Quentin found himself standing in front of Umber's abode again. Which, frankly, felt like a terrible life choice.
It had only been a week since the last time they'd been here, a week since he and Alice along with Kai were all kicked out while Kai did everything in his power to provoke, needle, and outright insult him which by the way was a very daring act. Quentin still wasn't sure how he'd survived that visit and he was even less sure why he thought coming back alone was a good idea.
Yet here he was.
Standing before the door of a god who might very well smite him on sight. First impression already made that a possibility.
Quentin swallowed hard and lifted his hand to knock a few times. For a long, dreadful moment, nothing happened.
Then the door creaked open.
Umber stood there, tall and composed but his eyes immediately narrowing when they landed on Quentin.
"Oh," Umber said flatly. "It's you. Little Earth King."
Quentin winced.
"What is it this time, hmm?" Umber continued, tilting his head. "Have you come to mock me again for leaving that failure of a place?"
His gaze flicked past Quentin as he searched for a particularly vexing young man or mortal or whatever the hell he is.
"And where is your provocative friend?" Umber asked. "Hiding behind some clever little spell, waiting to catch me off guard?"
Quentin raised both hands slightly.
"I came alone, Umber."
The god looked unimpressed.
"I wanted to apologize," Quentin said quickly. "For what he did. For how he spoke to you. I realize now it was harsh… and that you actually had a point."
That caught Umber's attention.
He studied Quentin more closely now.
"You don't know what Fillory is like now with Ember," Quentin continued. "He's completely off the rails. He's messed everything up again, he messed up the wellspring and now he's creating chaos by trying to destroy Fillory just for his entertainment."
Umber scoffed.
"Of course he is. That is his function, after all." Quentin exhaled. "I didn't come here to mock you. I came because I understand why you left. To others it might look cowardly but I get it. Retreat isn't the same as surrender, you saw a lost cause and decided not to be involved with its destruction."
Umber squinted, clearly not expecting that.
"But," Quentin said carefully, "the people of Fillory will die if they aren't saved from your brother."
"And why," Umber finally asked, "would I do that?"
Quentin hesitated, then said softly,
"Because even after everything… you must feel at least a little pity for them."
Umber stared at him for a long moment.
Then he smiled.
"Mmmnn," Umber hummed. "Come in, Quentin. I want to show you something marvelous."
Quentin blinked at the sudden change in mood, 'That's it?'
'Okay then,' he thought as he stepped inside. 'He's completely disregarded everything I just said.'
Umber walked straight to the globe on his desk, he took it with care as he brought it up lazily.
"Ah," Umber murmured. "The Cuba world."
Quentin frowned. "Yeah there's already a place in earth called that you know?"
Umber waved a hand dismissively.
"I'm still reviewing my work but now that you are here maybe you could help me with the assessments."
Elsewhere
Julia walked beside Penny and Kady, irritation written plainly across her face as they moved through the docks. Kady broke the silence first.
"Why the fuck couldn't we just teleport here penny?" Penny shot her a look.
"Because the bastard's got shit layered up there that I can't get through. Not even a crack as a matter of fact."
Then, they stopped in front of a what used to be an abandoned warehouse which now looked more like a suitable living structure, that definitely can't be legal can it?
A voice spoke up and startled them from behind, "Ah yes. You've arrived."
All three turned around to see Tom standing there, hands in his pockets, looking entirely too pleased with himself.
Julia scowled.
"Why the hell couldn't you bring this to us?"
Tom rolled his eyes.
"We've been working all week just to get this thing functional."
Then he looked at Penny.
"You have it, don't you?"
Penny took out something from his pocket and moved to press a small metallic sphere into Tom's palm.
It was cold and smooth, no bigger than two centimeters across. It was dense in a way that made his fingers itch.
"Courtesy of Mayakovsky," Penny said lightly, already half-turned away.
Tom raised a brow. "Of course it is."
In response, he handed her a narrow glass vial. Inside it was a strange red mist churned lazily, like smoke. Penny eyed it, unimpressed.
"Yeah," Tom said, "his payment."
Julia leaned in alongside Kady, squinting at the bottle. "Is that—?"
Penny vanished before the question could finish.
A heartbeat later she reappeared, tucking the vial away with a grimace. "God, I hate those two."
Kady stared. "What the hell was that?"
"A piece of Kai's magic," Penny said. "Payment to Mayakovsky for helping with the little project we're here to collect."
Right on cue, the warehouse door creaked open and Larry stepped out, rubbing his temple, "You're all noisy, you know that?"
He plucked the metallic sphere from Tom's hand, weighing it thoughtfully before nodding to himself. "Well. At least we have the final piece now."
He turned back toward the warehouse. "This shouldn't take long." Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, "Oh. You can come in, by the way."
They followed him inside.
The warehouse was a bit of a mess currently, Julia looked around and, "Wonder how Q is doing," she muttered.
"If he's still alive," Kady said.
Julia shot her a look sharp enough to cut glass, "What?" Kady shrugged. "I'm just saying."
She raised her hands defensively seeing as Julia kept on looking at her with a heated look, "Sheesh, calm your tits. Besides, your boyfriend made it so we all can't die easily. It was a joke."
Julia huffed, shaking her head.
"Alice should be getting there right about now."
———-11111111———————-
A few meters off Umber's property, the air stirred gentle as the flowers rustled, then parted as something invisible pushed through them.
A figure shimmered into view.
Alice dropped the cloaking spell and adjusted her glasses, her eyes already glowing faintly as she cast a zooming spell toward the house while checking the the door, windows and seeing no movement at all.
She walked up and opened the door without hesitation. Inside, it was quiet. It would seem that Umber was gone, Quentin too.
Alice didn't waste time looking around, she went straight for the globe with the cube inside of it.
Lifting it, she frowned. 'This is it? From the outside, it looked almost insultingly bland with no substance to it at all.'
Her gaze drifted to the rest of the room. It was filled with half-finished projects and broken ideas. Kai was right umber really wasn't making any progress with his worlds. Then, an idea sparked in her head.
But first, her eyes landed on the clock with ram heads at either end of the room.
A slow smile curved her lips.
'We didn't exactly finish clock shopping last time.'
She moved toward it.
—————————————————-
Fillory
"Fuck my tits till Tuesday are you fucking joking?"
Margo's voice echoed across the throne room. Kai looked at her thoughtfully. Then smiled.
"Hm. That's a very, very tempting request Margo."
Eliot rolled his eyes so hard it was a miracle they didn't fall out of his head.
Josh wandered in mid-moment, glanced between them, and said, "What's going on?"
Margo didn't miss a beat, "Well it would seem the tiger here wants a new battery and guess what the mean ingredient to making that is?."
Kai spread his hands. "I mean, come on. It's not a bad plan, is it?"
He paused at the looked Margo and Elliot were giving him then he grinned, "Okay, it actually is. But hey. Who wants to object, huh?"
"God help us all," Eliot muttered.
Kai turned to Josh. "You almost done?"
Josh nodded. "Just about."
Kai clapped his hands once. "Good. It's been a week, and I think it's finally time we get this orgy party on the road, don't you think?"
Margo snorted. "Yeah well, hopefully they perform better than what I had when I was sixteen."
Eliot sighed. "Amen to that sister, but i wouldn't hold my breath."
Kai's smile widened.
"Excellent."