Chapter VI: A Spy's Burden

Danica Horanská returned to Bratislava with a sour expression plastered on her face - she could have as well swallowed a frog alive and let it swirl in her gut. She liked neither the gentle autumn sun, nor the troubling news coming through light projectors, nor her seemingly unimportant life. Above all else, she hated the Spy Guild and her prospective servitude.

Danica summoned what little had remained of her focus and sauntered towards the embarkment. Once, she had aspired to become an engineer, someone capable of cracking the secrets of the Ancestors' technology. Yet the only prestigious career for an Offcast of her lowly status and her light-bending enhancement lay with those who gathered information.

The Spy Guild opened doors, bought alliances and silenced objections. Having neither power nor connections, Danica stuck to them with a drowning man's despair. She ran errands and bid her time, switching from reading light-scrolls to delving into the flashing news streaming from her light projector. Danica used her enhancement to power up the iridescent disc that sprouted strings of golden letters intertwined with pictures, which could be revived with soft clicks of her fingers. It was in the endless depths of these light-storages that she came across Ariadna Lascari's paintings. And it was there that she first encountered the artist herself.

Months ago, she sent her a message asking if she could buy a picture of a giant firefly. Danica had never acquired anything as useless as an oil painting before. For someone like her, money was scarce, and indulgences came at a staggering price. Yet something about Ariadna's art had fascinated Danica beyond her own understanding. For the first time in her life, she decided to buy an object not related to the Ancestors' technology and its secrets.

Crossing the bridge over the Danube, Danica tossed an idle glance at its calm waters. She loved the river and the way it flowed through the cracks in the Veil. Nervous to the point of snapping, she stopped, then sighed and tottered forward, heading toward Janko Kral Orchard. Danica pulled her leather jacket over her sack dress and tucked her long golden scarf into the collar.

Ariadna Lascari was an energy-twister. A Byzantine-freaking-blood! There was nothing to worry about. Ariadna could manage. But Danica still worried. She almost reached the gazebo in the center of the park, when an energetic young girl waved to her in the distance. She let out a beleaguered sigh. The smart girl did it.

"Danica!"

Torn jeans, a colorful shirt, and black highlights in her red hair - she looked strangely put together. Danica drew closer and squeezed Ariadna's shoulder, squinting against the sun.

"Keep your voice down! You need to return to Budapest before sunset. As to the rest… we can get wasted if you want to skip sightseeing."

The girl smiled, much to Danica's annoyance. Why was she trying to be so likeable?

"Thanks for bringing me here. And for the gift. I really like the bracelet you gave me." She lifted her hand with a dangling silver hoop around it. "I never take it off. Even when I draw."

"Don't mention it." Danica motioned to the side, squeezing out a smile. "Have you ever left Hungary?" Her round brown eyes screened one of the alleys before shifting back to the girl. Ariadna hesitated.

"Well… After the Great Collapse of the Veil there aren't many places I could visit." She sighed. "I'm not sure I want to leave Hungary, knowing what's happened to my family."

"Understandable." Danica nodded gravely. "You should be careful even in here. Light travels fast. Especially here." Instinctively, she sought other light-benders, lurking in the shadows, but doubted many Offcasts would stroll in the park in the middle of a working day.

"Don't worry about me." Her clear eyes stared at Danica, forcing her to lower her gaze. All Byzantine bloods could tap into the minds of others. That much she knew. A forced smile appeared on Danica's square face.

"I am still very much interested in all your stories. Remember, you promised to tell me everything." Danica squeezed out another awkward smile and tossed her tousled chestnut hair away from her mouth. "I will show you the city in return."

"Deal." Ariadna beamed at her.

"Well, here you are." Danica's sweeping gesture enveloped half of the autumn scenery around them, extending to picturesque hills with a castle on the other side of the river. "Is it better than you have expected?"

"I guess…"

"Welcome."

The excursion dragged on. As Danica waited for Ariadna to lose herself in the excitement of the moment, she replayed the plan in her mind: ask questions, be brief, smile nicely, put her on a train beyond the Veil, report to the Guild. It should have been easy. Danica felt lightheaded, pushing away a grim pang of guilt nagging in her stomach. Picking nervously at the skin of her palm, she shoved Ariadna through the city towards the busy shopping streets beneath the castle.

She endured Ariadna's optimism with uncharacteristic patience. Why did the girl have to be so naïve? She almost seemed stupid. A familiar beam of light flickered in the air, forcing Danica to curse under her breath, "By the Ancestors' death! Not now." Her even-toned face turned pale as a sun-eaten parchment, dark brown eyes blinking.

"Don't do anything rash," she said, grabbing Ariadna's hand and jerking her to a halt in front of a two-story building with a crumbling facade. "Pull the hood over your hair." Sudden panic sent her heart galloping in her chest. Why was an informant snooping around? Didn't the Guild trust Danica enough?

A petite blond woman with a strained face drew closer, a dangerous sparkle in her droopy eyes. Danica's heart sank when the woman addressed her.

"Danka, dear. Good day to you. A friend of yours, isn't she?" She approached the grey building, forcing the girls to retreat to the crumbling porch.

"Yeah." Danica did not sound confident. "This is…"

"Margit Varga." Ariadna smiled widely. The woman's eyes narrowed, shifting from Danica to the stone columns supporting a massive balcony. The grey building was in dire need of rehab.

"I am always happy to meet a Psychic. You must be a relative of Lehel," she said.

"A distant relative," Ariadna replied lightheartedly. Danica was ready to punch the girl, how could she not have come up with anything better than the Councilor's surname? If Ariadna was one of the "terrifying Lascaris," she sure did not act like those conniving bastards.

"Radmila Chlápková." The woman introduced herself with superfluous courtesy. "I work here. Bratislava is a place where information travels faster than elsewhere. It is always exciting." She pierced Ariadna with an inquiring look. Ariadna nodded in confusion.

"I do my best to stay focused," Radmila uttered with her lips half-squeezed.

"A difficult job," Danica said, seizing Ariadna's hand again and hoping she would not talk. "Margit has very little time. I must show her the Blue Church and that… manor… You know, down the street." Danica tried to remember the names of the sights, but her mind kept stumbling over invisible rocks. She was never good at history.

"Ah, an excellent choice," Radmila sneered, her predatory gaze following them when they hurried forward.

Danica dragged Ariadna away from Chlápková with renewed vigor. If someone like her boss had decided to pay them a personal visit, it could not have been a good sign. Dark suspicions crawled in Danica's mind, as she weighed probabilities and possibilities. She wondered if she had made the right choice. Was the game worth the price? The little Lascari was no mastermind. Every idiot could see that, and Danica fancied herself a smart light-bender. The girl was Danica's age. She could not have had the time to make that many enemies. She was not Leudora Galbur, her terrible aunt. She was no Basilisk! Why did Radmila choose her?

"Ari, you must leave. Now." Danica swallowed hard and buried her heavy gaze into Ariadna's bright blue eyes. "Chlápková is a dangerous person. Worse than my father."

"You told me your father was an alcoholic." Ariadna frowned in confusion.

"That's true. But he used to work for the Spy Guild. You don't want to mess with them, especially here. Bratislava is their domain."

"The railway station should not be far away, although the Veil's topography seems different from the Native's dimension in this sector." She hesitated. "I still don't understand. I am not important enough to stir the Guild's attention."

Danica bit her lip: was her place among the Guild's elite worth it? She slouched, lowering her gaze. All she needed was information. Were Ariadna's people responsible for the Veil's disintegration? The little Lascari did not have to suffer for their sins. Trying to lighten the mood, Danica pointed at an elegant baroque manor in the distance. She knew it had once belonged to a noble Austro-Hungarian family. The result of her effort was mediocre at best. "See that fancy old house over there? We could take a small detour."

Ariadna smiled sadly. "You are not a very good guide, are you?"

"No," she replied honestly, heading down the street. "I am pretty awesome at mathematics, though. And I can create cool slipper engine designs." She did not hide the pride in her voice.

"Like my mother." Ariadna stared at her feet. "She doesn't like talking to me, though."

"Maybe you don't know much about your mum." Danica stroked her back, suddenly realizing that her words had not come out as comforting as she had hoped. Strangely enough, Ariadna did not show any signs of offence.

"My mother is frustrated because of the travel ban."

"About that…" Danica hesitated, "How is your family… hmm… coping in exile?"

"It is not that bad for me. That's the only life I've known."

Danica slowed her pace to get a better look at Ariadna's round face bathed in sunlight. The girl scrutinized every bystander, smiled at every passing Offcast and pointed at every curious architectural detail with her finger. What did she see in those narrow cornices and steep roofs?

"Most Offcasts blame the Psychics for both Balkan Wars," Danica pointed out carefully. Ariadna shrugged, staring at a long chimney protruding from a tiled roof of a café. She spoke softly.

"The gravity-switchers were the ones who started the Second War. They believed the Psychics controlled the Council. It's been their excuse for hating us ever since the First War. It seems they can't come up with better ideas."

"You mean the Serpent's family, don't you? Those Drašković Offcasts?" Danica interrupted, trying to put the puzzle together.

"The worst of the gravity-switchers," Ariadna confirmed, stopping to gaze at a row of ornate windows. "My grandmother's nightmare."

"Adeona Lascari's nightmare?"

Ariadna nodded, resuming her casual pace. "My grandmother accuses them of all the despicable crimes committed in the two wars. She's been hating the Draškovićes forever."

"Hm," Danica waved her hand. She had heard a different version of the same story. "That's all ancient history… The First Balkan War happened forty years ago. The Second ended when we were born."

"We are still living in the past. Time-masters and energy-twisters. We failed twice to secure our future. Peace never lasted long enough." A pang of guilt shot through her face. "We could have won the last war had it not been for the Dalmatian Serpent. Nobody could resist his twisted creations."

"Dragomir Drašković." Danica whispered the name in awe. "My father once said he was a genius - the youngest person to ever achieve the rank of a Magister in the Alka Guard. I've heard Grand Magister Blažetin himself was jealous of the Serpent."

Ariadna bit her lip, almost bumping into Danica's back. "That Dalmatian was a hero to all non-Psychics. But we viewed him differently. It was my Aunt Leudora, who poisoned him. He was special, I think. Had he lived, the war would have continued. Your people would have destroyed us all. Or, maybe the Serpent would have brought peace and prosperity like everyone believed he could."

"How did your aunt kill him?" Danica asked, quickening her pace.

"I don't know." Ariadna shrugged, suddenly oblivious to the cityscape that had fascinated her before. "Blood lily essence. That's what I've heard. Dragomir Drašković was a chemist, not a soldier. Maybe he tried to get rid of her. Leudora must have swapped the glasses during their meeting, so that he sipped the poison instead. The Alkari found him dead after his meeting with Leudora."

"Just like that?"

"That's what I think. By the end of the Second War everyone was terrified of my kin. Leudora saw to that. They left us alone."

"That's it?" Disappointment flashed across Danica's square face.

"Leudora does not talk about the war." She blinked nervously, her hand catching a leaf falling from a solitary tree in front of an old and shabby apartment building. "After the death of the Serpent everything changed. The Veil endured. The second war stopped, just as Leudora said it would. Without the scientific genius of the Serpent, the Alka Guard was reluctant to move against us or support our enemies. Pity it did not end well."

"Exile does not sound that bad." Danica scoffed and turned into a narrow street lined with lanky maple trees.

"It's not about exile, Danka. A week after the Serpent's death, everyone started to fight for the scraps of his research and the cursed blood lilies. The Gothars - the keepers of the biggest blood lily stone beneath the Veil - were brutally slaughtered along with some Alkar sent there to protect them. The former mentor of the Serpent was accused. He fled, disappearing somewhere with that damn thing. My aunt Laurenția thought the gravity-switchers had taken the stone to assume control of the Council. She tried to launch an attack of her own. You can guess how well it went."

Danica frowned. "I can't believe the Council let everyone go in the end. I mean… you are Byzantines."

"They tried to kill us then. But it didn't work." Ariadna sighed and lowered her head. Soft wind touched her cheeks and played with the black highlights in her hair. "Many names, many people, many deaths." She lifted another red maple leaf from the pavement and coiled it in her hand. Danica stopped at the corner of the street and shook her head.

"I guess with such talents and such luck, you must be thinking a lot about revoking the travel ban."

"It's complicated," Ariadna said. "Leudora rejected all the accusations of the Council, but never said anything to restore her reputation. Nobody knows what she really thinks. My other aunt is… well… impulsive."

"Impulsive?" Danica was finally getting somewhere, but it did not feel like an accomplishment. "Is she searching for allies?"

"Why would I know?" Ariadna extracted a half-torn pile of papers and a pencil from her bag. Then she started sketching, her feet propelling her forward. "We are rich. She could buy somebody's allegiance."

"I've expected something more exciting…"

"More exciting than this? Well… let me see what I can find. My grandfather Slavoljub killed himself, his cousin Milica fell off a cliff, my grandmother's sister Alina went mad. Her brother Alexie performed some weird chemical experiments that culminated in a fire that consumed him along with his house. And that's only my mother's side of the family. Want to hear the rest of it?"

Danica's sneer melted into a perplexed grin. "I am surprised you aren't as unhinged as the rest of your family."

"I'm not that driven." Ariadna tilted her head to the side in mock humility, then returned to her sketches. "My grandmother's brother went mad because he fell into the trap of deciphering the enhancement codes. That's 'driven.' I am not that way."

"Did anyone die normally in your family? By 'normally' I mean 'without meddling with some arcane arts'?"

"I don't think so." By the somber expression of her face Danica could tell Ariadna was not joking. "I know my grandmother is capable of horrible things. They tend to backfire."

"You think she is plotting to get your family back?" Finally, Danica dared to ask directly. She hoped Aridna would not answer. But she did. She did not even stop to reflect, her pencil dancing in the sure grab of her capable fingers.

"I am not sure…" Ariadna replied, walking faster than Danica had expected. She leaned forward to discern the words.

"Not sure about what?"

"Well," her voice trailed off, "I have seen light-scrolls in Sintarel on my grandmother's table. Something about the 'Revivalists'. Sounds like a sect to me."

Danica let the information sink in her throat, squinting against the sun reflected in the lines of long shop windows. "You speak Sintarel, don't you?"

"Not really," Ariadna confessed, her gaze glued to the sketches and her feet continuing forward. "I have never invested energy into mastering it and I am not a born speaker." She smiled to herself. "All those Sintarel things have a murky reputation. The Fasma scholars like them, but others don't."

"Well, the Revivalists are not that interesting," Danica said. "They were some weird sect of mystics, organized by time-masters." She frowned. "I actually have no idea what their goal was. Not much is left."

"You know, Danka, when it comes to my relatives, I don't expect anything good." Ariadna sighed, then tossed a brief glance at a small park behind a tall fence of wrought iron. "It's always a disaster."

"Don't let it get to you. I have some relatives who are time-masters." She made a grand gesture with her hand. "They have respectable jobs, mingle with the Natives and do not wreck much havoc. If you still have doubts, ask the Informant. He's the only interesting time-master there is."

"The Informant?"

"Otakar Lišák." Danica's brown eyes narrowed, and she stumbled. "He is the only one without the light enhancement to be officially accepted into the Spy Guild. An unscrupulous bastard. He collects people's secrets and sells them to others." The words got stuck in Danica's throat, a pain of guilt searing her chest. She tucked her square chin into the golden scarf: had she reached his level yet? She hoped Ariadna would not read her thoughts.

The little Lascari seemed too busy with the sketch, her right hand's moves almost unnoticeable. Danica bit her lip to blood: Arianda stopped near the park's fence, oblivious to all the dangers around her. The station was just around the corner…