Chapter 7: Heartstrings (Narrated by Danzel Lee)
"You finally dumped her?!!" My best friends squealed like a girl.
My arched black brows wiggled playfully to convince him that he did hear the news correctly. At the moment, we were sitting cross-legged at the corridor in front of our class, gathering books and papers that we would use from the lockers. There was still twenty-five minutes before the first lesson started, so I spent it to tell Meng about last night. He patted my shoulders, his face beaming with pride.
"I knew you could do it, Man. Hmm, no wonder there were a lot of prying eyes staring at you."
I rolled my eyes. "Apparently, the whole school had known. What a drama queen..."
Our conversation was cut short with a loud bang on my locker door. I instantly jumped on my feet and glared to the culprit. She was tanned-skin and wore highlights of golden strands on her pony-tailed, dark brown hair. I wondered how she managed to pass the scrutiny of our teachers with that kind of hair. Our school was an international one, so there were a lot of expatriate kids whose parents were working in J City schooled here. The school had Black, Caucasian, Asian, and Eurasian ones(like me(as students here. Therefore, the school policy regarding hair colour was not as strict as in other schools. However, as far as I remembered, the rule said it should be in one natural colour, not zebra-styled like hers. She was tall for a girl and very athletic. As we spoke, her hazel eyes glared fiercely at me, whilst her plump lips stretched down, almost touching her dimpled chin. Meng once introduced her to me as Kencana, his long-lost, childhood friend. Her mother was Indonesian while her father was British. Her family used to be Meng's neighbour and Meng often played together with her. And…, if I might guess, she was Meng's crush up-to-date.
"What the hell?!" I yelled, still glaring at her.
Meng also stood up and used his long limbs to shield the girl from my upcoming rage.
"Ken..., chill... Just calm down first and tell us why you came here this angry to Danzel?"
Kencana pointed me with her finger and roared. "Danzel Lee, leave Megan alone from your problem with your girlfriend!"
My face started to fluster with irritation when I felt attention had been drawn to us by other students. They started to whisper to each other and the corridor was immediately filled with buzzing sounds. I hated it so much if someone were making such scene out of me. That was on top of my most-hated list and I cared zilch whether the said person was Meng's childhood friend or not. If she tried to test my temper with no solid reason, she would definitely regret it. Truth to be told, I was no gentleman.
"Shouldn't it be you who stay away from my own problem with my ex-girlfriend and Megan. If it were Megan who sent you to humiliate me, tell her to come by herself!"
Kencana snapped. She tried to break through Meng's body shield. His cheeks were scratched a couple of times when Kencana tried to hit me. After noticed that her effort was futile, she screamed hysterically.
"If Megan could come to face you at the moment, I would have made her come. But..., because of you, now she was missing!!"
My rage died down completely. "What did you say? What happened to her?"
"I only left her alone for toilet no more than five minutes! When I came out, she was gone! I tried to call her phone, but no one answered. According to the other students, your bitch girlfriend and her friends took her away!"
The corridors promptly filled with more whispers and hisses. I felt a knot twisted in my stomach and as though a huge hammer slammed my head. I forced myself to stand straight, although my knees had started shivering. I did not understand why my body giving out such reaction. I just met the girl yesterday and barely knew her. I didn't understand the reason of this state of shock I was into. I might feel a bit guilty, but there was no reason to be this worried. Without consulting first with my brain, my feet had dashed out, leaving Kencana and Meng behind. I clutched on my hand phone firmly, as if it were my lifeline.
I dialled the numbers I still memorized by heart without slowing down my running pace. I gritted my teeth when no one was answering and dialled again, and again. On the fourth dials, Irene finally answered her phone.
"Hello, Danzel," she said flirtatiously. "I'm so happy that you called. I've tried to call you several times last night. Listen, I wanted to apologize to you. I..."
"Where is she? Where is Megan, Irene?"
"What do you mean? I don't understand, Danzel."
"Our problem was your fault and it has nothing to do with Megan. Just let her go!"
"Danzel, I don't know what you're talking about! What have I done to her? I know nothing about her! Hey, what do you say if we just skip school and have a chat about us?"
That's enough. I shouldn't have wasted more time like this. I knew Irene and her friends very well. They were the school number one bullies, despite their angelic appearances. Their hearts were as black as the night and they would not bat an eyelash when they were bullying anyone on their blacklist. At the very least, a slap on the face and hair cutting would be used to 'punish' Megan.
I stopped running and tried to gather my power. I had never tried to use my power through a phone line and I didn't know if this would ever work, but I ran out of options at the moment.
"Tell me, where are you right now?"
"I was at the cafe we used to visit, the one nearby my house..."
The piercing hit my eardrums and shook my brain. Okay, since I could still sense the lying effect through phone, my power might as well have effect. Feeling motivated, I tried to focus and felt my power spring out.
"Tell me, where are you now!" I repeated my command and added my power.
My head felt so hot like it would explode in no time. The burning sensation crept down to the tip of my nose as well. Before I realized what had happened, drips of reds had spoiled my white sneakers.
"D'..., you're bleeding!!"
I didn't realize that Meng and Kencana had followed me. They approached me, frowning. I lifted up my free hand to ask them not to talk to me first.
"Where, Irene?!" I repeated once more. The tip of my nose soared with pain again and another drip of blood fell on my shoes.
"She's in my house. I told the girls to 'treat' her well in the garage," Irene finally gave me the truth I sought.
I waited for her reply no more and clicked off the line. Meng immediately approached me and offered the wipes he had prepared. I took it, although I had wiped most of the blood with my jacket's sleeve.
"Irene's place. Garage..."
I did not wait for Meng and Kencana's response, and ran to the parking lot. I tilted my head here and there, hoping that the nosebleed would stop as soon as possible. Luckily, it did stop when I reached my white CBR. I put my helmet on and revved the engine as fast as I could to Irene's house.
**
Our school was surrounded by clusters of posh houses and apartments, where Irene's house was in the one of the clusters. It was located about ten minutes driving distant from school. I was in my full-speed when I caught a glimpse of silhouette run out of the bush toward the street, not far from where Irene's cluster was. I did not have to take a second glance to acknowledge Megan's small figure. My tires let out screeching sound when I hit the brake and forced my motorcycle to be in full stop by slamming the handlebar sideways. I tried to balance it, so I would not fall and kiss the asphalt in front of the girl whom I was trying to save. My foot pulled down the main-stand and I rushed myself to her. Her big, round, cognac eyes stared at me bewildered and she let out a gasp when I pull her to my arms.
I could feel Megan's body tense in my embrace, but slowly relaxing. Her body was so warm and soft. Her breath on my chest tickling the skin under my uniform. After I hugged her for sometimes (I didn't know for how long), I finally let her go to check her condition. I stroke her blushing cheeks gently and made way to her tall neck, before caressing her waist-long, jet-black hair. After I convinced myself that she was as flawless as I saw her yesterday, I pulled her again into my arms. This time, she wrapped her hands around my waist and hugged me back.
"Thank goodness you're alright...," I whispered.
My ears caught the sound of motorcycle machine approached, before it was turned off not far from where Megan and I were standing.
"D?" I heard my friend's voice. His voice seemed taken aback.
I pulled back from Megan and turned my head, faced my best friend to report to him that Megan was alright.
"Yes..., I could see that," he replied, an awkward smile was plastered on his oblong face.
Kencana was about to approach us, but she suddenly stopped when I moved my body to Megan's side, as if I was protecting her from anyone who want to come near her. I didn't understand why that tanned girl's face wore similar awkward expression like Meng did.
"Are you really alright, Megan?" She finally asked.
Megan nodded.
"How'd they finally let you go?"
Kencana's question made me return my attention back to the petite girl beside me. I waited for her answer.
"That girl's family suddenly came home before they got the chance to hurt me, so they don't really have another choice than to let me go," Megan was staring back at me. This time she smiled so tenderly.
I returned her smile, desperately holding down the urge to kiss that pretty lips of hers.
"Okay!" Kencana interrupted again. "Please put a halt on that lovey-dovey thingy for a while. Since when the two of you are together?"
Megan and I frowned, answering in the same time. "We're not together..."
Kencana looked as if she wanted to have a heart attack.
"Meng....," she turned for help from Meng.
Meng smiled awkwardly once more. "As far as I know, they're really not together. At least not yet. Danzel just broke up with Irene yesterday and just met Megan yesterday. I didn't miss anything, right D'?"
I enveloped Megan's shoulder and drew her body closer to mine. I really didn't understand why would the two persons in front of us wearing such bewildered expression. Megan herself didn't mind with my ministration. She leaned closer to my body, as I hinted her to do, made my face beam with happiness.
"Yep, you didn't miss anything," I told Meng. "Now, let's go back to school..."
Still holding Megan's shoulder and did not wait for another foolish comment from our two friends, I led Megan to my bike and helped her to saddle up. I gave her my helmet so she could put it on and drove back to school. On the way, Megan wrapped her hands on my waist once more. I could feel her warm body and rabbiting heartbeats as she leaned on my back. I was grinning like a fool to that sensation. I had never been happier than I was on that moment.
Chapter 8: Foes and Allies (Narrated by Abel Lee)
"Congratulations, Mr. Lee, your ribs had healed."
I confirmed the doctor's word by given the said anatomy that was off-limits for these past three days a nudge. It was surely as good as before, since I felt no pain. I grinned to the old, nice doctor, passed him my gratitude, shook his chunky hand and then sashayed out of his office. I couldn't wait to be back on business!
Law Inc. building was 20 acres wide and 40 levels of minimalist structure. The skyscraper was divided into three sections. The business section(which included our basement office(was located in the middle, enclosed by the health and research section on its west wing, and development section on its east wing. Therefore, I needed to walk through the long corridors to arrive back to EOPID office. Not that I mind though, since the change of scenery surely was refreshing. I took my time to walk back and allowed my train of thought to take off. It had been three days since the two sorcerers joined our department. I complimented Miss B who accepted the two merely as to show her good intention for our joint mission. In fact, she barely entrusted them with any mission. In addition, they were teamed with Anthony and Hannah who were never really fond of action. I could not imagine if I was Anthony and for three dreading days, in fit condition, yet could only sit quietly in my cubical as a mere stationary. I shuddered only by the sheer thought of it. It got me thinking, could it be that our boss had predicted since beginning that Anthony and Hannah would volunteer to be teamed up with the two sorcerers, thus she agreed to McAllen's request? If she did, what a scary woman she was!
I stopped when I saw two of the five subjects that were dancing in my reverie embodied themselves in front of me. Anthony and Campbell stood in front of Pandora Room, the special room where we stored Balin corpses after we downloaded them from our gadget. The corpses then were stored in digital form and sealed inside small glass tubes. Next to Pandora Room was the morgue for civilian corpses from a case or patients who died at the Law Hospital. I would not be surprise if Anthony were there, because we had to pay a visit to that dreaded room in order to store the Balin corpse we killed and which had been autopsied by the Law's scientist. However, the sight of his sorcerer partner there was quite out of the ordinary.
That dirty-blonde sorcerer leaned leisurely on the cold aluminium wall with his slim, yet muscular hands crossed on his chest. He did not wear his purple coat today, but a white, cropped, sleeveless T-shirt and another black short-sleeve T-shirt beneath the white, giving them a striking contrast. His tops revealed both of his tattooed arms, from his shoulders down to the back of his hands. I heard that sorcerers like to tattoo their strongest spells on their body, so his tattoos must had been magical patterns, the said spells. Beside the tattoos on his arms, I saw another tattoo surrounding his neck like a choker, just slightly above his collarbone. Different with his other tattoos that formed wavy patterns like cursive hand-writings, this one had picture of a square Mandala that intertwined in the middle. The tattoo had threads of white lines and curve on it, another striking difference with other tattoos that had purple threads instead. I wonder if his neck tattoo were somewhat had different purpose from the other ones. For his bottom outfit, the sorcerer had a pair of tight denim and black combat boots, made his legs look even longer. Apparently, that man was quite fond of silver accessories, since his wrists and waist were fully decorated with them.
It seemed that Anthony and his new 'partner' were engrossed in their conversation and did not realize me walking approached. "Hey Tony, are you giving tour for the newbie?" I greeted, just to be replied with the sorcerer's nasty glare. I wonder why it was so easy to hit his button.
Anthony threw his thumbs toward the Pandora Room. "Miss B gave McAllen permission to retrieve his friend's remains."
"I see," I shifted my attention to the sorcerer. "You don't wear your long coat today?"
The man snorted. "It's hot in this country and it's not like we need to wear it 24/7. We only need to wear that coat on formal occasions or when we go to the battle."
"I see. So, the coat is like your magical wand, hmm?"
"If you say so," the sorcerer shrugged his shoulder, said airily.
"I thought it's more like an armour for you," Anthony chimed in. The warlock flashed a fond smile to him.
"I'm trying to level my explanation to your colleague," he cocked his head to me, talking to Anthony solely, as if I weren't there. "So, you're not only pretty face, but brain too, hmm?"
I frowned. Did he just hit on Tony? My colleague was also blushing, clearly took it as compliment. O…kay…, I rolled my eyes, whatever.
I shifted my attention again, now to the room on my left. Pandora Room's door, as well as other doors on this level was made of steel, with small peeking window on its left corner. I tried to peek through its stained glass and my eagle eyes caught a glimpse of two silhouettes inside the room.
"Hannah is in there too?"
Anthony nodded.
"If that little girl had to tag along him, I could understand. What I don't get is why he had to drag us too, and make us wait pointlessly here. With Cody it has always been a waste of time for meaningless activities," Campbell snorted.
This time he got my full attention. "Aren't you supposed to be his right hand? Why would you say things like that?"
Campbell spat in disgust, his handsome face scrunched into its middle, his trimmed eyebrow locked tight on his forehead. For the first time, his smugness left him, replaced by evident rage in his eyes. "I'll tell you something, Esper. If only that bastard Cody did not get my real name and use it to bound my loyalty to him, I'd rather die than to become his lap dog. I am a first class warlock of Russian's Vsevolod Order, nonetheless!"
I whistled at the fact that Cody McAllen was that powerful to be able to keep one of the Vsevolod Order's first class warlocks on his toe. From numerous researches I conducted in three days of deskbound duty due to my cracked ribs, I understood that the said Russian Order was well known as the Order that bred many eccentric, yet powerful ronin sorcerers. Ronin as in the type of Samurai that wandered alone and heeded to no master. I remembered one information said that in this world there were five strongest Orders in sorcery community. These five orders were The Magellinian, The Vsevolod, The Yarhaci, The Trevelyan, and The Aruoyan. The Magellinian and The Aruoyan were often acknowledged as two of the most powerful Orders of five, although Magellinian triumphed more since Aruoyan Order destroyed. Everyone, however, also silently recognized that The Vsevolod Order was no less powerful than the former two. The Vsevolod Order's sorcerers were well known to be extremely individualistic, thus, their Order's power was not entirely unified and, rather, scattered. It was because of this reason too that their Order's fame fell behind the other four.
"That must've been quite a stunt that McAllen pulled to be able to get your real name," I praised.
Campbell snorted again. "It wasn't him. He was merely lucky that he had an Esper girlfriend, like your kind, who was a schemer. That insolent woman had the ability to steal any kind of information from anyone's mind by eye contact. I was naively stared back at her, and she stole my name just like that. Afterward, she gave it to Cody. That was my sole regret in my life."
Now, that was interesting. A first class Warlock of the strongest Order, a hegemony leader of sorcery community, on top of that, had a relationship with an Esper girl? As far as I knew, the sorcerers were very exclusive. Even in their community, they rarely had romantic relationship trans-Orders, except for political marriages.
"Well, sorry for that," I commented, airily.
Campbell raised one eyebrow. "Pass your condolence to Cody instead, since I made him witness how I turned his girlfriend to dust. That's why, he hated me to the bone and made me as his lap dog to insult me, instead of killing me on spot. He even dragged me here to show me off to you guys. If I knew it would be like this, I'd torture that woman longer before I turned her to dust. At the very least, I won't be as depressed as I am now."
That was the expected reaction coming from the notorious Vsevolod Order's member, but still, the viciousness of his words stunned me. He even said it with straight face and sealed his words with a sweet smile. I could sense the corner of my lips tugged up to crack a forced smile. When I glanced at Anthony, I saw that he also tensed up. I couldn't help myself not to feel like one of the three pigs in the face of the scary wolf. Apparently, the lap dog was even more malicious than his master. I had to watch him closely, making sure that he would not have any chance to turn any of us to dust like he'd done to McAllen's lover.
Thanks to Campbell's last words, the conversation halted and heavy silence hung around us. I did not know what else to say to the sorcerer, and the other party also made no effort to establish any conversation with us. When I was about to excuse myself to return to the office, the steel door on my left opened. Cody McAllen walked out, Hannah followed dutifully behind him. Today, like his second, The Magellinian warlock did not wear his white coat. Instead, he wore pastel blue polo shirt and white trousers with a pair of white Oxford shoes. Behind him, I saw Hannah was wearing checker, turquoise midi-dress with a pair of tan Chelsea boots. Their outfits were hilariously complementing each other. It was like seeing Wendy and Peter Pan walking side-by-side in real life.
McAllen did not surprise to see me there. He passed a courtesy smile and extending his hand to show us a piece of crystal.
"Did they plant it in Aramanth's chest?" Campbell asked, answered by a nod.
"Were you allowed to take it out from Pandora?" I asked.
"Miss Law gave me full access to retrieve all of Ivan's remains and belongings. She thought I could shed light on this case. What can you make out of this stone, Campbell?"
Cody's right hand took the stone and observed it for a while. "This is a perfect catalyst, made from the best crystal. The maker was a talented Alchemist, but I can say that the said Alchemist is somewhat lack of experience. However, whoever filled this stone with magical power was not as strong as Aramanth when he was alive and certainly did not comprehend Aramanth's ability. If it were you who fill this stone, Cody, there's no way Aramanth could be defeated only by the four of them."
I smirked, tried to accept such insult with every ounce of humbleness I could pull from myself. Even though I had not seen McAllen using his magic, but judging from his high status in such young age, I did believe that he was very strong. True, it was lucky for us that McAllen had nothing to do with the crystal. If he did, I guessed even if I broke my neck instead of a couple of ribs, there would be no certainty that we could beat Aramanth.
McAllen nodded in approval with his right hand's comment. "You're right, this was that lower class' sorcerers' misdeed. Do you know which alchemist could've made the catalyst?"
Campbell raised one of his eyebrows. He played the stone by tossing it mid-air and catching it back. "Is this the test for my raise, Code?"
Anthony and I could not hold ourselves from giggling, while McAllen only gave out a faint smile.
"Well, you'd guessed anyway, but I'll say this information out loud for the Espers' sake. Your family have one Master Alchemist that could make such catalyst, yet I dare to bet it wasn't hers."
"Why not, Cam?"
"If she ever made a stone with such quality, I would've seen it when we trash her room as we spent a hot night together. That time, it was literally a mess on every corner we touched."
The answer earned a frown from Cody, so deep on his marble, paled forehead. Anthony and I giggled once more. This Campbell knew that with the loyalty magic McAllen put on him, he could not harm or kill The Magellinian warlock. So, as compensation, The Vsevolod warlock grasped each opportunity he'd have to humiliate McAllen, and apparently made it as his life mission to defame his 'master'.
"Second master alchemist," he continued, "...is from my order. But I could bet dollars to doughnuts that it wasn't that gramps who made this catalyst. He'd rather die than to allow his masterpiece to be used by the inexperienced sorcerers. Not to mention, such shape and colour isn't really his style, nor it is Laurey's. Hers is more sophisticated. The only one who could make such design and colour is that girl..."
McAllen frowned deeper. His blue eyes shed rage.
"Who is it?"
A sneering smile spread wide on Campbell's face. "Aramanth's sister herself. Megan Aramanth."
"Were you saying that Aramanth's sister created the catalyst to turn her own brother as Balin? How could she do such cruel thing?" Hannah asked in disbelieved.
"You're wrong, Doll. Megan Aramanth would never do such thing. You Espers must've heard that The Trevelyan Order initially was one of the weakest Orders. Do you know why they could be that weak?"
The three of us shook our head in sync, made Campbell grin smugly.
"They are peace-loving creatures and always stay away from conflict. They've lost significant territories and fame just because they did not want to contend with other orders. It had been like that until one of The Trevelyan sorceress married to the head of Magellinian Order. After that day onward, they are under Magellinian's protection, raising their position as one of the strongest Orders. When their strongest leader, Claudius Markelli prospered the order significantly, their fame and influence were soaring high and wide. They probably would take over the Hegemony chieftain if only Claudius did not suddenly go to seclusion. At the end, their peace-loving character never changed."
"Ivan was the next successor of Trevelyan's chieftainship after Claudius Markelli. However, with his demised, Trevelyan Order became weak and has fallen as an easy prey for the other Orders," McAllen carried on. His face was as dark as the sky before the storm. "I've tried my best to protect that Order, but Balin problem distracted me. When I wanted to shift my focus back to The Trevelyan, the Order had lost four out of their seven core covens. Even worse, one day after Ivan's funeral, Megan Aramanth was nowhere to be found."
"And up-to-date, even the magnificent Cody McAllen has not yet able to trace the little girl's track, nor to track down the other two covens of Trevelyan's whereabout; the Markelli and Nimra. Aramanth's sister is a precious asset for her talents in making crystals and orbs. If the Balin creators got their hand on her, it would be harder to stop them. The girl's creations would be more than adequate to supply their Balins with strong powers. However, we are quite confident that she is under the protection of the two covens: The Markellis and Nimras. Because, if she'd been taken as prisoner already, the Markellis surely had come to ask for Cody's help. I suspected the crystal used in Aramanth was one of the stolen crystals that they got when they rampaged Trevelyan's castle."
"So, if we could trace the two covens' whereabouts, then we would know which sorcerers were responsible for these whole mess," I concluded.
"Talking is easy, thee Esper!"
I slapped the back of Campbell's extended hand when he pointed my nose with his black nail-polish coated finger. How impolite!
The guy's mouth plastered a mocking smile, did not get offended with my reaction.
"What do you mean?"
"Haven't you heard about the Markellis?"
"I didn't have many opportunities to hang out with your kind, I'm afraid."
Campbell shrugged.
"The head of the Markelli coven is Jasmine Markelli, aka 'The Princess". She is Claudius Markelli's daughter. Like I said before, Claudius is one of the legendary strongest warlocks ever exist. Princess herself is a powerful first-class witch who had been chosen to replace Ivan as the new leader of Trevelyan Order," McAllen explained, as he gave cue for us to continue the conversation while walking back to the EOPID office. "Her strongest spell is the absenteeism, which enable her to abolish one's aura or power, similar with Hannah's power. If she used that spell on Megan Aramanth, then our chance to trace that girl is close to none."
"Not to mention her brother, Seth Markelli," Campbell supplied. "He isn't from our kind, but yours. He is a Schemer who has ability to read other's wish, hope or plan, and able to scheme out chains of events to make that wish or hope or plan come true. As long as that Aramanth girl is planning for not being found, that Markelli boy will be able to make it came true."
Those were very useful information. I was quite astounded at the fact that these two sorcerers were so generous to give out information about their community. We had no intention in eliminating their kind, but still, war against Balin was almost equal with war against the sorcerers.
"I still don't get it," Anthony said. "Why do the Markellis and Megan Aramanth also hiding from you? Isn't your Order their ally, McAllen?"
McAllen's icy-blue eyes shed a glimpse of bitterness. "That's what've been haunting me too and has become my greatest inquiry, Mr. Lotsano. This wasn't The Princess' usual style. I also don't understand why she decided to hide from us."
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