Charm Chronicle

We’d just woken up the next day when the door opened.

“I don’t know how they manage it, but there are a lot of rumors circulating around the capital at the moment.” Jason Copper came into the room with a huge grin on his face and a crumpled piece of purple paper in his hands.

I looked up from a copy of one of yesterday’s newspapers I was leafing through.

My heart raced as I took in the look on his face. Something good had happened.

I put the newspaper back on the bed.

“What is it?”

Cynder emerged from the bathroom. “What is what?”

“This!” he said, handing me the piece of paper. I stretched it out flat and began to read. It was the article I’d written for Seraphia. Someone had taken my article and filled it out, making it sound so much better than anything I could have written. The essence of my words was the same, but this sounded like a real newspaper report. At the top of the page in bold type were the words CHARM CHRONICLE. It looked like the front page of any other newspaper in town. The only differences being that it was only one page long and was printed on bright purple paper.

I carried on reading to the very bottom. Just before a note saying to look out for the next issue was a hint that I was still alive. It wasn’t a statement of fact. It was too vague for that, but it was enough to give people hope. To keep them clinging onto something. I liked it.

“Where did you get this?” I asked.

Copper beamed. “That’s just it. They are everywhere. The city is deluged with them. No one knows where they came from, but I’m telling you now, everyone has read them.”

I shared Copper’s enthusiasm. “Luca is going to blow a gasket when he finds out.”

“He already knows. I had a messenger arrive at my own house this morning with an extremely irate letter from Luca demanding to know where they’d all come from. He’s coming in to the station this morning, so I’ll let you know what he says.”

He gave me a wink and closed and locked the door behind him.

Cynder jumped up on the bed.

“This is fantastic!”

I agreed, but part of me worried about the people delivering the newsletter. Whoever it was had gotten away with it once, but I couldn’t see how they would do it again. Luca would be livid. He’d have all his men looking for the culprit.

I sent a quick note to Seraphia on the talk stone, congratulating her and the others and telling them to be careful next time.

The morning went the same way it always did with the noise of the phones and the people beginning work at eight. Cynder and I had to be quiet. I stood by the door, trying to hear what was happening on the other side. It didn’t take long before I heard the booming voice of Luca, cutting across the operations room.

His voice was muffled because of the thickness of the door, but I could hear he was angry.

He was currently screaming at Copper. I’d never once seen him lose it so badly before. The newsletter had made him angry. I grinned as he continued to shout at Copper who was having none of it.

“I’m not sure what exactly you expect me to do about it,” Copper said keeping his composure. I had to hand it to him. He was cool under pressure because Luca was ladling it on thick.

“I expect you to get this filth off the streets and imprison anyone you see with a copy.”

“I saw hundreds of copies of this on my way to work this morning. If I imprisoned everyone I saw with a copy, I’d have to take in half the city. We only have twenty cells here as you know. I’d have to ask for a much, much higher budget for prisoners if you want me to take in half the town.”

I heard a thump. Hopefully, it was just Luca slamming his fist down on Copper’s desk rather than his face.

“Get the people responsible for this rag then.”

“I’m not sure I can. As far as I’m aware, printing a newsletter isn’t illegal.”

“It is now! Get all your men on it. Find out where it came from, and stop it from happening again!”

“I’ll do what I can,” replied Copper sweetly.

“What’s happening?” Cynder whispered.

“You should come listen to this,” I replied, equally quietly “Luca has completely lost it over the newsletter.”

I heard a crash behind me. Turning my head sharply away from the door I saw that one of the boxes of files had fallen to the floor. Cynder had accidentally knocked them over.

“What was that?” balled Luca from the other side of the door. I could already hear his footsteps coming towards us.

Cynder was already picking up our clothes and all evidence we’d been sleeping there. I grabbed a couple of plates and followed him into the bathroom, locking the door behind us.

“This isn’t going to work,” Cynder puffed. He’s going to know someone’s in here if we lock the door from the inside!”

He was right. How could I have been so stupid? Already I could hear Copper fiddling around with the lock to the main door. In less than a minute, Luca would have what he wanted.

Cynder tapped me on the shoulder. I looked around and saw what he was pointing at. A small window. I quickly unlocked the bathroom door and opened the small window. It was just big enough for the pair of us to climb out. Below us was a sheer drop, but a small ledge on the outside allowed us to scale along the wall and then pull ourselves up above the window.

Seconds later I heard Copper.

“See. It’s just a box that’s fallen on the floor.”

“Who knocked it over though?” asked Luca. I could hear him coming closer to the window. I held my breath as he stuck his head out and looked around.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if you were keeping her in here.”

Copper joined him. I could just see the tops of their heads.

“Well, as you can see I’m not hiding her. Why would I? I’ve got half my finest officers out looking for her.”

“You are right. I’m pretty sure it’s her printing that garbage newsletter, and she wouldn’t be able to do it here without anyone noticing. Why is there a bed in here by the way?”

Their voices drifted off. I didn’t hear Copper’s answer to Luca’s question.

“The bed!” exclaimed Cynder as we dropped back down into the bathroom.

“Copper would have given him a good reason for it being in here. Don’t worry.”

I kissed him lightly to comfort him, but it was I that felt comforted. Something had changed between us, something good. I’d never felt so close to anyone before. We were still kissing when Copper came back ten minutes later.

“Luca has demanded I put all my staff on looking for the people who printed the newsletters,” he began. “This is both good and bad. It means we can send my officers out to all the wrong places enabling you to move around the city without fear of capture, however it also means your friends might get caught.”

Cynder interrupted him. “What do you mean move around the city?”

“That’s the other thing. Luca wants to put a couple of his own guards up here in the station. It seems I’m no longer to be trusted.”

Cynder placed his head in his hands. “I’m sorry. I knocked over a box.”

“What’s done is done. I’m just glad he didn’t catch you, but you can’t stay here now. I gave him a story about using this room as a napping room for my officers who were pulling overnight shifts, but I don’t think he really bought it.”

“I know some places we can hide out, if you can keep your officers away from us,” Cynder said quietly.

“I can, but how will I know where you are? Luca has all the phone lines tapped so he can keep on top of everything.”

“A talk stone!” I said, pulling out the stone that Seraphia had given me. I showed it to Cynder. “Can you make one of these?”

“No,” he replied, taking the stone from my hand. “I wish I could, but it’s a spell I’ve never mastered.”

“Can you try?”

He rubbed the smooth surface of the stone and closed his eyes. “I’ll give it a go,” he murmured.

Ten minutes later, Copper had brought a couple of stones up from outside, and Cynder was concentrating on them, his wand ready.

While he was doing that I sat and spoke with Copper.

“If Cynder can get this to work, we’ll have two-way communications with you. As I already have communication with Seraphia, I can let you know where the Magi are smuggling the newsletter in so you can send your officers to other parts of town.”

“Sounds good,” replied Copper , nodding his head. “I forgot to mention. My friend of a friend is ready to come and film you. He wants to do it today, but I don’t think that’s going to be possible now. Luca will recognize this room in a second. He’ll need to do it elsewhere.”

I nodded. He was right. This guy would have to come out to us wherever we ended up. We just needed Cynder to make a talk stone. Without it, we’d be stuck.

The stones began to glow as Cynder pointed his wand at it, mumbling some kind of spell.

Seconds later, he fell back on the bed, exhausted.

I picked up one of the stones. It was still warm. Taking a pen, I wrote my name on it. Seconds later it appeared in my handwriting on the other stone.

“You did it!” I cried, handing one of the stones to Copper.

Copper placed it firmly in his breast pocket. “If you can send me a message to tell me where you end up, I’ll send my friend of a friend out to you tomorrow. His name is Manny. Be ready for him.”

I nodded my head and thanked Copper for all his help. Without him, I’d surely be dead by now. I owed him so much.

Cynder slept the rest of the afternoon to recharge his magic while I organized everything we needed to do. Once all his staff had left for the day, Copper brought us enough food to keep us going, along with a couple of changes of clothes for us.

He let me know which areas to avoid and which were safe. I thanked him and woke Cynder.

With a final hug to Copper, we slipped out into the night.