The Trial of the Ghost

Chapter 13: Lines Somewhere Between Truth and Lies

“Astrakael, Kra,” Los murmured, “calm down.”

Kra had been jumpy all morning, ever since he and Corla had updated her about what had been discussed the previous night. She kept looking around as if she thought there would be some gang member hiding in every crowd, behind every corner. He knew she was scared, but this was getting ridiculous. They were in the Kyp Daily building. No one was going to attack them here.

“Sorry,” she murmured, looking down at her desk before some noise made her head snap back up.

“Kra,” Allelosin said, trying his best to sound as calm and reassuring as possible. “You’re safe. I know you’re worried, I am too, but can you please try to take some breaths.”

“I am trying,” she said, turning to him with wide eyes. “I just…. I…. I don’t know what to do. And I’m scared. I don’t want our people to hurt but….”

“Hey,” he replied, reaching out for her hand and squeezing it. “The Ghost will watch out for us. For the whole city. Let her worry, you don’t need to. She will keep people safe.”

Kra couldn’t meet his eyes and he barely heard her next words, “She can’t be everywhere at once. She’s not a goddess.”

“Kra.” He heard everything he was feeling in those words. How much he longed for her to smile again, genuinely smile. How much he ached at her sadness and fear. How much he feared himself. “No one is.”

“Then how can we trust she’ll be there? That she’ll have time to be there? How-....”

He hated how she sounded. Like she was begging him to have this answer.

He glanced down, trying to find the right words. “I… I don’t know Kra. I don’t have the answer. I wish I had some certainty for you to borrow, but I don’t. I guess we just have to believe in her. And lucky you,” He looked up and grinned, “that’s your forte.”

“I don’t know if I can do it this time,” she confessed.

Fuck, this is worse than I thought. He squeezed her hand again and whispered, “Kra, the Ghost is not a goddess but she’s the closest thing we’ve got to one. And she cares about this city. I’ve seen it and I know that you have. You can’t deny that. She loves the people of this city and she will not fail them. She will find a way to save them all if she can because that’s just who she is.

“It will be hard. It will take time. It’s probably too much. But that’s where we come in, Kra.” He gave her a conspiratorial grin. “We are going to figure out who is behind this and we are going to find a way to stop them before it gets to that point, okay? She is not alone. We are here.”

Kra nodded, her head going to another place a moment later. Los held in his sigh.

Her jerkiness didn’t completely fade all day. She kept jumping at noises only she seemed to hear, but when she looked for them, her head didn’t go fast enough to give her whiplash and that was good enough. He’d take the win where he could.

That was also why when lunch came around and Kra confessed she didn’t get enough work done that morning and wanted to stay in, he believed her without question.

“But you should absolutely go out,” she insisted. “Seriously Los, it’s a lovely day. We don’t know how many more of those we’ll have.”

“Well, if you’re sure.”

She grinned and gave him a little push towards the door. “I’m sure. Have fun.”

The moment he left, Kra’s grin slipped. Her heart pounded in her chest worse than it normally did when she lied. Why was it different with-

Gunshots.

This was her plan. She slipped into superspeed, activated her suit, and flew. She flew to the street, knocked out all the gangsters, destroyed their guns, and was back at her desk, looking completely normal before any human eye could possibly register the change.

It was how she had started. She had begun as the Ghost flying in at superspeed, in and out without any interaction. But she hadn’t been able to keep it up. She’s seen people hurt and she had to stop, she had to check.

Yet she was back to her roots. She needed to serve her city while being at her day job at the same time, so this was how she would operate for now. Only until this threat was taken care of. Then she would be back to normal.

But would that be an option? If she did this, would her city allow her to only operate at night again? Or would they demand her in the day? Would they forgive her for staying away now that they had the day option? Would she ever be enoug-

Her head snapped. A truck on the edge of the city, she’d heard its wheels. She pressed her vision and… no, not this one.

She slumped into her chair. It was going to be a long day. But she would do this. She could do this.

Kra knew she could because if it turned out that she couldn’t… well, she wasn’t going to think about that.

She would do this. No matter what.

Her shoulders still were caved in on themselves, but her smile spread across her face. It was small, tired, but there and that it came without being forced was all that mattered to her.

It went on like that all week. Kra made up excuse after excuse to get out of obligations. She even faked a cold to get out of Zaday night dinner with Rox, Zrayt, Los, and Corla. They all were still there, but Zrayt ordered food and Kra was allowed to stay in her room.

She was still thanking all seven Troan deities for her control over her bodily functions. It had been easy to heat her skin when Los pressed his hand to her forehead to check, but forcing her body to replicate a stuffy nose was obnoxious. How did humans live with the constant threat of getting sick? She’d have to ask Cebrua….

Actually, she was probably the worst person to ask. Cebrua had such a precise control over her body that Kra wouldn’t be surprised if she’d found some kind of mediation that prevented her from getting sick.

She never had seen or heard Cebrua sick before.

When she whispered this to Corla when she’d come to check on her, Corla had just suggested that Cebrua could be using antibiotics.

She stuck out her tongue before informing her, “You’re no fun,” which only made her best friend dissolve into a giggling fit she didn’t emerge from within the next five minutes.

The next week began to pass as well and now Kra was beginning to wonder if she’d missed the shipment, but no, she didn’t think so. She’d been examining the weapons in superspeed before she crushed them into tiny balls. They all had scratches from use and the magic was all at least slightly faded. Her best guess was that the newest of these had been introduced a month ago. And her best guesses, when it came to magic, were usually pretty accurate.

But then, Chemday, Varel 36th, the last day of the month came around.

It was her lunch hour when she finally spotted the truck. She’d spent all morning using her transparent vision, looking for a truck with weapons entering the city. She knew Los was suspicious after almost two weeks of excuses, but she didn’t think he guessed. At least, not yet. Her secret was safe for now.

And her secret would be safe for today as she pulled out her phone and jotted in her notes app: Found it. Ice cream truck in Little Zarn.

The words disappeared and were replaced with 38th St and 68th Ave, which disappeared a moment after she read them.

She confirmed and knew her parents would get on tracking it back to its origin through cameras and satellite images. It would make sense if both deliveries were happening at once, that the trucks had left together. So she scanned Desert Hawk territory and found the second. She put the information in her notes app as well and then slipped out of her chair, abandoning the salad she’d bought and moving past Los’ empty chair.

She was supposed to be at lunch with her colleagues with Los, but when she’d been reminded, as she had very much put this outing from her mind when she’d haphazardly agreed to it without paying much attention, she’d claimed to have work to catch up on to stay. She felt bad, but wasn’t this what Los said she had to do last week? Find a way? So what if she was reusing an excuse. It was worth it. She was now free to follow the truck.

Kra knew that once she stopped for a moment to think about how well she had lied to the others, to Los, it would disturb her, but she didn’t have the time. She was the most genuine person anyone ever met, would ever meet, and the second best liar and manipulator in the world (Cebrua being the obvious first). She hadn’t exactly made her peace with it, but she’d accepted it as a fact of her life.

As she ducked into the bathroom, she heard Corla in her head, telling her to leave the weapons. She hated it. Hated herself, but she thought, Okay, Corla, we’ll do this your way, as she activated her bracelet.

Her first stop was the trucks though. Sabotage. They were trying to sow chaos in her city–it was only fair, after all.

She got at the engine and very carefully pulled out the spark plugs. She gave them a slight squeeze on the tips and wore down the groves with a few swipes of her hand. Tucking everything back into its proper place, she moved onto the next truck and carefully did the exact same thing to the spark plugs in that truck.

Before leaving, she made sure to examine the shipment. She saw guns, explosives of all kinds, and a significant number of knives, all shrunk down to the size of a lipstick. She counted hundreds of each given to each gang. Likely, there was some kind of device they had or an activation word to return them to normal size.

She would have to remember to check the gangsters for shrunk weapons.

Kra sighed as she flew up into the atmosphere, far away from any recording devices and cameras. One more thing to do.

She quickly unzipped a secret pocket, nearly invisible to the casual observer, in her suit and pulled out her T-phone. She activated it and the holograms of her parents appeared.

“Where?” she asked.

Orjel and Ralehal vanished, replaced with a map of the area outside the city with a little red dot about ten miles out. Kra zoomed in and saw the building appear as a hologram. It was disguised as an ice cream factory, of all things.

With the truck design though, it should have been obvious.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Good luck,” her mother told her.

Kra turned off the T-phone and then stuffed it back into her pocket before zipping it up again. She didn’t need to keep it out. She had memorized the location. The flight there would be very short.

And, as predicted, very soon the factory was within sight. She switched to transparent vision. There were people in it, so she would have to be sneaky. Where should she enter?

She spotted a window high up that was cracked slightly for fresh air. Perfect. Kra flew for it in superspeed, pulled it open more, slipped in, put it back, and then flew for cover, hiding under a table.

The moment she slipped back out of superspeed, an alarm started blaring.

Well. Fuck.

“Intruder,” the speakers said, the automated voice cold and harsh. “Intruder.”

Kra slipped back out in superspeed the exact same way she had come. From a safe distance, she cursed herself. She had been so single minded that she hadn’t looked for a magic shield. It was a similar one to the one around the meeting she and Los had spied on, and, like an amateur, her superspeed had tripped it.

She’d have to come back later. And she needed to tell Corla. Who had a flash drive she had been supposed to pick up.

Oh, Corla wouldn’t be happy. Not at all.

When Los got back from lunch, the first thing he noticed was Kra typing on her keyboard, hitting her poor computer so hard, he was certain she’d damage something. Her brow was furrowed and her face set in a fierce frown.

Yeah, Kra got mad rarely and there was no way he was going to provoke her until it was safer. Maybe in a few hours. Or days. He really didn’t know–this was uncharted territory. He’d see how her mood changed.

But waiting on his own desk was a slip of paper.

Found the origin. You free tonight? - G

“Yes,” he whispered. “Can’t wait.”

He shoved the paper in his pocket and started going towards the bathroom. He had a paper to shred then flush.

As he walked, Kra’s typing grew gentler until it was a normal clack fading into the background.

Allelosin was waiting in his garb for what felt like hours before the Ghost showed up. He didn’t much care when they left, but when she did appear in his room, he found he cared very much that she hadn’t given him a time.

“Nice of you to make an appearance,” he mumbled.

“Do you have your phone on you?”

“No.”

“Please get it and silence it. We might need photos from this evening.”

Los did as asked, shoving it in a pocket. “So, where are we going?”

“A factory about ten miles outside the city. The weapons were delivered to the gangs this afternoon and I tried to search the factory. However, I tripped an alarm I forgot to look for-”

“You forgot?” His mask was already up, but he knew, her transparent vision or not, she could see his raised eyebrows.

In turn, he could almost see the ‘why-are-you-judging’ look she threw his way.

“Yes,” she said simply, almost placatingly, like one would speak to a child, “I forgot. I made a mistake. It happens. I am no goddess. I am not even close.” He held in his flinch. He was certain she saw that as well. “Anyway, I did not linger at the factory this afternoon after tripping the alarm. We are going back to see what we can find. Ms. Anvislu and I debriefed as you were still at work. We do not believe they think they’re compromised. I was gone so fast that we think they think it was a false alarm. It also has not been enough time that if they do believe they’re compromised that they have not had enough to completely dismantle operations. I also have a flash drive that will copy files on any computer it’s inserted into. Ms. Anvislu wants that data if possible. Any questions?”

“No.” Los held out a hand. “I’m ready.”

“Very well,” the Ghost replied.

The next moment, they were standing in a forest in near complete darkness. He pulled out his flashlight, but felt a hand push it down.

“What the…?” the Ghost murmured.

“What?” he asked.

“The field is gone. The alarm. It’s gone.”

“You can tell from here?”

“Yes, it is similar to the one around the warehouse. Once I was looking, I saw it earlier, but now it’s gone. Completely gone.”

“That… shouldn’t be possible.”

“And yet.” Kra’s mouth thinned as her transparent vision showed her the inside of the factory. “Come on. I need to see this. Just to make sure I’m going crazy.”

“What?” Los insisted as they walked through the trees.

“It’s completely empty. No cameras. No mics. No anything.”

“That can’t be possible.”

“And yet,” she repeated grumpily.

The silence continued until they came to the factory, all the locks on the door removed. It was slightly insulting, Kra thought. They hadn’t even left them the clue of who had made the locks. Nothing.

As Los gaped, she slipped her pocket open and brought out the T-phone again. She activated it and, as instructed earlier, Orjel and Ralehal’s holograms didn’t appear on top of it.

“Connect me with Ms. Anvislu,” she instructed, taking a seat.

Los looked down at the nearly flat metal heptagon the Ghost was setting on the floor. What on Kyp was that? He’d never seen something like that before.

To his surprise, a female voice said, “Connecting now.”

And then…. “Hey,” came Corla’s voice.

Where were the speakers?

“Ms. Anvislu,” the Ghost said politely. “You should be privy to this conversation. Please add your recommendations as needed.”

“Understood.” He actually heard her lean back in her chair. What was the audio quality on this thing?

“Alright, here’s the situation. The factory is completely empty. They’ve even taken the doorknobs. I think the only reason it’s still here is because an entire factory can’t disappear in under twelve hours. Whoever ran this place has considerable resources. I doubt it will still be here within a week.”

“Seems likely,” Corla said.

“Agreed,” the female voice from earlier jumped in.

“I’ll leave analysis of human behavior to you, my sun,” a male voice added.

Allelosin couldn’t prevent “The fuck?” from slipping out of his mouth.

“Mr. La’dyliap,” the Ghost said pleasantly, turning her head towards him, “please have a seat and save any questions unrelated to the emptying of the factory for after the call.”

“Pretty sure who we’re talking to is relevant,” Los muttered, sitting opposite her and yanking off his mask before shoving it in a pocket.

“We are speaking to tech experts.” She turned to the heptagon. “Orjel, Ralehal, you told me the camera and satellite footage you monitored today shows no trucks leaving from the factory other than the delivery trucks. Correct?”

“Correct,” the strange female voice said confidently.

“Is it possible the footage was looped?”

“No,” the male said. “Our computers and programs would have been able to tell if even the slightest part was similar.”

“And it cannot have been forged?”

“No,” the male repeated. “Human technology isn’t advanced enough to fool us yet.”

“Understood,” the Ghost said, her hands massaging her temples. “All of you, please monitor. Ms. Anvislu, please coordinate with Orjel and Ralehal about how to maximize your time. Also, I know I said this, but check in on Queen Tree every now and then? I know she’s capable of covering for a few hours-”

“But this isn’t her city,” the female said. “Don’t worry, my star, we have her frequency and will take care of it.”

“Good. Any advice for now?”

“Keep looking,” Corla piped in. “Your cursory glances usually do it, but focus. Maybe they left something behind or something they don’t think you can see.”

“Do… do you think they know I’m on their trail?”

The silence lingered in the air like smog. “I don’t know,” Corla admitted.

“Maybe,” the female suggested.

“Not my field,” the male said.

“I think we should proceed as if they do,” the female added.

“Understood. Ms. Anvislu, do you agree?”

“I do.” Corla sighed. At her desk, she wished she could lean back into her chair further. This entire situation was mentally exhausting. She couldn’t wait for it all to be over. “It means we need to work as quickly as possible and likely won’t be able to be as thorough as before. It sucks, don’t get me wrong, and I hate my life, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious until we know for certain.”

“Heard, Ms. Anvislu,” Kra replied, knowing that although her best friend couldn’t see the nod she gave, Corla heard it as clear as day. “Thank you for your input. I’ll call again if we need you. All of you. I’ll keep this on, but do not call unless it’s absolutely critical. Am I clear?”

“Clear,” Corla confirmed.

“Clear,” the female agreed.

A beat of silence then Kra asked, “Ralehal?”

“Oh, yes,” he said, as if snapping out of his work, “clear.”

“Wonderful.” Out of the corner of her eye, Kra watched Los’ mind whirl, putting pieces together. She was going to have to be careful for the next few minutes. “Dismissed for now. Good luck to you.”

“Good luck,” all three of them told her. Orjel added, “Stay safe, Ghost.”

“End call,” Kra said before Ralehal could accidentally say her name or something like that, shoving the T-phone back into her pocket and zipping it once more.

She stood and took in the factory as a human would. Perfectly spotless. But her eyes weren’t human. She would find something. After she dealt with whatever fight Allelosin wanted to pick.

But he said nothing so she looked down and found him staring, gaping with a mouth opened as wide as an apple.

“Are you ready to continue our search?” she asked. “Or are there questions you’d like to ask before we do. Off the record only,” she quickly added. No way was she letting anything she might say make the papers. Not yet.

“What was that device?” Los started with.

Easy enough. “It’s similar to a phone but more advanced.”

“And where did you get that?”

“My biological parents. They’re dead now.” She knew her tone was too harsh, so she took a breath and admitted, “Have been for a while.”

“I’m sorry,” Los said.

“It’s fine. They died not long after I was born. Two weeks and two days to be precise.” She let out a small huff despite herself. “It was quite the struggle to get the exact timeline, but well, I managed.”

“You asked family friends?” Los asked.

“I asked Orjel and Ralehal.” Omission, not an outright lie.

“Who you called.”

“Yes, they help me with tech support. They’re very talented. I included Ms. Anvislu in this project because well….”

“We need all the help we can get.”

“Exactly. I’m glad you understand.”

“Mostly, I think,” Los admitted. Kra held in her sigh. “I’ve never heard names like Ormhel and Ralahal?”

“Orjel and Ralehal,” she corrected. “And you wouldn’t have. They’re… not from around here. Not from anywhere you’ve ever heard of.”

“And your family from there too?”

Kra couldn’t do anything but nod. Tro… what would it have been like to have been raised there? What would it have been like if it had survived?

Who would she even be without Mar, Nath, and Shel? Without M’sav? Would she like that version of herself? Would that version of herself be disgusted by who she was in this lifetime?

“What was it like there?” Los asked, sounding so innocent.

Kra nearly laughed. “I have no idea. I…. I was abandoned in Lywolf shortly after my birth. I never knew home. And no, I can’t go back and learn. It’s gone. My people were destroyed and home wiped off every map. My parents died with them.”

“Ghost, I….”

He reached out for her hand, but Kra turned away. As much as she longed for the comfort, she wasn’t Kra. She had to maintain the Ghost. She closed her eyes, letting the feeling wash over her. Letting her eyes water and letting herself breathe through it. A few seconds after a scraping sound she couldn’t make herself care about, she felt a hand wrap around hers.

Kra opened her eyes and turned. Los stood there, his eyes wide, concentrating solely on her and kindness written all over his face. He squeezed her hand.

And when she couldn’t force herself to pull away, the tears really came. Los pulled her into a hug. He held her there as she drenched her hood. She couldn’t stop them. She wouldn’t stop. She didn’t want to. She needed this.

It had been too long since she’d cried for her parents. Her real ones. As good as Orjel and Ralehal were, as close to the real versions they were, they were AIs and not her actual parents. She loved them as she would have loved her real parents, but she’d never been able to forget that the Orjel and Ralehal that were responsible for her birth and escape from Tro were dead, never to come back.

Her knees gave out and she slumped to the floor, remembering to imbue the floor and Los, who kept holding her as she fell, with her power at the last second. So, instead of the concrete below them crumbling into dust, their knees just made a thud.

She kept crying. For her parents. For the life she lost. For her. For the life she led now, the one that she put on hold to cry. The one that could result in the streets running as red as a rose if she failed.

She kept crying until she’d let everything out.

“I’m sorry,” she said, pulling away and feeling lighter, like something heavy had been lifted from her heart and shoulders. “We’re on a mission. I shouldn’t be doing this right now. People are counting on us.”

“Yes, they are,” he agreed, pulling her in again until they were sitting side by side. He held her with one arm and held her hand with his free hand. “But it can wait a few more minutes. There are no cameras here, right?”

“Right. And no mics I can see.”

“Then we’re alone and the mission can wait while you tell me about your home. Whatever you know. From Orjel and Ralehal? Did I get that right?”

Kra smiled. “Yeah.” She rested her head against his shoulder. “What do you want to know?”

“What was it called?”

“Tro.”

“What did your parents name you?”

“Cael,” she whispered. “I was born Cael of the Venla.”

“Venla?”

“The name of my family. My mother’s family. When we get married, straight couples expect the male to join the female’s family. It doesn’t always happen, we’d moved past it as a culture, it was tradition mostly carried on. For other couples, they’re usually expected to belong to the more prestigious family. Again, not as much anymore, yet it still usually happened. The Venla… they were a scientific family, but my mom was a historian. My dad was a scientist.”

“What does Cael mean?”

“Well, the suffix -el just means I’m a girl, -hal is male and no suffix is no gender, but Ka is star in our language.”

“So, you’re just star?”

“I guess. I was named for my uncle, my dad’s brother, Kahal of the Zelor.”

“One of them said ‘my star’ to you at one point. That’s kind of cute.”

“Oh, that. It’s not just about me. Our culture was tied up in the sky. Like how you say sweetheart, or honey, or darling, we have my star, my moon, my sun. ‘My star’ is for someone you care about very much, no matter what kind of relationship, platonic, romantic, familiar. Calling someone that says they guide you and bring light into your life. ‘My moon’ is for your inner circle, for the most important people in your life. The implication is that they make your dark times brighter.” She smiled. Sunflower. Stupid, but with how their souls were connected, she really did love that it was his nickname for her, even if he didn’t know it. “But ‘my sun,’ that’s for the most important person in your life. Its most common use was romantic, for the person you believed to be your soulmate. However, it can be used for family or friendships. Not common, but not unheard of.”

“That’s beautiful.”

“My parents believed they were soulmates.”

“I’m sure they were.” He squeezed her shoulder. “So, the sky?”

“Yeah, the sky. Our religion, starism, had seven deities. Six of them lived in the brightest stars in the sky and Awronadai, our main deity, lived in our sun. Our culture… it puts an emphasis on balance and moderation. Good things are beneficial to a certain point and bad things can be good in certain amounts. Each of our deities has two sides, a sunny side and a shady side. The mostly good and the mostly bad. Each side is further broken up into the light and the shadow of it.

“Awronadai, they’re the deity of light, the sun, and the sky and the deity of shadows, shade, and the land. They’re the only deity in perfect balance. All the others tilt towards sunny. It’s why Awronadai is in charge. When we pray to them, we use she/her pronouns if trying to invoke their sunny side. He/him if shady. And they/them as I’m doing now when it doesn’t matter much. They’re supposed to be female during the day and male at night.”

“Are they kind? Awronadai?”

“Overall? Yes. But not when it’s needed. Mostly though, they are calm and patient. Moderation, remember?”

And what even was her life that she was leaning against Allelosin La’dyliap, telling him about Troan culture?

“Right. So, the six others?” he prompted, nudging her.

“They’re all Awronadai’s children. Sofeyel is the oldest and their closest confident and most trusted advisor, but not their favorite. She’s the goddess of healing and justice and the goddess of pain and revenge. Next is Sheomhal, god of speed and knowledge and god of sloth and ignorance. Okyavhal, god of strength and flexibility and god of weakness and rigidness. Ihooyalel, goddess of insight and compassion and goddess of blindness and apathy. Tzayikhal, god of distinctiveness and feeling and god of conformity and numbness. He’s trans, actually, which I find fun because his shady side is conformity.” Los laughed. “And then the youngest is Mavarael, Awronadai’s favorite. She’s the goddess of magic and goddess of helplessness. She is the goddess of the least number of things, but she has the most powers associated with her.”

“Powers?”

Fuck. “All our powers are associated with one of the deities. Mavarel has the most.”

“So, who would your deity be then?”

“All of them. My powers are associated with all of them.”

“Do you pray to them?”

“Sometimes. When I feel like I need to pray.”

“Could you teach me a prayer?”

“I…. I don’t know if there are any formal prayers actually. I… It’s more like just talking to them. Asking for help or guidance.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Yeah. You can technically pray at any time, but for effectiveness, you pray to Awronadai at sunrise and the others at sunset.”

“That must be easier in the winter.”

Kra laughed. What was it like on Tro? “Yeah.” How long were their days? Nights? Could the devout starists sleep enough in the summer and still pray on time? “It is.”

She pushed herself away. It was getting too personal, too close. Soon, she wouldn’t be able to rephrase and omit enough to technically not be lying. Soon, she would need to outright lie.

Still, she wanted to talk about it. She felt… safe near him. She always did. It scared her slightly sometimes. Maybe that was why she hadn’t told him yet.

It didn’t matter now. They had a job to do. She stood and wiped dust off her uniform. She held out a hand to Allelosin.

He took it and then strode past her to grab his mask. He slid it back on before turning to face her.

“So.” Los kept his voice all business as he faced the Ghost. Cael? The Ghost? He knew a dismissal then he saw one. It was time to get back to work. “What now, Cael?”

“Ghost,” she corrected lightly. Of course, while doing business, while in the hood, she wasn’t the girl who’d lost her parents and her culture. She was a superhero. His partner. He could respect that. “We look around for clues. If you would kindly give me a moment to scan?”

“By all means. Your eyes are better than mine.”

He thought he heard her snort, but he was likely imagining things.

Kra shifted her sight to magic and seriously studied the factory. Nothing here, but her transparent vision revealed a basement. And that basement wall had one wall that was laced with magic. One wall, with a tunnel behind it. A tunnel that led further away from the city and the destination of which she could not see.