“Barely.” Vee snorted bitterly, lifting her cup again, although she didn’t drink from it. “He slipped in and out of consciousness for days even with healing spells. I was in love with him even then, and the possibility of losing him terrified me. He was the best partner and friend I’d ever had. I understand very well how Rena feels. So much it hurts. The fear and nightmares will fade eventually, my friend. Just give her time. Be the one person she doesn’t have to explain anything to.”
That I could do. I pondered her story as I finished breakfast, feeling like I’d missed a point she wanted to make aside from the obvious. It eventually dawned on me as I finished off my coffee. “Vee, you do realize that we’ll do everything in our power to protect you too?”
Some life came back into her face as her mouth quirked in amusement. “Any reason you’re stating the obvious?”
“You’re not going to have to relive that nightmare is what I’m saying. We won’t put ourselves in the same desperate situation as last time.”
Her expression softened into a gentle smile. “Learned your lesson from last time?”
“I didn’t say it was a good idea last time either,” I reminded her dryly. “We just didn’t have any other options.”
“Unfortunately true,” she allowed, finally reaching for the platters of food.
Maksohm ventured back into the dining room with a very self-satisfied expression. “Director Salvatore praised me for the idea and has issued orders.”
“What idea?” Rena inquired as she made her way downstairs. She didn’t look at all chipper, but I’d successfully worn her out enough that she’d slept hard in the wee hours of the morning. At least she dressed properly in the blue uniform, although she had a comb and a few hair ties in one hand, a silent hint that I was to do her hair.
“I want you in on the design committee for the building that will house Toh’sellor,” Maksohm explained to her earnestly.
Blinking, Rena cocked her head, brown hair swaying to one side. “Well of course I should be on that committee. When does it start?”
Oh? Not quite the reaction I’d anticipated. Then again, Rena likely thought of this under the category of All Things Toh’sellor Are My Responsibility. If that really were the case, she wouldn’t be shy about sharing her opinion, even if it was to a group of strangers.
“It actually has been convening for about a month now,” Maksohm informed her. “They’re meeting in Heaberlin all this week and next. Director Salvatore wants you on a train this morning and to stay for as long as needed.”
Or until Toh’sellor popped up again. No one said that, but the words lingered almost visibly in the air.
Rena nodded, almost relieved to have something constructive to do. Since I was finished, I waved her into my chair and took the comb and hair ties from her. As she loaded up her plate, I combed through her hair, which had a few tangles in it. Likely tangles I’d put there. Oops.
“Why don’t we send Chi along with them?” Vee suggested to Maksohm. “One more day of research will likely send him straight up the wall, and they might need his input anyway. The committee is full of architects and government officials, right? Do they have anyone as a security consultant?”
“I have no idea,” Maksohm admitted. “But Chi and Bannen should be able to weigh in even if they do. They’ve fought Toh’sellor, after all. When it comes to building security, I think they should be able to advise everyone well enough.”
I was actually 100% certain that we’d be a better choice than whatever poor schmuck they had as security consultant. Conventional means of protection for that building absolutely would not work. “I’m game. Vee, Maksohm, you’re staying here?”
“We’ll do some more research, consult with everyone on the lookout, see if anything unusual pops up,” Maksohm agreed. “That’s easier to do from here. If something does happen, we’ll immediately portal to come and get you.”
“Works for me,” Rena said. A soft timbre of relief laced through the words. She hadn’t been looking forward to another day of possibly fruitless research either. Actively participating in plans on how to quarantine Toh’sellor suited her better.
I went about plaiting my wife’s hair and hoped that this new project would help keep the nightmares at bay.
I pondered the problem of laundry as we got ready to pack and move out to Heaberlin. With only two clean shirts and a pair of pants to my name, laundry needed to be a thing that happened soon. People felt very strongly about me running around naked, for some reason. There were times I mourned Rena being a Void Mage, and laundry day’s one of them, because there’re handy spells for that sort of thing. Ah well.
The door abruptly burst open and Maksohm ducked in long enough to snap, “Ravenswood, move.”
The tone had me moving in a split second, snatching up weapons and sprinting down the stairs of the bed and breakfast. I found I was the last to arrive. An agent I didn’t know already had a portal up, right there in the dining room, and that told me how urgent this was. Had they found Toh’sellor? Could I take this urgency as a good sign or a bad one?
Either way, I didn’t ask questions, as we clearly didn’t have time for them. I just ducked through, slipping sideways, everyone else promptly following me. Another agent stood waiting for us in a green, grassy meadow that…I had no idea where we landed, actually. The middle of nowhere, it looked like, but I assumed partway through Perrone, as that was the direction we needed to go in.
The new agent opened a portal spell the minute Maksohm stepped through the first one, the last of our group to do so, and away we went. No one waited at the other side, Vee stepping up to create a portal for the last leg.
We stepped out into an orchard—an apple orchard, to be precise. I looked about, getting my bearings. At this time of the year, the short trees were completely bare of leaves or fruit, sitting squat against the snowy hillsides. In spring and summer, this was likely a picturesque place, but at the moment it seemed very stark. I took in a deep breath, inhaling the clean scent of freshly fallen snow, hearing the crunch as people stepped in the snow, the wind kicking up slivers of ice and carrying the scent of…something rotting? Seriously rotting. The wind shifted, bringing the scent closer to us, and I nearly gagged. “What in sarding deities is that?”
“A report came in that two dozen corpses with a manic sort of energy were dumped in an apple orchard,” Maksohm explained tersely, already striding ahead of us. We automatically followed him, closing in a loose formation, ready to defend as necessary. “The workers of the orchard reported it, the owner sent word to the police, the police called for us. You’re now caught up to speed.”
“I do wish initial reports gave more information,” Vee bemoaned.
Wait, that was typical? Just that little scrap? That barely gave us more than a location, come on.
(Un)fortunately, because of the smell, the location of the corpses was easy to find. We followed our noses until we basically stumbled across it. With no foliage to block our view, they were easy to see from a distance, each corpse stationed a little apart from the other, lying in at the base of the trees, as if each tree acted as its tombstone. I took in the sight of the corpses lined up all in a neat little row, like sardines drying in the sun, all of them in various stages of rot. Thank you, random evil person, as if I didn’t already have enough fodder for nightmares. Seeing people laid out like this with no care or respect made me angry. But knowing someone had done this without any care or thought for the families of these people? That just made me livid.
Rena put a hand to the small of my back, a brief contact, and shot me a sympathetic look. She knew Z’gher’s culture held very specific traditions about the deceased, that we highly respected our ancestors and family. She knew I wouldn’t handle this situation well. I appreciated the silent support and deliberately breathed deep, letting go of my anger. It wouldn’t serve any purpose here. With me no longer on edge, Rena moved ahead, her expression already turni
ng preoccupied as she worked out the puzzle.
“We might have a problem,” she announced after a moment, tone distracted more than worried.
“I really hate it when she says things like that,” Chi observed rhetorically. “Rena, please expound.”
“I know why we were sent for.” She turned, looked around, mouth quirked up in a humorless smile. “They’re infected with Toh’sellor’s energy.”
We all went very still. The words reverberated inside my skull unpleasantly, resounding like a jackhammer. I knew she wasn’t joking, but I felt near consumed with the desire to demand if she was, because I didn’t want to hear otherwise.
“I assume that someone on the police force must have had a mage come and take a look,” Rena continued, her eyes going back to the corpses. “Fortunately for us, they knew who to call. There’s not a lot of energy here, and obviously these aren’t minions, but…”
She zoned out at that point. I knew that look. “Give her a minute,” I requested of the other three. “She’s gone into la-la land on us.”
I gave our surroundings a suspicious look. The apple orchard had sunny, clear weather without a cloud in the sky. It was a picturesque winter day and, conversely, that made it all the creepier to be standing over corpses infected with Toh’sellor’s energy. But it occurred to me: anyone who had gone through this much trouble to steal corpses and infect them with Toh’sellor’s energy wouldn’t just abandon them casually without keeping a watch. I had no idea what they were really trying to do, but wouldn’t they at least want to know how fast we’d respond to their dumping?
Chi apparently had the same thoughts as he announced, “I think someone needs to take a look around.”
“Go ahead,” Maksohm encouraged him and Vee.
“Shoot to kill authorized?” Chi asked hopefully.
“Negative,” Maksohm said, holding back a smile. “Surveillance only. I doubt anyone’s actually still here, and you don’t want to shoot innocent civilians.”
“You take all the sarding fun out of being on a team, sir.”
“You have no idea the paperwork I have to fill out when one of you gets a papercut. If anyone has the right to take a headshot, it’s me.”
“Hard to argue with that,” Vee observed. Amused, she moved off, Seton flashing colors in her hands. “I know, right?” she responded to the staff.
Maksohm and I stood around like decorative statues for a while, looking pretty and breathing air through our mouths because of the smell. Rena kept kneeling, peering close, then wrinkling her nose as the smell got to her, forcing her back to her feet. She’d back off a few paces, eyes shifting to a different corpse, then inch in closer, eyes narrowed as she concentrated, only to repeat the cycle. Occasionally she shifted the bodies up a little with her boot, taking a look at what the soil underneath was doing, then would wince and let it drop again.
“Are you okay?” Maksohm asked me.
“Haven’t been for years,” I responded lightly, then realized he meant the question seriously. He gave me a look, knowing and patient, and I didn’t know why that look got me every time, but it did. It was more effective for some reason than when my parents got that look. I think because with him, I had no real reason to dodge a question. It was easier to be completely honest. “I’m…not okay. I can’t say I am because this situation gives me nightmares, but there’s not a sarding thing I can do about it except protect my wife until we find Toh’sellor. I’m focused on her. Focusing on her, it, um, helps.”
He nodded in complete understanding. “I find myself doing that with all of you. If I’m focused on you, I don’t have the headspace to focus on me. Easy to ignore the voice jabbering in panic that way.”
Chi might be my brother from another mother, but Maksohm’s the older brother I would have liked to have, only fate denied me. The only reason why I didn’t petition adopting him was that I got to have him anyway as a teammate. That, and he wouldn’t thank me for adopting him into my crazy family.
“Tell me when you get to the point of not-okay,” Maksohm requested, expression a mix of affection and sympathy. “I don’t want anyone on this team losing what’s left of their sanity.”
“We have sanity left?” I responded in mock-outrage. “And you didn’t tell me? Maksohm, I thought we were brothers, friends, pals! What’s wrong with you?”
“I can’t share too much of it,” he deadpanned back. “We have to keep Chi from climbing the walls.”
“Oh sure,” a voice called from out of sight. “Blame it all on me.”
“Isn’t that why we keep you around?” Vee riposted, voice rich with laughter.
“Wifey, aren’t you supposed to be on my side?”
“That was not in the vows.”
“Sards. I knew I should have read the fine print.”
Some days I swore Rena only agreed to have Chi and Vee for the entertainment. They kept the situation bearable even in times like this. Humor’s the only way to keep worry at bay, or so the saying went.
Rena blinked back to herself, stepping away completely and turning to face us. “You’re not going to find anyone dangerous in the area. There’s a portal nearby but it’s so faded I could barely tell it was there.”
“Now she tells us,” Chi grumbled, still out of sight.
Ignoring him, she continued, “And this is very strange. I thought I saw my share of strange, but this takes it to a new level. They possess Toh’sellor energy, but the corpses weren’t randomly exposed to its energy. Instead, it seems as if someone has created a type of barrier that harvested its energy, then placed the barrier inside the corpses. Some of the ground is scorched by the energy under the bodies, so the shields are leaking a little, but the energy isn’t…active? I’m not sure how else to explain it. It’s leaking, but it’s like acid—only doing damage.”
We both stared at her, men waiting for the punch line of a truly terrible joke. She stared back, eyebrows arching a little, mouth puffing out in a comical looking way.
Maksohm shifted from one foot to another, growing impatient. “And?”
“And…I have no idea why,” Rena admitted. “That’s why I kept studying it, hoping for a clue. But every corpse is not quite…identical. Each has a slight variation on the barrier. It almost seems as if they were trying to create a vehicle for spreading Toh’sellor’s energy.”
I tried to follow this but mostly failed. I did that a lot when she talked about her work. “Like a minion? But why choose a corpse to do that? There’s no life there to use.”
She shook her head, correcting me. “No, not like a minion. Like a seedling.”
Terror washed through me in a cold wave, sending a shiver over my skin. What in sarding deities did she mean by that? Seedlings?! The idea horrified me—that someone could do this. That someone would WANT to do this.
Rena caught my hand, squeezed it, her expression reassuring and earnest. “It didn’t work. It won’t work. Just trapping some of Toh’sellor’s energy into something like this won’t do what people think it will. It’s like…it’s like harvesting the trail edges of wind from a hurricane into a bottle. No matter how you release it later, that trapped air won’t turn into a hurricane. As soon as the barrier disintegrates—and it’s already starting to—then the energy will just vaporize like smoke in the wind.”
That all sounded good, and certainly hearing her reassurances put my heart properly back in my chest, but the familiar bond leapt about like a scalded cat at the idea. I thumped my chest with the flat of my free hand and ordered it to simmer down. Wifey had this one covered. “I don’t suppose, for the interest of humanity and my general wellbeing, that you could speed that process along?”
“I will,” she promised faithfully, hand still firm in mine.
She kept hold of me as she worked, her eyes on the corpses and the seedlings of Toh’sellor they carried about. I firmly ordered my subconscious to not latch onto this, because we didn’t need more nightmare fuel,
and I refused to think about this any more than necessary.
“I’ll call this in,” Maksohm stated. “We might as well notify that someone has to reclaim the bodies and put them back in the proper graves.”
I suddenly felt glad that wasn’t my job and simultaneously felt sorry for the poor sod who would have to do it.
Maksohm strolled away a few feet, talking to someone on his TMC—likely the boss—about what we’d found. I kept my eyes on our surroundings, not at all interested in looking at the corpses any more than I had to.
A somewhat portly man walked up to us, dressed in winter gear, face ruddy from the cold. He had in his hands a tray full of steaming mugs that smelled of coffee, and I for one hoped that was for us. “Agents? My wife sent some coffee out for you.”
“Bless you both,” I said sincerely, taking one and passing it to Rena before grabbing one for me. The warmth was very welcome and I sipped it, finding it pleasantly sweetened with a dash of cream, but not heavily so. Near perfect, in my opinion, although I knew Chi liked his as black as his soul. “Thank you.”
“What have you found?” the man asked anxiously as Vee strode over, taking a mug for herself.
“Someone’s been experimenting on them,” Rena said with a grimace. “Different types of magical barriers. Still not sure why, though.”
The orchard owner looked alarmed by this. “But why dump them here?”
“Misdirection,” Vee supplied with a sympathetic smile for the distraught man. “They don’t want to leave any evidence that back to their hideout, wherever that is. They might very well have just randomly stabbed a finger at a map when they decided to put them here. When did you discover them?”
“This morning,” he answered, staring at the corpses with obvious distaste. “About nine, actually; I came out to check on the trees. Bitter frost will sometimes crack the trunks, and I wanted to make sure after last night that nothing had happened to the orchard. It was the smell that caught my attention.”
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