‘Alright, then, who here has a reaper for her son?’ Mevox looked across the room at everyone present. Cortes, Garza, Delaguna, Merlo, Redwater, Sebolt, Zabat, and Elroy.
None answered him.
‘Oh, come on. There are eight families here--nine, including Asad’s. You tellin’ me none of us can help her?’
‘We all know reapers who could fill the role,’ said Shenado. ‘The problem is contacting them in time. Do you have a solution to that, Mevox?’
Mevox looked over everyone again and frowned. His head dropped a little. ‘Well, then... is there a servant here willing to give up their life for the boy?’
“Stop,” said Mariana. “I appreciate the sentiment, but you all have families of your own to protect. If anyone is to give their life for my son, it will be me.” She heard the intake of breath from Emiliana. “Instead, after I am gone, I ask that you watch over my children until my husband is free.”
“We are not out of time yet,” said Salvador, though not with his usual vigor. “A reaper might still be found...”
Mariana leveled a stare at the huge man, which was enough to make him shift uncomfortably in his chair. “Yes, well... if such a miracle does not occur, then please consider that to have been my final request.”
The table fell briefly silent.
Joana placed a hand on her shoulder. “Oh, Mary... of course we will take care of them.”
“As if they were our own,” said the Lord Sebolt.
The others all nodded in agreement. Lady Rayen of House Merlo, Lady Socorro of House Garza, Lord Santos of House Zabat, and Salvador and Octavia as well. Their reapers acknowledged the promise, too.
There wasn’t much left to be said after that, but the conversation lasted a while, anyway. They came to a rough consensus that an immediate assault on Rheinhal was not the right course of action and that a non-violent resolution to this conflict was still possible, though unlikely. First, they would send formal word to General Lawrence demanding Zeff’s release, and while they waited for the man’s response, they would muster all available forces and begin calling in favors from allies abroad.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
didn't the queen got to Sair looking for allies? if so the i hope that hector gets called in. That would nicely tie all of this together.
ReplyDeleteIf another option for Marco is going to arrive after this, it will be at the last moment.
ReplyDeleteUnless you feel we're overdue some truly nasty irony, in which case salvation will arrive shortly after it is too late.
Wait....if Shenado released Mariana's soul, does the clock reset? Can she be brought back by another Reaper within 18 hours?
Oh, nice call. It's hard to keep all those references straight in ones head reading this.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure it was said in an earlier chapter that she couldn't be - maybe because her soul had already been harmonized to her current reaper, or something like that - too many info dumps since then for me to recall the exact wording of the reason. But it seems to be pretty much a one-shot deal for the servants.
ReplyDeleteI figured it would have to be one way or another. Too easy otherwise.
ReplyDeleteYeah, an individual Reaper would be able to keep an indeterminate number of people available for resurrection just by constantly going through a 'reanimate->release->reanimate' cycle, or keep an individual perpetually available by reanimating them, releasing them, and then reanimating them again specifically to reset their timer.
ReplyDeleteWhich would potentially be interesting, if it were possible - I think if that were allowed by the way things worked, we'd see major players in each faction having unattached Reaper 'medics' on hand to do just that until an appropriate match could travel to their homes, in case of an accidental death. But I rather like the more limited application of the bond, and the underlying power dynamic it sets up between the Reapers and their servants.
Uh. Reading those old pages... I had completely forgotten Geoffrey ripped out one of Lynn's eyes.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah. It's an easy thing to forget.
ReplyDelete(O_O)
ReplyDeleteI didn't remember that
Oh come on! Just...just get it over with! It'll be like ripping off a bandaid!
ReplyDelete...an extremely painful, heartbreaking bandaid...
...excuse me, please *tears*
Man I wish I could have read Lynn stomping Geoffrey after that...
ReplyDeleteThey sound like Mafia family. Much like Don Corleone. “Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family.- Don Corleone”
ReplyDeleteMisspelled Socorro's name as Soccoro.
ReplyDeleteGot it, thank you.
ReplyDelete