Legion of the Lost (Witchfire 3)

When Ruben disappears

Every bone in his body strained towards the girl he left behind. The Heart of Hearts ached in his chest, dribbling fear and fury in turns as he raced up the iron scaffold, heading for the red door on the roof of the building. It felt wrong to leave her behind, but the cache was one of the safest places in the world, and his blood was becoming more acidic by the second. He didn't dare wait until after the training session was over to come back to this place; this Russian nesting doll of caches in which his grandfather resided.

Something was wrong inside of him, and he couldn't shake the sense of impending doom stalking his every step. The imagined threat had even driven him to throw an arm around Nora's shoulders, just for the sense of comfort he felt by having her in reach. He'd spun a tale not so far from the truth of the previous night, hoping to scare her from wandering unaccompanied through the cache, lest she get lost.

How readily she'd believed him.

The door yielded to a dead garden. Not because it wasn't lush, but because it never changed; it felt no more alive to Ruben than a rose preserved in a crystal ball, for all its fragrant blooms and lush foliage.

His grandfather was waiting for him on the
bridge arching over the koi pond. Akira could have passed for Ruben's father; like the gardens, he had not changed in all the years Ruben had known him. He wore a simple brown shift and his hair was neatly brushed into the shape of an upside down bowl; Ruben was sure that he actually used one now that Daiyu, his late wife, wasn't around to cut it for him.

A shift of colour on the rail caught Ruben's eye. It was a tiny painted dragon, undulating through the wood grain as if it marked a blustering wind.

"You know why I'm here," Ruben said, joining his grandfather in looking at the koi. He preferred the lazy fish to the noisy mandarin ducks any day. "Can you fix it?"

"Can the moon move the sea?" came the mocking retort. "Of course I can fix it. I will need time, however, to gather the necessary supplies."

It made sense, though Ruben had to bite down on his tongue to prevent himself from squirming. This would be no simple kintsukuroi; Akira would need to source amethyst from the same vein as the original stone, not to mention all of the other obscure, Old Magic ingredients he would need for the gold resin. It would be the first time Akira had left his sanctuary since the attempt on his life two years prior.

Akira shifted his weight. "This could be a trap."

Ruben said nothing. His grandfather was still convinced it was the False Prophet who'd tried to kill him, and he supposed that this new conspiracy made sense in a twisted way. What if the thug's purpose had been to shatter Ruben's Heart of Hearts from the beginning? If Ruben had always been the target, so that his grandfather would be lured out of hiding to perform the very surgery Ruben was asking for now?

"I am impressed," Akira added, "that you left her out there given your condition."

Ruben frowned. Akira phrased it like emotions were some kind of disease, but then again, hadn't he treated them the same way by running here for help? There was a time when his emotions had been bright and alive in his chest, when they'd coloured the very world and made music of the wind, but now his heart was as still and frozen as this lovely, empty garden. Crystalline. Pure.

Except for that tiny little crack.

"She's safe enough," Ruben said, not sure who he was trying to convince.

Akira turned to stare. "You truly believe she can hold her own against a Lost soldier?"

Ruben felt the blood drain from his face. It was an absurdly tangible experience of dread, but he worked hard to compose himself. If his grandfather gleaned the extent of his interest in the girl...

"No, but I am interested to see how she fights when I am not there to mitigate the threat," he lied, still reeling over the fact that he hadn't imagined somebody pursuing them. He should never have left Nora by herself. He was dangerously distracted and off his game. "You might call it a test."

Akira nodded. "Good. I was beginning to worry that you were growing too... attached."

Ruben willed himself to meet the old man's eyes. Sable brown, full of secrets, always calculating. "It's nothing personal," he said, injecting a flat boredom into his tone that normally came effortlessly. "Though I suppose I ought to intervene soon. Her death may well derail the timeline in which we succeed against the Lost Legion."

It was a pointed reminder of Nora's importance; that her life was no longer Akira's to barter with, now that other powers were at play. The fledgling Dark Witch was on Midna's list and under Chance's watchful eyes, which meant Ruben didn't have to worry about his grandfather trying to kill her... for now.

"You'll be needing this, then," Akira said, offering him a tiny ring box. Ruben arched an eyebrow and opened it to find a generously sized pearl nestled on the silk. "It is an unstable cache and should explode upon impact. The black hole will take care of the rest."

Ruben pocketed it wordlessly, refusing to rise to the bait. Akira had always held Ruben's reservations about battle magic in contempt, but it was the one sentiment the old man had never been able to beat out of him. After all the havoc he'd caused as a child, even the thought of wielding the pearl made him feel uneasy. He preferred tools that he could keep a grip on, like knives. They kept killing personal and controlled, and Ruben valued control above all else.

Akira's eyes stalked his every measured step across the bridge. "You may want to hurry," he said, sounding faintly amused. "She's struggling out there."

It took every ounce of willpower to maintain a steady pace. "I want for nothing," Ruben declared, and for the first time in a long time the words rang false.