Chapter 14

“With this new body, I’m going to explore the vastness of the void. I’ve seen everything in both the natural and spirit realms that I care to see. But this body, forged of a golem with sacred power and my honed spirit, gives me the ability to survive no matter what may be out there. You all have your destinies and I feel confident you’ll rise to meet them. Especially you, Xianna, my precious student. You will save everyone and in that act of love you’ll seal your fate.”

~ Master Ziv Kirit, the Spiritualist of the Spirit

Kouki

After that whole fiasco, the little lady decided to calm down. Just in time too because I was about a second away from flicking her forehead. Trust me, my flick will do a lot more than sting. We walk into Aida's lavish palace in the middle of the city. It’s a stark contrast to the industrial pipes, concrete roads and tin-looking sheet metal buildings outside. The structure is huge and regal, using domed structures made of white marble adorned with gold and rubies. It takes two very thick and fit women to open the giant carved marble doors. Their abs, backs and thighs have me wondering what their routines are like. I'm certain more than a few of the pirates have probably had their heads squished by them, heh heh. Inside the main hall is just as garish and just as much overkill as the exterior. A whole red suede carpet leads to her throne in the back of the hall. We make our way down it as her armored guards and the permanently petrified bodies of those who defied her stare at us. 

Finally, there she is, resting comfortably on her throne in gold jewelry, precious emeralds and a flowing green and gold silk robe that would reveal absolutely everything if the wrong breeze happened. She’s already having an audience with some rugged pirate who’s presenting chests full of treasure and his loud voice is grating to my ear.

“You would deny my advances? I have brought you amazing treasure!”

“No, you have brought what is standard and ask for the impossible in return. What is known should not need to be explained. If my hand in marriage is your desire then something priceless is the cost.”

Aida doesn't bother to even look at the pirate, instead giving her attention to the quality of her manicure. He doesn’t seem to like that at all and can I blame him? It’s quite rude to ignore guests.

“I am the pirate king Silk Ulbricht of the southwest sea and I always get what I want.”

“Do you see any saltwater in this room? What about any ship? Any kind of marine life? No, because this is my palace and my kingdom, the only things you have here are what I allow you to have.”

Silk reaches to his gun holster and anybody on Gaia could have told him that was a mistake. Aida’s disinterested eyes become laser focused on him, glowing like emeralds in sunlight. His skin crackles, turning white and his movement slows as he reaches. In barely an instant, he’s a statue. She waves her hand casually and her arcana manifests an ethereal snake that snatches the head off the petrified man, shattering the rest of his body as it nestles the object into her palm.  She looks at it, kisses its forehead and then tosses it back to the ground where it joins the rest of its remains.

That is what I really like about Aida. Conventionally, she’s absolutely gorgeous: beautiful nutmeg brown skin, full lips that she always chooses red lipstick for, an hourglass frame, ample bosom, thick hips, long black and blonde hair with loose curls and even a beauty mark on the top right of her nose but she’s an absolutely vain demon woman. All that beauty on the outside and not an ounce of humility to go with it. Don’t get me wrong, that’s what I like about her. She has power and sex appeal and is completely comfortable with herself. Sure she’ll come out ass-naked in front of her entire court, the spirits and anyone else and you’ll still respect her, worship her, or hell even suck her toes because that’s all you can do in the presence of real power. I may not be attracted to her but dammit I do admire her. Her guard's admiration for her... is not as fun for me. The short one cuts me off as I approach the stairs to her throne. 

“Commoners do not get to approach the throne. Now, bow to her highness.” My eyes roll so far back that I can see the dawn of existence.

“Aida, tell your pets to mind their place before I do it for them.”

Audible gasps echo through the room and very shortly after, weapons do too as her armored guards put their lances to my throat. Aida raises her hand, perfectly sharp manicured red nails and all. They instantly heed their master, standing at rest. Aida looks down at me smirking. 

“You don’t have to be so mean to them, Kouki.”

“Sorry, I kinda do. I have a reputation to protect.” I say, shrugging.    

“As do I, if any other man were to waltz into my throne room without tribute or respect...well you saw the statues on the way in as well as the dust beneath your feet.” Smiling, I gesture back and forth with my finger making eye contact.

“And we both know that’s why we’re siblings in arms. We just get each other.”

She looks away and chuckles before looking me in the eyes.

“Yes, but you have an issue with sharing.”

“No, one cannot share their soulmate. Although I imagine that she’s probably slightly upset with me right now.” She straightens her face.

“I can’t imagine why. On a related note, I’m becoming bored with this banter. Did you bring what we agreed upon?”

“Do all our enemies die horrible deaths?” I say smirking.

“Good. Well then, Sparrow, you will accompany us to my ritual room.” Sparrow discards her cloak, revealing a girl who’s no older than 13 years old. She’s petite with tanned skin, hazel-colored hair that’s styled in butterfly locs and her young face is very familiar to me.

“Sparrow? As in Sparrow Vander? *Laughs* Oh, what a joy! You had my goddaughter come greet me with threats? Good thing I recognized that spear.”

Aida glances at Sparrow with a raised eyebrow, who straightens up, looking directly forward.

“Well, she was supposed to just escort you here. I told her you were dangerous and I suppose that made her protective instinct kick in. Oh well. No harm, no foul.” Sparrow turns towards Aida and bows her head. 

“I’m sorry, my queen. I wanted to be sure he wasn’t a threat to you.”

“It’s okay, my dear. He wouldn’t harm a hair on me and defeating him wouldn’t even chip one of my nails.” 

“You keep telling yourself that. Even though we both know we settled that debate a long time ago.” I reply, my smirk now becoming a full on grin.

Aida walks down the steps of her throne, taking each step softly and we begin touring through the palace as we continue to converse.

“If you were any other man I’d have you licking my feet before I shattered your stone corpse.”

“It’s not my place to question you but you keep saying that. What’s so special about him?” Says the curious Sparrow. Aida looks back at her, emphasizing the importance of what she’s about to say.

“There’s more than one thing for starters. Your father, myself and about 50 of the most powerful beings on this planet are in his debt due to his many deeds and adventures. He’s why your father isn’t a headless corpse and consequently one of the very reasons you're alive. In fact, his reputation is why your father named him your godfather. He knew that it would make you virtually untouchable in this world. A favor he did for me in the past is one of the key reasons I was able to become this place's ruler along with countless murders of course. Kouki’s codename, the Tether, isn’t because of his chains. It's because of how he’s linked so many powerful beings and resources together, any of which he can call upon at a moment's notice to do what many consider impossible.” Sparrow stops in her tracks, momentarily wowed by Aida’s praise of me. 

“If it weren’t coming from you I wouldn’t believe someone like that exists.”

I can’t help but to chime in, especially since I was the topic of discussion.

“That’s the point, my profile has been intently managed and cultivated to be a tool unto itself. People fear the Tether and the Tether brokers in many things, extending my reach even further. Oh, and you’re wrong about one thing.”

“And what would that be?” Aida says with an eyebrow raised.

“I did bring you a tribute.”

Reaching into my bag's pocket, I pull a Zakarin out and hand it to Aida. She gives it a look over, licks her lips then takes a massive bite out of the fruit, sucking up the juices. Her lips smack as she attempts to enjoy it while speaking.

“Is this -slurp- the only one?” All that pride and poise disappears if you give Aida her favorite fruit. 

“What do you take me for? It’s the only one in my bag but I have a ‘substantial’ shipment on its way here.”

Sparrow stares at her queen as she continues to devour the fruit with giddiness. Aida notices her subordinate and stops to offer her the rest. Sparrow raises her arms and waves her hands but Aida insists.

“Come, my little Sparrow, you'll want to try this.” Sparrow holds the three-and-a-half quarter's eaten fruit. Then, as her name suggests, she pecks at the fruit. Her bright peach-colored eyes widen as the flavor hits, then her mouth shrivels momentarily before she immediately chomps down, gobbling up the rest. She looks up from the fleshless pit of the Zakarin with soft eyes at me. 

“Sorry I don’t have any more of the ‘fruit’ on me.”

“Well then what do you have? I know you well enough to understand when you're emphasizing words on purpose.”

I pull two white sealed packages from my bag's pocket, handing one to Sparrow and one to Aida. They open the packs revealing tiny bird shaped gummies in Sparrow’s pack and snake shaped gummies in Aida’s. With a skeptical look in their eyes, they both eat one. The look of pleasure on their faces is priceless. Aida, while still chewing on the gummy, looks at me while I try to play coy.

“You have been a busy boy haven’t you?”

“My R&D team has been experimenting with the restorative properties of a ton of materials and the gummies they make are particularly effective. What’s crazy to me is how both of you are enjoying gummies from my personal stash and have yet to exercise your manners.”

They exchange a look, walk past me and continue to eat, ignoring me. 

“You’ve done well, Kouki. If that foolish pirate smelled like you and brought snacks like these I might have actually slept with him.”

“Agreed, my queen. I don’t know about this “sleep with him” business. But he seems like a good servant who brings delicious snacks.” Their insubordination is quite funny to me and yet it’s... intolerable.

“Haha...Fine, I’ll cancel the shipment.” That gets their attention. They spin around to face me. 

“Thank you Kouki.”

“Thank you… godfather.”

“You’re both very welcome.”

We finally make it to Aida’s ritual room. It’s quite large, holding a full laboratory, a stocked study with a library attached and two giant transmutation circles as well as a third circle for cooperative work. It’s actually a lot cozier than the rest of the palace, which is more elaborate and regal than anything. There’s lots of furs, blankets, comfortable seats and so forth, even a fireplace. Immediately I spot my reason for being here: two white clay bodies engraved with all kinds of special runes and symbols.

“The Golems, they’re so beautiful.” I say, causing Sparrow’s face to scrunch up at my remark.

“What’s so beautiful about a couple of statues? There’s a ton of them standing around the palace halls.”

“Well for one, they aren’t statues. They’re golems. It’s a long story. The abridged version goes like this. Spirits can’t sustain themselves in the natural world so they made rudimentary suits of matter to maintain their form. All life in Gaia owes its origins to those.”  Aida chimes in with her head held up and chest forward.

“Although these are actually much more advanced than those, little Sparrow. These were shaped with Kouki’s and my knowledge along with my sacred earth arcana.”

I study them, checking their glyphs, runes and symbols for mistakes or oversights.

“Well no point in waxing poetic about them, they're still not finished. I have the last of the required data, courtesy of the files the Grand Councilwoman gave me. Along with that, I also have the files you wanted from the GCP HQ as payment for your work. You know how it goes, though. I’m not giving it to you until the product’s finished.” I hand Aida the necessary files and she begins mixing ingredients in the lab to add further markings to the golems.

“You are quite the shrewd businessman. Child, take note of my words. More than anything I’ve said previously if he were any other man his word would not be enough. Alas, he is the exception to the one rule here because his word is more valuable than any currency and far more stable. The work will be finished in two weeks and you are required to help Kouki. Sparrow will ensure we are not disturbed. Now, take off your clothes, underwear included.”

~ End