45th of Anael, the first month of snow.
City of Dagon
Brandywine laughed as she flew from the sewer, did a pair of loop-d-loops, and followed them up with a barrel roll, before settling down on a rooftop near where the sewer workers would eventually climb out. She giggled for a while longer, then quieted down when the workers crawled out from the grate. “That was a bit of a lark. Now what should I do?” She stared off into the distance, mind whirling. “Max is busy working on the finding stick. Brianna is still working on a relief effort for the “locally displaced workers”, as she calls them, and the boy is off teaching the orphans how to fish…”
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Elsewhere in the city, Grendel sneezed, then looked to the children, “Sorry about that. Now when you are trying to cast out, you…”
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In the Great library, Maxwell scratched his nose, and blew it for good measure.
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Brandy flew through the city, terrorizing the random cat or dog as opportunity allowed, until she found herself at the old cistern that was the supposed source of the elemental problem. She flew down into its depths, and studied the spell work, shook her head, and flew off to terrorize another pub.
-
Lady Brianna Smithson sat at a desk in an office, inside of a small rented warehouse, and filled out paperwork. Some of the forms were just blank sheets of paper with a single line of instructions on the top, while others were long forms that asked too many questions about unimportant things. A young woman, Deloris by name, knocked on the office door before poking her head in. “Ma’am? Your eleven o’clock has arrived.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Splendid!” Bri stood from the desk, “And he’s even early!” She all but ran, as ladies weren’t supposed to run, down the stairs and into the waiting arms of her husband. “Max! It’s so good to see you! How is the research?”
Maxwell hugged his wife, smiling, “We’re almost done with the prototype. Bjorn’s work made it a lot earlier, especially when he showed up again with his design notes.” The couple walked arm in arm down the road towards a small diner that served a superb fish stew.
“That is good news.” Bri responded, clutching his arm tight. “How long do you think it will take to work the problems out?”
“A couple more days at most.”
“Bearing in mind that it may need field adjustments, how long do you think it will take to find and capture, or destroy, the elemental?”
“Say two days to work out all the kinks, then another three days to find the thing, that would be five. Another day or two to trap it, gives us seven. A day or two to dispose of it gives us nine. I think, even with probable need of field adjustments and false starts, we should be done in ten days at most.”
“Good. Good.” Bri smiled at her husband. “Most of my work has been handed off to my subordinates at this point. I really only have to do some of the smaller tweaks here and there, and fill out the government’s stupid extra complex forms.”
Maxwell shook his head, “Bloody idiots and their bloody paperwork.”
“But it makes the government function.” Bri replied. “Although I swear, if you stole all of its ink, a government would grind to a halt!”
The couple stepped into the diner and made pleasant conversation over their meal.
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Grendel sat on a rock. The rock wasn’t particularly comfortable, but it wasn’t the sand, and it commanded a good view of where the kids were fishing. The youngest of the three orphans held an oversized rod in his hands, and was trying to cast it out as far as he could, while the other two larger children already had their lines in the water. As the four waited for the fish to bite, Grendel began telling tales of Maxwell the Heretic. He had just finished one about the Max and the Green Man when one of the poles bent. The four of them ran down the beach to the pole, and Grendel pulled. The pole bent almost to the breaking point, but held as the four pulled the line in. When what they had caught was dragged up onto the beach, all four screamed, and ran for the docks.
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Max and Bri had just stepped from the diner when they heard the screams of panicked children. Max, reactive as ever, dashed down the street towards the noise, and at a more sedate pace, Bri followed him. When they reached the docks, well, the remnants of the docks anyway, they were almost bowled over by Grendel and his lot.
“Max!” Grendel almost shrieked, “We just pulled a body from the water.”
“Then why are you screaming?” Max asked, a frown tugging at his lips.
“Because it’s the captain of the cruise ship.”