Target: High Overseer

"Early in the morning." Emily finished the song, and looked around. Well... This is unexpected.

The entirety of the bottle street gang was on their knees in front of her, shaking in their boots. She was sure at least two of them had wet themselves. Is this a new power?

Well, if there was one thing her mother had taught her, it was to always act in charge of the situation. She stood up, causing a few involuntary flinches from the gang, and calmly asked "I take it you don't want me to do that again?"

"NO!"

"Please!"

"We'll do anything!"

So I've officially terrified a gang into submission. Uh... Where in the Isles was Thomas when she needed him?

She took a deep breath. "Slackjaw?" He froze, then got to his feet. "Uh, yes, miss, uh, my ladyship, ah, sorry?"

"You're still in charge. And, um, if you find any more of those runes, you have to bring them to me."

Slackjaw nodded vigorously.

"Oh, and you have to share your elixir with the kids who want it."

He frowned. "But, it's really hard to make OH GOSH IM SORRY!"

Emily sighed. "Then make them work for it! They will, they're desperate." She had a thought. "Oh, and treat them fairly. And report to me. Yes. Do that."

Slackjaw nodded again. She looked around the group again, awkwardly. "So, I'm going to go now... As you were."

She walked off towards the door, pondering what the heck had just happened. Did I just do empressing? She mused. That went well. I mean I won't be able to sing scarily at my subjects when I'm actually empress, but it's like a safety net. You know, for practice sessions. On gangs. With magic. My life is weird. She opened the door into Bottle Street and walked through it. Then stopped.

._.

Facing her was over a half dozen Overseers, gold masks glaring at her imposingly and blocking her into the thin hallway. There was silence, except for the door shutting behind her with an audible click.

Emily moved, reaching out and preparing to launch a grapple over the heads of the Overseers, but before she could aim properly, one of them began cranking some sort of music box, and her focus shattered, the notes painful, just as they had been the night of her escape, dropping her to the floor before the human barrier. One of them pointed and called out "Her! She's a servant of the Outsider! I saw her, heard her, using his power! Kill her!" It was the Overseer from before. However, one of the others responded with "If what you say is true, Brendan, she will have to be evaluated by the high Overseer. Fortunately, he is coming now."

Emily panicked. "Please." She whimpered. "You can't listen to him! I don't know what he's talking about!"

"Is that so?" A voice emanated from the back of the Overseers, who parted to let it through. Emily saw its owner, dressed in Overseer robes minus the mask, and knew who it was. "Campbell!"

"That's high Overseer Campbell, to you. I'd hope your mother taught you at least that, Emily Kaldwin."

There was some muttering amongst the Overseers at that.

"Tell me, Overseer Brendan." Campbell directed the question at the one Emily had sung to earlier, never taking his eyes off the empress' daughter. "What heresy did you witness this witch child perform?"

Brendan sucked in a deep breath. "She...sung." There was some snickering amid the Overseers. "No! You had to hear it. It should have been beautiful, yet something about it was horrifying! I was gripped with an irrational fear, a desire to cower before her and beg for it to stop, which was the response of the gang she was bewitching, but my will was strong enough to make me merely retreat."

"And what, pray tell, were you doing in a gang lair?"

Emily couldn't see his face, but she knew Overseer Brendan was grimacing. "I...well I... I was, uh..."

"He was betraying you." Emily cut in, realising how to do some good and ruin an enemy at the same time. "Consorting with criminals and betraying Overseer information. That's the seventh stricture he's breaking, isn't it? Or the third?"

Campbell chuckled. "Impressive knowledge of our code, for a heretic. I suspected as such, and came prepared." He snapped his fingers, and an Overseer brought forwards what looked like a fire poker with its tip coated in whale oil. With the flick of a match, it was set alight. Overseer Brendan recoiled as if struck. "N-no! Not the Heretic's brand! You can't! Not to me! I-" he fainted as two Overseers on either side of him gripped him, and, almost boredly, Campbell applied the brand to his face. Emily watched in horror as the mark was burned into his flesh, then removed and casually handed to a subordinate. Campbell sighed and wiped his hands on his uniform. "Now then, where was I-?"

"Oi! Chopper!" A stone thudded against Campbell's back and he spun round. Down the other side of the alleyway, a gaggle of over a dozen kids had congregated and began hailing the Overseers with rocks and half broken glass objects. Campbell growled. "What in the isles is-"

He was interrupted when a child fell on him from a nearby rooftop.

._.

The kid grabbed Campbell around the neck, gripping tightly and kicking the back of the man. With a start, Emily recognised Thomas.

"Emily!" He called, looking for all intents and purposes like he was trying to rodeo the high Overseer. "Get out! Use your grapple thingy!"

"I can't!" She yelled, the Overseers music still ringing in her ears. Desperately, she ran forwards, but Campbell got a grip on Thomas and pulled him down onto his knee, before throwing him towards Emily, the pair collapsing into a heap. "Stupid damn street rats and their stupid damn witch friends!" Campbell roared, unsheathing his sword. "The regent wants you dead, Kaldwin, but I won't mind adding others to the casualty list. I don't need to fill in paperwork for killing street rats!"

As Campbell turned towards the more numerous kids, Thomas coughed and Emily crawled up to him in concern. "Thomas! I'm so sorry, my powers don't work, I got a new singing thing but the Overseer music just cancels it out!"

Thomas retched a little, managed to utter. "Resolute to your tune, remember?" And passed out.

Emily looked up to see Campbell directing his men against the annoying children ("Why can't we have been given pistols? Just go up and stab them!")

And she began to sing. It was hesitant at first, almost completely drowned out by the Overseers music box, a tune that had started to become popular about the same time as the plague had swept through the city. "Ring a ring of roses, a pocket full of posies..."

At first, she couldn't tap the magic, but she began to block out the Overseers tune, focusing only on the little ditty running through her head, and eventually, the power began to bleed through. The first that she noticed of it was the other children, whose eyes went black as they began to chant along with her eerily, walking threateningly towards the Overseers, unwilling, however, to stray too close. The second effect was the panicky actions of the Overseers at the edge of the group, who began to huddle closer to the music box. Campbell whirled round to face her, his eyes widening. "What are you doing? Stop this madness!"

But Emily wasn't stopping. Realising how to silence the player, she dug her hand into Thomas' pocket, pulling out a white, Serkonos wood slingshot. Grabbing a pebble from the ground, she fitted it to the string and fired. Campbell dodged to the side, but he wasn't the intended target. The small chunk of debris flew to the Overseer with the music box, striking his hand. Reflexively, he pulled it away from the crank, hissing. There was a moment where the only thing audible was Emily's singing. Then the screaming started.

Get BOSS BATTLED! So to recap, Emily is usually incapacitated by the Overseer's music, but can resist it's effects with her own singing, and manipulte nearby children with it. Next weeks chapter will be the fallout from this, so please review and see y'all!