For several minutes, there was just silence spread across the table. The only one actively moving around was Luna, and she was just playing with Vox. I could see it in her posture, though. Although she was trying to appear like she wasn’t a threat, she was on edge and ready to react at any moment. With her technopathic abilities, even being close to the girl was a serious threat in this technological world.

Mira, on the other hand, sat across from Brunhilde with her arms crossed over her chest. A small frown curled her lips, and her eyes were narrowed on the Valkyrie. There was a layer of irritation there, but also a strong sense of respect. ‘Course there was. I learned about the Valkyries from her way back when.

Then there was Brunhilde. Even just sitting there, she was drawing eyes from other patrons. It was no wonder. She was in the top three beautiful women I’d seen, and had a mature air to her that naturally drew the eye. The way she sat there with a smirk on her face, and confidence oozing off of her certainly didn’t help.

Not every eye locked onto her was appreciative, though. A quick glance around revealed quite a bit of fear and respect directed at her. Her identity as a Valkyrie wasn’t a well-kept secret among the elite, then.

Unfortunately, that also brought attention onto the three of us. I was thankful for Master of Disguise keeping me mostly hidden from people’s memory, but even then I felt like digging a hole to disappear into. Especially with this stupid dress Mira forced me to wear. Luna kept her head down with her hair covering her face. Mira, on the other hand, didn’t react in the slightest to the pressure from onlookers.

I dropped my hand onto my lap, and fingered the Jade Dagger I’d hidden in the dress. Right, if worse came to pass, I had a small chance of being able to do something. I wouldn’t be caught defenseless again.

Eventually, the silence had to break. Unsurprisingly, it was Brunhilde who spoke up first. She shifted, and the suit she wore bulged around her muscular arms. “Well, this is fun…”

”You don’t know the half of it.” I sighed and dropped my head into my hands. So much for Mira’s perfect birthday…

“You three look ravishing, truly.” She nodded her head, and shifted the subject. “Master Telos’s work?”

”Chek.” I crossed my arms over my chest just like Mira. “How’d you know I’d be here?”

Brunhilde’s laughter chimed like a soft bell. “I’ve had a runner tracking you since we first met… although he’s been running into some issues lately. On a side note, cute fox, Luna… Shiro make it?”

Brunhilde shifted her attention to our weakest link. Her words though—it was the same thing she did with calling Mira by name. It was a not so subtle threat and reminder of just where she came from. Not many things stayed hidden from one of the Big 7, especially once they actually started to give more than a cursory look around.

Luna paused mid stroke of Vox’s ears, and the metal fox twitched in mock irritation. ”I-I bought her at a Night Market.”

“Sure, sure…” Brunhilde just smiled, not buying her words for even a moment. The Valkyrie waved a hand to the restaurant. “Ah, and this place is owned by Sentinel. It wasn't too hard to figure out when you’d be coming here with your reservation.”

“Then why are we sitting here?” Mira asked with a soft huff. “If you were going to invade our dinner anyway, you could’ve gotten us a private booth away from prying eyes.”

”They’re all booked, sadly.” Brunhilde didn’t look any bit sad about it. ‘Sides, if she really wanted one of the booths, I highly doubted anyone would’ve said no to Sentinel’s elite of elites.

If that was the case, though, then why… I looked around the room, and caught the eyes of a bunch of people. For the most part, people kept a thin facade of disinterest. There were some, though, that openly eyed us with deep calculation.

Was doing this kind of thing in public another warning? Not toward us, but to others? We were under the watch of Sentinel—no, not just that. We were under the eyes of a Valkyrie herself. That very fact changed things. Ugh, I hated politics. The waters were way too deep to understand everything without committing to a life of drudgery.

Brunhilde grinned like she could read the calculations running through my head. “Well, I suppose we should get to business, no?”

I really, really didn’t want to have a conversation with her. There wasn’t another choice though. The fact she was here, and not sending a hit squad to grab me and stuff me in the back of a van at least suggested some level of amiability. ”What took you so long?”

”Work.” She shrugged lightly, and leaned onto her hand while watching me with analytical eyes. “You know how it is. Not like we have a bunch of free time… unlike some people.”

I felt her pointed gaze, and rubbed at the crook of my elbow lightly. No need to turn this on me. ”Even more of a reason to refuse your offer, then.”

“Offers changed, anyway.” She sighed, and pulled out a series of chips from her pocket alongside a scrambler. It was way higher tech than the usual stuff I used, though. I had no doubt it was much stronger, too. “Ah, privacy at last.”

”What offer?” Mira asked.

”Why, to become a Valkyrie, ‘course.” Brunhilde tapped the scrambler lightly, and pulled it just out of reach from me.

”And you said no to that?!” Mira looked like she was about to shoot up out of her seat. The halo atop her head throbbed vibrantly with light.

I coughed lightly, and looked the other way. ”She asked me in the middle of a warzone, okay? Not like I had a bunch of time to think about it.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Brunhilde watched Mira with interest. Her eyes widened for a moment, and she chuckled softly. “Mira Delano—I thought your name sounded familiar. You tried to sign up a while back, didn’t you?”

”You remember me?” Mira instantly went cool and calm, though a faint red spread across her nose.

“‘Course. Not every day a fourteen year old tries to insist they’re eighteen.” Brunhilde’s eyes crinkled charmingly. “We all had a laugh about it back then.”

“I-I was young and dumb…”

”We all were at one point,” Brunhilde said. “Are you still interested in joining? You’re eighteen now.”

Mira didn’t instantly respond. The halo atop her head flashed even brighter than I’d seen it in the past. “… I appreciate the offer, but I’ll have to pass.”

“A shame… I’m not here for recruitment, anyway.” Brunhilde pushed one of the chips into the center of the table. She turned much more serious, and straightened up slightly. “Shiro Tsukuyomi, the CEO of Cold Moon Solutions, Sentinel Corporation would like to enter a licensing agreement for your CMS Roughriders.”

I froze for a moment as my brain struggled to keep up with her. This so wasn’t where I thought this conversation would be going. “My Roughriders?”

”Indeed. The Jade Fang’s recent usage of them in dune racing caught the eye of a senior executive, and he wants to start public distribution.” Brunhilde shrugged lightly. “There’s a lot of money on the line. The starting advance is five million.”

A licensing agreement… it was too good to be true. Like, actually. CMS was a small corporation—literally just me and Luna. My manufacturing and distribution could only go so far… with Sentinel’s distribution chain, though, I could sell thousands of them almost instantly. Not to mention a five million advance wasn’t a small amount. “What’s the rate?”

”Fiften percent royalties.” Brunhilde released the chip. “Everything we’re prepared to offer you is on there. Ah, and you should know a Raijin exec also has shown some interest. Their offer might be far less… appealing. A small corporation like Cold Moon with no backing? It’d be all to easy for them to get what they want one way or another.”

Fuck… I see why she wanted to meet me somewhere so public like this. It was a warning like I suspected. One at Raijin of all corporations. No idea how I caught their eye, but this went beyond merely liking my product. There was likely a whole slew of political maneuvering to screw over Raijin before she even approached me. I felt like a bone tossed between two very large, very aggressive dogs.

”Fifteen seems a little low.” I twisted uncomfortably in my seat. I take it back. I felt trapped like a mouse in front of a starving cat.

”It’s really quite generous.” Brunhilde didn’t back give at all, and just motioned to the chip again. “We’ll take care of manufacturing, distribution, insurance—all that fun stuff. You just get to sit back and enjoy a flow of rayn. Or work on a new product that might interest us.”

”So you want to turn me into a R and D department?” My expression pulled, but there wasn’t much I could do about it if Sentinel set their sights on me. It wouldn’t be strange for Cold Moon to get wiped out if one of the Big 7 really wanted to. Even just turning me into a subsidiary wouldn’t be too difficult. My only saving grace was that Cold Moon was a private corporation. I’d have the final sign offs.

”Oh, no. We have plenty of those. Think of it as a… partnership,” she said.

Although I was against it, there was no denying it’d be helpful. There wasn’t a bigger backer than one of the Big 7. Outside of BosSpace, ‘course. A lot of problems would just go away with Sentinel behind me. There was a reason so many corporations and companies let themselves be owned by the Big 7.

That being said, it’d also likely draw me into the not-so-hidden corporate conflicts around the globe if I wasn’t careful. I needed to think this through way more. Refusing here without consideration wouldn’t be a good look, regardless. I reached forward and accepted the chip. “I’ll think about it.”

“Nova!” Her eyes lit up, literally, and she leaned back in her chair. The serious expression she wore vanished. “Glad that’s off my plate.”

Mira eyed me with concern for a moment. With her five thought processes, she’d likely come to some of the same conclusions I had. ”What are the other chips for?”

“Oh, right.” Brunhilde tapped her head lightly like she’d forgotten, and tossed a chip at me. She didn’t even give me a chance to refuse. Her eyes tracked across Mira’s chrome, and focused on the halo. “It’s for a mutual… friend of ours. Tornado Arms. I’m sure you’ve heard of them.”

The mood around the table instantly shifted, and Mira tightly grabbed the edge of the table. The wood creaked in agony under her crushing grip. Despite her physical reactions, her voice remained eerily calm. “Tornado?”

Brunhilde sighed and cut straight to the point. ”Their CEO arrives in three days. It’s probably not of any interest to you, but Sentinel’s discretely put out a hit on him. Twenty million if he’s brought to a black site alive. Five million if he’s confirmed flatlined.”

Twenty million… is it a coincidence? That was the same bounty as the documents that I’d stolen from Sentinel. Mira and I both went still. Luna, across the table from me, shrunk back into her seat slightly and pulled Vox into her lap.

“Why would that interest us?” I asked deceptively lightly and set the chip back on the table.

”Oh, you know…” Brunhilde didn’t finish the thought. “Sentinel’s willing to let bygones be bygones, naturally. It’s just, well, Tornado wronged us by stealing something quite valuable. Mr. Sentinel wasn’t too happy about that.”

The way she spoke—she knew, didn’t she? I could see it in the way she carried herself. Haah… it was stupid of me to think I’d get away with holding their blueprints for so long in the first place, wasn’t it? ‘Course they’d be able to trace it back to me. I stuffed my hands into my lap to hide the slight tremors. I’d been dreading this moment ever since I first realized what I held back then.

How did they? Must’ve been after I planted the files in Tornado, otherwise they would’ve come for me, wouldn’t they? I thought I pulled it all off, but did I leave a tail there? Wait, no, maybe it was some other way. It was impossible to tell without asking, and asking would only bring it into the limelight.

Okay, that changed things. We weren’t just talking about Tornado anymore. “Let bygones be bygones?”

”Ah, yes… maybe if they brought us something of equal value, we might let it all go.” The Valkyrie sighed softly. “We’re a very forgiving corporation.”

Equal value. I closed my eyes shut for a moment and thought back through the entire conversation. I had to be careful here. Even if they knew, admitting everything wouldn’t be good for me. “You said the bounty was for twenty million?”

Brunhilde grinned, and her expression twisted into a teasing one that practically screamed gotcha! “Why, do you think it’s too little?”

”No, no…” I took a breath, and felt my heart hammering in my chest. It seemed my past was finally coming back to haunt me. I tucked the chip into my pocket. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

The Valkyrie stood up, and set one more chip down in the middle of the table. “Here’s the CEO’s information, if you care for it. I really must be going now. I wouldn’t want to intrude on you girls any longer. Oh! And don’t forget we’re paying for tonight.”

I watched her reclaim the scrambler, and saunter off toward the building’s exit. All three of us around the table remained dead silent as we thought about various things.

It was Mira who spoke up first. She released her death grip on the table, revealing the cracked wood and imprints of her fingers. “Well… we should enjoy dinner, at least. Not every day Sentinel offers to pay for food.”

”Chek.” I tried to shove all of my thoughts into the back of my mind and compartmentalize. I had so, so much to think about.