Kayden couldn’t keep her leg from bouncing up and down. Her adrenaline was still hyped up from her confrontation with Cassius. She couldn’t stop thinking about his sudden explosion of violence. It sent her back to the moment in the arena when Mistech had attacked, to the night of her father’s murder, and being imprisoned and beaten by the police. These events swirled in her mind, pulling her deeper into an abyss.
“Miss Boone, did you hear what I said?” the lawyer sitting across from her asked.
They were in her apartment. She had the chauffeur bring her here after her meeting with Cassius. There wasn’t anywhere else she could go, but coming back here had been a mistake. She couldn’t take her eyes off the spot where her father died and the urn that rested on the table between her and the lawyer.
She had only been here a few minutes when the lawyer had shown up saying he had been sent on behalf of C&X, in other words Cassius. It seemed the gang leader wasn’t quite done with her yet.
“Forty million scripts,” she said, still not looking away from the spot where her father died. “Cassius wants to buy my shares of C&X for forty million scripts.”
It was more money than she could have ever dreamed of. That was what the lawyer had been explaining to her for the last little while. She held a major stake of C&X. That is why she had been drawing so much attention.
The night of her father’s murder had been the inception of this new company. With him gone all of the shares which would have been his had instead gone to his next of kin, Kayden.
“That’s right,” the lawyer continued. “Mr. Sagent wanted me to express to you that this would be for the best. A young woman such as yourself shouldn’t be bogged down with the responsibilities that would come with owning such a stake in the company. You should instead take this offer and focus on your school work. In all honesty, with this amount of funds you really have limitless options. But that is only if you sell of course.”
Kayden didn’t feel excited to learn she had just become one of the wealthiest people in Mitros. She didn’t feel much of anything other than an overwhelming sense of anxiety. She just wanted to be left alone.
Okay,” Kayden said.
“Okay? Okay!” the lawyer said somewhat confused and then enthusiastic at how easy Kayden had been to convince. “I assure you that Mr. Sagent’s offer is quite generous.”
He extracted a small stack of papers from his briefcase and passed them over to her.
“You will find that everything is in order, but you can of course have someone else look them over.”
“That’s okay. Do you have a pen?” Kayden wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. The sooner she could break off all ties with Cassius, the better.
“Yes, of course!” The lawyer pulled a pen out of his breast pocket and handed it over.
Kayden shuffled through the papers and signed at each place that was indicated. Then she handed the papers and pen over.
The lawyer glanced over them briefly to make sure everything was in order then slid them back into his briefcase.
“I assume you do not have a bank account. We will have one set up for you on your behalf. You can then do with the money as you please. I would recommend that you set up a trust. I can refer you to a firm that handles such things.”
Kayden nodded.
“Alright.” The lawyer stood. “I think that concludes our business for today. If you have any questions you can contact me any time of day. But if not, I will notify you once the deal has been finalized and your assets become available.” He paused before he left. “Oh and one more thing. As I understand it, you are not from Cliffside, is that correct?”
Kayden shook her head in confusion. Why would he ask such a question?
“Ah, then you would not be familiar with our funeral rights.”
Our? Kayden was more than a little surprised to find that this man was a Cliffsider. He looked like every other Uptown lawyer she had ever seen. But she supposed it made sense that Cassius would want to entrust this to one of his own.
The lawyer gestured at the urn on the table. “Typically, rather than store the deceased in a mausoleum as they do in Uptown, we will scatter the ashes off of the cliffs. We have lived so long looking over the edge that it is a somewhat cathartic experience to release our beloved to the winds where they no longer have to fear such things.”
With that he bowed his head and left Kayden to herself.
For a long time she sat silently staring at the urn that contained her father’s remains. It was the tradition here in Mitros to burn the dead. They didn’t have space available for graveyards like they did in other places.
Frankly, Kayden found the idea of burying people’s intact corpses morbid. The thought of them sitting several feet underground like they were sleeping was a disturbing image. But now sitting here with the ashes her father had been reduced to, she could understand why people would prefer it the other way. They could visit the sight of their beloved’s resting place with the innocent illusion that even though their beloved was gone, a piece of them still remained.
All Kayden had was an urn.
The lawyer had delivered it to her with Cassius’s offer. Of the two things, it was by far the most precious in Kayden’s mind. She hadn’t touched it since the lawyer laid it on the table. She couldn’t touch it. Just the thought of doing so brought a strange sense of vertigo to Kayden. She couldn’t conflate the urn and the image of her always cheerful father into one thing. It didn’t make any sense. How could the man that held a place in so many of Kayden’s memories be contained in such a small thing?
She couldn’t breathe. She gasped for air, hyperventilating as unfathomable panic overcame her. It had been threatening to spill over ever since her confrontation with Cassius but now that she was finally alone, she could no longer contain it.
The world tunneled around her as she couldn’t seem to get any oxygen to her brain. She stumbled to her door. She had to get out. She had to get away.
She went to the elevator, but it was taking too long to arrive so she went to the stairs.
As she stumbled down them, she remembered when she had chased down her father’s killer and failed to catch him. She was so weak, so powerless. Her knees gave out between flights and she fell down the stairs and slammed into the wall. She didn’t get up. She curled up into a ball and shivered uncontrollably.
*****
Kayden sat across a desk from one of the people she hated most in the world, officer Griff. They were in the police station in a room full of desks with police officers going about their work.
“We have no new information to divulge at this time,” Griff said with a slight smirk.
“It’s been weeks,” Kayden said, her anger flaring up. “Did you look into Mistech like I told you to?”
“You may not have heard but there have been riots Cliffside that are forcing out any police presence. We don’t have the resources to chase some little girl's wild lead. Especially when that lead is for a gang that no longer exists.”
“They exist! It was them, I’m sure of it! What about that device the killer used!”
“A firearm, by your description. It is an invention of Swarth. It has no link to Mistech. It doesn’t fit their style. They use a combination of mechanical and magical engineering traditional to Mitros. Firearms are purely mechanical in nature.”
“I don’t know why they would have it! But it was them! My father helped bring their organization down!”
Kayden rose in her frustration and yelled at Griff. People looked at them curiously, but she didn’t care. Griff leaned back in his chair.
“I told you there isn’t anything that we can do.”
“So what, you're just going to drop the case!?”
“That appears the most likely course of action. I'm surprised it hasn’t been closed already considering who it is for.” He said this offhandedly like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Someone was murder in the middle of Tower District! And you're allowing them to get away with it! What kind of police are you!?”
This elicited a response from all around the room as officers didn’t take kindly to someone calling out one of their own. Griff rose angrily in response and leaned in close to Kayden.
“We protect and preserve those who abide by the law. Not criminal Cliffside scum like your father. He had it coming for him. If he wanted to be saved, he should have turned himself in.”
“You don’t care,” Kayden growled. “You’re all hypocrites who don’t care about anyone but yourselves.”
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“Now you're getting it,” Griff said without the slightest sign of shame or remorse. There was a glint in his eye as if he enjoyed shattering any essence of hope Kayden tried to muster. “Nobody in this world cares about you. The only ones who will are those you pay. And by the sounds of it, you have quite a large amount of resources available to you at the moment.”
Kayden frowned, taken aback. “What--what are you saying?”
He leaned in closer and whispered conspiratorially. “I’m saying that the quickest way to get people to care about something is to pay them to care. I think if you were to…donate a sufficient amount, I could convince the right people to keep the case open.”
Her mouth went completely dry. He was blatantly asking her for a bribe. Kayden knew Griff was a despicable human being, but this level of corruption was next level.
“How determined are you to find your father’s killer. Wouldn’t you do whatever it took to bring him to justice?”
She found herself actually considering his offer.
Griff could see that her interest was piqued and he smiled. “I have a group of officers that would be more than happy to pull some overtime if their pockets are sufficiently filled. What do you say, do we have a deal?”
Griff held out his hand and Kayden shook it.
*****
Kayden waited at an isolated part of the docks. It was night, a day after she made the deal with Griff. She had a backpack slung over her shoulder filled with scripts. Fifty thousand to be exact. That is the amount they had come to agree upon. This was the first time she had touched any of the money that she had received from selling her shares of C&X.
Three figures approached her from out of the darkness, Griff, Deaik, and a new officer she didn’t recognize. He was shorter than the other two, but barrel chested and extremely muscular. He also looked several years older.
They came up to her and stopped. They weren’t dressed in their uniforms. They looked like your average citizens. It was strange seeing them in this capacity. It made her realize the illegal activities they were all taking part in. But she didn’t care as long as it meant avenging her father.
“Is that the money?” Griff asked.
Kayden nodded nervously.
“Hand it over.”
There was something very off about this whole situation. From the way that Deaik and the other officer were looking at her to the fact that they were doing this in such an isolated place.
“How do I know I can trust you?” she asked.
“Come on girl,” the new officer said. “Stop playing around and hand over the scripts.”
Kayden took a few steps back as Griff held out his hand for her to hand over the pack, but he made no move to follow her. He just smiled in a self satisfied sort of way and shook his head sadly.
“You really don’t learn, do you,” he said.
A sudden premonition came over Kayden and she turned to run, but the man that had been sneaking up behind her was already there and grabbed her. He was tall with long hair that fell into his eyes and had a very strong grip.
Her aura surged into her arms and she forced him off of her, but when she turned to get away from him, Griff was already there. His backhand slammed into her face and she hit the wall of a building and fell to the ground. As she made to get up and fight back, Griff pulled out a stun cudgel and swung it in front of her face. She shrunk away from the crackling energy.
“Uh uh uh,” he said playfully. “Hand over the scripts, and nobody will hurt you.”
“I’ll report you,” she said hurriedly.
“And incriminate yourself trying to bribe police officers. Don’t be stupid. You know how well that would go over. Nobody would believe you.”
“You corrupt, vile scum.” She spat and it landed at his feet.
Her insult seemed to anger the other officers but not Griff. He wasn’t fazed in the slightest.
“We are good officers,” he said. “This city wouldn’t be what it is without us. We go out of our way to help all upstanding citizens. But you don’t fall into that category, do you. That money doesn’t even belong to you. Where do you think it came from? Your father and his Nikiphero allies stole it from people. This is a way for us to balance the scales. It’s only fifty thousand, it’s not like that will hurt you from what I hear. Hand it over and there is no need for this to get any worse. I’ve actually kind of grown attached to you in a weird way, but that won’t stop me from bloodying you up a bit.”
“Come on Griff,” the short officer said. “You said I would get to teach her a lesson for what she did to my cousin.”
“We’re here for the money and nothing else.”
“But she got him fired from the prison! He has a family he needs to provide for! She needs to pay for what she did!”
“Shut up!”
The shorter officer grumbled but backed down. From what she could gather, he must have been related to one of the guards that had beaten her when she was incarcerated. It sounded like Commissioner Ackleman hadn’t exaggerated when he told her that the guards involved had been severely disciplined.
She wanted to laugh. Of course his decision would come back to bite her. Even when the commissioner tried to do something nice for her, it only made things worse.
Griff knelt down beside her and leaned in so that their faces were inches apart. She tried to shrink away but she was trapped against the wall.
“You have such pretty eyes. You really shouldn’t hide them behind your hair like that.”
Then he grabbed the backpack and tugged it roughly from her shoulder. She didn’t resist. He opened it up, looked inside, then tossed it back to his comrades.
“I’ll hopefully see you around, Kay.”
Nobody had ever called her that except her father. He gently removed the bangs from her face and studied her. She didn’t meet his eyes. Finally, after what felt like an eternity he retreated with his pals to celebrate their victory.
Kayden let out a sudden sob and lurched toward her feet. “Hey!”
They were distant figures by this time. They kept going and disappeared into the night, talking animatedly with one another as if they didn’t hear Kayden’s shout.
“You’ll pay for this! I promise you, you’ll all pay!”
But she didn’t go after them. What could she do? They were four police officers armed with stun cudgels and she was just a powerless girl.
*****
Kayden sat in Headmaster Winslow's office. It was the office in the mathematics wing instead of the one in the administrative building and it was therefore a lot more cozy and lived in. The tall headmaster with his greenish skin looked over at her through his thick classes across the numerous books stacked on his desk.
“The circumstances surrounding your expulsion ruffled quite a few feathers,” Winslow was saying. “There has been quite a sizable amount of pushback on your return to the Academy. It is thus imperative that we eliminate anything that might reflect disfavorably on you during your hearing before the board.”
He was referring to the dagger she was twirling between her fingers. It felt just as natural in her hands as the day she chose it to be her focus.
In some ways this dagger was the source of all of her misfortune. If she hadn’t chosen it for her Gifting Ceremony, she would never have been expelled from the Academy and never gone looking for her father. Then her father would have had no reason to return Uptown when he did and he might still be alive.
The shadow dagger had been the subject of most of their conversation. Winslow had given it to her upon her arrival to his office and revealed that she would have to begin working on atuning to a new permanent focus if she wanted to return to the Academy. It would be a long and grueling process but it was possible and it would show to the board that she was interested in being rehabilitated.
“Why are you helping me?” Kayden asked. “I thought you wanted nothing to do with someone like me.”
“I must admit that I am only assisting in this matter because you have received sizable support from the likes of some very prominent figures such as Commissioner Ackleman and the C&X company. However, I am not without some sympathy toward your situation. As I mentioned when you were expelled, I myself have been the subject of no small amount of prejudice. It left a very disfavorable taste in my mouth leaving things the way we did during our last meeting. I will therefore take personal responsibility in overseeing your rehabilitation.”
“In order to return to the Academy I will need to attune to a new permanent focus,” she repeated back.
“That is correct. If you recall, permanent focuses are an inherent expression of the type of aura that the possessor has. To change a focus then requires for the wielder to change themself. If you are to be a part of this institution you must have one suitable for the curriculum. We can not allow one of our students to be in possession of a shadow dagger. By atuning to a new focus, your example would open up many avenues of possibilities for people from all types of backgrounds to gain admittance into the Academy.”
“As long as they fit in the mold you cast for them.”
“Well, of course, this is an institution that shapes the minds of the youth in order to become something better.”
Kayden dispelled the dagger and it vanished in a puff of smoke. She reached out to her aura. After her time in the prison with nothing better to do, she had built up her ability to do so instinctively.
She could feel it there, a part of herself she had been afraid to touch. At any point during her time Cliffside and the events following, she could have summoned the dagger. Just because she had abandoned it after her expulsion, that didn’t mean it still wasn’t tied to her. But she had been scared of what it represented.
She didn’t shy away from it anymore. She reached out to it and the dagger reformed in her hands, radiating a wicked grace. If she hadn’t been so scared of this, maybe the dagger could have helped her save her dad.
She could have fought off all of her abusers. She could have been powerful.
Instead she had been afraid because she had allowed people to tell her who she was and what was acceptable for her to do. As a result she had locked a piece of herself away and tried to forget about it.
This dagger wasn’t to blame for anything that had happened to her. Those to blame were the Academy, the police, Mistech, and even Nikiphero. They all tried to hurt her and cast her aside, and she had been powerless to stop them because she refused to accept what she was.
“What if I’m happy with who I am?” Kayden said. She looked up from the mesmerizing black dagger and met Winslow’s eyes. “What if I refuse to change?”
“That is exactly the wrong sort of attitude, and the reason you were expelled to begin with. The Academy demands its students be pliable. A refusal to change is a refusal to learn. Ultimately it is only up to you what you decide to do, but there are always consequences to our actions.”
“I understand. I won’t refuse to change. In fact, I need to change in order to become stronger.”
“So you will agree to the terms of your readmittance?”
Kayden shook her head. “That’s impossible, sir. I thank you and the Academy for all you have done to teach me, but I think I have reached the limit of what you have to offer.”
She stood and held out her hand to Winslow. She hadn’t been sure what her purpose had been in coming here when she received the summons. It had certainly never been her intention to return to the Academy no matter how much people kept pushing her in that direction. But now she knew why she had come here; for some clarity. Up until this moment she didn’t know what to do. Now she could see her path clearly.
“Once again, Miss Boone, you disappoint me greatly.” He took her hand, his enveloping hers completely, and shook it. “There will not be a third chance.”
“I know.”
Kayden tried to release his hand but he held on firmly, his eyes boring into hers. “I see you Miss Boone. This path will only lead you to further tragedy. You may not have any control over what has happened to you, but you can control how you react to it. Let go of your hate. Humble yourself and accept our help before it is too late.”
She flared her aura and tore her hand out of his grip with a hiss. “You don’t know me.”
“I know enough to sense your intentions. The path of violence can end only one way. You know my lineage. My people, the ogres, are a warmongering race, and as a result there are very few of us left. Wherever we go we are seen as something to be despised and driven away because people know we will only bring them trouble. That is why I hold this institution to be so sacred. It is our purpose to become something higher, nobler. But that can only happen if you give up your anger.”
She had thought of him as a hypocrite like the rest of them when she had been expelled, but she could see that he was sincere in what he believed. However, what he believed was naive and idealistic.
“I’m sorry Headmaster Winslow.” And she meant it. She wished the world was as simple as he saw it, that there would be no need for violence, that things would work out if one were simply humble, but she knew very well that in the real world people took advantage of those who didn’t stand up for themselves.
She hated Griff more than anyone, but he had been right about one thing: nobody in this world cared about her. If she wanted any sort of justice, she would have to take it for herself.