Blackened Feathers

Back to Business

Omega spent the morning with Terzo, Alpha, Ifrit and Mist in Terzo’s suite. There were a lot of tears and a lot of hugs shared by all. They would need to arrange the funeral rite for Rho, Special, and Zeta sometime soon, but for now, their remaining pack needed the time together. They needed to wallow in their shared misery and remember the fallen.

Alpha and Ifrit stayed close to Papa the whole time, barely letting go of him, always in physical contact, hugging him or stroking his face or holding his hand.

Omega sat in an armchair in the bedroom with Mist curled up in his lap. The tiny ghuleh weighed barely anything against him and he played with her hair absentmindedly. His mind wandered while his quintessence nature automatically ticked over in the background to soothe everyone.

He didn’t voice his thoughts because he didn’t want to upset the others, but he wondered what Papa would do. Losing three ghouls was a massive blow to the Clergy, especially so soon after losing Zephyr. He wondered if Terzo would summon three more from the reserves list that the Ghoul Council always kept. As it was, he was out of balance with two fire ghouls, one quintessence and one water.

Since summoning a new ghoul always required a lot of energy, he guessed that he would do it one at a time over the course of the next couple of months.

Terzo stirred and sat up. The fire ghouls groggily propped themselves up on the bed next to him. Omega looked over to him and he noticed their Papa was suddenly looking older and more tired. The events of the last few weeks had taken a lot out of everyone. Terzo, being the leader of the Clergy took on the weight of it all and it had taken its toll on him physically as well as mentally.

Terzo sighed.

“I need to get back to work.”

Omega frowned.

“Papa, give yourself some time. Nobody will expect you to go back to work so soon. Take a couple of days off at least.”

Terzo shook his head.

“No. I need to be doing something productive. I need to be busy. This pain is like nothing else, but I can’t give in to it.”

He climbed out of bed. Alpha and Ifrit protested also, but once Terzo put his mind to something, there was no stopping him. He went into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

Alpha scowled as he stared at the closed door.

“Papa needs to show how strong he is. He can’t have people thinking they’ve beaten him, not after the whole Imperator thing. He doesn’t want them to think he’s weak. I think he’s right. This will send a message to any fucker who might think of taking advantage again; they can’t mess with him.”

Alpha was right, of course, but it pained Omega that Terzo was still hurting so badly and was going to have to just put a brave face over it. He would do everything he could to help him through it though, he didn’t have any other choice.

A knock at the door brought him out of his thoughts and Ifrit jumped up to answer it. Aether walked in and pulled Ifrit into a bear hug. The smaller ghoul melted into him.

“Thought I would come and check on you all, see if you needed me," he said.

Omega’s heart warmed and he felt himself tearing up at the other quintessence ghoul’s offer. He’d felt panic welling up at the realisation that he was the only powerful functioning quintessence ghoul at the Abbey until Quinn recovered. If he recovered. It all felt like too much.

Aether was a welcome addition, and yet again, Omega was so grateful that the younger ghoul decided he'd stick around to help them out.

Aether smiled at him and came over, putting a hand on his shoulder. He would know exactly what Omega was feeling and he had probably realised that he’d be getting overwhelmed right about now.

“I checked in on Quinn too on the way here. He seems a bit better, but he’s out for the count. They’re leaving him to sleep and from what I felt, it’ll be a while before he wakes up,” he said sadly.

“I’ll visit him soon. See if I can help.”

Aether frowned and shook his head.

“I don’t think that’s such a great idea, Omega. There isn’t much you can do to help. Your strength is needed here. Secondo has it covered.”

The thought of not helping one of his fallen brothers went against everything he was, but Aether talked sense. He would spread himself too thin and end up in the same situation he had been in with Alpha again if he wasn’t too careful.

“Thanks. You’re right. I need to stop doing that.”

Aether chuckled.

“Totally get it, mate. You just want everyone happy, but sometimes you’ve just gotta say no.”

“How did you get so wise so quickly?” Omega huffed a laugh and Aether grinned at him.

“I was born wise," he said with a shrug.

Papa emerged from the bathroom not long after, dressed and with face paints on. Omega felt his determination and he stood. He picked Mist up with him and then placed her on the bed with Alpha before going to stand beside Terzo.

“Omega, Alpha, will you work with me today? I will go to my office and see what’s what. There has been too much disruption lately. We need to get back to it.”

“Of course we will, Papa.”

Omega nodded and he and Alpha quickly went back to the lair to get changed into their Clergy uniforms. Aether said he would stay with Mist and Ifrit and by the time Omega and Alpha returned, they were curled up together on the bed watching TV.

Terzo strode through the Abbey with his head held high, greeting Siblings and Clergy members and stopping briefly to chat when it was required. Most of them knew what had happened. Gossip spread quickly, and everyone wanted to offer their condolences. The three ghouls had been popular, especially Special, who had done a lot of the interviews and media things for the band. He was clever and loveable, if annoying sometimes when he went off on one of his tangents. Omega smiled fondly at the memories.

There was a stack of paperwork waiting on Terzo’s desk and he flopped down into his chair and sighed.

“Where does it all come from?” he smirked. Alpha went to close the door and Terzo gasped. “Alpha, what happened to your neck? Did Inigo do that to you?” Alpha’s hand went to rub the back of his neck where the bite mark was, and his eyes slid to Omega, who glanced at it. It actually looked a lot worse than he'd realised and he winced as he heard Terzo laugh. “Oh, maybe not Inigo then,” he said with a knowing smile and a wave of his hand. “So, to business. Copia is on his way. I have much to discuss with him. We need to replace Imperator. I need his help to find someone suitable. There are a few candidates I have in mind. I will have Zeta double check the auras of the ones I was thinking of...”

He gasped, and Omega felt the shard of pain in his heart as Terzo looked at him. His eyes shimmered with tears at the realisation that Zeta wasn’t here anymore. Omega stepped over to the desk and pulled him into a hug.

“It’s okay, Papa. It will take a while to sink in for all of us.”

He nodded and Omega held him for a few moments, trying to smooth out the sadness and prepare him for his duties. The phone on his desk started ringing and he huffed out a breath, going back to sit down. He looked up at Alpha and Omega.

“Well, my ghouls. Back to business,” he said as he answered the call.