Chapter 60. More Meetings

  “Seriously? We seriously have to do this again?” asked Bruno. He drummed his fingers on a table identical to the one they’d sat at mere hours earlier.

  It was later the same night. The four of them were battered, bruised, and exhausted, and they were seated in the exact same meeting room, although this time the other seats were empty. It had taken a team of palace servants three hours to remove the bodies and debris, to scrub blood out of the carpet and tapestries, to replace the furniture, and figure out how to remove the abomination. There was still evidence of the battle in the damage to the drywall and textiles, but at least it was clean.

  “Yes!” said Delilah. “This is one of those important events I was talking about, and we need to discuss it with the stakeholders.” Lyle’s flames had burned the hair off one side of her head, and the healing potions supplied by Empress Aubrianna couldn’t regrow it. Still, Jeremiah thought it looked pretty good on her.

  “Hey,” whispered Bruno, giving Jeremiah a nudge, “I don’t know if I said this before, but doin Lyle like that, while he was unconscious? Just to be sure? That was hard man. Really hard.”

  “It was surprisingly easy,” said Jeremiah. There had been no doubt in his mind, assuring Lyle’s death was paramount.

  “No I mean-dammit Jay don’t be lame now-It was cold. You know? Real killer stuff,” said Bruno.

  “Thanks?”

  “You know, I’m sorry,” said Bruno. Jeremiah wasn’t sure what for, but he took the apology.

  “Salright,” said Jeremiah.

  A footwoman stepped into the room in an uncanny repeat from earlier in the evening. “Presenting her eminence, Empress Aubrianna of Elminia.”

  This time, at least, instead of sweeping elegance the Empress simply stomped in and took a seat. She looked drained, but not nearly so much as her spymaster. Ka dropped into her seat without so much as a glance towards Bruno, her face drawn with stress.

  “Thanks for still being here,” said Empress Aubrianna. “I hope you don’t mind if we dispense with formalities? Good. The security of this meeting room has been confirmed thrice over by Ka, so we can speak freely. If I may begin—what the hell was that?”

  “That was Lyle, the cult leader,” said Jeremiah. “A valued member of your inner circle, it would seem, but also a man hellbent on bridging this world with the Abyss. The entire cult was in service of that goal.”

  “Mm-hmm,” said the empress. “And if Counselor Fortune’s report is to be believed, you single handedly infiltrated and destroyed this cult?”

  “That’s correct,” said Jeremiah. “If you follow the directions Delilah provided, you can go to the undercity and see the evidence for yourself.”

  Ka cleared her throat. “Um, I wouldn’t recommend that, actually. The team I sent to investigate just returned, and apparently there’s some sort of massive amalgamation of body parts roaming around that doesn’t take kindly to visitors. One of yours, necromancer?”

  That was news to Jeremiah. He quickly scanned his mind any remnants of that solid block that had been the hundred handed giant had required, but found not a pebble remaining. “Not one of mine anymore, I’m sorry to say. It’s rare for an undead to remain active after release, but this might be one of those moments.”

  He glanced at his friends. Allison looked horror-struck, but Delilah spoke up quickly. “I would take this opportunity to point out that, per our agreement to destroy the cult or procure information relating to it, we are under no obligation to make the area safe and therefore any remaining undead, monsters, or kobolds are beyond the scope of our mission.”

  Ka scowled, and Jeremiah continued before she could retort. “There’s another thing you should know.” He reached into the Giant’s Bag and withdrew the empress’s crown. “I recovered this from the cult’s treasure vault.”

  Empress Aubrianna’s expression remained neutral as she gingerly accepted the crown. She removed the identical one she had been wearing and inspected them side-by-side. Then she placed the new crown atop her head and turned to Ka. “You’re in trouble.”

  To Jeremiah’s surprise, Ka dropped her head to her hands, flushing a deep red that nearly matched her hair. He felt a surge of sympathy—it was a rough night to be the empress’s head of security.

  “So we’re done, right?” asked Bruno. “We destroyed the cult, returned your stolen crown, revealed one of your inner circle is a demon summoning traitor and saved your city? We’re good?”

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  Delilah winced and closed her eyes, “I swear to god why do I even bring you to these?”

  But the empress merely nodded. “You may rest assured the Empire settles its debts amicably. You have indeed accomplished the task set before you, and thus the conspiracy in Dramir will be resolved.”

  “Without bloodshed,” Jeremiah reminded her.

  The empress regarded him with a raised eyebrow and a faint smile. “Of course. We wouldn’t want you to suffer the guilt of violence on your conscience.”

  “Thank you,” said Jeremiah, pretending not to hear her sarcasm.

  “Finally, allow me to present to you all a token of gratitude,” said Empress Aubrianna.

  Ka stood and approached Delilah with a small medal box. She opened it, but as Delilah reached towards it, she cleared her throat loudly, interrupting the motion.

  “For your observation only,” said Allison. “You take pride in knowing you were awarded one.” Ka continued around the table to allow Allison to view the medal. Allison gazed at it thoughtfully for a moment, then nodded, and Ka continued.

  “B-but…I want a medal,” said Delilah. Her eyes followed Ka around the table.

  Jeremiah peered into the box. Lying within was a set of four silver discs threaded on white ribbon. They lacked engravings or decorative elements. He followed Allison’s lead, observing the medals for what seemed an appropriate amount of time, then nodded for Ka to continue on.

  “You military types are so weird,” said Bruno, after completing his turn in the ritual. “So, are we done here?”

  “Nearly,” said Empress Aubrianna. “Before we conclude, however, I wanted to extend my personal appreciation. Mr. Thorn, you and your friends have performed admirably under a range of situations. Would you have any interest in joining the employ of my regime? I am confident we would be able to make use of your abilities in a variety of missions.”

  He could see Delilah preparing to respond, but Jeremiah spoke up first. “Thanks, but no thanks. With all due respect, I’ve done enough in service of crowns—both yours and that of Dramir. Let us know if you need us in the future and maybe we can negotiate a deal then, but otherwise, we have our own lives to rebuild.”

  The empress nodded. “I understand. In that case, thank you all for what you have done here, and for your indefinite continued discretion.” Her gaze traveled over their faces again, one-by-one, lingering just a second longer on Jeremiah’s. “You are dismissed.”

  ?

  ?

  ?

  It was a strange feeling to have nothing he should be doing. His things were packed, a trivial task since he’d been carrying most of his worldly possessions in his pockets for the last several months. Bruno, Allison, and Delilah were out tying up loose ends with their respective positions and cover stories, leaving him to try to remember how to relax.

  The apartment was quiet. The entire city had felt quiet, somehow, in the week since he’d destroyed the enchantment circle. That feverish hum had dissipated, and Elminia seemed to feel just as lost for what to do as Jeremiah did now. Of course people still went through the motions that momentum gave them, work and bustle and the like, but that desperate energy had gone out of it.

  Jeremiah rolled over on his mattress and pet Gus. He supposed he could visit his old cell mates, say his final goodbyes. The thought made his stomach turn. Monty was gone, and now that the events of the underground had had time to settle in his mind, he kept drifting back to his memories of the murder. Or rather, the lack of memories—try as he might to grasp what had happened, the further he got from that night, the more his recollection was reduced to the facts, rather than the lived experience.

  “I killed Monty,” he said out loud, trying to feel the horror he knew he should. Gus shivered at his words, but Jeremiah himself felt numb to it. That numbness disturbed him. Committing a cold-blooded murder should not be a comfortable, forgettable affair. His lack of feeling felt wrong.

  Jeremiah sat up in bed and grabbed his enchanting gear. He had to distract himself, and if he wanted to start pulling his weight as an enchanter back in Dramir, he had better keep his skills sharp.

  The enchanting tools were comfortable in his hand, the plates inviting, with their smooth, flat surfaces. It was child’s play to etch the runes, he hardly had to think to connect them together. He filled the surface of the plate in a matter of minutes, drawing quick, confident lines to form the minuscule runes.

  Heat And Pause And Pause And Pause And Pause And Pause And Pause And Heat.

  Jeremiah looped the enchantment back on itself. Never before had he managed to cram so many runes onto a single plate. Would it really be that simple?

  He dropped the plate on the floor and charged the diagram. The temperature of the metal increased rapidly, then stopped. Jeremiah could feel the heat radiating off it, the Pauses interrupting the Heat command before it grew hot enough to deform the runes, then the temperature spiked again as the enchantment looped around and continued running.

  “Huh,” said Jeremiah. Gus repeated the sound in a toad’s croak. This would work. He could adjust the number of Pause and Heat runes to calibrate the stability, or even change the maximum temperature of the plate. And of course, a different material would be able to withstand much higher temperatures before destroying the enchantment.

  “Dammit that’s stupid! That better not really be the answer!”

  Gus hopped into his lap and went to sleep.