“You’ve been practicing,” Izumi rasped. “Where did you learn that?”
“From you,” Calisto said and knelt down next to her. “All those beatings helped me get better.”
Izumi tried to laugh but couldn’t and coughed instead. Blood trickled from the side of her mouth. Calisto propped her head in her lap.
“Where is the Lost Hall?” Calisto pleaded. “Tell me.”
“Forget him, it’s too late,” Izumi said. “Never liked him anyway, with his stupid bald head.” Calisto gave a short laugh at her words while fighting back tears.
“I can’t forget him, I love him,” Calisto said. “You know that.”
“Lost cause is what you are,” Izumi whispered. “Save her before it’s too late, before she changes into a Lord.” She traced a diagram in Calisto’s hand.
“What is that?” Calisto asked, looking down at the diagram that gave off a golden glow.
“Master Ward path to Father. He won’t be able to block that…won’t be able to block that one,” Izumi said and fell back.
Her next breath was her last.
THIRTY-FOUR
“This is too dangerous, Wake,” Mercy said. “The last person who took this passage died in my arms.”
They stood in a small room no larger than a walk-in closet. Wards decorated the walls, floor, and ceiling.
“I’m going too,” Jas said as they both turned at her voice. Mercy moved to touch her and Jas pulled out her gun. “I swear if you touch me again I will shoot you.”
Mercy dropped her hand and took a step back.
“I was only trying to keep you safe,” Mercy said. “If you went out there they would’ve killed you. Tell her, Wake.”
“Keep me safe from over there,” Jas said and pointed with her gun. “I’m going with you, Wake.”
Wake nodded. “Her choice. She’s not a trainee any longer,” she said. “If she wants to come, she comes.”
“This is irresponsible,” Mercy said. “She is a child. If something goes wrong, her death is on your hands.”
“Jas is a Sister. You put your hands on her again without her consent, I’ll shoot you,” Wake said. “Now, unless you’re joining us, you need to step outside.”
Mercy left the room and Wake sealed the door.
“There’s nothing electronic in here so your tech mojo shouldn’t screw with anything in here,” Wake said.
“Right, this is all wards and power we don’t really understand,” Jas said, looking around the ward-covered walls. “What could go wrong with that scenario?”
“Exactly. We need to get to the Ward Hall,” Wake said. “It’s supposed to be this configuration here.”
Wake pointed at a cluster of wards positioned on the right wall.
“How do you know this?” Jas asked.
“Mercy.”
“Mercy?” Jas asked. “Do you trust her?”
“Yes,” Wake said. “I think she means well and would prefer we didn’t do this, but her intentions are good.”
“Why that Hall?” Jas asked.
“Calisto took Sepia to see Fuma,” Wake answered. “Probably something to do with the artifact or sword.”
“Or both,” Jas said. “What is Fuma, really?”
“He is the last of the true Ward Masters,” Wake said as she looked at the sequence of wards she needed to press. “Anna has been studying him for years now. She says he’s planning to destroy the Order and everyone in it.”
“And we are going because…?”
“Because according to Anna he lost his mind long ago,” Wake said. “Several Sisters have died in his Ward Hall trying to get information.”
“Maybe he’s really touchy about trespassers?” Jas said. “Or he just hates everyone?”
“Let’s pretend it’s one or both of those,” Wake said. “Sepia is heading over there uninvited.”
“We need to get to that Hall now.”
Wake nodded and pressed the sequence. The room flooded with light and they disappeared.
They found themselves in a large cavern. Around them, wards could be seen on the walls. Every few seconds the wards would shift and change. They stood in an old and faded ward circle.
“Guess these things never stop working,” Wake said, looking down.
“Where are we?” Jas whispered and pointed. “Have you ever seen wards do that?”
“Never,” Wake answered. “But I’ve heard of it. They’re called living wards. Don’t touch them. This looks like the lowest level of the Hall.”
“At least we made it one piece,” Jas said.
“I see something up ahead, looks like a staircase,” Wake said.
They walked to the end of the cavern. A staircase jutted out of the stone and led to a large door. Around the door, wards flowed and changed around the doorframe.
“I can sense tech on the other side of that door,” Jas said. “It’s not clear, but it’s there.”
“There must be some kind of interference,” Wake said, looking around. “Maybe the wards?”
Jas unholstered her gun and Wake helped her put it back in.
“What? You said he was some kind of antisocial maniac?”
“How about the first impression we send is not ‘let’s blow his head off’?”
“Good point,” Jas said. “Sorry, I was just thinking about Sepia and how she’s going to be here alone and without her weapon.”
“I know you’re worried, but Sepia is no slouch,” Wake replied. “She can take care of herself.”
“But we’re here to help her, right?” Jas asked. “Get her away from this place—somewhere she can be okay?”
Wake remained silent for a few seconds, lost in thought.
“Wake, we’re here to help her, right?” Jas asked, scared. “You don’t have some secret contract out on her, do you?”
Wake snapped back from her thoughts.
“No, that’s not the part I was thinking about,” Wake said. “We’re here to get her out and away from Fuma safely.”
Jas breathed a sigh of relief. “What were you thinking about?”
“Did you see any return wards on that circle we stepped out of?”
Jas looked back at the circle in the distance behind them.
“Even if I did, I wouldn’t recognize them,” she said. “Shit, we’re screwed.”
“Let’s find her first, then we’ll figure a way out,” Wake said. “Maybe Fuma will just show us the exit?”
“Somehow I don’t see that happening,” Jas said. “Especially after sneaking in here.”
Wake opened the door and nothing happened. Beyond the door, they could see a large library. Rows upon rows of books filled the vast floor.
“Evidently Fuma likes his books,” Jas said, looking around at the shelves. “There must be thousands in here.”
“I agree, and any other time I would love nothing more than to look through some of these,” Wake said, “but that is not the focus of our visit. We need to get in and get out without attracting attention.”
“You are trespassing,” a small voice said from in front of them. “You will comply or be eliminated.”
Jas chuckled. “Look—it’s a mini guard.”
Wake stopped in her tracks and froze. Her lack of movement caught Jas by surprise.
“Stop moving, and whatever you do, don’t reach for any of your weapons,” Wake whispered slowly. “In fact, keep your hands away from your body and don’t make any sudden movements.”
“What are you freaking out about?” Jas asked. “It’s just a kid.”
The small voice belonged to a little girl dressed in loose-fitting black pants and a matching top. Her hair was tied in two pigtails and pulled tight to her head. She remained in the center of the floor and focused on the pair.
“That is a wardling,” Wake said. “You remember the living wards you saw outside?”
Jas nodded slowly, surprised at Wake’s reaction. Wake’s fear had transmitted clearly in the tone of her voice.
“Yes, I remember,” Jas said. “What about them?”
“This ‘kid’ in front of us is like those wards, only one hundred times stronger,” Wake said. “She is a living ward.”
“Can we fight her?”
“Not if we want to live. You can feel the energy coming off of her.”
“I can’t, but I’ll take your word for it.”
“If he managed to create wardlings, this just went from insane to impossible.”
“Looks like comply, then,” Jas said and put her hands in the air.
The child stepped closer and looked at Jas. “My name is Tami. Please lower your arms,” she said, and Jas lowered her arms, careful to keep them away from her weapons.
“Yeah, that’s not creepy at all,” Jas said under her breath.
“She can probably hear you,” Wake whispered.
“Please follow me. My master is waiting for you,” Tami said and turned around, leading them out of the room. Wake followed.
“Do you think Sepia is here?” Jas whispered.
“If she is I don’t think we’re being taken to her,” Wake answered.
“What’s the plan?” Jas answered. “You have a plan, right?”
“We’re outmatched, outnumbered, and outgunned,” Wake whispered. “Right now the plan is called...don’t die.”
They were taken to a large room with bookcases lining the walls. The center of the floor was dominated by a large circle surrounded by living wards. The circle itself was drawn in gold. The living wards morphed and shifted every few seconds. Jas knelt down to look at them closer.
“Is that silver?” she asked.
“Liquid mercury,” a voice said. “A simultaneous solid and liquid. The most potent medium for wards. I wouldn’t touch them if I were you.”
Jas looked up and Wake turned slightly to take in the old man who entered the room. He was dressed in black flowing pants and a matching black top. His gray hair was cropped short and stood up in spikes. A pair of reading glasses sat perched on his nose. He walked across the floor silently and gestured at Tami.
“Thank you for bringing my ‘guests’ Tami,” he said. “You may go. I have a feeling we will be having more guests soon. Please greet them and bring them here.”
“Are you Fuma?” Jas asked.
“I see manners have all but disappeared in the years since I left,” he said. “Tell me why you’re in my home and why I should allow you to continue breathing?”
“We’ve come for Sepia,” Wake said. “Rumor has it you’re insane and intend to destroy the Order.”
He removed his glasses and wiped the lenses several times with his chamois. After a few seconds, he held them out to make sure they were clean and replaced them on his nose.
“That rumor is correct,” he said. “At least the ‘destroy the Order’ part. As for insane, they’ve always thought I was insane.”
Wake and Jas tensed, and he scowled.
“Settle down. I’m not going to war with the Order,” he said. “My method requires less killing but is just as effective. What are you two supposed to be anyway, ninja?”
“We are Sisters,” Wake answered.
“Sisters?” he said. “You don’t look related.”
“No, Sisters—as in failed Hunters who now work for the Order,” Jas said before she realized her error.
“You work for the Order?” he asked.
“No,” Wake said quickly. “We work with Anna White. She leads our division of the Sisters.”
“Anna White,” he said softly, tapping his chin. “I know that name, but the only Anna I knew was a bratty little pain-in-the-ass.”
Wake nodded. “That’s her except she’s much older now,” she said. “She leads our group, or what remains of it.”
“Little Anna is an adult now,” he said. “I’ve been gone too long.”
“Why did you go?” Jas asked.
Wake glared at her and shook her head.
“It’s fine,” Fuma said and sat at his desk. The mound of paper precariously perched on its surface made it appear like it would collapse at any second. “I don’t think they teach this in any history texts, and if they do it is wrong.”
“What happened?” Jas asked.
“It’s simple, really,” he said. “The Ward Masters were used to fight the Unholy in the last war. When we were seen as a threat instead of an ally, we were hunted and exterminated.”
“You don’t seem insane,” Jas blurted out. “Sorry, I didn’t mean offense.”
“Jas!” Wake hissed. “My apologies, Master Fuma. Sometimes she thinks with her ass.”
Fuma stared for a moment and then gave a short chuckle.
“I don’t seem insane, because I’m not,” he said. “I spread those rumors and moved the Hall down here to keep my students and myself safe from Regional and the Order.”
“That kid is one of your students?” Jas asked. “Isn’t that a little young to be Warder?”
“That ‘kid’ is a wardling, one of two,” he answered. “I could only make two. They are living energy and my personal guard. Don’t piss them off and don’t call them kids. They have names.”
“Got it,” Jas said.
“How did you get here?” he asked. “I thought I blocked all of the ward paths here.”
“We used the Hall path from the center of the park,” Wake answered.
Fuma pressed his lips together and gave a slight shake to his head. “I knew I forgot one,” he said. He made a gesture with his hand and the room flashed white for a brief second. “That should do it.”
“You just blocked a ward path, with a flick of your wrist?” Jas asked. “Are you serious?”
Fuma smiled. “You should see when I get my fingers involved,” he said. “In any case, I spread those rumors to keep Regional away. No one was supposed to be able to get here. Since you two are not figments of my imagination, I can see I was mistaken. We’ll have to move again.”
“Again?” Wake asked. “What do you mean again?”
“Have you been to the Hall of Twenty?” he asked.
“The Twenty what?” Jas asked.
“Well, no matter,” he said. “This hall used to be connected to that one. Back then, the Twenty and the Ward Masters worked together. Those were good days…before the war.”
“How do you move a Hall?” Jas asked. “This place is immense.”
“After the purge, I needed a place for my remaining Warders to be safe,” he said. “Size, weight, mass are all just equations to be solved for a warder. It took a while but we figured it out and moved it down here. Closer to the power, but not too close.”
“You mean the rift?” Wake said.
“Is that what they’re calling it these days?” he asked. “We only knew it as the Source in my day. When I designed the ward stones and obelisks, I used the Source as my battery.”
“You designed?” Jas asked. “The wards around the park… our park?”
“I only know of one Central Park,” he said. “Are they still working?”
“They were down for a while, but a secondary failsafe was triggered,” Wake answered. “Now they work again, but no one is sure how. You made those wards to last.”
“That was the start of darker times,” he said. “Regional wanted to stop the Unholy. Wanted us to create an ultimate weapon to wipe them out. I wanted something more humane, something reversible. We settled on the park and containment.”
“But it wasn’t humane,” Wake said. “They view it as a prison. One they can’t escape. Because of the wards…your wards.”
“There was no other option. We didn’t know they were sentient,” he said. “I wasn’t the only Master Warder working with Regional. Some of the others…Let’s just say they lacked a moral compass.”
“Are they the ones who created the Hunters and the named blades?”
He nodded. “It wasn’t a final solution, but it was pretty damned close—especially with that Nameless,” he said. “I told them t
o destroy that thing, but they wouldn’t listen and then they went a step further and sent that poor boy after the artifact. He and his partner managed to find it near the Source.”
“Why would they need the artifact?” Wake asked. “That is an Unholy construct used to create Nightmare Lords, from what I’ve been told.”
“And that’s what they did,” he said, his voice grim. “That young man found the artifact, but something happened—the artifact affected him. It changed him—turned him into one of them. He was unstoppable. His partner almost died, exposed to that much power—lost all his hair like radiation poisoning.”
“A Nightmare Lord,” Jas said. “He was human?”
“He was, but no longer,” he said. “I can assume he’s still around?”
“Well, he’s returned,” Wake said. “The Hunters stopped him, but he doesn’t know how to stay dead.”
“You can’t kill him with conventional weapons,” he replied as he walked to the center of the circle. “That’s why I made this.”
He traced a ward and the Jade Demon materialized in the center of the circle.
“What is that?” Jas asked and tried to get closer. Wake pulled her back.
“This is the only thing that can stand against a Nightmare Lord and walk away,” he said. “It just needs a special vessel. A special person.”
“What does it do?” Jas asked.
“There was a division back in Regional, when I was working with them,” he said. “They were the Neo Strategic Branch, or NSB for short. We called them the nosy sons of bitches—you should go work for them.”
With a gesture, the Jade Demon disappeared.
“The partner,” Wake asked. “Do you remember his name?”
“No,” he said and waved the question away. “Wait, it was something like Fan or San. He was a skilled fighter—a force on the battlefield. He had mastered the iron body techniques.”
He removed his glasses, cleaning the lenses again.
“Couldn’t you just…?” Jas started. “I don’t know, move your pinky and your glasses would be spotless forever?”
Fuma replaced the glasses on his nose and stared at Jas over them. “Having power doesn’t mean you abuse its use,” he said. “Remember that and you may live to see your next birthday, whelp.”
Sepia Blue- Nightmare: A Sepia Blue Novel- Book 3 Page 13