The Divine Gambit Ch. 14

Zoey pursed her lips in thought while she performed her set, then shook her head at me. "I'll ask them privately, but I can't imagine they would take you up."

For the remainder of the workout, Zoey seemed withdrawn and distant. Not nearly as much as the stone-faced, robotic facade she adopted during previous training sessions, merely finding a midpoint between that and the agreeable, apologetic display she had started the day with. When I brought it up as we finished the final accessory exercises of the day, she had a perfect answer.

"You're awfully hot and cold today, y'know?"

"Well, we don't really know each other. You know a bit about the human side of me from five years ago, and I know some about you filtered through my brother. So, I agree with you about taking things a little slower, getting to know each other before leaping into something serious. But, my wolf already jumped. So, some of my instincts are saying to climb into your lap and let you pet me for the rest of the time we have in the gym today and then to go home with you and rip your clothes off, even though I know that's not what I want at this moment. It wouldn't be good for the long term."

After trying to come to terms with my dragon soul's opinions over the past week, that resonated with me. Remembering just how difficult it had been to resist him during Cynthia's spontaneous interview in the diner, my only reaction was to appreciate the willpower Zoey must contain. It certainly reframed her skittish, fidgety nature as a child into an insane testament to her discipline. Your typical ten-year-old was prone to hyperactivity -- imagine being a ten-year-old with a wolf inside you baying over the squirrel twitching out the classroom window. Given her position here and her suggestions that she had been higher up the food chain in the past, I imagined that she had been recruited while she was still in high school.

The fact that her qualifications stemmed from the immense physical gifts of the wolf inside her, the uselessness of a high school diploma would only have exacerbated the issue further. Paying attention while half of your brain wants to go outside and hunt and the other half knows that sitting in the class won't help you get a job because you already had one queued up sounded incredibly challenging. It cemented my appraisal of Zoey as accomplished and driven, even though recent events suggested she was still a touch naive. I accepted the distance as we ended our day, knowing that it was good for both of us currently.

Returning home, I found a resplendent Sam still napping in our bed, her red hair splayed across the bed behind her. On her torso, Beth clung tightly to Sam's body, the smaller woman curled up against her partner. It painted a picture of peaceful serenity, starkly contrasting the chaos that created our bonds. Even though I was sure they would appreciate it, I couldn't bring myself to shatter the picturesque scene by waking them.

It did confirm something, though. If Beth and Sam were both so exhausted that they were still sleeping after noon, but I felt good enough after going to the gym that I wasn't concerned about tonight, I was generating energy somewhere. Without any doubt in my mind, Antonin's information had been incorrect. Dragons must be able to generate, store, and then process energy in their own unique way -- I had it on good authority that there was truth in the images of dragons sleeping on piles of wealth for months at a time before going on week-long campaigns of destruction that would leave even the most disciplined soldier depleted. So, there was some mechanism generating energy for me, but the wealth was a misunderstanding of the truth. Something to consider for the future, especially given that I knew more than the establishment for the moment.

Instead of bothering them, I took a relaxing shower, spending half an hour just enjoying the warm water flowing over my skin. I took the opportunity to shift slightly, interested in feeling warm water on my scales. The pool water hadn't been particularly cold -- in comparison, I wouldn't have been surprised to see icebergs floating in some of the pools I had competed in -- but I was curious about how hot water felt. At the temperature my skin was comfortable with, there was almost no difference in sensation. Thinking about it for a moment, I turned the heat up, and up, and up, well past the position Beth had used for our showers, and felt no discomfort on my scales. It wouldn't make sense for something that grew up to breathe fire to be sensitive to heat, but I felt better having experienced it and now knowing for certain.

Sam and Beth were awake when I stepped back into my room, still lounging in bed and enjoying the lazy day. Beth seemed cheery again, and while I could feel some tension lingering through our bond, on the whole, she felt significantly better than she had when we went to sleep. I had a fleeting moment of thought where I wondered if I had spent time between her thighs this morning, instead of Sam's. They both seemed playful, content, and relaxed.

Which led to several jokingly enthusiastic wolf whistles as I dropped the towel and got dressed. I was donning the suit I had worn to the open court session because it was the only appropriate garment I owned. The outfit I wore to dance last night would have worked if I had nothing else, but it was slightly too casual for what I anticipated.

They both wished me luck on the way out, and were joined by Evgenia, much to my surprise. She actually straightened out the shoulders on my jacket before I stepped outside, which shocked me even further. She followed me out into the hallway, started to say something but fumbled over her words, and retreated into the apartment, leaving me walking outside utterly bemused.

The driver from the rideshare app I used seemed nervous when I stuffed myself into his car. He acted courteously, and I probably wouldn't have noticed if I couldn't smell his concerns spreading out and filling the cabin. With the otherwise imperceptible hints, it became clear that he was anxious about speaking to me -- something I was very surprised by. It seemed strange that he would be nervous, as talking to people was at least a part-time job for him.

I understood his apprehension when he approached the massive brick wall separating the veritable mansion from the street. The wrought iron gates barring the driveway were ornate and impressively detailed -- almost enough to distract you from noticing how massive they were. I wasn't sure if a bus would be able to ram through them.

Thanking the driver and tipping him through the app, I walked up to the gate and was greeted by a stern voice over a speaker system, asking for my name and to insert my invitation. Instinctively, I responded with my birth name, and then stammered out the name on my FaeBook profile, while fumbling with the card I had. I slipped it into the slot under the speaker, and a moment later, there was an audible clack as the gate unlatched itself. The security officer told me to head up to the main entrance, which I hoped meant to follow the driveway to the imposing house.

Following the brick walkway partnered with the driveway, I was greeted by an unassuming man in a simple black suit outside an archway-covered entrance. I was quickly ushered inside, handed a glass of champagne, had my jacket held for me, a nametag clipped to my shirt pocket, and then gently nudged along into the dining room to take my place and make space for the next important person to be processed. All of which made me uncomfortable, but I suspected that might be the point. In Aisling's house, she would want everyone else to feel off balance.

In the dining room, I found my predetermined seat next to several of Aisling's familiar advisors. Antonin and Emmanuel were both there, having a heated discussion over something, which was cut short as I joined them, being welcomed warmly. When I asked Antonin why he hadn't said he would be here, he brusquely replied that he hadn't been aware his attendance was required until after our meeting yesterday. The larger man laughed and said that only Antonin could receive an invitation and think that meant attendance wasn't mandatory.

The two continued their discussion about the application of some kind of theoretical tracking magic. That was all that I could understand as they quickly delved into jargon beyond my comprehension about the pulse width of the reverberations in the ether and the signal echoes inside the capacitors of the scrying portals. After twenty minutes of their heated conversation about the practicality of these tests, another older gentleman joined us and was introduced to me as Bob.

Which was clearly not his name, as his tag read 'Vladimir,' and his broadly Eastern European accent was, while not thick, still existent. Seeing my apparent confusion, he explained that he started going by Bob when he moved to the States during the war (which I later was informed was the Crimean War of 1853). According to him, a common hypocorism for Vladimir was Vova, which looks similar to Bob when written in Cyrillic. Coincidentally, the two names had similar meanings, and it was easy for him to adapt to a Western name when he moved here. He laughed pleasantly when I admitted to struggling to adapt to my own name change, mentioning my struggles at the gate, and said he was grateful to have made the decision, as having decades of history as 'Bob' was a remarkable deterrent for suspicion during the paranoia of the 50s and 60s.

By the time he was done explaining himself to me, the majority of the other seats had been filled around the massive table with a wide selection of fantasy characters, making me feel as though I was sitting at one of the meetings in Tolkien's world, and Aisling had taken her place at the head. The opposite head remained empty, and much as a place had been set during my first dinner with her, this one was furnished even as it remained unclaimed.

Aisling opened the dinner by welcoming us all and thanking us for joining her, all with an icy cold demeanor that left no doubts about how much she enjoyed the pleasantries required. The next half hour was a whirlwind of intense discussion as various house heads and other important figures argued over tariffs and import agreements and magical election gerrymandering and aetheric infrastructure investment and FaeBook privacy management policies. All of it was over my head, but I was glad for the opportunity to observe the people I would be dealing with in the coming future. It was also interesting to see how Bob, who I was now aware was the house head for Vampires despite being a ghoul as a male, handled different individuals, changing tone and approach depending on who he was addressing. Antonin and Emmanual were regularly called upon to give subject matter opinions and to mediate between hyperbolic statements issued by the other members, but they largely remained out of the discussion otherwise.

After it seemed that all the other issues had been resolved, or at least tabled with temporary solutions, Aisling officially introduced me as the new head for dragons within the territory. Bob looked at me sharply, presumably reevaluating me now that he had my face to go with my name, but the shit hit the fan when Aisling continued right on to say that Beth, Sam, and Evgenia would be made members of my house effective immediately, legally classifying them as dragons.

The elder ghoul on my left waved away the look Aisling gave him, signalling he had no objections, but the human wizard head started ranting up a storm when Aisling looked at him. He protested not being informed about Beth and Sam before this meeting, as it was customary for new arrivals to meet with him to be vetted. When Aisling said that Sam had already been a community member, albeit not of the city itself, and that her mother was Cynthia, the wizard looked embarrassed, not that I fully grasped why.

Aisling proceeded to say that there were some anomalies with Beth and that she had personally observed the girl and decided that she was unfit to be a member of the standard wizard community at this time. The man went berserk, insisting that it was his decision to make and that he had the right to observe and evaluate the girl. Even when Antonin interjected to say that it was being done at his recommendation, the man snarled that it was "not a dark elf's place to meddle in the affairs of humans, not that it had ever stopped them trying."

Aisling let him rave about how he was being mistreated and not given the respect he deserved for a minute before gradually letting her aura leak. Antonin shivered, Emmanuel paused mid-gesture as he tried to set his glass down, and Bob inhaled and sat further up in his seat. My dragon found it amusing how difficult it was for others to weather Aisling's icy embrace, even these otherwise powerful and influential figures. He felt smugly satisfied with how effortless it was to brush aside for us.

The man across the table did not find it amusing. His back was snapped roughly to the seat as a wave of pressure leveled him and cut him off mid-sentence. Aisling informed him that at no point did he have greater authority over members of her court than the Seat did. She continued to say that the girl was such an abnormality that he should be thanking her for the headache she was saving him. She insisted that the circumstances surrounding Beth were so unique that she belonged in a mythic house on principle, and since dragon magic had a hand in her situation, it was only fitting that I be responsible for Beth.

I didn't much appreciate how Beth and Sam were being discussed, as if they were my property and we were having a disagreement over which public department I needed permits from, but I held my tongue. In this specific case, it seemed prudent to simply observe, as almost no one in attendance seemed to agree with the irate wizard. Some of the wizard's companions looked at me in consternation, wary at my reaction to his demands, but no one seemed to think I was in the wrong. They were merely concerned that a dragon may have disproportionately strong reactions to being publicly challenged like this.

When Aisling finished admonishing him, he wasn't yet satisfied with his objection. My dragon understood that, in his position now, not doubling down would make him look even weaker than if he had simply accepted from the start. He needed to get some sort of admission from either Aisling or me in order to save face. He addressed me directly and insisted that he be allowed to interview and assess the two witches, to ensure their safety and wellbeing in the community as the head of all magically inclined humans. Essentially, he suggested I might be controlling them, as a dragon, and he needed to be permitted to evaluate them, as they were witches and under his purview.

I lazily stroked my chin, appearing to be contemplating a response, while glancing at Antonin. He bobbed his head back and forth, which I took to interpret as something along the lines of either 'nothing about this situation has a precedent' or possibly 'he technically has those rights, but it is insultingly rude to make the demands.' Under the advice of my dragon, who felt there would be long-term repercussions if we outright denied him, and taking Antonin's indecipherable gesture for the hesitation that it was, I answered him.

"You may contact them and make the request. If they are interested in accommodating you, I will see that it is done. As Aisling says, the situation is more complicated than needs to be elaborated on here. Perhaps we could meet sometime in the future to discuss it ourselves and not waste everyone else's time with this matter."

The man seemed displeased but couldn't further insist, as I had given him several avenues to move forward. With that, the business seemed to be concluded, and Aisling signalled for the dinner to be brought in and served.

As the din in the dining room rose from private conversations restarting, Bob turned to me and said, "So, dragon, eh? That's an interesting one."

"More than you would even guess. I suppose I should offer my thanks for graciously allowing Evgenia to join me."

The older man sighed, a defeated expression on his face making him look genuinely elderly. His voice cracked as he said, "In truth, it's no burden to me to let her join you. As Aisling said about the other girl being assigned under you, the situation is complicated and is a headache and heartache I've been unable to effectively deal with for a long time."

"Oh? She's been distant with me, like she was scared of me. I thought it had something to do with being a dragon or some part of my authority. I had hoped to talk with her about it, but I've had so much to deal with that I have yet to actually sit down and do so. An advisor scared to actually offer advice isn't particularly beneficial."

Bob nodded. "A newborn vampire is more wild animal than thinking human. It takes a long time for the human inside to tame the beast. Evgenia never had a chance to tame hers. It was killed before she could mesh with it, done by those who should have been guiding her. To put it bluntly, she is a vampire in technicality, but much like your other companion, unique enough that she does not fit with us. She does not share the same ferocity, the same hunger, the need for blood that the rest of us feel. To the rest of us, she feels like other undead, while she is too alive with our curse to relate to them. She is permanently damaged in a way that her peers cannot accommodate. I should be thanking you, and if you find any way to help her, I would be very grateful for you to share the information. I have failed her and am out of ideas."

"Is there something I need to be concerned about?"

Bob sipped his drink, and I noticed he had otherwise declined the meal. A house salad was served for me, and I nibbled at the leaves as he answered. It was quite good, fresh and well-assembled, but the conversation had taken my full focus.

"Not for yourself. She won't be pleased to hear about your developing relationship with the werewolf girl, but likewise, she won't speak up for herself if you pursue that."

I looked at him in surprise, which he scoffed at and waved his hand at me. "Please, boy, everyone here and plenty not here are watching your every move with great interest. You will bring change to things we haven't evaluated in decades. If you want to keep something discreet, the floor of the official security force training facility isn't the place. Not that you had much of a choice. Alas, as I was saying, you personally have nothing to worry about. Ev is akin to a circus animal from my times -- docile and meek because her spirit has been wholly ripped out after years of abuse. She bears the scars inside and out; nothing I have done has helped.

"I thought, perhaps, the law position with Aisling's offices would give her a goal, but she lacks any motivation inside. There is no fire in her. She makes a fine clerk but a terrible prosecutor, and the duties of a clerk are largely being replaced with computers, or an intern using a computer. I imagine that Aisling came to the same conclusion I did, that there was nothing more she could justify doing, and so passed her to you as much as an asset as to get rid of a constant annoyance. As much as it pains me to say it, I do not think there is much you could do to make it worse."

I just nodded. I didn't know what else to say. Given the concerns everyone else seemed to have over me being a dragon and how insistent the wizard was that he get to evaluate Beth and Sam, point blank telling me I couldn't hurt Ev more than she already is was concerning. Discussing her like a property with a chemical spill, something it would cost too much to clean up to be worth anything afterward, made my stomach roll again. I was finally coming to understand why Sam hated dealing with other magical beings -- even the pleasant ones viewed people as assets on a balance sheet, tools to be used, resources to be exploited.