity isn’t the only

auxiliary joining your team,” Liara said. “Before she left, your friend Dawn made some arrangements, but we can go over the specifics when we get into the details.”

“The Adventure Society wants you to play up the scary adventurer before you go,” Rick said. “A social event where you will need to be every bit the impressive adventurer, rather than… the other thing.”

“You need to be what people imagine from a man who speaks to gods and great astral beings,” Liara said. “Not the man you actually are when you speak to gods and great astral beings.”

“You got a transcript from the spies floating around, then?” Jason asked. “In fairness, you have to talk to Dominion like that or he won’t give you the time of day. Unless you’re a king or something, I guess. Now that I think about it, maybe I should suck up to him. He might leave me alone then. I should remember to try that.”

Rick was looking at Jason with the wide-eyed expression Jason was starting to think of as the ‘standard Rick.’

“Anyway,” Jason continued. “Don’t show up to the fancy party in shorts and sandals, is what you’re saying.”

“That cloak of yours should do the job nicely,” Liara said.

“You want me to wear the cloak to a social event?” Jason asked. “The Adventure Society is looking for me to go full chuuni, I see. I can do that.”

“I don’t know what chuuni means,” Rick said.

“I think we can figure it out from context,” Liara said. “Mr Geller, since Mr Asano has already agreed—if your earlier acceptance wasn’t merely in jest, Mr Asano?”

“I’m still in; I like this idea. And I did ask you to figure out how to reduce my profile, after all.”

“Then let us take ‘yes’ for an answer and go, Mr Geller. Mr Asano, we’ll discuss the details at a later date.”

“No worries,” Jason said.

“I would appreciate it if any public displays you make from here on out are more of the dramatic Jason and less of the neighbourhood barbecue Jason, if you please,” Liara said.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. Melodrama is kind of my thing.” “Yes, Mr Asano. We’ve noticed.”