Chapter Three
Breakdowns
Ina was limp, which worried Fade. He'd managed a large teleportation spell, and was more than a little low on power. Ina, he knew, wasn't running low on power, but he'd never seen someone in shock. Cautiously, he turned her around.
She wasn't crying, nor was she trying not to. Ina's pink eyes were half-shut, and there was no expression on her face. She didn't look like she'd just seen her grandfather killed.
"Ina, are you ok?" he asked, working hard to keep his monotone intact.
"I will be," she said, toneless. "Once I kill Pride and Slade." Her fists were clenched, he noticed.
"You won't be able to do anything right away," he pointed out.
"Oh, believe me, I know," she said, flexing her hands. "But Slade will come after, and this time, he isn't going to get saved by anything."
Welp, I think he may just be completely screwed, Fade thought, watching as her face slowly shifted into an expression. He couldn't place it, though.
"We're close to Blelish, aren't we?" she asked, after a moment, prying his grip off of her to step away.
"I don't know," he admitted. "I've really never made it out of the cities when I'm here."
"I think we are," she said, nostrils flaring. "They keep the orcs away from the city." She stretched, and as she stretched, there was a sudden change to her clothing. It stayed mostly black, but her blazer, shirt, and skirt melded into a short black dress with a high collar, and a black semi-skirt over that. Satan's trident-staff appeared in her hand, and she lifted it up to stare, eyes widening. "Well," she said, voice rising very slightly, "I'm suddenly getting better why Slade wants me." She squared her shoulders. "I don't suppose this bloody thing could take a more normal form."
"Spoke too soon," Fade said, watching it shift to a staff that vaguely resembled a sword. "It's slightly more normal now."
"Only slightly, of course. If it was completely normal, it wouldn't be real," she said, swinging it over her shoulder. "Wonder how I get rid of this bloody skirt," she grumbled, picking at the semi-skirt. "It feels stupid. I'd prefer a full skirt or pants or something."
Fade stared as the skirt changed first into an overly long swath of fabric, then molded itself into shorts. Highly short shorts, in fact, maybe even hot pants. "Somehow, I get the idea that was not what you wanted," he drawled.
Ina sighed. "Better than a skirt, I guess," she said, brushing them down. "A lack of collar would be...er, not that deep a V-neck...good." The outfit had changed as she spoke. "Ohkay...I have a sentient outfit. That's amazing."
"Just what everyone wants when their school's taken over," Fade drawled. "So helpful."
Ina snorted and grabbed his hand. "We should get outta here, though." She dragged him for several minutes before he recovered enough presence of mind to start moving his legs. He wasn't sure he had enough ability to tell her she could let go of his hand, wasn't sure if his voice would work.
After another few minutes, he managed to extricate his hand. "You know...we can teleport in Lycanth," Fade coughed.
Ina stopped, causing Fade to crash into her. "Oh! I'd...forgotten..." She pushed Fade off of her and stood. "Well, I guess that's easier." She shook her head, helped him up, smiled absently, and turned away. Her shoulders hunched, then she spun around again, grabbed his hand, and squinted. A flash of her pale pink (and oddly sparkly) magic, and they stood in the middle of Blelish, the glow around them slowly fading.
A nearby woman snorted. "Puppies," she barked, and shifted to her werewolf form to catch up to some friends, then shifted back to walk with them.
Ina rolled her eyes. "Some people," she muttered, and tilted her head as she tried to remember her usual route.
Fade switched forms, and sniffed curiously. His tail lifted up and wagged cheerfully. Thoughtlessly, he grabbed Ina's hand in his mouth and tugged slightly.
Ina stared at him for a minute, face blank, before she remembered. As it got closer to the full moon, werewolves had less ability to speak in wolf shape. While they were unable to change shapes at the full moon, they had the disadvantage of being unable to speak on the full moon. It was a bizarre little cycle that no one quite understood, and everyone just lived with. "Right," she said. "I'll just change over too, so we can actually communicate." A second later, both in werewolf form, they trotted off.
The "streets" in Blelish were, at best, primitive. More realistically, they were sections of dirt and grass that had been trampled down over time, until they reached a point of being packed quite solid, but not too hard for sensitive paws to race across. Really, Lycanth itself was fairly primitive. Of the five cities, Blelish was the only one that had seen any minor improvements. The rest were in abysmal shape.
Running through Blelish with Fade was exhilerating enough for Ina that she didn't even think about why. Tongue lolling, tail waving, she kept up with his changes in direction, dodged those in human or werewolf form to the extreme of racing through someone's legs, and lost herself in the feeling of running. She rarely got the chance to run and be unconstrained, and had almost forgotten the sheer adrenaline rush of pure happiness. For those minutes, she forgot everything but the ground under her feet and the boy by her side. It was beyond disappointing when they stopped.
Fade stretched into his human form, hands locking behind him as he changed. "We just have to walk a few feet," he told Ina, who was giving him the best version of puppy eyes she could muster. She groaned, and resumed her usual form.
"I hate you," she grumbled.
"Really?" he asked, monotone reappearing.
She blinked at him, surprised. "No. It's a joke." A roll of her eyes, and she stalked forward. He caught up to her, returned to his customary silence.
The palace in Blelish was relatively small and not really palace-y at all. It was more a few towers, and some random outbuildings, completed by a huge outer wall with a gate, which somehow seemed quite out of place with the otherwise inconspicuous air of the palace. The roughly four werewolves guarding the gate - two in human form, two in wolf form, prepared for anything - knew Fade by scent, as well as Ina. They were half of the entire guard for the palace. Security was not exactly a large problem for them - any average citizen on the street was easily capable of fighting any invader, and anyone wanting to challenge Draug's rule of Lycanth would do so openly. Wolf social laws applied, obviously.
"What brings you here so early?" demanded one of the four, eyeing them curiously.
"Crazy shit would be the appropriate word," Fade replied gruffly. Ina had stiffened beside him, remembering again their reason.
"I guess you'd better tell your dad, then," the same one said. "Come on in, cubs." Respectful titles only applied to Draug - hey, he was the only one actually in charge! She opened the gates easily, and pushed them shut as soon as the two entered.
"Oh, and if any lunatics come after us, you might want to give them a paw up the ass," Fade added. "It could only improve their sanity."
She barked a laugh and patted him on the shoulder hard enough to leave a bruise.
Ina followed Fade absently. As he neared the area his father usually frequented, he frowned at her more. By the time they'd reached his father's office area, he was convinced she was headed for a meltdown. On the upside, his room was nearby, so he pulled her in there. "Ina."
She glanced at him, and in several seconds, broke down completely. She wrapped her arms around her waist and just started bawling her eyes out. Briefly baffled, Fade had to think of what Crest - the only remotely sensitive person he knew - did when he'd had bad dreams, which were the only occasions he could remember crying on. Awkwardly, he hugged her. (That thing where someone's arms go around another person, right?)
Her sobbing was utterly incomprehensible, if she was even sobbing anything in particular, and he was a little disturbed that his shirt seemed to be getting soaked. On the other hand...regardless of the reason, it felt really...interesting to have her this close. This near the full moon, he could smell her scent better than any day save the full moon itself, and so he drank it in. She smelled like the Underworld itself, like dirt and stone and old plants and maybe some flowers - amaranth, perhaps. Tears smelled interesting too, all salty and fear and anger. They also seemed to have the effect of making him angry. Hello irrational emotions, I haven't missed you at all, he thought dryly.
Ina finally removed herself from his awkward hug and wiped her eyes on her hand angrily. "Sorry," she said roughly, "Sorry. I didn't realize I was going to do that." She straightened her shoulders, and her expression, previously screwed up and vulnerable, smoothed into one he recognized - he'd seen it every day on his own. The absent, disaffected by whatever happens, nothing matters face that he had pasted on for years. And then she smiled cheerfully at him, swished her hair, and the only thing that told him she'd been crying was her scent, and the slight redness of her face. Well, that and the fact that his shirt was soaked through. And his blazer.
"Right. I'll just change this shirt then," he said dryly. He didn't think until after his shirt was off that this would look incredibly awkward if anyone walked in. Too bad. It was surprisingly quick for him to find and throw on one of the t-shirts Crest had found for him on Earth. (She never explained how she got them either...)
Ina's composed look had faded into the rather demurely awkward one, with her eyes averted and her face bright, cherry, blotchy red. "Well," she said, slightly higher pitched than usual, "Ah, can we, um, go now? To do whatever it is we're doing?" She shifted for a moment, took a deep breath, and recovered her composure completely. Her skin returned to its normal color and she flashed him an engaging smile.
Fade didn't dare let himself think that he might be doomed. That would be admitting...something, anything. Too much.
"So, uh..." She cast around aimlessly. "What did we come in here for?"
"In here my room, or in here Lycanth?"
"Ah, both."
"Well, uh, in here here, uh, well...you were obviously going to have a meltdown and uh, well, here Lycanth, because uh...Dad should know...?" Fade smacked himself. Focusing, he said, "I brought you here so you wouldn't cry out in the hall, and I picked Lycanth without really thinking."
"Oh, that makes more sense." She tugged the door open, and him out, before he could think, then slammed the door. "Where to?" She then noticed the shadow standing over them, and blinked at the scarred woman standing over her. "CREST!" With a squeal, something that sounded close to a sob, and a dramatic jump, Ina had wrapped her arms around her adoptive mother's neck and was babbling at a speed unintelligible to Fade. What made it worse was that Crest understood, and talked at the same speed to Ina.
"Well, I'll go find Dad, then," Fade muttered.
"Don't bother," Crest said, returning to normal volume and speed. "He's having word with Tennyson about something ridiculous." She rolled her eyes. "Gwen, that is."
"Well. She could do something too," Ina said, turning to look at Fade.
"So, I uh, guess she knows what happened now?"
"Yeah. Couldn't you tell what we were saying?" Ina gave him a puzzled look.
"Normal people don't speak that fast," Fade grumbled.
Crest pushed Ina off. "All right. Want to see a fireworks show? AKA Gwen and Draug, I mean." Before they could answer, she was striding off. They caught up quickly.
The "fireworks show" seemed to take place in the courtyard. Other than the crater where Fade knew a tree had once resided, it seemed to be fairly tame. Gwen wasn't on fire or anything, and Draug was still in human form.
"So, when'd the crater show up?" Ina asked curiously, peering out one of the archways into the courtyard.
"Three hours ago, when Gwen first showed up. Draug attacked her on instinct, she blew a crater in the ground. They seem to be best friends now, though." Crest snorted, resting her scarred hands on the stone edge.
"That would make Gwen happy," Ina said, perching on the edge. "What're they talking about?" She was anxious, but still wasn't likely to walk in on any conversation where Gwen - who had briefly been her magic teacher - was likely to lose her temper. For all but a very few people, that could be deadly.
"Terms of the treaty," Crest said cheerfully. "Some idiot's been breaking it, and Queen Chandrisa clearly forgot that Lycanth has only a few laws."
"What, you mean the grand total of two?" Ina said, leaning out a little. "The one about protecting children and always being on call for the King?"
"There's more than that," Fade drawled, "Maybe three."
Crest swatted both of them. "Seriously, now. I think there's a grand total of a hundred. Compared to say, Dragonia, that's very few. They've got thousands of laws on the books, and constantly have to update them."
"Being in charge must be confusing," Fade said, glancing at Ina.
She bit her lip. "Yeah." The sobering reminder of her grandfather closed in on her, and she wrapped her hands around the side of the window.
Crest stretched, "They look to be winding down on their insults and business," she said. "Come on." She hopped out the window, barely brushing Ina, and the two teens followed. "Draug," she called, as soon as they were close to the crater, where Gwen and Draug had moved to argue in.
He glanced up at them, blonde-grey hair flopping in his face, and beamed. "Hi Crest!" His cheerful face faded to puzzlement. "What are you two doing back here? Semester isn't over yet."
"Shit's happened," Crest said, as Ina looked anxious and Fade started growling. "Ina told me that...Slade, I think it was, let the Beast out, and then Pride and some of the other Sins killed Lust and Satan. Oh, and Slade has an obsession with marrying Ina. Not sure what else may be happening."
Gwen and Draug disappeared in a quick flash of green, and reappeared next to the group in another flash. As the color faded, Gwen grabbed Ina's hands. "Look at me. Describe the Beast, Inanna."
Ina gulped. "Huge. Red. Kinda bumpy skin? An apparently endless amount of hands. We saw...six."
"That's what I was afraid of. Slade."
"White hair, stupid face, left eyebrow is pierced, red eyes, probably about five eight, high-pitched voice for a guy." Ina scowled. "He probably looks about twenty now, since he came through the barrier."
"And I know the Sins." Gwen tugged on the longest piece of her crimson hair, thinking, lips pursed. "Mph. Problems should be coming out of our ears at any time now."
"What is the Beast supposed to do, exactly?" Fade asked.
"Destroy the world. Make a new world. Earn some chick's undying love." She shrugged. "Nobody really knows, except say, Yathrine, and she'd only know because Malia made it."
"Couldn't you unmake it so we don't have to figure out what it does?" Ina asked.
"Not once it's got a master, which it sounds like Slade now is."
Draug scowled. "And what will that mean for Lycanth? We're on the border of Hell, here."
Gwen rubbed her forehead. "I don't know. I hate not knowing." Eyes turned upwards, she fidgeted, muttering under her breath, before her eyes widened abruptly. Immediately, she held out a hand and a book appeared, already flipping itself to a page. "Lessee...ha!" She grinned slightly, reading down the page, and it changed to a scowl. "Well that's fan-freaking-tastic."
"Just say the real swearword," Ina said. "We've heard them all anyhow."
Gwen ignored her. "The Beast can't be killed. Its master has to be killed. But, by having mastery of the Beast, the master of it is...extremely difficult to kill. They'll gain powers beyond their natural ones, probably equivalent to a minor Star, as well as stronger immunity to...everything. Including magic." She scowled. "And they can transfer magical attacks onto the Beast, so there goes making him have a heart attack and putting it back to sleep."
"So...what do you do?" Ina asked.
"Hell if I know." The book disappeared. "I'll figure it out. Until then, why don't you take a trip to Earth? I'm afraid, Ina, that your being anywhere here would pose a danger. The spells to move between the worlds are only really known to...people who know me and Risa fairly well. And Draug, because he's just that damn special."
"What about Midsummer?" Draug asked.
"It's August. I'll be very dissappointed in myself if I can't solve it before then." She gnawed on a fingernail. "May come to bothering with a stupid-ass war and a few assassins, to kill him. Could he be stupid enough to come without the Beast, I wonder?" She shook her head. "Anyhow. You two." She grabbed Ina and Fade by the shoulders, and glanced at Draug with a sudden grin. "Hey, Draug. I'm kidnapping your kid with my awesome candy. That fine?"
"Go right ahead, he doesn't clean toilets," Draug said.
Crest choked laughing. Once Draug had beaten her back enough, she managed to say, "We don't even have toilets."
"Outhouses then."
Gwen laughed, and then, in another flash of green, disappeared with the teenagers.
"Okay, so the deal here is that it's another school. Easier to blend in, I'd figure. This is Earth, as you know, and we sent Aiden and Hali here...before he knocked her up, I mean."
"Who?" the two chorused.
"Aiden and Hali. Aiden is Risa's nephew, Hali is his girlfriend. Fiancee. They're engaged now, because she's pregnant again." She snorted. "She's seventeen. I suppose it's better than Risa...and me..." she coughed. "Anyhow. Kadic Academy. Supposedly, it's kickass awesome academics, but frankly, I doubt it. It's really just a general dumping ground for lazy geniuses and really hard-working idiots."
"Thank you for that inspiring description," Ina grumbled.
"Anyhow, I can have you enrolled in twenty seconds." Gwen grinned broadly. "And then you two will be safe while we figure out what the hell to do."
"That's...good. I guess."
Gwen frowned at Ina. "Right. Come on." She led the two inside the gates of the campus, cheerfully ignoring the two cars that stopped to honk at her - though, mysteriously, their horns did not work.
Kadic was quite good-looking from the standpoint of trees. Unlike Hell, it was above ground, and unlike Lycanth, it wasn't a haze of unidentifiable smog and dirt, but the eyes of Ina and Fade (happily rather feline in nature) had changed size to accomodate the light changes. There were quite a few fields, an enormous soccer (or football) stadium, and more than a few teenagers lounging around boredly. A few of the boys nudged each other and began whistling at Gwen, until their voices dried up abruptly. She never turned to look. Fade didn't look around either, but Ina's head turned every which way, memorizing the place as quickly as she could.
"So, what classes are there at a human school?" Fade asked.
"Math, PE - physical education, suckiest class ever, History, whatever the language here is, any other languages you choose to speak, science." Gwen scowled at the doors of the main building, and they slammed themselves open. She proceeded inside, and the teenagers followed.
"It occurs to me," she said as they wandered in the direction of where an office might be, "You've never had half these subjects."
"We had math. And I think it's French here - you taught me that, and translation spells aren't hard, science is easy to fake, history is easy to pick up on, and physical education...does it involve fighting?" Ina rattled off.
"No, PE does not involve fighting."
Ina and Fade exchanged a blank glance. "Then...what does it do that's educational?" she asked.
"Hell if I know," Gwen said, shrugging. She strolled into what appeared to be an office, where a giant of a girl was hunched over the desk, arguing with the secretary.
"Ma'am, I need you to switch this class, please."
"Why would I try to swap it with some other class?" the secretary demanded. "The teachers would get irritated and I'd have to deal with them."
"Because," the girl growled, leaning closer, "I. Can't. Fit. In. The. Classroom."
The secretary flinched. "All right, I'll see what I can do." She blanched as the girl stood up. In a room with ten foot ceilings, her head came close to brushing the ceiling.
"Thank you, Miss Kramer," she said, brushing a strand of hair the length of Gwen's body away from her face. "I'll be back tomorrow to see what you've done. Bye." She walked past the three standing near the door, and ducked through.
"She's tall," Ina said, after a moment.
Fade opened his mouth, then thought better of it and shut it. The walls here could be tougher than the desks at the Academy.
"Her hair's longer than I am," Gwen said, gaping after the girl.
"That's Naginata Tessen," the secretary sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Scariest girl in school." She shook her head. "How can I help you three?"
Gwen smiled and walked over to her. She shook the secretary's hands, her eyes gleamed, and a moment later, the secretary had them enrolled, and Gwen as grinning. The effects passed, and the secretary blinked at the screen. "That took shorter than it should have. Huh, must be finally getting the hang of the system." She beamed at them. "Go ahead and take your stuff to the dorms to get settled. Inanna Ferr, you'll be in a single. Fade Silvermoon...you'll be with Herve Pichon." The printer spit out a bunch of pages, which she gathered and handed to Gwen, who then towed the teenagers from the room.
"So...what do we do about the full moon?" Ina asked Gwen.
"You'll figure it out," Gwen said, shrugging. "Just summon a bunch of crap for your stuff. I don't care."
"Tehcnically, isn't that illegal?" Ina asked.
Gwen snorted. "So is dropping light posts on irritating politicians. I'm just a bit above the law."
Ina rolled her eyes, but didn't argue.