Hey, folks. I am writing this intro using my feet in place of hands, as I am currently under observation at the Dunwich Psychiatric Hospital, where I am restrained by a straitjacket.
Just kidding – maybe. But I will say this whole ordeal of selling my condo so I could move to the new one has been taxing on my patience, my general nerves, and may adversely affect my sanity by the time it is all finished. I've been eating out too much – seeing as I have to vacate this place every time someone comes by to view, inspect, or repair something.
I may end up donating a lot of the books I use for reference, it's a lot easier these days to simply look up PDF versions online. Maybe I'm a pack rat with these books, but a man must know his limits.
One thing that has made me very happy was finding out that the final release for the original Nintendo Switch will be a remake of my ABSOLUTE favorite video game. I am talking, of course, of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. I know, I know, the official reveal was six months ago, I must have missed it, but I literally jumped for joy upon learning the news. Being able to play that on Switch will make up for this whole crummy month.
So, let us continue, to about fifteen minutes before the end of the previous chapter, shall we?
0-0-0-0-0
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Shadowchasers
The Demonskar Legacy
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Chapter Four
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Some Assembly Required
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Fifteen minutes earlier….
"Disgusting," said Red Feather.
Down the street east from waystation was the large open-air market itself, though at the moment, the stalls were deserted, and in many cases, wrecked. A bonfire had been erected around a wooden column, on which an effigy was burning - exactly who it was supposed to represent, she hadn't a clue.
Still, what she was most concerned about was the man shouting to the small crowd that had gathered, a very tall (likely over six feet) man in a black robe. It was hard for Red to even comprehend what he was saying, which alternated between French, German, English, Elvish, and Orcish, and what she could understand were cuss words and blasphemies. The crowd he was preaching to was only about a few dozen people, far less than Dorisan's, but if he was trying to make them angry, it was working.
There were also several shorter figures behind him, wearing the same dark robes. Was this a cult of some sort? That was the last thing they needed.
"Nice. All those folks need is some pitchforks and a castle to raid."
Hank had emerged from the main building with two cups of hot coffee. Red Feather took the one he handed towards her, not taking her eyes off the hooded man.
"What is he saying?" she asked.
"I believe so far, I've heard five quotes from the Bible, six from the Talmud, two from the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, three from Quenton Tarantino flicks, and three from Mel Brooks. None of them in order. In other words, gibberish."
It was easy to tell what Hank was implying. She seriously wanted to go over there and deal with it, but she knew enough not to leave the post. There were quite a few town guards - uniformed ones, thankfully - between them and the effigy, and she'd have to trust their ability for now.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Unfortunately, neither the watch nor Red were able to pay special attention to one of the robed figures, who was watching the effigy from a side street to the south of it, perpendicular to the short avenue that led from the podium to the waystation. Under the hood was a young tiefling, her pink dyed hair and white face paint marking her as one of the Last Laugh Thieves Guild.
"Jil, are you there?"
Jil - as that is who it was - cringed to suppress the urge to scream, having been quite startled by the sudden telepathic message.
"Yes, I'm here!" she said in a loud whisper. "What's the problem?"
"The amulet, Jil," said Rivaldi's voice. "You are wearing it underneath your shirt. It has to be on the outside of your clothing for me to see through it."
Jil grumbled a little, but obeyed, undoing a single button at the collar of her cloak, then took the amulet she was wearing under her shirt, placing it over the shirt. It was an odd piece of jewelry, a small golden oval resembling an eye - not a human eye, more like a snake's eye. Due to some magic Rivaldi would not explain, she could see out of this amulet as if it was her eye, one of many things about her that made Jil nervous.
Jil had once heard a rumor about another wizard who used a device like this; the underling holding the amulet decided to smash the amulet, and the wizard was horribly wounded as a result, as if he had lost an actual eye. Jil didn't put much stock in hearsay, and the punishment she would likely face for doing so kept her from trying it.
"Remind me again why I'm doing this?"
"In order to hastily and accurately perform this ceremony from where I am, I require a conduit, and thus you -"
"No, I meant why does it have to be me? "
"One, you do not have a choice. Two, you are a tiefling, and being such, the odds of success are increased substantially, as is the likelihood you will survive."
"And three, because I'm more expendable, I assume?"
"Hmm, more or less, yes. All you must do is look in the direction of the effigy until I finish casting the spell, and when I am finished, run the other way - fast."
Jil was starting to wonder whether or not prison was better than the deal she had made to keep her out of it, but seeing as that deal was what maintained the freedom of all of the Last Laugh, she would comply - for now.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
There was another concealed figure interested in the effigy as well. The strange man with the two dogs was sitting on a park bench a safe distance behind the speaker, listening to the inane sermon and occasionally writing in his ever-present notebook.
One of the dogs barked, and he nodded in reply. "Yes, I agree, he has an eloquent and poetic approach in his style. Quite an effective way to speak such blasphemies."
The other dog turned to him and whined. "Yes, Isabelle," he said, "that was indeed sarcasm."
Then the first dog started barking, loudly. "Eh? Oh… dear."
Most would not have noticed the subtle change in the effigy, or rather, the flames that were consuming it. But he certainly did.
He slowly stood up. Didn't expect them to take it this far, he thought.
…right before an explosion of flames with the stench of brimstone consumed the whole square…
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"Ed' i'ear ar' elneal!" screamed Red Feather.
Hank assumed that was elvish for "What the Hell", and he agreed. The two Shadowchasers had to shield their heads as a sudden shower of burning timbers and ash fell from the sky.
The effigy had exploded in a blast that had immolated the whole square, turning the night sky burning red, setting many of the neighboring buildings - and many of the unfortunate rioters - on fire. But when the sudden shock had passed and they were able to look towards the market square, it seemed the explosion was just a side effect of something very different.
Sonya and Maddie rushed out the front door. "What the -" started Sonya, before adding, "Oh…"
The podium where the effigy had been now had something very different, a roaring tower of flames at least fifteen feet tall, the heat so intense that they could feel it from there.
"Everyone, wait!" shouted Red Feather, "we have to -" Unfortunately, again, even as she tried to warn them, Hank, Maddie, and Sonya were already halfway down the street. "Dolle naa laost," she grunted.
She was about to draw her weapon and follow them, but was interrupted by someone grunting "Where d'ya think you're goin'?"
Horatio did not know when to quit.
The rhoxodan had not even bothered replacing his shirt before again coming for revenge, proudly displaying his stout, muscular torso covered with tattoos. He was more prepared for a brawl this time, having brass knuckles on both hands. He was also wearing a weapon on his back that she assumed was a machete.
"Is that supposed to impress me?" asked Red Feather. "You are as stubborn as a mule, Horatio,"
"You kidding me?" said the rhoxodan with a laugh. "I'm twice as stubborn as any mule!" He lunged for her, but she was much faster, dodging aside as his right fist slammed into the wall behind her, breaking it. "My folks were the same way." He swung at Red twice, but again, she dodged. "Stand still!
Then she stopped dodging, delivering a fierce kick to the thug's kidneys, causing him to fall backwards with a loud "OOF!"
"I am guessing, then, that your family procreated very quickly."
Unfortunately, as smug as Red was acting, Horatio was more prepared than he had let on. She was caught completely off guard and bull-rushed by surprise by a brute who was just as big and ugly as Horatio. The sudden ambush slammed into her side and knocked her against the wall.
"Remember me, babe?"
Red had only herself to blame. She had, in fact, completely forgotten about Antoine.
Horatio's partner and fellow Alleybasher, Antoine was a daedon, a large humanoid Shadowkind with leathery skin and a boar's head. Unlike Horatio, he was still wearing his uniform, but given his stench, he had not cleaned it since the riot at Town Hall.
Red had no time to reply, trying to get up, but Antoine had other ideas, pulling her to her feet, and then slamming her against the wall, harder. But he wasn't done, turning towards Horatio and shoving the unfortunate Shadowchaser towards him.
"Kuu 'Datto! Let me go, you…"
But then the daedon lifted her in a tight grapple, turning her towards his partner.
"She's still got some fight in her, Horatio… Finish her off!"
The rhoxodan pulled the weapon from its sheath… She was wrong, it was not a machete, it was a claymore. A very, very big sword with a very keen edge…
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"What the HELL?" shouted Sonya.
"Eh, good choice of words there," said Hank.
"You have got to be kidding," said Maddie.
Being this close to the roaring fire came with a revelation - it was alive. The first indication were the eyes, white hot, angry looking eyes, glaring at them from within the bonfire.
"Another elemental?"
Of course, this was a true elemental, not an evolutionary offshoot like the breathdrinker nor a tasked spirit like Baern. True elementals were the purest living forms of the elements themselves, embodiments of nature's fury. A fire elemental was dumb, strong, and had all the subtlety of a forest wildfire, and as the Shadowchasers knew too well, could often become the cause of such a disaster.
Another thing they knew - Maddie especially - was that they had no reliable way to stop this monster, which had enough fiery power to level an entire city district…
"Mainlanders, hit the floor!"
They didn't know whether to be relieved or annoyed again, but they complied with Todd's shout, dodging to the ground. Sonya turned to look in the direction where he came from seeing Annah and Cora behind Todd, Annah chanting some sort of - she assumed - protection spell as Todd aimed at the elemental with, of all things, a slingshot.
Of course, it wasn't a toy slingshot like the type Dennis the Menace was notorious for having, rather it was a wrist mounted slingshot of the type used by riot police and guerrilla fighters, but she had no idea how a weapon like that would be any good against this beast…
Then Todd fired, sending a projectile that soared over them, hitting the elemental squarely in the center, and to the surprise of all three of the Shadowchasers, it worked. The monster howled in pain, kneeling over and falling on what passed for its hands and knees.
The next second, the three Stormblades were helping them to their feet. "What do you guys do, follow us around?"
"A 'thank you' would have been nice," said Cora.
"What in the world did you hit it with?" asked Hank.
"Elemental retardant," said Annah. Todd prepared to fire again at the seemingly weakened elemental. "An alchemical concoction, kind of like a tanglefoot bag, only less adhesive and more fire-smothering material. One more hit, and this thing should be…"
Then, the fire elemental rose to full height, or rather, higher than its original height, roaring with fury.
"TODD!" screamed Cora, "any day now!"
Todd managed to fire a second time, and again, hit the beast in the center of its "chest", and again, the projectile caused the elemental to react with pain - likely the only thing that saved the six humans when its mighty fist swung at then, missing but smashing through a storefront awning next to them.
"RUN!" screamed Cora. "This way!"
"Cora, not there!" shouted Maddie. She had no idea why Cora was leading them towards the open doors of a nearby warehouse, but that's where she, Annah, and Todd were heading.
So, the choice now was, follow the three Stormblades into a building that would not be the least-bit safe from this monster, hoping they might help think up a better plan… Or abandoning them with no plan of their own.
No choice - while both options weren't the best, the first one was better.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"So, princess," said Horatio. He lifted the claymore while eyeing Red Feather, his eyes suggesting nothing less than those of a maniac. "Would you prefer I did this with a crosscut or down the middle?"
"Bastard…" groaned Red Feather.
"Admit it, princess." Horatio lifted the sword over his head. "A mainlander like you never saw this coming, right? Never expected a couple of 'dimwitted thugs' to do you in, huh?"
"I vouldn't expect a dimwitted miscreant like yourself to see past the end of your own nose either, swine."
A second later, a man leapt over Red and Antoine from behind them, did a somersault in mid-air, and brought both his feet down on Horatio's face, knocking him on his back.
When Red Feather had first met Alonso, back before the Flood Festival, she figured he was little more than a lecherous boor trying to get into her pants, a type she had met many times before. Still, it seemed he was at least one who could be counted on.
And with Antoine distracted by the surprise attack on his partner, she was able to make a backward elbow job to slug him in the stomach, breaking free from his grasp, and then landing a second blow to his face, knocking him down.
"Do not take this the wrong way, Alonso," she said, but I never thought "I would be this glad you butted in."
"It was my pleasure mi amore." He took hold of her hand, then kissed it. "Foul swine such as these do not deserve to be in the presence of such a beautiful flower such as yourself."
"Oh, for the love of -" It seemed Antoine was just as stubborn as Horatio was. He grabbed hold of Horatio's weapon as he stood up, leveling it menacingly at Alonso. "You wanna fight, fancy pants?"
"Much as your vile stench repulses me," said Alonso, "I will happily oblige. Pardon me mon amore." He reached for his own weapon, a long slim rapier, pointing it at Antoine and then motioned with his other hand taunting him.
The daedon actually laughed. "You're going to stand up to me with that big toothpick?"
To his surprise, he definitely was. Alonso thrusted forward and made four quick slashes with the weapon. At first, it seemed like none of them had made contact at all, but then, he made a fifth slash and Antoine's shirt, belt, and trousers all fell to the ground in torn and ragged heaps of cloth.
For a few seconds, it didn't quite sink in what had just happened, as the Alleybasher just dumbfoundedly looked at Alonso.
"Nice boxers," said Red Feathers, smugly.
Then, Antoine screamed, dropping his weapon and running towards the front of the warehouse…
…where he ran into Francis, or rather, where Francis' fist ran into his face.
"Unbelievable," said Francis. He looked up towards Red Feather. "This might be a bad time, but we have another big issue to deal with."
"Lead the way," she replied. Then she added to Alonso, "Are you coming?"
"Would not miss it for the world mon ami. You know… we make a pretty decent team, no?"
"Do not press your luck."
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"Todd, how many more of those bullets do you have?"
"Two."
Hank shook his head. That was not going to be enough. With everyone now inside the building, Cora slammed the door shut, then latched the deadbolt.
"What good will that do?" shouted Todd. "It will just burn this whole building down!"
"Not until it gets out of the circle," said Annah, sounding very worried.
"Wait, circle?" asked Sonya.
"That ain't a regular Shadow, everyone. Somebody summoned it, and there's a thaumaturgic summoning circle around it. So long as the circle is intact and unbroken, it's rooted to that spot."
Then a bellowing roar from the beast shook the entire building.
"Right, fine, it can't come after us until something falls on the circle, should give us a minute or two, right?"
"At most," said Annah. No doubt about it, she was scared and doing her best to assure everyone. "Everyone, we have one chance. We have to get its attention so we can stall and outlast it."
"Uh, hey, guys…," said Cora.
"Wait, what?" asked Maddie. "Outlast it?"
"Like I just explained, this is a summoned elemental. Circle or not, the summoning spell has limited duration, if we can just distract it long enough the spell will wear off and it will disappear. Hopefully."
"Uh, guys…" repeated Cora.
"Hopefully?" asked Maddie. "For how long?"
"Uh, hard to say. Could be anywhere from twenty minutes to a few hours".
"A few hours… Right, we…"
"HEY!" shouted Cora. This time she had gotten their attention. "What the hell is that?"
For some odd reason, this warehouse seemed completely empty. No crates, bags, barrels, or boxes, nothing you'd expect to find in a warehouse. Nothing except the odd device in the center of the big room.
The large, bulky vehicle, or device, or… contraption, that was the best word for it, seemed to have two distinct sections. The front part was like an old-fashioned farmer's tractor in general outline, but the size and width of a small compact car, with six large, spoked metal wheels. There was a cow catcher on the front with ramming spikes, and four thick pipes with spigots on the ends mounted by the side, pointing forward. Two coiled fire hoses were mounted below and behind them.
This seemed to be a propulsion unit meant to tow the second part of the device, which was fully three times large. Like a flat top trailer with a railing, it had tank treads like those of a bulldozer for locomotion. This in turn carried a huge pear-shaped contraption. It reminded the Shadowchasers of the infamous Alchemic Kettle Chaos Distill, but far less like an oven and more like a water tank. The rear part had an engine with a pull-cord like that of an old-fashioned lawn mower, only bigger. The whole thing was covered with smaller pipes, along with gauges, flanges, winches, and gewgaws, all in a haphazard arrangement that made little sense.
The entire contraption had been constructed of copper, brass, bronze, and iron, which had been riveted together with little regard for aesthetic.
"No... fucking… way…," said Sonya.
"What in the name of -" said Todd.
"I recognize these runes." Annah cautiously approached the contraption, and nervously touched it. "Aquan… But it looks like something a gnome would build."
"IT IS! Sonya could no longer contain her joy, looking at the unsightly contraption the way a teenager would if given a new car for her sweet sixteen birthday. "Someone actually built it!"
"Built it? What is 'it'?"
Sonya quickly went into a hurried explanation, stuttering and stammering many times out of excitement. Some years ago, she had worked with "Squinty" Maloom, a member of the Swiss Gnome Conjecture; he had shared his notebooks full of schematics for devices which, much like most of the Conjecture's inventions, they never managed to actually build. They included things like the Pepper Grinder Gatling Gun and Athletic Quality Snowshoe Sneakers – not unusual for a gnome inventor. One of these designs, however, stood out.
"He called it a Pneumatic Steam Powered Elemental Mobile Anti Conflagration Device."
"Uh, translation?"
"It's a gnome-made steampunk fire engine! He told me the mechanism activates runes that open a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water within the central tank that could then be delivered through the hoses like high-pressure water cannons! He himself told me it could take down a rampaging fire elemental, so if we could just -"
"Wait, wait." Maddie shook her head. "Gnomish technology? I think I'd rather take my chances with the stalling idea."
"The mainlander has a point," said Cora, "I've yet to see a gnome-made machine work the way it was intended, and even folks who have seen it have said that -"
Then, the beast roared louder than before. Dust and soot fell from the ceiling, and smoke started to fill the room.
"Sonya…" Annah's voice was stern as she looked the Shadowchaser in the eye. "You have thirty seconds to explain to us how to work this thing."
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
The six of them might have been relieved - slightly - to know that, while the elemental was incredibly angry, its rage was not directed towards them. Right when they barricaded the door, Francis, Red Feather, and Alonso had arrived to give them backup, only to be confronted by the furious elemental.
"Mon dieu!" gasped Alonso.
Red instinctively aimed her arrow at the beast, but then lowered the bow, deducing quickly she would only waste the arrow. Francis could see, much like Annah did, that there was a magical circle keeping it restrained, but it was just as clear to him that it would break free in a matter of minutes.
"Now what?" shouted Red.
Before he could answer, a voice they had never heard before shouted, "HALT!"
Then, magical power encircled the elemental, and chains that seemed made of ice surrounded it, binding its arms to its sides.
On the roof on the other side of the street, another cloaked and hooded figure stepped forward, grabbing hold of the cloak and then tossing it aside. Underneath was a kimono made of dark green and sky-blue fabric, with gold trim on the sleeves, with a violet sash. The tall man was muscular, completely bald, with a strong jaw, lighter blue skin, and a gold tooth, easy to see due to his smile with otherwise flawless white teeth.
The elemental's reaction to this figure was one of absolute furor. It struggled against the bindings, but despite being made of ice, they held it fast and didn't melt.
"That's right, I'm talking to you, and now that I have your attention -" The strange man pushed his open palms forward, chanting in some odd language as his eyes glowed. Runes appeared in mid-air around him and then, three gaps in the very air around the elemental opened, about the size of manholes, and water gushed out of them, soaking it. Naturally, the elemental howled louder in pain and anger as plumes of smoke and steam rose into the night sky.
"Eh… should we help?" asked Alonso.
"Don't know. Whoever this guy is, he seems to have the problem covered."
Almost instantly, Francis regretted tempting fate. The elemental roared louder, and thick, fiery tentacles sprouted from its side, snapping the chains, and then lashing at the odd Shadow, hitting him squarely and propelling him off the roof where he was standing and propelling him into another building behind him - which collapsed on top of him.
"Uh…," said Francis.
"Now what?" shouted Red, who was close to panic.
The elemental looked at them with a hissing, sizzling sound. It raised its arms, and they changed shape, turning into bulky, muscular, flaming fists. For a brief moment, they could vaguely see a nearly invisible dome around the elemental, which shattered like glass as it slammed its first downward.
The circle had broken; it had sundered the wards. Nothing was restraining it now.
No choice, Francis was about to tell them to run for their lives. But when he did so, his voice was drowned out by what sounded like a noisy car horn that sounded like… "La Cucaracha"?
"Ce que l'enfer?" said Alonso. but then he ducked and dodged as the gnomish contraption smashed through the front of the warehouse.
Sonya was driving it, of course, with Annah, Cora, and Maddie riding in the rear part. Or rather, holding on for dear life with the limited parts on the device that could function as handholds. In typical gnome fashion, whoever had built the thing didn't find it necessary to include them. Nor seatbelts either, something Sonya had noticed.
She also figured out quickly that whoever built this device had designed the controls with a manual gearbox, with four pedals. While the gas and brake were in the right places, she had no idea at first which of the other two pedals was the clutch, and even less idea what the remaining pedal did. Fortunately, the thing did have an airbag, which she realized as it went off as the vehicle broadsided the elemental.
Suffice it to say, Todd and Cora's opinion of gnomish technology wasn't uncommon.
Fortunately, the elemental's body was rather soft, not as soft as living fire should be, but ramming into it did little damage to the contraption. The elemental didn't fare as well, propelled about 20 feet forward and crashing into another storefront - which was no big loss by now, as it was already burning.
"Damn it, Sonya!" shouted Annah. "Didn't you say -"
"I said I knew how it worked, didn't say I had experience! Start it up!"
Annah nodded. She and Cora started to turn a pair of winches on each side of the huge tank, while Maddie braced her foot on the motor box and grabbed hold of a ripcord and yanked it upward. It only sputtered a little the first time, but on a second yank, it hummed to life, and the power gauges on the tank started to rise.
Todd and Hank grabbed hold of the two coiled hoses, and as the beast started to rise, aimed at it. "Stage one!" shouted Sonya.
"Aye-aye!" replied Maddie. She pulled one of the large levers, and water started to gush out of the two hoses. Todd was quickly knocked over from the sudden kick, but Hank held on, and again, the beast howled in pain.
"Dammit, gimme that!" shouted Cora. Leaping from the vehicle, she scrambled to pick up the dropped hose. She managed to seize it at the cost of completely soaking herself and Maddie but managed to aim it at the elemental.
"Stage two!"
Maddie grabbed hold of the other, larger lever, but it proved much, much harder to move. "Come on… damn it…"
"Need a hand?" Francis had figured that the safest place to stand right now was behind the contraption, making it easy for him to climb up to where she was an assist.
"Better make it both hands," grunted Maddie.
Both pulled downward, and the stubborn lever finally yielded. The gauges all shot to the maximum readings, and the whole vehicle shook as high-pressure streams of water blasted from all four of the spigots.
"Keep it up!" shouted Annah. "It's weakening!"
Unfortunately, the elemental was too dumb to give up. It staggered and struggled, trying to advance towards the contraption as Sonya switched to reverse and backed up. The powerful water assault was having a dangerous side effect, causing the monster's fiery body to exude scalding steam covering the whole square.
Sonya had the best view of the monster, its eyes fixated on her. Sweat started to pour down her face as she wondered if that gnome had been exaggerating…
Then, an even larger gout of freezing water – almost like a wizard's fireball, but water – appeared out of nowhere, like a watery meteor, crashing down on the elemental. The odd Shadow – who had somehow survived that assault, though his kimono was torn, burned, and dirty - appeared, did a flip and landed on the top part of the contraption's tank.
"Never turn your back on a ruvoka unless you know he's dead, ash-brain." He snapped his fingers, and two more of the drenching portals formed. "Think you can waltz into this city and burn the whole place down?" He pointed to his charred and ruined clothing. "These had been my favorite robes!" He waved his hands, then pointed their palms frontward towards the elemental, and streams of water shot from them, striking the beast even harder. "An interloper like yourself can't hold a candle to my powers! Come to think of it, I doubt a weakling like yourself could even light a candle!"
"How the hell could you" — started Francis.
"- survive?" he asked. He laughed heartily, and said, "Oh, it takes more than a few hundred pounds of wood, drywall, and duct tape to take one of us down! Time to bring this fiery abomination down!"
Where'd this guy get his material from, Mighty Mouse? Sonya grabbed hold of a lever by her side - where a stick shift would be, though it had a different purpose - and pulled it backwards. "Everyone hang on!" she shouted.
"To what?" gasped Todd. "Each other?"
"Don't even think about it," added Red Feather.
The spigots on the four metal hoses opened, the runes on the tank burned with green magical fire, and the contraption shook as their streams of water turned to magical energy, like ray guns blasting thick, blue, shimmering beams, each with two thinner beams spiraling around them, hitting the elemental with an onslaught of eldritch hydrokinetic power.
The potent magic was causing the device itself to buckle and strain - rivets popped out of the hull and several of the glass faces on the gauges shattered. Sonya was holding up only slightly better, the strain like that of using a jackhammer that she could not control or let go of.
She suddenly remembered how "Squinty" had died – he had been testing his new electric soap-bubble pipe while taking a bath. His family and co-workers said that was how he'd have wanted it, but it did question his intelligence – and that of whoever trusted him enough to actually use his inventions.
Finally, she slammed her foot on that fourth pedal - it was time to see what that did.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"Jil, over here!"
Of course, Jil had obeyed Rivaldi's orders to the letter, and did not object in the least to the part where she had been told to run the other way fast. She had made it to the Spider's Den tavern - a popular bar where the Last Laugh patronized - where Helensla was holding open the front door, preparing to lock and bolt it shut once Jil was inside. Unfortunately, Jil tripped on a loose cobblestone only ten feet away, stumbling and falling on her face.
"Oh, for the love of -" said Helensla. "Here, hold this." Another guild member took hold of the door as Helensla stepped out to help Jil up.
As she did, the whole city shook, a feeling of clammy dampness felt by everyone in the city, followed by a chilling wind. Back from where Jil had run from, a spout of shimmering blue magic shot upwards towards the sky, exploding in what might have been called a pyrotechnic burst, but of water rather than fire.
Jil looked dumbfounded at the strange display. White motes started to fall around her. She held out her hand… The blast had caused snow flurries.
"I… I didn't know Kyass' magic was that powerful…"
"He isn't," growled Helensla.
This was not going quite as they had planned…
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Sonya's head was pounding. Her allies, friends and rivals didn't seem to be in very good shape either. All of them were bruised, burned, and soaked to the bone.
The contraption had been wrecked. It was lying on its side, the ruptured tank emitting smoke and leaking an odd blue liquid. She wasn't sure if the contraption had caused the explosion or whether it had been totaled because of it.
"Did we win or lose?" she groaned.
"You're okay, here." The voice came from Francis, who helped her to her feet. "I think it's gone."
"Oh, very much so, mainlander!" The reply came from the odd man who had helped them. "Seems the fiend was banished back to the fiery hellscape that spawned it, with ample warning never to return. Quite commendable! Thank you for the assistance."
Maddie turned to Annah and asked, "Do you know this weirdo?"
"No clue." Cora shook her head, indicating she had no idea either.
"Uh right, yeah," said Francis, "listen, we -"
"My apologies for this in advance."
Then to Francis' surprise, the man waved his arms, and he and Sonya were lifted off the ground. "HEY!" he shouted. He was… inside some sort of… bubble?
Trying to struggle did nothing - his feet weren't touching the floor, and his arms couldn't reach the surface of the odd magical restraint. Unfortunately, everyone else was in the same situation.
The danger may have passed, but now they had a much different problem on their hands. This was not the first time they had been arrested, but clearly more humiliating than any time before.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"So, uh, what time is dinner served here?"
Maddie had tried to use her cheeriest sarcasm there, but her only reply from the guard was to slam the cell door shut on her. "Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer," she grumbled.
"Nice one, mainlander," said Annah, "as if this all wasn't embarrassing enough."
Maddie didn't know what was worse, that she had to share a cell with her or that Todd had - she assumed - managed to avoid being arrested. They didn't know exactly where they were, they assumed this was a holding cell block in the City Barracks.
Of course, she - and Hank, Francis, and Alonso, in the cell across from them - was handling this much better than Red Feather was; the elf was pacing back and forth erratically in the cell containing her, Cora, and Sonya.
"Will you calm down?" shouted Cora. "You're making me dizzy just watching you!"
"Calm down?" shouted Red Feather. "Calm down? Assuming we ever get out of here, what is Vidal going to say the next time I have to see him?"
"Vidal?" asked Alonso. "Isn't he a writer?"
He felt a sharp jab from Hank's elbow, who then fiercely whispered. "Not that Vidal, she means Judge Gaston Vidal, the judge who approved her parole."
This was neither the time nor the place to discuss it, but Red had founded an environmentalist group years ago, and foolishly accepted members with eco-terrorist methods. She was paroled after five years of her twenty-five-year sentence, and all it would take was a single phone call from him to revoke it and force her to serve the rest of it…
Sonya wasn't quite as nervous, but she was still unnerved and worried.
"Not my first time either. Did you know whaling is illegal in Oklahoma? I didn't. I mean, it's a landlocked state!"
"How did…" started Annah. "So, like, you were in an aquarium, or...?"
"Naw I was in a track meet and my javelin hit a spectator, some fat guy in a suit who owned the local steakhouse – turned out he was a bake-kujira – that was why they outlawed whaling, actually… guess it makes sense now."
"You just had to ask her," whispered Maddie to Annah.
"Oh, and then there was that time they caught me in the stables at that Renaissance Fair in Baltimore. He was a centaur, for Pete's sake! It was fully consensual!"
"Sonya…" started Hank.
"You just can't talk to Mundanes sometimes! Some of them still think I'm a witch!"
"This is 'cruel and unusual punishment'," muttered Cora.
Unfortunately, this didn't help Red much either. She leaned against the wall, covering her face with her hands and shaking her head.
"Red, seriously, calm down," urged Francis, "I'm sure he'll understand. Everyone, justcalm down!"
"HOW?" shouted Maddie. "We're all in jail, and worse, we're guilty! We're all screwed!"
"Actually, I don't see Nichole here," added Hank.
"Hey, hey, yeah!" said Sonya. She laughed nervously. "Maybe Nichole is out talking to the constabulary right now, and…"
She was interrupted as the cellblock door was unlocked, the guard coming back in with two handcuffed prisoners - Nichole and Illewyn.
"Okay," muttered Hank, "now we're screwed."
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Five minutes later, after Nichole and the acolyte had been placed in the last remaining cell and the two sentries had left, Francis figured it was time to ask just what was going on.
"Nichole, I would have thought you of all people would have had enough sense to -"
She interrupted him, "We turned ourselves in."
"Her idea!" added Illewyn.
"Whatever for?" added Maddie.
"Three reasons. One, it's probably safer here than it is out there. Dorisan's little speech has started anti-mainlander riots all over Cauldron, along with residents ganging up into vigilante mobs. Two of the Alleybashers - that we know of - have been murdered, they were strung up down by the Moxie Maiden before we were brought in here."
"Por l'amour de Dieu," mumbled Alonso.
"Oh, thank you so much, Dorisan!" shouted Cora.
"Cora, please, don't be naive," said Francis. "The killer was a plant. Dorisan had every intention of going to jail." Noting the looks of Cora and Annah, he elaborated. "It's a common mistake the police make where we come from. We have the Man who runs the government -" He held out his left hand, palm side up. "- and we have the Protestor, who has a cause that the Man doesn't like." He held up his right arm the same way, as a scale would look. "The Protestor holds a nonviolent - and very public - demonstration - the Man gets angry, the Man sends the police out to arrest him, hoping to quell the cause -" He moved his left hand up and his right hand down. "But many times, the Man ends up looking like the bad guy." He reversed the positions of his hands, with the right hand up and the left down. "The display causes folks who are indifferent to the conflict to see that the Protester has a point and that the Man isn't one to be trusted. Many revolutionaries are able to count on that happening, it worked for Nelson Mandela, it worked for Martin Luther King, and Dorisan was counting on it working here."
Nichole nodded. "The assailant - or rather whoever he worked for - didn't want that to happen, so he decided to do something that would turn Dorisan's speech into a violent brawl. The worst part is it worked. From what I've heard, if the city guard does find Dorisan… They have the authority to kill him on the spot."
"Wait, wait," said Maddie, "and you decided to surrender because of that?"
"Uhm, no. I decided on that after I talked to some of the town guards about that bald blue guy. They said his name is Zarn Kyass, claiming he's Cauldron's director of security. Then I spoke to a few Alleybashers. They call him 'the Duke'. It's a nickname, like they used to call John Wayne. As I'm sure you noticed, he's blue. Sound familiar?"
"Wait, he's the Blue Duke?" said Maddie with a gasp. "But… The Alleybashers, those are his men."
"Not really, Maddie, he's a 'client'," corrected Francis, "he hired them. At least the ones working for Dakota."
"He's not an actual nobility," continued Nichole, "but he is a bigwig in Cauldron's government, and the one who oversees most security measures. I do believe he was the one who actually proposed the new tax collection programs, and if Dakota's men also refer to him as the Blue Duke -"
"- he was funding them too," added Francis.
"He obviously knows a lot about water elementalist magic," added Hank. "I assume he's a genasi?"
"Actually, no, almost the opposite," said Annah. "He said he was a ruvoka. They're… different."
The Shadowchasers had heard of ruvoka, but very few had ever met one, at least in the present day. They were, according to their own accounts, descendants of humans who had migrated from the Prime Material Plane to the elemental planes, for a variety of reasons, making them their homes, and as such, could be considered the complete opposite of Shadow-touched. They had a reputation for being tough and adaptable (you'd have to be in order to survive there long), all were part of various clans each attuned to one element and were skilled in potent divine magic relating to nature, always relating to 'their' element. Legends stated that they had taught similar magic to druids and other ancient pagan cultures, or that they were members of such peoples themselves.
"So then, here's what we know," said Hank. "This Blue Duke uses the Alleybashers for both illegal and legal - probably - venues, Dorisan doesn't like the Alleybashers -"
"- and we don't like them," added Annah. "It's all starting to fit together."
"Que?" asked Alonso.
"It's not brain surgery here, people!" she shouted. "Two, not one, two elementals of different elements appear in this city on the same day, with no explanation of how. This wasn't a case of two lost creatures who ended up here by accident, no, this was a coordinated ambush. When the fire elemental appears, it just happened to do so next to a warehouse where someone stashed a gnomish fire engine, a ruvoka water shaman happened to be in the neighborhood when it does, who just happened to be someone with who'd have a grudge against Dorsian? Way too much of a coincidence there."
"Well, obviously Dorsian has a bigger grudge against him," added Sonya.
"You say that as if it's a good thing."
"Hey, grudges are a sign of intelligence! If something holds a grudge, you know it has a reason, meaning it's smart, meaning it's something to take seriously: crows, cats, aglets, that bacteria they use to make yogurt..."
"Cockroaches…" muttered Cora. "She has a point, I heard those things would enslave humanity if you gave them half a chance…"
"No, no, you're thinking of squirrels. Cockroaches could never rule the earth. The ones you really need to watch out for are the ravens. They can survive anywhere, eat anything, and they hold grudges."
Nichole interrupted. "What Annah was implying, I believe, is that Kyass couldn't have summoned both of those elementals. In fact, he couldn't have summoned either of them. An elementalist shaman wouldn't summon outside his own element. We're going to have to look into this once we get out."
"IF we get out," said Red Feather. All this information didn't do much to comfort or reassure her.
"Don't sweat it," said Cora, "Todd's folks will be here to bail us out in a couple of hours." Although right after she said so, she thought to herself, Right, who am I kidding, like hell he will, right after they get someone to drag his drunk ass home after the last call at the pub. She could see from the way Annah was shaking her head that she wasn't convinced, and neither was anyone else.
"Fear not, mi ami," said Alonso, "zis ees not ze first time I have been here, I have, shall we say, options available."
Not surprising, thought Nichole. Guess there's nothing to do right now but wait.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
And that is all for now. Cliffhangers can be such a bitch, huh? (Evil chuckle here.)
Hopefully, when my case is up for reevaluation next week, I can convince the psychiatrist on duty I'm fully sane and able to function, and when I post the next chapter, I will be fully moved and settled into the new place. Wish me luck. And if you can, leave a review, that is always welcomed and appreciated.