An Untitled Novel

“When ACE dropped the bombs, they told me they could see your face and mantle at the same time. Is that true?” Aurora sounded hesitant as she spoke, asking a question she likely knew the answer to. “Probably, if that’s what they saw.” Aurora looked discomforted. “Don’t ever do that again, you can never do that.” Concern crept into Basil, but he tried playing it off with a shrug and a joke. “It’s done through my PDA, I can project whatever, it doesn’t have anything to do with the forces behind the (objects) controlling their flesh puppet.”

“(Don’t ever say that)!” Aurora admonished in a frantic tone. She took a deep breath, her voice growing more controlled, but still deadly serious. “(I was told legends of those like you, those who possessed a greater or lesser object without an orbital’s device to interface with it, or Rejected-Deaths infused with the relics directly; they are consumed by them. I did not want to burden you with the fear of this fate, and I have only heard stories of such people, but you must never entertain the idea of you not being yourself or your mantle and you being symmetrical.)” Basil nodded, a new dread creeping up his spine. “Okay.”

“He’s waking up” Basil interjected, happy to change the topic. Spiro moved slightly in his makeshift bed, ACE’s maintenance drones tending to him. He lazily opened his eyes, suddenly going wide eyed with a panicked expression, before seemingly remembering where he was. While Basil, Aurora, and two maintenance drones may have been an odd sight, they were at least likely to be familiar. “So, not dead” Spiro stated; half question, half observation. Basil nodded. “Nope, you’ll take some time to heal, but you’ll be right as rain soon enough.”

“Earth has weird idioms.” Basil chuckled at Spiro’s comment, ACE chiming in moments later. “Mental acuity seems within a standard mean, especially given the dope in your system.” Basil let out a little chuckle to that, too. ACE seemed to be mastering inflection, with which he appeared to be intending some dry humor. While it was no comedy special, ACE had been doing that a lot more lately. Had Basil not known he was talking to a synthetic voice, he would have absolutely assumed it was a human on the other end of the speaker.

“What’s this?” Spiro asked ACE. “An IV, it kept you hydrated and medicated throughout your treatment.” Spiro seemed hesitant, answering “Okay,” as if unsure whether to ask for further elaboration. ACE continued. “I can help you get cleaned up and into a wheelchair if you would like. There will be a meeting shortly, and I presume you would like to attend?” Spiro shook his head while trying to sit up. “No, I need the stuff you gave Basil when we fought the Elthrice.”

Basil laughed. “Speed and Oxy? That was a fight I didn’t expect to come back from. You’ve already got some opioids in your system to dull the pain, but unless we’re in the middle of a firefight, it’s best we take your recovery slowly.” Spiro looked slightly annoyed, but eventually nodded, voice still slow from the drugs in his system. “Just don’t start the meeting without me.” He paused, looking like he was suddenly in pain, before continuing. “Look, I don’t know if my government was part of this, or if it was just a few bad actors that I need to find and deal with, but I sided against them when I fought with you guys. I don’t want to be sidelined and left without a home or allies if this is it for my time on Amigoso.”

Basil felt a pang of guilt at the thought of getting Spiro exiled from his home, but forced a smile and nodded. Aurora quickly turned around and stepped back towards him, putting her hand on his shoulder. “All three of us are lost here without a home, you can always find one here.” Basil nodded, replying after Aurora finished. “Hey, last I checked, I wouldn’t have been around to save your ass today if you didn’t save me before. Whatever you need, I’ll be there with a cobbled together gunship.” Spiro returned a delayed smile, anesthetic still seemingly wearing off.

Basil and Aurora left his room in the Amigosian hotel, walking down the hall towards the upper level. Lamb walked out of a room usually reserved for diplomats, likely her new temporary home. “Hey, you got a minute?” Basil asked Lamb, Aurora pausing for a moment before walking ahead. “Is this about something Spiro said or wanted you to pass along?” she asked, before pausing and following up with “How’s he doing?” Basil paused for a brief moment, there was some information there that he didn’t have. The abyss gave no objections, so it probably wasn’t a dangerous unknown, but the presence of the abyss now took on a deeper, unsettling existence.

“He lost some blood, but the knife didn’t get anything vital. He’s awake and doing alright now, and he’ll be back to his old self in a few days.” Lamb nodded but remained silent, her expression never changing, so Basil continued. “There’ll be a meeting shortly, I’d like for you to attend if you can. Everyone from the four governments here is attending, and given you’re the reason some of them made it here, you’re due for a seat at that table.”

“Okay. Why?” Lamb asked, seemingly confirming she’d attend, while still confused at the request. Basil hesitated for a moment. Outside of feeling like he owed her, and thinking giving her a seat at the table would serve as a form of repayment, he hadn’t given much thought to the impromptu invitation. She didn’t represent any interests, or have any real influence. He quickly settled on an answer.

“Because there’s not a lot of allies here from Domum proper I can trust. I trust Cicero and Nerva, but they’ve both been on opposite sides of me in the past, and they’ve got a country to organize and run, respectively. I trust General Tobias, and mostly trust Gina, but Tobias wants to keep the Arkepello out of this, and Gina has her own nation that’s barely holding on as it is. The only people I truly trust to have my back, at least those not made of silicone, are Spiro and Aurora. If Spiro trusts you, then that means I trust you, and it’d be good to have somebody else I can trust there too.”

‘I also want another voice that’d be likely to back me if things get heated, and you seem willing to follow an order from me’ remained unsaid. “Alright, when does it start?” Lamb asked, looking down the hall to the stairs. “Everyone’s waiting on me, who’s headed up there now, and Spiro, who’s getting ready to attend in a moment.”