The Lostkind

by Matt Stephens

  For just a moment, in mid-air, Vincent forgot he existed; ceasing to be earthbound, just for a moment; becoming something else entirely; floating in nothingness, wrapped in a Moonlight Sonata...

  Beautiful. He thought distantly; the only thing he could think. Rule Three: Be Beautiful...

  Connie would love this...

  ~oo00oo~

  Vincent was still smiling at he let himself into his apartment. He'd spent most of his life unaware of the world around him, and then a year barely checking in with the people in it that mattered to him. He'd experienced the folly of both extremes, and it was time to find balance. Take from the full experience what he had learned, and have a better life ahead for his trouble.

  Yasi was impressive, exciting, mysterious, even beautiful. But they both knew there was little chance there for them, and it was now a certainty that they'd never see each other again. They'd had one night left, and they'd made it fun. The vague fantasies he'd had of pitching his life in the city and going to join the Lostkind vanished once he'd proven he didn't have it in him.

  The adventure was over.

  Time to get back to real life.

  As if to demonstrate the point, he closed the door firmly behind him, shutting out the City at Night; and scribbled down a note to ask Connie out for coffee. Neverland was real, but now it was time to land.

  ~oo00oo~

  Yasi was expecting to be met when she got back to the Entrance. She was expecting Keeper, but instead it was Archivist. He waited for her at the start of the river, long before she got back to Twelfth Level.

  For a long moment they didn't speak to each other. Finally, Archivist held his arms out and she stepped into the hug gratefully. "I'm sorry you had to go through that." His deep voice rumbled kindly. "It's never easy to lose a friend. Something you have little experience with, my dear girl."

  "I told him goodbye, just like I promised." Yasi said simply. "I won't see him again."

  "You okay?" Archivist asked her gently.

  "I'm fine." Yasi shrugged that off. "I've always been fine on my own before; and Keeper's right. He's not one of us."

  "Connie will be good for him." Archivist offered. "A natural match to the best parts of what he has become with our help."

  "I know. That's why Wotcha put them together at the Kitchen." Yasi said, calm again.

  "I know." Archivist said forgivingly. "You did a good thing Yasi. You did really well."

  "You were right. The First Duty of the Shinobi? Protect the secret. I'm the Captain. I can't be the one that screws that up." Yasi squeezed the older man tightly for a moment and broke the hug. "Let's go home."

  SIX: Two Years Later

  Two Years Later...

  Having woken early, he'd untangled himself from her arms and slipped into the next room to get dressed. One thing Vincent had never really adjusted to was the fact that their new apartment was facing the morning sun. The light woke up him up early every morning, even with the shades drawn.

  Connie mumbled as he got up, used to it by now. She managed to snuggle deeper into the blankets without opening her eyes, drawing them over her head protectively. Days when he wasn't required to work, he liked to stay in bed, even when awake and let her sleep longer. Days when he had to work, he took advantage of the extra hour.

  Coffee and toast in hand, he returned to the bedroom, where he had a desk set up. His laptop was forever battling for room against Connie's omnipresent bits and pieces. Vincent loved Connie dearly, but the girl had no control when it came to buying things online. Their apartment was filled with a lifetime of knickknacks. Chinese puzzle boxes, snow-globes from practically every city in the world, model ships and aircraft of every kind...

  Every now and then, his eyes drifted to the Lantern. The bulb had burned out, but he'd kept it anyway. It actually fit right in among Connie's knickknacks. She had everything, including books and posters... Not wanting to wake her, he picked a book at random and started flicking through it. He knew he'd never finish it, but it gave him something to do.

  After a while, he noticed movement behind him. "Hm. Come back to bed." She murmured.

  "Nothing I'd love more, but it's getting late." Vincent told her.

  "Then be late. I'd make it worth your while." She hummed, sitting up. Then she saw the coffee cup and forgot all about being playful. "Coffee waiting the moment I wake up." She smiled sleepily, taking the cup straight out of his hand. "I love you."

  "I'm sitting, reading innocently to myself when you wake up and promptly steal my carefully brewed cup of delicious coffee?" Vincent retorted with open affection. "It's a good thing I love you too."

  She noticed the book in his hand. "Ohh, good choice. That's a first edition I picked up in London, at a clearing sale for one of the finest publishing houses in..."

  "You bought it on Amazon.com for fifteen cents so that you could get a better price on combined shipping." Vincent retorted.

  Connie frowned and took another deep gulp of his coffee. "Yes. Yes I did. But I like my story better."

  Vincent chuckled. "So do I." He kissed her cheek. "I have to get moving. See you at the Kitchen tonight?"

  "Don't you always?"

  ~oo00oo~

  Yasi knelt on the floor, arms stretched out as far as she could. On the floor in front of her, was her sword, sheathed in its scabbard. She waited, alert. After a moment, there was the slightest of sounds, a scuff of a bare foot behind her. She didn't move. The sound stopped. Another moment, there was another step. She didn't move.

  The faintest sound of air movement and she rolled forward instantly, the staff smashing down where she was a moment before. She came out of the roll already on her feet, settling into a fighting crouch. Dorcan lunged forward with the fighting staff, looking to land a blow. She didn't even bother with the sword. She let him hit her, and took the blow across her forearms. It hurt, but it let her catch the staff with one hand. Dorcan tried to pull it back, but she would not release it, and Dorcan found himself tossed off the other end of the staff. He didn't try to stop his momentum, instead directing himself toward her sword as best he could.

  Yasi spun the staff back and forth elaborately, showing off her skill, as he snatched up her sword and spun around, ready to continue the fight. He swung the sword at her, still sheathed, no time to do anything else, and she caught the end of it in one hand. Dorcan swiftly pulled the sword down, drawing it out of the scabbard, leaving her holding the empty sheath and him with the naked blade. She danced aside quickly and threw the scabbard at him, buying her precious seconds. He ducked aside to dodge, and turned it into a sweeping slash that would have cut her in half.

  Yasi didn't duck, she crouched, suddenly three feet shorter, as the blade flashed over her head, close enough to release her hair from its ties. Her locks fell over her shoulders, a few of them dropping to the floor, and she made an equally sweeping strike with the staff, knocking Dorcan off his feet.

  Suddenly flat on his back, Yasi pounced forward, bring the staff downward in a sledgehammer blow. He didn't have time to dodge, so he brought the sword up along his own face to block it. The force of the strike sent the katana smacking against his face, thankfully along the flat of the blade, and sliced the staff in half. He grabbed the severed end of it, and they both jerked back, giving themselves room.

  With a sword in one hand, and half the staff in the other, Dorcan started a slow infinity loop, making a protective and aggressive motion as he slowly closed in on his opponent. With half the staff, barely the length of either weapon in on hand, Yasi crouched, ready to fight. She lashed out like quicksilver, hitting the sword aside with one move, and the staff with another, he countered before she could press the attack, and suddenly they were flashing their weapons back and forth, she was moving twice as fast as he was to stop both weapons, he trying to get past her lighting defense enough to land a blow with either.

  In one quick movement, Yasi knocked the sword out of his hand, caught his half of the staff as she blocked it, an
d pulled, suddenly leaving him empty handed. Dorcan didn't try to get his weapon back, instead getting in close, before she could make use of her weapons. He was in to close to hit, in too close to dodge back…

  Dorcan hooked a leg behind her foot and Yasi suddenly found herself pinned, with him on top of her.

  Everything. Stopped.

  They were nose to nose on the floor, breathing hard, staring into each others eyes, and Dorcan suddenly seemed nervous. She could have flipped him off, but she didn't. This was, after all, just a sparring session. Just for practice.

  "Got you." Dorcan said finally.

  "Yeah, you do." She shot back, unfazed. "Do you have a clue what to do with me?"

  "Would anyone?" He deflected, getting off her.

  Yasi rolled to her feet, when the sound of slow clapping rang out through the room. They both turned, to find Keeper coming in.

  Dorcan pulled back modestly. "She was taking it easy on me."

  "I know she was." Keeper responded; her voice sharp as always. "What the hell were you doing?"

  Dorcan flushed.

  "Anyway, that wasn't what I'm here to talk about." Keeper waved it off. "I was mediating a dispute between two of the market-men a few minutes ago. They both blame the other for trespassing."

  "Borrowers are very particular about where they get to Borrow things from." Yasi nodded. "If they're going to give it back, they can't get confused about what came from where. They're very protective of their territory."

  Keeper just glared at Yasi. "Thank you Yasi. Having been born yesterday, I never would have known that." She creaked sarcastically.

  "So what's the problem?"

  "The problem is, one of them mentioned there hadn't been any raids lately." Keeper got to the point.

  "There haven't." Dorcan confirmed. "Things have been very quiet from the lower levels."

  Keeper just looked at them both. "That doesn't bother either of you?"

  "What? The fact that things are peaceful and going smoothly? You want us to report it when nothing happens?" Dorcan looked to Yasi, to see if she would join in on the joke.

  Yasi however, was not smiling. "Actually… Now that you mention it, that is a little strange, isn't it?"

  ~oo00oo~

  Archivist was writing in a huge bound volume, the pages yellowed, but not by age. The huge volume was one of hundreds that lined the walls of the older man's private chamber. After a few moments, he sensed a presence. "Keeper." He rumbled. "Were you trying to creep up on me?"

  "If I were, you wouldn't have known I was here." The old woman cracked. "Yasi was training with her chief lieutenant this morning."

  "Dorcan? He likes her." Archivist snorted. "That's hardly news."

  "They were training together because neither of them had anything particularly interesting to do this morning." Keeper persisted.

  "What about the market caravans?" Archivist commented. "Has there been a delay?"

  "Nope, not a delay." Keeper's face was stone. "The Marketers have reported that they won't need a Shinobi escort today, because they haven't had any trouble with Riverfolk for at least three months."

  Archivist froze. "Well now. That is interesting news."

  "Yeah, and not the good kind. When was the last time we had no problem with raids for that long?"

  "I honestly can't remember. Two years at least..."

  "I hate sending people down to the River as much as you do, but there's something going on down there. And if it's something we don't know about then it's probably not good."

  ~oo00oo~

  "So, eighteen months as a happy couple." Lindsay said with a grin. "You sick of him yet?"

  Connie swatted her co-worker absently. "You're just jealous."

  "Jealous? Me?" Lindsay mocked. "Your guy wants to spend his eighteen month anniversary with the homeless."

  "Hey, that was how we met. We're having a recreation of our first real date. It's romantic."

  "You're not serious." Lindsay repeated. "A Soup Kitchen is not Romantic. Dinner is Romantic. A trip is romantic. New lingerie that you can't afford is romantic."

  Connie was notably silent.

  Lindsay grinned. "You're kidding."

  "Like I said, we're having a recreation." Connie grinned, pushing her glasses up her nose.

  "You leaving early?"

  "Naw. Vincent's helping out tonight, and we always run late here." Connie shrugged. "We never meet up any sooner than nine."

  Lindsay snorted. "Thank the lord for the night-time."

  "Amen."

  A new patient came in, leading a boy by the hand. The boy jumped up to the counter and peeked over the edge at them. "Hiya Miss Connie."

  "Tecca." She welcomed him warmly. "Welcome back. Grab a seat, the Doctor will be with you soon."

  Tecca had been there often enough that he knew the routine, and Connie smiled at the boy as he sat down. He was a regular at the clinic. It was clear from the way he and his mother dressed that his family didn't have a lot of money, but the kid was always smiling at her, and she always remembered their names.

  Connie had seen it a hundred times; a family that poor, sometimes sleeping in a car; broke enough that a trip to the free clinic was the only time they could afford to go anywhere at all... She made it a point to have a bag of cookies to hand out to the kids, and a little story to tell whenever there was a free minute.

  It made her popular with the youngest patients. Too many adults didn't even see the people behind the reception desk when they came by. It was hard not to love the kids to bits.

  ~oo00oo~

  Tecca rubbed his arm as he walked out of the doctor's office.

  "Tecca, you may be the only kid I know that's willing to lie their way into a doctor's office." The older woman who brought him and posed for the doctors as his mother commented, her curiosity making her more bold than usual. "You like needles that much?"

  Tecca snorted, suddenly seeming twenty years older. "Thanks for your help Martha." He pulled a fifty dollar note out of his pocket. "Groceries on me, same as always."

  Martha looked at him with open disbelief. Living in New York meant you could handle most everything, but this kid truly scared her sometimes. "Tecca, three times now you asked me to pose as your mom... You pay better than my job... But I gotta ask..."

  Tecca, all of four feet all, and less than a quarter her age, glared up at her with sudden ferocity. "Mrs Cameron." He said with sudden ferocity. "I pay you good money not to ask. Or to notice, or to even think. You know the rules. You hold my hand when I walk in, you smile at whoever sits behind the desk, and you take my money when we're done. If you can't do that, there are thousands of women in this city that can. You're not the first one to get me past a front desk. I have no problem with someone else taking over; and how will you feed your own kids then? Do we have an understanding, mom?"

  Martha swallowed, oddly intimidated. "Yes." She stopped just short of calling him 'sir'.

  Tecca suddenly looked past Martha, as though there was something fascinating behind her. She turned to follow his gaze, and found nothing there. She turned back to Tecca.

  He had vanished.

  Shivering, she put his money in her pocket, and kept walking.

  ~oo00oo~

  Tecca walked slowly into the subway station, and boarded a train. A few minutes after the train started rushing down the tunnel, Tecca drew his Lostkind watch, checked the time; and moved out the back of the carriage. The space between carriages was open, and the air howled around him. Tecca glanced in both directions, making sure nobody was watching, and moved. He put his hands on the subway car in front of him, and his feet on the one behind. Yasi could make this climb with one hand, but he was still too small to reach without pressure-walking his way up.

  On the roof of the train, he checked the subway map from memory, and started counting down in his head. Nobody in New York knew that at certain times of day, a narrow trapeze net was slung across this tunnel; just narrow enough to go unnoticed by
the passing trains. Tecca picked his moment, and pushed off the train, leaping out into the dark. The net caught him, and had stretch in it enough to catch him neatly. Unhurt, he waited until the train raced by, and rolled off the net, into the tunnel. He had another five minutes until the next one rolled by.

  Wandering down the lonely deserted path, he kept walking till he found the glowing insignia, painted over the subway grime. He felt around till he found the latch, and opened the passage into the Labyrinth.

  ~oo00oo~

  There were no lights in the Labyrinth. It was meant to confuse and misdirect anyone who found a way into its walls. Tecca had the route drilled into him over and over; and the walls were worn smooth by the gentle touches of a thousand Lostkind going in and out from memory.

  Tecca was halfway through when he heard the sound of breathing and froze.

  "Hello?" A voice called out from the labyrinth.

  Tecca sighed. "Kamy? That you?"

  "Tecca!" The girl called back in relief. "Help!"

  Wotcha had taught Tecca well, and the boy was at home in the dark by now. He found his way to her and caught her hand. The girl squawked in surprise, but clung to his hand tightly, more scared of the dark than of anything else.

  "Shh." Tecca warned her. "Don't be afraid, Kamy. I'll get you home safe. I'm right here. There's nothing to be afraid of in the dark. Nothing that wouldn't be there in the light."

  Kamy quieted. "My lantern stopped working after... I wanted… I thought, since it was daytime Above, I should be able to…"

  "I know. I won't tell the Shinobi, but they're right. You're still too young to come up alone."

  Kamy sniffed. "I'm almost five."

  "We have a word for ‘almost five.'" Tecca said imperiously. "Four."