Falling Feathers Chapter 5

Falling Feathers
Chapter 5: New Journey
HWF

The sound of dripping water filled a bright humid room as a woman only about twenty-three stepped from the shower while pulling a towel from the back of her bathroom door and walking toward her mirror. As she went she tied the towel around herself and pulled her soaking red, shoulder length hair, into a loose bun on the top of her head. She leaned forward and wiped mirror off so she could see her own face.
The woman had a sweet round shaped face with a large yet somewhat broken smile that pushed the freckles on her cheeks upward. Her eyes were a light hazel brown always misty with day dreams, with long eyelashes, and high eyebrows. She was very thin with long legs a flat chest and a very soft and almost nonexistent figure, which added to her simple beauty rather than take from it. And then under her right eye were the tattoos of a moon and diamond while she wore a golden wedding band on her ring finger.
The woman brushed her teeth, washed her face, and then combed her hair before walking into a stall of the public bathroom and changed into an outfit that could have been marked both as fun and strange, with a wide skirt complete with a lacy bottom and mesh underneath over jeans tucked into black boots, and a slightly more elegant shirt, a red eastern style top with black patterns dancing across it.
She trotted from the stall just as several more girls, about the age of seventeen walked in, all having the same tattoo as she did under her eye, just as everyone here had. They spotted her and smiled as if she were an older sister.
"Good morning, Helena," they grinned.
"Eve'nin' girls," Helena replied, her voice carrying slight traces of a British accent, "How are you today?"
"Pretty good," they answered, their timing askew.
"That's good," she nodded taking her long black cloak out of her bag and sliding it on over her shoulders. "How are your classes?"
There were a few shrugs and groans with the occasional, "Alright…."
"Well classes are more exciting than what I'm doing!"
"Aren't you going on assignments?" one asked.
"Not a one! I've been looking for one all month, but my husband grabbed the last one."
"That's too bad…."
"Mean time Hace and Sterling are probably setting cities on fire as they go."
"How are they?"
Helena shrugged, "I'd say if I knew, but we haven't heard from them in three years."
"… You think they're dead?"
"Ha! No! … Well maybe…" she paused running it over in her head, "Hace was an excellent hunter, and Sterling could track souls, so I would think they'd be back by now, but they did take a moving case… I just hope not."
"You think they've been tracking a witch for three years without stopping?"
"They were always very determined."
One of the girls shrugged, "It doesn't matter, if they don't come back we have a better chance of getting missions."
Helena nodded absentmindedly before murmuring, "Say, you wouldn't have seen my husband around, would you?"
Most shook their heads, with a hesitant no, but one nodded saying, "Yeah, I saw him this afternoon! He was hanging around Pike's office, I think."
"Oh good! He must've just gotten back!" Helena smiled.
The girl who had answered nodded, "Yep, I think he got another witch."
"Sounds right," she sighed. "He's been an overachiever since we were kids."
"He's older than you though."
"Yes, but we were always in the same division." Divisions were a way of sorting hunters based on their abilities and since Helena had a lot of potential she had been placed in an upper class and most times had been babysat by her now husband.
"Like, uh, Hace and his brother."
"Mmhmm! So he and I were always paired up on missions."
"Do you go on missions together anymore?"
"No… not really, after we got married we still did, but when his sister died… he's been going alone, he's pretty depressed."
"Sorry," they sighed.
"It's fine," Helena smiled, once again back to her bubbly self, "I'll go get him."
She waved to the teens and walked into the hallway while pulling her backpack on and straightening her cloak. The hall stretched out in front of her was narrow without windows with the exception of the ceiling which was made entirely of glass so Helena could see the dark night sky, but it did have a great many doors on both sides, from behind most of which she could hear girls giggling or gossiping. This was where the unmarried women stayed and although there were many rooms there were still only about seventy people that lived in this wing.
The hall continued like this for several odd twists and turns until she could see the other side. When she reached the end of the hallway she threw open the large doors that lead to a lobby of sorts, made entirely of white marble and in a circular formation also with a glass ceiling. On the opposite side of there was a small arch that seemed like it lead outside, but as she approached it became noticeable that about five feet in front of the arch was nothing more than a sheet of glass, so it was impossible to get out this way, so anyone coming this way was not going outside. Directly below the arch was what looked like a trap door made of stone and very heavy looking.
Helena leaned down and grabbed the rope that attached to the door and yanked it upward, knowing full well she could have used magic to do it and deciding she could do this easily enough and needed no help. Under the door was a set of steep steps that continued into a basement area. She climbed down the first few, then stopped and pulled the stone back into place so she could only see by the torch light that flickered across the white marble. Again the hallway was set up the same way, with doors lining all sides, however behind these doors she could hear male voices laughing or joking about something stupid. This was where the unmarried men stayed, and there were about ninety or so that stayed here currently.
Technically Helena was not supposed to be here, but then again no one had specifically told her she couldn't be, and this was the fastest way to the viceroy's office, so she slid by a few more rooms and out of the dormitories. This time she walked into a room that was slightly larger than the previous room, but still the same shape, and this one, unlike the other, had several benches set up against the walls with a large door in the middle of them.
She watched the doors for a moment and then decided that if her husband had been in there for an hour he was not coming out soon, after all he either was very brief or drew things out far longer than they needed to be. She pushed open the doors and peeked inside.
The room was much like all the others in the building, circular and made of white marble with several narrow hallways behind closed doors that painted black, and in the middle of the room was a large desk, sitting behind which was a boy, only just over nineteen. He was tall and extremely thin with shaggy black hair that had a blue sheen to it and quite an interesting set of eyes. While the left eye was completely normal in its coloring the right's pupil was the same color blue as the right, the iris instead was white and the sclera was black, a very strange result of the magic he carried.
Unlike others, who killed a witch and stole the magic from her soul to use as a weapon and then carried it around on their belts, Pike had been found as a child nineteen years ago and used in an experiment that would either lead to a breakthrough, or kill him. The result was neither. They had injected the magic into his brain, hoping it would take from there and give him the powers of a witch without him having to use the magic physically, but instead it took in a different way, mutating his body to a thin a frail form, his eyes to their off coloring, and attaching power to emotion. So this organization was left with a mutated, yet functioning child, that they needed to care for, and without knowing exactly what to do they put him under the care of the viceroy, Hace and Sterling's father. Still very few knew that his blood was infected with magic, and many might look to kill him if they knew this.
Children were not raised the same way they would have been elsewhere, their parents raised them to three and then gave them to the leader of their respective dormitories. The child would be informed of their parents and siblings, but how, if at all, they upheld that relationship was completely up to them. Hace and Sterling had instantly bonded as brothers even though they fought constantly and even though Pike technically belonged to their father they did not see him as a brother more than they did a roommate.
However, their father had just passed away a year ago, and without the company's true heir the title of viceroy had fallen to Pike, who seemed as if he'd give anything to be free of it. He was eighteen when their father passed away so he didn't need an assigned guardian like Hace and Sterling did, and even though he was young he was still the only one that knew all the plans of his adopted father so he was put in charge.
"U-uh, hello?" Pike murmured watching Helena glancing around the office.
"Hello, Viceroy," she said bowing her head, "Have you see my husband?"
"He just stepped out."
"Darn…. You know where I can find him?" she began, but before she could finish one of the side doors of the office opened and a man stepped in carrying a large bag that would occasionally twitch.
He was an average height, making him almost a head taller than Helena, with golden auburn hair that was flecked with grey occasionally due to either stress or depression, over his left eye was a black patch and his right was a dull green color. His smile was broken when he used it, which wasn't often, and his voice was very flat with only hints of irritation, if anything. He was older than Helena by about five years and had married her about three years ago. The two had almost nothing in common, but had married for the good of the organization and to have children; still they had not even had one yet.
"Hi Karsh," Helena chimed trotting over as if she were going to give him a hug, but he did not move to make any physical acknowledgement of her.
"Helena," he nodded casually kissing her before walking away from her and back to Pike who was now coughing uncontrollably at his desk. "Here is the witch, sir," Karsh said placing the bag on the desk and ignoring the teen's wheezing.
"Whoa!" Helena laughed looking at the bag, "That's a lot of magic!"
"Of course it is," he replied without looking at her. Helena mimicked him childishly and plopped herself in a chair in front of the desk.
"This isn't all from one witch, right?" Pike finally asked.
"No, this is five. Well four and one witch child."
"O-oh Impressive. What types?"
"One teleportation and four average."
"I'll take care of it," Pike said unlocking a draw in his desk and placing the bag inside. "Um, Helena, were you going to say something?"
"Huh? Oh yeah! I needed to talk to Karsh, but seeing as your involved I guess I'll just say it!"
Karsh rolled his eyes and Pike flinched at the sharpness of her voice.
"Alright, Sterling and Hace."
"… What about them?"
"They've been gone for around… three years now? Anyways Karsh and I want permission to go looking for them."
"W-what?!" Karsh exclaimed, "Viceroy please, I want no part in this!"
"Come on," Helena smiled standing shoulder to shoulder with Karsh and elbowing him in the side.
"Viceroy – Stop that! – I have no intention of traveling around the world to find a teenager!"
Helena pouted, "But Karsh… what about their father?"
"I don't care!"
"I do!"
"I still don't care!"
"Fine!"
Pike watched with mouth slightly agape as the two argued before Helena turned to him sharply, causing him to jump. "Lemme see the will!" she demanded as Pike scrambled for a locked draw and pulled out a packet of papers to appease her.
Karsh scowled and turned back to face her, "You make it so hard to like you, let alone love you!"
"Here it is!" she smiled, "At the time of death… Hace and Sterling… ah! 'Until the time that Sterling and Hace Americt turn twenty years of age they will be placed under specific guardians, Sterling's being Helena Parker and Hace's being Karsh Parker'! How could you not care about your own child?!"
"He's not our child! He's just mine by law!"
"But they're your cousins too! You've gotta protect him-! Sir!" Helena exclaimed sporadically spinning back to Pike, "I'm asking you to give us permission to find them and help them with their own mission!"
"S-sure?" Pike muttered quietly.
"Sir!" Karsh shouted, "I have better thing to do with my time than-!"
"I think you should come too, sir!" she smiled at the teen, who froze, as an instant flicker of interest flashed across his face.
"What?!" Karsh groaned.
"I… guess maybe I could come, if you'd allow me to," Pike said slowly as Karsh ran a hand down his face knowing he would not be getting a say in this.
"Of course we would, sir!"
"You're insane! All of you!" Karsh groaned. "Helena! Listen to yourself!"
"Great! We'll leave in the morning!" Helena exclaimed marching out, her head held high as Pike grinned eagerly and dashed from the room to prepare, leaving Karsh alone.
"B-but…!  I don't want to go…."