Chapter 5

The good thing about being generally health conscious and living with a nurse for a sister is that you tend to work out a lot. Or maybe it's just me. I do have a lot of experience in running for distance rather than speed.

I ran at a moderate pace back to the Stormshroud mansion. Yeah I was in a hurry with Silver in danger but if I ran myself ragged sprinting back, I'd just collapse at the front door. Then my boss's contractors would murder her in her sleep while I recovered.

As the mansion and its many lawn sculptures came into view, I saw Darcy, the guard on duty look up at me in surprise.

"Wait a second wait a second. Slow down, quickdraw," she said, her face puzzled. "I thought you just went out for a beer with a friend. Now you're running back. Did you get into a fight and bring that crap here?"

I kept my breathing under control as I reached her. Years of running and lifting weights had kept me in shape. I didn't feel all that winded, jogging back from the town square.

"I've got to leave. I just got some serious news," I said, huffing a little bit.

Darcy looked on me for a moment and then said over her crystal transmitter. "Lady Suzuka's guest, Rez Proudheart is back. Please allow him through."

My face curled into a smile. It was so nice of her to just accept what I was saying instead of needing to explain the entire story to her. I might have the time to explain the whole thing to her but there was no guarantee she'd believe me and the explanation would take time.

"Thanks Darcy," I said. She opened the gate for me and I jogged through up to the back entrance of the mansion. Another guard had already opened the door for me into the kitchen. I dashed through the kitchen and was about to hit the staircase up to my room but I smacked into something.

"Ouch. Watch where you're going," the voice said.

I looked at the person properly. It was Daisuke, walking around in his pajama pants and his t shirt.

"Hey Rez. What are you doing up so late? I thought you were Lord Early Riser and stuff?" he asked.

I started to say that I didn't have time to talk but then an idea hit me like a bolt of lightning. If Tannia was sending hitters after Silver, it would always be better to have more people that were loyal to Silver. I couldn't trust the contractors and knowing Tanya she probably paid them off. I didn't know if Origami had returned from her job in Luxeria and Silver hadn't seen Yulae in a while.

"Axel got hired to knock me off but I beat him. He told me that Tannia Gearshift is sending people after Silver today before sunrise," I explained.

Wow it really didn't take much to explain. Maybe I should have given Darcy this explanation...

Daisuke shot up and looked at me like I started speaking gibberish.

"What?! Why would that cow be dumb enough to send hitters after Silver?" he asked.

He pulled me to my feet.

"I don't know. Silver said Tannia's actions made it look like she had a way to steal her spot at the energy provider for the Wind Sector. She thought it was all crap but if she's moving like this, it must not be."

"Hmm," he said. "She might...no what are the odds?"

He looked out of the kitchen window, the one that faced the garden. In the night, the lawn sculptures looked more foreboding than they were in the day time. However I felt that Daisuke's actual gaze was far far away from that beautiful night time garden.

"What?" I asked.

"Maybe she has the Wind Jewel?" he said. "The amount of wind mana in that thing could power Epala for hundreds of thousands of years."

I paused to consider it. Silver was the big time electricity producer for the entire Wind Sector. She was also in regular contact and friends with a lot of the other mages that supplied power to their Sectors. Combine that with her business ventures and stuff she did around the city, she'd be hard to unlodge from her position as Electricity Supplier. The only way to do it if someone had so much of a better way of powering the area that the Wind Governess had to do it. And what else could fit the bill better than a jewel literally made of Wind Magic?

"I'd say it makes sense and if it was true, then we need to be already gone."

Daisuke darted up the stairs while I followed him close behind. Both of us slipped into our rooms. I grabbed my stuff to which I was grateful I always enjoyed things to be fairly clean. Nothing was out of place and everything was ready for the next day which made it really easy to pick up and sling on my back. I threw open the door to see Suzuka standing there in her blue nightgown and a sleep mask over her forehead.

"I'm sorry for having to leave so soon but-" I started but she cut me off.

"I heard you from downstairs. I was getting some cookies from the pantry and you guys didn't even notice me," she said. She pulled out a pair of keys and dropped them in my hand.

"What are these for?"

"My fiance loves hoverbikes. He finds old ones in junk yards and fixes them up when he's home. Ugh, if he only he wasn't so proud, I'd buy him one," she said with a shrug. "Take the blue one, it's really fast."

And she walked out of the room.

I looked down at the keys. It was a simple hoverbike key with a picture of Suzuka, her daughter Fuuka, and who guessed was her fiancee, a young man that looked around 22 with messy black hair and green eyes. The three of them looked so happy, the fiancee holding Fuuka on his lap while Suzuka smiled showing the peace sign to the camera.

"I need to get my head out of my butt," I said.

I closed the door and headed downstairs to find Daisuke sitting there waiting for me, dressed in his battle clothes, a purple t shirt, some cargo pants, and fine leather boots.

"Took you long enough? So how are we going to get to Epala?" he asked. "Trains don't come out here until 7 am."

I showed him the keys. "I was thinking we could walk but Suzuka decided to give me a loaner. I'm in her debt."

Daisuke smiled. "Got to love Suzuka Stormshroud. Always making a way. Come on follow me to the garage."

And so feet moved and hustled to the garage and...well...it was sweet to say the least. Epala is pretty much an island in the clouds and not much space. It's the reason why everyone lives in apartments and it's also the reason why a lot of mages there don't have hoverbikes...that and the train system is amazing. So it's rare that I see a hoverbike but even more rare that I see what Suzuka's fiancee had.

"You'll catch flies if you leave your mouth open like that," Daisuke said, flicking a light on, showing off the hoverbikes in a more appropriate light. Their steel framework, each one a different color of the rainbow, glinted and glittered underneath the soft light of the lamps. Each one was a different size. Some looked like there were for cruising around town. Others looked like they were for a single person. And the last one, the blue one that Suzuka told me to take, was built for four and built for speed.

"Suzuka told us to take the blue one," I explained to Daisuke.

He walked over to it and stroked the steel of the hull and the glass windshield. He smiled back at me.

"Oh yeah. This baby will do. And I've always wanted to drive this one," he said. "Matt is so finicky about who he lets drive his bikes."

He sat down in the driver's seat. I threw him the keys, and hopped into the passenger's seat. Daisuke clicked something on the dash and the garage door opened. And at that moment, I wished that I hadn't given him the keys...I already knew that Daisuke could drive a hoverbike...he shown me his license when he had gotten it. However I had never seen him drive until now. Oh Reaper of the End of Days...please don't take my soul tonight...

***

We shot out of the garage at light speed although looking down at the speed tracker, it was 112 kph. My hand shot up to the seatbelt and hurriedly clicked it into place. I held on to the door for dear life as Daisuke took hairpin turns and stops like they were child's play.

It only took about 5 minutes or so and then we were out of Lyre Town's city limits into the Desolation Zone W-04.

The Desolation Zones were the empty areas between towns and cities. Nothing grew there. Nothing lived there. Nothing at all save one thing. The Trees of the End, mouthwatering apples that tasted so good you'd kill a city from the elders to the newborns for taste of something so good. But the apples had a price. Once you had eaten one, your soul was forfeit and taken by the Reaper...that's what happened to Tamar.

The scenery zoomed by as I watched it. Nothing was there. Just the moon and the stars uncorrupted by the dazzling city lights. Outside of the city or even towns, you could see the stars for what they were, beautiful and numerous. Before maps and compasses, mages used to navigate by the stars and even now we still did since it was a required class in the Magic Academy to be able to graduate.

"Daisuke, shouldn't you slow down?" I asked. I chanced a look at the speed tracker. We were going...144 kph?!

Daisuke didn't chance a look at me, keeping his purple eyes on the road and the headlines lighting our path.

"Can't. We've got nearly 500 km back to Epala. Playing it safe isn't going to save Silver. Don't you have some way to contact her? If we don't make it in time?" he asked

His words sparked a memory in my mind...something before I left...

"Oh the mirror!" I exclaimed.

I reached back into the backseat of the hoverbike, digging through my things until I found the polished crystal mirror Silver gave me before I left. Daisuke smiled.

"I see Silver made sure you had a way to call her,"

I put the mirror on the dash, out of Daisuke's line of sight and touched a corner and focused. What I was doing was going to be tough for me. It was thaumaturgy, something I wasn't really good at and never really learned. Thaumaturgy was the magic of connections and bonds. According to the Law of Magic: Accepted Connections, if you chipped off a rock from a boulder you could, magically speaking, use magic on the rock that could affect the boulder because the rock used to be a piece of the boulder. They were still connected magically speaking despite the distance and separation.

My focus was like a laser after years of training and magic work. My heart and mind went to Silver. Her kindness, our bond, our memories together like 7th Day Breakfasts together with Vector and Tamar, board game nights once a month, listening to our favorite radio programs together and so many more memories and feelings I had for Silver over the course of knowing her for 12 years.

The glass of the mirror changed into a foggy and hazy image. It was vague but I think I could make out Silver in her nightclothes.

"Uhhh, what is it?" she said, groggily and softly. Damn it. Was my lack of skill making the image weak?

"Silver wake up!" I yelled at her.

The sound of my voice reverberated through the little hoverbike and it made Silver wake up properly. She looked at me in the mirror and said. "Rez? What are you calling me for this late at night?"

"Not important right now. You need to get ready now. Tannia is sending hitters after you. She already sent Axel after me earlier tonight but I managed to get rid of him," I explained.

If Silver wasn't already wake before, she was at full alertness now. She looked over to her right as if someone was in bed next to her and then looked at me.

"This is bad. Why now?" she asked. "Okay, I'll try and get out. What are you doing now?"

"I'm here with Daisuke. We're coming back to help you."

Even through the hazy image of my spell, I could still see Silver's smile.

"Having you two on my side would be comforting," she said. "Goddess be with you."

And she cut the feed. I threw the mirror back into the back seat and focused on the road again. As my eyes trained on the horizon, I noticed that the rock formations, and everything else really started to slow down. I looked over at the Speed Tracker. Our speed decreased at a steady pace until it slowed to 0. Daisuke had taken his foot off the gas and let the hoverbike coast gently to a stop.

"Daisuke...what are you doing?"

"Rez, we're not going to make it in time. You need to drive," he said.

I felt my mouth quirk up. He couldn't be serious. I didn't drive much. Epala doesn't have the space for me to keep my skills up even though I did have my license. Add in the fact that I didn't have a hoverbike at all, I was surprised he'd even ask.

"I'd feel more comfortable if you were driving," I told him, placatingly.

Daisuke sighed. "Rez, this hoverbike tops out at 200 kph. And going that fast would probably kill us. So I've been running it at 180 but even at that much speed we're not going to make it in time. So that's why I need to be in the passenger seat while you drive. We might be able to make it if I fudge the times."

The understanding touched me like a tap on the shoulder. I had seen Daisuke cheat the system a few times. Daisuke, despite being a time mage on the top end of the bell curve, was incredibly impatient. So he figured out a trick he calls the Time Bubble. It's a spell where he puts a bubble of time magic around something and whatever's in the bubble experiences time at an accelerated rate. I'd seen Daisuke bake cookies that would take 20 minutes in 1 minute and roast a chicken that'd normally take an hour in 10 minutes.

"You think we can make it?" I asked.

Daisuke pulled out a pocket watch from his pocket.

"Damn it," he said. "Too dark."

He held up his index finger and a bright blue flame appeared on it. He stared down at the pocket watch intently.

"It's 2:30 in the morning. We've been driving for about an hour. I've been going 180 kilometers per hour. Epala is 500 kilometers from Lyre Town so we still have..." he paused for a moment, doing the math in his head.

"320 kilometers to go," I supplied.

He looked at me for a second and grinned. "No one likes a show off, Rez."

Daisuke put out the fire, unbuckled himself, and got out of the hoverbike. I followed suit, switching places with him. Once we had switched places and were all buckled up, Daisuke closed his eyes. His focus became almost palpable.

My next breath was difficult. It was as if someone had put a plastic bag over my nose and my mouth, it was hard to suck in even a little bit of air. Panic tried to set up shop but years of battle experience let me keep my cool. Even though my breathing was a little constricted, there was nothing that was actually stopping me from breathing. That thought kept my head clear.

I turned the key back into position and the hoverbike revved up again. We were back on the move.

"Rez," Daisuke asked. His eyes were still closed and he spoke in a soft whisper. "How fast are you going? I need to know."

I looked down at the Speed Tracker.

"120 kph," I supplied.

He made a noise like he stifled a laugh.

"I didn't know you drove like a grandma," he teased. He paused for a moment and the air became a little heavier. "Okay we should be there in two hours."

"Let's hope we're not too late," I said, focusing all of my attention on the road as the moon gilded behind us on our way back to Epala.

***

Time slipped by. The hoverbike glided over the road. The engine hummed. And we moved as quick as we could back to Epala, hoping that we weren't too late.

After what felt like an eternity, we arrived into the city limits of Epala. As we speed down the road, I saw the massive cloud steel chains that held the cloud island known as Epala in place so it wouldn't drift wherever the winds would want to take her. The chains still glittered in the night's moonlight as we passed them by.

I slowed down to a more reasonable and law abiding speed as we reached the bridge called Skywalk that allowed people to travel up and down from Epala. The bridge like the chains were made of cloud steel, all the better to connect up to the city's base. I drove up the bridge, the hoverbike gliding quickly and silently over the steel as we climbed higher and higher into the sky, passing clouds and night birds until we reached the Gate of Skye, the check in station for the city.

Daisuke opened his eyes, yawned, and said. "My ears popped."

I looked at the gatekeeper, an older woman about 20 or so years my senior. She wore a grey and white security uniform along with a green armband. She looked like she was just as tired as we were.

"Evening..." she said with the litany of ritual. "Welcome to Epala, the City of Winds in the Clouds. Here for business, visiting, or returning home?"

She held out her hand expectantly.

"Oh sorry," I said, reaching into my pockets for my mage identification card. I pulled mine out and Daisuke handed me his as well. The woman looked them over for a moment, returned them back to me and opened the gate. I flashed a smile at her and we went on through.

I've lived in Epala since I was born and even at night, I love the city. The entire city is made of cloud matter, similar to concrete, and cloud steel which gives off just a tinge of light as the moonlight bounces off it, giving everything a little glow. The city breathed with life even as we left the Gate of Skye and got into the city proper. Mages wandered around either walking or jogging. Birds of all varieties flew in the night skies. And you could hear the steady heartbeat of a city.

"Got to love Epala at night," Daisuke said. He looked out of the window and said. "I don't like these narrow roads though."

I clucked my tongue and said. "What do you expect? This is an island and we don't have much space here. Something had to give. The city said it was either the roads or alleys and people didn't want their garbage out on the front street."

Our drive from the Gate of Skye to the Northern Zone where Silver lived was pretty quick to say the least. Yet another thing about the way Epala was built was because of the lack of good roads, no one really drove hoverbikes so the streets were pretty empty. Add in the fact that it was, according to Daisuke when he checked for me, 4 in the morning there weren't a lot of people to deal with.

We drove up to Silver's apartment, a super expensive high rise. I drove up to the curb of the building, put the hoverbike in park, and jumped out with my messenger bag and sword, heading to the lobby door.

"We can't park here!" Daisuke called to me.

I turned back long enough to say. "You park. There should be something on the left side of the building. You park and come up after me. You're faster you should be able to catch up with me faster."

He nodded at me and jumped into the driver's seat, driving off to the left side of the building out of sight.

My feet started to move, heading into the building and getting to Silver's apartment was the only thing I was focused on. I hoped I wasn't too late.

The door to the lobby was open and the doorman was off duty. Thank the Reaper. That all let me get into the building and up to the elevator without any fuss. The door popped open with a ding. I smacked the button for the 17th floor and the door shut. The elevator rose faster and faster until we hit the 17th floor. Just as the doors opened, the staircase door opened and I saw Daisuke barely panting, his face and glossy black hair tinged with sweat.

"Wow," I murmured. I always knew that Daisuke was pretty fast but sometimes it bordered nearly impossible.

Daisuke beckoned me over. He put a finger to his lips, urging for silence. And so we began walking down the hall towards Apartment 17K, Silver's apartment. As we stepped through the silence, my hand brushed one of the walls and I felt a spark of energy flow off the wall and through my hand. The yelp caught itself before it hit my lips. The motion stopped as i took a second to check the wall.

Daisuke looked at me for a moment before joining me. He had his eyes set on me in confusion. I lifted one finger for him to give me a minute to look at the wall. Magic in the air was natural and even expected sometimes it would be on or in the walls or furniture. But not to that level.

My fingers brushed the wall again and the same rush of energy hit me again but this time I was ready for it. My body braced itself against the energy and through the second contact with it, I could make a guess at what was up. However I needed proof.

"Partum," I whispered. The image of a knife popped into my head with all of its sharpness, deadly edges,and cruel points. The knife appeared in my hand, made real by my magic.And with its appearance, I poked the wall with the tip of the knife. It bounced back without even a scratch on it.

"Looks like they warded the floor. Good move on their part. No one's getting hurt other than the target," Daisuke said. "At least they're not throwing around collateral damage."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Traitors to Silver they were but at least they were still professionals.

"Let's go," I told Daisuke. He followed me wordlessly. We stalked down the hallwalls until we came within sight of Silver's apartment. There were at least 10 contractors all standing outside in a loose formation, all carrying various combat implements like swords, knives, and guns. Daisuke waved his hand over us. A mist of magic flowed over us and the world became an technicolor haze for a moment before things cleared up.

"Veil?" I asked.

He nodded. He had masked us from view and hearing so the contractors wouldn't notice. We got a little closer.

"This is suicide now," one of them said, a young man's voice. "And those glory hounds are still in there, trying to make it happen."

"You got that right. She's up and at it now," another said, an older female voice. "Our best chance at getting her was while she slept but someone must have put her on her guard."

"I think we should call it a night," a third said,a young woman's voice. "This plan was stupid from the start. I shouldn't have gotten myself into this crap."

The second voice, the older woman, answered her.

"And yet you're here," her voice said, wry with a smug attitude.

The third voice snapped at her, heat unfurling.

"Because I have two children at home and a blind mother to take care of. I needed the money. What's your excuse, Olivia?" she asked. And then it clicked. The third voice was familiar to me. Anat Benjamin, one of the contractors. We had often talked about recipes and some cooking books we had found in the library. She'd invited me over to her apartment once or twice to listen to our favorite cooking programs.

"Because it's not fair," Olivia said. "Servitors get better missions, better pay, and first pick of missions. Something has to give. We're getting the scraps they throw out while they're sitting at the buffet table living it up."

A little of my righteous fury left out of me. They weren't right of course but they weren't entirely wrong either. Did I have the right to condemn them? Was I so sure that their feelings weren't justified? I wasn't.

But

I moved into the open facing the contractors, pulling something out of my backpack.

I have to help Silver. After this, we can find the solution to this. I'll find the solution.

"You're not wrong, but you're not entirely right either," I told them. I loosed an effort of will and shattered Daisuke's veil over me, revealing me to the contractors. Their looks showed me their hearts. Fear, anger, hatred, disgust, and indignation.

One of them stood forward, the older woman, Olivia.

"So here's Silver's lapdog ready to hunt us down for a bone from his master," she started. "If you think we're just going to-"

"I'm not going to let you finish," I told her, and threw the orb at her face. As it left the tip of my fingers, I turned around and covered my ears. Seeing my reaction, Daisuke dived around the corner. However the contractors were too short on the uptake. My flashbang spell got them all. The hallway became ablaze with screams that were silenced by Daisuke's silencing and binding spells.

"Are you sure?" he asked, as he bound the last contractor, Olivia. He had bound their hands behind their backs, and covered their mouths so they couldn't use any spells. "They're traitors. Give them their rewards."

He pulled out his gun from his holster and pointed it at Olivia, square between her eyes. I didn't know Olivia well. I had led her on a few jobs but nothing to forge a bond. However her actions right then set her in my mind forever. She didn't look at the gun, she looked Daisuke right in his eye with such hatred that the feeling was almost made real.

"No, this has never been a personal situation for any of them. No one here came for a vendetta. It's always been about the money," I told him. "That's something we can figure out and solve."

I turned to Olivia, her hate filled gaze directed to me now.

"I'm sorry I didn't notice how you all were feeling before now," I told her. "Just stay here for now please."

And with that Daisuke and I took the final steps to Silver's apartment. Daisuke kicked the door down. A fragment of a nanosecond showed us all of the room and everyone in. Silver and Maggie were behind the flipped couch, using it as cover, set in front of Silver's room while the contractors were set up in the kitchen, firing spells and bullets.

The place was wrecked. Burns on the walls, water damage, sparks flying, furniture overturned and destroyed. Papers scattered on the floor.

I saw Silver's head of storm gray hair along with Maggie's set of strawberry blond curls.

"Ma'am, I think they have reinforcements," Maggie said. "It's..."

She choked up...the words didn't come.

"It's been an honor as well to have such a woman as my assistant," Silver said. A click. And a snap. "Let's go together."

"Time Stop," Daisuke said, grabbing my hand at the same time. Spells of all elements froze in mid air. Bullets stopped in place. All movement had decided that it was time to take a break right that moment.

"That was close," he sighed. "Didn't expect Silver to go all, heroic on me like that. She's usually so patient."

He dug through his bag one handed until he found a black ball. He threw it at the feet of the contractors and they were attacked by the same tentacle spell that Daisuke used outside.

"That should be it," he said. "Time Resume."

Everything went back into motion. Only this time, everyone was safely out of harm's way. Silver looked up at us for the first time and smiled.

"Late to show but here when it counts?" she asked us both.

Daisuke smiled that crooked grin of his.

"Well you know I'm the devilishly handsome rogue type so when I come in, it's always at the moment that will make me look the coolest,"

He gestured to me.

"Rez is the hero type. He should have been early,"

I grinned too.I couldn't help it. Daisuke always has that type of aura around him when he's playing around.

"I was driving at a respectable pace," I told him. I held my hand out for Silver and she pulled herself up. Daisuke did the same for Maggie. Both women had wands and handguns that they both seemed to know how to use. I guessed that Silver must had did her gun skilling up while I was away.

"Regardless, I'm grateful. They had us pinned down back there. If you hadn't come in..." Silver said. "We might have tried to rush them."

"And end up dead." Maggie finished.

Daisuke smiled. "But hey we're all still kicking so that's the good part."

His smile faded and he said, his purple eyes becoming dead empty circles. "Do you want me to kill them?"

"Daisuke?!" I asked. "Remember what we did in the hallway?"

I had promised to find a solution for all of the contractors that served Silver. All of them. I couldn't let anyone slip through. I'd be breaking my word.

"Rez, the guys outside hadn't done anything other than show up. They were the smart ones that wanted to reassess the situation after they saw that Silver was up," Daisuke explained, reaching to something on the back of his gun belt. It was a shotgun. He walked over to one of them and put the shotgun to his chest and continued. "This glory hounds came in, guns and spells blazing. Can you really forgive them?."

I turned to Silver. She wore a long sky blue nightgown and her hair in a bun.

"Can you forgive them?"

Her eyes met mine for a moment and she said. "They came into my home while I was sleeping, aiming to kill me. No. I can't forgive them."

The click of a hammer being pulled back rung through my ears.

"But..." Silver continued. "Killing them wouldn't be worth it. One they have info on Tannia and two gratitude. And those two things are worth their weight in gold. Their information could turn this situation around in our favor. And as for the gratitude, I'll find some use for it later. But no. Don't kill them Daisuke."

Daisuke clucked his tongue and said. "I've got to go release this round. The warded walls outside are a good bet. I'll be right back."

And he left out the door. Maggie breathed a sigh of relief.

"Daisuke's a good guy but when he gets that look in his eye, he scares the hell out of me."

The shotgun roared outside of the door. Maggie jumped and glanced at it. Daisuke came back in, putting the shotgun back on his gun belt.

"So who's going to show our guests Stormshroud hospitality?" Daisuke asked, he flipped his hair out of his eyes.

"I'll do it," I told them. I moved past Daisuke to the captive men and pointed at one. "Release the blindfold and the mouthpiece on this one."

Daisuke nodded. And Silver and Maggie looked on with interest.

Daisuke pointed at the man and the bindings I requested fell off and slithered away. I focused my mana and thought warm relaxing thoughts. I thought of my favorite bar in the Eastern Zone, run by a friend of mine. All of the times went spent there with good food and good company. I thought of board game nights, plays, and cooking for friends. And I thought of long trips to visit the people that I called my friends.

I put my hand on his shoulder, whispered a word and said. "Hey there."

He looked up at me in confusion and answered back. "Hey there, Master Rez..."

"You hungry? Thirsty? I can make you something if you want?" I asked him.

"It'd be nice but I guess you want something about what's going to happen to me," he said.

My spell on him was one of relaxation and peace as well as openness. If he was keyed up, there'd be nothing I could do to reach him so putting him in a good state of mind was critical.

"It's no worries about that. Silver herself said you're not going to die. Just clear out some favors for her and you've got nothing to fear from her. Right?" I asked her.

Silver didn't speak but she nodded in the affirmative, her mane of dark grey hair shaking.

"See. Nothing to worry about here so tell me what's up here and with Tannia?" I asked.

Maybe it was because of my spell or maybe it was because Silver said she wasn't going to kill him but he opened up. Told me Tannia's plan. About the details of the hit against me and Silver. And one more thing I wanted to know...and another thing I didn't.

"And one more thing. Have you seen Tannia with some new jewelry or some some like it?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. Before she gave us our orders for this job, she had this big emerald on her desk. It didn't shine like an emerald like the light bouncing off of it. It was more like it made its own light."

I couldn't help the smile that moved across my face. And of course, like my luck, something moved in to change it all for happiness to clouds.

Silver stepped forward.

"Is there anything else you want to tell us? More information only helps you."

He swallowed and he said. "Please don't get angry about this."

He glanced up at the clock. 4:15 am.

"At 5 am, Tannia is sending one person to kill Tamar Proudheart in her hospital bed. Also at 5:30 am, Tannia expects Vector to return from the field trip she set up. There's an explosive spell set to go off once she opens the door."

The words reached my ears. My mind heard them. But it ended there. My mind couldn't process the information I given.

Somewhere I heard Silver asking more questions and giving Maggie and Daisuke orders. Something hit my face.

I looked up at SIlver, streaks of wiped away tears framed her face.

"Rez, I order to you go to the hospital with Daisuke. Now!"

I had been working for Silver's dad and then Silver since I was 7 years old. I was used to getting orders so got my head back into gear. I got off my knees; Daisuke was already out of the door and so was Maggie. We all ran down the hall back to the elevator, hoping that we weren't too late to save my sisters all while I thought one thing.

Why? Why bring them into this?