Chapter 71
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
Vesper
Mazz sighed, and swiped her hand over the top of the cabinet next to the chair, opening it and surveying the contents.
Vesper watched while she scanned every piece of furniture and all the equipment in the room, searching for something before she told them anything.
When everything seemed to be as she wanted, she dragged a chair, which had been sitting in the corner, over until she was right in front of Vesper’s bed.
“Alright,” Mazz said, finally sitting. “So, I work with a group that unofficially”—she put heavy emphasis on the last word—“is employed by the queen to infiltrate and dismantle the Embunuh Organization. The whole thing. I help coordinate efforts in our district. Right now, you’re in a secure facility that has some reasonably trained healers who work with us.
” She shifted on her seat, looking between Vesper and Bellamy.
“That’s all I can tell you. It’s honestly more than I should have said, but I don’t feel right keeping you in the dark after…” After Vesper died. Mazz left that unspoken. “Anyway, you are not to breathe a word of this outside of this room.”
“Why does the queen want them disbanded though? I thought the Embunuh was her biggest backer,” Vesper asked.
Mazz sighed and shifted on her seat, looking around the room again. “You didn’t hear any of this, got it?” Vesper and Bellamy nodded. “They’ve gotten too much power. They’re not really her backer anymore. It’s more like… She’s the face while they’re the actual government.”
Well shit. That explained the mandates forcing Energy wielders into assassin training. It felt silly now to think that she’d never even questioned it.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Vesper asked. “I could’ve helped. Shit, you knew I’d been wanting out.”
“You did help,” Mazz shrugged. Vesper was positive Mazz had never told her about this.
There was no way. “While you were trying to dig up information on Cypress’s contract,” she explained after seeing Vesper’s confused expression.
“You found out a lot about the organization that proved to be quite useful. We had a team getting close. Well, we thought they were getting close. We’d been monitoring that building, along with several others, for months. ”
That would certainly explain how they were able to find them so quickly.
“Okay,” Vesper said slowly, trying to wrap her mind around all of it. “Your group…?”
Mazz smiled. “We don’t have an official name, but some of us say we’re the Rahasia.”
Vesper snorted. Secret. Fitting. “How long have you been with them?”
Mazz darted a look at Bellamy and hesitantly said, “It was after we broke up. I met someone and they brought me in.” Mazz smiled at the memory. A distant look in her eyes made her pause before she continued.
“Started out with the Downstairs just being used as a safe house. I mean, I already used the hidden rooms that way, if any of the girls needed it. There wasn’t much of an adjustment there.
Then I wanted to get more involved. Sort of worked my way up the ranks.
Built trust. It helped that you were giving me so much information too. ”
“So, what happens to the Downstairs now?”
“Why do you care?” Bellamy snapped, glaring at Vesper.
Mazz, ignoring Bellamy entirely—as she had been doing almost this whole time—said, “Nothing. It’s still my business, and overall, it’s only use for the group is as a safe house.
That likely won’t change until we’re done dismantling the Embunuh completely.
There’s still a long way to go. We only cut off one head, but there’s seven more we need to take down.
And we still have to make sure this one won’t grow back. ”
“Your sister,” Mazz said, shifting to face Bellamy.
She stiffened, clutching Vesper’s wrist tighter.
“She won’t be staying. She only moved into the Downstairs as a favor to protect Cypress.
Seeing as you’re still sticking around, that’s no longer needed.
She’ll be leaving for…” She paused, staring at the wall behind them for a second before she shook her head.
“Actually, I don’t remember where she’s off to.
But you have a few days before she leaves.
If you wanted to say goodbye or anything. ”
“If she wanted to say anything to me, she would’ve visited this week,” Bellamy snapped. Vesper sighed. She supposed one helpful deed wasn’t going to clear the slate that easily. Then Bellamy, looking down at the floor instead of at Mazz, asked, “And my brother?”
“Staying. He never relocates. Enjoys his official job too much. He did say you have a spot with him though, if you need it.”
Vesper almost laughed at the expression on Bellamy’s face, caught between confusion, excitement, and fear. “I don’t know shit about Energy Design,” Bellamy said, settling on minor irritation.
Mazz shrugged. “Told him I’d convey the message. He seemed to think if you had a few days before seeing him, you’d warm up to the idea.”
“So,” Vesper started, ignoring Bellamy’s eye roll at Mazz’s suggestion.
“There is something that’s been bothering me for a bit.
Cypress’s parents,” she hesitated, replaying the last conversations with them in her mind.
“They said they wanted to study her. They hired me and Bel to kill her though, but…” Vesper trailed off.
“The ‘poison’ they gave you wasn’t to kill her.” Mazz said.
“Well, yeah. That, but also they had access to her constantly. They kept her locked up and everything. Why didn’t they take advantage and study her then? You know, give her the paralytic, or whatever it was, themselves.”
Mazz sighed. “The Embunuh Organization, well, they have a program of sorts. For Dampeners. I really can’t tell you more because we honestly don’t know much more about it.
I do know that it’s brutal, and a lot of Dampeners die during their ‘training.’ I have a contact who survived it, escaped it, but she’s pretty tight-lipped about what went on there.
I think they meant to put Cy through that.
To use her for whatever they’re doing with them. ”
“That’s so fucked,” Bellamy whispered, shock marring her features despite having held the belief that the organization employed Dampeners. She clearly hadn’t expected that level of employment.
“Yeah.” Mazz nodded before turning back to Vesper. “As for why they hired you to do it, I think that’s more obvious. They were terrified of her. They didn’t want to risk their own lives to sedate her.”
Vesper laughed sourly. “So, send in Energy wielders instead. Much better.”
“Yeah, well, they aren’t exactly the most ethical people, V.”
“So… What’ll happen to Cy now? Is she safe to leave?”
“Well.” Mazz readjusted in her chair, tucking her feet underneath her, and throwing a quick glance over her shoulder to check the door was still closed.
“We’re trying to help her. For now, she’s still staying with me.
She has a safe place where she can learn to control her magic—since none of the girls are Energy wielders.
My people are working to destroy the Embunuh’s records—to make sure there won’t be another district coming for her since she is a known Dampener.
“She’ll probably stay more or less inconspicuous until we determine the extent of her records. It is possible that her parents kept it secret. Once we know how safe it is, I’ve offered for her to help my team dismantle the rest of this branch. The offer is there for Cedar too.”
“Fuck that,” Bellamy interrupted, and Mazz shot her a sharp, warning look.
“This district was their parents' legacy, Bellamy. They deserve that closure. Especially since we now know their parents wanted them dead or captive.”
Bellamy deflated. Vesper winced against a sudden sharp sting in her arm—not from Bellamy, from the bubble.
It was behaving as if the magic had heard its wielder’s name and wanted to go to her.
She looked down at the sparks still on the string, keeping the bubble trapped as it moved fluidly, hovering over her arm, listing toward the door.
“Can we get Cypress to get rid of this fucking thing?” Vesper asked, nodding to her arm.
Mazz strode over to them, watching the sparks of Energy as they were unaffected by the darkness. “Why aren’t they absorbing?” she asked, reaching out to touch the string. It was a bad decision as the Energy had clearly been looking for a host and jumped onto her finger with an electric shock.
Bellamy snorted when Mazz yanked her hand away, sucking on her little finger to ease the sting. “Your shit healers fucked up,” Bellamy supplied.
“They overloaded me,” Vesper explained. “I can feel the Energy under my skin, itching to get out. I don’t think my body can absorb anymore.”
“That doesn’t explain why the bubble hasn’t sucked this Energy out though,” Mazz murmured, more to herself than to Vesper. “I’ll be right back,” she said under her breath before briskly exiting the room.
Vesper stared at the closed door, turning to look at Bellamy who was wearing an equally confused expression. She opened her mouth, but before she could get anything out, Mazz returned. There was a young blonde woman with her, someone Vesper had never met before, trailing hesitantly behind.
“Look at the Energy,” Mazz instructed without preamble, shoving the woman toward Vesper’s bed. She was fucking tiny. Shorter than Mazz by at least a head, and Mazz was already short.
She pushed her rounded glasses up her pointed nose and squinted down at the magic, hunching over to bring herself almost at eye level with it. Vesper watched astonished as the woman’s eyes shifted from blue to yellow then back to blue before she straightened.
“I’ve seen this happen,” she squeaked out in a high, lilting voice. “The Dampened part appears to be protecting her from the excess Energy on this string.” She looked at Vesper, addressing her now. “They’ve overloaded you.”
“Yeah, we know,” Bellamy grumbled on Vesper’s other side.