Strange Aeons [Book 1]

7. Losertown [part II]

She remembered that zone of the Headquarters very well.

Covens from 15th to 20th rank were usually referred to as "The Underworks", usually because they were formed by Mages who still had to learn how to work in team, or particularly badly trained ones, struggling to rise inside of the Order.

They were so useless to the Order that they weren't even given a proper home headquarters in the city, but just a small living quarter inside the same building of the official Headquarters. They were small apartments with common rooms, bathroom and kitchen, just enough for them to survive if they had no other living solution, and to offer them a space to share to get them to work together better.

She, Vopros and Chico had spent two years in one of those apartments, while they had to rise from 20th rank to 14th. Finally, past the terrible 15th rank, they were given Casa Pollos. Which was roughly as big as the inside apartments but had the great advantage of being far from all the Order's hubbub, and in a relatively good side of town after all.

She marveled at the thought that the Enforcer lived with the team. Garaham never spent one single night at the headquarters apartment and made very clear that he wanted to be as far from Casa Pollos as possible.

She had taken some time to get home and prepare some speed stew to go. It was the best way to present herself to someone. The piping hot Tupperware in a shopping bag, two cold beers in the other, she breathed deeply and knocked at the door with the self-explanatory golden plaque:

19th Coven
The Expendables

They didn't even put River's name on the plaque, as every other Enforcer had done. She had heard of other Enforcers fallen from grace, for bad mistakes or misconduct, but they were all eventually given a way to get back in the ranks. From what she had heard from Larry, River had simply been forgotten in that small room at the end of the corridor.

«Coming!» chimed a deep voice from inside. Then, the noise of fast steps approaching. The door cracking open. And a blond head, so many inches above hers, peeked out and looked down to her with a positively amazed expression.

Banshee swallowed sawdust. The enormous man was shirtless. She was pretty sure that there were no muscles under the armpits. Before seeing him. Now she wondered if he'd been offended if she had started counting his abs.

«Oh, hi. Can I help you?» he asked, with a devilish smile suddenly appearing on his perfect lips.

«Well... hi... I am... Banshee, I'm Banshee.» she saw a small spark of light in the background of his deep blue eyes.

«Nice to meet you, I'm River. But of course, you already knew. Come in, come in, don't stay on the door.» His voice was cheerful and his manners welcoming, keeping the door open for her and showing her in with a chivalrously wide gesture of his gigantic arm. She smiled, nodded and entered the small living room, furnished with catalog-quality furniture. A sofa, a tv, a bookshelf, a desk, some other surfaces.

«Meh, they truly don't bother decorating much, huh?» she said, searching for a way to break the awkward silence.

«Oh, nearly nobody notices the furniture when they enter anyway. Not if I'm inside the room.» he dismissed the topic with a malicious expression, shooting a perplexed look towards her shopping bags. «Oh, you brought your own stuff?»

«What?» asked Banshee, still trying to ignore the mass of dancing muscles in front of her. «Oh, these? Nay, I just hate visiting people empty-handed. I had had an education, ye know? That's fer ye.»

She handed him the shopping bags, happy to have packed a four-people Tupperware. Maybe it could have resulted in one full portion of food for that towering man.