Chapter 41: Things Get Worse

On the day of the meeting, the families began to arrive in waves. First came the Cedars. Matriarch Ismene greeted me kindly, but several of her entourage clearly held loyalty to Theseus above their Matriarch, and their glares were spiteful. Olezhka growled whenever any of them got too close.

"How is the Implement treating you?" Ismene asked me.

I hefted the bat onto my shoulder. "Very well," I said. "It... fits perfectly, I guess. There isn't really another way to describe it."

She squeezed my shoulder. "Wonderful," she said, then continued on her way to greet the Baobabs and Elms.

Kozakura and the Maples arrived next. The air glowed around them, illusions rippling and spinning in complicated whirls of magic. I had cast a barrier of anti-magic around myself and Olezhka early that morning, so I was treated to the delightful sight of each wonderous apparition dissolving if it got to close to us.