Chapter 16 Ash
Ash
Song Lan Xi was having a very bad day.
Who was he kidding? He had been having a very bad day for over a month. Ever since the Outram incident, things had spiraled out of control. That said, in the series of bad days so far, today had ranked the baddest.
The press conference addressing the mutilated bodies at the playground had concluded not long ago. He’d dialed up his charm
offensive, but it was difficult to fend off a pack of reporters looking for a career-making scoop, and even harder to do so
on live television. Halfway through, a protestor stormed the room, yelling conspiracy theories about Exorcists and the deep
state. The man was hauled away by security, but the cameras had captured everything.
Ash imagined all the hit pieces that would be published about the failures of the Exorcists and the Guild in the morning papers
tomorrow. Not to mention the video clips of the protestor and Ash’s shocked face that would be spliced and remixed for clicks
and likes on social media. For the umpteenth time in his young adulthood, he was reminded he had a thankless job.
But whether he liked it or not, it was one he was literally born to do.
He leaned against his car, surveying the potholed street and dilapidated buildings around him. Then he contemplated the gloomy
sky. It was going to snow soon, and he wished he were back at the mansion with a hot cup of tea, catching up on the latest
television dramas. Having more than a few minutes to himself was a luxury these days. Catch the mole, destroy the spell and the Hybrids, and then you can take a sabbatical and live the couch potato life you dream
of.
If only it were that easy.
Cracking open his flip phone with his thumb, he tapped the first number on his speed dial and let it ring until a voice recording played in his ear.
“Huh-low. You’ve reached Song Yiran. I’m obviously not here. Or maybe I am, and I’m just avoiding you. Who knows? Ha.”
The recording tone beeped.
“Where the heck are you? Call me.”
It was the sixth voice mail Ash had left since that morning. Yiran had skipped school. Again. Anyone who knew Ash well—which
was less than a handful of people—knew that his baby brother was his soft spot. His weak spot. But Ash was in no mood for Yiran’s nonsense today. Yiran was probably street-smart enough to take care of himself but,
post-Outram, he felt like a different person. It was worrying.
“Where do you think that brat is?” Ash grumbled to a nearby pigeon. It was pecking enthusiastically at a half-eaten sandwich
someone had tossed at the trash can and missed.
“Talking to birds, Captain Song?” an amused voice said from behind him. “My, how the mighty have fallen.”
Surin sauntered over. Her blond buzz cut was hidden under a wool fedora, and the large butterfly knife in her hand flicked
this way and that as her fingers maneuvered the weapon deftly. People often thought she was showing off when she did that,
but Ash knew the rapid movements helped keep her focus.
“Sorry, I got held up,” she said.
“Did you know that pigeons are actually doves?” Ash said pensively. “There’s no scientific difference between the two, but
people think of doves as pretty and innocent, symbols of purity and peace. Nobody thinks of pigeons that way. Maybe because
they’re just everywhere, getting in your way, eating trash.”
Surin frowned at him.
“It’s kind of sad if you think about it,” Ash went on.
“Pigeons were domesticated for years and years, taken out of their natural habitats and integrated into human settlements. Our cities grew, technology advanced. Pigeons weren’t useful anymore.
So what did we do? We abandoned them, like we do everything that no longer serves us.
They’re stuck here now because they’ve lost their real homes and they don’t know any better, trying to eke out a life on concrete and rotting pizza. ”
Surin snapped her knife shut. “You okay? I know the press con didn’t go as planned, but it wasn’t that bad. There was that weirdo who crashed it, but you did good. Very calm. Very suave. Doesn’t warrant getting philosophical
and mopey over pigeons.”
I was thinking about how we’re supposed to be doves, but we’re actually pigeons. About how the normies are so quick to turn on Exorcists every time something bad happens, even though we’re risking our
lives every day to protect them.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Ash said instead. He was well aware that the Guild wasn’t a pristine dove; it was a pigeon, adapting to its ever-changing environment, willing to do the dirty work of surviving.
“Got an update for me?” Surin asked. She’d missed the meeting earlier.
“We’ve sealed away any evidence of the bodies that were discovered. Any images online have been taken down, but I assume some
might be circulating on the dark web. Our early surveillance reports indicate that the normies believe it’s ordinary Revenants
that did it. No one’s speculating seriously about Hybrids yet or that it was magic that desecrated the bodies. All in all,
the situation is contained, but it’s only day one.”
“More bodies will show up.” Surin sounded grimly confident.
“You think so?” Ash had his suspicions too, but he wanted to hear her take.
“The first body Teshin found at the warehouse district by the port? The Hybrids were trying to hide it because they didn’t
want us to know they’ve figured out how to transform normies into monsters through magic. But look at where the new bodies
were. Out in the open on a public playground for children to discover.”
“In other words, you’re saying it was deliberate because the Hybrids wanted everyone to know.”
“That’s what my gut says. We’re not dealing with brute monsters anymore. The Hybrids have cunning. They want to take us down, and they’ll use anything to add pressure. What better way than to skew public perception and cause chaos?”
“They’re doing a good job,” Ash admitted. “We look weak and incompetent.”
Surin’s features hardened. “What if the Hybrids aren’t interested in hiding in the shadows anymore? This feels like a message—an
open declaration of war. Maybe they’ve pivoted in their plans because they have a new advantage and they’re feeling confident.”
“I’m afraid you might be right. The Hybrids do have something that works in their favor.” Ash filled her in quickly about
the talisman Zizi had created.
Surin let out a low whistle. “I knew there was something between Rui and that boy. I wasn’t expecting this, though. Poor Rui.”
She patted Ash on the shoulder. “I know you had hopes for Zizi. For what it’s worth, I liked him too.”
A death god being a healer, a protector of life—ironic, isn’t it?
Ash remembered the scrawny boy he’d met all those years ago when he was still a cadet. He’d gone to the Night Market out of
curiosity, despite knowing his grandfather would disapprove. There he chanced upon a child with messy hair crouching in one
of the alleyways. Dressed in expensive-looking pajamas, the boy was chanting something under his breath, a feverish light
in his pale blue eyes as he held on to a small, hissing ball of black fur.
Intrigued, Ash watched as the boy coo softly to the injured kitten struggling in his arms. The kitten’s hind legs were bent
at an awkward angle, and it was mewing in pain and panicking. The boy didn’t seem to mind that he was getting scratched up,
and he didn’t pause to acknowledge Ash’s presence. Minutes later, the kitten calmed down and the boy set it on the ground.
Miraculously, it walked on all four legs, purring loudly as it snuggled against the boy.
The boy had clapped his hands triumphantly, turning around to grin at Ash. He must’ve known Ash was there all along. “I knew I could help her,” he’d boasted.
Ash had struck up a friendship with the boy with the strange name and stranger eyes. Even though Zizi enjoyed riling him up
for laughs, he seemed to like Ash well enough. But through the years, Zizi remained steadfast in his refusal to be recruited
to the Academy and the Guild—until Rui’s well-being came into question.
Odd as it was, their friendship had meant something to Ash, and he wished he’d had the chance to say goodbye. But Zizi was
out of the picture now, and Ash had to focus on more important things.
“The Hybrid leader is likely to keep the talisman close at all times,” he said.
“Makes sense,” Surin agreed. “If I were a genocidal megalomaniac, I’d hang on tightly to the most precious thing my monster
gang has. We find the talisman, we find the leader, and vice versa.”
“Destroy the spell, destroy the leader, whichever comes first.”
Ash wished it was as easy as he’d made it sound. Despite their best efforts, the Exorcists had not been able to pin the Hybrids
down to a permanent hideout. They’d found less than a handful of sites, all of which had been long abandoned. It irritated
Ash to no end that they were dealing with an enemy that was this intelligent and resourceful. Life seemed easier when it was
just the original Revenants. At least those creatures couldn’t scheme.
“The underground magic community might have a way to track down the rogue spell,” Surin said with a gleam in her eye. “I’m
not beyond forming a necessary alliance.”
Ash wasn’t against it either, but he knew the Guild Council would never approve. “I’ll have a think about that. By the way,
Cadet Mai Lang has been briefed on the existence of Hybrids. She was nearby when Cadet Mak got knocked out at the port, and
she saw someone or something running away.”
“Someone or something?”
“As I recall, she described it as a humanlike figure with pretty purple tendrils coming out of their spine,” Ash replied dryly. “Anyway, she’s a good addition to my A-Team.”
“Your A-Team?”
“Like in action movies, you always have an A-Team, which, as implied by the name, is better than the other teams. They’re
the elite.”
Surin’s dimples flashed. “Don’t you mean the A-plus Team? You got yourself a bunch of chronically overachieving teens as your hit squad.”
“Ash’s Team,” he said with a decisive nod. “An inner circle of my most trusted.”
“More like Asshole’s Team,” Surin teased, playfully elbowing him in the ribs.
He side-eyed her. “You’re part of it too, you know.”
Truthfully, Ash wasn’t too keen on recruiting kids to go on increasingly dangerous missions—even if the “kids” in question
were highly skilled Exorcist cadets. He’d always felt like his own childhood had been stolen from him because of his family’s
standing in the world. And he hated to think that he was the one stealing a piece of someone else’s youth. He wanted to break the cycle, but he didn’t know how.
“Any updates on the mole situation?” he asked.
“Unfortunately not. Shuang and I have gone through most of the units’ profiles, but no red flags.”
It was discouraging news. “With everything going on with mutilated bodies and the media circus, there’ll be a Guild Council
meeting soon, I expect. Would be good if we have a list of suspects before that so we can screen them.”
“We’ll continue to work on it,” Surin promised.
Ash’s phone rang. “Yes, Cadet Lin?” He listened to Rui’s rambling while Surin played with her butterfly knives restlessly.
“Good news?” she asked after he’d hung up.
Ash nodded. “Seems like one of those chronically overachieving teens has an idea about how to find the spell.”