Leviathan

by Erik Schubach

  She moved her hand back, then traced a finger along my fully healed collarbone teasingly. I shivered from her touch, but not because of the cold. She said, “Better,” before moving on to the scars. “These are from the pikes yesterday, from mother's overzealous guards?”

  I nodded and she shook her head. “Your healers did a terrible job.” And she healed one by trailing one of her sculpted ice nails across it.

  I shook my head. “I didn't go to Med-Tech. I'm a fast healer. The scars would be faded by tomorrow.”

  She smirked and almost purred as she healed the other. “That's not natural. Humans don't heal that fast.”

  I shrugged. “I do. Always have. Med-Tech has never said anything.”

  She nodded and said as she crouched and tapped my leg with a fingernail, and a frosty trail shot from where she touched to the synth-skin patch that just fell off when the ice reached it. She sucked in a hissing breath at the sight. “That, my dear Lieutenant, is because there isn't too much they can't heal in a day or two, so they never thought anything of it. But I assure you, it isn't natural. Untreated, a wound like this would take weeks to heal.” She blew a little kiss at the ugly wound and it healed up before my eyes and all the bruising with it.

  She made a dismissing wiggle of her fingers, and I hesitated, realizing I was practically naked in front of one of the most beautiful creatures I had ever laid eyes upon. I dressed quickly, hoping nobody saw the blush heating my skin. Most of the aches and pains were gone and I started to whisper, “Than...”

  Her eyes brightened in delighted anticipation as she licked her lips, but was disappointed when I caught myself and snapped my jaw shut. Yeah, brilliant Knith, just what you needed to do was thank a Fae and find yourself in their debt, possibly forever. Instead, I said, “You're a skilled healer, your mother would be proud.”

  She smirked. “You sure you aren't Fae? I know you aren't human, well as we know them, but you sure are cagey like one of us. I was going to have so much fun if you thanked me.”

  I rolled my eyes and asked, “You sure you're not crazy?”

  She smirked and said contemplatively, “No.”

  “I know I'm human, my DNA profile is recorded in my service jacket. Now can I ask...”

  She interrupted, “You just asked a question, my turn.”

  “That wasn't meant to...”

  “A question asked and answered, it was our bargain.”

  “Damn Fae games.”

  She giggled at that then asked, “How did you get injured last night?”

  I sighed and told her everything just to gauge her reaction. I surely wasn't anticipating what I saw. The whole time I spoke of it, her eyes were wide with excitement and anticipation, then disappointment when I told her I left the brothel. And then she looked enraged when I shared the call and subsequent attack.

  I asked, “Do you know something?”

  “Yes.” Doh!

  She was having fun with this and I kicked myself for my phrasing. “Why were you pursuing that line of questioning at the brothel?” She seemed to be working around something.

  So I told her about what I learned about her and Lord Sindri's parallel work, using what I learned after her questions to me about Equilibrium. And how her comment about an anomaly in the pattern lead me to the Woodling horn. Then that I remembered Mac mentioning the Fae Lord who worked at the brothel for sexual kicks and wondered if perhaps he was using Woodling horn to enhance the experience for his clients.

  When I stopped there she looked immensely disappointed as she said, “You're quite intuitive.”

  I nodded and went back to something that had been bothering me. I know I should have been using my questions to investigate the case, but I found myself asking, “What specifically do you mean when you say you know I'm not exactly human?”

  “Good wording.”

  “I learned from the best.” I liked our banter. It felt like flirting to me.

  She asked as she flicked her finger, causing the lift to start moving again. “Are you sure you want me to answer here? You'll probably want to sit down for it. I'm sure you know part of it already since you researched my work.”

  Mother whispered in my ear, “Be careful, Knith.”

  I looked at Rory and she looked deadly serious for the first time since I met her. I swallowed and wondered if I really wanted to know. I did. So I said, “I can get us a booth at the cafe just down the way.”

  She smiled and said, “Anonymity in a crowd, speaking in private in public. I love the duality of it.”

  When the lift doors opened she said to the guards, “Go back to the skiff-glider. We will be there in a bit.”

  The female guard said, “But my Lady.”

  Rory held a hand up and looked away as she said, “Knith here has already bested you two in mere moments, do you truly believe you can protect me better than her?”

  They didn't answer, just bowed and marched off in the opposite direction. She turned to watch them go until they slid into a gleaming white manta ray shaped luxury sport skiff that was hovering by the curb. Then she looked around as if seeing the ring for the very first time. Hells, maybe she's never been down-ring this far before.

  But instead, she confided, “I've never had privacy before. I've always had my personal guard and this... feels liberating.” She beamed a smile at me that I would have happily bowed down to to worship, no glamour thrall whammy needed. I wanted to make her smile like that always.

  I shook my head and cleared my thoughts as she clasped my arm between her hands and said, “Shall we? I've never eaten at a cafe before either.”

  All eyes were on us, and I'm sure we were the cause of a minor three-vehicle fender bender as we walked. It wasn't every day you saw a Fae Lady walking the streets of Irontown... and she was on my arm. Gods, I prayed she didn't wind up being the killer, it would crush the crush that I hadn't noticed had just gotten bigger.

  We walked into the crowded cafe, Stacks, which I'm sure is either named that for the stacks of the ship, or for the stacks of pancakes that were the specialty there. The place went silent, the wide-eyed patrons and staff just staring at the woman on my arm. She looked around then sat demurely on the orange plastic waiting benches. I squeaked out to the waitress at the hostess pedestal, “Two.”

  A Goblin popped up, as if on springs, from a booth and rushed out, “The Lady can have our booth.” Her Leprechaun companion stood, winding up no taller than he had been when sitting, and bowed graciously. “But of course, my Lady.”

  Rory stood back up and inclined her head. “That's very gracious of you.”

  The place went back into motion as everyone started talking while looking at us. A server almost ran over to bus and wipe down the table, as the young couple who gave it up, moved to the counter seats.

  When we sat, I waved off the menus and said, “Two Stack Plates.” The woman almost ran off to put the order in. Then I asked quietly, “As you were saying?”

  She shrugged and said, “The short answer is that I know you aren't exactly human because, well, because I made you. The long answer is going to take a while.”

  I was trying to process what she said, even though I already suspected something like it since I knew about me being the only embryo to come out of her tests. I said in a whisper, “I'm not going anywhere.”

  She smiled nervously then inclined her head. “Have you never questioned why you are a little faster, stronger, and have better senses than other Humans?”

  “Enforcer training.”

  She ignored me and added, “Or why you heal so much faster... and why you look so young?”

  I shrugged, trying to reason. “Good genes?”

  She barked out a silvery peal of laughter and said, “I'd say so since I sequenced them myself.”

  Then she looked me straight in the eye and asked with no emotion in her tone, “Or why you are partially immune to magic?”

  I looked around then whisp
ered, “You're talking crazy now. Nobody is immune to magic.”

  She sighed and said, “Then explain how I watched you step through a ward, my ward, that only a child born of my Queen could pass. Then you saw past the most powerful of don't look here spells to incapacitate my guard and beat my other guard to the draw.”

  She continued as my jaw worked soundlessly, “Then I witnessed you break the strongest binding spell cast by Queen Mab herself, and shake off her thrall which no human, let alone no person in history has done.”

  I sputtered out the obvious, “I was wearing my Scatter Armor.”

  She smirked at that. “Yes, with your helmet open the whole time, making you vulnerable. And do you believe that Scatter Armor charmed by a lesser Fae Lord or Lady could stop my or my mother's magic?” She pointed at me. “And explain how I've watched my mother's curse on you fade just in the hour I've been with you today.”

  What? I took off my gauntlets and reached up to touch my jaw, which was half flesh now. I hadn't even noticed. I whispered to her, “We need to talk to her about this, it is defective, I haven't said anything about her and her word, yet it keeps spreading if I mention she's a bitch or any other disparaging... damn it!” I felt the ice spread again.

  She chuckled and looked at me as if she wasn't seeing me, but the web-work of magic her mother had spread through my body with her kiss. “Ah, so that's how she's preventing it from sloughing off of you. She has it reasserting itself on some sort of cue, likely any resentment you have of her. Otherwise, it would have faded away by now. Magic can't seem to stick to you for long before your body rejects it.”

  Then she grabbed my hand between hers and said in wonder, “Don't you see? My greatest failure is my biggest success. I didn't create a half-Fae Changeling like I had attempted, by infusing the genetic material used to inseminate the egg with Fae magic at the moment of conception. Instead I created... you. The next evolution of Human, partially immune to magic, and if my suspicions are correct, partially immortal by the slowing of your aging. Which means by studying this, I can see where I went wrong and save my people.”

  “Wait what? Evolution of...”

  She whispered in excitement, “May I have your permission to take a tissue sample.” She was digging in a pouch on her gown.

  “What? No!” She looked supremely disappointed as I tried to process everything in shock. I whispered to myself absently as I shook my head, “Fuck me sideways.”

  She smiled broadly at that and stood in the middle of the cafe and said with twinkling eyes, “If that is your price for our bargain then I can think of many less pleasant manners in which to obtain a sample.”

  I almost tipped the table over as I stood so fast to grab her hand while she started to slide her gown down over her shoulders. I blurted in a loud whisper, “What are you doing? You can't do that here!” I knew Fae had no hangups about sex, and were highly sexual creatures, but did they actually have no qualms with doing it in public? In front of other people?

  I pulled her to our seats and leaned in to whisper, “It's just a figure of speech. No, I will not be used like a lab animal.”

  She cocked a sculpted brow. “Are you sure? It would be quite enjoyable, I assure you.”

  “Yes, I'm quite sure. You...”

  The waitress arrived with our plates, stacked high with fluffy pancakes, fresh syrup, and scrambled eggs with ham beside mine, a rice and vegetable medley on her plate beside hers. I balked. I forgot that greater Fae did not eat meat, I was glad the waitress had more sense than me.

  I thanked her and she scurried off after placing orange juice and water on the table.

  Our conversation on hold, I spent the meal wishing I was one of those pancakes being lifted to her lips. Hells, now she had sex on my mind. It was a very uncomfortable yet arousing meal. Her sly smirk told me she knew what was going through my head.

  Graz landed on my shoulder, startling me, then zipped to my plate to dip her hand in the syrup and lick it off her hand. “Hiya, Knith, Mother told me you were here and... Mab's tits!”

  She had just realized who I was with and as fast as she could drop, she was almost laying on the table arms in front of her in supplication while she squeaked out in adoration and terror, “Winter Maiden, my apologies, I didn't see you there.”

  Then she was squeaking shrilly as she looked at the ceiling, “Mother! You could at least have warned me.”

  Mother responded in a tinny, mechanical voice from a speaker above the table, “It was not specified that additional data was required.”

  Rory squatted, putting her chin on the table to put herself at Graz's level. “Come now brave Graz, are we not beyond this now? We are friends until such time our girl here decides whether or not she's going to arrest me.”

  Graz slowly stood, straightened her tunic, then sighed in relief, asking as she pointed at a strawberry that was sitting on Rory's plate, “You gonna eat that?”

  Now I sighed. “Graz.”

  She put her hands on her hips obstinately and buzzed up to hover in front of my nose. “What? It was just a question, sheesh, you act like I was pilfering nano-chips from override boxes or something.”

  I sputtered, “That's what you were off doing? Pilfering nano-chips from override boxes?”

  “Umm... no?”

  A chiming chuckle interrupted as Rory said, “Please, help yourself, valiant Sprite.”

  I swear that Graz hit that strawberry like an arrow, then she sat on the table with it in her lap as she looked up at Rory adoringly while she ate. I prompted, “Aren't you mated?”

  “Yeah, but I'd pollinate with...”

  “Graz!”

  “Oh yeah. No. Yes, I'm a mated tri, but she's pretty, and a princess. Don't mind me, you two Bigs talk.”

  I exhaled and tried to get back on track. Before I forgot, I sent a message Control to dispatch a unit to watch the corridors around the Underhill to follow Sin when he left, since we couldn't seem to rely on electronic surveillance of him. He seemed to be able to move around the Leviathan with impunity.

  Mother whispered in my ear, “I've already sent the request. And I'm broadening surveillance camera and scanner coverage outside to watch the bulkhead entrances from afar in case he is using localized magic like the Sanctum spell to affect the ones in his immediate vicinity.”

  I smiled and thought a thank you to her. She seemed chirpy at that then added in her whisper, “I've tracked the surveillance malfunctions around the times of the murders and am finding a moving pattern of disturbances. So I'm going through terabytes of external footage and scans to see if we can catch him in the areas of the malfunctions.”

  On a virtual keyboard, I typed, “Very nice. You've got good instincts for this, Mother. You'd make a great Enforcer.” Then added with a thought, “Why are you whispering?”

  She whispered back, “I don't want 'her' to hear me.”

  Rory said softly to us as she tapped the point of one ear, “I can hear you, Mother.”

  Mother all but powered down at that. Like she was panicking. I wondered why she hadn't just answered in my head-space using the new gear, instead of whispering, and she grumped in my head, “I forgot, sue me.” I snorted.

  The Fae looked overly interested as she asked, “How do you get her to sound so... engaging? And emoting. Custom interface patch? Did you program it?”

  I cocked an eyebrow and said smugly, “That is three questions... so I'll answer for three of my own. I don't. No. And no.”

  This had her giggling and saying as she laid an impossibly soft but somehow powerful hand on mine, “Oh Knith, I do so love playing this game with you. Again, you would make a spectacular Fae.”

  Sighing I thought, then said, “I just have to figure out how to ask why you indicated a child of Oberon could get in your lab, and why you wanted me to know about the research you and Lord Sindri were doing in separate courts on the...”

  I froze. Everything clicked into place,
what everyone had been trying to point me to, even the scary oracle in the Underhill. A child of Oberon... the rumors of Oberon's infidelity before his disappearance. The sins of the father. “Space me naked! Sindri is Oberon's illegitimate son!? That's why no house is indicated for him even though he was in the Summer Court. And how he could get into your lab to take your surgical implements.”

  Aurora shouted as she half stood, “Yes! Mab's tits! You finally pieced it together!”

  She looked around at the cafe when everyone stopped to look at her. She chuckled nervously, smoothed out her gown and said, “Sorry all, I just got some exciting news. Finish your meals.” Then she sat, covering her face with her hands in mortification.

  She mumbled something about not comporting herself like a royal, then she looked up and gave me a cute toothy grin. “Now that you know, I can finally talk to you about it without this gods be damned gaes stopping me.”

  Ah! So it was a gaes. Then instead of asking about that, my brow furrowed in thought as I asked myself, “But why would Sin take your scalpel?”

  Graz raised a hand as she worked on stuffing as much strawberry in her mouth as she could.

  I had to grin at the sight as I asked, “Yes, oh winged one?”

  She said with her mouth full as she pointed at the Princess, “To frame her.”

  I was already on that line of thinking. Of course. In a crime scene, well scenes, devoid of any evidence or DNA, how does someone so careful 'accidentally' leave the murder weapon behind? The answer is that they don't. It was planted there deliberately to point everything at Mab's daughter. Hmm, not only that but at Oberon's only legitimate child while in wedlock.

  Turning to Rory, I had to ask, “Does Lord Sindri hold any animosity toward you?”

  She snorted. “Oh heavens yes, the reprehensible little toad hates me with the heat of a thousand suns. The feeling is mutual.”

  I asked, “Why?”

  She cocked her head and squinted one eye cutely. “I've lost track of how many questions that is, so I'll answer. He says that I have what is rightfully his. A place in the Winter Court, a title, the Winter Maiden. A place in the line of succession to the throne. All because I was born to the Queen and King of Winter, as if I had any say in it. And he and the other twelve children born to the Summer Queen and Oberon are untitled Lords and Ladies since they were not wed.”