Forging Bonds (Broken Ashes #4)

Chapter One

Neith

"W hat do you mean what they've done to Coen?" Ty asks, and I can hear the caution in his voice.

I remember that the guys said when he first joined the Draconian Team that they got Ty involved, and it was decided that Coen really did want to be on their team and that nothing else was going on.

Van raises his eyebrows at me, checking whether I want to say anything to Ty or not. I shrug. I'm not getting a feeling that I shouldn't this time, and the Voices aren't warning me. They're just murmuring like normal. So, I don't see why not. I nod.

"Neith knows Coen from before and has known him for years. She is one hundred percent certain that something is wrong with him," Van explains.

"You're sure?" Ty asks.

I nod and then reply because he can't see me, "Yes, I am sure. I couldn't be more sure that there is something else going on with Coen."

"Right, okay. While I am inclined to believe you, we asked him when it was first brought up after he graduated from the Magic Academy, and we couldn't find anything that would suggest that he wasn't happy where he was."

"Then you didn't look hard enough," I reply bluntly, making the guys raise their eyebrows.

There's silence on the other end of the phone for a moment before he sighs, "Well, we can figure out a way to help him and get to the bottom of what's happened at some point, but there are other things that we need to focus on for the moment."

I grin, "We have a way, the Choosing."

"Neith, the Choosing is incredibly dangerous," Ty starts.

I interrupt him, "As far as I understand it, I don't have a choice but to compete, do I?"

Ty hesitates, "Well, no. Even if the guys conceded and said that they didn't want you on their team anymore, it wouldn't make any difference. You would still have to compete."

"That's what I thought, so since I have to compete, I may as well use it to my advantage. I'm not going to be able to get close to them like this again," I explain.

"That may be true, but it's dangerous enough as it is. If the Draconian Team has managed to do something to Coen for years, then they are incredibly dangerous, too," Ty points out.

"That's a good point, but as I said, I won't get as good of an opportunity again, so I will be helping Coen and using the Choosing to do it," I reply firmly. I am not going to wriggle on this, Coen is too important to me, and he has already proven himself ineffective in this situation.

There's a knocking sound in the background of his call, and Ty sighs.

"I hear you. I'm sorry, I'm about to go into an important meeting. I'm going to have to call you back later."

"How long do we have until the Choosing starts?" Raiden asks quickly before Ty hangs up.

"Two weeks," Ty replies and then hangs up as the knocking on his door gets more insistent.

"I don't like it," Reed says as soon as he's gone.

"If their team has somehow managed to keep Coen under their control for this many years, then they are even more dangerous than we thought, and I don't want you anywhere near them," Doc points out, agreeing with what Ty said.

"But we don't have a choice," River adds a growl in his voice.

"So, we need to go about this in the best way possible then," Raiden starts, "The good news is that we will be there with Neith. She's not going alone."

"No, but she will be alone with them," Ransom points out.

Raiden nods, "Yes, but she will also be with Coen. You saw how he was with her, and he won't let anything happen to her."

"Unless he somehow gets ordered to allow something to happen to her and doesn't have a choice," Griff points out.

"Fuck!" Evander curses.

"Look," I start. "We know it's dangerous, we knew that it might happen, and we also know that we don't have a choice. So, we need to make the best of it."

"I agree," Raiden replies, "I fucking hate it, but there is fuck all we can do about it, so like I said, we need to do what we can to make sure that you are as prepared as possible."

"Okay, so what's the first thing that we need to do?" Ransom asks.

"We need to get to the library and find as much information on the Choosing as we can, and then we need to see if we can find a Warrior Team that is willing to talk to us and give us some pointers," Raiden suggests.

"That's a great idea," Van says.

"Does anyone have any idea how to find a Warrior Team?" Doc asks.

Everyone shakes their heads, indicating that they have no idea.

River's eyes light up, "Well, Sully seems to be really well-connected and knows everyone. Why don't we ask him?"

I nod, "Yeah. That's probably the best way to get the information that we need and actually get answers. I'll ask him when we go back."

"So, that's the plan then?" River checks. "We will head back tomorrow, ask Sully if he knows a Warrior Team, and give the flash drive to Ty."

Evander nods, "Yeah, that sounds about right." He glances around at us all, "Since we've already deviated from the original plan of eating first and then talking later, we may as well talk about the vision."

"I have never heard of a vision behaving like that," Ransom says immediately, and I'm guessing that it's something that he's wanted to say ever since we sat down. He continues, "I mean, we were actually there, we could touch things. The only thing that was normal about it was that the other people couldn't see us."

His words remind me of something, "Actually, I am reasonably sure that Wynonna saw us."

"What? When?" Raiden asks.

"In the ballroom. Do you remember if anyone was standing in the corner that we were?" I ask everyone.

"I don't think so. I don't remember anyone being that close," Raiden replies.

"Me neither," Griff adds, while the others just shake their heads.

I nod, "That's what I thought, which means she definitely saw us. She winked and smiled at me."

"Huh," Doc says with a confused frown. "She is extremely powerful. That was easy to tell when we saw her have the vision. Maybe it was her who pulled us into the vision?"

"That would mean that she can somehow manipulate and affect this realm even though she is still in Trieneliea," River points out, sounding somewhat dubious.

"We already know that she can do that though, because she spoke to us. Well, to Sully in his office," I point out. "I know that dragging all of us into a vision of that magnitude requires a lot more magic than just speaking to us, but when she had that vision in our vision," I frown because that sentence kind of makes my head hurt, but continue, "she said that she was given extra power, and Sully said that someone else commanded the silencing spell to be cast. So, in theory, that would mean that if she needed to get the extra magic from somewhere, she could."

The guys are all silent for a moment while they think about my theory, and I take the opportunity to eat more because I am really hungry. When I am not, the voices murmur in what I'm going to assume is agreement.

"You could be right, actually," Ransom says. "And if you are, then that means that she really could see you."

"She obviously didn't tell anyone that we know here about it because surely one of them would have said something?" Griff asks, his eyebrows furrowed.

"I would assume so. I mean, they can't just use silencing spells for every fucking thing. That seems a bit excessive," I reply.

"It does," Van agrees, with a slight smile. His smile falls, "While we may not have a name for the guy who is creating the hybrids, at least we have a visual of him. We will be able to recognize him if we come across him."

"Unless he has a glamor," I point out with a frown, "would we know it was him if he had a glamour on?"

Ransom nods while everyone else shakes their heads that no, we wouldn't.

"Ransom?" Reed asks curiously.

"I managed to get a lock on his magical signature. It was faint, and I'm guessing that was because it was done through the vision, but I am reasonably sure that I could recognize his magical trace," Ransom explains.

"If you had an idea of who it is, and I mean a really good idea, then there is something that some guys on my team at the labs have been working on that can, in theory, de-glamor someone," Doc says.

"Seriously?" Raiden asks, curiosity sparking in his eyes. "How does it work? What is it, a weapon or spell?" He frowns, "And what do you mean in theory?"

I smile, trust Raiden to ask the important questions.

Doc smiles, "I'm not entirely sure about the ins and outs of the project, as I wasn't directly involved in it, but we can find out easily enough. When we drop the flash drive to Ty tomorrow, we can stop in and ask them about it."

"That sounds good. We may as well since we're already there," River says.

"The reason why I said that in theory it should be able to de-glamor someone, is because it is still in testing, and it hasn't officially been tested out on someone yet," Doc explains. "If they become aware that we need it though, then they will speed it up for us, and unless there is something else that needs to take precedence, then they should hopefully put it to the top of the list, and then we can put it to use as soon as we get out of the Choosing."

"I think that would definitely be something that we need to talk to them about tomorrow," Evander agrees.

We all fall silent for a moment.

"He started the war," River says solemnly, his mind clearly on what we saw in the vision. "The king warned him what would happen if he carried on pursuing it, and he obviously did. He caused the imbalance and started the war."

"Was the war fought with hybrids?" I ask with a frown.

Griff shakes his head, "No, none of them had the characteristics of hybrids from what I could tell, and we know that he is still trying to make hybrids and failing, so we know that he can't have made an army out of them."

"My guess would be that they are people who were fooled into believing his cause," Raiden suggests. "We have no idea what he said to them in order to get them to believe that fighting against the Crown was a good idea."

"Yeah, I guess that's true. We may never know actually, since no one can talk about what happened," Reed points out with a frown.

"It all sounds rather complicated to me, Dears," Ethel says from the kitchen. "I think that you have all been through a lot today, and you need to focus on eating and getting warm. I would be willing to bet that you will be rather busy for a while, take a break while you can. All of the problems will still be there tomorrow."

The cupboards open and close, and I'm going to assume that it's House agreeing with Ethel.

I smile, "A very good point, Ethel. We have done all we can tonight. There isn't anything else that we can do apart from eat this food that smells delicious and get some much-needed rest."

"Agreed," Doc replies, and everyone else nods in agreement.

The conversation moves away from the serious topics and onto lighter things as we all tuck into the delicious food that House has made for us and somehow has kept warm.

∞∞∞

The following day, everyone is packed up and loading the van reasonably early. I called Sully late last night and gave him the rundown of the vision and everything that has happened since, including the Choosing, and to say that he was pissed was an understatement.

He was fucking livid.

Leaving the guys to finish packing the van, I head into the kitchen to say goodbye to Ethel. As always, when I leave here, there is a sense of sadness, and I don't want to go. I never do.

I hate leaving House and Ethel, especially since I know that no one else comes to see them when I'm not here because both House and Ethel terrify everyone who tries and is more likely to attack rather than to let anyone in. I think they would behave the same even if I told them that it was okay to let people stay here.

I have no idea how long it's going to be until I can come back. It was over a year, I think, between the last visits. I do hope that it's not going to be that long this time. Now that the thought has occurred to me and I have realized that thanks to SID, I have money and I could potentially buy this place, which means I would officially be able to call it mine. I want to come back so that we can work out who owns it and if it's even possible for me to buy it, even more than I ever have before.

Of course, that's dependent on when we get some time off, and now we have the Choosing to go through as well as trying to work out the hybrid situation, it's not going to happen any time soon. I say 'we' have to go through the Choosing, but really, it's me. The guys have to be there as well because they are one of the teams that are interested in having me on their team, but I have to do several tasks or tests, I'm not really sure what to refer to them as, by myself. I know I should be terrified of them; I have watched a Choosing with Dimitri, and it was brutal. I remember asking him if they were trying to kill the supes on it, and he said that it's designed to push them to the very edge of what they think they are capable of and then drag them past that, so while it isn't intended to kill the supes that are involved in it, supernaturals can die.

I'm not a supernatural.

Well, I am, and although my supernatural side has made an appearance in the power boom that it caused when I was pushed into the barrier by that damn tree, which I had forgotten about until now. Huh. Anyway, other than that, and maybe another instance where it flared, that's all the magic that I apparently have, and I have no fucking control over it or know what kind of supernatural I am. So, I'm pretty much human.

Which can't be a good thing to be for the Choosing.

Of course, since my life can't appear to be anything but really complicated, the issue with the Choosing isn't just because I'm not fully supernatural, it's also because HID thinks I'm dead. In fact, they are pretty much sure that I am since they blew me up with a bazooka. They are working with a supernatural that actually now that I'm thinking about it, I'm reasonably sure is most likely the blue fucker from the vision. HID appears to be handing any supernaturals that they find over to this guy, presumably to make hybrids or some of those zombie soldiers that he had in the clearing when I died saving Reed.

Oh shit.

"Guys!" I yell as I take a detour to the front door instead of heading into the kitchen like I had planned.

"What's up?" River asks immediately the moment that I step foot outside of the front door.

"Those zombie soldiers that we fought and then watched melt in the clearing, I bet they are the same supernaturals that fought in the war that the blue fucker started in Trieneliea, or at least he's made more, but that's what he originally used," I say.