by Mari Dietz
The afternoon sun stayed cheerful behind the swirls of blight. William’s mood degraded the closer they came to his family home, countering the brightness of the day.
The homes changed the farther they went, from the smoother lines of houses built with magic to those built by hand, with more windows to let in the daylight, but the pathways near the canal were overcome with algae. William paused before his former home. How sure he’d been about the radiant and what they believed in Verrin. That righteous feeling had fled the moment he’d purified his brother. His father, the leader, wasn’t out to save people from the blight, but to make them compliant. The truth hurt him and shattered his world.
William tried to pick up the pieces. All those times he’d claimed purification was better, but they were actually making people follow orders instead of living in harmony.
“Higher plane,” William muttered. He didn’t know what was true anymore. His brother had asked the right questions.
He couldn’t stand with GicCorp. For now, that left the rebellion. Maybe they could find out why the magic had caused the blight.
The thought unsettled him, and he knocked on the door. His mother answered. She frowned at her sons.
“If Father is home, I would like to talk to him out here.” William didn’t want to go inside the house. He rested his hand close to his wand. He wasn’t sure how to use it as a weapon, but it provided him some comfort. If anything, he could poke his father in the eye and run.
She closed the door, leaving them outside.
“Did this ever feel like home to you, Sam?” They’d been raised to be good radiant, not sons.
Sam didn’t answer.
After a few moments, his father appeared. The lines of his face were deeper, and his eyes held an unkindness that William had never noticed before.
“What do my traitorous sons want?” His hands stayed at his sides, but William monitored them, staying out of arm’s reach.
He didn’t know how to start, so he asked, “Why are there radiant in Haven?”
His father sneered. “Do you think I would tell you?”
“No.” William felt like he was watching someone else’s life unfold as he talked to the man he called Father. “There is still hope in me that my entire life wasn’t a lie.” He inched his hand closer to his harness. He could grab his wand within seconds.
His father crossed his arms. “The lie is that you’re here for the founders and reapers. You couldn’t care less about the radiant.”
“I care that you’re forcing them to change. That isn’t the way you taught me.” Why did he bother trying to salvage any part of his childhood?
“We teach you that way to make it easier to accept. The truth has always been that we would rather have radiant than mogs. Now we’re being more aggressive about it.” His father stepped forward.
William shifted back. “Why? What’s going on? Why do you need so many radiant? GicCorp can control the mogs and the radiant. What’s GicCorp trying to do?”
“A controlled population is a peaceful population.”
“That’s it?” He didn’t want that to be the truth.
“Either become a pawn or become a king. You made your choice.”
“What will happen when GicCorp no longer needs you? Do you think magic users will care about you then?” His father thought he was untouchable. If GicCorp could control the mogs, why did they need the radiant? His father wouldn’t tell him, but it had to be important.
“I wouldn’t worry about me. Worry about your founder and reaper friends.” He focused on Sam. “If you’re smart, you’ll leave your brother here. He’s among the few who don’t take purification well. His actions will become volatile if he isn’t taken care of.”
Sam stared up at the blight, ignoring them. William knew he acted strangely, but no harm had come to him or Vic. “Taken care of? Do you mean killed?”
“Take the meaning however you want, but a radiant who doesn’t listen has no moral compass. They will do what they want, and if your brother ends up hurting you, it will be your fault.” His father shook his head. “Everyone thinks they can help the radiant rogues until they’re killed.”
“This has happened before?”
His father didn’t reply.
He straightened his imaginary cuffs and dropped his hands to his sides. “This has happened before and you never told me? Does it only happen to those who have been purified by force?” Xiona didn’t seem to have a problem.
“I owe you nothing. Get out of here. I don’t want to see you again.”
The father and sons stood apart across the street. The sound of the canal blared in the silent standoff. William wanted to find the bonds with his father, but he must have never had them in the first place. This man looked at him with no feeling, and emptiness filled William.
He drew his wand and let the magic feel the items in the area. It connected to the stone, the water, and the clothes he wore. His father took a step back, but before he could leave, the wand connected with the relic on his father’s hand. Heat flared from trying to contradict the power of the stone. It didn’t feel like a normal relic stone. William lacked finesse, but with a pull and a bitter taste of iron in his mouth, he crushed the stone and the metal until it blinked out of existence.
Blood burst from his father’s hand as the crushed relic sliced off the finger. The digit dropped to the ground.
His father screamed and cradled his hand to his chest, staining the radiant white bright red.
William’s voice remained steady as his father tried to charge at them. “I owe all the lives I purified. I owe Sam and Xiona. If I ever see you again, Father, you better hope it isn’t while you’re forcing purification on someone. You’ve bastardized the radiant enough.”
With a sick feeling, William turned away from his father. He heard his mother burst out of the house, screaming at him. His ears rang, and he couldn’t hear her words. For that he was thankful. Sam followed, ever silent.
“He won’t stop hurting the city, will he, Sam?” William’s voice shook over what he’d done.
“Do what you must.”
What he must? Should he have let his father live? “Why does it seem like I never make the right choice?”
His brother didn’t answer as they left the land claimed by the radiant. The sounds of people living their lives surrounded them. They lived while others made choices for them. Maybe a radiant would go into their home tonight and take them away to Haven. Yet the city still teemed with life, as if to say, “I’m still here, living.”
“I guess we’ll do what we must, Sam.” The brothers made their way back to Vic’s family home while they forever lost theirs.
20
Amaya
Amaya waited to stir until the room had quieted around her. At Haven, she’d soaked in a cold bath for hours and lain still in that empty room forever before they’d found her. She fumed at Tristan. He’d messed with the reaper by saying her sister was dead. Why had she gone through all that to go undercover? Stupid man. He had a cruel streak with others, but she loved the idiot.
She hated acting, but she’d ended up in this body. The others had more faith in her than she had in herself.
Amaya moaned softly and fluttered her eyelids. A man with eyes that matched hers but darker hair leaned over her. She gasped in surprise at how close his face was to hers.
“Sorry. Are you feeling okay?” He sounded worried.
“Y-yes, Father. How did I get here?” Amaya feebly pushed herself to a sitting position. She didn’t have to fake it too much since she felt weak. That ice bath had almost killed her.
“Hush, don’t get up. Rest. Your sister saved you from Haven. Do you remember anything that happened before?” He scanned her face, and a furrow deepened in his forehead. His clothing was wrinkled like he’d stayed and watched her all night. He seemed like a decent father. Amaya had lost hers years ago, and she couldn’t remember him.
They’d agreed that Amaya needed to kee
p her story simple. Otherwise, the lies would get to be too much, and it would be hard enough to act like someone she’d never met. Tristan had told her that Emilia was calm and quiet. The idiot man wasn’t helpful. From the raging going on inside her, “calm and quiet” didn’t fit the description.
She flinched and pressed her hand to her forehead. “They took us past the gate, and then everything went dark. I was in a room for so long that I lost track of the days, and it got so cold. I passed out. How did she get into Haven to find me?” The sewer paths were the only way, but they were cut off from the normal Verrin sewers. And if they wanted to get in through the GicCorp wall, they would have to move the stone with imbs. The stone founder was on their side—mostly. Other imbs could do it, but once you practiced in your specialty, you rarely used anything else.
“Don’t worry about it. Just rest.”
Like she had a choice. How much would these rebels share with this person?
This man studied her some more. “Your sister is doing better, by the way.”
Blight and stone, she’d forgot to worry about her sister. “She was hurt?” Amaya tried to recover quickly and once more pushed herself up. Then she looked at the cot next to hers, at the woman covered in blue bandages and with dark red hair. Her face almost looked transparent.
“Yes. She woke up, so the healers are hopeful she’ll recover.” He reached out to brush her hair back.
Amaya tried not to flinch away. She didn’t like strangers touching her, but to this man, she wasn’t a stranger. “What happened?”
“Magic burnout. Apparently, she broke her gicgauge.” He sighed. Yes, he was a caring father who often got frustrated with his overzealous daughter.
Amaya supposed that might be why she was the calmer one, while the other charged in. That the woman had broken her gicgauge worried her, but since she’d almost killed herself, there would probably be nothing important to report. Those who broke their gicgauge died shortly after if they tried to use their relics too much. She would somehow need to report to Tristan. The father noticed too much. She couldn’t be sure if that was normal or not. She didn’t know these people or how they acted.
Get out.
Her jaw twitched. It would be harder to contain her while Amaya was in her environment. Lesson one, never mention the one you tried to eat. They made a difficult meal. Those kinds of things gave the clinging vitals strength. She’d never told Tristan that this one stubbornly clung to her body.
“Can you move me closer to my sister?” That seemed like the right thing to want, didn’t it?
The father nodded and pushed the cot closer so Amaya could take the sister’s warm and clammy hand. She didn’t really want to hold on to it, but it would make sense that she would want to touch the sister. Gross.
Don’t touch her! the voice screeched in her head.
Amaya flinched and dropped the hand reflexively.
“Is something hurting?” the father asked.
“Ah, no, just a twinge in my muscles.” Amaya neutralized her body. You can scream all you want. This is all mine now.
From the depths, a steady scream rose. The voice didn’t need to stop for breath in the mind. Amaya closed her eyes and focused on locking it down. She’d made an error in continuing to contact it. If she continued to make rookie mistakes, she would fight for too long over this bag of bones. She tried to shut down the endless droning, her body and mind weak from the ice bath. Amaya would gather her strength and focus on squashing it. Trying to ignore it, she smiled at the father.
“I will sleep for a bit.” She thought for a moment and added, “If my sister wakes up again, can you wake me?” That should be right?
“I will.”
She went back to fake resting while the voice screamed in the back of her mind. She liked this body, but its soul was obnoxious. They all eventually left or disintegrated. They didn’t have time, but Amaya did. Her lips turned up slightly. She would enjoy beating this one.
21
Vic
Vic smelled clean linen before she opened her eyes. Her lips curved as she cracked her eyes open. William sat next to her, fast asleep, like she’d somehow known he would be. His head bent forward, and her neck hurt looking at him. Samuel, ever his shadow, slept curled up on a more comfortable chair. In sleep, he could pass as his old self. Her father stood looking at a family picture on the mantel. Relief filled Vic as she noticed Em’s steady breathing next to her. As she stirred, William woke.
“How are you feeling?” William asked, his voice rough from sleep.
The bandages, wound tightly around her, made it difficult to breathe. “Kind of like I’m underwater. Can’t these be looser?” She struggled to flex her fingers.
“I can cut some of them off, but I shouldn’t cut them all. Which ones are the worse?”
Vic tried to take another deep breath. “The one around my ribs. How else do you think I would need to breathe?” Her elbows stayed straight from the tight wrappings.
“Ah, um, let me find someone to help.”
“Cut them already. You know how to use a pair of scissors. Or did you miss that class in school?” Vic shifted and took another breath, her ribs straining against the bandages again.
William’s face turned bright red, and he grabbed the scissors on the table with other cut-up bandages scattered across it. They must have rewrapped her a few times. He leaned over her and hesitated while holding the bandages around her ribs.
“Come on, glow stick. I want to breathe.”
“Ah, yes.”
He swiftly cut through the bandages and pulled up her blanket.
Vic took a huge breath of air. “That’s so much better. Thanks.” She glanced at his red face. “Are you hot or something?”
William set down the scissors and cleared his throat. “It’s hot in here. It’s been a while since you’ve called me a name. I think I missed it.” He didn’t meet her eyes.
Vic grinned. “I guess I need to do better.” She touched her sister’s hand. “How is she?”
“Your father mentioned she woke up for a bit and talked to him.”
At the sound of their voices, her father turned to them and walked over. His eyes contained shadows. Vic assumed he’d been worried about them while they’d slept.
“Her body seems fine.” His voice was low to avoid waking Em up.
Vic frowned. “Her body?” Why had he phrased it like that?
After a slight hesitation, he said, “She’s fine. Don’t worry.”
“Now I’m worried,” Vic muttered.
He tussled her hair, something he hadn’t done in years. “She’s fine. Stop overthinking everything.”
Vic settled back so she could see them both. “What happened? Did GicCorp do anything while I was out? How long was I out? Did everyone make it out okay?”
Her father held up his hand. “Whoa. The news reported that mogs had infiltrated Haven, so none of the reapers were there illegally. Since then, they’ve been silent. It’s almost night, and from the reaper counts, Boreus lost twenty, Dei lost thirty-one, and Nyx lost twelve. Considering the size of the Orders, Boreus and Dei lost about ten percent.” Her father ran his hand through his hair. “Nyx already contained the fewest reapers since they don’t recruit as many.”
“How did you get them to help?”
Kai had stepped into the room and heard her last comment. “I’ve been communicating with Becks. She has the fire of their old leader, and she wanted to lessen her involvement with us, but the mention of the mogs in Haven got both Orders into gear.”
“So Boreus didn’t know what was happening?”
Kai shook his head. “We assumed they were since they’re next to us and where the bait was.” He sank onto the foot of the bed. “I need to be more careful about who I accuse of being the bad guys.”
Vic took his hand. “We all did it. We assumed everyone would take the same deal that Xiona had taken with GicCorp. Or that GicCorp would ask the commanders to change people into m
ogs.”
Kai squeezed her hand. “They weren’t even offered the deal. Just Nyx.”
Vic’s father interjected, “If they got people to turn into radiant instead of mogs, it would be easier to use the radiant to get more people than to use reapers.”
“But if they need blight to purify, why radiant?” Vic asked.
They all looked at each other, but they had no answers.
William leaned back in his chair. “That they’re compliant helps, but other than that, they aren’t the best fighters, unless they already have training. They’ll still get a little blight from them when they’re purified.”
While they weren’t looking at her, Vic touched her neck. She’d torn out her orb. She glanced at her family and friends. Vic decided not to tell them for now. When the time came, she would decide, but she had a few days, at most, to think about it. Her mind burned from trying to think of a plan. She for sure didn’t want purification, so that meant becoming a mog. Unless …
“Vic?” William touched her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
She picked at the fraying bandages. “Yeah, just tired.”
Kai paused at William’s hand on her shoulder, and he let it drop. Kai stood and dropped Vic’s hand. “I’m glad I caught you when you were awake. I know we have more to talk about, but you were lucky. Don’t charge off on your own again, okay?”
Vic glanced at her sister. “I would have done it for any of you. I can’t make promises anymore.” It didn’t matter, really. She could feel time ticking down.
Kai adjusted the harness straps on his back. He must have been wearing it since last night. “I knew you had a problem with authority from the beginning.”
Vic shrugged. “What can I say? I was born to rebel.” Much to her family and teachers’ annoyance, Vic had always questioned the system of Verrin. Most had assumed it was because she would miss her sister. They had been far from the mark.