Chapter Two #3
Izzy shrugged. “Maybe. You would have to arrange it. They don’t take my calls.”
He nodded. “We will get in touch with them. When do you want to do it?”
“Her birthday is on the twenty-ninth. We could do it then. I could make her favourites.”
Lenora said, “I will bring the hot water.”
Izzy giggled. She paused. “Oh, you two know Jennel?”
Lenora nodded. “She and Benny have bumped into each other. She’s new to town but making a tremendous impression. Her son has a stunning intellect for an orc, and she is a seer for the XIA.”
Jennel’s expression must have shown her surprise.
Dr. Emile smiled. “We are on the boards of most of the universities around here. We notice when the same name pops up over and over again.”
Jennel grinned proudly. “Corit has a plan, and he will fulfill it. Do not worry about that.”
Lenora had a protective arm around Izzy. “We will take her to the lab and bring her home when we have started our discovery. Well, we will ask Benny and her team to bring her home.”
Izzy said, “I could just ride one of the—uh—horses—home. It is only two houses down.”
Lenora nodded. “You can do that, but you will be tired.”
“I know. If I can rest in a guestroom for a few hours, would that be okay?” Izzy asked softly.
Emile touched her cheek. “Of course, Isocar.”
Izzy turned to Jennel, but Dem-rah said, “Sit. Eat. Your food is going cold, and if I remember, you need to schedule your meals, or you just forget.”
“Yes, sir.”
That Lenora and Emile just took seats and waited said a lot. Jennel smiled. “Well, if you are in good hands, I am heading back to my shiny and repaired house.”
Lenora smiled. “You are still doing that?”
Izzy came out of her nachos and spoke with a full mouth.
“It pays the bills, so I don’t have to dip into the inheritance.
I can now get frameworks to pass inspections and not have any leaves.
I completely sever the connection to me and the earth, just leaving new wood where the damage had been.
Now it is the delight of every inspector. ”
Emile grinned. “I might ask you to put some additions on the dower house. Benny is eventually going to start producing little weirdos, as she puts it. The Ganger legacy will continue, eventually.”
Lenora smiled. “Grandkids. I have seen them, and they are going to show up... eventually.”
“Long life spans can really be a bitch.”
Dem-rah added, “I don’t know. They are fun. They let me have my little goddaughter here delivered into my hands. I would not have met Jennel otherwise. Well, we would have met but in different circumstances that did not allow us to become family.”
Jennel smiled and patted one of his gnarled hands. “Big weirdo.”
He laughed. “Oh, it was Izzy who got me to put the sauce into those little packets. She said the little cups dumped too much, and making them exclusive to this stand was genius. I sell thousands of dollars in the sauce alone per month. She got me to build an empire.”
Jennel blinked. “I had no idea. It has just always been that way.”
“Izzy is older than she looks.” Dem-rah smiled his terrifying smile. “I must say that mixed-blood women with a lot of dark fae are a lot of fun to raise.”
Emile grinned. “They certainly are.”
Izzy just kept eating until the stack of chips, meat, cheese, and vegetables was gone. She fastidiously wiped her fingers and then her mouth. “Right. Ready to go.”
Jennel sat as Izzy left with the Gangers. “Godfather, what just happened?”
“You reintroduced old friends. Isocar used to babysit Benny. She was perfect for it. She wasn’t triggered by Emile when he shared his soul with Lenora after she died, so she took care of little Benny, along with the rest of her family.
As she said, she only lived two houses away.
She’s on the other side of Hannah’s new property. ”
“And the portal mage has the home at the end of the road. Then we are around the corner from Jennor’s place. Too bad Hannah could only make one sale there this year. Those homes are enormous.”
Jennel thought about the minotaur and blushed. “Not just the homes.”
Dem-rah laughed. “They will be good to you and for you. Now get home and get writing. You have work to do.”
Jennel watched Izzy get into the car with the Gangers and drive off. “Damn. I didn’t get a chance to tell her I was paying for it.”
“If you think they are going to charge her, you are sorely mistaken. They have been waiting for this moment. Her grandmother bound us all. No interfering until she asked, and now, she’s asking.”
“Yeah, I mean, I always knew what I was. All parts of me, but to not know and to be so different? That’s rough.”
Dem-rah nodded. “It is indeed. Your men are asleep?”
“Yeah. How did you know?”
“It’s daylight, and you are on your own. I am expecting them to roll up any moment.”
She checked her phone. “No, but Reymark is texting from under the bed and asking me to join him in the shadows.”
“Sounds fun.”
“It sort of does, but the shadows end up inside me and then things get crazy.”
He laughed, and she finished her food, fed the trash to the trash troll, and went back to hug Dem-rah before she headed back to be groped by shadows with limited boundaries.