Editing Bleeding Out (Warhammer High) (section)

===A Meeting===

The other occupants of the room – who were largely ignoring the heart-to-heart in the corner – were distracted by the door behind the bar suddenly opening.  A man in a neatly-pressed white suit walked out, taking in the room in a moment.  His wrinkled face split with a smile the moment he saw the Daughters.  “Girls!  Been too long!”

“Al!” Angela proclaimed happily.  The others wandered over to the glassy bar, exchanging greetings with the bartender, who knew them all by name.  The other guests exchanged confused looks.  “It has been too long.”

“Hasn’t it?  Let me see,” he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.  “I’m going to guess most of you are too young to be drinking still…”

“Ah, but today we have something to celebrate!” Isis declared cheerfully.  “Morticia woke up today.  She’s gonna be all right.”

“Ah!  Then we do indeed have a reason to celebrate.”  The barkeep reached under the counter and pulled out a double armful of long-neck bottles, each filled with something bright orange.  “On the house,” he declared, handing them out.

“It’s an open bar,” Roberta said, continuing their ancient joke.

“Really?” the barkeep asked pensively.  “Don’t tell the Ambassador that, he didn’t know.”  The girls dutifully laughed.

Venus plopped down in a chair by the window and looked out over the expanse of gold and white.  The pseudoweather was turning grim, she noticed.  The sky was darkening rapidly.  Andrew grabbed a soda from the counter and wandered over, sitting down across from her.  “Hey, Venus.”

The Forgefather’s daughter turned her eyes to him.  “Hi, Andrew.”

“How did Morticia seem to you?” he asked, popping the cap on his soda.

“Happier than I expected.  I don’t think she really knew what was happening,” Venus said, twisting her own cap off.

“Yeah.  I wish I had gotten to see her,” Andrew said, glancing out the window.  “Hell of a view.”

“I love it here.” Venus took a long drink of her soda, rolling the cap between her fingers.  “How have you been, anyway?  It’s been two years since we had a class together.”

“Pretty well, actually,” Andrew said.  “Thinking about joining the Army after I get out of school.”

“Really?” Venus asked.  “Wow.  That’s interesting.  Officer candidacy or enlisting?”

“Thinking I might go for enlisting, then work my way into the Warrant program.  Field Artillery,” Andrew said.  Hana dropped down next to him on the couch.

“Who knows, we might even get stationed together,” Hana said with a laugh.

“You’re joining the military?” Venus asked in surprise.

“It was a joke,” Hana laughed.

“Oh.”  Venus breathed a sigh of completely un-feigned relief.  “Okay.”  Jake flipped his bottlecap into the trash and stood next to the window, looking out over the vista.  He lifted his hands to shield his hiver eyes from the blinding glare of the sun off the white rock walls.  Andrew tapped him on the shoulder.  When Jake glanced back, Andrew proffered up his sunglasses, with Jake took with gratitude.

“Thanks, man.  How do you people live up here?  It’s so goddamned bright.”

“You just sort of get used to it,” Andrew shrugged.

“I can’t see that happening without ample practice,” Jake said, looking out over the streams of distant traffic.

The bartender swept the discarded caps off of the counter into a bin, then looked around the room.  A pair of Treasury guards and a Custodian were visibly patrolling outside the room, but nobody else was coming or going.  Al caught Isis’ eye and beckoned her over.  “So, what else can I do for you?  And how late can you stay?”

“Not long, sadly,” Isis replied ruefully.  “But I wanted to give the good news to Grand…the Emperor in person.”

“Well, I’m sure he would have been happy to see you, Isis,” Al said.  “Where are the rest of your cousins?”

“Oh, they had other places to be, I guess,” she replied with a shrug.

The Emperor clicked the holoscreens of his office off with a sigh of disappointment.  So, the Rogue Traders Coalition weren’t willing to play ball.  How unfortunate for their Senator.

After a moment’s deliberation, he clicked the holos back on.  From memory, he dialed a secure line to Mortarion’s home, wondering if he would be there or the hospital.  The line was picked up on the first ring.  “Lord Mortarion’s residence,” the voice on the other side began.

“Is the Lord in?” the Emperor asked.  The man on the other end must have recognized his voice.

“Indeed not, my Liege.  He remains at his daughter’s side for now,” the butler said humbly.

“Thank you,” the Emperor said, hanging up and sighing again.  He pushed himself up from his desk, walking over to the wall of monitors, switching them over to the security camera feeds.  He cycled through them until he reached the wing where he had sensed Isis and her sisters – he could never think of them as cousins – arrive, passengers in tow.

As he watched, they dispersed throughout one of his dignitaries’ lounges, chatting amongst themselves.  It seemed Isis had a bit of a breather on her mind.

Angela looked up from her drink and stared at the door of the lounge for a moment, a smile playing around her lips.  Michael leaned over and raised an eyebrow.  “What’s funny?”

“Nothing,” Angela said happily.  She turned back to face the room, taking a quick headcount.  Twelve of the Royal daughters remained, and about half again that many guests.  Just enough for an audience.  Isis caught her eye and smiled, clearly divining the reason for her cousin’s sudden good mood.  She stood and stretched luxuriously, wandering over to the window where Jake and Andrew were still discussing the merits of in- and out-hive living.

“Hey,” she said, clapping both men on the shoulder and leaning between them.  “So what do you two think of home-away-from-home?”

“It’s awesome,” Andrew replied.  “Now all it needs is a water park and I’m set.”

“In a word?” Jake said carefully.  “Profligate.  I can’t imagine His Excellency actually needing this much room in his Palace.”

“This Palace houses over six billion members of the Administratum, you know,” Isis pointed out.  “And a museum, two full garrisons of Custodes, and a guest wing or nine.”

“And I think the Emperor gets to put as many rooms in the place as he wants,” Angela put in from the door, watching a faint glow in the hallway grow brighter.

“Naturally.”  Jake took a long drag on his orange soda, staring out over the endless expanse of gold and white.  “Still.”  He shook his head.  “Sorry, I must sound like a broken vox right now.  I like it here.”

The Emperor paused at the door.  The bartender spotted him and genuflected deeply, balancing a few empty bottles in his hands.  Angela had known he was coming, and she was beaming a grin at him from the bar.  Several of the other Daughters had also seen him and immediately moved in to say hello.  The rest of the room’s occupants seemed to become aware one-by-one, with reactions of varying degrees of humor.

“My liege, welcome!” Al said, rising from his bow.  “How my I serve you?”  At that, the rest of the people in the room turned around, and the air pressure dropped a few PSI as they inhaled as one.

“Not at all, thank you,” the Emperor said politely, moving over to where Angela was still sitting, acknowledging his other guests and relatives on the way, with the same patient smile he had used for the last four thousand years.  “Angela.  How are you feeling?”

“A lot better, this far from the hives,” she admitted, rubbing her forehead.  “Yourself?”

“I am well.  Your uncle Mortarion isn’t picking up the vox, however,” he said, leaning on the bar.

“Can you blame him?” Angela asked.

“No.”  The Emperor glanced over the cluster of ‘Royal’ boyfriends and hangers-on that had congregated near the window.  “And who might my other guests be?”

“Ah.  In order, Alex, Andrew, Jake, Michael, Aaron, James, Pietro, and Adam,” she said, pointing each one out in order.  “Over there, Julius and Kevin.”  She then identified the four or five students from their school who had accompanied them.

“Gentlemen,” the Emperor said, inclining his head a few degrees.  “Welcome.”

“Sire,” Julius, who had met the Emperor several times, replied on their behalf, to a chorus of assent and nodding heads.

Isis walked back over to where her grandfather was standing.  “I guess you must have heard from the hospital by now, but I wanted to let you know in person.  Morticia will be all right, the lung took.”

“Excellent,” the Emperor said, allowing himself a smile.  “I hope she’s in high spirits, inasmuch as she can be?”

“Yeah, from what we saw,” Isis said.  Jake and few of the other guests were shifting a bit, wondering if it would be poor decorum to sit down.  Julius noticed and sat back down on the nearest couch, and the others took their cues.  “It’s Kelly I’m worried about.  She’s taking this hard.”

“Indeed, she is.”  The Emperor nodded gravely.  “Still, I’m sure she has what it takes to overcome this.”

“Speaking of,” Isis started, but the Emperor shook his head once.  Clearly, discussing any leads on the investigation was verboten, “do you think you’ll be able to visit her in the hospital?” she improvised.

“I imagine I will, but I’ve taken Mortarion and Konrad’s duties of commanding my fleets upon myself until they can return to duty.”

“The midnight oil, she burns fast,” Angela said.

“Indeed.”  The Emperor glanced at the clock over the bar, noting the time with a grimace.  “Well, I must return to it, in fact.  Isis, as ever, you and your sisters are most welcome to stay here if the security detail on your homes becomes too overbearing.  I’m rather more used to it,” he added with a wry grin.

“I imagine so, but I suspect the Custodes are less intrusive than the Treasury,” Isis giggled.  Jake muttered something inaudibly.

The Emperor noticed, of course.  “Something to add, Sieur Seager?” he asked.

Jake’s blood froze.  “Nothing Lord Vulkan didn’t already see to, Sire,” he said quickly.

“Ah, the incident with the overzealous bodyguard?” the Emperor asked rhetorically.  “Yes.  I was informed, and Lord Vulkan was absolutely right.  The Treasury had no grounds to harass you like that, I apologize.”

Jake boggled.  “Not a…problem, Sire.”

“Well, then.”  The Emperor stood straight once more, addressing the crowd.  “I must return to work.  Safe journeys.”

“You as well, my Liege," Remilia said formally, for the group.  Pausing to shake a few hands, the Emperor made for the door, glad to see his granddaughters taking their trials well.

Turning from the corridor, a few Companions falling behind him, he thought over the meeting.  Surely, Isis would be able to keep the others from asking about the investigation until he had something to tell them.

His jaw tightened.  Worship.  Keiter worshipped him.  He resolved once more to root out the source of the corruption that had nearly taken a granddaughter from him.

Isis looked over the assemblage of people in the room and smiled at the contrast.  The Royal Family members and Al were acting like nothing at all had happened, and everyone else was looking awestruck.  Even those who had met him before were looking a bit sandbagged.

“Out of curiosity, anyone actually going to take him up in it?” Angela asked.  A chorus of ‘no’ met her question.  “Me neither.”

“In fact,” Venus said, dropping her bottle on the bar, “I should head out.”

“Me too,” Freya added dolefully, lining her bottle up with Venus’.  “Who here is planning on being back in school on Monday if the Treasury lightens up?”

“Aye,” Remilia said with feeling.  “Enough of this lockdown.”

“Me for sure,” Isis added.  "I need to hand in my Senior Project anyway.”

“Oh blast, I forgot that was due Tuesday.  Aaargh, how could I forget?” Angela asked.  “Uh, uh, damn.  I haven’t even written the speech.”

“What’s your topic?” Andrew asked.

“Differentiation of Civil and Military Law in the Aftermath of the Demobilization of the Imperial Army,” Angela said.

Andrew looked at her with newfound respect.  “In a school full of veterans?  Gutsy.”

“Not if I botch the speech Thursday,” she said worriedly.

“Ah, you’ll do fine,” he said.

“Just talk about how your father broke Ka’Bandha over his knee that one time,” Michael said.  “And reap the A-plusses.”

“Oh, please,” Angela grumped.

Al finished putting away the empties under the bar and cast his eye around the room for strays.  Finding none, he bowed formally as the little troupe marched past.  “’Til we meet again, ladies and gentlemen,” he said by means of farewell.

“Bye Al!” Isis said, waving over her shoulder as they moved back down the hall.

Julius leaned towards her, glancing meaningfully towards the next corridor into the tower.  Isis caught his meaning, looking over to the Custodian protecting the procession.  “Brother, is my father in the Palace right now?”