Chapter 8 – Lost Hope

The journey had been a two hour walk but he had no money so it had been inevitable. Silk opened the door of his house to find a thick layer of dust covering every surface. This confused Silk, it meant he had been gone for months at least, what he had only thought was a day had been much longer. The stadium he had fought in hadn't been in Edinburgh before he had woken up, of course he had been out for a while.

Silk headed into his room to find his clothes were no longer there. The whole house had been ransacked, Silk was upset with this. He found his old sewing machine and some cloth to use. The equipment wasn't brilliant but he couldn't look to conspicuous outside so none prison-wear was necessary.

The cloth wasn't actually cloth but linen. The material he had would only really look good for a suit, this annoyed Silk a bit but he got to it. If it had to be a suit it would just have to be as flexible as possible.

He had spent three days making his suit making sure to get all the details right. The end was black waistcoat and trousers, with a brown shirt. His jacket had used the last black and brown to make a black and brown long jacket split fifty-fifty down the middle.

The style wasn't Silk's normal style at all and he did feel funny in it but it had been necessary. Silk had been worried about food to begin with but had not felt a pang of hunger. The water supply and electricity had been fine surprisingly, however the internet wasn't working, or the computer wasn't working, he couldn't decide. The shower had worked just fine, if a tad freezing. This makeover from the grimy self in prison was his disguise.

His plan was to go down to the library, there was a working civilisation outside so he hoped the library was still open. He had taken the reserve money from underneath the sink which worryingly had not been touched, his mum and Emma had likely not come back here.

He headed out to the bus stop nearest his house, he got a few looks but nothing as bad as when he was in a prison outfit. The bus was on time and the ticket price was reasonable, luckily the currency wasn't different. A lot of things had changed, it was nice to know some things hadn't. The bus journey was as long as ever.

Silk took a step of the bus into the crowded street. It took two minutes to reach the library. The library was the central one. It was a big old building that Silk had loved to visit. The building looked a bit out of it but not out of business bad. He headed in.

The library was quiet but that was to be expected. The new edition of the guardian was at the entrance. James picked it up.

"No," he was startled. The newspaper fell to the floor out of his shaking hand. He kept himself up by leaning against the wall.

"Are you fine dearie," a nice old voice asked concerned.

"Yes, I suppose nothing can be done."

"Most people have your attitude since the war. I still don't trust them."

"War, against who?" Silk was overly confused now.

"Where have you been for the past twenty-two years." The old lady looked at him quizzically and backed away. "Are you one of them?" A crowd was taking interest in the conversation.

"Are you talking about demons perhaps." He needed a quick excuse, "I keep forgetting things since what happened." He feigned exhaustion.

"Twelve years of war could do that to anyone I presume." The lady smiled and then moved on.

Silk had defused that situation well enough but his ignorance was already proving problematic.

He moved further into the library to modern events. He picked up a book, what he read was troubling, a twelve-year long war had happened, the humans won, ten more years had passed and the humans had built a civilisation resembling the old one. The war had taken place in rural in small groups of fighters, the humans losing developed a virus that made demons subservient to humans, the demons countered too late and were now holed up in cities like London. The humans now patrolled the areas demons lived and monitored them even with an uneasy truce in place. Magic and abilities had become well-known as well.

"Hi, I'm Grace," a girl introduced herself, she was of ordinary height and brown hair, the only defining characteristic was the colourful clothes she wore, everything was long and even gloves not leaving a chance for anything but her face to be exposed.

"Good for you," Silk replied with a deadpan tone.

"I noticed a lot of untapped potential magical energy coming off you, Can I try your potential."

Silk looked up, she had piqued his interest. "Fine, it won't take long to test will it?"

"No," Grace took out a piece of paper with a symbol with smooth curves on it, "put your hand on this and imagine a gust of air coming from it." Silk did as he was told, the paper didn't move.

"It's not working."

"Correct," she turned it around, a different symbol, it was a lot darker and more complicated with numbers inscribed all over it, "Do the same with this symbol." Silk did so and he felt something leave his body, the paper started floating from his hands.

"Weird."

"I am sorry. Your magic is pure."

"Is that bad?"

"Yes, you can't chuck fireballs or teleport in a blink. You have to create magical circles and magical language to recreate the same effect. Everyone can do that"

"What I can do is limitless though."

"True," Grace looked at Silk pityingly. "I can help you pick out some books to help you though."

"Lead the way," Silk placed the book back on the shelf he got it from.

She led him through so the maze of bookshelves into the magic area. "First is the magical language which allows one to speak an incantation to unleash magical power," she stated handing a thick book to Silk. "Second is magic circles and magical circuitry, third is magic and science." Grace gave both these books to Silk, each lighter than the earlier.

"Thanks, how can I thank you?"

"Survive." She disappeared in an instant on this ominous note.

"She seemed nice." Silk walked over to the reception desk to take the books out. "Can I get a library card?" he asked the librarian.

"Sure," the man looked up from the computer. "You seem familiar, do I know you?"

"Shouldn't do."

"If you say so, name?"

He paused, Silk had been publicised on TV so he couldn't spit that out until the news died down. "James Sailor."

"Okay, everything seems in order." He leaned forward to look at Silk more closely, "I'm sure I've seen you on TV, what was I watching yesterday."

"I'll take the card." Silk snatched the card he had just registered from the receptionist.

"The arena." The receptionist froze at the revelation.

Silk grabbed a bag lying at the side to carry books and ran for the exit. The alarm went off as he passed the security gates. "Damn."

The gears finally clicked in the receptionist's brain, "There's a criminal." He shouted loudly.

Silk saw a dome of energy form to block his escape, he jumped sliding as close to the floor as possible. The dome formed around him, he turned to see a ball of fire stopped by the dome. He got up and brushed himself off, he rushed out the door only for an invisible force from his right propel him to the ground.

"You are under arrest, put your hands in the air."

"Like you just don't care." He felt a pang of pain come over him as he picked himself up. Silk faced the new opponent, he was big and burly, a brute of a man.

"Was that cheek." Wind swirled around the man's hand, Silk prepared to dodge. A multicoloured figure dropped from the second floor on to the police man, in one movement the neck was snapped.

The multicoloured figure looked up to Silk, it was Grace. "Come with me."

Silk went through his options and Grace was the most appealing option at this moment in time. Silk ran to catch up to Grace clutching the books to his chest, she was fast. She led him to a taxi and got in.

"Well come on then." She called to Silk. Silk leapt into the taxi after Grace.

"I hope you can pay." He said.

"This is just the get away vehicle." She responded.

"That hurts." A voice said in mock horror, it was the driver. He wore goth clothing, black with more black, except a golden cross hanging on his neck.

"Just drive Nick," Grace snapped.

"Can I ask what is happening." Silk piped up.

Grace turned to him, "you are being saved by the neutral collective, we've been looking for someone like you to help us bring a peaceful resolution to the war."

"I thought the war had finished."

Grace and Nick snorted, "No, they said that last year too but the demons always spring back up with more audacious plans."

"Here's to hoping," Silk cheered rolling his eyes at the same time to indicate that this had been obvious from the start. Silk changed his voice to a more serious tone, "you said you were looking for someone like me, what did you mean by this?"

"You take this," Nick said.

"We've been following you since the incident at the arena. We need people like you to be part of the demonic battle unit we made." Grace informed.

"You are going to have to be a lot more informative if you want me to understand."

Grace rolled he eyes, "there are going to be two groups of four we are gong to send to the demon and human military camps to spy."

"What if I refuse?"

"We drop you off and see how long you last without being torn to shreds like what almost happened in the library.