Chapter One #2
The clan chief blinked. “Yes. You just mapped it.”
“Correct.”
“Understood. Glass supports it will be, as close to the walls as we can get without touching.”
“That’s it.” She felt her phone vibrate. “Huh. I suppose I will see you tomorrow.”
Oory smiled. “Hannah accepted?”
“Jennel did. She’s the homeowner?”
“Yes. She’s dating our speaker, who is a member of an XIA team. Well, and she’s with the entire team.”
Izzy chuckled. “That explains the fae energy in the space. I hear they are ravenous.”
“She made good matches with them.”
“Good. I will put wards up, but folks always try to poke their way in.” She answered a few more questions and looked at Oory.
“Do you guys have any construction teams around here? The Lees’ dance card is regrettably full, and apparently, the minotaur king could send guys, but the ceilings are too low for the horns. ”
Oory nodded. “We can get some together. Why?”
“Because I am going to eradicate all smoke-damaged and fire-damaged wood and replace it. The inspector will arrive just after I finish to check the work, and then it can be rebuilt. They are going to need outer walls and a new roof sharpish.”
Oory nodded. “Got it. I will talk to Day-ek about who he would like climbing all over his lady’s property.”
Izzy looked at her before putting her light lenses on. “Orcs just have to bring it around to sex.”
“Most species do. We are just very direct about it.” Oory chuckled. “You don’t have a partner?”
Orcs were nosy, so she just got to the basics. “Um, no. Echoes of a brutal encounter, I believe, is how orcs say it.”
Oory suddenly got motherly. “Are you okay?”
“It was decades ago, but I don’t let myself get into that situation. So, work and hobbies. Lots of fun.”
“Decades? How old are you, chicken?”
Izzy laughed. “Forty. I know. I look sixteen. Bad genes.” She got up, made sure everything was accounted for, and closed the hatch.
“Right. I will see you tomorrow. Please make sure that your people aren’t inside the house.
They will end up outside a lot bloodier than when they went in.
Mostly in one piece, although limbs have been lost before. ”
“Noted.”
“Well, I will see you tomorrow. Good day, Clan Chief.”
She got into her green car with black trim and, when the driveway was clear, backed up and got out of the orc community. While Oory had been direct, there were six other locals who were casually out on their porches and watching her leave. Tight communities were stressful.
She carefully drove home, past the minotaur mansion, down the lane, past the Ganger house, the abandoned farm that was coming to life again, and then to her grandmother’s estate. Well, it was her estate now.
She got home, started a meal on low in the oven, and then took a basket full of food and walked it to the edge of the property between her and the farmhouse. She sat and smiled when the kobold showed up. “Hey, Abert.”
“Miss Izzy! You are back.”
“Yeah. I brought my grandma with me.”
“Isn’t she...”
“Dead? Yes. But I need her. I need someone to anchor to so that I don’t have another episode. It took me a decade to get out of the last one.”
“You are looking well and wearing both skins.”
“Yeah. I have had them bound to balance, but they hate it. Both dark, but one is angry and the other pure mischief. I have to feed them equally.”
“And, both are dark energy.”
“Yes. The dryad effect is small but how I make my living. Your house seems perky again.”
Abert was excited. “Yes. A dark elf has purchased it, and he and his mate are moving in with his siblings. The others who wish to ease into the modern world will begin in the old silver mine.”
“Well, if you need any new structure, let me know. I am happy to provide it.”
“Thank you. I want to provide them with some privacy or a folly or something. Hannah will tell me, but they are still moving in. They are planning a huge party once they are fully moved in. I believe it is called a housewarming. I know they are inviting the Gangers. I am certain they will invite you as well.”
“I am lying low and just doing structural repairs to homes right now.” She smiled at her old friend. “It is enough. People are hard.”
“Yes, but I am really enjoying the energy that they bring out. You could rent out rooms in your grandmother’s home.”
“I could, but then I would have to meet with others. I like my solitude.”
“Don’t believe her. She doesn’t want to remain.” Her grandmother’s voice was irritated. “Don’t look surprised, Izzy. This is still my home, and I can walk every inch of it. I saw you making the basket for Abert.”
“Morilina, you are looking very spry, considering.”
“I lived two hundred and seventy years, which is impressive for a human mage, Abert. I see she has been sending you care packages.”
Izzy blushed.
Abert blinked and smiled. “That was you? I wondered. Well, you have kept me alive for the last twenty years. It is appreciated.”
“It was the least I could do. You taught me dirty words in all those languages growing up.”
Abert laughed. “That was just fun, until we got caught. So, how long will you let your grandmother suffer?”
Izzy looked to her grandmother. “Are you suffering?”
“Dearest one, there are other things I could be doing. I have finished with this world and need to leave it. You need to live without me.”
Izzy looked at her, and a tear tracked down her cheek. “Then, go. Love you, Grandma.”
Inside the house, the crystal that held Morilina shattered.
“Oh, Izzy, I didn’t mean...” Her grandmother faded and disappeared.
Izzy sat and sobbed quietly.
Abert said, “Come here. I can at least hold you.”
Isocar dragged in a deep breath. “I have work tomorrow. I need to go meditate. I just wasn’t sure that the new property holders were feeding you.”
“Hannah feeds me well, but this is a welcome treat. Thank you.”
“I am glad you are being taken care of.” She wiped her cheeks.
“Are you alone now, Isocar?”
“She was the last thing holding me here.”
“You seem different.”
“Oh, I went to a wedding that woke a bunch of demigods. I wasn’t in the ritual, so nothing happened. I also wasn’t natural to the region. That seemed to be a factor.”
“Are you sure. No one knows where you come from.”
“Pretty sure. I didn’t feel anything from the people there. Usually, when I am near a species I am related to, I can feel it.” She smiled and sniffed. “I am closer to goblin than anything else I have bumped into.”
“Ah, so the darker side of things.”
“Yes. I bumped into a fae a few years ago, and it does explain a few things. I am on the darker side of that as well.”
“But you still don’t...”
“Socialize? No. After that one disastrous encounter, I don’t want to do that again.”
“I am sure that there are non-brutal males who would suit you?”
“I don’t want to go shopping.”
He sighed. “Well, you are strong. I know that you released your grandmother to end your pain and hers, but you need to grieve.”
“I will grieve after my assignment. Tomorrow, I get to let some power loose. When I am depleted, it will be easier to let my emotions loose.”
He nodded. “Well, I will tell the new property owners about you. They need to know what to ignore when the light show starts.”
“Oh, I don’t do that anymore.”
Abert looked sad. “I see. It was beautiful.”
“And that is what attracted him. He thought it was beautiful, too.”
“Oh, honey.”
She chuckled and pushed up to standing. “That’s in the basket, too. Two varieties, sunflower and buckwheat.”
He sighed. “This conversation isn’t over.”
“I will bring you a care package in a week or so. No hard feelings?”
“No. None. But if the neighbours come over and want to borrow a cup of sugar, don’t attack them. Just accept that there are new people in the area who might just want to be friends.” Abert smiled, his canine features bright. “Thanks for the care package.”
“You are welcome. Now, go tend to your home.”
“You do the same. Do something good with your grandmother’s containment. She was a good woman who loved you very much.”
“I know. I loved her. She was all I had left.”
Abert’s shoulders slumped. “There is more to life than the dead, Izzy.”
She nodded and said over her shoulder, “I will let you know if I find it.”
With that, she returned to the house and checked on her dinner. It still had half an hour to go in the oven before it was eating temperature. The silence in the house was incredible.
She went to her grandmother’s crystal and gathered it in a piece of silk. “I am sorry it was abrupt, Grandma, but I needed to be angry, or I would have cried for days.”
Izzy took the shards and put them and the silk into a box, warding it for safety. “I will bring you to the cemetery as soon as I finish my assignment tomorrow. You can rest.”
There was no response, but there couldn’t be. Her grandmother was gone.
She walked to the kitchen with the box and set it on the counter. “I am eating. Promise.”
Izzy set her place at the table, got some iced tea, and when her meal was ready, she pulled the small casserole out and walked it to the table with oven mitts. She was about to take the first bite when there was a knock at the door.
Izzy pulled on her human glamour and walked to the door. A woman with red hair and a dark elf were on her porch. She smiled and opened the door. “Hello. You are Hannah and Hannah’s dark elf.”
The male looked like he engaged in bodybuilding and never skipped face day. He smiled. “Agent Neekil. We are your new neighbours.”
“And Abert is a squealer. Come on in.”
She led them into the kitchen and said, “Not to be rude, but I have to finish my dinner, or tomorrow will be a disaster, and you will have wasted your deposit on the restoration.”
Hannah thudded into a chair next to her while Neekil prowled around.
“Wait. You are Isocar Lavrel? Abert just mentioned you as Izzy.”
Izzy smiled and swallowed some of her mac and cheese with pulled pork. “I have known him a while. I grew up here with the son of his last owner. He passed twenty years ago.”
Hannah looked at her. “How old are you?”
“Fortyish. No one knows for sure. I was adopted.” Izzy kept eating. “Just in case the agent runs a background check on me. I am not surprised by it.” She looked up. “But I have committed manslaughter, so that will show up.” She spelled her name.
Hannah frowned. “What happened?”
“I fought back.”
Hannah looked at Izzy and gave a slight nod of her head. Hannah smiled. “Good.”
“Yup. Then I went nuts for a decade, lost all members of my family but one, and have only now come back, just in time to hold my grandmother’s hand as she passed. There. One compressed bio.”
Hannah blinked. “Wow.”
“Well, you should get to know your neighbours. I already know that you are a member of the Lee construction family, got possessed by the guy who is looking for cookies, and then ended up transformed into a war companion dark elf. No kids yet, but he’s really trying. You are no slouch yourself.”
Hannah paused. “That’s really precise.”
Izzy pointed one hand at her own head. “Proximity seer.”
“Oh. I thought that was a dark fae trait.”
She took a huge mouthful of her dinner and dropped her glamour. “Better?”
Neekil froze. “Fucking hell. What made you?”
“No idea. Foundling. Probably because they saw this.” She drew her fingers around her face. “I was found at less than three weeks old, but I was so small, they don’t know when I was born. It was obviously a home birth.”
Hannah frowned. “So, how many adopted siblings do you have?”
“Nine. They all got the hell out of dodge when Grandma adopted me.”
Hannah frowned. “Wait. What?”
“She was already two hundred and couldn’t adopt me as a child, so she adopted me as a grandchild and made me her sole heir.” She chuckled. “Boy, were the siblings pissed.”
Hannah was staring and didn’t seem to notice her own glamour had slipped. Her skin was halfway between Izzy and Neekil, but her hair and eyes remained her own.
Izzy finished her meal and held out her hand. “Pleased to meet you, neighbour.”
She touched Hannah’s hand and downloaded her entire lineage history into her mind. She grinned.
Hannah stared at her hand. “I felt... I don’t know what?”
“A cool, sweet, minty breeze?”
“Yeah.”
Neekil walked up and stuck out his hand. “My turn.”
She exhaled and took his hand, bracing herself for the onslaught of lust and recent history with Hannah, other lovers, battles, family, and she went all the way back to his origin. “Dude, your mother was not quite fast enough.”
He paused and burst out laughing. “True. She’s still irritated that she tripped.”
Hannah blinked. “What am I missing?”
“He was conceived after a footrace. His mother tripped over some suddenly appearing vines. His father had horticultural skills.”
Hannah laughed. “You went back that far?”
“I went back to when his last brother was born. Dark elves recount all of the details of the mother’s accomplishments when a child is born. Every battle, competition, child, and their accomplishments are all declared as hers.”
Neekil grinned. “It’s a huge event. With a large enough colony, there is a party every night.”
“Ah. Even with the one child per father rule?”
Neekil nodded. “Even with that.”
“Interesting. I will be on the lookout for celebrations.”
Hannah smiled. “Speaking of, we are having a housewarming on the weekend.”
“Great. I will put in earplugs.” She picked up her phone and grimaced. “That is the full moon. That might be a problem for me.”
Hannah blinked. “Why?”
“Oh, people can see me, and I won’t be able to keep a glamour up all night.”
Hannah nodded. “I will tell the guys to keep it to themselves.”
Neekil added, “I have to know, why aren’t you reacting to me?”
Hannah laughed, and Izzy grinned. She told him the answer, and he was surprised. The expression on his dark face was amusing.