CAELI RUINA
LING
“Ling.” Rough hands shook her. “Ling, wake up.”
“Nnngh?” She opened one eye a crack to see an annoyed Akane standing over her.
“Screamers again,” she said bluntly, and started dressing at super speed.
Now that Ling was awake, she could hear new screamers, far to the north. It was just hard to sift it all out from the background noise of the captured ones.
It had been a week and two days since the shopping trip with Lizzy, not to mention a little over two weeks since the last screamer attack—which, of course, she hadn't fought in.
She was tired. It was barely even morning, sometime around two, and she had been up late playing with her armor. In fact, she had fallen asleep with it on, which hadn't helped anything.
“Five more minutes,” she muttered.
She heard Akane step up to her bed. “By Musashi's sword, that's not happening.”
She grabbed Ling by the torso and yanked her out of bed at super speed, pulling her towards the open window.
Despite the danger, Ling couldn't help noticing the strange sensations of super speed. Akane had never mentioned it, which was hardly a surprise. Maybe it was different for her, or maybe she just didn't feel like talking about it. But for Ling, it felt like being dragged underwater. Warm and fluid, like every molecule of air was trying to hold her back.
Then Akane threw her out the window, and everything went back to normal.
Except the fact that she was falling thirty floors to her death, of course.
With the cold wind and burst of adrenaline, all thoughts of sleep were gone. Thankfully, Ling had enough experience with getting thrown that she didn't waste any precious seconds screaming or flailing in terror.
The first thing she did was flip so that her feet were facing the ground, using her powers on the plates in her armor. Fighting gravity was more difficult. She had the power, no question, but that was part of the problem. She had too much power, so she usually just ended up sort of bobbing up and down until her reservoir ran out. When she was practicing, it was no big deal. Here, it was a matter of life and death.
Luckily, she had been practicing, and she was able to pull up on her armor with enough strength and control to slow her down. She still hit hard, and her ankles buckled under her, but she was alive. Sore, yes, but alive and kicking.
She settled onto her hands, breathing deeply and willing her jack-hammering heart to slow. Velvet hell, what was that? Even if Akane had known she was wearing her armor, it still seemed... like an overreaction. To say the least.
But she didn't have time to get mad about it, she was sure, and she doubted anything good would come of confronting her about it later. She guessed... she guessed she'd just have to forget about it.
Yeah, forget about being thrown out a window. She'd get right on that.
Kelly appeared at her side within moments, her pistol at the ready in a two-handed grip. “You okay? What happened?”
Ling shook her head. “I...” She sighed. “I decided to jump out the window. You know, as a test.”
Kelly raised an eyebrow. “Did you try to flirt with Derek around Akane again? I told you she'd fight back eventually.”
“No, actually,” she said. She stood slowly. She was a little nauseous from the spinning on the way down, but it was fading fast. “I wouldn't get out of bed.”
“So she threw you out the window?”
“She's not a morning person.”
“I gathered.” Kelly glanced back at the van, scratching the fixer still strapped to her arm. “Well, whatever. I hope the others are down quick. The attack is at North Outer this time. Janelle is having a hell of a time.”
Ling didn't know which Janelle she might be referring to, and that wasn't the most important part anyway. “Where's the attack? Exactly, I mean?”
“Chronias,” Kelly said flatly. “The Illuminated Heaven.”
The others came down, and after a few questions about why Ling decided to jump out the window, they were off. Jarasax was insisting on driving faster than normal—which was saying something—and they were able to use some Necessarian shortcuts, but it still took nearly an hour and a half to reach their destination.
“How much longer?” Adam asked, glancing at the GPS on his phone. “We should be there already.”
“We are,” Jarasax said grimly. He pulled to a stop next to a dark 'scraper on an even darker block. Now that Ling was paying attention, she realized she hadn't seen any lights for a few minutes. “This is it.”
She had already noticed the screamers were nearby, of course, but Adam didn't have that. They weren't quite close enough to hear with normal senses yet.
“I thought we were stopping by Chronias?” Alex asked. “The actual headquarters, not just the general domain.”
“We are,” Jarasax repeated. He pointed to the skyscraper, over a hundred floors high and without a single light on. “That's it.”
Ling's heart stopped in her chest.
That... That couldn't be. It was impossible.
Alex slid open the van's door as fast as they could and stumbled outside, retching onto the unlit street.
Adam was just confused. “What's wrong?”
Laura was the one who managed to answer. “What the hell do you think the angels' sanctuary would look like, you moron?”
He glanced around at their horrified faces. “More... light, I guess?”
That was the understatement of the century. The Heavens were impossibly beautiful. Covered in mirrors and magnifying glasses stretching out from the central structure like the limbs of a tree, during the day Chronias reflected the sunlight with unspeakable perfection, looking like nothing so much as a giant tree made of light.
At night, depending on the state of the moon, artificial lights would be used to produce a similar effect, but even more striking. Without the sun to interfere, the light architects could craft even more impressive displays, such as a small-scale aurora borealis that would hang about the Heaven like a warm cloak. Even though the sky was overcast, the skyscraper should have been glowing bright enough to see for miles.
But it was dead. Completely dead, not even the smallest spark of light dancing in its heart. Ling might not have any love for the angels, but seeing them brought low so quickly...
“It's not as bad as it looks.”
They all turned to see a demon standing on the street a few feet from Alex. He was cloaked in soft red light from a lantern hanging from a staff he carried. He nodded to the dark 'scraper. “The screamers here can manipulate light. They had to turn everything off, otherwise it would be like just handing a bomb to the enemy.”
That made sense, to everyone's relief. It also explained why all the other lights in the past few streets were off as well.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“The compound isn't far,” the demon said. “We actually saw you guys drive past.”
They all filed after him, though Alex took some coaxing. The angel kept glancing back over their shoulder, as though to reassure themselves the Heaven hadn't crumbled into dust when they weren't looking.
The 'sarian redoubt was nestled in a wide alley just a few minutes walk from where they had stopped, out of sight of the road. Once they clambered past a hastily-erected barricade made of parked cars—parked, not stacked—they found themselves in a small tent city. The alley was nearly big enough to be a road itself, but it was a dead end with nothing important, so no one had bothered to give it a name.
The entire camp was illuminated by that same soft red light as before. It was nightlight, nothing special. Just bright enough for baseline eyes to see, but not so bright to blind nighteyes. It was certainly strange seeing it in an angel domain, though. It was mostly used by the vampires.
Ling noticed that none of the armed men and women were angels, though only a small fraction wore Necessarian armbands. What few angels she did see were sitting on the ground, resting as though waiting for something.
Laura noticed the same thing. “The angels can't see in this light?”
“Barely,” their guide said as they navigated the small maze of tents. “They raised a fuss at first, but then some idiot daybroke over at Camp Beta, and the whole place was nearly destroyed. Quieted down, after that.”
Derek was the next with a question. “How many of these camps do you have?”
“Ten. Got about two hundred souls in each.”
Derek frowned. “Is that a large fraction? I'm not sure how many people are in danger.”
“It's barely even a sliver. There are a lot of people in the threatened area, at least by MC's estimates. There aren't that many screaming yet, but that will change. They're just hiding in their apartments, that's no defense.”
They had reached the end of the camp by now, blocked off by the back wall of a building. An old woman, maybe fifty years old, looked up from a table strewn with papers. “Thank you for getting them up to speed, Gavin. Return to your duties.”
The demon saluted, then left without another word.
The woman came out from behind the table, and even in the dull red light, Ling could see that she wasn't baseline. Although her upper body was normal, her legs had been replaced—or, more accurately, fused together. Whatever the exact process, the result was a long, sinuous snake tail, which she used to slither over to them.
“I am Admiral Janelle Ursler,” the ophidian said. “And you would be the Paladins. What do you need to know?”
“First, we need to know more details about the screamers,” Laura said. “Gavin said they could control light. To what extent?”
“Also,” Ling couldn't help herself asking, “why is an admiral in charge?”
“They can shoot beams of light which explode on contact,” she said, ignoring Ling's question. “Not a big explosion, not even enough to kill a man, but it adds up quickly. We've also spotted quite a few singers, which is how it's spreading so fast. We killed a couple, but it hasn't had much effect.”
Laura frowned. “I should have expected as much. I take it you killed any angels they captured? Otherwise, we'd have seen their light.”
“Actually, we found an alternative solution.”
They all turned to see a massive naked and androgynous angel stride forward confidently, despite the fact that they clearly couldn't see more than two feet in front of them. They were nearly seven feet tall, with unblemished alabaster skin that almost seemed to glow even in the dull nightlights. They were muscled like a championship boxer, but moved gracefully—again, even though they were basically blind. Ling didn't pay too much attention to the angels, but even she recognized them.
Zaphkiel, the Watcher, founder of the angels. Arch-Saint of Chronias, warlord of the Illuminated Host. They hadn't led a battle in years, but warlords spent millions on their bodies. Ling had no doubt that this angel could fight off armies with their bare hands, half-blind or not.
But against an enemy that could infect you with a single drop of blood, they were powerless.
“We spread angelweight through the air,” they said. “It negates the abilities of the dayskin, rendering the turned angels powerless.”
“I've heard about that,” Laura said. “It's a drug,” she explained for the benefit of the rest of them. “It works through skin contact, acts fast, with few side effects, and is very easy to cure.” She turned back to the warlord. “You have a stock of the Grace?”
The massive angel tapped what looked like a watch on their wrist. “Every angel in our domain has one of these. It is a simple matter to administer some Grace, which will cure the angelweight in minutes. However, the screamers are not intelligent enough to use it.”
“Inspired,” Derek said. “Hopefully, we can finish this up soon. With the drug distributed, the skies are safe, and we can spread some sleep gas around.”
“Can't,” Laura cut in. “We're out.”
Ling blinked. “The entire city is out of sleeping gas?”
She glared. “Yes, actually. They've been using a lot of it, to get the screamers to the prison facilities. And then a few days ago, the manufacturing plant shut down when one of the employees threw himself down a very important maintenance shaft.”
Ling shivered. That would be more sleepers, no doubt. Laura said she had something in the works regarding that, but Ling didn't have a lot of confidence on that front. Villains didn't have their main plots foiled because a scientist finally figured out a cure or whatever. Maybe if this was a sub-plot...
Derek interrupted her thoughts. “You were going to mention this when?”
Laura just rolled her eyes. “Until today, I had no reason to suspect it was anything but an accident. Silver and gold, it might have been. We still don't know how the Composer works. The point is, other plants are picking up the slack, but that takes time.”
Derek opened his mouth to say something, then apparently decided not to bother arguing. “That's a question for another time,” he said decisively. “I'll go back the way we came with Akane and Ling to see if we can make a dent in the screamers.”
Ling frowned. She hated being ordered around. The fact that his orders actually made sense made it easier to deal with, but only barely.
“Good luck,” Laura said. “And be careful.”
They left a moment later, finding their way back to the disturbingly dark Chronias within a few minutes. Once they were out of the nightlights, their eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, but with the cloud cover, it was still only enough to see vague shapes.
“It's times like this I wish I still had nighteyes,” Ling muttered. That got a smile out of the others, but nothing else. It wasn't like they had time to stop at the nearest toy store and get modded.
It wasn't hard to find the screamers, even without any light. There were a lot of them. A thousand, maybe more, just standing in the streets screaming. Apparently, without light to manipulate, they were largely helpless. Sure, they smashed windows and threw garbage cans around, but it was nothing a few small community cleanup projects wouldn't fix. It almost seemed silly.
No. Silly wasn't the right word. Petty. The Composer had a horde of night-blind, helpless screamers, and was angry about it. This was all he could do with them.
Which made Ling realize something.
“The Composer is going to be here soon with light,” she said. “Or he'll manage to use one of these to turn on a light switch.”
Akane shrugged. “Kill them before then, then.”
Derek shook his head. “No. No killing unless absolutely necessary. We can capture them, like the others.”
“No time, like Ling said,” Akane said with a frown. “On the clock here.”
“Then we'd better move fast.” His tone brooked no argument. He headed forward, into the crowd of blind, violent screamers, and they reluctantly followed.
They didn't even need to fight. Most of the zombies had dayeyes, so they were completely nightblind. All they had to do was be a little careful to keep out of their way. The majority of the civilians had apparently managed to keep away from the singers, which was definitely a good sign. Without a source of fresh bodies, this battle would just take time.
Time they didn't have, unfortunately.
“Singers are in the middle,” Akane said after a minute. They were moving carefully through the horde, avoiding flailing limbs. “If we can kill them, this gets much easier.”
“Unless Derek insists we can't kill them,” Ling said dryly.
“We wouldn't be able to carry them out,” Derek said. “Nothing short of killing will keep them down for long. A few dozen deaths for a few thousand lives is an acceptable trade.”
That was what he said, anyway. But the firm set of his shoulders and frustrated look in his eyes made it clear that he didn't like the idea.
“Akane, scout ahead,” he ordered, likely to distract himself.
She sped off without a word, while Derek and Ling followed at a slower pace. Stopping was out of the question. The zombies were easy enough to avoid while moving, but if they stayed in the same place they'd pile on them in seconds.
“Counted about a dozen,” Akane said as she blurred to Derek's side. “Probably more.”
Derek nodded. “Let's kill them quickly. If we're lucky, the screamers will be cured.”
It was a long shot, and everyone knew it, but there was still the chance.
But then the lights turned on.
Ling shielded her face against the sudden glare, but even half-blind she could tell what was going on. Every building along the street, every streetlight... the entire horde was suddenly bathed in light. On the other side of the street, opposite of where we came, she saw screamers maintaining a number of portable generators, which were probably hooked up to everything else.
And suddenly, the screamers could see them.
A trap. Wonderful. Should have known it was too easy.