We must impress upon you that the potential risk to our people has become too severe and we will be forced to act alone if a negotiation cannot be reached. We will endeavor in every way to honor the alliance between our forces but not if it ensures the slaughter of our own men and women.
Immediate action is essential.
Standing by for your word.
General Taryn HA
Another…
To the Opus and its accomplices,
Your engagement with our forces on the plains of Ira will be regarded as an act of war unless they are followed by a negotiation that serves the needs of the HA.
We have attempted to involve the Opus in this matter on repeated occasions. Instead of working with us on a peaceful solution, my team was met with a battalion of armed Shepherds intent on combat. It was only through the respectful diplomacy of my men that no lives were lost. Rectify your stance immediately or our next encounter will not be resolved without bloodshed.
Taryn
Then…
Opus
The blood is on your hands. Eran County is no more.
The alliance you speak of is a farce. The unity you preach is a lie. It is clear now that a hundred Human lives mean less to you than the health of one wild animal. You have shown your true face.
The next letter was on a different kind of paper with a large Opus letterhead.
Dear General Taryn and soldiers of the Humanitarian Army,
It is with a heavy heart that the Opus receives your report concerning the unfortunate events in Eran County. This was not an outcome we anticipated or hoped for. Our thoughts and prayers are with the souls who have been lost.
Regarding your accusations of neglect, we must remind you of the Unification Treaty signed by all our representatives.
The Chimera responsible for the attack is believed to be the last of its kind and is therefore protected under this treaty. The Chimera must be immune from all attempts at capture, abduction or interference. This item was included in the treaty as a direct response to previous attempts by the HA and the Opus to subdue endangered magical creatures. We have lost many species over the last decade to the expansion of Human cities and their encroachment on protected creatures’ natural habitats.
Please receive the heartfelt sympathies of all at the Opus after this terrible tragedy, but know that our actions were in accordance with the agreement that we all vowed to uphold.
If you would like to discuss this matter in a more formal manner, I am eager to meet with you on neutral ground at your earliest convenience.
With respect and sympathy,
Eliah Hendricks – High Chancellor of the Opus
The last page was a dossier of casualties and damage from the Chimeran attack of Eran. Two hundred and twelve people dead. One survivor: Martin Phillips, age four.
I’d peered out through the broken beams beneath my house and watched the blood drip from the paws of the beast. When the screams fell silent and the creature was gone, I dared not move till the soldiers swarmed in.
I didn’t sleep at all that night, but somehow a card was slipped under the door without me noticing.
We know where it is. Ready to be a man?
Before I left Vera, I sent a letter to Hendricks informing him that I wouldn’t be returning to the Opus immediately. There was some personal business I needed to take care of. I didn’t tell him where I was going so I don’t know if he tried to reach me, or what his response might have been.
I’d like to say that I wasn’t really lying. That, in the moment, I intended to return to him after this thing was done. But I’m not a strong man and I often take the easy way out. I knew I was never going back.
Taryn and I met up with a unit from the Humanitarian Army and together we went out to the hills where the Chimera was hiding.
We scaled the cliffs of Candora, hunting the beast, and after a day of tracking we saw it down below: a giant lion with a crimson mane. Sprouting from its back was the head and single leg of a black-haired goat. It was like the two animals had been trapped inside each other. The lion’s tail was as long as its body and covered in the green scales of a snake. It moved as if it had a mind of its own.
I’d never seen anything like it before. A pure monstrosity, as big as a house, lumbering through the rocky terrain, pushing over trees like they were toys.
We called it a hunt. Most would call it a massacre. From the safety of the high cliffs, we set fire to the bushes with flaming arrows and filled the beast with crossbow bolts and spears.
The creature screamed. The soldiers cheered. I cheered too.
It felt like it meant something. To kill the thing that killed the parents I didn’t even remember. Afterwards, someone even sewed the fur of the beast into my jacket as some kind of reward.
When it was done, the General asked me if I wanted to stick around and I told him that I did. While we sang and celebrated, they painted a third ring on to my arm: a black pattern, thicker than the others. I was congratulated. I felt appreciated.
I was a soldier.
17
Only three hours’ sleep and my eyes snapped open on springs. I could still taste the nightmares but I resisted the urge to wash them down with whiskey. I had work to do.
Monsters look like monsters.
Sure, maybe Rye was taken out by some vengeful Human or the effects from the Coda finally caught up with him. If that’s what happened, then there wasn’t anything I could do about it. But if the monster inside Edmund Rye had reared up again, then I needed to find him fast.
Everything I knew about the world told me it wasn’t possible. If he didn’t drink blood, why would he be a threat? Even if he wanted to attack January Gladesmith, how could he manage it with his old and brittle body? I didn’t know enough about the magical make-up of Vampires to answer those questions myself, but I knew someone who might.
Like most members of the Opus, I’d avoided him out of shame. But a girl was missing. Perhaps still in danger. That sounded like a good enough reason to get over myself.
I changed into my cleanest shirt and splashed some water on my unshaven face. My boots were still warm from the night before when they’d taken me out on the road. They needed fixing. A lot of things needed fixing. Today was the day to make a start.
When the Coda hit Sunder City, the population aged in seconds. The magic fell out of their hearts, and all the days that had been pushed away caught up, bringing the months and years in with them.
Before then, the retirement village hadn’t been big. Sunder wasn’t the kind of city that prided itself on welfare and civil services. If you couldn’t pay your way, it was probably best you got out of town. The only aged-care facility was overpriced and undersized. Most of the citizens never even knew it was there.
After the Coda, it expanded to five city blocks. The old-aged homes enveloped three workers’ flats, a renovated office block and a row of small pubs. An entire region of the city had been taken over by the ancients.
Within this Eden of tea and wrinkles, the Elves reigned supreme. There had never been an Elf in an old folks’ home before, but suddenly they were running the joint. They claimed the best flats for themselves and nobody argued.
The Humans, for whom the burden of natural deterioration wasn’t anything new, had been relegated to rooms above the pubs and told that they were lucky to get that.