It had been a loud and busy war meeting. 

The leaders of the Parcosian Duchal Alliance had met to discuss all manner of urgent topics ranging from cleaning up the final remnants of Baron Haverhill’s forces, who would be garrisoning the occupation of Port Marchnad in the now former Haverhill Barony, and what were their next steps beyond that. Baron Redwood and the Duchess had almost come to blows when the topic of whether they should back Duke of Jingan’s bid for the throne, negotiate, or fight him. The entire argument was further complicated by the fact that since the last King had gone missing, the Duchies of East and West Parcosia had merged and taken the former royal capital of Santarriral as their Duchal capital. 

This meant any decision to not fight Jingan would be complicated by the need to negotiate what would happen to the former formal capital. Whether they would share it with the Royal family, whether they would exchange it for a price and build a new Duchal capital, or whether they would just move the royal capital to a different city, or build a new one entirely.

The other issue that had been raised at the meeting was whether to pursue further justice or vengeance against Haverhill’s Paguutum backers. On this topic there was far less division as all parties wanted some form of retribution against Paguutum, whether it by justice or a full on vengeance for the division, death and suffering they had caused. That said, despite the consensus, plans to send a full expeditionary force to take the fight to Paguutum had been tabled for later given the more pressing issue of the Unification war. 

Instead, the Duchess had elected to send a much smaller scouting force to the front lines in Joret to establish diplomatic ties with the Republic, aid them in the fight against the Pags, and gather intelligence that might aid a future expeditionary force. In other words, the Duchess had decided to send Roxi, Gael and I, Halt, a handful of Knights, and El. Well El and their guildmates who were supplying the ship that would take us there and act as our embassy once our forces were dropped near the front lines and it had sailed to the Capital.

Heading the embassy and the diplomatic side of the mission would be the new Chief Diplomat, the traitor Arvel Thurnscoe’s replacement Serr Alaïs Halwyn né Beynon. A role she’d been given for a host of reasons, the least being her noble status and place as the sister of both Baron Aiden Beynon and the Lady Mair Beynon, the Knight Commander of the Order of the Clouded Peak Blaidwyven Knights. The other reasons included her history as a former Duchal Knight, her loyalty to the Duchess in the Civil War leading the Haverhill Underground, and her merchant connections with Joret.

Unwilling to be left out and miss out on a chance for any sort of retaliation, Baron Redwood insisted on sending a second ship along with his own representative and their staff. And on top of that also sending a battleforce consisting of what he could spare including a commander, a squad of his knights, several squads of his men at arms, and their necessary support staff.

Needless to say, by the end of the meeting and my logging out, I could feel the mental fatigue setting in, and the need to rest, quietly wind down, and cool my metaphorical circuits.

Rest I would not be getting, going by the urgent-marked message waiting for me from May. It seems May needed me to meet and talk to someone. From the sparse details in the message there was another human girl who would likely need to undergo digitalization in order to survive. Something to do with her body and pod being physically unreachable with her trapped inside. To make matters worse, May had hinted at the pod and its occupant being on their last legs.

An all round shit situation, and one that the lessons me mums imparted on me wouldn’t let me ignore. Sending off a reply agreeing to meet, I lay down to rest while I still could and waited to be notified of a time and place.

* * *

I hadn’t been expecting this when May sent me the FTLN address for the server we were meeting on, but the trip to it revealed that this wasn’t just a rental in a server farm somewhere. No, this server was physically located in a private yacht-type skyship. Where the ship was I didn’t know, the navigation and controls were locked down too well for a digital baby like me to peek.

Whoever owned this was richer than I had ever dreamed of becoming. Not only richer, but also freer. A skyship felt like the ultimate freedom in my mind, no borders that you couldn’t just soar over. No land that could bind you in place.

Shaking free from my envious daydreams, I turned my attention back to reaching the coming meeting.

The meeting place itself was a virtual space simulating a log cabin with a modern styled interior located amidst hills and snowy pines, beside a frozen lake and buffeted by howling winds. Substantiating my avatar within the cabin, I found May already waiting, her eyes slightly glazed as her focus was directed elsewhere.

Almost instantly, sharp focus returned to its place behind her round glasses and was directed toward me before her gaze softened.

“Jamie, you’re here early. I wasn’t sure if you would be late or not, Ceres mentioned Gale was throwing you in the deep end and making you do all your navigation unassisted as a lesson.”

“Yeah, well it’s worked…” I sighed, feigning a pained chuckle. “I had to learn after she let me get lost on my way to a virtual concert located on servers in Hong Kong. I lost my bearings in the servers of Kowloon’s infinity bazaar. The architecture of that mess of servers and partitions is a nightmare, I swear I still see endless shopfronts of counterfeit goods whenever I close my eyes.”

“How long were you stuck for?” 

“Only a couple hours, objective time. Worse though, when I sped up my clock speed to try and find a way out, the time stretched to feel like days. I also missed out on the concert,” I pouted.

“Gale certainly has interesting teaching methods, not how I wou— Ah, they’re here.”

No sooner than May had spoken, two individuals appeared in the room. “Hello, May,” greeted the shorter of the two as she stepped forward to hug May, her dark wavy hair contrasting with the psych-SAI’s dirty blond. “Thank you so much for arranging this meeting.”

Stepping back and protectively keeping her taller companion ever so slightly behind her, the raven haired woman turned her piercing blue gaze my way as if she was evaluating me as a potential threat. “You must be Aisling. Nice to meet you, and thank you very much for agreeing to come.”

Recognising something familiar in her unconscious wariness, I flashed what I hoped would be a small disarming smile. “It's no problem,” I deflected. “I owe May no shortage of favors. For saving my life, her patience with my behavior when I found out, and her efforts to give me a life beyond my short incarceration in CORA. She’s helped me in so many other ways too... But, regardless it's nice to meet you.”

Stepping out from behind her protector, the taller woman moved to half sit against the arm of a nearby sofa. “Sup,” she greeted, her lavender and purple hair fanning out as she tilted her head to the side. “I hear you’re the first of our new breed of humanity. Pretty crazy idea, to be honest.” 

Oh… I like this one, I found myself thinking.

[For more read my partner's story Witch of Chains, this chapter links into its Chapter 34]