Jack.
Daron would never forget the way Kallia had whispered it, like it was less a name and more a warning.
“… he and Kallia knew each other somehow. Zarose knows why he showed up—probably to help her win that stupid competition.” Janette’s tongue clicked hard against her teeth. “In any case, he hit my father like some cheat brawler and would’ve destroyed a lot more given the chance, so I expect there to be consequences.”
“Consequences come once the perpetrator is caught.” Aunt Cata nodded to the Patron beside her taking notes. “Since we have no name, would you describe what he looked like, Miss Eilin?”
“Tall, light-brown skin, dressed fine as a gentleman, dark eyes. Almost too handsome, if you ask me, though I guess that’s typical with magicians of his kind.” She chewed on the inside of her lip. “And then … he wore these odd rings.”
“Rings?”
“Yes, but they covered something. Some marks … it all happened so fast, I didn’t get a look.” Janette’s frown deepened. “I swear, my father had said something about the…”
Aunt Cata tilted her head. “Yes?”
The girl blinked. “Nothing. Just old families, you probably wouldn’t—”
“Janette, don’t.”
A raspy voice sounded, before a rustling of blankets and the squeak of metal springs as Mayor Eilin roused himself back up. “You don’t know what you’re saying. Or what they’ll do to you. To us all.”
Terror clung to his voice, so much that even as it made no sense, it chilled Daron.
“Who?” Janette went to Mayor Eilin’s side, her hand going by his. “It’s all right, Father. You’re safe now.”
When the man only shook his head harder, Aunt Cata straightened back her shoulders. “Mayor Eilin, please.” Her voice reached out gently. “My team and I were summoned. I’m only here to help—”
“I don’t believe you.” Eilin glared out the window overlooking a collection of gabled roofs in sight. “I don’t believe any of this. Not anymore.” When he looked down at his palm, the dark ink smudges against the side, he perked up. “Where’s the paper I asked for?”
Janette sighed. “We’ll give you more, after you finish speaking with the Head Patron.”
“But I need to get it down now, before it all goes…” The mayor’s gaze wandered to the floor where some scribbled papers had fallen hastily, before there was a pause. “Ah, Demarco. Is that you?”
Daron’s throat went dry, more from the uncharacteristic sunniness than the recoginition.
“Excellent timing.” The mayor continued humming to himself. “Saves me the trouble.”
Curious, Aunt Cata immediately stepped aside to give him full view of Daron. Not that Janette even cared, by this point. “What business do you have with him?”
The mayor tipped his head back with a light chuckle. “Wouldn’t you like to know? Wouldn’t we all?” With a small, tired smile, he patted his daughter’s hand. “You don’t remember, but you will. It’s not our faults we’ve forgotten.”
“That ball was utter madness, Father.” Janette pulled the blanket back over his feet. “I can’t imagine how anyone—”
“No, I’m not talking about that night.” The mayor’s brow furrowed. “This goes far beyond that night. Years before it.”
Silence pulled at the air between them, every wordless second its own tense heartbeat.
“Father…” She regarded him unsurely, delicately. “You’re not making any sense.”
“I’m seeing clearer than I have in a long time. Like a weight that was pressing down on me from somewhere, now gone. No clouds, no blocks. I remember—” He sighed harshly, examining the planes of his fingers. “That young magician in the dark suit, with triangles on his knuckles, I know him. We all do.”
Daron hadn’t even realized he’d pressed forward until Aunt Cata urged him back with her shoulder. Were it anyone else, he would’ve knocked them over without hesitation.
I know him.
Which meant the man knew more, knew where Kallia could be.
A lead.
Finally.
“I’m afraid we’ll have to talk another time, Head Patron.” Janette lifted her shoulder with an apology. “I think what my father probably needs most right now is some rest.”
Mayor Eilin shoved the sheet blanket off him. “No, I don’t need rest. I need to get it all out before it goes away.” He glanced frantically at Daron, then to Aunt Cata. “Head Patron Edgard, I’ve had all sorts of questions in the back of my head that surely you’d know the answers to. Patrons, and all.”
Cata’s “We know much, Mayor Eilin, but not everything.”
“Isn’t that the irony of this city, too? We’re even more in the dark. Shoved in it, if you ask me.” He raised a brow at her, turning it on all of them. “Because why is this city no more than just a wild rumor and speculation? Unremembered, unknown to so many. Lost, when there’s not even much found about it in the first place.”
A prickle of awareness ran through Daron. He’d wondered all of this before. Not too long ago. The riddle of Glorian wasn’t just for those outside the city looking in, but for those within the walls, too. Rumors spread fast, but this silence had endured. It bred stories and theories that became like a mask. And somehow, all of Soltair had just accepted it as that.
How can a city disappear when it stood around them?
“No guesses as to why?” the mayor posed, watching them carefully. “Not even you, Head Patron?”
In an interview, stilted silence from Aunt Cata was rare. She always had a ready answer, or at the very least, a response to keep the victim at ease. Somehow in all of this, Mayor Eilin had turned the tables on them all.
Janette finally broke the silence with a nervous, shaky laugh. “That’s quite enough.” Her cheeks flushed pink. “We can reschedule this so I can ring the nurse—”
“Janette, you’ve known for a long time that something has not been right. We all have.” Mayor Eilin picked up his daughter’s hand again, placing it against his head. “Someone has stolen from us, right here. Again and again.”
She pulled back from his hold. “Father, please.”
“You know I’m right. You don’t remember yet, but you will.”
That line again hung over them all, more ominous than ever. Something warred behind Janette’s eyes, slowly watering to the edges as she withdrew from the bed. “I-I need to step out for a moment, but please keep him here.” Without looking at anyone, she gestured for a nurse, her face crumpling. “However well he says he feels, he clearly needs some rest now.”
The sight of Janette’s shaking shoulders on her way out left a hollow feeling inside Daron. He didn’t know who he felt more for, the girl or her father who solemnly looked at the spot where she’d just been holding his hand.
Daron recognized the sort of loss that shadowed over the mayor’s face. If his own daughter didn’t believe him, no one would. He knew that feeling well.
“The truth can be so large, not everyone is ready to hear it.” The mayor let out a low sigh. “Wouldn’t you agree, Head Patron?”