by Ryan Wieser
“A lot. I don’t want to lie to you, Kohl, because I care for you, truly. But I need to know I can trust you to not tell the others. If they knew what I was capable of… they would kill me.”
He leapt back from her, his eyes dark. “Trust you? I have defended you since your arrival and you have lied to me.”
“Kohl—”
“I sided with you…”
“Kohl, please—”
“I held you in my arms. I trained with you.”
Jessop took a step towards him but he moved out of her reach.
“I made love to you,” he whispered, his voice thick with disgust.
“Kohl!”
Unable to listen to any more, Jessop threw her arm out, her fingers outstretched, her palm aimed at Kohl’s chest. His knees buckled as she forced him to fall before her. He stared up at her but she didn’t need him to speak—so she did not permit him to.
She touched his face slowly, ignoring the horror in his eyes. “I should have never let it come this far, for us… I should have never felt anything for you. But I did… I do. I wanted you to know, to see me for me. But it appears I can’t do that.”
She stroked his cheek and brushed his hair back, as he stared up at her, paralyzed by her abilities.
“I’m sorry… for everything, but I can’t have you remembering any of this.” He made muffled sounds against his closed lips, his wide eyes staring at her with fear, and he twitched in her grasp, as though all his might was being used to break free from his own body—his skin a cage, trapping him inside by her will.
She closed her eyes, ignoring his resistance, and made her way into his mind easily. She navigated the memories, the older ones she had seen before, and the newer ones, which included images of her body, her scarred back and sleeping face. And she moved faster and faster, ignoring all the thoughts of love and lust he had for her, of hope for their future. She sped through it all, until she found them standing in his room, just one-minute prior.
And just like that—she destroyed the memory. She could feel the single tear as it trickled down her face.
* * * *
She wiped the tear away and helped Kohl to his feet, and within an instant, he had regained a sense of reality. He looked disoriented for a moment, as if he did not know why he was standing up.
He stared down at her with a look of peculiarity. “Wh—what was I saying?”
“You were saying Hanson shows no regard for you… but Kohl, I said something to him.” Jessop grabbed his hand in hers, taking a slow breath. “I told him I didn’t want you in pain, he said you could take it, and I made a comment about him finding that out through scarring your body, the way it is…”
His eyes widened. “You said what?”
“I’m sorry. But I know. I know he did all of this,” she spoke, pointing to his chest. “I know he gave you all these scars.” She had thought on it enough; she had spent many years figuring it out. The scars, the vague excuses—even Falco, who leapt at any opportunity to disparage the Council, had remained tight-lipped about the marks. She knew they must have been the product of more than violence, but of betrayal, and ritual.
He shook his head at her. “You know nothing.”
“Tell me I’m wrong,” she challenged sadly, wishing she were.
He took a step back from her. “This was a rite of passage. This is what it means to be a Hunter, a protector of Daharia. This,” he growled, running a hand over his scarred flesh, “is why we don’t train women.”
Jessop felt her breath catch. She could see the regret in his eyes immediately—he had seen her scars, he had heard of her past. He knew what torture she too had survived. She had found it so easy to bond with the disfigured Hunter—they were a pair of survivors who shared a silent understanding. Apparently she had been wrong to think that.
“Jessop, I’m sorry,” he began, but she raised a hand to silence him.
She didn’t want to hear his apology—she had taken enough from him, his body, his anger, and his memories. She took a deep breath and forced herself to look him in the eye.
“The scars… the fighting, the Sentio, the torture. If I were capable of more, if I were stronger, would it scare you? Would you hate me for being afraid to show anyone?”
His shoulders slumped over slowly; he was upset with himself for inferring she hadn’t survived equal tortures, that she couldn’t survive his pain. “No, of course not.”
She nodded, her lips tightening before she could say anything more. She turned, making her way for the door, comforted by the fact that she wasn’t the only liar in the room.
* * * *
“I can’t pretend I’m not somewhat pleased,” Trax smiled, his glowing eyes looking her over in the morning light. She had slept in her own chambers that night, not wishing to be so near Kohl after everything that had transpired between them. She had woken early and found Trax eating breakfast in his chambers. He invited her to join, and despite initially resisting, Jessop found that she was seated at his small desk sipping a warm beverage.
“It’s a test. They don’t trust me. Or you, for that matter,” she reminded him, watching him from over the lip of her cup.
“Of course it is. They never have. They never will.” He shrugged, pulling a stool out from around the corner and sitting at the desk opposite her. “I became a Hunter many years ago, and before Hydo first began training Falco Bane, before Hanson first began working with Kohl, before either showed any promise, the Council believed me to be the future of the Glass Blade. That changed of course, as Falco Bane’s abilities grew. And as Falco’s grew, so did Kohl’s, and so did their rivalry.”
Jessop nodded along, listening as Trax told her a new perspective on an old story. She sipped her hot drink and leaned back in her chair, captivated by the Kuroi’s glowing eyes and deep voice.
“While their rivalry lasted, Kohl’s ability to keep up with Falco did not. Falco surpassed the boy, and then me, and then his own mentor, our Lord Jesuin. It was not lost on him that he had become the greatest of us all—that he had become untouchable. He would have been destined to protect the Blade of Light.
“It was around then that the trips began. The Lord Jesuin had frequented beyond the Grey many times with his young protégé. Hydo said it was rougher terrain, better training for the future Protector of Daharia and the Blade of Light—but whispers traveled, and we knew the real reasons. Hydo was hopeful Falco would become more like him.” Trax sighed.
“What the Lord didn’t foresee was that during these trips to my homeland, while the Kuroi grew weary of him and his maltreatment of my people, they saw the strength of his mentee, young Falco. You know his charisma, his power over all those he comes across. It did not take long for able bodied tribesmen to promise themselves to his path, to his future leadership of the Blade.”
Jessop put her cup down on the table slowly. “This is a part of the story I know well. The Kuroi have historically disliked the leadership of the Infinity Hunters.”
“For good reasons. While the Hunters were known for taking power and keeping the realm safe, they treated the land beyond the Grey as a playpen. They hunted our people, tortured us for insights into the powers we drew from the mountain, they feared our wild nature and bloodline of power. But the Hunters have always been the law… and while they had stopped the hunts and torture, and had even begun to train a few of us, myself included, it wasn’t until one captivating young student began talks of a different future, that the Kuroi did really believe a change was coming.”
Jessop knew what Trax said to be true; she knew it all very well. She pictured Falco in her mind. He was as Trax described… beyond charismatic, and more than intimidating. He spoke and people listened, and any who didn’t knew without question that the gray-eyed Hunter was more powerful than any who had come before him. She had felt his power, even without his touch; his was an abili
ty that you could sense just by being near him.
“And I was here… hearing whispers of a coming coup, trapped between those who had raised and trained me, and those who were my blood, my family.”
Jessop nodded slowly, leaning closer as Trax revealed more of his past to her, in a way that they hadn’t done when they first met. Thought sharing, with Sentio, was like watching flickering images; you had to concentrate to get a sense on one’s retired emotions. The difference between the process and speaking were quite literally the difference between being shown and being told.
“I can imagine that put you in an impossible position,” she sympathized, reaching once again for her cup, remembering where she was in her own life at the time of these events. Remembering the others—remembering seeing Falco appear from the sky.
Trax cocked his head down at her, watching her with his bright eyes. “Not really.”
Jessop stood. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to question your loyalty.”
Trax followed suit, slowly rising from his stool. “My loyalty is beyond question.”
“Then let us not mess up this partnership, let me show the Council where my loyalty lies,” Jessop declared, placing her cup down before crossing her arms.
“Agreed. Go find your boy. The sooner your tracking devices are fitted, the sooner we can plan your first hunt.”
“Trax—don’t call him that,” Jessup ordered, sick of the epithet.
He raised his hands innocently, but a wicked smile pulled at his face. “That scar on his face, the one shaped like a star. Did he ever tell you how he got that?”
Jessop sighed. “Falco Bane has a scar that travels through his brow, over his eye-lid, over his cheek, and stops just before his mouth. He nearly lost an eye to the blade of his former friend, Kohl O’Hanlon, whom he scarred on the face as well,” she summarized the story she had been told many times before.
“Indeed. Your boy got a slice of Bane—but just a slice. Falco carved the crooked scar into Kohl with deliberation. He had offered his childhood friend a position at his side, and upon rejecting Falco, the two fought. Falco bested him, without surprise, and carved the star into his face as a reminder. Were Kohl ever to travel to a place where the stars shone in the sky, such as Aranthol, or beyond the Grey, Falco would find and kill him.”
Jessop didn’t move, nor did she drop his golden stare. To her surprise, she hadn’t known those details before. She had figured the extent to which the twisted scar resembled a star in the sky was coincidence. She hadn’t heard the backstory.
She cleared her throat softly. “And has he ever traveled outside of Azgul, where there are stars in the dark sky?”
Trax slowly shook his head. No.
“Then he shouldn’t come with us on any hunt beyond the Grey,” she argued.
“No, he shouldn’t. Yet, his master has bound him to you, paired with a tracking device so that you must be near him, and easily found, at all times, and you are bound to me, who will surely be sent beyond the Grey very soon.”
Jessop couldn’t argue any of those facts. “Falco wouldn’t risk exposure just to see through on an old threat,” she explained. Falco was tactful in his vengeance.
“No, probably not… but there are many who would see it through on his behalf. We know there is a bounty on the boy.”
Jessop couldn’t believe this. “Hanson Knell knows this and he has chosen him to be paired to me still. He sends his favored student out to face a very real threat of death.”
“The Council knows that where the boy goes, potential links to Falco Bane will arise. If Bane comes for Kohl, you won’t be needed any more.”
“They would risk their own Hunter’s life? And for what? There’s not an Infinity Hunter alive who can take Bane in a fight.”
“Many believe you would not let harm come to the boy.”
Jessop stepped back, overwhelmed by this new information. “And do they not think he would do the same for me? That he would not throw himself between myself and Bane?”
She needed to think this through and prevent any excess of harm coming to Kohl. She hated Hanson Knell, and vowed he would one day pay for endangering his protégé’s life in so many ways.
The Kuroi shrugged. “We all know you’re the superior fighter. If Falco is lured out, the Council believes you would defend Kohl to the very end.”
Jessop looked up to the Kuroi Hunter. “They think I love him too much to let him die.”
Trax looked her over with a critical eye. “Don’t you?”
She turned from him, knowing she needed to find Kohl. “Your Council doesn’t know anything about me.”
As she stepped out his door, she heard him speak. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
CHAPTER 9
Jessop met Kohl at his chambers, just as he had finished bathing. She sat at the foot of his bed as he dressed, waiting for him to speak to her. She had asked him, as soon as she had stepped foot in the room, if what Trax had said was true. Although, she knew in her heart it was, she needed to hear it from him.
“I missed you last night,” he half-smiled to her, pulling his damp hair back with a tie.
She let her gaze drop. She had slept with him for many reasons… but things had changed. She knew more than she had before, their situation had changed when she had seen his reaction to her abilities, when he had once again forced her to erase memories she had no right erasing… forced her to hide parts of herself she did not wish to keep hidden from him.
“Did Falco threaten to kill you if you ever trespassed under the stars?” She asked again, ignoring his sentiment.
His large shoulders heaved with a slow breath. “He’s threatened to kill lots of people.”
“Kohl.”
He threw his hands out. “Yes, okay? Yeah, he did.”
“And yet, Hanson sends you out to defy Falco Bane and risk your life.”
Slowly, he sat beside her on the bed. “We all knew this day would come. What good is an Infinity Hunter if I can’t travel beyond our city to protect and enforce the laws of Azgul? Falco has a bounty on my head, and most likely yours too; if the Council is set on finding him, sending us out into territory loyal to him is a surefire way of doing it.”
Jessop couldn’t tear her eyes away from the star-shaped scar, but all she saw were Falco’s hands. “There are other ways. They are using us as bait, Kohl.”
He chuckled at her words, an attempt to lighten the moment. “They send me, who trained alongside Falco, with Trax DeHawn, the youngest Council member and greatest Hunter in training before Falco, and you—the one none of us can best in the Hollow. Not to mention whoever else will accompany us… If any group can deal with Falco Bane, I think it’s ours,” he smiled.
She could feel his hand on her back, slowly rubbing the tight muscles around her spine. She stood up. She didn’t have time for his optimism.
“You’re not stupid enough to truly believe that, are you? No ‘group’ can deal with Falco Bane. There’s a reason he still lives and breathes, Kohl. He’s the best there ever was.”
He stared at her with gritted teeth, frustrated. “What would you have us do, Jessop? It’s our duty to find him, to fight him. I’m just being positive.”
She ran her hands over her face, equally agitated. She didn’t know what was wrong with her… everything was coming together, exactly as she had planned it. Yet, she was seemingly coming to pieces.
Why? Because you care for him? Because you’ve grown a conscience in his presence?
“Well, don’t be. Be realistic. It’s much more helpful.”
Her voice was louder than she intended it to be, overpowering him and the voices in her head. She didn’t want Kohl to die.
He looked at her with wide eyes, his mouth pulled in a hopeful, soft smile. “This is what I’m trained for,” he reminded her.
“You�
��re talking about Falco Bane. I don’t mean it to be cruel, but you have nothing on him, no one does,” she explained, shaking her head at him apologetically.
He took her hand in his, and brought it to his lips. “I have you, don’t I?” He smiled, his breath warm against her fingertips.
She still needed him to get the tracking device installed… So she didn’t voice what she was silently thinking, but she saw his face in her mind, the one filled with horror upon seeing her true abilities.
No, you don’t.
* * * *
The tracking devices were approximately four inches long and two inches wide, made of lightweight steel. Central to the steel panel was a small screen, and a series of buttons. Around the periphery of the rectangular device there were small holes—where the screws would go.
“You’re going to fix these to our forearms?” Jessop asked the medic, staring down at the devices on the silver tray beside the white sheet-covered bed her and Kohl sat on.
The medic, a man with a head of thick dark hair whose name she had already forgotten, continued to make notes on his glass clipboard. “Indeed,” he mumbled, his eyes still fixed on his board.
She hadn’t been back to the medics’ floor since her first day in the Blade, when they had healed Kohl. This was the first time she had gone past their reception room, to one of the many brilliantly white, clinically clean examination rooms. While the rooms were not made of transparent materials, unlike the rest of the Blade, nearly all of the equipment inside them was. The bed they sat on would appear entirely see-through were it not for the sterile white sheet tucked into its corners, and the machines appeared as though they were forged from crystals and glass. Even the small stool on which the medic sat appeared entirely clear.
It gave Jessop a headache just to sit there.
“And the reason you can’t anesthetize is… ?” Kohl pressed, staring at the tracking devices with the same displeased look that Jessop wore.
“Orders from above,” the medic answered, his eyes still firmly locked on his clipboard.
