The Afterward

Chapter Five - The High End

MARI POV.

Keep listening, I'm thinking.

Cheese, my stomach replies. 

Shut up, I think.

With orange juice, my stomach complains back. 

Ugh, when is this going to end?? Let me give you the facts; I'm part of this magic group of animals called the Insolence, and we have magic powers for accepting this purple sack-headed dude's deals. We can do whatever we want, have an entire paranormal world to ourselves, and have a giant castle... and here we are, listening to some long spiel about how we must be responsible and whatnot. It's. So. Painstakingly. BORING. One of the Insolence members, a moose guy, is up in front of us as we sit still in a row of seats. I can't even comprehend anything he's saying because he's using such long, weird and fancy words.

I somehow manage to survive and run to the dining hall for dinner. Well, is it dinner? No idea. You can't tell whether it's day or night here. Nope. No food set out yet. Is it lunch now, or breakfast?

Or was I supposed to bring out the dishes first...? Ugh, the time-less factor here is not helping.

"Mari," says Kolie, my friend, "What are you doing here?"

"I think I'm supposed to put the dishes out." I reply, frustrated beyond belief. Kolie, like usual, tips his head to one side and pats me on the head like I'm some sort of kid. "It'll be all right, Mari. I'll help you."

Outside the window I see TIO, the leader of the Insolence, or the Overseer as he calls himself. He is just standing there until Kolie comes over and closes the curtain, blocking my view. Each plate's got to be set in order of who's the most responsible and TIO's favorite, yada yada blah blah. I'm by the far end, along with Kolie, but after the whole 'flicking food across the table' incident, he's been situated even further down. Of course TIO's at the top end of the table, with all of those annoyingly loyal and preachy members of his.

"Hey, Kolie," I say after a few boring minutes of silence. He barely responds with a "Hm?" and I continue talking. "It's boring here. We get trained, we set the table, all that 'interesting stuff', while the others get to go out and kill people and do spells and other awesome stuff. We need a change around here."

"So?" Kolie asks, tilting his head to the other side. "So, I say we get to the high end with all of them. And then soon enough, we overthrow TIO!" I throw my hands in the air, saying it a bit too loudly. But I mean it. "B-But... TIO..." I can literally feel Kolie's eyes nervously wandering toward the window where we'd seen TIO earlier. "...Won't he do something about this?"

"He's an old man. That means he lacks in 'insight' or whatever it's called. And that means we've just got to be smart and patient."

"You're the one to talk!" Kolie yells suddenly, making me jump. At what point did he act like this? "I'm not doing this! Okay? I'd like to live!" And with that final yell, he stomps away, presumably to go tell somebody about my plan.

I should be angry, but I don't feel it. Instead, I feel something else. 

Fine. Have it your way. 

I guess it'll just be me on the throne in the end.

I follow him out, coming up with a plan in my head to keep his mouth shut.