Erin Quill was working on the blackmail problem, answering calls and coordinating efforts, his back turned to the door of his office, when a voice behind him softly said, “Erin Quill”.
Without even looking back, he responded. “Yes. And who might you be? I literally don’t have time right now.”
“Oh, don’t pretend you don’t know me, Mr. Quill,” the man said in a smug, silky voice.
“Of course. Our dear Guardian of the State, the honorable Sir Padelheb,” Quill said sardonically, abruptly lifting his head from the sheet of orders he was going over. “Foremost advisor to the old King himself. For what reason do you find yourself plugging up my door?”
Padelheb chuckled slightly. “You are under arrest for high treason, Mr. Erin Quill.”
Quill whirled around and narrowed his eyebrows. Padelheb stepped to the side to allow two guards in full armor and wielding pistols to step in.
“Just what do you think you’re charging me with, Padelheb?”
Padelheb laughed again. “Come now, Erin Quill. It’s obvious to everyone.”
“Keep on babbling, nutcase.” Quill stepped subtly to the side of the desk. “What’s obvious?”
“Why, your efforts to ensure that the perpetrators of a rather distressing blackmail get paid, of course.”
Quill sighed and tilted his head to one side. “You know full well that they could wreak some serious damage with that information, Tyro Padelheb. The best option is to pay them.”
“You have, on various and multiple occasions, told insidious lies and invented elaborate reasons to ensure that the enemies of the state get our money! Really, now? There is absolutely no excuse why you are not making the
slightest effort to keep our coin! You’re just letting them take it! You are a disgrace to the honorable men of the Republic!”
“Idiot! Look outside!” Erin Quill gestured wildly. “You see that protest? It’ll be a thousand times worse if the Cherub notes get out. What good will your honorable men be when the entire city comes to burn our buildings down, eh?”
Padelheb grinned like a jackal. “Well, then having a bright but antisocial scientist in custody to blame it all on will be a serious help, no?”
Erin Quill grew red in the face. “You are seriously considering-”
“Oh, it will be easy. After all, it was your research into the neurochemical nature of sentience that sparked this project in the first place. Just a few memos changed, a couple gram of silver passed here and there, and it’ll be
oh so obvious that Erin Quill, wormhole engineer, was the driving force behind the perversion of our children! Ooh!”
“And, I suppose, you’ll be the hero-”
“Oh?” Padelheb said. “I’ll just be the nice, humble Guardian of the State, doing what has to be done and removing treachery from the highest levels of our government.”
“And then?” Quill inquired.
“And then I'll lead our men to victory and get our secrets and money back, obviously,” he answered. “The payment will be removed. Those people you've caught will be instantly arrested rather than being allowed to continue their devious plots.”
“It'll blow up in your face. You can't get the money back without them spilling the secrets.”
Padelheb chuckled again, his moustache lifting a bit. “You have no idea what I can and can't do, Erin. You're so woefully limited. So… constrained to your principles and your loyalties. No ambition. No desire to move up.”
“That's right. I don't partake in your games of greed and deceit,” Quill spat in answer. “So what do you want?”
“What do I want? I don't want anything. I'm just a devoted servant of the Republic.” Padelheb smiled again. “But it's come to my attention that the old King has no male descendants, so he'll have to appoint a successor.”
“So you want the throne,” Quill concluded.
“And what better way to get into the old King’s favor than to root out scum and corruption from inside the Republic?” Padelheb asked.
“He won't allow this.”
“He's already allowed this,” Padelheb shot back. “He's old, sick, and tired. Isn't it lucky that he has a trustworthy advisor beside him to warn of threats to his role from within?”
Erin thumped his head into his palm. “You have no idea of what's out there waiting for you. I do. You haven't seen the threats I've seen. The cities will burn and the people will die. Secrets, shadows, and horrors that will tear apart the Republic. Take me out, and it'll be chaos everywhere.”
“Chaos is a ladder, Erin,” Padelheb answered. “The people will endure. Most importantly, they'll give their thanks to
me.”
Erin Quill froze.
“I… I know what you are,” he stammered, almost whispering.
Padelheb continued to smirk. “I'm the future king of the South, boy,” he said in a condescending tone.
“Not that, you old nutter,” Erin shot back. “
Goddamit! I know what you are, I know who you are and where you're from.”
“This would go a lot easier if you didn't ramble nonsense, Quill,” Padelheb said menacingly. He gestured to the guards and they began moving forward.
“You're from outside. You're an expy. An… an interdimensional refugee. A runaway across reality itself. Tried and convicted of your crimes in your home universe,” Erin Quill shouted, shaking as he spoke. “The madness whom even madmen hunt, the evil whom even demons fear, so vile and detestable that even the master of injustice could not resist but to
give you what you deserved, God, why didn’t I see, why didn’t I see - Sir Tyro Padelheb. SIR TYRO PADELHEB. A-B-D-E-E-H-I-L-L-O-P-R-R-S-T-Y.
Lord Petyr Baelish.”
Padelheb’s confident smirk dropped a bit. “Take him away,” he growled at his guards. “He’s insane.”
The guards caught Quill by the arms. Padelheb stepped away to allow them to drag him to the door. He continued screaming at the tops of his lungs. “Abuser of women, betrayer of kings, manipulator of men, coward, traitor, liar, you will
not crush my universe as you crushed your own. You will
not tear my world apart like you tore apart yours. You were found out by those you tricked and killed so you ran sniveling, whimpering, over here, burying your past beneath your subconscious-” He jerked his head up and stared piercingly at Padelheb, staring beyond Padelheb, beyond the finely made coat and cruel black eyes, toward the very essence of the man and the threads that held him to this reality. “You have not seen the last of Erin Quill. I will bring you to justice. I will reveal your crimes before everyone else, just as they have been revealed once before. I will find you,
Littlefinger. I will hunt you down. And when I do, the fires that you will burn in will make Erebus look like a cakewalk. You are going to burn,
Sir Tyro Padelheb. You are going down. I will bring you down!”
As the guards dragged him away, he turned to say one last thing. “After all, Sansa Stark did it, so how hard can it be?”
Then he was gone.
Padelheb stood alone in the room for a few more minutes, musing on what he had just heard, before returning to his quarters.
You have lost control of events in Antarctica.
Jacob Eldin has just gotten the soldier that helped him captured. He drifts alone, up and down the coast, wondering what to do next.Anna Drimoxi has just watched her grandfather and friend get killed on the beaches next to her. She is alone and despondent, questioning her dedication to her past and her mission.Andrew Calvin is captured, strapped to a chair inside the nightmarish secret base of the Republic. As mind-altering toxins wash through his system, he tries to hang on to one thought - I love Anna Drimoxi. I love her.
Riots dominate the streets of the South. Buildings are stoned and windows shattered. A dark presence manipulates the emotions of the crowd, playing the people of the Republic for his own gain.And deep within the castles of the Republic, Erin Quill has been deposed. In his place stands Tyro Pandelheb, a shrewd, ruthless man, cutting through his opposition like a sharpened knife. He is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants - and he wants everything.As light glints across the frozen waste of Antarctica and the South drags itself out of the long polar night, nobody knows the answer to one question: When will it end?And who will be standing then?
And all the things I didn’t say | Wrecking balls inside my brain | I will scream them loud tonight | Can you hear my voice this timeSPAMOVERLORD
CHAPTER II:
ICE AND FIRE
Poll
13 (46.4%)
Author
Topic: (SG) SPAMOVERLORD: Epilogue: Guest Week (Read 286690 times)