The Curious Fate of Nelsonora (Fractured Universe Series Book 1)

by Marissa Nofer

  There was no internet, of course, but now we could quickly search and alphabetize names as people arrived and searched for loved ones. One volunteer, Mara, had come in everyday to help. She was separated from her fiancé Adam when the war began, and Adam had been a shifter on active military duty at the time of the war. Mara was like me, a master and maker of beasts. She had been in hiding since the war began.

  “I know he’s still alive. I can feel it more each day.” She assured me. I hoped she was right.

  “Most of the military men and women were added to the camps or imprisoned. If they sent him to one of the prisons, then he would be fine. It’s just a matter of finding him and getting him out.” I responded.

  “If he was at a camp, then he could be arriving here any day now.” She added with a hopeful look out of the large office window. Her fiancé didn’t appear though. Edmund did.

  “Nelsonora, there was an attack on the main entrance.” Edmund said holding out a hand for me to join him. I nodded apologetically to Mara as I ran out the door and she made a shooing gesture for me to hurry along. A lot of the people here looked to Isaac and me as leaders. He was a proven ally and advocate for the genetically diverse, and I was largely responsible for the closure of the camps.

  As we approached the entrance, I could see bodies piled outside. There were at least fifty shan piled high, and about half as many shifters had run through the barriers to protect the town, but the magically charged barriers prevented them from shifting.

  “How were they able to kill them?” I asked stunned.

  “The barriers seem to leave only natural law. No magic, but these shan aren’t magic, they’re sick. Only their immortality is magic and tied to you.” He figured.

  “So maybe we don’t need magic to kill them here.” I said. “We need muscle.”

  A young man approached me and tapped my shoulder. Edmund’s face twitched with distaste at the physical contact, and I ignored his reaction to look at the other man.

  “I just got here today. My name is Beasley. Let me know how I can help, Ma’am. There are three dead.”

  I looked Beasley up and down as I realized why he spoke in such a clear and proper way and went by a surname. He was former military.

  “There are a lot more than three dead.” I said gesturing to the pile of bodies.

  “Three of ours, Ma’am.” He clarified. My mouth fell open and the right words evaded me. I had one overwhelming concern.

  “Show me.” I said, breathlessly. Edmund was on our heels as Beasley walked me over to the bodies of three men. I felt guilty when I sighed in relief that none of them were familiar, and that none of them were David.

  “Beasley, I don’t know the traditions in place for something like this. My memory is little… gone. You can help me by making sure we honor them properly. All of us. Tonight.” I said.

  He nodded sharply and set off to make it happen. Edmund grabbed my shoulder and my tears fell silently for the three young men in front of me.

  “David is back at the lab with the others.” Edmund whispered. My tears fell harder, and I felt guilty for having such a strong reaction to the possibility of another man being hurt, and that Edmund knew precisely what I was feeling.

  ***

  We held the funeral outside of my childhood home on the Nelson property. Though Isaac and I weren’t prepared to live there anymore, we were fine with walking the grounds. David had been staying there, and my heart lurched a little when I saw him walk out of the house. I looked at my feet and forced myself to pull it together.

  There were no less than a three hundred people gathered. Most were shifters, and others were just there to pay their respects to the men who died defending the town. Our records showed that there were now nearly eighteen hundred residents of Tavern Falls. The town had been completely abandoned before a couple weeks ago when I demanded the closure of the camps. It was evacuated after the last bombs fell. People fled to the southwestern states.

  I felt an unexpected feeling of anger that less than half of us were here. We should all be here. Everyone not on watch should be here.

  “Where is everyone else?” I hissed at Isaac under my breath.

  “They’ll be here.” He assured me. He looked surprised at my concern.

  He was right. By the time the funeral began thirty minutes later, the fields were full of people. I was at the front with my family and Beasley approached with a group of about forty men in formation. Behind me I heard a small gasp, but I couldn’t tell who it came from.

  Beasley had already arranged three large wooden platforms that the bodies rested on, and I realized what they were for with a bit of shock. I had expected graves. Not pyres. There were three small campfires in the front as well.

  “Is this right?” I asked Isaac. “The campfires?”

  “Shifter tradition.” Isaac responded. “Beasley said you instructed him to go all out. And try not to say camp at all in this crowd.”

  “I did ask him to, but I didn’t know what to expect.” I admitted. Isaac kissed the top of my head.

  “You did well. He’s honoring his friends well. One of them even has a brother here.”

  David’s lessons on the childbirth survival rates for women like me came to mind as I realized why it was so rare for a shifter to have a brother.

  The funeral was solemn and most of the words were in the magic textbook language I couldn’t understand. It sounded like Latin, but if it was, I would’ve been able to make out at least a few words.

  “It’s the language from your studies. The forgotten tongue.” David whispered at my side.

  “You understand it?” I asked.

  “Most of us do.” He nodded. Then he began translating. I realized I was the exception.

  “We live and die in service of those we love. We love in a way that honors those who die before us. We die knowing that love is eternal, and life is brief.” David whispered. The sun was setting, and the fires seemed to burn brighter with each passing moment.

  A man stepped forward and removed his shirt. I cringed when another man removed a dagger from a box and cut him from his left collarbone to his right hip. It was like a pageant sash from a hell.

  David translated. “We remember our brothers, as they are marked across our hearts for eternity.”

  The man looked down at his brother’s lifeless body and embraced him within the first pyre. A mirrored stripe of blood smeared onto his brother’s chest. He then walked to the first fire, lit a torch, and lit his brother’s pyre. Two other men stepped forward to light the other two. Each from their respective fires. They did not receive the brother’s cut.

  “Why three separate fires?” I asked David.

  “Because you cannot consolidate loss. There were three losses.” He whispered.

  To close the service, Beasley stepped forward with a formation of men behind him and began speaking.

  David translated. “We are saddened by the loss of our brothers in spirit. They were not only of the original bloodlines, but Marines who we were honored to serve alongside.”

  I noticed that there was no translation for the word Marine, but Beasley merged the languages seamlessly.

  “We take this form to honor them.” Beasley concluded. Before David could fully translate, the men in formation transformed instantly into horrific looking dogs. I gasped. I had no idea that shifters could become something that wasn’t an existing animal. These dogs were straight out of hell.

  “Devil dogs.” Isaac chuckled. “They would.”

  David grinned and applauded. Several men in the crowd barked and cheered.

  Edmund leaned towards me “It shows a great level of skill and determination for a shifter to take a form they’ve never seen close up before.” He explained with clear admiration.

  The crowd of devil dogs left the area without breaking formation or shifting back. I guess flashing upwards of fifty penises to the entire town wouldn’t be cool. Behind me, one person was still crying. I looked bac
k to see Mara. I wondered if she knew one of the men who died.

  Before I could ask, I saw Beasley return in different clothing. He ran right past us and lifted Mara into his arms. Adam Beasley. Mara’s lost fiancé who arrived just this morning. I was thrilled for her.

  “Have you ever seen two people so in love?” I admired happily. Isaac, David and Edmund groaned in unison, and Diana held Westly’s arm a little tighter.

  The crowd began to disperse, but we stayed until the fires burned out several hours later. The smell of burning flesh was surprisingly easy to get used to if you just avoid thinking about it. If I thought about it I started crying all over again. Some people stayed behind for brief and rowdy celebration of life and the changes that recently brought us all together.

  I took the time to discuss strategy with Isaac, David, and Edmund once we sent Westly and Diana home so she could rest. We were joined by three middle-aged women responsible for creating the barrier spells around Tavern Falls.

  “Your father explained the situation, and the best we can do is teach you to do the barrier spell. Any more than that, and you’re looking to get yourself killed without proper training.” Claudia, the oldest, explained.

  “It is possible to make them all mortal without needing to produce barriers everywhere?” I asked. They looked around at each other uncomfortably.

  “That would require a great deal of sacrifice.” Janine answered softly. She was a tiny woman with fierce eyes and pink streaks in dyed into her grey hair. Or perhaps stained like mine from some other weird magic.

  “What else can I give?” I asked.

  “You have a split soul, a family, and many years ahead of you. You have a lot you could give.” The third woman cautioned. She was so quiet I’d almost forgotten about her.

  “A split soul?” I asked.

  “Can you cure them?” David interrupted asking Isaac. Edmund ran his hands through his messy hair. He looked exhausted.

  Isaac repositioned himself in his chair uncomfortably and cleared his throat.

  “The cure we are working on is meant to reverse the effects of the Renly vaccine and save our people from losing their abilities against their will. We’ve had no success so far. Nothing I would even test on a living person. It has nothing to do with helping shan. I prioritized our own.” Isaac clarified.

  I forced myself not to lecture him on how that mentality only perpetuates the rift between genetic abnormals and the law-abiding citizens living under a prejudiced and corrupt government. He had suffered so much, that he may not even want peace.

  The three women obviously didn’t want to hear about medical science at all. They seemed like more of the holistic medicine type. They looked uncomfortable.

  “So, there’s no saving the secondhand shan.” I concluded.

  “Even if there was, the time it would take to sort them out would put the public in prolonged danger.” Edmund said.

  “I can smell the difference.” David shared. “I figured that out after she almost got bitten.

  “You can smell everything.” I scowled at the reminder.

  “Okay so you can identify them. Then we know which ones we can kill for her.” Edmund noted.

  “What about the Renly cure?” I asked. Everyone turned to look at me.

  “It slows down the rapid production of atypical cells.” I explained. I felt like an idiot before I even finished the sentence. I was just repeating what Isaac said before. Edmund looked at Isaac and Isaac looked at the ground thoughtfully.

  “We’d have to steal a batch right out of R.I.G.S. if you seriously want me to waste our time on shan.” Isaac said after an uncomfortable pause.

  “On it.” David said hopping to his feet.

  “I’ll go too.” Edmund sighed.

  “You are not going to a camp… are you?” I protested to them both. I forced myself to only look at Edmund when I said it.

  “No.” Edmund answered. “We’re going to a college turned research facility. I blend in there.” He added bitterly. He was a Renly biologically, and a Hennessy because he read it in a book when he and Diana were small kids.

  “And I’ll chase his ass through the door as a pit bull.” David shrugged.

  “Okay, fine. But not a pit bull. We aren’t contributing to breed bias. Be a golden retriever or something.” I agreed. “And can I go?”

  “No!” Everyone answered at once.

  CHAPTER 24

  Edmund assured me no less than five times that they would be back early the next morning. Isaac walked me back to the Taylor house and watched me go inside before returning to his lab. I’d caught him sleeping out there a few times, but it seemed to be his happy place, so I didn’t bother him.

  Inside the house, Diana and Westly were laughing over a board game and I tiptoed upstairs to shower and get some rest. I looked through my mothers’ old wardrobe. There were trash bags filled with high-waisted jeans and floral prints. We must’ve been about the same size.

  I found a sweatshirt that said R.I.G.S across it. Renly Institute of Genetic Sciences, Edmund had explained earlier. It seemed as comfortable as anything to sleep in. Sleep didn’t happen though. Something one of the three women had said after the funeral kept eating away at my mind. That would require a great deal of sacrifice.

  What kind of sacrifice did they mean? I dug through the boxes in the corner of the bedroom until I found my books from Edmund. I began reading until I found answers and eventually dozed off in a pile of books and notes at my mother’s old desk. I was wearing nothing but underwear and a college sweatshirt. It was the first place I ever felt at home, even though I knew my mother hated it here once upon a time.

  ***

  I woke up in Edmund’s arms being carried to the bed.

  “You’re a dork.” He smiled. “You drooled half a page of notes out of a priceless book.”

  “Ugh. I needed to figure something out.” I mumbled as he set me on the bed. He looked exhausted, but safe. I was determined not to ask if David was okay too, because I’m sure he would mention otherwise.

  “You want to know what those women meant.” He concluded after a quick glance over my notes.

  “Yes.” I answered with a loud yawn.

  “You would need some serious blood to pull off a large-scale spell like that.” He said bluntly. “The shan are a punishment. You owe death a great debt. So, you will either correct the issue by killing all the Shan, or you will pay death something equally valuable.”

  “Like?”

  “Your life, Nelsonora. You must learn a lesson one way or another, and it’s not going to happen that way. Magic is an exchange system. The greater the impact, the greater the cost.” He sighed. I could see that we were inching into his protective anger zone.

  “I’m just trying to figure out how to do this before a too much time passes, and they reopen the camps.” I replied. I glared at my feet determined not to cry in frustration.

  “How do you want to do it?” Edmund asked. The question felt like a trap.

  “I want to make them mortal so that anyone can kill them. Then we can wipe them out quickly, and if the secondhand shan can be cured, then we save lives.” I said.

  “And how will you make them mortal?” Edmund asked coolly with his arms crossed.

  “With a balancing spell. It will make them as mortal as I am.” I said pointing to one of the books.

  “At what cost?” Edmund challenged. “How many women like you have died bringing life into the world? It’s all an exchange, and it never seems to be in your favor.”

  “Death brings death.” I snapped angrily. As I said the words, the bedroom window exploded outwards and the standing mirror shattered.

  “You are too powerful to be exploring this shit alone.” He said gently. He wasn’t fazed by the glass explosion. I was shaking.

  “I’m okay with dying for the benefit of mankind, Edmund. What is my life worth when everyone else is in jeopardy?” I cried.

  “Everything.” he answered
without hesitation. A certain conversation played back in my mind as he said it, and I realized I would have to go to David if I wanted to my plan to work. For now, I would save it as a last resort. Maybe my genius father would figure out a way to cure them all. Or maybe I could lure them into a barrier area. Town by town. It would take years. I sighed and Edmund’s demeanor softened immediately.

  The sound of distant screaming carried well with the window blown out. It wasn’t just one scream; it was hundreds. I ran out of the bedroom without hesitation and Edmund was at my heels with a pair of pants and shoes. I made it out of the house just in time to see two wolves racing down the far edges of the fields towards the main area of town.