Friday Snippet

It’s Friday. How did that happen?

We haven’t had a snippet for a bit, so here is Augustine being impersonating an impressive business owner.

Augustine’s office lay on the seventeenth floor. He’d chosen that location precisely because it was just under the top two floors. The eighteenth floor held a private training space. The penthouse business suite above it belonged to his late father. From the moment Augustine officially took the reins of MII, he resolved to never enter it again, and he hadn’t set foot there for years.

The elevator doors whispered open, and he invited Diana forward with a sweep of his hand. They walked across the spotless dark floor through his kingdom of tall white walls and cobalt-tinted light streaming through the sheath of blue windows that wrapped the building.

He watched Diana’s expression covertly. Her face was relaxed and pleasant, her eyes calm. Prime Harrison moved with smooth grace, almost gliding across the floor, and the Doberman at her side matched her stride. The dog’s natural ears were down, her mouth half-open in a canine smile. He had seen enough Dobermans in his line of work. They were cautious dogs, alert and restrained in a new environment. This one was doing a fine impression of a golden retriever. There was an odd synergy between the woman and the dog – both sleek, assured, and pretending to be harmless.

 They reached his office, where Lina sat at a pristine desk, presenting the last line of defense to the visitors. The desk was crafted from polished metal with a single white orchid growing from a simple pot. His secretary chose to match the orchid today. A white dress hugged her body, perfectly tailored and form-fitting, yet elegant. Her deep emerald hair, wrapped in a trendy twist, shimmered with peridot highlights. Her eyebrows were black and shaped with laser precision, and she had selected green and black to accent her eyes and mauve to tint her lips. As always, the effect was stunning.

Unfortunately, his newest intern had referred to that precise shade of mauve as “hot dog lips,” and now he could not divorce himself from it. Mentoring the youngest Baylor child came with its own annoyances.

He nodded to Lina and led his visitor to the right, where a translucent wall of white glass hid his office space. A nearly seamless door swung open, and Augustine invited Diana in with a sweep of his hand. She entered and sat in a chair, smoothing the skirt of her elegant grey business suit with a practiced gesture. The Doberman dropped on the floor to her right. Not a concern in the world.

Augustine sat behind his desk. His office was located in the corner where two walls of blue glass met at an angle and from his vantage point, he had a wide view of Downtown Houston. Unlike most people, he loved heights.

Diana glanced at a sign on the right wall, a quote without attribution. Trust Not Too Much in Appearances.

“Virgil,” she said.

It appeared that House Harrison believed in classical education.

“It’s a reminder,” he said.

“To you or to the visitors?”

“To me. We do our best to convince our visitors that we are trustworthy.”

“Is that why you chose a modern aesthetic for the building?”

He nodded. “Most people who want to hire an illusion mage come to us unsure what they might find. Consciously or subconsciously, they expect to be deceived. Our business requires trust, so we keep the interior simple, almost austere. Long unbroken walls, concrete floors, and transparent glass leave little room for illusions. People find it reassuring.”

“I see.”

She wasn’t giving him very much to work with.

“Are you truly trustworthy, Prime Montgomery?”

“That depends on your definition of trust. Will I keep everything you tell me confidential, and will I do everything in my ability to help you if we reach an agreement? Yes.” Augustine leaned back in his chair. “So, how may I help you?”

“Are you familiar with Zeus?”

“The Greek god or your brother’s tiger?”

“The tiger.”

She took a slim tablet from her purse, flicked her fingers across it, and showed it to him. On the screen, a massive animal stretched, vaguely feline, a distant cousin of a tiger if tigers had blue fur splattered with darker and paler rosettes and a fringe of six-inch long tentacles around their necks.

All the magic talents in the world fit into three broad categories: elemental, mental, and arcane. Of the arcane discipline, summoning was one of the least understood. Summoners reached into the arcane realm, a place of magic outside of normal reality, called forth monstrous creatures, and hurled these biological weapons at their opponents. Nobody knew exactly how any of it worked and the summoners were not forthcoming with explanations.

Zeus had been summoned by someone attacking one of the Baylors’ clients, and Cornelius had tamed it against all odds. Augustine had looked into it after the incident. No animal mage on record had even been able to bond with a summoned beast. Cornelius was the only exception.

That bond somehow kept Zeus alive and thriving. Creatures summoned by weaker summoners vanished when they lost focus. The summons of the upper level Significants and Primes stayed in the world permanently, but most summoned creatures had short lifespans, even with the best of care. They withered, like repotted plants that failed to take root. Sometimes it took days, sometimes weeks, but eventually all arcane creatures perished. With the exception of the organisms that were planted into a human host.

“We decided to call the species Tigrionex.”

Tigris, Latin for tiger and nex meaning violent death. “Tiger of slaughter?”

“Yes.” Diana slid her finger across the tablet. Another image appeared, still of Zeus. Wait, no. This blue tiger was slightly different. It looked a little smaller, and its blue fur had a slight purple tint.

Augustine glanced at Diana. “You obtained a second tiger?”

She nodded. “Cornelius and I had her summoned at great expense.”

The cost must’ve been astronomical.

“Her name is Celeste. I was able to form a pact.”

“Not Hera?”

“No. We didn’t want to jinx it.”

House Harrison had access to two summoned beasts and both of them had bonded to their tamers. Clearly, there was something special about that family.

“Zeus and Celeste were allowed to mate. Before you ask, it was voluntary on their part. We would never exercise our influence over our animals to force a breeding. It was a difficult pregnancy.”

“What about cloning or surrogacy?” he asked.

“That would have meant taking the choice away from them.”

So they would risk a massive investment for the sake of maintaining the animals’ autonomy. Interesting.

 “We almost lost the mother, but in the end a single cub was born.”

Another swipe of her fingers, and a new image. A shockingly adorable blue cub. He understood the need for secrecy now. If anyone found out about this, the Harrisons would be swarmed with requests.

“What’s the cub’s name?”

“Kitty.”

He blinked.

“It’s a placeholder name. We were hoping that when Kitty grew a little, Matilda would form a pact with her. My niece is very talented, and she sounds mature, but she is still a nine-year-old child. She makes reckless decisions. Cornelius and I will do everything in our power to protect her, but we cannot be everywhere at once.”

And Kitty would grow up to be a formidable protector.

“These animals are different. They are smarter, more aware, and the bond with them is deeper,” Diana said. “Because of the difficult pregnancy, we decided to wait to introduce Matilda and the cub. We want to make sure Kitty survives. If Matilda bonds with her and the cub dies, the trauma to my niece would be catastrophic. That’s why the Baylors can’t be involved in this matter. In the two months since they moved into their new compound, Matilda made friends with every mouse and bird on their property. She spies on them constantly. Nothing happens in that house that my niece doesn’t know about.”

“Can she hear through mouse ears?” he asked.

Diana looked at him for a second. “Vikilinta recording devices are one inch long, have the width of a pencil graphite, and weigh 19 grams. They’re voice-activated and record up to 400 hours of audio. A healthy adult mouse weighs between 40 and 45 grams, can carry twice her body weight, and can be convinced to wear a harness.”

And now he felt like a fool. What in the world was he thinking? The child was a budding Prime, not a mythical Beastmaster. Something about the connection between the tech and animals always short-circuited his brain.

“Of course. However, I can’t imagine the Baylors would look favorably on that kind of security breach.”

“I’ve stressed the need for privacy to her multiple times,” Diana said. “I do not believe her obsessive recording is malicious.”

“Then why?”

Diana sighed. Her face took on a slightly worn expression. “It is my understanding that a child subjected to early trauma, such as losing a parent in a horrific way, often seeks to establish control over her environment.”

“Matilda is afraid that she will miss something vital and the people she cares about will die.”

“Yes. You see now why we hid the cub.”

He understood perfectly.

“Matilda keeps the information she overhears confidential, unless something alarms her. For example, I know that Arabella visits this office twice a week, and she hasn’t told her mother or Catalina about it.”

Diana’s gaze turned direct and unblinking. The Baylors treated Matilda and Cornelius as family. She likely felt protective toward them. He wasn’t obligated to explain, but good business relationships relied on trust.

Augustine reached into his desk, took out a folder, and offered it to her.

Diana glanced at the contents. “Internship agreement signed by Nevada Rogan?”

“My sister attends Donovan High.” Normally he had a knee-jerk reaction to speaking about his family but for some reason it didn’t trigger in her presence.

Diana’s eyebrows rose. “Donovan? Not Heritage?”

Of the two high schools catering to the magically gifted, Heritage was far more prestigious. If you were a scion of a House, you went to Heritage, while Donovan took the rest.

“Yes. She attends under an assumed name.”

And an assumed persona. If Verena’s classmates ever met her off school grounds, they wouldn’t recognize her. Except for Arabella, none of them had any idea what his sister truly looked like.

“The principal and the senior staff are aware of who she is,” he continued. “My sister wanted it this way, and I acquiesced. Let’s just say that I understand what drives Matilda better than most people.”

An understatement of the year.

“Arabella also attends Donovan,” Diana said.

“Yes. They are friends.” The strangest friendship that sprouted from a bizarre crisis. “They’re both taking an AP course in House Business Administration, which requires 160 hours of internship with a business owned by a House other than your family.”

“You swapped,” Diana said. “The Rogans took your sister, and you took Arabella.”

He nodded. “It’s an arrangement that works for both children. I know that Connor and Nevada will not put my sister in harm’s way, and they understand that I will do the same for Arabella. Feel free to reassure Matilda. Shall we return to the matter at hand?”

Diana studied him for another moment and turned the tablet toward him. On it, a fat fluffy tiger cub took shaky steps on stubby legs. She stumbled over to her frightening mother and batted at the otherworldly beast with her small paw. Celeste lowered her head. The cub tried to pounce, fell, and let out a frustrated noise, a tiny baby growl.

“You understand that the recovery may require significant investment even with the discount,” he said. “Do you wish to see an estimate?”

“No. Whatever it takes. We will pay it.”

“Are you sure?” The Harrisons were a House, but their talents didn’t have many lucrative applications.

“Absolutely. This isn’t property, Prime Montgomery. This is a life.” Diana brushed her fingers over the recording. “We welcomed Kitty into this world, we assumed responsibility for her, and now she is scared and alone. Celeste knows that her daughter is gone. She relies on me to bring her home. Whatever it takes.”

A digital timer appeared in the corner of the screen, counting off seconds. Thirty-two hours, seventeen minutes, and twenty-three seconds.

“The time until Kitty needs the next shot of her medicine,” Diana said. “Will you help me?”

He looked into her green and gold eyes, and the words came out before he realized he had spoken. “Of course, I will.”