The Magic Pact

Chapter 1-2

Yuuki noticed that she was dragging her feet that morning. When she inquired about it, Ken said she couldn’t sleep. She didn’t say why. The voices were a strange phenomenon that not even Kenna fully understood. It was difficult to explain that she could have whole conversations with dead creatures, though they weren’t actually the spirits of them. Kenna was speaking with echoes of what they would say if they were alive.

And there was no off-switch.

While some of them had her best interests in mind, and thus they often sounded like her own trepidations, she preferred to be rid of them. She wanted to sleep. And she needed to trust that everything she did came from her own decision-making. As long as they stuck around, she would always wonder how much they influenced her. Their purpose was done, and yet they were still here, trying to tell her what to do.

Like going to get more food. Ken insisted that Yuuki stay in the house as she went into town to find supplies. It’d be almost entirely canned and jarred items, but it would still nourish them. Secretly, she would search for sleeping pills, too.

She promised to be gone no more than three hours. Yuuki objected, but weakly. She chose to trust Ken’s decision-making.

Kenna rode out into the city at a quick trot, her horse’s metal shoes clicking on the pavement. She decided to check houses instead of stores, knowing establishments would be bigger targets for scavengers. There wasn’t a single home without at least one broken window, but some looked less disturbed than others. She went after those. Golden Eagle waited impatiently outside as she checked.

The first house was a bust, but the second had a pretty decent stash of homemade pickles, jams, and preserved fruit. She carefully grabbed the jars and placed them in one of the saddlebags. She went back for toothpaste, mouthwash, and deodorant. She found an unused stick of lipstick and pocketed that, as well.

The third, fourth, and fifth houses yielded only a single can of mini-corn, like the kind used in Chinese food—her favorite.

But the sixth house had a small stack of army rations. Dinners that would last for ages and were often ready-to-eat or needing only a small amount of water. Five of them meant five full meals. She pressed them to her chest and brought them outside. No sleep medication unfortunately, but still a good find.

Once out on the street, she noticed her mare dancing in place. A figure appeared out of the corner of her eye. An animal. She turned to shoot it but stopped.

It was a normal dog. Someone’s abandoned pet. It growled in their direction but didn’t dare approach. This was his domain. He wanted them to leave.

Fine by her. She felt tired, and she wanted to get back in time. Shooting and eating the dog was something she might have considered if not for Yuuki, who would surely bulk at the idea of consuming a Golden Retriever. Instead, she just got on her horse, turned around, and headed toward their borrowed house.

On the way back, she saw strange graffiti on some of the walls. Weird symbols like a circled checkmark and a triangle with a s***h through it. They seemed to spell out something, with some of the symbols repeated over and over. She had no idea what it meant, but she grabbed a marker and wrote some of them down on her arm. It could be nothing. Gang tags or marks left behind by rescue workers. Or it could be a clue. When they met someone next, she would show them the symbols to see if anyone understood them.

Returning, Ken produced her prizes and kissed Yuuki. “Not much, but it’s something.”

“This is great!” She kissed her in return, with a little more passion.

Along with what they already had, it would keep them fed for days. But after that? She would have to go searching again. And she didn’t find anything to help her sleep.

Perhaps she would start rationing the food better, at least for herself. The less she ate, the more that could go to Yuuki, who needed it for strength. She would have to explain it, though.

“I think you should take the lion’s share,” she said quietly. “No more half and half.”

“What?” Her smile dimmed. “No. Ken, you have to eat. You’re the one running the show.”

But she shook her head. “Because of the crystals, the stem stones, I don’t have to eat or sleep as much to function. It doesn’t feel great, but I’ll live.” She wasn’t as strong as she was while collecting the stones, and she certainly needed food and sleep more often, but it was still less than a normal human being. “You should eat more of it.”

“I’ll take it under consideration.” She set down a large jar full of preserved pears. Taking up Ken in her arms, she kissed her for a long time. Then, “I’m surprised you didn’t bring this up sooner.” After all, they told each other damn near everything.

Ken averted her gaze. “It’s not really human. I was afraid you’d get creeped out. Add in the voices—”

Another kiss. “It doesn’t bother me. Seriously. You did something to try and save the world. Not eating or sleeping that much isn’t creepy. And neither are the voices, by the way.”

“I was afraid, because with Terry—”

She scoffed. “He’s been modified by that awful woman. Possibly because he wanted to. That’s different. But even then, I mostly have a negative opinion of him because of what you’ve told me. The spikes are just extra weird.”

It never occurred to her that he might have signed up for the treatment. But it would explain why he didn’t go into detail. If he was a willing participant, at least at first, he would want to keep that a secret, even after revealing his mutations. The more she thought about it, the more she was sure that it had to be the case. He let himself be experimented on and left when it got to be too much.

He wanted to be stronger. He would do anything not to feel weak and powerless. Kenna understood that feeling, if nothing else.

“What are the voices saying right now, anyway?” Yuuki broke through Ken’s thoughts.

She blinked. “They say that you’re in danger, and that we should turn back.” Specifically, they kept repeating that Yuuki not only could die but would, and then it would be all her fault.

“Do you believe them?”

“They’re feeding off of my fears, echoing what I might actually think if they weren’t taking up so much space. Essentially, they’re reminding me of what I already feel, on some level.” She leaned in close to Yuuki. “I’m worried that I’m bringing you into a dangerous situation, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’m not going back without you,” she said resolutely. “Try and make me. I’m here because I want to be, and I know that no matter what happens, we’ll be okay.”

“There’s always a chance we won’t be.”

“Shush.” Her lips moved to the side of Ken’s neck. “I like being with you. I know you’re dangerous, and I don’t care.”

Breathing heavy, “…dangerous?”

“Mm-hmm.” Yuuki’s mouth traveled down to her collarbone, where she expertly applied the right amount of pressure.

Unable to resist her touch, Kenna dropped the subject in favor of an impromptu romantic session, which lasted the better part of an hour. Both were satisfied afterwards, and, feeling better, they got a late start on traveling.

They didn’t make it very far before dark—just across the top of the town and a little away from it—but it was still progress. As they rode past the airport, Yuuki noticed the graffiti, too. She jotted the symbols down in a small notebook.

“I saw those, when I was looking for food, and I think once before that.” She rolled up her sleeve and showed off the smudged marker. “What do you think it means?”

She took a moment to study her notes. Then, “Well, this looks kind of like Roman numerals.” She pointed to a series of lines, connected with a stroke that cut through them. “I think it’s a very simplistic number system. One-zero-seven.”

“And the rest?”

Yuuki shrugged. “Letter replacement, maybe. It could still be English, but every symbol stands for a different letter. I could probably figure it out if I got all the symbols. Start with the one and two-letter words and go from there.” Mumbling to herself. “One hundred and seven, circle-box, circle-checkmark, circle-horizontal-line, and then the box with a circle again.” She breathed in. “How much do you wanna bet that’s the word ‘dead’? ‘One hundred and seven dead.’”

Ken shivered and tore her gaze away from the pad of paper. “I guess it was too much to ask for it to be something cheery.”

“Do you think it belongs to Moíra’s people?”

“I have no idea.” Couldn’t it just as easily come from some kind of militia? “It could be anyone. I bet if we figure the whole thing out, though, it might help.”

“Yeah.”

* * * *

Yuuki spent much of the evening trying to decipher the language. As far as they could tell, her assumptions were correct. Each symbol was a single letter. Some of them mildly resembled the letter in question. All the symbols consisted of incredibly simple shapes and lines, with Xs, triangles, boxes, and circles making up each of them.

From the word “dead,” she translated “clear.”

Now they had C, L, and R. She filled in a grid with the appropriate symbols. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t use real Roman numerals,” she muttered. “I guess it’s easier just to list the numbers in order.”

“Maybe they didn’t know how to do it right,” was Ken’s contribution.

She laughed. “Or they figured their men were too stupid.”

By the time Yuuki’s eyelids started to droop, she’d gotten I and V, to spell ‘alive.’ “Zero alive. One hundred and seven dead. Clear.”

She expected to see similar language on many buildings. This was a group of people searching the area for survivors. They found 107 bodies at the airport—or killed them—and there were no survivors.

As Yuuki fell asleep, Ken looked over the notes before trying to rest. The symbols looked a bit like the kinds of imagery on clothing tags, directing the wearer how to wash the garment. The Teacher filled in two more blanks based on what she’d seen during her food run. T, a box with a vertical line through it, and Y, a circle with two vertical lines. C-I-T-Y. “City clear.” Ken tried to write them as neatly as possible.

She gulped. At least they could rest a little easier, knowing the culprits were long gone.

Though she spent the entire night trying to unclutter her mind and sleep, she got maybe two hours at most.