They moved me into the shade. They kept me alive. And what did they want?

The Book of Light.

 

I had given it to the newly minted king of this world to defeat the Dark and within hours of that, the greed of man was already back in play. From where my survival was impossible, now I had the slightest of chances.

 

My plan required two elements: 1) I would need to get them apart, and 2) The man who could read would need to be the more avaricious.

 

-A Seller of Dreams

 

###

Tyré was a city of 200,000 at the edge of the world which meant flights in and out were limited to one a day. So Kael scoured the docks—the likely port of entry.  

            How do you chase a ghost?

            With blunt stupidity. Kael had given up the pretentious games of detective work and subtlety after his two weeks of failure in Einhurst. The cessation of caution wasn’t immediate: he held his temper for two days looking for strange happenings, getting to know names, faces, shipping magnates, how a man might be smuggled in. But by the third day— Election Day— Kael woke up and smashed in a department store window on a lonely street corner.

            With a picture of the County in all his murderous glory in mind, Kael pieced together and stole a facsimile of what the ‘Dark Element’ wore. Nonsense. If he was to get seen or get caught, best to shift the blame, try to see where the police looked when they thought a murderous assassin was around. Kael stuffed the ensemble into a bookbag and waited to change until he was behind a dumpster, dockside. The overall effect of his costume was markedly worse than what the County had worn. As stores didn’t sell black wizard robes, his black as a wet starless night, trench coat (with snap on hood) would have to do. 

            A central building oversaw dock operations and Kael blew a side in the wall. He pulled the dumpster as much as he could to cover the entry point, but even with wheels the box wasn’t exactly mobile. The inside of the building wasn’t large: two floors like a warehouse with the offices (not even locked) up some stairs. Kael dug in, ripping open manifests and burning a hole in the safe.

            He didn’t know what he was looking for, but it was already apparent that finding an irregularity was going to be an issue. If what was essentially human trafficking was here somewhere, it wouldn’t be listed as such. Fake fronts behind shell companies, behind multinational conglomerates bought out by an even bigger corporation. And that was the kind of business that the average judicial system considered legal. Hard to find a specific piece of trash at the dump.

            “You!”

            Kael heard the voice from behind and quickly moved to put his hood up. He swiveled around in the chair to see a man standing at the door, lanyard around his neck. His office. Kael didn’t breathe, only sat still with his fingers interlaced, contemplating what to do.

            “Is this an audit? Why are you checking our books?”

            Oh, that was interesting. Kael raised his head to get a good look at the man in time to see the dumb founded recognition on his face. The costume must have looked better than Kael thought, at least in the dark, but he wasn’t sure how anyone could have gotten past the sneakers.

            The dock manager stepped forward, closing the door behind him. “What are you doing in here kid? Put that stuff away, empty your pockets, we’re going to the police.”

            Kael threw his hood back and grinned. “Who did you think I was?”

            “What? I—” The man, hesitated, he fumbled backwards for the door handle now. Kael snapped his fingers and sent a line of power through the floor and into the door frame. The metal on metal didn’t explode, the heat merely released, resulting in a slight metal sluice that welded the door shut. The dock manager yelped, releasing the handle and backing into the corner.

            “Because I know who you thought I was.”

Kael advanced on him in a practiced way, in a manner that gave enough space from the incoming attack to build the dread, enough space that the man’s mind would be wild imaging the possibility of escape.

 “And now we have a choice to make,” Kael said. “We play the game: Is getting out of here alive or hiding that this ever happened easier?”

Kael didn’t realize but as the clock on the wall ticked slightly louder every other beat, he took a step forward. tick, Tick. tick, Tick. Kael grabbed him by the shirt, ran his power through their clothes so they glowed: “Looks like your time is up.”

###

            A cartoon dog was teaching the alphabet and Joshua had never hated anything so much in his life. He turned from the television with Emilie sitting cross-legged six inches under the screen and moved to the window. Without a reason, he pushed the blinds back and looked at a solid wall of white. It was snow and would be snow for the next few months.
            “Could you turn that down?” Joshua asked, absentmindedly flapping his hand at the television. “I've seen this one before.”

            She giggled before pulling the remote out from under her butt. “Have you really?

            He had meant it as a joke, but it was unfortunately true. “I have a little sister at home, your age, not too much older than you.”

            She placed her hands over her face and began to decipher Joshua's very literal comment, as he went back to waiting in endless boredom, not that the boredom was the bad part.

Joshua had lapsed into sleeping close to fourteen hours a day. Emilie couldn’t reach the top latch so that wasn’t a problem, and Kael spent the days out adventuring so Joshua wouldn’t have to explain. And still, that wasn’t the bad part. What was awful was Joshua not wanting it to end. He wasn’t tired and needing the rest, he just didn’t want to move, to see what came next in this little trip of theirs. With any luck, Kael would never find a lead.

            A knock at the door, because that’s how juxtaposition goes, roused Joshua from his stupor. He took a deep breath, seeing if the thump would sound again. It did. He slowly looked at the clock and saw how early it was. That was a bad sign for procrastination.

            “Want me to get it?” Emilie asked, now trying to touch her forehead to her toes. She had dealt with the shut in better than expected, but Kael still needed to bring her to the hotel gym and walk her on the treadmill nightly.

            Joshua ignored the girl and rolled to his side till he was clear off the bed. He stepped over Emilie who was attempting to do a headstand. Eye at the peephole, he saw Kael looking around impatiently. Joshua undid the chain, the main lock, and the doorstop. It wouldn't do much if the Dark Element had tracked them to Tyré, but it made for quieter dreams.

            Kael strode into the room with flakes of snow still falling off his shoulders and short, dark hair. He wore black, top to bottom, and had his hood thrown back. It was actually Joshua's idea to chum the waters dressed like someone from that group, an idea bolstered by Kael being the one to wear the costume.

            “Well?” Joshua prodded.

            “Hello,” Kael said, putting on a big grin and waving to Emilie. “Can you do it yet?”

Emilie teetered on her head for a second before pancaking like a bloodjelly. “Almost!”

“And how was your day Joshua?” Kael asked with the same hollow, sing-song voice, eliciting nothing more than a scowl from his brother.

            “Not as fun as the manual labor back on the farm.” Joshua shrugged. “Still less stressful than going out today.”

            Kael grunted, knowing Joshua wasn't joking. He did love mindless work. Kael then leaned into Joshua and whispered: “Let's find somewhere private to talk.”

            Joshua looked around the suite questioningly and then opened the door to the bathroom for Kael.

            “So you did find something,” Joshua said, lowering the toilet lid and sitting down.

            “I'd like to think our two months of hard work have paid off. Even if all the news isn't so good.”

            “Let's hear the good news first.” This almost got a grin out of Kael, the corners of his mouth just barely twisting. Joshua knew it would. Kael saw him as a horribly optimistic person, even if Joshua saw himself as perhaps the complete opposite of that. What his brother couldn’t understand is that his good news may very well be Joshua’s bad news.

            “I'll start with the bad news, because I didn't ask which you wanted,” Kael said, getting to it right away. “I was followed today. Maybe. I definitely felt, for just a fraction of a second, someone else’s Sychakentic energy.”

            “So, the Dark Element knows we’re here. Since we left the County alive, it was inevitable.” Joshua reached out and picked up a small vile of shampoo to fiddle with. “Any idea how many you had to duck?”

            Kael shrugged. “It was only one, but Element is in their name; we should assume they are all Syches.”

            “That's a problem,” Joshua said tossing the shampoo into the air and catching it. “We had a hard enough time with one of their card-carrying members.”

            “Don't give me that J. He had some surprises but wasn't much. If I wasn't there, you could have dealt with him on your own.”

            Leaning back in a stretch, Joshua considered these words. It wasn’t that Kael didn’t have a sense of humor, his was just a bit sharper. Bit more hurtful. But Joshua couldn’t see the sarcasm or the insult in what he just said. On self-evaluation, Joshua would have guessed the next Syche he went up against would be his last.

            And then Joshua realized he had been squirming around without saying much of anything as Kael looked at him like some exhibit behind tempered glass.

“So we should keep a watch tonight. Just in case.” Joshua hastily spoke.

            “Obviously,” Kael said. “On to the good news then.”

            “Well there's only one good news for us in this situation: You found Doctor Bartholomew?”

            “No, I found a middleman.”

            “And this middleman told you where to find Doctor Bartholomew?”

            “No. Can you let me tell my story?”

            “I don't know. Can you not tell it so boring?”

            “I found someone who knew about the Dark Element– kind of. So anyway. This middleman talks about food.” Kael saw his brother about to ask another question or make a useless comment, so he pushed on. “Food shipments. Big crates come from the harbor with supplies for a deep-water research facility twenty-three miles outside of town, and my guy at the docks makes sure none of it ever gets inspected.

            “Great,” Joshua said tossing his shampoo aside and rubbing his hands together. “So now we find this research facility.”

“Already did it. Didn’t visit, obviously, but there is a verifiable facility out west of the city on the waterfront. They go by some generic name; Aquatic Research something-- acronym is ARPA.”

            People in the know are definitely afraid of these Dark Element guys,” Kael continued. This getup–” Kael beckoned down to his all-black ensemble-- “inspires some real fear.”

            “I don't think it has anything to do with reputation,” Joshua said, looking his brother up and down. “You just look like you're up to no good.”

            Kael laughed a quiet non-laugh. More of a quick evacuation of air from his lungs. “I should dress like this more often then. We're never up to any good.”

            “I'd like to think we help people all the time,” Joshua spat defensively. It wasn't like his brother to attack him so personally.

            “This is all besides the point,” Kael sighed. “We know where we’re going, we just need to hike there.”

            “You said it’s twenty-three miles down the road, and you want to hike there in ten feet of snow?” Joshua asked, already imagining the painful future in store. Painful for him. To Kael the cold was nothing. He had never quite got the connection, but for Combustion Syches specifically, temperature had no meaning. It was like that undying Blood Syche's ability to be ground into pulp and still stay standing.

            “It is what it is with people following us. Let's leave at first light. The longer we wait the better chance we don't find this Bartholomew alive. All that's left to worry about is the girl.”

            Almost on queue, a knock sounded at the bathroom door, Emilie's tiny knuckles tapping out a tune. “Are you both in there?” she asked.

            “We are,” the boys said together.

            “That's weird.”

            “Only a little,” Joshua answered back. “We'll be out in a second, go back to gymnastics.” The brothers listened for the sound of small pats on carpet receding before returning to their conversation. They resumed quietly, with only the speech of their hands:

            “We can't take her with us, you know that right?”

            Kael straightened up and grunted. “Sure. Of course.”

            Joshua scowled. “We. Can’t.”

            “We don’t know how fast we need to get out of town when we find Bartholomew!

            “There’s an orphanage in town!” Joshua protested, mimicking the emphasis with a flick of his two fingers upwards.

            “We don't know she is an orphan yet.”

            “That's not the point.” Joshua wasn't so sure that Kael didn't see his point; his brother didn't want to admit that they needed to leave the girl behind.

            Kael grunted and leaned back once again. “We’ll decide in the morning.”

            “We’re already going to die, not sure why you want to add another name to the KIA list.”

            Kael started opening the door but stopped so he could speak. “Seriously. How many Syches do you think they have?

            “Pessimistically? Five.”

            “There’s only one place in the world with that many Syches, and it’s not in the middle of the ice caps of Tyré.” Kael punctuated the statement’s finality by exiting the bathroom.

            Gravity pulled heavier than usual on Joshua’s insides as he considered his brother’s words. There was only one place in the world where you could find five Syches plus another eighteen more (by Joshua’s last count). Whatever journey they started on tomorrow, it couldn’t be worse than going back home, to their original home—back to Taerose.