‘I heard you were thinking of doing something stupid.’
Enid recognised the voice, so didn’t bother to turn her eyes away from the store window. The diamond necklace shone under the carefully placed lights - it would be a treat she would get if everything went according to plan. Money wasn’t a factor - she could always swipe her ID through and run it up on the Agency tab, but there was no point to a reward if it wasn’t earned. ‘Stupid?’ she said at last. ‘You mean, like walking through the city without even a glamour? Why must you make everyone suffer your ugly mug?’
He grinned, thin lips pulling back to reveal sharp teeth. ‘No one’s looking.’
‘Well, I am now, so put one on or piss off.’
‘So tetchy, aren’t you? Why don’t you go screw your mark?’
She turned away from the window. ‘Thought you wanted to talk. Glamour. Now.’
He closed his eyes, whispered a few words and activated his glamour. The goblin now looked more or less human, the less being his eyes - something he couldn’t change - or simply never bothered to. ‘My queen heard a rumour.’
‘I’m surprised your queen hears anything.’
‘She heard you were going to do something very, very…unwise.’
‘And what would that be?’
‘Remington.’
She curled her lip. ‘I wouldn’t do Remington for a handful of Starbright. Sell him the mirror on the other hand…’
‘You-’
‘If you want to talk about this, take me somewhere just so my “bosses” don’t see me consorting with the enemy. Just don’t take me to the court, I don’t want too much fey-stink on me.’
‘You’re the one that stinks, human.’ She sneered at him. ‘And, Eeeny, I’m not the enemy, I’m about to become your best friend.’
‘I don’t have friends,’ she said as he grabbed her arm. ‘Friends are people I can’t exploit.’ She shut up as they disappeared - the stores around her became more and more real until they overtook them and they were pushed away. Ghostly ground appeared under their feet, and everything faded back in.
It was a hotel room. All of the windows were blocked with dark curtains - apparently to both block the light to stop her from judging the time of day and therefore the time zone, and the location. She snorted, this was typical behaviour of “the queen” - typical paranoid behaviour. Mad behaviour.
‘Sit,’ the goblin said, awkwardly pointing his “human” finger at the lounge.
‘Whatever Tian, whatever.’
The goblin disappeared into one of the other rooms. She sat on the couch, the peach leather couch squeaked as she sat on it. She was impressed - for the queen, the room was - security precautions aside - strangely sane.
‘Who dares enter my chamber?’ the queen’s voice reverberated through the room. The first time she had heard it, it had been frightening, such a loud voice, seemingly without a source - it spoke of a powerful fey.
The illusion had been shattered when she had found that it was nothing more than a series of speakers.
She stood and the couch squeaked again. ‘The one you invited.’
The queen stepped out of what she could only assume was the master bedroom. She was dressed as a contradiction - one short sleeve, one long sleeve, her dress her a tall frilly collar, but it had been tamed and as stitched down onto the velvety fabric - fabric, which in places had been replaced with vinyl. The colour red was prominent though, and that meant she was happy, at least for the moment.
‘Why were you sitting on my mouse?’
She turned to look back at the couch, to see if either kind of mouse where she had been sitting. The couch squeaked again - she didn‘t react, this wasn‘t the strangest thing that had happened in the queen‘s presence.
‘Madhe, I-’
The queen grimaced with awkwardly painted lips. ‘Address me properly, serf.’
She shook her head. ‘You need my services, not the other way around.’ She thought back to how Tian had told her to talk around Madhe. ‘I pay no fealty to the Madchester Court.’
‘You will one day,’ Madhe said, ‘when your profession drives you to become one of mine. Again.’
She narrowed her eyes. ‘I was never one of yours, Madhe. The favour that was done was not done for me. It was a boon granted for another.’
Madhe swayed her head back and forth. ‘Those who have tasted madness will always return to it.’
‘Doesn’t your thief mind you telling people about that which was forgotten?’
‘You threw yourself into the life again, it’s fate that you’ll come back to me.’ Behind Madhe, Tian nodded.
She scowled at the goblin. ‘The mirror. You’re interested in that, right?’
‘I desire it, yes. Your current plan saddens me.’
‘You mean, the plan where I get the most reward for risking my neck? Oh em gee, I’m so totally sorry.’ She looked down at herself. ‘Does it say doormat anywhere on me?’
‘You gave the last one to him.’
She curled her lip. ‘It wasn’t the last one, it was five mirrorfalls ago, and it was only a partial.’
‘He doesn’t need another, he will only waste it.’
‘And I suppose you have some lofty idealised plan?’
The queen walked past her and sat on what she was beginning to believe was a mouse with a severe glamour. ‘I am a queen, I deserve a magic mirror.’
She went to laugh, but a hand closed around her arm. Tian shook his head. A warning.
‘Fine. Fine. You want it, you have to pay double.’
Madhe waved a dismissive hand at her. ‘As you wish. Whatever you wish. Just bring it to me.’
‘You’ll pay me double without know-?’
Madhe lifted a hand. ‘Money matters not, it’s simply a way of making serfs quiet.’
She didn’t react - there was no need to, and it was sometimes dangerous to provoke the unstable queen.
Madhe beckoned to Tian. ‘Get out of here, my court calls to me.’
‘As you wish, my lady, shall I-?’
‘Just get her out of here.’
Tian nodded, then grabbed a hold of her. She had time to grumble at him, before the faded away. ‘So what do you think?’ he asked as he replaced his glamour.
‘My loyalty is determined by the size of my pay check,’ she replied coldly. ‘Nothing more, nothing less.’
‘Doesn’t that tire you?’
‘No, it’s freeing. All I know is: loyalty gets you hurt. It’s best to be flexible.’
‘Will I meet you tonight?’
‘You’ll be there anyway, that’s your way, right? Try and get it yourself, then you don’t have to pay the finder’s fee?’
‘Even if it fell into my hands, I’d make sure you got paid.’
She crinkled her nose. ‘That almost sounded like…Watch out of the leech, he’s a big, tough bastard.’
‘You didn’t mention that there was a starchild here.’
‘Don’t use that term, it’s so flowery and poofter-like. He’s a refugee, nothing more, nothing less.’
Dark, glittering goblin eyes shone out from his human face. ‘Are you really so different?’
‘Of course I am.’ She grinned, flicked her hand and her suit appeared. ‘I’m a recruit.’
Tian shook his head. ‘Girl, you look so strange in that suit.’
‘Get lost, goblin, I’ve got a meeting to get to.’
‘See you tonight, Eeeny.’
‘Whatever,’ she said and turned her back on him. She felt his presence disappear, then started the walk back to the Agency.
She smiled at Natalie as she signed back in. She liked Natalie - there was something innocent about her, like she really was just an admin girl, albeit one with a gun strapped to the underside of her desk.
The lift appeared straight away, and she took it up to the field floor. There was an unofficial rule that they always meet in the mess hall before big meetings - to bring up fears and concerns they wouldn’t necessarily want to bring up in front of Ryan, or heaven forbid - Taylor.
Red was standing in the corner, staring at the weekly crossword stuck to the wall. A slightly melted pen in his hand.
‘Is he having any luck?’ she whispered to Brian before kissing him.
‘There’s a reason we leave it up there for a week,’ he commented.
Red gave a grunt and slid the pen into his jacket. Besides her, he was the only one in their full suit. Brian’s jacket, tie and vest were missing - and the top three buttons of his shirt were undone to reveal a not-quite-uniform band shirt. Lisa, head on the table, taking a catnap, wore a spaghetti-strap top and her training pants. The other boys were in dirty training uniforms - likely having come from a training simulation.
‘We all going tonight?’ Brian asked.
‘Newbie’s not. She’ll be with the geeks tonight.’
‘Tonight?’ he echoed. ‘What? She hasn’t been transferred yet?’
‘Apparently, she’s not going to be.’
‘Five to one she’s sleeping with him,’ he said as he slapped a fifty-dollar bill on the table.
She shrugged. ‘Probably.’
‘Ok, so aside from the usual suspects, we’ve got a leech to worry about. Possibly two from what Magnolia was saying.’
Red joined them at the table. ‘Her team will kill them before we even get there.’
‘Let’s just hope,’ she said. ‘This isn’t some washed-in-toxic-waste sad freak we’re talking about, this one’s an actual threat. Big, mean, smells like shit.’
Brian gave her a tired look. ‘We all read the report. As always, our main concern is Solstice - most dancers wait until the last minute to show themselves - the Solstice grunts…fish, barrel, you know.’
Lisa held up her hands and signed “we know, get on with it”.
‘It’s a mirrorfall, something always goes horribly wrong. Keep your mind on the prize. Duty first. Someone gets hurt, you leave them, it doesn’t matter who it is, we all mean a lot to each other, but the mirror is what’s important. Duty first.’
There was a round of nods to this.
‘As you say, sir,’ she muttered.
‘Ryan’s expecting us in ten minutes, go get yourselves looking respectable, then meet in the conference room.’
‘Ten minutes,’ she whispered as the others left the room, ‘time enough to-?’
He cut her off. ‘No. Not before a battle.’
‘You sure you don’t belong with Taylor’s lot?’
He cast his eyes downward. ‘If he’d have me, I’d go, I’m not good enough. See you at the meeting.’
‘Yeah…’ she said as she watched him leave, wondering whether or not she was going to have to kill him.