As the evening arrived, the supposedly informal party began to shift priorities. People began to wander away towards the meeting chamber and Kiran, Lar, and Juna quickly found themselves wandering inside themselves.
Unfortunately, when he looked over to see Juna, she held a hand to her stomach and looked about ready to puke. “Are you alright Juna?”
“I hope so. I might’ve eaten too much.” Sometimes too much of a good thing backfired. Hopefully she’ll make it through this without embarrassing herself.
At the center of the room was a long rectangular table that could fit easily a couple of dozen people on each side. Many others had already sat down leaving him to wonder where they might ought to sit.
Yorais spotted them coming to meet them. “Where should we sit?” he asked.
“How about over here,” she said leading them around the table so that their backs would be facing the tall windows. Kiran found himself seated roughly at the center of the long table with Juna to his left and Lar to his right. Across from him was a short blonde woman that had a nasty glare towards him. He thought to say something but he figured it might only make her more angry.
However, silence didn’t work in his favor. The little lady furrowed her brows even more and began tapping her fingernail harshly against the table causing even others nearby to stop what they were doing and look over to them all.
“And who might you three be?”
“I am Kiran,” he said graciously.
“Juna!”
Lar sighed. “I’m Lar.”
“Yorais,” the little lady said, “why are these three here?”
“Rinas wanted them to attend.”
“Really? Because I thought these meetings were only to ever be between us and not those beneath us.”
Juna began to lean over towards him to whisper something into his ear. “She makes it sound as if we’re gutter trash.”
“Don’t twist my words,” she said revealing that she had in fact heard Juna’s faint whisper tone to him. “We keep a safe barrier between the leadership and the regular members of the coalition for good reason.”
Kiran was just a member. He wasn’t anyone particularly special. He could see her reasoning even if it came across as a bit cold.
“Take it up with Rinas when he arrives,” Yorais said towards the woman whose name he did not know quite yet.
“If I may ask,” Kiran said, “what’s your name?”
She pulled her hand away from the table and eyed him carefully. “Abigail Schawrtz.”
“It’s nice to meet you Abigail. I don’t believe I saw you at the party being hosted out there.”
“I have better things to be doing than attend some frivolous party. In fact, I just arrived a few moments ago and headed straight here. And I really am annoyed that Rinas has not yet appeared. Can we get this meeting underway at once or am I to sit here all day?” A brief moment of silence settled in the chamber as someone’s cough broke it and more chatter went underway. I’ll have to be careful with this one. She’s got a lot of intensity about her for someone so small.
Yorais decided to sit towards Abigail’s right appearing calm amidst the intense personality that exuded from Abigail.
While Rinas hadn’t yet entered the meeting chamber, Frederek Allstone found himself inside. Compared to everyone else, his definitely skin was noticeably paler than everyone else. That was the price one paid for operating in the depths beneath Liall where the sun did not nor would ever shine.
Kiran learned about a few other members in attendance including the short stubby fellow he had seen earlier who went by the name of Temos Helfad who happened to be a familiar. He had somewhat wild brown hair and an overly curly mustache as he chatted with another man who he learned went by the name of Zorge Nealman.
Unlike everyone else in the meeting chamber, Zorge was rather unkempt. His hair was quite oily and sat heavily upon his head reaching down to his shoulders. He wore a long red coat that appeared frayed on the edges and noticeably dirtied. Kiran was somewhat surprised he hadn’t been forced to appear in a more washed and clean state like everyone else.
Hoghdar managed to make it greeting them politely and sitting beside Juna to his left. Both Temos and Zorge chose to sit down rather than stand any longer and soon enough, the front door to the meeting chamber within Yorais’s mansion became opened and the leader of the coalition himself, Rinas Maladan entered to greet them all with the sorcerer Noreko by his side.
While Rinas walked away from the entrance, Noreko pressed his palms against the door creating a ward that ran around it. Unlike most wards he had seen however, this one began to move all along the walls extending far and beyond to the floors and high ceiling above. As the ward fully covered every surface within this chamber, it faded away to make it seem as if it weren’t in existence. Kiran figured he was taking certain countermeasures to secure this room for all of their safety from potential outside ears.
Everyone began to stand up. Kiran followed and kept his hands pressed against his sides. As Rinas reached the chair at the left end of the long rectangular table, he grasped onto the chair looking at all of them. He made a simple gesture urging them all to sit again and so they all did including Rinas. “Thank you all for being here.” As he sat, Noreko sat to their right near the end keeping his hands clasped in his lap.
Abigail raised up a hand first thing.
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“Yes?” Rinas said.
“Before we begin, I believe it’s important for me to ask why these three are here in attendance.”
Her eyes met Kiran’s and he felt as if she was looking through them in a frightening kind of way.
“Well,” Rinas muttered, “since you’ve brought this particular topic up, let us begin there then. I brought them here because I thought their input would be of value for today’s talks. And Kiran over here is fairly unique in the matters surrounding our current circumstances along with his familiar Lar who aids them. As for Juna, I have seen fit to promote her as she has proven her value to us by serving Hoghdar. I believe all three of them have earned an opportunity to be amongst us for today’s ongoing affairs as our dear friend here,” he said gesturing towards Kiran, “is largely why the queen has been so steadfast to target us lately.”
“So you’re why I’ve had the queen’s sword right up my backside for the last few weeks,” Abigail said crossing her arms and tapping her sharp nails against her covered arm. “Why am I just now learning about this?”
“I wanted to inform you and everyone else about everything earlier on, but we have all had to be careful and allow for things to calm down a little after the queen’s assault in the city. That has made making communication difficult as I did not want our people out on the streets only to get nabbed by her people scouring all around. But now that things have somewhat calmed, I thought it wise for us all to meet here so we can all get on the same page about things. A lot has happened recently and it’s important we assess things as they are so that we can be more productive going forward.”
“Then let us proceed then,” Abigail said resigning herself away to become informed about things.
“Now then,” Rinas said pleased to have gotten Abigail’s fierceness to calm itself. “Frederek, can you tell me about how things are in the depths?”
“Since we last spoke not much has changed. There are more patrols than ever wandering through the streets harassing the few who live down there and asking everyone questions about whether they’ve seen people like us. Even some of the gangs down there are uneasy which I’ve rarely seen. Truth be told, if things continue, our operations down there may not be viable for much longer. I’ve also been having trouble keeping my people from getting caught. So far we’ve been managing, but I don’t know whether we’ll be able to keep operating as we have been. I may have to put everything on pause if things worsen.”
Kiran had learned that Frederek was running a mining company as a front. It gave him cover for why he lived and operated down there while also giving him an opportunity to do things that might otherwise look suspicious. But it appeared that even the usually ignored depths had become targeted by Queen Luvia Aenveld in her quest to purge coalitions or organizations such as theirs. It was not entirely surprising to him especially since they killed Marthus Einfeld. That definitely put a lot of eyes on them and himself.
Rinas took Frederek’s words on the trouble of the depths seriously. “I’ll trust your judgment on what needs to be done down there. Keep yourself and everyone safe. If that means stopping everything, then it must be done. The queen won’t be as proactive in her search for us as time goes on so things can resume later if need be.”
“I’ll try to keep things running for now,” Frederek stated firmly.
“As for you Abigail,” Rinas said, “how are things for your faction?”
“We have avoided her majesty’s most lovely advances to uncover us. My agents are well aware of her depraved nature so they’re always assuming the worst. For that reason, we have fared well relatively speaking, but I have had to have them slow down and cease certain information gathering to avoid any unnecessary interactions.”
“And what about you Zorge and Temos?”
Zorge began to scratch his unkempt beard while Temos sat there looking ready to allow Zorge to do all of the speaking for the two of them. “It’s all gone to crap. What else can I say?”
“You could be a little more specific.”
“Our faction has been doing badly alright? No one’s been captured, but we’ve had a few run-ins recently with a few injured. Nobody has died thankfully, but I’ve already decided to put all of my operations on pause. Frankly, I think it’s time we all give up on this whole thing. Just look at all of us. We’re falling apart. Every one of our factions are losing its grasp and ability to do anything lest we end up with our people getting caught. The queen’s got us by the balls and we’re here still acting like we have a chance to push back against her. I’ve got guys looking to leave left and right. I have to tell them to stay, but I’m starting to lose faith and pretty soon it’s just going to be me left in my own faction unless things change.”
Zorge sure gave a grim tail of his own perspective on the coalition and how it was doing in particular to the faction he led. He told the truth how he saw it which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it was good to embrace the truth no matter how bad it might taste once swallowed.
“What about you Hoghdar?” Rinas asked.
“Our relocation efforts have been finished,” he said with some positive news given the circumstances. “Juna and I believe that the few who remain in our faction would likely be better fit to merge with another faction. Our numbers are very few now and many are injured beyond repair.”
“We will most certainly need to determine what is to be done with your faction. In the meantime before we figure that all out, just keep yourselves safe and unseen.”
“I will ensure that will be the case,” Hoghdar stated firmly.
“Well then,” Rinas said reflecting on everything he had learned from the faction leaders so far. “Not every meeting of ours can be full of good news and praise.” Rinas looked over to Yorais who he hadn’t spoken to yet. “But we haven’t yet heard from you. What can you update us on how your faction is doing?”
She briefly met the eyes of everyone seated at the table. She leaned back in her chair and put her hands together in her crossed-legged lap. “I won’t lie and say everything is perfect, but my faction is holding up well. We have increased our numbers in fact and gotten our hands on what I believe are valuable resources that will aid in our immediate future endeavors. I acknowledge the struggles that Zorge, Hoghdar, and others have been enduring, but not all is bad for us. I would in fact like to delve a little deeper into the things that I have uncovered recently and spoken briefly about with Noreko a while ago.”
Rinas held a plain and serious look on his face nodding his head. He had received a lot of negativity from the faction leaders who served him and also some positive news from Yorais herself. As a whole though, there was a lot more negativity than positivity. “The queen has grown bold since her assault during the holiday. We’ve all been hurting and struggling in these dark times. But even with that being the case, I believe there is an opportunity here. Due to the queen’s actions several weeks ago, her popularity has begun to plummet not just among the general populace but also among the aristocracy. People are beginning to question whether she is fit to rule and secure this city and there are even whispers of her becoming mad after her egregious actions towards her own people. She is well over a century old so many suspect that time has done a lot to undermine her rationality, strength, and decision-making ability.”
“These are all trifling musings,” Zorge muttered aloud. “The queen has ruled this city for longer than any of us have been alive. We have tried countless things to fight against her, but so far I have seen nothing conducive enough to consider an appreciable success. If anything, things have only gotten worse. And frankly speaking, even if we are to argue that this recent assault of hers was a poorly orchestrated attack from herself, it alone will not unseat her from her current position. We mustn’t be fools and deny the power she still yet holds.”
“And no one is saying that we should,” Rinas quickly replied. “But we can still take advantage of how things are now with her in particular. There may be no better opportunity than now to strike at the queen’s heart directly.”
As for how they were to do that, Kiran hoped to gain a valuable answer to that question during the rest of the discussions that were to continue.