The Boundary: A Tale of Sunset

Sunset felt the cold floor beneath her. Her eyes were heavy and her throat was dry, but she willed herself to move her limbs.. If she managed to move at all, it was not a noticeable amount due to restraints she could not fully make out in the haze.

Shadows loomed over her, so even if she were free, she would not have gotten far.

A glow emerged from the darkness. It outlined a red-hot tip.

Sunset writhed against her constraints.

“Too late for regret.” The glow drew near. “You crossed the line.”

Flesh charred. Acrid smoke filled the air. Sunset screamed.

She bolted upright, gulping down air.

Through the tangle of hair thrown in front of her by the sudden awakening, she caught sight of a specter. It was a woman sitting in a chair by the bed. Was blonde hair showing the faintest signs of grey or a flowing mane sprouting from her head?

A blink, and the vision was gone. The room was dimmer than the one from her memories, the bed thinner, and there were no windows. Steading her breathing, she reached over to feel a point on her side. Her movement was blocked by a cast wrapped around her left arm.

Then, she noticed her hair’s color and everything came back to her. “Crap.”

“Well, yeah, sounds like a few calls were made and favors granted,” came a voice to her left. She turned and was greeted with a figure veiled in medical attire. The pitch of her voice was the only indication she was a woman. She sat backwards on a chair, expression unknown behind the surgical mask. “Not my concern though. Anyway, now that I got the green light to wake you up, time to get you back to the world of the living.”

“How long have I been out, Nurse?” The woman had never shared her name. Sunset assumed she was, or at least had been, a big shot in the medical community as she was always the one on hand when Sunset suffered a major injury on the job that she or another person in the office did not have the training to deal with long term.

Why she chose to go by “Nurse” was left to the imagination.

Nurse remained still for a moment. She scanned over Sunset with attention lingering on her cast and some spot on her back. There was something about the way her attention shifted that told her it was an issue with her back, not her front. Finally, she answered, “Two days, Moon’s orders.”

“Injuries?”

“You broke your radius and ulna at three points each, plus your index finger. Second degree burns across your hand and a gash. Stitches and barely avoided a skin graft. Stitches in your leg too. Deep bruising across your back. Although, from the fall you appear to have taken, I’ll count you and myself lucky. Quite a blast you managed to catch yourself in.”

Sunset tensed. “Tia—T3 and the target?”

A look of displeasure crossed Doc’s eyes. “You know my policy. Talk with Moon or your Unit Chief. Now, let’s have our check-up.”

~~~

Sunset, in a fresh blouse and pants that matched her usual attire for work when not going into combat, made her way out of Nurse’s office and into the elevator. Her right hand, grasping a bag filled with medications, ice packs, and post-op instructions, did not hesitate to press in the code to go up rather than the one button to get to the ground floor.

The elevator’s movement roiled her stomach, but she persisted and managed to slink into the office.

Roger crossed his arms when Sunset came into his view. “Should have taken the day off.”

Sunset did not respond. Her eyes scanned over the hub.

They locked with Tiara’s. Both of them were frozen for a moment before Roger spoke up.

“But since you’re here, why don’t we get caught up and then you two can get some rest? Bosssssss!”

“Yeah yeah.” Mark entered the hub scratching his head. His face displayed deeper bags and more expressed wrinkles than usual. “Figured you’d choose to debrief. Well, we’ll go through a summary for today and then you and Tiara are on sick leave.”

Sunset looked down and sighed, “Yes.”

“Ah, but don’t be too glum.” Mark flashed a grin. “Cleanup is awful but we got a little extra from Reuben because of it. Teams D and G might be miffed at us for a bit though.”

“So, the target?”

“Back home and no worse for wear, barring some therapy. Definitely putting in a request now to get an explosives expert with us though.”

“And, of course, the best one’s on Team D,” said Roger.

~~~

Sunset strained with all her might to listen for the next two or so hours. It helped that the explanation was punctuated with videos and pictures either from the news or from Roger’s drones. She caught Tiara glancing at her every now and then but tried her best to keep her attention on Mark and the screen.

She tensed when she saw video of a burst of flames bursting from the construction site. Yet, the view from outside was what appeared to be a standard explosion, not the supernatural burning column Sunset had summoned.

The ache from her injuries and the wooziness from the medications combined with the thoughts flying through Sunset’s head to push her expression from confusion and exhaustion to blankness. To her advantage, whenever she zoned out, her expression was a stark one that could pass for pensive.

She was near her limit, but she managed to get enough of the explanation offered down: the kidnappers had one last trap that Tiara had triggered when opening up the door. It had doused the floor in chemicals, and presumably would have either caused intruders to lose visibility or footing long enough for a fatal blow to hit them. The chemicals were assumed to be flammable and unstable, but in the panic of the raid, the last kidnapper had used a firearm, setting off the explosion.

Sunset’s face was scrunched at the end of the debriefing.

“Yeah, it’s not perfect, but it’s what we’ve got.” Mark clasped his mustache. “Anything you think we’re missing?”

“Besides looking like I’m ready to go to a rave?” Sunset gave her hair a flick. “What a mess. So, where’s my gun?”

“Retrieving the target and you two was the priority. With fire and police there, the other teams didn’t have time to clean up fully.”

“Are we clear to go now?”

Mark furrowed his brow. “Check back when you’ve mended a little.”

“Right,” Sunset sighed, both out of compliance and fatigue. Nothing she had seen revealed more than what she already knew. No one appeared to suspect anything. Just a messy but still successful mission. Were it only that, this would eventually fade to a slight ribbing with time. Sunset deeply wished it was only that, but she could not deny her eyes. The ability to cast a spell. The aura. The flames. She needed to know why it had happened.

Yet, the rest and recovery Mark was offering was needed even more right now. She could already envision a warm shower and her bed. It clouded her thoughts on what came after.

There was one other matter on her mind now that the briefing was over. With so many unknowns already ahead of her, Sunset wanted to resolve at least one dangling thread.

Her focus shifted to the pair of eyes that had remained on her since Mark had finished the debriefing. Tiara’s paleness emphasized her purple irises. “Meet up for a tea?”

“Oh!” Tiara appeared ready to jump. “S-sure.”

~~~

“Drink,” Sunset ordered.

“O-okay.” Tiara clasped the cup with both hands, blew through the delicate foam art, and took a sip.

Sunset took a more ambitious swig of her drink, followed by a bite of a donut. She savored the taste for a moment, recalling other times she had found herself at this café. Chats about animals. Complaints about not scheduling closer to competitions for an excuse to carboload. Both sincere and inauthentic apologies about not going to a show or an exhibit due to work. Missing home. Feeling at home.

“Sorry,” she sighed. “Probably in a bad mood from everything.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Tiara squeaked.

Tiara’s manner brought back more memories of talks with Felecia. Sunset raised her cup again, this time slower.

“How are you holding up now that you’ve gotten hit by the real deal?”

“What are… oh…” Tiara glanced down to the left side. Neither could see it right now, but Sunset imagined the bandages wrapped around Tiara’s ribs.

“Hurts worse than the sandbags or rubber, eh?” Sunset set down her cup and traced a finger to above her left bicep. “My first was with a rifle. Kevlar isn’t going to do much with those even if I had had something covering my arm.”

Tiara glanced at where Sunset was pointing and then lowered her gaze. “Right.”

They both took sips of their drinks for a minute.

“I get it,” Sunset said after tearing a piece out of her donut. “You’re bummed ‘cause you made a bad call. It happens. Wouldn’t be surprised if Moon was half expecting it.”

Tiara remained silent.

Sunset tapped at the old injury on her left arm and then waved her cast. “Look at me, I flubbed too. If I’d been more careful with my footing, you wouldn’t have had to go in alone. We’re both probably thinking we messed up more than the other. Big whup. We got the target and now we get a little rest.”

At least Tiara would. Sunset had other plans, but since those would have to wait until nightfall, she chose to comfort her junior as best she could. She also wanted to let the relief soak in that Tiara was sitting across from her. Seeing Tiara shot, even with the knowledge she had a vest on, had been enough to push Sunset over the edge. In its own way, coming to terms with that would be helpful to unraveling how she had cast a spell.

Mind awash with memories both ancient and fresh, she got up and ordered another chai while Tiara continued to slowly sip on her drink. Sunset took longer with her second cup. She racked her brain with how things had gone the first time she had been wounded in a true battle.

It was taking some extra steps to make conversions and draw anecdotes from a fight with a swarm of changelings.

The chittering of a cup against its plate cut her off. She did not know how long her ponderings had been but Tiara had finally finished her decaf.

She was quite jittery though. Her stooped posture and contracted muscles told Sunset it was not from her drink. “Y-you’re not going to kill me?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, are you talking metaphorically?”

Tiara paled. “No, never mind.”

“Look, if I was mad, I’d be mad.”

“That’s not… I just…”

Sunset grew annoyed at the path of the conversation. Her exhaustion must have been causing a disconnect. There was a nervousness to Tiara that went beyond shame. There was genuine fear in her eyes as they went from Sunset’s cast to her face but never directly meeting her gaze.

The world froze for a second to Sunset. The pieces aligned and her confusion gave way to adrenaline. Tiara was not avoiding her gaze. There was focus in her sight, but only when her furtive glances locked onto something above Sunset’s face: her hair.

“Ohhhhh.” Sunset raised her right hand, slowly and casually, masking that her heartbeat had risen. She rested it on her forehead, angled so that she could still look at Tiara. The sheen of cold sweat was visible on the younger woman. “You saw?”

With Tiara’s hands pressed against the table and her shoes grinding against the floor, Sunset had her answer. “Please don’t kill me.”

“Okay, take a breath.” Sunset pulled her hand away from her face. It was a subtle movement, not something that other customers would notice, but Sunset saw the gears whirl in Tiara’s head even in her panicked state. She saw her eyes shift ever so slightly from her hand to the cups— potential weapons— and to the distance between the two of them. Tiara knew Sunset’s actions had removed the option of an immediate attack. “Look where we are. No matter what you think you saw, nothing is happening to you here.”

“Here is a place you chose,” The logic faded from Tiara’s eyes and she lowered them. Sweat gathered on her brow.

“True, true.” Sunset kept an even keel to her voice. “But have I ever come across as someone who would be this indirect if I thought there was a problem?”

“M-maybe the office ga—”

“The office isn’t involved.” Sunset paused for a moment and narrowed her eyes. “Or maybe you think they are? We’re both working on assumptions, so why don’t you tell me what you think I’m going to do?”

“You’re…” Tiara looked around the café. It was an odd hour so the only other customers were a mother with a young child, a few retirees, and some youth with nothing better to do with their lives. She gulped and in one breath sputtered, “You’re going to kill me because I saw you use the extraterrestrial tech our office only lets top members deal with and you might also be an alien.”

The word extraterrestrial and alien rolled on Sunset’s tongue for a moment, but seeing Tiara shaking prioritized her words. “Again, not gonna kill you.”

“Erase my memory?”

“No.”

“Abduct me?”

“No.”

“Send me into a void dimension?”

“What kind of meds did they give you for broken ribs? Or are you even more nerdy than I thought?”

“Well how else do you explain your gun and your hair?” Tiara’s pitch was at a near shout. Sunset sharpened her gaze into a glare, the only time she had done so throughout the conversation. With reddened cheeks, Tiara bowed her head. “Sorry.”

“Well, you’ve given me an idea of where things stand.” Sunset took a drink and weighed her options. “Assuming Moon doesn’t take an interest, this conversation can stop at this: It’s not extraterrestrial at least how you’re thinking. It’s something I, not the team, not Moon, and not you, have to worry about. Just me.”

Sunset let her words sink in for both Tiara and herself. A myriad of iterations of what she would say next had bounced around her head as soon as Tiara had revealed she had seen Sunset cast a spell. The existence of magic here was a major concern that Sunset wanted to get to the bottom of ASAP, by any means necessary. That left her with several options, so, she hoped she had chosen right, leaned forward, and opened her lips.

“That being said, I do need to find out what happened. Again, this is a personal matter, not job related. I can do it on my own, but I know a junior of mine who could help, on the condition that she never says a word of this to anyone else. Not that anyone would believe you if you did.”

Making the offer was like casting off a great weight. Sunset leaned back, but kept her core firm. There was a second tension there but she dared not show it at this critical juncture. Like her words, she had mentally cycled through which expression to choose. She had settled on something that was not a full glare. Rather it was a look that conveyed a sense akin to her holding up a rope bridge over a chasm and offering passage for Tiara. “I trust you though. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be saying this. And, in return, I will tell some stories, and you can make of them what you will.”

She got up from her seat and stood by Tiara, resting her right hand on her shoulder. “Tonight, at ten. Act like you’re waiting for a car at the Tasty Treat. Don’t stress too much on it. No matter what, you go back to work in a few days.”

“And you?”

Sunset did not reply. She slipped away with enough speed and in a direction Tiara would have had to strain her ribs or stand up to see.