“Thank you. Kind of going above and beyond the call of… well, it isn’t even your duty, is it?”
“No.”
“What’s the catch?”
“No catch. Please eat. Rules for the hosted are simple – that you graciously accept what is freely offered. I didn’t poison anything here.”
The girl in the checkered scarf ate.
“Laird, as I told you last night, went to Toronto. He’ll be one of the champions opposing Mr. Thorburn. Opposing Mr. Thorburn and Maggie Holt, that is.”
The girl in the checkered scarf nodded slowly.
It felt weird, hearing the name spoken like that. It should have felt weird because it was familiar to her, but it wasn’t.
“I’m not quite sure how to phrase this without missing the mark. Need? Wish? Desire? Not quite any of those. I would very, very much like to be lord of Jacob’s Bell.”
“No offense, but this isn’t exactly news to me. I’m a little out of the loop, but I’m not that out of the loop.”
“Let me continue. I once wanted to be Lord of Toronto, but things didn’t go the way we’d hoped. I made a bid for power, I lost, and I hoped this would be my consolation prize. Then Laird made it clear he wanted it.”
The girl nodded, eating. The cranberry juice in orange juice was just barely drinkable. She didn’t complain.
Sandra continued, “We fought, then we struck compromises, to keep things in balance. The marriage was one such compromise. Laird hopes to go to Toronto, put himself in the good graces of the lord of the city, and leverage that when he returns here. I’m suspicious that won’t happen.”
“How come?”
“Laird has a very particular personality. He comes from a particular lineage. I grew up a number of years behind him, and he was always someone I paid attention to, because of his position in his family, the favor that the head of the Behaim showed to him, and because my mother told me to. I know him fairly well, all things considered.”
“My condolences.”
“The knowledge is a good thing. That it’s Laird… I don’t think it’s a bad thing. He was groomed from a young age. Less able practitioners in his general age group were punished by having to give him power as penance. He was tutored, even sent away to the United Kingdom for a time.”
“Lucky guy, getting all the breaks. A little spoiled, a little messed up because of how one dimensional his social circles were? I think I get it.”
“I don’t think he was lucky at all,” Sandra said. “Others in his family have to pay a share of their power, and are restricted in what they can do, as far as the practice goes, but they are free. Laird has had firm hands gripping him by the arm every step of the way. Even now, he’s bound and shackled, playing his role in schemes that were set up before he was born.”
“So he convinces me that Molly Walker is an inhuman monster and gets me to sic my goblins on her?”
“Yes. And he’s done several other things, some recent, some not. He puts on a good face and smiles, he sees to his duties as a police officer and a keeper of the peace in town, but I wonder sometimes if he isn’t screaming inside his head. That’s why I gave him a nudge, prompting him to go to Toronto.”
“I just woke up, I’m not exactly on the ball. I might have missed something you said, or I didn’t catch the logic there. Don’t get it.”
“The Lord of Toronto is an entity that doesn’t live or die, but ebbs and flows in power. As of right now, he ebbs. He’s fighting for a foothold. Laird, by contrast, is fighting the course of his own destiny. In the doing, he might be adhering to it, like an animal that struggles against the net that binds it might only trap itself further.”
“Uh huh.”
“Did you know he gave up a share of his lifespan to his children?”
“No.”
“I believe he’s been setting his affairs in order. The tone of our last conversation suggested it. It didn’t take much of a push to get him to go to Toronto. He asked me to look after the Behaim family in his absence. Are you seeing where I’m going with this?”
“You’re talking about the Lord and Laird in the same breath.”
“Which is amusing when you think about the link of his name to the title. Maybe Destiny has her way after all.”
“One and the same?” the girl asked. “Oh. Oh. You think he’s going to sacrifice himself to give the Lord of Toronto a foothold?”
Sandra put down her fork, meal finished. “Yes. His personality would fit, and maybe he’s been thinking about this for some time, altering his own perspective, preparing for this. An Incarnation is a representation of that which it represents, in a circular fashion, but it builds its image from pieces given to it. Men that sacrificed themselves, as Laird may hope to sacrifice himself. Laird would give the Lord a more modern perspective, clearer knowledge, and freedom to act outside the confines of its being. In the long term, he would be trapped, largely dead, but in the now, well, he might shake himself free of Destiny’s firm grip.”
“He’s going to become an Incarnation?”
“Who knows? I do suspect that he won’t return, one way or another. I doubt Blake Thorburn will either. Where does that leave us?”
“Well, I’m still here, nameless and kind of screwed.”
“And I’m still here as well, very, very much wanting to be Lord, with one potential rival potentially out of the way, and one dangerous element pinned down in Toronto, with signs and portents saying he’s unlikely to return alive. I have to deal with Johannes, as well as other locals. I might need help.”
“Ahhhh. You must be desperate if you’re coming to me.”
“There are very few pieces on the board here. I can call in favors from branches of my family, but that draws attention, and we aren’t at a stage yet where drawing attention would be good. Understand? I could twist your arm, make demands, and extract oaths from you, but I don’t know what specifically I would ask for right now.”
The girl in the checkered scarf put down her utensils, chugged the last of her juice, and then leaned back. Try as she might, she couldn’t think of anything to add. All of the gears that were turning in the back of her mind were presently busy trying to find solutions to her own predicament.
“There isn’t a catch, not really,” Sandra said, “My niece called you a wild card, didn’t she?”
The girl in the checkered scarf nodded.
“You could side with anyone here. You could very well side with Johannes, if he has a solution. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have any clever ideas on how to salvage your Self, and I wouldn’t blame you. But if you do side with Johannes, I’m hoping you won’t side against me in the process.”
“I can sort of see that.”
Sandra collected the dishes, rinsing them off in the sink before putting them away. She didn’t turn around as she said, “He could and may well force you, if he has a solution.”
“Maybe. Is that your subtle way of reminding me that you could have forced me to turn on Blake in exchange for sanctuary?”
“Yes. In fact, as I first spoke to you, I was already working out this conversation for this morning. Bookending ideas.”