The Gemini Age: Book One

[1-1] Welcome to the City - Part One

Twelve tolls of a bell shook the heart of the city. As night usurped day from its anxious seat, the lights that shone through freshly painted windows snuffed themselves out. Streetlights buzzed in the cold air, their hot bulbs breathing a mist that splashed against the brown stone and wicker baskets lining the front of the terraced houses. In the distance, the cathedral and castle soared over the clouds of mist that gathered between the roofs of the city. Their gothic splendour ruled over the skyline with hushed dignity.

The side streets wound even more harshly than the main roads of the city, much to Karim's frustration. He had only arrived in Edinburgh yesterday, yet since he alighted at the train station, the eyes of the city had borne holes into the back of his neck. Karim had been the sole Arab boy in the playground more than enough times over the years to recognise when others were watching him, and to know that this time felt different. Normally they regarded him with simple raw suspicion. This time, though, Karim did not feel isolated. He felt afraid; since stepping into the city, Karim had known that whoever was watching him was coming after him. And now they had made themselves known.

He left his hotel room to get some peace and quiet on the coastline of Leith. Having spent years among the dull gloom of Oxford, Karim was almost more at home with the spectral feel of Edinburgh's Old Town than the vivid vitriol and bonhomie that always lined Easter Road's doorsteps. The rowdy nightlife of the street, however, provided the quickest route between his hotel and the beach, so Karim flicked the hood of his jacket over his close-shaven head and quickened his step.

A hand caught his arm, sending a jolt through his heart. "Aye, lad? Left me lighter in the car, ye got a light on hand?" The stranger, a red-faced man with red hair that shocked through the air in the yellow glow of the streetlamp, stood slumped against the doorframe of a chain pub.

"Sure thing," Karim nodded. The man flicked his fingers towards him to reveal a ragged cigarette, its innards spilling onto the pavement between them. With a stony expression, Karim held his hand over the end of the cigarette and breathed. In an instant, a spark shot from his fingertips and lit the creased cigarette paper.

The man sucked his teeth. "Ah, yer one o' those Hot lads, are ye? Must be handy in the winter." He chuckled and took a drag on his cigarette. "Hearts o' Hibs?"

Given that the crest on the man's shirt was obvious even to someone with his non-existent understanding of Scottish sport, Karim knew how to answer. "Hibernian all the way," he said with a forced smile, eager to keep walking. "Glad I could help, sir."

"Yer lad says sir, I love it!" With a hearty laugh, the man leaned back on the pub's doorframe and took a drag on his cigarette. He released the smoke in a single breath. "Nice to see a lad with a sound head on his shoulders. Too many at yer age are goin' round causin' trouble. All this kidnappin' o' Geminis, I mean."

"Kidnappings?" The eyes that Karim had felt on him since the station crept closer to the back of his neck, now damp with sweat under his jacket.

The man waved his cigarette-bearing hand, casting a thin spell of smoke under Karim's nose. "Aye, an' a rotten business it is. Just the four or five cases for now, but I'll tell ye, it'll get worse 'fore it gets better. Gang crime always does."

"Gangs..." Karim tugged at his jumper, a tense chill slithering beneath the sweat that clung to his back. He picked out an alleyway ahead of him and left the man without a word. Walking as fast as he could, he fought the urge to run. It was always harder for him to calm down if he gave in to his panic.

Having manifested his Hot soul at an early age, Karim had plenty of experience handling fire and air. Schoolyard fights had seen to that as much as his father had done. The Cold side of his Gemini soul, however, had only shown itself a month or so ago, and most of the time he could barely engage with its power. Simple tasks like moving water from one bowl to another frustrated him for hours before he furiously shoved the containers away.