Algernon Black || The Rise of a God ||

(Chapter 57) The Advisor's Evil

"That's all you're taking with you?" The advisor asked as he escorted Jared to the carriage. "It's going to be a very long trip."

"It would be shorter if you gave me a transportation stone," Jared replied, handing his single bag to the coachman.

"And then you would have too much time to hover around here when I'm currently too busy to watch you." Devane held open the door for Jared despite his ungrateful attitude. "Besides, you're in no position to complain."

"And you're in just as desperate a situation to send me instead of Loy." Jared retorted while getting inside.

"It was desperate with Loy as well." Jared laughed and Devane smiled to himself. He had grown more than fond of Jared's company of the late, and their parting was showing him how much he had come to value their time together.

Jared made to close the door but Devane stopped him. He looked to the advisor wondering what more he had to advise but it wasn't any last minute good consul as much as an unwillingness to say goodbye.

"I-"

"My lord," Javaus, the youngest member of the council interrupted.

Devane turned to the lackey, perfectly concealing his annoyance and the emotion which he was about to speak with. "Councilman Hershel has told me to inform you that there has been an emergency at the orphanages. Some kind of revolt-"

Jared's eyes opened wide and Devane held up a hand to silence the boy, but it was too late. He saw the questioning concern in Jared's face and the advisor's mood dropped as Devane was reminded why he himself could never be good.

"I'll handle it." Devane shut the door on Jared's weary eyes and signaled for the coachman to leave. He watched the carriage until it was fully out of view until his time indulging in a delusion of good was gone, now he had to get back to his evils.

"Prepare another carriage," Devane instructed a nearby footman. He adjusted the bulky rings of his finger so they all perfectly aligned. "Immediately." The steward jumped to meet his demands.

"Shall I come too?" Javaus asked. Devane looked over the boy. He was new to the council, younger than himself but older than Loy.

"Those glasses make you look like a child," Devane criticized, regarding the big round iron-rimmed glasses that made the boy's doe-eyes look all the more innocent. "It's about time that gets shattered."

The youngest addition to the council took off his glasses in response but was forced to put them back on when he missed the first step into the carriage and almost landed face-first on the pavement. Devane sighed. Javaus wasn't competent but he was well connected, but rarest of all, the youngest councilor seemed to have morals. Devane made a voiceless apology for how he was about to change that forever.

Javaus followed at Devane's tail once they were far enough into the city that the ride turned into a walk. "Where are we going?" Javaus asked after a ten minute trek through the narrow allies of the capital.

"You'll see for yourself," Devane said as he reached the entrance of the establishment.

Overhead the sign read, Orphanage, with a picture of a stroke protecting a baby in its great white wing. Often enough, desperate mothers would try to drop their babies off but infants were turned away. The child needed to be of a certain age to be let into this specific orphanage and that age was six when they could just barely fend for themselves.

An old nanny answered their knock and immediately let them in. And other armed nannies stood lining the entranceway. They wore the colors and garbs of the king's soldiers and nodded their respect at Devane as he passed.