It was Saturday. The day of Saturn and earth. It was also the day Koa and I had planned to take a little trip to nice and sunny California. Half of that was because, while I had many options at my disposal in regards to elemental powers, I had settled on earth as the most appropriate for my vengeance. The other half was because dad would flip if I ended up disappearing for half of a weekday without a good reason. For some reason dad still was under this delusion that I needed to stay home and do school-like activities (reading, writing, browsing the internet) even after I had gotten my GED.
Ludicrous. Hopefully I would be able to dissuade him of that idea soon enough.
In better news, Koa had been right on the money. The man who had sent that letter hadn't even entertained the thought that he should probably remain concealed if he was going to be the magical equivalent of Ted Kaczynski. Hell, we found the location of his "religious retreat" (some old ranch one of his followers owned) on the website about his cult. From what we had pieced together, he was some zealot from the south that had been forced to relocate when the authorities and residents of the town he had started out in had begun paying a little too much attention to the "Satanists" out in the woods. They'd relocated out to California (of course, where else would they go), gotten affiliated with some eldritch abomination between realities, he had named himself after a duke of hell from the lesser key of Solomon and the rest was history.
Even without any real Intel on the magical community's opinion, I was sure that this group no allies to speak of. Anyone foolish enough to pretend that they were one of the greater demons was tempting all kinds of misdeeds to come down on their head. They weren't the type to forgive even minor transgressions like this, and they also were not the type to forget any slight against them. Added onto that, things not conducive to the continued existence of reality generally weren't good for ones mental health. I couldn't see someone worshiping this thing as a god acting reasonably with others.
I would be surprised if this entity he drew upon even noticed the loss of his "followers". No, this was a message that wouldn't send out too much of a stir.
"Are you ready to go Miss Taylor?" Koa asked, entering my bedroom, before her hands flew to her cheeks and she squealed. "Oh my gosh, you look so cute!"
I flinched back. I knew wearing the sundress was a bad idea, but it was a calculated risk. I never wore clothes like this, it made me uncomfortable to feel so exposed and only egged on Koa's teasing. However, we were about to go from the nice spring weather of the eastern seaboard to Death Valley. Even at the beginning of April, it was going to be sweltering and I would prefer not to get heatstroke. I could deal with my devil.
My introspection cost me; I hadn't noticed the speculative gleam Koa was giving me. "Now Miss Taylor, you can't go out like that."
I was grabbed by my shoulders, lifted up, and gently placed on my desk chair. "It's going to be hot, we don't want you to get sunburned."
Before I could issue a command an explorer's hat had been placed on my head, and my face, neck and shoulders were being covered with sunscreen. Koa was humming and smiling and I just knew she was up to something. There was no chance she would give up a prime opportunity like this to mess with me. It seems that I had been growing far too lenient by allowing her to get so familiar (heh) with me.
Sure, it felt kind of nice to have someone caring for me like this, but that was beside the point.
"Here, let me take care of you. It's a familiar's duty to care for her master after all."
Nope, nope, nope, we were stopping this right now. I was smart enough to see she was building up to something. "Koa, I will allow you to finish applying sunscreen to my face, but I am growing tired of these little jokes. If you pull out another innuendo, attempt to rub other parts of my body or turn this innocent gesture into harassing me in some juvenile manner for your own amusement, I will be sending a golem in your place for this mission."
Koa flinched back as if she had been slapped. "But this is the only fun you've let me have in weeks!" She whined.
My unblinking stare offered her no sympathy.
"Fine, fine." She mumbled, more as a show of defiance than any real acknowledgment.
Koa finished rubbing sunscreen on my face as I asked, "Do you have everything?"
Koa nodded and wiped her hands off on her dress. It didn't leave any marks. "Not much for me to forget, is there?" She replied, pulling a sealed envelope out of a pocket.
"Which means it's even more important for you not to forget it."
She hummed in acknowledgement and I took two very deep breaths to help steady myself. It was time to begin. Koa had already scouted the area out, picked the perfect spot for us to teleport into, and while Koa had a simple means of relocating herself around this plane, at the moment I only knew of one.
My health was not the best today, I found myself somewhere in the middle of the bell curve my illness seemed to adhere to. This exertion shouldn't throw me for a loop (I would hope) but still would require more focus than normal if I wanted to avoid aggravating my symptoms. As well, though I had gone over this spell thoroughly, I had never actually attempted it before. I understood the underlying concepts and theoretically had the ability to accomplish it, but didn't want to screw up in some massive and nigh unnoticeable way. Distorting space was not something that should be done without caution; the human body could be ripped to pieces in an incorrectly created portal, the differences in physics elongating and pulling in ways that no normal being could survive. Depending on the relation to our universe's physics, someone could find themselves trapped in a tunnel between time and space for centuries, the only proof they existed a mummified corpse spat out only moments relative to when they first stepped in. There were numerous possibilities for ways things could go wrong, none of them pleasant.
It went without saying Koa would be going through the portal first.
I began to chant and reached out, turning my focus onto the two areas that I wished to connect. It would be a crude approximation of what I was doing to say that I grabbed at both areas and metaphysically pulled in an attempt to touch them together, space stretching like rubber at my insistence. In spite of that, it was the best explanation I could give for the magic at work and the least likely to give anyone headaches.
Going into magical wormhole theory, while slightly less mind-numbing than the physics behind regular wormholes, was still equally boring.
The two stretches of space touched just as I finished my last word, and a shimmering portal blinked into existence in the middle of my bedroom. I let loose a series of rough coughs as I fell back into the same chair Koa diligently pulled over for me. "Give me a minute." I got out between gasps and coughs. "I'm fine, just give me a minute."
With the stomach ache brought about by my coughing fit, it ended up taking a great deal longer than a minute, my trepidation only growing as time passed. I tried to fight off the butterflies plaguing my stomach, noticeable even over how upset it was. I might have been just the tiniest bit nervous, and it making me anxious, agitated and generally unwell.
Once I finally felt confident in my body's ability to press onward, I boosted myself up to my feet, unassisted even. "Alright, are you ready to test this portal out?"
Koa nodded and stuck one foot through the aperture only to let out a shrill scream as she was forcibly sucked through. It may have been a trick due to the speed she disappeared, but I could have sworn I saw her body begin to stretch like taffy in the brief moment before she was gone.
"Koa!" I cried out, realizing a second after I yelled she could not hear me.
'Koa!' I sent the message across our link. 'Koa are you ok? What happened?'
No response was returned. I started biting my nails. Fuck, fuck fuck Fuck! Complete silence could mean so many things: death or even worse possibilities. Horrific thoughts raced through my head in worry. So many things that could have gone wrong. Then slowly muted amusement began to filter over our connection.
My brows narrowed, comprehension dawned and then my right eye began to twitch.
A clump of rocks floated through my open window to hover beside me as I eyed the portal. I knew Koa's height fairly well, it wasn't difficult to judge based off that where her head would be about while standing. The clump of rocks shot the through the portal at a reasonably fast speed.
The feelings of surprise, pain, indignation and annoyance (in that order) helped bring a smile back to my face.
'My apologies Miss Taylor, the portal is stable.' There was a bit of a pause before the next message was sent. 'Geez, don't you think that was a little harsh. You shouldn't be so worked up about a prank. You can always summon me back if something really happened.'
'It's the principle of the thing.'
I stepped through the portal and flinched first at the momentary sense of vertigo and then at the sudden change in temperature. Already a sheen of sweat was starting to form on my brow. Who the hell would live somewhere that it was already over ninety degrees in April? The first thing I noticed was Koa kneeling in front of the portal, rubbing the back of her head. The stone I sent through now broken and scattered around the opening.
I wasn't worried about her, her actions were more for show than out of actual injury. Koa was able to take worse hits than a little wallop like that. I wasn't sure how far her durability extended but I knew better than to ask. I didn't know if I'd be able to deal with the subtle and outright innuendo I would have to trudge through to get an answer. It was one thing if she forced it upon me, but giving her an opening like that was just asking for it.
The second thing I took note of was our general surroundings. It was hot, sandy, hilly, bright, and covered in dying plants. I hated it.
Thirdly, I noted the more immediate area I had opened my portal into. Koa had chosen well; it was important to remember, underneath that bubbly exterior lurked a very cunning, ancient demon with a hell of a lot of experience in a wide manner of things. The hilly exterior, which stretched out as far as the eye could see, was dotted with dried, small bushes and not much else. There wasn't really much of anything to provide cover or hide two people sneaking around. We couldn't be too far away without ruining the point of a hiding spot and anywhere close came with the chance someone could spot us and that would raise its own heap of troubles. I had come up with this plan specifically to issue a warning. I did not want this to turn into a fight.
The landscape was just not suited for the type of spying we were planning to get involved in and I didn't want to risk an illusion field lest they had enough talent to pick up on it. Luckily, whether through natural means or hand dug by Koa, the hill we found ourselves at the bottom of sported a small trench. It could almost be mistaken for some dried up stream bed, if there was any water out here to speak of. From the small recess we were currently hunkered down in, it wound its way up until it ended beneath two dead plants at the top of the hill. Plenty of openings to get a good look at our target and, while lying prone, nearly impossible to see that anything was out of the ordinary. I ducked down and levitated myself up with care, not risking running out of breath for a 20 yard climb; I was already miserable enough. I inched along to avoid giving any movement away, and landed softly, well hidden with the land before me fully visible.
Our cultist's evil ranch was fairly average. A pretty big, multi-story building done in a Spanish-colonial style. Not much to it other than the pervading sense of wrongness, a spiritual unease that leaked into the surrounding landscape. Entirely expected, considering the type of being they were using to draw power from. There had to be some nasty business going on in there to raise a stink like this. I will admit, I held a little bit of trepidation towards this whole plan, but seeing what was going down there? What kind of feelings just being around the place brought out in me? It made what was about to happen a whole lot easier on my conscience.
"Koa, begin."
She nodded and then her body shifted. The best I could compare it to would be like water when a stone is thrown into it. Her general shape melted, morphed until she solidified into a much less eye-catching form. A blond bob cut and smart business attire with a pair of librarian glasses, tail and wings hidden of course. With her rigid stance and stern face, she had the perfect air of a no-nonsense business woman.
This entire plan hinged on the idea that a crazy cult would be stupid enough to try and kidnap anyone who showed up on their doorstep. Not too far of a stretch in my opinion. And if that didn't work, we always had Plan B.
Koa teleported away in a burst of flames, presumably to somewhere near the entrance to the ranch. I shut my eyes and began to disassociate myself from my own senses. To be quite frank, I wasn't really needed here; my part was more in case Plan B failed and we had to resort to Plan C, however there wasn't much of a chance of that happening. I just as well could have done this from home, though without the visual elements, but it felt important to be close to the action in case anything happened. Half out of a sense of adventure, half out of a worry Koa would try to get away with a little bit more than was socially acceptable without someone there to watch over her. My normal senses faded away and I was suddenly seeing through Koa's eyes.
It was disappointing that Koa didn't have some strange Succubus-vision, but I got over it quickly enough. Koa had teleported to the outside wall of the ranch and already entered through the front gate. The place almost looked deserted; it was rundown, with peeling paint and a few poor attempts at repairs where things had degraded enough to finally break down. Koa stopped at what looked like the front door and gave three sharp, deliberate raps. After about a minute of waiting, a rail-thin woman with long, dirty blond hair answered the door.
"What do you want?" She asked. Her voice was disconcerting to hear, dry and harsh, like it had almost forgotten how to speak.
"Hello." Koa said, her voice entirely unrecognizable to me, monotone and strict. "I am a real estate agent who is new to the area. I have been looking into several different properties along this particular stretch of road and was passing by when I saw yours. Would it be possible for me to come in? I would like to discuss-"
"We're not interested." The woman rasped out and tried to shut the door in her face. Koa's foot was much faster and blocked her attempt.
"I must insist. I am not with any companies if that was your worry, no one even knows I'm here. If I could come inside and talk with you-"
"No. Now leave before I call the police."
Koa nodded and spoke again, this time in her normal voice. "It seems negotiations have failed." One hand grabbed the door and forced it open, while the other wrapped around the woman's hair. With a sharp tug she slammed her face into the doorway hard enough to knock her out. The cultist went down with a splatter of blood from what was hopefully only a broken nose. "Looks like we're moving to Plan B."
'Koa! What the fuck!' I shot at her.
'It would have made for a very nice story if they had kidnapped me,' Koa stated analytically as she opened the door, showing a foyer that suited the exterior. About five people in robes were milling about, watching the door. Well, had been milling about. 'But life isn't like those stupid cartoons you watch Miss Taylor.'
The five cultists took a second to snap out of their shock at seeing Koa's entrance, but quickly recovered. 'I couldn't argue with her to get inside so I choose a quicker option.' Koa calmly entered the house as she was charged by the five of them, presumably very angry for what she just did to their compatriot. They let lose a war cry as they rushed her; it may have been several different phrases yelled but it all sort of blended together into one guttural noise. Two of those voices were cut off prematurely as Koa sped forward, arms stretched wide, and clothes-lined two of them; hits to the throat that looked quite painful. With both gasping on the ground, Koa bent over, gripped their heads and slammed them together, knocking them both out.
'You did allow me some leeway in how I would handle all of this.' The remaining three looked a lot less sure of themselves, backing up as Koa was the one to advance on them this time. The first of the three went for a punch to her face, which connected rather solidly. Koa returned it with her own and he did a nice pirouette before collapsing to the ground.
'I'm more worried about you walking in and hurting all these people! This wasn't supposed to be a fight!' I shot back at her. The second one grabbed a chair and swung it with all the might his sickly nature could allow for. Koa blocked the worst of it with one arm and pulled him close to give a brutal head-butt.
'They're cultists Miss Taylor. It's not like they're real people.' The last, an older woman, attempted to make a run for it, but Koa was already in her personal space before she had cleared three steps. She was grappled into a quick choke hold and it only took a few moments before the woman's struggling ceased.
'Besides, they're fine. I haven't seriously hurt a single one of them. Just some debilitating injuries.'
The group of unconscious, bleeding bodies she left in her wake did not fill me with much confidence.
She paused for a moment surveying the group around her. "Damn, I should have left one awake to interrogate. Oh well, guess I'll have to find some more."
'Koa...where the hell did you learn how to fight?'
'Why Miss Taylor, I've always been good with using my body in any way my master requested. If you want, I can describe in detail how I learned everything I know.'
Hahaha, well it looks like we were cutting off that conversation right now. I could feel the disappointment grow as I refused to respond until Koa finally gave up and continued on into the house.
The interior was as bad as the outside. Peeling wallpaper, tacky décor and I felt it should have been more difficult to see in this shoddy lighting. Apparently Koa didn't have silly limitations on her vision, such as a reliance on light for her eye to process what she was viewing. I assume the strange filter, which had come over her vision was supposed to indicate the room's darkened nature.
"Now if I were a cult leader, where would I hide?" Koa sung to herself as she picked a random hall to walk down, well skip really. Ugh, this is why I didn't want to get her involved in things like this. She'd already escalated this further than I had intended. Still...as long as we finished this up quickly, I think this could be ok. She hadn't really hurt anyone. This was still just fine, this was just fine.
Her sing-song voice must have seemed inconsistent with the normal noises of the house because a door opened to her immediate right. "What wa-?"
He didn't get to finish that question. Koa switched directions midair, landed into a slide, and somehow gained momentum as she rammed her elbow into his gut, eliciting a loud "oof". The man took a short flight through the air before impacting with a wall. The room she walked into was Spartan; a bunk-bed, both with plain white sheets, a chair and a table with only a poorly carved wooden statue on it. From the rather…abstract nature to it I had a feeling that was the supposed to be a representation of their entity. Oh, and let's not forget, the room also housed another occupant. He was in no state to stop Koa's hand as it lashed out, grabbing him by his throat. His head was forced downward where it bounced off her knee. He fell bonelessly to the floor and she advanced on the man moaning in pain on the other side of the room.
It was surprising to say, but Koa seemed to have everything under control. I mean, I couldn't be sure. I had only books to tout as my experience, but it looked that way to me. This obviously wasn't Koa's first time doing something like this. It was conflicting to watch her hurt these people, but, she was only hurting them enough to stop them. That guy most likely would have attacked her after he came to his senses. Besides, we were going to be finished with this soon enough, and maybe my message would shake some sense into this group. For now, I left it up to her decision making. She was being somewhat professional and I could defer to her if this trend continued.
"Now," she drew out the word, almost purred it, "You are going to tell me where this duke of yours is hiding."
The cultist was apparently not injured enough to impede his response. "I would never betray-!"
She gripped his shoulders roughly and pulled him up, face to face with her. "Now," two long, forked tongues slithered out of her mouth as she spoke, one running along his cheeks and the other across his brow, "you are going to do everything," she did purr this word, "I ask of you."
Well, there went that idea.
'Koa, you will keep this encounter suitable for minors. I understand that there is a certain level of debauchery you like to involve in all of your actions, but I would prefer to never have any part in it. Least of all have to witness it with my own eyes. I'm only fifteen, Jesus.'
'Oh, you worry too much Miss Taylor.' I could hear the unspoken giggle through the message. 'I wasn't about to do anything naughty~. I was just getting into the mood.'
Her "getting into the mood" was exactly what I was worried about, and I'm sure she phrased it that way just to lay out that effect. Still, neither of us spoke that thought aloud, so, sufficiently chastised, she returned focus to her prisoner. The man's eyes had begun to form a strange sheen to them and I realized they were clouding over. His struggles began to grow more and more lethargic. "Where is your leader?" Koa asked, this time with a quiet, motherly tone.
He was silent for a moment before responding. "The duke is in prayer downstairs in the ritual room." His head began to loll to the side as he spoke and his words came out sloppily, as if he was drunk.
"Downstairs? Now, isn't that convenient. And where would I find the ritual room?"
"First…first door…the end…hall." His breathing was starting to become ragged, his words clipped and uneven.
"Good, now sleep." Koa ordered, flicking his forehead. His eyes shut almost immediately after that.
Koa let him drop. 'See Miss Taylor, I can do PG just fine.'
I chose to remain silent on that matter and allowed her to press onward. I could step in if she went too far. These were the people who had tried to kill me this week, a few bruises and a little blood was nothing in comparison to that.
I decided to focus instead on the house, to help clear my head. Had this man's idea of redecorating this place for his cult been to let everything fall apart over time? The only alternative to the dilapidated interior was what looked like furnishings he had bought in bulk for cheap. The few brief glimpses I got through open bedroom doors was more boring, repetitive rooms. Bunk beds, with only a few plain, white sheets to them, a table per room with that creepy idol. This was classic cult behavior. Beat down any attempts at individuality, drive them to their extreme until they began to accept whatever you were willing to tell them. It was hard to think of leaving when you didn't have any thoughts, and this malevolent atmosphere definitely didn't help with that. I felt a little bit worse for the attacks Koa had carried out but steeled my will; this was for the greater good. I had to show my displeasure over what this group had done. These people were standing in the way at the moment; I'd make a call to the police after, get them the help that they needed.
The door at the end of the hall loomed in front of us as Koa approached. Quite literally, it seemed to increase in size the closer we got to it. Drawing on these sort of interdimensional beings for the few scraps of power they could take distorted things. It tore away at the fundamental physics of our reality in negative and often violent ways. The "ritual room" must be where they performed whatever perverse rituals could give them a glimmer of power, in order to please their "Duke".
And boy, did I mean perverse. I better not have to see anything or I was going to be upset.
Koa was luckily not affected so much by this corruption due to her unique nature, but I was very grateful I was only having to experience this perversion of physics second hand. The first door opened without a problem and the stairs downwards were similarly conquered with ease. Unfortunately we were stopped by the door at the bottom. Locked, drat. Luckily Koa strategized a method to get inside.
Her foot reared back and slammed into the door, knocking it off its hinges and sending it toppling into the room before her.
The "ritual room" was possibly the most cliché thing I had ever seen in my life: it looked like something that belonged in a hammer horror movie, and a bad one at that. The place was dark and stony, lit only by candles with odd idols, artifacts, and drawings covering the walls and floor. About a dozen kneeling, (thankfully) robed, cultists filled the room and seemed to have been stunned by Koa's impromptu entrance, because, while everyone was watching her enter, none of them were attempting to do a thing about it. More worryingly, the room exhibited even worse signs of this corruption. The walls bent and curved at odd angles, defying any natural sense of geometry and making it difficult to tell distances. This couldn't be healthy, and was a lot harder to get rid of than asbestos.
The group of cultists had been kneeling before a cheap looking stage where the man who had to be the leader of this group stood, surrounded by statues of their "god" and the only one so far to have his hood off. He was thin and waiflike, everything about him seemed effeminate, with dark rings under his eyes and an almost diseased look to his body. This seemed to be common with the people here; either there was something debilitating about being in the very presence of this house or they weren't eating enough. Possibly both.
"What is this?" he shouted in anger, barely able to be heard over the door clattering around, a horrific noise that reverberated against the stone walls. Even his voice was effeminate, and marred with a slight southern twang.
"Hello, I have a letter for you." Koa called out to him. She walked right in as if invited; stepping with care to move around the riff-raff and debris. making great time despite the odd dimensions she was dealing with. I guess she had some practice with moving in non-Euclidean geometry.
"How dare you! You shall pay for this transgression!" The man shouted, stepping off the stage and walking towards her. Wow he was really overcompensating with the "evil villain" speak. Also, for some reason unconcerned that she had just knocked a steel door off its hinges. "You should never have invaded the inner sanctum of the Great Duke Vale-"
Koa's backhand into a wall prematurely ended whatever tirade he was about to delve into.
"Shut up." she replied dismissively. "I didn't come to hear you speak."
She slowed down, her walk fading into a saunter; she moved like a model walking down a runway. Each step deliberate, delivered with a strike and painfully slow. She didn't have much distance to cross after all, may as well draw it out with all eyes on her. She towered above the prone body of the cult leader and with a resounding click of heel on stone stopped her advancement, inches from where he lay. She slowly leaned over, like a cat deciding how best to savor the mouse it had captured.
"How dare you! To lay a hand against me!" He cried out, somewhere between desperation and anger if my guess was correct. Maybe a bit confused as well. For some reason, being smacked across the room hadn't seemed to knock much sense into him. Did he still think he had control of this situation? I guess he may have been messing around with his sort of magic for a little too long. "What fool would think to strike me?"
If Koa wasn't already smiling, I was certain she was now. From the way things began to shimmer around her, I had a feeling she was reverting back to her normal appearance. His eyes widened in recognition giving some prudence to that thought.
"Taylor Hebert sends her regards."
She reached in her dress and pulled out my contribution to this little escapade. I felt quite a bit of pride in the rush job I pulled off, though had it not been for the diagrams and notes available to me, I would not have been able to put something this complex together in only four days. I had never really worked with these sort of mechanics before; my spells were generally of the immediate consequences variety. Consider your intent, force the universe to bend to your whims and complete the spell with a chant, word or thought depending on its complexity. I had never studied the specifics of spell scrolls, sheets of paper ready let loose a spell at a specific trigger. Luckily I had books to spare on the subject and had managed to cobble together a working prototype based off my own abilities. It was somewhat similar to the idea of wards, which I did have a passing knowledge of, but put in use as a mathematical formula rather than a language. Crafting together a spell from its base components, and then infusing it with the appropriate power to get the result that you wanted.
I hadn't been given the luxury to test it out, but I could say to a certainty of sixty three out of ninety six that it would work.
Koa used a fingernail to break the seal and unfurled the letter, setting off the spell inscribed on it. The paper was tossed into the air, where it hung as it began to interact with the various earth elementals in the surrounding area. Koa burst into flame, teleporting back to my side in an instant, as the spell began to take shape. With my view now back beside me, I re-associated myself into my own body and opened my eyes again to watch the show.
I also got to feel the sweaty, tired, aching mess my body had become in my absence. Great, I was going to need to drink a gallon of water and take two showers when we got back home.
That was a worry for later; it was time to enjoy my hard work. I had managed to craft a multi-layered spell that would get my point across quite well, by bringing his whole house down on top of him. It was fortunate that they had chosen the basement to work in, as it was the best place for this spell to take hold.
First came the rumbling. Even from this distance, the tremors from the spell's origin point were shaking the sand around me. It was swift and sudden elemental movements, meant to weaken the structural integrity in the area, both manmade and natural. Next came a small concussive force, signified by a muffled boom, meant to disorient the inhabitants, loosen the surrounding toughened earth and rock, and prepare for the final step: bringing down the house from the foundation up.
Except, that isn't what happened.
As the earth began to shake and move, immediately I knew something was wrong. It was too violent, too extreme; I shouldn't be able to feel it from this far away. The final step was supposed to be a restructuring of the buildings foundation, destroying its stability and making it collapse onto itself in a non-lethal manner. This was not that. I could feel more and more elementals moving and shifting, and it was only spreading. What should have been a very minor and focused assault soon became too wide, too varied, too fast, too powerful.
There was a cascade effect obvious even from this distance. Had I messed up something in the proper arrangement? Was there misprint somewhere in my writing? Was the land just more susceptible to tectonic effects than I had considered? Plenty of ways in which I may have caused this, yet all useless at this point. The earth elementals were roused into movement by the spell I had laid out and my quick attempt at a counter spell didn't do much in the way of slowing it down. I managed to get through two more attempts before my illness overtook me, and I descended into a coughing fit, nearly throwing up at the strain.
This did not mean I was able to take my eyes off of my handiwork, oh no. The house collapsed on itself just as I imagined, but far more violently. Segments flaking off and crumbling, walls collapsing outward and the roof caving in. The surrounding landscape shifted, a valley took shape, the maw of the earth slowly opening as a sinkhole formed beneath the ranch proper. The buildings, the fencing, hell even some of the road slipped and sunk beneath a shifting tide of sand and dirt. It began slowly but quickly picking up speed, everything falling into the gaping chasm, second by second before the surrounding mountains lost surface tension and gave way, coming down like a tidal wave. The entire process took only moments, thirty seconds at the most, but the ranch was gone. Covered completely as the land reoriented itself to hide any evidence it had ever existed.
"Beautiful work Miss Taylor." Koa said…was she wiping a fucking tear from her eye? "I haven't seen destruction on this scale in quite a while. It's all about that big finish and you really delivered."
I didn't know how to respond. I just didn't know what to say, what to think, how to feel. I sat on the hill with Koa by my side as I watched the spell I had prepared finish burying at least twenty people alive, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do to stop it.
