Conspiracy
We wish for the God Queen’s reign to end. We have lost our teeth. Our purpose was never subservience. Never compromise.
It’s late when I finally drag myself back to my dorm. I’d rather be getting to know Cass, but it didn’t seem right to show up at her quarters. She never came to find me after the meeting, and I don’t know if that’s because she’s busy or something worse.
The thought elicits a now familiar twist in my gut. I’d spent all day training after leaving Marla’s because I couldn’t just be alone with the derailing thoughts. Yet, they’d managed to reappear in the darkness between every spirit.
I hear male voices talking way too loudly when I reach my floor. They almost sound angry, but it could just be the enhanced Remnant hearing amplifying their tone.
“They want a report by the end of the week,” one says, but it sounds like a growl. “If we miss the deadline, they’ll assume we died and will find someone else.”
“I fucking know that,” another says, this time loud enough that I think normal humans can hear them.
I creep towards the closed door which happens to be on the opposite side from where my apartment is.
“Then get this to Varun and I’ll meet with von Kemp,” the first voice says.
There’s the sound of shuffling and I step into the shadows. The realm now holds comforting familiarity—which is a large difference from even a few weeks ago—and the small portal is enough to peer through.
Two figures move from the open door, and it shuts before I can see anything beyond the entrance.
The first figure looks like a were-person, though it’s tough to distinguish from silhouette alone. Especially since they don’t often take human forms.
The other might have been a vampire if I didn’t know there weren’t any here. They look like Varun with more hair and possibly a few more remaining neurons.
The two stomp up the hall going the opposite direction from my impromptu cover.
I carefully step back out and lean down the hall, listening as their voices fade. The door is locked when I try it. It’s even strangely solid when I lean my shoulder into it.
Frowning, I reach for one of the spirits parading around in my spirit realm. The ghostly impression manifests beside me and I give it a little forward head nod.
Like a well-trained cattle dog, the spirit disappears through the door, and I hear the mechanism of the lock turn.
“Huh,” I whisper, pushing the door open. “That was easier than I expected.”
I swear the spirit rolls its eyes at me before vanishing.
“Cheeky—” I begin but freeze when I see the room.
Maps line every wall. It’s New Chicago but in like six different flavors.
One that looks like the underground railroads that used to exist before the Second Disruption.
One that’s clearly the sewage systems and Affliction piping that spans the city.
And one that looks like a sky-view of the buildings with markings at the Guild, DAEMON, and the NCPD amongst others.
And the final map is one of what I can only imagine is the Citadel with all of its other tunnels and passages.
Marked along it are access points, which apparently includes more than just the one elevator.
“Fuck,” I hiss as I pull out my dPhone and snapping photos of each of the walls. Then of the other absurdly damning materials along the tables.
If these guys wanted an award for “most obvious coup attempt” they’d win first place.
I back out of the room and close the door behind me.
My mind runs at warp speed as I jog down the stairs and back into the main cavern. People still swarm the streets like it’s mid-day, but they look decidedly less sober.
Turning in place, I try to figure out where Cass might be this time of night. Or morning.
Fuck, I’m tired.
The Cradle seems like the most obvious, followed by her own room. I have no idea if she even sleeps. It would be pretty understandable if her power alone kept her sustained.
Her bed was really fucking comfortable, though, so that would be a huge waste.
I make for the council building, trying not to look too obvious that I’m in a hurry. No one stares at me anymore, and I take heart in the fact that Marla had been right. I’m amongst my own people now.
It takes a few minutes, but I finally reach the entrance to the large basin with the Cradle pushed up beside it.
At the center of the basin are a group of people that look legitimately sinister. Which might be comedic if it weren’t a bunch of people with powers capable of bringing down the cavern.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” Gareth von Kemp asks, beaming at me when I get a little too close to their group.
I glance over at entrance to the Cradle, hoping that Cass is there and that this isn’t some wild ass goose chase.
“Is there something you need, Gareth?” I ask, figuring if Cass comes this way, I can just ditch this weirdo, but it wouldn’t do to piss him off right away.
“I heard a rumor, acolyte,” he says, grin turning a bit predatory as he uses the term.
“Those are dangerous,” I say, nearing the group, but keeping the Cradle within view. “Sometimes they get people killed.”
“I heard a rumor that you’re the Dark One,” he responds, apparently ignoring the threat. “That before you showed up here as Hiraeth, you were one of Nye Verden’s finest.”
I turn my full attention on the man and notice as his posse of followers spread out a little. I don’t recognize any of them, but they look powerful enough to be a problem.
And not to mention I have no idea what Gareth himself can do.
“Of course I am,” I say, keeping my tone neutral. “What about it?”
Even Marla and Trish had known. Hell, the only reason Ty didn’t is because he’s preoccupied with school and work. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone knew.
Gareth, though, looks as though he’s won the war of semantics. “I wonder just how dangerous you really are, Hiraeth.”
“Are you trying to find out, or?” I ask, genuinely confused where he’s going with this.
“No,” he says, smiling broadly. “I just wanted to confirm a bit of hot goss’ as they say.”
I can’t help the way my lip turns at his behavior. The guy is downright gross.
“Is there a reason why you’re holding court in the basin?” I ask, glancing at the men now definitely fanning out. “Or did you all just happen to run into each other?”
“Oh,” he says, making a show of looking around. “No, we just were on our way to the bars. We had a pretty important meeting after the archons left. You know, Council things.”
I raise my eyebrows at the implication, but he continues undeterred.
“You wouldn’t know much about the goings-on here, being new and all. Though, I did ask why you were under Azazel’s tutelage. Guess the mage was just doing something nice for their lover.”
“Their what?” I ask, wondering if I heard him right.
“You didn’t know?” Gareth asks, glancing around at the others.
Like this is some sort of known secret. “Azazel and Bloody Mary go way back. They’ve been together for years, though it’s one of those hush-hush type of secrets.
Since the God Queen recruited you, it makes sense that Azazel would be the one to train you. ”
My ears ring with his words, and my stomach pitches unevenly.
“You okay, acolyte?” Gareth asks, grin becoming ghastly. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but both of them are taken—if that’s what you’re wondering.”
Gareth guffaws as he turns to his group.
“Off to the bars, gentlemen.”
And, with that, Gareth von Kemp saunters away like he hadn’t just dropped the world on my head.
I turn to the Cradle and wonder if it’s worth even telling Cass now.
Or whatever her name is.
I’d never been cheated on. But as my feet find the stairs to the recessed meeting room, I wonder if it’s supposed to hurt this much. I guess it makes sense, since life had started to look a little less bleak.
It’s time for another train wreck.
Though that would require Cass and I to have agreed on what we are. And we hadn’t. Since it kinda just started today.
And I had really wanted it to mean something.
God, I should have listened to my gut from the beginning. Marla and Trish were going to be paying for this with ice cream and wine.
“Fucking idiot,” I grumble, taking the stairs to the room behind the Cradle’s seating.
Familiar voices reverberate down the hall as I near the door that the councilors had gone through.
“I get that, but I do not understand—” Azazel’s voice sounds monotone, but I can hear the spike of anxiety.
“I would not expect you to,” Cass sounds downright hysterical. “That is the issue.”
“We have never had this problem before,” Azazel says, and I feel that sickly feeling in my chest again.
We.
“Because you do not feel a need for connection like I do,” Cass says, voice giving way to sadness that tears at my heart.
And I almost open the door.
There’s a spat of silence before Cass huffs out a sigh.
“We have been together for a long time, Aaron.”
Or maybe Erin. Or something else.
“And this has never been an issue before. None of the others—”
“Because they were not—” she huffs out again.
And I realize I’m not the one she cheated on.
I’m the one she’s cheated with.
The night of the dinner with Percy flashes unbidden through my mind. Of overhearing the truths that were kept from me.
“I do not understand it, but I get that you need it.”
Azazel approves of her cheating? Aaron? Or whatever their name is.
“Not need, Aaron. No, if I needed it, I could get it elsewhere. Outside of the Citadel. I want—”
I back away from where I stood beside the door. Fuck it.
I don’t want to hear this anymore.
“She is—” I hear Azazel’s voice and the door swings open.
But I’m already a few feet away.
Cassandra sees me and, instead of looking ashamed or embarrassed, her face splits into a wide, genuine grin.
And then it falls at the look on my face. Which probably has to be abject horror and disgust.
Because that’s the feeling trying to worm its way up my throat.
“I’m sorry,” I say, bowing my head and unsure of how to treat this woman who’s played with my heart one too many times. “I didn’t mean to invade on a—”