217: A Plague of Phantoms I

"Sho'lajah, we are quickly approaching our destination." King's Glaive announced loudly, waking me up from my nap.

I groaned and stood up and then stretched. Iris, Jane, Bo, and Baset were back in the sleeper car last I saw them. I was in the lounge car with Chad, who was currently tidying up around the car.

"Thanks, King's Glaive." I said, then headed into the engine car. The navigation basin showed that we were only two minutes away from the shop, so I pressed the intercom button for the sleeper car.

"Guys, we're nearly there. Two minutes!" I announced.

I walked over to the door outside and then pressed the button to open the door. As it slid open, I was greeted to the vision of the mana train passing through the deserted streets of the solver city. Vacant apartment buildings whirled by as the train sped down the street. Good thing most of them were vacant, and people were slow to return, or else I would worry about King's Glaive running over someone.

I heard the door to the engine car open and turned to see Bo, Iris, and Jane walking in. All three of them looked like they'd just woken up and a little cranky. Bo saw me standing in front of the open door and frowned.

"Chase, step away from the door. You fell out the last time you did that." Bo said. I frowned, then pressed the button to close the door.

"I didn't fall, I was pushed." I said, looking at Iris. She feigned ignorance and walked over to the navigation basin.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Though if I did, I would say a certain Star Child needs to keep his mouth shut about certain women's clothing size." Iris said, shooting me a glare.

"This is why you're a B-cup Tri-clops…" I said, frowning at Iris. Her face turned bright red, and she stomped over to me and slugged me in the arm.

"Shut up, Star brat!" Iris snapped.

"OWWW! SHIT! DEAD ARM!" I yelled and rubbed my arm.

King's Glaive suddenly started to slow down before coming to a full stop, making everything and everyone jerk forward and fall. I ended up falling and sliding into one of the pedestals, hitting my head on it.

"Destination reached. Disembark when ready." King's Glaive announced.

"King's Glaive, next time warn everyone before you slow down to stop…" I grumbled as I pushed myself off the floor and rubbed my head.

"Command noted."

Iris, Jane, and Bo all pushed themselves off the floor. The door to the engine car opened, and then Baset and Chad walked into the room. Chad was rubbing his right eye.

"We made it?" Baset asked as she stretched. I nodded and then walked over to the exit door to the engine car.

"Yeah, we're finally back home." I said, then pressed the button to open the door.

The door opened to the street, right in front of Sho'lajah's front door. There was a small mob of people crowding the front of the King's Glaive. On seeing the engine car door open, everyone clambered to see who or what was inside. At the front of this group, I saw Sin, whose eyes grew wide when he saw me.

"BOSS?!" Sin bellowed.

"Hey, Sinner! Like the new ride?" I asked as the crystal steps unfolded from under the train. I walked climbed down from the train to an understandably confused Sin and crowd of customers. The others disembarked behind me, and everyone stretched and looked up at the sun.

"Boss….WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Sin bellowed as he pointed to King's Glaive.

"A mana train. An artifact from the ancient splicers." Jane said with a sigh. Sin blinked several times, as did everyone else on the sidewalk.

"WHAT?!!!" Sin bellowed then pointed to me. "You were just invited to the royal palace! How did you come back with an ancient splicer artifact, a paragon, and some stranger?!"

"I thought you'd be more upset on the fact we've been gone for almost a week longer than I said originally." I said.

"Or the fact that that Bo was with us." Iris added.

At that exact moment, the front door of the shop suddenly swung open so hard that it slammed into the outside wall and nearly cracked the glass in the door. Jade came storming out, the moment her eyes landed in Bo a look of relief spread over her face and she ran over to him; shoving people out of the way as she ran; falling to her knees and hugging him tightly.

"BO! OH THANK THE GODS!" She cried.

"MOM! Tight!" Bo exclaimed and tried to squirm out of her embrace, but he stopped when he realized she was actually crying. She simply held him and cried for several moments before she wiped her tears from her eyes and looked at her son.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING! YOU HAD YOUR FATHER, AND I WORRIED SICK!" Jade yelled at Bo. Bo looked down at the ground, tears falling.

"Sorry…" He muttered. Jade stood up and grabbed Bo by his ear.

"Sorry, is not going to cut it this time! You are grounded!" Jade yelled, then started to drag Bo by his ear into the shop.

"OW! MOM MY EAR!" Bo cried.

"You're lucky I'm not spanking you in front of all these people!" Jade yelled, then yanked the door to the shop open again, then held it open and looked back at me. "Thank you for bringing him back, Chase."

"No problem." I said casually. Baset spoke up at that moment.

"I plan to have class tomorrow morning…" Baset started.

"Bo will attend. It'll be the only thing he'll be able to do since he'll be grounded until he's eighty!" Jade snapped.

"I see…" Baset replied. Jade marched into the shop with Bo in tow, most likely heading to the basement where Jade's smithy was set up. I was about to head in after them when a familiar voice called out to me from above.

"My lord!"

I looked up to see Empress flying down from her nest on the roof and landing in front of me. A few of the customers that had gathered nearby all scattered to make room so she didn't step on them. She made a grand and elaborate bow.

"Empress! I'm glad to see the shop is still in one piece." I said as I reached up and petted her softly on her head. She trilled happily and cocked her head to the side to encourage me to pay her there.

"I followed your instructions to the letter, my lord, and worked hard to keep the peace in your domain!" Empress reported. I smiled and started to recall Empress.

"Thank you for everything, and sorry for being gone for so long. You deserve a nice lokg rest." I said as she was recalled into her crystalline structure.

[Thank you, my lord….] Empress replied. Sin stepped in front of me, eyeing a few of the customers angrily, then cleared his throat.

"Umm boss…since you're here, do you mind dealing with a little problem right now?" Sin asked.

"Sure, what's…" Before I could finish the sentence, a nobleman customer shoved past Sin and jumped in front of me.

"About time! I've tried to order an item for you for a week now…" the nobleman exclaimed. Sin grabbed the man by the collar and lifted him off his feet with one hand, then spun around and set him down behind a few feet back.

"Do not get in my boss's face!" Sin warned. The snarl that came out as he said those words sent a shiver down every customer's spine.

The nobleman looked like he was about to protest being handled in such a fashion, but the murderous glare that Sin shot him persuaded him otherwise. Seeing the nobleman handled, Sin turned back to me.

"A few customers are a little…upset since you were away for so long, and we were forced to stop accepting orders." Sin explained. I nodded and then scratched my temple.

"How long ago did you stop taking orders?" I asked.

"At the beginning of the week...so for nearly five days." Sin replied. I winced and then looked at all the customers. "We thought about getting in touch with you through Empress or Jiggles, but they told gave us the gist of what was going on over there, so we decided it was better to just stop taking orders."

"Well, you made the right call. Even if we wanted too we couldn't have gotten here any quicker." I said. I looked back to the girls and Baset and saw the girls already walking past me. They all walked over to the crowd of customers and stopped.

"I can understand why all of you are a little frustrated, especially those who have placed orders and expected them to be done already. Chase was detained….for reasons, but he is back now, and all of us at Sho'lajah Artifact Company will work to get your orders done as soon as possible." Jane spoke up.

That speech seemed to calm down the slightly agitated crowd. The girls both looked back at me with serious looks.

'Fuck…this is going to be a late night…" I thought.

***

"Finally! We're home!" I exclaimed as the girls and I lumbered through the front door of our dorm rooms. I walked over to a nearby wall and collapsed against it, sliding down to the floor.

"I'm exhausted…" Iris grumbled as she staggered over to the staircase.

"Me too…" Jane added. I frowned at the two of them.

"Why are you two tired! All you did was sit at the desk with Angie and KC!" I snapped. The girls both paused, then turned and glared at me.

"We were calming down your angry customers!" They both yelled back.

"You should have just listened to me when I said if they start acting like assholes just ban them then!" I snapped back then crossed my arms. "Honestly, a few less items to make would have been great!"

"We couldn't. Most of the people there were complaining about late item delivery because you weren't there!" Jane snapped.

"Well, who's fault is that…princess!" I snapped back. Jane paused and looked like she was about to blow. She took a deep breath, then turned on her feet and kept going towards the stairs.

"I'm going to bed since we have to be up in a few hours! Good night, Iris and idiot!" Jane said as she stomped up the stairs.

"Calling me names doesn't change the truth!" I shouted at Jane. She continued up the stairs, pretending to ignore me while she climbed until she disappeared from view.

"She's really come out of her shell lately…" Iris commented as she Jane vanished upstairs and then looked to me. "Entirely your fault."

"You're welcome." I said sarcastically as I pushed myself up and then lumbered over to the door that led to my room. "Jeez. I'm tempted to just play hooky for class tomorrow."

"You mean today? It's almost one in the morning." Iris corrected.

"Whatever! I'm tired! I made over a hundred enchanted items today! That has to be a world record!" I exclaimed.

"Chase, at this point, anything you do is a world record." Irks said, then started up the stairs. "But I agree. However, it's the last class of the semester, and Jane and I have already missed two weeks' worth of classes and you three at least."

"Thanks for reminding Tri-clops." I grumbled. Iris stopped at the next flight of stairs and smirked down at me.

"You're welcome, Star Child." She replied sarcastically. "Good night…"

"Good night." I replied absent-mindedly as I stumbled into my room, making my way to the bedroom. As I fell face first onto the bed, one phrase kept playing in my mind.

'One more day, one more day, one more day….'