Chapter 116 – Contractually Obligated

  “Sir, we are in way over our heads. I just saw a man get split from ass to armpit by a simple gesture, a wave of a hand. There is no way on God’s green Earth that I am going to do a thing to try and ‘collect’ either of them.” – Security Team Leader, FBI Field Office, Lansing Michigan

  “This is Regina, my first wife, Dalia my second and Liliya or Lil, my third.” Jay said and pointed to the women who had walked over to greet them. “Ladies, this is Kurt, my first agent. Unfortunately, his wives aren’t here otherwise I would introduce you to them.”

  Regina was a taller woman with long blond hair who smelled like a fey of some sort but Kurt wasn’t sure what kind. Dalia was of a much darker complexion and had nearly black hair, likely from north Africa going by her name and was some being he wasn’t familiar with, but it reminded him of how Na’sec smelled. Lastly Liliya was clearly an elf, with her dark brown hair held in a messy bun above her full length pointed ears.

  “Jay, we aren’t married.” Kurt said as he nodded politely, while waving awkwardly, to all the women.

  The demon snorted. “Sure, you keep telling yourself that.” He then looked at Regina. “Ran into one of your cousins today. Apparently, the American government has been recruiting from your home realm.”

  “Oh? And what fool did they trick into serving them?” Regina asked, her voice having a musical quality, if a strange cadence.

  “So glad you phrased it that way. It was Gretchen of house Gladenhold. Though she was using the surname Perkins in our meeting.”

  Regina’s eyes widened. “Oh, you meant actual cousin. She was what, twentieth in line for her house’s seat? Before we nearly erased their line that is.” Her lips quirked in a smirk showing there wasn’t any love lost in that relationship.

  Dalia had scooted around and spoke in a soft tone to Kurt. “Regina and Jay met at the start of one of the fey wars. A war that they started but that is beside the point. She was his ‘compensation’ for his help with some minor matter. Her house, Gladenhold, had tried to tie Jay to them through marriage but he took offense to them using someone as currency.”

  “Oh, yeah. I could see how he wouldn’t appreciate that.” Kurt nodded. “Thank you for the background.”

  “Think nothing of it. Honestly, I don’t do the tale justice and they both tell it much better.” She paused then smiled while looking up at him. “One from the damsel perspective and one from the heroic knight perspective depending on who tells it.”

  “Yes, it is quite exciting.” Regina rolled her eyes and looked Kurt over before frowning. “I have questions. Firstly, why have you been shot? Secondly, what are you? There is a familiar quality to your…everything.”

  Kurt, remembering as much as he could about fey customs, summoned a trio of rings from his storage. He bowed and held them out to Regina. “Please accept these as a token of gratitude for your hospitality.”

  Jay snorted this time and rolled his eyes while crossing his arms. “Kurt, this isn’t fey court and hospitality is freely given.” He then looked to his first wife. “You really should accept the gift though, he usually makes good stuff.”

  Regina reached out and took the rings, examining them closely before passing one to both Dalia and Liliya. “What do these do? I can see they are enchanted but don’t recognize it.”

  “If you put it on and shake my hand, all will be revealed.” Kurt said, also remembering that most fey were naturally curious, something he had found entertaining with having Anna around.

  The tall blond woman stared at him, blinking once before slipping the ring over her index finger and taking Kurt’s proffered hand. Her eyes widened and she gasped slightly as she immediately withdrew. She turned to Jay, shock still on her face which confused Kurt to no end, especially when she spoke again.

  “What did you do to get involved with another godling?”

  The smirk Jay was wearing suddenly vanished. “Why do you think I did anything? How do you know he wasn’t that way when I found him?” The two quickly devolved into a frantic whispered conversation.

  Dalia had put her ring on and touched Kurt’s hand, tapping it lightly like it was a pan that may or may not be hot. “Oh, that is… hmm, odd.”

  Lil went next and tapped his hand, keeping contact for a long moment before nodding once. “Interesting. I see why he is so fascinated with you.” Liliya’s voice was much harsher than Kurt expected from an elf, but he didn’t comment on it. He might even have kept his surprise hidden if he was lucky. Kurt wanted to ask questions about what she meant but his attention was drawn to the bickering couple in front of him who had suddenly begun to speak up again.

  “I didn’t do anything, he did it all on his own.”

  “Oh really, a mortal who is slowly turning into a divine being has nothing to do with you?”

  “Well, not this time.” Jay shrugged.

  “You expect me to believe that with your history?” Regina said, cocking an eyebrow.

  Jay, frowned. “Lets not bring history into this, princess…”

  Regina gasped. “That was hundreds of years ago and only for a summer.”

  “They umm, do this often?” Kurt asked while Jay and Regina verbally sparred.

  “Yeah, I think they secretly enjoy it.” Dalia answered. “Also, it sometimes takes a while since they have both been around for so long. Lots of history.”

  “You have all been around for a long time, Dalia.” Lil said with a little chuckle. “We have all made literal history and I know those two have several myths surrounding them and their various appearances.”

  “Drinks?” Dalia asked, looking at Kurt. “I have sangria or perhaps you would prefer…”

  Kurt shook his head at the duo of debaters. “Whatever you have ready would be lovely.” He followed Jay’s other wives from the entrance, through the kitchen and out onto a covered patio overlooking some beautiful rolling hills. He did make one pit stop to change his bloody shirt and jacket, opting for something lighter given the warmer climate.

  After what was only a few more minutes of Kurt being awkwardly kept company, Jay emerged with Regina. They took seats around the patio seating and Jay turned to Kurt. “So, about all that…”

  “The government can’t touch us part? The government going to pay us part? The part where you casually admitted to regicide or the part where you bisected a federal agent in public and we walked away without even a word of protest?”

  “Ahh…umm” Jay was at a loss for where to start.

  “You have a lovely home by the way and the sangria is delicious.” Kust said offhandedly, showing that he too could dictate the tempo of a conversation with random interjections. He had noticed that his boss wasn’t as… blasé, when at home. It was a very strange thing since Kurt had pretty much only seen him with his ‘calm professional’ mask firmly applied.

  “Oooh, how’d you get him?” Lil asked, leaning in.

  “I told you I recruited Kurt based on- “

  “No not him, he’s perfectly charming and all, but I want to know how you killed someone in front of witnesses.” The blatant and earnest curiosity Lil displayed toward her husband brutally murdering someone was not what Kurt expected. Even Kristi wasn’t that ruthless… normally.

  “Oh, the usual, separated space in a straight line that he happened to be in the middle of.” Jay casually responded.

  Lil smacked her knee and laughed in her harsh tone. “Ha! Classic.” She then turned to Kurt. “He likes that one, but my favorite is when he coats his hand in… well I don’t know what you would call nothingness but yeah, makes for a hell of a haymaker.”

  Kurt wasn’t sure if it was safe to break eye contact with the clearly insane elf, but he risked a glance around the room to see Dalia looking a little green and Regina covering her face with her hand, clearly frustrated. Adding in Jay, who was still thinking hard, it was a discordant mix of personalities that somehow all balanced out.

  “Yeah, I bet it does.” He answered before turning to Jay. “So, how about we start with the whole ‘you are in breach’ part?”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  *****

  It should be noted that almost every creature, sapient or not, will act within its nature, regardless of outside influences. For instance, a pet hamster will dig and burrow in its cage, despite never having a single predator around to hide from. Cats will always seek to hunt and engage in activities that stimulate their prey drive. The same can be said for supernatural beings, in this case, daemons.

  The Order had its eyes on Earth for a while, since before it was even unified into The Order Stabilitas. It had wanted a legitimate, government-backed, foothold on the planet if not its own country. As the centuries wore on, and military technology developed, they decided that having a country of their own wasn’t feasible. That left finding a way to operate within the confines of a nation and its laws.

  Jay, who at the time had been new to the Earth operations division, was tasked with finding a way for them to get the foothold they so desired. It just so happened that while he was working on that, the veil was broken and everything went crazy for a while. Governments and their citizens were suddenly faced with the prospect that humans weren’t the only sentient race on the planet.

  In the mad scramble to get control, the United States sought out ‘experts’ who would help them not only manage their own people but also stay ahead of other nations in the now magical arms race. Jay had just happened to be in position to do what his kind do best, take advantage of the vulnerable.

  He explained that he worked out a deal through a series of worthless commitments, half-truths and completely one-sided promises. The contract that was signed, under no small amount of ignorance, was a masterpiece of exploitative legal work.

  The real funny part was that congress and the senate thought they were getting the better end of the deal. All the Order was obliged to provide them with was consultation, in the form of a representative working out of D.C., early warning of other nations and a defense force to handle internal threats.

  That defense force was already established in the form of field agents and their teams. The internal threats were always there as rifts, wandering monsters and wayward supernatural’s so nothing changed except legality. The established teams now essentially had complete immunity when acting within the bounds of their charter rather than the cloak and dagger way they previously did things.

  The charter itself was the ‘terms and conditions’ part of the agent job description. Because they were considered sanctioned government contractors, they had certain privileges that were negotiated. The limits on arms and armor, the removal of many restrictions placed on paranormals and of course the anti-interference and anti-coercion clauses, to name a few.

  Those interference and coercion clauses are what the FBI had been in breach of. The way Jay told it, he was always going to slap them with the notice that they had violated the terms of the agreement, but it escalated after… events. Which means the Order had gained an immense amount of leverage which they were about to use to great effect.

  “Soooo, what are you going to spend that leverage on?” Kurt asked while swirling the dregs of his tea in his cup. They had eaten dinner and the sun had long since set and he texted the girls what had happened. The expected long list of responses never came, which made him think he was in for it when he got home.

  “Hard to say, I don’t think I will be the one spending it though.” Jay answered. “If it were me, I would like to get rid of the laws that suppress non-humans. None of this would have happened if they weren’t hell bent of ‘bringing you to heel’ or whatever fucking crusade that guy was on.”

  Kurt nodded. “A worthy purchase. What about the second one, you know, when they shot me?”

  Jay shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe my boss will want a say in things and get something for the Order. It’s all up in the air at the moment but what I do know is that is won’t be long before the ambassador gets involved and demands are made.”

  That made a strange sense to Kurt, and he couldn’t fault the Order for using it as leverage. Jay was already promising him some ‘compensation’ in some form or another. That just left one little thing that had been bugging him since dinner.

  “What was it with you and Gretchen?”

  “Ah…”

  “Yeah.”

  “You are a clever boy and have probably figured out that I have been skulking around for a while now, yes?” Jay asked after taking a few moments to organize his thoughts.

  “You have hinted as much.” Kurt confirmed that he had learned a few things about the ancient being who was now passing himself off as an up-and-coming executive.

  “Do you know how I got involved with the Order?” Jay followed up. When Kurt shook his head, he continued. “Well, around the fifth century I was just minding my own business, living not too far from here actually. I had recently come into possession of some rituals that had been recorded on scrolls and… long story short, the Order or rather part of what it was back then, wanted them.

  “When I offered to copy them and they could have the originals, they seemed to take that as me wanting to do some work for them. They told me how the ones I had were actually part of a larger collection and the remainder were in a private library in the fey realm.”

  “So off you went on an adventure?” Kurt asked.

  Jay snorted. “In more ways than one. A grand wandering filled with endless side quests.” He smiled as he looked through the window to where Regina was sitting with his other wives. “I found the scrolls quite easily. I was even allowed to copy them since they thought the information was useless and incomplete. I chose to not enlighten them about the rest of the set in my possession.”

  “A wise choice.”

  “Indeed. Anyway, while I was looking around and digging into their archives, one of the local lords took offense to one of ‘my kind’ in his lands. He devised a trap for me and hired me to go to talk to house Gladenhold who was a rival branch of a shared lineage. He was certain that they would kill me as soon as I showed my face.

  “I went and met with them, told them that the little lordling had hired me and essentially got the run around. They used me as an errand boy, stringing me along and promising me a great treasure in return. It turns out they were just testing me, using me to clean up loose ends. If I was found out, I was easily dismissed as an interloper, if I was successful, they could take credit.”

  Jay sighed, looking into his cup. “After a couple years of this, I was summoned back and given my ‘reward’. Both lines of the house had made an appearance, the two lords coming to amends so they could exact some fey justice. They had gathered with all their retinue and their soldiers to ensure I accepted their reward. Of course, that reward was a terrified and abused Regina, bound in iron shackles. They had dressed her in a mockery of a wedding gown with a crown of mistletoe on her brow.”

  “Oh… that’s not good.” Kurt knew enough about the fey to know the iron part of their problems was mostly because it sometimes acted as a ground to make their magic useless. It could be fatal for some fey that needed magic to live but was a grave insult at the very least.

  “Yes, their great treasure was the family castoff daughter that nobody wanted but would bind me to them.” Jay said, his voice having a little growl while his eyed flashed their normally hidden red color in the dim light. “What they didn’t know was that I had been doing a little studying of my own while there and had a few new tricks. I found exciting ways to use my spatial magic and the errands I went on gave me plenty of time to practice them where nobody would see.

  “I acted the fool long enough to make a plan.” Jay said, his hands clenching as he told the story. “I waited long enough to approach my bride to be, to confirm she was as she appeared and not another ploy. She was able to tell me as much without words, just a nod and a blink to my muttered questions.

  “It was then that I approached the dais the two lords were sitting on. They thought I was there to complete my last errand and deliver the bauble they sent me after. Instead, I delivered complete nothingness. A thin slice taken from reality, the very reality that their necks occupied at the time.”

  Jay laughed in a hollow way. “From there it was a blood bath. I slaughtered the guests before they could realize what happened. When their footmen and attendants came, I killed them to a man. Their once gold clad marble palace was stained black with the blood of fey.” He sighed. “But it didn’t end there.”

  “I assume the main part of the… umm house? Got involved?” Kurt hazarded a guess.

  “Indeed, they tried.” Jay nodded. “What I didn’t know was that Regina herself is a force to be reckoned with. The reason she was so restrained was because she had a tendency to be… ah, shall we say violently contemptuous of the court and their rules.

  “Over the course of a few months we killed off the majority of that house. We murdered everyone who stood above Regina while sending the survivors into hiding, with more than a few ending up in the hands of former allies.” Jay neatly summed up what was likely a very messy war.

  “So how did that get you involved in what would become the Order?”

  “That was from unseen factors.” Jay’s usual smirk reappeared. “When Regina and I returned to Earth, it was to find another cult waiting, having heard what I did. The Order was also there, waiting for me to deliver the other half of the scrolls. While waiting for me, they got to talking and found they had similar goals and ended up merging. I wouldn’t join them right away but when I eventually came around, they were more than willing to accommodate me.”

  “And then you came for me…” Kurt led, he was hoping Jay would take the bait but apparently, he wasn’t going to. “Why did you start picking up hybrids for your teams?”

  “Remember me poking around in the fey realm?”

  Kurt nodded and Jay continued. “Well, I found some strange mentions of world impacting magic cast by divine beings. When I began to dig into that, I found out how much they changed the natural balance that the realms worked on. Of course I took that personally, even if I had forgotten about it due to the nature of the spell. Apparently, it didn’t effect the fey or they recorded it somehow. So, I spent several hundred years digging through records and archives. When I found the info I wanted, I decided to act, and the Order was the best way for me to get what I wanted.”

  “Is that how Renee changed her tune so quick?” Kurt asked, the pieces clicking together a little quicker after personally witnessing it.

  “Partly, yes.” Jay confirmed.

  Silently contemplating that for a minute, Kurt suddenly wondered about something else, now that he knew about his boss’s personal crusade. “Did you or the Order have a hand in breaking the veil?”

  “No.” Jay answered immediately. “That was done by this shadowy group we have been dancing around. They call themselves ‘The Keepers of the Black Feast’ or just ‘Keepers’. I will say I don’t mind it being broken, this world was an oddity in how that one worked.”

  “So, what is next? What grand working are we going to take apart after the stigma?” Kurt questioned while leaning back in his chair with a heavy sigh.

  “I won’t tell you more, least the divines get uppity about you again. There are several that have likely taken notice based on their nature, and more than a few of them can be problematic.” Jay replied after a few moments of consideration. “Let’s wrap up with these keepers before we start going into more.”

  “I guess I will have to trust you.” Kurt grumbled.

  “Oh, it’s not so bad, I am just keeping you on track.” Jay laughed. “Besides, we have to still deal with the enchanters guild after these keepers.”

  “I thought we took care of them?” Kurt said, suddenly sitting upright.

  “In the Order pocket realm, yes. But there are more places they have strong bases of support, entire cities and even countries in other realms are under their sway. That’s where your little friend, Anna, came from. Besides, after their little declaration of war, we kinda have to now.”

  That made sense to Kurt, try to tie up loose ends… “Wait! Their what?”

  Jay’s smirk only grew. “You didn’t think you could take down one of their operations without consequences, did you?”

  Kurt groaned and sagged back into the chair. He just let the news sink in while trying to think of how he was going to handle this. Hell, how was he going to break the news to Kristi and Val?