by Dawn Chapman
I raised an eyebrow in his direction. “You could see her? The real her?” I mean I had, but I never told everyone the inside person or entity that was hiding under a skin. That would be rude.
Steve just laughed at me and tapped the side of his head. “More to me than you know, little Runner.”
I was the one who laughed this time, “Little… huh?” But he was correct. If he could see inner souls, he was deeply magically orientated in Puatera.
“I was digging for information,” he eventually admitted.
“Oh.” I pulled a cool glass tumbler of water my way and poured some. A moment later, the waitress was back with fresh orange juice. I drank it all, in need of the fluids.
When she’d deposited plates full of fresh bacon and eggs, I grinned. “I’m sure you’re just trying to fatten me up all the more.”
Steve frowned, and I could tell I’d upset him. “I’m just glad to see you eating well. The fact you’ve been so thin for so long and only just getting out of basically kids sizes doesn’t bode well with me. I can’t help but want a fighter with me, like you, who has the strength and the ability to do without for a while.”
To do without… That was interesting. I guess I’d never thought that it could be construed like that. A little extra padding didn’t hurt, especially in leaner times. I’d just been so lean for so long I’d forgotten what well-fed and looked-after was like.
The food was soon gone, and I felt ready to tackle the day. Leaving the tavern, I managed to guide us toward the city centre. There were a lot of people going about their daily business. We saw signs directing us toward the town and took a turn down a side alley.
I noticed things didn’t seem right straight away. Steve carried on chatting about what Wren had told him about the operating guilds and factions here. There was a situation developing it seemed somewhere between good and bad.
I heard something at the other end of the alley, and we both stopped walking.
What is that? I looked and noticed a young man, who indicated for me to come closer. I wasn’t so sure.
“If you want to live, come on,” he called in the end. And then I watched as he vanished through that very wall.
A mage? Or was there some kind of magic spell on the wall?
Both Steve and I moved to it, and I placed my hand on it. It had seemed solid, but then a hand reached through the wall for mine, not in a horrible way, though. My stomach flipped. Then Steve and I both stepped through that wall.
When I was able to focus again, I saw we were in a different alley, and the boy was running off.
I glanced around, looking for any dangers, the alley looked simple, nothing out of the ordinary. This confused me, it just looked like the other, so what was the need to step through the wall? Or maybe the other side was the ambush, and this was the safe side? I didn’t know but watched as he kept moving in and out of the crowds ahead.
“Shall we follow him?”
Chapter 3
We did for a while, then we lost him, somewhere in the middle of town, so I tried to absorb as much as I could about the place.
I looked around and noticed the young man had left us in the middle of the city. Ahead, there was a crowd of people gathered around a ring. Inside that ring, there was obvious fighting.
Steve and I traded glances as what we were watching drew us in closer.
In the ring, albeit a hand-drawn one, were two mages, their aura’s powerful enough to make me want to turn away, but interesting enough that I wanted to get closer. Steve reached for me. “Careful. This could be a trap.”
He then pointed to several people around the area who were watching and waiting for the real fight to start. I knew it was coming. But the people here didn’t have a clue.
“It doesn’t feel like a trap, though. Just that they’re watching everything going on.”
The two mages at the centre of the ring were eyeing each other up. I’d seen this a few times over the years, and Visitors called it PVP, which was one on one for them, but these weren’t Visitors; they were people from Puatera.
I noted the woman to the far left of the ring, her bright red hair flared in the sunlight, casting amazing colours off everything around her.
She drew my eye and met mine before she sparked her energy. Her aura grew, and her opponent also took a similar stance. He was much bigger, a demon. His long horns protruded behind his face, curling down his back. Sharp as any blade, I’d imagine.
“Steve, these people around here aren’t regular people from the city, are they?”
He looked around at them all, his eyes dimming for a minute, and I was sure he was talking to someone else.
He stayed quiet for a moment or two… It bugged me.
“Who are you talking to?” I asked.
“You got that?” he met my gaze with his. But his words made no sense because they weren’t meant for my ears.
“Err, yeah, it’s kinda creepy that you can just like vanish in the middle of the conversation and go and do whatever you’re doing.”
“You don’t know that much about our side of the world, do you?”
I shook my head, I’d never pretended to know anything. “I’d like to learn if you’ll tell me.”
He nodded, reached for me, and pulled me in closer to him, as the crowd around us got closer to the ring so they could watch better.
I felt his body heat against mine, and I tried to pull back a little. His breath tickled my ear. “Just because I am what I appear to be on the outside doesn’t mean I am this on the inside.”
I looked sideways at him and noted the smile on his face.
“I don’t understand?”
“You think I’m a guy, right?”
“Yes,” I said, feeling him press up against me. His obvious excitement touching the top of my ass. I squirmed.
I wanted not to laugh, but I think it was nerves since I giggled and said the obvious. “I can feel your dick against me.”
Steve then laughed too. “I wanted to say something last night but wasn’t sure if you’d be more upset than anything else.”
I physically let myself relax in his strong grip. “You still seem to be a guy to everyone else. You obviously have a reason for wanting to be that person you play here, that perhaps you’re not in your world. I can respect that. It won’t change how I look at you.”
Steve squeezed me from behind and let go. “Then, yeah, okay, I was talking to Candice.”
“She okay?”
He turned back to the fight just as the first blows started to land in spectacular fashion. “She’s good. She’ll help us if she can.”
I saw the build-up from the female fighter, her fiery red hair blowing around her with the tremendous energy that I knew was coming.
Someone shouted out from the crowd, “Alia!” and I knew the woman in front of us was the one we were after. I could also see from this fight and the crowd’s reaction that she wasn’t to be messed about with.
I motioned to Steve, and we moved away from the crowd. Although I kept a close eye on her, her technique and skills interested me.
So, there at the end of the street, we watched as she seriously pounded the demon she was pitted against. The crowd loved the fight itself and worked themselves up into quite the frenzy.
“This city is so interesting,” I said to Steve. “The way she’s playing the demon, just biding her time long enough to bait him into moving so she can get that killing strike with minimal effort. Fascinating way to put on a show.” I then motioned for him to look around at the several guards that were watching their leader as she battled on.
With a wave of his hand, Steve motioned to a couple of others that I hadn’t thought were with her.
There was a young man who also met my gaze with a wink. As if he saw something from me that I hadn’t meant.
“Crap, I think I blew our cover.”
“Were we actually under any?”
I laughed. “Probably not. It seems the people around he
re are very aware of what and who is around them.”
The young man started to head over, and I straightened my back to be able to meet him head-on.
Steve also seemed to grow in stature, and the confidence he oozed was awesome. Before now, he had shown that he was just a shy and timid man. Now I could see something else. Not only was he something else, but he could be anything he focused on. Right now, this was an act, I knew it, but the young man walking our way didn’t. Steve really was shy…
The man stopped before me, never losing my attention.
“I’m Noc,” he said.
“Maddie Vies and this is Steve.”
His head flicked to the fight. “Alia’s my mother, and you want her audience more than anyone else here.”
“You can see that?”
“I see a lot of things that others don’t.” Noc glanced at Steve. “Please come with me. The fight will last a few hours yet.”
“That long?” I almost choked on the words.
Noc moved to walk away. “Yes, Cril is a known fighter on our side. He takes time to wear down. The crowd has been waiting for this fight for months. My mother will make sure they get to see what they need.”
“That she’s powerful?”
“That, of course, and that she is patient. She’s a leader they don’t want to piss off.”
I laughed. “Good point.” And I started to follow him.
Steve tugged at my arm. “You sure about this?”
“He’s not shown any signs of being a threat, and if his mother can defeat that demon, then I want to know more. We can talk while she finishes the fight.”
It was the finishing off that worried me.
Noc led us through a good few streets away from the fight and toward what seemed to be a central section to how the city was structured.
He noticed my intrigue and slowed so that I could walk more evenly at his side. “The city was designed into four sections with the main guilds as leads over each presiding area. This and most of this side of the city belongs to my family.”
“Travoy’s Guild?” Steve asked.
Noc smiled, and as we walked toward the large building cresting before us, his smile turned to something else––worry.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Let’s get inside, and we can talk. We’ve been followed back, and they seem rather keen on you.”
I whirled around. Hoping to see who the hell he was talking about, but I saw nothing.
“You won’t see them, Maddie. They’re dark,” Noc said.
I glanced to Steve, and then the gates to the guild. “I…”
“I got this, Maddie.” Steve’s words calmed my fears enough, and he faltered a few steps to position himself behind me. I sucked in a breath and then swallowed.
I took the lead, and Steve moved to follow me. The guards outside of the guild opened the gates, and we ran through.
The further we walked into the estate—I could only call it that now—the more I could see this young man as respected amongst the people, and perhaps maybe they were even a little scared of him.
I had met many guild leaders over the years. Maicreol herself was after all run by two difficult groups. I worked for whoever was paying the highest price at the time. It hadn’t been until recently that I’d started to become more aware of who I actually thought was the better one. I put that down to being more aware in general, and actually, more than what I should be.
Riezella’s killing bite had done it, reborn as something else. I shivered at first, remembering the sandy dunes, the teeth as they snapped against my flesh. The pounding as my fragile body was tossed around, broken, almost left for dead.
I forced a smile, shaking off the pain I’d been through to remember some of the good moments we had shared recently. The fact was I was now Lady of the Skies.
No matter where this adventure took me, I would not be swayed from my beliefs for a quick buck. As much as I knew I needed funds, I also knew I needed to believe in the future I wanted, not just for myself but for the whole of Maicreol.
I couldn’t help but notice the number of people watching. I wondered if, like outside though, if I were missing a few things.
Noc turned into a corridor and then into a large open room. A couple were sitting talking, but they soon moved to leave on his arrival.
He wasn’t shy in pouring us both a drink from a cooler at the edge of the room, handing us both a glass. “Gets warm out there.”
“Thank you,” I replied taking a huge drink.
Steve seemed to enjoy his drink and then just dived in straight with his question. “So, what’s the problem, Noc?”
Noc’s demeanour changed once more. “It was always a delicate balance between light and dark in Puatera.”
“You’re talking about alignment, right?”
“Not quite.” He glanced at me. “Maddie, you saw who my mother was fighting in the street, right?”
“The demon?”
Steve’s mouth opened. “I didn’t see any….”
“No, because you’re not as skilled as Maddie. But she saw him.”
I could only nod and agree with him. To Steve’s displeasure.
Noc glided to the wall. Touching a few panels, he brought up an image. It was a map, a detailed one of Tridon, but when he touched it, the view shifted, and it was all of Trofoth. From where the city was marked out, lands stretched and certain spots were blacked out. I had thought that it was uncharted, but this looked pretty darned detailed. It just hadn’t made it back to the mainlands. There were spots marked as war zones. I shivered as I saw this. Then there were two sets of numbers.
“What is that for?”
Noc clicked it so we could see better. “This is the true balance in Trofoth.”
Avasti – 121121
Terven –175742
“The Avasti are light, Terven the dark?” Steve asked.
I frowned at the numbers, the Terven outnumbered the Avasti. “With things changing, it’s getting worse. It seems something’s swayed the dark and they’re pushing boundaries vying for more lands and better sites in the city. We’re defending people and our homes, but it’s tiresome.”
Steve’s eyes met mine. We both knew some of the reasons as to why things were shifting. “The Portals,” I said. “They’re the shift in balance.”
Noc shrugged. “They’ve been around a while here. I believe only some areas in Puatera have them, but they’re growing.”
“Yes, where I’m from, they’re a recent thing. They’re not good.”
“I gathered as much. A steady stream of creatures has been coming through here. We’ve tried our best to keep an eye on them as well as to support those who don’t wish us harm.”
“The guard at the facility told us to look for Alia because you need help.”
“My uncle sent you?” his brow furrowed.
“Captain Kenf, yes, your uncle, right?”
“I think Mum thought he’d abandoned us. He’s been out at the facility for some time. Haven’t had much contact from him in the last couple of years.”
The young man was obviously more upset about this than the whole situation in his city. But he turned back to telling Steve and I about it all, and I listened in with the attention it needed. Steve seemed to enjoy listening to their politics. I was bored within minutes. But I kept up the pretence, picking out the key mentions of things I needed to know about.
Noc stopped talking, and there was a knock at the door. A young lady came in and put fresh food down for us.
“So tell me why you’re here, Maddie?” Noc questioned. “You’ve heard my side of the story. So…”
I moved to sit back down, picking up a nice chunk of chicken breast. “Essentially, I’m just like you. Part of Puatera. But a few years ago, something opened my eyes.”
Noc indicated the ring, and I held my hand out for him to look closer. “It’s beautiful and powerful. You’re a Matriarch?”
I hadn’t been address
ed like that yet. But I liked it. The ring twinkled in the light from outside. “Thank you,” I said. “No one’s called me that yet.”
Steve coughed at my side. “I keep forgetting. Sorry.”
“Let me tell you my story.” I picked up the fresh cooler of liquid, noting the fragrance as I poured it and then drank.
“I am just like you, Noc. From Puatera.”
“But…”
“There is a but that even I’m not sure of yet.”
He chewed some of his lunch and waited for me. “We’re looking for three sisters. Well, one in particular. She goes by the name of Lila?”
Noc’s eyes phased out, and I knew he was accessing something within his systems. “We don’t have anyone with that name as yet, but there could be many places she’s arrived or been taken to.”
I could only frown. I hoped we could at least find some leads here. “Do you have any suggestions?”
The door moved slightly, and the redhead from earlier slid into the room. She smiled at me and then almost glided toward us. I put the glass down and stood to meet her.
Noc’s brow furrowed. “That was much quicker than anticipated. Something wrong?”
“I saw these important guests, they needed my attention. I made sure the fight was good but quick.”
Noc glanced between both of us. “Mother, this is Maddie.”
“Alia,” I said. “It’s good to meet you.”
There was something about her that I instantly noticed, and I couldn’t help myself but back off. She was a demon herself. How had I not seen this when I could see the other demons? I then noticed that Noc’s eyes had changed colours. Had he been shielding her?
“It seems that Maddie sees a lot more than she perhaps should for an NPC.”
It was also her use of the term that instantly had goosebumps shooting up the back of my neck. Instantly, I reached for my daggers, but she held up her hand.
“There’s no need for that, child. Please come with me. Leave the boys to their guesswork.”
I watched as her hand turned to a gesture of perhaps friendship. She wanted me to take it. I hesitated, letting the daggers hilts slide back into their holsters.
Steve shook his head, but I knew there were very few choices for us here. I needed to find out what the real goals for this guild were, and that meant I had to put myself out on a limb that I wasn’t used to doing.
