Shade of Deception (Two)

Five - SoD

Five:

“Mono, did it really have to be MONO!”

I protested, as Sky rolled her eyes at me. As we all stood outside the village waiting for the shuttle service to take us to the City of Hidden. Because, apparently there were shuttles between the villages and the Capital.

“I really don’t see what the big deal is. It’s not as if either of us can even contract those silly mortal illnesses.”

I gave her a scathing look and said, “For an all-powerful D-word, you sure don’t get some very basic things sometimes.”

The ginger dragoness glared at me; she did not like when I made veiled references to dragons. It was always a sure bet to annoy her quickly.

“Now, ladies, can’t we all just hit a bong? No, wait, sorry you’re not stoners, your immortals.”

Clarke just fell back on classic nineties stoner humor, which only served to further confuse Sky.

“Let’s just be satisfied that you can forget about that silly mortal institution for the time being.”

Said the rusty-colored Nix knight in mail armor. I looked to her and furrowed my brow deeply in thought.

“What is your name?”

She looked me in the eyes and her expression became slightly vacant.

“Pardon?”

She asked, and I sighed and said, “What is your name, please.”

I managed to keep my tone even and crisp. My sassiness seemed tamed for the time being. She seemed genuinely surprised at the question. Almost as if she did not hear many people ask her for her name. Considering what she did for a living, royal guard in the City of Hidden, she very well could be treated in a nameless manner. Not that many people bothered to notice or engage the help unless they had a very dire reason.

“Kerry Shax, only daughter of Nira Shax.”

I didn’t recognize the name, but Sky did. Her eyes widened slightly, and her pupils slit.

“Nira, the traitor?”

She asked, and Kerry looked down and merely nodded. She looked like she was bracing herself to be trampled by wild elephants. I stepped in front of the girl, as if to physically intercede, should Sky decide to be violent. The other girl caught this action and her eyes widened even further.

“How about we just take Kerry on her own merits, not whatever f****d up history her mother has with you or yours?”

Sky licked her lips and she seemed to think on it for an exceedingly long moment. She relaxed and nodded once.

“Fair enough, I would prefer not to be cast with the same lot as my own mother on some things.”

Sky admitted and she gave a mildly apologetic look towards Kerry who was behind me.

“Pardon that, I am new to all of this leading s**t. Still going to growl a few bitches heads off before I get it down packed.”

Kerry shook her head vehemently and said, “It’s fine, I am used to it. My mother did basically cause your auntie to miss the portal because she was trying to take control of her clan. Your mother was within her rights to cast me down to the lowest cast of our people. She could have killed me at birth, and no one would have mourned me.”

Kerry said, her words were infused with a sullen truth she had bitterly come to terms with over the years. My mind was in shock at this. We were modernized, even more advanced than humans, yet there were some very back-ass-ward practices in place. My best prayer was with Sky, that she would see the wisdom in modernizing her Nix clans more properly.

Senna had ruled since a very dark age. It was overshadowed by the Endless War. I could only presume that Senna required this cast-iron control to maintain order in such perilous times. Beyond the threshold of their home world, the Nix were constantly besieged with the Architects, and on their own world, they fought tooth-and-claw against some ageless terrifying blood-drinking foe that made our version of vampires look like a kiddy story. Sky and Senna still refuse to mention their name.

“Ok, if we are both done playing medieval times here, let’s move this convo into the twenty-first, kay?”

I said, my sassiness coming back out to play once more. Sky met my gaze again and gave me a withering stare.

“I would say I have mauled beings for less, but we both know that’s a lie.”

She said, and her blue eyes slit once again, telling me I was driving her batty, once more. My job it seemed was to maintain the jester-like position next to the moody young dragoness. It was not a job for the feint of heart. One needed either a death wish, or absolutely no give-a-f**k to do what I did regarding Nix apexes. I think of it as my role, keeping their egos in check.

“Please, besides the stray Leviathan, all you love to maul is tacos.”

I said and gave Sky a toothy grin and she returned that grin, her mind appeared to have wandered right into the topic of lunch, if looks were anything to judge by. She was adept at blocking me out of her head. I could pick through Clarke, and Kerry’s thoughts very easily, but Sky was like iron. She was airtight to my telepathic abilities.

“Stop trying to get in my head!”

She said in her next breath and I blushed slightly.

“Force of habit? Gotta keep my little sister on her toes, am I right?”

I said playfully to her and Sky mirrored my sassy grin and snorted. She had all but forgotten that she had been annoyed or angry moments before. I wish I could say that this was all specific to dragons, but from what I have experienced in school, this is all just the normal emotional rollercoaster ride of our youth. Hormones got to love them!

“My Princess, should I blast this Shade for her impudence?”

Kerry said, and I swirled around where I stood and gave her a hurt expression.

“Hey there! I was just defending you!”

She shrugged and said, “All is nil next to defending the apex line. Such is the imperative of the royal guard.”

She spouted the line likely drilled into her all her life, as if it were mana from heaven. I sighed and shook my head slowly.

“I give up with this one. She’s broken.”

I declared and that earned me an annoyed look from the peanut gallery.

“Oil meets water, it appears.”

Clarke said in a murmur of observation, which earned him a middle-finger from over my left shoulder. He just snorted and rolled his eyes at me, knowing that with my psychic abilities, I would still “see” his expression. Being a shade was an intense affair. I can visualize in a three-sixty-degree around me in my psychic bubble. While I can only visually see within the range of my actual eyesight, my mind’s eye is a very real thing. I can still distinguish many things outside my visual area. This took a lot of focus and no shortage of slow integration to come to terms with. When I first began to manifest my powers and abilities, I felt as if I was being driven mad with all the intense feelings pouring into me from all directions.

Skylar could do something remarkably like me, only on a slightly more confined level. Clarke could feel outward as could pretty much any immortal with expressive talents, but must could not read minds or sense emotions surrounding themselves. Not that I want to be more helpless, only that my abilities ruin a lot of social interactions. I can tell if people don’t like me, making any exchange with them all the more troublesome on my end. I could tell that it would be a pretty frosty afternoon in hades before Kerry and I were besties.

“As for your question about Hannah’s behavior, I welcome it. It is refreshing for me to be able to feel like a peer and a friend to her, not her better or her Princess. Hannah is like a sister, only slightly too tan for that to be true.”

Skylar summarized to Kerry, who nodded dutifully and said, “I suppose that makes sense, at least in that a shade would be viewed as a equal.”

She said, grudgingly admitting my kind were stupid strong on the totem pole of power.

About this time, several mechanical horses pulling an extended carriage body on what appeared to be four sets of wheels on either side, pulled up to a stop. The hordes vented steam from their nostrils, and I stared at the metallic transportation with a dumb-founded expression.

“So, uh, who came up with this design?”

I inquired to no one in particular, assuming Sky would field the question. Kerry beat her to the punch.

“That was designed by the fairies. They love a bit of whimsical fancy in their workmanship.”

I nodded and hummed.

“So, fairies are a thing?”

I asked, and Sky nodded and said, “I often forget just how spotty your knowledge of our world can get. Fairies are from a world adjacent to this one called Tren, which has many translations, and in an old Gaelic dialect, could have been called Tren-no-nogg. This is the root of the fairy mythos in the Celtic islands of Scotland and Ireland.”

Skylar explained in a breezy tone, as if she were a human dictionary.

I made a wide O-shape with my lips and sky sniffed in mild humor at my wide-eyed absorption of all things immortal. She seemed to relish feeling superior in these exchanges of information. She felt elevated because of her knowledge and experience, and not because she was an apex. Sky valued everything achieved in her hard work more than anything handed down to her from her family.

“so, guessing the whole iron thing is a myth, considering I can sense plenty of iron in this design?”

I asked, and she nodded.

“Fairies are some of the best metal workers on any world, so it is a bit strange anyone ever made up such a ridiculous rumor to begin with.”

Hawker said, as he came to a stop beside his daughter. He leaned down and handed her a bag of what smelt like tacos, and my stomach grumbled at me where I stood. I was tempted to interrupt their daddy-daughter moment, if only to see if any of those cheesy goodies were mine.

“You take care of yourself. You’re built of the toughest stuff the Nix has ever procreated, my daughter.”

Hawker said to Skylar, and he kissed her temple, unworried about their difference in ranking. Sky flushed slightly; no girl appeared above a little affection from her father—not that I knew much about that.

“Be careful little ladies, your powerful, but the capital is a place filled with other powerful beings all older and more versed in culture and politics than you.”

Hawker said, and he included me in this.

“I don’t care what your father was girl. Bring home my son, I consider you a friend, even if Senna never trusts you personally.”

Hawker said to me, and I felt a warmth to my bones in his words. Hawker had always been mostly silent around me. He taught me hand-to-hand in training with Sky, but even then, he grumbled lowly and explained things simply. He was a man of few words and many actions.

“You, Clarke, keep these two out of trouble in the city. “

Clarke was surprised that Hawker opted to speak to him as well. Most of the Nix considered even an evolved human beneath them. Hawker seemed more apt to keep both of us close in his sights. He had his own methods, as did every apex.

With our good-byes bid, and our tacos packed, we stepped onto the steaming horse carriage as if it were the most ordinary thing on earth.