Free Defender of the Empire 2: Facades by Catherine Beery Page B

would voluntarily, or in any way knowingly, lead their chosen Shade or that Shade’s dearest friends into danger. They would do everything they could to protect. They were inherent protectors.
                  So what could fool a Seer Spectral? I didn’t have enough information and Kylesst’s comforting presence had faded. As I had observed before, he was weak. I let him go, praying that he would speak with me again. Perhaps he might even be able to tell me where he was, so I could come and save him as he had been saving me since we met. Though, I don’t think I could be anywhere near as cryptic.
                  I noticed something as I looked through the articles the Order had on my father. It made the hair rise on the back of my neck. There were no pictures of Joseph Raven. None. There were places for it in the documents, but no image. It was eerie, just like the public Citizen Archives. Though at least there it had been noted that the family wanted the images out of the public eye. But the Shade Order’s database was not public nor would they erase any information, seeing as only a Shade could read it. I wondered briefly if a Soul Shadow could, but if they could it begged the question ‘why were there still Shades?’ Wouldn’t the Soul Shadows do what they could to erase the Spectrals ability to fight them?
                  Tangent aside, I still couldn’t understand how the database had no image of Joseph Raven. What am I missing? I asked myself, before turning to someone who had more experience with the database. “Hey Becky,” I called privately to Marius’s handler. Since I was his student, Becky got to deal with me as well.
                  “Hey there sweetheart. What can I do for you?” Becky asked with a smile coloring her tone.
                  “I have two questions I hope you can help me with.”
                  “Shoot.”
                  “I’m looking for information on my parents, and I noticed that there are no images of my father. It’s like they don’t exist. The question is, what am I missing?”
                  “I don’t get it either,” she replied far faster than I expected.
                  I blinked blankly at my tablet. “That was fast…”
                  Becky laughed. “Sound a little shell-shocked, Rylynn. Be impressed by my skills but not intimidated,” she continued after a couple more chuckles at my expense. “Marius already asked me to see what I could find. Personally, I think that letter from your aunt made him curious. I am sorry about what happened to your parents, Rylynn,” she added in a much more somber tone.
                  I shrugged, though I know she couldn’t see it. “It’s hard to miss what you’ve never known.”
                  Becky snorted. “Keep telling yourself that and you might believe it one day,” she said bluntly. “It still hurts when you wonder ‘what might have been’.” she continued, unknowingly parroting what I had said to Kylesst not that long ago. Before I could say anything else, Becky continued. “I don’t know how the Shade database was altered, I will have to talk to Sam about it, but I can’t imagine that there are no images in existence. I bet his parents probably have some copies. We’ll find something,” she assured me.
                  “Thanks Becky.”
                  “No problem. Now what was your second question?” she prompted.
                  I hesitated a moment, trying to figure out how to word this one. “Reading through what is here, it sounds like I was ‘born’ on Coronaius. Does that make me a Citizen?”
                  “Yep,” she answered again quickly, though this time I wasn’t quite as surprised since she had already been looking through the same documents. “I’ve been looking into getting