Chapter 27 - The Room Where it Happens
The car pulled up to the Schnee Estate, stopping right at the front entrance. A servant dressed in a fitted tuxedo opened the doors to let out the three guests, all dressed in their finest. Almost instinctively, two guests fell a step back from their superior, standing on her right and left side. There was no way to mistake who was in charge of the trio. Her raven black hair and gold eyes were noticeable wherever she went. As was the soft, seductive smile perpetually etched onto her lips. Cinder Fall was a woman who knew what she wanted and would do whatever was necessary to get exactly that.
"Welcome to the Schnee Estate, Miss Fall," said the servant, bowing his head to the woman, while leading her and her retinue into the mansion. "Please, come this way. His lord and ladyship are taking tea in the second library."
Cinder nodded her understanding and proceeded forward.
"Oh, the second library. Of course," came Mercury's snivelling comment, only to receive a smack on the back of the head by Emerald.
"Shut up."
"Don't want to upset your crush, that right Em?" Mercury finally silenced himself following another smack to the head and a side-eyed glare from their boss.
Mercury huffed and rubbed his neck, glaring at his green haired associate, who chose to not look at him for the entire rest of the walk. The servant finally stopped outside a pair of large wooden doors with fancy bronzed handles. He carefully knocked twice and waited patiently for a response from inside, to signal his entry.
"Here you are, Miss Fall. I shall return in a few minutes with tea and coffee for you and your companions."
He bowed his head once more and turned to leave.
Cinder looked at her underlings harshly. "You don't speak unless spoken to. And don't incessantly flirt with one another during this meeting. I can kill you. But the Schnees can ruin you. Is that understood?"
"Yes ma'am."
"I do not flirt with that cretin!"
Another glare quieted the two of them. With one last sigh of disappointment, the double doors opened, and the group proceeded inside.
The room itself was quite large, though narrow, with a single floor to ceiling window which made up much of the furthest wall. A large bookcase stood on either side of the room, filled with books and other trinkets that looked to be quite valuable. The center of the room held five leather chairs, all with their own dark oak coffee table and facing each other surrounding a lower table covered with a white silk tablecloth. A ceramic tear kettle was placed squarely in the middle of the table, along with a tray of a few sweets, all untouched.
Of the five seats, two were filled. Jacques Schnee sat directly facing the door, so that his was the first seat anyone saw upon entry. He sat with his hands gripping the armrests and back against the back pillows. His expression was both calm, yet deadly serious, making for quite an imposing figure.
His wife sat on his left, in her own chair. While he looked straight ahead at the group, Willow Schnee sat upright, one leg over the other, sipping delicately on her small teacup, filled with the steaming liquid. As the three of them entered the room, she peered at them and gave a pleasant, small smile.
None of them were fooled. They all knew that of the two, Willow was the one to be more wary of.
"Welcome, guests. Please, take a seat and make yourselves comfortable. Another pot of tea and cups for you all will be out momentarily." Willows words were comforting and sweet.
"Thank you for allowing us into your home, Mister and Missus Schnee." Cinder spoke as alluring as ever.
Cinder settled in so that Mercury and Emerald could sit on either side of her. Mirroring a combination of the two Schnees, she sat back in the chair, resting her hands on the arm rests and back to the pillows, crossing her legs for maximum relaxed comfort. To Mercury, she still looked to be in control.
"As we discussed earlier, I know that you have something that may… intrigue us?" Jacques Schnee said, his eyes not leaving Cinder's own.
Cinder nodded, "that I do. But, I was interested in your reasoning behind your little competition."
Jacques grumbled. "It was no competition of mine. It was all my foolish daughter's."
"A smart move for sure. I am somewhat proud of her finally taking some initiative in her own life," Wilow remarked, "even if it was entirely in vain."
"That girl will be married to Winchester's brat even if I have to force her at gunpoint. She will not ruin this merger for me."
"Hush darling," Willow tutted, reaching over to place a delicate hand on her husband's forearm. "I would hate to think what Cinder thinks of us if we were to force our daughter to do anything by way of weapon."
"I heard that Cardin was a famed and talented weaponsmith. A sure win for any competition involving the smithing practice," Cinder decided to comment. Her unasked question made Jacques scowl and hands clench into fists.
Mercury silently chuckled, receiving a stern glare from Emerald, who no doubt wished she were closer to kick him.
"Mister Winchester may have… overestimated his son's talents." Willow said, repositioning her legs, one over the other. "It was decided earlier on that his weapon proposal for the competition was slightly… underwhelming."
"Don't mince words, woman," Jacques growled. "The boy might as well only be in Atlas Academy for weapon smithing because his father gave a generous donation to the school. There is a reason we hired some-"
"What my dearest husband is trying to say, is that we are quite upset to have been lied to. And that our dear Weiss chose a weapon made from someone else. By now she will be realizing that her situation is futile in finding her victor. Unless she happens to possess a way to find her. Her address and details weren't even in our ticket sales records, so we've had not means of contacting her and offering to buy her silence."
"Damn that Rose…" Jacques snarled.
"Rose you say?" Cinder smiled delicately, relaxing herself further into her seat. "Would this weapon of hers be a… Emerald darling, what was the description again?"
"A rapier-revolver hybrid weapon, ma'am." Emerald perked up at having been called on by her boss. Mercury had to stifle more chuckles.
"Precisely. It seems as though our interests are momentarily aligned," Cinder continued with a small nod of gratitude directed towards Emerald, who managed to hide a blush.
"Indeed," Willow nodded.
"Get rid of the Rose girl," Jacques ordered.
"If I could have solved my own issue by killing her, I would have already done just that. But you have something I need. And I happen to have some information that may be of use to you. Something which will be a fair trade for what I need done."
"Information is power after all," Willow Schnee said with a chuckle.
There was a knock on the door, followed by a procession of servants carrying trays of tea and plates of cut fruit. As one, the servants surrounded the group and placed the trays on the central coffee table, which mercury immediately made a grab for, popping a grape into his mouth. Less than a minute later, the doors closed, and silence returned to the second library.
The conversation stalled as Cinder poured herself a cup of tea, taking a small sip to ensure it was to her liking, and placing it on the table next to her.
"Delightful."
"Yes, it truly is. And it seems like we have much to discuss. It may be best if we keep this conversation just to those it necessitates."
"Perhaps you are correct. Emerald, Mercury, feel free to tour the estate. Be on your best behaviours."
"But-"
"Best behaviours, Emerald. Keep Mercury in line."
Emerald's head dropped, "yes, ma'am."
The doors closed on Mercury and Emerald, the last thing they heard being from Cinder's lips, "there happens to be a particularly troublesome contract…"
"You think they have a liquor storage we can ransack?" Mercury asked.
Emerald could only respond with a sigh and a smack to his head. "You are a pain. Truly."
"Thanks. I try."
Without another word, Mercury shoved his hands in his pockets and chose a direction to start walking in. He whistled loudly, drowning out the criticism and orders Emerald was giving him. Why would he care what she was saying? It's not like she was above him in station or anything. She was just another grunt, like him. The only difference between the two of them, was that he was sane enough to not try and get into their boss's pants.
After making a few more turns at random, he arrived into a central open-air plaza. It was nice, so he left the controlled temperature of the mansion and ventured into the great outdoors. From the looks of things, this was the place that the weapons smithing contest had been held. While all the tables and massive pieces of machinery had been removed, there were still noticeable imprints in the grass from where the ground had bare all the weight. The area itself still looked to be needing a bit of cleaning, with pieces of scrap metal and excess handheld tools strewn around the area.
As he walked, he managed to kick something small which made a gentle metallic ringing sound. "Hmm," he muttered, kneeling down and picking up a small piece of metal. It was small, with a hooked end and a few bends to it. All in all, it was probably shorter than a finger. As he flicked it, it reverberated and made a pleasant sound.
"Huh, neat."
With a shrug, he placed it into his pocket.
Okay, truthfully, half the reason for this chapter is because I was watching Hamilton the Musical animatics and I wanted a chapter titled after my favourite song of the show. And to get a villains chapter out of it? I'm pretty please with myself, I'm not going to lie.
Read and stayed - Ruby is too innocent to know how smooth she is. (or does she?)
darknight2124 - I love it too. Best part of any fic (to me) is when characters get to show their... well, character.
Aidis - Thanks! And don't you hate it when they are so close to the answer, yet so far?
chinaluv - Thank you!
KillamriX88 - Blake smirked a few times. Her smirking is very important to the story! :P
iamking - Thanks!
Also, a brand new cover! Thanks to me having no photoshop abilities, it follows a similar aesthetic to my Reaper in Red one. Turned out pretty nice. Also, ma symbolizm!