"I am, under no circumstances, accompanying you on a visit to a god."
"Go on, live a little. What's the worst that can happen?"
"Says the man without a Class!"
"Exactly. How is Gravalk going to make my life worse?"
"I think 'life’ is the operative word there, little man. And even if he doesn't evaporate you entirely, spending the rest of your existence with third-degree burns is probably going to be a touch sub-optimal.”
"Your concern for my wellbeing is touching,
“Fuck that! I'm responsible for keeping you in one piece until you come up with a theory of what happened to the High Priestess. At that stage, fuck your well-being. But until then, I’m going to do my best to keep you away from walking on any landmines. Like prodding a Fire Demon who is likely feeling a little touchy after his avatar was murdered in her own chamber. Besides, I like my Class just fine.”
“What? Do you mean to say that you’ve not been taking your own advice over Essence Transmutation Theory? You shock me to my very core. Imagine that? An extremely powerful Higher Classed not following some abstract theory of build development. Hypocritical much?"
The blow Latham struck Lowe splatted him – no metaphor here - against the wall. Roll with the Punches kicked in whilst the investigator was still flying through the air, taking advantage of the increased availability of mana, and quickly repaired the fractured skull and reversed the significant brain damage. Even then, Lowe was left with only 10% of his pool.
Latham strode forward to loom over the crumpled man. "Do not mistake my tolerance for friendship. I have been charged with keeping you alive until it is determined that your status is no longer desirable. Be under no illusions; I will follow any orders I am given regarding you. If I have offered you advice about your build, it is because I feel some pity for your situation. There but the grace of the gods and all that. You should not presume that gives you any right to discuss my own Progress Point choices. Do you understand?”
“Dude, I'm going to suggest that was a slight overreaction to some low-level banter. I was joking.” Lowe was a touch alarmed to hear significant slurring in his words. He pushed his remaining mana into Roll with the Punches. Sometimes, the passive nature of the Skill only concerned itself with immediate risk to life, and he needed to manually mop up any less critical damage. His understanding was that ranking it up to Epic would have smoothed that out a little, but since taking Latham's advice, it would be many more levels - or an insane amount of gold - until he had the resources to have that option again.
Lowe decided not to point out the irony. He couldn’t afford another slapping from a giant with absolutely no sense of humour.
Latham, for his part, simply glowered back at him. If he felt any remorse for the attempted murder, he was hiding the guilt very well. “It is not your place to question how I spend my Points.”
“Fuck me, Latham! Most people would consider a quiet ‘no comment’ sufficient to steer the conversation to calmer waters. Grievous bodily harm feels a touch forceful in the circumstances. How do you deal with arguments with your friends? Gladiatorial death matches?”
A mix of complicated emotions swan over Latham's face, and then he stuck out a hand to help Lowe get to his feet. "My apologies. I am not used to interacting with people who are so . . . vulnerable.”
"Mate, I think you can probably work on your approach to conflict resolution.” As he spoke, Lowe slipped back on his Ring of Regeneration and was about to switch his consumable bonus to help with his Mana Regen via a nice bit of Battenberg, but something stopped him.
He suddenly was not so keen on Latham, knowing everything about him nor what resources he had to call upon. Although, he didn't really want to be wandering around Soar with less than 50% of his Mana available.
The two men regarded each other for a moment. Lowe was damned if he was going to break the silence.
Finally, Latham cleared his throat and then threw the Inspector a flask of some sort of golden liquid.
Lowe caught it and quickly examined what he had been given. Only a tiny part of him expected it to explode. "A Potion of Restoration? Mate, I've had worse make-up gifts."
"I said I was sorry, little man. I will endeavour to control my temper in the future, but you should know that some topics should be considered taboo."
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"So, you can get all up in my business about where to put my Progress Points, but if I so much as touch on your own build choices, I get my arse kicked, with some expensive shiny coming my way to make amends? I'm not going to lie, mate, that feels a touch like we're in an abusive domestic relationship.”
The look Latham gave suggested that levels of abuse remained hitherto to be explored.
*
At the same time, as Lowe was peeling himself off the wall of the Third Floor, just a few feet above him, Mdamic was nearly dancing a jig.
"You know,” Khaled mused, “some people might consider it distasteful to celebrate the death of a peer quite so openly."
"Fuck those people. Bring them here right now, and I’ll even do it for you. The fire bitch is dead. What’s not to like? I'm even considering declaring today a Holy Moment of celebration."
"Far be it from me to offer advice to an avatar of your power and station, but you might want to dial down the glee ever so slightly. To my understanding, at this very moment, the Security Services are running their mucky little paws over what I believe in the vernacular is described as ‘the crime scene.’ I assume someone will be stopping by shortly to discuss your relationship with her.”
Mdamic's eyes flashed with barely restrained thunderbolts. "My relationship? Those ground apes better have more sense than to bother me with their mewlings. Yolgorth will not take kindly to his important business being disturbed by nonsense.”
Khaled’s eyes scanned over Mdamic's desk, noting the half-eaten breakfast, completed crossword and a pad full of doodles. It did not truly seem that the ‘important business’ of Yolgorth was truly taking everything this avatar had got. "I would caution you to reconsider that viewpoint. I'm told that the powers that be are actually taking Gianna's death more seriously than might have been expected.”
Mdamic dialed down his frustration a touch. "Where are you hearing that?"
"What Oh's adherents might lack in raw power, we tend to more than makeup with ‘ear to the ground’ attentiveness."
"Ha! I guess that's something snakes are good at, eh?"
Khaled laughed dutifully, but his smile did not quite reach his eyes. In truth, he was growing distinctly unimpressed with his role as a punching bag for an ex-Barbarian who got lucky in god-bingo.
Furthermore, he was baffled that someone who would obviously be very much in the crosshairs of the Security Service was acting in such a brainless way. Did he not realise that the whole reason why d’Avec was boosted so quickly to the Third Floor was that there was quite some dissatisfaction with the performance of Yolgorth's chosen? Those worries were not going to have gone away with her death. Indeed, from the whispers his subordinates had picked up, notice had been taken of the dramatic effectiveness of the more ... direct approach to removing obstacles.
When he replied, Khaled did his best to keep any sense of this out of his voice. "There are a number of pressures being brought to bear to ensure that the wrongdoers are brought to justice. I hear Arkola has become personally involved."
Mdamic glanced upwards instinctively. "Seriously? Arkola is taking an interest?"
“No one likes to think that those on the higher levels of the Celestial Temple are vulnerable to base butchery. You, more enlightened beings, are supposed to be above all that."
There was an awkward silence whilst Mdamic assimilated the subtext in his friend's words. “I assume you have come with some advice for me?"
Khaled smiled. "I always have thoughts for Yolgorth's chosen, should he be interested in commentary from a far less illustrious figure."
Mdamic surreptitiously activated Clear Sky Thinking, an often-overlooked Skill available to those who had Yolgorth as a patron. As soon as the calm rationality of the Skill washed over him, he saw precisely what Khaled was doing. Had he not been under the influence of the Skill, he would have been turning the sneaky sucker into a pile of ash quick smart. As it was, he could see there was probably merit in letting the relationship continue. So his ‘friend' thought he was that easy to manipulate, did he? Well, two could play at that game.
Mdamic smiled. "And I am always happy to hear your commentary. However, it would be good to understand the price before sampling the product."
"Oh, nothing very much. Oh is happy to have a favour to call on in the future. One she promises will not inconvenience the Great Yolgorth."
“An unspecified favour?”
"One without strings, I assure you."
Mdamic reached over the table and grasped Khalid's hand, pulsing an unnecessary level of lightning into the man opposite to seal the deal. "We have a compact. And Yolgorth will respond directly to Oh should the terms turn out to be unacceptable. Or there, indeed, to be some ‘strings’ hanging around. Now, give me your advice."
Khaled paused to allow the pain in his hand to fade. He truly was coming to despise this avatar. "My advice would be that it would be sensible to show an element of concern and worry about the events on the Third Floor. Should the Security Services choose to speak with you, demonstrate that d’Avec's death is an unspeakable tragedy. Offer any help that is required and, under no circumstances, give the impression you are happy with what has occurred. I assume you have an alibi?"
Mdamic raised an eyebrow. "Surely, I am not going to need to account for my movements. I am Yolgorth's chosen!"
"And a Level 67 has been massacred. I would assume the suspect pool for such a crime is going to be vanishingly small. It would be sensible for you to ensure your name is not on it.” Khaled let the silence stretch out a little before speaking again. "I hesitate to prompt the memory of one such as yourself, but you do remember that we ate together that night?"
Mdamic's face clouded. " Something about that rings a bell . . . "
"I will ensure that all the details are supplied to your P.A in short order. Merely to refresh your memory of the event. The dinner will already be on your calendar, of course."
"Of course.”
They shared a few more pleasantries before Khaled made his excuses and returned to his own more mundane level. Mdamic sat in silence for a while, replaying the conversation in his head. He'd let Clear Sky Thinking drop off - it tended to make his teeth itch if he had it on for too long - which probably accounted for him missing one particular, important issue in the deal he had just made.
It wasn't just that Khalid was giving him an alibi, but he'd provided the Chosen of Oh with one, too.