Chapter Nine #6
“According to the translation, King Minos sent Duchess Amalie to various supernatural societies to assassinate political opponents he deemed a threat,” Takahashi began.
“It was on her journey that she obtained information about the Divinity Keys and their whereabouts. When she reported her findings back to King Minos, he wanted her to collect the keys to elevate the fae’s power within the supernatural world.
Amalie disagreed with the king and believed the keys should be protected from those who wished to use them against others.
So Amalie began a double life, in which she continued pretending to work for the fae monarchy but was truly using her travels to negotiate alliances with others who wished to protect the keys.
She used her skills as an assassin to gather information about which keys were vulnerable, so she and her allies could keep them out of the wrong hands. ”
Takahashi tapped the table. “It was during this time that she formed an alliance with a group of Elves. They were the ones that supplied her with the Elven ship The Assassin’s Destiny, as well as The Great Escape mentioned in these records.
Amalie and her fleet traveled to East Asia to meet with the Astromancers.
There, she formed an alliance with a man named Takahashi Yuto, who wanted to work with her to protect the Astromancer key. He had it in his possession.”
“Takahashi?” Danny repeated. “Isn’t that your name?”
“In Astromancer culture, we speak our last names first, because we emphasize the family name over the individual,” Professor Takahashi explained.
“I did some digging, and Yuto was one of my direct ancestors. Though I never found any mention of this story in any Astromancer documents I have access to. I believe Yuto kept this a secret so that the Astromancer key couldn’t be tracked by the wrong people. ”
“What happened after Yuto and Amalie formed an alliance?” Kallie asked.
“They agreed that the keys should be hidden out of reach of King Minos. Amalie, however, had a meeting scheduled in Atlantis, and she believed she may be able to obtain information about the merfolk key there. Yuto and Amalie agreed to split up the fleet and sail separately, as it was too risky to sail the seas with two Divinity Keys together. Yuto went on ahead of her.”
“So Yuto set sail to hide the Astromancer key before Amalie’s shipwreck and arrest?” Kallie mused.
“That is what the records indicate,” Takahashi confirmed. “Amalie lost the rest of her fleet somewhere between Atlantis and Darke Island, shortly before The Assassin’s Destiny crashed near its shores. The Great Escape survived with the Astromancer key, as it was on a different voyage entirely.”
“Where did Yuto sail with the key?” I asked.
I could hear the smile in Takahashi’s voice.
“These records don’t say where he went, but his notes indicate he was successful in concealing the Astromancer key.
Yuto and Amalie agreed to meet in Kinpago after she sailed to Atlantis, where they would continue searching for the Elementai key together. ”
Ava slammed her hand against the table. “That’s how the Elvish ships ended up in the cove in Kinpago!”
“The same ships Ava and I stole before being sentenced to the Institute,” I muttered as all the pieces came into place. “That was Yuto’s fleet.”
“Precisely,” Takahashi said. “He must’ve left the ships there because Amalie was caught. They were never reunited, so they were unable to go searching for the Elementai key together.”
“So what… Yuto died in Kinpago waiting for Amalie?” Danny asked.
“I wondered the same thing,” Takahashi said. “I did some more digging on Yuto’s history and learned that he returned to Astromancer society, lived out his life, and died in East Asia. That means he completed his initial voyage and successfully hid the Astromancer key somewhere along the way.”
“Hang on…” Ava delicately lifted one of the papers. “I know these runes. Charlie… we didn’t just steal any ship from that cove. We stole The Great Escape!”
Marcus chuckled. “What a great escape that was— ow!”
Kallie nudged him in the side again, harder this time.
The breath left my lungs as the realization struck me, and I ran a hand over my face. “The answer to the Astromancer key was in our hands before we ever knew about it.”
“It appears so,” Takahashi agreed. “Which is why you must return to Kinpago and search those ships for any remaining records. We must find where Yuto sailed to before landing in Kinpago, because wherever he went is where we’ll find the Astromancer key.”
I sprang to my feet. “Then let’s get going.”
“Hold on,” Ava protested. “How exactly are you going to get to Kinpago? There’s a shield around Ilamanthe keeping anyone from getting in or out, and portals won’t work to get around it.”
“We’ll have to open a hole in the shield,” I suggested. “A small one, just big enough for us to get through. Then we’ll cast a portal once we’re outside the shield. It’s your magic sustaining it, so the shield will respond to you.”
“I don’t have my magic anymore, so it’s not going to work for me,” Ava argued.
“We have to try. Once we’re outside the shield, we can portal to Kinpago.”
“A hole in the shield will leave us vulnerable to the Warden if he discovers it,” Ava stated. “Are you sure about this?”
“We have to risk it for the Astromancer key,” I insisted.
“If we don’t leave, we’re sitting ducks waiting for the Warden to show up.
But if we go to Kinpago, find out where Yuto hid the Astromancer key, and get our hands on it, we can unite all seven Divinity Keys and open the Elven Gate now.
Then I’ll lead the Elves through to the afterlife, and the broken connection between the living world and the afterlife will be restored.
All the souls stuck in the in-between will be able to get through, and we can use that power to finally beat the Warden.
We’ll finally have a fighting chance with the gods on our side. ”
This sounded so easy when I said it out loud, but I knew it would be far from it.
Ava sighed. “I never thought I’d say this again, but you’re right. This is our last chance to make things right. All right. I’ll do whatever you need.”
“First things first. We need to get into the royal vault where the other Divinity Keys are being held,” I told the group.
“We need to be prepared the second we get our hands on the Astromancer key, so we can portal straight to the Elven Gate and open it right away. We might not have another chance to leave Ilamanthe without Cameron stopping us, so we need to do this all in one go.”
Danny rubbed his hands together. “I’m up for another heist. How are we getting into the vault, considering Emperor Cameron controls it now? Judging by the state of Charlie’s face, the Emperor’s not going to let us waltz in.”
Okay, so my face was worse than I thought. They’d all noticed and hadn’t said anything. Did they think I punched myself for fun?
Yes, Oberi said, noting my thoughts. I ignored him.
“I know the code to the vault,” Ava said. “Cassiel entrusted me with it before he died.”
The confession hurt more than it should. Why had my grandfather given Ava the code and not me? “He gave the code to you?”
“Yes,” Ava said. “He didn’t trust Cameron to rule.
He worried if it came to that before he could install you as Emperor, Cameron would try to get the code from you.
Cassiel trusted me to pass the code on to you once you rose to power, but he asked me not to share it before then in order to protect you from Cameron. It’s too late for that now.”
There was something else in her tone that she failed to mention.
She tried to hide it, but I knew her so well I heard everything she left unsaid.
My grandfather trusted Ava more than me because he worried I might take things too far, and he’d been right about that.
Maybe he didn’t confide that to Ava directly, but we both knew it was true, and that fucking hurt.
I didn’t want to think about that painful truth right now, so I swallowed it down.
“Ava’s got the vault code, but we’ll have to create a distraction,” Kallie said. “Cameron’s never going to let us into that vault, no matter how great our chances are at beating the Warden once we get the last key.”
She was right about that. My father was an incompetent fool who didn’t trust any of us.
I was certain he’d keep us out of that vault just to let the Warden win.
Not because he was on his side, but because my father had already given up, and doing anything about the issue was too difficult in his eyes.
He was content to live out the rest of his days here in the luxury of the palace rather than risk another battle, even if those days were shortly numbered.
We needed a distraction— and a good one.
Danny cracked his knuckles. “Just bring me a drop of blood from the guards stationed at the vault, and I’ll compel them to let us through.”
“They’ll just run to Cameron the second we leave,” Kallie pointed out skeptically.
“Not with my powers, they won’t,” Danny boasted. “I can’t wipe their memories, but I can scramble their brains enough to confuse them. They won’t even know we were there.”
I shook my head. “It’s not enough unless you can command a hundred guards at once.
Cameron’s got guards crawling the palace everywhere at all times.
We don’t just have to get past the guards stationed at the vault.
We have to get past every guard in the rest of the palace on our way out.
If we have any hope of pulling this off, we have to do something to occupy Cameron and the majority of his guards, because the fewer of his soldiers we have to get past, the better chance we have of getting out with the keys unnoticed. ”
“Oh, I know!” Marcus burst with excitement. “We can put on my play!”
Everyone in the room gave a collective groan. “Not this again,” Danny complained.
“Hear me out,” Marcus insisted. “We all know Cameron loves to dick around with any form of entertainment he can find. We can put on a play here in the palace to lure Cameron and the guards away from the vault. It’s not like we have anything better to do with our time, so it won’t look suspicious.
They’ll be occupied for a couple of hours, giving us a chance to slip into the vault and sneak off the island. ”
“Sounds like a great idea,” Danny said sarcastically. “Cameron’s going to love staring at an empty stage while the rest of us are in Kinpago.”
“The stage won’t be empty,” Marcus argued.
“All of us will have to start out on stage to play into the illusion that we’re there, but we’ll sneak out halfway through the show.
Meanwhile, our allies will fill in the gaps of the other roles, making it look like we’re backstage the whole time.
Neither Cameron nor his guards will think to come looking for us. ”
“This might actually work,” Takahashi said thoughtfully. “Myself and the other Demigod Guardians can serve as the actors while the rest of you slip away.”
Marcus became giddy with excitement. He literally started jumping up and down. “Oh, this is great! It’ll take a few days to put everything together, but I know we can pull this off!”
I figured we were done pulling off heists, but we couldn’t avoid one last job. If it was for the Astromancer key, we had to do whatever it took.
“What happens once we slip out of the theater and get the keys from the vault?” Kallie asked. “Where are we going to punch a hole through the shield without risking someone finding it?”
“The beach,” Ava answered almost too quickly, like she’d already thought of it.
“No one goes there anymore, not after what I did. It’s right at the edge of the shield and far enough away from the city that no one will see us open a hole in it.
There should be just enough space outside the shield there for you guys to step outside the magical confines of Ilamanthe and portal to Kinpago. ”
“You guys?” Kallie repeated. “You aren’t coming with us, Ava?”
“I can’t use magic, and if you guys get in a fight, I can’t defend myself.
You’ll be distracted trying to help me,” Ava insisted.
“I’m more useful here, anyway, because I can help distract Cameron so he doesn’t realize you’re gone.
He might suspect something if we all go missing, but if I show back up on that stage at the end of the show, he’ll think we’re all still here. ”
“We aren’t leaving you here alone to deal with him.” I never wanted Ava to be left behind with my father, especially now that she was considering murdering him, by the sound of it.
“I’ll stay with Ava,” Ez offered. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t start a fist fight with Cameron while you’re gone.”
“Fuck you, Ez,” she growled.
It didn’t feel right leaving Ava behind. She’d always come with us on every mission no matter what. We’d never gone to get a Divinity Key without her, and something in my gut deeply told me that we shouldn’t.
But nothing had felt right in a long time. I had to get used to this distance between us being the new normal.
“I’ll alert the rest of the Demigod Guardians,” Takahashi said. “We’ll help get everything ready for this performance. Just tell us what we need to do.”
Marcus clapped his hands together, immediately jumping into director mode. “My dahlings, it’s time to break a leg!”