A World To Lose

by Frances Ellen

  “Oh, and the unfinished spell exploded in the Mendosa crypt. That’ll probably be quite a mess,” Sky said finally. On hearing this last bit, his mother turned her attention away from the hospital bed long enough to glare at him again.

  Sky shrugged innocently. He ended the phone conversation before Axel could respond. He wasn’t in the mood for the shouting of another angry adult. He would get enough of that from his own mother. But none of that bothered him right now.

  The only thing he cared about was that Sophie, still unconscious on the hospital bed, would be all right. Sky watched as Katherine held her glowing hand above her daughter’s face and Bianka cleaned and bandaged Sophie’s bloodied hands. Both of them looked extremely tense, which sent a spike of anxiety through Sky’s body.

  He had to have made it in time. She had to be all right.

  But Sky knew that even if Bianka and Katherine healed her physically, Sophie needed a different kind of healing that neither the Chief Medical Officer nor the Ceder of Health and Knowledge could provide. She needed rest, and lots of it.

  Sky moved through the room and sat down in a chair closest to the bed, but still out of the way from the doctor and nurses. He didn’t know how long it would take for Sophie to recover, but he did know that he wasn’t going to leave her side until she did.

  Chapter 2

  Five days after Gayle Mendosa had been killed, Lian ventured into the dining hall for breakfast around the same time as most of the castle did. He always liked the bustle at breakfast and being around all the people going about their normal lives. But in the days after the Queen’s death, Lian had avoided most people. Ever since the terrible news had spread, angry and disappointed stares followed him wherever he went. He’d only really shown himself at the funerals of Logan Brown, Dara Jasman, Fiorella Soto, and Lorenzo Benanti. The four Affinites had lost their lives in the days leading up to the Queen’s death. Only Darra and Fiorella had been burnt atop individual funeral pyres - since the other two bodies were lost in the explosion at the Perth townhouse - but the funerals were for all four of them.

  Axel had sent out a broadcast announcing the news not just to every Affinite on Saluverus, but also to the other two islands, Viria and Auro, to those working in Glacialis and to every Affinite still on the Surface. The broadcast had been brief, and not many details were given about how Gayle and her parents died.

  The stares that followed Lian and the other Asters around were a mixture of anger and despair. Some Affinites had come up to him to ask him what happened. Other Affinites had gone so far as to accuse him of not doing his job properly.

  Lian hadn’t been able to take it the first few days. He was in despair himself. It hadn’t been their direct job to protect Gayle Mendosa. That job had been given to the four Ceders, Gayle’s parents and ex-soldier Percy Kelly. Still, it felt like it had been Lian’s job, too. And he had failed. They’d all failed.

  On the fifth morning Lian was done with his own sulking. He couldn’t change what had happened, and he wanted to find a way to shake off the intense sadness inside of him. Before this morning, he’d gone down to the dining hall in the hours he knew no one would be around. But in those isolating moments, he felt the sadness only press in on him harder. So today, especially after what had happened to Sophie two days ago, Lian forced himself out of hiding. His sister had almost completely over-used her magic on tracking spells because of her desperation and probably oncoming depression. Lian didn’t want to end up like that.

  He stepped into the dining hall and found it quite busy. Lian forced himself to walk tall and confident. He would not shy away from the glaring eyes and the sad stares around him.

  People were quieter than usual, but at least they were talking to each other. As Lian walked past the long tables a few Affinites stopped their conversations to watch him pass. They didn’t say anything to him, and returned to their conversations after Lian was once again out of earshot. He forced himself not to care that they were probably talking about him and his siblings. It wasn’t hard to imagine what the Affinites must think of them.

  In the broadcast, Axel had said that the attack on the Mendosas had been planned many years ago, and that there was nothing the Asters of any generation could have done to foresee what unfolded in the small town on the edge of the Amazon Rainforest.

  There must have been something more they could’ve done, was what most Affinites were saying to each other. Lian didn’t disagree with them. For the past five days he’d played and replayed the events of the past few weeks in his head. From the moment they received the emergency call from Eidi Okoth in Nairobi, to the moment they saved the kidnapped Affinites. Lian still so clearly remembered the moment when Josephine Stewart, Matu’s girlfriend and one of the hostages, revealed that the South American King had known of Gayle Mendosa’s location all along, and had planned it all so that the Asters were in the South American Underworld and couldn’t help their parents when the attack on Gayle, Tomas and Cara happened.

  It didn’t matter how many times Lian replayed the events, it all led to the exact same conclusion: the King had planned everything, and had accounted for everything. He knew Gayle’s location, probably for years already. The Small Council and the Asters hadn’t known that; there had been no indication from the King or his Disciples, and no intelligence from Felix’s Watchers or Mergers, to raise suspicions. And so they were one step behind from the start, all the way through to the end.

  In the last part of Axel’s message, he sought to reassure everyone that Saluverus’ Spymaster, Felix Hauser, had his Watchers and Mergers on high alert in case any of the Higher Kings began activities that indicated they were making moves on the Surface, such as stationing a large number of Disciples near entrances to the Underworlds, or even make direct attacks on Affinites or humans. Lian wasn’t sure how comforted the Affinites on the island were with this message. It seemed to him that there was a collective, and understandable, sense of unease as everyone on the island went about their business.

  After filling a bowl with cereal and piling toast on a plate Lian turned away from the breakfast buffet. Out of the corner of his eye he saw someone waving at him. Lian looked over and saw that Anna was sitting alone at the end of one of the long tables. Lian headed over to his friend and sat down opposite her.

  “I haven’t seen you here in a while,” Anna said. Her long, light brown hair was tied in a messy knot atop her head. She was wearing her signature eyeliner and had three small rings in her right ear. With her bright red jumper she stood out amongst the other, less colourfully clothed, Affinites in the dining hall.

  “I wanted to avoid the staring and whispering,” Lian said.

  Anna looked around; Lian kept his eyes on his breakfast.

  “Some are still staring and whispering,” Anna observed. “But you still decided to come out of hiding?”

  Lian glanced up from his breakfast and nodded at his friend. She smiled back at him, the expression warming her face. There was still a hint of sadness in her eyes.

  “Are you all right?” she asked.

  Lian shrugged. “I don’t know. It shouldn’t have happened this way.”

  “It shouldn’t have happened at all,” Anna said.

  Lian looked up, frowning. He wondered if even his best friend was going to accuse him and his siblings and their parents of not having done everything they could.

  “I know there was nothing more you could have done,” Anna reassured him.

  “How do you know?” Lian whispered.

  “Because I believe Axel Reed,” Anna said. “The man might be mean and very scary—” Lian chuckled at this, “—but he is good at his job. And so are you.”

  Lian hadn’t realised how much he needed someone to say those exact words until he heard them coming from Anna. She offered him a kind smile again before taking a bite out of her vegetable omelette. Lian turned back to his breakfast as well, and the two of them continued to eat in companionable silence.

  After a w
hile Anna asked, “How is Sophie?”

  “Still asleep. She was awake for a while last night. She’s still recovering from all the energy she lost. Bianka Mazur said she should be fully conscious tomorrow,” Lian said. In the last two days he and the other Asters had taken turns sitting at Sophie’s bedside as she slept. Sky had done well, shimmering her away when he did. Katherine Griffiths and Bianka Mazur had worked together impeccably to bring Sophie back from the brink of death. It had taken most of Katherine’s healing magic to pull together what energy Sophie had left inside of her and rally it to keep her alive.

  “That’s good,” Anna said.

  Lian smiled ruefully as he remembered something Sky told him the evening before. His brother had been at Sophie’s bedside when she woke up. She was quite clear-headed for the short while she was awake.

  “What?” Anna asked, frowning at Lian’s expression.

  “Sky said Sophie doesn’t want her hand to heal magically. One of the first things she said when she woke up, apparently.” Lian shook his head at his sister’s stubbornness. “She even fought her mother on it when she tried to magically heal it.”

  “Why on earth would she want that? I thought it was shredded.”

  Lian nodded, his expression sombre. “It was—it is. She just… wants it as a reminder or something.”

  “Well,” Anna said, placing her knife and fork on her empty plate. “Whatever works for her, I guess.”

  “Such sympathy from a future doctor,” Lian teased lightly.

  “Hey, that’s unfair! I will always offer sympathy to my future patients,” Anna retorted.

  “Sure you will. Though you will also joke about them when you’re out of the room.” Lian grinned at his friend, whose eyes were now narrowed and blazing. Then Anna closed her eyes and smiled.

  “You’re right, all doctors do it. Bianka more than any of them,” she said.

  “Bianka Mazur? Chief Medical Officer, Bianka?”

  “I’m telling ya,” Anna said, shaking her head.

  Lian was laughing when the chip in the top of his right arm started vibrating. He stopped laughing abruptly. Anna noticed the change in him immediately. “What’s wrong?”

  Lian was already getting up from the bench when he said, “They’re calling me.”

  “What do they want?” Anna asked.

  He looked down at his best friend. “How many times have I told you? I don’t know ‘till I get there. Can you put this away for me? I have to go,” Lian said, gesturing to the plate and bowl on the table.

  Anna narrowed her eyes at him. “At your service, Aster,” she said sarcastically.

  “Thanks,” Lian said, leaning down to kiss his friend on the cheek. “I owe you. I’ll see you later, all right?”

  “Yeah, yeah. Get out of here.” Anna brushed him off, amusement, but also a hint of concern, written across her features. Asters being summoned did not necessarily mean trouble, but these days, it was more likely than usual.

  Lian thanked her one last time before leaving the dining hall and heading down the corridor to the other side of the castle towards the Board Room. When he entered, all the other Asters were already there. Only Sophie wasn’t – she was still in the Medical Bay. Lian hoped Bianka Mazur was right and Sophie would be fully awake again tomorrow evening.

  Without saying anything, Lian made his way over to the large, round, oak table in the middle of the Board Room and sat down between Matu and Nathan. All five members from the Small Council were there. Sylvia, the Consul, was standing in between Nicholas, the Emissary, and Felix, in front of the large window overlooking the island. Though not a member, Jackson’s twin brother, Percy Kelly, was also there. He had moved back to Saluverus permanently now that his job of training Gayle Mendosa no longer existed. This wasn’t the first time since Gayle’s death that Percy was in the Board Room when the Asters were summoned. He seemed to have unofficially become the sixth member of the Small Council.

  “Thank you for coming,” Axel said once Lian sat down. The Ambassador was standing at the head of the table, looking down at the four Asters in front of him. “I have just spoken to Bianka Mazur. Sophie was awake again this morning for longer than she was last night. Bianka is positive that she will make a full recovery by tomorrow evening, and be up and about again the following morning.”

  Next to Lian, Nathan let out a sigh of relief. Lian looked past his American brother towards Sky. He didn’t show such obvious relief as Nathan did, but Lian knew that Sky still wasn’t back to being his nonchalant, arrogant self. Not outside of the public eye, anyway. He’d barely left Sophie’s side in the past three days. Lian knew that the first night had been touch and go. Both Katherine and Bianka never left Sophie’s room in those first twenty-four hours so they could step in if Sophie’s condition worsened. Thankfully, it now seemed that she was not only out of the woods, but on her way to recover completely.

  “When she is able, she will be seeing therapist Olga Masalis so that she can work through whatever brought her to the brink of over-using her magic. Doctor Masalis will be responsible for her recovery and is the only one who can clear Sophie for Aster missions,” Axel continued.

  It was to be expected. Though already in her sixties, Doctor Olga Masalis was Saluverus’ leading therapist. Originally from one of the smaller Greek islands, she specialised in trauma psychology and was especially known for having treated countless soldiers after the war against Astaroth.

  “Now, on to other matters,” the Ambassador continued. “In five days there will be a memorial for Gayle, Cara and Tomas Mendosa. The service will be led by the Elders, and the Throne Room will be open to anyone who would like to attend. You are all expected to be there.”

  Axel looked at every one of the Asters sitting around the oak table.

  “We wouldn’t miss it,” Matu said. The other three Asters murmured their agreement.

  Axel nodded slowly. “Good. Right then. Something else relating to the Mendosas. Percy?” The Ambassador looked over his shoulder. Both Jackson and Percy were leaning against the corner desk behind Axel. They were near-identical twins. Lian was only able to recognise Jackson because he’d been trained by the man for the past fourteen years and noted the distinct small scars on the Commanding Chief’s face.

  Percy Kelly pushed himself off the corner desk and stepped forward.

  “We will be sending some of our best soldiers to Brazil,” Percy began. Another difference Lian noted; his voice was smoky where Jackson’s was rough.

  Lian straightened at hearing this news. Why were soldiers being sent to where Gayle Mendosa and her parents were ambushed and killed? And why was it Percy who seemed to be in charge of this mission? And most importantly, why were they sending soldiers instead of the Asters?

  Lian decided to keep his mouth shut, giving Percy the chance to explain himself.

  Sky was not so patient.

  “Why send Affinites when you can send us?” Sky asked bluntly, clearly offended.

  “They will be accompanying Affinite researchers to investigate the manner of Gayle Mendosa’s death,” Percy responded calmly.

  “We can do that,” Sky snapped. “From what my mother told me that area is a magical minefield. You’re going to need magic, and we should be the ones to provide it.”

  It was true. In that dreadful night, a dark veil had been erected around the town. If there was any sort of veil left behind, the Affinites sent in wouldn’t stand a chance of getting through it. They would need magical assistance that only the Asters could offer.

  “If you would look at the screen,” Percy Kelly said, his voice still a deadly calm. “You will see that the Disciple activity has gone down considerably in South America.”

  “So, why aren’t we—” Sky started.

  “If you would let me finish, you will learn what we will have the Asters do,” Percy interrupted. The way his voice was strong enough to cut Sky off mid-sentence, while remaining so icy calm, was almost freaky.

  “So you
are having us do something?” Sky said acerbically.

  Something unreadable flickered across Percy’s face as he looked down at Sky. “As you said so eloquently, Aster of Speed, the town might be a magical minefield. Local Affinites have been working hard to preserve the Mendosa’s house and are using memory potions to keep the news from reaching the media. But there are still remnants of the veil and other traces of Dark magic. The Small Council has agreed that the four of you will go there tomorrow, to work with the local Affinites over the next three days to clear the area. Only after the Memorial will my soldiers be sent in.”

  Lian blinked at these last words. Now they were his soldiers? He wondered if his brothers noticed the change in emphasis. It looked like Percy had taken over some of his twin brother’s responsibilities for the Affinite fighting forces. The two men did share many responsibilities back in the war, Lian was just surprised how quickly Percy had stepped in, now that he was back on the island permanently.

  “To accompany the researchers to find out what happened?” Matu asked.

  Beside Percy, Axel nodded.

  “Precisely,” Percy replied. “That mission will henceforth be code named the Queen’s Case.”

  “Why not just keep us on?” Sky asked.

  “Because,” Percy said, nodding towards the screen, “there are no Disciples anywhere near the town where the Mendosas lived. Once you’ve cleared the veil, Affinites will be able to handle the mission without your magical assistance.”

  Lian looked at the screen. Percy Kelly was right; there weren’t as many Disciples on the Surface of South America as there had been in previous weeks. In the days that led up to Gayle’s murder, South America had been swarming with black dots, each indicating the life of a Disciple.

  But then Lian noticed something different. Something not related to South America at all.

  “What about North America?” Nathan asked, spotting the same thing Lian had.

  “I will get to that,” Percy replied. “To finish with South America, we have entrusted the mission to some of our best soldiers. They will go into Brazil straight after the Memorial. Their task is to methodically scour the area and determine the exact order of events from the moment Gayle fled her house to the moment she was killed. We want to know everything we can about how the new South American King works. How Gayle was killed will give us some information on that.”