LUCTUS
KELLY
“She's not dead,” Jarasax said sullenly.
Kelly didn't stop passing out the drinks. “Yes she is. The fact that her body is still running around is irrelevant.”
George took his mug with a nod. “The boss is right and you know it. We have to accept that she's gone and move on. Nothing else for it.”
Alex held up their glass. “To Katherine. Best sniper I ever met. First to fall to the screamers.”
“To Kat,” everyone muttered, as they clinked their glasses together and drank.
Everyone got used to death pretty quick in Domina. Kelly was actually the fourth child her parents had, but all three of her older brothers had died by the time she had reached grade school. Her younger sibling was sent away before they could meet the same fate. It only got worse if you decided to join a subculture or Necessarius. Kat was hardly the first friend Kelly had lost since deciding to follow Butler.
“Kelly?” Sax said gently. “You all right there?”
She shook her head to clear out the cobwebs. “Yeah, I'm just... did Kat have any family?”
“No,” Alex said as they sipped their drink. Kelly noticed that they had the exact same haunted look in their eyes that she did. “Orphan, and her matron is dead. Her file said she was always a loner, so I doubt we're going to have anyone calling to reclaim her things.”
Kelly rubbed her forehead. “Yeah... that sounds about right.” Sounded like pretty much every 'sarian she had ever spoken to, actually. This was not a profession for people with happy home lives. “She have an apartment or something?”
“Something like that,” someone said. They all turned to see a massive giant guarding the door not three feet away from our table. He was a Thor, if the hammer tattooed on his bicep was any indicator. When they all just stared at him, he shrugged. “You're talking about Kat Lisbon, the fel anthro, right? She had a room upstairs.”
Kelly glanced sideways at Alex. “Is that why you picked this bar?”
They grinned as they took another sip, but didn't say anything.
She sighed and turned back to the bouncer. “Could you take us there? She was involved in some sensitive things, and we need to make sure nothing, you know... gets out.” With their luck, she'd have a journal explaining in full detail everything she had done for Necessarius ever since she joined, and some smug Satanist or Nessian would find it.
He shrugged. “Sure. It's a bit slow right now.” He turned to the bartender. “I'll be right back.”
The Thor led them upstairs without another word, and they had to scramble to catch up. He obviously wasn't the type to wait around, but some warning would have been nice.
“Watch your step,” he said as they stepped onto the third floor. “There was a spill here earlier.” He gave the yellow wet floor sign a wide berth.
“Oh, yeah, sorry about that,” a sweet female voice called from down the corridor. “Dropped some raspberry juice.”
Kelly turned to see Elizabeth Greene striding forward, her golden eyes nearly glowing in the dark, her smile wide and guileless.
They hadn't officially met, but the retinue had glanced through her file when they found out she was a known associate of the Paladins. There wasn't much information. She was a voice actress, and she had lots of friends. That was about it. No one really cared enough to write more.
“Miss Greene,” Kelly said politely. “Hello there. I didn't realize you would be here.”
She quirked her head. “I'm sorry, have we met?”
Kelly held out her hand to shake. “My mistake. I'm a friend of Derek's. He speaks quite highly of you, and he has a few pictures. I'm Kelly.”
The girl shook her hand with a surprisingly firm grip. “Well, Miss Kelly, don't let me stop you from...” She waved her free hand. “Whatever it is you're doing.” She turned to the giant escorting them, and they exchanged a few quick words in Norwegian. Then Lizzy grinned and headed downstairs. “See you all later.”
Once she was gone, George shook his head. “That girl is too trusting for her own good.”
The Thor raised an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”
George barked out a laugh. “Well, she trusts you, for one.”
Kelly ignored the giants. She was sure there was some amusing story about how the two met, nearly killed each other, and became friends, but she was hardly in the mood for it. She just wanted to get this over with.
“This it?” she asked when she found the door that looked right. It had a kitten face carved from wood nailed under the peephole, so she figured it was a pretty good guess.
The bouncer nodded. “Yeah. Just give me a second.” He fumbled with a massive keychain at his belt. After a minute, he found the right key, and the door swung open with the soft grind of mostly-oiled hinges.
Kelly wasn't sure what she was expecting, but Kat's room turned out to be as Spartan as her sniper reputation would suggest. The room itself was pretty small, including the big walled-off chunk to the right, behind a door which presumably hid the bathroom. In fact, the room seemed a bit bigger than most hotel rooms, likely because Kat had removed the bed and replaced it with a small bedroll in the corner, next to the sliding glass door to the balcony.
Kelly brushed her hair back. “Alex, it's your show.”
“Right,” they said. They clapped their hands together. It had been a while since they really got to put their tracker skills to use. “Normally, I'd put George to work on the beds, but we don't seem to have to worry about that.” They pointed to a heavy-looking dresser, maybe four feet tall. It was probably where the TV usually went, but there wasn't one. “Go through that, see what you find. Ignore the clothes. Sax, check the balcony and the bed area. Kelly, I think you and I should be in charge of the bathroom. We—”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Alex,” Jarasax said, tone warning. “This isn't a smash and grab, or a search. Just... take it slow.”
Alex held up their hands. “Sorry. Just forgot for a second there. Be careful, everyone.”
Kelly sighed and walked into the bathroom. It was only slightly more luxurious than the rest of the place, probably because Kat hadn't figured out how to remove the small bathtub in the corner. But other than a single extra-large bottle of shampoo, there was nothing. No perfumes or bath salts or scented candles.
She really should have expected as much.
“Hey guys,” George called from the other room. “Take a look at this.”
She strode out of the bathroom, pushing past their escort still guarding the door to the apartment. George had flipped the dresser bottoms-up.
Kelly sighed. “George, didn't you hear Sax? Don't treat this as a raid.”
“I'm not. But there's writing and stuff too, and this was the easiest way to read it.”
She rubbed her forehead and stepped forward to take a closer look. He was right. There was some sort of strange writing in an alphabet she didn't recognize carved directly into the thin wood making the bottom of the dresser.
“I found something too,” Sax said, holding up a small white letter envelope. “Under the cot.” Kelly plucked it out of his hand and opened it.
It had a small single-use flash drive inside, the kind used to store viruses. Well, they had originally been designed to help protect copyright, letting customers download the data once before burning out, but it had taken all of thirty seconds for hackers to find a better use for it.
Kelly held it up, frowning. It was unlabeled. “Sax, did Kat have anything to do with hacking? Better yet, did you give this to her?”
“No on both counts,” he said. “She was on friendly terms with a few other Blood-Doused Hunters, but I don't remember anyone ever mentioning her needing help with hacking.” He scratched his chin. “She did ask someone to fix her tablet one time, though.”
“Who helped her? Maybe they know what this is.”
“Nemeni, I think.”
The Thor choked. “Nemeni? As in the warlord of the Blood-Doused Hunters?”
Jarasax ground his teeth. “We are not a culture, Thor. We don't have warlords. Dame Nemeni is our leader, but—”
The Thor waved his hand. “Yes, yes, no one cares. What was the Paragon of the clan doing with the friend of a low-ranking traitor?”
Said low-ranking traitor spoke up. “Unlike the cultures, changelings are not kicked out if we join Necessarius. Nemeni is actually very supportive—”
“Can we focus here?” George asked in exasperation, as if he hadn't been the one to cause the derail. “I still don't understand what's written here.”
“The big guy is right,” Alex said, slapping George on the back. “The burn drive is probably just a virus she bought for an emergency. Jarasax can ask Dame Nemeni if anyone really cares.” They leaned forward, squeezing their head between Kelly and George to get a better look at the bottom of the dresser. “What's really interesting is all this.”
Jarasax looked at it a little sideways. “It's Gaelic. I think.”
Kelly nodded. “That makes sense.”
He chuckled. “Not really. No one uses it. Haven't for...” He whistled. “Centuries, probably. Now, they just use a modified Latin alphabet like everyone else.”
Kelly brushed her hand through her hair. “Of course. So you can't read it?”
“Well...” He leaned forward. “I can make out bits and pieces. But my Irish isn't that good in the first place, and add in the Gaelic on top, it may as well be chickenscratch.” He straightened up and shook his head. “Gonna need a real translator for this.”
“Well, that's easy enough,” the Thor said. Kelly turned to see him grinning. “Lizzy!” he called. He added something in Norwegian.
Lizzy strode in, glaring at him. Normally she was the tallest in the room, but next to the giant she just looked like a skinny child. She asked him something in Norwegian.
“You breathe loudly,” he said, using English for the benefit of the rest of them. “So you hear everything?”
She brushed her hair back and managed to smile. “Of course. I'd be more than happy to help.”
Kelly raised an eyebrow. “You can read Gaelic?”
“It's not really that difficult,” she said. “The alphabet is mostly the same, just different shapes.”
Alex moved aside to let her in. “That can be said of every language, Miss Greene.”
She grinned at the angel. “And now you know why I'm so good with them.”
Kelly adjusted her daygoggles. “Just... tell us what it says.”
After a rather annoying amount of time, they determined that it was a triple-layered book code using both the English and Irish languages, and, separately, their alphabets as well. Kelly thought it was a ridiculous amount of effort to go to for a coded note, especially since it seemed to be left by Kat for them. The sun had started to peek over the horizon by the time they had it sorted out.
“'Fey scheming together,'” Sax read aloud. “'Investigating now. Tapped their comms before they switched, ask Little Sister zero zero nine nine eight two seven.'”
“I'll just let myself out...” Lizzie said as she walked away. The Thor bouncer had left hours ago. Kelly barely noticed.
“LS0099827. That's one of MC's programs, right?”
Jarasax nodded. “Definitely. Not sure which one, of course, but we can figure it out. I'm more interested in why Kat didn't just give the info to MC directly.”
Alex shrugged. “Paranoid, maybe? The fey are pretty good at rooting out spies. And if they're working together now, it's even worse.”
The fey courts had some... interesting relationships with each other. The seasons, directions, and Day/Night fought each other constantly, but at the same time they respected the boundaries they had created for themselves. Night's Southern Autumn may as well not exist anywhere but the south of the city, and she disappeared completely during the non-fall months.
But if they were actually, actively working together, that meant...
Well, nothing, probably. The fey were crazy. They weren't likely to toss fifteen years of paranoid psychosis to the side just at the drop of a hat. In fact, if they were trying to work together, the most likely result is that they'd end up killing each other.
Kelly shook her head. “Whatever. We'll see. I'll take this to Clarke, see what he thinks.”
Sax raised an eyebrow. “Not MC?”
Kelly shrugged. “Kat decided not to tell her, for whatever reason. We have to respect that until we know more. Clarke will have the expertise to check whatever data she dumped in the Little Sister. Then we'll know more.”
Alex pulled out their phone. “I'll call—” They frowned. “That's weird. I missed a call from MC.” They moved the phone to their ear to listen to the message. After a moment, they cursed. “Dawn and blades—I gotta go. A job came up.”
George grunted. “For just you?”
“Yeah...” Alex said. “I asked MC to call me the second anything came up. I didn't think this would take so long... sorry guys, I really have to go.”
“It's all right,” Kelly said. “We'll be fine.”