The Fairhaven Chronicles Boxed Set: The Revelations of Oriceran

by S. M. Boyce

  Victoria nodded.

  “I assume you want to sign off on whomever I choose?”

  “I don't care at all.”

  The lawyer huffed, taking off his glasses and cleaning them with a cloth as he spoke. “Miss Brie, this was your childhood home, wasn’t it? I would hate for you to make a choice you would regret. I know you're in pain, and I know I’m putting you in a difficult position. I regret that we must do this so soon after your parents—”

  Victoria cleared her throat, cutting him off. Audrey set a hand on Victoria's long sleeve shirt as a sign of comfort, the hard metal of the magical dagger under her fingertips. Victoria tensed but allowed it. It was hot as hell today, a rare blessing in the Pacific Northwest, but Audrey didn't blame Victoria for hiding that thing. Audrey couldn't help herself; she shuddered at the thought of having something like that in her.

  “The point is,” the lawyer continued, “there are options. We could always rebuild the house, sell it later if you decide that’s still what you want.”

  Victoria narrowed her eyes. “You have kids?”

  He squinted, apparently as confused as Audrey at the question. “Yes.”

  “Could you set foot in a house again if the living room reminded you of the time you saw one of your children die in your arms?”

  The lawyer's jaw tensed. “No, I suppose not.”

  “It’s not much different for me. Sell the house, the land, and everything that survived the fire.”

  He nodded and rifled through more of the papers in the folder. “That said, your parents had several active insurance policies. Namely, life insurance. They named you as the beneficiary, of course, which leaves you with a net worth of over five million dollars.”

  “Holy shit,” Audrey said under her breath.

  The lawyer glared at her, but eventually nodded. “It's a substantial amount, I agree.”

  Victoria, however, didn’t bat an eye. She leaned back in her chair, her left thumb rubbing the shirt sleeve which covered the dagger embedded in her arm.

  The lawyer skimmed the final papers in the stack. “Nearly all of your parents’ estate comes from the insurance policies. It may take a little while for us to collect them, but you will have more than enough to keep you comfortable for the rest of your life if you're frugal with it.”

  Audrey frowned, her mind wandering to the dagger in Victoria's arm. Apparently, it had first been embedded in her father, which meant Victoria's parents must have gone down one hell of a deep rabbit hole to find it. They had found something dark, something that could get them killed. From the looks of these insurance policies, they probably knew they wouldn't survive.

  But if that were the case, it didn’t make sense for Victoria's father to pass the torch to Victoria, his only child. If it had been Audrey, she would've hidden it, done anything to keep Victoria from being connected to something that might kill her. That was what family was supposed to do—protect each other. She gritted her teeth, brimming with resentment on her friend’s behalf.

  The lawyer rifled through his desk drawer. “There's also this—the key to a safe deposit box at the bank four blocks down. They didn't tell me what’s in it. I’m simply supposed to give this to you last.”

  Victoria took the key, examining it in silence. As it twirled in Victoria’s hand, Audrey caught a number in black writing on its flat, round face:

  153

  Audrey bit her lip, waiting for her friend to say something, anything, but it didn't seem like that would happen.

  “Thank you,” Audrey said, standing.

  The lawyer nodded and gestured to the door. “If you have any questions, Victoria, you have only to give me a call. You ladies have a nice day.”

  A humorless chuckle escaped Victoria. “Yeah, right.”

  As they walked through the lobby and out into the hall of the shared office building, they passed a row of windows facing the street below. Several shops squeezed together along the historic road, their signs swinging in the gentle breeze of the summer day. A tailor. A hardware store. A diner.

  Victoria paused, her gaze lingering out the window. “Mom used to take me to that diner. We would get a hot fudge sundae and share it.”

  Audrey set a hand on Victoria’s shoulder. “Good, because I could go for some ice cream right now.”

  “You hate ice cream. You used to say it’s what weak people eat when they can’t handle whiskey.”

  “True, but I'm worried about you, and ice cream usually cheers you up. Let’s go.”

  ***

  Audrey munched on a fry while she watched the brooding Victoria stab her spoon into the sundae as it melted from neglect. She hadn’t even taken a bite yet. Plates clinked and coffee was poured in the bustling diner. The mumble of two dozen conversations filled the air.

  “I think I'm broken, Audrey,” Victoria said.

  Audrey tossed her half-eaten french fry onto her plate and leaned her elbows on the table, doing her best to give Victoria an encouraging look. It probably wasn't working, but she didn't care. She was really worried about her friend. “Victoria, stop this shit. Right now.”

  “What?” Victoria snapped her head up, eyes wide with apparent surprise. Good. At least Audrey had her attention.

  “I’m the asshole. You’re the fun one. That’s how this works. And come on, girl. You’re not broken. You're hurt. You're grieving. It’s called being normal.”

  Victoria pointed to the dagger hidden by her long-sleeved shirt. Her voice came out in a harsh whisper. “This isn’t normal!”

  “I—granted, no, that’s weird as hell.”

  “And I can't cry. Not since I saw their bodies.”

  “I know, but—”

  “No, you don't understand. Not even a little. All I can think about is killing that guy. Slitting his throat and ripping him open with my bare hands. This isn't like me. I don’t even recognize myself.”

  The man behind her stiffened and looked over his shoulder, a combination of bewilderment and fear on his face.

  “Not your convo, buddy,” Audrey said.

  He caught her eye and turned sharply back to his food.

  Audrey leaned toward Victoria and pushed the melting ice cream aside. Honestly, she didn’t know what to say. “You just need time, V.”

  “Maybe,” Victoria muttered.

  “Time,” Audrey continued, “and revenge.”

  Victoria leaned in, face stoic and intense, her voice a whisper. “I’ve never killed anyone before, but I'm not kidding when I say I’ll kill this man. He murdered my mother and father. He took everything from me. I don’t care if I’m only eighteen. I will not hesitate to obliterate this guy. Are you sure you want to see that?”

  Audrey nodded, slowly at first. “I know you’re hurt, and I know you’re serious. I don’t blame you. This bastard killed your parents right in front of you. I would want justice, too.”

  Victoria scoffed. “Me saying all this doesn’t freak you out?”

  Audrey shrugged. “I love you, idiot. Of course I’m going to help you through this.”

  That got a small smile out of Victoria, at least. “We just need someone to point us in the right direction, as Dad would say.”

  “I think someone already did,” Audrey said, pointing to the key in Victoria's pocket.

  Victoria nodded. “You think they left me answers? Some idea of what we’re really up against?”

  “If I know your parents? All that and more.”

  Victoria pulled the key out of her pocket, studying it once more in the sunlight coming into the diner window. “Let's not waste any time, then.”

  CHAPTER 4

  For the first time since the fire, Victoria felt excited. She had to actively keep herself from pushing past the bank manager and finding the damn safe deposit box herself.

  The manager’s high heels clacked on the tile floor, the clicks echoing in the quiet space. There wasn’t even bland, outdated music playing—only silence and the incessant tapping of the woman’s
shoes.

  She turned a corner, leading them toward the open vault. The vault door sat open, the three-foot-thick steel almost as intimidating as the second barred door separating the hallway from the interior. Victoria marveled at the depth of the vault’s walls as she entered—if the door shut on them, they would be screwed.

  Inside, the vault was lined with safe deposit boxes about as wide as a hardcover book, all of them adorned with gold locks and gilded numbers.

  “Ah, here we go,” the manager said, tapping one of the boxes.

  Victoria studied the number:

  153

  The bank manager inserted Victoria’s key and her own and twisted them both in their respective locks. With a tiny creak, the squat door opened, and she slid out a thin box the size of a textbook. Victoria nearly protested—this is something she wanted to examine in private. Heels clacking once more over the vault floor, the manager led them into the hallway again and closed the metal gate behind them.

  A little confused, Victoria followed with Audrey in tow as the woman led them to a tiny room across the hall. Aside from the pale wood of the round table and the two bland chairs, the room had only florescent light. Not even a window.

  The manager set the box on the table and smiled. “We like to give our clients a bit of privacy while they deal with their things. When you're done, just ring the bell here.” She pointed to a little buzzer in the wall, not unlike a doorbell. “Do you need anything else?”

  “No, thank you,” Victoria said with a forced smile.

  “I'll leave you to it, then,” the woman said, handing over Victoria’s key. Her heels tapped on the floor as she returned to the hallway, and the door clicked shut.

  Victoria caught Audrey's eye as she readied herself to open the box. “Now or never.”

  Audrey nodded. “I hope this has some answers.”

  No kidding. “Me, too.”

  The top of the box popped upward as if it were on a spring, and she lifted it the rest of the way to reveal the box’s contents.

  A gun.

  “Shit,” she hissed. A pistol not unlike the ones she saw in action movies lay in the deposit box, a full clip of bullets next to it. She lowered the lid and looked around for a camera or something that might be recording them.

  “A gun?” Audrey leaned in, her voice a whisper as she set a hand on the top of the box as well.

  Fighting the panic and nerves fluttering in her chest, Victoria did her best to keep her voice low. “What the hell did my parents get into?”

  Audrey gritted her teeth and shook her head, apparently as mystified as Victoria.

  Tenderly, gingerly, Victoria peeked underneath the lid again. The gun hadn’t budged. It must have been heavy.

  A gun. Jesus.

  Beside the pistol was an emerald-green pouch with gold drawstrings. She slipped it out, half-expecting a grenade based on the box’s contents so far. Instead, though, she found tiny crystals—hundreds of them. They glittered in the artificial light, glowing faintly green. She smiled, grateful that something beautiful was beside something so deadly.

  At the bottom of the box was a white spiral notebook with a single word scribbled on the front in black Sharpie:

  Oriceran

  “I feel like I'm in a Jason Bourne novel,” Audrey muttered under her breath. “Cryptic clues left in a safe deposit box. A gun. Next thing you know someone is going to burst in here, bullets flying.”

  “Well, don't jinx it,” Victoria said, rolling her eyes.

  She picked up the spiral notebook, and a simple white envelope fell to the tiled floor. Her name had been written on the front in her father's handwriting.

  Her throat caught, and she brushed her thumb across the letters. She paused, savoring something familiar in a sea of strange.

  Audrey patted her shoulder, squeezing lightly for comfort. They had known each other so long that Audrey didn’t even need to say anything.

  It’s okay, the gesture said.

  With a deep breath, Victoria ripped open the envelope to find a single piece of paper covered in blue ink. Her father's familiar tight handwriting covered the page.

  Darling Victoria—

  If you are reading this, I'm dead. I’m sorry I left you to face this alone.

  The writer in me hates those words because they don’t do the truth any justice. I never thought I would have to write a letter to explain things to you once I had passed, except maybe a few times in Afghanistan when I was covering the war and wasn't sure if I would make it home.

  But this, Victoria, is worse than war.

  There's so much more to our world than I ever thought possible. Your mother and I have discovered only a small part of it, and we wanted to protect you from it. But as you've probably guessed by now, we didn't have so much life insurance out of luck. We figured something would happen to us, and we knew in the long run we wouldn’t be able to stop the people coming after us from coming after you. We simply wanted to give you a proper childhood and a chance to live a normal life before you were inevitably ripped from it.

  In the spiral book you'll find our notes, everything we've learned so far about the truth hidden right beneath our noses. There are all sorts of creatures, Victoria, all sorts of, well, there's nothing else to call it but magic.

  A simple letter won’t do it justice, which is why we gave you the spiral notebook. Low tech, I know, but we didn’t want anyone to hack us. But know this: we love you. We love you completely, and we’re sorry for any way we have failed you. Part of me wanted to train you the moment your mother and I discovered this other world, this place called Oriceran, but you were so young. I was torn between keeping you safe and making you aware of the truth.

  I hope I didn't fail you.

  I can tell you that if your mother and I are gone, you're no longer safe here. As soon as you can, you need to go to Santa Barbara. I know that California is quite a drive, but there is a hidden city there called Fairhaven. Directions are in the notebook. Go there and find a man named Fyrn Folly. He can answer all your questions, and he'll help you figure out what to do next. He will keep you safe.

  With all my love,

  Dad

  Doing her best to fight back the lump in her throat, Victoria set the letter on the table and picked up the spiral notebook, fingers brushing the black Sharpie on the front.

  Oriceran

  She hovered over the strange word, not even sure how to pronounce it. But it was more than a word, wasn't it? It was a whole world, the answer she had been looking for. She thumbed through the notebook, its pages alternating between her father’s and her mother's handwriting. There were entries with words she didn't understand and pictures that didn't make sense.

  She paused on one picture of her parents posing with a seven-foot tall creature. It had thick arms, not unlike tree trunks, and a body as round as a barrel. Its brown skin was covered in boils and warts, and it grinned with a crooked smile full of teeth that didn't quite match up. One long tooth protruded over its lips, nearly touching its nose.

  If Victoria hadn't seen fire shoot from the elf’s hand, hadn’t experienced a shield appearing out of nowhere, she might've thought it was a wax figurine, albeit a really, really good one. But deep in her soul, she knew better. This was a real creature, something magical.

  Something she needed to see for herself.

  She stumbled across a page with the title “Fairhaven” and skimmed it for answers. There was a bridge in Santa Barbara she needed to go to with a symbol she needed to press, and stairs would appear.

  Jesus, what next? A broom and an invitation to Hogwarts?

  She dropped the spiral notebook on the table, rubbing her temples as she fought to process the information crashing over her. It was almost too much, but her parents had taught her enough about journalism and investigative reporting to make it through. She simply needed a break, a moment to breathe. She would pick up the book again later.

  “Fuck,” Audrey said under her breath. She set th
e letter on the table, eyeing Victoria with a combination of concern and fear.

  But Victoria wasn't afraid. Overwhelmed? Sure. A little nervous? Absolutely. But afraid? Not a snowball’s chance in hell. This was exactly what she needed: answers, a direction, something to do.

  She would learn everything there was to learn about this world, about its creatures, and about this monster named Luak. And when she had learned all there was to learn, she would use her new knowledge to make Luak pay for everything he had taken from her.