He even shared a bit about why he got into the magic work and met Malam.
It turns out that one of his siblings was mistreated by the government and ended up taking her own life. He went through a dark period and then threw himself into music while he dug into the information behind her death. As he did so, he met the previous lead singer, who was involved with an anti-government group. The rest, as they say, is history.
In spending all this time with Reem boxing, I’ve also been able to avoid the girl, so things are looking up.
Truly, though, much of our progress is thanks to Lent and Fem. While Lent was already good at researching to find more of the information we need to practice this esoteric magic, together they’ve made exponential progress. They’re also managing to distract the girl with mundane tasks and have her locked up with them all day, every day, so it’s doing double duty.
Hopefully, Fem isn’t also falling for her, or she’s going to create strife right here in our home. If that happens, I’ve decided I’m out. A man can only take so much.
They’ve been trying to give her some credit fortheir findings, but I can see through it. It’s benevolent of them, but dishonest. At some point, I’ll put my foot down and call them out. However, it does seem to be soothing Malam to think that his pet is helping, so I’m not in a hurry to do that right now.
I also haven’t seen any sign of the damned sword since we got home. At this point, I’m guessing Malam may have taken it from her, which is for the best. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I’d think she hallucinated the whole thing.
Of course, there is always a dark side, and currently, that is the news. It makes me that much more thankful we’re making so much progress because things continue to get worse. On top of all the other ongoing shit, the illness that’s caused by the pollution is continuing to claim more lives. Plus, we also have some sort of toxic creature in the storm grates that’s attacking carriage horses.
At first, the creatures were only attacking horses at rest, but there have been two carriage accidents this week where they’ve attacked while moving. It’s only a matter of time before the beasts start attacking humans. The government officials, who are complete scum, have decided to put additional armed guards on the streets. Of course, that’s only a temporary solution. The real answer is figuring out the weather and getting the storm drains serving their purpose again so they're less friendly to these beasts.
I could go on about politics and the evil in this world all day. At any rate, it's a good thing we’re making more progress with our weather work.
PART IV
A CAGED BIRD
Afew more days have passed, and Lent, Fem, and I are again sitting in the flower room doing research. Lent and I just pulled ourselves back from a giggle attack after sharing a particularly funny passage about the wind.
Through the partially open door, as I get the giggles under control, I hear a house employee calling for Reem to come deal with something. It’s likely some package full of band equipment, so I focus back on the book I’m looking through.
I’m just about to get into an interesting passage when the door to our room opens fully, and I see Reem standing in the doorway. I begin to glance away, but register suddenly how pale and miserable he looks.
As I scan his expression, trying to understand what might be happening, Fem asks, “What’s wrong, Reem?”
“There are city officials out front asking for Chaosta,” Reem says. His voice is wooden, but I can hear a note of fear.
My stomach flips, and as I watch the two of them, I realize that my chest has begun to ache.
I rub at it as Fem says, “They need paperwork for us to produce her.”
“They have it,” Reem says, and the room falls completely silent.
It’s so quiet I can hear the pounding of my heart as I try to rub away the ache.
Lent walks over and crouches in front of me, laying his hand gently on my leg. “It’s probably nothing,” he says quietly as he meets my eyes. Even his face is unusually pale. “Let’s just go talk to them and we’ll sort this out.” He stands and holds his hand out to me.
I take it and let him help me up. Staying close to him as he moves through the doorway, I follow as he leads to the front door. There is a harried-looking house employee standing there with the door open, wringing his hands as he looks at me. My stomach flips again, and the ache in my chest increases.
Then the entry hall spins because, as I look out through the door, I see Bonum in front of two other angels. All three wear official-looking white uniforms, and Bonum has a stack of papers in their hand.
“Come here, Chaosta,” Bonum says as they see me in the doorway. Their voice is the pleasant mask they used around the boys last time, rather than the raspy sound I know belongs to them. Still, shivers travel up my spine.
I hesitate, and they watch me silently, rolling their shoulders in the unsettling way I remember.
I finally manage to force myself to move forward, the fingers on my left hand cramping as I fight not to reach for a sword that isn’t there. I continue to rub my strongly aching chest.
As I get closer, the two angels behind Bonum step forward around them, take my arms, and press my front against the stone railing of the stairs.
As they do this, Bonum, in their pleasant voice, says, “Chaosta, you are under arrest for the murder of a city official…”
They continue to speak, but my ears are ringing too loudlyfor me to hear anything else. The angels bind my hands. Somehow, I manage to control my instincts and not struggle or fight back. The cartographer in my head gives unhelpful directions about sweeping their legs out from under them. I think we both know it’s futile. His voice is a quiet mumble in my head.
