Of Noble Chains (The Ventori Fables)

by Miles, D. L.

  When she was fifteen she had to go on her annual trip to work with her father when an emergency had come up for him; and he had left her alone at his mobile computer. Cashel worked all over the city as an Ark specialist, and on that particular day they had been at City Ark. It had only taken her about ten minutes to actually get onto the Ark’s main server and create her own file. Not exactly hard work on her part.

  So now, at that very moment, she had an ID access card sitting in her wallet with her deceased neighbours name on it, and her photograph. It couldn’t get her in anywhere in person easily, but online it got her into all the secret places the Ark didn’t want civilians to know about. Places like the coroner’s office.

  “Well,” Zia said, “no matter how I got the information, this looks like a Caster killing.”

  “Very good,” Aeryn said slyly. “What class do you propose?”

  Zia thought for a long moment about the various types of Caster Specter’s out there; only two of them left a blue residue behind, and it usually meant a powerful one.

  “I would say one skilled with Arcane I guess, considering the marks found on the body,” she finally said and the right corner of his mouth raised just slightly. At first Zia thought that maybe she was wrong but he never said if she was or wasn’t. Instead, he turned around and began heading back to the photograph of the woman that had “jumped”. Cindel, Zia reminded herself, the woman’s name was Cindel.

  “If you were alone, what would you do next?” Aeryn asked her, never taking his eyes off of the blonde’s picture. He almost looked sad, as if he had known her.

  “I would talk to the family,” Zia said strongly, “see if she had any known enemies, or if she was working any active cases. Talk to her friends too, I guess.”

  “Close,” Aeryn said, finally dragging his eyes towards Zia, “we’re going to look into her cases ourselves first, and do a little background before talking to them.”

  He spun on his heel and whistled for Cindy. She poked her head up from the long grass and came over slowly. Aeryn jumped onto her with a ridiculous amount of ease and offered his hand out to Zia.

  “Why do that first?” Zia asked, taking hold of his rough fingers. She could feel scars on them, feel how many battles he had won, how many enemies he must have defeated. Actually meeting him was different than what she had pictured. Rinehart the Unbreakable made him sound immortal, but feeling his wounds…made him seem very human. More human than she had wanted him to be.

  “Because family isn’t always innocent.”

  Chapter 7:

  The wind had picked up, bringing in more storm clouds over North Havilan and the rain had just begun to descend when Zia and Aeryn stepped into Ventori Ark on the East side of the city. For a brief moment adrenaline shot through her veins, but she calmed down when she remembered her father was still stationed at the Library.

  “Got your papers?” Aeryn asked as they stepped in line behind a fellow Ventori. Zia had barely heard him, too busy soaking in the atmosphere.

  She had never been to Ventori Ark, but she had always dreamed of it. The building was the second tallest in the world, next to City Ark; it also held one of the only entrances to the catacombs. It shot into the sky, piercing the clouds themselves and shone brilliantly under the Northern Sun. Zia often watched it as a child, imagining she and her brother coming here for her official license. Her eyes dimmed a bit under the bright lights.

  “Hey,” Aeryn knocked on her head with one knuckle, “papers.”

  “Huh?” Zia snapped out of her daze. “Oh, right, here.” She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the forms that allowed her to work with Aeryn for the summer. She unfolded them and placed them into his hand.

  “What were you thinking about?” Aeryn eyed her curiously but she shrugged him off and continued to look around her.

  There weren’t that many people there, only a few Ventori. Some of them had STRAYs in tow, while others were probably only there to report on their cases. The golden walls reflected the sun all around her and it seemed close to heavenly. But all she could think about was how many times her brother had walked on the very tiles upon which she now stood. How many STRAYs had he brought in here for punishment? How many—

  “Next!” A small, pointy nosed woman waved Zia and Aeryn to the front desk. They walked up, Aeryn almost having to drag Zia away from her own misery. “How can I help you today?”

  “We need to file some authorization forms,” Aeryn said when Zia didn’t speak up, “and get some information on a deceased Ventori.”

  Aeryn handed over the forms and the woman took them without another word, already typing into her computer with nails that could easily be mistaken for Specter’s claws. After a few short moments the woman turned back to them and said to Zia, “Congratulations on your training.”

  “Hm? Thanks,” Zia said back absentmindedly.

  “What case info did you need now?” the woman directed her question at Zia again, obviously trying to be nice. But Zia only found it difficult to concentrate, as if something was urging her to just turn around and leave.

  “It’s a charm,” Zia spoke aloud and whirled around. Everyone nearby was either Ventori or in proper reduc-chains. No Casters in the building would be able to use their magic, so what was going on? Zia could feel the effects of a Turn Away charm on her, but she had no idea where it was coming from.

  “Took you long enough to notice,” Aeryn laughed and patted her once on the back. He quickly turned back to the receptionist. “We need to know if Cindel l’Heureux was working on any cases before she died.” He spelled out the name for the woman.

  “What do you mean ‘took me long enough to notice’?” Zia shot him an accusing glare.

  “I mean that it took you a prolonged period of time to take note of the Caster charm that was set on us,” Aeryn leaned against the marble counter and chuckled to himself. “It’s been on us since we walked past the doors.”

  “How do you know? And why is there a Turn Away charm on the front doors of Ventori Ark? How is that even possible?” Zia turned back to the receptionist, who didn’t appear to care at all for their conversation.

  “The Caster probably put it out front of the doors,” Aeryn said, “avoid all that red tape.”

  “But…why?”

  “So that nobody would try and take the case; they would come inside and suddenly feel the urge to go somewhere else, or do something else.” Aeryn shrugged as if this was every day.

  “But to do that they would need an obscene amount of power,” Zia said, “like…registered national threat possibility kind of power.”

  “Makes our job easier then,” Aeryn smirked, “got ‘em all on a list for us.”

  “A list which you do not have access to,” the receptionist cut in coldly, “and your Cindel was not on any active cases before her death.”

  “What was the last case she finished then?” It was Zia asking the questions now, her initial haze done with. The woman tapped on her clear keyboard again.

  “It says here the last case she was involved in was Tracking a STRAY that didn’t show up for court,” she shrugged, “nothing worth being murdered for if that’s what you were wondering.”

  “Thank you very much,” Aeryn tapped the counter and walked away, Zia looking between him and the receptionist a couple of times before following.

  “That’s it? We’re not going to ask for any more information?” Zia followed him out the doors and the sudden feeling to find the Caster that killed Cindel rushed upon her. How had she lost that feeling so easily? This was exactly why Zia hated Specter’s, specifically Casters.

  “There’s nothing in the records that can help us,” Aeryn said, moving up to Cindy. He patted her mane when Zia’s phone buzzed in her back pocket. She had wanted to yell at Aeryn for giving up so easily, but answered her phone first.

  “What?” she said into it, misplacing her anger. She quickly corrected herself, “I mean, hello?”

  “Kehz
ia,” said a familiar voice on the other end, “what are you doing tomorrow? We could use your help at the library.”

  “Mrs. Mayfield?” Zia questioned, surprised. “How did you get my number?”

  “You’re father gave it to me,” she admitted and Zia could almost hear her rolling her eyes, “but we could really use you tomorrow morning.”

  “Maybe, what do you need me for?” Zia was nervous; the library had never asked for her help before.

  “There’s a young boy here from the Neith clan,” Mrs. Mayfield explained, “he’s the only clan member in the group and he’s curious about his history. His parents are trying to keep it quiet but nobody here really knows anything about it so we thought that you could…tell him some stories about his heritage. Privately of course.”

  “Uh…yeah, I guess I can do that,” Zia eyed Aeryn as he climbed onto his steed. Taking her phone away from her ear she quickly asked him if she would be free tomorrow morning and not have another surprise visit from him.

  “Not if you have somewhere to be,” he mused, as if being away from him was a ludicrous idea. Part of Zia thought it was.

  Placing her phone back to her ear she said, “Tomorrow at nine is fine.”

  “Oh that’s wonderful,” Mrs. Mayfield said, “thank you so much. I’ll see you then!” Zia said goodbye and placed her phone into her back pocket.

  “What’s going on tomorrow at nine?” Aeryn asked, holding his hand out again to Zia. She hopped onto Cindy and grabbed the horn of the saddle.

  “I’m going to the library to help a kid out,” was all she said, trying to respect the family’s privacy.

  Wrapping his arms around her without another word, Aeryn flicked the reigns, putting Cindy in motion along the bustling downtown street.

  Much to her surprise, Aeryn stopped in front of Zia’s house. They each jumped down onto the cobble walk, Zia’s legs almost giving out again.

  “What are we doing back here?” she huffed. “Aren’t we going to do a little more work? It’s not even noon yet!”

  Aeryn shook his head. “Nope, but I am giving you homework so you don’t get bored. I want you to find the list of Havilan’s most powerful Specter’s, specifically the Casters. But print me off a list of the other ones, I’d like to keep that for reference.” He grinned, maniacal yet charming all at once.

  “What makes you think I can do that?” Zia tried as hard as she could to make eye contact with him, but found her face was beginning to flush. She knew just how easily she could get that information.

  “Just get it done,” Aeryn chided, jumping back onto his glass steed, “and whatever you do, don’t Track them by yourself.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Zia faked a laugh, “why would I find them by myself?”

  “Because I bet that’s exactly what you would do,” Aeryn narrowed his brow at her, “just get the list and wait for me to contact you. Understood?”

  “Clear as…Cindy, I guess.” Aeryn dashed off down Burbrooke Common, leaving Zia to try and figure out what to do.

  “I would never go by myself,” Zia mumbled to herself as she walked up to her front door, “I would go with Iscah.” A sly smile crossed her lips then, her mind cranking out a solution to her idle problem.

  Rushing down the Common, Aeryn knew that he shouldn’t leave Zia alone if she was anything like her brother. But he had to test her, get her to understand just how dangerous Tracking was, and that it wasn’t something to be taken so lightly.

  Yes, she had impressed him at the bridge, but talking to a Specter face to face was a little different than deducing clues in the sunrise. He had a hunch that she would find the list soon, and then take that to interview the top Casters in the city. And just as she was about to get into trouble, he would get her out, and give her Hell for it.

  Thankfully Zia’s parents weren’t home to question why she was back within four hours of leaving for “work”. Her mother was probably off at the hospital while her father buried himself in paperwork at the library; this gave her the perfect time to break into City Ark’s files and find the Most Powerful list she needed.

  Hiding in her room, Zia opened up her stolen Ark laptop, another handy thing she had picked up while visiting her father at work. It immediately asked for her login, and she typed it quickly. The page brought her to the main archives, where you could search for something specific or browse particular folders. Zia typed “Most Powerful” into the search engine but it came up with a red “NO RESULTS”.

  She bit her bottom lip; that wasn’t right. She began to try different searches but none of them gave her anything. It was as if the files didn’t exist, but she knew they did. They had to be in there somewhere. After another ten minutes of searching folders Zia found nothing.

  Groaning in frustration she closed all her open screens, deciding to start from scratch. She stared at the screen, moving her cursor away from the large “New Havilan Directory” printed across the screen. As she continued to stare she noticed something pop up under the cursor. A small black box appeared, the same box that comes up if you hover over a file for too long; this box read “New Havilan Directory”.

  “What?” Zia questioned aloud as she clicked the link. Her screen flashed white, almost blinding her before thick letters crossed her screen and a countdown from 10 seconds; it read “ACCESS DENIED: AUTHORIZATION CODE REQUIRED”. “Huh?”

  Panicking Zia typed in her homemade code but it only brought her to a new screen, telling her that it was wrong. Stupidly, she typed it again, and got the same result. The countdown was at two seconds, when she noticed her CAPS LOCK was on. Zia turned it off and typed her code one more time, as quickly as possible when her screen suddenly went black.

  “No no no,” she said, holding onto either side of her computer as her heart raced, “please turn on…please?” As if she had said the magic word, her computer flashed back on, bringing her right back to the directory; but this time it had different folders on the screen. It listed all the types of Specter’s, from the Casters to the Demons and their companions. Zia breathed a sigh of relief and opened the Caster folder. It showed her one file, unnamed; she opened it and found the list for most powerful Casters in the city.

  Only two names stared back at her; Malachi Fel and Achaicious laCoix. Zia’s teeth showed as she grinned, happy that she was able to find what she had been looking for. Under Aeryn’s orders, she opened every folder and file and wrote down every name into a spare notebook; not wanting to print them off because it would leave a file in the printer, which could easily be found by anyone. It was something her father had installed under orders of the Ark.

  Over an hour later Zia had finally gotten every name she could find, from every file in the directory. She had already searched the two most powerful Casters and found their addresses and a few other happy details; details like Malachi was often found protesting for Specter rights, and that Achaicious owned a nightclub in the more upscale part of South Havilan. Unfortunately it didn’t say who was stronger, but since this Malachi was top of the list, Zia assumed it was him.

  As Zia wrote down the last name she noticed there was an attachment on the file that opened up to a photograph. She was currently on demons, looking at a broken Manananggal, and winced. She quickly closed the file and returned to the Casters, seeing that they had the same attachments. With both photo’s selected, she printed them off, Ark imprinting system or not.

  Two rooms over the printer jumped to life and she dashed out to get the papers. The machine was working on the last photo as Zia picked up Achaicious’ photo. He was a middle aged man, who aged very well if she had to state her opinion; he was standing in front of his club, Wraith, wearing a very expensive looking suit. His black hair slicked back, much like Aeryn’s, but far shorter. He had a classic sort of handsome about him and Zia would consider him so, if he wasn’t a Caster. Achaicious had that villain look about him though, Zia thought.

  The printer shut down and she picked up the next photo of Malachi
Fel, but it didn’t really give her anything to go on. It was a black and white photograph of a man in a crowd, circled with red marker, wearing a blank white mask and holding up signs written in Demon. Her Demon was a little rusty, but it appeared to say something about allowing Specter’s to vote, and be considered citizens of Havilan. Zia scoffed a little, thinking about how she would make sure that never happened. Monsters and killers that preyed on the weak didn’t deserve that privilege.

  Taking in the man circled in red, she couldn’t see his face, only getting a rough idea height, and that he seemed to take protesting very seriously. She shredded the paper instantly but took the one of Achaicious with her. A buzzing in her pocket made her jump before answering her phone.

  “Hey,” Iscah said on the other side, “how’s the uh, thing going?”

  “Good,” Zia wandered back into her room, shoving the photograph into her side bag and slinging it over her shoulder. A quick look around and she snapped up the notebook full of Specter names and hid it under her bed. “Are you busy? I could use your help with it a bit.”

  Iscah laughed. “My help? Are you nuts? I’m human; how could I help you?”

  “Trust me, your human-ness will be very helpful,” Zia moved out of her room and threw her shoes on. “Can you meet me somewhere?”

  “Well…” Iscah thought for a long moment as Zia was already walking down her cobble pathway, “I don’t have to do anything…Tracker-y do I?”

  “No,” Zia rolled her eyes, “you just gotta stand by me and look human.”

  “Okay,” Iscah said in a sigh, “where are we going?”

  “We’re going to a protest.” Zia smiled, already sure that she was going to solve this case within the day.