We Drink Alone by J.S. Morin

Author:J.S. Morin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781643559148
Publisher: Magical Scrivener Press

Down in the depths of the Library of the Plundered Tomes, Azrael pored over a handwritten document that had reached him just that morning. The preliminary report on the Orion crash suggested that no magical influence had been found. The hover’s gravity stone was intact. Pilot’s and passengers’ injuries resulted from damage to the conveyance’s structure and subsequent interaction with unprotected flesh, not unmitigated inertial forces.

Oracles working for Wenling had also confirmed the death of a fourth occupant of the hover and determined that it was not, in fact, Hal Ladenburg.

“What now?” Wizard Lois asked after reading over his shoulder.

“This changes nothing. The man was already clearly paranoid. If anything, one slim layer of his defenses has been peeled away without our involvement.”

“Our ‘involvement’ is up to four,” Lois reminded him. “The team is coming together, but our scouting force is taking heavy losses. How much is this endeavor worth?”

“History judges lives differently than we who live in a moment. We are all of us doomed. One day, when this incident is recounted by ancient tesuds not yet born, their names might be remembered, but only should we succeed.”

Lois scowled and snatched up one of the sheets of the report. “Don’t sunk-cost me like some freshman logic student. The lives matter.”

Azrael turned slowly in his chair. Glancing up, he studied his underling’s face. She’d written clues across it, explaining her impertinence and pique without having to put voice to it. “Don’t tell me you knew one of the scouts.”

“Isabelle. The inquisitors can’t even find a body.”

“They can’t be thorough without drawing too much attention. Stella Smith wasn’t supposed to have been a wizard, mind you. Technological authorities didn’t even list her as murdered. Simply missing.”

“We both know better. Someone is on to us. Someone who isn’t afraid to take permanent measures against even suspected wizards. Imagine if Isabelle just gave up magical work and wanted to work an office job.”

“Preposterous.”

“Maybe. But lesser wizards do it all the time. Can’t cut it enchanting toys or finding lost pets. Can’t take the stigma of working on star-drives. If one of them put in a resume at Earth’s Preferred right now, it would count as a suicide attempt.”

Azrael stilled his mind and focused. Lois had a point. Few wizards gave up the life, but many who tried weren’t really wizards in the first place. Magical, perhaps. But not true wizards. Anyone thinking to eliminate them simply for having studied or practiced magic in the past was just begging for an inquisition of their own.

But what if… someone didn’t fear inquisitors?

“Replace our scouts. Cast your net farther than your own circle of acquaintances. I will not accept difficulty or hardship as excuses for giving up.”

Wizard Lois understood her dismissal and departed after a grim “no” of acceptance.

Alone in the dark, Azrael could do his best thinking.

If someone who didn’t cower at the notion of inquisitors finding him was on Mars, interfering with this mission out of spite, perhaps there was some way to bargain out of this.

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