Olivia Duma

Several years ago ...

"Hook me up to the air defense grid." I snap at the harried militia commander that just showed up at the wrecked hotel, "We have a murderer, possibly in full bulwark."

The commander tiredly pulls out a chunky looking laptop from a briefcase and begins setting up. In the background are a pair of militiamen busy stuffing the dead receptionist into a body bag. I survey the scene, now more quiet as the militia has driven off the curious onlookers and set up yellow crime scene tape barring entrance to the love hotel.

"You sure we have a rogue Valk on the loose?" the commander asks as the laptop begins booting up, "Your suspect could have just gotten herself lost in the crowd. We are in the middle of the entertainment district after all."

I click my tongue in annoyance, feeling the heat start to build. This investigation was on a time limit and failing to meet it would mean that I would be completely fucked.

"I think Nock kidnapped two people after she attacked this place." I answer as calmly as possible, stifling my annoyance, "Someone would have seen her hauling away her two victims if she took to the streets."

"Point." the commander replies rather indifferently, not that I blame him, this case ultimately isn't his problem. I was the one that judged Nock to be a minor offender in the first place. The consequences of that misjudgment would be falling on my head. And if a Valkyrie gets killed thanks to that misjudgment, my career as a Yellow Rose would be well and truly over.

"The suspect could have taken a car." the commander suggests as he begins logging into the militia's air defense network. My irritation almost explodes at yet another possible wrinkle tossed my way but I manage to peer out of the hotel's busted door just in time, preventing the commander from seeing the ugly expression on my face.

"Just get into the air defense network." I manage to grind out in a neutral voice while shutting my eyes and hoping this whole thing is just a nightmare. Another militia team walks past me with a camera, probably to start taking pictures of the crime scene.

"Alright, I'm in." the commander finally announces, "You wanted to cross reference the patrol records right?"

"Yeah." I rush back to the commander's side, "Any unauthorized Valkyrie flights show up in the militia's system?"

"You're barking up the wrong tree, Lieutenant." the commander scoffs, "If there was an unauthorized flight, Valkyrie command would immediately have been informed. No such thing happened."

My heart sinks as I realize that more valuable time had been wasted. I stare at the laptop's screen, the rows of text swimming before my eyes. Getting a grip of myself, I blink and begin scanning through the militia's records. Nothing. The commander was right, air defense had not detected any unauthorized flights in the Citadel tonight.

"My money's on a car." the commander grunts triumphantly.

"But we don't have a description!" I shout in frustration, "How are we going to catch Nock if we don't even know what the escape vehicle is?"

"Roadblocks?" the commander suggests, "Lock down several districts at one go, then search each car. We would catch your suspect sooner or later."

"But ..." I gasp, my mind turning into mush as it reels from how quickly this matter had escalated.

"We need to hurry though." the commander continues, "The suspect already has a lead on us. If she reaches her destination we might lose the trail completely."

I take out a handkerchief and wipe my sweating brow. Roadblocks. Is that the only way? But there's a problem. I don't have the authority to order the militia to launch such a large operation. I need to make an emergency call to the Garden and from there, the Superintendent on shift would send the required orders to the militia. That's the reason why the commander was telling me to hurry. Between the administrative red tape I would have to cut through and the time the militia needs to prepare themselves, we were working on an incredibly short deadline. My hand instinctively reaches for the phone.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

And I manage to stop myself in time.

Reporting to the Superintendent would mean that the game was up. The Garden would know I had thoroughly messed up handling Nock's case. And I would be reamed for calling in additional support to fix that mistake. It would be all over for me. This case needs to be handled discreetly. If I can at least rescue to Valkyrie, that should be enough merit to off set my earlier botching of Nock's punishment. But it needs to be done by myself.

Until the case is closed, I can't let anyone else know of it. If I knew things were going to turn out this way, I would not have called the militia's response team. But they are here now, so I'll have to ensure that they are willing to cooperate with my style of investigation. I chew my lip as I consider my options. Ordering or coercing the militia to keep quiet would just draw more attention to me and my circumstances. I need to keep the militia from getting suspicious.

Meaning I need to make them part of the investigation, since I had been harping about how urgent all this was just a few moments ago. Damn it. Me and my big mouth. I should have just kept quiet and told them to secure the crime scene and call it a night. I frown and put on my best thinker pose, hoping that the commander falls for my gambit.

"We don't have the time to organize a lock down." I say as regretfully as possible.

"Its the only way." the commander shrugs, "If you put in an urgent request now with the Garden ..."

"No. We do have a trail we can follow." I clench my fist in affirmation while pulling out the note I found in the thrashed hotel room. The commander quirks an eyebrow at me and I mentally pray for my guess to be correct.

"I have an idea about what kind of place Nock would be going to." I explain, "but not exactly where."

"How does that help us?" the commander stares at me with a flat expression, unconvinced at the merit of my idea.

"Pull up the map of the Citadel." I order, getting back in control of the situation, "Highlight any chapels or places that can be used to hold a wedding."

"We're going to get thousands of hits." the commander objects, but he goes back to typing on his laptop, "The roadblocks are still the better idea."

"Discount the larger venues. Nock's a fugitive now, she's not likely to go somewhere she can be easily found." I say, my mind firing on all pistons, "And limit the search to places which allow beast people in or are willing to hold functions for them."

"Huh, that's a more reasonable number of locations." the commander concedes as the results come up on the laptop screen, "But Lieutenant, even if you think Nock's going to be holding a wedding party, she doesn't actually need to hold it in a proper chapel. Nock could do the deed literally anywhere."

"I doubt she's so prepared." I dismiss as I take down in my notebook the locations that popped up on the search, "Nock is very much a crime of passion sort of person, but send someone to check her residence just in case."

"Hm. Sounds like a plan." the commander agrees and I breathe a sigh of relief. That's one problem down.

"Send anyone you can spare to sweep the northern locations." I direct the commander while preparing to leave the hotel, "I'll take the southern places of interest."

"What if we do find Nock?" the commander suddenly blurts out, "None of us can handle a Valkyrie."

"Stay hidden and call me." I say, "And I'll charge in with my bulwark. Yellow Roses are allowed to go active in the Citadel, so no one is going to stop me from flying about."

"Gotcha." the commander affirms and turns to issue orders to his men.

I immediately rush back out into the street, eager to begin the chase. I might even survive this fiasco if my luck holds up. It might even be a stroke of luck that Nock decided to escape by car. Once I take to the skies in my bulwark, I would be able to demolish any lead Nock has, giving me the time to search most of the locations that popped up on the militia's search.

Alright. I can do this. I have to do this.

As I calm myself and get ready to summon my bulwark, an old glass cabinet standing by the side of the hotel catches my eye. Secured within the cabinet is a cheap plastic cutout of a rainbow with a garish sign above it.

SECRETS OF THE DIVINES TOLD!

Huh. A fortune telling machine. The rainbow is meant to symbolize the divines of course, since having their imagery on a toy like this would be sacrilegious. The machine's concept was based on how the divines would occasionally grant insight to those they favored and for some small change, you could add yourself to that very elite number. Its obviously all rot, but the machine at the very least is good at entertaining passersby, judging from how worn it looks.

Its also the closest thing connected to the divines around the area. And I would really like a blessing right now. Or at the very least a morale booster. Making up my mind, I march over to the machine and read the instructions.

INSERT COIN

LOOK INTO THE RAINBOW AND LET THE DIVINES LOOK BACK INTO YOU!

Fine. Here goes. I slot in a coin and the machine begins powering up. A motor somewhere in the cabinet whirs to life and begins spinning the plastic rainbow, causing all the individual colors to merge together. I gamely stare into the featureless blur and wondering how silly I must appear right now. My eyes begin to water and a dull ache grows at the back of my head.

I hope this doesn't take much longer.

My eyes shut for a moment and I immediately hear the noise of something being printed. When I open my eyes again, the machine had shut down, but there's a slip of paper waiting for me in a metal receptacle. Picking it up, I read what the divines apparently have in store for me.

A flawed diamond is worth more than a perfect pebble

What in the world does that mean? At least it wasn't a curse or anything unlucky.

Thinking nothing more of it, I toss the slip of paper into the thrash and summon my bulwark, blasting off into the night sky.