Ash tossed and turned, unable to sleep after the nightmare. She had been surrounded by darkness and a swarm of fairies, standing at the edge of a circle in the meeting room with Akiye in the center. Akiye stood straight, her hollow eyes bleeding and the skin on her body fraying, coming off in patches. Ash could feel her fingers throbbing as she grit her teeth, trying to control the energy that was trying to expand out of the circle.
The dream was much too real, much too close, weaving in every aspect of her current life that Ash couldn't fall asleep again. Outside it was noon. Mayra would be awake. Seeking comfort, company and a small curiosity, she went to the room of sirens. Someone from inside called, "curfew is not over yet."
Ash smiled and opened the door. The siren's eyes widened, then she smiled. "It's you. I didn't think you would be in the student council. Nice to meet you."
Ash shook her hand and looked about the room while the other siren busied herself in finding appropriate things that could counterwork the enchantment on their door. Mayra was in bed, hunched over something. As Ash walked over, Mayra hid it behind her back and smiled brightly.
"It flashed brightly. Has to be your scale. Did a scale fall off or something? Why are you hiding it?"
Mayra's smile wavered. She looked about the room and said, "I was careless, bumped into something broke a piece of my shoulder scale."
Ash shook her head, "let's go eat something and I will bring you to the high priestess to fix it."
Mayra nodded and got out of bed quickly. Not even bothering to change, she hooked their elbows together and dragged her out of there. As soon as Ash stepped out, she asked, "what is going on?"
"Someone hypnotised me today. I was heading back after class. I thought I'd catch you after training. I remember that part. I was walking and then I don't remember anything else. Someone took your name and I snapped out of my trance. My hand went to the scale. Since the knife was with you, I just pulled out a scale."
Ash's heart tightened. Compared to a scale, this was much worse. Now she was sure someone was targeting the people around Vance or Bree. Since she was inevitably involved, they were trying to get to her too. She told Mayra everything that happened that morning in the meeting room underground.
Mayra said, "do you want me to come with you to the chancellor's mansion?"
Ash shook her head. "not that. Give me your hands."
Mayra gave her hands and Ash took them, imagining the thin layer of energy around her body to include Mayra. She imagined it wrapping around Mayra's skin like a glove, giving her the same protection she had. Yet, she couldn't hear anything. No curiosity, confusion or calm. She asked, "what are you feeling?"
"Confused and foolish. A little excited too. Maybe you are about to show me what you have learned."
Ash felt none of that. "Maybe I need three people."
Mayra lauged a little, "what are you trying to do?"
Ash said, "I think I might be able to extend my resistance to another person I touch."
Mayra's eyes widened. "that's awesome. We have to test it out," and so Mayra locked hands with her dragegd her past the cadetaria to the other side of the dorm to the men's dorm and banged on a door marked R. A golem opened the door and grunted behind himself. A familiar face peeked out of the nature themed hall.
Mayra beckoned him into the corridor and said, "I want you to bite me."
The golem nodded and Ash snapped. "no. You sing. I will hold him."
Mayra laughed as she took her golem's hand, who slowly shifted into human form, some parts still unable to fully transform. She extended her ability and the golem watched between them. Mayra started singing. She asked him curiously, "what are you feeling?"
"Curious." he answered slowly. Ash smiled gently and asked, "how are you classes going?"
He responded with a big smile, "very good. I learned a lot of things."
But Ash felt nothing. Mayra sang and they chatted and it went on for a few minutes. In the end, Mayra stopped singing and looked between them wide eyed. "It worked. It worked."
Ash beamed, feeling an unease at the pit of her stomach. Mayra took her elbow again and told the golem, "go on. We just wanted to visit you."
The golem nodded and headed back. "We should visit C as well. I have something I want him to do as well."
And so Mayra guided her to C's room. The cyclopes were all busy with their own things inside. The room was half empty. Mayra asked, "where is everyone?"
C shrugged, "half of them went to town or to the city to restock their supplies."
"what about you?"
"I order them online."
Ash asked him. "I am going to the chancellor's mansion later in the night. Sleep early today, I need you to look into some footages and stuff later."
As they chatted, they headed for the cafetaria and Ash filled them in on what was happing with the members of the council. Mayra added her incident and C stiffened. "After that golem, I wouldn't be surprised if someone within the council is involved with this."
Ash couldn't agree more, "me too. Which is why we will have to look at the footage seperately and trace the steps of all the members however we can. It was a full moon night so many of the systems might have been disrupted."
"Such a large institution and they don't update their wardings. This is a serious lapse in security."
"Something we can do nothing about. The board needs to make that investment decision." She told C who hung his head and raised his hand. "Just saying."
Ash shook her head. "we can say this again when we have checked the cameras ourselves."
C shook her head. "In all my heart of security work. I have never come acorss supernatural beings who were extremely aware of all technology around them. If they were, we wouldn't need to learn things like hacking, video editing and all the things."
Ash smiled at C's airy tone. It was true that their kind needed constant monitoring to keep various kinds of activity out of human's eyes. And that is what they kept chatting about. Mayra asked, "do you have someone names Karlene in your class?"
"Karlene?"
"Karlene Moonblessed?" Mayra asked eagerly. Before Ash told C not to answer, C nodded slowly. "Little wolf with white hair. I heard she is one of the heirs of the Moonblessed. I didn't say anything because..." C looked at her, not so subtly.
Ash said, "we are in the council together. She must have checked the footage as well. Let's see what they discover. Then its our turn."
C smiled, "even though you have someone, you came for me?"
Ash patted him, "yes. Because I need the evidence to be presentable which means we need to go through the proper channels. And who better to run through the official software than you."
C scowled, "I thought you wanted to use my hacking skills."
Ash smiled wider. "If they were that great, you wouldn't need to join a class for it."
Mayra soothed him too, "the island has barely any need for back channels. It's not his fault."
"Are you putting medicine on my wounds or salt?" C grumbled. The women laughed as they headed for the cafeteria. C said, "the golem can come with us when he has learned to consume human food. They will teach that this year."
Mayra nodded, "I want to have us back together like we were on the ship. will you visit Old Madame while you are there?"
They continued chatting about the usual stuff while eating and dispersed with Ash's caution, "be aware of your surroundings and of the fairies. Both of you."
Karlene pressed the final key, "aaaaand we are in."
Sven and Karn looked at each other, surprised. Karn didn't know his sister was talented. Neither did Sven. For a moment, Sven didn't know what to say. He knew Karlene liked her coffee black, she didn't like to drink anything else. Her period cramps came on the 3rd day of her cycle and she refused to anyone through those days, even him. She liked holding hands and liked to be looked at. She always wanted him to think of her first and wanted to be the only person in his life. Though she wasn't the only one in his life, she was the most important. Had always been. He knew Karlene didn't have any friends besides him and Karn. Sven had always worried about her when they went to parties or gatherings. As they grew up, she had stopped coming all together. Though he still kept checking on her, they had somewhere along the way grown comfortable and familiar.
How than, was it possible for him not to know that Karlene was such a good hacker? It made him wonder, what else he didn't see about her? What else did he miss while he was out partying and she was at home? Where there more reasons as to why Karlene had kicked him out of her life? They had grown far too comfortable to think they still needed to know each other. When was the last time he had ran a morning errand for her and bought her favorite hard coffee along? Far too long. Long enough that he couldn't even remember when he did it last.
"Earth to Sven." Karlene snapped her fingers in front of his face and tapped her nail on the screen. Sven looked over. The camera was at a high angle at the back of one of the building, covering the grass field, all the way to the broken part of the back wall of the institute.
Karlene had found the the footage of a few minutes after B had been discovered. The middle part was entirely missing. Akiye, stumbled through the broken part of the wall and walked back, head hung, slowly making her way back.
All of them looked at one another. "What is Akiye doing there? And all alone?"
Karn gave them both an annoyed look, "that's not the weird part. She walked in, not flew in. We all known Akiye prefers wind magic. She always flies things here and there. Even flies herself over the wall." Karn had been a witness to that during the full moon outing.
Sven shook his head, "we need to call someone who has known Akiye before us."
Karlene whipped out her phone and rang Bree. But the call was picked by Drew who said curtly, "she is sleeping. Call back later."
Neither of them thought much of it. Drew was always like this whenever she picked up Bree's phone. When Bree was back with her phone, she'd call back and apologize for Drew.
Karn asked, "can you check the camera outside the vampire dormitory for last night. Backtrace the fairy that was eavesdropping on us."
Karlene snapped her fingers again before they went flying over a keypad. "good idea."
For a while, they watched the fairy fly backwards from one angle to another until they traced her back to the last person it met- another fairy. They traced the two fairies who each dropped an object- one, a box from the pottery club, to a golem and another, a parcel, to a cyclopes. Neither of them talked to either of the creatures. They paid speial attention to each but found nothing worth a dime.
"Should we check further back?" Sven asked. Karn dismissed it. "No use. Fairies only carry out instructions. If it simply dropped the parcel without any other instruction, it's got to be fairy it met midway, who recieve the instruction from the golem or the cyclopes who directly commanded it. Look into both their movements yesterday. The golem did nothing but chat with others, attended his classes and attended many clubs. The cyclopes sat on his laptop the whole day, ordering things, through online shopping sites. Every once in a while, he'd open someone's tracking details and trace their movements over the campus map.
"This one. The cyclops is suspicious. Check on him after the meeting." He must be anxious when the fairy did not come back with information.
But the cyclops was sleeping soundly. All three of them looked about confused. "Maybe it's not him."
"We still need to check who he is."
Karn stopped them, "he is a first year. Even if it IS him, he wasn't here last year. The incident couldn't be related."
All of them slumped. Karn looked between the couple and asked, "one more thing. go back to the other camera."
When the backwall appeared on the screen again, Karn said, "an hour before Akiye appears."
As they started watching, Vance appeared. Sven and Karlene were as shocked as he was when he first saw the photos. Vance did not have his glasses and was acting suspiciously, constantly looking over his shoulder and stretching his neck this way and that.
Karn guided them, "trace it back. Where is Vance coming from? Where are his glasses?"
Karn spoke softly, "he didn't have his glasses on that night either."
"What night?" Karlene, going through various cameras in the area, asked.
Karlene traced Vance back, coming between two buildings, coming out of the forest. She looked through the cameras on the side of the building and the cameras, being closer to the witches' blessing ceremony hung up far too much and eventually stopped working together.
Sven called, "wait."
In the shadows of the forest, frozen through the static was lumpy shape of a golem, rising from the earth. Or perhaps it was rising from one of the dwarf holes. In any case. The golem lived in the tunnels. And that's how it has been hiding all night. But how did it hide all day? The dwarfs had to know about it or the golem had to be coming above ground, living with someone during the day. The problem was, equal amount of dorms were emoty during the day as they were at night.
"The night Ash was attacked. If what I am thinking is not too far fetched, this Vance is a golem?" Karn said and Karlene asked, "my question is, how did you know Vance was there that night? Does B know?"
"She knows. She knows Vance was there and that it was not the real Vance."
"Did Akiye make him?" Sven asked the question none of the siblings voiced. Karn growled in warning but Karlene simply shifted time and cameras, "let's check."