AN: Yes! Finally here. Alright this chapter is very important story wise. Very. Not just for the Wizard City saga, but the story in general. Enjoy !
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, elements, or borrowed plot ideas from any source I acquire them from, specifically KingsIsle. I merely own any original characters I create.
"Blah" = talking
"Blah" = thoughts, writing, sound effects, or flashbacks
"BLAH"= Yelling
Susie Gryphonbane's room was still as she sat up in her bed, the soft pitter-patter of the rain against her window the only thing that disturbed the complete silence hanging over it. A blanket of grey-purple clouds above shielded the sunlight outside, as it often did in Triton Avenue, leaving the space shaded and silent, broken only by the occasional loud pedestrian crossing a story below.
She stared straight to the lavender walls on the far side of the bed, crown molding on the top and bottom, patterned with gryphon heads. Then, her eyes shifted to the matching bed beside hers.
Mindi Pixiecrown lay nestled below a spread of expensive crimson quilts, slumbering soundly, obviously tired from the events of Colossus Boulevard only the day before. It was odd seeing her there. Not so much strange as unfamiliar. In fact many of her nights the past few days had been very unfamiliar, what with her roommate strangely absent or returning home at night long after Susie had decided to turn in.
"Ms. Gryphonbane." A soft rapping on her door preceded the entry of a maid, voice at half a whisper, peaking her head in. "Ms. Gryphonbane, are you awake yet?"
"Yes, I am. Thank you." Susie managed the most pleasantness she could force through the morning fatigue. The maid bowed with a smile, then promptly turned around to exit when the girl called out to her. "Wait. Has…Has Sasha come home yet?"
Her eyes traveled upward as she pondered. Then, she shook her head. "I'm afraid not, Ms. Gryphonbane, not to my knowledge. Your brother is on an assignment today, but he said he should return sometime near the midnight hour."
Susie nodded, and the maid departed accordingly, leaving her to gaze out the window in solitude. The rain increased, pelting the window, and her grip on the rim of her blanket grew with it.
EXSEED
Sixteenth Pip: No Rest for the Wicca
"You knock."
"No, you do it."
"I don't want to be the one that interrupts him. What if he's busy right now?"
"He told us to come though."
"But—"
"Fine, I'll just do it." Victoria stepped forwards as Fate and Tala stopped, pushing between them to approach the two oaken double doors of the Headmaster's office. Her hand came up without hesitation, and delivered a series of strong taps upon it, seemingly resonating within the room. Then, she took two steps backwards, failing to remember which way the door opened.
Seconds passed with no response, but just as Fate's mouth opened to say something, the sound of a turning handle and a creaking hinge sounded off as one to interrupt him. The door eased open, and to their slight surprise they found no one turning the handle, only some mysterious force. Tala and Victoria weren't sure how developed your magic had to be to be able to do that, but the fluidness of it suggested only the man they were here to see.
They stepped through one at a time into the room, no less impressed with its grandeur than the last visit. Sprawling bookcases lining the walls, filled with volumes and trinkets of every shape and hue, climbing as high as the domed ceiling would allow them to curve before gravity could take hold of their contents. A large divided pane window sat at the far wall, traces of light filtering through its stained glass onto the large wood desk beneath and the elderly, purple swathed wizard who sat behind it. Gamma sat taciturn, perched on a pedestaled crystal ball to the side of the desk, eyes following them as they entered.
"Greetings, young ones." Ambrose gestured with his hand, and at the same time the trio heard the doors click softly behind him. This unnerved the three slightly, but they made an effort not to show it. Instead, the approached the arrangement of cushioned chairs, settee, and a coffee table just before him, levering themselves gingerly onto them.
"Good day to you also, sir." Tala answered him, the last to take his seat. Victoria and Fate bowed their heads respectfully, a gesture he returned.
As she returned to her straight sitting position, Victoria pushed the discussion into motion. "So…you wanted to see us for something, Headmaster?"
"Indeed." He nodded, propping his sleeved elbows upon his cleared desk. "There are a few things I'd like to discuss with you three."
"Things?" Fate repeated carefully. "Do you mean like yesterday? On Colossus Boulevard?"
"More than that, young one. We believe we may have a solid lead on the people bringing so much turmoil to our city over the past few months. Even your assailant, perhaps." Gamma interjected following a soft coo. The statement effectively garnered all of their attention. "Our proof is limited at the moment, but the signs are laid out clearly before us."
"If you believe you are ready to hear them." Ambrose tacked on.
Fate paused at that, not out of any self-consciousness, but at what 'ready' exactly meant. He began to stutter. "Um….Uhh….". Then, he went silent once more as Victoria's gentle hand found a way to his shoulder. He shifted his eyes to her, but found her still staring ahead, just as Tala mirrored her action on his opposite side. He offered them a smile after some time, the gestures reassuring him, and finally answered. "Yes. Yes I am."
A hint of a smirk appeared on Ambrose's mouth, hidden behind his voluminous beard.
"Very well. Then we'll start at the beginning."
At that, Ambrose worked his way to a stand, grabbing the gnarled wooden staff leaning next to him as he moved out from behind the desk. The trio watched him move to the left bookcases, stopping just a few feet from one of the ones at the center. Without a single moment's hesitation or concentration, his hand gestured and one of the tattered tomes lining the middle shelf flew to his receiving palm, spreading open of its own accord. To them, the Headmaster seemed to be reading it aloud, but his voice was so hushed and everything sounded more of a jumble of sounds than coherent words.
Then, devoid of any warning, the entire section of bookcase began to descend gradually, emanating the rhythmic sound of turning gears. Victoria, Tala, and Fate all stood up in awe, and quickly moved over to him as he began to step into the passage left in the its wake.
The corridor itself was brief, naught by ten feet, and emptied into medium-sized room littered with the same amount of intellectual clutter as the main office had. Books, scrolls, and parchment lay everywhere, sheets of paper shielding the wooden floor below from sight. Sconces lay fixed on the brick walls around them, but their light glowed dimly, allowing the space a brief step up from complete darkness.
As the students eyes adjusted, they saw Ambrose moving to the piece at the room's heart. A crystal ball, roughly double the size of the one near his desk, sitting on a raised pedestal. They followed his welcoming signal and gathered around it. There was a moment of quiet as he held out his hands towards it, but after that it began to rumble slightly. Light poured from it, blinding them momentarily until it calmed down into a colored image.
"What is this place?" Tala said, glancing around at what little he could see.
"My observation room." Ambrose answered. "Filled to the brim with knowledge on the Spiral. At least, what we know of present." He coughed a few times, clearing his throat, then glanced around at the three before getting to the matter at hand. "What I am about to show you is something wizards of your level do not yet learn about, but these recent incidents has forced my hand. Prepare yourselves, and do not hesitate to ask questions."
The student trio looked between each other for a moment, not sure what to expect, then gazed down to the crystal ball at Ambrose's suggestion. His hands moved in circular patterns, and the images became clear and took definitive shape. What emerged was the solitary image of a tree, wearing leaves of the fullest green, roots spreading out indefinitely out of the screen's influence.
"I assume all of you are aware of the origins of the Spiral?"
After a time, Tala nodded. "Yes, of course. Bartleby the Grandfather tree and Grandmother Raven sang the world and life into creation. Then the titan war split the world apart, and Bartleby used his remaining power to gather the pieces and create the spiral."
"Good." Ambrose affirmed, manipulating the screen to show a picture of a large black feathered creature nestled in the tree's upper branches. "Now, are you aware of why that happened?"
Victoria decided to answer that. "Wasn't because each of the titans thought the other two were scheming against them. They were threatened by the others and decided to strike before they were destroyed themselves."
The Headmaster nodded. "You recall your lessons well. Now…why did they assume treachery?"
Tala opened his mouth, but found his voice unable to follow through. He looked to Victoria and Fate, who only returned his confused sentiments. Ambrose decided to intervene after a few seconds.
"Bartleby and Grandmother Raven are not only the progenitors of the spiral. The two together are the manifestations of two primordial forces: order and chaos." The crystal ball alternated accordingly, stopping on an image of the Grandfather Tree first. "Bartleby is order incarnate. It was his power that shaped the physical creation. Everything, from our bodies to the plants, from the stable ground to the ever changing elements, is governed by an order, no matter how unruly they may appear to be." He looked up to Fate. "And you, Fate, are this order given the form of humankind."
The emerald eyed boy marveled at that, as did Victoria and Tala, suddenly so wary of exactly what he was. It wasn't that they'd forgotten. Throughout their day to day experiences, he'd just never seemed anything greater than one of them. But Victoria couldn't help wondering what the man's statement would come to mean for her friend.
Tala got them all back on track moments later. "So if Bartleby governs nature and creation, what is Raven's role in all this?"
"The heart." He answered with a reserved grimness. Again, his hands moved in patterns, the ball conjuring the silhouette of a grand raven flaring its midnight wings out with pride. "While he could create it, the one thing that Bartleby could not set into order was the human soul. It in itself is too chaotic a force, prone to changes of no logical manner. This was what Grandmother Raven gained jurisdiction over, and so chaos corrupted mankind's soul, even unto this day. In every one of us, somewhere." He glanced around at the three, face sorrowful. "This was the chaos that tainted the hearts and minds of the titans, disturbed the order, and led to the world as we now know it."
Another silence followed, the crystal ball shimmering back to a blank slate after a time, awaiting its next orders. Then, Fate asked carefully. "So what does this have to do with everything that's been happening?"
"The magical arts that we practice today can only draw on these two sources. The Order of Bartleby and the Chaos of Raven." He continued to explain. "Those that draw on the energies of Bartleby, pulling magic from their surroundings, from nature, are known as Wizards." His face tensed up as he spoke. "And then, there are those who draw from the other well. From the chaotic energy of Grandmother Raven inside their hearts." He glanced to them once more. "Based on our findings, these are the people we believe have been causing all these incidents over the past few months. The attack on Unicorn Way, the appearance of the Gobblers yesterday, perhaps even Fate's mysterious assailant."
He paused, and without any visible sort of provocation, a deep black shade washed over the crystal ball, causing the room to grow even dimmer as he finished.
"The antithesis to a Wizard. A follower of Grandmother Raven. A Witch."
—o—o—o—o—o—
The evening was still, as much as permitted in the darkening cobbled streets of the Commons. The waxing moon shone brightly above, masked by the massive canopy of the Grandfather Tree's branches.
Two figures moved quietly, shrouded in full body hooded cloaks. The first thin and nimble, the second hunched and rotund, legs stuttering from the long periods of disuse his captivity in Briskbreeze had brought them. They walked with purpose, avoiding the light of streetlamps when possible, to finally pour into the Commons' outskirting regions.
"So what's your story, girl?" Dworgyn asked after a time, attempting to break the awkward stillness between them.
Sasha didn't answer, simply pulling the hood tighter over her head. They rounded a left corner, moved up the inclined street, then darted into a trash laden alleyway devoid of light. The duo remained motionless for a few moments, waiting to see if anyone was close by, but once the thirty second mark passed, Dworgyn decided to speak again with a chuckle.
"Not going to tell me, eh?"
"There's nothing to tell you." She replied evenly. Her hand reached out and over time became encompassed by a deep mauve-hued glow. Then, she brought it high, then let it fall in one smooth motion to as low as she could reach. Space and air rippled in its wake, as if disturbing the surface of water, leaving behind a black-violet tear. Dark, billowing energies poured forth, twisting around the tear into a swirling vortex.
Dworgyn quirked an eyebrow at the rift, smile amused at seeing the beads of sweat forming on her forehead. "Nothing? You're a witch, girl. Witches always have stories."
"Not this one." The hunched old man decided to give up at that point, instead obeying her gesture to step through the rift.
An indefinite amount of time passed before the two stepped from the rift—travel within was always so quick regardless of the length of distance—and when they did, they hadn't the time to check their surroundings before a voice ahead caught their attention.
"Ah, finally." The deep, raspy voice remarked with some glee, standing from his seat on the bottom step of a grand staircase. Swathed in black, from his hooded jacket to his pants and boots, he sauntered to them just as the rift dissipated into nothingness behind. "Now everyone is present."
At the word 'everyone', Sasha couldn't help but look around. A larger skeleton, well over six feet tall, sat hunched on the staircase, next to where the hooded man had been. A thick claymore, as long as he, leaned against his body, devoid of any sheath and browned by a coating of rust. Unlike the other skeletons she'd seen him animate, this one was armored in metal. A black chestplate guarding his ribcage, leather boots for his feet, and a helmet to shield the cracks running along his skull. Every time it twitched, moved in the slightest, she could hear a rattling sound.
The second seemed less threatening at least, though all the more eerie in return. Gathered straw jutting from every open place in its simple gray smock, the carved face of its pumpkin head aglow with a mysterious light within. The scarecrow stood by the staircase instead, if she could call its strange inch-high levitation standing.
The hooded man continued as he stopped just before the newly arrived pair. "Were you followed?"
"Unlikely." She answered. "All of Wizard City's attention is still on flushing out Colossus Boulevard. I didn't even see a guard on the way here."
"Good." He affirmed, before turning to the man beside her. "And you must be Dworgyn. I can't say I expected you to accept our invitation so easily."
"I do appreciate you freeing me from my cage. That cell has not been too kind to my back." The man responded with a creepy, off-kilter smile. "Though please understand that I'm not your ally. I just happen to think our goals coincide for now." The hooded man chuckled and gave a nod. Then, silence preceded Dworgyn's face growing more serious, losing his usually jovial tone. "Now…what need have you young ones of this senile old fool?"
"You are the key." The hooded man said. "The success of our mission rests on the power of someone like you."
"Don't beat around the bush, boy." Dworgyn warned, still serious. "You won't receive an ounce of my help until I know what you're planning."
A low, nearly untraceable hiss escaped the man's throat, and before he could reply, the group was caught off guard by the appearance of a fourth party. A ghost, swathed in a translucent robe, descended from the ceiling with an icy chill, but only Sasha showed signs of being affected by it. A moan echoed out from its empty hood, and the hooded man watched it for a moment before turning his head up towards the ceiling.
"I thought you said you weren't followed, Sasha."
"I meant it. What's wrong?" Sasha asked in surprise. Unsure how he gleaned anything from the spirit's single wail.
Dworgyn's eyes soon turned up as well, an irregular grin conquering his face again. "Looks like we have some company."
—o—o—o—o—o—
"You are not whole."
The boy's breath stopped, and a sudden sharp pain rang through his head. His hands flew up immediately to his temples, pressing against them to alleviate it. Then, more gradually than it appeared, it dispersed, and he brought his hands down again. He wiped away the trail of warm liquid trickling from the corner of his mouth, and in the night he could just faintly make out its color.
He froze at its crimson hue, eventually wiping of the rest with his hand and returning to his peaceful lean.
The night air waved through his hair like a gust billowing over fields of grain, and not even the accumulated fatigue pressing on his eyelids could persuade Fate into returning to the comfort of the apartment living room. Hands spaced apart on the balcony railing, his eyes remained focused on what lay ahead of him, switching rarely between the waxing moon hanging in the sky above and the black encroaching form of Bartleby silhouetted against the navy blue starry night.
After the talk with Ambrose earlier that morning, the group returned to class with as many curious eyes locked on them as when they'd left. They were promptly ignored, as was becoming par for the course lately, and class resumed with Herbert's change of topic.
The day passed by strangely. Slow and tedious as always, but at the same time like a blur. Practical assessment with Diego had been eventful for most everyone, what with the majority of the class demonstrating their improved control over forming basic pips, much to his and Victoria's gratification. A reminder about the practical skills and physical assessment at week's end dissuaded any further joy.
History with Cyrus was identical, but the professor seemed rather…different. He'd been slightly kinder to them and Runewarden as a whole ever since the advancement exams. Alex Greatspell mused it may have something to do with the class's high pass rate, though Victoria doubted they'd managed to impress the staunch pessimist. Doubted, but not convinced.
Unfortunately, none of the three had been in the state of mind to enjoy the possibility of such a lofty victory. Especially Fate. Not after the revelation about the Witches. Victoria and Tala had heard of them before. Most people had. Fallen Wizards corrupted by a previously unknown force, crazed with thoughts of destruction. Common consensus devolved to just a folk tale, like the legend of Grubb or the benign spirit Felix Navidad. But to be not just real, but an actual threat unnerved them to no limit.
Especially that they might be the group after Fate.
He retracted his hands into his pajama shirt sleeves, doing his best to ignore the late fall chill, and continued to stare. Not turning around as the glass balcony door slid open behind him, and a soft voice broke the quiet. "Having fun out here?"
"Plenty." Fate laughed. She moved up to lean beside him on the balcony. "What are you doing up so late?"
"Can you really ask that?" She countered. He couldn't, and so dropped it. A silence returned between them, she looking out into the night sky above just as he had been. Then, as she tightened the blanket she'd brought around her frame, she spoke. "I don't believe the semester's already over. Feels like we just started yesterday."
"Yeah. At the end of this week, we'll be fully fledged Wizards." He showed her a reserved smile, still staring outward. He supposed there was some unsaid agreement to not speak on the Witch issue for now. "Doesn't seem like we've grown that much, huh?"
When she didn't say anything at his statement, he quirked an eyebrow and turned his head to find her staring at him, which completely threw him off guard. Her words didn't remedy him any. "I wouldn't say that. I think you've grown a lot actually. More than any of us."
His voice caught in his throat, but he managed to squeeze out a "Really?".
"Of course. You're not that timid confused boy Tala, Ty, and I talked to in the hospital after that attack. Not anymore." She turned her eyes back out, now glancing at a few civilians below, reminiscing. "Now you're that boy who I saw get so affected by all the injustice done to Lady Oriel and the fairies. And who just yesterday morning in Colossus Boulevard kept our group from breaking down and was willing to give his life so the rest of us had a chance at escaping."
Fate couldn't say a word at that, and so he just turned back out to the street and rubbed his head in embarrassment. Victoria giggled silently to herself as he muttered "Thanks."
Then, she gave him a soft pat on the back and walked back towards the door. "Get some sleep. Finals start tomorrow." He nodded, and the door closed with a soft click behind him. He continued to look out, eyes fixed on the street, musing on the blonde's words and the strange things happening to him.
Not noticing the winged creature flashing across the sky in front of the moon.
—o—o—o—o—o—
"Easy there. Slow down a bit." Artur Gryphonbane cooed, face illuminated by the glow of the moon, keeping a firm hand latched onto the reigns guiding his mount. The Gryphon's obedience was the only sign of confirmation required, and the sharp air hitting his face descended into a gentle breeze that blew at the loose strands of his outfit. A deep purple, nearing black, fitted without any burdensome materials. Optimized for stealth.
His eyes surveyed the Commons below, his one free hand gripping a sort of compass-like object. He'd not received much sleep over the past few days, especially after having to play aerial spotter for the Colossus Boulevard suppression team. Luckily, when they'd gotten the situation a little more controlled, he'd been formally released to return to Ambrose's mission. Tracking this rift to its exit point.
And finding who or what lay at its end.
He altered his mounts flight path according to the device's needle, swooping up and down as needed to test for the levels it was measuring. The needle rose and fell at times, but suddenly spiked as he passed over a street in the commons not too far from the main library.
He didn't believe his eyes. There was no way a remnant of a portal as old as the one he was tailing could have produced levels of this magnitude. Unless…
"A new portal." He breathed out, immediately stashing the device in a pouch and gripping the reins with both hands. "Let's drop down here."
The wind whipped past his ears as the creature declined at an angle, flapping its broad, brawny wings against its fall to cushion its descent. Its talons gripped the shingles of a groove in the roof, a relatively flat surface between an incline and the large house's towering chimney. Artur wasn't comfortable dismounting the creature yet, though. Something about this place gave him an uneasy feeling.
Under his command, the gryphon tucked in its wings and began stalking up the incline, careful not to crack any of the tiles underfoot and give away their presence. It stopped at the very top, just enough for Artur's head to peak over and spy the house across the street.
The Diviner had to catch his breath at the sight. "No…" He scrambled through his pouch to retrieve the magical scanner again, then held it up. The needle readjusted within seconds, climbing higher and higher until it could no longer. Artur just stared at it in pure disbelief. "No…It…This isn't possible." This thing had to be broken. It had to be. There was no way this was the house.
There was no way it could be—
"What isn't possible?"
He froze, a chill ripping up his spine. Then, he was turning his torso on the Gryphon towards the sound of the voice. There, at the base of the roof right before the chimney, stood a teenage girl. Coffee brown hair hidden by shadow. Plum eyes rife with hesitance, glowing eerily in the darkness.
The strange, irrational sight of his sister wiped his mind clean of thought for a few moments. "…S…S-Sasha…Sasha! What are you…How did you…?"
She didn't say a word at his questions, instead mouthing something akin to an apology as her palm began to glow mauve and dark swirling rift opened in the path her hand carved. The churning nexus took a few moments to stabilize, and when it did, four figures stepped from its dark throat. A scarecrow, a hunched old man in a simple black garb, the rattling bones of an armored skeleton.
And the mysterious man, face concealed in the shadow of his hood, speaking with sinister hiss as the portal dissipated behind him. "Artur Gryphonbane. How nice of you to join us."
"What's going on here, Sasha." The boy replied carefully, eyes darting constantly between the man and his sibling, who wouldn't make eye contact with him.
"Give yourself up, Artur." She said just loud enough for him to hear. "Don't make this harder than it has to be, alright?"
"Don't tell me you're part of the group behind all this?" He said, taken aback by her statement. He readied his grip on his reins and the Gryphon spread itself apart, ready to pounce.
She started to answer, only to be cut off. "And what if she is?" The hooded man asked simply, question pointed. "What do you plan to do about it?"
This caused the Diviner to waver somewhat. Was there anything he could really do about it right now? Ambrose had been sure in warning him off confronting the enemy, but now that was completely out of the question. He might have been able to take out one of them before the others returned the favor. But here he was right at the enemy's doorstep. He was the only one who knew. If he went down now, their identities went down with him, and the trail would probably be lost.
His eyes darted back and forth again, watching the scarecrow and skeleton begin to stalk up the roof towards him. Behind their advance, he finally fixed his sight on his sister, and by now she'd already brought both her attention and a wooden wand up to lock onto him. Magic building up within. He flinched at the action, but waited, examining her. Examining her eyes, full of fear and confusion, regret and unwillingness. Those eyes he'd seen so many times throughout their years together.
Here they were. Begging him for help.
"I'm sorry. Wizard City has to know."
And once again, he knew he had no choice but to leave them to fend for themselves.
He jerked his hands and the reins snapped with them. The Gryphon reared its head back with a mighty shriek, bunching its legs, spreading its wings, and bursting off from the roof into the air, shingles cracking under the force.
The hooded man managed the smallest of smirks under his hood as Sasha's scream resounded, fueled more by a sense of betrayal than anger. The inverted storm sigil traced itself in less than a second, glowing a pale purple, and then dissipated in the same moment as a swirling portal of clouds materialized a few feet in front of her, crackling with electrical streamers.
Her eyes continued to glow as five bats charged through from its center, wreathed in torrents of lightning, zooming up into the air in a misshapen line. Their haunting screeches filled the night, aerodynamic bodies easily catching up to the scrambling Gryphon and its rider.
However, neither the beast nor its rider would surrender so easily to them. The first storm bat flew up and over their flight path before arcing and plummeting towards them. Through his panic to escape, Artur noticed this and turned the reins, mount veering sharply to avoid it, electricity and all. However, they were all more coordinated than he'd first assumed.
The second and third were also ascending at their new position, shrieks calling attention to them. Artur and Gryphon leaned more into the veer, but the third bat managed to latch its fangs into the Gryphon's wings. The beast let out an ear-splitting cry of agony as the creatures charges ripped through its nerves, pawing at the air while Artur did his best to right the situation. The fourth and fifth bat, grabbing the wing and a back leg respectively, diffused any hope of this.
The Gryphon could no longer bear the weight of its attackers, and stalled for a moment in the air before gravity exerted its dominance. Artur did his best to hold on to the wildly spinning creature, but the force proved too great for him and he released the reins just seconds before both crashed onto one of the more flat roofs just a block away.
The thud and resulting crunch were just accents. He didn't need them to know that he'd broken quite a few things in the fall. Nothing below his left knee was operating as far as movement, and he struggled for at least a half minute to push himself up into a sitting position, left arm and back protesting the action in full force. The bats were gone, most likely dissipated as they hit the roof, but his Gryphon was still on its back, bloodied and unwilling to move any of the places they'd bitten into.
He forced his body to move towards it, propelling his crawl with his right leg and hands, unable to work up the energy to stand and hobble. Halfway through his trip, another dark rift opened up between him and the Gryphon, Sasha stepping out into view and followed by the hooded figure, Dworgyn, the skeleton, and the scarecrow.
"I guess you did have a story after all, girl." Dworgyn remarked plainly, this time not with any hint of sarcasm or mirth. Almost regrettably.
"Humans are such pitiful creatures." The hooded man meandered over to Artur's downed body triumphantly, and the Diviner only stared up at him in defiance. "Your sister pledges her allegiance to me just to protect her siblings, and what do you know. Her older brother abandons her." His boots came down repeatedly on the boy's outstretched arm, and he yelled until his voice began to break. Sasha winced at every one, knowing there was nothing she could do. And after he'd just left her, did she really want to?
The man turned his hood's opening to the girl. "Really? This is the trash you wanted to protect?"
Sasha bit her lip, averting her gaze, and dammed up the tears trying to leak from her eyes. But against what riled up insider her, she steeled herself. Voice firm when she replied. "If you kill him, the deal's off. And I kill you."
"You're not in a position to make demands here. Even if he dies, I've still got your younger sister as leverage." She could feel his confident grin, and didn't let it show that she knew he was right. Fortunately, it paid off. "But it'd be a shame wasting a perfectly good hostage."
He snapped his fingers, and a rift opened up behind him. This surprised Sasha. She wasn't aware that he could form rifts of his own. But what's more was that he could do it without using his hands. As far as she knew, it took a large amount of corruption to be able to do that.
The rattling armored skeleton jerked Artur up by his collar, letting his legs drag along the ground and unaffected by the boys attempts to push off him. The two disappeared through the rift, followed by the scarecrow, then the portal dispersed and the air returned to its normal state. Leaving Sasha, Dworgyn, and he alone on the roof.
After a long span of silence, filled only by chirping crickets and rushing wind, the female Diviner's dejected voice asked. "How much longer must you force me to do this…?"
"One more assignment." He answered calmly. "Then you'll have your freedom, you and Dworgyn. There's one last thing we need to collect, and I'll need the both of you to do it."
She was hesitant to ask. "…From where?"
Instead of speaking, he instead turned his body. This confused her at first, but Dworgyn seemed to catch on immediately, and the old man chuckled as he spoke. "Ah, you young ones sure have some spunk to be messing with them."
Sasha turned also to the direction he faced, plum eyes widening in disbelief as the sight of the Grandfather Tree resonated in her mind. The man spoke as she thought.
"Ravenwood."