“I took a stroll around town earlier,” Rex started. He paused for a small sip of his drink.
Narrowing her eyes, Martina watched as his face contorted into a look of disgust. His golden eyes all but flared into a bright glow before he regained his composure.
“How can you stand drinking this?”
“If you don’t want it, pass it back,” Martina snapped. “That isn’t cheap.”
He merely hummed as he took another sip. A wince spread across his face, but he managed to control himself better than the first time.
Never again would she offer a glass of her finest Hellfire. Much too good, and expensive, for the likes of him. Stale water would suffice in the future.
Martina shook her head and focused. “What is the word in town?”
“Not sure about all the town,” Rex said with a sigh. “I was doing a little shopping, picking up supplies for my apartment. Normal things, yeah?”
Martina narrowed her eyes again. Rex either ignored or simply didn’t care for her ire.
“I struck up a conversation with the cashier at the grocers,” he took another sip of his drink. “I was hungry, you see.”
“The point, please?”
“I’m expecting,” he paused with a brief gaze into the wall before he waved a dismissive hand through the air. “Well, whatever her name was should be at my apartment in half an hour or so. A pretty little creature. Young too. She had such nice–”
“Zagan. The point.”
His golden eyes gave of a sinister glint for an instant. “I was getting there. Her father–whom she lives with–and some family friends were discussing the state of the town and school just the other day.” He drank the last of his Hellfire and dropped the glass on her desk with a clatter. “They seem concerned that if anything happens to the students, the school might close down which would spell doom for the rest of the town.”
“Given the incident around Halloween last semester, that is understandable.” Martina nodded an agreement. “Was she more specific about her concerns.”
“Not as such. I was more surprised that people actually care about this horrible little town.”
“Some people simply have no place else to go and no money to go there.” She sighed, mulling over her thoughts. She decided to speak few of them aloud. “We’ll drop some more fliers and post more notices. The text should warn against being around the nuns as much as possible without directly stating that they’re the problem.”
Martina received a mere nod in return.
“Try to press more opinions out of your,” she paused, gritting her teeth, “date if you aren’t too busy.”
“Speaking of,” he said as he dropped his feet to the floor, “I wouldn’t want to be late. Good luck with your schemes, Martina.” He turned and strode towards her office door.
“Zagan,” Martina called out. Rex stopped in his tracks. “We don’t need more bodies piling up.”
His face split into a white-toothed grin. Without a proper response, he left her office behind. The door shut with a soft hiss on his way out.
Martina waited. She counted down the steps until he left the reception area. The moment she heard the outer door shut, Martina reached up and pressed a button on her desk phone.
Her finger tapped against the desk while she waited. Just long enough passed for Martina to feel a tinge of annoyance before the screen came to life. Martina grit her teeth as she stared at the cocky figure on the screen.
Wearing her hair short and sky-blue today, the secretary didn’t even look up into the camera. Her eyes were focused on her long fingernails as she groomed them. The fur shirt she wore left little to the imagination with only a thin strip of cloth keeping the rest of her clothes attached as it ran from one breast to the other after looping around her neck.
Insane. Every single person I know is an absolute lunatic. Martina felt her eye twitch as she watched her secretary. The girl was lucky she managed to be competent.
“Catherine,” she barked.
The secretary didn’t even look up as she moved to the next nail. Her only acknowledgment was a slight humming noise.
Unless she was simply humming a tune.
“We’re running more fliers. Get the template ready by tomorrow afternoon. I’ll have content.”
“More slander against the nuns, Martina?” Catherine still did not look up. She reached into her desk and pulled out some silver tool Martina couldn’t recognize if her life depended on it. The secretary slowly ran it over the edges of her long fingernails.
“It isn’t slander if it is true.”
“You don’t need to justify yourself to me,” she said in a sickly sweet voice as she switched hands. “I don’t care one way or the other.”
“Just get it done.” Martina cut off the phone before her secretary could say another word. Nothing good could come from prolonged exposure to the woman.
With a sigh, Martina settled further in her chair. The headrest cradled her as she shut her eyes. There was not much to actually do. Even with the extra help she’d acquired, everything required time to fully ferment.
Rumors spread like wildfire–a fact Martina was counting on. Forcing a direct conflict between the school and the Elysium Order would only end up with her being the villain. Yet there were few things that could accelerate the spread of the wildfire. Her latest, albeit unknowing assistant provided the only real fuel to the flames that could be added.
Everything else relied on time and patience.
Martina Turner had never been one for virtues.
Extra 004
Author’s Note: This was supposed to be a quick thing. It got away from me. Rather than cut it down, I decided to post the entire thing. Make sure you have time for reading a full length chapter.
Nel’s body shook as a chilly breeze swept through the throne room. Her back pressed up against the marble throne. Nel tried to shrink her body in on itself without looking like she was.
A tight metal collar around her neck and a few leather straps around the rest of her body was not enough to keep her warm.
If she had her focus, the problem could easily be rectified. A simple warming spell was no issue for a mage of her talents. Warming spells shouldn’t be an issue for any thaumaturge that was not a water mage. The only real trick was not setting the temperature too high.
Thoughts of heat only made the next breeze feel colder. A shiver wracked up and down her spine. Her nose snuffled as she breathed out with a shudder.
It had been at least three days since she last cried. Maybe four. It was difficult to tell. She only had her meals and sleep cycle to tell the time. Those seemed to be further apart than normal meals might be, though not fasting breakfast was nice.
For almost two days after she started living inside Ylva’s domain, Nel felt certain she was going to starve to death. Eva stopped by with a handful of supplies and almost offhandedly mentioned that mortals required food and adequate rest among other things. After that, Ylva led Nel by the collar into one of the throne room’s antechambers.
A feast lay out on a table the size of a house. Every square inch had food piled on. Meats, cheese, wines, breads, and plenty Nel couldn’t identify. The smell upon entering the room overwhelmed Nel to the point where drool flowed freely down her chin.
She didn’t care in the least.
When Ylva finally released her collar, Nel all but dove into the table. She tried her hardest to sample one of everything. There was simply too much. Plenty of the food was sure to be against several Elysium regulations, the wine least of all.
Whatever rules the Elysium Order had just didn’t apply any longer. While the order didn’t fight demons, wasn’t meant to fight demons, and never sought demons out, any sister would still have been thrown out of the order for consorting with the creatures. An augur would be executed without hesitation or trial.