Summer bounded forward as a rushing child when Illus stepped out onto the shining mountaintop where he met Ciun each morning. Their days would often begin with a light touch of the hands to warm her up for some casual human contact. When he had eaten, stretched, and gathered his supplies, she would tap him into the air, sending him down to the lake’s edge so he could fish and spend the day away from the fox.
The fox could not venture to the far side of the mountain where the lake calmly rippled and waved, where turkeys lived around the lake’s vicinity, and most importantly where the fishing was much better. Illus restored a significant amount of weight over the summer, nearing the size he arrived in. He climbed up the mountain every day despite Ciun’s offers to flick him up to the summit.
Between fishing, conversation, and enjoying the tranquil scene together, they practiced holding hands. Illus felt a little silly doing it at first, walking around with Ciun, joined at an extended arm’s reach by one finger. Yet gradually that finger became two, and two became three, then three became a loose pancake hold which lasted for weeks until Ciun’s jitters calmed enough to interlace her fingers with his- from a healthy full arm’s extension.
The narrow shore along the lake provided enough shade and cover that they had little need to venture to the ruin side of the mountain. That did not stop Ciun from taking him all across the ruins to show off her bounty. Thousands of years spent cultivating pears led to only two species surviving after the fox’s meddling. The potatoes proved more durable. She pulled up large brown potatoes, little red ones, and sweet potatoes, each having their own different variations that Illus tried and failed to remember as Ciun rambled on about them. She loved the bees especially, harvesting honey by calming them with mirages of roses, pear trees, and honeysuckle. A stewardess of the land she had become, friend of all the creatures who escaped the fox and made home in the ruins. He found himself lost in listening to her gush about her hard work growing a modest paradise in the ruins, one that could easily sustain her and those trapped.
And when she had little to say, Illus told her of the new world she would be stepping into. The cities rising on shorelines and train tracks spreading across the prairies. Smog in the sky and technology she had never imagined. Though it was far from paradise, she became more eager to step into the new age- slowly, of course.
As their hand holds grew closer, so too did the fox. Illus knew Ciun was keeping a close eye on him despite the way she bounded through the ruins swaying their hands. He frequently encountered mirages and oddities in her personality, then instinctively tightened his grip on her hand. That usually indicated to her he was in need of an “I banish thee, fox.” And it always worked, their wordless system that naturally grew. Illus realized that as long as they were touching, the fox could only create mirages outside of Illus’s mind, never afflicting him with harsh emotions or false memories.
The poems danced through Illus’s mind in his alone time by the lake. When Ciun was away with her own business tending to the ruins, he mulled over them tirelessly. Carmonia’s records on the origins of the mask, the stone, the fox, and the blue bloods. He had pieced together that there was some love triangle between the moon, the comet, and the stars, in which the moon had trapped the comet and placed a keeper, and the stars sent the mask down, which was stolen and twisted.
The goal seemed obvious at first- to make a wish returning the comet stone to the comet. However, the more Illus pieced together the timeline and the overlapping magics, he hypothesized that even if the comet stone was returned, it wouldn’t undo the magic on the mask, so the fox and Ciun would remain imprisoned.
The fox, the lich, the keeper of the stone- or so Illus staked his bet on- had to be factored into the wish. The fox, who would feed on Ciun’s spirit if the mask’s curse was fulfilled. But the poems urged against freeing anyone.
“Lovers distanced by space and passage of time that no magick saves for life is escape. She, desperate to reclaim her stolen groom preserved in a vile curse only mortals may free.”
“This is the tale of all Imahken,” Illus spoke aloud, alone by the shore. “The moon, the comet, the stars, the fox, the stone, and the mask. To the moon is the fox. To the comet is the stone. To the stars is the mask. Is it a fairytale? Metaphor? Or heaven forbid, literal? The fox keeps the stone. The stone is the key. The fox cursed the mask. Ciun is imprisoned by the mask. Ciun imprisoned the fox with the stone. The fox stole the stone. The moon shackled the comet, and the stars want the comet back, but they’re trapped because of the mask, which they sent down to free the stone, which the fox cursed. And here I am back at the fox. If I ask to annihilate it all, or any negative request for that matter, the comet will turn me to stone presumably. Is there an overlap that I can exploit in a righteous request? If we even make it so far to retrieve the stone.” Illus smiled up at the sun. “Yet only a mortal can solve this.” He sighed, “and it had to be me.”
These became the exhausting musings he thought over as the summer slowly waned and fate crept closer. Ciun could say nothing, so he was alone in making the decision. One wish. One chance.
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Anilee rushed through the halls the moment she heard the knocker banging against the door. The mail slot clacked and paper swished onto the floor. Her elderly butler reached to retrieve the papers, but Ani had already pushed past him and tossed envelopes aside. One for her eldest brother, two for the youngest, none for the middle brother, and then the final letter was addressed to Anilee Uthman.
She ripped it open on the spot, desperately shredding the envelope to reveal the letter inside that would decide her fate, her last appeal for sponsorship to the closest officer to the Uthman family.
“Please, Miss Ani, allow me,” the butler held out his hand, but she ignored him.
“Dear Miss Uthman,” Anilee read. A smile crept up her cheeks. “Your return trip to discover the ruins of Imahken is bold, and we acknowledge that despite no physical evidence, the eyewitness testimony strongly favors a profitable endeavor.” Her smile began to fade. “However, in light of recent controversy and the ongoing investigation regarding Lieutenant Illus Hayshon, we feel postponing our sponsorship until the investigation is over is the option that favors all parties best. We sincerely hope that the investigation concludes with results showing integrity and honesty from all parties involved. We wish-”
Anilee screamed and ripped the letter in half, yanking on her hair.
“Miss Ani, please-” her butler reached out to take the letter.
“Don’t touch me!” She slapped her butler across the face, clumps of hair tangled in her fingers.
Her home, her inheritance, her clothes, her books. All of it was burning in her mind as she wailed on the butler who cared for her since birth.
“Miss Ani,” he calmly spoke, blocking his face while she punched him in the ribs, “please contain yourself, there are yet-”
She pushed him off balance and the remarkably resilient old man tumbled to his rear, groaning. Ani threw the papers in his face and yelled at him. “You didn’t write the letters well enough! You ruined everything for me, you worthless old sack! I never want to see you again!”
“Miss Ani,” he collected the papers and struggled to his feet, hobbling after her.
“Shut up!”
“Miss Ani, you may yet be able to organize a group!”
Anilee glared over her shoulder at him, her dark eyes filled with fury and greed. “Then say it already!”
“Miss Ani, I believe you need no sponsorship if you have lure enough to form a search party for Master Illus.”
“This isn’t for him! This is my expedition!”
“Regardless, Miss Ani, in your research, you recorded a section about a powerful mask. If-”
Anilee beamed, her smile returning on the instant. “Shut up! I know what to do!” She ran off to the library and collected the map that her and Illus had marked the search area for Imahken on.
Her butler sighed, retrieved the mail, then handed it off to a maid. He followed Anilee into a polished darkwood stagecoach with a pile of supplies in his arms. From clean cobblestones and painted mansions to gravel and disrepair. Ani scowled when she entered a pub that she didn’t care to read the name of. She only needed a rowdy military pub, and it was indeed rowdy. The door squealed open to drunken yelling and laughter. Haggard, tired, and grungy individuals filled the building. Tattooed and scruffy, the bartender wiped his sweaty bald head with the bar towel and then cleaned the counter with it, eying Anilee down the whole way.
Anilee grimaced back at him from beneath her wide-brimmed hat. “Attention, everyone in this-”
A man by the entrance unwittingly blew smoke into her face. In a fit of rage, she climbed atop a table. The bar suddenly fell quiet, interested in the display.
Ani sneered down her nose at them. “I have a lot of places to be, so this will be short. I need a party to assist in reaching the ruins marked on this map. I went there with another party, but they were too weak to handle the dangers present. So I ask you all, will you follow me?”
A man burped and several more laughed boisterously.
“Oy, oy!” The bartender shook his head. “Love, if you’re asking for a crew, you ought to have some money with you.”
“Your prize,” she retrieved a sketch, “is this mask.” The sketch depicted Ciun in the nightgown, though it was tighter and showed an excess of skin. Long legs and silky hair, she was far more buxom than reality, and Anilee drew it like that on purpose. “This woman is in the ruins, and she holds a magical mask that grants immense power. She is wily and difficult to catch, but that was because there were only four of us with few weapons. Whoever collects this mask claims its power, but also the woman.”
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The whole bar was silent, men eying each other to get a sense of what they all thought. Eager glances met skeptical glares, yet they weren’t saying anything.
“Not only that, but there is immense treasure around the ruins. Artifacts of magical power and gold. Even if you’re not the lucky one to win the mask, you will be met with ample riches.”
Anilee’s butler worriedly glanced around the room, noticing the hungry eyes of every man in the bar. Ani reveled in it. She tacked the sketch to the pub message board. On the paper was: Expedition to ruins for artifacts and gold. Troops needed. All welcome. Report with a month’s supplies to New Heraldsburg Train Station, Platform 9, at dawn of July 12th for briefing and departure.
For a last time, she glared down at everyone day-drinking in the pub, knowing that at least one would bite. She went to pub after pub, every time embellishing the story further. The mysterious blue woman went from a wily ghost to a damsel in distress, waiting for a man to steal her mask, claim her love, and earn eternal life. That seemed to get the best reactions, at least that’s what Anilee noticed. She saw no issues with talking up a few points here or there. Soon enough, the story spread like wildfire among bargoers and treasure hunters, all hearing different stories that enticed them even more. Promises of treasure and magic consumed the city’s attention.
Reporters wrote about the suspicious postings. They cautioned people until they learned it was connected to an ongoing investigation within the military. When they connected the Uthman scandal to the rumors of magic, it became a sensation. Everyone wanted to know how the mysterious masked woman was related to the disappearance of a young, capable intelligence officer. All eyes were on the Uthmans in that month leading up to the expedition.
The story reached Colonel Uthman the morning of May 30th when he was drinking his morning coffee with the Friday paper. Just as he began reading the story, fists aggressively beat against his door.
“One moment!” Colonel Uthman tried reading the paper as quickly as he could, but he was cut off by voices.
“Colonel Uthman!” It was the chief investigator, Captain Chitus, a short man with the aggression of a pitbull and the build of a barrel. “Sir!” His gruff voice yelled out. “This business cannot wait.”
Uthman grabbed his coat and opened the door to find Chitus and two other investigators holding the very same paper.
“Colonel,” Chitus sternly glared up at him, short blond hair and protruding gray eyes, “why am I finding out new details about an active military investigation from the press? And where are you off to so early.”
“Take an early lunch with me and we’ll both find out.”
Colonel Uthman brought the investigators right to the Uthman mansion. He slammed the front door open and called out so loud the entire house shook. “Anilee Grace Uthman! Report to the front door this instant!” His commanding and stern voice threatened to break for rage. When he heard nothing, he called out even louder, sending shivers down Chitus’s and the other investigators’ spines. “Anilee Grace Uthman! Report to the front door or you won’t have a room to hide in!”
Frantic footsteps banged against the floor above them. Uthman’s stern face slowly turned bright red. His brown eyes looked like they were about to burst from his head and his widow’s peak of blond hair was still a mess from ripping his beret off when he stepped in the door.
Trepidatious footsteps approached them, Anilee wide-eyed at the sight before her. She anxiously clutched the skirt of her casual puffy dress and curtsied to the men in the front door.
Uthman’s rumbling voice shot Ani to attention. “Why am I here right now, Anilee?”
She squeaked like a scared mouse. “Because of the flyers?”
His heavy boots echoed through the hallway. He stomped to Anilee and pushed the newspaper into her hands. “Tell me what the problem with this is.”
“Was I not allowed to talk about the expedition?”
“Wrong.”
She cowered beneath him, shrinking into her shoulders. “What is it, then?”
Uthman ordered Anilee’s eyes upward. “Look at me when I speak to you.” Only when her eyes met his did he continue. “Why is the investigation team coming to me with new information about an active investigation from the press, that you chose not to report to them?”
Tears flooded out of Anilee’s eyes. “Because I made it up to get people to make a return expedition! It’s true, we saw a woman that looked like her, but it was the fox’s hallucination! None of it is true, but my butler said I should lure capable men by saying there would be magic and wealth in the ruins!”
Uthman spotted his daughter’s usual deflection. “It’s reassuring to know my daughter takes orders from butlers. Noted. Then your butler will take some time away from you until you learn to direct yourself. You will have no butlers and no maids. You will make your own food and clean your own lodgings. If you-”
“But father, please-!”
Colonel Uthman’s temper broke and he yelled with his booming voice directly in Ani’s face. “I was not finished speaking!” Upon seeing her collapse into a crying mess, he continued. “All privilege you have lived with since you were a child will be revoked until you show that you can take care of yourself without inciting chaos in this house. You will live with your lie and face the consequences of swindling scoundrels into action.”
“Please!” Anilee heaved in a frenzy of tears, falling to her knees. “I didn’t take orders from him! I can take care of myself! Please, father, please!”
“Then show me you can, Anilee. This is your expedition. You’re an adult. Handle it.” He called out past her. “Kodius, relay this information to the rest of the house. Any dissent will result in revokement of the same privileges.”
His middle son, strikingly similar in appearance to the Colonel, though much younger, idly held a half-eaten apple in his hand while he watched the spectacle from the adjacent kitchen. “Um, of course, father.” He discreetly stepped away.
Colonel Uthman turned around and the investigators followed him out. The moment the door shut, Anilee screamed and cried and pounded the floor in a tantrum.
All of this was because of Illus, because he tried to kill her and she saved herself. She did nothing wrong, but everybody hated her. They were all just jealous that she discovered Imahken and got out alive. Tyza and Sator had to have lied to her father to make him hate her so much. So much that he would take away everything she worked so hard to keep, worked so hard to earn for years upon years of research. It was like Illus had stolen all the credit from her, used her to become a martyr. And now she was paying the price. She hated Illus. She wanted to show her father that she was right. She wanted to put Tyza and Sator in their lowly places.
“I was stupid for ever letting him into my life!” Anilee screamed at the floor, pushing herself up with burning envy in her eyes. “He ruined everything!”
A vision caught her mind, of her stealing the mask from that woman who tried to steal Illus from her. The mask. She wanted the mask’s power more than anything in the world. The day was coming where hundreds of eager treasure hunters would flood the ruins, when she would find the fox to learn how to take it.
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Sator arrived in New Heraldsburg early the morning of July 3rd. Wearing a freshly tailored overcoat and suit with crimson suspenders, he prepared to see Colonel Uthman. Over the past year, he and Tyza had improved their situation significantly with the money they earned, but something had been eating at the back of both of their minds.
Between fixing their home, getting his parents into the colonies, and preparing to move on from the tragedy that struck their lives, they frequently floated the idea that Illus may have been saved by a miracle. Perhaps the fox dragged him out of the river to toy with him more. Perhaps the woman saved him. After all, she had done such a kindness to them.
Tyza wanted to go with Sator, though. Fear consumed him in nightmares. Her untimely fate plagued his mind, all in those ruins, at the paws of the fox or in the catacombs. So, he finally gave her what she wanted. By the end of May, she was showing signs of pregnancy. Overjoyed and eager as she was, it created a new fear for her, one that she couldn’t risk in the ruins.
Sator would never forgive himself for why he did it, but he worried that if Illus was still alive, the fox would use Tyza against him. He left her at their home with his parents, who would certainly take care of Tyza if anything happened to Sator. He told himself he was doing it for her, that if her brother was alive, he would bring him back without putting her in danger.
He offloaded his old crossbow and a new rifle from the train with a meager supply of luggage. His curly hair had grown longer than before, but he welcomed the change. No appointment was needed with Colonel Uthman, in fact, Uthman found Sator at the front desk trying to make an appointment and brought him into his office.
The Colonel wordlessly sifted through some papers in his drawer before showing Sator one of Anilee’s postings.
Sator immediately recognized it and lowered his head. “That’s…” Guilty, he shook his head. “Yes, sir, we met her.”
“Why didn't you mention it in your report?”
“Honestly, because the military would be hounding for her. For her magic and whatnot. She’s the keeper and she helped us. Saved us and Illus. She asked us not to mention her to the outside world.”
The Colonel glared at him. “It would have been kept confidential, Sator.”
“I know, sir, but that’s why I came back. If there’s a chance Illus is alive, it’s because she saved him. I want to go with you. I’ve been there, so I can help navigate. I… I owe it to him.”
“This woman, what is the scope of her abilities?”
“No clue. All I know is that she keeps her distance and she is quick as air, but she will not get in the way if we leave her alone. She’s the one who told us to leave, and when the wall would open back up.”
Colonel Uthman interrogated Sator with his eyes. “What did she help you with?”
“She traded us a golden cup for a pouch and a canteen. Asked us to keep it a secret. So we did.”
“Now the entire city knows about her and is eager to steal the mask and loot the ruins.”
Sator furrowed his brow. “Ani?”
Uthman nodded.
“So you will be accompanying my party? Do you have supplies or money to acquire them.”
“Yes sir.”
“Very well. We leave from Platform 9 on the 11th. Dawn.”
Sator nodded and Colonel Uthman frustratedly gestured for him to leave. Not another word spoken, Sator found a room in an inn and waited until the 11th. The day came fast, and no time wasted. The officer party boarded the train with five mules, ample water and food, rope, iodine, emergency supplies, and guns.
The following day, the platform bustled full of disorderly men and a few women. Some military men found a group with a couple scholars, well-kept tradesmen, fur traders, and hunters. They kept a great distance from others. That rest of the crowd was far from trustworthy. Rotten traders, sly dealers, thieves, beggars, con men, criminals- desperate and greedy all of them. A crew of privateers and a cohort of pirates seeking the same riches, setting out on the same voyage.
The gaunt, disheveled, and vindictive Anilee eye which group she would stay with. She had only eaten fruit, raw vegetables, and burnt food for weeks. All her money had disappeared and spite drove her every action. The map was safe with a suitor she enticed and hid in the safe crowd, then she made a copy for good measure that was stuck in a broken seam of her dress. Anilee climbed onto a bench and began briefing.
“Attention all treasure hunters!” Every word carried a certain poison to the enticing promises. “There will be treasure enough in the ruins that everyone here leaves rich, but you have to catch the woman from the sketch. You will see her, and you will also see a fox. The fox is not your ally. It will try to trick you and scare you. Ignore it. I will distribute roles on the train. Be good at something or you’re only worthwhile as a mule. The haze blocks the ruins, so don’t think about trying to get ahead of the party. If anyone tries to get ahead or cause mutiny, I give everyone here permission to leave them behind in the woods. If anyone here tries to harm me, you will be tried and sentenced to death by my father, Colonel Uthman.” Then she thought of a cunning lie to secure her safety and possibly some reverence. “But if you acquire the mask and bring it to me, I will give you my hand in marriage, and you will marry into one of the wealthiest families in New Heraldsburg. Now, who wants to get rich?”
A hurrah charged through the crowd, with it a surge of pride in Anilee. Like a queen in charge of such a large group, and they all needed her to get to the ruins. The intoxicating thought of such power brought a sick, devious grin to her face that she could no longer hide.
Anilee knew with this, that she would finally claim her rightful place in history.