“I spy with my little eye someth- “Stella began, bouncing excitedly on the back seat of the Allicereum carriage they were in.

“Snow,” Valkyrie intoned, not bothering to look up from the sheaf of papers she was studying.

“Shit,” Stella scowled, her movement on the seat stopping. “Fine. Your turn.”

“No,” Valkyrie replied flatly.

“Your turn then, Astrid,” Stella turned her hopeful gaze toward the woman who was adjusting the small top hat irritably on her head.

“I do not know this game,” Astrid replied, taking the hat off her head, and fiddling with the brim once again. “It does not feel like a game which is interesting. I have a much better game!”

“Oh! I like new games! What’s it called?” Stella’s pronounced bouncing on the seat began in earnest once again.

“In Oskea we play a game of which my älskling knows well,” Astrid grinned rakishly as she placed the hat once more atop her blonde hair. “It is called där bak.”

“Oooh! Sounds angry! I like it!” Stella enthused, ignoring Valkyrie’s exasperated sigh. “I want to play!”

“No,” Valkyrie snarled. “You do not, and we are not.”

“Ignore her, little one,” Astrid grinned. “She will get in the mood soon enough. The rules are very, very simple. All one must do to win is to remove all of one’s clothing and do what comes naturally provided one is in the back of something or if one wishes to explore what is on the back of someone else or yourself if hard pressed and alone.”

“You mean like the butt?” Stella asked, a glimmer in her eyes.

“Precisely that! You are very smart to have picked the game up so quickly! The rules are not so difficult, see?” Astrid sighed as the hat pitched to the left and fell off her head again.

“Hey! We’re in the back of something and we all have butts! Double points, right?” Stella

“Precisely so!” Astrid clapped her hands together. “There are no losers, only winners playing där bak!”

“Let’s play!” Stella began undoing the collar around her neck.

“Will you two stop?” Valkyrie hissed. “Seriously! Maybe you’ve forgotten, but if we screw this up, we’re all probably looking at a trip to the stocks. Is that what you want?”

“I want to play!” Stella pouted. “I’ll let you do what you want to my butt…”

“I don’t care about your ass, and I swear to fuck, Astrid, stop giving her weird ideas and screwing around with that godsdamned hat!”

“You may beat me, choke me, torture me, hurt me as you wish,” Astrid regarded her from the opposite seat with her bottom lip trembling. “In fact, I would most enjoy all of those things, älskling. But leave my hat out of your ravings. It’s done nothing to you.”

“I am sooo fucking bored right now,” Stella sighed deeply before pulling out the half-finished bag of nuts she’d insisted on purchasing and tossing a handful into her mouth. “Let’s just blow the door open, kill them all and take the target. Waiting like this in the middle of nowhere is stupid.”

“They outnumber us, they know the building, which is a fortress, might I add. Not to mention they have magic users like us,” Valkyrie growled, ignoring Stella’s eyeroll. “On top of all of that we don’t know what the target even looks like. If you want to storm the Empress’ manor by yourself, you’re more than welcome, but don’t expect me to pay for your burial.”

“Ugh!” Stella pouted. “Fine! At least let’s play that game so I can try butt stuff.”

“What is going on in that head of yours?” Valkyrie poked Stella’s forehead irritably. “Is anything going on at all? Is it empty? If so, the echo might kill you before the stocks can.”

“Ow! Stop!” Stella wailed, grabbing her forehead, and glaring at Valkyrie before rubbing the spot soothingly.

“Seriously. What’s wrong with you?”

“How much time do you have?” Stella grinned at her.

“Not nearly enough,” Valkyrie sighed, returning to her maps.

“I’m just saying…we’ve been here for forever, now,” Stella sighed. “There’s got to be something we can do other than sit here like lap dogs and wait for the master to throw us a bone.”

“What are we if not lap dogs?” Valkyrie demanded, pausing to glance up meaningfully at the Controller.

“We’re Inquisitors!” Stella protested. “We’re not like the Seekers.”

“How are we not?” Valkyrie retorted, noting that Astrid had lost interest and gone back to fiddling with her hat. “Just because our mouths have bigger teeth doesn’t mean we don’t wag our tails and wait for our treats or punishment like the other mutts. I know you’re still new, Stella, but you need to get your head out of that ass you want to play with so badly and take a look around. You might learn something.”

“How serious my älskling has become in the past year,” Astrid shook her head disapprovingly. “You throw aside your Astrid and become humorless. This will not do. Fear not! I am back and will not leave your side. We will have fun again.”

“Don’t interrupt, Astrid,” Valkyrie growled.

“You are giving this little one anxiety!” Astrid tsked, grinning as her hat finally stayed in place with the help of a pair of pins. “Of course! Everyone but those on top are dogs! It is all a matter of how long our leashes are. The bigger our teeth and the harder we bite the longer our master’s leash becomes until…” Astrid brings her closed hands together and acts as if she’s breaking something. “The leash snaps. Is that not what we used to speak of, älskling?”

“Once again, Astrid, there is no ‘we’ anymore,” Valkyrie scowled.

“I do not see the problem. Were we not amazing together? Was the sex not incredible?” Astrid shook her head gently to keep her hat on.

“The sex was never the problem,” Valkyrie’s scowl deepened. “The fact you were having far more than I was became the issue.”

“Dalliances! A flirt here! A wink there! Did I not always end up with you in our bed at night? Is that not the duty of an Inquisitor at the end of everything? To get the job done. Sometimes extraordinary measures were required. I did my job is all, älskling,” Astrid protested.

“We are enforcers, Astrid! We’re not Vultus. We’re not spies! We don’t have to fuck everything in Bastion to do our job!” Valkyrie snapped. How was it, she asked herself, that Astrid still had the ability to twist the knife after all this time?

“I did not fuck everything!” Astrid protested.

“Grrr…I’m not doing this with you,” Valkyrie took a deep breath to steady herself. “Go back to playing with your stupid hat.”

“You cannot continue to run from your past. Our past. Some day you must face it. Doing so with me shall be much easier, you’ll see,” Astrid shrugged. “And you mispronounced ‘jaunty’ when you were describing my hat, älskling. I shall forgive you this time.”

“Ugh,” Valkyrie grunted. “My point, Stella, is that as soon as you think you’re special or different…that is when you screw up. Do your job. Learn your place. Then get the hell out as soon as you can, Stella. This is no life. This is the grey area between the living and the dead. This is no place for humans to exist.”

“SSB013, this is Vultus Elite,” a loud voice came from the front of the carriage. Stella’s demis leapt up blearily from where they were sleeping, yelping in fear at the sudden interruption, their tails puffed up in alarm.

“Ahahaha!” Sira giggled, pointing at her sister. “You have pickle tail!”

“Sh-Shut up,” Senai sputtered. “You do, too!” Sira looked behind her and sagged.

“Poop,” she sagged. The three in the back glanced at each other wordlessly.

Valkyrie leaned back between the front seats of the carriage and removed the softly glowing crystal from its housing. Holding it in her hands she sighed deeply before moving her index finger along the smooth face of the crystal in a deliberate pattern, the gentle blue changing to a faint purple as her finger traced intricate lines on the surface. The crystal flared brightly once before the blue was replaced with a dim purple glow signifying the two crystals had harmonized with each other.

“SSB013, ok,” Valkyrie replied.

“You are cleared for excision,” came the prompt, emotionless reply. The voice sounded echoey and muted but still clear. “The target will be in the company of the whisperer at approximately 1700 at location A4D6.” Valkyrie glanced down at the map among the sheaf of papers and scowled. So not in the manor at all, then.

“Collateral?”

“No restrictions beyond the target.”

“Understood,” Valkyrie nodded. The purple light flowing from the crystal dimmed and faded.

“Looks like we’re walking,” Valkyrie sighed, suddenly nervous. She’d heard tales of the power of the Soul Render and if they were even a fraction true, they’d be lucky to get one relatively clean shot at this.