“And that is exactly why you need to broaden your marketbase Julius!”

Lord Bertrand Geld pointed across the table at Julius with a half forgotten danish held between his hands. The cream filled pastry dripped out onto the white table cloth until he brought it to his mouth and engulfed the delicacy with a single bite. Despite the fact that Dei had seen him eat over half a dozen of the sugary treats in just this one meeting alone, he was a rather thin fellow who's only defining feature was a slight bit of childish chubbiness to his cheeks. One of those self absorbed men who could eat whatever they wanted and never see the consequences of their actions.

If Julius agreed with her, he certainly didn't show it as he smiled across the table at the small man eating bar shaped sweet treats. Lord Brent had been nibbling on his own treat slowly and considerately as he shared a conversation with the group. To his left, Lord Theodore Penton had joined the lunch party as a newly up and coming noble due to several twists of fate, including his engagement to Lady Galaide of the Jocell house. Julius was the only one in the room with two elbow servants at his side, but by now that had become a well known quirk of the man that the other nobles had simply grown to expect. After all, neither of them ever talked or interacted with anyone else anyways, so it was practically like they were never there in the first place.

Dei observed the luncheon based meeting with barely concealed contempt. It just seemed so pointless to her. Why bother meeting with such lower nobility when Julius was already possibly one of the most influential men in the court? Admittedly, not everyone seemed to know how much he was pulling the strings, especially since he never took credit for any of it, but he was still third in line for the head of the Brent family Princedom.

Evidently third in line meant little to the minds of little men like Lord Bertrand as he continued to spin a pointless conversation about furniture prices.

“My profits have increased by at least twenty percent in the last two weeks even after the recent rise in wood prices.” Bertrand pointed over at Lord Penton like that was enough explanation on that front, and Dei thought she caught a fake smile from the man at the reference. It was hard to tell what was true and what was not when it came to the lords of this land, especially after the performances that she saw Julius put together on a consistent basis. The man could cry on command, she was sure of it.

Another man walked into the small bakery causing the small bell by the entrance to chime. He scanned the room once with his shaggy head of blond hair then found the group where they were sitting near the back of the room and wandered over. Lord Anthony Jocell was possibly one of the most influential men in the entire weapon's market if Julius had anything to say about it, and Dei had stopped doubting the man a long time ago.

“Afternoon gents. What did I miss?” The man sat down at the last open seat at the table, taking off his gray blazer to hang it over the back of his chair and reveal his customary light blue blouse underneath.

“Nothing of note Anthony, I was just telling Julius that he's a fool who will put his family into debt if he keeps holding on to his wood stocks any longer!” Bertrand must have thought he was being funny since he laughed off the end of his sentence.

“And I continue to argue that I could never make good on all my contracts if I allowed even a scrap of my lumber into the wrong hands.” Julius spoke to Bertrand, but allowed his eyes to wander to all three men involved. “I have a large construction project coming through for the revitalization of the brook district before the winter is through. And considering the oversight on the project? Failure just isn't an option.”

“Sure, but do you need all of that lumber in the here and now? It doesn't seem to me that you'd need more than maybe half of your storehouses until halfway through the winter, correct?” Anthony joined the conversation in earnest now, picking up on the deal that was happening in front of him.

Julius pretended to muse on that for a moment before responding. “Sure, but with the recent block ups in the western logging business how can I really be sure that anyone is good for their supply promises these days?”

Dei watched as the Penton boy shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and Lord Anthony seemed to notice the same thing.

“Oh? That's not all true Julius. After all Penton here has had a surprising increase in productivity within the last month haven't you? His goods might take a bit longer to ship across the country from the eastern reaches, but considering the output?” Anthony let the words hang in the air.

“Aha! And coins in the coffer now are worth more than coins in the future, no?” Bertrand cut in. “Cut me in on a portion of your wood stores right now Julius, and I can guarantee you a twenty percent return over the price of whatever you end up buying the wares back for.”

Penton's eyes went wide as saucers at the audacity of the offer from the Geld man. Not only on the fact that he would make the deal, but to make the offer in front of the very man selling his wood products to Julius in the possible future?

Julius however merely nodded thoughtfully as he allowed the rest of the table to process what they just heard. Just as he was starting to lose faith in the man's quick thinking, Anthony finally cut in with his own proposal. “I'll make the same offer at twenty-five percent.”

“Thirty!” Bertrand blurted out. “And it's a done deal Julius, you know it!”

Anthony hesitated only a moment before throwing his own counter offer out there. “Thirty-five percent.” He didn't yell the number like Bertrand had, just stated his intentions then held Julius's eyes like the two were in a sparring match over the white linen table.

A sigh from Bertrand's lips sounded far more guttural and growl-like than the man had any reason to make in good company, while Penton’s mouth dropped open at Anthony's proposal. It was a monetary gamble that only made a lick of sense if he had made it in a more private setting, which he had very much so not done in private.

Julius allowed his eyes to switch between the two greater noblemen, neither holding Anthony's eyes, nor devolving into the same beastial rage that was emanating from the thin Geld member across the table.

“I think I'll have to take this all under consideration first.” He left his customary smile in his pocket as he now wore a more pensive look than Dei thought the man could even accomplish considering his personality. The men around the table grumbled a bit at the news but accepted it all the same, allowing the conversation to shift from business matters to more sensational topics. The conversation meandered for several minutes on the latest drama before Jocell started to poke the lion and mentioned the Geld manor attack less than a week ago.

“Oh, that reminds me. Lord Bertrand, I assume that since you're here it means that you weren't hurt in the attack on your manor? I heard it was an awfully bloody affair.” Anthony began.

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“Of course not. Our guards disposed of the threat with great speed and sent them running away.”

“Really now? And I had heard that the night was so bloody that your front steps were stained for days after.” Anthony pushed his advantage, and Bertrand ground his teeth before getting out a terse reply.

“Hardly. The Jurn girl only accomplished anything of note because she caught the front door by surprise. Once the alarm was sounded she was quickly chased away.”

“Jurn? As in house Jurn?” Penton asked. Evidently he wasn't as up to date with the rumors circulating the nobility over the last week, as nearly everyone had blamed the attack on a Jurn servant.

Julius allowed the exchange to play out before him without a single break in character, as he always did. And Dei, as ever, stood by his side. The rest of the conversation passed without consequence as the men traded hidden barbs and ripostes with every new topic in the fairly empty bakery. They only ended up leaving with a bravado of shaken hands and warm wishes when the sun was finally setting in the sky.

—

The carriage rumbled along, jolting its occupants back and forth every few seconds. Dei had grown far more comfortable with her place across from Lord Julius and Marianne over the last couple weeks, and she allowed her hollow eyeholes to settle on the elbow main across from her in a hidden staring contest as they returned home.

Julius had thankfully been able to get Dei a new set of servants' clothing for both herself and the new ember after Rei had ruined her last set, though he had asked a couple questions as to how it happened. Ripping through clothing with last minute changes to her physique wasn't a very common occurrence on her weekly attacks, but she explained it away by claiming she was just making certain experimental choices that night. Admittedly, it had been fairly difficult to reverse all of the changes that Rei had made to the body, especially when it came to reforming her toe bones into something that resembled her original body.

Enough had happened over the last couple months that Dei wasn't even sure if this set of bones could still be considered her ‘original’ body. Almost every single bone had been broken, reset, and morphed in one way or another over the course of the last season to the point that the only thing that was consistent was the shard held within her chest. It still remained interlocked between her second and third ribs counting down from the collarbone, though she had been able to eventually shift it deeper into her chest so that the sharp end didn't poke out. It was both the source of herself at this point, the one unchanging factor of her life, and the one part of her that she still understood the least about.

Dei automated her body with an unspoken command to ‘STARE’ at Marianne so she wouldn't lose the game as she let her mind start to wander on the trip back. Her vision shifted to bones as she took in the world around them, otherwise hidden by the enclosed carriage interior. Few people walked the streets at this time of night, most of the city already having retired to bed or otherwise still having dinner. A couple stumbled out of the way of the carriage at the last minute as they passed, shaking unseen and unheard fists at them after they were already out of sight. Meanwhile a pack of city dogs were circling a large hound in the middle of a larger alleyway.

She imagined them growling with the rear of their backs raised up slightly and ears flattened on the back of their heads. Every once in a while, one of the smaller dogs would jump in from behind to attack the larger one's rear, but he would always turn around at the last second to fight them off. Another dog body was laid off to the side of the pack, bones unmoving like it had already lost its life in the crude display of lupine dominance.

The carriage was starting to move far enough away that Dei struggled to see the details of the situation anymore. That wouldn't do, but it's not like she could ask Julius to stop the carriage without drawing even more attention from Marianne than she already gave her. No, that wasn't a real option. But maybe if she had another set of eyes near the dog fight? She refocused her view on the fallen dog off to the side while she could still distinguish between the different animal skeletons and tried something new.

‘RISE.’

It shouldn't have worked. Back in Camp Miller she had struggled to raise even a bird that was several times smaller than the dog in question right now. But still, it worked. The bones reacted to her call and the body started lifting itself from its fallen deathbed while the nearby pack ignored the movement behind them.

Dei allowed herself to follow the tether into the dog body and get a better look at the dog fight that was still happening down the alleyway. Blood dripped from a gaping bite mark in her throat, but Dei had lost access to her sense of pain a long time ago anyways. Instead, she noted a distinctly odd feeling to the body that reminded her of someone. Rei. It wasn't just the way the legs felt with the lupine ankle structure, nor the clawed paws, but just the essence of her control over this particular skeleton reminded her of Rei. Like she was the reason she could suddenly inhabit larger creatures.

She started to test things even further. Cracks emanated from the undead dog body as Dei started by molding the joints together with bone marrow. She had a feeling the pelt and skin holding the dog together wouldn't last long anyways.

Next, she started expanding upon the bones in her control. Xei had always done something similar as he experimented with making bodies larger and larger until he couldn't control them any longer, but Dei took things to a whole new extreme with this new body. The bones expanded to double their original size over the course of a couple seconds, ripping apart whatever leftover meat was left on the dog's bones after the bone marrow transplant. Blood splattered across the walls, and the terrible ripping noises that spread throughout the alley finally drew the attention of the pack away from their prey.

Five sets of confused eyes turned to look at the monster further down the alleyway, a previous member of their family that had now turned into something else entirely. Dei allowed the body to continue growing until it was nearly three times the original size of the dog and comparable to a grizzly bear in size. Her spine was level at a height close to most human chests as she looked over at them with the blood stained dog skull and glowing blue eyes. The dogs scattered immediately, all except for the single larger dog that they had been attacking.

He seemed to pace back and forth a bit as he stood his ground against Dei, growling with his teeth barred against the monster that took slow careful steps towards the lone hound. The sounds of yelping dogs disappeared into the distance as the two faced off in the quiet night. The hound lashed out at Dei, scrambling around her side as she struggled to turn with the same speed as the smaller dog. Her feet got caught up in one another as she tried to manage the bones in the same way she was used to with human bodies, and ended up falling over to the side with a massive thud in the night. The hound caught a tuft of skin that was still hanging by her ankle, then ripped away a sizable chunk of hair away from the body with a twist of his snout.

Dei looked down at the hound as he slowly backed away from her new body, bloody scraps held victoriously in his mouth. Then another ember slammed into the body to join her.

‘Oh my. So this is what our new ability does?’ Fei asked. She sounded like a child who had just entered a candy store for the first time, voice oozing with awe at the new opportunities that had just opened to her. ‘No, no, no, Dei. That is not how you're supposed to connect animal legs at all!’ Dei felt as Fei rearranged several of the bone marrow connections she had made, forcing the bones to bend in different directions than she had even thought were possible. ‘Mmmm, yesssssss. I can work with this.’

Dei withdrew her control from the body, becoming a passenger along for the ride as Fei expertly rose to her feet to face the hound backing away down the street. The dog seemed to sense that something was different in the stance of the monster across from it, tail drooping as it whimpered and ran. Fei wasted no time at all, pumping long legs to propel her body down the alleyway after the dog, catching up to it within four powerful strides then snapping the dog up by the neck with her sharp teeth.

The whimper died out at the end of Fei's maw, blood dripping down onto the ice crusted stone below. A cackling gleeful laugh escaped from Fei into their conjoined mind as the monstrous body twisted and released the dying hound from its mouth, throwing it into the wall. When it finally rolled to a stop, no longer moving in the cold night, Dei heard the beginnings of a new monster set free into the city of Midton.

‘RISE.’ Fei commanded.