The following morning, everyone in the dormitory was awoken by the rush of air as a Primus sped into the room at inhuman speeds. Before anyone in the room could even react, the Primus yanked off everyone’s blankets, ran back to the doorway, yelled “Forty-third floor!” and rushed off.
Everyone groaned and staggered out of bed, lazily getting to their feet and grumbling as they left the dormitories. Mark lagged behind, with Horan walking alongside to keep him company.
Mark rubbed his eyes. “It’s weird, sleeping in the same room as so many people.”
Horan shrugged. “I guess not everyone is an annual-Domain-wide-slumber-party kind of person, because I’ve done that with way more people.”
Mark looked up at Horan as if he were completely insane.
Horan looked back down at Mark defensively. “What? It’s fun.”
Mark shook his head and looked back at where he was going. “Your idea of fun is… so weird.”
“You only think so because you don’t know what fun even is.”
“Hey, that’s… Yeah, okay, that’s fair.”
When everyone reached the forty-third floor, they found themselves in some kind of auditorium. A dozen rows of dusty leather seats were arranged in a U-shape around a central podium, which had several spotlights on the ceiling trained on it.
Horan dusted off a seat and sat down. “I guess this is for us? That’s nice, I figured we’d have to wait a while before Orsinus remembered we existed.”
Mark took a seat next to Horan, grumbling slightly. “I wish we had time to stop and grab some food, though. Maybe I should have asked that one girl if she had any salad left over.”
At that moment, an arm reached over the chair next to Mark and held out a bowl of salad. Mark looked behind him to see the green-eyed Primus leaning over a seat to hold out the salad.
When Mark saw her, the Primus looked away, embarrassed. “Sorry, I just- I heard- right, that’s rude, sorry.” She placed the salad on the seat next to Mark and hurried back to her seat in the row behind Mark and Horan’s.
Mark slowly put the bowl of salad in his lap and stared at it for a moment. “…Alright.” He started eating it with his hands as the Greeks started to arrive.
Filing in through the multiple entrances to the room, an assortment of Primoi of wildly varying shapes, sizes and fashionable sensibility. Last one in was Orsinus, dragging the small Primus that had woken everyone up behind him as he shuffled to the podium. Orsinus was trying to keep his voice down, but the acoustics of the room made it easy to tell what he was saying if an attempt was made to listen. “You don’t just wake somebody up like that, Grigora!”
Grigora being dragged along attempted to follow Orsinus herself. “Sorry sir, you just told me to bring everyone here at 7 AM sharp. It’s 7 AM, so I brought everyone here.”
Orsinus sighed and let go. “Fine, just warn me before you wake me up next time.”
“I don’t think that’s… Yes, sir.” Grigora sped off to find a seat.
Orsinus stepped into the centre of the podium, yawned, scratched himself and looked around. Taking in the newly-assembled crowd, he cleared his throat and spoke somewhat more clearly. “So, glad to see you’re all here. I don’t think all of us have actually been in the same room for, what, a year? Now, I know a lot of you aren’t happy with being woken up so early. Well, neither am I. Blame Grigora.” He pointed to where Grigora was seated, who sighed and nodded bashfully.
Orsinus paused briefly. “But also, I guess I should thank her for bringing us all here on such short notice. So, good job, Grigora.”
Grigora smiled slightly. A few scattered people clapped half-heartedly.
Orsinus clasped his hands together. “Now, as for the reason why I made you all come here, we apparently have a solution to all those monsters wandering around outside. Y’know, the animal ones with the spears. Saralai knows what I’m talking about, she’s been keeping them out for a month straight. Keep on trucking, you.”
A golden-eyed Primus with a shock of golden hair near the back of the seats smiled smugly.
Orsinus continued. “But as great as she’s been doing, we have a visitor who says he can deal with that issue permanently. Watch out, Zaratos, you’ve got competition.
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A pale, black-clad Primus in the front row scowled. “You’re not supposed to mention that,” he hissed.
“Right, yeah, forget I said anything. But still, come on down… you.”
Horan sighed, got up and flew down to the podium. “Morning, everyone. I’m sure it hasn’t been too fun for a lot of you, being stuck in here for so long…”
He waited for a response, receiving none.
“But I know how we can get rid of those creatures out there. The things are demons, animals magically transformed into warriors by my uncle Thel. He’s taken the throne of Egypt from me, and is now attempting to conquer all of existence. Thanks to some good thinking from my friend over there…” He pointed at Mark, who folded his arms defensively. “There aren’t going to be any reinforcements for the ones out here. My plan is for us to send some kind of strike team down south to Egypt to dethrone Thel. If we manage to do that, the demon army will be left leaderless and will hopefully scatter.”
Mark sighed and leaned forward. “Hey, Horan? I think you might have forgotten that we already did that with Erlani.”
One of the Greeks stood up. “Yeah, the short guy’s right! We already got rid of most of them, the ones left are just being annoying. We need to get rid of them, not spook them!” Most of the auditorium nodded in agreement.
Horan heard Orsinus sigh behind him and wrung his hands behind his back. “Yeah, well, I also have a plan for that! It’s, uh…” He looked at Mark for help, who covered his face and slunk into his seat.
“…Lamius! My father!”
Mark looked back up, surprised. Horan stifled a smile. “He lives in the Down Below. If I can visit him down there, I can probably convince him to bring us a few human souls. We can just set the souls out to hunt down the demons, and we’ll be golden.”
He paused for a moment and looked around the Auditorium. If anyone had any objections, they weren’t bringing it up. Horan looked back at Orsinus, who shrugged.
Orsinus stepped in front of Horan. “Well, if nobody’s presenting any arguments, I assume we’re happy with his plan?”
Most of the auditorium looked around and nodded in accord. Orsinus looked around and nodded himself. “Alright, sounds good. Zaratos and I are gonna help him start planning his trip down. If you feel like helping him and that human pet guy of his, feel free to give them a little something. Or you can go back to your room if you feel like you still need some sleep. You do you.”
As everyone shuffled out of the auditorium, Horan flew back over to Mark. “So, how’d I do?”
Mark looked at him for a moment and shrugged. “Well, it could have been a lot better. But knowing you, it probably could have been way worse.”
Horan nodded. “I guess I’ll take that as a compliment. So, do you think we should find that Zaratos guy Orsinus mentioned, or do we find someone to help us out, first?”
Mark paused for a brief moment. “You know, we can take it a little slow. Thel’s pretty much stopped in his tracks, there’s no need to just blaze through everything like this. And this place is nice. I don’t want to show up, spend the night, and leave. You know?”
“This is starting to sound a lot like your reaction to Antioch.”
“Yeah, but with Antioch, I had this… feeling. I don’t know what that feeling was, if it wanted me to stay or to leave, but it was there. And I’m not feeling it here.”
“You know, if I were saying the things you’re saying right now, you’d call me completely insane.”
“…I’m hearing it now, yeah.” Mark turned when he saw a sign on the wall reading ‘Café’. “But are you really not going to go with me on this? I don’t really like it, but look at all these people! You can do… person things with them. I can check out all the cool stuff this place has. It’s, uh… It can be nice, staying here a while. For the both of us.”
Upon arriving at the café, Horan sat down at an empty table. The instant he pulled his chair in, a glass of lemonade materialized in front of him. “Oh, cool. Well, I guess I see what you mean. But I have a job to do here. Everyone back in my Domain is counting on me to keep them safe from whatever Thel’s doing, and I just want to make sure they’re alright. I’m Pharaoh, like I’ve been for thousands of years. Protecting my Domain is… pretty much the reason I’m alive, if I have one. I don’t really have much else besides the people who count on me, and I really want to make the chance the Greeks are giving me count, you know?”
Mark sat down opposite Horan, a cup of coffee appearing in front of him. Built for a Primus, the top of the table almost came up to Mark’s shoulders. “Right, yeah. You’ve got all those people who can count on you like that. Almost forgot,” he chuckled. “I guess we should pick up the pace, huh?” He started getting up, not even touching his drink.
Horan waved him down. “Hey, hey, you can stay.” He looked around. The café was strangely spacious. A few other Primoi were eating breakfast at other tables. Landscape pieces from several different historical periods hung on the walls, making the whole room feel like it was out in the countryside despite there not even being any windows. In contrast to the marble-tiled walls of most of the rest of the tower, the café’s walls were simple red brick.
Horan’s gaze panned back to Mark. “Maybe we could take it a little slower.” He took a sip of his drink. “There’s no fun to be had if we go through life waiting for the next thing to happen. My dad told me that once. I thought it was a weird thing to say, since we’re both immortal, but…” He looked around again. “I think I’m starting to get what he meant.”
Mark nodded slowly. “You’ve visited your dad in the Down Below, then?”
“Oh, sure. My mom set up a portal back in the palace, so we could visit him whenever we wanted. Not really sure how we’re gonna get down there from here, though. Hey, how do you think we’ll be able to get to my dad?”
“Hey, you’re getting super work-focused again. We’re trying to take it slow, remember?”
“Right, right.” Horan drank silently, letting Mark and him properly start their day off slowly.