by Lil Hamilton
‘I’ve started a sizable fire,’ Lan remarked. ‘They are scurrying about now trying to put it out.’
‘And he broke through the security of the barracks, which is bleeping in here. Got some activity coming in from the North. Lan, they are going to hit you hard. Time to throw that demon weight around.’
‘Awesome.’
I snickered. ‘Okay, I’m going in.’
I touched the lock on the door and fried it nice with some raw energy and yanked the door open. The warehouse had some good lighting set up, actually quite bright. I stepped in and felt a sharp tingle as the ward recognized my fae-ness and felt it flare up a warning. The active response to my fae-ness looked like a stun and immobilize spell. I waved a hand and chanted out, “Navitas ut proprius,” to dispel the slowed down attack. The spell burst into little particles of light. I began to spin that spell again, as it would most likely be needed.
The inside had been totally revamped. There were several rows of something. I moved to the first line and gasped. They were cages of a sort. Little rooms with a glass fronts. The glass window was spelled to not break and also spelled to open like a door. Or I surmised by the layer of passive spells coating the glass and then a thin layer on one edge that was some sort of active spell like one would use to open something. Inside the cages was an assortment of people. Witches, demi and faelings.
‘Fuck me. There has got to be thirty-five or more people caged up in here. I’ll see if Lily is one… no way Eadon would be contained in these. I sense no demonic trail at all. I’m going to see if Nemnae is here as well. If they’re here I’ll pull them both. Here is the evidence we need for Inter, but we’re short on people, which means they have already sold some.’
‘Ah, fuck. I’ll call Inter in. If they can hit the place now they might even round up some of the witches to charge.’
So much for a scouting mission. Calling Inter in to pull in these witches would rile the coven up like a kicked hornet nest.
I went down the rows and peered into each cell. Some of the people within really wanted to get out. Some were out of it and drugged and others had a glazed look of being blanked by shock or spell. I couldn’t let them out until Inter came, since some of them could be spelled for obedience. I would know the fae witch even if she held a glamour illusion; I would be able to tell she had fae blood. I worked my way through them and got no freakin trace of Lily. ‘I don’t see Lily here. Might have been where they first held her, but now with Eadon, they could be holding them together.’ One cage held a slim, naked Nymph. ‘I got Nemnae. She is alive but weakened. I’ll see if I can at least pull her. Best to let Inter handle the rest now that we have done their work for them.’
‘There are no more hotspots,’ Chera said. ‘And a demon would show on a scry.’
‘Freakin fairy blue balls. Dill move back and wait for Inter to show. Lan start submitting the witches there to give Inter something to start with.’
‘On it,’ Lan said.
I crouched down in front of Nemnae’s cell. I couldn’t leave her here for Inter to find. She was my responsibility. I needed to bring her back to the District. She was slumped against the wall her walnut coloured skin looked two shades too pale, her green hair had been hacked short and was lank against her scalp but it was her emerald eyes that worried me the most. They were just empty. Not in shock, not unfocused. Just empty. I felt along the seam of the glass plane until I felt the buzz against my palm of the spell to unlock it. I murmured a spell carefully, watching to ensure there was no negative reaction, but the glass pane glowed and swung open smoothly.
“Nemnae. It’s Ray.”
She didn’t move. Or blink.
“Ray, the Faerie ambassador? We met a few times. I’m here to take you home.”
No reaction.
Was it a paralyze spell? Or was she suffering already being away from Faerie? I leaned in and carefully pulled her out. With her slumped across my lap I ran a hand over her head and then down her body, carefully trying to pick up any spell residue. At first I could find nothing to explain it so I probed deeper, sending a spell into her essence as exploration and that is when I found a truly horrifying… nothing. Nemnae had been broken. Someone had overtaken her mind, gotten into her core and cracked into it. By that victory they owned her Name and all that she was. Winning a fae battle gave the victor the power to force the victim into the Fade, with control over their Name they could keep them as a slave, twist them into something else, and contort their memories. For those of us who were weak, for the strong owning Names was binding but rarely held the same risks if the two tied were equal. Whoever broke her twisted her Name and instead of remaking her, they took from her. They took all that she was from her; her personality, her memories and even her basic instincts. All there was before me was a minimal awareness and a body. Maybe less. It couldn’t be fixed. Even the one who held her Name could not give back what was erased; they would only be able to remake her into something else entirely.
It was horrific and brutal. My stomach rolled with nausea and I had to focus a moment on not becoming violently ill. I didn’t know what to do with her now. It wouldn’t be a blessing to keep her alive.
“Are you enjoying the merchandise?”
I whirled around and then cursed inwardly. Myra the Hag. Of course she would be behind such a horrific spell. I let Nemnae lay gently on the ground and stood up slowly. Myra couldn’t win a fae duel to own a Name. It was not in her abilities. Yet, she had tried to twist a curse to figure out the names of demons and maybe landed on a way to get a curse to dig out the Name of the fae. Myra had Native American features and long black hair from her father the shape shifter and a paler skin tone, pointed fae ears and vibrant emerald eyes from her half-breed witch mother. She was tall and lean and oddly reminded me of Cher. She had that sort of bold, powerful beauty that was timeless. “Myra, what a pleasant surprise.”
Myra smiled and gestured. “I have some excellent concubines here. Or perhaps you would be more interested in a perfectly trained and completely loyal servant? They go for a great price in high income households.”
“What have you done to this Unseelie?”
She grinned widely. “You have followed my research of course. Leaching curses are quite fascinating that way. It’s just a matter of getting them beyond the natural barriers of whatever breed it is whose energy you want to leach. I want to leach the essence however. Two very important goals for our Queen. The first, to see if we can dig beneath a demon skin and find their name, but it turns out their name is not held in the essence like our own. There is nothing to hold onto. This is truly a pity. It was purely a fluke I discovered with enough time, and incentive, the curse is will work on the fae.”
She gestured at Nemnae. “That is a perfect blank slate. The curse, as designed, feeds on the essence, first on the person’s natural reserve then on their very being. Her core nature was unravelled. I could not grasp the complexity of her name, or hold it, as that is not in my right or nature. I can, however, unravel it. Just as the spell is designed you see. It weakens a person. Denies them access to their magic, while feeding mine. Denies them the abilities to recover their aura from the environment. Then when they have so little life-force left, their mind cannot defend itself and the curse unravels their core being. Leaving behind a perfect empty cup that can be filled as we please.”
My eyes darted to the other cells to see similar blank expressions on some of the occupants.
Myra flashed me that sickly grin again that looked crazed and too damn pleased. She made a scooping gesture. “Just take out all the mess. Put back in whatever is needed. You understand how it is. Rich and powerful people are so damn particular in what they want in a woman these days, or in a servant. I give them exactly what they want. With the added bonus of being able to add in exactly what the Queen wants.” She laughed and waved her hands at the cells. “It is perfect and brilliant. The slave trade was already there. Pervasive and it’s not like the human police we
re ever capable of getting rid of the problem. Might as well take advantage of it. These people want something pretty to look at, perfectly obedient, with certain traits and either a witch, a demi or a faeling. They want control over their abilities as well. The Queen wants spies in high places. She wants information. Eyes and ears everywhere. And absolute loyalty.”
Bitch was wiping minds and creating slaves. Obliterating them in order to use them as pawns for the Queen. Because they were just witches and faelings, they meant nothing to the Queen. I’d known Myra long enough to know the Queen had a fierce hold on her. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it was there. I knew she was a leach and fed off others and had killed doing so and I knew the Queen had her experimenting on various curses, but how could she just destroy the essence of people like that? Make them walking puppets? It was murder because nothing of what they were survived that.
“Isn’t it enough that you leach the life from people to keep your pretty face? You have to steal everything from them?”
“The thing with you, Ray, is that you are rather partial to humans. I never quite understood that. There is nothing human in you. Not even a spark. This is not your land. It does not sing for you. You’re the intruder. Yet you protect these animals. Except they destroy everything they touch and no animal would do that. They are not worthy of your attention. Just a few half-breeds and a couple minor fae in the mix. Unseelie are wonderfully exotic don‘t you think? I apologize for Nemnae. She was an accident. Truly. She intruded, but a wonderful exploration of the curse. I knew it would draw your attention. I had rather thought you would be more attentive. It took you a great deal longer than I thought.”
“I would never destroy a person’s mind and then sell them off like cattle.”
“No, you would not. That is why I do it. It takes money to live as long as I do and I serve the Queen just as you do. Your job is to make them blind while I do mine. And you know why I do mine. It is not just creating the perfect servant. It is placing operatives, designed operatives, into key places that suit the Queen. It is breeding traits into the cattle to produce something useful.”
I didn’t like the sounds of that. What long term crazy ass goals did the Queen have? Did she plan to do this slow invasion and claim earth territory? I mean, strategically it made sense. It would be a base of operation to get into the Hells, once she had enough hell breeds made. That would make me, my Accords efforts, merely a distraction tactic like all the pretty Seelie fae playing up the media. It sickened me. “We are so much better than humans, Ray. All the Others are, but most of all the fae.”
“You hate them so much then?”
Myra looked around at the cages with disinterest. “No, not hate. I feel nothing for them at all.”
“You broke the Accords again, Myra. They’re not going to pleased.”
“Unfortunately, you can’t do anything about that,” she said smoothly.
Yeah, one fourth fae blood, was still fae blood. Anything I did was protected by diplomatic immunity, but it was part of my position to put a good face on all the fae. Now, that disgusted me. I thought in my own little way I was doing some good. I should have known better. I was bound by my oaths to the Queen though. I could do nothing but play the role made for me. Like she bloody well said, to make the humans blind to other things the fae did. Most fae who broke the Accords I revoked their rights and sent them home, but with one of the Queen’s operatives it was not my call. I could stop her operations, but I could do nothing that would reveal any fae was involved in any sort of slavery ring.
I felt a flash of rage as these insights soaked into me. A flush of demon energy pulsed through me and my glamour dropped. My fae essence flowed freely but it didn’t faze her, as far as I could tell.
Myra merely smiled slightly. Winning a reaction from me was no small victory, since she knew my weakness well. “Maybe not, but you’re a witch and they follow the Accords as well. They won’t be pleased.”
She shrugged. “They can’t do anything. Hell, they would bicker whether it was their right given my rather unique bloodline. Cowards that they are, they would not take me on, now would they? You on the other hand seem to be meddling in my business.”
“I didn’t know it was your business. I had no idea there was another operative in Haven. You did not announce your presence.”
She smiled slyly and made a tsking noise. “You would have meddled anyway.”
“You started taking faelings and demi while I was in Faerie. You set this all up while I was gone. You knew I would be forced to act on my return. Why would you set up here?” I asked. She could have done it anywhere and remained hidden. And kept on doing it. As loathsome as it was.
“Oh I knew you would act. For your compassion for the half-breeds. Against the Queens wishes you protect them anyway. I knew you would interfere. And here you have called Inter in to shut this coven operation down. Bravo. And even though you were not aware of what I have been doing for our Queen she will be greatly displeased for the disruption and you will suffer for it. That is why I chose Haven.”
“What the Hells have I ever done to you that you would bring down her wrath down on me so?”
“You exist,” she hissed. “You own a piece of Faerie. You are in the Courts. You, a High Demon half-breed, in Faerie. You have no right to it and you taint the fabric of the fair land with your essence. If I cannot kill you personally then I will ensure the Queen does not favour you.”
“I don’t see what right it is for you to say with your mongrel breeding,” I said and saw her eyes darken with fury. “You barely have enough fae in you to be useful.”
“It will be your responsibility to deter Inter, since you have called them here,” she said giving me a mocking smile. She knew that was not going to happen this century.
“You have no authority to make demands on me and never will. Call in a cleanup crew, if you even have the authority for that. Just because I came into this witch ground looking around and called in Inter to clean up these slavers, doesn’t change the fact that you screwed up, not me. You didn’t tell me you were here or what you were doing. I’m a representative of the Accords. Do your business elsewhere if you don’t want to be caught at it. And while you are at it don’t take Unseelie to meddle with as I was obligated to interfere.”
I may be a pawn, but I had the freedom to play my role to the fullest extent. And, damn it, I would.
‘Time to retreat boys.’
“I go where it pleases the Queen.”
I laughed. “Ah yes, of course. Her little pet dog does whatever the Queen wishes hoping for some affection or a treat. Or is it you think she can grant you true immortality?”
She snarled and activated one of her amulets. A force of black energy ripped towards me. The witch leached power constantly, which made her a force to be reckoned with. I spun out another dispel spell and spoke the phrase quickly and the force exploded into a thousands of silt particles, most of which clung to me and stung like a bitch.
“Habitum, etiam net permovis, pareo,” I said quickly, but when its yellow web of the paralyze spell was a foot away it slowed down considerably and then just melted. Damn charms. “We can play all day, Hag. Neither of us is authorized to kill the other.”
Except Myra knew my weakness. If she angered me enough I would demon out. Then I would attack blindly and she would have the right to protect herself. I couldn’t spin a spell like that even if I were in my right mind. Easy prey. Plus it would violate my Oaths and that would be extremely painful.
She smiled widely. “Accidents happen when you snoop where you should not.”
Then with a flare of inner energy and several coiled strands twisting she shifted into a raven and flew off. Thankfully, my team was not with me, Myra would have no problems killing anyone around me and would be encouraged to do so if it hurt me and riled me up. When I felt a tremble in the air and then a buildup of energy, the sort of raw potential increasing around me I knew Myra was not playing at all. I ran out
of the building, but heard the roar of tormented rage that followed me. I wanted to keep running, since that part of my body that had the instinct to survive demanded it was a damn good idea. Instead I turned to face my cousin. My eyes widened slightly. When a demon was called, often they were warped into the shape the caller willed. This caller was obviously the religious sort because Eadon looked like he had crawled out of the bible. His skin was fire truck red, his eyes a deep crimson red, the horns seemed like much, but whatever. That mattered not at all in compared to the tornado of energy that whirled around him. With his demon essence not restrained and at the control of another, he could have devastating effects on reality in the border realm. As in he could tear it apart particle by particle.
Even though someone compelled him to look like some Catholic devil from the hottest hells, he was a wind demon, not a fire elemental one. In his native realm this meant he had developed telekinesis abilities that allowed for blunt force and surprising precision. He could also manifest as a tornado of energy. Wind demons had extra sensitive senses of smell and hearing. They could not only smell your perfume, your fear but also what you ate for breakfast. In the border realm all of these skills were dampened slightly, but also, unfortunately, enhanced by a demon’s voiding negativity to this realm. His tornado of energy was slowly eating away at the area around him, until the painting on the buildings began to fade and then stripped to wood.
I took a hesitant step back as he took a slow step forward. Just at the edge of his energy it felt like I was being beaten by a stinging wind, but in fact it was the sharp currents of that negating energy stinging my skin raw. He knew who I was. He was trying to resist the compulsion, but a binding ritual broken only if the witch broke it herself by not adhering to the conditions of the bargain. Thinking fast I immediately flared out my demon essence, as the only shield that would prevent him from taking me apart cell by cell. That buffer decreased the bite of his wind.
