by HDA Roberts
She smiled at me and hugged me again.
"I think that’s the last of them, Ma'am," said a deep (and unnecessarily manly) voice that I recognised as belonging to Samuel Thompson, formerly a major in the British Army and now Kandi's Chief of Global Operations. He was a very smart, very tough man, in his late forties. He was tall and muscular, as lithe as a gymnast in the torso and legs, but built like a professional wrestler around the shoulders and arms. He wore black fatigues covered by Kevlar armour, complete with helmet and held a very nasty-looking rifle in his hands.
"Thank you, Sam; your response was perfect," Kandi said, standing and switching back to her Carol persona after her brief lapse. I stood as well and shook hands with the major.
"That was some great work, Mister Thompson," I agreed.
I wasn’t too happy about all the dead people, but far better them than Kandi, quite frankly, and what else were the mercenaries supposed to do?
“Oh,” I continued, “three of them survived, would you be so kind as to make sure that your men don’t shoot them? They might have useful information.”
He nodded and turned to give orders. Two teams of ten jogged out and started shackling the surviving Vampires. I could hear sirens in the distance and quickly pulled out my phone to call the SCA before someone did something stupid like shoot at one of Kandi’s people.
Pascoe (that fellow who’d come to clean up the mess I’d made at the University) showed up, I kid you not, within fifteen seconds of my uttering the words ‘Vampire-mercenary shootout’ to one of the SCA emergency dispatchers. He came with five other agents, who then spread out to catch the armed response units before they could storm anything.
I largely left him to it, using the time to check in with Tethys and let her know that Kandi was alright. She told me that my parents were just fine, too, catching up with Des. She didn’t actually say it, but the implication was that they had largely forgotten all about me. That reassured me... but also made me a little sad. I thought about calling Cassandra, but I knew that there was going to be a reckoning there for leaving without her, and I wasn't eager to hasten it.
That left me with nothing to do but think as I watched the cleanup, and I found my conclusions terribly worrying. Were it not for luck and the Vampires’ lack of knowledge about the fighting strength of Kandi’ company, she may well have been taken. And don’t think it was lost on me that this attack had happened simultaneously with the attempt on my parents.
They had struck at two high-value targets at the same time, likely with the knowledge that I would arrive to help one of them, and quite content to sacrifice that team as long as the other succeeded. The plan was utterly callous and ruthless, but also horribly clever, and had come far too close to succeeding. If they’d only timed things a little better, planned just a tiny bit more carefully...
I shuddered.
I could have lost half the people I loved in a single afternoon.
That made me angry in a way that I hadn’t really felt before. They hadn’t come after me; they hadn’t tried to kill me. The Aurelia gone after my family, my friends; people who’d never harmed them and never would have.
My fists clenched as my thoughts turned darker. I was going to make them pay for this, and I was going to make it hurt...
"Thinking dark thoughts?" Kandi asked, coming over to tuck herself under my arm.
I blinked, coming back to myself. That had been an ugly spiral.
"Somewhat," I confessed.
"It's a sexy look on you."
I chuckled.
"But that's a better one," she said, leaning her head against mine.
"This was almost a very bad day," I said softly. I explained what had happened in Mexico, and Kandi blanched.
"But everything's fine," she said. "We're all okay."
"But what about next time? What if I'm too late?"
"Well, not that I suppose I need to tell you this, bearing in mind that rather... determined look on your face, but I really think that squashing them before there is a next time is rather the way to go."
I nodded, and was about to reply with some of my (increasingly graphic) ideas on how to do that, when Pascoe came over to take my statement. Kandi leant him an office and he was there for an hour asking questions and writing things down before taking the wreckage, the bodies and the Vampires away, leaving the plaza only slightly the worse for wear.
Chapter 17
I waited with Kandi until she’d squared everything at the company away, and then I Portalled us both back to Blackhold, along with her Wardens.
As soon as we were back on safe ground, Kandi went off to find Tethys and I sat down on the nearest convenient bench with my head in my hands. I noticed that the front doors had been repaired and smiled a little, making a mental note to thank Mira later (they shimmered with her energy signature), those doors really were irreplaceable.
As I sat there in my front hall, I had a good, long think. I considered the whole situation, and what this escalation likely meant for my future, for my family's future... and I didn't like where we were probably going to end up. If they'd go after Kandi, and they'd go after my parents, they could go after anyone I was attached to, any one of my friends or allies.
The plan we had to stop the Aurelia was going to take time, and if things were going to progress like this, then that could cost lives. I needed to throw them off their game now, force them to consolidate and retreat so that Tethys and Price could finish getting all our ducks in a row safely.
The trick was to come up with something that would throw them off balance without interfering with our larger plan. Ideally, I would do something that could even speed that plan along...
My thoughts were interrupted when Cassandra sat down next to me and touched my shoulder in an intimate, sweet gesture... which caused me to clench up tighter than a scallop in a pressure cooker.
There were many ways that Cassandra showed affection. Generally, they hurt, except in very special circumstances. When she touched me like that, I knew that I was in very, very big trouble.
"Hi Cassie," I said, my voice trembling a little.
"Hello Mathew," she said in a soft, gentle tone of voice that instilled a deep dread into my very soul.
I cringed.
"I think that it's important to note..." I started, but trailed off as I saw the perfectly soft expression on her face. It was the kind of expression one has for a favourite brother, a treasured friend.
I felt chills go up and down my spine.
"This is going to hurt, isn't it?" I squeaked.
She nodded very slowly.
"First though," she pulled my chin over and kissed my cheek, "Good job for saving Kandi."
"Tha-"
Thump!
"Owww!" I squealed, trying to make a break for it, only to find my arm in an iron grip.
"That's for running off without me when you knew that people were out to kill you," she said, still using in that awful, sweet voice.
Thwack!
Another less than manly sound came out of me as she smacked exactly the same spot on my upper arm. On the plus side, the whole arm went numb, so the third one wouldn't hurt so much... I hoped.
"And that's for calling Tethys instead of me when you were safe."
"I get it, I get it! I'll never do it again! I thought you'd yell- sorry, sorry!" that last when she raised her fist again.
"Have we learned our lesson?" she asked, going back to her normal tone.
I nodded, vigorously.
"Good. Now, I saw your plotting face, why don't you tell me what lunacy you've got planned to solve all this."
"Ah, so that's why you let me have so long before the swatting."
"That, and I wanted you to sweat a little. You did, right?" she asked, turning an evil eye on me.
I nodded again. "Yes, Ma'am."
"Good, now spill. I can not have this going on."
"My initial thought was to tell the others and just let them deal with it, b
ut..."
"But then they'd kill them all, and your girly feelings couldn't take it, go on."
"You know, I'm half-tempted to hire a human resources person so I can report this sort of harassment."
She smiled again, and I immediately regretted my joke.
"First, with the sheer amount of time you spend tickling one girl or another around here, you'd suffer far more than I would; second, Tethys would just seduce her, making the whole thing moot and third... is threatening your favourite Warden really the path you want to meander down in this moment?" she said, raising her fist again, making me flinch.
"No Ma'am."
"Good boy," she said, and then she punched my arm anyway!
“Why?!”
"That was for girlie flinching. Now, as you were saying?"
"Please stop hitting me?"
"No, the other thing."
I sighed and told her what I had in mind. Her face broke into an evil smile.
"I love it. I worry about your mental health, bearing in mind how... sick your plan is... but I love it."
"And you don't mind that I'll be wandering around on my own?"
"Just this once, no."
I snorted and she took my hand.
"Sneaky little weasel," she said, just for form's sake.
"Please, you love me that way."
"Shut up. You are a blight on my existence."
She said these things, and then ruined them by hugging me. That was one very confused woman...
I found my parents and Des in the drawing room, chatting away happily. Mother and Father were more relaxed and happy than I'd seen them since long before my brother had cracked his nut.
I watched them from the doorway for a while, just soaking up the simple warmth of the scene. Eventually my father noticed I was there and smiled at me; so did Mother, but they were too engrossed in catching up with Des (and making plans for his future) to really notice me.
As I had a minute when nobody was looking, I took the opportunity to have a good poke around in Des’ head, just to make sure everything was as it should be.
And, incidentally, wow!
Myrddin's work was... art; there's no other way to describe it. You'd never realise that Des' mind had been a shattered mess if you didn't know what you were looking for. I'd seen what it was like in there before, and it had been a wasteland of broken personality parts grinding against one another, oozing psychosis, with only the barest resemblance to a working psyche.
Now... his mind was fully functional. Everything was exactly where it was supposed to be. His emotional control was even better than mine, somehow; everything completely even and perfectly steady. Likewise, his thoughts were controlled and solid, his focus almost frighteningly sharp, directed at the conversation he was having and nothing else. It was like his mind had been tidied up and even improved.
It was little short of a miracle. I'd been told, categorically, that this sort of reconstructive Telepathy was impossible. Nobody was supposed to be able to identify which of the shards in my brother’s mind did what with enough precision to know what to pick out and what to discard. He wasn't supposed to be able to get better, ever. The best he’d been able to hope for was some sort of behavioural rehabilitation, and that was extremely iffy.
And yet, here he was; whole and him again.
I looked deeper into the reconstruction, trying to gain some sort of insight into Myrddin's methods, but what he'd done was beyond me, essentially seamless. I couldn’t have done that. Nobody should have been able to do that. But then, Myrddin had been the Primal of the Mind, before he’d become anything else. Telepathy was his power; the thing he was the best at. He was able to mould mental architecture like I could manipulate Shadows.
I wasn’t going to do any sort of Telepathic interrogation, but I did do a thorough sweep for any constructs that might have been left behind, anything that might be necessary to keeping Des sane, but there was nothing. The restoration had been total.
When I was happy that all was well, I texted Hopkins and Kron. I gave them an update of what had been going on since Des had come back and asked them to come have a word when they had a moment. Kron was the best Telepath I knew (well, second best, now!) and Hopkins was who I bounced my ideas off, something I desperately needed, right then.
With my immediate fears laid to rest, I focussed on the conversation (which I still hadn't been included in, by the way).
"You can't be serious, Desmond! Duelling is not a respectable career!" Mother said.
"But it is a career I can do without A-Levels," Des retorted. "And I am not going back to school to be gawked at. Plus, having been insane for eighteen months could actually be helpful to a reputation on the professional duelling circuit."
Well... he actually had a point there.
And, from a protective brother’s perspective, Duelling was essentially the safest career in the world. More accountants died on the job than Duellists. The safety gear in a duelling ring was so effective that it was essentially impossible to injure someone by accident (a certain Death Magician of my acquaintance had found a way to do it deliberately, but she was a special case).
"Mathew, talk sense into your brother!"
Oh now I was to be included?
"Actually, one can make a very good career of duelling these days," I said. "Professionals can make high six figures a year, even in the Wizard Circuits. Des has the mental agility to make a go of it, and I even have a few connections. Most importantly, he'd be safe."
Mother frowned and tapped her lip.
"Let's face it," I added. "Des was never going to enjoy the relative rigidity of a higher education. This would essentially be vocational training, and if he decides to do it right, he could even join the Olympic Team."
That was a pipedream if ever there was one. Des had all the subtlety of a hammer dropped on a box of eggs, but it was the sort of thing a mother liked to hear.
"Olympic Duelling?" my father asked. "Is that a thing?"
"Against my objections, but yes."
"Why against your objections?" Mother asked. "Is it dangerous?"
"No, nothing like that, I'm just a Magical snob."
"Finally admitted it," Des said with a smile.
I stuck out my tongue, which just made him smile wider.
"I will admit that the Olympics have brought a certain respectability to the sport that wasn't there before," I replied. “I still don’t like it, though.”
The idea of two Magicians hurling Spells at each other for the amusement of a baying crowd still appalled me, but the attraction of the pageantry and spectacle really helped to move Magicians out of the margins and into the mainstream. It helped stop people being afraid of us. Duelling was as essential, in its way, to modern society as the SCA or even the Archons, though none of us liked to admit that.
I did my best to explain this to my parents, though I threw a slightly better light on it for their sake, making it out to be even more crucial work than it was, and they seemed to be feeling better about the whole thing by the time I was done.
"And you'll train him," Mother said, her tone of voice making it clear that she was not asking.
"Of course," I replied anyway.
Though it wasn't like I hadn't tried over the years (as much as I could while concealing my own powers). Unfortunately, trying to teach complex Spellwork to my brother was like trying to hammer jelly to the wall: pointless and messy.
Des looked pleased, though, and my parents looked satisfied and relaxed; things were looking up.
But I still had bad news to deliver.
"About what happened today..." I started.
All three heads turned towards me and the frowns reappeared, with interest. I hated that I’d done that.
What followed was not a pleasant conversation, let me tell you. You see, I'd never entirely got around to telling my parents that Crystal was a Vampire. I’d been lucky (if you could call it that) that they’d been away for so much of the last nine
months and simply hadn’t met her. They’d known I had a girlfriend, and that I was serious about her; they’d seen pictures, but that was it.
They weren’t surprised that we’d broken up. With my track record, I can’t blame them, but they could at least have pretended! The real sticking point of the conversation came when I had to explain to them exactly how Crystal and I broke up and how that connected to our current... predicament.
"I'm sorry, what was that last part?" Father asked me.
"Well, there was a Portal to a different reality," I explained, "and Vallan was powering it with his own life force-"
"Not that! The other part! You... you killed a man?" Mother asked, going white.
"Yes," I said softly. No way to get around that.
My mother opened her mouth, I was fairly certain I was about to get both barrels, but then my father took her hand and she paused.
"Before you say what you're about to say, perhaps you should ask our son what would have happened if he hadn't done what he did?"
My father had always been clever.
Mother's eyes narrowed, but she didn't start shouting. She turned to me instead, "Well?" she snapped.
"He would have died within the next thirty to forty seconds," I said, only right then internalising that fact for myself, which was actually a load off my conscience. "In those forty seconds, an Entity of nearly incalculable power would have managed to get to the Dimensional Gate and keep it open, likely expanding it until it could get through, and maybe bring others with it."
"And what would have happened then?" Father asked, squeezing my mother’s hand a little more tightly.
"Oh, the rest of the Archons would probably have arrived, and we would have stopped it somehow, but... well, we might have lost Paris before we did, maybe a bit more."
"P-P-Paris?" my mother stuttered.
I nodded.
"It was that bad?"
I nodded again.
"I'd have been fine, though," I said, trying to lighten the mood a little.
It didn't work.
"I knew you were dealing with a lot, Matty, but I didn't know..."
Because you never asked, I didn't say, but I wanted to.
"That's not my typical day, if that makes a difference."