“Oh.” Vindal leaned back into his chair as he took the images in. “Shit.”

  “Indeed.”

  Trivy, Archmage of Transmutation and Minister of the Economy, frowned as she leaned forward.

  “Are those...airships?”

  “They are,” said Jaika, Archmage of Alchemy and Minister of Trade, before looking at Maes straight in the eye. “These images, they’re from Rebirth, aren’t they?”

  Maes nodded.

  “Yes. From our diplomatic mission there as well as...other assets.” Spies, of course, but a certain level of decorum was expected of him. Besides, it was hard to say it out loud when he’d spent his career speaking in double entendre and dancing around the illegal aspects of his job. “This appears to be a new fleet from the dungeon core.”

  “...Oh stars.” Trivy turned towards Vindal. “Is it bad?”

  “Very. That’s one of Crystal’s siege ships. Plus three escort cruisers.” He pointed at the different images. “I think that’s a couple of those reconnaissance carriers we’ve heard about, and then a full squadron of her corvettes and frigates.” He looked at Maes. “Do we know their destination yet?”

  “No, unfortunately.”

  Vindal grimaced.

  “Well, fuck. If they’re heading for us...” The Minister of War shook his head. “Things are about to go sideways, hard.”

  THIRTEEN

  First Landing Bay, Royal Capital of Sapphire City

  Archmage Council Spire

  “Can’t we fight them off?” Trivy asked.

  “Do we even want to?” Maes answered, as Vindal opened his mouth. Everyone stared at him as he shrugged and steepled his fingers. “Rebirth has no quarrel with us. The only reason the archduchess would come in our direction is to deal with the UDC and Tivaro.”

  “...I’m starting to see why you didn’t want our colleagues here for this,” Trivy said slowly.

  “Yes. Because we all know what our beloved Archmage of Life Ulvi would say. ‘The United Dungeon Council is a trusted ally and a vital part of our internal stability and agricultural production. Any action endangering our relationship with it is simply not something we should remotely contemplate.’” Vindal looked like he was going to spit, before deciding better of it. “So she’d advise we become doormats.”

  “As much as I hate to say it, she has a point.” Trivy rubbed her forehead. “If we pick a fight with the cores, our agriculture collapses, and then what?”

  “We don’t get freaking ground into the dust like Sunrise did.” Vindal leaned forward. “Fact is, we couldn’t fight Sunrise off. Even when they were fighting the crown, we only did raids. What the hell makes you think we can stand in the way of the dungeon core who completely annihilated them? Huh? Do you want to see what’ll happen if those ‘Mackies’ of hers march on Southmarch? I don’t!”

  “Vindal, calm down,” Maes said. “Your points are valid, but getting rowdy won’t help with the situation.” He glanced at Jaika, who was staying silent, scribbling notes and...doing calculations? “What are your thoughts, my dear?”

  “How certain are we these ships are heading north?” the Minister of Trade said, not even looking up from her notebook.

  “I’m sorry?”

  Jaika sighed, and lowered her notebook, glaring at the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

  “How do we know they’re coming for us?” She flipped the notebook, filled with equations and notes none of them could make heads or tails of, even as she tapped the different parts as she talked. “Right now, we’re not their primary problem, and neither is the UDC. They have to stabilize and rebuild all the territory Sunrise ravaged, and a fleet won’t help with that. We aren’t impeding the trade route that is the entire reason the archduchy even exists. But south? It may be flowing around the corks, but the senate and the Republic are still clogging it pretty badly.”

  “What makes you think the trade route is their absolute priority?” Maes asked.

  “Because if it wasn’t, Crystal wouldn’t have made her ‘branch offices’ in Darthar and Erakis, nor wrestled both from her allies as her first priority.” She flipped the notebook back, and began scribbling again.

  “So you think she’s just going to...ignore the UDC?” Vindal’s disbelief was clear for those who knew him.

  “Why not?” The Minister of Trade shrugged, not even pausing her writing. “They sure didn’t seem to do much except die screaming and run away.”

  Vindal opened his mouth, and closed it, clearly trying—and failing—to find any counterarguments.

  “She has a point,” Trivy said, relief visible on her face. Which was no surprise. When war came, and the costs began to pile up, her ministry was the first to suffer...and the second most convenient scapegoat to lose face—or their head—in the aftermath. “We’re not the issue, and the UDC hasn’t exactly covered itself with glory.”

  “While that may be true, there was a second reason I brought you all here.” Vindal took a deep breath. “I have acquired considerable evidence that Rebirth is about to begin a summit. A summit with plenipotentiary representatives from the Asarian Kingdom, the New Republic, the mountain clans of the Far Reach, the Tarkian Hegemony, as well as observers from Gorromar.”

  “That’s...” Trivy swallowed. “That’s everyone on the continent.”

  “Except for us,” Vindal said. That was ignoring the old Republic, of course, but...well, their days were numbered, at best. “They’re about to do something big. Question is what?”

  Maes leaned forward.

  “I have it on good authority that the Asarian Kingdom is planning to cede Kaidan and Lorenz to Rebirth.”

  Vindal blinked, then his face went white.

  “Oh fuck. The New Republic’s about to give them the north?”

  “It seems the most probable outcome.” Maes closed his eyes. “Which means our age-old nightmare has, at last, come to pass. The Asarian Kingdom is about to access the south of the continent.”

  “They did the second Rebirth popped into the picture.” Vindal sighed. “But I see what you mean. Damn it.”

  “How is that...bad?” Trivy asked, and Jaika spoke up.

  “With total control of the trade route, the Kingdom’s capabilities will improve exponentially. Their technological stasis has been broken by Rebirth. Now all they require is an industrially developed nation to kickstart the process. With the north of the Republic under their control, they will have a direct access to the Tarkian Hegemony, and de facto control of Gorromar economically. With the reputation increase and popularity from destroying Sunrise and ending their depredations, not to mention becoming the only possible raw material supplier for Gorromar, they will be able to leverage a massive amount of economic and then military potential.” She looked up from her notebook. “That is, of course, not counting Crystal and Rebirth’s own already impressive contributions to both.”

  “And since we’re not in the summit...”

  “It means we’re on the menu,” Vindal finished.

  “Fuck.” The Minister of the Economy leaned back into her seat. “We’re screwed, aren’t we?”

  “I hope not. But part of my solution is why I have gathered you here today. Our objective, ladies and gentlemen, is to find a way to not get devoured by Rebirth as it marches north.”

  “Great. That’s not a tall order at all,” Trivy said, her voice dripping with irony. “What could we even offer them? We have no leverage.”

  “Maes, stop beating around the bush.” Vindal leaned forward. “We do have one, single piece of leverage. The one and only thing we can offer Rebirth and its psychotic leaders is Tivaro.”

  “Yes.” Maes looked at them, meeting their gaze in turn, even Jaika looking up from her notes in shock. “We’re here to discuss how we can sell the UDC out so we don’t get annihilated for being between Crystal and her target. And do so without the rest of the council throwing us to the wolves for discussing it. So, any ideas?”

  “You know, this really isn’t what I expected us to use all that hard work for,” Ghost said, staring at the fusion reactor. “I spent...so long tracking down these things and getting them working again.”

  “I promised CQ sunlight. She will get some sunlight.” Alexandra smiled at Ghost’s eye roll. “I know, I know, might have been able to use mirrors, but then what? Direct way for someone to look in and see my daughter taking a swim, among other things. Hell no. And anything else wouldn’t have been truly sunlight.”

  “Well, you’re the boss.” Ghost stretched. “I’ll admit, it’ll be good to lie down for a while, relax.”

  “Yeah. I think some downtime will do us all some good.”

  “And then some.”

  “Oh, and I hope you know that if you tell Emilia about what Arcadia used to do at the beach, I’m giving you concrete shoes and giving you the great dip, right?”

  Ghost froze.

  “I...yes, of course.”

  Alexandra smiled, clapping her hands.

  “Great! Good to know we’re on the same wavelength.”

  “Right. Uh...do you intend to invite Allya and Pyn?”

  The dungeon core frowned.

  “I was thinking of keeping it in-house, but...” She grimaced. “They probably could use a break, too. Maybe even Trira. Poor woman barely started putting together an intelligence agency, and now she’s having a trial by fire with the summit.”

  “Nothing like learning on the job.”

  “I’d rather it not be potentially at the expense of the representatives.”

  “Right. Might beef her up with some reinforcements.”

  “I’m sure she’ll appreciate them.”

  Alexandra nodded.

  “I’d be amazed if she didn’t. Alright, while my conscience is clear for having worked on this relaxation thingy for a bit, how are things going?”

  “Got the fuel siphons working, you know, for that plan we had to go grab the helium-3 from the wrecks around the city?”

  Alexandra nodded. The project was supposed to have been ready a while back, but they’d run into issues with the siphons and fuel transfer equipment. As in “Oh wow, that gas is stored at incredible pressure” and “Those valves were NOT made to dump fuel into anything short of a mithril-lined pipe and our golem is now in tiny pieces across the room.”

  Thankfully, that wasn’t in the field, as they had access to the exact same valves and equipment due to the Flickerlight’s databanks. Interesting that the Sagittarius Empire had seemed to use the same standardized hardware, a thousand years into the Great Night.

  “Right. You’ll be ready to start soon, then?”

  “Yep. Though don’t expect large quantities. We’ve made a lot of progress, but the stealth golems aren’t what I’d call spacious in terms of cargo capacity, even with my stealthed fuel tanks.”

  “Any is better than none. Even if it’s super expensive to make through my dungeon powers, having it available to power up the Flickerlight and some of our designs will help a ton.”

  “Can’t argue with that.” Ghost sighed, rubbing her neck. “Welp, back to the salt mines. Just make sure I get a bikini for the beach episode, right?”

  Alexandra snickered.

  “I’m sorry, ‘beach episode’?”

  “Yeah! Every franchise has to have one. Preferably with plenty of bikinis and fan service.”

  “If someone ‘fan services’ my daughter, no one will find what is left of their body.”

  “Agreed. But don’t you dare tell me you’re not looking forward to seeing Emilia in a new bikini, hmm?”

  “Well, I...”

  “Or have her peel off y—Mmmhhh!”

  Alexandra glared at the apparition, her hand firmly on her other self’s mouth.

  “Salt mines. Go.”

  Ghost chuckled, but threw a mock salute before vanishing in a swirl of particles of light.

  Alexandra sighed. Sometimes she was envious of how her other self could just...move around like that.

  “I guess I should probably get some more stuff done as well,” she mumbled to herself. “Where did I put the schematics for the third floor’s water features again? Damn it, I should redo my indexing system.”

  TO-DO LIST UPDATED

  “Yes, yes, I get it.” Someday she’d update that software.

  Someday.

  Allya blinked as she heard the buzzer, and tapped her desk, Camille’s hologram appearing above it.

  “Hello, milady! My apologies to disturb you, but a few old friends would like a few minutes of your time.”

  “Old friends?” The archduchess tilted her head before smiling as an image appeared. “Oh! Of course, show them in.”

  “Very well, milady.”

  Allya tidied up her desk before speaking up as someone knocked on the door.

  “Please, come in!” Allya said, smiling as Valker opened the door, letting the small party of adventurers into her office. “Raika, and company! It’s good to see you guys! How have you been?”

  “Pretty good,” the party leader said, as she shook the archduchess’ proffered hand. “Thanks to you in large part, Your Grace.”

  “Argh, please, dispense with the formalities. I’m already being crushed under the weight of protocol. I’d rather not add more.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “So.” She gestured for them to take their seat before sitting back down herself. “What can I do for you, my friends?”

  “We’ve been...thinking about things, what we wanted to do.” The party leader sighed. “And we came to a conclusion. We’re going to move out.”

  Allya blinked.

  “Oh.” She leaned back, her mind reeling. Crap, crap, crap, how was Alexandra going to react to that? “Are you sure?”

  Raika held up her hands.

  “I’m not calling your hospitality into question, milady! You’ve been extremely generous. No, it’s just that...there are things we’ve all agreed we need to do. Things that, in fact, we would like you to help us with.”

  “Well, that’s not ominous at all.” Allya’s smile fell as she saw the young woman’s grave expression. “Sorry. What is it? What can I help you with?”

  “Do you promise to keep it to yourself?”

  “Within the bounds of it not being of critical importance to myself or my sworn allies, yes.”

  Raika hesitated, and sighed.

  “That’s about as good as I’m gonna get out of you, isn’t it?”

  “If I didn’t add those provisions in, would I really be someone whose word you’d trust?”

  “No. No, I guess not.” Raika sighed again, closing her eyes, and took in a deep breath as she opened them, her gaze meeting Allya’s and her tone deadly serious. “Archduchess Allya Nouvelle-Aurore, I formally request your assistance in mounting a search and rescue expedition for the extradimensional Alexandra Rousseau, who was kidnapped two years ago in the western baronies.”

  FOURTEEN

  Red Sands Desert, Archduchy of Rebirth

  City of Rebirth

  Allya simply stared in slack-jawed astonishment for several seconds before she regained the ability to speak.

  “I—What?!?”

  “We need your help, Allya. With the brands destroyed...if she was being kept prisoner, it’ll be a lot harder to contain her now.” Raika smiled. “Believe me, she’s tough. So this is our best chance to find her.”

  She’s a lot tougher than you would ever believe, thought Allya.

  “So you want to mount a rescue mission?”

  She had trouble keeping the hysterical edge out of her voice. Alex didn’t need a rescue. Her enemies did. Those that still lived, anyway. Which wasn’t that many. That woman didn’t seem to understand the concept of “appropriate level of force,” only “overkill.”

  “Yes, that’s the gist of it. A heavily armed rescue mission. If possible, I’d also like to requisition some of the Void Blade prisoners, especially their leader. I know they have refused to talk, but perhaps some of the lower-ranking members’ memories will refresh once taken away from the rest...and their leader may be more amenable to a compromise after everything that has happened.”

  “That’s not up to me. If you want to negotiate the release of the prisoners, it’ll have to be with Crystal.”

  Raika nodded, undeterred.

  “Of course! Could you arrange a meeting?”

  Allya’s mind raced.

  “Certainly. I think she’ll be...interested in your little project.”

  To say the least.

  “Great! Thank you!” Raika and the rest of her party smiled. “We’ll get out of your hair then. You know where to find us!”

  “That I do. Have a good day!”

  “You too!”

  Allya watched them leave before slamming her fist through an illusion and straight onto a good old red button, the door instantly locking and all manner of security systems slamming into place as a hologram popped up above the desk.

  “Seraph here, what’s the emergency?”

  “I need to talk to Alex, right the fuck NOW!”

  “You heated the water?” Emilia said as she pulled her feet back from the lapping waves.

  “Yep!” Alexandra smiled as she stood by her girlfriend’s side, trying not to stare at her...and failing.

  She wasn’t going to admit it to anyone, but it had taken her a solid five minutes after seeing her new bikini to be able to put any form of coherent sentence out.

  Of course, the vampire took advantage of it shamelessly.

  “That seems a bit frivolous, no?”

  “Well, the advantage of fully controlling the environment, due to it being artificial to begin with, means I can do frivolous things like that. Besides, it’s more of a sandy pool than anything.”

  “True, true. It really feels like seawater, too.”

  “That was surprisingly easy to replicate once I, uh...” Alexandra suffered a software failure as Emilia bent over to put her hands in the water, before smiling over her shoulder at her girlfriend.

  “Yes, dear?”

  “I, ah, I got some samples.”