The Quorum of the 12 met monthly at a Super 10 just off Highway 81 in Aetherton, Nebraska. Albert and Bernice Schmidt owned and operated the relatively small hotel. They were an elderly couple in their 60s, soon to be 70s, and they relied on it for their income. Honestly, they had very little to do with day-to-day operations, they had their grand-kids run most of it. It would have been a money sink if not for the group they called “The Quorum of the 12”. It wasn’t an official name by any means, they didn’t call themselves anything.
They were a quiet bunch, as far as the owners were concerned-rented the conference room, only asked for muffins and coffee and water. That wasn’t something the owners normally provided, they had to pay out of pocket, but with the amount the 12 gave them every month…well, it wasn’t a difficult purchasing decision. The Quorum was their most reliable source of income, honestly, as Aetherton was a simple rest stop, a small town of 340.
The hotel itself lacked most amenities, but the twelve people who met there every month didn’t seem to mind. If the owners were to describe their clients, it would be…normal. Twelve relatively young people in ranging from their twenties to their early forties. And they always brought books with them. That was all they discussed when they eavesdropped from time to time, really. A book club.
Sure, there were some awful strange things being said about reality and what not, but the owners figured the group was eclectic. There was the tragedy of the older woman, who passed sometime last week (in her sleep, of course, she was at that age). Still, twelve rooms booked. Some of the faces would change occasionally, but always, no matter what, there were 12.
Today was their meeting day. Bernice was at the front desk as she usually was during the day, and Albert was in the room behind her doing the monthly ledger.
A young Hispanic woman named Sophia checked in first, wearing the finest designer garments money could buy. The owners heard she was some big shot in LA, turned the straw she’d been given as a poor girl in a poor neighborhood into gold. She smiled demurely and laughed politely at any jokes before quickly settling in to Room 9.
That was the other thing. They always rented the same rooms. Permanently. 12 rooms out of the 80 the hotel offered were permanently paid for. No maid service allowed, no entrance. The owners didn’t mind. Rooms 1-12 were simply off-limits.
If they had bothered looking inside those rooms (which they never did, the last time someone had tried they’d gotten a rather nasty shock touching the door handle), they would have found them much, much bigger on the inside and lavishly adorned. No that the enchantments in place in every room would allow them to remember anything other than it looking pristine.
Room 12 checked in right behind her. Sam something-or-other, very handsome mid-to-late thirties. Maybe forty, but he looked very good for his age, rugged and such. An entrepreneur, lots of money to throw around. He tipped his cap at Bernice and sauntered to his room.
Room 3, Mary-Anne, was a 43-year old black woman with a bright sunny smile who could talk your ear off. She came two hours later. She carried a leather-bound book that had something to do with nature on it. Bernice thought it would make a lovely coffee table conversation piece.
A man roughly the same age as Sam, named Dolan checked into Room 1. That room used to belong to the old woman, but apparently he was taking her place. Bernice and Albert both agreed, later, that something about him was off. Not just that he suddenly replaced the kindly old woman, but that he had an edge to him. Curt, impatient…it rubbed Bernice the wrong way and she said as much to Albert.
Just past noon, Room 4, Trent, checked in. He was an anthro-lion. One of the first, he said. Bernice thought him rather odd-they didn’t get many anthros in the middle of Nebraska, certainly not lions! But he seemed alright. He’d told her to expect more anthros in a few years when the gene-modding community got a hold of the formula. She thought it was all very strange, but he paid, so she kept her mouth shut.
Juanita checked in to Room 2 at midday. She was a famous streamer on something-or-another. Bernice made sure to shut Albert’s door so he didn’t leer at her like he usually did. Perfect and beautiful in every way. Tee entire group was, actually-she’d never seen a gathering of such beautiful people before.
The youngest of the group, Benny, a short blonde-haired kid, wheeled himself in. The boy was sickly, clearly suffering multiple health issues, but he always seemed cheery when he spoke. Today he was looking particularly tired, dark circles under his sunken eyes. Bernice had thought him the second most likely to pass, though she felt bad thinking such things. He checked into Room 5.
A tough young woman named Ashley checked into Room 8 at precisely three o’clock. Her black hair was cut short in a pixie cut which Bernice thought was very unflattering. She didn’t wear makeup and her muscles flexed when she tossed her bag on the floor next to her to get her key.
A young twenty-something named Aidan checked into Room 6. He was obese had and wore graphic t-shirts and cargo pants. He carted around a bag full of strange foreign book s and a laptop. Arnold thought he came off as a bit of a nerd. Bernice thought he seemed nice enough, even offered to hold the door open for Ashley but the impertinent young woman growled at him and shoved him out of her way.
Near to four o’clock, Soo-Jyeong, an Asian man in his thirties, checked in. He was short, stocky, and quite muscular, with a shaved head. He was in the National Guard and got a discount for Armed Service members and veterans. From what she knew, he was Korean. Nice and polite but soft spoken and quiet, not much of a conversationalist. He checked into Room 10.
Room 7 checked in. Ted, a large, smartly-dressed man in his fifties, with a fake smile and a garrulous personality. He was a politician, she knew, a minor one who worked in the office of Agriculture in North Carolina. His career was on the up-and-up, if he were to be believed. She wasn’t sure if he could be.
Finally, around 5 in the afternoon, a young albino man named RK checked into Room 11. He was well-dressed, in a bohemian style Bernice recognized from the 70s. She’d been a teenager then, but it had been a fun time. He wore a delectable cologne that she enjoyed. His demeanor, however, could use some work-he was quite snobby.
Now that they were all checked in, Bernice and Arnold went home. Home was the lot just behind the hotel. Different street, now. It used to be an alleyway, but recently the city had expanded. That was the other odd thing. Ever since the 12 had come here, the city was getting much more popular. She vaguely remembered a time when no one wanted to live in this podunk town, but she dismissed that as simple misremembering. The new subdivision going up probably meant that people wanted to live somewhere cheaper than the big cities.
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Dolan entered the conference room at 6 PM sharp, as he was instructed. As the newest member of the twelve, he was being screened. Apparently, the previous owner of his Book had passed, leaving it in his hands. And they didn’t trust him.
He sat at the end of the table and waited, annoyed. The conference room was boring and small. Meager muffins and coffee urns had been placed in the center of the table. The others were watching him carefully.
“What?” Dolan asked them, sharply.
“Just wonderin’ if yer a psycho or not.” Sam said, arms crossed.
“Whoa, holy shit, are you Matthew Mcc-!” Dolan exclaimed.
“Nope, don’t know him.” Sam cut him off. “Like I was saying, we gotta be wary of newbies.”
“You really think I’m a psycho?” Dolan stared. “The fuck are you on, boyo?”
“The Auditors don’t just choose normal people. They choose people that are entertaining.” Mary-Anne, the black woman, spoke softly. “It’s not your fault, sweetie. Just the way we gotta be around newcomers.”
“So what’s the test?” Dolan rolled his eyes.
“Not really a test.” Benny spoke up, wheezing. “It’s just about being cool with stuff. We don’t fight for Books, we work together.”
“Work together?” Dolan looked around the table. “On what?”
“Changing the world…safely.” Juanita spoke, the Hispanic woman cleaning her nails. “But first, you gotta understand what we’re dealing with.”
They explained, at length, the Auditors and what they meant for anyone with a Book.
“So you’re saying these Auditors…they can kill you if you overdo yourself?” Dolan asked, reaching for a coffee.
“Oops, let’s fix the beverages!” Soo-Jyeong said. “Don’t drink that. It’s gross.”
Dolan paused. The others made copies of their Books and pooled them together. Soo-Jyeong smiled at Dolan and flipped through the Book. He found a few spells, pointed at the meager offerings on the table, and spoke the magic words. Soon, what was a meager meal of muffins and stale coffee was a veritable feast.
“Now that’s a nice trick.” Dolan chuckled. “What’s next, turn the water into wine?”
“I mean, we can.” Soo-Jyeong shrugged, smirking. “This small stuff is safe. Especially if you make sure someone else can hear you. Changing the whole hotel is definitely not.”
“Altering reality is what lets the Auditors fuck around. That’s why we’re being cautious. We work out the things we can do safely here, where we have a whole room of people that can fix things.” Sophia said. “I can summon things, so I’m…fairly safe as long as only my summons are doing the magic.”
“Won’t that make them mad?” Dolan asked, lacing his finger sin front of him. “Pretty obvious that they want us to fight for supreme power.”
“So?” Ashley asked. “No, really, I mean it. So what if they get angry? They have to play by the rules they made.”
“Plus we can create the world we all want without having to destroy anyone.” Benny held up a finger. “As long as we proceed smartly.”
“How long?” Dolan asked.
“We have 5, 10, and 15 year plans.” Ted said, smiling brilliantly. “It’s all about easing things in. Want to have a world full of magic and anthros? Sure, but first we gotta create a company that could logically do so.”
“We create logic.” Sophia interjected. “So that the Auditors can’t screw us. Immortality is impossible, for example, unless we have ‘scientific breakthroughs’ and such.”
“I was getting to that.” Ted smiled at her. “Anyways, so that’s kind of the goal. Create plausible excuses for the things we want to change or alter about the world. We’ve spent the last two years building biotech and medical businesses that specialize in such things.”
“Small discoveries are miraculously ‘found’ every year or so. Discoveries that are literally impossible, but because we thought through all the reality alteration angles, don’t affect us at all.” Mary said.”It can be frustrating, but that’s why we have a fifteen year plan. Slow and steady wins this race.”
Dolan shifted in his seat. “So what’s my purpose here?”
“Keep us alive and young.” Sam said. “That’s it. We all need to survive fifteen years to make sure the plan works. One of us dies in a car accident? Reverse time, save us.”
“So, what? I’m some glorified safety net?” Dolan snorted. “Come on! Surely we can make something cool with my spells?”
“Oh, sure!” Benny spoke eagerly. “I’m Benny, by the way-uh, we have several things we can do with your powers that are, like, super creative! We can literally slow down or speed up work sites. Wanna build something over night? Just use your Book.”
“You have to be careful, though.” Trent, the anthropomorphic lion said. “We, uh, lost the other Time owner because we couldn’t warn her…before she aged herself to death.”
“We’ll teach you the ins and outs of the Book.” RK said. “Yours is one of the more complicated Books to use properly. But once you know it? You can do super inventive things.”
“We just don’t want you to die, sweetie.” Mary Anne spoke gently, laying her hand on Dolan’s and smiling. “It wasn’t pleasant the last time….”
Dolan sighed and listened as the others explained how to use his spells. It was clear he was frustrated. When the meeting adjourned, they all went back to their rooms. He’d been agenda number 1. The second day would be about running their companies and the small changes they’d be allowed to make.
He was already planning to kill them all then.