Industry & Intrigue (73 page)

Reese walked down the steep
stairwell of the building with a heavy heart. He had hoped to
make
a place
for himself here. Finish his studies with honors and move on to
research. Get a grant to excavate at Crean or another site and
uncover a fantastic new find, a real, preserved colossi fossil,
something that would have made his father proud. Then he would have
gone on to become a professor and teach students of his
own.

Now he w
asn’t sure he even wanted that.
The return of Lucina had upended his entire world and then again
with the murder of Michael. He was so caught up in his thoughts
while crossing the grass patch outside of the biology building that
he bumped into Cassandra. She had been walking towards him in the
opposite direction.

“
What is g
oing on with you?” she asked.
“Look, I know Michael was your best friend and it was horrible. If
anyone understands how you feel, I do.”

She
had improved over the last two months
since losing her girlfriend. She had stopped drinking. Well no,
that wasn’t true, she still drank, but she was back to the casual,
occasional drinking that had been her usual habit before she lost
Clarissa.

“
Y
ou disappeared this week,” she said.
“Didn’t come to classes, weren’t in your apartment. You just up and
left campus. I know how you feel. It’s like your insides are full
of acid eating away and feels like it won’t ever stop.”

Reese
stared at her. He was going to miss
Cassandra. Despite his awkward and embarrassing start with her,
they had become close friends and he hated to say goodbye. But it
had to be done.

“
Listen
Cassandra
,”
he said, trying to find the words. He placed his hands on her
shoulders. “I’m leaving.”

She opened her mouth to say
something, but he shook his head. “No please, le
t me finish,” he said. “I’m
leaving the university. I can’t stay here. At least not right now.
I signed up with the Imperial Army at one of the recruiting
stations yesterday. I leave for training next week.”

Her eyes
widened at hearing this and she
knocked his arms off her shoulders and shoved him backwards. “Are
you completely insane?” she screamed. “You lose a friend, so you
sign up to join a war! Are you that eager to follow him to
death?”

He had expected her to be upset
and it pained him to
see it on her face. Her eyes were brimming with
tears and he could tell she was struggling to hold them back. She
grabbed his hand with both of hers. There were dry and cold. It was
exactly how he felt on the inside. He didn’t know a better way of
explaining it to her. He wasn’t willing to talk about his sister to
her yet.

“
Don’t do it. Without friends
like you and Michael I would
n’t have made it through the last two months. Stay
here. You can get through it, I know you can. Besides, who am I
going to have to help me out when it comes to colossi or dragon
classification in class?”

He laughed
and put his left hand over
hers. Then he pulled her into a tight hug. She held on tightly, as
if she didn’t want to let go. But he pulled away and she
acquiesced. The tears were flowing down her face now.

“
Goodbye Cassandra. Good luck
with your studies
,” said Reese. She didn’t say anything in protest this
time, only stared at him with a sad face. There was still a part of
him that did not want to leave. Another part reminded him that he
had already lost one friend and he did not want to lose another. He
turned away from her and continued walking across the grass without
looking back. Lingering here would do him no good. The faster he
could pack his bags and leave campus, the better he would
feel.

Chapter
74

Atira studied her father’s face
as he examined
the book she had brought him. He had not been pleased with
the failure to retrieve the artifact at Crean. Not to mention the
damage Falco had received. His scientists were currently working on
the brute and attempting to get him back to working
condition.

Every few minutes, in the
middle of his reading, Varko would take his eyes
of
f the book
and look at Atira before going back to it. She hoped it held
something of value, she did not want to disappoint him
again.

He finally finished and closed
it, setting it down on the
small table next to his chair. A bottle of
expensive Zefey wine and two glasses stood there. He had not met
with anyone today, so he must be expecting company.

“
You say you found this book
left behind in the buildings at the
Crean facility?” he asked. “By someone who
should have been locked-up and guarded securely.”

She didn’t miss his
critic
ism of
her mistakes and she nodded without saying anything in
reply.

“
Atira my
dear
,
relax,” said Varko. “No one could have predicted a rampaging
deep-one would interrupt your search. Were it not for that, I
suspect you would be handing me the Sphere at this right now. But
this book is intriguing, for I have seen it before.”

The tension went out of
her
muscles
and she let her shoulders drop. Her clawed hands released from the
fists they had been bunched into. Her father was not
angry.

She was
surprised to hear that he had
seen the book before though. “You have?” she asked. “I assumed it
was dropped by one of the students. It contains cataloguing of
excavation sights and samples, with an emphasis on the
colossi.”

“
No mere student
could have written
all of this,” said Varko. “It is far too advanced.” He picked the
book up again and bid her to come over where she could see it. She
approached the left side of his chair, looking over his shoulder as
he turned the pages.

“
You
see here, these last few pages. There
are notes on potential dragon and colossi fossils, but they are
written in a different hand than the rest of the book. By someone
younger and only following the work of a master.” Varko flipped
back towards the front of the book. “All of this was written by an
expert in zoology and archeology, the like of which it would take
years to become. The reason I have seen the book before is because
this expert used to work for me.”

Atira’s c
uriosity was growing. Her
father had made his plans long ago, and they were only beginning to
come to fruition.

“
Where is this expert
now
?” she
asked.

“
Dead
,” replied Varko. “He betrayed me
many years ago and I had him killed. He became another casualty of
the Estaran Civil War.” A tactic her father often used, hiding
deaths of enemies within events and incidents so that they did not
stand out. It was the only way to ensure that the Order of the
Endless maintained its secrecy.

“
He had
a family,” he continued. “But they
were all killed along with him. My agents were not as thorough in
cleaning up as I hoped. Someone managed to get their hands on
this.” He clicked his fingers. “Senna,” he said loudly.

A side door opened and the
olive
skinned elven mage entered the room. “You called
master?”

“
Get me a list of names from
everyone working at Crean and the uni
versity students that arrived during
Atira’s mission.”

Senna bowed, the end
of her black robes
brushing along the stone floor. “As you command.”

“
S
tart with that boy you interrogated about
his books. We already know he is interested in the colossi and his
books were of a similar nature.” Varko turned back to Atira now
that he was done giving Senna her orders. Atira looked over at the
elf as she murmured the words to a spell and vanished.

She looked back at her father. “I
don’t like it when she does that in here.”

Senna was an expert mage and
regularly used her powers to make herself invisible, even within
the confines of the Order’s
new sanctuary. It was the first property they had
obtained in Alkos City, her father planned for it to be the first
of many.

“
Senna is more than
loyal
,
Atira,” replied Varko in a reassuring tone. “She is bound body and
mind to the Endless, as we all are. She could no more betray us
than cut her own throat. Mages have their uses; do you so easily
forget the army of pliable recruits that Feyton provided
us?”

The former archmage
had worked with the
Order for many years, sending traumatized students for them to be
inducted into the service of the Endless. When the archmage had
been found out for his deviant behavior Senna had taken action. She
had dispelled the control Feyton had placed on his elemental,
allowing it to kill him. Varko had not wanted the archmage talking
to anyone of what he had done with his students.

Now that her father’s plans were
advancing, the archmage was no longer of much use anyway. He had
served his purpose; the Order had mages ready to fight and die in
the name of the Endless.

“
Of course
father
,” she
said. ‘You’re right. I just don’t like the idea of someone sneaking
around the sanctuary invisible. They could be up to anything and
Senna is not like the other recruits. She came to us as an adult,
not as one of Feyton’s broken children.”

“
Senna has more than proven
herself over the years. So end th
ese suspicions of yours.” He had serious
look on his face now.

“
Yes father,” she
said
.

“
Good girl,” he patted her
orange and black-striped arm. “Now, I’m expecting an important
visitor. Would you be good enough to run upstairs and await him.
When he arrives, bring him down immediately.”

“
Yes father
,” she said and complied. She
moved up the steps to the double doors, which lead to the ground
floor. Her father always preferred his main rooms to be below
ground. He had once told her that felt more comfortable there, he
could connect to the Endless on a more intimate level if he was
below ground.

She walked through the black
and brown hallway t
owards the lobby. The lobby was dressed up to make the
building look like it was part of her father’s company and most of
the time it would serve that purpose. But it also served as the
sanctuary for the Order. The lobby had brighter colored walls and
several ferns around the room. There was a reception desk, but it
was unoccupied this late in the day.

Mos
t of the employees at Streighas
didn’t know about her father’s true work and the Order of the
Endless. They simply believed they worked for an mining company.
They would not be here either, having left for the day. There were
several employees in the company who were part of the Order; the
ones who occupied the real positions of power and had given
themselves over to the Endless.

Atira did not have long to
wait. After sitting for a few minutes
, the front doors opened and in walked an
older man with a regal bearing. He was flanked by several guards in
imperial uniforms; someone from the government.

She studied his face and realized who he
was, Minister of Security Austin Blake. Since the war had started
he had become the most powerful man in Alkos after the emperor. He
and his guards drew back as she stood up and walked towards them.
She often received that reaction.

Two of his guards
remained
in
front of him, eyeing her with concern, as if worried she was going
to attack.

She greeted the man, “Minister Blake. Mr.
Kulthon is expecting you. I have been instructed to take you to
him.”

The elderly human
opened his mouth,
“I must insist that my guards accompany me. In times like this, one
can’t be too careful.”

“
Of course
minister,” she replied. “You
are welcome to have them attend you. Mr. Kulthon would have no
objection to this.” If her father wanted to kill the minister, a
few pathetic guards would not stop him, but that was not his
intention. He still had many uses for the man.

She unlocked the door
leading
to
the corridor she had come through and led Austin and his men down.
She opened the double doors and held out her hand. “Mr. Kulthon
awaits you inside minister.”

His guards trampled past
and as Austin
walked past he said, “Thank you”, while still eyeing her warily.
People would always be wary of her. The savage nature of her race
and the memory of the Agorid Wars ran deep among the rest of the
continent’s populace.

H
er father would be some time with the
minister so she closed the doors, walked back down the corridor and
entered her personal quarters. They were simple and bland, a double
bed with black sheets, a plain, wooden desk with a large number of
drawers and a single piece of art.