City of Gold and Silver

Firecracker

"Listen to your father carefully, Malia, or this potion of his might turn us all into monkeys," Alek teased.

"Don't tell her that," Darius rebuked as he pulled out a small glass bottle with a blue liquid in it. Darius, Malia and Alek were standing in an alley half a block down from their residence. The little corridor between the two tall houses was mostly clean - it was the Gold District after all - save for a rubbish bin off to one side. "You're sure this is the last place you saw the woman, Ariah," he asked of his daughter.

"Yes, father," she said dutifully. She walked over to the rubbish bin. "We stopped here because this is where I hid my bag with my real clothes and I changed. I showed her our house and she said, well let me see you walk on in there, then." Always, a mimic, she briefly took on a whole new demeanor as she said this. "That's the last time I saw her."

Darius nodded and gave the bottle to Malia who took it in both her hands. "This is a tracking potion," he explained. "But it will need to be charged before it can work. You have to think about the person you're looking for, think about what she was wearing, what she looked like, her voice - whatever you can remember. The more details, the more precise the magic."

Malia wrapped a hand around the bottle and closed her eyes.

"You have to think very hard, little niece. Try to make a picture of this saviour of yours in your mind, ok?" Alek added. He looked up to Darius who was surprised by his brother's support. "What?" Alek asked.

"Nothing. I just thought you were against me using magic for personal matters."

"I was. Technically, I am," he admitted. "But this is serious."

"Alek, I just want to find this woman to thank her. I don't know how many rumours are going to make their way all the way up from Shadow to the Gold District."

"I'm not talking about rumours," Alek rejoined, sounding a little defensive. "What if the wrong type of people find out that the last daughter of the Ibata Dynasty likes to go out for excursions all on her own?"

Darius' stomach sunk again. He hadn't even considered ... Alek's eyes conveyed another question he didn't voice. What if this woman was the wrong type of people?

"Can we start now?" Malia asked, clearly impatient with her father and uncle's bickering.

"Yes, you're right. Now, tell me what this Ariah looked like. Let's start there," Darius said.

Malia closed her eyes again. "Well, she had hair like me and skin like me. She's pretty but kind of grumpy looking ..." Alek smirked at that. "She was wearing shadoweyes, round ones ..."

Black hair and copper skin - that could be half the women in Sosera, Darius thought, trying not to sound disappointed as he said, "Okay, what else? How tall? What were her clothes like?"

"I don't know," Malia started, sounding self-conscious suddenly. "Not as tall as you, father. Maybe as tall as Vincent ... She had a short jacket like the city guardsmen, but hers was brown, brown slacks too ... and boots ... and a knife on her belt."

An arming jacket, Darius figured, not a lot to go on but it could mean she was private security for someone ... or a mercenary. The thought brought a frown to his face. Thankfully, Malia's eyes were still closed. He could see Alek had come to the same conclusion.

"What about the dog you were telling me about?" Alek asked.

Malia smiled at that. "Her name's Pixie and she's the color of sand and small, like a cat. Except her ears are so big."

Darius could see through the slits of Malia's fingers that the liquid inside the bottle was starting to glow. They were getting closer to something the potion could use to track. "That's great work, Malia," he said, trying to think of more questions to prompt her with. "What about something she said or did - how did she make you feel?"

Malia was quiet for awhile, then she giggled. "Ariah said she didn't want to get a stain on her karma," she smiled. "And she made me feel ... safe."

At that, the bottle lit up inside her hand.

Darius couldn't help but smile as the potion came to life. "Okay, you've done it. The potion's charged."

Malia opened her eyes and stared at the glowing blue liquid. 

"Now what?" Alek asked, pragmatic as ever.

"Now, you have to throw the bottle onto the ground and break it."

Malia took one last look at the bottle in her hand and then hurled it at the paving stones below. The glass shattered crisply as the blue potion evaporated into the air.

"Did it work?" Alek asked.

Darius ignored his brother and knelt down to meet his daughter eye-to-eye. "Malia, what do you see?"

"It's like red smoke," Malia said after a moment. "I can see a line of it like a firecracker."

"Which way? Where does it go? We need to follow it." He looked up to Alek, realizing, " I don't know how long it will last." 

"Then, let's go," Alek said, grabbing Malia's hand. "Lead the way, niece."

She started walking down the street with her uncle in tow. Darius watched them for a breath. The day was still bright, the marble of the buildings aglow. Alek in his green coat and Malia in her orange pinafore marched purposefully now the street, sunlight catching in her long, black braid and his copper curls, and yet the world seemed darker than it had moments ago. There was a word echoing through his mind. Safe.

She made me feel safe.