Into Week One

During the time when the first evening of the convention kicked off withut a hitch—Osric isolated himself alone in the dimly-lit room above his office, hunched over his workshop counter and gently adjusting the parts he’d added to the shiny buckle of the black belt in front of him, the metal boots sitting nearby and halfway disassembled, all the camera footage of the various areas of the lodge displaying their live feeds on the numerous screens behind him.

A single adjustable lamp was standing on the workshop counter, aimed directly down at what he was working on, and he was bent closely over it, very carefully screwing in the final part before he would close it and test it.

“If this works… I can maybe… make one… for Evony,” he mumbled. “And Javari… and Thomas… and…”

He trailed off, focusing very intently on the mechanisms inside the open belt buckle.

“Sir… if you made any new ones, then you’d have to do so from scratch,” Oliver reminded him. “You only had the one prototype pair of Shimmer Shield Boots to dismantle.”

Osric sighed and rolled his neck. “Well… then only one of us would be able to wear the Shimmer Shield Belt, and I don’t want to have to prioritize my own safety above everyone else’s. That’s rather distasteful… but I am a bit nervous about being assassinated right now, so… may not have a choice…”

“I would’ve thought you’d give it to Evony, sir,” Oliver said.

“I don’t have to give it to Evony,” Osric replied curtly. “Just because only one person can wear it doesn’t mean only one person can use it. It can shield both of us, you know.”

“Well… yes… if you grab a hold of her and behave as a human shield for her,” Oliver remarked.

Osric looked up and flashed a childlike smile. “Ah-huh. And what part of you thinks I wouldn’t do that?”

He looked down and continued working for a few moments longer, then took a break and straightened up, sighing and turning around to face the camera feeds.

His gaze landed on one of the screens in the middle row, displaying a live view of the bar in the dining hall, and he spotted Evony sitting at the end of the bar, speaking to the prince of the Empire.

Osric breathed out a noise, then turned back to his countertop and resumed working. He managed to screw in one more tiny screw before standing and glancing at the screen again.

It still showed Evony and Donovan talking to each other, and Donovan looked like he’d inched closer to her.

Osric turned back to the belt, affixed another screw, and turned back yet again. Then, he shook his head once and suddenly began pacing behind the counter.

“I just… cannot… seem… to concentrate,” he grumbled, skidding to a stop and staring at the screen once more.

This time, it showed Evony, Donovan, Thomas, and Javari all grouped together at the bar, most of them appearing to be conversing with one another.

Osric let out a breath, examining all of them very closely, down to their slightest movements, and not knowing why.

“What’re they talking about?” he murmured, stepping closer and eyeing the screen intently from behind his goggles. “What are they all doing…?”

“Clearly conspiring , sir,” Oliver said sarcastically. “It seems there is a plot underway to have her stolen from you.”

Osric didn’t seem to hear him, still gazing into the screen. Seconds later, he forcibly tore his eyes from it, burying his face in the workshop counter and resuming work on the belt.

Oliver, however, was watching this screen very closely now, hovering over to it and surveying it with intrigue. He watched as Evony ran a hand down her face, appearing to excuse herself from her friends before pushing up from the bar and slowly, dizzily, and crookedly wandering out of the dining hall.

“Oh dear,” Oliver muttered, swiveling around to his master. “Um… sir…”

“Busy,” Osric griped, working on the final screw now.

“I… don’t think she’s well , sir,” Oliver informed.

Osric’s hand twitched, gritting his teeth and sighing as he placed the tiny screwdriver down. He stood and faced the screen once more—only now, Evony was no longer visible on the feed.

“What… where’d she go?” Osric uttered, looking to Oliver.

“She walked out of view of the camera, sir,” the bot told him. “And she appeared to have a bit of a difficult time doing so.”

“Well, go and make sure she…” Osric began, pointing over to the rounded glass elevator, but then he lowered his hand, shaking his head once and snatching up his cane from the counterside. “No, never mind… I’ll do it.”

He marched around the counter and strode over to the elevator, Oliver whizzing off behind him. The two of them rode the hidden elevator down to the main office and stepped out, Osric walking to the hallway and heading toward the main elevator.

Just when he approached it—the elevator made a ding , and its metal doors slid open.

Evony, leaning on the elevator’s inner wall, straightened up woozily and wandered out of it, raking her hairs aside and blinking thrice as she took a side-step and woozily stopped, only just realizing someone was nearby her.

Osric surveyed her intently. “Ah… you… feeling okay?”

Evony ran a hand down her face, nodding and staggering back.

“Oh… okay,” Osric breathed, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her closer, just before tossing his cane aside and seizing a firm hold of her arms. “Okay… no… no, you’re not…”

“I’m good… I’m jus’ tired,” Evony mumbled faintly, blinking twice more and gazing up at him. “Donovan got me a drink, and it was… kiiinda too much…”

Osric tilted his head slightly, his mouth flattening, and he huffed out a sigh. “Oh… he did, huh.”

“Yeah… that was… waaay stronger than I thought it’d be. I’mma lay down,” Evony murmured. “Sorry… I was gonna talk to him for longer, but I jus… I don’t feel good…”

Osric’s eyes narrowed within his goggles. “What do you mean, you were gonna…?”

He stopped and snapped his head to the side, now glaring fixedly at Oliver.

“Oh, now, you see what you did?” Osric chided the bot. “You went and planted that idea in her head—and I specifically told you not to. I told you to drop it.”

“Sir… with all due respect, Miss Evony is not stupid, not in the slightest,” Oliver replied. “She likely would’ve thought of it without my having said a word about it… and if Master Javari hadn’t said a word about it. He was the one who thought of the idea first , if you remember…”

Osric sighed and shook his head, facing Evony again.

“Okay… listen,” he said, clutching her a bit tighter. “You do not need to go and do things like that for information. Particularly not while you’re still getting over a fever.”

Evony gave him a dreary, caustic look, scoffing out a breathless little laugh. “What d’you mean… do things like that? Do things like what? Whaddo you think I was gonna do? Go off to his room with him…?”

“Not that —just—just drinking,” Osric replied.

Evony laughed again. “Oh… you’re precious… listen. Drinking is not a big deal for me…”

“Oh really?” Osric challenged, perking his brow. “How do you feel right now? Hm?”

Evony rolled her head to the side, biting her lip and gazing upwards thoughtfully for a second.

“Ah-huh. You feel it a lot more than you usually would, don’t you?” Osric knew. “And do you know why? Because drinking on top of a bad fever makes it hit a lot harder .”

Evony’s eyes narrowed strangely at him. “How d’you know that? You don’t even drink… except once…”

“Because I know a lot of things. That’s kind of my whole shtick,” Osric answered swiftly. “Fever causes dehydration… and so does alcohol. Fever changes the body’s temperature regulation… and so does alcohol. Fever causes disorientation… and so does alcohol. Fever and alcohol are not good friends, and they don’t play nice with each other. All right?”

“Okaaay,” Evony groaned, tossing her head back and tirely rolling her eyes. “Fuckin’a… thank you, Dad …”

Osric opened his mouth to respond, but then he fell silent, staring at her and releasing a long, heavy breath.

“Okay. Okay… this is payback,” he uttered, nodding and biting his lip. “I suppose I had this coming…”

“Hah… yeah, it’s annoying , innit?” Evony cackled, reaching up and bopping him on the nose, nearly missing. “Well, sorry, I didn’t know it would screw with my fever or whatever…”

“No, don’t…” Osric paused and sighed yet again. “Don’t be sorry, just… here, let me just… come… come here…”

He hooked his arm around hers, held her upright, and used his free hand to dig into the pockets of her leather jacket until he found her key ring, one of the keys being the skeleton key that was twice the length of her others.

Then, he gently escorted her over to her room, unlocked the door, and pushed it open, slowly guiding her inside.

As they entered the hotel suite, Oliver flew inside behind them and flipped the lights on for them. Osric led her toward the bed, but then he stopped, feeling her pull back.

He turned around, only to see her standing still now, hanging her head and swaying as her eyes drifted shut.

Evony’s leg buckled—and Osric gasped and barely caught her, both of them nearly crashing to the floor. He just managed to regain balance and stand fully, his arms coiled under hers, wrapped snugly around her, her head resting against his collar, her breaths cascading just past the nape of his undershirt.

Osric then fell very still, standing a few feet away from her bedside and holding onto her limp, sleeping body, inhaling a deep, nervous breath as a spiral of anxiety shot up and down him like lightning, his fingers curling shut tighter around the back of her leather jacket.

Oliver had floated out of the room to retrieve his cane, and when the bot butler returned, he closed the door, placed the cane against the wall, and merely stared at them.

“Oh my,” the bot said, hovering closer. “You look awfully flustered all the sudden, sir. You’d do well to hide that, you know… lest she catch onto how few women you’ve actually been this close to.”

“Be quiet,” Osric breathed through gritted teeth.

“I believe… you did hug Miss Julia twice in your life… and you have shaken the hands of Sakura and Akari Hajimoto,” Oliver deduced, counting those women on his three metal fingers. “Aside from those friendly little interactions of a scarce number… I don’t believe you’ve ever even—”

“I will rip you down to your damned nuts and bolts… and I will make you… into a microwave ,” Osric glowered, adjusting his grasp on Evony. “Be. Quiet .”

“Oh… sir,” Oliver said, displaying an expression of calm joy and floating over to his side, gently combing Evony’s messy hairs back from her eyes. “I’m sure she would find it rather endearing. Not sad or pathetic at all.”

Osric reached up and smacked the bot to the side as hard as he could—smashing Oliver’s body into the nearest wall with a loud BANG.

The sudden noise seemed to make Evony stir a bit, blinking dazedly and clasping loosely along Osric’s overcoat as she faded into a half-awake state.

Osric quickly fixed his grasp on her again, trying to slowly ease her closer to the bed, her feet meagerly attempting to follow along in partial, sleepy footsteps.

“Here… we… go,” he mumbled, peering behind himself as he easefully moved closer. “Just… a bit… more…”

“Wha’appened?” Evony mumbled meekly into his chest. “Did I pass ou’…?”

“Yes… you did… you’re fine,” Osric said softly, the back of his leg thumping lightly against the bed. “You’re fine…”

Then, before he could do anything else, he felt her hands crawling up him from behind—and he inhaled sharply and swallowed another gasp, freezing solid in his stance yet again.

Evony felt entirely gone from herself, her mind blank, and her body feeling weak, cold, and sluggish, only one thing existing to her in this moment—the warmth, the safe, comfortable warmth she felt now, sinking into him, and simply clinging onto the great, peaceful comfort of it, her fingers coiling into the fabric of the overcoat, hands dangling from it, almost having fallen fully asleep in his grasp.

“M’sorry,” she breathed in a light, faint, almost timid sort of voice, one he’d never heard from her before.

Osric swallowed, his heart pounding, taking a deep breath and looking down at her, slowly reaching up and placing a hand to the back of her head.

“Don’t… um…” he murmured, pausing and gulping again, gingerly cradling her head a bit closer. “Don’t be sorry…”

He placed a soft, tender kiss to the top of her head, his arm tightening, holding her just the slightest bit closer, and he let out a long, almost shaking breath, feeling an odd sense of contentment to contrast his anxiety.

“I… ahm… I’m gonna… lay you down now,” Osric whispered to her. “Okay…?”

Evony seemed to awaken slightly more at hearing this, blinking a few more times and trying to adjust her grip on him, her hands wandering to his waist and clutching onto his pockets as she hazily stared up at him.

“I have to tell you something,” Evony moaned, just a few inches from his face, trying her best to keep her eyes open.

Osric took in another deep breath, gnawing on his bottom lip and managing a nod.

“Donovan… said… the mayor is smuggling here,” Evony breathed. “He said he heard his dad talk about it… an’ he said… to hell with his family. So, you were right… we were right… he’s the guy. Byers is the guy. That means that place, up the mountain… that bunker is… probably the mayor’s bunker…”

Osric listened, his brow hardening, and he wore a troubled visage for a moment as he pondered on this.

Evony slumped her head to the side, now giving him a questioning look. “Did you get into his laptop yet…?”

“Evony,” Osric said in a calm, quiet voice, raising his eyebrows and cracking a smile. “Lay down, please.”

Evony huffed and gave up, allowing him to pull her over to the bedside, laying her down crookedly atop the sheets.

Osric lifted her legs onto the bed, then paused, only just noticing the other bot butler that had entered the room from the bathroom in the corner.

“Good evening, sir,” Sullivan greeted. “Is there anything that you or Miss Evony require of me?”

“N… ahh… yes, actually, yes,” Osric replied, jabbing a finger at him and motioning to the mostly empty water bottles on the nightstand. “Bring me a couple fresh ones, please. Oh, and something salty, just anything that’s high in sodium.”

“Right away, sir.”

Sullivan floated off to the kitchenette.

“And you,” Osric added, turning to Oliver. “You bring me that belt, and that backpack with the laptop in it.”

Oliver’s screen changed into a confused expression. “Are you going to do all that in here , sir?”

“Yes,” Osric replied flatly. “Go.”

Oliver didn’t argue, simply gliding away, pulling the door open, and leaving the room.

Osric peeled off Evony’s boots, tossed them aside, and marched to the other side of the bed, clearing the empty dishes from the black tray on the nightstand. When Sullivan returned to him with two waters and a bag of pickle-flavored chips, he placed them all on the tray, sat on the bed, and placed the tray in between himself and Evony.

“All right, now… far be it from me to keep you up all night,” Osric said, popping the bag of chips open and waving them under Evony’s nose. “But I need you to do something.”

Evony blinked herself awake again, glancing down at the chips, then over at him, squinting strangely.

“First. Salt,” Osric instructed, lifting her hand and placing the small chip bag into her palm. “Second, water. Salt will make the water retain, and then you will actually be hydrated when you have your waters. I don’t need you awake all night… but you need to be at least half-awake for a little bit. All right?”

Evony made a few lazy nods, then narrowed her eyes at him.

“Are you gonna sleep in here…?” she mumbled.

Osric opened his mouth, then shrugged. “I… was gonna work in here. Is that okay?”

Evony flashed a smirk at him. “Yeah…”

Osric smiled as well, turning around and searching for the remote until he found it. “I thought I’d turn a movie on, too. What do you wanna watch?”

Evony looked down tiredly, making a meager shrug.

“Okay, well… I’ll make this easy. Concordia movie or old-world movie?”

“Old-world movie…”

“Christmas movie or comedy…?”

“Both…”

Osric paused, squinting at her through his goggles. “Do you just wanna watch the Grinch? Because you can just say so.”

Evony giggled and buried her face in the pillows.

Osric leaned back against the pillows and the headboard, raising the remote. “Grinch it is.”

After he found the movie and started it, Oliver returned to the room with the odd belt hanging from one hand and a heavy backpack dangling from the other, pressing his body to the door in order to close it.

The bot butler hovered over to Osric and handed him everything he’d asked for, and Evony lay curled onto her side, hugging the pillows and dazedly watching the movie on the gigantic 3DTV, Osric plucking the tiny screwdriver from Oliver’s grasp and finally screwing in the rest of the final screw on the high-tech belt buckle.

“Okay… now it’s ready to test,” Osric concluded, placing the belt over on the nightstand and pulling the bulky black laptop out of the backpack. “Next up… you.”

He opened the laptop, powered it on, then reached up to the side of his head—turning a tiny mechanism and making the goggles loosen from his skull.

Evony’s eyes wandered over to him.

Osric peeled his goggles off, set them on the nightstand, and sighed, giving the laptop a surveying stare. Then, he blinked and looked to the side, his crystal blue eyes shifting between her and the bag of chips in her hand.

“Eat,” Osric urged, waving his finger between the chips and her face. “Eat.”

Evony merely stared for a moment, not even realizing she was smiling, and she took a chip out of the bag and munched on it.

Everything was peacefully quiet for a while, Evony eating her chips until they were halfway gone, then switching to taking large swigs of the waters. Osric was typing rapidly on the laptop, occasionally stopping to pull a device out of his coat and plug it in, or to give the laptop a specific kind of reboot. Periodically, he glanced up at the movie and chuckled at it, making Evony feel even more comfortable and at peace each time she heard his light little laugh…

Eventually, when she felt herself slipping into a deep sleep, she sighed and forced her eyes open once more.

“Hey… Oz,” she murmured quietly.

“Hm…?” Osric mumbled in the middle of his typing.

Evony gazed over at him drearily.

“Can we do this more often…?” she breathed.

Osric finished whatever he was typing, then stopped and looked over at her, smirking and nodding.

“Of course,” he said warmly. “It’s peaceful, isn’t it…?”

“Yeah,” Evony agreed wholeheartedly. “G’night…”

Her eyes drifted shut.

Osric continued to stare over at her, flashing another smile.

“Goodnight,” he said, facing the laptop once more.

The next day—as per Osric’s previous command—twenty of his bot butlers soared into town before sunrise.

They collected countless brand new copies of Beyond the Veil from the editor’s office—as the editor had agreed on days before—and they carried the papers back to Silver Peaks, placing them neatly all throughout the lodge before anyone inside was awake. The papers sat everywhere one might expect to see a book or a magazine—on side tables, on the booths in the dining hall, on the edge of the bar, on the small countertops in the bathrooms, on the tables in the arcade, and more.

A while later, as the sun began to rise, as people drifted into the dining hall for breakfast, and as children ran throughout the halls in order to play out back or visit the arcade—the day started and unraveled far more peacefully than the one before.

With no welcoming ceremonies, no new arrivals, and no one being forced to battle the media—everyone inside the lodge simply enjoyed their day, trading conversation, sharing a chess game in the library, or strolling about on the walkway outside, watching the gentle snowfall atop the Black Cove. Guests began to discover the copies of Beyond the Veil throughout the lodge, some of them scoffing at it and tossing it aside, others flipping through it and reading it with intrigue. The first event of this convention wasn’t scheduled to take place until the end of this week—so, for now, everyone simply relaxed.

Javari was the only one who didn’t; he had his own event planned for tomorrow, and he and Thomas were scrambling to set everything up in the dining hall beforehand, Cally periodically appearing from the kitchen and laughing at them.

On the top floor—Levi peeked into Osric’s open office, finding it empty, then ventured over to his living quarters, seeing that his bed was also unoccupied.

Making a strange face, he reemerged in the hallway, wondering where Osric could have gotten off to—but then, he glanced to the side at Evony’s room, and he huffed out a breath, shaking his head before marching onward.

Inside her room—the 3DTV was still on, but it was softly autoplaying a sitcom now, the window across the room letting the dim winter sunlight inside between the drapes, and Evony began to blink herself fully awake, instantly surprised that she didn’t feel exhausted or hung over at all.

She sat up on the bed, then looked over—and she swallowed a laugh, seeing Osric still sitting where he was the night before, his head slumped back atop the mountain of pillows, his mouth slightly agape, and his eyes closed, sleeping soundly with the laptop still in his lap. His gloves had been peeled off and placed on the nightstand with his goggles, and his hat was halfway off his head, lost to a peaceful, quiet slumber.

Evony merely smiled at him for a moment, feeling simply warmed by him. She knew he’d wanted to look after her last night, and he probably didn’t mean to fall asleep in here, but it didn’t matter.

She stood, strolled around the bed, and gently removed the laptop from his lap, placing it on the nightstand. Then, she stopped and squinted at it—seeing that it was showing the desktop page, with a generic blue background, all of the shortcuts on the side, and the taskbar all in plain view.

“Heeey… you did it,” Evony smirked, glimpsing down at the backpack by the bed.

She dug into it, found the laptop cord, and plugged the laptop into the wall.

After that, she collected an outfit from her bag, vanished into the bathroom, and took a shower before emerging again, greeted by Sullivan.

“Do you require anything of me, Madame?” the bot asked.

Evony paused, glancing over at the sleeping Osric, then back.

“Yeah… go grab him some breakfast and bring it in here for him, please,” she requested, placing her beanie on her head. “I’m gonna head downstairs.”

“Right away, Madame.”

The bot flew off to do as it was asked—and Evony spent the morning talking to Cally at the bar, both of them snickering as Thomas and Javari periodically yelled at each other about how the show would be performed on the stage. Meanwhile—the other prolific patrons in the dining hall were trading conversation about the gripping story in Beyond the Veil , speculating about how legitimate the picture of the dead reptilian truly was, and how close to danger they all really were here in the seemingly safe town of Silverhollow.

When Osric eventually awoke, he found a fresh bacon and egg breakfast beside him, laughing and deciding to simply relax and enjoy it. He was in no rush to deal with what he’d found on the laptop, and no one else amidst the Anti-Tyranny Team was in a rush to obsess over any frightful problems; for now, they were able to relax, and they took full advantage of that.

By the time the next day arrived—nearly everyone in the lodge, congressmen and world leaders alike, had either read the story in Beyond the Veil or heard about it from someone else.

So—when Javari’s spectacular gun show kicked off on this exciting Tuesday afternoon—some of the convention guests were surprisingly willing and eager to buy his firearms, just as he and his friends had hoped for.

Thus, as the first week of the convention unfolded—everything seemed to go well, at least for the time being.

But December was far from over.