TWENTY-ONE: Glossed

For only the second time in her life, Aimi Velra was under the influence of the highest potency luck chain available to humanity.

Glossed— that was what the family called it. She didn’t know who had come up with the term, but it fit. Aimi felt shiny, gleaming. Untouchable.

She pressed her foot almost to the floor, and her sports car shot through the streets of Apex at a speed that was illegal—for vehicles at least—everywhere on the island.

Aimi gritted her teeth. She was both loving, and loathing, the way other cars and pedestrians seemed to melt out of existence around her. No doubt she was ruining traffic patterns all over the city.

It was a doozy of a chain, one that could only be completed by Aulia Velra herself, and it had fallen on the whole family two days ago.

Like a heaven-sent battering ram.

They were all high as kites from the overluck by now. They were elated. They were furious. Everyone was going a little nuts.

Poor cousin Lute had only just turned fifteen, and he’d called Aimi crying because his crush had asked him out at school yesterday. And now he could never date her without it being reallly creepy.

Was a cosmically potent wordchain giving you your dream girlfriend the same as you accidentally mind controlling her?

Who the hell knows?!

Aimi yelled in frustration as her car barreled south. There were signs everywhere on her interface telling her she was about to enter a small high-rank Wright neighborhood jokingly called Big Boom Town. Her car wasn’t armored, and she wasn’t either, so normally that would have been a firm no from her.

But today she sailed through, and there wasn’t a single explosion or giant robot in sight.

Just as she was about to leave and enter another neighborhood, a drone conked out in the sky above her and dropped a box of cupcakes it was delivering. Through her open sunroof. Neatly into her passenger seat. Without a single crumb falling onto the dark red leather.

They were from her favorite bakery.

“THAT’S IT!” she shouted. “System, call Keiko!!”

The connection notice flashed in her vision.

“Aimi, I was almost asleep. It’s really late in Tokyo,” her sister said tiredly.

“You can sleep?!”

“Theoretically. If you stop bothering me.”

“Cupcakes just landed in my car, little sis. Through my sunroof. I’m driving 200 kilometers per freaking hour.”

“Don’t push it,” Keiko said sharply. “The Gloss isn’t perfect.”

“I went into a public bathroom at Rosa Grove Mall yesterday, and the floor was so clean I could’ve eaten off it. I saw my ex at a sandwich place, and he was on crutches. I found a pearl bracelet in a potted plant.”

“Is that all?”

“What do you mean ‘is that all?’”

“I accidentally busted a gang of human traffickers on my way to get coffee this morning,” Keiko admitted. “And I got a summons. It only took me an hour, and they were in such a good mood they gave me access to a new wordchain for it. One I haven’t really earned yet.”

“What? That’s not fair!”

“I thought you were just complaining that you were too lucky?”

“I got cupcakes! You got an easy-mode summons with outsize rewards! I thought the whole point of them binding us all together for this one was to make things more balanced.”

“It’s to maximize opportunities. The fact that we’re bound together for things like this supposedly means everything comes out fairer—”

“Fairer over the long run. Yeah, yeah. I know. But oh my gods, I’d hate to be Hazel in a few weeks, when we’re taking stray meteorites to the face and coming down with rare diseases. She’s not worth it, and we all know it.”

Keiko didn’t answer.

“Fine,” said Aimi. “Tell me I’m being a bad Auntie. Tell me it’s not little Hazel’s fault that she’s a chaining genius, and Corin and Grandma are willing to shove us all off cliffs for her.”

“You’re a terrible Aunt,” said Keiko. “And it’s not Hazel’s fault she was selected at a time when we didn’t have a Chainer of the proper rank lined up for her. But…”

Aimi tightened her grip on the steering wheel. She was surprised. Usually Keiko was so nice. She had that hero thing down pat.

“Hazel could have stopped it from going so far by affixing something else,” Keiko admitted grudgingly. “If she’d been an S like we all expected this might have been warranted…but she’s only a B-rank. And I don’t really want to bite a major luck bullet right now, either. I have my own goals. And if the good doesn’t blow them up, the bad that’s coming definitely will.”

“Ah…yeah. Sorry to vent on you. I know this is happening to you, too. I should let you get back to sleep?”

“That’s a great idea,” said Keiko. “Don’t drive too fast.”

“I think I just passed a speedster.”

“Aimi.”

“Another call’s coming in. Bye!”

She didn’t answer the other call right away, though.

Aimi wasn’t in the mood to run an errand for any of her many uncles or aunts right now. And that went double for Uncle Corin. She’d blast deep into F, then answer him. At normal highway speeds, she’d be a solid half-hour away from that workaholic’s office by then and less likely to be useful.

She let the notification blink in her peripheral while she shot across The Span. The eight kilometer long bridge connected Apex—the smaller, crescent-shaped northern portion of Anesidora—to the larger circular island to the south that was mostly made up of F-city.

As she left it behind, she flipped open the lid on the box of cupcakes and reached for a bright orange one.

She took a bite and frowned, chewing thoughtfully.

“Answer call,” she said finally. “Voice only.”

“Aimi,” said Uncle Corin, he sounded breathless.

“Hey,” she said, “I think the gloss is fading. I know it’s supposed to last another day, but I just bit into a cupcake and I’m pretty sure it’s made of squash. I mean it’s not bad, but it’s definitely not my go-to flavor.”

“It’s not fading,” he said. “It’s doing exactly what we hoped it would. I need you to run an errand.”

“Too bad,” she said. “Can’t. I’m way out of Apex. Down in F.”

“There’s a person in F I need you to find.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Aimi winced. Of course there was.

“It’s a boy. Fifteen to seventeen. I haven’t got a name yet. Brown hair. Green eyes. Average height. Average build.”

“Wow. I know I’m good with my insight chains, but I’m not that good. You just described at least a couple hundred teenagers on the island. Can’t you send me a pic at least?”

“No. I don’t have security footage of him yet. I got the description from a… Post Drop. I’m pretty sure its creator has done something highly illegal, but that’s beside the point. He’s wearing a tie and dress shoes. He left the Teleportation Complex around half an hour ago.” He paused. “Aimi, he’s the one. I think. Or a friend of theirs.”

“Bullshit,” said Aimi, swerving easily around a pothole she definitely shouldn’t have been able to dodge at this speed. “The B-rank Chainer we need delivered themselves to us? Like freaking takeout?”