009.001

<– Back | Index | Next –>


Interlude

Iosefael


This was such a bad idea. Such a bad idea. The worst part: She had known it was a bad idea well before trying anything. But what was she supposed to do? Go to the Astral Authority? There was a good chance they wouldn’t act with how… chaotic things had been in the past few thousand years. And if they did act… Tenebrael could disappear.

She didn’t want that.

They were friends. They had been friends and Iosefael wanted to believe that they still were.

Which was why this was up to her. She didn’t know if this world could be salvaged. Tene had diverged from the Plan. What would that do to the denizens? She didn’t know. Such a thing had never happened before. The Plan was the Plan. Regardless, something had to be done. What that something was, she could discuss with Tenebrael once she finally got her fellow angel to see reason.

A goal that was looking less and less likely as more time passed.

Iosefael stopped high above the city, taking a deep breath. Air was meaningless for angels, but the mental strain of constantly fighting necessitated a short break. A breather, as the humans said. Humans had lots of fun phrases like that. Angels didn’t. There weren’t a lot of angels, compared to mortals, and they were not even half as social. It had been a thousand years since she had last seen Tenebrael and that felt so recent to her. If a human went a thousand years without seeing one of their friends… well, they would be dead because humans don’t live that long.

Lower down, standing on the tip of one of the taller human structures around, Tenebrael looked none the worse for wear. She had been flying around just as much as Iosefael, though she really had only attacked every now and again. But Iosefael hadn’t been able to touch her. Tenebrael managed to defend everything, whether it be magical or her weapons, like a piece of cake. Part of it, Iosefael knew, was her extra wings. Tenebrael had been afforded more authority to carry out her duties. With more authority came more capacity and capability.

But that didn’t explain her utter disregard for how she was fighting. Even when Iosefael tossed out a mere Smite spell that would never seriously harm a Dominion of Tenebrael’s power, Tenebrael formed a fully fledged reflective shell with predictive calculations in an attempt to hit her again—even though a smite would barely sting even against a lowly Principality. She shouldn’t be able to do that. Even Cherubim would be hard pressed to reflect every attack. Seraphim maybe, but a Seraphim likely wouldn’t need to reflect many attacks. The battle simply wouldn’t continue that long.

“Can you hear it?”

Iosefael shook her head. Her fatigue must be getting to her. Standing so still, stuck in her thoughts for so long, Tenebrael could easily have tethered her down just as she had back in the tomb on Earth. But Tene hadn’t. So, despite her instincts telling her otherwise, Iosefael cocked her head to listen.

The air was still with little wind or movement. Seemingly no insects either—no locusts chirping or bugs buzzing—but Tenebrael probably wasn’t talking about such small things. Fire crackled somewhere beneath her. The fields and a few homes in the city were burning. Both came with shouts, cries, pained moans, metal striking metal, metal biting into flesh, breaking bones… It was a war. But Iosefael knew that. She had known before the fight started that the humans of this world were battling with remnants of the Age of Legends.

It wasn’t until she started listening deeper that she realized… there was something that she couldn’t hear that should be present in a situation like this.

“You’ve come at a poor time to do your… whatever it is you think you’re doing.”

“Tene…”

“The humans you love so much are dying. Their souls are crying out for release, screaming in pain while trapped in their battered and broken bodies. And they’re going to continue to wallow in their agony until you give up. But, take your time. It doesn’t matter to me if they have to experience their bodies rotting after decades of being buried in the ground.”

“Tene, where are their prayers?” This was a battle. Even if everyone was a staunch atheist, someone would still utter even a sarcastic prayer.

But there was nothing.

Just utter silence.

“Oh, there are plenty of prayers. Just not to anyone you’re listening for. Well, unless you count me,” Tenebrael said with a chuckle.

Iosefael gripped her sword and spear, curling her fingers around the hafts tighter than before. She opened her mouth, but Tenebrael spoke first.

“You’re fighting for nothing, you know that right? Literally nothing.”

“That’s—”

“Do you know the meaning of futility?”

That made her pause again. What kind of question was that? Of course she knew what futility meant.

“Not the word futility,” she said as soon as Iosefael opened her mouth. “The feeling of being utterly helpless, of having a goal yet knowing that no matter what you do, you’ll never be able to reach it.” Her eyes, glowing their radiant white, locked on to Iosefael.

For just an instant, something broke inside Iosefael. An aching deep within her very being. Staring down at Tenebrael, she couldn’t quite understand why she felt that way. Her fellow angel was going against everything. Iosefael could not understand why. The Plan had been laid out in clear lines. Everything needed to go as preordained. But Tenebrael had this haunting sadness lining her features that Iosefael just couldn’t ignore. It almost, almost, made Iosefael lower her weapons.

Tenebrael sighed and the moment was lost. “No,” she said. “Of course you haven’t. You’ve never had a personal desire in your entire existence, have you?”

“I want you to stop! I want the Tene I used to know to come back.”

Wings spreading wide, Tenebrael left the top of the tower in a blinding flash. Iosefael couldn’t react before something slammed into her back, right between her wings.

She fell like a meteor, slamming into a city street. Cracks spread out in the dirt. Buildings rattled and shook from the shock wave. Iosefael blinked twice, staring up at the stars and the ring in the sky, not quite understanding what had happened. Two bright lights moved into her field of vision. Gigantic stars.

No. Her vision sharpened. They weren’t stars. Tenebrael stood above her, looking down.

“I’ve sullied your beautiful feathers. I’m sorry. But I’m going to get a little serious now. This has gone on long enough and I’m just so busy at the moment. All these souls need collecting and I’ve still got to go back to Earth and puppet around that disgusting corpse.”

Iosefael moved, recalculating her position in this world. She thrust out her spear to where Tenebrael’s back should have been only to skewer naught but air. Wings carrying her back into the sky without even a glance around to find the missing angel, she continually turned to keep from being surprised. But Tenebrael had vanished completely. She wasn’t down, she wasn’t up.

Had she fled? Gone back to Earth?

That didn’t fit with what she had said.

A golden glow enveloped her sword and the glove wrapped around her arm as Iosefael began simulating potential futures in an attempt to locate the other angel. As with so many spells on this world, her attempt fizzled out and failed before she could even catch a glimpse. Even trying to project her own future in an attempt to discover when she would next be attacked failed just the same.

Lost and confused, Iosefael couldn’t understand. Was it Tenebrael? This world? Both? Or something else entirely. She tried scanning for holy presences. She showed up right where she should be, so it worked at the very least. But only for her. Nothing else. No Angels, no Archangels, no other Principalities, and, of course, no Dominions. What had happened to them all? As a Dominion, Tenebrael should have had several Third Sphere angels working under her.

Disappeared? They couldn’t be. Such a shock would have shook the First Sphere into action, even in their current state. Had she simply never used her authority to recruit any in the first place?

Iosefael turned to the battle outside the city. It looked like it was ending, but without projections of the future, she couldn’t know for certain. Even with it ending, people had died. People whose souls, as Tenebrael had said, were crying out in agony. Without any Principalities in the world, their collection would be up to Tenebrael alone.

Such a daunting task. Managing an entire world on her own? How had she managed all this time? It wasn’t as populated as Earth, true, but people still died almost constantly around the planet. And that was just soul collection. There were so many other duties under a Dominion’s wings…

The closest soul was almost directly beneath her. She couldn’t help it. Iosefael started drifting lower to the ground. It was her duty as a Principality to guide and help souls to escape their mortal confines. To take them where they needed to go, wherever that may be.

He was an older man, dead from several puncture wounds. Knives perhaps. Too small to be swords, no arrows were sticking out, and this world had no guns. Well, she supposed that last one wasn’t quite true. But it obviously hadn’t been a gun. He was slumped over, face down, in front of a locked wooden door. A grimy key lay in the dirt not far away.

Letting go of her spear, which disappeared the moment it lost contact with her fingers, Iosefael stretched her hand out to the body.

“So predictable.”

Iosefael’s head snapped to the side. She barely caught a glimpse of Tenebrael before she found herself thrown backward, tossed through the brick wall into the home. It didn’t stop there. Three more walls crumbled to dust as she passed through them. There was a brief reprieve as she passed through a street before she crashed through another home.

She skidded to a stop inside the home. People were screaming. Humans. They couldn’t see her, but she hadn’t phased through the walls as she might otherwise have been able to. Being knocked around kept her from processing the intangibility required for each wall.

“I leave you alone for one moment and what do you do? You revert to your duties. Did you forget about me? Did you think that I had forgotten about you?” Tenebrael shook her head, stepping across the room while ignoring the humans as they fled from the one-room home. “Why did you do that? Why did you not continue searching for me?” She reached out, black fingernails glinting from a light no human would have been able to see.

Iosefael’s eyes widened. The spell forming in a mystic circle around Tenebrael’s hand was about to blast her hard enough to send her through every building in the city ten times over. Calculating a new location wouldn’t finish before the spell. Wincing, she scrunched her eyes shut as she prepared for the impact.

The impact never came.

“Oh my,” Tenebrael said, genuine surprise in her voice. It was enough to make Iosefael open her eyes again.

Tenebrael stood right where she had been, right in the center of the room. However, her hands were at her sides. Not by choice. Transparent chains were wrapped around her chest, pinning both her arms and wings down. She was just staring downward at herself, completely perplexed.

Not knowing what was going on but also not willing to question her luck, Iosefael jumped to her feet and readied her sword. She took one step forward only to trip. Her arms snapped to her sides as her face slammed into the floor. Flipping onto her back, she managed to look at herself. The same translucent chains were tangled around her.

“You two idiots are going to destroy the whole city!”

That voice sounded familiar. “Alyssa Meadows?” Rolling over again, she managed to locate the human in question. Alyssa Meadows stood in the gap left behind from when Iosefael blew through the house. She wasn’t alone either. Two other people were with her. Well, for varying definitions of people. One of them wasn’t a human. It was another Age of Legends relic.

Neither the relic nor the non-Alyssa human were looking directly at her. They could see the chains, but their eyes, like all mortal eyes, glazed over Iosefael’s form.

“Whasat? Shadow assassins?”

“No, it’s…” Alyssa trailed off with a sigh. “It’s a long story. A story that’s destroying the city.” Turning away from the injured human, Alyssa narrowed her eyes, glancing between Iosefael and Tenebrael. “I’m lucky you idiots were down on the ground. I wouldn’t have been able to catch you if you were high in the sky. Of course, you probably wouldn’t have been destroying anything at that altitude so I wouldn’t have cared, but that’s beside the point.”

Tenebrael flexed her wings, shattering the chains in the process. “How did you do that?” she said, completely ignoring Iosefael.

Alyssa lost her glare. As Tenebrael looked at her, she actually took a step back. “I don’t know. Honest. I didn’t even know if it would work, but it was all I could try,” she said, words coming out faster and faster. Tenebrael moved just a half step closer. Alyssa took another full step back. “And I had to try something because your fight is definitely going to harm humans. You two are worse than the stupid trolls! Aren’t you not supposed to do that?”

Seeing her friend escape so easily, Iosefael struggled, pressing against the bindings. They held tight. Maybe even getting tighter. She twisted in the chains for another minute before realizing how foolish she was being. Why bother fighting the magic when she could simply relocate somewhere where the chains weren’t! She set herself a new spatial manifestation point just above her current position in the relative universe and moved to it.

Except the view didn’t change at all. She was still on the floor, wrapped up in ghostly chains. “What? Why?” Pressing her wings against the chains as Tenebrael had done still didn’t budge them. She couldn’t summon her sword or her spear and the chains just kept sticking around her! “It’s not fair.”

“Hush, Iose. Whining is unbecoming.” After that short beratement, Tenebrael vanished and reappeared right in front of Alyssa. The human let out a short shriek and tried to jump back, but Tenebrael wrapped her fingers around her hand. The same hand that held Iosefael’s chains. “Don’t let go of the spell or I might have to fight her again. You wouldn’t want that, would you? Just let me look at this for a moment. Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt my little reaper.”

Iosefael clamped her mouth shut as Tenebrael began her work. She started out with a few analysis spells. Things not commonly used in the modern age. Back when miracles were slightly more commonplace, analysis spells were needed. Performing miracles was a bit tricky without knowing exactly what was wrong with someone. Nowadays, they might be used to give a doctor some divine inspiration, saving a patient’s life by discovering what was wrong with them. Even those were fairly rare. No scheduled divine inspirations had been noted in Iosefael’s book in well over one hundred years. They just weren’t needed in the modern age.

“Are you alright?” the older human asked. She looked… nervous, if Iosefael had to put a word to it. That wasn’t even taking her fairly extensive injuries into account. How was she standing without groaning in pain? Her eyes were darting around the room. Every time they flicked one way, they paused on Iosefael before moving somewhere else. She held a little round glass jar tightly between her fingers. It had some sort of spell trapped inside, but it was so mutated that Iosefael couldn’t tell what it was without proper analysis.

The sight of it did make Iosefael sigh. Only select few humans throughout Earth’s history had direct access to magic. The number could be counted on one hand, to use a human phrase. There were more who thought they had magic, but whose magic had been nearby angels doing everything. The fact that this human had corrupted spells in little jars was just a testimony to how wrong this world was. Alyssa, who Iosefael was absolutely certain had never used magic before, was yet another example.

Her view of the far side of the room vanished. The relic stepped up, obscuring everything further away. It looked like a human right now, but that wasn’t its true form. More curiously, it was staring right at Iosefael.

No. It couldn’t be. Human or not, it wasn’t seeing her.

The relic stretched out a hand, passing it right through Iosefael’s chest.

That was a close one. With how much her magic had been failing, she wasn’t sure that she would even be intangible. But she was, so there was nothing to worry about. Well, except for the chains. If she was intangible, why wasn’t she passing through them? It just wasn’t fair. She had obviously gotten the short end of the stick.

“There is something here,” the relic said, pulling back its hand. “But I can’t tell what.”

“Ain’t asking your opinion, mimic.”

“Please, let’s not start fighting again,” Alyssa said. “Are you almost done yet? What are you doing? Let go of my hand!”

Surprising Iosefael, Tenebrael complied. “This spell,” she said slowly, glancing to Iosefael, “is nothing like the one I used on you in the tomb. It shouldn’t even be able to touch the lowliest of angels, let alone a Principality.”

“Then why am I stuck?” Iosefael said, once again renewing her struggles to escape.

“It’s unbecoming to whine,” Tenebrael said again.

“I’m not whining!”

“Your inability to escape is likely my doing. Divine magic is… corrupted here. And I wasn’t just knocking you around, you know. Every time I touched you, I sapped just a little hope from your body. After all, I wasn’t going to beat you with pure kinetic—”

“Te—” Alyssa hesitated, glancing to the other human in the room. “Look, can you just leave? And take her with you. I’m tired. I’m upset. This has been an exceedingly long day for me and I’m not even one of the poor people out fighting monsters who have to come back to their destroyed homes because of you idiots. And I don’t need you two destroying the city before I can even take a quick nap!”

“That is something I can agree with, I suppose.” Tenebrael raised a hand, not even commenting on the fact that the human had insulted her several times since showing up as she aimed at Iosefael. A mystic circle formed at her fingertips. This time, it wasn’t one that could blast her to the moon. It was designed for teleportation. Chained up, unable to perform magic, Iosefael could do nothing but squeeze her eyes shut as the world around her lurched.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a room as dark as the abyss. Her chains were gone, but there was nowhere to go. Iosefael couldn’t even tell that there were walls until she bumped a hand into them. They didn’t have doors or windows. Without a reference to her surroundings, relocating herself might end up with her in a wall. It wouldn’t actually hurt her, but it could destabilize whatever building she was in, bringing it down upon any nearby humans. Although somewhat hopeless, she did have one option left.

To leave Tenebrael’s world. To leave and return to the Throne. Or just to Earth. Either would work.

Clasping her hands together as if in prayer, Iosefael bowed her head and closed her eyes. “Commissioned by the Concord of Angels, this Principality Iosefael requests guidance in returning to her home. Confirming existence of the Throne. Throne confirmed. Beginning individual Throne transference across… Divine…” she trailed off. There was no route to travel along. She could see the Throne, bright as ten thousand suns, but there was no path.

Closing her eyes again, she tried the same thing with Earth. She had gone back and forth between Earth and Nod several times since first arriving upon the latter—Tenebrael’s world. It had worked without problem. She even had a preferred Divine vector, zero-one-two.

But it wasn’t working. Again, there was no path. It was like this world—this room was cut off from all creation. There was no way in or out. But there had to be. Tenebrael put her in here.

She tried a few other things, occasionally interspersed with moping about, but nothing worked. She was well and truly stuck. Like a fly in amber. Or something. Her current mindset wasn’t the best to be coming up with human idioms at the moment.

All the while, the darkness seemed to be growing worse. It was so wrong. How could a place not connected to creation exist? Her magic didn’t work. She couldn’t see—she couldn’t experience anything. For a moment, she wondered if this was what absolute nullification was like. But it couldn’t be. She wouldn’t even have her thoughts in that case.

It seemed like forever before something happened—but not literally forever, maybe an hour. A tiny white dot opened up in the black void around her. It was a blessing in oblivion. A tiny ray of hope reaching out to her.

“Iose.” Tenebrael’s voice rang through loud and clear. “I’m sorry for putting you where you are. It must be incredibly depressing, especially to you. But you were really making a mess of things. I had to do something.”

“What happened, Tene? Why…” Why everything? There were so many questions she wanted to ask. She didn’t even know where to begin.

“It’s a long story,” Tenebrael’s voice said with a sorry chuckle. “Maybe I’ll tell you someday, if I decide I can trust you.”

“Trust?” Needles and knives stabbed at Iosefael’s very being. Why did Tenebrael think that she couldn’t be trusted? They had known each other for so long. They had been close for so long. Maybe that distance widened after Tenebrael got her second set of wings, but they were… but Tenebrael was still Iosefael’s closest friend. Her only one, really. Even now, even after fighting her, she only wanted what was best for her.

So why?

Why?

A knot formed in her stomach. Not literally. She didn’t have a stomach and most humans never wound up with their stomachs tied into knots. But she understood the expression well enough to know that it was what she was feeling at the moment.

“How long are you going to keep me here?”

“Not long! Be happy about that, at least. I can’t keep you here for long, even if I wanted to. You have your duties back on Earth. No one will miss a handful of souls, but you disappearing and every mortal you’re responsible for going uncollected? If you’re stuck here and I don’t do anything, I’ll have the Astral Authority bearing down on me by the end of the week.”

Confirming the fact that she was afraid of the Astral Authority was yet another thing that worried Iosefael. Fending off fallen angels made up the majority of the Authority’s duties. But no angel had fallen since… well, since before Iosefael or Tenebrael had existed. Not since the very beginning. So why would Tenebrael fear them?

Why?

“I’ll let you out right now if you promise to not run off and cause trouble again. We can sit down and have a nice civilized conversation about how you are going to return to Earth and not interfere with Nod’s operation again.”

“Tene…”

“Or you can stay here. I used to be a Principality, you know. I’m sure I could manage your duties on Earth well enough to keep the Astral Authority off my wings for at least a century.”

Iosefael sighed. That was true, though she knew without a doubt that Tenebrael would hate it every minute of the way. But she couldn’t stay here. It had probably only been for an hour at the most, but the darkness of this place unnerved her more than anything she had experienced.

Besides that, if she got out, she might just be able to learn what had happened to Tenebrael. To get her trust back! Iosefael smiled to herself. It might mean leaving Tenebrael to her messed up world for longer, but she had managed to keep it hidden from everyone up until now. A little longer wouldn’t hurt. And, as Alyssa Meadows had pointed out, it was already messed up. Leaving her here for a short time couldn’t possibly make it any worse.

She nodded, not even sure if Tenebrael could see her. “Alright. I promise. Please let me out?”

If this was what it took to gain Tenebrael’s trust, she could do it!

Because Tenebrael was her friend. Friends helped each other out when they were hurting, or whenever else they needed.


<– Back | Index | Next –>


Author’s Note: Hello, hope you’re all enjoying so far. Were this Void Domain, this right here would probably be the end of Book 001. Size-wise and content-wise, it’s about the right spot. I switched to the arc-based format mostly for organizational purposes. It keeps things compartmentalized better which I find helpful. Anyway, that’s just a bit of trivia for you! Thanks for reading so far and, if you please, vote for Vacant Throne on Top Web Fiction. Alyssa is furiously updating her notes as we speak and I’ll be updating the character list, so check back next time for both those as well as the next chapter!

For Patreon supporters: There is an extra side chapter (not VT related, in case non-supporters were wondering) up on the latest post. I realize I’m doing this all backwards and that anything extra should come between posts to help tide you over. I talk a bit about that in the actual post. So check it out if you want!

008.007

<– Back | Index | Next –>


City Under Siege

The Black Prince


Alyssa stumbled over her words again and again. Every mess-up only served to make her more nervous, resulting in more and more mistakes. She wasn’t even sure if she was still intelligible, but the prince hadn’t interrupted her so she hadn’t stopped.

When the Black Prince had first turned to her and asked what had happened, she had nearly fainted. It was like being addressed by Darth Vader. He had such an imposing presence. An aura of terror radiated from his armor, filling her with a dread that she hadn’t even felt while captured. Bercilak and his cronies were just regular people in bath robes compared to Brakkt, the Black Prince. Even now, she could just picture him stretching out a hand in a pincer grip and saying, ‘I find your stuttered explanation disturbing.’

A flash of light behind him made Alyssa pause and wince. Tenebrael and Iosefael were still at it. Alyssa had been trying to ignore it. It wasn’t like she could intervene even if she wanted to—which she kind of did, she definitely wanted Tenebrael to win the battle if only because Tenebrael didn’t want to kill her. But monstrous didn’t even begin to describe their fight. Trolls and goblins were at least bound by the laws of physics and a mortal coil. Those two were… not. According to both angels, they were forbidden from harming mortals, so Alyssa could theoretically get between them. However, that on its own was a problem. They were moving around so fast that they might as well be teleporting.

“Impressive,” The Black Prince said, deep voice resonating from his helmet. “Most impressive. Unfortunate that you could not capture the others as well, but one will suffice.”

Apparently, he had taken her pause for the conclusion of her explanation. How far had she even got in the story? Far enough for him to know that Morgan escaped, at the very least. Oh well, that was close enough to the end for her. Alyssa was just glad that he turned his helmet away from her.

The raptor—The draken snorted out another blast of hot air. Laughing? Alyssa just glared, glad it was on the opposite side of the small plateau. It could probably cross the distance in an instant and eat her whole before she could blink, but it was too busy keeping a moaning Bercilak pinned to the ground.

“Fairy,” Brakkt said, picking up the cage and rocking it back and forth. The poor creature inside crashed from wall to wall even though he wasn’t using much force. “Remove the—” He cut himself off with a “Gahk!” and staggered.

A low ticking noise came from the depths of the draken’s throat. Its yellow eyes narrowed, looking at the Black Prince.

Closing his fist, Brakkt partially crushed the cage. “Do not try your tricks on me, fairy.” His words came out in a low growl, even deeper than his normal voice. James Earl Jones had nothing on this guy. Even without his words being directed at her, Alyssa still shuddered. “Remove the shadow assassins from the city. Send them to the river and drown them. Do this and I’ll consider letting you live. Disobey or try to mesmerize me again and I will crush your skull.” As far as she could tell, the fairy didn’t respond. None of its movements indicated that it understood. It just cowered from its partially collapsed cage. But apparently it managed to satisfy the Black Prince. He nodded his head, moved back to the draken, and placed the fairy into one of the saddle’s side bags.

When he withdrew his hand, he pulled out a small golden coin. Not like the monetary coins, which were rectangular. This was circular with a few holes in it, creating the pattern of… Tenebrael’s eye tattoo. Someone must have described that tattoo in one of Lazhar’s sacrifices—or his predecessors—and it had spread far and wide, becoming a symbol of both her and the royal family. He held it up, showing it off for a moment before he held it out.

“A commendation. Perhaps less than what you deserve, but there is little time. I must return this scum to the palace. Find out what he knows and whether there are more attacks on the way.”

“Ah, no, that’s perfectly understandable,” Alyssa said, watching as he slung Bercilak over the draken’s back, not caring that the robe probably barely protected him from the spines. He jumped up into the saddle immediately after.

“I am sorry for your friends, though I did not sense any bodies at the bottom. Perhaps they survived?” Leaving her with that rhetorical question, he gripped the handles at the front of the saddle. As soon as he did so, without kicking his heels or any verbal commands, the draken took off, leaping from the plateau as if it wasn’t a million miles high.

There was no sound of the creature landing in the distance. It left nothing behind but a slight rustling in the otherwise still air. As soon as that died down, Alyssa was left entirely alone.

But no bodies? He probably hadn’t been specifically looking for them, but still, maybe they were alive. Kasita wasn’t even human. A fall from the cliff wouldn’t hurt a shotgun shell. If she turned into one, she would survive… probably.

First thing first, Alyssa moved around the toppled table and picked up her pistol. The drop scuffed up the metal ever so slightly, but guns were hardier than that. With the flashlight from the satchel, she collected as many of the scattered bullets as she could find. Most had been left in the pouch, so there wasn’t too much to grab. Some had surely gone off the edge. Recovering them would be impossible even in the bright of day, not that she intended to return here anytime soon. Both Bercilak and his henchman’s deck of spell cards went into the satchel. Even if Tenebrael didn’t return her phone soon, at least she would have those to look over.

Alyssa glanced up to the sky again. Did those two even have endurance? Would they stop any time soon? What exactly constituted as victory between two beings of such a power? Maybe she should try to intervene. Somehow. Maybe a fireball blasted in their direction would catch their attention long enough for… something.

She’d think about it when it came up.

For now, the real people mattered. Tzheitza and Kasita. Grabbing Tzheitza’s potion bandoleer and slinging it over her shoulder, Alyssa took off in a careful jog. She used the beaten trail, the one she and Tzheitza had left behind upon finding the soldier’s body. It was a much safer trail and a much less climby one, so no risk of accidentally crushing the orbs against the hard rock.

She continued down the path, past the body, until she heard a pained moan above her. Whipping around her flashlight, she found her. “Tzheitza?”

The older woman sat atop a rock, leaning against another. Her face and arms looked a lot like Bercilak after she had finished with him, bruised, swolen, and bloodied, though also covered in gravel. A large gash on her forehead leaked blood all down the front of her face. The leather apron she wore was torn in several places as were the rest of her clothes, but considering the damage to it, it had to have protected her a great deal. Her fingers were the worst. She must have clawed into the weather-worn rock face in an attempt to slow her fall, but hadn’t managed to touch the stone until she had already been falling. Three of the fingers on her left hand were twisted and broken. Two on her right hand were missing their fingernails entirely.

“Are you… You’re not alright. We need to get you to a hospital.”

“Potion.” She spat a lob of blood to the side. “Rejuvenation potion.”

A healing potion. Of course healing potions existed. Why should they not? But, looking down at the myriad colors, Alyssa had no idea which one was which.

“The blue one,” Tzheitza added.

That narrowed it down a bit, but there were still a couple of blue potions. One a frosty blue that was cold to the touch—probably not that one—another in a deep royal blue shade and finally a lighter sky blue.

“The lighter one.”

“Right.” Now that she looked at it a little closer, she noticed that its cap was a bit different than the others. The hooks that attached the orbs to the bandoleer on the others looked like they pulled off. Maybe starting some sort of fuse given how they seemed to explode by shattering the glass rather than because the glass shattered. This one clearly had been designed to twist off. Which Alyssa promptly did. Letting Tzheitza try to uncap it with her broken fingers just made her shudder at the thought. “Here you go.”

Instead of drinking it, as Alyssa had expected her to do, Tzheitza accepted it with her less broken hand and dumped a few droplets onto her twisted fingers. The effect was instant. Her fingers twisted around on their own with a sickening crack that made Alyssa wince. The torn skin mended as Alyssa watched. Skin on one side latched on to the other in thin sinews. They slowly widened, thickening and fully healing the wound. As soon as her hand was back to normal, Tzheitza poured a few more drops on her leg, which Alyssa hadn’t even noticed until now. The bone in her thigh jutted out, not breaking the skin but creating a large and plainly obvious lump. Apparently the potion did not need direct contact with the bone as the liquid soaked in.

Tzheitza let out a pained groan as the bone audibly snapped back into place. Once there, she experimentally kicked her leg a few times. Apparently satisfied with the healing job, she slowly and carefully—far more so than any other movement she had made since Alyssa met her—slid off the rock to land near Alyssa. She groaned again at the impact, doubling over as she half-collapsed against the wall. After a moment of rest, she put her weight fully on both feet. She didn’t stand up completely straight, but she was standing.

The whole time Alyssa couldn’t help the grimace on her face. On one hand, Tzheitza was back on her feet only a minute or two after taking the potion. On the other hand, everything Alyssa knew told her that the older woman needed splints, disinfectants, casts, bandages, probably several shots, and maybe even surgery.

Alyssa was glad that she had come out of this ordeal with nothing more than a few scrapes on her elbows. They stung, yes, but she would live.

Though she might need to dab some disinfectant on her wounds back when she got back to her gear.

To her surprise, Tzheitza apparently had enough of the magical healing cure. She grabbed at the cap for the potion, screwed it on, then took her bandoleer back from Alyssa.

“What happened?” she said through grit teeth, still obviously in pain.

“The Prince showed up. Took Bercilak to the palace. I assume the woman disappeared?” Recall sounded like a teleport spell of some sort. Given that Alyssa couldn’t see any bodies lying around the area, she probably hadn’t been killing herself.

“Ye had a mimic in yer bag.” Tzheitza said the word with significant derision. Maybe it was just the pain speaking through the clenched teeth, but it almost sounded like she snarled.

“I didn’t know!” And that was the honest truth. “But are you really going to argue about it? She freed us. We probably would have both died and they would all have escaped before the prince showed up.”

Tzheitza reached out, grasping Alyssa’s shoulder with her renewed hand. “Ye can’t trust mimics. They’re deceitful by nature. Even with how weak they are, they can be dangerous as ye saw.”

“I don’t trust her. I only just met her today at a whorehouse—” As soon as Alyssa spoke, she winced, realizing how that must sound. “Look, it’s a long story. But I need to find her—or her body—if only to find my gun. I can’t let that out of my sight for long… Shouldn’t you take more of that potion?” Alyssa asked, trying to change the subject for a moment. “You still don’t look so well.”

Tzheitza glared, but released Alyssa’s shoulder. “Too expensive. Even for me. Don’t want to waste the rest unless I’m immobile or dying.” She tried to stand up straight again, but failed, clutching at her side with a grimace.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m fine!” she snapped. “Just need some rest.”

“Okay,” Alyssa said, keeping her voice calm. “Go ahead and take a seat. I need to…” If Tzheitza had fallen here… Glancing up, Alyssa nodded her head. This was directly under the side of the plateau. As Kasita had fallen from the opposite side, she shouldn’t be far away. “Kasita!” she called out in a whisper-shout. There weren’t any goblins or trolls around and she didn’t think that any would show up anytime soon, but she didn’t need to go around yelling at the top of her lungs. The flashlight was bad enough as it was.

Sweeping said flashlight around the area, Alyssa moved until she was where she thought Kasita should have fallen. Then she began her search in full. There were a number of sagebrush bushes and patches of dry-grass making the search much more difficult than it needed to be. At the very least, there wasn’t a body anywhere. Had Kasita been a human, Alyssa would have said that she had survived the fall and wandered off. But as a mimic, her human body wasn’t her real body. For all Alyssa knew, her real body was the size of an ant. Changing tracks, Alyssa started searching less for people and more for impact sites. Disturbed dirt or broken branches on plants. Something along those lines.

She finally found it. It took ten minutes of searching, but she spotted it. One of the sagebrush bushes was a wreck. Whereas most branches were pointed toward the sky, a large chunk of them on this bush were bent to one side. It had taken so long because it was actually a fair distance from where she had expected Kasita to have fallen. Now that she thought about it, the mimic had been knocked pretty far back to have fallen off the ledge in the first place. Still no body, but right in the middle of it all was a shining metallic glint caught in the flashlight’s beam. Alyssa reached past the brambles and pulled out her pistol.

The safety was off. It was the first thing she noticed. Trying to flick it back on didn’t work. It wouldn’t budge. Damaged in the fall? She just about holstered it anyway—the gun shouldn’t go off accidentally with the holster protecting the trigger—but she hesitated. This seemed all too familiar, too suspicious. Even more suspicious was the fact that she couldn’t remove the magazine either.

Leaning in close, she whispered, “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, and I’ll toss you into a meat grinder.”

Cold metal twitched in her fingers. Alyssa dropped the gun, taking a step back as she moved. The gun shimmered. Just as with the shotgun shell, Kasita took its place an instant after. She had her lips pursed into the biggest pout. Crossing her arms, she stared.

“I was hiding for a reason,” she said, still pouting. “I don’t think she’ll take too kindly to my existence.”

Alyssa glanced back. Tzheitza was out of sight, slightly around a few rocks, hopefully taking a rest or applying more of that blue goop. “Uh huh. Where’s my gun?”

“Oh yes! You’re very welcome for saving your life. What’s that? Am I okay after that fall? A bit scraped and scuffed, but I’ll be fine, thank you for asking. It really shows you care.”

“I’ll thank you for returning my gun. If you’ve hidden it and were just going to let me leave it here, thinking you were my gun, I’ll—”

“Ufu~ Such a single-track mind. I have it right here.” Kasita pressed both hands against her chest. And she didn’t stop there. Her skin and clothes shimmered as her hands reached beneath the surface. Gripping the barrel, the mimic withdrew the gun from inside herself.

As soon as Alyssa had it in her hands, she flicked on the safety and placed it securely into her holster. But she couldn’t help but stare at where Kasita was now rubbing her chest. There were no holes or blemishes on the woman’s skin or clothes. She looked just as she had the moment Alyssa met her. “You had it inside you?”

“Of course I did. Have you ever held something heavy with your arms stretched fully out? It’s easier to carry if you hold it closer to your chest, right? I just take that logic one step further.”

“But inside you? How does that… How does that even work? It was inside you when you were appearing as the gun, right?” Maybe it was a fool’s errand, asking about how a magical creature works their magic, but really, who could resist? The danger had passed and Alyssa had all her possessions back on her. Even the noise of battle was lessening in the distance. The Black Prince must have ordered around the fairy some more. With all that out of the way, Alyssa found herself curious once again about the specific workings of the world around her.

“I’m a mimic,” Kasita said with a shrug, as if that answered everything. “My body is an illusion. A tangible one, but an illusio—”

The very ground shuddered underneath them. A light flashed across the sky so bright that, even with her back to the source, Alyssa found herself blinking away afterimages burned into her retinas. Turning with a snarl, Alyssa stared up into the sky. She had relaxed too early. Of course it wasn’t over until those two idiots stopped fighting. What were they doing anyway? That had been an earthquake. It wasn’t like the sights and sounds that only Alyssa could see. It had been a real honest earthquake that people had felt. If it was just her, she might have been able to ignore it as another thing that only she could perceive, but Kasita had been able to feel it too or she wouldn’t have stopped talking.

They were forbidden from killing people. What if some poor person tripped, fell, and broke their neck because of that? What if one of the towers crumbled and crashed down on a city block!

They needed to stop. They needed to be stopped.

The question was how?


<– Back | Index | Next –>


008.006

<– Back | Index | Next –>


City Under Siege

The Burning Shadow


The little guard shack on the Brechen Overlook had a small table inside. Where there once had been cards scattered all over its surface—playing cards, not the magical spell cards—there were now weapons. A bandoleer covered in orbs. Three daggers. A modern combat knife. Two pistols. An assortment of ammunition and a handful of Rank Zero spell cards. The only thing missing was Alyssa’s shotgun.

Of course, Alyssa’s captors hadn’t just left her with her primary weapon. The leader of the group was currently staring down its barrel. It was too much to hope for that he would shoot himself, unfortunately. She had always been told that it was the stupidest thing one could ever do with a gun and yet the cloaked man before her had been toying with the thing for five minutes without any accidental discharges. If only she had forgotten to put the safety on.

“Hmph.” The cloaked man stood. He held the shotgun with only one hand. Stretching his arm out, he aimed at Alyssa.

She stared back, defiant, ignoring the knot in her stomach. Even still, when he started to squeeze the trigger, she couldn’t help but flinch.

“Hmph,” the man grunted again when nothing happened. Thank… whatever deity that I put that safety on. That he hadn’t figured out the switch to turn it off was both a relief and not wholly unexpected. She had been watching him carefully ever since he started looking it over. “You will instruct me in using the artifact later on.”

Alyssa didn’t say anything back. She couldn’t. Tzheitza’s potionspeak got them both gagged with foul tasting cloth shoved into their mouths.

“Bercilak,” the only woman among the three humans said as she leaned away from a shallow bowl of water. “The force engaged with the Black Prince has been decimated. Losses are continuing for the monsters while slowing for the Lyrian defenders. At this rate, forty percent of our forces will be eliminated within the hour. Losses will increase at an exponential rate from then on.”

“Faster than expected,” the leader mumbled. Turning, he carefully placed the shotgun back on the table with Alyssa’s pistols. “Our vanguard was too slow in breaching the wall. Too many of the city guard followed him out, not knowing about the other threat to their city. It causes chaos, but chaos isn’t our goal…” He hummed to himself, crossing his arms over his chest. The dark robe made him look like some kind of Jedi. Or maybe a Sith. It would have been ridiculous in the modern world—just some edgy kid trying to act tough. But with the magic chains keeping Alyssa from moving, he might as well be an actual Sith. “The shadow assassins have infiltrated the city?”

Alyssa understood the two words individually, but apparently ‘shadow assassins’ meant something more to someone native to the world. Tzheitza stiffened and, even through the gag in her mouth, sucked in a heavy gasp of air. She tried to say something, but her muffled mumbles went unnoticed.

“They have,” the woman said. “All three groups are in place.”

“Pull the tertiary squad back, have them join with the Black Prince’s group.”

“But Bercilak, the Archbishop—”

“Doesn’t matter. He is a figurehead only. Killing Tenebrael’s bishop would be a blow to the city’s morale, but ultimately he doesn’t matter. He’s only a Rank One arcanist.” The way he said Tenebrael’s name was like the most vehement of swears. A mixture of hatred, disdain, and mocking sarcasm all in one. “Besides, the real priest is far south of this city.”

The woman started grinding her teeth together. Alyssa couldn’t see her face at all with the poor lighting and her low hood drawn over her head, but the way she squeezed her fists radiated anger.

“Morgan, calm yourself. I know how you feel. I feel the same. To strive; To struggle.”

“As God demands.”

Great, Alyssa suppressed a roll of her eyes as she thought. More religious nutsos. Apparently ones that didn’t believe in Tenebrael. Or perhaps they believed in her but just didn’t hold her in as high regard as the people of Lyria. She had thought the people of Teneville had been fairly intense in their worship, what with the human sacrifice and all… but at least Lazhar hadn’t been about to kill her even when he had been questioning her beliefs.

These people were launching a war on a city that held different beliefs than them. How barbaric. They were probably going to kill her as well, though her shotgun had apparently bought her some time.

Though she had to wonder if a religious war was the true purpose of their fight. Maybe the peons believed that, but there were enough examples on Earth where leaders used ideology they didn’t believe in to drive the masses. It might be power. It might be spices. It might be regular old food. Alyssa couldn’t know the truth without more information.

Unaware of Alyssa’s thoughts, Bercilak continued to placate the woman. “If we can kill the Black Prince and the head administrator of their Observatorium, our armies can march in uncontested. There will be no one strong enough remaining to oppose us. Then we can eliminate the bishops and priests. Perhaps even scour the very idea of Tenebrael from the face of this world.”

Morgan took a deep, shaky breath. Her voice trembled as she spoke. “You’re right. I apologize.”

“Forgiven. Now, redirect group three to the palace.”

“Yes, Bercilak,” Morgan said with a bow of her head. Standing from the bowl of water, she moved to the ring of candles. Just as there had been before the illusion had broken, a tiny person was trapped in a tiny cage. Unlike before Tzheitza had thrown her orb, he wasn’t struggling to break free of his cage. He had been pinned down to the floor of the cage like a butterfly might be pinned down in a display case. She leaned over and stared down at the diminutive being before taking a small canister from the folds in her robes. Pressing against the top sprayed a thin mist into the cage. “Fairy,” she said, voice stern. “S-Seven, S-Eight, and S-Nine to E-Five. Standby.”

The fairy gave no acknowledgment of his orders, but Morgan nodded in apparent satisfaction. She returned to the bowl of water.

Bercilak clasped his hands behind his back and walked over to his other compatriot. A man who, so far, had done nothing more than hold the ethereal chains. He hadn’t said a word and he hadn’t been spoken to. If not for his breathing and having seen him move, she might have thought he was a statue. But, just as Bercilak leaned over to speak to him, Morgan jumped up, nearly spilling her bowl of water as she moved.

“The Black Prince! He’s riding straight toward us.”

Clicking his tongue, Bercilak sighed. “I suppose he noticed the orb’s explosion after all. Very well, we cannot stay here. Ensure that the shadow assassins carry out their task then dispose of the fairy.”

Morgan nodded. As she ran back to the fairy, Bercilak reached into his robes and pulled out a series of cards.

“Message,” he intoned in a low voice. The first of the cards disappeared. “Liadri. Phase one complete. Phase two complete. Phase three compromised. Withdrawing.”

A movement behind Bercilak caught Alyssa’s attention as he spoke. The table had a few of the bullets and shotgun shells set out where he had been examining them. One of which tipped over. A gust of wind? Alyssa hadn’t felt anything. The air was still and had been all night. But the shotgun shell tipped over and rolled off the table, landing on the rock floor entirely unnoticed by anyone else. Bercilak had his eyes closed, Morgan was spraying more mist on the fairy, and the chain guy had the opening of his hood looking toward Alyssa and Tzheitza. Even Tzheitza was too busy glaring at Bercilak to notice.

The shotgun shell landed without a noise. It sat there for just a moment before the air shimmered.

Alyssa sucked in a breath. Kasita, wearing the same scandalous outfit she had worn at the whorehouse, stood just behind the table. With everyone’s back to her, she took the time to smile and wave at Alyssa before glancing down at the table. Straining, using both hands, she managed to pick up one of the pistols. The way her arms shook as she tried to hold the pistol just reinforced how inhuman she was. The men at the Waterhole had said she was weak, but even a child could hold a gun. Still, she managed to get it leveled at at the man holding the chains.

He was completely unaware, as were Bercilak and Morgan. Tzheitza finally noticed, she stilled and stared, but she couldn’t move or do anything.

And neither could Alyssa.

With the gag in her mouth, Alyssa couldn’t even shout a hint. With her arms bound by the chains, she couldn’t mime any assistance. Kasita was going to make the same mistake as Bercilak and not turn off the safety!

The snap crack of a gunshot rang through the air. Kasita flew off the edge of the cliff, taking the pistol with her. At the same time, the man she had been aiming at cried out in pain and shock. He hadn’t been fatally hit, but it was enough. The translucent chains around Tzheitza and Alyssa dispersed into the air, freeing them.

Tzheitza snapped into movement, tackling Bercilak to the ground and knocking away a deck of cards before he could draw any single spell. She started pummeling him with her bare fists. Alyssa, a bit slower to react, chose to tear the cloth out of her mouth first and foremost.

A mistake. Morgan spun around, only taking an instant to absorb the situation. Her eyes flashed dark gold and her hand clenched around a card she had drawn from somewhere in her robes. “Fireball!” she shouted.

Alyssa didn’t know why these people were saying their spells before they cast them, but she was definitely thankful. It gave her a slight moment to throw herself flat against the rock.

Burning heat scorched Alyssa’s back. It was like suddenly standing too close to a campfire if campfires were a hundred times hotter. The main heat lasted only a second, dissipating to a warm, uncomfortable air. Even with her face down and her hands over her head, Alyssa could still feel when the fire hit the stone. Bits of searing hot rubble rained down on her.

Gritting her teeth, Alyssa did her best to ignore it. She pushed through the pain and got to her feet before Morgan could fire off another spell. The table! It was only a few steps away. If she could just grab one of her weapons…

She made it two steps. The man who had been shot managed to recover enough to grasp at her. His fingers brushed over her shoulder, not quite gripping her but knocking her off balance enough to for her to stumble. Alyssa bumped into the weapon table, knocking a few of the loose bullets off. None of which turned into any mimics. She reached for the shotgun.

Something slammed into her from behind, knocking over the entire table. The rest of the bullets clattered to the rocky ground along with the shotgun and the remaining pistol. Alyssa fell along with it all, skinning her elbows on the edges of the table. As soon as she hit the ground, she rolled onto her back to see behind her.

The man was right on her feet, trying to pin her down. She kicked out, catching him in the arm and sending a deck of cards flying from the sleeve of his robe. With a snarl, he balled a fist and punched her right in the stomach.

Alyssa curled in on herself, coughing as she tried to breathe in with the wind knocked out of her. Her fingers grasped the rock and dirt, but she couldn’t reach her guns. The table had fallen over with her on one side and the weapons on the other. Instead, her fingers found the deck of cards. They were all fanned out, but kept together by a little metal ring like the kind one could find on a key chain.

Whipping back to face him, still barely able to breathe, she aimed the patterned sides of the cards at him. One of the several dozen cards had to be a fireball. She thought, considering for a bare instant a ball of fire. It didn’t take much imagination with how common such things were in movies. The second she had the image of a flaming ball of gas in her mind, a full quarter of the cards vanished from her fingertips.

She could see his eyes widening ever so slightly in the growing glow that formed between him and her outstretched hand. He let out a shout. With a rush of air, he vanished from atop her. The scream cut off abruptly.

Alyssa blinked twice, looking around for him, ready to defend herself if he tried attacking her.

It took a moment to realize that the streak of flame and smoke arcing through the sky was not Tenebrael or Iosefael. It was the man who had been pinning her down.

Shaking her head, Alyssa focused on the situation at hand. Morgan had chains around Tzheitza again, though the latter woman was still on top of Bercilak. Scurrying about to the other side of the table, she finally clasped her hands around her shotgun. The spell cards she had probably contained more of those ethereal chains. However, Alyssa didn’t have a clue how to properly work them. It might be possible to bumble into it as she had with the fireballs, but she could just as easily accidentally chain herself up. Better to use something that she knew how to operate.

The air had a musky heat to it that shouldn’t have been present with how cool nights were. Breathing in, trying to calm her trembling hands, tasted like a vacation to California in the summer. Alyssa wasn’t sure if it was the fireballs, some other magic, or if tonight was just a particularly hot night and she hadn’t noticed with all the excitement going on. Whatever the case, the brief moment of respite filled Alyssa with determination. Furrowing her brow, she flicked off the safety and popped up over the top of the toppled table.

Morgan had moved. One hand still held Tzheitza’s chains. A dagger in her other hand, high in the sky, was poised to come down on Tzheitza. The two were too close together for Alyssa to risk firing at Morgan. But Morgan’s arm…

Aiming higher than she really should in an attempt to keep Tzheitza from being hit, Alyssa fired.

Though she stumbled back and dropped the dagger, Morgan didn’t even make a noise. Alyssa couldn’t tell if her shot had hit or if the woman had merely been startled by the noise. Either way, Tzheitza was safe for now. From the dagger. Unfortunately, Morgan still held the chains. With the way she shifted her body, she hid fully behind Tzheitza, blocking off any further shots.

“Morgan… The Black… Prince…”

“Shhh. Don’t speak. We still have the upper hand. I’ll get you out—”

Tzheitza had done a number on Bercilak. Even though she was mostly off him, he hadn’t lifted an arm. His face, beaten to a pulp, looked like someone had taken a meat tenderizer to him. Both of his eyes were puffed out and swollen shut, blood flowed freely from his nose, his lips were shreds where Tzheitza had broken the skin against his teeth, and, as he opened his mouth, Alyssa could see several broken or missing teeth as well.

“Can’t… be captured. Escape. Or… die.”

“Do not move!” There was a tremble in Alyssa’s voice as she spoke. It didn’t sound convincing. Like a child trying to act older than they were.

Apparently, Morgan felt the same way. She took a step backward, then another step. With Tzheitza still between them, Alyssa couldn’t even fire. Morgan backed up one more time. Her feet were right at the edge of the plateau.

Her hand darted into the sleeve of her robe. “Recall!” she cried, turning as she drew a card. Before Alyssa could do anything, Morgan leaped from the edge.

Still holding the chains.

The ethereal links around Tzheitza pulled taut. With an audible “Hurk—” Tzheitza flew back, yanked off Bercilak. The chains faded out, dispersing as they had after Kasita fired at the first man. But Tzheitza continued to tumble and roll. She slipped over the edge before Alyssa could even move a muscle.

Alyssa sprinted around the table, running to try to… she didn’t know what. Catch Tzheitza? The potioneer was already over the edge. Gone without so much as a shout.

Instead of continuing, she skidded to a stop near Bercilak. He had finally rolled over, stretching out his hand for the deck of cards he had lost. Alyssa reached down and plucked it away before he could get his fingers around the key ring.

As soon as the spells were out of his reach, he slumped over, apparently losing all motivation to continue moving. What an idiot. Did he not have any spares? As soon as she considered the possibility, Alyssa started eying his hands. Both were out in the open not moving… anywhere, really. He was just breathing heavily.

She didn’t know what to do. The Black Prince was on his way, according to Morgan. She didn’t really want to meet him, but she couldn’t just run off. Bercilak might get up and… do something nefarious. The fairy was still alive in its cage. Alyssa wasn’t sure what to do there. As much as she wanted to go up and let it go, she couldn’t discount Tzheitza’s warning about it mind controlling her if freed. Given her earlier experience with Rizk nearly killing her, she was inclined to trust Tzheitza’s instincts. But Tzheitza, she had fallen off the edge. Was she still alive? What if she needed help? And Kasita fell off the opposite side. With the pistol. Losing that was… unacceptable.

Slowly, Alyssa edged back toward the table and the side where Kasita had fallen.

“If you have… any mercy… kill me now.”

Bercilak’s words stopped her cold before she could move more than three steps away. He hadn’t moved. Even his fingertips were still resting against the ground right where they had lost their motivation. He just breathed with a slight whistle in his broken teeth.

“The royal family will torture me… keep me from dying as long as possible… before sending me to their demon goddess. Please.”

“Tenebrael?” Alyssa said, uncertain. The Observatorium listed demonic phenomena right in its title as things that it observed, but Irulon had Tenebrael’s eye tattoos. She couldn’t picture the Pharaoh’s daughter worshiping Tenebrael while the rest of the family worshiped demons. That combined with the fact that Alyssa had thought of Tenebrael as a demon more than once made her ask just to be certain. Bercilak didn’t actually respond to her question, but the way his muscles tensed was answer enough. “I think Tenebrael will eat you after you die regardless of the how or when.”

He coughed twice, spitting a bit of blood and a tooth to the ground. “Your beliefs… are not mine… but even if that’s true, I’d rather go quick than suffer torture for months.”

For a moment, just a bare instant, Alyssa felt sorry for him. A loud crack off the edge of the plateau stole her attention, forcing her eyes back to the burning fields and literal war going on just outside the city walls. “No,” she said, gritting her teeth together. “You just unleashed a monster army—a mind controlled monster army no less—on a city of at least mostly innocent people. For what? Because you don’t like Tenebrael? I don’t like her either but you don’t see me destroying people’s lives and ruining people’s peaceful nights. I didn’t want to come out here today. I didn’t want to get captured and probably end up killing that one guy. I just wanted to find a safe place to relax for a few hours! You and your… friends and your little war. You deserve whatever you get.”

A heavy thud on the end of the plateau shook the ground. Alyssa stumbled, grabbing hold of the outstretched leg of the toppled table for support. When she turned to the noise, she found herself face to face with teeth.

Sharp pointed teeth. Each as long as one of her fingers. Rows and rows of them with a thick red tongue moving behind them.

Alyssa let out a shriek as a thick blast of hot air slammed into her face. It was like another fireball passed her, but with no fire. She caught a glimpse of yellow eyes with a single black slit down the middle as the head turned to reveal its rider.

The Black Prince, dark armor and glowing sword, towered over her. The raptor, and the prince himself, were taller up close. Much taller. Alyssa lost the strength in her knees, compounding his height as she fell backward against the toppled table.

But he didn’t have eyes for her. The thin slit of his visor was aimed squarely at Bercilak. Even the monster he rode had lost interest in her. As one, they stomped across the suddenly much narrower plateau until the raptor’s sharp talons dug into Bercilak’s thigh. The man screamed out in pain, but no one reacted to it. Swinging a leg over the raptor’s spikes, The Black Prince dismounted and stooped over the whimpering man.

“Yes,” he said, voice deep as the night with a metallic reverberation from his helmet. “A quick death would be far too kind for you.”


<– Back | Index | Next –>


Author’s Note: Going to try keeping up weekly reminders to vote on Top Web Fiction. Just as a little note here at the bottom. Which is what this is! I’d appreciate you taking a few seconds to click the vote button!

008.005

<– Back | Index | Next –>


City Under Siege

Brechen Overlook


The city of Lyria was roughly triangular in shape, though the walls followed the terrain more than they bridged straight lines between the towers. Buildings had been built outside the city as well, rounding out the angled borders. Those exterior dwellings were considered entirely separate villages by the city, apparently populated with farmers that tended the exterior fields for the most part, but they intermingled enough with the main city for that distinction to only matter to tax collectors.

To the south, there were rivers, forests, mountains, and eventually Teneville. To the east, an ocean, though it was far enough from the city that it couldn’t be seen while still inside. Great plains stretched out over the land to the west. South of those plains in the far west, the Fortress of Pandora stood tall, protecting the human lands from the monsters beyond. North of the city was a desert. Said desert marked the end of the Pharaoh’s influence. It was something of a no-man’s land between Lyria and the Juno Federation, a second government that ruled the lands north of the desert.

Right at the border of the desert and Lyria’s farmland was the Brechen Overlook. A lone rock formation that looked surprisingly like Pride Rock. A pillar of stone stood tall in the middle of the otherwise flat plain. It was more than just the pillar. Rocks littered the area including one with a flat top that jutted out from the main pillar at a slight angle. That was the Overlook.

Alyssa turned her binoculars to the fields closest to the desert. The city guard and army were indeed clashing with the monsters she had first spotted approaching the city. The battle was taking place in the fields furthest from the city, right on the edge of the desert. Flames had started in the dry wheat. Crops were burning, pumping even more smoke into the skies overhead.

Making out details was a bit too difficult even with her binoculars, but she did manage to catch a few seconds of the Black Prince. He didn’t so much swing his sword as he just held it out as his monstrous mount carried him around. Anything that touched his sword simply fell apart. Unfortunately, he was just one man. Watching the chaos, Alyssa could barely believe that there were only a hundred trolls. If anything, they outnumbered the humans two to one. That wasn’t even counting the goblins swarming the area.

It painted a depressing picture. Even if only a few dozen monsters had breached the city walls, the humans couldn’t run back to assist with the defense without turning their backs on the hundreds of monsters in the fields. Hopefully people like Oz could handle the ones inside the city. And if she and Tzheitza could get rid of the ringleaders, maybe the humans could decisively end the battle sooner and begin to clear out the city.

She could easily imagine a different world in which the monster army had gotten closer and burned more than just the furthest field. In a medieval time like this, famine could be a real issue if too many crops wound up destroyed. There weren’t any other countries that could provide relief aid if the city started starving.

Shaking her head, Alyssa turned back to the Overlook. It stood out against the rings in the sky, but it was otherwise completely dark. No lights and no sign of life on the tall rock. Of course, she didn’t have the best angle from where she was. Even if someone were seated right on the edge, she still wouldn’t be able to see them.

“I don’t like this,” Tzheitza said with a deep scowl. “No monsters. I can hear ‘em, but I can’t see ‘em.”

“I know what you mean… I think.” Since setting off from Tzheitza’s shop—where Alyssa had left her gear except for Aziz’s satchel filled with spare ammunition—they hadn’t seen any monsters. No trolls or goblins. Every few steps, Alyssa would jump at a vague movement in the very corners of her vision, but could never spot anything that might have moved. Sometimes the fields would rustle like something was moving through them. Yet nothing ever popped out to attack.

It meant that they were being watched. Frankly, Alyssa almost would have preferred trolls and goblins every ten steps. Like this, it was almost like they were being invited to try to stop these puppet masters, which only made Alyssa more nervous about the situation. Would Tenebrael have set her off on a quest sure to result in her death? Honestly? Maybe. She wouldn’t pretend to know what a being like that was thinking.

A flash of light tore through the sky. Alyssa winced at her eyes having to adjust, but that light didn’t do anything to illuminate the land around her. Tzheitza didn’t even blink. Tenebrael and Iosefael were nothing more than streaks of light in the sky, one dark and one light. For the most part, they avoided each other. The lights would occasionally dart in near the other, but they backed away from each other more often than not. Whenever they did meet, it was like a flash of lightning that only Alyssa could see.

Unless something changed soon, she wouldn’t be getting any help from that corner.

That meant she had to rely on this person who she only just met and could barely understand—thankfully, the potioneer became more intelligible the less agitated she was. On the plus side, that tar bomb had been an impressive display of the older woman’s capabilities. In the short time it took Tzheitza to talk about Brechen Overlook, the troll had melted into nothing more than a puddle of foul-smelling goop. If the other orbs slung across her chest were even half as destructive, she could probably handle getting to the Overlook on her own.

“They have to know we’re coming.”

Tzheitza hocked back and spat on the ground. “‘Snot my first idiots who’ve needed knuckling. Afore, when I were an active Knight Solaris, why, I knuckled down a hundred of these fools a week.”

“The city gets attacked a hundred times a week?”

Glancing at Alyssa, Tzheitza shifted. “Well…”

“Right.” Alyssa had no doubts that Tzheitza was dangerous. Hearing that she had been a mercenary like Oz only compounded that feeling. But how long ago had that been? Shaking her head, Alyssa focused on the rock in the distance. “It doesn’t look far.”

“Ten minute walk.”

“Probably more if we’re going slow and careful.”

Alyssa started walking. She hated this. Every step of it. Why her? Even ignoring the whole part where she had been thrust into a whole other world, which she had mostly come to terms with even if she didn’t like it, why did she have to get involved with all the stupid wars and petty fights. Tenebrael had known this would happen well in advance and she hadn’t mentioned a thing despite having had two opportunities to do so. Couldn’t she have just dropped a simple ‘Oh, might want to avoid the north side of the city tonight. Wink wink,’ during one of those meetings?

Actually, Tenebrael probably hadn’t considered such a thing. And she probably hadn’t for the exact same reason that Alyssa was marching across a cornfield at this very moment. Were this a situation on Earth where she had found her city under attack and knew where the enemy commanders were, she would have gone to the police or the army or someone official. Never in a million years would she have thought to solve the problem herself. Tenebrael allowing her to get wrapped up in this nonsense meant that she had a definite need to run and try to salvage the doomed city.

But Tenebrael’s little black book changed everything. Alyssa had a bad feeling about fate. According to Tenebrael, Alyssa had warned the city guard before they would have marched out otherwise. But that angel had also said that, despite that change, not all that much would end up different in the near future. Was there some rubberbanding effect on fate where it would try to snap back in line with the book? Tenebrael had apparently tried tons of things all without results up to and including having monsters around when they were apparently not supposed to be here. If Alyssa had to act directly to get things to change, then she couldn’t just tell others about it. Fate would snap them back to their supposed path. Hypothetically, anyway.

She didn’t have any proof. It was entirely possible that cause and effect worked perfectly normally and she had only alerted the city guard two minutes before they otherwise would have noticed, thereby not changing all that much on the bigger scale. But she had read enough books and seen enough movies that she had to wonder about the exact mechanics of fate. As much as she had thought about how Hollywood got plenty of things wrong, it got plenty of things right as well.

Just thinking about it disturbed Alyssa on a primal level. Before Tenebrael appeared, she hadn’t really believed much in higher powers or fate. Just free will. But how much free will actually existed? Knowing what she knew now, not much. Some, for sure. Cid and Bacco surely wouldn’t have tried to sell her to a whorehouse had she not been pulled into this world. Given that, according to Tenebrael, Alyssa seemed to be outside the book’s purview, that would never have happened otherwise.

“Roundabouts this way,” Tzheitza said in a whisper, gesturing to a beaten path that wrapped up and around the stone pillar.

Alyssa blinked twice. She hadn’t even realized how close they had gotten. It was lucky nothing had jumped out and torn her head off while she had been lost in her existential crisis. Shaking her head from side to side, Alyssa focused. Getting distracted in her thoughts could get her killed. Gripping her shotgun, she started up the path just behind Tzheitza.

The rock was worn and smooth. People had clearly been going up and down this way for years and years. And why should they not? It made a great natural watchtower. It really made her wonder why the city guard didn’t have people stationed out here permanently to watch for situations just like the one going on now.

Her foot knocked into something soft. Looking down, she suppressed a startled squeak. A body—a human body lay across the path. Blood leaked from its wide-open eyes, running down the beige-colored clothing. The same color as the gate guards, though this body didn’t have the dark iron armor. Maybe the city did have scouts and they had just been the first fatalities of this invasion.

Tzheitza had her eyes on Alyssa, though she didn’t say anything. With a gesture of her hand, she pointed off the path toward the rock wall. There was a small ledge sticking out which the older woman immediately gripped. Digging one foot into the side of the wall, she hefted herself up and onto the ledge with little effort.

Alyssa just stared. She wasn’t as tall as the potioneer. Reaching the top of the ledge was just out of reach for her. With her shotgun, pistols, and Aziz’s satchel filled with ammo, it would be even more cumbersome. Alyssa had just watched and still didn’t understand how Tzheitza had managed to climb up without breaking any of the glass orbs on her chest.

Apparently noticing the problem, Tzheitza bent down and held out a hand for Alyssa. With the older woman’s help, she managed to get up on the ledge.

Unfortunately, the next ledge was even higher. Tzheitza twisted her bandoleer around so that the orbs were hanging off her back rather than her chest. She jumped and kicked off the main rock pillar to grab hold of the higher ledge, whereupon she climbed up just as she had with the smaller one. Alyssa wasn’t sure what to do in the slightest. Her gym did have a climbing wall, but she had never made it a regular part of her workout. In fact, it was more like she had tried it once just for fun and only got a foot or two off the ground before deciding that she had gotten high enough.

It wasn’t like she would ever need to scale a rock face in real life.

Tzheitza had her back, again. She had to lie flat on her stomach for her hand to reach Alyssa’s, but with her support, Alyssa managed to find a few footholds to walk herself up the cliff. Once she got her elbows over the edge, she had enough strength to pull herself onto the ledge.

They continued upward, climbing from one brief resting platform to the next in complete silence. Even when she scraped her elbow on a bit of jagged rock, Alyssa bit down on her tongue and kept quiet. No matter how narrow the spot was, Alyssa never made a sound. All the while, she kept her eyes upward, trying hard to not think about how slipping could see her rolling down the miniature mountain one ledge at a time. They eventually ran out of ledges to climb to. The tall rock continued upward. Tzheitza could probably have continued climbing it just through strength and experience, but there was no way Alyssa would be joining her. Alyssa was too busy hugging the wall, trying to keep both her feet fully on the foot-wide segment of stone they had stopped on.

Tzheitza didn’t even glance up. She just started edging around the central pillar. From far away, it had looked like a narrow column, maybe not bigger than her bedroom, though not quite as square. Actually climbing all over it and being pressed up against it made the Brechen Overlook feel like Everest.

Now that Alyssa was looking less at where she had most recently climbed from and more over the entire surrounding farmlands and fields, the whole thing felt even taller. Alyssa’s stomach dropped out from under her like she was on a roller coaster. Her fingertips grew slick with sweat. When Tzheitza brushed her fingers on Alyssa’s hand to get her attention, she jumped. One foot went off the edge. The rest of her would have followed had Tzheitza not had decent reflexes.

With Tzheitza pressing her up against the wall, Alyssa took a moment to close her eyes. She focused and centered herself. It was foolish to be afraid of heights anyway. Even if she had slipped off this ledge, she wouldn’t have fallen clear to the fields. Just down to the most recent ledge. It was a fairly wide one at that. No. There was no danger at all. Not one little bit. She definitely would stop on that ledge and not tumble all the way down. Opening her eyes again, she kept her gaze from wandering down below. Alyssa focused on the back of Tzheitza’s head as the woman carefully edged along, moving around the larger pillar.

As it turned out, this ledge was actually higher than the modest plateau that she had spotted from outside the city. Only about ten feet higher. There were some bushes growing along the rock wall that provided a modicum of cover, not that it would hide much of two people. Darkness was their real cover. A small building had been constructed on the tip of the outstretched cliff. A little one-man guard post. It was more of a shack than anything else, it wouldn’t provide much protection from anything save for the sun and maybe some light rain. It certainly hadn’t protected the poor guard down the cliffs.

The shack wasn’t the only thing on the plateau. Six candles, all too weak to count as a real light source, were set around in a circle on the ground. In the very center, a small cage made of metal rattled back and forth. It was like a little birdcage built for a single tiny bird. Except it didn’t have a bird inside. It was a tiny… person. Maybe as tall as from the tips of Alyssa’s fingers to the base of her wrist. Pulling out her binoculars, it was definitely a person. A naked little man with iridescent wings that caught in the faint candlelight as it panicked in the cage. Despite throwing himself against the metal grating as hard as he could, it was barely enough to make a sound. Definitely far from enough force to actually tip it over.

“A fairy,” Tzheitza hissed, barely audible even with her being only inches away from Alyssa. “Don’t be meeting them eyes. They got mesmer magics. Mind and illusions. It’s what got the monsters acting smart.”

“It didn’t lock itself into that cage. Who is controlling it?”

“Don’t matter. Squash it and the monsters will lose.”

Or, we could free him. He would be grateful and maybe just send the army away, saving tons of lives. And he could tell us who the actual perpetrators are?”

Tzheitza’s head whipped over to Alyssa. “Are ya addled in the head? Ya want to be enslaved to that thing? Don’t smallthink it because its small.” Looking back to the fairy, she tugged free an orb from her bandoleer. One that looked like it had fire trapped inside. “Na, it dies now.”

Before Alyssa could try to argue, the orb left Tzheitza’s fingers. It flew through the air on an arc straight to the poor fairy.

It didn’t make it to the ground. Ten feet away, the orb froze. The air around it shimmered into the form of a dark cloak with its hand outstretched. The figure pivoted on his foot and, like a baseball pitcher, tossed the orb from the rocky plateau. It exploded harmlessly a short distance away, filling the air with heat and the unpleasant scent of sulfur.

While Alyssa stared, stunned at the sudden appearance of someone else, Tzheitza already had her hand on another orb.

She didn’t get a chance to throw it.

Two more cloaked figures appeared on either side of the first. Both had cards in their hands. Alyssa couldn’t see a design in the dark, but it didn’t matter. “Spectral Chains!” they intoned as one. The cards vanished in minor flashes of light. Ethereal chains, glowing with a sickly green light, wrapped around both Alyssa and Tzheitza. They wrapped tight without making a noise, burning her skin like ice while pinning her arms to her side. She tried to struggle only to fall forward as the two people down below tugged on their end of the chains.

Alyssa pinched her eyes shut, wincing and preparing herself for the impact of the rapidly approaching ground.

But it never came.

“Fools,” a voice said, making Alyssa peek her eyes open.

The ground was close enough to her face that her hair, swinging forward, was brushing against the dirt. She sucked in a breath, realizing that the rest of her was floating a few inches in the air.

“You’ll kill us all if those orbs crack.” Whipping her head up to find the speaker, Alyssa scowled. It was the center-most of the three cloaked people. A man whose face she couldn’t see. He had his hand outstretched toward her… well, her and Tzheitza. A faint white glow clung to the tips of his fingers. He must have cast a spell. Some levitation magic. With a flick of his wrist, Alyssa found herself staring up at the stars.

Alyssa hit the ground a moment after. Hard. A sharp rock dug into her back and her head thumped against a rock, sending her vision askew for a second. To her side Tzheitza was snarling something undoubtedly unpleasant, but Alyssa couldn’t quite make any of it out. The woman had descended fully into potionspeak and Alyssa’s sudden headache wasn’t helping matters.

“Secure their weapons,” the man said, ignoring all of Tzheitza’s rambling. “And take care not to damage anything lest you destroy us all.”


<– Back | Index | Next –>


008.004

<– Back | Index | Next –>


City Under Siege

Intelligent


“Look out!”

Alyssa fired her shotgun, flaying another goblin before it could jump on Oz’s back. He barely paid any attention to the body as it fell from the roof. Another of the diminutive creatures was trying to slash his kneecaps out. As with most of the things, her shotgun was loud enough to shock them, creating an opening for Oz to take its head off. Which he promptly did.

“Not taking their ears?” Alyssa said with only a mildly snide tone in her voice.

“Keep moving unless you want to be overwhelmed.”

“Thought they were more money for you? Evidence of your city defending skills.”

“Useless city guard,” he hissed through his teeth, not even bothering to respond to Alyssa’s jab as they jogged up the street. “Where are they? No wonder they have to rely on the guild. Can’t handle matters outside the city and can’t handle matters inside it either.”

“Probably trying to fend off more incursions. Or dealing with the large army…” Alyssa trailed off, glancing around the empty streets. “Where is everyone? Just the regular people? Is this an abandoned section of the city?”

“No. They’re probably hunkered down, trying to stay unnoticed. And as long as we keep making so much noise, I doubt they’ll have any problems.”

He had switched from complimenting her shotgun to whining about it every time they encountered more monsters. Which, since the initial break of the wall, had only been three times. None of which had included trolls. Just the little goblins. Thankfully. Given that they had already killed one, a second troll shouldn’t be beyond their abilities to dispatch. It would take longer to fight a troll than a few goblins, however, leaving them open to being ambushed by too many goblins or even multiple trolls.

Although Alyssa couldn’t see any enemies at the moment, she could hear them. Aside from the heavy footsteps the trolls made, she could hear fighting. The clash of metal on metal echoed over the tops of the low buildings, accompanied by the occasional inhuman roars of the trolls, the screeches of the goblins, or shouts of men and women. “Should we not join up with other people fighting?”

“My current duty is to see you to safety.” He paused at the corner of a building, holding up a hand to stop Alyssa. After glancing around the corner and ensuring safe passage, he quickly moved on. “Other people will have different goals. Anyone wanting to make coin off this situation is fighting for ears. Some fight to protect themselves. We may even cross ruffians using the lack of city guardsmen to ransack homes or shops. Joining with any would only extend my contract with you.”

“What if someone needs help?”

“Well, I am currently contracted out to you,” he said, voice a bit tense as he looked around another street. “If they want to get in touch with the guild, I’m sure someone else will jump at the job.”

Something about his tone gave Alyssa the impression that he was ever so slightly annoyed at the moment. She stayed silent, not wanting to get him more snappy. Instead, she focused on the buildings, watching the ledges for any sign of more goblins. Now that she was actually looking, she couldn’t help but notice that they weren’t moving anywhere near the same direction they had been before the wall breach. They were almost headed back the way they came—toward the guild hall.

“Where are we headed?” Alyssa asked after another two streets passed by without a change in direction back to where they should have been moving. “Not back to your guild, surely?”

“Naw. To a friend of mine. A potioneer. A bit… barmy, but she’ll be able to keep you safe. And, if I ask nicely, room and board until all this blows over. I know it isn’t quite what you wanted, but she’ll be far safer than any inn. Of course we can defer payment until tomorrow when, provided the city is back under control, I can lead you to a proper place.”

Alyssa opened her mouth to protest. That was not her requested job and she wouldn’t pay for it—mostly because she wanted the excuse to not spend her increased but still limited funds. However, after registering his words, she thought better of it. A potioneer. That sounded interesting. Something new that she hadn’t heard of yet. Was it magical? A technologically early chemist? An alchemist similar to the charlatans of her own world? The prospect of meeting such a person intrigued her. And if it was safe, then who was she to argue? Safe sounded great right about now. So instead of protesting, Alyssa said, “Alright. I can agree to that. How far?”

“It’s right around—”

A wailing roar of a troll split the air, cutting Oz off. Alyssa didn’t even need to look around. The noise was coming from directly ahead. Right around the corner of the nearest building.

“Another one,” Oz hissed. “This far into the city? The guardsmen have a lot to answer for. Come on.”

Oz moved around the corner with his sword drawn, staying slow and quiet. Alyssa followed just behind while leaving enough space for him to dodge around or swing his sword if he needed to.

A troll stood at the far end of the street, well away from Alyssa as she leaned around the corner. It stood there, unmoving, not even doing anything save for breathing heavily. Which Alyssa found strange given the fact that someone else stood right in the center of the road. Not Oz. He was pressed up against the building’s door frame, cloaked in shadows.

The person was a human. A woman. Maybe as tall as Bacco, though not quite as wide. That wasn’t to say that she was a thin twig. Her muscles, on show with her sleeveless shirt, beat out Alyssa’s by orders of magnitude and Alyssa was fairly proud of her strength. Her white hair, swept back over her head in a messy mane, nearly glimmered in the light from the tallest building on the street. The building she stood in front of. Maybe twenty glass orbs hung from a bandoleer slung from her shoulder to her hip. They had something in them, but Alyssa couldn’t see what with her angle and the poor lighting.

“C’mon,” she said in a gruff voice, staring right at the troll. “I’m just an ol’ dugger. What’cha thinking I can do to yeh?”

The troll let out a low grumble from the back of its throat. It took a few steps forward like it was about to charge at her, but it stopped short and actually moved backward.

“Yehan’t scared. S’why not fight me?” the woman practically shouted at the monster. As she did, she gripped one of the orbs from her chest. It was probably slightly smaller than a baseball, but her large hands made it look absolutely tiny. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed it. The glass bounced once. Twice. With the third hit against the ground, it rolled right between the troll’s legs. The thing stared down at it in curiosity.

Though it didn’t have long to stare. With the crack of breaking glass, the orb shattered. In an instant, the troll found itself encased in thick, dripping tar. Amazingly enough, very little splashed around the street. Almost like the tar had known exactly what its target was to be. The troll staggered, but couldn’t actually move while glued to the ground.

And then it started. The troll screamed. Not the angry shouts of battle like what Alyssa had heard before. Its noises were of pain, deep and guttural. Its long scream continued for a full minute without it drawing in a single breath of fresh air, growing wetter the longer it went on. Wisps of steam escaped from the gaps in the tar, flooding the street with the smell of overcooked beef. Eventually, the noise cut off. The troll slumped forward, though it couldn’t quite collapse to the ground. Tar propped up the steaming body, keeping it as if it were a statue despite its clear death.

Oz let out a low whistle, to which the woman spun around. She grasped another of the orbs from the bandoleer.

“Woah, woah. Tzheitza. It’s me! Oz!” When she didn’t put the orb back, he started shifting uncomfortably where he stood. “You know me.”

“I know. Trying to decide if yeh deserve it anyhow.”

Oz backed up and put his arm right over Alyssa’s shoulder. “You’ll catch this poor innocent girl in your misaimed vengeance. Besides, I wasn’t the one who—”

Tzheitza’s hand gripped the orb tighter. “Ozheim. Speak yer short gottermore an’ it won’t matter if tha’ lass be the Pharaoh’s wed.”

A short moment of silence followed before Alyssa burst out with a flat “What.” She might have understood a few words there, but on the whole, the woman was absolutely unintelligible. It all sounded like nonsense words. Given that everyone else she had encountered since arriving in this world had spoken clear English, she doubted that anyone else could understand the woman either.

“Never spoken with a potioneer before, eh?” Oz whispered. “They all talk like that. Apparently there’s only so much time to say ‘add the yellow liquid’ or ‘it’s going to explode!’ and still give people time to duck for cover. So they slur their words together which forms a habit and eventually winds up with that trite coming from her mouth. It’s also a good way to tell who is a novice and who is a master potioneer. The more they potionspeak, the better they are.”

“Wassa quietlike yonder? I’ll demonfire up yer—”

“Tzhei,” Oz said with a tense smile. “Calm down. You’re getting worked up to the point where even I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Worked up? I’ll show yer ugly mug worked up.”

“I know we parted on… bad terms—” he paused for a moment as she snorted. “But this is an emergency if you haven’t noticed.”

“‘Course trolls in the streets ain’t normal.”

“It’s worse than that. They’re acting strange. Intelligent. Look at that one,” Oz said, waving his arm at the tarred troll. As soon as he did, its arm slopped off, coming free from the rest of the mass and hitting the ground. A foul stench filled the air. “When have you ever seen a troll that didn’t stupidly charge anything it sees? More, apparently there’s an army out in the desert carrying torches and kicking up a lot of dust. But these ones just breached the wall, completely unnoticed?”

“Someone puppeting ‘em?”

“Aye. They’ve got someone smart tugging on their strings. Someone or something who can communicate with magic as well, unless this troll was special somehow. Not only that, but after killing a troll, we’ve only encountered a handful of goblins despite making a great deal of noise. Goblins whose brains are probably too tiny to follow orders.”

“Who would attack Lyria?” Alyssa couldn’t help but ask. “Just more intelligent monsters?”

“Believe it or not, despite the animosity between humans and monsters, they don’t attack here all that much. The Juno Federation, on the other hand… They send an army down here like clockwork.”

Alyssa hesitated, already knowing the response she would get. Still, she had to ask. “Federation?”

Oz quirked an eyebrow. “Haven’t heard of them either, huh? Heretics and heathens that live across the desert. They send an army our way every other year or so. Not usually to siege us, but to thin our ranks and ensure that we can’t attack them. Though they would constantly be on our doorstep if not for the desert giving us a buffer.” He paused for a moment, thinking to himself as he glanced over at the melting troll. “They never sent monsters before, but it wouldn’t surprise me for those scum to ally with such creatures.”

Tzheitza cracked her knuckles together. At some point, she had replaced the orb with the others on her bandoleer, thankfully. Though Oz still had his hand on Alyssa’s shoulder. “The who is for the Pharaoh. Take me to the puppeteer an’is face’ll wallobe right off.”

“Nope. You stay put. Not that you’re too old or anything,” he said as fast as he could as Tzheitza’s eyes narrowed in his direction. “I need you to keep an eye on this lass. Keep her safe.”

Alyssa winced as Tzheitza turned to fully face her. Her wince was for two reasons. First, the woman was really good at glaring. Second, one of her eyes was milky and white while the other was a normal blue. A long scar started above her eyebrow, ran straight down through her eye, and ended right near the corner of her lips. Just imagining what could have happened sent a slight queasy feeling through Alyssa’s stomach.

“Whoser?”

“My current contract. I’ll be back to finish said contract as soon as things calm down. In the meantime, someone has to clean up the city. Might as well be me. Without her noise, I should have plenty of time to collect some ears on my way.” He paused as if he just thought of something and turned to Alyssa. “Leave the fighting to Tzhei. Your weapon thing will just draw more and more. Unless the puppet master thinks you’re too much trouble, that is. I wouldn’t risk it.”

Alyssa nodded her head. That was sound advice. Glancing over Oz’s shoulder, she watched as the tarred troll slumped down in a pile of mush not much higher than her waist. With those melty bombs, her shotgun would scarcely be needed. And Tzheitza had more than just the tar orbs hanging from her chest. There were red, green, yellow, and blue orbs as well. She looked like a Christmas tree. Besides that, she wanted to save her ammo as much as possible.

Though she would need to be reloading soon. Just in case.

“Can you do that for me, Tzhei? Just stow her away in the back of your laboratory and I’ll give you fiv… three! Three whole medi next time I see you.”

“S’not my trouble. Gonna need an upcost.”

“F… Four medi,” Oz said, sounding like he was having his teeth pulled at the same time.

“Six.”

“Six!” His lips puckered up. Tears touched at the corners of his eyes. “You are still paying me the full combat bonus, right?” he whispered. “I know this is a bit off the plan, but surely you can see that there is no other choice.”

Alyssa just sighed. “It’s fine.” If she argued, he might decide that their contract was nullified and she might get left out on the street.

“Thank you for your understanding. Alright Tzhei. Six medi. But for six, I expect a dragonsfire orb as well.”

Tzheitza snorted, gripped one of the red orbs, and tossed it. With his arm around Alyssa’s shoulders, he just about threw her to the ground in an effort to catch the thing. It still bounced off his fingertips straight up into the air where he barely managed to grab it. Oz clutched it to his chest like she had thrown a newborn baby and glared at the potioneer.

“Careful! Do you want the whole street to go up in flames?” Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. “Just stay here. You as well,” he said with a glance to Tzhei. “And stay safe. It’s unpleasant going through dead contractors’ belongings to get paid.”

“Go fall into a grave and get yerself burried.”

“Yes. Good luck to you too.”

With that, he took off running down the streets back toward the walls. Would he be alright on his own? Alyssa had thought that she had saved him at least once by killing the goblin that had been about to pounce on his back, but maybe he hadn’t needed her help. He was some veteran mercenary, after all. The receptionist lady at the guild had even said that a lowly escort quest would have been a bit under his notice normally.

Trusting him was the only option, she supposed. She wasn’t about to rush after him into danger. And if he didn’t come back, she didn’t have to pay. Though that was a slightly morbid thought.

“C’mon lass. Doublegood inside tonight. Wareroom’s ain’t got windows.”

“Right.” She still couldn’t understand most of what the woman said, but she understood inside and windows and could guess the full meaning easily enough. Just as Alyssa started toward the lit up building, she saw it.

A feather.

A black feather.

Her head snapped around to find Tenebrael standing with her back toward the tarred up troll. “Alyssa Meadows! Just how is my little reaper doing tonight?” Before Alyssa could offer up any protest to the angel’s nickname, she continued right along. “I’d love to stay and chat but busy night. I’m sure you understand.” The tips of her wings brushed right through the tar, coming away perfectly clean so long as one didn’t count the swirling white mist that was the troll’s soul.

“Wait!” Alyssa practically shouted before the angel could disappear again. Tzheitza said something, but Alyssa barely understood what. She didn’t look around. If she did, Tenebrael might have disappeared again by the time she looked back. “Can’t you stop all this? Snap your fingers and put the city back to normal?”

“Weren’t you paying attention? I can’t change anything no matter how hard I try. I could send all the attackers to the other side of the world, but people would still die. The book would stay the same, having accounted for my actions. Perhaps a civil war would break out. Or disease. The book is fairly vague on exact details. It’s more like it details what actions I need to take to fulfill my job. All I know is that a lot of people are going to die tonight. Even keeping the monsters from fading out with the Age of Legends still doesn’t change my book. People die or live according to the whims of fate… except for you.” Tenebrael paused with a hum, running her black fingernails over her chin in thought. “I can’t change it, but maybe you could. You’ve changed a few things already, true. I assume you want to save the city?”

“Is it doomed if I don’t do anything?”

“Well, not completely. Lots of people die. Monster and human. The royal family eventually clears the streets anyway. Right now, you’ve rallied the city guard earlier than they were supposed to have been ready, but I’m not sure doing so has changed all that much for the immediate future.”

“What about this puppet master? I assume you know about Oz’s speculation. Is that a real thing?”

“Oh yes. Almost exactly spot on. Is that what you want? To take out the puppet master?” Her black lips parted into a wide grin. “That will most certainly change things. Probably for the better of the city, but even I can’t know for sure.”

Alyssa pressed her lips together, wishing Oz hadn’t left so soon. She could have just pointed him in the right direction with Tenebrael’s information. Though, if Tenebrael could just teleport her in right behind this puppeteer, she could just shoot them in the back and solve everything in one second. But… was that what she wanted? “No,” she said. “I want to go home. I want to be left alone by you and by—”

A shout that pierced the heavens crackled like lightning over the city. “Dominion Tenebrael!”

The golden-white form of Iosefael hung in the air, glowing with a blinding brilliance against the night sky. Spear in one hand and sword in the other. Her radiance was so bright that Alyssa could only look for a moment before she was forced to avert her eyes.

Tenebrael didn’t have the same problem. “Iose! I’ve been looking for you. So nice of you to come to—”

“I can’t let you continue like this, Tene. If the Concord… if the Astral Authority finds out what you’ve done… You’ll… you’ll… I have to stop you!” Iosefael’s golden wings wrapped around her body. Facing the ground, she dove like a lightning bolt from as high as the towers around the city.

Tenebrael’s feathers remained unruffled. She held out one hand. “Vector repulsion angles calculated.”

Sword and spear crashed into a black ring of runes and diagrams at the tip of Tenebrael’s fingers. There was a bare instant where Iosefael’s surprised face could be seen in the glow before she went flying in an arc through the sky. Tenebrael just sighed.

“I think she’s a little upset. I should calm her down. What you want is irrelevant, ultimately. What you need is for this city to remain intact so that you can continue your research.” The dark angel’s lips drew back into a thin smile, sending a chill all the way to Alyssa’s toes. “Yes. I know what you’re doing here.” She paused for a moment. Somewhere in the distance, Iosefael hit the ground, sending a low rumble through the streets. “For now, that means that the people you’re looking for are on the Brechen Outlook. That woman should know where that is. And with a bit of divine inspiration, she may just lead you there without any arguments.”

Four black wings spread out as armored plates formed over Tenebrael’s dress. With a half smile to Alyssa, she took to the skies, following the same smoking archway that Iosefael left in her wake.

Alyssa just stared. Could Iosefael even harm Tenebrael? It didn’t seem like it from that short encounter.

A heavy hand on her shoulder broke Alyssa out of her gaze. “Yer gonna insane, eh?”

Great. Thanks for that, Alyssa thought, mentally cursing the dark angel. Would it have been too much to ask for her to stop time so that she didn’t look like a fool? Ugh. “I’m fine,” Alyssa said. “I know where the puppet master is. Can you point me to the Brechen Outlook?”


<– Back | Index | Next –>


Author’s Note: Good news! Web Fiction Guide has accepted Vacant Throne’s submission! You can view the listing here. And, because it is on WFG, that means that it is now able to be voted on over at Top Web Fiction. I truly would appreciate everyone taking a moment to vote for Vacant Throne.

008.003

<– Back | Index | Next –>


City Under Siege

Dangerous Streets


The air had changed. The night before, when she had been following after Cid and Bacco, and earlier in the day, when she had visited the Observatorium and the Waterhole, everything had been peaceful. Calm. Maybe not perfectly peaceful. She had passed by one or two more energetic arguments, but nothing that seemed like it would have affected her.

There was a tension in the air that could be cut. A palpable sensation that something was wrong. Alyssa already knew what that something was, but for everyone else, they just saw the army on the move with no explanation.

She and Oz had barely made it two streets before they had to stop and stand aside. Perhaps three hundred people, coupled with several dozen horses, were marching in a parade from the center of the city to the northern gates. They weren’t trying to be subtle in the slightest. So much for not starting panic.

Compared to the city guard, some of this army had far fancier armor. Especially those on horses. Many of those on foot were wearing standard city guard garb including the beige tabards and iron armor. The fancier armor lacked tabards and their armor was a solid black with gold edges. Even the horses had matching armor. Some kind of elite knights. It couldn’t be real gold… that would be far too expensive.

Or would it? Maybe gold was exceedingly plentiful on this world.

People lined the streets. It was after dark, but every single person in the area had to be out tonight, whispering to one another. Which was extraordinarily bad for Alyssa and Oz. The parade of knights blocked the street enough as it was. The people just made it worse.

“Ahh,” Oz groaned. “I hope I make it back in time.”

“Sorry.”

“I accepted the quest. It’s my fault.” So he said, but she couldn’t help but notice his eyes darting about, looking for any way through the crowd. “Not sure why you need an inn on the opposite side of the city though. Plenty of respectable establishments ‘round here.”

“I’d prefer if you didn’t pry.” Once again, she was almost regretting hiring a mercenary. As the guard had said, their loyalty was to money. What was stopping Cid from walking into the guild and either asking about some woman with a large backpack or simply putting in a request to find her. Of course, if the guild had trackers that were any good, they probably would have been able to find her just off a description. As such, she was trying not to worry about it too much.

“Just trying to make small talk. We might be here for a while. We need to cross here but crossing in front of the parade is likely to get us thrown in a cell for the night. Let’s squeeze past these people and try to get on a less crowded…”

Oz trailed off. He wasn’t the only one. The entire street fell silent and it didn’t take Alyssa long to figure out why.

Someone new just turned the corner of the street. Maybe a knight. Maybe not. She barely paid the person any attention. It was what he rode that stole her attention. At first, perhaps because of Irulon’s soul, she thought it was a dragon. Almost twice the size of a horse, it was a lizard that walked on two legs. It had two smaller arms that didn’t touch the ground. Bronze scales coated its belly and underside while bluish-grey scales covered the top portions. Three sharp horns went straight back from a crest on its head and sharp spines and spikes lined its neck, back, and tail. It was more like a Jurassic Park velociraptor than a dragon, if Steven Spielberg had glued spines and well-defined scales all over them.

And there was a rider on the back. Some kind of saddle protected him from the thick, rock-like spikes. He wore armor much like the knights, except where they had golden trim, his was a deep purple that almost glowed in the dark street. While his armor was almost glowing, his sword literally was. The metal was black, narrow, and long with a crescent-moon hand guard around the hilt, but it was surrounded by this aura. A strange yellowish-orange glow ran from the tip of his blade all the way up to the elbow of the arm he held it in. Even with the full library of Hollywood behind her, she didn’t think she had seen anything remotely like it. The way the aura shimmered made it difficult to tear her eyes away.

Thanks to a small grunt from Oz, she managed.

“Huh. The Black Prince has descended from his tower. This must be a bigger threat than your guardsman friend made it out to be.”

“The Black Prince?”

Oz glanced over his shoulder to meet her eyes. “Second Prince Brakkt. Sort of the black sheep among the royal siblings. That and his armor resulted in his nom de guerre that he has fully embraced.”

Black sheep? Irulon was supposedly the outcast of the family. Bacco hadn’t specifically used the phrase, but Alyssa had when she heard the princess’ situation. This Black Prince was also the second royalty she had met in the one day since arriving at Lyria. Well, not met. Seen. She had no intention of drawing more royals’ eyes to her. It didn’t look like this prince was going to stop and chat either. He was already riding past without so much as turning the thin slit of his helmet in her direction. Still, she was starting to sense a pattern. How many siblings were there in total and how many were outcasts? There was at least one more judging by this one’s status as the second. Unless the world had strange naming conventions, there would be a First Prince. Alyssa opened her mouth to ask, but Oz spoke before she could.

“You really don’t know him? You must be from further than I’ve ever traveled.”

Alyssa felt like smacking herself in the face. Every single person she had met had asked that question. She couldn’t help that common knowledge wasn’t common to her. “I’m not from Lyria or the surrounding area,” she said with a withheld sigh. “I don’t even recognize the creature he is riding.”

“Well that’s not surprising. Draken normally only live in the volcanoes of Sawtooth Mountain or the Islands of Fire. Hot places, you know? Don’t let their appearance fool you, they’re highly intelligent. They can’t speak, but that’s likely because their mouths don’t allow it rather than an inability to comprehend language.”

“You know a lot about them.”

“In my business, the more you know about monsters the more likely you are to survive an encounter with one.”

“Draken are monsters?”

Oz snorted. “Do they look like people to you?”

“Well, no, but are horses considered monsters?”

“Point,” Oz said with a smile. “But horses aren’t smart like people or monsters.”

So intelligence played a part in what was considered a monster. That almost made sense. Were there no purely bestial monsters? Maybe she just had misconceptions due to being from Earth. Something fantastical to her like a cockatrice might just be a regular beast to these people, no different than a bear. Though, watching the spine covered tail swing back and forth as the Black Prince passed by, she had to ask, “The prince rides around on a monster in the middle of town?”

“Caused quite the stir when he first showed up with them. A whole dozen or two. City guard thought he rebelled. Took the Pharaoh himself to come and sort things out. Rumor has it he saved that clan from a rival faction, they swore loyalty to him, he brought them home.”

“Simple as that?”

“Doubt it, but ah, looks like the prince was at the tail end of the army. Let’s get moving again before more show up.”

Sure enough, there were only about ten knights following after the raptor and the prince. Though, as they passed, the streets still didn’t clear. People resumed their whispering. Maybe it was a bit more of a hostile tone now? Focusing on any one conversation was difficult with so many going on around her. She did catch little snippets.

“Filthy beasts.”

“Mobilizing at this hour?”

“—Those Tenebrael-less heathens to the North. Attacking them?”

“Or being attacked. Should we flee?”

“Monsters roaming the streets. Disgusting.”

“Who does he think he is, inviting monsters to live here.”

“The Pharaoh’s predecessor would never have let this happen.”

“They should all be destroyed.”

It went on and on. Surprisingly enough, most of what Alyssa could pick out was about the raptors—or draken, apparently. People were more concerned about them than the fact that a whole army was marching to the gates. At first, she thought it was the result of drastically misplaced priorities, but then she thought about it a little more. With what Kasita had said earlier, monsters and humans effectively caused a genocide of both species, though she had been sure that the humans would place the blame on the monsters and vice versa. The people didn’t view it as friendly monsters inside, enemy monsters outside. They viewed it as enemies inside, enemies outside. With the former being far more obvious given their walk down the street, it was only natural that they would be the topic of conversation at the moment.

If the trolls and goblins actually made it to the city, they might be singing a different tune. Until then, the raptors were the focus of their hatred.

It all seemed a bit hypocritical to her. There were tons of elf slaves running about and she hadn’t heard a word complaining about them. Maybe the raptors were treated better and that angered the people? Or it could be that elves were ‘human enough’ in appearance for most to ignore them.

“Come on,” Oz said. “People will be standing around gossiping all night now. We’ll take some of the back roads, follow along the northern wall until it turns to the eastern wall. We should be able to find some good inns there. That works for you, right?”

“You know the city better than me.”

“Right. Keep up. I’ll be moving quick,” he didn’t even finish speaking before he was already halfway across the street. Alyssa hiked up her backpack and ran after him. Without the bulk of a massive pack, he slipped through the crowd much easier than she managed. It took an “Excuse me,” and “Pardon me,” every now and again, but she made it to a narrow alley and the side street on the opposite side where Oz held up for her.

“Looks heavy,” he quipped with a glance over his shoulder. He didn’t stop moving. Before the army rode by, they had been keeping a fairly languid pace. Apparently that time had passed. “I could carry it for a few prav.”

Alyssa snorted. “I don’t think so. It isn’t that heavy, I’m already paying you far more than a job like this needs, and I keep well in shape.”

He eyed her up and down with a slight smirk. “I can see that.”

Pressing her lips together, she sighed. “Besides, you need to keep ready in case someone attacks.”

“Please. Even if you were being chased by the Waters Street gang, they’d notice who your escort was and run off in fear. There’s only one person in the Waters Street gang who I might have a little trouble with and I think you’re a little too low profile for him.”

That might be closer to the truth than he thought. Not that she was going to tell him that. “You’re well known then?”

“Well, I don’t like to brag,” he said with a hefty chuckle, “but I’ve made something of a name for myself. I’m among the top ten Knights Solaris in terms of confirmed monster kills. A lot of which were high level monsters. No wimpy slimes or goblins.”

“Oh? What constitutes high level monsters? Dragons?”

Oz actually stopped in the middle of the street. Alyssa almost bumped into him. He stared for a moment before shaking his head. “You really don’t know anything do you? I thought you were joking for a moment, but your face is stone cold.” Alyssa had to frown at that, but she didn’t interrupt. “I might be able to take down a whelp or two, but they like to gather in large groups when they hatch. Anything larger?” He shuddered. “That whole army we saw might just take down an adult dragon if they pulled in every high ranking arcanist from the Observatorium. Most of them would probably die. If they’re unlucky, all of them would die.”

“They’re that dangerous?” She had been wondering if dragons actually existed. Now it seemed like they did.

“Oh, aye. Of course, with the Black Prince with them, maybe they would come out with a strong victory. Rumor has it that his sword has been bathed in dragonfire. It could slice off a dragon’s head in a single blow! Just a rumor though.”

“Lots of rumors about him…”

“Mysterious guy. He frequently travels and always returns with something new. Nothing quite so shocking as a horde of monsters following after him, but whether it’s that armor, that sword, or a chain gang of prisoners from across the desert, it’s always something. He never goes with guards, but he is probably the strongest person in the world. He likely doesn’t need any protection.”

Alyssa hummed. The prince definitely sounded like someone she didn’t want to cross, though most of that was surely exaggeration. Everything she knew about him thus far had the word ‘rumors’ tacked on. But there was always some truth in rumors, so it would be best not to take him lightly. And his little sister was learning magic. Given how larger than life the prince apparently was, she wondered just how accomplished Irulon was at casting spells. Was she capable of Rank Three? Four? Thinking about Irulon, Alyssa couldn’t help but ask one more question. “Hey, Oz. You know a lot about monsters. Do you know if dragons can change their form?”

“Change their form? Like a mimic? I hope not. Never heard anything like that, but it sounds terrible. Imagine that, you’re drinking from your flagon when your table turns into a fully-grown dragon.” He shuddered again. “Nope. Mimics are annoying, nigh impossible to kill, intelligent, but also weak. A dragon mimic would be a nightmare.”

That was good to know. Irulon was almost certainly a regular human then. Everyone else had a soul that looked like a creature, so hers was nothing out of the ordinary then. Of course, given how scary real dragons apparently were, upsetting the princess would still be a bad idea if she took any personality traits from them.

Alyssa and Oz fell silent as they walked—power walked—along. He went quiet likely because of his professionalism. She because of her thoughts.

It had only been half a day since she had met the princess at the Observatorium. With everything that had gone on, it felt a lot longer than that. That meant that there were still six and a half days before she could go back to meet with Irulon and actually learn some magic. Hopefully the coming days wouldn’t be quite so exciting as today had been. She could use a day or two of nothing more than relaxing. Maybe a chance to get some local clothing and accessories. Above all, she didn’t want to have to carry her backpack around everywhere. It was far too distinctive, heavy, and cumbersome.

“We’ll be entering the primary trade quarter shortly,” Oz said after they had been walking for about a half hour. “There are shops everywhere in the city, of course, but any merchant worth their salt comes here to buy and sell. Because of the large congregation of traveling salesmen, there are also a number of inns. Some more long-term than others.”

“I plan on staying in the city for the foreseeable future,” Alyssa said. She just about stumbled over a piece of loose brick that looked like it had come from the city wall. Stupid poor lighting. “I would prefer something secure. An individual room with locks on the door.”

“Plenty of those. Merchants have to keep their goods from thieves. I think I know just the…” He trailed off, slowing his power walk to a complete stop.

Alyssa tensed, half expecting to be ambushed by Cid and Bacco or maybe some of Oz’s friends. Looking around, she couldn’t see any sign of anyone. They were right up against the northern wall, far out practically at the eastern side of the city. It was a dead zone. Nobody up on the wall, guard or otherwise. The only buildings around were smaller, single-room homes without any lights in their windows.

“What is—”

A raise of Oz’s hand silenced Alyssa. He looked around for a moment before staring up into the sky. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Wait. She did hear something. It was like thunder except without the loud crack, just the low and rumbling echoes afterward. “The rumbling?”

“We need to get away from the wall!” Oz grabbed Alyssa’s wrist, almost pulling her to the ground before her feet caught up to his words and she started running with him. They barely made it to the darkened homes a few paces away before the rumble crescendoed.

Brick exploded from the wall, filling the air with dust. Not enough to block out the view of the monster. Large. Ugly. Alyssa could stand on her own shoulders and only reach its chin. One of its legs was as big as she was including the backpack and it only got bigger from there. Warts covered its face. A troll. Just like what she had seen through her binoculars. Two smaller and much greener creatures clung to its legs. They had large floppy ears and pointed teeth in worse shape than Cid’s. The goblins.

“Looks like I’m getting that combat bonus after all,” Oz said through grit teeth as he drew his sword. “Find a spot to hunker down.”

Alyssa just about ran, but a shimmer in the sky made her freeze. “More smoke along the wall. These aren’t the only intruders. Running won’t be safe.” She didn’t understand. She had seen the army with her own eyes. There was no way they could have crossed the entire desert and the fields already. And where was the army? Alyssa and Oz had been heading in the opposite direction from the parade and the north gate where she had escorted the monster girls. Was this some vanguard? Some distraction? Or was the big fiery army the distraction?

“Can you fight?”

“Not like you.” Alyssa readied her shotgun. Her hands were shaking worse than they ever had before. She could feel her heart beat. It hammered hard enough, pumping so much adrenaline around her body that she worried she might just explode. But she had to keep calm. This wasn’t like Kasita and the others. The goblins hopped from the troll’s legs, letting out high-pitched shrieks as they pulled out rusty daggers. These things wouldn’t be open to negotiations. “I might be able to handle the little ones.”

“Their daggers will be poisoned. Don’t get cut. And keep away from the large one unless you like being flat—”

The troll opened its mouth, revealing rows of misshapen teeth. A horrid noise came from the back of its throat, followed by ten tons of spittle flying about. The roar triggered the others. The two goblins echoed its noise in far higher pitched screeches before charging forward, flailing their little daggers around.

Oz kicked the one that ran at him, sending the tiny thing flying into the side of a building. He didn’t follow up on the kill, charging forward to the troll instead, shouting as he moved.

Alyssa couldn’t pay attention to him any longer. The unkicked goblin was charging right at her! Finger already on the trigger, she fired.

The shot went wide, missing completely between her own panic and the little monster hopping to the side. It was faster than it looked. Quickly running along the ground, it closed the distance. Gritting her teeth in an attempt to steady her nerves, Alyssa fired a second time before it could reach her. This time her shot struck true. Its chest exploded as it went tumbling backward, end over end. Knowing how strong the monsters she had encountered were, she didn’t give it an opportunity to get back up. A third shot turned its head into chunky salsa.

The noise of her shotgun had not gone unnoticed. Although the goblin looked a little dazed from his kick into the wall, it was staring at her along with the troll and even Oz. The latter recovered first, taking the opportunity to sink his sword deep into the troll’s side behind the metal plates. Wailing, the troll slammed its meaty fist into the ground right where Oz had been standing only seconds before.

Not wanting the other goblin to recover enough to dodge her shotgun, she fired while it was still against the wall.

There was no need to fire a second time. The goblins were apparently as fragile as thin glass. The splatter of orange-red blood had Alyssa grimacing.

Another roar from the troll stole her attention. Oz was circling around the monstrosity, looking for another opening while dodging the thick punches. As soon as it swung, he darted in closer, swiped his sword across the back of its bare leg, and kept going until he was on its opposite side. A thin trail of blood started running down to the ground, but it wasn’t enough. The troll didn’t even stumble as it pivoted to slam a fist into the side of the darkened building. Bricks and stone flew off, but Oz had sidestepped once again, slashing at its underarm as he moved.

She wanted to help, but even with the troll’s bulk in the way, she didn’t trust herself not to hit Oz. If he dashed around at the wrong moment to dodge or attack, he would be the one lying on the ground. But they had to hurry. This death-of-a-thousand-cuts tactic Oz had going might work eventually if he managed to avoid every single attack, but it wasn’t fast. There were other breaches in the wall and potentially more monsters just beyond the rubble in front of them. Her shotgun was loud. Drawing more trolls and goblins would… complicate matters.

Alyssa slung the shotgun back over her shoulder and pulled the pistol from her hip. It didn’t have bullet spread. With how tall the troll was, she shouldn’t be in danger of hitting Oz so long as she aimed for its head. Grasping the gun with both hands just like her mother had taught her, she aimed up. Alyssa took a deep breath as she flicked off the safety.

She pulled the trigger.

Miss.

Again!

Miss.

Alyssa clenched her teeth and closed her eyes. Calm. She needed to calm down. Her hands shook too much to hit the broad side of a barn. So calm down. Opening her eyes, it took only a few leaps of mental gymnastics to rationalize away the troll’s threat. It might be big, but it was slow. She could run faster than it. It wasn’t looking at her. It didn’t even care for her while Oz kept poking at it. It really wasn’t anything to be afraid of.

Steadying her hands, she gave the trigger a light squeeze.

The troll’s head snapped to one side and it stopped moving. Blood started trickling from just above its ear. But it didn’t crumple to the ground. It snorted like someone sick hocking up mucus as it turned to look at her.

It didn’t even have a helmet on, just how thick was its skull!

Panicking, Alyssa squeezed the trigger again.

And missed completely. Having its little beady eyes looking at her made her hands start trembling again.

At the same time, Oz sunk his sword deep into the troll’s back. It howled again, moving enough that Oz lost his grip on the sword, leaving it embedded in the leathery hide of the monster.

Alyssa scrambled backward. The troll didn’t even care about the sword. It lumbered toward her, flailing its fists. She could feel the wind rush at her as the troll swiped at the air. Fully focused on escaping, Alyssa ran in a full on sprint down the nearest street, only stopping once she heard the heavy footsteps stall.

Throwing a glance over her shoulder, she saw Oz catch up to the troll. He tore his sword from its back and plunged it into the troll’s leg. It pierced clean through, though the tip just barely made it. With a loud shout and a heave, Oz sliced a diagonal cut to the troll’s foot, freeing his sword.

It tried to turn and attack again, but its leg gave out. The troll fell to the ground, cracking the earth as it landed on its face.

Oz didn’t hesitate to climb onto its back and slam his sword down at the base of its neck. When the thing kept moving under his feet, he pulled back his sword and stabbed it again and again until its head was nearly decapitated. Only when it stopped twitching did Oz pull his sword out. He stared down with a look of disgust for just a moment before that look turned to a thin-lipped grin. A quick swipe of his sword severed most of the troll’s pointed ear.

Breathing far too hard for how little she had run with her heart feeling like she had just finished a marathon, Alyssa slowly approached. “A trophy?” she asked between breaths, incredulous as he tucked the ear into a little pouch he had on his side.

“Proof. I can sell this to the guild as evidence of both slaying a troll and that I have helped defend the city. Whatever the city is paying the guild, this ensures I’ll get a cut of it. And a troll ear? With no one to split the reward with?” He chuckled.

Alyssa almost protested that she should get a share, but realized the moment she opened her mouth that she really didn’t care that much. “Let’s get out of here,” she said instead.

“Not yet. The goblins might not be worth as much, but they are worth something.” Hopping off the troll’s body, he started heading back to where they had first fought.

“Are you insane? What if more come?”

He didn’t even stop moving. “Then more ears for me!”

Alyssa ground her teeth together, but stayed close to him anyway. She didn’t know her way around the city. At least with him around, she wouldn’t have to fight one of those giants alone.

He knelt by the first goblin she had killed and let out a low whistle. “Sweet Tenebrael’s titties! What did you hit them with?”

“A limited weapon.” Alyssa groaned internally. Her first day in the city and she had already used up several shotgun shells and a few pistol bullets. How much did she have left? With how much adrenaline was running through her body, she could barely concentrate. “Would you mind hurrying? Other monsters probably heard the fight. They’ll be drawn to the noise.”

He huffed a bit, but sliced off the left ear. Not that it took much slicing. The goblin’s head was barely intact. “Sure didn’t do much to the big guy though.”

“My weapons don’t discriminate between friend and foe. I used a smaller one to avoid hitting you.”

“Glad you took me into consideration,” he said as he pocketed the other goblin’s ear.

“Yeah, whatever. Let’s go alrea…” Alyssa trailed off as she turned to face the gaping hole in the wall. More rumbling thunder without that initial crack was creeping closer. Lots more.

“You hear that?” Oz asked in a low tone of voice.

“More ears for you?”

“How many trolls can you take on with that thing assuming I’m out of the way?”

Limited weapon. If there is an army out there…”

“Right.” Oz started backing away. “Maybe we should leave this to the city guard. I’m sure they’re rushing over as we speak.”

Alyssa backed away as well before they both turned to run. “Best idea I’ve heard from you yet!”


<– Back | Index | Next –>


008.002

<– Back | Index | Next –>


City Under Siege

Knights Solaris


The guild, these Knights Solaris, had it made. Alyssa admitted it, she hadn’t experienced much of the city. But this building had to be among the upper class structures around. It lacked the decorum of the Observatorium, and the palace—which Alyssa still hadn’t seen up close—was likely far fancier. The guild was a sturdy building, constructed from thick blocks of brownish stone. It almost looked like a castle except for the massive windows that ran from just above the tall door clear up to the ceiling. More like a cross between a castle and a cathedral. If there was one thing Alyssa had noticed, it was that glass seemed to be a rarity. None of the buildings, homes or businesses, in the slums around the Waterhole had glass anywhere on them. In comparison, the buildings near the Observatorium all had at least small glass windows.

There was more to the guild than just the large glass windows. Light flooded out. The vast majority of the city wasn’t lit up. Nothing like modern cities. A few of the streets had dim magical lights like those on the roads outside the city, but the buildings were dark more often than not. The guild had enough light coming from its windows that there really was no need for the little street lamps in the general vicinity.

Just above the doorway, below the bottom of the windows, a symbol had been engraved in the stone. A shield, five pointed with two at the top and three at the bottom. In the center was a simple emblem of the sun. Made sense. Solaris had something to do with the sun. It also was a Latin word, she was fairly sure, which raised a bunch of questions that were probably best not thought about too hard. Little about this world made sense, why should language?

Ipo walked right up to the front door without stopping to gape at the building. Feeling slightly silly, Alyssa caught up with him as he shoved open the dual doors.

For all that she had been impressed with the exterior, she couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed as she looked on the inside. It was a tavern. Much like Yzhemal’s back in Teneville or the main floor of the inn Cid had brought her to. A lot larger of course, but similar all the same. There were even mint leafs scattered about. Around thirty people were divided up between ten or so tables. Builds, sizes, even attire quality varied between them, though everyone was human. They even had a few servers bringing food around to people. Two counters sat at opposite sides of the room. One seemed the fairly standard food and drink bar with people eating and talking around it. The other counter had only a single woman seated behind a desk, wearing a circular set of glasses. Behind her, papers covered a wall.

It was the latter counter that Ipo headed toward. He didn’t move unnoticed. Practically everyone stopped their conversations or their eating and looked over at him. Most returned to their business, but at least one person at each table kept their eyes on him.

Alyssa shirked under their gazes, but kept walking close to Ipo. No one was glaring at her. They were curious. They probably weren’t even looking at her, but at Ipo. It just felt like everyone in the room had their eyes on her.

She really needed to get some local attire. Even if it was scratchy, uncomfortable, and poorly tailored compared to modern clothing. Just something that would keep her from standing out quite so much.

Someone standing in the far corner of the room just about made her stumble. She recognized him! He was the muscular man with the sword who had been standing near Aziz her first night in the inn. His companion! He didn’t have the metal scale vest on, wearing a plain brown tunic instead, but it was still him. She had thought he was a bodyguard, not a mercenary… though he may have been both at the time, she supposed. Having been disowned, Aziz likely wouldn’t have been able to rely on any family retainers to travel with him to Teneville on his pilgrimage. Going to mercenaries made sense in that situation.

He recognized her as well. She could see it by the mild curiosity on his face. But he made no move to approach her, so Alyssa stayed with Ipo. Since she was planning on sticking around after Ipo left, maybe she would go talk to him. Or not… did she really have anything to talk with him about? Maybe, in that case, if he accepted her request for a city escort.

Unless he was really expensive. She had seen some of his gear back in Teneville, his sword and that scale armor in Aziz’s room. None of it looked all that cheap. Even if Aziz had been disowned, he probably still had enough money to hire one of the higher tiers of bodyguards.

“Guardsman,” the woman at the counter said with a pleasant smile, pulling Alyssa’s attention away from the mercenary. “What can the Knights Solaris do for you today?” As she spoke, she pulled over a piece of paper from a stack at her side. Fairly extravagant paper. Most paper Alyssa had come across in this world was… ragged and low quality. This was just the opposite. It wasn’t printer-worthy, but each piece was uniform and had the symbol from the front of the building right at the top.

Looking up, the wall behind her was covered in identical sheets. Except each one of the posted papers had large, loopy handwriting spelling out jobs. Fifteen Deer Hooves Wanted — 12 Medi. Forest Goblins Raiding Farm Silos in Beetlebend, Exterminators Requested — 2 Medi per Ear. Bandits Attacking Caravans East of Lyria, Scout for Bandit Stronghold — 8 Atlus. Daughter Kidnapped by Monsters — 100 Altus for return of remains, 500 if alive, bonus for ears. They went on and on. None went into any specific details. They just listed the basic job and the pay.

“Laria,” Ipo said after a deep breath.

“Ipo? Is that you?” She leaned forward, peering at him. Though he had an open-faced helmet, it wrapped around his head enough to cast his face into shadows even with the light of the room. “Surprised to see you here after last time. I assume you’re not here to cause trouble? What can I do for you?”

“Not for me. The city.”

“Ah. A request on behalf of the city then?” Sitting upright in her seat, she clasped her hands together in a far more professional demeanor.

“Captain Oxart of the Northern Barracks wishes for your guild to be apprised of a situation.” Despite his earlier words warning Alyssa to keep quiet, Ipo spoke in a loud voice brimming with authority. Even the people who had gone back to their food turned to face him once again, though he never looked away from the woman at the counter. “A large gathering of monsters, goblins and trolls, is headed toward Lyria from the desert. The city guard is mobilizing, but Captain Oxart thought it prudent to inform you of the situation in case the city calls upon your services.”

“I see, I see.” The woman—Laria, apparently—didn’t look worried in the slightest. Her hand flew across the piece of paper, writing down all the important points of what Ipo said in the same loopy handwriting. “Number of monsters? Distance? Estimated speed and time to arrive at the city?”

“Scouts have been sent out to determine the exact answers to your questions. The monsters look to be at a significant distance and are walking on foot. It should be some time before your… assistance is requested. Within three hours. I imagine myself or someone else will be along shortly to keep you updated.”

“Payment will be the usual for city defense?”

“That is something for the nobles to determine should they decide to make use of your services.”

Her hand stopped moving. “I see. We normally prefer slightly more details, as I’m sure you are aware, but I recognize the time sensitivity of the situation. If you have nothing else to add…” she trailed off, waiting for him to respond. When he didn’t, she flipped the paper over and started writing in much larger handwriting. “New posting,” she said in a raised voice. Not quite shouting. She didn’t need to yell. As soon as she spoke, the room went silent. All the little conversations died off. The clanking of metal equipment stilled. Even the sounds of people eating crunchy food quieted. “City Defense. Job starts within three hours, lasting until monsters approaching the city are exterminated. Further details incoming as the situation develops. Payment to be determined. Open to all, no limits.”

Ipo gave her a curt nod. “That will be all for now.”

“The Knights Solaris look forward to news of further developments in this situation. It’s always nice to work with our city’s valiant defenders,” she said with a charming smile. “May Tenebrael bless you.”

“Mph.” Ipo turned, glanced around the room once, and started walking. He didn’t even say anything other than that little grunt. Well, he had said that he wasn’t too fond of mercenaries, so maybe that was to be expected. Couldn’t he have been at least a little courteous? He had basically asked these people to risk their lives to defend the city. Judging by Captain Oxart’s words, she was definitely expecting a few of these people to die in service of the city. They were being paid for it, but it had to be difficult to make use of those funds while dead…

Alyssa hung back, staying at the counter. She thought about following after Ipo, but she was already where she wanted to be. Running out with him only to tell him that she was thinking about hiring a mercenary didn’t sound like it would turn out so well. Besides, he had his own duties with the city under attack—which was weird to think about so casually. When she had first spotted the monsters, she had been in a panic. But all the guards were calm, as was Oxart, even this guild was acting like this was nothing out of the ordinary. None of the mercenaries were getting ready for combat. They went back to their meals and discussions.

It was hard to stay agitated when no one else was worried.

Laria clasped her hands together and leaned back in her chair. Was that her whole job? Just to post jobs? She hadn’t been doing anything when they entered the room and she wasn’t doing anything now. Actually, it probably was her job. The literacy rates of medieval Earth had been pretty abysmal. This woman was probably paid quite handsomely just to write things down a half-dozen times a day.

Being a properly literate modern human, Alyssa now knew what jobs to seek out if she ever needed some more cash. A nice easy desk job with potentially tons of time to research magic on the side? And… a number of these mercenaries were probably high level arcanists.

Resisting the urge to ask her for her job, Alyssa stepped up and cleared her throat.

Laria blinked twice as she looked up at Alyssa. “I’m sorry, I thought you were with the guardsman. Did you have a request to make?”

“Maybe. I was wondering if you could tell me the going rate of a guard to escort me around the city. No combat expected, I’m just new to Lyria and don’t know my way around just yet.”

“I see. And I assume this is an immediate request?” she said, pulling a fresh piece of paper over. “About how long do you think this job will last?”

“Uh, how long does it take to walk to the other side of the city?”

“Depending on the detours you might take, walking speed, mounts, exact distance, and other such variables, anywhere from five minutes to five hours.”

“Let’s say three hours then.” That seemed a bit long to find an inn, but better to be on the safe side than to wind up abandoned in the middle of town.

“I see. A three hour job featuring little to no combat within the city. You’ll need only a single individual as your escort, I assume?” At Alyssa’s nod, she pulled out a large ledger and started leafing through the pages. “Similar requests in the past generally start low. As little as a single medi. However, a bonus is generally established beforehand in the event that you encounter less than savory individuals who may wish you harm.”

“Doesn’t that encourage the occasional false ambush? Where a mercenary sets up a few of his buddies to cause trouble? They get some easy combat to show off before heroically driving away the assailants, earning a bonus to their pay in the process.”

The more Alyssa spoke, the more the woman’s smile turned to a frown. “The Knights Solaris have their honor to consider. We act in the best interests of our clients. Any member caught engaging in such… deplorable behavior would find themselves made an example of. Now, if you have an accusation to make—”

“Nothing of the sort,” Alyssa said as fast as she could. “It was just an idle curiosity. I’ll follow tradition and price my request as you suggest.”

She didn’t quite regain her full smile, but she did nod her head. “Very well.”

Alyssa held up a hand. “Before you announce it, is it possible to request a specific person?”

“It is fairly common among regular users of our services. They find people they like who know the way the client likes their jobs done. Did you have someone in mind?”

“Ah, I don’t know his name.” Alyssa turned slightly. Aziz’s bodyguard was standing back where he had been when she entered the room. He hadn’t moved much save to take a seat alone at a table. “The man in the corner with the red hair? Is he available? If not, I’m fine with anyone.”

“Oz? This might be too low a profile job for him, but no harm in asking.” Laria wrote down a few other things on the paper before she flipped it over. A moment later and she cleared her throat. “New posting. Intra-city escort request. No expected combat, standard bonus applies. Immediate job, lasting approximately three hours or until client is satisfied, whichever is sooner. Priority Oz, otherwise open to any. Limit one.”

As with last time, the room fell silent during her announcement. Oz looked up at his name being called, though he had been paying attention. For a moment, Alyssa thought he was going to just ignore it, but he eventually stood up. He had a friendly smile on his face, but the way he moved screamed reluctance. He didn’t even start walking over until he drank the remaining half of his flagon. The sight of him drinking actually had Alyssa a little concerned. Maybe she shouldn’t have requested him. She didn’t really want to be escorted around by a drunk. Around the room, pretty much every single person had an identical drink in front of them. Much like Yzhemal’s inn.

Though slow, he didn’t move like a drunk. No swaying or wobbling. It was more like he was deliberately dragging his feet to give him time to look her over.

“You’re that wench from Teneville.”

Alyssa pressed her lips together. He wasn’t wrong, but he could have put it a different way that didn’t make her sound like a harlot. “At least it was something productive to do that wasn’t sitting around drinking all day and night.” Maybe someone who didn’t recognize her would have been a better option.

He made a soft grunting noise, but still had his smile on. “Got paid to take that kid on a one way trip. There wasn’t anything in the request that said I couldn’t enjoy the festivities before heading back.”

“That might be true… but… whatever. Are you willing to accept my job?”

Scratching at the scruff on his chin, Oz hummed. “At most a few Medi? The city defense will pay far more than yours, even if you’re being hunted by half the city. Escort quests are annoying anyway.”

Ah. That was right. The city guard had a duty to defend the city. The mercenaries did not, but that didn’t mean that they would pass over what was probably a sizable sum for defending it. Assuming that she could poach away one had been folly.

Except, the defense mission shouldn’t be ready for a while yet. “If we hurry, you can get a nice easy job and still make it back in time to fight. Since I know this is an awkward time, I’ll even up the pay to four medi.” She could easily afford that with what she had liberated from Svotty.

That got him humming again. “The combat bonus will be applied on top of this new pay?”

Alyssa blinked. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t actually heard what that bonus would be. Glancing to Laria, she asked, “How much is the combat bonus?”

“Ah. Forgive me for not informing you. That was a mistake. Combat in a request designated as non-combat typically adds a bonus equal to four times the initial price, though some negotiations can be made.”

Sixteen medi. Plus the regular pay of four, bringing it up to an altus and two medi. Glancing back at some of the boards, that was definitely a high price for what should be exceedingly simple. But, if it actually turned out to be simple, it would only be four medi.

“Alright. I’ll take the risk.”

“You can pay me in the worst case scenario, right? Can’t imagine a tavern wench makes much coin.”

“Of course,” she said with a strained smile. “You’ll take the job then?”

“It seems worth it,” he said after a long moment of silence. “So long as I make it back soon.”

“Good! Let’s get moving then, I’ll explain the specific details of where I want to go as we move. To expedite matters. I’m sure you can appreciate that.”

“Yeah yeah. My gear is in my room. Give me a moment to equip myself.” He trudged off, heading to a door just to the side of the counter. As soon as he disappeared inside, Laria smiled up at Alyssa.

“Payment of the agreed upon four medi can be made here,” she said. “Should the combat bonus come into effect, Oz will inform you of when and how he expects his compensation.”

“Ah. Right. Of course.” Alyssa pulled out Svotty’s smaller purse and fished out four medi, glancing up at the board behind Laria as she did so. How many of them required payment handed over beforehand? An escort such as hers made sense; it would be too easy for a one-way escort to purposefully default on their payment once they arrived at their destination. The guild could probably beat it out of them, but that might tarnish their reputation, making any witnesses view them as thugs. But what about the kidnapped girl job? Did they have several hundred altus sitting behind the counter?

Of course, only a fool would try to rob a place filled with experienced mercenaries. A burglar wouldn’t make it in, let alone out.

Shaking her head, she dropped the four medi on the counter. Laria inspected each piece before making another note on the piece of paper. As soon as she finished, she looked up with a smile. “If you care for refreshments while you wait, the counter opposite of mine can serve you.”

Alyssa glanced over to where a bald bartender was setting out drinks for two men. In truth, she was thirsty. A bit hungry as well. The food here even looked passable. Not quite a two star restaurant, but drastically better than the majority of food she had eaten since coming to this world. Unfortunately, she wanted to get moving as soon as possible. Both for Oz to return for the city defense and for herself to just get someplace she could sit down and take a load off. She didn’t want to be halfway through a meal only for Oz to come back fully geared up and ready to go. Irritating her escort wouldn’t go over well.

“I’ll just take a seat here,” she said with an internal sigh, gesturing to one of the nearby tables. “That’s alright, is it?”

“Perfectly fine.”

Alyssa nodded, did what she said she was going to do and took a seat, and waited.


<– Back | Index | Next –>


 

008.001

<– Back | Index | Next –>


City Under Siege

City Defense


Alyssa sprinted back to the city, not even caring if it had been long enough to avoid plausible deniability about meeting with a slave buyer. There might be systems in place to defend against a horde of monsters. Her efforts might not be needed in the slightest. But she couldn’t take the chance that she wasn’t the only one who knew about the approaching army. This city was the only thing she knew about that might help her get home, kill angels, and otherwise accomplish her goals. If it were ransacked, even a little, it could set her back months or years.

Hardening her face in determination, Alyssa doubled her speed up the dirt road to the northern gates. It felt like she had been running for an hour despite not having walked even half that long in the first place. Finally the city gate was coming into full view. There were more guards now. Double the number, in fact, bringing the total armored people up to four—two gate guards and two on the wall with bows and arrows. But nobody was hurried, panicking, or otherwise alarmed about the monsters! They were just changing shifts.

The guard she had spoken with on the way out noticed her rapid approach. He moved forward, out of the gate’s alcove, and put his hand to his sheathed sword. “They escaped?” he said with notable alarm in his voice.

Alyssa couldn’t respond right away. Physically fit though she was, sprinting with a heavy backpack up a shallow hill would tire anyone out. Bending, resting her hands on her knees, she gasped for some fresh air. “No,” she eventually said between breaths. “Never mind that. Isn’t that something to worry about?” Taking one hand off her knee, she pointed at the desert and the slightly illuminated cloud of smoke hovering on the horizon.

Shifting, he looked over her shoulder. There he stared for a moment or two before his eyes found Alyssa once again. “What’s wrong?”

“You see that smoke cloud in the desert, right?” She had to make sure that this wasn’t some Tenebrael thing that nobody else could see. To her relief, he nodded his head. “That light at the bottom of the cloud? That is fire from hundreds of torches, each carried by a monster. So unless this city is allied with a hundred angry-looking monsters—”

“Allied with monsters?” He scoffed hard enough to show just what he thought of that idea.

The second guard—a new man who Alyssa hadn’t seen before—stepped forward. “What monsters? And how do you know?”

“I… don’t know what they’re called around these parts. I’m newish to Lyria. But there are big ones and little ones and… here, see for yourself.” Pulling out her binoculars, she offered them to the first guard. He didn’t make a move to take them, deciding instead to just look at her like a confused idiot. “Do you have spyglasses, telescopes, binoculars…” Not a single thing she said got any reaction from the man. “Look, these let you see far away things. You just hold them up to your eyes and point them at what you want to see,” she said, demonstrating on herself before trying to hand them away again.

This time, he took the binoculars. He didn’t look out at the desert right away, of course. Like any child handed a set of binoculars, he had to stare at Alyssa first. Which promptly caused him to stumble back. Did these people really have nothing similar? Well, probably not without magic. They didn’t even have a way to light a fire naturally. When had the telescope been invented anyway? Pirates had them in movies, but pirates were a whole lot more recent than medieval times. Not to mention how wrong about everything else Hollywood had been thus far.

After giving him a minute to look around at his fellow guards, the stars, and whatever else he pointed it at, Alyssa cleared her throat. “The desert?”

“Ah. Right.” He finally aimed the binoculars at the smoke cloud in the distance. Color drained from his face as he stared, but he didn’t stop for almost a full minute. When he did, it was because his fellow guard moved up, making noise with the metal armor he wore. “T-this isn’t a trick?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“What is it?”

He licked his lips before answering the other guard. “Trolls. And goblins. Too many to count.”

“Trolls? From the desert?” Guard Two shook his head. “Trolls live high in the mountains. They wouldn’t be coming from the desert. Now, if you had said the ant army was attacking again, I might have believed you.”

Alyssa blinked twice in confusion, not quite sure she had heard the guard properly. Ant army? Like little ants? Well, judging by the bee girl, they were probably at least human-sized creatures. Though that raised a question she hadn’t considered before. Were there actual ants and bees in this world? She couldn’t remember having seen any despite two weeks of walking, but she hadn’t really been looking or paying all that much attention.

Not something to concern herself over now. Guard One whirled on his companion and held out the binoculars. “Use these and tell me it isn’t something to worry about.”

Guard Two didn’t take them, even taking a step back. “I ain’t touching those. They’re probably cursed to make you delusional. We should take you to a mender.”

“I’m going to the captain,” Guard One said after a moment of pressing his lips together. “We can send out scouts and confirm the claim. Then we’ll see who is delusional.”

“Captain Oxart? At this hour? Ipo, you’ll be on cleaning duty for weeks if you go now.”

“Better to scrub latrines and prepare than sit around with our thumbs up our asses while Lyria burns to the ground.” Without waiting for the second guard to continue the argument, Guard One—Ipo?—started marching into the city at a brisk pace.

Alyssa stood by, just watching him leave for a moment before realizing that he still had her binoculars! “Hey! Wait!” He didn’t. If anything, his pace increased. So, slipping around the lone gate guard, Alyssa ran after him despite the light burn in her thighs. Thankfully, he wasn’t that far away. Her pace slowed to his brisk walk once she reached him. “I’d like my binoculars back, if you please.” They were literally irreplaceable. Unless her father had a set back at the house that she didn’t know about. Doubtful.

She wondered if it wasn’t too late to convince Tenebrael to make everything she had taken indestructible and un-stealable. And something to auto-replenish ammunition in her guns. But that was probably a pipe dream. Although she had given in without too much effort, Tenebrael had been at least a little reluctant to actually fulfill the request for the phone.

“I might need this to convince the captain,” the guard said without stopping or handing her binoculars back.

“Then I’m coming with you.”

“I’ll be back at the wall shortly, if you want to wait—”

“Nope! I am not letting my binoculars out of my sight. In fact, why don’t I hold on to them and wait at the wall for you. Then I can let your captain borrow them when he needs to confirm the monsters’ presence.”

“You might run off with them.”

Alyssa pressed her lips together. “How about this: I hold on to them and I come with you. That way you can keep me in sight and I can help act as a witness. Two people telling this captain about the monsters would be more believable than one, right? If this captain is as irritable as the other guard implied, you could use all the help you can get. I’d rather not see this city attacked any time soon.”

He slowed just enough to avoid tripping over the uneven dirt street while looking at Alyssa from the corner of his eye. After sizing her up, he nodded and held out his hand. Alyssa did not hesitate to grab the binoculars back. But, true to her word, she kept walking alongside the guard. “Let’s move then,” he said. “The Northgate Barracks isn’t far, but we should hurry anyway.”

“Lead the way.”

As it turned out, the Northgate Barracks really wasn’t that far away, as he had said. It sat right alongside the wall practically adjacent to the gate itself. Apparently there was a second gate on the northern side of the city on the opposite side of the guardhouse. While the guardhouse was a taller building that rose up above the wall, it wasn’t one of the three towers around the city. Rather, it was smack dab in the middle of two of the towers. There was a gate outside a small fenced-off courtyard, separating the larger building from the rest of the city. Stables had been built into the wall itself with about a dozen horses grazing in a small enclosure just to the side of the main building. It looked like the wall could be opened, letting horses outside the city.

The guard walked right in, moving past two other guards without so much as acknowledging their presence. Feeling somewhat awkward, Alyssa followed hot on his heels. She didn’t want to get separated. Surprisingly enough, no one stopped her, asked her for identification, or otherwise paid her any attention. If she had tried to walk into a modern military installation, she would have been tackled to the ground before she made it ten steps to the front gate. That was assuming they simply didn’t shoot her.

He walked right through some sort of training room that made up most of the ground floor. A few of the guards nodded at him or even welcomed him back by name—Ipo, definitely—but he didn’t do anything but nod in return. One of the smaller doorways in the back led to a staircase. The second floor, with its open door allowing Alyssa a quick peek inside, was proper sleeping quarters filled with rows of bunk beds alongside either wall. But Ipo skipped it, heading straight to the third floor.

The third floor was more of an administrative section. Inside the large room, there were two boards with little wooden nameplates hanging from hooks. Each board looked to be associated with one of the northern city gates. There were markers beside the names, filling out time slots. A schedule.

A single woman sat at a desk just in front of a wide window that looked out over the farmlands around the city. A glass jar hanging from the ceiling had one of those magical lights sitting inside. It staved off the darkness around her desk where she was bent over pieces of paper, reading. She wore a uniform, though it wasn’t the armor that all the gate guards wore. It was more like a black military coat that wouldn’t close all the way normally, but it had an extra wide piece of cloth over her front, connecting the two sides of the coat by way of bright silver buttons. Her long black hair was tied into a low ponytail and ran all the way down to her waist.

A secretary? She didn’t look up even when Ipo coughed into his fist, continuing to peruse the papers lying on her desk. Undeterred, Ipo tried again. “Captain, I apologize for the disturbance, but… have you looked outside?”

That got the woman, Captain Oxart, to look up. She quirked an eyebrow and said, “This had better be important.”

“I hope it isn’t,” Ipo mumbled barely loud enough for Alyssa to hear. If the captain caught it, she didn’t react, standing and turning instead. A slight jangle from the woman caught Alyssa’s attention. Like Irulon, she had a tome hanging from a belt around her waist. An arcanist then? A better question: Had she been promoted to captain for her ability to cast spells or for management skills?

She clasped her hands behind her back as she walked up to the window. “The desert?” she asked with a quick glance over her shoulder. “Sandstorms are nothing to disrupt my work over.”

“It isn’t a sandstorm, Captain. Trolls. And goblins. They’re charging here, kicking up dirt and carrying torches. Judging by the smoke, I’d say they stopped at the tar pits for their torches.”

“Trolls? From the desert?”

That was second time someone had been incredulous about monsters coming from the desert. Was there something that kept them from migrating around?

“It’s true. I saw it with my own eyes. At least a hundred trolls. More goblins. A few were riding wogs, but most were on foot—”

“You left your post?” There was a certain edge to her voice that made Ipo stiffen.

“No. I…”

Alyssa cut in, hopefully saving the guard. “I have a tool in my possession that allows one to see things from a distance.”

Captain Oxart spun on her heel, keeping her hands clasped firmly behind her back. “And who might you be?”

“I’m a traveler. I was outside the city and noticed the monster army,” Alyssa answered before Ipo could do something like claim that she had been selling monsters. She wanted to keep that off the record if at all possible. “Once I noticed, I ran to the gate and informed the first guard I found.”

The captain eyed her, looking her up and down. Yes, her clothes might not exactly be native, but did literally everyone she came across have to do that? They weren’t that strange, were they. She just had on a long sleeved shirt with horizontal stripes and jeans. And her giant backpack. Her hair didn’t even have any funky highlights, it was just plain brown.

Oxart didn’t say anything and just kept staring. Alyssa couldn’t just sit there. “Shouldn’t you be organizing a defense? If you want, I could loan you my binoculars if you want to see for yourself. They should work just fine from here,” she said with a gesture to the large windows.

After narrowing her eyes for just a moment, she marched back to her desk and flipped open the cap of one of the series of brass tubes near her chair. “Yenkins,” she barked out.

“Yes, captain?” came the metallic response from the tube without a moment of delay.

“I want two riders heading north immediately, scouting out a suspicious dust storm. Send a third rider to the garrison. Let them know that we have a potential incursion from the desert with confirmation still ongoing.”

“Right away, ma’am.”

Nodding at nobody in particular, the captain flipped the lid closed with a light clack and looked up at Alyssa. “You have my thanks for bringing this issue to my attention. Now get out of my barracks.” Her eyes snapped over to Ipo. “We’ll review the policy regarding handling potentially magical items later, guardsman. Dismis…” She trailed off with a slight hum. “Actually, no. As punishment, you can go to the guild and inform them of the situation.”

“The guild?” he said with a notable grimace. “Surely there’s no need to rely on those mercenaries. With this much warning, the city guard—”

“I’d rather have dead sellswords than let my men die out there. Go. They’ll want payment before they lift a finger, but that will be up to the nobles once they’re apprised. You tell them to get ready just in case.”

Ipo nodded his head. Not a happy nod, more like he was resigned to carry out his apparent punishment. “Very well. I’ll leave immediately?”

“Indeed. Carry on.” Oxart’s narrowed gaze snapped back to Alyssa. “You’re still here?”

Alyssa jumped. The woman had scary eyes. They were normal eyes, natural brown without anything inhuman. They were just scary. It was like having her mother angry at her for her poor grades back in high school. “Leaving now,” she squeaked in a higher pitch than intended. And she did. Ipo managed to get to the stairs before her, but she was practically stepping on the backs of his feet as she made her way back downstairs. Ipo stayed in front of her all the way out to the street, maintaining that same almost power-walk that he had used on the way here in the first place.

The streets. Alyssa paused and looked around. She really didn’t have anywhere to go. With the captain of the guard warned about the monster army and taking action, presumably she didn’t need to worry about that anymore. For a moment, she considered heading back to the gate to see if she could watch the battle. Almost as soon as she thought that, she dismissed it as ridiculous. While she was curious about what kind of magic the city’s defenders would use, she would not only be unwelcome, but also probably a burden. Even with her guns, she would probably wind up dead.

The inn she had used the previous night wasn’t far away, but she wasn’t about to go there again. Too many… undesirables knew that she had slept there. Cid and Bacco, mostly. In fact, now that it was night, should she really be wandering on her own? Her eyes flicked to the guard. It should be safe walking with a member of the city’s defenders. She had been expecting him to take a horse, but he stayed on foot. Maybe this guild wasn’t too far.

After he warned them, maybe she could convince him to escort her to a semi-reputable inn.

Plan in mind, she skipped forward and caught up with Ipo. “So,” she said, announcing her presence. “This guild. What is it? Why did you sound so irritated about them?”

He flinched a little before glancing at her from the corner of his eye. “You’re still here?”

“Well… I can’t exactly just go home and sleep while knowing the city is under siege.”

Stopping so fast that Alyssa bumped into his arm, Ipo turned and grabbed her shoulder. “Keep it down, slaver. Do you want to start a panic?” He glanced about, but now that it was after dark, the streets were practically deserted. Him grabbing her shoulder drew more attention to them from the only two other people around than her quiet tone of voice. “We’ll need these streets clear. Moving the garrison knights up here will draw enough attention as it is.”

“Shouldn’t you warn the people?” Alyssa asked in a lower voice. “Give them an opportunity to seek shelter or prepare to fight?”

“The city guard will protect them. We’ll likely be fighting beyond the fields—can’t lose crops at this time of year. The average citizen doesn’t know how often the city comes under attack thanks to our vigilance. As for fighting, if they wanted to help, they should have joined the garrison…” He let out a small scoff. “Or the guild, I suppose.”

“Which you still haven’t explained.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it, being a slaver.”

Alyssa mentally groaned. Since arriving in this world, she had heard variations of that phrase several times, and this probably wouldn’t be the last. And also he had called her a slaver, which she really wasn’t, but she couldn’t argue that without revealing what she had actually been doing. Hopefully Kasita and the other monsters were heading away from the desert, otherwise they might be found and caught by the guards as they went to scout the trolls. Well, that was out of her hands now. Whether they made it to safety or died was up to them. This, however, could be important for her. “Humor me,” she said. “I’m relatively new to Lyria.”

“Huh.” He maintained eye contact for just a moment before he started walking again. “They call themselves the Knights Solaris, but everyone knows them as the guild. Knight is far too great a word for the ragtag mercenaries they are. They have no loyalty to anything but money. They’d even accept a monster’s request to kill a human so long as the pay was good. Despicable.” Shaking his head, he sighed. “But they are skilled. Worse, they’re necessary. Lyria maintains an army, but there are so many regulations and nobles in the way that the city guard can’t be deployed for every little thing. If you’ve got harpies attacking your livestock and you want them gone, you don’t go to the city guard, you pay the guild to send someone out to deal with the problem.”

Mercenaries. That could work. Convincing Ipo to show her to an inn while the city was under attack wouldn’t work too well, but a mercenary? She didn’t even need their strongest guy. The unpaid intern would work just fine so long as he knew his way around the city. Unless their prices were outrageously expensive. They shouldn’t be. A short escort was a quick job within the city with no expected combat. What she borrowed from Svotty should hopefully pay for what she needed.

Happy she had found a proper immediate path to finding a safe place to stay, Alyssa kept right on the guard’s heels. “I think I’m heading in the same way as you, so I might as well stop by and see what this guild is all about.” Given his distaste for the mercenaries, she wasn’t about to admit that she was planning to hire one. But he didn’t seem to mind. He just grunted and kept on the path, not caring that she was following along.


<– Back | Index | Next –>


Author’s Notes: Character page has been updated with the Waterhole Monsters. Also, side note for anyone supporting me on Patreon who reads here and doesn’t check Patreon posts: In addition to the Vacant Throne epubs, there is an extra chapter (unrelated to Vacant Throne) that is almost more of a writing exercise than anything else, but I thought people might be interested in reading it so check it out. It might appear over on the preview site someday, but who knows when.

Also, I’m considering getting rid of the big chapter list over on the sidebar. The chapter list is already enumerated on the Index page and that list is just going to get extremely bloated over time. I like to hit the END key to get down to the comments section and the end of chapter, but if the list grows longer than the average chapter, I’ll wind up scrolling up a bunch. So that’s probably going away soon unless someone tells me not to for some reason!

Alyssa’s Notes: It feels a bit weird to catalogue the species of people I’ve actually talked to, but I updated the Bestiary anyway with Mimics, Honey Bees, and Salamanders anyway. Heh, wouldn’t it be strange if someone went and kept a list of every single person they interacted with? Creepy, right?

007.004

<– Back | Index | Next –>


Real Monsters

Escape from Lyria


The stares were the worst. Alyssa couldn’t remember a single point in her life where she had been more nervous. Not even her home being robbed and her killing those two men had rattled her quite so much—she had been pumped so full of adrenaline that she hadn’t really had the wherewithal to be nervous. Here, walking down the streets of Lyria, it was all she could do to put one foot in front of the other over and over again. And that was even with most of the stares directed behind her.

Four monsters followed just behind Alyssa in pairs, pulled along by a rope. On Kasita’s suggestion, they had looped a rope through the chains of each of the girls. Just to reinforce the impression that none of them were being towed along willingly. Not that Alyssa was too worried about that. Enrique had actually broken down in tears when they reattached her one manacle and she hadn’t stopped crying since, even with the keys tucked under her… clothes, if they could be called that. All the monsters were wearing what looked like burlap potato sacks.

Thankfully, they didn’t have far to go. With the Waterhole being close to the eastern edge of the city, Alyssa had feared that they would have to march through the entire thing just to get back to the southern entrance that she had used. Enrique presented an alternate exit. There was more than one way into and out of the city. Because of course there was. Even if it had a wall around it, they would have multiple gates. When Enrique had been first brought to the Waterhole, her captors had used an entrance not far away. Kasita and Pho had been brought in using a covered wagon, so neither had much of a directional reference.

But just because the entrance was close didn’t mean that they weren’t passing by dozens of people. Every single one of whom could not keep their eyes to themselves. None had run off screaming for guards so far, so she might be worried for nothing. The looks they gave her weren’t kindly. After passing by the first few people, she had thought a mob might form.

“Just act natural,” Kasita whispered. “Take it from a master of blending in, no one thinks twice if you look like you know what you’re doing.”

“I know that,” Alyssa hissed back. She had used that principle plenty of times since arriving in this world. The problem wasn’t that. It was that even if she was a native to this world actually selling slaves, she might still get herself stabbed in the streets along with the monsters. “Where does the hostility come from? What did monsters and humans do to each other?”

Alyssa kept walking for a moment, but Kasita didn’t respond. Was someone watching them a little too closely? The street wasn’t even a quarter as populated as the street around the Observatorium had been. Both here and there combined wouldn’t be able to match the amount of people in the market just beyond the city gates that she had passed through on her first day. Nobody was close. The nearest person at the moment was leaning against a wall, chewing on something black and tar-like as he eyed them. With her walking straight down the middle of the street, there was a fair distance between them. Kasita could easily whisper without being overheard. Chancing a glance around just to see if someone was following them, she just about tripped over her own legs as she found all four of the monsters staring at her. Even Rizk.

“What? What is it?” Alyssa said after walking forward another dozen steps.

“Con. Fused. Not. Know?”

“Ufu~ And here I thought you were some sympathizer, but you’re truly naive, aren’t you.”

“I’m not from around this area, alright?”

“Just how large is ‘this area’ to you?”

“Let me put it this way, until two weeks ago, I had never heard of Lyria. Since it’s apparently the largest and most beautiful city around, that should tell you something.”

“Ufufu~” Kasita’s giggle was really starting to grind. “There used to be far more grandiose human cities. You’ve at least heard of the Fortress of Pandora, have you not?”

“Again, not before two weeks ago.”

“Really? Just where did you come from, I wonder.”

Alyssa pressed her lips together, but didn’t say anything. A small group of people, staring at them, were seated just outside a rundown shack. Each one had a wooden tankard. Alcohol? Most likely. They were a bit red in the faces. One of them stood. Alyssa tensed, gripping her fully reloaded shotgun tight in her grip. Using it, however, would not be much of an option. Killing a man in the basement of a whorehouse with no one but criminals around was one thing. Doing the same on an open street to a random drunk would almost surely see her arrested.

The man walked… or rather, the man staggered right up to Alyssa. But he didn’t stop there. He wobbled right past and stopped in front of Rizk. “I know you,” he said with a definite slur in his voice. Drunk for sure. His lips split into a grin missing a few teeth, but with still better dental care than Cid had. “Hows about we head inside? Have a little fun?” He reached out. The poor lizard girl flinched back as if she were about to be struck, but he just grabbed hold of her chest.

Barely believing what she was seeing, in broad daylight no less, Alyssa slung her shotgun over her shoulder. She gripped the man’s wrist, pinned his arm behind his back, and forced him to his knees. “Do not touch my property again.”

He didn’t have much to say in response except a muttered, “Ouch, ouch, ouch.” She wasn’t even pinning him back all that hard. Upon releasing him, he fell face first into the hard dirt road. Alyssa shuddered. The way he just laid there, unmoving… but no, he was breathing. His neck wasn’t broken. He was just drunk. It wasn’t even nighttime, though it was getting close, yet people were already drinking too much.

Turning around, Alyssa set her face into a deep scowl. The other two men had gotten to their feet. Right. Because of course his buddies would come to his defense. Rather than draw her gun, which wouldn’t do anything to scare them off, she reached back to one of the pockets of her backpack and pulled out a card. A spell card. Which spell, she didn’t know. They were all together in the same pocket. Probably a light spell as they were the most numerous cards she had from Aziz’s collection. Whatever it was didn’t matter. Holding it between her fingers, she flashed just enough of the front toward the two men for them to see that there was a design on the front but not long enough for them to know for sure what that design was. It helped that they were drunk and probably weren’t knowledgeable about magic in the first place.

It worked. Both stopped in their tracks. “Pick up your friend,” she said through grit teeth. “Get out of here and do something productive with your lives.”

They didn’t move. Neither to their friend nor to assault her, the latter of which Alyssa was not complaining about. Giving them a cocky smirk, she slowly lowered the spell card. Once sure that they weren’t going to make a move at her, Alyssa gave a light tug on the rope. “Let’s go,” she said to the monsters. Not a one said a word, though Enrique did make a few whimpers. Alyssa wanted to apologize to her, but a proper slave owner would probably berate her crying. In the end, she stayed silent.

Continuing on, Alyssa walked in a solemn sort of silence. She didn’t like this. This whole world. What did the Pharaoh do all day? Even discounting the monsters, should he not be protecting his citizens? Why was it even possible for someone to be accosted and potentially kidnapped not ten minutes after entering the city? Why were there girls who were abused and wanted to stay in that abuse just to continue living? A ruler was supposed to protect their people from both external and internal threats.

Sure, maybe Earth wasn’t perfect. It’s history had probably been a lot like this. Monsters excepted. But reading about ancient history and actually experiencing it were two different things entirely. She was a modern woman from a first world country. Culture shock. That’s what it was. Maybe, if she actually cultivated a friendship with Irulon, she could suggest a few policies to implement. What policies? Who knew. That would be far off in all likelihood and wasn’t really related to her immediate goals. She would think about it if anything actually happened.

“The Fortress of Pandora is set on a narrow strip of land separating the human lands from a large desert.”

Alyssa blinked, glancing back at Kasita, but the mimic wasn’t even looking at her. She was staring up at the sky. Maybe at the rings. Maybe at the off-color moon barely visible in the light of day. She almost asked what the monster was talking about, only to realize that it must be an answer to her earlier question about monster-human relations. Continuing to walk, she remained quiet and listened.

“That desert wasn’t always as it is now. Humans used to live there in cities far larger and far grander than Lyria, surrounded by lush green forests, plains, rivers, mountains, jungles, and so on and so forth. Roughly two thousand years ago, monsters started appearing there. I don’t know how it was when the monsters first appeared, but it soon developed into a full-scale conflict between them and the humans.

“The humans call them the Monster Lords. A bit of a silly name, in my opinion, but that’s what has entered into the collective unconscious. We don’t really have a term for them. They’re just monsters. The original monsters were far more powerful and scary than monsters today. There were hundreds of them. Now? There are only four left.”

“Monsters live for two thousand years?” Alyssa asked, hating herself for interrupting, but it seemed a pertinent question.

“Some do,” Kasita said with a chain rattling shrug. “Enrique here will live about as long as a human. Rizk? She might see two centuries before dying of old age. But the Monster Lords… well… Occasional rumors will pop up about other survivors than just the four, but none have ever been confirmed.”

“What happened?” Alyssa asked after Kasita fell silent for a moment.

“The human king made a choice. He feared that the monsters would destroy the rest of humanity after ravaging his kingdom. When the Monster Lords marched on The First City—his city—they found the streets devoid of life. There were a handful of guards that tried to slow them down. Beyond that, everyone was dead. Killed by a single thin blade through the heart. A city with at least the population of Lyria, slaughtered. Sacrificed. They found the king seated on his throne, visage ragged and maniacal, holding a jewel encrusted dagger. Without a single word, he plunged it into his own chest.

“It destroyed the entire country. Monsters. Humans. Plants. Animals. Mountains. Whatever magic he unleashed rendered the land uninhabitable for a millennium. It has begun to recover, but the fact that the majority of the land is still a desert should tell you just how bad it was. Of course, monsters blame the humans and humans blame the monsters. Really, it was probably everyone’s fault, even if the king actually performed the magic in the end. Then again, I have a bit of a different perspective than most monsters because I can blend in so easily. I’ve lived in human towns just for fun and curiosity.”

Alyssa didn’t know what to say. A king killed and then effectively nuked his own people? Maybe even larger than a nuke. The bombs dropped in Japan had destroyed a city each, both of which had been rebuilt in the following years without too much trouble. Relatively speaking anyway. This king’s bomb turned a country into a desert for two thousand years? And the monsters… He couldn’t have done that lightly or without thought. He must have felt backed into a corner. Could they not have made peace? Kasita, at the very least, was highly intelligent. As far as she could tell, the same extended to Enrique and even Pho. Surely some of these Monster Lords were smart enough that they could have brokered for a ceasefire.

What had been Tenebrael’s role in it all? Surely the angel had known what was going on. Had she tried to stop it? Doubtful. She enjoyed eating souls too much. A genocide like that would have been a feast for her. But… then again… she had that book. A book that, as far as Alyssa understood it, foretold everyone’s exact time of death. It was a book that she had apparently never been able to change no matter what she did up until Alyssa came along. So had those people been destined to die anyway?

Maybe Alyssa would have to ask the next time the angel showed up.

But the monsters and humans… that had been two thousand years ago. Even with the genocide on both sides, it seemed like a long time to hold a grudge. Or… maybe it wasn’t such a long time. Alyssa deliberately kept herself from glancing back at Enrique. In Tolkien’s books, elves were effectively immortal. Apparently she wasn’t, but there could be plenty of monsters that had lengthy lifespans. Those Monster Lords, for instance.

“We’re almost there,” the elf said, her voice soft and slow.

Alyssa blinked. She hadn’t been paying proper attention to her surroundings. Sure enough, Enrique was right. They were now walking along the wall that surrounded the city. Only a few dozen paces ahead was a gate. Much smaller than the main gate she had used to get into the city. That one could have fit a pair of cars side by side. This one could maybe fit one, but it would be a tight squeeze for anything that wasn’t a compact car. Like the front gate, there were guards. Unlike the front, there was only one guy on the ground and one archer up on the wall. If this entrance got attacked, there was no way they could defend long enough for reinforcements to come along.

Who would attack? Monsters? Most of them would be south of the Fortress of Pandora, presumably. Other humans? Were there other nations? Alyssa needed to add geography lessons to her list of things to do. There was a desert north of the city. Not the desert. Just a desert. Beyond that? She didn’t even know if these people knew. Aziz’s map hadn’t extended that far north.

“Look… depressed. Or something. More depressed. You’re not free of this until we’re outside the city and the guards are out of sight.”

Alyssa pressed her lips together and set her face in stone, considering this hurdle. Hopefully the guards wouldn’t question her. They would. Almost assuredly. It was their job. In that case, she needed to look pissed off, irritated that she had to leave the city to sell these mangy monsters. With that in mind, she furrowed her brow just a bit and shifted her walk to be more… angry. Heavier footsteps.

Even though he was watching the other side of the wall, it didn’t take long for the archer guard to notice them walking up. He put his fingers to his lips and gave a sharp, high-pitched whistle. The lower guard, who looked like he was taking a nap as he leaned against the wall, shoved off and actually drew his sword. Looking outside the wall, he didn’t even spot Alyssa until the upper guard shouted down at him. The relief on his face was plain to see. Apparently there were enemies that worried the guards.

While the guard did let out a sigh upon seeing that the gate wasn’t being invaded, he did distinctly narrow his eyes as Alyssa and the monsters approached. His lips curled into a scowl. As soon as they were close enough for him to be heard without shouting, he said, “Just where do you think you’re going?”

“Selling these useless wastes of space.” Sorry everyone. “I’d appreciate if you didn’t hold me up longer than necessary. I’m already running late.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if you set off in the morning? It’s nearly dark.” As he spoke, he turned from Alyssa to look over the monsters. His eyes lingered on Enrique long enough to make the elf shift where she stood.

A chill tingled at Alyssa’s toes. Remembering the encounter on the way here, she realized that this guard could easily recognize three of the four monsters. After a long day standing out in the hot sun on a boring job, spending the evening in the company of women, drugs, food, and alcohol… He could visit the Waterhole every single night if he didn’t care about any illegalities going on. That was assuming that prostitution was illegal, which Alyssa somehow doubted.

Letting out a loud huff to draw attention back to her, Alyssa shook her head. “Don’t have far to go. Only an hour’s trip. Maybe two if these slaves slow me down. I just have to meet with a creepy old man a bit out of the city. Said his name was… Dumbledore.” Sorry J. K. Rowling. She leaned in close and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “I don’t have much pity for monsters, but this guy was really disgusting. I shudder to think what ‘experiments’ he has planned for them.”

The guard just hummed. It seemed like there wasn’t a problem leaving the city to sell slaves. For which Alyssa was grateful. At least, he hadn’t called for the other guards and, while his sword was still drawn, he held it in a loose grip at his side. But she didn’t like the way he was acting. Like the front gate guards, his helmet’s face plate was less of a plate and more of a wire mask. As such, it was plain to see that his eyes kept wandering over Alyssa’s shoulder to Enrique.

“How much?”

“I’m sorry?”

“How much are you selling them for?”

Alyssa mentally grimaced. Money matters. Her greatest weakness. A bit of porridge and bread could be purchased for one to three prav. A meal with meat was a medi with maybe a few prav thrown in depending on exactly what the meal was. The tailor who had lost his sheep to harpies in Teneville wanted one full altus for a wool cloak even though they were normally only around seven to ten medi. With six prav to a medi and eighteen medi to an altus… how much would a slave be worth? She had no other reference to monetary costs.

The answer came to her in only a moment of thought. “I’m not selling them to you, if that’s what you’re asking. Dumbledore already paid me twenty altus. I’ll be getting the rest on delivery. If I show up with less than he paid for, or don’t show up at all because you bought all four, then I’ll have to deal with him far more than I want. I already told you that this guy is disgusting and I will be minimizing contact as much as possible.” She glared for a moment before huffing and turning her head. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’d like to get there and back before it gets too late.”

With a light tug on the rope, she started walking again. The guard let her go this time without another word. Thankfully. If he tried to detain her, she didn’t know what she would have done. Killing a guard or even attacking one seemed like a surefire way to never be allowed back in, assuming she got away and wasn’t put to death. Running away with an overweight backpack on, even from a knight in heavy armor, didn’t seem feasible either. Not having to worry about it was the best option. A bit anti-climactic, but she had already had an exciting enough day as it was.

This exit from Lyria looked to be on the northern side. Fields of some kind of food continued out for a long distance, but it slowly faded out with a bend in the river that ran through the city. Desert extended further outward. Not the sand and dunes type of desert. There was plantlife out there. Sagebrush, mostly. Pulling out her binoculars, she scanned it over. There were actually a few buildings out there too. Nothing large. Single shacks. Residential homes? It didn’t seem like it, but they were too small to be guard watchposts.

A large dustcloud had kicked up into the air far on the horizon. Without her binoculars, she might have thought it was a mirage or other illusion. A sandstorm? Hopefully it was far enough off that it wouldn’t come her way before she got back into the city.

“Well,” Alyssa said, pocketing her binoculars. “We’re out. Sorry for anything I said that was rude. Have to keep up the facade.”

“Words. Un. Import. Ant… Out. Doors… Happy.”

“Can we take off these things yet?” Enrique said, rattling her chains. “I just really want them off.”

Glancing back, Alyssa frowned. They were still in sight of the city walls. She didn’t know if they had binoculars or some magic to replicate them. If she were a guard, she would definitely be keeping an eye on four of humanity’s enemies as they left the city. “Better wait until we’re completely out of sight. Just in case.”

Enrique nodded with a hefty sigh, but smiled. The first time Alyssa had seen her smile since taking her manacles off back in Svotty’s office. It was an alright smile, but really didn’t look like she had much practice with doing so. There was a strain in her lips that normal people didn’t possess. And judging by her words, Pho was happy as well.

It was a good feeling. Between killing four people, being thrust into another world, not understanding anything, and literal angels following her around, something as simple as helping people was a nice change of pace. Of course, she wasn’t just helping them carry their purchases to their car. She was helping them escape from slavery. Somewhat more of a profound helping than Alyssa was used to. Still, she had gotten information on monster-human history, and general history of this world. It wasn’t like she was doing it all for their sakes.

They kept their pace brisk as they moved away from the city. There were people in the fields, getting some work done before night fell for the day. A few passed them on the road, heading toward the city or maybe one of the little villages that had latched on to the exterior walls. Every single one stared. Not a one stopped or commented on her and the monsters. Most looked too exhausted to raise much of a fuss. Toiling out on the farm all day to feed a full city without machinery and vehicles had to be a tough job. There were some early industrial revolution machines that might help if she could find someone to make them. Things that didn’t need electricity. Steam power was another thing entirely, but how hard could it be to kick off an industrial revolution anyway? First, she just needed to teach people that they could light fires without magic.

No. No. Too many things on her list as it was. Until she crossed off a few of the items, she should try hard not to add more. Especially not anything that didn’t directly benefit herself. Sure, she might get rich. But that didn’t seem like an immediate get rich quick scheme. If she truly could use Rank Three spells, apparently there was some good money to be made casting spells for people who couldn’t. Unless she misunderstood something, that seemed a far more reliable way to make money if she needed.

Besides, it wasn’t like they desperately needed agricultural improvements. They managed to feed this city. Teneville hadn’t looked short on food either even with the festival in full swing. Maybe they used magic to help. Maybe they were merely agriculturally advanced. Either way, she didn’t need to go around looking for problems to solve. Not while she had so many of her own.

Speaking of her own problems…

Alyssa glanced back. The city walls were out of sight. No one was around them here on the road either. The last person to pass them had been a few minutes ago and nobody was in front of them. Like the road she had taken into the city, there were little glass jars with glowing lights inside them set up on wooden posts periodically. Beyond them, the fields started almost immediately. The closest field to the road was… corn? It was a bit hard to tell as the plants weren’t fully grown—it must be early in the season. Not being a farmer, she didn’t know most agricultural plants before they were fully grown. But they were tall. Tall enough that some monsters might be able to hide in them as they were making their getaway from the city.

“Do you guys think you’ll be able to escape safely from here?”

“Enrique is a druid. Nature is her domain. She’ll be able to lead everyone to safety.”

Alyssa raised an eyebrow. Now that she thought about it, she had been referring to Enrique as an elf mentally since the moment she saw her. Bacco had called them elves. But that could be common slang… Was she an elf? Did they call themselves druids? “Good.” Watching Enrique pull out the keys and fumble with them for a moment was a pretty sad sight. In her overeagerness, she missed the keyhole three times before dropping the keys entirely. Alyssa picked it up for her. “Allow me?” Grateful for the help, Enrique thrust her arm out. As Alyssa unlocked the first manacle, she asked, “Sorry if this is rude, but is druid a profession?”

“I uh… thought humans had druids too.” She glanced over to Kasita, looking for confirmation.

“They do, but she already admitted to being from somewhere far off. Perhaps they’re called something different where she’s from.” Kasita shimmered for an instant. When the shimmer ceased, she was back to her normal form. Or the first form Alyssa had seen her in. Given that she was a monster, human was probably not normal for her. “Druids are specialists in nature magic. It’s a bit different for humans. They have those papers with all the squiggly lines. But the effect is the same. They commune with nature, whether that be listening to the trees to locate and avoid pursuers, growing plants to entangle things in vines, or talking with squirrels to find their way through unfamiliar territory.”

“I see.” Alyssa finished with Enrique’s ankle chains and moved on to Pho. All the while, she just thought how strange that sounded. Talking to squirrels? Or trees? It was like a Disney movie. But Kasita didn’t look like she was joking around. She hadn’t even done one of her ufufu giggles. Enrique wasn’t contradicting her either, though she wasn’t paying much attention anymore either. With her manacles off, the elf was spinning around in some kind of dance with a wide, happy smile on her face.

Pho’s face didn’t change expressions. Given how stiff it looked, Alyssa wasn’t sure it could. But she had started buzzing. Her wings, ruined though they were, were twitching back and forth behind her back. Her hands and arms were much like her face. Hard. No squishy flesh to them. What Alyssa had thought were black gloves that ran up to her shoulders were her actual arms. Maybe Alyssa had been wrong earlier about monsters looking like humans. If it was only Pho’s silhouette, maybe. No one would mistake her for a human up close. “Thank,” she said as her manacles hit the ground.

Lastly, Rizk. The lizard girl was turning her slit-pupiled eyes around, looking far more aware of her surroundings than she had been back at the Waterhole. Gently, careful to not startle the poor and likely traumatized woman, Alyssa took her hand. She offered no resistance. When the manacle clicked loose and fell to the ground with a thud, her eyes snapped down to her wrist. She just stared at the vacant spot, unmoving, unblinking as Alyssa brought up her other hand.

The manacle clicked, falling from her wrist.

Before it hit the ground, something scaly wrapped around Alyssa’s throat. With a slight jerk, she found herself having to use the tips of her toes to keep touching the ground.

Alyssa’s blood ran cold as she stared into those slit pupils that were now looking directly at her. Her hands snapped up to Rizk’s wrist, trying to keep herself from being strangled. The lizard wasn’t squeezing, but she could easily start.

Kasita, sprouting scales on her arm, broke the eye contact with her hand. She placed a claw on the scaled outstretched arm. “Rizk. She helped us.”

“A human.” The voice was raspy and dry, like she had guzzled a glass of sand.

“Yes. A human that helped us. She undid your bindings. Look around you. We’re outside the city. You can go home. But you don’t have time. This is a human road. If any spot us, they’ll call for the guards and you’ll be killed. You’ll get Enrique killed. You’ll get Pho killed.” Kasita rested her own scaly hand on the blunted claws around Alyssa’s throat. With a featherlight touch, she started prying Rizk’s fingers away.

Alyssa fell to the ground, free from the claw’s grip, and landed on her butt. She scooted backward, taking in deep gasps of breath as she moved. Her throat still hadn’t been squeezed, but there was something about having a noose around her neck that made her appreciate fresh air all the more.

Rizk had completely forgotten about her. She reached down, gripping the latch of her ankle manacles with both hands. The iron snapped in her grip with only a slight strain. Completely free from her bindings, she tore the burlap sack off her chest, looked both ways up and down the road, then jumped into the tall maize. The rustling in the plants faded moments after.

“Rizk!”

“Si. Lence.” Pho put her hand on Enrique’s shoulder. “No. Atten. Tion.”

Enrique bit her lip, nodding her head. “Right. We shouldn’t let her get far. Does she even know where she came from?” She took a few steps toward where Rizk had disappeared, but paused. “Thank you! If I ever see you again, I’ll… I’ll… I’ll treat you to a feast!” With that, she kicked off, leaving a small cloud of dirt in her wake as she dashed into the field.

Pho just gave a slight nod of her head toward Alyssa before following after the other two.

For her part, Alyssa let out a long sigh. That had been unexpected. Scary too. With how Rizk had torn off her ankle bindings, it would have only taken a slight squeeze to have taken off Alyssa’s head. It was all thanks to the only monster still standing on the road. Alyssa owed the mimic a deep debt of gratitude.

Said monster turned, facing Alyssa, scales vanishing from her body as she flashed back into her human appearance. The scales must have been a calming tactic. Something familiar for Rizk to latch on to. “Sorry for that. I do appreciate what you’ve done for them. I couldn’t just let you get killed, even if you are just a human.” With that snide remark, she smiled and extended a helping hand out to Alyssa.

Hesitating for just a moment, Alyssa eventually decided that Kasita must not mean any harm given how she had just saved her life and accepted the offered hand. Once back on her feet, Alyssa frowned down at herself. This was her last pair of relatively clean clothes. Now it was all covered in dirt. She just sighed as she looked up at Kasita. “Thanks. Thought you hated humans.”

“I do. But I like people. And, before the Waterhole, I encountered a decent number of humans I liked. Easy to forget in there.”

Alyssa… didn’t quite know what to say to that and filled the short gap in their conversation with a bit of rubbing at her throat. Despite having those claws around her throat, Rizk hadn’t actually hurt her much. Surprised, yes, but not hurt. “Shouldn’t you be chasing after them as well?”

Kasita shrugged. “I don’t have a home to go back to. I only stayed in that whorehouse to support my fellow monsters. Now that they’re free, I don’t know what I’ll do. No matter what, I can adapt and blend in, so don’t worry about me,” she said with a grin.

“Right.” Glancing around, Alyssa frowned. A dozen manacles were lying in the dirt. They would almost assuredly draw attention from anyone who passed by. If said anyones mentioned the manacles to the gate guards, it probably wouldn’t take much for them to decide that the monsters had escaped. They might start up a search to find them or even to find Alyssa herself for questioning purposes. They probably shouldn’t just be left lying about. Shallow ditches lined the side of the road, separating it from the fields. Tossing the manacles in there should keep them hidden at least for a while. Especially with darkness approaching. If people found them in a few days, it wouldn’t matter so much. She would be safely on the opposite side of the city. So long as she found a place to store her gear, she should be able to hide among the people. “Would you help…” Alyssa turned back to Kasita only to trail off. The mimic was gone. Nothing but air remained and there was no sign of her up or down the road. She must have jumped into the cornfield as well.

Oh well. It didn’t matter much. Alyssa didn’t want to go back to the city too soon. She had told the guards that she would be walking for a few hours. If she returned right away, it might draw uncomfortable questions. So might as well clean up the road herself.

Bending, Alyssa grabbed hold of one of the chains in each hand. Hefting them up made her grunt in exertion. Comparing them to bowling balls might have been putting it lightly. These were Rizk’s chains, the largest and heaviest of the bunch, but still. To have been walking around with these… she was surprised her arms hadn’t fallen off. It wasn’t like Alyssa was weak either. Before coming to this world, she spent a full hour at the gym every day, moving between weight machines and more cardiovascular activities. Sundays were her one day off. She wasn’t bodybuilding or anything, but she was fit and fairly strong. Having to carry around heavy loads for customers while working at her home improvement store helped as well. Since coming to this world, she hadn’t really done any explicit strength training besides carrying her backpack literally everywhere, which she had done for two weeks straight while walking to the city.

It just further compounded how utterly screwed she might have been had Kasita not stepped in to defuse Rizk.

Dumping the set of manacles into the ditch like she was finishing a dead-lift, Alyssa had half a mind to take a break. But there had been foot traffic on the road recently. Getting rid of the other chains sooner rather than later was a must if she wanted them to remain secret. So she started moving them one by one. Pairs were just a bit much, even if the others were lighter than Rizk’s chains.

Finishing up, Alyssa froze as she noticed something red sticking out of the dirt. A small red cylinder. Picking it up, she found it to be exactly what she feared. A spent shotgun shell.

Alyssa tore off her backpack and started inspecting it for any holes. Unless someone else had traveled here from her Earth with a shotgun, the shell was hers. Which meant that it had come from her pack. If it had ripped and torn a hole when she fell, she needed to patch it up as soon as possible to keep from leaking items. But after searching for a few moments, she couldn’t find anything. A bit of fresh dirt dusted over caked-on-mud from her travels where the dangling tent had hit the ground, but no hole. Just because she couldn’t find one didn’t mean that there wasn’t one, so she would have to keep an eye behind her until she got to a place where she could completely unload and inspect the bag. For now, she just dropped the shell into the main pouch and zipped it up.

It was still a bit early, but Alyssa started heading back to the city anyway. She took her time on the way back, just enjoying the crisp air. That was one thing this world had over Earth. It didn’t matter where she was, even in the city the air just felt fresh. Like a permanent wilderness camping trip.

Well, it did somewhat matter where she was. The Waterhole reeked of smoke.

Night fell just as fast as always. She was pretty sure she knew why it came so quick. This planet had rings around it and when the sun passed behind them, it went from fully illuminating the land to obstructed. Saturn’s rings supposedly were fairly sparse and a good deal of light should pass through them, but this wasn’t Saturn at all.

The lights on the side of the road lit up enough that she didn’t feel in danger of tripping even without her flashlight. There were a few other lights out in the fields. Maybe a few farmers straggling behind to finish a bit of work. Or maybe they intended to stay out after dark given that they prepared by bringing a source of light. With the wall in the way, Alyssa could only see one tower of the city. It was surprisingly dark, save for a few small lights at the very top.

One other light source caught Alyssa’s attention. A light far out in the distance, off in the desert where she had noticed the dust storm. The whole cloud was lit up with an orange glow. Curious, she pulled out her binoculars again. Was it not a dust storm after all? Maybe some sagebrush had caught fire.

“What is that?” Alyssa whispered under her breath. It wasn’t a fire. Not a wildfire in any case. The dust cloud was much closer than it had been just an hour or so ago. And she wasn’t so sure it was dust. It was smoke.

A hundred things were marching toward the city. They weren’t humans, that was plain to see. Most of them were large and bulky. The exact size was difficult to tell with the distance and without much for reference, but she guessed at least twice as tall as an average person. They had tan skin, large and round bellies, and a face not even their mothers could love. At least half carried a flaming torch above their head. Some were armored, some less so, but the armored ones didn’t have anything proper. It looked like they had chained together a few sheets of metal and hung it from their necks by said chain. The largest plate covered their bellies, but the smaller plates didn’t connect to each other, leaving a large gap in the chest area.

They weren’t the only things. Tiny monsters that only came up to the taller beings’ knees ran around in between legs and monsters. They somehow avoided being squashed underfoot despite there being twice the number of them as the larger things. Most of them had torches as well, along with short stubby swords.

Monsters. Real monstrous monsters. They had to be. And they were marching on the city.


<– Back | Index | Next –>


007.003

<– Back | Index | Next –>


Real Monsters

Meet and Greet


Alyssa closed the door to Svotty’s office, stepped over one body, moved to the desk, and sighed. Was it a bad sign that she didn’t feel ill anymore? When she had killed the two in her home, she had felt queasy. Not just queasy, but she had actually thrown up. Now, even looking at the mangled body lying on the floor, Alyssa didn’t feel much but exhaustion. She had had a bit of stomach churning ten minutes ago before Tenebrael had shown herself. Now? Nothing.

Things had gotten out of hand.

So drastically far out of hand that, even though she had experienced every moment of it, she had no clue how she wound up where she was.

Too much acting. Too much bluffing. It was exhausting. All she had wanted with her evening was to sit around the inn and test out some magic. Now here she was, sitting in the basement of a brothel whose proprietor she had murdered. Murder? Was it actually murder? She hadn’t been in immediate danger, but keeping herself from being sold surely counted as self defense. Or was it all semantics. Did this world—This city have self defense laws?

Her list of things to learn was drastically exploding to an unreasonable size.

Shaking her head, Alyssa knelt down and quashed her feelings of guilt. Not guilt over killing him, but of what she was about to do. Svotty wasn’t here. Just a body. Tenebrael had taken his soul, something she could confirm just by looking around for the large pig. He was well and truly gone and she couldn’t afford to let his affluence go to waste. Patting down his body, she quickly found something. A brown pouch. Two flat pieces of some kind of leather stitched together to make a purse. It clanked as she picked it up. Looking inside, she smiled. Coins jangled together within. The same bar-like money that she had received from Yzhemal, though there was far more than she had been paid. Several of the coins were flat gold pieces. Altus, if she remembered correctly. Lots of silver medi and a handful of bronze prav.

At least that was something. She still had only a vague idea of the value of this world’s money, but it should get her a single room in a moderately well-off inn on the other side of the city. But there was probably more in the room. If the working girls were really going to stay and carry on their same job, they would probably need funds to keep going. But there was probably more elsewhere in the brothel. The day’s earnings probably wouldn’t be down here. They could use that. With her guilt further assuaged, Alyssa pulled open the drawers of the desk.

But had to pause as someone knocked on the door.

The sudden sound, even as light and dainty as it was, made Alyssa jump. It actually took her a moment to realize just who was likely on the other side of the door. Once she did, she wasn’t sure if she tried to calm down, but couldn’t help the thin layer of sweat from forming on the palms of her hands.

With the chair still pinned under Svotty’s body, Alyssa just sat on the edge of the desk, shotgun lowered but ready, just in case. “Come in,” she said.

The beautiful woman—the mimic stepped into the room. She paused at the body in the doorway, looking down at it and giggling ever so softly. Careful to step over it, she moved over to just in front of Alyssa. The other three followed her in. The elf, the bee, and the lizard. They lined up in front of the desk, keeping a fair distance from Alyssa, thankfully. Not that she was nervous, but… well, she might be a little nervous. The lizard looked weak with her scrawny arms and blunted claws, but the bee somewhat unnerved Alyssa. Though Alyssa noted that the elf had her hands on the lizard’s arms, leading her along.

“First, before anything else, I’d like to say that if I say something that offends you, I’m sorry. It isn’t my intention. The only monster I have ever interacted with was an injured harpy a few weeks ago.”

“My my, how civilized for a human.”

“I’m Alyssa,” she said, choosing not to respond to the mimic’s minor barb. Being monsters who had been slaves—sexual slaves at that—to a human, they probably weren’t overly fond of her in general. And that wasn’t even taking into account whatever it was that had people and monsters hating each other. “You are..?”

“Ufufu~ Call me Kasita.”

“Kasita. I’ll remember that,” she said as she turned to the elf. “And you?”

“E-Enrique.”

“Enrique,” Alyssa said, repeating the name for a bit of affirmation. She almost told the elf that it was a good name, but stopped herself. What if it was a human given name? Or what if it meant something in some other language? Best to remain silent and play it safe. Turning to the bee-girl, Alyssa hesitated. “Can you speak?” With a mouth that looked like it needed hinges to open, she wasn’t actually sure that the bee could talk. She hadn’t so far either in this room or back in the larger room.

The wings twitched a little, as did the lone antennae. “Can. Speak.”

Alyssa jumped in her seat, eliciting another giggle from Kasita. Ignoring it, she focused on the words. They were… stilted. But sounded like… When Alyssa had been a child, her family had a large floor fan. She and her brother quickly learned that if they talked into it, their words came out all chopped up. Hearing it from the bee-girl wasn’t scary, just unexpected.

“Name. Pho.”

As with the others, Alyssa repeated the name. “Pho. I apologize if your name also includes the vibration. My throat can’t make that noise.”

“Un. Necess. Essary.”

“Good to know.” With another nod, Alyssa looked to the final person in the room. Unfortunately, the lizard didn’t make a move to respond. Was she even aware of what was going on around her?

“Rizk,” Kasita supplied. Her smile turned to a frown, but it didn’t do so the normal way. There was a slight flicker around her mouth, not unlike a television with momentary poor reception. In one instant, she smiled. The next, she frowned. “Poor girl. She used to be so full of fire.”

“Is she alright?” Alyssa asked with a nod toward the lizard—Rizk. She already knew the answer. No one who acted like that was alright. At least not a human. Maybe it was normal for a lizard. Probably not, though.

“Regrettably, no. The years here have not been kind to her. She has been beaten down and broken.”

A deep scowl crossed Alyssa’s face. “Will she recover? Can she recover?”

The mimic hummed in thought, glancing back over her shoulder. “Perhaps if… exposure to you humans were minimized, her mental health might improve.”

Alyssa nodded. As she did, her eyes flicked to the heavy chains around the arms of three of the four in front of her. Since they weren’t attached to anything, they had to be more symbolic than useful. Maybe they were somehow magical, but they looked entirely mundane. Like something one would use to secure a heavy load to a truck. “Can those be removed? I can’t imagine they’re helping her state.”

“Her bindings?” That was the elf. Her voice was deeper than Alyssa had expected, but smooth. She stepped forward, eyes wide. “You’ll remove them? M-Mine too?”

Nodding again, Alyssa held out her hand. “Let me see?”

The elf hesitated for a moment, drawing her hand to her chest. Patiently, Alyssa remained as she was, offering what she hoped was an encouraging smile. It worked. The elf took another step forward and slowly stretched out her hand.

The chain was heavy. Extraordinarily so. A few metal links dangled from the main manacle. Just those weighed half as much as a bowling ball. And the lizard had several more links on each chain than the elf. The bee, Pho, had only the cuffs around her thin limbs, no links, but the cuffs were probably weighty on their own. Yet they all moved around like it was nothing. Maybe a little sluggish, but not even half as much as Alyssa would if she had been forced into those things. How strong were these monsters? Had they started out this strong? Or had carrying this weight made them stronger?

A chill ran down her spine. Just a slight shudder down to her toes at what these four might be capable of unfettered. As bad as she felt about their chains, it was almost a relief to note that she wouldn’t be able to open the manacles.

“Looks like this needs a key. I didn’t exactly have a chance to ask Svotty where he kept valuable things before I killed him, so unless you know…” Alyssa trailed off at the elf’s expression. It was like a grown adult who moved into their own apartment only for them to find out that Santa wasn’t real when no presents appeared under their Christmas tree. And also got a phone call five minutes later saying that their parents had died in a horrific accident. “I’ll look for it,” Alyssa said, moving back around the desk. “It’s probably here somewhere. Unless…” Again, she paused before she could rummage through the desk, looking up to the mimic. “You can turn into anything?”

The mimic quirked an eyebrow. “You’re odd for a human. Promising to remove our bindings? Speaking cordially? Helping us?”

“I dislike slavery. The humans upstairs said that they wanted to stay. If they don’t leave, I’m not going to let myself lose sleep over it. But you didn’t say that you wanted to stay. You said that you couldn’t leave. I don’t like that.”

“So it is pity then?”

“It’s help. I don’t know if you want to accept it. Maybe not. My plan might get us all killed for all I know. I’ll ask you all what you think before.” Well, if it looked like it would come to that, she would probably abandon the monsters without hesitation. She had a feeling that Tenebrael, as much as that angel liked her messing with the book, wouldn’t hesitate to eat her soul if she did end up dying.

Now that she was considering it, she couldn’t see the monsters’ souls anymore. None of them had any caricatures hovering around them. The spell must have worn off.

Shaking her head, Alyssa focused on the mimic in front of her. “Before that, however, you can turn into a teacup? Or anything? Can’t you turn into a key?”

“Ah, well, unfortunately, I can’t turn into something I haven’t seen before.”

“And Svotty was careful to keep the key out of your sight.” That explained why she lacked the manacles that the others had. That and her apparent weakness. And, if she could turn into a teacup, she would presumably be able to escape from any chains, but so long as she never saw the key, she wouldn’t be able to free her comrades. “But… I am a possibility?” Alyssa couldn’t help but ask. She was curious to see the mimic’s abilities in action.

Instead of responding, a shimmer crossed over her form. Her alabaster skin darkened to a moderate tan and her golden hair dulled and browned. The shape of her body shifted as well. Muscles grew over her lean and lithe form as she grew an extra inch or two. Her frankly absurd chest shrank down to a far more reasonable size. For a few moments, she continued wearing her sleeveless evening dress. Alyssa made special note of one difference. Where Alyssa had a series of tribal tattoos running from her shoulder down to her elbow, the mimic’s arms remained bare. That area quickly became covered as her dress stretched out into Alyssa’s long sleeved shirt.

Soon enough, Alyssa had a mirror standing before her. The whole process took only a few seconds. Thirty, tops. But the more she stared at herself, the more Alyssa felt unnerved. It was just a subtle drop in her stomach like a roller coaster dipping. The problem was that it was just like looking in a mirror. Her hair was slightly longer on her left side—by design, not accident—but the mimic’s hair was longer on the right side. It got even worse when the mimic started inspecting her body. She ran her hands over her face, chest, back… The simple curiosity on her face—Alyssa’s face—as she cupped her butt actually made Alyssa shudder.

“You have a nice body. Stronger than I expected.”

Which raised the question of how the mimic knew what her musculature was like while not knowing about the tattoo. A mistake? Or maybe there were some nuances to the magic that Alyssa didn’t understand.

But hearing her own voice speak only compounded the unnerving problem. “This is a lot stranger than I thought it would be. And, ugh, is my hair really that bad?” Alyssa ran her own fingers through her own hair, grimacing at the feel of grease. “I need a shower.”

“Ufu~ Indeed.”

Alyssa did not giggle like that. Hearing herself do so… she shuddered. In doing so, she blinked. “I don’t suppose you would be willing to return to normal.” In the one second that she had her eyes closed, Kasita reverted to her normal form. “Thank you. That was much faster going back.”

“I am quite used to this shape. Men find it pleasing. Easier to twist around my fingers.”

“Right.” Looking away from the monster, Alyssa focused on the group as a whole. Only half focused. At the same time, she started pulling open desk drawers. Ostensibly, she was looking for the key to their manacles. And, despite her momentary concerns about their strength, she would hand it over without hesitation should she come across it. However, she hadn’t had a chance to search the desk for herself yet. If she found something else that looked valuable, useful, or simply interesting that wouldn’t be obvious as having been Svotty’s, she wouldn’t hesitate to pocket it.

“My plan,” Alyssa continued, “is to walk you out of the city. Nice and simple.” Was incense valuable? Probably. Unless it was illegal. Were certain drugs illegal? There was so much that probably counted as common knowledge for other people that she just didn’t know. But spotting another, much larger bag of money, she couldn’t help but smile. That would be handy. She doubted that she would be considered wealthy, but she should be able to buy time to get situated in the city.

“Walk us out? How—Ah… I see.”

“Yep. If anyone has a problem with you, I’ll just tell them that you’re slaves I’m selling to some magical researcher outside the city.” Would that work? Honestly, she wasn’t sure. She had seen a few elves around, in chains of course. If there were laws about taking them in and out of the city that she didn’t know about, there would be hiccups.

Though, now that she thought about it, the mimic could pretend to be a human and walk the others out. No need for Alyssa to get involved at all. As soon as she realized that, she looked to Kasita. “Or, could you walk the others out? Pretend to be a human slave owner? I’m sure the others would be more comfortable with you rather than another human calling them slaves.”

The elf nodded twice, not hiding her eagerness for the revised plan in the slightest. But Kasita giggled again. “That could be possible.”

“I’m sensing a but…”

“But, while I might be able to walk out, that’s only because you humans rarely look twice at one another. Rarely being the key word. There remains a slight chance that they check to see if I am one. Which, as you might expect, wouldn’t be fun for us.”

“There are ways to do that?”

“A few monsters, such as myself, can disguise themselves as human. There are a handful of spells that were designed to reveal such creatures.”

Alyssa nodded. That made sense. If there was some sort of war between humans and monsters, weeding out infiltrators would be an imperative. “My original plan then, unless you see something wrong with that as well?”

“Ufufu~ You would know more about human reactions to your plan than I would.”

“You would be surprised,” Alyssa mumbled as she pulled open a second drawer. There was a notebook inside, some kind of ledger. It had long lists of names followed by numbers that were presumably dates and monetary amounts. Whether that was money spent or money owed, she didn’t know. Whatever the case, she snapped the book shut and tucked it back where she had found it. The names meant nothing to her and it could tie her back to Svotty. Though, in replacing it, she found something a little more immediately useful.

“Keys!” Her exclamation got everyone to look up. Even Rizk turned her eyes to Alyssa’s direction, even if she didn’t react much beyond that. There was a large iron ring with a whole set of keys attached to it. The keys weren’t modern. Each one looked like the stereotypical old-fashioned key common to cartoons or movies. Apparently there was one thing Hollywood got right. Two of them were overly large. They wouldn’t fit in the relatively tiny manacles. Door keys, perhaps. However, one looked just right. The shade of the iron even matched the metal around their wrists. “Enrique, we’ll find out if this is the right key if you would be so kind as to lend me your wrist.”

This time, the elf didn’t hesitate in the slightest as she practically threw her arm in Alyssa’s face. Her overexcited stare was tempered with a giddy sort of nervousness as she eyed the key. The whole room, even Kasita, went utterly silent as Alyssa placed the key to the keyhole. It fit. A good sign. When she turned the key, a loud click shattered the silence. Enrique stared at her wrist in complete disbelief as the manacle fell from her wrist and landed with a thud against the desk.

“It’s off.” Her voice was a whisper. Barely loud enough for Alyssa to hear from only an arm’s length away. Water welled in her eyes. After a few blinks, she started crying.

Alyssa actually felt a pang of guilt. When she had first realized just how strong the elf had to be, she had thought for just an instant that it would be better to leave them chained up. Seeing just how happy the elf was almost made Alyssa cry a little as well.

Almost. She wasn’t that sentimental a person.

But it made what she had to say next all the worse. “Unfortunately,” Alyssa said slow and soft, “we should probably leave them on.”

“Wha… What?” She blinked twice, further pushing tears out of her eyes, before her gaze hardened. “What do you mean?”

“She’s right.”

Thank you Kasita, Alyssa thought as the mimic came to her defense.

“If we’re to pose as slaves to get out of the city, we need to look the part. Luckily, that isn’t too hard. We have a lot of experience.” As she spoke, identical manacles formed around Kasita’s wrists. That wasn’t the only change. Her glossy golden hair shimmered and vanished as white curly fluff started growing out of her head. Her dress and body underwent a similar change. Soon enough, except her humanoid face and her hands and feet which became hooves, she was covered in a thick wool. Her eyes, which had been normal human eyes, remained mostly the same except for the pupils. The black spots widened to long horizontal bars.

“You are a sheep,” Alyssa blurted out.

“Ufu~ Indeed. A human might wonder why you’re headed out of the city to sell someone who looks human. Selling another monster? They’ll be glad to see us go.”

Frowning, Alyssa glanced between the four monsters in front of her. Why did they all look so human? Even with the wool fur, the scales, or the bee’s wings and abdomen, they all had the silhouette of a human. From even a mild distance, she could easily have mistaken them for normal people. Back home, none of them would have looked out of place at the local comic and costume conventions.

There were some extenuating factors. This was a brothel. A brothel that catered to humans, presumably. The people who had captured or sold these monsters wouldn’t have sold a truly monstrous monster to a brothel. They needed to be appealing to human men. The harpy had been much the same as well, but the harpy was a classical monster that looked roughly how Alyssa expected one to look. She hadn’t even thought twice over its appearance. Did all monsters look like a jumble of human and animal parts?

Well, no. Enrique was an elf. Tall, slender, very Tolkien. And Kasita… probably didn’t look like an unearthly beautiful woman in whatever her natural state was. Alyssa was almost afraid to ask what that form was. Maybe after they left the city and were about to part ways, she could ask. For now, she would let her be.

“Enrique. I’ll tell you what. You can hold onto the key. That way, you know that you can take off your manacles whenever you want. Though…” They were all naked. The chained elves she had seen earlier had been wearing clothing. Not anything exquisite, but clothes nonetheless. Enrique wouldn’t be able to hold the keys if she were nude—were there laws against public nudity? “Are there some rags we can have you all wear? I don’t think marching you around the city naked would be the best idea.”

“There certainly are. If you are ready to depart, I’ll show you where. Ufu~ I must admit, I am a little excited to get out of here.”

Alyssa nodded, looking around. She hadn’t fully searched the desk, but she got a few bags of money and really, what else would there be that was valuable? And she should leave something for the women who were staying, even if she thought they were idiots for doing so. Pulling the purple cloak from her backpack, she squeezed it into one of the desk drawers. Maybe it wasn’t the best gift. Oh well. She had nothing else she was willing to give at the moment. Besides, she really didn’t want to stay longer than necessary. Alyssa did pick up the three empty shotgun shells that were lying on the floor. No real reason why. They were useless to her now. It wasn’t like they could be reused. But they were hard evidence that she had been here. No one else in the entire world would have a shotgun.

Though, now that she thought about it, the shot embedded in the bodies might be telling as well. Nothing she could do about that though.

“Alright.” Alyssa held out the keys for Enrique to take. All of them. If there was some locked door, whoever remained would just have to break it down.

The elf stared for a moment before taking the keys in an almost reverent manner. “Thank you.”

Before Enrique could break down crying again, Alyssa smiled. “Let’s get out of here, shall we?”


<– Back | Index | Next –>