by Tom Early
“I brought them here to help them with projects they are researching,” Aiden said quickly, putting himself between us and her. Considering how terrifying his mom was, I gave him a couple points for that. “There are some books I thought you might possess that the university does not, so I brought them here. This is my house too, after all, and when last I checked doing so was not forbidden.” He said the last part almost as a challenge, and the way he set his feet apart made it even more of one. He was bracing himself for a fight.
“My dear son,” Caterina murmured, “being so considerate and kind. I thought I had taught you better.”
Aiden flinched. “You sent me away to learn what it is to lead,” he replied, voice only a little shaken. “Treating your allies well is one of the first lessons they taught me, even if it took years for me to truly accept that not everything has to be run through fear as you do.”
Caterina settled her attention squarely on Aiden. Her gaze was piercing, and I hoped Aiden was able to hold up under it. I really didn’t like our chances otherwise. Aiden was trembling slightly, though from fear or something else, I wasn’t sure. She tilted her head, and then Aiden did the same. Finally, as though they had finished some unspoken conversation, Caterina sighed lightly, and her overwhelming presence retreated somewhat. “Very well,” she said calmly. “I trust you, Aiden. But do not let these two distract you from your studies for long.” She turned and walked out of the room, completely at ease, like she hadn’t just thrown her metaphorical weight around and won handily.
As soon as the door closed behind her, Aiden’s shoulders sagged and he let out a sigh of relief. “Well,” he said, his voice tired, “that went about as well as could be expected.” He looked at Sam. “Are you all right?”
Sam coughed, then winced. “No,” she rasped, “but I could be a hell of a lot worse right now. Your mom’s a bitch, just so you know.”
“I imagine I had to get it from somewhere,” Aiden said, glancing at the floor. “You have called me worse, after all.”
“You’re still a dick, Aiden,” Sam said, and then she managed a little smile. “But thanks for stepping in. I noticed.”
“I’m impressed she didn’t just flatten you,” I said. “I wouldn’t have been able to talk back to my mom like that, and she isn’t even magical.”
“Fortunately, Mother appreciates acts of independence and power most of the time,” Aiden replied only a little shakily, “though that was perhaps pushing it a little. But I meant what I said. Despite how I may have acted in the past, I do believe that there are better ways to lead than through fear.” I shook my head. The fucker actually managed to sound regal while saying stuff like that. “Now,” Aiden continued, “have either of you found what you were looking for?”
Sam and I glanced at each other. “I’ll go first,” I said. “One of your mom’s, uh, fairy-tale collections mentioned ancient beings that existed back during the time of the Dawn Civilization, and disappeared around then as well. From the way they were described, there were four of them, and each one of them either was, or was tied to, the seasons.” I looked at Sam. “When Didas called him Winter, he wasn’t kidding. It wasn’t a title, it was a description.”
Sam blinked. “Well, that’s not ominous at all. Let me know if you have any global-level apocalypse urges, mmkay? We’ll try to talk you out of them.”
Aiden was frowning. “I believe I’m missing part of the picture here,” he said. “I was aware that your powers were undeniably based in ice and snow, but are you saying they aren’t… yours?”
I shook my head. “It’s more like I’m playing gracious host to Winter, and for a while he paid rent by giving me a bit of what he could do. Except it wasn’t really rent; it was a way for him to get strong enough to possess me and break loose.” I gave Aiden a wary look. “Do you know what happened at the Trials?” Sam stepped a little closer to me at that, and I was grateful for the support.
Aiden shook his head slowly. “I know of the attack. Those creatures that killed those students. Is that what you’re referring to?”
“You don’t have to tell him,” Sam’s voice echoed in my head.
“I know,” I replied silently to her, “but as stupid as it sounds, I trust him. It’d be good to not have it just be us that know anymore. Besides, you can always punch him if he reacts badly, right?”
“You know it.”
“That’s… not exactly what happened at the Trials,” I said hesitantly, and Aiden’s eyes widened. “There was an attack by those things, and they did kill a student—but only one. The other three that died were killed by Winter, who was controlling me at the time.”
Aiden didn’t say anything, though his complexion paled a bit. He gave me an evaluating stare, probably trying to reconcile the me he knew with someone who was capable of killing anyone, let alone three students. “Well, that certainly explains your muted behavior at Janus, and the need to seal your magic. Should I be worried about the fact that you were still able to use it during that Arena match?”
I shrugged. “Like your mom said, Didas is working on a solution. Not a very good one, but still better than being possessed by an angry murder spirit again. The whole reason I’m looking for any information about Winter right now is that I really don’t like the idea of trusting anyone blindly with my life, especially that guy.”
“A sentiment I can understand completely,” Aiden said, a note of approval in his voice. “Everyone has a reason for their actions they prefer to hide. Magic may be power made manifest, but knowledge is just as valuable. Thank you for telling me, Feayr. It’s a display of trust that I will continue to work to earn.”
“Just remember it for when you inevitably end up trying to take over the world,” I said, only half joking. I trusted Aiden, but I didn’t doubt that if he had a reason to make use of me, he’d want to. I was just hoping that he’d allow a little more free choice in the matter than Didas did.
“Meanwhile, I found absolutely nothing,” Sam cut in, sounding annoyed. “There wasn’t even a single file with my mom’s name mentioned anywhere in it.”
Aiden frowned. “That’s not possible. I know for a fact that your mother has caused trouble for the Ombra Family before. She burned down an entire estate of ours in 1991. Were it not for the secondary copies my mother stored here, she would have destroyed our banking system almost entirely. There is no way Mother wouldn’t have an extensive file on her here.”
“You wanna look, then?” Sam gestured to the wall. “Because I’m telling you, I’m finding nothing.”
“Yes, actually, I do.” Aiden walked over to the far shelves and started poring over the titles. After a moment, Sam and I joined him. There were files on hundreds of people here. I pulled out one at random about some guy who’d apparently tried to start a riot over thirty years ago, claiming the Families weren’t out to protect anyone except themselves. The file had everything on him—who he was, what he looked like, anyone he’d ever come into contact with, where he was likely to run if pursued, and a bulleted list taken from a rudimentary psych profile predicting what actions he could potentially be driven to if pressure was applied in the right ways. The detail put into it was disturbing, and I had to agree with Aiden—if Caterina put this much effort into all of her files, there was no way she’d have written nothing about someone who actually attacked her.
But after another ten minutes of combing the shelves for any mention of her, it seemed that Sam was right—there was nothing on Leanora Gray in this library.
Aiden looked perplexed, and then irritated when he saw Sam’s triumphant expression. “Let me guess.” He sighed. “There’s more to your reason for coming here as well.”
“Yep,” Sam said. “I was pretty sure Mom was still alive. This basically confirms it. If the file isn’t here, it’s because it needs to be in arm’s reach, because it, unlike the rest of these, is still relevant.”
Aiden blinked, opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, and then shut it
again. He glanced over at me and then back at her, and then, finally, he laughed, deep and rich. A grin broke out on his face, and his entire look was transformed from intimidating prince to, if only for a moment, an actual happy, college-age guy. “I don’t know why I ever expected that something you two got up to would be simple,” he said, still smiling. “You seem to have a way of searching out every last bit of trouble and intrigue in your way, and then going straight for it.” I ducked my head at that, not denying it, and Sam grinned proudly. Aiden shook his head. “You’ve sold me,” he admitted. “It would hardly be the first time Mother kept something of this level of significance to herself. And that really is the only logical reason there’s no file present here.” He glanced at Sam. “You should just be grateful you don’t bear much resemblance to your mother. If she had made the connection….”
Sam grimaced. “Yeah, I don’t need you to spell that one out for me. So, any idea how we might be able to get our hands on that file anyway?”
“Not at present,” Aiden admitted. “Mother would be keeping the file in her office, and even I’m not allowed to set foot in there. It’s more heavily guarded than the university is, and if you were unlucky enough to somehow make your way in and find my mother at her desk… well. Then it wouldn’t matter how close you came.” He shook his head. “I can’t think of any way you might succeed here. Not without risking too much.”
“Well, shit.” Sam sighed. “It’s nice to know I’m not completely off the mark, but I was hoping I’d get somewhere with all this.”
“I’m not without connections of my own,” Aiden said. “They might amount to nothing, and they’re certainly not as good as what Janus University and Mother have, but I can still try. I’ll tell you if I hear anything.”
“Thanks, Aiden,” Sam said, then screwed up her mouth. “Ugh. It just feels weird saying that.”
Aiden looked perturbed as well. “It’s not comfortable hearing it either.”
I glanced at the door. “Well, should we be going, then? No offense, Aiden, but I’d rather not tempt fate with your mom still in the same building.”
“None taken. Let’s be off.”
One more ridiculously opulent carriage ride later, and we were back at Janus University. Aiden excused us from his room almost immediately, so Sam and I went back to my room to talk.
“So you realize this means there has to be more people like me, right? I mean, there were four of whatever Winter is back then, so what if there are still four now? What if they’re doing the same thing that Winter’s doing, hiding inside someone’s body?”
Sam looked skeptical. “Don’t you think that’s a bit of a stretch? You were found by the university pretty damn fast, and if these other ‘Seasons,’” she said, with finger quotes and all, “were on Earth and went the way Winter did, there’s no way people wouldn’t notice. What if they died?”
“I don’t know if Winter can die,” I said. “The story made it out like he was Death with a capital D.”
“Yeah, but the other Seasons might not be,” Sam pointed out. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, Winter’s kinda….” She made a strange motion with her hands.
“Murderous? Power-hungry?”
“Yeah, that. Maybe he killed the other Seasons. I mean, I doubt it, but seriously, from what little we know about that thing, it doesn’t seem like Winter’s big on sharing. I’m just saying, we don’t know anything, and even your lead is just a collection of stories based on bad translations.” She winced. “Sorry. Sounds bad when I put it like that.”
I rubbed my face with my hands. “Doesn’t make it any less true, though. Besides, Didas could decide it’s time for the next ritual basically whenever. If I’m lucky enough not to get killed again, maybe I’ll learn something.”
Sam punched me in the arm. “Don’t talk like that. You’re going to be just fine, Fay. Don’t doubt that.”
I smiled at her and pushed down the little voice in my head telling me to panic. “I won’t. I’ve made it this far, after all.”
“Exactly. I refuse to lose the other half of my dynamic duo. If Winter drags you down, I will find a way to beat the shit out of him and pull you back up.”
“Thanks, Sam.”
“Any time, Polar Bear.”
Chapter Twenty-one
WHILE SAM definitely hadn’t given up on finding out more about her mom, the investigation did slow down a little after the dead end at the Ombra house, and we settled back a little more into the relatively normal university routine. I was completely excused from Arena matches, so I devoted my time to studying for classes and learning from Alferon, who was helping me expand my understanding of Infusion ever further. Last week I’d managed to turn water into a sort of glue-like substance by asking it to take its surface tension just a little bit further. The result was kind of like Jell-O, able to withstand most light impacts and send them bouncing away. It also worked well as a sort of hammock, which I strung between two trees and could even lay down in without getting wet in the slightest. I’d also worked on making stone more solid than steel, and a lot of other little steps that, while not really useful in battle, were really cool otherwise.
Sam, meanwhile, threw herself into her Arena matches. I was pretty sure she was still smarting from Caterina’s total overpowering of her, but it was good to see that she was using that to improve rather than just getting angry. She’d conscripted Aiden into teaching her how to fight better against overwhelming area attacks, and Sofia had slipped into the lessons as well. Sofia was still condescending and rude as a default, but even she seemed to have some measure of respect for Sam now, or at least tolerance. Regardless, both of them had been climbing steadily up the ranks, and were now fighting with two boys from Sol and someone from Verdant. From what I could hear from the occasional excited chat with Nick, they weren’t the only ones benefiting from the training sessions either—Aiden was squarely in the top five for the third-years as well. Not that he mentioned it much. Aiden was incredibly busy, apparently dealing with a sudden influx of jobs from his mother on top of schoolwork. I suspected that added responsibility was probably Caterina’s way of punishing him for standing up to her, or possibly pushing him to greater heights.
Tyler and I settled into a schedule where he’d come over to spend time with me at least once a week, and I’d try to come to Tufts when I could as well. I came to watch him play soccer a couple times, cheering from the bleachers and laughing when he grinned at me from the field. He really was amazing to watch, and he seemed to be loving his time there. That was enough for me to be happy too. In short, all three of us were doing well, so it was only natural that Didas picked then to begin the second part of the ritual.
I woke up to find myself lying in the middle of the same room Didas had brought me to before, in the center of the rune-inscribed stone circle. From what my half-awake eyes could see, there were a few new runes added.
“Good, you’re finally awake,” Didas said, looking down at me, a scroll resting in his hand. “It’s past time that we begin.”
I groaned and sat up. “You couldn’t have given me any advance warning about this?”
“No. Are you ready?”
I shook myself fully awake and considered that. I’d been careful the past month to not use Winter’s power for anything more than the equivalent of flicking a finger. With the exception of the Arena match, I’d succeeded. I’d been working hard at understanding my own magic better, even if it still felt less natural than Winter’s powers. Sam and Tyler had been there to support me. I was about as ready as I was going to get. I met Didas’s eyes and nodded.
“Good. I will be reading the next three runes in succession today,” Didas remarked, and I tried not to look too nervous. “All of them have to do with memory, the beginning, middle, and end of Winter’s story.” He gave me a look. “This is why I asked you not to go looking for information on Winter yourself. Not only would it be pointless, but it might tilt the ritual in his favor. I’ve crafted this
room to benefit you as much as possible—where the ritual alone would simply merge your two memories, the runes I’ve added should make it more of a slow process, allowing you to keep your own identity on top.”
“Should?” I asked. I was torn between excitement and fear. On the one hand, I would finally get to know what the hell I was getting into with this. On the other, this seemed like as much of an invasion of my mind as I could imagine. “That’s not exactly comforting.”
“As I’ve said before, all of this is new territory. I’ve had the best minds of Gaia working on this for the past month, but even so this remains guesswork.” Didas gave me a look. “I won’t lie to you about the risk. Take comfort in knowing that I will do what is necessary, should the ritual go awry.”
“That’s… even less comforting than the other part.” I stood up and straightened my shoulders. “Let’s do this.”
Didas unfurled the scroll. The runes were written on the thick vellum and yet somehow I could see them through the fabric, their presence burning the very air like the last one. A word twisted its way out of his mouth, and I blacked out.
Darkness nothing cold so cold why have I left her embrace
am not everywhere I am here and everywhere is in me, the ice and snow so cold
they wait for their orders, myself and my siblings, the green, the burning, the wind
we wait at the gates, Mother must sleep, and we protect her while she rests
The first rune faded, and the second one flared up. My eyes shot open; everything was familiar and unfamiliar at once, and then everything faded again.