Prisoner Day 2
Amy took off her cloak as she walked in out of the rain to Astoria's shop. "Good morning," she said, hanging the cloak on a peg by the door.
"Good morning, Amy," Astoria said.
"Death is all around us."
Amy looked down to see Cavan looking up at her. She looked to Astoria.
"The Magistrate is investigating the death of the Head of the Town Council," Astoria said, confirming Amy's thought.
Amy stiffened. "A murder?"
"He thinks so, but he couldn't tell me much when he's just coming by to leave Cavan."
Amy shook her head. It would not help her to be overly worried about the Beast. "Right."
"Does Mr. Ribbon want you for anything today?" Astoria asked as Amy and Cavan walked over to the desk where Astoria was.
"Yes. He correctly figured that we wouldn't have much business today," dammit. "and wants me for the afternoon."
"Alright, then you can take care of Sammy," Astoria said, indicating with a wave of her arm the younger girl, who was sitting stock still in a back corner of the shop.
Amy hadn't even noticed she was there. Amy gently disentangled Cavan from her legs before walking over to Sammy. "Sammy? Are you okay?"
She mutely shook her head.
"Take her upstairs," Astoria suggested. "Without much business, I think I can handle Cavan by myself."
"Alright," Amy said. "Up you come, Sammy." She lifted the younger girl to her feet, her worry increasing as she didn't protest at all. She took her upstairs into Astoria's room and sat her down on the pristinely made bed. "You haven't eaten yet, have you?" Another mute shake. Amy went over to the coldbox and got out some fruit for Sammy, who took it and munched on it numbly. Amy waited patiently for her to finish with the most caring expression she could muster.
Finally, after the fruit was long gone, Sammy looked up into Amy's eyes and immediately broke the gaze, tearing up.
"What's wrong?" Amy asked, worry once again rising.
"I nearly died last night," Sammy said quietly. "I saw the Beast."
Amy was rocked back onto her heels. "You went out?"
"My garden," Sammy said. "If I worked to protect it from today's rain, then I wouldn't have to spend nearly as much time recovering. But I heard it coming. And I tried to run, though I tripped."
"What... what made the difference?"
"A Familiar - well, three of them - came to help me. They drove the Beast back away from me. I didn't stick around to see how well they did. I ran here. I took cover in the shop. The Beast didn't find me."
Amy was too shocked to respond. A silence lengthened between them before Sammy, abandoning the level tone and threatening to sob, asked, "Amy?"
Amy pulled the girl into a hug which she gratefully melted into.
It was some time before the two young women emerged from the back rooms of Astoria's shop, but it had been well worth it in Amy's opinion. Sammy was a lot less of a marionette and more of a person again as she followed Amy down the stairs. Astoria smiled at the young lady, who looked down and mumbled something that approximated an apology. Astoria just continued to smile and shook her head.
Amy looked out at the driving rain. "Can't tell time from the sun today."
"No, but that's what my clock is for," Astoria said. "Are you having lunch here or there?"
"Here."
"Then go get it started." Amy glanced at the clock. It was quarter to noon. She suddenly remembered Alexander's offer... and that Ribbon had her for most of the afternoon. She took a breath to steady herself. Maybe she could swing by after lunch and ask him if his evening was free this time.
Sammy helped her with the preparation of lunch, which was a quiet affair even with Cavan present. Amy found that though she loved every person present, and it really should have been relaxing and even encouraging since Sammy seemed to be back to her functional self, if not especially bubbly, she was getting more and more tense by the moment. And there was nothing that she could do about it.
Her plate had been empty in front of her for nearly ten minutes before the gentle reminder came. "You should really get going, Amy." Astoria was looking at her kindly. Amy couldn't hold that gaze, so she nodded at the wall instead as she stood up to gather her stuff.
"Be careful out there," Astoria told Amy as she opened the door to the shop.
"See you tonight?" Sammy asked.
"Come by; we'll have dinner," Amy told her, and then closed the door behind her and tried to sink deeper into her raincloak. She walked more quickly than she intended toward the church... but at least the person that she was going to see at the church was someone she wanted to see.
"Tonight?" Alexander had asked when Amy told him of her own schedule. "I could do dinner or something. I have to do a visitation after that, and you know how I dislike being out after dark if I don't have to be."
"Dinner with me and Sammy, then?"
Alexander grinned. "Sure. I haven't seen the bouncy one in too long. Do people still call her Slammin'?"
Amy winced. "Not to her face."
Alexander laughed. "Okay, then I won't call her that again. See you tonight, Amy."
"Looking forward to it." More than he knew, sadly.
It was the walk from the church to the lab that was difficult. Amy found that she had to force herself to take each step forward. Surely he wasn't going to be any worse than usual, right? Ignore her other than to train something other than Glamour and to have her help with an experiment or two. Hopefully it would be all of the former and none of the latter... but that was too much to hope for. He was obsessed with his experiments.
Soon - too soon - Amy found herself in front of his door. Before she could even take a breath on his threshold, the door opened. "You're late."
"I'm sorry."
"Get in here."
Amy had no choice but to obey.
The door closed behind her, and Ribbon proceeded to pace in front of her as she took off her shoes and cloak and hung it on her normal rung by the door.
"The time has come," Ribbon said suddenly, still pacing.
Amy blinked at him, her face blank.
"Revenge! Silly girl! Have you been listening?!" he shouted, but then seemed to think better of it and took a calming breath. "Revenge will be sweet."
"Revenge?"
"Yes! Yes! Against one of those bastards that was at the Tower when our Master fell!" He was giddy as he related this. "One of them is staying at the inn in town. And because the Magistrate closed the road, they're stuck here! Perfect!" Amy's breath caught in her throat, but he continued on heedless of her discomfort. "So I finally have a task for you that will put all of your training here to use!"
He happily skipped off into the lab, leaving Amy with wide wild eyes. He poked his head back in when he noticed that she had not followed him. "Oh don't worry, I don't think they'll kill you."
Amy slammed her eyes shut and counted to three. When she opened them again, he was still in the doorway looking at her, though his face had lost the giddiness. "Don't make me kill them too." Amy was still frozen, still processing. "You know, I've never had the opportunity to prove that I wasn't bluffing about your parents. And your adorable little brother and sister. It would be a real shame if the farm were to burn to-"
"Stop!" Amy choked out.
"Ah, so you're still in there?" Ribbon said, his smile back but it was clearly vengeful this time. "Then you know I'm serious. We'll fortify you a bit, and then we'll go, I'll tell you who, and you kill him. Very simple."
Breathe. Out. In. "Will that release me from my task?"
He laughed. Laughed! "Oh, no. Of course not. As long as you work with me, everyone's safe. When you're not working with me... they're not safe."
"You said-"
"I said a lot of things, some of them were even true," Pabst cut her off, clearly enjoying the torture that he was inflicting. Amy didn't know that she could hate the man any more than she had two nights before, but it was certainly proven possible now. "And I do think that you'll cooperate, like you always have. I did tell you that you've been very helpful in my experiments, yes?"
Amy sighed. "Yes."
"Of course I did! I always appreciate the help." He beckoned her. "Come on, we must fortify you if you're going to do well even against someone who was a student not so long ago."
Amy leadenly felt her feet move one in front of the other. What was she suddenly signed up for?
She stood stock still as she was basically force-fed three potions, two of which she was well aware were completely untested. The other at least she knew worked like Pabst had wanted it to. She had his Fatigue-Killing potion enough times to know. That was the red one. The blue one was supposed to increase her ability to support summoned familiars and the green one was supposed to increase her ability in her weakest school: Sorcery. This thought unfroze her tongue. "I'm supposed to use Sorcery?"
"You're to make it look like your best school," her Master said as he stood back and watched her, frowning. He didn't elaborate as to why, and Amy bit her lip knowing that she wasn't going to get anything further out of him. And without any more information, she found that she was having to squash harder on her rising terror.
"Now, I think you're ready. I want you to go out to the wood to draw your initial runes and get your initial summons for this. You'll draw more at the site." Then he was leading the way again, this time back out into the rain.
Amy struggled to put on her raincloak quickly - it was always hard to put on a sopping cloak - and tried to catch up to Ribbon. He had set an extremely strong pace, and Amy had to run in order to catch up with him. In the driving rain, there was no way that she would be able to see him if she let him get too far ahead in the woods, and there were several clearings that he could be thinking of.
Thankfully, the one that he had chosen wasn't all that far away from his place, and he stopped and turned around to face her when he was on the opposite side of it. "Draw all three Sorcerous Runes here and generate your mana. You need to have everything in hand such that you could immediately summon quick Demons if necessary."
Though she desperately did not want to, she obeyed. She drew all three of the primary Sorcerous runes and powered them as much as she could, limited by her skill and the supply of mana in the forest.
"There you go," Ribbon said, his smile widening on his fat face. "You're set to go. Don't worry. I'll be watching from afar." He chuckled to himself, then he started on his way out of the forest. "Don't tarry too long. You want to be ready when they go on a walk. He'll be with a young woman, in violet. He'll be in green. Kill them both" Then he was out of sight, though she could still hear his laugh ring among the trees and raindrops.
They'd want to go on a walk in this? Then again, Pabst hadn't told her how he knew about them, only her instructions. He was probably right, as them not actually going on a walk would be far too convenient. For her, anyway. So that wasn't going to happen.
She took a deep breath. Just like practice, right? Only this time the familiars wouldn't hold their attacks if they were about to hit her. The penalty this time wasn't losing, it was death. Another deep breath. Then she forced herself to start walking. Once started, it was a lot easier to keep going.
She took in the sights and sounds of the rain among the branches and trunks. Then the rain among the thatched roofs. Like it was her last time walking through the wood, and then down that street. Like it was the walk to the gallows. It certainly felt like one. She had commanded the four Demons she had summoned to go around the nearest buildings so that they would not be immediately visible. The Imps she had trailing behind her, making a long line. Unless someone got fairly close to her, they wouldn't be seen until it was too late. Or so she thought.
She suddenly felt the twinge of alert. The Demons that were approaching on her right were engaged. Engaged with what, though? Another twinge of alert made her close her eyes, focusing on her familiars. The Demons on her right were engaged with a small cadre of Phantoms supported by... a Grimalkin? The ones on her left were... attacked by an identical force.
She had stopped walking, although she did not remember doing so. The Demons were not having the best time against their sudden adversaries, and she had already lost one of them. Her Imps alone would not be enough, even if she supplemented with a rune during the fight. She looked around, hoping to see Ribbon, hoping against hope that he knew that there was a problem and would tell her to abort, but she could barely see her hand in front of her face, much less anybody that might be lurking between - or on? - the buildings.
Another twinge, this time from the Imps in the back of her pack. She whirled, squinting into the downpour. More Phantoms; she could see their eerie outlines clearly through the rain, though not much else. They were mowing through her Imps (no matter that the Imps were swarming them) like a hot knife through butter. Feeling the last bit of her connection to the Demons fade away, she turned and ran.
When she felt the last Imp fall, she chanced a glance behind her to see if she could make out the ghostly outlines of the Phantoms, but she couldn't make any out. She hoped that was because they were too far away and wouldn't be able to see her either.
She looked around in front of her. She had reached the main intersection, where the fancy inn was, and looked around. Something was going on to the right; on the road toward the capital.
She looked behind her again. She still couldn't see anything. But she'd have to go back there if she wanted to hide in Astoria's shop, and she still didn't know where Ribbon was. And he held all the cards. She had to check out what was going on, much as she didn't want to.
She walked slowly forward onto the road to the capital, considering her options. She could draw another Sorcerous Rune, maybe even summon from it if they didn't know she was there, or she could run. Those were basically her best options. Not much... Maybe she should go and find Astoria? No... no. If she found Ribbon while with her, that would cause a huge host of other problems. It was best, if terrifying, that she just try to figure out what in the world was going on.
She had gotten close enough to see that there were definitely Phantoms among those doing what now she was sure was fighting, but couldn't see much else. Well, Sorcery wouldn't help her against any more of them, certainly. She briefly debated dismissing the Runes that she had left in the forest, but decided against it.
But what she saw as the scene before her became clear brought both her body and her brain to a complete and utter stop.
Pabst Ribbon had only two Golems that stood between him and four Phantoms and a Grimalkin. And both of those were now asleep as the Grimalkin cast Sleep. The Phantoms dutifully hacked through the unresisting constructs toward the rune where Pabst had fallen. The rune was glowing with power, but it looked like it wouldn't manage to produce much before the Phantoms were able to destroy it. Another Golem did come out, but it was promptly put to sleep.
"What?!" Pabst shouted as the new Golem fell and the Phantoms returned to slicing through the magical raised lines of his rune. "What do you want from me?!"
From where Amy was, she could barely hear the female voice as it replied. "I want you gone, Archmage's dog."
"No!" he shouted, his cries becoming more and more desperate. His eyes cast about and alighted on Amy. "Amy! Help me! On your brothers' lives!"
"None of that now," the voice said. Amy could barely make out movement beyond Ribbon. "You're not going to escape, so how would you take any revenge on her family?"
"I have... plans in place! If I don't notify the right people..."
"I've heard this song and dance before," the woman said. "And it can't be any more true now than it was then."
"Amy! Why aren't you helping me?!"
Amy rubbed at her face as if that would un-stick her tongue. Amazingly, it did. "They're all destroyed. Probably by her." There was no need for Amy to indicate who she meant.
"Save me!"
"You're not worth it." The venom from the woman's voice sent chills unrelated to the cold rain down Amy's back.
Ribbon's scream was cut off by the Phantom's sword slicing through his neck, separating his head from his body. Amy vomited on the wet ground. Then her legs unfroze and she ran directly back to Astoria's shop, throwing herself inside and slamming the door behind her.
"Amy!" Sammy cried as she came in. "What happened? You look so pale!" Astoria had come around from where she normally finalized sales and caught Amy as she stumbled.
"Amy, are you alright?" the older woman asked.
Amy leaned into her mentor. "No." She looked up into Astoria's eyes. "I need to go home. Now."
"The afternoon is waning, and it's still pouring out. And the blockades are up. There's no way you'd be safe if you tried to leave now," Astoria told her.
"You don't understand!" Amy said heatedly. "My family is in danger! I have to go protect them-"
"Why?" Sammy asked. "What is after them?"
Amy closed her eyes. "Servants of the Archmage. I failed, and now they will pay the price."
Astoria held her by the shoulders such that Amy had no choice but to look directly into her mentor's eyes. "Tell me everything."
So she did.
When she was done, the rain had lessened outside, but it had become so late that it remained extremely dark outside of the windows. Sammy had sat down heavily halfway through Amy's story, while Astoria never broke her gaze. She had told them everything. Everything that she had promised never to tell. Swore to him on the suffering of her family. But... he was gone. And now they would suffer for it. Through nothing that she had done herself. Just that woman.
"Did you recognize the voice?" Astoria asked when she was done. When Amy looked up at her, she saw that Astoria's hands were gripping the counter hard enough to turn her knuckles white.
Amy tried to replay it in her mind, but it didn't work very well. "It was hard to hear."
"Hmph." Astoria snorted. "We might be able to get some answers if we find her again."
Amy nodded. Then she shook her head. "I need to get home. I hope the blockades will be taken down tomorrow."
"We'll figure something out," Astoria said softly.
"Why don't you go and pray?" Sammy suggested. "We'll see you tomorrow bright and early and rested. We'll come up with something."
It took a moment for Amy to realize why Sammy had suggested that. But once she did. "Yes... I think I will do that."
She practically ran through the drenched streets to the old church. She didn't care that one of the priests was there. He was there. And she collapsed in his arms. And he held her there gently.
One thing did go right that day.
