Orphan At The Edge Of The World 126 Crawling Chaos 24

As soon as they were alone in her car, she said, "I won't pry, Mr. Cantrip but you mean a great deal to Mrs. Derby and me. Do you know what you're going to be doing next?"

Orison thought and said, "Call me Orison, please. Well, Ms. Mess-er-Mrs. Carter, I'm going to check in with Neil. See how the guy's doing. I figured I'd pick up an artist or two to patronize and after that I'm going to take a little break to evaluate how I can most wisely spend my time... If I disappear again, help Mrs. Darby with some wild story so she doesn't get in a huff to find me again... I'd greatly appreciate it. She's going to have her hands full with those kids of hers."

She laughed in a subdued manner. "In that case, call me Rachel unless my husband and his friends are around... You've hit the nail on the head with that one, especially those oldest two. The were a little wild when they were young but they've gone plumb rotten since Alice's had her hands full with business related matters. If her husband was still around I don't think it'd be nearly as bad but you know how it goes."

"Not really," Orison thought before he said, "Speaking of wild kids, how's your daughter doing?"

Rachel gripped the wheel a little tighter and replied with a fake air of ease, "Oh, she's busy raising two of her own now. Getting along well enough."

The young mage thought to himself, "If she wants to pretend everything is all peachy, far be it from me to borrow more trouble I don't really care that much about."

Eyes softening, Rachel said, "Of course, my little miracle girl's nearly eight already. Her dad and older brothers spoil her rotten but mind you, I keep her in check. I fear she's a little too sheltered but you couldn't ask for a gentler or more well behaved angel. The polar opposite of my oldest really."

In a low voice, Orison said, "Life has its sweet moments in between all the bitter.���

With a mischievous smirk, Rachel said, "Speaking of sweet moments, I may not be able to do for you what Alice has but if you want to be introduced to some girls from good families..."

The rest of the trip back to Neil's place was filled with light hearted banter and some teasing by the older woman while Orison internally sweated and parried for his life. It quickly became obvious that Rachel may not have had some of the advantages that others had but she was quite the formidable socialite. It was a trait that had served her well, not only in her own private business ventures but carving out her own slice of a kingdom among the other, more established Mason society matrons.

After receiving another lingering hug and a misty eyed parting from Rachel, Orison walked into the dimly lit detective's office. Although Neil hadn't strictly kept with the diet and exercise routine, he'd paid enough lip service to it over the years to be in decent shape as he comfortably adjusted to his late thirties. A dash of gray in his beard and some wrinkles in the corners of his eyes were the only significant signs that his youth had been well left behind. A little thickening around the waist spoke of some slipping of discipline but the man had logged his time as far as Orison was concerned. If Neil wanted to enjoy some unhealthy food and indulge in life shortening vices, it had little to do with the young mage anymore.

The detective swept his feet off the desk and set down the gla.s.s of whiskey in his hand almost guiltily. "My G.o.d, man. You look like you hardly aged a day. How is that fair in any way? Forget that. Where the h.e.l.l have you been all these years!?"

Orison replied blandly, "Stuck in a s.p.a.cial crack. If it hadn't been for Jimmy, I probably still would be."

Neil stammered out a confused apology before Orison waved it away and caught the detective up to speed. The only thing he held back on was the events at the rock quarry. The young mage was all too uncomfortably aware whose payroll Neil had been on over the years and the last thing Orison needed was a loose end like the accidental murdering of young Masons hanging over his head. Unfavored faction or not, there would be a reckoning for that if he was linked to it.

Neil digested and said, "So what kind of creature is Mr. Burns? If you freed him from some kind of magic seal, I doubt he's normal."

Orison said, "Old-school, stronger than me and my subordinate by circ.u.mstance only. Be respectful and he'll return the favor. Anything more than that's his business to share or not. I'd suggest not prying, though. It kinda ties in with the whole being respectful thing."

The detective let out a long, self deprecating sigh. "Might sound conceited of me but after Jessica left, I just took it for granted that me and Zora would end up wiping each other's wrinkled a**es one day. Who would have thought..."

Confused, Orison said, "Who would have thought what? A lot can happen in a couple weeks. Why don't you catch me up to speed.���

Neil shrugged lazily. "I was released from the hospital a little over a week ago. I come back to find that Zora's packed her things and is off on a honeymoon. With as much as she hates supes, who would have thought she'd up and marry one."

Orison's brows furrowed. "Ignatius Burns, if you're free, we need to talk. If you're, uh, in the middle of something, wrap it up as soon as you can."

Contrary to his expectations, Ignatius didn't appear before him, he appeared in a small palisade situated near a cozy oasis in the middle of a sunny but not unpleasantly hot desert. In front of him on an oversized golden throne sat Ignatius with very little affected humanity and even less clothes as Zora lounged across his lap being fed peeled grapes. For her part, Zora was significantly younger looking and a far cry from appearing the abducted woman Orison had feared she was.

With a complex expression, the young mage said, "Everything's good?"

The goofy grin on Ignatius's face and Zora's light bickering around a smile of her own was all Orison cared to know. Despite that, he had to listen to a story of coercion for help turning into a surprisingly pleasant situation. Apparently, Zora's prediction made her reach for Ignatius's aid which came with the stipulation of marriage. Considering how much she felt she owed Orison and Neil, she agreed reluctantly thinking she'd probably die anyway.

The young mage's rampage defied her prediction, however. Instead of her having to pay some huge price to get Orison close enough to rescue Neil while Ignatius kept Muriel occupied, it had turned into a popcorn show they couldn't get involved in without endangering themselves. What had seemed like quite a lengthy, drawn out and dangerous battle had been less than thirty seconds total from the time the young mage went hollow man.

After looting the place, Ignatius and Zora kept an eye on things from a distance for a few days before the ifrit called her on the deal. Non-use of aid didn't const.i.tute a refund worthy event in the eyes of Ignatius. Initial reluctance and a bit of actual supernatural battle ended up turning into the intro to a fiery courts.h.i.+p and spicy honeymoon. If Zora hadn't relented, it could have went a completely unwholesome direction but ultimately, she was a woman of her word. Ignatius was making sure she understood how grateful he was of her not turning ifrit style courts.h.i.+p into an ugly and painful affair by shamelessly pampering her.

To facilitate his continued affectionate effort to turn Zora into a person incapable of feeding herself, Ignatius asked for a leave of absence he would measure against the end of his service period. Orison counter offered that he'd only call on Ignatius if he was in dire need and in return only wanted honest monthly t.i.thing and later, rent. The ifrit hadn't known Orison for long but had already gotten the gist that the young mage was a fiercely independent person who wasn't overly interested in being coddled by a bodyguard so the ifrit let the matter drop.

Before asking to be returned, Orison commented, "The air's a lot cleaner and the feeling of abyssal oppression isn't nearly as strong."

Ignatius nodded. "The will of the plane will adjust to its owner if the owner's will is strong enough to endure. Attempting to match the stubbornness of an ifrit is difficult enough, much less trying to overcome one. Take heed, wife."

Zora responded, "If I am happy, continue to believe whatever you like. I can't be bothered to teach truth to the unwilling."

With Ignatius's inflamed gaze hinting at what was to come, Orison quickly said, "Send me back."

With zero attention paid beyond answering the request, Ignatius bent his attention to affectionate discipline as Orison gratefully reappeared in Neil's office in a gust of desert wind.

Glancing at Neil's startled face, the young mage said, "I'm afraid Zora's found herself a better deal than mutual a** wiping."

After a small amount of gloomy but comfortable silence pa.s.sed, Orison pointed at the whiskey bottle and said, "How are you balancing it right now?"

Neil grimaced and said, "Three and three. No more than three a night and no more than three days in a row. I can even do it two out of three times before I fudge a little."

Orison sighed but didn't say anything else.

With a bitter face, Neil said, "So, are you planning to step back in where you left off? Whip me back into shape? I'm not young anymore."

Smiling weakly at the wall, Orison said, "Not if you don't want me to. If you're fine with the way things are or you're just done with it, then I'm fine settling into a friends.h.i.+p with a mid-life, mild alcoholic slipping into decline. h.e.l.l, you don't even have to see me again, if that's what you want. I wouldn't particularly blame you."

Chuckling mirthlessly, Neil shot back, "These days I'd just about be willing to bend over and bite the pillow one good time if it meant having a reason to get up the next day. I don't blame you for a d.a.m.n thing wrong with my life... You kept your word and I had a good thing until I threw it away being stupid. I might have said and done some dumb things but time's at least let me see just how dumb they were."

A ghost of a smile flashed across Neil's weary face. "I don't even mind that you look me over a bit too long. At this age, I find it a little flattering."

Still staring at the wall, Orison sported a lazy frown and all but mumbled, "Lay off it. I was trying to figure out just how far you let yourself go. I wasn't interested in your hairy, nasty a** then and I sure as h.e.l.l ain't interested in your flat, hairy a** now."

After a few more minutes of banter, the faint ghost of determination flared in Neil's eyes as he said, "What the h.e.l.l. Why not give it another go. I'm not going to wake up to an empty closet and a gra.s.s clipping milkshake tomorrow, am I?"

Orison said, "I'm not that bored but we do have a road trip to take the day after tomorrow if I want to make you gra.s.s clipping milkshakes... Old rules, my old friend. But I'll be nice this time and let you polish off that bottle before we clean out your liquor stash... That is, as long as I can help."

Neil's mouth hooked up into a smirk as he replied, "Deal."

After banis.h.i.+ng a light hangover the next day, Orison got the ball rolling on a nice property acquisition and checked in on Nicolas to make sure the bean pole wasn't starving to death. Buying a luxury car, he tossed the keys to Neil and muttered about how he'd owed the man one. On the long drive up past Port Haven, the detective force fed his nine year sob story to the young mage.

It was pretty easy to spot where things had went wrong. When Jessica's brother pa.s.sed away, he had been involved in a case and followed through with commitments to work instead of the one he had to his grieving wife. When Jessica lamented over their lack of children, Neil tried to up play the positives instead of looking into it with a doctor. When she came up pregnant but didn't seem that happy about it, Neil had overlooked it all, knowing that she had been unfaithful.

On the surface it may have seemed loving and supportive but in reality, he'd kind of stopped caring. Although the boy carried his last name and Jessica was still technically married to him, it was more a support system for his guilt towards his dead feelings for her. She wasn't innocent in it all but she had been failed in many ways and accepted the guilt money with equally dead feelings.

After that, he lost himself in work and after awhile lost his zeal for life. If Zora hadn't been around, Neil admitted things might have gotten truly dark. Orison garnered the impression that the detective had garnered more than a little affection for her. His heart had just been too tired to fan it into something more substantial.

When Neil flashed a picture in his wallet at Orison, the young mage was a little stunned. There was a definite and unavoidable presence of Asian features to the boy. Stifling his curiosity, the young mage was willing to leave it at that but Neil went on to say that he was certain who the boy's real father was but it would have been a major scandal that could endanger hers and the boy's life so it had to remain a secret.

Pulling up on the border fracture that had imprisoned him for nine years, Orison was nervous. It wasn't so much that he was afraid something would happen. He merely felt uncertain how his requests would be received and had no idea what it would cost him.

Calling out mentally, the young mage waited patiently as the sun began setting on the horizon. As twilight closed in, a faint trill of danger was in the air. He wasn't affected by it overly much but Neil was spooked and ready to bolt as soon as Orison said the word. To give the detective a little peace of mind, the young mage asked him to wait in the car as he walked off road into the distance a bit further.

A baying of hounds preceded an invisible presence nudging his hand. With spirit sight, Orison saw the ma.s.sive dog's nub of a tail wiggling violently. Chuckling, Orison scratched behind Nibble's ears until it was called away. The presence of the dog made Orison think of the jawbone made of five colored soil that had managed to be pushed to the edge of his s.p.a.ce once more.

On a whim, Orison locked it away under a magic seal as Herne appeared in his ten foot tall on horseback form. "What brings you to visit on a hunting eve, father-in-law? Do you have an itch to explore your primal roots?"

Orison said thoughtfully, "If I had known that it was a possibility, I may have at that. Going hunting with family isn't an unpleasant sounding idea. Maybe we can arrange something in the future once I can unbury my horse from the ma.s.sive chunk of inert crystal I've buried everything under."

Herne laughed boisterously. "An unexpected answer. I suppose it shouldn't have been if there was need of it and it seems there is need."

Orison sighed. "More for the bonding than the blood, Herne. I have other methods for taking care of my low essence issues."

"If you are not here to hunt and you are not here to address your more visible needs. Why have you come?" Herne asked.

Orison handed over the sealed jawbone of Nibbles. "That's a start. It's not my main purpose but running into Nibbles made me think about it. Maybe Flora can make use of it... If you're about to be off on your business, I'll cut to the point so as not to delay you. Would you consider that rude or too direct?"

The hunter shook his head. "I prefer it. Were it not a hunting eve, I'd still prefer it. As absurd as it is, you are family and there is no rudeness in being candid between family."

Orison nodded. "Very well. Since I'm temporarily unable to reach my...barrow, I'm in need of some healing herbs. I also have a question to ask. My first student is currently residing in my stag pin. Do you have any ideas or suggestions on a way I can get his body back or at least grant him a new one that's close enough?"

Herne examined the pin. A complex look that didn't seem like it fit on the hunters face drifted across it before he searched Orison's eyes for something.

The hunter said, "I do know. Do you not or are you playing fool for me? Is it TRUELY coincidence that you come to me with this question?"

Confused, Orison said, "Well, I can't say it's coincidence. You're pretty knowledgeable about things related to life and death, right? Was it wrong in some way to come to you?"

Herne looked at the pin with an almost pained expression. "Within my helm's antlers lies a solution to your quandary. With it, you could repeat the process of how Flora was birthed and within a few years, your student should be strong enough to exist independently of you. I- I could grant my helmet to you but what debts remain between us will be paid and ties severed save what is volunteered in good faith. Do we have a bargain?"

Orison was about to consent when he was interrupted by a storm of multiple fruit tree blossoms. "Do not agree father!"

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