by T J Kelly
“Which makes him the best combat training instructor on the planet.” Armageddon finished his stretches and twirled his staff back and forth in large, lazy circles, warming up his arms. “The life of an Irregular isn’t easy. If there were another way to keep you safe from the Council, I would do it. Unfortunately, though, being an agent protects you from them at the same time it makes you an even bigger target with everyone else. Although I think you are an excellent addition to the team.”
Our staffs clashed with a loud snick as we started the forms. “That’s not your fault,” I cut in abruptly. “The Council always thinks powerful magicians are a threat. I wish I knew what my father did to keep them off his tail. No, I’m grateful to you for all of this. And I should know how to fight, anyway. You’re the one who told me that my enemies will attack me physically since I’m short and a female. I want to learn everything I can to give me an advantage.”
Armageddon ducked as my staff swung exactly where his head had been a second before. He slid sideways, twirling in a neat little circle, and almost knocked me off my feet again. Fortunately, each form was a routine. We knew what was coming, and I didn’t need to pay too much attention to his next move. At least, not at the lower levels.
“I want you to be able to protect yourself, but I’ll always be here for you, too. When you call, I’ll come to your aid.” Armageddon’s words sounded reassuring, but there was also a deeper thread woven into his voice as if he were casting a spell. It reminded me a little of his promise to help me if the worst happened during the trials.
Ducking to avoid his next blow, I slipped on the soft sand near the edge of the field and almost landed on my butt. Quickly recovering, I managed to swing in time to make Armageddon jump over my staff at the expected moment.
“Why didn't you intervene while I was in the ring? Things got pretty bad.” My breath came out in huffs, causing me to speak with little pauses between each word. Armageddon had promised to tear the stadium down to protect me if needed. I was curious what he had meant by that since being skewered in the leg by Oberon’s knife seemed like the right time to interfere. I wanted to know why he held back, although I didn’t think about it much at the time. I was too busy trying not to die.
“Oh, that,” he said casually before he grunted from the force of his staff striking the ground near my feet. “You had to win on your own merits. I would have stopped the knife from killing you if needed. It wasn’t.”
I rolled to the side, performing the second step of the ninth form. “Well, someday I’d like you to show me how you monitor things like that. I want to know how to protect my charges from a distance.”
“Sure thing, sweetheart,” Armageddon said as he slammed his staff into my shoulder. Or he would have if my staff wasn’t there to block it. “It’s an advanced skill. You have to focus to the exclusion of almost everything else, so it’s not used often.”
“Oh. Like the time the Taine’s attacked me when I went off castle grounds? You made the pain go away.” I rolled again, weaving my body to avoid his blows.
“Close. That one takes more concentration. The spell I used at the stadium allows for me to perform protection spells on myself simultaneously.”
I knew it. My uncle had put himself in danger to keep me alive after I was attacked by the Taines when I was outside of the castle borders. He had made himself vulnerable around our enemies to save me.
I dragged myself off the ground and wiped the sudden onslaught of grateful tears off my cheeks. Since they were coated in sand, I pretended I had gotten a few grains in my eyes and needed to flush them out. We had completed all ten forms and it was time for a short break anyway.
“That’s just one more thing I want to learn when the time comes,” I said. It wasn’t even funny how much I needed to learn. I didn’t connect to my magic until months after my seventeenth birthday. My parents had taken me from school to school before that, trying to make it work. There had been no time to learn many of the basics like the other magicless students. I was so far behind I wasn’t sure I could ever catch up.
Armageddon held out his clean handkerchief for me to dry my face when I was done splashing it with water from one of my bottles. I didn’t like how the sand felt coating my skin and wanted to get it off as soon as possible.
“You’re doing fine. In fact, you are the hardest working apprentice I’ve ever had. And I’ve turned out some highly competent magicians, even if I do say so myself.” My uncle handed me my staff after I stuffed his handkerchief into my pocket so I could wash it before giving it back. It was the polite thing to do.
“Thanks,” I said. My feet rose a little higher as I strode towards the middle of the field as if the lift in my spirits had also lightened my tread. “It’s not so bad, though. I really like a lot of the bookwork. There are so many questions that have driven me crazy for years. Now that I have my magic, I can try the solutions and work out for myself what's real and what’s just superstition.” Ancient texts were filled with both wisdom and foolishness, almost in equal measure. I wasn’t sure why, but that was another question I could ask. When I had more time.
If I ever had more time.
“All right, let’s do this thing,” he said. “I’m getting hungry.” Armageddon tapped his staff on the ground, marking his challenge. I sighed, knowing I would get my butt kicked. But I had a plan. It involved a lot of running and hiding.
Hey, if it worked in the trials, it would work in the real world.
I bellowed and twirled my staff as fast as I could to force my uncle to step back, which he did, and then when it came time to lunge, I instead turned and ran.
“I’m hungry, too, but I won't let you take me out that quick,” I shouted behind me.
My uncle laughed, but then the area grew silent. So quiet that the lack of noise lay on my ears heavily. Great. He had disappeared.
“While I have your attention,” my uncle said from the rock formation in front of me, startling me into jumping about a foot off the ground. “I wanted to check in with how you are doing. We haven’t had the chance to talk for a while now. I feel like I’m losing touch.”
I dove to the side as he arched his staff, slamming it down where I had been standing moments before. I didn’t like where the conversation was heading and just grunted my response.
A muffled boom sounded in the distance. There was no ceiling above the arboretum where we practiced. Clouds gathered above us in the sky, indicating that my uncle was as serious as he had ever been.
“I’m fine,” I ground out as I tripped over a small pile of bricks. “Lessons are great. I’m great. Everything is great.” I looked for something to use as a distraction and ended up burying my uncle in dead leaves and grass, swirling them around him with a miniature tornado I created using a little of the Air element.
“Honey, we worry about you. You can trust us. Let us in, okay? You don’t need to go through this alone.”
And by this, he meant my breakup with Chas. Or really, Chas betraying me to his father. He said it was for my own good, but who was he to make that choice for me?
I pushed aside my resentment and then reminded myself that Chas was my epic first love and that kind of thing came with a lot of big gestures and sacrifice. And I had vowed to save him. So we could work out the details when he was back at Castle Laurus with us where he belonged.
“It’s fine,” I insisted through gritted teeth. I scrambled up a small slope near the swampy area, using an extra burst of speed to round a corner so my uncle would lose sight of me. The truth was, I didn’t want to think about how I was doing. It was hard to keep the faith when Chas hadn’t tried to contact me even once since he left.
“But how do you feel, Lia? Peony and I want to know how you’re handling his loss. Blood oaths can’t be broken.”
Like I needed to be reminded. It was like Armageddon wanted to start a fight again. But I was sick of arguing about Chas. That had led to disaster before, and I would never repeat something like that
again.
Just when I thought it was too late, I finally found the rock pile that had a small hollow beneath it. Small, but large enough for me to slip under and hide.
I remained silent so I could lie in wait for my uncle to pass by, but it also gave me time to come up with an answer. I guess I should have had one by now, but I didn’t. I had no idea how to feel. I had no idea how to break an unbreakable spell. I had no idea how to accept defeat and walk away from a guy I swore to save so we could be together forever.
What did epic love mean, anyway?
The time for thinking was up, so I launched myself straight at Armageddon’s knees to knock him down. He caught himself on his staff and swung around, almost as if he were dancing, and slammed both of his feet into my chest. Or would have if he didn’t stop short before making contact. Instead, he tapped me lightly on the shoulder and I dropped my staff, defeated for the day.
“I don’t know how I feel anymore,” I confessed. It was as close as I could come to admitting that I was starting to have doubts. And I was too tired to use a little magic to push them out of my mind the way I usually did.
Armageddon squeezed my shoulder, acknowledging my feelings. He took my staff and set them both aside on one of the benches as we walked out of the dome and back into the castle proper. “I’ll tell your aunt we’re done practicing for the morning. Hit the shower. We’ll eat when you’re ready. I need to get cleaned up, myself.”
I nodded, grateful he didn’t press me to admit anything more. Maybe he was thinking about the last time we fought about Chas, too. Shuddering at the thought of the entire field of birds being obliterated by my thoughtless anger, I trudged up the stairs to my room. A long, hot shower was just the thing I needed to distract me from the thoughts swirling around in my head.
Like was love really love when they volunteered to leave you forever?
CHAPTER FOUR
Teachable Moments
Sometimes I spent hours talking to my uncle in his office, late in the afternoons after heavy reading assignments. We would talk about strategy and philosophy, magic and murder.
“We suspect the Taines were involved. Stage one is proving who did the actual deed. Stage two is when we discern whether it was a hit job or solely at their instigation. Although, it's possible the assassins had support regardless of who instigated.” Armageddon finished making a note in one of his black leather-bound journals and then set his pen aside. He used the cheap ballpoint again instead of the gorgeous ceremonial quill resting beside the crystal ink holder. I did the same thing. Quills got messy, and my hand was always covered in ink before I had gotten done with one page of notes.
I heaved a sigh and shifted deeper into my favorite squashy chair. Peony hated it, and the worn out pea-green upholstery left a lot to be desired. But it was comfortable, the dip in the seat cushion allowing me to touch the floor. The fancy chairs were a smidge too tall, and my feet dangled. As if I were seven instead of seventeen. My aunt, who was shorter than I, understood the value of a chair that fit. So the chair remained hidden away in my uncle’s office.
“I hate them,” I said. Again. I probably said that about the Taines a hundred times a day, and yet it still wasn’t often enough to express my loathing.
Armageddon heaved his own sigh, then rocked back in his chair. “I know you do, sweetheart, and I don’t blame you in the least. I can’t stand Oberon myself. There are dark magicians in this world who have enough Light inside them to make them redeemable human beings. But not him. I sense the Light, but it’s obscured in a way that is unusual and difficult to decipher. After all these years, I can only conclude his will is set for the dark no matter what.”
His voice reeked with discontent. Armageddon was arguably the most powerful magician in the world. He had ways of discerning a magician’s source magic that were uncommon and useful, especially for the head of the Irregulars. But Oberon was a Taine, and the Taine clan perverted Light to use for dark magic spells. Chas had told me that before the trials to give me an edge. I toyed with the idea of telling my uncle, but I swore to Chas that I would never reveal his family secret. It made me uncomfortable to hide things from Armageddon, but I kept that bit of knowledge to myself.
My promise wouldn’t stop me from using it to destroy them, though.
“Do you have any leads?” I asked, wondering if some of the messengers going in and out of the castle had been carrying information about the car accident that had killed my parents.
“Nothing solid, but there are rumors.” My uncle shifted, leaning over his huge antique desk. His silver eyes glittered with suppressed emotion. I would hate to be on the receiving end of his anger. Even knowing his fury was on my behalf, my heartbeat still sped up. I had never feared my uncle, but my imagination was stellar and an image of Armageddon’s enemies realizing their time was up rose strongly in my head.
“Good thing the Irregulars deal in rumors,” I quipped. I smiled, trying to shift my mood before I took a turn toward the dark and lost my inner balance.
“Indeed. At some point, the threads will form a cohesive picture, and then we’ll bring the perpetrators to justice. Until then, I’ve got feelers out.” That meant my uncle had his connections sorting through conversations and messages they had intercepted months before and after the car accident.
The Irregulars kept track of all the intelligence we received, but since any Earth user could tap into computers or phones or any device with metal or crystals in their basic components, our intel was written and tracked on paper. By a lot of smart, dedicated analysts.
I wasn’t sure how many agents were full members of the Irregulars. Beyond the people who directly reported to Armageddon, there was a huge network of spies and informants, support staff and vendors. There were so many moving pieces and parts that I didn't know how my uncle kept up with it all and still manage to shield us from the Council. They believed powerful magicians were a threat that occasionally needed to be removed.
As in, assassinated.
“Why are there so many dark magicians on the Council, anyway?” I asked. It was a rhetorical question - I already knew there had to be a balance, just like everything else related to magic.
“There’s been a shift,” Armageddon said, shocking the scowl off of my face. I jerked my eyes to his, and he gave a little nod. Apparently, I had earned the right to hear a bit more about the inner workings of the organization. “There are still as many dark magicians as light running the Council, but the balance is tilting into darkness. I’m not sure who’s behind it.”
I picked at a loose thread on the arm of the chair. I was the most junior agent in the Irregulars. Although I was my uncle’s ward, that didn’t grant me additional access or privileges. Which meant he told me because I needed to know about the shift of power. I really, really hoped it wasn’t related to me, but considering how much my uncle was telling me, it probably was.
“Do you think that’s why my parents were killed?” There was still a hitch in my voice every time I talked about them. They hadn’t been gone very long, and my recent dream about my mother made the loss feel more present. Everything about her had been so real. Her black hair, the same as Armageddon’s but without the silver that came with age, flowed down her back. Her gold-and-brown hazel eyes glowing with an inner light as she reached out for me. Tried to warn me. I had smelled her perfume again, and I wanted very much to know who stole her from me long before her time. I hadn’t seen my father, though. Somehow, that made his loss even worse.
“I’m fairly certain it’s all connected. The time isn’t ripe, but soon we must use memory spells and see if anything happened in your presence that can help.”
Ah. So that’s why I was being told so many details. Armageddon wanted me to know why I was going to have to relive the worst part of my life. I wasn’t sure I was up to it, or how much help I would be. But if there was a chance to bring their killers to justice, I would do anything. And my uncle knew that.
“Just tell me t
he time and place,” I said. I was rewarded by the glint of approval in his eyes.
“This isn’t easy for me, either,” he admitted. My uncle folded his hands together, tapping his index fingers against his lips. He sometimes did that when he was concentrating on a particularly difficult problem. “But you don’t need to worry about that. Or any of this. I’ll eventually ferret out all the magicians involved.” Thunder boomed outside in response to the intensity of his feelings.
“I know.” There wasn’t anything else for me to say. The light had dimmed in the room because of the storm my uncle’s anger had summoned, but I was afraid some of the darkness was coming from inside of me, and I didn’t want to make it worse. Or lose control again.
“I admit there is a possibility the Taines aren’t behind it.”
My head jerked up as I gaped at my uncle in shock. “Seriously? I thought they were the ones?” I couldn’t even form a coherent sentence.
“They likely are. But we have to be careful about assumptions. They color our perspective and can lead us in the wrong direction. Agents must keep that in mind if they want to find the truth.”
Oh. That was what some of my fellow students had called a “teachable moment.” Well, I was Armageddon’s apprentice. He shared his little nuggets of wisdom with me sometimes. They were always worth jotting down in my own journals.
“Thanks, Uncle Ged.”
“Come on, let’s shake off this heavy stuff. Your aunt will kill me if the flowers don’t get enough sun because I’m irritable.”
No matter how much control my uncle had, his stronger moods were always reflected in the surrounding weather. Peony would sometimes tease him into better humor so the gardens would get enough light. Laurus Commodities made the best beeswax products, but the fields of flowers and clover needed to be healthy to attract the bees.