The doors opened and she looked up, just Anne again. This time the woman came in pushing a cart with a silver coffee service on top, the bottom tiers would be full of snacks. Anne hesitated at the doorway unsure where to lay out the coffee service. Mitei sighed and stood, walking towards the woman and gesturing at the seating area near the doors.
They were still dancing about each other trying to get things set up when Megan arrived. She swept through the still opened doors and quickly spotted Mitei and Anne. Mitei met Megan’s gaze over Anne’s bent back noting immediately that she did not want to speak in front of her and dismissed the girl with a word and a smile.
Anne retreated, closing the door behind her and Mitei gestured to Megan indicating that the other woman should take a seat. Megan shook her head, “Jules Harper came in to see you last night.”
Mitei put the delicate porcelain coffee cup she had been about to set down on the table back on the tray. “I do believe that is the first bit of good news I have had in a while, Megan.” She said turning to the woman, “where is she now?”
“In Leslie Roth’s quarters.”
***
Mitei moved through the labyrinthine halls of her floor of the office as quickly as her new legs were willing to take her. She had left Megan behind at the office with instructions to find her some more clothes and get the coffee set up for two. As she waited for the elevator, she began to regret leaving Megan behind. It would have been nice to have the other woman’s calming presence when she ventured into Ms. Roth’s domain.
That woman always seemed to bring out the worst in her.
Not that she was not used to this kind of thing from her, or from any of the other executives in any of the other offices, all human all ambitious, they seemed bound to test each and every rule and restriction on them time and time again. Always looking for an opening or a weakness that could be exploited for their gain. Admirable qualities to be sure, at least to a point, there was only one tiny problem with their headlong upward climbs. In Death Inc there simply was not any place for all that power-lust to go. Mitei had yet to find a way to keep all of these greedy, grabby, dangerous people out of her company entirely. They always seemed to seep in somehow. She had taken to promoting them slowly but surely, taking away what little actual power they had as they rose in rank. Monitoring each as closely as she was able and then just out living them. Their ardor might not cool throughout their lifetime. But their lifetimes would fade throughout hers.
Ms. Roth was one such and then some; her ambition was such that she had risen through the ranks at a lightning speed making VP before she had reached her thirtieth birthday. At today’s current life expectancy that meant Mitei could probably look forward to Ms. Roth’s manipulations and trivialities for at least another thirty years, if not longer. She sighed and drew her hood up over her features, stepping out onto Ms. Roth’s floor.
This floor was empty, at least when first stepping off the elevator. Marble floors marched straight forward down a hallway and to an unmarked door. Mitei hated it here; the hallway and the apartment beyond were similar to a million normal residences that she had seen. The fact that it seemed so normal in the middle of her office building, so homey and human, did not endear its occupant to her one bit.
“Good morning Leslie,” Mitei said as she stepped into the woman’s private quarters.
“What a lovely surprise to see you today, D.” She said and smiled. For some reason Mitei had never liked the way that woman bared her teeth. More snarl than smile or in this case, perhaps a sneer? There was no reason for the woman to forget her new name; she knew Roth was more astute than that.
“Of course it is a surprise Leslie; otherwise I would expect to find you hard at work in your office by now.”
The living room was full of comfortable color coordinated furniture, dust free and immaculately arranged. Pale colors and lots of warm lighting seemed to make the place look inviting. The only jarring notes in the room were Leslie’s Doberman lounging in front of the false fireplace and the fact that Ms. Harper did not appear to be in the room at all.
“I am here to collect Ms. Harper, Leslie.” She took a position in the center of the room, feet sinking into the soft carpet and clasped her hands before herself, unwilling to sit.
“Ah, of course dear,” Leslie closed the door and moved into the room. “The poor child is sleeping now. She had so many questions by the time I found her, she chattered on for half the night.”
“Fetch her.”
“Surely you can understand the poor girl’s need for sleep Mitei. It would be terribly rude of me to wake her now.”
It seemed Leslie was set on being her most irritating. Why she had taken interest in Ms. Harper was not hard for even Mitei to grasp. She intended to use the woman in some way, the how was what eluded her. She frowned at the other woman; usually any change of expression that she made from under her hood would make the humans close enough to see it shudder, Roth did not even flinch.
“I will expect that she is returned to my office as soon as she wakes.”
“Of course.”
“And I will expect that once you have brought her there you will get back to work. I do not wish to hear any more reports of you having contact with this girl.” Mitei smiled. “She is hampering your performance. Dear. I would hate to see one of the younger executives outperform you. I might be forced to decommission you early.”
Mitei dipped her head the better to watch Roth clinch her fists. Threats to her position were really the only way to get to that woman sometimes. Mitei made no further concessions to the other woman as she moved towards the door. Leslie was forced to scramble to open it for her as Mitei sailed past her and down the hall. Her gait smooth and disturbingly even, one of the thousand little things she had learned to avoid doing when she did not want to upset the humans around her. Now it seemed a small consolation indeed to know that watching her retreating figure was probably making Leslie intensely uncomfortable.
That woman was dangerous and now she had the only mistake Mitei had ever made in her grasp. She glided into the elevator once it arrived, slumping against the back wall once the doors had closed. There was no way for her to divine what Leslie might be up to, but it was likely to be more than a little troublesome.
***
Late August deep within the woods a single man walks unaccompanied. The woods are mostly quiet and rife with noise as woods often are, but the footfalls of the man make no sounds at all; walking tall one moment, the next moving slowly on all fours, this man, a slip of the woods in human form.
He walked without aim, seemingly uninterested in the birds and animals he passed, though he wore a bow. Distantly he could hear the call of chanting, it was toward that sound that he moved, it was that sound that he stalked. Aedan had been in the woods for far too long, it seemed forever since he’d heard the sounds of the chants being sung in the distance. Forever since he’d had the opportunity to rest from his hunt.
They were close now, those chanters. Just before him in a clearing. He paced around them, silent, circling them in the shelter of the wood. So long since he’d stopped, Aedan took a moment to rest his head on the trunk of a tree. He was tired, not of the hunt that was as ingrained in his being as breathing was to others, rather he needed a rest, a chance to put his feet up and be renewed. Truthfully he was nearly desperate for it.
Regardless there was something very wrong here. Not the chant. The chant for a wonder was right, but the woods – these were not the woods that he remembered most clearly, not for this chant; the trees were all wrong, the animals familiar but not quite right as well. Then there was the timing, he hadn’t heard the other chants, as if he’d over slept right through his alarm, there’s been no summer, just spring for him endless and warm.
The chant was right but all else was wrong. No song of ending mixed with the chanting, no female with ripe form and deadly arms waited in these woods. Where was she? For that matter where was he? And who was it
that knew the right chant to bring him from the hunt? Aedan crept closer to the edge of the clearing, he’d completely ringed the chanters and now he stood at their backs. From the sheltering shade of the woods he could see them without being seen. As he caught site of them he realized that it would be a miracle if they could find their way home, let alone make out his form, in those woods.
The people before him gathered in a tight group in front of a fire. Some wore robes, but many did not, some wore little at all. A gathering of a few scraggly young males, dressed in various patches of black. They stood before the fire and chanted with glazed eyes. He could make out no females and no children, there didn’t seem to be any signs of the fall feasts or celebration. Just these scraggly and bedraggled men.
Aedan turned away from the scene. These were what was left of his people? Had they called him forth by mistake? The ritual they’d been in the midst of had been sloppy, bits and pieces he’d recognized from different places and times mixed with each other and blended into a new whole. They hadn’t lacked for devotion he’d felt the sincerity of their chant but there’d been too much wrong. Too many missed connections and half-truths, how they’d managed to bring him forth at all was a mystery.
The more he thought on it the more he realized was off, the language was wrong though the meter and meaning was right. He squatted in the woods, listening to them as they completed the ritual and reveled together. Smiled to himself as he heard them laughing and merry, frowned to hear them talking of their future plans. What use had he of a white goat? Somewhere in the midst of the eternity he’s spent hunting, his people had lost their way. Or gone completely insane which was always hard to tell, humans had such fragile minds. They’d lost the means to contact him and – he looked around – they’d lost the ability to call the others at all. Aedan was alone here.
***
Aedan stayed till the men left, staggering through the woods and calling out to each other for guidance through the dark. It was the least he was willing to do for what was apparently left of his people. More blessing then they’d ever had. Then stood and stepped to the edge of the woods again.
The clearing was dark now, the fire out and only bits of litter and its wet ashes to mark the space. What to do now? The woods whispered around him inviting him back to the hunt but he was weary of it. To find the others then, Aedan swept his arm up straight from his side. Slicing through the empty air between woods and clearing, a rip of light appearing, it gleamed golden in the dark woods, Aedan stepped sideways into the slit and the light closed behind him.
***
Betwixt and between, he wandered, around him appeared the grey smoky trunks of phantom trees; the ground beneath his feet was golden with fallen leaves. Not quite the lands of the great hunt, these were the sleeping trees of winter the dead leaves of fall. He strode forward in these woods, certain that he’d come upon the others soon. After an hour of walking, he pulled a horn from his hip and blew it. The tone was sweet and terrible at once, it carried out from him in all directions traveling ahead of him as herald of his presence.
It was not forbidden to blow his horn here though it might be considered rude. At the least he expected to hear some kind of answering sound. The song of the goddess, her laughter or the sweet smell of ripening fruit, but there came none of these. He looked to the sky, but no moon shone down upon him. He listened for the sounds of water or that fleet sound of hooves, but there was nothing. Not a sound came back to his ears; this space was empty and barren, caught forever in a winter that should have long passed.
***
Sometime that afternoon, after giving out the appointments for the day and still no sign of Ms. Harper being released from the tender care of Leslie Roth, Mitei found herself in California again. This time the Path was kind enough to dump her outside of Leo’s condo instead of straight to his bedroom.
Mitei walked up to his door and politely rang the bell, waiting for admittance. She seemed to be doing a lot of waiting on people lately. It was a novelty she had never been particularly fond of though. By the time Leo came to the door she was tapping her foot beneath her robe, waiting with arms crossed and trying to resist the urge to reach for a watch or something to occupy her time with.
The door opened without warning, suddenly Leo was reaching for her and bundling her inside. She was so surprised that she allowed herself to be shoved into the darker confines of the condo’s entry way, while he shut the door behind her and peeked out of the windows.
“What is going on?”
“You showing up on my doorstep wearing full deathly regalia is what’s going on.” He said still peering out of the window, finally he sighed and turned towards her, frowning at her again and Mitei wilted a little. “I know you disappeared without getting your clothes, but did you really think it was necessary to come back all robed and hooded?”
She blinked, confused for a moment then remembered and swept the hood off of her head. “Is that better?”
“Not really, can’t you take that thing off?”
“I can, but I did not really think of it.” She said and shrugged, pulling the robe off of herself. Megan had found her a nice pants suit for the day, though the new shoes were every bit as expensive and uncomfortable as the old ones she had lost. She slung the robe over one arm and hugged it to herself. “I am sorry Leo, I did not really have time to – “
“You didn’t have the time to not freak out my neighbors? Or you didn’t really have time to say a proper goodbye last night and get your things?” Leo stood before her arms crossed a moment then made a motion for her robe.
“Thank you but I should hold onto it.” He shrugged and moved past her up the stairs and into the living room. She followed behind, “maybe I should explain.”
Leo did not stop at the living room but went straight on into the kitchen and she followed taking a place on the usual stool.
“You want some coffee or something?” He paused and turned to look at her a moment, “did you have anything to eat once you left here?”
She considered a moment, “I had coffee and a few Danishes.”
He sighed and went to the refrigerator, rummaging inside of it. “I’ll make us something for lunch then. Hope you like hamburger helper.”
She watched as he pulled a package from the fridge and another from a cabinet, reading the instructions on the box carefully before getting out even more things. In a moment the meat was sizzling on the stove and the beginnings of a tantalizing aroma started to fill the kitchen. Her stomach grumbled and she realized she was hungry again.
“How do you manage all of this?”
“All of what?” He said dumping the contents of the box into the skillet and stirring them in, “please don’t tell me you mean cooking because this barely qualifies.”
“No, I mean, how do you manage to eat so often? To sleep and eat and get anything else done that needs done.” She sighed, “there are not enough hours in my day for this.”
He laughed and moved off to rummage in the refrigerator again, this time on a higher shelf. He pulled down a bottle of soda and a couple glasses from the cabinet then moved back to check on the pan, stirring it before cutting off the heat.
“Don’t you have people at your offices bringing you things? Why not just tell them you need something more substantial now?”
“I do not think it would be a good idea for the offices to know I have changed even more.” She said as he put a steaming plate down in front of her. Whatever this Hamburger Helper was, it seemed to be some kind of mash.
“Not even these secretaries of yours? I thought they were your friends.”
“They are, however, too much change too quickly can upset humans on deep levels. When that happens they will cling to whatever seems familiar and safe.” She took a bite of the goop and smiled with surprise, “this most certainly tastes better than it looks!”
“Thanks - I guess.” Leo said, sitting down next to her and offering her a glass of soda. For a few m
inutes the only sounds where those of silverware on plates and chewing.
“Too much change, too soon in something they all think is eternal and unchanging and they will cling to something that seems more stable – more understandable. They will start turning to each other and away from me.” Mitei sat back and patted her stomach, smiling. “When that happens I will likely have trouble holding onto the company.”
“Do you actually need the company?” Leo raised his hands at her sharp gaze, “I mean, does the company give you the power to be death or the other way around?”
“The other way around.”
“Well then, what does it matter if you lose the company? They wouldn’t be able to function in the same capacity without you.”
“I would not be able to function in the same capacity either.” She sighed and reaching down pulled off each of her shoes, then pulled her legs up and crossed them on top of the stool. “I barely control the Path as it is. I am not entirely certain that I could get it to stop taking me to the offices, you have seen how uncontrollable it is –“
“What is this path you’re talking about?”
“Oh,” she said rubbing her feet. “It is the reason I keep disappearing. I walk on a road that has a mind of its own. It takes me to the dead and dying. Or it is supposed to.”
Leo slid off his stool and started grabbing dishes, “wait I’m not dying again am I?”
“No, I cleared all my appointments for today.”
“Then I think your path is broken.”
“So do I,” she sighed. “When I started the company I made it include the offices, but I am not entirely sure how I managed that. Now it keeps bringing me here but I did not tell it to.”
“That’s supposed to explain why you kept popping into my bedroom?” She nodded, “what about when you leave? You got any control over that?”
“Only so long as I do not walk.”
“Well that explains a few things,” he said, “like why you got spooked last night and left without your clothes.”
“Spooked?”