by MJ Fletcher
I felt the heat burst in my cheeks and color my face. I no doubt was glowing a shade of red I didn’t want to imagine. I fidgeted nervously with my shirt sleeves. I was confident in my abilities against a man in a fight or a battle, but when a man looked at me with interest or complimented me, I only wanted to hide in a corner or run for the hills.
I hadn’t always been that way. I had been the pretty girl at Paladin Academy and had plenty of boyfriends. But after the war, and everything I had gone through, that all changed. My body wasn’t the only place on me wracked with scars, so was my psyche. I couldn’t imagine anyone seeing me as attractive ever again. Yet someone like Merric had found the courage to walk around shirtless showing off his battle scars with pride. I didn’t think I would ever reach that level of acceptance.
“Why don’t we talk somewhere more private,” Merric said.
I took a deep breath. At one time, I would have felt as though he would be putty in my hands if I got him alone. Now I wasn’t so sure. For all my confidence in battle, I was a mess when it came to normal one on one with men. But I didn’t have much choice; I needed to talk with Merric.
“Sounds good,” I said with more confidence than I felt.
Chapter 4
“Tell me, Jessica, what brings a hero of the Old Kind to my small Cantina?” Merric asked as he traced his fingers over the door, he had stopped at, in a quick pattern and pushed it open.
I felt a tiny surge in power, but it was something I couldn’t place. It felt familiar, yet alien all at the same time.
“I’m looking for information,” I said as I followed him into the room.
A spacious office sprawled out before me. I’d traveled through many portals, but never one that left no impression as I passed over it. I had to admit I was impressed. I reached out with my senses and knew I had moved between dimensions, but hadn’t even noticed.
A large cherry wood desk sat on one side of the room with a leather chair resting behind it. Two walls of the room were covered by bookshelves that were filled to bursting with books of every shape and size. The other floor to ceiling walls had three windows that looked out on a beautiful blue sky. Realizing the door we had used was nowhere to be seen, I spun around.
“Don’t worry, it isn’t a trick just a precaution,” Merric said as he leaned against the desk and focused on me. He dropped his soiled shirt on the desk and placed his hands on the edges as he leaned back against it and stared at me.
I grew uncomfortable with his intense scrutiny, the power of it unique and intoxicating all at the same time. It flowed around me like a cool breeze on a scorching summer day.
“I don’t like being locked up,” I said attempting to keep my focus.
“I’m not locking you up, just giving us a moment to talk privately. The Cantina is a good place to do business, but not so good for conversation that is best kept between private parties.”
“What makes you think the information I need is so hush hush?”
“Old Kind doesn’t come to me for recipes of the week, Jessica.” He chuckled.
“Fair enough,” I said walking across the room and staring out the window at the azure sky. I needed a moment to collect my thoughts. Merric had thrown me off my game entirely. I was too busy thinking about him and his scars to think about what the hell I was really here for.
“So how can I help you?”
“I hear you have access to some unique items.” I didn’t want to jump right in and scare him off.
“You’re talking about that Timelock?”
I spun around, and the look of shock on my face must have been evident. Merric smirked at me and slipped his hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh.
“Do you have it?” I asked done being careful and done letting Merric affect me—at least I hoped I was.
“Not anymore,” he said shaking his head.
“Terrific.” I clenched my hands into fists and wanted to hit something.
“I’m sorry,” Merric said.
He seemed sincere, his voice dropping low as he spoke, and his eyes thoughtful. There was also something about the way he tilted his head as he spoke with me that told me he actually cared.
“Who has it?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t be a very good intermediary if I told you the names of the people I worked with,” Merric said shrugging his shoulders.
“You know I work for the Council,” I said.
Most times I didn’t have to try and intimidate people, my attitude and abilities doing most of the work for me. But Merric was no ordinary man that much was obvious. I doubted very much that the Council would care if I recovered the Timelock. This was personal for me. So if I had to throw their name around to get what I needed. I wasn’t above doing that.
“So?”
I didn’t expect that response, and my mouth fell open. I scrambled to remind him, “All Old Kind must answer to the Council.”
“Good thing I’m not Old Kind,” he said.
“What the hell are you anyway? Not Old Kind, not human, but something else?”
“I’m complicated,” he said with a sadness that gave me pause.
“You’re also in my way,” I said my anger getting the better of me. I raised my clenched fist and felt the call of the Artifact rumble throughout my body. I needed information and this man was in my way. A whisper sounded, distant and formless, in my head, and I struggled to hear what it was saying.
Merric crossed the distance between us in two quick strides. His hand clasped my wrist and a warm light pulsed around him and enveloped me in a cocoon of white.
He stood close to me, closer than anyone had been in a very long time. The burning rage that I had felt inside of me since the day I had received the Artifact suddenly weakened.
I looked into his grey eyes and saw myself reflected there. I wasn’t the same woman I used to be. The one that had always been so concerned with looking perfect and making sure she stayed up on the latest fashions. Everything had changed since that night I was lost in the darkness.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice low and quiet.
“What do you mean?” I was breathing in short gasps as the power of the Artifact receded in the presence of the white light. Something had changed. I felt something I hadn’t felt in a very long time—I felt safe.
“About what happened to you,” Merric said.
I’d barely realized his hand still held my wrist, but then his thumb slipped over the edge of my sleeve where one of my scars jutted out onto my hand. The tip of his fingers brushed over it and shot a spark through my body.
“It’s nothing,” I said, even though I felt safe, could I really trust this man? “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I understand loss, far better than most.”
“Something happened to you too?” I asked or perhaps it was that I hoped for a kindred spirit who truly did understand the horror of what I had gone through. His eyes filled with pain and it was evident that he too had known loss. I wondered if it had to do with the scars he wore on his body.
He nodded. “Something happened.”
“Please,” I bit my lip and leaned in closer to him, “help me.” I hated sounding like I was begging, especially to someone I hardly knew, but there was something about Merric, something in his eyes that spoke to me. It was as though we could understand one another, like victims of crime can only understand one another’s pain.
“I wish I could, Jessica,” he said.
“But you won’t,” I said turning away from him. He released my arm and the warm light vanished and I felt as though I was standing alone with my pain.
“You don’t understand,” he said with a hint of regret.
I didn’t know what his abilities were, but I’d never experienced anything like the overwhelming sense of safety I had felt when he had touched me. The absence of his hand had me almost begging for him to touch me once again so that I could feel that glorious sense of calm and release of all my anger and hate. Instea
d I felt as if a dam had broken and a rush of emotions flooded me until I thought I’d drown in them.
“What was that?” I asked shaking my head as if I were waking from a dream.
“You have a hard time controlling the Artifact,” he said.
“Yes.” I ran my hands through my hair, trying to figure out how he’d had such an effect on me. “How did you know that?”
“It’s my business to know things, and I know a great deal about you, Jessica.”
“Really now?” I asked curious and a bit annoyed.
“Really,” he reiterated, “but it wasn’t until now, being beside you, that I realized you are indeed unique.”
“How’s that?” I asked my attitude once again returning.
“You’re a warrior who has been through a great deal.”
His eyes flashed over my body and I quickly crossed my arms over my chest.
“It’s affected you, perhaps more than you realize, and has changed you in some ways. Yet you haven’t let it defeat you; you keep fighting. I admire that.”
“If you admire me so much, why won’t you help me? And what the hell was that light? What did you do to me?”
“You wish to keep your secrets, and I wish to keep mine.”
“So what you’re saying is that you aren’t going to lift a finger to help me out?” I was angry having gotten so close only to hit a brick wall. It wasn’t fair. Then again not much had been fair in my life recently. How could Merric calm me so, and then make me this angry all in the span of a few minutes?
“That is exactly what I am saying.”
“Why even bring me in here then?” I asked throwing my hands in the air.
“You helped me with the fight. The least I could do was listen to what you had to say.”
“If this is how you repay people who help you, it’s a wonder you’re still in business.”
“You have a point.” He nodded, walked around the desk, and pulled open a drawer. He pushed around its contents and with a satisfied nod pulled out a sheet of paper and held it out to me. “Here you go.”
“What’s this?” I took the page from him and scanned what was essentially a list of items. Most of them were things an Impossible Engineer would use, but for what I had no idea.
“Payback,” he said.
“It’s a shopping list. How does that help me?”
“That’s up to you to figure out, Jessica. I can’t do everything for you,” Merric said.
“You’re infuriating you know that?”
“So I’ve been told.”
Merric stood tall and crossed his arms over his chest, his white braided pony tail resting over his shoulder. He appeared like some imposing sculpted statue, perfect; yet cold and immoveable.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Like I said we all have our secrets, Jessica. Now if you don’t mind I have a bar to run.”
He waved toward the door that had suddenly reappeared on the wall opposite me. I didn’t know how he did it, but I wanted too. Merric was right. He had a lot of secrets, and I wanted to find out what the hell they were.
I folded the paper and slipped it into my pocket as I walked to the door and pulled it open. I found it emptied onto the street instead of the Cantina itself. Apparently I was being sent away completely. I glanced over my shoulder at Merric and, for the first time in a very long while, I smiled.
“Thank you, Merric,” I said and stepped out the door.
Chapter 5
The growling beasts were all around me and I was terrified. The darkness laid over me like a blanket of death and loneliness. I wanted to yell and scream and fight, but instead all I did was curl into a ball and cry, waiting for death to claim me.
I opened my eyes, my body shivering as I lay balled up in my bed, my blankets kicked off and lying on the floor. I sat up, pulling my knees tight against my chest and pushing out a long breath.
The nightmares wouldn’t go away. It seemed I was stuck with them as much as I was these tattoos on my arms. I traced my fingers over the edges of the ink and a whisper of a thought sped through my mind. It was as if someone called out to me as they raced passed.
Merric had been right about one thing—I was different. Everything I had gone through had affected me more than I wanted to admit. I was keeping my friends and family at arm’s length. I didn’t want them to see me lose the fight against the Artifact if it should consume me. I loved them too much to make them go through that, better for me to simply disappear. I wouldn’t tell any of them that of course.
Yet I had a feeling Merric knew just how I felt. The way he looked at me was as though he could see into my very soul. If he wasn’t so frustratingly secretive, he might even be someone I could talk to—finally. But I’m not that lucky I guess.
“You home?” Slade called out from downstairs as I sensed a portal materialize in the main living area of my loft.
“I’ll be down in a minute. Make us some coffee,” I called out as I pulled myself from my bed and crossed the room to my bathroom and yanked off my clothes, tossing them on my dresser as I passed it.
I showered quickly and didn’t bother drying my hair, letting my blond locks dry on their own. I pulled on a pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt with thumb loops so I didn’t have to worry about my sleeves pulling up to reveal my scars and tattoos.
I snatched the paper Merric had given me from my nightstand and walked down the metal staircase to the main living area of my loft. Slade leaned against the kitchen counter and held out a steaming mug of coffee to me. I took it and handed him the paper as I took a long swig of pure joy.
Slade ran his finger along the list of items and his eyes narrowed as he considered it. “What is this?” he finally asked.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” I said and took another sip. “I got it from Merric Vale. I think it has something to do with the Timelock or the people who now have it.”
“Well, these items are all used by Engineers for numerous high-end devices. But some of the things on this list I’ve never heard of before. I’m going to have to do some research on them.” Slade walked to the sunken living area and slid onto the couch still reading the list of items.
“Any idea what all those items together might build?”
“Not really, I mean even the basic things on here are very complex. Whoever is working on this would have to be a hell of an Engineer to make this thing work, whatever it is.”
“More mystery,” I said with a sigh.
“What?” Slade asked.
“Nothing, it’s this Merric guy. He seems to be one giant mystery that’s all.”
“Interesting.” Slade leaned back, smiling.
“Yeah, why?”
“Nothing, I just know how much you love solving mysteries.” He chuckled.
“Oh shut up, it isn’t like that at all,” I said hesitantly.
“Sure it isn’t,” Slade said.
I have a terrible track record of being interested in men who are unavailable or plain bad for me. I had a feeling Merric might be all those things. I needed to stay the hell away from him. He wasn’t what I needed right now.
“So what’s our next move?” I asked changing the subject.
“We go to see a dealer I know at the Diesel Factories who might have sold some of these items.”
Slade stood and folded the paper, slipping it into his pocket. I joined him as he pulled what appeared to be a screwdriver form his pocket and flicked a switch. It emitted a high-pitched buzzing sound. A doorway formed in front of us and Slade pushed it open. We walked through and stepped out onto the busy streets of the Diesel Factories, one of the most important nexus points for Old Kind activity.
The streets were crowded with people in all sorts of fashion from Victorian dresses to men in leather jackets with hair slicked back like a greaser. I glanced around and my senses were alive with the feeling of power that ran throughout the Diesel Factories. I also felt something else, an undercurrent I couldn
’t put my finger on. I knew I should understand it, but I was in a rush and decided I would figure it out later.
A storefront rose up in front of us. Its front window was large with a jetpack hanging next to a table filled with items, including an Ever Hitting Hammer, the latest model of the Fabulous Farthington Jetpack, and numerous other items. The sign hanging over the door was a set of letters that moved and spun around over gears constantly reforming into the name of the store.
The Spectacular Toolbox of Technology.
We entered the shop to the sound of bells jingling above the door, and I was met with the smell of grease and oil. The shop was covered from floor to ceiling with bits and pieces of devices. Some were fully created while others looked like some version of Frankenstein made out of technology. A long counter ran the length of one side of the store and was covered in tools as was the wall behind it.
“Monk you here?” Slade called out.
Behind the counter, a curtain was pulled aside and a short squat man with frizzy white hair sticking out from around his head stepped out.
“Slade, my boy, what can I do for you?” A huge smile spread across his wrinkled face as he ambled forward. He wiped his dirty hands across his leather apron tied around his ample waist and reached out, clasping Slade’s massive hand in his own thick and worn one.
“I’m looking for some information.” Slade pulled the paper from his pocket and placed it on the counter before Monk.
The old man patted his sides, looking for the glasses that were resting on his forehead. He finally found them and chuckled at his mistake. He lifted his chin before looking at the paper and glanced my way, and winked.
“Is this your girlfriend, Slade?” He nodded with approval, and I smirked at the thought.
People were always assuming that Slade and I were a couple. But we were far from it. He was one of my best friends and that was all we would ever be. We both knew that and liked it that way.
“No, this is my partner Jess,” he said.