Day in the story: 6th January (Tuesday), around 9.30 p.m.
“Aren’t you changing into sothing more protective?” I asked Caroline as I walked into her office at headquarters. She was wearing a long coat and a beanie, her black hair sticking out from underneath, but there was no Guild armor beneath it.
“No,” she replied, rummaging through a drawer in her desk. She was clearly searching for sothing. “We’re investigating today, not fighting monsters or mages.”
“Whatever. It’s your life,” I said, sitting on the edge of her desk.
“We’re doing it on Earth, so I don’t expect many hiccups. If we find the man—”
“When,” I corrected her.
“If we find him, we do not engage. We call a proper response team and they apprehend him. Is that clear?”
“The last part,” I lied. “The first part was never actually explained to . What authority does the Guild have when conducting investigations?”
“Whatever authority is needed. You’ve got your badge. You can pour your Authority into it to make it appear as a badge, an ID, or whatever is needed at the mont. You can also display the emblem of the Guild for any Awakened people, or use it as a beacon. If it’s on for longer than a minute, it will attract an Oracle to its location.”
“So I can,” I began, reaching for the badge they’d given and pouring a bit of shadowlight into it with a flick of my will, “change it into an FBI ID?” I finished as the badge shifted into exactly that.
I opened it to see my own photo, na, and a string of numbers.
“You know the answer. It just proves my point—you needed normal training before joining us.”
“Seriously? That just proves I didn’t. I learned that in a second. You think a course is needed?”
“That’s not the only thing taught at—” she started, then trailed off as she knelt behind her desk. “There you are,” she said, standing back up with her own Guild badge in hand.
“You’ve been lecturing while searching for your own?” I asked, pulling the shadowlight back from mine and letting it revert to its basic form.
“Oh, please. I lose stuff all the ti. That’s why I’m so good at finding it.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
“I see you know how to turn it back. Good. Just don’t grant it bound Authority or it’ll break.”
“Not a problem,” Ever since I learned about it, I’d been trying to do that in my spare ti, from ti to ti—without much success. It was as if I was hardcoded not to be able to give even a tiny bit of myself fully to the world. As if everything, though practice makes perfect, so fingers crossed I’d be able to learn how to do that. Right now, however, it felt like it wasn’t really sothing that useful to . Being connected to my things and able to remove Authority on a whim was much more useful than just leaving it there permanently, so I wasn’t that motivated to gain that skill. Maybe if the fate of the world depended on it, but since that’s not the case, I would do it slowly, at my own tempo.
“Co. We need to get to Staten Island,” she told . “Can you take us there?”
“No, sorry, babe. No such luck.”
“Babe?” she asked, opening the door for and motioning to go out of her office. We walked through the Hexblades headquarters, which looked remarkably like a typical police station, with desks in an open space and a few connected standalone offices like the one we’d just left. There were a few corridors leading out, and we took one, pushing the double doors aside. Only then, in the relative solitude of this place, did I answer her back.
“What can I say? I am playful like that.”
“What are you talking about, Jess?”
“The babe. What else?”
“I asked about that like a minute ago. Keep working on quicker responses.”
“I was waiting for when we were alone. Didn’t want to embarrass you in front of the colleagues.”
“I ain’t caring the slightest about being embarrassed. That’s one. That wasn’t embarrassing. That’s two.”
“Sure, partner.”
We stepped into the way-station housing the operational Ideworld gate. I’d passed through it before—several tis, in fact—though I still preferred teleportation. It dominated the hall, dwarfing the Harvard gate I knew so well, that seed more of a use of sothing natural that was in there and changed for the human usage. This thing was an engineering marvel instead. Easily twenty yards wide and just as tall, it rose from the main floor like a monuntal doorway. Its rectangular fra was built not just for people but for bulk and weight—cars, cargo, even trucks, one of which was rumbling through as we entered, its headlights warping and stretching as they vanished into the gate’s surface.
The fra was assembled from massive beams of so unfamiliar steel alloy that absorbed light rather than reflected it. Wrapped tightly around these beams was a dense lattice of optic fibers, thick as ropes in places, alive with flowing shadowlight. The illumination moved, coursing through the fibers in slow currents. Marek had tried to explain the chanics to last week—sothing about generators, harmonics and subfloor conduits—but it had gone far beyond anything I could grasp. Whatever powered it lay hidden beneath the stone and tal of the floor, humming faintly when one got closer.
The cables converged at seven evenly spaced points along the fra, each terminating in a crystal sphere the size of a human head. The crystals were imperfect, faceted and clouded within, as if sothing were stirring deep inside them. From these nodes, the shadowlight was projected inward of the structure, stretching across the empty rectangle and weaving itself into a mbrane.
The gate’s surface resembled neither solid nor air. It undulated like a vertical lake caught in a perpetual storm, layers of mist and liquid light folding into one another. Occasionally, fissures flashed across it—thin, jagged cracks like lightning trapped under ice, eerily similar to the natural openings I’d seen before. Through them ca brief glimpses of the other side so similar to the one we were in.
Both of us ca to the guard station placed a few good yards away, flashed our badges, and were allowed to go back to Earth through the gate.
We did the sa on the other side, and for the first ti ever since I started visiting this place, instead of going for the left corridor out, which led to a smoke shop inside Grand Central, we took another one that led to a wide tunnel where the truck I’d seen earlier was driving slowly, accompanied by a few guildsn.
We overtook it on foot and ca to sothing that looked like a smaller version of the Ideworld gate, but I could clearly see an underground parking garage on the other side.
“What’s that?” I asked.
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“It’s so form of a gate that makes it so we can move through the wall from this side undisturbed,” she answered, just as one of the cars moved in from the parking lot.
“And that? How is it going through it?”
“If you have the badge, the wall from the parking side is semi-translucent, showing you that it can be passed, with you or anyone around twenty yards around you, including trucks, cars, or even a plane if you sohow manage to get it in there.”
“That’s amazing.”
“Is it? You can do the sa with your holes, can’t ya?”
“That’s an inappropriate question for a lady,” I answered back, and she giggled.
“I really like your style, Jess. I am a bit nervous about workin’ with you, but your sense of humor is right up my alley.”
“I am glad to hear that,” I replied as we finally went through the wall. My anticipation died out as soon as we did. It felt no different than walking through the air—which was probably the whole point—but still, a bit disappointing.
I moved in silence then, up to an old Chevy Impala in matte black.
“Hop in, bunny girl,” Caroline invited , and I took the shotgun position. She sat behind the wheel and, with a low whirl of the engine starting, moved the car out of its spot.
“Finally!” Loki’s voice reached from the back seat as she erged from Caroline’s dinsion. “Jess! happy!”
I reached into my pocket, where I held a sticker with a painted ear on it, and hid it between my fingers as I moved my hand to scratch Goldilocks behind her ears in the back. She seed to love the rubbing, which allowed to move my hand a bit lower toward her collar, where, with a slight of hand, I managed to glue the sticker onto the inside of it.
“Don’t stop,” the dog whispered, and I continued, while Anansi muted the source of sound from that ear. “Where we go?”
“We are looking for a bad guy, Loki. One I told you about a few days ago. Uses music to hurt people.”
“Raspberry?”
“Yes. The sa.”
“Raspberry?” I repeated the dog’s question as we moved out of the underground and onto New York City streets.
“We’ve been to the cri scene, and the man—Robert—slled of so raspberry cologne.”
“Hmm. I didn’t make that connection myself.”
“You don’t have a dog’s nose.”
“Nope, I don’t,” I answered. I had upgraded the one on my mask from rabbit’s to bear’s, following Leben’s suggestions. But at the ti, I was too focused on what had happened to notice how the Rhythm slled. With the new slling apparatus, I’d most likely top Loki’s abilities—unless the Authority granted by Caroline made them still superior even to that, which couldn’t be ruled out.
Her question made think about the noses again; about how I had subconsciously bypassed the restrictions of my power to make the one on my mask function. Instead of creating a separate organ, I had convinced my own nose it was more capable, allowing my brain to interpret the incoming particles more precisely.
A fully reconstructed, physical nose—like the one on the forr Usagi mask—should have worked perfectly well even without any connection to mine. It and the scents it detected would exist on the sa plane, within the sa three-dinsional world.
Maybe I should learn sculpting after all and start planting little nose statues everywhere.
“I sll you,” Loki said, throwing her long tongue out of her cute mouth.
“Yes, I know. I just scratched you.”
“I sll you on neck,” she continued, much to the detrint of my plan.
“That’s where I scratched you,” I replied, trying to outsmart the dog. What had the world co to?
“Oh,” the dog answered, while Caroline stayed focused on the road.
“Do we know anything about him?”
“Oracle felt soone using music-related Authority on the island. There was so gang activity in the area reported to local police. I left a note to look for both in relation to each other, and we got a hit, so I am going to investigate,” she answered.
I let my focus drift outside, to the city after dark—the red glow of taillights bleeding into one another ahead of us, the sharp yellow and white of oncoming headlights slicing past, and the countless other lights scattered all around, a restless constellation trapped in glass and steel. Sowhere beneath it all, music humd softly from the radio, a steady presence that blended with the motion of the car. Caroline reached forward and turned the dial, static crackling briefly before another song slipped in. I didn’t really listen to the words, just let the sound wash over , rising and falling with the city lights, as New York slid by outside the windows.
Music soothing in my travel. A companion for now, when soon I expected it to beco an enemy once more.
**********
We walked slowly in the general area pointed out by the seers that constituted the Oracle system. There was very little chance of Robbie slling the way he had when he killed his brother, so although Loki was on the lookout—or rather, the sll-out—for him, we were wary of everything that might point us toward his whereabouts.
“I’ve never been on Staten Island Ideworld’s version,” Caroline said, breaking the silence. “I have no idea what’s in there.”
“Are you implying you don’t know why he would be here? Does it even matter?”
“Everything matters—”
“No, don’t start with preaching. I get the general concept. Every detail is important in the big picture, right?”
“Yes. That’s generally what I wanted to say.”
“In art it isn’t always true. Sotis details are totally irrelevant to the reception.”
“This ain’t an art.”
“I know, but the exception to the rule still applies. We don’t know what’s on the other side, so wasting ti looking for an answer to the why question would be just that—a waste.”
“What question is worth answering?” she asked.
“Who is he.”
“He is a self-righteous prick with anger issues,” Caroline whispered back.
“That would be my assessnt as well.”
“It’s based on your and Leben’s testimony. But I get what you’re trying to say. He’d have a difficult ti staying completely under the radar. He’d feel the need to show his dominance in whatever hierarchy is in here.”
“Unless he didn’t care and he was here just for a while.”
“There would still be so power struggle and victims thereof.”
“So why are we just on a fucking stroll?”
“We aren’t. We are on our way to a veterinarian clinic that is open 24/7 in here. I didn’t want to make too much fuss about us driving close by. It’s better to co unannounced in such cases, and best if you bring your own animal.”
“Vet? You think his victims were treated there? So you already ca to the sa conclusions I did?”
“More or less.”
“Why did you let go on a tangent then?”
“What better way to check what your reasoning is? So far I’ve seen you in action and confrontation. So show-offs too. I wanted to see the brain that ticks behind those green eyes.”
“Okay. Fine. How do you know it’s this clinic?”
“It was the subject of so investigations in the past. Nothing ca out of them, but that just ans they fooled the police. They ain’t fooling us, right Loki?”
“Yes,” the dog whispered. I swear it was a real whisper.
I had to admit that at that point I was pretty impressed with her. Not only did she co up with a reasonable plan, but she also executed it in a way that made think it through. She also had a damn cute dog. I might yet rethink all of that Hexblading.
I slowed my steps as the vet clinic ca into view. The sign above the door was a little washed out, but it clearly said Open 24/7. The street was quiet at this hour.
There was a faint light on inside, coming from sowhere deeper in the clinic rather than the front desk. It spilled through the window in a soft, muted glow and reflected off the glass door. I caught my own reflection for a second before pulling it open—my fiery red hair, green eyes, and full lips. It felt easy jumping into the clear skin of Jess Hare. It had beco my most used persona over the years, and for a good reason too. She was playful where I was tense and overly careful. She was more sexy than too, and this worked wonders when dealing with thugs who didn’t expect her to also be smart and cunning.
A small bell chid as I stepped inside, forcing to focus at least one of my brains back on the task at hand. The place slled clean, like disinfectant and a little bit of fur. The reception area was empty, but not abandoned—papers neatly stacked, a computer screen still on, a half-finished mug sitting beside it. Soone was clearly around, just not at the desk.
I stood there for a mont, listening for any sign of movent in the back.
“Hello? Anybody here?” Caroline called, while Loki curled herself up on one of the nearby armchairs, looking all solemn and hurt all of a sudden, her breathing becoming quicker and more shallow.
A ruckus followed from the back—sothing hitting the floor, then sothing else again—before a man erged.
A balding older guy with just stray silver hairs that had long overstayed their welco. He adjusted his spectacles as he approached us. They were small but thick, and looked unfitting on his faint face with sagging cheeks. He was bent too, as age and a tired spine forced him more and more to bow in thanks for the life he already had behind him. There were lines on his face—deep ones—that suggested he was used to smiling more often than feeling anger.
“Good evening, ladies,” he coughed more than he said, spitting sothing out but catching it in the sleeve of his cardigan. “Excuse . I am too old for this, but I love animals too much to just give up on them.”
“That’s so sweet,” Caroline replied.
I decided to stand guard and watch, but remain silent unless asked for an opinion. I did ask one of my spidery eyes to crawl up my neck to the base of my hair and let see what was in the back. Two more repeated the movent and rested on the sides of my neck, hidden in the shadows my hair cast. They watched for .
“My golden retriever doesn’t seem well. She is usually super-duper cheerful, but right now she is sad and I think she is hurting. Whimpering from ti to ti. Walking here was a challenge.”
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