Chapter seventy eight

In the end I had to teleport to Lidia's room , where Lidia was sleeping since it was late at night in Montreal, and get Lidia before Elise would come down. I don't know what Lidia told her but she wasn't screaming and wailing anymore. The two were in the corner whispering non-stop.

It was getting late so I had to report back to New Hope to tell them I was successful in my mission. I left the two with chairs and a table with steaming plates of food on top in case they got hungry, as I said before one of the most useful functions of the storage ring was that time doesn't pass inside, that's why I had loads of warm food in there and it would never get cold or spoil.

I teleported to the palace and found Sarah in the room I found her previously , she had told me it was the war room. When I entered she immediately ran up to me and hugged me,

"Are you alright? I was starting to get worried that something had happened to you."

"You didn't need to , you know that I am powerful enough that I wasn't in any real danger."

"I knew it in here," she pointed at her head,"but until I saw you were safe I couldn't help but worry in here." she pointed at her heart.

"That's sweet Sarah, but it wasn't even a battle, I just scared the general into submission. Gondar's army won't be a problem anymore and the general has agreed to talk to all the other nations on our behalf. Gambela should be safe from foreign aggression for quite some time."

"Thank you John, you've done so much for me, I don't even know how I could thank you."

"I could think of several ways...."

"I'm sorry John, I can't tonight, I'm too busy with plans to expand the city and setting up effective administration all over Gambela. God , sometimes I wish I wasn't Queen."

"If it is stressing you out, why don't you just quit?"

"Because my people need me John, I wish I could give this position to someone else , but I'm the only person that cares for the common people that the nobles listen to. Things are getting so much better and people finally have hope, I can't abandon all that."

"That's all well and good but you have to remember they are not the only ones who need you, I need you too."

Then I gave her a deep lingering kiss and teleported back to my secret lair.

I was amazed to see that the previously distressed woman who wouldn't stop screaming was sitting quite calmly and eating dinner. Elise had changed a lot since the last time I saw her. The best term I had to describe her back then was biker chick. She had spiky black hair and wore a leather jacket, she had the biker chick look down pat. Now her short spiky hair had been professionally styled and she had discarded her leather jacket for a suit jacket and skirt combo that was almost a perfect replica of Lidia's.

The two seemed to be enjoying the food and giggling about something. When Elise looked up and noticed me her previous fear had vanished as if it was all an act, now she just seemed curious.

"Hello my name is John, I don't think we were ever properly introduced."

"My name is Elise. Sorry about the whole screaming thing, Lidia has told me about you and sorry for overreacting."

"Apology accepted, I apologize for kidnapping you . Which reminds me , won't you be missed ?"

"Of course I'll be missed, I'm the manager of the ouroboros bank in the burrows, a position I only took because I wanted to be close to you Lidia. I have an important meeting in about thirty minutes."

"It's all right , I can get you back there immediately , I just need you to make an oath that you will not reveal anything about me or Lidia."

She did as I instructed , finished her dinner and said goodbye to Lidia , making her promise she would visit her.

I then held her hand and teleported back to the alley that we originally teleported from.

By now it was getting dark , and even though there were street lights thanks to the new developments , there were still areas that looked sinister and dangerous , so I offered to walk Elsie to her destination to which she gratefully accepted.

"So who are you meeting this late at night?"

"Hey, I didn't choose to meet this late , but when the lord of the city asks for a meeting at a certain time you don't question him."

"So you are going to the lord's mansion?"

"Yeah, he is an old friend of my father's, so I should be OK there."

At the gates of the mansion I was surprised to see the Lord of the city himself waiting to greet Elise, I thought this was a rather odd thing to do since they didn't seem that close from what Elise told me. He greeted Elise warmly then turned to me with sharp, slightly hostile eyes.

"And who are you?"

"Hi, my name is Tom. I'm a friend of one of Elise's friends."

He started to mutter under his breath, but I had almost supernatural hearing so I heard every word he said. "Friend of a friend my ass, that wasn't how it looked when she was hugging you on the streets."

Now I was starting to get suspicious, how and why does he know about the incident on the street?

I tapped my right wrist with my left hand four times, which was a prearranged signal for Jules to look for magic in the area. She replied almost immediately,

"John, he is doing something to her, there are no patterns in the spell, I can't make out what he is trying to do"

She showed me the spell, and suddenly I saw numerous green mana 'tentacles' , which was how the spell looked, growing out of his chest area and trying to wrap around Elise. I discreetly took out Tollo and dispersed the spell. I might not personally be close to Elise but she was one of Lidia's friends , so I was going to try my best to protect her.

"Oh, I'm also Elise's assistant, that's why I'm here with Elise."

I was previously going to drop off Elise and go back home, but after all of that suspicious behavior I wasn't going to leave her with him. Elise looked confused but thankfully she didn't contradict me. Cedric simply grit his teeth and said,"wonderful"

A few minutes later things were getting stranger and stranger. We were at a small table set for two with fancy cutlery and candlelight, which I found strange because the rest of the mansion had magical lighting. Cedric reluctantly made the servants add a third chair for me.

After we sat down Elise started talking about business but Cedric didn't seem very interested. He just popped a bottle of wine and pored a glass for her and me. I found this very suspicious , but since I had the nanites to protect me from poison I took a sip.

"John, the wine contains compounds that act as a powerful sedative and several aphrodisiacs."

WHAT? The old man was trying to roofie Elise?