Semiautomatic Sorceress Boxed Set One: includes: Southwest Nights, Southwest Days, and Southwest Truths

by Kal Aaron

  This wasn’t the first time Lyssa’d had to finish a job while injured. Tricia was right to be scared. Torches had lower life expectancies than most Illuminated for a reason.

  Aisha peered into the distance at the twinkle of the skyscrapers that marked the heart of the city. Wistfulness haunted her voice as she spoke. “Hunting shards in a Shadow city. Pathetic. How far our noble kind has fallen from Lemuria.”

  “Lemuria sank ten thousand years ago.” Lyssa shrugged. “Kind of too late to give a damn, and it’s not like we know they were good people.”

  “They were powerful Sorcerers.” Aisha frowned at Lyssa. “Any degeneration of the Society is because we were forced into the greater world.”

  “Illuminated are just people with tricks, which is why Shadows rule the world. Whining about what happened ten thousand years ago is pointless.”

  Aisha gave her a cold glare. “This is why I find you so disappointing, Corti. You have no respect for your heritage or tradition with your attitude and your guns. You might as well be a Shadow.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” Lyssa peered at the rising sun. “I’m proud to have been born a Sorceress, but I also accept there are limits to everything in this world, even sorcery. We barely know what life was like on Lemuria. Don’t you get it? For all we know, the Cataclysm was the fault of the Illuminated. And I don’t buy all those stories about how much more powerful we were. Shadows do that same thing, you know—tell themselves pretty stories about their history to pretend they don’t have to do the hard work of making a better future. It’s an excuse, nothing more.”

  Aisha snorted. “You can’t possibly be comparing us to them. Their ten thousand years of much-vaunted civilization has brought them to nothing.”

  “It brought them to control the entire planet, trips to outer space, and the conquest of much of the disease and famine.” Lyssa leaned over her handlebars. “It brought a lot of nastiness, too, but we’re not so different.”

  “You believe that nonsense about harmony, don’t you?” Aisha rolled her eyes. “We’ll never be equals. They’ll never trust us, and we’ll never trust them. The best thing we can do for the Illuminated is grow our power and numbers so we don’t have to fear them.”

  “You’re missing the point. We’re Illuminated, but we’re still human. That means we’re not perfect, and there was no great Golden Age of the past where everything was better. Until someone is born with a time essence, we won’t be able to do anything about the past. I don’t know about harmony, but all we can do now is try and make a better future.”

  “We had our land and power that didn’t need to be hidden.” Aisha leaned back on the seat. “Our continent. Things would be different with the Shadows if that remained the same. The future is what I’m talking about. Last Remnant isn’t enough. It’s too…” Pain filled her voice. “It’s too vulnerable.”

  Lyssa blinked in surprise. She couldn’t remember ever hearing Aisha sound like that.

  “I get it,” Lyssa murmured. “I do. But it’s not about having our place. That wouldn’t change anything.”

  “Why wouldn’t it?”

  “We don’t have enough of our kind, and it’s going to take a hell of a long time to catch up with the Shadows.” Lyssa gestured at the store. “There’s only one real path left for us: true coexistence.”

  Aisha jumped off the bike, her wraith form dissipating. “It doesn’t bother you at all, does it? M-Day, having all of them know about us, living among them. I thought it would bother you more because you’re older. You were a Torch when M-Day happened.”

  “No, it doesn’t matter to me that much. And living among the Shadows?” Lyssa snickered. “We’ve always lived among the Shadows. Are you telling me every single relative in your family is Illuminated?”

  “Of course not.” Aisha turned her head, embarrassment coloring her cheeks. “That’s not the same thing. They grew up with the knowledge of their potential and the potential of their descendants, but the rest of humanity…” She shook her head. “They think their toys mean they have power when they don’t know true power. They are self-destructive and short-sighted.”

  “I don’t know. The internet, jets, and strawberry ice cream are impressive. Both sides have power, just different kinds. And we wouldn’t have Torches or Eclipses if we were perfect.” Lyssa patted her bike. “Balanced coexistence is a pipe dream with so few Sorcerers, but I don’t see how things work out without it. Right now, there’s not much I can do about it other than my job, and I figure if I’m doing my job right, that helps both sides.”

  “If you say so. I’m not so sure.”

  A strange expression played across Aisha’s face. If Lyssa hadn’t been looking straight at her, she would have missed it. All the pride, confidence, and arrogance she’d come to associate with Aisha Khatri disappeared and was replaced by the discomfort and pain she’d expect of a young woman unsure of her place in the world.

  They weren’t so different in a lot of ways. It was no wonder they didn’t get along. But it was time to change the subject and focus on the job.

  “Something’s been bothering me since I ran into you.” Lyssa looked away as she spoke.

  “Are you attempting to impugn my honor again, Corti?” Aisha frowned.

  “I’m wondering if we should contact our Elders and await further orders. And trust me, I don’t say that lightly. I made a speech to Samuel about how I was not going to do that.”

  Lyssa kept her wraith form up. Someone spotting them and somehow tying their presence to the port delivery would only be able to pick out Aisha and not realize two Sorceresses were working the case.

  “Elder Theodora doesn’t want to be bothered with petty details.” Aisha narrowed her eyes, obviously trying to pick out Lyssa’s location in the darkness. “It annoys her to be bothered with such things. I’m surprised Elder Samuel wants them.”

  “He doesn’t normally, either.” Lyssa sighed. “And I don’t know about Theodora, but it’s not like he always responds quickly when I contact him. That’s not the only thing. Something’s still bothering me about both of us being assigned to the same job. I’ve tried to ignore it, but I can’t anymore.”

  Lyssa also couldn’t ignore that her thought process might be clouded because of the recent anniversary. The farther the case progressed, the less she believed it had anything to do with her brother. Mentioning that to Aisha now wouldn’t help.

  None of that changed her conclusions. Something smelled off, something far more than territory overlaps.

  “It’s obvious that you—” Aisha began.

  “I know you hate me, but that doesn’t extend to Samuel,” Lyssa interrupted. “You don’t think he’d ask around? You don’t think Theodora wouldn’t mention it to the other Elders in North America? I feel like we’re both missing something obvious.”

  Aisha’s angry look didn’t soften, but when she spoke, her words were quiet. “There are some irregularities about this assignment, given its nature. I’ll admit that. It would have made more sense for the Elders to coordinate with each other, given the smuggling started in one region and is influencing another.”

  Lyssa laughed. “This might be about you and me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Our relationship isn’t exactly secret.” Lyssa shook her head. “They might have worried we couldn’t work together, but that doesn’t change what we should do.”

  Aisha folded her arms. “And what is that?”

  “I think we should clean it up as much as possible before reporting to our mutual Elders,” Lyssa replied. “I don’t know if this is a big deal, maybe only some political crap, or they were worried about us, but I don’t like the idea of them yanking us back home when we’ve put in all this work.”

  “Agreed.” Aisha tapped her foot impatiently. “Now we should go to the port and get set up.”

  “Dial it down, Nuclear Deva,” Lyssa teased. “We’ve got to save our appearance for right after the drop.”
/>
  “Why is that?”

  “Think about it. You heard what Sellers said about his supplier.”

  Aisha’s fingers clutched into a fist. “A mask and no mention of where he was getting the shards.”

  Lyssa nodded. “Then we both agree we’ll find a Sorcerer at the other end.”

  “That changes nothing. Our orders are the same, to end the smuggling. I assume we both suspected the same thing, considering we each assumed the other was the rogue.”

  Lyssa was unsure. “Just to be clear, you don’t think we should ID the guy and leave it up to an Eclipse?”

  Aisha looked insulted. “I would have thought you of all people wouldn’t buy into the myth of their superiority. They’d get all the credit for the work we’ve done. Setting that aside, even if we’re dealing with an experienced Sorcerer, he might present a challenge to only one of us, but two of us will make short work of the scum.”

  Lyssa almost dropped her cloak and mask to smirk at Aisha but fought the urge. “No, I wanted to make sure we agreed on what to do. But it’s almost like you’re admitting I’m not half-bad at what I do.”

  Aisha snorted. “You’re not half-bad at what you do, which makes you only half-good, friend.”

  “I’ll take the half-compliment,” Lyssa replied. “The point is, we have to assume we’re dealing with a paranoid rogue who’s aware the people using his supplied shards have been caught. If we just charge over there, he might sense us coming. We need to show up at the last minute, after the container is on the ground and right before they load it on a truck. We don’t know his essence. If we spook him, we end up trying to chase a water walker across the Gulf.”

  “We go to the lot almost exactly at that time, hoping to catch them in the act?” Aisha nodded firmly. “If he’s paranoid, he might have spells set up.”

  “It’s like you said; there are two of us. It sounds like we have a plan. We hit the guy, and we clean up before we call anyone.”

  “Very well.” Aisha smiled. “Our little scuffle earlier is proving to have been a nice warm-up.”

  “You mean, between you and me?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’re not fully recovered from that. It was a waste of resources.”

  “How often does either of us get to fight another Illuminated full-out?” Aisha’s eyes brimmed with excitement. Even the regalia-influenced flutter of her fiery hair appeared to speed up. “I prefer being a Torch to being an Eclipse, but facing another of our kind is the ultimate challenge.”

  Lyssa sighed. “We’re here to do a job, not prove anything. Remember that. If he surrenders, we take him alive.”

  “And if he doesn’t?” Aisha shot her a thin smile.

  “Then we fight him. Maybe he survives. Maybe he doesn’t.” Lyssa shrugged.

  “You sound reluctant. Are you afraid, Corti?”

  Lyssa prepared a taunt before tossing it aside. Aisha could be annoying, especially when she was trying to kill Lyssa, but it wasn’t like she couldn’t understand where the other woman was coming from. Being a young person trying to prove herself in the stultifying morass of the Illuminated Society would mess anyone up, but someone needed to be the bigger woman.

  Whoever they were going after wasn’t some greedy criminal dazzled by the idea of cash. It was most likely a Sorcerer who had turned his back on his people to help destabilize the Shadow world. When Samuel spoke of coexistence, he didn’t mean giving arcane weapons to criminals.

  “You’re right.” Lyssa smiled. “Two Sorceresses? This will be easy. You ready?”

  Aisha offered a hungry grin. “Always.”

  “Jofi, you’ve been quiet. You ready?”

  “As she said,” Jofi replied. “Always.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Lyssa waited astride her bike. Cloaked, she watched the array of long metal shipping containers spread out on the asphalt before them. With the help of Lyssa’s spells, the Sorceresses had established a hidden recon perch on a flattened pile of stone and dirt in an adjacent field filled with large piles of various types of rocks.

  A massive yellow crane on the dock whirred and rumbled as it unloaded containers from a cargo ship waiting in the channel. Lyssa hoped the mysterious Nelson didn’t flee to the ship when they caught him. She relied heavily on experience, and she’d never had to fight aboard a ship before. She could already imagine Samuel asking her to explain why she had sunk a huge cargo ship and how he was supposed to justify it to the government.

  She snickered quietly. What was she thinking? Aisha would be the one to sink the ship. All Lyssa might do was put some holes in it.

  Uncloaked, Aisha lay flat next to the bike, peering through Lyssa’s binoculars. Her low profile would make her hard to spot from land, but anyone or anything flying overhead would notice her easily. Lyssa hoped they wouldn’t regret that.

  The plastic was warped and the lenses were scratched from the flame Sorceress’ attack in Midland, but the binoculars still worked. Lyssa wasn’t going to bother asking Aisha to pay her for the damage. It was enough that they could work together without killing each other.

  The recon position looked uncomfortable, given the nature of Aisha’s regalia and lack of defensive spells, but she claimed she didn’t mind. Whether that was true or part of her continued quest to one-up Lyssa wasn’t clear. Lyssa was more than happy to let Aisha feel like she was proving something.

  Twenty minutes remained until the handoff. They hoped to tag the container as it was unloaded rather than running around the lot looking for it with minutes to spare. A survey of the unloaded containers closest to the docks hadn’t located it.

  They also came up with a more specific battle plan. Not a complicated plan, but a plan nevertheless. Lyssa wasn’t used to working with other Torches on jobs, but she couldn’t deny how useful it was to have a brave partner with combat training.

  “Do you trust Aisha?” Jofi asked.

  Lyssa jumped, startled by Jofi seemingly reading her thoughts. She realized she’d been staring at Aisha and probably had a confused look on her face. Being observant wasn’t the same thing as being telepathic. At least, she hoped it wasn’t.

  “No.” Lyssa didn’t bother to whisper. “But I trust her to get the job done, and I know she can deliver the pain when necessary.”

  Aisha snorted. “It’s rude to talk about someone when they’re right there, and twice as rude to do it when said person can only hear one side of the conversation.”

  “Sorry, I honestly don’t know a way to invite anyone else to a conversation with him. It would be handy a lot of times.”

  Lyssa had asked Lee about it once, and the Sorcerer had spent five minutes screaming at her about the seals and the risk. He didn’t even want anyone else knowing she had any sort of spirit in the guns, but she’d made it clear a half-lie was easier to swallow than a full one.

  “See our container yet?” Lyssa squinted and surveyed the lot. “As much as sitting on rocks outside a Houston port is how I love spending my days, the sooner we take Nelson down, the sooner I go back home and enjoy my bed and a couple pints of premium strawberry.”

  “No, I haven’t spotted it, but there are five left on the ship.” Aisha furrowed her brow. “This scenario does make me question our earlier conclusions.”

  Lyssa resisted a rude reply. Aisha might be stubborn and obsessed with their families’ shared past, but she wasn’t a novice Torch. She’d been operating for four years, three years without a mentor. She’d completed plenty of contracts.

  Aisha wasn’t Lyssa’s bratty younger semi-sister. She was a colleague, and Lyssa needed to keep that in mind.

  “What did we get wrong?” Lyssa continued sweeping the containers with her gaze. “I don’t think Sellers was lying. I’m good at telling that sort of thing. With both of us there, I don’t think he could bring himself to lie. We have extreme reputations.”

  Aisha smirked. “True, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Sellers didn’t know if Nelson was Il
luminated.” She gestured at the ship with the binoculars. “Would one of us use such a cumbersome way of transporting shards? One prone to interception by the Shadow authorities?”

  “It depends on how and what they’re using to conceal their trail.” Lyssa shrugged. “Taking advantage of cumbersome Shadow methods makes it far less likely that an Illuminated sniffing around is going to figure out what you’re doing. I’m half-surprised they’re not boxing them up and shipping them through the mail. How often do Sorcerers expect UPS to drop off that kind of package?”

  “That would be amusing, but my point stands. I suspect this Nelson is nothing more than another middleman.” Aisha sounded disappointed. “He might be using the mask to deceive fools into thinking he’s a Sorcerer, so they’ll give him more favorable treatment. The trail might take us farther. There is a rogue at the end of this. I’m certain of that, but they might not come to the port today.”

  “Then we’ll have to hand it off to another Torch or Eclipse.” Lyssa frowned. “I don’t think our Elders want us going overseas and making a mess. We’re not the only Torches in the world.”

  “’Making a mess?’” Aisha chuckled. “Making a mess in pursuit of justice is most commonly called virtue, Corti. To stand idle while the wicked infect the world with their diseased souls is the rankest sort of cowardice. The Society might have problems, but we also have power we can use to help clean up the darkness.”

  “You know what? I can’t find anything to disagree with there, Aisha, but that doesn’t mean our Elders are going to want us to follow up if this is too far outside our regions. Let’s not worry about it for now. Let’s concentrate on grabbing whoever shows up. If they’re a Sorcerer, then it’s our lucky day.”

  Aisha wrinkled her nose. “There is no luck in one of our kind betraying the Society.”

  “I guess you’re right there, too.”

  Lyssa leaned over the handlebars of her bike, watching the orange and red of the dawn sun push back her natural ally, darkness. From this distance, the ship in the channel looked both massive and small, depending on what she focused on. The sailors on it were specks without the binoculars, but the water under and around it reminded her that humans always bowed before nature in the end.