novelraw Chapter 30: Serica: Radiance
Chapter 30: Serica: Radiance
Serica:
I still hadn't found her. The streets around the Durough manor were like a kicked ant-mound, swarming with crimson-coated watchmen. Many carried haunted looks, eyes that gazed too far and weak knees. Shadow would do that to you. Releasing these men for weeks of calm recuperation was the proper response, though that seemed unlikely with Regis's secret loose in the city.
The sun had risen, and Illia's night-time friends had likely gone to roost. I wanted to take the watch's continued presence as a good sign, though they could just be continuing their sweep while they worked her for information.
We had prepared a list of contingency meet-ups for such an event. The first three, a secluded rooftop space where I currently waited, a foreclosed manse's root-cellar, and a park's wooded back-trail, had all been vacant. Each of my Wind's reports sat like a thorn in my heart. I sent it back out to check on our fourth and final option, Tulk Breadworks. and contemplated suicide in the form of a second assault on the manor.
Whatever occurred, Illia had provided the the space needed for Areli's extraction. I owed her a debt of gratitude for her help, without it I could not have pulled this off.
"Serica," said a hollow feminine voice I recognized as one of Illia's Shadows. I turned and caught a pair of sooty eyes peeking from the space beneath a roof-tile, "It's time to go home."
"What? Where's Illia?" I asked and the eyes shrunk. The inquiry was pointless, I was lucky a shade had come far enough to tell me this, and the more I asked, the more it would have to hide. That was just their way, shining a spotlight at them either made their recesses darker or got rid of them entirely.
Either she'd sent it, meaning she still had some form of agency, or it'd deemed that message important enough to deliver. In either case, ignoring it would be foolish.
I could still feel her in my blood, a trace of her. The shade spoke again, "There still time for you to go."
If she was alive and well, and there was no need for me to press, I'd still regret not going after her. I slid to the end of the roof and dropped from it, then turned onto the street. The morning sun hung over Durough manor.
Ahead, a large grouping of watchmen surrounded two crimson heads of hair that I recognized instantly, Reilin and Regis.
No-no- Why did she come back?
Quiet wouldn't work here. I would not let him take her back.
Hearthlight- If I can get close...
If I could lay a hand on the man I could end this, pull us both into Hearthlight, drag us into ash. I clutched at my belly and woke the ember in its pit, saying "Hold." A cough of black smoke escaped my lips, and I quickened my pace.
"Reilin!" I shouted, trying to constrain the edge in my voice. Twelve heads turned, each blood red, two with flowing locks and the rest in helmets, "Excursion was to set off at dawnbreak, where the hell have you been!?"
The ten watchmen shifted to an arrowhead formation with me at its tip as Regis seethed. The villain's night-shirt was tucked into a pair of black trousers. A ruby-crusted golden scepter dug into its shoulder, "Thought you were keeping track of my girl."
Just play your part. They won't strike you down. Not here.
That would have been catastrophic for public relations. They'd need a damn good excuse to drop an unarmed woman. I flashed dismissal at their positioning and pressed into their ranks, against firm shoulders and oppressive eyes. I recognized a pair, belonging to the man I'd waved off while carrying Areli through the garden. They flashed recognition.
Shit-
I gave pause, and said "please excuse me," to him under my breath. His eyebrows read confusion, not fury. He was fresh-faced and his chest lacked the ornaments of his peers. He hadn't recognized Areli.
He could just not know.
My stomach curled around its glowing ember. This greenhorn hadn't curdled yet in Regis's employ. That process took years, people didn't slip to these depths overnight. His shoulder softened, and I slipped past him to draw face to face with the two Duroughs.
Sell it.
A good half of the watchmen had converged close on my back. In my time within their ranks Regis had composed himself, his visage was calm, his scepter hung lazily in rolling fingers. He wasn't about to betray a thing.
Reilin's boots were scuffed, her hair a mess of knots and tangles. Her breath was rapid and shallow, "Sorry Mentor Serica, our house was assaulted."
"Devils," I said and fought the urge to gloat. I'd dared to touch the one place Regis thought was safe.
Doesn't feel good, does it?
He sent an arm to wrap Reilin's back, but I beat him to it, pulled her close to my side, "You've got a bead on the culprits?" Her ribs took in air sharp to fill the space I'd made for her.
Regis didn't hurry in considering me, he made me sweat the moment under his gaze, "Hardly an assault, more minor theft. We'll have them sorted out in short order."
Minor theft, I stole your fucking daughter!
My eyes pressed to escape my skull and his tongue darted out to wet his lips, he'd clocked it. Reilin ducked her head and added, "They wounded one of them, a woman they think, are working on their trail."
Wounded-
It wasn't good news, but it was better than Illia's capture. I let hope pool within me, caress my ember and sear me with its steam.
"If there's anything I can do to help..." I said, internally looking for an out to get my whole gaggle far from here. I knew, however, I couldn't let this end until Regis bled, until he suffered. Just combusting this bastard wasn't enough. I would make him apologize, make him beg, and tell him what too many others had been unable to on too many occasions. No.
As the ember sputtered it shed light. Hungry Radiance, the affinity I'd suppressed to conform to this hellish place. The kind that wouldn't stop until his every sin was public knowledge, seared into the eyes of every shirker or dawdler who'd let this happen. It rose to my lungs, and shared a truth I wasn't ready to hear, "It's not going to end with him."