by Alex Steele
I walked to the bookcase and ran my hand over the leather-bound tomes. Most of these books were older than I was. They were preserved with magic so they could be read without damaging them. My father had done it himself every time he added a book to his collection.
The Adventures of Hercules caught my eye and I pulled it off the shelf with a smile. I’d read that book laying on the floor of this very office while my father worked one summer. Slipping it back on the shelf, I felt a strange surge hit the palm of my hand.
I jerked my hand away and rubbed my palm. The ring on my finger was strangely warm, almost hot, though it didn’t burn. I twisted the ring and examined it, unsure if the magic had come from the ring itself, or the bookcase.
Carefully, I pulled half the books off of that shelf and examined the wood. Nothing stood out. There were no runes or markings. I didn’t sense any magic emanating from it either. I glanced down at the ring, then lifted my hand and held it near the shelf.
The ring warmed again and I saw a faint glow in the corner of the shelf. I wouldn’t have seen it with books still on the shelf, it was very well hidden. Going on my instincts, I pressed my hand against the side of the shelf and pushed.
The bookcase...moved. I pressed a little harder and felt the unmistakable shift of magic under my fingers. The ring glowed slightly and I realized it was more than just my family signet. It was a key. With a gentle shove, the bookcase swung in toward what should have been the wall.
Lights sprung to life immediately, illuminating the small space. It was barely large enough to walk into. On a shelf, carved into the stone wall a few feet away, sat a chest about two feet wide. It was made of wood and metal that gleamed dully in the soft lighting. Despite that, I had a sense that it was very old.
I tested the door to make sure it wouldn’t swing shut as soon as I stepped in the little room, then walked over to the chest. Delicate patterns –– engraved and inlaid with gold leaf –– adorned the lid, extending over the side in a V-shaped pattern. There was no visible lock.
I passed my hands over the top and edges of the chest, being careful not to touch it. It seemed completely devoid of magic, which surprised me. My father wasn't one to collect prosaic items, and if he'd built a secret room, surely the chest and whatever was in it was important.
Tentatively, I poked the chest. Nothing happened. I poked it harder, but it didn't move or react in any other way. Whatever was in there was heavy though.
"Well, guess it won't blow up," I muttered to myself.
I grabbed the lid and tried to open it, but it didn't budge. Bracing myself, I tried prying it open from two different directions, but all I had to show for it when I was done were sore arms.
After that, I tried picking it up, but it was too heavy. I'd have to get Swift to try eventually if I couldn't open it.
I could use magic and force it open, but I was hesitant to. It could damage it, or whatever my father had stored in it. There had to be some kind of a key. The ring had let me in here, so it was likely tied to my family line in some way.
I turned back to the door and examined the back of it. There were extensive runes carved into the wood.
They had been done by hand with broad, rough strokes as though whoever had cast them had been in a rush.
Frowning, I traced one. Both of my parents were meticulous about their magic. They didn't cast carelessly or draw messy runes. Perhaps, if they'd been in a rush, they would have sacrificed their usual technique.
That made me wonder if he had created this right before he'd been killed. Had the chest been in here before? Was he worried about it being taken? I dropped my hand and stared at the markings, the last question pounding in my head.
Had he known he was going to die?
Six
The Rune Rail swayed gently and I leaned my head back against the headrest. Swift had texted me early this morning that she had figured something out, and asked me to meet her at the office. So, I was up an hour earlier than I needed to be.
I picked up my phone and texted Swift to let her know I was about to arrive in Moira, and that she better have my matcha latte. If she wanted me there at this hour, caffeine was mandatory.
I received an alert that she’d replied right away, but when I opened the message, it was just letters and numbers garbled together. That was odd. Swift was as anal about spelling as she was about following the rules.
Glancing around the train, I noticed a few other people frowning at their phones. Signal issues happened occasionally while on the Rune Rail. One couldn’t expect technology to work perfectly while wrapped up in this much magic.
My skin tingled as the train slowed and the familiar wave of magic passed through the train car. I shuddered slightly as I rose from my seat. The crowd shifted as everyone lined up to exit on both sides of the Rune Rail.
I yawned, covering my mouth with the back of my hand. Maybe I should stop on the way and get something to drink just in case Swift had ignored me. After a moment, I noticed a nervous energy in the crowd. That’s when I realized the doors hadn’t opened.
The person closest to the exit looked around as if to check that they weren't crazy, then tugged on the door in an attempt to make it slide open.
"What's going on?" A woman a few people behind me asked.
"The doors aren't opening. They should have by now, right?" Someone else asked.
"Let me look at it, I'm an IMIB detective," I said as I pushed forward, squeezing past someone. The guy directly in front of the door moved to the side to give me room. Nothing was wedged in it, or in its way. There were no alarms going off. The doors should have opened.
The whole Rune Rail shuddered slightly. Someone behind me screamed, but it was quickly cut off.
“Scoot back,” I warned, motioning for everyone to squeeze against the other side of the Rune Rail. Everyone’s eyes were wide with fear. The Rune Rail had never been late. Never broken down. And definitely hadn’t ever trapped everyone inside like a faulty elevator. Something was really wrong.
I drew my katana, flipped it around, and wedged the length of the blade in the door. A normal, prosaic sword would break or dull with such treatment, but I knew mine wouldn’t.
Putting all my weight behind it, I pulled the handle to one side and twisted. The door groaned under the assault. I adjusted my grip and pushed harder, putting a little magic into it.
With a loud screech, the doors snapped open so hard the entire car shook and I fell back, just barely catching my footing. A wave of heat hit me through the now open doors.
The entire platform was on fire.
I stepped out of the car and cast a quick shield behind me to protect the open door. "Everyone stay where you are!"
The crowd pressed back against the other side of the car, trying to stay away from the fire, and the danger. People were screaming in the distance, but the immediate vicinity was deathly quiet.
On the platform directly across from me was another rail car. The sleek metal frame was bent, twisted, and blackened from the flames still burning inside of it. All of the damage indicated that whatever had done this, had been inside of the rail car itself. Long strips of metal curved backward as though they had been clawed through.
My mind could barely process what I was seeing. I had no idea what had started the fire, but it didn't appear to be here anymore. At least, not that I could see.
It had left bodies in its wake though. Men, women, and children lay scattered on the concrete floor of the platform. The smell of burning flesh filled my nose and I had to swallow down the need to vomit.
I crept forward with my katana in hand, following the trail of destruction. Halfway down the platform was a ring of smoldering fire. The ground itself had been scorched and blackened. In the center of the ring lay a woman in bright, silvery armor. Her wings, once perfectly white, were charred and broken.
“That’s not possible,” I whispered as I ran forward, dropping to one knee next to her.
The valkyrie's lon
g, blonde hair was flecked with blood. Her eyes were vacant. I checked for a pulse even though I knew it was pointless. Her skin was cold and her heart wasn't beating. She was dead.
That shouldn't be possible. The valkyrie were as good as unbeatable. If something could kill one of them, then what could it do to Moira?
A flash of light blinded me. I threw my arm up in front of my face and squeezed my eyes shut. A foot hit my arm, knocking me back a few feet. I slid to a stop and jumped back to my feet, drawing my katana.
“Don’t touch my sister, you filthy mage!”
Another valkyrie in full battle gear stood over the one I’d found. She was wreathed in light so bright I could barely look at her. Her magic pounded against my mind like a drum. How could anyone hurt, much less kill, a creature this powerful?
“What killed her?” I asked, keeping my distance.
She ignored me completely as she knelt next to her sister. With careful movements, she slid her arms under the other valkyrie’s shoulders and legs and picked her up.
“Please, let me help you! Who attacked Moira?” I asked again, desperate for answers. This shouldn’t have been possible.
The valkyrie finally turned her cold eyes to me. “It’s none of your concern.”
With a flash of light, they both disappeared, leaving me alone in the blackened ring.
Seven
I was furious. There had to be at least a hundred people dead on this platform, and all that stuck up bird woman had to say was ‘none of your concern’. I hurried toward the damaged Rune Rail to search for survivors or any further threats.
A quick glance at my phone confirmed that I still had no signal, so I couldn't call for backup. The fact that the place wasn't already swarming with IMIB agents and magisters worried me. It's possible they were still under attack outside of the Rune Rail station.
The people that I had shared a Rune Rail with were still huddled inside the car behind the shield. It didn't seem right to leave them there alone, but if no one showed up in the next few minutes, I'd have to go and see how bad the damage was outside. They weren't completely defenseless. After all, you had to have magic in your blood to even enter Moira, but being able to use magic didn't make you a warrior.
Quick footsteps echoed through the platform, cutting through the unnatural silence. I carefully looked through the mangled sides of the Rune Rail. Three magisters ran down the stairs, their dark robes flowing around them. Their magic was fully unbound and fire danced around their hands.
I stepped out with my hands up so as not to startle them. "I'm an IMIB agent, what the hell is going on?"
"Is it still here?" the tallest one demanded. He was clearly the most powerful of the three and wore an insignia on his robes that denoted his rank within the guild as Marshal. It took years to reach that level, and it couldn't be obtained by who you knew, you had to be powerful in your own right. It made sense that the Mage's Guild would send out a team with a mage like that on it. Whatever had attacked the Rune Rail was more than just powerful, they were deadly.
"Is what still here? I didn't see anything, everyone was dead when our Rune Rail arrived," I said, gesturing toward it. I almost added on that I'd seen a valkyrie as well, but something told me to hold that little piece of information back.
"Spread out and keep searching," the apparent leader of the trio ordered. They brushed past me with as little concern as the valkyrie.
"Is it safe to get these people out of here?" I shouted after them. I was tempted to follow them, but someone had to get these people to safety, and I needed to know how bad the damage was outside of the Rune Rail.
The leader paused and looked back at me. "That's the IMIB's job to decide, not ours."
I ground my teeth together and decided that the next person to refuse to give me a straight answer was going to get beheaded. I jogged back to the train car I'd arrived on and cautioned everyone to stay put until I had back up to escort them to safety.
The escalator that led to the upper levels had been crushed and mangled. One side of the staircases looked usable, but I would have to climb one section. I sheathed my katana and made my way up as quickly as I could.
Every platform I passed had been damaged, though some not as badly. Whatever had attacked the Rune Rail seemed to have done the most damage where it arrived, then simply made its way up, toward Moira itself.
I picked up my pace, fear and sick anticipation giving me speed. If it could do this much damage here, in the most protected part of Moira, I could only imagine what it could do to the city itself.
Finally, I reached the top level of the Rune Rail which merged into Moira. The area immediately outside the Rune Rail was just as damaged. The shops closest to the platform were completely demolished. Whatever had attacked had been large. One of the shops had what looked like a crater in the side of it. Water spewed from a broken pipe near the top of the building which had put out the fire, but the rest of the buildings were still smoldering.
That same blackened ring I'd seen on the platform was here too, only it was bigger. The ground inside the ring was torn up as if something had clawed at it. Just beyond it, however, the damage abruptly stopped. The valkyrie must have finally defeated it here, but there was no body.
At the edge of the damage, I saw a line of magisters that looked like they were holding back a crowd. The sounds of an argument drifted through the destruction, including a voice I recognized.
"You're going to let me through, or I'm going to beat your face into the ground," Swift shouted, shoving the magister back so hard he almost fell over. The magisters were blocking the group of IMIB agents she'd brought with her. Her magic flared visibly around her. That was not a good sign for them. "You have no right to try and keep the IMIB out of any area of Moira, much less the scene of an attack!"
"Attacking a magister is a serious offense," one of the black-robed magisters tried to argue.
"Enough," someone said, stepping around Swift. I recognized her instantly, as did the magister.
Director Renee Harland was a steely-eyed woman who'd quickly risen through the ranks of the Mage's Guild during the Mage Wars. She'd been appointed as the Director of the IMIB about ten years after it was founded and had a reputation for getting things done. She'd kept the IMIB and the Mage's Guild working together for as long as she'd been in charge, and as far as I was concerned, that was an amazing feat. "Get your people the hell out of our way. We're on the same side here."
The magister moved aside without further argument. She began shouting orders to the IMIB agents with her and they flowed down toward the Rune Rail, each of them armed to the teeth with their magic at the ready.
"Swift!" I shouted, jogging toward the group.
She looked up at the sound of her name, and the energy crackling around her faded. She jogged toward me, meeting me halfway, then punched me in the shoulder, hard.
"Damnit Blackwell, I thought you were dead."
"Ow! Are you sure you weren't hoping I was dead?" I asked, rubbing at my now bruised arm.
"What happened?" she asked, looking relieved but not the least bit apologetic.
"I don't know, when I arrived, the platform was on fire and everyone was already dead. What happened up here?"
She shook her head. "No clue. We started getting emergency calls, but they were all cut off abruptly. By the time anyone got here, it looked like this."
"Did the Mage's Guild get here first?"
"Yes, but only by a few minutes," she said, glancing at one of the magisters talking to Director Harland. Another car arrived and Chief Bradley jumped out, hurrying over to her side.
I stopped one of the lower ranked IMIB agents running past us. "There are people waiting in the undamaged Rune Rail car on level eight coming from London. Grab a few more agents, then escort them somewhere safe. Got it?"
He nodded and hurried off to do as ordered.
"How bad is it everywhere else?" I asked.
"There's no damage past this point. Abs
olutely none."
I rubbed my hand over my jaw. This attack didn't make sense. My brain simply couldn't accept it. "What could do this?"
Swift barked out a laugh. "Thirty minutes ago, I would have said nothing."
I looked around at the devastation. "Do you think Fate could do something like this?"
She paused at that. "We don't know what he can do. Manipulating what we can see doesn't mean he can destroy things, why else would he want or need people to act for him?"
I shook my head and stared blankly at the damage. This was a disaster. I spotted someone near the edge of the damage that, for a split second, I thought was Yui, but she disappeared as soon as I looked directly at her.
“You texted me earlier that you had figured something out on that drug ring case. What was it?” I asked, as we walked around the edge of the perimeter, surveying the damage.
“Oh, right. I’d completely forgotten,” she said, rubbing her eyes tiredly. “I was messing with that little white orb we found on the guy and made some progress. It has some magic stored inside it, but it also seems to be able to receive a faint signal. A magical signal.”
“So someone could control it remotely?”
She shrugged. “Theoretically? It’s hard to say exactly without seeing it in action. It’s capable of it, but I couldn’t tell you what kind of signal it would receive, or how it would cause the device to react.”
“The tech was sure it wouldn’t blow up, right?”
“Yeah, and I’m sure too. It’s not capable of doing any damage. It’s just...” her words faded off and she stopped walking.
“What?” I asked, looking around with concern. The devastation here was just as bad as everywhere else, but I didn’t see anything that would cause her stop like that.
“The Edge,” she whispered.
I followed her hand to where she was pointing and my heart stopped. The force field, always thought to be impenetrable, was cracked.
