I was injured but we couldn’t just go to a hospital. Why? Well, I forgot to mention that we had blood sprinkled all over us thanks to the vampires, we had burns all over our bodies, and we smelled like we were near a huge explosion. Do you think hospitals don’t leave records?

Given how hospitals were out of the question, we really didn’t have much of a choice but to go back to our workshop. At the very least there’s a guy there that knows how to treat some injuries better than our first aid knowledge. Beyond CPR (and the equivalent for raderas), between Tedet and I, we know nothing more.

However, we shouldn’t rely on Salev too much. The guys at work aren’t stupid, we’re not going there because we think they are oblivious, or that they could keep their mouths quiet. I’m sure they’ll let it pass if it happens once and we tell them we were in an accident, we didn’t want to pay for the hospital bills, and that we knew we could weather it out.

I’m sure they’ll nod and accept what we say. They’ve known us for a while and they know we aren’t terrible people. But if it happens once it could happen again and we don’t really want to scare the poor fellows. They don’t know I’m a wizard or that Tedet is an alchemist. They may know some rumors about magic with other alchemists broadcasting themselves everywhere, but they sure aren’t aware of the supernatural, much less vampires and torviela, besides them being fairytales.

Coming to work for an injury covered in blood might lower their trust in us, but telling them we fought with vampires will surely make them think we’re crazy. We pay them, they are good at what they do, and I don’t think they’ll leave because there’s really nowhere else better to work -- that is unless they fear for their lives. I just don’t want them gone, and Tedet surely thinks they are useful.

“What happened?” Trisd asked. She is one of the two raderas working in the workshop, and the only, self-proclaimed female worker – raderas have no sex but they sometimes decide to choose a “human” gender.

“Traffic accident,” I said.

“We should let Salev treat you before going to the hospital,” she continued.

“No,” I began. “No hospitals. Too expensive.”

“You might be injured more than you think.”

“Don’t worry, I’m a fast healer.” And I am. For some lucky reason, magic helps people heal fast. Just by being a magic user, my body can use the energies to passively boost its natural healing abilities. The more power, the faster one heals; and I have a lot of it. I’m a freak in the magic community. I’m powerful but when you ask me to sew you a scarf, I’ll most likely turn the thing to ash before I even start.

Tedet lays me down on the floor and I groan a little due to pain.

“Just bring Salev here,” ordered Tedet.

Trisd groaned and Tedet groaned back – the equivalent of a radera nodding, I assume. She left towards the back of the workshop running and skipping as she went, evading all kinds of tools, cables, and ship body parts.

One day, I swear, I’d love to ride those ships into space. But first I need money, otherwise buying a drive there is going to make me, Tedet, his girlfriend, and Hayier combined completely bankrupt. That’s why we repair ships: they are expensive to repair. And also why we don’t have a lot of money: it is very expensive to do the actual repairs. Charging for said repairs is another story.

“What are we gonna do, now?” asked Tedet, kipping his voice down.

“We find my nephew,” I answered.

“Alright, genius, let me rephrase that: how are going to find your nephew? How are we going to deal with the vampires? How do we stop them from killing us? What do we do with that torviela bastard? How do I explain to my girlfriend you lost her gun? Where do-”

“Okay, by the Merlin, I get it,” I interrupted. “I don’t know how to answer all of that.”

“It’s too late to stop looking for your nephew, now. We’re in deep shit and we have to find him before they use him to get to you.”

“Glad we’re on the same page.”

“I’m not happy about it. I know you, and I hate to admit now that we must find him.”

“Not exactly the words I wanted to hear,” I sit up from where I was lying. “But it’s a start.”

“Something’s fishy about that vampire skirmish,” Tedet said. “Aren’t they and the torviela in the middle of a war?”

“Aren’t they always in the middle of a war?”

“But now seems worse than before.”

“Not to mention the vampires and torviela seemingly working together back at BQ.”

“I don’t like this, Ed,” said Tedet while closing his eyes and his pimples turning blue, something similar to us humans shaking our heads in disagreement. “Whatever is happening here, it might all be connected, and the fact that we’re walking right in the middle of it, willingly, for just a boy, does not sit right by me. And then you’re being scouted as a champion for said torviela-vampire war.

“If I were to ever call something a death trap, this would be it. We know it’s there, we know it’s going to kill us, and we’re still stepping on it knowing it’s going to hurt us badly -- if we’re lucky.”

“I just can’t step back from my nephew or the agreement.”

“Why not the agreement?” asked Tedet.

“It was a magical agreement.”

“Can’t you choose to not do it?”

Tedet stressed the word choose to imply I had free will to do it.

“A magical agreement can be broken, but not without consequences,” I began explaining. “You already know this. For any simple human, even alchemists, an agreement with a supernatural creature doesn’t mean a single thing. But to magic users like wizards and even non-wizards, they come at the cost of our powers.”

“You lose your powers…” he concluded.

“Sometimes,” I answered. “Sometimes it’s your power that goes against you. I for once could have my power rip me apart. Or it could suck out my spirit out of my body along with it. For weak users, their power just leaves -- it hurts, but that’s about it.”

“Like giving birth for humans? Force a child through a small hole?” He tried understanding it with human qualities.

“Yes, but as for me, imagine that child being ten times my size.”

Tedet hissed and croaked spouting some words it Goktoga: “kizada gag layhiagt.”

Allow me to translate: ‘son of a bitch,’ or maybe ‘motherfucker.’ Not exactly, the words don’t actually translate to that, but it’s got the same spirit.

“Why would you make a deal like that?” he questioned.

“Um,” I tried being eloquent. “Stupidity, I guess.” And succeeded marvelously.

“Quick,” he warned.

We heard Trisd speak as they came closer.

“Christ almighty,” spoke out Salev, like an avid Christian. “Oh Lord, what happened to you?”

“Traffic accident,” I repeated, in an annoyed voice, implying: ‘didn’t you hear that from Trisd?’

“I was hoping for something more specific, but that’s alright, anyway. Let’s get you patched up.”

* * *

“We’ll be needing replacements for the Yamada Eircreuser,” said Tedet. “The Alcourier Drive isn’t working correctly. At this point, it’s almost like he went back to Space Age technology.”

“The cost for repairs?” I asked.

“About thirty quadrillion treys.”

“Not too much. What about our gains?”

“Just under three trillion treys.”

“About enough to pay the guys, barely manages to pay our workshop’s rent,” I said and sigh. “Can you remind me why we charge so little?”

“Because we’re honest.”

“I don’t like being honest when I don’t get to eat three full meals a day without having to stop paying for my monthly wizard magazine subscription.”

Tedet looks at me quizzically. “Are you being serious or is this one of those human jokes? I don’t remember there being any wizard magaz-” He stops in his tracks, croaks, and drops the subject. “Deal with it. I’m the same.”

“I wish I could invite Martin for a nice meal sometime. Why can’t we start charging a bit more? Just a little bit, Ted. Come on. Don’t you want to have a nice date with your girlfriend?”

Tedet croaks again.

“Save it, boss,” said the short radera walking closer to us. “Chief Galieta isn’t going to be swayed by your greed.”

“And you should stop hitting on him. He has a girlfriend he loves very much.” I said trying to strike a little joke. My ancient mind light bulb turns on as I think of another way to bully my paid underling. “I pay you, so, if you don’t want your salary cut in half, shush your mouth. Adults are having a very important discussion.”

“I am an adult,” she retorted.

“I’m still paying you.”

“I will file a report.”

“I pay you thrice as much as any other mechanic would. So, shush before I cut it to one-third.”

Trisd pimples turn blue at my comment, takes a tool from the box that’s resting between Tedet and me, hisses at me, and then walks back like the radera equivalent of a catwalk.

What a woman.

What I guess is what a male radera would say.

I give a glancing look to Tedet, who is staring daggers into my soul. I felt chills crawling down my spine. Note to self: don’t bully the young radera mechanic girl.

“Got a thing for younger woman?” I decide to bully the old radera mechanic.

He hissed.

“Sheesh, does anyone here have a sense of humor?” I asked, expecting not a soul to answer.

“I do, boss,” says Salev while using a drill on my crude leg cast.

I jumped at the realization. “Not funny!”

I heard two croaking sounds coming from two distinct living beings of the same species.

Was Tedet laughing?

“Sweet mother Mary,” I said while looking at Tedet. “You made that soulless corpse of a radera laugh.”

To which Tedet answered by turning blue and hitting the shin of my good leg. My body reacted but given how my other leg was currently in a cast, the most my body could do was fail at reacting to the pain, lose balance, and buckle down face-first into the floor. I had my hands full with terminals where I was doing the accounting… you can figure the rest of my terrible execution trying to stop myself from falling straight into Embarrassment Town.

“Sure, go ahead and bully the cripple,” I decided to humor them with a straight face but then ending it up with a creeping smile that I couldn’t fully contain. Salev smiled and shook his head before turning to follow Trisd, walking away from us.

“Thought of anything?” asked Tedet.

“That I think you’re doing this to keep me in your life?” I began. “Keep the wizard starving, he’ll come back to you and never leave you. But I have news flash for you,” I emphasized while holding up my index finger and puffing up my chest, “I have a lover that loves me for who I am, not for the accounting skills… plus, a few other electronics knowledge. I’m more than just a brain with hands, Ted, I’m a human with feelings.”

“What are you sucking now, Ed?”

I did my best to hold my laughter from the obvious gay joke, because I know that for radera sucking psychedelics is their analog for smoking them in our case.

“What now? What’s that horrid face?”

“Ted, did I ever tell you how much I like you?” I said while looking down at my terminal. “I think we’re a good team out in the field and in here under the hood.”

“What are you segueing your way into?”

“Nothing,” I said, and I meant it, I was hoping for a good joke to say, but all I could think was how much he’s supported me today. “Thanks for today. I mean it. No jokes.”

“It’s what a friend would do,” he said without even looking at me, he just said it like a fact and meant every vowel of it. “You’d do the same. And besides, all I did was carry you out.”

“You didn’t leave me behind to deal with the vampires all by myself,” I said trying to make him realize his actions are worthy of praise and gratitude.

“Eh,” he grunted, and it was all he said. Maybe he was embarrassed. That’s what I thought while the silenced stretched. “What’ll you do without me?”

“Pretty much die, if I’m being honest.”

“You’re an honest man, Ed.”

I sensed the sarcasm mixed with the truth. “I do my best.”

From here on out the future seems uncertain. This has happened many times before in my life, but I’ve never felt truly lost, unlike this time. There are so many problems and not enough options to choose from. My nephew is missing and I don’t know where he is. There’s no objective but the clock is ticking. Three more days before things go out of control. How are we going to rescue him? And what does this war mean?

“I don’t know where to go from here,” I said with honesty. “What do I do, Ed?”

Tedet stopped moving. He laid there pensive with his eyes now closed. No sound but the faraway mumbling from Trisd and Salev.

“Are you gonna give up?” he asked seriously. “Forget it, that was dumb. Are you gonna let this stop you?”

“Of course not.”

“But you also want to stop. I know you, Ed. You also want a really good excuse from me to keep you from doing this foolish errand. In any other situation, I’d give it to you. Hell, I’d chain to this place.”

I remained silent.

“Today is different. I still disagree, but I’ve come to understand that to you, this man is extremely important. You think of him as family.”

“He is,” I corrected.

Ted, closed his eyes and a flash of red and yellow appeared on his pimples. That was a nod of agreement.

“There’s one place we can go to get answers.”

A building flashed in my memory. “There? As if they’ll answer my questions.”

“Did I say we’d go there to ask questions?”

I rewind my memory to listen to what he said and notice the slight nuance in the way he phrased that sentence. “Not again, Ted.”

“We’ve done it once,” he encouraged me.

“Look how well that ended up.”

“It did,” said Tedet and managed to read my expression of confusion. “They wouldn’t want a repeat of last time, would they?”

My eyes went wide. “You crazy son of a – “

We’re storming a different vampire stronghold. This time: Downtown Leider Street. Number 337. The Roschfield Law Firm building. That’s right, a law firm is a stronghold of vampires.

“You want to intimidate them into giving away the hostage?” I asked. Tedet only nodded. “They won’t buy it. I can’t set off a nuclear bomb in the middle of downtown Al Patreck! They know I won’t!”

“Who says you’ll do it?”

My eyes were open wide already but now my eyes popped off from my eye sockets.

“Alright,” I began to close the conversation. “Let’s say we do it.”

“Let’s.”

“We still have a problem.” I paused for effect just because I do. “What if they don’t buy it.”

“We blow them up.”