Jinn nodded. If Ebin worked for a Bespin Seraph, there could only be one reason: the dresl. Ebin’s next question confirmed his suspicions.

“Did the leopard dresl join you willingly, or did you and your brother kidnap her?” He turned his head to the side. “We would ask your brother, but his throat was regrettably crushed, and we would prefer not to wait for him to heal.”

The mention of his brother was intended to throw Jinn off balance. It did. He had expected Maza’s imprisonment to be that of a political subversive: detained but comfortable.

“Where is he being held?” Jinn demanded, then immediately bit his tongue. Foolish! He was wasting a question on information he could not act on.

Ebin clapped his hands together. “I agree to this trade,” he said.

The deal was done. Jinn could not back out now, or change his question. Part of him didn’t care. He wanted news of his brother, foolish though that desire may be.

“The dresl joined us freely,” Jinn answered. Truth, though as minimal a truth as he could manage. He and Maza had done their best to make her disappearance seem to be a kidnapping, but in reality, it had been more of a liberation.

The dresl were not slaves, precisely, but when the concubine of a powerful Seraph learned information she was not supposed to know, she had very few options for leaving her post which did not involve a casket.

Ebin clucked his tongue. “Ah, that is disappointing to hear. The Seraph held out hope that she might return to service with him. He will decide her fate, not I, but I would not lay odds against her continued good health.”

“Your answer is simple enough. Maza is currently a guest of honor at Ursa Luna.”

Jinn froze. Ursa Luna was the maximum security prison used only by Seraph. Guests of honor served a life sentence. A very short life sentence.

He had not expected that at all. At worst, he’d thought they might have him in Salusa, or maybe Hubble Bay. Ursa Luna was very bad news.

“Ah! I see I have given you food for thought. You didn’t expect … ah, but you did! You planned a heroic rescue? How quaint!” Ebin’s eyes gleamed.

Jinn clenched his jaw. Remora’s promise to help him rescue his brother now seemed laughable. A fleet of warships might stand a chance against Ursa Luna. A single, ramshackle airship manned by a patchwork crew was unthinkable.

“Almost, I would like to see you try. Alas, I am not authorized to make such a decision.” At Ebin’s side, the notch-eared cat barked a peculiar, wheezing laugh.

Jinn pushed aside the thought of his brother in Ursa Luna. He could not help him from here. Remora, however, would not even be in trouble if it weren’t for him. She had been kidnapped and ransomed for the dresl girl, and he knew the cat standing next to Ebin was involved.

Which meant that Ebin was involved, which meant that she would be free were it not for Jinn’s troubles. The thought of her, alone in some cell, watched over by Ebin-who-liked-to-play-games and the notch-eared cat with shining eyes stiffened his spine.

He would find a way to rescue her.

“Where is Remora?” Jinn asked.

Ebin cocked his head to the side, surveying the other Shinra’ere from a different angle. “Ah, so the human girl has a name, does she? Remora. An odd sort of name. Is that not a fish? Yes, I believe it is. The sort of small, unassuming fish which swims with sharks. An apt name for a human traveling with Shinra’ere.”

“Very well,” he said, nodding. “I shall trade you this information if you will tell me precisely what information your brother hoped to learn from the white leopard dresl. In detail, if you please.”

Jinn closed his eyes, as if that would keep him from seeing his opportunity whisked away. “I cannot say.”

“Can not? Or will not? Come now, what is the location of your dirtsider sweetheart worth?”

“She is not my sweetheart,” Jinn barked back. “She is my employer.”

“Ah, then the rumors are true that you are a sellsword now,” Ebin said, eyes gleaming.

Jinn bit his tongue. His temper was giving away more information than he wanted, showing his true colors his brother would say. “Cannot,” he said. “My brother did not share with me the details of his plan.”

Ebin’s eyes widened, clearly astonished. “You abandoned your Clan, left your post, and deserted your people without even knowing the details of your tradeoff? No, I cannot believe it!”

“He is my brother.” It was truth that no one, not even Nolan, had ever truly understood.

“This is most disturbing,” Ebin said. “Perhaps your ignorance has bought a stay of execution for both your brother and the dresl girl. Temporary, of course. One must always reap the consequences of one’s actions, and your actions were quite naughty indeed.”

“This does, however, leave us at an uncomfortable impasse. Your question remains, but mine is unsatisfied. I shall have to think of a replacement.”

Ebin tapped his chin thoughtfully before brightening. “Ah, I have it! Rumor has it that you indulge in an entirely un-Shinra past-time, though I cannot myself fathom the attraction. They say that not only do you eat food, you specifically seek out a specific (and frivolous) kind of food. Pastries. Why would a Shinra-ere warrior bother?”

For a moment, the memory surfaced. Jinn and Maza, racing to the vendors at the wharves, laughing and dodging as they called out to each other or tried to slow the other’s progress. The last to reach the pastry vendor would have to pay for both cupcakes, and neither had enough money for two deluxe pastries.

Maza had won again. He always won, because he always cheated. This time, though, his cheating had earned Jinn a scraped knee and a raw elbow. By way of apology, he’d split the sprinkle-bedecked pastry in half, handing over the larger portion to Jinn.

“We’re brothers,” child-Maza had said, long before his shoulders sprouted wings and Jinn’s forehead mark traced itself across his face. “And brothers look out for each other.”

Jinn sucked in a breath and shook his head. “No deal,” he said.

“Come again?” said Ebin.

“I said, ‘No deal.’” Jinn closed down his face, not giving Ebin any hint of the emotions stirred up by his question.

“You will not trade the location of the human girl for the reason that you eat pastries with sprinkles?”

“No.”

Ebin stared at Jinn, open curiosity burning in his eyes. Jinn stared back. He would not give this man a cherished memory to tarnish and sully.

“Some day, Jinn of No Clan, I will learn the answer to that question.”

Jinn said nothing, though the brightness in Ebin’s eyes was more than a little disturbing. Ebin was clearly not accustomed to having his curiosity thwarted.

Scowling, the white-wrapped Shinra’ere sighed. “Very well then. Why did you return to Helion? Everyone thus far has assumed it had something to do with the dresl, but I am not so certain. You have made no attempts to contact or find the dresl that I have noticed.”

“I agree to this trade,” Jinn said immediately.

Ebin’s disappointment at his swift agreement was almost comical.

“Remora was shopping for groceries. As her bodyguard, I was compelled to join her.”

Ebin laughed at that, a short, surprised burst of merriment. “Groceries? You have returned to your homeland, outcast and sellsword, to pick up a dozen eggs and some bread? Ah, fortune smiles upon me! Not only have you returned sooner than I had hoped, you turn out to be a singularly worthless bodyguard. Your own past reaches forward to endanger your charge.”

Jinn clenched his jaw. He could not deny that, thus far, his stint as Remora’s bodyguard had been less than exemplary, but having Ebin say it so baldly was more than a little unpleasant.

“And now for my turn! Remora is currently being held on deck three of the swan-class airship Hyperion, under light guard. The Hyperion is currently docked in Reveille Bay and she departs at 12:30 this afternoon, headed for Bespin.”

“You seem remarkably happy to tell me this information,” Jinn said. How could he know that Ebin told the truth?

“Indeed I am,” said Ebin. “I do so love games. Can you escape this cage and reach her in time for a dramatic rescue, I wonder? It seems a harmless enough game, given your ineptitude.”

Dimly, the sound of deep-voiced bells reached Jinn’s ears, muffled by thick clay walls. Twelve times, the bells tolled before silencing.

“It would seem you have only a half hour, Jinn of No Clan. Try not to disappoint me.”

With that, Ebin twisted a knob on his lantern, dousing the light and plunging the room into darkness. Jinn heard a swirl of cloth overhead, then silence. He was alone.

Blindly, he walked to the nearest wall, one hand deftly pulling his weapon from its black-wrapped scabbard across his back. He twisted the hilt once and a spark of light jumped from the tip of the arc to the seat, a thin blue line humming and weakly illuminating the bare wall in front of him.

The door had been metal. Cutting through that would have been nearly impossible. The thin metal bars criscrossing the windows, on the other hand, were much weaker.

He twisted the hilt again, then again. The pitch of his Tesla sword’s hum wound higher as the wavelength of its energy arc grew tighter. Sharper.

Jinn applied his sword to the edge of the metal bars around the window, feeling seconds pass through his fingers like grains of sand.

He needed to hurry.

Every time my household has moved, I’ve managed to pack SOMETHING into a mislabeled box and it’s taken me too long to fish it out and put it where it needs to be.

This move, it looks like that something was my writer’s work ethic.

The pauses between posts have been far longer than I normally consider acceptable, and that ends this week.

The next installment will be posted on Tuesday, along with a traditional Choose poll. Scout’s honor.

Additionally, I am focused on bringing this particular story arc to a close, completing Choose Volume 2 and getting that available for purchase before the end of the year (just in time for the holidays!).

I’m planning on at least two more Choose story posts before this arc wraps up, but I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see that number climb as I make sure all of the story threads are neatly tied off.

FURTHERMORE, there will be an ENTIRE surprise story arc in the print version that wasn’t posted online.

This isn’t just a gimmick to sell books – I think I’ve done a poor job keeping the excitement alive during what was supposed to be a short pit stop before our characters reached Bespin and I want to go THERE as soon as possible.

However, while Remora and Jinn have been playing with Dresl on Helion, our other heroes haven’t been sipping fruity drinks topped with little paper umbrellas. Hank, Bones, and Hackwrench are in their own particular pot of hot water, and I’d like to share that story with all of you.

Things ARE moving forward in the Choose universe.

I have not forgotten you, nor do I intend to continue letting the weeks fly by without making sure my writing commitments are fulfilled. Thank you for sticking with me, and I hope you’re as excited by the new developments as I am!

I’ll go ahead and write the next bit – tomorrow, assuming a root canal doesn’t drain me of my will to write.

If you have any last-minute suggestions, do feel free to toss them out. Otherwise, I shall learn my lesson and not do any more open-ended polls like that. =]

I just realized I did a thing before the move and then forgot to tell you guys!

On the advice of Iris, I made a GALLERY page for Choose! It is accessible via the top row of buttons on the site.

Check it out, it’s got some pics of Choose “In the Wild” and some concept sketches from an artist I’m commissioning for some extra goodies in the print version of Volume 2.

If you have a print copy of Choose and want your photo up there, please, share!

tami@tamimoore.com Email me and I will oh-so-squeefully add them!

I’m back now, though. Internet is hooked up to the new apartment (finally) and most of the emergency new-apartment work is over.

*grins wolfishly* Let the Choose-ing begin!

New Poll

The new poll isn’t really a poll, it’s an open-ended offer to let you guys toss out some ideas. I STILL haven’t reached the results of the last poll, and I never intended to leave you guys out of the story-driving loop for this long, so hopefully this stirs some creative juices.

Jinn and Ebin have quite the game going on.

What sorts of questions do you think they should ask each other?

Feel free to guess for either character, though I’ll admit to some authorly secrets that may affect what Ebin asks or does not ask.

Sway me to your side! This one’s not a traditional poll – you guys supply the options and -I- will vote on my favorites.

<3

Ready? Set? GO!