Chapter Four #4
He moved on to other busy work. Endless proposals and forms needing his signature, which meant a few hours of dedicated reading and reviewing before he could officially sign his name.
The myriad of investigations and inquiries and interviews to get to the bottom of Yarrow Graves’s corruption.
A new drug circulating the populace with unprecedented side-effects of increased strength and power in those that survived injection.
Those that didn’t would suffer an immediate and painful death.
The aldermen had been trying to convene on the subject since last week, with scheduling conflicts proving difficult.
Kieran looked at the clock on his wall. Once again, he had worked well into his afternoon break.
After several minutes of reading the same sentence, Kieran decided to retrieve Sera for lunch. He had an hour before his round of meetings started to fill the latter half of his day, and he learned it wasn’t wise to attend long, drawn out lectures with an empty stomach.
He opened his door and was greeted by a sight only marginally worse than not finding Sera.
And that sight was Willa Shen chatting with her.
“I’m serious, do it exactly the way I told you. Let it sit overnight. That’s the key.” Sera turned to him, a lovely smile spreading on her face. “Kieran, how good of you to join us.”
Kieran?
Willa Shen, the Summer Alderman, leaned on Sera’s empty desk. The box of supplies was discarded to the floor, untouched. Willa flipped her long, chestnut hair over a shoulder. “Where have you been hiding this one, North?”
“What are you doing?” He ignored Willa, and directed his question at Sera.
“You left me here with nothing to do. I passed out for the first hour, but then I met this charming woman. I don’t think we exchanged names yet, just some beauty tips.”
Ah. Neglected to give her name? Sounded right.
Willa Shen was as opposite Kieran as their respective courts.
She was sunny, cheerful, and personable.
Always the life of the party. And often neglecting to be forthright about her identity with those she deemed ‘the help’ in an attempt to retain common ground.
Willa called it ‘approachable.’ Kieran called it lying.
“That is Willa Shen,” he stated.
Willa threw him a glare, lips pursed.
Sera’s head turned back to Willa in slow motion. “Willa… Shen? The Willa Shen?”
Willa smiled, pulling her scathing glare from Kieran as she held out a hand to Sera. “Pleasure to meet you.”
“Sera Blair.”
“Sera Blair,” Willa repeated. “That’s a pretty name.”
Gods above. Willa was also an incorrigible flirt responsible for more broken hearts than productive initiatives.
Her associations knew no limitations and she might have single-handedly obliterated the divides between the races on conquest alone if the world cared for causal flings.
However, to those in power, marriage was the standard and there had not been any officially declared mix-unions since Unity had been renamed.
“Have they agreed on a date to reconvene about the Divinity Crisis?” he asked, sticking to business so Willa would leave.
Her demeanor shifted, as it tended to whenever work was mentioned. “No. Asche had some scheduling conflicts.”
“The longer we delay, the more likely this becomes an epidemic.”
Willa rolled her luminous green eyes. “My gods, you’re so dramatic. There’s always going to be some dangerous drug or other on the streets. It’s not like we can stop people from ingesting what they want. There are way more important things to worry about.”
“Such as?”
Willa’s gaze narrowed. She wasn’t about to answer him in front of a civilian. Not the way she wanted.
“This is our job. We are elected to figure out the solutions to problems in Unity. A very unstable drug that can give the user untested power or violently melt you from the inside out, is exactly our problem.” He was growing impatient.
Angry. None of the aldermen took this job seriously, Willa least of all.
Yarrow Graves had appeared serious. At least, while he was playing at beloved alderman of the Night Fae.
Unfortunately, he was revealed to be a traitor, murderer, anarchist, and a long list of other crimes before his sudden death a couple weeks ago.
Graves had all of high society and most of parliament fooled into thinking he was there to help the city.
Kieran included, though he liked to think it was due to preoccupation rather than actual ignorance.
He had no reason to distrust Graves and their paths rarely crossed outside of meetings and the odd social function.
He had never liked Graves, but that wasn’t the same as suspecting him.
If Kieran had suspected his treachery, things might have ended differently.
Perhaps without a new lethal drug circulating the population.
“You are not responsible for everyone and everything in Unity.” Willa shook her head. “You even blame yourself for Graves, admit it.”
Kieran did not respond, but he allowed traces of annoyance to slip through his stoic facade.
“North, he had us all fooled, okay? You can’t expect to stop a complex political plot when you spend all your time in your office trying to decrease the amount of iron in the city.”
Sera seemed intently focused on the conversation, chin innocently resting on her clasped fingers. Kieran met her eyes, his mood sour and she gestured for them to continue. “No, please, I’ve been starved of news while holed up in North’s house—”
Willa guffawed and it was most unbecoming. “She is living with you?”
Kieran hated this. Hated everything that was happening. Of all the people to find Sera.
He replied, “For the moment.”
“I have so many questions,” Willa looked like a child at yuletide awaiting presents. “I don’t know where to begin.”
“No. We are done with this conversation.” He was about to return to his original reason for leaving his office, food, when Sera barreled onward with her own questions.
“What’s Divinity? I come from the sort of places where drugs are the trade, so to speak, and I’ve never heard of it.”
Willa, obviously eager to keep the conversation flowing, answered, “Graves’s little side project.
We’re calling it Divinity, because it’s a potion using the Divine’s blood.
Apparently, it can make users incredibly strong.
Same way the Divine’s blood makes guardians stronger than humans.
Only, this stuff kills more often than it works.
And no one’s using it to save kittens from trees. ”
“A terrible mess would aptly describe the situation,” Kieran added. There were no laws in place for Divinity. Guardians would be targeted for their blood. The potential crimes and violence against them were best not dwelled on at the present.
“Always so succinct,” Willa said.
“So it’s not just me?” Sera commented with a grin. Kieran looked between the two women and abhorrence was not adequate to describe his regard for this situation.
“Until you have proper authorization, you need me to get into the mess hall,” Kieran said to Sera, ignoring their conspiratorial glances.
Willa was obnoxious in the best of times.
She sought to ruffle his feathers at every turn, though why he could not figure out.
Perhaps she thrived on chaos or she was just vexatious.
Not that he ever rose to her teasing. Willa had all the effect of a persistent fly, easily swatted away.
Well, she was easily swatted away when she didn’t have an ally.
“Or you can stay here and skip lunch,” he said, refusing to rise to their combined obnoxiousness.
Kieran turned and started for the mess hall. Behind him, he could hear their shared whispers.
“I hate when he does that,” Sera said.
“Get used to it,” Willa murmured back. Then he heard Sera’s steps catching up to him. Once she was in line with him he picked up his pace. Kieran sensed her fidgeting, sparing her a glance every few moments. She was bursting to say something, so he stopped.
“What is it?”
“Can I see inside the Spire?” she asked in a flustered rush.
This again. It was just a building. He was hungry. Annoyed. He should tell her no. But then, it was hard to meet Seraphina Blair’s eyes and deny her. “This way.”
Her excited squeal and little, bounding steps should not have filled him with warmth.
He was not indulging her for her happiness, but for his sanity.
She would never have let it go if he resisted, so it was best to get it out of the way now.
If it made her happy, well, there was nothing he could do about it.
The door to the Spire wasn’t locked, as inside was nothing more than an auditorium.
Most of the building was plain and empty.
The dual staircases spiraling toward the top looked impressive at first, he supposed, but their only purpose was for maintenance and cleaning.
There were no views or windows up there and no one except service workers even bothered to climb them.
It was blessedly cold, though. A chill of cooler air from the higher elevation blew through narrow slatted openings designed to allow airflow but keep out animals and rain.
Sera sprinted to the center of the main chamber, a sunken dais surrounded by the tiered rows of seating.
Craning her head, she stared up into the towering ceiling and started to spin, arms outstretched.
The lanterns were off, the only light was from the glow of lumenore—a natural, glossy stone-like formation from the Wilds.
They would glow eternally, without need of fuel.
Kieran lingered by the door, allowing her the time to enjoy herself. Sera found joy so easily. In such a mundane thing. He observed while he waited, noting how she explored with wide, curious eyes.