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The architects continued to release updated reports of how high they intended to go, each one trying to outdo the other Rumors he’d heard at this very party, credible ones, claimed that both would eventually top out at over fifty stories Nobody knehich would end up proving the taller, though friendly wagers were cohs, Cett Mansion--which was three stories high--would have been as tall as a building got Here, it felt dwarfed The world had gone and changed on hi lights that needed no fire to glow and buildings that threatened to rise higher than the e of the Fifth Octant, Wax suddenly felt very, very old
"Lord Waxillium?" a voice asked from behind
He turned to find an older woray hair was up in a bun and she wore rubies at her neck "By Harood man You’ll take a chill out here! Come, there are so presently,a little air"
Lady Cett frowned, but retreated She didn’t knohat to make of him; none of them did Some saw him as a e stories of the realms beyond the mountains The rest assuured he was probably both
He’d been on show all night He was supposed to be looking for a wife, and prettyhis uncle’s iee Unfortunately, his uncle had also ed to offend three-quarters of the city’s upper crust
Wax leaned forward on the balcony, the Sterrion revolvers under his ar barrels, they weren’t meant to be carried in underarht
He should be getting back to the party to chat and try to repair House Ladrian’s reputation But the thought of that crowded roo it difficult to breathe…
Giving hi off over the side of the balcony and began falling three stories toward the ground He burned steel, then dropped a spent bullet casing slightly behind hi down to the earth faster than he fell As always, thanks to his Feruchehter than he should have been He hardly knew anyht
When the casing hit the ground, he Pushed against it and sent hiarden wall With one hand on its stone top, he vaulted out of the garden, then reduced his weight to a fraction of normal as he fell down the other side He landed softly
Ah, good, he thought, crouching down and peering through the mists The coachet there were arranged here in neat rows, the coache light into thehearths
He walked aes until he found his own, then opened the trunk strapped to the back
Off caentleman’s fine dinner coat Instead he threw on his arment like a duster with a thick collar and cuffed sleeves He slipped a shotgun into its pocket on the inside, then buckled on his gun belt and moved the Sterrions into the holsters at his hips
Ah, he thought Much better He really needed to stop carrying the Sterrions and get some more practical weapons for concealood as Ranette’s work Hadn’t she h? Perhaps he could look her up and talk her into ht
A few h the city, the ht upon his back He left it open at the front, revealing his black shirt and gentleth mistcoat had been divided into strips fro behind hi and launched hi across the street frolanced back at it, the s ablaze in the evening dark What kind of ru from the balcony like that?
Well, they already kneinborn--that was ato do much to help patch his family’s reputation For thesince his return to the city at one social function or another, and they hadn’t had a ht in weeks
He needed the mists This ho he was
Wax dashed across the rooftop and leaped off, round, he flipped a spent casing down and Pushed on it, slowing his descent He landed in a patch of decorative shrubs that caught his coat tassels andnoise