Phineas entered the now empty library, intent on retrieving a few items he had seen under glass the previous night.
There were magical wards placed on the items, though. He could defeat them in order to take the objects, but he knew that he could not defeat the alarm itself. Someone would be notified. He planned on being somewhere else when they arrived to check up on their treasures.
He could perform his necessary tasks without them, but he had been delighted to find these objects here. He was guaranteed success with these.
The first one he wanted was a tiny bronze globe. The globe's purpose was to mark the locations of all places of power on the face of the planet. By itself this was not entirely useful to his plans.
However, if he combined the function of the globe with the reading of the Nemetine Scroll these fools had laying around here, then he could actually cause the scroll to draw the power from those places…for his own use.
It was obvious that the caretakers of this school had no idea what these items were. Phineas had been absolutely shocked to see both of them here, and under such rudimentary guard.
He wondered how they had come across these objects of power. Not that it mattered, but Phineas wanted the answer to all questions. It was just the way he had always been.
But now was not the time for reminiscence. He reached out, prepared to shatter the glass separating him from the bronze globe…
…and kept reaching. Something was wrong. Something was happening.
He felt as if time was slowing down around him. No, not time…space! The air itself was becoming thick, his movements becoming more and more difficult. He had to push with all of his strength to advance even a millimeter.
Now the air was crushing in on him. "Whaaaaaat…?!" he hissed out in fury.
Then the air was knocked out of him completely as a crossbow bolt struck him hard in the back and erupted through the front of his chest.
Gray-black ichor exploded out of his wound and his mouth, then oozed down the front of his robes. A voice spoke then.
"Remember that arrow? That's the one you dropped in the hallway last night!"
Phineas, not quite in pain, but momentarily debilitated, struggled to turn his head. He saw that it was the school Headmaster who had shot him.
"I don't miss three times." He said. "Come on out everyone. Great work, Emma."
Hidden in various corners of the library, three other figures emerged. One was the Black man that had confronted him last night. The other was a dark-skinned woman, clearly a witch, who was softly chanting, even now holding him with bonds of thick, gripping air.
The final figure was a young man he had not seen before, but he immediately recognized the stink of a Hunter on him.
"The FIIIIIIIVE!" He roared. Seeing the Hunter gave him the strength he needed to burst free. He would have anyway, but he had planned to wait and recover a bit while the fools talked to him.
He would not wait while a Hunter was nearby.
"He's breaking free! HE'S BREAKING FREE!" The woman shouted, just as Phineas forced his way out of the localized pocket of air that had imprisoned him. In the blink of an eye he had crossed the room and had his hands around the witch's neck. He planned to twist her head off before she could utter any more fool spells.
But with only one more instant elapsed there were strong hands on him. Hunter's hands. Phineas was thrown across the room, colliding noisily with tables, books and chairs as he let loose a growl of frustration.
He stood up quickly and caught the axe that had just been thrown at him by the damned Hunter. They were so predictable. He tossed the axe away, annoyed.
"Emma, are you alright?!" Yelled the Headmaster as he loosed another bolt at Phineas. She did not have time to respond before Phineas snatched the bolt from the air and hurled it directly at the witch.
The Hunter caught the bolt and spun it in his hand as he made an astonishing leap across the library to stab Phineas with it.
However, the leap was not astonishing to Phineas, who had been expecting it. Before the Hunter could land, Phineas picked up a heavy table and swung it with all of his might, smashing it to splinters against the Hunter and sending him sprawling into the stacks.
"Jeremy!" The Headmaster screamed. Then he had no more time for screaming as a rough, freezing-cold hand closed around his throat.
"I'm going to tear you to pieces, archer!" Phineas screamed into the Headmaster's face.
Then he felt an explosion of pain in his head. Despite himself he cried out. The cursed witch!
He was being blinded with pain, but he could still see her blurred form gesturing and hear her incanting. He used the only weapon he had - the body of the Headmaster. He threw him with staggering force into the witch. The bodies both went down and the pain in his head stopped.
But then he felt harsh metal chain links wrapped around his neck. The were quickly pulled tight.
"Yeah, try this on for size, you maggot-looking bitch!" The black man had snuck up behind him and thrown the chains over him. "These dampening bonds will suck the magic out of anything!"
The man wasn't lying. Phineas could feel some sort of lethargy overtaking him. If he let this go on, it would wear him down to the point where any prepubescent witch at the school could overcome him.
He bucked wildly, thrashing and trying to reach behind him to claw the man. The two struggled violently, throwing themselves into shelves and tables, grunting and screaming as they wrangled.
Finally, in desperation, Phineas gathered his strength and leaped into the air, just to the edge of the vaulted ceiling of the library, hauling his assailant through the air with him. His plan was to land on this accursed Human and break every bone in his body, but before they landed the Hunter launched himself through the air, colliding with both of them and broke their fall.
Although his life was saved, the Human still landed badly and was stunned. Phineas immediately snatched the chains from his neck and hurled them behind him, across the room.
The Hunter didn't stop for a second. He lunged in and pressed his attack, producing a long knife from somewhere on his person.
Phineas had experience dealing with Hunters. He did not want to kill this one. He would be tormented by hallucinations for years if he did.
Instead he parried the knife blow, then reached into his cloak and withdrew a handful of red powder, which he threw into the Hunter's face. The powder clung to the man's face in a compact cloud-burst and seemed to fade into his skin.
"Glarrrrgk!" The man gasped, then fell to his knees, grasping at a nearby table to try to keep himself upright.
"AAAARRRRHHHHHHH!" Phineas yelled out. The blasted witch! She was awake again. He felt his brain being spiked with hot metal over and over again.
He decided that to stay here and trade blows with these people was foolish. While he could still function he grabbed his cloak and spun it around his body, triggering one of his many transportation spells.
And then he was gone.
The room was quiet for a long moment, except for Jeremy's coughing and retching.
Then Dorian groaned and picked up his battered body, quickly looking around to see what he had missed.
He saw Alaric laying on the ground, head cradled in Emma's lap.
"He alright?" Dorian called.
"He's fine." Emma said. She tried to restrain Alaric as he forced himself up, but he gently pushed her away and stood up, not without difficulty.
"You guys ok? Jeremy?" Alaric asked.
Jeremy was still coughing, but waving at them to say he was fine.
"That was Red Rhodian Sleeping Dust." Emma said. "You should be asleep right now. In fact, you should have been asleep for the next day, at least." There was some awe in her voice.
Dorian smiled. "I guess it's that Hunter's stamina protecting him."
"S-sorry." Jeremy croaked out. "I thought I had him…"
Alaric shook his head. "We all did. That's the second time he got away from us."
Dorian spoke. "We saw what he was looking for. Maybe if we study those…" He broke off and frowned, looking down. "Oh, no…"
"What is it?" Emma asked, coming forward to look at the spot. Alaric and Jeremy did the same.
"He got something." Dorian's voice was grave. He was looking at one of the glass display cases, which had been shattered in the battle.
"Crap." Alaric said, seeing what Dorian was looking at.
The Nemetine Scroll was gone.