The Garden of Shadows

I sat beside Salamander’s bed inside a room on the fourth floor, prepared for him by Mr. Crowe. The events of that night at the party were still flashing inside my head over and over like a black and white film. Most of it I couldn’t comprehend, but some of its important details I managed to pick up.

Cornelia Blackthorn became a target of assassination because of something she got involved in. Whoever wanted her dead wasn’t afraid to make a scene. But what did she mean when she mentioned getting in between otherworldly parties?

Just like Ophelia’s couplet, I didn’t have enough information to get the full picture.

My train of thought was interrupted when a visitor came in through the door. It was Mr. Crowe. He did his routine checkup on Salamander to make sure he was stable and needed no further medical attention. He and his sons had a field day extracting bullets and patching Salamander up. The way they handled it so expertly made it seem like it was something they had to do often. Whatever it was they made him drink, it healed him more effectively than my own mediocre healing spells.

“Why did you help us, Mr. Crowe?” I asked after he was done with the routine checkup.

He pulled a chair and sat down. “Whenever I see the young on the brink of death, I can’t help but feel compelled to intervene. I’ve lived a long time and wasn’t always like this. Back then, I didn’t have this ability to help. I could only watch them die helplessly. I always thought it wasn’t fair.”

“Was that how you ended up adopting children?”

“Each of them I met through interesting circumstances. Fate is a strange thing.”

I glanced at Salamander, who was sleeping soundly in bed. The bloodstains on his skin had been cleaned up, leaving no indication of the near death struggle he underwent. “That liquid you gave him…”

“A secret product of alchemy that prolongs life.”

Every time Mr. Crowe opened his mouth, it only left me with more questions.

I continued to press him for information, “You mentioned it changes people.”

He explained it anyway, “The pursuit of immortality is always laden with consequences. In this case, it’s in the form of an exchange: another’s blood for our longevity.”

“Vampirism,” I summed it up.

“Not in the traditional sense where we’re considered undead, but I suppose we’re no different from them after living long enough to achieve numbness in some qualities that distinguish us as human.”

I had many questions about vampirism, but I decided it could wait until Salamander was awake. I had more pressing concerns.

“Do you know why there was an assassination attempt on Cornelia?” I asked.

He let out a disappointed sigh. “Cornelia was originally approached to play a role in a planned museum heist, but she took the plans detailing it and fled after there was a fallout between members. Obviously, she was a liability who held evidence that could incriminate its members.”

“Why risk going to a party when her head is on the line?”

“To her, it was probably a gamble. The party was where she could meet influential people who could protect her, but she was also sticking her neck out for her enemies.”

“Was she using Aidan as a pawn?”

“I doubt it. I don’t see how taking her brother along would improve her social standing, but perhaps she found him valuable in other ways. I’d say she won that part of the gamble.”

I wondered how Mr. Crowe obtained all this information. Did he have informants? Or was he one of its members?

He stood up from his chair. “I must leave for an appointment. Have a good day, Ms. Ravenfire.”

“You too, Mr. Crowe.”

After he left, I decided to linger in the room for a while, just in case Salamander woke up and needed anything. I sat at the desk and poured over the volumes of cultural history I needed to read for an essay assignment. In the middle of reading, I suddenly heard an annoying tap at the window that prompted me to stop and turn towards it.

It was a raven. Strange. Ever since I arrived in Revival City, I seemed to be constantly tailed by a single raven.

The tapping became more aggressive, as if something urgently needed my attention. I elected to open the window.

“Your friend is in trouble. She is at a nearby alley,” said the raven.

A talking raven?

I was shocked to hear it speak. “Umm… ok.”

“Hurry!” It rushed me.

I wasn’t sure whether trusting a mysterious talking raven was the right thing to do, but I hurried anyway and followed it to the alley where Emma was standing alone in front of what looked like a girl lying lifelessly on the ground. She was obviously distressed, frozen in place like she was close to shattering into a million pieces.

“Emma?” I called her name.

“Remina…” She stared at me, shocked, teary-eyed, and filled with emotions. “I… I don’t know what to do…”

“What happened?” I slowly approached her.

She wiped the tears off her eyes. “I didn’t mean to…”

I looked over the body. Her half-sister was dead. There were clear signs of struggle, indicated by the marks on the corpse’s neck and small cuts on the hands. Emma must have used a spring spell involving vines to strangle the poor girl to death.

“The last time I hid a body, it was eventually found. How do you hide one in the city? There has to be a place to hide it…” Emma was mumbling to herself in panic like she was close to losing her mind. Then, she looked at me. “Remina, you can burn it with your magic, can’t you?”

I was hesitant. “Covering up one crime is hard enough. I don’t need another.”

“Remina, please,” she begged. “I need your help.”

I cursed in my head. I never wanted to be in this situation.

“Remina, please help me.” Her pleas were hard to ignore. I couldn’t just leave her here to deal with this alone.

I walked over to the body and bent down to touch it, using my gift to bring the body to a state before it sustained any injuries. I hoped the rare nature of time magic made it more difficult to trace.

I stood straight and said, “I can’t bring her back, but at least there will be no injuries linking you to her death.”

Emma was surprised to see me use time magic. “How did you do that?”

“Let’s get out of here first, Emma.” I pulled her out of the alley. We ran back to the safety of the hotel.

“Emma, what happened?” I asked.

We were both alone in our hotel room. Leslie was probably downstairs in the café having a snack. It was silent enough to hear the creaking wooden floor and the window lightly rattling from the gust of wind. I waited for Emma to calm down before asking questions.

“I messed up badly. Really badly. I didn’t mean to do it, Remina. You have to believe me…” By the sound of her voice, she was already breaking down and close to crying.

“Did she attack you?” I remained calm, even though this whole situation was very concerning.

She nodded silently.

“Will you show me what happened?”

She eyed me fearfully and shook her head, holding her hands close to her chest so I wouldn’t be able to grab them. “I can’t. I’m afraid to show you. What will you think of me?”

“I won’t be able to help you if you leave me hanging.”

She shook her head again. “I’m sorry, Remina. I just can’t.”

“I’m already your accomplice because I helped cover it up. The least you could do is tell me what really happened.” I did my best to convince her, but unfortunately it wasn’t good enough.

“That spell you used… That wasn’t regular magic,” she changed the topic.

I sighed. “It sure wasn’t.”

She really wasn’t going to tell me anything.

She continued, “My mother used to tell me stories about people who make pacts with a serpent. She used to say that most of them abuse their power, but she doesn’t think the serpent is bad at all, just the people who use its power for their own vile purposes.”

“Do you think I’m vile?” I asked.

“A vile person wouldn’t help out a friend.”

“A non-vile person would probably head straight to the police.”

She bowed her head down sadly. “At the very least, you’re far different from me. I have two fatalities on my hands now. I can never wash that out.”

“What do you plan to do, Emma? Run away or turn yourself in?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been lucky so far, avoiding punishment for my actions and living life freely. I like being a student at the academy. I’d hate to let that go.” She sighed and hugged her pillow. “Right now, I’m just really tired. I can’t think straight.”

“Get some rest,” I suggested.

“Goodnight, Remina.”

“Goodnight, Emma.”

I glanced at her one last time before returning to Salamander’s room on the fourth floor. I hoped that she’d be easier to talk to once she was calmer because murder wasn’t something to be taken lightly. Moreover, staying in the same room as someone with that history and with a possible motive against me was a real safety concern.

The antique shop rarely ever had a lot of customers. It was always silent enough to concentrate on building magical devices, but concentration was difficult when everything that happened lately constantly occupied my thoughts like a party guest that refused to leave. I was close to finishing a pocket-sized high-speed concentrated magic ejector (basically a gun) for Alistair when the shop’s entrance door opened.

Cornelia Blackthorn looked around the shop until she saw me behind the counter with Alistair. She drew a sigh of relief and hurried towards me.

“Remina? Thank goodness you made it out,” she said.

“Cornelia!” I was surprised to see her uninjured and walking around in public like she hadn’t been the target of an assassination attempt just a few nights ago.

“My brother… Is he alright?” She sounded very concerned. I was glad to know that despite how much they fight, they actually still care about each other.

“He’s recovering at the hotel.”

She smiled and laughed out of relief. “Oh, thank goodness!”

“He still hasn’t woken up though.”

She sighed. “This wasn’t supposed to happen…”

“I think we all deserve an explanation.” I was starting to get tired of not knowing the complete story.

She shook her head. “Not now. Not here at least. You’ll never know who might eavesdrop.” She looked at Alistair who was just standing there nonchalantly.

I glanced at the raven perched outside the window. She was right to be wary. “Alright.”

“Please give this box to my brother. He used to love eating these.” She placed down a small box of caramel candy on the counter.

“I’ll give it to him when he wakes up.”

“Thanks. I have to go. Take good care of my brother!” She did a little wave before walking out of the store.