Ice

Find Cheddar and bring them to me.

Gin

Find them yourself.

I told you. I'm done.

Ice

Do it and maybe Lady Wraith can forgive.

Gin

Alive or ended?

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O’Leary

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Gah! O’Leary said it more in his mind than out loud as he jerked up from the camping cot.

“Who? Who was here?” Cheddar muttered, rolling from their side to their back on the other camping cot in the small room.

“What? No one…” Oh shit, Cheddar was asleep; no, they had to be faking. O’Leary wanted to sit and watch, to see if that was true, but something ate at the back of his mind, something he should be doing. The memory flooded back — Wheeler was a traitor. His sacrifice to save Fleetfury? O'Leary had been old? Wait, at the vision's end, Meyonohk? With cautious steps, O’Leary made his way from the cot to the door; Meyonohk wasn’t specific, and anything could wait for him down there — they wouldn't catch him in another trap.

A moan drifted up the stairs — Asher? “I’m coming buddy!” All thoughts of getting ambushed were gone in an instant as his moan reached O'Leary's ears; he sprinted from the room, caution forgotten, and the stairs were optional in O’Leary’s mind as he jumped down them, using the railing to guide his descent. Terri’s unbroken shade moved about the store, placing items on shelves and cleaning, a thinly veiled excuse to work its way closer to where Asher and Green laid; they looked as if they had a fruit snack worth of energy left between them.

Fleetfury laid on his side, so Triskele tried to send him a pulse of energy, but the bond was gone. Stop it! You’re O’Leary and that’s Green; food, they need food, but the shade. It must have gotten free of Terri’s barrier; too much longer and it would be on top of his friends; where was Terri? No, he couldn't get distracted; think less, more action — food first.

O’Leary turned and took the stairs, back up, two at a time; he sprinted down the hall to the bathroom storage and grabbed a box of Twinkies and a bunch of bananas, turned and headed the way he’d come. “Cheddar, get up! Get up!”

Cheddar mumbled in their sleep.

O’Leary caught, ‘Shinjiro, no…’ as he raced by with his hands full. Feck! Cheddar was sleeping and deeply. O’Leary took the stairs quick as he could. “Dammit, Cheddar, get up! I need your help,” he said over his shoulder — maybe it would be enough. At the bottom of the stairs, O’Leary took a moment to look around the store. “Eh, Terri, where are you?”

He tried to keep his voice steady and low to avoid attracting the shade, but still it moved towards the stairs. Well, at least it was moving away from Asher and Green. O’Leary dodged around it and closed the distance to Green, ripping open a banana. Green was on his side, shaking every few moments, mouth open as O'Leary knelt and fed the first hunk into the bunny's mouth; he had a gut feeling that in the Belly chewing and swallowing was as automatic as breathing, but he still didn’t believe it by the time Green had eaten and absorbed half a banana. Okay, now Asher. Back on his feet, O’Leary went to Asher and dropped to his knees, sliding food into his mouth.

The unbroken started up the stairs. Cheddar walked out of the room, rubbing their eyes; shade right in front of them. With a groggy yelp, Cheddar pressed up against the wall, letting the unbroken passed. Cheddar scurried down the stairs. “Thanks for the warning. I almost walked right into it.” They blinked. “Wh… wha… what happened?”

“Shut it. Help me feed them.” O’Leary shoved the remaining bananas into their hands. “Where’s Terri?”

No answer. Frustrated, O’Leary looked up from unwrapping a Twinkie to see Cheddar pointing at Asher’s head. How had he missed it? There was a slightly glowing purple X on his forehead, the surrounding skin trembled as it attempted to heal, but the magic wouldn’t let it. “Wait, she’s not?”

“She, she, is.”

“So, if Asher cycles?”

Cheddar shrugged, “We can’t let that happen.” They turned, picked up Green and set him next to Asher, bent down beside O’Leary and fed the bunny banana.

“What are we going to do about that?” O’Leary grabbed another Twinkie, ripping free the package. "They're fading as fast as we can feed them."

“I thought I folded that table up?” The unbroken was coming down the stairs towards them.

“Cover me.” Hands empty, Cheddar hopped to their feet. “Shadesack! Cheese block me.” A gray hand appeared, reached into itself, pulled out a plastic wrapped block of marble cheese and tossed it. Cheddar caught it and with a flick redirected it along the tiled floor towards O’Leary. “Shadesack, item 18!” The shade hand appeared again, reached into its main compartment, and pulled out a metal rod with a long rubber wrapped handle; the rod broke off an inch beyond the rubber in a jagged tip. Cheddar held out their hand as they zipped towards the store’s front door; the shadesack threw the rod like a javelin.

How do they always look so cool? O’Leary kicked out his foot to hook the sliding cheese block while he snapped a Twinkie in half, pressing each into Asher’s and Green’s mouths; after this he was down to the last Twinkie.

Cheddar snagged the rod out of the air by its rubber grip, letting its momentum spin them in a circle. “Fore!” They gripped the golf club in both hands, purple energy shaping the pitching wedge below the jagged break; finished their spin and brought the wedge crashing through the lower pane of the store’s front door.

The unbroken jumped back, startled by the sound. “What’s going on?”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Cheddar didn’t hesitate — they ducked through the already healing glass out of the store.

Asher's low growl grabbed O'Leary's attention; what was going on in there? He grabbed the block of cheese and tore the plastic with his teeth, ripping a chunk of the calorie dense fuel for himself, but dense or not, this would not be enough energy for whatever was happening. “Guys, you need to get back here, eh? We can’t keep this up.” He could search doors in his own mindscape, but that might trigger another intense memory, and then he'd be leaving his friends behind. O'Leary jumped as the store's front window shattered.

“My window! You hooligans don't know who you're fucking with,” shouted the unbroken.

O’Leary jerked his gaze back up to the commotion and saw Cheddar climb in through the shattered window, dodging Terri's shade as she sprinted from the already repaired door; she hopped out through the window and stood on the sidewalk scanning for the culprit, oblivious to the glass shards lifting and setting back into place. Other shades walking the street, gathered; asking questions or offering to help find and catch the vandals.

Cheddar moved to the now healed front door; with the shades all focused on the front window, the Law of Observation was in their favor. 'Click,' they locked the front door, turned, and headed back for O’Leary.

“That should keep her busy for a bit.” The golf club returned to its broken state. “They, um, they don’t look very good.”

O’Leary held up the half-eaten cheese block. “Yeah? I don’t know. I think that glowing X really brings out Asher’s eyelids. No shit, they don’t look good, Cheddar!” He tore off another hunk of cheese, but guilt roiled up his throat like bile for what he'd said as Cheddar’s shoulders raised and they leaned away from his sarcasm. Wait, he felt bad for a Fink? O’Leary crumbled off another hunk and fed it to Asher. “Sorry, Cheddar, just no idea what's happening, so zero clue on how to stop it. Do you? Like any idea?”

Cheddar shook their head, “It looks a little like when he fractured.”

“Like it was the spell? The weapon enchantment, but that's like beginner level stuff, right?” O'Leary slid another piece into Green's mouth; what did the shade mages call it? Imprinting, that's what they did when learning a spell in a fresh cycle. “I didn't think imprinting would do that.”

“It wouldn’t, but if they locked his artifact up in a vault and he's never been pulled by misfortune. Oh! Oh, oh!”

“What? What, what?” O’Leary was running low on cheese. “Spit it out. We’re running low.”

“He’s new! Like, new, new.”

“Yeah, he’s a fledgling, we knew that.”

“No, but he’s in single digit cycles. He needs to be etched still!”

“I don’t know what any of that means.” O'Leary lifted the last of the block and split it in half. “Is it because of Meyonohk's power and Green?”

“No. Maybe? It probably doesn’t make it any easier, but… oh, the spell spiders! The etching ones are stronger and Green would be too tasty to resist.”

“Spell spiders? Etching? What? Cheddar, please, my head hallway can't fill in the blanks this quickly. If you know what to do, just do it.”

“We need seeds. The closer to pure, the better.”

“Seeds? On it! I think I saw some grapes when I raided Terri’s stash for us earlier.” O’Leary pushed to his feet and passed Cheddar the last few bites of the cheese block. “I’ll get you more.”

O’Leary tore up the stairs, skipped the bathroom storage, and charged into Terri’s main storage. O’Leary ignored the shelves of clothing, gear, and focused on the food. He found two more boxes of packaged pastries and threw them down the stairs at Cheddar. Seeds, seeds, seeds, he needed seeds. There! Grapes, he grabbed the netted bag but paused at the storage room’s door, ripped a few free and tossed them into his mouth — feck! Seedless.

Packages littered the floor as O’Leary searched for anything with seeds, nothing. He jogged back to the stairs and shouted from the top. “There’s nothing here.”

A loud rattle from the front of the store declared that shade-Terri was attempting to get back in. "Dammit, where are my keys? Is someone in there?" With the door locked and the front window fully healed, she'd assume they were forgotten, somehow left inside, or someone had locked her out — whichever was worse for them. "I can hear you moving around. You have ten seconds or I'm calling the cops."

Well, that sucked, but O'Leary knew he needed to focus — the shades were a problem for later. "What do we do?"

“Seeds are powerful, but can be dangerous. They even have a drug-like effect on some, so Terri would keep them somewhere…”

“… safe; but, like where, eh?”

“Um, um, um, oh! Downstairs; she does her training there.” Cheddar ripped open the first box of puffed pastries.

“Why? Never mind.” Slipping near the bottom step, O’Leary grabbed the railing for support. He was getting really flipping sick of stairs, but he rounded the first set and charged down the second into the basement, whipped open the door at the bottom of the stairs and froze.

The floor was cement, as were the walls. Weights, mats, and other exercise equipment sat in one corner. There were gouges out of the floor and walls, and there were shades — four of them — all broken; Terri had shades imprisoned down here. O’Leary waited to see if any of them would come at him, but none did, locked behind glowing bars of Cutter magic. Seeds O'Leary, find the fecking seeds; the exercise equipment, he should try there first. On a small shelf containing jump ropes, a belt, and other gear sat a small bowl, and inside it was a handful of small black seeds.

O’Leary poured the seeds into his hand, set it back down, then split about half into his other hand as he hit the stairs. “Found them.”

“Hur.. hurry, something bad is happening.”

What could be worse than... O'Leary froze; Cheddar wasn’t kidding — across the small distance between where Asher and Green laid, a thick cord of air shimmered with yellow-green energy; cracks of purple appeared and where they intersected, sections of the cord faded to nothing — the bond was breaking. No! It was fecking, disintegrating. O'Leary swallowed and sprinted the last few steps, seeds ready to drop. “I feed the seeds to them, right?” He didn't wait for a response; already dropping seeds into their mouths.

“Wait, they only need…” The X on Asher’s head flared purple and O'Leary felt his ears pop as the surrounding pressure shifted; Terri was back — she popped in above Asher, momentum carrying her forward in the dive she'd started inside his mind, and emerald flame flared out behind her as the X-shaped wound closed. Cheddar yelped and fell back, getting out of her way, but the dive carried her past them and on a collision course with her unbroken shade.

Feck, where'd her shade come from? O'Leary didn't think, he just acted as a grabbed a poplar twig from his bandoleer; ‘snap,’ he pulled the earth energy in, dropped the broken poplar twig to the ground, then visualized roots reaching up to halt the immanent collision.

Back on her feet, Terri slid across the floor, fighting to regain her balance. Roots shattered tiles as they burst up from the basement; one wrapped around Terri’s right leg, stopping her leg while the rest of her body continued forward — bone snapped and Terri let out a scream, grasping at her root-wrapped leg as more of the summoned tendrils pinned her to the ground. A string of curses flowed from her lips with the occasional ‘O’Leary,’ fired into the verbal mix.

“Shit. Sorry!” said a wide-eyed O'Leary.

“What’s going on?” Asher sat up, rubbing at his head. He was fully colored, showing the seeds had returned his energy in full.

“I got the shade,” said Cheddar as they took up their pitching wedge artifact again. “Welcome back.”

“Terri?” Asher stood but lost his balance and nearly stumbled back to the ground — O’Leary caught him.

“O’Leary, get me out of this or I’m going to start hacking,” said Terri with an added growl.

“Tell the roots to go home,” Green said. "Better do it quick before that leg heals crooked and we have to break it all over again."

“Fleetfury, I don’t know how?”

Green was laying in a sploot as his head bobbed; his color was also fully returned. “All you need to do is envision it, just like how you made it happen, but in reverse. Oh, but maybe try to pay special attention to how the roots treat Terri?”

Asher pushed off O’Leary’s shoulder and stumbled the few steps to the pinned Terri. “How can I help?”

“I’ll be okay, but maybe get me some food?”

O’Leary grimaced as Terri's voiced trembled in obvious pain.

“On it.”

O’Leary concentrated, and slowly the roots retreated through the floor, leaving Terri with only a few more bumps, bruises, and a couple of cracked ribs; hopefully, she wouldn’t feed him to her shades.