by Andra Leigh
“What happened?” It was Jinx that asked, sounding put out that he didn’t already know.
But Cyan didn’t answer the question, a haunted expression crossing his face. “You and Juliette made it to the Cityel?” he prompted her after a moment.
Sensing it would be useless to push the subject, she allowed the redirection despite having reached the point she’d rather not dwell on.
“Juliette…”
‘Look back, but don’t come back.’
“Didn’t make it. She was already so weak and had used all her energy to get me out.”
“You made it to the Southern Cities by yourself?” Jinx asked.
“Juliette made sure I knew what way to go.” Just like she’d made sure she held true to her first words. Eliscity had gotten out of the Clinic. Juliette had gotten out of the Clinic. And then Juliette had died. And those first words had formed a whole new meaning in Eliscity’s mind. It had never been ‘We’re getting out of here’. Juliette had always known that Eliscity would be alone in the journey.
After her story Cyan asked her if she’d been living in Wrethic. She had considered lying but decided against it. It wasn’t like she had to tell him where in Hynxt she lived. And if leaving here was an option then she surely wouldn’t be returning to the same place. She’d find somewhere new. Perhaps one of the other Southern Cities. Stource or Cyse. Or maybe she’d disappear off into the Mythenra Ranges. She could find out if the rumours of Witch covens were true.
Then he asked if it had been family or her past home she had returned to, at which point Jinx jumped in to tell him she had no memory of her life before.
She’d felt a surge of hope marred only slightly by an underlying sense of panic when Cyan divulged there was a chance her memories would return.
Finally, Cyan stood. “It’s up to you whether or not you return to Hynxt. But if you choose not to, you are most welcome to stay here. I can understand any hesitation. But please believe me when I say you’re safe here, Eliscity.”
Surprised to find her hesitation dwindling, she simply answered, “Thank you.”
Reaching the door, she turned back as Cyan spoke again.
“Do you have any more questions for me, Eliscity?”
I think I’m going mad, is that unusual? She replied in her head, but aloud she said, “Not right now.”
●
After leaving Cyan, Jinx wasted no time dropping her in the middle of the attention that had gathered in the Playground.
The Triplets didn’t have any qualms carrying on with their boisterous greetings to her – a far cry from the wary hostility of the others. Jinx introduced Five-O-Clock shadow as Casamir – unfortunately learning his name did nothing to lift his dark protective demeanour. The burly giant named Raiden was slightly more welcoming than his bodyguard partner. But only slightly – choosing not to glare outright.
Unlike the protectors of the group, the older man approached and gripped her hand briefly, offering a gentle, comforting smile. The gesture shocked her more than the Triplets eager desire to befriend her or Cyan’s invitation to stay. There was an acceptance grounded in the action that she struggled with. It felt familial. As if it could be her grandpapa holding her hand, welcoming her home after a long trip away.
“I’m Neith,” the man said softly.
Eliscity was surprised by the ease at which a genuine smile tugged at her lips. She couldn’t ever remember having the undisclosed urge to smile before.
The woman with the caramel skin and pale eyes didn’t come forward to introduce herself and Eliscity couldn’t help but notice that Casamir had placed himself firmly in front of her as her protector again.
“That’s Laleita.” Jinx indicated to the woman, who nodded politely. Eliscity returned the gesture, not daring to do more as Casamir looked coiled to launch himself at her, if he deemed her a threat.
She wasn’t given much of a chance to dwell on the bristling man as the Triplets chose that moment to continue their bombardment of questions and random observations.
Jinx snorted at her obvious discomfort and called the brothers to a halt, calling Fletcher by name when he tried to get another question in. Eliscity frowned at the kid, comparing him to his double reflections. She had no idea how Jinx could tell them apart and wondered if it would be rude to ask them to wear name tags. With them settled, Jinx gave the Playground a simplified version of how she’d come to be standing before them. Eliscity was glad she was spared from partaking in the retelling as the longer she stood there the more she began to sway. The exhaustion of the last few days – the last few years – was catching up with her. She could feel heavy fatigue seeping through her body, dragging at her eyelids.
She stifled yawns as Jinx spoke, glad not to have to pay attention.
“Angel?”
“Hm?” Eliscity blinked. Jinx came into focus in front of her, an amused smirk playing across his face. She noticed the Manor’s family had broken up, dispersing across the Playground. “Huh, what?”
“I said, let’s find you a room before you tip over.” Jinx pushed her lightly toward one of the staircases before smugly adding, “And you answered to Angel.”
Finding her a room wasn’t all that challenging.
As Jinx had explained in her brief tour up to Cyan’s office, the top of the underground levels consisted of bedrooms. The level was larger than the Playground below. Some corridors were longer than others, as if the level had been hollowed out corridor by corridor as needed. The doors were all mismatched, different sizes and colours, giving Eliscity the impression that the builders had had to use whatever they’d been able to get their hands on at the time of the War.
Despite being initially overwhelmed, Eliscity found she liked the artwork of doors. However, they didn’t stop her from becoming disorientated without windows to gauge the direction of each turn. A few of the doors had the med symbol painted on their faces and she recalled Jinx saying there were med-rooms and a library on the level. She didn’t see the library but made a silent promise to herself to stay away from the med-rooms. While she doubted they would sport a Blooding table or Born cuffs, she couldn’t shake the unease of being in the same building as a Clinic doctor and potential medical instruments.
Jinx stopped abruptly in the middle of the corridor, the elemental made wall bracket lighting his exasperated expression. “I don’t know. Pick a door.” He waved his hand around him. “None of these ones are in use.”
These ones were three doors; a blue one with the knob sitting in its centre, a flaking white one with a frosted glass pane running down one side and a wooden one with an arcing top.
She was about to shrug and choose the closest – the blue door – when she looked again at the wooden one. It was knotted and gnarled with swirls that told the story of the tree it used to be. She didn’t know why but she knew that was the door she wanted.
Jinx accepted her decision with a satisfied nod and swung it open on its thick hinges. When she thought of wartime hide outs and underground rooms, she pictured thin cots crammed together in dank, damp spaces, so she was surprised when she stepped into a tidy room with a large mattress snuggled into a built-in raised base in the centre of it – like an island. Apparently war and the eradication of species couldn’t stop the wealthy sleeping comfortably.
The bed wasn’t the only built in furniture. A triangular shelf laddered one corner with bedding and towels, while a cushioned seat was nestled in another corner. There were no pictures hanging on the walls, but there was a full length mirror. Something Eliscity took extra care not to look into while Jinx watched her take in the room.
Her room.
Despite the strange way the bed was built away from any of the walls, meaning she could walk all the way around it, the room was simple and sparse. There were no unnecessary adornments or features. Something she was glad for, when she thought of the clutter of furniture and knick-knacks decorating the ground level of the Manor. The room had what she needed. More than she needed really. She
thought the shelving, with its layered slats, was being slightly optimistic about the extent of her belongings.
“The bathhouse is shared but is partitioned, so don’t worry, you’ll have your privacy. Look for the double doors with the glass panels,” Jinx said. “If you need me I’m in the red door. The panelled one with the knocker, not the Dutch door with the knocker. I’d advise you not to get that wrong unless you fancy getting to know Casamir better.”
Before she had a chance to tell him she had no idea how a Dutch door differed from a panelled door he said goodnight and closed her door behind him. He was apparently unconcerned that she might try to leave the Manor and run into the night.
Then again, why would she?
Sitting on the edge of the soft mattress, she looked around her. It was the nicest room she could ever remember calling hers. No rotting walls and broken floorboards. No ominous bloodstains or dead and decaying animals. And not a roach in sight.
Eliscity felt tears spring to her eyes. This was all too much. It was only now, sitting alone in the tidy room, that she realised the ease in which Jinx, Cyan and those Jinx called family, gave her things.
A room. Some bread. A handshake and a smile.
Names.
Desperate to hold back the tears that were building she jumped up and grabbed a bed-sheet from the shelf, flinging it haphazardly over the mattress. She made the bed quickly, choosing to place the pillows at the far end so she could see the door.
Not that there would be much chance at escape if someone decided to barge in and attack her. Since all the furniture was built into the room the closest thing she had to a weapon was the pillow. Hoping not to require a weapon any more lethal than a pouch of feathers she finally allowed herself to step toward the mirror.
Levelling her eyes at her reflection was like staring down a stranger. The Clinic wasn’t big on vanity, meaning the first memory she had of looking over her own face was a few months ago when she’d reached the Southern City of Stource. It had been a moment that had tested her already arguable sanity. Months on, she was yet to find familiarity with her appearance. Like looking upon herself made her feel less real somehow. She’d lived so long in the Clinic without recollection of her appearance that she had learnt who she was before she knew her eyes were flecked with green and blue, that her long brown hair with its red tones framed the sharp features of her face. All she had known of her appearance before then had been her insignia and the veins that grew like ivy from her cuticles. The things the Clinic had given her.
As far back as her memory went she had questioned her life before the Clinic. After her escape, after meeting her reflection for the first time, she had begun questioning what she had looked like as a child. How had she changed and matured over time?
Squinting at her reflection she wondered, not for the first time, how old she was. She was clearly done with her childhood, though was potentially still on the young side of adulthood. It was hard to say how much of her age was given to her by the haunted look in the depths of her eyes.
Perhaps she could ask Jinx how old he thought she was.
A light knocking broke through her thoughts.
Opening the door she was surprised to find Laleita on the other side, a pile of folded fabric adorning her arms. Casamir didn’t seem to be with her and Eliscity half wondered if Laleita had had to sneak away.
“I thought you may appreciate some clean clothes,” she said in a voice that sung like a lullaby.
Eliscity stepped aside to let her enter, relieved when she was able to close the door without Casamir suddenly appearing.
“I noticed you didn’t come with much. And we’re similar sizes.”
“Thank you,” Eliscity stuttered genuinely, afraid she was going to start crying again.
“Let me know if you need help altering anything.” Laleita nodded at Eliscity’s shirt with its strange medley of material strips hiding the holes in the back and securing around her wrists. “I get the impression you require something different than normal.”
Eliscity smiled, once more surprised at the way her face knew how to do it so naturally.
She made a mental note to smile into the mirror at some point just to check she didn’t look like a lunatic when she was happy. That would be unfortunate.
“I’ll let you get some sleep,” Laleita said, not showing any indication that her smile made her seem crazed.
Eliscity opened the door for her and as she passed she added, “I hope you stay, Eliscity. It’ll be nice having another woman around the place again.”
She hadn’t thought of Laleita being the only female in the Manor. Did males have a higher survival rate at the Clinic? She’d said again. There had once been more females here. Had they died of old age or of the Blooding sickness?
Desperate not to think about it, she approached the elemental flame that lit the room from one of the walls. Unlike the travel sized version that had guided them through the water tunnels, this one had an adjustable top in the crystal casing. It was open as far as it could go, the flame flickering strong. Closing it down to the smallest the opening would go, she saw the flame peter down to a glowing ember as its air supply was diminished. It still put out enough light to see the shapes of things in the room, though not too much that she wouldn’t be able to sleep with it.
Stripping off and crawling into the island that was her new bed she buried herself under the blankets. As she closed her eyes she hoped to dream about nice things like butterflies and flowers, but knew full well she would have no such luck.
●
Eliscity was startled to realise she’d been at Vance Manor a week. Even more startling was the fact that she was yet to wake up strapped to a Blooding table. In fact, none of the occupants of the Manor had, thus far, attempted to kill her. Including Casamir.
Apparently the vicious expression she’d thought had been aimed at her was just his regular, relaxed face. The only time she ever saw his look shift away from the unsettling predator was when he looked at Laleita. It was as if the man turned into a shy puppy in her presence. Which was why she had been so surprised to find out they weren’t actually together.
Her curiosity over them was yet to be satisfied as Jinx had point blank refused to give her any information. In fact he was refraining from answering any of her questions about the Family, with the intention that she immerse herself in the group. She could see his reasoning. What better way for them to get to know her and for her to become comfortable with them? All the same, it made her want to smack him.
The Triplets eventually calmed down ever so slightly around her, settling into what everyone assured her was their normal level of mad energy. It had also become apparent that they were quite different from one another.
Each one held a persuasion over a different element, something they said the Clinic had been fascinated by. Seemingly identical in every other way, they’d been desperate to figure out why the Triplets had different magic. The more she got to know them, the more she noticed these varying elements were reflected in their personalities. She’d also observed all three running their hands through their hair as an unconscious action, though they all did so differently, meaning their hair all sat in various styles. When she connected this with their particular element, she’d been able to decipher a rough way to tell them apart.
Faust, with his fire element and both easily heated and warm-hearted ways, would run his fingers through his hair, ruffling it up until it sat in a mess, flopping every which way over his head. Fletcher, like his air element and light, flittering tone, swept his hair backwards so it pushed off his face and flowed behind him. Forrest, the water elemental and the most constant of the three, despite his tendency to get carried away with things, smoothed his hair down flat, a thick fringe running into his eyes.
It wasn’t much to go on, but in terms of their appearance and mannerisms it was the only difference she had managed to find.
She discovered that like the Triplets, Laleita was also a B
orn Witch, though was not an elemental. Apparently her magic was internal, working with the mind. Eliscity wondered if it was anything like Juliette’s. If so, Laleita was yet to suggest anything slightly predictive about the future. Although she did seem to be rather sensitive to the emotions of the room, like Juliette had been. Unlike Juliette, it didn’t seem to be driving her mad.
While this was a relief, Eliscity couldn’t help but wonder why she still had to be mad. If anyone was going to be affected by insanity surely it would be those who had magic that touched the mind, like Witches.
All Eliscity had from her Fae blood were half formed wings and veined cuticles. If there was any Fae magic in her it was yet to show itself. Everything seemed to point toward the combination of Blooding and Born activations making her mad.
Not that she had any way to confirm this. As far as she knew she was the only one still alive with both insignias. Eliscity supposed there was every chance the Clinic, after losing her and Juliette, had found new patients to try the double Typing on. However, short of walking back into the Clinic, finding them and asking if they too were prone to the odd hallucination, she couldn’t verify her theory.
“You going to be okay here without me?”
The question broke through her musings and she looked up to see Jinx. She was curled up on one of the sofas in the Playground, a worn book entitled Humanity’s Reign; Surviving the Bloods open on her lap. She’d begun flicking through some of books in the library a few days ago, naturally drawn to the ones recounting the War and history of the Bloods. So far none had been to her taste. As you would expect from texts written by only the victorious side, they were all rather biased. She imagined that for those not directly caught in the middle of the two sides the constant, undisputed categorisation of the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ – the right side and the wrong side – didn’t become a troubling and confusing concept. But Eliscity was caught. She was neither full human nor completely a Bloods. Reading the historical texts, she couldn’t help but wonder what the other side of the story had been. More importantly, which side – humanity or the Bloods – was the true, unbiased ‘right’ side? The good side?