Serial Saturday: "Clan of Outcasts" Season 3, Part 19 "Shields"

Part 19

"Shields"

Azelie curled her body into a ball while using her Gift to will the crawlies and vermin away from her. There were no windows in this deep, dark space, no way of knowing how long she had been there. The only light came from lamps strung across the ceiling so high that only Trev could reach them.

She mentally berated herself for thinking that the connection they shared upon first meeting meant that she could trust him. He had led her to what he called “a safe place”, and she had followed, thinking that he was merely showing her his lodgings, and after that she could return to sunlight and open spaces and fresh air and friends.

The moment they reached this underground burrow of sorts, though, Trev had closed the door and refused to let her leave. He came and went as he pleased; he told her that this was because he knew his way around. Trev maintained that he couldn’t let Azelie wander on her own because he didn’t want her to get lost in the apparently vast tunnel system under the White Castle. While Trev was gone, all she could do was sit or walk around. The only person to hear and respond to her thoughts was Trev.
Even that puzzled her. Ever since her Gift manifested, Azelie had always heard someone’s thoughts, multiple people, whether she knew them or not. Since meeting him, however, there seemed to be some external force muffling her ability--almost like trying to hear voices when one's ears are stuffed with cotton. She was certain that if she could just reach someone she knew, she would be able to let them know that she was safe, but hidden away and trapped... but as matters stood, there was no one. Her only hope lay in the fact that someone, at some point, might miss her.
"At least Jaran, of all people, might notice my absence a little!" she said aloud.

The heavy beat of Trev's footsteps vibrated through the ground beneath her. Azelie hid her frustration and braced herself for the onslaught of thoughts that she could not escape, mentally nor physically.
"Key, Key... Gate, Key... Far Key... Where Key? Key up, Key under... Crow needs Key... Crow moving, Gate locks the Key unlocks, Crows flying to the Gate can't get in closed Gate gets the Key to open... Where Key? Crow is angry... Where? Where? Trev help Crow. Crow cries Key! Key! Key!"

Trev stomped into the room. His gaze landed on her, and his thoughts quieted.
"Greetings, Queen," his mental voice rumbled with a deep, warm, and friendly tone. Part of her wanted to regret telling him that she was Queen in an attempt to convince him to let her go--but he was always very respectful about addressing her.

"Hello, Trev," she said. "May I leave now?" She had asked him every time he returned.
Every time, his answer was the same. "Queen is safe. Key is safe. Trev help, find Key, help. Trev is not found. Trev alone knows the path. Queen stays. Queen does not get lost, get hurt. Trev help Queen be safe."

Azelie drew upon the ire rising within her. She was done letting him just walk in and out on her while nothing changed! She stood, tilting her head back to look up at Trev. "I don't want to stay!" she insisted. "You don't know anything about me, and I don't know anything about you--that's not safe at all!" She placed a hand on his forearm, pouring as much sympathy into her touch as she could possibly muster--but it was like blowing on a stone wall. Her power of influence, the thing that made her the Paragon of perfection that everyone adored... all of this had no effect on the gigantic man.
"Queen must stay. No one must know," Trev insisted, gently lifting her hand off his arm.
He stared at her until she backed away and returned to the stool he'd provided for her to sit upon. Azelie continued to stare at him. "Who are you?" she asked. "You are so much taller than any man I've ever met--are you a giant?"

"I am Trev," he repeated, the way he did whenever she pressed him about his origins, or his past, or any connections his thoughts hinted at.
Try as she might, Azelie couldn't delve any deeper into his thoughts than the incessant ramblings of keys, crows, and gates. One touch from Kaidan, and we'd probably have his entire life's story, she thought to herself. Azelie made one last desperate attempt, hoping that the mere thought of Kaidan would somehow reach him, wherever he might be--but to no avail. The best she could do was wait in that dim space, thinking about the twists and turns she'd taken behind Trev's broad back, and sending as many telepathic distress signals as she could manage.

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Up in the Royal Library, Lizeth and Nyella pored over Kaidan's notes and scattered tomes, trying to connect the threads of his disjointed research. Javira tried her best to help, decoding Kaidan's special shorthand when needed, and providing insight where she could. Nyella, her psyche humming with the tincture of Kaidan's Gift, skimmed her fingers over every single item on the table, drawing out the histories and memories trapped within, countless visions running one after another. After witnessing an account of a particularly intense battle, she slumped into the nearby armchair, gasping for breath.

"No more!" she begged hoarsely. "I can't take much more of this!"
"What are you all doing in here?" Aurelle's voice resounded from the doorway. She seemed much stronger now, less flushed and drowsy. Her eye fell on Javira and she glared at the willowy redhead. "I thought I told you that you aren't supposed to come here."
Javira smirked. "Well, they needed someone with intimate knowledge of my brother--who better than his twin sister?"
"It's true, she's not disturbing anything," Lizeth supplied. "Nyella and I are trying to pick up where Kaidan left off in his research into the Crow Queen."

Aurelle frowned. "Why the sudden interest in the Crow Queen? I think I've told you Kaidan's research has been pretty all over the place--"
Nyella gestured to a tidy pile of scrolls. "That's why we used your Gift first, to organize all the information."
The white-haired Illusionist clenched her fists, feeling like she'd been caught out in her underwear somehow. "What exactly do you mean by used my Gift?" she demanded.
Lizeth held up the flask. "Don't worry, it's completely artificial and very temporary. That's the experiment I've been working on for several months now. I'll explain in a moment. You should see what we've found!" She handed Aurelle the scroll.

Aurelle took it, and without even opening it, she flicked her wrist and a flurry of glowing "paper" holograms swirled around her, imparting their information into her mind. As she finished with each scroll, she picked up the next, until she'd been through the entire pile and knew everything that they knew so far.

The Chief Archivist titled her head. "So... it all starts with someplace called Gybralltyr, which was essentially a home for Juros and the other Abnormals when they wanted to directly interact with mortals?"
Lizeth nodded. "And the Crow Queen seems to be this woman, Queen Mallory, who rose to power while Balwyn was still a young man, and she's been searching for Gybralltyr for some reason--"
"Nobody knows," Nyella supplied in a beleaguered tone. "I checked."
"But it's been her life's mission to find it and acquire the Key to gain access to Gybralltyr and from there, all of Justicia."
A particular passage sprang to life in front of Aurelle's eyes. The sense of dread settled deep in her gut. "And the Key is..." she prompted, looking around at the others.

"Kaidan seemed to think it probably has something to do with the amulet Princess Zayra found," Javira answered. "Whether or not it is actually the Key itself, that would explain why there is such heavy magic attached to it, to render it and anyone who touched it invisible and intangible--it does seem the sort of thing an Abnormal would deal with, doesn't it?"
Lizeth shrugged. "They do function on a different plane of existence than we do--perhaps they thought that the only ones who were going to interact with the Key would be other Abnormals, who wouldn't want to be found or detected by mortals."

Aurelle scowled and started pacing. "So if the Key was supposed to remain in Abnormal possession--how did it end up being delivered to the Castle? And if the location of the Gate is supposed to be this massive ancient secret, how are we going to break the enchantment and bring Zayra back to us?" Aurelle stopped and looked around. "Weren't you supposed to be working on that device that could help us at least know where in the Castle she is?" She raised an eyebrow at Lizeth.
The scientist and healer rolled her eyes. "Oh, I forgot you didn't know... Zayra isn't in the Castle anymore."

Aurelle stiffened and stared at the redheaded woman. "She isn't? Where else could she possibly go?"
All conversation stalled as Javira suddenly lurched out of the chair with a pained cry. "Ugh!"
When Lizeth came over to help her back to her feet, she felt a cold, clammy flush on Javira's skin. "What's wrong?" she asked, her healer's training racing through possible causes and their corresponding herbal remedies.
Javira's breath came short and quick. "I just... Something's happening in the garden!"

The four women came bursting out of the Library, catching the attention of King Jaran as he came down the hall.
"Ah! Ladies, have you seen--"
"Not now!" Javira snapped, and they wordlessly headed toward the gardens behind the Castle.

Sure enough, the tactile-sensitive plants that Javira had set up as an early warning in the place where she had suspected some strange activity were reacting wildly, spraying seeds in all directions and sending out shoots and vines up and down, creating a large round hole in midair--a portal, or gateway, by all appearances.
"What in the world is that?" Jaran muttered under his breath.

The light bent and swirled in the middle of the gate, and it seemed reality itself split down the middle in a blinding flash, admitting three people before closing up again into unaltered space. Where there had once been empty grass, now stood Velora, and two men: one dressed like a ranger, and one still crusted with dirt and blood from his imprisonment in the dungeons not too long ago.
Javira recognized the third man immediately from her connection with Kaidan. Her eyes flashed. "You!" she snarled, sending a handful of vines snaking out from under the ground to wrap around his wrists and ankles in the space of a blink.
Velora held out her hand. "No, stop! He's with me," she said. "Juros has pardoned him for what he attempted to do in the name of the one he served. Raedyn is officially under my protection."

Jaran was still trying to figure out how three people who were nowhere near the City could suddenly materialize within the Castle walls. "What in the world is going on?" he demanded. "What is the meaning of this?"
Velora bowed. "Your Higness," she said. "I come bearing important news from the Princes of Elvendom. It concerns the dark Queen of Crows, whose name is Queen Mallory, a ruler from a neighboring kingdom."

"Mallory?" Aurelle spoke up. "That's the Crow Queen! She's the one who is after the Key to the Gate of Gybralltyr!"

Velora nodded. "And it seems that these terrible things that have befallen The Realm recently might all be connected, and at her behest."

"Queen? Wait a minute... That reminds me," Jaran looked back toward the towers and spires of the White Castle with a frown. "I seem to have lost my wife within the last few hours or so. Has anybody seen Azelie recently?"
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Three things prompted Denahlia awake in the hold beside the galley of the Brigadier's Ransom at dawn the next morning: The creaking and sloshing of the tide pushing against the hull of the anchored ship; the rancid reek of old seawater bilge, spoiled remnants of food, and unwashed bodies; and the subtle vibration of her subcutaneous implants coming back online.

"Connection established," the voice command resonated through the bones in her ear, inaudible by anyone else. "Commencing data transfer."

Denahlia sat up and rubbed her eyes, stretching her arms over her head as she re-oriented herself. The cot beside her, once occupied by the young girl who could produce a glittering suit of armor at will, lay tossed but empty. This didn't surprise Denahlia in the least. Falling asleep in the stinking, musty, constantly-shifting environment proved a challenge that had taken her almost the entire night. It seemed she had only just transitioned into unconsciousness by the time everything came together to awaken her. She shrugged off the last of her fatigue and stood up from her sleeping pad to venture onto the deck to see if she could locate the source of the signal currently transmitting to her implant.
Having her implants back online aided her in being able to navigate the decks undetected when she wanted to. She heard the soft proximity alert when the radar detected movement within earshot, and she could at last find the rhythm of the swaying decks to maintain her footing and time her movements to arrive at the uppermost deck, just over the prow, without calling the attention of the few pirates who had been up since before sunrise to tend to the boat while its principal crew slept.

Denahlia glanced toward the pinkish-purple sky, searching as if she could see whatever it was that had connected her with her databases back in The Realm. When she looked back toward the edge of the small section of dock, she could see the small, dark shape curled against the dock's edge.
Quilla looked up in surprise when Denahlia sank down to sit next to her, but said nothing.

Denahlia spoke first. "Yeah, I remember the days when I would find somewhere near-impossible for anybody but me to reach, just to ensure that I could sort through my thoughts without being interrupted." She glanced at the lines of braids along the girl's scalp. "I did it most often when someone I didn't know caught me doing something a normal human being shouldn't be able to do."

The young girl's full lips retreated, pressing together into a line as Quilla worked her jaw. Finally, she sighed. "Guess I forgot that the Captain picked you three up because you had special things you all could do," she remarked, adding, "like me," after a pause. She shook her head. "I'm just not used to not being the only one who can... you know." She shrugged.

Denahlia nodded. "Where I come from, we call them Gifts, and they're all unique. Kaidan, the one with curly hair, can retrieve memories from anyone or anything he touches, and B--Harlock," Denahlia corrected herself quickly, "can manipulate water and control it with his hands."
Quilla tilted her head to one side, regarding Denahlia in much the way a bird does when it finds something interesting. "And what about you? What's your, um, gift?"

Denahlia smirked a little. "Well, it's not really anything magical--I have the ability to interact with machines, and I can change the wavelength of light that my eyes can see." Two years of trying to explain technology to Realmish citizens who didn't even understand invisible physics had taught Denahlia to simplify her description of the implants she wore. Although there were a few pieces that functioned with digital technology--such as the datascreens displaying information around the White Castle--the Realm's scientific community had already dismissed it as "natural magic", and very few questioned it nor experimented with any sort of advancement for it.
This description made sense to Quilla, and she nodded. "So, kind of like my brother, only his skill was pure magic. He too could see things that weren't there, and make objects move on their own."
Denahlia thought back to Mage Korsan, the bearded man who never gave up on restoring balance between Gifted and unGifted in The Realm. "Your brother was a mage?"

"Yes," Quilla said, relaxing and leaning back. She crossed her legs, letting her hands drop into her lap. "It happened to both of us at about the same time, only we didn't know it. We were in separate places when our powers first manifested. One moment, we're both completely normal people, and the next, I have this armor that spontaneously appears on my skin when something tries to stab or damage me in any way, and Risyn could manipulate this dark energy using spells and focus tools..." she faltered as she saw the change in Denahlia's expression. "Or at least, that's how he described the sort of magic he used. His eyes would glow purple when he used it, that's how I knew about it."
Denahlia's jaw dropped as she choked, "Risyn is your brother?"

Quilla furrowed her brow in confusion. "Yes, that's what I just said. We boarded this ship together three years ago, when he rescued me from a manor owned by a man who would..." Quilla stopped and shuddered, wrapping her arms around her. "Well, anyway," she left the sentence unfinished and moved on, "I had my armor on most of the time while I worked there. Risyn got me out, got me away from them and wanted to bring me with him as he journeyed to find a seasoned Mage who could train him--but Captain Haggard brought him along on a raid, and something went wrong so they..." She choked, and tears beaded at the corners of her eyes. "Captain had him tossed overboard in a dinghy, and kept me as a galley maid and cook." She cast her gaze to the horizon. "He promised me that if we ever got separated, he'd use his power to find me again, and the thought of that gives me hope, but..." She sighed and drew up her knees to rest her chin upon them. "It's probably silly. There's no way he could find me if he hasn't by now."

Denahlia wanted to laugh--and they thought that Beren was the only person with any connection to Haggard! "He did almost find you," she blurted. "Just the other night, when Haggard attacked the Realmish Harbor--Risyn serves the King as the Royal Mage, after the previous Mage, a man named Korsan, trained him for a year to control his magic."

Quilla's eyes bulged. "You're joking!" she gasped.

Denahlia grinned. "I'm really not! And me and my friends will promise to keep you safe and bring you with us when we reunite with our friends." She looked up and nodded as Beren and Kaidan climbed onto the deck in the light of the rising sun. "You aren't alone anymore."

Quilla glanced from one face to the other. "Really?" she asked in a small voice. "You would do that for me?"

Beren coughed, having heard most of the exchange from his sleeping quarters just below them. "Of course; you're one of us, and at the very least, you deserve to be with your brother."

"Haggard thought he could cripple the Realm by taking the three of us away, but we'll defend you," Kaidan assured her. "All three of us."

Beren gave a little cough. "Actually, make that four of us."

Denahlia stiffened as her sensors picked up another signature--but her eyes still saw only four people, including Quilla.
The Gifted girl asked the question for her, "What do you mean four? Haggard only took three prisoners."
Kaidan's eyes narrowed suspiciously at Beren. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Voices groaning and grunting at one another multiplied as the crew awakened to begin the day, and the privacy of the moment slowly dissolved. The four huddled close as Beren explained, "Last night, I was able to confirm that a certain someone very important to me managed to smuggle her invisible self onto the ship."
Denahlia hissed under her breath, "Zayra? She's here?"
Beren nodded. "She's going to help us escape--"

His words were drowned out by a chorus of croaking blackbirds as an entire flock swirled about the ship, descending in a cloud onto the main deck below them. The mass cleared just as Captain Haggard emerged from his quarters at the ships stern--and in their wake stood a woman dressed in a shimmery black dress.

Kaidan recognized her immediately and clapped Beren's shoulder. "The Crow Queen!" he hissed in the Prince's ear.

At the same time, the Captain greeted her with a sweeping bow, doffing the tricorn hat from his head. "Queen Mallory, to what do I owe the great honor of your presence, Milady?"

She spoke, her voice edgy and cold. "Captain Haggard, I've grown tired waiting for a report from you--so I've decided to investigate your progress myself."

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