Drenar had been in a bit of a mood while waiting for SAF to show up. It had been tense. What was more amazing, was when the heavily armored soldiers didn’t even question Nick, when he showed his identification and gave them the quick sum-up of events. Them forcing Jonaleth at gunpoint and autobow-point to transform back was somewhat amusing, though he wouldn’t even look him or Julia in the eye when he was carted off to a van. No less than three soldiers in blue and black fatigues kept weapons on him at all times, even with cuffs on.
Drenar was also stewing internally for many reasons and only half-paid attention, and he’d tuned out Alex for a bit while they got checked for injuries briefly, then Nick was permitted to get them back to his house. Levine made an unexpected call and told the responding officers that he was in charge of the operation, and that he was exerting his discretion.
He just felt numb the entire ride back, despite Julia’s best efforts to get him to talk. He really didn’t feel like saying anything other than the bare minimum.
How could he have not considered this possibility? Why had he instantly dismissed Evan’s assertion that there had been a cover-up? Was it because he didn’t want to believe it?
Or because he knew that their mother had kept secrets, and pulled the rug out from everything he thought she was?
A wayward glance at his wristwatch left him shaking in fury for a second. I never would have--damn it!
Is there a particular reason you keep looking at your watch? Or what's beneath?
Alex speaks up at the worst time, and he curls his hand into a clenched fist.
Lets just say I had an accident.
An accident? You've been burying some kind of memory--
Alex. Let this one go for now. I will talk about it, but not now, he thinks back.
...This one is bad, isn't it?
A little bit, yeah. I'm better now.
“Drenar. We’re here.” Angela’s looking at him and she’s not much better off–tension, anger, maybe even a little depression etched in those hardened lines around the corners of her eyes?
“Yeah, I…um…” he doesn’t say anything more as he bails out of the vehicle and follows everyone in. But Angela always knows when he’s in a bad state and she gives him that look. That tilt of her head and softened gaze. She might know his tells better than Julia at times. “Okay, what’s up?”
“Drenar, I need you to focus. This crisis isn’t over.” The gravity in her voice has found footing, and she's gazing at him with renewed vigor. “King got away, but he flat-out told us their next move. Why do you think he did that?”
“Probably to screw with us again.” He kicks a few loose leaves errantly by his foot, and his posture feels…haggard, if he could describe it in a single word.
“I think King is playing at another level. I think he has a hidden agenda. What that is, I don’t know yet. But I think he knows things that could change our perception drastically. He is doing this with intent.” The others are waiting on the porch, looking at the two of them expectantly.
“No matter what they say, I want you to keep this in mind: I don’t know if King is the threat. I think he was toying with us the same way that Crosomer did. He’s trying to get us to see something for ourselves.”
“If that’s the case, then why the hell is he putting on the show?” He rubs an inflamed scratch by his cheek–a close shave from debris that could have taken a chunk of his face off if he hadn’t dodged.
“Because he knows he’s being watched or monitored by someone. Look, call it a wild guess for now. Let’s debrief and…” She puts a hand firmly on his shoulder. “No matter where this goes Drenar…your mother loved you and Evan. Do not ever lose sight of that. Keep that in mind?”
“Angie, you’re acting super weird–”
“Promise me you won’t lose sight of that?” Her lips are tight pressed, like she’s holding back something unsavory if he doesn’t acknowledge her right now.
“Alright.” They join the others, and head inside after Nick hits the lock.
When they get back inside, Drenar is surprised by two things, and Nick puts down every counter-ward he can to obscure their location. Drenar mostly ignores that when he sees the first spectacle, the two-meter-long python with faceted eyes and primordial wings currently wrapped around James in a shimmer of iridescent blue scales. It looks at all of them, yawns with a slight hissing exhale, and nuzzles against James’ neck, who looks like an utter nervous wreck, and is tapping a finger on a keyboard anxiously.
“James, what is–”
“Shh. It might ignore me, and go chase a mouse at some point.” Drenar glares at him.
“I’m in a shit-kicking mood James, and be nice to the Disney-sidekick pet that can bite you. Just some food for thought. Also–oh, hey Levine.”
The second sight that had him on edge led him to start to reach for his dagger. Standing at the computer console is a tall, broad-shouldered man with dark brown hair and light brown skin, peering at a display with a set of antique glasses. He’s dressed in a dark overcoat and had been reaching for a pistol on his shoulder holster before he looks up and thinks better of it. Drenar recognizes the firearm–an old Colt 1911. A rather classic weapon, and decidedly out-of-date compared to the more popular 9 millimeters that law enforcement typically carries.
Then again, magical firearms are going to continue to subvert his expectations, he figures.
“You could have knocked, Levine,” Nick says after a brief spell. Levine’s lips crinkle upwards at the edge a little, and he walks over to Nick and gives him a bear hug before letting out a sound of excitement.
“And you’ve been soloing the Talons army this week, I got tired of sitting behind a desk and denied resources. Glad you brought these kids back in one piece.” Drenar however, ignores the banter back and forth between them, and sees Evan looking at him anxiously.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Drenar, on the radio–we heard–”
He doesn’t think. He simply walks over to Evan and gives him a brotherly hug, and every bad turn of this night feels like it’s tugging down his soul.
“You were right, Evan. I was too stubborn to believe it when you said it. Something did happen to Mom. I was trying so hard to ignore what was right in front of me. I’m sorry man, I let the bastard get away. He’s the only one who knows what happened to her.”
Evan lets out a soft sigh and returns the gesture before gently letting go. “Drenar, you got the tar beat out of you again on account of stopping these guys. You were up against someone who is above our level by leaps and bounds. He had an exit strategy the whole time, and he’s doing it to mess with us.
"Don’t blame yourself. You got everyone out alive, and in one piece. Plus some very helpful bags of loot, by the look of it,” he adds before pointing to Julia unpacking the hard drives with a squeal of delight. King had gotten *one* bag, but the rest was still in their possession.
“Tell me this is worth something! Data for days! We can finally figure out how they’re using the device!”
“Whoa. We do not want a repeat of what happened last time!” Levine says sternly. “Lass, I need to isolate those drives properly, they look like they’re arcane shielded based on the materials. We cannot afford another screw-up to put Val and the rest of Magitech Industries out of commission. I already have a crew observing her every movement, as close as we can get. We still need proper evidence to nail her.”
“Witness testimony unreliable? Or do you think she’s going to just kill everyone in sight, and put the crematorium on overtime?” Julia asks with surprising restraint. Levine nods firmly.
“I’m afraid that this time, we might have to. And with SAF now tied up investigating Talons activities, we have a big problem.”
“No, we had big problems. Now we have massive problems,” Drenar states firmly. He pulls the golem out of his bag, which quickly unfurls and catches Levine off-guard, and his arm drifts to the shoulder holster. But only slightly. “Evan, meet our new best friends!”
“Yes, viewing the inside of a bag while listening to the tense conversation was just not fun at all,” Joey replies dryly before flipping the display on. A shorter man with red hair and a short beard is sitting next to her at the desk, wearing what looks like a VR set–presumably to control the golem? He’s got the visor portion tilted up on his forehead, and he looks anxious.
Levine peers at the image, and then back at Nick. “Is that…Josephine?”
“Bingo! You must be…hang on Nick, don’t prompt me. Levi…Lavos…Levine, right?” she asks cheerily. Levine nods softly. “Look, Kyle’s been talking to me in the background, after this conversation, we need to cut communication. With a guy like King in play, there’s a good chance they might figure a way to listen in.”
“I agree. King showed incredible aptitude to remotely wipe our evidence at our last foray with them this evening, and I doubt that’s the full suite of his capabilities.” Levine grabs a seat and everyone eventually gathers around the golem. “So, where do we stand? I might have missed part of the conversation while in transit.”
“SAF is compromised. Our people are helping King at some level. A very high level. I don’t know who we can trust now. King could only have gotten access to Asqualia with a high-level administrator, or someone who could hack the system at a level we can’t detect. ARC is one of the most secure research facilities that SAF curates.”
That news sets the pace, and Drenar can see the grim mood set into Joey and Kyle’s faces a little. “So, what do we do? We can’t just do nothing. Valosterla is going to bulldoze the place, if she thinks she can get the keys to godhood. I don’t think she’ll stop throwing bodies at the problem until she gets what she wants. I’m not going to let her do that.”
“Drenar, this is the point where we stop making it our problem,” Evan states with his arms crossed and looking irritated. “We did our part. Now we need to step aside. SAF is here now.”
“No, we have two guys. Out of an agency of thousands who work to fight guys like the Talons.”
Evan’s scowl deepens. “You’re just pissed that King got the jump on you. I get it. And I get that you’re pissed that Mom’s demise isn’t what we thought it was. But how she died doesn't matter, assuming he was telling the truth.”
“Don’t you want to know?!” There’s a spark of fury inside him that lights up that hasn’t burned on the inside in a long time. “Someone ordered our mother’s death! We don’t even know who, or even why Mom would end up on anyone’s radar, certainly not the man who is co-leading the Talons. It’s all related!”
“So we were kept blind because mom was involved in something? You know, maybe she was working with the Talons, Drenar, and that’s what got her killed! She kept a nice, cheery cover daytime job in the nursing profession, and probably worked as a killer by night, until she failed a task. That’s what got her a death sentence! Then everyone wanted to spare us the shame, and lied to us–starting with Julia’s mother!”
“Oh you did not go there, Evan,” Julia growls as she curls her hands into fists. “Your mother was a saint!”
“I can't believe you went there, either. If that were the case, then the person we knew was an utter monster, and we never had the first clue,” Drenar shoots back with piercing eyes and a tight scowl. “You know that isn't the case.”
“Or, there’s the possibility that King was just messing with your head, Drenar. And you fell for it.” He finds himself digging his nails into his palms when Evan looks at him accusingly. “Did you ever consider that?”
“Excuse me, teens? Cool it for a second.” Joey’s curt statement cuts the tension while she considers something. “You guys are focusing on the wrong problem. What do they need inside Asqualia? You mentioned something about Volkir’s journals…so what’s up with that?”
Drenar for one is relieved at the misdirect. He gives one last glare to Evan before turning back to the screen and gathering back his composure. “The device in their possession triggered our Awakenings. It was likely always going to happen, but the device also triggers drakensouls to merge with humans, too. There’s a level of weirdness that we don’t fully understand yet. Our meeting with Crosomer didn’t yield nearly enough information for us to put a stop to him yet.
"But they have a problem with energy, and translating the device. They were able to safely test our area. But, they drained an entire Resilient Sphere’s energy supply to do so.”
“Wow. Big energy,” Kyle breathes. “Those things were supposed to have the highest energy densities of all known mana variants. And they just…drained the gas tank?”
“Completely. We also don’t know where they moved the device. It was in the mine, and now it’s probably in some super secure facility of the Talons," he answers.
Drenar pulls out the photos on his PC display, with Joey and Kyle looking on, curiosity etched in their expressions. “What I do know is, Crosomer only had a partial translation set. Volkir had progressed further in the translations after Crosomer was imprisoned. If I had to guess, Crosomer was Volkir’s apprentice, long before he went down the path of destruction. If we can figure out the runes, maybe there’s a chance we can set the device to a permanent shut-down state. I hope.”
“Still seems risky, whatever this device did. Premature Awakenings being the least notable offense is scary,” Kyle admits.
“You’re telling me. I’m a little wary of a god-like device in the hands of Val. She kind of comes across as a…well, calling her a megalomaniac wouldn’t be much of a stretch.”
The thought of Valosterla having that much power made him extremely uneasy. Her becoming an apex-level draconic goddess, though, still pales in comparison to one thing:
What Julia’s mother is going to do to him once she gets wind of the two of them leading around town in a mad quest to stop a mage rebel army, and leaving a path of unintentional destruction in their wake. That might only be slightly more lethal.