Chapter 32: The Party

Apocalypse Redux

As it turned out, Mount Olympus was big.

And not just in the sense of it being the biggest goddamn volcano in the solar system.

No, the thing that was tripping up Derek at right that moment was the sheer number of buildings he’d never seen before. Incidentally, the “grand ballroom” was clear on the opposite side of the crater from where Isaac had built his home, as far from it as physically possible, and in a position where nothing meant for habitation could see it, or be seen from it.

In fact, he strongly suspected that it had been built because his older brother hadn’t had a choice, and that it almost never got used.

But apparently, his grand return had necessitated some kind of party?

In theory, that made sense to Derek, yet his older brother had never bothered to throw a full-on ball in the past. Why now?

He nervously adjusted the sleeve of the three-piece suit he’d been provided for the occasion. The style wasn’t entirely foreign to him, but it wasn’t something he normally wore. Especially not one like his current outfit, which had probably cost as much as a destroyer, and was tougher than any armor he owned, a “normal” cut made from materials that were of the absolute highest quality without being obnoxiously expensive … they were expensive, just not obvious and gauche. Or so the tailor Isaac had sent him to had said.

Derek had no idea how true the fashion part of that was, but it had a certain ring of truth, especially within the context of Isaac being known to wear simple clothes made from the best materials.

Also, the outfit wasn’t covered in gold or encrusted with diamonds, so there was that.

Mimi, meanwhile, had gone in the opposite direction, with a simpler blue dress in the same shade as the inside of the Dragonfly, leaving Derek to suspect she’d chosen the color in both cases, still well-made, but designed to be acceptable in as many situations as possible. Might be frugality, but knowing her, it was probably more a matter of not wanting to have to go through the bother of having to get another for a good long while.

Not that that was a bad thing, Derek himself was quite glad he had a formal outfit for all occasions now, even if there was a distinct risk of getting robbed for it on the wrong world …

Either way, if any of them found themselves worried about what they were wearing, it was far too late now, because the shuttle that had picked them up in front of the Mars branch of Akashik Academy had just landed and was now letting them exit onto the vast terrace outside the ballroom.

The shuttle waited until they’d all stepped off before flashing back into the sky in a matter of seconds, accelerating at a pace that would have produced lethal g-forces without magical intervention.

“I guess we head in,” Derek suggested.

It wasn’t like they’d been issued invitations, or there was a doorman collecting the same, just an open pair of grand doors, showing a large hall already half-full of people dressed to the nines.

Oh, there were also a whole lot of other “normal” party things, like a buffet that took up the entirety of one wall, a band playing what might have been jazz in the corner, and a whole lot of people conversing behind what were obviously a genuinely absurd number of privacy [Skills], overlapping and interfering in a way that rendered the whole affair oddly silent, aside from the music.

“Seems stuffy,” Ye-in sighed.

Derek nodded, then took a second to think about the best way to phrase what he was about to say next, considering that just about everyone in that room would be able to hear everything he said.

“Isaac invited us here for a reason. I’m guessing there’s something we can do here, even if it’s just paying attention.”

Stating out loud that this was some kind of “lesson” for them might be taken badly.

And with a deep breath, he began to stride forward with a sense of purpose he decidedly did not feel … only to almost collide with a blond man who’d been striding in the other direction, paying attention to something happening on the other side of the room, yet before they actually came into contact, the man bent out of the way using a decidedly inhuman motion, contorting away only to turn back to face him a moment later, cocking his head to his side.

“Hi … you’re Isaac’s younger brother, right?” he asked, making Derek hope this guy was actually on a first-name basis with Isaac, rather than just being creepily familiar.

Derek just nodded, slowly.

“Jason North,” the man, er, Jason, held out his hand. “I worked with Isaac a few times, a while back.”

“Never heard of you,” Ye-in commented dryly from the side.

“Wouldn’t say good things about me if you had,” Jason replied with a surprisingly genuine-feeling grin. “[Rogues] are like spies, if people know who you are, you done fucked up.”

Derek finally decided to actually shake the hand that was still being offered, only a single pump up and down, and then pulling his hand back.

“Now, here’s the thing,” Jason announced after he’d returned his attention to Derek. “Isaac’s not the one who made the guest list; he only added to it, he left the rest to the marketing department at Akashik industries. Lots and lots of people here who want connections and favors, and most of them won’t believe you won’t be able to help.”

“Not you?” Derek asked.

“Isaac and I are at the point where trying to figure out who owes who is pointless. Believe me, I’d have skipped the party in a heartbeat if my wife let me.”

And with that, he vanished, as if deleted from reality. He couldn’t have moved at super-speed; that would have been obvious in the crowd, this place was meant to be shielded against teleportation, and invisibility … what the hell would be the point of using it in this situation?

Weird …

Derek decided to make his way to Isaac and ask, which he managed to achieve after an exhausting five minutes of trying to navigate the throng of people that had surrounded his brother.

“Hi,” Isaac began. “By the way, I have an anti-eavesdropping [Skill] up.”

Derek chose not to beat around the bush. “Do you know a guy called ‘Jason North’?”

“Yeah,” Isaac said. “He’s an old friend. I’m guessing he introduced himself?”

Derek nodded.

“Good. [Rogues] with name recognition are terrible rogues.”

“Okay,” Derek said. “Any hints on what this is going to be about?”

“It’s a ‘party’ that’s being attended by a bunch of people who want to further their careers or get trade deals. There’s lots to learn, and not enough time to learn it in. Find some people to talk to or something.”

So, he wasn’t going to make figuring this out easy …

“Have fun,” Isaac told him, and Derek took that as his cue to head off.

***

Watching his younger brother head off, Isaac fought down the urge to sigh.

He had nothing against parties, but parties like this? Parties where you had to watch your every word, where every person you met either wanted something from you, or wanted to figure you out … they were ways to earn political power, but only for those who did not already have it. He did, which automatically meant that a whole lot of people he really didn’t feel like talking to would be trying to catch his attention.

Unfortunately, he’d been away from Earth for long enough that setting something like this up had been practically unavoidable.

Though it would hopefully do Derek some good, too. Especially since many of the people present here would be at least somewhat useful to know.

Also, lucky for Isaac himself, he had invited plenty of friends as well.

“Brooding already, I see,” a voice called from behind him, so he turned to see the familiar face of Amelia Shaw.

She went by Amy, was an S-Ranker with absurdly powerful magic and a terrifying tendency to cut safe distances down to the bone. Granted, she’d never actually hit anyone, a record that would have been impressive even on someone more cautious, considering the sorts of battles they’d been in together, but it was still enough that more than one of their allies had vowed never to step on the same field as her ever again.

He was about to give a proper greeting in turn, but then something new caught his eye …

“Did you give your wedding ring a ball and chain motif?” Isaac asked incredulously.

“Yep,” Amy nodded happily. “Jason and I found it hilarious. Are you really going to stand there with a straight face and tell me you don’t find it funny too?”

“Yeah, it’s hysterical. And Elena would murder me for suggesting it,” Isaac replied.

“I mean, it’s not very romantic …” she agreed. “But we like it.”

Isaac sighed and grinned, doing his best to tune out the rest of the party and pretend it was just the two of them.

Elena might be the love of his life, but the two of them had spent the last five decades together. Right now, the first proper conversation with his best friend after the same amount of time … right now, he didn’t really want to do anything but talk to Amy.

Problem was, they were at a goddamned ball, so the two of them couldn’t just grab Jason and hide on the roof or something.

Come to think of it … where was Jason? He was one of the few people who could reliably hide from him, but normally didn’t resort to that level of secrecy without reason …

“Amy, did you send that no-good husband of yours to dump a bucket of ice water on my head or something?” he asked with a wry grin.

“No, he decided do that himself. And I don’t think it’s going to be ice water. Or a bucket. That’s too plebian a prank,” she shrugged.

Well, that hadn’t taken long. Not even half an hour, and the prank war was back on. He grinned

“By the way, why did no one tell me I had a brother?” Isaac suddenly asked.

Amy winced, earlier levity seemingly forgotten. “Honestly?”

“No, I want you to lie to me,” Isaac replied archly.

“I thought Arthur told you. I’m guessing he thought someone else told you, and the same goes for everyone else who could have reached you, too.”

A reasonable explanation, if an unsatisfying one.

“We need a better system for messages, in case an emergency happens,” Isaac finally said.

“In an actual emergency, you’d probably have been inundated with messages until you burned ‘I know about the emergency’ into the [Round Table] in exasperation,” Amy said. “We’ve never had problems communicating about, uh … emergencies.”

Especially the kinds of things that constituted emergencies for people like them. It wasn’t always “fate of the world” stuff, but even then, it was usually close.

“We should probably start some kind of Voodoo board thing in the [Round Table],” he suggested. “Births, deaths, marriages, that sort of thing. Stick a note to the person’s regalia, anyone who wants to share the same message does the same, only one who gets to remove notes is the person who’s meant to receive them.”

It was a simple solution to a problem that really should have been solved already, but had been completely overlooked.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

The [Round Table] might have started out as a simple [Skill] of Arthur’s, a shared mental meeting space they could surrepticiously communicate through, as well as share the occaisional [Skill], but it had grown quite a bit stronger over time, even being able to turned into a real, phyiscal, space that bridged two points in the universe if given enough power.

It also generated a set of “regalia” for every member and stuck it on the wall. They’d all treated that as mere decoration, with jokes being made about some of the more out-there designs (his own being a broken clock on crossed swords over an ocean of blood), but they were also places inherently linked to individual members. The sort of use he’d just proposed was very much obvious in hindsight.

“Shit,” Amy sighed. “Why didn’t we think of that before?”

“Because no one was ever that out of contact before,” Isaac answered flatly. “But it could have been worse; someone could have died. And now, we have a system for that sort of thing.”

“Least there’s that …” she agreed. “So, what’s the craziest thing you did while you were out there?”

“Punched a World Boss with the intention of actually killing the damn thing,” Isaac shrugged. “Nascent one, anyway.”

“You don’t count meeting the Koinians?” she raised an eyebrow.

“I hit the anti-FTL field they accidentally trapped themselves with, went careening through the solar system, that part was weird. After that … I stayed in the upper atmosphere, listening to conversations until [Omniglot] let me talk to them.”

“Way I hear it, they had orbital defenses shooting at you,” Amy raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, a few people panicked,” Isaac shrugged. “But there were plenty who didn’t, and they were trying to calm things down, then things fully settled, and then I called Arthur over for a ‘proper’ first contact, and everyone involved pretended the first time didn’t happen.”

“And that’s not the craziest thing that happened?” Amy asked.

“I’m used to stupid people doing stupid things,” Isaac shrugged. “People with blue skin … still people.”

Of course, there were more differences than that; they were absurdly tall for a start, but it wasn’t like talking to people who were substantially different from him was some momentous task. Not to mention that certain idiots felt more alien than actual extraterrestrials, sometimes.

He sighed, letting his gaze drift across the crowd once more, though with his [Aura] suffusing the entire room and beyond, he didn’t actually need to turn his head, but looking at stuff directly still felt right, even now.

“Do you think we’re being too manipulative?”

“We’re literally just putting them in the same room as each other and letting the chips fall where they may,” Amy shrugged. “If they like each other, they can do whatever the hell they want; if they don’t, they won’t ever have to talk to each other again.”

“Sure,” Isaac shrugged, then sighed. “This feels weird. I’m more than old enough to be his great-grandfather, what the hell kind of age gap is that between siblings?”

Amy laughed. “Kinda showing your age there, gramps.”

He raised a single eyebrow in question, prompting another chuckle before she provided an answer.

“Think about it: people live for a damn long time, why wouldn’t they spread out having kids?”

“I never said it doesn’t make sense, I said it feels weird,” Isaac rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, ‘cause we’re old,” Amy threw in, earning herself another eyeroll.

“And think about it, people can’t have been more than eighty years older than us when the [System] arrived. Give it a few millennia, and that’s not even going to matter at all. We’re going to be the …”

Amy trailed off to elbow him in the side when he pinched the bridge of his nose. He sighed harder.

***

Somehow, Isaac’s old friend had been the most “normal” conversation with a stranger by a country mile, Derek realized.

“… furthermore, if you were somehow able to get a [Class] related to the position, that would result in a considerable payment …”

He fought down the urge to throw his drink in the face of the speaker, now that all of the subtler “hints” had failed. He’d gotten roped into this mess by not immediately telling the company rep to shove off, and his conscience rebelled at the thought of losing his temper like that.

From there … seriously, what was up with these people? This was the fifth conversation of this sort that he’d had, and being asked to become a company mascot of sorts, giving the impression that his legendary [Class] was only supplementary to the company’s energy drink when it came to monster slaying was, in fact, relatively tame by comparison.

What. The. Fuck. Seriously …

“Oof ...”

Suddenly, Ye-in, who’d left at some point, bumped into the man, the red wine that had just been in her glass stark against his quite suit.

“Oh shit, so sorry,” she hurriedly apologized before vanishing into the crowd, leaving Derek to stiffle a laugh as he made his goodbyes before the man managed to clean off, something he no doubt had a [Skill] or spell for.

Holy … that had been just in time. And certainly a lot more deniable than if he’d chucked his own drink. Also, red wine was a lot harder to ignore than the club soda he’d had in his own glass. But while he’d definitely have to thank Ye-in for the rescue, that should probably wait until that guy was safely out of earshot … back on the Dragonfly should be enough.

“This has been a weird party,” Derek instead said.

“That Jason guy had a point,” Mimi commented, having just returned from the buffet, with half a dozen different chicken-based dishes atop her plate, forcing Derek to swallow down a comment about a “fox in the henhouse.”

Speaking of, the two vulpine ears atop her head lay flat, practically invisible amidst her hair, to the point where Derek would have probably missed them entirely if he hadn’t been aware of the fact that they were there.

He grimaced. She might not technically be a beastkin, Mimi’s race was decidedly fae in origin, but she did share one of their bigger weaknesses, namely, the fact that animalistic features tended to be highly reactive to their mood, and those reactions were usually telling, leaving them with quite a bit of trouble concealing their emotions.

On Mimi, who was no one’s idea of a diplomat, that wasn’t really an issue, though it had apparently caused quite a few issues with people who were expected to have proper control over their bearing, historically speaking.

For example, Germany’s only military S-Ranker was a cat beastkin, quite possibly the most lethal race in existence, combining the murderous ingenuity of humanity with the killing potential of a species sometimes considered to be wandering extinction events when released in a new environment.

The clip in question was actually rather funny, showing Major Braun standing at attention, face calm and placid, doing his best to be the very picture of military dignity during a diplomatic dinner, staring ahead … and yet every time a new dish arrived, the two black cat ears atop his head had quite obviously perked up.

It had been a background image in the original footage, but soon cropped out and blasted across the internet, with all the usual jokes, comments, and memes along for the ride.

Though Derek wasn’t entirely sure why the older generations found cat beastkin so funny. They were born killing machines, and unlike actual cats, they weren’t what he’d call “adorable.”

In summation … old people were weird, cat beastkin were terrifying, and all three members of the Dragonfly’s crew wanted to get the hell out of there.

These people were vultures. Not all of them, not even most of them, but enough. And like that Jason fellow had said, they all believed that Derek was able to help them to a degree he could not … because aside from the fact that he’d started out with a legendary [Class], he hadn’t actually earned much. He certainly didn’t have much more either. There was the Dragonfly, sure, but the ship wasn’t his to do with whatever he wanted, even if there was a good chance he would get away with not heading out.

But because he was in a position to receive help, it seemed far too many lobbyists in this place believed that he had that same kind of money within his own grasp.

Seriously, this “lesson” better be worth it.

Suddenly, a young man who looked enough like Jason that Derek half-thought it was the man stepped out of the crowd, looking harried.

“Pretend to talk to me for like two minutes, please,” he said, glancing over his shoulder.

“Sure,” Derek replied, assuming he knew what was going on here. A “unique icebreaker” from someone pretending to be as fed up with the politicking as he was … or maybe the whole affair was genuine, so the first thing out of his mouth was a question of his own.

“Won’t whoever you’re dodging have heard that?”

“Yep,” the man said. “But they can’t just butt in, even if it’s a pretend conversation. Looks rude, even if everyone who sees knows it’s all pretend.”

If that was true, high society was weird. Though that wasn’t exactly “news.” So it probably was, in fact, true.

“What’s your name?” Derek asked.

“Atticus. Uh … Atticus Shaw,” the guy introduced himself.

“I’m Derek Thoma, that’s Ye-in Nan …” he glanced around, realizing that Mimi had once again disappeared. Good for her?

“Your older brother dragged you here, too?” Atticus asked.

“First time,” Derek admitted. When he’d been younger, he’d been lucky enough to be, well, young, avoiding shit like this, and while he’d been studying, well, he’d been studying, therefore, busy, therefore having a perfect excuse for not going to high society events.

“Yeah, I usually get to avoid crap like this, but my parents decided that this was the one time I had to come along. And the moment we’re here, poof, both vanished.”

“What’s your dad’s name?” Derek asked, trying to prove a theory of his.

“Jason, why?”

“I think I met him. Earlier …” Derek said, trailing off. “… your Mom isn’t friends with Isaac, perchance?”

“Both of them are, I think,” Atticus said. “Never met him, though.”

“So, what do you do?” Derek asked.

“Learning to fly so I can get the hell out of this solar system,” Atticus said. “Going to try for a Hyperian [Class], or maybe a pilot, not sure, my [Class] works for both at the moment.”

Huh … “Hyperian” wasn’t an actual [Class], instead being a human-made category of [Classes] that made their holders space-capable, with spatial- and light-based magic, which combined to allow them to fight starships personally. It was the fourth Evolution “aim” of the people who would have become fighter pilots a century ago. Start out with something good for fighting in a “starfighter,” for all the good those did under the current military doctrines, the damn things were more like training tools than anything else, then eventually advance to fighting under your own power once you had the Stats and [Skills] to do so.

“Are there any hybrid [Classes] for fighting inside and outside a ship?” Derek asked. Part of him still suspected that this whole “kid of influential parents, fleeing lobbyists” schtick was a ruse, but if it wasn’t … he could use a pilot, and was more than sympathetic to someone fleeing the expectations one’s family’s status imposed.

“A few,” Atticus said. “But they’re pretty high rarity. I’m staying at Level 25, getting used to things, figuring out how what, exactly, I want to do.”

Once again, it made sense, it made Derek like this guy … it made him suspicious.

“How about you?” Atticus asked.

“Pretty much the same thing,” Derek shrugged. “I have a ship, I’m learning to use it, and I’ll head out to explore the galaxy as soon as I have my next [Class].”

But he wouldn’t offer Atticus to accompany them, not unless he knew this wasn’t a trick.

Was he too suspicious? Probably, but it definitely wouldn’t stop him from continuing to be cautious.

“Cool,” Atticus said. “Are you the captain?”

Derek nodded.

“Make sure you know why your crew is coming along,” Atticus said, voice hollow. “That way you know things aren’t going to get weird.”

“Sounds like there’s a story there,” Derek commented before he could stop himself.

“There is, but I’m sure you’ve heard it before,” Atticus sighed. “People want stuff from you, but they don’t tell you that, a friendship starts, then it turns into a business relationship without you realizing, shit gets weird, shit gets uncomfortable, and in the end, you’d all have been better off never even having met.”

That sounded about right. And awful, if true …

“Thanks for the advice,” Derek said. He certainly would take it to heart, though thankfully, he did know what was driving Mimi and Ye-in.

“And feel free to use me as a shield too, next time someone tries to corner you again.”

Atticus took that as his cue to look around, scanning the crowd.

“Thanks, I’ll probably have to take you up on that. A lot,” he chuckled softly. “I’ll think of something less depressing to talk about for next time. See you around, hope your evening is better than mine.”

Soon enough, the two of them drifted apart in the crowd, with Derek choosing to settle against one wall, talking to Mimi.

***

Eventually, the party died down, and the three of them found themselves on the roof with a scattering of others, most of whom seemed to be friends and personal acquaintances of Isaac’s. Including Jason, Atticus, and a woman wearing the same wedding ring as Jason, while also looking similar enough to Atticus to likely be his mother.

Huh. Seemed like everything had been true after all. Few people were able to get something past Isaac, and doing so in a group this small had to be nearly impossible.

Oh, and speak of the devil … there came the host.

“Hi, I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Isaac, Derek’s older brother,” he introduced himself, and the others introduced themselves in turn.

“Mimi Rosenkranz.”

“Nice to meet you,” Isaac said, shaking her hand.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Isaac headed over to Derek, and led him to the edge of the roof.

“So, what was the lesson?” he finally asked.

Isaac flashed him a wry grin. “What kind of person do you want to be, once you’re at the Level cap? When you might even be an S-Ranker?”

“How’s that a lesson?”

“I’m someone who tends to rein himself in under most circumstances. I don’t snoop if I don’t need to, and when I learn something without meaning to, it has to be really bad for me to not keep it to myself.

“But if it is bad, I meddle. How many people’s lives do you think have been ruined tonight, because they decided that I’m only known as ‘the Sage’ for show?”

“More than zero, if you’re bringing it up,” Derek guessed.

“Seventeen,” Isaac said flatly. “Eleven conmen who managed to get one over the people who sent out the invites but weren’t quite at a point where they could fool me, four dumbasses who forgot that anti-eavesdropping [Skills] only block people under a certain Perception score and decided that discussing their ‘underhanded’ business practices couldn’t wait until later, some jackass with child pornography in his wallet, and one who decided to become a Wendigo, consquences be damned.”

Derek winced. “Sounds like they deserved it, though.”

“Yup,” Isaac said. “That’s why I decided to forward all that information to the relevant authorities. Doesn’t change the fact that there are seventeen people whose lives have been irrevocably changed for the worse for the supreme misfortune of having gotten within five-hundred meters of me.

“Some people on my Level think the problems of the average person are beneath them, that anything that doesn’t affect them or theirs is someone else’s problem.

“Some other people think that it’s their responsibility to let those of a lesser Level figure out their own problems, that treating them like children and solving all their issues for them is infantilizing them.

“Oh, and then there are ones who simply can’t be bothered, the ones who think that helping someone is taking opportunities for growth away from them … plenty of options that have at least one logical argument that at least sounds good …”

Isaac sighed. “Like I said, there are a lot of ways to act when you’re at the top. I stumbled my way through that. You … you’re ambitious, willing to take chances, and unless you get yourself killed, you’re probably going to get some measure of power.

“But you also have time to think properly about how you’re going to act at that point. Who you want to be. What you can live with. You don’t need to decide now, though. Just … think. Look around. Pay attention to how the people in power act. What you appreciate, what grinds your gears …”

“I get it,” Derek said. “I’ll keep that in mind. Also … was this whole thing meant to set me up to meet Atticus?”

“No,” Isaac said. “But it seemed like a good place to introduce you two … seemed. I mean, he also wants to run off to outer space; you needed a pilot, and Jason and Amy were already coming … it was a dumb idea. I’m sorry.”

Derek decided to accept that apology.

“Also, I heard you’re going for [Chimera]?”

“Where?” Derek asked.

“Heard,” Isaac repeated. “You need to pick up an illusion Aspect for a privacy [Skill]. Those aren’t absolute, but they do make it less likely for people like me to overhear you without meaning to.”

“Shit,” Derek muttered, then nodded. It was good advice, though, especially since [Skills] like that were attached to Aspects that also allowed for the creation of illusions, and that kind of ability was always useful, assuming you had even a smidgeon of creativity.

“I’m guessing you’re planning on buying the Aspects for [Alcubierre Bubble] once you’ve been able to evolve your [Class]?” Isaac asked further.

Derek nodded.

“I’ll get them for all of you. You might also want to tell your crewmates to make sure to have some Aspect slots ready; only having one person who can take the ship FTL can be risky.”

Derek grimaced. “Thanks.”

Which left one more question: did he want Atticus as a part of his crew?

Maybe. They’d see. But he did feel like he’d met a kindred spirit.