The Mimic in Monsterland

Len closed his eyes and put his arms behind his head. He leaned back into the expensive padded chair. Another of Gren’s make. They must have gotten these recently, they weren't here the last time I joined one of these. Identical chairs lined around the council meeting round table. He was the first to come in and so sat in the empty, garish room by himself.

Fancy red oak walls with detailed ornamentation surrounded him. The evening sunlight snuck into the room from the windows. Beautiful. Useless, but still beautiful all the same.

He abhorred coming to council meetings. All the mind numbing bickering and brown nosing between the elite of the Capital Society got real tiresome real quick. They gave him a seat on the council after his first raid on Laurel soil some years ago, when he blasted through the boss’ on his own (there was some assistance from Mel, but nobody needed to know that part) right at the start of the raid. It ended up being an extremely risky maneuver, one that nearly got him crippled. He came to hate tentacled monsters after that day. It was a pain to keep up with all the moving parts. But the ploy succeeded, and they offered him a Legion of his own, which he took, but he just never recruited anybody to it. He was a one-man Legion already. And as head of the barren Fifth Legion, he was given a spot on this council.

The meetings took place the night after a raid, and then once more two weeks after that raid. They weren’t mandatory, so long as you gave your seal of voting to someone beforehand. That of itself was an act that showed the two of you voted in unison. Len always gave his to Jaren. Jaren, being a part of an actual Legion, never missed a single meeting. The topics up for voting may directly affect his duties and his people, so he couldn’t afford to miss them. Many grumbled about him basically having two votes, but they never outwardly said anything about it.

However, today’s gathering was surely to be the exact opposite of all the formal blathering. After that break in and invasion, not a single one of the other Councillors would skip tonight. Each and every one had interests that were or would be affected by any decisions made tonight. Not that Len had much hope anything would be finalized or ratified in just one meager meeting. But he promised Jaren he would attend.

He leaned back just a bit further into the chair, claiming his mind and Aura further. He was tempted to throw a few small Aura flames around, give him a little espionage to have some fun with. He sighed. He knew it would be a bad idea. Lirae would clock him on it in a heartbeat, his Aura totems weren’t nearly as hidden as her own Aura seeds.

A single eye opened when the door latch clicked. The door swung open, two shorter people walked through, a gnome man with spiked purple hair and a middle-aged half elf woman with furred forearms chatted together as they walked forward.

“Evening.” Len said as he sat upright in the chair.

The two shared an identical look of surprise at Len's unexpected appearance in the meeting. The gnome hid his surprise quicker than the half elf. “Hello Commander Ainsworth. What a treat it is to have us.”

Thabble Riverstroke, Head of Commerce. Not important. “Please, Councilor Thabble, Leonard is fine. And can you blame me? Last week’s tragic invasion is something none of us can ignore.” The gnome nodded in agreement. The half elf found her game face and greeted Len as well. “Commander Ainsworth, so good to see you.”

Ugh, I hate being called that. I haven’t been a real commander in a decade. Len gave her a quick once over. Councilor Mena Mright, Head of Academia, more important but not tonight. “And you as well, Mena. I hope Academy 13 is doing well after that invasion.” She smiled. “Only a few injuries amongst the students. Though we lost a few staff in the defense. But the help from the Fourth kept those losses to a minimum.”

“I’m glad, and I must say you look wonderful tonight.” Len flashed a flirty wink to the woman. She blushed while the Thabble cleared his throat. The two walked over to their seats on the other side of the table. Now only seven other chairs were empty.

These two were some of the domestic seat holders, of which there were five. Academia, Commerce, Guilds, Guards and the Mayor. The other seats were held by the five Legion Commanders.

The two chatted to themselves about some plan they were coming up with to help better facilitate the tradesmen school’s graduates into apprenticeships. Oh boy, what a thrilling conversation. The door swung open again, this time a tall elf man with long fangs jutting from his mouth and ghostly pale skin walked into the room. His eyes were sharp and dark. He scanned the room immediately upon entry, stopping once they recognized Len. “Ainsworth.” He said flatly with a curt nod. Len returned the nod. “Nightings.”

Never fails to give me the creeps. Councilor Dran Nightings, Head of Guilds. A priority, sadly, but I need him to give me the okay to start guild operations early. Ugh, can’t wait to hear the demands on that one.

The elf walked over to his chair next to the gnome, giving the two a similarly chilly greeting.

“I told you already, Rache, any time, any place.”

“Not even in your wildest dreams, lizard boy.”

“Your words wound me, my scaly queen.”

Len turned his attention to the next and rather raucous arrivals. Jaren opened the door and held it for the slender and beautiful commander of the Third Legion, Rache Gatrel. A large green leathery scaled tail followed behind her. Her green, slitted eyes fell on Len. He waved.

“Somehow I knew you would be here, Leonard. Holdscock over there is in rare form tonight. He has only asked me out seven times.”

“And there is still more to come. I’ll whittle that wall down soon.” Jaren said with a toothy smile.

A cacophony of laughs roared from the other side of the door. Herman stumbled in the room, holding his gut. “Holdscock! That’s brilliant. Lass, I’m nabbing that one. Holdscock, why dinnae think of that one?” Rache’s tail rubbed across the floor as she squinted at Herman. “Lass?”

“Oh, come off it, Commander Gatrel.” He said sarcastically as he sat down in his chair next to Nightings, whose expression filled with disgust as the crass dwarf sat down.

Len grinned at the witty banter between the group. If the meetings were more like this, he would be tempted to join more often. Yet he was fully aware of the brevity of it.

And as if on cue, the downers sauntered into the room. Lirae headed the final group, wearing her stunning white dress. Rickard Lumensworn, Lirae’s husband and Commander of the Second Legion, walked at her side, arm in arm. The square-jawed, handsome blonde man’s scrutinizing gaze washed over the room. His yellow eyes stopped on Len. Len waved at him and Lirae. Rickard’s face scrunched up and he turned away. Never change, cousin. Never change. Lirae made her rounds, exchanging greetings with the other councilors.

The last of their merry band walked in after the others, Collen, the head of the First Legion and Lirae’s oldest friend. She followed after Lirae, not saying much, and only nodded her head at the others. From the sounds of it, she didn’t attend these meetings either, giving her seal to Lirae. The whiskered woman’s body language told all it needed to. Her eyes constantly switched targets, she rubbed her hands together, and stumbled over her own feet. Twice.

Len sighed inwardly. Jaren, after being shot down once more, sat down next to Len.

“How was Liam’s first day? Anything interesting?” Len whispered to the big guy.

“About as well as expected, light scuffle with another frontliner. Made a hell of an impression on the onlookers, though. He had quite the fancy finisher. Still passed out by the end of it.”

“Poor Stamina management?”

“Poor Stamina management.”

“He desperately needs to level. Gets some more gains in that.”

“Aye. I can only beat it into him so much.” Jaren said with a grin.

The rest of the councilors took their seats and the chatting stopped. Lirae cleared her throat. As mayor, it was her job to keep the meeting on schedule. She looked at each of the councilors one at a time. Len met her gaze, giving her a slight nod. Then she spoke with some cheer in her voice.

“Thank you all for coming tonight. It is wonderful to see the entire room filled. I wish this could happen more often, but I understand how busy we all can get. I am no stranger to the woes of effort that you all face. Now, let us get down to business. The Feral problem.” Her cheery tone died with her last words.

Thabble, the gnome, raised his hand. “The alleged Feral problem. We don’t have quite enough facts to make such a declaration.”

Lirae’s face hardened at him. Len grinned. Of course, you’d be the first to defend them. The Gloom is your territory, after all. Len received some new intel from Mel before the meeting, the Feral presence in the Gloom was hidden, but not well enough for the Thabble to be unaware of them.

“We know it's Feral’s, coin bag!” Rickard slammed the table with his hand. “Not a single fire monster was there, it had to be those rapscallions.” Lirae rested her hand on Rickard’s. She turned to Thabble.

“You are correct, we don’t know for sure. But we can look at some of the evidence.” She turned to Herman. He nodded.

“Aside from the lack of fire monsters in the invasion force, my scouts found some alchemical residue near the explosion site.”

“See you greedy…” Lirae hushed her husband. Rickard shut his mouth. Len snickered silently. What she wanted in her man that I wouldn’t give her: obedience.

Herman coughed. “There are some other…discrepancies. The team that was to be on duty at that section of the wall is still missing. Haven’t seen hide nor hair of them. Even their families have no clue where they’ve gone.”

Nightings spoke up this time. “Accomplices perhaps?”

Herman glared at him. “I’ve personally picked each person on those patrols. I know my men and women. Not a single one of them is capable of such treason.”

Nightings met his stare. “And yet the wall was breached and those tasked with defending it are missing. It’d be different if their bodies were found.”

The dwarf's wolf ears twitched, and his hands balled up as frustration showed on his face. But he could say nothing else. It was the truth. The dwarf looked like he was about to say more until Lirae spoke back up. “Thank you, Captain Blines, is there anything else?”

“No ma’am.” He answered.

“Still smells Feral to me.” Rache commented. “That crew could’ve been kidnapped.”

“Have you grilled the families and other crews?”

Herman’s face twitched. “Rest assured, I’ve my best scouts trying to learn more. They’ve tracked some movement throughout the Gloom. But nothing substantial. Rumors, but nothing else.”

Lirae smiled at the comment. “Then the next order of business is quite simple. A full raid of the Gloom in its entirety. Each house and shop investigated. I put it up for vote.”

Rickard and Collen brought their seals forward, preparing to dip them in ink pots. Each member had one placed in front of them. Len was about to say something, but Thabble beat him to it.

“Absolutely not. I will not stand here and allow you to ransack the homes and workplaces of our citizens on rumor alone. Do you know how long it would take to search it and how many businesses would shut down? We don’t even know if they are in the Gloom, they could be hiding out in the Academies. That was where the attack took place. It would follow that whoever caused the break in is based there.” Thabble said, pointing at Mena.

Len palmed his face. And here we go.

“How dare you insinuate something like that. We at the academy strive to only nurture and cultivate the seeds of youth. None of our staff would ever, ever endanger them in such a fashion. Though I do wonder about the Guilds. The Groundsmen fixed that Wall rather rapidly. Maybe they knew of it beforehand.”

This devolved into each member throwing accusations at the next. Len checked out while it went on, waiting for Lirae to take command of the meeting once again. She normally let the squabbling happen. She said something to him once about the discourse keeping things lively. Len couldn’t stand this version of lively.

He looked over to Lirae, who was currently trying to simmer her husband down from a fight with Jaren, who currently held on to the man’s shirt. Rickard made a comment about Jaren’s second in command who had a penchant for the alchemical arts and how interesting it was that the wall had alchemical residue on it. Len tapped Jaren’s shoulder. “Not now, my friend.”

Jaren huffed and sat back down, releasing his grasp on the other commander. Len stood up for the first time in the meeting. He brought his hand to his mouth and coughed. He then snapped his fingers. Heat blistered in the room for a moment, stopping the bickering.

“Thank you. With all that out of everyone’s systems, let’s talk actual problem solving then. Unless anyone else would like to throw out more baseless accusations.”

Silence permeated the room. Len received a nasty look from Rickard and Collen; those two weren’t keen on anyone other than Lirae taking charge in the meeting. Everyone else nodded at the man who never spoke at meetings.

“Good, then allow me to share what I’ve learned. And maybe even a plan.”