Mutual Curiosity is Foundation of Every Lasting Partnership
Written for @lonelyeyesweek
Day 5 - Gertrude Era
Peter Lukas is a really interesting person for a servant of the Lonely and James Wright would love to get to know him a bit better. Unfortunately his Archivist is there to interrupt their meeting a bit with very unreasonable complaints…
…
“Mr Lukas, you are late.”
“I told you last time to feel free to start without me, Mr Wright.”
“I have. And I am done. All it needs is your signature. Unless you want to read through it of course…”
“Wonderful. At least I can be done here quickly.”
Even though at this point Peter Lukas could just scribble his signature and turn around he decides to sit on the chair opposite the current Head of the Magnus Institute: James Wright.
It is far from the first time James met Peter. They have been dealing together quite a lot. Rest of the Lukas family has probably realized Peter can tolerate James’ presence and so they have decided to use that fully. Surprisingly Peter does not seem to mind too much. Sure he complains about having to stop in London so often and about how uncomfortable he feels in the Institute or how hard it is to find office of the Head of the Institute but rarely about James himself which is… interesting.
James has dealt with lots of different Lukases during his lives and would dare to say he has always been able to pinpoint what they think about his current incarnation quite easily. Albeit it usually was ‘get rid of him as quickly as possible’ but that is not the point.
With Peter though, he has no idea what goes in his head during their interaction. He would love to just look and see for himself but with servant of the Lonely it is hard sometimes to see in their minds. And unfortunately for James even though Peter is still relatively young, he already has quite a strong bond with the Forsaken. Overall on a first look he speaks and appears as every other Lukas, doing his best to appear as distant as possible but his actions do not always match as sometimes it is Peter initiating further conversation instead of doing his best to avoid it.
“I am surprised you have a normal pen. From the look of this place I would expect I will have to sign it with a quill.”
“I am glad you appreciate the well preserved historical artefacts around the Institute. Do you know there really were only minor changes made in the office since the first founder Jonah Magnus? It really is as if his presence was still there…”
“Are you just trying to suggest you need more money for the renovations, James?” As always, a subtle hint seems to go right over Peter’s head.
“I was not but when you are mentioning it… there are a few changes I would love to make given I would have enough finances for that.”
“Did we not agree on raising the budget on our last meeting?”
“We did? I cannot really recall…” Caught up in their conversation, James would almost not notice he is about to have another visitor quite soon. And she looks quite angry. “Hold that thought. As much as I would love to continue in our discussion I think you would probably prefer to disappear right now,” James, feeling merciful today, decides to warn his guest who looks at him confused.
“Why-…” Peter starts but then he hears clapping of heels quickly approaching the office and freezes in terror. He regains his senses and disappears to the Lonely just in time, right before Gertrude Robinson barges in.
“James,” Gertrude greets him coldly.
“Gertrude, pleasure to see you. What brings you to my office?” Head of the institute smiles at his Archivist.
“Elias Bouchard.”
Of course. Of course it is him again… James tries not to sigh and keep his best helpful smile intact.
“What about him?”
“He was distracting one of my assistants again-…”
“Maybe he was just trying to help him?”
“And because he thought I was not there he decided it is alright to smoke there. Now the whole Archives smell like weed.”
“Well… at least he was mindful towards you? As you said – he would not do it in your presence…”
“And documentation on Michael Shelley’s desk caught on fire from his joint. I don’t think files for case 9790916 are salvageable” Gertrude’s voice remains cold but there is a sign of malice. Of course there is. She knows how important case files – the real ones – are for him. She raises her eyebrows waiting to see if James will come up with an excuse for this one too but honestly he is at a loss here.
“How… unfortunate.” The smile remains on the face of the Head of the Institute but he is clenching his fists under the table. He would start planning Elias’ murder by now if it was not planned already.
“I want to see some real consequences for him, James.” The fate of Elias Bouchard will be cruel enough but it all needs its time and James still needs at least a year to prepare everything.
“I’ll talk to him.”
“I want him fired.”
“Ah, isn’t it a bit rushed? Everyone can make a mistake sometimes…”
“Do I need to remind you of all the ‘mistakes’ he has done till now? I’ve actually made a list if you want to look over them,” Archivist offers because of course she has.
“No need to. I will make sure further incidents will not happen,” Head of the Institute says. Tone of his voice implies he is done with this discussion. Gertrude probably does not notice.
“I have my doubts.”
“I am sorry to hear that.”
Gertrude glances at him coldly. James reciprocates the stare. They stay like that for a couple of seconds, both of them refusing to be the first one to cut off the eye contact. This silly match could easily last minutes as it has happened in the past but this time they are all interrupted rather early into their unspoken fight by a couple of books falling on their side. As if something – or someone – bumped into the shelf the books are on…
They both turn towards the noise at the same time. James, knowing what exactly caused the mysterious event, focuses his attention back on Gertrude. She is staring right in the Peter’s direction, frowning. She doesn’t say anything but this is still quite interesting… as it is not exactly easy even for him to see through the thick fog of the Lonely.
“Anyhow do you need anything else?” As interesting it would be to test his Archivist’s abilities, he already has different plans with Peter today.
“Yes actually,” Gertrude turns back to him and hands him a file James has not even noticed till now, preoccupied worrying about the Archives. “When I had to climb all the way up here I also brought you a suggested budget for my research trip to India.”
“I will look over it and we can further discuss it tomorrow?”
“I have quite a mess in the Archives because of your assistant. I don’t think I will have time. Maybe you should just approve it as it is,” for the first time since she has entered the room Gertrude smiles at him. James is already worried about what all she wants.
“I will see. Now is that all?”
“Yes that is all.”
“Have a good day then,” James waves his hand towards the door hoping this really is the end of their discussion and the Archivist seems to finally be satisfied as well. She gives him a nod instead of words of goodbye and finally decides to leave him alone. Well, alone till Peter re-emerges from the Lonely. It takes him a few minutes as he probably wants to be really sure Gertrude is nowhere near.
“I don’t like your Archivist.”
“Why I wonder…” James opens the file with Gertrude’s requests. No TNT, no gun powder, no heavy weaponry. That is almost suspicious. Though it still looks like quite an expensive business trip due to travel and accommodation expenses… There surely must be some other hotels than four star ones.
“Though at least you seem to have troubles with her as well…” Peter lurks over his shoulder on the very list of her requests regarding her next work trip. James quickly closes it as he does not want Peter to think he just lets his Archivist just demand and do whatever she wants.
“That is none of your business, Peter.”
“I think it is since it will be money from my family covering her vacation.”
“We will negotiate about it further.” He is sure he can persuade her to degrade her first class seat to a business class seat at least… Yes, Gertrude is hard to deal with sometimes but so far his longest surviving Archivist. She is very effective in what she does and unfortunately she knows it.
James wonders whether Peter will become just another one victim on Gertrude’s rampage to stop every ritual. He told him nothing concrete of course but it seems like it will take at least a few more years before he attempts to do something to bring The One Alone here. Maybe he will be smart enough to disappear in time, he hates any kind of social interactions after all… On the other hand Gertrude is Gertrude…
“What was actually your assistant even doing in the Archives?” his Lonely guest interrupts his chain of thoughts with a question.
“I was afraid he would mess up my system here… so I sent him to help there. Apparently I will really have to find him some work he cannot mess up too badly…”
Peter raises an eyebrow but stops himself from inquiring further.
“I have my reasons why I keep him employed. Do you want to hear them?”
“No. Not really,” Peter shrugs as he probably already used up the entire curiosity limit Lonely allows. Which works just fine for James. He plans to switch bodies in only a year or two and he would hate to spoil the surprise for Peter. It will be much more fun if Peter does not know anything. James is quite fond of the man. And how else can he find out for sure that the servant of the Lonely cares for him at least than to see how he will react to his death.
Ah well no matter what the future will bring why not rather enjoy the present for a bit. And talking about enjoying the present…
“Now weren’t you mentioning something about lunch before we were so rudely interrupted?”
“No I don’t actually think so.”
“Maybe you were about to invite me to go have one with you?”
“Still doesn’t ring a bell.” Peter might try to look clueless but twitching of the corners of his mouth gives him away.
“Peter!”
“Alright, alright, you are always so demanding… Do you know some place which is not very crowded?”
“Of course I do. If the price is not an issue…”
Peter only sighs and hands James his coat. He has been so far really quite entertaining company for someone dedicated to Forsaken. Also he is handsome and that is something James can appreciate in a man. He can really see some long term partnership between them. He really hopes Gertrude spares him when the time comes.