The Innkeeper

A few hours went by while Lex searched London with his spirit sense. To maximize the possibility of finding his family, he even summoned Fenrir and rode on his back. His goal was not to speed up his search, for he could run fast enough on his own. No, he was hoping Fenrir would pick up a scent close enough to his own to discover his family.

As wild as it sounded, this was not a blind hope, as Fenrir had displayed the ability to recognize groups by associating their smells while at the Inn.

Still, as predicted, his search wrought no results other than to attract unusual looks from people who assumed Fenrir was a strange, hairy horse.

What did happen, eventually, was that Mary informed him that a number of council members had appeared at the Inn and were having a meeting.

Upon hearing the news, Lex sent Fenrir back to the Inn. A thought occurred to him. He could easily summon and send Fenrir from the Inn to wherever he was because of a prize he used on Fenrir, but if he ever needed to send the rest of his workers out of the Inn to a specific world, it would be a real hassle.

That, once again, was an issue for later. Lex teleported back to the Inn and appeared in his office. Instead of going directly to the councilmen, he decided to spy on their meeting first.

While Lex personally didn't know all the councilors or their positions, Velma had provided him with a list of all the information she had on them.

The moment he got his hands on the information he knew his decision to use the newsroom as a means to collect information was paying off. Not only did it have a lot of pertinent data, such as name, designation, political affiliations and some ongoing partnerships, it had a whole set of information he could not even begin to imagine how she collected. It included things like, favorite meal of the day, usual order of wearing socks, favorite color, least favorite smell and thoughts on male pattern baldness. The list went on, but Lex saw no need to focus on such information.

He listened in on the meeting. Someone called Bernard Brown was leading the meeting, and he was one of the senior members of the council, with great political support.

"Preliminary attempts to contact Fernanda have failed," he said in an extremely grave tone. "The issue is, the only means we have to contact her are technological, and there is a global blackout for all electronic devices! We have confirmed this is not the effect of a global EMP, but rather some other phenomenon of which we have no information."

"I don't care about that, tell me about the damn aliens!" a panicked man interrupted. According to Velma's notes, he was from Latvia, a country neighboring Estonia. Politically, he was weak, except his strong connections to the Russian councilor, who happened to be missing from the meeting.

Bernard did not let any displeasure show on his face as he transitioned towards the relevant topic. Though perhaps that was only because he looked so disturbed as it was.

"As I said, all electronics are down, but we've been able to communicate around the globe using various spiritual techniques, with communication talismans being the easiest to use due to their cheap price. According to current reports… all extraterrestrial ships that have come from the mother-ship have head towards Estonia, for reasons unknown to us. We have not been able to confirm their motives yet, but we have confirmed that they are non-communicative and likely hostile. We have lost contact with all operatives who have tried to approach any of the landing vessels."

"Even my dead grandparents can tell that they're hostile! Even the Midnight Inn has declared earth has entered a world war and labeled us all refugees! The question is, how do we fight them? All our missiles are inoperable! The only defense we have are the preexisting formations we've set up!"

While Bernard kept up a calm facade, not everyone was able to contain themselves as well as him. Lex felt slightly sick when Mary told him that he had been earning tons of MP as a lot of people had started bringing in physical assets that they had hidden or hoarded over their lives and started converting them to MP for fear of further loss of value.

Gold bricks, jewels and cars were actually the most common form of asset people were paying with, though of course Lex never received any of them. He only got MP. The number of people who had entire suitcases filled with dollars who were crying and pleading for them to be accepted was actually quite high.

"We cannot yet determine the lethality of our weapons. Guns still work, mostly, as well as most other mechanical weapons. It would be our best bet if the… 'aliens' proved weak to them, for if we have to rely on our spiritual weapons, we will quickly run short on supply."

"I have news!" yelled another person who ran into the room, having worked up a sweat.

Lex recognized this man even without Velma's notes. He was Marlo's butler!

"King Marlo has sent news! He… his current location is in India, but he had decided to fly right into the air to intercept one of the ships entering earth and test out their strength!"

The news confounded many people, including Lex. But regardless of how insane it was, at least they'd be able to get some information on the strength and capabilities of the aliens.

"Moreover, his majesty has declared that the council should do their best to contact Fernanda as he has reason to believe the current invaders have been lured here by someone she had captive on the planet. Someone by the name of Jeffrey!"

Murmurs filled the room as everyone began discussing the news amongst themselves. It was no secret that the council actually disliked Marlo and his brutish ways. But the man was a walking nuclear bomb, they had to deal with him. But suddenly, everyone was grateful for his trademark brashness. Who else would be crazy enough to fly towards aliens and fight them in the sky?