by P. S. Power
Zack raised his hand and smiled, “Seconded.”
Then Don nodded. "I agree as well."
This lead to a lot of questions from the Mages and quite a few from their own friends who didn't know where they stood suddenly. Kate started making up rules as they went along, smiling at Don, who tried to take notes, then falling behind, suggested that Betty be made official secretary.
“Wow, Secretary of State?” Betty asked, a glint in her eye. Kate started to say no, but Zack looked at her and cocked his head. Then slowly, his narrow shoulders pulled up, as if saying; why not? It actually did make sense, after a fashion. They needed someone that would be able to do the job after all, and she had sort of just volunteered.
Looking at Betty, Kate winked, “OK, but that's provisional, and since you have dual citizenship, you have to check anything important with the rest of us and, you know, no declaring war. We can't really back that yet. It would be more like a name calling fest, for one thing and I don't know if Don is really up for that yet. Zack isn't, so remember that.” Not that she was up for that kind of thing either. At least she could use the word fuck in a sentence without blushing. Still, that was almost always a good thing, when she used it.
Much to the amusement of everyone except Betty and the Mages, who all knew what a Secretary of State actually did, this was put through. Unanimously.
Kate made up rules then and important position or not, Betty wrote everything down with superhuman speed. To become a member you could marry in, or at least have a solid relationship with someone that was a Line-Walker, or become one yourself. This left it technically open to Demons, but, they decided, if a Demon wanted to join, they had to give up Demon citizenship and agree to normal Line-Walker rules and laws. Most of which they hadn't made up yet.
Decisions would be made by a vote of the Line-Walkers as a whole, so everyone with citizenship, but if you didn't show up for the discussions you didn't get a vote.
They made a lot more, but all of it was subject to change if it turned out not to work.
Then, surprising the Mages that sat at the table, including Jelly, Zack suggested a working relationship be broached with the Mages and some of the other groups, if they wished.
Kate looked around the table, noticing how ordinary everyone looked. Oh, a lot of them were attractive and no one at the table was less that respectable looking, but it seemed like people doing big things like this should be, well, special somehow. Maybe they could all rent glowing nimbus' of light or something? Or they could all get matching t-shirts that said “Number one Nation Builders” on them.
“What do you think George, Harald? How about you Gabrielle? Mr. Fort? Do you think that the Mages would like to continue working with us? We could switch to a new embassy and all, and may in the future, but then we'd have to take all your personnel out of Underwood with us except Gregory and really, we may just grab him... I know that I really like and trust Eloise and think that having good friends is better than drifting in a sea of strangers.” Kaitlyn made a point to pick up the pen that Merri had gotten for her, so she could take notes. Everyone at the table agreed that would be a fine thing to do and suggested that they hold an event, inviting as many world leaders as possible soon.
Britney squealed, “Hey, can I be like, the princess of parties?”
They talked into the night, sending the Mages home about two in the morning and looked at Lisa and Libby, who both seemed a bit tired. She called a halt to the evening's activities then and suggested that they all get some rest. Those that slept anyway, since they had things to do in the morning now.
Betty took Don by the hand, who looked grateful for the action, and then snagged Britney's hand on the way by. She stopped in front of Blaine and waited.
The Vampire woman looked at him, charmingly, and made a silly face.
"Look, I only have two hands, so... You get the idea? Follow along. It will be a grand old time."
Libby and Merri were trying to pull Zack away with them, but Kate told them no, firmly. She looked around and found Maryl standing by Lisa.
“Maryl gets Zack tonight, and for the next, I don't know, while at least. To make sure that he really doesn't use any extra pleasure when he does anything fun. We'll be getting reports, and checking her Zack, so no cheating on this.” She didn't glare, but she did look at him seriously, so he'd know she meant it. If he really didn't want to have sex with Maryl, then they could find someone else, but he wasn't getting his hands on any of the others until he checked out as safe. For a while.
Kate had no problem believing that Zack could hold off for one day. Or even forever. The trouble was that he apparently thought it was easier to just entrance women with loads of pleasure than to simply be a good lover. That probably had to do with low self-esteem, which made sense to Kaitlyn, but made the situation a lot worse, not better. If he was more confident, then he'd know that everyone loved him just for being himself. Lacking that, he might be more liable to think that it was all about tricks and magic. If so, he could relapse incredibly easily.
Zack didn't complain, though Maryl looked more than a little shocked. She recovered quickly enough though and took him by the hand, making it harder for him to get away.
Kate looked at the remaining women, and decided that she really couldn't adequately handle everything in one night.
"Mom, do you have any plans for the night?"
Her mother gave her a sly look, as if she were going to suggest they do something together. Not that they ever had. That would be gross, even for an Alede.
"I don't. Do you have a suggestion?"
"Why not take Chi and Jelly to her room? Just remember that I'm calling both of them for later. No stealing them full time or anything."
The suggestion made Chi's eyes light up, having thought he'd be relegated to a sofa, or possibly a bedroom alone. The new place was big enough that the latter one was probably correct. Unless there were massive amounts of Alede around, that was. Sharing was so much more fun. Kate smiled at those two and told them that she'd be free for them the following night. If they were interested.
Searching the room, she passed Merri off to David and Dwayne on the caveat that they had to do what Merri said, at least as far as sex went. Then told her that she could do pretty much whatever she wanted with them, as long as she made sure they had plenty of lubricant. That was the trick to decent Vampire sex really. Lots of lube.
Turning to Libby and Lisa she frowned, something she had to make herself do, since the facial expression wasn't a normal one for her kind.
“You two come with me. Hit me in the head and try to fry me for saving your lives will you? I think not.” She took both of them to her room and didn't let them go till the next morning, even though she did let them sleep. In shifts.
Zack got them off to work two hours early and took Don and her through the lines, making them follow him, over and over again. Hundreds of times to begin with, well, dozens of times really, she reflected, but it felt like more. Both of them reeled and felt dizzy after that, though Zack told them the worst of that effect would go away over time. If they followed the pattern he did at all.
He expected them to be able to find nodes by looking through them as well, so he stopped a little before nine and made them look at different places, and then take him there like a passenger. Kaitlyn found it hard to find new places, though she could find someplace that a person had been to before by touching them easily enough. Don hardly even seemed to need to be told someplace existed and he could find it.
Better than Zack could, which made Kate feel a little jealous, but only for a moment. After all, everyone had their own strengths. Two days before she wouldn't have believed that opening a line would have even been possible for an Alede at all. If it worked a little differently for her, she'd deal. She'd whine about her new super power not being shiny enough when... She just decided to be happy with what she had. Jealousy was always a petty thing to hold onto. Beneath even her.
Then the
y all went to work, Don down to the apothecary, her setting to work straightening the candle shop. Claire waived at her and she winked back. Jelly walked in at nine sharp, though Lisa didn't get there till nearly ten-thirty. Jelly had simply gotten a ride with Patty she told Kate, not mentioning what they did the night before. Probably feeling a little awkward, Kate realized, though she'd never feel that way herself.
People were coming in for transfers fairly steadily and Zack, noting a lull in the schedule substituted her for himself in the lineup, just making repeated trips to Lesser Shia. After about twenty minutes a translator came, along with an administrator named Hathe.
“Are you... The Line-Walker Hartley?” The translator asked, repeating what the other man said in that eerie yet hyper-efficient way they had, speaking almost over the other person, but not quite.
Kaitlyn smiled and shook her head no.
“Nope, I'm the new person... Oh, wait! I'll be right back, stay here please?” She smiled and waited for the man to tell her he'd wait before ducking back into the line and finding her way to the candle shop.
“Zack... Hathe asked after you? Would you come with me to see him so he knows I'm a real person and not you in drag?” Kate had figured out that that's what the man had actually meant by his questions early on.
That or he'd figured her for a Demon, and was just hoping that Zack cleaned up that nice. He really did, but Maria looked different than that.
She walked through first, followed by Zack about fifteen seconds later.
Hathe smiled and shook both their hands enthusiastically. He asked Zack if this lovely lady was his wife or perhaps a clone of him, modified to be so beautiful? Zack let her explain the situation, so that Hathe would realize that she was as important as he was.
“Except I'm not, really,” She told Hathe directly. “I can do this and may even end up being all right at it if I get enough practice, but I'm going back to school soon, so you won't see me here for months, and then probably only part time. The same is true with Don, the other new Line-Walker.”
Hathe shook her hand again and started talking to Zack exclusively. So she went and got the rest of the people making transfers from the mall. Zack came back and ate lunch alone at the front counter, while she worked in the back, then spelled her the same way. Maryl came and kicked Jelly and Lisa out of their now shared office for a while, taking Zack in alone. They both came back out about fifteen minutes later and Zack went to Lesser Shia for his afternoon work there.
Three transfers came in while Zack was gone that normally would have just been sent away or rescheduled for later. Since she'd been shown the way to most of the regular places, Kate decided to give taking them herself a shot. She got everyone to where they needed to go without too much hassle, only hitting the wrong node once.
She apologized to the hairy individuals that she'd walked in on immediately. They were short, about four foot tall and looked a little like cats. Other than that she didn't recognize their kind, but found her mistake, coming in three nodes over, and fixed it without too much hassle. The transfers just smiled at her and shrugged. She'd warned them about it being her first day after all.
At two Lisa asked if she'd be available for Eloise Penbroke, which of course she was. On the phone Eloise sounded far more formal than she'd ever heard her before as if she were talking to someone important.
“Hey, Eloise! It's still just me. To answer your question, yes, we are officially forming our own working group, a nation of sorts, even though we only have three Line-Walkers yet and it takes, it seems like, about seven hundred years experiential on average for someone to learn how to do it right. The vast majority of people can't or won't learn and can't even take the void for a little while without massive help. So, I don't think our numbers are going to sky rocket any time soon.”
The Mage leader expressed how pleased she was that the Mages and the Line-Walkers had such a strong working relationship and hoped that something similar might continue in the future. This ended as a question though and Kate instantly saw what she was getting at.
“Argh. Eloise, did George Penbroke or any of his people call you this morning with a heads up or did they just tell you that this little nation idea was in the works? We agreed last night to get with you and form a treaty and solidify things so that your people wouldn't worry...I mean we all want to keep working from here, even though we'll have our own embassy, too. It makes us look stronger if we have a large organization backing us after all. Plus, we're keeping Lisa, no matter what and maybe Gregory, if we can. You too if we could swing it, so it makes sense to get in good with the whole group, right?” She knew that her flattery might sound false to a politician's ear, but she meant it, even the part about trying to keep her, too. If the Mages were dumb enough to let her get away, they didn't deserve her.
They arranged to have her over for dinner that night, late, but Kate told her that she had to get with Merri on that and give her a chance to make something nice or she'd kill her and then there'd be only two Line-Walkers left. Eloise laughed at this and let her go to see to it smoothly, saying she looked forward to seeing them all and sounding like she meant it.
After she hung up, she cleared her throat, loudly.
"Jelly? Can you cover the front desk here? I have some things to do. Getting in touch with Merri about the dinner arrangements and things like that."
Jenifer looked anxious, but Kate smiled and told her she'd do great. All she had to do was ask people to call back later and if they got too pushy, call for Claire, who'd be able to handle almost anything perfectly. That, or she could just make stuff up, as long as it wouldn't start a giant fight.
At three, Wu-Li brought Donald back so that he could practice taking people places if anything came in, since that would be important too. Along with sweeping the apothecary and learning what herbs were used for what illnesses. The Master, who looked thirty or so, but had lived for over six hundred years, asked Kate to come with him. Back at the shop he took her into a familiar back room and smiled at her, not bothering to bow, and asked her to strip.
This didn't fool her, since she knew that the Master didn't have sex as a rule, trying to save that for procreation only, which sounded dismal to her. He turned his back and tossed her some sweats to work out in, though no shoes. Not that she had a hang-up about shoes as long as running on pavement wasn't on the menu.
Instead he threw smoky gray lines at her that hit hard.
"Can you sense those in any way? Before they connect with your energy I mean." He never bothered to fake an accent for her, but his English was nearly perfect.
"I can see them. They come out of your hands in lines, then circle back, into your body. You flare a little, at the top of your head and under your feet when you do it. It's pretty neat." That last bit came with a little bit of flirtatious giggling, but the man wasn't affected by it very much. If at all.
After about ten minutes of observation and practice Kate worked out how to cast the lines out, but not bring the energy back.
Wu-Li nodded, and suggested she practice this, but only with a ready source of energy on hand. They worked out that she should have four decent shots in her or two big ones. Then she'd exhaust herself dangerously and have to try something else in order to survive. Running away came to mind, but that didn't always work, she knew.
Then standing in front of her, relaxed and almost cozy, he shot a line of pure black force at her that could probably have taken her head off, literally, had it connected. She responded by instinct, with a whipped out band of white. It was a loop running from her hand to her middle and never left her body, so it didn't cost her much energy at all, but it did brush the attack aside.
Could she do something with that? Put energy just outside herself, like a shield? She tried it, but nothing much seemed to work except brushing things aside as Wu-Li threw at least eight different kinds of energy attacks at her. When he flew at her, leaping through the air at her lightly his hand projecting something, she called
out for him to wait.
For once, instead of thinking it a ruse or clever trick to get him to stall, he actually stopped and put the energy attack held close to his hand away.
She waved her hand at him frantically, asking him to do it again. Fine lines, a loop she saw, almost as if made of tiny gossamer wires hung in front of his hand. She could only see them as a faint shimmer of white held around a deep black core.
Pointing she asked what that did, indicating the loop that hung in there. Instead of saying anything, he walked over to a cement block he had, one of about twenty stacked along the back wall of the room and ran his hand past it, carving a piece of it off that was about the size of a candy bar.
"Um... Can I see that one again?"
She sat down on the floor and focused, drawing her own small, but elongated circle in the air, attached first to her index finger then coming back to her pinky, never breaking the line. When it looked the same as Wu-Li's, more or less, she waved her hand at the block, but nothing happened. She tried it again and then again, with the same results.
She looked up at him and grinned, “Well, I guess that one's a bust!” She laughed a little bit, not really feeling too bad about her lack of results for once.
Wu-Li looked at the cement strangely for a moment, then nudged it with his foot, causing it to fall into several large pieces and three smaller bits that had been part of at least two cuts each. Raising his eyebrows at her he shook his head.
“Not such a bust at all it seems. You just made such fine and deep cuts that it held together under its own weight. I'd rather find something you can do that gives you greater range, a distance attack, but this is a good starting place. We'll work on this again tomorrow and see what else we can find for you before you go away again.”
