“Right,” Sebastian replied. “He was a powerful mage and a Guild favorite. It didn’t matter that we killed him in self-defense, or that he was trespassing. We were held accountable. Well,Iwas. I took the blame because I knew they wouldn’t kill me. I have too much power to waste. They would’ve easily killed Nessa. I was tortured for that death, and then I was tortured because I wouldn’t pay to be released. Hell, maybe I was also tortured for shits and giggles. Honestly, it’s hard to tell with the Guild.”
“True,” Nessa agreed. “Continue, Tilda.”
If she cared or felt remorse on behalf of the Guild for any of that, she didn’t show it.
“I learned. I advanced and got higher and higher positions, more money, and respect. I advanced faster than any potions engineer ever had. It was a badge of honor for me. I got invited to all the important dinners and parties.”
“And what, pray tell, went wrong?” Nessa quirked her eyebrow. “What brought Humpty Dumpty tumbling off the wall?”
Tilda picked at her nail. “It wasn’t any one thing, at first. It was a lot of little things. I checked into some of the people they took to those rooms?—“
“To torture,” Nessa quipped. “Which some might think is more than alittlething, but sure.”
Tilda cleared her throat. “Some of those people had killed top mages when they shouldn’t have, but others hadn’t done anything wrong. They hadn’t paid for the Guild’s protection, even though the Guild never really provided protection. Or they offended someone. Or they had information the Guild wanted, even if it was somewhat arbitrary. Things like that. I heard of some political maneuvering that wasn’t…entirely above board.”
“It’s got to be bad for you to be squeamish about it.” Sebastian put his hand on his hip. “I’m very intrigued. But we’ll get to the Guild’s secrets later. We don’t want to take up Jessie’s precious time.”
I swallowed and burrowed a little harder into Austin. Drex glanced at me and then away. If he was uncomfortable, he wasn’t showing it. Not to me, anyway.
“About this time, a new power started infiltrating the Guild. It was subtle. Whispers here, information exchanged there, late hours by some of the higher-level staff, fancy new cars and watches people couldn’t afford on their Guild salary. No one was talking. After a while, I was approached by someone claiming to be a representative of a powerful new mage on the scene—Momar.”
Goosebumps covered my arms.
“We had conversations about duties and money. About loyalty and keeping secrets. I never met the man himself nor anyone else who worked for him. Just that one contact. He didn’t tell me who else was employed, or if they were all working double-time for the Guild and Momar both. I tried to bring it up to a few people who’d seen a larger cash flow and then learned why you stayed in your lane where it concerns Momar.”
“Lemme guess…” Sebastian bent a little to catch her eye. “The ‘punishments’ you didn’t want to earn with the Guild. You got your ass handed to you.”
“They nearly killed me,” she spat. “They broke me up so badly, I was out of work for a month. The Guild didn’t ask any questions. I didn’t have to give any excuses. I didn’t even call in—they’d already known I was out of commission. I was a privileged employee, and they did nothing.” She swallowed. “That scared me. I started paying more attention to things then. I mean, if the Guild would let that happen, what else would they allow? I saw all the shadow deals and the filthy things that started going on. The double-crossings, the quiet killing…” She took a deep breath. “The potions they started asking for were worse than anything I’d devised so far. Vile things. The Guild seemed like it was getting more ruthless, less civilized. I knew I had to getout. I couldn’t work for them anymore. I was afraid to work for Momar. I didn’t know who was on whose side, or if it was all one side, or what, I just knew I needed to leave?—“
“Just so everyone in the cheap seats are caught up…” Sebastian put up a finger. “Let me break that down for you. She got treated like so many innocent people and people in low positions, and that scared her. She’d thought she wasspecial. She’d thought she was above all that, and then she realized she wasn’t.”
“Quite a sobering realization,” Nessa said.
“Indeed,” Sebastian replied. “So, then shestartedto notice the normal operating procedure of the company she’d been working for and helping all this time. She took off the blinders and lo and behold, she was surrounded by monsters.”
“Shewasa monster,” Nessa said.
“I don’t think that’s the realization she actually came to.” Sebastian twisted his mouth to the side. “Which is a pity. It would’ve helped me like her a little.”
“Not me.” Nessa shrugged.
“She didn’t leave because she sobered up to the horrors of the Guild.” An edge crept into Sebastian’s voice. “She left because she realized she was not immune from the horror, and she didn’t want to be subjected to it.”
“They didn’t used to be so filthy,” Tilda ground out. “It’s Momar. He’s infiltrated the Guild, and he’s rotting it from the inside-out. He’s gutting it of its valuable mages and tearing down the rest. No one is safe.”
Nessa took a deep breath. “Once an egocentric mage, always an egocentric mage. Stay while the getting is good and get out when it turns.”
Sebastian’s eyes were hard and haunted as he stood in front of Tilda. “I have followed the actions of the Guild for a long time and trust me. It hasalwaysbeen rotten. Now it just hassomeone smarter and more cunning at the helm. But you are correct in one thing—no one is safe, least of all you.”
He meandered out of the way and Nessa took his place, like a well-oiled machine.
“But why, pray tell, did you bring your flunkies with you?” She snapped, making Tilda jump. “Wait, I have a guess. You needed them to get you out, right?”
Tilda narrowed her eyes at Nessa. Her fingers twitched. She was itching to blast Nessa with a spell.
“The answer is yes,” Broken Sue said, his arms crossed over his chest.
“I’m sure the whole room could read that,” Aurora murmured.
