Layla shook her head. “No.”
“They got in a fight, faced off in a church similar to this one. Your father was a smart one, knew about Faith magic and how it would file Jake’s teeth down to nubs.”
Layla shook her head again, hands going to her head. “No!”
“We tried to stop him, but Jake…he had a number on most of us. Got us to deliver items to him, charms and things. Glidon hadn’t counted on it. He was taken by surprise and…” Rod stumbled to a halt. Kept his eyes on Layla, who had fallen to her knees, gripping her head. Her body shuddered for a moment, skin literally crawling. “The rumors that he was killed because he was the legendary half-blood? Jake set those in motion. Made sure it was all anyone ever knew, including his own people. That was the reason he gave back then, the justification for his actions. He didn’t want anyone to know about the Keystones. His research. None of it.”
I had known Rod a long time. The thief didn’t often look like he felt pain. Physical, mental, or emotional. He once told me it didn’t matter to him. Life moves and we must move with it. Yet as I watched him sitting there, staring at him, I saw the rarest of the rare. He looked exhausted. Hurt. Tired. And almost regretful.
“What part did you play?” I asked in the silence.
He shook his head. Kept looking at Layla. “I was on recovery. I’d be the one responsible for getting the notebook and anything else he had that we needed. Told me he’d keep Glidon distracted so that I could do my job. Never told me how far that distraction would go.” He finally tore his eyes from Layla. Looked up at me. “We parted ways after that. Told me I wasn’t committed enough to the cause. Told him he could bite me, then stole back what I’d recovered and returned it to the rightful owners.”
"The sword?” I asked. He nodded. Why the sword?
He took a breath. Leaned back on his hands. Opened his mouth.
“NO!!” Layla screamed, standing up with a shudder. “You’re going to explain in terran!!”
Rod held his words back in a breath, letting it out in a quick puff. “Alright. I stole the sword for him, and stole it back once we parted ways. I dropped it off at your family’s estate before vanishing for a while. Needed to figure some things out. Eventually returned to investigate and disrupt Jake’s intentions…which is what I was doing when you called,” he said, nodding to me. “Figured I could do both at once.”
“Why…” Layla struggled with her words, size shifting erratically alongside her breathing. “...why the sword?”
Rod took a breath. “I…never got around to knowing. He had hidden things close to the vest by that point. All I knew was that he was obsessed with getting the sword. And I knew I’d be giving him the middle finger by stealing it back.”
Layla whipped the sword out. Pointed the edge directly at him. Screamed, “LIAR!!!” He remained seated. Tired. But an edge had come over him with that action. Something tense. Something dangerous. “If you had no idea what he was up to then why did you allow me to get there in the first place?! Why lead me to this place!?”
“It was where you wanted to go,” he said simply. “You’d get here anyway, on your own, like you do. At least with Olyvia and I at the ready, we’d get you out in half the time. You wouldn’t be subjected to his lies. This is my way of putting your hand on the fire to convince you that it’s hot. Dangerous. To not touch it again.”
“Bullshit!!” she screamed, charging at him. “You wanted me to go there, you don’t care, you were trying to finish your job!!” Her sword swinging, jabbing and slicing like it was a pointed club in her hands. I watched, arms crossed, as she swung relentlessly but without class or judgment. Looks like language wasn’t the only area her family kept a tight lid on. Rod jumped and dodged easily, almost carelessly, while slinging looks in my direction as if to say ‘aren’t you gonna step in?’
When I gave him a snarling, wrinkle-nosed smile, he rolled his eyes, ducked up under a swing and caught her wrist. With a sharp twist the sword was on the ground, and he placed his face inches from hers. “Kid,” he said stiffly, “if I wanted Jake to get you I wouldn’t have to lead you there. If I wanted you in his hands I would have let the others snatch you the night your father was murdered instead of teleporting you back home!!” He stayed in her space for another minute. They stared at the other before Layla let out a sob and backed away. He released her wrist and let her fall to her knees.
She remained normal size. Normal strength.
So now we knew who killed her father. And why. But there was a bigger problem here.
Jake and the Keystones. His wanting to release the god of Order back into the world. The Masu responsible for killing so many.
Damn. Things were about to get complicated.
