Author's Nightmare: Chapter 171

Shango POV: Day 155

Current Wealth: 170 gold 21 silver 6 copper

I was in an office, and I had to say…It was a nice one. Actually smaller than mine, thanks to the historic wealth of the Velaharo family, but far better furnished and maintained. The rug was thick and warm, entire room heated by  perpetually crackling fires. Despite the large windows, which must have been vacuuming in heat from the frosty air outside, it was actually pretty toasty. That was much appreciated when you happened to be from Nigeria, instead of one of those deranged, frozen fantasy lands like England. 

Of course it wasn’t my office, and it wasn’t Phelia’s. Its actual owner returned after I’d already been waiting there for a good half hour, and the look on his face was priceless. It was shock first, then anger, then recognition. The fear came next. Blunted, I thought, by word of Solitaire’s death, but still there. All too many people remembered Beam’s performance in the tournament even now.

“Good afternoon, Governor.” I smiled, leaning back in his chair but deciding not to go so far as to put my feet up on the desk. Too much contempt and he’d feel the need to assert some measure of authority, and I’d lose the effects from whatever sleight of cerebrum had him sweating so much in my presence if he actually exerted his influence.

“What are you doing in my office?” The fear was giving way to anger again now, which was more or less expected. Putting aside that I’d invaded his personal space…We were in his personal space. His domain. He could probably have a team of big, impolite men barging in here within sixty seconds to start brutalising me. So I talked fast.

“Sorry for the intrusion.” I smiled. “I’m just here to talk. Stealth and subterfuge are quite important for me these days.”

“Here to talk you say.” The noble spat, “And why should I believe you? Your family’s gained quite the history in so short a time, Shango Belahont.”

Well, zero points for successfully recognising one of two black people in the entire city. 

Still, he was growing hostile. Worse, he was perceiving a threat. I had to kill both those unfortunate developments with a single stroke.

“If you know of my family’s recent history, then you’ll know that when we want someone dead we kill them. Instantly. I’m here, waiting for you, because I want to talk, because I think we have a mutual benefit we could enjoy from each other. If we had anything ill planned for you, you’d be meeting my brother here instead. You’ve seen him fight haven’t you? Yes, you have, I can tell. You look nervous.”

The threats did their work, and the Governor plopped himself down in the chair opposite me. 

“Thank you.” I smiled, deciding to lay a bit of sugar onto the wound. “Now, I’m here because I’d like to form an alliance with you, or at least to work together towards our mutual benefit…Is something funny?”

He was laughing already, the mean and shrill laughter of a man witnessing an execution he found particularly funny. 

“I have no intention of crossing Viras, boy.” The Governor spat, looking at me as if I’d drooled on myself. “And you shouldn’t either. Do yourself a favour and just join him, accept his offer. Save your wife and remaining brother.”

I wasn’t sure if he’d intended to piss me off with that, but it didn’t work either way.

“You’re the only one who can.” I pointed out. He was sympathetic of course, or rather he was trying quite hard to seem sympathetic. It was almost offensive. Phelia could lie, Solitaire could lie. What this idiot was doing was…I didn’t even know what. A series of muscular spasms in his face, perhaps. He was about as convincing as the metaphorical red hand itself.

“I am sorry, truly, you have my sympathies. But I can’t help you, it is simply too dangerous to cross Viras. I must look to maintaining what I already have.”

That, at least, gave me an idea for my new angle of attack.

“I understand.” I smiled, now. My smiles tended to creep people out when I was in the mindset I was now. I’d never known why, but had a few theories. Uncanny valley, the instinctual recognition of a danger. Human interaction was all emotion and intuition- Solitaire existed on one extreme of that spectrum, and my pathology was planted firmly on the other.

I think when people saw me smile, they also saw that there was nothing of a smile going on behind my eyes. I think they realised that whatever they were, I wasn’t one. The Governor seemed to realise it now, and he grew ever so slightly more nervous. Good. 

“If I join Viras, I’ll give him everything. All our technology, everything we know. Slowly, at first, but I’ll give it all the same. I’ll need to make myself indispensable to him, to ensure I don’t get killed. I need to make sure the risk of me taking revenge is outweighed by the benefits of me being alive. Understand? I’ll need to make Viras unstoppable, not just in Elswick but in the entire region. Maybe the Kingdom.”

The Governor couldn’t have gone paler even if I’d slashed his throat, and he suddenly seemed terribly weak. It was satisfying to see a threat land so perfectly and with so much weight. 

“I see…” He took his time making a decision, formulating his response only after several long and deliberative moments of thought. That was fair enough, this was hardly the sort of deal to be made lightly and unlike me he hadn’t expected this meeting. I’d gotten the advantage by dropping in with a plan, my actual reason for sneaking to his office.

“Then…Then I have no choice.” The Governor croaked, sounding defeated. Well, he was. 

“It seems neither of us do.” I nodded, studying him, making sure he wasn’t having any sudden spasms of regret that might complicate things. It didn’t seem he was. 

“My help comes at a steep price however.” The Governor added. “I’ll need insight into your technologies, the steel-making for one.”

No surprise there, his family’s dislike of Wilskasai’s was old and well known. I just shook my head.

“You’re not in a position of power here.” I told him, making sure to explain it simply and slowly. “You’re not in a position to make any demands at all. You will offer me your help because both of us will be fucked if you don’t, I will do the same with you for the same reason. Don’t overreach here.”

He swallowed. 

“What is our relationship then?” He asked. “Just allies of convenience?”

“Just allies of convenience.” I confirmed. 

I hated this man. He was in charge of Elswick, he employed the guards, he directed them. He set the laws, and he was the owner of the streets in which people were freezing and starving. Everything we’d seen here, all the casual, every day suffering you couldn’t go ten feet without glimpsing, could be tied back to him, and the status quo that he was content to leave as it was. 

But I needed him for now. He might not pay for what he’d done- might never pay for it at all. That was acceptable, it was a condition I was willing to allow. Because we had bigger problems at the moment, and though he may have been a sack of shit, he was a giant, fat solution-shaped sack of shit.