by Voss Foster
He turned back to the bookshelf and grabbed one of the thinner books on the shelves, only about an inch thick, if that. Instead of opening it, he placed his hand flat against the cover. The book glowed. I didn't know exactly what was going on with that, but I just stood and let it happen.
I certainly didn't expect what happened, either. The bookshelf melted away, literally dripping down, thick and viscous, through the floor. Where it stood was a set of stairs, spiraling downward and out of sight.
Arengal nodded. "I don't show this to many, for obvious reasons, I hope. The work I do is legitimate and important, but within the Kingdoms, any research into something like shapeshifters or dragon hybridization would have you automatically discounted as yet another quack. And the more in-depth the research into the subject, the easier it is for them to toss all your work aside." He was speaking constantly faster and faster, more and more excited with each word. "Yes, well, you'll understand once we're down there. Come along."
I had to admit, I was more than a little apprehensive to be led into an old demon's basement. Even though I knew it was ridiculous, I still had some less-than-positive reactions to dealing with demons. Years and years of training by human society to fear them and their supposed evil wasn't easy to overcome.
Of course, considering this place was designed to only be accessible by magic, maybe I had a little more reason to be nervous this time around. But I followed. The inside walls here were clearly hewn out of the tree, complete with knots, little growths sprouting out, and in places where it was too thin, the husky backside of the bark visible.
We hit a platform and, luckily, Arengal stepped off there. "This is the main body of the work."
"Can I ask what else is down below?"
"More obscure research, things I haven't been able to verify, large artifacts and the like. If necessary, I'll take you down that far, don't you worry." He opened the door here with a wave of his hand. "Come along, and tell me what it is you need to know."
Well, at least he wasn't starting with the complete history of shapeshifter research. "You don't by chance know where to find them, do you?" May as well swing for the damn fences, right?
Arengal shrugged. "Yes and no. It's fairly well established they are in their own Kingdom, but no one has ever been able to come in and go out. The most we have on that front is a few written missives of questionable veracity."
"So there's no way to question one?"
"Oh, were I so mad to even dream such a thing. But no, not unless you actually catch one out in the open. And that is an exceptionally rare occurrence." And I think that was the moment he put two and two together, and it seemed like he got four. "But you intend to do just that, don't you? You want to capture one? More than one?"
I nodded. "That's what we do when you kidnap and murder children. We catch you."
The fire returned to his eyes. He was excited at the prospect, that was for sure. Excitement meant maybe he'd help us. "It won't be easy, I hope you know. If there's one shapeshifter, then there are more. They don't work outside of their own, and they never work alone. Not after what happened last time."
I could tell he was throwing out bait, and I had no choice but to bite. "When was the last time?"
"It would have been well over…three thousand years ago." He began finally rummaging through some papers and book and scrolls. "I should have the history of the War of Unity somewhere in here." More rustling and ruffling around.
"The War of Unity? Isn't that an oxymoron?"
"It would seem so, yes. But without the war, the Hidden Kingdoms would not be the conglomeration we have today. That war cemented our disparate factions into a more powerful whole." He held a scroll aloft and turned around. "This would be the closest thing I have in here to solid information about the shapeshifters during that time period."
"So it's not actual information?"
"Almost everyone studying them believes this to be accurate." He fixed his eyes dead center on me. "You must understand, this is not an exact science. Anthropology is an ever-changing thing, dictated by the latest available information. And the anthropology of uncontacted peoples is considerably trickier than any of that."
"I do understand. I do." I guess my questioning was pushing one too many buttons. "I just want to help these kids and their families the best I can. Stop this from happening to anyone else and get those children to safety."
Arengal sighed and closed his eyes. "Of course." He unfurled the scroll and, like everything else in the Kingdoms, I couldn't read it because of the intense glow. But luckily, he was ready to give me the rundown. "Now, this details a long-running battle between Nedelwald and Al-Sekar."
"Al-Sekar." I shook my head. "Would it be a surprise to you that they keep popping up in this case?"
"Absolutely not. If shapeshifters are behind your kidnappings, then Al-Sekar is almost a given." He gestured to something amid the bright, golden smear that I assumed was ink. "This scroll is from a general fighting for Nedelwald. It was written for posterity, and he describes 'magics never before seen.' The front lines of the army of Al-Sekar consisted entirely of strange figures who could 'enlarge themselves to massive heights at a whim, and then simply disappear.' Which, of course, has to be a shapeshifter. Without some innate talent for it, magic of that caliber would be impossible to do as quickly as is described here, if it's even truly possible at all."
"All right." But now I had a new angle to attack from, since apparently we weren't going to be walking into their Kingdom any time soon. "What's the deal with them and Al-Sekar? They fought for them?"
"Yes. And then they were betrayed by those in power." Arengal scampered back to his shelves and began to rummage again, this time coming back a lot faster with a thick, wood-bound book. "For the sake of brevity, I'll just show you my notes gathered up over time for this. The accounts of the betrayal are variable, as are most things of this extreme age, but the best that can be found…" He flipped to a page—yay, more glowing words I couldn't read—in the middle of the book and pointed toward the bottom. "The shapeshifters were brought into the war on Al-Sekar's side on the promise that they would have their great treasure returned to them. And before you ask, no one has any idea what the treasure is, only that it was taken by the armies of Al-Sekar at some point during the War of Unity, and the shapeshifters were willing to join a fight they had no part in to get it back." He sighed. "I'm ashamed to say that Tarwald shares some responsibility for this betrayal as well."
"Enough responsibility that the shapeshifters might want to kidnap and kill a member of the royal family?"
He blinked a few times, then nodded slowly. "It is distinctly possible, yes. If the treasure was so great that they would risk their entire Kingdom, then it would be reasonable that a slight of that magnitude would lead to kidnapping a child."
"What was the slight we're looking at with Tarwald?" Crazy demon researcher man was proving a lot more useful than I ever would have expected.
"Tarwald had allied itself to the cause of Al-Sekar. Nedelwald fought for communal growth, all Kingdoms together to improve the lives of all. Hence why Nedelwald is the way it is now. Al-Sekar wanted the Kingdoms left to their own devices and their own allies as they saw fit. In light of all that's come from the unifying of the Hidden Kingdoms, a foolish decision to support such separatism. But I'm sure there were reasons at the time. Tarwald was always a strong ally of Al-Sekar in the past. Strong trade, mixing of families, open immigration to and from. So it made sense to preserve things the way they were. But it also meant Tarwald was in on everything that was happening. The House of Tarwald knew what had been taken from the shapeshifters, and they knew what was done to them after the war ended."
I scribbled all that down into something easily digestible, making sure my notes were at least enough to jar my own memory. Didn't need another trip to Fazil because I failed to remember some important piece of information from the contacts she'd given us. "What was done to the shapeshifters after the war?"
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"Al-Sekar lost, obviously. The Kingdoms would all work together. But the shapeshifters had upheld their end of the bargain. They fought the war alongside Sekari troops. But when the time came for everything to be squared away, Al-Sekar refused to return their treasure, and when the shapeshifters inevitably revolted, they managed to nullify their magic. It's a feat that no one else seems to have ever been able to pull off. But without their inherent magical abilities, the relatively small number of shapeshifters was no match for the army of Al-Sekar, even decimated by war. They were shuttled back into their own Kingdom without their treasure. And then their Kingdom was sealed."
My blood chilled straight away at that. "Sealed? The Sekari sealed the shapeshifters away?"
Arengal nodded, his face grim and pallid and showing every bit of withered age it had to bear. "I see the gravity of such a crime against them isn't lost even on a human."
It was a little, probably. But I knew what sealing was all about. Gutt worked guarding the prisons in the Hidden Kingdoms. They were sealed away in their own dimension. Other than the freak prison break ten years ago that started the OPA in the first place, nobody got in or out without the permission of someone who could manage the seals. The same thing with Jörmungandr, and probably hundreds of other Class-A preternaturals. They were locked away for the safety of the world. And if the unsealing was anything like Jörmungandr's had been—soaking the ground in blood, murdering dozens of people—then that was disgusting.
"Any idea how strong the seal was?"
"It appears to either be done without great expertise and care, or a fairly weak seal. Otherwise, there's no real explanation for how they're able to walk around today as they do." He closed the book and rolled up the scroll. "There's more I can help you with?"
There probably was, but my head was spinning with history and betrayal and confusing fucking feelings. Clearly the shapeshifters were wronged, and hearing about what had happened didn't make me feel a lot of positive emotions toward Al-Sekar, that was for sure. But at the same time, none of that gave them the right to kidnap and kill children. There was no justification for that, no matter what anyone did to anyone else.
"I think this is a solid foundation. We have other agents talking to other contacts Fazil gave us, so we should be able to get a good start on this and hopefully stop this in its tracks."
"Dash…if you do find the shapeshifters, if you manage to catch one…is there any chance you could allow me to see it?"
Okay, now that wasn't going to happen. But we also could very possibly need Arengal and his impressive little research collection later. So I had to brush off my tact and hope that it was honed enough. "That's something more for Agent Swift to decide. I'll let him know how helpful you were to us, though."
Arengal nodded, which was good. He needed to believe there was some chance there, even though Swift was never going to let some random researcher in with a murder suspect, no matter how instrumental he might have been in getting us to the custody or the arrest or whatever.
"So, is there any chance you can magic me back to ground level?"
"Well, certainly not down here. Magic is dampened in this space, to avoid any ill effects. But once we climb the stairs again, I'll happily do so. And is there a place to contact you if necessary?"
I nodded. "FBI Main Office, Washington, DC, United States."
"Good. If some inspiration should strike me, I would hate for it to go missed."
"So would we." I also felt like maybe he'd be checking in to see if we had a real live shapeshifter in custody that he could poke and prod and examine to show everyone how right he was, but…well, it was public information, how to contact the main office, and if he did have some great realization, then missing it to avoid some annoying phone calls was just stupid and irresponsible.
We got back out into the main room, where we'd started. As soon as we cleared the stairs, the bookcase, complete with all the books, dripped out from the ceiling and back into place as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Then again, I guess that wasn't all that out of the ordinary for the Kingdoms. God only knew how many melty, disappearing walls were scattered around the place.
Arengal nodded once to me, then waved his hand, opening up a shimmering portal to his right. "I sincerely hope you manage to put an end to this tragedy with the children."
"So do I."
"But I also sincerely hope that you will remember the sheer anthropological weight of a people such as the shapeshifters. It would be best to bring them in alive, as it were."
"We don't go out doing this with the intent to kill." That wasn't entirely true. The FBI certainly didn’t condone unnecessary death, but the OPA was dealing with threats that sometimes required it. And if one of those shapeshifters got all giant and tried to squash us down, everyone would be making a hell of a valiant effort to kill it. "As long as things remain peaceful, we won't have to do anything drastic. And we're very good at de-escalation in the OPA." That was actually true, apart from maybe King. It was a pretty necessary thing if you were trying to go up against a dragon drug lord with a god damn Glock as your only defense. Talking your way into safety was pretty much your best bet at that point.
Arengal nodded once more. "Good. Safe travels, Dash." He grinned as he opened the portal.
"Thanks, Arengal." I stepped through the shimmer, past the flash of the Mundane, and back down to the foot of the tree. Balaz still sat on his little dirt and stone seat. "I got what I came for. Thanks for waiting."
"Anything good?"
"I sure as hell hope so. Can you get me back to Burlington, Vermont? The police department?"
He shook his head as he rose. "Sorry. Remote transport's not my strong suit. Best I can do is the OPA offices."
"That'll be fine."
Balaz opened the portal and waved me through. "I'll catch my own."
I stepped back through into the OPA. And it was…quiet. It was way too quiet, and way too empty.
Maybe it was stupid and I was almost definitely paranoid, but I stuck my hand on the grip of my Glock, just in case. In case of what, I didn't know, but I didn't like quiet and empty when it wasn't supposed to be quiet and empty.
So of course my phone went off, and it was loud as shit. Yep, I was back in the Mundane, which meant service, which meant probably Svenson possibly calling me.
I answered it quickly, but not before somebody finally showed up. Swift walked out of his office, followed immediately by a very tall, dark green woman in a full, mint green gown that stopped just short of actually trailing the floor. He nodded to me. "Svenson?"
I nodded back. "I'll take it out here."
"Good. Then you can get in here."
Oh good. Considering that was probably one of the queens of Tarwald, that was a super fun room I definitely wanted to be in. I headed for the door out to the hallway, answering my phone on the way. "Eric."
"Dash. Anything to tell me about this mass exodus to the Kingdoms? Should I be packing a bag for evacuation?"
"Just tracking down leads, sir. We wanted to get them covered as fast as possible, so that was the best way."
"Oh. Well good. I've had enough life-threatening scares from the OPA for a lifetime already."
Yeah. Because he was the one who had to run out there and handle this shit, not just the guy who signed our paperwork and made faces at the whole lot of us for daring to be such a necessary part of the Justice Department. "If something like that was on the table, that's the kind of thing I'd report to you about."
"Good. Would you also report to me about a member of one of the royal families paying us a visit?"
"I wasn't aware that she'd arrived yet, sir. As established, I was in Tarwald chasing down a lead."
A few seconds of silence. Guess he couldn’t refute that. "Well, keep me informed."
"Definitely, Eric."
I hung up the phone, then turned around. Swift's office door was open so I walked from my one super-awesome conversation into another.
Swift sat behind his desk, and the plant elemental sat primly on the edge of one of the other chairs.
I wasn't entirely sure what to do with myself, but I shut the door behind me and sat in the empty chair. Swift cleared his throat. "Dash, this is Queen Estil of Tarwald. We were discussing the progress of the case, so you came in at a good time."
Estil extended her hand. It was twice the size of mine. Maybe plant elementals just grew to be that size, or maybe she was particularly large, but half of me was afraid, and half of me was thinking about She-Hulk.
I took her hand, though, and nodded. "Agent Dashiel Rourke. You can call me Dash, your highness."
"Dashiel Rourke." Her voice was throaty and reedy, like a bassoon. She retracted her hand and laid it in her lap. "I saw the news reports. You rescued Lorath."
I shook my head. "I can't take credit for that, your highness. There was an elemental woman nearby. She came in after me and reapplied the seals to keep him from blowing out all of his magic."
Estil closed her eyes and tears pooled, dripping one, two down her cheeks before she composed herself again, wiping them away on the back of her hand. "Apologies for that. And while I appreciate your modesty, you ran in to save him. I owe this woman you speak of a great debt, but I owe you a great debt all the same." She nodded, fully back to regality. "As I was telling Agent Swift, the House of Tarwald is prepared to help end this tragedy now. As swiftly as we can. And we are happy to make any reparations available to us for the families affected by this."
I had a feeling that would cause some controversy. It was already a situation where police were abusing power. The community probably wasn't going to love that we suddenly had help once it affected royalty. But I wasn't going to tell her not to help either. Swift wasn't stupid. If he thought there would be a problem, he would direct Estil away from it.
