Archive of Our Own

LATE WINTER, 6007

The Freelance Good Guys received a lucrative new contract, this time from a place called Nasrin. This Zareenite mining town rested high in the stony mountains of Evik, so the mercenaries piled into Shadow’s gazebo and took a flight across the sea. They were hired to guard a mining operation, where veins upon veins of valuable silver were being extracted.

They were going to need a full team and then some, Evan determined. He signed himself onto the job along with his commander, Lukas. Nasrin was a cold place, so bringing Glenvar seemed like a logical choice. It was also a a Zareenite territory, and Evan himself wasn’t too familiar with Zareenite culture. But Alaine and Jeimos were, so into the gazebo they went. Isaac was a given, seeing as he was their transportation.

Still, Evan felt like this contract called for more hands. He just needed one more crewman to complete the team. But who?

Balthazaar and Javaan were already dispatched elsewhere, Mr. Ocean’s poor health was becoming more of a liability by the day, Elska was busy guarding the homefront, and Skel was downright unpleasant to work with. That just left…

“Ms. Lumina,” began Evan, approaching the elfenne in the village plaza, “are you up for guard duty, by chance? I’ve got a contract here from Nasrin. They just need some extra muscle for a week or so. The pay is good, and I think you’d be a great fit for the job!”

Linde winced, hesitating before she replied, “Nasrin, huh? Isn’t that in Zareen Empire?”

Evan quirked an eyebrow. “Yes. Is that a problem?”

Shrugging, Linde told him, “It’s just that there’s an awful lot of iron in the empire, and I am an elf, so…it’s a pretty miserable experience for us, you know?” She trailed off, hoping he would put two and two together.

“Right, and trust me, I wouldn’t have asked at all if I wasn’t desperate,” said Evan. He wore a strained smile, struggling to hide his disappointment. “Quite frankly, I’m running low on options here. Mr. Valentino and Javaan are up north, Mr. Ocean isn’t feeling well, I need Elska to stay here, and...Mr. Skel is, uh...he’s…”

“He’s an ass. I know,” Linde finished bluntly.

Evan sighed, “There’s bound to be disgruntled oreads up there, and where there’s unhappy nymphs, there’s usually a titan nymph or two. I’d just feel a lot better if we had an extra set of hands. But if you’d rather not, I understand. Jeimos alone probably has us covered…”

Linde seemed to perk up slightly. “Jeimos is going?”

“Of course! The Zareenites are obsessed with their gizmos. They make you fiddle with machines and contraptions just to buy a sandwich! Jeimos knows all about that stuff. If I didn’t take them along, I daresay we’d all starve to death up there.”

He shrugged and went on, “If you’re not comfortable going, that’s fine. I’m sure Skel will be—”

“Wait,” interrupted Linde, “on second thought, maybe I should tag along. I could, uh, always use the money…” she trailed off quietly, swiping at her pale neck.

A bright smile crossed Evan’s face. “Really?” he asked, more of a statement than a question. “Well, glad to have you on board after all! We’ll leave in a couple days. Meet me in my office later and I’ll give you the full briefing.”

*

A few days later, Shadow touched down at Nasrin’s dragonport. Seven mercenaries stepped out of her gazebo, leaving her at a stable while they took a monorail to the silver mine. They made their way to the busy station, awkwardly shuffling through crowds of commoners to reach the terminal. The Zareenites around them were dressed in synthetic clothing, all in drab colors and geometric cuts. The Freelance Good Guys stood out in their exotic, primitive armor, so much that locals stared and snapped pictures of them with their camera machines.

Evan hardly noticed the scrutiny. He was too busy fighting with the ticket machine at the terminal. He looked the thing up and down, pressing random buttons and trying to shove his gold coins into every nook he saw before admitting defeat.

“This thing makes no sense! Where do you put the coins in? I’m just trying to buy a damn ticket!” he growled. Jeimos pushed their way to the front of the group and looked over his shoulder.

After a glance, the elf explained, “Looks like this station doesn’t accept gold pieces. Not many places in the empire do anymore. Last I heard, they were really pushing the Z-credit system.”

“Do I look like I know what a Z-credit is?” blurted Evan. “All I want is to get from point A to point B! Why do they have to make everything so complicated these days?”

Alaine turned Evan around and began pushing him away from the terminal. “Come on, Bumpkin Boy. Let’s go find an ATM,” she said.

Exasperated, the captain nearly shouted, “What on Gaia is an ATM?”

Alaine led the crew to a row of large, boxy machines sitting along a wall. They watched as Jeimos inserted all their coins into one of them, then the contraption spit out a plastic card in return. “Here we are,” said Jeimos, holding up the card. “We’ll just use this to pay for everything while we’re here.”

“Wait, wait,” began Glenvar, “what about our gold?”

“It’s all right here, Mr. Thunderhorn. It’s been converted into credits,” explained Jeimos, tapping the card.

Furrowing his brow in confusion, Evan queried, “But where are the credits? All I see is a chunk of plastic.”

Jeimos explained, “The credits aren’t visible because they’re an intangible unit of currency. They exist only within a digital plane of reality, you see.”

“No, I don’t see!” crowed Glenvar. “Ya ain’t makin’ any sense, Red! This trash can ate my damn money, and it better spit it back out if it knows what’s good fer it!”

He kicked the machine, causing an alarm to start blaring. Alaine pulled him back and growled, “Glen, stop it! Our money’s all on the card, I promise! I don’t know how that crap works, but it does. We can switch it back into gold before we leave.”

The mermaid quickly led them back to the terminal. Jeimos simply swiped their new card through the machine Evan struggled with earlier, and finally, it printed a ticket for each of them. They used these tickets to board a monorail, which was suspended from a complex system of cables. The cables stretched deep into the outskirts of Nasrin, way out in the middle of the rocky, snowcapped mountains.

They sped along through the sky, weaving between towers that nearly touched the clouds. The monorail covered an hour’s worth of distance on foot in just ten minutes, and then the mercenaries found themselves in a vast industrial area. The air was noisy with the metallic clanking and groaning of machinery, the sky dark with smog, the soil barren and polluted. Massive cranes towered overhead, sticking out among the peaks of the surrounding mountains.

The Freelance Good Guys exited the monorail car. Evan counted heads as they did and found they were one short. He pushed his way past exiting commuters and stepped back into the car, calling, “Ms. Lumina? Are you with us?”

The white-skinned elfenne wasn’t hard to spot among all the commoners aboard. He found her still in her seat, hunching over a paper bag. Evan unbuckled her safety belt and gently pulled her to her feet, guiding her out to the platform with the others. “These contraptions move fast, don’t they? I was starting to feel a bit queasy myself,” he told her.

“It’s not that. That whole car was made of iron!” the elfenne groaned, tossing the soggy bag in the trash as they passed. She rolled up her sleeve, exposing a pink splotch on her arm. “Even the armrest on my seat was iron. Look at this rash it gave me! Ugh, please, let’s just get away from this horrible station! It stinks like metal, it’s making my eyes water!”

Jeimos saw Linde and Evan approaching through the crowd. Linde seemed green in the face. Her expression said it all: she was sick with iron poisoning.

With hastily-scrawled directions in hand, Lukas led the crew down a winding dirt road to their supposed accommodations. Jeimos stuck by Linde’s side all the while, assuring her, “We’ll be at the lodge very soon, dea—uh, Ms. Lumina! I’m sure you’ll feel better once we get inside.”

Dropping their voice low, Jeimos hissed, “I still can’t believe the captain dragged you along! What in the blazes was he thinking? You poor thing, you’re going to be miserable!”

Linde shook her head. “It’s my own fault. I wanted to come along,” she told them.

“What? Linde, why? Zareen Empire is no place for green elves!”

Cracking the faintest smile, Linde pinched their cheek and said, “Because you’re here, silly. Mr. A tells me there’s titan nymphs up here too. If I wasn’t gagging over a sack in Nasrin, I’d be at home worrying myself sick anyway. I’d rather be sick with you than healthy without you.”

“Oh, my dear…” whispered Jeimos, pressing a hand to their heart. “Don’t worry about me! Mr. Atlas always brings more hands than he needs.”

“Well, yeah. Because something always goes wrong.”

Jeimos sighed, “Titan nymphs are nothing we haven’t dealt with before. Please, just stay at the lodge and rest. I hate to see you suffer like this!”

“I don’t suffer, Jay,” Linde told them, giving their hand a squeeze. “Not when I’m with you. Really, I’ll feel a lot better if I know you’re safe.”

The crew arrived at a mining camp. Grime-smeared workers bustled between rows of shoddy concrete cabins, each one marked with a number on the door. One of the cabins had been reserved for the Freelance Good Guys, but they needed to get its key from the foreman first. They asked around until they sleuthed their way to him—a stout old dworf clad in a hardhat and grimy coveralls. His gray beard was twisted into one long braid that rested against his round belly.

He was yelling at at a worker when the mercenaries approached him. Evan cleared his throat and asked, “Excuse me, sir, are you the foreman of the silver mining operation?”

The dworf whirled around and craned his neck up to face him. “Huh? What’s it to you?” he spat.

“Name’s Evan Atlas, I’m with the Freelance Good Guys,” explained Evan, extending a hand. “You contacted us about a security job…?”

The dworf paused. Then, his bushy brows shot up in recollection. “Oh! Well, color me surprised! I can’t believe you lunks actually showed up!” he said, eagerly shaking Evan’s hand with both of his own. “Zozzi Copperhead’s my name, and yes, I’m the foreman around here. Come with me and I’ll show you what we’re dealing with.”

Zozzi led the mercenaries further down the road. It ended in a large, circular clearing with tall rock faces on all sides. Each face was full of holes from top to bottom, dozens of caves both big and small. Zozzi spread his arms, gesturing all around him as he explained, “This here’s the work site. As you can see, there’s a lot of caves here, but only one of them’s got silver in it. The rest are full of nymphs, beasts, and other nasties that keep crawlin’ out and chewin’ through my workers! Not to mention my profits!”

He pointed a finger at Evan. “Your job is to protect my operation. If somethin’ comes outta one of these caves and it ain’t wearin’ a hardhat, I want it dead! Understand?”

“Consider it done, sir,” Evan replied.

“Good,” said Zozzi, then he blew a piercing whistle around his neck and shouted, “Vacation’s over, boys! Get your arses back to it, let’s go!”

The work site was scattered with small concrete shelters. One by one, the doors opened and people trudged out. They all wore grimy coveralls with pickaxes on their belts, pulling on work gloves and placing hardhats atop their heads as they approached a mineshaft in the middle of the clearing. A crane straddled the mineshaft, and once a worker started it up, the mercenaries watched as it hauled a heavy boulder up from the depths of Gaia.

Several more workers stepped onto a rickety elevator and rode it down into the darkness, while the rest meandered around the clearing, surveying the land and operating heavy machinery. A thin tower stood near the mineshaft. It was the tallest structure at the work site by far, topped with a glass lookout post. Zozzi pointed to it as he shouted at one of the machinists, “Wait a minute! That tower is still unmanned! Where’s my control center tech?”

The worker replied, “She was killed by nymphs, sir!”

Slapping a grimy hand over his face, Zozzi let out a long groan. Then he turned back to the mercenaries and grumbled, “Any of you sellswords got an engineering degree, by chance?”

Jeimos’ face lit up like a star. “Ooh! I do!” they blurted, waving their hand excitedly. “I graduated the Damijani Institute of Technology with degrees in engineering, robotics, computer sciences, and—”

“Okay, great! Wonderful!” interrupted Zozzi. He shoved the elf towards the tower and told them, “Then get up there and keep an eye on that console for me! Red lights bad, means there’s a problem. Green lights good, means everything’s running smooth.”

“Er, and what if I encounter a red light?” asked Jeimos.

Zozzi answered sharply, “Then find the problem and fix it, elf! Are you an engineer or ain’t you?”

“Yes, I am, but—”

“Oh, and one more thing,” added Zozzi, plucking a rectangular device off his belt. He waggled it in the air as he explained, “All of my workers have a communication device on ‘em. If you need to make an announcement, just flip the intercom switch on the console and everyone at the work site will hear whatever you have to say.”

He put the device back and poked Jeimos in the chest, “We only got one channel, so don’t go tyin’ up the line with pointless jibber-jabber! This is for important announcements only, got it?”

Jeimos nodded. “Yes, sir!”

Pulling a key off his keyring, Zozzi tossed it to Jeimos. The elf fumbled to catch it, then hurried off to the base of the tower. Linde watched with disappointment as they disappeared into the elevator.

She turned to Evan and said, “Mr. A, are you sure Jeimos should be manning that tower all by themself? M-maybe someone should accompany them.”

Shaking his head, Evan assured her, “Not to worry, Ms. Lumina! Jeimos loves all that computer stuff. They’re perfectly in their element up there. Now, I want the rest of you to guard the perimeter. Star formation, facing the center. Watch eachothers’ backs and call out if you see hostiles. Everyone ready?”

The crew nodded and mumbled in response. Before they split, Zozzi handed each of them a communication device to clip to their belts. The mercenaries posted themselves at opposing ends of the work site, each one facing the others so that no space was left unwatched.

Evan plucked the communicator off his belt and pressed the button on its side. “Captain Evan Atlas speaking. Security team is in position. Awaiting confirmation from central control. Over,” he announced. His voice carried out through every other communicator at the site. Jeimos, too, heard his voice from the built-in device in the tower as they stepped out of the elevator and into a hallway.

At the end of the hall was a rusty door. They used Zozzi’s key to unlock it, gasping at the room beyond it. The walls were made of thick glass, offering a 360 degree view of the scenic mountains around them. They could see the entire work site below, including their crewmen, who were but black specks standing in a five-point formation around the tower.

Jeimos barely noticed the view. What really caught their eye was the big, elaborate console stretching from one end of the room to the other. It had hundreds of buttons, switches, and levers to choose from, yet Jeimos found the power switch in a matter of seconds. Once they flipped it on, dozens of little bulbs came to life on the console. They cycled from red to yellow and finally settled on green. The console let out a low whirring sound. All seemed to be in order.

“My stars, what an elaborate setup! You are a marvel of a machine, aren’t you?” Jeimos cooed at the console, taking a seat in the single rolling chair. Another communicator was built-in to the console. Evan’s voice suddenly crackled through, sounding slightly annoyed.

“Awaiting confirmation from central control,” he repeated. “Paramonimos, please respond. Over.”

“Oh, hold your bloody horses…” mumbled Jeimos, looking over the rows of lights once more. Each one had a label indicating what system it was connected to. After skimming the console again, Jeimos found the switch simply labeled “comm”. When they switched it on, the little bulb above turned from yellow to green.

The elf spoke into the microphone beside it, “Paramonimos from central control speaking. All systems seem to be in working order. Ready to proceed. Over.”

“Thank you, Jay,” confirmed Evan, then the line went silent once more. Jeimos flipped the comm switch off, seeing that the light was yellow before turning away. Wouldn’t want to clutter the line with background noise, they thought.

They observed the work site from their window for some time, watching Zozzi and his team wander to and fro. When Jeimos looked back at the console, they noticed one of the many green bulbs had turned red. It was labeled “Crane 2”. The elf rolled their chair to the other side of the console, where a small monitor rested. Boxy white text appeared on the screen, depicting what looked like gibberish to the untrained eye. But to Jeimos, the string of technical jargon made perfect sense.

Jeimos flipped the switch on the intercom. “Central control speaking. The console is reporting a sensor error with crane two. It probably needs to be recalibrated. Will the nearest machinist please respond to crane two? Over.”

A stranger’s voice crackled back, “On my way”, then Jeimos flipped the intercom off again.

Not a second later, another bulb turned red. This one was labeled “Drill 4”. Jeimos glanced at the monitor, then flipped the switch and reported, “Central control here again. Drill four is reporting a critically high temperature. I recommend disconnecting the power and checking its cooling system before proceeding. Over.”

Far below the tower, Evan closely listened to his crewmate’s reports. Though the jargon flew over his head, his heart swelled with pride, for he knew there was no better person for such a complex task. He and the other mercenaries held their posts as the hours passed. There wasn’t much to entertain them except the occasional chatter over the communication devices, and none of it was the least bit interesting.

Linde perked up every time she heard Jeimos’ voice. The elf was handling their task with utmost professionalism, and as much as Linde longed to shower them in praise, she knew it was not allowed. Zozzi had already yelled at two machinists for “unnecessary chatter” on the line as they argued over how to fix a drill. She didn’t wish to face his wrath.

Up in the control tower, Jeimos leaned back in their rolling chair, balancing precariously on two wheels as they stared at the monitor. They watched lines of text scroll by as they sipped from a mug of cinnamon tea, courtesy of the small kitchen area in the back of the room.

Three uneventful hours passed. Then, an abrasive sound suddenly blared out from the console, startling Jeimos. They jumped, letting out a yelp as they fell backwards in their chair. Tea soaked the front of their armored robes and their mug shattered on the floor. There was no time to fret. The elf scrambled upright, orange eyes darting frantically across the console until they found the culprit: a flashing red light with a unhelpfully vague label: “DS-SEC 3”.

“DS-SEC 3? What the blazes does that mean?” they grumbled, rushing back towards the monitor for answers. The alarm was still screeching in time with the flashing light, grating against their elven ears. Red text appeared on the monitor, reading, “DISTRESS SIGNAL ENGAGED – SECTOR 03. DISMISS Y/N?”

Jeimos furrowed their brow with concern as they switched on the intercom. “Central control speaking. I’ve received a distress signal from Sector Three. Sector Three, please respond. Over.”

After a few seconds, a stranger’s voice shouted back, “Sector Three is compromised! I’m evacuating the team now! We need—held captive—and—” The voice began to crackle, fading in and out of heavy static.

“Sector Three, you’re breaking up,” replied Jeimos. “Please repeat—“ They recoiled when a rush of loud static hissed through the line. They could faintly hear feminine giggling beyond it, and in that moment, Jeimos knew exactly what they were dealing with. They leaned in close to the microphone and exclaimed, “Nymph activity reported in Sector Three! All security personnel, report to the elevator at once!”

The five mercenaries below finally snapped out of their boredom, rushing towards the center of the work site. They surrounded the deep mineshaft with their weapons drawn. The elevator was rapidly ascending, groaning and clanking its way up the rusty shaft. When it stopped, six panicked miners scrambled out and quickly dispersed. Evan and his crew took their place, and together they descended into the mine.

An electric bulb lit up the elevator in its dim, flickering glow. Evan turned to his crewmen, their faces all cloaked in bold shadows, and said, “We’re likely dealing with oreads. You know the drill: they’re heavier than they look and a whole lot stronger.”

Linde’s hands lit up with white, glittering light. “Leave it to me, Mr. A! Now, should I freeze them in place, or would you rather watch them slip around on a skating rink? The former is more efficient, but the latter is so much funnier…”

“That’ll be our plan B,” Evan told her quietly. “All of you, hold your fire until I say otherwise. Let’s see if we can’t resolve this without bloodshed.” The elevator came to a noisy stop at the bottom of the mineshaft. Several tunnels branched out from the clearing, each one marked with a sign. One of them was marked “SECTOR 3”.

Electric bulbs were strung up on a cord, just barely lighting the tunnel enough to see. Before they went further, Evan turned to Alaine and said, “Ms. Fontaine, try to communicate with the nymphs.”

Alaine sighed, “I doubt this is gonna work, but...hey, you’re the captain.” With that, she cleared her throat and began to sing. Her gentle melody traveled down the long, dark tunnel, down and down into parts unknown. The mercenaries waited. After a moment, they heard another melody call back to them.

“They’re singing back!” gasped Isaac.

But Alaine shook her head and replied, “No, that’s just an echo. I told you this wouldn’t work, Atty! Let’s go with Linde’s idea. That skating rink thing does sound pretty funny…”

Evan opened his mouth to respond, but just then, the mercenaries heard someone giggling from deeper in the tunnel. It sounded like a woman—no, two—or perhaps three or four, all laughing together. Among them was another voice, gruff and masculine. It called, “No! Please, don’t hurt me! I-I’ve got a family…!”

“Sounds like they have a captive,” noted Lukas.

The captain drew his sword. “Damn it. Alright, weapons ready,” he grumbled, leading his crew forward with his iron shield raised.

They crept their way down the tunnel until they came to a doorway. It led into an open space where a cavern had clearly been blasted open by dynamite, exposing new tunnels all around. Here, they found one of Zozzi’s workers surrounded by giggling nymphs. He was a young dworf armed with nothing but a pickaxe, swinging it desperately at one of the nymphs as she advanced.

The nymph raised her arm and the pick clanged against her stone gauntlet. The dworf reeled back and yet she didn’t even flinch, for she was a mighty oread armored in plates of hard granite. Her body was no bigger than Alaine’s, but the mercenaries knew her weight was much greater. The four other oreads behind her looked no less mighty, each of them armored with natural plates of metal and stone.

The nymphs hadn’t noticed the mercenaries yet, peeking out at them from the tunnel. They were focused on terrorizing the miner before them, lifting him over their heads and tossing him back and forth like a plaything. He flailed in their grips, screaming, “I’ll give you anything! Just let me leave this place alive, I’m begging you!”

One of the oreads caught him, but her laughter quickly turned to disgust. She dropped him like a hot coal and exclaimed, “Eeew, it leaked on me! Why is its face all wet?”

“I think that’s called ‘crying juice’,” said another, roughly picking him up by the back of his overalls. “Hey, did you know if you shake them really hard, you can make red syrup come out their ears?”

Evan’s brows shot up in alarm. If there was ever a time to intervene, it was now. He stepped forward and called, “Alright, alright! Break it up, ladies! Leave the poor guy alone, he’s no threat to you.”

“No threat?” an oread spat. She gestured to the pile of rubble behind her. “He and his dumb friends just blasted a hole in Mother’s body!”

“Yeah,” agreed another, “so we’re going to open him up and smear his red syrup all over the walls, then they’ll think twice before disrespecting Mother again!”

The other nymphs exclaimed their agreements while the dworf sobbed in terror.

Evan said to them, “Look, I’m sorry to hear about your mother. But this man is not your enemy, and frankly, neither are any of these miners. They’re just doing their jobs so they can feed their families.”

“They should find a different job then,” snapped an oread, and with that, she plunged her long claws straight through the miner’s coveralls and into his belly. The mercenaries’ jaws dropped. It happened so fast—one minute the miner was pleading for his life, and the next his innards were being gleefully smeared on the stone walls.

Evan turned to Linde and said, “Okay, plan B.”

Linde did not hesitate. The crystal at the end of her birch wand glowed with white magic. Cold steam billowed up, then she blasted the ground with a spell. A patch of frost manifested before them, rapidly spreading out in cold, spidery veins. The oreads stopped painting, watching in confusion as the floor below them was blanketed by a sheet of ice.

“What did she do?” queried one oread.

“They’re attacking us!” exclaimed another.

“Get them!” said a third, and all at once, the nymphs ceased their painting and rushed at the mercenaries. But the Freelance Good Guys held their ground, for a long, slippery patch of ice stood between them and their foes.

The oreads didn’t get far before they all went down with a series of screeches. They were slipping and sliding and scrambling, desperately trying to stand, but their bare feet offered no traction against the ice. “Isaac, you know what to do,” said Evan.

With a dutiful nod, Isaac took a running leap onto the ice. He skated by the oreads and slashed at them with his cursed scythe. Its blade cut through their stony bodies like butter, and within a matter of seconds, all four of them lie dead and dissected. They spilled no blood upon their deaths. Rather, gravel, sand, and soil spilled out from their great wounds.

Isaac gracefully crossed the ice and stepped onto the unfrozen patch of earth on the other side. He looked down at the miner’s corpse in dismay and reported, “He’s not moving. I don’t think he made it…”

Evan sighed, “Well, let’s collect the body anyway. Commander Fanaka, do you have a—”

Before he could ask for a sheet, a low rumbling sound roared up from one of the tunnels. The mercenaries paused, readying their weapons once more. Another rumble swelled up, louder and closer than before. The ground began to quake in slow, heavy pulses.

“Earthquake?” queried Alaine, looking distrustfully at the wooden support beams above. The rumbling sound grew even closer, the quakes more violent. Something was approaching. They could hear it with clarity now; its metallic groaning and screeching, its every heavy footfall of stone against stone…

“No. Terragladius,” said Evan, already ushering his crew back the way they came. “We can’t fight it in here, it’ll bring the whole cave down on us! Let’s draw it out to the elevator!”

The mercenaries ran back down the tunnel, struggling to stay upright as the ground shook beneath them. Dust and pebbles fell from the ceiling with every shake. They couldn’t see it in the darkness, but they could feel the titan nymph advancing fast.

Fumbling with his communicator, Evan pressed the button and panted into it, “This is Captain Atlas from Security! We’re on our way to the elevator with a terragladius in pursuit! All non-security personnel, please clear the work site immediately until further notice! Over!”

They could see daylight beaming down from the vertical shaft just ahead. Just before Evan returned the device to his belt, he heard Jeimos’ panicked voice crackle out, “Did you say ‘terragladius’? Well, don’t draw the bloody thing out here!”

“We don’t have much choice!” Evan growled back. “Just get everyone evacuated, now!”

Up in the command tower, Jeimos flipped the comm switch off with a growl of frustration, then rolled their chair over to a big, red lever on the other end of the console. It was labeled “EVAC ALARM: EMERGENCY USE ONLY!”

When they pulled the lever, piercing sirens began blaring over the work site. Workers poured out of caves and abandoned their heavy machinery, funneling towards the main road in a panic. Jeimos stood up to look out the window. They saw the mouth of the vertical mineshaft below, but couldn’t see past the black abyss inside. The elf wrung their hands anxiously as they awaited word from their crew.

Little did they know, the crew was standing just beyond the shadows of the abyss below. They piled into the elevator and Lukas frantically pushed the ascend button. Nothing happened. Over and over he pressed it, but still the elevator didn’t budge.

“Lukas, let’s go!” Evan growled over the terragladius’ rumbling.

Lukas snapped back, “I’m trying! The damn thing won’t work!”

Evan shoved the commander aside and slammed his fist against the button himself. Now they could see three glowing lights approaching from the depths—the eyes of the terragladius as it slowly lumbered towards them. The elevator still wouldn’t move.

Lukas snatched Evan’s communicator and shouted into it, “Jeimos, the elevator won’t move! What’s the problem?”

Above, Jeimos slapped a palm against their gasping mouth. Flipping the comm switch, they replied, “Oh, chaps, I’m afraid the elevator operator has evacuated with the rest! Damn and blast it, I should have made an exception—”

Ripping the device from Lukas, Alaine added, “We’re about to be crushed, just do something!”

There was no time to waste. They could see the terragladius now, and it was unlike any other they’d seen before. What they encountered in the past were colossal humanoid structures made of stone and metal, who stood upon two legs and typically had clubs or blades for hands. This creature was an abstract monstrosity, a walking tripod with segmented legs of carved stone. Its round body was armored with layered titanium plates not unlike an armadillo’s hide. Hidden beneath the shadow of its frontmost plate was the black void of its face, from which its three glowing, white eyes blinked out of tandem. The creature was the size of a Matuzan war elephant and surely ten times heavier.

“What the feck is that thing? That ain’t no ‘gladia!” blurted Glenvar.

“It is, I assure you! Zareenite gladdies are a different sort!” replied Evan, shoving them all out of the elevator.

Alaine’s eyes frantically scanned the creature up and down as it took another laborious step towards them. “Looks more like a machine than a nymph! Where the heck is its verve core?”

“That’s a damn good question!” Evan called back, pulling a coil of rope off his belt. It had a hook at the end, which he lashed outward, and it wrapped around the titan’s frontmost leg several times before hooking onto itself. “Let’s try to flip this thing!” he said, then he dashed under it with the rope in hand.

The titan’s eyes tracked him until he disappeared under its chassis. Its suddenly dropped its body, attempting to crush him, but Evan dived away just in time and rolled towards its other leg. He quickly wrapped the rope around it, then two of its three legs were tethered together.

Just as it was lifting its body, Isaac bolted by and slashed at its free leg with his scythe. The blade cut straight through with a white-hot spark, then the titan slumped down again. It had but two tethered legs and one short stump left. It let out a grinding, metallic screech of fury and flailed its remaining legs. The rope snapped.

“Watch out!” called Lukas. He tackled Glenvar down just before a heavy leg swung over their heads. The other leg was headed towards Linde. The elfenne shrieked and casted a massive blast of magic, coating the entire leg in ice. Its joint froze solid, then all it could do was twitch as it struggled to break free.

“That spell won’t last long! Hurry and find that core!” said Linde. The mercenaries ran around the creature, dodging the free leg as it tried to crush them. Each movement it made was slow, but even one successful hit would be fatal to any of them.

Alaine and Lukas crawled up its back, searching under its many armored plates. All terragladia possessed a large, gleaming marble somewhere on their person. It was their magical verve core, the source of their power. If the mercenaries could destroy that, the titan’s whole body would fall apart. Typically the verve core was in the torso, but this creature had no torso at all. It was but a giant head popped up on three legs—or two, rather, as one was amputated and it had just broken free of Linde’s frost spell.

“Mr. A!” Linde screeched, but it was too late. Evan had no time to react before the colossal leg came down on top of him, kicking up a great plume of dust. The mercenaries reeled back, shielding their eyes from flying dirt and pebbles.

Isaac was the first to retaliate. He yanked his flight goggles over his eyes and charged into the thick cloud. He squinted, and through the haze he could just barely see a man’s lower half sticking out from under the stone leg. For a moment he feared the worst, until he realized that leg wasn’t quite flush with the ground. Isaac crouched down and saw that Evan was pinned beneath the titan’s limb, just barely holding it off with his own lycanthrope strength.

His arms quaked with exertion, teeth gnashed and face red. He wouldn’t last much longer, and once he let go, the limb would surely shatter his ribs to dust. Isaac charged forward and drove his blade through the titan’s joint. Its colossal body crashed down, and with a roaring heave, Evan and Isaac shoved its severed leg off to the side. Isaac pulled Evan back to his feet and away from the injured titan.

It had just one leg left. It used it to slowly drag itself towards the mercenaries, then took a slow, pathetic swipe. They all dodged the swing with ease, then watched in horror as the leg crashed against the elevator shaft. Metal groaned and screeched as it warped under the hit.

“Well, piss on my grave! Now we’re trapped down here with it!” exclaimed Glenvar. The crew scattered as it took another swing at them.

“Its core must be somewhere on its belly,” mentioned Alaine. She gestured to the creature, now stuck on the ground. “We’ll never get to it now!”

A thousand ideas raced through Evan’s head, but he wasn’t confident in a single one. He looked up at the crane hovering over the top of the mineshaft, the very same that was used to haul boulders away, and knew it was their only hope. He spoke into his communicator, “Captain Atlas speaking! Paramonimos, is there any way you can get that crane working?”

Jeimos stood up from their chair and rushed back to the window, peering down at the crane. Flipping the comm switch, they answered, “What—the one over the shaft? Well, I...I might be able to operate it remotely! Just give me a moment!”

The mercenaries dodged another swing from the titan. Lukas scrambled for his communicator and shouted, “This walking junk heap just took out the elevator! Whatever you do, do it quick! We’re like fish in a god damned barrel down here!”

The titan stabbed its leg forward, trying to crush Linde. The elfenne darted away and its blunt, club-like foot struck the wall instead. Spidery cracks spread outward, causing a big collapse. Stones and debris blocked several tunnels, and the titan itself blocked the others. There was no escape.

Meanwhile, Jeimos’ eyes bounced back and forth over the vast console, searching for some kind of crane control. All heavy machinery must have been linked with the control center, or else how would they be reporting errors to the console? There must have been some way to access them, the elf thought.

The console itself was providing no answers. They drummed their anxious fingers against the table in thought, sweat beading their brow as they strained their brain for solutions. They glanced at the monitor, sitting innocuously at the edge of the console.

“The computer! Of course!” they hissed. Jeimos jumped back in their chair and rolled towards the computer. A board with over a hundred keys sat below the monitor, and they began furiously typing every relevant command they could think of to access the central crane.

The speaker crackled to life again. They heard Isaac’s voice cry through a cacophony of background noise, “We can’t dodge this thing forever, Jay-Jay! Please hurry!”

“Oh my stars...please, please, just bloody work…” the elf nearly sobbed at the computer. Their trembling fingers danced clumsily over the keys until finally, a merciful line of text appeared on the screen.

“CRANE 0: OPERATIONS MENU”

Below that was a list of remote functions, clearly labeled with their corresponding keys. Jeimos cried out with surprise and scrambled for the comm switch. “Chaps, I-I’ve done it! I have remote access to the crane! Over!”

The terragladius dragged its colossal leg across the ground, trying to sweep the mercenaries. They had no choice but to sprint all the way around it until they were out of reach, Glenvar just narrowly escaping. They were running out of energy, but the titan would never slow down until its core was located and destroyed.

“Oh, thank the gods,” panted Evan. He responded into his communicator, “Good work, friend! Just lower those hooks for us, and when I give the signal, I want you to pull up! Understood?”

“At once, Mr. Atlas! Over!”

Jeimos did just as they were told, using key functions to control the crane. The unmanned machine twitched to life, then the braided-steel rope began to descend. Its end split in three, and at the end of these three ropes were massive hooks that weighed as much as a man. Normally they were wrapped around boulders and hooked together or fastened around heavy equipment. But Evan had other plans for them.

As soon as the hooks were in reach, Evan grabbed one and ran towards the titan nymph’s chassis with it. “Hurry and get it secured! We’re gonna haul this trash out of here!” he said, throwing the hook over its thigh. Quickly he wrapped it around and fastened the hook over the steel cable, securing it in place. His crewmen set to work, though they struggled to move the hooks as swiftly as he. Evan and Isaac distracted the nymph while the others laboriously dragged the hooks closer. Glenvar and Alaine wrapped one around its other amputated stump, then rushed to help Linde and Lukas secure its last remaining leg.

Needless to say, it did not cooperate. The titan stomped its foot at them, causing them to drop the hook and flee. Linde retaliated with an icy blast, freezing its joint in place just long enough for them to secure the hook.

Evan’s voice crackled through the console speaker, “Okay, we’ve got it! Pull up!”

“Pulling up!” announced Jeimos, and with the simple tap of a key, the crane’s reeling mechanism began to turn. The slack in the cable was pulled taut. Groaning and screeching with strain, the old crane held steady as it pulled something massive from the depths.

Jeimos returned to the window. They expected to see their crewmen dangling from the hooks—but no, they had fastened those hooks around the terragladius itself. They stood upon its back like proud fisherman with their oversized catch, smiling and waving up at the control tower.

Jeimos couldn’t believe their eyes. They flipped the comm switch and said calmly, “You know, chaps...when you told me to lower those hooks, I assumed you’d use them to escape the terragladius…” They couldn’t feign it anymore. Their anxiety burst out as they shouted, “I didn’t think you’d drag the blasted thing up here! What on Gaia were you thinking? Put that tyrant back where you found it or so help me—!”

Evan’s voice came through the speaker, “It can’t move, Jeimos! It’s completely subdued so long as we keep it suspended. Now, swing us over solid ground so we can access its core. It should be somewhere on its belly.”

Jeimos let out a groan. Reluctantly they obeyed, pressing a key that slowly rotate the crane ninety degrees clockwise, then pressed another to lower it closer to the ground. The terragladius hovered just a man’s height over the dirt, so close and yet so far away from freedom. It wriggled in its binds to no avail.

The mercenaries jumped off its back and inspected the underside of its chassis, invisible to them before. Sure enough, a gleaming core was tucked in its center, held in place by three metal prongs. “Everyone stand back,” said Evan. He raised his shield over his head as he walked under the core. Then, with his other hand, he reached up and pulled one of the metal prongs with all his might.

Only with his lycanthropy could he bend such a thing, and bend it did, far enough that the orb came loose from its grip. In that instant, the titan’s three glowing eyes grew dim. It powered down with a monstrous moan, and then its entire body fell to pieces. Heavy chunks of stone and metal rained over Evan. He braced himself under his iron shield and endured, dropping to one knee.

Once the debris settled, he clawed his way out with a big, toothy grin on his sweaty face. He held the verve core high in the air and announced, “The titan is vanquished!”

His crewmen cheered, jumping and dancing and embracing with excitement. Lukas panted into his communicator, “This is Commander Fanaka speaking. The area is clear of hostiles. All personnel may return to the work site. Over.”

Jeimos slumped down bonelessly in their chair, sighing with relief. Their undershirt was soaked with sweat and they hadn’t even set foot out of the tower! They trudged over to the kitchen area to make themselves more tea, all while Zozzi Copperhead and his team returned from the road.

Zozzi stormed back and forth across the work site, jaw hanging open in dismay. He stopped in front of the titan nymph’s remains, where the Freelance Good Guys were waiting. Evan approached him with a proud smile and said, “This is all that remains of that nasty terragladius, sir. It won’t be troubling you any more!”

He expected a hand shake, a ‘thank you’, or at least a smile in return. Zozzi couldn’t manage any of those things. Instead, he marched to the edge of the mineshaft and squinted at the deep, dark abyss below.

“Did I hear you say that thing took out the elevator?” he barked. A crowd of workers was gathering around him.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” replied Lukas. “The last quarter of it is completely destroyed. I wouldn’t try to use it if I were you…”

Zozzi pulled off his hardhat and pitched it at the ground. “Then how on Gaia’s great arse are my workers supposed to work?” he roared. “All the silver’s down in this shaft! Every minute I spend talking to you morons is a thousand GP down the shitter! Why did you let that thing destroy my equipment? And you call yourselves ‘professionals’! Bah! I should fire you all on the spot!”

The dworf’s face turned a darker shade of gray, ears practically steaming with rage. Lukas blurted, “Are you fucking kidding me? We just risked our—”

But before he could continue, Evan clamped a hand over his commander’s mouth and said calmly, “Yes, what a treacherous situation that was! We’re lucky the damage wasn’t worse, aren’t we? Your crane is still in good working order, and as far as we can tell, there was only one casualty throughout this whole ordeal. That poor fellow, may the gods rest his soul…”

Zozzi rubbed at his aching temples. Evan placed a hand on his shoulder and continued, “The terragladius may be gone, but who’s to say there aren’t more lurking in these mountains? There’s no sense in wasting any more time. The best thing to do is pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get back to work.”

His words seemed to get through to the old dworf, who took a deep breath to exhale his rage. Quietly he replied, “You’re right. I’ve already lost enough money just waiting for you idiots to get here, and I ain’t gonna lose anymore waiting for a crew to replace you.” Turning back to his workers, he announced, “Alright, listen up! I want all my techs to start working on this elevator, ASAP! In the meantime, I want the rest of you to get down there using this crane and start cleaning up whatever mess that nymph made.”

One of his workers dared to speak up, “Uh, sir? Using the crane as an elevator is surely against Safety Council regulations…”

“Screw regulations, boy! My money’s on the line here!” growled Zozzi. He faced Evan again and added, “I guess I won’t fire you, but you lot are on thin ice! I want you on standby until this operation is up and running again, you got that?”

“Not a problem, sir. We won’t go far, just give us a holler,” Evan told him. Zozzi stormed off and the workers dispersed. So too did the mercenaries, taking a well-deserved break after their treacherous tangle with the titan.

“Well then,” began Evan, pulling the Z-Credit card from his pocket, “who wants to head into town and bring back some takeout?”

“Ooh! Me!” offered Isaac, reaching up to snatch the card.

Evan jerked it out of his grip and warned, “Business expenses only, son. No cards, no comics, no nonsense.”

The young man’s shoulders slumped. “Ugh. Fine,” he mumbled, taking the card and trudging off towards the road.

“So, we’re on break until further notice?” asked Linde.

“Looks like it,” replied Evan. “If you suffered any wounds back there, I suggest you tend them now.”

“Hey, I think I got one. Does this look broken to you guys?” asked Glenvar, holding up his left index finger. It was bent sideways at a grotesque angle, his crewmen cringing at the sight of it.

Alaine smirked. “Heh, it looks like an ‘L’. You know, for loser! Loser, loser, big fat boozer!”

Glenvar’s face flushed pink. “Aw, shut yer kirk-hole, stira! If it weren’t fer the booze, I might actually feel this shite!”

Stepping between them, Evan pushed his crewmen in separate directions and said, “That’s enough, you too. Just get that finger in a splint and try not to kill eachother until Isaac gets back. We’ll all feel better after some lunch.”

Isaac didn’t leave them waiting long. He returned with two big paper sacks full of takeout boxes, seven for the crew and seven more for Evan alone. Linde had been waiting all day for this moment. Finally, a good excuse to be alone with Jeimos!

The mercenaries crowded around Isaac like hungry mongrels the moment they smelled food. As they each took their portions, Linde grabbed two boxes and announced, “I’ll take one of these up to Jeimos. You know how they are; they’d sooner starve to death than tear themselves away from their gizmos!”

“Ah, yes! They’ve been shut away like a hermit all day. I almost forgot about them,” admitted Evan. He smiled and added, “You’re a good friend, Ms. Lumina. Just make sure not to linger; Mr. Copperhead said he doesn’t want any unauthorized personnel in the control tower.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t take any longer than I need to,” Linde replied vaguely, already walking off with the food. Little did her captain know, she and Jeimos were far more than “friends”. They managed to keep their relationship under wraps for the better part of three years now, though it wasn’t always easy. It was hard to find time together without drawing suspicion—especially back home in the compound, where everyone was always barging into everyone else’s space.

This was the perfect opportunity for some quality time together, thought Linde. Who would possibly bother them way up in that restricted control tower? As far as she knew, Zozzi and Jeimos were the only ones with keys to it.

Linde stepped in the elevator. The moment the metal doors slid shut, her eyes began to water and a wave of nausea spread throughout her body. The stench of this iron cage and the iron scaffolding around it was overpowering, and she couldn’t get out fast enough when it finally stopped. She rushed down the hall towards the single rusty door at the end, pulling her long sleeve over her knuckles before knocking on it.

The sound caught Jeimos by surprise. They found a game on the computer an hour ago and had been engrossed in it ever since. Quickly they terminated the program and shut off the monitor before calling, “Y-yes, who is it?”

“It’s dinner and dessert, darling!” a familiar voice called back. Intrigued, Jeimos opened the door. Linde sauntered right in and kicked it shut behind her, handing them a takeout box. “Here’s your dinner,” she said, then struck a seductive pose and added, “and here’s your dessert...”

Jeimos paused, furrowing their brow. They looked up and down and all around her before asking, “Where?”

Linde’s arms dropped lifelessly to her sides. “It’s me, Jeimos! I’m the dessert!” she whined.

“Oh!” the elf gasped. They set the box aside and pulled her into their arms, cooing, “And a delicious one you are, my little creamsicle!”

Linde’s smile quickly returned as she embraced them back. She stood on the tips of her toes, Jeimos nearly bending themselves in half to share a kiss.

“I just wanted to make sure you ate today,” Linde told them. “And um, you know, spend a little time together, if you wanted to…”

Jeimos’ brows sagged as they replied, “Oh, Linde, of course I want to! I would love nothing more! It’s just that—Mr. Copperhead, he was very adamant that—”

“I know, I know. ‘Authorized personnel only’,” Linde repeated in a gruff, mocking voice. She backed Jeimos against the console and leaned against their chest as she continued, “I won’t cause any trouble, darling, you know that. Please, can’t I stay for just a little while?”

Jeimos hesitated. “Well, I—” they began, but only then did Linde notice the window beyond them.

The elfenne interrupted, “Oh my god! Look at the view from here!” Her pink eyes rounded wide, jaw dropping at the dramatic mountain peaks outside the window. She clasped her hands together and sighed dreamily, “I never thought Zareen Empire could look so beautiful. Isn’t this incredible? Wow, this totally makes up for the iron poisoning! I could stare out this window forever…”

Clearing their throat, Jeimos reminded her, “Er, Linde, my dear? You really shouldn’t be here in the first place. If Mr. Copperhead catches you—”

“Right! Okay, sorry, you’re right,” replied Linde, forcing herself to turn away from the glass. “I guess I should just hurry up and get what I came for then.”

“And what was that?” queried Jeimos.

Linde regarded them with a mischievous smirk, backing them towards their chair. “For you, I hope,” she teased, sliding into their lap. She toyed with their long, crimson braids as she told them, “I’ve been listening to you run this place all day. Something about you taking control and ordering all those workers around...it just makes me melt!” The elfenne seemed to liquefy, letting her body fall bonelessly over theirs.

“Does it now?” queried Jeimos, a certain wryness creeping into their voice.

“Mm-hm,” Linde moaned against their lips as she pulled them into a kiss. It was deep and passionate, slow and lingering.

Jeimos sat upright, briefly turning towards the window. They saw nothing but mountains ahead, and though they knew there were hundreds of eyes below, surely none of them could see into the tower, not from such a distance, at such an angle. They were free to do as they wished here, at least until Zozzi’s team got the mineshaft running again.

Whatever reluctance Jeimos had before, it was fading by the second. Linde stole it from them with every press of her lips, every sweep of her tongue and gyration of her body. How could the elf possibly refuse her?

Jeimos’ gloved hands began to stray, first toying with the straps of Linde’s leather chestplate, then sliding over her cotton shirt below. They felt the delicate swell of the elfenne’s breasts beneath, such a contrast to the hard leather. Linde placed her hands over theirs. She guided their palms over her breasts and massaged in slow circles, meeting their gaze with a bitten lip.

Jeimos was utterly enthralled by her. How did she always manage to do that? They couldn’t even begin to wonder, for she had their undivided attention when she pulled her shirt up and away, revealing a pale blue brassiere beneath. Jeimos pulled her close, slipping her brassiere strap down and mouthing at her exposed breast like a ravenous vampire. Linde cried out in surprise. She didn’t have to hold back, she realized. Not here above the mountains, high above the rest of the world where no one could hear her.

“Oh god, Jay!” she gasped and giggled, wriggling in their grip. Jeimos only held her tighter as they had their way with her, their mouth occupied with one breast and their hand busy with the other. Their free hand crept down her back, around her side and over her thigh, sliding ever inward. Linde wore a short, two-layered skirt of leather and chainmail. It protected her from the terragladius, but it did nothing to stop Jeimos’ hand from sneaking underneath.

Smoke was starting to waft from the elf’s nostrils, their skin heating up with a subtle glow. They were getting too hot for Linde to handle. She countered their flames with a frost spell, and soon the two of them began to steam. Condensation beaded on Linde’s white skin, dripping onto Jeimos’ face with a soft hiss. There was no better place for their emotions to run hot, thought Jeimos. Zareen Empire was the most flame-resistant kingdom in the world. Everything in this tower was made of metal, glass, or plastic slathered in fire-retardant chemicals.

The only flammable thing here was the upholstery on their rolling chair. So, Jeimos stood up and kicked it aside, leaning their rear against the console instead. Linde slid down to her knees, smiling coyly as she parted their long, purple robe. Jeimos wore pyriad-leather boots and leggings underneath. Linde tugged the leggings down just far enough to expose their crotch, for she knew Jeimos didn’t like to show their skin, even during intimacy.

Jeimos watched her, still entranced by her every move. They combed their fingers through her long, white hair as she teased them with her tongue, just barely grazing flesh. Jeimos’ thighs trembled with anticipation. Their mouth felt dry. “Don’t torture me, dear,” they begged her breathlessly. “Please, oh please, it isn’t nice!”

Linde couldn’t help but giggle. “Oh, alright,” she relented, then she plunged forth and held nothing back. Jeimos’ jaw dropped with a deep, shuddering gasp. Their knees quaked and they almost collapsed, clutching the edge of the console for support. The whole world around them drifted away. Suddenly all that mattered was Linde and her bold, sweeping tongue.

“Yes, yes! That’s it, right there!” the elf gasped. They feared their legs would give out from under them. They leaned further back on the console, reaching up to grip its top edge. Their long sleeve dragged against its surface, and in all their ecstasy, they never noticed when it caught on the communicator switch. The yellow bulb turned to green.

Down at the work site, the other mercenaries were eating together at a grimy picnic table. They joked and laughed and traded stories until all their communicator devices crackled to life. They silenced themselves and listened closely for the announcement.

For about thirty seconds, there was only silence and background static. Alaine tapped her device and queried, “These things busted or what?” Zozzi’s workers seemed equally confused, stopping to inspect their own devices.

Zozzi Copperhead was down in the mineshaft, yelling at his technicians when he noticed his communicator seemed to be on the fritz. He plucked it off his belt, just about to yell at Jeimos when he heard the elf’s voice sputter through the static first.

“My stars...Oh, my lovely stars, yes…!” Jeimos moaned. Zozzi raised an eyebrow, looking at his communicator like it had bitten him. Over at the table, the mercenaries stared at theirs in a similar way, then exchanged uncertain glances with eachother.

The static had a slow, steady rhythm to it. It was getting louder and faster, and only then did they realize it wasn’t static at all—it was Jeimos breathing heavily into the microphone. The elf had collapsed on their back, sprawled carelessly out onto the console. Every few breaths was interrupted by a wanton moan.

They wrapped their legs around Linde’s back and clutched her white head, gently guiding her motion. One of Linde’s hands braced her against the console while the other crept between Jeimos’ legs. Jeimos felt her fingertips teasing below her chin and encouraged her, “Yes! Do it, please! Oh, stars, I’m so close…!”

Two fingers slipped inside them with ease. Linde rocked them back and forth in rhythm with her tongue, lapping at the swollen bud above. It was all too much. Every nerve in Jeimos’ body seemed to buzz with energy. Their eyes rolled back, mouth falling wide open as they arched their spine like a bridge.

They whimpered in pulsing ecstasy, so breathy and wanton that there was no mistaking it for anything else but a cry of pure pleasure. The sound blared over every communicator device at the work site, drawing out giggles and whoops from the workers.

Alaine couldn’t help but laugh with them, covering her mouth in disbelief. Glenvar cheered, “Whooo! Get it, Red!” as Lukas silently buried his face in his palms. Isaac looked around at his crewmates, wondering why they weren’t rushing to help. The burden fell on him to save the day, he supposed.

Isaac jumped upright and whipped the scythe off his back harness. “Guys, I think Jay’s trying to call for help! Come on, we gotta save ‘em!”

Evan called, “Isaac, no--!” and reached out to snatch him, but it was too late. The young man was already bounding off towards the tower. Alaine and Glenvar laughed as Evan gave chase, Lukas simply shaking his head in disapproval.

Isaac bolted into the elevator. The iron doors slammed shut just before Evan arrived, and the captain was forced to wait until it descended again. Once it reached the top of the tower, Isaac ran down the hall towards the only door he could see. He tried to open it, but it was locked.

“Jay! Are you okay in there?” he called, shaking the handle with all his might. Jeimos and Linde both jumped with a start, scrambling to cover themselves. Jeimos jumped off the console, and that’s when they saw it: the green communicator light. They gasped in horror, raking their fingers against the sides of their dizzy head. Their wide eyes shifted to Linde, who looked back at them with the same expression. Jeimos reached one trembling hand out and shut it off.

Suddenly they heard a loud “thunk!” followed by a scraping sound. The Divine Executioner’s distinct blade was slicing right through the door! Linde spun around in a silent panic, desperately searching for somewhere to hide. Jeimos shoved her towards the tiny bathroom and slammed the door behind her. Just as that door closed, the other opened. Rather, it fell right off its hinges and hit the floor.

Isaac rushed into the room, scythe raised and ready to swing. He looked left and right, but saw no hostiles. All he saw was Jeimos, standing awkwardly in front of the bathroom. “Whew,” he sighed, lowering his weapon, “I thought you were being attacked up here or something! Is everything okay?”

“Um...er…” Jeimos began. They had no idea what to say. Just then, someone else rushed through the doorway. Evan grabbed Isaac by the shoulders and began steering him back towards the hallway.

“Hey!” Isaac wriggled in his grip, but it was no use. Evan gave him a hard shove that sent him stumbling all the way back into the elevator.

“I’ll take it from here, son. Now go finish your lunch before Glen does it for you!” Evan called. Isaac considered arguing, then realized it wasn’t worth it and shut his mouth. He slapped the button on the elevator with a grumble and disappeared down the shaft.

Evan turned back to Jeimos. Taking a deep breath, he cleared his throat and said sheepishly, “Sorry to barge in like this, friend. I just wanted to let you know, I, uh...think you left your communicator on.” He pointed vaguely towards the console.

Jeimos’ face flushed beet-red. “Yes, I realize that now!” they blurted, smoke blasting from their mouth.

Evan raised his palms as he backed towards the door. “Alright. I’ll just take my leave then…” He stepped outside the doorway, stooping to lift the heavy door off the floor with a grunt. Before he left, he said, “You know, Jeimos...There’s a time and a place for mindless self-indulgence, and the workplace isn’t it. I’d expect this kind of thing from a lesser crewman, but I never in a million years would’ve expected it from you!”

He shook his head a little and continued, “I’ll let you off with a warning this time, but I want you to know I’m very disappointed by your behavior today.”

Jeimos’ blood was simmering. They felt like they’d burst into flames at any moment. They let out a strangled, “I’m sorry, Mr. Atlas.”

Evan sighed, “Please, just...do your job from now on, alright?”

“Alright.”

With that, Evan backed out of the room and placed the door back in its frame. Its hinges were still broken, but that was a problem for later. The bathroom door opened just a crack and Linde peeked out, seeing that the room was clear before stepping out. She wore a cheeky smile when she giggled, “’Mindless self-indulgence? Oh my god, did he really think you were…?”

“Why are you laughing? This isn’t funny, Linde!” snapped Jeimos. They paced over to the window and thumped their head against the glass, clawing at their crimson braids in tears. “I knew this was a bad idea! How humiliating! I could just die on the spot!”

Linde guided them away from the window, softly rubbing their back. “Come on, darling, it’s not that bad. You only got a warning. And the best part is, no one suspects a thing about us!”

“That’s easy for you to say,” sniffled Jeimos. “You’re not the one being accused of masturbating on the job like some kind of pervert! Please, just get out of here before someone catches you. I wouldn’t wish this kind of shame on anyone! Oh, I just want to bury myself alive!”

Linde opened her mouth to speak, then closed it with a sigh of resignation. She simply offered Jeimos a hug and a soft apology before carefully exiting through the broken door.

*

Evan rode the elevator back down to the work site. He found Isaac waiting for him just outside the door, and the young man bombarded him with questions the moment it opened. “What was wrong with Jeimos? Are they okay? They left the communicator on by accident, huh? Didn’t it sound like they were in pain to you?” he asked.

Evan hesitated, thinking his answer over carefully. As they walked back to the picnic table, he replied, “Yes, um...turns out it was just, uh...belly troubles, that’s all. You know how sensitive their stomach is; I’m sure that greasy takeout did them no favors.”

Isaac’s eyes rounded. He exclaimed, “Oh man! You mean they had the ass-splatters and the whole site heard it? Poor Jay! I mean, okay, that’s sort of funny, but…” He scrubbed at the back of his neck, restraining a grin. “...glad it wasn’t me! Want me to dip into town and grab them some medicine?”

“No, Isaac,” Evan replied quickly, “don’t you dare bring this up again! I’m sure they’re embarrassed enough as it is. Let’s all just get back to work and pretend this never happened.”

As soon as they arrived at the table, someone else did too. Zozzi stomped towards the crew and shouted, “That’s it! I’ve had it with you lot! I gave you one last chance to redeem yourselves and you pissed it away!”

“Mr. Copperhead, please! This is all just a misunderstanding. Let’s discuss this rationally and—” Evan tried to explain, but the dworf shouted over him,

“A ‘misunderstanding’? There’s nothin’ to misunderstand, sellsword! I know damn well what I heard comin’ through that device, and I’m not payin’ you to literally screw around on my coin!” He ripped the communicator off Evan’s belt. “Give me my equipment back! You’re done and your payment is forfeit! I’ve never seen such a lack of professionalism in all my life!”

Pointing at the tower, he finished, “Now go pull that nasty hob out of my tower, get your arses off my property, and don’t even think about comin’ back!”

*

The Freelance Good Guys boarded the monorail back to Nasrin’s central station. Linde pulled a paper sack from her pocket with a sigh as she took the seat beside Jeimos. As much as Jeimos wished to comfort her, the elf couldn’t bring themselves to do anything but hide their face between their knees. The hood of their robe was pulled all the way over their head. They couldn’t bear to look at their crewmen, nor could they bear their crewmen looking at them. This was going to be the longest ride of their life, they thought.

No one had said a word since Zozzi Copperhead kicked them off the job site. Their contract was officially forfeit and they would not be seeing a coin from him. Glenvar was the first to speak as he climbed into the seat behind Jeimos. He delivered a half-hearted slap to the back of the elf’s head and grumbled, “Nice goin’, Jay-Jay. Wasn’t enough to go feck yerself—ya just had to feck the whole crew, didn’t ya?”

“Glen!” warned Evan, taking his seat next to Lukas.

“I didn’t come all the way to this noisy, smelly cesspit of an empire fer nothin’, Chief!” argued Glenvar. “We slayed that titan fair ‘n square, so where’s our check? That old coot can stuff himself! This is a crock of shite!”

“Yeah, this blows,” agreed Alaine, slumping down beside Glenvar. “We should go back there and renegotiate. And by ‘renegotiate’, I mean dangle Mr. Copperhead by his feet and shake him ‘til our payment falls out!”

Linde stared into her paper sack, daring not to say a word as her crewmen mumbled their agreements. “What a mean old man,” said Isaac. “Can’t he have some sympathy? It’s not like Jeimos wanted to broadcast their diarrhea to hundreds of people!”

“Damn, it, boy, what did I tell you?” barked Evan, slapping a hand over his cohort’s mouth.

Lukas grumbled, “The conversion rate for those stupid Z-Credits is terrible, and we’re all out of gold anyway. I don’t know what we’re gonna do about breakfast tomorrow. Can we even afford an inn tonight?”

“Forget that! The real question is, can we afford a flight off this gods-forsaken rock and get back home?” exclaimed Glenvar.

“Alright, everyone settle down!” urged Evan. He began unbuckling the flap on his bulging satchel as he explained, “I can’t believe all this bellyaching I’m hearing! Don’t you lot have any faith in me? You know your captain always has a backup plan. We may be a ways up Shit Creek, but luckily for us…”

He reached into the satchel and pulled out a gleaming sphere. “...I brought a paddle.”

Six sets of eyes grew as round as the sphere. “Is that the verve core?” blurted Lukas. “When did you pick that up? I can’t believe Copperhead let you keep that thing!”

A sheepish grin crossed Evan’s face. “He didn’t,” the captain admitted, securing it back into his bag. “I just never got a chance to turn it in before he fired us. I figure we can get a fat chunk of coin for it, at the very least.”

The hardened faces of his crewmen softened. They expressed a round of subdued cheers, trying not to draw attention to their treasure in this car full of strangers. Glenvar laughed, reaching over Jeimos to slap his captain’s shoulder, “Well, if the geezer doesn’t like it, he should’a thought of that before he sacked us!”

“’Atta boy, Atty! I knew you wouldn’t let us down!” cheered Alaine.

Though Jeimos felt a bit of weight lift off their shoulders, they still couldn’t shake the immense shame pinning their head between their knees. They remained silent until the monorail came to a squealing stop at the station.

The crew stood up and started filing out of the car; all except for Jeimos, still firmly planted in their seat. Linde disposed of her soggy paper sack and blearily begged the elf to get up. “Jay, come on. This is our stop,” she said.

The others had already stepped outside. Lukas lagged behind near the door, listening in as Jeimos replied, “I can’t face them, Linde. They’ll never take me seriously again! How can they even trust me after this?”

“Well, you can’t stay on the train! Let’s get out of here before it takes off again.”

Jerking their arm from her grip, Jeimos nearly cried, “Just leave me alone, will you? This whole thing is your fault, yet I’m the one taking all the blame! I have half a mind to ride this train back to Viersen and never come back!”

“What?” gasped Linde. Tears immediately welled up in her pink eyes, face creasing in pain. “You can’t possibly mean that! I-I never meant to get you in trouble, it was just a—”

“Please spare me your tears, I can’t bear them right now!” Jeimos creaked with emotion, starting to weep themselves. They waved her towards the exit and choked, “Now get off this iron monster before you sicken yourself. I need a moment alone. If I’m not at the station in ten minutes, just tell the crew I’ll be in Viersen until further notice.”

“No! Jeimos!” Linde whined. She reached for their arm again, but Jeimos pushed her away and turned themselves towards the window. Linde knew she couldn’t argue without shouting, so she simply gave up and fled the car in tearful sobs. She was so consumed by her emotions, she never noticed Lukas even as she shoved past him to run out the door. He heard everything.

Jeimos stared out the window, trying to calm their breathing as dramatic solutions raced through their head. How could anything be normal with the crew after this? They would never see Jeimos the same way again! The elf had been part of this crew for ten long years, and never before had they bungled a contract so badly!

They jumped when they felt someone slide into the seat beside them. “Lukas? Did you, um, forget something on the train?” they queried.

“Yeah, you,” replied Lukas. “Are you coming or not?”

Jeimos let out a long, shuddering sigh as they struggled to hold back their tears. “I don’t know…” they groaned.

A silence passed between them. Passengers were still moving up and down the aisle. Finally Lukas spoke, telling them quietly, “Listen, I know you weren’t alone up there. I know Linde’s just as guilty as you are, and I’m sorry you’re taking the heat alone.”

Jeimos’ head shot up, staring at him in disbelief. “W-what? You...you knew? How did you—?”

“Because I know everything,” said Lukas. “You can’t hide anything from me, haven’t you realized that by now?”

Jeimos sighed, “Well, I thought I may as well try…”

“Don’t go back to Viersen. It’s not worth it,” Lukas told them. “This really isn’t the catastrophe you’re making it out to be. So, you made a mistake and cost the crew a few coins. Big deal! It’s not like the rest of us haven’t cocked up a contract or two over the years. It happens to everyone.”

“But it doesn’t happen to me!” insisted Jeimos. “I’ve always worked so hard to retain the utmost professionalism since I joined the crew! Ugh, why did I let her tempt me? I knew it was a terrible idea! I should have stuck to my guns and told her ‘no’! Now Mr. Atlas will be scrutinizing me every time he sends me on a job! He said he was very disappointed in me, Lukas! I’m so scared I’ll let him down again!”

Lukas rolled his eyes and said, “Oh, for crying out loud! He really got after you for that? Talk about hypocrisy! Don’t take that shit from him!”

Jeimos furrowed their brow. “Hypocrisy? What do you mean?” they asked.

Lukas shook his head as he replied, “I’ve been running with this crew for twenty years, Jay. I have stories about Evan that would make a whore blush! What you did in that tower was nothing all the rest of us haven’t done before. The only difference is, you got caught.”

The elf’s jaw dropped. “You must be joking! How on Gaia do you know that?” they gasped.

“I told you, I know everything.”

“Come now, how do you really know all this?”

“It’s not that complicated. You get enough booze in someone and they’ll say just about anything,” the commander explained, leaning back in his seat. “I’ve had a couple drinks today, so let me ask you this: What do you think I do during my nightwatch shifts? Just sit there and twiddle my thumbs for twelve hours? Sometimes you’re assigned to a job so mind-numbingly boring, you have to pull out all the stops just to stay sane.”

Cocking their head, Jeimos queried, “Are you really saying that you’ve…?”

“I said exactly what I said,” he told them sharply. “My point is, Evan has no right to get on your case about this, so don’t let him scare you. He knows he’s full of it. Your job’s not in danger and no one thinks any less of you. Those attention-deficit morons won’t even remember this a week from now.”

Jeimos opened their mouth to reply, then closed it when they heard Evan’s voice. He briefly peeked in the open door and called, “Lukas! Jeimos! What’s the holdup? Come on, the train’s about to leave!”

Lukas stood up, turning to Jeimos. “You still want to go to Viersen?” he asked, extending his hand.

Jeimos hesitated for only a brief moment, then took his hand and mumbled, “I suppose not.”

Lukas and Jeimos stepped off the monorail just seconds before the door slid shut. Jeimos watched it disappear down the track towards Viersen, then turned back towards their crew. They were all arguing about something in front of an ATM. Listening for a moment more, Jeimos realized they were trying to figure out how to shove the verve core in the machine in exchange for Z-Credits.

Suddenly the elf was confident that they’d made the right decision. This crew needed Jeimos as much as Jeimos needed them.

Rushing towards the scene, Jeimos exclaimed, “No, no, chaps, this machine wasn’t meant for that! Please stop that before you break it!”

“Huh, so much for this ‘advanced technology’!” said Evan. “I thought you said it could exchange things for credits?”

“Gold pieces, Mr. Atlas. It can exchange gold pieces for credits, nothing else,” Jeimos explained, beckoning the crew to follow them out of the terminal. “Let’s check the map at the information kiosk. I’m sure any local pawn dealer would happily empty their registers for that core.”

The crew trailed behind Jeimos as they made their way to the big kiosk at the center of the station. Linde’s sobs had died to sniffles. The moment she saw Jeimos step off the monorail, she was overcome with relief. “Aw, Jeimos, I'm so glad you're here,” she creaked. “What would we ever do without you?”

“Let’s not even entertain the idea,” Jeimos told her, and the discussion ended there.

It was well into rush hour. The station was bustling with busy Zareenites trying to make their way home from work. Jeimos couldn’t wait to return home themselves, for this noisy place just made them miss it even more. They pulled their hood back and exposed their blushing face to the world.

END