Those that Fight

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

02/22/98:

Oriana came in through the front door just as I was coming
down the steps to leave. She smiled when she saw me. "Going
some where?"

I stopped halfway down the steps, shrugging a bit. "Rachel
wanted to talk to me about the Mouse."

Her eyes narrowed as she understood who I was referring to.
The Mouse we had taken from Mydisia, the trader who brought
the Plague.

"Well then," she said, "I'll see you when you get back."

I shook my head. "I can dally a few minutes. Though I was
expecting you back a couple days ago."

She sighed, walking over to the couch and sitting down. "The
House's electrical system broke down. As soon as one fuse
was replaces another went off some where else in the house.
Took an electrician a day to trace it down to light in the
front entry." She smiled, "so how was your week?"

I shrugged again, sitting down on the steps. "It's been...
interesting. I was actually thinking that maybe we should
move. All of us, to a bigger house. We would all have a few
rooms to ourselves and I could sleep in a bed again now that
I'm sleeping again."

She gave me a dark look, tilting her head slightly. "Moving
Fox? You've had this house for years, why would you want to
move?" A look of realization crossed over her face. "What
happened?"

I took in a deep breath. "Someone left a package at the
front door."

She looked concerned, "What was it?"

Leaning back slightly I frowned. "Some smokeless powder, a
mercury switch and about five pounds of nails."

She closed her eyes, leaning forward slowly. "Is everyone
ok?"

I stood. "Everybody's fine. I didn't trust something just
left on the doorstep, I have a drop box for that. Though I'm
glad I found it, if it was Sora or Naomi they would have
brought it in."

She sighed, standing herself and walking over to me. "I'm
glad you found it before it went off. Do you have any idea
who sent it?"

"Friends of Grasion's I would imagine. They don't really
like us."

"I see," she responded, her ears laying back a bit. "I'm
going to talk to the Guild, get someone to watch the Hall
side of the t-curtain. If they try again will be able to
catch them."

"Is that a good idea?"

She frowned. "I'm not sure, but I think I can get someone at
least to help with it."

I considered it, then nodded. "Be careful then, I don't want
you to get deeper into the Guild then you already are."

"Don't worry about me Fox, I'm be fine." She said with a
slight smirk.

I rubbed the back of my neck. "I do have to go now. Newt and
Ken should be back in an hour."

She nodded, "I'll watch for them."

I smiled at her then went out the front door. I didn't like
springing that on her just out of the blue, but she needed
to know that our lives have been threatened.

What she didn't need to know about was that the bomb was
wired wrong so it didn't go off even after I had opened it.

What can I say, some times I'm _really_ dumb. It was a
mistake I wasn't planing on making again. I do actually have
a drop slot inside of the Hall, in fact it's part of the
Hall's official mail room. Everything going through there
gets checked a few dozen times for bombs and for now on,
everything goes through there.

Really though, I have been thinking of moving for a while.
One of the main reasons is that I have been sleeping again,
better then before. Maybe four hours a night now. It was
becoming a pain to sleep on the couch, I needed my own room
again.

Sora needed a room of her own as well. Jadith has made some
noise about moving in some time, she thinks we all need her
help. She's usually right.

What I really wanted was a Castle, a small one at least.
Though not may places have them for sale. I was considering
building one some time.

Though until I could build my dream fortress I wanted to
move some place away from Hall. Someplace not out in the
middle of nowhere, I really wanted to be around people. I
think I have found the place too.

A mansion on the far side of Prid from the Hall. To far away
to use a teleport curtain. It's former occupants had decided
not to re-join the Council after the Hammerheads, and it had
been up for sale sense.

It wasn't a huge mansion, but was pretty spread out. It had
two main advantages though. It was on a fold, and it had
sixteen bedrooms. As well as two kitchens and a few other
major rooms.

I think it would be perfect, all of us have are assorted
places we needed to be alone. Oriana was using the cave
until Sora moved down there, I had most of the woods outside
and so on. The house was big enough we could all have are
private spaces.

Plus we would be around people, Newt would have kids her own
age to play with.

I was going to show it Oriana and Sora as soon as I could, I
wanted there approval before I actually bought it. Maybe
Jadith as well if she wanted to come along, or anyone else
for that matter.

My thoughts where diverted as I came to a steal door at the
end of the hallway. I was in a far corner of the Hall, where
the prison was. The strongest prison on Prid, it was there
that those who committed the worst of crimes against the
Council were held.

Grasion was there, as well as the Mouse and the members of
the Hammerheads that were running the attempted coupe.
Rachel was waiting for me inside.

The guard at the door stopped me check to see if I was
allowed to enter. After a short phone-call inside he opened
the door just wide enough for me to get through, then
closing it right behind. If I had a tail then it would have
been caught in the door.

Another guard was waiting for me on the other side. He first
handed me a visitors ID, which I clipped to my shirt, then
escorted me into the prison.

After transversing a warren of small hallways I was finally
escorted into an observation room. Rachel was waiting for me
inside, her muzzle stuck in a book.

As the door closed behind me she looked up, smiling. "Hello
Fox," she said, she looked slightly worried. Her ears
flicking a bit as she set her book down.

I looked at the darkened glass on the wall opposite the
door, then back to Rachel. "How are you?"

Her smile lessened. "I'm doing all right."

I took a seat next to her. "You look worried."

She rolled her head a bit. "I just meet Dwight." The way she
said it sounded like she though I knew who he was.

"He is?" I asked.

She looked a bit startled, but it seemed to pass after only
a second. "Yes, you wouldn't know yet would you. He's been
selected as the new Council Head."

I must have looked stunned, because she just continued on.

"He'll be appointed the twenty-seventh of next month.
Myself, I only found out two days ago. I knew my term was
coming to an end soon, but I never really knew when."

I nodded, running my hand through my hair. "What's he like?"

She frowned. "He has a pain behind his eyes and it makes me
worry. He's fully qualified of course, but I wonder if
that's enough. He's carrying some kind of hatred and I fear
he may use the Council to avenge it."

"Oh hell," I sighed.

"So, I'm going to appoint you the Secondary Supervisor for
his term in the office." She said with a small smile.

That brought me up a bit short, "and what exactly is a
'Secondary Supervisor'?"

Her smile broadened. "A small rule in the original laws of
the Council. It's someone who is appointed by the past Head
to watch over there replacement. If it can be proven there
unfit for the job you can have him removed by call for a
majority vote of the Council."

I nodded, "I see. Has this ever been used?"

Rachel frowned. "Never, the position it self has been vacant
for almost a century."

I shook my head. "Are you sure it's still part of the laws?"

"Yes," she replied, "Page actually brought it to my
attention yesterday. She did all the research on it before
the Hammerheads, just in case they acted after I left
office."

"All right then, I'll take the job. I mean, how bad could
this guy be?" I said with a slight smile. "Speaking of Page,
any luck yet?"

She shook her head. "None, but I have a few of the best data
hounds the Council has working on it. They'll find something
soon."

'I hope,' I thought to myself.

Standing up Rachel walked over to the darkened window,
looking out onto her reflection. I stood up myself and
joined her.

"So, How the Mouse?"

Tilting her head up she ordered the lights in the room to
dim. For a few seconds the glass remained dark but slowly
cleared, showing us an brightly lit room on the other said,
painted all in white.

In one corner sat the Mouse, nude and curled up into a ball.
Hir tail was slowly twitching accost the floor in short
jerks. As the lights in the room brightened sie lifted hir
head and looked towards us, or at least the reflection of
herself in the glass.

She yelled a stream of words at the glass, then curled back
up into herself.

Rachel raised the lights in the room back to there normal
level, at the same time the glass darkened again.

"Has sie's been like this sense sie arrived?" I asked.

"No," Rachel answered, "the first month sie would almost
never shut up, yelling at anyone who came past. We had to
sedate hir just to get hir striped. Sie won't dress, sie
barely eats, some times sie sits in hir own waste for days."

I let out a long sigh. "Do you understand what sie's
saying?"

"Once again no. The translator can't pick anything up, the
psychologists think sie's spouting gibberish."

I crossed my arms. "What else do they think?"

"That we did something to make hir act like this." She
answered, moving to sit back down in her chair. "I agree
with them."

Looking at my own reflection in the darkened glass I
frowned. "So you want me to try and do something about
this?"

She nodded, "You mentioned that you once meet someone else
from there world. You might be able to convince her to help
us."

"If I can find her again. I'll look around though, I want to
find out who made the Plague as much as anyone else."

"Maybe even more," she commented.

I didn't answer.

-----

This story is (c) 1998 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.