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She stared at the pieces of paper in front of her and sighed. One had six locations written on it, seemingly random points around the globe, another set had names scrawled on them each one accompanied by a bullet point or two of ‘problems’.
The shop was quiet this evening, the staff were all gone for the night and John had returned to the Labyrinth almost as soon as they left the Efreeti, she sat alone at one of the tables next to the coffee counter, eschewing the house brews for a bottle of Merlot - now nearly empty.
“You see David,” She leaned back and conversed with the air, trying to order her thoughts. “All of our other choices have issues of one sort or another. All but one anyway. Most of them have inconvenient connections, and you seemed to understand why that was a problem. And then you come to us, asking intelligent questions, realising without the melodrama why we can’t just hand this level of potential power out to anyone. I like you, I do, but there is an old saying about those who want power being the least suited to wielding it.”
Jane reached for her glass, finding it lower than she expected. She frowned, being found here in the morning would not help anything. “I like you. And if I’m honest, it’s a shitty job. The immortality is a perk, I guess, so long as you can handle making friendships and watching them die seventy years or so down the line. Or watching the occasional war come and go. The pay is lousy, although you build up a fair amount of savings over a few thousand years. The bosses are worse and don’t even ask about HR.” She glared into the middle distance, out of the window and upwards, her thoughts far from charitable about the Powers that Be, Angels, or any other entity that had poked its nose into her long existence on this earth.
“It’s not the worst thing.” She continued to the imaginary version of Bloom. “Your being on our list I mean. Or rather there are worse lists to be on. You are not deemed a threat to the Balance, nor are you so ineffectual that the world will not notice if you live or die. You are, for better or worse, a relatively responsible adult. Look at the four of us, surely you can see that it would be a useful thing to have once in a while. Of course, unlike us, you have a choice. We cannot force the job on you and someone who is truly unwilling to take up the mantle would be almost as bad as someone who wanted it too much.”
A crystal somewhere in the back of the shop began to glow gently, signifying power being focused in the area. Jane finished her wine, tipped the remainder of the bottle into her glass and swept the remains of her list into the bin. She gestured at the crystal and it went out, it was a summons, something required all of them. Shame phones didn’t work in the Labyrinth...She dialled Bloom’s number from memory. “David, it’s Jane. Business has called both of us away from the shop for a while. If you still want to have a look at the archives, talk to Connor, he knows his way around there well enough by now.”
Message left, she grabbed a bag from behind the counter and left the shop, locking the doors with a snap of her fingers even as she dialled a taxi to the airport.
The shop was quiet this evening, the staff were all gone for the night and John had returned to the Labyrinth almost as soon as they left the Efreeti, she sat alone at one of the tables next to the coffee counter, eschewing the house brews for a bottle of Merlot - now nearly empty.
“You see David,” She leaned back and conversed with the air, trying to order her thoughts. “All of our other choices have issues of one sort or another. All but one anyway. Most of them have inconvenient connections, and you seemed to understand why that was a problem. And then you come to us, asking intelligent questions, realising without the melodrama why we can’t just hand this level of potential power out to anyone. I like you, I do, but there is an old saying about those who want power being the least suited to wielding it.”
Jane reached for her glass, finding it lower than she expected. She frowned, being found here in the morning would not help anything. “I like you. And if I’m honest, it’s a shitty job. The immortality is a perk, I guess, so long as you can handle making friendships and watching them die seventy years or so down the line. Or watching the occasional war come and go. The pay is lousy, although you build up a fair amount of savings over a few thousand years. The bosses are worse and don’t even ask about HR.” She glared into the middle distance, out of the window and upwards, her thoughts far from charitable about the Powers that Be, Angels, or any other entity that had poked its nose into her long existence on this earth.
“It’s not the worst thing.” She continued to the imaginary version of Bloom. “Your being on our list I mean. Or rather there are worse lists to be on. You are not deemed a threat to the Balance, nor are you so ineffectual that the world will not notice if you live or die. You are, for better or worse, a relatively responsible adult. Look at the four of us, surely you can see that it would be a useful thing to have once in a while. Of course, unlike us, you have a choice. We cannot force the job on you and someone who is truly unwilling to take up the mantle would be almost as bad as someone who wanted it too much.”
A crystal somewhere in the back of the shop began to glow gently, signifying power being focused in the area. Jane finished her wine, tipped the remainder of the bottle into her glass and swept the remains of her list into the bin. She gestured at the crystal and it went out, it was a summons, something required all of them. Shame phones didn’t work in the Labyrinth...She dialled Bloom’s number from memory. “David, it’s Jane. Business has called both of us away from the shop for a while. If you still want to have a look at the archives, talk to Connor, he knows his way around there well enough by now.”
Message left, she grabbed a bag from behind the counter and left the shop, locking the doors with a snap of her fingers even as she dialled a taxi to the airport.
