by Alex Steele
“Who else contacted you?” Swift asked with a frown.
Yamashita shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. I ignored their messages. They claimed to worship a god, though they didn’t say which one.”
“I think we’ve kept you up too long,” I said, taking note of her increasingly pale face. I needed to talk to Swift alone anyhow. Yamashita had been helpful, but she didn’t know what was attacking Moira either. “There’s a spare room you can sleep in tonight.”
“Alright. I don’t suppose I have anywhere else to go.” She didn’t look happy about that, but at least she wasn’t demanding to leave. Hopefully she’d show common sense and not try to flee in the middle of the night. The wards wouldn’t let her out anyhow –– especially with whatever Bootstrap had done to them –– but it’d be annoying.
We escorted her up to a spare room near mine. Having her close felt like the safer option. Once she was settled, Swift and I headed to my father’s office so we could talk privately.
Swift shut the door softly behind her. “What are you thinking?”
“That we’ve been ignoring someone that knows a lot more than they want to admit,” I said, tapping my fingers restlessly against my other arm where they were crossed.
“Who?”
“Yui.”
Twenty-Eight
“I know you’re here somewhere, guardian,” I shouted as I paced through the north wing of the Manor. Swift and I had split up, each taking a section of the Manor. She’d volunteered to look through the damaged wing, which I had readily agreed to.
I jogged up the staircase at the end of the hall which led to the long gallery on the top floor. The eastern side of the hall is lined solely with windows. During the day it’s filled with light, but tonight only moonlight lit the way. The opposing wall is filled with artistic drawings of runes. A piece of the rune is always removed in order to keep it from being made active, and was a popular form of art three centuries ago.
There are a few rooms up here, all empty. They hadn’t even been used when my parents were still alive. I neared the end of the hall and peeked into one of the rooms, but Yui wasn’t in it. Sighing, I turned around to leave and almost jumped out of my skin.
“Dammit, Yui. Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
“Weren’t you looking for me?” she asked before shoving an Oreo in her mouth and chewing noisily. She was wearing some kind of pink velour jumpsuit with her hair in a bun on top of her head. It wasn’t her best look.
I glared at her. “Yeah, for almost half an hour.”
She shrugged. “First you want me to go away and leave you alone, then you want me around. You’re very hot and cold. Do you do this to your girlfriends too? Is this why you’re single?”
I had to bite my tongue to keep from responding how I wanted to. I needed Yui to cooperate for once. With a sigh, I texted Swift where we were, then crossed my arms and settled my gaze on my supposed guardian.
She ate another Oreo, completely unconcerned with my inner turmoil.
“I need answers.”
“Oh?” She licked the Oreo crumbs off her fingers, then dug into the package for a third cookie.
“You were in Moira after the latest attack. I saw you.” It had only been a glimpse, but my gut was telling me it had been her.
Yui shrugged. “You were a little close for comfort. I do have to keep you alive, after all.”
“Did you know it was going to happen beforehand?”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not psychic.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger and took another deep breath. “Then how’d you know I was in danger?”
“The bond we share as guardian and helpless mage warns me when you’re in mortal danger. I only show up if it seems really dire though, since you are so insistent on being independent.” Her bright eyes flicked to mine and she looked particularly judgmental about that, as if she was insulted.
“Do you know who is behind these attacks?”
She sighed. “This isn’t even your case. Why can’t you chase down those drug dealer’s instead?”
“Yui, just answer the question.”
“No.”
I opened my mouth to argue when she snapped her fingers. The cookies vanished and magic flowed over her, changing her outfit. The pink velour was gone –– thank God –– but it was replaced with something almost more disturbing. An over the top school-girl outfit. It was both cute and...uncomfortably revealing. The whole look was just wrong.
“I won’t answer them for free. You’ll have to win your answers.” She smiled, showing teeth that looked just a little too sharp for comfort. So much for cute.
I shuddered slightly. “What do you mean?”
“Saisho wa guu!” She held out a closed fist and grinned at me. “One question per game of janken, and if you lose, you don’t get to ask that question again.”
Janken was the Japanese version of rock, paper, scissors. However, even adults in Japan still played the game to solve disputes. I was good at it, but I wasn’t sure I was good enough to beat a trickster. It didn’t look like I had much of a choice.
“And if there is a tie?”
She looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged. “You can try that question again. Once.”
“Do you promise to answer the questions I win truthfully?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. There was no way I was taking a chance with a trickster on letting her find a loophole.
She smirked at me. “Yes.”
Swift appeared at the end of the hallway and headed toward us.
“And she gets to be the judge,” I said, thrusting my thumb at my partner.
Yui narrowed her eyes at me.
“Judge of what?” Swift ask, stopping beside me.
“Janken. Yui will only answer a question if I win a round.”
Swift raised a brow. “Isn’t that a kid’s game?”
“It is an honorable game that tests the skill of the players, pushing them to the very limits of their intelligence.” Yui smirked. “Of which Blackwell has very little, so it may be a short game.
Swift turned to me. “You better win.”
Cracking my knuckles loudly, I nodded. “Don’t worry, I will.”
“Ask your first question then,” Yui said, shaking her fist once.
This was a pivotal moment. The first play of janken was always hardest. You had to blindly guess whether your opponent would throw rock, paper, or scissors first. We both had the same disadvantage –– assuming she wasn’t cheating somehow.
I had several very important questions, but I was wary to start with any of them.
Based on the smug look on her face, I had a feeling she thought she knew what I'd throw. I could try to throw the choice to beat that, but it was risky. Trying for a tie was safer if my guess was wrong.
“Saisho wa guu!” I held my closed fist out in front of hers.
"Ask your question," Yui said, watching me intently.
"How old are you?"
Her eyebrows shot up in surprise and Swift looked like she wanted to strangle me. I actually did want the answer to the question though. If she was as old as I suspected, she might know even more than I hoped.
In unison, we said, "Janken pon!", then threw our choices.
We both chose paper and a smile slid across my lips.
"Tie!" Swift announced, a smile replacing her annoyed expression. She hated losing just as much as I did.
"Same question." I had a feel for Yui now. It was time to play for keeps.
Yui narrowed her eyes in annoyance but nodded.
"Janken pon!"
She chose rock, I chose paper again.
"Blackwell wins," Swift said smugly.
Sighing dramatically, she crossed her arms. "I'm seven hundred thirty years, three months, and fifteen days old. Next question."
Not quite as old as I'd hoped, but older than my parents, and old enough to have been active during the Mage Wars. S
he wasn't quite as old as Master Hiko though. Not that he or Sakura had ever admitted to their age.
"What god do you serve?"
Yui's already annoyed expression turned sour and she bared her teeth as she thrust her fist toward me.
"Janken pon!"
I threw scissors. She threw rock.
Swift scowled at me. "Yui wins."
"I'll answer that one for free," Yui snarled. "I serve no one. Next question."
So far, all my suspicions were confirmed. It was time to ask something I didn't know.
"Who are Fate's enemies?"
Swift shifted on her feet. This was an important one and she looked nervous as Yui and I extended our fists. Unlike the last, the kitsune didn't look nervous or angry at this question.
"Janken pon!"
Yui threw rock. I threw paper.
"Blackwell wins!" Swift said excitedly, magic sparking at the corners of her eyes as she grinned.
Yui's face was blank, neither excited nor angry. I had expected more of a reaction simply because she had lost. This reaction actually worried me a little.
"I can only tell you what I know for sure, anything more could prove to be a lie, and I'd hate to break the rules," she said, brushing a loose lock of hair behind her ear. "Chaos and Ares are the enemies of Fate. Many gods and...other beings fear him, including the Allfather, Zeus."
"Zeus is real?" Swift asked, awe evident in her voice.
Yui rolled her eyes. "That's what you're surprised about?"
I held my fist out. "I have another question."
"Make it good. I'm tiring of this game," Yui said with an aggrieved sigh.
“Does the Mage’s Guild serve Fate?”
A muscle in Yui’s jaw jumped as she ground her teeth together. She held out her fist.
"Janken pon!"
I threw scissors. She threw rock again.
Swift frowned. “Yui wins.”
“Tough luck, Blackwell,” Yui said with a sweet, but entirely fake, smile. “Hopefully we don’t get in trouble for this little game.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, suddenly suspicious.
“Oh, nothing.” Yui wiggled her fingers at us in a wave, then turned around and walked off, fading into the shadows at the end of the hallway.
As soon as she was out of sight, Swift said, “Her reaction makes me think the answer to that last question was yes.”
“Agreed. It also worries me how reluctant she is to answer questions. It could be because she's a trickster at heart, but I think there's more to it than that.”
Swift sighed. “I hope not, but you're probably right.”
Twenty-Nine
It was the middle of the night, but I couldn't sleep. Swift had gone to bed a half hour ago, deciding to stay in one of the spare bedrooms instead of going back to her apartment.
Slipping quietly out of my room, I headed toward my father's office. If sleep wasn't an option, then I might as well put the time to good use.
The question of how to access the chest in my father's office hadn't stopped nagging at me. I unlocked the secret room and walked in, shutting the door behind me.
A ball of light jumped from the palm of my hand and floated near the door. The hastily scrawled runes were another mystery, and the more I thought about it, possibly the best clue I had. They were out of place compared to the careful work done on the chest and the rest of the room.
I took a picture, then began sketching each of the runes into a notebook. My magical education had been thorough, both in school and at home. You could tell the purpose of a rune based on its construction. They were similar to Kanji –– the symbols in Japanese that are adopted from the Chinese writing system –– in that respect. The pieces all had their own meaning, and once put together, formed an idea.
My mother had been a bit of an inventor. Swift had mentioned that she might have been the one to create the chest, and it wouldn’t surprise me.
In many ways, time had dampened the pain of losing my parents, in other ways, it hadn’t. The grief was simply part of me now, like an ache in your knee that never went away after a fall. The days when I realized I could barely remember what they looked like were the hardest.
With a sigh, I pushed the door open and walked over to my father’s desk. These runes were left for a reason, and that reason should be obvious once I figured out what they were.
I examined the first one, making notes around the rune about what each symbol or line most likely meant. They were complex for something so hastily drawn. If I’d discovered this years ago, I might have been able to identify the handwriting, but it had been too long.
The next few hours were spent digging through old books in an attempt to identify each rune. A few were easy to figure out, but the remaining runes were a mish-mash of seemingly contradictory symbols. I knew it required the first person to open the room to be a Blackwell, but it also had what I was interpreting as rules along with it. Age, protections against coercion, and something that I suspected would have harmed someone if I hadn’t been alone the first time I opened the room.
Dust billowed up from the last book I’d pulled from the shelves as I opened it, forcing me to turn away and cough. My eyes watered from the small particles. I grabbed the bottom of my shirt and attempted to wipe my eyes clean but they still felt gritty when I was done.
Flipping through the yellowed pages, I found the chapter I needed. Unfortunately, it had only a mention of the rune with no other information. It was useless.
After all this, I still knew barely anything. Sighing in frustration, I shoved the book away and sat back in the chair. I was restless and plagued with memories of that night. The whole house had shaken when the attack had begun. My ears had pounded with the endless wailing of the wards. I’d run through the house searching for my parents, convinced it was finally my time to fight.
I leaned forward and pressed the heel of my hands into my eyes until I saw spots, drowning out the memories flashing past my mind’s eye. The west wing of the house had been haunting me since I’d moved back here. If I was being honest, I avoided it because I was afraid of what I’d find there.
Shoving the chair back, I rose from the desk and marched toward the door. Enough was enough. I’d go face my ghosts, then finish deciphering the runes. The answers were somewhere in this house. They wouldn’t have left me the chest without leaving a way to open it. I refused to believe otherwise.
I went back to my room and quickly dressed. Sitting in my father’s office in my pajama pants and a robe was one thing, wandering around the Manor half-dressed was another. If I didn’t have so many squatters it wouldn’t be as awkward, but of course, I did.
Having my katana hanging from my waist was comforting. My hand rested on it naturally as I walked, providing a sense of security in the midst of walking toward what felt like my doom. There was nothing left there, so the reaction was unreasonable, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was waiting for me there.
The door that led to the banquet hall they’d died in was propped open, hanging halfway off its hinges. Scorch marks from the magical fires that had raced through the room had marred the old wood, licking around the edges like it had been clawed.
It was just my imagination, but I swore I could still smell smoke lingering in the air. Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to pull the door open a little farther and walk inside.
The broken windows had been sealed off by the wards. Moonlight seeped through the magical barrier, casting a deep red glow on the room, making it look as if it were bathed in blood. Appropriate, if a bit dramatic.
My footsteps echoed off the marble floors as I walked down the center of the room. I wondered if the High Chancellor had walked through here reminiscing about that night. Maybe he remembered it fondly.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I whirled around but there was no one behind me. I was still alone. Scanning the dark room, I wondered if it was actually haunted.
“Yui?
Is that you?” I turned in a slow circle. It still felt like I was being watched, and that was an instinct I’d learned not to ignore. “Stop being creepy and come out.”
The air shook in front of me, as though the universe was trying to tear itself apart. Magic pressed in from every direction, increasing until the pressure was almost unbearable. This was not Yui, it was someone way worse.
Fate appeared in front of me, but he didn’t come as an old man or a pizza delivery boy this time. Towering eight feet tall, Fate, split into three beings, loomed over me. Any semblance of humanity had been stripped away. These creatures were neither male nor female, they were simply magic. As I watched, their faces twisted, the features morphing in a way that made my eyes ache to look at.
Folds of white cloth wrapped around Fate’s torsos and trailed around their legs. Light shone from their skin and their pure white eyes. One held a shimmering thread in their hands, one held a rod that gleamed with magic, and the third held shears of pure black.
“Kneel,” they spoke in unison. Their words had weight and I was forced to my knees before I had a chance to resist.
My tongue was frozen in my mouth. Breathing was hard enough, I wouldn’t be able to speak until they allowed it. My magic rose up inside me, thrashing angrily –– and weakly –– against them. A foreign rage moved in my mind, as if my magic itself was angry at Fate.
“You can feel how weak you are, all because the kitsune bound you.” They lifted their hands and the weight increased. My body moved on its own, arms spreading wide as I was lifted off the ground. My katana was tugged away from my hand and floated in front of my face. “You are bound with this as well. You willingly weaken yourself despite our warnings.”
I gasped for breath, wanting more than anything to tell this thing to shove it. My magic couldn’t be controlled without the katana. It would have killed me.
“You look for answers you don’t need and ignore the guidance we have given you. Enough is enough. You will prepare for the war you must fight.”
