Wake Up, Witch

Chapter 19

The hotel was decent, with a large room for me and one my apostles had to share.

"Don't let that owl get close to me," I heard Akira warn Lexie.

"Of course. We can't lose another familiar under your watch," Lexie retorted sharply.

"I didn't bring it to begin with."

"Do you even care what happened to it?" Tiff asked, aghast. There was no answer from Akira. "What if it's being tortured somewhere?"

"What would they get from torturing a dog?"

"I don't know. To torment you?"

"Do I look tormented?"

"You know what you look like? A heartless bastard," Lexie replied. "Tiff and I will search on our own."

"I'm sure Vivec and the others have him," Tiff was saying to Lexie when they emerged from their room.

Bellatrix and I looked up from where we sat in the long lounge chair. "You look very presentable," I said to them with a smile. They were wearing their new apostle uniform: black coat with the white Saint logo embroidered on the left chest. It stopped just below their knees, their legs covered in a pair of black breeches and black boots that stretched up to their calves. "Aren't you sweating, though?" I asked.

"I'm drenched from head to toe—literally," Tiff groaned, tugging at her sleeves. Her head was covered in black head wrap.

"Anyway, you all look smart." My eyes landed on Akira when he joined them. "But not quite smart enough to find a dog."

He rolled his eyes and checked the time instead. "I'd like to remind everyone that we'll be out for official business, not a scavenger hunt." He eyed Tiff and Lexie with a warning glint in his eyes. "Let's not lose everything we're trained to do on this first mission, please."

Tiff stuck out her chin. "If you think we're going to confront them about the dog, you're wrong."

"There's another place and time for that," Lexie added with a meaningful curl in one corner of her mouth.

"Don't be ridiculous—"

I silenced Akira with a hand. "You'll die young if you continue to be so..." I frowned as I searched for the word. "Stringent."

"I wouldn't be if you took half the responsibility." He started walking as he talked, then stopped to throw Tiff and Lexie a look. "Or act like these two."

Tiff, Lexie, and I shared a look of confusion. "We're very much different. I see no similarities at all."

"Children," he groaned, pulling the door open. With his arm, he gestured to the open doorway. "Can we go now?"

The governor welcomed us to the new Exodus city hall. The Saint Society stained every corner. White walls, white marble floors, and bland furniture (if there were any).

Philo Salwey, however, was nothing like the delegates I met before. He wore the same thing as every other respectable member of the society, but white simply did not suit him well. He was the kind of man who would look better in just a shirt and pants, one I had seen many folks wore on a regular day. Gruff, with a beard I'm sure someone had tried to tame with little success just moments before he was forced to wear the horrible white costume, he smiled and welcomed us to his city. "It is an honor," he said to Corey before bowing to Mertha Krall, whom I was sure everyone knew and treated like a bloody saint. To me, he just stared with hesitation, although it was clear he recognized me, or at least heard about me.

"This is Astral Aster Byrne," Corey introduced proudly. "Miss Byrne, Governor Philo Salwey."

He was old enough to be my father, his hair gray around the temple and eyes wrinkling in the corners. I nodded while he bowed stiffly. "My pleasure," he murmured.