Chapter 16

“Where the hell were you?!?”

As soon as Jason opened the door, Loba was already standing in front of him, lance ready as he seethed, turning the air ice cold.

Behind him, Panka wiped a golden tear from her flaming eye, the ground beginning to shake as she ran towards him and Biji.

Her face had gone very quickly from sullen and concerned to a wide, sharp-toothed smile.

“We were so worried about you.”

Her voice was slight and hoarse, almost a whisper.

“Ack—ah, sorry about that. You guys were really that worried?” Jason squeezed out short breaths, trying desperately to breathe as he was pressed into Panka.

“Heyyy, let go! Urgh—we’re okay! You don't need to hold on so tight!”
Biji squirmed in Panka’s arms, managing to wiggle her way out of the grip and get to the floor as she set Jason down gently. v “...sorry. I’m just relieved, that's all.”

“Well, I'm not! I'm pissed! Without any warning or notice, you two just run off, then come back outta nowhere? It's been so long that—”

Loba was quickly cut off by the sound of fast flapping wings encroaching quickly from the hall. “Friends! You’ve returned!”

Uddi brushed past both Loba and Panka. Getting his wings caught in their faces as he moved. “Hey! Spatial awareness, Uddi, c’mon!”

“B-but…” he started, but Loba cut him off. “Besides, you just started healing; take it easy, huh?”

“B-but—”

“No buts!” Ice started to form on the handle of Loba’s lance.

“Relax, Loba, he’s just excited.” She then put her hand on Uddi’s head for a moment before falling back to the ground.

“You little—”

Jason couldn't help grinning to himself. ‘I think I made the right call.’

…

The group, after a while, had moved from the hallway into the dining room, sitting around the table as they talked. Jason, fiddling with his hand, began to explain himself, as well as a new resolution he had come to:

“I want to take out Soldier’s Hand now that we know their plans. I can’t let them sacrifice those Raksha, and who knows who else?’

The other four grew tense, either shifting in their seats or outright looking frustrated.

“Jason, you can't be serious,” Panka said, folding her arms and turning to him with an apprehensive look. “That’s really dangerous. We really should keep out of their business."

Jason shook his head, putting his hands on the table as he turned to face Panka.

“If I'm going to be stuck here for a while, I might as well try to be productive, right?”

His smirk caused Biji to roll her eyes and Loba to grimace.

“It's not that easy, you know.” Biji said, fiddling with one of her jacket straps, “They have a lot of social power around here. Even if you were to warn people, they might not believe you. Plus, that guy we ran into at the warehouse had an insane amount of control over Brahman; I’ve never seen anything like it.”

She explained, kicking her feet under the table.

“... Brahman?” Jason asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“Don’t tell me nobody explained it to you yet, kid. Are you serious?” Loba chuckled, pulling a bag out from behind him and emptying the contents, a stock of purple flowers, into a bowl before walking over to the kitchen.

“You see, Jason, Brahman is this stuff that's everywhere, like air, and we’re also made of it; it's a bit crazy. Even the gods are beings made of Brahman! Even though they're made of more of it than we are.” Uddi explained as he began to float from his seat.

"... I think I get it, so what are crests then...?" Are they just like blobs of Brahman under our skin or something?”
“Not really; it's like the nose. If Brahman is air, you get it?” Uddi said, pointing at his face, then putting the crest on his wrist up against his face.

“... I got the picture.” Jason sighed, smiling loosely.

“Besides, why do you care enough to start a fight, kid? Don't you wanna find your brother or something? They’re from the commons; they probably won't last too much longer anyway.” Loba turned to them, scoffing as he ground the purple flowers in a mortar and pestle before walking back to the table.

Panka, who was across the table from him, quickly put her hand on Biji’s shoulder. “Loba! I'm sorry, Biji. He doesn't mean it.”

Biji shrugged her hand off. “It's fine; I’m used to it,” she responded plainly. Despite her reaction, her annoyance was obvious as her ears twitched, growing red at the ends.

“You know, what the hell is with that?” Jason stood up with his eyebrows furrowed. “What’s your damage with Raksha, Loba?”

“‘Damage’? I don't have any issues with them, but there is an undeniable fact that there's a pecking order to things. The souls here have bad karma. They must have done some pretty heinous things in their previous existences to end up down here.” He said casually, setting down the pestle. “It’s not like they won’t just reincarnate anyway; if anything, killing them might do them a favor—”

Jason almost flipped the table jumping across it, causing the others to shoot up from their seats as he grabbed Loba’s collar. The other three immediately started to intervene butstopped short of moving from their spots. Jason’s gaze had hardened as he looked up at Loba.

“Either apologize to Biji, or take that shit back.”
“Put me down, Jason.” Loba’s eyes glowed with a blue light, cold air emanating from his body. Wincing, Jason dropped his collar. Despite his anger, he didn't want to start a fight, and he wasn't sure he had the energy to win either.

“Thanks. Now,” fixing the collar of his kimono, Loba turned to Biji. “Sorry, Biji. That was really inconsiderate. You know I don't mean it like that.”

Biji pulled her face into her knees, not meeting Loba’s eyes. “Sure…”

Sighing, Loba then picked up his mortar, making sure none of the contents were spilled. “How about an apology?”

…

As the five sat around the table, Loba pulled a box out from under the table. Opening it, Jason’s jaw grew loose; the other three remained unbothered. “You’re kidding, right?” Jason scoffed, crossing his arms.

“Relax, it's just the easiest way here to inhale smoke.” Loba tapped some of the ground purple flower, now a wet paste, into what almost looked like an old-timey tobacco pipe before holding it out to Biji. “You and the kid share this one.”

Biji nodded.

Jason grimaced. “If you’re saying I'm a kid, you should know it's stupid to hand me drugs, moron.” He vaguely remembered this as the same stuff the old men were smoking in the common district a couple days ago.

Biji chuckled, “It does make you sound like a creep.”

Loba simply laughed as he tamped down the flower. “What, you scared? It's nothing crazy, at least for all of us. Consider it a science experiment; I just wanna know how it affects humans,” he smirked before walking over to Panka.

“You and I are sharing, and since Uddi’s a champ,” he pointed to Uddi, who was nonchalantly eating the remaining flower paste from the pestle, “he gets his own.”

“This stuff tastes great, just like the grass we had back home! I wonder how this would taste in a traditional grass pie…” Uddi munched on the purple bits, his pale fingers starting to stain as Panka grabbed the pipe, using an open candle from the table to light the pipe.

Walking over to the couch, Jason sat down, accompanied by Biji. “... Do you guys do this a lot?”

“Only on special occasions,” Biji poked at Jason’s face as she took hold of the pipe.

“This stuff isn't as scary as Loba is making it sound.”

A spark flicked from her finger, burning the flower, before she breathed in the smoke, held it, and blew what almost looked like purple glitter in Jason’s face, causing him to sneeze.

“It's just a burnt Brahman flower, It just makes you feel like you’ve had warm soup for a while. It helps alleviate any side effects of taking too much Brahman into your body. He’s only making it look like a drug to mess with you.” She smiled good-naturedly before handing him the pipe.

Jason took it from her, staring at it for a moment. ‘I honestly am kind of curious…’ he thought to himself, putting the pipe to his lips.

Inhaling, it surprisingly didn't taste like any smoke he’d ever smelled; the taste was clean, and as he breathed out, it didn't hurt his throat. It was more like breathing in steam, if anything.

“So… how do you feel?” Biji leaned into him, looking up expectantly with a mischievous grin on her face. The three others, still sitting at the table, also turned to observe.

“I feel…”

Jason breathed deeply, tapping his hand on the back couch cushion.

“Completely normal.

Then, out of nowhere, it hit.