Apocalypse: Fairy System by Macronomicon (fox in socks read aloud txt) 📕

The floor fell out from under him.

My neck! Jeb thought, grabbing the chain as he began falling through the air.

Chapter 26: The Storm (Pt. 2)

***Brett***

Brett was no stranger to a party.

He’d never been to a party with naked bird-women carrying trays of hors d’oeuvres, but still: If you’ve been to one orgy where everyone’s wearing a big-bird mask, you’ve been to them all.

Amanda and Brett split apart like hunters herding their prey, splitting the meet-and-greets up for maximum effect. He went left and smiled and shook hands, bowed and waggled his neck at all the horrible feudal jokes, while Amanda took the right-hand side of the party, with the aim of meeting in the center.

Once they’d met up, they could team up to distract high-value targets. Normally Amanda would distract potential clients while he ran interference, but in this case, gender wasn’t really an issue, and a large portion of the aliens seemed to find breasts strange, rather than enticing.

So they switched jobs, and Amanda was in charge of prying people away from important dignitaries, while Brett swept in from the side and engaged them in rousing tales of the Impossible Tutorial, their primary claim to fame.

Then he would subtly guide the conversation towards the advertising business, and how modern humans used mass communication to shape public opinion.

“Like those shows of yours!” the kitri diplomat said, his neck waggling in amusement as he pointed at Brett. “You know, up until recently, the mass communication system has always belonged to the government.

“I mean, I enjoy your show, but there’s no market for selling plays to the masses without even charging admission,” he said, taking a drink of his wine.

Brett smiled and began to regale him with tales of the power of ‘advertising’ and how a popular show could be funded purely through businesses if it featured their products. Hell, with the right support, Brett and Amanda could create an entire series that would entertain millions, all while spreading their sponsor’s name to the far reaches of the empire.

A local tried to horn in on Brett’s action and Amanda grabbed him by the elbow and steered him forcibly away, chatting amiably as the poor keegan struggled to extricate himself.

Thanks, honey.

The party was going rather well, as the pair pitched the idea of television to anyone with the money to fund it. In a few years, they might be the proud owners of a global syndicate.

They’d rather be the people signing the checks, after all.

It was just something to do while they waited for Jeb to show up with his list. Oddly enough, the cripple hadn’t contacted them when they arrived, although the emperor reassured them that their friend would arrive on time.

I wonder when the shit’s gonna hit the fan? Brett wondered idly. During their brief, the emperor had basically told them to roll with whatever bizarre series of events happened in the throne room, and that it would all be over in a matter of minutes.

The last guest had just been announced when a strange vibration rocked the mansion, causing the chandeliers to swing above their heads.

Umm… What was that? Brett thought, glancing up at the wobbling lights.

Click, click, click! A retainer in the emperor’s colors sprinted along the side of the ballroom, dodging around one of the serving girls, nearly colliding with her.

The keegan runner headed to the center of the ballroom, where the emperor was chatting with the governor of Solmnath. The governor was not quite powerful enough to be a king, but was still in charge of the oversized city. With the addition of L.A.’s infrastructure, the man was likely to become one of Pikaku’s vassal kings.

The emperor held out an oversized claw, motioning for silence while the runner whispered in his ear. The entire ballroom fell silent, and soon enough only quiet whispers spread through the hall. Brett thought he saw an instant of alarm in the emperor’s expression, but he couldn’t quite tell, being a human.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the emperor said into the quiet, heading up to the raised throne at the far end of the hall and taking a seat, placing himself above all others.

I gotta admit…he does look a little like Big Bird, Brett thought.

“The Roil is coming here.”

The Emperor’s voice echoed through the stunned silence for a moment, before all hell broke loose around Amanda and Brett.

“The walls aren’t finished yet!”

“It was heading northeast, directly away from Solmnath!”

“Why would it—”

Brett caught Amanda’s gaze and shrugged. They’d heard ‘the Roil’ used as a swear word plenty of times, but nobody’d ever said it could come after you.

The emperor held up a clawed hand, then pointed to one of his vassals, a kitri in gold and white brocade.

“Calm yourselves, please. Tiyaku, if you would show us what we’re dealing with.”

The bird nodded and spread its arms, facing the northeast corner of the hall. A thick thread of Myst spooled out of the bird-person, and resolved into a huge image of the city of Solmnath, taken from a bird’s-eye view.

In the distance, the horizon wavered and scintillated as some invisible thing warped the light passing through it. A pale trail of stone was left in the wake of the invisible storm.

“Thank you, Tiyaku,” the emperor said, nodding to his vassal, who dropped the magic with a weary sag of their shoulders.

“It’s time for you to fulfill the oaths of your office,” the emperor said to the assembled nobles, clicking his talons on the throne. “You are in luck, as my travelling guard has a fair number of Warders, and I’m pleased to offer them to defend the city. In light of that, you should need no more than a hundred of your number to keep the