Chapter 302
The turnout was astounding. I'd expected a fraction of what we had—two-thirds on the upside. Looking around the lobby now, it was like half the people I personally knew in the city had shown up. Miles arrived first, fully decked out, Audrey hanging from his belt like an organic satchel. He was chatting with Azure—whose chosen form for this particular assignment was a muscled but slight looking goblinoid with gray hair in rogue's clothes, flanked by several Users who read as feds I didn't recognize.
In a completely unexpected move, Miles had reached out to me—to Myrddin—late the previous night, and invited Myrddin to help with the tower. Guaranteeing oversight and protection from any potential hostilities.
All told, it was a good sign that my once pursuer turned mentor no longer felt the need to keep Myrddin at arm's length. I was naturally forced to decline. But the request presented an opportunity to get all my summons on the board without arousing suspicion when I'd already been brainstorming a way to do exactly that. Myrddin couldn't make it.
But his summons could.
Both the Adventurer's Guild and the Order of Parcae had mobilized en masse, Guild heads both present. I didn't have to guess why Tyler was there. The perpetual scowl and mask of skepticism made it perfectly clear. He was here to make the call on whether or not the tower was worth pursuing. Evaluate the floor on a hair-trigger.
Aaron was the bigger surprise. Delegation was his religion, and he was the very picture of devout. Seeing him here, roaming around in his high-thread-count business casual, working the room, slowly gravitating towards me was both irritating and disconcerting. If he was going to act as a force multiplier, I didn't have a problem with his presence, but I had a feeling when shit hit the fan, he'd be lingering in the back as usual.
I caught glimpses of Astrid and Astria on the periphery. Miles spotted them just as quickly, and never forgetting a face, sidled up to them, likely reconnecting over their joint efforts during the transposition.
No sign of Max. He hadn't responded, when Myrddin messaged him, so to some extent that was to be expected. It rankled because Max was probably one of the few people in the dome who could have set Tyler's mind at ease, if the numbers were good, but he was either busy or ready to move on from strike-team business, even if our purposes here were pure.
Julian and Charlotte showed with the rest of the court, Queen Mari striding before them, giant club resting on her shoulders as she pursued a cotton candy vendor who seemed to be doing his best to evade her. There was no sign of the Duskblade Knight, but if that was the court's only absence, it wasn't a big one.