by Ella M. Lee
Finding me and my transmutation abilities made him happier than anything had in a long time and had reinvigorated Shatterfall. Seeing him content made me feel content, and he treated me better than anyone in my life ever had.
The only exception to that was when we were in public inside the clan house. On the rare occasions when we got lunch or coffee together in one of the clan’s restaurants, Nicolas treated them like business meetings, professional and crisp. He didn’t laugh, he didn’t engage in banter, and he didn’t touch me.
“You don’t want anyone to know we’re dating, do you?” I asked him after the fifth or sixth time this happened, once we were back in his apartment drinking wine on a rainy afternoon.
My words weren’t an accusation; I was simply curious as to how he wanted to handle our relationship.
“Of course not,” he said. “That would be bad for us both. There’s my reputation to maintain, but there’s also your safety to consider. I have rivals and enemies. I don’t want anyone thinking they can get to me through you. I don’t want to see you hurt in any way.”
“Protecting me?” I asked, giving him a playful push.
He caught my hand, bringing my fingertips to his lips and kissing them gently. “Évidemment,” he said, using his favorite French word for obviously. “I care a great deal about you. I will do whatever is necessary to protect you.”
I smiled. Nicolas had the most uncanny ability to melt me with just a few words. It was really quite unfair; he hardly had to try.
“Does this arrangement bother you?” he asked quietly.
“No,” I said. “I just wanted to know the rules. It makes it easier to play the game here.”
He gave me a sweet smile. “I’m sorry it has to be this way. You are not a game to me. I am serious about you in ways I have rarely experienced in my life before.”
“That’s all that matters. That’s all I need to know.”
The end of September brought Daniel’s birthday, which was a big deal. Nicolas had planned a group meeting followed by a party for the night of the holiday, but I managed to get the morning alone with Daniel the day before.
“I know it’s a day early,” I said, ushering him into my apartment, “but I thought we could open gifts instead of training?”
His eyes widened at the two boxes sitting on my living room table.
“This one first,” I said, gesturing to the larger box on the left.
He undid the heavy silver wrapping paper with more care than I would have expected from him. Once he had set that aside, he opened the box and paused, puzzled.
“What is it?” he asked, removing a reddish glazed clay dish with a fluted cover.
I smiled. “It’s a Moroccan tagine pot. One of my friends and group members in Flame was Moroccan and loved to cook. I thought you might like to learn something new, so I’m going to teach you how to make tagine for our breakfast.”
“Wow, Fi, so cool,” he said. He placed the tagine carefully on the table and threw his arms around me. “What do we need to do?”
I loved cooking with Daniel. He was as competent in the kitchen as he was in the training room. He was so fast with the rest of the prep work that I barely did anything other than make the couscous. Once the tagine was in the oven, I beckoned him over to the living room table again.
“Gift number two,” I said, smiling. “Be careful. This one is more fragile.”
He lifted the cover of the box gently and peered inside. “Amazing,” he said, pulling it off entirely to reveal a gorgeous cake.
“I hope you like matcha,” I said as he examined the brilliant green dusting of green tea powder on top of the cake. I had picked the flavor because he didn’t like anything too sweet. “I’m told these are the best cakes in Hong Kong. I’m really excited to find out what makes it worth seven hundred and fifty Hong Kong dollars.”
“You are the best, absolutely the best,” he said, crushing me into another hug. “Doh je, doh je!”
Daniel had been teaching me words in Cantonese, so now he thanked me in his language whenever he could. I smiled at his enthusiastic tone.
“Actually, it’s you who are the best,” I said. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’ve been an amazing lieutenant. And a great friend, since well before there was ever any reason for you to care about me. So… thank you.”
“No problem, Fi. You are family. I love you.”
My eyes teared up at his words, and I tightened my arms around him. I had never thought of myself as a social or likable person, but I had lost my best friend recently only to find a new one in Water, and I felt incredibly fortunate for that.
Daniel and I had no trouble finishing off the entire pot of tagine, as well as two large slices of the matcha cake. We were lounging around on my couch an hour later when there was frantic knocking at my door.
Nicolas, whose magic I would know anywhere.
He didn’t wait for me to dismiss my shield; he merely plowed through it like it was paper. The intrusion sent shivers up my spine as he set off my wards and reminded me with a shock that he was more powerful than any of us. Daniel was on his feet as Nicolas opened the door. I jumped up as well.
“You two,” he said, “come with me. There’s an emergency.”
His voice was calm but urgent, his magic swirling around him dangerously.
“What is it?” Daniel asked.
I rushed into my bedroom, stripping off my jeans and replacing them with thick black leggings and black running shoes. I also grabbed my black hoodie and two knives.
“Farhad needs an extraction now,” Nicolas said in the other room as I rapidly dressed. “He’s been discovered, captured, and Smoke is moving him from their Royal National Park base in Australia up to the main Sydney clan house. This gives us our only opportunity to retrieve him, so we’re on a tight schedule.”
I hadn’t heard Farhad’s name that much, but I knew he was on a rather important undercover mission to retrieve some information from Smoke. I hadn’t asked for more details than that, but it sounded like the operation was more dangerous than I thought.
Daniel was already moving out the door. Nicolas and I waited in the hall outside his apartment.
“What’s the plan?” I asked nervously.
Nothing like this had happened since I arrived, and I did not know the procedures for emergencies within Nicolas’s group.
“We’re meeting the others downstairs. I’ll explain then.”
Nicolas was terrifyingly focused, alternately pacing in a small circle and standing still with his eyes closed, searching visions. He was dressed for a fight and looked every inch the commander I knew he was, his deadly magic coiled and shimmering.
It took Daniel no more than thirty seconds to reappear. He was armed and had stripped off his jacket, leaving him in only a T-shirt—he liked to fight with bare arms. Nicolas walked so quickly to the elevators that Dan and I had to run to keep up.
We took an elevator down to the eleventh floor, somewhere I had never been. It opened into a broad hallway lined with doors. Nicolas took us into the closest left-hand one. The room was completely empty, although the walls and windows were layered with currently inert limiting wards, meant to control any magic used within the room and keep it from escaping.
Keisha, Sylvio, and Teng were already there, all of them also armed and dressed to fight. Nicolas laid his own heavy wards and shields on the room, along with a silencing spell. He also activated the existing magic-limiting wards with a touch.
He beckoned us all toward the center of the room, and we stood in a tight circle.
“Teng, report,” Nicolas said.
Teng had a tablet in his black-gloved hands, and he pulled up something on the screen to read.
“According to Nicolas’s informant in Smoke,” Teng read mechanically, “Farhad’s cover was blown at approximately eleven o’clock last night. He was immediately shackled and restrained, with plans to move him today from the RNP base, which has no holding
facilities, to the Sydney clan house for further interrogation.
“Because of the unique placement of the RNP base, which is several miles offshore under the seabed, we have a low-risk opportunity to retrieve him during the move,” Teng went on. “As far as our informant knows, Smoke has no idea Farhad is part of Nicolas’s group, and therefore does not know that we have access to Nicolas’s knowledge of this particular base.”
Right. Nicolas had told me his lab was located there when he was part of Smoke. He likely knew everything about that base, especially if he still had informants available to him.
“It is eleven a.m. in Sydney right now, and the move is scheduled for noon,” Teng finished, looking up.
Nicolas took over, his voice hard. “The RNP base is approximately three-point-five miles offshore and is serviced by a narrow underground tunnel. This tunnel presents an opportunity for rescue. Keisha will create a portal from here to a marina outside Sydney, where a boat is waiting for us. We will position ourselves directly above the midpoint of the tunnel. Teng will part the ocean above the tunnel. Sylvio, Daniel, and I will go in. I can detect Farhad’s magic. When he is close, we blow up the tunnel’s roof, disable the guards, and pull Farhad out. We close the ocean behind us and portal out again as quickly as possible. Questions?”
“How many guards will be transporting Farhad?” Sylvio asked.
Nicolas thought for a moment, blinking slowly. “Likely three or four. Each end of the tunnel is heavily guarded, but there will be no one else in the middle of the tunnel.”
“What are the visions saying, Nico?” Daniel asked.
“I’m getting a strong sense that the timing won’t change, and that’s the most important piece,” Nicolas said. “My involvement limits my ability to predict much more than that. We can improvise the rest.”
Daniel turned to Teng. “How much time do we have once you clear the path?”
Teng hesitated. “Maybe ten minutes. Fifteen, if Nicolas grants me extra magic.”
“Done,” Nicolas said. Because Teng’s hands were gloved, Nicolas cupped Teng’s chin with his palms. Teng was practically glowing when the exchange was complete.
“What do I do?” I asked.
I wasn’t sure at all why I was here, except that I happened to be with Daniel when Nicolas found him.
“You will be on the boat with Keisha and Teng,” Nicolas said, “and you’ll manage the operation above the surface. I’m relying on you to stay there and make the decisions when I’m not around. Teng has to hold the path open. He cannot be distracted by anything else. If there are any issues at all, you handle them. Teng and Keisha will take instructions from you.”
Both of them nodded at me. I didn’t have time to worry about my lack of experience or the fact that Teng—with three decades in the clan—would be taking orders from me. I locked my hands together to keep them from trembling.
Teng handed Daniel, Nicolas, Sylvio, and me each a small earpiece. Daniel showed me how to turn it on and place it in my ear.
Nicolas called all of our names, and we responded, establishing our connection.
“Good, let’s go. Keisha?” he said, gesturing. “All of you, leave any personally identifying items here. Phones, identity cards…”
I took my wallet and cellphone out of my pocket and added it to the pile with everyone else’s.
Keisha was already walking in a small circle in the center of the room, her magic forming up inside of it. After approximately five revolutions, a shimmering portal appeared. Nicolas led us all through. It was cold on the other side, and the sunlight had a different quality than in Hong Kong.
I shielded my face with my hand, first eyeing the dozens of rows of boats at the marina, then watching Keisha dissolve the portal in an instant.
Nicolas sprinted down the docks, and we followed. The boat waiting for us was a large white speedboat, open to the cool weather and brilliant sky.
Nicolas and Daniel kept checking their watches as Sylvio pulled us out into the open ocean. We had thirty minutes before go time. I sat quietly, watching Nicolas and Sylvio conferring about locations. Nicolas was using his magic, but his spellwork was too complex and weird for me to understand. Another reminder that he was on a completely different level of expertise. Eventually, he had Sylvio circle around a few times and stop, content with the location.
Daniel watched Nicolas with a dark expression. He didn’t look worried, per se, but he looked more serious than I had ever seen him before.
It was twenty minutes until go time. Nicolas now had his body leaning quite far over the edge of the boat, his hands in the water, his eyes closed.
“Teng,” he said, beckoning.
Teng went over to him. He pulled off one long black glove, and I was aghast seeing long ropey red marks marring his wrist and forearm. They looked like burn scars, and I wondered about Teng’s past. What had brought him to Water so young? What had turned him into such a cold, withdrawn person? What or who had hurt him like that?
Nicolas grasped Teng’s arm with one hand, the other still in the water. They had some private conference mind-to-mind, with Teng occasionally pointing at the water.
Nicolas let go of Teng. “How long to part the water?”
“Thirty seconds?” Teng said. “Depends on exact depth.”
Sylvio was teaching Keisha how to pilot the boat, telling her to circle the area if it drifted from the access point.
Daniel leaned across the space between us and silently handed me his watch. I buckled it onto my wrist. It was his usual watch, heavy and black, made by some obscure German company.
It was ten minutes to noon. We all watched Nicolas, his hands once again in the water, his face a mask of concentration.
Five minutes to noon. Nicolas stood. Daniel and Sylvio did the same, their eyes on him.
“Time to go,” Nicolas said. “Teng, part the water. I need the whole fifteen minutes. Fiona, I’ll keep you apprised of what’s going on, and I’ll let you know when Keisha should make the portal back.”
“Got it,” I said, standing.
Daniel gripped my hand for a moment before following Nicolas to the back of the boat. I met his eyes with mine, and he offered me an encouraging thumbs-up.
Teng now stood at the back of the boat. He had pulled his glove back on and was staring, still and impassive, down at the tumultuous water beneath him. I watched in awe as steps of dark water appeared in the ocean, one after another, leading down into the blackness.
It was a grand and beautiful staircase.
Teng watched his work, grim and concentrating. Shields flickered to life around Nicolas, Daniel, and Sylvio as they made their way quickly down the stairs, which seemed to have a surface like hard stone. I could hear their breathing through my earpiece.
After a couple of minutes, I could hear their whispered conversation.
“All right, we’re going in here,” Nicolas said. “Dan, keep the damage contained here and here if you can. Start as soon as I destroy the circle with the blast wards. Sylvio, when Dan is done, move fast. Retrieve Farhad. We’ll do cleanup. Get him and get back to the boat, nothing fancy, don’t look back.”
“Okay,” Dan said. “I’ve got the limiters in place on this side, just have to do the other side. Shield here, please. That will keep the water out…”
I watched Teng while listening to their strategizing. He was grimacing, his hands making tiny calming gestures here and there, but the steps held together with barely a tremble. I didn’t want to think of what would happen if the steps crumbled with the three of them still down there.
Trust Teng, I told myself. Everyone else did, after all.
Keisha was sitting in the captain’s chair, hand on the lever that controlled the boat, but we weren’t drifting. She was glancing between Teng and me. It felt odd being the center of attention. In my old group, I had never been in charge of anything.
“Forty seconds…” Nicolas’s voice said. “Thirty… twenty… Dan, ready?”
“Five, four, three, two… go!”
I heard an ear-splitting crash through my earpiece, then a second one. Daniel swore several times. My heart ratcheted up a notch.
“They just blasted the tunnel,” I said to Teng and Keisha, trying to sound calm.
I could hear Nicolas shouting. “Syl, go! To the left, now! Dan, with me!”
I wished I knew what was going on. There was more crashing and commotion through my earpiece. It was almost impossible to hear anything clearly.
“Not that way!” I heard Dan yell. There was faint, distant shouting—Smoke magicians, maybe.
There was too much going on for me to hear any details. I watched the clock. Five minutes had gone by, with only ten to go.
“I’ve got him!” Sylvio’s voice emerged through the commotion. “Come around to your right and get these shackles off.”
My heart leaped. I prayed we were still on schedule.
“No time,” Nicolas said. “Drag him with you, go!”
“Teng, still okay?” I asked.
His eyes were distressed, but he said, “Okay for now.”
“Fiona?” Nicolas’s voice.
“Here,” I replied.
“Syl is bringing Far up now. Dan and I are right behind him. Tell Keisha to get ready.”
I repeated Nicolas’s words to Keisha and Teng. Keisha began to form a portal in the open space at the center of the boat.
I waited at the top of the water stairs next to Teng. A few moments later, I could make out the light of Sylvio’s shield. He was struggling, half carrying Farhad, who didn’t seem to be in great condition. I ran down to meet him, feeling the press of ocean walls around me, and helped him haul Farhad up the last half dozen steps.
When we got to the top, Sylvio pushed him roughly into the boat.
“Where are they?” I asked him.
“Behind me somewhere!” he called back, throwing himself into the boat behind Farhad. He was crouching over Farhad’s shaking form, performing minor healing checks, trying to get Farhad to calm down. Farhad was gasping for air.
“Nicolas? Dan?” I said into my earpiece.