De'Vas Chronicles Book 5: Chapter 5

“Councilman Grayson! It’s good to see you,” Perry greeted as Ash and Eva stepped into the conference room following Agent Miller.

The tattooed goblin was wearing a pin-striped navy suit with a name tag that said ‘Head of IT’ and was filling a cup with coffee from the table on the side of the conference room. In the center of the room was a large table that Ash’s mother sat at, along with Augustus and Helena, the dwarf merchant and dark elf warrior who had accompanied Ash from Vas. Both of them now worked for his mother in marketing and security, respectively.

“Perry, you’re looking well,” Ash said as he moved to take a seat at the conference table.

There were plenty of seats available at the large table, but Eva chose to stand behind him just like she had during his meeting with Councilman Loki. Similarly, Agent Miller didn’t take a seat either. Instead, he stood by the wall behind his mother, his gaze fixed on the door.

“Good afternoon, Augustus, Helena,” he greeted before nodding to Mrs. Grayson. “Mom.”

His mother smiled at him and steepled her fingers.

“I’m glad you could make it today, Councilman Grayson,” she started.

Ash groaned and leaned back in his chair.

“Mom, we’ve been over this. I can’t give Grayson Industries special trade agreements.”

He saw her drop the business profession pose for a pout and knew she was about to play the ‘I’m your mother’ card.

“Well, you certainly can’t with that attitude. Really, Ash, I expected you would want to help your mother and improve the districts your girls live in,” she said.

The two of them stared at each other across the table for several long seconds. Augustus shifted uncomfortably, and Perry got up for another round of coffee.

“Any matter related to trade with companies outside De’Vas needs to be brought before the Council and voted on. Which they did on your trade proposal changes three months ago,” he reminded his mother. “And they voted against them.”

“If you would just tell me the names of those who are against the changes, perhaps I could speak to them about the benefits they would offer De’Vas. I’m sure they would change their mind,” she said, her pose shifting back to that of a cutthroat business professional haggling for a deal.

Already feeling a headache coming on, Ash rubbed his forehead.

“Give it a few months and try to push the trade deals again,” he suggested with a heavy sigh. “Grayson Industries has expanded rapidly in two districts over the last year, and there are mixed feelings on the Council about it. Yes, the company is helping those districts greatly, but many see it as an outside force expanding its influence, and they’re nervous about the amount of power the company has gained in De’Vas so quickly.”

His mother smiled.

“Very well, I can wait a few months,” she said.

Eva placed a cup of coffee in front of him, which Ash picked up and took a sip of. He guessed Eva could tell this conversation was already exhausting him.

“Is this the only reason you wanted me to come to this meeting?” he asked.

“Of course not,” his mother laughed. “I wanted to see my son as well. Also, Perry has an update for you.”

Ash’s eyes widened as he turned to look at the grinning goblin. Perry had spent the past few months working on deciphering the hard drive from the machine by the dead zone in Vas. While breaking the encryption only took a few days, the raw data it held was as much an enigma as the dead zone itself.

“Wish I could say I’m a genius, but we had a lucky break. The operating system WillCo uses, a recent update, has a glaring security issue, one I found out about before they could get it patched,” Perry said as he dusted his knuckles on his pin-striped suit. “I did my goblin ancestors proud and led a cyber raiding party to gather as much data as we could. A lot was useless, but quite a few files were heavily encrypted.”

The goblin’s smile grew, and Ash knew Perry had found something good if he was pausing for dramatic effect.

“We know where the magic is going now,” he said.

Ash raised an eyebrow.

“We know that, Earth. It’s why the rifts happen here and why I can use magic,” he said.

Perry’s grin shifted to a scowl, and he shook his head.

“No. I mean, we now know where the dead zone is emptying on Earth,” he snapped his fingers. “Rifts are quick bursts, bringing magic, monsters, and people to this world. What our little raid found is more like a tunnel that connects the dead zone on Vas to Earth, where the magic is exiting in a continuous stream.”

A silence fell over the room as the magnitude of what Perry had just revealed settled in. Ash leaned forward, now very interested in the conversation.

“I wonder if we can stop it somehow on this end?” he thought aloud.

Perry shrugged.

“No clue, but it ain’t like we’re going to be able to get to it. Wish we could, TV makes Vegas look like a fun place, and it’s only a little over a hundred miles from there.”

Vivian swore, and everyone turned to look at her, a deep scowl on her face.

“It’s located in Death Valley, isn’t it?” she asked, anger in her voice.

When Perry turned and nodded, his mother swore again.

“WillCo has used that area as a testing site since before you were born,” Vivian said. “The fact that it’s where the dead zone exists is…”

Ash exhaled, feeling his gut drop. “Damning evidence or one hell of a coincidence.”

“I’m not going to pretend I know the science of what WillCo did to make the silver and brass ball, but could this be a side effect of that? I mean, they had to test them, and it would make sense that if there were a weak spot in the veil to Vas, it would connect there,” Agent Miller suggested.

He had a point. They still didn’t know much about WillCo or the dead zone. With that in mind, Ash looked at Perry, the goblin’s grin now gone to a more somber expression.

“Have you found anything else on the dead zone or WillCo’s experiments on paranormals?” he asked.

Perry shook his head.

“We got a lot of data and are still digging through it all. The only reason we found this so soon is because the file naming was similar to what was on the hard drive from the dead zone machine,” he answered. “Once we find anything else of note, I’ll email it to you.”

Before Ash could respond, he felt his cellphone vibrate once. He was reaching for it when he heard Eva answer it and turned to look at her.

“Hello, Selena, it’s Eva. Sorry, Ash is in a meeting with his mother,” she said as she opened the door and stepped out. “I can take a message for him if you want.”

When the door closed, Ash noticed his mother smiling, then pointed at the door.

“You were fortunate to find her. Eva does a wonderful job of keeping you on track,” his mother said.

“She has been a blessing with all the shit the Council throws at me and trying to manage five girlfriends,” he replied. “Most mornings I wouldn’t even know where to begin without Eva’s help.”

The Council had a nasty habit of just dropping things on him randomly, and it wasn’t uncommon for the Council meetings to run several hours past what was expected. Add that to his efforts to spend equal time with his girls and manage his two districts, and it made it a scheduling nightmare.

Eva had seen the task as an extension of her duties as his herald and quickly took it up. Things were rocky for about a month as she adapted to the role and devoured material related to organization and time management. Still, when she figured it out, his life became a lot easier.

His mother pointed her finger at him with a stern expression.

“Don’t take her for granted, and be sure to treat her right.”

Ash lifted his hands into the air.

“I will,” he promised. “Eva’s my friend and I appreciate all she does for me.”

The stern expression lingered for a few seconds before his mother felt she had threatened him enough and relaxed.

“I believe we can all agree that what was discussed today stays between us until Perry can uncover more information. Tensions are high, and we want to make sure we have all the facts before setting off a potential powder keg,” Vivian said, looking around the room. “Now, let’s shift to lighter subjects. I don’t know if you’ve seen, but the school is holding a recital. I’m sure the kids and Principal Rory would be thrilled if a Councilmember attended the event.”

Ash put on a smile as he tried to push the thoughts about WillCo from his mind. It was forced, but his mother was right about shifting the subject to something lighter. There wasn’t much they could do until they knew more.

“I already have it marked on my schedule. I plan to make it a date night with the girls, though Lilly and Naomi have plans for that night,” he said, then chuckled. “Lil might change her mind once she learns we’re going to Mei’s after.”

His mother smiled.

“Lilly is quite the gourmet. I’m sure if she does change her mind, Naomi will follow suit. The two of them seem to love to get into mischief together.”

That was because Naomi was too friendly to tell Lilly her plans were bad ones, and went along with the crazy dryad. Sometimes, even dragging Rachel and Luna into it with them. Despite the shenanigans they got into, he was happy that his girls got along so well.

Eva stepped back inside, and the discussions around the table went into light conversation as the tension from the earlier topic bled away. After catching up with his mother and giving Agent Miller an update on Cleo to tell Aerial, Ash left the conference room with Eva.

“Selena wanted to know if you were okay with making tonight’s dinner a double date,” Eva informed him. “It would be with Bo, Ella, and Jacklyn at the Warrior in District 208.”

Ash pulled out his phone and dialed Selena’s number.

“Hey, sorry about that. A double date sounds fun,” Ash said as they made their way toward the elevator of the Flatiron.

He would swing by Faylen’s office to visit with her for a bit, then use the Flatiron portal to return to the Red House and get ready for his date. The prospect of spending time with one of the women he loved and his best friend lifted his spirits.