214, 1/2

Erick checked himself out in the mirror one more time.

Black hair, white eyes save for his black pupils. White robes with black trim. An Ophiel on his left shoulder, Yggdrasil’s eye on his right.

And his horns were not showing.

Good. All the rest of him was acceptable.

The sun was about to set.

The Feast was about to start.

Everyone was already evacuated from the Gate District that needed to be evacuated. Most of the Gates were down; Erick would recast them in the morning. According to Zolan Erick was ‘hemorrhaging gold’ with the Gates down, but Zolan had said that in jest, for it was what it was, and only foolish people shipped on Shadow’s Feast. Too bad there were a lot of foolish people in this world.

A few Gates remained, specifically the ones that linked the House to the kitchens and such which were at another location, in the city of Candlepoint. Erick would be placing the House and the kitchens into an [Expandable Hasted Shelter], separated by Gates, when the time for the actual Feast began at midnight. Hopefully such an ‘air gap’ would allow Erick to evacuate people through those Gates and into a safer location (hopefully the kitchens would be safer) if a fight should break out inside the House itself.

But the House was evacuated of all non-Feast-approved people so any fight that happened here would be contained… Mostly.

Erick mentally went over the list of major guests once more.

The Shades were the big ones.

Lapis, the Shade of Enchantment; dark-skinned human woman, bald, androgynous, muscular, reserved. Soul Mage. Erick wasn’t sure what she had been doing before now, but he suspected it had something to do with the Quiet War. According to Zolan’s research and contacts, Lapis was suspected to have been over in the Wasteland Kingdoms, doing something.

Farix, Shade of Education; blue incani, lithe, perpetually horny. Blood Mage. He was the ‘ruler’ of the refugees of Brightwater over in the former city of Frontier. As of right now, Farix was conducting amicable trade between Spur and New Brightwater due to agreements sorted out before the multi-pronged assault on the Soul Ooze had happened.

Treant, Shade of Forest; orcol man, hates people, wants forgiveness from Treehome for all his crimes against them, unknown Class. Probably a Plant Mage, though. All the ‘Classes’ of every Shade were unknown and nonexistent, technically, but they were all originally people from Veird, and so they did originally have Classes. Even Quilatalap didn’t know Treant’s original Class, for it was possible that Treant became a Shade before he achieved level 50 and got a Class. Of course, the other idea was that he was a Plant Mage, which made a lot of sense.

Queen, Shade of Empire. Incani woman. Pale violet with iridescent highlights. Prismatic Mage, for sure. She had been doing something in Songli, in the aftermath of the Chelation War, to try and make up for her part in expanding the scope of that war to what it had become.

Hollowsaur, Shade of Life. Orcol, male, the original recipient of Erick’s [Blessing of Empathy]. He had been doing something for the last year, somewhere, but Zolan had no idea what, and Erick didn’t know either. Quilatalap had had guesses, but he felt his guesses would have been wrong, so he chose not to voice them.

Goldie, Shade of Counter-Assassination; goldscale dragonkin woman who had been at Erick’s side for the last several months.

And then there was Fallopolis, Shade of Civilization, Culler of Corruption. The only one to not get Empathy’d. Erick had no idea what she had been up to. Hopefully nothing too evil.

And those were all the Shades currently in existence that Erick knew about. Most every Shade in the world had gone to Last Shadow’s Feast, because their god had demanded it, but there were still some holdouts in the world, for sure. Quilatalap just didn’t know of any such holdouts, and neither did anyone else Erick tried asking.

So all the currently known Shades were here, in residence, too, having gotten to the House over the last day and a half, while Erick had been off at war with the Cities. There had been a few incidents in the House since they started showing and moving into the Shade’s Tower, but aside from them poking around at the Gates and Treant trying to talk to Yggdrasil, the only major incident had been when Lapis and Farix appeared to Jane and her team, while they were eating in the atrium…

Erick wished he could have spent more time with Jane, but he had already pulled her into a [Hasted Shelter] and spent several hours decompressing with her, talking about his War with the Cities and her time in the Underworld. Jane had purposefully held back during that conversation, though, because she was more worried about the Feast than about stuff that had already happened, and she wasn’t willing to ‘talk about stuff that didn’t matter right now’. Erick almost chastised her about that, but then Jane turned around and talked to him about how he wasn’t sharing everything that had happened in the Cities, either, and… They’d talk more later. When they could.

… Erick’s thoughts went to the other Feast-goers; the ones from Ar’Cosmos.

Fairy Moon, and Bright Smile.

Erick was worried about those two, but not nearly as worried as he was over his own people joining the Feast.

Volaro, Zolan, and Aisha. All of them were in serious danger from all the powers that would be on display tonight. Erick wasn’t too worried about Aisha, since she was an archmage-level Book Mage, and Volaro was a Carnage Dragon as well as an orcol, but Zolan was just a demi Knowledge Mage.

Mox had originally been tagged to come to the Feast, since she had the most experience of anyone (aside from maybe Aisha) dealing with all the shit that could go down between Shades and others, but Erick needed her outside and in control of the House, alongside Burhendurur. Mox would be dealing with everything out there should something happen inside the Feast barrier, in that hour after midnight when the real Feast would begin. In a similar manner, Burhendurur was out there, along with Poi and Teressa and Jane and Kiri. All of them were outside the Gate District entirely; all of them were ready for anything.

Hopefully nothing too bad would happen.

And if something bad did happen? Well…

Erick turned to the other person in the room with him, currently sitting on the bed. “I’m glad you’re here with me, Quilatalap.”

Quilatalap looked absolutely dashing in his black robes, with sharp white trim. Angular face, bulging muscles, large lower fangs that jutted up from his lower jaw, peaking out of his lips. His black hair looked almost fluffy, but Erick knew from experience it was more stiff than soft. All of Quilatalap was like that, except when he smiled and seemed to both brighten and soften, which he did right now.

“It shouldn’t be as bad as it was last year,” Quilatalap said, turning a bit more serious as he stood up from the bed, to tower over Erick. Both of them looked at the mirror, as the larger man said, “Usually these things are quite tame in the open and since there are no real hiding spots inside the House, then it should remain tame… But then again everything is changing so what do I know?”

Erick smiled softly. “You know a lot, and I’m glad you’re here for this.”

Quilatalap blushed, his green face turning darker. He smiled a little as he said, “Too bad we’re already dressed for the party.”

Erick almost went with the implied suggestion, twisting Time into more time till the party, but the whole night was a cold shower on his emotions. When Erick didn’t instantly go for it, Quilatalap’s smile remained, but he did nod, knowingly. Erick turned back to the mirror, looking over himself once more. The mirror was completely superfluous; through Ophiel Erick could already see himself rather well, but old habits made the mirror necessary.

Erick sighed a little bit, allowing himself vulnerability one last time as he glanced up to Quilatalap, saying, “We can have some fun times after the Feast. No time to relax during. Or at least not for me. But you should have fun where you can, for maybe in an attempt to act like this Feast isn’t a big deal, we can make this a ‘non-event’.”

“As one does when around powerful, world changing people and events,” Quilatalap said, nodding. “Do you want me hanging around you like last time? Or closer?”

“Like last time is good. I can’t rely on your power; nor should I. It might be better if we pretend not to be together. Maybe we got in a fight, or something? That way people approach us differently, and we can talk about all the differences afterward.”

Quilatalap smiled. “I can see the merit in that. A small fight? Or a large one?”

“How about we pretend that I needed some space after the war, and that it weighed on me.”

Quilatalap shook his head. “Almost, but saying it that way implies weakness. How about if we pretend that it was too much of a relationship, too fast, and the hatred you got for my presence at your side was more than you expected, and that I’m too politically damaging to be around. You’re now rethinking this thing we have together. Now that’s more true.”

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Erick’s stomach fell. He turned and looked up at Quilatalap as the taller man’s words sunk in, and then spread like ice through Erick’s veins. “You’re not too politically dangerous at all.”

“But I am, and you’re too enamored to see that. That whole war wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t there.”

Was he being serious? They were just planning for subterfuge, right? Or… Had Erick suddenly made a very, very bad mistake in suggesting that they not stand together?

“Wait a moment. This is too much. I was—” Erick waved a hand and enveloped the two of them in a Hasted space. “I’m sorry for suggesting that we pretend not to be together. Let’s forget that whole idea and you and I will walk together the whole Feast.”

Quilatalap chuckled a little. “You’re rather terrible at subterfuge.” And then more seriously, “I’m pretending, Erick, and your idea is a prudent one. Are you really this nervous?”

Okay. Good. Quilatalap was pretending.

Ahh…

Bullet dodged.

Erick breathed out, shuddering as he asked, “Yes. I am this nervous.”