Vast Formless Things II

My little group was eating together the other day when Caledon and Clara showed up, along with two suited people.
Cal walked over to our table and explained, "I've gotten ARC to let us go with you, with another agent or two alongside us to protect Clara and ensure I don't do anything too, y'know, risky."
"Wait, you're Zagreus, aren't you?" asked Kaden.
"Caledon, actually. Used to be, though."
"Oh. You aren't an Angel anymore?"
"No. I left them a few months back."
"That makes sense. You certainly looked miserable back then. ...Do you fellows want to sit down?"

The four newcomers sat down at the table next to ours.
"Well, then. Let's recap, shall we?" Kaden asked. "We have a former Mountebank, a former Angel, a reluctant Nest, three ARC agents, a Runner, and a would-be Puppet. Is that all correct?"
"Yeah, pretty much," I said.
"God, that is a weird group. Hello, by the way," he said to the agents.
"Hello," said one of them, who wore a suit and generally looked like he should have been in a 40s crime movie. I assumed he wasn't wearing a fedora because he was in a restaurant, despite its relative lack of classiness. "My name's Ash, and my partner is Alice."
"Wait, Ash and Alice?" Eric asked. "The legendary..." He trailed off as he saw Ash and Alice look at one another in an "I can't believe we're having this conversation again" kind of way. "Never mind. Anyways, I'm Eric, this is H—, this is Kaden, and this is Giles."
"I see. Kaden, you mentioned a former Mountebank and an unwilling Nest?"
"Yes. I used to be a Mountebank. Giles is a Nest, but the birds usually go near him instead of inside. But I assume ARC doesn't need to assign any more security to us, what with the three agents?"
"Unlikely," Ash said. "Unless you're particularly dangerous."
"That's fair... it isn't like I'm a wizard or anything." He smiled.
Ash laughed, though I detected a hint of suspicion in his expression.
"So," said Kaden,  "what are we going to do? Our circumstances aren't the best at the moment. Couldn't we just stay at ARC headquarters?"
"We'd like to be able to house you long-term, but we just don't have the money for that, especially with how spartan the holding cells are currently," Eric said. "I guess what I mean is, if you're interested, you could go there, but it wouldn't be perfect. Which is also why we don't take in Runners. Much as we'd like to, we don't have unlimited funding, so we have to prioritize."
"...Oh," said Kaden. "That makes sense. Hm." He rubbed his coin absentmindedly.

As I looked at Kaden's coin, I noticed the image on its "heads" side shift slightly. Then, yet another important person walked into the restaurant. I assumed he was Jack of All, Kaden's former patron. He matched the new look of Kaden's coin, for one thing, and he wore a red glove on his right hand, for another.

"You know," Jack said to Kaden, "God doesn't play dice. But I do."
"Why are you here?" Kaden asked angrily.
"To explain something. You see, you really did get off easy when all that happened to you was that you got stuck with the Mountebanks. I rolled snake eyes when I decided what to do with you, and I don't fix my games. So I went with it, and I allowed you to escape the Mountebanks without your end of the deal being nullified. I even gave you that good luck charm, Kaden dear," he said, eyeing the coin. "Though that was more out of generosity than anything else."
"You expect me to believe you?" Kaden asked.
"You don't have to," Jack said casually. "It's not like I can make you. But I can certainly make good on my promise in the future. Besides, what difference does it make whether you believe me or not? You can't hurt me."
Kaden sighed. "I guess you're right, but—"
"No buts, Crowley. I'm right. That's it."

Kaden stared at him in anger as Jack walked away. Jack turned around to say, "Oh, and don't expect things to turn out right. I'm not the only power out there... or around here." Then he disappeared back into the night.

I'm pretty glad we were the only ones there, aside from the staff. I have to assume the people who were there just took it as a strange midnight chat between people in a cheap restaurant.

- Poe