Greysons of Grimoire

by Tpaul Homdrom

  Making their way through the streets they knew so well, Shana and Shias continually ascended and descended, the many hills made easy by both ramps and stairs at nearly every slope, allowing for cyclists and pedestrians to take the same routes wherever they went.

  They passed by their high school along the way. Built onto — and into — one of the larger hills in Grimoire, Grimoire Academy appeared rather small. But looks were deceiving. Because of the lack of flat real estate atop the hill, the architects had been particularly clever, creating an entire complex inside the hill, underground. There were entrances at the base and top of the hill, and Shana and Shias had, through the years, enjoyed getting lost in the corridors webbing through the interior of the hill itself.

  “Let’s hitch a ride!” Shana said, cutting down a side street.

  The bells of the trolley were sounding, and they knew well enough where it would be in relation to them. Shana and Shias took the path out to the main street and hopped up on the trolley as it went past on its rails, electing to stand on the open section near its front and hold onto vertical poles for support. Shana loved to have the wind in her hair — it made her feel like she was setting off on an adventure.

  “Perfect timing, too,” Shias said, smiling as they crested a hill and began the long descent to their destination. Shana murmured her agreement.

  The view for this portion of the trolley’s journey was spectacular. Grimson Bay glittered in the distance far ahead. To their left and right, they had views over the hills of Grimoire to the mountainous woodland that surrounded the city to its east and west. Below them and beyond was the Crater District with the mall and arcade, and the park and campus beyond. If you were riding the trolley northward, this was the moment to stand up and look forward and, sure enough, those on the trolley behind Shana and Shias were up out of their seats, peering through the windows or joining them on the open front section.

  And so many of them have no clue.

  It was so strange to think of. With the Greyson family’s proclivity for magic, Shana could almost forget that more than half of Grimoire’s population had no idea magic even existed. Nearly every day, Caleb fought as a Hunter against nightmarish monsters, protecting the unwitting populace. Because, even weirder than most people not having or knowing of magic, was the fact that they couldn’t even see Hollows. There were vicious monsters roaming the world that could kill them in an instant, and ordinary people couldn’t even see them.

  Thankfully, Grimoire’s Hunters defended them every night.

  They rode the trolley all the way down, disembarking at the edge of the Crater District, walking the path to the mall. While their favorite bookshop in town — Grimoire’s Grimoires — was a great place, it was very slow at picking up new releases, and there was a particular ongoing series that both Shana and Shias were currently enamored with. So they ended up at the mall, but at the entrance there were signs that, for a moment, took Shana out of her excited search for new reading material.

  “There are more and more of these every day,” Shana said glumly, staring at the bulletin boards at the mall’s entrance. Plastered all over them were missing persons posters. The saddest part was they were almost all for young kids. Aside from a pair of adults in their late forties, the oldest was only eight years old.

  “These just went up yesterday,” Shias said, looking over a trio of new additions. “I don’t recognize them, but…” he stepped back, looking at the packed bulletin board, “there are just so many.”

  “It’s kind of scary.”

  “More than kind of.”

  “Do you… think there’s anything we can do?”

  “You and me?” Shias asked, staring at his sister. “I’m sure the Hunter Guild is on it, and probably more than just them. There are professionals working on this.”

  “But it’s not getting better, is it?” Shana asked.

  “Which means it’s way too much for us,” Shias said. “Come on.”

  Without answers, they passed the sad sight, making their way to the mall’s second floor where the bookshop Bibliograph resided. A sprawling, open concept format, it had style, but the openness was also the reason why the twins preferred Grimoire’s Grimoires. With so much space, Bibliograph lacked the nostalgic, emotional scent of books. It smelled like coffee and baked goods, which wasn’t a bad thing, but it didn’t give it the atmosphere of a book shop. The white floors, walls, and ceilings didn’t help either. It was intended to look clean and new, but ended up, at least to Shana, looking cold and sterile.

  Still, they had a good selection. It was a small sacrifice to visit Bibliograph for the sake of good books.

  “Here it is!” Shana cheered, holding up her prize. “Volume Nineteen! But…” She stared at the shelf sadly.

  “They only have one copy,” Shias said.

  The long-running The Misadventures of Gadrick Gorensell series was one of the twins’ favorites. It followed the (mis)adventures of the fictional Gadrick Gorensell, a magician and trickster who lived his life seeking the fabled Liter of Wisdom. As the title suggested, he could never seem to find it, always getting into trouble, and just barely getting out of it each time.

  Volume Nineteen — The Water Weaver’s Web — had just released yesterday, and while the shelf had clearly made a lot of space for it, with posters and banners celebrating its release, they were already down to the very last copy, which Shana held in her hands.

  “Want to ask if they have more that they haven’t put out yet?” Shana asked. “It’s a big release, they might not have had space for all of them.”

  At the desk, however, they had no such luck. The copy Shana held was indeed the store’s final copy in stock.

  “We have cards for the digital version, though,” said the clerk, pushing forward a display full of large cards with Volume Nineteen’s cover art on them. “Honestly, I’m surprised at how well the print copy is selling in this day and age. I thought digital would have swept the market years ago, especially for kids your age.”

  “Nothing like actual paper books,” Shias said simply.

  Shana nodded her emphatic agreement. “We could read it together,” she offered. “Share it, like we used to.”

  Shias smiled back at her, nodding.

  “Thanks, sis,” he said as they wound their way through the mall.

  “Sure thing!” Shana replied, humming along as she carried the bag with their book, along with three other books that had, thankfully, been in stock. “Do you want to stop anywhere else? We have plenty of time.”

  Shias nodded. “Anywhere you’re interested in?”

  Shana sighed. “I asked you first,” she said.

  Shias laughed. “Well, I want to go where you want to go. I can tell you have something in mind.”

  Shana grinned. “Come on!” She raced ahead, with Shias close behind. She led him to the mall’s third floor, and up a wide, open-style winding staircase to the roof park. Shaped like an L, the roof park had a flower garden, hedge maze, pretzel stand, smoothie bar, and several viewing platforms with those strange, stationary, binocular-style viewing machines that cost a coin to look through.

  “Looking for Fae again?” Shias asked as he paid the fee for Shana to use a viewing platform on the side facing Grimoire University. Shana swiveled and angled it carefully, leaning in closely.

  “Of course,” she said, her voice filled with determination. “Her room is on the side facing here. And she never comes home, or calls, so I’ve got to try to see her at least in some way.”

  “You could always call or visit her,” Shias suggested.

  “She’s in college, she’s supposed to be the mature adult.”

  “Well, if you show her up, maybe she’ll start acting like one.”

  Shana pouted as she continued to peer through the binoculars. “I don’t understand what happened. I know, I know, I talk about it all the time, but it’s because it makes me so… so…” She made a wordless noise of frustration. “I miss my big sister.�
�

  Shias sighed. “Me, too.”

  “She’s on the fourth floor, right?” Shana asked, swiveling the binoculars.

  “You don’t remember?”

  “I might have blocked it out.”

  Another sigh. “Fourth floor, east wing. She has a corner room, it’s easy to spot.”

  “Oh! I see —” Shana made a very unpleasant noise. “Her curtains are closed! It’s such a beautiful day! Why’s she hiding in a cave? Did she become a cave-dweller since we last saw her? An antisocial hermit? A nocturnal animal?”

  “You and I are the ones who actually go to school in a cave,” Shias replied dryly. “And I doubt she’s become an animal. Well? Wanna visit her?”

  Shana pulled away from the binoculars and started walking briskly towards the pretzel stand across the roof. “No,” she said firmly. “If she doesn’t want to see us, then I don’t want to see her.”

  “You’re such a child.”

  “We’re the same age, which means so are you!”

  Shias chuckled. “I’m twenty-three minutes older than you.”

  “That doesn’t even count! You were just pushy as a newborn. I, on the other hand, was the picture of patience.”

  “I can see you’ve maintained that ever since.”

  Shias bought two pretzels, and Shana ate all of hers and half of his before she leaned back on the bench and sighed in contentment. “Man, those always hit the spot,” she said. “Thanks, by the way.”

  “Want a smoothie, too?” Shias asked. “It might be too cold for it —”

  “It’s never too cold for smoothies!” Shana exclaimed, eyes sparkling.

  And so Shias bought them smoothies — hers a mango, peach, kiwi, pineapple, and blueberry combo, and his a simple strawberry and banana. They sipped as they wandered through the hedge maze, Shana finishing her smoothie in mere minutes and frantically complaining about brain freeze. Even so, she was quickly eyeing Shias’ smoothie lustfully. He handed it over, and she drank the two-thirds that remained.

  “You don’t eat enough, Shias,” Shana said, gesturing at him with the empty cup of his (former) smoothie. “You know what dad always said about Caleb and growing boys. When he was in high school, mom and dad had to buy double the groceries.”

  “He also played volleyball and was on the swim club,” Shias said. “I’m just surprised that you eat nearly as much as he used to without gaining any weight.”

  “Because I use a lot of energy, obviously,” Shana said.

  “Doing what?”

  Shana spread her arms out and twirled in a circle. “Being me!”

  Shias chuckled.

  “You could stand to be more energetic,” Shana continued. “You want to be a Hunter like Caleb, after all.”

  “You don’t have to be athletic to be a Hunter,” Shias countered.

  “But Caleb’s always talking about how fit you have to be, and how he’s running all over the place on patrols and hunts.”

  “He’s just one type of Hunter. They’re not all the same.”

  Shana eyed him teasingly. “I get it. You want to be a boring Hunter.”

  “Thanks, sis.”

  “Any time!”

  After reaching the center of the hedge maze and then coming out the other side, the twins headed out of the mall and walked the way back home, ignoring the trolley and strolling the narrow streets on foot.

  “Maybe we should visit Fae,” Shana said as she walked, swinging her bag with the books back and forth. “We haven’t seen her since Christmas.”

  “We’re on break until Monday,” Shias said. “Want to go tomorrow?”

  “Yeah! And —” Shana pivoted, pointing a finger in Shias’ face, “don’t you dare call her in advance! I want to surprise her.”

  “I wasn’t going to, don’t worry. It’s not like she answers our calls, anyway. I just hope she’s there.”

  “If she’s not, we’ll track her down!”

  “If it wasn’t our sister you were talking about, that would come off as potentially criminal.”

  “You overthink things.”

  “I’m fine with that.”

  “Do you think Delilah would want to come with us?” Shana asked. “She never talks about Fae… I wonder what she thinks about her?”

  Shias blinked in surprise. “Huh. I never noticed that.”

  “I thought you noticed everything,” Shana teased.

  Shias grumbled wordlessly, then stopped as he noticed something ahead. “Hey, isn’t that Rae?”

  Shana looked with him at the girl at the crossroads ahead and nodded. “Looks like it.” She waved. “Hey —!”

  Shias put a hand over her mouth and pulled her around the corner.

  “What the heck, Shias?” Shana asked in a whisper. “You don’t want to say hi?”

  “She looks like she doesn’t want to be seen,” Shias said just as softly.

  Shana pursed her lips as she peeked around the corner. “Yeah, I guess. So?”

  “So don’t you want to know what she’s up to?”

  That lit up Shana’s face. “Ooooh, can we follow her all stealthily and stuff?”

  “As long as you take ‘stealthily and stuff’ seriously.”

  Shana nodded emphatically. Shias led the way out, watching carefully and motioning to Shana when it was safe to follow. They tread quickly but quietly to the intersection, both peering around to the left.

  “She looks so obvious,” Shana said softly.

  Rae was a slight, mousy girl who the twins knew best for her almost crippling shyness and horribly low self-confidence. Watching the girl try to sneak around in broad daylight was almost comical, with her stopping frequently and always slightly crouched, looking around with wide, worried eyes.

  Seven intersections later and Rae was still continuing on her strange trek, with no sign of her destination. In her hands was an odd package – a slim box maybe a foot-and-a-half long, with a black surface and silver lining. Shana had never seen a box like it, and the way that Rae was hugging it tightly and trying (and failing) to keep it hidden made her that much more curious.

  “Where’s she going?” Shana asked softly.

  “Seems like she’s ambling aimlessly,” Shias said.

  Shana nodded, going over her mental map of Grimoire. Rae had gone in a spiral outward around the spot where the twins had found her, doubling back towards the center. It was almost as if…

  She was trying not to be followed.

  But she was doing a terrible job of it.

  Caught up as she was in following Rae, Shana was completely oblivious to her surroundings. Shias must have been, too. Because Shana had no idea there was someone behind them. Not until a strong hand smothered her mouth, and she and her brother were pulled back into the alley and out of sight.

  Chapter 3: The Flute

  — G —

  Struggling for a moment, Shias was assuaged by the voice that spoke in his ear.

  “It’s me, you guys.”

  “Caleb!” Shana said excitedly when the hand came off of her and Shias’ mouths.

  Sure enough, their assailant had been their older brother. Tall and of slim build, with plenty of laugh lines even at just twenty-two years old, Caleb was looking at the twins with a mixture of amusement and puzzlement.

  “What are you two sneaking around for?” he asked.

  “We’re detectives!” Shana replied before Shias could even open his mouth.

  “We’re following Rae,” Shias added.

  Caleb leaned around the corner. “She does look suspicious, doesn’t she?” he asked.

  “You’re not gonna stop us, are you?” Shana asked, pouting.

  Caleb flashed a crooked grin. “Heck no. I’m gonna help you. Come on. I know a better way to stay out of her sight.”

  The twins followed Caleb down the street after Rae, checked on her location, and then went down an alley that ran parallel to the street Rae had turned onto. “Here we go,” Caleb said, climbing a stone stairc
ase that ran up two stories to a walkway along the roofs of the buildings to their right — the ones in between them and their target.

  “Stay low,” Caleb said softly. He stepped up from the walkway, along the slanted rooftop, so that he could see over to the other side, and Shias and Shana followed suit, staying low, moving slowly so as not to lose their footing on the ceramic roof tiles.

  Thankfully, Rae wasn’t moving quickly. Just like she had been for nearly an hour now, she stopped frequently. Casting a wary, wide-eyed gaze around in all directions, she looked jittery, her hands often shaking. Twice she nearly dropped the box she was holding so tightly, and three times she tripped and very nearly face-planted before managing to either pivot to fall on her butt, or stumble and get her feet under her to avoid falling entirely.

  “She’s not very good at this,” Shias said.

  “But she’s jumpy,” Caleb said, moving and watching with careful seriousness. “If you stayed on the street at her level, she’d be more likely to see you. And if she did, there’s a chance we’d never find out where she’s going.”

  “So she’d give up?” Shana asked.

  Caleb nodded. “At least for a while. Wherever she’s going and whatever she’s carrying, it likely wasn’t her idea.”