Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
“Given the caliber of these connection requests, I’m confident they’ll come as soon as possible. So.” Patty moved some of the cards around as Austin walked back in. “First, the top four. How many of the most prestigious cairns did you want to invite?”
“All of them,” Sebastian said immediately, opening up his laptop. “We’ve found that there is intense rivalry between them. From what Niamh can tell, they’ve never all been at the same function. Usually they host, and they invite lesser cairns. They never invite each other to events. Lesser cairns usually choose between them when inviting, and at max two might show at the same party, but they don’t tend to interact too much. The top four are islands. We are going to pit them against each other.”
“Well…” Patty put her fist to her lips and cleared her throat, looking down at the cards. “That is…unexpected. You’ve learned, I’m sure, that the four have very proficient guardians. Those guardians can be tough to manage. I’d worry about hosting so many people in one territory…”
“Managing them will be no problem,” Austin growled.
Patty lifted her eyebrows. “O-kay. Well, that’s four, then. How about any others?”
“I think we should stick to just the top four,” Niamh said. “We don’t want to be wastin’ our time and effort on the lower gargoyles that can’t guarantee us status, so we don’t. We need one of the top four. Let’s focus on that.”
“Agreed,” Austin replied.
“Yeah, that sounds good with me,” Sebastian said as Nathanial nodded.
“Great. That was easy.” Patty collected the cards. “This is probably the only thing that will be easy with those four, but we have to start somewhere, don’t we? We’ll need to limit the number of guardians they can bring. Sebastian, do you have a number ready?”
“Alpha?” Sebastian said, then explained to the rest of us, “I gave him the number and approximate power scale of each cairn’s guardians yesterday.”
“No more than a dozen each within territory lines at any one time,” Austin said. “I am interested to see if they try to sneak in more.”
“If they bring more, they’ll post them just outside of the territory,” Nathanial said. “Some will spread them out, and some will cluster them. They won’t breach the territory line with their extras, though. They’ll follow the rules because they’ll be wary of grievances filed against them by the other cairns, which could reduce their status.”
“No families.” Nessa glanced up from her computer. “Let’s not drag nonessential personnel into our cross hairs.”
“Yeah, that’s probably for the best,” I said, taking a seat next to Austin. “I’d rather not have to entertain them, anyway.”
“Who do they file the grievances to, their mammies and aunties?” Niamh asked. “I’ve never heard of any sort of governing body.”
“The cairn leaders, most notably the higher-status crust of leaders,” Nathanial said, “act as a sort of overall leading force of gargoyles. Filing a grievance is essentially making known an issue that went against gargoyle standards. The filer of the grievance is backing the claim with their honor and their status—no small thing. It’s taken very seriously in the gargoyle community.”
“It can be fought,” Patty said, “but seldom is. Our rules and way of doing things are very well established at this point, without much change through the years. A person doesn’t file a grievance unless it’s a grave offense and they are prepared to stake their reputation on backing it. The more status the filer has, the more weight the grievance carries.”
“Sounds like a load of bollocks.” Niamh went back to the computer. “They could use a proper governing body. Or a kick in the arse.”
“Maybe both.” Nessa bent to the side and leafed through the stack of pages on the couch cushion next to her. She picked one up and held it in the air. Everyone stared at it until she glanced up, scowled, and shook it. “That means someone needs to take this piece of paper to the person who needs it. In this case, it is Austin. Steele. Alpha, whatever.” She shook the paper again. “Look alive, people!”
Ulric jumped forward and snapped up the paper, handing it to Austin.
“That is a summary of the top four’s average defense strategy,” Nessa said, still leafing through the stack. “That’s all the cairns. Here are…” She grabbed up another piece, then another, then two more, and held them up. Jasper grabbed them this time. “There’s a more detailed look at each of those four cairns. Also what their respective uniforms look like so your people can identify them if they try to sneak in. Though why they’d attempt sneaking in in uniform, I don’t know.”
“You’ll definitely want to keep your eye on them,” Nathanial said. “We’re not setting any real rules for this meeting, other than guardian number. If they decide to attack, the alphas will want to know where their people are coming in from.”