Caprice

The girl led us to the booth, it was definitely way in the back. The whole time we walked she waved and greeted people. Each table, it seemed, knew her. Each time she responded to them, more people yelled out. Some inside joke that apparently more than half the bar was in on.

And I walked beside her, completely oblivious to what they were all saying and going on about.

But when the girl grabbed my hand and lifted it up like a trophy. High enough so everyone could see us holding hands, the entire place went into an uproar of laughter.

Now I was feeling self conscious of the situation. Not only did I not get what I was being laughed at for, but everyone was now staring at me and would recognize me at any time later on.

I was still breaking Charlotte’s rules. I didn’t look back to see it, but I just knew her glare was stone cold as it ever could be. When we finally sat down, Charlotte sat as far away from me as she could.

“It’s so awesome that you guys came back! You’ve gotta tell me about where your from!”

Her bubbly voice was near shrieking with excitement. I had barely sat down when she squished up beside me.

“Not to make this awkward or anything… but I still don’t even know your name.” I stated. Even I could hear how my voice stayed dead pan and emotionless.

But her cheery smile didn’t even flicker. She just giggled a little and said,

“Caprice.” With an enormous grin to follow.

She bumped her shoulder against mine. And started laughing again.

“Sorry. I guess I didn’t even think to introduce myself after we got along so easily last night. I forgot I didn’t tell you my name.”

“It’s ok, I don’t remember much of last night.”

Caprice started laughing again. This time it was full bellied laughs, she was even starting to have tears run out of the corners of her eyes.

“I’m not surprised.” She finally said when she stopped laughing long enough to catch her breath.

“You drank like, eight, thirty ounce cherry mead. It goes down easy, but it’s strong.” She giggled again.

“I didn’t even realize I drank that much.”

I didn’t. I hadn’t realized I had drank almost the entirety of what was on our table. Charlotte and Mathis each had one. And I had eight.

Wow, no wonder I don’t remember anything. I know what alcohol is. I knew it was an alcoholic drink after I had finished the first one. It didn’t hit at first, but damn, after I started the second, hooooo.

And that’s how the rest of the night was. A blur of whoooo’s and hoooo’s. Charlotte’s story was still mostly in my head. Maybe a few details got mixed around. But I’m sure I remembered most of it.

“Maybe just water for me tonight then. I want to remember what happens this time.”

I was looking at Caprice thinking she would get our order. But she just blushed deeply and bit her lip.

“Uhm.” She muttered. “I’ll ask Chevella to get a round in for us quick.” Then she stood and ran up to the bar.

That was weird. Wasn’t it? I looked over at my other companions. Charlotte was acting oblivious to the situation. Her eyes closed and hands folded on the table.

Mathis sitting with one leg outside of the table, blocking the walkway past us. Basically he was on sentry duty and wouldn’t acknowledge anything unless it seemed to be a threat to us.

Awesome.

That left me to break the silence and figure out what I wanted to hear from Charlotte. Maybe I should ask for specific details about my father. It might be easier to take small pieces of information, and put them together, than a full broad image of him.

“Charlotte.” I said tentatively. “What part of the army did my father lead again?”

She breathed in deeply, held it for a moment. The pause seemingly lasting for hours, but she released it. Then started,

“The armies of the undying. Second in command as supreme overseer. His responsibility was to keep the armies in line and make sure they would be ready to answer Death’s summons at any given moment.”

The undying army. She had mentioned a little of what that army was. It used to be the greatest force against the humans and mortals of the entire galaxy. Death, Nyx’s son, created life inside the bodies of corpses.

Something about having the power to extend his soul to other available vessels and control them. Or so they all guessed.

It had been a long time since the hero of the Federation defeated Death. The armies scattered and collapsed after his downfall.

“Didn’t the armies scatter and die out long ago?”

“They did. Mostly. The undying army was more than just the necromantic puppet soldiers that legend tells of. There were those like your father, and J. Loyalist to the Mistress of Chaos. More of her children. And her children’s children.”

Makes sense, sort of I suppose. The story she told made it sound like this Nyx, whoever she really was, was trying to conquer the entire galaxy.

Then the galactic federation stepped up to fight back against her. Or the people who created the federation out of the survivors of that war did anyway.

“So my father being considered a deity, isn’t an exaggeration?” I was hesitant to ask that, I didn’t want it to be true.

“He was, and still is, considered a God like being. His mortality has never seemed to cease. He simply grew more powerful with each world he destroyed. He fought as second in command to Death, but never died.”

“How do you know so much?”

I had wondered for awhile how she knew all of this so readily. Everything I’ve asked has had an answer. And very explanatory ones.

Charlotte had opened her mouth to answer, when Caprice sat back down.

“She said it’ll be here in a moment.”

I smiled at her in thanks. Then turned back to Charlotte. Who had turned a frown so sour I thought maybe she sucked down a lemon in the instant I had turned away.

“What story is your friend gonna tell tonight?” Caprice asked sweetly.

“I was thinking maybe we could ask you for a story. You seemed to be in the know around here. Maybe some local gossip would do us well after such a long time traveling just the three of us alone.” Charlotte answered.

I could tell she was forcing politeness into her voice. And I definitely caught the traveling a long time thing. We were still on the run and trying to hide.

“Well, not to brag, but a certain guild member and her teammates got an exclusive invite to the Innovarta Dimensional Championships!”

The what of the who? What the hell was she talking about? Championship I get sure, but what’s innovarta dimensioning? Or did I mis-hear her?

In-a-vat-chip-in-all?

I looked to see if Charlotte had recognized what Caprice had said. She was staring at Caprice now.

“Really. That is actually fairly impressive.”

Huh? I missed something big. But I have no idea what their talking about.

“Isn’t it? The three of us are excited to participate in the last few trials.”

“Your not entering the main team competitions?”

“We didn’t get anyone else to join us to round out or team. So we’re going with just the fighting and main solo, and duo fights.”

So it’s a fighting tournament? That actually sounds like fun. I’d never seen one before.

“Can we come?”

I asked without thinking. Without even considering what the question would mean.

“What?!”

“Of course!!”

We’re the answers I got.

The pissed off hissing from Charlotte first, then the elated bubbly scream from Caprice. Wow, I had made a major impression on her if she was this excited to have me want to come watch.

Another girl with yellow skin walked over and started handing us drinks. Water for mine thankfully. Her skin was tattooed similarly to Caprices. Hers was a dark red though. The swirls were thickly running around her entire body.

“Thanks Chevella!” Caprice flipped a few coins to her.

Chevella tossed them right back.

“I don’t need your charity. Your the one who’s always asking us not to pay for stuff.”

She was saying it all in a playful older sister type of tone. Seemed like this was one of Caprices closer friends.

“Guys, this is Chevella, my elder sister.”

Oh, I was right.

“She’s also the wind to my earth. We’re a perfect fighting duo. And we’re gonna win big at the championships!” Caprice announced loudly.

A few cheers and hollers rose.

“We’ve still got some time to practice and get ready, so I’ve entered into the race in tomorrow night!” She continued to the three of us at the table.

Her sister went back to waitressing and Charlotte continued to glare at Caprice.

“What kind of race?” I asked curiously.

I was guessing cars of some sort. Maybe a small go-kart or dirt bike. The space on this floor of the space needle was pretty large, but it wasn’t so large as to fit a huge track. Maybe if a whole floor was dedicated to just a track a decent sized one would fit.

“Have you heard of zero atmosphere tracers?”

I hadn’t, what was a tracer? I just gave her a confused look. Charlotte had kept her mouth shut and fell back into closing her eyes and pretending we didn’t exist at the moment.

“Well, from that look I’ll say no.” Caprice laughed a little again. “It’s a vehicle that operates at the very edge of the atmosphere of any planet. They’re small and very fast. With the right pilot they can be extremely agile and when viewed from the ground, they leave light trails in the gasses that make up the atmosphere.” She explained.

That was the coolest thing I had heard of in a long while.

“You fly a ship at the edge of space?” I asked in awe.

“Yup!” She beamed.

I could tell she was happy that I thought it was cool. I guess this girl survived on others approval and acknowledgment.

“Can I see that too?” I asked Caprice, but by the time I finished the question, I was looking at Charlotte. Whom opened her eyes and stared right back at me.

I hadn’t even thought. Again. I was just so curious about all this new stuff. I had barely known about the sports and activities on my own planet.

“Well if you wanna watch I’ve got the perfect seat for ya!” Caprice gave me a nudge and started drinking.

“Thanks.” I said. “When is it?”

I guess we hadn’t really made plans to do anything yet. I didn’t know how long we’d be allowed to stay here either.

“Tomorrow evening. When the star sets behind the planet. On the ninety-ninth floor. It’s just far enough below the space port that we can fly practice runs whenever we want.”

Her voice had turned into that of a rambling, giddy teenager.

“That’s awesome. You must be really good if you can do it whenever.”

I know if I had the chance to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, I wouldn’t stop until I was the best at it.

“Well I’m, ok, I guess. I haven’t been running laps as often as I used to. Since I started training with guild work and such.” She confessed gloomily.

“What kind of guild is it?” I felt obliged to ask more. 

Since she seemed to have wanted to talk with us, I might as well ask more about her and learn more about the galaxy. Besides, if I’m gonna be going with her to this championship thing, I should know who I’m going with.

“Well, technically, it’s a group of orphans who grouped together and took in more people like themselves. They go around protecting and liberating on different worlds. Sometimes for money, other times just because a group of orphans came in from a slave planet. Or a planet engulfed in civil war.” She paused, looking up at the bar, Chevella was handing drinks out to a few people. “My sister and I are the same. Or planet was at war, and we fought people of our same species. Before we knew just how precious life was in the galaxy. Most of the people from my planet are dead now though. Not many survived to be saved by the Galactic Federation.”

A few tears fell down her face. Some of the blue was darkening again. Becoming blacker.

“But.” She said with a sudden burst of her usual brightness. “Enough of us survived to live on. We got brought back to a world where we could learn skills for life in the galaxy. Most of us stayed there and joined the Federation Armies. Still many like the three of us went off on our own.”

That was so sad. I couldn’t imagine….but, well… I guess I could. But I was alone from the start. It was a peaceful enough place. No wars. And I got kidnapped. Not saved.

“It’s good that you found a home then.” I said, forcing myself to smile through it.

It hurt. A lot. But knowing that pain, knowing what it’s like to see everything you’ve known, die.

“Charlotte.” I had to change the subject. “What’s our plans for the next few days? And when is the tournament, Caprice?” I asked them both questions to hopefully numb some of the sudden tension in the air.

“Three décades.” Caprice answered immediately.

“We haven’t got enough credit to stay that long here. And the longer we stay the less funds available for buying a transport.” Charlotte finally spoke up after she seemed to think and asses for a moment.

“You guys need a ship? How did you get here?”

That was a valid question. But I wasn’t sure if I should answer.

“I’m not sure I trust you enough to say.” Charlotte said coldly.

“She just means,” I cut in as Caprice flinched in shock. “we ran into some trouble on our way in. Our ship was damaged beyond repair so we’re stuck here until we get another one.”

I was starting to feel sympathy for a girl I never thought I’d even think twice about. Maybe because she treated me like a normal person instead of a monster. Maybe because I felt she knew the same pain that I did. 

“Well if you need some work to get some funds built up for now, I might be able to talk my sister into letting you help us out next week on a job.”

“I don’t think..” Charlotte started.

“What kind of job?” I cut in before she could say anymore.

“A simple transport. A few crates of goods, a group of delegates who are to dainty to defend themselves.”

I looked back at Charlotte. Mathis had turned his head towards us now.

“You guys can talk about that and let me know later. I would still have to get Chevella to approve even if you wanted to.”

Caprice got up and walked to the bar with her empty glass. Her sister was there to refill it. Did she seem suddenly nervous? 

“Do you really think we can trust her?” Charlotte whispered.

I didn’t know. But she didn’t seem like she was gonna do anything shady.

“What reason do we have to not? She doesn’t know us. She’s obviously just trying to do the right thing and help out someone she can see needs it.”

Charlotte stared back at me. I couldn’t read her amber eyes.

“We need the funds. Do the job. Let the girl show Alpha a few things. Gives us time to make plans. We can always dip out early if need be.” Mathis cut into our glaring contest.

Charlotte slumped. I was just shocked. Since when would he take my side?

“Fine. But then your training is going to become twice as difficult. I will not have you making a fool of yourself, and us, if we get in a fight.” Charlotte snapped just before Caprice came back.

My face fell, I knew exactly what that meant. More of those crazy shadows and probably so much more running and punching and kicking. Crap. Too late to change my mind I guess though.

“Cheers!” Caprice yelled out as she sat back down.

Her glass clunked against mine, then she downed the contents.

“We’d be willing to discussing your job offer more if your sister consents.” Charlotte said with an all business attitude.

“Great! Cause she says she’d love some extra help. We’ve been desperate to fill in the vacant slots on our team.”

“Is it hard to find people to work with?” I asked.

“No. It’s finding someone who we can get along with. Oh and people who are capable enough to survive.” Caprice added that last bit as if it were extra information barely worth noting.

I glanced back across the table at Charlotte. She didn’t seem to react at the casual mention of death. Well, I guess if I thought of where she’s been, sudden death would be normal.

We sat in silence for what seemed like forever. Chevella came over with our food and more drinks and gave us all a reason to start talking again. After thanking her for the food and drinks, Caprice looked at me and asked,

“So where are you from anyway? If it’s ok to ask!”

Her words came out in a jumble. Like she was trying to hold the words back, but the dam burst anyway. I looked at Charlotte. I actually had no idea what the name of my planet would be to the Galactic Federation.

“Uhm…” I stumbled to find words. Caprice just looked at me like she would patiently wait for me to answer.

What could I say? What should I say? Simply saying no seemed rude. But did I really need to tell her?

“I’m actually an orphan too. I’m not entirely sure where I belong.”

I looked Caprice dead in the eyes as I said that. And I hope she got the meaning of it.

“Well don’t worry! I get how hard it can be.”