I love our gym. It’s the size of a stadium with everything we could possibly need. We may have superior senses, but it’s never wise to sit on your laurels. Setia is an example of that. Very few know what the weaknesses of an irshiust are, and so Setia never once assumed Zixin would, but he did and because of that he was easily able to take her down. This is why training is important, it keeps us vigilant and allows us to do our job to the best of our abilities.
Stepping into the gym I take in every scent that permeates the room. From the smell of the equipment to the smell of residual sweat and even blood. My sisters and I never hold back in training, so blood has been drawn on more than one occasion.
I make my way to the far end of the gym, to work on some target practice. Tonight I’m in the mood for archery. I grab a bow off the rack on the wall and a quiver full of arrows. When we train with weapons, we are always sure to train with all the variations of the weapons we possess. For example, we have arrows that are designed to inflict damage on different supernatural beings, but since each is made of a different material it changes the weight, balance and projection of the weapon, so you need to understand how each works in order to utilize it correctly. Tonight I’ve selected arrows with arrowheads made from nuummite, a gemstone also known as sorcerer’s stone. This gemstone is very useful in dealing with wayward makkares, and given the recent revelations regarding one, in particular, I figure it can’t hurt to brush up on weapons we use against them.
I walk over to where I remember the booth to be, strap the quiver to my back and proceed to draw an arrow from the quiver and line it up with my bow, pulling the bowstring as far as I can while holding it steady. With my elbow, I press a button on the side of the booth wall. As soon as I do I hear a high-pitched ringing sound that lasts for three seconds. I focus on where the direction of the ringing is coming from and fire the arrow, listening as it cuts through the air and makes contact with a foam target.
“Target hit successfully,” says a robotic voice, and I smile in satisfaction.
Technology has definitely become a godsend over the years and helped me with certain areas of training that for a long time I could only do if I had a living opponent. Now I can train more often on my own. Every training area of the gym has a specific section that has been made for me, like here. From this particular booth, I can control the target at the far end. By pressing the button, it triggers a sound on the dummy but the sound never comes from the same place twice. Little microphones are hooked up to the dummy and are located on every inch of it, so one push of a button might trigger a sound coming from the heart, the next from the head, then the arm and so on. I’m able to focus on the sound and use that to find my target. Just because I can’t rely on my sight, doesn’t mean I’m handicapped. People don’t even realise I’m blind when they meet me, but boy do I get a kick out of things when they find out and proceed to underestimate just how capable I am of killing them. I almost feel sorry for them. Almost.
I continue to load my arrows and hit the button on the wall, listening for my target. Each time the arrow connects, the disembodied voice tells me of my success, but I cut it off each time eager to load my next arrow. With each go, I attempt to move faster and faster, with the only thing slowing me down being the technology that I have to wait on. That’s the only downside of not having a living opponent and why I love training with my sisters. They have the same speed as me and they never hold back with me either, which makes it fun.
Once I run out of arrows, I decide to move on to the rock climbing wall. This doesn’t come with any technological tricks for me. I can’t rely on my sense of smell or hearing and certainly not sight, I have to go entirely by touch. There’s something calming about the rock climbing wall. Taking my time to feel for each groove and to try and visualise the wall in my mind and how to best navigate my way up the face of it is almost meditative. It’s just me focusing one step at a time. I find it teaches patience, but that probably only applies to me since my sisters can see what they’re doing and do this much faster, but I like taking my time. It’s not as though the wall is going anywhere.
Time slips away as I move from one groove to the next, and as I continue up the face of the wall I find my thoughts becoming clearer. For the first time in I’m not sure how long, I’m not consumed with thoughts of that damn scent and who it could belong to. I can’t control the future, only the here and now, and right now I just want to focus on reaching the top and not on a mystery animai who is Gods knows where doing Gods knows what.
At some point, my seventh round of climbing is interrupted by the sound of travelling footsteps and the scent of a freshly lit fire and hot cocoa.
“There you are!” announces my sister Hiranur.
Clinging to the wall I glance towards the doorway to see her gamboge aura with glittering gold surrounding her. When learning colours and shades I noticed that the colours surrounding my sisters are all very unique in their shading, which seems very fitting.
“I wasn’t hiding,” I say smartly.
“Very cute. We’re assembling for a meeting; new assignments are up.”
“Why didn’t you just link me?” I ask. I click my tongue and listen to how the sound bounces off the surfaces around me to calculate how far the drop from the rock wall is. Once I’ve done that, I let go of the wall and drop to the ground with ease.
“I didn’t want to risk waking you, but you weren’t in your room, so I decided to come look for you. I should have probably checked in here first, you’ve been spending a lot of time in here lately. Should I be concerned?” she asks, the concern already evident in her voice.
“No need for concern. I’ve been having trouble sleeping,” I say, walking over to her, leaving the part out about how my nights are consumed with unwanted thoughts about my mystery animai. As an irshiust, I’m incapable of telling a lie, so it’s easier to speak what is true and keep the rest to myself.
“Have you tried herbal tea?”
“I doubt it will help, but thank you,” I smile, “Let’s go find out what trouble needs our attention this time.”
Slinging my arm around my sister’s we make our way to the meeting hall, a little extra pep in my step. A new case to keep my mind busy will prove far more useful as a distraction than training. Hopefully, it’s nothing too serious.
Stepping into the meeting hall I can see the kaleidoscopic colours that make up my sister’s auras filling the room as each one enters and takes their seat around the large circular table in the centre of the room. The table is gargantuan in size. Has to be to fit all one hundred and one of us. Hiranur and I take our seats and once everyone has gotten settled, our sister Imak, with her soft celadon aura and glittering gold hue stands to address us all. Aside from the unique shades, all of my sister’s auras have a gold glittering hue, which I’ve learned is unique to our species. Among us, there is no leader or chief as we handle things equally, but when it comes to overseeing meetings we do take turns. It just keeps things more balanced that way. I can hear the sound of rustling paper as I watch Imak, pass out dossiers. Once my dossier makes its way to my hands, I open it and begin running my fingers over the small bumps that fill the page. Naturally, I’m the only one who has to have
I’m probably a bad person for hoping whoever has been dealing with the sanguidaes all these years doesn’t make an appearance. It’s incredibly selfish, and I’ll never admit to it out loud. I just fear if I stay here dwelling over my mystery animai I will truly go insane. “Yildiz?” I hear Beste call, pulling me from my thoughts. “Hmm?” I ask, standing and turning towards her, her stunning coquelicot aura with its gold glittering hue shining around her. “You seem a little distracted,” she observes. “I have a few things on my mind, but it won’t interfere with the mission, I promise,” I say sincerely. “That’s good.” I can hear the smile in her voice as she wraps her arm around me, her delightful scent of warm sugar and fresh rain enveloping me, “Let’s go get dressed and then grab our toys,” she says with excitement. I chuckle, “Still calling weapons ‘toys’ huh?” “They are to me,” she says with a grin in her voice. We each go our separate ways, with me returning to my room to shower
“We’re definitely dealing with a sept,” muses Beste. “Six I’d say, based on the scents I’m picking up. Not counting the decomposing bodies,” I say solemnly. Sanguidae scents are much like everyone else’s, but theirs has a distinct metallic undertone that defines them from other species. We’ve only been in Auckland for thirty minutes, and we’ve already stumbled on another pile of bodies. There has been no attempt to hide the bodies from the public, they’ve just been mutilated and discarded. Left here to rot like trash. I know a blood craze can rob a sanguidae of their humanity, but I’m starting to believe that’s not the case. If even one, let alone all six were in the middle of a craze the body count would be much higher, and given how close we are to people, we’d more than likely hear screaming and a city fleeing in fear. “There’s something else I’m noticing,” says Beste. “What’s that?” “I can see why the authorities assumed an animal did this. These poor humans were savagely att
I take off, continuing to follow the trail and it’s not long before the scents begin to get stronger. As the scents get stronger I begin to pick up the sound of people conversing. I slow down my approach as their words become clearer, and it becomes obvious I’ve found the people I’m looking for. I sniff around, assessing my surroundings; smelling the trees around me. I click my tongue to discern how far away they are and walk over to what sounds like the nearest tree. It feels large and sturdy. I make quick work climbing up high into the tree top calculating how high I am as I climb so I can calculate how far the drop will be, then perch myself on a branch. From here I can easily spot the group of sanguidae I’m after. They’re a short distance away, all six of them. Each one illuminated by their different coloured auras, but each aura is outlined by a hue of blood red – common in the auras of sanguidaes. They’re laughing and enjoying themselves despite the fact they just murdered innoce
My body has become a livewire, every synapse firing at hyperspeed sending my senses into overdrive. My body feels hot and flushed as if I’ve been basking in the sun for hours. My heart has picked up speed and my mouth is salivating. My body is in such a state of overload I can’t move. I’m completely frozen, as a thousand questions race through my mind. Now that I am in close proximity to his scent, I can pick up the metallic undertone in his scent, but far more intense than what I’ve scented before.My animai is a sanguidae?! Why is he here? Why did he stop me? And how in the name of the Gods did his body shatter my sword?! I might have killed him! I have so much I want to ask I don’t know where to begin.“Not her,” comes his deep and warm voice that elicits a shiver from me.“What?” I whisper, trying to process that fact I’ve finally heard his voice and what he meant by what he said. I take what’s left of my katana and place it back in its scabbard.“I can’t let you hurt her, and as
An animai. A fucking animai. Has Zarseti lost her fucking mind?! How is that even remotely possible? This was meant to be a simple retrieval; how did this all happen? I had sensed the newly made sanguidae as soon as they turned. As the first, I am connected to each and every one, so I can feel when another comes into being. A fact that shames and disgusts me to my core. They had someone guiding them, so I didn’t interfere right away, but once I knew their supposed leader was as dumb as a doornail with the traits of a serial killer, I knew I had to step in. For thousands of years, I’ve managed to get to them before the Delegation could, but for once they beat me to it, but I never could have expected things to turn out this way. The moment I appeared; her scent overtook me. It nearly threw thousands of years of self-control out the window. Her scent was the most glorious thing I’ve ever smelt in my entire existence. She smelled of warm vanilla and orchids fresh on the vine at the pea
I disappear only to reappear in front of a large white double door. With no effort on my part, I push my arms in front of me blasting the doors open as my hands connect with the wood. I storm through the pristine 14,000 sqft villa of all white, turquoise, and deep blue accents with marble floors. I pass the living area, pass the kitchen and storm right out to the backyard. I step out into the oceanfront oasis seeking my target. I make my way through the white stone paths that divide the many swimming areas, proceed past the palm trees and up the stone steps until I get to the pool at the far end. As I reach the top platform, I look down into the clear turquoise waters at the woman I seek, her 7’1” curvaceous frame lazily floating on the water’s surface. Her fuchsia hair sprawled out around her and her white bikini clinging to her bronze skin. “Is there a reason why someone who can pop in wherever he likes, felt the need to break down my front door?” she casually asks, her eyes remain
After Beste and I returned to the Kartheca we debriefed our sisters on what had happened regarding the venator and sanguidae. I was sure to explain to my sisters about meeting the very first sanguidae and how he has been the one behind the disappearances all these years. That definitely got them all hyped up. I left out the part about him being my animai though. Omitting the truth is as close as we can get to lying and I am giving it my all these days. As soon as the formalities of the job are out of the way, I excuse myself and return my weapons to the armoury, being sure to clean them before putting them away. Except for the katana which is now just a handle with the remnants of a broken blade protruding from the handle. I then rush to my room, close the door, and take in a deep breath. “MOTHER! Mother, please. I need to speak to you. I don’t wish to question the gift you’ve given me, but I need to understand what’s going on. I need your help,” I beg as I sit down on my bed. I los