Building Faith

By Ellf

Fools Rush In 35

Disclaimer: Jim Butcher owns the Dresden Files, any other works of fiction mentioned are not owned by me.

Something magical, I'd said. Maybe I'd taken more from Harry's lessons than just learning magic. I knew coming into this that Guase was going to be a dangerous opponent. Molly and I were still apprentices, and we were going to be up against a fully-trained necromancer, one who followed the teachings of Heinrich Kemmler. If it came to straight magic versus magic, Guase would have my sister and I beat. We both knew it. Molly and I had neither the power nor the experience to take on a sorcerer or wizard of Guase's caliber in a direct fight. Which is why I came up with the plan that I did.

Back in the police station, when the ghouls had attacked, looking for the book, they'd used a fear compulsion. Now ghouls don't tend to have the ability to use magic on their own, and those that do tend to specialize in a specific area that helps them do their one purpose in life: feed. This was a fear compulsion provided by an artifact that was given to them by Guase, as Molly and I found out in Undertown. While I'd been able to push through the fear, primarily thanks to Molly and my own personal protections, Miss Gard had managed to use a spell to protect not only herself but Marcone and Hendricks as well. When I'd called to speak with Marcone, I'd managed to speak with Miss Gard and I'd asked for something, something I'd been reminded of after my… incident… with Mab.

It was something fresh in my mind. There was a way to suppress magic in people, by using an artifact that usually came in the form of manacles. Normally these were of fae make, and they would bite into the skin of the person wearing them to help keep them from casting. However, what I'd asked was if Gard was able to produce some of her own with her runic magic. Imagine my surprise when the woman said she'd already had some ready to go. It must have had something to do with the soulgaze that Marcone had shared with Harry. That could be the only real explanation.

When we met up in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot and Gard explained the scouting reports from the cemetery, she'd also given me the manacles and explained how they worked. I needed to get close to Guase, clasp the manacles around her wrists, preferably both of them, and the runes would activate. Assuming it worked, Guase wouldn't be able to cast a spell, and any spells she was currently maintaining would end. Assuming it worked, and I was able to get close enough.

I flicked at the shadow capture crystal around my neck with my right hand, and Molly moved herself into position. Sanya still kept Guase busy, but I wasn't sure how long he'd be able to keep it up. He might have been a Knight of the Cross, but Guase was a necromancer, crafty and experienced. The Knights were meant to oppose the Denarians and destroy monsters that would impede Free Will, but I wasn't sure where necromancers fell on that scale. If Sanya had to offer a chance of redemption, she'd spurn it or use trickery on him. No, we needed to get her out of the fight, now, so the ritual could end. She had to be the anchor. Sanya sliced into another solidified wraith, cutting through its spectral form and then following through to deflect Guase's next spell into a nearby gravestone. The gravestone shattered when the spell impacted it, and I winced.

The bitch needed to get what was coming to her, and this was the only way. If I were to get hit…

You won't get hit, Fai Molly's presence was appreciated as she focused her will. I knew what was coming, and so did she. We'd never actually attempted something in this sort of matter before. Together, we were more powerful, but we had the weakness in that we acted as one there. We had never managed to do an individual action while synchronized before, but needs must. We needed to join together, become one, but we needed to act separately, and so we would.

Lightly now, we kept our awareness. We needed to get close to Guase while staying away. We weren't quite ready or in position yet to set up what we needed, but we'd approach while we stood behind that tree. Watching us, keeping an eye out for any oncoming danger, we readied ourselves for what we knew we needed.

We moved across the snow-covered cemetery, trying not to attract the attention of any of the zombies that were otherwise engaged with the other combatants. Murphy had managed to acquire a rifle from somewhere, and she was showing off her marksmanship as she blew a hole through a zombie's eye sockets, just before two of the Alphas tackled it and tore out its throat. Marcone had a shotgun that appeared to be full of either ghost dust or rock salt, as he blasted into the ghosts that charged him, while Hendricks dealt with the oncoming zombies. Where were they all coming fr—oh right, cemetery. Plenty of bodies for the necromancer to retrieve and use for her scheme. The question was, how was she even able to do that while fighting Sanya?

We glanced to the manacles. It didn't matter. The bitch would stop soon enough. We continued toward the fight, but a zombie crossed our path. We didn't even flinch as it started running toward us. Charging. We'd deal with it as need be, our gloves lighting up red, keeping its focus on us. Fuck this zombie. "Hin—"

A lithe wolf whose fur was matted in blood tackled the zombie to the ground, tearing into it. Blood spilled from the zombie's neck, further coating the wolf's muzzle. Georgia pulled up from the zombie, and she looked at us, urging us to go on, to do whatever we had planned. She trusted in us the way she trusted Harry, and that… Well, that was something.

We twirled our wands, and repeated that spell we cast in Undertown. Doubles. We needed doubles. Doubles of the us that would cuff her. The more targets she had, the better, especially if none of them were real. We tapped the shadow capture crystal, using the shadows within to strengthen the doubles, to link them with our actions and our movements.

Grey, faceless spectral forms appeared in front of us, and we slammed our hands together, in unison with the doubles. Fucking ghosts. Fucking zombies. Fucking ghouls. Fucking Guase. "Fulminara!"

Without even pausing, we blasted the wraiths, leaving whatever was left behind us as we pushed forward. Guase needed to be stopped.

The ground rumbled for a second and I felt something wrap around my ankle, bringing my full attention to the right there. Molly and I had been doing it, damnit. The thing around my ankle squeezed, stronger than anything that size should have been able to. I felt individual fingers there. Zombie. Under the ground, zombie. Fuck. It was coming up… it was going to stop me from doing what I needed to, and it hadn't even been distracted by the illusory doubles on either side of me. Oh fuck, that hurt. My heart started racing. If I didn't keep moving… if I failed here, Drew's death meant nothing. Defeating the thing with Drew's face meant nothing.

Fai! Molly sent. You can do this, figure it out…

"Faith!" Murphy called. "What's wrong, what's going on?" She shot out another zombie's eye as she started toward me.

"No! Guard Molly!" I called out, trying to figure out how I could deal with this. If the thing squeezed any tighter, my ankle was done for. Broken at best, nearly torn out of its socket at worst. Why was it going so slow? It had to have something to do with Guase's distraction. If the bitch was fully focused, I'd probably be dead. Another thing to thank Sanya for, but as the zombified hand started to squeeze tighter, I realized I needed an out, fast. Guns wouldn't do it, and I wasn't sure… I didn't know what else I could do. I just needed something, anything that I could think of…

A cold calm settled in the pit of my stomach, and the circles on my gloves lit a brilliant blue. I slammed a hand on either side of the captured leg, and I pushed, channeling this calm, this brilliance down the leg and into the fingers that were wrapped around my ankle. I would not let something like this stop me from reaching my prey. The bitch was going down. I pulled my ankle sharply, and I heard the crackling of ice as I pulled my foot free. The cold of the snow numbed the pain on my ankle a bit, but it'd smart later. A lot.

Plan B? Molly asked me, and I nodded, drawing further on the shadow capture crystal. We weren't quite as linked as we'd been before, but Molly and I were linked enough.

"Sfumare…" I wrapped myself in shadow, blending myself into the surroundings as Molly reinforced the illusions, giving them more detail, giving them more articulated movement. We needed to do this right. My veils might not be as good as my sister's, but with her help and the use of the new focus, I'd be able to approach closely.

Ahead, Sanya and Guase still fought. Daddy might have been a master swordsman, but Sanya was close to his level in every way, and Esperacchius was a saber, much smaller than the broadsword, Amoracchius. The two required different sword styles, but they stemmed from similar movements. As Guase cast, the two ghosts behind Sanya would engage him, in an attempt to distract, but Sanya just cut through them with a horizontal slash from his saber. God, the man was good. He'd barely been affected by anything the necromancer had cast thusfar, with only superficial damage being done to his clothing, revealing some of his muscles to the cold air. I forced myself not to stare as I checked him for wounds from afar. Drew had barely been dead a day. I needed to avenge my boyfriend.

I shifted my attention to Guase as she let out another burst of magic with an incantation I couldn't hear over the roaring of the wind. A wave of blue light containing a similar cold energy to that in the vortex above mixed with a force that felt cutting spread from her hand toward the Knight. Sanya shifted his stance slightly and sliced upward, cutting the spell in twain, but it didn't cause the spell to dissipate. No, instead the spell simply split, arcing around Sanya's body before rejoining on the other side for another try. Sanya brought Esperacchius up again, driving the saber's tip into the spell's energy and this time, the two opposed energies clashed. The necromantic wave pressed on the Sword of Hope, driving Sanya into the snow, the sheer force of which cutting into his clothes. Fuck. I needed to do something.

Using my link with Molly, we spoke as one, using the doubles. It was time to take another page from the Book of Harry.

"Hey, Guase," We called out through the doubles, as I kept silent myself. Molly made them move the way I would, echoing my voice through each of them. Our voice. "Why don't you pick on someone with magic rather than continuing your racist bullshit?"

Guase sneered, glancing over her shoulder at… well, at one of my doubles. She clearly could see the rest of them, but she didn't pay them any mind. "If you want my attention, girl, you'll have to try harder." The clash between Esperacchius and Guase's spell intensified, driving Sanya further into the snow. Bits of energy dug into his skin, simultaneously freezing it and cutting it open.

"Oh, I'm sorry," we made the doubles say in a mocking tone as I inched closer to her, still holding my veil. "Forgive me for interrupting you, oh disciple of Kemmler, except you never were his disciple, were you?" She actually might have been his disciple at one point, but she never appeared in my memories. Only three Kemmlerites and their associates appeared, but their associates weren't trained by Kemmler himself.

"The Master did train me…" Guase growled out and the clash's intensity lessened. Huh. Sore point. Maybe she really had been trained by the crazed bastard, but maybe she hadn't. Necromancers weren't exactly a bastion of reliable information, after all. Still, she'd reacted when Drew'd called her Corpsetaker. Maybe that was a wound we could pick at. Get her focused on that.

How the fuck did Harry do this so easily?

"Did he, now?" we asked with the doubles. I was nearly there, maybe forty feet more. I could probably dash that if necessary. "Then why weren't you favored like Corpsetaker, Grevane, or Cowl? Why are you trying to bring him back rather than do… whatever he'd want you to do?"

"He wants us to bring him back!" Guase snarled, and with a burst, the spell Sanya clashed with exploded outward, leaving a divot in the snow. Sanya remained mostly protected by Esperacchius's gifts, and he still stood. She sneered as she turned toward us. "These petty illusions are nothing before the gifts of the True Magic. Surrender now, and I will consider giving you to the Master as slaves."

Well, we had her attention now. I wasn't entirely sure what emotions were going through her, given the oversaturation of the area, but they also seemed to shift on a whim. One second, she was angry, the next calm, the next, sad, the next happy, etcetera. The woman was certifiable. This had to be from the necromancy, or perhaps she just wasn't actually sane to begin with.

"Necromancy's not True Magic, bitch. It's a corruption." I moved closer as the illusions spoke. Thirty-five feet more and I'd have her. I'd get the manacles on—

"I see you," Guase said in a sing-song voice, and she leveled her hand at me. "Sterben. Über sterben."

Shit. I had barely any time to react, not even enough time to increase my perception as the blue spell which had simply been an arc before was now a wide beam coming straight at me, where I hid with my veil. Fuck. There was only one thing I could do in this situation. I couldn't dive out of the way, not from the distance I had between myself and her. There was no room to actually move. So I did the only thing I could.

"Fusegi!" I held up my left hand, feeling my sister's magic join with my own as a translucent quarter dome of silvered energy shimmered into being between my body and the spell. With my sister reinforcing it, it was better than I could do on my own. Together, we were stronger than separate. We held the shield in place as Guase's spell struck like a wrecking ball. The beam of necromantic energy pushed hard against the shield, bearing down upon it as I held my hand out.

We couldn't hold this forever, and we might not have been able to hold it long enough for Guase to stop pushing it out. That's where Daddy's training came in. The energy striking upon the shield spread out, illuminating the area in front of me such that we could move without being actually seen. Guase had to know that our shield would fail in the force of her attack, which is why she kept up with the power. We knew too, so we sidestepped, pushing against the beam the entire way, and then, when we no longer felt resistance, I dashed at the necromancer.

I barely touched the ground as I passed between myself and Guase, keeping my focus purely on her while dragging my shield along the beam. I could see Sanya getting to his feet out of the corner of my eye along with the ghosts he'd have to deal with, but I couldn't spare him my attention. Twenty feet… ten feet… It wouldn't be long now. The look on her face as I approached was something I'd savor for a long time, somewhere between hatred and surprise.

I tackled the bitch, slamming one manacle on her right hand the moment I could. The beam dissipated the moment the manacle clasped around her wrist or maybe the moment I tackled her. I didn't know if it was fully blocking her magic yet, so I didn't let up. I hooked my leg around and slammed my booted foot into the back of her leg. I elbowed her in the solar plexus and slammed my foot onto her leg again as I grasped for her other arm while still clutching the manacles.

As scary as Guase was, she was still an arrogant wizard who clearly thought I couldn't get to her. That said, she fought back, elbowing me in the gut, just above my wound from the previous day. She tried to get her arms away, but I had the leverage on her. I could feel as zombies started approaching, but I slammed my head against hers. She couldn't control the zombies if she couldn't think. I wouldn't give the bitch a chance to cast another spell. I pulled her arms behind her back, using as much strength as I could to do so, and I clasped the other manacle. I growled out the activation phrase, and I felt… something… as the manacles acted. I stood up behind her, keeping her forced onto her knees.

"What?" Guase asked, surprise and pain evident in her voice. Maybe the manacles were working properly. "What did you do?"

I heard a thump from about fifteen feet away as the drumming stopped, and I glared at Guase, avoiding her eyes. "Made things a bit more even, bitch."

The fucking bitch deserved everything and more. I was going to make sure she paid for what she did. She killed Drew. She needed to go down.

"Oh… Oh yes," Guase laughed. "I'm at your mercy… Just what do you plan on doing about that?"

"You killed Drew…" I glared at her, and my gloves sparked. The need for vengeance screamed at me from within. I had her here. She couldn't cast anything. All I needed to do was a fully powered Fulminaga, and she'd die. As powerful as she was, I could kill her, take from her what she took from Drew. Make sure she never hurt anyone ever again.

Or, if I didn't want to kill her, I could do to her what she did to Drew's ghost. I could tear away everything from her mind. Piece by piece, I could leave her a gibbering wreck. Leave her alone, forgotten in a mental asylum, never able to put herself together again. I had the power, with or without Molly. I could take her apart, electrocute the remains, and throw her away never to be seen again.

"What are you waiting for, girl? Do it. You know you want to. Kill me. Murder me. Take the True Magic within you and use it!" Guase sneered. "Or perhaps you're too much of a coward, and you should let me go."

I could kill her. I could erase her mind. I could even claim that I was right to do so, and oh God, a part of me wanted to do just that, as my gloves continued sparking. Sure, the Wardens might have held it against me, but where the fuck were they? Why hadn't they answered the call? I could just….

"Fai," Molly said as she got close. "Don't."

I swallowed, narrowing my eyes, and then I placed my hand on the shoulder of Guase. "Fulmina."

Electricity ran through the necromancer's body. Not enough to kill, but about the equivalent of a taser discharge. I wasn't sure that it'd be enough, which is why I was happy when Marcone came over to me.

"Miss Carpenter," Marcone said, looking at me.

"Mister Marcone," I said, gesturing at the now somewhat limp form of Guase, though she had a mad smile upon her face. "I give you Guase, the necromancer. The bitch who killed your man and mine."

Marcone nodded and made a gesture with his hand. "Thank you for the confirmation."

Guase's brain exploded out the right side of her head.