Chapter 29 It’s a Bug, Not a Feature
It’s a Bug, Not a Feature
We took an indirect route to Selene’s, just in case someone caught our trail. She had cars parked all over Lundaria, ready to switch at regular intervals along our journey.
“Moving is good,” she told me. “Moving is confusing, and moving is alive.”
Morgana was the expert, so far be it from me to argue, even if I was getting a little tired of being on the road all the time.
Radio stations waned in and out, and the cars we took were all older models without any hookups for phones, so when conversations ran dry, we drove in silence while I entertained myself with crossword books we bought from flux stations.
After two days, the claim Victor had left on my neck began to sting, like vampire venom without the aphrodisiac, which meant he must have realized I was gone.
His anguish-laced anger was coming through in little droplets of searing pain, starting at the bite and rippling outward.
It got stronger as the days passed, but it was still bearable.
We stayed at a mix of motels and safe houses, and the safe house we stayed at that night had a package waiting for us outside.
“That’s for you,” she said, her lips curling in a knowing smirk.
My eyes wide, I brought it inside and opened it up to find a top-of-the-line Owl laptop.
“Really?” I squealed, hugging it to my chest.
Morgana leaned against the door frame with her arms crossed. “Really. Consider this my initial investment.” Then she reached into her pocket, taking out a scrap of paper. “And here’s Arlen’s email. Go ahead and get in contact with him. Tell him to put it on my tab.”
I took it from her, then dug out the charging cable and plugged it in, giddy as a kid on Hecara’s Day as the screen came to life. It took a good hour to get through all the set-up and software updates, but I couldn’t even pretend to be annoyed.
A phone was one thing, but having a computer in front of me again was…
Nope, I wasn’t going to cry.
The first thing I did was locate my old cloud account, and I worried for a second when I blanked on my password. What would happen if I couldn’t remember? They couldn’t send me a code to my number or old school email, since both were long gone.
Holding my breath, I pressed enter, relief coursing through me when the only window to pop up was one recommending I change my password soon.
Morgana looked up from where she sat in an armchair across the room, reading some thriller she’d picked up from the bookshelf with Vesper perched behind her.
“Everything good?”
“Yes, everything’s great,” I said with a smile, downloading the source code for Kaldrin.
Once it was safely on my new hard drive, I created an email account for my new name, and uploaded it to that cloud as a backup before messaging Morgana’s contact.
Hi Arlen,
My name’s Briar. Morgana Vale gave me your information and suggested I reach out.
I have a nearly finished marketplace app, but I need help resolving a few lingering bugs and reviewing security and anonymity features before moving forward.
If you’re available, I’d like to discuss scope and timeline. Morgana will take care of any costs.
Please email me back when you get a chance.
Thank you,
Briar
I hit enter, sitting back as a weight lifted off my chest. Moving forward with Kaldrin, finally, was making me feel like me again. Competent. Independent. With something more to offer than just my body for one man’s pleasure.
While I waited for Arlen to respond, I checked the news. They were still reporting on the outcomes of the Premiers’ Summit. A picture of Victor next to Thangmar Ulfic sent my heart racing, and his mark pulsed with a burning heat I could no longer ignore. I hissed in pain, slapping my hand over it.
“Sage?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, breathing through the wave. “Sorry… this should pass in a second.”
Morgana lifted a knowing eyebrow. “I take it he’s not very happy.”
“Yeah, feels like it,” I replied with a grimace.
She got up, coming to the couch and sitting next to me, and then tilted my chin, looking at the bond mark.
Humming to herself, she gently began to press her fingers against the two scarred puncture wounds. “The skin doesn’t look inflamed, so any effects you’re feeling are purely magical. Which means only magic can end them.”
My eyes widened, and I turned towards her in surprise. “You know how to sever a mate bond?”
Morgana chewed on her lip in thought. “A mate bond, no. I don’t think the gods themselves could separate a mated pair. But then again, this isn’t exactly a full mate bond, is it?”
I shook my head as she continued to stare at the mark. “I do know of a spell to cut the tie from an unwanted alpha bite, though.”
Alphas, due to the dominance of their designation, could bite and claim someone as their partner, while mates could claim each other through bite no matter how they’d been born. This bond, this bite… maybe it had been a simple alpha mark the whole time.
“How? Can I do it?”
She nodded resolutely, getting off the sofa. “I have the equipment. I just need to double-check the spell. You sit tight, okay?”
“Okay,” I replied, my voice quivering, watching as she left the room with Vesper trailing after her.
This nightmare was closer to being over every second since I’d been rolled out in the laundry cart, and I couldn’t believe my luck in having a witch help me through this.
Witches were often written off by other Magiks as weak since our power was reliant on spells and potions, charms and tonics.
But if anything, it made our strength much more varied, our value lying in our versatility.
We could solve almost any problem with the right words, ingredients, and intentions.
While I waited for Morgana to return, I went back to my computer, happy to see that Arlen had already responded.
Hey Bri,
A friend of Morgana’s is a friend of mine, especially if she’s paying. Just send over what you got. I’ll take a look.
-Arlen
I wrote back right away, giving him a link to the download. For an experienced coder, it probably wouldn’t take very long to fix, but I was under no assumption my request would be high on his to-do list. Even if I was itching to finally launch the thing, I needed to be patient.
I’d been patient for five years, after all, so a few more days was nothing.
Ember, fed up with the computer taking my attention, jumped on my lap and sat on top of my right arm, leaving me to scroll and type left-handed.
I was halfway done with a gossip article about the new season of Arcane House when Morgana came back into the room, an adamantine dagger in her hand.
The blade had to be at least eight inches long, reflecting the light of the lamp in a bright slash of silver. The hilt, decorated in swirls and evil eyes, looked perfectly formed to fit Morgana’s grip.
“A Blade of Severance,” she explained, handing me the rare artifact. The dagger changed shape to fit my grip as I took a hold of it, the weight perfectly balanced in my hands.
“I’ve only read about these,” I whispered in awe, almost afraid I wasn’t worthy to hold one. Forged in the holy cauldron of Hecara herself, these daggers were spelled to be able to cut through anything, including…
Bonds.
“How do I use it?” I asked.
“The instructions and spell are here,” she explained, handing me a piece of paper. “From midnight to the witching hour, channel all of your thoughts, feelings, and wishes to ending the bond. Then…”
* * *
At a quarter to twelve, Morgana and Vesper went to bed, leaving me to the task alone. This was something I needed to do by myself, although at my age, it should have been completed with my familiar.
My parents, both being witches, had their own familiars who were like uncles to me. Cosmo, an iguana, was my dad’s, while my mom had a cheeky spider monkey named Rio.
I missed them all so much, and hated that Victor had robbed me of the chance to bond with my own familiar. At thirty years old, I was now four years too late.
A lone tear fell down my cheek, my chest feeling hollow, and I scooped up Ember, glad he could fill the empty space in my heart where a familiar should go.
When the clock struck midnight, I began the ritual.
I’d already drawn the pentagram in the middle of the kitchen, and I sat down inside it, chanting in Old Lundarian.
“Zhaketh, sen Val-Ash. Tuul infuk ziir. Kaan.”
Begone, mark of Alpha. The sworn bond is broken. It is finished.
I lit the white candle facing north.
“Zhaketh, sen Val-Ash. Tuul infuk ziir. Kaan.”
The blue candle in the south was next, and I repeated the phrase, following the rest of the call to the directions as I lit the red candle in the east and the green candle in the west.
I settled myself, legs crossed, and breathed in deeply as I channeled all my thoughts towards ending my connection to Victor. I imagined cutting a cord with giant scissors, snapping a chain with bolt cutters, and so on. With each split, I visualized Victor floating further away from me.
“Zhaketh, sen Val-Ash. Tuul infuk ziir. Kaan.”
Then I sat with my intentions, my legs turning numb. I hadn’t practiced any magic in so long, though, that I welcomed the discomfort just for the chance to return to my powers.
When the clock struck three, I rose stiffly and headed towards the stove. I turned on the flame and then took the Blade of Severance, heating it until it began to glow.
My knees shook, and I broke out in a cold sweat in anticipation of the pain.
But I was no stranger to pain. I could do this.
I held the flat side of the blade an inch above the bite mark, picturing the end of our bond once and for all. The heat was already searing, but I steeled my nerves.
“Zhaketh, sen Val-Ash. Tuul infuk ziir. Kaan!”
The blade touched my skin and I bit down my scream, the smell of burning flesh filling my nostrils.
“Wait, Sage, don’t!”
I gasped, nearly dropping the blade as I turned around, the voice strange and yet alarmingly familiar. It wasn’t Victor, but it was someone I couldn’t help but feel like I had known.
And yet, there was no one else in the room.
Oh no, did the spell not work?
I sighed, cursing to myself. That was three hours of intense meditation, and I really didn’t want to do it again.
As I began to clean up, I caught a large silhouette from the hallway in the corner of my eye and looked up with a startle, only to find a man with pale skin and long, braided black hair.
“Oh, Vesper,” I said with a relieved sigh. I hadn’t seen him shift yet, but I knew it was him on scent alone.
“It is done,” he said, his voice deep and soothing.
“Really?” I asked, wiping the chalk off the floor. “How can you tell?”
He sniffed the air. “Doesn’t smell like him anymore.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “You could smell him?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “The stench of death. It clung to you.”
He took a step towards me and sniffed the air again. “You smell alive now.”
My eyes began to tear up as he smiled, patting me on the head. “You’ll be okay, little witch.”
I smiled back, the pain on my neck pulsing yet lessening by the second. “Thank you.”
He started to walk back to the bedroom, and then paused, turning his head slightly to address me again.
“And don’t worry. Your familiar is still waiting for you.”
* * *
We arrived at Selene’s the next day right after lunch, hours before the bar would open.
The werewolf was waiting for us on her front porch, a roll of vaporleaf hanging from her lips.
She was in her fifties, solid and broad-shouldered, with the kind of aura that settled a Magik the moment they were in her presence. Her graying hair was pulled back at the nape of her neck.
“Good to see you again, Briar,” she said, a knowing smirk to her lips.
Then she moved, getting up from the rocking chair and setting a mug on a side table, and put her hand on the doorknob.
Her eyes shifted to the horizon, checking for any sign of danger before deciding the coast was clear and pulling it open for me.
“Your room’s upstairs. First door on the right. Go on and get unpacked, and I’ll grab you in an hour to start prep work.” Her voice was rough and rasped from smoke and years of use, and her ice blue eyes met mine only briefly.
“Thanks for dropping her off,” she added, dismissing Morgana.
“Not going to invite me in for a drink?” the witch quipped, Vesper cawing in agreement and flapping his wings from where he sat on her shoulder.
Selene laughed, the sound rich. “Last time I let you in for a drink, you stayed for a week and broke poor Marcus’s heart. These old coots got enough problems without you sniffing around.”
“Oh, please,” Morgana scoffed. “I gave him the time of his life.”
My eyes darted between them, desperately wishing Morgana would stay, if only for the stories. They seemed like they had plenty.
When Selene didn’t budge, Morgana gave a beleaguered sigh of defeat. “Fine, fine, I see where I’m not wanted.”
She turned towards me and gave me one last assessing look. “The car is yours, with a list of safe houses in the glove compartment in case of emergency.”
I nodded along, trying not to cry.
“I will contact Selene every evening from tonight. If you don’t hear from me, then your location has been compromised and you need to run, got it?”
“Got it,” I replied, my voice beginning to crack.
Morgana’s eyes began to mist over as well. “None of those tears, Briar. This isn’t a total goodbye. Remember, we’re business partners.”
Arlen had fixed my code even faster than I’d hoped, and as of that morning, Kaldrin had officially launched.
The scant internet presence I’d had in the “before-times” was long gone, so with little fanfare to announce its start, I wasn’t expecting any huge user numbers right away.
But Morgana was an influential witch, and promised to spread the word once she got back to Cindralis.
“And I’ll get right to work on finding out what happened to your parents.”
At that, I finally lost it, putting down my small bag and wrapping my arms around her waist. Vesper nuzzled my head with his beak as Morgana breathed me in, patting me on the back.
“You be careful, little witch. Trust your instincts, and use the burner phone to get in touch with me at anytime. Believe me when I say you cannot bother me, because my only satisfaction comes from knowing you’re safe.”
“Thank you, Morgana. Truly. You saved my life.”
In more ways than one. She’d gotten me out of Noctis, helped me finally set up my app and had delivered me to Selene, the woman who would house, feed, and employ me for as long as I needed.
And she had helped me officially break the bond with Victor. Just as Vesper had confirmed, the emotions that originally came through had stopped completely since the ritual.
I was well and truly free.