The Shadow Council...Part 3

Without further delay, I laid out the deal that Drake was offering.

Even as I was finishing, Ravyn and Cerrydwen were protesting. “Oh no!” “You can’t let him get near Alexa!”

Both the Frau and Jim had remained silent, the Frau looking unperturbed as she used a dagger-like knife to cut open a giant grapefruit from the ever-full fruit bowl, while Jim sat back stroking his chin in a contemplative manner.

I held up my hands in mock surrender to the previously sparring sisters-in-magick, as I sat back in my chair. “Hey, I didn’t agree to the deal yet! In fact, it’s been almost a week since he proprosed it.”

Ravyn look exasperated. “A whole week! Why didn’t you just reject his deal and be done with him?”

Cerrydwen nodded in agreement to Ravyn’s words. “Indeed, I doubt that Drake would have the discipline to maintain his silence if you rejected his ‘deal.’ You would have seen this by now if you had rejected the proprosal outright.”

I nodded. “My first reaction was to refuse the deal, I even told him that seeing Alexa was the dealbreaker, but he insisted.” I looked over to Ravyn. “I thought better of giving a definitive answer of ‘no’, just in case he wasn’t bluffing. I didn’t want to cut off an avenue to information we might need, just in case.”

Jim dropped his hand from his chin and sat up straight. “Let’s look at each element of this deal and see how feasible it all is. First, he wants you to open up your blog, which has previously been your own personal domain to tell his story to us, and to the world. Are you willing to conside that request?”

I looked from person to person around the table before responding. “I don’t have any real problem with part of the deal, I suppose.”

Jim took the pitcher form the center of the table and poured more Diet Pepsi into his cup, marvelling at the magick of the pitcher, able to pour any liquid the holder desired. “Is there any way to take this thing back home? It would save me a mint!” He put the pitcher down and looked up at me. “Have you considered how ponderous this request might be? This guy has been supposedly been around for five thousand years, and appears to have been involved in many historical periods. That part of the deal alone could take years to complete, and you could very lose the readers of your blog. That is, unless they are particularly interested in Drake’s history, told from his side.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

He nodded. “You need to. If this is something you are going to consider, I recommend that you negotiate on that one a bit, make sure you limit the posts on his life to perhaps once a week.”

“Good idea.”

After he drained his cup, Jim sat back. “Now, item two. He wants you to agree to take up this struggle against Drakaar and his fellow demi-godlike beings since he can’t continue that struggle himself. While on the face of it, this seems like a foregone conclusion, it is still a serious issue. You don’t know how many of these other beings are out there, or what their individual motivations may be. Even if Drake tells you his perspective on these beings, we will need to independently verify his story and come to our own conclusions about whether they are truly the threat to humanity that Drake is stating that they are. He does have a rather spotty record with the truth, as I recall.”

I couldn’t argue that point. “Yes. He finds ways to twist the truth worse than any president ever did. I also had a concern about these other beings, besides Drakaar. I felt what he was like, so I’m pretty confident we’re going to face off against him. But the rest of his brethren? That I don’t know just yet.”

“So, I would recommend that you try to negotiate further on this part of the deal as well. Either limit your agreement to tracking down and facing off against Drakaar and any allies that help him, or ask for names that we can do further independent research on before agreeing fully to this item. That leaves us with the final condition of the deal. The meeting with Alexa.”

The Frau looked up from her half eaten grapefruit at the mention of Alexa’s name. “Well, I don’t think we have all of the interested parties here to discuss this last point.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She looked from Jim to me and then over at Cerrydwen and Ravyn. “Clearly, the only person who really answer this point is Alexa’s mother, Naomi.”

The Shadow Council...Part 2

As I called forth each person, runes above their specific door lit up with magickal fire, spelling out their names.

Ravyn’s door was the first to open. She bounced in through her door, her eyes showing concern at the sudden summons. Her gaze quickly settled on me as she approached the table. “What’s wrong?”

I motioned for her to take a seat. “I have received a rather disturbing proposition, but I want to wait until the others get here before I lay it all out.”

She nodded, moved her chair back a bit and plopped down into it. Each of her quick, deliberate movements left a brief afterimage of fire, like the sparklers I had bought for my kids many years ago.

The Frau’s door was the next to be nosed open as she padded into the room and transformed into her familiar, fully clothed form. She pushed the door shut with her left hand and walked easily over to the table. Apparently, she didn’t retain her limp in the Shadowland. When she reached the table, she gave Ravyn a strong hug before settling into her seat, to the left of Ravyn.

Cerrydwen’s door had opened very quietly as the Frau was settling into her seat. She was halfway across the room before any of us had noticed her. She nodded acknowledgement to each of us as she stood behind her chair, hands gripping the seat back firmly.

The Frau glanced over at Jim’s still unopened door. “Oh dear, I hope the poor man remembers how to get here.”

Ravyn, reaching into the basket of fruit to pull out a particularly large pear looked over at the door herself. “He’ll be fine, Frau. We spent two days last month practicing, I know he can make it work.”

Cerrydwen arched her eyebrow and gave a sly smile towards Ravyn. “Two days, huh? What were you two doing all of that time?”

“Cerry! I don’t know what you are insinuating! He needed the practice! He’s never done this sort of thing before!” She blushed as she spoke.

Cerrydwen laughed. “Yeah, it’s no wonder you’ve had an easier time getting your co-op budget increased! Buttering up the money man!”

For the briefest of moments, Ravyn’s mouth dropped open in shock before she recovered and chucked her half-eaten pear at Cerrydwen’s head.

The pear traced an arc through the air as it missed the ducking Cerrydwen by mere inches.

Ravyn sputtered. “Why I’ve never...”

“Sure you haven’t, sis!”

The Frau clucked her tongue. “Girls! Settle down!” She patted Ravyn’s hand. “Don’t worry, Dear, I believe you.”

Ravyn leaned forward to grab an orange this time. “Well, I’m glad someone around here does.!”

Cerrydwen chuckled as she sat down this time. “I’m just hoping he was listening to you more than he was watching you during this instruction! He sure is taking a while!”

“Should I Call him again?”

The Frau shook her head. “No, Rusty. Once is enough. Your Call was very strong as it is. Another one might do more harm than good. He may well have been in the middle of something when you issued the Call.”

“That’s true. Well, I do want to wait until he gets here before I discuss what made me decide to do this right now. So, let’s talk about something else until he shows up. Has anyone heard or seen anything involving Drakaar?”

Before anyone else could answer, Jim’s door burst open as he rushed into the room. He quickly turned his large frame around and slammed the door shut, leaning against the thing for good measure. Sweat streamed down his face from underneath his Toledo Mudhens baseball cap.

He looked at all of us gathered around the table, concern etched across his face. “So what’s the emergency?”

Everyone turned to face me. “Well, I don’t know that it is an emergency, per se, but...”

Jim was now striding towards the table. “You mean you called me during the bottom of the ninth inning of the second game of a double header against the Yankees, and it’s not an emergency?”

That picqued my interest. “Did the Tigers win?”

He nooded as he pulled the chair out and sat down. “Yeah, Craig Munroe hit a three run homer in the top half of the inning and Jones closed it out. That’s what took me so long, I wasn’t going to come here until I knew the outcome. The pennant race is getting too close now!”

An orange peel hit me in the face. “Men and sports!” Ravyn exclaimed. “Let’s talk about the important stuff here. Now why did you call us here, Rusty?”

(To be continued later tonight)