Wren
Ch. 12
Rich was still nervously shaking when he arrived at the university library about an hour later. As soon as Brandon saw him, a look of concern flashed across his face. It was subtle, but Rich noticed it. True to form, however, Brandon continued helping the student at his desk. Rich sat down on a bench near the desk to wait for Brandon to finish. As soon as the student left the desk Brandon rushed over, sat down next to him, and asked “Are you okay?”
“I… uh… had a run-in with the thief.”
“How did it go?”
“I think you know how it went.”
“You don’t have your sword, so… badly?”
“Yeah.”
“Well tell me what happened. If nothing else, maybe we could get some information out of this.”
“I got my next target from a bench in Claremont—”
“Target?”
“Yeah. This asshole is having me kill people. Or at least I think they’re people. I probably should’ve mentioned this last time but—”
“You only think they’re people? Let’s take a few steps back, since I’ve clearly missed a lot of new developments.”
“I’ll give you the fast version.” By now Rich had regained his composure, “I got a note from them yesterday that told me to kill someone at a bar called The Red Lion. Real upscale place, full of rich assholes—”
“Like you?” Rich stared daggers at Brandon’s shit-eating grin.
“—full of rich assholes. I did some stuff I’m not proud of, got kicked out, ran into the target on his way in, and killed him. Then he melted.”
“Melted?”
“Yeah. And it said I should use a knife, since magic wouldn’t work on him.”
“Well what you killed wasn’t a person, although I doubt that’ll soothe your nerves. It was a shape changer.”
“God dammit. A shape changer is blackmailing me to kill shape changers. What the fuck is going on?”
“The thief is a shape changer?”
“Well I saw them shapeshifting right before they disappeared with my sword.”
“Let’s take a step back. What happened?”
“So I got the orders from the bench. I told you that, right?” Brandon nodded. “They were burned into the bottom of the bench. And… I’m not proud to admit this, but I suspected that you were the blackmailer for a minute. Sorry about that.”
“I would be a little insulted that you think I’m capable of doing that to a friend like you, but you’re under a lot of stress. So don’t worry about it. Continue?”
“Anyway, I decided to rush to where my next set of orders would be to try to catch you in the act. I closed my eyes for a second to gather my thoughts, and when I opened them, a sword was at my throat. My sword. Being held by the girl that stole from me at The Ox, or someone who fit her description. I tried to grab the sword from her, but she was able to channel magic through it before I caught it, and next thing I knew she was a dozen or so feet ahead of me, I saw her start to shapeshift, and then she disappeared.”
“Well this is… unusual.”
“How so?”
“Well shape changers can’t use magic. If this… whatever… was using magic, then it can’t be a shape changer.”
“Well it could shapeshift, so it can’t be a person. What else is there? Could it be a god?”
“I don’t think so. Gods don’t have magic, per se. They have power over their domain, but outside of that they’re nearly powerless. And either way, the gods don’t really tend to get involved in mortal affairs, despite what the myths say. They’re too busy lording over whatever they’re in charge of. They don’t really care about people any more than a king would care about a random flock of crows in his city.”
“No need to go that archaic with the metaphors. What about The Immortal? Could it be them?”
“It’s possible, but unlikely. Very unlikely. Getting struck by lightning three times on the same day unlikely.”
“Why’s that?”
“The Immortal isn’t one to interfere in mortal affairs.”
“Haven’t they taken on a human form and walked among us before?”
“They have, many times in fact, but they only ever just talk to people. Listen to their stories. They don’t really try to change the world. They did their part creating it. Now they just observe it. Hell, it’s almost impossible to tell when someone is secretly The Immortal, they generally don’t reveal it unless you get them very drunk. And even then, we haven’t had even a reported sighting in a few hundred years. Nobody knows what they’re up to now.”
“Well maybe they’re up to this? Maybe they’ve decided to toy with people now.”
“Well, like I said, that’s possible, but unlikely.”
“Well from what you’re saying, it seems like the only possible option. I’m being blackmailed by an all-powerful being. Fantastic.”
“Not necessarily. It could be something I didn’t think of, or something we don’t even know about yet. That certainly seems more likely to me than an omnipotent being blackmailing some guy to commit murder.”
“So we still know nothing.”
“Yes, but we know that we know nothing, and knowing is half the battle.” Brandon smiled, Rich didn’t.
“I appreciate you trying to lighten the mood, but this really isn’t the time.”
Brandon didn’t reply, but dropped his grin.
“And since the mood is already pretty grim, let’s make it a bit grimmer.” Rich continued
“I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”
“My next target is one of the students here.”
“Absolutely not! You are not committing a—” Brandon dropped his voice to a hushed tone, “—murder in my library, not even if it is just a shape changer!”
Rich considered his next words carefully. This was the most outwardly angry he’d ever seen Brandon, he shuddered to think how angry he must be inside at the mere suggestion. But Brandon was an ally, no, a friend he could not afford to lose, so he had to play by his rules.
“I understand where you’re coming from, and I know you take your job very seriously, but if I don’t carry out this murder, I will be killed.”
“Hmmm…” Brandon thought on this for a moment, “How about this, I’ll keep an eye on them, and keep you informed on their whereabouts. Once they leave the building, they’re all yours. Just let me know what they look like.”
“Deal!”
“Shhh! This is a library after all.”
For the first time since everything went to shit, Rich laughed.