Leslie and Lucius were discussing how to deal with The Officials of Undeath. When The Holy Witch King flew out of the city, many rats started to abandon ship. In fact, half of the Officials of Undeath had tried to leave the city. They were currently being held in the Jail Quarters.
They both knew that his Grace said to execute them, but he didn't say when to execute them. If he was here, they would just ask for his opinion. Leslie was for executing them on the spot, while Lucius was against this idea.
Lucius had tried to message Verruca for a tie breaker... However, she remained unavailable, as she refused to answer his mental messages.
Lucius made an audible sigh. "I swear, Warmarshal Verruca isn't answering my messages." He looked back up from his desk of paperwork at Leslie. His vacant stare wasn't a problem, as the annoyance of the silence he let the room decent into.
"Honestly, you heard what she said. Don't look at me like that." Leslie responded annoyed, as well.
"I... errr... It isn't my place to tell the consort how to handle her business."
"Perhaps you can advise me, but I have a request." Leslie stated.
"Oh?"
"Just call me Leslie. You're already friends with Jack, so We can be on first name basis. We've also known each other for a while now."
Lucius sat upright, from his hunched posture. "And why do you say that we are friends? You know it would be a conflict of interest."
"Lucius, there are many things I know about. I've known you guys were friends since about five hundred years ago. I never said anything, of course, but I feel we can be friends as well."
[How would she find this out? The only undead that would know is Shane... But he wouldn't say anything.] Lucius was searching for answer.
Leslie noticed his silence, "Don't rack your mind trying to figure out how I found out."
"Ah... Can I ask where you found this, then?"
Lucius was baffled. He knew Leslie was good with gossip, rumors, and information. She managed the Treasury of the kingdom, and her direct subordinates were the Tax Collectors of the kingdom. With a huge number of hand maidens, how was it possible she didn't know most things. This was his first time, in a thousand years, that he found she knew something that shouldn't be known to anyone but to him, Verruca, Jack, and Shane. Shane only knew because he would be present when Jack and Lucius would play chess, cultivation, or discuss various topics. Jack had always treated Shane with respect, just as he would Lucius.
"Don't worry about it. I'm not going to tell anyone. I just wanted you to call me Leslie. If Jack's my Husband, then his friends are my friends." Leslie smiled sweetly to Lucius. She genuinely meant what she said.
"Does that include Verruca?" Lucius leaned back in his seat behind his desk.
"It would, if she wasn't interested in Jack. Now that's something I'd like to know. I never knew they had something... How did they keep that to themselves?" Leslie figured if she didn't know then Lucius wouldn't, but Lucius did know. This was kept even more a secret than The Holy Witch King's name! If Leslie didn't know The Holy Witch King's name, then how would she find out about Verruca and Jack.
Lucius shook his head, in response.
"Well... Leslie. The Business Tax Quarter is closely approaching. Warmarshal Michael is requesting funds for a campaign against the Heretic Tribes south of the Kingdom of Borda. If We can take that stretch of land that border us and is in-between Borda and Neolith, We can strange resources to Borda from the lower continent. We can also cut off pilgrims from the Temple of the Three Gods to Dragon's Jaw."
"How much are we talking?"
"Warmarshal Michael has requested one point two million Glowstone cubiks" Banged his hand on the desk. This was serious talk. Leslie being the Chief of the Kingdom's Treasury, this was one of the few issues Leslie and Lucius would argue over until they had reached an accord.
Leslie thought for a moment, "How about a counter offer. As we are friends now, I'll offer you some information and one million cubiks for the Warmarshal's Campaign?
"Oh?" Lucius had picked up this habit from previous Holy Witch King.
"Interested?"
"If the information is worth two hundred thousand cubiks... Naturally." Lucius clapped his hands together, but the sound produced a clatter of soft clacking bones.
[Leslie always has juicy gossip.] Lucius was delighted.
Leslie leaned forward, "Among the Heretic tribes, Tribe Golak is awaiting a promised seer of Borda. The Temple of the Three Gods is sending that seer, but what if... A bishop of the Faith of Holy Deagoth arrived to... save them from corruption?"
Lucius rubbed his skeletal chin a few times. The more he thought of this; the more he liked it.
"Done, and done."
"Excellent."
[This friendship is already with benefits!] Lucius was happy to add more members to the Church. So much so, he over looked why Leslie would know something like this. All the gossip she provided before was within the kingdom.
"Huh?" Leslie paused for a moment, she was receiving a message from one of her subordinates. He brows furrowed, then shock, then regret, and lastly excitement!
Lucius saw these emotions play on her face. He knew she was being messaged by how she was acting, but with such rapid expressions, it looked comical.
"My Grace, flew to Sosuhalf. He landed, contacted the local stand in Bishop, cleared the area, took over the Elegant Darkness Manor, and was impeded by... Boss Crag!"
"What?!" Lucius stood up with both his hands resting on his desk. This was exactly what he feared... A run in with the Mafia!
[Wait... I felt a surge in the Holy Light not too long ago... oh no!]
"Did, his Grace, fight Boss Crag?"
Leslie smiled again, "Yes. yes, he did. We missed it."
Seeing her smile, Lucius knew Jack won.
"What did We miss?" Lucius sat back down in his seat. He wondered how the other Mafia Families would take this.
"Just the Angel of Death..."
Lucius was usually calm, but this... "What?!" at least this time he didn't stand up.
"He called down the Angel of Death to deal with Boss Crag. Everyone outside seen it.
[That's what I felt earlier? The last time the Angel of Death was called down, I felt it much MUCH more strongly, than this time... Why?] Lucius was pondering this point.
"If your worried, Jack's okay. He has... He has my Mother and is bringing her back with him. He will be taking a caravan back to us."
"Oh? That's... That's good."
"He's also bringing Boss Crag."
"Huh? Why is he bringing Boss Crag?"
"Now that... I don't know at the moment."
"Oh, Okay... Well... I need to call a meeting with my Council. Leslie, if you need me I'll be with the Archbishops."
"Alright then. I'll be in the Gold quarter."
Leslie took her leave. With Lucius left behind, Shane soon walked to his side. "Could I ask?"
Lucius shook his head, "It's best not to ask. There is more to Leslie than first thought. I'm not sure if his Grace even knows with his memory loss."
Shane remained quite, as Lucius spoke a few words, and left as well.
Shane started to clean the room, and clear the burnt offerings.
*******
In the dark lit clan hall of the Grimnight's, an emergency meeting was taking place.
Third Elder was yelling frantically, "I TOLD YOU OLD BASTARDS! DIDN'T I FUCKING CALL IT!"
The second Elder and the Clan Head had one finger in their ear that faced the third Elder. Yes. The third Elder did indeed call it. The Holy Witch King went to pick up Jade Glowminer, mother of Leslie Grimnight. He was wrong on one account though, The Holy Witch King completed this personally.
Third Elder was continually beating the stone table in front of him, leaving cracks behind that fanned out into spider web patterns. "DID YOU BASTARDS READ THE REPORTS! HE FLEW TO SOSUHALF! FLEW! IT'S BEYOND OUR BONES NOW! HIS GRACE IS GOING TO BURN OUR BONES AND FEED THEM TO BONE IMPS!"
The third Elder was now panting, with black sweat beading up on his face to the point it fell upon the table he was smashing, with 'plop' 'plop' 'plop' sounds.
The first Elder sighed, "Are you finally finished?"
"Barely! If you rag tag bastards can't figure out we are boned, then I might as well go jump in the Brimstone Ocean!" third Elder retorted.
The Clan head was dazed... In all his years, he had seen third Elder cowardly, he had seen him being soft spoken, even being righteous, but this was the first time he had ever seen him furious!
"It isn't as bad as it looks, Nicholas Grimnight is now a colder corpse than he was before. I don't think this will be a problem. We can spin this. What's Jade Glowminer going to say? Who would believe her over a whole clan?" The Clan head spoke rationally.
Third Elder stood up and pointed into the air, as if he was pointing to the skies above Sosuhalf, "So you are just going to disregard the fact that he called down the Angel of Death on Boss Crag! You know the agreement, but he did it anyway! He has already taken their side!"
"And who said you can speak here, quote unquote, Clan head! This whole mess is your fault to begin with. If We had shut you down so many years ago this wouldn't even be a problem now, but now! Oh, but now this Ichor Ball is just rolling down the river bank and its just picking up more as its about to roll over the clan!"
He then pointed to first Elder, "And you! If you waited just a few more days to see the situation pan out, this wouldn't of happened. We would of known that The Holy Witch King got his soon to be Mother-in-Law, and took a step back. Now look were we are. Even a mill worm would have sense enough to know that We are responsible for Nicholas Grimnight's death, let alone that Boss Crag might be forced to speak!"
"And how is he going to make Boss Crag speak? He might of made him surrender, but it's not like he could control him." the second Elder spoke out.
"...Are you an ass?! Remember not even a week ago, We were notified that Jordan Grimnight had his soul extracted from his undead body, toyed with between The Holy Witch King's fingers, and forced to speak everything he knew! We can't even contact the fucker in jail! What do you think?"
The first Elder was getting incredibly impatient... The third Elder had been ranting for 5 hours straight now, without a sign of slowing down. They had even replaced two broken tables. The first Elder had already finished his third bottle of Sporespring Wine, imported from Stonedge. He was quickly going through his stash to tolerate his fellow Elder, thankfully this was his first outburst.
"Then what is your solution? We've let you get this all out of your system, so tell us how to fix this." The first Elder finally replied.
"We confess... We confess like the criminals We are, and beg... And I mean really beg... Dig deep down and beg for Our clan to be saved. We might even have to sacrifice Our very unlives to save the clan!" He then looked to the Clan Head, "...And appoint a new more competent Clan head! One that isn't going to be jealous of his brother!"