Everyone looked toward one another, not quite sure what Grey was so frustrated about at the moment. It just felt like he was thinking about a lot of things he wasn’t telling everybody else about, but none of them really knew how to ask either.
"Fuck it." Grey shook his head. "One problem at a time. Are you willing to help?"
Elowen took a moment to realize that Grey was actually speaking to her.
"For blueprints, you mean?"
"Yes."
"And what if I said no?"
Grey blinked. Honestly, he hadn’t really thought that far. He liked Elowen. Not because she was a bombshell, but just because he liked her.
He didn’t know how he would feel about forcing her to do something she didn’t want to do.
"Well," Grey looked down at Petri’s spatial ring, "I’m sure he has a lot of money too. I just don’t know if he has as much as I need."
"How are you so sure that I have more money than he does?" Elowen asked. "Imperial Princesses don’t exactly have a lot of sway, as you so elegantly put it."
Grey laughed. "I was just trolling that other chick. You’re definitely a lot better. Unless you want to be loose, in which case, we could exchange contact information."
Elowen didn’t even know how to respond to that.
"Can’t believe I felt bad for that guy for a second..." Amunet muttered.
Elowen shook her head. "I don’t know what you’re planning, and I don’t know why I feel like I trust you, but fine. I can help you out in exchange for blueprints. But they have to be good blueprints, not what you did here."
Grey was surprised when Elowen pointed at the gold jaw. In fact, even Petri had a hint of surprise in his expression.
Then Grey began to laugh.
"You’re more prickly than I thought."
Elowen crossed her arms over her chest. "What’s that supposed to mean. She almost looked like she was going to start shrieking again."
"You don’t actually think this was a poor quality blueprint, you just think I’m capable of better. Those are two different things."
Elowen pursed her lips like a child who had had her hand caught in the cookie jar. She didn’t expect Grey to see through this either.
"Tell you what. I can give you one blueprint of my best standard that can only be used by and seen by you and you alone. If you can agree to that, I’ll give you others that you can do whatever with."
Elowen’s eyes lit up. "Really?"
Grey laughed. This was why he was sure Elowen would be on his side.
Well, other than the fact that if the loops affected people negatively, they should also affect them positively, Grey knew Elowen to be a real mech fanatic.
"Yes, really."
Elowen cleared her throat. "Great." She nodded.
"Good. Then let’s begin."
"Mmm, mm mm, Mmmm!"
"Don’t mind him," Grey said with a wave of the hand, "I just cut off his sight and hearing for a bit. Can’t let him get free information from me. I can give it back later."
"You’re not going to kill him?" Elowen asked.
"See what I mean? More prickly than I thought."
"I don’t want you to kill him." Elowen said. "I just thought that that was the logical answer considering how far you’re going. Even if you use that passage, getting away isn’t going to be that easy."
"Leave that to us to worry about. Now."
Grey raised a hand and unfurled a bunch of blueprints from empty space, smacking them down.
Elowen’s eyes widened. She only caught a glimpse of the first one, but just by the compatibility ratios and SA-index, she knew that these were all at least on the same level as the golden jaw Grey had made.
"Where’s the unique one?" Elowen pouted.
"So greedy," Grey said with a chuckle. "I haven’t made it yet, I didn’t expect you to ask for so much. But before that, I’m going to need you to help me out. I need to buy a ton of stuff and I need to make a mech for the three of them.
"But before that, I need to plan out some other stuff."
Elowen fell to silence, but eventually she nodded. "Alright. I’m going to trust you. But if you try to screw me over, I’m calling my Imperial Mother."
Grey chuckled. "What happened to princesses not having much sway."
Elowen only smiled mysteriously in response.
Grey clapped, his gaze becoming focused as he pulled out the Blood Witch’s tome.
"Whoa!" Amunet hurried to try to cover it thinking Grey must have made a mistake or something, but Grey just waved a hand.
"It’s fine. She’s enough of a fanatic that she’ll look the other way."
"... Why are you speaking about me like I’m a junky?"
Grey grinned but didn’t reply.
"Now, the two of you. There’s only one of these books and I don’t have another. It’s also very difficult to learn. If you don’t have either the bloodline or compatibility with it, you are kind of screwed.
"However, because of Ma Famille, you can use my insights to help you. That is the only reason I am offering this. Otherwise, I think it would be a waste."
Grey said seriously, looking at Brad and Mauve.
"I’ve looked at both of your status screens, and honestly, neither of you have anything remotely similar to this. You’re more prepared now to take it on than before because of the Call of the Silver Moon, but if either of you take this on, I need you to give your everything to it. There can’t be a moment of rest, no giving up, no crashing into a wall.
"I will quite literally need you to bring out your best, and I can’t accept anything less. Not if we’re going to do this."
"And what is ’this’, exactly?" Mauve asked slowly.
"Make an army of alien-killing humans, of course."