Sages of the Underpass

by Aaron Michael Ritchey

  Pete walked out of the kitchen, shirtless, holding a bowl of mac and cheese, eating it with his fingers. When he saw Niko, he frowned. Then he pushed both Niko and Bonnie out the front door. They stood on the porch.

  It was too dark to get a look at Pete’s eyes. “Niko, I’m sorry to drag you here. I couldn’t trust phones. I can’t trust anyone other than you and Bonnie. I’m kind of in trouble.”

  Niko thought about reaching out and checking his brother’s prana, but he wasn’t sure what that would do. And he was having a hard time with his own rage. He’d sacrificed a Friday night to come here. And there was an issue with the on-call. Teddy was a good sport, but sooner or later, his patience with the Fix-It Shoppe would wear thin. More worrisome was the cold look in Mamo’s eyes.

  “Just tell me what’s going on,” Niko said.

  Pete balanced the bowl on the railing. He wiped his fingers off on his jeans. “So, long story short, Chicago, Detroit, and Columbus have been dealing prank.”

  So men with Midwest names also were drug dealers. Niko would have to tell Teddy.

  “I haven’t,” Pete said. “You have to believe me.”

  “That’s going to be hard, since we’re at a prank house, on a Friday night, and you bailed on on-call, once again.” Niko let out a frustrated breath.

  “Yeah, I know, it looks bad. But you see, the guys looking for my friends think I’m involved. We’re going to be here for a while. I didn’t want anyone breaking into our apartment, looking for me.” Pete stood in the darkness for a moment before adding, “And I need your help coming up with a story for Mamo and Tato.”

  Niko couldn’t believe what his brother was asking. The solution, however, was simple. “I’ll tell them you’re in trouble, and you need to lay low. You’re trying to protect us. We don’t want the police involved. You’ll check in with me, but you won’t be working for a while.” Niko wanted to shake his brother. Instead, he asked, “And how long will this ‘a while’ be?”

  “Couple of weeks. A month at most.” Pete’s voice was low, hurt. He wasn’t his joking self. Did that mean he was on prank? Drunk? Both?

  He was upright. So probably not both.

  “Six weeks, then.” Niko’s heart fell. The work would fall on him. Everything always fell on him. Goddamn Aleksy. And Pete was worse.

  Bonnie wasn’t saying a word.

  Niko threw up his hands. “Whatever, Pete. Whatever. It’s not like you’re around when you are around. And it’s not like this is ever going to end. You know what? Good luck. This is the last time I’m lying for you. You better enjoy it.”

  Niko stomped away.

  But then turned, because he knew there was one last step to this dance. He stormed back. He grabbed his wallet, pulled out a wad of cash, more than fifty, less than a hundred, crumpled it up, and tossed it at Pete’s feet. “And here’s money. Because that’s all you really want from us. Well, enjoy it.”

  Pete tried to sputter something, but at this point, it would only be lies.

  Niko hurried to stand by Bonnie’s car while they said goodbye.

  When she unlocked her car, he slid in, fuming. He hadn’t meant to lose control like that, but one more time, his family was demanding his time, his attention, everything. They were racking up bills. He was paying them. When would it be his turn?

  Bonnie drove off. They got on 680, going south.

  Niko wished a daemon had attacked them. He had enough rage he could’ve thrown himself against the thing and gulped it down, no Whitney container needed.

  The traffic had thinned out. He didn’t know where to start with Bonnie, so he kept his mouth shut. His breathing had returned to normal, so that was something good. Before he knew it, he was counting his breaths, letting go of his thoughts, clearing his mind.

  Bonnie finally broke the silence. “I’ve had better first dates. And I’ve had worse ones. Definitely, I’ve had worse ones. I’m thinking this night won’t end with us in the ER. I’m glad you didn’t hit him.”

  That made Niko laugh. It turned bitter. “You said you liked broken people, but only if they fill the cracks with something worthwhile. Well, what does Pete fill himself up with? Lies. Drugs. Alcohol. And yet you like him.”

  “I do. You’re not wrong.” Bonnie kept her eyes on the freeway. Red lights cut through the night in front of them. White lights streamed by on their left. “Pete wants to be better. I like that. I want to encourage that. Unlike you, I don’t have years of history, and he hasn’t asked that much from me. I volunteered for this little mission. I wanted to get to know you better.”

  Niko turned his head to the side. Above the highway, the Diablo Mountains were yellow in the night. The grass glowed below the floodlamps. The big fences were electrified to keep daemons off the freeway. “Well, you’ve seen me at my worst. I can’t believe I unloaded on him like that.”

  “I can’t believe you gave him money. Don’t give Pete money. I’m not sure he’s a prankster just yet, but a junkie with a pocketful of cash is a junkie that will never, ever quit.”

  Niko so wanted to believe his brother hadn’t gotten into prank. Yet, it was a fool’s hope. “Have you ever done prank?”

  “Yep. It’s good. It’s fun. It’s like cycling on the moon in a rainstorm of orgasms.” Bonnie laughed. “Told myself a joke.”

  Prank worked with a person’s prana, driving the energy into the pleasure centers of the brain. It made heroin look like light beer.

  “How come you didn’t get addicted?” Niko asked.

  “Who said I didn’t?” The smile left her face for a moment. Then she finally turned her head, a brief glance, and those eyes, there was so much to them. So much. “No, Niko, in the music industry, you watch the drug addicts fall away, leaves in the gutter, curled up, dry and dead. The Arts are hard, all the Arts. You live by selling dreams and feelings. If you sell people the right dreams, they’ll give you houses and jets and every penny they have. But if you get a feeling wrong? If you don’t hit it just right? Even for a second? They’ll hate you for it. Despise you.”

  “What does Mind Noise sell?” Niko asked.

  “Anger. Sex. Rebellion.” Bonnie paused. “Me, mostly. The ice bit, the Mohawk, my body, it’s all this allure, for men and women alike. There’s this fantasy of the rock-n-roll hellion, ready to party at the drop of a hat, ready to get kinky. Ha.”

  Now she had the bitter laugh. “I like selling the anger and rebellion. Selling the sex seems a bit insipid, but it’s all part of the game.”

  Niko found himself relaxing back into their conversation, getting to know her, finding her rhythms. Her honesty was like a punch in the gut at times. He could be honest too. “Pete is either on prank or he’s headed that way.”

  “Yeah, if you hang out in a barber shop, sooner or later, you’re going to get a haircut.”

  Niko knew what he had to do. “I shouldn’t lie for Pete. I should tell my parents the truth.”

  “If you cover for a junkie long enough, soon you’ll be covering them up with dirt. Lying for them is as bad as giving them money.”

  Niko didn’t want to hear that. “Maybe he’s just in with the wrong people. Maybe he doesn’t have a problem.”

  “And maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt,” Bonnie said.

  He wanted to laugh. He couldn’t.

  Back at Termination, the club was only just getting started. The parking lot was packed and so were the streets around the place. Niko’s bike was still there.

  Bonnie parked near it and turned to him. “Hey, let’s throw your bike in the back. I’ll drive you home, and we can have the first kiss discussion. I’m assuming you want to kiss me. Because I want to kiss you.”

  Niko again felt the deep lust in his belly. He took the wheels off his bike and managed to cram it into the hatchback.

  When he was back in the passenger seat, they took off.

  “What is the first kiss discussion?” he asked.

  “Do we do it or not? Do we feel comfortable? Is thi
s a good idea? Where do you stand on monogamy? Where do I stand? Do you have any cold sores you feel coming on? And thus, we will discuss our first kiss.”

  She seemed so relaxed about the whole thing. So brave. And again, her honesty felt reckless, like she didn’t have a thing to lose, so she could say exactly what was on her mind.

  “No cold sores,” Niko said. “And I haven’t kissed anyone in a long time. I guess I’m not bothered by you being singleish, since this can’t get serious. I’m busy, Bonnie, with work and training and my cycling practices. I want to spend more time with you, but I’m afraid I don’t have the time to spend.”

  “Busy, busy, busy.” Bonnie sighed. “We’re all so busy. I run a punk rock band. It’s like herding cats, only with cats, there are less excuses. I get what you’re saying. You know what we could do?”

  “What’s that?” Niko thought this might be leading to things a bit more intense than kissing.

  “We could wait. We could spend more time together, time neither one of us has, so it would be more illicit. We’d be stealing time. We could just let what we have simmer, until it boils over, and we can’t help but kiss each other.”

  Simply talking about their eventual kiss had him a little breathless. He couldn’t help himself. He had to get closer to her. He leaned in and smelled the skin on her neck. Her body was hot, and that spicy, musky perfume filled his senses.

  He kissed her ear and whispered, “Well, now I’ve gone and done it. Kissed your ear. I guess we had our first kiss after all.”

  Her mouth fell open. She gasped in a breath and leaned into him, shuddering a bit. “Well, now, as far as first kisses go, that was a really good one.”

  When she dropped him off, she got out of the car, and they held each other for a long time. Then, before they could kiss for real, she got back into her little Ford Hermes, her toy marked with toys, and drove off.

  Niko breathed in the night, but he could still smell Bonnie. He lingered there, in front of the parking lot, with people parking and going into the Happy Noodle and the Punjab Conveniently. He had to get to his bedroom and cycle his energy, but he didn’t want to let go of what he was feeling. Not yet. Most concerning, he wasn’t sure if he could.

  There was a reason why Battle Artists were celibate in the Dark Ages.

  The First Confession

  FOUR DAYS AFTER KISSING Bonnie’s ear, Niko raced down train tracks. It was his second meeting with the Sages. Pax had wanted to see him do trains.

  Pax had boomed laughter. “Remember, if you can dodge a train, you can dodge an Artist.”

  That wasn’t exactly true, and it wasn’t like they were playing chicken with the locomotive. It was more complicated than that.

  For Niko, the last four days and three nights were one big blur of texting, tinctures, vaping, the Duodecim, and his spiritual practice. If Bonnie thought he might be missing out on cycling, she’d tell him to sit on his mat and do the work. He’d listen.

  Now, Tuesday, he and the Sages were on the freight tracks near Little Portugal in the northeastern part of South Valley City. The freight engines didn’t have drivers; A.I. from SoulFire drove them. That was the only reason the Sages could train there—that and Pax’s job. He knew where all the security cameras were. As long as they stayed out of sight, no one would know where they were.

  The train had a hot smell; a big cambion powered the engine. On the front, wavering in the growing wind, was a red ribbon, dangling there. Evelyn had tied it there, on a loop of metal, while the train had been motionless. It was up to Niko to grab the ribbon before the train disappeared into a tunnel at the far end, about a hundred yards away.

  The rocks were rough under Niko’s feet, the ground so uneven, every time he fell into a sprint, his toe caught something and nearly sent him face-first into the ground. The tall eucalyptus trees above the tracks stank, but they also threw shadows, not that they helped with the heat much.

  Sweat poured down Niko’s face and back, soaking his simple white T-shirt. He was in shorts and running shoes, with a hand outstretched, reaching for the ribbon. The tunnel grew ever closer.

  The train picked up speed, going fast, throbbing with power.

  Niko accessed his Second Study, feeling the prana spread through his body, driving his legs faster, because he wasn’t fast enough on his own. He had to use his Fleet Avoidance. This was only one game they played with A.I. freight trains. Pax had said they were starting him off easy.

  This didn’t feel easy. This felt dangerous and slightly illegal, though Pax said it was unlikely they’d get caught.

  Niko ran faster. He was burning through prana even as the muscles in his legs burned. The tunnel was coming up. He was going to have to grab the ribbon off the train and then spin away, off the concrete.

  No, he was too slow, the train too fast, and before he knew it, the engine streaked into the tunnel. Niko skidded to a stop but not before slamming into the cement wall of the tunnel. He fell onto the rocks.

  He couldn’t catch his breath. He didn’t know his prana levels, but it felt like his core was empty. He pulled himself up because lying there felt humiliating. And he’d been taught to catch his breath and deal with his pain either standing up or down on one knee.

  Danette, Evelyn, and Pax came over.

  “I couldn’t get it,” Niko gasped. He finally inhaled through his nose and let out his breath through his mouth.

  “No, you couldn’t. But nice try though. Right?” Pax rumbled laughter.

  Evelyn touched Niko’s back. “Your prana is getting stronger. You still aren’t utilizing it well, and I still feel that Radiance energy in you.”

  “Bonus points to Niko for trying. Let me have a turn,” Pax said. “I love trains.”

  Evelyn tied a ribbon on the next train, which sat on the tracks a hundred yards away from the tunnel. The running lights flashed and the engine sizzled as it swung into place, and like a steel dinosaur, it rumbled forward.

  Pax stood at the starting line. The train chugged by him. Danette dropped her hand.

  He jogged forward, gaining speed, until he was sprinting. He then used his Sanguine Second Study ability, Ram Speed, which blurred his legs. He grabbed the ribbon, bounded back, and ran off his speed perpendicular to the tunnel.

  The big guy wore cut-off sweats and a sleeveless CDOT T-shirt. He trotted to them and handed Niko the ribbon. “And that’s how you do that.”

  Evelyn reached out and nodded. “Very nice, Pax. You still have a relatively full core.”

  “Yeah, I do, because I’m a badass.”

  Danette shook her head and sighed. Or was that a growl? Hard to tell. She’d already gone.

  She didn’t have any sort of speed ability, so she’d started further down the track. However, she’d won the ribbon by using her Lightning Hurl to burn through the fabric. When it fluttered off the engine, she’d grabbed it. Was that cheating or a creative use of her Studies? It didn’t matter. For the Sages, all that mattered were results.

  Evelyn was next.

  Pax tied the ribbon to the next train coming forward, picking up speed. Evelyn would start in the same place that Danette had. She didn’t have a speed ability per se, yet she had such control over her prana that her movements were liquid and graceful.

  When she sped toward the front of the train, she seemed to glide over the rough rocks, skating rather than running. She was closing in on the tunnel. The train whooshed down the tracks, clattering, clanking, lights flashing.

  Niko didn’t think she’d be able to grab the ribbon. She was too far back. Yet she sped onward. She reached and her hand grew indistinct. Ethereal Dissipation. She reached through the front of the train, caught the ribbon, and pulled it back, and then she hit the concrete. Headfirst. She crumpled to the ground with the red ribbon in her fist.

  Niko, Pax, and Danette all raced over to the fallen Evelyn. Her eyes were closed, and blood seeped down from her hair.

  Pax frowned. However, he still made a joke. “Dammit, don
’t you hate it when your healer needs healing? That sucks ass.”

  “Enough,” Danette said sharply. She touched Evelyn’s face. “If she doesn’t wake up, we’ll have to take her to the hospital.” She closed her eyes.

  Niko did as well. At the club, he’d felt the prana and sharira of the people there. He was a cusp with Luna. That Artist sign had a natural affinity for sensing injury. As a Quintessence, he had a Fourth Study skill to sense prana. Awareness. It seemed to be coming to him naturally.

  But he was more than feeling her energy. He could see the interplay between her prana and her sharira. He reached out, just a bit, nudging prana into sharira.

  Danette sucked in a breath. “Niko, what are you doing?”

  “I don’t know.” He opened his eyes.

  Evelyn was staring up at him. She grinned, exhausted. “I got the ribbon. And Niko found his next Study. Fourth Study, Radiance. Inversion.”

  Pax’s phone tweeted. He grabbed it. “Hey, my buddy Suresh says they’re sending security to check out this little section of train heaven. We should go.”

  Another benefit of Pax’s CDOT job: they had an insider who kept an eye out for them.

  “South Valley Inn?” Evelyn asked. “We have a lot to talk about. Niko used Inversion on me.”

  “It was a nudge,” he protested. He figured if he ever multi-classed, it would be with Luna. But here he was, flirting with a Radiance Fourth Study. What the hell?

  They pulled Evelyn up to her feet. She was shaky, leaning on Pax. They went through a fence and back to her car. Danette drove.

  It was nice to get into the air-conditioning of the South Valley Inn. They sat at a booth near the back, relaxing into its red upholstery and the lingering smells of breakfast grease and coffee seconds away from the burning. It was your classic diner, off the El Camino Real, near the Rose Garden, not so far away from the house on North Ciudad Road.