by Zen DiPietro
“I’m serious.”
“So am I. I did some serious networking. Trawling the seamy underbelly of Sanctuary.”
She sent him a look that she hoped was truly withering. “Sanctuary has no seamy underbelly.”
“Lots of weirdos though. It’s always the weirdos.”
“We are the weirdos. In a good way, of course,” she added.
“Now that you mention it, you have always seemed strange to me. I didn’t want to say anything, but . . . ”
This was getting her nowhere. As her conversations with Night usually did. “Night. I mean it. How did you come across this?”
He rolled his eyes, as if she were being ridiculous. “I’ve been doing some networking among my friends in the industry. It took some effort. This stuff isn’t mainstream. Very few people know anything about it.”
Which was a good thing, in Élan’s opinion, given what she knew. But since Night wasn’t officially involved, she felt uncomfortable discussing specifics about sparkle. She needed to find out what he knew without divulging more than she had to.
“Eventually, I was able to connect with someone who had the stuff.”
“Who was it?”
“Nik Greer.”
Only one of the biggest music producers in the industry. Recording, video, movies, and many other things—the man did it all. He was powerful in the industry, had tons of money, and bards generally hated him. At least, they did now. Back in the day, he’d been a genuine fan of music and a friend to many bards. But once he’d gotten a taste of success, he’d kept striving. Élan felt somewhat responsible for that. It was her “Realms” song that had been his first breakthrough success, after all.
“You talked to Nik? And he gave you that stuff? Why?” The skin on the back of her neck felt itchy with the thought of Night getting involved with that guy.
“Because I’m a big deal in the music world, and he wanted to please me,” he said without a trace of hubris.
“But why did you go to lengths to track this stuff down?”
“Because you’re interested in it.”
That stunned her into silence. He didn’t even know what all this was about. He hadn’t prodded her for any details, in spite of all the tantalizing things he’d seen and heard lately. He’d simply backed her up and, apparently, tracked the stuff down for her. For the first time, she gave some serious weight to what Coco had said. Her friend might just be right. Élan had considered the idea of Night being in love with her, but every time she tried to imagine being with him, she couldn’t. How could they ever work as a couple? She didn’t even understand him half the time.
She ran her fingers over the vial. Even though she knew she wouldn’t get a straight answer, she had to ask.
“Why does it matter so much to you that I’m interested in it? Why go to all that effort?”
“It’s clearly important. Not just to you, but to a justice.”
A straight answer, after all. Amazing.
“And because I love you,” he added.
She froze, then her gaze lifted from the tube up to his face. He looked perfectly calm, as though he’d merely asked for the time. He must mean friendly love. They’d said that kind of thing before, just as she and Coco had. But she wanted to know for sure.
“What do you mean by that?”
He frowned at her. “You don’t know what it means when a man says he loves you?”
Wait, wait, wait. The way he said “a man” seemed significant. She felt the whole situation turning amorphous and sliding away from her.
“When a man has said that to me in the past,” she said carefully, “it has meant that he was in love with me.”
A slow, sexy smile spread across his face. “So you do know.”
“Are you saying you’re in love with me?”
“Repeatedly. Try to keep up.”
“Why didn’t you ever say it before?”
“You never asked.”
“A girl doesn’t usually have to ask that sort of thing. A guy usually just offers it on his own.”
He said nothing, and she found herself with nothing to say in reply. They stood there staring at each other.
Finally, he stepped forward. He reached out, taking her hand gently in his. He folded her fingers around the tube, which she’d been rolling back and forth furiously. She snapped back to reality.
“You need to get this to wherever it needs to go. Your shiv friend, maybe,” he suggested.
“Right.” Because he was right. She felt like she should deal with what he’d just told her, but he was giving her the chance to not talk about it just yet. Like a coward, she took it. “I need to go take care of this.”
“Good.” He nodded his approval.
She peered at him, wondering what he was thinking. Was he as ambivalent about her response as he seemed? This was why a relationship with him would be impossible. In spite of the fact that he’d just told her exactly where she stood with him, she still felt completely at a loss.
She reached up to him and he bent down so she could hug him. He smelled good, like fresh-cut wood and musk. She kissed his cheek. “Thank you,” she murmured.
His arms stayed around her just a beat too long, then he rose to his feet and smiled. “Always, sweet one.”
Even the most carefully laid plans do not always play out in the intended manner. Kassimeigh had intended to spend the rest of the day at the keep, but a call from Luc had her kiting her way to the Capital.
“We’ve replicated the powder,” Luc explained as soon as she stepped into the lab. “It’s a clever design. A mix of synthetic and natural elements, forced with heat to chemically bond. Simple, once you sort it all out. But a clever concept.”
Kassimeigh circled around the lab table, which stood several inches higher than would a regular table. She studied the large cylindrical beaker that held the powder.
“Is it expensive to manufacture?”
Finn started to shake his head, then aborted the gesture and replaced it with a shrug. “The materials are inexpensive and easy to acquire. The process requires exposure to high heat for a very specific amount of time. That means access to fairly expensive equipment.”
“Hm.” She reached out and slowly rotated the beaker, peering at it. “Is it dangerous to touch the powder?”
“No,” Finn answered. “The powder itself is innocuous. Once it’s charged with mana, a tiny bit of it could possibly be absorbed through the skin. But it would be negligible, if any at all.”
She could sense that the white powder in the beaker had not been charged. “Have you been successful in charging it?”
Luc nodded. “It’s the same as charging a mana cell, though on a minute scale. It takes almost no effort.”
That meant that anyone with any ability at all to hold mana could do it. Disappointing, as it did not present them with the limited suspect list she’d hoped for.
“Mind if I charge this lot?” She nodded at the beaker.
They both shook their heads. She harnessed a small amount of mana and focused it with laserlike precision. The powder accepted a tiny fraction of what she’d harnessed, and she sensed that it was full. Trying to force more into it would overcharge it, just as a mana cell could be overcharged. She released the rest of the mana she held back into the atmosphere.
Luc anticipated her next question. “If you overcharge it, you’re likely to break one of the chemical bonds holding it together, causing it to turn into a pale, sandy substance. It becomes unable to hold any mana, and the mana, of course, is released.”
“Then this is exactly the same as the original sample we obtained from Kett?”
“Precisely. Identical in every way.” Finn nodded with satisfaction.
This was significant progress, but did not seem like sufficient reason to call her here. The science part of things was their specialty, not hers. There had to be more. “You’re ready to try it out, then. You want me to bring Kett here.”
“Will that b
e a problem?” Luc asked.
“No. I’ve brought him on board with us, and I think we can trust him. He was dismayed to find that this sparkle powder had killed people, and he genuinely wanted to help. Plus, he has no wish to get on the wrong side of the shiv order.”
“I bet,” Luc remarked drily.
“You’ve seen to the safety precautions?”
Luc nodded. “Azure will assist us.”
Kassimeigh knew that they could trust Azure, so that was good. Azure was also an accomplished transmuter, which would put Kett in the best medical hands possible.
There was only one thing she needed to know. “When?”
On her way to Sanctuary, Kassimeigh received a call from Élan. She found a discreet place to set down the kite so that she could answer it. Flying and talking on her hand comm were not the safest combination.
Élan seemed pleased that Kassimeigh would arrive in Sanctuary in less than ten minutes, and they made plans to meet at the shiv quarters. Kassimeigh would talk to her before Kett was due at the same location.
When Kassimeigh arrived, Élan had already seated herself in the dining room. The bard immediately launched into her recent discovery.
Though Kassimeigh was pleased at the unexpected development, she felt unsettled about Nik Greer’s involvement. It might be that he had received the powder as innocently as Kett, but based on what Élan related, she suspected that Greer had sought the stuff out for the purpose of presenting it to Night. If that were true, it could mean that he had a direct connection to the source of the sparkle.
Kassimeigh didn’t know Greer. She’d need to investigate him thoroughly. After she took Kett to the lab.
She thanked Élan and saw her out before Kett arrived. She made a mental note that after this investigation concluded, she’d need to do something nice for Élan, as an official thank-you for her help. Kassimeigh doubted she would have made half as much progress without Élan’s assistance.
She frowned at the tube in her hand. She wondered if it would be identical to the first sample they had, or if there would be some variability from batch to batch. Figuring that out would be up to Luc and Finn. Which was good. She had enough to handle.
As she slipped the vial into her pocket, the door chimed. That would be Kett, she was sure. The shiv quarters received few visitors.
She answered the door. Instead of ushering Kett in, she led him to her kite behind the quarters. He came to a stop when she stepped onto it.
“We’re . . . taking that?”
“Yes. Did Élan tell you about my kite?”
“Ye-es,” he answered, stretching the word out into two uncertain syllables. “And of course there’s chatter on the comm about it from time to time. I just hadn’t realized I’d be riding on it.”
“After all this is over, it will be a great story to tell your friends,” she offered, as encouragement.
“Right. Great story.” He wore a distinctly dubious expression. He still hadn’t stepped on.
“It’s perfectly safe. I’ll keep the speed down for you, and I’ll buffer you against the g-forces and wind. It won’t be much different than a ride on the monorail.”
“Except I’ll be sitting on a board, flying in the air.”
“Yes. Except for that. Now, if you’ll take your seat?” She indicated the molded seat next to hers before sitting down.
He muttered something under his breath, then took a step forward and sat. She nodded with approval.
“No standing until we’ve landed. And no dropping things to the ground below. Ready?”
“As ready as I’m getting.” He gripped the sides of his seat and tensed.
She ripped a big swath of mana from the atmosphere around her and pushed it into a tight ball inside her. Flying the kite took a great deal of mana.
She buoyed the kite up, with barely any sensation of movement. Once she’d gained her desired cruising altitude, she propelled them forward, with an almost imperceptible acceleration.
She gradually got them up to speed, but kept their velocity far below what she’d use while traveling alone. She didn’t want to freak Kett out, but it made for a boring ride. She much preferred speed. Anything short of breaking the sound barrier. Doing so made for a rough ride. More than even she cared for, so she reserved that kind of travel for emergency use only.
After the first few minutes, Kett began to relax. By the time they flew into Capital and landed on the roof of the lab, his posture had softened into a more tranquil shape.
She stepped off the kite. Kett was slower to rise and walk.
“Everyone has rubbery legs after the first flight,” she assured him, and he returned a grateful smile.
“Glad it’s not just me. But after I got used to it, it started to be fun.”
“Ahh, you’re in the club, then. Some grow to love it, while others want nothing to do with it.” She smiled.
She led him through the roof entrance and down to the lab on the top floor. Luc and Finn stood at the same table as last time. They turned when she and Kett entered.
She made quick introductions, handed over the sample that Élan had given her, and then turned over the proceedings to the two scientists.
“Azure will be here momentarily,” Luc told them. “Call of nature. Once she’s here, we’ll be ready to go.” He focused his full attention on Kett. “Do you understand our purpose, and the risk you take by inhaling sparkle? I want to be entirely certain that you know what you’re volunteering for. This is a purely volunteer mission. You are by no means required to do this.”
To his credit, Kett showed no signs of being intimidated by Luc’s sharp tone and rapid-fire speech. “Kassimeigh explained it to me, and yes, I do understand. I volunteered because I want to help. I don’t want any more people to get hurt by this stuff.”
Luc gave a single sharp nod. “Good. I wanted to be sure that this one—” he pointed an accusing finger at Kassimeigh, “—hadn’t scared you into agreeing.”
Kett blinked and looked from Luc to Kassimeigh. She could see his bemusement and uncertainty. She chuckled.
“Don’t listen to him,” she advised. “I rarely intimidate people on purpose.”
Kett’s expression smoothed and he smiled, seeming to pick up on the teasing between her and Luc.
“I generally just kill them. Or don’t.” She shrugged casually.
Kett’s smile froze and his brow furrowed.
She laughed, and even Luc barked out a guffaw. Finn shook his head and smirked.
“I’m kidding,” she reassured Kett.
“Right.” He did not look convinced.
It seemed not everyone was ready for a justice with a macabre sense of humor.
“Oh, good, you’re here,” a familiar voice said from the doorway.
They all turned to see Azure walking toward them. She wore her customary green medical scrubs.
“I’m Azure Keating.” She offered her hand to Kett. “I’m a manahi doctor, and will be monitoring you throughout this procedure, both with my mana and with instrumentation. I’ll take good care of you.”
Kett nodded. He didn’t seem frightened, merely determined. He’d already earned some of Kassimeigh’s respect during his adjudication, but he continued to rise in her estimation.
Azure guided him to a bio-bed and had him lie down. Kassimeigh was impressed with the setup. The last time she’d been here, the room had no such equipment. A bio-bed was a highly sensitive instrument that took a great deal of time and skill to install.
The bed was a sleek affair, in spite of its multitude of technologies and functions. Kassimeigh judged it to be about twice the width of the average person, and long enough for a very tall person. The lightly padded bed could adjust to allow many positions, from sitting to lying to elevating the legs. The control panel, situated above the head of the patient, had a large interface through which the doctor could run multiple functions simultaneously. A bio-bed served both diagnostic and therapeutic uses. To the le
ft side, a variety of additional apparatus lay ready. At the moment, none of the peripherals were attached.
Azure stood at the controls, attuning the sensors to Kett’s specific biofeedback. Though Kassimeigh knew she need not be present for the test, she chose to stay. She felt personally responsible for Kett’s being here. Her sense of duty compelled her to remain and watch over him.
After ten minutes of adjustments, Azure nodded. “We’re ready.” She lifted her gaze and looked expectantly toward Luc and Finn. “Nice bio-bed, by the way. This is the newest model.”
Finn smiled. “We bought it for this particular purpose. Our previous one was two years old, and it was time to upgrade anyway. This gave us a good reason to do so.”
Azure’s attention focused on him, and she smiled back. Kassimeigh thought she saw a spark of interest, as though Azure had just noticed that Finn was not only the head of the lab, but also a good-looking man near her own age. Interesting.
“Good.” Azure gave a crisp nod. “If you’ll administer the substance?”
Luc picked up a small, flat dish with a vial of sparkle inside and carried it to Kett. He handed it over. “Just do whatever it was you did before.”
Kett frowned at the dish in his hands. “I feel strange about doing this, now that I know it’s dangerous. And with all of you watching me besides.” He attempted a smile, but merely looked pained.
“Oh, well. For science.” He set the dish on his lap and measured a capful of powder. He dropped the sparkle into the palm of his other hand, then brought it to his face. With a sharp inhalation, the powder disappeared. He sniffled and lay back on the bio-bed. Luc removed the vial and the dish.
“I only tried it twice, but both times, it took a few minutes for me to feel anything,” Kett said.
“Don’t worry about it,” Azure said. “I’m watching everything happening in your body right now. From time to time, I’ll check in with you. Otherwise, just relax.”
Kett nodded and squirmed a little, getting more comfortable on the bio-bed, which lay nearly flat, with a small incline for his head.
Kassimeigh watched Azure, but the doctor’s intense expression revealed nothing. She wanted to ask questions about what Azure saw on the monitors, but she’d have to save them for later.
