The night was cool and clear. Thin roaming clouds veiled a full moon. Crisp, wild-scented air signaled the beginning of spring. Allergens and sweaters were in bloom. Birds and bugs slowly returned. Guild City’s diversity of life was spawning again. Just outside the city was dense forest. None of the locals visited here. Urban legend be damned, every local knew someone who knew someone that went missing out here. This was a place for thrill seekers and fools. That there was a difference between the two was arguable.

However, hidden in this great forbidden land, there was a two-story cabin made of stone and wood. It was built over a hundred years ago and only used by the active knights, who preferred not mixing their knight life with their regular life and were violently protective of what went on inside. The cabin didn’t really have rooms as much as spaces separated by bookcases or tables. There were books everywhere. The knights kept journals of their activities and projects. There was at least one hundred years of information spread between the floors. Besides journals there were also tons of physical and digital reference books they might need, such as books on knight and cleaner lore and practices. No one lived at the cabin. It was more a base of communications, some place they could meet if they needed to or do some research. The basement was where they conducted experiments.

Typically, there are only a few knights in a cabin at a time, but tonight was different. Tonight the cabin was full of light and noise as the active knights came together in the middle of the night for an emergency meeting. The group of nine broke up into their standard sets of three. Their ages varied from an arrogant, and naive 20 to a strong, wise, and lean 62. Between them was their leader Joe, a decent-looking man in his 40s, who stayed in shape as a matter of survival, rather than enjoyment.

He stood in conference with Sally, his second, and Rachel, his third. The topic of their discussion was Henri Passiter. The young knight left them last year and his abandonment was largely believed to have been because of the group’s treatment of Boyd Boon, a knight who’d fallen so far out of favor with the knighthood as to be damn near accused of treason. Henri was dangerously close to the fallen knight. And he was quiet. His silence could have been that of knowing his place or that of knowing a plot. Despite his actions showing allegiance to the knighthood, his departure left many to wonder where his loyalty truly laid. Now, he’d sent them a video. The question before Joe, Sally, and Rachel was do they reveal who the video is from or not.

“Alright, people, listen up! We have a video we need you all to watch.”

The declaration was followed by groaning and swearing. A stupid ass training video? Is that why they were there? This is what abuse of power looks like. One guy dragging eight of the most powerful beings in the city out into a cabin in the middle of the gotdamn night under the pretense of there being dangerous fuckery afoot when really he was just in the mood to flaunt his authority. They should’ve never gave his ass power.

“Hey hey! Shut the hell up!” They exchanged disapproving and defiant looks, but they shut the hell up.

Sally started the video. In it, a trio appeared to be minding their own business when suddenly balls of blue light poured out of their eyes, their fingertips, every pore in their bodies like a ball pit being emptied. The trio fell to the ground, ice blue, and doorknob dead. The CCTV footage had no sound so there was no way to tell exactly what went on, but one thing was certain, “This is some shit we’ve never seen before,” Joe said.

“What the fuck did we just watch?” Candy asked, the leader of her trio. When all nine were together, she was the seventh in charge, which basically meant she had no power, but they liked to pretend anyway.

“This was sent to me today with a caption that said, ‘They’ve found a new way to kill us.’ We believe our informant is referring to the cleaners.”

“What did Kratt and Mik say?” asked Howard, Candy’s second.

He hadn’t talked to them yet for the fact that they were not his people and the knights were. It was more important to discuss this with them before the cleaners. Besides the Guild City cleaners didn’t use magic like this. It definitely wasn’t Mik’s style who was known to burn organs. Most importantly, the Guild City cleaners represented the Guild City cleaners. Others elsewhere could be up to anything. But would their council approve these measures?

“If it’s not cleaners, then it’s magicians,” Howard said.

“It could be. Anyone want to call the Drays and ask them?” A resounding “no” cut across the room in the form of scoffs and mocking laughter. “Yeah. Yeah, exactly.”

“All we know for sure,” Sally said, “is that this footage is from Paris and it shows spectrals being drained of their power. If this were a weapon we could use against the cleaners, our informant would have told us, which is why we believe it’s the other way around.”

“Who is the informant?” Winter asked. He had the honor of being second to Hale, still not a great position, but Hale was brilliant enough to make up for it.

is the informant?” Winter asked. He had the honor of being second to Hale, still not a great position, but Hale was brilliant enough to make up for it.

Joe thought long and hard about how he wanted to answer the question. He was within his right to tell them it was none of their business, however, there was already enough dissension among them because of last year and the new knights that joined them. Ultimately, he went for a more democratic approach. “Henri Passiter.”

And there it was, the conversation they were hoping to avoid. The mention of his name immediately cast doubt as to the validity of the video. The loudest opponent was Hale. “He left! He was supposed to join another knighthood, he never did. Command never even heard from him. It’s been a year and no one’s heard from him. Then he shows up with this video? Hell, for all we know, he did this. We all know he was into some weird shit with Boyd.”

“Bullshit, Hale,” said Rachel. “You never had a problem with Henri until he started working with Boyd whom you’ve always been jealous of.”

“It has nothing to do with jealousy,” said Candy. “Boyd was dangerous. He was on my team and I was terrified of him. He was my second and he scared the shit out of me. Anyone close to him should be looked at with suspicion.”

I was terrified of him. He was my second and he scared the shit out of me. Anyone close to him should be looked at with suspicion.”

“That is not right,” said Connor, daring to go against Hale, who led his trio. “That is not how we do things. Hale has convinced you this is about the integrity of the knighthood when it’s really about him not being half the magician Boyd was.”

“You’ve forgotten your place,” Hale said to the lesser knight.

“And you’ve forgotten yours,” Joe replied. Hale’s only reply was to close his mouth and straighten his face. “Loud arguments aside, can any of you tell me what, exactly, Henri has done to deserve suspicion? Because I remember what happened last year. When it came time to choose, he stood with us. He turned on Boyd, the stronger knight, and stood with us. So, please, tell me, what did Henri do?” Lots of eye and facial movements, lots of breathing in different rhythms. No words. When pressed, the naysayers had nothing to say. “I trust Henri,” Joe said. “Despite his affiliation, he’s never given me any reason to doubt him after four years of working together. If he says this is what it is, then it is what it is.”

“Yeah, but what is it? We still don’t know,” Candy challenged. “How does he know that this is what he’s saying? I’ve read cleaner energy is also blue.”

Hale had another concern to add. “And how did he get the video? I’m sure we have people working for the Paris police, but they’re not going to give him that video unless he’s running a knighthood, which, let’s be honest, is highly unlikely. He’s too weak and not remotely capable of leadership.”

Both sound and reasonable questions, but Joe couldn’t answer and he couldn’t reach Henri. For all they knew, sending this information got him killed. The cleaners and knights did try to maintain some level of civility if only to avoid endangering their livelihoods with full war, however, if the cleaners had gone this far, civility would be the first casualty.

Further discussion was interrupted by a knock at the door. The only people who should be there were already there. And it was late as hell. Whoever the intruder was better have a damned good reason for showing up or find themselves on the wrong end of the knights’ wrath.