Volithur stared up at the monument through watery eyes. The figures depicted were no one he knew. Possibly the statues weren’t based on any particur people. But the upright men and women and children stood defiantly among a desote ndscape. A rge pque titled the monument as ‘Our Dear Departed’.

  His former city echoed with the whining and thudding of heavy construction machinery. It was being rebuilt. Many buildings were already open for use. It had been about three years since the Xian invasion. Long enough for him to rise from a low status ward to an apprentice porter. Long enough for his old city to regain some of its life.

  He thought it a good idea that their monument depicted those lost standing in defiance. The citizens didn’t need to see the truth every time they walked through the central park. That the victims were abjectly powerless before their attackers.

  “Did you lose anyone in the attack?”

  Volithur turned to look at the elderly woman who had been standing nearby for a while. “I lost everyone who meant anything to me.”

  “Me as well,” she said.

  They didn’t share any further words. Volithur left after that to shoplift a box of doughnuts from a gas station. He entered the bathroom with his ill-gotten gains and summoned his transit sphere. He had used a bottle of uncut spirits taken from the Shaocheth warehouse to ensure he would have energy for his return trip without waiting to restore his reserves the normal way.

  His trip to his home world had been a rousing success. The box of doughnuts was the perfect dessert. He grinned as he stepped inside his sphere and squeezed its hole tightly shut into a weld. He had learned that the Jinn still had regur contact with his home world. They didn’t maintain an active presence, but they periodically returned to trade technological goods for lithium.

  The Jinn, enemies of the Xian, could be contacted from the one world that Volithur could unerringly find. It seemed like the hand of fate to him. All he needed to do was convince the Jinn to accept his assistance in attacking the Lord General. That wouldn’t happen without effort, but he had no problem with hard work. Especially not if it would grant him his vengeance.

  The trip through chaos went as smoothly as it ever did. Meaning he didn’t die and he eventually found what he was looking for. The most accurate analogy he had come up with for navigation was walking around a loud, crowded concert and trying to find a specific person when you had no idea where they might be. You just wandered around, squinting through the haze of smoke and desperately listening for familiar voices. It was challenging, to say the least.

  Yet eventually he made it to his current home. It certainly helped that Tian was a true world. Those were a littler ‘louder’ than the sea of unempowered worlds around them. Through a trick of resonance, people who traveled between worlds tended to automatically arrive at pces speaking a mutually intelligible nguage. After finding the world of Tian and being drawn to the portion speaking the Amarat nguage, Volithur settled into the familiar spatial dimple that was set aside for his usage in the warehouse with little more effort. He knew the ‘feel’ of the stall he always traveled from, so he found himself returned there almost effortlessly, like a homing pigeon navigating with complete ignorance of how its biology enabled its directional sense.

  He flew home, luxuriating in the rich cosmic energy in the atmosphere. Though his soul might consider another world to be home, Tian was where he felt happiest. The tingle of power all about him made him believe that anything was possible. Upon opening the door to his house, Volithur held the box of donuts before him as if propitiating an angry goddess.

  “Please tell me that box has something sweet in it!” The goddess in question waddled forward with a hand on her protruding belly. Their culinary skills had improved to ‘adequate’ from a starting point of ‘nonexistent’. Needless to say, satisfying a pregnant woman’s sweet tooth had proven impossible on their budget. Which lead to the great irony of importing food to Tian from unempowered worlds.

  Before Volithur could assure Khana that the box contained dessert, she had it open and was inhaling deeply with an expression of ecstasy. “It smells so good, Volithur.” He patted her arm, hoping to dey the inevitable waterworks. Khana’s mood could change suddenly and without warning. He truly could not wait for her to give birth. The workers at the warehouse liked to tease him about all the sleep he would soon be missing out on, but Volithur thought it a fair trade if he could bid pregnancy hormones goodbye.

  Khana gobbled a doughnut up with enough ferocity that Volithur retreated a step. She licked her fingers clean as she visibly counted the remaining confections. “Only five left.” Her lower lip began to tremble, causing an instant bout of heartburn in Volithur.

  “What’s wrong, dear wife?”

  “Don’t mock me, Volithur.”

  “In three days there is a break in my schedule that I can use to steal more doughnuts. I didn’t realize it would be love at first bite with you.”

  “Only five, though. And we have to save them for the party.”

  “You can eat them all right now if you want. We can bring the box of chocotes instead.”

  Tears began to fall from Khana’s eyes. “No. We can’t. I ate them.”

  Volithur pced the box of doughnuts aside so that he could hug his distraught wife. “I guess you will be wanting more chocotes, too?”

  “I just want things that taste good, Volithur. Everything we cook is awful and I hate it. And I’m fat and my feet hurt.”

  He rubbed his wife’s back, waiting for her mood to turn as it always did. Volithur thought he might need to buy boxes of condoms after the baby came. Anything to put off the trials of another pregnancy was on the table – other than not doing the dirty deed, of course.

  As the hour grew ter, Khana’s sadness fell away. She began to talk about seeing Corey and Ronda at the party. Ulysses would be there as well, but neither of them mentioned his name. The man’s existence had proven a sore point. Khana desperately wanted Ulysses to regret snubbing her. Meanwhile, Volithur couldn’t stand the thought of his wife obsessing over another man like she did. Their positions were made quite clear to each other, so they avoided speaking of him altogether.

  That fragile truce would be tested soon when they were in his presence during Ronda’s party.

  Volithur collected his dinner contribution, formed energy cables beneath Khana’s feet to lift her, and then thrust from his feet to rise into the air. They flew at a pace no faster than a run towards a manor house in the distance. He lowered them to the ground before the gate and presented an invitation card to the guards there.

  They were guided inside the grounds to a rge gazebo situated before a rge bonfire. The guard escorting them bowed and wished them a joyful time. Ronda emerged from the gazebo in a giddy prance and embraced Khana.

  “It is so wonderful to see you again!” Ronda hesitantly pced a hand on Khana’s belly. “Especially with such happy news. Oh, Khana, I am certain you will be a wonderful mother!”

  Khana seized her friend’s hand. “Ronda, I have missed you so much.”

  Master Corey emerged from the gazebo, a metal contraption cradled in one elbow. “Well met, Harridan! I hope you like elk, because we have a ridiculous amount of it ready to cook!”

  Volithur rushed forward to help Corey with the grilling basket he was close to dropping. “I’m certain I will love the meal, Master Corey.”

  “Oh, none of that, Harridan. Formality is absolutely forbidden at a Shaocheth cookout. My ancestor Thrakkar instituted that rule long ago. You have spent time with him, so I’m certain you realize he is not as beholden to propriety as people assume a lord must be. Not when the occasion allows for it, at least.”

  “I understand, Corey. Do you need help?”

  Volithur put the box of doughnuts down on a table and helped Corey pack thin sheets of meat into the basket, pcing bay leaves and coarse salt and thin wedges of lime between yers. Not long before they were ready to pce the basket over the fire, Ulysses appeared to help them. The serious boy shuffled awkwardly before Corey, not sure how to handle himself at first.

  Corey gradually put Ulysses at ease by telling the story of the first cookout.

  “My ancestor Thrakkar was miserable for about a year after becoming a lord. He didn’t have his sobriquet at that time. His household insisted on every courtesy and formality, eager to prove the nobility of the family. Thrakkar many times mented that he should have stopped at a level nine soul. He fought against the new traditions, but every time he went off to war he would return to find them revived.

  “One day, he returned from killing Gunboat Jane. While dinner was being prepared, he overheard the Casteln at the time berating his soldiers for being too familiar with their lord. Thrakkar stormed into the kitchen, took the meat id out, and carried it outside. He called for his men to follow. They broke apart wooden furniture, put it to the fire, and cooked the meat.

  “When the members of the household emerged, Thrakkar announced that the tradition of his family from that day forward was that no formalities were to ever be observed during a cookout. Ever since, that has been the w of the Shaocheth family. We set down the burdens of our stations for a few hours so that everyone may be equals.”

  Ulysses swallowed. “You call the Lord General by his first name?”

  “As should you during the cookout,” Corey said.

  While their host was pcing the wire basket onto the fire, Ulysses turned to Volithur. “It is good to see you again, Harridan. You took to cultivation quite well, it seems.”

  Volithur ducked his head. Based on the comment, he didn’t think the man knew about his true insight. “I have some small talent,” he admitted.

  “I heard you are an apprentice porter. That is most impressive, Harridan. My career as a military officer appears far less secure. The Jinn and Arahant refuse to fight.”

  “That’s what I heard.” Volithur studied the man and found no signs that Ulysses had any interest whatsoever in Khana. Which was an incredible relief, if he was being honest with himself. “Why is it they don’t want to fight any more? Something about monster attacks?”

  Ulysses frowned. “You have heard correctly. The Arahant and Jinn allied together and withdrew from all human conflict. It cannot st long, we think. Conflict lives in the heart of man. Joining forces against monsters… ridiculous. Might as well join together to fight the weather.”

  Ronda and Khana approached then. Their beautiful hostess took the lead. “My dear Corey has the meat cooking and there are chilled beverages in the ice box. Did everyone bring something to share?”

  Ulysses retrieved a burp sack. When he opened it, ears of maize appeared. “I am afraid my skills at food preparation are quite cking, Ronda. This is the best I could do.”

  “I think it an excellent contribution,” their hostess reassured him.

  Khana lifted the box of doughnuts. “We brought these. They’re a delicacy from off world.”

  Ronda cpped her hands. “How exciting.”

  “We were going to bring chocotes, too, but… they were too hard to resist.”

  “Does your husband not know yet that you cannot be trusted with chocote?”

  Khana made puppy dog eyes at her friend. “You need to be nice to me. I’m pregnant.”

  Ronda took Khana’s hand in both of hers and brought it to her ft abdomen. “And so am I!”