Predemcer

Dubois was careful, but he was also very easily influenced by Lady L. As knights of the great lord, we needed to do a better job in protecting our domain, and Dubois had shown that his easily persuasive persona could get in the way of our ultimate mission. I didn’t bother pouring my opinions in the meeting to overpower the seemingly unbreakable duo, because my voice wasn’t as powerful a weapon as my intuition. Instead, I planned on dealing with this issue on my own.

That Lady L was just as careless as Dubois, but twice as dangerous. There was a larger plan behind her eyes in that meeting, and her motivations were not as pure as she wanted us to believe. I’d always had a difficult time trusting her, and that never changed. Even when we were back in our own realm, she’d always seemed a float, someone carrying along the surface and making appearances for the sake of. Being flirtatious and frisky was in her nature, but this feeling whenever I was around her was something more troubling than that….

No one else but me could see it, her beauty blinding the other members of the elite council.

I walked through the halls alone, my leather boots echoing down the stone walls of my palace. As every night, it was quiet, the songs of nature the only sounds to trickle through my windows. The corridors were dimly lit, with just a few torches brightening my marble floors. I had another knight fetch me precious intel that would facilitate my plan to annihilate the anomaly, the same knight that I was on my way to meet in my dining hall.

A block away, and I could already hear his ravenous eating from behind the double doors. The smell of sweet cakes and roasted meats wafted through my nose, and when I made my turn into the east wing, the sound grew twice as loud. I pushed open the heavy doors to find the wide yet spry Bors, the more trustworthy of the knights, gorging himself on the food laid out before him.

The table was long with various meals I had my servant girls make for him on his arrival— roasted pheasant glazed with honey, venison stew with root vegetables, fresh breads and cheeses, and fresh blood sauce to drizzle over his roasted long pig. Bors looked up from the leg of the pheasant he was voraciously tearing into, grease coating his fingers and bits of food stuck in his beard.

He gave me a wide toothy grin. “Predemcer!” his raspy voice greeted. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d join me for supper this evening?”

“We have business to tend to. I wouldn’t miss our meeting.”

He chuckled, his round belly bouncing. “Even so, it’s unlike you to be late. I’ve already finished four plates on my own! I was getting quite lonely…” He licked the back of his pudgy fingers, eyeing one of my maids as she took a plate from him filled with bones. His hungry gaze was attached to her as soon as she walked in, the drool falling from the corner of his lips catching her attention.

She tensed and jerked her eyes away from him, letting her long strawberry hair hide the worried look across her face.

“Down, Bors,” I scolded, Bors instantly jumping at my command. The hound dog needed disciplining. I didn’t appreciate him frightening my women. “I told you before, not her.”

“Oh-ey! Pardon my intrusion, but the fruit is always sweeter when forbidden!”

I flashed him a small smirk. “You best keep your gluttony at bay for Nalia.”

“Hmm,” he mumbled to himself as she sped-walked away, the smile on his face flattening. “Such a waste. She is very pretty. I bet her bones taste like honeydew…”

“If you’re done, we have pressing matters to discuss,” I interjected. He needed to focus on why I brought him here, and I took a seat across from his mess on my table to begin.

“This is splendid compensation, Pred.” He smiled again, but it was wicked and mischievous. “Give my regards to your cooks for me.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I chuckled as I poured myself a glass of red wine and reeled my back into a casual lounge in my chair. “You want a doggie bag?” I smirked, crossing my leg over the other.

“If you should be so kind?”

“If I say yes, will you quit thinking about eating my staff and focus on our issue?”

He nodded vigorously.

“All right then, you can have one cook, of my choosing.”

He grinned ear to ear as he bounced in his seat, his fingers drumming against each other in a steeple. “And, I want to watch as the others cook em!”

“Compensation well deserved if you have the intel I’m after.”

“Oh, but I do….”

“Then it’s a deal.”

He went back to ravishing his meal, crumbs showering his beard as he ate. After he cleaned his plate, he belched, patting his large stomach before he stood up to rake in his fifth plate from the plethora of food in front of me. Though lacking in manners, Bors made up for it with his skills in gathering information. This wasn’t the first time I sent him out to infiltrate The Vault, a records keeping system that was connected to the H-Tec devices. It had a multitude of purposes, each connecting our networked corporation to the masses. The Vault had information on all of our sectors for each elite head in Organization VII, including Lady L’s.

After polishing off his fifth helping, Bors leaned back in his chair and let out a satisfied sigh. “Now then, I suppose you want to hear what I learned about her sector before we share a meal?”

“I’m hungrier for information than filler food.”

He laughed. “There’s only so much flesh I can eat before it gets unbearably boring.”

“Let’s have it. What did you gather?”

“Nothing different than what Dubois said. Nero Aldeon is a student in his institution. He is stationed in Utoro, Japan, with two other classmates: a Naomi Brunsfield and a Reina Faust. Mentor, Kenji Hayashi. Everything you’d get in a standard file. Along with a multitude of gifts. More than any we’ve seen in our decades. They reside in Hayashi’s estate, a location I have yet to discover. That information isn’t even in The Vault, a request made by Hayashi himself.”

“And Lady L honored that?” I asked.

“She did. Now, this team is bunking with another team in the estate. Felix Navarro, Gunther Wolf, and Ashley Braun. All year ones. Nothing too special about them, except for Felix Navarro, one of our moles in the network.”

“How fresh is this agent?”

“A few months, but his record is squeaky clean!”

“No hiccups in a couple of months is not that impressive if you ask me.”

“The boy is a patriot! Personally, I was impressed at the amount of pacts he gathered for us! If you ask me, he’s a dime a dozen.”

“Then why is he playing a hunter?”

“He’s a double agent. We could always use a few good ones.”

“Do you have his contact information?”

“I do.”

“Does he have a transcript with Lady L?”

“Surprisingly, no.”

“How is that possible if agent Navarro is in her sector? Does she not know?”

“To be fair, he was recently displaced. He wasn’t a hunter until recently. It is possible that she is unaware of his involvement.”

“That’s an excuse. His file fell on her lap, and she’s doing nothing with it. Even after our meeting, you’d think that she’d reach out to him. Navarro is within close proximity of our target. Not pursuing the mole is just careless.”

“Felix was in Dubois’ sector before he enlisted,” he reminded me. “As all gifted are.”

“He is pardoned. Dubois, covering the US, primarily Xion, excuses him for not connecting Felix with Nero.”

He grinned. “Well, I’ve kept my end of our deal. Not only have I supplied you a means of locating your target, I gave you an inside man! I am sure you will make good use of Felix Navarro. From the looks of it, he’d been dealing with another agent, and never had the pleasure of reporting to us directly. He’s more of an under the table man, if you will. I’m sure you’d make his day when he realizes Organization VII is paying him a direct visit!”

“I won’t be visiting him,” I said. “A simple phone call would just as easily get the job done. Without knowing what we are dealing with, I’d rather we not risk exposure.”

“Really?” he sang, flashing his pearly whites at me again. “Then I take it after this conversation with Felix, you are planning to unite The Shadow Troupe?”

“The Shadow Troupe was disbanded,” I said disappointedly. Two of which died in their last mission.”

“And the one that survived is unstable and insane as shit!” he cried manically, Bors practically unable to contain himself as he shot up from his seat. “Ohhh! Predemcer! You crazy nut! I see that wild look in your eyes!” Bors cackled, his fingers grabbing onto the edge of the table as his eyes bulged excitedly out of his head. “You’re going to do it, aren’t you?! You’re going to get the band back together?! Your ultimate meta team! The omega beasts of blood!”

I snorted. “I have someone in mind I’d like to recruit,” I said, thinking back about the recent hunter report in Utoro. It was a car chase down Jinju Highway, and there was a masked girl that immediately caught my attention…. “She’ll never replace Omar or Cindara, but Ezer will set them straight.”

“I have zero doubt that fiend would send them straight to hell!” he laughed. “This Nero kid brought out the fire in you, Pred! It’s been a long while since I've seen your star team in action!”

I chuckled. “Sending them after Nero may be overkill, but… I want to make sure the job is done right.”