The undercity was in a state of mindless chaos.
The denizens west of the barred gates took metal pipes to the chains that held them shut, as fire began to consume the halls that trapped them between their homes and the eastern undercity. The crowd continuously gathering far from the gate pushed forward towards it, each desperate denizen hoping to win passage through. The sudden force of their coming crushed those who tried to open the gate. Screaming voices drowned out the more sensible ones, who struggled to maintain order. On the east side of the gate, denizens began to gather their kin, crashing into one another, unsure of where to escape the destruction on their side.
“We can’t go into the overcity!”
“We’ll die here!”
Another explosion rocked the undercity, and the entire population seemed to wail in unison. Some who passed those struggling at the gate tried to help them, smashing at the chain with their baton, or with wrenches and other tools, but soon gave it up. There was no time. The halls of both the piston territory and the eastern city began to leak rivulets of molten metal, setting fire to anything remotely flammable.
As the Casiq wound his way gracefully through the carnage, he touched some of the other Althelib on the shoulder, issuing strange words of calm.
“Back to your quarters, rest, we are protected by our Lady, remember?”
As if in a trance, some of these denizens forgot their terror, and went walking through the burning undercity towards their homes. Their passage was met with more confusion, and some who sought to escape froze in their fleeing.
“The Casiq said everything will be just fine,” one said, smiling blankly. She seemed confused that there was any panic at all. She stood in the doorway of her apartment, ringed in fire, shrugging off her kin who tried pulling her away.
“You’re all going mad! What nonsense!”
The Casiq spun into hidden routes, with the beguiled guardsman Braer clearing the way for him with his baton. He sent shocks towards any that prevented their passage, and they fell over where they stood in the halls, being trampled by those that fled.
They reached the hold, where the captive guards yelled their throats raw for freedom.
The Casiq stopped short in front of the small prison that held Alto, who gripped the bars in tight fists. The guardsmen behind him crowded so closely that they pushed him firmly against the bars.
“Casiq” he implored. “The city is burning, let us out!”
“OPEN THE CAGE!” a voice hollered from deep within the hold. They’re trying to lock it shut!”
“What?” Alto cried. “Casiq!”
The Casiq put his face close to the bars, and stared into Alto’s eyes with his own, bulging, bloodshot glare.
“You and all your kind will burn here together,” he said in a voice that did not belong to the Casiq. “But you’ll all come back to me, one way or another.” The Casiq spun towards Braer.
There was another explosion, nearer to the hold, that shook the entire city. Fire roared through and consumed the far hall just outside the hold proper, taking with it a handful of Althelib denizens.
The Casiq stumbled, but was caught by Braer.
“Ready a cage for me, and when I’m up, open the both of them,” he commanded.
“Yes, Casiq,” Braer said mindlessly.
“BRAER!” Alto screamed. “Wake up, my brother! What are you doing?”
“I’m just following orders,” he said flatly, without looking at Alto. Braer followed the Casiq into the hold, to prepare his ascension.
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Aern and Sam shot out twenty steps toward the center of the overcity square, and stopped short. They spied Fazel at the top of Luinosa’s cage, and creeping towards it from the center square, three curious bright-faces.
The siren began to blare.
“We’ve got to get those three,” Aern said grimly, pointing at the group of bright-faces that crept on all fours towards Luinosa’s cage. He stepped forward, ready to shout.
Suddenly, there was an explosion of molten metal, and a lightshow that forced the both of them to shield their eyes. As Sam turned his body away from the blast at the easternmost borders of the square, he saw something that made him jolt upright.
“Captain, look.” He pointed towards the alleys that fed into the eastern undercity, where dozens upon dozens of Althelib denizens poured out into the overcity.
“Ohhhh no,” Aern growled. “Right to slaughter.” He spun, eyes darting everywhere, marking the number of bright-faces that began to awaken to the movement and sound in the chaos all around them. He stopped at the courthouse building steps, clear for the moment of any of the bright-faced breasts, and pointed to it.
“Crack your baton in the air and call the people, we’ll direct them all to rush the courthouse!”
Sam immediately obeyed.
“OY!! HEY!!” the two shouted. “THIS WAY!” They sent sparks of silvery light into the air with their charged rods, and waved them in circles. “THIS WAY!”
The first emerging Althelib took in the hellscape of the overcity for a moment, and were horrified. Some of them saw Aern and Sam with their ignited batons no more than a dash away. They began to run, and each of the Althelib that noticed did the same.
The denizens poured out until there were nearly a hundred, some sprinting, others encumbered by children, or dragging their elderfolk under the arms as they went. Some guardsmen flanked their passage, drawing their batons, ready to protect their straggling kin, encouraged by the sight of their old Captain.
“TO THE COURTHOUSE!” Aern bellowed. “Sam, get them in and bolt the doors. If the bright-faces enter, send them to the balcony and keep the upper doors shut!”
“Right,” Sam said, and sprinted off at the head of the Althelib heard. “Through the doors! Through the doors, cubs!”
Aern held his glowing baton in his hand, and marched toward the three bright-faces that turned and marked the racing procession of denizens.
“Alright, you bastards.”
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Tomo and Iyan flew hand in hand through the city, going mostly unnoticed by the denizens who shrieked and fought their way from certain death. Some marked Tomo’s angelic passage through the underground halls for a moment, but in their panic, they afforded it not a moment’s thought.
“Not this way,” Iyan said, turning down a hall that was alight with molten metal and fire. “We’d have to go around, it's a longer way… Tomo, maybe we should-”
“Oooh,” Tomo said. “He’s moving. Over there, where there are people in cages. We should probably go let them out.”
“The hold,” Iyan replied, and began running to it with Tomo. “We’ll open the cells, but we have to get out of the city.”
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Tomo and Iyan leapt into the hold as an explosion sent a wave of fire through the hall they only narrowly escaped. Iyan jumped immediately to his feet, and ran toward a short pillar that displayed a set of switches. He flipped them all.
Tomo raised both her hands in the air.
“Alright! All you foxes should follow Iyan. Where’s the Casiq?”
The guardsmen nearly tripped over one another exiting their cells, then gathered themselves to surround the two.
Alto was flabbergasted.
“Tomo?”
“Your bail’s been posted, kid,” Tomo said.
“The Casiq is going to the surface…” Alto said.
“The other side of the hold goes up into the basement of one of the ruined buildings. But it’s locked shut on the side that opens to the city,’ Iyan said. “The other exit goes right back down into that hall…” he pointed behind him, towards the flames.
Tomo shook her head. “Nope, it’s not locked. That’s how me and Luinosa came down.” She shot Iyan a grin.
“Show us!”
As they ran into the large hall of the hold, an ascending cage was being shut with the Casiq inside. Braer marked them blankly, and then returned to preparing the Casiq’s ascension.
“HURRY!” Iyan barked, and the group filed with haste through a set of doors on the far side of the hold. The Casiq turned towards them, in curiosity. He straightened himself, and adjusted his feathered headdress, looking up towards the darkness of the rising passage.
The lift began to move, and the circular cage that housed the Casiq made its way to the surface of the city.
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Fazel pulled the hanging portion of the chain up and through the cage, his hands trembling again as he struggled to lock the two ends together. He kept his eyes on his work, but called out with agony.
“March! CLIMB!”
The bright-face reached out swiftly for March’s head, but the Althelib was quicker. He ducked under the creature's sinuous arms and its boney hands smashed against the iron. March ran a tight circle around the cage, and began to climb it on the other side.
Not fifty steps away, the sliding doors of another lifting platform opened, and a domed cage rose to the surface.
Luinosa walked to the end of her own prison, towards the one that appeared, and looked on in bewilderment.
“It’s the Casiq.”
There was a metallic groan. The cages began to open.
Fazel locked the chain, and March appeared beside him.
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The cage opened slightly, and the chain was pulled taut. The mechanics of the rising platform groaned in disapproval. It was stuck.
“You did it,” March said, and Fazel wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled.
The bright-face that followed March slowly realized where he went. It stood on its hind legs, bringing its grinning face to the height of March and Fazel at the top of the cage. Its eyes ignited, and cast its terrifying light-gaze toward the two Althelib.
“Come into the cage!” Luinosa yelled. The two of them barely slipped through the narrow space between the lips of the cage’s opening, just as the bright-face clambered on top of it with the hinges of its mouth opened wide.
The three of them were together inside as the bright-face looked down in confusion. The weight of the creature bent the top of the metal bars severely, and the three crawled to one side where some space remained. The bright-face seemed to lose interest in them, angling itself with a chitter, towards a sudden source of movement.
Fazel turned towards the square.
A parade of racing Althelib passed through, towards the courthouse.
“What in Oblivion is happening?” he cried.
March looked about the city, and saw that, from many of the buildings from east to west, curling towers of smoke rose into the sky. The fires lit them from underneath, and the overcity was filled with a violent orange-red light.
“The city is burning,” March said. “Everyone is fleeing to the surface.”
A quiet explosion underground turned the city’s siren off for good.
“Aernest,” Luinosa said, as if watching through a dream. “My uncle. He’s here.”
Luinosa held the bars of her cage, watching as Aern walked steadily towards three bright-faces that crouched low to the ground, steadily creeping towards him.
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As the bright-faces enclosed upon the caravan of Althelib, there was another explosion, and the overcity was filled with light. Though the ground shook, and the bright-faces were distracted once more, the guardsmen that remained to protect the passage of their people stood resolute with their weapons drawn.
When the bright-faces came to assail the passage of the Althelib, they were met with a ferocious front line of brave guardsmen. Sparks rang out, and their batons sounded off against the snapping facades of the creatures. But, one by one, the guardsmen were overcome. The bright-faces gorged themselves on their flailing arms and legs, swallowing them whole, or else tearing them apart while they fought with one another for their meal.
Aern sent a shock to the face of each creature that lunged toward the tail end of the undercity exodus. His assault forced each to crouch back, and hesitate for a moment before crawling forward again.
The Captain kept one eye on the Althelib crowding into the courthouse. The vulnerable ones were ushered in first were protected from behind by guardsmen, engineers, and other denizens who braved their terror to protect them.
A half dozen bright-faces were now assembled at the steps, picking off those protectors. The feast the monsters made of them allowed the survivors to safely enter the building. When they were finished, they began to throw the full weight of their bodies at the doors of the courthouse, which began to crack and falter.
One of the bright-faces lunged and snapped at Aern, close enough to smash him with its mask, sending his baton flying out of his hands, and his old body tumbling across the cracked stone ground of the overcity.
“AERN!” Luinosa called from her cage, on the edge of the square.
“Luinosa,” Aern whispered, and smiled.
Though the bright-faces surrounded him, they waited before pouncing upon Aern. A voice rose from behind them, as the speaker stepped gently through their shivering, skulking forms, into the light of the city’s growing steady inferno. It bathed the scene in a wavering blaze of firelight.
“Aernest,” the Casiq said. “I’ve watched you for some time. Tonight is a special night. I can hardly wait to feel what you feel.”
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Fazel crawled over to a part of the cage that remained open enough to slip through. He pulled himself up and through the dented lips on one side of the chain. March immediately followed.
“I’m coming too,” Luinosa said firmly.
“Stay in here,” March ordered. “Your uncle wanted you to be protected, so be protected. We’re going out there to help him.”
Luinosa had no reply. She seemed frozen in indecision, and then turned towards the silhouettes of the Casiq and the bright-faces that beset her uncle.
March and Fazel leapt from the ruined cage, and walked with grim purpose towards their grounded leader.
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Tomo and Iyan’s group stopped short just as they reached the crumbling side of the mall building. Tomo leapt nibbly down from the rubble, into the alley that led to the square. Iyan prepared to follow.
“No, no, Lovie,” she said.
“But I’m not afraid, Tomo,” Iyan said smiling. “I’m not afraid of anything anymore.”
“Then stay here for my sake,” she said. “So I don’t have to worry. It’s a me thing. And besides, you have to watch over the group.”
Iyan turned, and saw the rest of the guardsmen there, awaiting his word. There were few fires in this part of the building. The siren died, and the guardsmen all looked at one another in tired confusion.
“Alright,” he said.
“There’s some nice scarves around here somewhere, and snacks. And toys maybe! Just be careful.”
“We will,” Iyan replied with a nod. “You too.”
Tomo laughed through her nostrils and raised her eyebrow. “Just watch what happens,” she said with a wicked smile, as she marched directly into the square.
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Fazel and March slid nimbly past the bright-faces, and scooped Aern up before any of them could react. As the three guardsmen backed away, the creatures, and the Casiq, followed slowly.
In the surrounding square, more bright-faces began to emerge. Some of them were finishing up the meals they made of the Althelib that emerged from the hidden exits from the undercity. Those that stood for too long in confusion in the open square were pounced upon and torn apart.
More of them crawled out from every part of the overcity, gathering from the farthest corners of the open space, and surrounded the remaining three Althelib, swaying back and forth, resting on their haunches. They emerged from broken rooftops, perched themselves on the rubble of the overcity. More seemed to come slowly over the shattered walls of buildings, and through the other places that led to the wastes surrounding the city.
Even the few that assailed the courthouse doors stopped in their destruction, turning with new interest at the congregation of their kind around the Casiq, and the three Althelib guardsmen. They crawled slowly down the stone stairs of the building, towards the center of the overcity square.
The Casiq raised his hand, and gestured towards them all. There were hundreds of them now, all waiting for the Casiq.
“How many, do you think, are hiding in the courthouse?” the Casiq asked Aern.
Aern eyed the Casiq through squinted eyes.
“Less than a hundred, I’d wager. Do you know how many you’ve lost?” the Casiq asked, pointing downward, to the undercity.
“You lost them,” Fazel spat accusingly.
One of the bright-faces scuttled forth quickly, opening its mouth towards Fazel. March lunged forward, and sent a hard kick to its gleaming facade, and it snapped back at him in response. The monster caught his elbow at the tip of its mouth, and wrenched its face to the side, tearing March’s arm off of its shoulder in a single violent motion.
March fell backwards, onto the floor with a tortured growl.
The bright-face immediately tossed the limb back into its throat, and swallowed it.
“March!” Fazel howled, and jumped down to the ground with his kin. He cradled March in his arms, holding him tight to stop the flow of blood that gushed forth from his mangled shoulder.
Aern rose and stepped in front of March and Fazel, putting himself between them and the Casiq.
“What do you want?” Aern asked the Casiq.
“Nothing,” the Casiq said through his chuckling. “I already have it.”
Aern looked about him, and saw the army of bright-faces that swayed and chittered all around. Some of them called out with their whooping mimicry of the city alarm.
“There you are,” a glittering voice said, from one side of the Casiq.
Into the stillness of this moment, Tomokava appeared.
Tomo skipped past a bewildered Aern, to the fallen March, and Fazel, who looked up at her as if dreaming.
The Casiq’s eyes widened in a mixture of wonder, and hunger.
Tomo put both of her hands over Fazels, whose fingers were drenched in March’s blood. March, in a haze, smiled.
“I think… you’re more like… a faerie,” he said.
Tomo smiled.
“Braver. That’s you, March. Braver than most. Now this wound has speed forward in time, and all those little platelets are doing their jobs. It’s so itchy isn’t it.”
March laughed weakly. “It is itchy.”
“Don’t pick at the scab, Braver,” she warned, pointing at him, and she rose.
Fazel slowly removed his hand, and the blood there was sticky, crusted over. It began to flake, and break away. March sat up, and reached over to his shoulder stump with a trembling hand. His shoulder had stopped bleeding.
Tomo walked forward, towards the Casiq, and stood with her arms crossed. She blew her ghostly hair from her eyes.
“You,” he whispered. “I can see you much clearer now.”
“Don’t expect a curtsy,” she said dryly.
“New opportunities seem to present themselves, when least expected,” he said, in awe. “After I feed my little ones here, I think I’ll take you home.”
“Pshh,” Tomo said, shooing the Casiq away with her hand. “You’re that gold-dagger sage I heard whispering to the Casiq. I’m not going anywhere with you. You’re pretty rotten.”
The Casiq chuckled through his nose.
“Against your will is my delight,” the Casiq mused. “There will be so much to learn from you. You’ve been perceived - you’re stuck in this form, aren’t you? No worries. I’ll keep this incarnation safe,” he said, looking at her through his terrible gaze. “But I will keep you.”
“It’s entirely too late for that, sir.” Tomo said. “The show’s just about to start. And we have an audience.” Tomo pointed to the balcony of the courthouse, where a hundred Althelib stood watching, frozen in terror. “There are others too, hiding around here. Watching. A lot of these little foxes survived, and they’re waiting to see what we do.”
Some of the structures surrounding the overcity square began to crumble, and the bright-faces chittered in excitement.
The Casiq kept his predatory gaze on Tomo.
“They’re just food, Tomokava,” he said.
“Ugh, you’re so slow,” Tomo said, closing her eyes, and shaking her head. But she smiled as she did.
“Slow? Am I?” the Casiq asked Tomo.
“Not you,” she said, turning backwards, to the east of the overcity, where the entrance was crowned in fire. “Him,” she said, pointing.
The Casiq, as well as Aern, Fazel and March, all looked towards the east.
“See him?” Tomo said, her eyes shimmering.
Walking slowly towards them in the distance, was a figure clad in narrow, black armor.
The greaves and gauntlets of the armor were layered over numerous times in gilded petals, ending in small platework that subtly protected both feet and hands without encumbering them. The pauldrons extended over his shoulders only slightly, and then curved down to fit their shape and width. They each boasted a gently smiling humanoid face. The chest plate, a sculpture of ebony flowers, ended with the ribs; the rest of his exposed body was protected by deep gray chainmail.
His face was an opaque glass mask of blue-gray mist, gentle-eyed and smiling imperceptibly; the face of a sculpted sentinel that watches over the graves of the dead.
Rising vertically from behind its curved helmet, was a black halo. As it came closer, the figure removed the halo from its place behind its skull, and gripped it firmly at its side by its long, dark hilt.
Tomo turned halfway to the Casiq, looking at him through the corners of her brilliant eyes.
“From whom I have come,” she said.