“You sure have some convenient powers,” Elu laughed as the car carried them over the highway. It was a large camper van, with high quality furniture, slightly worn down from repeated usage over several years. He, Eliza, Elu and someone she had introduced as her great, great, great grandchild (give or take a few greats) were sitting in the back on a quiet table. Like everything else about the Hidden Tradition, it had genuine charm about it, the smell of fresh coffee mixing with dried grass to create a welcoming atmosphere.

Which still had John glance around for traps. The advantage of moving focus in an untraceable layer on top of his eyes was that he didn’t have to wait for people to look away from him. Everything he wanted to ogle at, he could without appearing paranoid to his hosts. As long as he kept his actual eyes still.

He maintained that he was secure enough with the blood mage sitting next to him, as well as the several elementals invisibly inside and around him, but that didn’t fix his paranoia. ‘I wonder if I would have these problems if Elu was a genuinely hot chick,’ the Gamer thought, more than aware of his own shortcomings. If there was a fateful encounter where he could bang some sexy indigenous lady, add her to the harem and expand Fusion in the process, for the low price of overcoming that nagging part of his mind, he would certainly act on it. As it stood, John had found the girl currently driving cute, but generally treated the people of the Hidden Tradition with very well veiled distrust.

They were just such moral actors that it disturbed him greatly. For no other reason than it being the right thing, they wanted to help Eliza? Maybe even want to join Fusion? Well, John had an easier time understanding the latter thanks to the reasoning Elu had given him, that was a pragmatic argument rooted in a mutual understanding of necessity to be protected against the forces beyond their corner of the world.

‘I will have the opportunity to ask the other leaders soon enough,’ John thought, wondering what he should ask to, carefully, extract any hidden agendas they might have.

“You sure have some convenient powers!” Elu repeated louder and reminded John that he wasn’t supposed to just sit there broodingly.

“Sorry, was lost in thought,” he quickly apologized, stretching a bit on the couch and absent-mindedly put a hand on Eliza head, combing her long hair with his fingers. ‘Lydia was right, this is very nice hair,’ the Gamer thought, despite the lack of care (outside of taking regular baths) and the recent growth spurts, the strands were flowing like liquid sapphire through his caress. “What exactly do you mean?”

“Being able to teleport to DC like that,” Elu specified. Originally, the native woman had wanted to take a plane over to the capital. Not one to waste time or money (although he admittedly valued the latter way less than the former), the Gamer had explained that he had a quicker way and so they had taken the Transport Station.

“Seasoned RTS players know where to put their teleport targets,” John just shrugged off with a charismatic smile. Perhaps because of how nervous the approach of their target made him, an emotion that he hadn’t had in the foreground of his mind for a long time, he was feeling the need for affection more than usual. He pulled Eliza into his lap, whose only complaint about that was her increased distance to the cookie jar, and cuddled her fiercely.

There was a lot related to this trip that was immediately important for their future, and so John was planning out the effects of everything that could go wrong and the immediate contingencies for it. Over and over again, to make sure he had the best answer for any given situation. One outcome in particular made him feel at unease. Perhaps the unlikeliest one of them all, it was the only one where John genuinely had trouble choosing between the two options presented.

“I love you,” he whispered into Eliza’s ear, who swallowed and turned to look at him. Before she could ask him, in her bloomy language, what the fuck his pussy breaking ass was suddenly on about, he planted a quick kiss on her sticky lips. The sugar from all the bakeware she had been consuming made it all the sweeter. “Don’t you forget that, my dear broken angel.”

“Don’t… don’t fucking use that one,” Eliza physically cringed in his arms, which only served to get her deeper into his embrace. Completely by design, John was quite sure as he lovingly played with her hair.

“Hey, you called me daddy recently, this is my revenge.”

“You don’t like being called that?” Elu asked with a raised eyebrow, then giving it a dirty, old lady laugh. “Okay? And here I thought the men hadn’t changed since I grew up. One of my granddaughters recently slipped up over the dinner table. Was a very funny moment when both her boyfriend and father reached for the salt.”

“…I refuse to believe that meme actually happened in any capacity anywhere,” John mumbled, but the hesitant nod of Elu’s present relative only confirmed the tale. “Maybe there is some sort of gene that makes people wrong?”

“Don’t you mean ‘gives people different tastes’?” Elu wanted to know, pouring herself a cup of coffee. A bump in the road threatened to make her spill some of the drink. She caught the wayward drops of the steaming hot liquid in her palm and then licked them off without a single care in the world.

John wondered if them sitting in this back area without any security belts was against some sort of law. In case of a crash, they would probably have to fake injuries though. “No, I mean wrong. Wanting to be called daddy is creepy.”

“Whatever you fucking say, ‘Master’,” Eliza mocked him.

“…You just broke our sacred bond,” John sniffed artificially while he groped all the parts of Eliza he could get away with in this setting. “Of all the people to call me that mockingly, I thought you knew the second best. I am thoroughly disappointed.”

Number one was obviously Aclysia, something that the blood mage also knew and didn’t move to refute in any way. “Well, our daughters will call whoever they get with daddy eventually,” Eliza decided, notably not swearing a single time in that sentence.

“I am just going to state that I hope that sadism is the dominant and ‘daddy’ the recessive gene.”

“Would feel really fucking weird if they are my daughters and somehow not want to get piledriven into the ever-fucking cock-biscuits of whatever surface they get their pussy pounded on.”

“…Also, daughters? Is that a decision already?”

“It better fucking be or god’s non-existent ass can get ready to have my foot shoved so far up that I could tickle his broken fucking spine with my toes.”

Elu’s dirty old grandma laughter got so loud the two of them were reminded that bantering wasn’t really appropriate here. “Don’t mind me,” the Old Grace assured them and John didn’t really, but her grandson had turned beet red by now and that was a pretty sure signal that the Gamer may have to slow it down on the public sexuality a bit.

Also, he had just noticed that he was full on fondling Eliza’s breasts through the fabric of her shirt right now. She had stolen one of his for the purpose of going out into public today, a black one with the mask of Reaper from Overwatch printed on top of it. It was way too long for her; John’s lanky build made it fit somewhat around the shoulders but the rest was dangling unnecessarily.

It was cute to see her in his clothes though, gave him a certain level of confirmed possessiveness that was oddly pleasing. With a lot of willpower involved, he parted with her soft, medium sized boobs and went back to just hugging her. The rest of the drive they spoke about less scandalous things, although John still had a boner when they arrived at their target.

Hagerstown was a decently sized city at the edge of the mountain range that the Hidden Tradition called home. As such it laid on the edge of their territory, close to Fusion’s ground and wasn’t even too far from the triangle point where the two of them met with the Lake Alliance’s eastern member, the Lower Lake Guild. As a meeting point, it was pretty ideal. Big enough to obfuscate their presence and at a location from where they could quickly move should something bad happen along the border.

If someone, anybody, wanted to get into any of the three large guilds on the east coast, this was the ideal base from where to do so. John’s phone vibrated. He read the two words on the display. A name and his current location. With a sting in his heart, he quickly put the phone away again before anybody could see the message. Probabilities had just shifted.

The Hidden Tradition had already kept their word in aiding John, their participation in the war was as official and public as the Lake Alliance’s declaration had been the day after their meeting at that dirty gas station. ‘At least they are committed to their lie, if it is one,’ John thought as the enormous car rolled through the inner-city traffic and eventually arrived at what seemed to be a pretty nice restaurant.

Not the 5-star super deluxe kind of nice, no, the rustic charming kind of nice, the kind of restaurant likely to be visited with extended family because somebody got through their communion. Which was also the exact feeling that John got when he stepped inside and was immediately greeted by the sound of happy chatter, kitchen utensils clacking against one another and a feast already in motion.

‘Guess I can forego the question whether or not us arriving early matters,’ the Gamer realized as he walked over the wooden floor. No special kind of wood, just a normal brown, the only difference between the floor and the beams under the roof was that the former was recently polished while the latter looked like they had been lying there for about 150 years. Not to say they were dirty, not a single cobweb in sight, but they had that shrunken, old wood look.

The walls were covered with simple white plaster and isolated basically nothing whatsoever. All sounds echoed freely throughout the entire two-story building. The upper half seemed to be a living area, at least John couldn’t make out any way upwards. This lack of privacy wasn’t really a problem since the entire establishment was only able to hold one gathering in the first place.

And what a gathering that was. John had expected, once again, to be met with some very stereotypical sights. Tanned, slightly red skinned people with crowns of feathers on their heads and covered in light leather, running around with peace pipes or otherwise decorated. There were some of those in the smoke-filled room he entered, with the exception of the pipe, but the majority was just normal.

The heavy smell of tobacco and weed hung in the air, the latter much less pronounced but definitely present to the care of nobody. People were smoking cigars, cigarettes or nothing at all, making jokes about lung cancer their friends were currently growing on themselves. Wearing anything between traditionally shamanistic clothes to modern suits, they were a seemingly randomly rolled together bunch.

What connected all of them was their dark, long hair, braided most of the time. There were about twenty, men and women about equally represented, in the room, scattered between standing, sitting on benches or besieging the cold buffet. Upon John’s entrance, nothing really happened.

The Gamer wasn’t used to that kind of reaction. Often his arrival at a scene caused chatter to cease and attention to shift. There were some interested gazes, for sure, but nobody seemed to intend to treat him special in any capacity. It was surprisingly refreshing.

None of that was to say he went ignored either. Elu soon waved at a young man who told his current circle of friends surrounding him one last joke and then came over. Wrestling down the idea that it had been a joke about him, John adjusted his glasses. The moment he had no longer sat still, he had switched back to this more reliable viewing method. If the option had existed, he would also have gotten the sphere out, but they were still in the normal world and he had no idea if the kitchen staff was as in on it as the room obviously was.

The young man was average looking, with a long face and oiled black braids. He was one of the more modern clothed fellows. A blue suit with sturdy leather shoes and a black bowtie, a simple white shirt underneath. John was the taller of the two of them, by a noticeable but not significant margin. Compromising his image somewhat was the leather band wrapped around his head, sporting a single eagle feather. In John’s personal opinion, the man should have lost either the bowtie or the headband, the combination looked somewhat goofy.

“Greetings, John, can I call you John?” the man went in directly for one of the most enthusiastic handshakes the Gamer had ever been the recipient off. One hand landed firmly on his shoulder, the other stretched out so naturally invitingly that John was answering in kind within the moment.

“I think that should be fine?” John said with a moderate amount of uncertainty as he was released out of the half-hugging handshake. Certainly, the guy wasn’t even half as good looking as other diplomats John had dealt with in his time, but he did have a very infecting smile. “I would feel better about it if I knew your name as well though. All my attempts to find it out with spies were rather unsuccessful.”

It was supposed to be a joke and was taken as such, as the young man laughed moderately in response. “Well, since you are here yourself, feel free to see, you can use this Observe thing, right?” he winked at the Gamer in a playful way. “Only fair, given how easy basic information about you is accessible.”

“Hmm, well, if you offer it so nicely,” John had held back on using the skill out of respect. Also, cautiousness. Mostly cautiousness, to be perfectly honest, as he really didn’t feel like repeating an Abraham situation. Elu hadn’t minded previously, and now that he had the invitation, there was really no need to hold back.

“Ahanu… I notice no surname?” John wondered about that first, because it seemed like the decent thing to do.

“I put it aside while I serve all tribes,” the chieftain-elect explained readily. “Is that all this scrying spell told you about me? All questions needed?”

“No, I have one more, if that is alright with you?” John asked; a gracious handwave was the indication he needed. “Are you the strongest in your guild?”

From a level standpoint, that seemed impossible, but John had been through enough to know that levels themselves weren’t everything. Elu may have double the base numbers, but it seemed Ahanu had access to something very finely tuned to the specific magic of his people. In other words, he had access to a bullshit ability. Not nearly as brutal as John’s, Romulus’ or Sigmund’s, but definitely potent in its niche.

“Yes,” the answer came pretty quickly and, after John nodded to himself to signal that he believed it, the Gamer relaxed. If their strongest person came all the way out of the nexus of his power, to a place he was quite vulnerable at, then this showed a degree of trust. Trust that John had answered by showing up here without his usual entourage. “Anyway, this is the famous Eliza then?” Ahanu moved on.

“Is there even a need to ask?” John wondered, putting an arm around the smaller woman to keep her from hiding behind him. As usual Eliza met new people with a mixture of immense disdain and a dash of fear. Although that fear was less for what they could do to her than the reverse. “Not like information about her is much harder to find.”

“You’d be surprised,” Ahanu told him. “Aside from knowing that Thana exists, it’s actually quite difficult nowadays to get any definitive information. Best we have is very shaky live footage that goes for hundreds of thousands.”

“That tall-haired piece of shit is still selling those recordings?!” Eliza growled, keenly aware of Jeff, the announcer, having all rights to that video material. “I should have pulled his lungs out through his mouth and let him choke on his fucking blood.”

John furrowed his eyebrows. “Sorry, but can you elaborate on that a little bit? Like, walk me through how you found what you did.”

“Well, basically everyone can find out you exist, that’s pretty easy with all the buzz you are making,” Ahanu said. “That’s where we got to the first hurdle, articles on the Abyss Auction very rarely have cross references to other people and the information package about you only shows photos of you with, mostly blurred out, companions.” John nodded, he followed so far. “When looking for your name, we pretty quickly stumbled over the tournament in Germany though, so that’s where we got the names Jane Hollmey, Nia Fae and Thana Newman from.” The blood mage squeaked happily when she was addressed with that last name, even if her first name was wrong in that instance. “Your girlfriend, I assume, has very little reliable information about her available, most of it is forum discussions elsewhere, I guess that’s her mother’s influence.”

“Can’t say for sure, but probably,” John agreed. This he had already noted before, although he wasn’t sure if Nariko was keeping Rave’s name off the site to protect her eldest daughter or to keep her own reputation clean. “I assume there is nothing about Nia?”

“On the contrary, we found the most about Nia Fae – well, the queen herself aside,” Ahanu chuckled and explained. “Apparently there is a network of pet owners that started tracking an odd blonde that would appear on their front lawns and pat their animals.”

“That makes… way too much sense…” John had to concede, interested how those sightings would look like if projected on a map.

“She is such a stalking bimbo,” Eliza cackled. “Really, how retarded can one blonde be?”

“Which brings us to you,” Ahanu took a gracious little bow and offered to kiss Eliza’s hand, something that the blood mage reacted with a teeth revealing growl towards. “Point taken,” the Hidden Tradition’s leader backed off. “The entirety of info about you is quite scattered. The only clear footage that exists is your announcement in Cologne. Then there is a report about a run-in with reporters, the one-sided fight against that swordsman, the immediately concluded fight against… Alex?”

“Alexej,” John corrected.

“Yes, that guy. Anyway, that, the pretty chaotic footage of the group fight and then the clash with Romulus. That’s what we, as an organization, could do. Finding all that video material wasn’t actually that easy, neither can we make any real estimates of Thana’s strength from it, other than she is terrifyingly strong. But you seemed to be even before the change, though.”

“Because I fucking am,” Eliza puffed out her chest, causing the overly large shirt to slouch away to one side.

“I see…” John mumbled and realized that he had made a mistake in his assumptions so far. In Europe everyone knew more or less about Thana because people had taken way more interest in the press conference that had started the Five Day War. It helped that a bunch of people had been in the colosseum to tell their friends and family.

One ocean across, word of mouth was harder to come by, and since the damage Thana had done had been pretty contained, knowledge of her was limited. Helped, without a doubt, by the fact that she was eliminated as a threat the moment she appeared. By word of mouth, Thana would travel as a supremely strong entity that was defeated by Romulus. Just another god or member of the upper power echelons of the Abyss, in the perception of most people.

John’s mistake hadn’t been too impactful, what the average joe didn’t know, large organizations would keep an eye out on, and John primarily dealt with those nowadays. His assumption that nobody would dare attack him as long as he ran around with Eliza was also still true. Not because of Thana but because of what the blood mage had done before realizing that wasn’t her own name. Normal people didn’t really have to bother knowing whether it was a boulder about to squash them or an entire mountain. They just had to be aware of what they were getting into.

Inconsequential, but interesting.

“Anyway, enough of all of that,” Ahanu waved off and gestured towards the smoky room. “Why not have some fun? You arrived so much earlier already, certainly you brought the time?”

Eliza looked unwilling, but John pushed her along as he followed the invitation.