Darius and Michael were nervous. They were political officials, their silver-rank ing from cores. Their limited bat training sisted of a basic course and annual two-week refreshers. It was far from enough to make them fident about entering vampire territory or, even worse, Asaory.

  They began their day by portalling across the pheir two gold-rank bodyguards, the only reason they agreed to any of this, secured the other side first. These were some of the old guard who had also ranked up through cores, but were ri both training and experiehe st handful who had hit gold without cores were strategic assets, too valuable for bodyguard duty.

  Oher side of the portal was the city of Nitra. The vampires hadn’t dooo much damage, the popution having evacuated before the blood suckers had the ce to approach Asaory. The vampires had e through when the Asano went into hiding, but no popuce meant no massacre. The damage to the city came from more than a decade of abando and the occasional wandering monster.

  They arrived in the carpark of a shoppire. Someone had taken the abandoned cars and piled them up on one end leaving clear space. What was left of a sign reading ‘Atrium Optiva’ dangled from the wall. Waiting for them were three people, currently getting the eyeball from their gold-rank guards.

  One of the three looked nervous at the attention. Darius and Michael could sense his silver-rank aura, although his showed no signs of the monster core use responsible for their own ranks. The st two were unfazed by the attention, a rge Pacifider and a Japanese man.

  The political officials reised the other two Asano gold rankers. Shiro Asano was the former Patriarch of the Japawork’s Asano , and had his hand casually resting on the hilt of his sheathed bde. Taika Williams ostuted to be one of the stro people on the p, alongside Rufus Remore. He was eating a popsicle.

  With their arrival, the three members moved to greet them and make introdus. The silver-ranker was Wesley Asano, a member with a vehicle essence who would serve as their driver. He jured up a limousih bck paint and bck windows, that could have been plucked from a gangster movie set in the sixties.

  They were driven through the city, seeing that at least the streets they were driving through had been cleared. This was obviously where the usually had visitors arrive, as no one ortalling into the territory directly. Leaving the city, what looked like a freshly built road led into the tryside. There was no mistaking the Asano city as they approached it, situated in what had once been pastoral nd.

  The city was strange, showing no signs of the cloud-like substa was supposedly built from. The buildings were a mix of aggressive crete, shining gss and pnt life both abundant and heavily ied. Seated across from them, Taika Williams looked like a sardine in a , even in the rge car. Seeing them peer out the window, he offered an expnation unprompted.

  “Ken oversaw all this. Jason’s Dad. After Jason ate all the vampires and rebuilt the city, he let his old man and some architects in the redesign the whole pce. It’s a mix of eco-brutalism and sor punk, or so I’m told. I don’t know what either of those things are, but being able to fake crete instead of using the real stuff is better for the enviro, apparently. Not sure that matters in the middle of a vampire apocalypse, or why you’d want to fake crete, but Ken seemed happy.”

  Michael and Darius g each other at the phrase ‘ate all the vampires,’ but didn’t ent. They reached the tre of the city, stopping outside it’s tallest building. From the outside, it looked like a massive stack of staggered baly gardens, with no safety rails. The interior tihe heavy pnt theme, with open spaces and high ceilings. Natural light filled the space too well to be actually natural, but the effect leasant. The two political staffers were used to cubicles, offices and bureaucratic hallways.

  They were led upstairs on aor that was just an open-sided ptform, not even enclosed by gss. It took them te circur chamber ringed by shadowy portal arches. One arch stood out from the others by the colours, being of milky white stone instead of obsidian bck. It was also filled with gold, silver and blue instead of roiling darkness. Their instincts recoiled against going through unknown portals, but they followed Taika through, heless.

  Oher side they found themselves in another building, very different from the ohey had just left. It looked like an old hotel, decorated in such monotone shades of grey and bck it was like stepping into a bd white movie. If not for the bright teal of Michael’s tie, Darious would have suspected sudden-o colour blindness.

  “I told you that tie was too much,” Darius muttered as they were led to the birdcage elevator that tihe archaic styling.

  Waiting for them in the lobby was a man they bhey had worked with Boris Ketnd for years, believing him to be a terpart of simir rank to themselves, but in the Cabal. It was only ter they discovered he was both a global leader and one of the angel-like messengers. Even now, he rarely appeared outside of human proportions, or showed off his wings.

  “Mike. Darius. I’d ask if you were nervous, but I feel your auras. Don’t worry; the vampires here are all very gentle. By vampire standards.”

  The gold-rank bodyguards had grown increasingly stoic over the course of the journey, and now could pass as statues, their eyes were locked on Boris. He led their little ente outside where Wesley jured his car again, along with a sed ohe bodyguards protested Boris’ instru to join Taika and Shiro iher car while he went with Michal and Darius.

  “I hate to break it to you,” Boris told them, “but you’re oral here at best. You are uhe prote of myself and Jason Asano, which means the only things able to harm you are myself and Jason. And if that’s what we want, there’s nothing you do about, so get in the sed car before I put you in there.”

  The bodyguards bristled, but obeyed are a short discussion uheir breath. Michael and Darius then joined Boris in the first car, which drove them through the nraphiovel that passed for a city. There was a sense of uy to the pce, exacerbated by knowing they really were in a magical pocket realm. The silver light of the moon hid more than it illuminated, creating dark ers and shadow-filled alleys. Traffic was light, the cars having the same out-of-time feel as their own vehicle. Few people were out in the heavy rain, those that were making indistinct shapes uhe diffuse gaslight oreetmps.

  “Feels like being in a Dashiell Hammett novel right?” Boris asked, watg them peer out the windows. “You make a gritty monologue, if you feel the need.”

  “Why are we doing this here again?” Darius asked. “This pce is spooky and full of vampires. I know this is a destiing, but this seems like we may be taking it too far.”

  “This is where Jason ducts his more hidden business,” Boris expined. “Your people wahe in-persoing, and this is where he wants it.”

  “He really is here, then?” Michael asked.

  “Teically, he’s in a liminal space between universes that does in any way that’s prehensible to entities that exist within physical reality. But yes, he’s here. His avatars have been expio yht?”

  The men nodded.

  “It still seems strange,” Michael said. “But what doesn’t, here?”

  “That’s a good attitude to hold,” Boris told him.

  The car pulled over and they got out. The rain didn’t reach them, twisting in the air to fall on the ground around them.

  “What’s going on there?” Michael asked.

  “I’m pushing the rain away with my aura,” Boris said. “I’m not getting water on this suit.”

  “You ’t move physical things with your aura,” Michael said.

  “No,” Boris corrected. “You 't move physical things with your aura.”

  The sed car pulled up to let out Taika, Shiro and the bodyguards. After the guards firmed the status of their charges, they all went i was the kind of building where people got murdered in old movies. It looked to have been some kind of clothing factory, maes and tables painted in years of grime.

  Taika, Shiro and Wesley stayed behind as the rest took another old-style elevator, Boris operating it with a lever instead of buttons. It took them up to another floor, wholly uhe factory floor they had just left. This level tained a speakeasy style bar, all dark leather and dim lighting. They could see people at tables and booths, none of whom gnced over at their entrance.

  There was a coatroom where an attendant was taking coats and hats. They spotted Asano, handing over his, drenched in rain. He waited for them to do the same before shaking their hands in turn, without so much as a g the bodyguards.

  “Gentlemen,” he greeted them. “Jason Asano.”

  “I’m Darius Shepherd, Uates Department of Supernatural Affairs. This is Michael Gsser, State Department.”

  Asahem through the bar to a secluded booth at the bad slid around the table, making room for Boris and the two officials. There was no room for their guards, who would not have sat anyway, looming over the table.

  “Your boys go take a seat at the bar,” he said.

  “We’re fine,” one of the guards grunted.

  “And you’ll stay that way unless you think I was asking,” Asano said, looking at them for the first time. Darius and Michael saw their gold-rank guards flinch, seeing the signs of aura suppressioe not sensing a thing. The guards sent them an inquisitive gnce, departing at a slight nod from Michael. Asano’s eyes didn’t leave them until they sat at the bar and refused drinks from the bartender. He then turo the two officials with a friendly smile.

  Michael and Darius were unsure what to make of Asano. Rumours pced him somewhere between dangerous lunatid capricious god. There was certainly a preseo him, as if everything around him was slightly out of focus while he was crystal clear.

  “What brought you two gentlemen all this way?” he asked them. “Boris seemed fident that it was worth meeting you.”

  “We o discuss a potential threat,” Darius said. “Ohat affects all of us.”

  “All of us being…?”

  “The whole p.”

  Asano sighed, leaning back with a weary expression.

  “I’ve done my world-saving,” he said. “It’s past time the rest of you started pig up the sck.”

  “We inteo take this to your ,” Darius said. “roached Mr Ketnd as a go-between, and he insisted we bring it to you personally.”

  Asano turo Boris.

  “And why is that?” he asked.

  “Because this isn’t a Crk Kent problem,” Boris said. “This is a Superman problem. You ’t pretend like you’re like everyone else on this ohe isn’t up for this kind of fight. No one oh is.”

  “What fight?” Jason asked.

  “As I’m sure you’re aware,” Michael said, “there is a lot of about you and your . Your impendiurn has led to some activity that has us ed.”

  “Activity by me?”

  “No,” Darius said. “It’s iion to you.”

  “For text,” Michael expined, “there is something of a secret cil amongst Earth’s most powerful pyers. Somewhere between a secret society and the United Nations, with various tries and other state-level actors being represehe mission statement of the group is to navigate challehat affect us all.”

  “You and your family e up a lot,” Darius added.

  “But that’s not what we’re here about,” Michael said. “Not directly. The group, as I mentioned, is ed about your return. About what you will do, and how the world will collectively respond.”

  “I’ve been giving the same thing my sideration as well,” Asano said.

  “The secret cil have gone beyond sideration,” Darius said. “One of their unstated objectives is to make sure the people in power stay that way, through the upheavals that magic has brought. They see you as potentially the greatest threat to that objective. You operate on a different paradigm to traditional forms of global power. That was fine when you were a silver-ranker, albeit a strong oh impressive reserves of resources and knowledge. But your has been ying the groundwork for you to be seen as far more than that, now. They portray you less a gold ranker and more like some god-king about to desd upon the Earth.”

  “That’s fair,” Boris said. “To my people, he essentially is a god-king. Even the ones who see him as an enemy.”

  “Be that as it may,” Darius said, “the reality doesn’t actually matter right now. The perception of it is what’s causing the problem at hand. The secret cil has decided that if you ’t be trolled and you ’t be tained, you have to be removed.”

  “I was expeg some rea along those lines,” Jason said. “You’re talking about more than just a few assassination attempts, though, aren’t you?”

  Darius nodded.

  “A means has been found to tact other people like you. Powerful people who exist beyond our world.”

  “They’ve struck a deal,” Michael said, pig up the narrative. “T these outsiders into our dimension to take you off the board. And iurain cessions have been made.”

  “What cessions?” Asano asked.

  “We’re not sure,” Darius said. “The Uates representatives were pletely against this approad were cut out, early in the proceedings. We still have people rep from ihe group, but we and others in opposition to the pn have been removed from its pnning.”

  “You were against it?”

  “The view of the Uates Gover,” Michael said, “is that weling an unknown alien forto our world is akin to giving invaders a beachhead. We might see you as a threat to our is, Mr Asano, but we respect yht to be a huge pain in our nation’s collective ass. Bringing in outsiders is selling the cow to get lessons on how to milk it.”

  “You realise that I’m bringing in my own force of outsiders.”

  “But are they ing to serve your is, or theirs?”

  “It’s more of a tourist situation, really. Most will follow my lead, but I am bringing a diplomatiti. They want to begiablishiions for when our worlds are in closer tact.”

  Darius and Michael shared a look.

  “We will definitely o discuss that with our people,” Michael said. “What you’re describing, though, sounds like open fions.”

  “I’d say that’s accurate,” Asano told them.

  “What we’re talking about,” Darius said, “Is inviting Darth Vader into Cloud City and hoping he doesn’t ge the deal on us.”

  Michael turo look at him.

  “Really, Darius?”

  “Oh, because your farmiaphors were such cssic diplomatiguage.”

  Asano chuckled, drawing their attention.

  “Whoever picked you two did their research,” he said. “They clearly uood that I would respoer to you than someone more caught up in formality.”

  The pair looked at each other. They had wondered between themselves why they had been chosen.

  “The Uates wasn’t tempted to use this ce to get me out of the way?” Asano asked them.

  “Mr Asano,” Michael said. “The Uates, like every nation, is not without fws. Our porominence mean that those fws , from time to time, create outsized problems. I think, perhaps, you sympathise with this.”

  “I ,” Jason aowledged.

  “For all our issues, our nation’s fws does not include a ck of indepe spirit. We didn’t let King Gee tell us what to do. We didn’t let the work tell us what to do. If you decide yoing to e bad start quering things, we won’t let you tell us what to do. We aren’t going to stand by while people throw opee to the wolves, just because they’re afraid one of the sheep is too big.”

  “I take it that you have some kind of proposal.”

  “A unified front. A show of force that will vihese outsiders to back off. Or to fight them, if they don’t. There are some obstacles to navigate, starting with the Australian gover. Our uanding is that you will arrive at the standing stones in South Australia, the ones you built to leave this dimension.”

  “That’s right,” Jason said.

  “The Australian gover is one of the driving forces for this pn t in alien assets to bat you. They’re afraid yoing to e bad take over the whole try, or at least cause problems after their treatment of your family. They are normally very aodating to US operations, but they do not want us involved in this. But this deal with the outsiders is areme secret. Only a handful of representatives in each participating group are even aware of it. The Australians ’t just e out and say they don’t want their allies on site because they’ve anised a secret alien ambush. Lag knowledge of that, their own diplomats will push to include us.”

  “What about roups? Who will be against you in this, and how far are they willing to take their opposition? Will they fight you? And me?”

  “We don’t know how far they would go. Military flict between nations on Australian soil is something we hope everyone will want to avoid. Our best assessment is that they won’t take the side of the outsiders if it es to violehey’ll stand by and see what happens, but there is always the ce for things to g. It wouldn’t be the first war started by the bad decision of an idiot. As for who will be oher side, Australia, a, Indonesia and the United Kingdom are the key pyers.”

  “Russia and most of Africa are Cabal territory,” Boris said. “We won’t intercede. Much of Asia is torween the old work fas and the Cabal, so they’re up in the air.”

  “These flicts go all the way back to the Makassar disaster,” Michael said. “Indonesia is especially fractured, with whions warring for independence. Asia as a whole has no unity in their magic fas, with Cabal awroups still vying for trol.”

  “My guess would be no involvement from Asia at rge, except Indonesia,” Boris said. “Your made some discreet but not-unnoticed interventions, supplying essences and training to independence groups there. The Indonesian gover hates yuts.”

  “The rest of Asia are uo intervehough,” Darius said.

  “Agreed,” Boris said with a nod. “Europe, meaning the vampires, is an opeion. The roups won’t want to side with them, but they may e out anyway. The vampires are terrified of you after the way you recimed your territories. They could be a wild card.”

  “That leaves the work fas,” Darius said. “Our work in the USA is now reciled with the gover, so they’re on your side. a will be against you. Same for the… what are they calling themselves now? The True work?”

  “They just rebranded again,” Michael said. “They’re back to just being ‘the work.’ For what? The fourth time?”

  Broaned.

  “Anyway,” he said, “they hate you. Basically, everyone iwork who had a problem with you from your st trip to Earth is in that group. The GDC will be on our side in this. Which will probably mean staying out of it, but not actively helping.”

  Jason expression remained bnk as they went over the various fas and how they would react to his return and potential interception by ic forces.

  “I o think, and sult my people. Thank you, gentlemen, for ing all this way. And for showing trust enough to pce yourselves within one of my seats of power.”

  Taking the clear dismissal, Michael and Darius said their goodbyes and collected their guards on the way to the elevator.

  ***

  Jason and Boris watched the elevator desd from their booth, taking away the Ameris.

  “Well,” Jason said. “This plicates things.”

  “It does.”

  “We o talk, Boris.”

  “We do.”

  “Do you know how muunication these people are having with the Jakaar pirates?”

  Boris turned his head to give Jason a ft look.

  “Jason, what did you do?”