Chapter 15: Resistance is Futile
Things were not going as planned. The mysterious new murder had thrown a wrench into the gears of they Mayor's well-oiled machine. His plan to get rid of those troublesome Jupiter adepts had been foiled, as too many murders in one week started to look like conspiracy. And when there was conspiracy, everyone looked at the Mayor. He turned to the commander of the Guard.
"Have you gotten the Square cleaned up yet?" He asked.
"No sir." The Commander replied, all military discipline. It was safer that way. If the Mayor got angry, you'd be busted so low you'd have to say 'sir' to a cockroach.
"Why not? I want the city back to normal as soon as possible, so that we can proceed with the Plan." The Mayor said, starting to get slightly irritated.
"We found two witnesses, sir!" The Commander replied, sinking farther into his military faceless persona.
"Who cares? I already told you to stop investigating this crime and get back to normal as soon as you can!" The Mayor was starting to get angry.
"Sir! They claim to be family members of the victim! And to know the identity of the criminal. Sir!" The Commander replied.
"I don't care about the crime." The Mayor said, taking the tone usually used to enlighten five-year-olds to mistakes, "I just want everything back to normal. Understand? Or do I need to find someone else who does?"
"Sir! Yes Sir! I Understand Sir! You don't have to find anyone else! Sir!"
Ivan was recuperating in the Guard building, while Sheba spoke to the Captain.
"The Murderer was an old acquaintance of ours. A Water Adept named Alex. He's incredibly powerful and dangerous, and was presumed dead until a few days ago." She told the Guard.
"That doesn't help us. We have no file on him, and no location on his whereabouts." The Guard said, slightly irritated.
"Join the club." Sheba said, slightly sarcastically, "We have no idea where he is either, but we do know that we'd like to be as far away from him as possible."
"To be honest, we assumed that the message was a warning TO Alex, not from him." The Guard said.
"Understandable," Sheba replied, "Most people who don't know him might draw that conclusion. But Alex is the one person I know insane enough to sign his name on a murder."
"We understand. We'll take care of everything. You and Ivan can stay here for as long as you wish. Talk to me if you have any questions."
"Very well."
Alex was getting annoyed. Somehow, Ivan and Sheba were managing to escape his detection. Alex's rational mind told him that was impossible, but his Alchemic training told him that something deeper was going on. Something would have to be done, and quickly. He could no longer sense them in the general vicinity of Alhafra, but he also had no idea how they could have left, seeing as he didn't sense them anywhere else either. There was a slight chance that the Mayor had succeeded in his plan to 'eliminate' the Adepts, but that was highly unlikely, and Alex would have been informed if he had. Alex groaned. Imprisoning or assassinating seven of the nine most powerful adepts (excluding himself, of course) had not been easy. It was also slightly ironic that the two 'weakest' adepts had managed to escape his grasp. Still, he had all the time in the world. So Alex watched, and waited.
Hamma had not been herself for quite some time now. It had started when her 'self' had been thrown out of her body, and she had watched the physical vessel of her being attacked and eventually destroyed by Alex. She had been controlling her body at that point, but it was more of a reflex than a conscious action. Now her body was dead, at least until Isaac or Felix could revive it, or she managed to learn how to manifest another one. So Hamma watched. She watched the guard that found her body, and watched the others come running to seek it. She watched as so many looked at the scene of her 'murder', Hamma didn't consider it murder, as she wasn't exactly dead. It would take a lot more than a stabbing to kill HER. She watched Ivan and Sheba come, and watched them look on the scene of Alex's assault, and watched them see her body. She wished she could do something for poor Ivan, but her form, and Something Else, prohibited her.
Hamma didn't quite know where she was. She knew she wasn't dead, though by all rights she should be. She knew that she wasn't in quite the same world that she had been in. Wherever she was now, things seemed... well... odd. Many things were out of proportion. The tallest buildings of Tolbi looked tiny, and the lighthouses towered over continents. She could spot adepts from halfway across Weyard, but ordinary people were so small she had to concentrate for hours to pick one out from the throng. Of course, she could also open 'windows', where proportions were correct and she could see and hear into the rest of the world. It was sort of like her 'visions' of old. However, psynergy was quite beyond her, and she had no way of communicating with anyone who was still inside their bodies. As far as she could tell, she was the only inhabitant of a barren wasteland. Still, there were some things that were beneficial. She could sense vast reserves of untapped power, and knew that what lay there made Alchemy look like child's play. Or perhaps it was Alchemy, just in a new form and new conditions. Still, she had all the time in the world to find out...
Things were not going as planned. The mysterious new murder had thrown a wrench into the gears of they Mayor's well-oiled machine. His plan to get rid of those troublesome Jupiter adepts had been foiled, as too many murders in one week started to look like conspiracy. And when there was conspiracy, everyone looked at the Mayor. He turned to the commander of the Guard.
"Have you gotten the Square cleaned up yet?" He asked.
"No sir." The Commander replied, all military discipline. It was safer that way. If the Mayor got angry, you'd be busted so low you'd have to say 'sir' to a cockroach.
"Why not? I want the city back to normal as soon as possible, so that we can proceed with the Plan." The Mayor said, starting to get slightly irritated.
"We found two witnesses, sir!" The Commander replied, sinking farther into his military faceless persona.
"Who cares? I already told you to stop investigating this crime and get back to normal as soon as you can!" The Mayor was starting to get angry.
"Sir! They claim to be family members of the victim! And to know the identity of the criminal. Sir!" The Commander replied.
"I don't care about the crime." The Mayor said, taking the tone usually used to enlighten five-year-olds to mistakes, "I just want everything back to normal. Understand? Or do I need to find someone else who does?"
"Sir! Yes Sir! I Understand Sir! You don't have to find anyone else! Sir!"
Ivan was recuperating in the Guard building, while Sheba spoke to the Captain.
"The Murderer was an old acquaintance of ours. A Water Adept named Alex. He's incredibly powerful and dangerous, and was presumed dead until a few days ago." She told the Guard.
"That doesn't help us. We have no file on him, and no location on his whereabouts." The Guard said, slightly irritated.
"Join the club." Sheba said, slightly sarcastically, "We have no idea where he is either, but we do know that we'd like to be as far away from him as possible."
"To be honest, we assumed that the message was a warning TO Alex, not from him." The Guard said.
"Understandable," Sheba replied, "Most people who don't know him might draw that conclusion. But Alex is the one person I know insane enough to sign his name on a murder."
"We understand. We'll take care of everything. You and Ivan can stay here for as long as you wish. Talk to me if you have any questions."
"Very well."
Alex was getting annoyed. Somehow, Ivan and Sheba were managing to escape his detection. Alex's rational mind told him that was impossible, but his Alchemic training told him that something deeper was going on. Something would have to be done, and quickly. He could no longer sense them in the general vicinity of Alhafra, but he also had no idea how they could have left, seeing as he didn't sense them anywhere else either. There was a slight chance that the Mayor had succeeded in his plan to 'eliminate' the Adepts, but that was highly unlikely, and Alex would have been informed if he had. Alex groaned. Imprisoning or assassinating seven of the nine most powerful adepts (excluding himself, of course) had not been easy. It was also slightly ironic that the two 'weakest' adepts had managed to escape his grasp. Still, he had all the time in the world. So Alex watched, and waited.
Hamma had not been herself for quite some time now. It had started when her 'self' had been thrown out of her body, and she had watched the physical vessel of her being attacked and eventually destroyed by Alex. She had been controlling her body at that point, but it was more of a reflex than a conscious action. Now her body was dead, at least until Isaac or Felix could revive it, or she managed to learn how to manifest another one. So Hamma watched. She watched the guard that found her body, and watched the others come running to seek it. She watched as so many looked at the scene of her 'murder', Hamma didn't consider it murder, as she wasn't exactly dead. It would take a lot more than a stabbing to kill HER. She watched Ivan and Sheba come, and watched them look on the scene of Alex's assault, and watched them see her body. She wished she could do something for poor Ivan, but her form, and Something Else, prohibited her.
Hamma didn't quite know where she was. She knew she wasn't dead, though by all rights she should be. She knew that she wasn't in quite the same world that she had been in. Wherever she was now, things seemed... well... odd. Many things were out of proportion. The tallest buildings of Tolbi looked tiny, and the lighthouses towered over continents. She could spot adepts from halfway across Weyard, but ordinary people were so small she had to concentrate for hours to pick one out from the throng. Of course, she could also open 'windows', where proportions were correct and she could see and hear into the rest of the world. It was sort of like her 'visions' of old. However, psynergy was quite beyond her, and she had no way of communicating with anyone who was still inside their bodies. As far as she could tell, she was the only inhabitant of a barren wasteland. Still, there were some things that were beneficial. She could sense vast reserves of untapped power, and knew that what lay there made Alchemy look like child's play. Or perhaps it was Alchemy, just in a new form and new conditions. Still, she had all the time in the world to find out...