"Wren and Finn are with Raider. Between those three, they should be able to handle anything that comes their way."
Kira wouldn't let Odin make her believe otherwise.
"They just got delayed. That's all."
"If you say so."
"I do," Kira confirmed with a nod. "Worse case—if they don't show up in the next couple of days, I’ll go looking for them."
"I have a ship you can borrow. It just needs to return from its smuggling run."
Kira arched an eyebrow at her friend. "Pallas was right? You’re a smuggler?"
"Running Yggdrasil takes a lot of funds. Not to mention, it's dangerous out there right now. A lot of people just want a little reassurance in the event the Tsavitee come knocking."
"I can understand that," Kira said softly.
The J1N circling in one continuous slow loop made Kira sigh with frustration.
"While I wait, do you think there's anything you can do about that?" Kira nodded at the J1N.
"I take it you want its personality to resemble Jin's?"
"At this point I'd settle for it being able to fly in a straight line."
Odin's snicker held amusement. "I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks." Kira glared at the drone. "Blue did what she could, but as you can see, it didn't really help."
Kira was hoping the occasions where Odin had hacked Jin's system to leave him a 'present' might come in handy now.
"That's probably because Jin left an imprint to prevent anyone from tampering with his physical form," Odin explained. "No worries, I should be able to bypass that."
Kira looked at him. "You sound certain."
"I've had a lot of time to consider Jin and his situation," Odin told Kira. "Jin being on the home world isn't good. If the Osiri find out he's there, they'll take him apart until they figure out the secret that has eluded them for so long."
"The Osiri?" Kira asked.
"The masters' true name. No one ever uses that word though." A bitter smile tilted Odin's lips. "That would be considered an invitation for a long and painful death at their hands."
"Why are they so obsessed with the creation of a soul bound?"
Odin shook his head. "I don't know. Most of what they do doesn't make sense to me. The soul bound are just one in a long list."
"Is there anything you can tell me about them?"
Very few realized there was a master pulling the Tsavitee’s strings.
Among humans, she could count on one hand the number privy to that information. She doubted that had changed with her absence.
The Tuann were a little better informed.
They could thank Graydon for that. He and Harlow were the ones who put it together from clues they learned from Kira.
What Graydon knew, the emperor and his closest confidants also knew. Kira couldn't be sure about the rest of the Overlords, though.
"My theory is that they're obsessed with evolution," Odin said after considering her question. "To an almost pathological level. Any new races that draw their interest, they push until they find the limits of its evolutionary path."
