by Justin Swapp
No sooner had the servants placed the food on the table than they were gone. Everyone at the table, including Mirella, began eating without hesitation. Marcus found the food immediately satisfying.
“Well then, I can see that the food was a good idea,” Elba said a few minutes later, taking a deep, satisfying breath. “Now, let’s broach the matter you’ve come to discuss.” With a wave of her hand, the last servant left, closing the door to the private chamber.
“We appreciate your hospitality, Elba,” Caleb said. “What do you think we should do with Mirella? We can’t seem to agree.”
“If we aren’t going to kill her,” Anabell said sadly, “then I say we at least use her as bait.”
“Are we supposed to sit here and listen to this?” Marcus asked. “Couldn’t we use another room, you know, to have some time to talk to our mother?”
Charlotte started to rise up from the table.
“You could leave someone outside the door,” Ellie said, “if that will make you feel better.”
“I suppose we can’t deny you that,” Winston said, “but I want to be there to make sure you’re safe.”
“You want to be there to listen in,” Elba said. “Let the children have some time with their mother. They will see for themselves who she really is.”
“But we haven’t even had a chance to explain,” Winston said. Elba clapped her hands, and a servant opened the door to the room. “Very well,” Winston said. Charlotte folded her arms and looked away.
Marcus couldn’t believe they were going to allow them to spend some one-on-one time with Mirella. He wasn’t sure how to feel, but at least it was something. They could finally get some answers. Maybe they would even get to know their mother.
The servant examined Mirella as she stood up. He ran a rod of Uribrim along her body. When there was no disruption, he nodded and led them across the hall to a small room that looked like a barren holding cell. There was nothing in the room but a window and two benches.
Mirella sat down on one bench alone, and Marcus and Ellie took their place opposite her.
“So,” Mirella said with a faint smile, “you have questions.”
“You say you didn’t leave us,” Marcus said, “then what happened?”
Mirella took a deep breath and looked out at the sky, blinking hard. “That’s a big one. A painful one.”
“We’re listening,” Ellie said.
“Simply put? You were taken from us.”
“Taken?” Marcus asked.
“Your father and I, we… We weren’t perfect; no parents are. We had always relied on Sol’s parents—your grandparents— or on your aunt and uncle to watch over you whenever we had to travel for business.”
“What kind of business?” Marcus asked.
“Magical business,” Mirella said. “We had come home after a long trip to your grandparents’ house to pick you up like normal, and it wasn’t there anymore.”
“Wait, the house wasn’t there anymore?” Ellie asked. “You expect us to believe that?”
“It was just gone,” Mirella said. Then tears filled up in her eyes. “You were all gone. Vanished.”
“So where did we go?” Ellie asked.
“I don’t know, but we searched for you, tried every spell we could think of. We tried to trace your grandparents, but we could never find them.”
“At first we thought it was an accident, or maybe even an attack. We had lost our whole family. But then a thought crept into our minds. What if you had been stolen?”
“We knew that our family didn’t approve of our lifestyle. The Dun-Bhar embrace their magic, and it leads them to seek more. It’s a life-long mission. As you know, the Shar-din approach magic very differently. We knew your grandparents didn’t approve of our ancient ways, but Caleb and Anabell were the most vocal.”
“As the time went by, we questioned what happened. At some point, we began to suspect foul play. The natural conclusion was that Caleb and Anabell had taken you.”
“Our own family stole us?” Ellie asked incredulously.
Mirella nodded. “Years later, your father and I decided to double our efforts, so we split up to seek you out. While we stayed in constant communication, we figured we would cover more ground that way, and find you faster.”
“It was during that time of separation when Caleb found your father.”
“Wait, if they stole us and were in hiding like you say, why would Caleb go looking for Sol?” Marcus asked. “Sounds like a death wish.”
“It almost was,” Mirella replied. “Apparently Caleb had been spying on Sol for some time. He saw something he didn’t agree with, and he confronted his brother.”
“What did he see?” Marcus asked.
“That they were handing out magic,” Ellie said, shaking her head disapprovingly.
“They had a horrible fight,” Mirella said, gazing at the wall, “and Sol nearly killed Caleb, but not before Caleb did some damage of his own.”
“So that’s why Caleb was a virtual vegetable…” Marcus said.
“And why you needed the skull too,” Ellie said. “Sol was hurt.”
Mirella nodded, eyes still glazed over, ”It’s ironic, really, the way they hurt each other. They’ve never really agreed on much, and they have had fights over the years, but that time Caleb obviously got the worst of it.”
“What then?” Ellie asked.
“We kept looking for you. We searched and searched. It was only recently, though, that we learned that it wasn’t, in fact, Caleb and Anabell that took you from us like we had initially thought. It was your grandparents.”
Marcus swallowed. Was this why his grandpa was so quick to change the subject when pressed about their parents? This must have been what Sol meant when he said grandpa wasn’t as good a man as we thought he was.
“But enough about me,” Mirella said, blinking herself to attention. “I want to learn about you. Tell me about yourselves.”
Mirella asked about the children’s hobbies, what their friends were like, and a slew of other pleasantries.
It feels strangely hollow, Marcus thought. He didn’t know this woman, and she didn’t know them, yet she was supposed to be his mother. He had always wondered what she would be like, and now he would finally know.
“Marcus,” Mirella finally said, “I saw you at the table gazing at your brim.”
“Yeah, so?”
“May I see it?” Mirella asked, slowly reaching out.
Marcus hesitated. If he handed that over, he could imagine a thousand things going wrong. This whole adventure started because he sold the skull. He wasn’t going to make another mistake like that. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Mirella nodded. “We could escape, you know,” she said, her eye twinkling at Marcus. She snapped her fingers. “Just like that. We could get away from all this confusion and start over. A little magic in the proper hands can go a long way. There’s so much I could show you,” her voice slowed, “if only you’d let me hold it for a moment.”
Without realizing it, Marcus reached into his pocket and removed his brim, swirls of black tendrils intermingling with the blue wisps that had been there before.
Surprised, Mirella recoiled slightly, a confused expression on her face. She began to raise her hands as if to shield herself, but then didn’t. It was like she had caught a whiff of a horrible smell for the first time.
“Where did you—”
The door swung open, and Marcus quickly buried his brim in his pocket.
“Everything okay in there?” Charlotte asked, her eyes fixing coldly on Mirella after giving the children a once-over. “Time’s up.”
“Yes,” Marcus said. “We’re fine.”
The children stood up and started going out the room.
“You be careful with that, Son,” Mirella whispered, her eyes narrowing. “Very careful.”
“I will,” he said. “Thanks.”
In the private room, the rest of the family stood
waiting.
“We’ve come to a decision, Mirella,” Caleb said. “All of us here are too close to the matter. We fear that the betrayal and spite that we feel toward you would cloud our judgment against you, and that wouldn’t be fair to the children. But there is no question as to your intentions. Even now you would have used your own children for your own selfish desires.”
“What do you mean?” Mirella asked.
“We were listening to your conversation with the children, of course,” Elba said. “It was the final test. After all, this has always been a question of the children, hasn’t it?”
“You were eavesdropping? Marcus asked, balling his fists. “We told you we wanted time alone with her.”
“We will summon the Kabbahl and let them decide Mirella’s fate. Hopefully we can convince them to use the magic at their disposal to find Sol and stop him from whatever madness he is plotting.”
“The Kabbahl?” Mirella asked. “But they’ll kill us. They’ve warned us all before.”
“Oh we know,” Winston said. “We’ve already summoned them recently. And—”
“But you’ll endanger the children…” Mirella said.
“We’ve already met them,” Marcus said, “and yeah, it wasn’t so pleasant.”
Mirella scoffed at Winston. “And you were worried about their safety under our care.”
“Take her away,” Elba said. “We need to make proper preparations this time.”
A pair of servants appeared and escorted Mirella out of the room.
“Does everyone have a brim?” Elba asked as she waved her hand in front of an ornate cabinet inlaid in the wall. The doors swung open, lighting the room aglow with jade-colored shadows.
Each of them visited the cabinet. The shelves were stocked with seemingly ordinary items of various shapes and sizes, but they were actually all made of Uribrim and alive with magic.
“Children,” Elba said, “let me check your brims.” Ellie handed Elba her brim, who turned it over and examined it closely. With a nod and a smile she returned it.
“And yours Marcus?” Elba asked, reaching for his.
A sense of awkward dread came over Marcus, and he hesitated. Based on Mirella’s reaction, he wasn’t sure how this would go.
“What’s gotten into you?” Elba asked, sensing something strange. “Let’s have your brim.”
Marcus removed his brim timidly, slowly exposing the black shadows that seemed to ominously overpower any magic that had been in his brim previously.
Elba looked down at the brim in silence and considered it for a moment. Then she put her hands on Marcus’s shoulders, and bent her knees slightly so she could meet Marcus’s gaze. “I don’t know where you got that, Marcus,” she whispered, “but you had better be awfully careful with it.”
Funny, Marcus thought. That’s what his mother had said.
26
The Brimlets
Once they had a chance to gear up, Elba led the group outside the room, and then underneath the restaurant. The cave seemed darker than before. Marcus wondered if that was just because he knew what was waiting for them.
The pool of green-lit water reflected off the walls, but seemed much calmer this time, probably because there were no spirits or skeletons to be seen.
“Very good, then,” Elba said as she took a deep breath and traced her cigarette-like brim along the rocky wall. Magic sparked from her brim and seared an opening into the wall.
They pushed Mirella in front, leading the group through the obscure passageway. Marcus heard the familiar crackle of old leaves beneath his feet, and then saw the slivers of light peeking through the fractures in the dome-like ceiling belonging to the old coliseum in which he first met the Kabbahl.
They arrived at the summoning spot minutes later, and with a wave of her brim, Elba caused the totem to appear. She continued to mouth the words she had before until flames burst from the totem, filling the room with smoke. Then, they heard a loud crack, and Marcus knew it was done.
“What is the meaning of this?” Cyril thundered, patting himself down and examining the room. Apparently he was still realizing that he had been summoned. “Again?”
He looked angry.
“I told you,” Kapriana said adjustingher hat. “You should have killed them the first time. At least then we would have been done with them.”
“They summoned us twice?” someone whispered from the balcony.
“The audacity!” another said.
Elba cleared her throat. “We would request a private audience with Your Grace,” Elba said, scowling at the other members of the Kabbahl, a flicker of jade-colored light flashing across her eyes.
Nicodemous slammed his fist on the balcony. “We are the Kabbahl. You speak to one, you speak to all.”
“Enough,” Cyril said with a dismissive wave. “You have summoned the Kabbahl, and you’ll address all of us.” Nicodemous failed to conceal a smile. “Your ability to call upon us verges on abuse, Crypt Keeper. Justify yourself.”
“We must know what progress you’ve made against our original complaint,” Elba said. “Also, to aid you—”
“She wants updates?” Kapriana asked, throwing up her arms. “Like a weather report! Well, I’ll give you one. Your future is very cloudy, with a high chance of execution.”
“You must have more than this, Elba,” Cyril said. “I cannot continue to stay my hand.”
“Well, if you have no progress to report,” Elba said coolly, ignoring everyone but Cyril, “I’m pleased to report that we do. We’ve captured one of the perpetrators.”
Cyril shot to his feet and leaned on the balcony. The murmur in the room was swept away by a cold silence.
Elba gave Caleb a nod, and he in turn took Mirella by the arm and pulled her from behind the others, guiding her to the center of the room, beneath Cyril’s gaze.
“Who is this?” Cyril asked. “He wasn’t with you last time.”
“Caleb Fith, Your Grace,” he said, “and I have been through much to bring this criminal before you to justice.”
“But you’re—” started Nicodemous. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, unconsciously lifting a finger slightly at Caleb.
“Alive, yes, Nicodemous, but no thanks to you and your traitorous ways,” Caleb said.
“What’s this?” Cyril asked, stiffening a bit and jerking his head around to give Nicodemous an incredulous look. “No more cryptic talk. Speak clearly.”
“You mustn’t stand for this, Cyril,” Nicodemous said. “They have challenged your authority, our patience, and our ways. Listen to the council of your Kabbahl and destroy these pests.”
“Or,” Var said in an oily voice, “just let me loose on ‘em Cyril, Your Grace.” He scratched his hairy arms. “They’re just a few small snacks; shouldn’t take me too long.”
“Hold your tongue, the lot of you,” Cyril said to the others in the balcony. “Who is this that you’ve brought before the Kabbahl, Caleb,” Cyril asked, “and what is her crime?”
“Mirella Fith, Your Grace,” Caleb said, “and her crimes are many. We desire only the justice of the Kabbahl.”
“So we’ve been told,” Cyril said. “And you, Mirella Fith, what do you have to say to this?”
“There are most assuredly criminals here, my lord, but the crime lies with them. They have robbed me of that which is most precious, and irreplaceable. They have taken my children, and robbed me of time I with them that I will never get back. I didn’t even know them when I first saw them all these years later.”
“These accusations, all of them, are very grave indeed,” Cyril said as he pushed himself away from the balcony and paced around his throne.
“Who cares about the accusations,” one of the Kabbahl said from the balcony, “which one dies already?”
“I will not be coerced into hasty judgment,” Cyril snapped. “Are we nothing if not for the people?” He sighed, “I will not undertake this alone. You shall all be tried by the Kabbahl Tribunal.”
“There is no time, Cyril,” Nicodemous said. “We must be about more important things that—”
“Like what, Nicodemous?” Cyril asked wearily. “Mining more Uribrim? Garnering more magic? We cannot keep putting off people for projects.”
“This isn’t a project, it’s a calling,” Nicodemous said indignantly, then his voice became instantly soothing. “Remember, having all the magic in one place will help you maintain order and keep the peace. They can’t kill for magic if you have it all.”
“The old ways still exist, Nicodemous. Every man should have his measure, and nothing more,” Cyril said.
“All of it,” Nicodemous said in a softer voice, his eyes wide and his gaze distant. “The decision, you recall, was unanimous.”
“Don’t patronize me, mule,” Cyril said, “Your fate still rests with me.”
“Very well, My Grace,” Nicodemous said, bowing mechanically before settling back down into his chair. A restless murmur ran over the rest of the Kabbahl.
“As I understand it then, there are several accusations, and several parties condemned to die,” Cyril said.
“Condemned to die?” Marcus asked.
“Guilty until proven innocent,” Caleb whispered to Marcus, “and you’d do well to keep your mouth shut until you are called upon.”
“Don’t we get a lawyer or something?” Ellie asked.
“The only representation in the Tribunal is the witness,” Anabell said. The Kabbahl is above the need for lawyers.”
“Oldest accusation first,” Nicodemous said mechanically, like he was bored.
Despite clearing her throat, Mirella struggled a moment to continue. “Winston and Charlotte took our children from us. My husband’s family… stole our children.”
“This is a serious accusation,” Cyril said. “Do you have any proof of this?”
“The blood potion we used to track the children is on the floor at Nevada State hospital. It has a sample of their blood and can show you the relation.”
“Surely you are aware, Mirella, that the use of blood magic is prohibited,” Cyril said, narrowing his glance.
