by Amy Sumida
“It goes from there,” Torrent pointed, then walked forward, as if he were tracing the line, “to there, to there... oh, here we go,” he dove into a pile of rubble, and found a telephone. “Ah, this doesn't look good,” he held the phone up for Hachiman to see. On the bottom of the black box was a very small piece of metal.
“Keisatsu,” Hachiman grimaced, and yanked the bug off the phone. “The last thing we need right now is police interference,” he looked over to Torrent. “You've done me a service, Internet God.”
“Oh, no biggie,” Torrent beamed at Hachiman.
“It is big,” Hachiman frowned.
“Okay,” Torrent gulped.
“I owe you a favor,” Hachiman held his hand out to Torrent.
“Oh, thanks,” Torrent shook Hachiman's hand while Kirill and I gaped at them. “Maybe you could-”
“Torrent,” I interrupted him before he gave Hachiman an easy out. “I think we should get ready.”
“Oh, sure, but I was just going to-”
“Torrent!” Trevor growled.
“Alright,” he trudged over to us.
“He owes you big,” Trevor whispered to Torrent. “Don't throw that kind of favor away on a tour of Tokyo.”
“Oh,” Torrent blinked. “Oh!”
“Yes,” I nodded.
“Okay then,” Torrent cleared his throat, and looked back over at Hachiman. “I'll get your number from Vervain.”
“My card,” Hachiman handed Torrent a little, white card.
“Sweet!” Torrent smiled and tucked the card into his pocket.
“I think they traced in here,” I decided to get right to work.
I had picked up on the wolf scent as soon as we walked in, remembering it from before. I followed it out of the main room and into a hallway. The men entered behind me, including the gang of thugs Hachiman had assigned us.
“Yeah, they traced here,” I pointed to a spot on the tile floor. “Looks like we won't be needing your bodyguards, but thanks anyway.”
Hachiman said something to the men, and they split in two groups. One half went down to one end of the hallway, and stood guard where it bent around a corner. The other group went to the end of the hall behind us, guarding a door there.
“I guess I was wrong,” I shrugged. “Okay, you two,” I said to my husbands, “wait here. Torrent and I will go check this out.”
“Nyet,” Kirill shook his head. “I go vith you.”
“Kirill, it'll be like fifteen minutes,” I said.
“Just take him,” Trevor sighed.
“He's never gone through the Inter Realm with us,” Torrent pointed out. “It can be unsettling.”
“The Inter Realm is unsettling?” Trevor asked.
“You can go into the Internet?” Hachiman asked.
“Yes,” Torrent said brightly.
“Amazing,” Hachiman blinked.
“Well, I'm partially made of Internet energy,” Torrent offered.
“The Aether is unsettling, and we'll have to go through it to follow their trail,” I answered Trevor's question while simultaneously stopping Torrent from telling Hachiman too much about his abilities.
“There's a lot of Inter Realm energy around us,” Torrent narrowed his stare on the empty air before him, “but not a lot actually going into the Aether. I'll have to pull some through, so we can follow the trail. Like when I connect-”
“Then I'd better put these on,” I pulled out Tlaloc's old goggles, and cut off Torrent again, this time with a pointed look. The boy could babble.
“Oh, sure,” Torrent got the message. No, let's not blab to the Yakuza God about our ability to connect the Internet to the God Realm.
The Aztec god, Tlaloc, had used his goggles to see further. He could peer across miles of terrain or look into a person's soul. From the spiritual to the physical, the goggles could be useful in several situations. I could even see trails of scent with them. My beast magic seemed to translate the odors into colors when I wore the goggles. I could see a lot of things when I wore them. I could even see the truth.
And I'd forgotten how beautiful the truth could be.
I must have looked funny, standing there with the thick, leather and glass goggles over my eyes, like some steampunk enthusiast, while I smiled and stared at my husbands. But they were both so special. Two princes.
Kirill looked much as he always did, except better. He seemed to have a larger presence under the goggle's glass, and it glowed with luminescence. Not only that, on top of his head he wore a simple, gold crown. It was how I'd discovered that Kirill was a prince, son of Tsar Alexander the Great, of Russia. Trevor didn't wear a crown, but he didn't need one. His wolf was majestic enough, towering over him like a ferocious gargoyle, ready to take down anything or anyone who stood in his way.
I smiled as I turned away from my husbands... and saw the reality of the world around me. It had been a long time since I'd walked the Inter Realm. Since I'd seen it through the goggles. If we had been in the God Realm, I may have caught a few glowing streams of it. But there, in the Human Realm, the Inter Realm was practically everywhere. I was already surrounded by it, a web of glowing, pulsing, Internet energy. But I couldn't enter one of those threads without Torrent or a computer. Since I needed Torrent to possibly unmake a god ward, should the trail lead into a god territory, Torrent was the better option. I turned to him and stopped short.
I'd been prepared for the sight of Torrent under Tlaloc's goggles. Torrent was the only god who'd been created instead of born. His creator was Iktomi, Spider God of the Lakota. He was also the first Internet God. Iktomi had combined Internet energy with his own god magic to form Torrent. When I'd first seen Torrent through the goggles, his body had been composed of streams of binary code. Glowing green lines of numbers formed the shapes of organs, arteries, and bones, brightening with each pulse of “blood” through his veins.
But Torrent had been changing.
When we'd first met, he'd been too perfect to exist. His skin was poreless like porcelain, his eyes as clear as glass. Torrent hated his appearance. He wanted to be real. I'd secretly labeled him Pinocchio. He seemed so much like the little wooden puppet who wanted to be a boy. But Torrent had surpassed his own dream of reality.
His skin was still perfect, but it was a human perfection, with pores and different shades of color to it. His eyes were opaque, a beautiful lime green, while his hair had darkened slightly from platinum white to a more realistic, pale blonde. Under the goggles however, I'd expected him to be the same as he was before. So silly of me really.
Torrent was still made up of code, but the code had changed from glaring green to gentle gold. Not only that, every pulse of his heart sent that golden light radiating outward, so that a halo formed around him. This true form was also larger than Torrent's physical body, looming over him as Trevor and Fenrir's wolves did with them. And the eyes that stared out of that ethereal body were powerful. It was the strong stare of a man who knew himself, and liked what he knew. There was confidence in his stance, and kindness as well.
“Torrent,” I whispered, leaning in to give him an impulsive hug.
“What's up, V?” Torrent asked.
“I'm just so happy for you,” I stroked his soft cheek. “Do you know that you've moved on completely? Your magic is no longer tainted by Iktomi.”
As I spoke, I realized the truth of it. I've always had a problem with just blurting out my thoughts. But with the goggles on, my thoughts were colored by absolute truth. Iktomi's magic was what had tinted Torrent's code that acid green. And the acid was gone now. Neutralized by Torrent's soul.
“What?” Torrent's mouth fell open. “You can see that?”
“Your entire being has changed,” I said. “You're gold now, and softer. Brighter and bigger. You have come into your own power.”
“Congrats, man,” Trevor said, but then he looked pointedly at me.
He was right. Hachiman was waiting behind us. We needed to get the Torr and V sh
ow on the road. But speaking of Hachiman... he was a white guy. A big, muscled white guy. But I guess that was to be expected. As I'd mentioned before to Shinno, they weren't actually Asians. They were Atlanteans.
“Do your thing, Torr,” I held my hand out to him, and resolutely looked away from Hachiman's Atlantean stare.
“I said I vas going too,” Kirill determinedly took my other hand.
“Fine,” I sighed, and nodded again to Torrent.
Torrent opened a thread of Inter Realm and I heard Kirill gasp. It was indeed something to behold. The entire world brightened, becoming crisp in that way pictures do when you up the sharpness level. Every item seemed to call out, offering up information on itself. Like a computer touchscreen, I knew I could access information on anything simply by touching it. Through the air, hell, through everything, ran colored cords of energy. Streams of information rushing along to destinations all over the world. Each color hinted at the type of information contained in the cord. For example, the green ones were most likely some kind of financial transaction. But we weren't interested in the zipping lines, we were only there for one path of energy, and it was dark.
“There,” I nodded to the ground since my hands were busy holding onto the men. There was a hazy line of black leading out of the hallway, straight up into the ceiling. It pulsed with purple bruises and putrid green hatred. Not a pretty trail at all. “Let's go.”
I pulled them along... right up to Trevor. He didn't seem to be able to see us anymore, but he frowned as we approached, like he could sense us, and then he stepped aside.
“They entered the Aether here,” I said.
This is where Torrent came in handy. With the goggles on, I could see the trail going through the Aether, but I couldn't follow it. I'd need to know exactly where the trail ended, and that was impossible. I could see where it went, even glimpse a hazy forest, but I couldn't see it clearly, nor was I able to figure out which forest it was. I needed to be able to give the Aether an exact name for the location I was headed to, or some detailed imagery to guide it. If I didn't, I could get lost within the Aether forever. No one wants that.
I could tell that the path hadn't crossed into the God Realm though, because the trail went out of the Aether without the barrier of a ward blocking it. So we wouldn't need Torrent to unmake a spell. But we would need him to create a tunnel of Inter Realm so that we could follow the wolves through the Aether, directly to that unknown forest.
Several of our god friends had taken to the new fad of joining the Inter Realm to their territories. They used it to watch television, make phone calls, or surf the Internet. These connections drew tubes of Internet energy through the Aether. Torrent could pull on those tubes and stretch them over to where we needed them. But there weren't any tunnels nearby, so Torrent had to create a brand new one.
Torr did so, pulling the Internet energy into his hands, and then pushing it out before him. Suddenly, a brighter path opened to us. A tunnel of foggy light which led into the Aether. The three of us stepped into it together, and the human world faded away. Around us, the walls thinned to a sheer glow, and we were able to view the Aether in all its dizzying glory. A normal trace would send me speeding through the Aether, and that was the way I preferred it. I hated having to stare at the clamoring conglomeration of images which made up the magical realm.
The Aether was a place of pure consciousness and power. It fed on energy which it siphoned from the gods passing through it, as well as the energy human witches sent into it when they connected with the Aether to cast spells. Those little bits of energy left visual representations of themselves behind. All around us scenes of desire, hatred, love, and loss bobbed like flotsam on the tide. Bits of memories extracted from travelers and intent extracted from spells.
“Don't look,” I said to Kirill, whose eyes were already widening.
“Okay,” he squeezed my hand and closed his eyes.
“Where's the trail?” Torrent asked me.
“There,” I nodded, and Torrent moved us in that direction.
I know it went pretty quickly, but it seemed like forever. By the time we exited the Aether, and then the Inter Realm, my hand was aching from Kirill clenching it so tightly.
“That'll teach ya to get pushy with me,” I teased Kirill as I pulled off the goggles, but he was already distracted again.
We were in a grassy field. Just a little one, enclosed on three sides by thick forest, and open to a river on the fourth. The river was wide, adding a crisp humidity to the air, to mingle with the forest's fragrance of pine and juniper. It was also freaking freezing. I had automatically adjusted my internal body temperature by using my fire magic, but it was cold enough that I'd overcompensated, and the air around me was starting to steam. The light crust of snow beneath my feet was melting. I turned it down a notch before I was left standing in a puddle.
“Zis place looks familiar,” Kirill frowned, not even noticing the cold or my response to it.
“Great, Google God,” I turned to Torrent, “where are we?”
Torrent's stare went unfocused as he searched the Internet for information on our location. Then he looked to Kirill in surprise. Not me, Kirill.
“We're in Latvia, a town called Sigulda,” Torrent said.
“Latvia,” Kirill smiled wistfully. “It's very near Russia.”
“Yes, I know,” Torrent said, then blushed when he realized Kirill had been talking to me.
“Does it look similar?” I asked as I turned and scanned our surroundings once more.
“Very,” Kirill breathed deep. “Even smells same.”
“Da, it's good,” I teased him, and then scowled when I saw the footprints leading away from us. Correction, paw prints. “Look, they left us an even better trail.”
I huddled in my coat and started to follow it, but Kirill caught my arm and pulled me back.
“Vhat are you doing?” Kirill asked.
“Guys?” Torrent tried to interrupt.
“Following the trail,” I said as if it were obvious.
“Um, guys?”
“Nyet,” Kirill slashed his hand down. “See? Zis is vhy I came. Ve found end, now ve go. Fenrir can return vith Froekn or Hachiman can come back vith Yakuza.”
“But I want to make sure this is the end,” I whined. “What if they traced again in the forest?”
“Guys?” Torrent whined urgently.
“Zen put goggles back on,” Kirill waved to the glasses in my hand.
“Fine,” I huffed and pulled them back on. “Oh crap.”
“Vhat?” Kirill asked as Torrent's eyes went wide. “Never mind, I smell zem.”
“I was trying to tell you,” Torrent babbled. “Those tracks couldn't be part of the original trail because that was days old. This is a new trail. Which means that the wolves came to this spot recently. Very recently.”
All around us, the forest was coming alive with wolves. They had crept up while we were arguing, and now they were nearly upon us. I swept off the goggles, stuffed them back into my pocket, and grabbed both of the men by their hands. We were just about to trace away, when a wolf leapt at Kirill and tore him from my grasp
“Kirill!” I screamed as another took down Torrent.
Kirill was snarling, savagely fighting his opponent, and the wolf looked a bit shocked to find himself on the losing side of a rapidly ending battle. Then two more added their weight to the mix. Then another, and another. It took six wolves to hold Kirill down, and it would have taken even more if I'd been allowed to help him. But as the men struggled (Torrent took on three himself), I was reined in by a circle of them. Then I realized why it was so difficult for the wolves to bring down the men; they weren't trying to kill us.
“Stop fighting them!” I shouted to Kirill and Torrent. “They're just trying to restrain you.”
Kirill snarled, but settled, while Torrent immediately held his hands out in surrender. Torrent wasn't one to let pride hinder his health. He was smart that way. As soon as th
e men calmed, the wolves backed off, till they were merely holding the men loosely with their teeth. I glared at the circle of wolves around me. They had known I wouldn't leave without the men. Or they had guessed. It was a good guess.
“Nicely spotted, Godhunter,” a woman with a thick accent, similar to Kirill's, came through the pack of wolves, and approached me.
“Who are you?” I asked.
She was tall and slender beneath her white, fur coat. Her honey-blonde hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail, emphasizing her delicate features. A pink flush spread over her cheeks, but other than that, her skin was nearly as pale as the fur. And her eyes were so familiar. A clear blue, much lighter than Kirill's, but still striking. I was certain I'd seen them before.
“I am Vejasmate,” she extended a slim hand to me.
“Oh, we're shaking?” I asked as I put my hand in hers. “Okay, sounds good. I'm all for keeping it civil. I'm Vervain, nice to meet you.”
“Yes, I know who you are, Ms. Lavine,” she nodded. “Do you know my name? Am I familiar to you?”
“A little around the eyes,” I narrowed my stare on her, and decided not to correct her on my surname. “But no, I don't recognize your name. Should I?”
“I suppose not,” she shrugged, but there was a glimmer of disappointment in those blue eyes. “These are my children,” she waved a hand to the wolves. “They are called the Vilkacis.”
“Hah!” Torrent pumped his fist triumphantly. “That was the group I mentioned.”
“Da, vell done,” Kirill rolled his eyes.
“Okay,” I glanced at Kirill and Torrent, to make sure they were also okay. “Do you wanna tell me why the Vilkacis are attacking the Yakuza?”
“To weaken the Froekn of course,” she shrugged. “To crumble their alliances.”
“Well the gig is up,” I smirked. “The Yakuza Gods know the Froekn aren't the wolves attacking their people.”
“I'm tired of the game anyway,” she shrugged.
I narrowed my eyes on her. “What did the Froekn do to you?”
Vejasmate sighed, “I don't think I should have to explain. He will know. Just tell him our names, Godhunter.”