Veins of Ice

by Melissa Kellogg

  “It still stands that I will be put in Asher’s team in order to be there for you. There’s nothing anyone can do about it. Jinx is incompetent as a witch. I would’ve handled the situation far better.”

  “No, you wouldn’t have. No one here has ever gone up against a wyvern, especially not one that spits combustible venom. We had no idea what we were really going up against, so it wasn’t like we were able to read up on such monsters to know how to go about handling the situation. Jinx followed proper protocol, as did everyone else, including myself. If they hadn’t, they would’ve been suspended from work for a few days.”

  “I think otherwise, and it’s okay to agree to disagree. It’s healthy in a relationship to argue.”

  Karena’s mouth gaped open. He was getting creepier by the day. She could understand his opinion about the Fires and Airs because everyone she knew shared the same opinions. But when it came to her, and him trying to control her life and attempting to hijack her emotional and mental capacities by deciding what she thought and should do, it was alarming.

  She looked at his small, beady eyes, and his carefully combed hair. He was beginning to look more like a rat to her, than a nerdy, caring person in her life. Trying to get through to him that he needed to stop his delusions wasn’t going to be effective. The only way to deal with Tristan was to distance herself from him at work, and to avoid him outside of work because he wasn’t letting go of his fantasies and she had to act now before he decided to take them a step further.

  With his selfish and mental issues, Tristan was singlehandedly destroying the friendship they had all enjoyed. She needed to talk to Captain Valmar, and request that she be permanently switched out from her team to another Earth or Water team on the afternoon shift, or else have Tristan removed. She knew she could probably convince Captain Valmar to have Hadrian come with her into another team, even though those two were at odds at best. It would be a drastic decision, but she had to do it before Tristan got worse.

  “We’re done here,” Karena said, and was about to turn on her heel to leave when she saw the loom of someone approach from her side.

  “Is there something wrong here?” Asher asked.

  Asher stepped forward, joining them. His warmth radiated outwards like heat waves dancing across a road. The tension between Tristan and Asher skyrocketed. Tristan glared at him.

  “No, there’s not, Fire. Go away,” Tristan said, his face becoming red.

  “She’s in my team, so I am responsible for her wellbeing. From a distance, I immediately got the impression that you are causing her undue stress and unease. I must ask you to stop.”

  Tristan snarled. “I would never cause her to feel uncomfortable in my presence,” he said with a knife-like edge, on the verge of losing it.

  Asher walked behind her, to her other side, and sliced through the distance between her and Tristan, challenging him and staking his claim as alpha male. Asher bumped his shoulder into Tristan’s left shoulder on his way back to his table. It was typical guy behavior when there was conflict, though it often didn’t result in violence. Asher dwarfed Tristan in attitude, confidence, muscle, and despite being only an inch taller than Tristan, it appeared like a sizeable difference.

  But Tristan thought he could take him on. Tristan whirled around, and said, “Aireos lorrial sif.”

  A leaping mass of green light bounded towards Asher’s back. People shouted to warn him, as did she. But the spell never reached him. It slammed into some kind of energy field, and the room burst into brightness before returning to normal. Tristan stiffened. He cast his eyes to the ground, and peered to the side. Karena looked too. Captain Valmar was standing not too far away, arms crossed, and clearly not in a good mood. No one had noticed his arrival, as usual when trouble brewed.

  “I’ll overlook Asher’s behavior because he came over to give you the hint that you were bothering Karena,” Captain Valmar said, his voice booming. The muscles underneath his sleeveless shirt bulged, like a cascade of boulders that only looked more mountainous because his arms were crossed.

  “You weren’t here to listen in,” Tristan said. He had lowered his head, but not out of respect or a sense of shame, but to hide the hateful grimace on his face.

  Captain Valmar’s lips curled into a twisted smile that laughed at Tristan. “Basement duty for four days due to aggression and creating a spell to cause harm to another. You may not like the act of goodwill Karena elected to initiate out of her own good nature and strength of character, which I haven’t seen you do or much of anyone here do, but that doesn’t give you license to cause problems. Her choices are her own, and you will not interfere with them. As far as Asher goes, you shouldn’t pick fights with people who can incinerate you in mere seconds. Know when to back down, know your place when it comes to people, and respect others. That’s not asking for too much, is it?”

  Tristan didn’t answer.

  “Five days basement duty.”

  “It’s not asking for too much, Captain Valmar,” Tristan conceded, knowing that Captain Valmar would continue to give him basement duty days if he didn’t answer.

  “Good. Now get to it downstairs. I’ll have to break up your team due to not having a witch or wizard to fill in for your absence.”

  Humiliated, Tristan stormed away. Receiving a talking-to by Captain Valmar was never fun, especially when it happened in front of everyone else.

  “Would anyone else like to test my patience and risk getting fired?” Captain Valmar asked, his eyes scanning the room.

  Hadrian cleared his voice, and Captain Valmar visibly angered.

  “If I see that hand of yours in the air, Hadrian, I’m going to sever it with a butter knife.”

  Captain Valmar scowled at him, daring him to, and Hadrian withered a little under his look.

  Without any more delay, Karena walked to Asher’s table and sat down next to Asher. Blade and Jinx eyed her, but their hostility towards her was gone.

  Captain Valmar briefed them, and handed out the folders. Asher flipped through the one they had been given. There were only three pages to it. Asher raised his hand.

  “There’s only three assignments, and after you get done with them, find something to do as a team until your shift ends,” Captain Valmar said, already knowing what he was going to ask.

  Asher nodded. It was a reward for yesterday’s hard work. Three assignments would take two hours or less. Normally, they had around ten. Though they couldn’t always get ten assignments done in six hours, it was a number to shoot for. The afternoon teams took whatever assignments they hadn’t been able to get to, and whatever Captain Valmar gave in addition to them. Rushing through assignments wasn’t encouraged because it increased the risk of getting hurt on the job, and so, time limits and goals weren’t placed.

  When Captain Valmar was done talking, everyone got up to leave.

  “What’s our first assignment?” Jinx asked.

  Asher leaned over the table more and seemed to reread the report. He said, “Our first assignment is to investigate a dead basilisk in the sewers.”

  “Ewww,” Jinx said, her noise crinkling up.

  With a roll to his eyes, Blade said, “It’s dead, so it’s not like we have to kill it, which would mean we would get really dirty.”

  Asher said, “Something killed it, and they don’t know how or why. It was obviously chasing something in the flood chambers. The flood chambers should be dry until the next rains come. This is just inside of the Air district, sewer hole number forty.”

  “What about the second assignment?” Karena asked. She didn’t like the sewers for all the obvious reasons. She just hoped there wasn’t something even more deadly than a basilisk down there, which might’ve killed it. She had had her fill of dangerous cryptids for at least a month or more.

  “Potato gnomes. They burrowed underneath a house, and now the house’s foundation is collapsing.”

  “They’re such pesky things, and they bite too,” Blade said.

&nbs
p; “They know summer is coming, so they’re making their preparations by digging more tunnels. We should be able to flush them out with heat,” Asher said. “As far as the foundation of the house is concerned, the restoration team will need to come in and work on fixing it.”

  “And the third one?” Jinx said as she tried to pay attention. An Air named Daniel seemed to catch her fancy, who was standing close by as their team chatted about their own assignments.

  “A possible Carrion monkey.”

  They groaned. It was self-explanatory what it was, a monkey that only fed on dead flesh. They were foul smelling creatures.

  After nudging Jinx to get her attention back to their table, Blade asked, “A group of them or just one?”

  “Multiple, either two or four, the homeowner can’t tell. They’re trapped in the attic space. They got in from her house tower’s upper window, which she had left open. She’s had a previous incident where several Carrion monkeys got in.”

  Pests that escaped the first round of extermination were known to return to the place they had previously infested. So it was possible one of the Carrion monkeys was a returning pest, and had brought others with it.

  They got up and left. In the garage, Karena contemplated whether or not to take a motorcycle. She noticed that Asher was headed for the truck. Blade shouted at him that it was his turn to drive the truck. Driving the truck wasn’t as much fun as riding one of the motorcycles. Asher waved Blade off, signaling that it was alright and that he wanted to take the truck. Blade went to get a helmet alongside Jinx. Karena snuck over to the truck and climbed up into the passenger seat.

  When Blade and Jinx were ready, Asher started up the truck and followed them. She fidgeted in her seat. Her thoughts raced back and forth, debating whether to say something or not.

  Unable to handle the emotionally charged silence between them any longer, or her own restlessness, Karena said, “I like the crystal necklace you gave me.”

  “Oh good, I’m glad. I thought they were pretty, and color neutral,” he said, somewhat strained.

  “You do realize those aren’t crystals, right?”

  “They looked like them to me,” Asher replied, guiltily glancing over at her as he drove before gluing his eyes to the road. His fingers massaged themselves into the steering wheel out of nervousness.

  “Mmm-hmmm.”

  “My father has a dragon’s hoard, so it’s not a big deal.”

  “Just one moon diamond would send the Water district into a buzz, and my necklace has five.”

  “I guess you’ll have to wear it where no one will think anything of them.”

  “Ah, I see the hidden agenda now. You gave me something that I can’t openly wear in my home district because of the stir it would create, but around you, I could, because no one would care. Now it all makes sense.”

  Asher tugged at his collar. His eyes darted to her, and flew back to the road ahead of them. Visibly distressed, his neck muscles tightened and he had to swallow hard.

  With childish satisfaction, Karena watched the pressure build inside of him. “I should’ve known that you were up to no good,” she said.

  He pressed the brake a little too hard, and then accelerated to compensate.

  “I can exchange it if you wish. I didn’t mean to make you upset,” he said.

  “No, I like the necklace. I’m not giving it up. And by the way, you’re melting the steering wheel.”

  He checked, and cursed. It was like soft clay in his hands now. She reached over, and touched it with her finger. It cooled down and became solid again.

  “Thank you. I don’t want to get on the bad side of those mechanics,” he said. “These machines are like their babies or something to them.”

  “I know. One time while we were investigating some tracks by a lake, a hydra rose up from the water and dragged the truck into the water. It was eventually retrieved, but it was ruined. The mechanics gave me dirty looks for a month every time I went into the garage.”

  Asher ran a hand through his spiky, obsidian-black hair, and then asked, “So, what’s up with Tristan? He seems passive-aggressive.”

  Her mood soured, but not because of Asher. She said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. I went out on a date with him to give it a shot between the two of us, and now he thinks we are together.”

  “That’s concerning. You called it off, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “I see. He’s one of those stalker types?”

  “I hope not. I need to talk to Captain Valmar about it soon. Either Tristan needs to be permanently switched out, or I need to. I just hope that I can stay with Hadrian because we’re best friends. I don’t think I can deal with Tristan any longer.”

  “If you feel as though you’re not safe around him, then you should talk to Captain Valmar and leave the team or have him leave. Those situations can get dangerous, and they shouldn’t be downplayed. I’ve had my fair share of obsessed women try to pursue me. They will say and do the craziest of things. When it finally gets through to them that I’m not interested, damn do they get angry, especially if they’re a Fire.”

  “I’ve never had much luck with dating, and Tristan only proves it.”

  “Bad luck only lasts for so long before it turns into good luck. I don’t fancy the idea of staying single my entire life, so I try to stay positive. There’s plenty of time still. Life isn’t a race, or a series of milestones that have to be reached in order to be happy.”

  “I agree. I think it’s worth it to wait for the right person to come along.”

  Asher opened his mouth to say something, closed it, but finally asked, “Have you ever had feelings for Hadrian?”

  “He’s like a brother to me. What about you and Jinx?” Karena asked, having sensed and seen the signs that they were close.

  “She’s like a sister to me, though she wishes it was otherwise.”

  “That’s how Hadrian and I feel. It happens.”

  “For a reason I’m sure.”

  “Everything happens for a reason.”

  They turned into the Air district. Houses were typically one to two stories tall, but here, they were three to four stories tall. Though they had considerable height, they were narrow in width and length. The towers that had been built into them stood proud and watchful. Balconies fanned out and lined the houses’ sides. Cupolas popped out from roofs as natural skylights and areas to look out from. Huge windows hogged up as much space as possible, sometimes to the point that the house looked to be made out of glass. Everything was designed to allow maximum air and light in.

  Karena didn’t like the thought of all those flights of stairs, but elevators were slowly making a presence in residences and commercial buildings.

  The Air district shared the same hilly terrain as the Earth district. But the hills were steeper and little valleys nestled in-between them. Houses perched on their crests to enjoy the view.

  Asher slowed the truck down. Up ahead on the road, their lane was blocked off. They approached the coned-off section of road.

  “Sewer hole number forty should be around here, and most likely where those cones are. A city worker will be waiting for us,” Asher informed her.

  Sure enough, they spotted a man in a city’s uniform on the sidewalk. He waved at them. They pulled up behind the coned off area, put their hazard lights on, and got out to greet him.

  “I’ve never seen a fully grown, dead basilisk down there before. First time ever,” the man said, and introduced himself as Rayson. Judging from his leathery, wrinkled skin, he spent a lot of time in the sun.

  “What usually kills them?” Asher asked.

  “Old age, or if they’re younger, a hydra or some other aquatic monster no one knows about will kill them.”

  “We just need our light sources, and then we’ll be good to go,” Asher said, and nodded to Jinx and Blade.

  Karena left to help retrieve the gas lanterns too. Jinx could create spells to illuminate an area, but th
ey needed to make sure they had enough light sources for everyone since no one else was a witch. The sewers were like a spooky basement of an old house. They had their own set of unique problems and cryptids that rarely saw the light of day. They needed to be careful. Hopefully, all that there was down there was a dead carcass, and nothing had come to feed on it yet, like whatever had killed it would naturally do.

  They returned to Asher, and handed him a gas lantern. Rayson went down the manhole first. Karena was last. The rungs of the ladder were slippery and clammy against her palms. She struggled to carry the lantern in one hand, and use the other to descend the metal ladder. Fed up with trying that, she clipped the lantern to her belt and used both of her hands to climb down the ladder. Now she had an easier time. Fermented and spoiled, the unpleasant air grew in rankness. She left the world of sun and open skies for a dark underworld of stone, dampness, and timelessness.

  At the bottom, Rayson retrieved the lantern he had left down there. He held it up. They were in a wide tunnel, and they could hear water rushing somewhere nearby. The light flickered on the arched ceiling where roots had shoved their way through the mortar in-between the bricks. Moss coated the tunnel’s walls. Fungus sprung up from decaying plant and fecal matter that had been carried in there by the sewer rats and other animals. The eyes of the rats glowed. They gnashed their teeth and scurried around, mostly unafraid of them.

  They followed Rayson towards the sound of the water. The air fouled worse than garbage sitting out in the blazing sun, or a cellar full of rotting vegetables. Jinx held her hand against her mouth and nose. Rayson took them across a small bridge that spanned over a fecal-laden river, something Karena hoped she never dipped a toe into.

  They passed over other sewer currents, which were calmer and narrower than the first one they had encountered. The sewer tunnel system was vast. They were obviously at a converging point where all the sewer lines met under the city.