Apparently, my sister Samantha and her husband Fred didn’t understand that I meant NOW-now when I asked if they were ready for me to pick them up. I guess they were expecting me to pull up in a car and knock on the door? I Called the two of them in rapid succession, but did not place them next to each other… it’s very obvious they were immediately adjacent when I did, though. See, her skirt is up, and it looks like she’s leaning against a wall. He's standing with his pants down, and yes, he's wet and at full mast … I look away, but… well, Blindsight mostly doubles as all round vision as well. They settle their clothes quickly enough. At least they have a healthy marriage.
My brother Joe falls from his sitting position to the ground on arrival. Given how he was holding his hands, I'm guessing he was on his computer like always. My mother Beatrice apparently remembered how I got them away from their kidnappers: She’s standing, holding her purse.
I'm glad I didn't give my sister the ability to kill with a look. Stormrage is a personal range spell, but I can share those. I mean, the lightning damage wouldn't get through my Waxen Regeneration, but still…
Mom picks up on it, and chastises her daughter sideways, "Thanks for asking if I was ready, Chris. It gave me some time to grab my things and stand up." My sister starts to say something, then looks away instead. Yeah, she caught it.
… and so did I. "Sorry sis, sorry Fred. I probably should have been a bit clearer on what I meant by 'now'."
Samantha sighs, "It's fine. I shouldn't have said yes before I was actually ready."
Her husband pipes up, "I too am sorry. I should be more restrained when expecting company. My apologies, miss."
I don't bother to correct him: It's related to him accepting being called Fred. See, Fred isn't his real name, nor is Smithson his family name, for that matter. It's the name he's adopted for use with people who can't pronounce Chinese, which is most Americans. Other than my sister, who can speak Chinese - well, OK, I can now too, but habit is a powerful thing - I don't think anyone's called him by his actual name in a decade.
And likewise, his native language is Chinese. My sister explained it to me once: He often gets his pronouns wrong because in his dialect (Mandarin), the words for "he" and "she" sound EXACTLY the same. As a result, his brain is wired a little differently, and the words don't map well when he's speaking English. In other words, he's gotten it wrong for as long as I've known him, and it has zilch to do with my new appearance. He doesn’t mean anything by it, he also does it to my brother, he used to do it to my dad, and correcting him on it only leads to frustration. Of course, Tongues will fix that, and he is family.
I was never really clear on what my sister sees in the guy. He's a little short, slightly pudgy, brown eyes and hair, overall a very forgettable appearance. For that matter, I'm not even sure what he does for a living. Always seems to have spending money, though.
"Anyway, thank you all for coming. I know it's fairly short notice," less than a week, "and want to thank you all for taking time out of your schedules to come."
My brother suppresses a laugh, "Given what you gave out the last time we had a family gathering - impromptu as it was - I don't think any of us want to miss out."
Heh. I flag Fred for my Soul Vault while I speak, "Yeah… hopefully, though, what I can do for you isn't the only reason you tolerate me." That gets a chuckle, and I march on, "But yeah, I have more party favors to hand out. Here…" I toss each of them a ring, "Those little numbers should prevent old age from being a problem, also fix lost fingers and things, for as long as you wear them. And I've got some more spells to hand out… " Something about Fred's smile at that statement trips an alarm in my head, so I pry with Detect Thoughts (the faster version from the common Rakshasa, so I don’t need to spend so much time concentrating).
Everyone looks at me funny as I pause in shock, and raise their eyebrows when I speak: "You’re a spy?!"
My brother Joe switches his gaze to Fred. My sister Samantha just looks away. My mother raises an eyebrow at me and sends me a mental, 《I’m sorry, I thought you knew.》
Fred considers a long time, his thoughts racing, weighing his ability to deceive me vs. what will happen if he fails and how well he thinks it’ll go if he just confesses, before he settles on his response: "Yes, I am. Espionage only, I'm not an assassin."
I consider, “And… you’ve probably seen some of the fun things your bride can do after the kidnapping, I’d wager.”
“Yes… she’s stopped bothering with oven mitts when cooking, is now more concerned about staining the wood with her blood than the quickly nonexistent injury when she slips with one of her carving knives, she can fly, and oh yes she once turned into a full grown Siberian Tiger to scare off a mugger. Further, your priests and priestesses are untouchable because they have guardians that will appear out of nowhere and slaughter entire armies if anyone hurts them. My boss is VERY interested in how you do all that.”
I chuckle, “I have an anomaly that lets me give people that sort of thing. It cannot be duplicated.” Well… time clones work, but that’s duplicating ME, and I’m not going to work for China any time soon. “Good news, bad news, which would you like first?”
“Bad news first, it gives me time to reload if necessary.”
“I’m not going to give you the same stuff I gave my sister, and I’m going to insist on getting that ring back. I want to minimize China’s ability to study what I do.” He hasn’t put on the ring yet, so a simple Telekinesis spell brings it back to my hand. I also raise an eyebrow, “And you’re quoting obscure webcomics now?”
Fred pauses, “Schlock Mercenary was hardly obscure for a webcomic, so it was fine for social integration classes… but yes, that’s understandable. And the good news?”
“Samantha obviously knows, and as you haven’t been lying to HER, you’re still family, and you’ve got a place in the immortality line. You’ll still get hurt, you’ll have to heal the slow way, and you can even be killed… but death won’t be the end for you. And that’s not anchored to you at all, so they won’t be able to study it.”
Fred nods, “I can accept that… a few questions, though… first, how secure is this place?
No, I don’t really trust spies. I’m still reading his mind, so I know where he’s going with this… but I’m not going to deny him the journey to get there by jumping to the end, “Very. I created it minutes ago, so the only possible bugs that exist here are the ones we brought with us, and they won’t be able to transmit anything while we are here. I can get around that, and a few friends I’ve empowered can get around that, but I can also assure you they’re not currently doing so.” James, Jessica, and some of my summons can scry. I can be sure they’re not, because Detect Scrying is a wonderful spell, and goes well with Greater False Vision to make illusory pageants on demand for anyone who tries to watch.
Fred seems to like that answer, and continues, “Second, if something kills me, am I going to leave a corpse?”
“Yes, you’ll get a brand new, fully repaired body a day after you die, identical to the old one except for injury, but the old one will still be there for anyone who looks.” Twenty-four hours, specifically: Exactly one day.
《You’re reading my mind, aren’t you?》“I understand you won’t want to grant me the same kind of at-will shape changing you’ve given to your sister, but can you perhaps alter my appearance?”
“Because I don’t trust spies, yes, and if you actually go through with what you’re planning, also yes.”
“Aha. And lastly, when is convenient for you?”
“For that, I’ll take time out of my plans, so any time works… provided you have Samantha let me know when you actually do. She’s got a communications channel that should be secure enough that nobody should be able to tell she’s using.”
Most of my family has been looking back and forth between the two of us. Mom’s clearly picked up on what Fred intends, her face has gone a bit white. Samantha… yeah, given the look on her face as she’s staring consistently at her husband, she has a fair idea as well. Joe, though… I spell it out for him:
“Fred is planning on leaving China’s service by dying in it, publicly, and leaving a note that will get his body shipped back, nominally to be buried with his grandparents, but really so that his handlers will have proof that he died. That way there will be no reprisals against his family members still in China when he stops reporting in. I’ll bring him back, set him up with a form that is completely unlike his normal one, and let him go. I even have a limited supply of fake ID’s that will be basically bulletproof…” I look at Samantha, “But I doubt you’re going to like those options.”
