Nothing Up My Sleeve

August 5^th

I peeked around the corner at the crowd that had gathered in the middle of Latimer Square. At the crowd’s center, slightly elevated above the rest, stood Cyrus Graves. As members of the retrieval team, Mayweather and I had been tasked with bringing Cyrus back home. Since he had ignored all of our attempts to make contact, we decided to go for a more direct approach.

“Gather around,” Cyrus said with arms outstretched over the crowd. “Men and women. Children of all ages. As you can see there’s nothing up my sleeve.” He pulled open both sleeves of his sweatshirt to show that they were empty and then pushed them up his forearms. His brown arms seemed to glow in the afternoon sun. Coupled with the scent of freshly baked pastries wafting from a nearby bakery, the scene felt almost magical.

“This is a terrible idea,” Mayweather grimaced. “We’re lucky if he doesn’t kill us on sight.”

“We need him,” I reminded Mayweather. “We don’t exactly have another choice.”

Mayweather grunted in response. I peeked back around the wall just as Cyrus made a handful of marbles suddenly appear. 

“How did you do that?” I heard a little boy ask.

“Magic,” Cyrus said with a sly smile and a wink. Then, he laughed making the crowd think they were in on the joke. That it wasn’t magic at all, but really sleight of hand and wires. They’ll never guess that they knew the truth all along.

Cyrus finished his show a couple of dollars and some spare change richer. As the crowd slowly trickled away, he scanned the area for someone and spotted a girl sketching by the fountain at the edge of the square.

“How’d you like the show, Keira?” He asked her once he got to her.

“One second,” she said. She pulled at his sleeve and opened the secret inside pocket. She dropped the marbles he had hidden there into her hand. “Oh, look at that.” She said, with a knowing smile. “You did have something up your sleeve.”

“Dang it, Keira,” Cyrus said, taking a seat next to her. “How do you always figure it out?”

She shrugged. “It’s easy for anyone who’s actually paying attention.”

“You’ve been paying attention to me, huh? Do you think I’m handsome?” He smiled sweetly at her, like she was the most beautiful thing in the world.

Mayweather groaned beside me. “We don’t have time to watch Cyrus try to woo this female of the human species,” he said. “There are more pressing matters at hand.”

We emerged from our hiding space then and approached them. The female, Keira saw us first.

Her eyebrow perked up in an expression I couldn’t place. Just as quickly, it was replaced with an easy smile as she said, “Oh, looks like you’re about to be busy. They must be more of your adoring fans.” She put her sketchbook in her bag and stood to leave.

Cyrus looked at us with such fury that if Keira hadn’t been standing there, he really might’ve killed us on sight. “Wait,” he said, holding onto her wrist. “Please don’t leave.” 

Mayweather cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable with the show of affection. “Cyrus,” he said, his voice deep and commanding. “We wish to speak with you.”

Keira looked between Cyrus and the two of us. “Ohh, sounds serious.” To Cyrus, she said, “I’ll see you around, Cy.”

When Keira was out of earshot, Cyrus said, “Years I’ve been trying to get with that girl and you’ve ruined it. You better have a good reason for being here. What do you want?”

I got right to the point. “Amaranth Wolfsbane, formerly of the familiar faction is trying to raise up an army against the Order,” I said. “We’re gathering up a team and we need the strongest practitioners. We need a 6^th order warlock. We need you.” There were few practitioners who were stronger than a level 5^th order and Cyrus was a 6^th order. We needed him on our side.

“Look somewhere else,” Cyrus said. “I told you all when I was kicked out I would have no part in your wars. And who made it so I couldn’t come home even to visit?” He looked pointedly at Mayweather. “The way I see it, it’s your problem, not mine.”

This was news to me. I was always told Cyrus had gone rogue all of a sudden, killed a bunch of order members, and then escaped to the human realm where no one could get to him.

“We could be persuaded into lifting the ban if you agree,” Mayweather said. He didn’t seem to be able to hear how much of a slap in the face that statement was.

Cyrus laughed. “I’ve got no issue with Amaranth. And after all the Order did to the familiars, is anyone surprised that they’re out for blood?”

“Cyrus…” I tried, but he was right. Familiars were once the Order’s trusted companions, but they had been taken advantage of for far too long. The familiars on Amaranth’s side were past appeasement, they wanted revenge. We would need all the help we could get to defeat them.

He shook his head. “It’s a no. It’ll always be a no. Now leave me alone and stay gone.”

It would’ve been better for us if we heeded his warning, but Cyrus was too strong of a warlock to not have him on our side.

August 6th

Day…

August 7^th

…After day…

August 8^th

…After day…

August 9th

…We kept on him, much to his dismay. Each day he would do his show at Latimer Square and would talk to Keira by the fountain afterward.

Today, Mayweather had a meeting with a few council members, so it was just me. I was not up for going up against Cyrus on my own, so I decided to observe until Mayweather arrived.

“Aren’t your friends going to show up soon?” Keira asked him. She was sketching something, though I couldn’t see what it was from where I stood. He growled, literally growled in response.

She laughed, a sweet tinkling sound, and nudged him on the shoulder with her non-drawing hand. “You’re hilarious. They can’t be that bad.”

“It’s because you don’t know them.”

She smiled, but there was something empty about it. “How about you tell me a story while we wait and I can sketch it.”

“A story?” He seemed to hesitate, but then nodded. “Here’s one. Let’s see, once upon a time, there was a warrior…”

“What did he look like?” she asked, her pencil poised over the sketchbook.

“Tall, handsome, a smile that could set fire to the sun.” It was clear that he was describing himself.

“An overinflated ego,” she added, and laughed when he looked at her with a fake hurt expression.

“You say ego, I say confident.”

She nodded, humoring him. “Go on.”

“So, this warrior didn’t care about much of anything. He fought where he was told to fight and he defeated whoever he was ordered to defeat. Only, he never thought to ask why. And when he did, he was never the same. When it came to defeat another group who our warrior learned did nothing except exist, he refused to lift his sword against them.

“He was summarily cut down for his efforts. It didn’t matter how many victories he won for his kind, they no longer had use for him and so sent him away. He made a decision that cost him everything. All to stand up to some very bad people who held too much power.”

“Would he do it again?” Keira asked him.

Cyrus looked at her, his face a pillar of determination, “Without question.”

They sat together in silence for a few minutes while Keira finished up her sketch and then without a word, she passed the book to him. It was a spread with one sketch on the left side and the other on the right. They were surprisingly detailed sketches for how long it took her to make them. On the left, there was a warrior kneeling down on a battlefield surrounded by dead bodies and ruins. He held his face in his hands as tears drip down his forearms. On the right, it was the same warrior only the look on his face was one of defiance. He held his sword, still in its hilt, an arm’s length away from him. It was as if he was handing it off to the viewer, saying he no longer had use for it.

Cyrus stared at the pictures, his eyes welling up with tears. “Thank you,” he said softly.

She never asked him if the story was true. She was human, after all. She probably wouldn’t have believed it even if he had said so.

“Lennox, what are you doing?”

I jumped at Mayweather’s sudden appearance, but recovered. “Is it true?” I asked him. I knew if anyone would know, Mayweather would. “Did the Order do that to Cyrus?”

Ever stoic, Mayweather’s face betrayed nothing. “None of that matters,” he said. “We have a new directive from the council. We are to bring Cyrus in whatever it takes.” I didn’t like the finality of his tone. I didn’t like how he was looking past me to where Cyrus and Keira were sitting. And that I knew exactly what whatever it takes meant and what we would have to do.

August 10^th

We shouldn’t do this…

August 11^th

This is not who we are…

August 12^th

It’s not supposed to be this way…

August 13^th

I shouldn’t have come here. I watched Cyrus perform at Latimer Square. He had the entire crowd under his spell and he didn’t need to use magic to do it. I watched as he finished his show and approached an empty fountain. I watched as he looked around wondering where Keira might’ve went, but she wasn’t there. She was never going to be there waiting for him. Don’t ask me why I know.

I wasted no time emerging from my hiding spot. Cyrus raised his phone to his ear as I approached and when he saw me, he knew. Slowly, he dropped his phone from his ear. “What have you done?” The pain in his voice hurt my heart. It wasn’t me, I wanted to say. When Mayweather told me the plan, I told him I would take no part in it. That didn’t stop him though. I don’t know why I was naïve enough to think that it would. That I could keep myself out of it. That I wouldn’t have to be the one to deliver the news.

“What have you done?” Cyrus yelled. In an instant, anger had replaced the pain in his voice. The air surrounding us crackled with a powerful magic that I had never felt before. This was a 6^th order warlock and he was about to shoot the messenger.

“I know where they took her,” I said. “They will only keep her safe if you join us.”

“Take me there. Now!”

“Cyrus, I’m so sorry,” I said, as if those words were enough. “You can’t beat them. You know what happens when you go against them.”

“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is her.”

“So you’re going to storm the Protectorate without a plan?”

“You’ve seen my show a handful of times, right? You’ve heard me say I’ve got nothing up my sleeve and you know every time that it’s a lie. You know I always have another trick.”

I always wondered when was the moment when Cyrus realized he had been on the wrong side the whole time and what that must’ve felt like. He probably felt a lot like how I did right then. With all the resolve I could muster, I asked, “What do you need?”

August 14^th

The next day, I took Cyrus to the Protectorate where the council held their meetings and where I knew they were holding Keira.

Head Councilwoman Regine was there the minute we got in the door. “Cyrus, how nice of you to join us.” She greeted him as if they were old friends. The very next second, she ordered the two sets of guards manning the door to bind him with charmed rope, rope that not even he as a 6^th order warlock would be able to break.

“I’m sure you understand,” Regine said. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t immediately trust your intent. You agreed a little too easily for my liking.”

“What choice do I have?” he asked. “You have Keira.”

“I’m surprised,” Regine said. “Cyrus the Bloodstained, brought down by a woman.”

“Not just any woman,” he said, but I don’t think she could hear him.

Regine led the way to the council room. It resembled a board room with a large oval oak table taking up most of the space, but the walls were decorated with portraits of council members from the past with their familiars. Looking at the portraits, it was easy to forget how terribly most of the Order treated their familiars.

“Please sit,” Regine said and directed Cyrus to be lowered into the chair at the head of the table. She sat two seats away from his left side and I sat right next to him on his right.

“Here’s the deal, Cyrus,” Regine began. “You join us and we let the girl go. And if you don’t, well you don’t want to know what happens if you refuse. Let’s just say it may involve one of you dying and one of you becoming a mindless puppet that will work for us forever. I’ll give you one guess who is who.”

“I wish I was surprised,” Cyrus said. “Let me see her first.”

Regine shook her head. “Sign the contract first.” She slid a piece of paper toward Cyrus. Though he was bound by the charmed rope, if he said the activation phrase, the contract would be signed and he would be compelled to join the Order until the terms of the contract were fulfilled.

He barely looked down at the paper. “Not until I know she’s safe.” Regine looked like she was going to double down on her threat. Cyrus chuckled, “Seriously, you’ve bound the strongest practitioner in the room right now, what do you have to be afraid of?”

She seemed to consider it and nodded. “Bring her in.” The door on the opposite side of the room opened and Keira entered with one guard at her side. Unlike Cyrus, she was tied with regular rope.

She smiled when she saw him. “Cyrus, are you okay?” she asked him. Strange that she was more concerned about him than herself.

“I’m peachy,” he said sarcastically. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

Keira laughed, and I must’ve been hearing things, but it sounded like there was a bit of an edge to it. “As if they could.” 

Regine didn’t seem to notice. She slid the paper even closer to Cyrus. “You’ve seen her. Now sign.”

But he wasn’t looking at the paper. His eyes were glued on Keira. “Wait, is that regular rope?” he asked.

“Obviously,” Regine scoffed. “You think we’d waste charmed rope on a human?”

Keira smirked then. There was no mistaking it that time.

Cyrus put on his million watt smile and turned to Regine. “A question first,” he said. “Have you ever heard the phrase ‘nothing up my sleeve’?

Regine was rightfully confused. “What?”

“It’s the most important tool in a magician’s toolkit. It’s textbook misdirection. It’s making you look exactly where I want you to look while the trick is being done somewhere else.”

“Cyrus, get to the point.” Regine was a second from losing her patience.

“In short, if you think I’m the one you have to worry about, you’re looking the wrong way.”

“How do you know it will work,” I asked Cyrus, when he told me his plan.

“I’m the best at what I do. Of course, it’ll work.”

Regine blinked slowly and looked down the table at Keira. If looks could kill, the way Keira glared at Regine would’ve sent the woman to an early grave. “She’s human?” Regine wasn’t sure.

Keira chuckled. “Actually, I’m a 9^th order witch. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” The ropes that were on her melted off her body. She looked at the sole guard that had been tasked with watching her and he fell to the ground in a heap as well as the four guards behind Cyrus. A wave of power flowed suddenly from Keira’s direction as if a switch had been turned on. Suddenly, I understood. She had masked her powers. As long as she did that, she would appear human.

“That’s impossible. We checked you.” Regine whipped her head to Cyrus. “Is this another one of your tricks?”

“Hey, you’re the one that kidnapped her and tied her up with regular rope. This one’s not on me.”

Keira stood and strode purposefully toward Regine. “You’re the one who couldn’t take no for an answer, so you kidnapped the poor, hopeless “human” girl in hopes of drawing Cyrus out. How predictable.”

“Honestly,” Cyrus said. “You all held out longer than I thought you would.”

Regine’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe it. “You knew we would…” Of course, he did. Cyrus knew the Order well. He knew what they would be willing to do and they played right into his hand. Not knowing Cyrus had already chosen his side. The Order had let the proverbial Trojan horse in and who knew what havoc she would wreak.

“Guess you weren’t betting on letting in a 9^th order,” he said. With a flick of Keira’s fingers, the ropes encompassing Cyrus, wrapped around Regine. “But to be fair, you were warned. I always have something up my sleeve.”