by Jason Letts
***
Ogden Fortst shook his head with extreme displeasure. None of the students who stared at him for hours on end five days a week could remember any of the lessons he had taught them. He thought a review session would be the perfect way to avoid teaching new material, but he never thought it would reveal they hadn’t been paying attention.
His disappointment in them ran deep, but he was equally disappointed in himself. It made him worry about how they would fare once he unleashed them upon the turbulent world. They had so much to learn if they were going to be ready for the challenges that awaited them.
“Could someone please tell me why water takes longer to boil if you watch it?” he asked. Hearing nothing but silence, he became irritated. “Come on, we spent days on this! This is unbelievable. We’re going to have a test. Are you listening? A test. And there are going to be big problems if you don’t know all of this stuff. Open your notebooks. We’ve got a lot of work to do!”
Groaning, the students complied. Reaching into their desks, they removed their notebooks. Some of them were dusty and had nothing inside but games and doodles. Will pulled his out, and when he opened the cover he found a folded piece of paper inside. Carefully unfolding it, he read the contents. The note said:
“Will, your life is in danger. Meet me by the healer’s office near town square after school today. Come alone. —Mira”
He turned in his seat to look back behind him. She gave him a heavy and serious nod. Will faced forward again, folded the note, and put it in his desk.
***
Once school ended, Mira left quickly and went to the appointed place. She saw Nora rubbing some kind of shampoo into her uneven hair through the window, and then she hid in a nook by the side of the building. She heard footsteps coming and knew Will was on his way. Once he had passed by her, she popped out of her hiding spot and snuck up behind him.
“Thanks for coming,” she said, and Will jumped.
“Whoa, what is this all about? You said my life is in danger.”
“That was a joke. Your life’s not in danger. You’re totally fine. Aren’t you relieved?”
“That’s not cool at all. I got worried. Why would you do that?” he said, pursing his lips in a way Mira didn’t like.
“I just needed to get you here. I’m sorry about that. But, in a way, I just saved your life.”
Will shook his head, spat, and then turned to leave.
“No, wait! Please don’t go. I need your help with something.”
Impatiently, Will turned around and gave Mira a hard look.
“It’s about your Makara dice. Can I please see them?” she asked.
“What do you want to see them for?”
Mira didn’t want to tell him why she wanted to see them, but she knew he would figure it out once he saw the invitations. The only problem would be if he told everyone about it and ruined the surprise. But he didn’t seem like a mean-spirited boy to her, not like Jeremy.
“Can you keep a secret? My birthday is coming up and I’m going to have a party. I want to use the dice to make invitations. Don’t worry, you’ll get one too, and it’s ok if you don’t want to come.”
Will took a few steps closer to her and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small pouch and jingled it in front of her. She could hear the dice clattering inside.
“Sounds like an interesting party,” he said. “But do your parents know about this?”
Will’s question made Mira think of what her mother said. Mira hadn’t been sure what she meant at the time, but now seemed like a good opportunity to find out.
“Oh, no, they don’t know about this. They know I’m going to have a party and make invitations, but they don’t know I want to do this. It wouldn’t be cool if my parents found out about this, right?”
“That’s funny you say that because you didn’t seem interested in it before. But, yeah, some people think it’s all bad and they don’t really know what it’s about.”
Will loosened the drawstring on the pouch and dumped the dice into Mira’s cupped hands. Seven dice of various sizes and shapes spilled out. Some were polished and some dull, some were made of wood and others made of bone; some appeared very intricate while others were very simple.
“Wow, they’re beautiful. Where did you get them?”
“Most of them I made myself. I saw a kid playing Makara in Darmen one time. I guess you can buy the dice in shops there, but he showed me his and I started to copy them.”
She examined the images that appeared on the sides of the dice. There were so many that she was impressed Will had remembered them all, though he could have made them up and that would have been impressive too. She saw an arrow, a fork, swans, a hand, fish, a knife, a wheel, a key, a tree, a man, a woman, a chair, a nose, a spider, a gust of wind, a book, water, a question mark, the number three, fireworks, lightning, a heart, a star, and a mouth. There were other shapes too Mira couldn’t easily identify, and some of the sides of the dice had nothing on them.
Will seemed pleased enough that she admired his work to let her take her time with them. She noted her approval of just about every image.
“So how exactly do you use them?”
Will chuckled and shook his head.
“There’s only one way to find out,” he said, motioning to take back his dice.
“Ok, wait a second, just one thing.” She moved to the healer’s steps and began rummaging in her bag for something. Pulling out some paper and a small wooden case, she removed the cover of the case and revealed an inky sponge. She rubbed the side of one of the dice against the ink and then stamped it onto a piece of paper. Pulling away the stamp revealed a bluish mark with an image of fireworks inside of it identical to that of the dice. She repeated the process with a few other images and soon the paper and wooden case returned to her bag and the dice returned to Will’s pouch.
“Thank you very much for this,” Mira said, looking up at Will.
“No problem. I hope your party is a success. Maybe I’ll live long enough to see it.”
Mira left with a smile on her face because it seemed like at least one of her classmates would attend her party. She returned home to find her mother hard at work in the kitchen.
“I’ve got it. I’m all set to make the invitations. What are you making?” Mira asked.
“You’re going to have some cookies to go along with them,” Jeana replied. She mixed a bowl full of batter with a big wooden spoon.
“Ok, great! Thanks so much. I’ve got a good feeling that everything is going to work out perfectly.”
***
A miserable feeling that things were going drastically wrong turned in Kevin’s stomach. A dusky light caused long shadows to stretch across the road on the way to the outpost. He wondered how much of his shame he would have to reveal to do what needed to be done.
Entering the outpost, Kevin saw that the crowds had cleared out and the stands shut down. Still, he got the feeling after only a few steps that someone followed him. He resisted the urge to look back and instead pushed on to the staircase. Once he could no longer see the courtyard and had dropped down a few steps into the shadows, he stopped abruptly and waited.
“What’s the plan here?” a hushed voice asked from behind him. Kevin turned back to see Yannick against the wall on the stairs. It looked more like he was hiding than lurking. Preferring not to look at him, Kevin returned his eyes to the steps before him.
“It’s simple. We request an audience with Corey and hope he grants it. If he does, we make our case to have access to the prisoner. We cooperate fully at all times and respond honestly about our intentions. Is that clear?”
Yannick didn’t answer, which Kevin preferred to any disagreement. The man silently trailed behind Kevin, who worked his way down to Corey’s office. Unsure of what he would find on the other side, Kevin cracked open the door. Only a dim light trickled through. Entering, he saw that only one woman, Corey’s personal assistant, occupied the office. She
sat at an empty desk, obviously waiting for his arrival.
Before letting go of the door, he motioned to Yannick to enter. He hesitantly peeked through, and showed no small degree of relief at finding a nearly empty room. While Kevin approached the young woman, Yannick hung in the partially concealed corner near the doorway.
“Good evening. May I help you?” she said with a professional demeanor.
“Good evening, Natalie. We would like to make an appearance before Corey.”
Natalie nodded her head.
“What is the purpose of your visit?”
Kevin snorted imperceptibly and broached a wry smile. She knew exactly why they were there and he wanted to call her out on it. He checked this impulse and went along with the formalities.
“It’s important that I speak with him concerning the recent breach of my home.”
Nodding again, she rose from her desk.
“I’ll take you to a room where you can wait until I can communicate with him about your request and deliver an answer. Please follow me.”
She led Kevin to a door in the opposite corner of the office from where he entered. Yannick stealthily maneuvered his way behind them. Natalie removed a large, old key and unlocked the door. She pulled it open and then promptly kneeled down to attend to her shoe, allowing Yannick to enter after Kevin unseen.
They entered a room with earthen walls held together by thick roots. Candles burned on stands in the corners, shedding light on a long table and chairs in the center of the room, which had a musky, gritty smell to it.
The door closed behind them, and they heard the key turn the lock. Yannick gave Kevin a hard, uneasy look. Together, they approached the table and made out a wooden, locked case at the far end. Kevin didn’t need to guess to know what the case was, and after a moment it rattled and shook, revealing that it contained exactly what they had come for. The word “bait” crossed Kevin’s mind. He felt the pain of the memories it meant to extract.
Contrasting with Kevin’s cool composure, Yannick couldn’t contain his interest and delight in the wooden case. He crept forward cautiously but eagerly. The case popped up and fell back onto the table with a thud.
“Is this really it? So there’s a living foot in here that’s not attached to a body? I have to admit I’ve tracked down a number of people but never like this.”
He extended his arms to reach out and grab hold of the box, but Kevin halted him.
“Don’t touch that! We don’t have permission from Corey. Just take a seat over here and try not to let it tempt you.”
Kevin felt like he had a good understanding of his present situation. Natalie would not return with a decision about whether or not Corey would grant them an audience. Instead, they were already meeting with him.
“Corey,” Kevin called out into the air. “I’ve devised a plan, involving Yannick, to track down the assailant who violated the sanctity of my home and attempted to take the life of my daughter. You yourself said this ordeal is far from over and my family will remain in danger until it is. This is our opportunity to fight back.”
Yannick winced at the sound of his name, but he too waited to hear proof that Kevin’s words had met with more than the soil that surrounded them. A thundering, rumbling voice resonated through the floor and caused a tremor in the room. The sound seemed to come from a colossal being positioned right below their feet and poised to swallow them whole.
“You don’t realize what you’re asking. Will I ignore the chain of command and allow you to take matters into your own hands? That’s not a request to be made lightly.”
“I’m well aware,” Kevin responded. “But this could be our only chance to find out who is doing this and what they want. Who is Pyrenee? These are answers that will not come to us if we simply send the prisoner away. All we need to do is give Yannick something he can track with.”
A bass rumbling came through the floor, a perverse kind of laughter, and Kevin noticed Yannick’s uneasy hand wringing.
“And who are we entrusting our sacred mission to? You do realize your stay in our village hangs from a rope tied to a string tied to a hair. You may be beyond the location of your crime, but the knowledge of it exceeds you. I know you avoid me, and your beating heart tells me of your present discomfort.”
Yannick, defensively, spoke out to the voice, though he felt ridiculous doing so. His eyes drifted toward the rattling box, and it became the object of his speech.
“I’ve made mistakes in my time, but I’m just trying to live my life and make my own way. Just because someone’s done something in the past doesn’t mean they aren’t worth anything now. I can do this job for you. There’s nobody else who can.”
“Ahh, determination. We’ll see how long that lasts,” Corey grumbled. “Mr. Ipswich, what you’re asking for is substantial, but I can’t justify it because you’ve given me so little. Are you sure there isn’t anything you could say that might bolster your case?”
Kevin sighed, bit his lip, and cast a bitter glance down at the floor to the blindfolded old man below him. He leaned forward, putting his face into his hands. Yannick watched him with wide-open eyes.
“You want to know, do you? Is that what it takes? I just have to satisfy your selfish desire for information and then you’ll grant me the freedom to try to keep my family alive? How merciful! It seems like the things that shouldn’t be dredged up are the only ones that ever are. But, fine, I’ll tell you, so listen close.
“When I came back to this village almost sixteen years ago with Jeana and Mira, it was not by choice and not by accident. Jeana and I had a home up north of Darmen in a mountain village. It was a safe, quiet, sleepy town, and we loved it. But all at once our dreamy life met a dark turn.
“In my life I can see a sharp divide, everything before and everything after. To our delight and surprise, Jeana gave birth to twin girls, and we were ready to relish in the joys and pains of parenthood, but the pain came sooner rather than later. Jeana wouldn’t recover after childbirth. Some kind of sickness had found its way into her, and nothing our trusted doctor did could change that. Fearing for the babies’ safety, we had to separate them from their mother. I could tell you at length how terrible that was for them all to endure and for me to bear.
“We lived for a short time as a strained, fragile family, until something not of our own doing drastically changed our lives. I was out in the backyard chopping firewood at dusk. It was spring but the nights were still cool. Wiping my brow, I noticed a window open on the side of the house. Jeana hadn’t been down to the ground floor in a week, and the babies certainly didn’t come up from the basement. Knowing I hadn’t done it either, I raced inside the house and ran down to the nursery.
“I saw him there, an unkempt and heartless man. He stood over one with the other in his arms. I let out a cry when I saw him, and he flew toward the only exit, which I blocked. Mindlessly, I motioned to detain him, but there was some kind of spark that ignited the walls and turned my vapor to steam. My disbelief left me unprepared to defend against his charge, which knocked me down. Never before and never since has my power fizzled on me like that. I watched the fire spread along the ceiling, and I scrambled for my child, the one he left. We hurried up the stairs amid the smoke and spreading fire.
“I only had a split second to choose: take Mira outside first and come back to Jeana or attempt to carry them both from the building. I couldn’t wait, I couldn’t leave her in danger for another second, so with Mira in my arms I hurtled the stairs to Jeana’s chamber. I could feel the warmth through the floor but the fire had not yet spread here. Rustling Jeana and pulling her onto my shoulder, all she would say was that she was sick and shouldn’t be near the baby.
“I carried them from the engulfed building and we collapsed a safe distance away. Amidst Mira’s cries, the three of us watched the flames swallow our home. Her name—Mira’s twin sister—was Clara, and I shudder to think of how she met her end after she was taken from us. But it turned out that was no
t the full extent of the horrors inflicted upon us that night. We didn’t think of it at first, but then we became suspicious when Mira’s power didn’t show. He took it somehow. We checked every inch of her and couldn’t find any evidence something had happened, but something did happen. No one is just born without a power.
“Everyone looked and searched tirelessly, but not a trace could ever be found. Realizing we had nothing but ourselves, we decided to go somewhere far away where they couldn’t ever find us again. But they did find us again, and it wasn’t so different from the first time. Looks like they wanted to finish the job they started, and I get the impression they won’t stop until it is finished.
“Maybe now you understand why this is important to me, as if what happened with the thing in this box wasn’t enough. Now I’m begging you, Corey. Please let us move forward with this.”
Exhausted and teary-eyed, Kevin rested his jaw and hung his head. His eyes closed, he shut out the truth of what he’d said and retreated inward to that truth that can never be communicated. His lip quivered and his hand shook as his mind grasped at the memories and his heart echoed the feelings.
They waited to see what would happen next. He looked at the floor to see if Corey would reply, but no sound of any kind came through. He concentrated on the floor so hard that it startled him when a knock came at the door. Noticing Kevin was in no mood to answer it, Yannick broke from his reclusive tendency and got up from his seat. He heard the door unlock and then pulled it open.
“I forgot to give you this,” Natalie said, offering a small tray with a key on it. Yannick took the tray and closed the door. It did not lock. Returning to the table, he placed the tray between his seat and Kevin’s.
“If you need a moment, that’s fine. We can do this whenever you’re ready,” Yannick said. Kevin summoned a nod and pulled himself together.
“What do we do?” he asked.
“If it’s a hand or a foot, all I need is to clip a nail. That should be enough. If you can hold him in place, I’ll do the rest.”