“The
bomb,” she said, picking up the package, “And my staff.”
“Staff?” Dave asked.
She handed him the bomb. He supposed he
shouldn’t have been surprised at how light it was. She picked the rod up off
the table and twisted it in her hands. The ends shot out and it extended to her
height, “I saw it at a convention my father took me to. I said I wanted it and
he said it would suit me well.”
“How strong is it?” Dave asked, “I mean if
it’s collapsible maybe you shouldn’t go around hitting people a whole lot.”
“I practice with it daily,” she said, tilting
her head towards the punching bags, “I’m getting good.”
“Have you actually dueled someone with it
though?” Dave asked.
“What do you
think?” She asked. A smile formed on one side of her lips that Dave thought made
her look like a lame supervillain from a comic book.
“I think you probably have,” he said, “I
figured I’d ask anyway.”
She picked up the blade from the table, and
Dave saw that it had an indent on the side of it that allowed it to fit cleanly
on the end of the staff.
“Is that why the bag was full of holes?” He
asked.
“Yeah,” she said, “I wanted to make sure it
would stay on if I got busy with it.” She waved the point in the air in front
of his face and he flinched and stepped back. She giggled.
“Ok,” he said, “Try to tune down the axe-crazy
while I’m here, yeah?”
“That’s fine,” she said, “By the way, why’d
you come over so early?” She collapsed the rod, and Dave saw that the point
remained on the edge.
“I didn’t have anything to do,” Dave said,
“Figured I’d come over and see if you wanted to do anything, beforehand.”
She crossed her arms and sighed.
“Not like that,” he said, “Just, watch a
show or catch up or something.”
“Not a whole lot to catch up on that you’re
allowed to know,” she said, “If you joined, though, we’d have plenty to catch
up on. I’ve been a busy girl.”
“I’m not sure they’d let me in though,” Dave
said, “It’s not like I have a lineage or anything.”
“We’re more accepting of new members,” she
said, “We don’t follow the policies of the others anymore. Because of it, we’re
expanding. Soon we’ll be on top, if by numbers alone.”
“It’s not much of a secret society if you
let everyone join,” Dave said.
“We don’t,” Elys said in a rough tone,
“You’d have to prove yourself. Do something for the good of the Bricklayers to
show you’d be committed and worthy.”
“Like what?” Dave asked, “Build a house
somewhere?”
“Nevermind,” she said, “I don’t know why I
bother trying to recruit you.”
“I don’t know,” he said, “I guess the
Bricklayers sound cool but I don’t really know what you guys are all about.”
“I’ve told you about the Phrenic Witchseer,”
she said, “And how we work towards her means. You would be helping us maintain
dominance over the other three societies. The way it is supposed to be.”
“Yeah you’ve said all that before,” he said,
“But it all sounds… Kind of like…”
“Like what?”
She asked.
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