by TR Cameron
I wonder what they use for currency. Probably not ours. He frowned and began to pull the gear from the lockers and stow it.
Behind him, Kendra made a strange sound. He turned to find her peering at the wall with the clippings and the string on it. During their second visit, he’d teased Cali that it looked like the work of a serial killer, which hadn’t gone over well at all. It did, though. The detective looked carefully at the pages and moved from one to the next quickly enough that there was no way she could actually be reading them.
When she spoke, her voice was odd, somewhere between condemnation and respect. “I recognize these stories. Well, the people they’re about. Most of them are dead or in our missing persons' files.” He straightened with a frown and walked over to stand beside her. She pointed at one, seemingly at random. “Drug dealer.” She aimed her finger at another. “Suspected arsonist.” Then at a third. “Assault.” She continued to point and list crimes.
He shook his head. “So, what’s the connection?”
She folded her arms and looked at him with her police face. “They are all unsolved but the unit thinks they could be the work of the same person or persons.”
“Wait. You’re suggesting that Cali’s parents might have been…what, criminals?”
“I believe the proper term is vigilantes. Or maybe killers.”
Tanyith wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “Could it be all those people were Atlanteans and they were policing their own?”
Kendra shrugged. “It’s possible but it still doesn’t make it right. We do have things like laws and such.”
His laugh was dark. “Laws that are more or less inadequate against many of the magical threats around, though. Or will you arrest Cali and I for defending ourselves against the gangs?”
She sighed. “There’s a difference. They started it.”
He shook his head. “I hear what you’re saying but I don’t think it’s as black and white as you seem to believe it is.”
“And it’s entirely possible you’re right but equally possible you’re wrong. If they did target these scumbags, though, they should have worked with the police.”
Mildly offended, he returned to the lockers and began to shove things in the bags with a little more force. “So, you’re saying the department would have been willing to help them rather than investigating them or simply locking them up?”
Kendra crossed to the next equipment locker and pulled it open. “No. There’s no way to be sure of that. But I am saying civilians shouldn’t do illegal things, even if it’s against bad guys.”
“What about Robin Hood?”
“What?” Her tone confirmed that he’d caught her by surprise, and he chuckled.
“Robin Hood. The guy with the merry men. He robs from the rich and gives to the poor and in doing so does good, but outside the rules of society. Should he have tried to team up with the Sherriff of Nottingham? How do you think that would have turned out?”
She handed him several pieces of electronic gear and he stored them carefully. When she spoke again, her tone was thoughtful. “I agree that not every rule has to be followed. But being a vigilante is taking it too far.”
Tanyith sighed and lowered himself to the hard floor to do a second check to ensure everything was properly stowed in the bags so nothing would break. “You’re probably correct. But there are always circumstances that push the boundaries, you know?”
“Speaking of which, you’ll be careful in New Atlantis, right? There’s no need to cause trouble there too.”
He chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’m sure Cali won’t let me get up to anything nefarious.”
Across town, in the magical library beneath the main branch she knew so well, Cali muttered, “It’ll be hard to resist kicking people’s butts when we get to New Atlantis. This book is full of jerks.”
At her feet, Fyre snorted but didn’t reply. He’d maintained the secret of his ability to talk since they’d entered. It gave her a reminder of the need for caution, as she’d vaguely thought anyone allowed in could be trusted. The reality was she had no way of knowing who was welcome and who wasn’t.
Scoppic hadn’t been present when she’d arrived but apparently, he’d given permission for her to have access to whatever she needed. The gnome librarian on duty had retrieved books for her on the history of Atlantis, both Old and New. She paged through them and tried to get a sense of the culture, the social structure, and the way things worked in general.
It would be nice if not everything was a surprise when we get there, although I’m sure most will still be.
Information on the nine families was strangely lacking. She’d assumed such an important part of the hierarchy would be well documented but clearly, she’d reasoned wrong. She shook her head. “They’re either insanely secretive or everyone knows about them and they’re so fundamental there’s no need to mention them. Somehow, I think it’s probably the first one.”
The Draksa grumbled agreement. She set the book she’d been reviewing aside and pulled the next one off the pile. “Oh, look. Economic systems. Blah blah blah.” The trip was proving decidedly useless. She looked at the remaining titles, none of which held much more promise than the half-dozen she’d already scanned.
Her frustration was interrupted by the arrival of her favorite gnome. Scoppic had been both kind and supportive in all their dealings, and she had a soft spot for librarians in the first place. He greeted her with a smile and a cheerful, “Caliste, so good to see you.”
She clambered out of her chair and knelt so she’d be at eye level. “And the same to you. There’s someone I want you to meet.” She smacked Fyre, who climbed grudgingly to his feet and sat beside her. Scoppic’s face lit up at the sight and he extended a hand toward him.
“May I?” Cali nodded and he ran his hand along the Draksa’s flank. “Amazing. I’ve never met one in person. I’ve read about them, of course, but that’s nothing like actually being close to one.” He tilted his head left and right to peer at both sides of Fyre’s head. “The metallic scales mean he’s male, true?”
“Yes, for the moment, at least. I’ve been told they are able to change that over the course of their lives. He seems disinclined, though, as far as I can tell.”
The gnome laughed happily. “That’s what I remembered. Good. And his breath weapon. If it’s not impolite to ask, what is it?”
Fyre answered with a soft sneeze that sent frost into the air in front of his face. Scoppic’s grin widened. “Oh, cold—that’s exceedingly rare. There’s also fire and lightning.”
“And acid,” she added with a shudder as she recalled the previous battle.
“Really? I hadn’t heard of that. I will need to write it down.” He seemed to realize that he was being overly effusive because he straightened and asked, “Have you found what you are looking for?”
Cali sighed, stood, and returned to her chair. “Not hardly. There are no histories that talk about the nine.”
He nodded. “Of course. Because the families are always in competition, they have worked hard to keep their activities out of the light. Only after one has fallen do they find their way into the accounts. And the current nine have been in place for at least a century, to judge by what I’ve seen.”
“That sounds about right. None of these are that old, so I guess it makes sense they wouldn’t say anything about it. Do you have any other information about them?”
Scoppic shook his head. “I’m afraid not. I’m far from an expert and I have never seen any tomes that dealt with the top of the Atlantean hierarchy. I could tell you about the process to reach the nobility, but I’m sure you’ve already found enough on that topic.”
Cali grimaced. She had—too much of it. Moving up in the social ranks seemed to be one of the things the historians truly enjoyed spinning tales about. “Okay, thanks. I guess we’ll merely have to find out for ourselves.”
His eyes widened. “Do you mean that you are going there? To New Atlantis?”
“You’ll look out for good additions for the library while you’re there, won’t you? I’d happily repay you for anything you consider worthy of retrieving.”
His love of books was a pleasure that radiated from him. The sight made her happy. “Of course I will. As many as can fit on a Draksa’s back.”
Fyre snorted frost onto her shoes, much to the delight of the librarian. He wandered away and she shook her head and stood again. “And on that note, I guess we’d better go and start packing. Tomorrow afternoon will be here before we know it.” With a parting scowl at the stack of books on the table that had provided so little information, she began the long climb to the library above.
Chapter Fifteen
Despite the closed sign on the door, Cali walked into the fortune teller’s shop without hesitation. It was Sunday so Emalia’s business didn’t officially open until mid-afternoon, which gave them quality time together. She had really pushed things to the last minute, having only finished the majority of her packing a half-hour before. She still had items to add but felt like the situation was under control.
Of course, her backpack was filled to bursting. The jeans and t-shirt she had on were her third favorites, as the first was set out to wear for the cruise ship part of the trip and the second was already packed.
The tea was brewed and waiting, and she sat across from the older woman with a grin. Emalia was the poster child for perfect posture and looked almost regal in her cardigan and blouse. Her white hair was carefully up in a new style and reached a little below her ears. “So, this is your last chance to tell me anything you think I should know about New Atlantis.”
The woman laughed. “You already have every snippet of knowledge I possess. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been there, and I was only a child then.”
Cali sipped her tea, which tasted strange but pleasant nonetheless. She wondered often if Emalia used her as a guinea pig for new blends before she shared them with other people. While she didn’t know of any others her aunt hung out with, she presumed there must be some. “That’s so not helpful. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Her mentor stuck her tongue out at her. “And you are a spoiled brat.”
She imitated Reese Witherspoon’s speaking style from Legally Blonde. “What-ever. Like, I’m totally smart and have lots of skills.” They both laughed and in her normal tones, she added, “Of course, I hope I’ll leave with a couple more skills than I came in with.”
Emalia nodded. “Water breathing, for sure. What else are you looking for?”
“Speed. Tanyith says he has spells to make us faster, but I’d rather not have to rely on him.”
The other woman shook her head. “That’s advanced magic. I have no doubt you will be able to master it but you’ll constantly be tempted to use it. And therein lies the problem, because it can burn your energy away before you realize it’s happening.”
Cali nodded. “I read about that. I think I need to learn it anyway but believe me, I’ll only invoke those skills when completely necessary.”
Her aunt shrugged. “When could I ever say no to you?”
That was her cue to rise and head upstairs, but Cali remained in her chair. In a burst of quick words, she said, “Remember the reading you did? That mentioned the Empress? It turns out it’s the actual Empress of New Atlantis.”
Emalia didn’t speak for several seconds, then she shrugged. “That’s surprising but certainly not impossible, by any means. You will need to be doubly careful of her and her agents when you are in her lands.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I’d kinda worked that one out for myself. Do you have any useful advice?” She put enough teasing in it to hide her actual nervousness over traveling to the home turf of the person who her fortune said opposed her.
“Yes. Get your butt upstairs so we can get started before I smack you.” With a laugh, she did as she was told.
They took their usual positions, Emalia standing by the wardrobe and her student seated in the vanity chair. Her great aunt looked distressed, and if she’d had any option other than doing this lesson right then, Cali would have taken it.
Sadly, the boat won’t wait for me if I’m late, so I guess we need to do what we need to do.
The older woman sighed, then straightened her spine. “Okay, we can’t practice the water breathing here so we’ll do the speed first. Clear your mind.”
Obediently, she locked all her thoughts into the corners of her brain and envisioned the caution tape she used to secure them in place. When she was ready, she nodded at her teacher. “I await your command, wise one.”
Emalia’s lips twitched but otherwise, she didn’t react. “Now, imagine you can see your metabolism, your muscles, your veins, and your arteries. Picture your whole body as if was a machine in front of you. It’s extremely important that you make the image as detailed as possible because it’s the memory of this moment that will allow you to summon the magic until it becomes routine for you.”
Cali nodded and exhaled. She built the representation layer by layer. First was her general body shape, like a chalk outline on a black surface. Above it, she placed her bones and the result resembled a paper Halloween skeleton Dasante had brought to the Square once to use as a puppet. She didn’t really know one blood vessel from the next, so she imagined them as straws, large in the center and as tiny as a coffee swizzle stick at the fingers and toes.
The heart was like something from a manga, all perfectly formed and cute, and it stretched and contracted in time with her actual one. The lungs were blobs, as she really had zero ideas about lungs. They were connected to more straws that mimicked the path of the blood vessels.
She stared at the arrangement for several seconds and wondered if anything more should be added. One more quick thought inserted a giant gumdrop in place of the brain and she opened her eyes with a smile.
“I’m ready.”
The woman gazed at her for a second without speaking but was apparently satisfied with what she saw. “So, you have to connect these systems with your magic. You’ve always treated them as separate things, both when you thought of your power as a reservoir and now when you think of it as being everywhere. You must bring that all together into one holistic vision of yourself.”
Cali frowned. “How do you do it?”
Her great aunt nodded approval of the question. “I envision all the blood vessels and breathing tubes and muscles and capillaries where they pass through the pool of my magic. Thus, it is easy to make the power flow into them and travel along them. I don’t think that will work for you, though.”
It was a good point. When she’d explained the new way her magic felt to her, all-encompassing rather than a reservoir waiting to be summoned, Emalia had told her that from now on, teaching her would be more difficult because they experienced magic differently. She’d been quick to add that her guidance would still be valuable and she could help with any number of things but she’d have to insert a step to translate the instructions into something relevant to her own perspective. “Okay. Let me think about that for a minute.”
She imagined the image of her body stretching apart like Tony Stark’s creation scenes in the Marvel movies. Doing so gave her access to the base outline, and she filled it in with gold to represent her magic that underlaid and touched everything. When the model collapsed again, the color shone through in several places. More importantly, it tinted all the other elements as if they’d become translucent. She could easily picture her magic passing through them and she smiled as she realized how interconnected it all was. “I’ve got it.”
Her mentor’s voice was amused. “I can see that by the look on your face. Now, if you want to change something, simply picture your magic flowing into it with a specific purpose. In this case, you can imagine your muscles getting stronger and your heart beating more powerfully to send energy to them. In turn, that will allow you to be
stronger or faster or whatever you want to be. Give it a try with something simple.”
Cali nodded, held a hand up, and wiggled her fingers. She sent her magic to them, willed them to speed up, and grinned when they blurred into motion. After only a few seconds, they were aching and she pulled the power away from them. “Ow. Okay, I see what you mean.”
“Exactly. You’ll be able to build your endurance up the more you use it, but there’s always a cost, both in exhaustion for your body and the consumption of your power. It’s a constant trade-off.”
“Right. Got it. I think I can take that one from here. What about the water breathing?”
Emalia laughed. “You’re so very unappreciative. Okay, let’s go.” She created a portal and stepped through, leaving the girl to scramble behind her. On the other side was a room lit only with the smallest of illumination but containing a huge pool. The woman summoned a light, commanded it to hover in mid-air, and pointed at the water. “Get in.”
She frowned. “But I didn’t bring a bathing suit.”
The force blast that shoved her into the water was completely unexpected, and she came up sputtering and cursing. Emalia laughed, then laughed again when she scowled in response. “That will teach you to forget to say thank you when someone teaches you something.” She gestured to the surrounding room. “We’re at a local high school, an appropriate place for you to learn.”
Cali floated and collected herself but refused to express her belated appreciation and her great aunt continued. “So, breathing in water isn’t really the right term. You can’t actually extract oxygen from the water without gills. What you can do is make the oxygen you have last long enough that it seems like you’re breathing in water for a time.”