2044

Ally Fae / LUCAS Gray

They landed with a rough impact just above the outskirts of the city. They landed just after the edge of the bonelands—unaware of the situation they avoided. They bounced as the bike’s back wheel kick flared them forward another twenty feet before the wheels slowed to a final stop. The bike looked like it was about to fall apart.

Laven, LUCAS, and Ally stood, sore from their landing, but otherwise okay as the bike had taken the brunt of the abuse.

“You mind if I stand here a second and kiss the ground?” Jace had appeared by Ally’s side. “I can’t believe I made it through,” he wiped imaginary sweat off his brow.

“Yeah yeah your humor is noted,” Ally said. “But I get what you mean. My body still feels like it’s shaking.”

“We were extremely lucky to avoid crashing even a little before—” LUCAS began. “The heat index of the land back there is…astronomically higher than where we are now,” he pointed out the bone-white land that stretched out behind them. “I think the bike would have fused with the land on contact and lit aflame with us on board.”

“That is a pleasant thought,” Laven said. “Well, that there seems to be our destination,” she nodded up toward the sign.

“ENFORAL,” Ally read. “Wonder what it means.”

Laven shrugged. “I always read it as Enfloral, and I keep thinking of those flowers with the thorns.”

“Thorns sounds pretty fitting if we have a mad king here,” LUCAS said.

“Well, let’s head inside and see if we can find someplace to get some food and a place to stay.”

“Shit,” Ally said. “I don’t have any money. I…everything I did have was…”

Back there, in the past.

LUCAS nodded, “I get it. If it makes you feel any better I’m flat broke too.” He smiled. It was attempting to be a comforting look.

“I’ve got enough to cover us,” Laven said. “Merc work pays pretty well,” she winked.

“Roshe and Bambo will catch up, won’t they?” LUCAS asked.

“Yeah, Bambo’s aware of the bonelands. There’s a tunnel dug out that people use to cross it.”

“A tunnel…that goes all that way under?” Ally asked.

“Yeah, must have taken years to get that fully carved out. That’s amazing the people that put that effort in.” Laven said. “Come on, they’ll make it soon. Probably a few hours from now. We can at least get a room for them.”

LUCAS chuckled. “Probably won’t be fond of having to share a room again.”

“They’re adults and can manage,” Laven said.

This made Ally laugh and the trio walked in through the gates. Ally looked around in awe as she saw how modern the city had looked. “This looks just like cities I used to live in,” she said. “I never got to explore them because the world turned over when I was so young—but…” she started to tear up. “Seeing people rebuild feels…it feels like things can return to normal.”

“I get what you mean,” Laven said. “It really would be a paradise if it didn’t have the looming threat of the emperor over it.”

“Yeah I guess that part is easy to overlook when you see something like this off the bat,” Ally said.

“Don’t feel down,” LUCAS said. “I guess that’s the intention.”

“Bingo,” Laven said.

They stopped when they reached the community board on the corner of Sprinton and Yaxley. Laven took the lead and looked through the papers and found an advertisement for a restaurant called Bake ‘N Brazier that set the hunger pangs off something fierce.

“Hey what’s this?” Ally stepped forward and started to read about the tournament of champions. “Oh, this is that tournament you were talking about, right?”

“Seems sign ups ended tonight. Huh, looks like it’s going to be going on tomorrow though—they have nothing but anticipation for getting their beloved tournament underway,” Laven said.

“I do think we should check it out—maybe we’ll get a lead there.” LUCAS said.

“That sounds good,” Laven said. “We should check out this place,” She waved the ad for the restaurant. “Sounds real filling,” she looked toward Ally.

She looked taken off guard, “Oh, uh yeah if you both want to go too.”

LUCAS laughed, “Up to you, I’m not going to be partaking in anything. I was actually going to break off to see if I could see if I could find Sophie.”

Laven nodded. “At least follow us to the restaurant so you know where to meet back up with us at.”

“Of course,” LUCAS said.

Laven looked the advert over once again before pinning it back up to the board. Ally turned but she froze as something flashed in her mind and doubled her over. She reached out a hand and reached against the board to support herself up. The world around her began to slow and she saw LUCAS and Laven reaching out to her. She even saw Jace erupting from behind her to catch her from behind, but it all slowed to a stop as the world shifted to a sepia tone.

Two figures stood in front of her outlined with golden-amber light looking at the same board they had not hours ago. Her face constricted and she felt her chest tighten. She couldn’t read the energy of one of the figures—it had such a foreign signature to anybody she had ever known…but the second figure—the woman.

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She saw herself but fourteen years older. The energy surged and she could tell she was so much stronger—so much harder than she of the now. It set a deep fear within her, and she returned to herself—breathing deeply and a harsh sweat coming over her. She landed against the community board and had to keep her focus from passing out.

“What happened?” LUCAS asked.

“Are you okay?” Laven asked.

“It’s her,” Jace said, grasping her from behind, an arm around to support her.

Ally looked back to him and nodded her head curtly.

LUCAS and Laven looked at each other and then back to Ally. “So she is here…beat us here even.”

“That is really unfortunate,” Laven said. It’s going to be infinitely harder to find her if she’s already here than if we were waiting for her to come.”

“There’s someone else with her…it wasn’t Sakonna. I couldn’t sense her anywhere. It was different…alien almost.”

“Alien?” Laven asked.

“I couldn’t recognize anything about the feeling I felt. It was completely unrecognizable.”

“Well, that’s great,” LUCAS said. “We should be on our guard; I think we should start moving now. I don’t have a good feeling about staying in one place for too long.”

The other two nodded as Jace faded from behind Ally. She pushed off from the community board and stabilized herself.

They continued down the path taking a left at the fork down Sprinton street until they came across the restaurant—the building itself hadn’t looked anything extra special, but LUCAS noticed the interior was decorated to be reminiscent of a dive bar. The building next to it certainly had looked much more impressive—it had large windows that scaled the stories of the building even though he couldn’t see what was inside. It looked like the sign outside showed it as some investigative firm.

“Meet us back here, okay?” Laven said. “Ally and I are going to be a little bit—it’s been quite a while since we’ve eaten, and I want to buy her a drink.” She turned to Ally, “Sorry, I should ask first, would you want one?”

“I could use one,” Ally said. “Moving forward fourteen years earns me one,” she said.

Laven smiled. “Excellent. We’ll meet up here when we’re done.”

LUCAS nodded. “If you want to give me some I can get our rooms ready—I’m seeing there’s a motel nearby, Hilltop it’s called.”

Laven nodded and dug in her purse and handed a chunk over. “Give Roshe and Bambo their own rooms. That’ll be four rooms total. Could do to spread some good tidings.”

“Got it,” LUCAS nodded. “Enjoy the food and drink.”

They parted ways and LUCAS exited the restaurant and took a step to the side and leaned against the restaurant’s exterior. He crossed his legs to support himself up and thought out to Levi, “Hey, we’re here where I think Sophie is. What’s the word?”

“She’s changed her name—she isn’t going by Sophie Terrius anymore,” Levi said. “She works as an investigative journalist for a news firm she owns. It’s called—”

LUCAS had barely heard what Levi was saying as he looked to the side and saw the sign for the building next door, “Levi…is her new name Sherry Bogard?”

“Why…yes, how did you know?”

“You’ll never believe this. I just dropped the girls off at a restaurant next fucking door.”

“What are the chances?” Levi asked.

“I don’t know but I’m not feeling great about them. Keep looking for anything I’d like to know.”

“Got it.”

LUCAS started to book it for the front doors to the firm and reached for the handle, pulling it and…locked.

Fuck.

He sensed recent heat signatures in the building and realized he must have just missed her. He had no clue where she went to, so he figured he’d have to try again when they were back open. “Damn it Levi, I just missed her. The place is closed for the night.”

“Shoot, that sucks. Okay, I’ll keep trying here through the night.”

“No, it’s fine. You can take a break. I am thankful for the help. I didn’t mean to make you work so hard.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve had a lot of time where I wasn’t doing anything. I’m good to keep going.”

“Okay, take it easy. I’m going to instead get us some rooms for the night.”

Levi didn’t respond, so LUCAS continued down the street as he came close to the Hilltop Motel. He opened the door and stepped inside. The interior definitely wasn’t as nice as the restaurant’s, but it would work for what they needed. The guy behind the counter had a bored expression on his face as he flipped through a magazine. LUCAS could have sworn he had a spittle of drool starting to form.

“I’d like to reserve four rooms please, preferably near each other if possible.”

The guy looked up and his eyes in that moment looked more lifeless than a lizard’s. “Get out of here kid. I don’t do pranks.”

“I’m not a kid. I’m serious.”

“Yeah yeah, real funny. Come back with your parents then we’ll talk about it.” He resumed looking at his magazine.

LUCAS sighed. “Fine, you know what? Sure you don’t want our business. We’ll go somewhere else.”

“I’m so threatened,” the guy said, monotone.

LUCAS headed back out the door and went on pace back to the restaurant. There were plenty of places in the area they could go to, but the dumb look on that clerk’s face had irritated him something fierce. He almost wanted a drink just to fit in with the other two.

He found Ally and Laven sitting together at a table, laughing at a joke one of them had told. Laven saw him as he entered and she waved him over. He nodded and walked past the other patrons and he took an open chair next to Laven.

“Oh, that was fast, what’s up?” Laven asked. She took a swig of a large glass that had been filled with a neon blue liquid. It looked to be some form of margherita.

“Well, I’ve got good news and annoying news. Good news is I located Sophie.”

“What? No way, that was so fast,” Ally said.

“She works for the investigative firm next door to this very restaurant.”

“What? Oh, that…Sherry place with the large windows?”

LUCAS nodded. “Yup. She owns the place. She’s Sherry Bogard. Changed her name after the Roulette Game—I think in part to heal and in part to hide from Arctic Systems and Sakonna.”

“Arctic…?” Ally asked.

“Basically Sakonna.” LUCAS said. “It’s part of the longer story of my involvement. But it makes sense she’d change her name. It’s just…I think I just missed her—the place is locked up for the night. I think we’ll have to try again tomorrow.”

“Oh, okay that’s not the worst thing, if we go to that hilltop place we should be able to catch her first thing in the morning,” Laven said, taking another sip, then moving to eat one of the slices of quesadilla on her plate. She made a sound of delight when she bit into it.

“We may need to find another motel. There’s a dumb kid behind the counter who wouldn’t let me reserve a room because he thinks I’m a kid.”

“What?” Ally asked. “I look like more of a kid than you do. What even…”

“That’s fucked up,” Laven said. “Yeah, fuck him. We’ll go somewhere else.” She bit into her quesadilla again and took a swig of her drink.

LUCAS busted out laughing. It concerned the other two who looked at him before saying anything further. “I’m sorry,” he said, chuckling still. “It just…this is the weirdest obstacle I’ve ever faced, and it just caught me off guard.”

His laughter was infectious. The other two joined in and they laughed into the night.