BLOODFIRE

   The room fell silent as Mercy entered the meeting hall.

“Am I late?” She asked as she walked towards the head of the table to an empty chair.

“As ever.” The man at the head of the table replied.

“Sorry,” Mercy responded, without much sincerity, as she took her place at the long table, “I had a pressing matter to attend to.”

“Of course. So what news?”

“He let me in.”

“So quickly?”

“Yes, well it seems big brother and his foreign friend put some pressure on Daddy. It’s a lower position than what I would have hoped for, but I’m in regardless.”

“Yes, it seems that girl can be quite persuasive.” The man said in a thoughtful tone. “Do we know how much she remembers?”

“Not much.” Nereza’s voice rasped from the other end of the table. “It seems her memory starts at the refugee camp. But there’s really no telling; she’s been rather preoccupied with finding the bartender’s killer.”

Mercy cut in, “I told you that would happen.”

“Yes, well who’d have thought that she’d become so absorbed in the search?” Nereza shot back.

“A person can only be orphaned so many times before they start getting tired of the ones they love being snatched from them.”

The man raised his hand before Nereza could respond, effectively ending the conversation. He turned his attention back to Mercy, “So what should we do about your father?”

“Nothing now. I know enough about the man I’m under to…persuade him to my ideas. I’ll be able to turn things to our favor soon enough.”

Another man at the table spoke up, “Which leaves the question about the girl.”

“Leave her be.” The head man responded, “The time isn’t right for her to be brought in. She wouldn’t fully understand our aims and she could attempt to stop us. I would hate to have to do away with an asset as valuable as she is.”

Nereza scoffed, “She doesn’t even know who she is. How can she possibly be valuable?”

“Do you doubt that she wants to know?” The second man asked.

“I doubt that she even cares.” Nereza replied, “She’s been in their world so long, she’s even happy with the name she chose for herself, disgusting as it is.”

“Now that she knows she’s not alone in this city, she’ll want to know more. Nereza, you and Arawn are to make yourselves a little more conspicuous. The more she sees of her own kind, the more she’ll question where she belongs in this society.”

And with that, the meeting was adjourned.