The Restored: Chapter Eighteen

We met Hadiya at a coffee shop that was near her work. We’d been intending to come to a lab, but apparently there had been some sort of detonation there after an experiment had gone entirely wrong, and it was still being cleaned up. 

Hadiya took a moment to set up some basic privacy spells around the area, and we started filling her in on everything that had transpired since we’d last met. It took us quite a while, and when we finished, she gave a wry smile to Jin before turning to me.

“That at least explains why you and Rhys have adopted another child,” she said. 

I spluttered, and Rhys choked on his coffee. Kelly snorted, and Jin shot Hadiya an angry look. Hadiya just looked supremely amused.

“We–” 

“Adopt–” 

“I–” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Hadiya said, waving her hand in a gesture that was altogether far too dismissive and flippant at the same time. “I know, not dating, and not adopting. Still, it explains why you’re now being trailed like ducklings following their mother by a pair of teenagers, not just one.” 

That set everyone off again, with both Kelly and Jin protesting 

“What do you think of it?” Rhys asked, once things had calmed down. “I mean, do you think that the chairman is right, and we don’t have to worry? Do you think that he’s being an arrogant fool too drunk on his own power to see what could be?” 

“Frankly, I think it’s a bit of both,” Hadiya said with a shrug. “The Central Aura Depository is one of the best guarded places in the city, he’s not wrong about that. And there are a lot of wards set up around the city to prevent that sort of thing.” 

“But?” Kelly prodded.

“But I think that the Arenamaster is tricky, and has been collaborating with Abraham for a long time. It’s possible they’ve worked together to compromise the city defenses over the years. Still seems pretty unlikely. Even if she wants to use the infrastructure to gather power over time, though, I think they’re wrong to disregard your fear about the Central Aura Depository.” 

“Wait, really? But aren’t both of them guarded like crazy?” Jin asked. 

“Messing up a whole city’s grid is a big endeavor. But stealing a bit of power? Totally doable. Sure, it’s really well guarded, but I’ve seen Axel shut off warded cars with the wave of your hand. I could see her doing it.” 

“And both of us could pass through force wards,” Jin said. “I doubt she has a third Mist stashed away somewhere, but–” 

A horrible thought struck me, and I swallowed thickly. 

“But my sister could do it. She could flood the wards with her aura and make it seem like the wards aren’t going off, even when they are. Disguise of spells, that was her familiar power.” 

“The old Zone had a similar ability,” Jin said. “She could make it so that detection spells missed her and her magic.” 

“Isn’t that just a knockoff of your infusions?” Kelly asked me, and Rhys made a so-so gesture. 

“Infusion is a really strange and powerful ability, and the Arenamaster probably thought she’d hit the jackpot when Axel displayed it. I’d contend that it deserrves a spot among the best possible familiar boons, alongside mage sight, auric body shifting, doublemind, and a few others.” 

“My familiar ability let me expand the capacity to flicker spells, which helped me with passing through force wards by altering acceleration,” Jin added. “It’s somewhat similar, but a lot weaker.” 

“Odril was a powerful and strange demon, picked by the Contractor,” I said. “I’m not a great baseline to judge against. But we’re getting off topic. I haven’t heard from Jessica in a while. I need to check on her.”

“Hold on, hold on,” Hadiya said. “I agree, it’s worth checking on her, but we need a plan.” 

“You’re right,” I said, closing my eyes. Saving a few minutes while rushing over probably wasn’t going to matter if Zone – no, if Jessica – was in danger. But while the little bit of extra speed wouldn’t, having a solid amount of training absolutely could be needed. 

“We need to cut the ritual off from forming,” Rhys said. “If we can do that, then even if she succeeds, she only gets away with the aura sparks, not a city-wide ritual and stolen power.” 

“That can be team one,” Hadiya said. “You and I should be on that team, Rhys. We’re both ritual mages. We can create a containment circle around the street. I’ll separate it from the Fallen Void, and you can cut it off from the ambient aura in the rest of the city.” 

“Shouldn’t you cut it off from the power grid, just in case?” Jin asked, frowning. “I know you said there are layers of security, but isn’t it better, just in case?” 

“It would be an act of terror almost as bad as the Arenamasters to do that,” Hadiya disagreed. “It would cut off people’s power. Hospitals have generators, but they can only do so much, and even if the buildings don’t immediately collapse, they would eventually. Messing with ambient aura might slow the rate some people’s spells, aura recharges, or arch-stars can work, but it won’t kill anyone. Cutting off power without warning might.”

“I agree, but another factor worth considering is the cost. Locking down ambient aura for an entire block of the city is going to be absurdly expensive to run, even briefly,” Rhys said, frowning. “When you add in the cost of also cutting off its access to the ley lines, even locally…” 

Hadiya just grinned at him and winked. When Rhys kept meeting her gaze levelly, she sighed and explained. 

“My new job has a massive salary and access to all the materials I could want. And if the CFO makes a stink about it, I’ll just tell him about how I’m doing it for Nexus’ goal of stopping the Arenamaster. I’ve got it covered. What’s next?”

“We need to try and actually stop her, and stop the Central Aura Depository from being messed with,” I said. “I’ll try to stop her, but she’s sending these weird semi-mass illusions from the Fallen Void to get it done.” 

“Oh, that’s no matter. Cutting off demonic power should stop them from getting through at all. If I could then trace it, we could find her real body and finish the job.”

I leaned forward, letting myself grow a bit of anticipation. 

“Can you do that? Trace it, I mean?” 

“Yes,” Hadiya said without hesitation. “You’ll just have to stop her until we get the spell up.” 

“Which means Jin and I could, should, check out the depository!” Kelly said. “That’s great. She can melt through wards to disable them, and I can mess with minds so we don’t get spotted.” 

“No,” I said. 

“Absolutely not,” Rhys agreed. 

“Okay,” Hadiya said. 

Rhys and I both turned to glare at her, and she shrugged. 

“What? They have armor and wards, right? In the worst case, they get arrested, but then we’ll get Nexus to bail them out. It’s not so bad.” 

I felt a little on edge about her reasoning. She was far too comfortable demanding that Nexus do things for her. Maybe her raise was giving her confidence that they couldn’t just dismiss her like they had before, but even if the members of Nexus weren’t faerie or demons, they would still want payment for their services. And that was if they did it at all – I wasn’t convinced they could be trusted to jump through hoops at our request.

But that argument wouldn’t convince Hadiya, not when she was speaking with such confidence, so I picked my next words carefully. 

“They do have skill, way more skill than anyone their age should,” I agreed. “But unfortunately, Alyphize also has absurd skills, and the depository guards as well. There only needs to be one thing that goes wrong in order to kill them both. Can we be sure that every single guard is susceptible to mind magic, even from a skilled mage? That none of them have protections? That Alyphize doesn’t?”

Hadiya stewed over my words, then nodded her acceptance of what I was saying. 

“How about this,” Jin suggested. “We won’t break in. We’ll fly around the area and try to see if we can spot anyone linked to the Arenamaster, or your sister, or anyone moving a body bag, or something like that?” 

Kelly nodded enthusiastically, and I shared a look with Rhys. 

“Fine, but don’t try to attack them or take justice into your own hands,” I said. “Call the constables in, and also try to come and get us.” 

“But–” Jin started to say, before Rhys cut her off.

“No buts. Either you can agree to do that, or you don’t go at all.” 

“That’s fine with me,” Kelly agreed. After a moment, Jin nodded. I looked at her.

“Say it.” 

“I won’t jump in to try and attack, and will come get you while Kelly calls the constables,” she said between gritted teeth. I put my hand on her shoulder and squeezed. 

“Good. I’m proud of you. Now that we have a plan, I’m going to use a payphone and check on my sister,” I said, standing up from the table. “As long as she’s okay, I’ll start scouting the spots the Arenamaster could hit, trying to stop her, while you set up the countermeasures.” 

“Fine, fine,” Hadiya said. “We probably have a few days. The constables are everywhere, after all. It will take a while to stage an attack subtly.” 

Tracking down a payphone was easy enough, and after I dropped the medium-pane into the slot and directed the operator to connect me to Jesisca’s home phone number. The phone’s bell rang and rang, but didn’t go through. 

I frowned, then asked the operator to call again, just in case her or her husband hadn’t been able to get to the phone. I called two more times before the operator asked if I wanted to leave a message for him to deliver when they called next.

“Just tell them that it’s Axel calling to check and make sure they’re okay, with all the wild stuff going on, and to call back at Rhys’ phone,” I said distractedly, already turning plans over in my mind. 

Running through the street city, with its crowded automobiles and endless foot traffic, would take too long. I could get there faster in the sky lanes, and faster still if I had my flight disk, but I still hadn’t retrieved that from the constables lockup. Even though I’d had the charges entirely dropped, the process for getting things returned was a lengthy one, involving a lot of paperwork. 

Of course, I could move faster if I was willing to forgo the skylanes, but that would get me fined by the constables – if they found me. I turned and walked back to Hadiya. 

“Do you have anything that can make me invisible?” I asked. “I need to reach Jessica as quickly as possible, which means flying as fast as I can. Not the skylanes.” 

She tilted her head, then dug around in her purse for a moment, before pulling out a potion. It swirled and glinted with specks of bronze, mixed with flecks of ash, and an unpleasantly chunky white liquid, like spoiled milk.

“This should last about half an hour, but it’s not strong,” she said. “Basically just an attention diverter. If you stab someone, good odds it will break.” 

“Good luck,” Rhys said seriously, and was echoed by Kelly and Jin, then by Hadiya a moment later.

“Thanks, everyone.”  

I downed the potion and split my mind, using half of it to focus on the the spell that negated my mass, and layering another spell to push me upwards by lifting the plates of my coat.

As I started to float upwards, I devoted the entire other half of my mind to creating the most powerful horizontal metal pushing spell my enhanced body would be able to sustain. Then, I reached for my third arch-star, the one producing an endless stream of aura, and infused it into the spell. 

And I raced across the city like a comet.