Deni Perfide
Member
The Boss
[4,597]
The cold night wind whipped through the streets of Terminus. The great metropolis was never truly quiet; there was always something happening nearby if you chose to listen. Drunkards shouting or singing on their shameless walk. The steady thrum of some new machine. The sermons of those still faithful to the Five. Usually, Tes quite enjoyed the noise. It was a comfort, something familiar that was always there. Except when it interfered with her job.
She watched someone stagger past, observed his leer and followed him with her eyes. As she leaned against the brick wall, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, the city’s constant motion only made her anxious.
“I don’t get it,” said Bahl. Most of the time he didn’t. “I don’t understand what the Boss would want with the bot.”
Tes sighed. The wide, round laicar’s clean-shaven face showed no sign that he knew the ramifications of what he’d said. His big bulbous nose had clearly been broken this way and that throughout the years, perhaps his brain had been just as mashed.
“That’s an offensive term, Bahl.”
“What?”
“Calling a demvir a bot.”
“Oh.” He produced some big meaty-looking snack from his coat. The man was always eating. At least the Boss didn’t need him for his smarts.
Tes pulled her jacket tight. The harsh breeze always made her scales itch. She hoped it wouldn’t be too long.
“So what do you think?” Bahl asked.
“About what?”
“The Boss.”
Tes narrowed her eyes. She thought a great many things about him. If even half of the rumours were true, he was a formidable force to be reckoned with. She suspected a lot of them were. She had recognised pain and anger in his eyes, but worse, the shadow left from dancing in the field of death. Only those who had survived when others had died all around them had the mark. Only they could see it and he could see it in her as much as she could in him. They had never spoken about it, but he knew. He had to.
“You really think he was part of the Black Portal campaign? Sailed across the sea to fight daemons?”
“Don’t know.” I’m certain of it.
“What about that business between Pelagia and the Ophidians?”
“Not sure.” I believe it.
“Hm.” Bahl took a bite out of whatever poor animal his snack had been, then wiped the grease from his chin. “I heard he was part of that ruckus on Nocte Nil years ago. Fought alongside those extremists. What were they called?”
“Astra non Obligant.”
That was a night Tes was never going to forget. It lived forever in her nightmares. Her whole life she’d been rudderless. No purpose. No motivation. No goal. Looking back, it was unsurprising that it had only taken one of Orators grand speeches and promises of a new world for her to give everything to the cause. She remembered the fervor, the eagerness before the uprising, but it was a sliver of a memory compared to the panic, the heat, the desperation as her comrades were rooted out. She had fled beneath flames and lightning, hails of gunfire, twisting down alleys, pushing past panicked citizens.
She pressed her fingers to the base of her neck. She couldn’t feel it through her scarf, but the scar was there, where she had taken a stray bullet. All in the past now, yet she often reminisced. It was bittersweet. To think that she’d first laid eyes on him for the first time, wild smile on his face, striding down the street with pistol in hand, like he was invincible. It felt surreal how giving herself to one cause had brought her to another.
“If all that’s true,” Bahl continued, “think a man like that could’ve killed Kincaid and took the guild for himself?”
Tes twisted her head and glared.
“You plotting against the Boss, Bahl? That sounds like something his enemies would use as a fabrication.”
Nobody would say his bald head was smooth, despite the lack of hair, but his face did stretch wide.
“No, of course not!” He said hastily. “Was just chatting is all.”
Tes turned back to the road. A basilisk-drawn carriage was meandering slowly down the street.
“Perhaps you should do less of that.”
The carriage came to a halt next to them, just as Bahl finished eating. The demvir stepped through the door and carefully down to the pavement. He looked relatively well-dressed, with a suit that was a little too baggy and a shirt speckled with a few droplets of something oily. His mouth rested in a flat line, but what Tes noticed the most was the rings around one eye. It reminded her of a monocle.
“Greetings,” he said to the tune of a couple of cogs whirring. The two who escorted him stepped off the wagon. Idro, a velen with purple-black scales, a man who she’d never seen sit still. Larsi, a tall, pretty laicar woman, the most prim a person in the Societas could be, as far as Tes was concerned. They were soivus, proven members of the Societas family, just like her and Bahl. They led the demvir past a heap of rubbish and a pipe spewing steam, into the side entrance of one of the buildings and down a corridor that smelled damp. The demvir’s body clicked with the motions but otherwise the short journey was silent. They all knew what sort of business was conducted in the early hours, or else they wouldn’t be in such a line of work. Tes wasn’t like Bahl, she didn’t wonder what the Boss had planned for this particular demvir. Since her time with the Astra non Obligant she had known that some folk were meant to lead and others to follow. She was the latter. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing wrong with knowing your place in the world. So many others didn’t see it that way.
The metal door at the end took a good shove from Bahl to heave open. They stepped into a dim light, a hall with rows of benches, a walkway down the middle leading to raised platforms at the end. A courtroom. Standing in the position where the judge would be was the Boss himself. A tall velen, pale white scales flecked with teal. Tes remembered the sleeveless trench coat he always favoured. Instead he had donned a long blue shirt that gripped tightly to his upper body - waterproof, no doubt - and a black waistcoat that glittered somehow in the twilight, with matching black trousers. He actually looked presentable, though no less menacing from the speckled burns on one side of his neck and jaw. Judging from their faces, the others were as shocked as she was.
“Deniisis Perfide,” the demvir chimed, striding forward, “the Grandmaster of the Societas. What a pleasure to be removed from my premises at such an unusual hour.”
“Professor Calovan,” the Boss said with his usual musicality, smile stretched wide. “I must apologize for the accommodation. It was the best that I could do with my limited time available, you must understand.”
The Professor stopped at the note-taker’s desk and stared up at the man who had brought him here.
“The accommodation does not concern me.” He creaked as he twisted to the four others and Tes thought she saw his monocle twitch. “Is this about… my previous request?”
“Oh, Vis no!” The Boss laughed. “That contract is sealed up tighter than a bassie’s arse. We take our jobs very seriously, here at the Societas.”
“Then why am I here?”
He loved to do this. Practically lounging on the judge’s table, swilling the amber fluid around in his glass, ever-present smirk looming. Tes wondered how many deals he had bartered behind closed doors using his reputation alone.
“First, I would like to hypothesize. To do so, I would like to borrow your brilliant mind.” A slow tilt of the glass and he sipped at his liquor of choice. “Hypothetically, if someone had a contract with beings from Natum, would said beings be capable of pulling that someone to their plane?”
The demvir clicked and twitched as he considered his answer. “Hypothetically? Yes. But there is much we don’t-”
“Excellent!” The Boss swigged the last of the whiskey and leaped down from the cubicle. Larsi flinched. “I would like to offer you a business opportunity.”
“You would?”
“Serpent’s saggy tits, you got oil in your ears? That’s what I said wasn’t it?”
His smile never vanished, but the other soivus shuffled uncomfortably. Most of the misfits of the Societas were no strangers to conflict and could feel when that pressure increased, the anticipation of violence. It was like a warm embrace.
“What… kind of business opportunity?”
“Well, I’m glad you asked,” The Boss said, leaning against the wooden podium. Sudden fervor slipped back into his joyful demeanour so swiftly it was almost never there. “I would like to fund a research project. You have access to the grand libraries, scholars and great minds of our time. Find a way to contact and transport mere mortals to the plane of Natum.”
The dim lights flickered and The Professor made a clunky sound reminiscent of a sputter.
“I’m afraid you ask too much of me. If it was a possibility, scholars with far greater expertise than I would have discovered the means already. Besides, it is not a dedicated field of mine, merely an interest. Perhaps you should consult Professor Visuri, she has a much more-”
“Visuri is not an option,” Deni interrupted and began pacing, pistol swinging from the holster on his belt. “Not yet. Leaning on Professor Visuri is a great idea though. Once the laboratory is set-up, you might want to make that a priority.”
He stopped in front of the desk, looming over the demvir like a hungry basilisk over a wounded dog.
“I always knew your brilliant mind would come through, but by the Vis, that was quick!”
“What if I refuse?”
The question froze the room. The other soivus shuffled. The Boss looked unperturbed. Almost bored. He shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s a free world, for the most part. Free enough to make your own choices and accept the consequences. I won’t stop you from leaving, but that contract of yours is only locked so tight because I have made it a priority.”
He slowly leaned closer, intense blue eyes fixated on the Professor as if they were the only two people in the room.
“I often find it is difficult ordering your priorities. Sometimes, however, it is the easiest task in the world.”
The gentle clicking and twitch of the demvir did not ease the silence. In the corner of her eye, Tes noticed Bahl gingerly reaching inside his coat. She shook her head and he moved his hand away.
“Well, I suppose the subject has always interested me,” The Professor said. “I know a vacant laboratory I can use, but it will require those funds you mentioned. When will they be cleared?”
The Boss' smile deepened as he stood tall and backed away from the table.
“They already have. Next time you visit the Eastverge bank in the southern end of the Ruby Jewel, your account should look quite substantial.”
The demvir nodded unsteadily. Even a few strides away Tes could see there were more oily flecks on his shirt than before. It was difficult to tell when one of them was nervous, but this was the closest she’d seen.
“Before you leave, I do have one other thing,” the Boss said, striding over to one of the defendant’s booths and producing a briefcase. He threw it at the demvir, who fumbled as he barely caught it. “I imagine this meeting will leave you feeling rather sour. I know I would be! But sour ain’t all too bad if you add a little sweet. I think you’ll find it quite personal.” The Professor finally cracked the latch and gasped, the sort of sound you’d hear in a steam room.
“This is-”
“Ah-ah!” Deni said, glancing over at the four soivus. Tes wasn’t the only one who straightened her back under those eyes. “I said it was personal.”
“Thank you.” The Professor sounded somewhere between confused and grateful.
“Normally I would accept a hug or a hearty clasp of the shoulder as gratitude, but in this instance I would prefer you focus on achieving the impossible, towards our mutual interest. Idro, Larsi, kindly escort the Professor back home. There are to be no incidents.”
“Understood, Boss.”
“Got it.”
Once they were out of earshot, that left just Tes and Bahl. The latter finally reached into his coat and pulled out another snack to sink his crooked teeth into. The Boss sighed and reached down into the defendant’s booth again, this time pulling up a bottle of that Pelagian whiskey he was so fond of.
“Well, that went well,” he said, taking a hearty glug straight from the bottle. Everybody knew he was a drunk, drugged-up egotist. That was no secret. Tes only wondered how he managed to hold the Societas together despite all of his crutches. Slaying daemons and naga was one thing, organising petty criminals on the right side of the law was another.
“You got something you want to tell me, Bahl?” He said suddenly. The laicar choked, spitting out whatever was in his mouth.
“Umm… no, Boss.”
“Alright,” he replied, then took another swig without breaking eye contact. “You can go.”
“Umm… see you tomorrow, Boss.”
Tes watched him walk out and suddenly felt nervous. She’d always been able to fade so well into the background. That was how she’d slipped away after the Astra non Obligant attack. She didn't like being one-on-one with her superior. It felt like there was nowhere to go.
“I just like to keep him on his toes,” he said. His voice sounded so loud, tinged with the reverb of the hall. “Many folks are loyal only to a paycheck. Bahl is one of them. I like to apply the pressure, see how quickly he folds. See whether he’ll run or stay.”
Tes didn’t say anything. Instead she stood, feeling too warm in the scarf around her neck, watching the blue-eyed Pelagian from across the room, just sipping his whiskey. So cool. So calm. Like he had all the time in the world. Then he started strolling towards her.
“I often wonder where my loyalties would lie, had I taken a different path. Had I not gained the fame I had. Maybe my reputation is too inflated,” - his ego, more like - “but I doubt it’s too late for you.” He stopped a few feet away, placed the bottle on a bench and stared right at her with those bloodshot blue eyes.
“The stars are not binding, after all.”
A chill prickled down Tes’ spine. The feathers on her head quivered. Did he know? Had he seen her in all that chaos, the time she had first laid eyes on him? There wasn’t anyone left in the city who knew of her involvement. She tried to remain composed but he must have noticed something because that grin slithered back onto his face.
“Why am I here?” She asked. The Professor’s question but from her own dry throat. The lights flickered.
“I want to know how far I can trust you.”
Deflect. “Why not the others?”
The Boss scoffed, though he looked amused. He straightened his shirt and leaned against the edge of a bench.
“We’ve covered Bahl already. Idro is only here for the love of the job. Thievery and threats, with brawls strewn throughout and a big name to back it up. On the right side of the law. It’s any thug’s dream.”
Webbed hands produced a small square tin from his jacket pocket and began rolling a cigarette.
“Larsi’s only here because she’s madly in love with Idro. She tried to leave last year, planned a whole getaway from the city. He talked her into staying. I’m glad she did. She’s got potential, if she can get past her fear. Unlucky for her that sexual tension is one of my areas of expertise. Otherwise I might never have discovered her secret.”
Tes didn’t know whether to be disgusted or impressed, so she decided on both.
“It’ll be a shame when she finds out he only likes men. When that spark ignites, I’ll end up having to play the bad pater again. Not a role I’m fond of.”
The Boss lit up his cigarette then took the first drag, breathing the smoke in Tes’ direction.
“It appears you’ve gotten me sidetracked.”
“Sorry.”
“I know it was intentional.”
Danger. That’s what it felt like. Alone with a survivor of the Black Portal, decorated by the Pelagian Emperor for his efforts in the Ophidian conflict. The urge to flee was swirling in her gut. She’d never been much of a talker, her words wouldn’t help her now. Yet he expected her to speak.
“Does anyone else know about your previous affiliations?”
“No.” Barely a whisper. Admitting it out loud was a terrible danger. The velen’s chest heaved into a sigh. He appeared at ease to Tes’ eyes, but he could switch in an instant. She had seen it before.
“I find it interesting.” A step closer. He offered the cigarette. She didn’t want to take it, but she did so anyway and inhaled it so deeply it caught in her throat. She began to cough. “Easy there! I find it interesting that you chose A.N.O as your second greatest priority.”
“Second? I gave them everything I had.”
“Not everything.” The Boss took the joint back and took another hit. “Your first priority was self-preservation, or else you would have died at the hands of the Conexus or the Arcanum, or fled the city with the rest.”
Tes blinked. The panic. Magic lancing through the streets, bullets ripping into buildings. Broken glass. Broken bodies. She couldn't have stayed in that chaos. Nobody could have.
“If the ghosts of the past come out from their haunts, will you join them again? Or will the Societas remain your new second greatest priority?”
“The Societas or you?”
The Boss chuckled.
“You don’t talk much, but you ask the right questions.” One last puff on the cigarette and he handed it to her, then turned back towards the judge’s booth. “You only have to take one look at the names of the founders. Kincaid. Aeria Luxus.” He hesitated. “Ignis of Animi. Myself, of course. Names associated with deeds both low and high, but always awe-inspiring.” He began to wave his arms around dramatically as he grew louder. “Legendary thieves from the shadows, heroes from the Black Portal, key operatives from the Pelagia-Ophidian skirmishes. People gravitate towards excellence. The Societas has only flourished since all those endeavours.”
By the time Tes started following, he was already leaning against the stand again. After his outburst, his shoulders were slumped, his back slouched. He looked tired.
“I haven’t just been pushing papers behind my Vis-forsaken desk these past few years. I have been finding my way into the pockets of the powerful, like I just did with the Professor, dozens of times over. The Societas is firmly engrained into Terminus now.”
Tes couldn’t argue that. If he was the one holding all those threads together, keeping the Societas elevated, what would happen if he died? Or decided he’d had enough of being the Boss? There was Aeria, but she had been much more absent. It would collapse. Tes would fade back into the shadows again. Just like after Nocte Nil.
She blinked as the purpose of this conversation dawned on her.
“Is this an audition?”
“Hm?”
“You die, the Societas collapses. Are you scouting me as a bodyguard?”
The Boss smiled and suddenly stood upright. The twilight played tricks with the shadows on his face, but Tes thought he looked pleased.
“Bodyguard is far too simple a term. Confidant, maybe? But yes.” He held his hands up as if he was being held at gunpoint. “You got me! My ulterior motives have been unravelled!”
“I’ll do it,” Tes said, fighting the urge to scratch at her headfeathers. “I’ll make you or the Societas my second greatest priority.”
“Well, that is a wonderful relief.” The Boss’ playful demeanor darkened suddenly as he stepped closer to her. She was barely the height of his chest, so she had to look up as he approached. Her heart began to race. Danger. She could never silence her instincts. “You said it yourself. This is an audition. I just need to be certain you fit the criteria.”
He held one webbed hand out, palm criss-crossed with jagged lines. Tes couldn’t tell if they were burns, cuts or tattoos.
“Your first instinct will be to resist it. Don’t. You need to embrace it.”
Tes grew cold. Nervous. Danger. What was he about to do? Danger. She should have ran when she had the chance.
“Tell me you understand.”
She looked away from his hand to that pale, stern face, licking the inside of her dry mouth to gather the moisture to speak.
“I understand.”
With that he placed his hand over her forehead. It was cold and scaly. Then it was invasive. Tes found her head tumbling with dizziness, grabbed at his wrist with both hands for support. Or reprieve.
“I said don’t fight it!”
The voice was distant. She continued to flounder, twisting every which way, trying to escape whatever it was that tried to claw its way into her mind. For some reason, the panic reminded her of Orator. Listening to his speech with the other A.N.O operatives. She knew now she had only been a pawn, but it soothed her somehow.
“That’s it.”
She dragged her darting eyes up to The Boss’. His face looked softer now, despite his bared teeth. Deni and Orator. They weren’t the same, not by a long measure, but they were both great. They had both given her purpose. They had guided her when she had only ever been rudderless.
She blinked. Suddenly she was staring at her own face, mouth hanging open, brown eyes wide from the struggle. There was something else there now. Like her own mind but separate, distant. There was ambition. Boredom. Weariness. Cravings, a lot of them. Yet all those emotions were dwarfed by two, like night and day. Loss. Resolve.
The connection snapped and Tes was herself again. And lightheaded. Deni held her firmly by her arms until she grew steady again.
“What in Infernalis was that?” She panted.
“You’re not far wrong,” he said and led her to the nearest bench. “One of the many party tricks in my arsenal. Congratulations on your new job.”
“I passed?” Tes couldn’t hide her puzzlement. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You did plenty.” The Boss picked up the cigarette that had fallen from her mouth and stuck it between his lips. “You have shown a scary level of dedication to your role and have been one of the more reliable soivus for quite some time. This was just a precaution. I needed to see what was really going on in that head of yours, dear Tesirae.”
She frowned. “I hate that name.”
“I know you do,” Deni smirked, “but it’s so hard to get a reaction out of you. It’s the only way I know how.”
Tes’ breathing returned to normal while he finished the cigarette.
“I need you to scout out Professor Visuri. I need something solid. An affair, blasphemy, debts, past troubles. Anything we can lean on. Take the other three with you. As far as they’re concerned, nothing has changed.”
“Understood.”
She remained for a few moments longer, staring at him. The ramifications of this decision were not lost on her. It was a bold step to put so much trust in one soivus, but even bolder to allow her a glimpse into his mental state. Tes had never experienced such a connection to Orator. Then again, she had not been a part of A.N.O for long before the fighting had started.
“Off you go then,” the Boss said, flicking the used cigarette butt away. “And don’t tell a soul about a word that was said here.”
As she traversed the dark corridors, she pondered on the meeting. On the surface he had always been personable, able to say exactly what he wanted to get everyone within the Societas to like and accept him, high and low. This side of the Boss felt different to Tes. It felt like he was being genuine, like he needed her to fill this position. Then again, he was excellent at judging folk and had manipulated others towards his whims at every turn. Perhaps he was telling her only what she wanted to hear. Regardless, he had made a decision to trust her and she had accepted.
Now they both had to live with their choices.
Deni continued staring, even after her soft footfalls faded to nothing. Just like every decision since becoming the figurehead of the Societas, he questioned whether the hand he’d played had revealed just a little too much this time. Placing so much trust in a soivus could backfire terribly. They were a swift and easy route to betrayal, but he’d put it off for too long already. ‘Everybody places their faith in somebody else,’ avus had told him once. It was time Deni started. After all, he could only stretch the net so far on his own before it snapped.
“What do you think?” Deni said quietly. “Can we trust her?”
Amicus appeared on top of the judge’s platform. The little tree sprite shook a couple of branches. Deni had no idea what that meant, whether he’d understood or not. They didn’t have the same connection that he’d had with Ignis. Deni sighed and pulled his artifact out from under one of the booths. A glass orb decorated with a spiky black frame, pink mist constantly swirling inside. Tes was a wildcard. Her face betrayed no sign of emotion, her actions no sign of personal motive. But there was no hiding from Lachtára. Her devotion was astounding. Dangerous. Deni just hoped she would stick to it as cleanly as he had felt it.
The past few years, the velen had found himself growing less impulsive, more contemplative. He often wondered what Aeria would think of his actions. Every dark meeting. Every secret leveraged. Every threat. No doubt she would find out sooner or later. What would Ignis have thought? To see the obsessive lengths he was eclipsing to get her back? Will she even be the same? Am I the same? She might not even recognise me.
Webbed fingers gripped the artifact tight.
She might not be alive.
Something sharp poked at his side. He hadn’t noticed Amicus climb down from the podium. After that night, Deni didn’t know what would happen to the mons infans. Part of him thought Amicus might want to return to the wild. Without his contractor, what reason was there to stay? Yet here he was. Maybe their bond was stronger than Deni had given either of them credit for. Maybe Amicus had not left because their bond was still there. That gave Deni hope. The doubt was always there of course, just a tiny voice lost in the cacophony of his resolve. Insignificant. Soon it would be time.
“We’ll get her back, Ami. Soon.”