New Disguises

I rose out of the metal bed that I had fallen asleep on and saw William getting dressed for battle on the bed to my left. even though I knew that we would have to focus on the mission at hand I wanted to tell William about what I had seen in my dream last night because I thought that he would want to know about the human who originally found and distributed the paradise t t all of the races are g,, going to war, over.

"hey William there is something that I want to tell you that I think you might find quite interesting". I said to him as I made my bed and then sat on it with a look of excitement for him to see clearly so that he knew that I found it quite amazing enough to share it with him.

"yeah, what is it?" he asked me as he tied his shoes, which were a pair of black shoes that had small white spikes in the heels. I was assuming to help him hold his ground on all terrain types.

"you know how I told you that I usually communicate with the current human deity through my dreams?",

"yes, you have mentioned that deity once before," William said as he slipped on a black shirt.

" well, this time, when I was asleep, instead of meeting with the human deity, I met with an entirely different person.

this person was a human scientist and he was imprisoned in a mineral prison like I had never seen before".

"wait, did you just say a mineral prison!" he exclaimed, showing that he was quite invested in what I had said to him.

"yes, I did. The area was inside the deepest areas of the world, and I had to speak the Divine tongue to even enter the area around the prison.

when I made it past the door I was able to see a large variety of minerals that were either blue or black around this secret room.

after that, I walked to the rear part of the room that is where I saw the human scientist on the other side of a massive wall that of a blue mineral."

"so did you learn anything else about him?" he asked me as he put on the rest of his armor and then sat down beside me on my bed.

I turned my head to my left and that is so pretty to reveal the origin of Paradisus to him with much enthusiasm and thrill behind every word.

"yes, he told me that the reason he was imprisoned was because the gods became upset with his beliefs. he had discovered the Paradisus that we use to justify this current war.

he had snuck it off of this world and brought it around the galaxy in an attempt to push forward the birth of the next human god candidate. when the gods found out about what he had done, they chose to punish him by imprisoning him in a prison that was made out of the precious blue mineral that he had gone to the effort of distributing around the whole galaxy as an ironically funny punishment."

"if that is true, then that means that he was definitely on a different frequency of thought patterns than most humans. also, I can not believe that the gods would get that upset, but I guess that any god would get pissed if any mortal interfered with their world at all," he said as he started to use the ladder to get out of the resting area of the ship.

it truly made me happy that I was able to share this with anyone at all because it made everything make more sense since I was not the only one who knew about it now. I also was amazed at the fact that William, the guy who hated me with every ounce of passion imaginable and would not even give me the benefit of the doubt ever just because he loved the last healer of the Black Rose squad, would even listen to me, much less agree with me.

I followed him out of the room since all I had on was my basic clothing, and all of my armor was in the armory on the other side of the bar area of the ship.

when I climbed down the ladder, I was greeted by an intense smell that was satisfying to my nose. I could tell that someone was grilling some chicken which made my stomach growl because it had been a decent amount of time since I had a good meal. when I saw that everyone else was eating some fruits and grilled chicken, it reminded me of similar smells that I used to enjoy on almost a daily basis when Nova was still alive.

"is everything okay Danny?" Hannah asked me as s,he took a bite at the grilled chicken leg on her plate and looked up at me, crying as I walked near where everyone was sitting down at the bar.

"yes, I am all right". I said to her as I wiped my tears with my hands until I no longer cried. "it is just that the smell that ran across my nose reminded me of the type of food that my former wife cooked for me".

"well then, you should thank Jason for the tempting aromas. he is truly a Master Chef, and he has the skills of a god when it comes to cooking". Hannah said to me as I saw that her eyes began to sparkle with excitement as she smiled behind every one of those words.

"if he is as good as you say he is at cooking then I will want to try some of his food before we make it to the location for the next mission," I said to her as I walked away and made my way into the armory so that I could get ready for the battle that was going to happen later on today.

as I walked over to the armory Jason stopped me and told me that we were not going to be needing our normal weapons or armor for this mission to succeed.

"what do you mean by that? I thought that we were asked to assassinate the leader of the Fifth Column terrorist movement?" I asked him as I stepped out of the armory since he said that we would not need anything from that room for the mission to succeed.

"yeah, we are going to infiltrate the palace of the fifth column leader as entertainers so that we can get close to them before killing our target," Jason said as he handed me a plate that had two red apples and three grilled chicken legs on it.

"thank you very much". I said to him with a smile on my face.

when I took a bite out of the chicken legs, they were lightly seasoned with dark red pepper sprinkles, which made the chicken give off a moderate kick that exploded in my mouth and caused me to devour the whole thing in a few bites without thinking about the spice at all.

"Where did you learn to cook this magnificently? were originally a member of the chef caste on your homeworld?" I asked Jason because I was curious to know how a mercenary would ever be this great at cooking.

"Truthfully, I was not born as a chef. I was originally born as a miner, and after I had my Klitron process, I was pronounced as a mage," he said as he closed the grill that was on the rear wall of the bar to the right of the cabinet where all of the alcoholic beverages were stored.

"wow, you were originally a simple miner. That means that you rose from the lowest possible station apart from being an outcast to being a mage".

"it might sound amazing, but I did not pass my selection process when one of the houses that visited my world did not choose me. I had no choice but to become a mercenary to ensure my survival". he said with a look of sadness on display as if he truly wanted to be more than just a mercenary deep down inside no matter what the rules said that he had to do.

"yeah, no matter how much he wants to hide it, all of us were rejected during the selection process". Hannah said as she handed him her plate which was empty except for the apple cores as well as the chicken bones.

"that is unfortunate, to say the least". I said to both of them as I ate the second chicken leg that was on my plate.

"in the end, it doesn't matter because I used my opportunity as a mercenary to learn whatever kind of skills that I could since I was not bound by the restrictions of any house, which meant that I would be free to indulge my curiosity on any topic," Jason said as he turned on the water from the sink that was on the center of the wall in front of me below the cabinet.

"it sounds as though you eventually enjoyed the freedom that came with not being bound by the rules and customs of a specific house". William said to Jason as he handed his plate to him as well in the same state that Hannah's plate was in as she handed it in.

"yes, I am grateful for the freedom that came with it". he said as he washed the plates, and I finished my last chicken leg. "now that I have told you about that, we can focus on our mission objective."

"so what is the plan for getting to the palace and meeting our target?" Hannah asked.

"look in the boxes that we received from the neutral space trader. you will find that there are costumes and some dulled weapons as well. I ordered these items so that we could infiltrate the palace as entertainers."

"Well, that makes sense why you didn't want us to wear our normal gear because it would give off a different vibe if we went into the palace with our normal gear on," William said as he walked into the armory.

a few moments fast until William came out of the armory and he was wearing a different outfit than when he had entered into it.

his outfit was a white vest with red bracelets and a red mask that only covered the front part of his face to the point where no one who did not know him would be able to recognize him. he also had on a pair of red slacks and white shoes.

"those outfits are quite nice for entertainer outfits". the man who did not give me his name yet said to William.

"Well, we are about to show up at our destination, so everyone needs to get dressed in the appropriate attire," Jason said as he grabbed my plate from me since I had finished the chicken and the apples as well.

after Jason said that everyone went into the armory and grabbed the appropriate clothing and items that they would need for the mission.

I grabbed the same kind of clothing that William had on and also got a staff to use for whatever show we put together.

even though my true mastery was in the dual scythe I had learned bits and pieces of how to wield a staff from Nova while we were in school.

after everyone left I changed my clothes inside of the armory and placed the staff on my back.

when I walked out of the armory, I felt quite silly walking around in this outfit, but I did not let it get to me because I knew that it was required for the success of this mission.

"it seems that everyone is now done so let me get dressed in my outfit for the mission before we land at our destination.

I noticed that everyone else wore the same kind of clothing except for Hannah. She was wearing a short white dress that went from her waist down to her knees and wore a set of flexible red padding for her chest area, for her long hair was kept together with a red hairband.

"I wonder what Jason will look like when he comes out?" Hannah asked. "will he look like the rest of you or will he look different because he is our leader?".

"Why don't I just answer that for you". I heard Jason say in response to Hannah's question.

when I looked at Jason, I was surprised he had on a top hat and more of an entirely white business suit.

"so I'm assuming that you are playing as the leader of our ring of circus performers," I said as I finished looking at his clothing.

"yes, I am going to be playing the boss of this group of performers.

so make sure that you are ready when we land because we will be giving this document to the city guards to prove our intention for showing up on this world". Jason said as he sat down on the couch.

each of us looked quite interesting in our new disguises, which made me excited because while I wielded the staff, I felt as though my wife was still with me in spirit.

I had no idea what awaited me as the ship landed in the spaceport, but one thing is certain I could tell that this world was going to hold something of great importance to either my success as a mercenary or my path to becoming the next human deity.