Bereft: Demise

28 | Of Guillotines and Their Sway

The Sin of Lust paced the deck as the western sun shone in her unflinching eyes. 

She had always liked the way Verweald looked when bathed in the golden light of the late afternoon. The glass and steel of the corporate world gleamed like a well-honed blade balanced upon the horizon. The older buildings were duller, cast in deeper shadow by the high-rises and the decline of the sun toward the shimmering coast. 

Amoroth loved the duality of the land stretched before her. Dark and light. So easily separated, categorized, and understood. 

She leaned on the railing and studied the rocky hillside leading into the dry gully below. It was dry yet in this region of the country, but the rains would soon come, filling the gully and watering the parched land. For now, the Sin relaxed in the subdued warmth of the unfettered sun and the gentle breeze lifting off the desert further east.

Amoroth stood at one of her privately owned commercial lots east of Verweald Lake. The lot was situated high on the mountainside, allowing for partial views of the lake, the aqueduct, and the city itself. The land was nothing but crumpled sage bushes and a bare foundation, but in ten years Amoroth planned to have a brand new firm built here, one she would be the head of once her contract with Jackson ran its course and it was time to move on. 

She knew it would be wise to abandon Verweald for a decade or so after the Klau Killer fiasco and the unbearable scrutiny it brought upon her and the corporation. It was customary for the Sins to vacate cities or regions once they completed a contract to avoid attracting too much attention—but Amoroth couldn't seem to divest herself of her sentimentalities.

Verweald was her city. Her creation. The only thing she had ever had that was her own, and yet.... 

The woman sighed as the wind pulled through the river of her brunette hair and the wayward strands crossed her vision.

As a Sin, she would never truly belong here. Though she had created this place and claimed it as her own, Amoroth was doomed to be a permanent visitor, never a resident. Never something permanent. For all the immortality she was given, she was more transitory than the mortals infesting this realm. 

Amoroth sniffed and straightened, disparaging her maudlin mood. Such useless emotions were the domain of mortals. Four hundred and eleven years as a soul-sucking immigrant out of the Pit had taught her that she was no longer mortal. Clinging to the past was a worthless endeavor.

The Sin glanced at her watch and cursed under her breath as she retrieved her cell phone. The contractor was supposed to be there an hour ago. Amoroth had been meticulous with appearances of late, so she had driven here and was due at Klau for another mind-numbing meeting with her attorney. Balthier's killings and the revelation of Imor Advances' less than reputable dealings had brought about some very unwanted attention on Klau from mortal authorities. She had to manage the fallout, lest it become more complicated than it already was.

Amoroth flicked a finger along the phone's screen until she found the contractor's number. She pressed 'call' and held the phone to her ear, wondering if being late to her lawyer's meeting was a viable example of normalcy. Surely mortals were late for appointments all the time. If anything was an indicator of being human, it was the inability to be on time.

As the phone rang at her ear, another phone began to ring nearby. 

Frowning, the Sin lowered the phone and glanced in the direction from which the sound emanated. There was one wall standing, a concrete barrier built for structural support between two very large steel beams. On the other side of the wall Amoroth knew a pit of rebar had been left exposed, waiting to be filled with cement.