More gunshots told me that I needed to focus on my own opponent. I whipped the tendril of fire around and encircled the man's gun arm, twisting it harmlessly out of the way as I closed the distance between us. For the first time I was able to appreciate just how big my opponent really was. In an honest melee, this man would have utterly destroyed me.
Unfortunately for him, I was
more
than willing to fight dirty. He ignored the temporary loss of his gun arm and lashed out with his left foot, attempting to plant his heavy boot in my stomach and knock the wind from me. My eyes hardened as I slung the middle section of the spell-flame tendril around and caught his leg in the loop.
I didn't hesitate. The silvery blade flashed out, slashing against the assassin's unprotected throat. The concealed armored vest he wore was designed to protect against firearms over bladed weapons and I took full advantage of my ability to restrict his movements. Blood spurted from the terrible wound, nearly hitting me with the spray as I manipulated the tendril of magic to toss his body away.
The dying man gasped as I refocused the spell-flame to burn the blood from my knife before I flipped it closed. Slashing the throat was a slow and messy way to kill someone, but without the luxury of being able to burn him, I had little choice.
I turned and watched as Meilin dragged the body of the other assassin, dumping the dead man next to his partner. I studied the dead man, noticing how his head and neck lolled at an unnatural angle.
“How did you do that?”
Meilin smiled grimly. “He shouldn't have let me knock him over. I got my legs around his head in the grapple and it was over.”
“What do we do about the bodies?”
“Leave them where they can be seen,” Meilin muttered, kneeling down near the man she'd killed. “If the police come, find these two and their guns, the agency will have to deal with it, spin some kind of cover story. It'll buy us a little more time.”
The former AEGIS controller peeled back a hidden panel in the assassin's glove, revealing the familiar metallic core of a Spell Engine. Fitting the pilfered device over her left hand, she flexed her fingers and adjusted the fit. “Perfect, it's been fitted with a fresh cartridge. Now I feel a little less helpless.”
“We don't have much time before they realize your pursuers haven't checked in,” I reminded her. “Let's get out of here before someone sees us.”
recollections
Though we were forced to leave her car behind, Meilin took over driving duties. In addition to having a legal license to drive, she'd spent many hours training in hazardous-situation driving techniques. If we were followed or came under attack in transit, her proficiency could make the difference between making it out alive or not.
That left me in the passenger seat, staring out the window idly as we made our way south, crossing over the state line into California. Our destination was located somewhere in the mountainous region in the extreme northeastern part of the state, hidden within a densely-forested area at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
I threw a glance at Meilin. “Do they know we're coming?”
“The agency has all of my personal communications monitored, but I think I got a message off to my contact through a public terminal. I just hope they figure out the code I used.”
“I trust they won't shoot first and ask questions later.” I reached into the pocket of my borrowed jacket—like the skirt and hat I wore, they were Nicole's—and pulled out a small bag of sour strawberry-flavored candies. I placed one of the tangy sweets in my mouth and chewed thoughtfully. These were Karin's favorite.
No, they
are
her favorite, I told myself. She's
absolutely
still alive.
“So,” I said to Meilin, trying to distract myself from thinking about Karin, “who is this contact of yours in Luna? You glossed over that earlier in the cafe. Was that because you were worried about anyone listening in?”
Meilin's cheeks flushed almost imperceptibly, but the increase in heat could not be missed by a spirit with the aspect of flame. Clearly she was just embarrassed, not worried about a potential leak of information.
“My contact in Luna and I have a… history,” she said at length. It was obvious that she was uncomfortable talking about it and I turned away.
“If you don't want to talk about it—”
Meilin took a deep breath. “No. It's important that you know.”
I didn't say anything, but my ears flicked curiously, the concealing hat sitting in my lap. Meilin sighed and turned back toward the road. I could tell she was trying very hard to find the right words.
“She's my sister,” Meilin murmured, almost too quiet for me to hear. “Half-sister. The daughter of my birth mother. We haven't really spoken much in over a decade. I guess you could say we're estranged.”
I blinked. “You were adopted?”
“Yes… well, it's complicated.” Meilin took another steadying breath, keeping her eyes locked on the road. “My biological father was a wealthy businessman from Beijing with a very…
loose
definition of marital fidelity. That's the most I've ever been able to discover about him.”
“I'm sorry,” I murmured, and I meant it. Such personal connections had become very important to me in the months since I became a member of the Ashley family. As an intelligence called into being through magic, I had no parents nor siblings.
Meilin favored me with a reassuring smile. “I appreciate that. My birth mother was an American citizen, a simple clerk working for the same company. Somehow she ended up having an affair with one of the company's chief officers. When she became pregnant, the whole mess just broke apart. My sire demanded that she terminate the pregnancy to avoid a potential scandal, but her parents threatened to disown her if she were to seek an abortion.”
My ears drooped fractionally, but I couldn't think of anything to add. The situation was indeed very complex, with conflicting beliefs and traditions clashing head-on amidst a series of poor decisions by everyone involved.
“Despite my birth father's threats, she carried me to term and placed me up for adoption. I was adopted by a wonderful second-generation Chinese couple before I was even a year old. My parents never tried to hide it from me. I always knew I was adopted and when I was a teenager, my parents told me what little they knew of my biological mother and father. I had little interest in reconnecting with my sire, but my birth mother was a different story.”
“You started looking for her?”
“Not until later, when I was already an adult and had the resources. I couldn't ask my parents to help me find her. I didn't want them to feel in any way inadequate as my caretakers.”
Meilin was silent for a long moment as she maneuvered Karin's car around a sharp curve, slipping through the light traffic while maintaining speed. Not wanting to push her further, I simply waited for her to continue.
“As it turned out, the search wasn't very expensive or difficult. I found my mother after only a few months of searching. The reunion was… depressing. My birth mother had no interest in me and her family strongly disapproved of my mixed heritage.”
“That must have been painful.” My ears drooped even lower, but Meilin shook her head and offered me a reassuring smile.
“It was, but I had a lot of support and love to fall back on. My parents, the ones who raised me, not those who conceived me, are wonderful people. They love me just as much as any parent would.”
“How did you end up meeting your half-sister?”
“Once my sister found out,
she
sought
me
out. She was rebellious, chafing under the 'traditional values' she'd been raised with and the expectation that she become good wife material. My sister saw me as family without conditions, someone who wouldn't judge her or chastise her for being herself. We visited often, hiding it from the rest of her family.”
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. “They found out anyway.”
“At the time, my sister was in high school. My birth mother railed at me, threatened me both physically and legally. I was forbidden to have any further contact with my sister, so I just… went away.”
“Were you able to explain to your sister what happened?”
“I couldn't,” Meilin replied, her voice troubled. “All she ever knew was that I disappeared one day and never spoke to her again. I was only twenty at the time, and I was terrified what my birth mother might do.”
It wasn't hard to figure out where she was going with this. “Your sister blames you for abandoning her.”
“Her mother undoubtedly filled her head with all sorts of scandalous falsehoods about me and my character.” Meilin engaged the turn signal and smoothly changed lanes, bearing right toward the exit that would take us off the interstate and onto a smaller state highway.
“How do you know, though? Did you run into her again?”
“Two years ago.” Meilin eased on the brakes and the car drifted down the sharply-curved off-ramp. She accelerated at the end of the curve, merging seamlessly onto the state highway.
“I'd been working for AEGIS for three years as a field operative, right before I earned my promotion to controller. My team and I were investigating specter activity in northern California. Our files on the area gave Luna, the successor of the ancient Order of the Moon, as the dominant arcane house. Despite the agency's warnings against alliances with such organizations, I decided to make contact and we solved the case jointly.”
“How did your sister end up becoming part of Luna?”
“I don't know,” Meilin admitted. “I ran into her purely by chance. Even though it had been almost thirteen years since we last saw each other, we both recognized the other immediately. I tried to talk to her, but she wouldn't tell me anything, refusing to speak with me unless it pertained to the case.”
My expression became pensive. “What makes you think she'll help you now?”
“We don't have any other options. Even if she doesn't want to help me, Luna itself will still be interested in helping
you
, so long as we make it worth their while.”
She'd mentioned that once before. “What do you mean, 'worth their while?'”
Meilin shrugged. “You're still alive and the Relic is not. Luna is committed to the study of astral phenomena. I'm sure that information alone will be enough to buy their aid.”
“I see,” I murmured, even though I didn't.
“We're almost there.” Meilin tightened her grip on the wheel. “There's a service road that we'll need to turn down. We'll be stopped by Luna sentries; just let me handle it and we'll be fine.”
the gray
We drove down the service road, the roughly-paved surface disappearing into the forest. The fading daylight and circumstances of our journey prompted Meilin to slow the vehicle more than enough that I easily caught sight of the sentries as they stepped out onto the road.
Four figures stepped out of the gloom on either side of the road. Meilin brought the car to a stop as they slowly approached us. They were clad in dark gray jackets and scarves that made them seem like ghosts of the forest.
The leader of the sentry, a tall man with a willowy build, approached the car and tapped on the window with the muzzle of an old but well-maintained rifle. Meilin rolled the window down, keeping her expression calm and collected despite the barrel of a gun pointed at her face.
“This is a restricted area. You need to turn around and head back.”
“I'm here to meet with Luna,” Meilin told him, her voice cool and even. “I've come to request their aid in exchange for valuable information.”
The sentry captain's eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You aren't on the list.”
“I sent a coded message from a public terminal earlier this morning. Please, you must let me pass. I worked with your group in the past; your leaders knew me then as Star.”
I was only mildly surprised that the sentry didn't argue the point. Instead he pressed the finger of his free hand to his earpiece and turned away while he contacted his superiors and relayed the message. A moment later he motioned to his squad and they all relaxed, slinging their rifles over their shoulders.
“You've been given permission to enter the facility.” The sentry captain's wary expression did not relax. “Someone will meet you at the surface building and escort you from there. Be aware, our security force will be keeping an eye on the both of you for the duration of your visit.”
“Thank you.”
Meilin rolled her window back up and waited until the sentries disappeared into the forest before pressing her foot down on the accelerator. We spent another five minutes driving down the service road before it terminated in a heavy steel gate.
We stopped at the gate momentarily as it slowly slid open. I gawked as the huge barricade moved out of the way; the gate and the security fence it was attached to was impressively hardened against assault. Nothing short of a runaway bulldozer would be able to batter its way through.
The road continued to wind through the forest for another kilometer before we reached our destination. A small concrete building sat in the center of the tarmac. Meilin pulled the car up to the edge of the lot and killed the engine.
“Let's go,” she said. I nodded and opened my door, stepping out onto the tarmac. I was thankful that the boots Nicole loaned me were reasonably low-heeled as I strode across the blacktop surface.
The guard station was a durable-looking bunker about the size of a midsize family house. The gray walls were heavily weathered with patches of moss and algae dotting the surface. It looked like this place had once been a military installation that had been written off by the government and sold into private ownership.
Meilin and I approached the door leading to the guard station and waited. After only a few seconds, the door slid open with a hiss of compressed gas. Accepting the obvious invitation, we walked inside and the door slid shut behind us.
“Star, it's been a while. Two years and three months, to be exact.”
I turned toward the deep, rumbling voice, quickly discovering its source. A very large and very tall man towered over me, his swarthy face creased in a wry smile. His arms and chest strained in the confines of his gray uniform. I knew immediately from his posture and physical condition that I stood in the presence of a veteran warrior.
Meilin offered a weak smile. “Please, call me Meilin. I would rather not have my code name used any longer.”
The big man didn't look surprised at all. “So AEGIS has betrayed you. Can't say I'm surprised; you always struck me as too honest for government work.”
Her smile became slightly more relaxed. “Yes… though I suspect the agency itself may have also been subverted, both from within and without. Did you receive my message?”
“We only just recently worked out the code. Speaking of, who is this you're with? A member of your former team?”
Meilin's lip twitched in amusement. “Of a sort. This is Misaki. She is a Relic spirit.” She turned toward me. “Misaki, this is Luna's chief of security.”
“Alex,” the man added. “Most of my men just call me Chief.”
“It's nice to meet you.” I offered a respectful but shallow bow, unable to keep the anxiety from showing in my expression.
“An escort should be here soon with the lift,” Alex continued, turning toward a sealed door against the far wall. I studied the man for a moment while his back was turned. Unlike his sentries, the chief of security was unarmed, an obvious display of his full confidence in his people.
Meilin nodded but remained silent. I could feel the increase in heat from her body; she was nervous. Very nervous. I had a feeling that the possible identity of the escort was the cause of her concern.
The heavy armored door slid open, revealing a well-lit elevator large enough to carry twenty people comfortably. Inside the elevator was a muscular woman with wild dyed-red hair, clad in the same gray uniform as the security force. Unlike every other person we encountered so far, this woman was armed with a European-style longsword in a scabbard secured at her right hip.
I glanced at Meilin out of the corner of my eye. Her posture had become extremely stiff, her expression almost unreadable.
“Don't just stand there,” the woman snapped, impatience laced through her rough voice. “Get on the lift.”
Meilin complied silently, avoiding the woman's piercing glare. I followed suit, my ears twitching as I tried to analyze all the sounds around me. The elevator door slid shut and it began to descend rapidly.
The woman's gaze became baleful. “Why are
you
here?”
“We need Luna's aid.”
“And you thought I'd help you get it? Is that why you sent that ridiculous code that only I could figure out?” The tall swordswoman scoffed and crossed her arms across her chest. “If it were up to me, I'd have had the sentries refuse you at the gate.”
Meilin gritted her teeth and let out a frustrated sigh. I could tell she was trying very hard not to offer an angry retort. It was already beyond obvious that the tall red-haired swordswoman was Meilin's half-sister.
“Why are you still angry with me?” Meilin bit out. “I already explained what happened. It wasn't my fault. What
else
was I supposed to do?”
“Oh, I don't know, maybe you could have actually
answered
my calls and emails? Or perhaps you could have tried to contact me again after I enlisted and shipped out? Was
that
too much trouble for you? Or did you just not want poor trash to butt into your picture-perfect little adoptive family?”
Meilin opened her mouth to respond, but her sister was relentless.
“Oh, how lucky
you
were, little perfect angel Meilin, with your perfect mother and your perfect father, their perfect six-figure incomes and your perfect fancy house with its perfect purebred little doggies. You never knew what it was like for me—”
“I
would
know what it was like if you'd talk to me!” Meilin growled. “Instead, you'd
much
rather just make mean-spirited remarks about my parents—”
My jaw bunched up in annoyance and I stepped between the two of them, a plume of spell-flame erupting from my hands, hot enough to force the two feuding sisters to cover their faces with their hands.
“All right,
enough
! We don't have
time
for the both of you to act like quarreling children! We came to seek Luna's help with a matter of critical importance.”
The swordswoman turned her glare from her sister and onto me. “What the hell was that?”
“My elemental affinity,” I snapped, removing the hat from my head. My vulpine ears laid flat and back against my head, clearly broadcasting my mood. “My name is Misaki and I'm a Relic spirit.”
The woman blanched as she stared at my ears. Then she turned to Meilin. “You have been bound to a Relic?”
“No.” Meilin shook her head. “The situation is… complicated.”
“Fine. Let's go talk about it.”
The swordswoman entered a lengthy key combination into the auto-lock on the lift's heavy door. The second sealed door likely allowed the facility to be separated into different levels of access based on which floor the elevator stopped at. The door slid open and I followed Meilin and her sister out into a small lobby area.
“There's a secure conference room we can use on this level.”
Meilin frowned. “Will we be permitted to speak with the Archivist?”
“The Archivist is out of the country and won't be back until tomorrow,” the woman replied, her tone somewhat less hostile. “In his absence, command of this facility has been granted jointly to me and the Chief of Security.”
“You've been moving through the ranks quickly,” Meilin murmured, impressed.
“I've done more than that. Come on, it's this way.”
The woman tapped her passkey against an auto-lock and a door slid open, revealing a small but cozy room. Half of the room was dominated by a C-shaped conference table, the cutout in the center allowing assistants to easily distribute hardcopy files without having to reach over anyone's shoulder. The other half held a small break area complete with a coffee maker, hot water dispenser and several tins of loose-leaf tea.
Meilin and her sister entered first, seating themselves at the table. I paid no attention to the table and instead went directly for the counter. I twisted open a tin filled with Japanese oolong tea and loosely packed the leaves into a metal-mesh tea ball. Dropping that in a cup, I filled the cup with hot water from the dispenser and then took my seat at the table, watching as the liquid began to darken as the tea steeped.
“Sure, just make yourself
right
at home,” the swordswoman muttered sarcastically. I ignored her and took to stirring the tea ball around, trying to speed up the process a little before the water cooled off.
“Don't
ever
get in the way of Misaki and her tea,” Meilin remarked, her tone dry. “First, let's do some proper introductions. Misaki, this is my sister, Amber.”
“
Half
-sister,” the swordswoman, Amber, corrected.
Meilin sighed and held her hands up in defeat. “Amber, please, let's just try to work together here. Did you even
read
the contents of my message? Or did you discard it the moment you saw my name attached?”
Amber ignored her sister's accusation. “Yeah, I read it. We've heard reports of this weird mage, but none of our agents have ever encountered her. The miasma-corrupted beasts, though… we've been fending their attacks off for the past week. Our security people have taken to calling them 'demons' after we lost five sentries during the first assault. They can take a ridiculous amount of punishment before they go down.”
“We discovered an efficient way of killing them,” Meilin informed her. Amber arched an eyebrow in obvious disbelief.
“Do tell, dear sister.”
I didn't miss Meilin's wince. “It's not something we can do any longer. In our encounter with the demons, Misaki used her spell-flame to burn off the outer layer of miasma, rendering them vulnerable for a short time. Once the miasma was gone, the Relic made short work of them.”
“That's definitely valuable information, I'll give you that.” For the first time since the sisters reunited, Amber's voice was completely devoid of hostility. “Might even save some lives. Thanks.”
“It's not that simple,” I added. “I had to overcharge the spell-flame to make it burn hot enough to work. The creatures' miasmic armor will withstand low-temperature flames without any real damage, and even if you do manage to strip away their defenses, the killing blow needs to be delivered with perfect timing.”
“We can figure something out, probably.” Amber's expression became thoughtful. “It's definitely more than we had before. Why can't you do it anymore?”
My ears drooped even lower. “Because the Relic was destroyed and its wielder taken captive.”
“What?” Amber's jaw dropped in shock. “How did that happen? How are you still here if the Relic was
destroyed
?! Without the bond between the blade and the wielder, how are you even maintaining your physical form?”
“A fortunate accident,” I explained, sipping at my tea. “More than half a year ago, Karin and I fought against Lord Isao of the Tsukimura clan. We survived, but Karin was seriously wounded. In order to help her repair and recover from the damage, I established a permanent secondary link.”
Understanding dawned on Amber's face. “So when the Relic died and sundered the mana bond between you, the sword and the wielder, you… what? Reversed the flow of the healing link to anchor you to the material world?”