Bellamy listened to only half of Daniel’s explanation. With a flash of his wooden card, it converted into the giant stork, and he ushered him onto it. He helped him strap in between her shoulder blades before taking his own seat. The Shade handed him a little wooden earpiece and put a second in his own.
“Put that in so we can talk through the wind.”
Daniel complied. With that, the stork took to the sky in a rush of wind. Below, the fork shrank as thirty-eight feet of wings carried them up. Keith’s six men shrank with it, and the treeline went from a wall to a rug. Carl’s birds didn’t follow.
The swirl that went through his belly made him yelp and holler.
“This is great! Can we go faster?”
Bellamy sounded somewhat amused.
“Most people cry and puke on their first flight. Have you done this before?”
They went west, over Carl’s woodlands. All he could see was riverways and wilderness.
“Not like this! I see the mansion.”
Cutting through that thicket was a winding path around hilly zones until it stopped at a giant estate. A graveyard surrounded it, and mist hung low throughout the denser areas.
Bellamy banked, and the whole world tilted. They took three wide circuits over the area. After fifteen minutes in the air, Daniel’s smile fell slightly. A young, feminine voice bled over the wind with the bird’s shrill cry.
“I see the place they claim the wagons vanished. Scraps of supplies, hoofprints that vanish, and wagon wheel ruts that vanish at the same point. I haven’t seen anything like it. There are small signs of a battle in a field to the south of it, and a grave.”
Daniel gulped at that gut punch.
These guys are the real deal. I guess the Department of Shadows isn’t easy to fool.
“I see,” Bellamy hummed. “Take us in.”
Daniel leaned closer to follow the giant stork’s gaze.
“She has a pretty voice. Do you have a name, mighty bird?”
Both Shade and the stork looked back at him, Bellamy’s eyes narrowing.
“You can hear Allenia’s voice without a Contract to her… Unusual.”
As they drew closer to the camp, Daniel saw a wide brown scar picked down to the mud. There were no bodies anywhere on it, and four long furrows dragged away into the woodland that nothing with legs had made.
One fresh grave at the top of the field with a stick standing in it was the destination. They landed, but didn’t get off as they scanned the zone. Undead ravens were still perched around the field, watching them.
“Grave is fresh. Your work?”
Daniel’s tone fell slightly. The memory of the brutal battle he’d had here resurfaced.
“Yes. It’s Edmund Rooke. He led the party as our Vanguard.”
Bellamy’s eyes never stayed in one place long.
“Six feet deep?”
“Yes.”
“Quick work for a lone man. If it were only me, it would take me two days. No dirt mounds for displaced soil. A lot of curiosities here. The others?”
“The undead probably got them.”
“So it seems… A convenient area to dispatch people in. The Mansion Core cleans up the mess. Allenia, take us to the other site.”
The bird took off in a swell of wind. It didn’t take long for them to land again.
Unharnessing himself, Bellamy dismounted. Daniel did the same, sliding off the side of the feathered bird to the compact earth.
He knew the Shade was working through a complex string of information. The more he watched him, the more Daniel understood he was being boxed in.
“I’ll tell you how this works, so you’re not surprised later,” he said, staring down at the place where the tracks vanished. “I understand you may not know how the Department of Shadows operates. We don’t arrest people. We typically don’t even go before a judge. But for that leniency, we are trained to be very, very thorough…”
“I won’t tell a lie.”
“The best lies are never lies… But I’ve found something better than a case about an illegal mixed-race slaver ring.” He turned to face him. “Show me your cards.”
Daniel restrained a sigh. Off to the side, the sixteen-foot-tall stork’s feathers ruffled, daring him to resist. He had to assume this man had other Contracted creatures.
“Sure. I’m actually not very versed in how these work. I have amnesia.”
Daniel reached for the deck out from the small of his back, willing three cards to transfer out and in the deck’s place: [Clara’s Heart], [Farmstead], and [Vault].
They were gone out of the lining before his hand cleared it.
“Amnesia, you say? Interesting detail… I’ve never seen Contracts like this. A silver case?” He paused as he slid them out. “A pocket dimension inside? They keep replenishing as they’re removed. Impossible. There must be hundreds of cards in here.”
He flipped between each, minutes going by as he went through every one.
Daniel stood in silence, considering what he should say.
Racism is an extremely prevalent thing in this world. I could probably reveal everything, and it wouldn’t be as damning as claiming to be an angel. That is the one thing I must hide. Divulge more, bury it by allowing assumptions.
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“Over four hundred. Almost all of them blank. The paper is made of material more exotic than any wood I’ve seen. The threading is silver. And these etched marks on the case…”
His dark eyes lifted, sharp and cautious.
“Who are you really?”
Daniel could only manage a smile. That wasn’t the direction he wanted to go.
“I’d love to have the answers to that. I have a wife named Clara. My name is Daniel. And I’m connected to something called the Silver City of Tarnish. How does Contracting work? Does that mean anything to you?”
Bellamy tapped his thumb against the case, considering his questions.
“I can look into that. But you’re hardly being transparent with me, Daniel.”
Daniel retained his amenable smile as he held up each card with an identity: [Server], [Trap], [Pet], [Tarnished Sword], and [Bind].
“Are these all the Contracts you have with the Silver City of Tarnish?”
Daniel’s smile wiped away as he sighed and shook his head.
This man traced my movements. He didn’t get this type of information from Alys and Julia. He tracked me back to the market and inn before coming here. He moves fast. He might even have others investigating and relaying information to him in real time.
Bellamy organized the cards, placed them in the box, and handed it back to him.
“Why would you give them back? I assume you talked to the shopkeepers and know I have a storage Contract.”
The man showed a curious smile and rubbed his chin.
“I have, though there is no such Contract I am aware of. Bags of Chests are relics from Wizard enchantments in the old world. They are highly sought-after, space-warped items. A Contract that accomplishes the same? I haven’t seen it.”
He held out a hand expectantly.
“You’re a clever and an honest man, Daniel. At least you have been thus far. Even honest men must have their secrets. I understand that. You are at a crossroads.”
Daniel didn’t hesitate. It was the least important of the hidden cards he wished to reveal.
In a streak of silver light, the card materialized between his fingers.
[⬡ Vault #1: Treasure Chest &]
“My other cards can change at random. The more monster cores I feed them, the more they evolve. I believe the stars increase when it reaches a new level. That is all I’ve figured out.”
Bellamy took the card to study its surface with a curiosity Daniel knew he could use.
A blaze of silver brought six wings to bow around him; Clara’s arms pulled possessively around his shoulders to draw his back into her chest.
“I don’t like how honest you’re being with him, darling. It may be tricky, but I think if we play our cards right, we can kill that bird.”
Daniel shifted to pull her into a kiss, snatching Bellamy and his stork’s gaze.
“Clara, my glorious queen, I know this frightens you. There is much to gain. Mr. Bellamy is not here to arrest me. He’s here to pursue something connected to the slavers we punished.”
He turned his bright eyes to the cautious man.
“I think the puzzle you’ve been poring over is exactly what this public servant wants.”
Bellamy followed his gaze to the invisible space in front of him. He worked down a lump in his throat before straightening.
“Allenia?”
The giant predator’s feathers were fluffed up like a bird in the dead of winter.
“A spiritual entity just appeared nearby, unlike any in a domain I’ve sensed. Too bright to see. Too complex to hear. Too much gravity to perceive from the ground.”
“This is your wife? Clara, you mentioned?”
Bellamy glanced at the card in his hand and gave it back as the seraph’s wings stiffened to blades, seafoam-blue eyes blazing with distrust.
“That’s correct. She can be rather defensive on my behalf,” he chuckled. “I’m hers. Now and forever. Sorry, she just feels threatened. It’s interesting that Allenia can sense her. Is that true for other Contracted creatures?”
The Warrant Shade composed himself.
“Allenia is unique in her sensory faculties. I will be blunt, Daniel, Queen Clara.” He bowed to the empty space, smoothing out the angel’s feathers. “You have piqued my interest. But, yes, there is something I came here for. Documentation on a group of terrorists connected with the slavers you dispatched. That is the Department of Shadows’ interest in you.”
Daniel laughed, held up the card, and smiled at his pouting wife.
“Can I, Clara?”
“I don’t want to. I’ve been having fun. I don’t get a lot of things to occupy my mind in this tower. But if it will get this organization off our feathers, I suppose I can give up my fun…”
With a desire and beam of silver, all the organized cabinets and desks housing every piece of record of the slaver group materialized.
Allenia shuffled her feet with agitation.
“We should check the registry, Bell.”
Bellamy went to the desk immediately, fingers pressing down on the main paper Clara had been using to trace connected items and her sorting system.
“I know Queen Clara’s presence may be uncomfortable for you, Allenia. We can check the known higher realm records. But to do this investigation justice, we must go to the old archives at the city capital’s Department of Records. I can already tell you it isn’t in the standard Summoner listings.”
He shifted his gaze to the deck in Daniel’s hand, then to the air beside him, where Clara floated, arms crossed, mouth tight.
“You have the most beautiful handwriting I’ve ever seen, Queen of the Silver City of Tarnish. Have you chosen Daniel as your suitor then?”
“W-What?” Clara balked, bristling as if slapped. “To suggest such an absurd— I am nothing but useless fluff next to My King! It was Daniel who chose me to be his queen, you insolent little—”
“Something like that,” Daniel laughed it off. “I’d love to have your help. Naturally, we’ll help any way we can. However, it would be nice if we could work together rather than as enemies. Full disclosure. They were given five hundred gold to capture me. I can’t really say why, but…”
“One thousand gold pieces,” Clara corrected. “Half payment. We only got that. He’ll know once he checks the record.”
Daniel repeated her.
Bellamy’s smile grew a little at that, glancing at the vanished wagon and horse tracks, then at the wealth of documents. He tapped the desk with his fingernail for a moment, then nodded.
“It seems the Half-Moon Syndicate is looking to use you for some purpose. If that’s the case, it only further calls for the Department of Shadows’ involvement. I think I have all the necessary incentives and information to make this offer…”
Striding forward, he held out a hand.
“I won’t ask further questions about that which you do not want help in. You may keep everything else you pillaged from the slavers. It matters nothing to me, gold included. I will help to issue proper paperwork. In exchange…”
Daniel took it and flashed his teeth.
“My wife and I will do everything in our power to support the Department of Shadow in exposing this Half-Moon Syndicate. It’s nice to have a friend. I hope this is real… I haven’t had the best track record recently.”
Bellamy’s mouth became a line, looking south.
“…Tell me, why did you bury Edmund but not Nich? Based on Julia and Alys’s reactions, both sided with her husband and Marg to join the slavers. I know Marg ran in those circles. It was likely her contact. Tell me what truly happened.”
A sadness drew out of Daniel’s face.
He released the investigator’s hand and sighed out the melancholy.
“I’ll draw up a seat. If you really want to know, there’s a lot of history there. And why did I do it? Because it would make Alys feel better, if only a little. Julia doesn’t know I did it. Honestly, he was caught in an ugly situation, and he chose the wrong side. I wouldn’t really call him evil… Just sad. I don’t think he’d be able to live with himself after. Here…”
Daniel summoned two of the chairs he’d taken from the wagon. Clara sat next to him on the chair, resting her head against his shoulder and holding his hand.
“I’ll tell you the story of too many secrets and buried emotions, hidden in the dark to fester… At least, as much as I know.”