Sairia tapped her fingers on the table in the Alma Ni's room. It was a little unusual for Taft to be out so long. It was possible that Jun was talking his ear off somewhere.
She continued to drum against the table impatiently. Well, if Jun was on him, maybe Sairia could do a little rescue mission. Jun was the biggest stickler for the boy being trained in two months, after all. He would understand.
They were still on track for that goal, but it wouldn't go well if Taft were to take breaks as long as this. She stood up from the table and pushed the door open.
When Sairia walked out, she saw Jun walking by on the second floor. So if the Alma Ni wasn't with Jun, where was he? Possibly in the kitchen, getting a sweet roll.
She walked through the garden and across the hallway to the kitchen. When she entered, she saw Makaria, the resident cook.
A short, pudgy woman, Makaria was busy stirring a pot that seemed to have far too much smoke coming from it—though Sairia was certainly no expert in the culinary arts. There was a plate of sweet rolls on a counter behind Makaria.
"Good morning," Sairia said. "Have you seen the Alma Ni?"
"I expected to, so I cooked up a batch of kuoya. I haven't seen him yet."
Now that was very odd. The boy came here every single day since his first break. Did what Sairia say really shake him so much? Where could he have gone?
She searched all of the public rooms on the first floor, and he wasn't in any of them. Her heart started racing a little. This wasn't good. Could one of the council members have taken him into their quarters? The meeting just ended so all the members would still be in The Heart. She decided to ask around.
Sairia ran up the spiral staircase to the second floor. She knocked on the first door she saw. Abshak's door. It took a few seconds for him to open up.
"Is everything okay?" He asked.
"Have you seen the Alma Ni?" Sairia said with urgency.
"Not today, no."
"Well, he's not in his usual places or in any of the public areas. I think one of the council members has him in their quarters."
"Well, let's go ask. It's possible Olek may have invited him for tea."
Together they went to Olek's door, but Olek hadn't seen the boy either. He joined them as they knocked on Jun's door, and then Mandiff's door, and then Sallion's door.
None of them had seen the Alma Ni today.
Sairia thought she was going to have a heart attack. She was responsible for the Alma Ni. She was the one to propose he be let out of his room. She was the one who should have had an eye on him. The council members agreed.
"Well, where could he have gone, Sairia the Scorned?" Sallion said accusingly. "Weren't you watching him?"
"He couldn't have left The Heart on his own, I…" Sairia didn't know what else to say. She knew Sallion was right.
"This isn't Sairia's fault," Abshak said. " We are all protectors of the Alma Ni; we all share responsibility for his safety. Now let's split up and ask the watchers and the ladies what they've seen. We'll check every corner."
The six of them split up. Sairia decided to check the Alma Ni's bedroom again, in case he was back there and waiting for her.
She hurried down the stairs, praying that he would be there and this whole nightmare could be over. When she opened the door, nothing seemed to have been moved.
She checked the bed and under the table. There was no one there. She bolted out of the room and checked the bushes in the gardens. She kept searching until she had looked everywhere she could think of.
The members of The Council were all in the courtyard on the first floor to report. She joined them.
"Has anyone seen him?" She asked desperately.
They all shook their heads, fear plain on their faces.
"How could this have happened?" Mandiff said.
"We thought he would be safe here," Jun said.
Abshak tried to keep a level head. "Calm down, everyone," he said reassuringly. "We just haven't checked everywhere. Has anyone looked at the secret?"
"I have," said Olek. "Untouched."
Sairia noticed Sallion looking more nervous than usual.
When the shifty man noticed Sairia staring, he spoke up. "Could the Nasanites have been involved?"
"Surely not," Abshak protested. "You keep bringing up these Nasanites. If they somehow infiltrated our nation, what could they gain by—"
"Wait," Sairia said. She suspected, by Sallion's tone, that he may know more than he was letting on. It would do no good to start an interrogation now, since the man was likely to deny it. Sallion clearly wanted to find the Alma Ni just as much as anyone, it seemed.
"We should investigate that at least," Sairia continued. "We all know that the Nasanites indeed have the skills to infiltrate even the most secure of places."
"But how would we find them?" Mandiff asked hopelessly. "How would we even know they've been here?"
"Shadow Reach," Sairia said. "It leaves a mark. If we can find evidence of Shadow Reach, then it confirms that they've been here."
"Not only that they've been here," Abshak confirmed, "but that they've been here recently."
"What do you mean? What kind of mark?" Mandiff asked.
Abshak spoke first. "Our old teacher, Master Nobol, was half Nasanite. He taught us that all kovak has its limitations and weaknesses. Even the shadow. He used the Shadow Reach skill as an example. Let me explain.
"As you know, Nasanites can hide in shadows by entering into the dark like a portal. But if they leave the natural shade, they are forced to exit their realm. To circumvent this, Nasanites use a skill called Shadow Reach, where they push the shade farther than what is naturally possible so as to travel without leaving their realm.
"Nobol taught us that, though Reach seems to have no drawbacks, it does leave a mark. Do you care to demonstrate, Sairia?"
"Of course, Great Head," Sairia said.
She didn't want to waste anymore time, so immediately ignited a flame over the palm of her hand. She held the fire right in front of her chest, about a foot away. Then she put her other hand in front of the flame. She angled her arms toward the grounds and cast a shadow of her outstretched hand.
"You can see the shadow of my hand clearly on the ground," she said. "But if Reach was used there, part of my hand's shadow would not appear. It's almost as if the early exposure to shadow makes a surface immune to natural shade for a time."
They all nodded in amazement. What she showed them wasn't common knowledge in Rey Oben. And although the military did possess the information, it wouldn't be relevant unless they were at war with Ma Nasan—which they weren't.
Mandiff was the only one on The Council she suspected might have known, except he was the one to ask the question, so apparently not. The members all knew what to do then. Search The Heart for the marks of Shadow Reach.
They split up again.
Sairia went into the Alma Ni's quarters once more, just in case there was any sign of the Nasanites there, but everything looked normal. She went to the garden next to search.
It was hard to get around some of the bushes, but signs of Shadow Reach could be anywhere. She had to be thorough. Still, Sairia felt she was wasting too much time. She had to think of a more likely place… the kitchen.
She ran to the corridor that led to the kitchen and cast a shadow with her hand.
There it was.
A thick line of light cut her hand's shadow right down the middle. It was the mark of Shadow Reach. She called the others over, and they all came as quickly as they could, some coming from the second floor. She showed them where the mark was. They could see what she meant now.
"I'm sorry I didn't believe you, Sallion," Abshak said. "I will issue a formal apology when all of this is resolved. For now, what are our next steps?"
Sairia looked at Mandiff, expecting him to give orders. He looked back at Sairia blankly. It was then that Sairia noticed every member of The Council was looking at her. That's right. The boy was lost because of her. She should be the one to fix it.
"We need to search outside The Heart," she said. "Any Nasanite who knows Reach and can enter The Heart so easily, must also know Phasing. That means they're not here anymore."
That seemed to put a damper over an already glum situation. Some members were shaking their heads in discouragement, but everyone knew that she was right.
"Mandiff," Sairia said, "we need you to gather a squadron of soldiers and brief them on how to look for marks of Shadow Reach. Then start searching the palace.
"I would suggest taking another squadron and searching outside, around the palace walls. The Nasanites may have been sloppy and left a trail for us to follow. We can only hope."
____________________
Taft felt like he was being dragged for hours. It might not have been that long, but how was he to know? He was floating in pitch darkness.
He couldn't hear anything. He couldn't see anything. All he could feel was the sensation of someone grabbing on his collar from the back and pulling him. Sometimes the feeling didn't resemble dragging—more like stagnant gripping—but then the dragging sensation would begin again.
Taft tried to swipe at whatever it was that had him by the collar, but his hands hit nothing. He didn't know what else to try, so he gave into it.
He was terrified. What was happening? Was this death? Was it kovak? He didn't know where he was or what to think or what to do. He felt completely vulnerable and utterly useless.
He hoped that someone had witnessed when the shadow swallowed him. They would know what to do. Sairia would know what to do.
"Let me go!" Taft tried to yell. But when he spoke it was like his voice was underwater, muffled and distant. He started to cry. The dragging sensation continued, and he could feel his neck chafing.
When would this nightmare end? Was anyone looking for him?
Something changed.
The hand that was grasping his collar wasn't there anymore, and Taft's body floated in nothingness. He felt a twinge of hope he wished would not turn out to be false. He struggled against the air, trying to reach out for anything in the dark.
Then a hand grasped his wrist. A hand that he couldn't see—only feel. The hand pulled him upward and into a room where a low light revealed his surroundings. Taft landed on the cold floor with a thud.
There was a rotten smell in the air. The room was dark, but compared to where Taft was just a moment ago, everything seemed much more visible. His eyes were adjusting. He could see a table along one wall and some mats with hay piled under them all in a row.
The rest of the room was almost barren except for a few spread-out chairs. The stone walls and floor reminded him of his quarters, but the ceiling wasn't stone. He could see it inclining upward. Up top looked to be covered with dead stalks, long and straight.
Also in the room were four men, dressed all in black. They had black pants tucked into black boots. They had black shirts tucked into their black pants. The long sleeves of the shirt tucked into black gloves. On their heads, the men wore black hoods, and black cloth covered their mouths.
The man holding onto Taft let go and joined the others, who were all looking at Taft, as if studying him. The tallest man touched the shoulder of the person to his right. That person took off his mask and lowered his hood.
Taft could see his hair. It was split into three parts by shaved lines that went from his forehead to the back of his head. The three parts that were separated were brought into a ponytail that was strung together at the back.
His eyebrows had cuts in them as well that seemed to align with his hair. The man had some stubble for a beard, with a few flecks of gray in it. But the most imposing feature of all, were his black-colored eyes, staring Taft in the face.
Taft felt a chill go down his spine. He looked for an escape. The room only had one door, though, and the four men were blocking the way. There was no way out of this.
Taft was the only one in the room with four captors and they all had their eyes on him.
The closest captor—the one with his face exposed—gestured to something behind Taft. There was a chair, and Taft scrambled up to sit down, not knowing what they would do if he disobeyed. Then the man started speaking.
Taft tried to catch a word, but it seemed like the pronunciation was different. It almost sounded like an entirely different language. He thought he heard the word "harm."
Were they going to hit him if he didn't answer?
"Who..," Taft began nervously in Ihmonic, "...do are you?" Taft grimaced as he realized his mistakes. He had been practicing, but it came out worse than usual—probably because he was so scared.
The man made a gesture with his fist to his neck. It looked threatening.
Taft closed his eyes and flinched.
The man went back to speak with the other captors. He spoke quickly and the other three each answered in turn. They seemed to be arguing, from the tone of it.
They also seemed distracted. None of them were looking at Taft. This might be his time to escape.
Taft slowly lifted himself off the chair and started crawling around the side. The tall captor saw him and pointed, letting his comrades know.
Taft leaped to try and escape but it was no use. Someone caught him, and they tumbled onto one of the mats with hay underneath. At least it was a soft landing.
He tried wrestling with the man who caught him, but he wasn't strong enough. The man simply lifted Taft up and put him back in the chair.
What did they want from him? Maybe he was going to be used for ransom. That made the most sense. The Council would probably pay any price to get their Alma Ni back.
The men returned to arguing, this time with more fury. Taft didn't understand a thing.
Between the accent and the speed, not a word seemed coherent. Then there was the fact that Taft was still scared out of his mind.
His heart was pounding so much for so long it was starting to hurt. He looked back and forth between the men. Maybe there was another way out of here. He started searching the room, but then he heard something.
It was music. Like a jingle. And it was getting louder and louder.
The men still argued, almost like they didn't hear it. Taft wasn't even sure if he was hearing it himself. The sound didn't seem to be penetrating his ears; it was almost as if it came from his own head.
That jingle. It sounded… familiar. His head pulsed and pounded. The sound grew louder until Taft felt his head lurch downward.
◄——————————————————►
Jackson woke up yelling. He looked around. He was in his bed at home. Mark was in his bed, too, and jumped when Jackson yelled.
The jingle continued.
It was Mark's alarm; that's what he was hearing. Mark was a heavy sleeper and would often sleep right through his alarm. This time he was awake, so he turned it off.
"What happened?" Mark said in bewilderment.
"Just a… scary dream," Jackson said.
This wasn't good. He had just abandoned his body in The Interim, and was now too alert to go back to sleep. That, and he had to go to school soon. What did he do?
Taft was probably lying there, unconscious on the floor. Who knows what the captors were going to do to him? This was bad. Very bad.
Jackson paced back and forth, trying to decide if he should fake being sick and stay home, just to try and get back to sleep. Was there anything he could do even if he was awake? He was basically just in a situation where he had to wait to be rescued.
Part of him didn't even want to deal with the problem if he could avoid it. Maybe it was better just to let the professionals handle it. Surely they would come rescue him at any moment.
Jackson decided to go to school and act like everything was normal. It wasn't like his captors would kill him while he was sleeping. If they wanted him dead, they could have done it easily.
The captors were either trying to get information from him or maybe kidnap him for ransom. Either way, there was nothing Jackson could do. He went to the bathroom to take a quick shower.
____________________
Sairia was getting anxious. Her breathing was heavy. She looked over the city from the elevated walkways outside the palace. Oben's Horizon—colloquially known as Horizon—was the largest city in Rey Oben, as well as the nation's capital.
There were few lights coming from the various homesteads lining the streets. She was surprised that no one from The Council disapproved of her leaving The Heart. Although, guards were posted to keep an eye on her, so maybe that was enough justification.
This was the first time she'd been outside in over a decade. She didn't think she'd ever leave… except for…
"Sairia," Mandiff said, walking up the steps to her right. He came alone instead of with his guards—his Right and Left Hand.
She heard that Mandiff saw it as a sign of weakness to have bodyguards. Sairia always used them when she was General. She could always use someone watching her back, no matter how strong she was.
"We think we found something," he said, "But it's faded, I believe we're running out of time. We could use your help down there… if you would follow me."
"Of course, General," she said respectfully. In The Heart he would go by "Member", but outside it was appropriate to call him "General". She followed closely.
The two of them walked down the steps outside the palace and down to the street known as The Royal Procession. The street was well-maintained; there was not a brick out of place.
Lining the middle of the street was a row of posts and spherical cages on the top. A flickering light came from each one—no doubt with Everburn on the inside
They walked down the street, casting shadows on the empty shops. Tomorrow morning the place would be bustling, but tonight there was not a soul except for them.
They turned down a smaller street, and it curved around the back of the palace walls. They took another street to the right, which told Sairia enough about where they were headed.
The path they were on would lead to the Sameh District—the poorest area in the capital city. They kept walking, the only sounds were their own footsteps and the gizsaw crickets making their low-to-high-pitched chirps.
Sairia and Mandiff arrived at the intersection right outside the Sameh District and found several soldiers standing around idly. The intersection was well-lit by posts of Everburn lamps. That light was a heavy contrast to the district beside it.
Sameh District was a jumble of buildings and alleyways. Most of the buildings were too tall to be legal, and there were planks of wood connecting them above. Even during the day, that district was like a dark labyrinth, which made it the perfect place for Nasanites to hide.
Why didn't they start by searching here? It would have saved them so much time. The wind blew, wafting the smell of that labyrinth into Sairia's nose, and she almost gagged.
"What did you find?" Sairia asked, covering her nose.
"Look over there," Mandiff said, pointing to a soldier on the road that marked the border between districts.
The soldier held his hands up with a flame in one hand and the other hand casting a shadow on the ground—just like Sairia had done in her demonstration. There was indeed a different intensity within the shadow.
It was slight; that meant they were running out of time. The marks would be completely faded in only a few more minutes. The rescue team needed to move quickly, or the trail would be gone.
"That's a mark," Sairia confirmed. "Have you sent a squadron into Sameh? There's not much time left."
Mandiff nodded. "We sent a squadron, but they couldn't find any more marks. I don't think they will. There's plenty of natural shade in Sameh, there's no need for the Nasanites to use Shadow Reach."
"That's a good point," she said, stroking her chin. She wondered why Mandiff was asking for help. Surely he was capable enough to come up with a plan from here.
She looked him up and down… Or maybe not. "We'll have to use Sight from here," Sairia said.
"I suppose," Mandiff replied, "but there are a lot of people packed into this district. How can we tell which one is the Alma Ni?"
"Well, for one, the Alma Ni will probably be the only one under guard… But there's another thing that should help us find him."
"What's that?" Mandiff asked eagerly.
"There's something about the way that the Alma Ni sleeps that's different from normal people. As long as the boy's asleep, his body temperature should be slightly higher than anyone else. That should give us an edge in locating him."
"Then hopefully he's sleeping," Mandiff said, dropping to a whisper. "I don't know how much to tell the soldiers, though. I didn't inform them about the Alma Ni. I only told them we were hunting Nasanite assassins.
"The Council still wants the boy's awakening to be kept a secret. However… I'm concerned that it will become obvious if we tell them to look for a young boy."
"So what? You want us to do this by ourselves?" Sairia asked incredulously.
"You were always the best at using Sight," Mandiff said matter-of-factly. "If anyone is going to find the Alma Ni, it's you."
Sairia shook her head at first. Then she looked at the district… and started walking. There was no time to lose.