For a Pixie in Blue (The Adventures of Blue Faust Book 4)

by Cecilia Randell

  “Not far,” Felix whispered. He tugged, and her feet moved, purely on reflex. A cold sweat had formed on her palms, and she wanted to wipe her hand but she also didn’t want to let go.

  If she let go, she might be lost forever...

  In the never ending dark.

  A lamp flicked on, and she sucked in a breath, blinking. She sucked in another breath, and then one more. Something rubbed against her legs. A purr filled with worry hit her mind.

  “Hey, hey, you’re okay.” Bright blue eyes and blond hair were there. She blinked again. Forrest. Forrest was here.

  She reached for him, but one of her hands was caught. No, she was gripping something. Another hand, and it was attached to a giant. Felix.

  “The fuck,” she breathed out.

  “Blue?”

  She blinked at Forrest. “Apparently I’m scared of the dark.” She sucked in another breath. Her heart was still racing, and her limbs trembled.

  A warm presence at her back steadied her further, and she leaned back into it, inhaling pine and herbs. Her clansman. Arms circled her, and her muscles slowly relaxed. Garfield continued to rub against her legs and purr, and Vivi joined him.

  “Yeah, really scared of the dark. Let’s not do that again.” She drew in one last belly-deep breath and let it out. Was that really the first time she’d been in darkness like that? “Maybe we can move on. You can tell me, I don’t know, what’s going on?” Her voice was harsh and thick with sarcasm, but she didn’t care.

  “You didn’t have a problem back on Karran, either on the way to Tremmir or Firik.” Mo’ata swayed, rocking her.

  “This was... I couldn’t see anything, okay?” Her defensiveness was due mostly to embarrassment. How could she not have known she was scared of the dark?

  “That never happened before?”

  She pressed back into him. “No. But it’s never been quite that... dark.”

  Forrest took her other hand and squeezed. Levi frowned, but it was sad, not angry. Boots sounded behind her, and two more men entered. Trevon and Jason.

  “What happened?” Trevon’s voice was sharp.

  Blue answered before things got worse. “I am apparently afraid of the dark. Very afraid of the dark.”

  “Or you’re overstressed,” Jason said.

  Blue grimaced. “That is… quite possible as well. Half the time I don’t even know how I feel or what’s going on anymore.”

  Mo’ata gave her another squeeze and pushed her away, spinning her around and settling his gaze on her, studying her. He took his time and eventually seemed satisfied. He led her to a low table surrounded by chairs in much better repair than the rest of the room, and sat her down, taking a seat next to her.

  When everyone was arranged, she spoke. “I think I’ve been patient enough. Can you guys please tell me what the ever-loving eff is going on?”

  That got either a grin or a chuckle from everyone. Mo’ata took the lead, filling her in. He told her the legend of Shardon and Brika’s Sacrifice, Levi cutting in periodically to correct a detail. He also covered what he and the others had been doing, their efforts to maneuver for Blue’s release from the Prizzoli. “They did relent some, as you heard, but were adamant on not stipulating an exact requirement for allowance of your departure,” Mo’ata finished up.

  When they were done, she remained silent, absorbing everything. Finally, she nodded her head. “Let me see if I have this, then. There is a crystal that used to be a person, and her name was Brika and she sacrificed herself to stop another evil crystal named Shardon, except this all happened so long ago that no one is sure what really happened, and all of you believe that the fact the Prizzoli insisted I had to stay indefinitely means they want to sacrifice me like Brika sacrificed herself because Phillip is like this Shardon and history will repeat itself, only it’s all worse than before because there are now portals to other worlds.” Some of this she already knew, but she wanted to string it all together. “The Prizzoli went so far as to threaten pulling Padilra out of the Alliance in order to get me here.” She shook her head. “Only they don’t actually know if they need to use me. I mean, Phillip is relatively stable. Creepy as all get out, but stable for the most part.”

  Garfield jumped in her lap, and she dug her hand into his fur. She frowned. “Can they even use me? For this sacrifice? I can’t use the crystals.” There were too many things that didn’t make sense about this situation. None of it followed a logical route. “Unless they simply plan to keep me here forever. That won’t work either because I’ll eventually die, even if just from old age. If Phillip is this…”

  “Plinar,” Levi said, subdued. “We call the crystal beings plinar.”

  “If Phillip is this plinar, or there is a plinar, then wouldn’t that mean he would live forever using it? Or when he dies, it would inhabit his body? That’s what happened with Shardon, right?” She didn’t pause for an answer, gaining momentum on her arguments. “And why be willing to draw out of the Alliance over this? Would they really? And don’t get me started on trying to start a war.” She glared at Trevon, remembering his joking comment on Karran. At least, she’d thought it was a joke. “This isn’t anything to go to war over. It just seems too blown out of proportion. Also, why have a big-ass reception to greet us? That was ridiculous. Really. Whose idea was that?”

  Levi cleared his throat. “I believe it was the Chief Elder’s. After the heavy tactics that were employed to get the... cooperation of the Alliance members, she was trying to twist it to something a little more...”

  “Welcoming?” Jason said with a frown.

  Levi titled his head. “Yes. They were doing—”

  “Damage control,” Trevon said. “They pushed too hard to get you here. No, not get you here, to keep you here. They were heavy tactics and didn’t sit well with many of us.” His eyes shifted around, and he tensed. “In fact, I need to leave in two weeks for a Conference of the Families. We will be discussing this, among other things.”

  “You’re not talking wars, are you?”

  He flinched and then grinned at her. “I do hope it can be avoided. But Martika will not bow down and surrender to some new-coming, upstart of a planet just because they threaten to withdraw from the Alliance. Yes, Padilra has resources that are now widely used. It would be a problem if they withdrew, though not as much of a problem for Cularna and Martika as for the other planets. In this instance, Padilra was the bully.” His expression tightened into cold anger, implacable. “And I refuse to be bullied.”

  Blue studied him. This was the head of a crime family, but from the way he talked, his sentiments were more like what Mo’ata had described as the Order’s—to fight for and ensure freedom for all.

  “This still doesn’t make sense to me. Any of it, honestly. Does anyone else feel the same, or is it just that politics make no sense to me?”

  A heartbeat later, Forrest raised his hand. Then Levi. Then Jason.

  Mo’ata sighed. He took her hand in his and ran his thumb over her knuckles. “You are correct. There is something here that does not… add up. When Levi told us the tale of Shardon and Brika, it made sense to me that they would want you here as insurance against something going wrong with Phillip. To somehow use you as Brika was used. Their current treatment, separating the two of you—while I applaud this personally—does not follow in that line of reasoning. If they insist on isolation as part of this cleansing...” He trailed off and looked to Levi.

  Blue did as well, hoping he could shed some light. He looked down, grimaced, and nodded. “Yes, something wrong,” he said. “I no around for eight day, but do what can. Can no point to one thing. Frustrating. Still think Blue here to ensure Phillip cooperation. He must be cleansed, one way or other.” He leaned forward, his head bowed. “Mind confused. Good to do cleansing, will become clear.”

  Her thoughts raced. “If Padilra pulls out of the Alliance, the crystals—the other crystals they trade—are pulled as well. It would shut everything down. Why make such a
… a dire threat?” She blew out a breath. “And now I’m just talking in circles. Levi, you really don’t know any more than you have told us?”

  He looked up, his light brown eyes golden against the dark of his skin, shining in the low light. “No.”

  “Okay.” Her fingers drummed against the tabletop, and she itched for a pen and pad of paper, wanting to plot this out, sort the information, and make a list. Maybe a list of what they knew, then a list of what didn’t make sense and then another of what information they still needed…

  And now I’m making lists of the lists I need. I may have a problem.

  “Explain to me again why the Alliance gave in to the demand that I stay here.” It wasn’t that she was concerned that she was one of the demands. It was that the demand was made with such apparent consequences attached. She was a very small fish caught up in a game that didn’t seem to have rules.

  Trevon crossed his arms. “It really comes down to the fact that Padilra supplies a crystal to Karran that is used in manufacturing most of the current electronic devices—circuits that run the transports, comms, machinery, and information systems. It’s in everything right now.”

  “So that gets cut off and everything shuts down.”

  “Basically.”

  “And Padilra threatened to do that if I were not turned over permanently or semi-permanently.”

  “Correct. And I know what you have said about ‘no wars,’ but the Families, for the most part, do not agree with how this has been handled.” His gaze cut to Felix then Mo’ata. “The Order shouldn’t either. It stinks of a play for domination of the Alliance.”

  Mo’ata grunted, and Felix narrowed his eyes. “I can’t make that call for the Order,” Felix said.

  Trevon narrowed his own, glaring at the mercenary. “No,” he said. “You can’t. But your father has nearly as much influence over the parliament on Cularna as anyone in the Order. Hell, he’s a fucking general. He says boo, and half the war-force of the known universe jumps.” Trevon’s head tilted. “Tell me, how does he feel about his youngest being what amounts to a foot-soldier?”

  Felix’s hand flattened out on the surface of the table. “You just have to push, do you not?”

  And they hit testosterone overload. Blue tuned everyone out, trying to pinpoint what bothered her about Padilra’s demands. Strip out who she was, this wasn’t actually a factor. Who she was to Phillip was the factor. Whoever he had been focused on would have come into play, whether it had been Forrest, his sister, Jason or even a dead Derrick. Blue as Blue didn’t factor in.

  Did the crystal? This plinar, the crystal-being, was that a factor? The obvious answer was yes—she was here because of this plinar being formed and the danger of it overtaking Phillip and causing an age of destruction. Except the crystal was fairly well contained in its box, which, in conjunction with the collar Phillip still wore, was blocking most of the connection, ensuring the bond remained incomplete. But Levi, the Prizzoli—hell, everyone—talked as if the bond were complete, that the being was fully formed. That they simply needed to cleanse the crystal, to draw out the negative feelings and emotions and intentions and thoughts.

  But wasn’t she simply another negative emotion and thought? Obsession, the need to win, to be first, to be the foremost in her own thoughts and feelings. Didn’t that drive Phillip just as much as the need for his next high, the next hit of life?

  Her thoughts were going in circles so fast she was making herself dizzy without even moving. What did you do when the puzzle didn’t solve? You found the missing piece.

  “I have another question,” she said into the growls and harsh words that were flying through the air. She really didn’t care what they were arguing about. “You talk as though this plinar, the crystal being, is already formed. Except the only reason the box and collar are working is that the bond isn’t fully in place. So how does that work? It seems contradictory to me.”

  Levi leaned his elbows on the table. “I not know.” He paused, then continued in Common. “We’ve never seen a plinar contained or the bond cut off. I do not think the bond or the being are fully formed. If they were, the plinar would not need to remain in the crystal, and would have escaped into Phillip at the moment of its near capture. So, the bond is there in part; we can see it when the plinar tries to overtake Phillip or speaks through him. But it is also Phillip as well. He triggers the plinar. They are connected. I do not know how else to explain it. The process was simply... suspended before the last developments could occur.”

  “The plinar needs the physical crystal still; that’s why the box contains it? It has to finish growing? Like a—a chrysalis?” she said. That almost made sense.

  Levi frowned. “I not know all words yet. Those words yet,” he said, switching back to English and correcting himself. Mo’ata spoke in rapid Common, and Blue realized everyone else had shut up, following her and Levi’s discussion. When Mo’ata finished, Levi nodded. “Yes,” he said. “It very much like that. Being still forming, but own entity already. It not survive on own.”

  “Then what good does it do for Phillip to do all this cleansing and meditating and all that? Will it—will it die?” She swallowed.

  “Maybe? I not know—do not know. Think elders hope change how… develops? Or make go quiet? Too much not know. Elders not tell guards all know,” Levi said, sticking to English.

  “Secrets are stupid when you’re talking about the end of the world.” Blue was very sure of that.

  Levi smiled at her. “Yes, secrets stupid when deal with end of things.” A shadow of some dark emotion crossed his features.

  It hit her. “Why didn’t the elders just ask me to come? Why pull all these strings and threaten? It makes no sense. I would have said yes. Hell, I expected to have to come and at least make sure Phillip was stable, if we were successful in subduing him. Also, tell me again why we couldn’t just kill him? If the being was baby size—or embryo size—why not just let it rot in the crystal and bring that home to cleanse?”

  Levi’s brows pulled together, and he switched to Common. “Because everything I have told you is pure guesswork. I do not know what would happen. Could we have killed Phillip? Maybe, but I had to plan for the worst. If you had asked me before this if the plinar could be contained in such a manner, by a metal box, I would have said no. If you had asked if Phillip would be as manageable as he is after what I saw him do and what he was capable of, I would have said no. None of this is going according to anything I have seen before. None of it.” Levi’s head lowered to the tabletop. “I am as confused as any of you.”

  “Seems to me we are trying to make sense of something that simply doesn’t make sense. I think your elders have gone senile,” Forrest said. He’d been silent until then, keeping an eye on the cubs and tracking the conversation. “I’m telling you, some things just don’t make sense. This is one of them. I was riding this out, playing along, assuming I didn’t know something important, like Blue. This is quite simply either stupid or a play for something else.”

  “That is... very observant of you,” Trevon said. “And I agree.”

  Forrest glared at him. “I am young, not stupid. Blue is right. They should have simply asked. It could have all been handled very quietly. Rumors would have flown, people talk, but nothing as dramatic as a threat to withdraw from this Alliance. They either overplayed, or they are after something else.” His eyes widened, and he looked at Levi. “No offense to your people, Levi, it’s just...”

  Levi sat back up, his face worn. Blue was reminded that he had recently been a victim of the crystal himself. He did so well most days, but she could see the exhaustion clearly on his face. “No offense was taken. It seems I do not know my own people very well after all.”

  “So,” Blue said. “What now? What’s our next step?”

  “We follow the schedule and keep our eyes open,” Mo’ata said. “If there is something deeper going on, we are now in the perfect position to figure it out.”

  Bl
ue grinned. “We are, aren’t we?”

  “And,” cut in Trevon, “I have presents.” He pulled out a black case, setting it on the table and flicking the latch to open it. New comms and something smaller, round. Packets, sealed in clear plastic, were arranged beside those. Trevon handed a comm to Blue. “They are on a frequency that should be secure for communications amongst us. They may pick up that we are sending to each other, but not what. I cannot guarantee the security of off world relays, though.” Each person got one. “I’ve programmed them. Blue and Forrest, I have had yours programmed to show in English. There is an option to switch to Common if you would like, but for now I thought this would be the best option.” He said it calmly, offhand, as though he had not just handed her a lifeline. Basically, she now had texting capabilities.

  “What if I send Felix a message, or Mo’ata or you. Will you all be able to read it?”

  Trevon inclined his head. “Yes.”

  “This didn’t exist a week ago, an English program compatible with the comms.” Her heart pounded. He was doing too many things, too much. What was the hooligan after?

  He grinned at her. “No. It did not. But it does now.”

  “Why are you here?” The words slipped out unbidden.

  His grin faltered, just for a moment, then transformed into a wry smile. “What did I promise you, Blue? I promised to ‘fix it,’ did I not? And an honorable man of Martika takes his promises very, very seriously.”

  She swallowed, recalling his other words in that conversation and his response to her demands. I will not leave you alone.

  Forrest leaned in. “This doesn’t redeem your penny,” he said, voice low.

  “Of course not,” Trevon replied, grin back in place. “That is a wholly separate promise.”

  Forrest stilled, and Vivi’s head popped up from where she had been chewing on a table leg. She let out an inquiring chirp, and Forrest held a hand out to her, never taking his gaze from Trevon. The cub looked between Forrest and Trevon, the tension drawing out until she picked her way through the chairs and over to Forrest, rubbing her head along his hand and settling at his feet.