Once sufficiently healed, the party was ushered into a tent where much of the academy’s upper staff and Sha-Laials noble families waited for them. They received a round of congratulations, with the occasional insinuation of potential employment opportunities with the city. Eventually, after the meet and greet, the party walked away with sacks full of gold. They agreed to grab food before heading back to the tower. Alvec begrudgingly agreed he was still of half the mind to go chasing after Sarbie, but it didn’t make sense to leave town on an empty stomach.
They had just sat down and placed their orders when several shadows flitted overhead. A heartbeat later, four stone gargoyles crashed to the ground.
“Master Wizard, we bring bad news. Our hated enemy has invaded our home. Your servant is trapped inside; we request your aid at once,” it said in a hoarse voice like rocks and sand in a tumbler.
Everyone scrambled to their feet.
Illaria took the lead as her speed over land was far greater than anyone save Echo’s. Echo kept pace with her, with Naya riding on his back. As they dashed towards their home, something strange occurred. Echo grew larger without the aid of his collar. His whole body glowed with this faint green glow of power before he settled into a larger form, the collar being magical adjusted with the sudden growth.
“Whoa, Echo, what's going on?” she asked. Of course, he gave no comprehensible answer, but he barked enthusiastically. Whatever it was clearly hadn’t hurt him, so she shrugged it off. She just owned a horse-sized wolf now. The tower came into sight, and the girls led the charge into the tower square. The gargoyles were right; several devils stood guard outside the tower.
“They’re here for the sword, aren’t they?” Naya asked as she hopped down, drawing both blades.
“Aye, I be reasoning the same thing. Let's get this started; our backup will be here soon,” she said, drawing her own blade and advancing on the devils. They looked partially insect-like; she didn’t know their names or anything of the like, but it was clear to her by their movements that they were lackeys, infernal or otherwise. Their carapace was a soft beige, and they had a somewhat segmented body structure. The most apparent tell that they were insectoid were the extra limbs and the sensory antenna. Each of them, in addition to their sharp claws, carried a spear, each a black twisted piece of tortured metal. She leaned hard into her attack, slicing through the closest one's Abdomen before thrusting the tip of her blade through one of its shoulder joints. All of the fighting recently seemed to have sharpened her speed. Where once only one carefully aimed blow could sneak past her enemy's armor, now she could land two in the same time span.
Naya rushed forward, speaking Echo’s command word. The wolf, already the size of a horse, grew even larger. He easily towered over the devils in front of them and rushed forward, snapping his jaws over the first one he encountered. They found their mark, and in moments, Echo had the creature pinned to the ground. Naya smiled and rushed at the same one, plunging her scimitars into the beast. It howled in pain.
A window on the second floor popped open, and Sorali perched on it and looked down. It was a decent fall, perhaps thirty feet. She gulped. If she were lucky, she’d be fine; if she wasn’t... well, that was a problem for future Sorali. She pulled her red hair back into a ponytail and took the leap. Better to die on her own terms than be killed by devils. Her feet had barely left the windowsill when clawed white hands lunged towards her. A chill went down her spine as a gust of cold air solidified around her in a gentle cocoon; she slid down a tube of slick ice as she was shunted far away from the devils. She skidded to a stop, bruising and skinning her knees a bit, but otherwise unharmed. She caught sight of Master Alvec standing in the entryway, ice blue arcane runes glowing around him as chilled water vapor leaked from his mouth.
She didn’t know much about magic, but even she could tell that this was something extraordinary. It was greater than the spells he had cast during the festival.
Bait arrived with an absolutely thunderous announcement. His bullets slammed through the ones on the left flank. They withstood the barrage, but it was clear that it had hurt them badly. Even without Alvec’s magic, Bait felt faster, like he could shoot even more. Mavec was only a few steps behind them and began casting as well. The energy around him was black and eery. A wall of shifting light that resembled screaming mouths fluttered into existence, running through several of the devils. Their eyes clouded over as necrotic energy clung to them, effectively blinding them. Devils as they were, blinded, and under vicious assault, these henchmen weren’t anything more than a speed bump. Especially as Alvec accelerated everyone once more.
Illaria took the opportunity to try something new. She baited three enemies into attacking her as she dodged out of their reach. As she did, she jumped, twisted, and slid past their spear thrusts, tapping them away with her sword when all else failed. Using her speed, she rebuked each of them, landing long bloody slashes on them as she breezed by them as effortlessly as a ghost, with all the carnage of a tiger. She dashed up the stairs as her allies continued to wage war on the devils. She took the final set of stairs, arriving at the war room to find San Verado holding the double-bladed sword.
“It took you long enough to get here,” he said, smiling.
“San Verado, what you do you be doing here? Working with Devils, nonetheless? Is that why you’ve been keeping such close tabs on me?”
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“You, no, you were nothing more than a curiosity,” he said as he pulled the hat from his head. His lush, vibrant hair changed before her eyes, replaced with a slick, black, oily mess. His clothing, previously bright and vibrant, shifted as well, quickly becoming primarily browns and blacks, his jewelry mostly disappearing except a few Sharktooth bracelets. A nasty gash ran across his throat, a wound from a battle long ago.
None other than cut-throat Crowley stood before her.
“I’ll admit, it was so fun to tease you at first. I took no small measure of joy knowing the truth, even as you rejected my advances. No matter your answer, I won, just like today. Just like the tournament. Even in defeat, I snatch victory.”
“You be talking too much for a dead man,” Illaria said, brandishing her sword.
“Now, now, Illaria, if you gut me here, you’ll never know where your parents are. They are such honest folk, after all. Too reliable and useful to just discard. So I kept them close and made sure not a man amongst mine thought he could cheat me and get away with it.”
“How do I be knowing you're even telling the truth. You could have killed them years ago,” she snarled.
“That's the thing, Illaria, I win again. No matter the truth, whether they be resting at the bottom of the ocean or in confinement in my home, either way, I win again as you squirm, trying to figure out what to do. It's a shame that problems like this aren’t so easy to cut with a sword.”
“You didn’t win earlier today, and my friends will be making short work of the devils outside. Soon, they’ll arrive, and that will be that,” Illaria said.
“You didn’t win. They did. Without them, you're not nearly as powerful as I hoped you’d be. I had hoped your anger would have tempered you into something sharper than this dull steel.”
“We were sharp enough today,” Illaria insisted. “What do you even get out of this, Crowley?”
“This sword. Worthless really, just fancy iron forged in hell. But wielding one grants a certain status among devil kind. I entreat with a whole new host of powers. Soon, not even your precious Blue Banner Army will be able to do more than die while we take more than just the seas.”
“Illaria! The urn!” Alvec shouted as he rounded the final stair, a dagger in hand. She laughed. Alvec was more than enough backup, and his idea was just so dumb that it might’ve worked. If each of them were feared outside by the ghost of Nath, then indeed the rest of the team could have dealt with Crowley. She drew her wakizashi back and made to throw it.
“Well, it looks as if I should be taking my leave now. Come on, Illaria, chase me back to the seas if you dare. We’re somewhere off the coast of Ac-Aziza if you can find me.”
With the smell of brimstone and a puff of black smoke, he and the sword disappeared before she could throw the blade. Alvec rushed past her; he dropped the dagger to the floor, letting it clatter on the stone. He pulled a scroll from his bag, slammed it onto the table, and unfurled it as his tail and a free hand grabbed ink and a quill. He was glad for the rush of speed his spells gave him because each heartbeat meant he’d be a little less accurate on this.
All spells left behind traces for a few moments. Things you could follow if you were fast enough, fragmented energies you could decode if you knew how, and Alvec knew how. The rough distance, the rough direction, as well as a few other bits of information, he read through the quickly decaying completed spell. He promptly circled a large swath of ocean off the coast of Ac-Aziza before turning back to Illaria.
“Was that who I think it was?” Alvec asked.
“Aye, it was Crowley. He was San Verado the entire time,” she said, shuddering in both disgust and anger. She’d been so close to him so many times; she could have reached out and ended him so easily. It would have been frustratingly simple. The man was a pig and an asshole of a magnitude she struggled to comprehend. He had taken so much perverse enjoyment out of trying to seduce her. Granted, it had failed spectacularly, but the notion still unsettled her.
“Alright, well. I’ve got good and bad news,” Alvec said as he showed her the map. “The bad news is I couldn’t get a perfect read on him. I arrived too late to attempt to dispel it, and I arrived too late to get a good look at how it was cast. The good news,” he said, pointing at the map. “Is that I did confirm his parting remarks and narrow it down a smidge. He went somewhere within this circle, which is, in fact, in the ocean near Ac-Aziza.”
Illaria clapped him on the shoulder. “Thank you, friend. We need to be getting a move on right away; we can’t let him have any more time.” Illaria said before walking away.
Alvec reached out and grabbed her wrist, gently tugging her to a stop.
“We can’t head out yet,” Alvec said. “What do you be meaning by that?!” she said as she spun back around on him, barely contained anger searing in her voice.
“Hear me out. Our healing wand is broken, the group is tired after two consecutive fights, and we will need to get horses and a cart if we want any hope of actually getting to Ac-Aziza in a timely manner. We need to also discuss what enchantments people want on their items. You’ll be getting priority since we’ll be going after Crowley. Additionally, TaeCol must be informed of this development with the devils. Perhaps the church can lend us some support. If the festival has convinced me of one thing, our group can’t keep taking on these dangerous tasks without getting someone to come along with us who can patch us up.”
Alvec was right. He was right an uncomfortable amount of time. She took a deep breath, followed by another, and one more to top it off. “How fast do you estimate we can be getting a move on?” Illaria asked.
“Assuming we split our time... Tomorrow at dawn. Mavec and I need a good sleep, but not before we get a wagon, and Mavec does some tinkering with it. We need to add stabilizers to it to make it easier for me to focus on my enchanting as we travel. Not to mention, we need to catch up to TaeCol and fill him in. If Naya, Echo, and I go to TaeCol while you, Bait, and Mavec secure the rest of what we need... I think Dawn tomorrow sounds very doable.” Alvec responded.
Illaria nodded her head. “OK, you make a lot of good points. We’ll head out tomorrow. What do you need me to do again?” She asked.
“You need to get us a cart and horses. I’ll send Mavec to go get reagents and stuff to help add stabilization to the cart. Naya and I will go talk to TaeCol.”
“Alright,” Illaria said, taking the stairs down. Alvec was right behind her. He informed the team of the plan, and they each broke their specific ways. Time was of the essence.