“I want three things in return for all collar codes used within your star system,” Lilibi said, her voice taking on an odd melodic tone. Cal could feel it somewhere in his skull, almost gently touching his brain. While the sensation itself was pleasant, the underlying thoughts he had about it managed to fill him with enough disgust to push it away.


    “Can you please stop with the weird vibrations you do with your voice? It’s the hair-like tendrils, right? Those are what let you better pitch the sounds you make, right? I don’t think it’s any magical ability, at least,” Andy asked, sounding incredibly annoyed. Was that how she was doing it? Cal hadn’t really looked at her hair, but he also wouldn’t have known what to look for had he realized it.


    “Well, at least one of your new friends isn’t an idiot Twonger. Maybe there’s a chance you might actually give me what I want after all,” Lilibi replied. The odd sensation her voice had caused vanished. Andy’s request had apparently swayed her.


    “Yeah, yeah, what are the three things you want?” Twonger asked, narrowing his eye as he asked.


    “One, I want to know everything you know about those new creatures in the universe. The ones that shouldn’t be here, and don’t pretend you don’t know about them. I had your ship scanned. The system you came from is full of ‘em,” she said. Cal was entirely fine with this request; hell the more people that knew about the Gryalth, the better. She’d rather a random terrible slaver guide waste resources fighting them if it kept them even more tied up in this loop.


    “We can do that,” Cal said before anyone else responded.


    “Good, then then the second request will follow on the first. I want some of their technology. Specifically, I want one of those strange weapons they seem to use, the staff-like ones. Though I’m not opposed to any of their other weapons as well, but the staffs their big guns have I would like. So far, any attempt on my end to get one has gone poorly at best,” she said. Her face, if it could be called that, curled into one of the strangest smiles Cal had ever seen. She had obviously made this request thinking it was impossible, and while they didn’t have a staff at the moment. He was reasonably sure they had a couple back in the voidhouse and entirely willing to make the promise to get one as long as they got the codes first.


    “We can provide you with one, but we will at the very least require the code for the collar on Sean as proof they can be unlocked, as we don’t have one with us,” Cal answered. Twonger just nodded, smiling. He was still up to something, and Cal wished he had grilled the man harder for what his plan was. Not that he thought it would have worked. Twonger would have just laughed and done it anyway.


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


    “Fine, but I will be sending someone to accompany you back to your planet to retrieve the item on our parting. Once they have it, they will provide the rest of the codes,” she replied.


    “We can agree to that. Now, what’s the third request?” Cal asked.


    “I want to be included in whatever Twonger’s planning,” she answered, staring at the man.


    Twonger burst into laughter. He was snorting so hard as he laughed it was hard to understand his next words. “You’re gonna have to be more specific. Just what do you think I’m planning that you want to be involved in?”


    “Could be several things. Possibly whatever happened to your home, guessing you want some kind of revenge there. You seem to have gotten yourself quite involved with these people and the kinds of energies coming off them are a little mind-boggling. Then there’s your own bond. Where did you get a mana spirit that powerful Twonger?” She asked, leaning forward on the table and studying Twonger intently.


    “I’ll make you a deal there, I’ve got some shit to take care of back on their planet, but yeah, I do have plans to explore what happened to my star system. So how about we start with you sending out some exploration probes and getting me all the details? Leave a communication module with me on Earth and we can plan out just how to tackle that little trip. How does that sound? That all three things good and packaged for you?” Twonger asked, his laughter gone and his voice now deadly serious.


    “I can make that work, and yes, I am happy with how well my requests have been packaged. So now that they have been all agreed on, let’s circle back to my first. Tell me what you know,” she said, her tone beginning to mimic Twonger’s.


    “The Gryalth are aliens from another universe. They are dead set on conquering ours and strip-mining it for all the resources they can in some eternal war of conquest they have been fighting for who knows how long. They have an empire that spans an untold number of universes, and their full invasion of ours seems to be planned to start sometime in the future,” Cal said, leaving out a few concrete details that she didn’t need to know mostly because he didn’t want to explain the time loop to her at all.


    “Why are they so focused on your star system? I may be wrong here, but it’s a pretty backwater part of the galaxy,” she asked, her head now turning toward Cal.


    “Honestly, that part I still don’t know. Earth shouldn’t be so important, but it certainly seems to be. Then again, it’s entirely possible they are embedded into many planets throughout the universe, and we are just the only ones who are managing to survive a fight back,” Cal replied. This was one of the many questions that often plagued him. He still had no good answer to it at all.