Trimarked

by C. K. Sorens

  After a last long assessment of the two friends, one hurt and one drunk, Nicu let his features relax, his eyes hood, then turned away. The message: They were not worth his time.

  “Verge, Brandt, learn when to stop,” Aaron hissed and returned his friend to the party.

  One more distraction to handle.

  The hybrid child stood rigid as the tree, fingertips against the bark as if that contact alone had kept her still. Of course she stayed. Nicu hadn’t said she could leave.

  The Fae had long since placed him in charge of her, responsible for keeping her under control and to report if the worst were to happen. A human interaction was minor, yet dangerous. If she’d felt truly threatened, there was a chance she’d reach deep, find something she should not touch, defend herself with it regardless of the consequences. A display of High Magic, a potential effect from being born on Fae soil.

  Fae magic was two sided. Their main abilities aligned with Nature. They dove deep within the physical to extract magical atoms and produce elegant Works of function and beauty.

  As an extension, Fae manipulated an equally magnificent and infinitely dangerous power. High Magic allowed them to delve into space and time, manipulate events and emotions. To do so was to court chaos, to risk kingdoms falling, volcanoes erupting, lives ending, and worlds cracking apart.

  Fae had once thought that by controlling themselves, their communities, and their magic, they could control the effects of High Magic. They had been wrong. Once, all people, mage and human, had lived in the same realm, but owning magic became a dreadful and dangerous difference between the peoples. The Fae had delved too deep in order to protect themselves. The world broke, and split it into the three realms of Terra, Heldu and Gypsum.

  Each race became bound to their one dimension. Fae and Witches learned to part the Veil and visit Terra at will, though never for too long as the energies of Terra did not support magic. That had been their existence for thousands of years until the anomaly of two decades past. The malfunctioning Veil had forced coexistence again, if only in this small pocket of a town.

  After the cataclysmic event that split the realms, the Elders had forbidden most High Magic. Those not outlawed remained secrets of the Fae, and only Worked by a master with a lifetime of practice and control. Seventeen years ago, such a spell had been used to stop the birth of an aberration, the Trimarked Child. The caster failed. The ricochet of power had killed two members of the Fae, and left two others forever mutated, Nicu included.

  The two sides of Fae magic were inseparable. If the Trimarked Child showed signs of one, she would be capable of both. If she held Fae magic within her, she certainly contained Witch powers from her father. Fae magic on its own could rewrite the history of a world. Add Witch magic and the capability for destruction was unimaginable. And it would mean destruction. Her human blood would be a disability. Humans could not sense or manipulate magic. The enhanced control required for Fae magic was beyond her. The Trimarked Child was a bomb without a switch.

  Such powers might never manifest, but the Fae did not believe in leaving things to chance. The Binding Ink at her neck worked to limit access to her potential abilities, a pin in her grenade. Chaos was unpredictable, however, and so the Fae had charged Nicu with overseeing the hybrid girl.

  Nicu found his job more akin to a keeper. He kept her in check, kept her from becoming noticed in a place all knew of her and her forbidden birth. And he made sure everyone within Trifecta knew and understood, she was untouchable.

  “Reckless.” He moved into the surrounding silence, leaving the party behind the last line of trees.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t say that. You appear to have had yourself in complete control.”

  Nicu stepped up the hill, though careful not to get too close. He wanted her cowed enough to listen, not frightened into fighting. She tilted her chin.

  “You let him notice you,” he said.

  She flinched, turned her head away. Good.

  “You let him talk to you.”

  “Damn it, Nicu,” she rasped. “I’m not invisible. People can have a conversation with me.”

  “Stop being difficult.”

  “You have no idea.”

  Irritation flared in Nicu’s gut, drew him further into her space. She did not appreciate the sacrifices he made to keep her under the radar, did not recognize how being inconspicuous could be a shield. In defiant declaration, her silver crystalline eyes remained immovable against his. He advanced and raised his hand an inch at a time, slipped it under the heavy fall of inky hair and pressed two fingers against the back of her neck.

  Her body shuddered in concession, knowing what he meant by the contact. A reminder of the dark Binding Ink placed there by Fae long ago. A pentacle centered on her spine with a half butterfly on the right. The star had an angled line across it, to break her connection to magic, and to make sure everyone remembered the violation of her birth. A magical binding to stop her from accessing what he, too, monitored in her. The Trimarked Child’s unknown power. The only reason she was allowed to walk free was because of this mark and his guardianship.

  She could not afford to forget, even for a moment.

  “You travel too close to your boundaries. Control yourself.”

  “Like you?”

  “Little hybrid,” he murmured, marking the reactive flicker of her eyelashes. “Right now, you are contained. You live as you wish.” Ember opened her mouth to argue. Nicu’s chest pressed within a centimeter of hers to steal her breath and stop her words.

  “Become a nuisance, and you will find out how being controlled feels. If you turn dangerous…” Nicu’s amber-glass eyes cut into her defiant angles until the edges of her softened, then dissolved on a heated sigh.

  “Never forget, little hybrid, the Fae are the reason you are alive. They can change their minds.”

  Her gaze dropped.

  Nicu removed his hand. With slow, deliberate action, angled his body to open a path for her. The chill air turned frigid in place of the heat between them, but he did not allow her to see how it affected him. He noted her gasp at the shift. She had such little control.

  “Go home. Now.”

  The hybrid child huffed and pulled her hood back up against the cold and him. He watched long enough to make sure she walked in the right direction, up the slope toward the layered streets of human households. Satisfied, he melted into shadows. Another night, he would follow her the whole way, but tonight he did not have time.

  While trailing the Child and her dubious companions as they moved from the underground to the End of the World, there had been a disturbance in the magic defining the Fae border. Nicu was tied to the spell and his unit was tasked with responding to any unexpected manipulations immediately. His primary task of monitoring and managing the hybrid girl had delayed him. He needed to make up time. A clash of duty was not an acceptable reason to fail at either.

  Nicu rushed north between ancient pines, away from the human portion of Trifecta and toward the Fae’s one-third fraction of the land. Moss-covered stone increased in regularity as the slope elevated, and he dodged boulders as often as trees. Feet bounced off the needled floor, shifted around thin branches to keep the dry wood from snapping under his tread. In his tenth year, magic had been used to substantially enhance his vision, so now he could separate shapes in the complete darkness of forested midnight.

  “You were too nice to the gulls.” Edan joined on his right, using the Fae slang for the screeching, gullible humans. The second of their unit pulled a knitted hat the same chocolate color as his eyes over his shaved head and buttoned his fitted wool coat to the top even though it restricted movement in his shoulders.

  “You were too lenient with the Child.” Branna shared her opinion from Nicu’s left, her signature black harmonized with the nighttime forest. Nicu clenched his teeth on a sigh against their complaints.

  “We need to focus on our current task.”

  “To meet a Witch.” Edan’s Fae train
ing provided him enough control to keep the challenge from his tone. Still, Nicu noticed it in a subtle shift of muscle, in the tenor of his stride.

  “To investigate a border breach,” Nicu countered, though the theory was sound, as it was unlikely caused by a human, and Fae knew how to avoid triggering the spell.

  The Laws of Convergence allowed free travel within Trifecta, though the truth was more complicated. Trust spread thin between the different communities. To guard against unexpected visitors, no matter their intentions, both the Fae and Witches marked their boundaries with spells tied to unique vines, heart shaped leaves for Fae, triangular leaves for Witches. Not solid like the barrier, the magic acted more as an alarm system warning of trespass.

  Though Nicu didn’t know for certain how the Witches managed their boundary, he was the lone Fae attached to theirs. Nicu needed to be hyper-aware for a moment the Trimarked Child attempted entry. The Elder Council had banished her from their territory and even an accidental crossing would not be tolerated.

  Nicu would not abide breaking his oath to his people, or to the Promise Magic that bound him. He’d ensured Ember understood the gravity of the consequences if she tried to enter Center, which left to question who disturbed the boundary now.

  “Assumptions can be traps,” Nicu warned Edan. “Devi may be the only one to use border manipulation to date, but the location is wrong, as far from their land as possible.”

  “She likes us at her beck and call,” Edan defended his theory.

  “I want to learn how she avoids our patrols, no matter her whereabouts,” Branna said.

  “And what secret of value are you willing to trade?” Nicu’s question resulted in the reaction he’d hoped for. Silence. The trio fell in and with less breath wasted, they increased their pace to reach the place human land ran into Fae along the confines of the outer barrier. They avoided the hunting parties, careful not to scare away any game. Though this was human territory, the Laws of Convergence gave Fae permission to hunt, sell the meat at market and keep plenty for themselves.

  When they reached the border, Devi was not in attendance.

  The cause of the disturbance proved to be a tall figure wrapped in heavy folds of delicate, woven yarn in deep purples and lighter blues, balanced and alternated into the particular pattern his ancestors had worn for generations. Pale moonlight reflected off silvered locs tied together at his nape where they twisted in a thick cord along the length of his spine. Unadorned fingers danced on the air as if considering another brush against the heart-shaped leaves, then retreated in decision.

  Though not forbidden for a Fae to trigger the border alarm, this proved unexpected and personal. Nicu hesitated a moment, then turned to study Branna’s drawn features.

  “Go to the Child’s house. Be my eyes there.”

  Branna disappeared between one tree and the next, a sign of how happy she was to avoid contact with their summoner.

  “I will be your ears.” Edan scaled a pine to find a high perch.

  Mindful of his breath, Nicu slid beside the figure. His steps remained on human territory. Wist stood within Fae lands.

  Their feet edged against an eroded cliff, a sudden drop in the otherwise gradual decline of the mountainside. A weathered landslide provided the Fae with a view of the valley. The quarter moon shone bright in the blue-grey darkness, the trees a bumpy spill of darkest ink. Scattered stars glinted across the vast sky, more of their tiny lights struggling through time and space as the two men watched.

  Fading into Terra had affected the Fae more acutely than it had the Witches, a fact kept hidden as magic forced them to fade in and out of Terra. After three years of pushing them through only to allow them back home, the power had fluctuated one last time. The bubble in the Veil that caused the anomaly had hardened in a way never seen or recorded in centuries of history.

  The territory they had claimed while drafting the Laws of Convergence was the one place in Trifecta that held echoes of Gypsum energy. Pure Fae preferred not to leave the familiarity they found concentrated within the old campground, leaving Wist’s visit steeped in questions.

  “Twenty years, Nicu.” Wist, senior member of the Fae Council, breathed hot frustration into the air. “A hand span of time that has felt like an eternity while stuck in Terra. Not that you understand.”

  Wist’s muttered words dripped with meaning. A reprimand for Nicu’s delay and a reminder of his inferior status, not just because of age but due to birthplace.

  As the first Terraborn, Nicu was the oldest of a new, lower class of Fae. They made up an entire generation of those born in this realm. Fae who never had the chance to absorb the true essence of Gypsum. Nicu had to work hard to prove himself competent, to always follow orders no matter the personal cost, to nurture complete control. Even putting him in charge of the Trimarked Child did not mean they trusted him. They did not want to spread the contamination. He was already affected, and they knew him capable of the job.

  “It’s disappointing you haven’t realized, especially with your history.” Wist said with a quiet tsk. “The Ternate rises again.”

  The segments of Nicu’s spine solidified, his chest widened and limbs lengthened with the pressure of the moment. A thumb’s breadth from the horizon, he saw it. That which appeared to be one bright star was a group of three, bound in conjoined orbit. The last time they peaked into the sky was the night Ember Lee had been born.

  “You are aware of what the Ternate means.” Nicu jerked a nod toward Wist’s unwelcome statement. Known as the Chaos Star, the Fae reviled the cursed Ternate, a dreaded harbinger of change. “It will test us, test the interior safety measures. Observe the humans to see if they pay more attention to mages, or if they remember buried fears and original claims. Those will be the first signs.”

  The humans remembering and reacting more would be telltale markers that the Fae defenses were weakening. Spells cast over time to ensure the persecutions of the past would not resurrect in a culture as unpredictable as it was reckless. Guns fired off faster than incantations. A dampening of human aggressions had been deemed paramount to Fae safety, a measure the Witches had not fought, either. They, too, remembered the witch hunts.

  “I understand, Elder Wist.”

  Wist turned to study the younger Fae for a time. Nicu kept his features calm and flat. That he didn’t give absolute compliance wasn’t the problem. Fae rarely committed to agreements and preferred to leave room for adjustment as necessary. What Wist looked for, Nicu couldn’t tell, but he hoped the elder ended up satisfied.

  “Another thing. I thought you were tied to the power of the barrier?” Features as blank as Wist’s, Nicu internalized his surprise.

  “I am able to sense its energy, just as any other magic.” Each word slow, calculated. Wist’s attention narrowed.

  “Then have you realized someone has been testing it?” Wist leaned in and Nicu kept his breath flowing and his pulse steady so the Elder could perceive nothing from a change in cadence. “From outside Trifecta. A matter of importance with the presence of the Chaos Star.”

  Knowledge Nicu did not have, including the question of how the councilman knew what happened beyond their side of the thin, impenetrable Veil.

  “Keep me apprised of any changes. With luck, the stars won’t shine their light here with this rising. If not…. I trust you to come to me. I will see you at Center.”

  One set of footsteps disappeared, and another approached him.

  “You heard nothing of the external disturbance?” Nicu asked. Edan stripped off the knitted hat. Porcupine quill tattoos peeked up his neck.

  “No, but that should change soon.”

  Frustration shimmered through Nicu and he tempered it by focusing on the star.

  “And what of Wist’s visit?”

  “There were no whispers of movement. This may have been a spur-of-the-moment decision.”

  Nicu tucked the information away. It wasn’t enough to know what the Elder was up to, though it arouse
d suspicion that he acted without the council’s knowledge.

  An uncontrolled tremor proved a poor warning. The air before him shimmered and shifted. A hazy mist jumped off the surface of the barrier, a temporary visual sign of its existence. A slight wave drifted through the focused energy, warped the dome. The backlash of power pressed against his core like a stiff breeze until it forced him to take a large hop back or risk a fall. As soon as it began, the flare stopped, no natural disbursement of gentle ripples.

  His stomach sank. Nicu recognized the disruption. A power from within Trifecta caused it. What chilled him now was he’d never seen the shape of the bubble shift and roll with such force, and this time he wasn’t the only witness.

  Nicu’s heartbeat doubled.

  “Nicu.” Edan’s voice was sharp in concern, a shock to help Nicu regain composure.

  “Did you sense it?” He studied the nuances of Edan’s reaction, not sure how much to disclose, even to his second. Edan absorbed the words, shifted away from the spirit of them.

  “Was it a fox hole?” He asked, referring to the stumble instead of the query. He had not detected the rush of power or seen the barrier react.

  Nicu allowed himself to breathe easy. To the other Fae, nothing had happened. The Trimarked Child would be safe.

  Now to get her under control.

  “Find her.”

  Edan did not mistake who.

  “You sent Branna after her.”

  Nicu paused, decided in the next breath this offer of knowledge to be worth the price.

  “Branna went to her house. The Child did not.”

  “It would be easier for you.” The comment questioned how Nicu knew Ember had not gone home.

  “Edan,” Nicu snapped. “She is somewhere along the barrier. Go. Now.”

  Nicu turned toward the calm space beside him with Edan’s departure. He reached out, then pulled back, not ready to find out if the boundary still held.

  Duty could not be avoided, no matter his trepidation. Nicu’s palm flattened against the steady energy. With both hands raised at shoulder height, he shoved. Nothing gave.