xXx

The sword whipped around and down. Just as the man in the red coat started to turn, the blade caught him in the shoulder; it's razored length of ensorcerelled energy lashed through his ambient defenses and tore through bone, meat, grating to a stop on his spine. His arm, spinning off below the shoulder, bounced knuckle first as blood spattered out of his startled visage. Kicking hard with her goat foot, she knocked him clear of the blade, screaming as she whirled another slash and her demons bounded in. The cut snapped into his chest, almost cutting him in two, and as he collapsed unable to speak, his jaws working like those of a dying fish, the demons hunched around him and began stuffing his flesh into their maws.

"Do not kill him quickly," the Swordbearer said, her gleaming armor covering her body. "Savor his dying." Four gestures preserved his life so long as his head remained; this could last for years. She stepped back, raised her head and screamed victory at the roiling flame of the sky—

Illyana sat bolt upright in her bed, trembling, chest sipping air rapidly as she clutched her tee-shirt to her chest. Soaked. She was soaked with cold sweat.

She grunted as she slid her legs off the bed. She dropped to the floor, headed for the kitchen. Heart still racing. She wondered if Strange could feel her dreaming.

She hoped he couldn't.

Illyana opened the fridge and pulled out the milk. By the light of the open fridge, she poured herself a glass, then replaced the milk. She moved to the window and looked out at the sleeping street. She sipped her milk, then looked down. Her knees bent backwards, her shins had fetlocks, her cloven hoofs printed the carpet.

She sighed.

"Enough of this anyway," she muttered. Taking a long drink to finish the milk, she gestured and a flaring disc of eldritch energies slid up from the floor.

"Miss me?" she asked Sym as she dropped to the floor of her throne chamber with a clack. The huge dark demon shrugged.

"Sure," he said. "We miss you every time you go. You are the center of our world."

"See to it I'm not interrupted," she said. She hopped up on her throne, curled up in the seat, and let out a sigh.

In seconds she was sound asleep, untroubled by dreams.

xXx

Valeria let herself in to the apartment. She headed back towards the bedroom with the violin case.

"How's fiddling going?" Illyana asked from the dining room table. She looked up from her books.

"Not too bad, actually," Valeria said. "I know enough to learn the rest on my own. You should have seen the look on the poor teacher's face after I got a day of practice in."

"I know the feeling," Illyana said wryly. "I suppose you can remember the Eighteen Aspects of the Flames of Faltine."

"As a matter of fact," Valeria said with a smile. She bent over Illyana's much erased and redrawn diagram. "No, Fritalis and Urnoma are juxtaposed, Fritalis isn't opposite Slitorvia. And the eighteenth point is here, not there. Otherwise, you're coming along. That's a great start."

Illyana stared down at her paper for a long moment before she started to erase and redraw yet again. "You probably know more of this micky mouse crap than I do," she muttered. "I'm tired of this. For months Strange has been giving me what he calls 'foundational training'. I'm ready for the real magic. For the good stuff. For the spells and wards and protections and researches. I'm going to be old before he gets to the power."

"Discipline is the foundation of power," Valeria said. "Maybe the information is a route to build discipline as well as inborn knowledge. Maybe he's teaching you how to learn."

"Why do you always take his side?" Illyana asked, eyes fixed on the paper. "If you know so much, why don't you study magic?"

Valeria laughed. "If you take power over the magic, you give the magic power over you. No," she said, shaking her head, "I'll be content with my, as we say, foundational knowledge and leave the mystic manipulation to others. I do not wish to be drawn into the intricate responsibilities that come with the powers. Besides, I don't always take Strange's side. I respect him, but I find it difficult to entirely trust him, if that makes sense."

"Because he comes across a little snobbish?" Illyana said, raising an eyebrow and smiling. "A little cold? He makes it so difficult not to notice that we're tools in his master scheme."

"That is unavoidably true," she said with a smile. She shook her head. "He's a great man with great power, but he can be so secretive and stubborn."

"And Strange," Illyana said with a puckish grin.

"Speak of the devil," Valeria said, glancing out the window.

Illyana quickly finished the revised diagram, then stood and brushed herself off. Valeria strolled over to the door and opened it as Strange reached the top of the steps. His expression was grave.

"Good morning, ladies," he said.

"Finished your round at the Planetary?" Illyana asked.

"Yes, I got things squared away there," Strange replied. He looked at Valeria. "I'm afraid I'm asking you to take over the operations for a while," he said.

Valeria's eyes opened wide. "Why?" she asked.

Strange closed the door, then stood lost in thought for a moment. "In my astral probing and in my scrying, I've discovered a force. Some powerful creature, tied in with our world, yet not in it or of it. I sense its power swelling, but all the spirits can tell me about it is that the creature 'dwells in darkness.' I have skimmed the darkest realms, but I can not find this creature. I fear the fate of the world may hang in the balance. It is critical that I discover this threat while it is still birthing, because if I wait until it arrives…" he sighed. "It may be too late. It's time I started searching more intensively. I need to leave Prime for a while."

There was a long moment of silence.

"What about my training?" Illyana asked in a small voice.

He turned to her with a smile. "I've given you a beginning. I will return to finish it. Be patient. For the moment, that is your instruction and your training. Wait until I return, remain diligent to your tasks, and we'll see if you have the stamina to remain focused over time without someone as a taskmaster. Sorcerers must be self-disciplined or the magic masters them in time. Valeria can continue your martial arts training as well."

She nodded, watching him with unwavering eyes.

"In the mean time," Strange said, looking back and forth between the girls, "Be good to each other and to the world. Doug will help you with anything else you need." He smiled over the awkward moment. "I'm not good at saying goodbye," he said, and he nodded curtly and let himself out.

Valeria stepped over to the window and put her hand on the glass, watching him walk down the street. Illyana stayed by the door.

"He goes to the dark places," Valeria murmured as she watched him go, "to protect those who live in the light."

Illyana was silent for a moment. "I go to the dark places too," she said. A stepping disc flared up around her, and Valeria was alone watching the Sorcerer Supreme walk away.

Strange turned the corner and was out of sight.

The world suddenly seemed very, very heavy.

xXx

"It's good to know you have a homey side, Valeria," the trim young woman said with a malicious grin. "Here I thought you were all about fluted goblets, veddy proper English, and refined living. First fiddling, now a farmer's market." She shook her head. "A girl doesn't know what to think."

"Then think that I'm tired of your cooking and want to make something fresh and delicious," the tall woman next to her said. She wore dark-rimmed glasses, and she was outfitted in khakis and a t-shirt, looking every inch a professional. Her blonde hair was up and back in a bun with two tines through it, leaving a vaguely Eastern impression.

"Hoo hoo!" her companion said. "Must have hit a sore spot, getting all personal and insulting on me. No, I'm just here to see you hobnob with the country folk, that's all," she added, still grinning. She was in frayed cutoff jeans and a tank top and canvas shoes, not at all professional looking, her hair in a pony tail.

They trotted down the brick steps to the open air market. Folding tables were set up and loaded with produce, and pickup trucks heavy with watermelon had their tailgates down. Posterboard signs with prices vied for customer attention.

"Alright, Illyana," Valeria said, "how do you want to play this? Stick together or meet back here in half an hour?"

"Are you kidding?" Illyana said. "Split up, we'll cover more ground. I'll be back here in thirty minutes."

"Be careful," Valeria added.

Illyana cocked her head at her and blinked. "Why?" she asked, a bit surprised. "I think we're safe enough here. I mean really. Who's going to do anything to us?"

"Just a feeling," Valeria said. "Strange is gone, and I'm feeling a bit… cautious, that's all."

Illyana shook her head. "Half an hour, bottom of the steps." Valeria nodded, and they went their separate ways.

Valeria looked around and sighed, then stepped into the shifting maze of shoppers, tables, and food. It just wasn't the same. A faint diesel smell hung in the air, the people were loud, plastic was everywhere, and so few of those here were having a good time. She glanced at the high tension power lines that skirted the edge of the park. Not the same at all.

She bought some eggs, some onions, some peppers, some corn. The food was different, too; she missed the turnips and radishes, the huge leafy lettuce and cabbage.

She glanced at an apple cart as she walked by. An old woman sat behind it, half asleep as the morning's heat shimmered down.

"Excuse me young woman," the old woman suddenly said as Valeria was walking past her cart. Valeria stopped, and turned. "Here," the crone said, offering an apple. "Please, try my wares. If the others see my apple making you happy, they'll come and buy themselves one to become as beautiful as you."

"No thank you," Valeria said with an apologetic smile. She turned to move on.

"If not the apple, then the advice," the old woman said, her voice lowering. Valeria found it difficult to turn her back; she looked at the old woman, puzzlement creasing a line in her forehead. "Listen close, your life is in the balance, and more. Soon you will be tested," the crone said, an urgency thrilling through her voice. "If you pass your test, then they will come in force. If you fail, you die. Be ready. The fate of the world depends on it."

For a moment, her eyes were piercing in their intensity. Then she stood and walked away from the apple cart. Just then, a family pushed past Valeria, arguing about whether to go to the fair or the movie after this, the harried mother and father trying to mediate as they struggled through the crowd. Valeria didn't dare force them to the side, and the old woman was moving with startling speed, vanishing into the crowd. Valeria pursued, but after ten steps the old woman was gone, vanished as though she had never been.

Valeria stood unmoving in the midst of the crowd, a cold feeling creeping up her spine. All day she had been uneasy with danger, danger at the edge of her senses that she could not explain. Something was going to happen.

Maybe something was happening.

"Illyana," she murmured under her breath, and she began to search for the young woman.

On the other side of the market was a bridge that led to the park. About fifteen feet below the bridge was a shallow stream. Relief leapt within Valeria as she saw Illyana's long straight hair falling around her face, concealing it as she looked down into the stream. She was seated on the broad stone lip of the wall along the side of the bridge.

Relief froze into shock as a loop of rope whipped up, snapped around her ankle, and yanked Illyana down off the bridge.

Valeria glanced around, then snatched her glasses off and tucked them in her pocket. She almost flew to the side of the bridge and she leaped, splashing down in water that ran it's chilly swiftness past her ankles.

Shadowed figures in dark loose outfits waited for her, their faces concealed in masks that showed only their eyes. Their eyes concealed all expression but ruthless determination.

"Where is Illyana?" Valeria demanded.

After all, there were only five masked figures.

One took a step to the side and cut a thin taut cable; behind him, off the other side of the bridge, a counterbalance plummeted towards the water. A net slashed up through the water, surrounding Valeria in whipping stinging steel cable. Jaw set in irritation, she shredded the net and dropped to the water after being pulled up only as far as a short hop would have carried her. The cabled net sang up and across the bridge. She was soaked.

"Very nice. Where is Illyana? If I must ask again, there will be violence," she said as her eyes narrowed.

The five exchanged a glance, then spread out to flank her. One drew a straight sword, one a pair of nunchaku, one extended a staff, one paired katar. The fifth drew no weapon.

Valeria smiled. "Foolish. Come then. Show me what you have."

As one, they snapped into action. Her palm guided the sword thrust past her body, missing by spare inches. The nunchaku slashed across her eyes viciously as she lashed back with a kick that carried the one with the staff back out of the fight, most likely for the duration. A duck and a sidestep carried her away from the whickering knives as their wielder slid in low. They barely disturbed the rippling current they danced on.

She slid a kick at the back of the knife wielding man, but he twisted to the side and deflected most of the force. He slashed his knife across her inner knee; if she had been human, that would have cut her tendon, crippled her, and ended the fight. The knife instead slid across her flesh as though the blade had no edge.

Moving with incredible speed, she snatched the front of his garb and gently tossed him into the 'chucker; the two snapped together with shattering impact and hissed through the air, thudding off the bridge's underside support and splashing awkwardly into the shallow stream.

On one side, the man with the sword. On the other, a woman in black garb, who held no weapon. Valeria looked at neither, instead settled into a stance, allowing them the first strike.

They took it, simultaneously. Valeria whipped out two fingers and touched the tip of the sword; it shattered. Her forearm lashed forward and down, deflecting the momentum of the other figure. The kick was a diversion, and the leaping unarmed woman spun in midair and punched a thumb needle into Valeria's neck. The needle snapped, and Valeria shifted her stance, her shoulder pivoting into her attacker. Who flew twenty feet and pounded across the underside of the other side of the bridge, spinning over the shallow stream and skidding down in a sheet of water.

One on one. Valeria squared off with the remaining assailant. "I have been gentle," she said, her voice a bit strained. "Where is Illyana? Neither of us wants this to turn lethal."

Her unarmed assailant whipped to the side in a cartwheel, then backflipped twice keeping his footing in the slick bed of the stream then bounding up and catching on the underside of the bridge. Valeria followed, stepping gracefully through the water. "You will find no safety up there," she said. "I grow tired of asking,"

Movement caught the corner of her eye, and quick as she was she got no more than a glance of a dark figure lowering a thick heavy cable into the stream—

Voltage from a high tension power line shocked into Valeria through the water, popping her out of it and smacking her against the underside of the bridge. Then the line was removed, and four of the ninja were facing off with her when she hit the water.

She pushed herself up, and stood, glowering. "That wasn't very nice," she said. She tried to conceal her surprise. They must be a lot tougher than they looked. She had tried not to kill them, but they should be closer to death than they appeared.

"Where is Illyana," she said, her voice insistent. She was beginning to grow angry.

"Right here," came a voice from the bank. Valeria looked over, and to her surprise so did her assailants.

Illyana stood on the bank, her hair up in a ponytail. "You mind telling me what you're doing to my friend?" she asked, a dark glee in her eyes. She snapped, and behind her a flaring disk whipped into the air perpendicular to the ground.

In that moment, a dark clad figure burst free of the brush and whipped through the air at her, blade at the ready. Too late to adjust; the figure slid noiselessly into the disk and vanished.

"Let's move this party," Illyana said, and she shifted and gestured. The attackers leaped—