Twenty Nine

Lisbeth looked down on the castle, or rather she looked down on the entrance of the castle. It had several spires that reached up into the clouds; that she could see at least. The entrance and front portion of the castle appeared to be of gothic architecture. However since the castle stretched well past visual range, this was not true for the rest. At least one portion seemed to be oriental, and another constructed of canvas. The spires stretched far to tall into the heavens, the arches too large. When Lisbeth had first come to the castle she had thought it was a dream. 

It wasn’t a dream, it was a portion of the world that had been separated from the rest. They weren’t completely uncommon, the real problem was coming and going between them. Unlike the portals that allow access between the human, dwarf, and elf worlds. Since it was only a portion things were slightly more flexible, making permanent entrances difficult. Gods had enough power to punch their way in to these portions, some of the stronger immortals as well. Weaker immortals sometimes had a talent that made the creation of entrances less power intensive. Immortals still liked to reside in these portions as opposed to the mortal worlds, usually in large communities to reduce the chance of getting trapped for long periods of time. 

This portion was only as large as the castle it contained, not that Lisbeth knew how large the castle was. One of this portions quirks was that you always entered at the top of a hill overlooking the entrance, as soon as you entered the castle proper it would become impossible to find the hill or entrance again. Lisbeth was about to start hiking down the hill to the entrance, when Seth walked through the gate next to her. He didn’t even ask before scooping Lisbeth off of her feet into a bridal carry. The two of them lifted off of the ground and started slowly flying towards the entrance. 

“Morning Lisbeth.”

“Morning Seth, is this really necessary?”

“Absolutely.”

“So what are you doing here?”

“Atreus called for a guardians meeting before the board meeting starts.”

“Why isn’t Lance with you then?”

“He said he had to do something for you.”

“But I didn’t give him an assignment.”

“He’s having breakfast with Charis.”

“But she hates me. I was going to let Hinrich and Devon deal with recruiting her. It’s not your’s or Lance’s problem anyway.”

“Maybe we just want to keep the boss happy.”

“Why, it’s not like you could get a promotion. Or even a cushier assignment.”

“Maybe we just like seeing you happy.”

“Do I deserve it?”

“We were wondering why you chose that particular course of action last week. There were other ways.”

Lisbeth didn’t reply. They had entered the castle proper but Seth still didn’t put her down. They walked for a while, every window looked outside, to a different scene. They went through three major architectural changes before arriving outside a massive ebony door.

“I’m pretty sure this is where I’m suppose to drop you…”

“But?”

“That door is kinda freaking me out, not gonna lie.”

“It’s just the entrance to my bedroom.”

“Your bedroom is on the other side of an ebony door; with nameless horrors of the deep, that have far too many eyes, carved into them.” Seth sounded just a little incredulous.

“Yes, now put me down.”

Seth did so, but was eyeing the door warily, like it might come to life or something. Lisbeth long since use to either the optical illusion of the eyes following her movements, or the eyes actually following her movements, pushed the door open. 

“Stop staring, either go to your meeting, or come in and help me with my shower.”

“Nerissa might not like that.”

“Probably not, go to your meeting.”

---

After taking a truly blissful shower, and it truly was. Her bathroom was a massive affair with three separate pools at different temperatures. The ‘shower’ was actually several fountains that sprayed convenient waterfalls of perfectly warmed water. It was less of a bathroom and more of a bath house, with a sauna one floor down. It was empty of corse, the entire bathroom that was large enough for a hundred people was reserved for Lisbeth’s personal use. She had invited some of the trainees to join her when she was younger, just so she wouldn’t be alone. The one that did say yes only did so because they were afraid to say no, somehow it was worse than being alone.

Lisbeth arrived late to the board meeting, not that it mattered much. She had opted for a full black suit. She didn’t actually have to sit at the table for this meeting, instead she sat on one of the balconies. With a massive stain glass window behind her and a view of the long table surrounded by a combination of humans, elves and dwarves. Once they did take notice of her, some of them started shooting worried glances in her direction. Some of them probably weren’t comfortable with how things were progressing; to late now. The meeting was boring, extremely so for Lisbeth at least. Many of the topics covered Lisbeth just didn’t care about, most of the proposals she had already approved months ago. Most of all she already knew about the record high profits.

Eventually the meeting tuned to something interesting, the angel attack. As the board of directors of a inter-world conglomerate with one of the largest stakes in aerospace R&D, they all seemed rather happy. While simultaneously assuring others that they considered the loss of life a tragedy. They all had their different money making ideas of course, most weren’t all that feasible but some were worth looking into. After several hours the meeting wrapped up and the board left to go find exits to their respective worlds. The man who had been heading up the meeting Mr. Lansky eventually walked onto the balcony. 

“Is there any reason I had to come to this Meyer?”

“In such troubling times I wanted our board to know our immortal patrons were keeping an eye on things.”

“I’m not your immortal patron, you’re my accountant.”

“Please don’t call me that. I am so much more than an accountant, i’m the president of the third largest conglomerate in the history of three worlds. And they don’t know what you are, I don’t either for that matter.”

“I think she is an immortal who just found a throne and this is her play for it.” Atreus spoke in a deep bass that echoed off the arched walls, as he joined them on the balcony.

“Wrong, I’m an angel just like you two. Why don’t either of you believe me when I say that.”

“I’m inclined to agree with Atreus, or you could just be a really bored immortal.”

“I’m eighteen, you are both older than me, I have a birth certificate and everything. So why am I really here.”

“Last weekend.” Mr. Lansky got considerably more serious when he spoke.

“What? Chuck. I was pissed he seriously hurt a friend of mine. If I hadn’t intervened she would have died of internal bleeding, or been paralyzed.”

“We don’t care about the jock, I think I can speak for both of us when I say we care about you.”

“Ok, there were other options I get that. But this one worked with the fewest amount of complications.”

“You really aren’t going to explain yourself are you?”

“No.”

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