Episode 53: Training (Spence)

Spence liked the feeling of training. He had spent many mornings on the grassy expanse outside of the palace working on his sportsmanship, but this was the first time he was doing it with a greater purpose.

His sword beat against Konrad’s long past the point that they were both beaded in sweat.

The sun continued to rise in the early.hours of the morning, and with the blinding light that reached over the horizon came the silhouette of his mom and dad.

Konrad defended himself against the last slash of Spence’s sword, then they both yielded.

“A moment,” Konrad said. He wasn’t often disturbed in the morning. Spence knew when he was that it was important.

“Sure. Good luck.” Spence stepped aside and watched the tip of his sword sway across the grass. He hoped his mom wasn’t overreacting about one of Sawyer’s latest experiments.

“We may need your help,” Konrad stated in the last moments his parents couldn’t hear them.

“Konrad,” his dad stated as he entered their talking bubble. “Camilla is missing; she’s been hidden with a strong wiccan spell.”

Spence’s stomach sunk and he tried to hold onto his sword; he wanted to drop it and run. She was his older sister – his only fairy sibling from his mom’s pervious body and life. He loved her, in part because they were close in age and also because she was a reminder of what his mom might have looked like before.

“She wasn’t at dinner,” Konrad reminded them unnecessarily. Camilla rarely attended dinner, and if she did it was because their apartment had been condemned by something rotting. She still lived at home.

“Who saw her last?” Konrad asked.

His mom spoke at the same time as him, matching attitudes toward Konrad’s comment.

“Probably her date,” Spence said.

“Probably whoever took her,” his mom said. They both laughed a little, a break in the tension. All they needed was soup and a canvas to complete their anxiety-relieving ritual.

“She has bad taste,” Spence added.

“Can you review footage to try and see who she was on a date with,” his dad asked.

“He works here and his name is Liam or Logan or something. She didn’t remember,” Spence added. He looked up to Konrad, even though the gaps between them had closed significantly in the past four years of spending mornings together.

“Alright,” Konrad replied. “Get your adopted twins.”

“Where would you like them?” Spence asked. He tried to figure out how wiccan magic connected to the possible date his sister had gone on. Somehow, Konrad knew something he didn’t know yet. The twins had been there a day short of a week. Tomorrow would be Maelvish again, a strike before Maelvish would make sense.

The Lower Dell had erased the memories of Aadya, so they must have access to wiccans. At least, Ionia had wiccans. Maybe that was how his mom had ended up in a wiccan body. She didn’t talk about the details often, and he knew better than to ask her. He opted to find the answers himself in secret notes under her bed.

“In the office,” Konrad replied. “I have a game I’d like them to play.”

Spence wondered when he would get to play a prison game. He had heard they often went wrong. If he had dragon magic it would be fun.

“Alright,” Spence replied. He walked off toward his apartment where Olida and Orris would hopefully be letting Ach do his morning thing in peace, and Fort, Emma, Ella, and Jax weren’t if they were conscious. Unless they were piled in Talise and Niels’ bed – there was a good chance one to four of them were.

He slipped into the apartment and it was silent. He felt a mix of relief and disappointment, but he didn’t have time to remedy the latter.

He slipped into each of their rooms and brought them, in pajamas, downstairs.

In the dungeon, Konrad was reviewing footage of Camilla leaving. Olida ran over to the screen. She hadn’t even been able to get to know Camilla.

He should have checked this latest guy out first.

“Is it a computer game?” Olida asked as she jumped onto the chair.

She had become addicted to computer and video games since moving in. It only took five days.

“Yes, but your game is over here,” Konrad replied as he moved toward two other monitors. He moved the mice to wake the screens up and a series of pictures filled the screens.

Konrad set one hand on the back of Olida’s chair and leaned between them, “I want you to make up names for all these faces. Any name you want. But if you know their real name, you shouldn’t make one up.”

“Okay,” Olida said, her eyes glancing between screens to see if they matched.

Orris pointed to a man with tons of hair and a bushy beard, “This guy’s Rooooof the dog man.”

Olida examined his choice then pointed to an older fairy, with greyed out hair and saggy wrinkles, “I like Pepper for him because he’s old.” she pointed to another one, a guy with spiky hair, “And this one is Sasha.”

Spence glanced at his parents; they looked unenthused about the game but waited patiently.

Then he heard gasp.

Orris sat up in his chair with a bounce and pointed, “Look! It’s Calle!”

Konrad and Olida looked closer at the same moment. Olida’s chair began to tip and she fell in the space between chairs. Before Spence could react, Konrad had caught her. She lay in his arm, her back arched and her neck angled toward the screen to see the picture.

“How did he get in the game?” Olida asked.

They pointed out several more people they knew: Landen, Efraim, Noly, and one of their parents for a little, Donwynn.

Landen had to be the guy. The name was closest to Camilla’s guesses.

“But our real daddy is Terribleon,” Orris added.

“Terribleon?” Zero asked, before anyone else could.

“Yup. I heard people talking about it once. Terribleon. He’s that bad, that’s why we don’t live with him.”

Spence watched Konrad’s body tense into a resolve, “Alright. Do you think you can find your way back to your room?”

He turned the monitors off and they both got off their chairs.

“Yep,” Orris said for both of them.

Spence didn’t want his kids wandering the halls with possible enemies roaming the palace. They had always been there, and he knew it was unavoidable to keep the palace completely safe with Aadya’s open door policy, but knowing who they were – seeing their faces – he wanted them safe. Guarded. He still couldn’t shake the image of Olida’s charred body left on the desert floor.

“I’m taking them,” Spence stated.

“I’d like your help here,” Konrad said.

Spence looked at Konrad and their eyes met for a moment. Konrad had a plan. He had monitors. He had guards roaming the palace. He knew who to look for.

“Go ahead,” Spence said. He hugged Orris. “Tell everyone I’ll be late to breakfast.”

When he hugged Olida, she hugged him tight and said, too loudly, into his ear, “I’d miss you the most if I had to get another new daddy.”

“You don’t, ever again,” his mom said.

He let Olida go, and the two left the room together.

Once they were gone, Spence looked back at the monitors. Konrad was already tracking their movements.

As Konrad watched the cameras, he addressed them, “Noly and Calle both left the palace within twenty minutes of Camilla.”

“Noly isn’t her type,” Spence said. He had a weird nose and he looked more asymmetrical than the guys Camilla liked.

Not that he noticed, but he wanted to make sure they didn’t waste time.

“Is Calle?” Konrad asked.

“He could be,” Spence said. He looked back through the pictures objectively, but he knew there was some sway when he saw Landen. Still, Camilla had made a big deal about earrings she was going to wear. They matched Landen’s eyes. That was the kind of line Camilla would love to use.

It was Camilla’s life. He looked over the faces again, critically, and still settled on Landen.

“That one, Landen. He has eyes that match the earrings she wanted to wear.”

His mom made a noise, which brought Spence back to reality – his parents were still there listening to him talk about his sister in terms of motives and not as a person. He didn’t meant to turn her into a series of facts he was capable of dissecting, but it was necessary.

His dad was silent; Spence wanted to find Camilla before everything else about his life ceased to make sense.

“Alright, they’re home,” Konrad said as he switched the monitors back to a random and changing selection of cameras. He turned toward Indigo, “Is there anyone who is close enough genetic match to do a stronger spell?”

“My mom, her brother…”

“Genetic match. Gramm is dead. Who was his family?”

“I meant Nell,” his dad replied.

“Jericho and Jedidiah were his brothers. Zeus. That prince of Taar Falon who doesn’t know how to function,” his mom replied.

Spence could tell she loved Jedidiah.

Konrad turned to Zero, his patience around the kids gone, “Would material from them strengthen the spell at all?”

“Yes,” his dad replied.

“Alright. We should visit them today then. I want to watch these employees the twins recognized. I’ll assign a guard to tail each of them. Do you have enough material to make five invisibility spells?”

His dad rolled his eyes and rested his hand on his mom’s back, “I’ll just visit Magenta if I don’t.”

Magenta was Sam’s girlfriend-wife-prison bang. She was pregnant with Spence’s half-sister and Spence had made her a nursery in the new house they were about to move Sam into.

He had even more anxiety about dealing with Sam’s release with Camilla missing. It was something Mags wouldn’t let him push off. She had escaped the prison to help them decorate more than once and brought in a few items of her own that she ‘needed.’

Plus the garden, the giant garden that encompassed an acre of land. She said it was a good start.

He liked Mags though, and hoped his dad – Sam – would be good to her.

He also knew if he wasn’t, Mags might literally eat him. She could hold her own next to him, in a way that made it look like sometimes she was controlling him, even though he loved to manipulate people. It was a weird dynamic.

Part of him was thrilled to have a sister from Sam’s side of him and a brother from his mom’s side at the same time; they would be about six months apart.

They’d probably never meet though.

“I’ll let Aadya and Meldrick know what’s going on. It’s very important that you don’t do anything out of the ordinary while we’re watching these people. The last one melted.”

Melted. Spence felt his sword in his hand, and he decided some other things needed to melt. He would find some time to get Ach and they could forge new swords. He would ask Nell to get Konrad a present – a new blacksmithing word.

“Is there a chance they recovered Gramm’s body from the trial?” his dad asked.

He needed to think more critically. He hadn’t considered it, but a wiccan could revive Gramm from his death in the trial.

“What would they do if they had?” Konrad asked.

Finally, Spence was a step ahead of Konrad instead of behind.

“Used it, revived him, bred him…” his dad replied.

Konrad’s body tensed tighter, like a machine that could rip your body apart tightening crank by crank with each new piece to this puzzle. Spence could tell that his training would be put to the test soon because of the number of things that were coming up, piece by piece. He could feel the precipice of change about to topple into Konrad moving from absorption to action.

He was excited, in a scared way.

“It’s possible,” Konrad replied. “I think it most likely that the twins are Aadya and Meldrick’s grandchildren, but Gramm is another possible source. You’re welcome to test that theory; if they’re Gramm’s their genes would strengthen the spell further.”

“I’ll look into it after the other spells. Genetics are also keys to spells. If we know who they used, we can break it to find her.” his dad replied.

Spence needed to brush up on more magic too, not just magic his dad did but magic his dad – Sam – did.

“Alright,” Konrad replied.

Konrad looked at Indigo, then back to Zero before speaking again, “Can you track an unborn child?”

Konrad was great with kids, but he lacked tact with adults sometimes. Konrad knew Spence knew how to track people. Konrad could have asked him the question.

Still, his dad would want to be included. The line between going around people for their benefit and being direct so they wouldn’t turn on you later must be delicate sometimes. He would have to figure that out, by watching Konrad, and observing reactions.

His mom’s reaction was cold and tight, she looked ready to collapse but determined to continue forward.

Mostly, she looked like she needed soup and a cup of something warm to hold while watching a movie, after everything was better.

His dad looked poised and contemplative, business-like not parent-like.

“Yes,” his dad replied.

“If tracking Camilla doesn’t work, you may try that,” Konrad suggested.

It must be another leader thing – sure things seem obvious but commands and calls to action were needed versus relying on people springing to action because they felt like it.

Also, most military related things weren’t about springing to your own call-to-action. Spence knew if he commanded the Dells military he would need to become one someone who made obvious statements about what to do, so that people knew what to do.

“I’ll be back within three hours,” his dad said. His hand slid into his mom’s, even though their heights were so different. It was weird seeing someone over a foot taller with wide shoulders next to his tiny mom, even if they’d been together almost his whole life.

“Alright,” Konrad replied. “Anything else?”

“Am I free to go back to bed then?” Spence asked. He hadn’t been given a task or orders for the rest of the day, and he had expected training to last longer.

“Are you prepared for your event this afternoon?” Konrad asked. “I’ve assigned four guards to accompany the two of you.”

“Yup,” he replied. “All set.”

Waves of excitement and anxiety and worry coursed through Spence.

“Alright, go on then,” Konrad said as he started to leave the office.

They walked in silence, both contemplating Spence assumed. He contemplated what Konrad was thinking and how his mind worked in situations like these. He assumed Konrad was contemplating more important things like how to get Camilla back.

Spence knew, wherever she was, he didn’t have many capabilities. His dad was tracking her, Konrad was on it, and all he could do was keep moving forward and keeping his eyes open to everything around him. He still had his own day ahead of him: the job fair this afternoon, a surprise to plan for Ach which meant finding Nell, and time to spend with his kids. He also needed to tell Niels and Talise who to look out for; they trusted Efraim. He didn’t want them to act any differently, though.

He would find Nell first, so he could get the stuff set up for after the job fair. It would give him time to contemplate what to tell Niels and Talise. Protecting their kids was the most important thing, even if it alarmed others. But protecting the Dells was also important, and setting off a war wouldn’t be good.

He had time to consider it. Efraim was being watched.

He would see Nell, then he would get the kids ready and take them swimming. He didn’t feel like he had sufficiently worked himself out yet for the day and any moment he could turn into training would be necessary. At any moment anything could happen.

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