Alphawolf69: the time period from the start of the last chapter is the present, which i guess you could say its the year 2007 and hence the reason for all the technology, and Sanctuary is located in the earth dimension. sorry for not clearing that up last chapter.
also, thanks to EisWulf, lindred, and ALEXISSA2 for reviewing.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Shizuru limped through the streets of Windbloom, headed for the little brownstone she'd built with her magic. All she wanted now was a hot, soothing bath and maybe a nice cup of tea.
For the past several months, she'd been altering Ryuu's lessons in swordplay with magical combat instruction from her Witch trainer. Between them, Nao and the knight had taught her to hold her own.
But Shizuru had never learned to like it. She hated fighting, hated the blood and the pain and fear of it. She'd wanted to be a paramedic, dammit. She'd wanted to save lives, not take them.
Apparently, fate had other ideas...
Boooooom!
Shizuru stopped in her tracks, frowning in the direction of the noise. It had sounded almost like a magical blast, but it was a little loud for combat practice. What...?
A distant voice howled, "We live in Obsidian! Obsidian lives in us!" Another boom followed.
Armored feet rushed up behind her. As she jerked around, Ryuu pelted past. "Move your ass!" he roared. "We're under attack!"
Instantly forgetting her battered body, Shizuru conjured armor and sword and raced after him.
They found the central square packed with battling wariors. The light from magical blasts glinted off armor and clashing swords as the constant rolling booms rattled windows.
Impossible as it seemed, Windbloom had been invaded.
But how had Obsidian's sorceres figured out how to create a dimensional gate to Suishouguu?
A blur of red plunged at Shizuru from her left. Instinctively, she whirled and threw up a shield spell barely in time to block a wave of death magic. A vampire in the scarlet armor of Obsidian's worshipers charged her, following up his magical asault with a vicious swing of his sword. She parried, bracing under the brutal impact, then blasted him back as she'd been taught. The spell sent him stumbling.
Shizuru followed, hacking at him with her conjured blade and raining spells againts his shields. Sensing something give in his magical defenses, she poured another blast into the weakness. His shield collapsed. With a yell of relief and victory, Shizuru plunged her sword into his chest. He reeled, tripping and falling on his back. Shizuru followed him down and twisted her sword in his heart, destroying her adversary without mercy. Her gorge heaved in revulsion, but she ignored it.
Decapitation and cutting up the heart were the only sure ways to kill a vampire. They tended to heal anything less than that.
Her opponent dead, Shizuru glanced around for somebody else to fight. The square was packed with armored warriors, all grimly intent on battle. Mercy was out of the question. The obsidians were incapable of it, and the Suishouguu didn't dare let any of them live.
Shizuru wanted to throw up.
Spotting another sorcerer, she went after him, ignoring her own fear. Fortunately, the sorcerers were all twenty first century people as uncomfortable with swordmanship as she was. Good thing, too. If they'd had anything like Ryuu's skill, Shizuru wouldn't have had a prayer.
Trying not to think, fighting not to feel, she hacked and blasted at her foes. All that mattered was keeping them from overrunning Windbloom.
Boom!
The magical explosion slammed into the side of her head, powering past her shields and sending her flying. She tumbled, her body rattling in her armor like pea in a tin cup before skidding to a halt. Something heavy landed on her chest, knocking the breath out of her with a strangled woosh.
Dazed, she looked up to see a sorcerer straddling her, one fist lifted. She tried to bring her sword, but he slapped the blade out of the way so hard, it spun from her hand.
Before she could summon a fireball to defend herself, his fingers closed over her visor and sent a spell burning into her helm.
It melted. Just vanished right off her head like evaporating dew.
Horrified and bare-headed, she looked up at the sorcerer. He raised his own visor, revealing a beefy face, sweat-slicked red hair, and razored fangs in a grinning mouth. "Hello there, pretty."
Terrified, she threw up a hand and blasted a spell into his face, but it splashed off his magical shields. Then a big hand slammed across her head in a slap that made her see stars.
Everything else went gray.
When her thoughts focused again, something heavy was crushing her chest. Her throat blazed with agony. Opening her dazed eyes, Shizuru realized the vampire lay on top of her, his hand fisted in her hair, his fangs buried in her neck.
And it hurt.
He's feeding on me! With a cry of disgust and horror, she lifted shaking hands and tried to call her magic for a spell. But the power answered in a thin trickle he didn't even seem to notice. Between the concussion and the blood loss, she was too weak.
He was killing her.
No! Not like this! Ichirou had lost too many people already - his wife, his daughter. It would kill him if Shizuru died, too.
She tried to struggle, but her arms and legs barely moved. He'd taken too much blood. Dizzy and frantic, she tried to draw on the power of the Suishouguu. Far above her head, sparks flared. For a moment, Shizuru thought it was her magic, answering at last.
The sorcerer jerked off her with a spray of blood. Dazed, she registered his gory mouth as he looked skyward. "The cup!" he yelled, terror in his voice. "Someone's destroying our cup!"
Overhead, light filled the sky in a silent detonation. The vampire astride her chest screamed as the blast hit him. All around her, the sorcerers shrieked. Burning magic rolled over Shizuru's skin, blinding her. She threw up her hands to shield her face...
The vampire's weight simply vanished.
For a moment, it was as of she'd been struck deaf and blind. There was no sound, no light, no sensation.
At last she heard someone groan. Someone else cursed. Shizuru blinked as the stars overhead slid into focus. Her attacker had disappeared, but the pain in her throat remained. Lifting a shaking hand, she probed the wound fearfully. Her fingers could feel nothing through the mailed gloves she still wore.
"Shizuru?" A familiar face loomed over her, framed by his open visor. Fear widened his eyes as he snatched her into his arms. "Oh my god!" Throwing back his head, Ryuu bellowed, "Healer! I need a healer!"
The word seemed to spin around her, and Shizuru let her eyes close as darkness swept over her.
"Shizuru?" A cool, slender hand cupped her cheek.
She opened her eyes, disoriented. She knew that voice.
"Nao?"
Her mentor smiled in relief as she crouched by her side. "Feeling better?"
Blinking, Shizuru realized she was lying on her back in the city square. Belatedly, she remembered the feeling of fangs sinking into her throat. The flesh under her fingers was reassuringly whole. It was as if she'd dreamed it.
Nao patted her shoulder. "It's all right, I healed you."
"Just in time, too."
She twisted her head around to find Ryuu crouching at her head. He reached down and ran mailed fingers through her tangled, bloody hair. "You scared me, brat."
Shizuru sighed and let her eyes close, suddenly axhausted. "Ara, I scared me, too."
-/-/-/-
There wasn't a single bruise on Shizuru's face as she stared into her bedroom mirror the next night, and her throat showed no sign that it had ever been ripped by the vampire's fangs. Nao had healed her completely. At least physically.
The nightmare's she'd endured all day were brutal evidence that the psychological damage was going to be a little tougher to overcome.
But if it hadn't been for Youko and the queen's knights...
Even as the invasion began, Youko, Midori, and several of the knights had gated off, following a location spell to the second of Obsidian's cups. When Youko destroyed it, the resulting magical blast had killed all but a handful of the invaders. Apparently, the survivors had drunk from the third cup, so the spell hadn't affected them.
They'd died anyway. The Magekind had fallen on them and wiped them out to the last fighter.
Unfortunately, Windbloom had lost warriors of its own. Three knights and a witch had been killed in the fighting.
Thus, tonight's ritual.
Frowning into her mirror, Shizuru summoned the magic. Transforming her cotton sleep shirt into a floor-length black gown, vaguely medieval in design. Rich velvet skirts spilled to the floor, while the gown's tightly corseted bodice was heavily worked with metallic silver thread. Eyeing its V neckline, she added a heavy necklace of silver and jet.
Shizuru smoothed her hands over her hair. The spell had coiled it into a complicated arrangement on top of her head, braided with silver cords in a style she'd copied from one of the other witches.
She hated funerals even more than she hated combat.
She stepped from her house to find a procession of Magekind winding past the house. Like Shizuru, all of them were dressed in black velvet of silk, the dark fabric heavily embroidered in silver or a scattering of jet beads. Picking up her skirts, she walked across her tiny lawn to join them.
"Hey, Shizuru-chan! Wait up!"
She turned to see a brown haired girl hurrying toward her despite heavy velvet skirts, accompanied by Nao and Chie Hallard.
Aoi dragged her into a fierce hug. "How many times do I have to tell you - ya gotta watch the teeth!" Her voice dropped. "You could have been killed..."
Touched, Shizuru hugged her back. "Ara ara, some overgrown tick is not going to keep me down for long." She gave Nao a grateful smile. "Especially not while I've got friends like you two." She stepped back and studied her friend. "How about you? Come through all right?"
Aoi giggled. "Hey, I'm married to Chie Hallard over there." She jerked a thumb at her wife, who watched with an indulgent smile. "She slices, she dices, she makes evil sorcerers cry like little girls. Nobody even got close enough to muss my hair."
"Hey know, that's an outright lie, Aoi," the knight drawled. "You made one or two cry yourself."
Nao moved up beside Shizuru. "I hate to interrupt the hyperbole, but we'd better get moving. We're holding up the procession."
-/-/-/-
They walked two miles, picking up more mourners as they passed castles, villas, and mansions, until at last they reached Windbloom's central square. Four flower-decked biers occupied its center.
If things had gone differently, Shizuru herself might be occupying one of them.
It probably wasn't a good idea to think about that.
Wiping her suddenly damp palms on her skirt, she followed the others as they trooped around the biers to form concentric circles.
The ceremony that followed had become all too familiar over the past months. First came prayers from representatives of the faiths the fallen Magekind had practiced, then the eulogies from friends and lovers.
Finally Midori and her sister Mai stepped from their places at opposite sides of the square. The former High Queen lifted her chin and scanned the crowd. "Centuries ago, we Magekind took a vow to Mashiro to use our abilities to protect humankind from its own worst impulses, even if it meant laying down our immortal lives." Normally, she prided herself on her use of modern slang, but for solemn occasions like this, Midori fell back into more formal cadences.
She spread her arms wide. "The four kept that vow last night in battle againts the worst threat we've known in all our long history. I honor their memory and their courage, but what's more, I make a vow on their biers: they will be avenged!"
Around Shizuru, the Magekind roared their approval as she lifted her own voice in a shout of agreement.
Midori turned in a slow cirlce, scanning the crowd, letting them see her fury. "Obsidian meant to mock Mashiro when he used those black cups of his to make his followers vampires. We killed him for his crimes, just as we've killed two thirds of his followers. But another third remains. As long as they exist, they can use the final cup to create more vampires. We dare not rest until we find the cup and destroy it - and with it, the last of Obsidian's spawn." Midori lifted her chin. "But make no mistake - we will succeed, just as we've succeeded againts the forces of ignorance, rage, and bigotry for centuries. And these heroes will rest in the peace they deserve."
The Liege of the knights raised her voice in a parade ground bark as she reached for the sword hanging at her side. "Knights, present arms!" Drawing her sword from its scabbard, she lifted the great blade skyward. Next to Shizuru, Chie drew her sword as the other Knights did the same.
"Witches!" Mai shouted, raising her ringed hands. "Join with me in sending our lost heroes home!"
Shizuru sent a wave of magic at the biers, her spell blending with those the other woman fired. The biers began to glow under the building enchantment, shining brighter and brighter until they merged into a white-hot ball of light. Abruptly the ball shot upward like a rocket to detonate far overhead in an explosion of dancing sparks.
Shizuru watched the magic fade with aching eyes. Beside her, Aoi sniffed loudly.
"Now, put aside your grief and listen," Midori said as she stepped into the vacant space where the biers had stood. Her black boots rang on the stone as she slid her sword back into its scabbard. The other vampires followed suit, swords rattling.
Lifting her head, Midori scanned the silent crowd. "Each of those we lost had been members of the Magekind less than ten years. Heed me well - I will lose no more of my children!"
She paused, letting the silence build. No one in the crowd so much as coughed. Satisfied that they were taking her seriously, Midori continued, "The councils have met, and it is decided. The most experienced Magekind will be paired with our newest recruits. The veterans' responsibility is to assist them in combat and ensure they have the skills needed to survive while we all hunt the last cup. And lest there is any doubt - these assignments are not a topic for debate." She looked at her half sister. "Mai."
"Yes, Midori." She threw her arms skyward and closed her eyes. Light burst from her fingertips. Far above the square, glowing slips of paper began to float downward like leaves.
By instinct, Shizuru put a hand out. One of the sheets landed in her palm, and she curled her fingers around it.
"Good luck," Aoi said in her ear, as the spell took her by the hand and began gently to tug. Shizuru followed the magical pull as, around her, other Magekind began to mill around doing the same.
I wonder who shizuru will be partnered with.
yea, its going to be natsuki...or will it? O.o
anyways please review