Well, it has been a crazier month than usual. Between needing to rewrite a bunch of chapters, a crazy amount of seasonal work, a mini-vacation, and a death in the family, I've had my hands full.
Here's the long-awaited first part of chapter 25. As usual, this is a rough draft. There's bad language and worse grammar. You have been warned.
“Penny for your thoughts?” asked Sue, approaching with a cup of coffee. Aleph was leaning against the unfinished cinder block wall at the back of the staff room. Arachne had gone back to her friends, Minnaloushe was unchanged, and the only sound in the room was the gentle roar of the crucible.
“People aren’t acting the way they’re supposed to. It’s irritating,” Aleph said accepting the cup and taking a sip, black, no sugar, the way she liked it. “Wait, that’s not right. People are acting the way they’re supposed to, but I don’t know why.”
“Like who?” said Sue, taking a sip from her own cup.
“Knox of the White. In one night he’s done two impossible things, and both go against everything he’s ever worked for. I’m missing something that I just know is going to come back to bite me in the ass.”
“Want to talk it out? I can be a good listener.”
“I remember.” Aleph straightened and sighed.
“Twice tonight Knox has put his position in the Guild at risk. The first time was by killing Elanor of the Red.”
Aleph heard Sue gasp. Her hearing was acute enough that she also heard a double gasp from where Dimitri and Sam sat on the couch listening in halfway across the room. Whatever. It wasn’t like everyone wasn’t going to know soon enough. Even if there wasn’t a body, news of a missing Red was going to cause a splash when it got out.
“He killed Elanor?!”
“Did you know her?”
“Well, I knew of her. She’s been a fixture in East Van forever, sort of a local celebrity. There aren’t that many Reds to begin with, but she was ours.”
“Only twenty-one in all the aether,” Aleph put in wistfully. “Twenty now until the Guild promotes another.”
“She seemed alright for an alchemist.”
“She was, but Knox used a tricked knife that somehow burned her Panacea. It should have been impossible, but he did it.”
“What could do that? More Necromancy?”
“Looks like it, and that brings me to the next thing. This is a problem he’d to have been working on the problem for years.” She rubbed her forehead. “As much of a chucklefuck as he is, Dimitri’s right,” she said watching Dimitri’s back straighten where he stood pretending not to listen. “This wasn’t a spur of the moment thing. Hell, this wasn’t a spur of the decade thing, Knox has to have been working on this for years. He had to have a source of necromantic magic to experiment with, and everyone knows how the Guild feels about death magic. It’s taboo for them, they chop off heads first and ask questions later. It’s been that way from the very start.”
Sam and Dimitri drifted closer, any pretense of not listening in now gone.
“In one night he’s done two things that put him directly at odds with the Guild— The Guild he’s spent the last century and a half trying to move up the ranks in. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe he’s tired of trying to suck up the Guild and branching out,” suggested Sue.
“No, I have to believe that Knox still wants to rise up in the Guild. He’s been at it for too long to cash in his chips now.”
“Maybe it’s a False Flag,” said Sam.
“What’s that now?” asked Sue.
“So I’m a big loser of an alchemist with no prospects,” Sam began enthusiastically, “and I’m also a complete dick. I know that the corrupt guild I work for has a murder-boner the lone necromancers that pop up every few decades, and I, being the slimy shit I am, want to capitalize on it.”
“Less editorializing, more explanation,” said Aleph.
“Fine, fine. An untrained necromancer isn’t much of a threat to anyone. Exposing them isn’t going to make the kind of splash Knox wants, not enough bodies on the ground, not enough public outrage. So, he prepares and waits for the day for when one finally shows up. While he waits, he builds himself an army of zombies. When our unsuspecting necromancer finally appears, he commits a series of sensational murders to blame on him, and when it’s time to take out the big, bad necromancer, he makes sure he’s the one who does it. Instant celebrity in the Alchemist Guild and the community.”
“That’s…” Aleph thought about it. “That’s actually not bad.”
If the ones who had attacked Strangefellows earlier also happened to be gin, there might be more to Sam’s zombie army theory than he knew.
“On top of it,” Sam went on, “once he dispatches the big, bad necromancer, everyone’s wondering why he’s still Knox of the White and not it’s not Knox of the Yellow or maybe even Knox of the Red? There are some serious PR points to be gained in a move like that. The Guild is big on PR.”
“It still has problems, like where did Knox learn to mix alchemy and necromancy? That’s forbidden knowledge. Knox is a spineless douche, he isn’t brave enough to carry on those kinds of experiments on his own.”
“Forbidden or not, it’s still just knowledge,” said Sam. Maybe someone told him how, maybe he found a book, maybe there’s a Youtube video. You don’t need to know how a gun works to use it,”
“It works as a theory, but I think it’s still missing something.”
“You’re the goddess, you tell us then,” said Dimitri.
“Being divine doesn’t mean I know everything, it just means I get to nudge collapsing wave functions on a macroscopic level.”
Dimitri looked at her blankly for a long beat. “So anyway, it’s been fun, but it’s time for me to go now.”
“Nope,” said Aleph over his words.
Dimitri eyed her. “I did what you wanted, I got to Stirling before Rag and Bone did. If he decided to have a great big necromancer coming out party, it’s not my fault. You and I are square.”
“This is bigger than the Guild chasing down a necromancer. Whatever Knox has planned is going to affect a lot of people. Penhold should be warned.”
“So warn him them, you don’t need my permission.”
“No, I need witnesses, that means you two,” Aleph said pointing to Sam and Dimitri.
“Why me?” asked Dimitri. “Why not bring Sue? She saw it all. Better yet, bring that necro chick. She’s even got video. I’m done.”
“Uh, Char witch here, someone has to hold down the fort,” Sue said.
“Using the testimony of someone who self-identifies as a necromancer, no matter how false the claim, isn’t going to be a reliable witness,” said Aleph. “Arachne’s out.”
“Yeah, well, thanks, but no thanks, I’m already in enough trouble with the Guild. I’m not making it worse by talking to the cops.”
Aleph sighed inwardly, she wondered what Dimitri had thought he’d been doing for the last hour if it hadn’t been talking to the cops.
“Mister Singh,” she said, putting on her professional face. “Let me spell this out for you. Rag and Bone are hunting you. You might be able to avoid them in the short-term, but the odds are on their side. They will catch up to you some dark night, and when they’ve finished with you, you will believe in your heart of hearts that your death will be the single best thing that has ever happened to you. If that’s not enough for you, I can also get you dragged in and charged.”
“For what?!”
“Unauthorized use of a computer and possession of a device to obtain computer service, or did you ask permission to infect James on all those operating systems?”
Dimitri’s mouth opened and stayed that way.
Sue touched his shoulder. “Listen to her, Dimitri, she’s right.”
“You also reek of Panacea,” Aleph went on. “You were recently given a large dose.” It wasn’t a question. She moved in close and inhaled. “Fifty years, or close to it. Congratulations, that must have cost you a pretty penny. But don’t kid yourself, you won’t be getting any more. By now, Knox knows you’re working against his people and whether what he’s doing is legal or not, that means you are working against the Alchemist Guild. Any chance you, your friends, contacts, or family had of getting more was gone the moment he came after you.”
“But that’s not my fault,” he pointed, as though suddenly recognizing her, “that’s your fault! If you hadn’t made me tail Stirling, I’d still be safe.”
“And what do you think the Guild will say to you when you tell them that?” she asked him. “Do you really think they’ll take the word of a twenty-something webmage over the alchemist who has been a guild member for the last two centuries?”
“Whether you knew it or not, you’ve chosen sides. Right now you have nothing to lose by speaking with us. As a matter of fact, the Duke of Senak is the only person in the entire Aether who might be able to keep you and everyone you know, safe.”
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