De'Vas Chronicles Book 3: Chapter 9

The Council meeting seemed to be endless as Councilwoman Piper sat at her desk and watched the orc on stage ramble about the Goodwill Committee that was coming to De’Vas. Part of her wanted to shift from her dark elf form to her drider and ram one of her spider legs through the orc’s head to shut him up.

She couldn’t care less about some humans coming to District 1 to pose for cameras. There was no goodwill between paranormals and humanity as long as they kept them in these cages they called districts. However, the Council would never do anything about that except talk.

She broke her gaze from the orc to sweep through her fellow Council members. Her eyes landed on one person staring at her. She scowled at the sphinx woman who was sticking her tongue out in mockery. Zara was almost as bad as the other two who sat beside her and were her teammates. Councilman Roc, a forest troll, sat opposite of her and somehow had obtained a bucket of chicken since Piper last looked in their direction. The troll was always stuffing his face. Next to him sat Councilwoman Blackthorn, the thorn in Piper’s side.

She turned away from Zara and her group back to the orc, though she wasn’t paying attention to him. Eventually, this mandatory meeting would end and she could go about the real work, today was that day after all.

Piper made her way through District 1, grateful that the meeting was finished. The people of this district recognized her as a Councilwoman and quickly parted to allow her to pass. They had better if they valued their lives. She made the trip longer and more confusing than it really was, taking alleyways and looping back. She stopped every so often to see if she was being followed. When she was sure she hadn’t been, she made her way into the warehouse, pallets stacked with goods imported from outside De’Vas greeted her. Immediately, Scarlet was in her face.

“Drider, Drider, because the elf bitch is a spider!” the pixie chanted as she flew in front of her.

“Little insect!” Piper growled as she tried swatting at the pixie.

Scarlet laughed and flew out of reach.

“Scarlet, leave Piper alone,” Kaito said as he leaned against a pallet stacked with boxes. The red oni’s bulky body dented several of them.

 Every time Piper had seen Councilman Kaito he seemed to put on more weight. Though no one would tell him that. Kaito was a powerful berserker.

Scarlet stuck her tongue out at Katio but did relent on her mocking, for now. She flew to the top of a pallet that overlooked them all and sat there like the imperious little roach she was.

The only other person in the warehouse moved to stand beside the pallet Scarlet was sitting on. Victor was a regal looking stone dragon in his human form, or at least that’s what he appeared to be. This was just one of Scarlet’s changelings posing as Victor. Allowing the real Victor to be away from the council without arousing suspicion . She was sure the changelings were the only reason their boss even put up with Scarlet.

Piper found a spot to stand and turned her attention to the small brass ball covered in runes that rested on the floor that they called an anchor. Then they waited.

“I’m bored!” Scarlet clamored after an hour.

Kaito had his phone out and was playing some kind of game on it and ignoring Scarlet. The pixie frowned at this before turning and facing Piper.

“How goes your plan to depose of the Nightmare Queen? Not well?”

Piper glared at the Scarlet. This was the pixie’s favorite way to antagonize her.

“How many elves have you convinced to go to her vassal’s district? All in the hope of getting Cleo to rush to help her vassal,” Scarlet grinned at her from the top of the pallets. “It might have worked when you first started building a case against her for the council, but she’s no longer sneaking away from meetings to rush to her vassals. Either her vassals got their shit together, or Cleo knows what you were trying to do.”

Piper glared at Scarlet as the pixie giggled. Slowly, her hand went inside her jacket where she kept a dagger infused with ice magic. The last gift she received from Destry before his death. The dagger was crafted from the heart of an ice salamander that Destry said was the matriarch of a clan. A powerful magic reagent.

The runes started to glow on the brass ball followed by a blue flash of light that interrupted Piper and Scarlet. The real Victor stood over the small brass ball as its runes died down. The gray-haired dragon looked them over. His hand held a small silver ball which mirrored the brass one on the floor.

“No luck I take it,” Kaito said as he slipped his phone into his pocket.

Victor let a sigh escape.

“I have still not found any clues of where Brook is.”

“Of course not! He’s been missing for almost half a year! He’s dead somewhere over there, that’s the only answer,” Scarlet said with a huff.

Victor glared at her but said nothing. The old stone dragon had always believed there was some comradery between them all. That was why he still held out hope of finding Brook when the rest of them had long since considered the cyclops dead.

“The damn changeling that’s pretending to be him has pretty much settled into his life. I should probably just send him to District 208 to pick up that stupid goblin slave,” Scarlet said. “It’s not like that district is still in our control.”

 Victor gave Scarlet a stern gaze.

“If Brook is still alive and you do that you could interrupt what he has been planning.”

Scarlet pouted, but Victor turned his attention away from her to Piper and Kaito.

“What has happened while I’ve been away?” Victor asked them.

After the update, a disgruntled Victor used the silver ball and a flash of blue light filled the warehouse before he vanished. He hadn’t been happy when they informed him of the Good Will committee that was coming to District 1. He asked if the boss had any plans, which he was even more unhappy about. Then he gave them a list of tasks to take care of while he was gone.

Piper left the warehouse quickly before Scarlet could try and antagonize her again. She made her way through District 1 to the portal, punched in the district code for one of her vassals, and stepped through.

Disgusting sand greeted her as she stepped through and the sun blared down on her. This district was built from a mining ghost town in the American West. Shanty buildings cluttered the streets made from whatever the residents could gather to craft them. The ugly structures provide the only escape from the burning sun. This was an isolationist district, or at least the Siblings were isolationists and forced it on their District. They rejected anything made by humans, including the converted shipping container buildings. Piper thought only a fool would pass up air-conditioning, regardless of how they felt about humans.

A scrawny forest elf leaning against a spear saw her and raced toward a large building near the center of the district. She figured the Siblings would kill him if she walked in on them unannounced. This was the weakest of her vassal districts, but it did have its uses and strengths.

Piper opened the door to the building and walked in. Her nose twitched as the stink of alcohol tried to overwhelm her sense of smell. She scowled and looked around the dingy room. The walls showed signs of damage and poorly cleaned splatters of blood. More elves with spears stood guard around the walls while the one who had spotted her knelt before a table laden with food and bottles. A silver-haired elf, who was currently feeling up a blond elven woman sitting on his lap, looked from the kneeling spearman to her. Across from him an elven woman with the same silver hair threw back a bottle of booze and looked at her with a drunken expression. Piper frowned at them.

“Councilwoman Piper, we hadn’t expected you,” Baxter said as he slipped his hand out of the woman’s shirt.

“C-Councilwoman P-Piper,” Bella said with a drunken stutter.

Baxter and Bella were the bosses of this District. They had driven the district to ruin when they murdered the original District boss and usurped the role. Piper had considered having them killed multiple times, but they did have their uses. They were both hedonistic sadists who were skilled in sword arts. Offer them a small reward and they would gladly butcher anyone.

“We’re still offering the reward to any that can kill the dryad claiming to be Roth Willowson’s daughter,” Baxter said as he shooed away the woman. “We still get fools that try and take it up.”

Bella chuckled as she tossed an empty bottle to the floor and searched the other bottles on the table for one that still had booze.

“Can you imagine a monster, like a dryad, claiming to be part of the great Willowson line?” Bella found one and took a swig before spitting onto the floor. “Disgusting.”

“I’m tired of waiting on results,” Piper said firmly to Baxter. “I want you and your sister to take care of it before the end of next week. Am I understood?”

Baxter swallowed. “Yes, Councilwoman Piper.”

Piper turned and looked at Bella.

“Bella,” she said. “I don’t want rumors spreading that I ordered you and your brother to assassinate someone.”

Bella stood from the table, pulling a sword out from under it as she did. She gave Piper an exaggerated bow.

“Yes, C-Councilwoman Piper,” Bella said.

She pulled the sword from the sheath and a dark hue clung to the blade.

“Wait, please District boss Bella!” one of the spearmen pleaded, knowing what was about to happen.

A few tried to arm themselves and more tried to run to the door, perhaps in hopes of fleeing the District. Bella shot forward as a blur surrounded by shadows. Seconds later everyone that had been in the room was dead except Piper, Baxter, and Bella.

Bella flicked her blade, flinging blood along the side of the wall as she walked past the headless corpses of the spearmen to the table. She sat back down and grabbed a bottle. Baxter frowned at the now headless body of the woman who had been sitting on his lap.

He turned back to Piper after a moment and bowed his head.

“It will be done, Councilwoman Piper.”