A Proposition of Delicate Force
The cloudy day had cleared into the warmth of a late spring day. The city was arrayed below Alexandria, both familiar buildings and foreign architecture displayed for her purview. The cars moved sluggishly far below, like so many ants, going about their daily tasks.
This was one of the ways in which Alexandria was accustomed to seeing the world. A distant, perspicacious guardian, watching over the world as it passed below. Detached, yet beholden to the world. Free to act, but also constrained.
Alexandria was disappointed in the White Council, but at the same time, it was as she expected. The tangled tentacles of fear drove many to make decisions that were less than perfectly considered.
It was obvious that while the Red Court offered platitudes of peace, they acted with subterfuge to secure their position at the same time. Either the Red Court was so fractured that it was unaware of its components or it acted with deliberate malice.
She could find no real fault besides cowardice in those that wished to sue for peace. The Red Court seemed a formidable enemy, with comparably global scope to the White Council. The convention revealed that they were able to strike at Archangel and more disparate locations around the globe. It was a limited world war.
The wind buffeted her, pressing the overcoat against her body. Alexandria paid no attention for a long moment, not quite lost in thought but more considering. Her eye panned over the gleaming city below, drifting down familiar roads and places of interest. The Cloud Gate, its mercurial gleam clear ever from her position shone like polished silver in Millenium Park.
Northeast was Goose Island, unmarred, like she had first seen it so many years before when she traveled to Chicago. Before it's immolation. It brought an uncharacteristic somberness to her faults, and she could feel herself indulging in an expression that did not often come to her usually placid face. A frown.
The world itself seemed to spit in her face. Here was a Chicago as it should have been, without the excess of parahumans to engage in wanton acts of cruelty and violence. Alexandria was well aware that the Cauldron capes were more capable in controlling their urges as a norm but the conflict drive the normal agents impressed upon their hosts was far from controlled.
On occasion, Alexandria had ventured onto the other Earths, for careful manipulation where Contessa would not do, or rather Contessa's path drove her to delegate to Alexandria. Aleph's Chicago was much the same as this new one. Both here and on Aleph there weren't cheap newly constructed buildings lining what should've been old historic districts. Millennium Park and Wrigley Field were not smoldering heaps of radioactive refuse.
Alexandria pursed her lips. Now that she had managed to draw several distinctions between the two, it only seemed proper that she designate it properly. The Parahuman Response Team, as the first to identify another world, had used Phonecian Letters, remarkably similar to Hebrew.
The usage of the Phonecian letters had to do with the point of divergence. No divergences had stretched back farther than that point. Some day in the far future, if Cauldron ever succeeded in its Sisyphean task, the designations were meant to be something all the Earth's could understand and hold in common.
Following that tradition would lead it to this world being named something like Earth Pē or Earth Sādē, which hadn't been officially discovered by Earth Bet. Cauldron knew of countless more worlds, more than most could ever hope to count. Alexandria knew of each and every one. None of them had magic, wizards, or vampires. The other worlds were either barren, examples of divergent evolution or variations of the current state of affairs on Bet.
It was a further conundrum, that Alexandria did not like.
"Door me," she said, voice quiet, sound bit away by the wind. Yet, she knew if Clairvoyant was watching for her, he would see her and direct Doormaker to open the door. There was no response. No shimmering pane of light opening forward. No crisp hole in reality. Nothing at all.
Either Doctor Mother or Contessa had directed Doormaker to ignore her or there was something more to this world. It was a question that she would not be able to answer at this time, perhaps ever. As it were, she was forced to operate alone.
She turned in place, scrutinizing the city one last time. She was half-inclined to merely seek out the Red Court. End the war as smoothly as she was able. Yet, by all appearances, this was a shadow war, and thus she doubted it would be that easy.
Her eye paused on a distant building, registering something out of the ordinary. A great bird, almost eagle-like sat perched atop a gothic building, looking for all the world like an enormous gargoyle. A body, pink and skinless rested in its monstrously large talons.
For a moment, Alexandria was tempted to just leave whatever it was to its own devices. Her time would be better spent investigating the Red Court and ending their plague upon humanity. That was the path of the greater good. A path that had guided her throughout her second life.
It was a path that had led to her second death. She had given everything to humanity and Cauldron. Defiled her morality in exchange for humanity's continuation.
In the end, there was something she had forgotten. When Doctor Mother first asked what she wanted to do after her vial, after she had proven herself, she had said she wanted to be a hero. Doctor Mother had gotten a sad little smile then but just nodded. Cauldron had their first job for her barely a month later.
What left on that mission was a naïve little girl, secure in the golden ideal of the world. If everyone just got along then everything would be all right. It was a fiction not quite broken by her sickness. A fiction reinforced by her survival. She had to make a choice, one of many that would follow.
For too long she had passed off things that needed doing, excusing it with the trite, if true, words of Doctor Mother, saying it was for the greater good. Often it was, and that was the problem. Her mistake was allowing her idea of the greater good to bleed into her life until she was ignoring present problems because fixing them would distract her away from the plan.
Now none of that mattered. She could afford to save the one dangling from a bridge. She could afford to save the family over the train crash if she wanted. She doubted that she would, but the choice was present, no longer shadowed by greater colossuses.
She could make a difference to one person today.
The world blurred around her as she approached the bird, the wind shear straining at her buttons. Its large grey form perched like an obscene gargoyle atop its perch. An eye twitched in its head, tracking her approach as soon as she began to move, even across the expanse of open air. She slowed, taking in more details on the body, inconsistencies that stood out even to her. The fingers were too long on the corpse, the muscles arranged in alien ways.
The grey raptor unfolded its wings, keeping the ribcage of its prey pinned with a yellow scaled foot that was as large as the ribcage itself. Alexandria reigned in her speed, stopping just shy of the creature.
"Flyer," It rasped, voice distinctly inhuman. English words, with an underlying accent that was strange, almost echoing, almost rumbling, but not quite. The words themselves issued forth from a mouth that was completely unlike a bird, serrated teeth hidden beneath its hooked yellow beak.
It paused just after speaking its word, cocking its head. Its beak dripped with red blood. After a lifetime of weirdness, all power induced, it would have to be something more than a giant talking bird to faze Alexandria. She had seen strangers, had fought stranger beasts. All but the Siberian and the Endbringers had eventually fallen beneath her. For decades she had been seen as the brute of brutes. Earth Bet's invincible woman, no matter her continued failure against the only enemies that ever mattered.
Alexandria regarded it for a moment, eye dropping down to the body, "Who are you?"
She was half-tempted to say, 'what are you?' but the reaction of the bird, its knowledge of English, and the fact that keeping her cards close to her chest had only helped her so far led Alexandria to still her tongue.
"Onimkė, those that lived along the Ottawa called me such," the bird replied, voice rasping. It raised a great taloned foot to scrape at the blood on its beaked face. Its eyes were prisms, reflecting the light, endlessly swirling. It seemed profoundly unconcerned.
Alexandria paused, thinking. It was not a word she knew, and that was unique for a woman that always remembered everything she ever heard. The body that lay under its feet was dead, but this thing might have answers. She had pledged to defend humanity but that didn't mean she had to be stupid about it.
"What is that?" She gestured with one adamantine finger. The wind on the side of the building snapped at her sleeve. Her tone was steady, unyielding, despite being faced with a bird the size of the extinct Argentavis.
"Those that live along the shore and know call them ghouls, Flyer-without-Wings."
Ghouls? The Thousand and One Nights? Muslim folklore? Or more accurately pre-Islamic folklore from the Middle East. Widely regarded as eaters of the dead, plunderers of corpses. A creature then? Like the Red Court? Yet this creature was also inhuman. She wasn't able to make a judgment about whether it told the truth.
She floated closer, just slightly. The bird's head tilted watching her for a long instant. A single drop of blood ran down its beak and dripped upon the buttress it was perched atop. It lifted its feet, and the body twitched under the claw, moving with a gaping hole in its torso.
From this angle, Alexandria could now clearly see its prey. The bird, Onimkė, was right, it was not human, or at least did not appear human, just as she supposed before. Alexandria exhaled slightly, relaxing visibly. More for show, than for any actual purpose. If she wanted her body was entirely beholden to her, and would not display any emotion that she did not wish.
"A ghoul?" she asked, interested despite herself. So far the vampires and creatures she had met had been firmly in the camp of European folklore. Ghouls were distinctly Middle Eastern, mostly endemic to mythic depictions of the pre-Islam world.
The bird dipped its beak toward the body, seizing its head, eyes still watching her. The body twitched, flailed limbs trying to scratch at the bird. Alexandria watched almost dispassionately as it pulled on the head, there was a choked little gasp and then a brutal snap. Silver, mercury-like, fluid sprayed out from the gap between the body and head.
"A predator upon the upper world," The bird explained, dropping the head, which fell to the side, revealing an inhuman face, with a jaw filled with sharp teeth. It was human enough that Alexandria felt instinctive revulsion that quivered up inside her and was buried before it even shone to the outside world.
Alexandria floated forward, toward the bird, it did not flinch, just regarded her with prism-filled eyes. The air near it felt charged, almost static. Alexandria bent, reaching out a hand for the fallen head.
The bird stepped away, letting her pick it up. It snorted, "Your feathers are dark, Flyer-without-Wings, but you still belong to the upper world."
The flesh was slimy beneath her hands, Alexandria just examined it for a moment. The eyes were pale and clouded, like a corpse dead for several days. The smell was comparable, a body dead for several days. The face itself, even devoid of skin as it was, was unmistakably not human, the mouth, filled with long jagged teeth, stretched from ear to ear. The brow ridges were also too pronounced, more like what she would expect to see in an ape than a human.
Alexandria raised an immaculate eyebrow and turned toward the bird, letting the skull fall with a thud into a crevice on the gothic roof. Alexandria made a mental note to retrieve the skull at some point, where it was, nobody was liable to find it, ever.
"A fledgling," The bird explained, seeming to preen at the attention, "Striving for prey too far from its nest. Denizens of the underworld should take care not to infringe on what is the upper world's."
"What do you regard as the upper world?" Alexandria asked, interested. She had to admit that if there was a second organization enforcing order and preventing these mythological creatures from preying on humanity, she was interested in making their acquaintance.
There was a rustle and a small form shifted in her breast pocket, a moment later her little pixie pushed her head out of the pocket. Her pine needle dress was hanging off one shoulder and then she stretched her arms and yawned widely. Alexandria glanced down, just for an instant taking her eye off the large bird and darting her gaze down the little pixie.
"Oooh," the pixie said, seeming to register what was in front of her, her little hands clutching tightly at Alexandria's overcoat, but her words were excited, "Boom-bird!"
The bird flared its feathers, talons clenching into the stone buttress it was perched on. It flapped its wings once, not fully expanding its wings but enough that it seemed to demonstrate some degree of irritation. It seemed entirely too proud to say it found its designation as 'boom-bird' rather demeaning.
Alexandria cupped one hand over her breast pocket and the little pixie, "hush."
The bird gave the pixie an evil eye, snorting lightly as if to say 'boom-bird indeed.'
The name did allow Alexandria to draw the connection between the reality in front of her and the legend the bird originated from. The stupid little epithet that the pixie used was just enough information that she could say with some certainty what she was dealing with.
"Your hatchling should take care," the bird replied, flexing its feathers again, "some would see such an insult irredeemable."
"I will bear that in mind," Alexandria replied, tone just a tad frosty. The pixie might have offended the creature in front of her, but the pixie was also under her protection and infinitely smaller than the thunderbird.
"We have met for a purpose," the bird continued, flexing its wings again. Alexandria risked a glance down from the building at the street below. There were several people walking about below, none looked skyward. There were no gathered surveillance helicopters or lookouts that she could spot.
Down one long alley, quite a distance away, there was a child, clutching a tattered white teddy bear to her chest and looking around frantically. There was a rustle of feathers near Alexandria, and she turned back toward the over-sized bird.
The buttress was empty, both the bird and the body were gone, only red and silver stains remaining to mark their one-time presence. Alexandria's searching eyes found the head of the ghoul still jammed between the crevice, then her eyes were drawn skyward.
It was a large bird, there were few ways it could escape so easily without a stranger power or a mover power. Most stranger powers had flaws which were easily revealed to her immutable mind, the subtle influence fields they wove not nearly enough for a perfect memory. Stranger powers that relied on the visible spectrum and manipulating the physical world were harder to note.
Harder but not impossible. The distant boom of thunder rolled over the city, spreading like a distant cannon shot. The air was clear, as were the skies. The symbolism was not lost on Alexandria.
"Boom-bird?" The pixie asked.
"Boom-bird indeed," Alexandria answered, lips quirking slightly.
Yet, her eyes traversed the length of the city again, drawn down to the little girl, standing alone, holding a little white bear to her chest.
The air rippled around her, an air bubble forming for a moment as she moved in the space between one moment and the next, slowing down just enough at the final descent that she did not tear her clothes away. This speed was also stopping just shy of shattering the windows below her with the sheer speed of her flight.
Her feet touched the ground softly by the girl, making nary a sound. Still, it almost seemed the girl could somehow feel her since she turned around in the next moment, looking up at Alexandria with a doleful expression.
"Where's my Mommy?" She asked. Blinking slowly up toward Alexandria.
A pale, fetid creature, scaled skin, and bones with a gaping maw of teeth froze from where it had been creeping toward the child. Yellowish saliva dangled from a veritable mouthful of pointed teeth. Its baleful pale eyes fixed on her, like the cold dead eyes of a fish, left to die on a riverbank.
One second it was there, in the next silver mercury blood splattered the front of Alexandria's overcoat, the ghoul collapsing around Alexandria's fist. The resistance of flesh to her strike was so infinitesimally small that it barely even registered, except for Alexandria's mind which cataloged every sensation she had ever experienced. The ghoul came apart, the kinetic energy too great for its withered flesh to endure.
Alexandria let a frown dance over her grim countenance. A lawyer could probably claim that the creature had not yet acted with ill intent, but Alexandria was not a lawyer and was not playing games. The creatures of this world were out of control, and Alexandria considered the fact that she had to do something about it after all.
Barely a moment had passed, the girl's eyes drifted open from the slow tired blink she had gifted Alexandria. A boon that allowed her to act, instantaneously, to stop the ghoul from doing whatever it intended.
The girl herself was small, maybe seven, and dressed in a little white dress with pink flowers embroidered on it. The hem of the dress was stained with dirt. All Alexandria could think was, at least her innocence was saved today. The glassy dead eyes and scattered body parts of the ghoul were a testament to that fact.
"Where are your parents, child?" she asked, voice soft and soothing, perfectly tailored to ease the fear the little girl was feeling. It was also carefully calculated to keep the little girl's attention on her and keep her from glancing behind at the alleyway. In some ways, it was no worse than Bet, clear and present danger looming all around if you just had the eyes to see it. It seemed she had her job cut out for her.
"A pixie!" The child said, looking at Alexandria's breast pocket on the overcoat. Alexandria glanced down and smiled lightly at the sight of the pixie's small head peeking over the pocket's edge at the child. The pixie clutched the nickel in one hand and stared at the child.
"She's mine," The pixie said, declaring so to the world, "You can't have her."
Alexandria ignored the pixie and extended a hand to the child, "Let me help you."
The child seemed to waver, eyeing the outstretched hand for a moment. Alexandria approved, at least her parents had taught her not to trust strangers, even if they had been less than perfect in teaching her not to get lost. The little girl's bright blue eyes darted upward to Alexandria's pixie again.
She grabbed Alexandria's hand. The touch was featherlight against her immovable skin, and Alexandria smiled reassuringly.
"Close your eyes a moment," Alexandria suggested soothingly.
The girl looked up at her questioningly for a moment, seeking something in her gaze. That was the thing about children. So easy to trust. Even when they should know better. It reminded her of her Wards. It was a pity that she had taken it upon herself to deal with the problems, rather than the cute ones. Few crossed her way that were as innocent or young as the girl in front of her. By the time they got to her, they were disillusioned with the world, grasping at nebulous shadows and jaded.
The girl nodded sharply and closed her eyes. Alexandria clutched her gently by the shoulder, one arm sliding behind her head and darted into the air. The wind whistled for a moment as she spun in place above the city, scanning for a police car. She may not have the time to track down the girl's mother unless it was immediately obvious, but she was still capable of indirect delegation.
"Keep your eyes closed," Alexandria ordered as the little girl's eyes threatened to flicker open.
There! Alexandria descended, still cradling the little girl carefully in her grasp. She was not accustomed to carrying passengers, they hampered her too much, especially when she was engaged in combat. However, over her long career, she had still managed to carry different individuals of all shapes and sizes, as the situation demanded. All but the first few survived without injury. That was early on before she truly knew her own strength.
She touched down, a whisper of wind on the tarmac. A white police Ford Interceptor sat in an empty parking lot. The red words, 'Chicago Police' were emblazoned on the side in large letters. On the blue line that transected the car was another phrase in white, 'we serve and protect.' A variation on a common police slogan, utterly unremarkable for how common it was. At least it wasn't a variation of, 'to punish and endure' as she once witnessed in a small Texas town back in 2008.
She dropped into the line of sight of the driver and passenger. Two police officers, who looked like they were eating an early lunch. Alexandria barely registered the disgust at the consumption of fast food that the officers of the law were eating. She might no longer really care about what she ate, or even really taste anything, but that didn't mean she didn't insist everyone under her command stayed fit. Fast food was just bad for nutrition on so many levels. In a career where the unexpected regularly happened, there really wasn't room for obesity that wasn't related to medical causes.
So sue me, Alexandria thought to herself, I'll admit to being a health nut.
One of the officers choked on his mouthful of Big Mac, suddenly realizing that a woman had just dropped out of the sky in front of him with a small child. To his credit he was immediately on the move, followed in a moment by his partner, a large man with a red handlebar mustache.
Alexandria spared just a moment and then blurred away. She was well aware that departing the scene might potentially cause more issues. She had repeatedly drilled into her subordinates the need for following the law, but she deemed her continued presence unnecessary, especially when she was being stalked.
She blurred to a stop in a deserted alleyway, just outside a brick and mortar pizza restaurant. The sun was shadowed overheard, casting the alley in darkness. A discarded newspaper fluttered in the draft Alexandria's passage caused. She spared a dispassionate glance down at the paper for a moment, the date catching her attention for a moment, '2001.'
The terrorist attack on Earth Aleph, her bare foot came down on the newspaper, stopping it in place and letting the shards of glass beneath pierce into the paper. September 12th, 2001. Her eyes darted over the alleyway, spotting another soiled newspaper, as barely legible as the one under her foot. January 2002.
So, she had traveled through time as well as space. From 2011 to at least 2002. Such a possibility did not seem possible. True time travel had seemed beyond the powers of the agents. There had been outliers, like Grey Boy who were able to rewind time but never on the scale that would be involved in turning a whole world backward.
The shadows rippled, moving slightly, a large cat, lanky and lean, about the size of a cougar, seemed to seep free. Its fur was almost vanta black in places, in others it was the hue of pitch. Black on black hue. Its eyes were large and luminous.
Its broad paws stepped over smashed glass without making a single sound, treading silently closer to Alexandria. It seemed to grin almost, revealing white teeth and a pink mouth.
"B-big Malk," the pixie trilled, her voice edged with panic. She dived down into the pocket, away from the luminous eyes of the large cat. Its hair was coarse and heavy making it look like an oversized Maine coon, albeit one the size of a cougar.
"Your declaration caused such consternation in Winter," the cat said conversationally, shredding the tarmac of the alleyway, as it kneaded it beneath black pitch-colored claws. Its voice was between a rumble and a purr, a voice that dwelled into infrasound. An inhuman voice, speaking English but in a distinctly inhuman way. It didn't even care about trying to make its voice sound human.
At this point, Alexandria wasn't even surprised by a talking cat. After a day filled with mythical creatures and talking birds, it wasn't even that shocking. What did concern her was the words of the cat, her declaration to the White Council?
It also implied something important. A declaration in affirmation of humanity had concerned Winter, which this cat seemed to speak on behalf. If Winter was concerned about such, then she needed to be wary in dealing with them.
Alexandria lifted off the ground some, letting herself float unhindered by the ground. A cold breeze whistled down the alleyway from on high, swirling her overcoat around her and throwing the newspaper that was under her foot down the alleyway.
"You speak for Winter?" Alexandria asked, scrutinizing the cat, "who are you?"
"Sìth am I," the cat, the malk, replied, amusement dancing behind his slitted green eyes. He treaded silently forward again, seemingly unbothered by the debris and hazards of the alleyway, the crushed glass fragments, and the littered hypodermic needles. There was a broad white spot, gleaming snow white, at the center of its breast. It was utterly unblemished white, pristine in its purity.
Malk? The pixie had mentioned malks in Winter before. Then she hadn't given much heed to the designation but now she found it interesting. The name itself, if it was being applied to a category of fairy creature, was probably a reference to the grimalkin or graymalkin of Scottish highland legend.
The name Sìth was less useful than it suggested. Alexandria doubted that the cat was a card-carrying member of a pop culture evil organization with delusions of grandeur that wielded plasma swords. Instead, Sìth was used in the archaic sense, as in the Scottish Gaelic daoine sìth. All that such a name told her was the cat considered itself a fairy.
However, there was a legend of a cat with the name Sìth. Cat Sìth was said to be either a fairy or a witch that could turn into a cat nine times.
"Cat Sìth, I presume?" Alexandria answered.
The cat grinned, its pearly white fanged mouth open from ear to ear.
"You are sharp," it noted, letting a dark chuckle that was more a rumble issue free from its chest.
"Why are you following me?" Alexandria asked forcefully, not moving a single centimeter as the cat padded closer, still completely and utterly silent. Not even a rustle of paper or the crunch of class beneath its padded feet.
"Winter owes such a debt," Cat Sìth hissed, his long black tail flicking back and forth behind him, "It would be such a tragedy if you perished before we could satisfy it."
The malk looked at her with half-lidded eyes for a moment, still grinning, before sitting on his haunches, tail still flicking idly.
"The Winter Queen sent you?" Alexandria queried briskly, her voice cold. It was not a possibility that she had not considered. By all appearances, the debt Winter owed was quite immense. It seemed akin to finding a traitor in the highest echelons of a foreign government. With the weight of debts, it appeared it would look poorly on Winter if such a service went unfulfilled if the claimant died.
"Perhaps," Cat Sìth replied, still looking amused.
Alexandria raised an eyebrow, "I see."
"What made the Winter Queen think I required protection?" The very idea was laughable to Alexandria really. She was Alexandria after all, not some blithering idiot. She knew her limits. She knew when to give up and leave a city to its destruction. She hadn't survived for years by being stupid.
"Ah," Cat Sìth replied, his grin Cheshire-like, "Your death still stains you, Library of Alexandria."
The intonation pulled at something inside her, like a string being plucked, and Alexandria paused, even her mind couldn't help but recall the taste of chitin and silk in her throat. Very carefully, Alexandria prevented any shred of emotion from gracing her face.
"I don't see why that matters," she replied, tone quite curt.
Cat Sìth stood, sniffing at the ground for a moment when he had been sitting and bending to look underneath the rusted steel dumpster that stood to the side, paint fraying from its face.
"Maybe it matters, maybe it doesn't," the malk replied easily, lifting its head and regarding Alexandria again with green eyes that were no longer half-lidded with amusement.
Alexandria snorted at the non-answer, indulging in an uncharacteristic display of emotion at the glib response and made to answer. However, the great black cat just swished its tail and seeped into the dumpster's shadow between the space between one heartbeat and the next. Alexandria eyed the shadow for a long moment. There was no discoloration. No deeper umbral shadow. It stayed uniform, no evidence of Cat Sìth remained. Alexandria slowly panned her solitary eye over the alleyway. There was nobody else around.
Quite a potent stranger power.
She pursed her lips and considered what the fairy cat had just relayed to her. There was some kind of hidden danger which she remained unaware. Her debt was also great enough that Winter seemed to have a vested interest in her remaining alive so that they could reimburse her. Lastly, there also appeared to be some kind of rumor, or knowledge that she had actually died.
The last thought was the most unpleasant. Even though she could still remember her death with perfect clarity, the small irrational part of her mind demanded that she was wrong. That she hadn't actually died. This was confirmation, albeit confirmation tinged by the words of a creature she did not believe was an ally, except by the weight of debt.
Cat Sìth also answered questions freely, when by all indication he should have bargained with her for information. There was little about personal debt in the conversation, which seemed to imply that his answering of her questions was related to some other debt he held. Debts within debts.
She floated free of the alleyway, staring up at the pizza shop next to the alleyway for a moment. The windows were dark, and the inside was trashed. A rat scurried along the wall. It was no wonder that the alleyway was dilapidated, with the condition of the buildings around it.
The street was mostly empty, a lone white van making its way slowly down the side opposite her.
It was all the more noticeable when she heard the crunch of loose asphalt beneath someone's feet. She could hear three heartbeats. Two measured and beating sedately, one faster than the other but not by much. The final, third heartbeat, was beating a steady staccato beat.
She turned, her eyes passing over empty space for a moment before her eye caught the glimmer in the air. An otherwise perfect illusion, but once she noticed one slight, almost imperceptible flaw, the rest came unwound.
Three wizards stood before her. The exceedingly tall Middle Eastern man from the Senior Council was the first she noticed. A steel eye sat in his eye socket. He stared at her without expression. His face was shadowed by the black cowl of his robe. His one visible eye seemed to gleam as he looked at her.
Ancient Mai, wizened and old, stood unaided next to him. A sharp frown pulling at the edges of her mouth. She was still clad in the black robe and purple stole of her office. A jade hairpin secured her elegant coiffure. Contrary to the first encounter Ancient Mai clutched a staff that looked like it was made from carven green jade. The image of a temple foo dog, facing in all four cardinal directions ordained its head.
Next to Ancient Mai was her granddaughter, also clad in her black robe and blue stole. She clutched in her hand a red rosewood staff, lines of green jade that looked almost machined carved into her staff. A bead of sweat ran down the side of her head.
"Inadequate, granddaughter," Ancient Mai murmured softly, shooting a sharp glance that clashed with her almost distant looking eyes. The last wisps of the illusion faded, shattering like stressed glass.
Alexandria floated forward, looking at all three of them steadily. None of the three met her gaze, but the Middle-Eastern man was the most fluid about it. If Alexandria was not actively trying to meet his gaze, she might not have even noticed he was avoiding giving it.
"You claimed to stand with humanity, yet dismissed the White Council," Ancient Mai croaked, her voice covered over with the veneer of old age.
"I stand with humanity," Alexandria replied, voice resolute, "The White Council considered casting one of its own aside under faulty pretense. It is obvious the Red Court has no interest in real peace. Their actions speak for themselves."
Ancient Mai was still frowning, but she looked almost considerate as well, "I assume it would please you to hear that Wizard Dresden was not stripped of his status and protection it affords."
Alexandria did not deign to answer that claim. Instead she pursued a different line of questioning, "Why have you sought me out?"
"The White Council has accepted we owe a debt to you," Ancient Mai replied, her voice still thin, "As a gesture of goodwill."
She tossed a cloth bag, drawn up with a drawstring at Alexandria's feet.
"What is it?" Alexandria asked, not glancing down.
Ancient Mai's lips twitched, and she replied, "Clothes."
Alexandria ignored the clothes for the moment, "I don't suppose that is all?"
Ancient Mai shot the Middle-Eastern man a glance, more like a heavily veiled glare and opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off.
"Some know me as Rashid," he interrupted, voice smooth, "Would you care to explain the dichotomy before me?"
Ancient Mai shot a startled glance at him, gnarled fingers grasping tightly around her staff.
"What dichotomy?" Alexandria replied.
"I see a number that repeats three times. There is a facsimile of a golem before me," he answered, and his steel prosthetic eye seemed to strip away, revealing a glimmering dark hole in his eye socket, "Yet there is a young girl, broken by her own body-"
Alexandria was already moving the moment she figured out what the man, Rashid, was talking about. The air boiled around her, igniting in plasma as she lashed out.
Her adamantine fingers impacted against a pane of suddenly materialized glimmering blue light. A sharp brown eye bore into hers for another moment, the force of her strike redirected into the ground by the force field.
The asphalt cracked, enormous spiderwebs tearing their way across it. The building nearby shook, and glass shattered down the street behind Alexandria. Rashid exhaled, and in the sudden silence, the noise was almost shaky. Groaning, the stone pizza shop next to the four collapsed into a cloud of concrete dust. Mai looked on with an unreadable expression, just the slightest tensing of her fingers on her staff. Ancient Mai's heart beat faster within her chest, not that noticeably but just enough for Alexandria to notice. The granddaughter whipped her head around just in time to catch the collapsing building, she winced subtly and tried to look nonchalant, but she was betrayed by how nervous she obviously was, clutching at her her staff and twisting it in her fingers.
"Do not speak of secrets that are not yours to tell," Alexandria commanded curtly.
The wizard, Rashid, seemed to stare at her for another long moment. Then he seemed to look past her, up over her shoulder. Begrudgingly, he nodded slowly, returning his gaze to her face.
"Perhaps it is not yet the proper time," he replied, almost seeming to furrow his brow but not quite committing to such an action. He frowned, his eye bleeding back into a steel ball bearing within his head. Alexandria took note of the twin silver scars that bisected it, continuing down to terminate in his black and silver beard.
"I doubt you came to speak cryptic words," Alexandria replied. Her anger simmered like an unemptied cup within her chest. She had always been good at keeping her cards close to her chest, anything that broke that rule irritated her immensely.
"You are correct," Rashid replied, voice smooth and rolling once more.
"The White Council has need of your services," Ancient Mai replied, voice quiet, for all that she was shooting Rashid a side-eyed glare, "You have acted with uncharacteristic benevolence on behalf of Warden Baines. We would be interested in seeing if such good fortune extends to the rest of the Council."
"The White Council's debt still stands?"
"It does," Ancient Mai affirmed, face placidly calm, "does your claim to stand with humanity still stand?"
Alexandria nodded sharply, "The survival of humanity is paramount."
"The survival of Warden Baines and his subsequent testimony has revealed a possibility to us, one which we did not consider," Ancient Mai continued, voice dropping lower as she spoke. She paused at the end as if she was unsure whether to speak or not.
Her granddaughter seemed to be scanning the rooftops of the nearby buildings, both present yet removed from the conversation. Alexandria did not relinquish control of the conversation by asking for clarification, instead, she just waited Ancient Mai out. After a moment that was edging toward awkward, Ancient Mai continued, "With Baines's testimony and the noted absence of Wizard Pietrovich's death curse, it is possible that he survived."
Alexandria frowned. Why exactly were they coming to her with such information? The possibility that they trusted or knew that she could do something about it was infinitesimally small.
"What makes you think I can assist the White Council," Alexandria replied.
"Our list of allies is thin," Ancient Mai replied, seeming unbothered about giving out such critical information, "Few stand poised and ready to attempt such a task."
Alexandria raised an eyebrow, silently questioning why exactly they thought she was perfect for this task.
"We cannot spare any Wardens, not for such an uncertain possibility," Ancient Mai continued, voice quiet. Her rheumy eyes met Alexandria's for less than a second and then slipped away again.
"He's a member of your Senior Council, your leadership, and retrieving him from the Red Court is not a priority?"
Ancient Mai grimaced, the expression looked unnatural on the aged face. She replied, "The Red Court does not have him. That we do know."
"What do you know?" Alexandria replied in turn.
Ancient Mai seemed to smile slightly. After all, by asking the question Alexandria had allowed Ancient Mai to see that she was leaning toward taking the request. Rashid still stared at her, as if she was a puzzle piece left upon a chessboard. His brow was furrowed, and he looked up and above her periodically. His mouth moved silently, lips twitching almost imperceptibly as he muttered words unheard.
"The amulet Baines had was tainted with Summer magic, we suspect they had something to do with Pietrovich's survival," Ancient Mai closed her mouth after speaking those words. With annoyance, Alexandria realized that was all they had. She floated off the ground for a moment, letting her overcoat dangle.
This seemed almost like some cosmic test. For so long she had turned away from the petty deeds in favor of great deeds. Saved the bus over the bicyclist. Always prioritizing the best outcome over merely satisfactory. Always weighing her choices and time.
She could return to where she was before, acting on grand deeds for the greater good. Or, she could go back to help on a small scale. Making a big difference for one person at a time.
"I want Baines," Alexandria replied finally.
"I'm afraid that's not possible," Ancient Mai offered an uncomfortable smile, her tone very bureaucratic sounding. Alexandria did not question it, Baines wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things. There were plenty of others.
"My granddaughter will have to suffice as our liaison," Ancient Mai continued as Alexandria continued to stare at her.
The granddaughter, who had been staring with concentration at the alleyway Cat Sìth disappeared into, sent a startled glance their way. Rashid frowned, regal features still as he cast a look sideways as well but offered no protest.