Chapter Ten - Dawn
There are a total of 15 chapters planned for this story, so we are getting quite close to the end. This is a rather short chapter.
I know it seems like there's an awful lot for me to wrap up (as of right now), but keep reading! Comments and questions appreciated!
Roach caught up with me on the edge of Firewander. I was standing near the district wall, trying to prepare myself to enter the Wyld and deal with whatever welcoming committee the Fae had surely assembled for me. Late as it was, there were only two city guards and a few Bronze Pioneers on patrol. It wasn't too hard to keep people out of Firewander. Anyone with sense avoided the Fae-infested district like the plague.
"Boss!" Roach hissed, racing up to match pace with me.
"Roach? What are you doing here?" I demanded.
"Coming with you." He informed me, as if that wasn't obvious.
"Roach, you can't just walk into the Wyld!" I fell silent.
Roach was staring at me with his hands on his hips. He didn't look convinced by my excuse.
"And you can?" He pressed.
"Well, with um... Chaos-Repelling Pattern?" I admitted. It had taken me forever to learn the Charm from Quill, but I had to admit that it was a very useful one.
"Which will also protect me if I stay right next to you!" Roach informed me with a smirk, striding forward so that we stood shoulder to shoulder.
"How did you know that?" I wondered. There was no sense in telling him that he was wrong, because he already knew that he wasn't.
"Godchaser. That flying carpet knows everything." Roach informed me. "Loren, you don't know what the Fae have got waiting for you in there. You're better off with someone watching your back!" He added.
"I don't want you to get hurt." I informed him.
"And I don't want me to get hurt either! So we're completely in agreement." He replied.
I rolled my eyes. The two of us stood and stared up at the ominous iron gates that barred off the entrance to the Firewander District. Knowing how much what I was about to do would infuriate Roach, I leapt effortlessly to the top of the wall.
Roach made a face. I thought for a moment that he was about to start yelling at me and maybe wake the guards, but then a rope flew over my head, a steel clawed grappling hook catching in the crevasse between two bricks. I stared in disbelief as Roach quickly zipped up to join me on the top of the wall. I didn't have the opportunity to ask him where he'd learned the trick he'd just picked up. He tied a red scarf around his head marked with the telltale insignia of Sapphire's infamous "Team Firewander".
"You've been busy." I observed. Between tending to his cult, spying on Veritas and joining up with Sapphire's sewer slayers... was there anything Roach hadn't gotten involved in?
"If you'd just let me stick with you, I wouldn't be so bored all the time!" He informed me.
"All right, I'm sorry!" I sighed in defeat. "I was wrong not to tell you what was going on." I paused. "Actually, I was wrong about a lot of things."
He smiled slightly. "And you were right about... some other things." He informed me. He didn't say what, and I didn't press. I wondered if it didn't have something to do with Emerald Viper.
We entered the Firewander District.
I invoked my Charm and as he'd vowed. Roach kept right on my heels inside of the faintly flickering sphere of golden light, his sword drawn.
Around us was a vast sea of black, red and purple. Nothing seemed to have a shape, and even the ground looked like rolling thunderclouds, except within ten feet of where I stood. Rippling pools of Wyld became grey paving stones, not the kind that were commonly used in the Nexus that we knew so well, but the kind that were everywhere more than 1,500 years ago. Obviously, no one had set foot in the part of Firewander that we were exploring in quite awhile.
Though I expected that the two of us would have to fight our way to White Gold Tower, not a single Fae monster moved to stop us on our path. I could see the shapes of goblins sometimes in the dark, but it was as if they were only watching, not preparing for battle. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of drifting through formless nothingness, we came within sight of White Gold Tower.
Surrounded by an aura of blazing gold, the Solar Sanctuary, it was everything I'd imagined that it would be, a spectacular building designed and constructed by the greatest architect of The Deliberative. Perfect Mechanical Soul had a way of designing spaces that made anyone who stepped inside of them feel unforgivably small and insignificant, and White Gold Tower, Perfect's palatial residence, was even more impressive than her factory cathedral manse.
"We're being followed." Roach informed me.
I stopped staring at the tower immediately and went for my daiklave. It was cumbersome to carry strapped to my back and no swords are really made for drawing up over the shoulder, but I hadn't been sure that all of my Charms would work inside of the Firewander Wyld so I'd come prepared.
"Come out!" I ordered to the Wyld. "We know you're there!"
I expected some goblins, or maybe a very arrogant Fae lord... but what did emerge from the swirling miasma of purple and black was something even darker than the malevolent churning Wyld.
The chaos seemed to solidify around the Deathknight, just as my Chaos-Repelling Pattern kept it at bay.
The Shoat of the Mire observed Roach with a malicious little smile on her face and one of her usually invisible chains snaked out of her funerary robes.
I was too fast for her, parrying the blade before it would have taken Roach's head clean off... but apparently the Shoat hadn't come alone. A quick-moving shadow dropped down from somewhere above and Roach let out an incoherent curse as a black steel mace crushed the stone under my feet with the force of a battering ram.
"Sister!" The Shoat exclaimed joyfully, and I got my first clear look at the woman who'd already almost killed me. She was even paler than the Shoat, obviously a dead thing with a face that might have been attractive once, except that her eyes lacked any spark of humanity and her lips were drawn back to reveal a mouth full of jagged, yellowed teeth and uneven stitches.
The Shoat's "Sister" lost no time at all and nearly caught me again with her mace, but not before Roach decided that there was more than one good use for his new grappling hook. He threw the thing with so much force that it imbedded itself with a nasty squishing sound in the Shoat's back.
The Shoat grinned wickedly and took control of the new "chain" she'd been given, almost wrapping Roach up in his own rope, except that he cut it with his sword. As the Shoat pulled back, something in the Wyld seized hold of Roach's flailing rope and caused it to lose all physical integrity.
She fired two of her chains in my direction and a third at Roach, who hit the ground, almost tumbling into the Wyld. I had more trouble than I could handle with Sister and was busy parrying the Deathknight's flurry of blows.
Roach staggered to his feet. He elbowed me in the ribs and I looked exactly where he must have wanted me to... in the direction of White Gold Tower. Were we closer than we had been before? It certainly seemed that way.
Though I didn't want to risk leaving Roach behind, I had to admit that he had a good point. I waited until the Shoat tried her chains for the third time. Roach drove his sword through one link of the chain, pinning it to the ground and I took advantage of the opportunity to send Sister flying with the flat of my blade. I would have given the Deathknight the edge of the weapon and killed her if I could have, but we'd somehow been transported miraculously to the steps of White Gold Tower and there was not enough space in the doorway for me to get a good swing.
Still parrying the Shoat, I almost didn't notice when her blows stopped connecting with my daiklave.
Somehow, Roach and I were both standing inside of the Solar Sanctuary. The Wyld still raged only a few feet away, but we'd made it to White Gold Tower.
The Shoat and her Sister both watched us where we stood and hesitantly paced the perimeter of the the ancient spell.
The Shoat gingerly reached out to touch the fluxing energies. The tips of her little white fingers almost passed through the golden Essence, but then like a scalded cat, she leapt back ten feet and hissed viciously, extending all of her chains at once. She glanced up in the direction of Sister and the two Deathknights slowly began to back away.
"So... Deathknights?" Roach observed, catching his breath.
"Yep." I nodded, not taking my eyes off the two.
"I thought you said there was just that little one. How many of them are there anyway?" Roach demanded.
I grimaced. "With our luck? Probably a dozen. Or more."
Though the Deathknights were still slowly walking away, I didn't fool myself into thinking that they wouldn't return... or look for another way inside White Gold Tower. After trading blows with the Shoat of the Mire once, I was not inclined to test her older "Sister" without someone like Recluse or Sapphire backing me up.
"Get outta here, small fry! You two had better run!" Roach hooted, picking up a chunk of marble and flinging it in the general direction of the Deathknights. They looked genuinely confused, but not really impressed.
I smiled despite myself and patted Roach on the back.
"That little girl killed four of my father's best men!" I informed him.
He beamed. "I'm gonna risk it. Hey, snaggletooth!" He shouted, hurling a second piece of marble. For the second time, he missed, and before he could find himself a third projectile, the Deathknights reached the bottom of the stairs and disappeared into the swirling darkness of the Wyld.
They obviously had tricks for enduring it as well as a Solar or a Lunar could, and that worried me.
What worried me more was that the Fae, despite the fact that they'd clearly been expecting us, had not made any sort of moves at all.
Roach and I entered into the main audience hall of White Gold Tower. It was an awe-inspiring space much like Recluse's manse built on a similar scale and with a color palette that made its name no mystery. In the center of the room where Quill had helped Recluse to move it was the control mechanism for the Well of Udr, the table and five chairs around it, set upon a raised dias about twenty feet in diameter and two feet high.
But for the first time that I'd ever seen, the top of the table was open. A faint blue flicker of light rose from the Well. Of course, I knew that the substance within was not water, but some sort of Elsewhere muck, a flimsy section of the fabric of reality that our previous incarnations had isolated and turned into a gateway beyond Fate.
Though I wouldn't admit such a thing to Roach, I was more than a little nervous to be stepping into it.
I obviously wasn't the only one feeling some trepidation. There were more than a dozen people mulling around White Gold Tower, all of them casting furtive glances in the direction of the Well when they suspected that no one else was looking.
Sapphire and Quill were absorbed in a serious game of Go which Quill seemed to be losing badly.
Viper was lounging on Amira's lap, and big man I recognized as Silvermane was standing guard near the door I had entered through. Very close to the Well, a fox Lunar I'd never seen before was arguing with a bespectacled scholar in a high-collared, long-sleeved, tan robe. When the scholar lifted his arm to scratch his nose, he revealed sleeves of moonsilver tattoos that completely covered every inch of his skin. I knew immediately that he could only be Sapphire's friend, Val.
"Trouble, Faeslayer?" Silvermane smiled slightly.
"Deathknights." I informed him. "I doubt they can actually get in here, but they seemed very intent on killing us before we reached the doors."
"Hm. That doesn't bode well." He paused. "I'll send some Resplendent Whirlagigs out to look for them. Veritas has worked out a very clever way to make our surveillance devices immune to the Wyld."
"Where is Recluse anyway?" I wondered. Silvermane coughed in a manner that suggested he didn't think he should be answering my question.
Surprisingly, one person I didn't see was the one who'd basically moved into White Gold Tower weeks ago. Noticing that I had arrived, Godchaser swooped over in my direction.
"Maker!" The construct announced. "Faeslayer is here!"
There was a sudden thump and that was when I realized where Recluse had been. He'd apparently rolled off a couch in the corner and was furiously scrambling for his shirt, his belt, and his glasses.
What surprised me more than his state of disarray was how attractive the woman he'd been fooling around with was. In fairness, Recluse wasn't bad looking himself, but the lady who'd been in the process of undressing him was without a doubt, the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen in my life.
Her skin was absolutely flawless and glowed like honey, as if she'd spent every day of her life soaking up the sun on some far away beach. Her eyes were cerulean blue, and her hair was a color that made me think of rich port wine, curls cascading all the way down her back.
As much as I loved Amira, I couldn't stop myself from staring. It wasn't helping matters that the only thing the woman was wearing was a shirt not quite long enough to be considered a dress and an orichalcum pendant in the shape of a radiant sun. If she'd stepped out in front of a Wyld Hunt just as she was then and declared herself a Solar, I rather suspected that all of the men and most of the women would have thrown down their weapons immediately.
In a word, she was magnificent.
Roach gave a low whistle and took in all there was to see shamelessly, at least until he noticed Viper. Then he put his hands behind his back and pretended not to be the least bit interested.
"You must be Windswept Rhapsody." I observed.
"Guilty as charged." The woman winked mischievously. The way that she spoke reminded me a bit of Viper or Sapphire. Despite the fact that she looked like a queen, she sounded like someone who traded in certain kinds of dubious "favors" for a living, like a whore or a bard, which I knew she was. Even still, she was very charismatic.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Faeslayer. Veritas has told me so much. Oi, Devil!" She shouted.
"The lecherous old hag arguing with Professor Ferret over there is Clever Devil, my sister from another mother." Rhapsody explained, jerking her thumb in the direction of Val and the fox Lunar. The fox Lunar came bounding over to her side. Clever Devil was a much older woman, maybe even fifty, wearing simple, meticulously mended traveler's clothing. Her Tell was obviously the russet fur in her short-cropped red hair. There were a lot of scars on her face and hands. She looked every bit as old as Rhapsody didn't, but I sensed somehow that the two of them balanced one another as only a Solar and Lunar pair ever could. Devil's scars were on her face. Rhapsody's were clearly more difficult to see.
"I thought we moved the Well in order to keep it a secret?" I turned to Recluse, who blushed horrifically.
"You'd be surprised at how few secrets actually are secret." A familiar voice interrupted.
There was a stranger standing not four feet behind me. He was young and supremely nondescript, with the exception of his brilliant yellow eyes. But before I could inquire as to how he got into our Solar Sanctuary, which I was beginning to suspect not actually secure at all, Recluse noticed him.
He groaned.
Godchaser wrinkled her nose. "What do you want, Sidereal?" The construct demanded.
"Ouch!" The stranger exclaimed. His appearance changed immediately, his hair becoming shorter and freckles appearing suddenly on his previously bland face. Before I could guess what had happened, I was left standing face-to-face with someone I did know, a young soldier I'd recruited into The Ravenous Winds very recently.
"Sam?" Roach blinked in surprise, remembering the boy's name before I did.
"You know Sam?" Sapphire wondered.
"We do. He served with us in the Winds. Joined up about a year ago." Roach explained.
"That can't be right. Sam's a busboy at The Divine Peach. It's my favorite restaurant and he always does my table! He's been working there for like five years!" Sapphire informed us.
"Oh, I'm sure we all know Sam." Veritas snorted with distaste. "If that is his name."
"It is." Sam replied. "Not that you'd believe me."
"Playing every side there is to play, are you?" Quill demanded. He used a tone that I did not like at all. Even knowing what I did about Sidereals, I didn't believe they were as bad as both Veritas and Quill seemed to. I felt as though I should have sensed some sort of malice coming from Sam if he was anything but trustworthy. Odd as it seemed, I was more comfortable in the presence of the first Sidereal I had ever knowingly met than I was around my own Circlemate, Adamant Quill.
"Isn't that what you're doing, Adamant Quill?" Sam surveyed the room. Clever Devil shot him a paralysing glare and the other Lunars did not seem happy to see him at all, except for Viper who gave him a wink that made me suspect she'd drug him off to bed more than once.
"How long have you been following us?" I asked uneasily.
Sam sighed heavily. "You in particular, or your circle in general?"
"Both." Sapphire added.
"I've been assigned to the Three Circles Society for the past five years. But you've all been followed for longer than that. All of you have been watched every day of your lives." Sam explained. "You must understand, one does not simply approach a Solar Exalt and say 'Hello, I work for the Bureau of Destiny!' Generally speaking, Solars like being in control. And Sidereals like me are agents of Fate, which is the one thing that you cannot control. Understand?"
"I don't like the idea of being spied on." I remarked.
"No one does. Which is why we try to be very quiet about what we do." Sam explained. "The only reason I'm here now is that I have a message to relay."
"As Sidereals go, Sam is decent enough." Recluse admitted grudgingly. As unbelievable as it may sound, he's actually helped me in the past. Go on, spit it out!" He ordered.
"I'm here on orders from Oversight." The Sidereal replied. "Which is also known as "The Convention on Knots". In this case, I am part of the sub-committee on The Emissary and The Well of Udr. My superiors have instructed me to inform all of you that someone has accessed the Loom of Fate in a manner that is not permitted."
"The Green Lady." Sapphire interrupted.
Sam looked very surprised to hear that name spoken, but he didn't confirm or deny Sapphire's guess. "The one that you should know about is a very old Sidereal who is currently working for a Deathlord. She has not reported in to her superiors since last Calibration and there is a very high probability that she already on the other side of the Well of Udr, trying to return to this world. The Bureau of Heaven does not appreciate when its agents go rogue, and so Oversight has determined that The Green Lady should not be allowed to return to Creation. It is likely that she has an accomplice here in Nexus who may be helping her to that end. But so far, nothing can be proven. Whoever is assisting her is clearly powerful and slippery... and committing a number of Severity Five offences."
"That's bad?" I wondered.
"Oh, you can be executed for a Severity Three, depending on whom you've upset!" Sam informed me.
"It must be Himitsu." Recluse decided. It wasn't the first time I'd heard him utter that name. Personally, I still didn't really know who Himitsu was, but Clever Devil and Windswept Rhapsody looked deathly serious. Obviously, he was someone that they didn't like at all.
"Nothing can be proven." Sam repeated.
"It's Himitsu." Godchaser replied, sounding very certain. Then again, the construct always sounded certain. I supposed that nothing in her construction gave her the capacity for doubt.
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you anything more. You'll have to take it up with Whisper." Sam finished.
"Whisper's our chief nursemaid." Quill smirked, sauntering over in my direction. "You'll love her, Faeslayer. She's just as neurotic and easily embarrassed as you are."
I scowled and refrained from seizing his collar and smashing his face into the Well.
"She's also quite brilliant. And a very good actress, if you actually believe that she's really neurotic." Recluse added. Quill frowned.
"Suffice to say that there's really no telling what The Green Lady is doing or what she's already done, but you need to carry through with your plans and activate the Well tonight." Sam finished, not bothering to add his own opinion of his superior. "I'd go with you, naturally, but I'd need to complete a half dozen applications and waivers and on top of all of that, I've really no way of knowing how useful I would be outside of Fate."
"Of course not." Recluse smiled slightly.
"So is everyone else here coming along?" I wondered, stepping up onto the raised dias which surrounded the Well.
"That was the original plan, but now I'm beginning to think that some of us ought to stay behind." Sapphire admitted. "Sam is right. This Well isn't the secret we thought it was and right now too many of our enemies know that we've moved it. It's not just the Sidereals we need to look out for either. Those Deathknights, the Fae?" She suggested. "This Solar Sanctuary may be difficult to get through, but it's not as strong as it once was. And if anything in this manse fails while we're inside The Well..."
I thought of what I'd seen The Shoat do and shuddered slightly.
"Certain parties have had some time to stew over how to get in here." Windswept Rhapsody remarked. "It would be idiocy to underestimate the Dowager."
"Or Himitsu." Clever Devil added.
"Or the Red Queen." Viper supplied.
"I'll stay. Make sure nothing comes through into Creation, and nothing follows you out." Silvermane offered.
"I'm staying too. Devil and I can handle Himitsu if he rears his ugly little head. And we still owe him a ruthless beating!" Rhapsody volunteered. Recluse looked ready to protest, but Clever Devil gave him a condescending look.
"As much as I'd love to see what's over there, with ah, Veritas going, I should probably stay. I could, ah... well, I could probably fix anything that breaks? I am a sorcerer." Val volunteered.
"And I'm a drunk!" Viper informed all of us, hiccuping. "The next time ya'll are saving the world, you gotta to warn me before I start taking shots with Burning Feather!"
"You know, Calibration doesn't officially begin until midnight!" I reminded her, doubting that she was as drunk as she pretended to be. But then again, if she really had been drinking with the Goddess of Intoxicants, maybe she wasn't acting after all.
"Are you kidding?" Rhapsody laughed. "Viper's party started three days ago!"
"Boss, it is almost midnight." Roach informed me.
"Well, I suppose that settles it. Time to do this." I paused. "Amira?"
"Oh, I'm going with you!" Amira grinned broadly. Quill looked annoyed.
"It would be unfair to not send along at least one representative of Sun-King Seneshals to explore this new world!" Silvermane added.
Looping her arms around me, Amira waltzed in the direction of my chair in front of the Well, pushed me down and sat on my lap. The Well burbled slightly, and arcane symbols on the dias began to glow as Quill and Sapphire stepped up and took their seats.
All of the other Lunars kept a smart distance from circle. The Sidereal stood even further away, still watching us all with grin.
Recluse kissed Rhapsody twice and she tousled his hair. Godchaser swooped around his shoulders and he sat down himself.
"All right then. Let's do this." He decided, putting on his circlet.
I put on my own and clenched the hilt of my daiklave. If I didn't let it out of my grasp, I could guarantee that it would pass through the Well with us. Of course, Amira's deadly "stupid stick" was never out of her reach, formed into a bracelet around her right wrist that she kneaded nervously, perhaps wondering if it would be better to have the weapon drawn before we passed through the Well. Obviously thinking the same, Recluse had his lightning spear ready and Sapphire kept one hand on her firewands. Quill didn't have an obvious weapon, but then again... I'd never seen the madman in a situation that he couldn't confound his way out of.
Essence began to flow through the floor under our feet. I could feel some of it being drawn from my own body through the channels on the table and on the chair I was sitting in. The Well rippled and flickered.
That was when Roach sat down next to me. Recluse blanched. His caste mark had already begun to flicker and I suspected that mine was on the verge of doing the same.
"I'm coming too." Roach informed all of us, who were staring at him in shock.
"Roach, you can't!" I argued.
"Yes, I can!" He informed me.
"The Well draws a phenomenal amount of Essence and we've already started activating it! We can't stop now and we don't know how it will react once it's fully operational. It could drain the reserves everyone in White Gold Tower!" Recluse protested.
"So? I don't have Essence!" Roach replied proudly.
"That's why it's bad, you idiot!" Quill groaned. "You do have Essence! All living things have Essence! Your Essence is your soul, but you don't have enough of it to use it! If the Well drew the same amount of Essence from both of us, I'd have a mild headache... and you'd be dead!"
"Feh! I have way more soul than you do!" Roach informed him.
I didn't have the opportunity to get in another word. Light blossomed up all around us, obscuring the faces of our protectors and finally the whole of White Gold Tower.
The last thing I saw was Sam smiling. He looked just like Quill always did, as if he knew much more than he was telling. I would have demanded answers from him if I guessed that he could hear me over the rushing sound of wind and water and the horrible, earth-shattering rumbling of the Well.
Sam's eyes were fixed on Roach.