Chapter 115: Cooperation
Evan made no move to talk her out of it. "The Order Keepers may well be holding the shipment our gathering team was sent to recover."
"In that case, I'll pay them a visit myself." Heathermere was already rising, ready to head for the door, when a student appeared at the entrance.
"Honored professors, there's a woman named Rose asking to see Lady Heathermere," the student said, offering a mage's bow as he entered.
Evan and the other five mages exchanged strange looks. Something clicked quietly into place in Evan's mind, though the other five looked simply baffled. Heathermere caught the exchange and asked, "You know this Rose?"
"She's the Order Keepers' high priestess, and James's lover — a skilled Druid, cast out of the order. In fairness, of the three major gangs, she's the only one I ever thought worth taking seriously. A woman built like a proper schemer," Evan said, laying out the facts about Rose with careful objectivity.
"That's the Creator's own hand at work, surely — I was about to go destroy her, and here she comes to my door instead. Let's see what she has to say." Heathermere's smile flickered to life at once. She turned to the student. "Bring her in. I'd like to see what kind of woman she is."
She sat back down. A moment later, the student led in a woman and a young man. She wore a fitted, sleeved jacket over a dark green gown, simple in cut but dignified, striking without a trace of excess to her — the kind of presence that drew every eye in the room the instant she stepped through the door, and yet without a hint of vulgarity to it. The young man beside her wore a black double-breasted suit and cut a handsome figure in his own right, though beside her, he faded entirely from notice.
This was the first time Evan had seen her by daylight. She looked different from the cold, striking woman he'd faced in the dark.
She dropped into a light curtsy. "Honored Lady Heathermere, I come today on behalf of the noble dark elves, to welcome you to Burk Town after your long journey. Ellman — the gift, if you please."
The young man beside her offered a mage's bow and presented a ring. Jessica accepted it and passed it along to Heathermere, who didn't so much as glance at it, waving a hand for Jessica to simply put it away. "Sit," Heathermere said mildly. "I wonder which lord you're acquainted with, to have become the dark elves' voice here in Burk Town. Not a small thing, that."
"The noble Lord Lagrov," Rose said, offering the accompanying student a small nod of thanks before taking her seat. "I've come to learn Hollingburton's intentions."
"Lagrov — I haven't seen her in years. Hollingburton has come because our people were treated unjustly here, and four fine mages lost their lives in this town. A few years ago, six more died the same way. If we don't respond to this, our name means nothing anymore," Heathermere said.
"Understandable enough. Though Hollingburton's arrival has made quite a stir — I confess it's left me a little unsettled. How do you intend to see this through?" Rose asked.
"See it through by putting this town in proper order. Things won't go back to how they were. I've brought over forty students, and we intend to stay. Professor Wang — what's become of the Burk Protectors and the Gael Advance Corps?" Heathermere asked.
"Honored Heathermere, both gangs no longer exist. They took part in killing our school's mages and held two more captive — crimes too severe to overlook. There are still plenty of smaller factions stirring, though. I'd recommend clearing them out entirely and bringing Burk Town properly under Hollingburton's banner — establishing a permanent presence here, and giving the local people a settled home for once." Evan understood exactly what Heathermere wanted from him, and used the opening to press the point, letting her voice carry the threat to Rose.
Rose gave a faint smile. "Burk Town has stood under the joint authority of four powers by agreement — none interfering openly with the others. Surely Hollingburton doesn't intend to break that arrangement?"
"Lovely Miss Rose," Evan said, "we're perfectly willing to honor the agreement. But some parties seem to have forgotten it entirely — not only killing our school's mages, but seizing our shipment as well. Left unchecked, the agreement becomes worthless paper. Better, then, to step out into the open. Hollingburton's decision serves everyone's interests, in the end."
He settled back in his chair, lifted his coffee, stirred it once with a silver spoon, and took a sip. Rose laughed softly. "Fair enough. We, representing the dark elves, have decided the same — to step out of the shadows ourselves. I came here for another reason as well: to discuss with Hollingburton how the remaining factions might be dealt with."
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Evan gave the woman silent credit — she was no simple opponent. If he'd known the Order Keepers had only reached out to the dark elves after his own arrival in town, offering their surrender, he'd have rated her even more highly still.
"We're not especially familiar with the situation here — you've clearly been settled in longer. It sounds as though your group already has a plan in mind. We're missing a shipment of our own, and we'd like to use this chance to recover it," Evan said, testing the waters. He suspected the shipment sat in her hands already.
"I nearly forgot to mention it," Rose said. "Yesterday, when your school broke the mob's assault, we happened to catch a member of one of the smaller gangs and recovered a shipment — I believe it belongs to your school. I've kept it secured in a ring, and I thought I'd present it to honored Lady Heathermere while I'm here." She smiled faintly, as though everything about this had already been settled from the start.
Jessica's expression shifted at that. She took the ring and reached into it with her mind, and there it was — the missing shipment, complete except for one Fallen Angel's Tear. Words rose to her lips, but in the end she said nothing, only giving Heathermere a small nod.
Evan understood immediately what Rose was doing. Without solid proof, even knowing full well she'd engineered this herself, Hollingburton would have to play along — she represented the dark elves now.
Something in Evan sank quietly. He'd wanted to catch the culprit and see justice done for the mages who'd died. But it seemed those deaths would go unanswered after all. Hollingburton wasn't about to break with the dark elves over a handful of mages. Rose had not only weathered this storm cleanly, she'd come out ahead. A few dead mages meant little to Hollingburton in the end — at most, some compensation arranged quietly for their families.
"So our mages died for nothing?" Evan asked, not bothering to soften it.
"They won't die for nothing. We won't let the gangs that harmed them go unpunished. As for the spoils — how does four for me, six for you sound?" Rose's question wasn't aimed at Evan at all; her eyes had already turned to Heathermere.
"They killed our people. By rights, every last one of them should die, and every scrap of their wealth should belong to Hollingburton. But given how unfamiliar we are with the terrain here, seven for us, three for you," Heathermere said, brooking no argument.
Rose considered it for a moment, then let a smile bloom across her face. "Agreed, then. May the gods bless you. We'll take our leave — we'll move this afternoon."
Rose rose, gathering her skirts in a light curtsy toward the room, while Ellman beside her offered a mage's bow before following her out.
Once they'd gone, Lidis said, "How can you just let her walk away? She's clearly the one behind this, and she gets to play the innocent party!"
Heathermere gave her a gentle, almost maternal look. "I know what you've suffered. But what could we do even if it was her doing? She has the dark elves behind her. Unless Hollingburton means to go to war with them over this."
No one spoke for a moment. On a personal level, everyone in the room knew Rose had almost certainly been involved in the deaths of those mages, and the feeling was hard to swallow. But reason left them no choice but to accept it all the same.
"Fighting for a principle is easy," Heathermere said, offering the old saying. "Living up to it is much harder. Wang — the six of you should rest. Professor Marshall and Professor Uplan will lead the students this afternoon. Good chance for them to get some real field experience."
Evan and the others offered a mage's bow and returned to their rooms. Evan understood the matter had reached its conclusion — whatever remained wasn't his to decide anymore.
A knock came at his door. He opened it to find Jessica, Lidis, and Raight. Evan smiled and waved them in. The moment she stepped inside, Lidis said, "Do you have any wine? I want a drink."
Evan blinked, then understood — she still hadn't made her peace with any of it. He smiled. "As it happens, I do. James brought some in specially, though there's more down in the cellar too. Fancy some Eponia red?"
Eponia wine carried a decent reputation across Norse — not a top vintage, but rich in aroma, with a slight edge that resolved into a lingering sweetness.
Lidis nodded. Evan turned to the other two. "And you two? A little won't affect your spellcasting."
"We'll have some too. Who could've guessed it would end like this," Jessica said.
Evan pulled a bottle of Eponia dry red from the cabinet and poured each of them a third of a glass — already generous. He lifted his own glass, swirled it, and took a sip. A rich fragrance bloomed across his tongue, and he noticed his sense of taste had sharpened just a little further.
Lidis and Raight both took long swallows, hardly the measured sipping one might expect from mages. Evan understood the anger still churning in them and offered gently, "Things rarely go the way we'd want. The two of you are alive. What more is there to be dissatisfied with? Being alive is what keeps anything possible. The world was never going to be all light — darkness always walks alongside it."
"We're just bitter, that's all. Don't worry about us — even a mage can see that much clearly," Raight said. He'd taken too large a swallow and choked slightly, his face reddening as he coughed it off before taking a smaller sip, this time actually tasting it. "Most mages don't drink. That's always struck me as a mistake. As long as it's not something too strong, there's no real harm in it."
"Professor Wang, I have a question," Jessica said, taking a small sip of her own. "If it's only Hollingburton and the dark elves involved, what about the other two powers?"
"There's likely a fifth party in this as well," Evan said. "The Druids are busy tracking down the devil cult tied to the gamekeeper's cabin. Hollingburton and the dark elves can split Burk Town between them, and the vampires seem content to stay out of it — though no one can really afford to ignore them either. They'll have their share of this town regardless. The real question is that fifth party — the devil cult. That's where the real weight of all this lies."