I am sitting on a treasure trove of art, news, cool writing, and I can share none of it. I have a large Augustine snippet for you today instead. Some of you have read the first version of this scene. It has been edited and expanded.
In return, please drop some blog topics and questions into the comments. The sequel to This Kingdom is eating my brain and I need help, heh.
“As you know, Maria, the current state of the economy requires our company to develop agility in an effort to meet the rapidly changing realities of the marketplace.”
The HR manager smiled, her hand resting on a black folder with FINERGY etched in gold on it. She was in her forties. Her makeup was applied with technical precision. Her acrylic nails, translucent pink and of professionally acceptable length, bore small white snowflakes, a nod to the holiday season. A rose quartz necklace dripped from her neck, each bead polished, matching the nails and the nearly transparent pink frames of her eyeglasses.
She seemed plastic, poured into a corporate mold, allowed to harden, extracted, polished, and then placed in the conference room, with her rigid smile and by-the-book hair. A kind of generic mass-produced manager.
The two men sitting on either side of her had come from the same factory and wore identical expressions of dutiful concern for the office drone they were about to cut loose. A united front, in case there were issues.
“In light of these developments, we’ve had to make some difficult decisions.”
The corporate we. Fun thing about polished plastic – it tended to be slick. Nothing stuck to it, responsibility included.
“We’ve decided to go in a different direction, Maria.”
First name basis, designed to provide an illusion of a personal relationship. We are all family here. Surely you understand. Nothing personal, Maria.
“You’ve been an asset to our team; however, we must reduce our overhead obligations.”
You are not a person, Maria. This was ridiculously badly handled. Painfully drawn out, full of empty platitudes. Just abysmal.
“We’ve chosen to let you go.”
Finally.
“Try not to see this as a setback, but rather a new opportunity to learn lessons and apply them in your future endeavors.”
No, not just badly handled. Gloriously badly handled, as if they had made it a point to hit every checkmark of what not to do when firing an employee. Now tell me you will walk me to the door…
“Cory will walk you to the door.”
And we have a home run.
“Good luck, Maria. We are rooting for you.”
The temptation to offer a golf clap was almost too much, but it would’ve been irresponsible under the circumstances. Arrangements like these came with certain expectations, and they had to be honored.
The box they offered was too large for the meager possessions living on the desk. Sweeping them into the box under Cory’s watchful gaze took mere seconds. An elevator ride followed, the mirror inside offering a reflection of Cory, stone-faced in a Brooks Brothers suit, looming over a woman in her thirties, olive-skinned, dark hair cut in a bob, Harper blouse from Torrid a size too large. Quite the contrast.
The trek across a wide lobby was next, complete with pitying glances from former co-workers, at once sympathetic and wary, as if instead of a defeated woman in business attire they had spied a leper in filthy rags and worried the disease might spread.
The glass doors of the Callas Tower swung open, offering freedom and daylight. Cory walked out and planted himself in front of the door, ready to put his life on the line for the protection of the firm’s secrets in case the ex-employee decided to assault the building.
Too little, too late.
It was time for a dejected walk down the street and out of sight.
The city was going about its business, oblivious to the small tragedies of firings in the name of corporate agility. Thick grey clouds clogged the sky. It would start drizzling soon.
A gunmetal-grey BMW iX slid closer to the curb, and the rear passenger window slid down, revealing a woman’s face. She was quite beautiful in a quiet way. Light brown eyes, flecked with gold and framed by naturally long eyelashes. A lovely face. Chestnut hair, braided in a kind of updo that would have been too soft and romantic for the HR trio in the conference room.
Diana Harrison, Prime and the Head of House Harrison. She changed her hair color. It suited her better. Her usual blonde always felt soulless somehow. Too cold.
Diana tilted her head. “May I offer you a ride?”
“Do we know each other?”
She smiled without parting her lips. “Not closely, but it’s about to rain and your office is at least twenty minutes away.”
Oh. She knew. How?
There was no point in playing coy. “In that case, thank you. I’ll join you.”
A driver emerged, took the box, and opened the passenger door on the other side. Getting in took only a moment. A large red Doberman sat on the front passenger seat, strapped in by some strange seatbelt contraption, its gaze alert and watchful.
The dog could’ve picked up the scent and alerted, but not through a closed window. How did she know?
The car slid back into traffic.
Letting go was like a light, imaginary stretch. A brief effort, followed by a slight lightening of the load.
Gone was the olive skin, the short dark bob, the blouse, and the utilitarian black slacks. He was tall again, his regular persona firmly in place, familiar like an old glove. His true self still remained hidden, yet the new illusion was a tweak rather than an entirely new disguise. Like taking off a sweater but keeping the T-shirt on.
He stretched for real this time, working a kink out of his shoulders. The hunched posture had taken a bit of a toll.
He didn’t need to hunch, strictly speaking, but he always found that his illusions flowed better when he allowed himself to fully submerge into his assumed identity. After that barrage, most people in Maria’s place would either storm out defiantly or brace themselves, as if expecting to be punched. Storming out wouldn’t have achieved his goals.
Diana watched him with genuine fascination. He’d seen that reaction so many times, he should’ve been used to it by now, but coming from her it felt refreshing.
“A moment?”
Diana nodded.
He pulled his cell phone out of his Zegna suit and selected his second-in-command from the contact list. Zachary answered instantly.
“Here.”
“Dump FINERGY.”
“Understood.”
He ended the call, tossed one long leg over the other, and smiled.
“I believe I will dump FINERGY as well,” Diana said.
“I highly recommend it. They are engaged in cybersecurity fraud. The latest crop of drones they brought to the market and sold to multiple law enforcement agencies has severe software issues.”
“How severe?”
“A child with a LeapFrog tablet could hack one. They just fired the specialist who brought the problem to their attention two months ago.”
“You assumed her identity?”
He nodded. The scale of the fraud was massive enough that the real Maria’s safety was a concern. He’d spent the last week dutifully going to the office in her place. Normally, he would’ve sent one of his subordinates, but his House’s investment in FINERGY was considerable, and he wanted to assess the state of things for himself.
Diana tapped her phone.
Tomorrow one of the biggest law firms in Houston would file the qui tam lawsuit against FINERGY, alleging violations of the False Claims Act, and Maria would become one of the most famous whistleblowers on record. If the government chose to join the suit, she would be entitled to about twenty percent of recovered damages. Considering the extent of FINERGY’s transgressions, she wouldn’t have to worry about finding a new job for some time.
Diana finished and put her phone down. “Now I’m in your debt, Prime Montgomery.”
“Not at all.” He slid his glasses a little higher on his nose. “Please, call me Augustine. Now then, what can MII do for House Harrison?”
Diana hesitated. It was very brief, but he’d been trained to observe people carefully, noting minute changes in expression.
“I want to hire you.”
“Me specifically or MII in general?”
“Both.”
Intriguing. “In what capacity?”
Another slight hesitation. There was something deceptively delicate about Diana. She was a small woman, short and petite. The contours of her face were soft, her features classically attractive: large, light brown eyes flecked with gold and green, a small, slightly upturned nose, a full mouth with a bare hint of pink lipstick. She looked as if she was teetering on the edge, torn between wanting to keep her secret and asking for help. She could’ve played a princess in a medieval drama, the kind of princess who had suffered an injustice and needed a strong ally and who would inspire the audience to root for her.
It was a front. Augustine was absolutely sure of it. If he became an enemy, Diana Harrison would kill him without a moment’s hesitation. She was trying to entice him to help her and make her request a priority, and she was very subtle about it.
Common wisdom held that animal mages didn’t understand human emotions. Interacting with Cornelius, Diana’s brother, had convinced Augustine that there were exceptions to that rule. Apparently Diana was cut from the same cloth.
He knew a great deal about her, and at the same time very little. They’d met on three occasions prior to today, and his longest interaction with Diana happened when they signed the pact of friendship between their two Houses. The alliance was initiated by Cornelius, who had become convinced that having powerful connections was the best way to keep his daughter safe. As the Head of her House, Diana was the only one with the authority to sign off on it, so they had met to negotiate.
Entering a pact of friendship was a no-brainer. While most Houses viewed animal mages as having limited power with few practical applications, to an illusion House there was no greater threat. He’d been delighted to neutralize it. His people had done a deep dive into House Harrison and found nothing of concern. On all three occasions he’d interacted with Diana, her demeanor was neutral, pleasant, and opaque. She had negotiated in good faith. This manipulation was delightfully new.
“Whether or not we come to an agreement, anything you tell me is confidential,” he said.
“Something has been stolen from us,” she said.
“And you need me to find the culprit and recover it?”
Diana nodded.
“Why MII? Pardon me for stating the obvious, but you have access to House Baylor through your brother.”
“The Baylors can’t be involved in this matter,” she said.
Curiouser and curiouser.
His own relationship with House Baylor was complicated. At one point, before the Baylors became a House and were just a small PI agency, he owned the mortgage on their business. Back then their relationship was almost purely adversarial. Later they came to regard each other as allies, especially once Connor Rogan, the closest thing he had to a friend, married Nevada Baylor. The Baylors kept their word, and as long as he kept his, their loyalty and support were assured.
Either way, he had to draw the line now. As much as he valued the Harrisons, his House’s relationship with the Rogans mattered more. It wasn’t an alliance he was willing to endanger.
“Are the Baylors suspects?”
“No. They had nothing to do with this theft.”
“And they don’t know anything about it?”
Diana shook her head.
He saw it now. She baited the hook, offering him just enough information to ignite his curiosity, and waited for him to bite. Diana Harrison, a patient and careful fisherwoman.
In strict terms, their friendship pact was a non-aggression alliance, meaning that both Houses agreed to refrain from acting against each other. Mutual favors were not included but were customary in such arrangements. The disparity in their wealth, connections, and resources was significant, and yet House Harrison appealed to his help only once, when they needed him to pick up Matilda, Cornelius’ daughter, and secure her safety until Diana came to retrieve her.
Very well. Why not? He could play a knight in shining armor, if the compensation was significant enough, and Diana had offered payment in the right kind of currency. Most investigative work was profitable and boring. This promised to be interesting. He liked knowing secrets, and any secret hidden from the Baylors was worth knowing.
“Shall we speak in my office?” he asked.
She offered him a beautiful smile.
snippets are great. so are deleted scenes or explanations of minor characters and why they were cut. like in hidden legacy that investigating officer that investigates the Baylor’s (one assigned to them) he gets cut a lot and also more information on sgt teddy the peace loving bear please and thanks .
Auuugghhhhhh!!!!!!!
*glares* You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?
……..I reeeeeealllllyyy need to fill in my Hidden Legacy holes …..
Blog idea question: Do you think Microsoft’s recent announcement about to making Word documents save automatically to OneDrive will have any impact on the use of Word in professional/publishing environments? Will you be moving away from Word/MS at all due to this change?
Thank you for the snippet. It provided joy at the end of a horrible, difficult, still unresolved family situation.
Loved this , I love this series almost as much as the In keeper series !
“More, please.”
Ok, you’ve baited the hook and caught me. Now feed me more. Please and thank you.
Thank you for the snippet!
Blog topics: Favourite flowers, why do russians like jam in their tea? (I’ve tried and it’s rather tasty), gardening habits in ye toasty Texas, silly cat habits, favourite trees, preferred yarn fibres types for which projects?
Thank you for this torturously good snippet! I had read the original version, but this wasn’t just longer it had more depth and really really made me want the rest of the story!
House Andrews is playing the same game with us as Diana is with Augustine— you have us hooked now!
Squeeee!!! Thank you for this snippet—I’m SOOOOO excited for this story!!!!! Panthercakes FTW!!!
Book recommendations from the Horde! I love reading through all those comments looking for new authors to read.
I always enjoy dog (cat, snake, etc) updates/stories/pics – same with yarny things. Snippets of conversations between you and Gordon or you and Jeaniene are always good, too. Oh, and recipes!
I love this! Reading this makes me realize that I truly need to make the time to re-read all of the books….
Curious and mysterious. I’m looking forward to this tale!
adding on to the blog questions/polite requests: Friends keep asking me where to start with Ilona Andrews (after hearing me rant about HA’s amazing books for years). I usually ask them what they like to read, and give a recommendation based on that. But I’d love a ModR style quiz that I could send them to, where they could choose answers and the quiz would tell them what series is most likely to pique their interest.
This has been on my to-do list for ages. I need to get a big bottle of diet coke and lock in!
Thank you thank you thank you!
Fora blog post, perhaps you could share your process for creativity?
Or maybe a discussion of how to break the addiction to LitRPG book series Ilona likes (He Who Fights with Monsters, The Grand Game)?
I am constantly hoping for Arabellas stories and would love to return to the innkeepers world but regardless IA books are an automatic buy
Can’t wait for a new book 👻
Yea!
Really great snippet. so many layers. can’t wait for more.
Excellent blog topic: whether Penjiro is still dating or have now married, and where they went on their honeymoon.
Also, considering the time of year, assorted holiday traditions: whether and how people celebrate the assortment of holidays we’re about to celebrate.
Favorite piece of advice ever given to you.
The craziest thing you would wish for, if time and space and objective reality and money and the laws of physics/nature were no object, and you had yourself a wish-granting genie.
You’re killing me. This looks great. I can’t imagine what has been taken.
I WANT TO READ THIS STORY!
Thank you so much! Augustine and Cornelius are my favourite characters aside from House Baylor and Rogan. A book written from Augustine’s POV is the best gift! I couldn’t stop grinning. I love HL world so much. Thank you for sharing it with us!
Two of the most intriguing characters in the Baylor universe make this a delight to read. More please!
hmmm Augustine and Diane… they have a weird effect on me, I find myself wanting to push the pair of them into a big mud puddle, or an as yet to be mucked out horse stall. The pair of them are so uptight I can easily see them dying of anal retentive massive stroke by the time they are 40. Okay I can hope for mud puddles in their future, if anyone can save them the pair of you can! maybe the panthers hack up a hair ball on Augustine’s suit, that would be hilarious!
Interesting…🤔
I think that House Harrison is different from other animal mages because they are descendants of the Pied Piper of Hamelin and thus their magic has always been with their family, not just come about via the serum. They are just different altogether.
Thank you for this! I have been curious about this snippet for some time and h e wondered about the potential of a relationship between these two.
Oooo, I like this a lot! I vote for more please.
That was a lovely snippet!
Thank you.
Here’s a question: you guys always describe your characters so vividly. What comes first? Do you have a role, then make up a person to fit it, then decide what they look like? Or do you wake up in the morning with an image of someone in your head and then start developing their personality? Or do you just have a huge mental catalog of characters and you fill them in when you have need of them?
I would love more blog posts doing a deep dive on all the different magic types, especially the rarer ones, in the HL world. Also, why does no one know where summons come from? I feel like this would be a popular and well funded area of research in the HL world. If you can banish and recall summons, could you make a recording construct, have the summons wear it, banish it and recall it and check the recording? I may have put too much thought into this lol.
aaahhhhh! more! i needs more precious!
*ahem*
i mean, i love it! thank you!
Did we get half of this snippet before?
Yes, and if you check https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/augustine-snippet-maria/ recent post you can read the rest!
Ooh…sexy, mysterious Augustine, can’t wait!
I do love all your books, but Hidden Legacy just edges the others for the top spot.
You had me at Augustine! Love this.
Did you deliberately throw a person named Maria out of the building named Callas? Is this a Andre’s Easter Egg of a general knowlege?
😂😂
No. All names are randomly generated.
Sorry if I missed it… but any update on Iron and Magic 2? I think it’s one of my favs and I’d love to read it!! I this I saw a post before saying that it’s been delayed cos kinda dark and that’s not what the world needs right now… but have you ever put on a movie cos you know it’ll make you cry? Just throwing it out there – this fan would find it very cathartic.
*lots of big puppy, pleading eyes**
There are no official updates about Hugh 2. At the moment, all energy is going into the Maggie project and smaller pieces for the BDH that can be worked on at the weekend 🙂
I’ll take anything from Hidden Legacy. I love those books so much I’ve decided they are my most favourite books ever. I adore that family and world. So many rich characters. So much more I want to know. How are Connor and Nevada going and their oh so magical baby? How are Catalina and Alessandro going? Babies ? Probably not yet they are young. Alessandro is my favourite hero ever. What is happening with Arabella and Leon and Matilda? I did not expect more stories at this stage. So happy for this snippet.
A business of writing question: how do pseudonyms work? I’ve noticed that Gail Carriger has a different name on the copyright page from the book cover, but Faith/Gwen Hunter does not. How do the legal (copyright) and financial aspects work if there’s your name AND the pseudonym?
Loved the snippet, thank you!
Wondering when the giant Vampire wedding between Lord Arland & Lady Maud is scheduled? We haven’t seen any RSVPs & want to make sure not to disappoint The Preceptor especially since there are supposedly special guests attending!!!
BDH
I’ve really enjoyed blog posts about your family (both childhood and current) at holidays – traditions, recipes, funny stories, pet shenanigans.
I’m interested to hear more about how you do research (so varied! gods and languages of Mesopotamia, extinct mammals, bulletproof vehicles, etc). And if there are cool things you found that didn’t make it into your books.
This week has been packed, so this morning I finally had time to sit and reread at leisure.
“Common wisdom held that animal mages didn’t understand human emotions. Interacting with Cornelius, Diana’s brother, had convinced Augustine that there were exceptions to that rule. Apparently Diana was cut from the same cloth.”
Common wisdom tends, as in this case, to be thoroughly anthropocentric. Humans are biologically animals, even if some of them resist that reality. Emotions are emotions. The biological and behavioral variable humans have, that nonhuman animals do not*, is human speech. Speech can either clarify or obscure emotional triggers, depending on how it’s deployed.
While nonhuman animals may not recognize the triggers for human emotions, especially if those triggers are verbal, they are fully capable of recognizing the emotions themselves. And the more emotional the human in a given situation, the less important recognizing the particular trigger becomes in the moment, and the more important it is to simply manage the emotion.
If an animal mage can understand nonhuman emotions, they can understand human ones. However a history of unprocessed trauma can interfere with managing any emotion in any human or nonhuman. If trauma is defined as a situation producing a stress response, from which the individual cannot escape by their own agency, it’s easy to imagine how animal mages might incur additional exposure, in some cases without access to sufficient resources for processing.
As the individuals who lack empathy for nonhumans quite possibly lack empathy to some degree for the general population of humans, increasingly so as those humans diverge from their own socioeconomic and ethnic groups, this can account for the so-called “common wisdom.”
*The science on verbalization (as opposed to vocalization) is still evolving, and there are lots of studies across lots of species that indicate we, as humans, tend not to adequately recognize nonhuman language capabilities. That’s a fascinating rabbit hole, for anyone interested.
I used to live in a forested area outside if Santa Cruz. A red dobie lived nearby and would visit me from time to time. He had floppy ears and a long, waggly tail because his owners hadn’t cropped them. I suppose Bunny has cropped ears and tail to make him look fiercer…
I wonder how Augustine is going to avoid letting the Baylors know he has agreed to this project. When Linus asked if Arabella’s taste in men was reliable, was it Augustine he had in mind? Arabella and Augustine work together frequently and have the same driving curiosity and business sense. Moreover, Diana’s brother is an employee of House Baylor, and as an animal mage, he has the same instincts and observation skills as Diana.
Also, what could have been stolen that has Diana so concerned she is willing to hire Augustine to get it back without the Baylors knowing?
No Arabella and Augustine. Ever.
This has been stated categorically several times by the authors.
Augustine is in his mid 30s. Arabella is a teenager, the same age as his little sister.
When he met her, he was an adult, and she was a little girl. He had financial dominance over her and her family.
Grooming is a very ugly practice.
Thank you for the snippet.
… for a Blog Post suggestion there is a sculpture called “the Kelpies” in Scotland. Whenever I pass it I wonder what would happen to it in Kate Daniel’s’ world. It’s 98ft high.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kelpies
Could the BDH suggest sculptures/monuments/sites etc that might react to the magic wave? Hoping that would help stop Ilona’s brain being eaten by Maggie.
Is there a romanace brewing there?, i can almost feel it, both Diana and Augustine have always interested me, I felt that they were sad! needing a companion and waiting on the sidelines so to speak.
It would be good to see them happy and there would be another connection and aliance to the Baylor team, well family. I kind of think of them all as family xx another amazing snippet into this wonderful world. Thank you team andrews for giving us an insite into this amazing world that i wished i lived in.
xxx
Intriguing! I’m with Augustine. This is worth the time to explore.
I hope to see more of the Baylors’ new home base. It was a fascinating teaser at the end of the last volume.
The HR manager reminds me of rose-gold Celia.
oh now you have done it…….1 I will have to go back to the beginning all the books..by that time I hope you will have another lEge snippet or possibly a book? just a small one?
…. ahhj i need more …. i want to know more about the theft and the World of this …. like how is Matilda in school ?