This story now has 600 followers! Time to toot my own horn! Toooooooooot toooooot. But seriously, thank you guys. I live for positive feedback.
Hey, remember when I said I was going to slow down updates to only once a week? That is going to happen starting this week.
I also just got some new responsibilities at my place of employment. This is a good thing, because it will bring me more money, always useful, but it will also take up more of my time and energy. As of right now, I don't know how this will effect my writing. Don't be surprised if I announce a hiatus without warning.
MrsFrizzle: There is an explanation for that! It does not appear in this chapter, but fear not, it will appear eventually. Once I figure out the best way to write it. Unless I forget. (sorry)
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Chapter 127:
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Oleander looked up at the imposing edifice of Long Now and swallowed. Her eyes darted sideways to the woman who had dragged her here. She swallowed again.
She was young for a ghost, newly Dead, still learning the laws of the Zone. Until a couple of weeks ago, she hadn't entirely believed that the Ancients even existed. Then this thing with Phantom (whom she did believe in, on account of spotting him during the scare with Pariah Dark) had blown up, and then she'd been drafted as an intern for a large firm (yay!) with lots of paperwork (less yay).
It was a good first step for someone who had died before they'd passed the bar. She had eternity to figure out the intricacies (and blunt simplicities) of ghost law. Or so she had thought.
But Lady Nephthys, Lady Death herself, had other plans.
As of this morning, Oleander had been one of the very few advocates registered with Libra (a very rough equivalent of passing the bar) who hadn't already been retained in the matter of the Fentons' trial. Oleander hadn't thought that she would be retained for this trial at all. She had no reputation to speak of, no great cases to her name. She had managed to serve as a kind of go-between for a small handful of ghosts, and a little community, a town that had been wiped out by the black plague, had once asked her to arbitrate a dispute for them.
Now, though, it seemed that she was going to be representing one of the most powerful, most important ghosts in the Infinite Realms. She was more than a little intimidated. Not to mention confused. She knew very well that Lord Clockwork had been at the initial committee meetings thus far, and that he clearly hadn't intended to need an advocate, otherwise he would have found a better one than Oleander.
… That raised another set of worries, considering what Lord Clockwork's powers were supposed to be.
She jumped as the doors swung open.
"Go on in," said Lady Nephthys.
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The Unstoppable Mailman avoided the unseasonable mobs of angry ghosts with his customary adroitness, his faithful, reliable steed carrying him a hairsbreadth from the attacks of the more combative of the swarm. The horse cantered to a stop on the island that 'supported' the long, bent structure of the Diverging Tower. The Mailman swung off its back, shouldered his bag, and gave the animal a slap on the side. The horse took off, and the Mailman flew to the door.
He had tracked his quarry, one Daniel Janus James Fenton-Phantom, to the Tower, but he couldn't tell which floor the boy had entered on, much less which floor he was currently on. The large numbers of ghosts, and the high activity, in the area had obscured and disturbed individual ectosignatures, and the nature of the Tower itself negated many of the other methods the Mailman used to locate recipients of his letters.
There was nothing for it. He would have to just have to go through the floors one by one and hope that Phantom didn't leave the Tower in the meantime.
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With extreme reluctance, Danny let Vlad carry him. There wasn't another choice that wasn't, well, ridiculous, short-term, or entirely unsafe. Even Vlad was partially unsafe. Considering the history between him and Danny, there had to be universes out there where Danny and Vlad were mortal (immortal?) enemies.
Although, Danny had to admit that none of those had shown up so far. Yes, on the cheese level, Vlad had been a drug lord (sort of) and Danny had thoroughly despised him, but they hadn't been at the point of actually wanting to murder each other. Vlad had still wanted Danny as his evil son/apprentice. That had been a common thread throughout, actually.
Danny was beginning to wonder if Vlad was actually Obsessed with having Danny as a son. He'd always thought that Vlad was just Obsessed with revenge and having a family, with Danny and his parents being targets of convenience. But if he wasn't... If Vlad was Obsessed with Danny himself... That was more than a little creepy, and it was definitely something to be cautious of in the future, but it meant that Vlad was unlikely to suddenly want to murder him. He couldn't have Danny as a son if Danny wasn't around anymore.
With that arranged, they started upstairs again. There were some communication difficulties, many of Danny's classmates had wound up speaking different languages (Danny had been lucky enough for the floor to settle him in the nineteen-seventies), but Danny's facility with languages was the only area in which he matched the genius of the rest of his family. Admittedly, he couldn't quite decipher what Paulina was speaking. He didn't know many American Indian languages. Even for those he was familiar with, he only knew a handful of words. It was much the same with preliterate European and Asian languages. There were just so many of them, and he couldn't exactly find a bunch of books on them in the library.
But where Danny's language skills failed, Ellie's mime capabilities succeeded. Paulina's obvious desire to get out of the Tower helped.
The floor plan of this level, however, wasn't as straightforward as some of the others they had passed. It wasn't horribly convoluted. It looked like someone had tried to lay out a house on the level, complete with a kitchen (that everyone gorged themselves in), not like the cheese floor, which had been designed to be maze-like. The problem was that they couldn't find the stairs. They weren't out in the open, and everyone was, reasonably, somewhat wary of doors at the moment.
It was interesting, being on this floor, like flipping through pages in a history book. Danny would probably enjoy it more if he weren't so hurt. He resolved to come back here sometime, preferably with Sam, Tucker, and Jazz, and a map of which floors were fun, and which floors were... Less so.
They found the stairs hidden in what they had initially taken for a cupboard. Vlad let other ghosts go up first, only beginning to ascend when they called down that it was safe.
"We're going to have to make a plan for when we get to the casino," said Danny as they went up.
"Oh?"
"Hm. Just 'cause the guy owes Ellie a boat doesn't mean he has one, or that he'll just hand it over, and the casino isn't under truce, is it?"
"Ugh. No," said Ellie. "You're right. It isn't."
"Wait, are you saying that all this running around is pointless?" asked Rebecca.
"Only if you're not a fan of keeping your head attached to your body, or did you forget about how many times we've been attacked in here?" shot back Ellie.
"So... Maybe... Ellie, you and Vlad go out, get the ship, then park it next to a door for the floor below, and then we pile out, then we run?" Danny thought about that for a moment. "No, that's a stupid idea. They'd attack you as soon as they'd attack me, and moving the boat like that is way too transparent... Uhm."
"Danielle, do you even know what kind of boat you are owed?"
"Uh. A big one. Big enough to fit all of us."
"Do you know how to pilot it?" Vlad continued.
"No. Look, when we came up with this plan, we didn't think that we were going to be chased down by this many nutcases. Maybe one or two, but this? No. And you didn't complain about it until now either."
"Don't you take that tone with me, young lady."
"Ancients, do you even hear yourself? You have to be half expecting me to to shout 'you're not my real dad' and storm off."
Danny suppressed a snicker.
"Excuse me?" said Vlad, angrily.
This was when they crossed the threshold to the next floor. Danny stiffened in alarm.
"Dad?" he said, hand wrapped tightly around the lapel of his father's suit, eyes fixed on the girl who looked so much like him. "Who is that?"
The girl scowled, green fire building in her hands. "That's what I should be asking you!"
