Forty-One || Puppets
Sunset cast sanguine light through the forest, leaving ruddy trails and twisting, elongated shadows in its wake. On its own it was a strange, eerie sight, but coupled with the deathly silence – no birds, no monsters, not even the rustle of leaves – it left an uneasy pall over the forest.
Mint had taken the lead, her remaining Halo clenched tight in her hand; she was using it cast a faint, wan light in front of them, although it wasn't proving terribly helpful. She was also starting to question her decision to take point. She didn't have any doubts that Rue could handle something if it tried to attack from behind, but she was finding herself less and less willing to be the first one to walk into whatever lay ahead.
"Creepy as hell out here," she growled. "I don't like this."
She waited a few seconds for a response.
"At all," she added.
Still nothing.
"How you far you figure she must've gone?" This time, she punctuated the question by pointedly looking over her shoulder.
Rue was still following her, moving at a cautious gait behind her – same as she was, so he wasn't falling behind – his gaze roving into the forest. But his stance wasn't as ready as she thought he should be, vaguely loose and inattentive. For some reason, that pissed her off deeply.
"Would you focus!" she snarled.
He looked up.
"I am focusing," he said. "There's nothing out here. I mean... nothing out here, that's concerning, but..."
He trailed off uselessly and glanced back into the woods. Mint glared at him and prepared to speak again.
"Elena went to see Mel, right?" Rue said, interrupting her before she could even start. "They must be partway out to the atelier, or else she made it there and maybe they're still hunkered down. If they're at the atelier, then they have Mel to help. If not..."
Right.
She turned forward and started to jog; then, a moment later, broke into a run. Behind her she heard a cry of surprise, and with a glance backward she saw Rue had started after her, running to catch up. Good. She felt better knowing him and that oversized axe-lute were with her, but if he didn't get his ass in gear she was more than ready to leave him behind.
She led the charge through the forest, tearing off the path and onto the road that led out to Mel's atelier, but shortly after they'd switched paths she heard something up ahead; a wild, crashing noise, something barreling through the foliage, utterly unconcerned with being heard. It was accompanied by yells and cries, and she slowed her run, turning to face the source, raising her ring in front of her.
Strange shadows twisted through the forest, first one, then two, something tall and wraith-like, the other short and solid. Both of them were winding their way toward her, apparently heedless of her presence, and she knew to take advantage of that. The Halo ignited, burning bright in her hand, and she angled into the trees, gathered strength, and–
"You!" Rue shouted.
Mint faltered and looked over to him and he staggered in next to her, coming to a hard stop and spinning on his foot to face the shadows. Mint looked at him curiously – and irritably – but he raised his hand and pointed. "It's them," he said, slightly winded. "The hoodlums."
Mint looked again, and now they coalesced before her; the tall and lean Blood, the short and sturdy Smokey. They were almost to where Rue and Mint were standing, and Mint took those few seconds before impact to look at Rue and say, very levelly, "And you don't want me setting them on fire why, exactly?"
But even in the odd, ruddy light and the deep shadows, she could see why; they were terrified.
Blood and Smokey erupted from the edge of the trees and split, both running in an opposite direction around Rue and Mint until they met behind the two and ducked. Rue looked over his shoulder at Smokey, cowering directly behind him, and shot Mint a quick glance. She shook her head and shrugged. He looked back down to the bandit.
"What's happening?" Rue asked. Mint was glad he'd taken the initiative; she had nothing on her mind but a lot of sarcasm and condescension, which would not be terribly helpful.
Smokey looked up, yelped, and ducked back down. Blood stiffened and turned to them.
"Oh hell," he growled, "it's you."
"Hey, asshat, you're the ones hiding behind us," Mint said. She raised the still-burning Halo and nodded to Rue. "Not too late for immolation."
He waved her down.
"I'm not in the mood for this," Rue said, addressing Blood. "Tell us what's wrong?"
Smokey shifted his weight and pulled himself even closer to the ground.
"There's– there's things out there, we was just mindin' our own business, an'–"
"An' that asshole shows up," Blood snarled. "Punk with the spiked-up hair. Made us give you that– that letter thing."
"Writ of challenge."
"That one."
Mint frowned. "Trap Master? Things? What kind of things are we talking about here?"
Blood and Smokey exchanged a glance and fidgeted. Blood spoke up first."
"They was like... human-lookin' things, but..."
"...but they ain't," Smokey said. "They're all covered up n' they don't move right. Like–"
"Like puppets," Rue said quietly.
"Puppets?" Mint grimaced. "You mean those creepy doll-things from Elroy's atelier?"
"And Yordaf's," Rue said. "It sounds like them."
"You know what they are?" Smokey asked.
"If I'm right," Rue said. "Did they come from deeper this way?" Smokey nodded, and Rue turned to Mint. "That's the direction the old town is in. It sounds like Trap Master's commanding those things- probably grabbed them from the cathedral."
"Well that's just lovely."
Smokey suddenly shrieked and dove into the treeline on the opposite side of the path. Blood moved to yell at him, but stopped and looked back the other way. He let loose a strangled yelp and jumped after Smokey. Rue and Mint didn't bother to see where they went; they spun to look in the opposite direction.
Shadows moved through the trees, no more than fleeting glimpses, and still far away. They lurched and twitched, walked in uneven staggers, their shapes appearing sometimes upright and humanoid, sometimes contorted and broken. Mint shivered.
"Great," she growled. "Just what I wanted to see today."
"Come on," Rue said, and he sprinted in front of her. Mint was almost taken aback by the way he suddenly moved, and was a few seconds in responding to his words.
They charged into the forest, slipping between beams of light and strange twining shadows, neither of them remotely bothering to attempt stealth. It didn't matter; even crashing through the brush, it seemed that the puppets were either unaware of their presence, or weren't bothering to react.
Mint got a better look as they closed in, and for a moment found herself confused. There weren't many, not that she could see, and their movements were erratic and uncoordinated. They were moving very generally in her direction, but not with any sense of urgency or even certainty.
She slowed down a bit, the fire in her ring subsiding slightly, as she processed how little sense this seemed to make. Rue must have had the same idea; his run was reduced to a jog, and then he fell back, in step with Mint.
"What the hell," she said flatly.
"I don't know," he responded.
"You actually fought these things before, right?" she asked. "Does this make sense?"
"I wouldn't know. But in the cathedral they were a little more..."
"Organized?"
"Driven was the word I was looking for," he said, "but organized is good, too."
Still, she saw he was tense, taut, nervous. Perhaps moreso for how they were behaving. If they were marching to attack, it would have been easier to determine what was going on, but as it was they seemed to be meandering aimlessly in their general direction, like the group of them had decided to go for a stroll.
Mint watched for a moment more, then gripped the Halo again. The flames burned hot once more.
"I'm gonna go kill 'em," she said, and without waiting for a reply she tore toward the things.
Within a few short seconds she was within range of them, and slashes the ring horizontally through the air, letting loose an arc of flame. It cut a swath through the air, sending off a haze of heat and light, and some of the small congregation of puppets twisted themselves around to face it. She heard an odd noise, a rattling hiss, almost lost beneath the roar of fire. Then they were struck.
The impact of the flame sent a few of them tumbling, their moldering clothes giving off fitful bursts of smoke. The remainder were just beyond the edge of range, and the fire burnt out just before reaching them, but now they were alert to her presence and didn't seem happy about it. She pulled back, drawing light toward the ring and casting the metal white, waiting for some kind of war cry. All she heard was the rattle and hiss, and suddenly they were moving fast toward her, almost gliding across the ground, their legs forcing them forward while their upper bodies contorted and twitched and snapped backward.
An odd coldness touched her chest. She shivered. Hesitated. Something was wrong here, more wrong than she'd realized, whatever these things were they weren't living, or not something that could be considered living. They moved wrong, but she'd things move wrong before, this was something different, more fundamental, something deep inside that had been shattered and pieced back together but the pieces weren't right they'd been cut apart somehow and whatever was animating them twisted the air and twisted their insides and something had gone wrong, desperately wrong, what was this and why was she here and what was she possibly doing–
"Mint! Left!"
"What? Woah!"
One of them was swinging its body at her, using the momentum to try and lash out with its oddly limp limbs. Mint pulled herself to the side and ducked just in time for another one to try to strike, its arm sweeping so close over her head she felt the breeze of it. She leapt up and threw herself back, snapping her hand forward and firing off a bolt of collected light. It crashed into the chest of one of the monsters, erupting into a blaze of light and hurling it backward onto the ground. It fell, a ragged hole blown into its thorax, trailing a cloud of ancient dust and shredded cloth.
Suddenly Rue was next to her again, swinging his blade in a low arc and slicing through one of the creatures, ripping a long tear in its mid-section and causing it to collapse. To his side came another one, reaching for him while he was still finishing the swing. Mint lunged. She didn't have time to gather another thread of magic, but she did have time to slam the ring solidly against the back of its head. She pulled away as its body wrenched hard from the force of the blow, and it staggered blindly to the side. Rue spun and caught it with the flat of the Arc Edge, cracking it against the monster's head. Its neck snapped back, its body wheeled, and Mint kicked it solidly in the chest, sending it to the ground. She didn't take any chances after that; she raised the ring, summoned another blaze of light, and brought it down like an axe against the thing, cleaving its torso.
Three down– four. One of the ones she had struck with her fire, the one that had taken the brunt of the attack, wasn't getting back up. The others were, though, and she stepped back and to the side, falling in place alongside Rue.
"What is wrong with these things?" she asked quietly. It wasn't an expression of disbelief; he seemed to have a better idea of it than she did.
"Their souls were broken," he said.
"They have souls." That was an expression of disbelief.
"Shattered ones," Rue said. "They... I think they used to be human. The souls. The bodies are artificial."
"Well that makes it so much more palatable."
But at least it explained something. Whatever magic was holding them together couldn't have been natural. Now that she could identify it, she could make sense of it; the twisted cords, the impossible knots, the almost tangible necrotic stench of whatever dark bindings kept them together. She'd never encountered anything like that before. She didn't relish the idea of doing so again.
"You okay?" he asked.
She shot him a glance. "Seriously?"
"You look pale."
"You aren't exactly rosy yourself, buddy."
"I know. That's why I asked."
Ah.
She flashed a grin. "Just wasn't expecting that," she said. "But if you're asking if I'm ready to kill some stuff? I'm ready to kill some stuff."
They moved.
The two of them were a whirlwind of blazing flame and ignited metal, Mint drawing heat and light and striking in flashes and charges, Rue ducking and slicing beneath and around her blows. They stayed near each other, striking independently but always keeping watch for the other's blind spots, intercepting attempted blows from the puppets, redirecting their movements, sending them staggering when they got too close. Together, it didn't take them long to sweep out the rest of the gathering, and only a few moments later they both came to a stop, breathing hard, as the last of the creatures collapsed.
Rue looked quickly across the field, then detached himself from his place near Mint and leapt toward one of the downed beasts. Mint cocked an eyebrow, briefly baffled, until a moment later she saw it twitch, and as though pulled by strings its upper body lurched into the air, trying to drag the rest of itself upright.
"Watch it!" she shouted, but her warning came too late and too unnecessary. Rue was already bringing the blade down on the thing and caught it before it could make much more headway, smashing it into the ground and slicing a ragged scar through its chest. He yanked the blade back and staggered a few paces before coming to a stop, panting. He looked at the puppet, then over to Mint.
"It's dead," he said thinly.
"Yeah, I got that," she said.
He pulled the strap of the blade free and slid it onto his back. Mint almost questioned why until she got a better look at him. He'd moved with impressive precision and power, but the skirmish had taken a lot out of him on a more than physical level; he was pale and shivery, and if he'd tried to travel while still holding the axe he wouldn't have made much headway without losing his grip.
She grimaced and approached. "Geez... are you okay?"
He waved her off. "I'm fine," he said, pressing his other hand against his forehead. "Just give me a minute, I– I don't like dealing with these things."
Yeah, clearly.
"Well," Mint said, trying to force them back on track, "looks like we know the direction they were coming from and I'm willing to bet that wasn't all of them."
He grimaced and shivered again, but nodded. "Right, of course. Lead the way."
She was already on it. She moved slowly at first, making sure Rue was keeping up, and once she was sure she wouldn't lose him she broke into a swift jog, quick enough to make headway but not too fast to lose agility. The forest grew a little thicker back here, and the sunlight had turned the shadows dark and ruddy, the worst possible light to see by. The last thing she needed, knowing those puppets were moving about, was to trip over a root or somehow smash face-first into a tree.
She ignited the Halo, but only just enough to cast a faint glow about the ring itself. It wasn't bright enough to see by, but that hadn't been the point; she wanted to keep just enough of a beacon so Rue wouldn't lose her in the gathering dark, but not enough to attract the attention of any other puppets slithering about in the forest. Not before she was ready to catch their attention.
They moved through the darkening forest, forced gradually to slow down as the light faded, but just around the time the sun set and the last dying light bathed the forest, she heard it. She stopped moving and spun.
"You hear that?"
Rue melted out of the dark and arrived alongside her, his silhouette barely visible in the light cast from the Halo. He looked past her, in the direction she'd heard the noise, and nodded. "Yeah," he said, little more than an exhalation. They didn't bother to discuss it further; without another word, without another gesture, they moved immediately in its direction, and the noises became clearer, more distinct, and with the noise came...
...light?
"More puppets," Rue said. "But there's also..."
"Magic," Mint said. "Yeah, I feel it."
"Mel?" They were fairly close to her atelier by now.
But Mint shook her head. "Not strong enough," she said. "Or... weird enough. Mel does weird things with her magic. It's a little more... unrefined."
Their discussion was interrupted by a cry; "Mom!"
Then another sound, a blade tearing through fabric, a dull thump of something heavy and lifeless hitting the ground. "No worries," said another voice. "Keep up the barrier!"
Another flare of light. Another thump, another slash, another limp impact. Mint made a final sprint through the trees, charging light and heat into the ring, and exploded out into a small clearing. She didn't have much time to put together the whole tableau, but she did land roughly in front of one of the puppets, and lashed out, smashing it over the head with her ring. It collapsed to the ground, and she kicked it hard in the chest for good measure, sending it rolling away.
There were others there – a great many others, and a great many of them were no longer moving, either. What remains of the puppet hoard was focused mostly on the source of light and sound that they had heard from a short distance away: Mira, short-sword gleaming faintly as she hacked her way through every puppet that got too close, and Elena standing behind her, palms out, holding fast a thin red barricade of light.
Mint stood still for a moment, taking it in, jaw slightly slack.
"What am I...?" she started, but suddenly Mira's gaze flicked to hers, and they made eye contact for a fleeting second.
"Come on!" Mira shouted, and Mint snapped back to herself, brought flame to her ring, and dove into the fray.
A few seconds later she was aware of another sound, hacking and slicing and beating, and knew that Rue had arrived just behind her. She chanced a glance over her shoulder and saw him fanning out in the other direction, striking through the gathering of monsters closer to Mira. And as she looked, she saw Mira striking through them as well, moving with practiced grace, wasting no effort and taking no frivolous steps. Behind her, moving with far less practice and far less grace, Elena kept hold of the magic barrier, holding the puppets behind them at bay, sometimes allowing the barrier to implode and using the magic snap to blast them back.
She needed more practice, but Mint had to admit it wasn't bad.
The flurry of blows between the four of them started to slow, not because they were growing tired but because the rush of foes was abating. Mira had clearly been going at this for a little bit before their arrival, but now with Rue and Mint assisting, and coming from angles the puppets weren't looking for, the remainder of the force was decimated. It was only a few minutes from their arrival at the last of the creatures fell, and Rue and Mint performed a final clean-up to ensure they would not be standing up again.
When they were through with their check, they turned to Mira and Elena. Mira was glistening faintly with sweat, breathing hard, her hand gripping her sword with white-knuckle intensity. Her free arm was wrapped around Elena, who had very nearly collapsed against her, eyes closed, breathing shallow and quick. Rue fitted the axe onto his back and approached immediately.
"Is she okay?" he asked.
"They didn't touch us," Mira said. "I think she's just exhausted." Mira pulled her a little closer.
Mint looked Elena over quickly, then back to Mira. "Since when could she use magic?" Mint asked.
Mira shook her head. "I didn't know either. Apparently, our dear friend Mel has been giving her a few lessons." There was a twinge of irritation in her voice – clearly, these lessons were nothing she had ever approved of – but when she spoke again it came out as a sigh of relief. "And good thing for it. I'm out of practice."
Mint cocked an eyebrow. "Practice?"
Mira smiled gently, wiped the blade off on her pants, and slipped it carefully back into the sheath. "I ran the tournament circuit when I was younger," she said. "The Lavender Blade. How I met Rod, actually." Her smile turned slightly wistful. "I wasn't half bad."
"Half bad," Rue repeated, the hint of a laugh tickling his words. "You seemed to be handling yourself pretty well. What–"
"Lavender Blade?" Mint interject. "What, did you use scented weaponry to confuse your enemies, or..."
She laughed. "That would have been quite a gimmick! But no, no." She ran her hand through her bangs. "I dyed my hair."
"Huh." Mint squinted, looked Mira over, tried to imagine her ten years younger, purple-haired, fighting enemies off with a short sword and a grin. Having just seen her in action, it wasn't that much of a leap.
"What happened?" Rue pressed.
"Not much to say. Elena hadn't come back, I went out to retrieve her from Mel. She was visiting that little Poppul Purrel of hers, and your sister– still asleep," she added quickly, although Mint had tried not to make any expression at the words. "We were just on our way back when we saw two rather hirsute men being chased by these... creatures. They ran off when we showed up."
Mint pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned slightly. "Blood and Smokey," she murmured.
"Ngh," Elena said. She struggled slightly against Mira's grip and opened her eyes. "M'fine, lemme go," she said, wriggling out of Mira's arms. Mira released her hold, but didn't look any less tense. Nor did Elena look particularly better rested; she was shaky on her feet and almost lost her balance. Rue managed to reach forward and catch her, holding her steady. She took a second to get her balance back.
"Did you see anything else?' Rue asked. "Or... hear anything? They said Trap Master was commanding those things..."
"No, although it looked like they'd been chased from elsewhere. Either way..." She looked out into the forest. "I don't hear anything else."
"I don't feel 'em, either," Mint said. "I think that was everything."
"I doubt that was everything," Rue said, "but that might be all they were planning to do. Come on," he addressed the last to Elena and Mira. "Klaus is worried. We should head back to town and see if we can't figure this out."
Mira nodded, then turned her attention to her daughter. "Elena," she said softly, "how long has Fancy Mel been teaching you spellwork?"
Elena fidgeted slightly, balling the edge of her dress in her hands. Rue let go of her and stepped back. "Maybe... a couple of months now? Around the beginning of summer."
"Why didn't you mention this to me or your father?"
Mint and Rue exchanged a glance that suggested they probably shouldn't have been standing there for this impending talking-to. But they couldn't leave in good conscience, not without the Adlers and certainly not while there might be more of those puppets in the offing. So they both stepped a little further back, giving them space.
"I– I dunno," Elena admitted. "Dad doesn't really like Mel an' I was kinda– kinda scared that if I told him she was teaching me he wouldn't let me go see her anymore. And it's kinda cool learning how to do this and I didn't want to... not. Not learn. So I..."
"Stop," Mira said. "You shouldn't have hidden that sort of thing from us."
Elena looked down. "I'm sorry..."
Mira shook her head and clapped Elena on the shoulder. "It's fine," she said. "But I would have liked to know much sooner. You can't expect to keep your skills up just by talking to Mel for an hour or two a day."
Slowly, Elena looked back up. Mira smiled and removed her hand from her shoulder.
"I don't know about magic," she said, "but what you did just now, to keep us safe... I'd like to see more of that. I don't think your father would object, either." She looked over her shoulder, in the general direction of Mel's atelier. "His main problem is aesthetics and eccentricity, not practicality."
"She is weird," Mint offered.
Rue nodded and stepped forward. "We'd better get going before it gets too dark," he said, and shot a quick glance at Elena. "You look like you need some rest."
"Probably," Mint said. "Just learning magic and holding your own in a fight..." She sighed irritably and shook her head. "That was pretty neat, not gonna lie."
Elena smiled and stood a little taller. She still looked enormously drained.
They started off back toward town, Mint casting a pale light around them from her Halo, all of them keeping fairly quiet and alert for any further sounds in the darkness. Even when Mira spoke up again, her voice was low and barely above a whisper. "What were those things?" she asked.
"Remains from some of Elroy and Yordaf's experiments," Rue said. Neither he nor Mint wanted to elaborate more than that.
"That's... quite a while ago," Mira said. "You said that–" She made a noise that implied she was biting back some impressive vulgarity. "That– man. Trap Master. That he might have been involved?"
The fury in the back of her voice was impossible to miss. Mint nodded. "Very likely."
"Then that's not the end of it."
A pause. "No," Rue said finally. "Very likely no."
Mira nodded and said nothing more. Mint could almost feel her burning.