The Son of Ice and Dusk

Where I meet my literary nemesis

I couldn't stop thinking about Vitaly Malinov. About the few things I knew about him. It seemed he was interested in making the world a better place, like I was. He had believed and followed Samuel Winter even through his madness, as I would have done with Jeff. And he died alone. No one missed him. But I did, even though I'd never known him. Besides those words might have been said about me, once upon a time.

One day, Jeff told me, "I told Jake everything about the Arcanes. I thought he could help us find clues in the second picture."

I knew why Jeff hadn't asked Ohda — she would have gotten us expelled. And I was glad no one asked my opinion, because I thought the wisest person at school was Edgar Wollstonecraft, and I very much didn't want to discuss the Arcanes with him.

When Jake showed up in our room, he looked anxious. His hair was messy and he looked around suspiciously. It took him a minute to understand that I had opened the door and that he could finally come in.

He stumbled into the room and shut the door behind him.

"I wanted to tell you something," he said. "About the picture on Ryan's phone."

"I asked Ohda if there was a spell that reveals things for what they are," he added, after he took a deep breath. "It's complicated, but I decided to try. It's like asking the universe to show you what's hidden."

He moved the index finger next to his thumb and showed us the movement for the right Mudra.

"I cast this spell on the picture. I didn't know if it would work, because it's only a photo of a painting. But it did work. Well... look at it."

He handed me back my phone. There was a symbol on the painting now, that looked like it was spray painted. It looked like a strange, archaic circle made up of Runes and words.

"Oh... why..." I started asking.

"Thank you, Jake," Jeff said in an amiable way. "I'll take it from here." He could be pretty charming when he wanted to. I couldn't say the same for myself.

"I actually know what this symbol means," I retorted. "I've seen it in a book. It's the symbol for the Circle."

"What's this connection between the Arcanes and the historical buildings?" Raegan asked, throwing her hands in the air.

"It's my turn to ask. What's the Circle?" Jeff asked.

"An age-old institution founded by Jerome Rivers, Selim Torres and Alfred Autumn," I repeated what I once read. "They take care of things like old archeological discoveries in the Aether Realm and other stuff like that."

"And do you happen to know where their headquarters are?"

"Cornwall," I grimaced.

"How do we get there?" Raegan asked.

"Should we even go there?" I bit back. "It doesn't help us find Sean."

"Luckily for you," Jake said. "You have a free ride to Cornwall. Today I overheard Edgar Wollstonecraft telling the Professor he had to leave for Truro to take care of family business. Just make up a good reason as to why you want to go with him."

"First London, now Truro!" Jeff exclaimed. "I can't believe that those are just coincidences..."

"They're likely not coincidences," Jake pointed out. "Someone must know you're trying to follow the clues."

"And that someone cares about us so much, they managed to somehow give the Wollstonecrafts family problems?" I asked.

"You never know which powers are at work here," Jake said. "You never know which powers are at work anywhere, in the Aether Realm."