TRASH

Eliza stalked the room, eyes on her prey near the wall. Colius had wandered down the steps to find Tiram and rush the party along, and Max, although technically not allowed to leave, had probably shadowed Colius and snuck into the kitchen.

This had effectively left her alone with a clawing cluster of intrusive thoughts - The most prevalent of all being, if she drank enough flutes to pass as drunk, could she pretend to fall behind Inprobus and manage to push him over the rail he was leaning against?

She let out an audible hum, her target coming close enough to hail. The server saw her wave, rushing over with a tray of flutes for her to replace her empty.

She sipped the flute, glaring into Inprobus' back. There was no shot. He was one of the shortest Archons, but still, Ra'zerun had a height requirement that he forced with his blessings, leaving the man half a head taller and twice her bulk.

Even if she did succeed Caleb had a terrible knack for healing magic. And, as a nurse, it would look suspicious if she didn't even pretend to check on him.

The likeliest outcome would be that she would barely nudge him as she tripped and he would catch her, and then she would have to bathe in herbs for a week straight and burn her clothes.

Eliza pushed away her intrusive thoughts with a heavy sigh, turning to other options. She hadn't said hello to Sithech and his wife. They had humoured the celebration, and seemed to be wearing lopsided horns fashioned by their youngest. But the conversation topic was always suffocated by work with him, and he was undoubtedly still keeping her blunder with the artifact storage front of mind.

Jollie was nearby in black armour and two thick sheep horns with some scarily real looking blood spattered on her face. Her laugh was cutting through the room while another Archon, Horn, milked her for new tales of the vanguard to weave up into rhymes and lyrics. She had brought her lieutenant as a plus one, and from his smug look as he surveyed the cautioned looks Jollie was getting, he had a heavy hand in the costume choice.

Eliza didn't have to think hard on her decision as she stepped towards the boisterous group, but her hopes were cut as a new duo stepped in front of her. A man a few years younger than her favoured a boo over a hello, and ever the kiss ass in a public setting, Eliza staged a little jump of fright at the raggedy costume he was wearing.

From the dishevelled clothes to the little smudges of dirt and painted red gouges deliberately spotting his freckled cheeks, she guessed he was going for an undead. He was the youngest of the eight Archons bumping around the room, Perillus, the Hand of Enlightenment.

Perry for short.

Beside him stood a well kept follower, Lavette, a little taller than the archon with her frosty white hair braided over the top of her head and down her back. A silver bunny mask covered the top half of her face, concealing the remainder of a thin pink scar that ran up from her lip. She kept to the side in silence, the sleeves of her blood red dress mostly concealing a beaten journal she carried everywhere she went.

Perry took a moment to admire Eliza's costume. "A witch?"

"Close." Eliza kicked out some of the longer rags at the bottom of her dress. "A wraith. I was going to add some scorch marks and do the Witch of the Westlock, but it was a very hard no from the husband."

Perry gave Inprobus an obvious glance while his lips pricked into a grin. "Coulda given me a heads up, I would have helped you."

"Next year." Eliza mused. She eyed Lavette, hoping a smile would ease her in what was very likely a stressful situation. "I love your dress, what is your costume?"

Perry eyed Lavette, clearly unsure of what she had chosen as a costume as well. "She's… spooky?"

Lavette gave a thumbs up.

"It was last minute for her. She had to step in for my original plus one." Perry said, "You remember Junie?"

Eliza sipped her flute to hide a frown, working up the energy to give Perry a curious smile. She knew where this was going. "Of course! She was the one that made you that cute little scarf?"

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Perry scratched at his neck with an awkward shrug. "That was Sarah, similar. I met Junie about a month ago, wonderful at first. First few dates went really well…"

"Great to hear." Eliza replied, shooting glances at Caleb's back. Her attempts to summon him fell flat as he kept his back to the room alongside Inprobus.

Perry waved his hand. "Not finished. So I brought her to my lab to show my latest project. Cause I wanted to set the mood or whatever you call it. And she took one look at it, didn't even ask me to turn it on, looked at me and went 'do you even have a soul'?"

Eliza forced out a gasp. "She didn't."

"She did! And I thought- well… isn't that a little bit blasphemous? Asking an Archon, chosen by the God of Starlight if they have a soul?" He waited for Eliza's nod, turning to Lavette for some extra reassurance. "Right?"

Lavette paid him a curt nod.

"Just so blasphemous." He took a swig of his flute, suppressing a cough as the dry liquid attacked his throat. Eliza dipped her flute, trying to give Perry a little privacy to fix himself by looking around the room. There must have been something on her face that she couldn't quite hide, because shortly after catching Jollie's glance, the leader of the Vanguard was swiftly closing in on them. She paid the obvious relief in Eliza's smile a wink, throwing her arm around Perry's shoulder to yank him in close. "Careful, that's not apple juice."

Perry shrugged off her arm, careful to dust the parts of his costume that had been disturbed. "So anyways, you're going have a new check in at the Psyche Ward. Don't let the assets fool you, she's a witch through and through." He coughed again, forcing the glass into the Follower's hand and whispering something in her ear. She briskly departed, homing in on the closest server to find a less embarrassing refreshment for the Archon.

Jollie eyed Eliza, clicking into work mode at the mention of the Psyche Ward. "Ward's getting pretty full, hey?"

Eliza shrugged. "It's hard to keep up with. Squadrons are bringing in more witches than we can process and book out."

"I'd help you with that, but Rayao's being a stiff on the Vanguard's commanders to followers ratios. Said hello to Tiram this week and brought it up. He said it seems like I'm building an army." Jollie said, peering over her shoulder to check if Tiram was anywhere nearby. She almost looked disappointed when she couldn't see a single gem of the man's gaudy crown, and raised her voice with a little more drunken stupor. "So I said of course I'm building a fucking army, do you want your city back or not?"

"Right?" Perry sighed. "I can adopt as many dogs as I want, but then as soon as I want four more followers to expand my test pool I have a 'dangerous power imbalance'." He said, his voice mechanical to mock Rayao. "Puppies are nothing like people, they skew all my tests!"

Perry paused in the smothering silence he had created.

He rolled his eyes. "That was a joke. I only use Followers, I'm not a monster."

Eliza forced out a laugh, while Jollie kept her opinion clear on her face. The Vanguard had staked a better relationship with the Heroguard's Enlightenment Centre before Perry had stepped up as the new Archon. But when crossbows and magic infused catapaults turned to Star Ropes and Tongue Seals, Jollie had pulled away. Her reasoning had been curt. Stifling magic wasn't how you made a bigger boom.

Eliza suspected that was not the only reason though.

Whereas Perry always sent Lavette to pick up more followers for the Enlightenment Centre, Jollie came and interviewed each candidate in person. No one was privy to her conversations behind closed doors - and Eliza, despite being in her good graces, could not piece a pattern or grand purpose to the followers she chose.

Her choices had landed the vanguard in the inner walls of Westlcok City however. So there were none to complain. She did not flaunt brilliance, but the results of her campaigns always spoke for themselves.

Eliza's attention wandered as she noticed Colius' returning up the steps, a finger tracing down the agenda in his hands as he took the center of the small room. Colius bounced his finger amongst the Archons, counting under his breath. His brow screwed as he recounted. Then he realised, and sighed.

With two sharp claps, a burst of glittery magic exploded next to Eliza. From the withered shimmery cloud, Max appeared, the felt cat ears sitting lopsided on his head while he armoured himself with two thick oven mitts and an apron. He flushed red when he caught Sithech's glare, and tucked the mitts under his armpits in a poor attempt to hide them while Eliza smacked away a patch of flour on his sleeve.

Colius cleared his throat, fixing his costume as he cut right between Inprobus and Caleb to gaze over the rail at the party guests. After striking the floating bottle of champagne following him, he ordered the nobles to the main hall. And with the cats herded, he turned around to face the lions.

"There has been a small change! His Majesty has an important message to follow his preamble." Colius did little to hide the disappointment he shared with the other hungry Archons. "Food doesn't come out until he finishes! Archons with me, plus ones, with the servers."