“Where are we going, Evantra?”

  Evantra had dragged Noelle out to the car, ignoring the discomfort that lingered after their discussion.

  She hated to admit it, but the other girl was right.

  No matter how much she tried to confront the Veil or the things that terrified her, she was still cursed with the guilt of her actions, the tremors in her hands a reflection of them.

  It was time that she started to properly account for them.

  “Noelle… I’m sorry about Ben. I’ll speak to him and apologise. He’s been nothing but kind to us. I’m sorry.”

  She watched the girl’s eyes momentarily widen in surprise before Noelle turned away, returning her attention to the passing suburbs.

  “But his reaction seemed to imply what I was suspecting. Corpos are somehow utilising or incorporating artefacts into their cybernetics to achieve their effects. It must be why Ghostslayers have ‘specialities’ – each artefact carries different qualities and can’t necessarily be replicated at scale. But… that’s not important,” Evantra trailed off, shaking her head, before continuing.

  “Noelle… what do you know about rituals?”

  Noelle’s body went rigid at the word, and she saw fear flash in the girl’s green eyes, before they hardened.

  “I… not as much as I would like to. Rituals are the means for ghosts to enter the world. No matter how hard I searched, any mention of it is riddled with articles to the contrary. It’s almost as if someone had identified all articles with weight, and introduced competing information to sow doubt on it. I’m certain that Ghostslayers in the upper echelons share information discreetly with one another before their hunts. Still… it wasn’t the level of secrecy that they treated rituals. My theory is that it’s the PIU’s doing… why?”

  “I think Caliburn are conducting a ritual,” Evantra said softly. Noelle stared at her in stunned silence.

  “I was so fixated on the purpose of the raid that I forgot the bigger picture. I’ve learned a bit about them, given the nature of my abilities,” Evantra’s lips curled into a strained, wry smile, “but I still don’t think I know nearly enough. We’re here.”

  Evantra pulled up to the curb, halting before an old, rickety building. It was painted in dark blue paint, and had antique styled lamps on either end of the doorway. In the daylight, the character of the Radcliffes’ antique bookstore was revealed.

  Evantra ignored the heavy thumps of her heart, her grip around the steering wheel tightening.

  “Let’s go.”

  ***

  Evantra softly rapped her knuckles across the navy-blue door. Noelle stood next to her, anxiously clutching at her hands, her green eyes lingering on Evantra with concern.

  “Mrs Radcliffe?”

  They waited for a minute before they heard a lock unlatch. Evantra felt lightheaded, her heart in her throat, which was still hammering in her chest. She took a deep breath, slightly shuddering, before letting it all out.

  “Evantra?”

  Adeline Radcliffe was dishevelled. Evantra had never known Millie’s mother to have embraced the sharp, corporate styles of clothing – if anything – she embodied the polar opposite. Frilly, airy dresses of every colour under the sun, an aesthetic that Millie had affectionately roasted at every opportunity.

  Evantra could see dark circles under the woman’s eyes, and her wrinkles crinkled as she smiled at Evantra, the slightest of twitches at the corners of her lips betraying the effort behind it.

  “Eva. Come here.”

  Evantra strode forward, submitting herself to the woman’s embrace. Her hands curled tightly into fists behind the woman’s back, but no matter how hard she clenched them, the tremors wouldn’t go away.

  “Please, come in. You must be Noelle Laurent, Eva’s friend?”

  As grief-stricken as she was, Adeline still had it in her to tease her, and Evantra surprised herself when she laughed at her comment, before her cheeks heated. Adeline seemed to relax a degree herself, letting out a chuckle of her own, before ushering them into the bookstore.

  Evantra’s eyes went wide as they darted around the bookstore.

  The empty bookstore.

  “Adeline… you’re…”

  The woman nodded with a slight smile.

  “Moving. Back to Lagos, in Nigeria. We’re moving in to stay with my cousins. David’s out finalising the last couple of things. Come, come.”

  Evantra stared at the older woman’s back, turned towards her. She looked at the dusty shelves, the trails made by books removed from their perches. The life that the bookstore had been deprived of.

  A reflection of its curator.

  “Adeline… I’m sorry.”

  The woman turned back towards them after setting down a trio of teacups. She was setting up in the nook upstairs, with the circular window framing Elsecaller City in the distance.

  “I—”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Adeline’s voice was gentle. Which only made the pressure on Evantra’s chest worsen, to the point where she could hardly breathe. “I heard of what you did, you know? Closing that Veilsurge in the sewers. Mills would have been so proud.”

  Then, Adeline let out a soft laugh.

  “Well… let’s be honest. She would have probably called you an idiot a hundred different ways before doing so. And you were an idiot, what were you thinking?”

  Adeline lightly slapped her forearm, and the woman’s smile dropped when she noticed something. Her eyes flicked to Evantra’s shaking arms and she calmly led the girl to her seat.

  “Oh, sweetheart. I’m sorry for your loss.”

  Evantra’s gaze, which had been fixed on the teacup laid out before her, rose rapidly in shock. Her voice came out in a barely perceptible croak.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “She was your daugh—”

  “And she was your best friend,” Adeline said with conviction, her words boring into Evantra. Adeline Daniels shot Noelle a brief smile, pouring her some tea, before eventually turning back to Evantra.

  “I told her many times that Wisptown wasn’t a safe place for her. To go to the city, even to Bastion.”

  No… don’t tell me she stayed because of—

  “If you’re egotistical enough to believe that she did it because of you, then you’re certainly the Evantra I know,” the woman gave her a wink and a grin, even as she wiped a tear from her eye.

  “She stayed because she wanted to help the children here. She knew the risks and chose to do so anyway. You know, when she found out you dove into a Veilsurge, she was angry, but she got over it within the hour. Though it must not have seemed that way when she spoke to you.”

  Evantra stared up at Adeline as the woman’s gaze lingered out of the window.

  “She of all people understands what it’s like to be true to yourself. Sometimes, that means disappointing others. Sometimes, it means putting yourself at risk. If there was one thing I am the proudest of my daughter having achieved, it is that she knew how to be true to herself. She lived without any regrets, Eva. A good life, the best one.”

  Adeline poured tea into Evantra’s cup before following with her own. She gripped the edge of the teacup and raised it to her lips.

  “Now, how can I help you?”

  Evantra felt as if claws were raking across her heart, the moment that the words escaped Adeline’s mouth. At the fact that she had approached Adeline not to offer her condolences, but with something that she wanted from her.

  “You thought I didn’t know my daughter’s best friend? If you continue spiralling away in that head of yours, I’m going to react accordingly. I’m warning you Eva, Millie got her attitude from somewhere, and that somewhere was from yours truly,” Adeline smiled at her as she took another sip of her tea.

  Evantra let out a soft sigh and felt the pressure on her chest recede a degree.

  “Thank you.”

  She turned to look down at the basement.

  “The last time I was here… you let me read some of your books. Adeline… your grandmother. Adesina. She wrote one of them?”

  Adeline nodded.

  “Did she… study rituals? She wrote of occult artefacts… when we tried looking them up online, our searches turned up empty. Is there anything you could tell us about them?”

  Adeline took a sip of her tea before setting down her cup.

  “My mother was fascinated by the mystical. It was a passion that I inherited from her. When portals open to realms of myth and fantasy, who doesn’t begin to wonder just what’s out there?”

  For a moment, Adeline was far away from their conversation, a wistful smile on her lips.

  “My grandmother used to work as a researcher in the UK.”

  Evantra froze, her body going rigid. Noelle’s eyes widened, and she inclined her head briefly to meet Evantra’s eyes. As Adeline sipped her tea, it didn’t seem like she had picked up on their reaction to her words.

  This can’t be a coincidence.

  “Can… you tell us more about her?”

  “Maybe it will help to lay out a timeline for you. What’s the current year again? My mind… it’s not like it used to be. Ah, 2250. The Veilsurges appeared in the year 2050 – about two hundred years ago. Fifty years later, the magical girls and guardians appeared in the year 2100. It’s hard to determine precisely when they stopped appearing, but some place it at 2200 – about fifty years ago.”

  Adeline leaned forward, letting out a slow breath.

  “Such a short period, the century of hope.”

  Adeline paused, hefting her teacup in her hands.

  “My grandmother passed when I was very young. But my mother used to tell me stories about her. She was born during the period when magical girls were on the rise, when humanity was introduced to the impossible. You can imagine that she, like many of her peers, gained an interest in studying the mystical. There was no shortage of funding for talented young minds interested in piecing apart the workings of the Veilsurges, Veilcreatures and… ghosts.”

  Adeline paused, taking another sip of her tea as Evantra and Noelle exchanged a look.

  “Adesina had a passion for the occult, in particular. My mother told me that it all began when she chanced upon an object that seemed to flaunt the laws of physics. A flame… that never burned out.”

  Evantra could feel her heartbeat start to race with every word that emerged from Adeline’s mouth.

  “My mother insisted that it was real, that my grandmother had shown it to her. As a young graduate researcher, my grandmother began studying those artefacts, publishing papers about them and collecting them whenever she heard whispers. It wasn’t long before the British government came knocking,” Adeline idly stirred her tea, her face falling.

  “They headhunted the top minds in the space around the world. While the magical girls and guardians railed against the Veilcreatures, stemming the tides that emerged from Mythic Veilsurges, the governments were on the lookout for a more permanent solution to the apocalypse. The UK recruited her in one of their laboratories directed towards one such project.”

  Noelle leaned forwards.

  “What work did she do in the UK?”

  Adeline’s expression darkened, and she let out a sigh.

  “She was tight-lipped about the precise nature of her research. What my mother could tell me, however, was the way she changed. At first, it was the happiest period in my grandmother’s life. Delving headfirst into the unknown with other passionate souls. And then… things took a turn for the worse. She was always an… eccentric woman, but her personality shifted.”

  Evantra and Noelle leaned forwards in their seats.

  “It’s important for you to understand, that my grandmother rarely cared for social niceties,” Adeline’s lips curled into a faintly teasing smile as she looked at Evantra, “or socialising at all.”

  Millie did get it from her after all—

  “It was a wonder she even found my grandfather, her head as buried in the books as they were. So, you can imagine my mother’s surprise when she heard my grandmother talk about someone other than their family.”

  Even as Adeline’s lips formed a warm smile in her reminiscence, there was something contradictory that Evantra could parse in the depths of her gaze. Something that troubled her.

  “Adesina, my grandmother, spoke of her collaboration with a magical girl.”

  She fell silent for a few moments before her eyes narrowed, her hand extending towards Evantra’s in concern.

  “Evantra, are you alright, sweetheart?”

  “Y-yes, sorry, please go on,” Evantra hastily wiped off some of the tea that had spilt from the tremors that had worsened in her hands. Adeline cast a discreet glance towards it, and her gaze softened. She extracted a napkin and carefully wiped off the remains of the liquid on her arms, without commenting.

  “She seemed fond of the magical girl. But there came a point when she started to show a great deal of concern for the girl in question. She started losing faith, no… detesting the work that she was involved in. Saying that they were… taking advantage of her.”

  No…

  “How?”

  “She never said. No matter how much my mother hounded her, she didn’t say a word. Knowing how desperate the world powers were getting, I dread to think what they were subjecting that poor girl to. But in the end, it seemed as if the project was abandoned. A failure. Then my grandmother began to spiral into guilt; thankfully, my mother was able to ground her. All in all, there were only two tangible things that my mother told me that my grandmother ever disclosed. Once, when she was dreaming, she said an unfamiliar name in her dream.”

  They waited with bated breath.

  “Alfiera.”

  The image of a skeleton garbed in a black dress, clutching a soulgem in its bony palm, returned to Evantra. The intricate blood ritual spanning outwards from the epicentre, where she lay.

  Adeline smiled slightly, but her expression was filled with sadness.

  “At the time, my mother looked her up – but she wasn’t able to find anything, especially related to magical girls. I did the same, but my searches turned up no results. The second tangible thing my mother managed to learn from Adesina was that many of the researchers from the incident went on to found the megacorporations that we now know, or had a hand in founding them.”

  Evantra heard a sharp intake of breath, and she saw Noelle seated rigidly in place. Adeline paused, once again looking towards Elsecaller City in the distance. Adeline frowned to herself as she continued.

  “I had always heard that war, as terrible as it is, sparked incredible innovation. But I found it hard to believe that mankind made the leaps that it did with the threat of the Veil around its throat, plagued by resource scarcity. One can only assume that these artefacts and what those researchers learned about them and their applications were the keys to their ascension. Then, there was something that my mother didn’t realise, that I put together for myself.”

  Adeline leaned forwards, her eyes dark, meeting theirs in turn.

  “Not a trace of any discussion or study of these artefacts remained. The papers pulled down. Commentary, even speculation online. All erased. Misinformation has muddied the waters of the web, yes. But to systematically erase any trace or discussion of it? And to ensure that none rose in their place? That would take a concerted effort of the most powerful movers.”

  Evantra and Noelle exchanged a glance.

  “Megacorporations.”