“As the kid’s say these days… bone-apple-teeth…” Zithra mumbled as he placed a hand on his forehead, his drained disguise starting to fully revert back to his Manarian self. Before it had the chance he cursed under his breath and quickly removed his jacket and tossed it away from him so that it wouldn’t disappear as well.
A loud wall vibrating thrum of relief came from his chest as his head pain wavered. His wings outwardly stretched and shook from underneath him as if he felt stiffer than a wooden board. He actively had to fight with his clubbing tail from smacking against all the nearby surfaces.
“Hmm…” Doodle hummed in mischievous approval before checking his jean pockets, “I got one last full dose of disguise magic. Not sure if we’re gonna need it, but just so y’all know.” he reported.
Mowing through her steak like a starved colony brat, Shida briefly glanced up and intensely stared at Doodle for only a moment, before focussing back on her meal.
Swallowing what must have been almost a quarter of the entire steak heavily but without much issue, she sighed in satisfaction, before speaking up,
“You boys should just rest up for now. I took a lot out of ya’, after all.”
Then she went to work quickly finishing the meager scraps that were left of her food, before pushing herself to her feet and stretching.
“I think I’ll take a bit of a digestion-walk,” she then added and started to saunter towards the door. “We can make a plan for today after that.”
“I should come with you.” Chak said a bit worried, “None of us should be alone right now, especially with how close Christmas is. Let me just grab a Terran hoodie to hide my features.”
Chak hurried past Zithra which unintentionally made her pace increase as the unmuddled encoding put pressure on her instincts. She scooped up the ‘Bat-Boy’ jacket and tossed it back onto the Manarian as she went to her bag of Terran clothes. She pulled out a hoodie that was now too large for her, but that just meant it made it more efficient to hide her Cali appearance. As for her legs, she would have to hope that baggy pants would be enough. While she was still pulling up the pants in a hazardous fashion, she hopped back towards Shida and the door.
As she arrived, the princess sort of passively noticed that Shida was still wearing her very much torn and very much bloody clothes from the attack earlier. This, however, seemed to not bother the feline in the slightest as she began to step out of the house with a lazy waive.
“Don’t wait up and rest well, you two,” she laughingly ‘ordered’ as she entered the crisp, cold air outside. “And if you need us to, you know, stay out a minute longer, just text us.”
“What?” Zithra managed to respond before the door fully shut.
Chak peeked back and up to Shida before glancing down at her garb to double check that her features were hidden as well as they could be.
“Oh… by Klat’s sins… my pants are on backwards…” she chirped in annoyance, but she shrugged deciding it didn’t ultimately matter.
Shida smirked and began to move on ahead.
“Last moment to change that would be right now,” she said as she began to gradually move in slow steps. “Right now it’s just me around.”
“Thanks.” the Cali replied before quickly dropping her pants and making the corrective adjustment and then caught up to the feline. She didn’t know why human clothes required an annoying tag to mark which side was the ‘back’, but it was annoyingly abrasive.
After they parted away from the house the princess placed her clawed hands in her hoodie pockets as something personally pressing came to her mind.
“I owe you an apology.” she informed.
“You do?” Shida asked and tilted her head sideways, clearly more interested than confused. “I mean, I’ll take it, but I’d like to know why I’m getting it.”
“I do. We promised each other that we would both make it out of here.” Chak said matter of factly, “And while I was being forced to… try to kill you, I made a resisting effort to make sure I wouldn’t, with finality in mind. I should have trusted you to stop me, but I was terrified of watching myself possibly harm you. We made a deal, and I tried to break it for your sake. So, I earnestly apologize for trying to go back on my word, it won’t happen again. We’re still in this together until the end, and no matter what we’ll both get out of here.” Chak said as she looked up to the feline with a small smile.
Shida glanced down at the princess with an incredulously raised eyebrow for a few seconds, before simply sighing.
“I’ll take it,” she repeated her earlier statement, before storing her own hands in her pockets as well. “But yeah, don’t do it again.”
-
While those two were out, Zithra was in the process of trying to relax on the couch, while Doodle had run off to do who-knows-what somewhere in the house. The elf’s nature annoyingly meant that he didn’t necessarily make any sounds that he could be tracked by if he didn’t want to, meaning not even the Manarian was aware of where the mystical being went at all times. But at least that meant the house was nice and quiet.
Or at least, it should’ve been. However, a few minutes after Shida and Chak had left, the oddest sound started to basically drill itself into his awareness.
He could barely even place it. It sounded like a vibration, but it was somehow both dull and hollow, yet constantly increased in its intensity. Originally he had planned to ignore it. And he did, for a while. However, he did not have his magical ear protection with him, and as the tone got more and more annoying by the moment, he eventually would be forced to get up either way. And if he had to stand anyway, he may as well investigate what exactly was making that irritating noise.
After laboriously dragging himself to his feet, following the sound was of course easy enough, and he begrudgingly dragged himself over to the bathroom, led by his impeccable hearing.
The sound’s clarity increased a good bit after he had opened the door, however a large part of the muffled dullness remained, and he looked around for a moment. His ears told him exactly where the sound came from, but his eyes had a harder time with trying to decipher what exactly was making it or what it meant.
Hesitating slightly, he started to walk up to the human toilet that was in the back of the room, eyeing it suspiciously. Toilets should not make this noise.
After a brief inspection and some focussing on his auditory capabilities, he made out that it was apparently coming from the reservoir at the back of the lavatory, which probably explained why the sound was so muted. However he still didn’t quite fathom what was making it.
Lifting the lid off of the box, he looked into the clear water inside of it. Something was glimmering down at the bottom of it, nearly invisible in the water and only perceivable by the faintest breaking of light that stood apart from its surroundings.
Intrigued by that, the Manarian reached inside the reservoir, grabbing the obscured item. Matching the sound he heard, it was vibrating quite heavily in his hand as he carefully lifted it…only to then immediately drop it again, because as soon as he had removed it from the water, the muted thrumming instantly turned into a high-pitched screeching noise that pierced into his ears and already slightly aching head.
With a loud “splosh” the crystalline orb dropped back into the water, and its cries became muffled again as it hit the bottom of the tank with a dull ‘thunk’.
“What the frickin’ heck!” he snarled, his arms and wings folded over his plumes protectively.
Hurrying back out and into the room with the couch Zithra dug out his phone and he sent a text to Shida and Chak.
‘Thing in the back of the toilet is making a high pitched screeching.’
Pacing in the room while thinking of what he should do next, the sound of rumbling porcelain rang out followed by a sharp shattering and splashing of water. Running as his plumes are bombarded with sound that nearly caused him to faint then and there he slammed the bathroom door shut and threw blankets at the bottom to muffle it as much as possible.
Not being nearly enough for him to think straight he moved away and stepped outside for a reprieve as he waited for a response.
“Doodle!” He shouted back through the cracked open door, “Where the fork are you!? This better not be some darn prank!” but as he finished those words he felt paranoia sink in as he realized how exposed he was at the moment. Just in case this was a way to drive him out of the house, Zithra gritted his teeth and forced himself back in.
Grabbing a thick blanket he wrapped it around his head to add a layer of audible protection. Breathing in and out he prepared himself for a few moments of agony before opening the bathroom door. Using another blanket he wrapped the orb up and dropped the heap into the bathtub. Then he twisted the knob to start filling it with water. Hunched with his eyes leaking pained tears he waited until it was fully submerged before turning the water off completely. With the sound much more sufficiently suppressed he addressed the shattered toilet, and started to make sure that it wouldn’t continuously spout water.
Dizzy from the ordeal he staggered out and closed the door, almost wanting to drop then and there. Instead he drew out his bow and waited for any more potential trouble to follow.
It took a while, and he honestly had no idea how long, as time became a rather strenuous thing to keep track off with the constant pain of that noise attached, however at some point, there was a flash in his periphery, and without much fanfare, Doodle appeared back on the scene.
Standing tall at first and having a posture like he wanted to make some sort of dramatic entrance, the bravado almost immediately dropped from the elf as he also pressed his hands over his ears and looked around in confusion, clearly wondering what that noise was.
However, seeing that Zithra didn’t exactly appear to be in any condition to address it, or even answer questions about it, the elf instead hurried towards the source, seeing if he wouldn’t be able to do something about it.
Finding the bathroom absolutely destroyed and a blanked submerged in a bathtub filled with violently vibrating water, Doodle swallowed slightly as he saw the brightly glowing source of magic hidden within.
Steeling himself, he reached into the water and unwrapped the crystalline orb, keeping it under water for the time being to spare Zithra some of the noise. However, almost as soon as his fingers had made contact with the smooth surface of the thing, the piercing sound suddenly ceased, and the previously vibrating thing lay peaceful and unmoving in his hand.
Taking that as a good sign, he slowly pulled it out of the water. And as he looked inside, he was greeted by the quite frazzled appearance of a much less composed former Misses Claus looking in from the other end, flanked by two familiar elves…the names of whom he had however forgotten. Or…at least the ‘christmasified’ versions.
“Finally,” the now much older and weaker looking woman announced. “I was beginning to think you hadn’t made it. Would’ve deserved it as well for all this chaos you caused, but for now, I’m going to be happy that I could reach you at all.”
A small smirk tugged at Doodle’s mouth. He wasn’t happy to see her at all, but her current state and cadence gave the elf assurance.
“Ms. Claus! You’re looking great as ever and yes I am still kickin’ and still knock’n boots on the side. What can this humble elf do for you?” he replied feigning a genuine excitement to hear from her.
“Save it, you insufferable wretch,” the former missus Bossman replied while forgoing any sort of her usually so prised decorum and reaching for her forehead. “Save it, and listen to me. I know that you have absolutely no interest in any kind of harmony or order, but I also know that even you are not foolish enough to sit idly by with what is currently going on, so try to pull your head out of your ass for two minutes and clean your pointy ears to listen.”
“You know me so well… but you have my attention, and possibly the attention of the entire nieghborhood’s population of dogs… go ahead, what’s so important for lil’ ol’ me to hear?” Doodle responded as his smirk completely flatlined.
Taking a deep breath, the old woman slightly composed herself by stroking a few loose strands of gray hair out of her face.
“Listen to me, Doodleberrie Spicebum, or whatever you may call yourself now. Looking at you, you have dipped a bit too deep into the magic to still be held by that moniker. But never the matter,” she began addressing him before cutting herself off with a sigh, seemingly taking quite a bit of willpower to not devolve into scolding him instead of sticking to what’s important. “Fae, I’m going to be honest with you. I have absolutely no idea what exactly you have awoken there, but what I do know is that it’s dangerous. More so than mere giants or demons. We don’t know what it is, but it’s old. Very old. Maybe older than yourself. And it has the power to match. We cannot let that…thing run freely, lest it starts to tear our world limb from limb out of sheer desire to do so.”
“Exciting isn’t it? It’s so funny that even in your position you are still subject to the fear of the unknown and strange… You’re speaking to a fae. Newsflash granny… I’m literally an aspect of that. In fact you listen to me, you corporate sock puppet tool of capitalistic greed who happily assumed and fought to keep your position of enslaving dumbed-down market-friendly magical creatures… I don’t care what scares you… I don’t give a rat’s ass what concerns you of all people. The only reason you care about the status quo is because you don’t want to lose the power over others you and those of your ilk have held. Be grateful I have not felt the need to twist your dreams, plague you with agonizing disease, or lead you into the wilds of my kind where your fragile mortal mind would deteriorate and dissolve into madness that would cause cthulhu to blush.” As the elf spoke his voice gained depth that surpassed the auditory senses, “You are out of your scope, and you are frightened. Be frightened, for this is how myths are crafted, folklore established. I’ve known many figures of history fearing the same as you of being replaced, changed, torn asunder. Tell me, mortal. What makes this time so different? Why are you and your kind the exception? You had a name before ‘Claus’ did you not? But you happily casted is aside for your new reality. Why do you fight this change? I’d love to hear your justification.”
Zithra stepped away from the bathroom as it had been gradually filled with foliage of fresh spring nature sprouting from every pipe and crevice.
“Pertly elf,” the old woman replied to him with an exhale that sounded almost disappointed. “I’m not speaking to you as Mrs. Claus right now. That title and name has been taken from me, as you know. I am speaking to you as Muireann Llewellyn. I was taken from my home many, many years ago when I became the one you once knew. And now I am tired. I have already lived longer than any human should, and I now understand why my dear Aidan has chosen to leave this world as he did. I hold no more fear for myself.” She paused for a moment to breathe deeply and look to the ground, before returning to her addressation. “But I do still fear for this world that will live on so long after I’m gone. I’ve lived in it for so many years, with all its wonders around me, so is it not right that I at least fear for it?”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
She folded her hands in front of her chest as if in a Christian prayer.
“You haven’t felt it, elf,” she then said as she looked at him with firm eyes that put her deep-seeded fear onto full display, but also portrayed her determination. “Haven’t felt the pull of…whatever it is. It is not evil. It holds no malice. It is simply…I don’t even know how to describe it. It wants. It longs. But there is no desire. No greed. Nothing that I would understand. But feeling its pull on me…I shudder to even think of it. You have not…”
However, she briefly paused, as she seemed to notice something in Doodle’s expression.
“Or maybe you have…” she wondered aloud as her expression shifted into contemplation. “Maybe it has already lay hands on you as well…taken from you as well…could it be?”
“Taken, but not stolen… it’s nothing that I can’t regain in time…” Doodle admitted, “But there’s something it can’t collect from me, at least… not easily.” he added.
“You think you can resist it?” the old woman asked in almost bemused surprise, and the elfs flanking her on both sides glanced at each other in concern. “Well, maybe. Maybe you are more capable than I think. However its pull is immense. And not just for the likes of us.”
She paused again, unlinking her hands again and putting them down onto her legs as she looked at the elf in urgent forcefulness.
“You have not forgotten, have you? The forces you are competing with?” she asked him outright. “Can you resist them as well if they grow as powerful as it is? What lengths do you think the world will go to to show a being such as it the consequences of its actions? Because clearly, it has no grasp of them itself.”
“I was once a son of Yngvi. I walked the world as a Erlkönig, before that aspect partially departed into what’s now called Krampus. There’s power in me… that even I fear to tap into. Whatever remains after my boss goes back home, I can shepherd…” the steam from his confident words wain slightly as his thoughts shift, “I have not forgotten… I’m just tired of where things are, and wish to see it changed.” he admitted as his skin paled and his eye sockets expanded slightly to make his visage appear sunken and ill, his natural glamor pulled back for a peek of what lies underneath, “My boss’s magic… the Krampus’s expanding influence… I feel like I need to be here… that I need to see it through… and to push the world forward into something new… because I’m so… tired…” his glamor reconstituted and he inhaled deeply, “I’m subject to the will of change, what would you even have me do? Try to kill my boss again? Because, you can forget that line of thought right now. As you know, a fae’s loyalty by magical binding must be a powerful thing… but loyalty freely given by a fae is something even stronger.”
A scornful scoff escaped the woman’s lips.
“Even if I wanted to, I would have serious doubts in your ability to achieve that,” she freely admitted and shook her head. “As you said yourself, I’m a mere mortal. I don’t know what can be done to stop that thing now that it woke up. You know a lot more than me there. I just needed to make sure that you understood what you are dealing with. You have never been the smartest, after all.”
Her face darkened and her posture faltered slightly as she sunk back into her chair in what seemed to be a moment of pure weakness, with the elfs at her side hastily hurrying to aid her in somewhat sitting upright, as even that seemed to be above her strength at the time.
“My hours are numbered, Doodle. Maybe even just my minutes,” she said weakly. “Without me the world will go on, but it will have changed. Change is always around us. You can love it all you want, but…this might be a change that leaves nothing left to be changed after. You cannot control it. I’m not even sure if it can control itself. Do what is right. Not for me. Not for Santa. But for all that is. The magic has already changed…isn’t that enough to move forwards?”
However, before Doodle could get a reply out, the connection suddenly cut, leaving the crystal orb dead and empty in his hand…before it suddenly cracked in two.
“Bitch…” Doodle muttered before he dropped the useless artifact parts.
His mind felt like it shifted from left to right as it mulled over her words, and as much as he wanted to determine otherwise, deep down he knew she was right.
He looked down at his hands to find them shaking, from anger? No…
“Heh… alright then.” he whispered before turning around and exiting the now lushly planted bathroom.
“Doodle… What are you going to do? What was going on in there?” Zithra asked, having not heard a word spoken and now uneased by the elf’s expression.
“I’m gonna save my boss… or die trying.” he stated before snapping his fingers, causing the Manarain to fall asleep while still standing in place. He then stepped out of the front door and walked to the center of the street to prepare for the feline’s return.
-
“I’ll say…that is quite the outcome,” Shida commented from a street corner, holding a flat hand over her eyes to shield it from the light as she looked out at the quite substantial crowd of people -and also none people- that had gathered in front of the large storage hall where the floats for the Holiday Parade were still being stored until it was time for their grand reveal later that same day. Although everyone in the mass of aggressively shouting protesters would’ve seemed normal at the first glance, she could feel that some of them were different. She didn’t quite see it like Doodle did, but the magic seeping out of them was almost tangible in the air, as if she only needed to reach out and tug on it to unravel them like a cheaply made sweater when you pulled a thread. “How many do you think are those, Chak?”
“Uhm… the people? I guess about three or so hundred?” she uttered not seeing any aspect of the magic herself anymore, though she can tell the crowd was bigger than last time with who knows how many agents against them among the faces, “I’m uncertain of what we ought to do about it. There was nothing we could do last time… maybe we can ask the sheriff to disperse them again? Maybe blocking the floats from leaving would be enough reason to do so. But… that’s assuming there’s more people than… creatures. Do you see him?” she asked, referring to Bell.
Before the feline answered Chak took note of Mary’s mother getting up and a jerry rigged platform consisting of a few stacked produce crates. In her hand is the same cruddy megaphone that she soon began ranting in a similar yet even more assertive diatribe about ‘protecting christmas’ and that ‘today is their last chance to fight back against this war on their revered holiday’.
“Maybe we should go inside for now. See how everyone is doing,” Shida said, not spotting any hint of the escaped policeman as she started to move towards the storage. Although, as the old hag was lifted up to spout her nonsense, she smirked to herself, turning to Chak. “You want to see something funny?”
Not exactly waiting for an answer, the feline lifted her hand as she began to walk. To Chak, the gesture seemed random at first, before gradually, the air over Shida’s open palm began to simmer and wave with heat, ever increasing in intensity before it literally began to glow white-hot, and even then it seemed like there was no end in sight.
Remembering having seen something like this before, if only vaguely, the princess’ eyes shot up to Mrs. Light momentarily, and despite her wild ranting, the old witch’s voice was already becoming duller and duller. The crowd looked on in confusion, seemingly wondering if something was wrong with the megaphone or their ears. Light herself however seemed to notice nothing out of the ordinary and kept up her ranting, even as her voice began to completely die down out of any hearable range.
“Oh, how are you doing that?” Chak asked a bit concerned but admittedly amused by the visual of the confusion playing out with people now shouting back at Light that they cannot hear her and yet she continued on and on in silent ranting.
“Heat,” Shida replied and presented the orb of blisteringly hot plasma above her hand to the princess. “I’m collecting the heat around her. Without heat, gasses can’t move. And sound cannot travel without moving gas. Or, well, moving something. She’s in her own little echochamber right now, just how she likes it.”
Shida snorted for a moment.
“I only hope she doesn’t try to move all that much,” she then added with a not-really-concerned look at the old woman. “Shockfrozen air is sharper than any knife. Better not to try and touch that.”
Chak’s eyes widened, amusement no longer present.
“Shida, she’s a terrible person and I wouldn’t mourn her passing… but that sounds too dangerous. What if someone were to approach her to help? The very real people in the crowd are ignorant, but… they don’t deserve being injured or killed by something like that.” she pointed out before pointing at the plasma, “And that in your hand… what are you going to do with it?” she questioned, suppressing the growing panic her twin hearts are feeling.
“Easy enough,” Shida said, and without elaborating on the matter, the glowing orb began to evenly dissipate again, returning to nothing by slightly wavy, hot air before she let her hand sink again, allowing it to completely diffuse into the surroundings. “Just add cold. Simple.”
She looked up at the protest again, clearly not sharing Chak’s worry but still relenting.
“If I’m not continuously removing heat, the air thaws back out in seconds. It’s still cold, but not deathly so,” she mentioned with a shrug before depositing her hands back into her pockets. And indeed, it didn’t take long before a slightly muffled version of Light’s ranting once again filled the cold winter air.
Chak released a held-in breath.
“Okay. Thank you.” she said before gently patting the feline’s back.
Moving around, they approached the rear of the building to its back entrance. A moment after knocking it was opened by Dagon.
Before the man could even say anything, Shida was suddenly approaching him with her arms wide open, wrapping them around him for a second in a far too familiar greeting.
“Dagon,” she announced. “How is one of my favorite humans doing today? I’m sorry I left you alone with this for so long, apparently I was asleep for a long time.”
Pulling away from him again after a tight embrace, she also looked down at herself.
“Oh, and I broke your shirt…Sorry about that. I’ll make it up to you, I promise,” she assured him with a glance at the bloody holes ripped into her clothes.
“Uhhhh… yeah… uh… that’s fine… a shirt’s a shirt… It’s uhm… good to see that you’re awake.” Dagon awkwardly responded having been blindsided by this behavior, “Uhm, right… come in.” he invited as he stepped aside.
“Thank you…” Chak replied, her eyes falling back to a concerned glance at Shida. Dagon gave her a discrete ‘Is she okay?..’ tilt of his head as the feline strided in but before Chak could come up with an answer Shida spotted an approaching Mary who was finalizing costumes and making sure they all fit the actors wearing them.
“Dagon we need a bigger Santa hat for Clive. The current ones are chafing his head- oh… Shida, you’re up! Oh… is that blood-” she asked.
The human woman had barely finished the sentence when strong arms already wrapped around here, pulling her into the next embrace.
“Maryyyy!” Shida announced while holding her for a second. “You’re all better I see. Not a hint of magic remaining.”
Pulling away again, the feline briefly brushed over Mary’s blouse with her hands, straightening it out again after having inadvertently crinkled it with her hug-assault.
“Oh- I-” the woman stammered as no words came to her mind, as this feline had never once been so positively forward with her before, “Okay… are… are you alright? I know it’s almost over, but with everything going on I… Are we in the clear? Bell’s gone?” she managed to inquire.
“I’m feeling great!” Shida announced happily, before her face suddenly turned quite dark with an aggressive gaze, as she looked over Mary’s shoulder. “That guy on the other hand…”
Without finishing her sentence, Shida lifted a hand in a position that only Chak recognized while staring down one of the costumed people in line.
At first, everyone just stopped and observed in confusion. However after a few moments, the man in the line stepped back in confusion, his steps quickly turning into a stumble, as he frantically tried to get away from the feline who wasn’t even close to him.
Soon, high–pitched, panicked screeches escaped him, as his skin turned more and more pale, before eventually starting to straight out melt into a black, sludge-like substance. His body lost more and more of its form, however he barely seemed to notice that his arms were now more puddle than limb as he tried more and more desperately to push himself away backwards, before eventually, his cries ceased and nothing was left but a dirty puddle of dark, viscous liquid.
But not even then was Shida done, keeping her hand lifted until even the puddle began to eventually dissolve, turning into a muted glitter of glimmering lights that began to slowly float towards her hand, where they disappeared once they had settled on her skin.
“Should probably make sure the real one is okay,” Shida commented as soon as the last speck of light had hit her hand, and she let her hand sink down again, not really having the demeanor as if anything of note had happened just now, while most others looked on in absolute horror. “Did you not test him when he came in?”
There was no answer. All stood frozen in place either too shocked to process what they witnessed or were too scared to speak up as if that cold emotionless wrath would be turned on them if they gave an unsatisfactory answer.
“We did…” Dagon’s voice cracked as he finally spoke up, “But with the protesting and very limited time to get ready… We’ve been bustling. Uhm… Back to work everyone, time’s… of the essence.” he said as he wanted to break the spell of everything coming to a halt, “Someone figure out the last time someone saw Melvin and where he was going.”
Shida yawned for a moment, before turning around to Dagon.
“Alright, you need any help with anything else?” she asked casually and crossed her hands behind her head as she looked at him in mild interest.
Dagon didn’t meet her gaze as people slowly got back to work.
“Parade wise we’re on track. The only issue is the-” he cut himself off unsure if he should say it, “I’m sure the protest will be dispersed before it’s time to head out, and as long as ‘ice demons’ don’t attack again we should be fine.” he attempted a jest at the end but his voice failed to project it properly.
Shida sighed slightly.
“Relax,” she said with a slightly humorous but mostly caring tone. “It was just a mimic, alright? I’m not going out there to slaughter the protestors…well not the human ones anyway. There’s no need to pretend like I’ll explode any moment now. We’ve been killing these things for almost a week now, remember?”
“I get that. But…” he said, once again debating himself on whether to speak his mind, “I know I haven't known you for long, but I’m struggling to recognize you right now,” he admitted, “Like I said, other than that mimic you singled out, we haven’t had other issues besides the protesting. Uhm… News stations should be here in an hour and setting up for the start of the parade. Thankfully it’s too late for the mayor to pull back how we’re doing it. Just… do what you gotta do to make sure Bell and Krampus don’t try anything. After midnight, this might all be over.” the man said before walking away.
Shida just shrugged and turned towards Chak, looking at her expectantly.
“Why did you take its magic too?” the Cali asked bluntly once she was addressed.
Shida shrugged again.
“What else was I supposed to do with it?” she asked openly. “I left my gun at home. Killing it bare-handed seemed risky and messy. This was quick and clean.”
Then she lifted her hand, clearly producing something that was unseen to the princess.
“ ‘Dark Magic’,” she mused to herself as she stared at her hand, although she also couldn’t see it. She could just feel it. Feel the control she had over it at that moment. “It feels…heavy. And it strains against me. I don’t think it wants to be mine.”
“Why do you want it to be yours?” Chak pressed, her voice filled with firm concern.
Shida looked at her hand further, tilting her head as if she seriously needed to think about that.
“I’m not sure,” she finally replied. While Chak didn’t like that reply, she was at least somewhat glad the feline was being honest about it. “It’s not really bright, or shiny…collecting it isn’t all too fun either. But, if it’s magic, I guess it could be useful in big enough quantities. I’m not sure how much I want it…or how much of it I want.”
“You guess? And you don’t know why. Think carefully, Shida.” Chak gently spoke with carefully chosen words, “It’s not you. You’re not the one who ‘wants’. If you’re so unsure right now, what do you think is going to happen when you keep allowing it to ‘take’ through you? Whatever it is, how much will it dismantle who you are before you are lost to it? Shida, ple-” Chak spoke as she willingly approached her friend with compassion, but right as she reached out to touch her, the Cali disappeared in the blink of an eye. Her voice ending so abruptly that it still hung in the air after her visage vanished.
Shida took a moment to process what had happened. Then, she dropped the orb of dark magic hovering over her hand. Soundlessly it collided with the ground, however despite it being neither seen nor heard, the effect was immediate.
Spreading out over the hall’s floor like tendrils, the concrete’s look changed, turning into a shiny, almost liquid surface all over as the freed magic opened up a portal into the Krampus’ realm as it forcefully tried to return to its home.
Her face turning into a furious mask, Shida didn’t react as the portal engulfed her as it spread out under her feet, pulling her through into the dark mirror of reality.
As she opened her eyes again, she was still in the hall. The light was dimmed, and the aggressive voices of the protest outside had disappeared. Meanwhile, the floats all around her, previously decorated with jolly depictions of jovial festivities from all over the world, had turned into mocking, twisted versions of themselves, portraying reindeers that were skinned alive and hung over a fire instead of strapped in front of a sleight; or nine previously pristine candles on an ornate holder now burned down and stained with dark smudges of who knew what exactly.
“Fine,” Shida said loudly with a sigh, ignoring the grotesque scene around her as she spoke into the empty darkness. “You have my attention. You have one opportunity to get your last words out right now.”
“Try anything, and your goat-thing goes with me.” the voice of Bell rang out from every direction, “Whatever your power is, I know I can’t beat it. But I know what can.”
What started as a crack spreading on the floor erupted up a jagged uplift of black rock. Nestled in it was a red and white dagger much like the one Doodle 'donated’ to Shida, but the colors mixed and black ooze leaked out of it like sweat.
“You do the honors, and your friend lives to see Christmas morning.” Bell informed the feline as shadows of the ice-demons stretched out from the corners to flicker and dance along the walls in anticipation.
Shida picked the item up and inspected it in her hand, before evaluatingly inspecting the demons all around her.