Fox Among the Demons

by Trudie Collins

  Bolene would head to the witches. They might not talk to her, but she was optimistic that, after she explained the reason for her visit, they would at least try to help.

  Trey planned to go to the data centre and research Joonie. He wanted to know everything he could about her in case it turned out her spell book had been returned to her. If she had left it somewhere, he wanted to know all of the possible places.

  That left Komi accompanying Fox to see the records keeper. Lukine had borrowed a few transportation vehicles from a friend that the family could make use of for their entire stay on Yong, no matter how long they were there for. Natasha would have described them as hover cars, though they were nothing like Earth cars in shape. They used magic instead of fossil fuels to move and didn’t need a driver; you simply had to say where you wanted to go and the vehicle would take you there. They were older models, but were adequate for what they would be needed for.

  The entire journey, Komi kept talking about how much better Fox would feel if he had some meaningless sex. In the end Fox had to threaten physical violence just to get him to shut up. He and Natasha may no longer be together, but in his heart they were still a couple and he would never be able to forgive himself if he betrayed her.

  Predictably, the records keeper was not able to see them at the allotted time, so they had to sit in the waiting room. Unlike waiting rooms on Earth, this one didn’t have out of date magazines for them to read. Instead, in various cubicles, it had viewers like those Fox had used to show Natasha images of Alignment day. Instead of wasting their time while waiting to see the records keeper, they could do some research.

  They were not kept waiting long and had found nothing of interest by the time they were called in to the records keeper’s office.

  Komi and Fox had discussed what to say to the man and had opted for the truth, so Fox told him everything about what Joonie had done and why they needed the book. The reasons for Joonie’s actions they kept to themselves. They also neglected to mention that Natasha even existed, let alone that she was Joonie’s long lost, presumed dead, offspring.

  The man was much younger than Fox had been expecting. Records keeper was a much sort after position, indicating he was either very good at his job, he had some powerful and influential friends or he had some good blackmail material on someone in authority.

  It turned out to be the first option. As soon as Fox had finished explaining why he and Komi were there, the man began speaking into his monitor. He didn’t question that Fox was telling the truth and he didn’t need to ask for more information.

  “The book you require is indeed in our archives and I can request for it to be brought here in a few days, in order for you to read it.” This was almost too good to be true. His next words told Fox that this was indeed the case. “However, it will not be of any use to you.”

  “Why not?” Komi asked.

  “It appears that Joonie Tansel placed a spell on it. Only someone from her bloodline can open it. At the time of the trial, many witches and wizards tried, but none succeeded. It was thought to contain evidence against the accused, which is why she refused to open it for us.”

  The man looked genuinely regretful, but there was nothing he could do. “Damn it,” Fox said, then apologised for his outburst.

  “Didn’t she have a sister?” Komi asked. “Surely she will be able to help.”

  “Yes, Maylan, but she disappeared before Joonie was even accused of killing her husband and child. Nobody has seen her since. Some believe that Joonie disposed of her as well. There are no other living relatives.”

  ‘That you know of,’ Fox thought to himself, but did not speak the words out loud.

  “May we request that the spell book be brought here anyway?” Komi asked. “My brother-in-law is a wizard and I’m sure he’ll be happy to try to break the spell, even though there is little hope in him succeeding.”

  The smile the records keeper gave him was full of pity. “Of course. Come back in three days unless you hear from me sooner.”

  Fox and Komi thanked the man then left. “Why did you ask for the book to be sent from the archives?” Fox asked as soon as they were alone. “You don’t really believe that Lukine can succeed when all other magic users failed, do you?”

  “No, but we have a blood relative who can open the book.”

  “Nat is not coming here,” Fox said.

  “Then we take the book to her.”

  “We would never be allowed to take it out of the building, let alone the realm. Or are you planning on stealing it?”

  “Not an option I’m afraid. They put wards on everything that they put into archive. It’s physically impossible to take anything from one of those buildings without the ward being removed, which requires a minimum of three wizards working together.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “I don’t know,” Komi said. “But we will think of something.”

  The rest of the journey was made in silence, with both men lost in their own thoughts. They were the first ones to arrive at the house and Komi went straight to the fridge and retrieved two bottles of the nearest thing Yong had to beer. He didn’t know about Fox, but he certainly needed it.

  Fox contacted Bolene and Lukine, requesting they return as soon as possible. He needed to talk to them without Trey being around. Trey would insist that they tell Natasha what they had found out and he wasn’t ready to do that yet.

  The four of them discussed the situation and all agreed that Trey should be kept in the dark. There was no harm in waiting until after Alignment day to let Natasha know that she was needed on Yong. Lucy was unconscious, but stable; being in a coma was not causing any other issues. They would pretend to continue to research and would help Trey with whatever he was looking into if he requested it, but in reality they would be relaxing and finding out more about the candidates who had offered themselves up for election.

  That evening, Fox contacted Natasha. There was no update on Lucy and, according to her, nothing unusual had been happening. She went to work and then the hospital, which was the routine her life had fallen into. In reality, she had told her boss that she needed to take a sabbatical and she planned on spending as much time with Maylan and her father as she could, learning everything she needed to in order to confront her mother.

  Fox told her nothing about finding the spell book. He said they were still looking and would keep her informed. Komi entered the room they were sharing while he was still talking with her on the communicator and Fox used his presence as an excuse to end the call.

  “Feeling guilty?” Komi asked.

  Fox shook his head. “No. It’s better for her not to know.”

  ————————————-∞————————————-

  Natasha disconnected the communicator and looked over at her father, who had been watching her while she spoke to Fox. “You don’t trust him,” he said.

  “Actually I do. I trust him with my life.”

  “So why haven’t you told him about me and what you are really going to be doing with your time?”

  “As Maylan said, someone told my mother about me and it could only have been someone at the hotel. I trust Fox, but I can’t let myself trust the others.”

  “Not even Trey?”

  Natasha hesitated. “No, not even Trey.” She hated having to say that, but it was the truth. She needed something to take her mind off it all. “Let’s get on with my lessons.”

  Maylan was a good teacher. She was patient and explained things well, telling Natasha why things worked not just telling her how. The first thing Natasha had been taught was how to make the healing potion. It was a basic necessity for all witches and wizards.

  That evening, once the whole family had returned from the hospital, Maylan asked a question that had been bothering her ever since she found out Fox and the others had gone to Yong to look for her sister’s spell book.

  “Why? What good do they think it will do?”

&nb
sp; “They are hoping that it contains the cure.”

  Maylan looked thoughtful. “They may be right,” she finally said. “But there is somewhere else she may have hidden the information. When she was young, she was good friends with a wizard. They used to write spells to each other. Spells, potions, curses. She managed to find the cure to zantrane during that period of her life. It’s possible that she sent it to him. They never shared their letters with anyone. The only reason I know about it is because Jamit and I became close. We stayed close even after my sister stopped speaking to him. I’m still in contact with him.”

  “How?” Natasha asked. “You can’t go to Yong and you said you have no communicator.”

  Maylan smiled. “That is the next spell I am going to show you.”

  She took a piece of paper from a drawer in Zem’s office and cast a spell on it. Nothing happened. She then wrote a message on the paper. Natasha half expected the writing to disappear, but it didn’t. Maylan spoke another spell and a fireball appeared in her hand. It was this spell that Natasha had just mastered. Maylan said another spell and Natasha heard her own name. Once it was complete, Maylan placed the paper in the flames and it caught light. It burned quickly, leaving nothing but ash.

  Natasha almost screamed when a note appeared on the table in front of her; her name was clearly written on it. “First you enchant the paper,” Maylan said, “then you write your message. In the second spell you state who you want it delivered to and where they are. If they are not there, the note still arrives, ready for when the person returns. Only they can open it.”

  “Handy,” Natasha said. “First you should contact your friend, then you can teach me.”

  “Of course. The only issue is that Jamit travels a lot so I have no idea where he is. I will have to send it to his house and hope that he returns there soon.”

  ————————————-∞————————————-

  The following morning, Fox received a visitor. When Bolene told him that there was someone at the door asking to see him, he groaned. He expected it to be Soolin and he couldn’t keep the smile from his face when he came face to face with a short, middle aged man with a head full of thick black hair.

  “Beaden Kontil,” he said. “This is a surprise. It’s good to see you, though you seem to have gained a little weight since we last met.” He held up his hands, palm outward, in the standard demon gesture of greeting.

  Beaden grimaced. “So my wife keeps telling me.” He completed the formalities then asked if he could enter the house as there was something he wanted to speak to Fox about.

  “Of course,” Fox said. “Come on in. I’ll introduce you to my family.” Beaden knew Fox well, so he was aware that he was not talking about blood relatives.

  The two men went into the kitchen, where the others were eating breakfast. “Beaden, this is Komi, Bolene and Lukine. Everyone, this is Beaden, one of the teachers who taught me my craft.”

  “Welcome,” Bolene said. “Would you like a coffee, or something else to drink?”

  “Coffee? Isn’t that the stuff that people from Earth drink? I’ve never tried it.”

  “One of them,” Fox said. “Trust me, you will love it. It’s addictive. Though unfortunately we only have granules. You need a special machine to make real coffee and the machine won’t work here.”

  Beaden took a seat at the table and a steaming cup was placed in front of him. He took a tentative sip and grimaced. “You really drink this?” he asked.

  Fox laughed. “It’s better with milk and sugar.” He added the ingredients to the cup and stirred. This time, when Beaden tried it, he smiled. “That is much better.”

  “You can get it from the high end shops in the city,” Komi said. “Some shop owners were given permission to import it, but it’s very expensive. That’s why we made sure we brought plenty with us.”

  “While it is great to see you,” Fox said to Beaden, “may I ask why you are here?”

  “I need your help. As you can imagine, with everyone on Earth coming back to Yong for Alignment day, bringing their children with them, the schools are becoming overcrowded. There aren’t enough teachers to cope. I heard you were staying in the area and wondered if you would be willing to help out.”

  “I would love to,” Fox said, then glanced at Bolene. “Where’s Trey?”

  “Out. He left early this morning. He thinks he may have found something interesting. Something to do with an old friend of Joonie’s he wants to pay a visit to.”

  “Good. I don’t want him knowing about this.” If Trey found out that Fox was teaching at the local school, he would start to ask awkward questions about why he wasn’t searching for the spell book.

  “Can I be of any use?” Komi asked. If Fox was going to be teaching all day, he was going to get bored very quickly. “Would your students want to hear first-hand accounts of some of the ‘kills’ I have been on?”

  “Absolutely,” Beaden said, with real enthusiasm.

  Fox gave him a sceptical look. “Are you sure? I remember what it was like to be a young boy, full of the joys of learning about killing. Komi might be a bad influence on them.”

  Then Komi said something that surprised everyone in the room. “Actually, I was planning on telling them how horrible the reality can be.”

  Fairies

  The next morning, Komi and Fox went to the school that Beaden worked at. Trey assumed they were off to see the records keeper or to some other source of information and nobody told him otherwise.

  While Fox was given a class full of students to teach, Beaden led Komi to his own classroom and introduced him as a special guest. The students had been learning about vampires and Komi was more than happy to tell them about his experiences, especially the bad ones. He described what it felt like to be bitten and to have his blood sucked out of his body. He talked about how weak it made him and how, if not for his family, he would have died.

  He took a phial out of his pocket and held it up so everyone could see the red liquid inside. “I have lost count of the number of times this potion has saved my life. I always carry a supply, even on Yong, just to be on the safe side.”

  He then decided to give the children something to think about. “Let me ask you a question. How many of you know a witch or wizard?” A number of hands went up. “Keep your hand raised if you treat them with the same amount of respect you would had they not been magic users.” All hands were lowered. He had been expecting this.

  “Why should we?” a tall thin boy at the back asked. “Everyone knows they are the inferior race, that they are our servants, nothing more.”

  “So you believe you are superior to them?”

  “Of course.”

  Komi held up the phial again. “A wizard made this, so you could say I owe my life to magic users.”

  “But didn’t wizards and witches make all of the creatures you kill?” a chubby girl sitting at the front of the class asked. Komi nodded. “Then you could argue that it’s their fault you need their potion in the first place.”

  “You could,” Komi agreed, “but it’s not just due to injuries sustained on a ‘kill’ that I have needed to drink this. Let me ask you another question. How did most of you get here this morning?”

  Most had arrived in ‘hover cars’ as only a few lived close enough to walk. “How would you have gotten here without the aid of magic?” Nobody said anything. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Beaden indicating that it was time to start wrapping things up. “Can I set them some homework?” Komi asked.

  “Of course you can,” Beaden said and could not help smiling when he heard the groans.

  “Tonight I want you to write a list of everything that is either created by magic or runs on magic. Then, by the end of the week, I want an essay from each of you detailing how our society can survive if we lose the ability to use magic.”

  “Can I ask why you did that?” Beaden asked him once the students had left the room.

  “Bei
ng on Earth, you forget how badly magic users are treated. But coming back to Yong, it’s impossible to ignore. People who know Lukine is a wizard cross the street to avoid walking past him. Bolene has been verbally abused for marrying him numerous times since we returned. They are all being punished for the actions of a few extremists many many years ago. It isn’t right.”

  “I agree. But unfortunately the law makes them second class citizens so you can understand why most people treat them as such. Maybe things will change if we get a new Director.”

  “Maybe,” Komi said, “but I won’t be holding my breath.”

  ————————————-∞————————————-

  The following day, Komi and Fox returned to the school. Fox wanted to talk to his class about fairies and invited Komi along to give a first-hand account of his experience with them. Most of them were teenagers, with the rest due to celebrate their thirteenth birthdays over the following weeks, so Fox believed they were old enough to hear the gruesome details about what Komi and his siblings did. He planned to start with fairies as they were considered the least dangerous of all of the creatures from Yong that were now on Earth.

  “So who wants to tell me what you know about fairies?” Fox asked. Nearly all of the children raised their hands. Komi had sat in on Fox’s lessons on a few occasions and he was always amazed at how the children responded to him. They all seemed to admire him and want to please him. It gave him an idea on how to approach the subject of wizards and witches again with Beaden’s class, once he had read their essays.

  Fox chose a girl at the front who was almost jumping out of her seat in her enthusiasm to tell Fox what she knew. “Fairies are small flying creatures who are native to the northern parts of Yong. The first documented case of a fairy being seen was written over a thousand years ago, making them one of the first magical creatures to have been discovered.” She smiled brightly, confident that everything she said was correct.

  “Very good,” Fox said. “Anyone else?”

  Hands shot up once more and Fox chose a boy at the back. “They used to be classified as pests and demons were allowed to kill them. Then a magic user developed a spell which would counteract fairy magic. An island in the north was enchanted and all of the fairies were captured and shipped there. They are now a protected species and demons are not allowed on their island, other than to attend the research centre located there.”