Greed God chapter 74

January 24rd 2016 Galaxy Communications 2:00 PM EDT

We  packed Tiffany up and sent her back to Edge's office within an hour or  so. We had her claim to be on lunch break a bit of the way in and then I  fucked Barbie for a while in front of her, on her, around her, just  generally tormenting her with desire until she was panting for it before  I fingered her to orgasm. I didn't fuck her, not yet, I was going to  make her earn that, but I made sure to give her the best orgasm she'd  ever had with my fingers and abilities before I sent my little spy back  to keep an eye out.

Once she was one I turned to Barbie.  "See, that was fun. We should do it again sometime." I shot her a wink  but she just rolled her eyes, and I wasn't going to push. I'd laid the  groundwork, now I just needed to get her and Dinah talking. I decided to  focus on work. Not that I had much of it to do. "So, my new  responsibilities as department head, do we have anything on the schedule  for if I got the position?"

She pulled out her phone and  brought up her email. "We have..." She blinked, clearly not having been  expecting to have anything to report and being absolutely poleaxed to  find something. "We have a meeting. How the hell? I didn't put that  there. It's in..." She checked her watch. "Twenty minutes, so just  enough time to clean the office a bit so it doesn't smell like a  whorehouse. If you care enough. Knowing you, I could see you wanting to  show off a bit." She gave me a little smirk at that, and I was pretty  sure she wouldn't have minded.

Still. not that I wasn't  interested I decided to make a good impression my first day. "Nah, go  get some fabreeze or something and open the door to air this place out.  Who are we meeting with anyway? And do we know anything about them  except their apparent ability to get into our system and set up a  meeting without my master hacker redhead noticing?" Which, come to think  of it, was kind of a red flag all on its own. Barbie should have enough  security on her email and calendar that hacking in and setting a  meeting should be next to impossible.

Barbie looked over  the calender on her email critically. "Just says Ivan Drench. Which,  honestly, is one of the more villainous names I've ever seen. I get a  bad vibe just hearing it, nevermind the circumstances already being  shady. Still, seems like he's coming and decided to warn us. Which could  be a peace offering, or some kind of subtle threat. We'll have to wait  until he actually arrives to find out which. He didn't even give us time  to call for backup." Which wasn't really true. I texted Whisper to get  down here, knowing her wing speed would make twenty minutes from the  store a piece of cake.

As Barbie cleaned up I prepared for  whatever meeting we might have to take, setting up some  countermeasures, mostly placing a few weapons in easy reach. It was  preferable to use those instead of shifting into a wyrmkin badass and  crushing anyone in my path. I wondered if this was my chaotic nature  rearing it's head. Bringing the storm so to speak. looking out the  window I realized it was raining. Combined with Tiffany showing up it  seemed like my lifestorm wyrmkin side effects were in full swing today. I  just didn't know if that was bad news or good.

Once we  got the office set up I called Whisper. She confirmed she was here, but  given her pregnancy I decided to keep her in reserve out of the room. If  we needed her flames to deal with this guy she could hit him from  behind when he was distracted with us, but I wasn't risking the baby  making her a target. With that out of the way we sat back and waited.  Sure enough within the twenty minutes allotted there was a knock, and  when Barbie opened the door there was a man standing on the other side.

The  man was...foppish. He looked like a dandy, pale, fair features, dark  hair that hung limp but was cut neatly, and a well tailored suit over a  very thin body. He had a pencil mustache, and for the life of me all I  could think when I saw him was this this was definitely how an Ivan  should look. He fit his name to a T. He smiled calmly when he saw us.  "Hello friends, thank you for seeing me on such short notice. May I come  in?"

I nodded grimly, but I was on guard. He walked into  the room and sat down in the chair across from my desk casually. Barbie  was behind the desk with me and he seemed completely unconcerned with  either of us. I could almost smell the trouble on this guy, and unwilling to make the  same mistakes I'd made with Kara, I appraised him immediately.

{Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Ivan Drench- F ranked Hollow  Man. An old and canny sorcerer granted power by a primordial being whose  name even he does not know, Ivan Drench has sold his soul in the  service of an ancient evil that dwells at the heart of Gotham. Beware.]

That...  was not a positive turn of events. Especially that last part. The  system didn't, as a rule, tell me to beware ANYTHING, except potentially  that E ranked painting. Whoever Drench worked for must be terrifying,  though the appraisal didn't seem to be able to identify it. I suspected a  direct attempt would have yielded results, but clearly this being kept  itself as far removed from it's lackeys as possible for reasons much  like this.

I stood, giving him a pleasant smile. "Of  course, Mr. Drench, so nice to meet you. We've been looking forward to  your visit. How can I help you today?" A fight seemed fucking stupid  unless necessary given the unknowns, but maybe he just wanted to talk  shop or ask for an artifact or something. Not that I wasn't ready to  throw down if it came to that. But antagonizing and "ancient evil"  seemed like a bad idea unless I had to.

Drench  gave me a polite smile. "I'm here on a mission of good will as a matter  of fact. I'm part of a...group. A select few people chosen to carry out  the business of a man with a powerful connection to Gotham. My employer  has been watching you and finds you intriguing. He's sent me to an  extend an invitation to a little social gathering, a...Harvest Festival  of sorts. He's inviting all the big players in Gotham, and wishes you to  attend. The event will take place one week from today, on the thirty  first of the month."

Obviously  I didn't commit to anything right away. It would be insane to just  agree. "Well, that's awfully generous, and I do like a good party, but I  had a few...questions, about the festivities. Wouldn't do to show up  dressed wrong or without a gift if one is expected." Once again I was  grateful for my bodily control. Aside from the terrible whatever it was  he served, Drench was a fucking F ranked sorcerer. And the description  "Old and Canny" didn't fill me with confidence. I had little to no  experience with magic users.

Luckily  my caution seemed to amuse him more than offend. "Of course, feel free  to ask whatever you like. My employer is most anxious to make sure you  feel as comfortable as possible. This is a big night for him, and he  hopes that all who share it with him will go on to become trusted  friends and confidants in the years ahead." There was a sort of ironic  weight to his words, like he knew something I didn't, and I didn't  fucking like it.

Aside  from the fact that the term Harvest Festival rarely meant anything  fucking good outside of an agrarian context, in a general sense this  seemed like a huge deal, and I had the impression I would either need to  be there or make sure someone powerful was, because this sounded like  some kind of big move on Gotham itself. "Well I suppose my biggest  concern is how many guests I can bring? What sort of formal wear do I  need? What kind of other faces should I be expecting?"

Translation,  can I bring backup, can I wear armor, and who the fuck am I going to  run into. Drench seemed more than aware of the kind of thoughts going  through my head because he smiled widely and reached into his pocket to  pull out a small white card with lavish gold leaf decorations. I  appraised it, and it really was just a card, so I took it without  hesitation, not wanting to show weakness.

Drench  gestured to the card. "As you can see you're free to bring up to three  guests, and attire is completely at your own discretion. As for other  faces...I'll keep that a surprise. We wouldn't want to spoil all the fun  before you have a chance to show up." He stood up, adjusting his tie.  "In any case I think that's everything. We look forward to seeing you at  the event, as well as any plus one's you bring along." He gave Barbie a  genial smile and turned to stroll casually out of the room.

As  soon as he was gone I relaxed. I hadn't expected a random F ranked  wizard to pop up in my office. I hadn't been mentally prepared for it.  I'd resisted reacting, but internally I'd been tense the whole time. If  he decided to fry me with magic I'd have had a hard time protecting  Barbie, and Whisper wouldn't have managed shit against him. Unlike  Devastation he wasn't all brawn. He would have shields, and at a higher  rank than her she'd have been punching out of her weight class in any  case.

Barbie  raised an eyebrow. "Ok that was creepy, but what did I miss? You seemed  way more unsettled than you should have." At my surprised look she  flushed a bit. "Please, I know my daddy, even if you don't show it  outwardly I can tell when you're upset. So what's the deal? Why was this  guy able to spook you so bad?" It occurred to me that without appraisal  the context and severity of that meeting wouldn't have been nearly as  obvious at first glance. Hell I was pretty sure Drench hadn't even  realized how much I got from that interaction.

So  I filled her in, I didn't give specifics on how I knew, but I told her  what I'd learned, about him being a powerful magic user and serving some  ancient evil, and by the time I was done she was grimacing. "That isn't  exactly reassuring. I don't know if I want you going to that. I don't  like the idea of you dealing with all of that. I know you're stronger  than you let on, but still, I'd appreciate if you asked for help, the  idea of you in the middle of a mess like that just bothers me."

I  grinned at her, partially touched and partially amused at where I knew  this was going. "It's funny you should say that, because I was actually  planning to ask for help on this. I know that magic isn't really my  wheelhouse and I'm not stupid enough to turn down a hand with something  that's out of my depth. It's also funny you should mention that it  bothers you, because if you think you don't like me doing this alone,  you're REALLY not going to like who I plan to ask for help from." Her  face warped into a scowl as she caught on and I fished out my phone. I  dialed a number and once it picked up I smiled at my redhead as I said  into the phone "Hey Zee. It's Nicky, I need a favor." I had been right.  Barbie didn't like it.