Leo found himself in the private office of the Founder and CEO of the most powerful company in the world. Romus took a seat in a massive leather chair and motioned for Leo to take the much smaller chair on the other side of the desk. Leo’s chair was so short he felt like he was back in kindergarten.

Romus lit a cigar with a spark cantrip from his thumb while he loomed over Leo like a giant. “I saw your Sorcery over the security cameras. The way you took out two of our most experienced guards. It was impressive.”

Leo gulped. “Thank you, sir.”

Romus shook his head. “Of course, I didn’t believe what my daughter was saying at first blush. I love her as much as I love any of my children, but she’s not what I would call, the most reliable sort.”

Leo didn’t know how he was supposed to respond to this. “She seems alright to me.”

Romus puffed on his cigar until it had a nice coal forming. “I wouldn’t expect you to see otherwise. No one quite knows my children like I do. It’s my ultimate curse, if you could believe it. I see the terrible people I formed each of them into. They were my responsibility and I failed them.”

Looking at Romus Holgeld, he seemed like a man who had never failed at anything in his life. Leo couldn’t yet tell why Romus was being so open with him. “I can’t say I’m a big fan of Farthen, and I haven’t made up my mind about Yarah, but the rest of them seem all right.”

Romus let out a grim chuckle. “Get to know them better and you’ll learn. Each of them carry a common infection. Do you know what that infection is, Leo?”

Leo shook his head. “No, sir.”

Romus poked his chest with the unlit side of his cigar. “Me. I’m the infection. My children have spent their whole lives pleasing me, fearing me, or hating me. Though sometimes all three at once. If you are who you seem to be, Leo, you could be different.”

Leo held his breath, it seemed like Romus Holgeld might actually believe Leo was a Holgeld. “I’ve certainly been raised differently than the rest of them, if I was really raised by anyone at all.”

Romus took a long drag on his cigar. “Exactly. You are raw clay, Leo. You aren’t like the rest of them. None of them would have been brave enough to fight Opal Corp security. Not for lack of skill, of course, they have innate Sorcery and were trained since childhood by the best Adepts that money could buy. Some of them have won world championships in Sorcerer Dueling. No, none of them would have fought back because it would have pissed me off.``

Leo bit his lip, Romus Holgeld was a hard man to read. “But you don’t seem pissed off.”

Romus laughed again. “I’m always pissed off. But, I couldn’t care less about two instantly replaceable security guards though. That’s what my children don’t understand. You’re hungry, Leo. Desperate. I can tell. That’s what used to drive me. Until I got comfortable. Until I got old. It took desperation to build Opal Corp from nothing and it’s going to take desperation to protect Opal Corp from the troubles that lie ahead.”

Leo straightened up in his chair. “I’d do anything for Opal Corp, sir.”

Romus waived the thought away. “Shut up with that bootlicking. See, you spend five minutes around my family and you already start sounding like them. That’s a warning.”

A chill ran through Leo, he could tell that Romus’ good graces were fickle things indeed. “I’ll do anything to succeed. That’s what I meant.”

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Romus rolled that line over in his mind. “Yes, better. Hold on to that. There’s one other thing just now that I want you to remember. Another thing that makes you unique from my woeful spawn. Surya.”

This puzzled Leo. “What about Surya?”

Romus looked out his floor to ceiling window at the city below. “Surya stood up for you. Protected you. Maybe she sees you as a meal ticket, maybe something more. But she put her neck on the line for you and she wouldn’t do that for anyone. Inspiring loyalty is a skill more powerful than any Sorcery known to man. Foster that. Find your people, Leo, and keep them close. If you ever get to the top, you’ll find the air gets very thin, you’ll need people around you to carry the oxygen tanks.”

Leo tried his best to follow. “I’ve never been mountain climbing.”

Romus scratched his brow. “Of course you haven’t. Forget it. It’s time we discuss what’s next. First off, until I make my mind up about you, I’m going to forbid any of my children from killing you. This doesn’t mean they won’t try, but at least they won’t be conspicuous about it.”

Leo figured that’s as good as he would get. “I appreciate that. I understand why they see me as a threat.”

Romus sat behind his chair and cast a spell that summoned a transparent window between them. “Good. That’s the first step to being a Holgeld. Recognizing threats inside and out. ZTo yourself, to the family, and to the company. Which brings me to exactly what I am challenging you with, Leo.”

With a wave of his hand Romus summoned an image into the hazy window. In it, Leo saw a group of armed individuals swarming what looked like a chemical plant. The people were dressed in ragtag militia type outfits but didn’t appear to be a part of any particular military.

Leo squinted. “Who are these people? Is this an Opal Corp facility they’re attacking?”

Romus nodded. “It’s one of our more crucial refinement plants for medical grade Brillianite tincture. Our Health and Wellness division has been one of our more profitable arms in the past decade. You wouldn’t believe how much people are willing to pay when you tell them that magic can cure their diseases.”

Leo remembered that he had suffered some rough illnesses as a child. His foster parents were never willing to pay extra for Opal Corp cures and Leo suffered for it. “So why would these people want to attack us, when we’re making people better?”

Romus let out an ambiguous grunt. “Who cares? I’ve seen reports that half our cure spells don’t even work half the time. Bad shelf life or some other particular. It’s important to keep a ten thousand foot view on these sorts of things. What I care about, and what you need to care about is that every day this facility is out of operation, we lose eighty five million dollars.”

Leo tried to visualize what that amount of money would look like and couldn’t. “So we need to take the facility back. By force.”

Romus smiled his widest smile yet. “Exactly. I could use my government military contacts of course, but they’re too slow, too sloppy. This needs to be handled internally. There are political elements to it as well.”

Leo wondered if he should be taking notes on all this. But decided against it. “Political, how?”

Romus waved his cigar noncommittally, the smoke intertwined with the magic window that was still open. “They are anti-magic extremists. They believe that Opal Corp is destroying the world by letting your average man on the street get access to what used to be reserved for Sorcerers.”

Leo had never even heard of such a movement. “Is there any truth to it, is Opal Corp destroying the world?”

Romus closed the window. “No. We’re making money. That makes people jealous and that makes people scared.”

The confidence in Romus’ voice didn’t sit right with Leo, but he let it pass. “I don’t think I can take out this whole group of extremists by myself.”

Romus opened a desk drawer and removed a black metal credit card. This one looked even thicker than the one Surya lent Leo. “You put a team together. Remember what I said about loyalty. Hire as you see fit, equip yourself as you see fit. Consider this your first promotion, Leo. You’re not just personal security, you’re a Security Squad Leader.”

Leo picked up the credit card. He knew the first person he’d want for his team. “Can I pull someone from a different division? I know an excellent security employee named Bethany. She currently works in this building.”

Romus groaned. “Thousand foot view, Leo. Make your own decisions.”

Leo nodded. “Understood. I won’t let you down, sir.”

Romus snubbed out his cigar on his desk. It burned a hole in the wood but Romus didn’t even seem to care. “I need to make two things clear to you, Leo. This isn’t some game. Consider it your next Interview. If you fail at this mission, I will have you killed.”

The look in Romus' eyes showed that he was deadly serious. Romus waved Leo away. Leo stood up and backed out of the room. “Understood.”

As Leo put his hand on the door, Romus shouted after him. “One more thing. If I find out you aren’t actually a Holgeld, I’ll kill you myself.”