“The stone kin and mage councils are also in disarray due to several of their members having been involved not only with Armaros, but in the broader scheme to forbid cross-species matches in order to limit the power of potential offspring. The rot has festered for too long and now that it’s being excised there’s quite a mess to clean up. Things are less stable than we’d like. Instability and desperation lead to violence, so we are braced and vigilant as we put things in order.”
“Too true,” Keplar nodded. “In that vein, forge mistress, we’d like to put forth a bid to commission your blades for at least some of our legions.”
“I’m flattered,” Imogen said, “but a bit confused. Am I wrong to assume that Hell has its own forges?”
“Not at all. They make our standard blades and will continue. But we’d like to contract you for the specialty pieces. Particularly, the Dark blades, though we’d like to have the combination Light and Dark available as well. One never knows what kind of enemy they might be facing, after all, and it seems we may be moving more toward fights that are delineated on stance rather than species.”
She inhaled thoughtfully and glanced at Magnus. “I’m happy to look over any proposals, but as the only one currently tending our forge, my time and energy is limited, as are the resources needed for that kind of weapon.”
“Fully understood. We’ll gratefully accept whatever you can provide, and I’m happy to negotiate for materials in the contracts.”
Imogen nodded. “Alright. I can agree to look over your proposition.”
“Fantastic. Rune, I’ll be sending an official requisition over shortly for approval.”
“Make sure it’s form 17-WR, not 14,” she grumbled. “Fourteen is exclusive to punishment tools.”
“I will.”
The squatty demon just slowly blinked back, clearly not believing she’d be getting the right one. The red demon next to her, Meg, just smiled.
“I’m happy to report that the paperwork has been put through for amendments in the accord agreements between the planes.” He looked up, making solid eye contact with everyone. “I personally am very grateful to be forming such a friendly alliance with you all, and I look forward to working with you. Rune? Any estimates as to when we can expect that to be approved?”
“My apprentice and I are working to clean up old documentation to be sure we have every loophole examined. We don’t have an archivist currently, so we have to go through it by ourselves. It’s a big project to tackle.”
“Aren’t they all,” I sighed, not meaning to speak aloud. Meg nodded enthusiastically and my mother gave me a wink, noticing my discomfort at having drawn attention to myself.
“Where is our archivist?” Keplar asked, lowering the paperwork he’d picked up to examine.
“Retired. Meg is training but can’t yet do it by herself. She came from the scheduling desk and I’m trying to make sure she doesn’t quit on me.”
“I wouldn’t do that, Rune.” Meg looked at the little demon with affection.
“Wait, so what’s happening to all the stuff I’m bringing down?” Seir asked, sneaking a look at Tap and then me. “Merry worked through the familiars contracts, and now she’s working on deals.” He gestured to me.
“They’re going to storage for now.”
Tap’s eye twitched, just a tiny tic, but I noticed. I inhaled through my nose, forcing myself to be brave.
“Maybe between us we can work out a better way so that it’s not so cumbersome on either side?” I suggested. “There seems to be a lot of doubled or pointless paperwork.”
The studious little demon looked at me over the top of her glasses. “Meg?”
“Yes please!” The relief in her face was palpable. “There’sso muchright now. And most of it just needless filing that will never be looked at ever again.” Her words confirmed my suspicions and also made Tap twitch. I had a feeling that a conversation about simply asking a question was in my future.
Rune grunted and looked at my parents. “She’s yours?”
“Indeed,” my father said proudly.
“You’re an archivist?”
“Yes ma’am, and she accompanied me as often as possible. I wanted her as my own apprentice, but that wasn’t meant to be.”
“Who was your mother?” she asked my mom.
“Toreen,” Mom said with a fond smile.
“I thought so. She did a tour with my mentor the same time I was coming up.” She gave a solemn nod and looked back to me. “You’d be welcome to the position, if you’re interested. We can work out the fine points in a contract.”
