Two Halves: chapter 25

Chapter 25 :)

The elevator slid upwards through the metal works and shuddered to a halt in front of the door. The trip was moderately faster than their way down, and Nicolas had a feeling it was because Darris wanted to give them a more dramatic view of his base. Bestalel fumbled with the nob and had to put his shoulder against the door to get it to fit through the frame. He looked up and down the alley as they filed out of the elevator. Instead of taking the long winding route through the back alleys they used to arrive at the door they took a drastically shorter path and arrived at the market in less than five minutes.

The market's crowd had not lost the intensity it had when they left. The people still eyes Bestalel with fear and contempt, but now instead of avoiding their gaze he seemed to walk confidently through them. Before he had walked with a slight hunch of someone trying to look inconspicuous, but now he walked tall as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulder. Maybe the entire affair with Darris and what had happened had weighed more heavily on him than even he realised. Nicolas walked up beside him to look into his face, and he was smiling. For a moment he did not seem to notice Nicolas's gaze, but then looked beside him.

"What is it, sir?" he asked returning to his passive face. His features locked themselves into his buisness expression. The same one he had used during the conversation with Machone on battle stradegys.

"Nothing, I was just thinking of something." spoke Nicolas dismissivly. He turned to look to his otherside where Zeckle was looking  at him inquisitivly.

"He told you that story, didn't he," Bestalel said solemly. His brow creased and his face softened into a slightly forlorn expression. "What happened then is not who I am today. I was molded into Salex's image of what a soldier should be, and that image will probably follow me for the rest of my life. I do not want it to effect our mission here today. This is a way for me to repent, and if you wish for me to discuss my past for reasons of safety I will, but I would be grateful if you would not make me. " his eyes carried the image of a man in pain. Beyond the normal profensional outer exterior a flicker of greif twinkled deep within his gaze.

"Don't you worry, I have no reason not to trust ya. From what I've seen you done everythin you're supposed to, and you've saved our asses once already, and it probably won't be the last." reasured Zeckle. She smiled up at him from where she was walking. Even though they both knew she was an Arch-demon; her smile shown with something that seemed genuninly human. For demons it was hard to show emotion. The more powerful the demon the more complex the mind, and so the more complex the emotions, but even for the most powerful demons it was hard to have real emotions. Despite this her smile showed genuine concern. They fell  silent for the rest of the journey to The Cat's Hotel.

Once they arrive Bestalel led them to the bar, and continued back to a door marked "private". He pushed this door open, and walked through. It led into a corridor that stretched for about forty feet, and each wall was lined with door at identical intervals. As they walked down the corridor some of the door were ajar; Nicolas looked into one. The inside was furnished as a lounge, several long couches lined the back wall. On the opposite wall a stage was set up, with a pole at its center. Nicolas hoped that their meeting room wouldn't be like this, for some reason it didn't seem apropriate for what they were discussing. They reached the end of the hallway, and Bestalel opened the door to reveal the room beyond.

Luckily no stage inhabited this room. A long low metal table was flanked by two leather couches, though they wouldn't be real leather. It was far to expensive to import leather to non-dimensional space. In the far couch sat a man flanked by two body gaurds. Their muscles bulged so much that they looked moment away from ripping their sleeves, an their buldgin toros were threatening to pop their buttons. The man between them seemed much less dangerous. The skin starting mid way down his neck and ending on the side of his head above his ear had a stange melted looj. His ear was a shapless gloduele of flesh attached to his head, and only one of his eyes appeared to be working for the one on the side of his dibilitated ear was covered in a eyepatch. Then he spoke, his voice rasped with a low dry tone that portrayed some kind of injury. The wounded flesh on his neck quivered with every sylable.

"Sit, sit. It's good to see that you're on time. I was worried you'd be late." he rasped, and indicated towards the other couch. Zeckle was the first to amble in and lower herself into the plush fake-leather couch. Nicolas and Bestalel followed and sat across the man. He leaned to one of his gaurds and whispered something into his ear. He got up and walked over to one of the metal pannled walls, and pressed his hand against it. The sheet slid back to reveal  a ice bucket with a large bottle of vodka resting inside.

"I took the liberty of getting us something real to drink. I tire of the relentless quickbrew, and it always does a number on my throat. Those chemicals make my injury sensitive." he rasped as his bodygaurd opened the bottle and poured several glasses, and slid three across the table in front of Nicolas and them. Zeckle immediatly began to drink her alchohol while Nicolas sipped his suspiciously. Bestalel let his sit on the table in front of him. The man across the table took a sip of his and sighed.

"You can never get good vodka here. Always such a trouble organizing smuglers willing to go against Salex, but that not why you're here. I think it's time to get down to buisness." he put his glass down and smilled at the three of them. His disfigured flesh stretched across his neck, and the as the folds unwound themselvs they revealed deep red crevises of raw flesh.

Author's Note

This might be hard to explain, but this is how I view my writing. I don't edit, literally none until my work is done. This because if I edit once I will be drawn into it and I will no longer be able to release on my desired schedule.

This is how I think of it. Right now I am building the walls of a house. My first edit will be me putting on the wallpaper. The second edit will be me choosing what pictures I put on the walls. I know that is a little difficult to understand but that is how I think of it.

The entire manuscript will improve immensely once I am done and begin editing. Sorry, but for now I will try to improve to make less mistakes the first time, but I will not be editing.

Reviews

[Daniel Gardner]

That makes perfect sense. You're doing well though so far. Sounds like it will turn out really good.

[Domenic Luciani]

I always think a good idea for when editing later or at the end of a book, is add a short synopsis of the chapter right after it. You don't necessarily have to post it, but it comes in handy when you want to look for overall story elements and things to edit.
I can't believe I never noticed this before, but after dialogue with he/she said, it ends with ," not ."
the grammar could be smoothed over a bit.
When you finish, you might do this anyway, but the entire book could definitely be condensed, because it seems like the characters are just wandering from place to place with hardly any motive for doing so. Still a strong story, overall.

[Miss Coral]

Another great installment, though a great deal of grammatical errors/typos. But, you can edit later, as you said.
I should probably start doing that, because I'm too much of a perfectionist when it comes to writing... that's one reason why I'm so slow. c:

[James Watts]

I never edit until the story is complete. For posting purposes I may tinker here and there so the people on the cafe run over a few stumbling blocks. This isn't bad, and the story is progressing.

[Dutch Jr.]

I completely understand with the way you edit. You want to have something to edit first. No problem with that. You did a great job, and I like how your story is progressing.