The receptionist led Lauren and I through the centre aisle down the middle of the workspace and stopped at a pair of tinted glass doors. A large assistant's desk was just to the side of the doors, stacked with what must have been proofs of different photoshoots and articles. The chair, however, was empty. Our receptionist escort hesitated, clearly thrown off by not having the assistant to hand us off to, but he was saved as the doors pulled inwards and revealed the inner office.
The assistant murmured her apologies, holding the door open and bowing her head, and I couldn't help but spare a long glance for her - my Dad used to talk about the old 'Swedish Bikini Team' beer commercials, and I'd seen a couple of them on YouTube when we'd looked them up. I'd always sort of felt like Lindsey could have been on that team, but next to this woman Lindsey was almost frumpy. She was stunningly gorgeous, probably six and a half feet tall, and there was no way she could hide the incredible bust she carried around under her tailored business blouse and coat.
The office didn't match the rest of the building. Not the inside, or the outside. The first thing that stood out was that the walls were entirely glass, but the building didn't have a corner office without brick. That was my first hint that whatever else was going on here, someone had magically modified the building. Whether that was Yaroslav doing a favour for his Prime, or some other ascended mage, I couldn't tell. The next was that, rather than being modern and sleek, the office was full of what must have been Anna's collection of furniture from throughout her history. There was a prominent central desk of exquisitely carved wood. Three amazing, huge rugs covered the floor. Standing mirrors with ornate frames, two gilded and one of bare wood, were positioned near racks of clothes that looked to be organized by decade and went back centuries. There were wardrobes, and side-tables, and divans and couches. A throne sat back in a corner, and I wondered if maybe that was the throne she sat in beside Yaroslav when they first ascended.
Anna was standing at her desk, talking quickly into a phone that looked like it belonged from the 1950s, in a language that I couldn't understand even with those I'd picked up from the receptionists. She was speaking urgently and glanced up at us, said one more thing and then hung up the phone. "Jeremiah. Lauren," she said in English with a smooth accent that was an indiscernible mash-up of Eastern European, Russian and Nordic. "I apologise for keeping you waiting. You are here much earlier than I expected."
Lauren frowned and checked her phone. "I mean, we weren't exactly waiting around, but this is the time we set up."
Anna came out from around the desk. "Ah, I should have realised- I understand the mistake I made. My apologies." She was wearing an elegant dress, almost inappropriate for an office setting if only because it was too formal. It made me think of when the girls made me watch The Devil Wears Prada and how Meryl Streep's character and all the fashion folks seemed to seek to outdo each other. It was black, backless and had a daring slit up the floor-length skirt on either side that exposed her perfect legs as she walked. Her cleavage was bulging slightly but not in an inappropriate way, and her black hair was styled in a modern, sexy way and hung loose around her shoulders and down her back.
She was gorgeous, and I was struck again by how she seemed almost more
real
than Genghis Khan's Prime, Khaltmaa. Or even Esmerelda. If I had to guess, I thought that maybe Anna hadn't asked, or wanted, Yaroslav to change her from her natural beauty; certainly she'd had him stabilize her ageing to keep her somewhere in her early or mid-twenties, but other than that she just came across as a very attractive but real person.
"You expected that I'd take some time to use at least one of your receptionists," I guessed.
"And you didn't," Anna nodded. "Which, I think, says more about my assumptions than it should about you. Again, I apologise." She looked past us at the receptionist who had escorted us up and the stunning assistant. "Thank you. Back to work, now."
"Yes, Mistress," they both said, nodding and backing away from the doors so they could close.
"Mistress?" Lauren asked with a raised eyebrow and smirk.
"A little joke played on me by Yaro," Anna sighed. "The last time he visited my office, maybe a decade and a half ago, he convinced them all that I preferred that honourific. No matter how hard I try, I can't get them to call me anything else in the office. I think he enchanted the building."
"I could try and remove that if you want," I offered.
She sighed and shook her head. "If you did that, he would find out eventually and do something even more disruptive. But, please, come in and sit." Anna escorted us to a small sitting area with couches that looked like they might have been lifted out of some Tzar's royal rooms. They were stiff but, once Lauren and I were both sitting, actually fairly comfortable. "You were offered refreshments?" Anna asked.
"We were," Lauren confirmed. "Anna, please. You're acting like we're some dangerous business rivals or something."
Anna smiled with her lips pressed firmly together. "Well, this
is
a meeting where I'll be apologising for a monumental fuckup," she said. "To a man who could level this entire building, and no one here could stop him."
"I think it would take a
lot
more pissing me off to get me to that point," I said. "I'm a reasonable person."
"So were they all, Jeremiah," Anna smiled sadly.
"Well, he still is," Lauren said.
"Then, let me start again by saying how apologetic I am that anyone in my organization pried into your lives. Especially just as you were getting your footing as Seat and Prime," Anna said. "As you can see, my operation is a little chaotic. We are the only publisher of Ascended-related media in the world, and while the Seats don't pay much attention to my little 'project,' the common Ascended have come to rely on my publications for news and entertainment they would otherwise never receive. My office in America passed the article through without touching base with my editors here, or it ever hitting my desk. The author and editor thought they were getting a scoop and would rise in the company because of it. I assure you they've been reprimanded appropriately."
"Reprimanded how?" Lauren asked. Anna frowned for a moment, and Lauren pressed on. "Because, and I'm not trying to suggest that you're lying Anna, but that
would
be something someone in your position might say if they were covering for an action that actually did get rewarded because of the publicity and money that it brought in."
"Shrewd and cutting to the core of it," Anna sighed, then met my eyes. "She's going to be another me. Don't piss her off."
"I have no intention to," I said, grabbing Lauren's hand. "Ever."
"The editor was fired," Anna said. "Since he was the one who circumvented our protocols. The writer was disciplined and given some history lessons on why one does not pry into the lives of Seats and their close associates without invitation. He was sufficiently cowed, in my estimation." Lauren and I both nodded. We'd talked beforehand and hadn't exactly decided what would be appropriate, but we'd decide when we heard what happened if it was enough. Anna's decisions were tough but fair, which was exactly what I'd wanted; thankfully, that meant I didn't need to try and do something myself. "And, might I add," Anna said, focusing on Lauren again. "From one Prime to another, Lauren, I apologise especially to you. I know how... radical a change becoming a Prime can be. Entering this world without magic of our own. Without any real control other than the influence we have over our Seats."
"Thank you," Lauren said.
"So," Anna said. "By way of apology, it's only fitting that I offer a sacrifice - thankfully this didn't happen with a Death seat. The buck stops with me, so I of course offer myself for your sexual gratification, Jeremiah Grant. If you don't find me an appropriate sacrifice, however, my business covers the top three floors of the building and anyone in my organization will be made available to you. They are all Ascended, or the siblings or partners of Ascended, and are aware of the mistake that was made."
I sighed, and Lauren smiled at me. She'd called it. I felt awkward as hell about it, but she had, and we'd already decided how I needed to respond.
"Anna," I said slowly. "First, I don't think anyone could say that you wouldn't be 'appropriate' when it came to sexual gratification. And I certainly won't walk through your offices and choose random women to demand they have sex with me. If I accept your... sacrifice, though, I'm concerned how that would impact things with Yaroslav."
Anna frowned and stood up, circling around the couch she had sat on and bracing her hands on the back of it. "Yaroslav and I are not married," she said. "Well, not for a long time now. He has his life, and I have mine, and while we... collide frequently, as I will always be drawn to him, we are different people. We've both taken lovers over the years. Fewer on my part than his, but that's not saying much considering quite how many there continue to be for him."
"But were any of yours other Seats? And new ones, at that?" I asked.
Anna smiled and looked across the room at a small writing desk as if remembering something. "No Seats," she admitted. "Not in the real world, at least. In the Council chamber, yes. I've been careful over the years not to open myself up to... demands from other Seats. They've almost all visited my offices, and some of my staff have been 'blessed' by interactions with Temüjin or Ndia, but I've never been in a place to apologise like this before."
