“How many more families do you think we can fit? Did Gabe give you an updated timeline for the housing?” North mutters as he looks over the list again, and I shrug.
“The earliest ETA for the houses to start opening up on the southern block is next week. They're already pushing themselves hard to get it done by then, any faster and it won’t be safe for the workers.”
North lets out a breath and nods his head. “They're already doing more work than we ever thought was possible, and a hundred houses will be ready. Two hundred more families will be able to squeeze in if we can allocate them correctly.”
I move some of the papers and point out the demographic lists he’s had made. “If anything, we need to start thinking about expanding the school. All of these families have young children in them, they’ve got the priority here.”
North nods and starts shuffling through his plans until he pulls out a blueprint of the school with extensions. “It’s on my list. I will speak to Gabe about it and keep going from there. He's talked about it before, and we can figure out how best to put it into place.”
I nod and glance back over at Nox who’s created a small fortress of boxes and information in the far corner of North's office, shadow creatures slumbering in open archive boxes and on cushions around him. If it were possible to take photos of the nightmare creatures, I would take one and send it to Oli, knowing that she’d treasure it more than she’d ever admit. Since I can't, I concentrate and send her the mental picture instead. A smile breaks over my face when I feel her joy at the image, the way that it overtakes her and rushes into me, making my chest tighten up.
She loves those damn creatures and the vicious man they come from more than I ever thought possible.
“How many of the newcomers do you think are able to be trained as operatives?” I murmur quietly, and North shuffles papers again before pulling one out. I swear he has information about everything on his desk, every option and opportunity to be explored and discussed and picked apart before he makes any moves.
He’s too good of a man to be a councilman, they don’t deserve him. They never have.
“I have already told the Transporters to send this list to the Tac Training Center for interviews. I was going to head down there in an hour or so to start the process, but Rockelle and Hannity have already requested a meeting with me to discuss what's been going on.”
I shake my head at him. ”You shouldn't be dealing with any of that bullshit. Just tell them you've got bigger things going on.”
North takes his coffee cup and knocks back as much of the caffeinated liquid as he can in one go, looking as though it's been months since he slept. I'm going to have to threaten him with Oli soon to get him back into a sleeping pattern.
He's doing everything he can to not stress her out. If I threaten to tell her how badly he's taking care of himself at the moment, he'll get back in line, I'm sure of it.
“I think I'm going to dissolve the council.”
I startle, my head snapping around to look at North as my mouth tumbles open comically. Not much surprises me these days but that sure does.
“How are you going to do that?Whyare you going to do that?”
North glances back over at Nox, but he is so far in his own world that we could be talking about just about anything without him noticing. “The how part of that is easy. There's only three sitting members left other than myself, and two of them are here already. The council is an outdated structure, something that was put into place by those who were abusing power anyway. We've said it for years, the categorizing of people by what their Gifts can do is disgusting. No one should have precedence over others just because of something they have no control over. Did you know that every single family that followed the General out of here was a Top Tier family? All of the Lower Tier families stayed. They're the only ones who understood what would happen to them if they left here. They've always been left to fend for themselves. I'm not just saying this because of their loyalty to us at this moment. I've been thinking about it for years. My father even discussed it with William, and I suppose my uncle is the reason I have hated this position so vehemently from the get-go. No one should be able to be born into this position of power.”
I didn’t know any of that, the inner thoughts of North Draven often don’t see the light of day, and I’ve never gone snooping through his brain without his permission. None of it is surprising when I really think about it, though. All of it lines up with the character that I know he has.
I scratch at the back of my neck for a moment and think over his words, about the actual logistics of all of it. “So we're going to turn this into a democracy and have people vote? What do we do if they vote an idiot in? I'm not following some brainless civilian anywhere. Rockelle has been bad enough.”
North shrugs. “I still own the Sanctuary, and I'm not going to give up control of it to just anyone, but I suppose it's something we can work toward. I think that the old council needs to be replaced with a new one, one where people have been voted into positions of power and only serve for a term or two. You’re right though, there needs to be one of us on this damn thing. Otherwise, it's going to go to shit. I'm not having anything come back to hurt Oleander just because we want to be fair and nice to people.”
North flicks out a hand dismissively, meeting my eye for a moment before looking back over at Nox. “Obviously, I would never do anything that might harm her in any way, but there is no mistaking that we need a change in the community, and we need it now.”
I nod and tilt my head to the side, feeling very ‘godlike’ as I do so. “Setting up voting and a whole new council is going to be a nightmare. You should probably wait until we've dealt with the gods before getting into that.”
North’s eyes flash to black for a moment but when he speaks, it's his own voice that comes out. “Everything can wait until they're dealt with, but we need to think about what our lives are going to look like afterwards. Otherwise… what's the point of it all? My Bonded needs a better life, a better world. I’m going to make that for her, no matter the cost.”
* * *
The Tac TrainingCenter is writhing with bodies when I arrive.
Vivian and Unser are already here, directing people in and out of groups and taking forms with Gifts and background information as quickly as they’re being filled out. Kieran and Rockelle are both already on the mats, testing skills and Gifts. I'm surprised to see that the groups are moving through the tests reasonably quickly. There are a lot more men and women who can hold their own in the sparring circles than I ever thought there would be, something that instantly fills me with relief.
We need all of the help we can get here.
I walk over to Vivian first. When he sees me coming, he shakes a clipboard at me. “You need to call the Dravens down here. We need all hands on deck, because we’re drowning.”
I take the clipboard and look over to watch the skills test of the man standing in front of Vivian. He's a Flame, elementals are one of the more common Gifts, but the part that has Vivian’s eyes gleaming at him in such a manic way is his profession.
He's been a martial arts teacher for the last fifteen years; a black belt.
