by B N Miles
“Appointment?” she asked as the facility rumbled again and gunfire went off.
“Uh,” Jared said, glancing at Lumi. “No appointment.”
She pursed her lips. “No appointment. That’s a problem, oh yes, always a problem. Who are you here to see?”
“Terence Medlar,” Lumi said.
The secretary looked up. “Terence? Oh my, oh dear. No, I’m sorry, that simply cannot happen. He asked me to hold all his meetings for the day.”
“My name is Lumi Medlar,” Lumi said, stepping forward. “Surely you can bend the rules for a Medlar.”
The secretary looked deeply disturbed. “Lumi? Lumi? Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.” She typed on her computer, pressing the keys excruciatingly slowly. “I’m sorry, but you’re not in my database. Did I spell your name right? L-O-O-M-E-E?”
“It’s spelled L-U-M-I actually.”
“Right.” She typed again, hit enter, then sucked in a breath. “Here you are, my dear. Ah, well, interesting, interesting… very powerful, enforcer for the family… it says here you renounced the family and left in disgrace. Is that true, dear?”
“Something like that,” Lumi said.
“I’m sorry then. There’s nothing I can do. Disgraced former members have no privileges any longer.” The secretary gave her a pained look. “I’m so sorry, darling.”
The facility rumbled again.
“He’s back there, though?” Jared asked. “Terence, I mean.”
“Of course. These are the corporate offices for the entire Medlar family.” The secretary frowned at him. “And you are, sir?”
“I’m heading in.” Jared walked past the desk, heading toward the door.
“Excuse me,” the sectary snapped. “You cannot go in there.”
“Sorry, ma’am,” Jared said, feeling bad about being rude to an old woman. “But we have a very important meeting.” He touched the handle of the door, and before he could turn it, the secretary stood and revealed the largest handgun he’d ever seen in his life.
She held it in a practiced grip aimed at his skull.
“Turn that knob and I’ll blow your fucking head off,” the old lady snapped.
Jared stared in disbelief, then wrapped himself in solid air. Lumi used her magic to bend the gun in half.
The old woman cursed and fell back down into her chair. “Damn Magi, you have no respect,” she said.
Jared shook his head and opened the door.
“Stay there, grandma,” Lumi said.
“Sorry about this,” Cassie whispered to the old lady as she passed.
They walked into a large, open-plan office. It looked like a modern pharmaceutical company, with sleek, contemporary design, large white desks and expensive ergonomic chairs, breakout rooms encased in glass, large conference tables, low-hanging ceilings, and even a corner with beanbag chairs and videogame consoles.
The place was empty, but Jared could imagine what it might be like on a normal day: people bustling about from desk to desk, chatting at public spaces, taking a break to play Mario Kart.
It was horrifying, the contrast between what this place was for and what it looked like. On the outside, it seemed innocuous enough, but he knew this place was the headquarters of the Medlar family, which meant a lot of very dark and very nasty things were planned and executed at these desks.
Jared walked through it all, wondering if he could incinerate it.
Lumi and Cassie drifted to either side, peering into the offices. A heavy, quiet calm fell around them as Jared’s shoes scuffed over the plush carpet. The overhead lights flickered once when the facility rocked again. Jared hoped Bea was killing as many of the bastards as possible—and he refused to imagine that she might not be winning.
The office stretched back and felt like it covered the entire first floor. As he reached the far end, he spotted a single office with its lights still on, the only office with blinds covering its large front windows. He hesitated before opening the door, and Lumi appeared at his side with a small frown on her face, before moving in front of him and pushing the door open.
Inside, the office was surprisingly large. Bookshelves dominated the right side, while a small conference table took up the left. In the center, positioned near a bank of large windows, was a big oak desk, behind which a man sat with his hands behind his head.
Lumi instantly went still, like prey in front of a predator. Jared stayed behind her, not sure what was happening, until he got a better look at the man behind the desk—he was old, had long gray hair, wrinkles along his pale skin, and Jared thought he saw a resemblance to Lumi, that same Medlar darkness in the skin and eyebrows. He smiled big and leaned forward, placing his hands on top of the desk, then slowly rose to his feet as the rat-tat-tat of gunfire burst somewhere nearby.
“Hello, Lumi,” he said. His voice was oddly resonant. He wore an expensive, sleek black suit.
“Hello, Terence.”
He beamed and tilted his head. “Not calling me uncle anymore?”
Jared gaped at the man. He’d expected to find some member of the Medlar family here, but Terence himself seemed unimaginable. This was the second most powerful member of the Medlar, right hand of the head of the family, and he was sitting in an office alone, unguarded, and apparently completely at ease.
“Not anymore,” she said. “Not since you blocked me and left me to suffer.” She stepped forward and Jared noticed the way she shook with rage.
Cassie lingered in the doorway behind him, her breath coming quiet but fast.
“Ah yes,” Terence said gently. “I did order that, didn’t I? Well, you broke the rules, helped our enemies, and you had to pay for it. You can’t blame me for upholding the family’s traditions.”
“The family’s traditions.” Lumi sneered at him. “That’s why I left, you sick bastard.”
He chuckles. “Oh, dear Lumi. You’ve been headstrong since the day you were born. Did you know that I was always sure you’d be the most powerful Magi the Medlar family would ever produce? The first moment I saw you, I knew it. You had a Magi mark already, you see, very dim, but you’d been using magic in your mother’s womb. Your father ignored me, even Maurice thought I was being a fool. Oh, everyone told me that I was mad, that I didn’t see it, but I’m still convinced it was there.”
That was impossible, of course. Babies couldn’t use magic any more than a dog could—they weren’t capable of forming and controlling the memgrams necessary to shape the priori. And yet Terence seemed utterly convinced that he was right, and a strange, prickling feeling ran down along Jared’s skin.
“I’m not interested in the past anymore,” Lumi said. “I’m interested in Wade, and stopping you.”
“You can’t stop us anymore, dear Lumi.” Terence sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Did you know that I’ve been faithfully serving this family for seventy-five years? Seventy-five years is a long time.”
“Terence—” Lumi started, but he spoke over her.
“Can you imagine how much the world has changed in that time?”
“None of that matters,” Lumi said.
“Maybe not to you, but it matters to me a great deal. I’m an old man, Lumi, and the past is more or less all I have anymore. I’ve accepted a long time ago that I’d never lead the Medlar, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t done a lot behind the scenes, so to speak.”
Something seemed off about the old man. Jared couldn’t quite figure it out, but the more he spoke, the more it became clear that he wasn’t suffering from madness, or at least nothing overt. That in itself was incredibly rare in a Magi—over time, the Need drove all of them insane sooner or later, and Jared had never met a Magi over the age of fifty that wasn’t touched by it in some way. And yet, Terence sounded utterly lucid.
“Where is Wade?” Lumi asked.
“He’s just a puzzle piece. Don’t you understand? The world’s so different, my beautiful, powerful niece. The world doesn’t need the Accords anymore.”
“
Is that what you’re going to do?” Lumi asked with a laugh. “You’re going to try and convince me that you’re not insane for breaking the Accords?”
“I suppose I don’t think I can convince you, but I like to imagine I can explain my reasoning.”
“I’m not interested.”
“But indulge me regardless.” He held up his hands in a sign of surrender. “I’m an old man and you’re two very powerful Magi. Look at me, Lumi. Look closely. Something seems off, doesn’t it?”
She squinted at him for a long moment then took a step forward. “Your mark.”
His eyes lit up. “Yes, you noticed. Most don’t, you know. Most want to see whatever they think is true, and that’s all they’ll see.”
It hit Jared then, the thing that was off about Terence. He was lucid, that was one part of it, but something bigger was also strange: he had almost no Magi mark.
Over the years, priori builds up in the body and warps the Magi’s essence, leaving a mark in the world that clings to them like an acid cloud. Only other Magi can see them, but they’re unmistakable, and they get bigger and darker with age and magic use.
Terence’s mark was dim and barely there.
“You haven’t been using it.” Lumi sounded almost impressed.
“I have, in fits and starts, when necessary. But I realized a long time ago that it made no sense for the leaders of our family to slowly go insane. So, I allowed Maurice to slowly lose his mind, toying with power beyond his ability to control, while I quietly kept my wits about me and steered the ship away from iceberg after iceberg. The other families should have figured that trick out by now.” He gave Jared a strange, pitying smile. “Your family in particular, you poor Bechtel. Your family could control the world, you know, if only you didn’t go so mad so quickly.”
Jared stared back at him. “Then it’s a good thing we do.”
Terence laughed and sighed as he settled back. “The Accords are holding everyone back,” he said. “They made sense once, when Humans were intent on murdering every Meta there was, but with the rise of modern nation states and well-trained standing armies, there’s no reason to think we couldn’t keep control of the populace if necessary.” He waved a hand in the air. “Sure, there will be some fools holed up in the mountains of Colorado, railing on about tyranny, and how we’ll never take away their guns, but they won’t matter. When the Accords fall, we can integrate society, don’t you see that?”
“You make it sound like you want some utopia,” Lumi said, “but we’ve seen what you do with Metas. We’ve seen the experiments.”
Terence waved a hand. “Necessary, unfortunately. We need to know what we’re getting into. And let me tell you, Lumi, Metas are not so different from you and me. They use magic just like we do, except their magic is limited. I suspect their gods have something to do with it.”
“Gods?” Jared asked. “They haven’t mattered in thousands of years, if they exist at all.”
Terence laughed. “Of course they exist. They walk among us, even now, except they’re powerless. Though I have a feeling not for much longer.” He stood up slowly, and Lumi tensed, taking a few more steps closer. “You don’t have to be worried, niece. I’m not a threat to you.”
She sucked in a breath. “I can’t let you leave here.”
“I understand.”
“Where is Wade?”
“He’s already in position, dear girl.” Terence beamed at them. “We’ve been talking for a while now, haven’t we?” He checked his watch. “I suppose we’ve been talking long enough for them to put Wade up on that altar.”
The floor shook, but not from an explosion. It was a sustained buzzing feeling, like the whole building rumbled from a distant earthquake. But it didn’t stop, only continued to rumble, and buzz, and Terence’s eyes lit up with excitement.
“What’s going on?” Jared asked.
“They’re spooling up the batteries. Oh, we’ve stored so much power for so long in anticipation of this moment. It’s quite magnificent. I almost wish you could see it for yourselves.”
“Lumi,” Jared said. “We have to go. We need to find Wade.”
“It’s too late,” Terence said. “My entire life, I’ve dreamed of this moment, even more so than the pipedream of ascending to the head of the family. The Accords have been an albatross around our necks, but without it, we’ll be able to run the world the way we’ve always been meant to. Imagine, nation states kneeling before us, terrified of what we can do to them.” His eyes looked almost manic, and Jared wondered if he was as sane as he pretended.
Lumi walked toward him, her eyes hard, and Jared wanted to stop her but Cassie appeared at his side. She put a hand on his arm and shook her head once, stopping him from doing anything.
Terence didn’t move as Lumi stopped in front of the desk. She stared at her uncle, at the man that helped raise her, helped break her, and eventually molded her into a monster. Jared couldn’t imagine the thoughts that ran through her mind, but she’d told him of the abuse she’d suffered while being a member of the Medlar family. They knew her potential from a young age, and they did their best to make sure she manifested every ounce of power possible with ruthless efficiency.
It destroyed her. She would’ve been a very different person if that hadn’t happened, and now she stared down at the man that was the root cause of all her suffering. She reached out a hand and power flared inside of her, and Jared wanted her to do it, wanted her to break the old man’s skull.
Instead, she reached out, leaned across the desk, and touched his forehead. Her power flared, and a spell Jared didn’t recognize transferred into Terence’s body.
She pulled her hand back and nodded once. “You deserve that.”
“What did—” Terence started, then looked at his hands. He looked back up, horror in his expression. “You blocked me.”
“You’ll die a powerless old bastard,” she said, turning away from the desk. “Just like you’ve always been. Second in command, never the true head.”
Rage twisted Terence’s face. “I’m still a Magi,” he growled. “I didn’t use magic for most of my life. This won’t matter at all.’
“It matters,” Lumi said, walking to Jared. She had a sad look in her eyes, and she stared at the floor like she might melt through it. “You chose not to use it, but now you don’t have that choice. You’re nothing anymore, Terence, just an old man.”
“You little bitch.” His face twisted into anger and he reached for something in his desk drawer.
Jared snapped a memgram into place and shoved a burst of air at Terence. It knocked the old man back into the window and pinned him there. He grunted in pain and struggled. He wanted to kill the old bastard for everything he’d done, but Lumi chose his fate already, and he wouldn’t go against her wishes. He released the spell and let the broken Magi slump down to the floor.
He turned and followed Lumi from the room. Cassie squeezed his hand and smiled at him, like he did a good job.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Lumi nodded once. “I’m fine.”
“What he said back there—”
“He doesn’t matter anymore. He’s been on the way out for a long time.” She sucked in a breath and let it out. “He’ll die in this place, powerless and alone.”
Jared nodded and touched her shoulder. She smiled at him, and he saw a strange sadness there—maybe a sadness for what she gave up, or maybe for what she lost.
The floor beneath them rumbled, like the power was growing, and he heard more gunfire.
“Come on.” Jared dropped his hand and walked toward a pair of doors at the far end of the room. “We need to keep moving. If they’re getting ready to activate the spell, we need to hurry.”
He reached the doors and pressed his hands against them—but they were shut and locked tight. Lumi stepped up and used her magic to burst the doors inward.
28
Guards formed a tight phalanx in a dimly lit hall, and their gunfire w
ould’ve blown their faces apart if Jared hadn’t shoved Lumi to the side. He felt a bullet rip along his calf and he grunted in pain as he wrapped a thin shield around himself. More bullets pinged off the hardened air and he slowly stood beneath their weight, turning to face them, keeping his shield memgram running in the back of his mind.
They burned easily. He rolled orange-blue flame into their midst and turned their bodies to ash. He felt a strange thrill as he did it, and he let the anger that had been simmering inside of him all afternoon come spilling out as he dealt more and more death. He dropped his shield memgram, released the fire, and stood as the bodies burned.
Lumi joined him then put out his flames. The corpses smoldered, sending a black ashy smoke against the ceiling.
“There will be more,” Cassie said, her voice grave. “A lot more than that. I don’t know how we’re going to get inside.”
Jared strode forward and stomped through the still-warm ash. He kicked it aside and sent a rifle skittering against the wall. He looked back at the girls watching him, Lumi with her neutral, almost bored expression, and fear and uncertainty playing across Cassie’s eyes.
“This is the end,” he said, his voice soft, barely audible over the rumble of the building. “We’ve come this far now. We can’t turn back.”
“Maybe we can wait for Bea.” Cassie stepped forward. “You don’t have to do this alone.”
“We can handle it,” Lumi said, her voice firm.
“I know you think that.” Cassie looked between the two of them, and Jared suddenly realized what was going on.
She was afraid they wouldn’t make it back from this.
After everything, she was still afraid that she’d lose him, and he couldn’t blame her. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to make it back, not after coming so far and getting so close. The Medlar weren’t weak, far from it, even though they’d been stretched thin. They wouldn’t make it easy for Jared to disrupt their ritual, and frankly, some large part of him thought it might not even be possible, if they let him get this far with such light resistance.
