Until the Night Turns: Chapter 1

Mistress Raveneye (Erlend)

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Erlend knew he shouldn’t eavesdrop, but the boardroom door was open and the voices carried into the hallway. A glance told him the rest of the office was empty, which didn't surprise him as he was usually alone after hours. It wasn’t that he was ambitious; he just genuinely loved the work of matching environmental startups with seed funding. He felt like he was making a positive difference in a world that tended to skew negative. Plus,  he didn't have any family waiting for him to come home for dinner. As he listened to the voices coming from the boardroom, he realized they were not discussing funding proposals.

“It’s too risky, and you know it,” he heard his supervisor argue. Lauryn’s usually calm voice had an edge of irritation to it that Erlend rarely heard except when she was fielding calls from politicians or lobbyists.

“If Nevin gets his hands on her, he’ll use her to go back, and we can’t let that happen,” a man’s voice explained. The voice wasn't angry, just determined.

Erlend’s curiosity was piqued. He crept closer to the open glass door to hear more.

“Go back? How?” He heard Lauryn demand.

“She has the right blood.” The man spoke in a voice so low, Erlend barely heard the words.

Silence followed, and Erlend heard his heart beating in his ears. He didn’t dare move. Such a conversation might sound out of place in any other office, but Eilif Inc. was far from ordinary. On the surface, the small Toronto team served the sustainable business sector, but their real mission was to recruit, train, and support individuals like Erlend who possessed certain abilities.

Most of the people working there were telepathic on some level, but many had additional talents, such as long-range hearing or exceptional strength and speed. Another thing they all had in common was the inability to age. They were perpetually stuck looking somewhere between twenty-five and forty.

Erlend had spent the last hundred years passing as close to thirty. His physical health and appearance hadn't changed since 1926. As a result, he had moved from place to place a lot to avoid attention, scrambling to pull together documents to support a new story everywhere he went. Until he met Lauryn.

Each of his colleagues had a similar story. Just as their agelessness began to be a burden, Lauryn showed up, offering them shelter, support, and a life beyond the prying eyes of humans. They called themselves the Hidden Ones.

The conversation in the boardroom seemed to be about a new recruit. After a long stretch of silence, Erlend heard Lauryn sigh like she was giving in to an argument.

“Fine, take a small team and bring her in.”

“No. If I show up, it’ll confirm Nevin’s suspicions,” the man said. 

“Well then what if we send someone else? Someone she might relate to, someone who is also from Alfborg,” Lauryn suggested.

Erlend tensed at the mention of his hometown. He was still learning to mask his thoughts consistently and Lauryn was a highly skilled telepath. It was clear she knew he was listening at the door. 

 "Do you have someone in mind?” The man sounded surprised. 

“Come on in, Erlend, don’t be shy,” Lauryn called out.

It was too late to leave, and there was no way he could pretend he wasn’t eavesdropping, so Erlend took a deep breath and entered. To his surprise, he saw Lauryn standing at the head of the long oval table, with Victor, the CEO of the company. In the thirty years Erlend had worked at Eilif Inc., he’d never even been in the same room with Victor, but Erlend knew the rumours. It was whispered that Victor was over a thousand years old. Others claimed he could manipulate emotions and that he was secretly the wealthiest man in the world, but hid it across several companies and aliases to avoid attention. The only thing Erlend took away from all the gossip was that no one knew the real Victor.

As Erlend approached his superiors, he cautiously examined the CEO. Erlend was used to being the tallest person in a room, but Victor was only a few inches shorter. Erlend guessed he might be close to six feet four inches, but where Erlend’s build was long and lean, Victor was broad, and the grey cashmere sweater he wore fit him like a glove. His black beard contained a hint of salt and pepper while his shoulder-length hair was pulled back with a leather tie to reveal silver strands at his temples. The grey hairs suggested age and wisdom and Erlend wondered if the rumours about his age might be true. Victor could be fifty or five hundred, Erlend couldn’t tell, but it made him wonder how long it would take his own red hair to go grey.

“Here is Erlend’s file.” Lauryn handed Victor a tablet. As usual, the colour of her nails matched the exact shade of her tailored suit, which was olive green that day. It was a departure from the lemon yellow they were the week before. Erlend thought the shade of green complemented her warm brown skin nicely, but he would never say that to her out loud. Lauryn had little patience for small talk or pleasantries, at least from Erlend. 

Victor scrolled through the information on the tablet with effortless flicks of his finger, commenting as he went.  

“Musician, interesting,” he muttered. Then he began to list the languages Erlend spoke. “English, French, Gaelic, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish. That’s impressive.”

Erlend wanted to smile with pride, but he kept his face expressionless.

“Former soldier. Highly decorated, too,” Victor said the words slowly and softly.

Erlend’s military service had taken place in the first half of the 20th century, but that era of his life felt like it had happened to a completely different person.

“Here we go, born 1896 in Alfborg, Saskatchewan. Your parents are not listed here.” Victor handed the tablet back to Lauryn.

“I’d rather not involve my mother in my activities,” Erlend said, wondering why his parents were relevant.

“But you do get your hidden genes from your mother?”

Erlend had the sense Victor was fishing for something.

“Um, yes, sir,” Erlend confirmed. 

“And when did you last return home for a visit?” Victor asked.

Erlend frowned. The last time he’d returned to Alfborg was for the funeral of his sister. None of his three sisters were born with the hidden genes he’d received, and as a consequence, Erlend had attended each of their funerals. Once they were gone, he couldn’t bring himself to go back, and his mother didn’t try to change his mind. He wondered why his family could possibly matter to Victor.

“It’s been nearly fifty or so years, I think,” Erlend admitted.

A long silence followed his answer while Victor gazed at him steadily. Erlend wondered if Victor would dismiss him simply for not visiting his mother enough.

“Shall we show him the case?” Lauryn suggested.

Victor nodded his approval.

“Erlend, so far you've only worked in the funding division of this company, but I’m about to introduce you to our recruitment side of operations.” 

A shiver went up his spine as Lauryn handed the tablet to him. He’d applied to work in the field several times over the years, but he’d been denied the promotion repeatedly for lack of experience. Now, he was on the verge of receiving an exciting assignment instead of a penalty for eavesdropping. He couldn’t believe his luck. 

“We are currently looking at a powerful recruit who goes by the name Mistress Raveneye. She has psychic abilities that allow her to see visions when she touches objects,” Lauryn explained. “Every week, she shows off her psychometry skills live on social media. Just this morning, she helped a client in North Carolina find her late father’s will by touching his college ring.”

Erlend looked down at the tablet to see notes in a document and a screenshot of Mistress Raveneye. She wore an ornate gold masquerade mask over the top portion of her face and a voluminous red wig—at least he suspected it was a wig—and her lips were painted bright red. It was a captivating way to hide her true face. 

“How did she get the ring?” Erlend asked.

“Her clients mail objects to her.” 

“Interesting,” Erlend said. If it was authentic, then he was impressed, but he was skeptical. Most Hidden Ones could read minds, but psychometry? That was rare. 

Erlend looked to Victor to gauge his reaction, but his expression was unreadable. Erlend didn’t dare try to enter his thoughts. For one, he didn’t want to get caught trying. Secondly, there were rumours that Victor’s mind was impregnable, and therefore his efforts would be wasted. 

“We believe her abilities to be genuine,” Lauryn continued.

“But it could easily be a scripted performance,” Erlend challenged.

“Of course it could, which is why we are doing our due diligence. She hosts a live stream every week, and in the six weeks I’ve been watching, she’s not failed once.”

Erlend found that stat impressive.

“We have uncovered her real identity,” Lauryn continued. “You’ll be working with a team in Vancouver that helped track her IP address. All leads point to Vancouver. Her appearance, as you see here, is camouflaged using traditional means, but her voice in her videos is unaltered. I had the team follow a few leads, and we found a match.”

Lauryn swiped the tablet to the next file. It was a video clip. Erlend zoomed in on the thumbnail to compare the new image with the previous one. The two women had the same brown eyes, heart-shaped faces, and narrow, ruby lips. 

“See the resemblance?”

“I do,” Erlend nodded.

Lauryn tapped the video, and it began to play. The video showed a musician introducing herself and the songs she was about to perform, then she launched into a mellow, acoustic melody. The audio quality was mediocre, but she sounded decent to Erlend.

“We compared this audio with her social videos. The tech team confirmed the voice match.”

“And the woman’s real name?” Erlend asked.

“Edalyn Vigfusson.”

If Erlend hadn’t been watching Victor’s face so closely, he would have missed the lightning-quick smile flicker across his lips. 

Erlend thought about the conversation he’d overheard minutes earlier. 

“What is so special about her bloodline?” Erlend looked directly at Victor as he asked the question.

“That’s above your pay grade.” Any hint of Victor’s smile was gone.

Erlend wasn’t surprised by the answer, but it still irked him. He preferred straight facts over mystery. He turned back to Lauryn.

“So why me? Just because I’m from Alfborg?” Erlend asked in confusion.

“That's where Edalyn was born and raised,” Victor said. “And because you’re both musicians, you’re uniquely positioned to gain her trust.”

“All you need to do is meet with her and convince her to join our team,” Lauryn said.  

Erlend found the offer very tempting, but he had a feeling they weren’t telling him everything.

“Is it that simple?” He asked.

“Tell him about the comments,” Victor directed.

“Right, well, in monitoring the comments section for Mistress Raveneye’s account, I recognized some trolls from The Pretorium Group. That means Nevin is tracking her, too. We need to move fast to recruit her before Nevin does.”

Erlend knew Nevin’s name well. The name cropped up whenever the lobbyists at The Pretorium Group blocked one of Erlend’s investment projects. Three years earlier, a solar farm proposal that Erlend had spearheaded for years was cancelled overnight thanks to The Pretorium Group's interference.

“Why would a lobby group want one of us on their team?” Erlend asked.

Lauryn glanced at Victor, deferring the question to him. Victor leaned closer to Erlend.

“Because Nevin is one of us,” he said quietly.

Erlend stared at him in disbelief. “But I thought we were the only Hidden Ones.”

Victor grinned. “No, not at all. Nevin’s organization is mostly a front for recruiting Hidden Ones, just like ours. The main difference is our mission. We want to improve the world for humans, while Nevin solely seeks power and influence.” 

Erlend was stunned. If there were two organizations seeking Hidden Ones, were there more?

“Okay, so my job is to meet Mistress…I mean, Edalyn…verify her powers are real, and bring her back if they are?”

Lauryn was about to speak when Victor cut her off.

“No, your job is strictly to bring her safely back here. I don’t care what you think of her abilities. You are not a qualified judge in that matter,” Victor told him. “Now, can we count on you?”

Erlend let the dismissive comment slide. This was the best offer his work had provided him in nearly a decade. There was no way he was going to turn it down.

“Yeah, I’m in,” he grinned.

“Good. I’d like you on a plane tomorrow,” Victor said.

“So soon?” Erlend asked in surprise. 

“Yes, stay and talk to Lauryn; she’ll arrange all your travel needs. I want to know as soon as you return.”

Victor abruptly left the room, leaving Erlend to revel in this unexpected opportunity. When he was sure Victor was gone, Erlend dropped his voice low. 

“Do you get the sense he’s hiding something else?” 

Lauryn actually smiled. “Victor is always hiding something. Be grateful that you’ve been selected for this assignment. It may lead to that promotion you’ve wanted.”

Erlend smiled back, but suddenly, he saw something more. He wanted to know why Nevin was after this woman and how Victor was mixed up in it all. What did they mean when they talked about “going back”? Erlend no longer cared about a promotion. What he really wanted was to join Lauryn inside Victor's inner circle. Maybe if he succeeded with his task, he might just be awarded that trust. Erlend was confident that in forty-eight hours, he'd be back in Toronto with Edalyn and closer to learning the truth about Victor and why he needed her. 

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Up next: Chapter 2 - A Stranger in the Woods (Edalyn)