The Midnight Sun

“So you did try to kill Miss Moonflower. Let me say, this, then. I’ve been turning a blind eye to your midnight jaunts. I haven’t asked anyone to investigate where you go, or had Reese watch you. I’ve been exceptionally lenient so far with the two of you so far, and I’m not entirely sure why. However, this most recent incident has made your possible illegal actions a matter of my concern.”

“First of all, if you do end up murdering anyone, that would immediately invalidate your contract and cease your employment and status as a Midnight Sun family member. You know all of the benefits that comes with that. Second, you are associated with the Midnight Sun, and as such, your actions reflect on us. Our reputation is my responsibility, and it is not one that I take lightly. We will not be publicly associated with criminals, miscreants, or serial killers.”
“After this, I’m going to go speak with Miss Moonflower; and I’m going to assure her that she won’t have any more trouble out of the two of you. If I hear from her, or from any of the observational tools or watchers I’m going to put into place on her and her residence, that the two of you are attacking, harassing, or in any other way distressing her, there are going to be consequences. If the two of you are telling the truth, and it really won’t happen again, then so be it. Good on the two of you for being honest with me, and taking my words to heart. But if it does…”

She shrugs, almost apologetically.

“You wouldn’t really be leaving me much choice.”

Naoki sighs, and leans closer. “One more thing, girls. If you’re doing to do something, you do it right the first time. None of this half-assed, ‘attempted murder’ nonsense. If you’re going to kill someone, you’ve got to do it, and be done with it. People who live, run. They get better security, and will be prepared for your second attempt. There is no room for error, miscalculation, or underestimation. You two were lucky on this occasion, in multiple regards, but if you intend to continue down the road of killing, and your skills and practices don’t improve, it’s going to be a very short road.”

“Also, were you even going to do anything once Miss Moon was dead? Was there any purpose to it? She wasn’t a threat, and I doubt there would have been anything much to be gained from her death. But I digress; what I’m saying is this. You girls need to plan your actions before you take them for better results, and gather intelligence on your target before your hit, especially pertaining to their connections, or you may piss off someone you didn’t want to.”

“This is a good general rule, of course, but in this context, I mean to imply that if the two of you had successfully killed Miss Moonflower, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Alden, as someone who hasn’t agreed to any such terms about not breaking Isranian law, would have taken things into his own hands, and the fact that your target is still alive proves that he’s a better assassin than the pair of you. In attacking her, you’ve earned his ire, and it is only at my insistence that he hasn’t already taken action to see to it that the two of you never harm Miss Moonflower again. There are a lot of valuable lessons to be learned here, and I hope you two consider them fully.”

Naoki sighs again as she watches them depart. Those two are going to have to start earning their living at some point. Being little girls without parents who have happened to make their way into Hasdrubal and Maelik’s good books isn’t going to justify their freeloading forever.

She leans forward, and turns to address Alden down the table, “I think I handled that pretty well. What do you think? Did it seem to you like they took me seriously?”

"They certainly seemed to take you seriously."

Alden had sat quietly as he had been asked, but he had been observing the twins carefully. Their facial expressions hadn't been natural. The twins had simply worn what they thought, best reflected the emotion they wanted to convey. Beyond that he had also seen flashes of magic between them. Best guess was some kind of silent communication, he couldn't say for certain.

"As far as your negotiation skills go, they were effective. You gathered the information you needed, from what little they gave you. Outlined what they did wrong, and why they should listen to you. Whether this will work though..."

Alden trails off, and thinks for moment.

"I have known people like them in the past. They don't see others as real, and they don't regret what they did. They will only obey you if, they think you are capable of backing your threat. And if they do not wish to face the consequences. Even then they might try and figure out a way around it. Since they now have a reason to kill Moon: to spite you.  One of the hypocrisy of their type, doing bad things to other people is fine, but having bad things happen to them is unacceptable."

His piece said Alden gets out of his chair.

"If you don't need me for anything else, I will head back to Moon's. I promised I would let her know the results of this talk."

Alden nods his consent.

"She's probably a bit nervous, I will do my best to prepare her. Thank you for your assistance."

With that he departs.

“Ah, hello Maelik. I was just going to pop over and let you know that I needed to speak with you, but you seem to have saved me the trip.”

From the corner of Naoki’s peripheral vision, Raulio saunters up to the table, prepared to leave. Keeping in mind the active silencing spell, she raises a single finger in his direction, and mouths two words at him.

‘One moment.’

Trusting Raulio to be seated again and not try to lip-read the rest of the conversation, she returns her focus to Maelik. “Thank you. I would be happy to answer any question you might have, to the best of my ability. And, when I’m done, I have a few questions of my own. But let’s start with yours. Everything has been going swimmingly in your absence. No complaints regarding the kitchen, and when I checked in yesterday afternoon, all day shift chefs reported no problems.”

“I don’t… believe there have been any policy changes while you’ve been gone. At the very least, I haven’t made any sweeping, company level changes to the way things are done. Though, something may have slipped my mind. If you give me a hint as to what prompted the question, I could probably give you a more satisfying answer.”

Sinking down into her seat, Naoki idly begins to braid a lock of her hair as she speaks. Left over center, right over center, as her hands maintain constant motion.

“The Black Tower is a militarily inclined and combat-oriented sort of organization, whose publicly stated goal is to maintain world peace, and deal with any troublemakers where the nations of the world find themselves unable. They have assembled a team of some of the most powerful individuals around, and dispatch them to deal with major incidents and national criminals and the like. Almost like a vigilante organization, in that they’re not associated with or bound by the rules of any nation, but not quite, in that they are, in some ways, more powerful than the nations themselves. Currently, in addition to their primary base of operations, the titular Black Tower, which you’ve surely seen out in the plains,”

She gestures with a nod of her head in a direction behind, and slightly to Maelik’s left. If one were able to walk straight in that direction, through all of the walls, buildings, and other obstructions of Isra, they would eventually find themselves at the foot of the Black Tower.

“... they also have a branch headquarters over in Gauldin, which is where you were taken to recover. The interesting bit, though, comes in how they’re related to us. The Black Tower is a child organization of The Midnight Sun, almost like The Moonlight Eclipse. We fund them, their bills are paid by the profit of this establishment. They have their own management structure, lead by Grandma, but ultimately, the whole thing falls into my dominion, should I decide to command it. I utilized one of their agents to deescalate your fight with Zuu, and requested that Lum'Valia bring you to the local tower to recover, which she did. I had the garrison of the local tower clear a room for your recovery, and had medical staff on standby in the event that Lum'Valia wouldn’t be able to fully address your injuries. Fortunately enough, though, she was, and the medical staff were unnecessary.”

Finished with her braid, Naoki glances around for something to secure it with. Not having the presence of mind to have brought a ribbon or any sort of string, she shrugs in defeat, and tosses it back over her shoulder, where it will doubtless unravel itself over the course of the next hour or so.

“I should probably mention, even though it may have been obvious, either at the time, or based on what I just said, I was watching and managing the entire affair of your fight and the events that came afterwards from here. I notified Lum'Valia of your predicament, and guided her to your location so that she could assist, as well as directing the forces of The Black Tower to further aid you. Unfortunately, your assailant managed to escape the operatives I assigned to her destruction, and is still at large. It also goes without saying, please keep the nature of the relationship between The Midnight Sun and The Black Tower under your helmet. I prefer that the two remain separate for political reasons.”

Reaching over to the end of the table, the latest object of Naoki’s unending fiddling is a salt shaker. Placing her palm over the opening, she rotates it slowly, watching the salt slide around within the glass shaker.

“To answer your next question, last night, Lorelei and Lucia attempted homicide. They attempted to kill Miss Moonflower Làidir, who turns out to be a personal friend of Alden’s. When asked, they admitted to trying it, and I explained to them exactly why they shouldn’t go around killing people, and how angry Alden was with them. Which is to say, very. They seemed to take my words to heart, and I don’t think that they’ll be attempting murder again, at least as far as Miss Moonflower is concerned. As soon as we’re finished speaking, I’m going to drop by her shop, apologize for the twins’ actions, and put into place a few security measures on her establishment. They didn’t give me any trouble when I was speaking with them, and as long as they don’t try something similar in the future, I will consider the matter closed and dealt with in an agreeable manner.”

Finished with the salt shaker, she sets it back in its place, and dusts the salt off of her hand into the ashtray sitting at the end of the table.

Maelik was just as bad for fidgeting as Naoki, his claws clicking against the table's edge for almost the entire length of her explanation. And once she was finished he laid his head down on the table and uttered an unusually agreeable grunt, using basic sounds instead of words to get across his satisfaction with things.

"Good, good... Although now I may need to punish those two girls for lying to me, it's okay if they do bad and apologize but lying is not something that I can stand. I may just give them both a proper spanking, they won't be able to sit right for a week!"

He grabbed the salt shaker and gave it a few quick shakes of his own to cast a couple grains of salt up in the air, only for his lighting quick tongue to shoot out and capture them all before they hit the table top. The strong taste made his face screw up but the demon took that as a sign that everything was going according to his standards, salt needs to be salty after all.

"So then," he said with a general aloofness, that sweet buttery voice still leading the way. "What questions did you have for me?"

The demon pondered about what he should tell Naoki and what would be best kept to himself in relation to Zuu. Issues that concern his throne are highly personal for him and anything to do with the ever excitable Zuu was even more so. However after a short deliberation he decided to come clean with the whole thing.

"This Zuu creature is a fallen angel who's fallen under my domain and as such she's something I'm held responsible for. Generally speaking she's an excellent wrath demon, filled to the brim with homicidal urges and a hair trigger temper. Truth be told she's a lot like myself," he chuckles a bit at this and points a thumb at his helmet.

"In fact, at this approximate moment if you were to so much as look at me funny I'd reach over the table and crush your windpipe like a cracker. Then I'd use your nice, limber, still twitching body to beat sweet Artemis to a bloody pulp and then mash both of your corpses together until they were nothing but an indistinguishable mush! In fact, I'm contemplating doing it anyway just for shits and giggles..." He'd eye the pair of them with a disturbingly happy smile.

"But Zuu, well she takes it a step further. Whereas I take a moment to consider my actions before executing them she skips that step and goes straight into the 'doing' of it. I'm actually quite proud of her and what she's attempting to do, I've been the Lord of Wrath since the first dragon drew its first breath and I've grown rather tired of it. And if I were to speak frankly I'm growing far too lenient to remain as the Lord so it would be nice if I had someone to succeed me."

He chuckled again and removed his helmet to scratch at his cross shaped scar, his eyes never breaking contact with Naoki's, not even to blink.

"I'd imagine that my exploits have gotten back to Hell and that Zuu figures she can lead my forces better than I can as so she's been challenging me for the right to succession, and while her strength is impressive she's not yet capable enough in my opinion to lead in my place. She's too hostile, and doesn't seem to possess the basic traits required in a squad leader let alone as a Lord. Still it won't stop her from trying again and again until she is either wins or is killed so it's a safe bet to assume she'll return."

He replaced the helmet on top of his head and leaned in a bit closer to the two women on the other side of the table, his static smile never faltering for a moment.

"Is there anything else we need to discuss?"

Maelik leaned even more over the table until the tip of his snout brushed up against Naoki's ear.

"What do I plan to do? There is only one thing to do... I'll find her, kill her, string her corpse up on a pole and use her to smack any other insubordinate whelps to settle the matter. Demonic politics are less about points and arguments as much as a death match."

He leaned back into his seat at this point and flicked his tongue out nonchalantly, as if the whole affair was just the usual run of the mill for him.

"I'm sure that I can handle things myself so long as I keep my cool but if it makes you feel better you can send in whoever you'd like to assist me. To make matters easier I'll be issuing a challenge for her once I find and set up an advantageous battle ground for my victory. I'll be sure to let you know when the deadline approaches and until then I'll remain cautious with where I go."

Another tongue flick and Maelik yawned, his jaw stretching open wide enough to take in an entire dwarf before it closed shut with a loud snap.

"I hope that answer satisfies you and if it doesn't I'll be happy to explain it in greater detail later tonight, is there anything else you'd like to know?"