by Kal Aaron
“Wait.” Lyssa blinked. “You mean that thing has been around for at least five years?”
“Yes. We know it’s been around for longer than that, but it was only in Nektarios and his local servants these last five years.” Samuel shrugged like it was obvious. “We suspect it needed time to fully harmonize with different souls, and it’s a matter of continued research. It does render certain questionable suggestions by the Elder more explicable in retrospect, but our best information suggests it’s only in the last year that his unusual activities reached a fever pitch.”
“Why? What’s so special about this last year?”
“That remains to be determined.” Samuel shrugged.
Lyssa groaned and laid back down. “Tristan said he’s been tracking trouble for decades, though.”
“That is an issue of concern.” Samuel gave her a thoughtful look. “It’s highly likely, given what information Mr. St. James has uncovered, that the Far One has been on Earth for several decades. It has likely changed primary hosts several times until it found one it could operate with greater impunity and fewer obvious problems.”
“Is that your way of saying it conveniently found a guy who was such a flaming asshole that no one would remark on him being one?” Lyssa asked.
“I wouldn’t put it that way, but I can’t deny that might be true. I think it was waiting for its opportunity to find true political power. One interview suggests a major loss of memory associated with being a primary host, more so than the others, but much remains unclear.”
Lyssa nodded. “But it’s not like this thing was pulling the strings of the Society for decades.”
Samuel agreed, “It might have been manipulating individuals, but not the entire Society. It had to move carefully lest it be noticed. As Tristan discovered, it’s not invisible to standard spirit sorcery techniques.”
“Please tell me you tested all the vault tenders and the other members of the Tribunal.”
“Ah, now you’re thinking like an Elder.” Samuel smiled. “Yes, we did that.”
“What do we do if next time it takes over the leader of a country with nukes?” Lyssa asked.
“The thought is concerning, but one thing we know about Far Ones is that they require an Illuminated as their primary host when they come to our world.” Samuel knitted his brow. “That is another reason we don’t want the Shadows to know about them. It could lead to a panic and a call to eliminate potential threats by killing us all.”
“I can see that.” Lyssa grimaced. “To be honest, you sure you should even be telling me all this?”
“You’re good at keeping secrets.” Samuel’s gaze flicked to the guns on the table. “And you’ve earned the truth. For now, we’re going to have to select a new Tribunal member. In addition, we need to spend a lot of time and effort investigating everything Elder Nektarios was involved in to determine what might have been done to weaken the Society these last few years.”
Lyssa’s head swam. She almost wanted to pass out again. She didn’t envy the Tribunal.
“I don’t follow all your Elder politics,” she said. “Any word on who the new member of the Tribunal’s going to be? I hope it’s not Theodora. I don’t want a new Tribunal member pissed at me because I didn’t take her offer.”
The existing members of the Tribunal chose the new member. Sometimes that could cause trouble when they were in opposition, but Lyssa figured no one was looking forward to cleaning up a major scandalous mess.
Samuel cleared his throat and looked away, his face reddening. “They have approached me to make an offer.”
Lyssa clapped. “Damn. Congrats, Samuel. You can now spread your secret herbs and spices throughout the entire Society while thinking about a gritty reboot of Huck Finn.”
Samuel gave her a cold look. “Miss Corti, you do realize that if I become a member of Tribunal, you’ll need to grant me more respect.”
“I already respect you, Samuel.” Lyssa smiled. “You faked your death, infiltrated Last Remnant, and took on a bunch of shard-armed Shadows, and that was after fighting off an assassination attempt. You would have made a good Torch.” She gasped. “Speaking of faking your death, what happened? You mentioned figuring some stuff out, but that was over the top.”
“I was attacked again in America by someone who I knew worked for Elder Nektarios shortly after coming to my conclusions that he might be involved,” Samuel said. “Because I knew you and Mr. St. James were both going to Last Remnant, and I was worried about what would happen if I tried to oppose the Elder directly, I decided to avail myself of certain options I’ve prepared over the years in case of unusual problems on Last Remnant.”
Lyssa gave him a thumbs-up. “Running practically rogue, St. James style. Nice. I like this new badass Samuel.”
He cleared his throat. “Please don’t compare me to Mr. St. James.”
“Speaking of him, is he still around?” Lyssa asked. “I’d be interested in comparing notes.”
Samuel shook his head. “After his initial aid in the analysis of what happened, he left the island. He claims he’s accomplished what he needed to. In truth, I think he’s afraid we’ll finish him off while he’s weak.”
“Would you?”
“He’s a useful tool. For now. Oh, from what I’ve been able to determine with Mr. St. James’s help, most of the people, if not all of them, on your memory card were directly or indirectly investigating activities related to the entity’s plans.”
“Why did Adrien Allard have the card?” Lyssa asked.
“We don’t know for certain, but our initial evidence suggests he wasn’t under the entity’s control even though the smuggling involved Nektarios,” Samuel replied. “He was nothing more than a convenient tool.”
“Oh, good old-fashioned corruption.” Lyssa scoffed. “Somehow he got a list of people who might be willing to push back. In other words, he was looking for a backdoor if things got too hot for him.”
Samuel nodded. “Most likely. The entity understood subtlety was necessary. Killing dozens of Illuminated would be too suspicious, and there do appear to be limits to how many people it could influence, with a small number of Illuminated. There are other curious factors about this with long-term implications.”
Lyssa nodded. “Like what?”
“Elder Nektarios was the one most insistent the Society come forward after M-Day,” Samuel said. “Despite what many people believe, we have no clear understanding of why those men attacked the Queen of England, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was somehow responsible. There’s some tentative evidence for that.”
“He wanted Sorcerers to become public?” Lyssa asked. “What good would that do him?”
Samuel nodded. “The Society can’t be targeted if it’s hidden. There are many questionable things to investigate. It remains unclear why he was so obsessed with you, though it might have been because your recent success in interfering with his plans brought you to his attention.”
Lyssa nodded. She understood Samuel meant Jofi, not her. The Far One had made it clear he craved the spirit’s power.
It’d be strange dealing with Jofi now. His new seal meant they could go back to their old relationship, but as much as she wanted him to know the truth, she wasn’t ready to confront the ranting spirit who was ready to swallow her soul and threaten the world.
“There’s such a thing as being too successful,” Lyssa said, chuckling quietly.
Samuel stood and straightened his lapels. “I could spend hours talking to you about this, but there are some things I must attend to. But there’s another person you’ll want to speak with. He can explain other details and give more direct insight.” He headed toward the door. “Do know, Miss Corti, that we appreciate all you’ve done, and it is clear that without your efforts, Last Remnant might have fallen.”
Lyssa gave him a salute. “A Torch burns away all that’s wrong with this world.”
Samuel opened the door and looked back at her with an amused smile. �
�This time you did.” He stepped through and turned to someone in the hallway. “Please talk to her. I know she’ll want to see you.”
Lyssa tried to guess who it might be. Her eyes widened when Chris walked through the door.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chris looked older. Not fifteen years older, but the gray in his hair and the crow’s feet around his eyes pointed to him aging faster than she would have expected for a Sorcerer. She stared at him for a moment, almost unable to believe it was him.
“Jofi, is he here?” she whispered.
“Yes,” the spirit replied. “Congratulations. I must admit I was doubtful, but for now, I’ll remain quiet so you can enjoy your reunion.”
Lyssa teared up. “I never truly gave up.” She wiped away her tears. “I always knew you were still alive. Even after finding your regalia in the Vault of Dreams, somehow I knew… That’s not true. I gave up. I wanted revenge. Damn it. All I needed to do was keep the faith a little longer.”
He sat on the edge of her bed and took her hand. “It’s okay, Lyssa. You believed in me a lot longer than anyone else did. I heard about you looking for me both before and after M-Day. Then I heard you were coming here.”
Lyssa frowned. “Of course. You were here. Wait.” Her eyes widened. “The servant in the ritual room. You tried to stab him. I forgot about it in all the chaos.”
Chris nodded. “I’ve been under its control for a long time, ever since the job I allegedly died on. I was an earlier host.” He sighed. “When you’re not the main host, it’s not total mind control. You do things, but it feels like you want to do them—as if you’ve always wanted to do them.” He held up his fingers and spread them apart. “Think of it this way. It’s like the main host was the brain, and the rest of us were fingers. The host might feel something, and when the brain wanted us to move or do something, we did, but at the same time, it couldn’t read the thoughts of the fingers. I took advantage of that. I also think there was a problem with Illuminated. We were far more difficult to control, which was why it took over more Shadows.”
“How did you take advantage of that?” Lyssa asked.
“I tried to sabotage operations as much as I could manage when my will was more my own,” Chris replied. “Here I was just a faceless servant, and in the field, I was supposed to be dead. I had to carry out his orders because they felt like my own choices, but as my will grew stronger, I tried to leave evidence here and there. When you moved and I became aware of a smuggling operation he’d been pushing, I found a way to send an email that tipped off the city to encourage them to send you. I knew if you got involved, you’d track down the truth.”
Lyssa laughed. “Seriously? That was you?”
Chris nodded. “Yes.”
“Damn. It worked.” Lyssa scowled. “Did you send the email to the guys to get them to go to the mine?”
She appreciated her brother fighting the evil entity that had possessed him and others but didn’t like the idea of him sacrificing college kids to do it. There had to be another way that didn’t involve innocents.
He sighed. “That wasn’t me. I wasn’t the only one who could resist. There was another possessed Sorcerer who tried something similar. He’s admitted to that. Like I said, it was harder for it to use Illuminated as fingers, and its control was slipping more for us this last year. We don’t know why.”
Lyssa grimaced. “Damn. Couldn’t he have done it a different way?”
“I don’t know.” Chris looked at her earnestly. “It was hard, Lyssa. You are you but not you. It’s like you have to trick yourself into fighting its will. I don’t know how else to explain it. I think it only bothered keeping me around so long because it had managed to convince the Society I was dead with a few tricks.”
“So wait, all those things in the email message about goddesses and the night weren’t targeted at me?” Lyssa asked. “I was convinced it was a specific code meant for me.”
“The other Sorcerer did want to get Torch attention, but as far as I know, he didn’t specifically target you.” Chris shrugged. “I can have him talk to you if you want.”
She shuddered. “No, it’s okay. It seems like I was half-right on this but way off on other stuff. What was its goal? Did you have any idea? I know you couldn’t read its thoughts, but its will was running through you.”
“As best as we can tell, it ultimately wanted to weaken the Society without revealing itself,” Chris replied. “It’s not so much that it ever said that, but that’s the impression I got. There were lots of small actions here and there. Nektarios was even using proxies to fund anti-sorcery groups in different countries.”
Lyssa snickered. “I’d love to go on TV and say the American Council for Sorcery Safety is being funded by an evil entity from a different dimension, but I think Samuel would drown me in Eclipses.”
“I don’t know everything.” Chris shifted in his chair. “I’ve spent days talking to the Elders and the Tribunal about what I know. Sometimes I think it only kept me so close half the time because it knew I was strong and could resist it, but it didn’t want to discard a useful pawn as it continued to slice away at the Society.”
Lyssa nodded. “Targeting the Society makes sense. The Illuminated are the only ones who could stop something like that without nuking a city, and there aren’t a lot of us, so with patience, it could get rid of us all.” Her breath caught. “I just thought of something. If you’re not dead, why is the Northern Trickster in the Vault of Dreams?”
Chris’s smile faltered. “Because I’m no longer an Illuminated. I can’t bond a regalia.”
“What?” Lyssa was incredulous. “That’s not possible. No one loses their sorcery.”
“He’s been doing experiments for a while, Lyssa. Lots of different types of experiments, many I don’t even know about.” Chris frowned. “I don’t think everyone who helped him was under his control. With me, he was trying to enhance my power, but somehow, it destroyed it. I’m now a Shadow.”
Lyssa gasped. “I don’t know what to say.”
Chris shrugged. “There’s nothing to say. I lost my sorcery, but I have my freedom now. They’ll be keeping me here for a while to examine me and see if they can figure out how to reverse it, but it’s like you said—there have never been reports of anyone losing their sorcery. I think the Elders are also concerned about how it might be replicated.”
“It probably involves some weird Far One power,” Lyssa said.
“Elder Samuel says they’ll be investigating those experiments farther, but for now, with the Far One defeated, we know a lot of evil in the Society has gone with it.” He leaned in to hug her. “And I have my freedom and my family back. I’m grateful for that. If they can give me my power back, I’ll be happy, but I’m doing better than many of its victims. Too many died as a result of its plans and schemes.”
Lyssa hugged him tightly, sniffling. “It’s good to see you again. It really is. When can you come home? I should probably tell you the Bennetts took me in after they reported your death.”
“They did? Good. I always liked Tricia, but I don’t know the answer to your question.” Chris looked away. “I’m officially a dead man. That complicates things.”
“I can spend some time here with you.” Lyssa grinned. “I just saved the Society. I think that’s worth a little vacation. I can tell you about my boyfriend Bill.” She laughed. “Oh, damn. He’s a Shadow, and he doesn’t know. I’m going to have to make up a whopper of a story. Right now, he’s half-convinced you got locked up in some weird dungeon prison for drug-smuggling.”
“You have a boyfriend?” Chris scratched his eyebrow. “Of course you do. I keep looking at you and seeing the teenage girl, but you’re a grown woman and a Torch.” He patted her hand. “For now, they need to do more tests. I’ll be back soon.”
Lyssa gave him another hug. “it doesn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere.”
Chris smiled and waved. “You did it, Lyssa. You saved me. Always remember that.�
� He stepped out of the room.
Lyssa dropped her head on her pillow. Despite all the excitement and joy, her body ached, and she was exhausted. “You don’t remember anything weird about the Night Goddess, Jofi?”
“No,” he replied. “Does it matter at this point?”
“I don’t know.” Lyssa laughed. “I’m still alive. Samuel’s alive, and my brother’s alive. You’re right. It doesn’t matter that much to me. Maybe it was just a weird hallucination. The important thing is, we can heal up and go back to doing what we do best.”
“You’re not going to stop being a Torch?” Jofi asked. “You found your brother.”
“It’s always been more than that,” Lyssa replied, “and that bastard Far One took his essence from him. I need to continue the Corti legacy for him, but I don’t mind taking a few weeks off.” She scowled. “Damn. No internet and no phones here. I wonder if Samuel can send a message to Bill for me?”
“I’m dubious the Elder will approve of using shards to contact your Shadow boyfriend,” Jofi replied.
“That’s petty stuff.” Lyssa gave a firm nod. “Next time a strange eldritch entity invades Last Remnant, I’ll let it do its thing.”
“Because you can’t call America?” Jofi asked.
“Sure, why not?” Lyssa grinned. “That and the serious lack of premium strawberry ice cream here.”
“I believe you’re joking, but I worry about the possibility you’re not.”
Lyssa shook a finger. “Don’t. I’m not going to destroy the Society over ice cream. Not today, at least.”