The Heartstone Saga by Archibald Bradford (pdf to ebook reader txt) 📗

They had bumped into their hostess a couple times during the course of their evening but hadn’t spoken with her long enough to get a measure of her character; she never seemed to stop moving, constantly soliciting after the enjoyment of every one of her guests.

“What line of work are you in?” Nameless asked politely.

“I’m a broker, of sorts. So I have attended a handful of these parties in the past.” Tiberius chuckled through another genial smile and offered them a wink; “That’s how I knew to go for the mango first.”

“Did you know someone in Lipton Falls?” Milly asked.

The smile faded from his face.

“No, I did not. And neither did anyone else in this room. The poor devils in that town... it is unfair how their memory is being used tonight. I tried to talk Kathryn out of it, but she would not be dissuaded, at least her heart is in the right place, even if I can’t say the same for these others.”

On the rare occasion that he needed to be, Nameless was a talented liar, Miranda would not have sent him undercover if he wasn’t.

And as a talented liar he recognized that, while his remorse over Lipton Falls appeared genuine, Tiberius had a similar skill-set.

Whoever he was, the man had secrets.

Through their bond Milly picked up on her master’s caution, so she became silent and just watched.

After the lull brought about by the heavy topic, Tiberius turned to face Nameless directly.

“You were there, weren’t you?” He asked in a low voice; “You saw the horrors that are being misrepresented tonight?”

The memory of Lipton Falls still haunted the young Empath; carrying limp bodies from the wreckage of their homes was not something he could so easily forget.

He drew upon the strength of his bond-mates to keep his emotions in check, still wary of the taller man.

“I was.” He said simply.

Tiberius closed his eyes briefly as if in pain himself, then nodded sympathetically and patted him firmly on the shoulder.

“I cannot imagine how difficult that was for you. It is no easy thing to look upon the ravages of war. Thank you for your service, Aegis.”

Nameless didn’t reply, not certain how to.

People had congratulated him for joining the Aegis, but no one ever thanked him like that; it was a peculiar way of thinking that he had never encountered before.

And it was the first time anyone had mentioned war tonight. Aside from Councilwoman Jacobs’ unvarying efforts to extract donations out of them, most of the wealthy elites were barely talking about Lipton Falls at all.

With the silence between them becoming awkward, Nameless opened his mouth to carry on with the bizarre conversation but was distracted as a little gong sounded.

As he looked around people began to make their way towards the open-aired Blomma garden at the center of the building.

Tiberius adopted a pained look as he realized what was happening.

“Ah, this is where I make my escape. If you stick around much longer you’ll understand why. It was a pleasure to meet you. Both of you.”

Neither of them missed how he threw in the last part almost as an afterthought.

Everything about the man just seemed slightly skewed from the norm, but Nameless couldn’t quite put his finger as to how or why.

“Likewise.” He mumbled as the man departed.

Once he was gone, Milly pulled her master close again.

“A strange fellow. What do you think he was doing here?”

He had an answer ready, though he wasn’t sure how he knew.

“Gathering information. It might be a bit of an exaggeration, but that man was spying tonight.”

“On... us?”

He shrugged, deciding it really didn’t matter in the scheme of things: he had nothing to hide anymore.

“Haven’t a clue. Not like we talked long enough for him to learn much. Come on baby, let’s go find the others and see what’s happening in the garden.”

They gathered up Nina, her drinking buddy having already very recently gone over his limit and retired for the evening, then met Ophelia and Erica underneath one of the arches abutting the garden.

There they learned that the rich and powerful in Garland lived very differently than they did.

Once the majority of the party-goers were watching, a human servant dressed in a slightly more ornate uniform than the others gently struck the little gong again and the Flutterby in their elaborate gowns filtered out of the crowd and made their way into the garden where the flower girls bloomed to greet them, their brilliantly coloured petals spreading wide in invitation.

Suddenly it was crystal clear what the gong was announcing.

Blomma nectar had a very potent effect on Flutterby, as Nameless and the others had seen firsthand with Ophelia, so he knew full well what to expect.

“Was this whole fancy party just a prelude to an orgy?” Nina asked as the winged girls embraced the waiting flowers.

“I’m afraid so dearheart.” Ophelia sighed; “There is nothing wrong with it, per se. But I always shied away from events like this, much to my mother’s consternation.”

“Why?” Erica asked as she watched with rapt fascination.

The increasingly aroused Flutterby had begun to shed the many layers of their dresses as they giggled and traded kisses with the naked Blomma, so it was damn-near impossible for the Katje not to be interested.

But she shook it off when Ophelia nudged her and directed her attention back to the watching humans on all sides of the courtyard.

“Because it’s a pageant, and there is the audience.”

Nameless didn’t miss the smug and haughty looks coming from the men and women as they watched the monster girls indulge themselves.

Nina’s eyes narrowed and she nodded.

“I know Volka likes to have an audience. But there is something... icky about this.”

“Power.” Nameless said simply; “It’s all about power