Page 113 of A Shade of Myself
“I know not.”
“Well,” I said, slowly getting to my feet, “I didn’t want anyone hurt on my behalf, and I had a selfish reason.” I glanced at the slot machine, which had gone dark again, its windows blank. “No!” I banged on the top. “You promised.”
“The promise is kept.” Poe cawed. “The Casino imparted its wisdom.”
The wolf turned his head to the sky. After a moment, I saw what had caught his attention.
A half dozen ravens landed on a fat branch above Poe’s head. “The Ascendant,” they chorused in croaky voices, “is a magic amplifier.”
“That’s it? It’s not a person?” At Poe’s head shake, I tamped down my disappointment. My parents had gone after some shark and likely been killed over an amplifier? Not a doomsday device capable of wiping out humanity that Mom and Dad had intended to destroy?
Or sell to the highest bidder.
I scrubbed a hand over my face. If I couldn’t ascribe some nobility to them, at least they couldn’t be painted as world-ending monsters. Amplifier it was. “What does it look like?”
“A silver rock the size of a fist,” the raven shifters chorused.
I squinted at the birds. They were shifters, right? Real ravens couldn’t talk. I hoped. “Where do I find it?”
“Unknown,” the chorus said.
“Awesome.” I gestured to the wolf that we were going. “Thanks for the information.”
“There is one more thing I gleaned,” Poe said.
“If it requires another game,” I said tiredly, “count me out.”
“Offered freely in thanks. The first game you and I ever played. Do you remember?”
I nodded. “Memory.”
“Correct. Darkness gusted across the cards.”
“Followed by sunlight,” I said testily. “What’s your point?”
“It is connected to the Ascendant.”
“Which? The darkness or the light?”
Poe shrugged sadly. “I don’t know.”
