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[>>Now replaying: Log 1.19 - Virginia? Is that you?]
Date: Error
Location: Zephyro’s Domain?
//Do you ever listen to your muses? Their last album about the Boy with the Wolf was amazing. Unbelievable, really. But their newest one… Wow. I could replay Cassandra over and over and over. No, don’t go. You can’t. Not yet. Listen to Cassandra’s story with me, but you mustn’t believe. Do not believe her, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not, do not,//
[>>DATA CORRUPTED]
E1 %Oh by the Might of Magic… You’re so blind! Do you mean the same Lords that live in the Capitals, rich beyond our wildest dreams because of the very same technology they took from us?%
E2 %You sound like Crazy G.%
E1 %And you sound like Priest Salmec!%
“Wolf!” I yelled, and Zephyro immediately thrust his hand forward. A split second later, a pale shield snapped in place in front of us, humming with energy. The wolf, already in motion, crashed into it, and the field cracked. Bright lines spiderwebbed from the impact point, accompanied by the sound of breaking stone. The Feral’s snarl rolled through the alley like the sputter of a broken speaker. It moved back, tensed its back legs, and launched itself against the shield again. This time, it sounded like the impending surrender of safety glass. The shield flashed white.
When I blinked the afterimages away, the Feral hadn’t made it through. It also turned out that repeatedly slamming your head against a magical barrier wasn’t a great idea. Unlike after the first hit, the beast seemed dazed. It shook its head, and the motion rippled through its entire body. With its confusion shaken off, it perked up and brought its nose against a crack in the shield. It sniffed, deep and greedy. The cube of Logic that I’d hidden in my robes twitched. The beast growled, sounding almost pleasantly surprised, and its hackles rose in anticipation.
“I must beseech you, Sultana, to tell me what you see.”
“Wolf,” I said. “Taller than me at the shoulder, pitch black fur, red eyes.” Because obviously, it had red eyes. How could I tell it was bad otherwise? Fucking mages.
“Anything abnormal about it, Sultana?”
“Well, the fur looks like it’s made out of metal, and I’m pretty sure there’s some sort of energy running through it.”
“Yah Allah… not a simple beast, then.”
“If I tell you where it is, can you kill it?” I asked.
But Zephyro grimaced and shook his head. “I can overcome anything in my Domain, inshallah. But I cannot guarantee for your safety, Sultana.”
“I can take care of myself,” I said. It sounded petulant, a remnant of my anger pushing back my fear. Behind the shield, the Wolf growled, its crimson eyes dead set on me.
Zephyro’s assessment was unfortunately correct. As much as I hated the fact, we couldn’t win this fight. The Feral was just too quick. If I stayed, it would simply dance around the Vizier, and kill me as easily as a CEO with a hangover kills a promising project.
“Can you leave the shield up while we run?”
“Yes, Sultana, but it won’t hold for long.”
“Good enough. Is there another alley? Can we circle around?”
“Follow me, Sultana.” He tried to get ahead of me to lead the way.
I held him by his combat vest and pulled him back. “And run into another monster? Stay behind, I’ll do the scouting, you navigate.”
“But—”
“I know you want to protect me, but there is such a thing as too much caution, Zephyro.”
With that, I fell into a jog. It wouldn’t do to sprint to exhaustion. The wolf would catch up. I could almost feel its teeth digging into my stomach, pulling out my intestines. I wondered if they would glow blue, like Alkashafa’s.
I blasted the thought away and focused on running instead. I pushed the scepter into the belt that held my robes in place, which made it easier to pick up the pace, even if its bent head slapped painfully against my shin every couple of strides.
Grabbing the edge of an older building, I used my momentum to cut the corner as tightly as possible. The ancient stone crumbled under my fingers like the sky crumbled into the void. My feet slid on the dirt and whirled up a cloud of dust. It smelled dry and earthy, mixing with the notes of smoke and sweat that filled the air around us.
Houses rushed past me, and each minute Zephyro and I spent running through the maze of burning sidestreets and alleys, they grew a bit bigger, a bit more opulent. He was a great navigator, directing our way precisely and at just the right time. We didn’t overshoot a single junction and didn’t miss even one turn. When our path was blocked by debris or fire, he found an alternative within seconds.
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Guilt moved within me like a tiny stone stuck in a shoe. It rattled around if I left it alone, and hurt when I stepped on it, by accident or purpose. It was infuriating, and so every second of running away was a lonely feather that brushed against my anger, trying to get it to wake up.
> A forest road in autumn. Patti is standing in front of me, frowning deeply.
> I told her what happened, what I did, but she doesn’t scream at me.
> She isn’t even disappointed.
> Much worse.
> She’s concerned.
> She reaches out and touches my arm, stroking it gently.
> “Is this who you want to be, Sam?“
Fuck. Fucking fuck!
I slowed down. It didn’t seem like Zephyro needed the break, but he matched my pace nevertheless.
“Sorry,” I muttered between breaths. I kept my focus on the road ahead. Before Zephyro could say anything, a boom echoed through the streets and washed over us. The sound vibrated in my chest, pushed against my back. I stumbled, taking the chance to risk looking backward. The sky was filled with glittering shards of pale white and blue, slowly dissipating against the backdrop of the stars.
“’That your shield?” I panted, indicating the fading fragments.
“Yes, Sultana,” Zephyro said. He didn’t sound winded at all, but he was glitching again. Several versions of himself overlaid each other, happy and sad and angry all at once. Then streaks of blue light shot over his body, and the errors stopped.
“Got another?” I asked, trying not to waste my words as I wiped the sweat from my brow. When had I gotten so out of shape? Or was this one of those nightmares where you ran and ran, but nothing happened?
“In about 5 minutes.”
Still running, we briefly looked at each other. There was nothing more to be said. We rounded another corner and fell back into silence, keeping up the jog.
After a while, the alleys around us changed. Paintings of torches and smiling women who looked a bit too much like me started to appear on the walls. They were proper street art, done by painters of varying skill, and I wondered what the story behind these paintings was. Did Zephyro commission them or did his citizens just paint them on a whim?
As we ran, the echoes of the city collapsing faded from an overwhelming cacophony to sonorous background noise. Like all sounds of distant violence, the remote clamor was dangerously easy to get used to, until the screams and the roar of the collapse almost seemed like a distant dream. If it hadn’t been for the flickering red hue and the motes of embers still coursing through the night sky above, the streets would have almost seemed idyllic.
Well, apart from the ripped-open doors and occasional smears of blood on the ground. It seemed that the Ferals that escaped the market square had made good use of their time. The streets we’d passed so far had been empty, but whenever I chanced a glance through gaps in the buildings, I spotted more and more people making their way down the main boulevards. Stragglers, either too slow or too hesitant to flee ahead of the pack.
We kept running until Zephyro told me we were approaching the end of Trader’s Rest. From here, it would be a couple more backstreets, and then we’d reach the richer parts of his city. Hopefully, we’d be a bit safer there, with fewer Ferals to run into us. With the stronger Ferals herding the weaker ones in front of them, Zephyro suspected the beasts would move down the thoroughfares and then spread out, like an infection moving through arteries on its way to the heart.
We entered an alley that went parallel to the main road. Tight corridors, drapes hanging overhead, A/Cs on the wall to my left, some sort of wooden balcony to my right. As we ran, I caught glimpses through open doors and windows. The houses were small by Earth standards, but far larger than any building you could find in most villages on Tobes. One house I passed had its back door open towards the alley. The front door was hanging on its hinges, and as I ran past, I caught a glimpse of the main street bustling with chaotic colors.
Curiosity warred with care, but in the end, we hadn’t heard or seen anything from the wolf for a while. It had probably gone in search of easier prey. My muscles ached for a small pause, and my mind warned me that I should take a moment to assess our situation, so I slowed to a stop in front of the building with the open doors, trying to catch my breath. When the doors aligned again, I finally understood what I’d seen. Hundreds if not thousands of people were fleeing in the same direction as us, wearing clothes that shimmered in all the colors of the rainbow.
I’d known there were many people in this city. After all, there had been a huge group outside the gate, and I knew that could only have been a fraction of the city’s population. But knowing was different from seeing. There were men with turbans, women wearing headscarves much like mine, children crying for… for a lot of things. The sounds of the crowd were dampened because the noise had to pass through the house, giving the scene a distant feeling like I was watching them through a TV. And yet, when I moved, the illusion shattered, and all I saw were people.
That was bad. Even if we had a bit of luck and our plan kept the Shackled occupied for a while, there was still an entire city’s worth of people fleeing toward the palace. Crowds of that size were completely unpredictable. I’d already had problems pushing my way through the throng outside the gates, and this crowd would be several times the size of that. If we got caught in that undercurrent, we’d get pulled along for better or worse.
If a Shackled or a Feral caught up to them…
I gritted my teeth, slunk past Zephyro who’d waited ahead, and got back to running.
More alleys passed, and despite me slowing down to check for threats at each intersection, we made good progress. At least I thought we did. The city was absolutely massive, and every time we passed a bigger street, I was sure the Palace was much closer than before. But whenever I took a moment to search for its gigantic outline, it almost seemed as though we’d gotten farther away rather than closer. I wanted to ask Zephyro how long it would be, but he had been quiet for a while now, and I was busy running despite my exhaustion.
We stopped at an intersection a while later. I leaned around the corner to check if the way was clear. Only dust and shadows flickering in the light of fires overhead. Zephyro indicated a smaller street to our right, blocked by a half-collapsed wooden handcart. It had little mechanical boxes attached to its underside, perhaps to make it easier to push, but they were all burnt out. I wished we could have just used that thing to fly to our destination, even if the thought was stupid and childish.
Then again, the entire city was riddled with anachronistic tech, and yet we were trudging along on foot. Perhaps that was even more ridiculous.
Zephyro pushed away the broken cart like it was an empty cardboard box, providing an opening for me to shuffle through.
“We are almost through Trader’s Rest, right?” I asked
Zephyro nodded slowly, following through the narrow gap after me.
“Yes and no. It is not that easy, oh Sultana,” Zephyro said, using one hand to quickly jam the cart between the walls of the alley. Blocking pursuers. Clever. “As you have seen, the main boulevards of the city are choked with people. I thought they would be empty by now, but with the Ferals on the loose, panic broke out and slowed down the evacuation.”
“Meaning we can’t cross the main roads.”
“Indeed, Sultana. And yet, we must, at least once. Each of the tiers of the city is encircled by a large avenue, and we will soon reach one of them. My only hope is that we get there before the Ferals.”