The Creative Strategist

by Sarah Noffke

  “And this is exactly why two heads aren’t better than one,” Liv found herself saying as she tried to stand.

  Something was wrong with her back. And her front. And her head. She was pretty sure she’d broken a rib. Not to mention that every part of her mentality felt broken too as she stared into the soulless eyes of the beast before her.

  The other heads that had been weighing Russ down had vanished. Now he was a giant wolf, with every advantage and renewed strength.

  When Liv drew a breath, she choked on her own blood. That wasn’t good.

  The beast growled. It sounded like an ancient language full of curses and promises, ones that would confine her to her own personal hell for all of eternity.

  She ran through her options. She had no sword, no magic, and hardly any strength. At this point, all she had was her negotiation skills, and she doubted those would do much against a hellhound.

  “I-I-I,” Liv stuttered, choking up more blood. She was pretty sure her lungs had been punctured. She didn’t have long to live at this rate, so maybe it was better that the beast take her out.

  When he lifted his head to the ceiling and let out a victorious howl, Liv’s chest vibrated with a fear unlike any she’d ever known. And then something orange and massive sprang. Her instinct told her to look away, but she didn’t. Not in time.

  She watched as Plato in the form of a lion soared through the air. He was large. Majestic. Hulking. He was everything a great hero should be, the stuff of legends. As his teeth sunk deep into Russ’s throat, Liv felt she watched every victory of every great hero ever.

  The beast screamed and then rolled, but Plato didn’t let go. He sank his teeth in deeper and ripped up and out, opening the dog’s throat and ending it with one solid movement. There was no mercy, and there was no terror. This was the act of a true champion. One who knew how to end things the right way.

  However, relief didn’t flood Liv’s body when Plato looked up, blood covering his large mouth as he stood atop his kill. Instead, she read the look in his eyes and knew what this victory had cost him.

  Her lips shook. Her chest vibrated. Tears filled her eyes.

  She staggered forward. Fell at the lynx’s feet just as it shrank back down to its normal size.

  Before her, he was tiny once more. It was wrong and beautiful at the same time

  “You sh-sh-shouldn’t have done that,” she stated, tears rolling down her cheeks. He was already weak, like a small child. It happened so fast.

  His eyes closed several times. “It was my honor to save you, Liv Beaufont. Forever and ever, I’ll watch over you. Wherever I go.”

  “No!” she cried as her best friend closed his eyes, a sudden stillness in them.

  She knew instinctively that he was gone. It was like knowing she would breathe again, or that the sun would rise again.

  Sometimes you simply knew another day would come, and sometimes you knew it wouldn’t.

  Liv Beaufont knew Plato was gone, and there was nothing she could do to bring him back.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The door at the top of the stairs opened, a glowing light filling the darkened cellar. Liv thought for a moment that Amity had come to check on her before she tucked in for the night. Never before had she been so grateful that others went to bed early.

  Her vision blurred as a figure appeared in the doorway. It wasn’t Amity’s, though. She blinked, and when she could see properly, she recognized the familiar face of Subner.

  “Warrior Beaufont, are you all right?” the gnome asked.

  Liv tried to stand as she held her dead best friend in her hands. “No. It’s Plato. He’s dead.”

  Subner nodded. “Yes, but are you all right?”

  She couldn’t understand the question. How could she be all right? Plato was gone. Forever.

  The gnome sighed. “I guess if you’re looking up at me, you have survived, which was all that mattered. I’ll teleport you home.”

  Liv couldn’t understand his logic. How was it okay for her to live when Plato, one of the most incredible creatures to ever exist, was gone from this world forever?

  She was about to argue when the emotion and injuries stole her consciousness, sending her into a world of blackness.

  She fell into dreams that were closer to nightmares.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The buzz of a saw drilled into Liv’s brain, waking her from the strangest dream. She was being chased by a dog. Plato had risked his last life to save her and he’d won, overpowering the hound and surviving. But the simple act of her witnessing his magic stole one of his lives—his very last.

  Liv awoke with a start, gasping for air as the nightmare ran across her mind’s eye. The scene around her took a moment to compute. The sound of the drill was louder now that she was awake. She recognized the ceiling above her and the unique smell of metals in the air. What she didn’t understand was why she was in Subner’s shop, the Fantastical Armory.

  And then the worst occurred to her.

  Liv bolted upright, wondering why it didn’t cause her any pain. She thought her ribs were broken, and that she had other injuries. Maybe the dream hadn’t been real? Maybe she’d simply fallen asleep on the floor of the shop for some strange reason?

  Subner peeked over the counter at her with a curious expression on his face. “And you awoke right on time.”

  “What?” she asked, pushing upright but finding her world fuzzy all of a sudden. Everything in the shop seemed to sway before it decided to stay still.

  Subner was sitting on his usual stool and working at the counter with a drill of some sort.

  “‘What’ seems about right,” he said, scooting off the seat and disappearing.

  Since Liv was used to this, she simply waited until he waddled around the counter and looked up at her.

  “How did I get here?” she began, trying to piece together what she could remember. “Where is Plato? Why am I not hurt?”

  “Teleport, down below, and I fixed you,” he answered matter-of-factly.

  Liv’s eyes darted to the machine where he’d been working moments prior. “You fixed me?”

  The pain she couldn’t deal with yet was starting to well up inside her again. She didn’t want to think about Plato. Not right then, not in front of Subner. He couldn’t see her pain or the intimate loss she’d experience when she allowed herself to.

  “Yes, but that’s not very interesting, to be quite honest. Healing others comes naturally to me due to my association with Papa Creola. I was authorized to do it in this instance.”

  “Well,” she began, her stomach growling so loudly she nearly jumped, thinking Russ was about to attack her again. “It’s interesting to me since I was coughing up blood and couldn’t breathe.”

  “Yes, you had quite a few injuries.” He reached into the case beside him and pulled out a plate of chocolate chip cookies, steam rising off them. “I don’t have any milk. You will have to eat these dry.”

  Liv blinked at the gnome. “You just pulled hot, fresh cookies from a display case but you can’t conjure up some milk to go with them?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not great with cold foods. It’s a gnome thing. We are better with fire and such.”

  “Thanks,” Liv said, feeling like her heart was beating on the outside of her chest. All she wanted to do was throw herself on her bed and grieve for the lynx she now realized was really dead. Instead, she sat back down on the cot and crammed a cookie into her mouth, swallowing it before she’d chewed properly. They were the best things she’d ever tasted, and she wanted no part of that. Right then, she just wanted her strength back so she could portal home.

  To her surprise, Subner took the seat next to her, offering an almost sensitive expression.

  “You think he’s dead, don’t you?” he asked, his tone calm.

  Liv stopped chewing in mid-chomp. Held her breath for a moment. “Isn’t he?”

  “Technically.”

  Liv slid the plate to the
side, doing her best to control her emotions. “Talk, Subner.”

  “Well, in most instances, there is nothing that could bring Plato back after losing his last life,” he began to explain. “However, if someone had the foresight to know the lynx was running out of lives, they could plan for such an occasion, but it wouldn’t be easy. There are incredibly rare ingredients that would have to be obtained, and it would take a lot of effort, skill, and time to do so.”

  Liv’s heart was pounding so hard in her chest that she was certain Subner could hear it. “Do you mean, like a phoenix feather?”

  “As well as a few other things.”

  Liv suddenly realized that for the first time in a long time, Subner wasn’t messing with those metal balls from the giants. “The metal balls?”

  He nodded. “As well as a few other things.”

  “So you were able to save Plato?” Liv asked.

  He held up one of his stumpy fingers. “This has never been done before. It’s more or less an experiment, and it hasn’t worked yet.”

  “Can I see him? When will you know if it worked?” Liv asked, losing her breath as she talked.

  “You can’t see him,” he stated at once. “Look, I don’t know if he’ll wake, or if he does, when it will be.”

  “I don’t understand, though. Papa Creola doesn’t want anyone coming back from the dead. How could he allow this?”

  “He didn’t just allow it,” Subner stated, pointing at the cookies beside her and encouraging her to continue eating them. “He was the one who gave the order.”

  Liv picked up a cookie but halted before it reached her mouth. “He what?”

  “Well, they are his rules, and if anyone is going to break them, it will be him.”

  “But why?” Liv asked, the cookie still in her hand.

  Subner shrugged. “I could hypothesize all day long. However, suffice it to say that Papa Creola has respect for the lynx. Maybe it’s a bond based on their longevity, or maybe it’s because they share similar magic. All I know for certain is that the Father of Time didn’t want the lynx to perish just yet.”

  “Okay,” Liv said, drawing the word out. “Then why send me after Russ? Why not keep him from getting woken up, or kill him before he was a problem, or save Plato from losing the ninety-nine lives before this last one?”

  Subner’s face remained stony. “Sometimes things have to happen.”

  “Really?” Liv questioned. “So we went to great lengths to bring Plato back instead of simply keeping him from dying?”

  She didn’t understand this at all.

  “It’s true,” he answered. “I’ve been actually working on finding the ingredients for this experiment for quite some time, preparing for this. You see, we can’t stop bad things from happening. Papa Creola understands this better than anyone. All we can do is prepare for the worst when it happens, which is what I’ve been doing. It was inevitable that Plato was going to run out of lives sooner or later. No one truly lives forever, not even Papa.”

  Liv didn’t even know where to begin with all this information. She had so many questions. She cleared her throat, which felt like sandpaper. “Well, if Papa Creola didn’t want Plato to die, why couldn’t he just bring him back himself?” Liv asked.

  Subner held up his finger again. “That’s a good question. Again, those two are linked by very strong and mysterious magic. I believe that which created Papa also created Plato, which means that one cannot save the other. New magic had to be created.”

  “Which was why you collected all those rare and strange ingredients,” Liv guessed.

  “Yes, I put together things most could never find, which have magical properties that have never been combined.” He tilted his head back and forth. “Whether it worked, we won’t know for some time. Papa Creola can’t see these events, and has asked that you not dwell on that unknown future.”

  Liv took a frustrated bite of the cookie, still refusing to enjoy its goodness. “Right, because wondering if my best friend will be brought back to life will totally not soak up any of my attention.”

  “Good,” Subner chirped. “Because Papa wants you to focus your time on finding the next Mortal Seven. You’ve found two, which is satisfactory, but there’s an extremely important one out there who needs to be rescued before it’s too late. You must put everything you’ve got into finding this specific one.”

  “Why?” Liv asked, tilting her head to the side. “Is this person in danger?”

  “All the Mortal Seven are in danger,” Subner stated. “There’s an evil out there that we cannot see. It’s probably what awoke Russ, hoping to draw Papa out to protect Plato.”

  “But there’s a specific one who is important? Why? And I thought that if something happened to a Mortal Seven, their role is passed to someone else, right?” Liv asked, wondering why this particular one was so important.

  “True, but what happens to the Beaufonts in the House if you die?” Subner asked.

  “We lose our family’s position as Royals since there is no one to replace me,” she answered.

  “Exactly,” he affirmed. “But the families who make up the Mortal Seven can’t simply be replaced. The magic of the Founders picked those families specifically. This might be the most important Mortal Seven you’ll need to recover, because if something happens to her, the House can never be fully reinstated.”

  “Kind of like John,” she guessed.

  “Well, because of John’s association with you, we were certain he’d be recovered. And now that his chimera has been unlocked, he is protected much more than before.”

  “Yes, but whether it’s John or this other Mortal Seven, their time is still limited, and then what happens to the House? As we’ve learned from Plato, no one lives forever,” Liv stated.

  He nodded. “No, but life does go on. I believe that if you recover the last remaining member of the Luce family, she will stay protected long enough to add new members to her tree. And as for John, well, the same is true for him.”

  “Oh,” Liv said, getting the gist of his meaning. “And where do I go to find this Mortal Seven who needs to be recovered before it’s too late?”

  “Where do you go to find anyone?” he asked.

  Liv nodded. She should have guessed that this would require a visit to see her favorite brownie. That was how most of her mysterious adventures started.

  She stood from the cot again, glancing at the back door that led to the basement where Plato was. It was hard to walk past there and not see him. She halted, turning back to Subner. “Did you say that even Papa Creola wouldn’t live forever?”

  A melancholy expression crossed his face. “It is true.”

  “But if something happens to him, we’re all in trouble,” Liv said, her voice aching suddenly.

  “That’s true as well. We believe someone is out there who wants him gone for good. If that happened, it would upset the balance of time for all eternity.”

  Liv lowered her chin. “Should I explain to you the irony of your last statement?”

  He shook his head. “However, one day, Papa Creola’s time in his current form will come to an end, and he’ll have to replace himself.”

  “Like the phoenix?” Liv asked.

  “That’s right,” Subner affirmed. “Papa Creola has taken many forms since the dawning of time, and he will take many more. He is always the same and yet always different. The same powers reside in him no matter his form, and yet he changes. So do I and this shop and many other things.”

  “So he’s like a Time Lord, and you’re his companion, and the shop is his Tardis?” Liv asked, grateful for the small laugh that fell from her mouth. It wasn’t long or hard, but it cut through some of the pain in her heart.

  Subner shook his head, giving her a punishing glare. “No, we aren’t at all… Well, maybe. Although I’m not sure I like the label ‘companion.’”

  She smiled. “Oh, I don’t know, Subner. I think everyone would want to be Father Time’s right-hand man, a
nd he’s chosen you. That’s pretty cool if you ask me.”

  The gnome thought about that for a moment and then nodded, softening slightly. “I guess when you put it that way, it is kind of cool.”

  “Hey, maybe in your next form, you’ll be a fae and have ice magic. Then you can serve me milk with my cookies.”

  He grimaced. “Let’s hope the world ends before I’m reincarnated into a fae. I’m not sure I could handle it.”

  “Well, on that note, I’m going to get out of here. I have a Mortal Seven to save, and I’d prefer that the world not end in my lifetime.” Liv grabbed Bellator from the counter. It had been cleaned and was nestled on velvet, appearing ready for the next battle.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  It was hard for Liv to focus as she entered the official brownie office. She kept thinking about Plato and all the uncertainty that surrounded him. Before that day, she hadn’t known what his secret was and had worried that he had betrayed her somehow, not that it seemed like something Plato would ever do.

  However, he had said that he thought she’d be mad at him after learning the secret. He was right. He’d lost probably a dozen lives because of her. It was her fault, and he should have told her never to look at him when he shifted to reveal part of his secrets. But she had known that in the cellar with Russ, and she still hadn’t been successful at not looking at Plato when he turned into a lion.

  Worry filled her head. She wondered if Subner and Papa Creola would be successful at bringing Plato back. And if they were, would he be the same? It seemed that they were defying laws and the odds and risking so much for this. Liv couldn’t think of a better reason to do so.

  She shook off the fear that bounced around her insides, trying to monopolize her thoughts. There was nothing she could do for Plato right then. She had a job to do, and that was exactly what he’d want her to focus her energy upon.

  Mortimer spun when Liv entered his office. He had a large pair of sunglasses on his face, and he was wearing tie-dye shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and sunblock on the end of his nose. “Warrior Beaufont for the House of Fourteen!” he rejoiced, clapping his hands. “You’re right on time.”