Chapter 6: 6. Alicia: Silence Says Everything

Alicia pulled herself into consciousness as her body tensed in pain. As she awoke she felt weightless, nearly giddy, but she came crashing down when she remembered her dilemma and tasted a tang of copper that caked her lips. Moving was impossible; her muscles would not listen to her. There was no light shining through her eyelids. Alicia breathed in and let the cool air circulate through her raw lungs. It smelled of rot and mold.

‘Azag, how long have I been out for?’ She heard low whooping and a snap behind her. Somewhere a door opened with a harsh squeak shut with a heavy thud. Whatever was held in the next cell over began to scream and cry out with inhuman voices.

“She conscious?” Ventus asked, their voice echoing through the room around Alicia.

She heard someone else get up, a chair scraping against the wooden floor. The commotion in the other cell stopped with a few loud snaps of a whip.

“Shut up,” Richter yelled, his footfalls were heavy as he made his way to Ventus. “No, though I’ve not prodded her yet.”

One of the two banged some metal on metal. When they stopped the sound rang through Alicia’s cell causing her head to ache. She wanted so badly to block her ears from the invading noise but was frozen into place. So, she was in a cell.

“Go check,” Ventus said, the barred door opened to where she was kept. “The magister is itching to interrogate her before the others arrive.”

Richter grunted in reply and the door to her cell opened.

Alicia had forgotten that her arms and shoulder had been filleted, but a swift kick to her shoulder was all she needed to remind her. The pain was sharp and deep; a harsh shriek breached her throat as she tried to pull away. Her eyes shot open as she found command over her body. Alicia jolted up to her feet and hunched into a low crouch; tucking her arms in protecting it from further injury. She faced her abusers all but baring her teeth. Ventus laughed and shook their head behind Richter’s hulking figure.

“She’s like a rabid dog.” Ventus stepped around their partner with their palm up towards her. “Alicia, you’re in no position to fight.”

“I should say it right out then—” Alicia said, her voice choking out of her dry throat. “You may as well kill me before you waste the Magister’s time.”

Ventus took one long stride over to Alicia. They were face to face, and she could feel their cold breath on her face. Alicia tried backing up but found the room was smaller than she had thought with her back hitting the wall.

“For your family's sake?” Alicia’s breathing stopped dead at the mention of her family. “We know—yes Alicia, your Inept husband and three children. My, my, you have been busy.”

Alicia choked back her original thought. ‘They couldn’t have them, could they?’ She panicked ‘Dammit, I hadn’t fought hard enough, or long enough. I hadn’t bought them enough time to escape’. Heat bubbled up from Alicia’s stomach and she tightened her stomach muscles to keep it down.

“If you touch them I will char every inch of you.”

Ventus blanched for a moment, knowing the threat was real, before recovering their usual malice. Then they grinned.

“No.” They grabbed Alicia’s bad shoulder causing her to struggle against a scream which gurgled in her throat. “You won’t.”

They clamped down and her knees crumpled under their pressure. Richter stepped up to her other side and slammed her against the wall. All the breath in her lungs escaped as she wheezed. Ventus let go and turned away.

“Bind her,” Ventus said as they made their way to the cell door. “Then take her to the second hall dining room for her first interrogation.”

Richter mumbled some choice words under his breath then wrapped his wide palm around Alicia’s neck. For a second she worried that he was just going to off her right there when Ventus wasn’t watching but instead his arm began to glow. A snake created of runes crawled up and around Alicia’s neck and she felt the magic connect with a slight pinch at her nape. Once the binding spell took hold he let go looking at her disgusted.

“Come,” Richter commanded.

In defiance Alicia did not move. Richter sighed and waved his arm towards himself and she felt a tug at her neck. She tried resisting but only lost her balance and was forced to stumble forward. The pulling did not let up until she followed the order.

They left her cell making their way into a small hallway. Soft growling and heavy panting came from boxed cages filling both sides of the corridor, one atop the other. Alicia saw huge hungry eyes glaring at her from under brown matted fur. Three sets to a head. Several Gulon—creatures grandmothers would warn children of—stared at her salivating. She knew little of the truth of them other than they could never be full and were always searching for the next meal. The group passed and they howled in anguished frustration for being unable to feed again.

Richter led them through several dungeon-like halls lined with heavy doors. It was surprisingly quiet. Alicia supposed the Order did not keep many prisoners; only those that were of use to them or held secrets that needed to be locked away. Alicia couldn’t help but wonder what silent occupants lay behind those doors. They reached a set of wide wooden exit doors after a few minutes of random turns. She stood a fair ways away nursing the shoulder Richter had kicked. She watched closely as he approached the sealed door, placing his glowing arm on the handle, and murmured the spell to open it.

Alicia tried to raise the energy in the pit of her abdomen, but it would not hit the transfer point feeling more like a bad case of indigestion than any useful magic. She sighed and tucked what she could gather away.

Her first thought was of bolting as the door opened itself, but stopped herself thinking of Ventus’ threat. She looked around at the cell doors on either side of them. Was her family locked up just like her, each in a different cell, unsure of what was happening? She thought of Aiden and Damon, her boys scared and hurt by themselves. They were barely old enough to really understand what danger they were in. Her heart dropped. No, she couldn’t run, even though it could be a ruse.

Richter motioned her forward and she fell into step with him. The corridors here were simple and kept clean with the dungeon long forgotten as they passed each stone archway after the next. There were no windows yet, nor decorations besides low lit lamps which hung off the ceilings. Richter let her walk ahead and instructed her to climb two staircases. She could hear the dull roar of a fast moving river on the other side of the stone walls.

Up a third staircase and she was wondering when they would reach their destination. When Alicia rounded the corner at the top, and passed through an insignificant door, she was surprised by the change in atmosphere. This room she remembered, everything from the blue and white tapestries depicting a series of magi-fauna, to the glowing gold ornaments held in the hands of white marble statues. It was rich with the smell of burning lavender and the kind of musk that came with old buildings. As Alicia looked around, refamiliarizing herself with the ornate room, it was as if evil had never reached the House of Azag. This was all a farce. She’d seen what the Order had become. The things that were hidden away is what had driven her to leave.

Her heart clenched as she saw what was standing in the grand hall entry. Alicia’s feet stopped moving and she resisted the tugging of the binding spell long enough for Richter to notice. She couldn’t take her eyes off the man standing in the archway before he pulled off into another hallway. Of course he couldn’t even make eye contact with. Alicia scoffed, she’d have spat at his feet if he’d had the gall. Something in her heart tugged at her still despite the upwelling anger and though she willed it not to, beyond the resentment, she still wanted to call out to him.

“This isn’t the time to be stopping,” Richter called to Alicia.

She took a breath, and let the emotions pass over her. Ventus waited for them half way down the hall. They’d changed from their modern suit into a crisp linen robe, which belted loosely at the waist by a plain blue band. They stopped next to him at a thick oak door carved with flora and dominated by a winged ouroboros. The perfect symbol for the Order, a snake trapped forever in a circle as it consumed its own tail. Alicia grimaced, she had once sworn by that symbol, now it was a reminder that she was both a traitor and an outcast in this place.

“Wait outside, Richter,” Ventus said and motioned to Alicia as they opened the door.

The dining room was vaulted with the ceiling opening up to a bright blue, cloudless sky with a stained glass window depicting more magi-fauna in cool colours. The blues and greens reflected off the dark woods of the paneling and the heavyset Rosewood table at the center of the room. At the end of it stood a tall woman with her back to Alicia overlooking a snowy courtyard below. Her hair was in a tight bun the colour of frosted steel, and Alicia could just see the telling markings of a Magister on her neck peeking from her high collar.

“I would say you are welcome, deserter, but we all know you are not.” With a stony face the woman turned to face Alicia. She was only a few years older than her. “We have questions—sit.”

Ventus dragged Alicia to a chair half way down the table and forced her down until her knees buckled. They relished in her pain as they let their fingers dig into the wounds of her shoulder. She faced a gaping fireplace on the opposite wall which sat devoid of the warmth of any flames and she stared into the dark pit. Ventus loomed behind her pulling enough of the air away from Alicia to make her feel lightheaded. The woman walked down along the side of the table, every step clacking on the tiled floor, and stopped in front of Alicia. She didn’t recognize her. The woman’s jaw was square and she scrutinized Alica with severe blue eyes though she seemed relaxed.

Alicia’s lips clamped tight and she eased them to reply, “I’m not answering the questions of a person I don’t have the name of.”

“I suppose you wouldn’t know me.” The woman crossed her arms. “Magistrate Eira. And you, Miss Sykes, have been a pain to track down.”

“It’s Sinclair—and yes, that was the point,” Alicia said, trying to keep her cool as she bore holes into the Magister with her stare.

“I don’t have time for your sass,” The Magistrate quipped back, not flinching from Alicia’s furious expression. “And nor do I feel like putting up with it. Let’s get right to the point: You ran—why?”

Alicia, in that second, decided not to speak but rather stared into the dirty fireplace, its walls filled with ash from its previous fires. The energy of thousands of fires having burned sparked and leaked from the crevices of the stone that made up its interior. Though it had been purposely cleaned and wiped of any signs of flame Alicia found the tiny sparks comforting. She could hear a clock on its mantle marking the minutes as they ticked by. Magistrate Eira breathed a heavy sigh.

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“Let me make this very clear to you,” She shifted on her feet and slammed her hands on the table, leaning forward. “I ask questions, you answer them. I will remain civil as long as you cooperate. Do you understand me?”

“What do you want from me?” Alicia asked, making Eira frown and straighten up.

“Answers.”

Alicia could feel Ventus breathing behind her, the air thinning ever so slightly, silent but there to pressure—no, to intimidate. The Magistrate did not sit or move. She stood, hands behind her back, motionless as a gargoyle. Alicia had to remind herself to breathe; the stillness in the room was a static buzz in her ears.

Alicia thought carefully before speaking, “I left because I didn’t like how things were being run. I don’t understand, in my time the Order had many deserters; you usually just dispatched some thugs to deal with them discreetly. Why am I any different?”

“We have information that you spoke to an oracle.”

“I didn’t.” A flash of that night, the night everything Alicia’s life completely changed, invaded her mind. She pushed the memory back, but too late, the lie was written all over her face. She grimaced. “Even if I did, they find many people their prophecies affect; doesn’t change anything. I left because I did not believe in the Order’s new goals.”

The Magister laughed, “You are a poor liar, Alicia. The oracle told you something that inspired you to run—out of fear, or perhaps to conspire and to prepare. It doesn’t really matter to me. What did they foretell?”

“They told me what this Order has become. You desecrate the name of Azag for hiding behind his powerful name.”

The other woman scoffed, “Such is the opinion of someone who does not fully understand the intention behind the Magister’s actions.”

“You seek power, that much I know.”

Eira burst into laughter, her shoulders shaking. “Power, yes, perhaps as a start. But there are much bigger machinations going on you cannot even start to understand.”

“Hard to think you have anything else—”

“Enough of this distraction.” She raised a hand, silencing Alicia. “We have good information that what the oracle prophesied is what sent you away from us. That your family’s history is what led you astray. Is this true?”

Alicia knew what she was hinting at and bit the inside of her cheek.

“Your silence says everything.” Eira looked behind Alicia to Ventus and tilted her head very slightly, a signal that Alicia wasn’t quick enough to pick up. “I need more than silence, deserter, I need a location. Where is the child?”

The static which had been rising in the air gathered behind Alicia with a crackling and smell of burning ozone as everything Ventus pulled away came rushing back. It was the smell just before lightning strikes. Alicia tried to dodge what was coming for her but wasn’t in a good position to kick off. Ventus slammed her head into the hard wooden table. Alicia’s mind went numb as the electricity passed through her skull and flashed a dark scar across the table. They held her there even against her flailing.

Eiry tutted as she shifted something within her hands. “Give me something, Alicia and we’ll end this. It’s that easy. Your first born, where are they?”

A moment of ringing passed through Alicia’s mind. She was addled from shock. That ringing made it hard to make out what Eiry had said, but she got the gist. Think, come on, you’re better than this! That wasn’t so easy. Something warm pooled beneath her cheek. Her nose and ears were bleeding from some internal damage. She took three sharp breaths and pushed off the table against Ventus’ grasp as best as she could. Ventus hissed.

“Come on, just give the woman what she wants and we can all be done with this,” they said, yanking Alicia back up by the hair. She noticed the trail of red that ran down Ventus’ arm as they leaned on it for support.

‘Just keep them talking, give yourself time to think, they’re over exerting themself.’

“M-my firstborn didn’t make it past two years old.”

Eiry’s face pulled tight. There was a hint of disappointment in the sigh she let out as she slid a sheet of paper across the table to Alicia. Ventus released their grip enough to allow her to take a look.

A slightly burned photo lay there in front of Alicia. She blinked a couple times, clearing the blur from her eyes and willing her mind to catch up and make out the image. A faded young couple sat at a round wooden table, curtains letting enough sunlight in to see bright smiles across their faces as they each held a baby in their arms. A little girl, not older than four, with a gap tooth grin and curly black hair sat at the kitchen table looking extremely restless.

On instinct Alicia grabbed for the picture to see it up close. It was taken by Stephen’s mother on the twin’s first birthday. It had been a small party with just the five of them and their grandma. Such a perfect, warm day in April. Rare for the west coast of BC.

The family’s smiles were just visible through the black charring which discoloured the paper. This particular photo had been in a silver frame Stephen’s mom had gifted them and was displayed on their home’s mantle. She frowned, brushing away some of the ashes from the family's faces. Why was this photo burned?

“It’s too bad really, Richter was supposed to grab the kid.” Alicia pulled away from her thoughts and could feel the slimy smile creep across Ventus’ face behind her. “You might not know how he is but gets a bit hot headed when he finds his target missing.”

“What—you burned the house down?” Alicia asked, indignation colouring her words. “That’s idiotic, even for you, .”

“An unfortunate accident,” Ventus said and snatched the photo out of Alicia’s hands. “What a perfect little family, your husband is an especially good catch. Too bad, really, that you couldn’t protect them.”

Alicia’s eyes widened, realizing the situation she was in. They must’ve gotten away. Stephen, her brave, smart, beautiful husband. He’d done it. If they’d been caught, they wouldn’t have just shown her a picture. There would be more of a threat like marching him in here.

A smile must’ve crept across Alicia’s face because Eiry cleared her throat saying, “that’s enough Ventus,” as she shot them a look that implied, ‘you’re overstepping’.

Ventus’ hand let go and Alicia heard them step back.

“Now, back to the matter at hand.” Eiry stepped to the wall behind her, placed a hand on it and traced a scribe rune along the surface. “There’s not a lot of places you could send a Shard to where they could go unnoticed but still be protected.”

Alicia kept her face blank, hiding the panic that she could feel in the pit of her stomach. So they did know. She blinked the alarm away. A map of the world blotted onto the wall like ink spilled into water. Trickling down north to south. In red the regular landmarks, countries, capital cities, mountain ranges, were intricately drawn out. Layered on top of that floating an inch off the wall is the real information the magister was looking for.

Eiry continued. “Now my instinct is to say you’re smart, you’ve planned for one day being caught.”

She touched and zoomed in over Canada then over to British Columbia. Black points marked the centers of the Adept world. BC didn’t have a lot of places where magic users could find a place where they were hidden away from prying eyes but could still find community. Even worse, there were even less that had proper roads that an Inept person like her husband could take the children. Alicia had a hard time with this when she had been planning. Vancouver itself had a large community that lived mostly within the Inept world; while there were a few communities hidden around the Island, those places had been too obvious. It had left so few places to hide them away. Alicia’s lips pinched into a tight frown.

“The Order has its way of finding people, Alicia,” Eiry indicated in a few places on the wall where Adept towns, known as whistons, were nestled away in the vast BC forests. “None of them pleasant, and most likely—to be very clear— will make your family’s life hell.”

“I know full well what The Order is capable of, Magister,” Alicia said through gritted teeth. “It’s why I won’t give you anything.”

Eiry turned to face Alicia wearing a placid smile. She leaned in closer to her captive, getting a few feet from her.

“Then it’ll be on your head when the hunters catch up to them,” she replied in little more than a whisper. “Make your peace with that now.”

Alicia didn’t have anything to say to that.

Magister Eiry flicked her eyes up to Ventus as she straightened up. “I think it’s time that our guest is shown to her permanent room.”

Eiry made for the door, unconcerned now about the lack of information that she’d seemingly garnered from the interrogation. Before leaving the room, Eiry stopped short of the door, hand on the handle.

“I have children too, and for what it’s worth I know you’re only trying to protect them, but this is all more important than ourselves, Alicia.”

One last look of empathy, her eye’s lingering on the half burned photo in Alicia’s hand, then she was gone. The clacking of her heels on the stone floor fading off as the door shut behind her.

“You’re more idiotic than I thought, deserter.” Ventus said, voice full of vitriol. “You might’ve saved them, you know.”

“Shut it, Ventus.” Alicia bit back. “Be a good little dog and do what your master told you; take me back to my cell.”

Ventus grunted with displeasure. Digging their fingers into the sensitive part of Alicia’s arm they ripped her up onto her feet.

“Oh no, you’re not going back there,” Ventus hissed. “You're our honoured guest, we have a room prepared for you.”

Richter entered the room and uttered the command, ‘follow’. The bindings on Alicia’s neck pulled at her and she was forced to move forward to Richter. They exited the room and turned a different direction than they’d come up, going left rather than straight and down the stairs.

This wing of the building looked to be mostly offices and more meeting rooms. Passing several doors Alicia could see they were on the ground floor of a well maintained building, which while made with large old stones was kept clean. A lawn stretched out to a garden that had long narrow paths that several humans walked alongside some otherfolk. Along the paths there were clusters of crystals that hovered a few feet off the ground, a form of illumination that replaced electric lights, at equal intervals along the paths. It must’ve been late afternoon by now, though Alicia had little sense for time at this point, but the sun hung much lower in the sky.

Richter turned through another great archway and led Alicia up a few flights of stairs. She tracked the turns and the landmarks she would have to recall later. Finally they turned into a staircase that curved tightly upwards. It was much colder there and the stairs were worn with time of water erosion and foot use. However this portion of the building looked mostly unused now.

“Really, you’re putting me in a tower?” Alicia said, scoffing at the notion. “You know we’re not in the 1100’s right?”

“Oh, this is not that. It’s much better,” Ventus replied behind her. “You know we usually just kill deserters, but you—you’ve some use yet. So rather than losing you to the dungeons below we’ve arranged a nice little living space for you.”

They reached the top of the tower and there Alicia was met with a solid iron door, inlaid with intricate carvings of indecipherable ruins and incantations. At the quick glance Alicia that she was given she understood it to be some kind of binding spell, but enormously more complex than that. The door was protected, perhaps to prevent scrying by other Adepts.

“You’re lucky, really.” Ventus walked up to the door and held up a keystone to the iron. They waved a rune into the air with it and the engravings all pulsed once in red. “At least you’ll have a roommate. You’ve even met her before.”

They gave Alicia a wicked grin as the door cracked open. With a flick of Ventus’ hand a rush of air opened it further. It was dark inside, lit only by a few dim sconces and narrow arrow slits which the sun tried its best to shine through. The stone floor was strewn with old paper, the walls scrawled with illegible writing, or that’s what Alicia assumed it was. Ventus gestured an open hand into Alicia’s new living quarters, and indicated with their chin for her to go in.

Alicia hesitated. Something about the air felt wrong, and not just the dust particles that clogged it, a wave of deep sorrow emanated from it. She wasn’t given much of a choice, however, as Richer commanded her with a simple ‘forward’. In a breath she was pushed inside by the spell the binding burned off. The spell spent, she turned with wide eyes to see Ventus wink and begin to close the door.

“Have fun, I’ll come back for you soon—Rosanna.” Their voice echoed off the walls.

And then she was plunged into darkness. That name rang in her ears. The smell of paper and dust enveloping her. A quiet melodic hum coming from under one of the arrow slits made her turn away from the door to peer through the gloom to make out a shape barely outlined by the sparse light.