Hell Reverse - Part 4

"So you're still not going to tell me where you went for three days."

"Nope."

"Without your phone." Merci rocked back on her heels.

"Nope."

"Not even a hint-"

"No." Deceit fixed her sister with a dead look, and Merci huffed, blowing her rust-colored bangs up out of her eyes again. Deceit frowned again.

"I know, I need a hair cut." She was trying to pout, but Deceit looked entirely unconvinced by her act. Merci shrugged and launched herself into the nearest piece of plush furniture, determined to not give it any further thought for now.

"Commerce in the Hell District is shut down for the next week or so." Deceit reminded her. "You'll have to go to a Surface World salon-" Merci made a face. "-or pin it back for now."

"I'll pin it." Merci promised. They were silent for several minutes, but it was not quiet in the library. The fire crackled maliciously, tearing through kindling faster than what seemed natural. There was creaking of floor boards and the occasional tremor underfoot, but it was muted somehow. Merci did not overthink it- her sister's library was safe and comforting.

"So how was the estate while I was away?" Deceit prodded, though she did not appear overly interested in the possibility of conversation. Rather, it was an excuse to spur Merci forward, and not an unwelcome one in that.

"The front lawn ate the mailman again." Merci rolled onto her belly and rested her chin on her arms, watching intently as Sanford, one of the many elves in her sister's employment, continued to remove the chaos from Deceit's filing system. He seemed to get rather angry at the ever growing pile of folders, and clipped his own hair back out of his face.

"Did you rescue Kennith?" Deceit prompted, signing another document and setting it to the side. She slammed a hand on it when Sanford tried to take that one, too. Sanford frowned, but backed down. Instead, he grabbed a stack of newly sealed documents and dropped them on Deceit's hand- Merci was sure it was out of spite.

"Yea, but I mean, I dunno why we bother." She paused. "He's been bringing novels with him, and one of those glowy stones that cave troll historians use?" Merci let her sentence wobble to a question, unsure. "At least, I think it's the stone that glows. Could be like, some moss or something on it that's doing the bio-luminescence."

"So he has light to read by, perhaps?" Deceit steered her sister back on track. "Maybe if you trained the lawn not to eat people who use the sidewalk, he would not have developed this habit?"

"Well, maybe." Merci thought on this for a moment. "But they don't exactly make 'mutant plant obedience training manuals',"

"No, they do not." Deceit agreed. "They do make garden shears."

"Also fire. Fire works." Merci suggested. "But I honestly dunno if it would work or just piss the lawn off."

"Are you two debating the obedience thing for the front lawn again?" Etna asked, carrying a small tray of tea and sandwiches.

"Aunty Etna!" Merci sat up, only not the correct way and ended up almost going over the side of the couch in the process.

"Possibly." Deceit conceded with a sigh. She capped her pen and dropped it, giving the remaining stack of forms on her desk a withering glare.

"I wouldn't worry about the lawn, dearies." Etna assured them. "It's pretty much stationary, so at least the minor grievances can be handled quickly." She set the tray down on the coffee table near Merci, and then busied herself with putting together a plate for Deceit.

"Eating a mailman on a regular basis is a minor grievance?" Sanford muttered, and then slowly the color drained from his face. "Oh gods, I said that out loud."

"Freddy, on the other hand." Etna leveled her nieces with a look, one at a time. "He's learned how to un-pot himself, and the thing has the zooms." Merci poked at a cucumber and yogurt sandwich.

"Zooms?"

"He's everywhere." Etna frowned. "He almost got into it with the kitchen knives the other day."

"...The kitchen knives?" Deceit looked from Etna, to Merci, the latter of which tried to duck and almost slammed her face into the coffee table.

"It was an accident!" Merci swore, but Etna's face told Deceit otherwise.

"She's been temporarily banned from the kitchen." Etna deadpanned. "And her magical studies has been limited to the dining room."

"The empty one?"

"The empty one." Etna confirmed, placing the plate on top of Deceit's paperwork. "You should eat something. Whatever... adventures you had recently must have been draining."

Deceit shoved a sandwich in her mouth with a pointed look. Etna tried not to grin, and instead feint innocence. It was then that Deceit's phone began making rambunctious seagull noises. The trio gave the device a concerning look.

"You set it to sound?"

"You set it to seagulls?" Deceit looked at them both confused.

"Who set Spade's ringtone to seagulls?"

"Why is Spade texting you? I thought you two weren't talking." Reyna huffed, leaning against the door frame. Her hair was still dripping wet, but in all seriousness, she looked better than before.

"Even when they're not talking, they talk." Merci shrugged. She stood up and took the entire plate of cookies off the platter and headed for the door. "Also these are now mine."

"You can have them." Deceit assured her, and waited until Merci had left before continuing. "Pretty sure they're not chocolate anything."

"Sugar cookies with cocoa powder and cranberries," Etna confirmed. "I'll collect the tray in a few hours." She promised, and took her leave.

"Spade?" Reyna prompted Deceit. The latter still refused to look at her phone, but the seagull screeching had ceased, at least for the moment.

"Away on council business, shouldn't be back for days." Deceit informed her. Reyna did not look convinced.

"Not what I meant."

"We are not an item, no, if that's what you meant."

"Not yet."

"No." Deceit gave her friend a telling look.

"Problems in paradise, hm?" Reyna leaned up against Deceit's desk, ruffling Sanford's hair affectionately in the process.

"Hard to have problems when paradise doesn't exist."

"Sure it doesn't." Reyna shrugged it off. "So, how is the elfling turning out?"

"Not an elfling."

"Not terribly, to be quite honest." Deceit frowned at him. "Thief keeps taking off with my papers. And can't take a joke."

"I can take a joke." Sanford defended. "And you hired me to take your paperwork."

"See? Case and point." Deceit leaned back in her chair, wincing until she found a comfortable way to sit back.

"You're terrible." Reyna shrugged. "When do you go back to work?"

"Probably in the next few hours. The Council has called an emergency Summit."

"Oh?"

"Dead children tends to warrants results." Deceit deadpanned. "Pretty sure that's why he's called."