“I mean, I’m not sure if I should congratulate you. You’re into tits? Those are the biggest damn tits I’ve seen. I mean, she’s a giant, practically-”
“Stop,” Paige said, putting a hand to her face.
Ellie was cackling.
“And if you’re into pussy, well-“
“Meow,” Roxanne added.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Peter said.
“I can’t lie anymore,” Paige said. “So believe me when I say I loathe you, Peter.”
“Eh,” Peter said. He shrugged. “I love you too.”
Haggard, worn, having been to the Abyss and back in several cases, many of the Thorburns were now acting so casual.
The benefit of being survivors, maybe. Screwed up, but survivors.
Rose heard a clearing of a throat, and turned to see Mags at the front, just before the altar.
“As ambassador, I’ll be leading us through this meeting,” Mags said.
Now we just have to survive what comes next, Rose thought.
16.03
“I’ll be honest,” Mags said, “I’m not the sort of ambassador or whatever that’s going to be super formal or do everything right. Let me get out in front of everything and make it clear that I mean no offense, and, really honestly, what’s going on outside looks like the sort of thing that makes us want to get past the talking and get to doing.”
Rose couldn’t help but notice that there were a few nodding heads from among the Junior Council. Mags might not have been the type to manage a diplomatic arrangement with a Faerie noble, but she could speak to the younger, more human demographic.
“Do we need to do any introductions?” Mags asked. “Gut feeling, personal preference, there’s a few new faces. Do we need to know who is present and what they’re capable of?”
“I think that would be a good idea,” Sandra said. “I know and have met virtually everyone in this room, barring a few sitting at the edges or back of the room, but teamwork will be important, moving forward.”
“Uh, right. Good. That’s Sandra Duchamp, for those who don’t know. She was leader of the Duchamp family, before she recused herself. Most of you know her, as she said. The rest of you Duchamps, please stand?”
The gathered Duchamps, in two or three separate groups split up over four rows, rose from their seats.
“Enchantresses. In their number, they have a scattered assortment of practitioners of a bunch of different types…”
“Not nearly as many as we had, before incidents earlier in the night,” Sandra said.
She glanced at Rose, and Rose felt Blake stir.
Rose maintained her composure. Chin up, eyes turned forward.
“Behaims,” Mags said, pausing while they rose and turned to face other members of the church. Rose looked up at Alister as he stood. Mags added, “Chronomancers, led by Alister.”
Alister raised a hand, remaining standing for a moment as others returned to their seats.
“Two of three major powers,” Mags said. “Johannes isn’t here, and according to Sandra, that’s because he’s dead?”
“Worse than dead,” Alister said. “He’s possessed. The most powerful practitioner in Jacob’s Bell, along with his gatekeeper familiar, is now under the control of a demon.”
“Okay,” Mags said. “That’s bad.”
She seemed momentarily at a loss for words.
“Uh,” she said, floundering a bit. “We’ll get back to that in a second. Other players. Briar Girl, off to the side there. Local hermit and nature mage. We have the local assortment of monsters, both native and visiting, toward the back right corner there…”
“Eat spunk!” one goblin shouted, as heads turned its way. A larger goblin reached between its legs and hauled it off the back of a pew.
“The two witch hunters who keep them in line and serve the council are Andy and Eva,” Mags said, gesturing to the pair, who were sitting in their customary positions, at the far left of the stage.
“Absent are Crone Mara, recently removed from power, and our local Faerie-in-exile, plural, who seem to want to keep their heads down. Unfortunately. Moving on to Toronto…” Mags said.
Skipping me? Rose wondered.
Was it because she wasn’t considered an ally, but an extension of the problem?
“I’m afraid I don’t know you. If you could introduce yourselves, that would help,” Mags said.
“I believe we’ve met,” the Elder Sister said.
Mags shook her head.
Having been skipped in the order of things, Rose was reluctant to jump into the conversation. It might have been easier to do if she could draw more on Conquest, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to lean on that connection so soon after Fell had eroded part of that connection. Where drawing on Conquest before might have been as easy as drawing in a breath, it didn’t feel quite so natural now.
She didn’t want to test that and be wrong. Not when it might affect her, or it might affect Conquest. Too many people in attendance had relationships of some sort to Conquest, and might react badly to a sudden broadcast of Conquest’s presence.