He felt it before he even stepped foot into the ballroom, a soothing breeze of ethera that wrapped around his mind, trying to lull him into obeisance. A second later, the sound of music drifted into his ears, bolstering that gentle wind into a gust that he found both exhilarating and annoying in equal asure.
He smothered it with his own ethera, rejecting it outright, and stepped inside. It only took him a mont to ho in on the source – a woman playing a harp in the corner. She flinched, missing a note upon his arrival. Or perhaps it was because of his rejection of her music’s effect. Whatever the case, she quickly recovered.
“Rude as always,” ca a familiar voice from nearby. Elijah didn’t need to turn to see Nico Song hovering only twenty feet away. His words were practically a whisper, but Elijah heard them nonetheless. Around him stood a half dozen people who’d clearly been hanging on his every word.
Elijah chose to ignore the man. If he gave him much of his attention, there was a good chance that old resentnt would bubble to the surface. In that event, Elijah wasn’t certain what his emotions might drive him to do. He pushed them down – as deep as any feelings he’d squashed – hoping to maintain the peace.
One day, though, Nico would get what was coming. Maybe not at Elijah’s hands, but so long as he paid the price for his mistakes – honest or not, it didn’t matter – with blood.
For now, though, Elijah turned his attention to the rest of the ballroom. Or rather, the attendees.
There were hundreds of people there, and they clearly represented a wide range of cultures. There were even other races there. Elijah saw a handful of elves, a few dwarves, and even a couple of goblins. In addition, there were the feathered won whose race he couldn’t rember, a man who towered over everything and reminded Elijah of Grod, and a race of scaled humanoids that looked like soone had mashed lizards and n together.
But mostly, the attendees were human.
And for now, everyone seed on good terms. No fights had broken out, which was probably a good thing – especially considering that everyone there had at least a little personal power. A miasma of ethera hovered over everything as auras clashed. None of them were particularly strong, and Elijah suspected that without Soul of the Wild, he’d have never sensed it at all. But those diffuse clouds of energy, each with their own signature, were there all the sa.
He'd felt similar auras before, but never had they been so clear. Was that a result of his recent step forward in body cultivation? Or due to the unprecedented gathering of power? He had no idea.
Soon enough, he saw Sadie across the room. Predictably, she was surrounded by people, most of whom were male. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why, either. Not only did she stand out even amongst the people who fancied themselves her peers, but she was also a powerful woman who’d been on the power ladder for its entire duration. It would have been weirder if people hadn’t tried to make alliances with her.
Still, Elijah didn’t hesitate to cross the room. He missed the steady click of his staff against the ground, but given that no one else there was ard, he was forced to accept that leaving it behind was a good idea.
Soon enough, he found his way to Sadie’s side.
For a mont, his arrival went unnoticed. Maybe they thought he was just another would-be hanger-on. But then, one of the won truly looked at him, and her face went pale.
“Mr. Hart…so good of you to join us,” the woman said with a forced smile. “Tales of your deeds have reached far and wide.”
“All good, I hope,” Elijah said.
The fact that no one assured him that the tales, indeed, were positive should have warned him that the rumor mill had been hard at work. Not that it mattered. He didn’t care what any of those people thought of him.
“Indeed,” she said before introducing herself as Yasen Saeed, from a newly founded city nad Zafir. “Before the world’s transformation, it was nothing more than a small town a few hundred kiloters from Cairo. Now, it is a vibrant tropolis surrounded by rich farmland and verdant forest. It is not without dangers, though we have taken great asures to protect our people.”
“I don’t think anywhere in the world is truly safe,” Elijah remarked. “I think that’s just how it’s going to be from now on.”
After that, Elijah was introduced to the others. Most seed a little self-important for his tastes, but he supposed that was just a by-product of their position. It was difficult to couple personal might and political power and not get a little surplus pride as a bonus.
Even so, conversing with those people wasn’t as unpleasant as he might have expected. Having Sadie’s support helped, but even without it, he would have been interested to hear stories of how the rest of the world had fared. More than anything, he was happy to find that pockets of humanity had not only survived, but thrived.
Zafir was one such location, but it was definitely not the only one. People from all over the world had adjusted to the new reality, which gave Elijah more than a little hope for their future. Despite their arrogance, the people surrounding Sadie seed to have their people’s best interest at heart.
So, of course, the mont that thought flitted through Elijah’s mind, he was reminded that there were plenty of leaders on the other side of the coin. Noone displayed that characteristic more than the man who barged into the conversation after only a few minutes. He carried a champagne glass in each hand and had a huge cigar in his mouth. What’s more, he wore a purple velour tracksuit, unzipped to display a massive patch of dark chest hair that was only obscured by nurous gold chains.
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He was also wearing sunglasses.
Inside.
Well after nightfall.
Elijah hated him instantly, and not just because of the way he swaggered up and interrupted them.
“Mind if I join the party?” he blurted in a thick New England accent, downing one glass of champagne in a single gulp. Elijah didn’t miss the two n flanking him – not because of his supernatural sensory capabilities, but because both of them verged on seven feet tall and were layered with so much muscle that they looked like they might be half ogre. Despite being different ethnicities, they were so similar that Elijah couldn’t help but think of them as the twins. “This looks like where the cool kids are hangin’ out.”
He tossed the glass to the side without a care in the world. It didn’t break, but instead rolled to a stop a few feet later. One of the servers quickly picked it up.
“Nice tracksuit,” Elijah said. “Didn’t know they made them in that material.”
“They usually don’t, but I got a guy,” he said. Then, he extended a large hand – the guy was at least six-and-a-half feet tall and built like a professional athlete – introducing himself, “Na’s Vinnie. Vinnie Santoro.”
“You wouldn’t happen to be from Philadelphia, would you, Vinnie?” Elijah guessed as he shook the man’s hand. Of course, Santoro tried to turn it into a competition of Strength, squeezing far more tightly than he needed to. Elijah resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the attempt at dominance.
Vinnie broke into a wide grin, revealing a couple of gold and silver teeth. “You’ve heard of .” Turning to his n, one after the other, he said, “You hear that boys? Word travels fast, even if a world like this.”
“Yeah, boss,” they said in unison, their deep voices practically setting the floor to rumbling.
“Heaven’s Chosen Sect, right?” asked Sadie.
“Not anymore. Turns out, that na’s a bit too close to so outfit out in China. We’re doin’ a bit of a re-brand, if you know what I an. We call ourselves the Frozen Moon Clan, now. Gives a better vibe, don’t ya think? That’s what they tell , at least,” said Vinnie. He turned his attention to Sadie. “What about you, beautiful? You ever think about movin’ to Philly? There’s a spot in my harem just for an exotic girl like you. Not the top spot, mind you. Not at first. You gotta earn that.” He glanced at Elijah. “You start givin’ ‘em things they don’t earn, and they start gettin’ uppity. You should write that down.”
“I think I can rember,” Elijah said.
Almost at the sa ti, Sadie stated, “I think I’ll have to decline your generous offer.”
“Wasn’t really an offer, doll. Way I see it, it’s my sworn duty to save as many beautiful won as I can. Offer ‘em my protection, see? Keep those lines moving along and beautifying the Earth,” he said, resting his hand on Sadie’s shoulder. “I –”
Turns out, touching her was a big mistake. Before anyone could even react, the man’s hand was bent double, and the sound of snapping bones echoed through the ballroom.
“I did not give you permission to touch ,” she said, releasing him. He stumbled backward, already embracing a skill. Ethera swirled around him, and his suddenly frost-covered arm wrenched itself back into place. In only a second, he was whole.
But he certainly wasn’t happy. “You fucking bitch,” he growled. “Boys.”
The two thugs stepped forward, but the click and hiss of ethereal rifles stopped them in their tracks. Nearby, a half-dozen security personnel had their weapons trained on the pair of aty brutes.
“Please step away,” one of the guards ordered. His modulated voice was clear and echoed throughout the ballroom. Everyone there had gone silent. “This is a sanctuary. If you choose to perpetuate violence, you will be removed.”
“That bitch broke my arm first!” Vinnie shouted.
“Call that one more ti,” Sadie practically whispered. “I will ensure that the injury is more permanent.”
“Just try it!”
“I think we can both agree that this got out of hand,” ca a smooth voice as Isaiah suddenly stepped between them. Elijah could sense that sothing was different about the man, but it took him a mont to realize the source. Not only was Isaiah quite a bit stronger than the last ti they’d t, but there were two other factors contributing to what Elijah felt. First, he clearly had so sort of domain active. It was widespread, so it wasn’t as domineering as what he’d felt from people like the Chainspeaker or the warden back in Easton, but it was noticeable all the sa.
But that was expected. He’d probably been given a Seal of Authority – or sothing similar – like the one Elijah had gifted to Ramik.
Elijah was more interested in what he felt within the leader of Seattle. The fact that he had multiple artificial parts wasn’t surprising. Isaiah’s leg had been chanical last ti he’d seen the man, so the fact that he now had an artificial heart was, if not expected, then easily accepted.
However, when Elijah peered a little deeper, he realized that the heart was a physical representation of sothing far more than a simple muscle ant to pump blood. It was Isaiah’s core.
All that passed through Elijah’s mind in only a second, but in that ti, Isaiah had continued to instill peace into the situation. Eventually, Vinnie seed to recognize that he couldn’t win, so he snatched another champagne glass from a nearby server and stord away, thugs in tow.
“And as for you,” Isaiah said, focusing on Elijah. “Can you please refrain from pissing everyone you et off?”
“I didn’t do anything!”
“Yet, trouble always has a way of finding you. So, I beg you – please do your best not to rise to every threat that cos your way,” the man said. Then, he focused on Sadie, “Miss Song. Always good to see you.”
With that, Isaiah walked away.
“What the hell, man. I didn’t even do anything,” Elijah complained. “And to think, I helped that asshole consolidate power.”
But Elijah knew that if he made a bigger deal out of it, he’d definitely co off looking all the worse for it. Isaiah had positioned himself as the adult in the room, and railing against his authority would only make Elijah look like a petulant child. Still, he was tempted to do it. He could tear the entire building down in the space of a few minutes.
“Don’t,” Sadie said, her voice quiet. “Everyone’s watching. They’re waiting on you to do sothing rash. If you go down that road, this whole plan of cooperation could topple like a house of cards.”
“I’m aware,” Elijah growled, clutching his fist tightly. He knew the Summit needed to happen, just as he could recognize why Isaiah had singled him out. Elijah was one of the most powerful people in the world, and if he submitted to Isaiah’s authority, then everyone else would too. It was an especially powerful ssage when it was coupled with the way Isaiah had dismissed him.
Not for the first ti, Elijah imagined simply letting loose. He could rip Isaiah’s head clean off in the space of a second. And he’d been paying attention throughout his ti in Seattle. Nobody else there could really challenge him. Sadie, maybe. Even if everyone worked together, they probably couldn’t kill him.
Sadie grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight. “Just breathe. Your scales are showing.”
Elijah took a deep breath, forcing his anger under control. Even if he was justified – and being used and a little embarrassed definitely felt like good justification – he couldn’t afford to derail the Summit. Earth’s survival depended on them working together.
Still, being the bigger man was not sothing that ca easily to him.
He took another breath.
“If he does sothing like that again, I’m going to kill him. I will tear his little city apart,” Elijah stated, letting his instincts seep into his voice. “I don’t care about the consequences.”
He glanced up at the ceiling, where he saw a cara focused in his direction. He knew his ssage had been received, but it didn’t make him feel any better.
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