LTSV - Harbingers of Change - 44 (Patreon)

The Triumvirate representative moved faster than Mira would have expected. Soneares submitted a request for adjudication in the afternoon. She received a notification before the end of the day with three available appointments.

"This will never happen again," Soneares warned her as they listened to Morwen talk on the phone to Virgil's lawyers.

They'd played a very old variant of 'rock paper scissors' from Mira's actual youth to determine who'd make the call and Morwen lost. From the sadistic smile on her face as she toyed with the person on the other end of the line, Mira suspected she'd thrown the match. Actually, she'd been tied up insider the Tower with administrative work since her arrival and so had not been getting a lot of exercise. Maybe they needed to let her go play with the goblins more often.

Mira's people had gone out of their way to blindside Virgil's side with the adjudication and now his people were trying to stall by saying he couldn't make any of the available appointments. They'd already squandered a whole day refusing to answer Morwen's calls and sending vague emails directly to Mira's inbox asking for 'clarification.'

Asking his daughter to 'clarify' her complaints and objections had often Virgil Bellamy's only warning shot in the past; a coded order to change her story fast, before her 'privileges' started to disappear again.

Mira had already gotten a warning from her banking app that her debit card was frozen again. Adra had reported that Virgil had called 'Mason' and demanded that he put a stop to, quote, "whatever idiocy this is."

She and Adra had agreed in advance that 'Mason' would lay the blame for this court challenge on 'Illya', who was 'concerned' with a pattern of behavior he'd observed in the guardians of his most vital employee. She didn't love that plan, since Adra, as 'Illya', had already opened himself up to people questioning the nature of his interest in 'Samira' by courting her in the past.

"Part of it is your status as the Archmage for the human race, but mostly it's because the locals either haven't realized they can use this service yet or are scared to try. Triumvirate reps are usually scheduled out in increments of years, sometimes decades."

On the phone, Morwen was saying, "Mr. Bellamy is free to decline his right to appear. In which case, he'll also decline his right to represent himself and the representative will automatically rule in favor of the plaintiff—oh, you think he'll be able to make time?"

This meeting was taking place in the penthouse, now that the secretive stuff was over—which was why the door was unlocked when Randall let himself into the living room with a tablet in one hand and a look of concern on his face. Mira could see Cece over his shoulder and the other boys further down the hall.

Oh, no. What now?

Randall paused in the little foyer area as he realized that Mira wasn't alone. "Hey, Mira?" he said, cautiously. "Did you know there's an article about you on the Forty-Mile Zone blog?"

The Forty-Mile Zone was a celebrity news rag that mostly followed the worst moments of reality TV stars, pro-wrestler drama, and keeping track of who was getting engaged/married/divorced/cheating with who.

Mira frowned. She had not, in fact, known that she was FMZ again. Samira had showed up there once or twice during a slow news cycle. Once, when she got into a fender bender and someone told the cops she was driving under the influence. FMZ had to issue a redaction later with the contents of her breath test and footage from an intersection camera proving she had been hit by another car running the red. The other time was when someone tried to blow up her period in rehab into a full cocaine habit, but that also got overwhelmed by people arguing about opioids being overprescribed to young athletes, which was too serious of tone for the blog so they eventually buried the article on their own.

She held out her hand for the tablet and was displeased to see a picture of Virgil and Helena as the hero image for an article entitled "‘We’re Just Trying to Protect Our Daughter’: Parents of Trending Influencer-Turned-Gate-Hunter Make Emotional Plea as Conservatorship Comes Under Fire."

The contents of the article were actually a bit more neutral than Mira would have expected when she skimmed it, but the click-bait title was probably the only thing that most people would see because the article was actually hidden behind a paywall.

"You have a subscription to this?" Mira asked, handing the article back.

"I got the 7-day free trial when I recognized your parents from the picture," Randall explained. "I have a special news alert set up for anything about gate hunters in San Aurelio. When were you going to tell us that you're challenging the conservatorship already?"

Mira pointed at Morwen, who had retreated to the other side of the room to continue cornering her prey. "The other side hasn't agreed to a date yet. Apparently, they've been using that time to shop around for sympathy in the press."

"It won't help," Soneares added as she started gathering her papers. "The court of public opinion might sway a dragon or even a demon mediator. We'll be appearing in front of an Elf and they notoriously hate this kind of mudslinging. Elves aren't a monolith, obviously, but anyone who knows their culture wouldn't try this tactic in front of one. They think character assassination is the last resort of someone who knows they deserve to lose an argument."

"Well, they aren't wrong," Mira allowed. She looked up at her party who had come to stand over her. "Hello."

Cece put her hands on her hips. "Well? Are you going to explain?"

Mira would have thought that Cece had plenty going on with her own mother, at present, but Syrith had mentioned that Mrs. Newman was actually doing very well. The chemo was working for now and her tumors had shrunk, so now Cece had more time to get into Mira's business.

Well, maybe she should have looped the others in sooner. Looking at their disappointed and concerned faces made her realize that she had charged off on her own, for the most part. She hadn't considered the idea that they might have feelings about that, which was the heart of the problem; she hadn't considered it.

Working in a team was harder than she'd thought it would be.

"We're going to try and use Triumvirate law to change my guardian," Mira said. She pulled her knees up to her chest. "I've made contact with someone the Triumvirate rep will have a hard time deciding against. They've agreed to represent me until the conservatorship expires. If this goes through, Syrith will be able to act as a signatory on my behalf and I won't have to wait on anyone's permission to use the System Wallet or Shop. Dad never even replied when I asked him."

Strictly speaking, he'd actually left her on read after she texted him a few times just so she could honestly say that she'd tried—and so that she could ensure there was a digital paper trail for the System to observe.

Alan pushed his way forward from the back. "That's great and all, but I think we would like to know who this person is. What if you're trading one problem for a worse one?"

Mira smiled to hide her wince. There was a reason she hadn't wanted to name her 'guardian.'

"It's the Queen of the Demons," she explained with an awkward smile. "She's the one who arranged the aid mission that's supporting us at the Ruined Borough Gate."

The boys had started to fan out into their usual spots in the living room as she spoke. Cece had gone to the kitchen to fill a glass of water in the sink. There was a clatter as the glass slipped from her hand and she hurriedly caught it.

"You alright in there?" Randall asked, half out of his chair already.

"I'm fine!" Cece called back without turning around. "The glass was just wet. Mira, keep talking, please?"

Mira kind of didn't want to, but did anyway, "She also sponsored our Guild permit. She agreed to become my guardian because limiting external influences on me serves the best interests of the Guild. Mr. Volkov has already been fielding requests for me to design custom spells that would never be needed in a Dungeon. Someone asked me to create cold fusion the other day."

"Is that why you and Luca have been making those 'magic lesson' videos?" Will asked.

Mira blinked and felt her face go hot. "I haven't released any of that series yet," she blurted out. "Who told you?"

"Luca asked me to proofread the script for him," Will explained. "I tried the spells you demonstrated and put them in my book. It's good stuff."

"Why are you wasting pages on those? I already showed you better spells!" Mira objected. He had a limited number of pages in his grimoire! She couldn't begin to imagine what would be involved in crafting a new one! They needed to put that off for as long as possible!

She'd deliberately dialed down the output of the little practice charms she'd drafted for the 'Magic 101' web series. The spells for that class were meant to get new mages acquainted with drafting magical statements.

"Sometimes I just need to light a fire, not blow down a building," Will defended himself. "Anyway, you didn't answer my question. Are you doing the web series to take the pressure off of you as the only source of new magic?"

She nodded and added, "Also, because the System's primer sucks. It's not a perfect solution, but if I reduce people's reliance on me for new spells then I become less of a resource to be fought over."

Note: Two chapters today. I am back in the land of reliable internet after going on a university trip where we stayed in hotels that have the 'last name/room number' sign-in method for accessing the wifi, except no one could figure out the last name of whoever booked our rooms because it wasn't any of the professors present. I ended up using my limited mobile data to get some photography assignments submitted and trusted you guys would understand!

It ended up working out. I realized I needed to add something to this chapter for plot reasons!