Work came in the form of more driving. All the way to the north side of Chicago. Where it was all luxury condominiums and mansions built beside obviously government made lakes. Amaru could see oceanic spirits swimming beneath.
They eventually came to a stop in a culdesac absent of massive wyrm taint and weaver spirits. It was quiet inside and out. On multiple levels.
Apparently, it was also home. Amaru knew so when he spotted the German flag waving from the rooftop of the center-most colonial mansion. It was at least sixty feet tall with clean white walls and a black shingled rooftop. The windows were fractured frames of greens and blues that somehow didn't resemble a church.
When Braun pulled into the driveway, he was surrounded by three men in suits.
Amaru tensed.
"They're pack. It's ok." Braun said before clicking the door unlocked.
Quickly and efficiently, they opened up the back door to the mustang and began taking out Amaru's bags of clothes and heading into the mansion.
"I can take my own things." Amaru protested from the front seat.
"Do you know where your room is?" Braun asked as he stepped out of the car. All the while he thanked and nodded to the garou in suits.
"I can find it." Amaru pressed.
"We don't have time for that." Braun said as Amaru got out of the car on the other side.
"We've had time to visit every designer store in the west side, visit my fathers grave and stop to order eight rotisserie chickens. How do we not have time for this?" Amaru asked.
"Because you need to get showered, shaved and styled before six. It's five right now. The dinner is at seven. Powerful people will be present. You will be scrutinized from the moment you walk in and we can't afford missteps or misunderstandings. So, I will take you to the bathroom where you will be debriefed on tonight's focuses and cleansed to the point of rawness. Understood?" Braun explained with so much intensity that a vein bulged in his neck.
Amaru growled, "Alright."
"Remember, Amaru. Masks and sacrifice."
"Yea."
"Follow me." Braun led him inside.
The mansion was simple. Efficient. State of the art. It was a smart-house with steel doors on remote control, ai vacuums and security systems buzzed across the polished wood floors. The windows had one way facial recognition software scanning the diagnostics of every life form— even the grass.
As Amaru walked at a brisk pace across the floors, he could feel trap doors and manufactured alcove entrances give beneath his weight. Many of the rooms reeked of wolf and gunpowder.
Many of the weaver spirits were smaller and more organized. Their spiritual webbing held together phones, giving their internet connection a firmer hold.
"This feels more like a bunker than a mansion…." Amaru thought.
Braun led him up two flights of spiral stairs, past a room where two people were defintely having sex, a weightroom, a room fashioned like a boxing ring and another room full of individuals on computer.
"Is that… are they playing earthblood?" Amaru asked.
"What's that?" Braun replied.
"Nevermind."
They continued their trek in silence all the way to a massive shower room at the end of the hall where two older women awaited them. They wore simple black blouses and slacks.
They gave a quick bow to them both.
"Mr. Mawh, this is Eleanor and Aiko. They're great at what they do. The best, even." Braun said.
"And what is that?" Amaru asked.
"Hair, nails, tailoring, you name it, they do it." Braun said.
"They're maids?"
"Multipurpose aides." Braun corrected before clapping his hands, "Anyway, I'll leave you three to it. Once you're done, they'll show you to your room where you'll get dressed and ready for tonights dinner."
Braun left before Amaru could say anything.
Eleanor cleared her throat, "Ready?"
"Masks, right?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Nothing." Amaru stripped out of his clothes.
The shower was a mess of uncomfortable grunts, gripping hands, flying soap suds, dialect coaching and violent plucking of his brows, sideburns and upper lip.
By the end of it, he felt close to transforming. They seemed to notice and briskly escorted him to his room in a towel with his outfit on a hanger laid at the foot of his bed.
"Thank you." He said.
"You're welcome, Warrior." Eleanor replied. Her age was hard to place for him. She had a few wrinkles but was built like a fighter. Plus her hair looked naturally platinum blonde and curly.
"Do you all say that?" Amaru asked as they headed out.
"Most will I'm sure. All kinfolk will— we must aknowledge authority. Many of the other changing breeds will as well, too. It gives us hope."
Amaru looked around before asking, "What other changing breeds are there?"
Eleanor and Aiko shrugged. "I can't say for sure. Most of you move too fast for me to follow anyway. Now, you should get dressed. Mr. Watanokami will be expecting you in less than twenty minutes."
"Uh-huh."
They bowed again and shut the door, leaving Amaru in his new room.
New room.
There was more familiarity in that term than having a home at all.
He didn't even bother looking around. He didn't like too. It made him nauseous. Not to mention he probably couldn't name half of the items or made material in the space, so he simply grabbed his clothes off the bed and went into the bathroom.
"A bathroom. In my room. This is crazier than the spirit-spiders." Amaru said as he dropped his towel.
Then he looked in the mirror and nearly had a stroke.
He was taller— by at least two inches. And he looked older. His features were more defined. Sharper jawline, thicker eyebrow ridge, jutting cheekbones. Combined with his plucked brows, shaved face and touched up hair he looked less rugged and more handsome.
It was then that he thought back to Lexa in the van.
"I guess the first change alters the human form too. Cool."
Amaru's phone buzzed on the counter suddenly.
A text from Braun.
All it said was, "Five minutes."
Amaru quickly got dressed. It was a simple suit of expensive materials. Black on black with a blue interior on the overcoat and a golden tie.
It was then that he realized he'd never put on a tie and had no idea how to. So, he left it. And the top two buttons of the button-up were too tight around his neck— which had grown in thickness. So he left that undone as well.
He left the mansion at a brisk pace, eager to avoid interracting with any of the other Garou and their weaver spirit allies. He escaped, but not by his own cool swiftness as he felt the rooms quiet and adjust in his wake. He could even feel eyes on him as cameras in the corners of walls began to glow and spin to eye him.
Leaving felt better than ever.
Until he saw the massive armored limo waiting for him. Two men in suits nodded as his approach as he walked down the driveway of performance motorcycles and trucks to enter the limo.
He mumbled thanks as he slid into the leather seats inside. Due to his nose, he wasn't surprised to find the dark leather interior was occupied by more than one individual.
Beside him, Braun sat wearing a classic suit with freshly gelled hair and a shaved face.
At the seats with their backs to the car windows, a man barely older than Amaru sat with a computer in his lap. Across from him, three women sat with phones in their hands.
"Mr. Mawh. I see you made some adjustments to your suit." Braun said.
"I did." Amaru replied.
"In abandoning the stricter and constraining elements of his attire he leans more towards exuding an air of relaxation, excitement and care free attitudes. This could make tonight's networking ventures more seamless." One of the women on her phone said.
Amaru looked from her to Braun.
"It could also make people think he's unrefined, wild and violent." Another one of the women said.
As the car started up, he introduced them. "Amaru, I'd like for you to formally meet a few of my most trusted pack members. The women to my left are some of the greatest minds of their age. Triplets. Luna, Stella and Nova."
They didn't bother looking up as they said hello in near electronic unison.
"Hey…" Amaru said.
They were visibly identical triplets. They had the same dark brown hair, pale skin and slight shapely builds. The only difference was the frames or lack of their glasses. Luna had circular frames— like the moon. Stella had jagged edges— like stars. Nova didn't have glasses. And her eyes seemed just a shade brighter than the other two.
"They're our modern scouts." Braun explained, "Unlike most other Garou we fight a war on many fronts. One of which being the modern. We follow the money— we track the numbers. Find out where it leads. How we can use it to our advantage. They watch all things from the stock market to notable social network activity and we use it to help formulate mission focuses with the different Houses of the Glass Walkers as a whole." Braun explained.
"So they work logistics." Amaru said.
"Only when it's not a full moon." The triplets said in unison. Again.
Braun carried on as usual.
"The man to your right isn't much older than you. His name is Simon Saad— but he goes by Specs."
Specs was tall— a thin. His skin was tan. He looked middle-eastern with his hooked nose and curly black hair. He wore a suit as well but was missing the overcoat and had a pair of headphones around his neck—
"ERHM…. Specs." Braun said more firmly.
Specs looked up from his laptop, "Yes, boss?"
Braun looked over to Amaru.
Specs's eyebrows raised up above the rims of his shades.
"It's you."
"Uhhh—"
"Dude— you're a tank! What were they feeding you over in the outskirts?"
"Food." Amaru said plainly.
"Ah. The good stuff. Do you mind?" Specs reached out for Amaru's hand.
Amaru grabbed him by the wrist and put his hand back, "Yes."
"Right…. The Ahroun are combative."
"Or I just don't know you." Amaru replied.
Specs considered his words for a moment, "That….. actually is true."
Almost immediately after he adjusted his glasses. Gnosis flowed around the dark lenses in ocular pulse waves. Technological spirits in the form of wires and grid sequences flashed in the lenses as he looked over Amaru.
"The same way, Luna, Stella and Nova are gifted with numbers and the internet, Specs is gifted with communion and connection to the spirits of technology. As you can see I'm sure." Braun explained.
Specs was in his own world as he mumbled to himself. The only thing to stop him was the loud honk of a car as it sped past them on the highway.
"Wow!" He yelled, "Compared to my compiled averages of Garou physical stats, you're in the ninety-fourth percentile. Your bone density and muscle content is ridiculous. Even the tendons in your eyes are... compared to humans you're practically made of steel."
"Aren't we all?" Amaru asked.
"No….. not anymore." Specs calmed and went back to fiddling with his computer, "I'm sure you already know how much pressure will be put on you. But, for what it's worth, from a physical standpoint— and spiritual, you seem built to endure it."
"Thanks." Amaru said before looking back to Braun, "You still haven't told me where we're going."
"Right. It's a fundraising event. And like all fundraisers, it doubles as a networking expo where a dozen founding families and old money talking heads will swarm. There will be a strong wyrm presence. I need you to calm your rage amd remain calm no matter what you see."
"Why?" Amaru asked.
"Because it will be taken care of. But the message matters. All you have to do is play your role." Braun explained.
"What's my role?"
"The new son of the city. Smile, shake hands, laugh, be interesting...… pretend you're just as surprised as everyone else when the top floor of the building goes up in flames and a business oligarch related to an old Pentex Subsidiary is abducted. Pretend you don't know about an illegal auction taking place that will involve selling the plans to staged arson and deforestation jobs that will destroy native wolf populations up north and plots of protected ancient wildlife habitats for the sake of oil and urbanization….. and awakening and ancient Bane that could swallow wisconsin whole."
"Woah woah— hold on."
"Just smile, Warrior. You can bare your fangs for their true purpose in time. Remember, Mr. Mawh. Masks."
Amaru took a deep breath as the limo came to a stop before a great skyscraper of golden framing and spotless glass.
Cameras flashed from outside the embroidered red carpet walkway. Sports cars revved their expensive engines spewing foul fumes.
Amaru raged. But it was almost untraceable behind his newly formed mask.
"Let's get into it."