The party waited in uncomfortable silence. Phil and Reese were sitting on a bench, whispering back and forth as she filled him in on what to expect when they were called in. Rose was seated a noticeable distance away, with Brittany leaning against the wall next to her. Rose occasionally glanced over at the others, wanting to join them, but still felt uncomfortable around Reese after their earlier encounter. Britt focused her attention on the door, doing her best to pretend that Phil didn’t exist while she still could.

The doors made no sound as they opened, swinging wide to allow the gentleman behind them to step out.

“The council will see you now,” he said, gesturing for them to follow.

Reese’s eyebrows shot up. “The council? Not the guild leadership?”

“The council, Miss Campbell, and they like to be kept waiting even less than the guild does.”

She shot to her feet, dragging Phil up with her. “Right. Sorry. Come on, Phil.” She stepped forward, Rose and Britt falling in behind the two of them. Reese suddenly felt extremely underdressed. The guild was business casual. The council was as formal as you could get. They followed the gentleman until he indicated where they should stand in the middle of the hall. The room was dark except for the circle of light in the middle of the room, the floor they stood upon the lowest level. Above them was the raised dais that the guild leadership normally occupied. It wasn’t usually shrouded in shadows, but the council liked to maintain an air of anonymity. The lights shining in their eyes helped to obscure their view even more.

“Bruce Wright’s party, as requested,” the gentleman announced before walking off into the shadows.

“I see Mr. Wright’s party, certainly,” came a modulated voice. “However I do not see Bruce Wright. They shall no longer be addressed as such. Will the new party leader step forward?”

Phil felt a nudge in his ribs and glanced over. Reese nudged him again and indicated with her head that he should step forward. Before he could process the idea, however, he felt a shove at his back. He stumbled forward a couple steps before righting himself. He glanced back at Britt, who stared back impassively. Facing forward again, he attempted to only sound half as nervous as he actually was.

“Um, I guess that would be me, Sir, or Ma’am, or, um…”

“You guess? You don’t know if you’re the party leader?”

He glanced back at Reese, but she gave no hint of what he should do. He turned his face back into the bright lights. “I’ve only been here a couple weeks. I, um, I haven’t done anything yet that I would call leader-like.”

“Do you not control them with orders?” the same voice asked from a different location.

“Um, not if I can help it. I did so once on accident, and it led to me nearly getting killed a few hours later.”

“So you have the capability?”

“The capability, yes, but not the desire.”

“Why not?”

Phil looked confused. “Because there’s no reason to. They’ve been training me in what I’m supposed to know as a leader, but we haven’t faced any situation where it was necessary. Even if we did, they know their abilities better than I do and would have a better idea on how to implement them.”

“You’re aware you could order these women to do anything you wish, right?”

“They’ve told me that, yes.”

“And you have no desire to use these women as you want?”

“Of course not!” Phil was starting to get a little pissed at this line of questioning.

“Control your temper, Mr. Thomas.”

“You keep asking these absurd questions. I’ve already explained why I haven’t used whatever power it is that I have over them. Isn’t that enough?”

“We ask these questions to determine if you’re worthy of joining our ranks. Any who would seek to abuse the trust inherent in the position must be sought out and dealt with.”

“Like you guys did with my predecessor?” As soon as the words left his mouth he realized what a horrible mistake it was. He audibly heard the women behind him stiffen up, and more than one chair creaked in the darkness in front of him. Whatever came next was entirely his fault and he knew it.

“Mr. Wright gave the guild ten years of honorable service, saving countless lives over and over again, perhaps even your own. While his downfall was a tragedy, it would do you well, and everyone else present, to remember that the good he did heavily outweighed the bad.”

Phil lowered his head in submission. “Of course. I apologize if I spoke out of turn.”

“I don’t!” came a bellow from behind him. Shocked, he turned to see Britt take a step forward.

“Miss Hughes?” Even with the voice hidden behind a distortion effect, the confusion was evident.

She took another step forward until she was side by side with Phil. She still refused to make eye contact with him. “I don’t like this man. I think he’s a miserable excuse for a human being and far too weak for this line of work.”

“O..kay?” came the confused response.

“That being said, I don’t think he’s wrong in regard to Bruce. For two years he showed signs of an alignment shift. You must have seen the reports. Excessive property damage while completing quests. Higher civilian casualties. An increase in quest failures. The rising number of missing people in our area. How come none of this triggered an independent investigation by the guild?”

“It was determined that your party was in a rut, so to speak, and that you would eventually pull out of it.”

“For two years?” said Reese, also stepping up next to Phil. “Two years is not a ‘rut,’ Councilor.”

“Miss Campbell, if we feel a party is becoming a danger to itself or others, there are measures in place. A party as distinguished as yours would have suffered a tremendous setback if an investigation had been launched.”

Britt scoffed. “So it was a PR thing. You didn’t want your golden boy’s downfall to bring discredit to the guild.”

Phil stayed silent, watching the interplay. He was actually still a bit surprised at Britt being the one to come to his defense. Well, kind of.

“So you or the guild saw the evidence, but chose not to act upon it?” asked Reese.

Silence greeted her question. Reese and Phil exchanged looks while Britt crossed her arms and looked intimidating.

“You knew? You knew. How many innocent people died?” asked Rose.

More silence.

“You could have saved so many lives but chose not to. For what? Image? We’re a secret from the world. Whose image were you protecting? You could have saved all those innocent people. Maybe even saved Bruce himself. I lost the man I love because of that?” Rose fell to her knees. She didn’t start crying like Phil expected her to, though. She just sat there with a stunned expression on her face. He wasn’t sure what he should do, but felt he had to do something. Turning his back on the darkened dais, he squatted down in front of Rose and hesitantly placed a hand on a shoulder. He nearly withdrew it when she twitched at his touch, but he maintained his position.

“I’m so sorry, Rose,” he said quietly. Reese joined them, squatting down behind Rose and wrapping her arms around her, their argument from earlier forgotten. Britt moved to stand beside them, arms still crossed like a sentinel guarding her charge. Silence filled the room.

A chair creaked in the darkness. Slow, measured steps echoed around the hall. All four party members turned to follow the sound. The steps turned heavy as they descended steps Phil couldn’t see, then resumed their measured pace until someone entered the circle of light they occupied. Rose gasped, and Phil could understand why.

“They sought to protect my image,” the newcomer said. The gentleman before them was tall, muscular, wore a perfectly tailored suit, and his blond hair was slicked back. “I’m Robert Wright. Bruce was my son.”

*

“Clear the room!” barked Wright.

The sound of footsteps filled the hall for a minute before everything was silent again. Wright pulled a small remote from his pocket and pressed a button, bringing the lights up to a normal level. Then he surprised everyone by sitting on the floor next to them, crossing his legs and unbuttoning his coat.

“Mr. Thomas,” he said. “Can I call you Philip, or Phil?”

Phil exchanged quick glances with Rose and Reese, before turning to give Wright his full attention.

“Uh, sure. Either is fine.”

Wright nodded. “Phil, then. Call me Robert. You’re not a father, are you son?”

“Uh, not to my knowledge, no.” Reese tried to hide an amused look at his answer while Britt quirked an eyebrow at him. He shrugged a little at them, then shrank in on himself a little, embarrassed by his answer. Robert chuckled.

“A safe enough answer, I guess.” He turned serious. “So you’ve never had to watch your pride and joy slowly turn into a psychopath, have you? Don’t answer. Very few people have ever been placed in that position. Yes, ladies, we were aware of Bruce’s transformation. I did try talking to him about it, but he refused to acknowledge any wrong doing. Nothing was done about it because of my position on the council.”

“Forgive me, sir, but is your position so vital that innocent lives are so easily sacrificed?”

Robert eyed Phil. “Forgive me, Phil, but I was led to believe that you were the nervous sort that avoids confrontation.”

“As was I,” said Britt, staring at him.

“It’s true that I’m generally not comfortable around people, especially women, and have been called ‘beta’ by my former best friend on many occasions, but even I have a line in the sand, sir. Maybe I’m recovering from what Chuck did to me, or maybe I’m genuinely upset that people died so this council or whatever could save face. Maybe both.” He shrugged. “You guys wanted me here to ‘to determine if I’m worthy of joining your ranks,’ I believe you said. Honestly, how can one trust a judgement of that after what you’ve just told us?”

“Just tell us why,” Rose pleaded.

Robert looked at each woman in turn. “Ladies, before I go any further, please allow me to apologize to you. You went through some truly difficult times,” he fixed his eyes on Reese briefly before continuing, “and it was in part due to the council’s position. No investigation was launched because the council didn’t want word to get out that one of their member’s children had an alignment shift.”

“You didn’t want the investigation to undermine the position of the council,” Reese concluded. “People died so you guys could remain in your seats.”

“Yes,” he said unapologetically.

“But your son died as well,” said Phil.

“You mean you killed him,” said Robert, staring him down.

Phil flinched under the scrutiny. “Yeah, I killed him. Accidentally. If you want to hate me or turn me in to the authorities, I won’t blame you for that. But it shouldn’t have reached a point where he died, right? He was choking a man to death when I ran into everyone. Don’t you think that if you guys had actually done something when you figured out something was wrong, both your son and those he’s killed would still be alive?”

Robert glared at him, but Phil pushed on.

“Honestly, I think I would’ve been more eager to follow people who are willing to provide help for someone who needs it than people who pretend to not see a problem so they can look good.”

“You’re on very thin ice, Phil,” warned Robert.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I felt I needed to get that out. If that’s how you guys do things here, then I don’t want to be a part of it. So you can go ahead and remove this power I have and let me go on my way.”

Robert looked upon the group, surprise overriding his anger. “You ladies didn’t tell him?”

Reese shook her head. “Didn’t seem relevant, considering how hard he was working to learn the job.”

“Tell me what?” asked Phil.

“Phil, there’s only one way to transfer party leadership,” said Rose.

“Death,” said Britt.

Phil paled. “Oh,” he squeaked out. He glanced at each of them, eyes wide. “Okay, new plan. Um, uh, I don’t have a new plan, actually.” Britt rolled her eyes at him as he shrugged sheepishly. “Obviously I don’t want to die, but I’m really not comfortable in this environment. If I went bad like he did, what would you do?”

Robert shifted uncomfortably. “Standard procedure is to eliminate the rogue leader before he can do too much damage.”

Phil gulped. “You’d kill me. Right. Not that I have any plans of going bad or anything like that!” he immediately clarified. “I just wanted to make sure.”

Rose cocked her head. “Make sure of what?”

“I don’t know!” he responded. “I’m kind of panicking here. I’m surrounded by people that cared for Bruce and being the guy that killed him I’m surprised you all don’t hate me or want to see me dead! I mean besides Brittany, of course.”

Brittany grimaced. “I don’t want to see you dead. I just don’t want you as my party leader.”

“Uh, right. Thanks, I guess. But I think the most confusing person here is you, sir.”

Robert raised an eyebrow. “Me?”

Phil wrung his hands together, nervous about what he was about to say. “I’m not very good at this, but I’m going to be blunt.”

Robert nodded slowly and motioned for him to go on.

“I killed your son, right? I, um, inherited his power, I guess you guys would call it.”

“We’ve already been over this, yes,” Robert said, irritation growing in his voice.

“Yes, right. Um…” he hesitated, causing everyone to look at him in annoyance. He took the leap.

“You don’t seem to care.”

“Phil!” gasped Reese. Rose’s hands shot to her mouth. Even Britt’s eyes widened at the audacity of the statement.

Robert stared at Phil. His eyes never wavered as Phil spit out his words, no trace of emotion crossed his face. Phil started to squirm under the man’s gaze. Had he gone too far? Of course he’d gone too far. What kind of idiot tells a parent that they don’t care about their kid’s death? He started to open his mouth to apologize for his rudeness, but no words came out. He was actually afraid he might say something worse than he already had. He wanted to look down at the floor they were sitting on, but Robert’s eyes held his in place. He waited for the rage to hit.

None came. Shockingly, Robert was the first to break eye contact. He briefly glanced down, then stared up at the ceiling, leaning back on his hands as he heaved a heavy sigh.

“I was always a terrible father. You obviously wouldn’t know that. I am not a decent human being. The council has always come first for me. My wife, God rest her soul, raised Bruce on her own. That’s why he turned out to be the amazing man he was. When the reports started coming in about his shift and the drastic change he’d undergone, all I could think about was how this would harm my position if it were investigated. So quashed the reports and tasked others with cleaning up his messes. He had ceased to be my son and was now a liability.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin on his folded hands, once again making eye contact. He even smirked a little, and Phil suddenly wanted nothing to do with man. His next words confirmed the feeling.

“You did me a favor.”

Silence followed the words. Phil didn’t think any of his team was even breathing. He instantly felt the need to be somewhere else and stood up, shocking everyone. He tried to say something a couple times, but once again nothing came out. He settled for a quick head nod as a goodbye and started for the door, turning his back on the man. He heard the women get up and start to follow him until Robert spoke up again.

“Philip Thomas!”

Against his better judgement, Phil stopped and turned to face the councilman.

“Mr. Thomas, I hereby grant you the title of Party Leader. All that was Bruce Wright’s is now yours. The paperwork has already been completed, Miss Campbell knows where to pick it up.” The stern looking man smirked again. “In gratitude for what you’ve accomplished for the council. Good day, sir.” He then turned and made his way out a door on the far side of the chamber.

*

“Was that smart?” a councilman asked Robert as he entered the back room where they waited.

Robert sighed and flopped into a nearby chair. “I honestly don’t know.”

“Everyone here knows how much you adored your son. I don’t understand why you put on that act.”

“The kid needed provoking. It almost felt like he wanted to be punished for what he did.”

“As any rational human being would. I still don’t understand your actions though. What good can come of making him an enemy of the council?”

Robert stood and paced. “To light a fire under him. Did you know he’s the first pureblooded human to join the guild?”

The four other council members nodded their heads.

“For millennia those of us with mixed blood have stood watch against the evils of the world, but cases like Bruce’s are becoming more frequent. More and more reports are coming in that show a pattern of excessive destruction and casualties. Like the lives of those we protect matter less than completing a successful quest and getting paid. We need an injection of humility and humanity. That young man is scared as hell, but he has compassion. My son was a monster in the end, yet he still carries the grief of killing him.”

“I still don’t understand…”

“Those girls undoubtedly told him of the council, and how our authority is unquestionable, right? He questioned it. You were there. Then he was face to face with me, the father of the man he killed, and called me out for not seeming to care. For someone who was apparently described as ‘beta,’ he’s got some brass ones. I acted the way I did because I want him to change things. If I read him correctly, he’s going to put everything into becoming the best party leader he can be.”

“Which still doesn’t answer-”

Robert cut him off. “And then, hopefully, he’s going to attack us.”

Eyebrows shot up around the room.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“You heard me,” said Robert. “He sees us as the villains now. He isn’t going to want to see people like us in charge. Given our lack of action against Bruce and others like him, he may not even be wrong. Perhaps we’ve become the villains we’ve stood against for so long. Either way, I think it’s time for a changing of the guard, and he may just be the catalyst we need. If Bruce’s death can bring about a positive change in our organization, I’ll accept it as a worthy sacrifice.”

“If that’s what you truly feel, why not just step down?”

Robert smirked. “Just because I’m ready to retire doesn’t mean I don’t want to have a little fun before I go. He has to earn it, so we’ll play the villain for him. We’ll start slow. It’ll be years before he’s ready to challenge us, but eventually we’ll have to directly provoke him. No one would respect him as a leader if we just handed it to him. If it looks like I’m about to take it too far, let me know, alright?”

Hesitant glances passed between the other four members. Robert sighed.

“Do I have to make it an order? Christ, I know it’s been decades, but we’re still a party, right? Let’s have a little fun, but not too much, and hand things off to the new generation with pride.”

““Yessir!”” they answered in unison. One held up her hand.

“Um, why give him Bruce’s assets, though?”

Robert shrugged. “Not like I need them. I’ve already retrieved the keepsakes I wanted from the estate. The house, the money, the vehicles, I don’t need any of it. I see no reason to uproot the girls, either. I didn’t really do him any favors though. He’s also inherited Bruce’s enemies. We’ll see how he handles them. It’ll be a good measuring stick to judge his progress.”

She eyeballed him worriedly. “You just might be a villain after all, you know that?”