Forty Five

Apologies are hard. There are all sorts of considerations that go into a good apology, and Lisbeth didn’t know what they were. Apologies, or at least big ones, that needed planning in advance, weren’t things that she had ever tried to deal with. Asking for advice was proving a fruitless task as well.

Typhon, for all of his supposed knowledge, started rambling about a world shattering fight he got into with one of his partners. When asked about the relevance that story had for her, he made his position clear.

“None at all. But don’t think you’re getting off easy with this one.” He then refused any more advice.

Mr. Lansky was worse. “You know I’m asexual right? I have literally never had to deal with a romantic partner.”

“I thought asexual just meant you weren’t interested in sex?”

“Yeah, but relationships are even more messy, never wanted to deal with those.” So yeah, he was useless in the relationship department.

Of course Atreus took the cake, or he did after laughing at her for a couple of minutes. “Before coming here I spent twenty years in a forest with a bunch of drugged up child soldier. I’m not sure I’ve ever had sex that didn’t involve cocaine. Besides why don’t you ask Atreus, he at least went to college?”

She would have tried the recruits, but even the newest ones had apparently heard whatever stories were floating around about here. Therefore they seemed terrified of her. Lisbeth still didn’t know why, but suspected Atreus had something to do with it. Mostly because every time she asked him he got all evasive.

Usual teachers having proved useless, and Lisbeth not quite willing to ask a god for relationship advise. Even if said god approved of said relationship. Since she wasn’t quite willing to just find the best way she decided to branch out to different sources. She would have considered Shelby, but Shelby had the weekend off, and was apparently doing what Lisbeth wished she was doing. The twins were a bad idea. This meant that she really only had one viable choice on who to ask.

---

 

“Hey Lisbeth good to see you. I’ve been worried.” Sinclair looked tired. He had deep bags under his eyes, and his suit was wrinkled. His hair was mussed up, and he had a slight odor of someone who hadn’t been home in a while.

“You look terrible.” Lisbeth didn’t quite mean it to come out as harshly as it did, but she wasn’t on the top of her game. Still very preoccupied with other thoughts.

“Work has been hell, pure hell.”

Lisbeth frowned slightly, Sinclair’s organization shouldn’t be dealing with the attack fallout. “I would have figured the community would be keeping quiet?” They were, mostly.

“They are, mostly. But the spying thing was big, we’ve even had some protests around the worlds because of it. Meanwhile the community is all nice and quiet, and already prepared with their own encrypted email service, that we can’t crack. They knew and all my superiors want answers.” Lisbeth smiled apologetically, but didn’t offer any words. “Meanwhile since I’m the member of the agency to have most recently worked with the immortal agency, and with my distinguished record. Thanks for that by the way. I have also been named the liaison between our bureau and the immortal agency. Meaning I get called to all of the meetings for the angel attacks.”

“Sorry?”

“No you’re not.”

“No I’m not. So what has the response been so far?”

“Our response as a nation, or our response as a species?” From the tone of Sinclair’s voice it was clear that those questions would have very different answers to them.

“Our nation.”

“Brilliant really, we’ve already restocked our orbital weapons platforms. We can have a significant task force at any city in under fifteen minutes. All major cites already have significant task forces stationed in them. The council is even placing Templars with them.”

“Sound great, how about as a species.”

“Embarrassing. We’ve already started selling off orbital strikes, and if countries don’t want to pay now they can pay when the angels attack. For a fifty percent markup of course. Yes we are advertising our prices. Templars are only being placed in the most developed and comfortable nations. The only good thing are rumors about a combined Templar task force the council is training.”

“It’s true.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, they even took the suggestion I had. Teaching all the Templars everything, not just the bits that their religion preaches.”

“So they might actually be able to beat the angels before we lose the city next time?”

“Possibly.”

“I suppose I’ll have to take that.” Sinclair leaned forward and rested his head on the table, with a dramatic sigh. “So, you didn’t call because you wanted to talk shop.”

“Not really.”

“Too tired for games.”

“I need advice.”

“I can do advice.” Sinclair looked up suddenly invigorated, with the prospect of something he could work with.

“I think Nerissa is pissed at me.”

“You think?”

“Possibly just very upset, and Meyer said she seemed betrayed.”

“Damn it, no.”

“No?”

“I’m not giving you advice about your love life, get some female friends for that. I was hoping you had a stalker or got drunk and slept with the football team.”

“How is that better?”

“I can shoot a stalker, I can blackmail the football team. I can’t help with your love life.”

“I can shoot my own stalkers thank you very much. And what makes you think I would do something so irresponsible as sleeping with the entire football team. I have a girlfriend.”

“Who is feeling betrayed.”

“Damn it, give me something, anything.” There was a slight crack in Lisbeth voice, betraying that she wasn’t just being her usual playful self.

“Fine, this is what I tried in college and it didn’t work for me, but you might as well try.” Lisbeth leaned forward. “Find a good spot, get on your knees, and beg.”

Lisbeth threw a sugar cube at Sinclair. He didn’t dodge.

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Pink Fog

When someone is shot in the head with a sufficiently powerful sniper rifle a phenomenon known as pink mist is observed. This happens when the bullet causes blood and brain tissue to vaporize and cause a misting effect, the misting will of course be pink. A similar effect can be gain with a sufficiently powerful explosion and close proximity. However more of the body will be tuned into pink mist.

---

Meyer Lansky was bored, justifiably with reason. People were boring, almost unbearably so. This party for instance as filled with boring people. Some would find this gathering very interesting, not just because of the open bar and good music, but because of who the people in the room were. This room was filled with undeniable corruption, the worst this world had to offer. There were the criminals, who undoubtably thought themselves better than the petty thieves. In a way they were, some of them as far as the world was concerned were downright respectable. Then there was the clergy, not the members who were actually good at their jobs, or even devout. No these were the members that would never rise above their current positions, so to get the luxury they thought they deserved they associated with criminals. The smallest group in the room were the parasites, those who had found this little confluence of power and money and sought to make some of it theirs. Meyer Lansky was a parasite.

He might have been a parasite but he was an established one, not one that anyone was actively trying to dislodge. No he was one they would seek out, to acquire his services. They were doing it now, just by inviting him to this party, an attempt to keep him happy. None of this would happen without Meyer Lansky and his fellow parasites. The money tainted with blood would never find itself clean again, but it could appear to be clean, it could appear to be legitimate. That’s what he did, he cleaned up the mess.

“God, this party is boring.”

Meyer looked at the girl who had wander up beside him, he didn’t recognize her. He had thought he at least knew the faces of everyone who attended these parties, but apparently not. The girl looked… young, something about her made her age hard to place. Her short hair was matched by her short stature, it was also currently dyed blue. She was wearing too much makeup, not atrociously so, just like she didn’t quite have experience applying the appropriate levels quite yet. Placing her age was difficult, she was either about to hit puberty, or had just been through it and failed to get a developed feminine form.

“It’s not a good idea to invoke the gods for something so petty as being bored.”

“I didn’t invoke the gods, I invoked my god. And she doesn’t mind. Besides if I have to keep listening to the mayors daughter pretend to know who I am and tell me gossip about which girls are skanks, I might commit murder.”

“You know your god won’t mind?”

“Are you going to latch onto that, and skip the murder comment?”

“I wouldn’t hold it against you.”

The girl laughed, it was a sweet sound. Oddly it didn’t sound like she laughed often, if that made any sense. She held out her hand.

“I’m Lisbeth, it’s nice to meet someone with a sense of humor around here.”

“Meyer Lansky.” He took her hand in a firm handshake. He also noticed that she neglected to give a family name, making figuring out who she was difficult. “I’m afraid I have no idea who you are.”

“I know, I’m crashing the party. No one does.”

“How did you get in then?”

“Blackmailed the doorman.”

“I was under the impression the security was supplied by the mob.”

“Oddly enough, that makes it easier.”

“So, what possessed you to crash a party such as this?”

“I’m looking to hire an accountant, your name came up. So I figured I just had to meet you.”

“I have an office, and a secretary. And a publicly listed phone number. You could have just made an appointment.” If this girl was telling the truth, then she could have arranged to an invite to this party without the blackmail. But she had been lying about that. She hadn’t lied yet.

“But I didn’t.”

“Which is why I would rather not do business with you. I made it this far being careful, and you don’t seem to be.”

“Fair enough, but aren’t you bored?”

“I though you were the bored one?”

“At this party, yes. But you are bored with your life.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Come work for me and I will give you money and power far beyond your dreams. Even with your impressive ego. You’re too good for these people Mr. Lansky.” Still not lying.

“I can’t just quit on my clients, to follow a pipe dream, girl.” But it was a very tempting pipe dream, and this girl honestly believed that she could do it.

“Not a problem, I’ll just kill your clients. So you won’t have to quit.” Not a lie.

“You intend to kill the mayor, the heads of three mob families, and half the clergy in the country. Just to hire me?”

“Yes”

Pink Fog

---

BREAKING NEWS

Earlier this evening at 9:02 pm a bomb went off in a downtown hotel. The hotel was currently hosting and investors party that had several well known public figures in attendance. This includes the mayor and his family. At this time there a no known survivors of the blast. Police are still looking for leads, and a complete guest list.

Reports indicate that the blast was so violent that very few bodies were recovered in tact. This is leading to rampant speculation because there was very little damage done to the building. Forensic scientist are currently looking for any possible leads on what kind of device might have been used.

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Thirty Six

“Are we really doing this? Tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yes, I wouldn’t have promised to do it if I wasn’t certain.”

“But, tonight?”

“Look Shelby, if we don’t drag you out tonight we probably won’t be able to drag you out any night. So me an Seth here” Lisbeth indicated Seth, who was sitting on the sofa next to her “are going to take you to a party and get you laid.”

“What do you think of redheads?”

“Redheads?”

“Yeah, there is this girl on the squad who would totally be down with assisting in your college experimentation.”

“You’ve been scouting girls for me?”

“ish, sorry, shouldn’t I have?” Seth gave the least apologetic shrug in the history of apologies.

“YES…. No, I mean damn it.”

“You know you’re kind of cute when you get flustered like that, want to get drinks some time?”

“Not really helpful Seth.”

“Not helping your plans maybe, but to be fair this one kind of terrible.”

“See we shouldn’t do this.”

“Damn it Seth, shut up. Shelby, go to your room and put something slutty on. You have twenty minutes.”

“But”

“GO” Lisbeth barked

Shelby gave a squeak and ran out of the room, Lisbeth and Seth watched her go.

“Twenty says she doesn’t come back.”

“I’m not taking that bet, but if she doesn’t come back we call this off.”

“Of course, Lisbeth.”

“This redhead, you sure she’s a good choice?”

“Absolutely, she loves the naive and innocent and would kill to protect them. Literally.”

“Seriously?”

“It was ruled self defense, but yeah, nothing will happen to Shelby that she doesn’t first give permission for. She will be safer than if she was with either of us.”

“Now there’s a depressing thought.”

“Well, there are going to be six girls there that are looking for some corrupting, By the way.”

“Do they pass?”

“Of course they do.”

“Wait, since when do we consider the ability to commit murder a positive personality trait?”

“It’s possible we’re kind of fucked up Lisbeth.”

---

Twenty five minutes later found Lisbeth outside of Shelby’s door knocking. There was no answer, She knocked again, still no answer.

“Look, sorry if I pressured you Shelby, I’ll call the whole thing off. Just say something so I know you’re ok.”

“Come in.”

Lisbeth entered and found Shelby’s room to be a mess. Not the general mess of a college student’s dorm room, no this was too new of a mess. This was the mess that was created when someone tore up a room looking for something. In the center of it all was Shelby, breathing shallow rapid breaths. Aw crap. Lisbeth rushed forward and put her hands on either side of Shelby’s face, bringing her own very close.

“I’m going to need you to stop breathing.”

“What?”

“Ok, that was a lie. I just needed to distract you enough to interrupt your breathing pattern. I’m glad that worked, option two would have gotten me in trouble.”

“What was option two?”

“Kiss you hard and vigorously.”

“Why is that option even on the table.”

“Because I’m a very sexual person, and I’ve recently discovered just how much I like kissing people in the real world.”

“You have to specify the real world?”

“I’m a dream walker, sex in the real world is practically a fetish for us.”

“That’s…. odd.”

“You should see the shit that goes down at our exclusive parties, not the one I’m going to take you to, the dream walker only ones.”

“That sounds like it could get interesting.”

“The only reason it isn’t like rule 34 of the internet is because there aren’t enough content creators.”

“That sounds horrifying.”

“Only with the wrong frame of mind.”

“What’s the right frame of mind for something like that?”

I am a god “Now there’s a secret that will cost you.”

Shelby suddenly became aware of just how close Lisbeth’s face was to her’s and blushed. It had worked, Shelby had been rather worked up over, well, everything, now she had been sufficiently distracted.

“Ok, I’m going to send Seth for ice-cream, then the two of us can stay up all night watching bad romance movies, or hyper violent B films with girls in chain mail bikinis. Your choice.”

“The B films, but no.”

“No?”

“Yeah, we have a party to get to, and you have a promise to keep.”

“Are you sure, because I was planning on beating myself up all night about pressuring you.”

“You can still beat yourself up over it, but how often can I get set up by a dream walker?”

“Good point, but are you really sure about this?”

“No, but I want to.”

“OK, wear this.”

“That’s a sports bra.”

“Yes, it is.”

“I don’t want to be at a party in only a sports bra.”

“Did I call it a party? It’s more the cheer squad getting together at a house. We will be the only non cheerleaders there. The only reason I’m getting in is because Seth is bringing me.”

“Then how am I getting in?”

“Easy, Seth just asked if there was anyone who wanted to help a friend of his experiment. Instant invite.”

“He just asked that?”

“Him and his brother have something of a unique status on the squad.”

“But still.”

“Never underestimate what someone with his reputation can get away with.”

At that Seth stuck his head into the room, he looked a little sheepish.

“So do you have your ice-cream orders yet? I can also stop by a movie rental place on the way back if you have requests.”

“No Seth, we have a party to go to.”

“Awesome, in that case we need to stop at the movie place on the way over anyways. They asked me to pick up some hyper violent B films. Something about ambient noise.”

“Ok, now we leave in five minutes, are you going to be ready, or do I have to help you get dressed.”

“I can put my own clothes on without help.”

“Sure, you can honey.  I just thought you might enjoy it.”

Lisbeth evacuated the room as Shelby experienced a full body blush.

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Thirty Five

The dream walkers had been paying attention before, but now they were giving their undivided attention. They were practically on the edges of their seats. Lisbeth idly wondered if it was similar to the investors meeting when the first smartphone was announced. It seemed likely, the spokesperson was promising a game changer. A smart person could always make money off of a game changer. Lisbeth also noted happily that her report had spread beyond the initial dream and now almost everyone in the audience had a copy. Things were just getting started, and the after party was going to be great.

“The governments of the world have lied to the people, in a way sure to cause outrage. And in about a day everyone will know. Governments across all three worlds have been spying on their own citizens and sharing that information with each other. Every phone call, every email, every form of electronic communication has been recorded, for the last four years. If a person wants to have private communications, or meeting there is now only one option. Business is about to pick up.”

She generated her own information fragment containing most of the details, of what they knew so far. It wasn’t everything, but it was surprisingly in depth, suggesting very bad security, or a very high ranked whistle blower. Either way, good times.

“We have arranged this meeting to generate a community wide response, we need to appear united and of the same mind to come out as far ahead as possible, I’m now going to turn the floor over to some people who have ideas in that direction.”

The crowd was split into three groups, those who erupted into applause, those who were still reading, and those who looked worried.

---

When you need to get something in the range of a million people to come to a consensus it takes a little while. In the instance of the dream walkers it took three weeks, their time. In real time it took slightly less than forty five minutes. Changing the perceived passage of time was actually an easier trick than making a fully formed dream. The consensus was for a very simple plan of action. Dream walkers would no longer use electronic communication for work purposes, except for scheduling appointments.  They would only be using encrypted email services, and if asked why they would only say because of increased privacy concerns for their clients. Most importantly, they would do all of this before the spying scandal hit. The biggest thing was to act like they didn’t trust any conversation to be private. Which was easy, most of them didn’t already.

The thing is after three weeks of surprisingly civil debates, no attempted mind rape whatsoever, everyone was in the mood for something fun. They even had a full fifteen minutes real world time to party. Not that they couldn’t party longer than that, but the meeting was scheduled for a hour. Lisbeth got to experience her first true dream party, the ones she had attended in the past just didn’t compare. Over a hundred interconnected dreams, all following a slightly different theme. There was a kegger next to the poker games next to the gladiatorial arena. Lisbeth found herself ballroom dancing for a solid three hours.

She eventually begged of the dance floor and headed to a dream that was all pink bubbly and low on gravity. The drinks being served were equally as pink, and fizzy, they tasted as good as only a dream could. She took the drink to what appeared to be a smoking lounge and joined a small group playing a dice game. Sure, they could all cheat, but they also would all notice. That, along with a distinct lack of actual cash kept everyone honest. Mostly honest, points were awarded for the most creative cheats, if they could slip through.

Eventually the party broke up, real world within thirteen minutes, dreams, two days of wholesome and considerably less than wholesome fun. Part way through Lisbeth found herself being passed around for introductions to just about everyone. Not only was she partially responsible for their celebrations, she was currently the youngest living dream walker. By the end far more people now knew her than she had ever met before. Apparently the knowledge of her involvement with the angels was being kept very hush hush, since no one seemed to know about it. They did know about the ‘unfortunate attack’ as they called it, but she evaded their questions on the details.

After the party Lisbeth went searching for familiar dreams, and came up somewhat short. She had to remember that it was still early afternoon were her real body was sleeping, and weeks hadn’t passed. She rather hated having to deal with reconciling real time with dream time, not that she couldn’t do it, all dream walkers could. But the whole process gave her a headache. She knew she hadn’t even been asleep long enough for Nerissa to get up, or even move. Although that was a bad judge, it was so easy to lose track of time reading those books. She probably shouldn’t have given Nerissa unrestricted access to them.

At the very  least, she should have explained what the books were for, and let Nerissa make an informed decision. Too late now, but she did need to stop using them to avoid certain conversations. Mentally manipulation your girlfriend definitely fell under the slightly evil label, even if there was no ill intent. Lisbeth gave a mental sigh, she really did need to tell Nerissa the truth. Not the whole truth of course, that could be more harmful than good, but some of it. At least with the books, as the rate she was devouring them, things might start happening.

Lisbeth brought herself into wakefulness and found herself curled up next to Nerissa. Nerissa was of course reading, she didn’t even notice when Lisbeth woke up. That of course would not do at all, and direct action would need to be taken. With one hand she knocked the book out of Nerissa’s and with her other she pushed Nerissa from a sitting position to lying flat on her back. Lisbeth swung her leg over Nerissa. She looked down at Nerissa’s surprised face for a moment before going in for the kiss. It was long, and passionate.

“I’ve missed you.”

“I was here the whole time.”

“You were, I was gone for three weeks, it isn’t pleasant.”

“I thougth you did that all the time?”

“I do, but I was away from you.”

“I love you.”

“I do too. I’ve got a secret for you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s a big one too.”

“Oh, do tell.”

Lisbeth leaned forward and whispered secrets in Nerissa’s ear. Nerissa allowed herself a gasp of shock.

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Twenty Seven

 

Lisbeth’s week proceeded very calmly and without much fanfare. Since she didn’t have to attend monday classes, ever as it turned out. She could just cover the material in a dream, the advantage to having dream walkers TA both those classes. Tuesday she only had a philosophy class in the afternoon. Wednesday she had morning psychology and in the afternoon she had a religion class. Thursdays and Fridays were reserved for power development classes. This included the therapy sessions for the telepaths and empaths. Mostly it was classes to teach control and creativity. Unlike mental powers that generally appeared before or during puberty, physical powers appeared after. So a college student couldn’t be expected to have perfect control, quite yet.

This again left Lisbeth without much to do. She didn’t have required therapy, her ethics and law classes were open to all students; they just didn’t sign up. Since there were no dream walkers on staff the college couldn’t really teach her anyways. She was put into a class with the description that only read ‘peer driven study’. Apparently the dream walkers in the class were supposed to get together and talk about techniques, or something. The class didn’t even have a room number associated with it. She found out why when she got an email telling her it would be held at the dream walker frat house. 

The house was full and filled with the sound of music, when Lisbeth arrived Friday afternoon. Lawrence met her at the door and quickly ushered her into the garden, and called a toast. 

“Welcome everyone to the first of this years peer driven study session.”

This got a couple scattered laughs.

“Now as you all know we have a new member joining us this year, bringing our number up to forty-nine. Everyone please meet Lisbeth, and play nice.”

As he spoke he pushed Lisbeth forward so the crowd of dream walkers could get a better look at her. 

“A few things before we get this study session started. A couple of our alumni have called and requested that we don’t hassle her about last weekend, so seriously back off. Also Missy you still owe me fifty bucks.”

“Fuck you I don’t, I won that bet. Pay up asshole.”

Missy had a serious  set of lungs on her since she was shouting from the back of the group and still managed to drown out the music. Lisbeth was also mildly curious as to what alumni had called, but figured Sinclair had arranged something.  Lawrence’s exchange with Missy was apparently a signal that the speech was over and people got back to socializing. Lawrence turned to her and talked in a much quieter voice more appropriate for a conversation.

“So the college wants us all to get together and have the older walkers teach the younger ones. We have found that to be something of a waste of time.”

“So instead, you…”

“Get together, drink beer and network.”

Thats the kind of get together this was. It wasn’t like the dwarven party at all, that had been loud and drunk. This was a quiet affair in its own way. Everyone had a drink of some kind, be it beer, wine or harder stuff. There wasn’t a beer can in sight, it was all bottles; not one of them had the word ‘light’ on their labels either.  No one had really dressed up, but no one looked shabby either. The people at this party weren’t talking about the football game, they were talking about stock options and the political impact of the angel attack. This party was the reason people didn’t trust dream walkers. Lisbeth chuckled to herself softly.

“Something funny?”

“The combined potential net worth of this room is enough to buy a small country, or influence a large one. And the college just tells us to teach each other.”

“Why did you think we donate so much to the college? To get our names on all of the buildings.”

“All of them?”

“Almost all, the administration building is still named after the founder.”

Lawrence looked almost annoyed at that, but neither of them could keep a straight face and broke out laughing. 

“So, do you have any clients yet Lisbeth?”

“My dance card is mostly full these days.”

“Good for you, have you specialized yet?”

“Priests mostly, a few others as well. Why so curious?”

“Just want to be able to introduce you to people with similar interests.”

Lawrence then tried to introduce Lisbeth to the four other dream walkers that dealt with the clergy. Tried because Lisbeth had already met three of them at dream parties. The clergy tended to be selective about the dream walkers they contracted. Due to this they tended to contract out the the same ones over and over again. If you got onto one of the approved lists for a major religion it was guaranteed steady profitable work. It also meant governments wouldn’t look too closely at said dream walkers finances. This had lead to more than one scandal were a dream walker was outed for taking drug money and mixing it in with their clergy money. 

The fourth dream walker that Lisbeth hadn’t met yet was a pleasant enough young man. The reason why he and Lisbeth hadn’t encounter him became quickly apparent. He worked primarily with the Lothrien church, they and the Arlethians had been at each others  throats for centuries. Not that Lisbeth or the young man cared as they drank wine and gossiped about the high council. Nothing that would be considered confidential of course but they did ping pong some theories about the council’s reaction to the angels. This conversation of course lead to theories about the angel itself.

 By this point enough others had joined the conversation that Lisbeth no longer needed to talk much. Lawrence noticed along with a couple of others that Lisbeth wasn’t wiling to talk about the angel’s origin, but was willing to talk about potential implication. By the end of the day Lisbeth was sure they would convince themselves that she knew something. Which she did, so it was a good assumption. When the party, because that’s what it was, started winding down Lawrence caught Lisbeth before she left.

“Did you have a good time?”

“Yes, it was very educational.”

Lawrence gave that a quick chuckle. 

“Contrary to today we don’t usually get everyone. I would recommend that you come to most of these get togethers, because as far as the college is concerned you will have. Also I’m not letting you walk home.”

“Why not?”

“Because you are tiny, recently injured, and drunk. So please be good and wait for a taxi.”

Lisbeth wanted to protest that she would be fine, but Lawrence did have a point. Besides Nerissa would worry if she walked home drunk, no matter how safe she was. 

 

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Fourteen

So the evening had gone to shit. The thing that had gone worst was obvious, but everything before that had gone just as badly, if not quite so spectacularly. Charis could have blamed Lisbeth for setting everything up, but in retrospect that really wouldn’t have been fair. Lisbeth might have brought them all and even set up the date with Lance, if it could be called that, but she had kept all of her promises. No this night wasn’t Lisbeth’s fault, it was all her own. Well her’s and that asshole Chuck. Seriously how did he even get in? Same way they did, Charis figured, connections.

Anyways, things started out ok, if a little bit awkward. Lisbeth ran off to take her phone call, and Seth and Nerissa watched her go intently and neglected to pay any attention to the rest of the group. Krista then mumbled something incoherent and ran off to one of the many tables full of drinks. Amy looked uncomfortable until an elf dragged her off to the dance floor. Charis might have tried to interfere but Amy seemed happy enough to go, and it was hard to see the elf as a threat. It was one of those really androgynous ones where you couldn’t tell the gender without a hands-on inspection, although considering the type of dancing going on it wouldn’t take Amy long to figure out the plumbing.

This left Charis, Nerissa, Seth and Lance standing around awkwardly, since none of them really knew each other. Seth continued to ignore the rest of them and watched Lisbeth, which was a little bit creepy since Nerissa had apparently given up after losing sight of her. Lance, as it turned out, did not live up to the reputation he had been attributed in the magazines. Or rather he did perfectly; he smiled was attentive and laughed at all of her jokes, but he also apparently didn’t have hidden depths that the magazines had promised or he was faking it. “Faking it” seemed likely after he laughed at a not-very-funny story about her pet dog, but didn’t matter that it was fake, the laugh still sent her heart racing and made her tingle in all the right places.

Even if Lance was just faking his interest, as seemed likely as he payed close attention to a meaningless story about her sister, he was still paying attention. This attention got Charis very breathless and put her on something like autopilot, resulting in a stream of consciousness about her past, desperately hoping to earn some kind of approval. Nerissa was no help, just by being there she made things worse. She was the kind of girl who Lance should be with, absolutely beautiful and a telepath, so she could give Lance what he wanted not this vapid shit she was currently spewing. She started to resent Nerissa just for being there, looking perfect, having the twin’s numbers, and all the other promises Lisbeth had made concerning them. Nerissa got all of that for free whilst Charis would have to pay, one way or another.

As the evening wore on Lisbeth never rejoined their group, although Charis did see her a couple of times. The first time she was talking to a bunch of dwarves wearing holy symbols, later she reappeared on one of the balconies overlooking the main hall, with a damned high priest. Lance said it was customary for a high priest to show for the first event of the academic year. No wonder Lisbeth had wanted to come, Charis even saw her trade business cards with the dwarf as they drank from a very expensive looking bottle. Lisbeth certainly knew her networking and had high ambitions, the man could cast holy magic, the twins were probably the only ones in the building that could match him in power and versatility.

Krista was easy to keep track of, she was in the middle of the loudest drunkest dwarves and humans in the room. She was playing drinking games, if they could be called that, which mostly consisted of her taking shots and the crowd cheering every time. Money would change hands every time the person taking shots with her was unable to continue, she managed to beat at least two dwarves with military medals that Charis saw. The military medals weren’t uncommon for the dwarves; they were required to wear them at religious functions, and military service was one of the few ways for a dwarf to go to college off world if they were disadvantaged. By the time Krista stopped drinking she had made a great many ‘friends’, though it helped that she didn’t seem to mind when one of her new ‘friends’ felt her up. Amy was harder to keep track of, since she’d disappeared down some side hall with the androgynous elf, whose perfect ass would have made Charis question her own sexuality if she had any idea about the elf’s gender. Amy probably knew by that point, so it should work out.

About the same time Krista stopped drinking, Nerissa, managed to lure Seth off with her, that bitch. Charis watched as they made their way to the peripheries of the drunk group were Seth started introducing Nerissa to some jocks. Charis was able to pay attention to Seth and Nerissa because Lance had stopped paying all that much attention to her. It happened when Seth stopped watching Lisbeth, as soon as he did Lance apparently took over the duty. Why were the twins so obsessed with that small blond anyways, she clearly wasn’t a good person. Lisbeth clearly was after Charis’ power and had been willing to blackmail her into coming to get it. Then Lisbeth hadn’t even had the decency to stick around, instead leaving to go schmooze with the priest.

This was the point in the evening that brought everything to a crashing, terrible end. It started with an argument, as these things tended to do. The arguing parties were naturally among the drunkest crowd, humans and jocks, since you wouldn’t catch a dwarf getting unruly at one of these things. The two jocks were identified as such by their team jerseys, one with a basket ball and the other with a football. Whatever the argument was about didn’t matter, what did matter was that the football jock swung first. Football jocks were almost exclusively strong arms with the occasional reflex thrown in. The basketball jock, who most assuredly wasn’t a reflex, took the hit to the face and went flying back. Nerissa gave a frightened and hurt scream as the jock crashed into her full-on. The jock got up seemingly unhurt, also apparently a strong-arm, he took one step towards his assailant before Seth got involved. An unseen force propelled the two jocks into each other with a sickening crash before forcing them both into the ground in a heap. The force could be felt as winds ripped through the room destroying the decorations.

Seth didn’t even watch his handy work, he was paying too much attention to Nerissa who was in a heap on the floor. Charis looked up at one of the balconies to see Lisbeth looking down at the scene. Lisbeth looked suitably shocked, horrified and angry, but for a moment Charis saw something else she recognized. It was the look that Charis knew from her past. She had seen it the day daddy had gotten drunk and found out mother had been cheating on him. The look passed from Lisbeth’s face quickly but Charis knew she hadn’t imagined it, and it terrified her.

Everything after that went very quickly, Amy and Krista were apparently forgotten about. Seth picked up Nerissa with no apparent effort and carried her out, not giving the jocks a second glance. Lance fell in behind his twin and Charis had no choice but to follow along, and Lisbeth caught up to them by the time they reached the stairs out. Nerissa was protesting that she didn’t need to be carried and she was fine, until Lisbeth told her in a surprisingly authoritative tone to let Seth do what he was good at and shut up. The tone didn’t last long as Lisbeth quickly went back to being worried and fluttering around Nerissa worriedly. When they arrived back at Mind Hall the four of them entered leaving Charis outside, alone, in the cold.

Shit.

 

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Thirteen

At nine-thirty Lisbeth went to meet the others, none of whom were ready yet. Lisbeth came to this conclusion after finding the empty lounge where they had agreed to meet. Eventually Krista and then Amy arrived, dressed very similarly to how they had been during the floor meeting; mildly provocative but not overly so. They both had a single question for her.

“Are you sure you can get us all in?”

“Yes, I know a guy on the inside and apparently my association has a standing agreement with the dwarves.”

“A guy on the inside?”

“Yeah, we are both a part of the same pirating group in a game we play.”

“Game?”

“Yeah, spaceships, spreadsheets, screwing each other over, good times. Anyways he owes me.”

At this point the conversation was interrupted by Nerissa’s arrival, and she was gorgeous. Or at least she was to Lisbeth, which she then let the others know through a series of very loud thoughts and emotions. Amy blushed, Nerissa smiled and Krista gave a small giggle, the sudden realization of what had been heard caused Lisbeth to then turn red in turn. Nerissa was wearing a black button up shirt that hugged her curves, she had left her raven black hair loose so it cascaded half way down her back. The entire ensemble really did make Lisbeth want to…well those are thoughts for after the party.

“Presumptuous little thing aren’t you.” Nerissa stated with her own giggle.

“Sorry, I’ll do whatever you ask as an apology.” Lisbeth’s thoughts revealed exactly what was on the table with that offer, and Amy blushed again.

“Come on we should get going, Charis is waiting.”

“We are early.”

“So is she, I promised a date with Lance. That girl wouldn’t be late for the world.”

“Why did you invite her along?”

“She is an enchanter, and a friend of mine asked me to do some headhunting.”

“So you’re pimping out Lance to make her take a job?”

“That sounds wrong.” Amy quipped.

“But accurate. Besides Lance doesn’t mind.”

Three minutes later they were all outside Mind Hall, were Charis was indeed waiting for them, and had been for some time. After a short round of introductions that mildly freaked Charis out, mostly because she was surrounded by telepaths, they headed to the dwarven dorm. The dorm wasn’t as ugly as Mind Hall, but it certainly wasn’t a pretty building either. It was only four stories tall, but since most of the rooms weren’t singles, it held more people than Mind Hall. Also, according to rumors, it had a basement the size of a gym for events such as this.

The main entrance was completely swamped with people, a good sixty or so milling about hoping to gain entrance. The people who thought they could actually get in were lined up outside the door. Lisbeth skipped the line entirely and walked to the front. Hinrich, being a freshman, was on door duty and waved them in. He also whispered something into the ear of the guy on I.D. duty so they weren’t checked. It is good to have connections. Signs and a flow of people led them down the hall to the stairs, and two flights down a massive hall opened up before them.

———————————————————————————————————————————————-

Charis walked a couple of steps behind the telepaths, and something about them unnerved her. She knew it wasn’t their fault, but still they could hear her thoughts, or feel emotions, and she didn’t even know what kind Lisbeth was. They seemed like good people, keeping up a friendly banter as they walked to the dwarven dorm, but she couldn’t tell if that was just for her benefit or not. When they arrived Charis was sure they wouldn’t get in, seriously there was a written list and a guy checking I.D.s. Nope, they all got waved past the entrance, and when the I.D. guy seemed like he was going to object the doorman said something to him and there were no issues. How did that even work. Amy spoke over her shoulder.

“Lisbeth has connections apparently.”

Of course Lisbeth had connections, that is what she had been talking about when they had first met. Charis was mildly worried that Lisbeth wanted to make herself one of those connections. Charis had been approached before by big corporations and wealthy individuals, she had up until this point turned them all down on advice of her lawyer. Go to college, get an education, have fun, when you graduate make your millions, and never fall into debt with someone. Good advice, it had seemed and easy to follow since she had what they wanted, not the other way around. Now Lisbeth apparently had what she wanted. Sure she could have turned Lisbeth down, but the Twins were damn sylphs, class ten all the way through.

Charis’ stopped rather abruptly upon entrance to the underground dwarven hall. It was massive and glorious, there were two to three hundred people already inside the hall. Most of the crowd appeared to be dwarves, there was also a handful of elves, the rest were humans. For some reason they all seemed older, very few of them seemed to be freshmen, which made sense in a way since the dwarves did I.D. at the door. New arrivals were afforded a wonderful view of the hall, since the stairs actually let out on a balcony overlooking everything, another flight of stairs allowing entry onto the main floor. The twins had apparently been waiting for them, and quite literally jumped out of the crowd to fly up to the balcony to join them. That gained a reaction from the crowd, only sylphs and a handful of class nines could fly. Lance spoke up first.

“We were wondering when you would make it Lisbeth.”

“We arrived exactly when we were meant to. Introductions, Nerissa, Amy, Krista, Charis, meet Seth and Lance.”

Lisbeth indicated each person in turn as she spoke, she seemed to be about to say more when her phone rang. She pulled it out of nowhere that Charis could see, fuck that’s a pocket, and said something rather rude after looking at the caller I.D.

“I have to take this, so play nice.”

Lisbeth walked off answering the call, apparently looking for somewhere quiet. Charis did hear the name of the person she was talking to a ‘Sinclair’, odd, that was the name of the person Lisbeth said she would be meeting when they first met. Was Lisbeth seriously going to do this, drag her here and then just abandon her with no idea what to do next? Charis was really starting to regret agreeing to come even with the twins in attendance.

“So your name was Charis right?” Lance said in a voice that managed to excite Charis in interesting and pleasant ways. Fine, Lisbeth would win this round and get her bloody favor.

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