Activity

FINALS! ARE! OVER!

Smeagol is free!

(Until next semester.)

~#~#~

Grimme smirked as the assassin avoided the food.  In the meantime, she enjoyed it.

Chantara either lacked some… observation abilities or had a food trauma.

She was no Charlie…

“Never judge an assassin by their first reaction.”

Grimme set her jaw, brushing off the ancient memory with a tiny shrug and an unexpected thought.

Would etherberry extract – or etherberry products in general – be poisonous to Chantara?  There were a few people who died to it.  But, some people died to peanuts.

She let the thought slide past.

“Thank-you.  I’m sure the recipe is excellent.”  Chantara examined the cookie.

“Ah, vague sarcasm.  How I have missed you.”

She missed Charlie.  The real Charlie who’s silky-sweet voice promised a sudden, unfortunate accident.

Grimme took the opportunity to listen to her intuition and shove half the plate of cookies into her secret pocket.

And now she was taking pointers from the glass-girl.  Perfect.

“What flavor is it?”

Grimme blinked.  It was obvious?

“I’m Chantara, and I’m a Kezbe.”

Right.  Timeline mix-up.  This was now.  That was … several hundred years ago.  This was the Choosing.  That was …

And then pandemonium struck in the form of that blasted goose!

Grimme grit her teeth, ignoring the echoing explanation.

“The guild-leaders will be divided into two groups; Chantara, Connel, Karayan and Þorunn will be the first group and Grimme, Aadipta, Meira and Dominic are the second group.”

“Perfect.”

She was going to murder that goose.  And then Castle.  Maybe a few more people.

A Pawn slid beside her: the butler raising an elegant eyebrow.  “A missive for you.” He held out a silver tray, the white paper streaked with bold black lines.

Grimme pulled it open: it was in an origami fold she taught Charlie.

Play my game.  Mislead my tools. Make nice.

Entertain me.

Grimme smiled serenely.  “Thank-you, Jonas was it?”

He nodded.  “Very good ma’am.”

“Hm, I can be.” She bit into the cookie.  “How do you feel about leaving a message for your mistress?”