Lore of Eternal Shadow: The Fugitive King

Chapter Eighteen

Zicone frowned just a bit as he looked downward at a patch of lawn the sun hadn't touched yet. He grasped the gilded gold balcony rail and looked at the morning landscape before him. Birds chirped happily in the trees. The sun crested the green of the hills. All the manors and homes across the county were gilded in a bright golden aura.

Bethesda had been kind to give him a room on the eastern wing of Talsis Manor; he'd been watching the sunrise for at least an hour. Understandably he'd had a lot on his mind. Lunday, the first day of the Zey^Rey work-week: Zicone dreaded it just as much as anybody who needed to work this day.

Leaving the balcony, he decided he might as well take a shower. His room, like the others, had a private bathroom with a shower. He'd last had regular showers at Zanto's house... about a month ago now. Zicone was still encountering memories of his master in his everyday activities. He'd have to take each moment that reminded him of Zanto and turn them over to a pile of things he could move on from.

The bed that Zicone had slept in the night before had provided him with a good night's sleep, his third in this dimension, and he thoroughly enjoyed feeling so refreshed for once. It was obvious that there were some advantages to this style of living, yet Zicone couldn't help but feel that this was a lazy and decadent way when he compared it to how people lived in Galgaroth. He knew he was being slightly unfair to think of the Zey^Rey like that, they had worked hard to come to this level of technology. But living a life of numb contentment whilst others suffered from problems the Zey^Rey had started long ago was unforgivable in Zicone's mind.

Despite what Tiziano and Horatio had said, Zicone made up his mind to dress in his Sussurri College uniform when he met the Senate. In some way, he felt wearing his uniform would show some of the pain he went through without their help. When he talked over his plans with Bethesda, however, she insisted at least with refurbishing his uniform. As Zicone ran his hand over the soft, finished cloth, he realized he hadn't had clothing that felt this nice since the day be became an orphan.

As Zicone stepped out of the door to his bedroom he met Lauren who had been heading his way to fetch him. She had smartened herself up considerably, dressed in a posh and business-like ladies' suit on loan from Bethesda. She looked completely different from the wild mercenary girl he'd met near Grunenstein. Lauren was quite attractive in a professional sort of way...

"You ready for the Senate?" she asked with fake enthusiasm. She propped a smile up on her face with her fingers.

Zicone couldn't help but smirk. They started ambling up the hall to the front of the house. "I know," he said, "I think I'm ready. I'm terrified of what they might say."

"They could say yes, you know," Lauren offered, "and with thousands of Zey^Rey and Shol^Thol committed, the war's good as won."

"I doubt they'll be so generous," lamented Zicone, "Does Professor Chandra really expect us to come back to Galgaroth saying, 'Ah, well, we tried?'"

"That's why we have a contingency plan," Lauren reminded.

"Erm," Zicone nodded thoughtfully, "I need to ask Runa to look up references to the Vampirex... or 'Thalos.' I just hope it won't be too much of a chore to nab that ring and go."

"It'll be a chore, Zicone," said Lauren, "let's just get used to the fact."

As they neared the end of the hallway they were met first by Horatio then by Tiziano. Both were dressed in finely tailored suits of black with matching trousers. Underneath their jackets, they wore dark shirts that were pleated all the way across. On their collars were small gold pins that indicated how many years they had served in the Senate. Apparently they hadn't been in office very long; Tiziano a bit shorter than Horatio. Zicone remembered Senators circumvented a constitutional term limit by sitting on the Senate for a while and then letting another guy take over for a few terms. It was weird to Zicone that both brothers Talsis were serving at the same time but he recalled that Tiziano had moved to another Senatorial department a few centuries back and this meant he had to represent a different district.