Chapter 10 - One More Trick

Rayne stood in the wreckage of the museum. Broken tables, scattered food. Statues knocked off their pedestal lay on the floor. Curtains were strewn about.

Policemen swarmed the place. Explorer’s amongst them. They were picking through the wreckage, studying the bakiri corpses and talking to witnesses. She even caught sight of Emery navigating the scene.

“You alright?” Marcus asked. He didn’t seem any different. His face was the same as it always was. His clothes were stained with monster’s blood.

She didn’t answer. She just stood there. Staring at that space in the distance. Her mind empty, the only thing she was aware of was her steady breathing.

Marcus reached out with one of his large, calloused hands, and gently removed her glasses. He found a clean part of his shirt and began to wipe the dust, and green splotches, then offered them back.

“Yes,” Rayne finally said. Blinking. The trance now gone. She reached out and took her glasses, but she didn’t put them back on right away. “I’m fine.” She glanced back at him, looking for any sign of injury. “And you?”

“Few scratches,” Marcus shrugged. He took her by the shoulder, and looked her over, just to make sure. “Tonight, could have been bad. Maybe a dozen bakiri in total, I’m not sure. Most of them left though.”

“Do you think they gave up?” she asked. He shook his head.

“No, a few of them chased after David and the others,” Marcus said, starting to walk towards the entrance of the museum. He hesitated just enough for Rayne to follow. “Perhaps the others went to wait at a rendezvous point.”

Ahead of them, Rayne could see M’natherine sitting in a chair, her cheeks flushed, and her sword out in front of her. She used her teeth to pull her magic gloves off one hand, and then reached down to pick up a bottle of water.

“Well, that was fun,” she said spitting out the glove and taking a sip.

“We nearly died.” Alex too was feeling a little distant like Rayne had been. “Like a lot.”

“You did good, kid,” M’natherine said, her tone a little more genuine than usual. Her violet eyes caught Rayne. “Both of you.”

“But they got away,” Rayne muttered, glancing down.

“You did exactly what I told you to do,” M’natherine tossed the now empty bottle and hefted her massive blade. She stood up and positioned it on her back with her leather harness. “And to be fair, the only reason we are still alive is because they got away.”

“The bakiri are a formidable force,” Marcus agreed. Even still, the two First Class Explorers might as well have been talking about the evening news. He checked his watch just as the whirring of propellers could be heard outside.

Another group of Explorers entered the museum. These weren’t First Class Explorers, Rayne realized, these were scholars and workers there to help with the scene. One of them rushed over to their group, a phone like tablet in his hand. He saluted and offered the screen to Marcus.

“We’re getting reports that there were bakiri going through the city, and it looks like they boarded a freight train headed westbound.”

“Understood,” Marcus said, gesturing to them. “Come on, we’ll take the ship and follow.

Together, she and M’natherine followed Alex and Marcus outside and across the yard. As soon as they stepped outside a barrage of reporters called out to them from behind the police perimeter. Flashes of a hundred cameras were so bright that Rayne had to cover her eyes and squint.

Rayne couldn’t help but feel taken aback. There was so much going on, so much happening, and yet… and yet she couldn’t help but feel a small amount of satisfaction. Because she wasn’t on the other side of the perimeter, she wasn’t a bystander, no, she was right in the middle of the action. When they took pictures, they took pictures of her. When they pointed their microphones asking for answers, they were asking her.

She looked ahead, and Marcus was stony, not paying them any attention. M’natherine was paying about as much attention as he was, but Alex brushed his hair back and waved as he passed by. Rayne realized what she must look like, a cowering girl, hiding her face, but that wasn’t her. She forced her hand away and straightened her posture, suddenly much more aware of how she walked.

As they boarded the ship, and the ramp began to rise, the flashing and noise faded away under the humming engines. It was dark and quiet behind the scenes. It was the in-between chapters that Rayne didn’t normally get to read about.

“Don’t worry about them,” M’natherine said. “And don’t freak out when you see yourself in every newspaper in the city.”

Rayne swallowed hard at that. It wasn’t that she’d never thought about the fame of an Explorer. It wasn’t that she’d never imagine herself out there, basking in the cameras and speaking to reporters, or journalists seeking to record her adventures. But now she was there, and like everything else she had come to find out about being an Explorer, it wasn’t quite what she expected.

“Ah, break me…” Marcus grunted, his head turned towards one of the small porthole windows. Everyone else in the ship turned toward the nearest window and they saw it too. The pillars of smoke rising up and blurring the distant stars. The spread of fire across the fields and patches of the forest. The train cars that were twisted and torn and burning.

“Rayne,” Marcus called as the ship began to slow and descend towards the wreckage. He stepped over to her and held out a small air tank and mask, and her gun case. “For the smoke,” he said holding up the tank, then he held up the gun. “For anything else. Be careful.”

The ship landed and Rayne had the air tank clipped to her belt, mask over her face, and her pistol, locked, loaded, and ready to go. It was her first time using it in the field and holding it in her hands she felt… not fear, but rather a type of respect, an awareness perhaps. This was her first weapon, and she was responsible for it. The same as a sword, or a bow, or a magic staff.

Alex racked a bolt into the chamber of his rifle and gave her an encouraging nod. He pushed down the ramp first, and the smell of cedar smoke and ashes began to wash over them.

“Good gods,” M’natherine coughed a little, and adjusted her own mask. “What happened here?”

Marcus was quiet as he walked, slow and perusing. Each of them began to spread out, each going their own direction. Rayne pressed right on into the smoke and flames, following the paths of burned dirt. Her eyes watered, and the heat was intense in places, but she pressed on.

In the distance, the sound of bending, shrieking metal echoed across the scape. Rayne’s head whipped in the direction of the noise, and so did her pistol. Her knuckles were white as she kept the weapon raised and took slow careful steps forward.

She was expecting a Bakiri in every shadow, in every pillar of smoke. Each popping of flame or shifting of the burning metal had her jumping.

Hearing a cough, Rayne jolted and pulled the trigger, her heart pounding. The bullet hit the metal wall of a fallen car with a loud ping.

“I was just gonna ask if you had, like, a napkin or something,” David said, his bright green eyes glancing over to the smoking bullet hole five inches from his head. “I have snot and blood running from my nose, makes me sound funny.”

“And now I’m sad I missed,” Rayne drawled as she holstered her weapon and knelt in front of the boy. His blue t-shirt was stained in blood and soot, a few burns and cuts on his arms. The right side of his shirt and jacket were torn and darkened with blood.

“Rayne, Rayne!” Marcus called in her earpiece. She winced in surprise, almost forgetting she had it in, his voice coming through so loud. She had no more than a heartbeat to make a choice. So, she made it.

“False alarm,” she answered, reaching up and pressing the earpiece. One second… Two… “Sorry.”

“Oh wow,” David raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Not like you to let me go so easily, Maralyn. You’re really putting me on a roller coaster of emotion here. First you like me, then you hate me, and like me again…”

“Never said I liked you,” Rayne said, kneeling down in front of him. She holstered the gun, and took off the oxygen mask, offering it to him.

“No,” he shook his head. “I’m good, thanks though.”

“Wasn’t asking,” Rayne said, and pressed the mask to his face. He tried to resist, but weakly. “I’m not going to let you die, at least not until you tell me what’s going on.”

“They chased us,” David coughed, his breath fogging the mask as he breathed in the clean air. “Tried to get away but they took her… they took Taylor Hanson. Tried to get her back, but…” He gestured to the wreckage. “No dice. There were more bakiri, waiting for the train.”

“Fayr,” Rayne swore. “When are you going to learn, David? When are you going to fayring learn?” Anger flared inside of her. She was ready to yell, to scream, all the pent-up anxiety and fear that had been building all night was ready to boil over, but even as Rayne opened her mouth to say all of the things she was thinking she faltered. Lost momentum.

“You idiot…” she said softly. Her fingers touched his skin and immediately became wet with red. “So that’s it then… they got the girl. They got the spark, and they’re headed to Volthum right now to bring back Alkania. They win.”

“Well…” David grinned behind the mask. He opened his hand to reveal a dim and colorless crystal. The Oasis Spark.

“How…” Rayne’s eyes widened. “I thought you couldn’t touch accumulators.”

“Taylor used the magic,” David coughed, and then winced as it pulled at his side. “She’s the one that blew up half the train. As long as it doesn’t have magic in it, then there’s nothing to explode when I touch it.” He offered it to her. “Take it, before it starts to regenerate or something.”

Rayne took the spark in her hands, looking down at its lifeless shape. All of the feelings, and the connections she felt the first time she had touched it in the Valley of Wyte were gone. It was just a colorless gem.

“Steven took it from her,” David explained. “While he was busy punching me, I was busy stealing. I’ve always been good at that.” His eyes began to flicker. “You should know.” He slumped forward before jolting awake again. He blinked, but then his eyes began to droop.

“Hey,” Rayne grabbed his shoulder, shaking him. “Don’t do that to me. Trying to make me care. Trying to convince me of something that’s not true.”

“And what… am I trying to… convince you of?” He asked, his breathing became more ragged.

“That you really are some kind of hero,” she whispered.

“I’m gonna do it…” David started to slump forward again, eyes closing. “I’m gonna save the day.”

“Promise me that you can,” Rayne said softly. “Promise me that you will.”

David opened his eyes once more, and this time, when he did, Marcus, Alex, and M’natherine stood over him, weapons drawn and pointed. Alex had a smile of delight. M’natherine just gave him a sympathetic smile and a shrug.

As Rayne stood up, he could see the ice in her gray eyes. As cold as the Valley of Wyte. In her fingers she had the earpiece, pressed tight between her thumb and forefinger.

“Oh…” David groaned. “Plot twist. I actually thought you were gonna let me go.”

“Just returning the favor,” Rayne said, her voice pitiless. “People can lie, can’t they?”

“You can’t tell me that it was all a lie.”

“It wasn’t.”