Parallel 667

Chapter 1

On some Parallels, they were known as the Blaidds, wolves. They were expert hunters who tracked down their prey and ripped them to shreds without mercy, leaving nothing but bloodied bones for the scavengers to find.

On some Parallels, they were nameless, a secret everyone knew, but never spoke of, as if to give them a name would bestow upon them some greater power.

On some Parallels, they were gods. There were temples raised in their name and cities razed in their name, fear and devotion in constant battle.

Some said they could bend the tides to their will, and some said that the moon gifted each member a beam of its light to use as they pleased.

No matter what pseudonym or folklore the layfolk wrapped them up in, if some passerby whispered in the streets about "the Court," everyone knew of which Court they were speaking.

Which was why, when Carthy Daniels was slipping down the streets of New York City, Parallel 47, and heard "the Court" mentioned, followed by a fearful young female voice saying, "No, not that Court," he stopped dead in his tracks.

He backpedaled a few paces, coming up short in front of a greasy restaurant, The Dusty Martian Eatery. It was a dingy looking place, with litter strewn about the entry way and the windows blacked out in the customary fashion, though they seemed to have used black paint as opposed to the customary window shades. Little creases of buttery light snuck through the shoddy paint job, falling on a crowd of people gathered before the fingerprint stained door. They were all dressed in combat uniforms. Carthy recognized the army, navy, and air force badges pinned to their left shoulders.

Glancing down at his own simple business suit, Carthy made his way to the menu posted outside the doors and pretended to read while he eavesdropped on their conversation.

"No, no- I heard-"

"It doesn't matter what you heard, Elk. You know half of what they feed you down there is rubbish. No, I heard this straight from a Dreamwalker," said the same female voice from earlier, her volume shrinking to a whisper when she reached that last word.

Carthy's eyes snapped to the figure of the young woman who had spoken. She had soft brown hair pulled up into a ponytail that grazed the nape of her neck. Her cocoa- colored eyes betrayed her excitement. Irritation prickled the back of his neck. To them it was all a thrill, a game at which they may all play, knowing they could never win.

"You met a Dreamwalker?"

The girl nodded vigorously, a stray hair from her ponytail escaping to curl around her ear. "She didn't tell me her name, but she had these weird marks. And the pills. A whole case of them."

"How do you know she wasn't talking about the Court?"

"I asked her the same thing. And you know what she did? She smiled like she knew a secret. Then she said this court will be what's going to win the war."

"Which war?" asked one of her companions.

"Gods, Elk, where have you been? The war."

A hulking boy with buzzed blonde hair muttered something under his breath and the whole group burst into laughter.

"Whatever. We're talking about-"

Carthy never found out what the girl was about to say. The streets, shadowed from the buildings whose heads brushed the wispy clouds, went red. The DigiPanels installed onto the side of each building began flashing a message, a warning, that turned the city into a bloody maze, drenched in its artificial light.