CHP52

Dee ran as fast as she could back into town, her heart pounding as her bird, a thrush, flew up to meet her hand. She cradled it to herself and whispered before releasing it into the sky, watching as it jettisoned off ahead of her.

Within moments, bells rang over the town, strange lights flashing in windows as security measures went into place.

“I didn’t think I’d have to do this…” Dee wheezed as she struggled with her keys to get into the bar.

“Auntie?” Willen called out, and she panted, breathless.

“Sai… Acryan… Vrahe.” Dee bent over her knees, grasping at her chest as she tried to catch her breath.

“Do what!?” Willen said, watching as Dee waved her hand, trying to shut him up.

“Starling… she’s Sai,” Dee choked out and Willen went pale.

“Oh, hell.”

“Yeah, well, Sael is Vrahe,” Dee added, “And something bad’s going down.” She scrambled about the kitchen, making her way into a small office. Sifting through the scattered papers, Dee flipped a book before a phone number written on a pink sticky note caught her attention. With barely a gesture, her phone slid into her hand before her thumb navigated rubbery buttons, tty texting her contact. The Cerraien needed to get technology.

“Who are you texting?” Willen said as he went about warding the doors and windows of the place, staff rushing in as he did so, gathering there to wait out whatever potential storm could be brewing.

“Who I should have texted the second I saw her ikris. I’m messaging one of Queen Southwind’s contacts to make her get here as soon as possible. We can’t trust the Acerrai right now,” Dee said as she fired off the text.

“Don’t just go spilling Kael’s secrets like that!” Willen said.

“You don’t understand. You didn’t feel the mana brewing back there. Something bad is going to happen.” Dee sent another message and waited, following up with another as her phone blinked back at her. She stuffed her phone back into her pocket and crossed her arms. “And now we wait.”

Willen twisted his hands, and they glanced around at one another in wait for the phone tree to progress. Getting messages to their Cerraien masters was difficult at the best of times. Requiring two or more intermediaries to get the most basic of summons. Being an Enai without status, with a low bird like Dee, it should have been more difficult, but Dee’s resources ran deep. As an enchanter, she had a lot to offer, no matter her bird.

The sky outside darkened, strange and ominous, as spent mana prickled their senses for miles around. Then, the residents of the town buckled down in basements and tornado shelters, hoping that whatever ‘storm’ the alarms sounded for would blow over soon.

Dee ran out to the back parking lot by the ‘general store’ that doubled as Willen’s unlicensed salon for Enai and the occasional ‘lady’ that came through. If any Lords and Ladies ever visited, they came here for the seclusion. Dee paced in the crunching gravel, her nerves on edge.

“Esanye Southwind,” she practiced saying to herself, taking deep breaths. Dee paced. She hoped she didn’t slip, because she’d addressed Kael and Seneya so informally for so long that she feared she might slip up and slight the queen.

“Yes?” she heard an annoyed voice ask, a somewhat European accent lilting over a female tongue, and Dee turned to bow out of instinct. She had burrowed so deep into her thoughts that she didn’t see the flash.

“Esanye Southwind, my lady!” Dee reiterated, meeting the annoyed expression of the copper-haired woman before her.

She wore human clothes but appeared so inhuman with her great height and piercing silver eyes.

“And again, I ask, yes?”

Dee could sense the anger about her and felt a cloying aura of fury that flared up and silenced. Dee bit her tongue, trying to stammer.

“Spit it out. They informed me you had information about my daughter,” the phoenix queen said, head tilting as her long copper locks spilled about behind her. The tension rising in the air made Dee fidget, and she took a deep breath.

“SENEYA!” she blurted out, making Lyra wrinkle her nose in confusion.

“Syn Nia? Little star?” She asked, and Dee shook her head.

“No Seneya, granddaughter… tail, phoenix in the wings… seraph…” Dee rattled, and Lyra’s chest swelled with mixed anger and hope.

“Where?”

“Kael has her, but—” Dee started, but blurted out as Lyra turned towards the woods and readied herself to run. Anger consumed her face.

“HE’S ONLY HAD HER A LITTLE WHILE. Something was done to her, and she’s strange,” Dee bleated. Lyra halted and turned back.

“Strange how? What was done?” Lyra rolled her predatory gait toward her, and Dee shuddered.

“Not fully sure, but someone gelded her for a really long time, and she thought she was human until Kael stripped the binding. He didn’t know if you did it and was trying to get her healed up enough to defend herself before he found you.” Dee blurted out and Lyra stepped back, hurt.

“I’d never… Why? I know Felice is dead. A moth has not come to her call… The spirit came back to me.” Lyra waited.

“I don’t know that, either, but he’s treating her like his own and she’s healing, but she’s… I think she’s Sai,” Dee said, and Lyra froze, her heart skipping a beat.

“Chakt…” she spat and ran.

“Wait, Esanye Southwind!” She called out, trying to warn her about Sael, but it was too late, far too late.