Page 26 of Resurrection

Seiran stared at Forest, and even Gabe, who to his eyes, looked like death magic. It was a stark distinction in how the earth perceived them. Maybe it was exclusive to earth?

“I would think, Ms. Han,” Seiran said, purposely dropping the director title from her name too, “that if you were of a reasonable power level, you’d be able to perceive what is right in front of you. Death magic in two different forms.”

“They are earth magic, Mr. Rou. Death magic is part of earth magic, just as weather is part of wind and water.” She turned and headed toward the file room, one of the few areas Seiran spent very little time because everything was computerized now. Some of the older witches didn’t much care for technology. “I suggest you work on unraveling that golem before it hurts anyone else. If you’re incapable, I’m sure we can find a witch who can take care of it quickly enough.” A glow filled her eyes as she stared at the golem. “Fire takes them out fairly easily.”

Seiran stepped in front of Forest. “I need those students brought back in.” He also needed the golem in one piece.

“They’ve already been questioned. It’s just a toy they found.”

“Right, because golems created from murdered vampires are things found at the local park?” Seiran demanded.

Han looked startled, and so did Gabe at that moment, both of them looking at the golem now, who stared with creepy eyes at Seiran.

“Murdered vampires?” Han asked.

“How many witches do you know that are strong enough to murder several vampires to use it in a spell? Bring the students back in, Director Han,” Seiran demanded.

“You’ll upset their families.”

“I thought they weren’t from witch families?” Seiran asked. “That dorm is a non-witch dorm.” And an all-male dorm. Which meant a handful of things that made sense to Seiran all at once. First, that a witch family had shoved its male offspring into a non-magic dorm, and second, that it was unlikely there would only be one male witch of some power hiding. Most of the powerful families still denied the power that could arise in some of their males. It wasn’t that they didn’t want the power in their families. More that they believed male witch equaled evil. And nothing Seiran did could dissuade that. It was an oddly false belief, as the history was vague at best, with only a handful of male witches labeled asbad.Their label had been unjust as far as Seiran was concerned. They’d risen up against the oligarchy of power, and had been slapped down, villainized and murdered to keep them silent.

Were there evil male witches? Probably. But not at any higher rate than female ones. In fact, in Seiran’s tenure as Director, he’d seen more than two dozen female witches tried for malevolent acts that could be called heinous. Not a single male. Some would call that a failure of the Dominion, others called it bias in favor of Seiran himself. But he didn’t believe in killing people for no reason, and left those sorts of monstrous decisions up to the courts. His job was simply to ensure the integrity of the evidence was sound.

He stalked past her and down the hall toward the musty book archives that he’d made his home away from home. He’d call them back in himself, or go see them one by one if he had to. Either way, he was tired of all this bullshit hindering his investigations. “Forest, come,” Seiran commanded.

The golem jolted as Seiran’s magic wrapped firmly around it again, and followed. Gabe taking up the rear.

“That is the sort of magic that we used to kill male witches for,” Director Han said quietly, like she missed the good old days of burning anyone who disagreed with her at the stake.

“The golem? Or me?” Seiran paused to look back and ask. He got the feeling she meant him. “Good day, Director Han. I’d appreciate if you’d stay out of the Investigations Unit in the future, and I will be taking this to the counsel about your overreach.” He was done being nice, and now he had a lot of fucking cleanup to do before he even got a chance to follow the trail of a murderer.

Chapter 10

“Iget the feeling this sort of thing happens often?” Gabe asked quietly as he followed Seiran through a dark length of several corridors.

“Unfortunately,” Seiran said.

The show at the main desk above had been impressive, and a bit intense. Gabe had felt Seiran’s magic rise, and had tamped down hard on his control to keep from drawing more of the power into himself. If the witches had felt any of the rolling boil of the earth lingering like the abyss of ultimate power that Seiran seemed to teeter on the edge of, they wouldn’t have given him shit. As it was, Gabe almost blacked out for a half second, the power that incredible. How it didn’t tear the witch up was unfathomable. “Seems like they’d get the point?”

“The Dominion changes up the guards often. And a lot of the Directors are old, set in their ways, like Han.” Seiran led them through a double door and the dank, dark areas of the bowels of the building suddenly seemed to brighten. Not due to windows or anything like natural light. In fact, the walls seemed to be made from stone, carved out of a rock tunnel perhaps, rather than built with man-made material. But the lights were bright. Dozens of sunlamp-looking things, and walls of greenery decorated a wide reception area.

Wards wrapped around them. At first it was a bit suffocating, and painful, like Gabe was encased in stone. He stopped for a minute, fearing that pressing forward would destroy him somehow, but after a few seconds passed it seemed to accept him and ease. The accompanying warmth, a sort of welcome edge of magic, enveloped the area. Seiran’s magic, perhaps? Or the wards welcoming his magic.

A man sat behind the main desk, obviously some sort of reception area of this lower level. He was adorably young with high cheekbones, whiskey-colored eyes and glowing, teak shaded skin. Was he even old enough to work in a place like this? Maybe Gabe’s perception of age was off, and since the man worked for the Dominion, he was probably a witch. Slower aging perhaps? Although Gabe could vaguely recall that not all witches got that perk.

The man stood when he saw Seiran. “Director Rou,” he greeted. “Director Han was here. She left files. She said she was taking over the interviews you had?”

“Thank you, Page,” Seiran said. “Call the families. Tell them I need them back here now. Their release was not authorized by MI. And if I have to, I’ll have them all arrested.”

Page nodded. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.”

Seiran sighed. “They don’t see you, Page. They only acknowledge me because of my power. I’m sorry you’re forced into this role.”

“I love my job,” Page protested.

“As my secretary?”

“Assistant,” Page corrected. “I do more than answer phones. I work for the Pillar of Earth.” He sounded reverent with those last few words.