“Only one?” Shion inquired.
The receptionist made a sour face. “You realize it's almost midnight, right?”
“I would have waited until tomorrow, but time is short. Miss Alcyone will only be in Fialla for a few weeks during her winter break. I thought it was prudent to bring her here as soon as possible so that—”
“Fair enough,” the woman said. “You should get moving, though. I don't expect Master Shimizu to tarry too much longer. She's been here since early this morning.”
I sketched a hasty bow to the receptionist and followed Shion as they strode down the corridor behind the security desk. It wasn't easy to keep up with the Easterner's rapid stride, especially considering how much shorter my legs were, and I was momentarily afraid of losing them in the maze-like interior of this building.
All the corridors looked identical, and none of the doors had labels—at least, none had labels that I could see. It was like traveling through an endless, sterile white and dove-gray tunnel that branched off in places seemingly at random.
“What's the purpose of this layout?” I asked.
“The building's interior spaces are folded,” Shion explained, chuckling softly. “It's a security measure. If the desk girl hadn't cleared us through, we'd be walking around a much more ordinary office building right now and we'd never run into a single master, no matter how many happened to be here. What you're seeing now isn't entirely real, but an artifice of magic.”
It made sense. The confusing maze of folded spaces and sub-realities within the Cabal building would offer a potent defense against anyone trying to infiltrate the premises. I found that it was more difficult to sense the magic at work, and I suspected that in of itself was likely part of the security. Non-detection spells had been woven into the boundaries of the extra-dimensional spaces, making it nearly impossible to discern the fundamental arcane forces at work.
Perhaps appropriately, those who possessed a dark Aspect could excel at spells to hide, confuse or obscure a true nature. Knowing what to look for made it easier to pick out the individual weavings, drawn off of a small set of artificial ley lines laid down in this building's foundation.
The Cabal's wards also distorted my sense of time in a way that was familiar; Willow Corvus had cast this spell on Rose and I when we were taken to the Antilight base. It felt like it took over an hour, but I suspect that Shion had only been leading me through the seemingly-endless corridors for a few minutes at most.
We stopped at the end of a branching hallway, ending in a single door. This door was marked, unlike the others, with a set of Eastern kanji characters that I couldn't read. Shion walked up to the door and knocked on it three times, sharply and in rapid succession.
A second later, the door opened. I couldn't see anything beyond the threshold; it was as if the door had opened up into a featureless black portal to the abyss. I knew it wasn't real, just another illusion, and that beyond the vertigo-inducing hell-gate was likely just a small, comfortable, utterly ordinary office.
“It won't be like this after tonight,” Shion told me, picking up on my musings.
“These illusions are incredible. I've never seen any this potent, this well-crafted.” I turned to glance at Shion as they started to head back to the lobby. “Thank you, Shion.”
“Don't thank me. I haven't done anything.”
Before I could respond, they were already gone, and I was left alone at the entrance to Master Shimizu's office. There was nothing else to do but continue on. Without Shion's guidance, I never would have found my way back through the shadow maze.
I closed my eyes and walked through the pane of smooth darkness. When I opened them again, I was greeted with my expectations. The office itself was rather small and cozy, though a bit warmer than I would have preferred. A little space heater sat on the floor next to a desk scattered with papers. A computer terminal with three display panels dominated much of the desk, and behind those displays hunched a bespectacled, tired-looking woman.
“Master Shimizu?”
The woman didn't seem to hear me, instead continuing to stare intently at whatever was on her workstation. I waited, allowing her to finish whatever it was that she was so focused upon. Her fingertips flew over the keyboard and she typed at a speed that spoke of a lifetime of familiarity with technology.
After another minute or so, Shimizu looked up and fixed me with a curious gaze. Her eyes were striking—large and ruby-colored and expressive behind the huge round lenses of her glasses. Like Shion, her hair was straight and smooth and very black, though this woman wore her hair in a chin-length bob with an asymmetric part. Though I suspected she was older than me, she looked very young and rather cute. Maybe even a little childish and immature.
Shimizu wore no makeup save for some faintly pink-tinted balm on her lips, likely more to keep the cold from cracking them than anything else. Her attire was casual in the extreme: a utilitarian black tunic with a zip front over a faded pink shirt, and an old and obviously well-worn pair of heavy denim pants.
“You must be Lily Alcyone,” Shimizu stated. She grunted approvingly. “Thank you for waiting for me to finish. There seems to be a never-ending pile of work these days. Don't call me 'Master Shimizu,' I despise titles. Yukari is acceptable.”
I nodded. “As you like.”
The master pushed her chair back out from under the desk and got up. I noticed then that she wore the same sort of ordinary boots that I did. Master Shimizu—Yukari, rather, had a comfortable presence that was neither intimidating nor frightening. If anything, it was a little flustered, a little distracted. Her casual awkwardness was something I could relate to.
I suppose it also helped that she was a centimeter or two shorter than me. I knew she was an Easterner, and that they typically ran shorter and smaller than Solarians and Fiallans, but Yukari was so uncannily close to my height and build that—
I stiffened as she closed the distance between us. The way she felt was more familiar to me than anyone save for Mother, and I knew why.
“You're half-fey, too,” I blurted.
“Oh, so you noticed?”
I nodded. “Y-yeah. I've… never met any others like me before.”
“It is a fair bit more common in my homeland than where you're from. Honestly, I'm more surprised that you're even alive.” Yukari leaned even closer to me, and I felt my cheeks grow hot. Her sweet-blossom scent enveloped me, and I felt a stirring of attraction to this woman that was nearly as strong as what I remember feeling for Rose.
Yukari seemed affected by this, too, and a faint blush appeared on her cheeks. She quickly backed away and the heady perfume of her scent weakened somewhat, lessening the effect on me. I still found it a bit difficult to avoid stealing glances at her.
The bespectacled mage cleared her throat. “I apologize for the delay. I don't want to keep you from your time with your partner.”
I really didn't know what to say to her blunt self-admonishment, so I just nodded and waited. Yukari started to walk around me, slowly, and I felt the power of her magic as she began the examination process.
Tendrils of seeking energies slipped into my consciousness, riding through the psychic links to the intangible center of my existence where a small but fiercely-bright prominence of dark mana roiled and churned. I knew what Yukari would see: a newly-awakened Aspect, powerful but lacking in capacity and complexity. Eiri's legacy was the catalyst that evolved my latent dark affinity, but without specific training it would stay underdeveloped.
A moment later, Yukari let out a wordless noise of approval. She drew her seeking spells back and dispelled the magic that sustained them. Small, slender fingers adjusted her glasses and her eyes locked onto mine.
“The wards should recognize you now, so you won't need a guide to get back to the lobby. I have a pretty good idea of how to proceed with your training.” Yukari took another step closer to me and reached out to clasp my hand in the Fiallan style. “You are to return here tomorrow, no l
ater than noon. We don't have a whole lot of time to work with, but we'll do the best we can.”
Chapter 19
Seeking Shadows
I left Yukari's office through the same door I came in, but the building was different. Normal. The strange, confusing endless hallways and unmarked doors that led to nowhere had vanished, replacing the interior with a simple and easy to navigate series of well-lit hallways. I was able to follow the hall back to an unlocked door that took me back into the lobby.
The receptionist ignored me as I passed by. Rose and Shion sat together, talking in low tones to pass the time. When they spotted me, both stood up.
“Done already?” Shion asked.
“Yes. I was instructed to return tomorrow.”
Shion nodded. “I know. I've been tasked with your training.”
“Not Yukari?”
“I can see you're disappointed, but Master Shimizu isn't a teacher. She's a researcher, and while she's great at crafting new spells, she's not very good at imparting that knowledge to others.” The necromancer offered a toothy grin and their eyebrows danced in mild amusement. “Besides, it would be a little, ah, awkward for her to take you on as a student, considering the look on your face right now.”
I gawked at Shion. “W-what look?”
“Gods, Lily, you're so bad at hiding your feelings,” Rose complained. “I sure hope you're better at hiding your magic.”
“H-hey!”
“Couldn't be more obvious.” She seemed far more amused than upset, and I was unable to detect even a hint of jealousy or possessiveness in her demeanor. A rather lewd grin blossomed on Rose's face as she eyed me. “Hey, I'm not opposed to sharing. After all, at the end of the day it's still me you'll be coming home to.”
I tried to respond to that in a coherent fashion, but all I managed was wordless sputtering. From the way both Rose and Shion burst into laughter, I suspected my face had gone even redder. I tried to lay a harsh glare on them, but that didn't help my position at all.
“Careful, Rose,” Shion warned after having recovered from their fit of mirth. “She's going to explode if we keep teasing her.”
“I was serious. I love Lily more than anything, but I don't own her.” Rose's laughter had faded away and her expression became more serious and earnest. “I'd never even think of forbidding her from following the leanings of her heart.”
My jaw dropped. “W-what?”
“Oh, my,” Shion quipped.
“Yep.” Rose nodded solemnly.
“This is all so different than… than what I'm used to.” I felt a little dizzy, a little lightheaded, and somewhere in the back of my mind, relieved. “I'm not—I mean, I'm trying to—um…” I trailed off as Rose took hold of my chin and tilted my head up.
“You starting to understand now? Why so many of your people hate and fear the world outside the Empire?” Rose leaned in closer, placing a quick kiss on the corner of my mouth. “The people in power want to expand their power and influence, surely, but why do you think the average Solarian is so opposed to peace?”
“Because it's so different here?” I hazarded a guess. “So alien to them that they can't understand it, they can't accept it.”
“Worse than that,” Rose interjected. “The Imperial Court restricted emigration to Fialla for a reason, and hinted that aggressive retaliation would result if our government continued to offer amnesty to your people.” She sighed and took me by the hand. The three of us walked out of the lobby and into the cold midnight air. “I don't think it'll be very long at all before they pass a travel ban to keep most Solarians out of Fialla entirely.”
It made sense. Fialla was not perfect—of course, no nation was—but its laws and culture offered a much better deal for lowborn families, and especially for the magic-dead bottom-most classes of Solaria. For all their power of magic, the sorcerous nobility could not maintain their status and influence without the labors of those beneath them. It greatly benefited the highborn Solarians to ensure that the common people had no other options.
So they filled the minds of the average citizen with zealous hatred and religious conviction, preaching their propaganda from the pulpit. Fialla's government chose not to further inflame the tensions between the two nations by limiting their policy of unconditional amnesty. If what Rose had told me earlier was true, Fialla still continued to accept defectors, and I doubted the Imperial Court would continue to tolerate that.
Unless something drastic changed within the Empire, war seemed almost inevitable.
*
When I awoke the next morning, I felt lethargic, my limbs leaden. I slept rather well, all things considered, but I hadn't slept enough. After we left the secret headquarters of the Shadow Cabal, Rose and I returned to her apartment. Neither of us were able to keep our hands off the other. The heavy subject matter of the evening led us to seek comfort in each other's arms.
Rose was already up and heading for the shower by the time I was ready to head out. I wasn't all that enthusiastic about the thought of not being with her, but this was something I had to do. If we were to return to the Academy, I had to know how to hide my Aspect from the masters and, perhaps worse, the other students.
As she had promised, Rose supplied me with all manner of clothing suitable for various different environments. Today I opted to wear a simple, dark gray tunic-style dress, my legs left bare for freedom of movement. Soft leather boots of the type I usually preferred encased my feet. My dagger was secured to a quick-release sheath on my thigh, where it would be covered by the hem of my dress. The magic placed on the blade would prevent people from noticing it so long as I didn't display it openly.
I wondered how many other Fiallans carried concealed weapons. I suspected that the number would begin to increase sharply as rumors of possible war spread throughout the country. In the country of my birth, carrying weapons openly was tied to one's station. Mages were permitted to display all manner of arcane weaponry as a visible display of their power and relative importance to society, but things were rather less permissive for the lower classes.
Rose stopped me as she emerged from the shower, her hair still damp and hanging around her shoulders in messy tendrils. The look on her face was one of disappointment.
“I wish I could go with you,” she said.
“I'm sure Shion would let you if you asked.”
Rose shook her head. “Did ask. They said no, because my presence would be a distraction for you. I understand, it makes sense, but I'm not terribly thrilled about it.”
I smiled up at her and poked her in the tummy. “It's not like I'll be training all night.”
“I know. I'm just being selfish. I want you all to myself.”
My lips twitched into a smirk. “Oh? That's not what you said last night… whatever happened to your willingness to share?”
“I was teasing.” Rose made a sour face. “You know it's not the same thing at all.”
“You're worried about me, then.”
“Of course I am. No magical training is what you could call 'safe,' and from what Shion told me, you're going through a dangerous time right now. Your Aspect is growing stronger every day, but you have no training at all with dark magic. All you know is what that damned sword imparted, which is by no means a substitute for actual knowledge.”
I didn't respond to that.
“I'm not worried, Lily. I'm scared,” Rose clarified. Her still-damp arms encircled me, drawing me close for a hug. Almost involuntarily, I nestled in closer to her. “I would feel a lot better if you'd talk to Dad about… about what we can do if things go badly at the Academy.”
“You really think that's going to be necessary?”
Rose's expression was grim. “I do. I don't know why, but I can't… I can't shake the feeling that something is not right. I have no idea what, and I don't even have anything close to proof, but I…” She trailed off and sighed in frustration.
My hand brushed against Rose's cheek and I turned her head to lo
ok at me. “You want to protect me. I know. Was I your… your first?”
Her sudden blush told me that my guess was correct.
“That explains some things,” I murmured.
“What about you?”
I looked away for a moment. “Not the first, but the first that truly meant something. There was a girl whose parents worked at House Alcyone, when I was about thirteen—”
“Ah.”
“When Lord Cyrus discovered what was happening, she and her entire family were discharged from our service. They were just a commoner family that worked the fields.” I drew away from Rose's dewy embrace and let out my own frustrated vocalization. “My great-uncle confronted Mother about my 'degenerate behavior' and how I was a bad influence on the girl. I don't know what she said to him that night, but the rumor was their argument could have leveled the entire estate, had they resorted to spells rather than merely sharp words.”
“That sounds like your mom, all right,” Rose agreed.
“I'm afraid for her. That's why I have to… to go back.” My voice dropped, becoming thick and childish as the words spilled out. “I know Mama is powerful, but this battle isn't a duel between mages. It's a dirty, backstabbing political brawl. It won't matter that she has might of magic. Cyrus isn't half the mage Mama is, but he won't fight with spells, he'll fight with the law…” I let my voice fall and gave Rose a helpless look.
“… and the law is twisted,” she finished for me.
“Yes.” I sighed and turned toward the door. “Still, though, I promise I'll talk to Cassius about your suggestion—but only if there are no other options.”
Rose's relief was plain in her tone. “That's all I ask. Good luck with the training, and tell Shion I said hi. Tell them to convince Yukari to come out drinking with us this weekend.”
“I will.” I smiled as I shut the door behind me.
It took only a few more minutes before my ride arrived—Rose had called Devon to pick me up and take me to the Cabal building. I waited, gazing at my reflection in the darkly-tinted glass of the car's windows, as the older man popped open the passenger-side door.
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