Veins of Ice Page 10

  “You claim victory far too soon.”

  “I know, but you get what I mean. It may seem like I’m jumping too far ahead, but I’m not. I can see what the future will hold. After all, I am a wizard. Someday, I’ll be a sorcerer.”

  “Wizards aren’t seers.”

  Her eyes scoured the restaurant for the waitress and their food, but both were nowhere to be found. Their food was still minutes away. Going out with Tristan had been a mistake, a mistake that was growing by the second.

  Karena cast her eyes elsewhere, wanting to forget that Tristan was sitting in front of her. In the booth across the aisle from where she sat, a couple enjoyed their meal. They were frumpy in appearance with their mismatching clothes and outlandish hats. She could see why there was an attraction; they had an unusual sense of fashion. The outside world had faded from their awareness because all they could do was stare at each other with adoring eyes, chat, and flash happy, goofy grins at each other. Jealous, Karena turned her gaze to her glass of water.

  Tristan cleared his throat. “So……what was it about that guy that had you upside-down into him?” Tristan asked.

  “You mean the guy from my birthday party?” Karena asked. Her water glass clouded over as ice consumed it and threatened to turn it into a frozen lump.

  “Yes. You said his name was Vince.”

  “He was charming.”

  “Anyone can be charming.”

  “Sadly, no. There was something else about him,” she said, angry that there was because it meant that she couldn’t dismiss him as easily as other guys. Asher was never far from her mind, or the connection they had shared at the party. But it all had to be a lie. He must’ve been pretending to like her. She held onto this with a certain, panicked desperation.

  “Did you ever find out who he was, besides the obvious fact that he’s a coward because he couldn’t take off his mask? He’s probably much older than you.”

  “I didn’t. He left and hasn’t shown up since.”

  Tristan took a few sips of his water, and said, “Good.”

  Karena picked at her napkin, folded it, and then tore it at the seams she had made.

  After what seemed like eternity, the food finally came. She wolfed down her food, and waved down the waitress for the bill, even though Tristan was still halfway through eating his food. Despite his protests, she paid for her half of the dinner and promptly excused herself. She strode out of the restaurant and into the night air outside. A huge sense of relief washed over her.

  Upon arriving home, Karena noticed all of the cars parked outside and recognized some of them. Hadrian had invited friends over. Because she wasn’t in the mood for gaiety, Karena didn’t go through the front door. Instead, she entered through the backdoor and took the backstairs to avoid being seen and then pressured to mingle. Judging from their laughter and banter, they were playing holographic, magical card games.

  She shut her bedroom door on the noise that had managed to filter up to the second story. Depressed, she sunk into her chair in the corner. She loosened her shoes from her feet, and tossed them into the closet. She sat there, slumped over, defeated. Her date with Tristan had been miserable. Their conversations had been lackluster and his talk had been filled with disturbing subtleties. At times, it had sounded like he had been writing a script for her, complete with words and behavior prompts, as though he was trying to force her into a self-imagined role or fantasy partner. She couldn’t be what he wanted her to be.

  And Tristan wasn’t even close to being what she needed when it came to a partner. There wasn’t any mutual spark between them. It was one-sided, where he was infatuated with her, but she wasn’t with him. She had been on other dates with other guys, and though not as disastrous, there hadn’t been that spark, none of that electricity, or connection, which was like dialing in to a favorite radio station. Only one person had made her feel that romantic high, and she hated his guts. It was unfair.

  Karena had been wrong to think that things had changed between she and Tristan over the past years. They had been friends for a long time, since middle school. During her last year of high school, she had briefly entertained the notion that he might’ve been suitable as boyfriend material, but had reconsidered after seeing him throw a tantrum when a fellow high schooler, Lauren, had rebuffed Tristan’s advances.

  She stared at the floor, unable to get up. Finally, she did in order to pull off her clothes and slip into her pajamas. On her bed, as she ruminated about the evening with Tristan, her eyes strayed to her small trashcan hiding under her desk and fixated on it. She slid off of her bed, and went over to it. After great deliberation, she pulled Asher’s mask out of it. From throwing it in there, it had become a little dented in a few places. She ran her fingers over its smooth surface and the wings that fanned up the sides of the mask.

  Like a mouse, her thoughts speculated in a cautious and yet curious manner. What if she met Asher again, but held her anger in check? Would he be just as charming as he had been at the party? She remembered her outburst under the wisteria pergola. It finally dawned on her that he hadn’t once allowed the temperature to rise when she had lowered it so drastically. When everything had frozen over, he hadn’t countered her ice powers with his own. He hadn’t acted aggressively or in a hostile manner. Actions spoke louder than words. Karena dwelled in her revelation. He had been sincere in wanting to know her more. The realization shocked her to her core. She collapsed onto her bed.

  But he was a Fire. They couldn’t be trusted. Yet, he hadn’t endangered her life. He had lured her out of her house with a simple note, but not to the Fire or Air district, but right there in a garden on her turf and he had been alone. He had said he that had planned on burning the Blue Ballroom to the ground, but he hadn’t.

  She had been brought up to hate Fires and Airs. They were murderous, low-lifes. Her uncle had been killed by a Fire. The police had found his torched car by the side of the road. There had been and still was a lot of residual grief and anger from that tragedy. Tensions ran high between the two sides, Fire and Air on one side, and Water and Earth on the other. There were countless quarrels over trade agreements, and unfair business practices were utilized to deprive the other of goods.

  However, what if both sides of the feud were in the wrong. Karena discarded that notion. She stared up at her ceiling and some of the old cracks that zigzagged through it from when an earthquake had shaken Archelm City. Asher was different than all the other men she had dated or known. No matter what angle she took or how much she tried to dismiss her feelings, she had to know if he was the one. Asher had seemed genuine in wanting to pursue her. But dating a Fire in Archelm City was unthinkable. It was traitorous. There had to be another way to discreetly find out if that spark burned between she and Asher.

  Then it hit her. Asher was a coworker. She hadn’t ever thought of him like that, but yes, he was a coworker. If she talked to Captain Valmar, he could switch her to Asher’s team for a couple of weeks. It would be considered an act of goodwill in the cryptid hunting department because it was seen as an effort to ease tension between the two sides and to create friendliness. No one would suspect a thing, though Hadrian might, but he wouldn’t say anything.

  Karena mulled over her scheme. Scenarios played out, the questions that could be raised, and how to get around them. She would be given two weeks in Asher’s team, and that would be plenty of time to know what was what and whether she was doomed to a world full of Tristans.

  Chapter 10

  Despite being early for work by a solid thirty-five minutes, Karena still hadn’t arrived before the scientists had. They were in their glass fortress, holding cups of coffee, but for once, they noticed her walking by. She waved, and a tall scientist gave her a friendly nod in acknowledgement. They reminded her of hamsters.

  She found Captain Valmar’s office just past Eve’s. He was at his desk, reading the daily newspaper. His reading glasses looked hilariously comical on his squared, roughened face.

/>   Without looking up from his newspaper, he asked, “Yes, Ms. Oceania.”

  “I was hoping that you would consider putting me on Asher’s team,” she said, and put her hands behind her back to hide some of her nervousness.

  “You two have had issues before. I don’t want one of you, or both of you, dead,” he said. He put down his newspaper and took off his reading glasses.

  “It’s intended as an act of goodwill. I don’t have anything against Asher, except in competition.”

  He studied her for an agonizing amount of time. “I’ll have to talk to him first, which will be after his work shift,” he said.

  “I understand.”

  Before she could express her gratitude, he changed the subject by stating, “There’s been rumors that a necromancer might have taken up residence in Archelm City.”

  “A necromancer?”

  “Supposedly, this entity has been paying a visit to the Fire and Air districts. You wouldn’t happen to know who this might be?”

  “I don’t. What’s been going on?” Karena said, knowing well that if the necromancer was targeting those districts then the necromancer had been born in Archelm City, and was either a Water or an Earth.

  “Various disturbances. The usual signs of a necromancer have been present. Innocent pets have been slaughtered and harvested for their organs. Dark creatures from the spiritual world were summoned in someone’s backyard. I’m not sure if it’s a novice necromancer or not. The spellcasting is sloppy, but the spells used are powerful and only an experienced necromancer would try them.

  ‘Keep your ears open, because I want to find this person. We can’t have a necromancer running around. If you thought the Vampire Regime was bad, try having a necromancer run a kingdom.”

  It sounded as though he knew what that was like. She said, “How would you know? The last necromancer king ruled about a thousand years ago.”

  “He came from the swamps, near the Bay of Death. Many purges to rid the world of the knowledge he possessed have been made. However, there could still be some left, which have been passed down or passed along. This is what I worry about, especially when it seems like there is a novice necromancer on the loose who is performing advanced spells in this city,” Captain Valmar said, and he stopped himself. He put up his newspaper. “Run along, I have reading to do before the rest of you buggers arrive.”

  “But how can you make that comparison, that necromancers are less evil than vampires? We know so little about that time too since so many documents were destroyed during the Vampire Regime.”

  “I can make that comparison because it’s a known fact that necromancers employ all sorts of creatures to do their bidding, especially ones more powerful than they. Vampires only control those that they think are weaker than themselves. They don’t dabble in black magic, except for when they need to infuse their weaponry with it. Vampires may be violent, oppressive, cruel, and smarter than anything you’ve known, but they won’t utilize power that is beyond them. They know their limits. And there are things that sleep both here in this world and in the spirit world that are from the times of the gods that shouldn’t be woken. If something is woken, you will become allies with the vampires.”

  “What?! That is unthinkable. How can you say those kinds of things and downplay what the vampires did? And the vampires were wiped out. Everyone knows that. They’re gone for good.”

  “I’m not downplaying,” Captain Valmar said. He set his reading glasses to the side, and folded up his newspaper and placed it next to them.

  “All the suffering people endured, the fear, it’s right there in the history books.”

  “It is all true, and people here have become stronger and wiser for it, but also forgetful in the little utopia they have built. There may not be homelessness or poverty or much violence, but that doesn’t hold true for what’s outside the Sundarin Nation’s borders. There are those who wish to consume the light of good. Good times don’t last. What you think might be harsh, may not be. You have not lived for thousands of years to remember and know. You rely on books and teachers, and therefore, your memory is flawed and supplemented, as are everyone else’s.”

  Her eyes went to the massive scar across his neck, and the lines on his face. It was near impossible to tell his age because he didn’t have the fine lines of age around his eyes. “Have you lived for thousands of years?” she asked.

  “I have lived long enough, and have taken turns being side by side with both good and evil.”

  “What was the Vampire Regime like then?”

  “It was a difficult time for your race, filled with anguish. The vampires prospered off of everyone’s labor. Despite the long hours of work, fifty to seventy hours of hard toil a week, the majority of the population were driven into poverty or onto the streets where the trash was thrown. Magic and gearcrafting were illegal. There were lots of deaths, primarily from blood loss due to blood tithes being repeatedly taken. Those times were dark for your race, and the vampires never had it so good before.”

  “They were parasites,” Karena said, her blood boiling from the thought of vampires. Even though she didn’t want to talk about vampires, she hadn’t ever heard Captain Valmar talk for so long about something that wasn’t related to cryptid hunting, and that’s why she stayed to listen to him.

  “It’s in their nature to be that way. They feel compelled to find a willing host. They did that to the elves long ago when there were warring communities of them, before they united. They were fractured for centuries due to the vampires. The vampires created conflicts and feuds. The elves fought each other, much like what is happening here, until the elves realized that there was nothing to fight over and that the conflicts had been prefabricated by the vampires to divide them. When they united, they became the strongest nation on the surface of this planet, and still are. There isn’t an army out there that can defeat the elves. They live in peace now, but they are watchful because they know too what’s out there.”

  Karena nodded. Little was known about the elves, and it almost felt like he had been there to witness all of this history unfold. “You’ve never told anyone what you are,” she said.

  “And nor will I until they come up with a suitable answer. They need to do their research,” Captain Valmar said, frustrating her.

  “When it comes to vampires, there’s none to ally with. They were killed off.”

  “Do you really think so? Or is that what you want to believe? Nothing ever truly dies out. There might be fewer numbers of something, but never are they completely gone. Do you know where the vampires came from?”

  “They just appeared.”

  “They didn’t. They came from the east, from the direction of the swamps.”

  “Does that have anything to do with where the last necromancer king came from, and possibly where you came from too to know about all of this?”

  “Yes, to the first part of your question. There’s a land that is uncharted by humans, a land east of the swamps. It’s a jungle, for the most part. Learn your history because events and entities don’t come from out of nowhere, which also holds true for parasitic races like the vampires. Something drove them out.”

  “I don’t care about them or any plight they suffered from.”

  He smiled, sad and depressed. “You won’t care until it arrives on your doorstep. There’s still time until then. There are struggles here that must be overcome first. History hasn’t repeated itself yet, but when it does, we will see who prevails,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You will have to figure that out for yourself. I’ve talked too much as it is. Go on, get changed for work. Everyone should be arriving soon if they can get their lazy asses out of bed this morning. I’ll think about your request. Don’t expect me to run my mouth again; that only happens once in a while when I’m feeling generous.”

  Feeling confused, Karena left.

  In the locker room, Karena was still struggling to absorb what Captain Valma
r had said. It befuddled her. She didn’t know how to make sense of it all. Allying with vampires? It was ridiculous. They would never. An evil greater than vampires? It didn’t exist. Then he had talked about the elves. No one knew much about the elves, except that they kept to themselves and no one dared to mess with them. All they knew was that there was a forest to the west that they occupied, and people called it the Elven Forest. What was in there, or beyond it, they had no idea. The same went for the swamps, what exactly was in there, or beyond it, was a mystery.

  Her brain hurt. It was all too much. She dismissed it. She was just one person, that was all. Nothing more. She didn’t make important decisions. The burden of Captain Valmar’s information wasn’t for her to carry. Normally, he didn’t discuss anything that was outside cryptid hunting, and now she appreciated that. She wasn’t going to egg on a conversation with him again.

  She went to the sinks to splash hot water on her face. Her ice elemental abilities counteracted the hot water. The mirror clouded and began to freeze over. She leaned over the sink. All that mattered was that Captain Valmar would consider putting her in Asher’s team. Already, she was anxious to get the day over with. She wanted to hear the verdict of whether she would be allowed onto Asher’s team or not.

  After putting on her uniform, Karena gathered up her hair into a ponytail. To pass some of the time before work started, she sat down in the lounge area of the locker room. But when a group of Airs parked themselves near her to laugh and talk loudly, Karena got up and left for the tables in the Warren room. Tristan was already sitting at their table, and he jumped up to pull out the chair for her. He sat down next to her.

  Karena’s jaw clenched, and she sighed to convey her peeved mood. “That’s Hadrian’s spot,” she snapped.

  “But I thought I could sit here. Hadrian won’t mind,” Tristan said, staring at her, his face too close to the side of hers.

  “I do mind.”

  “Oh, I guess I don’t matter as much then,” Tristan said, pouting, and waited for several seconds in the hopes that she would reconsider. He got up, and took the spot across from her. “I enjoyed our date last night. There’s a quaint, little pizza parlor I know of that we could go to tomorrow night, or whenever you’re free. It’s close to where I live. I go there all the time.”