Avatar Renli was much better at hiding her disgust than the captain of the Rangers stationed in Tangronga, although some leaked out. Fate didn't care to clean the head or otherwise make it less gruesome. She asked for Gregovich's head, not for it to be clean.
Renli coughed, covering her mouth with a fist. "As before, you have fulfilled your end of the deal. I only wish you'd stop bringing the heads in such… damaged states. Somehow, this is worse than the liquefied remains of Trithmund."
"Be more specific next time." Fate glanced at the head. "Besides, that was mostly his doing. Would've been quick and clean if it weren't for that annoying ability he had. Speaking of which," Fate looked up, "you didn't tell me about that. Would've been helpful to know."
"Anyone that learns of his Manifest Power does not live to tell about it. He always took extra efforts to keep it hidden from other Embodiments. I knew as much as you did. Regardless, the deed is done, and you've more than earned your pay. Here."
She placed a large pouch on the table, which jingled and clinked as it settled. "You can count the coin if you wish."
"No need." Fate tied the pouch to his belt, next to the pouch from The Flaming Crows. "I know where you live. Now, on my way out of Tangronga, I was accosted by a guard named Genna, who then was stripped of his rank."
Renli eyed him suspiciously, possibly thinking that Fate wanted a harsher punishment. "I have heard about this. I was also informed of your help in identifying this 'bomb' that some of my men fell prey to. I put appropriate compensation in the pouch I just handed to you, along with your pay for killing Gregovich."
"I want him to have his job back."
Avatar Renli blinked rapidly, startled. "You what? Why?"
Fate shrugged. "Kid seems talented. Wouldn't want that to go to waste. Besides, it's almost imperceptible, but I'm pretty sure I caught the fumes of a sleeping Manifestation from him."
"Really?" Lady Renli put her hand to her chin, appearing thoughtful. "It would indeed make things easier down the line to have him employed when he rouses it and becomes a Prodigy. Very well, consider it done."
"Alright, thanks." He stood, Renli mirroring the motion. He offered his hand, and they shook. "A pleasure. If you need anything else, here's my card," he told her, slipping a business card into her hand.
An hour later, he was back in his Shadow Jumper, two fat sacks full of coin in the hidden safe he kept under one of the lounge area's couches, and no plan as to what to do next. He felt he should leave the planet, maybe go to one of the others in the solar system. It didn't appeal to him that much though, as every other planet here was either more regressed than this one technologically or was just completely lifeless.
He figured he'd eat some lunch and watch some TV, maybe that would give him an idea. Which is how it happened that as he was halfway through a flash-heated burger, hands holding the burger inches from his mouth as he sat on a couch and watched in anticipation for the TV show's climactic ending, he suddenly found himself falling.
He landed on his ass, having reacted swiftly and raised the burger above his head to save it. A drop of ketchup mixed with mayonnaise dripped down the burger and landed to his right on the crystalline platform he was on. He lowered his hands, looking around as he kept the burger close to his chest.
Fate was in a circular room with white walls and no windows, lit by large white crystals in the ceiling directly above him that emitted a soft glow. It was a wide room, around a hundred feet in diameter, with the platform he sat on being around ten feet wide and likewise circular.
Around him were twenty knights in white armor, armed with swords the same size as Freyda's. They kept the points on the ground, their hands resting on the pommels. They were spaced out so there was one every five feet along the wall, all gazing at him behind visored eyes.
In each ordinal direction around his platform were two men and two women, one of each to his left and right. They were wearing long, hooded white robes that covered every scrap of skin except for their hands, the bottoms of their robes just barely above the ground. He could only tell their gender because of the shapes of their bodies. They all held their hands above them, palms facing the sky, as an eerie black-and-white fog flowed around them.
Everyone in the room gave off the aura of a Prodigy. Everyone except the man and girl in front of him. The girl was an Exemplar, and the man an Avatar.
Fate stuck the burger in his mouth to free his hands, pushing off the ground and rising to his full height. The crystalline platform he stood on was raised five feet off the ground, adding to his already respectable height to make him tower over everyone else. He grabbed his burger and tore off the chunk in his mouth, chewing as he looked questioningly at the two in front of him.
The man was tall, tall enough to see straight over Fate's head if he wasn't on the platform. He was at least seven feet tall, maybe more, and was dressed like a monarch. He had the only bit of color in the room, clad in black finery with a purple, kingly cape around his shoulders, lined with white fur.
On his head rested a crown shaped to resemble a storm, the band round and bumpy like a cloud and a deep black, with yellow lightning replacing what would normally be spikes. He was large, like a bear, with a short brown beard and brown hair that fell to his shoulders. His green eyes appraised Fate with curiosity.
Next to the man was a girl of around eighteen years of age, wearing flowing robes similar to the men and women around the platform, minus the hood. She greatly resembled the man next to her, leading Fate to suspect they were related. Around her brow was a white circlet inlaid with pearls.
The kingly man threw his arms wide, the cape spreading to accommodate. When he spoke, it was with a loud, booming voice one might use to speak to a crowd. "Welcome, Denizen of the Void! I, King Rathna, on behalf of my nation of Venlanz, have summoned you here so might aid our great nation in repelling the savagery of the Fractured. Please, lay waste to our enemies, and save us from our doom!"
The words echoed off the walls of the round room. The man's face twitched when there was no answer. He opened his mouth, and Fate quickly held a finger up, telling the man to wait as he finished the last of his burger. Fate wiped his hands on his pants and took another look around.
"Lotta white here." He focused on the king, making sure to catch every slight change in expression. "You wouldn't happen to be affiliated with the Advanced, now, would you?"