by Chloe Garner
“I just got here. All I want is for them to leave me alone.”
“Oh, how cute,” Ann said. “That’s not how it works. I don’t care if you’re on the Council or not. I don’t. But if you aren’t on the Council, I want to be the one holding your leash.”
“That’s why my mom ran off,” Valerie said. “Isn’t it? You all and your politics.”
“Couldn’t have helped,” Shack said, lifting his head. “Looks like you’re going to have some time to think about it.”
Mr. Benson was coming into the cafeteria, and the room fell silent.
“Back to your dorms please, everyone,” he said. “You’ll be released again for dinner.”
Valerie sighed with exasperation.
“I swear, this is prison,” she said.
“Just go along,” Ethan said. “And don’t let anyone convince you that you shouldn’t be here. If they try to make you leave, make them take you to Lady Harrington. Okay?”
She nodded, looking around the room.
“Take care of Hanson,” she said, and he nodded, taking her hand quickly and squeezing it.
“You got it.”
They split at the door to the cafeteria, and Valerie walked alongside Sasha.
“You didn’t have to be a part of that,” she told the redhead.
“I know,” Sasha answered. “It’s just… I don’t… I think you’re important,” she said finally. “I think that you’re a part of something. And… I get why my mom avoided the Council all this time, and why she kept me away from all of it, even while my brothers were in school, but I don’t think that we get the luxury of staying out of it, you know? I think that important things are going on, and that we’ve either got to jump in and do something about it or… I don’t know. Maybe accept that the way things are isn’t going to last, and it’s only going to get worse from here.”
Valerie considered this, going to unlock their door and pushing it open so Sasha could go in.
“Tell me what you know about the Superiors,” she said after a moment. “And I don’t mean the sort of stories you’ve been told about them and why they’re so bad. I mean what you really know for certain about them and why they do what they do.”
Sasha sat down at her desk and frowned.
“I don’t understand the difference,” she said. “They hate humans. They kill them. We try to stop them, so they kill us.”
“What if I told you that that isn’t true?” Valerie asked. “I mean… Why? Have you ever asked that? Why do they do it? Why do they just… hate humans?”
“I don’t know,” Sasha said. “It’s in the name. Superior. They think magic users are better than humans.”
“Okay,” Valerie said. “So, okay, right. But humans make up, what, more than ninety-nine percent of the population of the world? What’s the endgame here? Are they really planning on trying to kill ninety nine out of every hundred people on the face of the planet? And if so, why aren’t they just doing it? I mean… I can think of a lot of faster ways to kill off people than going to shopping malls and attacking them with magic.”
“That’s… disturbing,” Sasha said. “No, I don’t know if they plan to kill all civilians. No one ever sat them down to tell me.”
“You don’t find it troubling that we’re fighting a group that we don’t even have an idea of what it is that they’re trying to do?”
“Enslave and kill civilians,” Sasha said. “How is that not obvious?”
“Because they aren’t,” Valerie said. “They’re killing batches of people, true enough, but why not really go after them? How are they picking their targets? What are they really trying to do?”
“Does it have to make sense?” Sasha asked.
“Yes,” Valerie said. “One dude? Not at all. A dude and a bunch of his minions? I mean, that happens, right? But a whole organization capable of going up against the Council and my mom and everyone else? That can’t be just a fanatic weirdo. It has to be something that they bought into and agree with, at least to some extent.”
Sasha leaned her chin on the back of her chair, frowning at Valerie.
“Why do I get the feeling that you’re about to tell me that everything I believe about the world is wrong?” the girl asked.
“Because that’s exactly what she’s about to tell you,” a voice said as the door opened. Valerie jerked, immediately searching for the nearest weapons, but she knew that voice.
“Dad,” she said. “What are you doing here?”
“We had a slight change of plans,” he said. “You need to come with me.”
Valerie dropped her shoulders.
“I can’t do the in-both-places thing again,” she said. “That was too weird.”
“No, you can’t do the in-both-places thing again so soon because it would kill you,” Grant Blake said.
“What’s going on?” Valerie asked. “I disarmed a bomb last night.”
“I heard something about that,” Grant said. “Well done.”
“Not an answer,” Valerie said, and he grinned.
“Is this Ivory Mills’ daughter?” he asked. “Are you anything like the healer your mom was?”
“No,” Sasha answered. “But I’m here to study it. Who are you?”
“Grant Blake,” he answered, putting out a hand to shake hers. “Valerie’s dad.”
“Oh,” Sasha said. “Wow. Um.”
She shook his hand and Valerie stood.
“I don’t want to go with you,” she said.
“I don’t believe I was asking,” he said, turning to look at her.
“What?” she asked. “If you take me against my will, Sasha will tell Lady Harrington, and then everyone will know you’re alive.”
Sasha nodded quickly, and Grant gave her something of a dark smile.
“Oh I’m not just here for you. She’s coming, as well. Also, while I appreciate the quick-witted attempt at blackmail, the people who matter know that I’m alive anyway.”
“It’s true,” Valerie said quietly. “You’re one of them. They turned you.”
He drew his head back.
“Who have you been talking to?” he asked.
She shook her head, for a moment feeling soft and alone and unprepared, then stiffening her resolve and straightening.
“It doesn’t matter,” she told him. “I’m not coming along without a fight.”
“Your mother said you’d say that,” he told her. “That without demons to drive you along behind, you’d want to stay here. You’re actually happy here? That surprises me.”
“I didn’t say I was happy,” Valerie said, and he gave her a halfway smile.
“But you did say that you’d fight me to stay, didn’t you? You like it here.”
“I’m not convinced you’re not one of the bad guys,” Valerie answered. “Why would I go with you again? So that you can stuff me in a cave and throw magic at me?”
“What are you guys talking about?” Sasha asked, getting out of her chair and coming to stand next to Valerie. “I don’t... I need to tell my mom, if I’m going anywhere.”
“Your mother will know what happened,” Grant said, glancing at her. “Susan wouldn’t let Ivory Mills believe that her daughter had been abducted.”
“Is that not what this is?” Valerie asked, and he smiled gently.
“No. This is... Call it a field trip. We’re going out into the great wide world for you to actually see what’s out there, and for you to understand what this war is about.”
Valerie glanced at Sasha and drew a breath.
“If you want to fight him, I’ll fight him,” she said quietly. “But I believe him.”
“You do?” Sasha asked, and Valerie nodded.
“What they tell us about the war... I can’t be sure if it’s lying or if it’s ignorance, but I don’t believe it. There’s a war going on, but... There’s a lot about it that we don’t know.”
“And you would just walk out of school and... Go with him in order to figure it ou
t?” Sasha asked. “We’re safe here. Isn’t that the point? Maybe the war will be over by the time we graduate and we don’t even have to worry about it.”
There was a note of desperation, and Valerie shook her head.
“No. The war is here. You know it and I know it. And as long as I’m here, everyone in the school is in danger. I believe that, too. I don’t... Maybe it’s time I left, you know? I mean... You said Mom.” Valerie turned her attention back to Grant. “You know where she is?”
“She’s waiting for us,” he answered. “She just didn’t think she could get close again without Lady Harrington knowing about it and stopping us.”
“Why would Lady Harrington try to stop you?” Sasha asked.
“Because she doesn’t agree with our tactics,” Grant said, glancing once more at Sasha but returning his attention to Valerie. “And because she considers students people to be protected, whereas we believe they are children who need to learn.”
“You’re going to take me to Mom?” Valerie asked, and Grant nodded.
“Yes.”
“She knows you’re alive?”
“Clearly.”
“Since when?”
“I didn’t ask,” he said. “You can ask her yourself.”
Valerie looked at Sasha and Sasha rubbed her arms.
“I can keep a secret,” the redhead said. “Ask her. If you just take her, I won’t tell anyone I saw you.”
“No,” Grant said. “It needs to be both of you.”
“Why?” Valerie asked.
“Because,” Grant said. “When we get back, you’re going to need an ally who actually knows you aren’t crazy. It’s time for you to disrupt everything they believe here. Here and everywhere else under the Council. They know, but they keep it secret because they think that spreading the knowledge that it’s complicated will lessen the interest in fighting, and they think they can keep the fighters from figuring it out by keeping them away from the Pure.”
“The who?” Sasha asked, and he shook his head.
“She has too much to learn to just take your word for it,” he said. “You see our point.”
Valerie hesitated.
“She would believe me,” she said after a moment.
“Yes, but would anyone else?”
Valerie licked her lips.
“They think you went dark,” she said. “The Council knows you might be alive, or they know you’re alive, but they think you switched sides.”
“It used to be that would have bothered me,” Grant said.
“You were born to Purists?” Valerie asked.
He drew a breath, then went to the closet, getting out bags.
“Pack,” he said.
Valerie glanced at Sasha, who looked like she would go along with whatever Valerie did. Valerie started putting clothes and toiletries in the bag.
“I was born to a family that natively used dark magic,” Grant said, going to lean against the wall in the short front hallway. He crossed his arms and rolled his jaw to the side. “My dad couldn’t use anything but dark magic, but my mom was a mage. She could use all three like they were all the same.”
“Three?” Sasha asked, and Grant sighed.
“I’ll be glad to have someone else do this part for me, because doing it over and over again is tiring.”
“Be nice, Dad,” Valerie said.
“I am,” he said. “Any rate, growing up, I was supposed to go to one of the dark schools, but I had ability with light magic, and I kind of hated my dad, so I went to Light School. Mom was supportive, because there are a lot more… legitimate opportunities when you come out of one of the light schools. The light and the dark… They never did like each other, but it just kind of happened that the theories on magic, how dangerous it is and how we should be careful about who we spread it to… Those evolved differently there than here.”
“How?” Sasha asked. “Do they not think that magic is dangerous?”
“Oh, the other way, Miss Mills,” Grant said. “They think that spreading it ought to stop entirely.”
Sasha paused at this, but Grant went on.
“By the time we were actually looking at a war, my dad was with the Pure - still is, by the way - and so was Gemma, and my mom… She died early in the whole thing. Part of why my dad ended up so hard-line. The people at Light School, Lady Beatrice mostly, talked about kicking me out because I came from the wrong side of magic, but your mom wouldn’t hear of it, and she got a bunch of other students to show up and say that they couldn’t just kick me out for who my parents were… I don’t think even Susan Harrington could keep me on at Light School these days, but back then the Council were… more reasonable, actually.”
“Harrington,” Sasha said, and Valerie glanced over at her as she zipped up her bag.
“Yeah.”
“You knew?” Sasha asked, her eyebrows going up, and Valerie shrugged.
“I told you he told me a lot of stuff that no one else here had been willing to say.”
“She threatened to kick you out,” Sasha protested, and Valerie shrugged.
“Clearly it doesn’t mean all that much to her.”
“I expect it means a lot more than you think,” Grant said. “Our window is closing. We need to get moving.”
Sasha hung back for another moment, then she finally nodded and followed Valerie to the door.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Sasha said, and Valerie smiled.
“It’s brave.”
“I’m not supposed to be in the war,” Sasha whispered as Grant opened the door. “I’m supposed to stay in school until it’s over, and then go be a healer like my mom.”
“The war needs healers,” Grant whispered back at her. “More than almost anywhere else.”
Sasha shuddered, but Valerie went to stand next to her dad as he looked up and down the hallway.
“Ready?” he asked, and she nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go show you what magic is really about,” he said, stepping into the hallway and letting the door fall closed behind them.
The Reunion Tour
Falsifying records wasn’t exactly Susan’s favorite thing to do with her time, but she was decent at it.
The apartment had been easy. Pick the right one and there weren’t many people who remembered who had been there before the current occupants, so she could make a story slip through there that Grant had lived there for years, before the current flareup of conflict.
Fake a driver’s license, and, presto, he’d been in New Mexico for the last two years.
Go through a newspaper’s archives, plant a story about a huge fish he’d caught up in the mountains… a boat’s manifest for a cruise around the world…
Grant Blake had been living the high life, enjoying his freedom from the magic community and all of their drama.
How he’d actually lived was much sadder, scrambling from one hiding spot to the next, no records of any of it, trying to make sure no one could ever prove he’d been there.
He was protecting his sister.
Anything to keep Gemma safe.
Susan felt a little bad that she’d not thought of Gemma once since Valerie had been born. Not one thought for her former best friend.
She was glad that Grant had been watching over her, keeping her safe from there in the middle of the dark Council, keeping the fight alive through the years as the Pure had been perfecting their methods.
They thought they were close.
That’s what Grant said.
The small-scale tests suggested that, if they could get their hands on enough data, they might finally find a combination of magic and civilian that would make the whole thing work, and then they could learn from it and expand it…
The idea of it made Susan’s blood run cold.
It was possible she would be safe from it, that the magic to take away someone’s magical talents would bounce off of her because she was too strong, but she had no idea how to defe
nd from it actively, and while the non-propagationists thought that the Pure would only use the magic on civilians who would never know what they had lost, Susan couldn’t imagine that the inner council of Pures would fail to capitalize on the way to instantly win the war, too.
They would start with the schools, because they were soft targets, and then they would go after the fighters, as they found them. They would go to families who had managed to remain uninvolved but who supported the Council, and it would end at the Council itself.
She needed to get close enough to see how the magic worked to try to figure through a way of defending against it, first personally and then in a larger and larger context.
She’d been close, the one time, but instead she’d found out that Martha Cox was reporting to the Council again after a long absence and she’d put two and two together and realized that she had to warn Valerie about who Hanson really was.
These days, Susan was less and less convinced who was on the good side and who was on the bad side of the war.
Stripping magic?
Bad.
Throwing new graduates into combat without so much as telling them why they were fighting and without equipping them to defend the new Pure magics?
Also.
Bad.
Killing civilians in live trials?
Bad.
Very bad.
Spying on everyone with any modicum of power or potential?
Some days, Susan felt like the only course of action open to her was to burn the whole thing down and start over.
She’d told Grant that the thought had occurred to her, and he’d laughed.
The man had actually laughed.
And he’d told her that if anyone could do it, it was her.
So.
Without any new leads on the magic they were using to strip magic power, Susan was sitting with a notebook on the dilapidated couch there against the wall in the abandoned warehouse, watching the druggies and the homeless stand around fire barrels. And she was writing nonsense, freeing her mind to concoct the magic she would use to do just such a thing, so at least she could defend against that.
