Stars Rise

LXXIX. Shouldn't Stephen Be in a Laboratory Somewhere?

Leander stood at attention. He stuck to the boss's back, convinced if someone wanted to stab Ilan Potestas in it there was little he, a dead police officer with no magic, could do to stop it. He played the skillful bodyguard anyway, knowing he lacked the high tech to do his job.

The boss insisted on being in the thick of the crowd. Faces were unfamiliar; the music competed louder every minute with a thousand voices; it was dark and flickering with shadows except where fires burned and flame was reflected in the walls that were mostly mirror except when they were fireplaces.

The boss was speaking to Mariana Aurelia, but she walked away nodding her head off. Leander tried to speak to the boss again, but Potestas had found "Exequi Caecina" and asked, "Exequi Caecina, may I have a moment of you time?" and Leander gave up again, restless from futility that shivered through his body.

He glared knives at everyone who came close, which was everyone present in a swirling tide at the party, except for those seated, who never seemed to get up and risk their spot being stolen.

Whatever these people were fighting about while pretending to dance, socialize and celebrate, laughing as if it was the same drinking dancing shouting gossiping that rich people everywhere and apparently across galaxies engaged in, Leander didn't care. Laughing while they plotted against each other, maybe planning each other's downfall or even murders.

The boss's murder, he believed, would destabilize the empire, but there was nothing he could do to prevent that. There was a greater and more unstoppable danger to consider, and if it continued, everything these people were fighting over would be obliterated by something much bigger.

Exequi Caecina wanted to talk about the 'solar irregularity.' "It's the most incredible event of our time, whatever the cause. I've heard some good theories, but nothing I believe. If Solin was perfecting human flight, wouldn't that be something?"

And the powerful didn't do anything but talk about it. Not even talk — gossip. They thought it was an important battle to win.

Leander couldn't convince himself that their battle mattered.

No one, not even the boss, seemed to care that the sun was rising and setting faster. It made for exciting conversation, but no one was afraid. Didn't most of these people work for Constellation? Shouldn't they be at work, in offices and laboratories, yelling over phones, running numbers, tearing through books, doing whatever it was they did in a place like that — to find out what went wrong and make it stop?

Every time Leander asked, the boss shut him up. The election was more important.

Leander wasn't afraid. Yesterday he had been killed, he wasn't afraid to die. Yesterday he had been taken from everything that mattered. People who mattered. No one here meant anything. If their world was going to end, and they weren't going to do anything about it, why should he?

Except that it was driving him crazy.

Now Exequi Caecina left, excited to vote for Sunyin Aura, apparently. Maybe even excited that the president was dead. Leander broke in. "Sir. I'm useless here. A body guard with magic would be better able to protect you. I would be more effective investigating the cause of the solar irregularities."

"Oh, would you?" said Potestas. It was a fair question. Leander had no idea where to start.

Instead, Leander argued, "I believe it's important. I believe my time would be best used determining the cause of the solar irregularity and ensuring it isn't a danger to the empire. Or the planet. Or all of reality. I don't have the first clue how to do that, however."

"You could find someone, for example my son, with a deep knowledge of magic, and ask him what's causing it. Of course, if he had the first idea, he would be doing something about it."