Immortal Memory (Iris' Atlantis 1)

25: Shards of Black Glass

I had traveled dozens of times on this passenger seat in his car. And without thinking, I navigated the radio channels. Blizzard laid a hand on mine.

"Wouldn't you rather tell me of yourself, Timothy? I have heard much about you, but nothing from you, really. Or even..." He hesitated. "Would you share some of the good memories of me, if there are any? The Queen said we were friends, once upon a time."

I opened my mouth. Closed it.

I thought about it. For some reason it didn't feel right to talk of our past. As if I were gossiping on someone's grave.

I dropped.

Stump had come to the car with us. Blizzard hadn't commented on the presence of someone he had known for years. So I concluded that he didn't sense Stump. The past, Stump included, belonged to me alone. To me and the goddess.

I pushed down the radio's button. A night concerto filled the car.

"I think," I said after a long silence, "that maybe it would be best, for now, to take this fresh start for the two of us. Leave the past alone."

Blizzard nodded. He even smiled a bit at the near empty road ahead of us.

"Good. So be it. Let's forget the past and concentrate on what we mean for each other from tonight on."

After the Queen has spoken.

I wasn't sure if the thought was mine, or did it somehow emanate from the being traveling on the backseat.

Julia

I had broken into Aconite's office at the university. I still didn't know where he lived, and the university's central campus had been practically on my way.

I turned in my hands a silver lettered calling card to the Fair Marquise. I tapped Aconite's desk with a nail. Now, Aconite was quite the powerful mage apparently. And the City sometimes tried to offer passages and other boons to powerful witches. That was how the Witch Towns had formed in the first place. But I very much doubted Aconite would be pleased by such an offering. Passages were difficult to navigate and many a witch had lost their life in them.

So, chances were I would just have to locate the house where he lived. Probably somewhere deep in the Witch Town of Breasinghae.

I sighed. I was getting tired, and the time was getting late. And I didn't fancy driving a taxi home, because Lavender's accounts weren't bursting with extra cash. I needed to catch the last metro to the east of the city. It would leave just before midnight.

I closed Aconite's office door behind myself. Then I ascended a flight of stairs to the entrance hall of the University's great main building. The place was dark and echoed emptiness. I had broken into the building as well.

I left the main entrance open as I embraced the night. The university campus formed a seamless part of the city center and there were people outside at all hours. The hussle of the day had died out, leaving behind an unhurried, leisurely atmosphere, not unlike the overall mood in witch towns.

I would have maybe lingered in town, but the last metro spurred my steps.

A shadow parted behind me. I saw it in the corner of my eye.

I didn't care, but pressed on. No one would dare attack me in the city's center. And I wasn't afraid of attacks. I was afraid of missing the metro.

I caught the metro, and not even the last one. I was still holding Hellebore's calling card when I sat down on the plastic seat. I rested my head against the dark window and flipped the card through my fingers.