Loyalty of the Tiefling

by JHMLYNDALE

The events of Mask of the Betrayer, but with the twist of Neeshka having managed to follow her harbour-boy… who is hers rather than Elanee's. Prologue, 25 chapters, Epilogue.

17. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Okku soon returned from hunting down the last of the Gnoll guards and together they moved along the short path to the Academy building. Neeshka gestured to them to stop and then crept ahead and up to the doors. She pressed one ear against these and intently listened before gesturing the others to join her. Okku rumbled softly at the continuing needless delays as he felt the antics of the mortals in being cautious were becoming annoying rather than merely irritating.

"Sounds quiet," Neeshka said softly. "But quiet in a normal way rather than as if people were lying in wait."

Blake nodded and carefully pushed the door open. Inside was a scene of quiet and peace and order only spoiled by the corpses littering the hallways. Blake knew there had been a coup and knew Red Wizards were inclined to plotting against and killing each other on a day to day basis but those were still a surprise. Even if they had no respect for the defeated or for Jergal and proper burial this was still unsanitary. In some ways it was a welcome surprise though as it eased Blake's guilt over having left the corpses in the Shadow Veil. At least there they were not rotting and were not in the place where people were living and working and studying.

"Are those fresh?" Blake murmured to Okku. "Or have they left the results of their coup to rot for days?"

Okku glanced at Blake with an expression that showed he had trouble believing the little-one's nose was so insensitive. Before the bear-god could take another sniff of the air to make sure and reply an old Red Wizard popped his head out of the nearest classroom. Strangely rather than ducking back or shouting for help he emerged into the hallway and faced them. "Good. I've found you first. I'm Djafi, one of the masters here. Nefris asked th…"

His words cut off as Neeshka stabbed him in the back and his attention was drawn to the tip of her blade protruding out through the centre of his chest. She twisted the blade slightly and shoved him forward with her other hand as she pulled back so he fell forward and off her rapier. The red of his robes became a deeper one as the blood soaked them and he died at Neeshka's feet.

"Maybe we should have let him finish his sentence?" Gann commented.

"Why?" asked Neeshka calmly, stepping around the corpse and back to Blake's side.

"Hmm. Why indeed," Blake smiled. "He seemed loyal to Nefris which if anything makes him worse than Araman's faction. If he knew enough about her plot to be any use to us then he would have to have been deeply involved enough to deserve death."

"I was not saying we should spare him," Gann replied, "just wondering what Nefris had asked. Still to sort through whatever half-truths he would share would have taken a great deal of time."

"Hrm, and at least we have finally made a start on killing them," Okku growled softly.

Gann looked around. "The Red Wizards seem to have little hesitation in continuing their teaching even as corpses fill their academy."

"And I have little hesitation in continuing to fill their academy with corpses," Blake replied, "even as they continue their teaching."

Although he doubted anyone would notice, and doubted even more that anyone would care if they did, Blake stooped and grabbed one of the old Red Wizard's ankles and dragged the body around the corner of the doorway back into that classroom. That done he led the way towards the right-hand corridor, paused, and tilted his helmeted head as he listened. "I think I hear a thumping coming from that way," Blake commented quietly, pointing up the corridor.

"Not exactly hard to hear that, harbour-boy," smiled Neeshka.

Blake nodded. It was a strange noise and seemed almost a combination of blacksmithing and mattress beating. "Let's investigate."

"It matters little to me, little-one, which Red Wizards we slay first," Okku rumbled.

They started up the corridor but suddenly Neeshka stopped and crept across to the door to their right. She brought her ear close to it and then crept back to the others where they were waiting. "Talking about souls in there," she murmured. "Sounds like a lesson in progress."

"I expect we will hear a lot about that," muttered Gann back, "unless the headmistress… former late headmistress… was working on something the rest of her Academy was not involved with."

"Even so," Blake replied quietly, "let us interrupt this lesson."

Neeshka nodded and crept back to the door. Knowing that fast movement caught the eye she opened it with no more speed than if it had blown open. As she did the sound of the Red Wizard teacher lecturing his students became clearer, and that he was continuing unabated showed he was either a fine actor or that Neeshka's caution had been successful. She slipped forward, her body language so neutral as to let people's attention slide past her despite her attractive figure, and casually drew her sword as if that was no more unusual a thing to do in a classroom than looking at a scroll or picking up a pen.

"Now what is the first thing you want to do when extracting a soul?" asked the teacher, looking around the room for students who wanted his attention or were hoping to avoid it. Seeing one of the former he pointed. "Yes Odjit?"

"Gag the subject?" Odjit replied hesitantly.

"Glurk," said another student.

"Pardon?" the teacher demanded, annoyed at the strange interruption. He was about to find out if any of these idiots knew better than Odjit and knew you had to restrain the subject first and then gag them. "What do…"

The teacher stopped as he saw the 'glurk' had been an involuntary comment caused by a Tiefling having just slit the throat of the student nearest the door. Before he could recover from that surprise the doorway was filled with a huge colourful bear-spirit that then charged across the classroom straight at him. Students and desks went flying as Okku charged and Blake winced slightly at the noise as he followed. One student was already trying to get up again so Blake brought his sword down and across to decapitate him. Meanwhile Okku had reached the teacher before the man could mutter more than a few words of whatever spell or final prayer had come to his lips. Both forepaws came up as the bear-god drove them into the man's chest with all the force of his charge.

Whether the cracking noise came more from the Red Wizard's ribs or from the blackboard he was crushed against was unclear as both were shattered as Okku smashed him through it and against the wall. The results though were gruesomely apparent as the man suddenly resembled what happened if a cat left a dead mouse where its human could step on it. As Okku whirled around away from the corpse Neeshka danced across the room to kill her second student with a less messy but no less fatal stab through the heart and Gann flicked his spear out and into the side of the head of the fourth and final student. They looked at each other for a moment before Blake shrugged with a slight clank.

"And you were worried little-one," chuckled Okku, satisfied with the speed of their victory.

"I still am, my friend," Blake replied, to the bear-god's surprise, "that went well but even in this place they might eventually notice the sound of fighting."

"Bah," said Okku impatiently, "let them notice, they shall fall all the same."

Blake nodded and frowned at the flattened corpse of the teacher that Neeshka was searching. "I have been trying to be more sensitive to that 'Dreamer's Eye'," he asked, turning to Gann, "but… did that man look evil compared with that first one? Or am I misinterpreting?"

"No misinterpretation," Gann smiled, "part of the reason I wondered if we should let him finish speaking was that, though his spirit was not unstained by his deeds here, the predominant feeling was one of sadness. This fellow though I have no qualms over the swift and gruesome nature of his demise."

Neeshka rolled her eyes at Blake as she returned from searching the flattened corpse of the teacher. At least Okku's noisiness meant Blake now knew how she felt when her efforts at being silent were spoiled by his clanking. "The teacher had some keys," she reported, jingling the ring of them, "could be useful."

"Perhaps," Blake smiled, "but locks don't have a tendency to resist you. Something they and I have in common."

"And both they and you have been picked by her," added Gann. "Though I think your pleasure in that is the greater."

Blake nodded to this as they left the classroom to return to the corridor. Glancing up it he frowned slightly. "That doorway doesn't have a door."

"Then we had best investigate this 'way'," replied Gann striding across and through it. Blake hurried to join him and found him standing amongst desks and bookshelves with a slightly stunned expression. "This place feels strange… the haze in this room, it's thick with spirits."

Blake could feel the curse writhe within him as it also felt this and tried to grab at the haze like a thirsty man trying to catch raindrops. He took a moment to beat it back down with the flail of his will and then looked at the Golem standing near the centre of the room. This looked like those he had seen aiding the Red Woman in the dreamscape of the Betrayer's Gate. The Golem stared back at Blake, the magics of its mind not complex enough to let it realise that bear-gods and people with bloodstained weapons were something unusual to react to.

"What is this place?"

"You are in the Soul Depository within the Academy of Shapers and Binders on Thaymount in Thay," replied the Golem in excessive detail before continuing more usefully. "Its purpose is the storage, cataloguing, and loaning of souls donated by academy personnel and alumni."

"I…see," said Blake, his lips tightening as the Golem revealed how much this Academy and Nefris' studies were the same. He'd had a vague hope that the shaping was more the sculpting of Golems and the binding was more aimed at Elementals and other non-sapient things. "Are there any rules here I should know about?"

"Visitors are permitted to withdraw a single soul per party. Those who attempt to leave the premises with more souls than is permitted shall face the depository's defence mechanisms. Any who stand in the depository and do not observe silence are subject to punishment by its defence mechanisms."

"Hrm," Blake grunted, "farewell."

With that Blake spent a few moments moving around the room examining the runes scribed on the stones and trying to judge their potency. The Golem ignored this just as it had ignored everything but the direct questions before. Despite what it said about observing silence it even ignored Blake's hiss as he found a pot with a lever and realised this was for viewing the souls contained in the spherical housings.

"The defences seem powerful," Blake muttered quietly to the others. "As tempting as it is I don't think we can simply empty this place of the imprisoned souls."

"What then?" frowned Gann. "Do you suggest that we just leave them to be exploited here?"

"No. I suggest we finish killing everyone in this Academy," Blake growled, "and then put all the soul housings around some of the explosives we'll go back to Mulsantir to acquire. Shatter the soul housings to free the souls in the same explosions as we use to flatten this place."

"Ah," nodded Gann. "A most thorough plan."

"May the Red Knight bless it," Blake replied. "For now though let us find out what the thumping is. All ready to kill more Red Wizards?"

"Always," Okku rumbled, loud enough to draw a look from the Golem though it did nothing more than twitch as it tried, and failed, to decide whether this spirit-bear was a visitor to be punished or a noise to be ignored.

Blake led the way out of the Depository to a door a short way up the corridor on the opposite side. Now they were closer he thought he could hear cheering and conversation as well as the incessant noise of impacts. He gave Neeshka a slightly puzzled look and she smiled at him before taking the lead and calmly opening the door. She slipped through and into the room and they could see the thumping was a pair of Golems inside some sections of cage smashing each other. Around this arena were Red Wizards enjoying their sport and cheering on their chosen fighter.

Neeshka casually put her hands behind her to hide her sword and shield and have the added bonus of thrusting her chest out a little. Blake stayed a little to the rear of her and kept his sword-hand and the sword still in it also hidden by her body. One of the Red Wizards noticed they'd been joined by more people and turned around to happily leer at Neeshka as she smiled at him and kept his attention. She'd not had much use for most of Ophala's lessons as she'd decided to remain a thief rather than take a job at the Moonstone Mask, but she remembered enough and it could be useful being able to keep a man off guard with a few subtle poses.

"Come to enjoy the festivities?" the young Red Wizard said, eyes going up and down Neeshka and noticing her shapely form rather than the armour fitted to it.

Blake took a step to his left and swept his sword up and past Neeshka to stab it into the Red Wizard's gut. "No."

Dispassionately the strategy of her using her Sune-given beauty as a distraction appealed to his belief in the Red Knight. However a lack of passion was not what he felt when he was around Neeshka so there was extra spice in punishing the leer. As the others noticed the different sounding thump of metal into meat and the noise of breath being forced from a body they also turned. Neeshka jumped to her right with her Rapier slicing up and out and across the Red Wizard there. This was only a shallow wound to keep that opponent off balance, rather than the more fatal wound Blake had begun his assault with, so her enemy staggered back a little. Blake gave his sword a quick twist in the first Red Wizard's guts and then heaved it upwards and tilted it to dump the rapidly dying young man onto the floor.

"Quick, stop the Golems fighting each other," one of the students cried, "set them on the intruders."

Gann had entered the room but without the advantage of surprise that Blake and Neeshka had he'd not found any foes within spear reach. His arrival did hasten the retreat of one though and Gann continued to move left in pursuit. Another Red Wizard though had recited some command words and the two Golems within the cage stopped fighting and turned to advance towards Blake. He considered magic and then he considered that he was between them and the door and simply took a step to the right. The Clay Golem's dull gaze followed him as it started to pass through the, to it, narrow gap out between the cage sections.

Then there was a happy roaring as Okku charged, splintering the door as he brushed it in passing, and slammed into the Clay Golem. It staggered and fell backwards and forced its former opponent in the cage back as Okku bowled it over. For a moment the bear-god considered biting at its face and throat but Okku was familiar with 'mud that moved' from how the energy of the spirits had shaped his burrow. And this was not even good Rashemen mud so he even less wanted some in his mouth. Instead he simply began treating it like any other mound of clay that he wanted to make a hole in and started digging like a badger towards where, from the Keeper of Doors, he expected to find this Golem's spirit core.

A quick spear thrust from Gann did little but cut some cloth and make a Red Wizard squeak and flee faster. Neeshka was more fortunate in her follow up strike and managed to flick the tip of her sword across that Red Wizard's throat. Her foe collapsed, blood leaking fast from between the fingers of the hands she had grabbed at her neck with, and slumped to the floor to bleed out into a puddle. Ignoring the Red Wizard's last few coughs as blood seeped through the cut between jugular and windpipe Neeshka looked to find the next threat to be removed.

With a hiss of metal sliding over metal the Blade Golem that had been fighting the Clay Golem thrust its forearm forward and at the busily digging Okku. The huge blade that formed this forearm stabbed deep into the bear-god with the strength of the Golem and the magic used in its construction. Okku roared in more anger than pain even with how his twisting in reaction slightly worsened the wound. The way this also moved the Golem a little showed that its blade was trapped for the moment and as this was part of it the Golem was unable to simply let go of its weapon.

Blake remembered all the work Grobnar had put into repairing and improving 'Construct' and though Blake had been rather busy with the repairing and improving of Crossroad Keep itself he had paid some attention. Golems of this design were formidable opponents but there were a few weak points Grobnar had mentioned as he cheerfully babbled on about his attempts to rectify these in various unlikely ways. Entering through the opening in the side of the cage sections Blake stabbed his sword up and through the gap in the Blade Golem's armour at its waist. There was not that much inside the armour to be wounded by this but there was enough.

As Blake moved a Red Wizard made a slight mistake. He'd already been in the process of trying to aim a spell and he automatically turned and took a couple of steps to try to keep his line of sight. The bars of the cage sections were quite widely spaced but they could still get in the way of the magic. Unfortunately for him this brought him closer to Neeshka and concentrating on Blake distracted him conveniently for her. She pounced and her rapier sliced cleanly across the back of one hand as it gestured. The spell fizzled with the pain and as the tendons parted and the fingers were no longer working to make the right shapes.

Neeshka slid in closer as the Red Wizard began to turn in shock and grabbing her sword hand with the other drove her elbow back towards the man's face. With her fine chainmail that blow would have been bad enough but Neeshka's elbow neatly passed to one side so it was the rear corner of her bracer-blade that made contact. The blade cleaved through teeth and tongue and cheeks and the Red Wizard choked as the ruin of his mouth filled with blood. He crumpled and Neeshka blooded the spikes on her shield as she used them for the first time and punched the broad central prong of the forward set of three into the back of the Red Wizard's skull.

The Blade Golem's blade was still trapped in Okku as Blake pulled his sword back out of it and stepped back a little. It tried to turn and swat at Blake with its other arm and a fist that could still crush bone but despite the restricted quarters inside the cage sections Blake managed to dodge. In turning with its blade still trapped the Golem had needed to extend that arm to one side and Blake counterattacked and brought his sword down on its elbow. His skill and that of the smiths who had forged and then improved his sword proved equal to the task of overcoming the skill of those that had built the Golem. With an unpleasant squeal of metal Blake's sword sheared through the joint, though that unfortunately both freed the Blade Golem and left the blade embedded in Okku.

Gann meanwhile had a problem. He had managed to strike home and a Red Wizard had rapidly died from a heart ruptured and sliced by the metal of Gann's spearhead. The other though had managed to flee through the door at the back of the room and now there were two man-sized Golems entering through that same door. Of more immediate concern though was the very large and spear-proof looking Iron Golem filling the gap between the cage section and the wall of the room. Gann had the feeling that as well as his spear being useless none of the gifts the spirits lent him would do anything to that Golem either, and with the fighting within the cage blocking that direction that only left retreat.

Glancing to his right before returning his attention to the Blade Golem's determined efforts to punch him Blake muttered. "That looks like the same sort as the Caretaker, and that looks like the ones from the ruins under the barrow…"

"Less talking," Neeshka chided him, "more hitting."

Blake nodded. "Help Okku."

There was a clang as Blake swept his sword around and back into the gap at the Blade Golem's waist. The narrow tongues of metal coming down at front and rear from the torso to the hip-section resisted rather than be cut. But Blake's sword was heavy and the blow precise so they still bent a little and the impact seemed to jar the joints out of alignment. Sometimes people were quite proud that some armour could not be cut and didn't realise that even if the edge didn't slice in that still left the sword blow as the equivalent of being hit with a metal bar. Striking with the flat of the blade also prevented the sword from cutting but did not prevent it from being able to break arms. As the Blade Golem moved to strike back at the retreating Blake there was a noise of screeching metal and it seemed a little slowed.

Okku had exposed the Clay Golem's spirit core with his efforts but this had turned dark as its energy was expended in the failed attempt to keep the Golem moving and intact. Stabbing her sword down into the pile of dirt that was all that was left of this Neeshka used both strong slender hands to grab the severed Blade Golem forearm where it stuck out of Okku. Behind her more clanging showed Blake was continuing to batter its owner back and bracing herself Neeshka pulled and then pulled harder as the blade proved stubbornly embedded in Okku. Her boots slipped slightly on the remains of the Clay Golem as Okku had done a good job of turning it into loose fragments, but she easily kept her balance and the blade slipped free. Okku slumped rather as his form shimmered and his spirit-form began healing the long deep hole in it.

Gann was still retreating and seeing that Okku could benefit more from some aid from other spirits he hopped quickly back a few steps to beseech them. Healing energy flowed out from the Hagspawn and into the bear-god whose form visibly brightened and regained some colour. The Iron Golem made a noise but seemed unable to speed its plodding but inexorable progress to take advantage of Gann's distraction. Neeshka nodded to Gann, then looked at the forearm she was still holding and a wicked smile spread across her pretty face.

"Jump right!" Neeshka said, turning towards her harbour-boy.

Trusting his sweetheart implicitly Blake moved, which was fortunate as trusting that he trusted her Neeshka was already charging. She could not get up much speed but the well-muscled thighs and rear, whose curves Blake so adored, let her put a considerable amount of power into driving the Blade Golem's own blade forward like a spear and through its torso. The Blade Golem staggered and as it tilted back and began to fall Neeshka let go of the forearm and calmly slid back towards where her sword was. As the Blade Golem fell onto its back there was another grating of metal as this impact drove the blade jutting from it a few inches back out of its torso and the tip of it almost as far into the floor of the room. Either Neeshka's blow or this extra injury was enough to finish the Golem.

This was good but of more misfortune was where Blake's jump had taken him. The Thayan Golem had been entering the cage sections from to the right of him and moving as he did had brought him rather close to that foe. It grabbed at Blake's sword-arm and managed to get a good grip and to show it was stronger than it looked. Blake was still a little off-balance from the sudden jump and wresting with the Golem to free his arm or turn to strike at it with the edge of his shield was keeping him that way. He scowled at the Golem as it returned this with its perpetually impassive expression despite how the magic energy of Blake's Death Armour began burning at it.

Having squeezed its way down past the cage sections the Iron Golem began to turn the corner but then was smashed back against the wall as Okku decided he was recovered enough to butt his head into this large opponent's midsection. There was a clang like an armour-smith dropping an entire cartload and despite his preoccupation with his own fight Blake winced. That was very noisy so he just hoped that the Red Wizards elsewhere in the Academy would still assume that was yet more of the Golem fighting rather than something unusual.

The Imaskari Golem hesitated in confusion. It had been entering the cage sections by the gap nearest the door at the back of the room and had been intending to attack Blake. But other-target was now closer with how the two of them had moved and was perhaps the greater threat from its actions and since first-target was now being fought by ally-Golem. Other-target did not have sword in hand so was perhaps vulnerable so the Imaskari Golem moved to attack it before it could return to full-threat ability. The hesitation and the moment it took to make the decision was too long though.

Neeshka pulled her Rapier out of the remains of the Clay Golem and gave it a quick flick to shake off a small clod of clay that had stuck to the blood on it. Then she dabbed out with a speed far beyond that which the Imaskari Golem could hope to counter. It was not a slow Golem but Neeshka was naturally very swift and deft and still had the benefit of her harbour-boy's magic to further improve her skills. Quick fast stabs flickered into the gaps between the Golem's torso and arms and between its upper and lower arm and with each strike the magic of her sword discharged and disrupted the magic that formed the shoulder and elbow joints.

It tried to fight back but moment by moment its arms were moving less well and the less well they moved the easier Neeshka found it to strike at the joints. The slight glow at the ends of the physical components and between them began to dim as the magic dissipated under the assault. The Imaskari Golem swung a punch that would have been desperate had it the emotions to feel despair and the force of its own blow proved too much as one forearm parted company with the rest of it. Neeshka twisted slightly to avoid the projectile that forearm had become and stabbed out and into the other arm's shoulder again. To her satisfaction it only took a few more strikes into that before that entire arm fell off.

Even with his Death Armour wearing at the Thayan Golem's hands Blake found himself unable to turn enough in its grip to hit it with his shield and with how it was pulling at him he could not afford to lift a foot to kick out at it. However he was able to turn enough that the edge of the cage section was within reach so he could firmly brace his shield and shield-arm hand against that. With a heave and a twinge from his sword-arm he managed to pull the Golem off balance and face first into the cage section. The Thayan Golem lost its grip as it bounced back off that pillar and staggered to a stop. Blake shimmied his sword-arm a little to shake some feeling back into it and then moved to the attack.

A sound like creaking hinges came from deep within the Iron Golem as it brought one huge fist down with ponderous power into Okku's shoulder. The discoloration of the impact spread through the bear-god's spirit form down his leg and back and up his neck but Okku's only response was to chuckle and return the blow. Spirit-sharp claws tore great rents in the thick metal of the Iron Golem and unlike how Okku's spirit-form was already regaining its normal colour these rents did not begin to heal. The Golem stumbled a little and Okku reared up as he was happy to have finally found an opponent large enough to wrestle. Metal creaked as Okku got a good firm bear hug in place and began to squeeze and crush.

Gann was not sure how he could help as there was no room to stab past Okku even if he thought his spear could make any difference. Blake seemed to have the advantage in his fight as he steadily hacked the Thayan Golem apart, being careful to shear off small lumps and slivers rather than risk his sword becoming embedded. The Thayan Golem had tried to grab at Blake again but now Blake had a little more room he was using the extra reach his sword gave him to drive the Golem back against the wall of the room. Gann nodded to himself and decided he might be of more use where Neeshka had begun sweeping her sword through the Imaskari Golem's waist.

As at shoulder and elbow there was no physical joint there and with each sweep and each discharge of magic from her Rapier the magical force keeping the Imaskari Golem's torso and hips together diminished. It moved incautiously as Neeshka swept her sword in again and its torso and hips twisted out of alignment before the magic reformed. Then Gann's spear stabbed out and into its waist. Neeshka pouted slightly as she had to pull back from her attack with Gann now being in the way but they soon got each other's rhythm to keep up a constant assault.

With a slightly pathetic noise of protest the upper part of the Imaskari Golem fell off the lower part as its waist finally gave way. For a moment the legs stood there but then deprived of the source of power in the torso the magic of the leg joints vanished and they came apart and fell in a heap. The torso and head wobbled about a little on the floor as the Imaskari Golem looked about and moved the upper arm that was its only remaining limb. But it could do no more than wobble.

"Finish it," Neeshka said, bounding past it and towards the back room.

Gann frowned at the command. He'd barely accepted that Blake had this habit without Neeshka also starting. But he shrugged and crouched to shove his spear up into what had been the lower end of the Imaskari Golem's torso. The wobbling increased in intensity as the Golem reacted to this impaling and as Gann kept on withdrawing and stabbing like a man trying to clear a blocked horizontal pipe with a stick. He was quite relived there were no unpleasant fluids or screaming like if he had been doing this to a creature of flesh. At the same time however this lack did make it difficult to judge how much damage he was doing until quite suddenly the head and upper arm fell off the torso as well.

=x=x=x=
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Creeping cautiously through the doorway into the back room Neeshka looked suspiciously around. Wizards could be tricky with their ability to become invisible and to throw harmful magic around. And though she was glad she had a harbour-boy who was not as reliant on magic to be dangerous that didn't mean she had lost sight of how a moment or two to prepare could greatly aid most Wizards. This Red Wizard had had more than long enough, but Neeshka chuckled softly to herself as she heard a noise and realised the girl had used that time to hide under a table rather than get ready to fight.

Neeshka paused. There was the risk that dragging this Red Wizard out would result in surrender and pleas for mercy and, despite what Blake had said about no mercy and no survivors, he would still probably feel bad about killing someone who had surrendered. He was also 'traditional' enough that the person being female would make that worse. And there was the risk that the apparent cowering was a trick and a trap.

So Neeshka decided to save her harbour-boy the decision and the risks and instead smoothly threw a Blastglobe underarm to fill the whole area under the table with flame. The Red Wizard screamed as her robes and flesh caught alight and the flames ate through his eyelids to blind her. Fortunately for her those screams also drew the flames in with her breath to scorch her lungs and give her a swifter death.

=x=x=x=
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=x=x=x=

The sound of female screams drew Blake to rush in through the doorway despite the Thayan Golem still having some ability to move. His face moved from concern to relief as he saw Neeshka was uninjured and then to shock as he saw the furnace like appearance of beneath the table. "What happened?"

"She saw me," Neeshka smoothly lied, "but I think she misjudged her fireball and how much room she needed for it to get out from under there."

Blake slowly nodded. "Ouch," he breathed before turning to look back out into the other room at the squeal of metal. "Though I am glad she drew Beshaba's attention rather than you."

Neeshka allowed herself a small sigh of relief that her harbour-boy had accepted the explanation and had been distracted by whatever that noise was. Following Blake she was just in time to see Okku give one last wrench and with another squeal finish tearing the arm off the Iron Golem. It staggered and Okku swept a paw into its legs and it fell. As Gann had noted the gap between the cage sections and the wall was quite narrow for a Golem of this size and in falling and twisting it managed to wedge itself securely and trap its remaining arm.

Okku pounced. The impact wedged the Iron Golem even firmer and the weight of the bear-god held it down and hampered its efforts to free itself. Then Okku started to use the fact he was not quite as broad as the Golem and so had more room to move in these restricted quarters. One great paw came down onto the Golem's chest, claws tearing at the armour metal there and the blow buckling it in slightly. Then Okku twisted back to bring the other paw in and down on almost the same spot. More metal tore and buckled and Okku continued to alternate blows and to crush and cut the Golem's torso in.

It was fortunate for the bear-god that he was no longer a bear of flesh as his battle lust drove him on and drove his paws again and again into the Iron Golem. The ragged edges of the wound he was creating were tearing at him almost as much as he was tearing at his foe and his forelegs were shimmering and reforming almost constantly. The deep door-hinge creak noises from the Iron Golem became more and more frantic sounding as Okku relentlessly continued until finally the spark of animation left it.

Whether it took Okku several more blows to realise the Iron Golem was destroyed or whether he had realised but was making sure of the kill was unclear. "A fine diversion, little-one," Okku rumbled as he withdrew.

Blake nodded as he looked at how much of Okku's forelegs were still reforming rather than being uninjured. At least though they were reforming rather than being bloody and with Okku having stripped his flesh to the bone in his battle fury. "Hopefully not a costly one, that was noisy."

Okku grumbled as Blake turned his attention to the Thayan Golem and hitting it a few more times to stop the last of its twitching. Blake could understand why Okku had been so enjoyed the fight but finding these Golems made him wonder what other surprises might be lurking in this place. Hopefully Tymorra would continue to bless them with good fortune and victory but he was still concerned.

There were no other doors in the corridor before it reached a cross-corridor. Neeshka crept ahead and peered both ways down this before waving them forward. To their right on the far side of this corridor were a couple of doors and it seemed better to Blake to deal with them before the other side of the Academy. He moved carefully to the nearest door and listened before nodding at the sound of normal conversation. It was awkward opening the door with his sword still in his hand but Blake preferred that inconvenience to the alternative of sheathing it.

Four Red Wizard students had been chatting away but they turned as whatever clank from Blake's armour drew their attention. One smiled in a rather over-confident and more than rather psychotic manner as he saw them and what he thought was an opportunity for some fun. Even the sight of Gann and Neeshka moving to flank Blake and of Okku looming in the doorway behind them did not diminish this smile though his friends began to look a little uncertain.

"The headmistress is dead," tittered the Student, "the band on killing visitors is lifted."

The other students exchanged glances but before they could decide whether to follow their friend's lead or try to restrain him it was already too late. With a lack of tensing and preparing and visibly aiming that made the motion look almost casual Gann's spear stabbed out and sank deep into the Red Wizard's gut. The young man crumpled around the blow and started to fall as Gann just as smoothly withdrew his weapon and spoke.

"Actually we're invaders."

It took only another moment for the other Red Wizards to get over their shock as this was not the first corpse or the first friend they had seen killed but that was again already too late. Blake swept his sword up and across and putting his back and waist into the blow managed to messily decapitate another of them. He'd not been as precise as Gann and caught a little of the chin rather than his blade cleanly cleaving through the neck but his strength was sufficient. Neeshka allowed herself a 'tsk' of disapproval at the lack of neatness before her Rapier flicked out and inflicted a few painful wounds to a third Red Wizard's face to draw her hands to it and leave her chest open for the follow up blow that slid between her breasts and into her heart.

Gann stabbed out again and into the fourth and final Red Wizard's shocked and open mouth. He was glad to find that metaphor was not as inclined to trap his spear as bone was; this blow had not worked so well for him against Wyverns and other thick skulled foes but these students were merely thick headed. As Gann withdrew Blake pulled his foot back and then drove one Mithril toe-capped boot into the side of the first Red Wizard's head. There was a crunch as the metal met the thin bone of the temple and the youth's soft sounds of dying pain ended with that noise.

Okku grumbled from the hallway where he had been unable to do more than watch. There seemed equal parts annoyance at being a spectator and irritation that when the little-one and his mate and the annoying Hagspawn could kill these foes with such speed that the little-one was still concerned about 'tactics'. Blake's intent to be thorough was commendable but it ill suited Okku to not simply roar his rage and his challenge and try to draw the Red Wizards to where they could be all be slain at once. With some more rumbling Okku turned and padded down the hallway to the next door along.

Hurriedly the others followed Okku as he nosed the door open and, entering the room, cast his baleful yellow gaze around it and across the four students and the teacher lecturing at the front of the classroom. To Blake's surprise the arrival of a bear-god did not seem to draw much notice. The students seemed too concerned with the consequences of not keeping their focus on the teacher and the teacher to be regarding their arrival as unworthy of note.

"The arcane triad is your greatest ally when working with souls…" said the Red Wizard teacher, continuing with the lesson.

"And my teeth and claws," Okku growled, "are my greatest allies in stopping you doing this."

"You are disrupting class…" sneered the Red Wizard teacher, his arrogance preventing him realising what serious peril he was in.

"And we shall disrupt it further," Okku replied, rumbling deep in his massive chest, "foolish Red Wizard…"

With that Okku sprang forward, shouldering desks and a couple of unfortunate Red Wizard students aside as he charged. Wood cracked as the desks struck each other and as joins popped free. The Red Wizard teacher had just enough time to fling an arm up defensively and so Okku's teeth closed on that rather than his face. In some ways it would have been better for the Red Wizard if Okku had been less controlled as the bear-god could easily have bitten that forearm off with one snap of his jaws. Instead though Okku restrained himself so his teeth 'only' sank deep and he 'only' crushed the bones severely and he left the arm attached.

Okku swung his head to the side and up and the Red Wizard screamed as his mangled arm twisted in Okku's mouth in the instant before Okku released him. He thudded into the wall with a crunch of ribs and slid down it to the floor. The Red Wizard's students were still reacting and the two on the floor were still slightly dazed from having been flung there and by the desks that had landed on and around them. One of those that had kept her seat was beginning to stand but before she could do more than plant her hand on the desk in front of her and start to take her weight on that and her legs rather than her rear Blake had moved.

The Red Wizard student thumped back down onto her seat and then back off it as Blake swung his sword backhand and the edge caught her across the eyes. Thin bone around the eyesockets shattered as the blade sliced through that and the eyes and the bridge of her nose and cut back into the skull almost as far as the ears. Blake pulled his sword back and let this and the Red Wizard student's fall free his sword again.

While Blake was killing that one Gann had not been inactive. He'd taken a few short steps through the scatter of desks to where a Red Wizard student was trying to push the desk that had landed on him aside. Gann swept the butt end of his spear forward like a man back-paddling and the iron bands sheathing that end crushed in the student's skull before he could do more than wonder if he had noticed something.

The death of his classmates had not taken long but it had occupied Blake and Gann long enough the other Red Wizard student that had not been sent to the floor managed to get up and scramble between the rows of desks towards the wall. There he watched as Blake stabbed his sword down and at the other fallen student. Desperate hands were raised to try to fend this off but they barely seemed to slow the razor tip as it sliced through them, scattering a few fingers, and plunged into the student's heart. Blake twisted his sword and began to withdraw it and the surviving student thought he saw a chance. The bear was dealing with Master Atabe, the Hagspawn was too far away, and the armoured man had his sword in a chest so perhaps now he could flee.

Rushing down the gap between the desks and the walls the Red Wizard student was surprised when the pretty Tiefling stood aside to let him pass. Then for an instant he was surprised he was surprised as why shouldn't someone as slender and as Demon blooded as that get out of his way? That surprise and his fear carried him on a step or two before the pain registered and he felt a blood damp fire across his belly. He vaguely realised as he collapsed onto his knees and one hand that she had let his own rush draw his body across her sword. Trying to ignore the agony and the squishy dampness of his intestines against the fingers of his other hand as he tried to hold them in the Red Wizard student fought to not pass out or discover if you could vomit while disembowelled. The door was so close so if he could just get a little further then perhaps someone would see him and perhaps they would find him a healer rather than simply laugh at his predicament.

It was an impressive act of willpower to not collapse but ultimately useless as Neeshka nearly soundlessly slipped in and, bending gracefully at waist and knee, drove her bracer blade into the back of his skull where it met his neck. The Red Wizard student fell flat onto the floor and into the puddle of his own fluids as he died and made a far neater corpse than the one Okku had made of his teacher. Where Neeshka had made one clean cut and then hidden the result under the student's body Okku had been rather more messy as his claws had torn the Red Wizard's guts out and strewn them to one side.

The smell in the classroom with the ruptured intestines and the bowels released in death was most unpleasant so, even if the air in the corridors was only barely less pungent, Blake carefully shut the door tight as they left. Thankfully the initial stench there had dissipated a little and had not been replaced by too much decay. Blake wandered down the corridor, cautiously looking around the corner into the left-hand corridor that led towards the entrance and down the stairs they passed. There were more stairs at the end of the passage but these led upwards and as Blake peered up them he looked impressed as he realised this must be the tower and was reminded of how far Neeshka had climbed on the outside.

"Probably best to finish sweeping this floor first," Blake commented quietly, "and the tower is high so I think downstairs next rather than up." He frowned. "Though I am not sure we can finish this floor. It looked a lot larger from the outside."

"What of that door?" asked Gann, also quiet.

"Some conversation," Neeshka replied, moving from where she had taken the chance to listen at it, "a few voices, and not very loud."

"Still no sign they have noticed our actions?"

"Harbour-boy!" Neeshka said, in mock shock. "Red Wizards noticing something as perfectly normal as death and dying screams and roars of rage?"

"Your lady has a point," smiled Gann, "well, four if you count both horns and the tip of her tail as well. Expecting Red Wizards to notice their fellows being slain is like expecting a farmer to notice the constant clucking of his chickens."

"And they seem to pose as much threat to us as the chickens to the farmer," groused Okku. "And the farmer would not be as cautious entering their run."

"I have not been suggesting they would care," protested Blake, more to the two mortals than the bear-god, "simply that because killing each other is so normal they would be alert for if someone intended it for them. But as long as they remain oblivious let us take advantage."

"So this room first?" Neeshka asked, sidling up to the closer doorway.

Blake nodded and his sweetheart smoothly pushed the door open. The voices became more audible as she did and they seemed to have not noticed this subtle motion, or to pay much attention, until something, probably Blake's armour, made enough noise to break their discussion. For a moment the four Red Wizard students just looked at the three intruders and the bear-god looming behind them. Then one spoke and made Blake wonder again how these people could be Wizards with such a lack of intelligence.

"There are no slaves allowed on school grounds, so you're fair game."

The chinstrap of Blake's helmet was the only thing that prevented his mouth hanging open too far in surprise. "Are you a complete moron?" he asked, stabbing his sword out and into that student's chest just below his breastbone. Blake heaved his sword up and tilted it so the rapidly dying student slid off and onto his back. "Do you really have slaves running around armed and armoured with a bear-god fighting alongside them?"

"That would explain the number of corpses in the hallways little-one," Okku rumbled, Neeshka having to dodge as he charged past her.

Blake staggered slightly as lacking his darling's speed, and being preoccupied by his puzzlement and with dumping the student, he failed to move clear. Of course if being brushed against was enough to stagger Blake then the effect of Okku's charge on his intended targets was far more dramatic. The bear-god clawed and snapped with speed and brutal power as the trio went sprawling and in almost less time than it took Blake to recover they were nothing more than lumps of meat and offal. Okku nodded his great head in satisfaction while Neeshka, showing her excellent sense of priorities, checked the shattered corpses and crates and furniture for anything nice.

His beloved's movements were much more pleasant to look at than the remains of the students so Blake tried to distract himself with those in the time before she finished and they could leave the room. Moving back to the corner he looked again down this corridor and could see what was likely the other doorway into the Soul Depository on one side and a couple of doors on the other. Neeshka slipped past him and to the closer door where she listened for a moment. A frown came to her pretty face and she reached into her pack to withdraw a small mirror on an extending stick.

Blake recognised this as something she used to get different angles on trap mechanisms and that it had been quite surprising how much could be seen in it. Whether it was just good workmanship or had some magic as well even Neeshka was not sure as the way she had acquired it had not let her ask the previous owner. Or rather not without that owner realising why it had gone missing and where it had gone missing to. She cracked the door open and slid her mirror-stick through the gap and squinted slightly at what she could see. Okku rumbled mildly at the wait but Neeshka ignored him as she silently withdrew her mirror stick and put it away. Then to Blake's shock she suddenly plunged in through the door.

Despite the speed his concern lent him by the time Blake caught up it was over and Neeshka was standing over a Red Wizard student with a neatly slit neck. The stick of chalk lying near her hand and the scribbling and rubbing out on the blackboard showed what had fatally distracted this girl. Neeshka grinned in triumph as Blake wiped off his sword so he could scabbard it and look at the blackboard. The equations and flow of the logic was rather baffling though.

Gann took the chance to peer into the next room and returned with a puzzled expression. "There are Mephits in there," Gann reported as the Red Wizard student choked and drowned in her own blood at their feet.

"That would tally with this," nodded Blake, "something about order from chaos and that Mephits are chaotic. Does seem familiar…" He reached into his pack, withdrew the lab journal Neeshka had retrieved from the headmistress' room, and read for a few moments as the girl by his boots finally finished dying. "Yes, this does seem one of the experiments designed by Nefris for manipulating souls."

"Then we should destroy it!" Okku roared, casting a dirty look at the student's corpse as he realised what she had been working on.

"I… would… agree with you my friend," sighed Blake, looking between blackboard and book, "but there is that inscription. If I am reading this right the experiment here is designed to repair a soul that has been splintered. To use the principle of 'sympathy' so making order from the chaos of the Mephits will resonate to re-order the fragments of soul to their former less chaotic state."

"Hrm, as sorry as I feel for that soul, little-one, I am unsure if trying to restore it is our best course," Okku murmured. "Best to not stain our paws with this sort of magic and instead trust whatever gods it worshipped have mercy if we free it from that housing."

"If the soul was worthy in life I am sure they would," Blake said, looking uncomfortable, "but I must confess I was not thinking in terms of mercy or compassion for this splintered soul. That you thought I was shames me as I was actually considering how to get the door in the tower open and if we needed to complete this experiment and use this soul as one of the four keys."

"Rrrr," growled Okku. "I dislike this talk of souls as something to be manipulated."

"As do I," Blake replied, "but if the door is as tough as Neeshka says then this seems the only way."

"Perhaps, but perhaps not," rumbled Okku, flexing his huge shoulders, "even if she could not scratch it I could, and could do more than just that."

"Of that I have no doubt but, with respect, I do not think your claws would bite very deep, and although your stamina would let you eventually wear though it with even the slightest scratches that might take longer than we can afford."

"Very well, little one," sighed Okku. "I trust you and your mate and your judgement of her judgement of the door. And better this is done by you rather than by Red Wizards who would exploit the knowledge."

"Thank you for your trust, my friend," Blake replied, turning back to the blackboard. "As much as Oghma values all knowledge I do agree there are some things where the cost of learning is too high."

A few minutes of intense study ended with Blake frowning at the pedestal and then going into the other room to frown at the lever sticking out of a box on the floor. "I think the experiment is set up and ready to go, and it is as simple, or as difficult, as separating the Mephits by type."

"I expect we could fit them through those bars," replied Gann, "though it would be difficult to grab them from the other side."

A Mephit made a rude noise at Gann and flew an intricate little series of dips and turns and climbs. The noise and the movement combined to convey the message that Gann would find it difficult to grab them on this side as well. Gann looked calmly at the small flying creature and it made another rude noise at him and showed him its arse. "Do they have to be alive?" Gann asked, turning to Blake with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

"Not according to the equations," replied Blake, "and it would make them easier to catch and fit through the bars if they were not." The Mephits fluttered a little more anxiously until Blake continued. "But… there is another method that, unless they become too annoying, we shall persist with."

With that Blake moved to the lever and, glancing at where the Mephits were, pulled on it. Beams of multicoloured magic joined the obelisks around the room and struck the two Mephits closest to the lever. There was a brief glow and then the pair of opposite type found themselves where the other had been so the balance was less even. With some obscene gestures the two Mephits hurriedly flew off away from the bars dividing the room and out of range of whatever that had been. Blake ignored them to pull the lever again and managed to further sort the Mephits. But then by the third attempt the Mephits seemed to have got the idea and at the last moment one flew away and another flew closer so the two Blake swapped were of the same type and he did not improve matters.

From the noises this provoked the Mephits found this amusing and Blake was sure they would find it even more amusing if they managed to make him swap them back towards being more evenly mixed. "Herd them?" he suggested tentatively.

It was unfortunate that the village Blake grew up in was a swamp village and that their domestic animals were restricted almost entirely to pigs that did not require much open space and were very happy with table scraps and the nice soft soil to root about in. Had there been any grassy fields for sheep around West Harbour then Blake would have had more experience in telling the difference between things that could be herded, like sheep, and which were rather more unbiddable, like pigs.

The Mephits did their best to evade the attempts to corral them. A few times Okku, Neeshka, and Gann did manage, briefly, to succeed in keeping all but the sort Blake needed away from one side of the bars but that success was spoilt by those on the other side. By their nature Mephits could not cooperate for long but they could for long enough that one of the wrong sort could escape from the trio before one of the right sort came close to the other side of the bars to be swapped. This went on for a while with the Mephits having much more fun than anybody else was.

"Let me try something," Neeshka said as Blake considered if the Mephits had become too annoying yet.

Blake nodded and stepped away from the lever, which Neeshka immediately pulled. This swapped two Mephits of the same sort and Blake frowned very lightly in puzzlement. He loved and trusted Neeshka but that did make him wonder if she understood what they were trying to do. Then Neeshka jiggled the lever and the beams of magic flashed like a spluttering torch. Back and forth the Mephits were swapped and when Neeshka stopped they both seemed to be dazed. They wobbled off, Neeshka's eyes followed their progress, and she pulled the lever again.

One of the wobbly Mephits had got far enough that the ray did not strike it but the other found itself swapped again, and for one of the opposite sort. Blake smiled as he belatedly realised what Neeshka was doing. She started jiggling the lever again and keeping a pair of Mephits close until there was a chance to again let one wobble away and be replaced by one she wanted to actually transfer. From the rude noises and gesturing this method was not regarded by the Mephits as being as amusing as the attempts to herd them had been.

Gradually Neeshka managed to sort the Mephits. Their inability to work together meant this took a moderate amount of time. Not as long as if they had been working against her but far longer than had they decided the best way to avoid the risk of being dazed in the rapid transferring was to get this over and done with. Each Mephit thought it could avoid that and none of them cared about it happening to the others. In their wrestling for position they gave Neeshka enough opportunities that suddenly the rays of magic extended out and struck the soul on the pedestal as the final pair of Mephits were swapped.

There was a brief glow around the spherical soul housing and a less brief burst of curse-noises from the Mephits as they realised they had been sorted. Blake ignored the latter in favour of investigating the former though Okku spared the time to growl at the Mephits before he followed back into the room with the blackboard. Circling the pedestal Blake looked at the soul housing from different angles.

"Did it work?" Neeshka asked, impatient with her harbour-boy.

"Not entirely," replied Blake, reaching out and picking the soul housing up. He turned it over in his hand a little and looked at it some more before continuing. "The soul looks fractured still, but like a vase more expertly repaired so the cracks are less visible. Which is either a relief… as it means the Red Wizards would have failed again… or this experiment was never meant to fully succeed. 'Splintered' the rhyme for the door mentioned so 'splintered' this remained. Hopefully this is what we require though."

"May it be so," Okku rumbled. "I do not want you to have to experiment more on souls. Even if the experiment does not involve annoying little flying things."

"We do need four souls for the door," Blake reminded him, "but hopefully those we can find rather than create or alter."

There seemed little point in visiting the Soul Depository again so they continued down the corridor. The distance between the doors on the one side of the corridor had seemed rather great but having seen how much room the Mephit experiment and the Mephits took up that had been explained. Neeshka moved ahead of them and brought one delicately backswept pointed ear closer to this second door. She shrugged slightly to herself and rejoined them.

"Sounds like another lesson going on, so another classroom," Neeshka reported.

"So at least one Red Wizard of sufficient knowledge to be a teacher," nodded Blake, "and of sufficient power to have survived their coup."

"But… as we have proven…" Okku grumbled, "unlikely to be of sufficient power to survive us."

Whether it was their continued use of some subtlety or whether it was the after effects of the mockery of the Mephits, worsened as that was endured to manipulate a soul, that was making Okku ill of temper Blake did not know. Moreover he did not really care as the situation was beginning to wear on him as well without having to deal with this complaining. But the bear-god was a worthy ally and a friend and if he was willing to be as co-operative as he was then Blake supposed he could tolerate the complaining about the caution they were showing.

Blake was sufficiently irritated though to take the lead in taking a few steps down the corridor and just walking straight into the room. Neeshka's full lips tightened in annoyance and she swiftly followed him. Gann could not suppress a grin to himself as he also followed. Though he suspected this was not deliberate he did appreciate how Blake had done to Neeshka what she had done to him with the previous room and how she had reacted in such a similar way. Despite the obvious nature of their arrival and how this was made even more so by Okku's continued sub-vocal murmuring the lesson seemed continue unabated.

"What about that?" demanded the female Red Wizard at the front of the classroom. "Can you duplicate a soul?" Her gaze fixed on a nervous looking student. "Atsu, what do you think?"

"I think we have invaders Mistress Zeruza!" Atsu said in a rather high-pitched voice, glancing back over his shoulder before looking back at the teacher.

"Two Demerits!" Zeruza replied. "If you are to become any sort of Wizard you need to learn to ignore irrelevant distractions!" Atsu started to relax, despite the demerits, as he began to assume from her attitude this was just a test, but then he tensed again as she continued. "But if you cannot focus for the presence of something so insignificant then I shall have to remove this before we continue."

With that Mistress Zeruza began reciting arcane words and gesturing. What spell she intended to use became unclear though as Blake had started his own spellcasting when Zeruza had said 'remove' and, since he did not need to use the gestures, this had been rather less obvious. A Vitriolic Sphere erupted from Blake's hand and the ball of magical acid streaked across the classroom to strike Zeruza in the upper chest and neck and face. This spell had burned through far tougher skin than hers and far tougher armour than robes and her spellcasting failed as the pain and the sudden blistering of her lips muffled her voice.

Though Zeruza took the brunt, her robes and skin blackened and peeling away, her lips sufficiently destroyed there was a glint of teeth as she fell, the acid also spread out to burn at the blackboard and the desks and students in the front row. The blackboard smoked, the desks charred, and the students screamed. If Atsu had been nervous before he now seemed paralysed with fear and shock and unable to even turn his eyes away from what had happened at the front of the room.

"You had more sense than she did," Blake said, causing Atsu to jerkily turn his head to look at him. "If you remember this in your afterlife then remember you were better able to judge what was 'irrelevant' or 'insignificant'. Now though… goodbye Atsu."

Atsu had an instant to connect the mention of the afterlife and being told goodbye and then Blake's sword came down to cleave halfway from the crown of his head to his jaw. The skull and the brain it had tried to protect gave little resistance to the blade either going in or being pulled back up and out. Neeshka had also struck and before Blake had spoken, almost before Blake had finished casting his spell, she had brought her rapier across in front of the next nearest student and efficiently slit her throat almost to the spine.

Gann meanwhile had gone for Mistress Zeruza. If asked he'd have claimed this was practical, that despite her horrific injuries she was still a Wizard of significant power and so still the greatest danger. As true as that was there was also an element of mercy in his choice as though the injuries inflicted by Blake's Vitriolic Sphere were horrific and making it very hard for her to breathe this was only slowly killing Zeruza. Gann's spear plunged down and through the Red Wizard's heart to end her suffering and end the risk of her recovering to become a threat.

One of the remaining students managed to stumble to his feet and against the wall despite his eyes being tightly squeezed shut with the after-effects of the small part of the Vitriolic Sphere that had reached him. Tears ran down his cheek of pain and fear as he tried to force himself to keep his eyes open and felt his way along the wall towards the doorway. Unfortunately for him this also brought him towards Okku and the bear-god had no objection to striking at temporarily blinded prey. A huge paw smashed into the Red Wizard student and flung him in a bloody heap most of the way back he'd come. Chest crushed and torn and his heart burst the student was dead before he landed.

Blake sighed as Neeshka punched her bracer blade across the back of the final student's neck. She turned and gave her harbour-boy a reassuring smile as that student slumped forward onto his desk. Blake returned the smile but even Neeshka could not completely raise his spirits. No mercy and no survivors had seemed quite fair when he had only just read Nefris' journal and was anticipating a desperate struggle. Killing people when those that tried to fight were no great threat and those that could have been a threat, like this idiot teacher, betrayed their power with their arrogant stupidity was beginning to wear on him though.

"Remember what Kana said," Neeshka commented, attuned to her harbour-boy's shifting moods. "About war not being a matter of glorious duels…"

"It's about killing the enemy," nodded Blake, a small part of him puzzled as he'd not known Neeshka was there and listening, "preferably before the enemy even knows they are being killed."

Okku grumbled again at this dishonourable idea. You should approach openly, show your foe your strength, and make proper challenge so they could choose to yield or be destroyed in a fair contest. If your strength was the greater then you had nothing to fear and their death would be their fault as it would have been their choice to attempt to resist. Blake turned slightly to look at the bear-god and scowled a little. As much as killing the near defenceless was not to his taste it was far closer to palatable than risking Neeshka be injured. She'd reminded him that efficiency was the goal.

"A charge of heavy cavalry can look magnificent," Blake commented, pretending to not address anyone in particular, "but when that meets a hidden trench full of sharpened stakes that magnificence is irrelevant. And the splendour of the armour of men and horses is no help when grubby soldiers with knives swarm over them."

"Let us hope, little-one," rumbled Okku, unconvinced, "that we can regain some splendour soon. Sneaking from room to room slitting throats fits ill with my dignity and would not make a good act for one of Magda's plays."

Blake decided to not say how little he cared about Magda's plays compared with an efficient victory. Instead he simply nodded and wandered out of this classroom back into the corridor. They were quite close to where this corridor joined the cross-corridor at the end nearest the doors so he continued down it. Looking along the cross-corridor he realised they had not investigated one corner of the building since the thumping had drawn their attention. Moving across cautiously to the door there he hesitated and gestured Neeshka forward. He detested having to ask her to be closer to a door through which danger might come but she had the pretty ears, and the less pretty experience, to hear and judge what she heard.

"A few voices," Neeshka murmured to them when she returned. "Doesn't sound like a lesson."

"On the upside that means no teacher," Gann said smoothly, "on the downside it means no lecture to distract them and, if this is not a classroom, we have less idea how the furniture is arranged."

"Not that it matters how it was arranged once Okku charges," smiled Blake. "But… do you think you can get a look my love?"

"I can try," Neeshka replied, slipping back over to the door and fiddling in her pack for her mirror on a stick.

With her usual grace and precision Neeshka reached out to the doorknob and slowly turned it. As she pushed the door to slip her mirror-stick through there was a hideous creaking and she turned apologetic and startled eyes to Blake. He gave her a very quick smile but he gave that smile as he moved. Neeshka had to quickly step out of the way as Blake shoved his shield into the door and slammed it open. He'd expected that at some point the Red Knight's blessings might desert their plans but it was still annoying to see the Red Wizard students were already facing the door and that, rather than being surprised, their hands and mouths were already moving to cast spells.

Perhaps they had been in here plotting and that was why they had been more alert but the important things were that they had been more alert and that they were securely behind a long table that even Okku would have difficulty hurdling or barging aside. The piles of skulls on counters around the room and the skeleton on that long table reminded Blake of why these people deserved death. But he did not let that decor distract him from heading right, keeping his shield between himself and the students as he tried to get around the table.

Behind him Okku managed to roar his way into the room despite Neeshka's efforts to be the next through the door. His determination to spill more Red Wizard blood and her determination to get to her harbour-boy were similar in extent but the bear-god weighed rather more. Something Blake was aware of as it was far more comfortable having his Tiefling snuggle up and lie partially on him in camp than it had been when Okku had been trying to crush him back in the barrow. Okku's initial charge slowed as the narrowness of the gaps between counters and tables stymied him a little as he tried to squeeze through.

Neeshka cursed a little as Okku's great furry arse got in her way but there was just enough headroom for her to vault over him. That and the colours of Okku's form were a spectacular enough sight to draw one student's attention and he cast his missile storm at them. Even a lesser version of that spell was too great in power for Neeshka's new shield to affect but to Blake's relief it did look like a lesser storm and as much as he liked Okku he was happy the bear-god was there in his bulk to have most of the missiles strike him rather than Neeshka. Blake did not have much chance to feel that relief however as the other two had stayed focussed on him and had chosen a similar attack.

A flurry of projectiles of magical energy streaked away from the two students and in at Blake. That they arced out to strike from the sides and from above was far less irritating when it was you casting the spell to see them curve around an enemy's shield. In a way though Blake was glad that his shield only blocked two of the missiles as he'd not yet found an enchanter able to add the same magic-proofing to it as his armour possessed. The shield was rare and expensive enough he'd rather take a few more hits on his armour and suffer a little more pain than have it seriously damaged.

Fortunately this was only a little more pain as the individual missiles had not the power to seriously overwhelm his armour's ability to absorb and re-radiate the energy away. It was only the few places the glowing spots overlapped that were uncomfortable and the students began backing away as Blake ignored their spells and they realised he was almost within sword's reach.

Okku was even less affected as he was simply too tough for such a minor attack to be worthy of his notice. That he was a little broader than the route he was attempting to take was also unworthy of his notice and there was a cracking of wood as it split and as joints popped and broke apart. Along the wall where countertops were braced against that some of them began to resemble roofs as the planks that made them were squashed together and buckled upwards. Seeing this dramatic advance the student that had attacked the bear-god began to retreat only to realise his friends were having the same thought in the opposite direction.

Their concern about the threat of the huge spirit-bear and of the moderately large and heavily armoured man was well justified. That did distract them though from the greater peril as Neeshka was angry. She had dodged or sheltered behind Okku to avoid the magical missiles but the one that had found her had stung. More important she could see that her harbour-boy was looking piebald again with impact spots and that annoyed her even more. The strong muscles of her rear and thighs flexed as she sprang up and onto the counter. There was a slight crunch as her boot landed on the dry bone of the display skeleton and the student in the middle had just enough time to look at her in surprise before she crouched and brought her right arm across. The blade on that bracer sliced across his neck and he fell backwards with a blood muffled scream.

"No, you don't," Blake growled as the other two Red Wizards started to react and turn. They were likely no threat to his beloved but Blake was not going to take any chances and not going to bother with much subtlety. An instant longer to aim the blow would have been necessary had there been armour to aim for the gaps or had he wanted to make it a neater more instantly fatal one.

As it was Blake just smashed his sword down in an overhand blow with its weight and some of his own behind it to slice the keen edge through the point of the student's shoulder. If this was lacking in precision it was not lacking in power and the blade continued on down through bone and flesh and out to hack that arm and part of that side of the student's chest away. Blake took the moment now to recover as the student collapsed and then, careful to not slip in the blood, stepped forward and stabbed down to finish that foe off even though with that massive wound he would soon have bled out.

The final student had turned towards the Tiefling as she killed his friend that had been standing nearest to him, and then turned away as the armoured man smashed his other friend to the floor and into pieces. He took a few steps to flee before realising, through his fear, that this had taken him to the end of the counter and to where that huge bear had managed to smash his way to. Okku lunged and the last Red Wizard student disappeared under his teeth and claws.

Neeshka made a slight noise of protest as the counter rocked with Okku's lunge and she had to keep her balance. Blake smiled to her and, stabbing his sword into a corpse and leaning it against the counter, offered her a hand. She smiled back and graciously accepted it as if she was a fine lady descending from a carriage rather than her stepping down from a counter onto a bloody floor. Blake raised her hand to brush a kiss across her fingertips and she grinned wider and semi-curtsied before he released her and picked his sword up again.

"Perhaps we have been over cautious," Gann commented as Blake shook some of the gore off his blade, "they were expecting trouble… it seems… and still died with impressive speed."

Okku raised his head and grumbled agreement through his bloody muzzle. There was little he and the Hagspawn were in accord about, though that little did include their basic morals and respect for the spirits, but for once there was sense in his flow of words. His barrow and sleep called to him and delay in completing his curse kept him from this as well as caution sitting ill with his nature.

Smiling slightly Blake replied. "Okku may be too angry to notice and Neeshka too graceful to be hit, but I can assure you, my friend, those missiles stung."

"I'd not dispute you over that," nodded Gann, looking at the faint remains of the fading spots, "and I suppose had these been more skilled or powerful they would do more than sting. I recall you losing your breastplate in that dream when it was unable to absorb the magic."

"Hrm, little-one," Okku rumbled, ignoring the conversation, "there is a stench like that foul temple in the shadow realm."

Blake moved to join Okku as Neeshka made sure her Rapier was free in its scabbard and Gann brought his spear back into a guard position. No scent reached Blake's nose but he could feel the hunger within him react and that it was similar to how it had reacted to the undead infesting Myrkul's Vault. There was the temptation to loosen his grip on the curse and let it reach out further, to actually taste what was beyond this door rather than just knowing it was writhing in response to something. But he had gone through too much pain in denying the hunger to allow himself to now accept an excuse to use it to avoid a surprise.

"The curse is reacting to something behind that door," Blake said simply.

"Should we investigate?" asked Gann. "Or if that door is sturdy and securely locked leave it thus?"

"Our intent is to flatten this Academy," Blake sighed, "so we should check if whatever is in there would survive and be freed by that."

Gann looked as if he didn't quite see the need but Neeshka silently crept forward at her harbour-boy's words. She glanced at the lock and hesitated for a moment over whether to pick it or whether to have less fun and use one of the keys they'd got from that Red Wizard teacher. With a feeling of self-sacrifice and that she was being virtuous by saving those few seconds she inserted the key, clicked the lock open, withdrew the key, and began to move back. Suddenly the door almost imploded open as something yanked at it from the other side and Neeshka's casual dignified retreat became a bounding leap that ended with her crouched ready to fight and with her Rapier in her hand.

The doorway filled with three Dread Wraiths. With their shifting floating forms and how one was partially visible through another it was hard to tell where one started and another ended, or which of them was in front and which behind. As reflexive as Neeshka's leap back had been so was Blake's step forward to place his shield and his armour and himself between her and whatever danger there was. The Dread Wraiths eddied and then Blake's shield made a noise like a door being knocked on. The blow was not strong but it was precise and there was a creak of leather shield straps as Blake compensated for the attempt to twist and shift them and the shield out of line. Angling his shield so a follow up blow might come in more directly and push his shield back against his arm rather than around it Blake swung his sword out and through what looked like a concentration of darkness.

He was not sure how much resistance his blade ought to have met but to his annoyance he was sure that it had not met enough. Perhaps the barely visible swirling had been a Dread Wraith avoiding the blow or perhaps he'd misjudged what part of what wraith was where. Either way he'd missed and as he began drawing his sword back for another attack he felt a sudden impact. This was just as precise as the previous one and no stronger but it was aimed at his sword rather than shield.

A slight curse escaped Blake's lips as he felt his sword hilt shift within the leather-clad fingers and palm of his gauntlet as the shock of the blow travelled up the blade. Recovering and restoring his grip on his sword Blake finished bringing his sword back and brought it up into a guard position as he tried to figure out where to shove it so the magic on it might find something to harm. The three pairs of glowing spots that served the Dread Wraiths as eyes looked back. There was another shift in the darkness and a blow Blake took easily on his shield but also a second that made him come even closer to dropping his sword.

He cursed again as he had to spend precious moments restoring his grip on his weapon rather than using it. That these things were correct in thinking that he could so much less harm to them with his armoured fist or his dagger only made them trying to deny him his sword even more annoying. "Careful, they are trying to disarm me."

A low rumbling chuckle came from Blake's left at these words and a smile came to Blake's face as he remembered something and stepped back. The Dread Wraiths floated after him to press their attack rather than let him escape but as soon as they were clear of the doorway and into the main room Okku sprang. He had no hands and no weapon to be knocked from them and had the width and strength to attack all the wraiths at once and find out that way which was in front of which. The mass of shadow was crushed together into the floor and wall and writhed beneath Okku as he clawed and bit at it.

Tendrils of shadow flitted across Okku's mighty form. Had Okku still been a bear of flesh then the wounds these left would have bled copiously and he would have had vulnerable veins and arteries and tendons the Dread Wraiths' precision might have managed to cut. As it was though his spirit form swiftly healed and the only blood on him was the last remains of that from the Red Wizard student. That the Dread Wraiths were not inflicting much harm on Okku was clear but it was hard to tell how much he was hurting them or how securely he had them pinned under his claws.

Gann stepped forward to assist and beseeched the sadly abused spirits of Thay for their aid in healing Okku. This was not really necessary for the well-being of the bear-god but as the energies rippled out from their focus on Okku they passed across Blake and Neeshka and through the Dread Wraiths. The two mortals exchanged smiles at the relief of their slight aches but the undead were more affected. A faint light glimmered through their forms and their writhing became more pained than attempts to escape or inflict pain. Okku continued to shred away at them until he realised the only shadow beneath him was his own.

"Those, I think, would have survived," commented Gann as Okku harrumphed and spat a few times to get the strange taste out of his mouth. "But with Thay being as it is I am not sure if them being freed would have been a bad thing."

"There are peasants and slaves in this land," Blake reminded him, wiping his sword, "and those would have made easier prey than Red Wizards."

"True," admitted Gann, with a wry smile, "surrounded as we are by their corpses and enmeshed as we are by their deeds it is hard to remember the most visible face of Thay is not the only face."

Neeshka checked the corpses and then drawers and chests and crates. Some of the drawers were stuck as they had been damaged by Okku crushing them aside along with the table they were in so Neeshka took the chance to dimple and coo at Blake. It would have been a better show if he'd not been in armour, but she still liked seeing her harbour-boy flex and use his strength and liked making him feel useful. Blake happily obliged with pulling at drawers and wrenching up at countertops and soon they had sorted through the loot except for one strange cube.

Blake picked it up and turned it so different sides caught the light. Putting it back on the counter next to the skeleton Neeshka had stepped on and Okku had nearly tipped onto the floor Blake pulled out Nefris' journal and flipped through a few pages, looking back and forth from book to box. With a 'hmm' and a disgruntled expression Blake put the book away and drew his sword again.

"From the similarity of Runes I'd say this was designed to work and shape spirit essences," Blake explained. Then he smashed his sword down through the cube and a little way into the countertop.

"Are you sure that was not over hasty?" asked Gann, with a very mild frown. "I have my qualms but if Nak'kai is willing to use spirit essences in a ritual on Okku then their use cannot be completely unconscionable."

"I know myself, my friend," Blake smiled. "You recall what I said about this curse and how I would have assessed it had I not learned why that was unwise?"

"Ah, yes," breathed Gann, "so that cube would have been a similar temptation? You'd have wanted enough spirit essences to explore all the combinations."

"I can tell you he likes to try and compare different angles… on things," Neeshka winked, "though not combinations, yet."

Blake was torn between embarrassment and a sudden image that made him wonder whether he'd needed to make a choice between two possibilities. Whether there had been another option that would have led to the satisfaction of all three parties involved. On the other hand although he had a degree of confidence in his abilities he was not sure he had that much confidence or anywhere near enough stamina. Not to keep up with both a Tiefling and an Elf. Neeshka giggled at the shifting expressions on Blake's face and at the somewhat intense blush he gave when Gann caught his eye and raised an eyebrow in a 'I know what you are thinking' expression.

Leaving the room and travelling back up the right-hand corridor Blake's blush slowly faded and he was glad to get back to business. "Stairs there," he said, stating the obvious as he gestured to them.

"Have we checked this room yet?" Neeshka asked, pointing behind them.

Blake turned. "No, you are right," he nodded. "We haven't."

Listening at the door revealed nothing, even to Neeshka's keen ears, so cautiously Blake pushed it open. There was a smell of smoke and scorched concoctions and this was less surprising as they saw the cauldrons and a forge with a Clay Golem standing beside it. It appeared this was a workshop but looking at the equipment left Blake feeling less than completely enlightened to its purpose. "Golem," Blake said, taking the direct route, "what is your function and that of this room?"

"Oh. H… hello there," replied the Golem, raising its gaze from considering the floor to looking at Blake.

"Hello there?" Blake repeated in surprise. "You don't sound like a normal Golem…"

"I'm not one. Not really," said the Golem before explaining. "My mind and soul were transferred to this body. I wanted to be able to work with heat but still use my hands. Clay can take a lot of heat.

"A delusional Golem," commented Gann quietly, "interesting."

"I am not so sure it is delusional," Blake murmured back. "My curse is reacting slightly to him, so some part of a soul might have been transferred." He raised his voice back to a more normal level. "So, back to my first question. What do you do here?"

"Huh? Oh, I work," replied the Golem. Perhaps realising that was not a useful reply the Golem continued. "Sometimes they ask me to teach but mostly I study. My background is in crafting. I want to apply it to souls. Most of my work fails, but there have been breakthroughs, so they let me stay."

"You work with souls," Blake frowned. "You follow the same path as Nefris?"

"We had similar interests," nodded the Golem, not picking up on Blake's expression or tone as it warmed to its subject. "We approached them differently but she heard of my work and arranged for me to work here so we might share ideas. When we talked it was about altering souls. Splitting them, reassembling them, moving them, and replicating them. Most of what we try hasn't been done before."

"And for good reason," Gann muttered.

"Agreed," muttered Blake back.

"Little-one," Okku rumbled, trying to match their subtlety but not quite managing to be as quiet in his voice, "why does this Golem still function?"

"It may be of some use, if we find we have questions," replied Blake quietly. Okku looked dissatisfied until Blake added. "But before we leave we shall grind it to dust and release any fragment of mind or soul that might be trapped in it."