The Andre Miller Saga

Andre Miller 45 The Invitation

It had been a month since the city-wide riots, caused by the battle between the celestial forces led by the secretly fallen celestial Entole and the demonic forces of House Retaletan. It led to the fragile truce that Andre had worked for almost 3 years being torn to shreds and a second battle of celestial against celestial. Hundreds of the warriors of the heavens were killed or taken captive and became the penitent, celestials who will act as servants without ever knowing the joys of paradise ever again.

Andre, Caleb, Tilly, and Kris had opened the Infinity Brands Ltd storefront 2 weeks after the end of the battles. Business had been brisk and constant ever since. With everyone wanting some form of protection against the threat of future riots, the stream of calls was never-ending. Infinity Brand offered defensive runes, wards, and talismans, summoning services for celestials and elementals, and potions for personal defense and ease of everyday life.

"It's been busy as all hells," said Conry, "Not that I'm complaining about it, too much at least, but there doesn't seem to be an end to it. The defensive side is booked out 3 months for jobs, the summoning side is booked out a month, and poor Kris is slaving over the alchemy station 8 hours a day making potions that sell out as soon as she puts them on the rack."

"That definitely sounds like complaining Pops." Said Frankie.

"Shut it glow stick! If I wanted your opinion, I give it to you." Conroy said with a smile.

The assembled group laughed. "All that said business is doing well. We may be booked to the ceiling, but our rates are competitive and word of mouth is spreading our name throughout the city." Said, Tilly

"Have we gotten any pushback from Black Flame Security? Just because Houseton, Reba, and Kline have backed off for now doesn't mean their pet project is over." Asked Kyle.

"Dying a slow and painful death. Almost no one willingly wants to work with an infernal company where signing a work order might sell your soul in the fine print." Tilly replied, "I've been keeping an eye on them just in case."

"What about our other competitors?" asked Andre.

"Doing business hand over fist, same as us. Every defensive place in town, minus Black Flame, is jam-packed with work orders. Summoners too. People are actually hiring elementals for long-term security, which is expensive as all hells, but I'm not complaining. Unlike some people!" laughed Caleb.

"OK, serious moment." Said Andre, "Do we have any kind of trouble on the horizon? Kris?"

Kris pulled out her deck of cards shuffled and cut the deck twice and drew a card, but two came out, one black, one red. "Maybe? Yes and no, not sure what that means, let me get my big cards out and see what they have to say." She rummaged through her shoulder bag and pulled out a deck of customized tarot cards. "We'll run a 9-card spread for the 9 of us. It won't directly correlate to any one person, I just feel it's fitting."

"You're the seer, we're just observers in your world." Said Janice.

She did a three-by-three spread past, present, and future rows, and good, neutral, and bad columns.

She shuffled the deck and put it to work, past read as expected, some good and some bad, the present was high on the good, neutral on the neutral, and uncertain on the bad. The future was high on the good, low on the neutral, and a blank card for the bad. "I'm not surprised by that one. I've been getting blank draws for the future for a year. It's what drew me to Alabama and you guys in the first place. The present uncertain bad is the one that gets me, it tells me that something is in flux. Some outside force is in the process of making a decision that might affect us badly. But the cards aren't specific enough to give us a what. I'd rather not go much deeper than the cards because that means neutralizing some of my potions to open up more of my gift, and I really don't like to do that."