I mumbled something about how happy I was to see him, carefully using Jonathon, instead of what I wanted to say. As much as I hoped for, I wasn't read... to abandon our fiction no matter how thin in case he didn't feel the same way. He corrected me immediately, and I lost it. I was so relieved and so happy my stupid eyes starting crying again. Sometimes I hate being a girl. But he set that right too, and all my stress and worry seemed to float away. I was so excited. I had no idea what we were. “How many?” Makanta finally asked.De Sade thought about Graveek’s missing demons, mighty Chort, and deadly Seralla. He thought back on how empty the skies had been in recent weeks and whispers of lone demons falling prey to some unknown threat out in the Waste. He set the bulging money pouch on the counter and pushed it over.“All of them,” de Sade replied.Makanta grinned, then picked up a tiny bell. It tinkled when he shook it. The young servant appeared immediately.“Summon Tabik and Karl. The whole thing about the nanite reserve in my artificial spine was sort of a failsafe for this exact predicament. Not the whole mutiny, but being trapped inside of a shuttle while in space. Only thing there was usually a distress beacon that went out for a rescue, I knew right now that there was nothing going out to rescue me. The nanites would slowly lull me to sleep and then start the preservation process, after the cockpit of my Valkyrie senses that I enter the third or fourth stage of. You can see its two-story house and generic porch. Beside it is a barn, and behind, a mill and a few short roofs stick out, everything fenced into their own sections.Finally, you're confident enough to advance. A few steps forward, and you're on the path. Another few hundreds, and you're standing in front of the main gate, the walk taking only ten minutes, even with a casual step. You lift your hand and try pushing it open, but it remains frozen after a rumble."Aunty Janet?" you shout, peeking.