MAZE - The Endless Quest

“I want one double cheese, one double bacon, one eggonator, two single patty burgers, fish and chips with extra garlic butter, a deluxe supreme and a 12 piece chicken nugget. Oh, and a large orange soda, please,” Nereus, the triton Sovereign, told the clerk through the speaker box of the drive through. He brought Hera to one of the most famous fast-food chains in the MAZE, called Room Service. He turned to the Empress, “What about you? My treat.”

“Are you sure?” Hera felt a bit worried about taking that offer, but Nereus Stofin was very different now that they were alone. No longer the noble and stoic ruler, but now the cool uncle that just wanted to hang out.

“Being a bit of a dictator for a moment, this is my city. No one makes more money than I do. Look at my order,” Nereus pointed at the display above the speaker box listing all the food he already asked for, “I have meals like that at least three times a week. You are fine. Just order.”

“Ok, it’s your wallet’s funeral,” Hera shrugged and Leaned a bit closer to the speaker box, while still being careful not to get too close to the Sovereign, “I want two double cheese, a veggie burger, one double bacon, one supreme deluxe, and the cheesy fries. Oh, and a diet soda,” the Empress went back to her seat as Nereus stared at her with wide eyes. Unable to resist, she joked, “What? I’m watching my figure.”

That caused Sovereign Stofin to burst out laughing, “And here was I thinking you would get only one thing,” he turned back to the speaker box, “Also, add two sundaes, one chocolate and the other,” he pointed at Hera.

“Also chocolate. But add another 6, two vanilla, two strawberry and two chocolate.”

“Ok, now you are just being greedy. You are not eating all that,” Nereus rolled his eyes.

“That’s not for me. That’s for my court,” Hera explained.

“Oh? And your court is… part of your legacy? They are the ones who show up and fight and stuff.”

Hera nodded, “Yeah, but they can talk and eat. They don’t have to, all they need to sustain themselves is mana, but they can taste the flavor. I wasn’t going to ask you to pay the bill for all of them, but a dessert felt like it would be ok, if it’s too expensive I can pay for my part.”

“Dude, I’m the Sovereign. Trust me when I say that money for personal expenses is not a problem,” he turned back to the speaker box, “That will be all.”

A voice came through, “Ok, it will take a few minutes to finish the order and your total will be-“

“Doesn’t matter. It’s fine. But can I ask for a favor? Can I drop by the window to pick up whatever is ready? Like the fries and the soda. Then, if you are not too busy, could you have someone drop by the rest to us in the parking lot? If not, we can come grab it, just send me a text.”

“Of course, Mr. Stofin. We can do that,” the voice replied.

Hera just shook her head, “I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Sovereign Stofin abusing his power to get better service,” she joked.

“Hey! I’m not abusing my power as Sovereign. I’m abusing my power as their best flipping customer. I’m pretty sure I am like half their profit,” Nereus huffed.

They stopped by the next window, got part of their meal, and Stofin drove the car to the mostly empty parking lot. It was early morning, and the store had just opened. Not many people had the stomach for such a heavy meal first thing after waking up. Once the car stopped moving, Nereus removed the seatbelt and got a bit more comfortable, “Ok, so I have two things to talk to you about. Do you mind if I talk about one of them first? It might mess up with our appetite.”

Hera was about to eat one of her fries, but stopped, “Ok… is it that bad?”

Nereus looked into Hera’s eyes, the almost silver irises shining in the light, “You tell me. That battle. The place where the humans were keeping our people. How bad was it? My advisers only say that it was necessary, and that I shouldn’t worry since people are now safe and stuff like that. No one is giving me the actual details. I want to know how angry I should be at the guild.”

“Oh?!” Hera gasped, out of all the possibilities of why he had asked to talk to her, that one never crossed her mind, “Honestly, it was bad, but not as bad as you might think.”

“How so?”

“The attack in our city was brutal, a lot of people died. Including children. The humans ended up attacking a school. And even though they say that was an accident, just a spell going wrong, it’s hard to trust them. But, after the city fell, the children were not harmed. Those who were captured and shoved in the camp were traumatized, sure, but that was it. They were forced to work the mines, and the humans did threaten to hurt the children if people started to act up. No one actually did that, though, it was just a threat. I don’t know if that would change if we didn’t step in, but let’s not think about that. But that was basically it, people were scared, worked to the bone, and taken from their houses. But there was no other form of abuse going on. The humans didn’t cross any lines, not after the battle was over, at least.”

“And during the battle?”

Hera shook her head, “I don’t know. All I heard about was the damage and the killing. I didn’t hear about anything else.”

Nereus nodded, “That’s good. That’s good. Well, not good, but you get what I mean.”

“I do. I thought the same things when I heard what was going on.”

“Yeah,” the Sovereign took a large swig of his drink, “Ok. I’m feeling much better. I was super worried about that, but it’s that kind of thing that I had to know. Thank you for that.”

“I’m glad I could help. And I understand.”

“Now, you also said you wanted to ask me something. It’s only fair that y-“ there was a soft knock on the window. The man who took their order was holding a large tray filled with various burgers.

“Mr. Stofin, your order, sir.”

“Wow, that was quick! I thought you said it would take a few minutes.”

“I did, but once the cooks heard it was for you, they sped up the process. The only thing missing here are the sundaes. I figured it would be better to give you that as you finish the meal,” the man replied with a smile.

“Marrow, you are too good to me. By the way, how is your daughter?” Nereus took the tray and passed to Hera, who noticed a depression between the two seats. One that could fit the tray perfectly.

“A pile of nerves, she has a competition next week,” the man finished passing the food and looked into Stofin’s eyes, “Thank you for helping her. We don’t have enough money for a healer, and with a broken leg, she wouldn’t be able to go to the competition.”

“Stop that, you already thanked me enough. That was the least I could do for a friend.”

Marrow chuckled, “You know you can’t be saying that kind of thing, sir.”

Stofin shrugged, “Look, with how often you and everyone in the kitchen feed me, you have to be my friends. If you are not, I don’t know what friendship is.”

They laughed, and the server walked away, thanking Sovereign for whatever he did once more. As soon as he closed the window, Nereus said, “I know what you might be thinking. I’m a very different person than my public persona.”

Hera took a bite of her veggie burger first, “Not really. The first time I’ve met you was during that council meeting and you were the most casual of the bunch. If anything, I’m thinking how can you just turn off being serious so quickly.”

“Oh, that’s the easy part. All you have to do is relax. Turning it on again that took time to master. Even now, I still need a couple of minutes to really get into the groove of things. Now, back to you. What do you want to talk to me about?”

“Right,” Hera wiped some of the sauce that was on the side of her mouth. Not wanting to have a serious conversation while dirty, “Do you know anything about the Strength Spirits?”

“I am aware of what is going on with them, yes.”

“Including how something happened in their home? Recently,” Hera asked.

Nereus stopped, his relaxed face turning serious, “And how do you know about that?”

“To answer that, I need to ask you another question. Do you know how my legacy works?”

“You make sentient beings out of weapons. Some are special and have their own bodies.”

Hera nodded, “That’s the gist of it, but there is one more thing. There are a specific set of conditions to give them bodies. One of the options is to have a Spirit become part of the court. Which I did with a Strength Spirit that was turning into a Daemon.”

“Wasn’t that dangerous?”

The Empress did her best to remember the story she had prepared. It would be hard to ask to go to the Strength Spirit home out of the blue, “A bit. There was a chance the titled blade would just go berserk all the time, but when we found that Spirit during a mission, I felt like it was worth the risk. As a result, the actual blade is a bit grumpy, and he does have some anger issues now and then, but that’s about it. However, the system gave me a quest because of him. One that asked me to solve the struggle of the Strength Spirits. It was very vague, and in theory it wasn’t talking about just saving them, if I killed all the spirits, or destroyed their home that should also work. Just before we arrived in Oceancrest Falls, that quest was suddenly completed. I assumed that by helping the Agency I already contributed to helping the Spirits, and I guess that confirms it. But I do want to know if they are safe, or were they destroyed?”

“I don’t remember hearing about that quest.”

“Because I didn’t tell anyone. I wasn’t sure how people would take my interest in helping the Spirit if I had a quest attached to it. Also, I wasn’t entirely confident the guild didn’t have a spy in our ranks. If they caught wind that I had a quest that could tell if they did something big with the Spirits, they might put another target on my back.”

Nereus took a bite out of his burger, “Not telling people about that might have been a mistake.”

“I agree, but now that’s already done. There is not much I can do about that.”

“That’s true.. Well, ok. I can tell you this. The Strength Spirits are safe, for now, and we are setting up some defenses to protect their home. But we haven’t been able to rescue or kill the ones that were captured.”

Hera smiled, “That’s good. At least some of them are safe. Is there any way I can go to their home? Vulcan really needs that.”

“And Vulcan would be… the one that was a Strength Spirit?”

“Correct.”

Nereus thought for a moment, “That can be arranged. Saying no would be close to saying you can’t see your family after they were rescued. If I understand how your legacy works.”

“That’s pretty spot on. It will be really good for him to see the other Strength Spirits.”

Sovereign Stofin finished his first burger and took the next, “Ok, now for the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. We have a council meeting later, and you need to be there.”

“Ok? Why? Is everything ok?” Hera frowned.

“Sort of. I think you are going to hate it. If you are anything like me, at least. We decided to make your honorary seat in the council a permanent thing, and during the award ceremony you will be declared Aspirant Hero.”

Hera choked the on food, coughing violently and need a moment, and a drink the recompose herself.

“Do you have any questions?” Nereus asked, holding back a smile.

“Yeah! What the actual fuck?!”