POST NOCTE

DEREK

“We ran into Laura earlier today,” Simon said. “And that little blond Asian girl. Li?”

“Ling,” Derek corrected. He settled into the couch at the cafe a little gingerly. He was still pretty badly injured. His wounds had stopped bleeding, but Laura would still kill him if she found out he was running around this soon. He was supposed to be in bed. “Ling Yu. She's Chinese, and in AU on a scholarship.” He grimaced, both from his wounds and from trying to remember. “...soccer? Yeah, soccer.” When she got cornered, she fought like a soccer player. Lots of kicking.

Simon pulled up a chair and sat down next to Derek. “Well, she seemed nice enough. Only saw her for a second, though.”

Derek chuckled. “Next time you see her, be prepared for a discussion about anime. She's majoring in animation.”

“Fair enough. I know that ever since I chose my major, I've started spewing toy maker technobabble given half the chance.”

Derek brightened. “Oh, you decided on that after all? You had it narrowed down to that and... something else. Something political, right?”

“Culture studies. But my Power offered me a scholarship, if I majored in the toy maker.” Simon shrugged. “Made it easy.”

Derek leaned back, smiling. “I imagine it did. You know Akane and I almost chose ours at random? Thankfully, they started offering Monster Study this year.”

“They didn't have that before?”

“Not as a major. Just one or two classes.”

Simon shook his head. “I don't know why your mom wanted you to go, anyway. You guys are making great money already.”

“She never got to go to college, so she's insistent I take the opportunity.” Derek indicated his injuries. “Besides, monster slaying is dangerous, and if I'm incapacitated, suddenly I'm not making any money.”

“Yeah, I understand, it's just...” Simon shrugged again. “Our matron was never quite so insistent.”

A waitress sidled up. “Can I get you boys anything?”

“Croak,” Simon said, naming a soda.

“Water for me,” Derek added. “In a plastic cup, if possible. I'm afraid I might drop it.”

The girl nodded and sashayed off.

“That reminds me, Derek...” Simon said. “How exactly did you get those injuries, anyway? I don't think you mentioned.”

“I didn't?” Derek thought he had. Oh well. His head still wasn't working quite right. “Got in a fight with some Nosferatu.” He grinned a little weakly. “You should see the other guy.”

Simon blinked. “Wait, you mean last night? With the bats?”

Derek shrugged awkwardly and tried to answer without actually lying. “That area.”

Simon rubbed his hair back, wincing as he nearly sliced his hand open on his horns. “Nine hells. I heard that was a bad one. They brought down a skyscraper, right?”

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“That was the Paladins. Containing everything.” Derek hadn't been conscious for that part, obviously, but the girls—mostly Laura—had filled in the blanks.

Simon nodded. “Should have known. True Necessarian style. Destroy a few things so you don't have to destroy everything.”

“That's a little harsh.”

“Harsh? That was a compliment. Without them, everything would have gone to hell years ago, even discounting the cultures.”

Derek rubbed his face with his hand, embarrassed. “Sorry for snapping. I lost another friend last night.” He paused, then realized there was no harm in telling Simon the truth. “She got turned, actually.”

“Oh, shit, I'm sorry. A friend of mine got turned into a burner—do you remember Paul? But yeah, I know how that is. You know Doctor Clarke a little, right? They any closer to a cure?”

Derek frowned. How did Simon know—oh right, he knew Derek was friends with Clarke's daughter. “Not that I know of. I'm pretty sure they haven't even figured out what's causing it. It's not viral or anything like that.”

“You just hear the song and turn into a bat?” Simon shook his head. “Seriously, the world is getting weirder by the day.”

“This from the man who is purple.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

The waitress came back with their drinks. As Derek had requested, she delivered his in a soft-shelled water bottle. He nodded in thanks. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a maintenance man walking in, setting up a ladder in the corner to service the speaker there.

As the waitress walked away, Derek turned his attention back to Simon. “They might be getting closer, though. Last night, Necessarius caught about five hundred bats. Plus the hundred burners and ten or so biters, that's a nice, big sample pool.”

“Five hundred? Hells... how many dead?”

Derek thought about the question for a second. “Not a lot. Fifty, I think. No, less than that. Two dozen or so.”

Simon set his soda down in surprise. “Seriously? The blogs have been making it sound worse.”

“Well, the turned ones are effectively dead, so yeah, it's pretty bad.”

“Oh, I know, I know, just...” He shrugged. “A couple hundred people died at the Battle of Shendilavri. Almost a thousand at Hathsin. That's what you think when someone says there's been a major battle. Fifty sounds more like what happened at Androlynne, or Minauros.”

Derek frowned. “There was a fight at Minauros? When did that happen?”

“No, that was my point.”

“What, that no one cares about Mammon enough to pick a fight with him?”

Simon looked at him sideways. “Derek, Mammon's been missing for almost a year. Doresain stole Minauros from the Mammonites a few months ago.”

Derek snorted some water up his nose on accident, recovered. “You're kidding.”

“Wish I was. The ghouls have gotten bolder because of it.” Doresain Gravetouched was king of the ghouls, though of course not all of them followed him. Still, generally the violent ones were willing to pay attention to him, if nothing more.

“Huh.” That explained why bounties on ghouls had gone up the last few months. Derek hadn't thought much of it. But then he grinned. “You gotta admit, it's funny. The Thieves' Guild got its fortress stolen?”

Simon rolled his eyes. “Yes, everyone has already heard all the jokes. You really need to pay more attention to politics. Anyway, my point is that the screamers don't really seem like a threat if we go by their actual kills.”

Derek took another sip of his water, contemplating. “Laura thinks the Composer has some master plan that makes this all make sense. Maybe one that doesn't involve actually destroying the city.”

“What's she basing that on?”

“Mostly? On the fact that the city is still here.”

Simon winced. “It's really that bad?”

Derek wiggled his hand back and forth. “It's... not good, by any means, but it could be much, much worse. Everything's just so confusing.”

Simon leaned back in his chair. “And here I was hoping it was all fear-mongering and paranoia...” He frowned. “Where are you getting your info, anyway? You sure it's legitimate?”

“Oh yes,” Derek assured him. “This is confirmed from high up in Necessarius. I'm absolutely certain it's legitimate.”