Dark Truths

Safety. That was the idea for the moment. Lights whipped by one after another. Darken skies and neon reflect over the dash. Tokyo continued to move forward. Cars passed in ignorance of the secrets that rested beneath. Secrets that they became increasingly familiar with.

Yori kept two hands on the wheel, almost like he was strangling it. The rubber complained a little about his tension. “An auction…shit…” He had heard about them in rumors. And he deeply wished they didn’t exist, yet the reality of the world was too familiar to him to reject it.

If, as he believed, the auction was a periodic event in the underworld directly tied to trafficking. Most of the time when he came across a Veil jump, it was one person who snuck through. Though with the recent incidents he found, it seemed like larger groups were getting pulled over. Perhaps for this auction. That thought worried him.

All of the syndicates, corrupt rich, paramilitary and dirty politicians would be present at the auction. The worst of the underworld would show up to buy mages, people, innocents lost and confused, just because they could use magic. They’d be lab experiments, bodyguards or just indebted servants. He had no idea how long the auction had existed or how many people from Mado lived on this side because of it.

The best that he knew from rumors of the secret event was that it had been around for centuries in one form or another. And the ones of the past were far crueler and darker than he could imagine. Even the notion of it happening made his blood boil. He’d break the wheel if he didn’t need it to keep steering. Every one of those bastards needed to be taken down.

If only that could happen.

“We’re going to that auction.”

Yori glared over at Miho like she had channeled her ice magic for blood. “You don’t seem to realize what this means.”

“We’re going.”

If he could stop the car, he would, but a fifty-car-pile-up wasn’t his idea of positive thinking right now. His hands began bending the wheel, with it groaning loudly. “Even if we knew the location, we can’t show up. Literally every power player is going to be there with their best. There’s going to be more military grade sorcerers there than your whole squad!”

“My sister is there!”

“What?!” He turned hard on the car, getting several panicked car horns blasted at him. Yori cut over the highway and pulled to the shoulder. Slamming on the brakes, the car painfully jolted to a halt. Both passengers rocked forward as he stared over at her.

He slapped the emergency lights and turned in the seat. “What the hell do you mean?”

Miho looked away from him. The normally arrogant and headstrong woman actually looked shy and troubled. He had seen her a little out of sorts when she first arrived, but otherwise, she was all bluster. It was insufferable at times. But it started to fit.

Slapping the wheel as he put the pieces together, he groaned. “So that’s why they actually are moving their asses to try to take down a trafficking ring. It’s not because they actually started having a change of heart; it's because you have a personal stake in this. What’s really going on?”

Even as he was solving the mystery of her, she remained silent. It felt like it was a quiet confession. “I may not like the way you handle things, and don’t want to be teamed up with you, but we are right now. And dammit, I need to know what you’ve dragged me into.”

That seemed to have finally gotten her attention. Miho leaned back into the seat with her eyes straight ahead. “It is true that I’ve been tracking down the criminals who steal our citizens for years now. But a week ago, Shiori was taken. I had been so focused on my job, I didn’t notice her.” Her hand rubbed over her face, brushing back her hair.

“Lingering memories?”

“Yeah. I told her it’d be fine. They were nothing and to just forget them. But I screwed up!” She slammed her fist against the car door.

Yori’s face narrowed, knowing clearly what had happened. The Veil acted of its own when it detected a mage on his side of the world. Anywhere and anytime, if it found someone, it would immediately move them to the mirrored side in the exact location. A completely disorienting fact that left children orphaned from families, lovers divorced, parents abandoned. The Veil didn’t care and had no feelings. Just the law it executed by Akasha’s will, all mages couldn’t be allowed to exist on the mundane side, no exceptions.

Abandoned and alone, the Veil worked on them quickly, erasing memories and connections. It wouldn’t be long before they were an amnesiac left without a clue to the world they entered. The Mado government’s top priority was the smooth integration of these new citizens into their country. Finding new homes and lives for the displaced. It would normally be unwanted pressure, but Mado lacked the abundant population because not everyone developed mana control. They were starved for people.

But not everyone simply forgot. The Veil worked well, but humans could still remember sometimes. Always faint ideas or just a feeling of belonging or isolation. Something called to them. And that was where the greedy and corrupt stepped in. Dark promises to grant them answers. Empty hopes of a lost home, only to be given a new prison.

Scum every last one of them.

He slammed his hand into the wheel again. “And you believe she’s at this event?”

“Probably.”

“Did you know?”

There was some hesitation before she spoke. “No.”

“Don’t shit me! Did you know before you came here?”

Miho finally looked at him, looking nearly broken. “No! I had my fears, but I just assumed they would get her into debt, making magic tools or something. I knew nothing.” She stared straight at him for possibly the first time that she seemed honest with him. There were still layers to her, but it felt like that part could be trusted.

He sighed and slammed his hand on the wheel again. “Shit. Do you…” She knew. They both knew. Shit. Yori leaned forward. His eye looked out into the city. Everyone drove by without a clue or care. No one was going to do anything. Evil would be allowed to fester and corrupt.

That couldn’t stand. It would not. He would not.

“It’s gonna be hell.” He pulled his phone from the rest to look at the time. “We have two days before the auction. Okamura might be able to get me a clue.”

“Thank ye, Yori.”

Finally shifting the car back into gear, he pulled out into traffic once more. “Don’t be thanking me just yet. We have to survive first.”