Novels2Search

Chapter 15.1: In Which Evan is Finished

CHAPTER 15

In Which Evan is Finished

EVAN. TOO FUCKING LATE.

“Fuck,” Evan said, finding his voice, staring at Dyrnwyn in Chris’s hand. “That’s so cool!”

Chris turned, and as he did, the sword revealed him smiling a strange small smile. “I know,” he said, waving his right hand and shaking his head. The expression was already gone, maybe was never there—he just wore his signature confident grin.

Evan blinked at him. That had been weird… He shook his head. “Okay. So. Sword goes into betweenspace.”

“Yup. As long as there’s not a Beast around, it’s not too hard to get people to buy that my ancestral blade can be stored betweenspace,” Chris replied. “Any of the ways, I wasn’t actually trying to attract Beasts. Having the blade out will do that, just like a Light Bearer carrying a lit flame will.” So he pushed the Blade back forward into thin air, the flames flickering again. Evan noticed that he could do so while he continued to walk. Then it was gone.

“Okay,” Evan said. “Uh. Fair enough.” He paused, thinking. “Hey.”

“Yeess?” Chris said after Evan stayed quiet for a few moments.

Evan looked pensive. “So can I at least tell Angie and Ryan about the sword? If not, will you? ‘Cause seriously, I don’t think I can keep it from them.”

Chris considered, nodded. “No, I get you. Yeah. I’ll tell them. That’s, like, the opposite of what I wanted to do, but whatever this thing with our birthdays is seems like it’s going to be significant, so I suppose I should go ahead and do that. Megan, too.”

Evan laughed just a little. “Yeah. It would be folly to tell Ryan and Angie and not tell Megan, I think. So. Mind if I ask, why are you keeping it a secret anyway? People are going to figure it out.”

Chris sighed. “I don’t know. Trying to plug the hole in the dam with my finger, I guess. It’s just. You've seen how people react to me anyway, right? How much, uh, crazier, I guess, would people be if they knew I was the champion of a legendary blade? I’ll have full-blown paparazzi following me around and stuff. Like I pointed out earlier, it just looks like a glowing sword unless a Beast’s around. I can pass it off as an ancestral weapon.”

“Sure,” Evan said, nodding. “Yeah, that seems possible. Two questions, then. One, didn’t you use it while you came across the country? Isn’t it already out there that there’s a wielder of Dyrnwyn somewhere in Fredonia?”

“Yeeeaaah,” Chris said, stretching the word out in a way that conveyed acknowledgement of the point. “I did do that. We asked, both me and my father, that the people we worked with keep it in their pockets for a while. They were all professional adults, experienced Light Bearers and Militia members.” Chris shrugged. “No reporters have shown up yet. Number two?”

“Yeah. Why do you even advertise that you’re a Light Bearer?” Evan said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “If you didn’t want people to make that big a deal out of you, keeping it totally secret would have made it easier to keep the sword a secret longer.”

“Sure,” Chris replied, then sort of gestured at himself with one hand. “How would Private Padsalgikar have reacted if I’d not had the license, or the lanterns? Since I didn’t have the sword out?” He shrugged. “I’m hunting just like a Light Bearer, so it’s important to play the part. I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to fake being a magic-user or any other kind of hunter, but I trained all my life to be a Light Bearer. It would get out that I was hunting eventually, since bounties get paid out and Beast reports get published, and if I didn’t act like a Light Bearer people would be curious about what exactly I was, or how I was pulling it off.”

Evan nodded, having not really considered that. “That makes sense, I guess. How do you avoid sentries seeing the flames when you encounter a Beast? Or people, from their windows,” Evan replied, glancing around at the tower-houses they were passing by. “I know when we were little we’d go check out whose firelight was passing by pretty regularly, when a Light Bearer would patrol up our street. At least when we noticed the light through the blinds. I would have been thrilled to see a fight right in front of my house. You must nearly always have an audience.”

“I think most people wouldn’t be so thrilled,” Chris said, “But yeah, that’s my biggest concern. I like to stick to more commercial districts that aren’t also entertainment based.”

They were approaching the trolley stop they needed. They were not challenged as they reached it, though both of the watch sentries were in the tower’s main booth, underlit faces intent on their screens, probably watching the two of them. When Private Padsalgikar had scanned their IDs, it would have flagged them in the watch system as folks allowed out this late. Evan supposed that there wasn’t much to do on Moon’s Watch other than occasionally get to see Beasts or Light Bearers prowl through the intersection’s lamplit boundaries. Maybe the occasional hunting party, but that was more common in the outskirts close to the walls.

Speaking of the moon, it had just crested the top of the towerhouses to their east, a silver crescent casting dim silver light down upon them. It was a beautiful relief to see. Beasts were more cautious in the light of the moon.

He considered articulating all this to Chris as they stood for a moment in silence, but couldn’t figure out how to. His head sure was fuzzy. So he was taken off-guard when Chris spoke.

“So, why were you out here, Evan?” Chris asked. “Really though? If you’re not crushing on Megan, I can’t trace a clear line to you out in the streets after dark.”

Fuzzy or not, something finally clicked inside Evan’s mind. “Ryan sent you,” he said, his eyes widening. “That’s how you found me. You were nearby because you were following me on your phone. And you seem to know the way to my place.”

Chris laughed. “Yeah, okay, you know your Ryan, I guess! Yeah, you got it. I don’t really understand how he was able to do that phone thing, but yeah, that’s what happened.”

“Well, don’t spread it around,” Evan said. “Ryan doesn’t need that heat.”

“What is the deal with that, anyway?” Chris asked.

Evan shrugged. “It’s not my place to tell.”

“Okay,” Chris said. “Why were you out here, then? Presumably that one’s your place to tell.”

Evan looked away, said, “I don’t want to talk about it.” It was mostly Chris’s fault, after all.

“You’re lucky you didn’t get your dumb ass dead,” Chris said, his tone sort of amused and sort of cross. “You would have if Ryan hadn’t realized what you were up to, and if Angie hadn’t dealt with that spirit, and if I had moved any slower. You were really fortunate tonight, other than in encountering that Beast in the first place.”

“Fortune’s looking out for me I guess,” Evan said, dully.

“I’d fucking say so,” Chris said, the crossness winning out. Evan glanced at Chris to find him frowning back. Evan wasn’t sure he’d seen Chris truly frown up to this point. Chris continued, “So what the fuck, Evan? What were you doing? Do you have a death wish or what? Were you actually out hunting? Did you just want to wander around at night?”

Not sure what else to say, Evan said, “My older sister was a Light Bearer. She was killed by a Beast.”

Chris gave him a look. “I know, uh, we went over that—”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“The December before last, a dungeon breached the surface within the walls,” Evan said. Chris’s mouth closed hard enough Evan heard the snap of his teeth. “It was actually Star Solstice Eve.”

Evan caught Chris murmur, “Oh shit,” under his breath as Evan said the second sentence.

Evan paused, looked at Chris, said, “Pardon?”

Chris shook his head. Evan didn’t know what that meant. “I mean,” Chris said, with more uncertainty than Evan would’ve imagined him capable based on his prior behavior. “You were born December nineteenth, right?”

“Sure was,” Evan said, his voice barely there. He paused again, just a moment this time, reaching for words. “My father was promoted to Captain on his birthday, the September before. The breach wasn’t really that far away, north and a little west of here, up just north of Kirkland. The entire Militia mobilized, along with Light Bearers from across the city, every independent hunter with a BA license, everyone that was fit for a dungeon. This one was a nightmare, mature, full of well fed Beasts. Nobody has any idea how it wasn’t detected ages ago, even now.”

“They never do,” Chris said. “I remember hearing about this one. It was the only one that year, and it was a bad one.”

“Please let me finish,” Evan said, a little spark of irritation piercing through the fog of exhaustion. “My father led a squad. It was an honor—they were on the vanguard.

“During the withdrawal, after the seals had been inserted but before they were activated, a Nightmare-class Lurker popped out, just before the Vanguard entered a narrow stairway up—they had just covered the last of the C&C[1] Battalions’ withdrawal back to the surface. Thing was so good at lurking that a multitude of Light Bearers had missed it on the way down.

[1] In a major dungeon delve, Capture and Control Battalions follow the Vanguard, and are responsible for, well, capturing areas of the dungeon and controlling them, keeping them clear of Beasts while the Vanguard pushes deeper. This may involve capturing entire floors or just the path from the entrance to the floor to the exit.

“Most of the Light Bearers and heavier weaponry with the Vanguard were now serving as rearguard for withdrawal, and the Lurker had actively engaged, cutting them off from the stairway back to the surface, and was about to kill several soldiers. The only Light Bearer close by was Kudret Bakili, Lauren’s uncle. He’s semi-retired, in his fifties, but still one of the most capable Light Bearers in the city. He engaged the Beast, kept it busy for several minutes. My father helped three injured soldiers get away. Then Bakili stumbled, and the Beast knocked him off his feet.”

Evan paused to swallow. He didn’t talk about this, ever. His throat was dry. “Father was close to the fight—he’d been going back to help another hurt soldier. Rather than just trying to shoot it, which might not have bothered it enough to keep it from finishing off Bakili, he went at it with his officer’s sword.”

Chris nodded, eyes wide. An officer’s sword was silvered. It would burn and enrage a Beast similarly to a Bearer’s flame. “He died a hero,” he said, his voice deep with respect.

Evan nodded back. “He was the thing’s only kill, and it didn’t get to eat him. Bakili regained his feet and helped kill it. My father got his chance at Sanctuary.” He paused, closed his eyes again.

Several silent seconds passed. Chris said, “I maybe understand your earlier disdain for Fortune. You’re opening up to me maybe more than you want to. But I’m following you, as far as it goes.”

“You’re the one who wanted to know,” Evan said, that spark of irritation again. Less so, though, barely piercing the fog at all.

“Also,” he added, “Ryan has been bugging me to ask you to take me hunting since they did that piece about your family on the society page, he’s been driving me up the wall. And I wasn’t thinking very clearly after my encounter with Megan and Beth.”

“Ahhh. Now I see,” Chris said. “I said I hunt alone.”

Evan nodded. “You can. I can’t.” Which was what it came down to. Evan felt too embarrassed to say that he was envious of Chris, because it was a stupid reason to pull this dumb stunt.

After a minute or so of silence, Chris asked, “What do you think, we need a party name?”

“We’re done with that, then?” Evan asked, surprising himself with the bitterness in his voice. “I’ve answered your damn question?”

“I think I see where you’re coming from,” Chris said, soft and a little sad. “I still think that being out here without charms or a warding mantle or even a girdle was fucking foolish, and that you were fortunate tonight. But you’ve been touched by the Conflict more than most, and it must have been really irritating when I butted into your business. I think I get it.”

“Fortune owed me, I guess,” Evan said, focusing on the bitterness. Though even as he focused on it, it ebbed, died away like the irritation before it, but this time it seemed to take a little of the fog away with it. He felt a little more himself again, now that he wasn’t monologuing about his past. “And yeah,” Evan said. “I do think we need a name for our party, if you’re still serious about being in one with us after all this.”

“You’re the one who’s expressed doubts,” Chris said with a shrug, his tone cheerful. “Fortune’s pretty clearly brought us together, for better or for worse. I think that’s something. I know I don’t know you guys that well yet, but nothing any of you have done has made me have second thoughts. None of this.” He gave a lazy wave of his hand while the trolley’s bell peeled as the trolley slid to a stop. “Here we are.”

Evan blinked, realized that they were in a trolley, at the stop down the street from the Grove. He hadn’t even registered getting in the trolley in the first place. Not just that, but they’d needed a transfer between the Link and this one, so he had gotten on a trolley, gotten off, and then gotten on another all without noticing. “So we are…”

He wondered whether he might be even more out of it than he realized. Stood to reason, he supposed.

They stepped off the trolley, and Chris said, “So what is the deal with our birthdays, though?”

Evan shrugged as they set off down the street. “Your guess is as good as mine. It’s never been, like, magic. Shivers. I dunno. It was always just a funny coincidence, and Megan decided it meant that we had to be friends.” He paused, considering. “Though we’re not exactly ordinary, I guess. Angie talks to spirits and animals, and has a knack for enchantment that runs in her family. I—”

“Wait, what?” Chris said. He’d just done a double-take as Evan had been speaking, so Evan wasn’t super surprised to be cut off. “She also enchants?! Why is this the first time I’m hearing about all this?!”

“Interrobang,” Evan said, which struck him as hilarious, so he laughed. Chris blinked at him for a moment, and then started chuckling as well, which made Evan laugh more, until he couldn’t even keep himself upright. This delayed their progress home, as it took a while for him to get control of himself. He found himself sort of hanging onto a lamppost once he calmed down. “I can’t believe we’re saying that again,” he said, shaking his head and wiping his eyes. “Fuck that’s great!”

“I agree,” Chris said, smiling with all apparent sincerity. “I think it’s charming.”

“It’s not, it’s a ridiculous thing for a bunch of adults to say, but I’m glad you… don’t think it’s goofy, I guess,” Evan said, still shaking his head. “If you were sour on it, I suspect your chances with Megan would be slimmer.”

“You think I have chances?!” Chris said, whipping his head toward Evan and grabbing his upper arm with one hand like it was a reflex. His unfair eyes were wide and fixed on Evan with intense excitement.

Evan stared back at him for a long silent moment, his fogged up brain utterly perplexed. “Yyyeees?” he replied, with a slow nod of his head, feeling incredulous and showing it. “You probably have a chance or two.”

Chris gave this little arm pump that set Evan off laughing again, delaying them further.

After he collected himself and they got on their way again, Chris, sounding somewhat bemused, prompted Evan. “And the rest of you?”

Evan thought for a moment. “Well, I mean, Megan’s Megan. I guess we’ve established her extraordinariness. I suppose I’m a pretty good shot.” He kept his face serious, but he couldn’t keep a little pride from creeping into his voice. “And Ryan…”

“And, Ryan?” Chris said after several moments of silence.

Evan looked at Chris and grinned. “Ryan is crazy short!”

Evan started laughing again, and Chris guffawed, too. The sounds echoed down the street, unmuffled by the light breeze and the sighing of the leaves, the crackling gas lamps. Evan didn’t completely lose himself again, but it took an effort, which he made because he was waiting for what came next.

Movement drew their attention to their right, toward the porch, as they reached the Grove. Ryan stepped out from the shadow of a tree that partially obscured the porch and said, “I heard that.” Chris made a noise somewhat like snirck, probably trying not to laugh.

“I know. You got crazy good ears, or you bug our phones,” Evan said, and then he lost it, almost falling into the front asparagus garden as he laughed and laughed.

“Hack!” Ryan said, the world’s largest eye roll contained entirely in his voice. “I would hack your phones, why do I have to keep telling you guys!? Interrobang?!”

Chris made a noise somewhat like shnorck. Evan staggered up the stairs like a drunk, unable to stifle his laughter.