by Kyle Olson
“Soooo, what’s this about?” Sophia finally said, unable to bear the agony of being summoned and then left to dwell in silence.
“Daontys threatens me,” Sejit hissed, words bubbling up from her feline throat and out from between fangs long enough to pierce through, say, a small woman’s neck, “And by letter, of all things.”
“A letter is rather outdated, I agree,” Tess quipped, “But no need to get so pissy about it.”
A furred fist slammed on the desk with such force even the lamp jumped off the surface, coming back down with a clatter. “The nerve, the hubris! I cannot let this stand.”
Tess slipped her phone away and snatched up the letter, “Is that so? Let’s take a look what birdman has to say.”
Sejit,
Your actions have been, to say the least, a disappointment. Warmongering within such a short time of your election? That is the sort of impatience and lack of foresight expected of your ally. Obvious as well is the response to Ifon’s campaign to bring the region into his fold, and with it, stability. Perhaps that was your intention as well, or so it would be thought, had it been executed with more appropriate timing. That you would challenge Ifon in such a manner has showcased how you have fallen, how you have been brought low.
Yet, it cannot be argued that you are not powerful, or a threat that could be dismissed.
To that end, let it be known that a pact has been bargained between myself and Ifon to ensure you do not overstep your bounds.
Should the lion leave her den, the cubs will pay the price.
Signed,
Daontys
Tess flipped the bit of paper onto the desk. “He never was one for subtlety, was he? Honestly, your ally? I know they don’t think shit of me, but gotta say, to not even use my name… I’ve been holding back too much. Nice penmanship, though, I’ll give him that.”
Stalking back and forth, Sejit gazed upon the letter as if it were a lonely gazelle calf. “Always, he has been an insect, buzzing in my ear. An annoyance for the past thousand years.”
Her head snapped up, “Where is Daontys?”
Sophia started, her mind blanked for a split-second under the sudden pressure, but then coalesced into something she could chew on to spit out the answer.
“Erton. Uh,” she thought ahead, “Same as Ifon. Feels like they’re in the same place, or close to it.”
“Really now?” Tess brightened, “And here I was going to ask if he was bullshitting us.”
Sejit’s tail twitched like a possessed snake, “Good,” she hissed out, almost laughed, “Then they will die together.”
“My, aren’t you a bloodthirsty bitch? Gotta say, this has been quite the new development! Well, I mean, you always were, but seems after that little move you pulled on me, I’d thought you turned over a new leaf,” Tess said, leaning against a wall.
Jackal and lion stared down one another. Sophia, while part-lion, felt no compulsion to assist her sort-of-kin. Rather, she felt like making herself quite scarce.
Clenched fists relaxed. Sejit closed her eyes, inhaled deep, and blew out with such force her nostrils flared and the letter flapped about on the desk. “At every turn there is interference from all sides. This cannot continue. These threats—” Her voice boomed, but she caught herself and continued, in a nice, even voice of someone who had found a vein of patience, “—Are it.”
“Daontys has always been like that,” Tess said, “And while he’s always been a piece of shit, he’s never been one to make an empty bluff. So, hey, at least he follows through on being a piece of shit.”
“Which is why I called you two here. I will venture to his roost and deal with him. Thus—”
“—Oh, good,” Tess scoffed, an eyebrow quirked, “And what do I get out of playing guard dog for a sandbox?”
Sejit’s whiskers twitched and Sophia imagined if this was how it felt to be an ant, if ants had the sort of self-awareness to know how small they were, and how easily an errant foot could spur their transformation from skittering thing to a stain. Yet, perhaps because she was an ant with that sort of self-awareness, she couldn’t help but wonder what it was like up there. All she had to do was climb atop the shoe, and, in theory, she’d be safe.
“I know what you desire. So. I will leave them alive, or at least Ifon, until you dispense with whatever threat Daontys has concocted.”
“…Tempting,” said Tess.
By now, Sophia knew better than to think the slight darkening around the jackal, the way shadows crept like an ink spill, was just a trick of her imagination.
“But how can you promise something like that? Ifon alone is near your equal.”
“Because he is near. I have crushed him before, and I will do so again. In addition, we have something they do not.”
“Hoh?”
Green eyes fell upon Sophia, which were followed by those of red.
“Figures,” she muttered.
“Sophia. Are Daontys and Ifon together at this very moment?”
Under such duress she had expected the visions and images to be shy, but no, they were almost eager to come out. Scenery matched. Walls and furniture matched. Not a perfect match, but close enough. Good thing Daontys apparently had a fondness for yellow, so when a photo of Ifon seated upon a gaudy yellow chair hit the sorting slush-pile, it was all she needed to finger the answer.
“…Yes.”
“How long will they be together?” Sejit asked.
This required a certain kind of thinking, of shifting the pieces of the question about, slipping various words in and out until an answer that made the right sort of sense emerged from the fog of disembodied dates and times, torn from the photos they’d been stamped upon. It was a process, but one she was getting better at. Where it’d have taken, perhaps, a day of speculative thought for something like that, it now took a minute or two. Sometimes more, but still much faster than all day.
And something else. There was a sound where there hadn’t been. Footsteps. A plethora of footsteps, marching in time to a pulsing date. An invisible tank, discernible only from the clatter of treads followed behind. At a podium, standing in silence, was Ifon.
The scene flashed back to the man she’d seen before, thin and proper, drinking a cup of coffee while overlooking a mountain vista. They were animated in tandem.
Sophia darted to the nearby computer and within a minute, retrieved the details to fill in the blanks.
“There’s a… military rally in Coanphany that Ifon will be at in-person in two days. Daontys will still be at his home,” said Sophia, confidently. After such a keen and critical revelation, she couldn’t help but well up with pride.
“Gakaka, look at that! Who needs spies? You’re getting good.”
Sophia’s chin tilted up just so and she smirked.
“An excellent opportunity. I will journey to Erton and press the bird in his cage when he is all alone,” Sejit’s fangs peered out as she spoke, “Then we will deal with Ifon.”
“No,” Tess growled, her cheer vanishing like smoke, “I will not be denied.”
“Fine. I will… disable him, and once Yosel is safe, we can arrange for you to finish the job.”
“Good. I’m liking this plan already.”
“We have much to discuss, and the time is short,” Sejit said, “So, let us continue. How does Daontys intend to attack Yosel?”
Sophia groaned. She sensed another all-nighter coming.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Sophia’s mind hadn’t been picked clean, no, as that’d have left something tidy behind. Instead, her mind was more like the aftermath of a field when a ravenous pack of hogs had been rooting about. And, for all the damage that’d been done, precious little had been harvested.
Not even the new-found addition of sound or even a handful of scents here and there could help her much when it came to deciphering a great deal of it; vast swaths of the images and movie clips were so vague. May as well have guessed at random and made it up as she went along for all the good her powe
r was doing her.
She’d been able to come up with three things that she had any confidence in.
One: A god was going to attack and part of Sioun was likely to be damaged in the fight.
Two: Daontys was, and would likely be, at his home for some time.
Three: A god she didn’t know, but felt had a connection to Daontys, lurked in the city of Sioun.
Rather than take this information and conduct a hunt through her city, Sejit instead acknowledged it as something insignificant as she continued with the arrangements for her departure to Erton. Tess was somewhat more conflicted, but relaxed—she could handle any of the small fry, after all.
With her job done, Sophia ambled home in the morning after she’d caught a short nap. She was regretting having bicycled to work the previous day; every stride on the pedals felt like it’d be her last. Her bike wobbled about as if one of the two were drunk.
Just a little further, five minutes maybe, and she’d be home and could fall into the welcoming embrace of bed and sleep for a good 10, 12 hours. To hell with sleeping schedules! She deserved it. And another raise. Dying in the line of duty had to be worth something, right? Right!
When she woke up, Sejit would be in Erton.
From what she’d overhead in the many phone conversations, the newly elected Marshal was to travel to that beacon of democracy, in secret, of course, and have a discussion about relaxing some trade restrictions in exchange for allowing a few officials to oversee the next set of elections to verify that they were indeed free and untampered. Worst case the secret was maintained and Sejit would have to deal with some stuffy suits in matters that would aid her regardless, and best being that Daontys held enough sway within the government to pick up on her journey and would use her departure as an impetus to launch the offensive on Yosel.
That’s where Tess was to come in.
Since there had been no news about her meltdown, it was presumed to be a state secret. Which meant there was a good chance Daontys, and by extension, Ifon knew. While her capacity for a fight might have slipped out, there was a better-than-good chance they would still underestimate her. Hopefully that’d mean whoever they used to assault Yosel would be someone, or someones, Tess could handle with her firearms and light use of divinity.
As for Sophia? She’d watch. She could handle that.
A boy darted in front of her bicycle in a fashion identical to how people short a few scruples would try to throw themselves in front of cars in the hopes of a nice settlement, but in his calculated risk, he’d solved for the variable of Sophia incorrectly, or, more specifically, how much she’d be watching out.
Some of her neurons fired off that she ought to stop, but they were vetoed by the ones who would much rather just get home.
Unfortunately, bicycles did not work so well when the front wheel got all jammed up with child, toppling Sophia and the boy to the ground in a series of yelps. Sophia’s legs got tangled up in the frame of the bike, but, if there was a bright side, it was that it’d been two legs instead of four.
She said nothing, just sort of laughed to herself and stared at the sky. “Just my fuckin’ luck,” she muttered as she attempted to extract herself from the heap, but she was too tired for that puzzle. Kicking at random would have to do.
“Your luck?” The boy breathed out, coming to his feet on unsteady legs once he had disentangled himself from Sophia, “Lady, you almost killed me!”
“You ran in front of me!” Sophia was thrashing like a trapped animal—with one final kick and shove, she was freed. And wasted no time in mounting back up. And the boy wasted no time making himself an obstacle once again.
“What’s your problem? Outta the way.”
“Wooow, why are all foreigners so rude?”
“’Cause we have to deal with kids like you—” Sophia came to a stop, one leg on the ground, and pat her back pockets, and more importantly, the ankle holster through her pants. Wallet was missing, but her pistol was safe. She breathed a sigh of relief, then the spark of indignation flared up, “Who steal shit from us! Hand it over!”
“Got to go!”
He zipped back to the alley from whence he’d came. Sophia took a step off the bike, intending to give chase, but…
No money in there, one credit card I can just cancel, Sejit or Tess can get me a new license like that… Whatever.
Made her wobbly way home, instead. Two more streets and she’d be home. She could already feel those soft sheets against her skin.
“Lady, don’t you want your wallet back?” The voice came from behind.
She ignored it, summoning all her will to peddle as hard as she could. Most of the wobbliness faded as she accelerated from a meandering walking pace to light jog. Somehow, despite her lightning speed, the boy caught up with her.
“You’re strange!”
“Says the kid who steals my shit and comes back!” Sophia puffed, annoyance fueling her anger, in turn fueling her legs.
Calling the police was an option, but by the time they came—if they ever did—the kid would be long gone. Sophia flashed him an evil eye, but he just smiled back and kept up with her. For a brief moment the thought of asking Sejit or Tess for some sort of aid crossed her mind, but, no, that was out of the question.
“Would you quit following me!”
“Hihi! Come on, come on, don’t you want it back?” He taunted, waving the bit of leather around.
“You can have it.”
“Aw, that’s no fun!”
What is wrong with this kid?
Within a few minutes she’d reached home, along with the boy. Realization hit her that she’d led the little shit straight to where she lived. Perhaps that’d been the angle for harassing her: Follow her, then when she was asleep or gone, call in his brother to break into the place. Or something. He did her have ID, after all, though it didn’t have an apartment number. There were a dozen units in the building and so long as she didn’t cross in front of her sliding patio door, no way to tell which one she lived in.
Sophia calmly locked up her bike on the small rack outside the locked entrance to the building. The boy watched. She watched the boy watching her. She walked to the entrance, again, calmly, and touched the handle. Eyes rested upon her back.
“What in the eight hells do you want!” Sophia roared, whirling in place.
And he just laughed, “You’re funny!”
Weak, defeated laughter spilled from her mouth, her head rolled back to gaze upon the sky, and she asked a little prayer: Oh Sejit, if you have any mercy for your loyal servant, please kill this child!
Sadly, no divine retribution or smiting occurred.
Some gods!
“Okay, whatever, I’m going now, have fun with my wallet and my debt, bye!” Sophia said as she slipped inside.
“Bye!”
Even inside, with the heavy security door between them, she swore she could still feel him watching her. Creaky mechanisms of her mind began to clank. Little thieves were always fast to make a getaway at the mere hint of danger or capture, even if they didn’t think much of their mark. Something was off, possibly even wrong.
Inside her apartment, she was tempted to peek through the blinds to see if he was still there. If he was, and he happened to be looking that way, it’d be a dead giveaway. Difficult as it was to resist the temptation, resist she did. Resistance became a thing of ease the moment she hit her soft bed, cats jumping up after her, meowing and chattering happily before curling up on either side of her. Tomorrow, or rather, that evening or whenever she woke up, she’d let Tess know about what happened.
With that last thought, she drifted off to sleep.
Close to 12 hours later, when the last vestiges of the sun were about to fade, Sophia awoke. With her first thought she scuttled to the blinds and peeked out, prying the thin slats open with a pair of fingers.
A careful, studious look this way and that. Nothing unusual, just street lights, cars, and pedestrians off in the distance. Bik
e was still chained up outside, but considering she’d been waylaid, it’d probably not get much more use. After all, in a car some kid couldn’t stumble into you and make off with your wallet. They’d still stumble in front of you, sure, but your wallet would be safe and they’d have a valuable lesson on how not to act.
Running people over was much more convenient for her.
First things first, she fired off a text message to Sejit and Tess about what’d happened earlier. That done, she got herself cleaned up and took care of a few pressing matters, such as the plates and heaped carry-out containers near the trash. With those chores done, she checked her phone.
While there had been no response from Sejit, Tess did take an interest in the robbery and instructed Sophia to keep her guard up. The timing was far too convenient. In fact, it would be best for Sophia to stay at the penthouse with her. Head on over, soon as possible.
This gave the girl a bout of indecision. On one hand, security. On the other, her own bed. It hadn’t even been a week! Or half a week!
But, fine, whatever. She’s right. I guess.
Sophia pitched her phone into the tangled mass of blankets on her bed. Gregor and Samsa chased after it, poking their heads into folds and nooks in pursuit of the blur.
“Guess who’s going on another trip?”
Samsa mrowed questioningly at her.
At least I don’t have to pack again…
Two trips were required to load up her things and her cats. On the first round to her car, she was on edge, practically tip-toeing across the parking lot, eyes swiveling and scanning. In turn, her odd behavior drew the suspicions of a neighbor, who was getting out of his car. The elderly man seemed to ponder the sight, which’d turned into still-life seeing as how Sophia’d frozen up with embarrassment. Finally, he’d decided that the strange girl holding a cat carrier and a backpack was no threat and went inside, leaving Sophia to thaw and wish, just a little bit, she was dead.
What’s wrong with me? I can defend myself if I need to! What’s a boy going to do? Wait a minute…
She looked at the meowing cats stowed inside her car.
Could it be?