Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Eight

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"Cause Esk is lazy and he wants someone to wait on Dawn, even though he has a massive crush on her and could wait on her himself," James grumbled. "At least that's what I assume was his motivation," he amended. "Your brother is weird. So Dawn's probably okay and not infected, that's good at least."

Matt nodded slowly. "okay... " He still looked uncertain but he couldn't help but be curious about the guy. He was Esk's dad after all. "So what happens now? There's still more dragons to save right?"

"I am aware that he has done many undesireable things. It seems he does not wish to damage his business opportunities though, which is sensible." Tala found Hytar to be pragmatic and capable, which were two qualities she did appreciate very much. "The dragons are considering a continuing rescue effort, possibly with the assistance of Hytar. We will be discussing the arrangement this evening."

Matt nodded. "Tonight, when? where?"

"At five I believe," Tala said, "most likely in some meeting room here on Vestia."

"Yep, we scoped out a nice meeting room to use," Vestia said. "It'll be big enough for any dragons who want to come, and some of Hytar's crew, and us."

Matt kinda wanted to go, just out of curiosity. Could he face a man he'd spent his whole life considering a monster though? Hmm. "Who's going?" He asked.

"Probably a lot of our crew. Esk isn't going, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of the others show up," Vestia said. Yeah, her crew were a nosy bunch, heh. "I'm not sure how many dragons will be there, presumably Starr will sort that out. Hytar's bringing his valet and two security guys. You're not planning to pull an Esk and shoot him, are you?" the ship asked warily.

Tala wiggled her ears at the thought.

Matt frowned, thinking about that. "it's tempting.. but I can't shoot a gun for shit and he's really good at killing slavers so... maybe i'm give him a pass... for now." He made a face. "If he does anything awful or gross though, you should totally shoot him."

Tala snorted, amused. "We still desire his help, it is best that you wait," she agreed. "We shall shoot him if he acts against us, but not before then."

Vestia coughed uncomfortably. These guys were way more bloodthirsty than she was.

Matt nodded. "good." Hey, he trusted Tala on this. She was like, a super scary giant soldier lady right?
He glanced at Vestia and shook his head. "Sorry Vestia.." He didn't much sound like he meant it, but he did look a little sheepish. He really wasn't sure he liked how violent minded he'd become of late. That side of himself was pretty scary.

Vestia sighed. "It's fine. I know you guys have a lot of reason to hate him."

Tala finished her salad and stood. "If you attend the meeting, be sure to remember why we hired him. He is an asset as long as he follows the contracts he signs."

Matt nodded. "Yeah... " He looked awkward. It wasn't like he could do much anyway. "greater good right? lots of dead slavers..." He sighed.

"The greater good, yes," Tala said grandly. "We must free the dragons and slaughter those who have used them." She headed for the door. "I will see you later, Matt."

(Do we want to skip to the meeting? Luka and Rigel can stay conspicuously missing if you want lol, or we can wait until they return!)

(bwhahaha, conspicuous missing amuses me. What about you Starr?
I'm cool to skip ahead, I don't think we had any loose ends did we?)

TIMESKIP - THE MEETING

At 5pm, people would start to gather. Vestia would let Hytar and his security onto the ship and lead them to the meeting room, maybe letting someone from the crew escort them.

She'd also encourage some of the star dragons to attend if they wanted.

Asher and Tala both attended because they really cared about this situation and wanted to be a part of the decisionmaking process.

James, Ethan, and Ellie all attended because they could, and they were curious.

Kay didn't much want to attend, he wasn't certain he could hold his hatred for the man back. But he was worried about the idea of having Hytar on the ship.
He had to trust that everyone else could look after themselves, but he still fretted and tried to distract himself with a walk.

---

Esk likewise had no interest in seeing his father, though at the same time he wanted to know what scheme the old bastard was up to this time.
He decided he might make an appearance, just to keep an eye on proceedings, in case this crew decided to be too trusting.

Matt was too curious not to go, he caught up with Esk in the corridor. "You're actually going?"

Esk shrugged, grunting. "Don't trust him."

Matt nodded. "I don't think anyone does."

"You'd be surprised." Esk replied, stalking ahead of his brother.

----

Silence also went, Ivor was scared of the man but Silence was keen to ask after her mother. She didn't have much of a vested interest in the fates of the dragons, but she didn't want to risk missing the man's visit and a chance to 'speak' to him.
She adopted her humanoid form and headed for the meeting room with Vestia's guidance.

---

Armin would have liked to attend, the fate of the star dragons was important to him, but he was too unwell. Instead he asked Vestia politely to keep him informed and rested.

---

Swarm attended too, or some of them did.

---


----

Mourn on the other hand had caught wind that there were more androids on board, and much as he liked discussing how best to kill slavers, he was far more interested in robots. So he went to go find them instead.


---

Hytar, his Valet, Toby and one of his rather large security guards turned up. Toby and the guard were armed, but would consent to being searched if necessary.

Since Ellie had chosen to attend the meeting, Shane went to greet Hytar and lead him and his people to the conference room, after a search because there were important people there now.

~~~
Starr and two representatives for the freed dragons would come, one from the transport ship and the other here.

~~
Sawna would go to the meeting, she was curious after all, even if she wasn't needed there.
~~~

Jewel and Skye were off the ship, flying around somewhere by then. They were not important to the meeting after all.

(Sorry I'm so slow! I'm helping with some big house projects, and it's keeping me busy)

Vestia would keep Armin up to date with the proceedings. She felt bad for the guy and was happy to help him a bit.

She'd have Shane search Hytar and his guards for any really hazardous weapons, but she let them keep anything that wasn't highly explosive or super powerful.

~~

Asher greeted the dragons and Starr when they arrived, smiling warmly at them. He pushed a chair out of the way and parked at the table.

Ethan was relieved Kay wasn't there. He sat away from Asher and watched suspiciously as people came in. This was interesting, certainly, but he'd heard about Hytar.

Tala sat down, looking like she owned the place. She was still in captain mode. Oops. She waited for everyone to come in, she'd probably try to take control of the meeting if Hytar or Starr didn't seize the opportunity first.

~~
The four new androids were settling in in their new rooms, hanging up their few personal belongings, and talking worriedly to each other. They'd been filled in by the MegaBrainTech androids, so they knew about the freedom thing. Eek.

They had heard of Mourn, and they weren't sure when they should go looking for him. He was unnerving to them, in an exciting way.

Mourn made a line straight for where the androids were, eager to meet them and talk to them.
He knocked on the door.
"Robots?!"

---

Armin thanks Vestia politely.

---

None of Hytar's group had anything overly dangerous on them. A couple of regular guns, some knives, the usual.

Hytar smiled to Shane. "More paranoid thissss time?" He chuckled and allowed himself to be searched as well.

It might be a bit difficult to search the valet, as he was kinda shrouded in fire. He didn't seem to have anything on him though.

---

Matt tried to catch up with esk and ended up panting as he entered the meeting room.
Damn being in this chair had left him unfit.

Esk found a space to one side of the room. he didn't sit, he just slouched against a wall and scowled.

Silence peered in and quietly found a seat out of the way.

---

Shane shrugged and smiled a little "More important people actually here this time." He said and would lead them in. Yeah, fire guy was harder to search, cause fire hurt.

~~~
Starr greeted everyone, both as she entered then as they entered if they got there after her. She would stand and greet Hytar and his group when they arrived.

Hytar shook Starr's hand and nodded to the assembled, smirking at Esk who just glared back at him. Hytar took his seat, flanked on either side by his bodyguards, the felid Toby and the hulking humanoid. His valet stood to one side ready to make notes on a clipboard that miraculously didn't burn in his grasp.

"Well, thisss isss quite the turnout." Hytar remarked.

Matt stared at him. He'd wheeled closer to Ellie and whispered "okay this is kinda creepy."

Shane came in and went to sit with Ellie and Matt.

~~
Starr shook his hand then sat down too. "I must thank you for freeing my people Hytar, though there are so many more that are still in the bonds of slavery." She said, jumping right in.

Hytar nodded. "Indeed, we only took out one of their holdingsss, there are many more. " he nodded to his valet who plugged a tablet in and set it down in the middle of the tablet to project a star map. "We got ssssome information from the ssstaff, but much of it wasss likely falssse. Ssstill, it givesss ussss a ssstarting point. " He extended both hands in a grand gesture. "If you sssstill require my sservicsssesss, then I and my resssourcess are at your disssposssal."

Starr nodded and smiled "The dragons staying with the transport ship want to go along when freeing others. I can help to show where they are now, though they could be moved between my telling you and you arriving there when a contract is made."

Hytar nodded. "Which isss why we ssshould move quickly. They will know that attack wassss a targetted one, though it'sss likely they sssussspect other sssslaversss. Sssstar dragonssss are worth a lot of money to the right people, ssssuch a sssshipment asss what we liberated would be worth a tidy ssssum. We sssshould expect at the very leasssst additional sssecurity. It'ssss unlikely we'll be able to infiltrate again, a head on attack will be the only option. " He smirked. "It won't be an eassssy tasssk, even with the asssisssstance of your people. "

"What do you want old man?" Esk snarled. He could tell Hytar was angling for a new agreement.

Hytar chuckled. "It isss sssso good to ssee you again my boy. " He smiled at Esk.

"What do you want." Esk repeated.

"We'll get to that, all in good time." Hytar waved a hand dismissively. "My contract wassss only for Avalore hold."

All four androids jumped. Tori went to answer the door, peering out at Mourn. "Hello," she said, "Can we help you?"

~~

"He really looks like Esk, doesn't he? It's kinda weird," Ellie agreed, nodding to Matt. She smiled a bit at Shane, then focused on the meeting.

Mourn tilted his head, grinning. "you new robots yes?"

---

Matt frowned. "A bit yeah.. same eyes... " he whispered. It was surreal to him to finally see in the flesh a man who had an almost boogie man sort of reputation. He was, it appeared, just a man. "He's shorter than I expected." He kept his voice very low so as not to disturb anything.

"Yes, yes we are," Tori said. She reached for the place where her badge normally was, she and the others had decided to take them off since they were allowed to here. She looked at him, "You must be Mourn?" He was a felid, like Mourn was supposed to be, and his voice had the characteristics of someone who was deaf, kind of loud and not perfectly clear.

~~
Ellie nodded. "He's not as terrifying as I expected, although the eyes are creepy," she muttered to Matt and Shane.

Tala was being quiet for now, letting Starr speak, since this really was her project.

The androids had similarly decided to not speak up, they weren't the experts here.