When the trio arrived back at Vokrizin, Conor led them to his office. Parker pealed off and stood guard near the elevators. Conor half suspected it was because Kayle was working the reception desk today. Eli poked around the office while Conor sat in his chair behind his desk.
"You are welcome to take a seat Colonel. I do appreciate you coming. I hope this means you are at least willing to consider my offer to come back to active duty. Though if you have been out of the country, perhaps you have not been as retired as people may believe." Conor said, as the idea crossed his mind. He eyes the Dragoon speculatively.
"You are sharp. I will grant you that. The nature of my work was less for the temple and more along the lines of my royal appointment in the king's army. I still review troops and conduct training for the more elite soldiers. Some of those from time to time need to be checked up on... elsewhere shall we say. As for employment, it depends."
"On?"
"Many things. Convince me."
"You served as my mother's guardsman, is that not reason enough?"
"Your mother was a special woman and the chosen Deinmaar of Celia."
Conor nodded, "Then return, Dragoon, to the Dovari order and take up your post once more."
"Are you trying to tell me you have taken up your mother's mantle? I thought Celia was lost... We searched for her after the attack. Many Dragoons have searched in the last few years. I was only allowed a month, but even I was here. There was not trace of Celia."
"Dovajun has her own time and her own ways. These are not for the Dragoons to question." Conor answered, felling Celia's tug. "You are a trusted warrior and it is time to return. There are forces in play that could jeopardize much."
"You convinced Parker, and thus I give you the benefit of the doubt. But I am not so easily swayed to follow without knowing Celia's hand is in this. I will not blindly follow a master."
"You are wise," Conor said, removing Celia's pendant from within his shirt.
Celia pulsed with power, and Eli dropped to one knee. "Forgive me, Celia. I serve the Dovajun, Celia."
"Rise Colonel Eli. There will be no need for the formalities after this. You can meet with Mr. Nuri about the details of employment. In short, I need you to work with Parker and continue to build our security team. You will be our chief of security. Parker will continue as my personal guard. Major events and such you will likely both be active. Hire as many men as you see fit to secure our businesses. Miss. Weiss and Jarad will furnish you a list of all of our current holdings. You will find part of that means you get to ensure Cara is well protected being that ApeturePhoto is my flagship company right now."
"Just how mighty is your Vokrizin?" Eli asked, a bit of awe in his voice.
"At last tally? Umm, I believe total market value was around half a billion dragons, or just under if you combine all of the assets. Miss Anna Brooks who you will see around often hopefully has been doing a marvelous job with our real estate business, which has really taken off in the last few months."
"Any major threats I need to be aware of right off?"
"The Prima of the Targu Temple of Abraxas is a piece of work. But honestly most of what I have dealt with is petty stuff from some old classmates. I likely am going overkill by hiring Parker, but his situation was unique. Asking for you was more of Celia's call. For all of our sakes, I hope your job is a well-paid retirement where you get to spend time with Cara."
"Fat chance of that but we can hope."
Life in Jinstain fell into a pleasant routine as the last of winter's bite eased. Spring was quickly approaching in the southern reaches of Bayan Province. Eli and Parker were ruthless in their training of Conor, and insisted he join them every morning on the roof of Dreadnaught where they had designed a daunting staring arena and obstacle course. Conor had taken to leaving a full wardrobe in his office suite again as well as his home because every time he came to the office he would need to take a shower and change clothes after those two were done with him.
The routine seemed to be doing everyone good. Conor smiled to himself as he watched Parker smartly salute Eli fist to heart as they passed. It seemed the two had fallen back into old routines easily.
"Parker, you seem to be working well with Colonel Eli."
"The Colonel was one of my instructors many years ago. It feels natural to have him in command again."
"Makes sense. How do things seem to be going in your opinion?" Conor asked.
Parker laughed as they headed out to the car. "Once he warmed up to Peter, I think it started going a lot better. You convincing Peter to open that marketing office here and stationing Cara here was a brilliant move."
Conor laughed. "I intended to have the marketing division here for a while, especially once I started working with Anna on our real estate business. Letting Cara be closer to her uncle was more of an added bonus. Cara turns out to be a natural at the work and it gives Peter an excuse to visit more."
Parker grinned, "Peter is smitten for sure. I think the other girls in the office are getting jealous of all the flowers he keeps dropping off. Cara at least spreads the love a bit and leaves a new bouquet on each of their desks being they don't all fit on hers anymore."
"I bet we will have a wedding by summer. He hasn't mentioned a date yet, but I am sure Cara has been planning it." Conor said, climbing into the car. "Let's go visit the field. I need to get a good visual of the grounds and see how we can incorporate all these projects into the new building. There are so many small needs for this community. I want to see how many of them are realistic." Conor said.