Lynn Tennyson

“You know anything about explosives, kid?”

“I know to avoid getting caught too close to them.”

“A few years later, neither did my dad... Jeez... I still miss those kittens.”

Norma looked in the grocery bag in surprise. “How in the world did you manage to find British tea and biscuits in the apocalypse?”

Norma was an elderly woman with a shotgun. Lynn thought she’d enjoy having tea and cakes with her if it weren’t for the raging zombie infestation gnawing on her white picket fence. Such was the new reality that was Kingsmouth.

Lynn had never considered herself a zombie invasion survivor. Did she count as a survivor if she’d showed up late to the party? She definitely had been bit at least once by a member of the horde, but it’d healed right up like nothing had happened. The bees’ doing, Lynn suspected. Everything weird seemed related to magic, a bee, a secret society, or, now, this weird fog that surrounded Solomon Island.

Case in point, Lynn now stood in a forest surrounded by magic cultist zombies, collecting their parts to burn back at Norma’s. Not exactly the sanest line of work. It wasn't exactly hard, she acknowledged to herself as she spun, her claws raking through a zombie’s chest. It was just… weird.

As the cultist zombie fell over dead, Lynn heard her phone go off. “Local bounty detected.” Lynn checked the screen, identifying the area for the bounty. A cave full of zombies and guarded by draug. Great. She stepped towards the cave determinedly, covering herself in a blood shield preemptively.

And that is when she heard the laughter. Another bee came sweeping in from the other side and lay into the zombies with a hammer. Not wanting to miss out on the bounty, Lynn rushed in as well, her claws digging into draug just as well as zombies. Between the two of them they made quick work of the creatures.

As they stood in the middle of a crater catching their breath, Lynn looked over at the woman with the hammer. She had cotton candy blue and pink hair and wore dark colors. The woman looked at Lynn in return and grinned.

“Quite a party we have going here huh?” she said, still smiling. “I just wish these fights weren’t over so quickly. I was just getting warmed up.”

“You crazy?” Lynn wiped some sweat off her forehead with the back of her wrist, being careful not to poke her eyes out with her own weapon.

The woman cocked an eyebrow at her. “I wouldn’t say crazy, but you gotta enjoy what you do. Besides, nothing shows you how alive you still are quite like a good fight.”

Lynn just stared at the other woman for a moment, a look of incredulity on her face. A sudden flash of movement, though, caught her eye. “Watch out!” Lynn reached her hand out towards the ambushing draug. Blood magic welled up in her hand in the shape of a heart. Lynn crushed it, wincing at the texture.

The woman turned around to see the draug stumbling, clearly dazed. With a yell of laughter, she lunged forward with her hammer. It slammed into the draug, first once to the side, then again in a massive downwards swing that caved in the thing’s skull. Its body crumpled to the floor. After a few deep breaths, the woman turned back to Lynn and smiled. “Did you just crush a heart? That’s pretty metal.”

Lynn’s face was skewed into a look of mild nausea and disgust. “Thanks…” she replied, looking less than pleased as she wiped the blood off her hand. “Uhm… I’m Niirah? Nice to meet you?”

“Myu-Tan,” the woman said, still smiling. “Nice to meet you. Maybe I’ll see you around.” Myu-Tan began to walk off, casually slamming her hammer into the ground with a rhythmic thumping that created shockwaves of red energy as she went. “If you see anything that looks like it can put up a good fight, let me know!”

“You a good shot?”

“I’m... not too sure about guns. I have these though,” Lynn held up her hand for Helen Bannerman to see.

“What are those?”

“Anyway... Welcome to Solomon Island, your new home away from home. Be sure to soak up the sun while it’s out. That damn fog keeps it pretty grey here.”

In the quiet moments in her mind, she could still hear the gunshot. It had been the dead of night, almost too dark to see. Her head had felt light as air as she’d run through the woods, trying to find Lexis. She’d found her friend standing there in the night, their expression stone cold. A pistol was in their hand. The woman who’d come by with the strange envelope earlier that day stood there, her own pistol drawn. The woman had tried to speak. Lexis had shot her without hesitation.

Lynn tripped over her own two feet, falling on the floor of the dojo. This whole concept of fighting had seemed so simple in her dream, like a reflexive action. She knew now the dreams had been as good as reality, so why was fighting in real life so much harder?

The metal claws strapped to her fists felt heavy. So much heavier than in the dream. The book on her back at least felt like a backpack or something but these…

“Again, Niirah!”

Lexis had given her a new name a few years ago, one of their own names, an online alias to use in the real world. “I’ll make sure you’re safe if you do this. I just need a face to go with the name so they won’t suspect I am behind both masks.” Just having a second set of ID cards had felt incriminating, but if it protected Lexis, it was worth it. Lexis, who’d lived their entire life off the grid out of necessity. Lexis, who paid for their home and food and everything in exchange for Lynn’s name, her real name, on the lease. Lexis, who Lynn had just seen kill a woman without hesitation.

Another fumble, and Lynn had embedded her claws in the wall behind the dummy by mistake.

“You are thinking too much, Niirah!” Dae-Su shouted across the room. “You are to be fighting the target, not yourself!”

She huffed as she freed her hand. “Could you not call me that?”

“Is that not your name?” Dae-Su replied in such a way that Lynn was convinced he already knew the answer.

“It’s an alias. It’s not really who I am.”

Dae-Su stepped towards her, calm as ever, crossing his arms behind his back. “You are the Dragon. One of ten thousand raindrops in a flood. What name you use is irrelevant, for you are not your name. You are the Dragon.” He stopped in front of her. She got the impression he knew what was going through her head better than she did.

“But why that name? Can’t I just use my own?”

Dae-Su frowned. “Whatever your life before now is separate, like two books on a shelf. Who you are now cannot be weakened by whatever came before.”

“But-”

“The Dragon would not have brought you here if you, all of you, were not the right fit. That name is a part of you as much as your hands or your eyes are, just as you are now a part of the Dragon. Embrace it, and it shall make you stronger.”

She was quiet for a moment, feeling the weight of the weapons strapped to her hands. “So I am Niirah then. There’s no changing this.”

Dae-Su laughed. “No change? Is this what your life was before? This is exactly your time for change. Before, your life was clouded, uncertain. That has ended. Dark days are coming. Some say they have already arrived, and bring all we deserve. We train you to resist these dark days, and in resisting, reshape them. That is your path. That is the Way.”

“Change, Everything you are And everything you were Your number has been called Fights, battles have begun Revenge will surely come Your hard times are ahead

- (Part 2) - 

They are the ears: listening for the telltale sound of silence. They wait while the red gryphon’s cries are silenced before they can be heard, its ideals spilling out onto the floor. They wait while the blue djinn tempts with its three universal wishes of fortune, power, and sated lust. They wait while the humming in the hive quiets. It is dark now, and all is still. This pattern is familiar, all according to prediction. So, the ears move.

Then, they freeze. An anomaly, an unpredicted hum. A ghost leaves the hive, silent as the past, and walks out into the night. They knew there were two but this was not the time.

Stick to the target, the ears hear in the rhythms of the universe. Stick to the target. Add the scale to the body; another tooth for the maw. The second hum stirs, buzzing for its counterpoint. A hatchling of a dragon launches out of the hive, looking panicked. The ears move forward as the hatchling runs into the woods. Patiently, the ears advance. They will catch up. That much is certain.

- (Part 1) -

Three sharp raps on the door. The unnatural stillness on the other side of the wood told her all she needed to know. She knocked again. Soft cursing and the sound of someone tripping over something. “Just a minute!”

The recruiter looked back over her shoulder. No sign of any monks. The house was out in the middle of seemingly nowhere, set off from the main road by a long stretch of driveway and the surrounding woodlands. From the doorstep, the two vehicles down at the base of the drive were plenty hidden. The house itself looked like it was a former “fixer-upper.” Peeling paint and chipped bricks were charming and all, but she preferred the comfort of a place the pizza guy could actually find.

The door creaked as it opened. The recruiter grinned at the young woman who peeked around the door. “Hi! Nice place you have here. Mind if I step in?”

Not waiting for an answer, the recruiter pushed her way into the living room. The state of disarray hidden inside made her smile smugly; bees were easy to find if you knew what to look for.

“Excuse me,” the woman spoke up for the first time, “but who are you?”

The recruiter turned and got a good look at her target for the first time. The homeowner’s reddish-brown hair was disheveled, like she’d only recently gotten up. It half covered her face, hiding one of two sleep-deprived eyes and the bags underneath. Definitely a bee.

“Oh I’m not important, sweets,” the recruiter replied. “Let’s talk about you.” She leaned against the back of a chair, pulling a small notepad out of her pocket. Holding it up, the recruiter began to read. “Multiple counts of fraud and forgery, using a fake identity, hacking, illegal surveillance, bribery, blackmail, a bit of insider trading if you count hacking the company as having insider knowledge…” The recruiter lowered the notepad. “Need I go on... Niirah?”

The woman had become as tense as a spring, and the name ‘Niirah’ turned her eyes to alarm. “W- who are you... how…”

“How did we find you?” The recruiter smiled like a cat who caught it’s prey. “My employers have access to nearly unlimited resources. Tracking down someone of your… particular skills? That takes effort. Worth it in the end, but… effort. Fortunately for us, due to recent events, well… let’s just say the bees helped narrow it down a bit.”

“The bees…” The woman looked guarded now, sizing up her foe and how much she knew. Her hand had subconsciously drifted up towards her throat.  “Listen, why don’t we cut to the chase here. If you know about…the bee…” She looked almost indignant to admit the thing’s existence. “Well, you’re not the government, that much is clear.”

The recruiter laughed. “We might as well be, sweetie! But to the point… I can respect that.” She shoved the notepad back into her pocket. “I work in talent acquisition, specializing in a highly unusual sector for a very particular client. And they’re the sort very interested in your sort of talents, both before and after recent events.” The woman gestured to the room at large. “We only recruit the best of the best and your skills, while still raw in the area of, shall we say, basic thaumaturgy and the like, show promise. My client has the resources to refine that talent and make the most of it, and with that comes benefits for you. Money, power, protection… the chance to party with the best in the biz and help rule the world. But this opportunity is for you to grab. I’m not here to hold your hand, only to point out your options. Whether you try and win or just end up dead entirely up to you at this point.”

The younger woman’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think I’m interested?”

Ignoring her, the recruiter held out an envelope. The woman took it and stared at the triangular symbol on the back. The recruiter stretched and headed for the door. “You’ve got an appointment three days from now in Brooklyn that I recommend you keep. No directions; consider this the start of your interview. You find us or…” She turned back at the doorway and shrugged. “Well we already found you once, didn’t we? My client’s eyes are everywhere. Best be on time.” The recruiter took hold of the door handle. “I’ll leave you to think on it. Ta ta for now.” With that she pulled the door shut, closing the bee back inside her house.

The recruiter chuckled as she headed down the drive. She only made it about 10 steps before an unnatural quiet and a tingling on the back of her neck made her turn and look back at the house. In one of the upstairs windows, someone was watching her, and it wasn’t the woman she’d just handed the envelope to. A roommate hadn’t been in the mission briefing. Something was off.