Skulduggery – Crow
Anton – Bear
Ghastly – Panda
Dexter – Wolf
Saracen – Weasel
Erskine – Snake
Solomon – Raven
Chapter 55
It must have taken six hours before anyone heard from Guild or Kenspeckle again – everyone had been ordered to leave along with the residents who had been ordered to evacuate. In the end, there had been no problem and a tired Kenspeckle had reported the bomb not only deactivated but completely broken down and ready for destruction just like the other one had been. He had also reported great annoyance at Guild.
"That man is more concerned with looking powerful than doing any work," he had complained directly to the Grand Mage and Elder Crow who had sat down with Crow, Valkyrie, Guild's wife Emery Meek and their daughter whom Mrs Meek did not give a name for since she was only eleven or so. "I suggest you find someone that is prepared to replace him at a moment's notice Grand Mage, because I know the moment something better comes up he will leave this country and take it. Even if it puts the rest of us in danger."
Meritorious didn't acknowledge the insults – likely due to Mrs Meek's company. "Thank you, Doctor Grouse. You have been a massive help and done us all an honour in assisting us. We will be in touch to destroy the Engine pieces."
Kenspeckle hung up without further comment and Meritorious gave the group a smile. "Well, I hope we will be seeing Elder Guild in the next half an hour. Administrator, perhaps you could show Mrs Meek and this young lady our staff room and get them some refreshments?" They left and soon it was just the Grand Mage, Elder Crow, skeleton Crow and Valkyrie sitting in the office. Meritorious immediately began scowling. "If I have to deal with one more problem because of that man, I'm going to kill him myself."
Valkyrie snorted. "I don't know why you haven't fired him yet at all. He's a nuisance, hypocritical, hires maniacs and we all believe he has a corrupted history. Why not just get him to resign?"
Meritorious shook his head. "It is not that easy. We always have prepared replacement Elders, and a replacement Grand Mage in the instance all three current Elders are killed at once, but three years ago when Serpine bombed the Sanctuary, those replacements were killed. We have yet to find replacements and we don't need the instability of an Elder resigning at this moment. There have been a lot of major attacks, as well as this being the new Sanctuary building for a mere six months. For all his idiocy and backchat, he is competent at what he does."
"So long as he isn't trying to get the Dead Men fired."
"So long as he isn't trying to get the Dead Men fired, yes," he said with a wry smile.
She frowned suddenly. "What about Mr Bliss?"
Elder Crow spoke up then. "I voted against Bliss being named an Elder as I believe he is interested in his own future and benefits more so than that of the country."
Meritorious nodded. "And he was involved in the plan to bomb the Sanctuary, even if his reasons were… tolerable. Regardless, Elder Crow voted against his involvement and as a vote implies, he is no longer an option."
Valkyrie let out a little breath of a relief. She didn't like him or trusted him. China was easier. At least she was somewhat open about her betrayals and unwillingness to become close to people. She liked that.
"Miss Cain," Elder Crow said after a short pause in the conversation. "I hear you have begun to learn the Art of Necromancy. How are you finding it?"
Valkyrie looked down at her ring briefly, considering it. "I like it. It's a lot of easy power and I don't have any problems with strength like I do with other magic. Solomon says I could go far with it if I decided to go forward with the magic after my Surge."
"And what are your thoughts on your Surge at the moment?" Elder Crow asked.
"I don't know. I like Elemental magic, but I also quite like Adept magic though I haven't looked into too many of the branches I suppose. Nadia, my girlfriend, can probably recite every type there's ever been," she smiled. "At least I have a few more years to think."
"As well as a few more years to learn. You are stuck with your choice for life so you must be certain," Elder Crow said. "If you would like some further guidance on Necromancy magic, I have many books you may borrow."
"Thank you," Valkyrie said, feeling a sinking feeling. Crow would definitely ask for them and force her to study every detail. He might not be able to tell her not to explore magic but he sure as hell could make her study until she gave it up for something more fun. "It's a generous offer."
Elder Crow nodded regally and they sat until the Administrator came to tell them Elder Guild's transportation was approaching with the man himself.
They all went to the beautiful entrance hall with its gorgeous staircase and floors and walls and waited for him. Valkyrie ended up standing next to Guild's daughter and they looked at each other accidentally and Valkyrie gave her a smile. The younger girl stared at her uncertainly but then the edge of her mouth turned up into a smile.
"How are you doing?" Valkyrie asked her.
The girl lost her smile and looked down, obviously shy. Valkyrie hesitated and then reached out slightly and put her hand on the girl's shoulder comfortingly. She looked up and quietly said, "Fine."
Valkyrie hummed and noticed the mother not paying attention at all her shy daughter. "You sure? I'm sure it must have been pretty scary. I've met those people before, they weren't very nice."
The girl bit her lip and nodded. "They really hurt my arm."
"Where did they hurt you?"
The girl indicated her upper arm. "It was the big man. Not the one that didn't speak. He kept telling the others what to do, and said some horrible things."
"I'm really sorry," Valkyrie said.
"Why? You didn't do anything. You saved me, with the – the skeleton man," the girl said, wringing her hands. "Father always said that he was horrible, but he saved me and he drove us to the Sanctuary with you and he carried me in when I was crying. He was really nice."
"Skulduggery's pretty good," she said. "But don't tell him that or his ego will get bigger."
"What's an ego?"
"It means he's full of himself."
Guild and his entourage of Cleavers entered in a swirl of anger and big gestures at that moment, making the two girls look away from each other and at the idiot. "If that Doctor thinks he can talk about this administration the way he has today he is sorely mistaken!"
Valkyrie sighed internally and Guild's kid held her hand. Valkyrie held hers back and squeezed comfortingly. Guild was pretty angry, she wasn't feeling exactly comfortable herself but she had to hide it as an employee and Co-head of the Sanctuary.
"Elder Guild," Meritorious said dryly. "It is good to have you back. How about–"
"Don't even begin that with me, Eachan! His conduct was unprofessional and he was constantly miserable. I know he is a genius but he is surely at the end of his career with the attitude he has," Guild shouted at Meritorious. "I don't ever want to see him again."
"Then do not become captured again," Meritorious said, glaring at the man. "You yourself acted unprofessionally and abusively during this whole debacle, and instead of trying to make it better, you immediately throw the blame on other people. This needs to stop or your position in this Sanctuary will be thrown into question."
Guild went from white with anger to almost purple with embarrassment then, all because others pretending to get on with their jobs snickered behind their hands at the annoying man.
"Eachan," Guild snapped quietly, pressing closer to the man. "That is a serious topic not for Sanctuary employees."
"I know," Meritorious said levelly, looking down at the man. "I suggest you speak with your family. They were quite distraught, considering they were captured and told they were going to be murdered by you."
Guild looked over to his wife and she immediately threw herself at him in a ball of tears. He held her surprisingly gently and held out a hand. His daughter left Valkyrie for her father and the three held each other.
.*****.
"Well, that was more eventful than I thought it would be," Valkyrie said, yawning and sitting on the sofa at home. They had collected Wolf and Fletcher from the medical wing on the way out and all the Dead Men, Tanith and the annoying boy were sitting around. "I sort of hoped Guild would be fired as soon as he walked in though."
Tanith laughed softly and took a sip of her tea. "I don't think he'll be around forever."
"He won't," Crow agreed. "I'm pretty sure we could find enough evidence to have him removed."
Valkyrie nodded. "I hope so. But can we do that tomorrow? I'm really tired."
Tanith grinned. "We have training in eight hours."
Valkyrie groaned. "Nooo! You can't do that. Make it at least twelve hours. It's torture otherwise!"
"I'm such a horrible person," Tanith said happily, drinking another sip and glancing at Panda who had come into the room in just his lounge trousers like he was – well, like a piece of food. It was surprisingly difficult to think of her sister looking at her brother like something to eat, it just wasn't okay in her head. They were sweet, lovable people that must not do that. In front of her.
That didn't stop her watching the exchanging of looks. Panda blushed awfully. She and Wolf caught eyes and very nearly started laughing.
"Come on!" Valkyrie said, standing up and taking Tanith's hand. "You're coming with me." Tanith was quite agreeable and they ran up the stairs, tea and all, to Valkyrie's bedroom and jumped on the bed and looked at each other. "Tell me everything then!"
Tanith grinned. "There's not much to say."
Valkyrie gave her a look.
"Honest! I mean, we kissed but nothing other than that."
Valkyrie squealed and almost bounced where she was sitting. "Tell me everything!"
The older woman laughed and nodded. "Alright, so we were in the kitchen this morning when all you other lazy butts were sleeping."
"From a fifteen-hour mission, yes."
"Yes. And I had a smoothie, and Ghastly asked for one, and I made it for him, and he got really close, and I gave it to him, and he didn't do anything. I was going to just wait and see what he'd do but he started going red, so I asked if he wanted to spar with me and he said yes. So that's what we did. We went to the sparing mats."
"Yes…"
"And we spared."
"And then…"
"We ended up grappling on the floor, and I kissed him."
"Eeee! Then what?"
"Well, we kissed. And kissed. And some more. And some things happened and now we're both banned for that gym eternally."
Valkyrie started laughing and almost fell over the bed when she looked at Tanith. "Seriously?!"
"Yep. We didn't do anything other than kiss. But I suppose we might have tried to do more and we were caught. I felt like a little kid, I'm not even sorry. It was so funny."
"What did Panda do?"
"The gym guy came in and tried to stop us and I'm pretty sure Ghastly either didn't care or didn't hear him at all. He was all for just continuing right there."
"Oh my god," Valkyrie grinned.
"So the guy came right over to us but I started laughing and he looked up and just glared at this guy. It was just so funny, watching them glare and I was just lying there, laughing. I mean, we were mostly clothed so it wasn't too bad."
"Can you imagine if he'd had walked in five minutes later," Valkyrie said, covering her eyes as she accidentally gave herself unwanted pictures.
Tanith snored. "Yeah, I kind of did that before a few times."
"What?"
"I was kind of a hippy at the time and I was apart of this 'no tops for women' movement thing, and we didn't wear any tops or bras and went around like that. But then I met someone and I was completely naked and there might have been a little bit of breathing in other people smoke and I just sort of started walking around butt ass naked after we, you know, and yeah. I was caught by a lot of people I know. They still joke about it."
"Oh my god," Valkyrie said, not sure if she should laugh or not. "Please don't do that here."
Tanith laughed again and pushed Valkyrie off the bed.
They're together, oh my god that took so long! And I can imagine Tanith doing that, it sounds like a hippy Tanith thing. Ahh I'm so excited, you're going to love the plans I have for those two ;) I know zero people will guess it, but you are free to PM me and try! I love reviews and messages anyway, so go ahead :)
