Life After Death

Corryn: a mess of a bar

{Corryn}

"What if I use two faeries?" Lilith asked, still on the topic of world domination.

"If you can possess two faeries at the same time, I am impressed," I replied, wiping off the tables before we opened. "Also, have you ever thought about giving this place a name?"

Lilith waved my question away.

"Your bar is the only one without a name; everyone knows what it is," she said. "The bar that you can drink in peace and the bouncer doesn't mess around."

She winked at Roger who grinned. At least, I think it was a grin. All of his fangs were showing and his red and orange eyes seemed friendly.

"And I was referring to your need for a backup plan," she said coyly. "I wouldn't possess the other person. He would be my backup. The chaos factor, if you will. Someone, who, on his own, might cause the collapse of the government anyway."

"The only faery that I know like that is me," I replied. "Maybe Mikaela's twins, but I'm confident that it's just a stage. They're only five."

"Chaos is easy to make as a demon," Lilith remarked as she sat on the bar. "And it's somewhat of a specialty of mine. That's why I'm here in the first place."

"Then I would wager you may have hit on the solution," I told her. "But consider the variables to your plan. You have to find the right faery, someone malleable yet believable if they began an uprising. You have to find the right magic to support this uprising, and you have to find a good family for this faery to grow up with. Or two families if you're doing the same with your chaos contingency plan."

"You have no faith in my ability to plan," Lilith replied. "I could take care of it all. There's millennia of faeries to pick from, surely two would not be missed." She smiled with her pointed teeth.

My fingers began to tingle, which puzzled me, because Gawain's summonings were instantaneous. Lilith opened her mouth, ready to speak, but I vanished before I could explain. They would figure it out.

"Hello again," Guinevere said cheerfully. "Sorry to bother you, I have some questions."

"Go right ahead," I told her.

She had kept the pentagram from last time, under the rolled up rug I imagined. Only a couple spots were worn, but it was still much better than anything Gawain had produced. I would have to tease him about it later.

"Do you know much about healing?" she asked. "Because in here, it says that healers are second only to wizards in spell casting. But I've never seen Juliet cast a spell."

"Juliet does healing a bit differently," I agreed. "She wanted to learn the human way to heal with all the details inside the body. It means that she can be extremely specific in her healing, and much more efficient. This equals less spells."

She nodded, made a note, and tossed that book on her bed. She had a stack in the circle with her. She opened the next book, pulling out a sheet of paper.

"And in the necromancy book, it says that I don't need a circle if my pentagram is correct," she continued.

"If your pentagram is complicated, then no, you don't," I said. "But if you're planning on summoning anything larger than me, then two layers of protection is recommended."

"That's what I thought," she replied and snapped the book shut, tossing that book on the bed.

"Did you read all of these last night?" I asked.

"Mostly today," she corrected. "I went to bed soon after I dismissed you."

"You have five books there."