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"Oh, look, someone's about to break their bones," Maggie says.
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Dmitri Wisbane looks up from his plate to watch, idly, as maddox ruchbah shoots down from the sky. So does his lunch guest, Emma.[break][break]

They both stare for a second as Maddox drop dramatically from his point of suspension, and Dmitri's expression turns to something hard to read, a mix of exasperation and boredom.[break][break]

"Is this what you wanted me to see?" he asks, tilting his head as though speaking to a child. The woman before him was so young that he honestly has to wonder. As far as he had recalled, the previous delegation The New Dawn had sent had all been old men, decaying in their bodies. Emma was new, but that didn't mean she was any better.[break][break]


The woman surprises him when she scoffs. There is something in her eyes, he thinks. A fire. An anger he knows all too well, and he wants to push her buttons, he wants to see what she can really do if they tossed all this pleasantry and politics aside. Alas, when she speaks, she disappoints him again:[break][break]

"You still ignore the threat of---"[break][break]

He's had enough. Emma is interesting, but she's pathetic -- trying to use some symbolism to schedule their meeting on a date she thinks will ever be remembered, cobbling together some coalition against him, as though tacking on multiple sources of power would fix the essence of the problem. There is no source. [break][break]

He puts Seraphine's wand on the table. He reveals it carelessly, as though setting down a glass of wine.[break][break]

"Emma, darling," he begins, the name laced with ice and venom. He lets it hang, and then, cheerily, he says: "If you wanted to work together, you could've just said please."

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The worst part about being an agent of chaos is that, often, you aren't the only one. Farah had not expected Riker's explosive op-ed to take hold -- she had assumed Sybaris would fall under suspicion, sure, but this was mutiny. And she had not expected to see so many white cloaks in the crowd, even though she was kind of counting on it.
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Farah knew, vaguely, of the god that the New Dawn worshiped. But Seraphine, like any god, had had her image distorted and refracted by the lens of myth and history: she meant nothing to Farah.
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But the Hydra head was curious, as always, to learn.
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That's why she had stepped into the crowd and slit someone's throat, idly exchanging her trench coat for their white hood, tsking at the impracticality of it all. That's why she hummed as she mingled among the humans shouting their curses, that's why, when the chaos broke out, someone looked to her and spoke.
[break][break]

"Are you a believer?" the man asks her, and she blinks. He is gesturing wildly to a nearby door to some rundown building, offering her refuge, she realizes.
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A crooked smile appears on her face -- slow to form, unlike the chaos that grows around her. Even amidst elephants and the depraved shrieks of the wounded, Farah never raises her voice, never falters.
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"Of course," she says. "I'm a true believer."

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I am so glad the Jubilee isn’t this big every year. Cain thinks as he signs another paper, squinting at the words before adding it to the ever growing stack, already a foot high. A winged battalion member takes the stack and straightens it. He’d asked for his old battalion members to come by and help with the entire ordeal—it was far too much work for one coven leader. And it was nice to catch up with old friends, too.
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Ava files it away in a folder before off-handedly commenting. ”So what do you think about the whole Sybaris situation?”
[break][break]
Cain hums before laying down the pen. A quick break wouldn’t hurt, right? The gears in his mind turns before he starts his breakdown of the situation.
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“The riots downtown, Riker's op-Ed...Dmitri is reckless, but he has the power to shut things down if he wanted to. But he's not making a single move…”
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"…so he has something up his sleeve?"
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"Yeah...sure." He doesn't sound too convinced. Dmitri playing the long game just to deal with some noise doesn't make any political sense. If he wants to nurse a mutiny, he needs something he stands to gain.
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That's when he remembers chatting, a little drunk, with Cassidy Wolfe when they heard of Dmitri's appointment around two years ago. How, even then, he had asked her:[break][break]

What kind of leader do you think Dmitri will be?
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And she had said, with lidded eyes and scarlet skin:
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Leader? I don't know. I've only ever seen him hungry. I can't imagine what he's like when he's full. I don't think it exists.
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"Maybe," Cain says. "But I'm more afraid of why Dmitri's doing what he's doing, than what he's doing..."
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He's about to say something else when he's suddenly cut off by a knock, his assistant entering immediately after.
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”C-Cain…there’s a bill from you. From the Delphi’s Downtown Aquarium.”
[break][break]
Cain quirks an eyebrow before grabbing the bill. He slaps his forehead, the sound of it reverberating across the park.
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”50,000 gold?!”